Diving Deep — Analyzing Complex Board States

[PMJ]

Hey PokeBeach readers, I hope your season has been off to a great start!
It is hard to believe we are already approaching the end of the first quarter of the season. I recently followed up my 2nd place finish at the Baltimore Regional Championships with a Top 8 at the Louisville Regional Championships! I played the exact same 60 card deck list at both tournaments, and was rewarded for continuing to put my faith in Lugia VSTAR!

I actually wasn’t even planning on attending Louisville, but when more registration slots opened up I decided I should keep playing hot off of my Baltimore finish, and I’m very glad I did! If you want to read about my Lugia deck and it’s construction check out...

Continue reading...

 

[Vulpix123]

Board one: dusknoir their dusclops and boss rotom after nest balling for a Pokemon(preferably duskull

 

[Artifactor]

Board state 1: pop dusknoir to hit charizard, tjen use noctowl to get a recovery card, then buddy buddy to refill bench, knock out charizard, when it comes back to you, your opp likely knocked out your terapagos so they're at 1 prize, youre at 2, play ultra ball to either get noctowl and use it to get an 8th pokemon on the bench or just put another pokemon on the bench use quick search for double turbo energy, attach to terapagos, boss up rotom to win the game.

 

[stopher95]

Board one: dusknoir their dusclops and boss rotom after nest balling for a Pokemon(preferably duskull

You would Dusknoir the Charmeleon, not the Dusclops. Dusknoir-ing the Dusclops leaves them a turn to evolve into Charizard ex, meaning you have to knock out a 2-prizer in the next turn to win. By popping the Charmeleon and boss'ing the Rotom, you make yourself Briar-proof, and they can't do anything about the vulnerable Dusclops.

 

[Greninjaboi]

Board state 1: pop dusknoir to hit charizard, tjen use noctowl to get a recovery card, then buddy buddy to refill bench, knock out charizard, when it comes back to you, your opp likely knocked out your terapagos so they're at 1 prize, youre at 2, play ultra ball to either get noctowl and use it to get an 8th pokemon on the bench or just put another pokemon on the bench use quick search for double turbo energy, attach to terapagos, boss up rotom to win the game.

This would be a mistake because you leave yourself open to Briar by being at 2.

 

[Greninjaboi]

You would Dusknoir the Charmeleon, not the Dusclops. Dusknoir-ing the Dusclops leaves them a turn to evolve into Charizard ex, meaning you have to knock out a 2-prizer in the next turn to win. By popping the Charmeleon and boss'ing the Rotom, you make yourself Briar-proof, and they can't do anything about the vulnerable Dusclops.

Exactly. They can't use dusk if you go to 1. In terapagos vs. zard it is essentially a race to 1 prize since you shut off dusk and briar. If you get to 1 prize in that matchup and your opponent has 3 or more, you seal the game.

 

[JakeTheGearHeart]

1st Puzzle:
- Poffin for another Duskull
- Quick Search for DTE to attach to the Benched Terapagos
- Boss KO Dusclops

Briar + Cursed Blast + Counter/Prime Catcher wins next turn. They can do some combination of: bump your Stadium, disrupt your hand, and Defiance Band KO Pidgeot to give themselves the best chance to win.

I believe all other lines either lose to one of:
- Their own Briar
- Turo Rotom + evolve Charmeleon
- Poffin + Stadium bump to discard Rotom and anything with damage + evolve Charmeleon

If you know they can't Prime Catcher or bump the Stadium, there might also be a line with Pidgeot 𑄺𝘟 KO Dusclops because they can't Turo and gust.

 

[Greninjaboi]

1st Puzzle:
- Poffin for another Duskull
- Quick Search for DTE to attach to the Benched Terapagos
- Boss KO Dusclops

Briar + Cursed Blast + Counter/Prime Catcher wins next turn. They can do some combination of: bump your Stadium, disrupt your hand, and Defiance Band KO Pidgeot to give themselves the best chance to win.

I believe all other lines either lose to one of:
- Their own Briar
- Turo + evolve Charmeleon
- Poffin + Stadium bump to discard Rotom and anything with damage + evolve Charmeleon

If you know they can't Prime Catcher or bump the Stadium, there might also be a line with Pidgeot 𑄺𝘟 KO Dusclops because they can't Turo and gust.

Ah, right. Turo evolve wasn't something I fully considered. My problem with that is turo evolve seems tough to pull off, while it seems pretty easy for your opponent to iono and mess you up while also easily finding counter catcher or collapsed. If they find iono/stamp and one of those things you might fall apart, especially because iono puts your noctowl on the bottom.

 

[Greninjaboi]

1st Puzzle:
- Poffin for another Duskull
- Quick Search for DTE to attach to the Benched Terapagos
- Boss KO Dusclops

Briar + Cursed Blast + Counter/Prime Catcher wins next turn. They can do some combination of: bump your Stadium, disrupt your hand, and Defiance Band KO Pidgeot to give themselves the best chance to win.

I believe all other lines either lose to one of:
- Their own Briar
- Turo Rotom + evolve Charmeleon
- Poffin + Stadium bump to discard Rotom and anything with damage + evolve Charmeleon

If you know they can't Prime Catcher or bump the Stadium, there might also be a line with Pidgeot 𑄺𝘟 KO Dusclops because they can't Turo and gust.

Just thought of another out to that. If they thorton rotom into dusk, then use dusk on hoothoot and ko they put themselves at 1 and you at 2, and you can't kill anything on their board except Charmeleon, which doesn't win the game since you have 2 prizes.

 

[Edmanbosch]

Board 1: Use Buddy Buddy Poffin to get a second Duskull set up. Use Pidgeot to search for DTE and attach it to the Second Terapagos. Then, use Boss on the opponent's Dusclops and knock it out. This makes it so that my opponent cannot win on their next turn, allows me to win on my next turn, and limits the ways in which my opponent can keep me from winning.
Oh nvm, someone else already said this before me .

 

[MarlinRimes]

Board 1: pour gasoline all over the table, light it on fire, call a judge to declare that your opponent damaged your cards, win the match, walk away like a boss

 

[TheNidoKing]

Honest question: what defines a season, and how are quarters measured? I thought every new set release was a new “season” (at least for standard).

 

[Shinryu]

Can only see the first board like others I suspect, but I guess I would first quick search with pidgeot ex to see if any briar potentially in the deck is even present along with at least a rare candy and dusknoir or night switch; if it is, then grab briar, boss up their dusclops, bench another duskull with buddy poffin if it’s available, KO their dusclops and win next turn potentially. The only wrench in the plan potentially is if they Iono you down to 3 and take out your stadium, in which case you’ll need luck in trying to recover. This also assumes they feed into your bait of an easy prize KOing terapagos ex, they may well just take a 1 prizer and wait as well to see who blinks. Otherwise they can only take a maximum of 3 prizes.

If Briar is prized/not present I’d aim to dusknoir their pidgeot ex, drag it up with boss, buddy poffin 1-2 duskull to the bench, then KO the pidgeot ex with terapagos. Before that, Quick search out beforehand like a DTE to prepare for next turn, or night stretcher if dusknoirs aren’t present. If you can’t try to set up the whole 3 prize play with Briar, the next best option to me is to deny their way to search out their own potential Briar; sure they may have it in hand, but you’d be out regardless if you can’t Briar and take 2 prizes.

Last option would be to do as much damage by bossing up rotom ex, taking out charmeleon with dusknoir, then KOing the rotom ex, along with buddy poffin to get more duskulls benched. This stops them from using dusclops/noir and forces them to use Zard ex to KO something and hope you can’t turn your benched duskull into a dusknoir. Not viable if you don’t have any spare candies or ways to get another dusknoir out next turn.

 

[MagnaDrake]

Honest question: what defines a season, and how are quarters measured? I thought every new set release was a new “season” (at least for standard).

In the physical TCG, a season is a whole year, starting from the end of last season's World Championships (or a few weeks afterwards) to the next WC. The season number is the year of the upcoming WC, so for example the last few regionals (Baltimore, Lillie, etc) were 'Season 2025 Regionals' even though we're still in 2024. A quarter is one of four three-month periods in a season. 2024 WC ended last August, and we're near the end Quarter 1, so Q1 is August-September-October, Q2 would be Nov-Dec-Jan, Q3 Feb-Mar-Apr, Q4 May-Jun-Jul, then August-ish would be WC 2025. Repeat for every future seasons.

 

[freedomfightre]

Quick Search DTE -> Attach to benched Terapagos (protects against KO Terapagos)
Poffin -> Duskull (protects against Boss KO Dusknoir)
Boss KO Dusclops. (prevents Dusknoir + Briar 4 prize turn)

 

[Greninjaboi]

In the physical TCG, a season is a whole year, starting from the end of last season's World Championships (or a few weeks afterwards) to the next WC. The season number is the year of the upcoming WC, so for example the last few regionals (Baltimore, Lillie, etc) were 'Season 2025 Regionals' even though we're still in 2024. A quarter is one of four three-month periods in a season. 2024 WC ended last August, and we're near the end Quarter 1, so Q1 is August-September-October, Q2 would be Nov-Dec-Jan, Q3 Feb-Mar-Apr, Q4 May-Jun-Jul, then August-ish would be WC 2025. Repeat for every future seasons.

This is close, but the season generally begins in July despite worlds not having happened yet. This means everything is a month earlier and also means we are currently in quarter 2.

 

[Vulpix123]

You would Dusknoir the Charmeleon, not the Dusclops. Dusknoir-ing the Dusclops leaves them a turn to evolve into Charizard ex, meaning you have to knock out a 2-prizer in the next turn to win. By popping the Charmeleon and boss'ing the Rotom, you make yourself Briar-proof, and they can't do anything about the vulnerable Dusclops.

Ya I now realize that the chameleon is better as they can’t dusk

 

[MagnaDrake]

This is close, but the season generally begins in July despite worlds not having happened yet. This means everything is a month earlier and also means we are currently in quarter 2.

Ah true. Thanks for the correction, usually there isnt any events leading up to worlds so there's almost no indication that the season had changed (I don't think they even do any announcements), so I was under the impression that new seasons start after Worlds.

 

[Steen]

For the first puzzle;

Use Jewel Seeker to grab an Iono and a Nest Ball. Use the two nest balls to grab a Duskull and a Blood Moon Ursaluna after using Dusknoir. Iono the Zard's hand afterwards to leave them at a hand of 3 and you at a hand of 4. Use Pidgeot to grab a DTE and place it on Ursaluna, and KO Zard with the front Terapagos. Following turn, assume Terapagos is KO'd without Briar as the Pidgeot would have to search for Fezandpiti to get a bigger hand. The Iono last turn does not give the Zard deck a Fire Energy so there is a net zero chance the Radiant Zard is used for defense. Following turn, Boss/Prime Rotom and use Ursaluna to KO.

The only way this can go wrong is if the shuffling after their Pidgeot's quick search is not in your favor and they get Zard out and have a Briar in hand.

 

[Juho]

For the first puzzle;

Use Jewel Seeker to grab an Iono and a Nest Ball. Use the two nest balls to grab a Duskull and a Blood Moon Ursaluna after using Dusknoir. Iono the Zard's hand afterwards to leave them at a hand of 3 and you at a hand of 4. Use Pidgeot to grab a DTE and place it on Ursaluna, and KO Zard with the front Terapagos. Following turn, assume Terapagos is KO'd without Briar as the Pidgeot would have to search for Fezandpiti to get a bigger hand. The Iono last turn does not give the Zard deck a Fire Energy so there is a net zero chance the Radiant Zard is used for defense. Following turn, Boss/Prime Rotom and use Ursaluna to KO.

The only way this can go wrong is if the shuffling after their Pidgeot's quick search is not in your favor and they get Zard out and have a Briar in hand.

I initially thought this too.. But unfortunately the Rotom V still has Forest Seal Stone unused, therefore their chance of evolving Zard + finding Briar is very high with the ability to get any 2 cards in the deck.