A New Spark, For An Old Flame!

Introduction

A similar deck previously sparked interest during last years BKT-BUS format when Pikachu EX was first brought into the rogue category partnered with Magnezone’s Magnetic Circuit, due to the introduction of large HP Pokemon such as Metagross and Decidueye GX. It saw a fair bit of play at League Challenges and Cups, getting numerous top placed finishes in the process, it was important to note at that time ability-lock was everywhere with Drampa/Garbodor and Buzzwole/Garbodor seeing an increase of play. With the odds stacked against it, the deck saw very little play afterwards in the format. With the most recent release of Unbroken Bonds we have been given a chance to revisit the archetype, which in the current meta without a hard ability lock like Garbodor for all Pokemon, the chance for Magnetic Circuit to strive in the coming Tag Team GX meta.

Magnezone - Forbidden Light - FLI 36

Magnetic Circuit has already seen quite a bit of play in the past few formats this season, mainly being popular with Metal Pokemon and the corresponding Magnezone. But thanks to the alternate type reprint in Forbidden Light we have an opportunity to partner this with Electric type Pokemon in which we did not have many strong attackers for until recently with the releases of Team Up and Unbroken Bonds. The biggest issue which has been the same with many decks with similar archetypes is the set up of the Stage 2 Pokemon, as finding turn 2 Rare Candy and Magnezone can be incredibly hard. This was an issue previously with the deck as there was no specific item search, but with cards like Volkner and Steven’s Resolve it allows you to get set up and ready for either a Turn 2 Magnezone without having to burn through as many cards. This shows promise for Stage 2 archetypes going forward especially with cards like Acro Bike, Dedenne GX and the added support of Volkner allow it to be really easy to find the pieces from within your deck.

In the previous SUM-TEU format Pikachu & Zekrom Tag Team (PikaRom) and Zapdos/Jolteon GX was the main issue with decks that required a lot of set up with the deck being able to knockout the active Pokemon and a benched Pokemon usually with ease, this was the reason why decks like Granbull and Magnezone was not played prior. With the release of Mew from Unbroken Bonds this allows you to have a stronger match up against PikaRom and other spread decks, which can run through single prized decks with ease after Electropowers and Flying Flips would cause an insane amount of damage really early on.

With having added consistency and protection now for Stage 2 Pokemon in the current format. I believe that these types of decks can see an increase of play as long as they have relevant attackers which can deal with these big Tag Team GX Pokemon, which thanks to Unbroken Bonds we have the reincarnation of Pikachu EX that can leave these decks scrambling. Instead of a powerful GX two prizer, what if it was a single prized attacker that can hit extraordinary outputs of damage? Welcome, Zeraora.

Zeraora - Unbroken Bonds - UNB 60

Zeraora has 120hp which is a little disappointing coming from a lot of legendaries and mythical Pokemon that have 130hp but I suppose if it had more HP then it would probably be a little more overpowered, it already takes two Electropowers to knockout with a Zapdos, so it is quite strong from that aspect but will easily be knocked out by a Zoroark or Giratina. The first attack for a single lightning energy does 20 damage and discards a special energy from your opponents active Pokemon, which will cause issue for Zoroark decks in the early stages if they are not careful in their early energy attachments. It can be quite disruptive against any deck that runs special energies as they will be a lot harder to recycle than basic energy. The second attack for Zeraora is Discharge, which is a very similar attack to Overspark on Pikachu EX which does 50x damage the amount of lightning energy discarded from this Pokemon. This is the money-shot, it is incredibly easy with Magnezone’s ability to attach up to 5/6 energy a turn to knockout a Tag Team Pokemon in one hit. We are able to do this continuously by running a high amount of energy in the deck and using high counts of cards like Fisherman, Energy Retrieval and Lady to bring back energy from the discard and help find hiding energy from within the deck as well. With these cards it allows consistency in attacking with your Zeraora’s constantly and keeps pressure on your opponent at all times. With the single retreat cost there is no real need to run any switching cards as it does not feel band attaching and retreating with the energy recycle and constant energy flooding the board with Magnezone’s Magnetic Circuit.

Here is a provisional deck list that I have put together from my testing and theory so far: 

Pokemon (13):

4 Zeraora UNB

3 Magnemite FLI

3 Magnezone FLI

1 Mew UNB

1 Tapu Koko Prism TEU

1 Dedenne GX UNB

Trainers (37):

4 Cynthia ULP

4 Lillie ULP

2 Guzma BUS

2 Fisherman CES

1 Lady FLI

1 Volkner ULP

4 Ultra Ball SUM

4 Nest Ball SUM

4 Energy Retrieval SUM

4 Rare Candy CES

3 Acro Bike CES

2 Rescue Stretcher GRI

2 Shrine of Punishment CES

Energy (10) :

10 Electric Energy

In terms of Match ups I believe that the deck can handle anything that offers more than one prize for a knockout but I can see issues if single prized decks that can be more consistent see a lot of play, especially those that run mainly basic Pokemon such as Zapdos/Jirarchi or BuzzGarbShrine. But the majority of these decks will have a consistency issue, especially with the new archetype of Baby Blacephalon (Baby Cakes), which this Magnezone deck is very similar with the damage output but allows playing stronger draw supporters than welders. It is far too early in the format to be identifying how strong specific match ups are but it is an archetype which I will be considering taking to events over the format.

Although I have spoken about this deck and its feasibility going into the new format this weekend and beyond as a competitive deck, it has to be one of the most fun decks I have tested prior to competitive legality and is based on an older deck which was good in a previous format.

Thanks for reading this small write up on a deck I am planning on putting some effort into for the next quarter as my pet deck, I look forward to seeing you guys at events in the next coming quarter and good luck for all those going for their Worlds Qualification!

Charlie

Under The Radar: 10 Most Underrated Cards in Team Up!

With the release of Team Up next week I wanted to take a look at what cards you might want to keep an eye out on and save spaces in your binder, as they could start sneaking into decks as tech options or have their own archetypes built round the card itself. I will be analysing each card and why they can be useful in decks or possible archetypes coming out within the Meta. Before we get into these 10 cards, I would like to make an honourable mention about cards which were not quite able to make the list.

Honourable Mentions: Charizard and Blastoise

Charizard is a card which I think will see quite a bit of play for anyone who wants to play a fun deck. It loads energies onto itself so it can attack and can hit quite large numbers, which I believe makes it too good to put on the underrated list for Team Up. The ability reads, once during your turn (before your attack), you may put 2 damage counters on this Pokémon. If you do, search your deck for up to 2 Fire Energy cards and attach them to this Pokémon. Then, shuffle your deck. It does make Charizard weaker to Pokémon which can hit the 130 number quite easily and cause you issues on chaining your attackers throughout the game but I can imagine you can play some form of healing especially going into the new format which can keep this card at 150 hp after using the ability. Being able to find energies with ease from your deck is incredibly good and where the card is its own engine as long as you get Charizard into play you will for certain be able to attack. The attack does 30+ and discard all  Energy from this Pokémon. This attack does 50 more damage for each card you discarded in this way. Which is crazy good with the ability I can imagine a lot of hype around a Charizard that might actually be playable.

Blastoise is a card which has an ability which I believe is equally as good in the majority of water decks as quite a few rely on having a lot of water energy in play with cards like Quagsire and Lapras GX needing multiple energy to be able to attack. With the new Wailord & Magikarp Tag Team GX this could be a really good synergy. The ability is Once during your turn (before your attack), you may look at the top 6 cards of your deck and attach any number of water Energy cards you find there to your Pokémon in any way you like. Shuffle the other cards back into your deck. This helps accelerate the energy from your deck into play a lot more fluently which adds a new dynamic to water decks as with both Naganadel and Aqua Patches usually you want to be discarding as many water energy early on in the deck. With this card I can see much more increased energy counts than we have done before and I can see a form of WaterBox type deck with the amount of tech options available to the type in the current moment. The attack is not great with the amount of energy being needed being easily achieved but lacks the damage which can take it to the next level. 180 with a choice band is only really effective against Basic GX Pokémon plus it then does damage to itself which makes it easier to knock out.

Now onto the 10 most underrated cards of the set in my eyes which can at some stage shake up the meta when we have a fully established format once Team Up has been released and the first few Internationals and Regionals have been played. 

10. Spiritomb

With the addition of this Spiritomb, it gives the Pokémon TCG a mechanic which has been lost since the days of Black and White cards. The attack for a single colourless energy is to discard 4 Pokémon from your deck. This is basically a battle compressor for your Pokémon and means that you are able to thin your deck early of tech Pokémon you may not need to be able to continue setting up a lot more consistently or in the later game be able to draw into cards you need. The difference is that it uses an attacker rather than the easier use of an item card, this is true for the majority of not being able to pressure your opponent but I think there are a few good tools in which we can incorporate with this card such as the Black Market Prism stadium which means your opponent will not take a prize against you while using this ability. As well it provides you an opportunity to basically attack and not worry about losing the game if in the later stages. With there being a new Zoroark as well in the meta, which has a similar attack to Vespiqueens Bee Revenge, 20x the amount of Pokémon in your discard pile, it can lead to an archtype which is incredibly powerful early on as it can be in the late game. My main issue with Zoroark is that it needs two energy attachments to get going and with a format without any really strong dark acceleration, its not going to see a great deal of play, but with Spiritomb it makes it a lot more viable.

9. Cobalion GX

This is a card which I think could be quite splash-able in a few decks due to the GX move and in metal decks it will be a very good bench sitter, when I first saw the card it reminded me of how good Magearna EX was in most decks. The ability which has my interest is read As long as this Pokémon is in play, your Pokémon with Metal Energy attached can’t be affected by Special Conditions. Remove all Special Conditions on those Pokemon. In the future meta this would help against decks like Koko/PoisonBarb, Celebi/Venusaur Tag Team and Blacephalon, which all have special conditions involved within one of their attacks. This means your Pokémon will not take any extra damage with Poison and Burn or be able to be stalled out through Confusion, Sleep and Paralysis if the meta decides to go into a special condition format. Having this on your bench does take up room for other attackers or even Tapu Lele’s but I think it outweighs any form of negative points against itself and changes them to be positive when it saves you against these decks which will look to take advantage of conditions in the game. The GX attack is very good as it allows you another turn to get set up and ready to hopefully take a lead in a prize race either early or later game. The attack is during your opponent’s next turn, none of your opponent’s Pokémon can attack (including newly played Pokémon). (You can’t use more than 1 GX attack in a game.). Which this attack costs a single colourless energy which increases its splash-ability. Overall this can fit extremely well in decks that run Rainbow and Metal Energy and stops usage of a growing mechanic in the meta.

8. Emolga

This Emolga is my soft spot pick, hear me out before you skip past this Paragraph! If I told you that it can be used to help set up your board, early and late game, help in keeping energy in play and is a free retreater, surely this is an absolutely fantastic card? Yeah thats right I am talking about Raichu GX and Snuggly Generator. Ever since the Pachirisu came out I have loved the deck and wanted it to be good although with no Nuzzle Pikachu being in the format it has taken a back seat. That has been until the single pack blister promos from this set, which sees our favourite electric mouse come back with that Nuzzle attack. Emolga’s ability is once during your turn (before your attack), you may search your deck for a Pokémon that has the Nuzzle attack, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck. This means that when you get a nest ball you can theoretically search for two Pokémon rather than one with the use of the ability. This helps with the set up needed for this deck to fully come into fruition. With Exp. Shares and the Nuzzle attack on itself it can prove to be a very much needed card within the archetype to give it a much needed boost. 

7. Alolan Muk

The card itself is incredibly good at increasing the amount of items your opponent has in their discard pile as well as disrupting their top deck. With the ability on the Alolan Muk, when you play this Pokemon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may look at the top 6 cards of your opponent’s deck and discard as many Item cards you find there as you like. Then, shuffle the remaining cards into your opponent’s deck. This is good for three main reasons and why it features so far down the list compared to other cards because it helps decks out in numerous ways. The first being the obvious synergy with Garbodor and getting items in your opponents decks, increasing the damage being done to your opponents active Pokémon which can be the difference between a knockout and whiffing. The second reason being a disruption for your opponent, if you can get it out early enough in the game it hopes to stop your opponent gaining resources which they can either gain an advantage with or finish getting set up with cards like ultra balls, Pokémon Communication and Mysterious Treasure. The final reason why I think it is good is it stops Magcargo coming into play as much, if your opponent sets up their top deck you know that once you look at their cards you are disrupting their gameplay, especially if they have no way to physically draw the card during their turn from a draw supporter or ability. You will need to find a good way to keep picking up the card over and over, Nanu might be a good way to do this. 

6. Farfetch’d

This card just misses out on breaking into the Top 5 as it generally delivers on something which I think going forward is a very good counter to Tool-Reliant decks. This is going to increasingly see more play with Tool Drop being released in this set as well. It is splash-able in all decks as it is a colourless Pokémon therefore it can simply be a one of in most decks. The attack I am talking about is for a single colourless and for 20+ damage, before doing damage, discard all Pokémon Tool cards attached to the opponent’s Active Pokémon. If you discard any cards, this attack does 70 more damage. Which hits perfectly onto a Doublade for a knockout, which is a single prized Pokémon and allows you to keep up in the race with multiple Rescue Stretchers you can continuously attack and trade. With a Choice Band of its own you can be hitting 120 onto GX Pokémon which can make Tag Teams two hit knockouts. This card is crazy good with the amount of Tools that we are being being released it would not surprise me even if we see a deck solely around the Farfetch’d.

5. Ninetales

Who doesn’t love a gusting ability? I mean Lycanroc GX has seen so much play over the last two seasons and it just gets better and better so surely a single prized version with a small cost to play can step in and run the show, right? The ability reads once during your turn (before your attack), you may discard 2 [R] Energy cards from your hand. Then, choose 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon and switch it with his or her Active Pokémon. This can synergies really well with the new Flareon GX coming out in Tins next month and you can easily get energy into your hand via Energy Retrieval, Lady and Fisherman I think that there is a lot to like about this card. It reminds me a lot of Volcanion Prism which has seen play quite a lot in the past few months within water decks and with this ability on the Nineties fuelling the damage of Victini Prism I feel that a compilation of the cards could prove very successful at some point in the future meta. Gusting abilities have always been very strong.

4. Beedrill

Beedrill has always been one of my favourite Pokémon since I have been younger which is quite ironic considering I absolutely hate bees. Although this bee does pack a very large punch in the form of its first attack. This attack can only be used when this Pokémon has damage counters on it. Both Active Pokémon are Knocked Out. Which I personally believe that this deck is going to be the next Greninja Break deck. It has an incredibly powerful Kakuna which has the water duplicate attack on it for a single grass energy. I can see it being incorporated with Shedinja by stopping your opponent taking prizes as much as you can as when you knock out your own Beedrill your opponent will not be able to take a prize card. If you can stream this constantly and play extremely tactically against other single-prized decks this could be a top contender for the replacement of our fallen frog prince.

3. Lycanroc GX

With the amount of Lycanroc cards we have in the format I think this has to be the nearest to a playable card since the release of the Guardians Rising Bloodthirsty Eyes Lycanroc we got nearly two years ago now. The card has great synergy with itself and possibly if the meta forecast is right we could see a very interesting deck come out similar to the Alolan Persian/Lycanroc deck which has seen some success out in Japan. The ability of the card is when you play this card from your hand to evolve a Pokémon during your turn, you may discard an Energy from your opponent’s Active Pokémon. This means any Special energy which your opponent might play is discarded and any other energy is easily removed by this card. This stops your opponents set up quite drastically putting them an energy attachment behind on that turn unless they have a way of accelerating energy into play. The attack does a solid 120 damage which hits for weakness against cards such as Zoroark GX and Pikachu/Zekrom Tag Team, which are incredibly strong archetypes continuing to develop in the meta coming up. Although what I really like is the GX attack, this attack does 30 damage times the number of Energy cards in your opponent’s discard pile. (You can’t use more than 1 GX attack in a game). If you are discarding energy from your opponents Pokémon you are fuelling this GX attack to hit larger and stronger numbers. With Acerola and Super Scoop Up we could see this card getting a lot of play in the near future.

2. Starmie

This card comes in at number 2 but it could easily be classes as one of the best cards in the set. It is an energy accelerator, free retreater, early game attacker and all for a single energy. It has been one of my favourite cards to come out of the set and inspired me to make this top 10. The only attack the card has allows you to search your deck for up to 3 water or psychic Energy cards and attach them to 1 of your Benched Pokémon. Then, shuffle your deck. I think this is as strong as Malamar and Naganadel, it allows you to get energy out of your deck which can sometimes be hard to find with the consistency of Malamar lists. I think there will be a 1-1 to a 2-2 line introduced into these decks a it allows you to get these energies into play onto a single prized attacker and then use Malamar to get them back from the discard once it goes down. The card also does 40 damage to which it can hit psychic-weak Pokémon for 80 or 140 with a choice band with weakness. It also is a free retreater which makes less need for cards like Escape Board as you can easily retreat it out into a fully charged Pokémon and knockout which is something that these Malamar decks have always struggled with which is why most play 4/5 cards which enable switching in the standard format currently. This I think is a game changer for the format and has relatively gone under the radar. 

1. Persian

Finally my number one card from this set that I believe to be incredibly underrated is Persian, this is due to how much it can disrupt your opponents play no matter what deck they are playing. If they have a large number of cards in their hand you can completely diminish it to 4 cards and they can be non playable as you chose which ones they discard. The attack itself reads if your opponent has 4 or cards in their hand, they reveal their hand. Discard cards you find there until your opponent has exactly 4 cards in their hand. I think this will see a lot of play as a Ditto evolution similar to how Alolan Muk has seen play, as it will be a tech option against Mill and decks who draw a lot of cards. I am hoping this causes an end to these Unown HAND decks which have been emerging in the format meaning stall decks will not emerge as much in the next quarter. I think this card has not been spoken about as much as it should be due to the impact of a card like Marshadow has in disrupting your opponent on the early turns, I think its quite a balanced card overall because its an attack rather than an ability. I would not be surprised to see it make an introduction at the Oceana Internationals. 

Thanks for reading my Top 10 Underrated cards, I hope that some of these cards have given you inspiration for builds with some of your favourite cards in the current format and once Team Up comes out. I am traveling to my local shop this weekend for a pre release so I look forward to pulling some of these cards so that I can start experimenting with them. Let me know what your top 10’s are from the set and what cards you are looking forward to!

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Charlie

139/350CP

BuzzGarbShrine, BUSTED. My League Cup Report!

Welcome back to The Pelipper Post, I would like to start of by saying Happy New Year to you all! Since I have last posted on my blog it was around December, which means we have had to change over the calendar and start a fresh chapter in our lives. Although the slow 2018 for myself and my content I am hoping with my university life slowly coming to an end that I should be able to bring more articles and more content to my Youtube, Twitch and Twitter. I have had a rocky 2018 with my own personal issues over the last year but with my friends, family and many others within the Pokémon community I have been able to keep myself sane for another year and hoping that 2019 holds better for me. I wish to everyone a prosperous and healthy year as we go forward through another fresh 12 months of Competitive Pokémon!

Tier Zero Games

Before getting onto my report of the League Cup on Saturday and where I see the current build of the deck going in future tournaments in the build up to Team Up, I would like to mention my team and sponsors that have been supporting us over the last few months, Tier Zero Games. The team currently as of writing this article has had some very successful results over the last month with Regional finishes, League Cup wins and Challenge results. We have just started to grow and develop as teammates as the work we are doing have helped increase our own performances, there is a lot more to come from us in the future year. Tier Zero Games themselves are a games company which sells TCG singles and products which branch between Yu-Gi-Oh, DragonBall and much much more. We are planning on creating team articles, deck profiles and blogging events as much as we can, although the blog page is still in development with the sponsor. 

Buzzwole/Garbodor/Shrine List

The League Cup which we visited Saturday was at SkywardFire Games in Lowestoft, had 33 players which were mixed with Juniors, Seniors and Masters. I decided that BuzzGarbShrine was probably the best play for this event as the majority of the East of England usually play some form of Zoroark deck and in general with Zoroark taking the win at Harrogate Regionals I was expecting to see a lot of ZoroRoc, ZoroWeavile and many other ability reliant decks such as Gardevoir, Malamar and Decidueye. With Buzzwole being a strong counter to Zoroark and with the fairy Alolan Ninetales getting item cards I thought that this could be a good play going forward. I did not expect to see too much White Kyurem, Granbull or Emploeon, which I would say are some of the tougher match ups as you can’t really one shot much of the board early or late game with 50 damage being the normal output for a baby Buzzwole. The list I took was as follows:

Pokemon - 19                 Trainers - 32             Energy - 9

4 Buzzwole FLI               4 Lillie                       4 Unit Energy FDY

2 Trubbish GRI               4 Guzma                   4 Rainbow Energy

2 Garbodor GRI              3 Cynthia                  1 Beast Energy Prism

2 Sneasel ULP                2 Professor Kukui

2 Weavile ULP                4 Ultra Ball

2 Slugma LOT                4 Nest Ball

2 Maagcargo CES          3 Choice Band

1 Diancie Prism FLI        2 Rescue Stretcher

1 Oranguru SUM            1 Pal Pad

1 Ditto Prism LOT           1 Field Blower

                                        1 Switch

                                        3 Shrine of Punishment

I decided on the Pal Pad quite late on in the week due to the likelihood of you discarding supporters early on to be able to get set up so it meant I was able to recycle them back in for the chance to draw them more likely if Magcargo - Oranguru engine got shut down. The field blower is very good to be able to deny your opponent advantages with tools such as Wishful Baton or Exp. Share which help make some decks really lethal. It can also help in the stadium trade as it makes your opponent discard a stadium as well meaning if they replace the one that just got blower away your shrine will be able to come out positive and more likely stick. The other selection dilemma was with rescue stretcher as I was thinking of playing just the one in the list but with having so many lines of Pokémon two help to be able to continuously find the correct attacker you need for a match up. Too many times i recycled Trubbish, Garbodor, Guru into deck or when it came down to it I was able to put another Sneasel onto my bench so that i could guarantee the Weavile coming into play next turn.

Match-Ups and Results

My Matchups of the day went like this:

R1 - LWW vs Harley Challis - Metal Magnezone/Box

R2 - LL vs Josh Parks - Passimian

R3 - WW vs Andy King - ZoroTalesWeavile

R4 - LL vs Ross Warren - ZoroRocWeavile

R5 - WW vs Ethan Schroder - VikaRay with Scoop Ups

T8 - WW vs Josh Parks - Passimian

T4 - LWW vs Thomas Naylor  - UltraSquids

Final - WW vs Brad Bartlett - Passimian

Round one was an incredibly interesting game as it was not something I had prepared for in my thought out meta for the tournament. It was an incredibly good deck which ran Stevens Resolve, Lady and the Devolve Dialga from LOT. It was probably the worst match up I had on the table for the day which I came up against. With Harley being able to simply play a Magnezone and 2 Dialga in the first game it was not going anywhere fast for me as he streamed knockouts onto Buzzwoles without playing any extra abilities or items. Game 2 and 3 unfortunately for him he did brick quite badly as well starting two prize attackers in both games. This meant with shrine sticking and the general prize trade was incredibly unflavoured for him in those games. Metal frying pan was awkward to play against as it reduced 30 damage but I was able to get my field blower out within plenty of time usually to knockout Dialga’s when the attachment of pans were an issue. Beast energy and Diancie made it so if I was able to get a big Buzzwole out I would be able to do 130 without flipping a coin for knockout using Swing Around.

Beast Energy helps to knockout
Tapu Koko's early on and makes
130 easier to hit!

Round two was a streamed game in which i played the lovley Josh Parks who was playing Passimian. By turn one I had the majority of my bench filled and when he put his first Passimian onto the bench I knew I was in trouble. Having played Passimian for the majority of Q1, I knew how to play around the deck but the turn one was the killer as he was able to stream attackers continuously to spread enough to skip sledgehammer turn and knock out Oranguru and Magcargo. The spread tactic against Buzzwole works really well with Passimian and the only way to really take advantage of the deck is to find Beast energy early to take out Tapu Koko as quickly as you can otherwise they will be able to spread as much as they want. Josh played it really well so kudos to him for that and quite funnily said to him I will see him in Top Cut, which I did in my Top 8 match! A shout out for him as Josh has just started his own YouTube to talk about his journey, so go check out Math Based Gaming. 

Round three was against one of our own Andy King from Marquee Models and both of us were quite unhappy with this being our round three match up as we did not want to play each other in an ideal world but sadly thats what happens at tournaments. I was able to take the win as Andy didn’t have the greatest game one because his deck let him down and then game two was better but he failed to find an energy when he wanted it. The matchup is generally favourable for myself having a buzzwole deck which usually can run riot on Zoroark without much hassle. They do have to keep up their prize trades and find a way to constantly reply otherwise they get 1 or two shot by Buzzwole or Weavile. The next day though Andy was able to get himself his first T8 finish with the same deck and it was truly deserved for all the hard work and time he has put into the game I think that you will be seeing his name a lot more now in top cut for future tournaments to come!

Weavile is really strong against
ability reliant decks doing 50x
each ability played by my
opponent!

Round four was against SkywardFire’s own Ross Warren, I enjoy playing Ross because no matter how many times we play it is always incredibly fun and interesting the way the game turns out. Sadly though this was my time to start bricking especially the first game with him taking advantage of my bad start. Second game was a bit closer but he had answers for everything, especially a cheeky switch, multiswitch combo which completely demolished my board state and he ran out the winner. I was happy to take my brick at this point during the day although it would have been nice to not have the possibility of bubbling or losing out of Top Cut. Where it is a favourable match up unless you are able to make up prizes quickly due to Weavile or Buzzwole if you brick then it can go down hill, especially with Lycanroc being an issue as you do not hit weakness against it. Ross played really well not just in our match making sure I could not comeback into the game but he managed to get T8 in the Cup and then the next day as well. At this stage of the tournament I knew I had to win to have a chance of cutting. 

Round five was against Ethan Schroder who was playing an interesting Rayquaza build which played super scoop ups which meant that any damaged Ray’s or Zeraoras could be removed from play. The match up was fairly straight forward with much of it being Weavile putting in work to knockout Rayquaza and Tapu Lele’s with my sledgehammer turn usually meant i took out the benched Zeraora. It was something that was quite an easier matchup that I had during the tournament. The deck event found room to run Lysandre labs with the scoop ups, which did cause an issue when choice band was turned off in game two. 

At this stage of the tournament it came down to if the results went my way, if my resistance was good enough and to see how it went. I was able to sneak into Top Cut at 8th seed to which I was extremely happy with reaching a points position for the first time in a while, not only this but teammate Timur Yusuf also got into points position. The rest of the Top Cut was in the following order:

Top-Cut after Swiss Rounds

1. Josh Parks - Passimian

2. Brad Bartlett - Passimian

3. Seb Symonds - Psychic/Malamar

4. Timur - Yusuf - Blacephalon

5. Thomas Naylor - UltraMalamar

6. Ross Warren - ZoroRocWeavile

7. Scot Symonds - BuzzGarbShrine

8. Charlie Merryweather - BuzzGarbShrine

From the results of the Top Cut you can see that the majority of the decks were single prized attackers so it meant that there was not as many 2 prize attackers in the field, although both Thomas Naylor and Tim Yusuf were able to dip and dive round some of these awkward matchups for themselves. It was quite interesting to see how the only Zoroark deck will do in the Top cut as I was expecting a lot of Zoroark and only one got into cut. I do not think this was because it was not played this weekend but I think down to the diversity of different deck people decided to take with decks like Rhyperior Mill, Rayquaza, Magnezone Box, Lost March and Buzzwole GX which can have their inconsistencies but risk sometimes outweighs the reward with these high rolling decks.

Top 8 Result

Diancies attack helps combat
spread decks

Starting with the Top 8 match against Josh, he started incredibly slow in this game showing some of the inconsistencies which with Passimian can happen and in a match were it is important to start well, he did not start at all well. With the fast pace set from myself being able to get early set up damage on the board before he was able to get anything on the field. He did make a magical swap play eventually which I personally preferred him to knock out the Diancie so I did not have any immediate attackers as it was getting slowly powered up to start taking knockouts on Kokos which in the match up against spread is extremely good as it heals 30 damage each turn so it requires your opponent to commit to knocking it out rather than spreading damage. I manage to finally pull the switch to take the game after Josh did extremely well to bring it back to 1-1 on prizes and i was able to knock out the last Pokémon. The second game Josh once again did not have the best game as he had to start attacking with Passimian early to get the pressure onto me due to time running out. This meant he was activating Sledgehammer turn and meant I was able to trade 2 for 1 towards the end of the game. Josh was such an amazing lad to play as I have met him previously at Harrogate Regionals and was a great opponent in both swiss and top cut. 

1 Passimian < 8 BuzzGarbShrine

2 Passimian > 7 BuzzGarbShrine

3 PsychicMalamar > 6 ZoroRocWeavile

4 Blacephalon < 5 UltraMalamar

Top 4 Result

The Top 4 game was quite straight forward as I faced Thomas Naylor who was playing UltraSquids with Giratina so I was fully expecting to lose this game. Game one he started well and completely ran me off the field within 5 turns which ended up with me conceding and turning round to game three as I’m sure you can guess it was just a lot of Giratina knock outs. Game 2 was better from myself as he started one of his 2 prize attackers leading to him not be able to trade back favourably as i was able to stream Garbodor and Weavile until I took enough prizes to win the game. Game three was very awkward as I started well although starting trubbish and having to use Garbodor for the opening turns hurt, especially when he started his incredibly spicy Kartana Gx tech! He then continued to pass for multiple turns as he struggled to get going. Which he was unable to turn it around as I managed to pull ahead due to the 2 prize attackers he did bench to keep himself in the game. It was a real shame he did not have a great game 3 but then thats Pokémon. 

8 BuzzGarbShrine > 5 UltraMalamar

2 Passimian > 3 Psychic Malamar

Final Result

Final game was against Brad Bartlett who was playing Passimian. For someone who loves Passimian every time I played it today it made me wince but I knew the game plan to win. Brad played it a lot more Passimian based game rather than Josh’s spread tactic. Brad had terrible issues getting energy in the first game which did not give him an easy route to come back at all. I took the lead quite early with an early and aggressive Buzzwole in Game 1 and it enabled me to run away with the game. Game two was much the same apart from I did not get ideally set up and had to bounce around with a weavile and Buzzwole to knockout a Latios which was threatening my Buzzwole. I was able to keep rolling from well timed guzma’s and was able to pull ahead in the game cutting off his draw support in Oranguru and Magcargo. I was able to take my last prize with the Garbodor and feel the huge relief of winning a competition for a while. 

2 Passimian < 8 BuzzGarbShrine

If you would like to watch VODs of the games they are available on the SkywardFire Games Twitch Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/skywardfiregames. They put on an excellent

event and it was amazing to be part of with the stream and general organisation of the event.

Looking Ahead

Changes that I would make to the deck would be to add maybe a Judge into the list as it would stop quite a few decks including Unnown HAND, Zoroark and other set up decks having so many cards in their hand at one stage. It felt bad not being able to stop a deck having cards in there hand. This would have helped against Ross as he was able to keep hold of combination cards like multi switch and switch to be able to get access to what he wanted when he wanted. I felt like counter energy would be good for its overall usefulness to be able to retreat Oranguru or Diancie which at times got Guzma’d up into the active position. I think I would prefer an extra switch or a Tate & Liza instead. Finally one consideration I did make before the tournament was Weavile with the attack Rule of Evil, this is due to the really bad Malamar matchup and being able to clear up the board quite easily with two attacks doing 60 to all Pokémon with abilities, which is food for thought heading into the weekend coming up. 

The list I will be testing going forward in the next few weeks:

Pokemon - 20                     Trainers - 31                        Energy - 9

4 Buzzwole FLI                   4 Lillie                                  4 Unit Energy FDY

2 Trubbish GRI                   3 Guzma                              4 Rainbow Energy

2 Garbodor GRI                  2 Cynthia                             1 Beast Energy Prism

2 Sneasel ULP                    2 Professor Kukui

2 Weavile ULP                    4 Ultra Ball

2 Slugma LOT                    4 Nest Ball

2 Maagcargo CES              3 Choice Band

1 Diancie Prism FLI            2 Rescue Stretcher

1 Oranguru SUM                1 Pal Pad

1 Ditto Prism LOT               1 Field Blower

1 Weavile BUS                   1 Switch

                                           2 Shrine of Punishment

                                           1 Judge

                                           1 Tate & Liza

With Weavile being such a crucial card in this deck it makes sense to even increase the line to 3-3 although it will decrease the dynamic of the deck. I would like to see some creative inclusions going forward like the BUS Weavile which can be a surprise in the deck to take it a step further than it currently is. I have seen a few putting in cards like Granbull, Nihilego and Celesteela which are to be included for specific metas. I feel that consistency is key though for this deck to do well hence the inclusion of Pal Pad and Rescue stretcher. I look forward to hearing what future lists will play going forward as there is a chance to add creativity. 

Thank you very much for reading my Cup report, I have tried to make it as detailed as possible to give everyone an insight to how the matches happened and what I would change about the deck going forward. The meta going into the closing few weeks of the Quarter are planning to be absolutely packed with chopping and changing what we are expecting to be good and bad. With Team Up around the corner we could be saying goodbye to some of our favourite decks but gaining a new breath of life with Tag Team Gx’s being introduced to the game. It will be interesting if they have as much impact as when the first GX’s originally took the stage. I still have nightmares about Decidueye/Vileplume. I look forward to writing some new articles in the next week or so about my favourite decks coming out of Team Up.

Make sure to follow my media outlets to keep up to date with my tournaments and what future streams, articles and videos I will be bringing over the next few weeks. I will also be making a video profile of the deck for Tier Zero Games explaining more detailed about card choices. I did play at Cataclysm Games League Cup Sunday playing ZoroControl but less said about that the better, that was an interesting learning curve. But the team did have success with Tim making a Top4 finish with Lost March.

See you next time,

Charlie

139/350 CP

Twitter: @ThePelipperPost

Twitch: Twitch.tv/ThePelipperPost

What is the play for Worlds and why is it FINALLY Passimian?

So how have we ended up with this title and the fact I am sat here writing this article currently? Well it might have something to do with the fact that everyone is incredibly hyped about Worlds format currently. I wanted to explain to you what my play would be and why in the meta that is forming from Celestial Storm to which is a set which is bringing three very big cards into the format. These cards being Rayquaza GX, Magcargo and Stakataka GX. So How can you get round these cards? Let me tell you a story of a monkey that created a tribe with some friends.

Monkey's Travel in Barrels

Where the ouroboros of the meta comes round after consuming itself there is always a point when it arrives back at the start. Let me set the scene, it was the 10th of March and that was when the meta completely changed. The field was full of Zoroark decks as Adam Hakwins brought home the Malmo regionals with the Weavile version, so with everyone bound to play Zoroark Passimian seemed to be an incredibly good shout to be able to trade positively with these super consistent decks. Then Buzzwole GX came along, this was even before baby Buzzwole was legal and it completely dominated the day with I believe the majority of the Top 8 that day was Buzzwole/Lycanroc. Although I had a very tough start to the day playing teammate Andy King's Zoroark deck to a tie and then losing due to misplays to also teammate Bruce Kelf, it was looking like the monkey magic had left itself at home. This was until I played and won three game in a row to which has meant that I just needed a win and in to get into the Top 8. Sadly I lost that game against a Buzzwole/Lycanroc to which I completely destroyed them for the majority of the turns and then going down to small hands from N's in both cost me the game.

This was not a ramble on about me being annoyed at myself for misplaying that day, maybe. But it is also a sign that I believe that this could once again be the play for worlds but this time with a few tweaks to the deck to be involved to allow it to stand up against the majority of the meta at the current period. Lets go Bananas!

Fantastic Monkeys and Where to Find Them!

Passimian, Sun and Moon Base Set

The Attacking Line

So to break down the fantastic Passimian card to which you will ONLY play a one of in your deck, this is the Kobe Bryant or the Harry Kane of your attack. It has 110hp and is a Fighting-Type Pokémon, the best thing is that it is a basic Pokémon which allows it to be searchable by Nest Ball and Brooklet Hill. This means that it is incredibly easy to get a turn one search of your deck due to these cards which you play. The most important part of the first search is knowing if you have this Passimian in your control or if it is in your prizes which then makes the game a little bit harder but not much. With the retreat cost of one, makes it not too bad to move between pieces but we are playing some free retreaters.

The first attack on Passiam is Fling, but you will not be using that as the majority of the time you will be looking to use the second attack as it will more likely do a lot more damage than the first attack will but there could be a time where that could be needed but I would rather use other ways to attack the bench.

Team play, the emphasis is on the name and the effect is exactly the same. For each Passimian on your bench this attack does 30+ damage, with an extra three passimian this attack is already capped in at 100 damage without any form of weakness. This will the the attack you will be calling out for 80% of the game and trust me, its really good with the combinations you can use it with. This attack is for a double colourless energy which allows you to be able to have a single attachment and start attacking as soon as possible (story about that later).

The Defensive Line

These Passimian are the defensive set piece experts, it is like having Bill Russel or Gerrard Pique protecting your prize cards blocking each shot while making sure your attacker has the perfect tools to be able to knockout the opponents Pokémon. Lets huddle round and talk about this other Passimian!

Passimian, Ultra Prism Set

Once again it has 110hp and is a Fighting-Type Pokémon, with it being basic it can be searched by Nest Ball and Brooklet Hill which synergies with the attacking passimian. Once again it has a single retreat cost, which as you do not want it in the active position can be annoying, although you run plenty of switch and items to ease the retreat cost each time. It is also important to find out how many of these are in your deck due to the ability which we will touch on in a second. Although depending on your match up will show the need to preserve or throw away these Pokémon at ease.

The attack is nothing too special although it can be used as a secondary attack against Fighting-Weak Pokémon which can help pick up one hit knockouts on small basics. The attack Rock Hurl does 40 damage but is not effected by resistance so any Ghost Phsyic-Type Pokémon in the TCG will be hit for the same amount. This attack costs a single fighting and a colourless energy which means it is accessible via Counter energy. If you are using this attack though, there is something wrong. 

Finally the reason why we play this card over the other Passimian for the last card slots taken up by cards with the same name. Power Huddle, it allows you to do 30 more damage if your Passimian attacks into an evolution Pokémon, this does stack with the attacking Passimian's Team play so where you would usually be doing 100 damage for three benched monkeys, it does a grand total of 190 damage instead now. Obviously this is for against evolution Pokémon and not basics which this deck does struggle with but this is why we play other cards to help hit the weakness' of other cards in the meta.

The Rumble in the Jungle

The Pokemon that really make this deck tick are the tech options which you can choose. There is a vast majority of options you can add into the deck for a specific meta you are expecting to see. But there is first the need to identify what draw support you are going to be using in the deck so lets talk about out playmaker in the team.

Creativity and Vision

Octillery, BreakThrough Set

This is your Tom Brady of the deck which will be looking to feed you your combination cards to be able to constantly achieve the same effective turns of attacks over and over again. This will be Octillery, which sadly will be rotating out of the standard format for the next season. Remoraid has fantastic consistency factor being able to drag it onto your bench from Brooklet Hill and Nest ball to then ultra ball to find the Octillery that you need to evolve into later on in the game. It has 90hp and has a two retreat cost which means it is difficult to move out of the active position at times which is why we run switches and Float stones.

The main reason for Octillery is the ability, Abysall Hand. This allows you to draw cards until you have 5 in your hand, which in a deck which has a high item count you can easily discard many items and supporters to be able to draw the cards you need to be able to take a knockout or set up for the rest of the game. This ability is only able to be used once per turn and as you will be playing a 2-1 Octillery line there will not be a chance to use it twice in the same turn by having two fully functioning. 

The Special Team

I promise this is the last time I use a sporting reference in this article, but without these guys in the deck the chance of being even thought about as a meta deck would be completely wiped away. But due to the versatility of the deck and the type of energy that it uses it has a giant advantage against other decks of having to pile loads of energy onto a Pokémon over numerous turns. This deck can power up its techs with the same single energy attachment as it can Passimian. So what could some of these techs be and why?

Mew, Fates Collide Set

The whole point of teching in a Pokémon into a deck is to either help add consistency to a deck to find specific things needed or to be able to turn a match up on its head. Where Passimian only does enough damage to be able to knockout Fighting-Weak Pokémon, it needs other basic attacker which can hit for weakness against other decks as well.

The first card which allows the deck to be able to compete with the majority of the meta currently is Mew, not the EX one but the Fates Collide version. Not only is it a single prized attacker but the actual ability of the Mew is incredible and changes a lot of difficult match ups on its head. The little 50hp attacker with free retreat needs to have an ability like this to justify the small hit points of one of the most popular Pokémon in the game. 

Memories of Dawn allows you to copy anyone of your Basic Pokémon's attacks and use it as Mew's as long as it has the energy to be able to use the attack. This means Pokémon such as Buzzwole Gx and Necrozma Gx will be hit for weakness and Knocked out from copying Passimian's Team Play. The best part of Mew is the fact it allows you to have four Passimian on the bench which means you can hit up to 160 damage with a Choice Band, meaning you are just shy of a knockout if you are looking to hit into a Tapu Lele Gx or anything with 180hp.

Tapu Koko, Sun and Moon Promo

With the fact Mew misses out on hitting the important numbers when facing big Gx Pokémon that are not Buzzwole or Psychic-Weak, its important that we do have a way of reaching these numbers. In comes Tapu Koko, the promo from the collection box that released over a year ago now and is still finding relevance in the competitive TCG. Not only does it provide a good spread option, but it also is a Lightning Type which allows you to have a more favourable match up against Pokémon like Celesteela and Ho-oh. Having free retreat allows you to be able to move in between your benched Pokémon so easily that you should be able to end the turn with a card you would like in the active position. The only down side is the 110hp the card has which means it is easily knocked out by Buzzwole GX and gets one shot by Zoroark.

The main attack we are looking at is Flying Flip which allows you to spread 20 damage to each of your opponents Pokémon, only applying weakness to the active though and that goes for the choice band as well. This attack can even be combined with Mew to enable you spread against psychic weak attackers like the Malamar decks that will enable you to get rid of all their energy spread. The second attack is not going to be used as much as Flying Flip but there is the possibility to be able to use it due to the deck playing counter energy. Electric Ball does 100 damage which means that it will be knocking out any Lightning-Weak Pokémon with a Choice Band. Although this combination is hard to achieve, it can be a deadly attack to most Pokémon.

Finally I believe this is the space which can be the most interchangeable but personally I think in the way the meta is shaping up, this could be the right call for playing in this Worlds format. Previously I have played the likes of Sudowoodo (Watch and Learn), Shaymin (Rally Back), Reshiram (Outrage) and Keldeo (Resolute Blade). But I have finally settled for this format the little electric mouse that is just so powerful it can take out a legendary Pokémon in one shot. That Pokémon is not Pikachu, but it is your favourite little snuggle Pokémon, it is Dedenne.

Dedenne, Forbidden Light Set

The little electric/fairy mouse that is able to be used with double colourless energy which also adds synergy with Passimian, Mew and Tapu Koko can easily be charged up in one turn. Although the little mouse is a low Hp for an attacker coming in at 60 hp, you will be able to keep recycling Dedenne through your deck. It has a single retreat cost which is not ideal but better than Octillery, although usually you would promote one of your free retreat Pokémon if you can. 

So why get so excited over Dedenne? It is all in the attack. Electrichain for a double colourless energy allows you to do 30+ damage, if the Pokémon has a tool card attached it does 30 more damage. Now you are sitting there thinking how can this be any good? Well let me show you. It will be able to take a one hit knockout on Rayquqza Gx, it will be 10 short of a knockout on Ultra Necrozma and also with the possibility of Noivern seeing some play, it is a very good single prized attacker to have. The reason why I like it so much is because you do not need to use Counter energy onto it to be able to take the Knockouts but you can just use Double Colourless Energy which can allow you to be able to play less Counter Energy for an extra deck space.

Statistics of Damage Output in Match ups

In terms of match ups, this is the whole reason why I am feeling a genuine buzz around this deck at the moment due to the maths which comes with the pure amount of damage this deck can do. It only really struggles against Basic Pokémon it does not hit weakness to, as said above depending on the meta you are seeing can change specific mechanics and make the deck better for each match up you think you will have. So, lets finally crunch some mathematical numbers and see what this deck can really do against your opponent!

Scizor Gx, Celestial Storm Set

Basics:

• Passimian in active and 3 benched Passimian does 100 damge to a Basic Pokémon.
• Passimian in active and 3 benched Passimian does 190 damage to an Evolution Pokémon.
• Passimian in active and 3 benched Passimian does 220 damange, with Choice Band, to Evolution Pokemon.
• Passimian in active and 3 benched Passimian does 240, with Choice Band and Diancie Prism, to Evolution Pokémon

With this basic structure you can see that doing damage to Evolution Pokémon is the whole key of the deck. It has the possibility of being able to hit those big numbers against decks which involve Decidueye, Gardevoir and Greninja Gx's, meaning that it can take two prizes incredibly easily. The

other benefit is being able to do damage over what you need, for example a Golisopod Gx Armour Press' so it actually has 230 Hp. This is no issue because you are able to hit the numbers needed to knockout that Golisopod. The same goes for the new Scizor Gx, does 30 less damage of your opponents attack, just hit the 240 damage that you need to knockout the Scizor. 

So you can see the benefits of having Passimian but what about Mew, does it really stand up against other Pokémon that well? Well lets have a look at when the Mew attacks:

Stakataka Gx, Celestial Storm Set

• Mew in active and 4 benched Passimian does 130 damage to a Basic Pokémon.
• Mew in active and 4 benched Passimian does 160 damage, with a Choice Band, to a Basic Pokémon.
• Mew in active and 4 benched Passimian does 130 damage to an Evolution Pokémon.
• Mew in active and 4 benched Passimian does 320 damage, with a Choice Band, to a Psychic-Weak Pokémon.

This is why Mew is so overpowered in this deck as it is able to take Passimian's attack and use it for its own. The current meta being Buzzwole Gx, Necrozma Gx and what seems to be gearing up towards Naganadel Gx, this deck can pack a punch against the majority of decks in the current Meta. Even with Stakataka Gx being a threat by making Naganadel more bulky, it still takes a knockout past the ability of the new metal brick Pokémon. As you can see from the simple maths of the deck itself, there is a lot of room to move and develop as you go through the gears playing this deck. 

Final Thoughts and A Sad Goodbye!

Overall in terms of the current meta the only issues which face Passimian is the Greninja Break matchup but this deck has seen less play thanks to the Giratina promo tech in the majority of Malamar/Necrozma decks. This is dynamic and accesses the reaches of the upper echelons of the damage needed to knockout the highest Hp Gx Pokemon, while also hitting meta decks of the likes of Rayquaza, Buzzwole and Zoroark. This is why I think Passimian has such a great placing in the meta considering its consistency lacks at times but when it runs hot, WE HAWT!

As I finish this artcle, it comes me that this is going to be the last time that this deck will get a chance in its current state which hopefully it can adapt and overcome some of the previous challenges of rotations to come but a loss of staples such as Puzzle of Time and Octillery, we could be saying goodbye to one of the most fun and budget friendly decks we have at this current moment in time. So as I finish writing this I urge everyone to at least give Passimian a chance before the rotation, as this is just one monkey that needs it final hurrah. 

Thanks for reading, any questions or helps on a list do not hesitate to contact me on twitter.

Charlie

@ThePelipperPost

0/??? Championship Points