Hello 6P! It’s been a while since my last article landed, and coincidentally April has been an extremely “slow” month in regards to tournaments, as there were no Regionals anywhere in North America. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been keeping up with Pokémon though, as livestreams, videos and coaching are still in full swing, with League Cups taking place all over—and, finally, the next International Championship on the horizon.

Having whiffed points at both London (4-4-1) and Sydney (5-4-0), I’m definitely looking for redemption at São Paulo. Ironically, in both tournaments I was 4-1-0 at one point and in a great position to close out games to put myself at 5-1-0. Sadly, luck turned around and made me lose those key games, and both tournaments spiraled out of control then and there. Hopefully São Paulo is finally the IC where I manage to score points, so that I can keep up my current place in the LATAM rankings.

I’ve been keeping track of every single games of Pokémon I’ve played in 2018 (in a combination of testing, streaming, coaching and the tournaments themselves), and I’m almost at 1,500 total games as of writing this article. I guess that gives you a little insight on the amount of Pokémon that happens behind the scenes amongst pro-players, although since I’m one of the few that is doing this full time, the number might be higher than the average “pro”.

I’ve definitely enjoyed this month-long break between Portland and Brazil, but I’m also very eager to go back to competing. May and June are going to be absolutely crazy months, with every weekend having a Tier 2 event—up to NAIC, for me. This includes the LATAM IC, 4 Regionals and 3 Special Events (and possibly 4!). At this point, with a decent run of results, I could easily expect to obtain more Championship Points in this 2 month stretch than in the whole season up to this point. We’ve had periods of back-to-back-to back Tier 2 events, but nothing as crazy as the May/June grind that’s about to happen, and all of this right before NAIC, likely the biggest tournament in Pokémon history.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely excited about this, but so much traveling and all the high Tier Events definitely put a dent in the time I have available for coaching and other non-Pokémon related activities during weekends. Balance is key to maintaining a healthy life, and I’m a bit worried too, about what the outcome of the 2 month long intense grind will be.

Granted, we have a brand new set coming up, Forbidden Light. Honestly Standard needs it for a nice shake up in an otherwise-stale (or “figured out”) metagame. Standard reminds me of Expanded when the season first started, where there were just a lot of different and very viable decks, with no clear picture of what resided at the very top.

So today’s article will be focusing more on Forbidden Light and the cards that I think will actually have an impact in the metagame. Next week, I’ll touch on a Brazil preview and Expanded thoughts, as we have Salt Lake City Regionals happening immediately after the LATAM IC.

In no particular order, here are what I consider the most likely-impactful cards from Forbidden Light, and my thoughts on them:

The post “The Light on the Horizon” – Pablo’s First Look at Top Contenders from Forbidden Light appeared first on SixPrizes.