ENG
JAP
CHI
Written by Zach Lesage on 6/23/2021 at category Deck Lists
Exploring Sword and Shield - On
I’ll be the first to admit, I’m a sucker for our Standard PTCGO format, and I don’t necessarily enjoy exploring the many other ways to play this game. While my group of friends likes to dabble in Expanded or older formats, I’m always the one who plays the same format. I usually always answer with the same “Players Cup is only Standard, or I don’t have as much time as these other players.” However, that has been starting to change, and I’ve been enjoying Sword and Shield - on. I haven’t had the opportunity to play in any of the many available events, but I have been using some of my spare time to explore this format. It is the future of Standard, and I figured that I might as well attempt to follow along. This article will showcase some of my fave decks and explain how they work. Let’s check them out!
(0) Comments
Written by Zach Lesage on 6/17/2021 at category For Beginners
Top 5 Chilling Reign Cards
Chilling Reign, our newest Pokemon TCG set, adds a bunch of exciting cards into the Pokemon TCG and many possible strategies to discover. This set is packed to the brim with new Pokemon appearing on PTCGO for the first time, like Kubfu (Chilling Reign) and many new Galarian Pokemon showcasing their new form. I’m hyped for this set, and I think it's the perfect opportunity for me to share my personal top five cards so far! Chilling Reign adds layers of depth into our game by further exploring the new Rapid Strike and Single Strike mechanic, which might eventually lead to unexpected combinations. The stars of this set seem to be both Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX (Chilling Reign) and Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX (Chilling Reign) because they both seem incredibly dominant. Besides all of these new Pokemon, Chilling Reign adds many playable Trainer cards and powerful Energy cards when constructing old and new decks alike. Let’s dive into these awesome cards.
Written by Pokemon TCG trainer on 6/15/2021 at category Deck Lists
“Underground Explorers” – Discovering Concepts in Chilling Reign!
Good morning trainers! Chilling Reign has started to become opened by YouTubers such as Tricky Gym, Chill TCG, and Hegster TCG, so it’s no surprise Pokémon is getting more aggressive in its marketing campaign. Giving fresh products to content creators is always a good way to promote your product, but it also allows the masses to understand what decks could potentially be good going into the next format. That being said, a lot is going on in Chilling Reign that we haven’t gotten into yet, and I wanted to kind of list dump a few ideas I’ve seen floating around the internet. It’s important whenever a new set drops to evaluate the different kinds of concepts that exist and capitalize on how we can optimize those ideas to win a maximum amount of games. I remember as far back as standard format goes, Crobat V coming out was a game-changer for Arceus & Dialga & Palkia Tag Team GX decks (ADP) because it allowed those types of decks to cut out Jirachi and use those bench spaces to draw Pokémon like Dedenne-GX. Dedenne, in combination with Crobat V, allowed trainers to draw up to 12 cards using strictly abilities, followed by an additional seven cards with Professor’s Research. That means you see a total of 19 cards in one’s turn, plus the card you draw for the start of the turn! This optimization of the deck was a big one and made the deck more consistent and aggressive.
Written by Pokemon TCG trainer on 6/10/2021 at category Deck Lists
“Old Town Road” – Shadow Rider Calyrex is Coming Soon!
Hola Trainers! It’s felt like forever since we’ve had a new expansion released into the standard format. However, Chilling Reign is going to be released soon and I’m all here for it! Standard has felt a little stale for a while, with no new innovations being found out due to the limited card pool and consistently reoccurring metagame charts. If we can only play with the same decks over and over, the standard format is going to become over-explored, and therefore the decks will become perfectly optimized if there’s infinite time. That being said, with the release of Chilling Reign, many new cards are coming out that I LOVE and can’t wait to write about. I wanted to write this article to jump the gun on deck building and highlight a list that was created by ZapdosTCG. It goes over what seems to be a very consistent, straightforward Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX decklist that will slam even the best decks in the standard format currently. Let’s take a peek at what they cooked up before the set releases, and go over initial thoughts for the archetype!
Written by Pokemon TCG trainer on 6/4/2021 at category Deck Lists
“Blue Beetle” – Orbeetle in Expanded!
Good evening Pokémon trainers! It’s been a while since we’ve talked about the expanded format on our blog, but today I wanted to talk about a recent breakthrough. Sander Wojkic, aka PythOn on Limitless TCG’s servers, is a powerful player specializing in stall and mill-style decks. He grew to fame by playing interesting decks, such as Heatmor/Raichu and perhaps most notably crazy Control variants; this type of deck is relatively uncommon in standard, yet he still opts to pilot them because they are his favorite. In light of the surprise factor, many of his opponents fall prey to his extremely potent playstyle of securing his win condition via controlling the game's tempo and ending up losing due to their lack of preparation against Sander’s archetypes. He recently brought Orbeetle to the most recent LOS Major event and finished in 5th place with a final record of 11-3-1. Losing in Top 8 to Pikarom, his deck is nearly invincible once setup and needs to draw the right cards at the right time. While the expanded metagame is diverse in nature due to its wide card pool, this Orbeetle deck can always adapt which Stage 2 Pokémon it can get into play via the Evomancy attack to rise to the top. Let’s talk about one of my favorite Bug-type Pokémon, Orbeetle, and why it’s making such a big splash right now!
Written by Pokemon TCG trainer on 5/28/2021 at category Deck Lists
“MewFu – Galaxy Mewtwo Updated!
Hi everyone! I recently spoke about how Galaxy Mewtwo (or “Jit2”) has been gracing the top of the game right now and is looking to be a great choice for Player’s Cup 4 keys. Low and behold, Simon Trottier has brought forth a new level of strategy to the deck – playing it alongside Rapid StrikeUrshifu VMAX! A bit of a weird combination, Simon has engineered this Pokémon deck to take out this deck’s hardest matchups: Eternatus VMAX as well as Pikarom. Both decks are weak to Fighting-type, which RS Urshifu VMAX can capitalize on. Also, being able to add G-Max Rapid Flow as a useful tool to your deck is great since it is one of the best sniping attacks in the standard format! It also gives you a solid out in the Cracephalon matchup, allowing you to match their pace of taking Prize Cards. Let’s discuss one of the newest archetypes, Mewtwo & Mew Tag Team GX/Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX (“MewFu”)!
Written by Pokémon TCG trainer on 5/21/2021 at category Deck Lists
“Cracephalon” – Blacephalon/Reshizard in Standard!
Good afternoon Trainers! As with all of the best eras in Pokémon, the best deck in the format must fall to the next best deck – this is currently happening in the standard format. With LucMetal slowly getting edged out by decks that play answers, we see Eternatus (with multiple copies of Phoebe) and Blacephalon decks seeing more and more success. This is because decks will always adapt once they see what is winning, and it’s important as players that we note what the best decks are.
Written by Zach Lesage on 5/14/2021 at category Articles
New Cards from Chilling Reign
What's poppin’ PTCGO Store readers? Have you been checking out all of the new PTCGO cards that are going to be released in Chilling Reign? I’ve certainly been drooling over the new cards that have been revealed via Twitter and other Pokemon TCG blog sites! This article will share my early ideas for these concepts and my general thoughts on these exciting cards! I plan on doing a more formal top five video closer to release, but this is an extra early sneak peek into my mind! A huge shoutout goes to the translators at Pokebeach for the translations used in this article. That being said, let’s get it!
Written by Pokemon TCG trainer on 5/12/2021 at category Deck Lists
“The Perfectionist” – Galaxy Mewtwo in Standard!
Alola Trainers! It’s been a whirlwind of a new metagame lately, with a couple of new contenders popping up in online tournaments. Mewtwo & Mew Tag Team GX (“Mewtwo”) has been bringing the heat in this recently newfound variant appropriately titled “Galaxy Mewtwo”! Galaxy Mewtwo is excellent at countering current threats in the standard format, as it specifically focuses around Psychic Energy but utilizes Aurora Energy to attack with different GX Pokémon. Many Pokémon in the format are Psychic-weak, but the biggest one just so happens to be Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX. Rapid Strike just won the Player’s Cup 3 by the hands of Azul Garcia Griego, so you can expect that we’re going to see a ton of this deck going forward; since we can’t afford to consistently lose to one of the most common top tier decks, we need to ensure a victory against it (and that’s just what this deck does). The versatility and efficiency that Mewtwo as a deck carries is unmatched by any other deck since Mewtwo can collectively have over ten attacks to choose from in any given matchup! This is a spicy deck that’s been doing really well in today’s metagame, so let’s hop into why I’m loving it so much!
Written by Pokemon TCG trainer on 5/7/2021 at category Deck Lists
“Eerie Beam” – Orbeetle VMAX in Standard!
Good morning Trainers! Battle Styles is well on its way to becoming a developed format, and there have been a few decks that seem to be rising to the top. Eternatus is shaping up to be one of the top decks alongside ADP and Rapid Strike Urshifu. Mad Party is also rising to be one of the best single Prize Card decks in Standard, with Blacephalon style decks on the come-up as well. Throwing all of that out the window, an interesting deck has popped up seemingly out of nowhere in the form of Orbeetle. Pioneered seemingly by Azul Griego, he innovated a list on his YouTube channel that has some polarizing matchups in the format and is very interesting if you’re looking to pick up a fun deck that can take down some top dogs. With very few official tournaments going on globally, many of the online tournaments are tending to be just for guts and glory. That being said, if you’re looking to jumpstart a fun time, try out the list below because it is quite amusing announcing Eerie Beam multiple times in a turn! Without further explanation, let’s take a dive into Orbeetle VMAX, one of the most fun decks in Standard!