Hello fellow Beachbums,
Well, it’s that time again, I have compiled my data from November, and I have also put it together with the first two months of the new rotation as well.
Before we dig into it, please be aware that I only play TCG online, and I'm sure that there are differences between online and reality.
Also, I measure deck performance as well as wins and losses. Obviously, we all know we can have a great match and still wind up on the wrong side of the decision (although the opposite seems to rarely occur!). When I mention that a deck had a good performance, that means that it drew well, was consistent, took several prize cards, and was competitive at least in part the match.
I played 440 matches in the month of November. 52% of the time, my decks had a good or better performance. I won 232 of the 440 matches (53%). I played less decks this month (only 24), and 11 of those 24 decks had 10 or less matches. I’m really trying to streamline the number of decks that I’m working. There’s only so much time in the day (well, night that’s the only time I get to play), and I think we’re all starting to get a pretty good line of sight to about a dozen or so decks that are all very good. Plus, I’m starting to come to the realization that you have to play a deck A LOT to really get a good feel for it, to really figure out what the best decisions are for different situations.
I also attempted to tech 4 Lysandres into many of my decks in the month of November. In my mind, I think that having extra Lysandre should give me an advantage and increase my win percentage. However, I have no data to support that theory. It certainly didn’t produce a clear, significant increase in my win percentage that I can easily identify, and my gut feeling is that the extra Lysandres tended to junk up my hand more than anything else. This month I’m going to try to tech in hammers (crushing and enhanced… see below), but I really don’t like playing them, and it feels like I’m forcing them into some of my decks, so I may abandon that idea. My gut feeling about hammers isn’t as strong as my feeling about Lysandres was, and that didn’t produce any major improvement.
My opponents had a good or better performance against me 37% of the time (162 times in 440 matches). This seems to me to be very low. As I mentioned above, I measure deck performance as well as wins and losses. Certainly, there were a number of times when I won but did not have a good performance, and there were times that I performed well but still lost. Still, just taking a big picture look at this, I think overall I have not given my opponents’ decks enough credit at times. I think that 37% should be somewhat higher as my win percentage was only 52%. That’s something for me to think about – how I’m judging the subjective part of deck performance probably needs to be reassessed.
Opponents’ decks ran special energy 63% of the time (278 out of 440 matches). This is definitely WAY up from last month’s 54% and September’s 53%. Opponents’ decks with good or better performances carried special energy about 65% of the time in November. This is again up from 55% in October but back in line with 64% in September. Not sure why there was a decrease in October, but this is in line with many of the most common pokemon I’m coming across (see below), so you may want to start carrying some enhanced hammers. More often than not, it’ll be worth the deck space.
75% of the decks I faced (77% of good performing decks) used a pokemon with an ability OTHER than Shaymin, Hoopa EX, and Talonflame (I eliminate these pokemon because they usually are played before Garbodor can come into play). This is back in line with September (78% of all decks, 83% of good and better decks). I have written at length in this forum about the increase in Garbodor I have seen recently, so I won’t go into that here. Certainly, in real life tournaments, Garbodor is extremely common. On PTCGO, outside of Shaymin, Hoopa, and Octillery, he was the most common Pokemon I came across. Last night, I played 14 Greninja matches on PTCGO – 6 of them were against decks carrying Garbodor. I think I’ve just gotten to the point where I’ve accepted it – if I’m going to play an ability dependent deck, I’ve just got to get used to the fact that that the algorithm is going to pair me against Garb A LOT.
The most common pokemon that I encountered this month and the number of times I played them:
Octillery
48
Garbodor
47
M Mewtwo EX
35
Greninja Break
32
Volcanion
31
Volcanion EX
30
Yveltal EX
27
Rainbow Road
22
Giratina EX
22
Darkrai EX
22
M Gardevoir EX
22
Regice
21
Manaphy EX
18
M Rayquaza EX
17
Yveltal
17
Zoroark
17
Yanmega Break
16
Xerneas
15
Mew EX
15
M Scizor EX
14
Glaceon EX
13
Typhlosion
13
Xerneas Break
12
Raichu
11
Mew
11
Ariados
11
And now, what you’ve all been waiting for: how did each deck do against me? Here’s the list:
Pokemon _ Wins _ Total Matches _ Pct
M Scizor EX _ 11 _ 14 _ 79%
Garbodor _ 36 _ 47_ 77%
Yveltal EX 18 _ 27 _ 67%
Giratina EX 14 _ 22 _ 64%
Mew 7 _ 11_ 64% (not Mew EX, little basic Mew)
Darkrai EX 13 _ 22_ 59%
Rainbow Road 13 _ 22 _ 59%
Zoroark 10 _ 17 _ 59%
M Mewtwo EX 20 _ 35 _ 57%
Glaceon EX 7 _ 13 _ 54%
Volcanion EX 16 _ 30 _ 53%
Yveltal 9 _ 17 _ 53%
Regice 11 _ 21 _ 52%
Octillery 24 _ 48 _ 50%
Xerneas Break 6 _ 12 _ 50%
Volcanion 15 _ 31 _ 48%
M Rayquaza EX 8 _ 17 _ 47%
M Gardevoir EX 10 _ 22 _ 45%
Raichu 5 _ 11 _ 45%
Typhlosion 5 _ 13 _ 38%
Greninja Break 12 _ 32 _ 38%
And here are the stats for the first three months in total:
Flareon EX 19 _ 29 _ 66%
M Scizor EX 30 _ 46_ 65%
Vespiquen 14 _ 22 _ 64%
Darkrai EX 40 _ 63 _ 63%
Rainbow Road 35 _ 57 _ 61%
M Rayquaza EX 36 _ 59 _ 61%
Giratina EX 32 _ 55 _ 58%
Yveltal EX 42 _ 73 _ 58%
Volcanion EX 38 _ 69 _ 55%
Xerneas Break 16 _ 30 _ 53%
Yveltal 33 _ 63 _ 52%
Greninja Break 45 _ 88 _ 51%
M Mewtwo EX 48 _ 94 _ 51%
Volcanion 34 _ 68 _ 50%
Yanmega Break 18 _ 37 _ 49%
Mew EX 15 _ 31 _ 48%
M Gardevoir EX 31 _ 74 _ 42%
Glaceon EX 15 _ 36 _ 42%
Regice 25 _ 64 _ 39%
Things to note: I play A LOT of Rainbow Road Xerneas (178 matches since new rotation), so that’s probably overinflating Scizor…. Vespiquen, even though it’s 14 and 8 against me overall, I was 5 and 1 against it in November…. I have posted in this forum that I have data that supports Flareon EX is the best pairing with Volcanion; however, with the significant increase in Garbodor this month, I am starting to believe that this may no longer be the case.
I think this is a pretty good reflection of where the meta stands. There is no Night March right now, no single deck that completely dominates the game. There are about a dozen really good decks, and it’s pretty much just going to depend on matchups and finding ways to minimize and reduce the weaknesses of your deck. It’s not necessarily how powerful or how fast your deck is – it’s more built around how small and few your weaknesses are.
Of course, that could all change after the GX pokemon are released and completely disrupt the meta once again.
Well, it’s that time again, I have compiled my data from November, and I have also put it together with the first two months of the new rotation as well.
Before we dig into it, please be aware that I only play TCG online, and I'm sure that there are differences between online and reality.
Also, I measure deck performance as well as wins and losses. Obviously, we all know we can have a great match and still wind up on the wrong side of the decision (although the opposite seems to rarely occur!). When I mention that a deck had a good performance, that means that it drew well, was consistent, took several prize cards, and was competitive at least in part the match.
I played 440 matches in the month of November. 52% of the time, my decks had a good or better performance. I won 232 of the 440 matches (53%). I played less decks this month (only 24), and 11 of those 24 decks had 10 or less matches. I’m really trying to streamline the number of decks that I’m working. There’s only so much time in the day (well, night that’s the only time I get to play), and I think we’re all starting to get a pretty good line of sight to about a dozen or so decks that are all very good. Plus, I’m starting to come to the realization that you have to play a deck A LOT to really get a good feel for it, to really figure out what the best decisions are for different situations.
I also attempted to tech 4 Lysandres into many of my decks in the month of November. In my mind, I think that having extra Lysandre should give me an advantage and increase my win percentage. However, I have no data to support that theory. It certainly didn’t produce a clear, significant increase in my win percentage that I can easily identify, and my gut feeling is that the extra Lysandres tended to junk up my hand more than anything else. This month I’m going to try to tech in hammers (crushing and enhanced… see below), but I really don’t like playing them, and it feels like I’m forcing them into some of my decks, so I may abandon that idea. My gut feeling about hammers isn’t as strong as my feeling about Lysandres was, and that didn’t produce any major improvement.
My opponents had a good or better performance against me 37% of the time (162 times in 440 matches). This seems to me to be very low. As I mentioned above, I measure deck performance as well as wins and losses. Certainly, there were a number of times when I won but did not have a good performance, and there were times that I performed well but still lost. Still, just taking a big picture look at this, I think overall I have not given my opponents’ decks enough credit at times. I think that 37% should be somewhat higher as my win percentage was only 52%. That’s something for me to think about – how I’m judging the subjective part of deck performance probably needs to be reassessed.
Opponents’ decks ran special energy 63% of the time (278 out of 440 matches). This is definitely WAY up from last month’s 54% and September’s 53%. Opponents’ decks with good or better performances carried special energy about 65% of the time in November. This is again up from 55% in October but back in line with 64% in September. Not sure why there was a decrease in October, but this is in line with many of the most common pokemon I’m coming across (see below), so you may want to start carrying some enhanced hammers. More often than not, it’ll be worth the deck space.
75% of the decks I faced (77% of good performing decks) used a pokemon with an ability OTHER than Shaymin, Hoopa EX, and Talonflame (I eliminate these pokemon because they usually are played before Garbodor can come into play). This is back in line with September (78% of all decks, 83% of good and better decks). I have written at length in this forum about the increase in Garbodor I have seen recently, so I won’t go into that here. Certainly, in real life tournaments, Garbodor is extremely common. On PTCGO, outside of Shaymin, Hoopa, and Octillery, he was the most common Pokemon I came across. Last night, I played 14 Greninja matches on PTCGO – 6 of them were against decks carrying Garbodor. I think I’ve just gotten to the point where I’ve accepted it – if I’m going to play an ability dependent deck, I’ve just got to get used to the fact that that the algorithm is going to pair me against Garb A LOT.
The most common pokemon that I encountered this month and the number of times I played them:
Octillery
48
Garbodor
47
M Mewtwo EX
35
Greninja Break
32
Volcanion
31
Volcanion EX
30
Yveltal EX
27
Rainbow Road
22
Giratina EX
22
Darkrai EX
22
M Gardevoir EX
22
Regice
21
Manaphy EX
18
M Rayquaza EX
17
Yveltal
17
Zoroark
17
Yanmega Break
16
Xerneas
15
Mew EX
15
M Scizor EX
14
Glaceon EX
13
Typhlosion
13
Xerneas Break
12
Raichu
11
Mew
11
Ariados
11
And now, what you’ve all been waiting for: how did each deck do against me? Here’s the list:
Pokemon _ Wins _ Total Matches _ Pct
M Scizor EX _ 11 _ 14 _ 79%
Garbodor _ 36 _ 47_ 77%
Yveltal EX 18 _ 27 _ 67%
Giratina EX 14 _ 22 _ 64%
Mew 7 _ 11_ 64% (not Mew EX, little basic Mew)
Darkrai EX 13 _ 22_ 59%
Rainbow Road 13 _ 22 _ 59%
Zoroark 10 _ 17 _ 59%
M Mewtwo EX 20 _ 35 _ 57%
Glaceon EX 7 _ 13 _ 54%
Volcanion EX 16 _ 30 _ 53%
Yveltal 9 _ 17 _ 53%
Regice 11 _ 21 _ 52%
Octillery 24 _ 48 _ 50%
Xerneas Break 6 _ 12 _ 50%
Volcanion 15 _ 31 _ 48%
M Rayquaza EX 8 _ 17 _ 47%
M Gardevoir EX 10 _ 22 _ 45%
Raichu 5 _ 11 _ 45%
Typhlosion 5 _ 13 _ 38%
Greninja Break 12 _ 32 _ 38%
And here are the stats for the first three months in total:
Flareon EX 19 _ 29 _ 66%
M Scizor EX 30 _ 46_ 65%
Vespiquen 14 _ 22 _ 64%
Darkrai EX 40 _ 63 _ 63%
Rainbow Road 35 _ 57 _ 61%
M Rayquaza EX 36 _ 59 _ 61%
Giratina EX 32 _ 55 _ 58%
Yveltal EX 42 _ 73 _ 58%
Volcanion EX 38 _ 69 _ 55%
Xerneas Break 16 _ 30 _ 53%
Yveltal 33 _ 63 _ 52%
Greninja Break 45 _ 88 _ 51%
M Mewtwo EX 48 _ 94 _ 51%
Volcanion 34 _ 68 _ 50%
Yanmega Break 18 _ 37 _ 49%
Mew EX 15 _ 31 _ 48%
M Gardevoir EX 31 _ 74 _ 42%
Glaceon EX 15 _ 36 _ 42%
Regice 25 _ 64 _ 39%
Things to note: I play A LOT of Rainbow Road Xerneas (178 matches since new rotation), so that’s probably overinflating Scizor…. Vespiquen, even though it’s 14 and 8 against me overall, I was 5 and 1 against it in November…. I have posted in this forum that I have data that supports Flareon EX is the best pairing with Volcanion; however, with the significant increase in Garbodor this month, I am starting to believe that this may no longer be the case.
I think this is a pretty good reflection of where the meta stands. There is no Night March right now, no single deck that completely dominates the game. There are about a dozen really good decks, and it’s pretty much just going to depend on matchups and finding ways to minimize and reduce the weaknesses of your deck. It’s not necessarily how powerful or how fast your deck is – it’s more built around how small and few your weaknesses are.
Of course, that could all change after the GX pokemon are released and completely disrupt the meta once again.
