Eye on Japan: The metagame

BCIF! (you heard it here first)

Hello everyone!


I bombarded you with Eye on Japan articles last month, but that’s what you wanted! You better be careful what you wish for, haha. Anyways, this is my last Eye on Japan –article in a while (unless something worth mention happens in Japan) as I’ve pretty much depleted all the experience and information I got on my trip to Tokyo and I want to do well at Nationals.

Today I’ll be looking deeper on the current metagame of Japan. We all know that Thundurus EX/Deoxys EX is the biggest deck in Japan at the moment, but what about the other top tier contenders? I will look at the decks that don’t exist in our format yet, but I’ll also mention the current decks that we have and are still thriving in Japan as well. This should be interesting for anyone who is already looking at the future and for our upcoming Nationals’ and Worlds’ format.

Lots of interesting decklists incoming, so be prepared! And in case you don't know what the cards do, remember to check out the translations from:

The Decklist Out updated for Plasma Storma and States!

A new staple for a lot of decks!

Hello everyone!

States are nearing in mad-fast and it’s been almost a month since the release of Plasma Storm, so it’s about a time for me to update The Decklist Out with Plasma Storm. As always, I hope these lists will help you to test for the upcoming States Championships and figure out what’s the correct play.

I’ll probably be doing a States-metagame prediction entry also before the States begin, but in the meanwhile I hope these lists will be useful. Also, I have my next Eye on Japan article coming soon as well, so look for it. Even though I’ve busy schedule in my life, I have somehow managed to keep busy schedule in my blog as well, which I’m very happy about!

Anyways, enough chit-chat. Let’s take a look at the new decklists that Plasm Storm offered us! And don’t forget to comment if you have any suggestions or fixes for The Decklist Out! Here’s the new The Decklist Out.

Impact Crater: Plasma Storm

The most overpriced card of the current format!

Hello everyone!


Due to my very tight schedule with school, work, ECC and other things, the Impact Crater of Plasma Storm is later than usual. Nonetheless, there are a lot of interesting and potential cards in the set. Especially some cards are very (over)hyped. I was a bit disappointed that Plasma Storm wasn’t allowed in the ECC, because it shapes up the metagame quite a bit.

I think the main thing about Plasma Storm, is that even though some cards are listed in the Impact Crater NOW, it doesn’t mean that the cards have an impact NOW. Most of the cards in Plasma Storm get a lot better after the release of BW8 and that’s when we are able to see the main potential of those cards. However, thankfully there are also cards that will have an impact of the metagame right now. Let’s see what Plasma Storm has to offer!

 

The ECC Experience

Will the real Esa please stand up?

Hello everyone!
So, last weekend I was playing in the European Challenge Cup (ECC). If you have followed me on Twitter or Facebook, you already know how I did, but anyways, the tournament is only once a year, and it was once again one of the greatest tournament experiences ever, so it’s worth writing a report.

After failing with Quad Sigilyph and Mewtwo EX/Landorus EX, I decided to give a chance for a deck, which I really didn’t want to play – Blastoise/Keldeo EX. I built a list of it, which was very close to the U.S. Regionals winning list and tried it out. It worked out superb and I was convinced that Blastoise is the BDIF as long as you can get it set upping consistently. The list set upped itself consistently and I even found room for a Tool Scrapper, so it was decided. I would like have to played Hammertime, but noticed that it has big issues against most Blastoise variants, so in a very early stages of thinking about the tournament deck, I neglected the idea of playing Hammertime. And in the end, Hammertime won the whole tournament! Why, oh why, didn’t I trust on the Hammers. Anyways, here’s the list of my Blastoise deck.

Metagaming the ECC

Did the U.S. players get the most out
of Garbodor?

Hello everyone!

Tomorrow morning I’ll leave for the Netherlands, to my 3rd most important tournament of the year – the European Challenge Cup (ECC). For those who don’t know what ECC, it’s practically European Championships for the Pokémon TCG. It gathers over 300 players all around the Europe for the title. Last two years, I have attended the tournament, and reached top16 both times. I hope, I’ll continue that streak once again!

Anyways, I know there are some European readers on my blog, so I decided to do a quick metagame analysis of what I expect the ECC metagame to be like. This is also to clear my head before the tournament, because I like writing my thoughts on paper. If you want to follow my ECC run in real-time, remember to follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

This will be quick, but interesting, so let’s get going.

Cities w/ Landorus EX/Mewtwo EX

And the award of the most useless card
of the tournament goes to....

Hello everyone!


After a lot of Eye on Japan articles, it’ back to basics as I played in my second CC this year last weekend! I’ll attend the European Challenge Cup in the Netherlands, which will be held this Saturday-Sunday, so this was my last chance to test any deck for the tournament. If you want to be up-to-date on for my ECC-run, remember to follow me on

Facebook and
Twitter

And you’ll be up-to-date!

I already know that I had tested Hammertime enough for ECC, so I was left with 2 tier1 decks – Landorus EX/Mewtwo Ex and Blastoise/Keldeo EX. On the day before the tournament, I decided to give a try for Landorus EX/Mewtwo EX as I saw a lot of Eelektriks in our last City Championships. So, how it went? We shall see. But let’s start with the list.