Rogue Archetype
Moderator <br> Contest Host
I've been playing CLOSE attention to what decks winning players use and so have most of you.
However, I've ALSO been reading their story and figuring out what makes GREAT players consistent (they rarely lose REGARDLESS of what they're playing) and other "average" players inconsistent (i.e. they lose some and win some).
Take this little Quiz that I've created and RANK YOURSELF (you may keep your results a secret :wink
Let's have some fun:
ON THIS SCALE FROM 1 - 10 ... WHERE DO YOU RANK?
1 - The NooB (newbie) - You lose 10 out of 10 games regardless of what cards you're using. You're not even reading this because you've yet to even discover Pokegym... You're on the bottom of the totom pole, but the only way to go is up! :wink:
2 -Theme Decker You still don't know what's wrong with using a Theme deck all of the time. You've upgraded your theme deck, swapped out a few cards, and continue to play.
3 - The CacoonUntil now, you've just fiddled around with Pokemon TCG and haven't really felt that you wanted/needed to invest much time developing your game. BUT...Now, you've officially lost enough to want an entirely DIFFERENT deck. You start doing a little research, watching the good players a little closer, and asking questions. You find yourself sitting in a chair AT HOME actually trying to apply FIXES to your deck! You log onto to various websites trying to find some pointers on deckbuilding and winning decklists (and find articles from like THREE years ago.. lol). If you're lucky, you've stumbled across PokeGym and you're trying to decipher which information here is more useful than not. After much trial and tribulation, you've pieced together your first "non-theme deck" list (perhaps borrowed from an online posting of a list).
4 -THE FISH You're hooked. You're just getting SO TIRED of being treated like an autowin and you want to sit down and earn a little respect. This is like a video game now; you HAVE to figure out how to get to the next level! You're doing websearches on "Good Deckbuilding" (and you're probably pulling up Bullados' Deckbuilding 101 stuff .. LOL!)s. You're trying to make sense of it all. You want a MONSTER deck that will surprise people! You're trying to UNDERSTAND DECK STRATEGY rather than just evolving as high as you can, attaching energies, and attacking. You're trying another new list that you think may "work better" than the other "new deck" you tossed together last month. You may toss a question on the boards ("create a thread") and in your search for deckbuilding enlightenment. You're certain that you're gonna UNLOCK your potential and be a contender (you're almost embarrassed to admit to this new obsession).
5 - AverageYOU'VE DISCOVERED THE ARCHETYPE! Your new list (mostly 'borrowed' from an online posted thread) has won you games about 40% of the time!! You've started playing (have played) against BETTER competition/decks now that you've graduated OUT of the Modified THEME DECK phase. The players that were at the "A tables" are asking you if you want to battle (this is a wonderful little milestone to reach.. i know :smile -- BTW.. those guys CREAMATE you, but you do put up a little bit of a fight :wink:
6 - Above AverageYou're starting to experiment with other archetypes and you're trying to "FIX" your lists because they're not getting the results that people keep boasting about ("this list isn't as good as they say," You think). You're winning 50% of the time. You've got some good cards, but the "good players" are still finding a way to keep you from winning. You, still, come out of the game feeling like you had a chance of winning (not really, they were just sacrificing prizes for setup .. but anyway... )
7 -Good Player You're almost an autowin vs. a beginner player. You can beat an Average player about 80% of the time now. You're starting to feel like Hot Stuff! You've learned to anticipate the OTHER player's moves now and you've started teching in cards that help you avoid sticky situations. However, you can't build a CUSTOMized (from scratch) list that can win consistently.
You're going 3-2 at tournaments and feel like "I may never see a top cut, but it's fun trying so I'll keep showing up" You may even mess around and get a lucky Top Cut 1 out of 5 tournys.
YOUR PROBLEM is that you think that using already built lists and winning makes you "one of the better players" but you can't be BOSS until you can actually BUILD lists that work because you lack understanding of mechanics and the experience against top tier players to build a fool-proof original deck idea.
8 - A Contender - You're really starting to have fun with DECK STRATEGY and you're playing decks that you don't see everyone else playing. Pokemon is more enjoyable to you now than ever because the infinite deck possibilities has revealed itself to you. You are really gaining an understanding of METAGAME and which decks should be played. You're starting to tell the difference between people who talk and people who know (and those who know are keeping secrets!). So, you're "listening to the quiet ones that should be watched :wink:" You're that dark horse that can beat ANYBODY if your cards fall right. You haven't mastered the art of tweeking your deck to make it more consistent, but you FINALLY understand the concept of Deck strategy. When you get the build you need, nothing can stop you. Unfortunatley, you deck isn't consistent enough to beat the Boss Players who can afford to sacrifice and setup to get around your strategy. You're the kind of guy that plays risky inconsistent decks because "noone else is playing it" like TogeChomp, Magkiss, and Skittles. Decks that depend on coin flips or luck-of-the-draw. You haven't experienced playing against top tier (Boss and Pro) players enough to know why those luck-based decks are too inconsistent to be played in tourney. However, noone has teched for you and if they stall and let you catch your setup... you can win. You may top cut 1 in 7 tourneys on sheer matchup luck.
The MAIN thing seperating you from the BOSS player is experience. You just need to keep playing to see what works BETTER (not what works... but what works BEST!). You'll keep experiementing and hitting the world with strange/creative card combos that only YOU are BRAVE ENOUGH to try. You keep the tourney interesting and put creativity and fun above ratings.
9 -Boss Player You really feel like you're top tier now. People are starting to see your name on the matchup and are going "aw man... I got you this round :frown:" You're no longer an autowin for anyone; in fact, they feel like an Autoloss TO YOU!! There's still a handfull of guys that you JUST CANNOT BEAT if you're life depended on it. So, you go into tourneys knowing you have a great chance of making top cut, but you don't really expect to win the whole thing. You're top cutting more than half of the time now!!! You feel like you can beat the champion players "if you get the right cards at the right time"... you're getting to be a pretty solid player.
You FINALLY understand what a DECK FIX really is. You finally understand your PLAYSTYLE (your tendencies). You make lists better ... for YOU (you know longer play ANY list "as listed")
You've even started building your own decks (from scratch) and some of them can win (but you find yourself falling back on proven "archetypes" when tourney time comes).
Still, you KNOW there's just something missing in your game that keeps you from being the PRO player that always wins. You may even try to join a team and swap ideas with a small pool of good players in an effort to surprise the circuit with an SD or an extremely refined Archetype (i.e. teching Mesprit in Gigas w/ Palkia and cyclone to get around MewTwo techs!).
10 - PRO - If you show up, you're a threat. You either have a VERY refined version of an achetype or an insane Rogue that noone know how to defend against.
Regardless of the competition, you always top cut and make finals. When you don't, people are stunned "HE DIDN'T TOP CUT ??? WHO'D HE LOSE TO?? What were THEY running???!"
Only OTHER Pro's beat you (but they need a good setup to out speed you). Players see their starting hand, look at you and scoop because they know you've got them. You ALWAYS have a way to get to the cards you need.
Your decks run so smoothly that people wonder if you've stacked the cards (you haven't, you just build in the draw you need to get what you want when you want it). You're very seldom "whiffing" searches.
You're usually SO set up, you're merely holding back cards that aren't even necessary to win.
This is your train of thought:
HOW you win are the main are the only struggles you encounter (i.e. I can just lay this down and possibly win now, or I can play it safe and do this to win for sure in two turns)
The only thing that can beat you for sure is YOUR OWN DECK (TAILS on flips and really weird dry spells on draws that happen VERY rarely.
You pretty much know you have the match won the minute you see the matchup or the cards turn over to start the game.
WELL . . . WHERE DO YOU RANK ?
As a player, I would rank myself an 8 on a scale from 1 - 10.
(those who know me can put their own rank of me on here.. be interesting to see if you agree)
HOW DO YOU REACH LEVEL 10 - "PRO"?
Players that I LOSE to consistently KNOW what cards they need to have in their hand at the VERY BEGINNING of the game.
If you're going to be "Pro," you need to play a deck that makes sense to you.
This goes beyond understanding a card or understanding the decks strategy.
Your deck has to be an ongoing experiement that is constantly being worked on, improved upon, tweeked.
Your deck cannot be pure theory. You HAVE to play it and play it... then look for cards that can help you carry out the deck's strategy (that strategy MAY CHANGE!).
I've created a formula for success:
You MUST KNOW (by memory!) these 4 things:
the decks strategy
your opponent's decks stragies (metagame - what everyone else is playing an how to get around it)
the cards in your own deck (every single one / how many of each)
WHY each card is in a deck (yours and your oppoenents)
Finally...
YOUR IDEAL SETUP...
You need to know YOUR PERFECT STARTING SEVEN CARDS.
What EXACTLY are you trying to get your bench to look like..
And...
Your entire deck needs to be built in a way to make that Ideal Setup happen within 2 turns if possible.
I've discovered a big difference between the Average player who loses with a "great list"
and a GREAT PLAYER that wins most of the time.
A great player isn't as concerned with what YOU have as he/she is with what's not set up yet.
One last tidbit. A PRO expects to get KO'd. It's not the end of the world. In fact, he/she has already planned ahead and is actually WAITING for you to KO because what's coming next is MORE powerful!
That's all I have time to type now.. lunch is over... I'll edit more in later...
Thanks for reading my "deep thoughts" rant about being "PRO" vs. being a "NooB" :smile:
However, I've ALSO been reading their story and figuring out what makes GREAT players consistent (they rarely lose REGARDLESS of what they're playing) and other "average" players inconsistent (i.e. they lose some and win some).
Take this little Quiz that I've created and RANK YOURSELF (you may keep your results a secret :wink
Let's have some fun:
ON THIS SCALE FROM 1 - 10 ... WHERE DO YOU RANK?
1 - The NooB (newbie) - You lose 10 out of 10 games regardless of what cards you're using. You're not even reading this because you've yet to even discover Pokegym... You're on the bottom of the totom pole, but the only way to go is up! :wink:
2 -Theme Decker You still don't know what's wrong with using a Theme deck all of the time. You've upgraded your theme deck, swapped out a few cards, and continue to play.
3 - The CacoonUntil now, you've just fiddled around with Pokemon TCG and haven't really felt that you wanted/needed to invest much time developing your game. BUT...Now, you've officially lost enough to want an entirely DIFFERENT deck. You start doing a little research, watching the good players a little closer, and asking questions. You find yourself sitting in a chair AT HOME actually trying to apply FIXES to your deck! You log onto to various websites trying to find some pointers on deckbuilding and winning decklists (and find articles from like THREE years ago.. lol). If you're lucky, you've stumbled across PokeGym and you're trying to decipher which information here is more useful than not. After much trial and tribulation, you've pieced together your first "non-theme deck" list (perhaps borrowed from an online posting of a list).
4 -THE FISH You're hooked. You're just getting SO TIRED of being treated like an autowin and you want to sit down and earn a little respect. This is like a video game now; you HAVE to figure out how to get to the next level! You're doing websearches on "Good Deckbuilding" (and you're probably pulling up Bullados' Deckbuilding 101 stuff .. LOL!)s. You're trying to make sense of it all. You want a MONSTER deck that will surprise people! You're trying to UNDERSTAND DECK STRATEGY rather than just evolving as high as you can, attaching energies, and attacking. You're trying another new list that you think may "work better" than the other "new deck" you tossed together last month. You may toss a question on the boards ("create a thread") and in your search for deckbuilding enlightenment. You're certain that you're gonna UNLOCK your potential and be a contender (you're almost embarrassed to admit to this new obsession).
5 - AverageYOU'VE DISCOVERED THE ARCHETYPE! Your new list (mostly 'borrowed' from an online posted thread) has won you games about 40% of the time!! You've started playing (have played) against BETTER competition/decks now that you've graduated OUT of the Modified THEME DECK phase. The players that were at the "A tables" are asking you if you want to battle (this is a wonderful little milestone to reach.. i know :smile
-- BTW.. those guys CREAMATE you, but you do put up a little bit of a fight :wink:6 - Above AverageYou're starting to experiment with other archetypes and you're trying to "FIX" your lists because they're not getting the results that people keep boasting about ("this list isn't as good as they say," You think). You're winning 50% of the time. You've got some good cards, but the "good players" are still finding a way to keep you from winning. You, still, come out of the game feeling like you had a chance of winning (not really, they were just sacrificing prizes for setup .. but anyway... )
7 -Good Player You're almost an autowin vs. a beginner player. You can beat an Average player about 80% of the time now. You're starting to feel like Hot Stuff! You've learned to anticipate the OTHER player's moves now and you've started teching in cards that help you avoid sticky situations. However, you can't build a CUSTOMized (from scratch) list that can win consistently.
You're going 3-2 at tournaments and feel like "I may never see a top cut, but it's fun trying so I'll keep showing up" You may even mess around and get a lucky Top Cut 1 out of 5 tournys.
YOUR PROBLEM is that you think that using already built lists and winning makes you "one of the better players" but you can't be BOSS until you can actually BUILD lists that work because you lack understanding of mechanics and the experience against top tier players to build a fool-proof original deck idea.
8 - A Contender - You're really starting to have fun with DECK STRATEGY and you're playing decks that you don't see everyone else playing. Pokemon is more enjoyable to you now than ever because the infinite deck possibilities has revealed itself to you. You are really gaining an understanding of METAGAME and which decks should be played. You're starting to tell the difference between people who talk and people who know (and those who know are keeping secrets!). So, you're "listening to the quiet ones that should be watched :wink:" You're that dark horse that can beat ANYBODY if your cards fall right. You haven't mastered the art of tweeking your deck to make it more consistent, but you FINALLY understand the concept of Deck strategy. When you get the build you need, nothing can stop you. Unfortunatley, you deck isn't consistent enough to beat the Boss Players who can afford to sacrifice and setup to get around your strategy. You're the kind of guy that plays risky inconsistent decks because "noone else is playing it" like TogeChomp, Magkiss, and Skittles. Decks that depend on coin flips or luck-of-the-draw. You haven't experienced playing against top tier (Boss and Pro) players enough to know why those luck-based decks are too inconsistent to be played in tourney. However, noone has teched for you and if they stall and let you catch your setup... you can win. You may top cut 1 in 7 tourneys on sheer matchup luck.
The MAIN thing seperating you from the BOSS player is experience. You just need to keep playing to see what works BETTER (not what works... but what works BEST!). You'll keep experiementing and hitting the world with strange/creative card combos that only YOU are BRAVE ENOUGH to try. You keep the tourney interesting and put creativity and fun above ratings.
9 -Boss Player You really feel like you're top tier now. People are starting to see your name on the matchup and are going "aw man... I got you this round :frown:" You're no longer an autowin for anyone; in fact, they feel like an Autoloss TO YOU!! There's still a handfull of guys that you JUST CANNOT BEAT if you're life depended on it. So, you go into tourneys knowing you have a great chance of making top cut, but you don't really expect to win the whole thing. You're top cutting more than half of the time now!!! You feel like you can beat the champion players "if you get the right cards at the right time"... you're getting to be a pretty solid player.
You FINALLY understand what a DECK FIX really is. You finally understand your PLAYSTYLE (your tendencies). You make lists better ... for YOU (you know longer play ANY list "as listed")
You've even started building your own decks (from scratch) and some of them can win (but you find yourself falling back on proven "archetypes" when tourney time comes).
Still, you KNOW there's just something missing in your game that keeps you from being the PRO player that always wins. You may even try to join a team and swap ideas with a small pool of good players in an effort to surprise the circuit with an SD or an extremely refined Archetype (i.e. teching Mesprit in Gigas w/ Palkia and cyclone to get around MewTwo techs!).
10 - PRO - If you show up, you're a threat. You either have a VERY refined version of an achetype or an insane Rogue that noone know how to defend against.
Regardless of the competition, you always top cut and make finals. When you don't, people are stunned "HE DIDN'T TOP CUT ??? WHO'D HE LOSE TO?? What were THEY running???!"
Only OTHER Pro's beat you (but they need a good setup to out speed you). Players see their starting hand, look at you and scoop because they know you've got them. You ALWAYS have a way to get to the cards you need.
Your decks run so smoothly that people wonder if you've stacked the cards (you haven't, you just build in the draw you need to get what you want when you want it). You're very seldom "whiffing" searches.
You're usually SO set up, you're merely holding back cards that aren't even necessary to win.
This is your train of thought:
HOW you win are the main are the only struggles you encounter (i.e. I can just lay this down and possibly win now, or I can play it safe and do this to win for sure in two turns)
The only thing that can beat you for sure is YOUR OWN DECK (TAILS on flips and really weird dry spells on draws that happen VERY rarely.
You pretty much know you have the match won the minute you see the matchup or the cards turn over to start the game.
WELL . . . WHERE DO YOU RANK ?
As a player, I would rank myself an 8 on a scale from 1 - 10.
(those who know me can put their own rank of me on here.. be interesting to see if you agree)
HOW DO YOU REACH LEVEL 10 - "PRO"?
Players that I LOSE to consistently KNOW what cards they need to have in their hand at the VERY BEGINNING of the game.
If you're going to be "Pro," you need to play a deck that makes sense to you.
This goes beyond understanding a card or understanding the decks strategy.
Your deck has to be an ongoing experiement that is constantly being worked on, improved upon, tweeked.
Your deck cannot be pure theory. You HAVE to play it and play it... then look for cards that can help you carry out the deck's strategy (that strategy MAY CHANGE!).
I've created a formula for success:
You MUST KNOW (by memory!) these 4 things:
the decks strategy
your opponent's decks stragies (metagame - what everyone else is playing an how to get around it)
the cards in your own deck (every single one / how many of each)
WHY each card is in a deck (yours and your oppoenents)
Finally...
YOUR IDEAL SETUP...
You need to know YOUR PERFECT STARTING SEVEN CARDS.
What EXACTLY are you trying to get your bench to look like..
And...
Your entire deck needs to be built in a way to make that Ideal Setup happen within 2 turns if possible.
I've discovered a big difference between the Average player who loses with a "great list"
and a GREAT PLAYER that wins most of the time.
A great player isn't as concerned with what YOU have as he/she is with what's not set up yet.
One last tidbit. A PRO expects to get KO'd. It's not the end of the world. In fact, he/she has already planned ahead and is actually WAITING for you to KO because what's coming next is MORE powerful!
That's all I have time to type now.. lunch is over... I'll edit more in later...
Thanks for reading my "deep thoughts" rant about being "PRO" vs. being a "NooB" :smile:
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