If you Can't Lick 'Em, Stick 'EmIf you Can't Lick 'Em, Stick 'Em
The Payoff with Pete
Corey and Jared break down recent Pokémon TCG tournaments, analysing top decks like Terapagos Dusknoir and Gardevoir Banette while highlighting rogue options. They also share the “If you can’t lick ’em, stick ’em” tactic, using boss effects defensively to buy time and turn seemingly lost games around.
44:09•15 Nov 2024
If You Can’t Lick ’Em, Stick ’Em: Smart Pokémon TCG Plays and Meta Chat
Episode Overview
- Terapagos Dusknoir is framed as one of the strongest and most consistent decks, especially in skilled hands.
- Gardevoir Banette’s item lock is highlighted as a powerful answer to item-heavy and Rare Candy-focused strategies.
- Using Boss’s Orders or similar effects defensively to trap awkward Pokémon in the Active Spot can buy crucial turns.
- High-skill, complex decks like Gardevoir Banette often succeed partly because many players lack practice against them.
- The current meta remains diverse, with decks like Regidrago, Raging Bolt, Gouging Fire, Lost Box and various rogue builds all putting up results.
“If you can’t lick ’em, stick ’em. If you’re not going to win the match, you have to look at your outs as buying yourself time.”
Curious about how others manage their competitive Pokémon Trading Card Game journey? This episode of The Payoff with Pete (featuring the Teach Me Pokémon crew) swings hard into tournament talk and clever strategy, making it a fun listen if you enjoy deep card game chat and a bit of cheeky banter. Corey and his co-host Jared break down recent events in Singapore and Dansk, tracking which decks are rising and which ones might be fading.
You’ll hear them weigh up Terapagos/Dusknoir, Gardevoir/Banette, Regidrago, Raging Bolt, Gouging Fire, Lost Box and even a wild Okidogi–Garchomp list. They geek out over tech choices like Spiritomb, Jet Energy, Noctowl, and Pidgeot, and debate whether certain builds would survive at big Regionals. If you like hearing strong opinions backed by examples, you’ll get plenty of that here.
They also spend time on Gardevoir/Banette’s item lock game, why it’s so hard to play against, and how high-skill players can squeeze every bit of value out of Monkey Dori damage placement. There’s plenty of respect for top names like Tord Reklev, Piper, and other well-known competitors, with Corey joking that Tord must secretly be listening to their show. The highlight is the “educational moment”, built around the phrase, “If you can’t lick ’em, stick ’em.” The idea?
Use cards like Boss’s Orders or Gravity Stone defensively to strand awkward Pokémon in the Active Spot, buy yourself turns, and maybe flip a losing game. As Jared puts it, “Boss’s Orders seems like such an offensive card… It could be one of the best defensive cards that you ever play.” If you enjoy strategic talk, meta predictions, and a reminder to never scoop too early, this one packs a lot into a single episode.
Which tactic in your own game could you flip from pure offence into a sneaky form of defence?
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