Hey everyone, I’m Michael Davidson, a writer for Cut or Tap who finished 5th in the North American leaderboard for the 2025 season. I played Gardevoir for the majority of my events this season, with the highlight being winning the Portland Regional Championships, along with multiple other Top Cut finishes. With the release of Frillish and Jellicent in Black Bolt and White Flare, I believe … Continue reading Exploring Gardevoir’s Three Black Bolt/White Flare Variants

One of the core philosophies of Pokémon’s card-design is to create emergent complexity out of simple effects. Rather than creating individually complicated cards with dozens of lines of text, or forcing players to memorize numerous keywords to do effectively the same, Pokémon’s gameplay is designed to facilitate situations in which many relatively simple cards and effects can be combined to create complicated scenarios. A primary … Continue reading Why “Gust” Effects Define Formats

Welcome back, Cut or Tap readers! Worlds is coming up in just a couple weeks and I have been doing a ton of preparation for this tournament. Whether you’re a fellow Worlds competitor or just looking to get a head start on your locals for the 2026 season, there’s something here for you. Black Bolt and White Flare just recently released on Pokemon TCG Live, … Continue reading Raging Bolt for Anaheim Worlds

Hello readers! Since Isaiah Bradner’s recent NAIC victory, there has been a large uptick in Gardevoir across the meta. Not only has there been a large uptick in play, but also a large uptick in success. Isaiah’s list features no copies of Drifloon, and has a heavy focus on Munkidori with four dark energy, Technical Machine: Turbo Energize, and Energy Switch. This adaptation is incredibly … Continue reading “Mind-Bending Problems:” Navigating the Tactics of Munkidori’s Confusion Plays

One of the most interesting decks we have seen since the release of Journey Together and rotation is N’s Zoroark ex. While this deck boasts a strong Gardevoir matchup, a deck many have considered to be the best in the format, it only has a few Top Cut results, and otherwise fairly underwhelming finishes. The two main causes of this are the low play rate … Continue reading “Trade Routes:” N’s Zoroark for Worlds 2025

Hey, Cut or Tap readers! The Pokemon World Championships is a month away, and testing is ramping up with the new release of Black Bolt & White Flare on PTCGL! I’m going to be writing today on Grimmsnarl, my top choice for Worlds right now! The deck is incredibly well-positioned for Worlds, taking a favoured matchup into the BDIF, Gardevoir ex (although Henry Chao will … Continue reading Trading Flames for Fangs: Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex for Worlds

What’s up, Cut or Tap readers! I’m back with another piece; this time hopefully helping you guys prepare for the World Championships or get a head start on the 2026 season! I’ve been enjoying my time off, but recently have started the process of locking in for the biggest event of the year. For those of you who have been following me throughout this season, … Continue reading Dragapult Variants for the Pre-Worlds Format

Welcome back, Cut or Tap subscribers! In today’s article, I’m excited to be writing about my Master’s Cup victory! More specifically, I’m going to be covering my three most educational games from the event. First of all, I’ll be covering a very methodical and positional game against Jesper Erikson and his take on Dragapult/Charizard; then I’ll cover a fast-paced positional game against Andrew Hedrick and … Continue reading Master’s Cup Victory: Rowan’s Run with Dragapult Charizard

Welcome back, Cut or Tap readers! Gholdengo ex is a deck that I have played a lot across the Journey Together and Destined Rivals formats, and it seems to be getting even better as we look forward to Black Bolt and White Flare. Releasing on July 18th, these sets will bring a new light to Gholdengo through the release of Genesect ex. Later on in … Continue reading Turbo-Boosted Gholdengo in Past, Present and Future Formats

The Pokémon TCG’s Black Bolt & White Flare expansions are releasing on July 18th, in time for their first major tournament to be this year’s World Championships in August. As a result, most of the game’s best players are going to be especially secretive about any meaningful leads in discovering the full potential of these new cards. I won’t be competing at the World Championships … Continue reading Black Bolt & White Flare Set Review

Hey guys! After my last article, recapping my Top 8 finish at Portland, I was able to place in the Top 8 again, this time at NAIC! Ending my season with back-to-back Cuts felt great, and catapulted me to the top of the leaderboards to get stipends for Worlds and probably LAIC as well, so overall I’m super excited and hope to continue the momentum … Continue reading Filching a Top 8 in New Orleans: Grimmsnarl Tournament Report

Hello, readers! NAIC Is around the corner, and with Destined Rivals being introduced into the game, we have a relatively low quantity of new cards worth discussing. However, a few of these cards will have a major impact on today’s metagame. In today’s article, I’m going to be analyzing the impact of three new cards, as well as discussing my top three deck choices for … Continue reading “Mardi Trois:” Rowan Stavenow’s Top Three Picks for New Orleans

Gardevoir has dominated the format since the rotation of F-block, but with the recent release of Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex, some have been questioning the deck’s viability moving forward. Currently, Gardevoir is one of my top three picks for NAIC, along with Dragapult Dusknoir and Joltik Box, mainly due to my comfort with the archetype and its fantastic matchup spread. Portland Recap and List Theory As … Continue reading “Southern Charm and Psychic Embraces:” Gardevoir ex for NAIC

Hey everyone, I’m Michael Davidson, a writer for Cut or Tap currently ranked 5th in North America for the 2025 season. After playing Gardy for a majority of events this season (almost every event since Toronto), I was able to win the Portland Regional Championships in a same-60-card mirror against Henry Chao in the finals. Our Gardy list, which borrowed heavily from William Azevedo’s Santiago … Continue reading Another Evolution: Portland 1st Place Report and Gardy Moving Forward

Hey, Cut Or Tap readers! Excited to be writing today about Dragapult Charizard! Not only has this been my ‘pet deck’ for the last two months, but I believe the deck is primed to be one of the best picks going into NAIC, due to being the version of Dragapult with the best Gardevoir matchup and being very resilient into the spread, including some of … Continue reading Ghosts and Flames: Dragapult Charizard for NAIC

What’s up, Cut or Tap readers! I hope y’all are doing well as we begin to close out the 2025 season. Today I am going to be writing about my run at the Portland Regional Championships a little over a week ago. I’ll be going over the Dragapult/Dusknoir deck I played to get 10th place (losing in Asymmetrical Top Cut), analyzing my run in-depth, and … Continue reading “Draga-Pultlandia:” Top 16 Portland Regionals Report

Welcome back, Cut or Tap readers! Today I will be covering a deck that has fallen off since its initial popularity following rotation: Tera Toolbox. I just played Tera Box to 4th place at Portland Regionals, and I think the deck is very underrated at the moment. Being able to capitalize on Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex’s Torrential Pump attack to KO multiple low-HP Pokemon at … Continue reading “The Tera Way:” Tera Box in the Journey Together Format

On the weekend of May 17th, the Pokémon TCG Pocket tournament scene had its largest tournament ever: the Pocket Royale, which had an incredible $10,000 prize pool distributed among the Top 96 out of 2,829 competing players. Since my first article covering the Celestial Guardians expansion, multiple new high-tier archetypes have been discovered to challenge the previous format’s best archetype, Darkrai/Giratina, for spots at the … Continue reading TCG Pocket Royale: Giratina ex Versus Its Counters

Hey everyone, I’m a writer for Cut or Tap, currently ranked 6th in North America for the 2025 season. While Milwaukee was possibly my worst event of the season, the Zoroark deck my group worked on had a standout performance. Zoroark has seemingly come out of nowhere in recent weeks. While the deck is inherently very strong despite its low metagame percentage, it is one … Continue reading “Night Joker:” The Rise of N’s Zoroark