Lessons to Learn from Worlds and How to Optimize PTCGO Testing!
[cardimg name=”Archie’s Ace in the Hole” set=”Primal Clash” no=”157″ align=”right” height=”250″ c=”none”][/cardimg]
Hey guys! It’s been a while since my last article. Worlds has come and past and a new champion, Jacob Van Wagner, has been crowned! Jacob ran an awesome deck that has been talked about a few times, but I just wanted to say again that it was incredible. I played Archie’s [card name=”Blastoise” set=”Plasma Blast” no=”16″ c=”name”][/card] a little bit during the Boston Open and it was easily the most fun deck I have played in a few years.
However, that’s not why I’m here! Now that the 2016 season format has confirmed the ban of [card name=”Shiftry” set=”Next Destinies” no=”72″ c=”name”][/card] for Expanded, it’s a great time to start preparing for the new year, if you haven’t already. One of the best ways to prepare for larger tournaments such as Regionals is to try and figure out what decks will be popular and to practice as much as you can with your own deck. If you are able to accurately predict what the metagame will be for a large event, you will usually do better than if you don’t know what other people will play. However, it can be difficult to figure out what other people will end up playing, because even if there is information out there on what people are expected to play, or what are “safe plays,” people tend to deviate from the safe deck options. One example of this was the 2015 Pokemon World Championships, where there were a few decks that were expected to do well, but those were not the decks that ended up winning. I will try to give you guys some insight into why the player’s who did well picked the decks they did, and how you can learn from that to improve your deck selection at future events. Additionally, I have spent a lot of time playing on the Pokemon Trading Card Game Online (nowhere near my dad who has hit the level cap and token cap, currently 25,000), and I want to explain how it can be used for practicing for major events. Most players don’t use PTCGO to its fullest potential for testing, but I’m going to show you how to get the most out of it in this article!
Worlds Review
U.S. Nationals and Nationals from across the world had shown that there were a lot of decks that had potential to do well at Worlds. The top eight of U.S. Nationals alone had eight unique decks that were all incredibly strong in their own right. This suggested that there would be a lot of strong decks at the World Championships with a wide variety of good and bad matchups. Unfortunately, from a deck selection point of view, a diverse metagame can make it almost impossible to pick the right deck. However, in this format there appeared to be a few front-runners that most people seemed to like a few weeks before Worlds. From talking to other people, and from my own playtesting going into Worlds it seemed to me, and a few others, that decks like [card name=”Primal Groudon-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”86″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”M Manectric-EX” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”24″ c=”name”][/card] would be popular decks. There was also a lot of hype around a few of the decks that did well at U.S. Nationals such as Kristy Britton’s [card name=”Seismitoad-EX” set=”Furious Fists” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Manectric-EX” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”23″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Crobat” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card] deck. These decks seemed to be consistent as well as strong against most decks in the format.
However, the Open Gaming Room at Worlds told a completely different story of what decks would be popular. In the weeks leading up to Worlds, a lot of players realized that if the above decks were popular, some of the decks that had been fading out of the metagame were actually strong picks. One example of this was Night March. Night March was supposed to be the best deck in the format after [card name=”Lysandre’s Trump Card” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”99″ c=”name”][/card] was banned from competitive play, but did not do too well at Nationals because of the rise of Crobat and other decks meant to beat Night March. The decks that did well at U.S. Nationals for the most part had awful Night March matchups, which, leading up to Worlds, people realized, and began testing Night March decks to get them ready for Worlds.
By the end of the first day of Worlds what we saw was that most of the players who had success during Day One played Night March, Groudon-EX, M Manectric-EX, or Seismitoad-EX / Manectric-EX / Crobat. There was also a few players who ended up making Day Two by playing the Archie’s [card name=”Blastoise” set=”Plasma Blast” no=”16″ c=”name”][/card] deck. This set the stage for Day Two of Worlds, where again the metagame changed a little bit in response to what the players played on Day One of Worlds. The decks that saw the most success Day Two of Worlds were the decks that we saw on stream at the top tables, Archie’s Blastoise, Toad / Bats, [card name=”Donphan” set=”Plasma Storm” no=”72″ c=”name”][/card], and Fairy Box. Below, I’m going to try and review these decks from players that did well at the event and try to explain why they were able to do as well as they did at Worlds, starting with the World Champ’s Archie’s Blastoise deck.
Jacob Van Wagner’s Blastoise Deck
[decklist]
[pokemon amt=”14″]
2x [card name=”Blastoise” set=”Plasma Blast” no=”16″ c=”deck2″][/card]
3x [card name=”Keldeo-EX” set=”Boundaries Crossed” no=”49″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Jirachi-EX” set=”Plasma Blast” no=”60″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Shaymin-EX” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”77″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Exeggcute” set=”Plasma Freeze” no=”4″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Articuno” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”17″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Mewtwo-EX” set=”Legendary Treasures” no=”54″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Wailord-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”38″ c=”deck2″][/card]
[/pokemon]
[trainers amt=”35″]
2x [card name=”Archie’s Ace in the Hole” set=”Primal Clash” no=”157″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Professor Juniper” set=”Dark Explorers” no=”98″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Lysandre” set=”Flashfire” no=”90″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”N” set=”Noble Victories” no=”92″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”Acro Bike” set=”Primal Clash” no=”122″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”Battle Compressor” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”92″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”Superior Energy Retrieval” set=”Plasma Freeze” no=”103″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”Trainers’ Mail” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”92″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Dark Explorers” no=”102″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”VS Seeker” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”109″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Float Stone” set=”Plasma Freeze” no=”99″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Muscle Band” set=”XY” no=”121″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Computer Search” set=”Boundaries Crossed” no=”137″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Rough Seas” set=”Primal Clash” no=”137″ c=”deck2″][/card]
[/trainers]
[energy amt=”11″]
11x [card name=”Water Energy” set=”Call of Legends” no=”90″ c=”deck2″]
[/energy]
[/decklist]
Similar to Steve Guthrie’s Archie’s Blastoise deck, this is the version that Jacob used to win the 2015 World Championships. Since the basic strategy behind this deck has been discussed before in a few articles, I am just going to talk about the logic behind some of his variations in the list that made his list have slightly better matchups against the decks he expected to see. The first major change he made to this list was to include two cards that made his Night March matchup favorable, [card name=”Articuno” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”17″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Wailord-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”147″ c=”name”][/card].
[cardimg name=”Articuno” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”17″ align=”left” height=”250″ c=”none”][/cardimg]
When I first tested the Archie’s [card name=”Blastoise” set=”Plasma Blast” no=”16″ c=”name”][/card] deck against Night March, I was not happy with the matchup. It felt like if the Night March player ran super hot and was able to kill your [card name=”Keldeo-EX” set=”Legendary Treasures” no=”45″ c=”name”][/card] within the first two turns of the game you would lose unless you played [card name=”N” set=”Dark Explorers” no=”96″ c=”name”][/card] and they dead drew for a few turns. This matchup can be explosive and without Articuno it felt like Night March may have actually been slightly favored. With the addition of Articuno, this matchup swung heavily in the favor of Blastoise. The beauty of Articuno against Night March is you can power it up easily and it is able to kill [card name=”Joltik” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”26″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Pumpkaboo” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”44″ c=”name”][/card] without needing to get too lucky on its attack. I would usually attach a [card name=”Muscle Band” set=”XY” no=”121″ c=”name”][/card] to ensure I would get the Knock Out even with three tails against Joltik. Trading an Articuno for two Prizes put you really far ahead in the game, and if you were really creative you would be able to use [card name=”Archie’s Ace in the Hole” set=”Primal Clash” no=”124″ c=”name”][/card] to revive Articuno and get another two Prizes with it. This helped the matchup in that whether you went first or second, the Blastoise deck was favored to win. In other matchups Articuno’s first attack can be critical at shutting down [card name=”Seismitoad-EX” set=”Furious Fists” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card] decks. Chilling Sigh can help salvage a game by putting a Toad to sleep and allowing you one turn of Trainers to set up a Blastoise and win the game with a big Keldeo-EX.
[cardimg name=”Wailord-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”147″ align=”right” height=”250″ c=”none”][/cardimg]
Accurately predicting that Night March would be a popular deck at Worlds, Jacob also made an amazing decision to run the tankiest Pokemon in the game in his list, [card name=”Wailord-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”38″ c=”name”][/card]. In addition to Articuno, Jacob also had the option of promoting Wailord-EX at any point in the game and force his opponent to two-shot it while he was High Breaching his way to victory. These two cards helped to swing a matchup that was close to even to heavily in Blastoise’s favor, which was demonstrated in Jacob’s Top 4 match when he quickly destroyed Night March in one of the fastest matches streamed in the history of Worlds.
The only other special card that Jacob ran in his list was [card name=”Mewtwo-EX” set=”Next Destinies” no=”54″ c=”name”][/card]. This card served a couple of purposes, but most importantly it helped to Knock Out other Mewtwo-EX, which Jacob expected players to run to counter any Blastoise decks. Mewtwo was also useful to fight against Seismitoad-EX decks. If you are unable to go off on turn one with Archie’s, it is easy to power up a Mewtwo-EX as an extra attacker to fight against a Toad, even without Blastoise. Mewtwo can also prove to be a powerful attacker in the mirror match, and Jacob probably expected more Blastoise than we saw on Day Two of Worlds because of its explosiveness and his strong performance on Day One.
Next, let’s look at some of the other decks that made Top 8 at Worlds, analyzing all the things that put them ahead of everyone else competing for those top spots. Then, I’m going to share with several tips on how to get the most out of your PTCGO testing. I’ve been using the program for a long time, and there are quite a few ways to use it to its fullest that most players just aren’t taking advantage of. After reading this article, you should be getting a lot more out of your testing on PTCGO!
So are you ready to improve your game right here and right now?
[premium]
Simon Narode’s Donphan Deck
[decklist]
[pokemon amt=”14″]
4x [card name=”Donphan” set=”Plasma Storm” no=”72″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”Phanpy” set=”Plasma Storm” no=”71″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”Hawlucha” set=”Furious Fists” no=”63″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Bunnelby” set=”Primal Clash” no=”121″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Mr. Mime” set=”Plasma Freeze” no=”47″ c=”deck2″][/card]
[/pokemon]
[trainers amt=”36″]
4x [card name=”Korrina” set=”Furious Fists” no=”95″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”N” set=”Noble Victories” no=”92″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”Professor Juniper” set=”Dark Explorers” no=”98″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Lysandre” set=”Flashfire” no=”90″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Colress” set=”Plasma Storm” no=”118″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”Robo Substitute” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”102″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”VS Seeker” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”109″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Focus Sash” set=”Furious Fists” no=”91″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Muscle Band” set=”XY” no=”121″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Silver Bangle” set=”Plasma Blast” no=”88″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Repeat Ball” set=”Primal Clash” no=”136″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Dark Explorers” no=”102″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Revive” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”88″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Computer Search” set=”Boundaries Crossed” no=”137″ c=”deck2″][/card]
3x [card name=”Fighting Stadium” set=”Furious Fists” no=”90″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Silent Lab” set=”Primal Clash” no=”140″ c=”deck2″][/card]
[/trainers]
[energy amt=”10″]
4x [card name=”Fighting Energy” set=”Call of Legends” no=”93″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”Strong Energy” set=”Furious Fists” no=”104″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Double Colorless Energy” set=”Next Destinies” no=”92″ c=”deck2″][/card]
[/energy]
[/decklist]
Another strong deck for this tournament was Simon Narode’s [card name=”Donphan” set=”Plasma Storm” no=”72″ c=”name”][/card] deck, which he piloted to a Top 8 finish. One of the reasons he did well at this event was he teched his deck out with a few cards that made some matchups favorable, with his best tech being [card name=”Focus Sash” set=”Furious Fists” no=”91″ c=”name”][/card].
[cardimg name=”Focus Sash” set=”Furious Fists” no=”91″ align=”left” height=”250″ c=”none”][/cardimg]
Looking back at the decks that were popular at Worlds, Focus Sash was the most insane card he included in this list. During Cities when [card name=”Donphan” set=”Plasma Storm” no=”72″ c=”name”][/card] was rising in popularity, Focus Sash was not included in many of the lists, but for his Worlds deck it fits perfectly. The big decks that he was expecting were at Worlds were Night March, [card name=”Primal Groudon-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”86″ c=”name”][/card], and some [card name=”Blastoise” set=”Plasma Blast” no=”16″ c=”name”][/card]. In all of those matchups their win condition is to [card name=”Lysandre” set=”Flashfire” no=”90″ c=”name”][/card] up your Donphan and kill them in one shot. Focus Sash works on denying that win condition, and forces them to use two Lysandres just to kill one Elephant. Focus Sash also allows you to build up a Donphan with four Energy on it and use two Wrecks with the same Donphan before it is finally Knocked Out. The Night March matchup without Focus Sash is close to even because of [card name=”Pumpkaboo” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”44″ c=”name”][/card]’s Resistance to Fighting, making him difficult to trade one-shots with, but with Focus Sash, Donphan has a slight advantage in the matchup. Even the Blastoise deck can struggle against Focus Sash because it heavily relies on OHKOs and allows you to have a chance in the matchup, even though it is still a Blastoise-favored matchup.
The other major tech that Simon went with that helped him in other matchups was his inclusion of four [card name=”Hawlucha” set=”Furious Fists” no=”63″ c=”name”][/card] and four [card name=”Robo Substitute” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”102″ c=”name”][/card]. Going into Worlds, he must have decided that running walls like [card name=”Wobbuffet” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”36″ c=”name”][/card] were unnecessary, so he made his deck more consistent by cutting those cards which help mainly against matchups he did not expect to see, such as Metal or Metal Ray. The Hawlucha also served another purpose of being strong against [card name=”Seismitoad-EX” set=”Furious Fists” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card]. Seismitoad / Bats can be a bad matchup for Donphan, but if you are able to continuously Flying Press, and get a little lucky, you have a chance in the matchup.
There were two other interesting cards he included in his list, which I think also helped contribute to his success. The first was [card name=”Revive” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”88″ c=”name”][/card]. I am not sure I have ever seen a version of this deck with Revive in it, but it makes a lot of sense. One of the ways that decks can beat Donphan is if they continuously Lysandre and kill [card name=”Phanpy” set=”Plasma Storm” no=”71″ c=”name”][/card], but Revive allows you to have access to another Phanpy, which is important because in some matchups you have no backup attackers and you need as many Donphan as possible. This also explains the importance of the [card name=”Bunnelby” set=”Primal Clash” no=”121″ c=”name”][/card] he has in his deck to recycle cards such as his Pokemon, [card name=”Robo Substitute” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”102″ c=”custom”]Robo Substitutes[/card], or Energy. The other card which I think is an amazing addition to his list was the [card name=”Repeat Ball” set=”Primal Clash” no=”136″ c=”name”][/card]. In my opinion, Repeat Ball is one of the best Trainers that can go in this deck. The reasoning behind it is pretty simple, you want as many Phanpy as you can early game, so why not grab two with [card name=”Korrina” set=”Furious Fists” no=”95″ c=”name”][/card]? A turn one Korrina for Phanpy and Repeat Ball sets you up well for a stream of Donphan and helps a lot with the consistency of the deck.
Tito Santoso’s Fairy Box Deck
[decklist]
[pokemon amt=”17″]
2x [card name=”Aromatisse” set=”XY” no=”93″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Spritzee” set=”Flashfire” no=”67″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Spritzee” set=”XY” no=”92″ c=”deck2″][/card]
3x [card name=”Seismitoad-EX” set=”Furious Fists” no=”20″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Mewtwo-EX” set=”Next Destinies” no=”54″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Cobalion-EX” set=”Plasma Storm” no=”93″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Charizard-EX” set=”Flashfire” no=”12″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Malamar-EX” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”58″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Jirachi-EX” set=”Plasma Blast” no=”60″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Keldeo-EX” set=”Boundaries Crossed” no=”49″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”M Manectric-EX” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”24″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Manectric-EX” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”23″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Trevenant-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”145″ c=”deck2″][/card]
[/pokemon]
[trainers amt=”31″]
4x [card name=”N” set=”Noble Victories” no=”92″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”Professor Juniper” set=”Dark Explorers” no=”98″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Colress” set=”Plasma Storm” no=”118″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Lysandre” set=”Flashfire” no=”90″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”AZ” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”91″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Pokémon Fan Club” set=”Flashfire” no=”94″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Xerosic” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”110″ c=”deck2″][/card]
3x [card name=”Max Potion” set=”Emerging Powers” no=”94″ c=”deck2″][/card]
3x [card name=”VS Seeker” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”109″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Muscle Band” set=”XY” no=”121″ c=”deck2″][/card]
2x [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Dark Explorers” no=”102″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Sacred Ash” set=”Flashfire” no=”96″ c=”deck2″][/card]
1x [card name=”Computer Search” set=”Boundaries Crossed” no=”137″ c=”deck2″][/card]
4x [card name=”Fairy Garden” set=”XY” no=”117″ c=”deck2″][/card]
[/trainers]
[energy amt=”12″]
4x [card name=”Rainbow Energy” set=”XY” no=”131″ c=”deck2″][/card]
3x [card name=”Double Colorless Energy” set=”Next Destinies” no=”92″ c=”deck2″][/card]
5x [card name=”Fairy Energy” set=”XY” no=”140″ c=”deck2″][/card]
[/energy]
[/decklist]
The powerful Fairy Toad deck that Kyle Sabelhaus had a ton of success with during City Championships came back to steal a Top 8 spot in the World Championships. This deck is filled with interesting tech cards that helped it deal with almost any matchup, as well as having [card name=”Seismitoad-EX” set=”Furious Fists” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card] to Item lock most normal decks. This was a deck that had died out and was forgotten during States and Nationals because of the rise of other decks such as [card name=”Exeggutor” set=”Plasma Freeze” no=”5″ c=”name”][/card] and Metal, but was a great choice for Worlds because Metal was nowhere to be found. This deck has a ton of different Pokemon that were put in for a variety of reasons, but I’m only going to go over a few of the Pokemon that may seem a bit confusing.
[cardimg name=”Malamar-EX” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”115″ align=”left” height=”250″ c=”none”][/cardimg]
For anyone who was unfamiliar with this deck from half a season ago, [card name=”Malamar-EX” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”58″ c=”name”][/card] is one of the MVP’s of this deck. When you attach an Energy to Malamar, you can move it off immediately with [card name=”Aromatisse” set=”XY” no=”93″ c=”custom”]Aromatisse’s[/card] Fairy Transfer, giving you a free use of Hyper Hypnosis each turn. This makes any Toad mirror matchup heavily in your favor, and most matchups in general become games where your opponent can’t do anything. Malamar is insane because it gives you the chance to sleep hax your opponent every turn, without even having to flip a coin yourself like you do with [card name=”Hypnotoxic Laser” set=”Plasma Storm” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card]. It also serves as a great finisher because its attack can Knock Out even [card name=”Wailord-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”38″ c=”name”][/card] in one hit if you get lucky enough.
One of my favorite cards ever printed, [card name=”Trevenant-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”145″ c=”name”][/card], found a home in this deck as well. As this season has progressed, a lot of decks have cut [card name=”Switch” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”91″ c=”name”][/card] from their lists in favor of more consistent cards, and Trevenant punishes this in a big way with its first attack. Additionally, Trevenant’s second attack lets you OHKO Wailord-EX, [card name=”Primal Groudon-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”86″ c=”name”][/card], and [card name=”Primal Kyogre-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”55″ c=”name”][/card]. Even though Primal Kyogre-EX did not have a huge showing at Worlds, Trevenant-EX at least gave you a chance in a matchup that would otherwise be awful. The other big tech in my eyes in this deck was [card name=”Charizard-EX” set=”Flashfire” no=”12″ c=”name”][/card]. One deck that was gaining some popularity on Day One of Worlds was [card name=”M Manectric-EX” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”24″ c=”name”][/card] with [card name=”Genesect-EX” set=”Plasma Blast” no=”11″ c=”name”][/card]. They also ran a copy of [card name=”Virizion-EX” set=”Plasma Blast” no=”9″ c=”name”][/card] which made it difficult for this deck to beat it, but with the addition of Charizard-EX you had the potential to OHKO their Grass Pokemon and give you a chance in the matchup.
Lessons From Worlds
[cardimg name=”Blastoise” set=”Boundaries Crossed” no=”31″ align=”right” height=”250″ c=”none”][/cardimg]
In addition to making smart tech choices, the reason these players did well was they played well and picked some of the best decks for this tournament. In a field where Night March, [card name=”M Manectric-EX” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”24″ c=”name”][/card], and [card name=”Seismitoad-EX” set=”Furious Fists” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card] were popular, these decks stood a pretty good chance of dominating. They reasoned out what the popular decks would be and played decks with techs to destroy them. What everyone can learn from this, myself included, is that most players saw what the popular decks would be and tried to one-up those. What I mean is that they saw that M Manectric-EX and [card name=”Primal Groudon-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”86″ c=”name”][/card] were the popular decks going into Worlds and most people played decks that countered those. However, that just leads to a field with those popular decks and decks that counter them. In the case of Blastoise, the increase in Night March decks drove off Groudon-EX, Blastoise’s one bad matchup, which let Jacob have favorable matchups throughout Worlds leading to his victory. In Simon’s case, he also picked a deck that did not have much hype around it going into Worlds, so he did not face many decks that were designed to beat Donphan, while his deck was designed to beat most of the field. Even though they both played decks that were good, neither of those decks were new or revolutionary, they just took advantage of some decks driving away their bad matchups. In the future when testing, if you find a deck with only one or two bad matchups, do not immediately discard it. There is a chance that deck could be relevant if the metagame makes it so the decks that beat it are not the most popular because of their own bad matchups.
Another example of this was the revival of [card name=”Seismitoad-EX” set=”Furious Fists” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Crobat” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card] for Worlds that ended up taking two spots in the top four. Again, the rise of Night March scared away Groudon-EX, and other Metal decks were falling out of popularity, so Toad / Bats became a strong choice again. Even though from Nationals and going into Worlds most people had discredited Toad / Bats, it was another example of an old deck that had a strong place in the Worlds metagame.
Pokemon Trading Card Game Online (PTCGO)
Before you can try to figure out what deck is best for a big event, you have to figure out what the big decks will be and figure out how they all stack up against each other. If you don’t have a group of people to test, one viable option is to play a lot of games on the Pokemon Trading Card Game Online (PTCGO). PTCGO has been out for a few years and is an awesome program in terms of playing Pokemon games. I’m going to go over how to make the best use of your time while playing online, and then go over some of the advantages of PTCGO.
How to Make PTCGO Efficient
1. Take Every Game Seriously
In a lot of situations on PTCGO, you may get paired against a theme deck and question why you are testing online, but if you really want to test out a deck, you can make PTCGO useful if you are willing to. When people play online, a lot of them start to go on autopilot and play without thinking too hard. However, even against decks you can beat doing whatever you want, there is always an optimal play you could make. Taking the time to figure out what that play is and trying to plan a turn or two in advance are important skills to have, and against easier decks you can practice those skills. Also, if you can’t tell what your Prizes are just by looking at your deck during your first search, that is another skill you can practice.
2. Learn Wacky Combos
[cardimg name=”Hippowdon” set=”Primal Clash” no=”88″ align=”left” height=”250″ c=”none”][/cardimg]
Unless you have every card in the game memorized, there is always something to learn by playing online against weird decks. If you see a card evolve into a Pokemon you weren’t familiar with, that game was useful because you learned something, even if it did not seem relevant. The reason this is important is that, even if it’s rare, sometimes new decks come up that you may not know how to handle, so the more cards you know about, the more easily you can respond to weird things that your opponent does. For instance, at Nationals when someone sat down against anyone playing [card name=”Hippowdon” set=”Primal Clash” no=”88″ c=”name”][/card], if they saw [card name=”Hippopotas” set=”Primal Clash” no=”87″ c=”name”][/card] and were confused or did not know what the big Hippo did, they would probably proceed to lose the game. If you are prepared when you see strange things you can react to them, and try to beat them. Another example of this was when I was watching Ryan and Kyle Sabelhaus do a blind challenge where they could not see their opponent’s field. For most players this could be difficult when they encounter strange attacks from weird cards, but for Ryan, he was able to accurately identify when their opponent played even a M Absol-EX and knew what its attack did. If I had to guess, I’d assume almost no one else knows what M Absol-EX does, but that’s one of the reasons why the Sabelhaus’ are so good.
3. Forfeit Games and Just Move On
If you are running out of time before a big event and find yourself against a deck that you think you will never see in real life, don’t be afraid to just forfeit and move on. Sometimes there is no point in playing out a game that you will not gain anything from so just move on, chances are you’ll fit in a lot of real games in a limited amount of time if you just give up on games that you will not benefit from. Even though you may miss out on virtual prizes online, your goal should be for the the real prizes at big events, especially because most of the PTCGO prizes are not even that useful.
4. Keep Records of Your Deck
This is something I learned from watching Hearthstone professional players. Recording the results of every game and learning from them is incredibly important. When I was watching some streams, I noticed one player who would quote what his deck’s win rate was since he changed one card, and he argued how that card change was critical to his success. While that may not always be the case in Pokemon, if you keep track of your deck’s progress, you can better understand what your deck struggles against and what its strengths are. You can also learn what decks other players online are liking, you can learn matchups for your deck, and you can learn how consistent your deck is. If you notice that you dead drew for 10 games in a row, you can change your deck to make it more consistent and cut out cards you felt were not useful. Also, if you notice that a matchup is slightly unfavorable, you can see if there is a card you can put in to improve that matchup the next time you play it. In Hearthstone there is actually an app to do all of this for you, which is extremely useful, but for PTCGO if you take the time to make a spreadsheet you can fill it out while you queue for another game and not waste any of your time.
Advantages of PTCGO
If you are able to be efficient on PTCGO there are a lot of benefits to it, and it can really help you when you want to try stuff out or if the people you want to test with are busy.
1. Grinding lots of Games
PTCGO has a lot of features which make playing Pokemon convenient. When you are playing, it highlights cards that you can play, and can make for quick deck searches if you know exactly what cards you are looking for. These little things can help lead to a quick paced game which allows you to play as many games as you want. In addition, it is easy to queue up for a game. There is almost always someone else trying to find a game online, so as soon as you finish a game, you can usually start a game quickly. If you want to see how consistent your deck is, or if a combo is feasible, PTCGO is a great starting point before you spend time building the deck in real life to realize it does not work, or worse yet, taking it to a tournament and discovering that. Also, if you want to test out a tech card for certain matchups, you can get a decent amount of games in with the deck against a variety of matchups to see how it affects your deck’s consistency and a matchup that you are concerned about.
2. Easy to Test Deck Concepts
If you come up with a deck, you don’t need to wait for someone else to be ready, you can just log onto PTCGO, put in the deck, and start playing some games. If you open enough booster packs in real life, it is not too difficult to get any cards you need online, and if you need some more codes they are usually fairly cheap on eBay and allow you to have access to almost any card you need just by trading a few boosters for good cards. As I have mentioned before, sometimes you will play against a few decks that you doubt anyone would bring to a tournament, but in the early stages of deck creation these decks can be useful for weeding out deck ideas that are not feasible. That being said, some decks that have worked competitively like [card name=”Wailord-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”38″ c=”name”][/card] struggle against theme decks with a ton of Energy, so take your results with a grain of salt. It is also possible that an idea you had just needs some flushing out to make it better, and may not mean that an idea itself is bad. Also, if you do queue for enough games, you will get to test against other competitive decks and see the limits of your own deck in a competitive setting. When I was first testing Archie’s [card name=”Blastoise” set=”Plasma Blast” no=”16″ c=”name”][/card], I played almost exclusively on PTCGO because it gave me a great opportunity to quickly play a lot of games with the deck in a solitaire like fashion and see how consistently I was able to get a turn one Archie’s Blastoise out.
3. Lets You Test Against Lots of Different Decks
[cardimg name=”Bunnelby” set=”Primal Clash” no=”121″ align=”left” height=”250″ c=”none”][/cardimg]
Tons of people queue for games on PTCGO with all kinds of decks, so you will eventually get exposure to all of the popular decks online if you play enough games. This is really convenient because you may not have a friend who plays a few decks, but online you will run into people who have played a lot of games with a certain deck that you want to test against and will give you good data for how well your deck does against them. Another thing is that no matter what you expect the actual metagame to be at a big event, you almost always run into a few random decks at every event, even U.S. Nationals, so having experience against all types of decks can only help you at tournaments. You also sometimes play against the crazy decks online that actually work! One example I have of this is the Bunnelby mill deck that made Top 64 at U.S. Nationals. Another example would be [card name=”Wailord-EX” set=”Primal Clash” no=”38″ c=”name”][/card]. If you got to play against that deck online before Nationals. you would be much more prepared to play against it than someone who did not know the strategy of the deck and played into Wailord’s win condition unknowingly.
4. Get New Deck Ideas
You are probably not the only person who is trying out a new deck on PTCGO. If you play against someone who has a deck you think is interesting, there is a feature on PTCGO where you can view the deck list of your opponent so you have the chance to see what they ran and try that deck yourself. You can also get an idea about what a standard list is for some of the big decks. If you are able to learn what a typical list for a deck is, you can try to play around those lists at events. There are a lot of times where if you know your opponent only runs one [card name=”Lysandre” set=”Flashfire” no=”90″ c=”name”][/card], you can make a play that would normally cost you the game if they ran another copy of the card. After playing a lot of games against some decks, you may also realize that you need a tech for a certain matchup. As long as you are flexible and always looking to improve your deck, you can learn a ton of new things while on PTCGO.
5. Play in Tournaments
Another nice feature of PTCGO is that they have tournaments you can pay a nominal entry fee to play in. You can pay with either Tournament Tickets that you earn online, or with tokens. The point is that the tournaments have some entry fee to play in them, so the expectation is that there is a higher chance you will play against people with decks that are competitive enough to win these tournaments. The tournaments are also nice because they better simulate a real game of Pokemon. In normal versus mode battles, each player has more than twenty minutes to play their game, which is way more time than you get in real life to play one game, so the tournament helps to keep people honest and get them to play at a more realistic pace. Even if you know you should be trying to learn when playing versus battles, sometimes it can become dull, but when you are competing for a prize in a tournament, you may be more motivated to try and win the tournament with your deck, and you will play against other people who should be more motivated as well. Also in general, after the first round, you usually play against a higher quality of decks than you face on average in versus battles.
6. Have Fun!
Finally, make sure to have fun while playing! In addition to practicing so that you can do well at big events, we play Pokemon to have fun, and playing on PTCGO should be no exception. There have been a lot of games where my opponent has something so off-the-wall that all I can do is sit there and laugh and try my best to respond. Don’t play too many games at once so that you start to get bored or irritated while playing, you learn less while doing so and it becomes less meaningful. If you start to get bored, you can also start playing a fun deck like Archie’s Blastoise and win the game on turn one. You may not learn anything, but you sure will have some fun in the process.
Conclusion
With Pokemon’s decision to ban [card name=”Shiftry” set=”Next Destinies” no=”72″ c=”name”][/card] from the Expanded format, this year looks promising to have tournaments that should be a lot of fun. It’s important when deciding on a deck for a large event to think about what decks to expect, and to think about what people will play if they believe the same thing. As we saw at Worlds, a lot of players tried to go one step further and pick decks that should beat the decks they expected to see, while the people who won went a step further than that. This is a lot more difficult to execute in practice, but if you can pick the right deck for a large event, you give yourself a much better chance of winning. Also, take advantage of PTCGO to practice, but make sure you take it seriously. I know sometimes I have hit 10 or so decks in a row that I know I would never play against in real life, but you get out only what you put in, so even against weird decks try to win and improve as a player. Hopefully this article has been helpful to you. If you have any questions for me feel free to ask them below and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and until next time. Good luck this season!
[/premium]