States Report: Fighting, Trolls With Celebi/Mewtwo

Heading into this last weekend of States, I faced the dilemma of what to play. The past weekend, I played Celebi Prime/Mewtwo EX/Regigigas-EX, which I took to a tenth place finish at the Kansas State Championship. As I wrote in my States report from last weekend, I saw that the meta had solidified to include a top tier of decks that included Celebi/Mewtwo, Zekrom/Eelektrik, Durant, Landorus/Terrakion, and Troll, with a second tier of decks that included Typhlosion/Reshiram, Vanilluxe (some variants with Mew Prime), and Donphan and Dragons.

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With the metagame solidified, I felt that it would be a good time to work on a rogue deck that takes advantage of some of the shared weaknesses of the decks in the metagame. Unfortunately, because of school, I didn’t get a ton of time to test the rogue idea that I’ve been working on to fine tune its list, and in the testing I was doing, while the deck performed solidly, there were some flaws that kept the deck from performing as well as I would like.

With the rogue deck not being the play, I needed to figure out which other deck I would be playing in week three at the Missouri State Championship. I didn’t feel like playing Zekrom/Eelektrik, as I felt there was going to be a lot of Fighting being played. The three decks I considered playing for week three were Celebi/Mewtwo, Landorus/Terrakion, and Troll.

After some testing, I knew Landorus/Terrakion wouldn’t be the play, for reasons I will cover later. I decided against trying to play Troll, as I wasn’t privy to a good list for the deck and haven’t played against it in a tournament, so I didn’t feel like my list would be all that good. In the end, I decided on playing Celebi/Mewtwo for a third straight week.

The list I ended up playing for the deck is quite a bit different than what I listed at the end of my last article. The changes I made from that list to the list I played this past weekend in Missouri are resultant from fine tuning the deck to make its matchups against Fighting decks as good as possible.

Celebi Prime/Mewtwo EX/Regigigas-EX Decklist

Pokémon – 9 3 Celebi Prime 4 Mewtwo-EX NXD 1 Regigigas-EX 1 Smeargle UD/CL

Trainers – 37 4 Professor Juniper 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory 4 N   4 Dual Ball 4 Junk Arm 4 Pokémon Catcher 4 Switch 3 PlusPower 2 Eviolite 1 Pokégear 3.0 1 Energy Retrieval   2 Skyarrow Bridge

Energy – 14 10 G 4 Double Colorless

Subtractions

Regigigas-EX – In a meta filled with Landorus NVI and Terrakion NVI running rampant, Regigigas-EX can be a big liability, getting 1HKO’d by a Terrakion “Retaliate” or by a Landorus “Gaia Hammer” with a PlusPower. However, I chose to still run one Regigigas-EX in the deck. It’s just too good of a card to have against Typhlosion Prime/Reshiram BLW, Zekrom/Eelektrik, and mirror match to not run at least one copy of.

Pinsir NXD – This tech was inserted into the deck originally to counter Quad Terrakion, by running the deck dry of Energy. That deck has hit the wayside for the most part, and instead Landorus/Terrakion became the big Fighting deck, which Pinsir is much less effective against because Landorus can bring Energy back from the discard with Abundant Harvest. This wasn’t a very hard cut to make.

Skyarrow Bridge/G Energy – These cards would have been nice to have one extra of in the deck, but ultimately they were cut from the deck to make room for other trainer cards.

Additions

Mewtwo EX – I added a fourth Mewtwo EX to the deck to help with the deck’s matchup against the fighting decks. Powering up a few Mewtwo’s with a bunch of energy proved to be a fairly effective method of dealing with the fighting decks in the format, and by running four Mewtwo EX, I was able to always search them out via dual ball and not have to worry about having them prized.

Smeargle – This was already in the list at the end of my article last week, but wasn’t in my deck in week 2. As I’ve said before, I felt that the absence of Smeargle in my list was a big mistake. Smeargle is just too good at helping you get a good start to the game and getting you out of bad situations to not run the card.

Switch – This one goes hand in hand with the addition of Smeargle. Adding a fourth Switch to the deck increases my ability to get both a Forest Breath and Portrait off in the same turn.

PlusPower – I added a third PlusPower to the deck as PlusPower would especially be good this week, as a Mewtwo EX with two energy on it can 1HKO a Landorus with three energy on it (which is needed for Gaia Hammer) with an X Ball with a PlusPower.

Tournament Report

We ended up with 92 Masters playing, so we would end up with seven rounds of Swiss play along with a top 16 cut. That meant of course that 6-1 would get you into cut for sure, and 5-2 would give you a decent chance, with four 5-2’s ultimately missing cut at the end of the day. Upon registration for the event, each player got a Pokémon State Championship dice, so props to the tournament staff for getting those for the players.

Round 1 – Versus Raymond Simmons (Celebi Prime/Mewtwo EX/Tornadus EPO)

For the second week in a row, I had to play our local PTO. These pairings are never fun, as you don’t want to negatively impact the people from your area in these bigger tournaments, which you ultimately do by beating them. Nonetheless, you have to still go out there and win the game. When I played him last week, he played Celebi/Mewtwo/Tornadus, and he had played it in week one too, so I figured he was probably playing it again.

pokemon-paradijs.comI started a lone Celebi Prime to his Celebi Prime and Tornadus start. He won the coin flip, so I had to sit there in agony, waiting to see whether he would get the donk or not. Fortunately, he couldn’t hit all the necessary pieces for the donk, so I got a chance to play out the game. I hit double heads on Dual Ball, and grabbed Regigigas-EX and Smeargle. I got to use two Supporters for my turn thanks to Portrait, allowing me to setup Regigigas-EX with three energy on it as well as an Eviolite.

I was able to KO a Celebi Prime on the first turn with Giga Power. He responded by hitting into Regigigas-EX for 60 with Tornadus. I attached a fourth energy to Regigigas-EX for my turn, Catchered a Celebi and got the KO. He was left in a bit of a tough spot, being forced to bench a Mewtwo EX. He decided to attack into Regigigas-EX for 60 more, hoping I didn’t have a Catcher in hand, setting up a 170 damage Raging Hammer attack from Regigigas-EX.

He was kind of forced into this situation, as putting the three energy on Mewtwo EX to Knock Out Regigigas-EX that turn would have put him on the losing end of the Mewtwo war, as I had already taken 2 Prizes. I did had the Catcher in hand, so I catchered up his benched Mewtwo EX for the Raging Hammer knockout to go up 4-0 on prizes.

He responded with a Mewtwo EX and attached a Double Colorless to knockout my Regigigas-EX. I then simply responded with my own Mewtwo EX for the revenge kill and the game.

Win 1-0

Round 2: Versus Skarmory CL/Cobalion NVI/Scizor Prime

Don’t quite remember who my opponent was, but I think he really hates Mewtwo EX. He complained throughout the match that my deck was too expensive. I think he was raging especially hard when he realized I ran four copies of Mewtwo EX in my deck.

Nonetheless, his deck is actually a pretty interesting one, and one that I feel fairly lucky to escape with a win over. His deck is basically the Metal version of Landorus/Terrakion. Not quite sure how exactly he ran his list, but this is how a list for this deck could look:

Pokémon – 9 3 Cobalion NVI 2 Scyther UD 65 2 Scizor Prime 2 Mewtwo-EX NXD

Trainers – 36 4 Professor Oak’s New 4 N 4 Professor Juniper   4 Dual Ball 4 Junk Arm 4 Pokémon Catcher 3 Exp. Share 3 PlusPower 2 Eviolite 2 Switch 1 Super Rod 1 Pokégear 3.0

Energy – 15 8 M – Basic 4 Metal – Special 3 Double Colorless

pokemon-paradijs.comThis is a bit different than the list I played against in this matchup, as he didn’t run Mewtwo EX in his deck. The basic idea behind the deck is to power up a bunch of Cobalion to use Iron Breaker over and over again, forcing your opponent to either retreat their active or have a switch in hand to attack for the turn. Scizor is there to put your opponent in some tough situations if they play special energy.

The deck, in my opinion, is a worse version of Landorus/Terrakion, as this deck is slower than Landorus/Terrakion. Landorus can be setup for a turn 2 Gaia Hammer, putting early pressure on your opponent. Cobalion, on the other hand, cannot be set up for Iron Breaker until turn 3 at the earliest.

I cut Skarmory altogether from the list, as Skarmory just wastes an energy attachment for the turn, and this format is so fast that you can’t afford to repeatedly attack without putting damage on your opponent’s Pokémon. Additionally, this deck’s Durant matchup isn’t quite as good as Landorus/Terrakion.

Nonetheless, this was one of my tougher games of the tournament. My opponent started with a lone Skarmory to my Celebi Prime and Mewtwo EX start. I play a Dual Ball on turn 1, get double heads, and grab Smeargle and Regigigas-EX to go for the donk on Skarmory. I play my hand down to zero, and Portrait with Smeargle. He had no Supporters in his hand.

For about four turns, I just draw, attempt to Portrait, and end up passing while I wait to draw a Supporter. While this goes on, my opponent is able to get energy on multiple Cobalion thanks to Skarmory, and setup a Scizor.

pokemon-paradijs.comI did end up getting four energy on Regigigas-EX in this time, and attacked into his Skarmory for 70 damage. He repeatedly Catchered my Regigigas-EX into the Active Spot in the early game to prevent me from getting Portraits. After an Iron Breaker on my Eviolited Regigigas-EX, I retreated it, sending three energy to the discard. I knew I would have to setup some Mewtwo with only G Energy on it to take out that Scizor.

I was able to take out my opponent’s Scizor with two Basic M Energy out with an X Ball and double PlusPower. From there, I began stacking energy on a few Mewtwo EXs to take on the field of Cobalions. Another Scyther hit the bench at some point, and I made sure to take that out right away, as I didn’t want to stare down a Scizor.

The game fell down to 1-1 on prizes, with me losing two Mewtwo EX and a Celebi Prime over the course of the game. He used Iron Breaker on my active Mewtwo EX with an Eviolite to put it up to 120 damage. I switched to Celebi, attached a DCE to Mewtwo and another Grass with Celebi, and Catchered up the Skarmory with only 10 HP remaining for the last prize.

I don’t think this is a deck that people will have to worry about too much going into Regionals, but it’s just something to look out for as the deck poses some challenges to Celebi/Mewtwo, and this is two straight weeks in which I encountered something with Cobalion/Scizor, so there are quite a few players testing out the idea.

When you’re running 4 Switch, 4 Junk Arm, and 2 Skyarrow Bridge (which makes your main attacker have only 1 Retreat Cost), there are just too many ways to get out of the effect of Cobalion’s effect to make it very effective as a Mewtwo EX counter.

Win 2-0

We took a lunch break after the second round. The store ordered in pizza and gave all players in the tournament free pizza. Once again, I have to give major props to the tournament organizers for this, it’s not something that they needed to do, but it is something that makes the tournament experience all the better, so thank you.

Round 3 – Versus Kason Day (Celebi Prime/Mewtwo EX/Tornadus EPO)

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I think I went first in this one. I started Celebi Prime and Mewtwo EX. I had a Dual Ball in hand, and played it, hitting double tails. I wanted to grab my Regigigas-EX, and enact the Regigigas plan, which is just taking out all the Celebi’s, and ultimately take 3-4 Prizes with Regigigas-EX to start the game, just as I did in the first round of this tournament.

I end up having to go with Mewtwo EX, and I think I get a double PlusPower knockout on his Celebi. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but I’m pretty sure he whiffed on getting the revenge knockout with his Mewtwo EX, so I loaded some more energy on my Mewtwo EX and took out his Mewtwo EX to take a 3-0 prize lead.

He responds by Knocking Out my Mewtwo EX to make it 3-2 on prizes. I respond with the revenge with my Mewtwo EX to make it 5-2 on prizes for me. Then, he of course N’s me to one card, and takes the revenge knockout on my Mewtwo EX to make it 5-4 on prizes. When he N’d me, I had about an eight card hand full of G Energy, as well as a Professor Juniper, making the revenge knockout super likely. Instead, I draw nothing off the N, and end up losing as he sweeps the board with that Mewtwo EX.

As I said in my last article, N is one of the most important cards in winning the Mewtwo war. It sucks to be on the other end of a late game N, but I think this just proves how much of a game changer N is in this format. This was a really good game though, and this opponent would end up going 7-0 in Swiss and be the No. 1 seed going into top cut.

Loss 2-1

Round 4 – Versus Jayson Harry (Troll)

I asked one of my friends before the match if he had any idea what Jayson was playing, and he said Troll. I don’t have the most experience playing against good Troll lists, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, except that the deck would have Tornadus EPO, Terrakion NVI, Landorus NVI, Mewtwo EX, and probably a Shaymin UL to move energy around.

After playing against a very good Troll list, I think I have a pretty good idea for how this deck looks, at least as far as the Pokémon lines, still not really clear on what the energy lines necessarily look like, or even the Trainer lines, as Jayson didn’t play through a lot of his deck in this game as the game went fairly quickly because the EXs give up 2 Prizes.

Troll.dek

Pokémon – 13 4 Tornadus EPO 3 Landorus NVI 3 Terrakion NVI 2 Mewtwo-EX NXD 1 Shaymin UL

Trainers – 33 4 Professor Juniper 3 Sage’s Training 3 N   4 Dual Ball 4 Junk Arm 3 Exp. Share 3 PlusPower 3 Pokémon Catcher 2 Pokégear 3.0 2 Switch 1 Super Rod 1 Rocky Helmet

Energy – 14 10 F 4 Double Colorless

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This is a far from perfect list for the deck, but it should give you some idea of what the deck will look like. The deck is often times called Tornadus/Terrakion, but from what I saw in playing against it, there were at least three Landorus in the deck. I don’t quite remember if this deck was running Professor Oak’s New Theory or Sage’s Training, as my matches against this and the Landorus/Terrakion decks are all kind of blurring together.

The basic strategy of the deck is to setup some Tornadus, Landorus, and Terrakion. You spread your energy around your field with Exp. Share and Torandus’ Hurricane attack. The deck should theoretically be good against Eelektrik variants since of all the Fighting Pokémon in the deck to hit Zekrom/Eelektrik hard, and it should do better in the matchup against the somewhat similar Landorus/Terrakion deck, as you have Tornadus, which can absorb a hit from that deck a little better, and who can help spread energy around its field better.

The Mewtwo EX are there to prevent you from getting run over by the opposing player running you over with just a Mewtwo EX with a lot of energy stacked onto it. One of the biggest problems this deck deals with is a late game Shaymin EX taking the last 2 Prizes while not being able to be 1HKO’d in response back. The Shaymin UL is a solution to this problem, as you can play a Mewtwo EX onto your bench, use Shaymin UL to move all your energy to Mewtwo EX. Attach an energy for your turn, switch Mewtwo EX to your Active Spot, and X Ball that pesky Shaymin EX for your final 2 Prizes.

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As for our game, I got the worst possible start I could have, starting a lone Regigigas-EX. I was able to setup my board with a Smeargle, I think multiple Celebi, and a Mewtwo EX. He took a T2 prize with his Tornadus, Knocking Out a Celebi Prime with Hurricane. I knew I was going to lose my Regigigas-EX to a Retaliate regardless, so I made sure to attack with it first, and get as much use out of it as possible before the inevitable happened.

I Knocked Out his Tornadus with a Rocky Helmet attached with a triple PlusPower Giga Power. He of course revenge KO’d it with a Terrakion with Retaliate. I was now down 3-1 on prizes.

I work on getting two Mewtwo EX ready for the end of this game. I think I Knock something Out with a Mewtwo EX this turn, but not really sure, might have just softened something up for a knockout later in the game.

He revenges my Mewtwo EX, to go up 5-1 or 5-2 on prizes. No big deal, you fall in these types of spots not too infrequently with Mewtwo EX based decks. I had all four of my N’s still in my deck at this point, so while I knew I was in a somewhat poor position thanks to the Regigigas start, I knew I still had a chance to repeatedly N him and steal the game, sweeping his field with Mewtwo EX.

I N him down to one card, and take the revenge Knock Out on his Mewtwo EX to take two more prizes. He has the Pokémon Catcher in hand though, and Catchers my Smeargle and Retaliates it for the game.

Loss 2-2

So from here on, I knew I would have to finish perfect if I wanted to make top cut. Luckily, my two losses were to Kason Day and Jayson Harry, who both had really good tournaments, finishing as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, so my resistance would end up fairly solid.

Round 5 – Versus Colin Moll (Landorus NVI/Terrakion NVI/Mewtwo EX)

This game went by fairly quickly. I just stacked a bunch of energies on a Mewtwo EX and started to Knock Out a bunch of his Landorus and Terrakions with the single Mewtwo EX. I don’t think he ran Double Colorless Energy, or at the very least, not a full count of it, as at one point in the game, he worked on setting up a Mewtwo EX by attaching a Fighting energy to it on the bench, and hoping I didn’t have the Pokémon Catcher in hand.

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Of course I had the Pokémon Catcher in hand, so I Catchered up the Mewtwo EX and took the two easy prizes. I think it was at this point he scooped.

Win 3-2

This was the problem I had with the deck, which is ultimately why I didn’t end up playing Landorus/Terrakion myself. The deck just had no way to keep up if the game fell into a Mewtwo war. If you run four Double Colorless Energy, you mess up your consistency with the Landorus/Terrakion game plan, as Landorus’ Abundant Harvest only works with F Energy.

If you don’t run four Double Colorless Energy, then you are going to be unable to keep up in a Mewtwo war. Even if you do run four though, you won’t necessarily be able to keep up in a Mewtwo war, as your deck isn’t built around going aggressive with Mewtwo EX, so you probably just lose anyhow.

Landorus is also really vulnerable to getting Knocked Out by Mewtwo. I don’t think I ever got attacked by Landorus throughout this entire tournament. What usually happens is that they will get the turn one Abundant Harvest with Landorus, putting two energy on it. You get three energy on your Mewtwo EX, and knockout Landorus with a X Ball and PlusPower.

If they then take out your Mewtwo EX with their own, then fine, the game falls to a Mewtwo war that they can’t keep up in. If they don’t respond with a Mewtwo EX, you’re able to put some more energy on your Mewtwo EX and start taking out more Landorus or Terrakions. It’s a win-win for the Celebi/Mewtwo player.

The deck is certainly a solid deck going into Regionals, but I feel that it has too many problems keeping up with a stream of Mewtwo EX’s to be the best possible play.

Round 6 – Versus Lance Wilson (Zekrom/Eelektrik/Mewtwo EX)

I went first this game and played some Dual Ball to grab my Regigigas-EX, but it was prized. I ended up having to go all out with my Mewtwo EXs, sending the game into a quick Mewtwo war. I don’t really remember much else about this game, just that my deck was built really good for keeping up in a Mewtwo war, and it did just that in this game.

Win 4-2

Round 7 – Versus James Proctor (Landorus/Terrakion/Mewtwo EX)

This game went fairly similar to my game against Colin in Round 5. I went all out with Mewtwo EX early in the game. I was actually in a stronger position this game than I was in my Round 5 game, as I had just G Energy on my Mewtwo EX, keeping it safe from Lost Remover, which I couldn’t do against Colin (he ultimately sent three Double Colorless Energy to the Lost Zone in our Round 5 matchup).

I was able to take some prizes early on with my Mewtwo EX. The game fell into a Mewtwo war at some point, and then after he was all out of Mewtwo EXs, it was just a matter of taking one more prize to get the win.

Win 5-2

As I said earlier in the report, both Kason and Jayson did really well in the tournament finishing as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds after Swiss. Colin and James also finished fairly high in the tournament, finishing in the twenties, which meant my resistance was going to be good. I made the top 16 cut as the 12th seed this week.

Top 16 – Versus Damon Welch (Celebi Prime/Mewtwo EX/Tornadus EPO)

My Top 16 game was fairly unexciting, and lasted all of 15 minutes.

Game 1

 

pokemon-paradijs.comIn game one, I went first. I had a Celebi Prime and Mewtwo EX start. I hit double tails on my Dual Ball, and couldn’t grab my Regigigas-EX, so I just went with Mewtwo EX for this game. I attached an Eviolite to it, two energy, and got the double PlusPower knockout on his Celebi Prime. The game falls into a mindless Mewtwo war, as we exchange Mewtwo for Mewtwo.

All three of my Mewtwo EX that got Knocked Out had only two energy onthem as well as an Eviolite, setting up situations for my opponent to whiff on the revenge KO. For the first two knockouts, he attached three energy to his Mewtwo EX’s, giving me the easy revenge kills. For his last KO, he was able to get the double PlusPower for the Knock Out.

If I had been able to hit an N in this game, I probably win, as it’s fairly hard to hit the resources you need off of a one card N. I don’t get the N though, giving him enough resources to revenge my final Mewtwo EX.

Loss 0-1

Game 2

I go first. I start a lone Celebi Prime. My hand is a bunch of G Energy and random Trainer cards. I pass. He goes for the double PlusPower Knock Out with his two energy Mewtwo EX, but only is able to hit one PlusPower. I draw a Pokémon Catcher, show my opponent my hand, and that’s the game.

Loss 0-2

This was a fairly frustrating way to get knocked out of the tournament, as I felt my deck was built well to succeed in the mirror match, and was solid against Landorus/Terrakion, which made up most of the field on my side of the bracket for top cut. After the match, my opponent told me that his Supporter line was 4 Pokégear 3.0, 4 Professor Juniper, I think 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory, and 2 Pokémon Collector. With my opponent not running N himself, I had a big advantage in this matchup, and still lost, which makes the loss even more frustrating.

pokemon-paradijs.comThis is by no means a knock on Damon’s list, as his list is obviously pretty good since he finished third overall in the tournament with it. I just don’t see how his deck would be able to consistently win Mewtwo wars without having N in the deck. Based on the way the final standings turned out, it looks like he beat the Zekrom/Eelektrik deck that was playing next to us in Top 8, and then lost to Celebi/Mewtwo/Tornadus in Top 4.

I think the main take away should be that there is no one right way to play Celebi/Mewtwo. You had lists, as seen by comparing mine and Damon’s, with fairly different Supporter lines. I think we ended up with six Celebi/Mewtwo decks in our top cut, and there was quite a variance in the attacker lines for decks.

You had my deck with 4 Mewtwo EX and 1 Regigigas-EX. You had lists that ran the standard Mewtwo EX and Tornadus EPO as the attackers. You had lists, like Andy Hahn’s (Airhawk), who ran a more teched out version, with Mewtwo EX, Tornadus EPO, Regigigas-EX, and Shaymin EX as their attackers.

So if you’re a player looking to play this deck for Regionals, just remember that there are a few different ways you can play this deck and have success with it. Just a find a version that works for your play style and that makes sense to you, and go with that version of the deck.

Not Going Rogue

As I mentioned earlier, I had been working with a rogue deck that I was hoping to play this weekend, but just didn’t feel comfortable playing with. While I think I could have had some moderate success playing this, I feel the Celebi/Mewtwo deck gave me a much better chance at winning, than playing a not fine tuned rogue deck with some flaws. I felt that I could do alright in Swiss with the deck, but I highly questioned whether I could succeed in the top cut with the deck.

Anyhow, since I’m done playing for this format because I won’t be able to attend Regional Championships, I felt it would be fine to share this for anyone looking for a fun deck to play with at league or something a little different to play with at Regional Championships.

Virizion NVI/Zekrom-EX/Mewtwo EX/Dodrio UD/Vileplume UD/Eelektrik NVI

Pokémon – 25 3 Oddish UD 1 Gloom UD 3 Vileplume UD 3 Tynamo NVI 38 3 Eelektrik NVI 2 Doduo UD 2 Dodrio UD 3 Zekrom-EX 3 Mewtwo-EX NXD 2 Virizion NVI

Trainers – 24 4 Pokémon Collector 4 N 4 Twins 3 Seeker 2 Cheren   3 Rare Candy 2 Pokémon Communication   2 Skyarrow Bridge

Energy – 11 7 L 4 Double Colorless

pokemon-paradijs.comThe way the deck works is you setup on your bench a Vileplume, a Dodrio, and two Eelektrik. In most matchups, you go for two Zekrom-EX, and stream Strong Volts turn after turn, as Dodrio plus Skyarrow Bridge gives you free retreat. Against Fighting decks, you would replace that with two Mewtwo EXs and repeatedly use X Ball. When your attackers get too much damage on them, you use Seeker to take all of the damage off of them.

One thing that I really liked about the deck is that it had a strong Durant matchup, something that most Trainer lock decks don’t have. Against Durant, you would work on getting a Virizion into the Active Spot, and you essentially Double Draw through your entire deck, working on getting the Vileplume out. Skyarrow Bridge helps you get out of tough spots against Durant where they would catcher an Oddish or Tynamo into the Active Spot, giving them free retreat.

Once you have Vileplume setup, place a Mewtwo EX onto your bench. Evolve 1-2 Tynamo into Eelektriks. Start putting a bunch of energy on your Mewtwo EX (ideally a Double Colorless and two L Energy on the first turn). Start getting 1HKOs on Durants. Then when you need to, use an N (which you should have gotten off of all your Double Draw’s) and send your giant hand back into your deck. Take out some more Durants, and then for the last knockout play Seeker, and win by benching them out of the game.

This deck has some decent matchups against all of the major decks, but the one big problem that troubled me with this deck is how could I forgo using Mewtwo EX to counter the Fighting decks that emerged in week two, and I couldn’t really find anything that could run off C Energy to do it. Tornadus would have been okay, but it doesn’t put enough damage on the board to really be effective enough.

pokemon-paradijs.comEventually I decided that Mewtwo EX was the best way to counter the Fighting decks as you could deal a lot of energy really fast with X Ball. Those decks are so Trainer heavy, and depend on a ball engine for the most part to search out their Pokémon, so once the Vileplume lock is up, they would struggle with getting out more than one Mewtwo EX, especially if you had an N in hand to use, at which point you may be able to easily sweep the game.

The major flaw though, that I saw with the deck, was how less effective the deck was once your opponent figured out your game plan with Seeker. Once they realized that you were using Seeker to remove damage from your Pokémon, they could start playing into the game, and retreating Pokémon with a lot of damage on it. This isn’t the biggest deal, as most things that can withstand a Strong Volt have a high Retreat Cost, so they would be losing some valuable resources by being forced to retreat.

The one last flaw of the deck was a deck specific one, and that was against Celebi/Mewtwo variants that chose to run Shaymin EX. While most games you would have your Zekrom-EX stream setup before your opponent is down to just 2 Prizes left, but against a fast deck like Celebi/Mewtwo, you can lose prizes very quickly. If they get down to just 4 Prizes, they can just play a game with you that forces you to Knock Out their Celebi Primes or Tornadus, setting up the 180 Revenge Blast from Shaymin EX for the final Knock Out.

Conclusion

I think I ended up making up the right decision with playing Celebi/Mewtwo again. Playing my rogue deck idea would have surely been fun, but it was a little too shaky and had a few too many flaws for me to be comfortable to be playing it at a tournament as competitive as a State Championship.

I would have liked to go deeper into the tournament this week, but I just didn’t have that little bit of luck needed in my top 16 match to hit the N in my first game, or avoid the donk in the second game to go further. I think my deck was built strong to succeed in our meta, and I don’t think there’s a single change I would make to my list at this point.

I’m not going to be able to make it to a Spring Regionals, so I’m going to start looking ahead to the Dark Explorers format, and spend the rest of the Next Destinies format coming up with some fun decks to play at League. Celebi/Mewtwo will be a dead deck after Dark Explorers gets released thanks to the power of Darkrai EX, so I probably won’t play many more games with the deck. All in all, I had a good run with the deck, taking 10th and 12th place at two State Championships for 8 Championship Points.