ProPokemon

Writer: Scott Creech

We all know how Quad-Terrakion (a.k.a. Solo-Terrakion a.k.a. Mono-Terrakion) works, right? Some of you have probably heard of Empoleon/Aerodactyl, but have you heard of its older brother? Empoleon/Terrkion is an up-and-coming deck that is designed to hold its own against most of the Tier One decks. Its speed is unnatural for a deck based mainly on a Stage 2 Pokemon and a Fighting type Basic Pokemon with a four retreat cost. Its ability to consistently knock out any Pokemon in two attacks is unrivalled, as well as the cost of just one energy to use that attack.

Is it a.. hidden Tier One deck? » Read more..

Japan’s Nationals recently took place, and some information is circling the internet about it, including the winning deck, which I thought you guys might be interested in hearing about.

First of all, it’s important to know that their format is different to ours in more way than one. As well as being a couple of sets ahead (and having the Dragon cards in their format), they also play in a BW-on format, meaning they play without Junk Arm. It’s interesting to see that a lot of Dark decks ran heavy counts of Sableye, so I would guess that they use that as a substitute to Junk Arm, and use it’s attack ‘Junk Hunt’ to get any needed trainers back towards the end of the game. » Read more..

My last article looked at how Zekrom/Eelektrik would be affected by the release of Dark Explorers, and before moving on to cover new and emerging decks from the set, I thought it would be best to cover the other deck that also dominated States and Regionals – Celebi/Mewtwo/Tornadus.

Although most of you will probably understand how the deck works, I’ll quickly explain it for those who don’t. Celebi Prime’s Forest Breath allows you to attach a Grass Energy from your hand to one of your Pokemon, as long as it’s your active Pokemon. Skyarrow Bridge gives Celebi Prime a free retreat cost, and along with Switch, it’s easy to attach multiple Grass Energy this way throughout a game, and power up some of the powerful Pokemon in this format that only need Colourless Energy for their attacks – like Mewtwo EX or Tornadus EP. » Read more..

So, we all know how Zekrom/Eelektrik works – by taking a bunch of powerful Lightning Pokemon and attaching loads of energy to them with Eelektrik. We also know how good it’s been so far – it tore up States and Regionals, and is arguably the current BDIF. However, this might all change with the release of Dark Explorers.

Dark decks look like they’re going to gate crash the top tier, and could give Lightning variants a run for their money, while there’s even more reason to play Fighting decks – especially with the release of Groudon EX. So where does this leave Zekrom/Eelektrik? Is it still playable, or is it time to move on to newer and better cards? I’m going to leave my thoughts in this article, along with the list I’m going to start with, and try to guess the way forward for this deck. » Read more..

Writer: Josh Bangle

I am back with Part 2 of the Binder Bunch! You can check out the Part 1 here, where I look at how to make Accelgor, Articuno and Raichu Prime all playable – cards which would normally be confined to your binder unless they’re ‘lucky’ enough to be used as proxy cards.

Today we will be looking at an alternative deckout via Magmortar, Nidoking and Queen, and Shiftry/Drifblim! Let’s get right to it with the first deck on the list… » Read more..

Writer: Oliver Barnett

Hey guys, Oliver here and I have a new article for you today, with the time of writing being the beginning of US Regionals in a few days, I thought I should give you my impressions of the metagame, along with what the “play” is.

With Battle Roads starting this weekend around the World as well, and happening for the next few weeks, this information should stay useful up until the release of Dark Explorers. » Read more..

Writer: Josh Bangle

The following articles will cover decks based around cards that will typically spend most of their days in a player’s binder… only being removed to be used as the occasional proxy for an upcoming card or expensive one you might not own yet (such as Mewtwo EX). This particular article will take a look at Accelgor (Noble Victories), Raichu (Undaunted), and a group of Pokémon with a special talent that will definitely aggravate your opponent! » Read more..