Eye on Japan: Worlds' Qualifiers 2013 results and analysis

Hello everyone!

It was fun to see how the Gothitelle/Accelgor article started great discussions all over the web (and

Genesect EX is nothing without the support
cast

especially on my blog), but as Gothitelle/Accelgor has already established itself as a truly competitive deck (it even did well in the first weekend of the U.S. Battle Roads!) there really is no reason anymore to debate whether it’s competitive deck or not. It sure is.

Today, I’m discussing – as the title suggests – a lot easier and less controversial topic - Japan World Championships Qualifiers of this year. They all have finally been played and now it’s time to break down the results. RestlessBob has already made a huge work when combining the results of Worlds Qualifier tournaments in Japan on the Pokegym with the help of Papa Seedot’s blog, which is probably the most known Japanese blog there is and I suggest you check it out if you for some reason haven’t checked it out before.

Time sure flies. It feels like it was yesterday when I did Eye on Japan: Worlds’ Qualifier-entry a year ago (which is one of the most popular articles ever in my blog) and now I'm already on the second one!

First, I’m going to break down all the results from the 4 Qualifiers (excluding the one played in the Palace Format) and after that I’m going to look at some of the speculated and real winning decklists of the most common decks and best decks in the tournaments as well as revealing for example how some of the famous Japanese players did in the tournament series.

Gothitelle/Accelgor - The New BDIF Contender Rises!

Hello everyone!


Norwegian Nationals produced very interesting results. Some of you may ask, how is Norway relevant to

Accelgor is back and it's better than ever!

anything, but for those who doubt the quality of Norwegian players, I must remind that they have done exceptionally well in the ECC every year and for example the Norwegian Nationals winning deck last year, ended up winning the World Championships!

Anyways, enough about Norway and more about the deck I’m going to introduce you today. The deck won Norwegian Nationals in Masters and in fact I have been testing the deck as well for 2 months now, but didn’t really want to make an article of it before it was played in a tournament. A lot of players have probably already come up with this, because the combo has been around forever, but one card made all the difference in the Plasma Freeze. For some reason it hasn’t been discussed that much on the internet (except from that one article on tcgwithats), but I’m sure that is about to change. The reason for this is probably because everyone who came up with it wanted to keep it as a secret. However, now the secret is out and it’s time for some hardcore analysis of the deck.

Let’s start with the list, which combines my own testing experience and the Norwegian Nationals-winning list.

The Deck Out - playmat contest: The Winner!

The winning playmat designed by Andrew Lumapas

Hello everyone!


The results are in. And the winner is…Design 1 with a landslide!

First of all, congratulations for the winner designer Andrew Lumapas, who created this simple, but cool looking design. (Check his website here) I’m a bit surprised how more popular the design 1 was compared to the design 2, which was so awesome as well. In fact, I thought the two designs were equally good even though they were very different looking! However, one had to come up on top and it was the design 1.

Now, when it comes to getting the playmat. It will be sold in the ProPokemon.com website. I’ll let you know in my blog, Twitter and Facebook when they are available for sale. Thanks to the design competition and me not getting any commission from the sales of the playmats, the playmat will cost 28 dollars + the shipping. It’s cheaper than the other playmats out there, but I still know that the price can be an issue for someone (especially for poor students like me). 

Anyways, I hope you support ProPokemon.com and me in a way and buy the playmat. It would be very cool to see someone actually play with The Deck Out –playmat –especially in a streamed game, lol.

Thanks for everyone who attended the competition, by designing, stating their opinion and voting for the designs! For me the competition was a success story.

Stay tuned for the official release date (which should be soon).

LatiLock - Latias EX reborn

Breaking barriers of the metagame

Hi everyone!


Who doesn’t love anti-metagame or rogue decks? Well, I don’t know about you, but I always try to come up with something creative while play testing and hoping that no one else will come up with it as well. Only once have I succeeded in it, and that time around I was able to get to the top8 of the World Championships.

However, today I’m not talking about the history, but the present. One of the most interesting overlooked cards in Plasma Freeze is Latias EX. I have been playing around with it for a few weeks now and after someone suggested on the comments section, if I could do an entry about it, I thought, why not! It’s something completely different and at the same time it’s very potential. Also, if you have already received your invite for Worlds, or are just playing in Battle Roads for fun, I highly suggest testing the concepts I am introducing in this entry.

One small caveat before starting - I’m not yet completely happy with the lists and results I have been getting with these deck, but I do see high potential in them and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone was able to break the format later on this season with a concept involving these cards. Anyways, let’s get going by starting with the list of a real metagame counter deck!

The Deck Out -playmat: The Decision

I couldn’t do it.

As much as I wanted to make the decision myself, I just couldn’t choose between the two finalists of The Deck Out - playmat contest. That’s why I need your help (once again). I’ll only choose the other one of these designs as the “official” The Deck Out –playmat and I think they both are equally good, so it’s up to you.

Vote and let your opinion hear! You have only 5 days to vote, once the poll closes, I’ll send the winner design to the distributor of the playmats. I’ll let everyone know once they are up for sale! Now the finalist designs, which are a bit altered from the original ones you saw. Vote on the upper right corner.

Design 1

Design 2

The Decklist Out: Plasma Freeze makeover!

The undisputed BDIF is in da house.

Hello everyone!


Plasma Freeze is officially released and as I said in one of my past Underground articles, I have been testing the new metagame for a few months already, because in the end it is the only format that really matters to me! (i.e. National Championships and Worlds Championships are played with this format). Anyways, as always, I decided to update The Decklist Out before the tournaments begin with Plasma Freeze decks begin, so be sure to check the lists out while playtesting. I think I have NEVER updated The Decklist Out as much as today and the lists are better than ever as well due to my extensive testing.

The hottest decks now! – section naturally had a makeover thanks to Team Plasma getting the spot of the BDIF in the current format. Weavile/Exeggcute list was added to the metagame decks section and all the old decks saw great changes in their list, because they have to adjust to the new king of the format. Also, as requested last time around, Plasma Klinklang finally got its place among the metagame lists and I’m also quite happy with the list I was able to develop while play testing and watching Klinklang in the tournaments.

As always, feel free to comment on the lists and decks that can be found from The Decklist Out. I triple-checked every list, so the card amounts should be perfectly accurate this time around. If you have suggestions or comments about new decks that should make it to the list, let me know and feel free to disagree with The hottest decks now! - section as well.

Now, to the lists!

The rogues behind Deoxys EX

Hello everyone!



Today I want to do something different and concentrate on one certain card of the Plasma Freeze –

Deoxys EX deposed Mewtwo EX as the BCIF!

Deoxys EX. At the moment it’s the most expensive card in the format (after English Tropical Beach), but the question is, is the price high for a reason or just due to the pure hype generated by the Plasma deck? In short my answer for the question is: the price is too high at the moment, but Deoxys EX has unlimited potential, which kind of justifies its hype.

When it comes to the long answer… Well, in this article I will introduce some concepts, how Deoxys EX can and will be abused. I won’t be talking about the Thundurus EX/Deoxys EX here, because every site seems to be full of the analysis of the deck, but there are a lot of different and creative uses for Deoxys EX even without Thundurus EX.

So what secrets lie behind Deoxys EX’s potential? Let’s find out!