Kash Top 5 List: Favourite Games from these Genres: Fighter, Adventure, Shooter, Management and Football (Soccer)

 Well it's the holiday period and it being the end of the year, I'm usually way too free and get bored and start finding things to do. If you have followed me, you may have noticed that sometimes, I'll be so bored that I'll end up writing lists for things I like and of course, the same thing has happened this year. I didn't really get to do much during 2021 but one thing I did get to do was re-discover my enjoyment of video games. 

For a few years I didn't really play much games, focusing on just trying to graduate from Univeristy and also focusing on the Pokemon TCG stuff so it's been fun to get back into it this year, trying all sorts of different games too. So I thought, well why not share my favourite games that I've played for however long I've played games for (which is probably a good 23-24 years now I'd say). Be it from the early days of PS1 or N64, to the glorious days of the PS2, the trusty reliable PC, the handheld stuff of PS Vita, PSP, Nintendo 3DS, DS and Switch and also the current favourite, the PS4. 

I'm not much of a gamer to be fair, you'll see that I tend to play the same kind of games throughout the years but for me, I enjoy playing those games so why eat up more of my time and play even more stuff when I might not have the time to play it. You'll see that my choice of games will probably be quite boring, some outdated, but that's the ones I've liked. 

So I thought I'd start off with a top 5 of a few genres of games I don't play much off but still, when I get the time, I'll end up getting back into it. A few of them I've only really started recently, some I've not touched in a long while as you'll see and some I still play till today (22nd Dec 2021). 

My 5 Favourite Fighting Games

I'll be the first to admit, I didn't really play much fighting games for whatever reason. I'm a big Mortal Kombat fan and have played stuff like Tekken and Street Fighters but that's really all there is to it for me. Maybe I should try getting more of these games again.

Honorable mention: X-Men: Mutant Academy (GBC), a game I played back in the day during the Game Boy Colour days and it was one of the more fun fighting games. Even though I didn't mention any Street Figher games on here, I'm sure I've played a few back in the day but I honestly don't remember which ones we did have back then. The latest one on PS4 (Street Fighter V I believe), my brother does own it and I have played a bit of it but can't say enough for me to consider it on here.

5) Mortal Kombat 4 (PC - 1997) - GameRankings Rating: 72

I had to include this because along with World Cup 98 and WWF Attitude, this is probably one of the first games I personally played in my life. And for an 8 year old, I shouldn't really be playing these kinds of gory fighter stuff but I liked it right away. Who doesn't want to smash buttons on a computer keyboard next to your brother or your cousin and see who can beat the other guy up? Not the greatest fighting game but it's the one that got me started.

4) Tekken 5 (PS2 - 2005) - Metacritic Rating: 88

I didn't get to play much Tekken but for sure this was one I did play a lot of. Still the only one I've played so far honestly but from what I've read, 5 was the best of the bunch so I was lucky my brother had the right one then? 

It was a little different to what I was used to but didn't take long for me to get used to. My favourite bit might be ability to freely customize any character with loads of stuff to make their alternate looks however you want it to be. Any game that gives me options to customise things is a big win for me. 

3) Def Jam Fight for NY (PS2 - 2004) - Metacritic Rating: 83

I don't know how or why I got this game but I'm sure glad I did! Not sure if Def Jam counts as a fighting or a wrestling game but I'll put it here. It was a fun game because you got to fight as popular hip-hop artists like Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, Ludacris, Ice-T, even a personal favourite of mine during that time, Sean Paul! 

You had a cool story mode to go with it too (and loads of customisable options, always a big win in my books like I mentioned earlier) but maybe my most favourite thing is all the smack talk at the start of the game. Hell, you even have Redman with his classic line "Imma take your tounge out and lick my ass with it", that shit was funny. I would pick him just to hear that for a good laugh and he had a jersey with 27 on it, made a fan out of me.

2) Mortal Kombat Deception (PS2 - 2004) - Metacritic Rating: 81

It had been years since I last played a Mortal Kombat game before we got this and it was nice to get back into this world. This game was really good because of the amount of stuff you could do! I have not seen a fighting game offer up so many modes to choose from and even the mini games were fun. 

Not only do you have the usual Arcade mode, the Kombat mode was cool because it was an RPG style story mode, something I've not seen in a fighter game before and I sure spent a lot of time on it, but also a Chess Kombat mode and a Puzzle Kombat mode! You've even got the Krypt to unlock stuff, even movies and images you can view from Kontent. One of the underrated PS2 games in my view.

1) Mortal Kombat X (PS4 - 2015) - Metacritic Rating: 83

I know, this is probably not the one many are expecting to be in the first spot but I will say, I spent way too much time on MKX, I'll be the first to admit that. And I had good reasons too because it was really fun. And it's one of the few games where I didn't mind playing online, which is a rarity for me because of my known hatred for playing video games online. 

I even took time to learn how to play certain characters properly. Of course, Liu Kang being my favourite, I'd play him loads but Cassie Cage was one of my new favourites because I for some reason knew how use her combos better than the others, CC just clicked with me for some reason. Raiden was another. The Faction War stuff was really cool, something I really did invest my time in. 

And even though this is my favourite fighter game, even I know there could be one better since I still have not actually played Mortal Kombat 11 yet (my brother has it on his PS5 but not downloaded it yet onto my PS4) so this spot might change once I finally get to play it. Who knows? Whatever the case, for me, Mortal Kombat is the winner when it comes to fighter games. 

My 5 Favourite Adventure Games

Now I wasn't sure what to call for this genre of games so I'm just going with Adventure. This is probably the newest kinds of games I've played, starting with Batman a few years ago and slowly but surely, I've dipped my toes into more of these open-world style of games to expand my gaming knowledge and have been enjoying the journey. I've got 4 more adventure games lined up for me to play after I'm done with my current ones (Yakuza 0, Resident Evil 2, Hitman 3 and Detroit Becoming Human), so you can tell how much of a fan I've become. Any other recommendation is always welcomed!

Honorable mention: Judgement (PS4), I've just started playing this game a few days ago actually and they've already made a fan out of me. My brother has played all the previous Yakuza series games and now I can see why. Maybe I should starting playing all of them as well since he already has it haha. I'm still only on Chapter 2 but walking around Tokyo sure gives me the feels from all my trips there. From solving crimes, beating people up, buying stores from Don Quijote in the game itself and even eating at restaurants and taking pictures of pretty much anything, I'm really enjoying the game so far. Had I played it earlier, it might have even made my top 5 list by now.  

5) Hitman 2 (PS4 - 2018) - Metacritic Rating: 82

Before Judgement, Hitman 2 was the newest game I played this year and wow was I impressed. Having never played a stealth game like this before, I wasn't sure what to expect but I enjoyed every single second of it in control of Agent 47 and seeing what he was up to next.

The ability to find many different paths to eliminate your targets made me re-play each mission maybe 10 times over. I had so much fun playing the game I ended up buying the latest Hitman 3 too and I can't wait to get into it soon.

4) Rise of Tomb Raider (PS4 - 2015) - Metacritic Rating: 88

Now this was a game I randomly picked up during my stay in Tokyo, I had seen a few English games on sale and Rise of Tomb Raider was one that caught my eye. I quickly read reviews to see what it was like and was sold on it. And I'm glad I was. I hadn't played the older ones before but this game made a fan out of me right away. 

Another stealth style game but with loads more weapons to choose from and an open world to explore which always makes it fun, be it hunting, climbing or even engage in combat fighting. Lara's story throughout the game was fun to follow too, including that emotional ending in the DLC. I ended up buying the next game too because of how much I enjoyed playing this one. 

3) Batman Arkham City (PS3 - 2011) - Metacritic Rating: 96

So funny story here, I was already playing the PS4 during this time but there was a period where my PS4 was just dead and I couldn't play anything on it. I was so bored, I decided to play some older PS3 games and reading reviews, I stumbled upon Arkham City, bought it while waiting for my PS4 to be fixed and when it was done, I was still playing it. 

Another open-world explorer with stealth mission, and me being a Batman fan, I really enjoyed this one. Who doesn't want to fly around Gotham as Batman? And since I got my hands on the GOTY edition, I got to play the bonus stuff and they were well worth buying. We need more Batman games!

2) Grand Theft Auto 5 (PS4 - 2013) - Metacritic Rating: 97

Well most of you know about this game, probably the highest rated game I've owned and another one I bought in Tokyo during my short stay there along with Rise of Tomb Raider. I had played a bit of San Andreas back in the day but not much of it so it was nice to go back to that familiar setting. 

Exploring the open world of Los Santos, driving around, running away from the police, having some adult fun with some hookers, flying some planes, taking the subway, what can you not do in this game? The story was top notch too. There was just way too much to do with all 3 characters. Trevor might be one of my favourite video game characters of all time. Online mode was not very good though.

1) Batman Arkham Knight (PS4 - 2015) - Metacritic Rating: 87

And we go to the thing that introduced me into the world of the open-world adventure games. The freedom to do almost anything and explore whatever you want was completely new to me outside of Pokemon games. My first time playing the game was actually because my friend had bought but was busy so he lent me the game for a few weeks. I had never played a game like this before but I was hooked right away. 

I'll never get tired of seeing Batman stories played out so of course I had fun playing this one, be it the fights, flying around Gotham, driving the batmobile, trying out all the AR challenges or just seeing how the story of Batman, Jim Gordon and even the Joker play out. I still say Mark Hamill's portrayal of the Joker is my favourite of all time and it was awesome to see it in Arkham City and Knight.

This game was also the first game where I actually did decide to dip into the world of buying DLC stuff and it was fun for a while, and then those DLC didn't work when trying to put the game back into my other PS4.

My 5 Favourite FPS (First Person Shooter) Games

Now for this one, it's one of those genres I picked up during my pre-Army days, enjoyed it, played a bit more of it and completely stopped just as I got into University. And I haven't really gotten back into it. Not sure why but I just haven't found a reason to. I can't say I'm all that good at FPS games, my aiming has always been rubbish so maybe that's partly why I don't give these kinds of games another go. 

5) Killzone (PS2 - 2004) - Metacritic Rating: 70

Killzone was pretty much the first FPS not named Counterstrike that I played for real and it made a fan out of me right away. It may not be the best one ever but I enjoyed it. And hey, I played every version of Killzone since then. This was the game that got me curious on the FPS genre although I will admit, Call of Duty did end up having the better games which is sad as I really liked the Killzone series.

I do wish they still did more of these titles though. The story was easy to get into as well and hey who doesn't like listening to Sgt Rico talking all kinds of shit to the "goggled-eye girl guides" haha! 

4) Star Wars Battlefront (PS4 - 2015) - Metacritic Rating: 73

Well it was a Star Wars game so I had to give it a try, and I actually thought it wasn't that bad! My biggest gripe is still the fact that the game was focused mainly on online modes, and I've said before, that's not my favourite way to play. 

The Heroes vs Villains feature was probably my favourite of the whole bunch, I must have played that the most out of any modes. I mean you get to either be a Jedi hero or a Sith villain and instead of weapons, most of them had lightsabers and even the use of the force to get your opponents. Battlefront 2 had more options in this area but that game was sadly a little worse.

3) Killzone 3 (PS3 - 2011) - Metacritic Rating: 84

Sure Killzone 2 was better but I didn't play it much sadly. I did at least finish Killzone 3. Killzone games have always looked amazing sadly the story wasn't all that great. Still, you got to kick some Helghast ass in their own world which was a nice twist for once.

I did like how many ways you could take opponents down, from the melee kills either by the use of a knife or just poking their goggles to even using a Ghostbuster-style gun to yeet them suckers away into another world! Multiplayer mode here was great, better than any other Killzone game. 

2) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3 and PS4 remake - 2009) - Metacritic Rating: 94

Some say this was the best FPS released on the PS consoles and hey, they're probably right. Sadly I didn't play much of it and I know that for a fact when I played the PS4 remake and thinking to myself...wait I didn't get past this point before did I? 

The game looked amazing and it was one I didn't mind playing online, before I get annoyed as usual but it is the best multiplayer setting for an FPS I've played. From Team Deatmatch, Free-For-All, Domination, Ground War, Demolition and Sabotage, you were spoilt for choice on what to play. Story was a bit short sadly. 

1) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3 and PS4 remake - 2007) - Metacritic Rating: 94

Easily my favourite FPS game. Also the only one where I do physically own the original and the remake version. This was my first time trying the Call of Duty games and wow I was impressed. The story mode was awesome, you play either as a British SAS solider or an American Marnie. Arcade mode was fun. 

I did play off-line multiplayer a lot here, especially whenever I'm in the USA visiting  my cousins, we'd all just play that to kill time whenever we're bored. Loads of memories of just back-stabbing each other in these games haha. 

Multiplayer was awesome, I mean you had 16 maps to choose from! You've got lots of options from Deathmatches, Team Deathmatches, Capture the Flag, you can even choose to go Hardcore Mode with no HUD, or even stuff like one shot-one kill. Kill-streak was apparently a new thing on here too so that was neat. And you can continue upgrading your weapons which is something I hadn't seen yet. Loved this game, one of my all time favourites. 

My 5 Favourite Management Games

Now we're going back to the classics! I'm a sucker for Manager games, be it for Football, WWE (as in GM Mode) or even Racing (with one game mentioned here), I've always liked playing these kinds of games. Most might probably find it boring not being in the action itself but I'm ok with it. I like the idea of building up your own team, getting all the pieces together, get in the right players or drivers for your team, build up the next superstars and watch your teams fight for glory. And I've played these management games for a long time, as far back as 1999 even for the classic Championship Manager games.

Honorable mention: Football Manager 2012 (PC), mostly for the fact that this was the game that gave us the 3D view for watching games, which makes watching the games way more fun than watching dots run after balls. 

5) Football Manager 2005 (PC - 2004) - Metacritic Rating: 89

This was an interesting once as Championship Manager was about to be split into two, one side keeping the name and the other now going by Football Manager and I was always going to get Football Manager, that felt the more real and it was the correct call after all. I do remember even buying the CD for it on release date, something I don't always do for any PC game. 

The first big time was the 2D-match engine which blew my mind, something I wasn't used to seeing at that time in a Manager game. Seeing coach reports on teams was a super helpful new feature, and they made loaning out players even more easier, big win for me. There were a lot more features included in this game that was a first and made such an impression on me that I kept getting FM games after it. CM 01/02 started the addiction, FM05 helped to fuel the addiction in it some ways. And the next game may have re-kindled the interest for me.

4) Football Manager 2021 (PC and Nintendo Switch - 2020) - Metacritic Rating: 85

For a while I hadn't actually played an FM game, the last one being 2017 which was a good one, I just didn't have the time to play it all that much, only played 96 hours of it and if you're an FM guy, you know that's really not much. So in came the pandemic, we're all stuck at home and for a while I didn't have a PS4 to play and I was getting bored of just playing Pokemon TCG Online, that's where FM 21 came to the rescue. 

I tried the beta and liked it so much, I decided to buy the game on both the PC and Switch (it was on sale anyway) and granted I haven't played the Switch one much, I sure have played a lot more on the PC. There were a lot of new stuff I had to get used to, and still learning about it honestly. Not sure when the create a team option came up but it's one addition I really liked, as my current save file is a team I created and trying to bring it from the lowest league of England to the Premier League (as we speak, my team is leading in League 2 with 10 games to go). Also, In-Game Editor is my favourite new thing in current day FM. The many things you can do to make the game the way you want it is just fun. Like I said, anything with lots of customization is a winner to me. 

3) Motorsports Manager (PC and Nintendo Switch - 2015) - Metacritic Rating: 81

The non-football entry on this list and this was the game I had been looking for a good 10+ years ever since I heard about an F1 Manager game back in the day. I never did get my hands on it and I always did wonder, what would it be like to have a racing based manager game that is similar to Football Manager. And the awesome folks at SEGA answered my prayers with Motorsport Manager.

This game was so much fun. You take charge of a team from any discipline, build them up, bring them up to the next tier, get the right drivers, work on set-ups, work on strategies, and watch the race unfold and be prepared to make any decisions for any situation that might be thrown at you. Even though I only got it a few years ago, I can't help but keep going back into it after a while away to try even more things out to discover what else I could do in the game. 

And the best part, you can easily add in mods into the game and I've been playing with the F1 mods to make it feel like I'm playing an actual F1 manager game, highly recommend this game. I liked it so much I even bought the Switch version for it!

2) Football Manager 2014 (PC and PS Vita - 2013) - Metacritic Rating: 85

I spent way too much time playing this game haha. And I know that for a fact as I have a save file on Newcastle United with me managing them for 16 years. Yes, 16 years! I never last that long with one save file, let alone one team too. 2012 brought along the 3D match view so that was nice and they made some updates in this one. Transfers were made more realistic here which was cool, because I now understood what all the clauses meant having heard about it in the real world but not fully understanding it. 

The one thing I do like about Football Manager games from latter years is that now we've got feeder teams to send our players to gain first team action which was always a big thing for me as I always looked to build younger players up and get them ready to play in my first team squad. I bought the PS Vita version as well which was just a classic mode which I really liked, and it's still the only PS Vita game I own funnily enough. 

1) Championship Manager 2001/02 (PC - 2001) - IMDb Rating: 89

It had to be CM 01/02, you know I had to go with this. No football manager game can ever top this for me and probably none ever will. I had played this for a few years before 01 and it wasn't that hard to get into it thankfully. 

It is much simpler compared to Football Manager these days with all the details you can play with but call me a simple man, I always preferred having less stuff to do which is why I always liked CM 01/02. At least on here I didn't have to keep talking to the media or worry about players wanting a new contract or force a move out. I played many saves on here, from leading Manchester United to 5 straight EPL titles to getting Monza into the top Italian league to leading Ajax to a treble win and even getting Woking almost into the Premier League. You can tell how much fund I had with this.

And the best part of all of this? CM 01/02 has been made a free to play game from a few sites. I did get it running for a short while last year and it brought back great memories, so much so I'm trying to get it working again since I messed around with a few stuff that made the game unplayable sadly. Honestly if you gave me an option to go back to playing FM 14, FM21 or CM01/02, I'll take CM01/02 any day. It's what started my Football Manager addiction anyway!

My 5 Favourite Football/Soccer Games

The old favourite. I say that with some sadness because if you may notice, I haven't really played a football game or invest time with it since FIFA 18. And even then, I was already losing interest after playing FIFA 16. Which is kinda sad because if you ask a 16 year old Kash, could he name a top 10 FIFA games 15 years later, he could easily do it. 

I used to buy FIFA quite regularly and since the 10s, it's slowly stopped. It's really sad to think since football games (and wrestling) are what got me into video games in the first place. I can confidently say the first game I owned on a PC that wasn't for educational purposes was a FIFA game. Back then it was really fun and I enjoyed it, played it way too much sometimes. I would get my friends over and we'd play it together. Be it FIFA or even PES, those were fun times. 

Can't say I enjoy the last few ones, I've tried them and I just can't really get into it. The game feels different and I'm honestly not a fan of the whole Ultimate Team nonsense, that's what killed my interest in playing football games. I even picked up FIFA 18 when I was in Japan just to try out the Mr Journey story mode, finished it, played some modes not named FUT just to mess around, played a bit of career mode and I was done. Never played it again. Didn't really enjoy playing it either sadly. But here we go, let's get back to the fun times when FIFA was good.

Honorable mention: FIFA 2000 (PC) - The period where I was just getting my fix of video games and the third year in a row I had a FIFA game with World Cup 98, FIFA 99 and FIFA 00. The big thing this game gave us the ability to play consecutive seasons which was big! So of course I played multiple years with a certain team to keep them up and get into the European spots. Plus, FIFA 2000 had some of the better soundtracks too. "Stop The Rock", "It's Only Us", "Crossfader Dominator", "Sell Out" and "Joy!", true classics!

5) World Cup 98 (PC - 1998) - GameRankings Rating: 76

Sure, this isn't the best FIFA game ever played but World Cup 98 will always have a special place in my heart because it's the FIRST game I ever played. As an 8-year old kid with no gaming device or any of those things, it was a complete new world for me and I would plays hours and hours of WC 98. 

I really enjoyed it and because of it, I would end up getting FIFA 99 and FIFA 2000, another of my old favourites. Sometimes I honestly wish I could find a way to play any of those games just to get that feeling of playing football and it being fun again. I can still remember the classic sounds from the game too, from "Soul Beat Runna" to "Absurd" and of the classic intro of "Tubthumping". So if you ever wanted to know where my love for gaming came from, you can thank World Cup 98 for it. 

4) Winning Eleven 7/Pro Evolution Soccer 3 (PS2 - 2003) - Metacritic Rating: 93

As you may or may not know, I've always been a FIFA fan, I never really knew much about PES/W11 until we owned a PS2 for ourselves and even then I didn't pay much attention to it. That all changed when I started reading PS Magazines and kept reading about this other football game that people were saying was better than FIFA. 

So I gave it a try and after a few games, I was sold. It felt weird playing with different buttons but it was really good. Didn't realise that the alternative to FIFA could be quite fun and I put in a lot of hours in WE7. Shame this was the best of their offerings because this was easily the best PES game ever released in my own view. I played the next few ones but they just didn't quite measure up to WE7 and before you know it, I stopped and FIFA was my sole focus again.

3) FIFA 10 (PS3 - 2009) - Metacritic Rating: 91

Apparently FIFA 10 is the highest rated FIFA game on Metacritic and I can see why. Strangely enough it was the only PS3 game on FIFA I owned at this timing but it was easily better than anything else I had played since the PS2 days. It was FIFA at it's best thanks to the new 360-degree control of the players which was a big winner, it's just a shame I didn't get to play games all that much during this period as it was just before my Army training started so I never did get to play it as much as I would have liked.

The Manager Mode was probably my favourite new inclusion on the game, I probably spent most of my time on it. I hadn't seen a FIFA game go into this much depth to put you into the shoes of the managers, even upgrading stuff like training facilities, staff and even keep an eye on player's growth. In my 1-2 career mode I did get Manchester United back to winning the league and the Champions League. Makes you wonder why current FIFA games aren't as good eh?

2) FIFA 2005 (PS2 - 2004) - Metacritic Rating: 81

I probably played FIFA the most during my PS2 days with 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007! Yes, 4 years back to back, which is something I have not done for FIFA in a long time, and before that, the longest streak was 1998 to 2000! Now I don't even get back to back FIFA games, or any at all! But 2005 was probably my favourite of the bunch even though I'd say 2004 was better, but 2005 gets the nod more for the career mode. 

Not only could you do a create-a-player for once but a 15-year career mode? Sign me up! It's also the first time you could do tricks during a game which was neat. But as I mentioned, anything that allows me to customise and make stuff up, I'll end up spending loads of time on it and sure enough the same can be said for 2005. I had my character in to see how far I could take Newcastle United and we did get to the finals of the Champions League at one point, that's not too bad right?

1) FIFA 14 (PS4 - 2013) - Metacritic Rating: 87

While I may have played FIFA the most during the 00's, if I were to say which FIFA I played more than any other game, it can only be either FIFA 1999 or 2000 back in the old PC days or FIFA 2014 on the PS4. And I had to give 14 the nod here as it was one of the best FIFA games I've played which is impressive to think that it was the first one out on the PS4! 

This was the most realistic FIFA I had played up till this point, moving the ball around felt right for once, the AI on both sides were much better, it felt the closest to playing the game for real, something I hadn't felt since playing this game actually since the next few ones weren't as good as this. 

Career mode was just as fun, especially with the new Global Scouting Network feature which made it more fun to discover new players. I probably played a good 5-7 years of career mode on here which is longer than most, just shows you how much I enjoyed playing FIFA 14. I also did give the solo career mode a try, I started out as myself with a smaller team (going on loan to an Norwegian team too) just to see how far I'd go and I stopped as a star player for West Ham in the Premier League, not too bad then! If FIFA went back to this, I might start playing the games again.

Hope you enjoyed reading the stories and why I picked those games as my favourites from those genre and have a good day!

Kash Memories: 25 years ago, Survivor Series 1996

 So there's a few wrestling event that I can say I remember watching as a kid, but to say what was the first one is hard to say. I can remember seeing Summerslam 1994 because of the Bret Hart vs Owen Hart title match and the Undertaker vs Underfaker match, or events after that. 

But the first one I know for I watched for sure is Survivor Series 1996, which happened today 25 years ago. But of course since I grew up in Singapore, back then we'd only get wrestling show 3 weeks after it happened but also back then, it wasn't live. We'd get them on a Sunday Night so my parents recorded the event for us on a VHS tape (remember those?).

There were 3 tapes I can remember watching, Survivor Series 1996, Royal Rumble 1997 and Royal Rumble 1998. We might have a few other, one being Wrestlemania 1997 but I really can't remember if I saw it on TV or on tape. But this event was one of my earliest memories of wrestling. Plus, Survivor Series 1996 was held in Madison Square Garden, what a place to host a wrestling event right? MSG events always felt special with how different the settings always were, even during the late 00's. 

Loads of things happened in the event. The big thing being the debut of Rocky Maivia, now known as some guy called Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. He wasn't the only debutant thought, we also saw Flash Funk (formerly 2 Cold Scorpio in ECW), Doug Furnas and Phil Lafon all making their WWF debut there. But 100%, Rocky made the biggest impact. That haircut of his back then sure was funny though.

Those were just the typical Survivor Series matches but the 3 single matches were quite memorable too in all honesty. The first one being the Undertaker vs Mankind. Undertaker came out with a Batman-style outfit and it's the first time we see him in an all-black attire! Also the first time I've see a shark cage used in wrestling with Paul Bearer in it. 

Then comes on of the best matches you'll see in all of Survivor Series history. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs the returning Bret "The Hitman" Hart. Bret had been out for about 7-8 months and this was his first match since that famous Ironman match at Wrestlemania vs Shawn Michaels. 

Steve Austin was still not the top guy at this point but having a match with the best wrestler in the world sure put him on a new level, he felt like a star after that match, especially with the next PPV in mind (Rumble 1997). Any Bret match is always a treat to watch, my favourite of all time.

And then we get the main event, Psycho Sid vs the WWF Champion Shawn Michales. Like Bret, Shawn was a favourite of mine too so of course I was pulling for him. This was one of the first times I remember being confused by the fans since they were booing the hero Michaels and cheering on the bad guy Sid. 

Also side note, I've always known about handshake stuff as a 6 year old but Sid was the first guy I saw doing the fist-bump. I thought it looked cool, and sure enough during my Army days, I started doing that too and have been for almost any occasion. 

Of course I was sad to see Michaels lose the title, this was one of the first time I can remember being sad about how the main event of a wrestling PPV event happened (it's quite a common thing watching WWE PPV these days now, am I right?). But also one of the first surprise results since I didn't think Sid would actually win so imagine my surprise thinking "wait he's the champion now???". Yup, wrestling can be fun when done right. Good memories from back then.

Kash Top 15 List: Decks from TEU to CRE and how rotation will affect them

Rotation is coming soon so I thought why not see which current top decks will be least or most affected by the rotation coming in September (one month away). And that's with one more extra set still to come this month (Evolving Skies)!

Just like before for lists like these, I'll use decks that have done well in the past few month in the online tournament circuit, getting their total prices in case anyone wants to build the deck right now and also the percentages number for how much of the current deck will be rotated out. 

Prices are from TCG Player based on US Dollars as of August 9th 2021.

There are some top decks that I won't cover for the obvious reasons:

• Lucario & Melmetal-GX/Zacian V as the LM part is rotating as will most of the defensive tool from the deck
• Mewtwo & Mew-GX/Dark Toolbox, or basically anything with Mewtwo & Mew-GX as that is rotated and kills of that toolbox variant
• Spiritomb UNB since the main attacker and all of the important pieces will be rotated
• Pikachu & Zekrom-GX is finally gone
• Caturday Toolbox as all Caturday attackers and Persian are rotated
• Welder decks are sadly gone

Sets that will be legal are: SWSH, RCL, DAA, CPA, VIV, SHF, BST, CRE and the upcoming EVS set.

#15 - Tornadus VMAX

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 0

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 2

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%

The fact that Tornadus is only losing 13% of the deck was one of the reasons why I had it in mind for this list even though it's the only deck not to have won a tournament yet. I wanted to include a Single Strike deck and this is the best one I could come up with. Losing TAE is the biggest thing for Tornadus which might mean the deck returns to more of a Single Strike Toolbox style of deck with the likes of Single Strike Urshifu VMAX and the new Gengar VMAX making it's way into the deck soon. 

#14 - Blaziken VMAX/Zeraora V

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 1

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 7

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 15%

The Blaziken/Zeraora deck won't actually lose much, just mostly tech cards, some of which could be replaced by other searching out cards (Level Ball, Evolution Incense). It's not the main Rapid Strike deck but with Mew from Unbroken Bonds rotating, Zeraora V might become an even bigger threat purely for it's ability to hit the active and the bench (and hit more than G-Max Rapid Flow as well).

#13 - Corviknight VMAX

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 1

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 5

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%

These Bronzong-style toolbox deck, be it Corviknight focused or otherwise, in all honesty, are losing nothing from the rotation. LM-GX was a tech choice and everything else is easily replaceable. And with ADP-GX gone, this may be the best way to play a Zacian deck, apart from a turbo-style Zacian deck by itself with perhaps Inteleon that has been seeing success in post rotation events.

#12 - Inteleon VMAX

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 2

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 7

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 11.67%

Just like the first few decks, Inteleon VMAX won't actually lose much from the rotation, just consistency boosters being the main loss. The biggest thing it'll gain is the fact that Pikachu & Zekrom-GX is finally rotating, giving it full reign for once. And there's another, possibly an even better Inteleon VMAX, coming soon to make the deck even better than it could be.

#11 - Blissey V

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 2

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 15

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 23.33%

Blissey is one of the decks that rotation will hit hardest purely for the fact that it's main draw/discard engine, Hapu, is rotating. It also doesn't help that Weakness Guard Energy is rotating, which makes the Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX matchup near impossible now. The deck will likely need more new cards to be released to give it help in the next few months. It's still one of the better decks in Expanded format at least!

#10 - Malamar CRE/Rapid Strike Toolbox

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 9

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 20

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 6.67%

The malamar rapid strike deck was a terrible game design mistake. Seriously over powered. Needed to say discard the cards instead of shuffle back. It consistently 300 damages for 1 energy. And the scary fact that only 6% of the deck is rotating means we'll keep hearing about this. The biggest losses being Oricorio-GX does hurt it's consistency and losing Mew means it's an open target for snipe decks.

#9 - Rillaboom Toolbox

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 9

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 19

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 26.67%

Rillaboom toolbox-styled decks will survive in some way, but it won't be able to set up consistently now that EggRow-GX is rotating, meaning it'll have to depend on the trusted old Rare Candy method. The deck will have to go through a big overhaul with all of it's Tag engine rotating. Rillaboom may not even be the preferred Grass deck going forward with Leafeon V soon to be released. 

#8 - Victini VMAX

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 2

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 21

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 36.67%

Victini VMAX will still see play post rotation simply due to the fact that all GXes are gone, and with a V-format, Victini will have an easier time dealing with 2 & 3 prize attackers. The issue will be that it will have to do that without our good friend Welder who will sadly rotate. Personally, that makes me very sad since most of my success in the game has been with Welder decks. It'll also need a complete makeover as it's tech attackers are all gone along with the Jirachi/Dedenne engine.

#7 - Malamar VMAX

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 8

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 34

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 40%

Just like Victini VMAX before it, Malamar VMAX can still feature in post rotation but it will need a complete makeover. Losing the Weavile-GX/Red & Blue engine will hurt it's ability to attack quickly, now needing to rely on Galarian Moltres/Energy Switch for that role. Losing Weavile also means Cheryl will most likely not see play in the deck going forward. Losing Forest also hurts Moltres' ability to quickly charge itself up.

Just a note, I've included the Sneasel from CRE. Sure, it's not rotating but the fact that Weavile-GX is rotating means there is no reason to play it thus why it's included in the numbers .

#6 - Decidueye DAA

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 13

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 51

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 15%

Decidueye's biggest loss would be Rosa which hurts it's ability to set up Decidueyes rather quickly but the Inteleon engine has been doing that job for it quite smoothly so it won't be the biggest loss. This deck will continue to wins tournaments out of nowhere just because of Decidueye and prey on people with no answer to it. 

Also for note, I'm not counting the Rowlet here as there is a like-for-like replacement in other sets as Decidueye is still legal unlike the case for Weavile-GX mentioned for Malamar VMAX.

#5 - Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 35

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 151

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 6.67%

Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX is the least effected top deck from the upcoming rotation which may be part of the reason why many think it could be the best deck going forward. The only real loss in Reset Stamp meaning it won't be able to the old "Path and Stamp" tactic going forward to make others stuck. Ice Rider has seen a lot of success since it's release and will continue to do so with 90% of the deck sticking around for the long haul.

#4 - Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 29

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 103

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%

Rapid Strike Urshifu may lose some important techs but what it gains is the fact that Mew UNB is gone, which might just make it the BDIF going forward as decks may not be able to deal with it's constant pressure. Losing Karate Belt does mean it can't just rely on going down on prizes for constant G-Max Rapid Flow. Losing Jirachi-GX also hurts vs Shadow Rider or any new Psychic type deck going forward but that may not be an issue if you can strike them first as seen in this format so far.

#3 - Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX/Galarian Moltres V

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 25

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 86

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 16.67%

The devil is dead. Two of the biggest pains in the past year or so, ADP-GX and Mawile-GX are both gone. But the funny thing is the fact that the deck won't actually lose much apart from the obvious losses. So that begs the question, can a Turbo Zacian or Turbo Moltres style deck (or together) still survive with the remains of this deck without the attack and prize boost of ADP?

#2 - Eternatus VMAX

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 31

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 141

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 20%

Even though I've got it at 20% loss here, Eternatus VMAX won't actually lose much. Before Moltres arrived on the scene, the deck didn't have the likes of Weavile-GX and 3 Swells, two of the main things it will lose from rotation. The deck will have to go back to a Moltres/Energy Switch engine to speed up it's attacks. Losing Swell might be the biggest pain for the deck as it will have a much harder time dealing with Path to the Peak. Eternatus will always be a force to be reckon with, anything that can possibly hit for 270 for just two energy cannot be taken lightly. 

#1 - Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX

Total Tourney Wins in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 74

Total Top 4 Finishes in TEU-CRE (as of Aug 9 '21): 249

Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%

Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX won't lose much of from the rotation but it will lose Gengar & Mimikyu-GX, which has been part of the reason why it's been so successful to help buy an extra turn to set up or even take cheeky turn 2 KOs. Losing Marshadow won't be a pain with the new Pumpkaboo that does a similar job. The deck should still be one of the best decks in the format even with the loss of Gengarkyu but time will tell if that is true or not since it won't lose much from the rotation. 

Just a summary of which decks are more or least affected:

Not affected by much: (0-10%)

• Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX - 6.67%
• Malamar CRE/Rapid Strike Toolbox - 6.67%
• Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX - 10%
• Corviknight VMAX - 10%

Slightly affected: (11%-20%)

• Inteleon VMAX - 11.67%
• Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - 13.33%
• Tornadus VMAX - 13.33%
• Decidueye DAA - 15%
• Blaziken VMAX/Zeraora V - 15%
• ADP-GX/Galarian Moltres V - 16.67%
• Eternatus VMAX - 20%
• Pikachu & Zekrom-GX - 20%

Severely affected: (21%-40%)

• Spiritomb UNB - 21.67%
• Blissey V - 23.33%
• Rillaboom Toolbox - 26.67%
• Lucario & Melmetal-GX/Zacian V - 28.33%
• Victini VMAX - 36.67%
• Malamar VMAX - 40%

Gone case (41%-100%)

• Caturday Toolbox - 45%
• Blacephalon UNB - 48.33%
• Mewtwo & Mew-GX/Weavile-GX Dark Toolbox - 53.33%

And just a recap or how cheap or expensive these decks are:

Budget Friendly ($0-$100)

• Blissey V - $41.80
• Rillaboom Toolbox - $54.78
• Malamar CRE/Rapid Strike Toolbox - $57.31
• Corviknight VMAX - $62.79
• Tornadus VMAX - $62.79
• ADP-GX/Galarian Moltres V - $68.71 (Yes, an ADP-GX deck is now budget friendly!)
• Blaziken VMAX/Zeraora - $71.77
• Inteleon VMAX - $76.48
• Decidueye DAA - $78.29

Standard Prices ($101-$200)

• Malamar VMAX - $109.79
• Ice Rider Calyrex - $112.69
• Victini VMAX - $115.27
• Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - $116.84
• Eternatus VMAX - $119.94
• Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX - $185.84

Spend big to Win ($200 >)

• For once, there is no deck that falls into this category, showing how affordable the game has become with 9 of the decks listed here all under $100 total! I've never seen that before.

Thanks for reading and have a good day!

My Vivid Voltage journey & results - Sticking with the trusted formula the entire format (4 months worth) - Centiskorch VMAX

So Centiskorch VMAX did a whole world of good for me back in the Team Up to Darkness Ablaze format and with Vivid Voltage (and Shining Fates for that matter), not really giving us any new stuff to work with, I thought why not stick with Centiskorch and keep making it better for this particular format. I enjoy playing the deck, and I have said that I will continue to play Welder until the day it rotates, so why not keep representing the Skorch Gang at these online events? 

So I pretty much decided early on that I was mainly going to focus on Centiskorch for the entire TEU to VIV/SHF format just to see how I could keep improving on the deck and also to prove the doubters wrong about the deck. Everyone has this weird illusion that the deck is bad and it's easy to play but once you see the results, you'll know the truth. And I can say for a fact, just because it's a Welder deck, it's not that easy to make Centiskorch work, you don't just stack all the energies on one guy and attack, that's just stupid.

But first of, I might as well share the backbone of the deck that I have been playing for the past 4 months (and also the previous 3 with the Darkness Ablaze format). I wanted to see how I could use one base list, work on it for an entire format and see how far my friend Thomas Brophy and I can push it, use the deck to it's most potential and get the very best out of it. 

And I'd like to think we did prove that the base-line works but I never expected it to have seen as much success as it has, and with many others playing the base-line list too which makes me really happy and proud. That just shows that people believe we made something that was good but also consistently getting high placings. I've tried to make my own lists work many times before so it felt good to know this one was well received by many others (and that hey, maybe I can make something work). But of course, without the help of Thomas, Jake Pilch, Alex Schemanske, Josh Frink and a few others, this would have never taken off as it did. 

The Deck

The base line I'd like to think are made up of these 50 cards that have been a constant the entire time I've played Centiskorch VMAX in this format. So no matter how the list looks like, these cards will 100% be in them:

Pokemon: (14)

x2 Jirachi - TEU
x2 Volcanion - UNB
x3 Centiskorch V - DAA
x3 Centiskorch VMAX - DAA
x2 Dedenne-GX - UNB
x1 Crobat V - DAA
x1 Eldegoss V - RCL

3-3 Centiskorch V-VMAX has been a constant for me, you don't need a 4-4 line since you're heavily reliant on the support Pokemon in the deck. I have tried the 4th Centiskorch V but whenever I try it, I seem to have a much harder time to get them out, which is weird is the odds of getting them should be better but it never works out that way. 2 Volcanions have been fine so far to help get the first turn Flare Starter or to counter stuff like Decidueye or Altaria.

As for the support Pokemon, I personally prefer 3 Jirachi but 2 is a definite must no matter what. 2 Dedenne-GX to help you speed things up as would Crobat V does (I personally prefer having 2 of them). And of course Eldegoss V to get you the Welder you need or the game winning Boss, or even that Bird Keeper to help you get out of a mess.

Trainer & Energy: (36)

Search: 
x4 Quick Ball
x3 Pokemon Communication

Switch Outs:
x4 Scoop Up Net
x4 Switch

Fire Energy Engine
x3 Giant Hearth
x1 Fire Crystal
x4 Welder
x11 Fire Energy

Gust
x2 Boss's Orders

7 search outs doesn't sound much but it works well for me, 4 Quick Ball is a must and 3 Pokemon Communication is alright, if there was extra space a 4th Comm would be ideal.

8 switch outs is perfect. The deck relies heavily on Jirachi so you need the 4 Nets but the tech options like Zigzagoon and Giratina will come in handy. 4 switch is a must.

The 2 Boss's Orders have been alright, I recently tried 3 and it just never quite worked strangely enough so I prefer the Great Catcher and Phione as my other gust options.

As for the Fire engines, 3 Giant Heart is a must, and I personally prefer to have 2 Fire Crystal which helps against Swell and even help in niche situations whenever one big attacker goes down. 11 energy seems to be the perfect number for the deck. And of course, 4 Welder is a must. Need I say more? Without Welder, you can't hit for crazy amounts of damage or draw more cards.

Now with the base-line set, it's time to fill up the last 10 spots in the decks with various tech options to choose from so this is what I've got for the last few spots in the deck at any given time:

Spot #1 - Alternate Attacker

• Reshiram & Charizard-GX (My Preferred Choice)
• Heatran-GX
• Talonflame V

Spot #2 - Chance of Comeback

• Cramorant V (My Preferred Choice)
• Reset Stamp

Spot #3 - 3rd Consistency Booster

• 3rd Jirachi TEU (My Preferred Choice)
• 3rd Volcanion UNB

Spots #4, #5, #6 - Single Prize Tech Options

• Galarian Zigzagoon SUM (My Preferred Choice)
• Giratina UNM (My Preferred Choice)
• Phione CEC (My Preferred Choice)
• Marshadow UNB
• 4th Jirachi TEU

Spot #7 - More Support

• 2nd Crobat V DAA (My Preferred Choice)
• 2nd Eldegoss V RCL
• Professor's Research
• Marnie
• 4th Pokémon Communication

Spot #8 - Additional Supporter

• Bird Keeper (My Preferred Choice)
• Mallow and Lana

Spot #9 - Additional Item

• Great Catcher (My Preferred Choice)
• 2nd Reset Stamp

Spot #10 - Additional Energy

• 2nd Fire Crystal (My Preferred Choice)
• 12th Fire Energy
• Ordinary Rod

So just to make it easier for anyone, I'm not saying you should follow this, you can pick a different card from those spots or just mix and match and take whatever you please, those are just my reasoning for those cards. I mean for the most part Reset Stamp was the must include in my deck and now it's just not even a preferred choice for these additional spots, just to prove that it can be a mix and match however you like it.

For the additional attackers, I personally prefer Reshiram & Charizard-GX as it can apply early pressure to stuff like PikaRom and even Eternatus at times and can be annoying to deal with late on. Heatran-GX is good to absorb all of Centiskorch VMAX's energy but I'd rather not go down that route, that just tells me the Skorch is not even doing it's job. 

I've been cutting Reset Stamp because Stamp IS A LIE. So I'd rather get Cramorant in as my comeback attacker but it's also very useful as a first attacker against stuff like Eternatus VMAX and even in the mirror match.

As for the 3rd spot of Volcanion vs Jirachi, I prefer Jirachi to get out stuff I need like Quick Ball or Comm or Giant Hearth since you're most likely going to made to go first so I'd rather make full use of Jirachi whenever I can.

As for the tech spots, Phione, Giratina and Galarian Zigzagoon are the choices for me. Goon helps with many numbers you need to hit and can help stop some stuff from working. Giratina helps massively against LMZ and even decks like Eternatus and Coalossal that heavily relies on special energies. As for Phione, it's amazing. It pretty much helps you beat ADPZ without ever needing to hit the big boy and catch people out when they bench just one thing. 

For the additional support, I prefer the 2nd Crobat over Eldegoss or Research or even Marnie since you'll likely get Marnied or Stamped and an additional Crobat gets you out of bad hands. You can even try a 4th comm to get some of these stuff but that's the 61st card in my deck most of the time.

Bird Keeper > Mallow & Lana every time. I just prefer it since I can draw additional cards of it too. 

If I need another item, it's always going to be Great Catcher since it helps massively against PikaRom, ADPZ and Blowns.

As for the last spot regarding energy, I'd go for the second fire crystal since you're bound to hit Swells and with Cramorant as a new addition, it makes perfect sense to me. And now with that, onto the journey that was the Vivid Voltage/Shining Fates format.

Week 1 (Nov 14th - 15th 2020)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 1st - PokeX S3 Online Challenge #4 - 8/2/0

PokeStats Points: (5 points total)

• 1st - PokeX S3 Online Challenge #4 - Centiskorch VMAX - 5 points

PokeX S3 Online Challenge #4

Winning one of the first TEU-VIV events felt great, I usually don't start a season off quite well. I'm typically a slow starting, always struggling at the start and finding my footing only later on. We tried Talonflame V to see if it was any helpful and while it did help in a few games, I found it wasn't the biggest of help. 

Week 2 (Nov 16th - 22nd 2020)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 4th - Coffee Cup #4 - 4/2/0
• 7th - PokeMob Standard #1 - 4/2/1
• 7th - Atlas VIV Mini 2 - 5/2/1

PokeStats Points: (3 points total)

• 7th - PokeMob Standard #1 - Centiskorch VMAX - 2 points
• 15th - E&D's S2 Qualifier #2 - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point

Coffee Cup #4

I just was never a fan of Stamp, be it 2 or 1, in Centiskorch so I thought I'd cut one to add in space for more stuft to try out. I wanted to test if Dubwool was a viable alternate attacker seeing as it could take a clean KO on PikaRoms and Mew3 but this is when people starting to play Big Charm so that idea was out. Tested Ordinary Rod over the 2nd Crystal more to see if I can keep recycling Heatran for some quick damage and it worked a few times.

Week 3 (Nov 23rd - 29th 2020)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 7th - Jal Cup #5 - 4/2/0

PokeStats Points: (1 point total)

• 12th - Chrollo's Flygon Open - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point

Jal Cup #5

I took Great Catcher out to see if Phione would be better and right from the get-go I could tell Phione might become a mainstay in the deck, it single-handely won me my Top 8 game in the Jal Cup. But I did regret taking Zigzagoon out for the 2nd stamp, the Goon would have come in handy in certain matches.

Week 4 (Nov 30th - Dec 6th 2020)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 9th - PokeMob Standard #3 - 5/1/1

PokeStats Points: (1 point total)

• 9th - PokeMob Standard #3 - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point

PokeMob Standard #3

I needed to be sure if Zigzagoon was really needed and while I did alright, I was pretty sure it had earned it's merit and I still wasn't keen on the 2nd stamp. 

Week 5 (Dec 7th - 13th 2020)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 5th - Atlas VIV Mini #5 - 6/2/1

PokeStats Points: (3 points total)

• 5th - Atlas VIV Mini #5 - Centiskorch VMAX - 2 points
• 15th - PokeMob Standard #4 - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point

Atlas VIV Mini #5

Same list as above and by this point I was pretty sure on how the perfect 60 should look like for the next few weeks.

Week 6 (Dec 14th - 20th 2020)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 4th - E&D's S2 Qualifier #5 - 6/2/1

PokeStats Points: (5 points total)

• 4th - E&D's S2 Qualifier #5 - Centiskorch VMAX - 3 points
• 11th - Atlas VIV Mini #8 - Eternatus VMAX - 1 point
• 16th - DaxPTCG Stones Series Weekly #1 - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point

E&D's S2 Qualifier #5

After losing to a few PikaRoms, I had to get Great Catcher back in and I sure missed it, it came in super helpful to get me into top cut of E&Ds. By this point I was pretty happy with the list but I kept losing to dead draws, either off Marnies or Stamp so I wasn't completely happy with the list yet. I was also having doubts on whether Heatran-GX should be the alternate attacker.

Week 7 (Dec 21st - 27th 2020)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 1st - Hegster S3 Top Deck 16 - 10/2/0
• 2nd - E&D's S2 Qualifier #6 - 8/2/0
• 2nd - Coffee Cup Invitational - 4/1/0

PokeStats Points: (11 points total)

• 1st - Hegster S3 Top Deck 16 - Centiskorch VMAX - 5 points
• 2nd - E&D's S2 Qualifier #6 - Centiskorch VMAX - 4 points
• 13th - Chrollo's Holiday Bash - Reshiram & Charizard-GX - 1 point
• 16th - Chrollo's Tournament #4 - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point

Hegster S3 Top Deck 16

And now it's almost perfect. I decided to cut a Stamp for a 2nd Crobat V to help me get out of dead draws and it paid off right away, helping me to win Hegster S3.16, getting me out of a few bad hands on many occasions. By this point I was happy with 59 cards of the deck apart from Heatran-GX, even though it could have won me the game in finals earlier, I still for some reason wasn't getting much use of it. And that's when we (Thomas, Jake and myself) thought, why not go back to Reshiram & Charizard-GX?

Week 8 (Dec 28th 2020 - Jan 3rd 2021)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 3rd - Advant-Edge Tournament #5 - 7/2/0

PokeStats Points: (4 points total)

• 3rd - Advant-Edge Tournament #5 - Centiskorch VMAX - 3 points
• 16th - Mew Squad Tournament #1 - Eternatus VMAX - 1 point

Advant-Edge Tournament #5

And here we have what I would say is the perfect 60 for our deck in this format. I had tested ReshiZard-GX in the deck a couple of times in the TEU-DAA format and thought to myself, wait this could actually be better than Heatran since ReshiZard can give cheese out some donks and it was helpful to take out support Pokemon like Crobats and Dedennes and it worked right away. It gave me a top 4 finish on my 31st birthday too!

Week 9 (Jan 4th - 10th 2021)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 1st - Coffee Cup S2 #1 - 7/0/1
• 2nd - Hegster S3 Top Deck 18 - 10/2/1
• 7th - Atlas VIV Mini 14 - 6/3/0
• 7th - Sunday Open - 7/3/1
• 11th - GGToor Chill TCG Showdown #2 - 9/3/1

PokeStats Points: (9 points total)

• 2nd - Hegster S3 Top Deck 18 - Centiskorch VMAX - 4 points
• 7th - Atlas VIV Mini 14 - Centiskorch VMAX - 2 points
• 7th - Sunday Open - Centiskorch VMAX - 2 points
• 11th - GGToor Chill TCG Showdown #2 - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point

Every tourney this month

So I made myself this challenge to play the same 60 for every tournament I could enter in the month of January, just to see how good it really was and if there was any changes I could make to make it even better. The only thing I found I might be missing was Cramorant V which I thought would be helpful in the mirror but at this stage, no-one was really playing Centiskorch VMAX anyway apart from us.

Week 10 (Jan 11th - 17th 2021)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 4th - Coffee Cup S2 #2 - 5/2/1

PokeStats Points: (0 points total)

• Nothing here to see :(

Week 11 (Jan 18th - 24th 2021)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• Nothing here to see :(

PokeStats Points: (0 points total)

• Nothing here to see :(

Week 12 (Jan 25th - 31st 2021)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 2nd - Garnai Nameless Tourney #2 - 4/0/0

PokeStats Points: (1 point total)

• 12th - Hegster S3 Top Deck 24 - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point

Nothing for these 3 weeks since I spent 10 days away for my Army reservist so the only time I got to play was the weekends. I didn't play much during Week 10 as I was preparing myself for the army stuff and when I did play, I just didn't do so good sadly.

Week 13 (Feb 1st - 7th 2021)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 2nd - Hegster S3 Top Deck 26 - 7/1/2
• 2nd - Gazerbeam Tourney of Dreams #2 - 10/2/1
• 6th - Garnai Cup #0 - 4/2/0

PokeStats Points: (10 points total)

• 2nd - Hegster S3 Top Deck 26 - Centiskorch VMAX - 4 points
• 2nd - Sunday Open - Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX/Zacian V - 4 points
• 14th - Advant-Edge Tournament #9 - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point
• 15th - Professor Oak's Paradise S3 #4 - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point

Gazerbeam Tourney of Dreams #2

For Gazer's tourney, since ADP was banned, I took Phione out since that was my ADP counter and put Dubwool in thinking it'll help vs PikaRom and Mew3. Although I made it to the finals again, I just couldn't take it home. Dubwool didn't help much either. Also a funny note, I finished 2nd in the Sunday Open with ADPZ, losing to Thomas who played the usual 60 we had been for the month of January.

Week 14 (Feb 8th - 14th 2021)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 2nd - Hegster S3 Top Deck 27 - 9/1/2
• 2nd - Advant-Edge Tournament #10 - 6/2/1
• 4th - Hegster S3 Top Deck 28 - 6/2/1

PokeStats Points: (12 points total)

• 2nd - Hegster S3 Top Deck 27 - Centiskorch VMAX - 4 points
• 2nd - Advant-Edge Tournament #10 - Centiskorch VMAX - 4 points
• 4th - Hegster S3 Top Deck 28 - Centiskorch VMAX - 3 points
• 16th - Chrollo S3 #2 - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point

Hegster S3 Top Deck 27

Same list but now I was starting to wonder if Giratina and Stamp were needed. I was never a fan of Stamp to begin with since I felt it usually helped my opponent out more than it did to hinder them. As for Giratina, with LMZ not seeing much play and Etern not using special energies, I wasn't sure if it was needed anymore.

Week 15 (Feb 15th - 21st 2021)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 3rd - Garnai Cup #1 - 6/2/0
• 9th - Hegster S3 Top Deck 30 - 5/2/0

PokeStats Points: (8 points total)

• 3rd - Garnai Cup #1 - Centiskorch VMAX - 3 points
• 8th - Mew Squad Tournament #7 - Mewtwo & Mew-GX/Welder Toolbox - 2 points
• 9th - Hegster S3 Top Deck 30 - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point
• 12th - E&D's S3 Showdown #1 - Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX/Zacian V - 1 point
• 16th - Atlas VIV Mini #24 - Pikachu & Zekrom-GX - 1 point

Garnai Cup #1

Decided to put Cramorant V in Giratina's place with the rise of others playing Centiskorch since Cram helps massively in the mirror match. This is where I realised Giratina was still useful to slow other decks down when needed.

Week 16 (Feb 22nd - 28th 2021)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 2nd - E&D's S3 Qualifier #4 - 6/2/1
• 4th - Coffee Cup Season 2 Invitational - 2/1/0
• 6th - Hegster S3 Top Deck 31 - 7/2/1

PokeStats Points: (10 points total)

• 2nd - E&D's S3 Qualifier #4 - Centiskorch VMAX - 4 points
• 4th - Mew Squad Tournament #9 - Turbo Zacian V - 3 points
• 6th - Hegster S3 Top Deck 31 - Centiskorch VMAX - 2 points
• 14th - Jal Cup #8 - Centiskorch VMAX - 1 point

E&D's S3 Qualifier #4

Hegster S3 Top Deck 31

I decided to mess around with a few stuff from tourney to tourney, playing with and without stamp, with and without Giratina while keeping Cramorant in more for the mirror match.

Week 17 (Mar 1st - 7th 2021)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 1st - E&D's S3 Qualifier #5 - 8/1/0

PokeStats Points: (5 points total)

• 1st - E&D's S3 Qualifier #5 - Centiskorch VMAX - 5 points

 E&D's S3 Qualifier #5

Back to the original list and it got me my first tourney win after 6 straight 2nd place finishes in finals so that was nice to end that run. 

Week 18 (Mar 8th - 14th 2021)

Top Centiskorch Results:

• 1st - Saturday Night Nitro - 10/2/0

PokeStats Points: (10 points total)

• 1st - Saturday Night Nitro - Centiskorch VMAX - 5 points
• 7th - Hegster S3 Top Deck 36 - Centiskorch VMAX - 2 points
• 8th - Hegster S3 Top Deck 35 - Centiskorch VMAX - 2 points
• 13th - Chrollo S3 #5 - Reshiram & Charizard-GX - 1 point

Saturday Night Nitro

Went back to Cramorant but decided to take Bird Keeper out with PikaRom starting to see less play and it worked out nicely in the Nitro event. Was my 50th win in a PTCG tourney too.

And finally the PokeStats TEU-VIV/SHF Invitational:

Thomas and I decided to go back to the orginal list without Cramorant V, thinking it'd do well. I used 30 of my in game tickets to play in 8-man pod tourneys to practise for the event, winning 16 of them so I felt confident going into it. I went into this event as the 2nd place qualifier so I was putting too much pressure on myself to finally get a big result in a big event.

But alas it just wasn't meant to be. I never found the time to rest up before the event, and since it started at my 12am (and I had to get up at 5am the morning prior), I was going in very fatigued. In fact I was struggling to keep my eyes open at 11.30pm while watching the F1 Bahrain GP too. 

We won the first set vs my good friend Joshua Sutherland, he played Lucario & Melmetal-GX. It went smoothly for me, winning 2-0. Then on to winners R2 where I lost to eventual winner Vitor Lugon. I prized 6 energies in Game 1 and 4 energies in Game 2. So yeah that was fun. The event was closed decklists as well.

Now we're moved down to Loser's bracket for Round 2 vs my good buddy Tate Whitesell and his Ditto VMAX deck. It wasn't the cleanest of games for either of us, I made a horrendous error of not benching a Centiskorch V thinking I played Cramorant in the deck only to realise it after my turn was done (it was my 3am at this point and I wasn't really out of it physically and mentally). I got a bit lucky that he missed the KO so I got the win there.

Round 3 of losers I played Jonathan Smiley and his EggRow deck, again I didn't play well in this set and got a bit lucky in Game 3 when he couldn't find his Rillabooms after I KOed the first two.

Round 4 of losers I was up against Eddie Bulmer and his Eternatus VMAX deck. And this is where I was completely out of it. I for some reason chose to go 2nd in Game 1 not realising I'm playing against a guy who's only been playing Eternatus! I managed to beat him Game 2 but the two other games in the set were a shocker. I pretty much played myself into a losing situation by going after the wrong attackers and then in the last game going for the risky play since I missed energies, not realising there were two Crystals in my hand, which pretty much meant game over for me. I ended up 9th, so yup, I still can't break into a top 8 finish at a big invitational. I just can't seem to do well in them and I honestly don't know if I ever will.

And now onto the next format, TEU-BST. Even though Centiskorch will pick up at least 3 bad matchups now, I'm still going to try to make it work at least. Thanks for reading!

And one last fun stat, the points I scored with each deck from this past PokeStat TEU-VIV season: