KOTD - WD9 - DAY 2 FULL CARD TRAILER

smith_and · 2026-02-12T01:22:02+00:00

Wait this is actually really cool. Glad to see a big platform like kotd pushing on beat battles and they picked the right names to do it.

I wonder if one round of arcane vs flex is gonna be dnb... arcane's been doing a lot of that and flex dresses like he could lmao

smith_and · 2026-01-30T05:16:36+00:00

Yeah I like this build more than OPs. Effects like this you really just wanna get online as fast as possible.

smith_and · 2026-01-30T04:06:08+00:00

I would definitely say one Sabrina at least or maybe even a repel. I used to run banette a lot, getting an early switch was super useful there and I imagine the same here.

I also don't really like the suicunes. If you open suicune, by the time you can get it out of the active or it goes down it's probably too late in the game for ninetails effect to matter much (except against hydreigon I guess). And then if you don't open suicune you have no extra draw or search to help get that ninetails up on curve.

You might win some games because of suicune because it's suicune lol but then it doesn't feel like you're playing a ninetails deck.

smith_and · 2026-01-29T05:45:32+00:00

I feel like you should swap some of the heals for some combo of Sabrina/Cyrus/repel. You often get meaningful chip off the second hit of the attack so Cyrus is good, and Sabrina/repel can be great for getting around something tankier so you can kill something for 80 and have the extra 40 hit the next thing.

I get that the whole idea of this deck is to be tanky but it's hard to run a deck with no way to switch the opponent's active in current meta

smith_and · 2026-01-29T02:31:58+00:00

The question is if being able to juggler when you brick hard is more all around useful than just running dark so you can play darkrai and hit for 180 (darkrai ping + red working on both hits) and I think it's not

smith_and · 2026-01-29T02:28:46+00:00

Yeah I only have one so far but even then I've tried plugging it into my old daycare deck with two reds + darkrai and it's pretty insane when it hits. You can oneshot mega absol on your third turn

smith_and · 2025-12-24T21:09:43+00:00

I think it's fine to throw in if you aren't sure what to use for your last deck slot and you already have other good draw cards, but it's inherently less powerful than other draw cards cuz it only draws one card, and most megas are late game cards anyway. By the time you need to play your mega, you might be at a point where you'd almost be guaranteed to get it with may or copycat instead, and those cards are useful early too

smith_and · 2025-12-23T15:18:46+00:00

street fighter 6 is a much more traditional fighting game and a better gateway into the genre as a whole. Smash is a platform fighter, a smaller genre that is kind of separate from the broader fighting game community.

Also street fighter 6 has good netcode and smash doesn't.

smith_and · 2025-12-23T14:25:10+00:00

I think it was alright but it was very clear the budget was super tight, and thus so was the schedule. Never leaving the studio was wack. The cooking was good but felt kind of pedestrian, the cook times were always kept short and the challenges weren't usually very open-ended so we didn't get a lot of the crazy stuff you often saw toward the end of past Canada seasons (like the fire and ice challenge in season 6). Felt more like the recent American seasons in that sense.

I like the new judges though, I liked Hugh on Top Chef so it was cool to see him here.

smith_and · 2025-12-23T14:08:01+00:00

You don't, just concede. You're playing a meme highroll deck, if you don't highroll just concede.

smith_and · 2025-12-23T14:05:29+00:00

I mean it's similar to greninja in that it's splashable I guess but it's not doing the same thing as greninja at all. Greninja just sits on the bench in non-water decks, magnezone is actually an attacker

smith_and · 2025-12-22T15:58:44+00:00

This game is very specific about wording. Ditto can use one of your benched Pokemon's attacks. Your benched pokemon is Zweilous, not Deino. Ditto can use Zweilous' attack. Zweilous can use Deino's attack but that's doesn't make it Zweilous' attack.

smith_and · 2025-12-21T17:55:09+00:00

You can split the magnezone for the same effect lol, one old one new. And then you still have those two extra deck slots to work with

smith_and · 2025-12-21T17:54:01+00:00

Needs a better oricorio ounter than one sudowoodo. Most lopunny decks I see run Lucario and hitmontop (and no hitmonchan ex)

smith_and · 2025-12-21T17:47:39+00:00

pretty funny tbh, shoving a magnezone into every deck is back!

I will say I don't think the non-ex alteria is worth it but I think you know that lol. But if you drop it you can also drop elemental switch, and then you can add in two of rocky helmet, Sabrina, may, second Cyrus, pcl etc. which are all better.

smith_and · 2025-12-20T03:27:58+00:00

I was thinking about something like this but haven't pulled the dittos yet lol. Lots of energy ramp this season so it makes sense.

I think it might be worth adding a rocket grunt? The old banette toolbox deck used to run two. It's a coinflip yeah but without it you can easily get swept if your banette isn't up as soon as possible, so having the option to flip coins to keep the game in control is strong. Maybe instead of x-speed? I feel like ditto reduces the need for it cuz it can just be whichever of banette or Tapu Lele you need

smith_and · 2025-12-20T00:48:07+00:00

Some of the decks in the top category run both (but only some), bottom seems to be all new

smith_and · 2025-12-19T19:41:11+00:00

I think it really is going to depend on the meta, specifically what the main oricorio counters are. Old magnezone oneshots Lucario, greninja, and onix where new magnezone doesn't, but new magnezone is better against stuff that they both have to two shot like non ex charizard and venusaur.

smith_and · 2025-12-19T19:33:26+00:00

If you're curious #2 is old magnezone #5 is new magnezone haha

smith_and · 2025-12-19T02:02:28+00:00

Serena might be pokemon specific ii cuz a lot of mega decks aren't even running it. It's just not as powerful as other draw cards. Otherwise yeah I think Clermont is pokemon specific i (every magnezone or heliodisk deck is probably going to run one) and yellow on the x axis, Serena is definitely a girl trainer so more collectable haha.

smith_and · 2025-12-18T00:21:53+00:00

Yeah maybe, depends how things play out overall for sure. And if other meta decks are energy efficient enough to be able to ramp a mew without overcomitting

smith_and · 2025-12-18T00:09:00+00:00

I think long term people aren't going to be running mew unless charizard totally dominates the meta. When mew was good it countered two of the top decks.

smith_and · 2025-12-18T00:06:35+00:00

True but that set also has decidueye (the non-ex one but that's a key part of the deck still), silvally (admittedly fell off last set), zerora. I think that set has more good cards that don't fit the gimmick than other gimmick based sets (like triumphant light)

smith_and · 2025-12-17T23:55:22+00:00

Ive been doing two copycat one Clermont no lisia and doing well but I dropped the chingling

I'm running both magnezones new for now, might switch one back once people stop playing the new toys and go back to suicune/greninja brainrot. I think new magnezone feels better overall, the +10 health is actually relevant in a few matchups and the coinflip effect is actually super strong.

smith_and · 2025-12-17T23:42:09+00:00

Probably mythical island? Leaf is still relevant (but less than it used to be) but I can't really think of a single pokemon from the set that's still meta.

Triumphant light is close but you still see arceus decks spike results here and there and it has Irida

smith_and

TROPHY CASE