memphis.eduNow don’t be alarmed, but I actually did some preparation and research for this article. I know! And I’m not even an Underground writer (hint hint).
I had been playing Mewtwo EX / Regigigas-EX for a few tournaments and despite some success (winning a Cities, 33rd at ECC, top 4 at States), I had whiffed top 4 at two States on resistance, and despite running 13 Supporters, the deck has literally not had a T1 Supporter in 50% of my games over Aldershot Special Event (Cities) and Ripley BRs. I figured this was a sign that it was time for a break and a change.
A few weeks ago my friend Jak had pointed me toward a video made by The Top Cut of a guy playing straight Kyurem NVI and though I liked the idea, I was not a fan of the list, what with no Moo2 and Kyurem. I chatted to Jak about this for a while and we both agreed it had potential.
So I turned up to Nottingham Battle Roads (always one of the biggest and most competitive in the UK) with Kyurem made, but with Mewtwo / Gigas also made. I was just about to wuss out and switch away from Kyurem when Jak turned up and, after some discussion, and finding out that he made top 2 with it a couple weeks prior, I decided to give it a shot. He said it would surprise me. I figured I was giving up my chance of top-cutting…
I should not have gone into a tournament with so little testing, but I was going for the surprise factor and so I played a few games on PlayTCG, but did not take the deck to league so that, for the first couple of rounds, nobody had any clue that I was playing. Here’s the list:
|
Pokémon – 9 2 Kyurem EX |
Trainers – 38 2 N 2 Twins
4 Junk Arm 2 Switch 2 Pokégear 3.0 |
Energy – 12 8 W 4 Double Colourless |
Post any questions in the comments section, but briefly:
- Twins because the aim is to glaciate, doing damage without taking prizes early
- 2 Moo2s because nobody would expect this deck to get into a Moo2 war
- 2 Kyurem EX because it’s awesome
- Lost Remover to add disruption and buy more time for Glaciating
- Shaymin / Energy Switch to help recover into more Glaciates
- Everything else should make sense
Round 1: Tamzin (Eels)
pokemon-paradijs.comTamzin was a very charming lady who had come from a big group all the way from Wales. Which didn’t impress me because I go there for tournaments! This was however her first competitive game, so potential banana skin afoot.
I went second in this game and could not get an early KO as she put up a Zekrom BLW to stall and attached energy. I started lone Mewtwo, but could find no Catchers to kill Tynamos so I had to sit there while she used Bolt Strike to deal 120 to Mewtwo (adding to an earlier 20 from Outrage). I had two Water Energy on him at this point, so I used X-Ball to KO her Zekrom and was then immediately a prize down as she returned the KO with Elekid TM!
This however let me go off very nicely. I had 2 Kyurems on the bench with Exp. Share and I was able to Junk Arm for an Energy Switch and attach an energy to get one of my Kyurems using “Glaciate.” First though I Catchered her 40 HP Tynamo and played a PlusPower. With a 30 HP Tynamo and Elekid on the bench, I was then able to take 3 Prizes in one turn!
This left her with just an Eelektrik NVI. She played down a Zekrom and was forced to pass. At this point I used Switch and Shaymin UL to transition from regular Kyurem into Kyurem EX and used Frozen Wings for the KO.
This left her with just a Zekrom which I could kill by dropping a PlusPower and using Hail Blizzard the following turn.
(1-0)
I had a thoroughly enjoyable game here and it showed my deck can work though I felt my nerves were in for a bit of a time of it. I’m used to fast decks that go off T1, not planning to go off several turns into the game!
Round 2: Matt (TyRam)
pokemon-paradijs.comMatt is a guy from the other local league in Ripley, Derbyshire. On a sad note this league closed recently as that shop was being merged with the one where this very tournament was being held. Luckily a very enterprising and sexy young lady has organised a new league in a shop that technically has the exact same address as the old one!
Anyway, back on topic, Matt has been using more meta decks lately and has been vastly improving in skill. Unfortunately, this was a ridiculously good matchup for me.
I go second but start Kyurem EX. On his turn he whiffs the energy attachment and on my second turn I attach DCE and get my first KO on a Cyndaquil HS. He Catchers a benched regular Kyurem, but a DCE and PlusPower turns into a 1HKO on a Cyndaquil. Even Reshiram BLW posed little threat as Frozen Wings provided a 1HKO with only a PlusPower.
As the game wore on, Matt had not taken a prize and reverted to his secret backup plan… Regigigas-EX! He hit my Kyurem for 80, but that allowed an Outrage for 100. He was able to get a KO on the Kyurem, but I then brought up a Kyurem EX and even an Eviolite wasn’t enough to save poor Gigas.
(2-0)
I was loving being at 2-0, but, let’s face it, my matchups has been fairly fortuitous up til now. Let’s see what round 3 holds.
Round 3: Nicholas (Mew Prime / Vanilluxe NVI)
Nicholas is a lovely chap I have been chatting to on Facebook after meeting at tournaments, and we’d played out this exact matchup on PlayTCG not a week before. I won that one, but it was very difficult. If nothing else, it guaranteed a third nice match in a row.
The start of this game was a little frustrating as I (again!) went second and he started lone Oddish UD to my Mewtwo. He was, however, unable to get a second Basic into play, so I still had a chance to get the donk. I had a semi-decent hand, so I play what I can and then Juniper to maximise my chances of hitting the DCE and avoiding a very tricky matchup. I whiff and am forced to pass.
pokemon-paradijs.comOn his turn he grabs a Relicanth CL, attaches to Oddish, and retreats before… getting a T2 Vileplume! From here I take a couple early prizes (one Relicanth and one Mew), but he used Relicanth to get the requisite Vanilluxe and Unfezant into the Lost Zone and put the lock on.
As he got the lock on I was able to Glaciate, and when he KO’d that Kyurem I was then able to get off a second Glaciate to take another 2 Prizes. At this point I knew that two more Glaciates would guarantee me the win, but he had the lock fully on. He actually had both Victinis prized, but got one out with a KO on my Kyurem and didn’t whiff any flips while he didn’t have one.
After a couple turns he KO’d my active Kyurem. My plan was to sacrifice a Kyurem that had a DCE attached to buy time until he whiffed the flip and I could Glaciate again. Then, just in time, I realised that Unfezant BLW’s Fly (with which he got the KOs) meant that I could not attack the active Mew. However, I COULD attack the bench.
So I instead promote a Kyurem with 3 energy and Glaciate, getting me a Prize and leaving me 1 Prize from winning, with 3 Pokémon with 30 HP or less on his bench. He resumed the lock next turn and I attached a Water Energy to my Benched Kyurem, knowing that attaching one more energy would guarantee me the win as he would take a KO and I would then be able to Glaciate for the game.
I waited a couple turns, used Juniper and… still didn’t hit it! I was starting to resign myself to the fact that I would have to sacrifice a Kyurem EX (which I could do without losing), but when he finally hit double tails on Fly I was able to Glaciate for 3 more prizes and game.
(3-0)
I was happy at this, though a little embarrassed that I almost missed the trick and would probably have lost the game if I had. Let this be a lesson kiddies: test your deck!
Round 4: “My Good Friend” Tommy Roberts (Mismagius CL / Terrakion NVI)
pokemon-paradijs.comThis game was very important. In Exeter Tommy’s Zekeels beat my Mewtwo / Gigas after a bad Portrait choice from me and our overall record was now only 4-2 in my favor. This was too close. Luckily, in theory, this matchup should be to my advantage. Before the game Tommy expressed his dismay at the two interesting decks having to play before the last round of Swiss, and I had to agree.
I finally get to go first in this game and I start a Kyurem EX (woop woop). I attach an energy and pass. From here I had complete control. T2 I Catchered his Misdreavus CL with energy and got the 1HKO with Frozen Wing and T3 I did the same.
He used Catcher to bring up a regular Kyurem, but my old buddy Shaymin UL helped me move some energy over and I started using Glaciating. I took 3 Prizes with Glaciate and with his last hope being Terrakion I switched into Kyurem EX, dropped a PlusPower, and used Hail Blizzard to take my last prize and win 6-0.
(4-0)
That was top cut secured so I knew I could sit back, and as me and Jak were the only 4-0s, I knew it would be a tough Zekeels matchup to decide the number 1 seed.
Round 5: Jak (Baby Mario) (Zekeels)
Yeah, you all know Jak so he gets no intro. Unfortunately, he had tested my deck a lot more than me, so I would lose the surprise factor I had for the other Swiss rounds.
stuffpoint.comThis was one of the most fun games I’d had in ages. He won the flip and got a good start, going 2 Prizes up but then I was able to mount a comeback using Catcher and Glaciate, taking out all of his Eels in 3 turns. Alas, he did only use the 40 HP Tynamos though (purely due to Kyurem!), so that made it a little more difficult.
I got down to 1 Prize at which point he had a Terrakion with only 40 HP left. He then dropped N to put me down to one card and I drew: Kyurem EX, Water energy, Exp. Share over the next few turns. Darn.
He was able to pick off a Kyurem EX, and although I was able to get off one more Glaciate, it left me 10 damage off taking out Terrakion and I was powerless to stop him taking out a second Kyurem EX for the win.
(4-1)
It was a very enjoyable game and I ended up 4-1 overall. Matt (from round 2) ended up taking his last game in dramatic fashion (or so I’m told) to finish 3-2 and immediately bump me from 4th seed to 2nd seed. Which was nice.
Turns out I was going into a rematch against a rather good friend of mine. In theory, this was a better matchup for me than Jak or George Boon, who had qualified as 4th seed with his Zekeels deck.
Top 4: T-Dawg (Mismagius CL / Terrakion NVI)
I’m going to deal with these games together because they weren’t very interesting. They were, to be blunt, disastrous.
Game 1 I went second and could not draw a Supporter. Tommy went off well and started taking prizes before I could set up and keep energy on the field. I had one chance to turn the tide, but I could not hit a PlusPower to 1HKO his Terrakion.
pokemon-paradijs.comGame 2 was just as bad. I also did not have a Supporter (well, I only ran 13) and I did manage to grab a win, but only due to Tommy using N to get me a good hand! After the N it went exactly like our game in Swiss with me being set up and picking easy prizes and disrupting his board.
Game 3 was just like Game 1. For the THIRD game in a row I could not draw a Supporter and he wrecked my setup before I could get going.
After my deck running fine for 5 games it then went cold in all 3 top cut games. I literally could not draw a Supporter for the first 3 turns in any game. The odds of that are incredibly small. Add to that the fact that (and I counted) I hit exactly 25% on Dual Ball flips over the 3 games. It was never going to happen.
To be fair, Tommy played the game incredibly well. He used Mumble and also Spiritomb TM’s attack to put 10 damage on my Kyurems. I was confused by this until I realised that this put Kyurem’s HP at 120, a multiple of 30. Those of you paying attention will realise that Mismagius’ attack does 30 times the number of Trainers in your hand…
To further illustrate the pure futility of this match, there were 4 incidents where Tommy played Spiritomb or N in order to refresh my hand, in the hopes of me hitting enough Trainers for Mismagius to get the 1HKO. All 4 times, looking at the number of cards I had to draw and the number of trainers in my deck, it was statistically unlikely that I would draw enough for Tommy to get the KO. All 4 times he did. Like I said, it was not happening.
(4th)
Having said that, I still made 4th with a largely untested Kyurem deck! I was initially annoyed that Jak lost his top 4 mirror match as that meant that the 3rd and 4th seeds contested the final, leaving me going from 2nd seed to 4th overall and denying me a promo card. I then pulled a Mewtwo from my 2 Prize packs and all was ok again.
In the final Tommy went one game down, but brought it back to win 2 games to 1, putting him on 72 Championship Points to make him officially number one in the world. Go Tommy, Go Tommy!
So, is the deck any good?
Short answer, yes!
One of the biggest things about the deck is that it’s so hard for your opponent to KO anything. Often they will be facing just Kyurem and then can either hit it, allowing you to drop a DCE and hit then back harder, or they can ignore it, giving you time to get energy and Exp. Shares and set up a Glaciate stream.
Once you set up with Exp. Shares you can use Energy Switch and Shaymin to keep the Glaciate stream going and believe me, when you’re hitting everything on the bench for 30 every turn, you win quite quickly. They’re unlikely to 1HKO you and when they do KO you if you can recover and keep the stream going for a couple more turns you’ll win.
Of course, a lot of the time, you won’t even need to. Outrage is a real star in this deck and a lot of decks (Quad Terrakion, CMT) literally can’t 1HKO a Kyurem, leaving awkward decisions that you can take advantage of as you have the surprise factor. Most people don’t know how to play against this deck.
I see Kyurem EX as the most underrated EX by far, as I stated in a recent COTD. You can often have him going on T2 and 60 damage will usually be enough to grab a prize. If it’s not then you get to remove a special energy, putting your opponent back an energy attachment. This leads to advantageous 2HKOs against card such as Mewtwo and Gigas as you hit for 60, starve them of energy and then hit for 120 and the KO.
Speaking of his second attack, I can’t understand people saying it’s terrible. Let’s face it, with a PlusPower (and you should be running lots in this deck) you 1HKO pretty much everything but EXs. So you have to 2HKO things like Mewtwo, Zekrom-EX and Reshiram-EX. You know what? So does everything else! Except you get to remove special energy and don’t have to discard energy OR self-damage. Seems good to me.
The biggest advantage though is the combination of the 180 HP and weakness to Metal. People talk about Regigigas being hard to KO, but Terrakion says “balls to that.” The only thing that always 1HKOs Kyurem is Cobalion EPO. Yeah, nobody plays that.
Combine all of the above and you have answers for pretty much every deck around at the moment. Sweet! Let’s look at some examples:
CMT
pokemon-paradijs.comIf they put out Celebis they will be easy kills with Glaciate. If they use Tornadus your Outrage will 1HKO them with a single PlusPower while they 2HKO with more resources. If they start a Mewtwo war you can kill one or two with Kyurem EX and then use your own Mewtwo(s) to finish it off.
You can also Lost Remover their DCEs and Kyurem EX takes care of Celebi AND Tornadus very easily while they’ll be 2HKOing with Tornadus IF they can find two PlusPowers (they could use Mewtwo but it won’t be a 1HKO and you then get to 1HKO their Mewtwo with yours).
This is legitimately a VERY favorable matchup.
Quad Terrakion
They hit for 90. You have Outrage. Kyurem EX can 1HKO with a PlusPower. Most Terrakion players have no idea how to approach this and if they don’t hit you then Glaciate wins the game very quickly.
Again, a VERY favorable matchup.
Zekeels
This is not quite so good. Their Zekroms can 1HKO your Kyurems with a single PlusPower and they may run Zekrom-EX, which in 3 turns (less with Eels) can 1HKO normal Kyurems and give the EX a run for its money.
It’s not all hopeless. Their Eels fall if you can get some Glaciates off and Kyurem can destroy most of their field but their wealth of strong attackers can cause problems. Mewtwo wars can be won by either side.
These matches will be close and often go down to the last prize but Eels does have the edge here. Against a less experiences player though, it can be a veritable feast.
Durant
fakemaket.deviantart.comThank god I didn’t meet any Durants. You basically have to hope you start Mewtwo or Kyurem EX and they hit no Crushing Hammers so you can stack enough energies for the 1HKO. This is unlikely.
Regular Kyurem is awesome, but by the time you get 3 energies onto him Durant is likely to have Eviolites and spreading for 10 is not enough. He then becomes a liability to Pokémon Catcher.
When Jak played Kyurem he managed to deck out a Durant player. Do not rely on this. Durant > Kyurem.
What about when Dark Explorers comes out?
Not good for Kyurem. Tornadus EX, Darkrai EX and Zoroark are all very fast and can take out Kyurem and the EX before you get enough energy onto the field. You lose one of the main advantages you have and although it’s not a lost cause I wouldn’t expect people to do well with Kyurem over Battle Roads and Nats.
This sucks because I love the deck and wish I’d used it for more than one tournament, but it was a deck I put together because I thought it was a good call given the current meta. This turned out to be correct, but I just can’t advise this post-DEX. Sorry. I’m already moving on. Be assured though that I won’t forget about Kyurem and at the first opportunity that bad boy is seeing some more play!
Anything else?
My random message for the day: Don’t count out players OR decks! My friend Derek (or D-man if you wanna sound cool) played Gardevoir NXD / Darmanitan NXD / Gothitelle EPO. This is a deck most people have discounted, but he managed to take down a CMT deck that took second at a Regionals, ruining the player’s chance of top-cutting, despite finishing 4-1. During this game Derek KO’d a Mewtwo using a Darmanitan with a single energy. Twice.
This also produced my favorite quote of the day when he was asked if he played Victini:
“Balls to Victini, that’s for people who don’t have faith in their deck!”
P.S. Follow me on Twitter: @thewossy
Kyurem EX its underated to such a degree that ppl scoth at the first sign of it..funnily enough i had a kind of budget version of this deck and came 4th in my local tournament you may be thinking…well so what? well lets say i only lost to the a 2nd place regional champion running CMT and a person who came from out of town who won seniors with top tier zekeels funnily my budget really screwed me on zekeels (damn it filller tornadus donk!!!) well its just funny because ppl dont no what 2 think i wouldve loved to have a budget for this deck i knew kyurem was underated!
If you can really surprise people with a deck, you’ll often get a couple wins just from the surprise factor (if the deck’s good ;)
Ross, please make your Twitter public so creepers like me can spy on you. Thanks!
I would dude (heck, i did) but i’m a teacher and loads of my students found me and started adding me and spamming stupid messages! Might start unblocking it for the day at tournaments though…
You could always just follow me ;)
I said on the Kyurem CoTD that your new article sounded like it’d be pretty awesome. . . I was right! Great job, Ross! :)
Cheers buddy! I just love Kyurem. Sucks that i can’t really use him anymore :(
Just curious – is the post DEX predicted doom for Kyurem/Kyurem EX based on theorymon, testing, or a little of both? (Very high probability I am playing this at my BR). So far, the DEX-decks I have encountered in testing have not given me too much trouble with the exception of… Kyogre EX. That guy is a monster – I don’t care what anyone else says about him (note: I do run trainer lock if you are wondering why).
To be honest: Theorymon. But it’s the same theorymon that lead to the success initially. Kyurem survived because nothing could easily OHKO it and the 2HKOs were favourable. Tornadus EX, Darkrai and Zoroark can all hit just as hard but faster and can also engineer OHKOs. For instance: Zoroark with full bench and Dark Claw (or Plus Power or one Special Dark) = OHKO. I’ve seen this happen many times at T2. Similarly a Tornadus EX can hit for 60T1 and then just needs a couple PPs to KO the EX on T2.
With trainer lock it could be different but i’ve never enjoyed trainer lock and Kyurem.
I would LOVE to be wrong but i just don’t see it being a good play for BR. Although, it does OWN Groudon :D
My girlfriend would love this deck. She has the knack for pulling Kyurems and Kyurem EXes from packs like its her job.
Apart from that, +1 for a very entertaining article. Kyurem EX FTW!
For the Terra matchup, the prize trade (Kyurems for Terrakions) is even, and Terrakions take less energy, so I would see it being in their favor.
Outrage works on a DCE and Kyurem EX can OHKO a Terrakion. Those are the two factors that push the match-up into Kyurem’s favour. Also, most of the time (at least for the beginning of the game) you’ll pretty much exclusively using Outrage meaning that for the majority of the time, Kyurem actually takes less energy (2 to 3) and it only becomes even when Kyurem gets a KO. Glaciate is only really used where the Terrakion player stalls so as to not power your outrage. I tested this match a fair bit after the tournament, it is VERY much in Kyurem’s favour. Cheers for the post though :D
Great article, but I noticed one mistake. The list you said you used on PlayTCG only has 59 cards.
Cheers for noticing that. It was my actual tournament list that one! There should be 9 water energy, not 8 :)
Also, when i said about Tommy becoming number one in the world i said “me” rather than “him”. Woops. Alas, i am not number one in the World!
I find it interesting that so many mono-decks are possible because of Exp. Share. And I find it a shame that Darkrai is going to start sniping making things much harder for Exp. Share decks to keep it going.
Great article by the way! I kinda wanna take this to league just to play it once before the new set comes out :P
Great read Ross :) Damn the exams for keeping me benched from attending the competitions this time round :( I was going to bring a similar deck to Bournemouth but I didn’t feel safe enough cus I never tested it… So a big thank you for showing that the deck concept can actually work :D puts one more thing in my mind to rest~ Looking forward to see what you cook up for Nats!
Cheers buddy! God knows about Nats! I’m currently testing a bunch of things. Need to beat Eels. Dark is currently not showing itself to be the all powerful force i was fearing (lots of people playing it so already logged a few games).
Eels on the other hand….
I just really hope i don’t end up playing Eels or Darkrai / Tornadus. That would make me sad!
i don’t even have to read this to say, we love kyurem! thanks for bringing the fire-breather back!
Nice report, and some good insight on Kyurem, good job!
Wasn’t it Johnny H who said the quote about Victini? =p
In any case, great article and nice to my name pop up there in round 3! I love how the two decks I lost against on that day were yours and Tommy’s and the three decks I beat were all meta decks XP
Alas it was not. It was said as were playing and it was most definitely Derek! He’s not a very quiet man, not unlike myself!
Alas it often happens like that. You can make a brilliant ant-meta deck but as soon as you meet other anti-meta decks it all falls apart! I for one would have been screwed to see Durant pop up! The advantage was that it dealt very well with random and non-meta decks. Served me well on the day but it could easily have been different!
Awesome to see something positive about Kyurem :P I’ve been playing around with him for ages!
I was another person who dismissed the EX but seeing how you play around with it, it certainly has a place to fit in.
Underground quality as usual ross ..if you go underground tho i wont be able to read it on the months that i feel like being cheep lol….anyway i love kyurem so i too wish he wouldnt die with the next set ..durant on the other hand he can die if he wants …the only thing im not a fan of when it comes to kyurem is the new white and black kyurem its like the makers got lazy to me lol.. i just wonder what their cards will be like lol
well durant doesn’t want to die, therefore, it will not.
You’re right. He won’t. To be honest though, the format is shaping up against him. I’m still making all of my decks with a game plan for durant though, just in case ;)
i kno they shouldve been roaches instead of ants lol..then heatmor wouldnt make much sense tho but u kno what i mean lol….anyhow i still test againt him too i just wish he would die thats all i kno he isnt gone lol
Cheers dude! I very much doubt they’ll have me as an underground writer :p I should have qualified for Worlds this year but i didn’t so… yeah… :p
We could start a campaign though! Or i could just qualify through Nats, win worlds and let THEM come to ME :D
Lol Sounds good either way ill campaign with u or root u on lol .. im not making it to worlds this year for sure but this is my first competetive season so im not worried lol
I don’t understand… I thought you can only run 4 cards of a pokemon of the same name. Why can you run 4 Kyurem and 2 Kyurem EX? It’s still a pokemon of the same name right?
I’m confused. I thought you can only run 4 cards of a pokemon with the same name. Why is it alright for you to run 4 Kyurem and 2 Kyurem EX? I found this little paragraph:
“You may have up to four Pokémon cards with the same name in your deck. The name of the card is listed at the top of the card. Many Pokémon have multiple cards, and this rule applies even if the cards are different cards with the same name. Some Pokémon cards have names that include additional words in addition to the name of the Pokémon. These include “Dark” Pokémon, Gym Leader’s Pokémon and some promo cards such as Cool Porygon and Surfing Pikachu.”
Kyurem EX is a different name than Kyurem. Just like Kyogre Groudon Legend could be played in a deck with full 4 Kyogre.
another great article ross!
on a completely different note, is anyone else unable to access the forums here?
I just installed new software yesterday and I think passwords might have been reset over there for some people. Try updating your password here:
https://sixprizes.com/amember/profile
I’ll make a post about all the changes later today!
thanks for clearing that up. i don’t know what i would do without my 6p forums :(