Worlds and a Lot of Weird Lists

Yoyoyo SixPrizes Underground, I hope you all are well and ready to read a sweet article with a lot of interesting decks that popped up at Worlds this year, even if it is a little bit late! Speaking of which, Worlds was a blast – I got to hang out with all of the people I’ve come to know and love from the game, as well as meet new people and put more faces to screenames.

I was able to be part of the team that “broke the format” and watched my good friend Ross take the deck all the way to the finals of Worlds, where he lost to another person that tested with us in the days leading up to Worlds, and who used a list very similar to the one we had been testing.

Anyway, you know me, I’m not big into long introductions and talking about nonsense: you guys signed up to read about Pokémon, and that’s what I like to write about! Without further ado, let’s roll…

LCQ/Grinder Preparation

Arriving Wednesday with my mom and two brothers, we all had a vague idea of what we would play, but we needed to hammer out the details. In the end, I stuck with my gut and played Yanmega/Magnezone, pretty similar to the list I ran at Nats. Sebastian Crema (GrandmaJoner) and I had been playing and perfecting the list since Nationals, and I think our list was pretty ideal for the expected metagame.

I do want to give a shout out to Sami and Fulop’s list, though, as I think it is a little bit more consistent, and still fit my playstyle quite well and had a lot of the options that I prided in my list. Here’s what I ended up going with:

Pokémon – 22

4 Magnemite TM

1 Magneton TM
3 Magnezone Prime
4 Yanma TM
3 Yanmega Prime
2 Horsea UL
1 Seadra UL
2 Kingdra Prime
1 Cleffa HS
1 Jirachi UL

Trainers – 28

4 Pokémon Collector

4 Judge
2 Copycat
2 Twins
4 Pokémon Communication
4 Junk Arm
4 Rare Candy
3 Pokémon Reversal
1 Switch

Energy – 10

3 L

3 P
1 W
1 Rainbow
1 Rescue
1 Double Colorless

Just some notes on this list:

4-1-3 Magnezone I think was the absolute best play for any Megazone list. The format became so fast so quickly that getting your Magnemites KO’d early was not something that happened in some games or even most games: it happened pretty much every game.

The mirror is focused around trying to lock your opponent out of Magnezones, so I see no reason why 4 Magnemite is not the correct play. I talked to Jason Klacynski about this for awhile because he thinks 3 Magnemite is fine, but I wasn’t able to convince him.

The 2-1-2 Kingdra line is the biggest debate of the deck. Joner ran 2-0-2, as did many others, while many still opted for the 1-0-1. I think 2-1-2 provides the most versatility for the deck and allows it to do more things that the standard Megazone can’t do.

The Seadra was my 60th card that I was toying around with, and ended up keeping it for a stupid reason: with DCE (explanation coming!) in the deck now, I could pull a weird move vs Typhlosion and attach Rainbow/DCE to it and swing for 100 vs anything in their deck if I really needed to. It also allowed multiple Kingdras to get easier, of course. ;x

1 Cleffa as the only starter I think was fine, as Tyrogue was few and far between, both in the Grinder and at Worlds. Manaphy is just plain and simple a weaker card. I didn’t miss Tyrogue really, and my thought process was that if I was going first vs a lone Cleffa AND had the ability to get a Tyrogue out T1 (via Collector or Communication), then I was going to be a huge favorite in the match anyway.

Okay, so the Energy. Pretty weird, eh? Rescue is a broken card in this deck, allowing you to get up another Yanmega (or Magnezone if you need to) every game. The 4th Yanmega is really helpful in the Typhlosion matchup. Also makes your 4th Yanma not a totally “dead” card.

pokemon-paradijs.com

Now for the DCE. Joner and I added this on Thursday and it won me two practice games, so it seemed good to me. The only real reason for it so you can Jirachi for 1 Psychic, attach DCE, and proceed to devolve three of their Pokémon.

This allows a more spread approach, especially in the Typhlosion and mirror matchup, as you know you can devolve more Pokémon later in the game. I never had a problem with Lost Burning with only 4 Lightning (3 + Rainbow) in literally hundreds of games, so dropping that down was never a concern of mine.

The Trainers are pretty standard, just with the inclusion of Twins. Most lists had this for Worlds, some for Grinder, but it was certainly a good play. It allows for comeback wins, which, with this list, is much more possible than the typical Megazone lists that go for the far more aggressive approach.

How did I do you may be asking? That is quite less exciting than my explanation for everything:

Round 1 vs Bye

Round 2 vs Takuya Yoneda (former World Champion, multiple Worlds top cuts, probably the 2nd or 3rd best player in Japan, behind Yamato and maybe Go or Yuta) with Kingdra/Yanmega/Cincinno

Game 1 he goes first and just rolls my set up, he gets a T2 Yanmega/Kingdra and just takes out any Magnemite that is played.

0-1

pokegym.netGame 2 I open fairly strong, I Eeek into a T2 Yanmega/Judge. His first turn he has Mincinno active, Collectors for Mincinno/Yanma/Horsea and passes. He has a 6 card hand, so I Judge and KO his active, with one Magnemite benched and a strong possibility of getting a Magnezone next turn.

He draws, goes Cincinno/Candy/Kingdra/Reversal (Heads on Magnemite)/Juniper, gets DCE and Yanmega off that, and KOs my Magnemite. Wow, good thing I Judged. ;/ I can’t keep up from there and just lose.

0-2

So, pretty anti-climactic, but oh well. I played his brother the following day with Reuinclus and pwned him so it’s all good I guess :P

My brothers ended up playing Typhlosion (with 1-1 Ninetales, 1 Potion) and Emboar/Vileplume (which I will talk about later). They both made it to the 4th round, with the former in Masters and the latter in Seniors, but lost there.

While Yoneda’s deck is fresh in your mind, I’d like to talk about it. I think it was a very good deck that wasn’t really talked about much. Kingdra/Yanmega was talked about after it did well in Canada, and Jay touched on Kingdra/Cincinno a bit after US Nationals, but all three was something that Western World hadn’t seen yet, and I think it is very underrated.

A number of Japanese players, including both of the Yoneda brothers and their father, played it. I talked to Yoneda after our game about it, and this is the list I came up with after our games and talking to him:

Pokémon – 23 (confirmed)

4 Horsea UL

2 Seadra UL
4 Kingdra Prime
3 Yanma TM
3 Yanmega Prime
3 Minccino BLW
3 Cinccino BLW
1 Cleffa HS

Trainers – 28

He said played 15 Supporters, so here’s my best guess:

 

4 Pokémon Collector
3 Judge
3 Copycat
3 Professor Oak’s New Theory
2 Professor Juniper

 

4 Pokémon Communication
3 Rare Candy
3 Pokémon Reversal
3 Junk Arm

Energy – 10

4 Double Colorless

3 Rescue
3 W

That’s 61 cards, but you get the idea. The deck set up well and was pretty versatile in a way that Yanmega/Magnezone/Kingdra was.

pokegym.netI could see it having positive matchups against the “big 3” that we brought to Worlds, as you can easily trade blows and snipe targets with Yanmega. This deck should NOT be written off in the future, as I feel like it still has potential, even with (or especially because) Catcher in the format.

Not sure you’ll see this list or the concept anywhere else, so be sure to keep your eyes on this deck and your mind open to its potential! Tornadus would be very good in here too I imagine. The only downside of the new set to this deck is Max Potion, but I’m not sure how heavily that will be played, and how much it will affect this deck anyway.

So my changes with the new set would be something like this:

-1/1 Cincinno, +2 Tornadus EP

Pokémon Reversal, + Pokémon Catcher

Pretty basic, but it should put the deck in the right direction with dealing with some of the newer threats. I do think this has a good shot at competing; the damage adds up vs Typhlosion (though if they start running Max Potion it could get tough), and you could try to run Jirachi or something.

Megazone is a favorable game, as is Stage 1s IMO. Any form of Reuniclus/Trainer Lock has a tough time dealing with Yanmega sniping for a ton anywhere, and with Cincinno you can actually hit the magic number of 130 if you get 3 Kingdras out to 1HKO Gothielle. This seems like a pretty good deck, so be sure to check it out!

While we’re talking about Japanese decks, let me also touch upon the deck that Yamato ended up running, both in the Grinder and main event, as well as the Top Cut Invitational. I still don’t think it’s that good, as there just can’t be any way that Lanturn Prime is good…right?

Pokémon – 21

4 Zekrom BLW

3 Chinchou UL
3 Lanturn Prime
3 Yanma TM
3 Yanmega Prime
2 Pachirisu CL
2 Shaymin UL
1 Cleffa HS

Trainers – 26

4 Pokémon Collector

4 Judge
3 Copycat
3 Professor Oak’s New Theory
2 Professor Juniper
4 Pokémon Communication
3 Pokémon Reversal
3 Junk Arm

Energy – 14

10 L

4 Double Colorless

Again, this is a 61 card list. I played Yamato on Sunday with Reuniclus (and beat him :P) so I got to see his deck and this is probably pretty close to what he played. I didn’t see any Seeker/SSU, and I don’t think he ran Defenders.

pokegym.netNot sure if it 2/2 Pachi/Shaymin either, might have just been a single copy of each. Definitely 3-3 Lanturn and 3-3 Yanmega though, with 4 DCE, and I know 4 Judge for a fact as well. Everything else seems to fit in.

I haven’t ran this at all vs the “big 3” but I guess it should have fairly good matchups. I heard a rumor Yamato ran Zoroark in the Grinder, but he definitely didn’t have it against me on Sunday, so I’m not sure if this is true or not.

Not sure if you’ll see this anywhere else either, so give it a try and let me know what you guys find. This seems like a deck that will almost certainly gain in strength with Catcher, as Zekrom is just so fast and powerful.

Tornadus is another natural inclusion here as in Yoneda’s deck, so something simple as dropping the Lanturn Prime line down, or even just cutting it altogether, seems like a logical decision. I’m sure many variants of Zekrom/Tornadus with Yanmega and Lanturn in some will be popping up.

I do think this will be a very formidable deck especially for BRs, so let me give you some kind of list that I’ll be testing when I get some time, as I haven’t seen one put up yet by the other writers:

Pokémon – 12

4 Tornadus EPO

4 Zekrom BLW
2 Pachirisu CL
2 Shaymin UL

Trainers – 32

3 Dual Ball

4 Pokémon Catcher
3 Defender
2 Super Scoop Up
2 PlusPower
1 Pokégear 3.0
1 Switch
3 Junk Arm
2 Pokémon Collector
3 Cheren/other Supporters
4 Professor Juniper
4 Professor Oak’s New Theory

Energy – 16

12 L

4 Double Colorless

Probably not ideal, but it’s a good start. Tornadus provides four more good starters, which makes the deck way more viable IMO. Another idea is going something like 3/3 Tornadus/Thunderus and have even more good starters, and Thunderus charges itself.

pokegym.netMore and more this is turning into the Zap-Turn-Dos of this format, now with a Recharge Pokémon in addition to what it already had. Not even really sure what this would have issues with, except Gothitelle I guess. This really has the ability to just totally rush them, though. Will have to see how it pans out!

Many other Japanese players that I saw throughout the weekend were running Zekrom/Yanmega, Typhlosion, and Yanmega/Magnezone (though with no Kingdra). Nothing too surprising besides the two above lists, except that I do not think I saw a SINGLE Japanese player with Donphan! This surprised me as I thought they were going to come with something Donphan.

Anyway, so with no Fouchets in Worlds this year, we just ended up playing around and hanging out until Ross showed up (he didn’t get in until Friday evening) so we could play around with his stupid Reuniclus deck that he swore was good.

He called me on Wednesday night and told me just 4-0ed Yanmega/Magnezone and I thought he was crazy. I knew it was good vs Typhlosion and at least decent vs Stage 1s, but Yanmega/Magnezone was the one matchup we couldn’t get it to beat (and one that we couldn’t get Emboar/Vileplume to beat, either, coincidentally).

So we went back to our room (the testing room) and began to hammer out games, where they were making innovations to the deck on the fly and hoping for the best.

Donphan wasn’t even in the deck until Friday night. Blissey the night before. Tropical Beach was put in minutes before Worlds started. This deck was not supposed to exist. ;x

Here’s the list Ross originally posted on the Team X-Files forums, literally four days before Worlds:

Pokémon – 24

3 Oddish UD
1 Gloom UD
2 Vileplume UD
3 Solosis BLW
2 Duosion BLW
2 Reuniclus BLW
4 Zekrom BLW
3 Reshiram BLW
1 Shaymin UL
1 Cleffa HS
1-1 Suicune & Entei LEGEND

Trainers – 27

4 Pokémon Collector
3 Twins
4 Seeker
4 Sage’s Training
2 Copycat
2 Professor Elm’s Training Method
4 Pokémon Communication
4 Rare Candy

Energy – 12

4 Double Colorless
4 Rainbow
4 R

Total – 63

Weird right? It wasn’t good. Outraging and manipulating damage wasn’t really enough. It needed something more, something like Suicune/Entei LEGEND provided for Typhlosion. So we toyed around and after a decent amount of testing and thinking and theorymoning and what have you, we came up with the list I posted the day after Worlds, and which I’ll reproduce here:

Pokémon – 27

3 Solosis BLW
2 Duosion BLW
2 Reuniclus BLW
3 Oddish UD
2 Gloom UD
2 Vileplume UD
2 Phanpy HS
2 Donphan Prime
1 Chansey HS
1 Blissey Prime
1-1 Suicune & Entei LEGEND
2 Zekrom BLW
2 Pichu HS
1 Cleffa HS

Trainers – 22

4 Twins
4 Sage’s Training
3 Pokémon Collector
2 Seeker
1 Copycat
1 Professor Oak’s New Theory
3 Pokémon Communication
3 Rare Candy
1 Tropical Beach

Energy – 11

4 Rainbow
4 Double Colorless
2 F
1 R

So you have the list, now, but how the heck do you play something like this? Let me be the first to tell you guys, that this deck is WEIRD. Almost every single game I played with the deck was weird, requiring strange moves and pretty controversial plays. I’ve KO’d my own Pokémon more times in ~20 games with this deck than I think I’ve done in my entire history of playing PTCG.

pokemon-paradijs.comYou have to think about every turn, making sure you have enough HP left on the field that you don’t have to Blissey this turn, making sure you can Earthquake, making sure you can’t be sniped by something.

It gets even harder when you’re playing vs something like Kingdra/Yanmega/Cincinno where they have 3 Kingdras up and can do 70 anywhere at any point. But it’s almost never impossible. It’s just hard.

You can’t Seeker away a ton of damage if they are trying to stall you with Yanmegas and have a Yanmega with 80 damage on the bench and you’re about to put them into a position where they can’t avoid a KO anymore.

I don’t think I could go through every weird play that the deck requires of you, you’ll have to figure that out for yourself. What I can do is give you guys a general approach to each of the popular matchups and hopefully you guys can fill in the blanks. So let’s see…

The general early game set up is to Collector or Pichu for 2 Oddish, 2 Solosis, so even if one is Yanmega sniped or Reversal KO’d, you can still go about your set up fine. Once something is KO’d, you can Twins and immediately set up Vileplume, which is huge.

Reuniclus generally comes next, while Zekrom sits active and soaks damage while you’re getting your set up. If an extra Oddish or Solosis remains on the field, you can later Seeker it up for the bench space, or just move damage to them and KO them yourself to free up a bench space, with the added benefit of being able to Twins if you weren’t already able to.

If your opponent tries to avoid Knocking something Out in the beginning, this is also a very viable strategy to activate your Twins and set yourself up.

vs Typhlosion

SEL is your star. If he’s not prized, you pretty much win. Lead with Zekrom, set up everything and just attach all your Energy to SEL. The only way they can really win is if they a) rush you hardcore (unlikely) or b) run you out of Energy on your SEL with Typhlosion’s attack.

This is why we play Fire, because it was becoming an issue in our test games. With 4 Rainbow/1 Fire, that is essentially 5 Flare Destroy’s you can get through, more realistically 3-4. I watched Ross vs Tom Dolezal in T4 and both games played out just as how we imagined:

Tom got down to 2-3 Prizes each game before Ross took one, but SEL just took 6 consecutive prizes and there’s absolutely nothing the Typhlosion can do about it. Damage was eventually healed off by Blissey, but no need for that until the very late game where your HP is very low, especially since Typhlosion can’t snipe at all.

vs Stage 1s

Originally, SEL was going to be the star here too, and we considered running 2-2, but then as the brilliant Spencer “SuperWooper” Nalle pointed out on Friday night, Zoroark can simply come up and snipe your Reuinclus for 100 with SEL’s other attack (which we will talk about later, ironically).

So, we had to add Donphan, as there is no way for them to kill Donphan. Originally we had 2-2 Blissey and 1-1 Donphan, but I prompted the switch of the lines, as Donphan is a tank and just way too good to risk being prizes in this matchup or vs Zekrom and other Lightning based decks (see Megazone).

This matchup became leaps and bounds easier with 2-2 Donphan, which you set up to Heavy Impact and Stage 1s has no cool tricks to try and avoid the lock, so Donphan just runs through everything, 2HKOing everything thrown at him. One of Ross’ losses in Swiss was to a Stage 1 actually because he forgot to Damage Swap off his active damage one turn and that cost him =x

vs Megazone

pokegym.netBy and far the hardest matchup of the “big 3,” Megazone has the ability to 1HKO anything and everything. However, it only runs so many Energy. So we took advantage of this fact. Leading Zekrom is stronger here than in any other matchup, as with only 40 damage on it, Zekrom 1HKOs Yanmega.

Usually you don’t leave much damage on Zekrom when it’s swinging early, but you can if you’re sure you won’t be 1HKO’d next turn. Even just leaving 10 on it and 2HKOing Yanmegas is fine, as that still requires Magnezone to Lost Burn 3 Energy for the 1HKO.

So let’s do some math (the name of the game with this deck): 2 Zekrom @ 3 Energy each plus 2 Donphan @ 4 Energy each, that’s what, 14 Energy needed to 1HKO all of those guys. How many Energy do most Megazone lists play. Oh yeaaaa, 10-12.

Obviously this is best case scenario, but it usually pans out something like this, sometimes with the Legend squeaking in there to take some prizes late game if the Magnezone is left bare. Oh yea, I said I was going to talk about SEL’s other attack.

Against Megazone, often they will Lost Burn a bunch of Energy and leave their Magnezone bare so it can just be KO’d and conserve Energy. If you do this, though, you open yourself for the possibility of the Legend just coming up and doing 100 to the bench every other turn until the Magnezone attaches an Energy.

If you’ve already run them out of Energy, you win with the 100 snipe attack, it’s just a matter of time. Megazone can still beat this deck, despite all this, especially if it can KO your guys early and just swarm you over, it can do 40 three times to Vileplume, it can devolve – it has more tricks than any other deck. More often than not, though, you’ll be able to pull it off.

vs Magneboar

pokegym.netJust as hard as Megazone, I’m not sure if it’s harder though. On paper it would seem to be, as you run more Energy and can just 1HKO everything between Magnezone and RDL, but you can’t forget that Vileplume hurts Magneboar more than any other deck in the format.

It also doesn’t have all the devolving/sniping tricks that Megazone has, so the game becomes much more linear – and when games become linear, this deck tends to win more often than the opposing deck. However, as any of you can imagine, the biggest problem vs Magneboar is that they can essentially 1HKO anything you send up, and do it consecutively on multiple Pokémon.

It’s really a race. If you guys watch the finals of Worlds, both the first two games are perfect illustrations of how the matchup plays out: the first game with David waiting and biding his time to set up before going on the attack, and then sweeping through Ross’s deck (though Ross does make it a pretty good match), with the second game being where the lock comes down hard on David and he is left scrambling to keep up with it.

Both played the matchup near perfectly, so definitely check it out as it is a great learning tool!

If you guys have any questions at all about this deck, ask away, as I have a lot of knowledge and probably more practice with this deck than almost anyone (maybe not anymore actually haha…but I did right after Worlds!). Not sure what else to say about it, so specific questions would be more appropriate I think.

Emboar/Vileplume

Another interesting deck that came out of our playtesting was Emboar/Vileplume. I view it now as strictly “worse” than Reuniclus/Vileplume, but it is still pretty well in its own right, and my brother did almost grind in with it, being only one match away. The list he ended up playing was something like this:

Pokémon – 22

3 Oddish UD
1 Gloom UD
2 Vileplume UD
3 Tepig BW07
2 Pignite BLW 17
2 Emboar BLW 20
4 Reshiram BLW
2 Smeargle UD
1 Cleffa HS
1-1 Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND

Trainers – 23

4 Pokémon Collector
3 Twins
3 Cheerleader’s Cheer/Sage’s Training
2 Professor Oak’s New Theory
1 Professor Elm’s Training Method
3 Fisherman
1 Burned Tower
3 Pokémon Communication
3 Rare Candy

Energy – 15

10 R
4 L
1 Rescue

Not sure if that was exactly it, but that’s close. I know Pete played Cheerleader’s Cheer (haha) even though I think Sage’s is better.

pokegym.netThe deck beats the crap out of Typhlosion, beats Stage 1s pretty solid, but had a rough Megazone matchup, though certainly not unwinnable. The fact that Yanmega can just snipe Vileplume three times to KO it was the difference maker in the matchup and why I didn’t think it was too great of a play, but still not too bad.

Not sure how relevant it is now, but I thought you guys would at least appreciate another way to play a Vileplume deck, and it’s pretty good. With RDL you’re able to come back a lot easier, plus nothing can 1HKO Reshiram. I will be still giving this deck a shot once I get some time to test, as it much more under the radar obviously than Ross’ deck and that provides it an advantage, and with the seeming decrease in Megazone, this could probably get stronger.

Okay, well that’s pretty much it for Worlds and interesting decks, but this article isn’t long enough yet IMO. I’m going to try and ramble a little bit about the new set and what I expect coming up in BRs and the new Regionals. This is a total rant, so if something doesn’t make sense, excuse me. :P

*Looking through Pokébeach scans*

Leavanny seems pretty good in a Mew deck. Lost Zone it T1, T2 evolve to Gloom and get Vileplume out T2 with no Candy. Seems pretty viable IMO.

Basculin is really really good. I’m surprised more people aren’t talking about this card. We’ve been looking for a tech Water basic for a while, and this guy fits the bill perfectly. 1HKOs Donphan and 1HKOs Reshiram, which are obviously both huge threats in the metagame.

I expect to see this guy popping up in a lot of random decks to combat both of those characters, just not sure what the absolute best play for him is yet.

Beartic has been talked about, so real quick: he’s pretty sweet with Vileplume, could be good with Weavile, but I’m not sure he’ll be really relevant for BRs/Regs. It’s just too easy to play around, and Yanmega just kinda runs over this guy.

Thunderus/Tornadus I touched on a lot up there, and obviously they’re going to be good. Big basics are always good. Not too much else here.

Sigilyph is okay. My brother really likes him. Again, another card that could be good in a Mew deck, but besides that I don’t think it will be played much.

Gothitelle has been talked about a lot between the other couple writers, and clearly will have a place in the metagame with Reuniclus (maybe even without it). I think Mismagius/Max Potion is an under-looked strategy with this guy. The ability to use Trainers when they can’t is mad strong.

There’s not really any other impressive Pokémon. Cheren is okay, but probably worse than Sage’s in almost everything that would want to run it. Crushing Hammer is probably just mediocre right now, at least until Yanmega goes away. Max Potion is cool, I want to try that with a bunch of stuff. Catcher doesn’t need anything else said.

pokegym.netAs for the metagame, I think it’ll be pretty similar to the Worlds metagame, just with more decks now. I think Catcher actually makes more decks viable, not less. Typhlosion, Megazone, Stage 1s, and Trainer lock decks are all still great, the only deck that gets significantly weaker is Magneboar.

Zekrom gets a boost, and you may even see some other weird big basic decks. I want to try just Thunderus/Tornadus/techs and see if you can “match up” vs anything you need to (this deck would run a couple of Basculin! ;) )

I’m pretty sure we’re going to have the same format for Regionals as Battle Roads (BRs), so be sure to go to a couple BRs and get some games in to practice. I think this is going to be the first year ever where I make an effort to try and go to these tournaments. I also just heard there’s going to be a new promo, and that first, second, and third will get them, so that sounds pretty cool.

I really thought I would have more to write about, but I guess not. I don’t want you all to waste your time reading nonsense stuff, so that’s about it. If I think of more I want to add I’ll just post it in the thread for the article, soooo yeah! Thanks for reading guys, I’ll be back soon!

Mikey


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