My previous one was just 2-3 days ago.

Here's how this one went:

Got my chase card of the set!

Previously: 5th wonderpick god pack

Which pokemons / characters do you foresee being released in this set?

(panel from channel 1; most non-subtle foreshadowing of what's to come)

MangaDex link: https://mangadex.org/title/778b8438-af3a-4534-841c-adf923b55ee1/uma-musume-pretty-derby-star-blossom

Meta / Preface

I just binged this manga yesterday and can't stop thinking about it, keeping me distracted the whole of today. Rarely have stories got me so invested like this. Hopefully making a post about it would help me move on with the rest of my day / week.

Anyway, I've heard of Star Blossom ever since I got hooked on Umamusume, but for a while I thought it's best for wait for the anime adaptation. Unfortunately, my impatience won and once I got started on this manga, I couldn't put it down. That's how I ended up catching up to the latest chapter within just a few hours.

(But now I have to wait for the release of new chapters 😭)

Why you should read this

To Umamusume fans:

You've probably heard of Star Blossom by now. If you are still waiting for its anime adaptation, I'd say good choice; keep it up. I bet the anime would be peak.

If you are a fence-sitter for whatever reason, then come join the dark side and pick up this manga.

Among the Umamusume media released, Season 2 of the anime is my absolute favourite. Yes, the visuals can't compare to the newer works, but I put a significantly higher weightage on the story + its emotional impact. So as much as I enjoyed Cinderella Gray anime (and rated it a 10/10), I still can't put it above season 2. But...

Star Blossom has the potential to topple Season 2 from its throne. It has the emotional weight of Season 2, the underdog elements of Cinderella Gray, plus visuals / frames that are at least on par with Cinderella Gray. (Comparing its visuals to Beginning of a New Era would be a too much IMO, so I'm going to stop short of that.)

Basically, it's good in every aspect that likely drew you in to Umamusume. Oh, and just like every other major pieces of Umamusume media, Star Blossom too has CGDCT, slice-of-life moments and yuri undertones. Whatever you want from Umamusume, you should find in Star Blossom.

To non-Umamusume fans:

You'd probably enjoy Star Blossom a lot if you are into high-stakes drama and/or are an emotional masochist. Once the plot got going, it got me feeling like this the whole time:

Or maybe you just enjoy a good story. IMO its MangaDex's rating reflect the good-story aspect to a certain extent, sitting at 9.23 points (at the time of writing). I said to a certain extent because to me, such a score is an underrating. I bet if it garners more attention, it would move closer to Cinderella Gray's rating of 9.67.

Unfortunately, the only way to know if a story is good is to check it out yourself. (And if you are anything like me, you won't be able to put it down either.)

Edit: One more thing that stood out is the art, and I'm not referring to the hype scenes. The manga artist is simply too good at capturing the raw emotions on the characters' faces. Their expressions truly reach deep into the soul.

Here are a few examples:

::: spoiler out-of-context panels

:::

Closing Thoughts

It sucks that I won't be able to enjoy its anime adaptation in all its glory blind, but I don't regret picking this manga up this early. The plot so far is already so good, and who knows when an anime would ever be made.

But if one gets announced, you know I'd be there to follow it.

I don't usually rush through the ranked season. Unfortunately, my schedule is quite tight in the coming days, so I thought I may as well start right away and see how far I can go.

This ended up being my fastest ranked climb in Pocket to date, moving from the bottom of Ultraball 4 to Masterball (with retention) on day 1 of the ranked season.

Honestly, I struggled a bit at first, winning only 1 game for every 3 games played. It was the same regardless of the deck: Lucario-Hitmontop, vanilla Altaria, Suicune-Baxcaliber, Sceptile, Manetric.

This went on for ~10 games until I switched to Zoroark.

With a few lucky win streaks, Zoroark was able to breezed through most of Ultraball 4 and a fair bit of early Masterball.

This deck is basically the standard Zoroark deck with a couple minor tweaks:

Replaced Pokemon Center Lady with Big Malasada. Having fewer supporters means a lower chance of bricking.

Ran 2 copies of Bombirdier, which makes drawing into them way more consistent. It also reduces the chances of leading with Darkrai (which is how I lost most of my Zoroark games). Plus, if you lead off with one of the Bombirdiers, you may luck out and draw into the other one for the free retreat.

No Giant Cape and Lucky Ice Pop: Zoroark is all about being fast tempo and consistent. The extra survivability does nothing to help with this deck's game plan.

Some observations about the meta:

• So many Miraidons and Sleep Altarias. Make sure you can handle these two decks.
• Chingling is underutilised in Ultraball. You can play stage-2s with no impunity. (This is not the case in Masterball, but thankfully Zoroark doesn't care about Chingling 🤷)

Edit:

The seasonal ranking has been released:

For Zoroark's winrate, just subtract 4 from games won and 8 from games lost. That brings us to 25 wins against 11 losses - a winrate of 69.4%.

Ever since Flygon ex came out, it has seen moderate success (albeit as a meme deck) with various partners. I believe the most successful version includes Sylveon ex.

Personally, I've had the most fun running Flygon solo.

Just like many other high-roll decks, the fun is in gambling on the card draw. Flygon is one of the best cards when it gets going - the hard part is getting it going. With the release of Juliana in this set, things just got easier (read: more consistent; is it still high-roll then? 🤔)

Deck List

• 2x Trapinch
• 2x Vibrava
• 2x Flygon ex
• 1x Poke Ball
• 2x Rare Candy
• 2x Lucky Ice Pop
• 2x Rocky Helmet
• 2x Professor's Research
• 1x Cyrus
• 1x Pokemon Center Lady
• 1x May
• 1x Copycat
• 1x Juliana

Card-Inclusion Rationale

The two copies of Trapinch + Flygon are a no-brainer and need no explaining.

The two copies of Vibrava and Rare Candy made it such that it's very unlikely for you to be stuck with no middle evolution.

Only one copy of Poke Ball is needed because there is only one other basic in your deck: the second Trapinch.

The Lucky Ice Pops are there to keep Flygon healthy. The main alternative is Lillie, but if you are going to gamble, you might as well go all in and flip some coins while you are at it. Plus it's an item so you can use it alongside a supporter.

Rocky Helmet helps deal more chip damage to the opponent's active pokemon, or deter them from attacking.

Professor's Research is another no-brainer; can't go wrong with card draw.

Cyrus is a terrific pairing for Flygon. Many Flygon decks run two copies of Cyrus, but in my experience, one copy - well-used - is enough. Also, two copies of Cyrus makes bricking much more likely.

Pokemon Center Lady is a must-have as long as sleep scam is relevant. Maybe it could be replaced with Big Malasada, but I have not test it out.

The one copy of May is very effective in this deck. There are many times when I've got one Rare Candy and one Vibrava in hand, and May turn it into an immediate evolution into Flygon.

Copycat is another must-have. Running two may be effective, but in practice:

• opponents tend to keep their hand size small, and two Copycats can easily become dead weight in hand
• with only one line of Pokemon evolution in this deck, your hand size can get quite big, reducing Copycat's effectiveness

But it's good as an early-game card-draw / hand-refresh engine.

And finally, the new inclusion / MVP: Juliana. With Vibrava and Rare Candy, I noticed that middle evolution is hardly a problem. It's the final evolution - Flygon - that you can run only two copies of, that is the bottleneck. In the previous patch, I was making do with Iono, praying with each hand-refresh. Now, Juliana gives you direct access to Flygon, completely overcoming the problem.

How to play this deck

It's honestly quite a braindead deck. The early game goes just like Mega Venusaur or Mega Steelix, where the goal is just to survive and get set-up..

Once everything has been set up, Flygon's ability and Rocky Helmet make quick work of opposing pokemons.

The main decision I usually have to make is when to use Cyrus. The obvious choice is to save it for an important KO, but sometimes moving an unexpected opposing mon into the active spot can ruin your opponent's plan.

And that's pretty much it for my new favourite high-roll deck. It's simple, but surprisingly effective.

What is your favourite way to high-roll? Share it with us!

Source: Cautious Hero - episode 1

It didn't seem that long ago that I encountered a god pack in wonderpicks.

I wish that some of that god-pack luck transfer to pack-opening though 😭

Anyway, got a duplicate:

But I'm just happy that it's one of the 2-stars!

Previously: god pack wonderpick

Corresponding article: Pokémon TCG Pocket: Paradox Drive Expansion Coming Soon

cross-posted from: https://ani.social/post/31704835

Source: The Classroom of the Black Cat and a Witch - episode 5

I got a bit more serious this ranked season, tracking my matches as I play.

I don't usually do this. In previous seasons, there's always handful of top-tier decks, which means that you know what to expect when queuing up for a game in ranked mode.

This season is different. In the competitive scene, there are easily 20 meta-viable archetypes right now, each with a decent chance of winning tournaments. The deck with the highest meta share is Hydreigon at less than 8%, a far cry from its peak of ~17% in B2 / Fantastical Parade. All of them have winrates that hover around 50%, so there is clearly no one dominant deck.

So I thought to track my games and see if there are any trends, any way to counter the meta (spoiler: not really).

I started at the bottom of ultra ball 4, at 690 points. I'm currently sitting at 823 point having just entered master ball. It took me 36 matches for this climb, with a win rate of 55.6% (20 / 36).

I swap my deck every 3 games, which means that I cycled through 12 decks:

::: spoiler my decks

1. zoroark
2. altaria-greninja
3. sceptile
4. hydreigon
5. sleep lucario
6. lucario-hitmontop
7. altaria-gourgeist
8. oricorio-magnezone
9. manetric-zeraora
10. flygon-goomy
11. suicune-baxcaliber
12. blaziken

:::

Here's the full data:

::: spoiler match data

no.,my deck,opp deck,outcome
1,zoroark,sceptile,W
2,zoroark,sleep altaria,L
3,zoroark,hydreigon,L
4,altaria greninja,sleep vaporeon,W
5,altaria greninja,poison sceptile,L
6,altaria greninja,vaporeon milotic,W
7,sceptile,altaria greninja,W
8,sceptile,blaziken,L
9,sceptile,oricorio magnezone,W
10,hydreigon,rampardos goomy,W
11,hydreigon,hydreigon,L
12,hydreigon,suicune baxcaliber,L
13,sleep lucario,altaria greninja,W
14,sleep lucario,hydreigon,L
15,sleep lucario,charizard,W
16,lucario hitmontop,(dc),W
17,lucario hitmontop,venusaur celebi,W
18,lucario hitmontop,lucario hitmonchan,L
19,altaria gourgeist,sleep lucario,W
20,altaria gourgeist,gardevoir,W
21,altaria gourgeist,poison hydreigon,W
22,oricorio magnezone,sceptile,L
23,oricorio magnezone,sleep lucario,L
24,oricorio magnezone,zoroark,L
25,manetric zeraora,blaziken,W
26,manetric zeraora,lucario hitmontop,L
27,manetric zeraora,oricorio magnezone,L
28,flygon goomy,blaziken,L
29,flygon goomy,leafeon,L
30,flygon goomy,lucario hitmontop,W
31,suicune baxcaliber,charizard,W
32,suicune baxcaliber,hydreigon,L
33,suicune baxcaliber,sceptile goomy,W
34,blaziken,sceptile,W
35,blaziken,lucario hitmontop,W
36,blaziken,blaziken,W

:::

Note that the extremely small sample sizes mean that individual deck's win rate is meaningless here.

All in all, I played against 21 unique archetypes:

::: spoiler opponents' decks

1. sceptile (x3)
2. sleep altaria
3. hydreigon (x4)
4. sleep vaporeon
5. poison sceptile
6. vaporeon-milotic
7. altaria-greninja (x2)
8. blaziken (x4)
9. oricorio-magnezone (x2)
10. rampardos-goomy
11. suicune-baxcaliber
12. charizard (x2)
13. venusaur-celebi
14. lucario-hitmonchan
15. sleep lucario (x2)
16. gardevoir
17. poison hydreigon
18. zoroark
19. lucario-hitmontop (x3)
20. leafeon
21. sceptile-goomy

:::

The most repeats I faced off against were Hydreigon and Blaziken at 4 times each. Right below them would be Sceptile and Lucario-Hitmontop, tied at 3 encounters.

::: spoiler more aggregate stats on opponents' decks

Deck count by condensed archetype:

1. Sceptile - 5
2. Venusaur - 1
3. Leafeon - 1
4. Blaziken - 4
5. Charizard - 2
6. Suicune - 1
7. Vaporeon - 2
8. Magnezone - 2
9. Altaria - 3
10. Gardevoir: 1
11. Lucario - 6
12. Rampardos - 1
13. Hydreigon - 5
14. Zoroark - 1

Deck count by type:

• Grass - 7
• Fire - 6
• Water - 3
• Lightning - 2
• Psychic - 4
• Fighting - 7
• Darkness - 6
• Metal - 0
• Dragon - 0
• Colorless - 0

:::

With such variety in my games, I believe this has to be the most diverse meta in Pocket. (I only joined towards the tail end of WoSS, but I heard that previous meta had been completely dominated with Darktina.)

Unfortunately, such diversity means that it is harder to counter opposing decks without making your deck weaker into all the other decks.

However, IMO it is still possible to make some micro adjustments. For me, the main one I made was to include one copy of Chingling in some of the decks that don't typically run Chingling e.g. Magnezone, Blaziken.

A sizable fraction of my opponents were running rare-candy stage-2 decks. Naturally, Chingling shuts those down. Another significant chunk ran variants of Lucario, which meant taking weakness damage from Chingling who is Psychic type.

Most importantly, it decreases your odds of a bad start when going first, something that some of these decks struggle with. For example, a typical Blaziken runs 2 Torchics and 2 Castforms, which means starting with Torchic half the time. Adding Chingling would mean having a bad start 40% of the time when going first.

In a nutshell, the ranked meta in Pocket have never been more diverse, which does make for less stale gameplay IMO. There are still some annoyances like Lucky Ice Pop and Sleep Scam, but I'd say it's a fair trade.

If there's one main downside to this diversity, it is that battling just got harder for the average collector / casual battlers. Gone are the days where you can pilot just that one top-tier deck while keeping only 2 or 3 key match-ups in mind.

But enough about the meta. What decks are you running?

Just completed my eeveelution binder thanks to a successful wonderpick 🥳🎉

This also means an updated display board for Penny's team:

I added some guy for a trade, and used the chance to like their showcased binder as usual.

I then tapped into their binder on a whim and saw the most number of crown rares ever. To be specific, the entire 30-card binder is filled with crown rares!

With such a crazy binder, of course I've got to check out the rest of their profile, and now I'm sharing it here.

For comparison, I did spend a bit to catch up (I started this game fairly late) and even then I'm at 11,103 cards.

~80k cards sure is something.

With the release of the Treecko line, all 3 Hoenn starter lines are now available in Pokemon TCG Pocket. Unfortunately, they don't have an equal presence.

The meta of the early season has Mega Blaziken as the top dog. One of its few counters is Hydreigon, which is in turn countered by Mega Sceptile. (You can guess Mega Sceptile's counter.)

There is a rock-paper-scissors dynamic here and Mega Swampert is not in it.

Edit: early-season meta shifts fast. Mega Blaziken may be fraudulent after all.

My previous longest streak was 7 wins with Orizone. Unfortunately, I ran into its hardest counter for the 8th match: Silvally-Rampardos.

I then messed around with Suicune and Mega Venusaur for a bit, but these 2 decks got countered easily (i.e. lost after 1-2 games).

Thankfully, the ever trusty Dark Greninja pulled through.

Here is the deck for reference; nothing new here: