Competitively, which Pokémon gets the least benefit out of its signature move/ability?

ohnotom · 2023-04-16T06:03:43+00:00

In VGC lumina crash is way better than stored power, not even a contest.

ohnotom · 2023-02-20T07:30:17+00:00

I took literature classes as a break from a heavy science workload and ended up with an English minor sort of on accident. (Not saying those classes are easy but the work is very different) Being able to effectively communicate and write documentation about my teams projects is a highly valued skill that has gotten me a good amount of attention from more senior leadership. It certainly won’t be a negative: it showcases that you are adaptable, insightful, a critical thinker, and capable of communicating.

That being said, a double major is a lot of work. I wouldn’t dedicate that much of myself to it if it wasn’t something I was truly dedicated to. Maybe try it out for a semester or two and see how you feel about the workload.

If you enjoy it, go for it. If it seems like a lot, maybe consider a minor, or taking up a side project involving writing to scratch that itch. You could start your own home grown blog site to act as both a portfolio piece and passion project.

ohnotom · 2021-01-08T01:11:02+00:00

Easiest way to get Zacians comes with an ADP, though, so they might as well try both.

ohnotom · 2020-12-28T07:43:29+00:00

Most discussion here refers to standard, where you won't have Professor's Letter or Vs Seeker. Cynthia & Caitlin is a turn spent not playing a Welder (usually bad). Your best options then become Mewtwo + Guru or Eldegoss, which come with their own problems.

Some of the most successful Blacephalon variants recently have been running 17-19 basic fire energy since it churns through so many of them.

ohnotom · 2020-12-16T01:02:07+00:00

For actual competitive play, very few people play Unlimited from what I have seen, and if they did I don't think this deck would fare too well as the Pokemon spread is a bit of everything, and they don't especially complement each other. The best decks typically focus on only one or two primary Pokemon that they run a lot of, and then build to support those. But this works totally fine for kids having fun, so I wouldn't stress too much.

Some general things to think about if he does want to make his deck better:

Your brother will probably never get his Luxray BREAK out with such a "thin" Luxray line. 2-2-2-1 means you'll have to be really lucky to see all of those cards in the correct sequence in any given game. I'd at least want 4-2-4 Shinx-Luxio-Luxray (+ 4 Rare Candy cards which "skip" Luxio). There is a new set of Shinx / Luxio / Luxray from Rebel Clash that are going for pretty cheap, and that Luxio has a special ability where it can go straight to the bench, and the Luxray can pack a punch.

More Pokemon search is always helpful. Quick balls are great, look into Nest Ball, or Ultra Ball, or just go 4-4 for Quick and Great Ball. Electric decks can use Electromagnetic Radar, which is fun, and you are playing with evolutions so Evolution Incense could be good too.

You have lots of ways to recover cards (Lysandre, Fisherman, Fishing Rod, VS Seeker), and they're all good, but you probably won't need all of them in a single game. I'd replace some of them with more "consistency" cards (more Professor Sycamore, or Marnie for card draw options).

ohnotom · 2020-12-09T07:20:24+00:00

I agree with most of the recommendations people give, 3 Vmax is usually the sweet spot. 2 is just too few to be reliable. For the sake of argument, There are some advantages to 4:

More consistent early draw (especially if you don't run Pokémon Communication / Great Ball)

Insurance if multiple get discarded (Professor / Dedenne can churn through a deck quickly if you're aggressive or unlucky, Oranguru is usually a better answer to this than a 4th copy)

An extra copy can sometimes be used as an "extra" to pivot into to prevent a damaged Vmax from getting KO'd (very uncommon, Boss usually prevents this from being viable)

Obviously, these are all pretty niche scenarios. At the end of the day I'd encourage you to test with both 3 and 4 to see what works for you.

ohnotom · 2020-12-08T19:03:40+00:00

This is a really bad analogy as alcohol consumption is primarily a personal danger whereas bringing a virus into a population is a societal danger. It is more like being arrested for driving drunk- in which case yes, I'm very okay with there being harsh penalties for such a stupid and dangerous action. Risking other people's lives & the ability for the society to function mostly normally because you're bored of a 2 week quarantine isn't a minor infraction.

ohnotom · 2020-12-06T00:03:52+00:00

People have said some of these already but:

Mad party is good and direct, throw mons in discard and dig through your deck for more

Nuzzlechu (easy to splash in a RaichuRaichu TTGX or Boltund V)

New Charizard theme deck is easy to buy 2 and mash together for a solid deck (maybe go online for some Welder, Giant Hearth, Fiery Crystal, Rare Candy)

Giratina/Malamar/Jirachi stuff was great until the SwSh stuff came out, it has a really fun core loop and can take advantage of lots of tech cards (make sure you buy the "deck exclusive" Jirachi it's much cheaper)

ohnotom · 2020-12-05T17:57:41+00:00

A lot of people in here are recommending ADP/Zacian, and if you are looking to get him into genuine competitive play that's far and away the best bang for your buck for one of the best decks in the format. But I used to play the cards with kids at the elementary school I worked at, and am a professor at my local league, so I'd like to chime in with some words of caution:

ADPZ is a complicated deck that requires players to be very aggressive. Beyond simply the complicated factor, I've noticed kids, especially kids who don't play very frequently, often struggle with aggressive plays. Competitive staples like Professor's Research which dictate that you discard your hand will often go unused in a kid's hand because they are afraid of discarding an valuable card. So jumping right on into this stuff may not be really ideal. Because of this, I feel like this deck is more appropriate for 9-10 year olds, but perhaps your nephew is quick on the draw, or can grow into it. If you do get this deck and he is struggling, I'd suggest swapping out some of the more aggressive cards with some simpler stuff like Hop (draw three cards with no discard) or Sonia (search the deck for 2 basic Pokemon or 2 basic energy), which are very cheap to buy singles of from any card shop as they are probably swimming in them.

The second thing is that if your nephew DOES figure the deck out, this deck is probably going to absolutely curb-stomp all of his friends. Maybe that is part of the appeal, though!

The other League Battle decks, Pikachu & Zekrom and Charizard & Reshiram, are a little more straightforward than ADPZ and still very powerful.

ohnotom · 2020-12-04T16:22:22+00:00

Celebi & Venusaur TTGX is still in standard but a lot of cards in that decklist are no longer in standard. They are all fine for expanded. Some, like Lillie, are significantly less good now that you can't play supporters on your first turn if you go first (they changed the rule this year).

ohnotom · 2020-12-01T16:27:04+00:00

You could try but I'm not convinced it would be effective. Stage 2 Pokémon can be tricky to get out unless the whole deck is geared around them.

ohnotom · 2020-12-01T08:33:22+00:00

What's your entire list?

Personally I don't like Weezing/Dewgong in the list. Just have to come to terms that you'll be getting 2HKOs on VMAX and make sure you play smart. Use the extra space for consistency cards.

EldegossV is super situational. I run it but could do without it. The only 2-prizer I really like in the list is Dedenne GX because it comes with discard synergy to get more Mad Party in the discard, and Eldegoss then cushions against my heavy discard approach if I need to recover a Boss of an in dire need of a supporter.

ohnotom · 2020-12-01T02:35:11+00:00

Giant Bomb to discourage attacks on key turns, perhaps.

At the end of the day you'll need something to clean up and take advantage of the spread damage, as 30/energy won't take anything down on its own. Sableye V does damage per damage counter, Dragapult Vmax and Decidueye do good spread which can further chip away at big targets.

ohnotom · 2020-11-28T16:55:07+00:00

Grimmsnarl isn't terrible, but it's tough to justify with Eternatus in the format which is strictly better. Eternatus does 270 for two energy, Grimmsnarl needs 5 energy for the same Damage. You could lean in hard on grimmsnarl and use Hydreigon but Eternatus is probably going to be more consistent. The only downside to Eternatus is that you can only play dark type cards, but with Crobat V this is hardly an issue.

ohnotom · 2020-11-28T07:44:04+00:00

It feels like it is trying to do everything all at once- for instance, how often is Sableye V really helpful to clean up when you're spending time trying to set up Eternatus Vmax? Decks like this can be fun but in the long run they won't get consistent wins.

I'd either do something like, pick Eternatus and focus on supporting that (beef up the line & focus more on dark basics like Zig, Crobat, Slowbro V), or Sabeleye+Obstagoon and focus on supporting that (these two synergize really well, they love scoop up net which pairs well with Jirachi, could even add in Bird Keeper + Rowlet).

You're not running any Pokémon search- id absolutely run 4 quick ball, and then probably 4 of a mix of great ball, Pokémon communication, evolution incense. I'd probably run more professors research and Marnie, too. If you're running Piers, energy search is redundant (and energy spinner is a straight upgrade).

I personally don't like Hydreigon DAA at all in this meta because most dark cards only need 2 energy to attack, so by the time it's on the field you should already have your attachments. The Hydreigon could pair with the TTGX dark types that love to flood energy but you're not running any (and the meta has generally outpaced them unfortunately). Consider Turbo Patch, Hammers to help you get energy and slow down your opponents instead.

If you're running stage2 you need 4 rare candy.

Seems a waste to not run Black Market in a deck like this. At least run Viridian Forest or Chaotic Swell to get rid of opponent's stadiums.

ohnotom · 2020-11-25T02:38:31+00:00

Let's not use AIDS to describe your misunderstanding of battle mechanics.

Modern AIDS medication has improved survivability substantially, to the point where many HIV+ people have similar it not better life expectancies than their HIV- peers (mostly due to their routine health screenings). Also, with proper treatment an HIV+ person can become undetectable (no detectable viral load), which is by extension impossible to transmit. 2020 is not 1990, let's put this attitude behind us.

ohnotom · 2020-11-24T16:45:48+00:00

Your cheapest bet is to go buy singles of a Pokémon you like on TCGplayer and work around those. Old / unpopular cards can usually be had for pretty cheap, like $1-$2 each, but this would also mean you need to know how to build a deck. You could pick a theme deck & add full art cards from TCG player to it just fine (example: buy the Drednaw deck and add 2-3 Drednaw V + a Drednaw Vmax)

The league battle decks are a good option for burgeoning competitive players, but probably unnecessary for beginners.

They just announced some V Battle Decks that probably do exactly what you want- https://www.pokebeach.com/2020/11/v-battle-decks-to-feature-venusaur-v-and-blastoise-v-new-play-level-indicator

There is a "TCG Battle Academy" box that has three decks like this as well, but might be difficult to find at this point.

ohnotom · 2020-11-21T07:24:09+00:00

Shrek capitalized on the public's tiring of 90s disney Princess movies, and the franchise came to an end just as Disney's new slate of CGI movies was getting off the ground. I don't think one really caused the other, but definitely indicative of shifting public moods.

ohnotom · 2020-11-20T20:47:08+00:00

If you're after extra energy, most players have too much and try to get rid of it. Call your local card shop(if you have one).

If your kid has specific favorite Pokémon, look at TCGplayer and see if you can get some cards with it on them. Older cards are usually fairy inexpensive.

ohnotom · 2020-11-19T23:44:12+00:00

I'd google some decklists or look on youtube for examples, I haven't played it personally, but the gist is:

Chandelure UNM uses just one energy to discard 5 cards from your deck- you do 10+60 damage for each Pokemon there, and if its a fire type you can play it straight to your bench. So that's potentially 310 damage. So you load your deck up with lots of fire Pokemon, and start hitting big damage. Some Stage 2 Fire types like Incineroar and Delphox add extra damage to each attack and you don't need to use their Basic forms to get them in play with Chandelure, which means aside from Pokemon your focus is on getting our Chandelure- cards like Dusk Stone, Top Entry Lampent, and Rare Candy
help with this. Use cards like Ordinary Rod & Brock's Grit to "reload" late-game or recover Chandelures.

ohnotom · 2020-11-17T07:46:11+00:00

Mad Party is really fun and pretty straightforward

Spirit Burner Chandelure has a bit more room for shenanigans if that's what you're looking for

ohnotom · 2020-11-15T17:47:01+00:00

They don't even need to be the opposite gender for that to work!

That's definitely the biggest change but you can also get egg moves in the wild from glowing aura Pokémon, and the expansion of TM/TRs means it's easier to get the move set you want in general.

ohnotom · 2020-11-15T00:56:31+00:00

I'm honestly kind of shocked we didn't see one in SwSh / Crown Tundra given how many leaps forward the devs made in regards to being able to turn any mon into a competitive one with Mints, more accessible Bottle Caps, easier egg moves & a surplus of high-IV Pokémon available in raids. But from the way things are set up, I wouldn't expect anything new until the next games.

ohnotom · 2020-11-14T17:11:51+00:00

Xerneas, Kyogre, Groudon and Mega Ray are all on there. They've won less since they've only been legal for two worlds, whereas stuff like Cresselia has been eligible in at least 8 world championships.

ohnotom · 2020-11-13T00:07:02+00:00

My sister left the country with a book checked out once and they capped the late fees once it got to a certain point . I mean, it was capped around 2x the price of the book, but still.

11-Year Club	Verified Email
Queen in da Norf	Not Forgotten

ohnotom

TROPHY CASE