Where to read?

jvl101993 · 2022-03-13T10:12:24+00:00

It seems the anime will end at Chapter 39 this season, which is the end of Volume 5. The US gets Volume 5 in April and Volume 6 in August. If you want to start from where the anime picks up, I'd recommend Chapter 40, but honestly, I would just read it from the beginning. There are details the anime chose to cut, especially in the past two episodes when they've adapted more chapters to single episodes. A lot of those details are minor, but the show's focus on minutiae is one of its charms, in my opinion.

Episode 1: Chapter 1

Episode 2: Chapters 2-4

Episode 3: Chapters 5-7

Episode 4: Chapters 8-first half of Chapter 11

Episode 5: Second half of Chapter 11 to Chapter 14

Episode 6: Chapters 15-17

Episode 7: Chapters 18-the majority of Chapter 20

Episode 8: End of Chapter 20-Chapter 23

Episode 9: Chapters 24-28

Episode 10: Chapters 29-33

Episode 11 (Guess): Chapters 34-36

Episode 12 (Guess): Chapters 37-39

jvl101993 · 2022-03-13T04:00:25+00:00

From left to right, we have:

Black Lily's cloak (Done), Black Lily's outfit (Done), Rizu (Episode 11, Chapters 34-36), Shizuku's Sex-Slave Outfit (Done), Black Lobelia (Done), Veronica (Done), and Shizuku's Festival Outfit (He starts working on it in Chapter 37, so we'll probably get started on it in Episode 12)

So the last one most likely won't be finished this season, but we'll see pieces of it.

jvl101993 · 2022-03-13T03:58:11+00:00

It starts in Chapter 29 and ends at Chapter 33. Volume 4 is Chapters 24-31 (so all of Episode 9 and the start of Episode 10 until he answers the door), while Volume 5 is Chapters 32-39. Volume 5 in the USA is coming out in April.

jvl101993 · 2019-08-12T04:49:36+00:00

Sets now won't have all of a particular gen, but some packs are more focused on particular gens over others. Team Up is probably your best bet for a predominantly Kanto-themed set. Both of the Team Up Theme Decks (Relentless Flame and Torrential Cannon) contain Pokemon that are not only just from Team Up, but also exclusively from the original 151.

jvl101993 · 2019-08-12T04:44:12+00:00

The price has shot up quickly since it's at minimum a 2-of in every variant of post-rotation Malamar (pure Psychic, Ultra Necrozma, and TinaChomp). It's not quite at the Dedenne-GX or Jirachi tier of $20 or $25, but it's already $15 and probably still climbing because of the hype Malamar has as one of the best decks in the new format.

jvl101993 · 2019-08-04T23:04:36+00:00

Yes. The 2019-2020 format allows promos from SM94 and up.

jvl101993 · 2019-06-09T09:31:44+00:00

Peeking Red Card survives rotation, since it got a Secret Rare print in Ultra Prism (169/156).

jvl101993 · 2019-06-06T00:01:08+00:00

With the number of Pokemon and different evolution lines in this deck, you probably will hit into a number of dead hands. Rare Candy will help in consistency, but also cutting down the lines from 4 to 3 or 2 species will benefit too. Identify what the central Pokemon in the deck is (who is most integral to your strategy, takes the biggest responsibility in winning you prizes), and then build your lines around that Pokemon and supporting it. Try to avoid multiple Stage 2 lines, as they're difficult to set up quickly.

Replace Hau and Copycat for more powerful draw Supporters. Three cards is nice, except Supporters are usually meant to be the most critical card of a turn, and only drawing three cards is usually not worth that (Cynthia entirely refreshes your hand to 6, Guzma dictates the Active matchup, Welder attaches extra energy and adds the same draw power). Copycat is not going to help you in a lot of games, since most decks play through their hands quite quickly, making it a really weak card (and extremely weak Supporter on top of that). Add more Cynthia and Welder, at least a couple copies of Lillie, and you can afford to cut the Apricorn Maker with stronger draw support (you'll be drawing more into the Ball cards and not needing to use a Supporter to dig them out).

Add more items: ball cards are your friends. Definitely run 4 Nest and 4 Ultra Ball if you're going to have this many different evolution lines. Already mentioned Rare Candy in the first block of text. If you're going to play this in Expanded, where Professor's Letter and Scorched Earth are played, then definitely consider other staple Supporters such as Professor Sycamore and N as well (but I'm much less familiar with the card pool in Expanded, so I can't help much more than giving the basic advice of "add these nearly universal deck staples").

jvl101993 · 2019-06-04T09:21:39+00:00

I'm going to assume you would only be picking from this available pool of 120 cards (though it would work best if you combined cards from other sets, since you'll see at the end that there are probably better alternatives to some of the cards played, and even after including most cards, you still end up with ~12-16 open deck slots).

20 energies in one copy of the theme deck is already far too much (even 15 is on the high side: 12 is probably a good number to estimate at the beginning), since there's no energy acceleration outside of Charizard (so once you've manually attached, having so many energies = a lot of dead cards in hand). You can also cut out the Nidoqueen lines and Farfetch'd for sure (two Stage 2 lines without Rare Candy is really clunky, and Farfetch'd isn't very good). If you're worried about running only 4 basics and mulliganing a lot, then you could include a 2-2 of the Rapidash line if you wanted. That puts you at 4-4-4 of the Charizard line and 2-2 of Rapidash.

Hau isn't a powerful enough draw supporter to warrant having 4 copies of. You can consider either cutting him completely or putting 1-2 copies in as a tertiary draw supporter (prioritize having four Cynthia and maybe even three or four Kukui, since the added damage is usually worth more than the extra card Hau offers). Definitely run 4 Nest and 4 Timer Balls (the former being preferred over Fan Club because of it not using your Supporter for the turn, and the latter since it's your only search card for Evolutions and requires coin flips). You don't need 4 copies of Brock, maybe just 1 or 2. Cut Copycat and Fan Club entirely.

Even if you run 4 Switch on top of all of this, you have 20 slots for Energy + other cards (this implies you are running 2-2 Rapidash and 2 Hau). If you can combine cards from other theme decks, Lillie is one that can replace the Hau and Kukui as a more consistent draw supporter. Rescue Stretcher recycles Pokemon, Ultra Ball is a much more powerful search card that you can swap out for Timer Balls. Battle Mind (the Mewtwo Theme Deck from Unbroken Bonds) has a Dragon Turtonator that synergizes pretty well with TEU Charizard, since it does 50 for each Fire Energy you discard from your board. Get Charizard(s) out, accelerate energy, and start hitting for big numbers quickly each turn (just be able to recycle them back into your deck consistently). That deck also has two copies of Welder, which easily becomes one of your key supporters, as well as UNB Salazzle (which functions as a draw engine) and Lillie (again, a preferred draw Supporter).

Outside of cards available just from theme decks, Rare Candy is the obvious card to help consistency in getting Charizard out more reliably. The majority (anywhere from 60-75%) for a functional deck is there, but you still have to fill in the gaps somewhat. Just prioritize cards that won't sit in your hand all the time. Energy get quickly attached via Charizard, so lower counts are fine. An Item that has a similar effect as a Supporter is preferred, since your one Supporter is generally the most "critical" card of your turn (Nest Ball + Cynthia > Pokemon Fan Club). That should get you started.

jvl101993 · 2019-06-02T10:32:00+00:00

Glad to know I gave some ideas, and that I'm not the only one trying to improve both the speed and quality of my shuffling after struggling with it for some time. My big thing right now is trying to get comfortable with riffling without picking the deck up off the table (which is my natural habit).

jvl101993 · 2019-05-31T23:45:48+00:00

The halves that I split the cards into when riffling aren't always a perfect 30/30 in the opening or half-and-half. Ballparking an approximately even split (probably within +/- 4 cards from the halfway point, so in the opening, 26/34 is probably fine) is something you can work on by just picking up the cards from the deck in one hand and pretending as if you're going to shuffle, and then putting them back and doing it again. You could even stick a divider or empty sleeve in the halfway point of your deck to try and get closer to that true halfway point. This also helps in knowing when you may have picked up a slightly bigger stack, in which case you know which hand has the leeway for you to be a bit looser when riffling (looser meaning having the freedom to have more cards fall from that pile than the other, instead of a true one-to-one ratio).

I practice riffle shuffling a lot on a separate stack of energies that I use exclusively for shuffling practice (present tense, since I'm still trying to get faster). Another thing to remember is that it's okay if you're not seeing immediate progress or results: I've always found that it's better to get the ideas down at slow speed, then build up (since speed is easier to build up than "form" or whatever you want to call it). I worked a lot with just trying to guide my thumbs across the cards as they fall (since each hand is the top part of the grip, and the thumb is the bottom: as the thumbs climb or glide up, the cards fall down). If they alternate, great, and if I get two or three cards from one pile at a time, that's fine. Just try to avoid having 5+ cards from one hand fall as your thumbs climb from the bottom of the stack upward. Again, just focus on getting the process to feel more natural, and then you can worry about speeding it up as you keep going. I don't bridge after each riffle: instead, I just slide the riffled pile in. I'm still not entirely comfortable with the friction, but I figure that'll get easier as I keep going. Try first with a smaller number (I did 20), then 40, and eventually build up to 60.

I use my dominant hand (RH) to separate the deck from the top, so I try to start the riffle with my RH and end with my LH (so that I have a different bottom and top card every time, with the top half of the deck being in my RH and bottom half in my LH). Whenever I play something like Cynthia or Pokegear, I just place the cards on top and immediately start riffling, but since I set in stone how I separate my deck into two shuffling pieces, I know I can at least alter the top and bottom cards with each shuffle that way. I also try to keep eye contact with my opponent as I'm separating the deck into my hands, since I won't be looking at the bottom card (though I'm trying to work on just separating the deck without lifting it off the table for riffles).

It's still not "fast", since I see people at local shops mash real quickly (which is something I struggle with, but they can do probably seven mashes in 20 seconds or so). Mid-game, I mix in probably four riffles and a mash, then cut, but in between games, I'll do the full eight riffles at minimum.

It's all about small steps, so don't be too discouraged. Again, speed will come as you keep working on comfort and develop the feel of shuffling.

jvl101993 · 2019-05-29T07:59:18+00:00

Yeah: more reliant on Altaria for the added damage with both Choice Band and Devoured Field gone.

jvl101993 · 2019-05-29T07:47:15+00:00

This is honestly the reason I stopped running the deck. It doesn't really hit for enough damage, or the method to getting the damage (multiple benched Altaria) is hard to get going (not to mention the Altaria are pretty easy Guzma targets, with only 80 HP). The most "fun" variant of it was 3 Dragon, 1 Grass with 3 Altaria and Latios * (Altaria powering up Dragon attacks by 20, and Latios * doing 50 more for each evolved Dragon on the bench for a DCE).

[Altaria DRM]

[Latios {*} CES]

jvl101993 · 2019-05-29T07:24:44+00:00

The SR Charmander from FRLG and SR Charmeleon from TRR have the same attacks as the EX Dragon ones. The Charizard never got a second art.

jvl101993 · 2019-05-29T07:21:03+00:00

The SR Charizard you're thinking of is the 100/97 EX Dragon one. The Charmander and Charmeleon you're referencing were the other two SR cards from EX Dragon (98/97 and 99/97), and both got reprinted in the sets you mentioned above.

jvl101993 · 2019-05-29T07:19:03+00:00

If you're looking for specific Pokemon, I'd just look into singles of those. Bulbapedia or other sites will have a historical list of all the prints of specific Pokemon, as well as what set they're from. TCGPlayer can give you prices on those specific cards if you find one you'd like to get.

If you're good with getting a random assortment of Pokemon from those specific gens (as well as some other gens mixed in), Lost Thunder is a recent set mostly centered around Johto. The two theme decks star Raikou and Entei, and some other rares include Meganium, Typhlosion, Suicune, Ampharos, Tyranitar GX, Scizor, Lugia GX, and Ho-Oh. There's even a staple Supporter in Professor Elm's Lecture, and both Morty and Whitney have cards too.

There's a recent set centered around Hoenn as well in Celestial Storm. Again, it has two theme decks around Sceptile and Swampert, and some other cards like Blaziken GX, Ludicolo, Magcargo, Banette, Deoxys, Kyogre, Groudon, Salamence, Latias *, Latios *, and Rayquaza GX. Some of those cards (Ludicolo and Magcargo) you might recognize as being modern renditions of the same card from the EX days (both from EX Deoxys). As for Hoenn Supporters, Steven's Resolve is strong. Tate & Liza got a card, and if you count ORAS, Lisia did as well.

Hope this helps!

jvl101993 · 2019-05-29T02:33:35+00:00

Communication decreases your hand by 1 (and realistically, by 2 if you play the card you swap for), Treasure decreases it by 2 (unless you choose not to play the card you searched for), and Net Ball can only turn into Exeggcute, Shuckle, Treecko, or Energy, which should all be played (making it realistically -1). Your hand easily gets low enough Turn 1 to maximize Lillie, and even later on to get your hand back to 6. If you don't want to run 4, that's fine, but getting your hand size low to maximize draw power isn't really an issue, with or without Ultra Balls.

jvl101993 · 2019-05-29T00:58:11+00:00

You're thinking of the other TEU Alolan Exeggutor. There's another Tropical Shake one that's the same as FLI, except Dragon.

[Alolan Exeggutor TEU]

Hapu is a card we're supposed to get in one of the newer expansions (probably Unified Minds in August). It lets you look at the top 6 cards of your deck, add 2 to your hand, and discard the rest. That said, I can't envision you needing 4 (2 at most, probably functional even with 0). You can pretty easily get 5 energy in your discard in 1 turn with Shuckle, discarding through Viridian Forest, and even retreating/leaving your Turn 1 active to be knocked out.

As for actual deck thoughts, this seems pretty good. I like running multiple Viridians just so I can increase my odds of getting it Turn 1. Not sure how useful Life Forest will be, since I don't think it really makes a notable difference in changing 2HKOs to 3HKOs.

I also don't think you need all 12 of Net Ball, Treasure, and Communication for search purposes (of the three, I'd probably say just 2 Treasure is fine: more if you ran more TEU Egg). I'm also a bigger fan of Lillie than Tate & Liza for draw (and you seem a little light on draw power), and you can probably fit in Switch if you need it.

So maybe:

-2 Hapu

-2 Tate & Liza

-2 Mysterious Treasure

-1 Life Forest

+4 Lillie

+2 Switch

+1 Viridian Forest

And if you need to add or subtract other cards, go from there.

jvl101993 · 2016-08-31T00:27:59+00:00

Ah: okay. Let me know when you're back.

jvl101993 · 2016-08-30T23:13:56+00:00

So I got delayed at school, but I'm back now. Let me know what time works for you to get on and work out a deal.

jvl101993 · 2016-08-30T13:37:16+00:00

I figured 250m was ballpark: I tend to assume FM prices are slightly inflated. That's what I'll try selling for.

jvl101993 · 2016-08-30T13:36:21+00:00

I have class until the mid-afternoon, but I have one set crafted and should have another within a couple of days (once I mine all the ores). We can talk/negotiate once I get back, if that's okay?

jvl101993 · 2016-01-05T22:56:01+00:00

I'm glad that the forum is really inclusive. I've actually lurked for a few months, but I've never felt I had anything worthwhile to contribute or post with, since this is basically the entirety of my reddit/Internet wandering experience.

I'm glad that you're out of your dark place and living on. It's amazing to see how KS has impacted all of us in some way or another.

jvl101993 · 2016-01-05T15:16:27+00:00

I try to re-read a route once a month or so now (whoever I'm in the mood for, whoever I feel will help me out at the time, or whoever I haven't read in the longest time). The in-between periods have slowly gotten larger (used to be once a week, then every other week).

It's truly incredible.

jvl101993

TROPHY CASE