The Player with a Plan — How to Approach Your Turns, with Board State Examples!
Hey PokeBeach readers, I hope your summers have been going well and that you’ve been crushing it at your locals. I’ve been busy testing for the World Championships next month, but I’ve also been trying to make it out to some League Challenges and Cups to get a head start on earning Championship Points for the new season! We are in that weird part of the year where there aren’t any major events besides the World Championships and our format isn’t going to see a large shake up until new sets come out.
My fellow PokeBeach writers and I have covered a majority of our Standard-format decks, so I thought I’d try something new for today’s article. I am going to show some board states and talk through my thought process when approaching them and coming up with a plan. My goal is to teach you how to formulate an effective plan, as well as think through the counters your opponent can do to your plays. I’ve picked multiple decks and types of scenarios, so hopefully you can learn a thing or two!
Before reading this article I recommend checking out this one I wrote on sequencing. It shows how I approach my turns, set goals, and sequence cards. A lot of the same principles will apply today.
How to Come Up with a Plan
Before we jump into the board states, I want to go over how I approach my turns and plan my plays. The two most important things I always ask myself are, one, what does my Prize map look like, and, two, what is my opponent going to do? One thing I’ve noticed a lot of players struggle with is how to think a level deeper and not just play their side of the board. These two questions make it much easier to plan into the future and guide your plays.
When I talk about Prize mapping, what I mean is how we’re going to take our six Prize cards. Who are we going to attack with, which of our opponent’s Pokemon will we be attacking, and what resources will we need to get there? It’s great if you can take a big two-Prize Knock Out, but if you aren’t able to follow it up with more, your position will quickly crumble. By identifying where you can take your six Prize cards, you make it a lot easier to set it up. Maybe you need to bench another attacker and start getting it powered up, or you need to leave a Bench space open for a different attacker or support Pokemon on the following turn, or you need to save a resource such as a Boss's Orders for later.
The next concept to me is one of the most powerful things you can ask in Pokemon, and will instantly level up your skill level if you are able to effectively implement it into your games. The concept I’m talking about is asking what your opponent is going to do. Whenever I come up with a play, my first question is always “What will my opponent do in response?” I call this stress-testing my plays, and it helps me immediately figure out if a play has merit or not. It also identifies any parts of your board that are weak. Maybe you are weak to disruption from an Iono or having your main support Pokemon, like Baxcalibur, Knocked Out; or you’re leaving your opponent with a massive hand or a draw support Pokemon like Bibarel to help them close out a game. If you are able to figure out what your opponent is planning to do, then you can think if you have a response ready!
When thinking about what your opponent can do, you should start by asking what they are capable of pulling off. Think about what resources they have available, which Pokemon are already on the board, and what cards are likely in their list. You should also ask how likely it is they can pull certain plays off. You may be weak to a convoluted five-card combo, but if your opponent only has four cards in hand and no draw Pokemon, then you can probably rule it out.
Another thing when considering our opponent’s moves is what their opportunity cost is. Let’s say you are playing a Chien-Pao ex deck, and you are considering a scenario where your opponent Knocks Out your Chien-Pao ex. That means they aren’t eliminating your Baxcalibur or Bibarel, so you can be sure of having those resources on your next turn. Alternatively if they gust and Knock Out Baxcalibur, then they are only taking a one-Prize Knock Out, and might be weakening their Prize map. It is important that you understand what resources will be left on your board after considering your opponent’s plays.
Building off my first point, you also want to have an idea of your opponent’s Prize map. You should be aware of what they are working toward and if you are closer to taking six Prize cards than they are, and if not, how you can flip the trade back in your favor.
Using these two principles together should help you come up with effective plans and make sure you avoid getting blindsided by your opponent! Let’s dive into some examples. I encourage you to try and solve these, deciding what you would do in the given position, before seeing what I would do. We will always be playing from the position of the player on the bottom and I will let you know any relevant resources and other information at the top of each scenario.
Example 1: Bax in Danger
Our first board is going to focus on the endgame. Our opponent has ten cards in the Lost Zone and access to multiple Energy, Super Rod, and Mirage Gate. We have five Water Energy in the discard, and one in deck. Also in the discard are our last two Chien-Pao ex and our Prime Catcher . Assume you have multiple copies of Superior Energy Retrieval, Super Rod, and Ball search cards left. Your last Frigibax is in the Prize cards and you already used Hisuian Heavy Ball. You do not play Manaphy or Cyllene.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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