TOSSED: A Rogue Ahead

When Spring Battle Roads ended, I knew that I wasn’t going to attend Nationals or Worlds. The next time I would be playing in a sanctioned event would be after the rotation, so, as many of you did, I began working on “post-rotation” decks and ultimately created 1HKO’s Secret Deck named TOSSED.

At first, I tweaked the Gyarados deck that I had success with through States, Regionals, and Battle Roads. After playing it and tweaking, it just didn’t feel comfortable without Felicity’s Drawing. The deck didn’t flow as it once did.

pokebeach.comThe other deck that I had played recently was Shuppet. I had used a very aggressive build relying on minimal energy and long line of trainers to thin my deck, keep my hand unclogged, and get me the necessary PlusPowers and Expert Belts. Looking at what was rotating out, I knew that the same Shuppet-based strategy could no longer work consistently thanks to the loss of Roseanne’s Research, Mr. Mime, and Night Maintenance.

The main loss was Roseanne’s Research, because it gave the deck the ability to run just 2 basic energy cards. I played around a bit with adding Cyrus’s Conspiracy as a Roseanne replacement. The deck already ran 4 Poké Turn and 2 Crobat G. Cyrus couldn’t be all bad. It just didn’t work well. The loss of Mime and Night Maintenance became more pronounced, and the deck was doomed for “fun/league” status. I let the idea fade.

Then one day, I had a “Stupid Deck Idea.” Usually, those end up getting written down (on the computer), and then forgotten. I had taken to adding them to the Team Omar site just for archival purposes, but this one was different. For some reason, I actually built the deck while watching TV that night, and it played great (solitaire-wise). I could come close to 6 Prizes in 6 turns against a hapless opponent.

The loss of Mr. Mime meant that there was no good wall to put up after a “Fade Out” (or “Psychic Restore”) attack. He can sit around for turns and turns not taking a bit of damage, and that was one of the basic principles of the Shuppet deck. My new idea was that Crobat G could replace Mr. Mime as the deck’s wall. Of course, he would incur damage, but if he wasn’t 1HKO’d, you could put up your other Crobat next turn. Ultimately, Garchomp C LV.X could come in and Healing Breath your walls and let them do it all over again.

pokebeach.comThat was the basis of the build, but the deck was more than that. Garchomp C needed the ability to attack. One of the problems with him, in the past, is that he really eats up DCE, and there was no good way to search out the non-basic energy. The Shuppet mentality of thinning your deck as much as possible lent itself well to obtaining your DCEs. The inclusion of 4 Poké Drawer + and 4 Pokédex along with 4 basic Uxie made it very likely to get DCEs in hand whenever you may need them.

They also worked well with Dunsparce and Uxie’s attacks if you couldn’t get a basic Psychic energy to use Shuppet’s attack. In fact, it was later pointed out to me (by someone that I shared the list with) that the deck did very well in the current (pre-rotation) meta of the time due to its ability to overcome the Downer Material lock that would otherwise plague SP and Shuppet decks. The DCE meant that Dunsparce could Fade Out turn after turn without needing 2 energy cards.

As I had only tried it against a less-than-realistic opponent, I wondered how it would fare in real competition. I was excited to use it against my teammates and see what they thought. I recall Omar saying that we needed a team secret deck, and I was like, “It’s right here!” This is what it looked like.

Pokémon4 Uxie LA
2 Crobat G
1 Shuppet PL
1 Dunsparce HS
1 Toxicroak G Promo
2 Garchomp C
2 Garchomp C LV.X
1 Ambipom G
1 Unown Q MD
Trainers4 TGI Poké Turn
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Poké Drawer +
4 Pokédex Handy 910is
4 PlusPower
2 Expert Belt
1 Luxury Ball
4 Pokémon Reversal
2 Dual Ball
2 Energy Gain
2 TGI SP Radar
4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy
1 Pokémon Collector
1 Aaron’s Collection
Energy4 Double Colorless
2 P

Omar immediately built it with the following mods:
-4 Reversal, -1 Uxie
+1 Cyclone Energy, +1 Looker, +1 Energy Gain, +1 Communication, +1 Uxie LV.X

Omar took it to an informal tourney where only post-rotation decks were allowed, and he went undefeated. We named the deck TOSSED for its ability to “toss” 80 damage at will, “toss” Shuppet/Dunsparce/Uxie back to your hand/deck, and “toss” your opponent a loss. You could sit down across from someone and ask, “Are you ready to get TOSSED?”

At the time, TOSSED was a backronym for the Team Omar Super Secret Excellent Deck. I’ve since decided on the Team Omar Shuppet SP Energyless Deck.

As it sits now, the deck rarely has energy on the field, so I chose “Energyless.” Either way, the E is kinda weak, so if you’ve got a good suggestion there, let me know.

pokebeach.comThe deck doesn’t play exactly as I originally intended when I built it. I figured on a Shuppet deck that could snipe and never let the opponent get set up. It actually plays like a nice synergistic mix of Shuppet and SP. It can do many of the things a LuxChomp deck could do, and that’s what opponents expect. Then, it can pile up a bunch of PlusPowers on a Shuppet/Duncesparce/Uxie and hit for weakness.

The deck’s field is hard to disrupt, since there is rarely any important resources left out. When your opponent KOs something, it often just opens a bench slot for you to do something new. Losing Energy Gains is your only real concern. Sometimes you will leave an Ambipom or Promocroak out with energy or EGain, but that would usually mean that you got a KO, and losing the energy might just be the price you have to pay. Otherwise, you can Leap Away or PokéTurn the resources back next turn.

So, things were going great, but nobody I knew was going to Worlds. I doubt that they would want to play an unproven deck like this at that event, anyway, but I do believe it could have done well against the meta of that time. I decided that it would keep until Battle Roads rolled around, and we’d have a nice surprise.

The problem was that the meta shifted. You would think that a deck that was good before the rotation, losing no cards, would still work well in the post-rotation format. Well, the thing that hadn’t been taken into account (at the time the deck was built) was how Undaunted would affect the meta.

Undaunted rolled out, and 2 problem decks came to prominence. DialgaChomp and Spiritomb/Vileplume are both currently rampant in the tournament scene. Energy Exchanger has seen to the resurgence of DialgaChomp, giving it a great way to get multiple special metal energies to tank. Vileplume has given rise to different VileTomb builds that rely on supporters and Darkness Grace while shutting down trainers all game long.

pokebeach.comBoth of these decks are a big problem for TOSSED. Dialga G can shut down the deck’s trainers and easily wall against the Psychic attackers, while Vileplume makes the deck’s trainer-based draw engine and attack system grind to a halt. These limiting TOSSED’s options and effectively hand the deck an auto-loss.

I still contend that TOSSED can have an impact in the right metagame. As new sets come out, the meta may again shift, opening the door for a sneaky TOSSED play. League would be a great place to try the deck out, as it would really surprise opponents with its speed. Ultimately, though, to stay competitive, the deck may require some mods.

We’ve already worked on multiple different directions that the deck can go in, and I plan to detail those in upcoming articles that will be posted on Team Omar. In fact, I played 3 different versions of the deck at 3 different Battle Roads this season, and others are playing it elsewhere. Of the lists I played, one was very similar to the list posted here, while the other two featured techs for Vileplume, Spiritomb, and Dialga matchups.

So, give the deck a try, and let me know what you think. If you want more info, check out 1HKO for other articles about the deck and various builds we’ve tested and played. In particular, please see the article about “Playing TOSSED”.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to SixPrizes for posting great articles. If you haven’t seen the latest two Underground articles, you’re missing out.

Reader Interactions

25 replies

    • Joshua Pikka  → Anthony

      I actually have played against this deck with my Gengar Viletomb and while the TOSSED player is sure at a disadvanatge, the TOSSED deck can be teched enough so that it has a decent shot.

      • Ed Mandy  → Joshua

        Yes, there is a lot of room to change the deck for certain matchups. I plan to get into some of the different versions we’ve tried when I get a chance to write some more on the topic. Anthony is right, though (as was pointed out in the article). The deck (as it is listed here) will have issues with trainer lock.

        If you don’t want to rework the entire deck, but you still want a better shot at getting a full turn of trainers early on, try Regice and Cyclone Energy. It’s a minor change. The drawback is that you may start with Regice active, and then you’re hosed (unless you get a lucky SSU). Warp Point isn’t a bad addition here, also. It won’t help you with Tomb, but it can give another way to disrupt your opponent and retreat a Regice, Leveled Up Uxie, etc. Your attackers usually come off the bench to attack, so Warp Point will usually be advantageous.

  1. Red Ados

    somebody at my league was playing this except with a shedinja wall ans tomb wall. worked well except scoops to vilegar.

  2. Bohdan Pelekh

    I play a gyarados variant, and I played a shuppet deck at BRs. By about turn 3 there wasn’t much my opponent could do. So what can you do against hard hitting decks like those. I mean your crobat wall wouldn’t work. Or is this simply the one loss youre almost always gonna take aside from viletomb?

    • Ed Mandy  → Bohdan

      Hard hitting decks aren’t the main problem. Against many decks, those types of decks (say Gyarados in this case) will win out when they can get rid of the opponent’s main resources. An opponent may build up something on the bench, come in to get a KO on Gyarados, only to get their fully-built attacker KO’d by a new/easy-to-replace Gyarados.

      With a deck like Shuppet, you can still hit fairly hard without leaving any resources on the field. Occasionally, you can snipe the Gyarados player’s bench with Garchomp (HOPING that they can’t KO your 110HP Lv X). Gyarados is KOing your Crobats and Uxies, but they’re unimportant in the scheme of things.

      If you can get a Cyclone Energy in hand (with Dunsparce), then the Gyarados matchup can turn into a prize race. I won’t pretend that the Gyarados matchup is a great one for TOSSED, but it’s no trainer lock.

      Also, I don’t think that the TOSSED version posted here is the best one. It’s more of a basic version to show what the deck could look like. It may be the best for someone to pick up and play, but there are lots of ways you can build it for your style/meta. The article is more of an account of how the deck came to be. I’ll post more about ways it can evolve when I get a chance.

      If you’re concern is actually Gyarados, things like Energy Exchanger (for Cyclone), Warp Point, Luxray GL, Blaziken FB, Frosslass GL, Spiritomb (to try to lock up their recovery), etc. are all easy things to fit into the deck.

    • Ed Mandy  → Colin

      It’s been in and out. You have to be careful if you put it in. I suggest multiple Warp Point if you do put it in. I ran it at a BR with Regice in and started with it active once. It wasn’t pretty. In another BR, I tested Dialga G Lv. X for the trainer lock. That list ran Warp Point, so Regice fit better.

      The list here is like the base model. In fact, I would suggest running the list just like it is, except to get used to the deck. Then, you’ll want to mod it with some of the suggestions listed here and at TeamOmar.com’s article(s).

  3. Poet Larsen

    Another wall that might work in this deck is toxicroak G (platium). I know that sounds weird, but he can take damage and wall of machamp and special conditions with his body.

  4. venny kid

    DUDE!!!! I Put Shuppet INTO my Gyarados Build!!!! Because Banette’s Temper Tantrum power discards your Karps, Shuppet is naturally there. Also, My list runs SSU, Expert Belt, and Plus Power, along with Crobat G to add to Gyarados’s 90+ damaging Tail Revenge. For some reason, I decided to put some psychic energy in there, and my opening hand alomost ALWAYS (for some odd reason) has a Shuppet, Psychic, and Plus Power. So while I set up Gyarados, Shuppet is Fade Outting for 30-60. Its an odd tech, but its worked for me plenty of times.

    • Joshua Pikka  → venny

      You sound like a man after Ed’s own heart. He puts Shuppet into every deck he plays.

      Thats why we call him “Shup-Ed”

        • venny kid  → Ed

          It’s alright. Works fairly well, but then again I haven’t ever gone to a tournament (because there aren’t any around Athens,Ga). Gyarados’s huge adversary is bad prizes. MagiKarps, Gyaradoses, etc… so if that’s the case, I turn to shuppet/Bayanette or my 1-1 Donphan Prime (Luxray Counter). It’s just alright, and even sometimes screams CLUNKY to even me…

  5. George

    Uh…My niece is 7-0 in juniors this season running Shuppet/Starmie/Crobat Prime.

    Although Spiritomb AR is widely played here in Florida, there are many ways around it – such as Crobat Prime’s Severe Poison and Skill Dive attacks. Starmie can Boomerang the active or Core Flash the bench.

    Adding the HS Dunsparce would be a killer Garchomp C tech though! Good idea!

    • Ed Mandy  → George

      In my opinion, Dunsparce is definitely needed in a Shuppet style deck. It gets around Psy resistance or hits the (very common) colorless weakness. It combos so well with Cyclone energy, too.

  6. Loren Miller

    I played Shuppet last season but gave it up in the new format. I think TOSSED would be very vulnerable to Judge (commonly played) and Lookers (occasionally played). Once you are judged, you basically lose most of the time.

    • Ed Mandy  → Loren

      If you get Judged, you really need to draw into a Cyrus or Uxie (or anything that can get Uxie). Depending on how you build the deck, you may have a fair probability of getting one. Also, it can depend on how you play the deck. In many matchups, I would just keep chaining Cyrus to thin the deck and give me a hand full of options. If you’re concerned about Judge, you can stop playing supporters when you don’t need a specific card.

      Also, on this point, I’ve began testing Staraptor FB Lv. X. His supporter-search would really help in the Judge case.

      So, yeah, you’re right that Judge can be problematic, but it isn’t as bad as it would seem. The deck doesn’t rely on Shuppet, so shuffling it back isn’t a showstopper. The trainer lock is a much worse problem.

    • Ed Mandy  → Anonymous

      You tried it? It’s not dissimilar to Bright Look + Garchomp C, which is all the rage with the kids these days. Some opt for Luring Flame + Garchomp C, though.

      Though, none of the recent builds of the deck use Reversal, anymore. They use Bright Look, Luring Flame, or Cyclone Energy.

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