mbird.comHello everybody! A week ago I talked about The Fundamentals of Disruption – an article which was geared more toward experimental rogue decks. Also, the article was only a semi-long read. Today, however, there are only a few days until the last Nationals, and some of you may already be in Indianapolis. That’s why this article is released on Monday – so everyone can make the most of it.
Today’s UG article will probably be my longest UG article so far – a real monster article. I’ll thoroughly analyze a total of 18 different deck variants and more! First, I’ll give you an example list (or a skeleton in some cases) and then analyze the deck with the following measurements.
Facing Probability – Facing probability is the probability for you to meet this deck once or more in the Swiss rounds of Nationals.
Surprise Factor – This describes the surprise factor of the deck. In a big tournaments, like the U.S. Nationals, this is a very important factor. If your opponent doesn’t know how to play the matchup, even a small surprise factor can win you games.
Possible Techs – Here, I’ll list all the techs that you should be afraid of when playing against this deck or you should try in this deck if you’re playing it.
Techs Against – Tech cards which are good against this deck.
Weaknesses – Here, I’ll analyze the weaknesses of the deck. You should be aware of every decks’ weaknesses because knowing your opponent’s deck is even more important than knowing your own deck!
Summary – Summary of the deck; is it playable, how probable is that this deck is going to win, etc.
After I have analyzed the 18 deck variants, I’ll reveal my top 3 favorite decks and top 3 favorite tech choices for U.S. Nationals. I’ve already started testing for World Championships, and my opinion about a few decks has changed during this short period of testing. I think most of you will be surprised about what’s in the number one spot of the list.
At the end of the article, I’ve added some last minute gameplay tips for the most common matchups, and also the “mind games” section, which will be useful for anyone ever attending a big tournament.
As I said, the article will be very long and comprehensive, so I’ll leave the introductions part short. I’ve done tons of research for this entry. I’ve researched all the tournament reports, looked on the internet for info about Battle Roads, and combined them to results of already played National Championships. I’ve done this kind of metagame predicting for World Championships for already 8 years and I’ve gotten pretty experienced about it.
I hope this will be a very helpful article for everyone attending Nationals this weekend (and for everyone attending the World Championships as well!) and that you’ll learn something new from it. So, next I’ll go through all the decks I feel need to be taken seriously. These decks are:
- Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX
- Darkrai EX/Terrakion/Mewtwo EX
nohighscores.comExcellent! - Speed Darkrai EX
- Hammertime Darkrai EX
- Quad Terrakion
- Landorus/Terrakion
- Zekrom/Eelektrik
- Zekrom/Eelektrik/Terrakion
- CMT
- Klinklang EX
- Troll
- Quad Entei
- Durant
- Empoleon
- Vileplume variants (divided into 2 categories)
Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX
Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX was the very first Darkrai EX variant that was discussed. It was very quickly spread around the internet and lots of players got very good results with it. However, as the metagame has been developing, does it stand a chance against the top tier of the current metagame?
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Pokémon – 8 3 Darkrai-EX DEX |
Trainers – 37 4 Professor Juniper
4 Junk Arm 2 Switch 2 Eviolite
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Energy – 13 10 D |
Free Spots: 2
Facing Probability: 60%
Surprise Factor: 0%
Possible Techs: Weavile UD, Sableye DEX, Max Potion, Shaymin EX, Mewtwo EX, Lost Remover, Heatmor DEX, Unown CURE, Espeon DEX
Techs Against: Terrakion NVI, Lighting type Pokémon, and Lost Remover
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comThis deck has been the most successful deck in the United States. However, lately, the tides have been turning and straight Darkrai/Tornadus with Mewtwo EX just hasn’t been enough. First of all, it’s good to recognize that Darkrai/Tornadus doesn’t have any good “mirror” matchups. All the other Darkrai decks (excluding speed Darkrai) have a small or a big edge against this deck.
Hammertime will give this deck trouble if it hits even 50% heads. In the end, you’ll run out of Energy acceleration and, after that, you’re in huge trouble. Also, Darkrai/Terrakion/Mewtwo EX will give you big trouble because of their Terrakion. Changing a non-Pokémon-EX with 2 Energy attached to it for a KO on an EX with 3 Energy is a very good trade. One Retaliate 1HKO is enough to turn the game around in Darkrai/Terrakion/Mewtwo EXs favor.
Also, certain Vileplume UD decks will give this deck trouble unless you’re prepared for them. Probably your best bet against Vanilluxe NVI or Accelgor DEX is to max out Eviolites, attach them before they get an Item lock, and hope for the quad tails to come. Unown CURE and Espeon are both possible choices to counter this weakness as well, but I don’t know how consistent the deck will be after that.
Summary
If we look solely on the records from Battle Roads, you could say that this is the BDIF. However, *spoiler alert* this deck isn’t included in my Top 3 choices for the U.S. Nationals. The reason for that is pretty simple – this deck isn’t good enough on its own. You’ll need something that gives you the edge in the endless mirrors and even in the surprising matchups. The time of this deck was at Battle Roads, and now the more developed versions of this deck are taking over.
I think the Battle Roads results also don’t speak the whole truth. I know that some people list even Hammertime simply as Darkrai/Tornadus, which distorts the real results. Also, some other key ingredients of this deck may have been ignored when reporting the results thus resulting in huge amounts of simple Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX decks to be the statistical BDIF.
Darkrai EX/Terrakion/Smeargle/(Mewtwo EX)
This deck took some international Nationals by storm and after that many people started to get good results with it in the U.S. as well.
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Pokémon – 11 3 Darkrai-EX DEX |
Trainers – 35 4 Professor Juniper
2 Eviolite |
Energy – 13 7 D 3 F |
Free Spots: 1
Facing Probability: 75%
Surprise Factor: 0%
Possible Techs: Shaymin EX, Prism Energy, Sawk BLW, PlusPower, Sableye DEX, Heatmor DEX, Espeon DEX, Unown CURE
Techs Against: Terrakion NVI, Virizion EPO
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comThis deck is the theorymonical solution against all the decks. Terrakion counters the most played decks – Darkrai and Eelektrik. Mewtwo EX and Darkrai EX counters your opponent’s Mewtwo EX and Darkrai EX and Mewtwo EX just tears through the rest of the metagame. But, in the end, the deck hasn’t been winning as much as I would expect it to win because it has its weaknesses.
The most important weakness of this deck is inconsistency. Even though the deck isn’t that teched, it can be very slow at times. Terrakion opening is the biggest weak point of the deck. To get yourself back to game from Terrakion start, you need Darkrai EX, Darkness Energy AND Smeargle. This doesn’t happen every T1.
I would say that this deck’s worst matchups are the competing mirror variants. If they’re fast enough, or disruptive enough, this deck will have trouble setting up in time. This deck has the biggest comeback potential of all Darkrai variants due its techability, but sometimes it’s not enough in mirror matchups.
The deck really has no big weaknesses, but Vileplume variants can give it a tough time once in a while; especially a T2 Vileplume. However, once again, this deck’s Item lock matchup is much better than the other Darkrai variants due Mewtwo EX and Terrakion. Tornadus EX isn’t a good attacker under Item lock because it sometimes discards Energy from itself. Darkrai isn’t usually a good attacker against Item lock decks either because they are usually designed to defeat especially Darkrai variants.
Summary
As said, this deck is a theorymonical dream. And, surprisingly, it really isn’t that bad in the real gameplay either. The occasional Terrakion starts and other inconsistencies of the deck may sometimes be painful as well, but most of the time the deck functions very well and has no really negative matchups. This deck delivers what it promises – an answer to almost everything with very promising matchups.
Speed Darkrai
This deck got never a lot of attention anywhere, but I don’t think it’s as bad as people usually think.
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Pokémon – 8 |
Trainers – 44 4 Professor Juniper
4 Victory Medal 4 Super Scoop Up |
Energy – 8 8 D |
Free Spots: 0
Facing Probability: 20%
Surprise Factor: 10%
Possible Techs: Shaymin UL, PlusPower, Judge, Heatmor DEX, Unown CURE
Techs Against: Terrakion NVI
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comEven though Speed Darkrai is a Darkrai EX deck, it doesn’t differ from other speed variants at all. The weaknesses of Speed Darkrai (and speed deck in general) are the games when you don’t set up your attacker in T1, your opponent 1HKOs you right back or when your opponent just has a faster start than you. What makes Speed Darkrai even more of an fragile deck than other speed decks (ZPST for example) is that it uses an s an Pokémon-EX as an attacker and has a weakness to the most common tech of the metagame.
If, for example, CMT is able to counter this deck’s T1 Darkrai with Terrakion in the very next turn, this deck can scoop the game. However, if they don’t – well, then you have a game ahead of yourself!
Summary
Just like any other Speed variant, this deck isn’t that good. It can win any deck in T1, T2 or just by overrunning their bad start, but at the same time it can lose to any deck as well. Not only its speed variant but any deck that only has one attacker and one Weakness (which is common in the metagame), usually doesn’t end up into the top placements of the tournament. If you have an access to 4 Darkrai EXs, this isn’t the way to use them.
Hammertime/Darkrai EX
You probably know that I was playing this deck in my Nationals and after that I took ¼ of the spots in the Top 32 in Germany and a multiple Battle Roads in the U.S. as well. It’s a certain tier 1 deck, but is it the best deck out there? That’s what we need to find out.
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Pokémon – 8 |
Trainers – 36 4 Professor Juniper
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Energy – 13 |
Free Spots: 3
Facing Probability: 30%
Surprise Factor: 0%
Possible Techs: Tornadus EX, Weavile UD, Super Scoop Up, Terrakion NVI, Espeon DEX, Unown CURE
Techs Against: Terrakion NVI
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comWell, you could think that I would say that Hammertime has no weaknesses since I won Nationals with it while going undefeated. Well, I wish that was true. However, Hammertime suffers from the same thing as any even slightly disruptive deck of the past seasons. You have to run flipping cards to disrupt your opponent and, even though 50-50 heads-tails would be enough most of the time, there will be games when you flip 100% heads or tails. I really can’t imagine this deck losing any games if you flip 100% heads, but if you flip 100% tails, it can (and will) happen.
The deck also suffers from Vileplume variants a lot. In fact, this deck suffers from Vileplume more than any Darkrai variant (even more than Speed Darkrai!). The reason for this is the deck’s strategy, which involves large amounts of both – Hammer flips and Junk Hunt. Both of these become practically useless when your opponent sets up Vileplume. Vileplume is the main weakness of this deck and in the current format the deck really has no way around Vileplume. You have to just deal with it.
Summary
As much as I would love to say that this is the BDIF and it will win U.S. Nationals, I won’t say that. The deck is tier 1 deck – I think no one can deny that – but its weakness to Vileplume is undeniable and will cause trouble in a big tournament. As, I’ll talk about later on in the article, I expect an increase of Vileplume decks in the U.S. Nationals and this is one of the decks that will have difficult time dealing with them.
I said that my top 3 deck choices for U.S. Nationals list will be surprising and I won’t spoil if this deck made it to the top 3 or not, but one thing’s for sure – the deck is very good and you are a fool if you go to U.S. Nationals without testing a game or five against this deck.
Quad Terrakion
Quad Terrakion was the secret deck for States Championships. After that it has been doing surprisingly well. The reason for this is that the metagame has gotten even more Fighting weak decks thanks to Darkrai EX.
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Pokémon – 4 |
Trainers – 44 4 Professor Juniper
4 Exp. Share |
Energy – 12 12 F |
Open Spots: 0
Facing Probability: 30%
Surprise Factor: 20%
Possible Techs: Crushing Hammer
Techs Against: Virizion EPO, Shaymin EX, Tornadus EX, Tornadus EPO
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comIn the previous formats, any deck that attacked with a single Pokémon was a speed deck. However, we all know that Quad Terrakion isn’t too fast of a deck, so it can’t be analyzed as a speed variant. The funny thing is that Quad Terrakion (and other Quad) variants have the same problems as speed variants. They’ll have a hard time if the opponent is too fast OR if the opponent is able to 1HKO them. The good thing about Terrakion is that it isn’t an EX-Pokémon, so you can sacrifice one Terrakion in the early game with ease.
Just like any deck, Quad Terrakion has an MVP card that makes the deck work. In Quad decks, this card is usually Exp. Share. Without Exp. Share, Quad Terrakion will experience a slow and boring loss. It takes a lot of turns for almost any deck in the format to KO 6 Terrakions, but if they can’t get Energy accelerated with Exp. Share, the opponent will just target the Terrakion that get Energy attached manually and there is nothing Terrakion can do. In order to do well with Quad decks, you will need a surefire way to draw into Exp. Shares in the early game.
Quad Terrakion seems like a perfect Quad deck against the format because Terrakion is a non-EX and it easily 1HKOs Darkrai EXs, Eelektriks, and Zekroms. However, since Quad Terrakion isn’t a rogue deck anymore, all these decks have an answer to Terrakion. Tornadus EX is almost everyone’s favorite answer to Terrakion, but there is something that will kill Terrakion – Hammertime.
Hammertime tears Terrakion apart because of the unlimited Crushing Hammer flips. If Hammertime loses to Terrakion it will need to flip 10-15% of their flips heads and Terrakion will need some god draw. Practically it isn’t possible, but of course sometimes Pokémon doesn’t follow the laws of practicality.
Summary
If we look at Battle Roads results, we can easily see that Terrakion has done quite well in the tournaments. So well that it really is surprising in my opinion. After the change of metagame that we have seen the past few weeks and due Hammertime, I wouldn’t advice anyone to try their luck with this deck in the U.S. Nationals if you’re going to win the tournament.
The deck has a lot of weaknesses, no techability, and no really good matchups in the current format anymore. Quad decks had their time in the format, but in current competitive play they should be forgotten.
Landorus/Terrakion
More consistent version of Quad Terrakion, but has more trouble against Mewtwo EX.
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Pokémon – 8 |
Trainers – 39 4 Professor Juniper
3 Switch 2 Exp. Share |
Energy – 13 13 F |
Open Spots: 0
Facing Probability: 20%
Surprise Factor: 10%
Possible Techs: Mewtwo EX, Unown CURE, Espeon DEX
Techs Against: Tornadus EX, Tornadus EPO, Mewtwo EX, Virizion EPO
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comThis deck has always been underplayed in my opinion. The reason why the deck has been underplayed is that its main weakness is one of the best Pokémons in the current format – Mewtwo EX. An Eviolited Mewtwo EX take advantage of everything this deck tries to accomplish, and as we all know, the best counter against Mewtwo EX is Mewtwo EX. The most orthodox lists of this deck don’t run Mewtwo EX, but in order to do well in a big tournament with this deck, you’ll need to take the chance and tech Mewtwo EX.
The another disturbing thing about this deck is that its second weakness is once again one of the most played Pokémons of the current format: Tornadus EX. The deck is pure Fighting, so anything with high HP, Eviolite, and a Resistance to Fighting gives this deck a headache. There are really no answers to this one, and even Mewtwo EX works only as a first-aid kit against Tornadus EX.
Summary
Landorus/Terrakion was one of the decks I was afraid in my own Nationals because it wasn’t played that much but the more I played with, the more it had potential in certain matchups. In the end, I didn’t end up facing any Landorus/Terrakion in the tournament even though I had tested against them a lot.
The simple reason for not seeing this deck was pretty clear: no one wanted to use the deck because in order to do well with the deck you needed the exact matchups. The more random the metagame, the worse result with this deck. So how about a 9 rounds of Swiss and top 128 with a deck like that? No thanks.
Zekrom/Eelektrik
The most-played-deck of the format, but does that mean BDIF?
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Pokémon – 14 4 Tynamo NVI 38 or DEX 45 |
Trainers – 31 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory
2 Ultra Ball |
Energy – 12 8 L |
Open Spots: 3
Facing Probability: 85%
Surprise Factor: 0%
Possible Techs: Shaymin EX, Tornadus EX, Tornadus EPO, Thundurus EPO, Raikou-EX, Zekrom-EX, Heatmor DEX, Unown CURE, Espeon DEX
Techs Against: Terrakion NVI
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comZekrom/Eelektrik is a very techable deck and because of that, it really has no big weaknesses. What’s even more important, it has good answers against every threat it faces from the format. I don’t remember who, but someone wrote in his UG article that you shouldn’t have a panic attack when looking at Darkrai EXs attack and then Eelektriks and Tynamos HP. Well, I disagree, you really should have a panic attack after that.
It’s a fact that Darkrai is the optimal answer against Eelektrik decks and even though everyone is back to 40 HP Tynamos, Darkrai still causes some difficulty for Eelektrik – Eelektrik still has 90 HP. Darkrai EX is easily the main weakness of Eelektrik and I think that the popularity of Zeels has increased the popularity of Darkrai, which lead Darkrai into winning almost 50% of Spring Battle Roads.
I would say that the main weakness of Zeels is Eelektrik. It’s the most fragile part of otherwise very consistent deck and it has many weaknesses to exploit. First of all, it has the already mentioned 90 HP. It means that Darkrai EX is capable of 1HKOing it, and that 3 Night Spears to the benched Eelektrik can also kill it. It’s like Darkrai EX was designed to make Eelektrik worse.
The other weakness of Eelektrik is its retreat. Item lock decks can really abuse it, and especially in the late game against Vileplume decks and especially after 1-2 card(s) Ns, Eelektrik decks will have hard time drawing enough energy on the Eelektrik if it’s dragged to the Active Spot.
As you can see the only tech that I listed against Zeels is Terrakion. Reading this far, you probably don’t be surprised which card is first place of my top 3 techs list. Terrakion can 1HKO the 2 main Pokémon of Zeels, Zekrom and Eelektrik. If you can get an early Terrakion, you can wreak havoc among Tynamos with it.
However, with the correct techs like enough Mewtwo EXs, Tornadus EX, and a decent amount of Eviolites, Terrakion will be like any other Pokémon against Zeels. The Weakness to Fighting can be covered very easily in the current metagame.
Summary
pokemon-paradijs.comWhere to begin, I have no clue. Zekrom/Eelektrik is a classic example of a deck than can win any deck, but at the same time can lose to any deck. I haven’t been a fan of Zeels, but as we can see from the results, there are many players that play it. There are two main reasons why Zeels is a so played deck. First, as said already, it has a 50-50 matchup against almost anything. It has no real auto-losses because it’s the most techable deck in the format and it surely has more good than bad matchups.
Second, the deck is very affordable and it has been playable ever since Eelektriks release. This is a huge factor in Zeels popularity because you can play with it the whole season through (and even the next season through!). All you need to do with it is to adjust it against the metagame you predict to face and it’s ready for another tournament once again.
I’m pretty sure that Zeels will be the most played deck of the tournament. I can’t say that you’ll be facing Zeels 100% because anything can happen, but I suggest you don’t play a deck with a bad matchup against Zekrom/Eelektrik. Even though the rightful “deck-to-beat” of the current format is Darkrai, you shouldn’t forget Zeels. You’re sure to face them on your journey to the top of the tournament.
One last thing, I want to say about this Zekrom/Eelektrik variant, is that it really really has no bad matchups. With the correct amount of Eviolites, Zekrom/Eelektrik will make any Darkrai variant have a tough time. An Eviolited Zekrom BLW is probably the most underrated attacker at the moment.
Zekrom/Eelektrik/Terrakion
Another variant of the already popular deck. Yes, this is a completely different deck than the previous Zekrom/Terrakion.
Yeah, I think that Zeels with Terrakion is a deck that deserves to be mentioned in a different spot than Zekrom/Eelektrik. There are two kinds of people; those who say that you can’t beat Darkrai without Terrakion in your Zekrom/Eelektrik, and those who says that Terrakion is an inconsistency factor that ruins the whole deck.
I don’t have a strong opinion about this one, but if I needed to choose, I would say that Terrakion isn’t a useful addition to the deck. Why is that, you may ask? I’ll answer to that after the list and statistics.
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Pokémon – 15 4 Tynamo NVI 38 or DEX 45 |
Trainers – 34 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory
4 Junk Arm 2 Switch 2 Ultra Ball |
Energy – 11 7 L 2 F |
Open Spots: 0
Facing Probability: 75%
Surprise Factor: 5%
Possible Techs: Shaymin EX, Tornadus EX, Tornadus EPO, Thundurus EPO, Raikou-EX, Zekrom-EX, Heatmor DEX, Espeon DEX, Unown CURE
Techs Against: Terrakion NVI
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comNow back to the question – the answer is: since it will add weaknesses to a very consistent deck. The main word here is “consistent.” After you have put 2 Terrakions and a few Fighting Energy to Zekrom/Eelektrik, you can’t call it consistent. Whenever you open with Terrakion, you’ll have tough time coming back to the game if your opponent is skillful enough to abuse that slow start.
Terrakion seems like an answer to the Darkrai threat but as stated in the Zekrom/Eelektrik part, with right techs, you don’t need a Terrakion in your deck. The addition of Terrakion will also add to your shortage of Lighting Energy in the early game. Even with an ordinary Zekrom/Eelektrik you sometimes have a lack of Energy in the early game when you need them the most.
I can’t seem to find any way to build this deck in a way that you’ll have the Energy early on in the discard pile every game. And since this deck Energy accelerates from discard pile, it’s a very big deal.
Summary
All I can say about this deck is that it’s less consistent than the normal Zekrom/Eelektrik and only in a VERY heavy Darkrai EX metagame, I would consider running this variant. Darkrai EX will be played as a main attacker probably in 30% of decks. That’s not enough to justify playing a less consistent variant in the biggest tournament of the year.
Celebi/Mewtwo EX/Tornadus EX/Terrakion
If you didn’t yet know, this CMT variant of mine got featured in a Japanese blog! It’s a sure sign that Japanese will be following the western metagame prior and after U.S. Nationals with an increasing interest to decide what to play in the World Championships.
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Pokémon – 13 4 Celebi Prime |
Trainers – 31 4 Professor Juniper
4 Dual Ball
|
Energy – 14 7 G 4 Double Colorless |
Open Spots: 2
Facing Probability: 65%
Surprise Factor: 0%
Possible Techs: Shaymin EX, Regigigas-EX, Virizion EPO, Tornadus EPO, Heatmor DEX, Unown CURE
Techs Against: Mewtwo EX, Lost Remover, Counter Stadium
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comCMT is almost as techable as Eelektrik decks and the weaknesses of CMT are very similar when compared to Zekrom/Eelektrik. Once again, the main weakness of this deck is the Energy accelerator – in this deck, Celebi. The round HP number of 60 is any Darkrai player’s dream. Any Celebi that’s played to the bench is practically an additional Prize card to a Darkrai variant every other turn. With 70 HP Celebi would be so much better, but with 60 HP it becomes the weakest link of the deck.
The worst thing about this weakness is that there is no way to avoid it. You have to play at least 1 (usually 2) Celebi’s to your bench during the game. This means that your opponent needs to kill only 2 EX attackers and 2 Celebis with Darkrai to win games. With my good math, that’s only 4 attacks! That is when CMT doesn’t nail any important Super Scoop Up heads.
Four attacks is a very low amount to win games, so the best you can do to avoid the game being ended in 4 attacks is to add SSUs, attach Eviolites to Celebi, and try not to play Celebis down during games.
The other weakness of CMT is a problem that every hand Energy accelerating has – hand disruption. In this format the only hand disruption we really have is N, especially late game Ns. Late game Ns are always highly disruptive, but no deck in the format suffers from it than CMT. When KOing CMT’s main attacker that has Energy attached to it and N-ing them to 1-2 cards, the deck can die instantly.
The only way to recover from that is either by topdecking a draw Supporter or to hope for Portrait to succeed. Probably the most underrated strategy against CMT is to first kill off Smeargles and then concentrate on the attackers. CMT suffers from the lack of Smeargle more than any other deck.
Summary
pokemon-paradijs.comCMT – or to be more precise Celebi/Mewtwo – has always been one of my favorite decks of this format. I’m not usually a fan of speed decks, but CMT has something that makes me enjoy playing with it. Of course Celebi/Mewtwo isn’t playable anymore, but CMT is and thankfully it can be played with many techs. Everyone can find their own way of playing CMT and enjoy it.
Probably the best thing about CMT is that it doesn’t have a weak Darkrai matchup. CMT is the best deck that you can tech Terrakion because it’s easy to get a “surprise” Retaliate 1HKO on Darkrai with the help of Forest Breath and Dual Ball.
Also don’t forget the donking factor of this deck. The deck can very easily end games on turn 1 or just steam roll through your opponent’s weak setup. CMT also has the best sudden death matchup in the format and that is a very useful asset when playing a lot of best-of-three games. CMT is a pure-blood tournament deck suitable for everyone who wants a versatile and fast deck and isn’t afraid of getting some easy wins during Swiss rounds.
Klinklang/EX
A very interesting damage manipulation deck that has been gaining increasingly attention from the TCG players all over the world.
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Pokémon – 15 4 Klink DEX |
Trainers – 32 4 Pokémon Collector
4 Max Potion 3 Heavy Ball |
Energy – 9 |
Open Spots: 4
Facing Probability: 30%
Surprise Factor: 20%
Possible Techs: Kyurem EX, Raikou-EX, Entei-EX, Terrakion, Shaymin EX, Mewtwo EX, Heatmor DEX, Groudon EX, Espeon DEX, Unown CURE
Techs Against: Lost Remover, Crushing Hammer, Enhanced Hammer, Entei-EX
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comLet me be clear; I think this deck has too big weaknesses to be taken seriously. As you can see from the “techs against” slot, any Energy removing Trainer will give Klinklang difficult time. As a Hammertime player I don’t really think that Klinklang is an realistic deck choice if you want to win Nationals, but you can always try to avoid every single Hammertime of the format. If Klinklang succeeds in avoiding every single deck that runs a lot of Hammers, it can have a decent chance of winning a tournament.
In my opinion, Klinklang also has the Mewtwo EX dilemma The Truth also had. The damage output of Mewtwo EX can easily add up to 180 damage in a deck with high Energy cost attacks. One correctly timed Mewtwo EX 1HKO combined with 1 Lost Remover is enough to win the game against Klinklang.
Summary
It’s pretty obvious that I’m not a fan of this deck, but I’m not saying it’s a bad deck. Without the increased popularity of Hammertime, I would be saying that the deck is a real contender. It’s difficult to predict how many Hammertimes there will be in the U.S. Nationals in total, but the fact is that there will be more than enough of them to take down all the Klinklangs.
Overall, Klinklang is more than a decent deck, but an auto-loss matchup to a metagame deck isn’t common among tournament winning decks. Therefore, I wouldn’t suggest anyone that aims to win their Nationals to not play the deck.
Tornadus/Terrakion/Mewtwo/SAWK
The most underrated deck of the format. Period.
This deck is pretty under discussed and underplayed. I wonder why any UG writer (including me) hasn’t touched the deck that much in our articles. Anyway, here’s the so called Troll.dec.
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Pokémon – 11 2 Terrakion NVI |
Trainers – 36 4 Professor Juniper 2 N
4 PlusPower 2 Exp. Share
|
Energy – 13 10 F |
Open Spots: 0
Facing Probability: 30-50% (The better your record is, the more probable it becomes.)
Surprise Factor: 60%
Possible Techs: Landorus NVI, Bouffalant BLW 91, Heatmor DEX, Unown CURE, Espeon DEX, Black Belt, Tyrogue HS/CL
Techs Against: Tornadus EX, Eviolite
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comTroll’s biggest weakness is its typing. It concentrates mainly on the most common Weakness of the current metagame – Fighting. There are cards like Terrakion and Sawk to make the most of this metagame’s weakness. However, the single-typing of the deck can be weakness as well. A very Tornadus EX orientated deck might cause trouble for Troll, but of course that kind of decks isn’t that common because of Zekrom/Eelektrik.
Summary
I believe that Troll will be the surprise of this weekend’s Nationals. No one is really prepared for it and it’s the only deck that hasn’t been spread around the internet like a virus. From most decks you can find more than a solid list from the internet but when it comes to Troll, there are none of them available. Due to that fact, no one is able to test against it. Surprise factor is a big thing in huge tournaments and Troll is nothing but surprising.
When it comes to Troll’s matchups, I think all of them are solid except for Hammertime. Hammertime is the reason why Troll may not be the new “secret deck” for the U.S. Nationals. However, I think it’s important to keep in mind that Troll is out there and you may have to face it for example with your Zekrom/Eelektrik that’s teched against a Darkrai deck. It’s really difficult to predict how much Trolls have been tested and developed.
Quad Entei
Quad Entei is a part of the metagame, even though it shouldn’t be.
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Pokémon – 4 4 Entei-EX |
Trainers – 44 4 Professor Juniper
4 Junk Arm 3 Lost Remover 3 Ultra Ball |
Energy – 12 12 R |
Open Spots: 0
Facing Probability: 25%
Surprise Factor: 40%
Possible Techs: Shaymin UL, Crushing Hammer
Techs Against: Kyurem EX, Mewtwo EX
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comWell, Quad Entei doesn’t really differ all that much from Quad Terrakion when it comes to the weaknesses. You’re still in huge trouble against Hammertime and any deck that is able to 1HKO Entei-EX. Hammertime is a problem for an obvious reasons. If they get your Energy discarded before you have 3 Energy attached to Entei to get the Energy back, you’re done.
However, if you’re able to attach 3 Energy to Entei-EX before they start attacking/discarding your Energy cards, you’ll have a very good chance in winning the game. So the matchup is a bit better than Quad Terrakion’s vs the deck, but still too near to an auto-loss matchup.
Entei-EX is also an EX-Pokémon, so when your opponent is able to set up any attacker that is able to 1HKO Entei-EX and you won’t be able to 1HKO them back (for example Kyurem EX and Mewtwo EX), the game is over. And whenever a deck is weak to correctly played Mewtwo EX, I don’t think that deck good enough.
Summary
The above mentioned too main weaknesses pretty much sum up Quad Entei. Quad Entei has very stable matchups against the field (and especially good matchups against other Darkrais aside from Hammertime), but the weaknesses seem too disturbing for my taste. The deck has shown its potential in Battle Roads and there will probably be some good showing at Nationals as well with this deck, but it’s simply too straightforward and simple to win anything big.
Empoleon
About a week ago I introduced two Empoleon variants on my blog. However, since Empoleon is a real drawing machine and needs only one energy to attack, there’s a load of possibilities to play with Empoleon. Here, I’ll just settle with a skeleton of Empoleon.
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Pokémon – 14 4 Piplup DEX |
Trainers – 31 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory
4 Dual Ball |
Energy – 10 10 W |
Open Spots: 5
Facing Probability: 25%
Surprise Factor: 60%
Possible Techs: Terrakion NVI, Vileplume UD, Donphan Prime, Porygon-Z TM, Espeon DEX, Unown CURE
Techs Against: Zekrom BLW, Mewtwo EX
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comThe main weakness of Empoleon is that it’s a Stage 2 Pokémon. Stage 2 Pokémon are something that haven’t been doing well in the current format (excluding Vileplume variants) and Empoleon will probably be no exception. However, being a Stage 2 Pokémon isn’t the only weakness of Empoleon. Empoleon is also weak to Lightning.
With 140 HP Empoleon would be the tank Stage 2 of the format, but unfortunately a Weakness to probably the most common type in the metagame guarantees quick 1HKOs. 1HKOs combined with Stage 2 Pokémon isn’t a nice combo. It’s far too difficult to keep getting Empoleons out even with its Ability if they’re 1HKO’d every turn.
The other weaknesses of this deck depend on the techs you’re playing with. I’ve seen Empoleon with many techs, but my favorite of the moment is Empoleon/Donphan. In my opinion, it’s one of the most overlooked decks in the current format and has all in all pretty well-rounded matchups all over the field.
The only thing about Donphan/Empoleon is that it (just like all Empoleon variants at the moment) fails whenever your opponent is able to set up a 1HKOing Mewtwo EX with Eviolite. If you can’t 2HKO an EX that is 1HKOing you; you have lost the game. Unfortunately that isn’t too unusual.
Summary
Empoleon isn’t a bad deck and it isn’t completely uncompetitive deck either. However, it isn’t good enough a deck either. I said in my blog that it’s a decent tier 2 deck with no real possibility to get to tier 1 was long as the format is HS-on. The Weakness to Lighting is unforgivable for a Stage 2 Pokémon in this format, and that’s what unfortunately defines its success.
Durant
Did you already forget about this most annoying bug ever? Well, if you had, this is a good reminder that it’s still out there.
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Pokémon – 5 4 Durant NVI |
Trainers – 44 4 Pokémon Collector 1 Seeker 4 Pokégear 3.0
4 Junk Arm 4 Revive 4 Crushing Hammer 2 Lost Remover |
Energy – 11 5 M |
Open Spots: 0
Facing Probability: 15%
Surprise Factor: 20%
Possible Techs: Luvdisc TM, Mewtwo EX
Techs Against: Sableye DEX, Heatmor DEX
Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comEveryone said that Heatmor will kill Durant. Well, Heatmor isn’t played in any deck and still Durant seems awfully quiet. What’s going on? Darkrai EX is going on. Darkrai EX does 3 things well that Durant hates: 1HKOs Durants, attacks to the bench, and accelerates Energy from the discard pile. I don’t think that the first Darkrai builds were that of an unfavorable of a matchup for Durant, but one Darkrai EX variant has an auto-win against it: you know it, I played with it – Hammertime.
Sableye is more than ridiculous against Durant. You WANT them to discard the cards from the decks. Everything from Dark Patches to Basic Darkness Energy. You can stall with Sableye almost forever because Junk Hunt gets 2 cards back from discard pile. If Durant is Devouring with 4 and you have a shuffle & draw in your hand, it means that your deck decreases only 3 cards per turn instead of the normal 5 (Devour + turn card).
I don’t see any real threats for Durant in the current metagame other than Hammertime (and Heatmor of course) and I wouldn’t be surprised to see people getting surprised by random Durants in the first few rounds if they aren’t prepared for them.
Summary
Durant is a real threat – there is no denying it. However, in every single UG article I said that Durant wouldn’t win States/Regionals. I’ll be stating it once again here – it won win Nationals. It didn’t win Regionals, but it won States and did surprisingly well in Cities. HOWEVER, if it wins, well… I quit. And this applies to every single age division. Even Juniors age division should have skillful enough players to deal with Durant.
To conclude, Durant is something you must be prepared for, but something you shouldn’t be playing. If you lose to a Durant in the opening rounds of Swiss, the only one there is to blame is yourself. You shouldn’t be playing with a deck that has an unfavorable matchup against Durant.
Vileplume Decks (Special Condition and Damage Manipulators)
Vileplume was almost completely forgotten before the release of Dark Explorers, but the more the new metagame has been developing, the more Vileplume has been played. Here I’ll analyze all the Vileplume variants you should be aware of next weekend.
And as much as I wanted to analyze all Vileplume decks at the same time, I really can’t. The differences between special condition decks and damage manipulator decks is just too big.
Facing Probability: 70%
Surprise factor: 60%
Possible techs: Anything
Techs against: Unown CURE, Raikou-EX, Seeker, Heavy Supporter engine, Ditto TM, Espeon DEX
Special Condition (Vanilluxe NVI and Accelgor DEX) Weaknesses
pokemon-paradijs.comThese two decks have 2 weaknesses in common: slow set up or a tech against these decks. For example, turn 1 Mewtwo EX will give these decks a lot of trouble unless they have god hands. Turn 1 Darkrai is completely unstoppable. When it comes to techs against these deck, even one Unown CURE in your opponent’s hand can ruin the whole game. And if your opponent is hardcore enough to tech an Espeon… well, these decks are usually doomed after that.
Vanilluxe’s own main weaknesses are probably its flippiness and Prize cards. When you’re playing a lot of Swiss rounds and even more best-of-three games, eventually, you will flip quad tails. And when it happens against a skillful player, you usually lose. This trend has been very clear in the international Nationals.
Vanilluxes have been steamrolling through Swiss rounds, but as soon as they get to best-of-three games, they lose. Even though the probability for quad tails is pretty low, it’s still a probability that’s more than 0% and that’s usually enough in the Pokémon TCG to guarantee that it will happen.
Vanilluxe is also one of those decks that can lose to Prize cards too easily. If you prizes 2 Victinis, you’ve lost the game. If you prize 2 Vanilluxe, you lose the game. If you prize 2 Oddishses, you lose the game. If your opponent gets a quick start, and you prize 1 Oddish, you’ll also lose the game.
In a big tournament, you need to be God himself to avoid all these situations. Eventually you’ll prize the needed cards and lose the game. Probably the end of Vaniluxe usually combines all these things: a skillful opponent, bad flips, bad draw, and bad prizes.
Accelgor’s weaknesses on the other hand are different. The main weakness of Accelgor really aren’t flips or Prize cards, but the general inconsistency of the deck. Accelgor isn’t a consistent deck. If someone has come up with a consistent Accelgor list, he/she will probably do very well in the tournament. That is, if they don’t run into a deck that runs Espeon. Accelgor’s game plan is to control the whole game so it’s not surprising that inconsistencies of the deck is its only real weakness.
Summary of Special Condition (Vanilluxe and Accelgor)
pokemon-paradijs.comThe amount of special condition Vileplume decks have been increasing steadily all around the world. The reason for this is that Vanilluxe has been doing well in the international Nationals and that Pooka won Battle Roads with it.
However, the reason why these things happened was because the metagame has become very EX-oriented. These decks can force to a prize exchange between an EX and non-Pokémon-EX. Special condition decks are only a natural reaction to the dominance of certain decks.
It’s also good to remember that the more the decks are played, the better the lists will become. This is the case especially with Accelgor. The early Accelgor lists were horrible and inconsistent, but the more people tested with them, the more consistent they became. It’s the result of discipline playtesting what we are seeing happening all over the world.
I believe that the U.S. Nationals will be the peak of this playtesting. A few days ago I discussed with a fellow Finnish player about the upcoming metagame of the U.S. Nationals and he said that he expects 4-6 Vileplume special condition decks to make it to the Master division’s top 128. I disagreed. I expect a huge increase of special condition decks for the last Nationals since it will be the last chance to get the travel awards to Worlds – everyone will bring their biggest guns.
Damage Manipulators (Kumis.dec and Ross.dec) Weaknesses
Damage manipulator decks biggest weakness is just like with special condition decks, the fear that the strategy doesn’t work. And when doesn’t damage manipulation work? Whenever your opponent is able to 1HKO you. As you very well know, there is one Pokémon in the format that is played in almost every deck and is capable of 1HKOing anything – Mewtwo EX.
In order to avoid an auto-loss caused by an opponent’s Mewtwo EX, damage manipulation decks need to run Mewtwo EX as well. And that is something damage manipulation decks wouldn’t want to do. Mewtwo EX doesn’t usually fit in their game plan and also decreases the deck’s consistency.
Damage manipulation decks also manipulate damage counters. Ross does it with Reuniclus BLW, which is the weakest supporting Pokémon of the whole format. It has only 90 HP and what’s even more important, its lower stages only have 30 and 60 HP. As we all know, 30 is a very dangerous HP amount of because of Darkrai EX. If Darkrai EX deck gets a quick Darkrai EX going, there is nothing Ross.dec can do.
Darkrai can kill Oddishes at the same time as it kill Solosis from the bench and with one Catcher it is able to eliminate 2 Solosis in one turn. Reuniclus is almost impossible to set up consistently in time against fast Darkrai EX.
Kumis.dec doesn’t manipulate damage, but heals the damage off from the damaged benched Pokémon. In most cases you have Seekers in your hand whenever you need them and don’t have to worry about them. The real problem isn’t you drawing and using into Seekers, but how well your opponent can abuse them. Kumis.dec is one of those decks that you have to have playtested against in order to know what to do against it.
You should never sacrifice your attackers against Kumis.dec, but to wait patiently with the damaged attackers on the bench while switching your attackers. This way you’ll able to abuse their Seekers as well and they don’t have an advantage in the game.
Summary of Damage Manipulators (Kumis.dec and Ross.dec)
Just like with special condition Vileplume decks, I’ll expect the increase of these decks in the upcoming tournaments as well. The reason is the surprise factor they still offer (60-70% of the metagame is straightforward decks like Darkrai, Eels and CMT so some people leave Vileplume deck matchups untested).
You really shouldn’t forget about these decks because then you’ll get defeated by them. There aren’t too many techs to add against these decks and your best weapon against them is disciple playtesting and the knowledge of your own matchups.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see many damage manipulation decks in the top cuts. The difficulty in Vileplume decks is the best-of-three matches. It’s rare you see Vileplume deck winning sudden deaths and they need to usually have a god start in order to achieve that. Not only sudden death, but also the third game of the best-of-three game is usually problematic.
In big tournaments the players usually play slower than normally just because they don’t want to make mistakes. This usually slows down the game tempo so much that there is no way that Vileplume decks can play 3 “full” games.
If you’re playing with these decks, be sure to scoop the game in time, so your tournament won’t end because of that. Time management is the most important part when playing with Vileplume decks.
Remember what I told about rogues in the last article – you’re sure to face them!
marveldirectory.comI hope you read my last article carefully because I’m not telling you twice (ok, in fact I am). You’ll be facing rogues on your run toward the title of National Champion and you must be able to manage them even if you aren’t familiar of them. So one more time, here are the steps you should follow when facing a rogue deck in a big tournament like Nationals.
- Don’t panic or be arrogant.
- Try to identify their game plan as soon as possible.
- Take your time.
- Keep checking your opponent’s discard pile and follow what cards he/she plays.
- Try to build a decklist of your own about the deck – don’t forget the unorthodox cards!
(For more precise descriptions of these steps, check my last article.)
My Top 3 Deck Choices for Nationals
I have been testing all the metagame and rogue decks decks fiercely the past weeks. While I’ve been testing, my opinion of many decks has been changed a lot (and multiple times). I’m sure that the places of these three decks will be changing places in time, but I think that ultimately I’ll be choosing my Worlds deck from these three.
If you are already decided what to play in Nationals, I wouldn’t suggest you pay too much attention to the order of these decks, but just to try understand my reasoning behind the current positions.
3. Hammertime/Darkrai EX
en.wikipedia.orgYou may be surprised by Hammertime not being in the first spot. However, there is a perfectly logical explanation behind this. Many players asked after my Nationals why I chose to play Hammertime and not for example Darkrai EX/Terrakion/Mewtwo EX. The reason for this was the surprise factor (and some auto-wins) that Hammertime would give me.
However, Hammertime isn’t anymore a secret deck, so it has lost its best momentum. For a while I was thinking if I would play something else for Nationals and save Hammertime for Worlds, but I was too afraid that someone would come up with a good Hammertime list for U.S. Nationals and then the whole surprise factor would be lost.
I do still think that Hammertime is a tier 1 deck (all the top 3 decks in this list are), but since it lost its surprise factor, it’s “only” in the number 3 spot of the list. The factors why Darkrai EX made it to this list are:
- It has no auto-loss matchups.
- It has many almost auto-win matchups.
- It’s one of the most consistent decks in the current format.
- It’s a Darkrai EX deck.
Even though it’s only in the number one three spot, it doesn’t mean that I would advise anyone not to run Hammertime. I think it’s a really viable choice for a big tournament like the U.S. Nationals and has a real chance of winning the whole tournament.
If you’re leaning toward playing Hammertime in Nationals and are comfortable with it, but aren’t completely sure about it yet, I would suggest you to stand behind your choice. It’s a very strong choice and won’t let you down.
2. Celebi/Mewtwo EX/Tornadus EX/Terrakion
I think CMT being the 2nd placing deck in the list may have surprised most of you as well. But that’s my honest opinion. It was a very tough choice to choose between the first and second finishing decks, but in the end, I had to put CMT to the second place. I feel that correctly built and played CMT has the best matchups and as mentioned, it’s a real tournament deck due its speed.
The weak points of CMT can be covered with good list and player and I only see the number 1 deck of this list as a real threat to CMT. The great thing about CMT is also that it’s not that widely played anymore. Both – Darkrai EX and Eelektrik – are more played than CMT so a very good CMT can take other players by surprise.
Just like with Hammertime, if you’re leaning toward playing CMT and are happy with your current list, just go with it. It will be very difficult to fail a tournament with this deck.
1. Darkrai EX/Terrakion/Mewtwo EX
Surprised? Well, you shouldn’t be. In theory this deck is THE perfect deck. It only has one real weakness (pure Fighting decks), but against most decks IT IS their weakness. The typing and synergy between the cards in this deck is incredible. What’s even more important, is that it has great typing and matchups against the most played decks in the current format (Darkrai variants and Eelektrik variants).
The bigger the tournament, the more important the matchups against the most popular decks become. This will be the biggest tournament (and most important) tournament of the year for many people, so you don’t want to get your deck choice wrong. And if you are still debating what to run, I would strongly advice considering this deck.
It’s always good to remember that these lists aren’t optimal and are also my personal opinions. You may completely disagree with some decks/matchups and if you do, I don’t think you should start second-guessing yourself now. I really can’t emphasize enough how important it is to have confidence for your own deck and feel comfortable playing with it.
However, if you haven’t yet decided what to run in Nationals, I suggest you decide between these three decks – I sincerely believe that these are the top 3 decks of the current format.
My Top 3 Techs for Nationals
Unlike the previous list – you should look very closely to this list. Big tournaments are always won by the little techs and differences between decks, and that’s why even a last night tech additions can sometimes be a very good choice. There are many stories in the history of Pokémon TCG, where the last night ideas and additions have saved the tournament. It doesn’t usually involve changing your whole deck, just some cards.
Anyway, here are my top 3 techs of the current metagame. Be sure to look at this list very closely and think thoroughly if your deck needs any of these techs against the most difficult matchups.
pokemon-paradijs.comSuper Scoop Up has been around forever, but only in the past two formats it has been a very good tech. First it was a good tech because the damage output of most Pokémon was low (in the early stages of HGSS-on). After that came Mewtwo EX and Super Scoop Up was almost a useless card after that.
However, thanks to Darkrai (which is difficult to 1HKO with Mewtwo EX), SSU made a comeback. Darkrai EX also can’t 1HKO any Pokémon-EX and that’s where SSU come in – in EX wars.
SSU is a flippy card and that’s why some players don’t want to play it, but as long as you’re playing a deck that has Shaymin, EXs that can’t be 1HKO’d or Terrakion, I would suggest running at least one SSU in your deck. It’s a real life saver when it heads and when it tails, you wouldn’t have won the game anyway. You really don’t lose anything in running one SSU and you can win games with it, so there is no reason not to run it.
2. Espeon/Unown CURE
Special condition Vileplume decks have been increasing steadily as already mentioned and if you’re running an EX-heavy deck, you should strongly consider these 2 cards and if need them or not. Both of these cards have their pros and cons. First of all, Unown CURE can only be played once and when you’re Item locked, the only thing that lets you to recycle Unown CURE is Seeker. Also, most decks play ball engines nowadays, so it may be difficult to search for Unown CURE whenever you need it since you’re Item locked.
When it comes to Espeon, it’s a Stage 1 tech card. It sounds crazy in the current format because the format is so fast, but it really isn’t. The decks which Espeon is good against don’t usually run Catchers and are usually slow. Also, Eevee UD 48 isn’t that bad of a starter since it has Call For Family. So, in fact, an Espeon tech can ADD your deck’s consistency instead of decreasing it. That’s something very uncommon for a tech card.
At first, it seems like Unown CURE is the better option from these two (it’s a Basic, more easily searchable, it doesn’t decrease consistency like a Stage 1 Pokémon and it takes only 1 spot from your deck), but as we look the more carefully, we can see that in the current format Espeon is a far superior tech card.
pokemon-paradijs.comThe only thing that justifies playing Unown CURE is if your deck doesn’t have space for Espeon or doesn’t have anything that can search Espeon from the deck.
1. Terrakion
This probably isn’t a surprise to you. This probably isn’t even a tech in many players’ opinion. But that’s the whole point of Terrakion’s first place. If you aren’t running Terrakion in your deck, you should really think again. Do you really have that good of a matchup against the two most played decks of the current format that you don’t have to play Terrakion? If you don’t, then you should really reconsider your deck choice.
Even though Terrakion can be added to any deck, I wouldn’t put it into any deck. Adding 1-2 Shaymins and 1-2 Terrakion doesn’t make your deck’s Darkrai EX or Zekrom/Eelektrik matchup better if the deck isn’t suitable for teching like that. The best example of that is probably Zekrom/Eelektrik – even though you add Terrakion into the deck, it doesn’t make the deck’s Darkrai EX and mirror matchup inarguably better.
As already said, it’s never too late to make the last changes to your list (before the deck check). You should be aware of your surroundings to be able to decide, which decks will the most useful for you. Of course, you can predict things wrong, but usually a hunch is more than enough when it comes to teching.
Also, as long as you don’t overtech your deck, you shouldn’t worry about teching “wrong”. Sometimes techs can be useful in situations where you don’t expect them to be. It’s a long tournament – almost anything can happen.
Gameplay Tips
Here, I have gathered 4 things that I find to be the most important in the current game-play between the metagame decks. I think anyone will find these useful during their games.
1. Prize Trades
pokemon-paradijs.comPrize trading is something that defines this format. Mewtwo EX wars were the ultimate version of Prize trading – it was almost completely brainless Prize trading and the result of the game could be seen from the very start of the Mewtwo EX war. Thankfully Mewtwo EX wars aren’t anymore the defining moment of the game in most games. However, that doesn’t mean that Prize trading has gone anywhere.
At the moment, the most common version of Prize trading is the Prize trade between Darkrai EX and Terrakion. You should be aware of this if you’re running either Terrakion or Darkrai in your deck. The games are very often decided by that one Retaliate. If Terrakion is able to 1HKO Darkrai EX, Terrakion player wins the game. If he isn’t able to do that, the Darkrai EX player wins. You should tweak your deck to make these Prize trade situations go mostly in your favor.
If you’re playing Terrakion, you should maximize the cards that enable you to get the “surprise” Terrakion. You should optimize everything from your Fighting Energy counts to your Energy switching cards. Also, PlusPower is a very important card for Retaliate 1HKO as I’ll discuss next.
If you’re the player with Darkrai EX fearing for the Retaliate 1HKO, you should try to avoid the 1HKOs. The best way for this is an Eviolite on Darkrai EX and a N + KO combo. Most players usually have all the cards they need for Retaliate 1HKO in their hand when Darkrai EX KOs their Pokémon, so shuffling those cards back to their deck is a very effective way to decrease the chance of Retaliate 1HKO. Also, Eviolite is a key card because the amount of PlusPowers has been decreasing very clearly in the current builds of metagame decks.
2. N
No matter what kind of deck you’re playing, you want to have as many Ns as possible in it. Correctly timed late-game Ns still win many games and even the most skillful players can do nothing if they draw crap from the late game N. If you’re aiming for a comeback with a late game N, you should guarantee that they don’t have any other way of getting away from the one card N than topdecking.
Before you use the N to drop your opponent into 1-2 card hand, you should first KO any cards that may draw cards (mainly Smeargle). With that in mind, good luck for the possible epic come backs, you’re going to get next weekend!
3. Your Bench
pokemon-paradijs.comThe Pokémon you play onto your bench pretty much defines you as a player. Probably the clearest thing that separates beginning players and the more experienced players, are the Pokémon they play on their bench. In the current format this emphasizes more than ever.
First of all, we have Catcher – a card that’s made to get cheap prizes. And you’re the one in charge of giving your opponent cheap prizes. If you just bench every Pokémon , you draw into your hand, you’re sure to lose the game. Most decks have more than enough Catchers/ Junk Arms to get 6 easy prizes while you’re struggling to KO their main attackers.
The other reason why you should be more than aware of your own bench is of course Darkrai EX. One of the factors why Darkrai EX was so dominating in Battle Roads was its bench hitting attack. Most players weren’t prepared for Darkrai EX taking easy prizes from the bench. If you play a lot of 60 HP Pokémon on your bench (like Celebi), Darkrai EX decks will end the game surprisingly fast.
This very phenomena happened with Durant as well. Even though Durant doesn’t hit to the bench, it punishes from useless benched Pokémon very quickly with Catchers. As a result, Durant did a lot better than it should.
4. Your Opponent’s discard pile
This is the same point as with rogue decks. You should be always aware of how many Catchers/Junk Arms etc. your opponent has in their discard pile. If you don’t pay attention to your opponent’s discard pile, you might make unnecessary plays that cost you the game.
This game is played by two players and you should be as aware of your opponent’s situation as your own situation. This one simple tip will win you games if you do it every game – I can guarantee it.
Mind Games
Just like in every competitive game, there’s also a psychological part to the game. Here are three of my observations from the psychological side of Pokémon TCG.
1. Poker Face
youtu.beBefore the Worlds 2008, I didn’t pay too much attention to my opponent’s face expression. However, when I got into top 32 something struck me. I was playing against Alex Brosseau, who was undefeated so far in both LCQ and Worlds. I noticed that his expression didn’t change at ALL during the first two games we played. I was astonished and impressed of his “poker face.” However, in the first turn of the game three, I used Team Galactic’s Mars that puts one of the cards from your opponent’s hand on the bottom of this deck.
After I chose the card, Alex’s expression changed – for the first time in 45 minutes. He was shocked and frustrated. This gave me a mental advantage, I really felt like I had won the game at that point. I was able to break through his poker-face and even though I didn’t know what the card was, I knew It was a very important card. Here’s a very important lesson in my opinion: if you’re a player that likes to keep “coolface” or “poker face,” you should be able to keep it all the time.
If your coolface breaks, it will affect both players mentally. Of course you could go bluffing like some players do, but a skillful opponent also notices that (I haven’t yet seen any Oscar-worthy performances when it comes to bluffing.)
2. Don’t Get Distracted
pokemon-paradijs.comThis tournament is only once a year so you should be able to focus on it and only on it during the whole time. Don’t let one loss bring you down, but just keep looking forward and believe in your chances. You are as good player after the first loss, as you were before the loss and your deck was as good before the loss as it was after the loss.
Also, when you play, remember to keep focus on the game, it only lasts 30 to 60 minutes. After you’ve finished the game, feel free to focus on everything else but when you play, remember to focus only on the game. Everyone should be able to focus on something for 60 minutes.
One last caveat: this is a card game – anything can happen. And I mean anything. Don’t be ever feel completely certain about your win or loss before you’ve finished the game. Don’t get distracted even if you have 1 Prize left compared to your opponent’s 6 Prizes – they might still make an incredible come back. Just play as well as you can no matter the situation and you don’t have to blame yourself for stupid mistakes after the tournament. (Been there done that.)
3. Try to Find a Way to Relax Yourself
I’m pretty calm person and don’t usually stress at all, but I know there are some people who get easily nervous or too excited in the beginning of the tournament. For many players, the first two games are the most important mentally-wise. Try to find your own way of relaxing. Some relax by talking to their opponent’s (before the game of course), some relax by listening to the music etc. If you are able to relax yourself, you’ll do just fine.
Conclusion
codinghorror.comWhoa, finally in the end of the article! I hope you didn’t fell asleep while reading, but enjoyed it and that you felt like you benefitted something from it. It was easy for me to write this article since I’ve already guaranteed my Worlds invite. I could give you all the information I can get my hands on and try to help you as much as possible. Next weekend will be this season’s most defining moment for many of you and in this article I did my best to make it successful. I hope I succeeded in that.
To conclude, I want to say that no matter the deck choice, the most important thing is that you’re comfortable with it. I won’t contradict my article by saying that you should play Quad Entei even if you feel comfortable with it, because then you’re only comfortable because you haven’t tested against the bad matchups. Don’t try to lie to yourself and convince yourself what’s the best choice, just go with pure instinct and you’ll have the best possible result.
There’s nothing left for me to say after this article monster. If you found it useful, make sure to give it a Like so I know that my hard work wasn’t in vain!
Thanks for reading and GOOD LUCK for your Nationals! (You’ll need it.)
– Esa Juntunen
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