Those art rares are so sick
#Pokemon TCG
opaque pelican
Eh, unless they're stuff like trainer cards or V, most of them will still remain inexpensive
little falcon
Eh, unless they're stuff like trainer cards or V, most of them will still remain...
So I never gone through a format change will Vs still hold their price even with the rotation?
opaque pelican
Likely until the F sets roll out
VSTAR is still very popular, so it'll coexist with the newer ex until that time comes
little falcon
Got ya just trying to figure out a good time to pick stuff up here and there
opaque pelican
Just had my sibling challenge me to a TCG game again
With the same Eevee deck from Battle Academy.
I kept telling them that if they really want to keep doing this, that they ought to see about making their own deck, but they insist that "they can't lose if they can just make Galarian Obstagoon"
But really, this kind of deck just cannot keep up with me having like 3 or so Gardevoir out, using the Shining Arcana ability every turn
Also: Really sad that Obstagoon never had a V
final musk
Top 8 at Latin America International Championship appears to be:
3 Lugia
1 Stall
1 Lost Zone Toolbox
3 TBD
A bunch of the people on bubble for the 3 TBD spots are also playing Lugia
final musk
Top 8 at Latin America International Championship appears to be:
3 Lugia
1 Stall...
Final cut for top 8 is:
6 Lugia
1 Lost Zone Toolbox
1 Stall
Stall is a mix of Blissey V, Yveltal, and Miltank, goal is to heavily utilize Yveltal to discard obnoxious amounts of special energy.
*Yeah so on official tournaments, Lugia crept about as hard as Mew did
rich pine
TBD? My favorite deck
fossil crest
Pokemon TCG actually giving some good advice
opaque pelican
This is actually a line Grimsley has in Black/White.
It's pretty fitting for a lot of situations, too.
blazing pond
To quote CSGO: "Hey, sometimes your opponent is just having a good day"
final musk
Accidentally happened upon learning of PTCGLive's current metagame and how it differs from the actual metagame
Forest Seal Stone is banned because it hasn't been coded properly, meaning Mew VMax and Regieleki VStar are both nerfed
And one of the most popular counters to Lugia for casual play, Raichu, is not working properly either
So the meta in PTCGLive is even more in favor of Lugia than the actual game
digital crow
Congrats to lugia for being the first tier -1 deck to exist, somehow
final musk
With how it was offerred for free on PTCGL, it might as well be
Next vs ladder on PTCGO goes up soon, last ladder was Mew product so time to be disappointed by a Ladder for a different Fusion Strike set VMax
Best bet is it is Boltund
Also of note they seem to have very little planned to cater Expanded on PTCGL
PTCGO has stopped doing Expanded vs Ladders
New ladder is literally just Genesect Vs
jfc
they actually did it
opaque pelican
As someone who picked SoulSilver, and played XD, I'm all for Lugia being this fantastic.
But who knows, maybe when I see how it operates I might change my mind and say it's bad
opaque pelican
Alright, gonna post new news for the TCG. But it's of a decidedly spoilerly nature.
#1040055999156994058 message
final musk
Yeah I'd just put it in spoiler
opaque pelican
If you don't wish to view it even there, just check out the Pokebeach website
final musk
Yeah that's fine, I know what it is and that's a good call
opaque pelican
Righto
final musk
The non-spoiler version: We now know the cover mons for the second SV TCG core pack
opaque pelican
Pretty weird how we know the second set cover, but not the first one.
...But then again, given it's on Scarlet/Violet, we can likely hazard a guess anyways, as well as the name just being Scarlet/Violet
final musk
Yeah it's very much gonna be Koraidon / Miraidon for those since they were featured on the first preview
The last SwSh pack is releasing this week so hopefully some news on base SV will come soon
opaque pelican
...Still weird how we got a Lugia VSTAR, but Ho-Oh didn't get the same treatment
Eh.
digital peak
final musk
This is literally what Symph had the courtesy to leave in spoiler chat
digital peak
I mean, it technically is more useful in the chat dedicated to the tcg. But yeah
opaque pelican
Alright, bit of a question, since they have different backings:
Is it possible to use Japanese set cards in the international TCG?
Been trying to research this but I haven't turned anything up
final musk
It’s in the tcg policy handbook. You must have cards with an allowed language per region at official events
Any international event is an exception, but you’d still have to play to your region’s allowed languages
opaque pelican
Ahh, alright.
final musk
opaque pelican
Not that I have much foreign cards, save for this Eevee V deck I got, but eh
final musk
So if you went to the recent Latin America International Championship, and were from Europe, you could use any European-legal or Latin America language
opaque pelican
Ah, ok!
grave wren
Technically I ran into this lmao
Also I kinda wanna hunt for this card even tho idk TCG lmao
proper fossil
okay so I played Pkmn TCG back in day during HGSS and early BW era
what do I need to get back to this game besides of Trainer Toolkit?
proper fossil
ah thanks
final musk
Basil's good for starting resources yeah
For metagame, recommend looking at https://limitlesstcg.com/tournaments and watching some of the stream recordings of events
opaque pelican
Good for Kevin
final musk
2 Lugia
1 Mew VMax
2 Stall
1 Articuno Control
1 Flaafy Box
1 Durant Mill
Durant got second place in Swiss
digital crow
Flaaffy box?
final musk
Flaafy is a stage 1 that attaches a lightning energy from discard to benched Pokémon
Toolbox around that
Main idea being that you deal weakness to Lugia
opaque pelican
Debating if I ought to switch from Donphan (VIV) to Gastrodon (LOR) as far as the Earthquake move goes
Honestly, I'm against it so far since Donphan's Earthquake only needs a single fighting energy to use, but given rotation is coming soon, I might have no choice
Reason really is that Earthquake on top of doing pretty respectable damage, is also a key way to get damage counters on each of your mons in waiting. Which leads to this fun monkey
Assuming there's 5 mons with any damage counters on the bench, this is around 250 damage
And that's assuming there isn't any Single Strike energy, cause with two, this is 290 damage instead, enough to issue an instant KO to most anything that isn't a VMAX
||I'm gonna love this so much if there's a Annihilape ex in the future||
Might be a little more reasonable to bank on Gapejaw Bog for putting damage counters down though.
final musk
Yeah donphan itself is way too slow for setup
Gapejaw Bog is generally much quicker, as is mixing in Single Strike Houndoom
final musk
2 Lugia
1 Mew VMax
2 Stall
1 Articuno Control
1 Flaafy Box
1 Durant Mill
Lugia and Mew got eliminated in top 8
Top 4 is Stall, Durant Mill, Articuno Control, and Flaafy Box
People are calling it a Mickey Mouse Regionals
digital crow
opaque pelican
Dammit Micholas
opaque pelican
I'm wondering: is there a card making tool for the Pokémon TCG, much like how we use stuff for Yu-Gi-Oh for our custom card tournaments?
digital crow
we have custom card tournaments?
delicate surge
Very slowly
digital crow
ah right, the contests
opaque pelican
Persoally thought of trying out as a judge, but that's aside the point
opaque pelican
I might replace the Granbull V in my Psychic deck with the Radiant Alakazam I just got.
Good idea?
...Actually, better idea would be to ditch this Lunatone from GO.
final musk
Top 4 is Stall, Durant Mill, Articuno Control, and Flaafy Box
Articuno control won
Attacking options in the deck were:
Articuno
Alolan Vulpix VStar
Eiscue
And Drapion V for Mew
Like pretty much the entire top 4, deck was made to hard counter Lugia and Mew
Flaaffy Box probably plays similarly, especially given its usual main attacker is a Zekrom that is basically just a beefier Aritcuno
Only loss was to Regidrago (Vstar assuming)
So you're telling me there's a chance? 
Similar Strategy with Articuno and Palkia VStar is also at the top of the swiss cut for Toronto Regionals
little falcon
> Only loss was to Regidrago (Vstar assuming)
So you're telling me there's a ch...
Regidrago best deck
So how does the deck counter Lugia?
Like Articuno and Eiscue being attacking options got me confused lol
final musk
Articuno is the main source against Lugia
Take Tord Reklev's Lugia list from Sao Paulo as a standard to what people try:
Notice how there is no way to switch in this build other by retreating
Usually that is not an issue for Lugia on account that Archeops can just attach energy to whatever needs to pivot out
Articuno massively profits off that
The idea of the game then becomes to lock down the opponent by using paralysis every turn
little falcon
Notice how there is no way to switch in this build other by retreating
Oh didn’t notice that this makes sense
final musk
Emergency Jelly, for how much people memed it prior, was key to keeping Articuno from KOing itself
little falcon
And I’m guessing they have no way to get over Vulpix/Eiscue?
final musk
Lugia can easily out Vulpix
Vulpix, according to quick writeup, was really good for taking on a boatload of different VStar decks besides Lugia, and had the ability to 1-shot Mew
little falcon
Vulpix, according to quick writeup, was really good for taking on a boatload of ...
Oh nasty lol
final musk
Eiscue's main purpose was for dealing with Lost Toolbox
Or Regis... if people were still trying that
Tim's strategy for beating mew was probably mostly using Articuno to wear down mew a bit and force them into playing a ton of genesect to draw switch
Then, using Vuplix to 1-shot a mew VMax and/or Drapion V to one shot the other if needed
What's gonna be a nice talk is that the second place deck was a different typed toolbox that pack the same control measure Tim did with Articuno
Which is Flaaffy box playing this Zekrom:
Which I'm also really happy about because this character art is amazing
At least I think it played Zekrom anyhow. The event wasn't streamed and they are still gathering decklists
There was a build back in Astral Radiance that did ok, so guessing it is at least somewhat based off it
43rd with an unproven 30 dollar deck I'd say is pretty damn solid
The benefit to Zekrom over Articuno is way more damage, including weakness on Palkia VStar and Lugia VStar
But, you now have an entirely different toolbox elsewhere
final musk
Regidrago best deck
I want to believe it can top
Especially now that Lugia is completely off playing Radiant Gardevoir
The biggest problems for Drago are going second against Lugia and a rough mew matchup... besides also having consistency issues
The rillaboom build also gets completely curbstomped by these Paralyze decks
So I think Gardenia becomes the best build
Or at the very least, Rillaboom builds now need to play Switch in deck, even tho a lot of their posts tend to have next to no switch cards
At the very least, Regidrago is looking like a new mainstay in Expanded
final musk
THIS is a lot more like people expected
Germany also had one too: https://twitter.com/pokestatstcg/status/1599413698514554880
Across all 3 regionals from this weekend, top 8 breakdowns combined
5 Lugia VStar (4 standard, 1 with Espeon VMax tech)
4 Mew VMax (All the Fusion Energy Turbo build)
3 Palkia V-Star (1 teching Articuno, 1 Hybriding with Vikavolt V)
2 Articuno Control
2 Yveltal Stall
2 Mewtwo V-Union (1 mixed with Yveltal Control)
2 Lost Zone Mirage Gate Box
1 Lost Zone Charizard Box
1 Arceus-Duraludon
1 Flaaffy Box
1 Durant Mill
The meme now is that "Lugia is the most counterable tier 1 deck to ever exist."
Given that it functionally plays like it is a powercrept deck but is also super exploitive.
I honestly think with this we could see Palkia take back the throne soon, just by having way fewer exploits
Also some people will definitely feel the want to move away from Lugia given how shit its mirror is
Lugia however will continue to dominate PTCGLive being one of only 2 available decks to easily build
digital crow
Across all 3 regionals from this weekend, top 8 breakdowns combined
5 Lugia VSt...
Damn giratina just vanished
final musk
It'll probably still be around to a small degree. I doubt Lost Box will fully cannibalize it
opaque pelican
Kept looking over the Z-Crystal tool cards and wondered how handy they'd be in the context in GLC
Dragonium Z really is pretty unusable considering how hard it'd be to maintain a dragon-type deck, so really the only real winners of the bunch is Normalium Z and Flynium Z
It's cool, since it's evidently the only way to use a GX attack in GLC since GX are not allowed
final musk
Dragonium Z really is pretty unusable considering how hard it'd be to maintain a dragon-type deck
I'd say it is the winner, considering that there are relevant dragon pokemon in GLC that have a Dragon Claw attack (2 different Dragonites and Druddigon).
Air Slash is limited to pretty much to a Tornadus
Tackle has a wide variety of attackers but good luck finding one that contributes to anything else relevant
digital crow
Btw, about glc
How do they handle a mon of a certain type that evolves from a mon from another type, e.g. eevee?
final musk
pretty sure you are out of luck
I think Eevee is the only family that fully applies to
digital crow
I see
final musk
TLDR; the major problem with the Z Crystals is that the supermajority of pokemon that can attack with them suck. Dragonium has the most relevant pokemon, and even it is wildly inconsistent.
little falcon
How real would you guys say that Arceus Dura deck is? Low amount of tops but it looks interesting
final musk
It was pretty much a meta call to Lugia and (somewhat) to mew. Best to look at what else is topping around Lugia
My take? It didn't do that well of a job taking on Lugia, Mew is a crapshoot depending on the build, and it probably gets curbstomped by these paralyze decks due to lack of easy switching.
Labella's Duraludon deck is the only one of the top 8 decks from Toronto that doesn't have its list up and he's nowhere on freaking twitter gdi
little falcon
Oh I thought limitless got it from the event directly or something lol
final musk
The Flaaffy box top is even more wild than I thought
Used Medicham V so as to punish Palkia and Lugia extremely hard
You'd punch into Palkia / Lugia with Zekrom and leave them at 20 HP.
Then, you use Medicham V's Yoga Loop and resume locking the opponent with Zekrom. Makes it so that the opponent could not meatshield with a 20 HP pokemon to avoid paralysis
It also played Lightning Symbol Zapdos as another way for Zekrom to hit 280
Regieleki + Medicham v also punished 60 HP pokemon.
very surprised that list didn't play Hisuian Heavy Ball
Unfortunately the math is way off for Aritcuno to try this
opaque pelican
Made a simple Water/Darkness deck
It's nothing too special, just a deck for when I don't want to utterly confuse someone with what I am doing.
Stars Samurott and Hisuian Samurott!
final musk
Listening to a podcast called The Trashalanche… apparently Zoroark Box bubbled at 2 of the 3 regionals this past weekend too
The one that bubbled at Germany got 9th specifically
final musk
Koraidon / Miraidon confirmed typing is as expected here too
Arcanine ex already looks pretty promising
Only thing holding it back is that fire energy acceleration isn’t really that good (Magma Basin)
We don’t quite know yet if Tera is going to be just preventing damage while on the bench or other things too, but Tera’s handling the TCG is basically the new Ancient Trait, and probably alternative typing at some point.
Also sone supporter cards this time around have alternative S/V editions
Both Koraidon and Miraidon have useful effects, but don’t have that good of decks to go with them.
Miraidon has Flaaffy box and Vikavolt but neither of those have proven much more than being Lugia counters
Koraidon has… uh… Ursaluna V? Hisuian Arcanine V? Idk, we need to see if there’s a decent attacker to even pair it with else powering up itself just makes it a questionable Arceus counter
digital crow
Huh
Ngl tera seems kinda underwhelming when compared to how the other gen exclusive gimmicks were handled
final musk
After Tag Team and VMax, I'm all for it
I think the only thing I don't like is that Ancient Trait is a direct workaround to anything dealing with ability negation, which the meta right now has Path to the Peak as a partial focal point
opaque pelican
Ooooh!
The card design for this series is very spot-on.
Very sleek
Also wow, an Ultra Ball printing this early?
digital peak
the sprigatito is CUTE
final musk
Western releases will FINALLY have silver borders
No more ugly yellow
Holy Redundant Redundancy Batman
opaque pelican
Oh yesss
Honestly the yellow borders were very offputting compared to the rest of the cards as the game went on
It was alright in the base sets, but once it hit Black/White, you started noticing
Also just felt like there was less a sense of unity between the TCG in different regions
Definitely gonna pick up the Elite Trainer Box of this set, whenever that'll be a thing
final musk
Yes, exactly when BW hit is where it looked really off. It was a very bright color by that point
final musk
We don’t quite know yet if Tera is going to be *just* preventing damage while on...
It appears that the current speculation from a Japanese intro video on Tera is that all Pokémon with fire Tera have that Bench barrier effect
Implying that there will be 1 Tera trait per Tera type and a total of 18
Also, new ruling that Tools will no longer be classified as items starting Base Scarlet Violet
Which effectively nerfs tool search ability in exchange for bypassing item lock, which I feel is a net negative
The biggest winner from this is Garbotoxin in expanded
opaque pelican
Feels like Terastalization would just gimp types that are only part of one type in the TCG
So stuff like Fire and lightning would be somewhat limited whereas stuff like Psychic and Fighting would have a good lot of options
Still very cool, just, wish there was more for other such types to do
little falcon
Labella's Duraludon deck is the only one of the top 8 decks from Toronto that do...
They finally put his list up
final musk
While it is about what I expected, he banked hard on Lugia playing limited resources to deal with Big Parasol
The strategy for Lugia to defeat Arch-Duraludon is for Lugia to pave way of any Arceus, then use Yveltal to obliterate Duraludon before a second Dura can get set up
Bradner's list played absolutely no way to deal with a Duraludon with Big Parasol
Ciaran Farah played the one copy of Lost Vaccuum
Arc-Duraludon is a huge meta call and has to be treated as such when playing it or against.
Not to mention, there's certainly a bit of luck behind getting your needed Parasol when you have no way to search it
Palkia is also a meta call matchup because Palk's damage isn't terribly good against Duraludon, but Palkia can run Lost Vaccuum and search it, and aim to lock the Duraludon player under Articuno
But if the Palkia player doesn't play Lost Vaccuum, Duraludon with Parasol becomes much tougher to beat
little falcon
@final musk sorry to tag you but you seem to be more in tune with the tcg lol. What would be a good deck to take to a regional event? Friends want to go and take me. Not sure I wanna play Lugia.
I have the arceus engine so was looking to just move over to Dura but it seems something else might be more effective lol
final musk
If you do Arceus, Dura would be your best bet, but you have to acknowledge it is a gamble on meta
little falcon
If you do Arceus, Dura would be your best bet, but you have to acknowledge it is...
Yeah I don’t mind picking something else tho. What would you say are some decent alt
final musk
If it were me, I'd mess with Palkia
little falcon
Any particular variant?
final musk
The main thing is whether or not Lugia goes after techs to save it from Articuno
little falcon
Yeah true after everyone found out about it I’m sure they’ll adapt
final musk
It could be good for Arc Dura, because Lugia fitting in all that tech is rough
little falcon
My regional is the San Diego one so I have one more to see what happens
final musk
Yeah definitely keep an eye on Arlington results
little falcon
It *could* be good for Arc Dura, because Lugia fitting in all that tech is rough
Yeah a Lugia player was having a tough time what to add and not include lol
final musk
If Duraludon slips under but lists aren't teching to deal with it, Duraludon could be a good meta call
little falcon
Guess I’ll just pick up Dura for now and if Arlington makes me change I’ll just get Palkia lol
final musk
Mew is also a really easy pickup but people tech for it all the damn time
Lost Box is also a notably consistent deck for tops, but it's the deck with the highest skill floor and ceiling
In terms of bang for your buck, keep an eye on lists from Arlington and see if people are teching more for Articuno or Duraludon
Chances are, Articuno will be teched against
I would honestly disregard a lotta Brisbane's results because it was mostly a few thoughtful players figuring out what deck Australian top players would circlejerk this time
(Australia notoriously has a lot of its top players centralize regionals around the same deck, like how the previous regionals was a Palkia sweep)
San Diego was beginning of January right? I think it was before Crown Zenith (Not like Crown Zenith will change the meta much)
I might attend regionals late in Silver Tempest (Charolette, got friends there I want to visit), but if I went I'd bring Regidrago just because it's my favorite deck this format and don't really care about results.
Also yeah if Rotation lines up with Base Scarlet-Violet, Silver Tempest is a long, long format
little falcon
San Diego was beginning of January right? I think it was before Crown Zenith (No...
Yeah like early January
little falcon
I might attend regionals late in Silver Tempest (Charolette, got friends there I...
Haha I love Regi too
Do you happen to have a list for one? Always like seeing how others are playing it
final musk
Current list I've been working with:
****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******
##Pokémon - 18
- 2 Crobat V DAA 182
- 1 Flygon V BRS 164
- 3 Regidrago V SIT 135
- 1 Duraludon VMAX EVS 123
- 2 Giratina VSTAR LOR 131
- 2 Hisuian Goodra VSTAR LOR 136
- 3 Regidrago VSTAR SIT 136
- 2 Leafeon V EVS 167
- 1 Lumineon V BRS 40
- 1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
##Trainer Cards - 31
- 3 Evolution Incense SSH 163
- 2 Training Court RCL 169
- 2 Ordinary Rod SSH 171
- 4 Quick Ball SSH 179
- 1 Big Parasol DAA 157
- 1 Boss's Orders SHF 58
- 4 Ultra Ball BRS 150
- 2 Choice Belt BRS 135
- 1 Serena SIT 164
- 3 Professor's Research SSH 178
- 1 Collapsed Stadium BRS 137
- 3 Switch SSH 183
- 4 Gardenia's Vigor ASR 143
##Energy - 11
- 7 Grass Energy Energy 1
- 4 Fire Energy Energy 2
Total Cards - 60
****** Deck List Generated by the Pokémon TCG Online www.pokemon.com/TCGO ******
opaque pelican
Pretty cool stuff, all things considered
Also wow, Stone Breastplate is super cool
Gonna be sick paired up with Sandaconda V and Ursaluna V
final musk
I mean stone chestplate is a nerf when you compare it to Stone Energy, which is getting tossed this coming rotation
The most interesting reveals are Penny and Nest Ball reprint
People are hyping up Electricity Generator, but we're losing Oranguru and Rotom Phone by the time it comes out
Jacq better not be the only other form of Evolution searching we get. Losing Evolution Incense sucks and this is far from a replacement
Electric Generator's best paired card by the time it comes out is Switching Cups... Item-based Oranguru
Like Electric Generator's gonna be in Electric decks and more called out as the RNG BS card than anything else
Miraidon and Flaaffy are gonna be Electric's bread and butter
.
We also need to see about Electric attackers in Base SV. Electric will be losing Boltund V and Vikavolt V, so all that leaves for attacking rn is Miraidon ex, Raikou V, Regieleki, and Zekrom... and maybe Regieleki VMax attacking itself.
Maybe it just dedicates to Regieleki and Miraidon and BS's its way to energy through generator given how consistent its pokemon line is
opaque pelican
Realizing that someone on the TCG production team really friggin' likes Luxray, considering there's so many cards with it in Sword/Shield
final musk
Also yeah if Rotation lines up with Base Scarlet-Violet, Silver Tempest is a lon...
Just announced: it does
Rotation April 14th, Base SV March 31
Silver Tempest is a 5 month long format
final musk
@little falcon Hey take note, Arceus Duraludon doing p alright in this week's biggest online tournament so far
Only 6 rounds in, but keep an eye on the tournament
Generally the lugia builds are capping out at 1 switch card and/or 1 out to Big Parasol
That top Duraludon list is gunning his draws Asap, and I feel looking for Parasols in the lugia matchup might be part of the reason why
opaque pelican
Y'know even with ACE SPEC Computer Search being a must-have if you can use it, I really don't feel like breaking the bank for such a thing.
The simple Master Ball might be a good enough choice, yeah?
Well, either that or Scoop-Up Cyclone.
...Yeah, maybe Scoop-Up Cyclone will be a better choice
little falcon
<@324752667144355841> Hey take note, Arceus Duraludon doing p alright in this we...
Arceus Tapu 
final musk
Arceus Tapu <:monkaGIGA:652734094664269835>
“Fighting type does not exist if I close my eyes, mew will take care of all of my problems”
(fr tho, fighting type is like near completely absent rn. Arceus being nowhere near dominant meant that there’s not much reason to counter it)
opaque pelican
Does there exist any cards in the EX series that would be able to support the newer ex in the Scarlet/Violet sets?
final musk
No, because EX =/= ex
opaque pelican
I mean, the actual ex from the EX series
I dunno why it's capitalized in the series, but the ex aren't
...The one introduced with EX Ruby/Sapphire
final musk
Also no, for a different reason
Expanded only goes as far back as BW
Even Legacy doesn’t go far enough back, as that is just DP
opaque pelican
Yeah, just, was wondering is all.
rain swift
Anyone here could help me for a pokemon card estimation please ?
I have found some old card in my stock and one of them seems really interesting
rich pine
It ranges from $1-$15
rain swift
On CM the only listing dialga in this version in french is 260 bucks
rich pine
I can’t see any listings in French for tcg player but there are just too few listings
final musk
Top cut of Arlington:
5 Lugia
1 Anti-meta (Drapion, Vikavolt, Raikou, Aerodactyl)
1 Regi
1 Lost Box AR Rayquaza
Lost Box Kyogre and Lost Box AR Raikou Bubbled
Mew got blown tf out
A lot of Lugia players teched Drapion to deal with Mewtwo V-Union and Mew VMax suffered the backlash
Good
Last year's Seniors World Champ beat the undisputed best player in Masters Division to make top cut
little falcon
Top cut of Arlington:
5 Lugia
1 Anti-meta (Drapion, Vikavolt, Raikou, Aerodactyl...
Ray
final musk
This one for reference:
Power it up between Raihan, manual attachment, and Mirage Gate to put up mass damage
Regis likely getting eliminated in top 8
opaque pelican
Alright, so a bit of a question here:
What exactly do I need to do to obtain these cards?
I'm trying to figure out what I need to do to make this not look like a scam to someone who is super paranoid that everything on the internet is a phishing scam
opaque pelican
Also, pretty odd that Greninja with this promo is available for use. Froakie and Frogadier aren't exactly available in standard format.
final musk
https://limitlesstcg.com/tournaments/321
@little falcon Lists are up from Arlington
A lot of countering to Articuno (Bird Keeper) and Arc Duraludon (Both Lost Vacuum and Path to the Peak) seen in Lugia
Meta might be a gamble on if Lugia goes after countering Articuno, Duraludon, and/or Regis more
(Lugia's typical method of countering Regi's is teching Collapsed Stadium)
Lost Box also did realitvely well but that is notably one of the toughest decks to learn this format
Oh and Drapion for Mew VMax /Mewtwo V-Union
There's like 4 sets of counter cards (Drapion, Bird Keeper, Collapsed Stadium, Duraludon/Mirror Hate) and most lists appear to be running at least 2
My gut says if not Lugia or Lost Box to go Palkia but I really don’t know
To me Regis will be the most teched against at the next regionals
…Which also affects Palkia’s damage if you can’t pull a stadium to deal with Collapsed, too
opaque pelican
Got asked about providing help on making a deck around Scorbunny.
...I'm a little lost on how to go about this. Thoughts at first was just to see if I can make a Fire/Single Strike centric decklist
final musk
Just go with both Libero and Single Strike Cinderace
Magma Basin / Raihan and manual attachments fulfil your energy, Crisis Power starts hitting more than Libero after the opponent has taken at least 2 prizes
opaque pelican
Righto!
Actually does sound like it works together very well, Single-Strike Cinderace and the Raihan supporter card
opaque pelican
Alright, got some kind of list... I guess. I'll keep it in mind,
gilded heart
Messing around with a Single Strike Tyranitar V build atm, it's been pretty fun https://i.imgur.com/OyOHvd9.png
I missed the clean 10/15 screenshot q.q
Btw can anyone tell me why Mew is so popular on ladder right now
I know it's basically always present at this point, but like, I see so much of it right now, feels like every 2nd person is playing it
final musk
Btw can anyone tell me why Mew is so popular on ladder right now
It’s one of the next best decks after Lugia and the last 2 vs ladders dropped a V, A VMax and 2 genesect as rewards
Also it’s probably the most braindead deck in the metagame bar trying to win off Arc Duraludon hard countering something
opaque pelican
4x Scorbunny CRE
4x Raboot CRE
2x Cinderace SSH
2x Cinderace CRE
2x Volcanion V CRE
2x Houndour BST
2x Houndoom BST
2x Entei CRE
2x Magma Basin BRS
2x Karen's Conviction CRE
3x Raihan EVS
4x Level Ball
3x Evolution Incense
4x Impact Energy
4x Single Strike Energy
4x Heat Energy
...It's definitely messy. I'll need to figure out what I need and don't need, since this mostly is just me looking at what sounds good at the moment. Deckbuilding ain't easy!
What I'd do to have something like Blacksmith or Welder, argh
I might replace the Impact Energy with just simple basic fire energy.
final musk
Don’t honestly need the other single strike stuff
I’d trust the gameplan of reliably getting a cinderace up to attack than chance it on another evolution line like Houndoom
opaque pelican
Righto.
gilded heart
The Houndour line isn't too bad if you mix it up with other sources of Energy, I've found, but it's better when you dedicate more space to it, which you can't really here
final musk
You also have other means of sufficiently getting up your energy so you’d just be losing 20 damage to play more consistently
gilded heart
Yeah that's fair
Karen's Conviction also sucks, as someone that tried his hardest to make it work decently. I actually think Leon is just better, even though it's less overall damage between 4 copies, it's just way more reliable and can be used to get ahead rather than trying to salvage the situation
At least that's my opinion on it
final musk
I’ll make a rough list in a bit
opaque pelican
Paired with Cinderace's Crisis Power, it's fireball shot can just deal up to 400 damage.
...Which is just wholly unnecessary under any circumstances
But super cool
gilded heart
I like big numbers and I cannot lie :p
gilded heart
Somehow have an 81% winrate with Umbreon VMax Turbo 🤔 though the sample size isn't that big yet :p (nor does ladder win % matter that much, but I find it a neat metric still) https://i.imgur.com/0bPR3mT.png
Immediately after I post this, I brick on drawing 0 energy out of 13 cards, with 36 cards left in deck despite having used 3 Gutsy Pickaxe and a Trekking Shoes :(
Ig that's not all that much draw power in hind sight 🤔
gilded heart
Going first is so broken in this TCG
Would not have won this game if I lost the coin toss
final musk
4x Scorbunny CRE
4x Raboot CRE
2x Cinderace SSH
2x Cinderace CRE
2x Volcanion V ...
****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******
##Pokémon - 15
- 2 Snorlax VIV 131
- 1 Castform Sunny Form CRE 22
- 4 Scorbunny SSH 30
- 2 Raboot CRE 27
- 2 Cinderace SSH 34
- 2 Cinderace CRE 28
- 1 Manaphy BRS 41
- 1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
##Trainer Cards - 37
- 4 Quick Ball SSH 179
- 3 Evolution Incense SSH 163
- 3 Ultra Ball SUM 135
- 4 Rare Candy SSH 180
- 3 Magma Basin BRS 144
- 1 Raihan EVS 152
- 3 Professor's Research SSH 178
- 1 Cynthia's Ambition BRS 138
- 2 Choice Belt BRS 135
- 2 Ordinary Rod SSH 171
- 3 Scoop Up Net RCL 165
- 2 Boss's Orders RCL 154
- 4 Trekking Shoes ASR 156
- 1 Marnie SSH 169
- 1 Bruno BST 121
##Energy - 8
- 3 Capture Energy RCL 171
- 5 Fire Energy SMEnergy 2
Total Cards - 60
****** Deck List Generated by the Pokémon TCG Online www.pokemon.com/TCGO ******
opaque pelican
Ah, cool.
Wonder how these lists are made. I assume it's in-app?
final musk
In PTCGO yes
opaque pelican
Ah, right unfortunate, since I don't got the app yet
final musk
You make the decklist, and then they have a copy to clipboard feature
opaque pelican
I might pick up Live, since at this point I've missed that boat for Online
final musk
Not sure if Live has an export feature
opaque pelican
Ahh
final musk
I do know Live still has plenty of bugs
opaque pelican
Hoping they get ironed out soon enough.
Pretty much the point of a Beta is to make sure everything runs smoothly from playtesting
final musk
But it's been quite a while since it was in beta
opaque pelican
...Ouch
final musk
Globally, it has only been available a few months
But in dedicated regions, it's been available for nearly a year
The bug encountered get fixed at a snail's pace, new cards have to be added every 2-3 months, and the core issues people have with it haven't been addressed at all
opaque pelican
Weird, I thought their beef was the art design.
final musk
Core issues have included:
- Too long of animations while a timer is running
- The UI is worse than PTCGO
- The character models they use for the app are ugly af
- The dusting system in the game is significantly worse than other TCG online apps
The dusting system in the game makes it possible to build like 1 deck involving rule box pokemon a format
So they cushion the blow by making certain meta decks ladder unlocks
But then the entire meta is engulfed by whatever is the best deck of those, so the format on PTCGO is extremely stale
opaque pelican
Huh
final musk
The dusting system:
You can only dust cards if you have 5 copies of a card. It will automatically dust cards that are your fifth copy or more of a card.
What makes this so shit is that almost every card can have a reverse foil and PTCG sets are gigantic.
final musk
As early as the first day of beta
opaque pelican
Cause I genuinely want to like Live, I honestly do.
But these sorid stuff you hear on it is a little offputting
final musk
Most reviewers agree Live is a downgrade of Online
Like the only benefit of Live of Online is easier access to the best deck in the format
But at the cost of almost everything else being worse
final musk
New batch
That Gardevoir sounds nuts for powering up 1 prizers
And there’s already a good Kirlia too, the one that discards to draw 2
Malamar on crack, but for psychic pokes only
Great Tusk does really good damage but the energy cost sucks when chances are the first great Tusk has to be powered up with Koraidon. Just like Arcanine it needs a better energy accelerator
Iron Treads just sucks
final musk
You attach 1 psychic energy from discard to a psychic poke, then that poke takes 20 damage
But, you can do this often as you like
The unfortunate thing, at least right now, is that the pool of basics Gardevoir has to work with this aren’t all that great for this idea
Your best basics right now are Clefairy and Lunatone, both of which have their own engines too
Really, really unfortunate is that the best Pokémon to pair this with, Alcremie VMax, is rotating
Mirror Counter Wobuffet is neat too I guess, but that can’t be the whole deck idea
We’ll have to see if there’s an eventual basic psychic that cracks this wide open, else this will just be a Lunatone cannon
This is also the best archetype to use Penny so far
Load up an attacker, move all the damage to 1 basic V/EX as much as possible with Radiant Alakazam, pick it up with Penny
opaque pelican
That Gardevoir ex already looks super fun paired with the Gardevoir from CRE
opaque pelican
So we got this, the standard Gardevoir, and the Gallade that pairs well with the deck style.
Of course this means that there is definitely gonna be some choice paralysis if a Gallade ex is in the future
Though, if the Gallade in question is a fighting-type, there's no doubt in my mind it'd replace the one in CRE, since that one only seems to get better when the defender is V
jolly rune
Bc yes
rich pine
I don’t get it 
opaque pelican
I swear these characters in TCG Online look way too much like some generic Cartoon Network show
...What's that one again?
It's like, one about a bunch of teens in a mall
digital crow
do you know how little that narrows it down?
opaque pelican
I am very aware. My mistake
final musk
6teen
Also not surprising given ptcgo is a flash game from 2011
6teen came out a year before that
opaque pelican
ah
jolly rune
I don’t get it <:cheems:683182129668292685>
Just bc yes
raw nebula
Do I touch it
opaque pelican
Just pulled a Regidrago VSTAR
I wonder, could there be ways to use this well?
Dragon-types are notoriously hard to actually use properly in most deck styles, given the need to use two types of energy. Splashing them in some decks are fine, but making entire decks to work off dragon-types I feel just can't go well
And it's a shame I got no way to have Double Dragon Energy
So, here's what I'm thinking so far, and I will be adding to this unfinished thing:
Symph's Dragon Deck (Dragon Memories)
3x Regidrago V (SIT)
3x Regidrago VSTAR (SIT)
1x Hisuian Goodra VSTAR (LOR)
1x Noivern (SIT)
1x Duradulon VMAX (EVS)
1x Garchomp V (ASR)
1x Dragonite (SIT)
1x Radiant Greninja (ASR)
3x Lance (SIT)
4x Trekking Shoes
3x Hisuian Heavy Ball
8x Grass Energy
4x Fire Energy
2x Aurora Energy
Work in progress. Idea here is to use card effects to discard dragon-types to the discard pile, giving Regidrago VSTAR ways to make all kinds of attacks.
gilded heart
I missed the 100% winrate mark 
https://i.imgur.com/3O2Twhc.png
(This is a different Umbreon build from the last one)
gilded heart
opaque pelican
The first SV set hasn't even released and we're already getting trademarks for the 3rd
Slight spoilers here, but I suppose Tatsugiri is already somewhat well-known. But it does mention the spoilerific second set so... caution!
Also this is a thing
Though, it really is just a bog-standard water-type mon
opaque pelican
I came to realize: Apparently EX (That is, capitalized, not lowercase), up until the Legendary treasures set was all just simply Legendary mons
And even in Legendary Treasures, there was only two EX that were not: Excadrill and Chandelure
It took XY for there to be a floodgate opening up for most any mon to be an EX
final musk
There's this ditto control deck that barely scraped a day 2 at Arlingrton regionals that is now being run a lot on VS ladder.
Had this deck planned in any possible way to dealing with Big Parasol or switching cards it would have actually beat me in the 10 or so times I've run into it already
What's even weirder is that the list I am running into online is arguably just worse than the list that made day 2 at Arlington
little falcon
how real is this Eternatus/G Weezing deck @final musk ?
final musk
You beat people who don't know what they are doing against it or hope to sack. Quite frankly I don't think it is worth it
The whole deck hinges on opening Weezing and your opponent having / not having play around it.
And before asking, no, the Quad Weezing version is in fact way worse
That is a meme whipped up by one of the best players in PTCG
final musk
Which is a breath of fresh air given how almost all recycling cards gen 8 were in base SwSh
Now just need a Pokémon recycler, hoping for Rescue Stretcher to come back
delicate surge
@little kestrel
little kestrel
delicate surge
Bodegaslowpoke
little falcon
<@189578328544378880>
Omg
little falcon
I almost didn’t notice the dad in the Kirlia card
final musk
Hawlucha is Galarian Zigzagoon but it pings 2 pokemon
little falcon
Also a Ralts doll in the Kirlia and Gardevoir
final musk
And the photos in the back updating each time too
Now the last thing they need to confirm for rarity is that Rainbow Rare is dead\
final musk
@little falcon If you're still entering San Diego, good luck and have a good time
little falcon
<@324752667144355841> If you're still entering San Diego, good luck and have a g...
Naw I missed the sign up 
final musk
little falcon
Sadly my people aren’t going either cause something came up so meh
final musk
rip
final musk
ok Round 4 of the San Diego stream is spaghetti
2 different Yveltal control decks that have a bunch of questionable choices
25 minutes into round 1 and the two players have taken a total 3 prizes
One of the builds is playing the poison Garbodor as a main attacker and the other is running Cheren's Care simply for just a Pidgeot V I think?
Which doesn't add up to me on account that Pidgeot V has an ability to remove itself from the bench back into the deck.
Ok the Cheren at least now makes more sense since the dude is running Eldgoss V. Infinitely slow loops supporters
still feels really out there
The Poison player loses this on account that there is no wincon for her due to infinite loops
The Poison player scoops with 15 minutes left in the round, probably in hopes of hitting a win before the opponent sets up the slow loop
little falcon
What’s the stream link?
final musk
final musk
Round 3: Israel Sosa (Lost Zone Goodra VStar) vs Makani Tran (Arceus Box; Aerodactyl VStar + Empoleon V + Espeon VMax + Crobat VMax)
Round 4: Caitlyn Earnhart (Ditto Shedinja with Yveltal) vs Stuart Sakaluk (Yveltal Control with Eldgegoss V infinite slow loop)
Round 5: Isaiah Bradner (Regis) vs Caleb Gedemer (Lost Zone Kyogre ft. Dragonite V)
Round 6: Pablo Mesa (Lost Box Raikou/Rayquaza) vs Jake Gearhart (Palkia VStar)
Round 7: Riley Hulbert vs Piper Lepine (Lugia VStar Mirror)
Round 8: Nathanial Dao (Lugia VStar) vs Xander Pero (Mew VMax with teched Aerodactyl VStar)
Round 9: Oliver Rochin (Lugia VStar) vs Jeremy Jallen (Weezing Eternatus)
I'll update with all rounds once the stream ends today
little falcon
Dragonite V
final musk
Given the deck also had choice band, seemed like an option that would allow you to hit 280, similar to Giratina but without investing the space of a Vstar
However, it putting 20 damage to everything on bench makes it finite use, and bad in certain matchups
final musk
Day 2 started
Round 10, 11, and 12 were not streamed
Round 13: Caleb Gedemer (Lost Zone Kyogre ft. Dragonite V) vs Eric Schwarz (Dialga VStar)
Round 14: Samuel Sosa (Lost Zone Goodra) vs Andrew Kennett (Regis)
Round 15: Nicholas Moffitt (Lost Box Rayquaza) vs Gibson Archer-Tang (Alex Krekeler's Vikavolt netdeck)
final musk
Top 8:
1 Arceus Box
1 Arceus Duraludon
1 Vikavolt Antimeta
1 Regi
2 Lost Box Rayquaza Raikou
1 Mew
1 Lugia
2 of the players who made top 8 were at the bottom of the swiss end of day 1
little falcon
Balance restored
final musk
Vikavolt Antimeta won
The general consensus when Krekeler got second with it was that it was a fluke and not that good a deck
Then someone does it again with roughly the same deck
Biggest loser of the tournament was Weezing Eternatus, as it had the highest representation for a deck that didn't top
little falcon
You beat people who don't know what they are doing against it or hope to sack. ...
Profit
But yeah deck seemed interesting enough
hidden ocean
@storm stag
storm stag
Thanks
final musk
ex Scarlet/Violet set reveal should be dropping tonight or tomorrow
There's a lot not yet revealed, including at least 1 more Tera ex mon
(Gyarados. By this logic I would assume we should also get a Tera ex Exeggutor)
gilded heart
Reveals are dropping rn btw
opaque pelican
Oh my goodness, that Slowbro has the Strange Behavior ability
final musk
Well Tera is a waste of a mechanic by the looks of it
Both Gyarados and Arcanine have the same bench barrier effect
Translations are still going on, but so far that Slowbro is about the most interesting reveal
Gyarados may end up being a Palkia variant, but Palkia is legit the only way to power it up
And being Electric weak probably will bite it in the ass if Miraidon ends up being good
(which, Miraidon already is hyper consistent at setting up pokemon, just a matter if the energy acceleration holds up for it)
It also worries me that Gyarados hits for 360 damage
That to me implies that the HP cap is going up again
opaque pelican
Well, there's your answer to VMAX, folks
final musk
The next set better be part of english SV release, because there is no special energy here
opaque pelican
Actually, what does that Annhilape do?
Debating if i wanna throw it in with the Primeape from Battle Styles
Another thing noticed
They go and make note of how much of a cinnamon roll that a Mabostiff usually is.
...And then they go and give us this artwork
what the hell
final musk
The regular art and alt art this set is really good
The ex art is still 5ban graphics junk
final musk
some of it looks fine, but notably the teras look awful
We'll find out in a week if they finally dropped Rainbow Rare or not
Also not gonna be surprising when the Full Arts for exs are just full art versions of the regular arts
The text boxes are slightly translucent
opaque pelican
I wouldn't mind the alternate art stuff for ex, given it'd be different than the cut-in for the regular ex
For V and GX, it was barely any different save for being very... eh.
I dunno how to describe it but it just seemed off compared to the regular rarity, though not to the degree that rainbow rares took it
opaque pelican
Take that, searching
final musk
It's more or less a fair version of mimigar
P
30 damage, locks opponent out of items
PC
60 damage times number of trainers in opponent's hand
It will at least be tried
Which is more than I can say for Spidops ex
opaque pelican
I swear that spider can't catch a break
final musk
The main problem with Banette is that it is a stage 1 trying item lock
Which means it can't item lock turn 1 like Vikavolt could
Toxicroak ex is bad rip
opaque pelican
Wow. Not even the first set and Nemona was already invalidated.
Not that it wasn't already true, since Avery is still gonna be in rotation, but...
final musk
Maybe we're missing a starter set reveal but
There's also so far no way to recover pokemon from the discard pile outside of supporters
besides exactly 1 item
opaque pelican
Well, good luck keeping this in play for such a potent ability
Though, it very well could waste their turn if you got literally nothing else going on... bout all I can say
final musk
Klefki will pretty much just see play for people trying to cope an answer to Miraidon ex
opaque pelican
Nice.
final musk
So far most card reveals are pretty meh function-wise, but Banette definitely stands out
Strange Behavior Slowbro is interesting but I don't know what deck would want to fit room for it
opaque pelican
It was an ability that got abused a whole bunch in the cavemen days.
So there might be some stuff someone can still do with it
final musk
List of useful cards and reprints from the set (will edit when all translated)
Gyarados ex (Palkia ex tech)
Gardevoir ex (Instant Psychic setup)
Hawlucha (replaces Galarian Zigzagoon, but without the quick ball or scoop up net. May or may not be worth it)
Revaroom (Alternative to Bibarel)
Defiant Band (Replaces Choice Belt over time)
Team Star Grunt (Better version of Team Yell Grunt for stall decks)
Beach Court (Retreat modifier. Air Balloon is rotating)
Pal Pad Reprint
Nest Ball Reprint
EXP Share Reprint
Miraidon ex (Arguably the best card in the set. Immediately sets up an entire bench of electric pokemon when put into play)
Shuppet and Bannette ex (This generation's item lock deck)
Klefki (The ultimate hopium to locking out Miraidon ex, Lost Box, and Regis)
Skwovet (Combos with Bibarel and Radiant Venusaur. Also a new tech for Hisuian Arcanine)
Electricity Generator (So far the next best way after Flaafy for lightning energy acceleration)
Ultra Ball Reprint
Rare Candy Reprint
Professor's Research Reprints
Energy Search Reprint
The Flip Coin duo Reprints... as much as I hate to say it
.
List of cards that really need other support to be worthwhile:
Armorouge (It is Quagsire from Nagaquag, but doesn't have a Naganadel rn)
Drifloon (hits 180 rn in Gardevoir ex. If it gets any way to buff its max HP, its damage becomes great. Sadly both Cape and Big Charm rotate.)
Dachsbun (Needs a fire deck to be meta)
Great Tusk ex (Needs better fighting acceleration. Power Pickaxe and Koraidon ex don't cut it)
Koraidon ex (is good early energy acceleration for a type that doesn't have any other good energy acceleration)
Penny (idk what you do with this as of now)
Scatterbug and Spwepa (They need a better Vivilion)
Toadscruel (It kinda just replaces Rhibombee with the same purpose, and that didn't see much action as a stall card)
Arcanine ex (Magma Basin and Raihan honestly can't support this enough. Needs different acceleration)
Magnezone ex (Needs a meta where it makes more sense to play it.)
Mabosstiff (Needs a deck where doing this is part of the strategy)
List of other lesser decks people will try:
Dondozo / Tatsugiri (better version of Cramokuda)
Lucario (150 for 1 energy)
Maushold (280 for controlling 4 of him. Can be supported by Zoroark)
Spidops ex (This is crap, but people are currently defending this as playable)
Cards that I have no clue on:
Mesagoza City (This card is literally just pokeball on a stadium that both people can play... seems like
Slowbro (I don't think any deck will bother fitting this beyond maybe Mewtwo V-Union)
Miriam (People are calling it a staple, but we really need to be sure of all recovery cards available to us. This thing is dedicated as a supporter)
Mimikyu ex (You need a lot of energy on it to make it do high damage, but that is doable with Gardevoir ex. Practical? guessing not)
gilded heart
I think Miriam is looking pretty good tbh
Also Regis aren't looking so hot with no rainbow energy
final musk
Yeah if this is all that is showing up in the first SV english pack (really hope it isn't):
Regis are dead
Lugia is probably dead
Kyurem is even more dead than it is already
Vikavolt V decks are dead due to Vikavolt rotating
G-Weezing and Eternatus VMax both rotate, so the deck goes from dead to super dead
Lost Box is nerfed
Arceus decks are slightly nerfed (Consistency lost from Evo Incense rotating, Recovery lost in Arc-Dura from Hyper Potion rotating)
Palkia is nerfed but still has a good line of play from Articuno and maybe Gyarados ex (namely nerfed from losing Capacious Bucket and Inteleon engine)
The format becomes centralized around Mew VMax and Control decks. If any new deck enters the fray, I'd guess Bannette ex or Miraidon ex
Drapion V more or less becomes a staple
We could also just end up seeing the return of a dark box deck too
What's really sad is that this lopsided format might actually get eclipsed by an even worse problem: PTCGO potentially shutting down and forced migration to Live
opaque pelican
I might try out Miraidon decks featuring a few good electric types like...
I guess Raichu (LOR)?
And I guess the Flying Pikachu V and VMAX
opaque pelican
good
gilded heart
Lets goo
opaque pelican
Took a look at Annihilape again
Seems for the whole Single Strike Primeape stuff, it could just be a simple "Plan B" of sorts, since it's biggest attack works off of prize cards remaining for your opponent, rather than damage counters on the bench
final musk
Keep in mind that you cannot keep Single Strike Energy on Annihilape since it is not a Single Strike pokemon
Single Strike Primeape is usually using SS Energy to power up, fire off attacks, and spread damage counters (SS Houndoom) that it is honestly incompatible with Annihilape
opaque pelican
Yeah, that is unfortunate.
Still, I'm likely to run a few basic fighting energy that I can still fallback on that if possible.
One might be alright, since I really shouldn't try to get in that situation if I can help it
Still holding out for an ex of Annihilape, since I got no doubt it'd be a straight upgrade.
...Or maybe not, but I'm hopeful.
final musk
Not thrilled about those returning but oh well
At least character/ collector rate is still around
If anything else besides rainbow rare need be cut, these full sets should be next
opaque pelican
Alright, just had the most amazing thing happen
This was in the Elite Trainer Box I had
opaque pelican
Apparently, this card is the only Secret Rare in the set. Wow.
digital crow
This was in the Elite Trainer Box I had
I feel like the mons in the background are referencing something, but i can't quite point out what
final musk
I feel like the mons in the background are referencing something, but i can't qu...
Some of the most competitively successful cards/decks from the SwSh era packs
Have no idea whey they included Hisuian Zoroark tho
Zoroark should have been Palkia
digital crow
Yea, i do recall everyone but zoroark and urshifu
final musk
Urshifu was the leading deck of Battle Styles format
The format was between it and Pikarom
final musk
Zacian V was the most successful new card out of base SwSh, between LMZ and the infamous gatekeeper, ADPZ
Crobat V was one of the most influential support V's released in SwSh era
Urshifu VMax was a highly influential deck from Battle Styles, and went in and out of power until Lost Origin
Shadow Rider Calyrex dominated Chilling Reign format to where the top decks were mostly it, Ice Rider, and decks that could counter Shadow Rider.
Shadow Rider is also one of the best decks in Expanded format
The Inteleon engine was the most popular pokemon engine the entire back half of SwSh era
In place of Zoroark should have either been Mew, Arceus or Palkia
Mew VMax was arguably the most lopsided deck to come out this generation, dominant enough in Fusion Strike format to seemingly have a winning matchup statistically on anything in the format.
Palkia was the front runner for Astral Radiance and Lost Origin
Arceus set the high ass standard for VStar pokemon and remained relevant for its entire existence so far, but rarely to never as the number 1
And of course Lugia is the big fish for Silver Tempest, but I would imagine the card art was made before Silver Tempest came out.
Zoroark VStar, by comparison, people were shocked it even topped events at all
opaque pelican
Yeah, the Pikachu pretty much is a card celebrating the Sword/Shield set as a whole
And yeah, Zoroark VSTAR is good, but given everything else, you'd really rather have something else to use your VSTAR power with
Gonna plug those respective cards in via advancesearch
So excuse the uh, wall of things
https://pkmncards.com/card/inteleon-sword-shield-ssh-058/
https://pkmncards.com/card/zacian-v-sword-shield-ssh-138/
https://pkmncards.com/card/crobat-v-darkness-ablaze-daa-104/
https://pkmncards.com/card/rapid-strike-urshifu-vmax-battle-styles-bst-088/
https://pkmncards.com/card/shadow-rider-calyrex-vmax-chilling-reign-cre-075/
https://pkmncards.com/card/hisuian-zoroark-vstar-lost-origin-lor-147/
gilded heart
I think the problem is more that while Zoroark can do huge damage, setting it up can be difficult sometimes
opaque pelican
For your perusal!
It's literally just Single Strike Primeape's attack
It's also a reason for Gapejaw Bog existing
gilded heart
True, but they don't always find Gapejaw/Gengar early
Especially with Marnie/Judge in the equation
opaque pelican
Y’know I wish?
That some shops do some kind of common trade in deal
Like, say, you got cards from a very recent set and they’re all common or uncommon rarity
You could trade in those cards for different cards from like, I guess a past set
I might relay this to the hobby store I know of and see how well they take it
gilded heart
Just barely missed top 8 in an 84 man tournament with Arceus Umbreon
Or well, at least I had a chance to be
5-2 could still get in
gilded heart
Liverpool Regionals stream for anyone curious https://www.twitch.tv/limitless_tcg
digital crow
Just barely missed top 8 in an 84 man tournament with Arceus Umbreon <:pensiveco...
Top 16 is still really good man, congrats
gilded heart
Thanks 
opaque pelican
I had someone straight up told me that Charizard (From the base set, yes, seriously) was just unrivaled among other cards
Sadly I didn't have time to debunk that.
That being said, did anyone even in the cavemen era even use that card? I think the Base Set Ninetales was just strictly better, since it can drag out mons on the bench and it's attack hits only a little less hard
digital crow
It's "playable" in base rocket because of recycle energy
opaque pelican
Oh yeah, that one that comes back to your hand if its discarded
It's pretty cool
This existed too, which reminded me of it
fathom rover
Hi pokefools
final musk
With that, I’m probably gonna tear down my ptcgo account, give out cards that I got, and just lurk or play IRL. Silver Tempest already burned me out as is and PTCG Live still looks worse than ptcgo.
If anyone needs stuff, ask and I’ll check if I got it
final musk
hidden ocean
what is ptcg live
final musk
Ptgo’s successor
Tpci’s attempt to jump on a modern platform for online tcg, like how Yugioh pounced on it with master duel
Rather buggy, doesn’t support as much a cardpool as ptcgo, somewhat slow, and been in beta for over a year
Professional players have mostly stuck to PTCGO instead of going to open beta for this
The only benefit to ptcg live so far is all the free shit they give you, which is to make up for how bad the dusting/crafting system is
final musk
A few noteworthy things:
- Super Energy Retrieval Reprinted
- All 3 Paldean Tauros got cards, but 1 clearly got WAY better artwork
- The new Rainbow Energy literally does not work with Archeops or Regis
- Despite there being 3 Stage 2 ex’s covering this set, we still have no way to help their involvement in the game
Out of the 3 Starter exs, I have the most hope in Quaquaval ex due to the existence of a regular Quaquaval that can accelerate energy
Skeledirge’s only way to function hinges on Cheryl rn. Cheryl heals, magma basin and manual attach to do 250-270
Meowscarada ex would run into the same problem Samurott VStar has, particularly since it can’t put counters on active. If we get a way to put up multiple like XY Greninja, it would be much better.
opaque pelican
All are spot-on, but you can definitely see the difference in the Blaze Breed
lost gulch
if you guys need any high value JP modern cards, lmk
gilded heart
Meowscarada ex would run into the same problem Samurott VStar has, particularly ...
Radiant Alakazam is probably an auto-include to spread the damage a bit
final musk
They'd probably go for that or the typical Radiant Greninja consistency buff
(Meowscarada ex)
The big problem with Meow ex is that you really need multiple to get the blood flowing, and doing that with a stage 2 deck, at least as of now, isn't that reliable
Kinda the problem with all 3 of these stage 2 exs, really
opaque pelican
It'd have to be a damn good Stage 2 to use them, in general
Or have incentive to keep with it, much like how Sobble had in the Sword/Shield set
final musk
Well Sobble line had Drizzile
If Shady Dealings Drizzile was not a thing, no one would've really bothered with the Inteleon line
None of these new stage 2 families have anything like that, for starters
Virtually every new stage 1 in a stage 2 line is a useless vanilla
opaque pelican
Sobble and it's evolutions just were really fortunate since both Drizzile and Inteleon often had good abilities
final musk
"Often"
opaque pelican
Really, both the Sword/Shield set one, and the Battle Styles one
final musk
Every other Drizzile was a vanilla besides Shady Dealings
final musk
All three of these stage 2 decks have the problem in there being a need to put up multiple without a good way to put up multiple, or incentive to climb with multiple
The only one that can try to get away with putting up 1 is Skeledirge ex, but the only ways to search the card that keeps it going (Cheryl) will be Meowsic and Gallade
opaque pelican
...Oh, right. Rare Candy is being rotated out, isn't it?
final musk
The only forseeable stage 2 line that's gonna see regular play is Gardevoir/Gallade
opaque pelican
Oh yeah, they still got that whole silly Shining Arcana engine thing going on
Jeez, playing both that, and the Gardevoir ex is gonna be sick
final musk
Kirlia has a useful ability, two different useful gardevoir, Gardevoir ex is its own deck, and Gallade is going to be the "new inteleon" for Arceus decks
But that is literally the only stage 2 line that looks solid in SVland
little falcon
random question but I came across a Dark Dragonite card from the TRR set and it was stamped with the TRR on it. I dont see one listed on tcg so I was wondering how much do these stamped ones normally go for?
final musk
random question but I came across a Dark Dragonite card from the TRR set and it ...
The stamped part indicates a reverse holo. Those cards are old af so definitely a good deal if in good condition
That… might actually be a card worth grading if you think it is in good enough condition
little falcon
The stamped part indicates a reverse holo. Those cards are old af so definitely ...
Oh good to know. It’s probably LP if I had to guess.
final musk
Don't know enough about the grading system to know if LP is worth grading. Probably still worth around 30 bucks
lost gulch
I can open preorders for S12a (VStar Universe), SV1V/S (Scarlet and Violet) btw
nocturne wadi
wanton mantle
I seen a lot of fan ideas for Pokémon’s anime and game but I don’t see a lot for the tcg
final musk
More confirmation on Tera being a letdown initially
Dedenne ex’s a gimmick, but technically a finisher for Gardevoir decks
Clodsire ex sucks
The only thing going for Clodsire is its HP but the damage it does sucks
wanton mantle
give it a set or two to give us pokemon whose tera type is not their primary type
but I do kinda agree
like I get the bench damage prevention (I think) homages the barrier the tera raid pokemon have
but I much would have preferred something to reference the tera blast move, which the player actually uses when they teranize
final musk
The main problem is that Bench damage prevention is mostly not useful after rotation
It’s a nothingburger
Maybe Jolteon VMax shows its face again but Jolteon really started to suck after Arceus came out
And the other one is Ushifu VMax which has basically been the copium deck for most of the last year or so. Even moreso that Mew looks like a centralizing deck post rotation.
Other than that you got Pokémon that can’t snipe enough for exs to care…
Or Lost Zone, which few people play the kyogre build and Raikou is rotating
So on top of having a single effect for all of them, that effect is so far gonna be almost cosmetic.
digital crow
Nah we'll get a magilord ttgx retrain that does the gx attack for 1 energy
digital peak
https://www.pokebeach.com/2023/02/clodsire-ex-dedenne-ex-ghetsis-and-more-from-t...
CLODSIRE
but dark?
little falcon
Cool we’re getting Ghetsis but I thought we’d get Gen 3 bosses first lol
wanton mantle
The main problem is that Bench damage prevention is mostly not useful after rota...
we will see, maybe future sets will bring more bench damagers
opaque pelican
https://www.pokebeach.com/2023/02/tinkaton-tinkatuff-tinatink-from-triplet-beat
Everyone's favorite pink thing returns
final musk
Just checked out what was happening with Knoxville
mostly the same meta except Weezing Eternatus just made finals
opaque pelican
Happy Wooper
final musk
Classic set announced featuring a mix of cards, mostly from Base Set
Honestly would not surprise me if this turns into Pokemon TCG's Speed Duel format and begins weeding out Expanded as an official format
They say it ain't an official format, wouldn't surprise me if they turn around on that statement if it got popular
The Japanese product will cost 35,000 yen (about $275). It will be available via lottery starting in February. No English pricing or release information has been revealed yet.
Wtf never fucking mind
opaque pelican
Holy shit that pricing
…Big money aside, this is actually pretty cool
The set looks super slick, and as much as it supports cavemen-era TCG, it seems it could work just fine for the TCG today… excluding the cards in the set of course
But yeah, you’ll really be hard pressed to have enough money to comfortably spend on this premium set. Not to mention something of this magnitude will be scalped so much.
Just wished that the actually new cards were usable in tournament play. Could likely be soon as a reprint, but we’ll have to wait
Those tool cards would be very nice coupled with the Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise from the GO set
final musk
So Chi-Yu, Chien-Pao, and Ting-Lu are all cover cards in upcoming tcg packs
Triple Beat should be fully revealed later this week. So far it doesn't have terribly much of impact
(Jet Energy, Artazon, Super Energy Retrieval are like the only real noteworthy cards. Good pack for artwork tho)
digital peak
https://www.pokebeach.com/2023/02/ruler-of-the-black-flame-trademark-filed-for-t...
blub blub intensifies
opaque pelican
There's a similar tweet on the official twitter too
Apparently whoever's doing the posting today really wanted to bring up TPP
opaque pelican
Well, being honest, these cards were pretty alright in the cavemen era
Nidoking I think had some attack that accelerated the damage poison did
digital crow
Most comments were like "why did you ditch the starter" or "legendary ew"
opaque pelican
Zapdos was pretty much the de-facto Electric-type beatstick
opaque pelican
Not too sure what the other four did as far as TCG notability lies
Oh, right, that did exist
digital crow
Nidoking was basically bench fodder for queen, which was a meme deck
opaque pelican
Loved that it's attack was just called "Boyfriends"
digital crow
Moth, pidgeot, and omaster saw zero play
opaque pelican
It's like Nidoqueen just makes Nidoking watch and just one-up her mate
digital crow
And Lapras was meta defining because it was the perfect early game mon for rain_dance.dek
final musk
Yeah Choccy summed that up correctly, Lapras was like the only decent one
And even that had competition in Articuno
Zapdos took way too long to power up to be decent
Pidgeot didn't slow any relevant deck down enough when its spin, because those decks could immediately set their plays back up
Nidoking, as mentioned, was simply an enabler for Nidoqueen, which was rather inconsistent a deck
Omastar was almost completely a worse Lapras as a stage 2
And Venomoth was a trash flip-coin deck
final musk
If you were looking at the first time each of those was something worthwhile:
Rocket's Zapdos in Gym Challenge
Pidgeot from Fire Red Leaf Green
Omastar from XY Fates collide... that wasn't even a good deck, just something that Omastar centralized.
I can't even come up with a time Venomoth or Nidoking was worthwhile.
Even in some cases where Nidoqueen and Nidoking were designed to work as a pair, it would usually be better to run Nidoqueen with a different partner
Like FRLG Nidoqueen, which paired with Pidgeot
Or Team Up Nidoqueen, which paired up with Meganium and another stage 2 of choice.
final musk
One of its possible outputs yup
Some people also made draw heavy decks with Swampert
or builds that ran Slaking to stun
All of which are not Nidoking
opaque pelican
Oh right, the other printings
That was what I was thinking of, the Gym Challenge Zapdos
I thought Omastar had some Power that prevented evolution, but thinking now I guess only Aerodactyl had that
digital crow
It was only aero, yea
final musk
Triplet Beat full reveal
Almost the entire set not only doesn’t seem worth it competitively, but is also really, really boring
Great artwork set tho
Best cards in the set are:
Mismagius (stall)
Dedenne ex (optional finisher in Gardevoir ex)
Superior Energy Retrieval
Clavel
Artazon Town
Jet Energy (really useful in Lost Box)
Clavel isn’t even competitive, it’s just really useful in a few specific decks
little falcon
yo that art is nice
final musk
Unless stage 2s get better support, I legit don’t think any of those starter exs are worth it bar maybe Skeledirge
Meowscarada and Quaquaval requiring 2-3 stage 2s in play each is really inconsistent
Skeledirge is designed to tank and can play with just 1 stage 2 in play but the only really good heal card for it is a supporter
Skeledirge does sound pretty funny in expanded as a tank deck, since it can be reset by scoop up net. Not too many expanded strategies can reliably hit 340 damage
Best art:
Every alt art shown so far
Paldean Tauros Fire
Lycanroc ex
Boss’s Orders Ghetsis
opaque pelican
FISH
Debating if I should use this or the Magikarp in GO
Each of them have a similar attack... hmm...
I could make a deck with both, now that I think about it
But that'd mean finding good ways to ditch cards into the discard pile
digital crow
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqUS2SLXoCAL3sa?format=jpg&name=small
A basic with 160 hp that does 200 damage with setup for a double colorless
Ngl this looks fun to try in expanded
opaque pelican
Deck Name (Yes, this is very important, I want it to sound cool.): Shoot for the Stars, Raichu
4x Pikachu SSH
3x Raichu LOR
1x Raichu SIT
2x Pikachu V VIV
2x Pikachu VMAX PROMO 286
2x Mareep EVS
2x Flaffy EVS
2x Lumineon V BRS
1x Radiant Greninja
1x Tapu Koko V BST
1x Tapu Koko VMAX BST
2x Stormy Mountains EVS
3x Forest Seal Stone LOR
3x Avery CRE
3x Ultra Ball
3x Level Ball
4x Speed Lightning Energy RCL
8x Basic Lightning Energy
This is what I've got so far. Still working out what I exactly need to make it work, but the game plan involves a lot of Raichu just having a 220 damage attack
And yeah, I always tend to try to give my deck a name.
opaque pelican
Trying my best to find a good way to make a deck around Gardevoir, mostly the one from CRE and the new ex in Scarlet/Violet.
It's tough going though since I'm no good at deckmaking, but I think I may be onto something
opaque pelican
I am admittedly halfway tempted to make a deck around the Clefairy from LOR
Only issue here is this: what would be the game plan with all this Clefairy? Can’t really make too big a push with them all
opaque pelican
aaaaaAAAAAAAAAA
opaque pelican
I just had the most stupid idea for a deck ever
Lemme bring up a few things and you may let me know if I am on to something or am a terrible person for even suggesting such a thing
Alright, so, Lunala. Has an Attack here, Lunar Pain. Doubles the number of Damage Counters on your opponent's cards.
And here is where I bring this thing up
These two have different attacks that place damage counters. Mismagius gets things started, whereas Braviary ends up doing more cleanup.
So, the game plan here is, to divvy up as much damage counters as possible on your opponent's pokemon, then when you're ready to go for the win, slam down Lunala and finish up with Lunar Pain.
Gonna see if there's any other cards I can use that can help this along, like Gapejaw Bog, Old Cemetary and a few others, but I'm very willing to try this fun jank out.
Alright, so any problems with this? Need to shore up any kind of flaws this may have.
opaque pelican
It presents a tense situation, since trying to take it down without weakening it first will cause issues if I need to do a quick KO
I could stall it out with the Miltank in ASR, since it never takes damage from any V's attacks
Could also do some silly swap shenanigans with the Hisuian Liligant in that set as well, since it's attacks make it switch out.
Could also try out the Earthen Seal Stone, assuming there isn't a VSTAR I want to try with this
opaque pelican
Alright, TCG question for rulings:
Do cards that make mention of a Pokémon's name also allow cards with ruleboxes? (EX, GX, V, ex)?
Like, say, Magikarp (GO), and how it mentions that an attack does more damage for each Magikarp and Gyrados in your discard pile
digital crow
They usually don't
versed jackal
Nope
opaque pelican
Ahh, alright
final musk
It's the difference in wording between "Each Magikarp and Gyarados" vs "Each pokemon with Magikarp and Gyarados it its name"
ie. Team Attack Falinks will count Falinks V because it looks for pokemon with "Falinks" in its name
But the magikarp you bring up looks for "Magikarp" and "Gyarados", the exact names
opaque pelican
Ahhh, gotcha
So, quotations are what I should be looking for when reading these cards, yeah?
final musk
NO way
N IS BACK
it's Iono now BUT N IS BACK
Ok it's Marnie meets N but that's not the point
.
Chi Yu ex I doubt has a deck that cares for its kind of energy acceleration right now. 1 fire on up to 3 different pokemon does not sound worth 2 prize cards.
Chien-Pao ex is a one-of tech in Palkia. Rain Dance Baxcalibur is too slow to set up to make that worthwhile. The only bad thing about Chien-Pao is having 2 retreat sucks rn.
Ting-Lu has a good ability for negation, but fighting has terrible acceleration for a triple fighting attack.
.
Squawkabilly ex is Dedene GX, but only works turn 1 going first. Conflicted and I think most decks won't need to bother unless they were some hyper-turbo deck.
Raichu, Dudunsparce, and Maushold are bad cards with good art.
Garganacl is a bad card with meh art.
Rabsca has good artwork and an interesting attack, but the last time a revive attack was around, we had Vaporeon VMax and that turned out to be too slow. I feel like this would go the same way, outside of putting a really good stage 2 into play. Conflicting, I don't think it is worth honestly.
.
Super Rod should have been in Base Sword Shield, as there's next to no other recovery items rn.
Charm of Courage not only sparks the return of 280+ HP basics, but looks to be really useful is Gardevoir ex with Zacian ex and especially Drifloon, which before could only reach 180 damage and can now reach 300-330 damage.
Grusha is worse Lillie, and Lillie was only used on account that Professor's Research wasn't around.
Iono is N but with the same counterplay of stacking your deck that Marnie offered. Love it.
wanton mantle
hm feels like the gen 9 era is starting off hit or miss
final musk
That’s kinda every gen but gen 9 is starting off very miss
opaque pelican
Holy crap Charm of Courage is nice
Already looks like Big Charm was blown out of the water, as well as Cape of Courage
final musk
It’s basically just Cape of Toughness again when it comes to standard
The big thing about it is that Cape rotates
Big charm also rotates
There was no decent HP buffing until this card
opaque pelican
...Well crap, guess I should pawn off this Secret Rare Cape of Toughness
opaque pelican
It finally just hit me
Cards with the "Mad Party" attack are just one big Alice in Wonderland shout-out.
versed jackal
You're just now figuring that bit?
opaque pelican
Looking through some cards I swear I find some that I know might have caused a lot of headaches
And I'm not talking about that promotional Birthday Pikachu, either
Like, this for example.
I can promise you that nobody would just know the exact length of a mon you have face-down.
Not to mention this card is just inferior to Bill anyways, but disregarding that
opaque pelican
Gonna see if I can find that Scarlet/Violet Build & Battle Box
wanton mantle
Did they even had the Pokémon’s size written on the card?
final musk
Gen 1 cards did
wanton mantle
Okay so not as ballsy as I thought
opaque pelican
Yeah, it's just, you really had to be a quiz master to know just what their exact height would be.
If this were printed today I can imagine the effect would include more failsafe's, like only needing the correct answer to be at least 2 feet within the correct height to be correct.
...But that's assuming we really want gimmicky stuff like this to begin with, which while fun, wouldn't exactly make for good game environments. Also, maybe just an effect other than drawing cards.
Cause if all you did was draw 3, people would just play stuff like Hau/Hop/Barry/whoever else does the whole draw 3 thing. And that's a bad situation to be in if so.
At the least the name can tip you off on what their height would be. You'd go low if it was something like Pawmi, and high if it was something like Dondozo
final musk
Draw + gimmick has uynforunately been in pokemon TCG's standard setting for quite a while
I think the only one that has played out relatively well in the past few years was Avery as a means to counter Palkia, Mew, Regis (And Eternatus but you didn't really care about that)
The other category of these was "draw 2, then draw 2 more if you met condition."
And I think the last time those ever saw play was gen 3 or 4
Bird Keeper was good too, and Melony might classify under that.
So the good ones were Bird Keeper, Avery, Melony, and Colress's Experiment
But also in gen 8 alone you had:
Dan (Draw 2, win a game of RPS to draw 2 more)
Allister (Draw 3, then discard 1, 2, or 3)
Beauty (Draw 2, only supporter you can play turn 1)
Swordward and Shielbert (Basically a Draw 3 that wasted more time)
Schoolboy (Draw 2 if your opponent's prize count was even, draw 4 if odd)
Schoolgirl (Draw 2 if odd, draw 4 if even, same prize check as Schoolboy)
Aroma Lady (Draw 2, remove special conditions)
Doctor (Draw 2, draw 2 more if your opponent's active was a VMax)
Milo (Discard 1 or 2, draw 2x what you discarded)
4 Different generic draw 3 cards (Hop, Barry, Friends in Sinnoh, Friends in Galar)
League Staff (Draw 2, draw 2 more if fucking WYNDON STADIUM was in play, which is an awful stadium card)
Bug Catcher (Flip coin, if heads draw 4, if tails draw 2)
Dancer (Draw 2, if played on your first turn going second, draw 5 instead)
Choy (Draw 3 and both players reveal hands)
Kamado (Discard all but 1 card, draw 4)
Iscan (Draw 2, draw 2 more if your active is a hisuian pokemon)
Gardenia (Draw 2, then attach up to 2 grass energy to a benched pokemon)
Gym Trainer (Draw 2, draw 2 more if a pokemon was knocked out last turn)
Worker (Draw 3, discard stadium in play)
And the worst one by far, Riley (Your opponent looks at the top 5 cards of your deck, you get the worst 3 and the best 2 get milled)
opaque pelican
Yeah, there's so much drawing going on for Sword/Shield
Mostly Avery is the best of the few since it has a somewhat beneficial effect on top of the additional cards you got.
Gardenia's Vigor was pretty nice in decks dedicated to Grass-type mons, but that was mostly due to it's energy attachment effect than anything much to do with drawing.
opaque pelican
JUST IN: Forretress is a Grass-type again
...And wow, what an ability it has. It's a big trade-off, but if it's explosive (hah) plays you want, I can think of a few ways to make good use of this card.
Annihilape ex looks pretty slick too. 320 HP on this thing is huge. Admittedly it not being a Single-Strike card clashes with the usual game plan with a Primeape so far, but given how Angry Grudge can knock out most any mon, and a couple V, this could be a solid Plan B.
Mimikyu is a successor to the Miltank in Astral Radiance more or less, except this also protects it from any damage from ex as well.
final musk
Mimikyu will probably be meta at some point but not while Lugia and Lost Box have decent stake
Annihilape isn't worth it until Stage 2 support gets better, else it is a glorified single-energy attacker with the effective HP of a basic ex, with the setup of a stage 2.
Forretress is cool, but so far the best ideas for it have been Serperior VStar and Blissey V, and neither one feels gamebusting enough to be worth going down 2 prizes.
I'd say of the two, Blissey feels like the better route to go.\
Blissey might be worth it with Lugia getting nerfed, although Giratina is still a thing.
Someone had a good intro of Electrode ex (from gen 3) and why that succeeded, as opposed to Electrode GX which failed in standard of its time
opaque pelican
I do wonder if there was any cards printed during the EX sets that supported ex. I know some cards did additional damage to ex.
final musk
The big thing is that the pokemon it pairs with needs to be both bulky and hard hitting, and most pokemon fail in 1 of those 2 qualities to be a good attacker with it.
Serperior VStar has 270 HP and that is arguably not bulky enough. Blissey can raise its HP to 300 and run an Anti-V energy card to buff it too
opaque pelican
...Not that this would be very helpful given how power-crept they may be
And well, can't be played in any capacity
Given the EX series isn't a part of the Expanded format
final musk
"Why wouldn't 270 HP be bulky enough"
Because Fusion Strike exists. The difference between 270 and 280 is huge for that. And 290.
There's also no good way of buffing a Pokemon's Max HP unless it is a basic, which is where Big Charm would often come into play for. That rotated.
Serperior also hits for an OHKO once and then its effective damage the whole rest of the game becomes 190-220. Blissey will maintain high damage as long as it is alive.
Blissey, however, might also not hit hard enough early enough. It's high rolling damage is lower, now with Powerful Colorless Energy just gone.
Each grass energy adds 30 damage, so Forretress stacks 150 damage onto its plays.
Each other energy besides 2 kinds also stack 30
Each Double Boost Energy stacks 40
Each Powerful Colorless Energy stacked 50.
Powerful Colorless Energy Rotated.
Your tradeoff is now that you start with higher damage than normal before, but you peak at less and accumulate less damage quicker besides Forretress.
Foretress also benefits from the +30 damage tool (Defiant Band from Base SV), which I already factored for Serperior.
Blissey would be forced to choose between +30 damage and +50 HP.
If Blissey went first, you sacrifice Forretress turn 2, and Blissey hits for:
10 (Base Attack)
150 (Forretress)
30 (Defiant Band)
60 to 80 (2 other energy attached)
Hitting 250-270. or 220 minimum if you only attach 1 extra energy or don't get Defiant Band. This is mostly satisfactory that early in the game since almost nothing your opponent controlled would evolve by that point.
If you went second, you could also add damage from dumping energy into the discard early and attach it back with Blissey's attack on your first turn, giving room to threaten with OHKO's by your second turn.
This is all assuming you can set up Blissey, Energy, a tool card, a Stage 1, and possibly energy in the discard.
opaque pelican
I'd imagine using Forretress for attacking would be a plan.
Given how it's attack reduces the damage it takes, you could outfit it with some other damage reduction cards, and self-destruct it when you feel it's time is up. Just how I see it could be used in any case.
And if it gets knocked out on your own terms, you can at least plan ahead.
Not the most efficient way to my knowledge, but that's just what I felt come to mind first.
final musk
Maybe you get 1 hit in with it tops.
opaque pelican
1 hit's better than 0!
final musk
But, that energy is now going to forretress instead of whatever forretress is giving energy to
And since it is grass energy, that would mean running more grass energy in your deck to make that work well with passing energy to an attacker
opaque pelican
But wait, doesn't it go to any mons you have in play, not just the active one?
final musk
No, I'm saying you spent 2 turns manually attaching to Forretress so it can attack
final musk
It will be alright against Lost Box, but it probably won't be that long-lasting against most other decks.
If and when some folks start playing Lost Box Charizard again, Forretress is also really bad later on due to Charizard annihilating it.
opaque pelican
At the least grass-types have a better time than other types in attaching energy. Gardenia's Vigor is still a thing and there's not much a shortage on other mon that can accelerate energy.
final musk
To put in perspective of how bulky a pokemon has to be, in the current format the only viable tank deck is Goodra
Which has 270 HP and resists 80 damage a turn
putting it at effectively 350 damage to 1-shot it and 430 damage to 2-shot it.
Without factoring in recovery
Another reason why Blissey could work well here is that it naturally plays Double Boost Energy, which meets cost for Hyper Potion much better than 2 grass energy
The amount of tank-power that something would need goes down a bit with Lugia losing offensive power into rotation.
Before Lugia came out, Blissey wasn't stellar but was viable
wanton mantle
Do the colors of Pokémon have different gameplay schemes
digital crow
Usually not
final musk
They used to put more emphasis on that, but not any more