hamha.tumblr.comLooking at SixPrizes recently, it seems as if “top five” articles are all the rage. Mike Diaz and Kyle Sabelhaus had great articles on the top five Stage 2 decks and the top five Basic-and-Stage 1 decks of the format. In my desperate attempt to fit in with Mike and Kyle, I’m going to keep with the trend and discuss my top choices for US Nationals. The only problem is I’m not realistically considering five decks because I’ve narrowed my choices down to three decks.
I enjoy testing new ideas and trying decks outside of the box, however it’s getting to that point where I really need to decide, “Is this deck good enough to get me to the Top 8 at Nationals?” I’m feeling really good about my top three choices I’m going to discuss with you today and I’m hoping in another month I’ll be able to say, “Yes, one of these decks was good enough to lock in a Top 8 spot.”
I do want to mention a side project I’ve been working on as well that I’m really excited about. A lot of players have been getting into building and playing older decks. This trend seems to be getting more and more popular and I’m constantly seeing people ask for older decklists, but it’s pretty hard for somebody who didn’t actually play in that era to know where to begin.
Recently Michael Slutsky got me into playing the 2009-2010 format and it’s one of my favorite to play (and also one of the cheapest years to build since many of the cards are still recent). Over the last month, I’ve been working on a front page non-Underground article that discusses the 2010 Nationals and Worlds formats and gives decklists for all of the major archetypes.
My girlfriend and I recently moved, which has been hectic and stressful (however well worth it), so the article has been coming along pretty slowly. I hope to have it out this summer, but I’d love any feedback you guys might have as far as what you would like me to discuss or how in detail of an article you would be interested in. Like I said, this would be a non-Underground article, but I hope to bring an Underground level of writing to the table.
Table of Contents
Pyroar… It’s Actually Better Than Mewtwo LV.X
Both Erik Nance and Brit Pybas talked about Mewtwo LV.X and made some really good points about it. As somebody who also played and loved the era in which it was legal, there are a couple points I want to make as well.
First off, Mewtwo took some time to find its footing in the meta. At first, pure Basic decks were not that popular, so people didn’t really run counters to Mewtwo. I played SP at that first Nationals in 2009 after Mewtwo came out and didn’t even bother to run a counter. Once Basic decks picked up and people still weren’t playing counters, this is when you really started to see Mewtwo seeing play. Pyroar will probably be similar, in that its popularity will be directly related to the prevalence of Basic decks and the number of counters they run.
Secondly, once people started running counters to it, Mewtwo LV.X wasn’t really good anymore. A very common situation was a player would be forced into going lone Mewtwo, the opponent would put them at a small hand and then drop their counter, and the Mewtwo player wouldn’t be able to respond. This happened numerous times at Worlds that year. Mewtwo didn’t get good again until people started to realize that they needed to play counters to counter the Mewtwo counters (try saying that three times fast).
The only SP deck to make Top 4 at Worlds in 2009 was an ingenious build that played Mewtwo LV.X and Honchkrow G. Against other SP decks, the player would go aggressive with Mewtwo LV.X and then when the opponent dropped their counter (normally a 1-1 line with a 50/60 HP Basic), he would simply use Honchkrow G + Crobat G to KO it on the Bench. This concept became huge in the next year when Garchomp C LV.X was released, which brings me to my point: I feel Pyroar really needs to play a solid counter to deal with opposing Basic decks counters. I expect Pyroar decks to play three or even four Lysandre to drag up counters before they become a problem.
Thirdly, many players would run counters that they would think beat Mewtwo LV.X, when in reality they simply lose to it anyway. A great example is Pokémon that would have to 2HKO Mewtwo LV.X or simply not do enough damage to it at all. For example, players played Shedinja SV, which couldn’t be hurt by Mewtwo LV.X because Mewtwo had a Poké-Body. The problem was Shedinja maxed out at 30 damage and Mewtwo could heal 60 damage from itself. You could create an awkward stalemate at best or the Mewtwo player could drop something that could hit Shedinja at worse.
The problem was players devoted two spots in their deck to counter something that basically didn’t even counter it. I think we’re going to see a lot of similar things with Pyroar. Plasma players that tech in a 1-1 Vaporeon PLF and think they’re fine against Pyroar are going to be in for a rude awakening. Even a 2-2 line of something isn’t going to be enough to stop a prepared Pyroar player.
Lastly, in the beginning, players started off with 1-1 Mewtwo lines and over time they developed into 2-1 and 2-2 as people realized the thicker the line the harder it was for SP to effectively counter it. Maybe they could deal with a 1-1 Mewtwo, but 2-2 was normally too much for them to handle. I don’t think that the learning curve is going to be that long with Pyroar. You won’t see 1-1 Pyroars, but a lot more 3-2 and 3-3 lines. That is why I don’t think these thin counters are going to be effective.
Heading into Nationals, all these factors are playing heavily on my deck decision. I won’t play a deck that doesn’t already have a built-in answer to Pyroar. I want to be able to easily counter the card without devoting decks space just for that purpose.
Without further ado, here are my top three decks heading into US Nationals:
Deck #3 – Blastoise
As with all decks in the format, Flashfire is forcing Blastoise to adapt once again. The first real question to answer is whether Blastoise will still be viable with Lysandre and Druddigon in the format. I feel pretty confident in saying that these two cards are going to be everywhere and both seem to pose a very large threat to our favorite turtle.
If there is one thing I’ll give Blastoise, though, it’s his ability to endure from format to format and remain a dominant deck. The deck was still (low) tier 1 when Pokémon Catcher didn’t rely on a flip, so I hardly see Lysandre being the end of it. Druddigon in my mind actually poses a much larger threat to the deck, as it allows opposing decks to make favorable Prize tradeoffs. Blastoise is already a deck that sets up slowly and then hopes to roll to 6 Prizes. Druddigon makes this a far more uphill battle and Blastoise players are going to have to become more cunning to deal with it.
I really pondered over Blastoise for quite a while, realizing that the smallest choices would make huge impacts. In my mind, Blastoise needs to place less of a reliance on Black Kyurem-EX and Keldeo-EX needs to play a larger role. Some good news for Blastoise though is it can also play Druddigon. It serves the exact same purpose for the deck as Black Kyurem BCR served, but only requires two Energy versus four.
Another thing I really kept in mind when rebuilding my Blastoise list is that it’s going to become a priority to set up a second Blastoise. You can’t rely on getting one Blastoise in play and rolling the game. The four Squirtle and five Pokémon search cards are based off that line of thinking.
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Pokémon – 15 4 Squirtle BCR |
Trainers – 34 3 Professor Juniper
1 Level Ball 4 Superior Energy Retrieval 2 Professor’s Letter
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Energy – 11 |
The changes in the list from pre- to post-Flashfire may seem small, but I feel these small changes are extremely important.
I switched the Black Kyurem-EX count from three to two because I didn’t want the deck to fully rely on the card.
The switch from the standard two to three Keldeo-EX was for the exact same reason that we dropped the Black Kyurem-EX. With the popularity of Druddigon, I wanted the deck to have a greater reliance on Keldeo.
I also feel like the game is shifting more toward lower-HP non-EXs. Cards like Raichu and Druddigon were everywhere at UK Nationals, as well as many other Nationals across the world. For only three W Energy, Keldeo-EX 1HKOs a majority of these non-EX attackers without any sort of discard.
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love this card in Blastoise. It does the exact same thing as Baby Black Kyurem in most situations, just at a much lower Energy cost. It’s a great counter to extremely popular cards like Black Kyurem-EX, Raichu, and of course opposing Druddigons.
The only reason I played Dowsing Machine in the past was to be able to get a second or third Tool Scrapper for the better Garbodor matchup. With Lysandre in the format and what I expect to be a slight decline in Garbodor’s popularity, Dowsing Machine is no longer needed. It took me a long time to make that switch from Dowsing Machine to Computer Search in the first place, and I couldn’t be happier to have Computer Search back.
Techs
I think the debate between Dowsing Machine and Computer Search has been pretty well covered by now. I wanted to list Dowsing Machine under techs because it’s a strong personal preference choice.
2nd Druddigon
The card has been testing so well that I have really considered adding a second copy to the deck. Room is really tight though and I don’t think it will make the final cut.
I’m really starting to like Jirachi more and more lately. After the release of Lysandre it became more of a two-purpose card. The first is for early game setup (Jirachi –> Skyla –> Beach/Ultra Ball) and the second is for a mid to late game Lysandre. I’ve found it more useful throughout the course of the game instead of just using it to smooth out draws.
The only reason Suicune didn’t make the cut yet is because I don’t know what to drop for it. If I play Blastoise at Nationals I can’t image I wouldn’t play Suicune. I could go with the Brit Pybas version with Suicune and Jirachi over the 1-1 Electrode, but I’m pretty adamant about keeping Electrode in the deck right now.
Why I Would Play the Deck
1HKO Ability
The deck can deal with any threat with ease once it’s set up. As long as you can keep Blastoise on the field you should never lose board presence.
Comeback Potential
The deck has huge potential to come back in games in which it is considerably down. Once the deck sets up it should score a KO just about every turn. If the opponent winds up with one bad hand off of N it’s very easy for Blastoise to steal the game. Blastoise is one of the scariest decks in the format to play against because the game is never truly over until you draw that last Prize.
A Built-In Answer to Pyroar
Normally the last thing you want to do is willingly throw Blastoise in the Active Spot, but I do like how the deck doesn’t have to add cards to tech for Pyroar.
Why I Would NOT Play the Deck
Setup
In long tournaments like Nationals, I don’t like playing decks that require a large amount of setup to work. It’s so hard to have the deck do exactly what it’s supposed to do every single round for 15+ rounds. Although, there are a lot of things you can do to maximize your consistently and increase your odds of setting up.
A lot of my success in the recent past has come from low setup decks that hit hard and fast (like Luxchomp and Darkrai/Mewtwo), so now it’s very hard for me to go into a tournament with a setup deck.
Druddigon
This card is going to be absolutely everywhere at Nationals and it’s going to put Blastoise in a lot of tough situations. A smart Blastoise player can do a lot to play around Druddigon, but there still are going to be situations (very common situations, I’m afraid) where a Blastoise player is going to have to go “all in” and hope the opponent doesn’t have Druddigon + DCE. This takes the game from skill-based to luck-based and I’m afraid these situations aren’t going to be that uncommon.
Deck #2 – Yveltal/Darkrai/Raichu
This was a deck that really wasn’t on my radar until this past weekend when I saw it made Top 4 in two different National Championships. With Lysandre and Druddigon answering many of the same issues that Garbodor did, it was only natural for Yveltal players to begin branching out for new partners. Raichu is a great non-EX attacker and, unlike Garbodor, it doesn’t just sit on the Bench – in many cases it will be your main attacker.
I feel like when you put Garbodor in a deck you really have to build the entire deck around him. Devote four spots to Garbodor itself and then at least three more to Float Stone, add another one or two for Switch, and you’re already looking at eight spots. After that you’ll probably have to redo your entire Pokémon lineup to make sure it doesn’t conflict with Garbodor. Raichu on the other hand seems to more easily fit into the deck. It didn’t even really take getting used to or feel weird because it made the deck feel “right.”
I also never really liked the “new” version of Yveltal/Darkrai/Garbodor that we saw for States and Regionals. I always enjoyed playing the deck as a control deck where I’d sit back and Junk Hunt + Laser and Catcher all day and slowly wear my opponent down until I’d sweep with Darkrai. With the newer version only running one Sableye, this strategy was never the focus. I still always wanted to just sit back and Junk Hunt, but it would never be the right play.
I considered adding more Sableye, but when players like Ray Cipoletti, Jeremy Jallen, and Kyle Sucevich all say one Sableye is the right play, then I really can’t argue with them. Deep down I also knew one Sableye was the play, but it was still hard for me to break that line of thinking.
After playing a few games with Yveltal/Darkrai/Raichu I couldn’t believe we didn’t see this deck all over the place for States and Regionals. After I thought about it the more, I realized how much Flashfire helped the deck. Druddigon fits perfectly into the deck as it already runs 4 DCE, but most importantly it gives the deck an answer to Black Kyurem-EX. A majority of the time, Blastoise would roll any Yveltal deck that didn’t play Garbodor. Now Blastoise is in a much tougher situation because if they go aggressive with Black Kyurem-EX you can counter it with Druddigon, or if they try to load up a Keldeo-EX with a ton of Energy then it’s easy to answer with Yveltal.
What I like so much about Lysandre in the deck is it allows Druddigon and Raichu to choose their target, which allows more favorable tradeoffs. I actually expect to see a lot more non-EX decks at Nationals that focus on using Lysandre to make favorable tradeoffs with EX-heavy decks. This really isn’t something that you can build a full deck around, but rather a strategy to keep in mind.
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Pokémon – 14 3 Yveltal-EX 2 Druddigon FLF |
Trainers – 34 4 Professor Juniper
4 Dark Patch 1 Level Ball
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Energy – 12 8 D |
Looking at my list I feel I have a few card choices that I need to explain my reasoning on.
Maybe I’m getting on the Jirachi hype train a bit too much right now, but I saw the version of this deck that made Top 4 at Argentine Nationals played it. Seeing that really made me want to at least test it out because I do believe it has a lot of synergy with the deck. In testing, the card has had its ups and downs, but right now I’m liking it.
I do need to start being careful I don’t cross the line of “Jirachi-EX is good” to “I want Jirachi-EX to be good.”
3 Colress
Since we play Lysandre I didn’t really want to play one Random Receiver anymore and I’ve never really liked Shauna. We play a pretty high Basic count and four Balls, so I feel I can fill my Bench pretty quickly and most other decks in the format rely on big Benches as well. In the mid and late game the deck really does need to make some huge plays that involve multiple cards (Dark Patch, DCE, etc.) and Colress is the best way to pull off those combos.
I’m testing the one Level Ball right now, but this could easily become a fourth Ultra Ball or get cut completely. There are so many 90 HP or less Pokémon in the deck you can always grab something you need. It’s also much easier to burn than Ultra Ball if you really don’t want to discard anything.
Techs
I was pretty adamant about playing this at Spring Regionals due the prevalence of Virizion/Genesect. Now it’s more of a meta call based on how popular you think Virizion/Genesect is going to be. If I play this deck at Nationals I feel like I’d want Spiritomb most likely over Jirachi-EX or the Level Ball.
Why I Would Play the Deck
The Matchups
I like how the deck doesn’t really have any bad matchups and meshes extremely well against the format.
Surprise Attackers
I don’t know how to word this, but I like that I can drop attackers out of nowhere. The opponent can think they just wiped your last threat off the board, then you drop Yveltal-EX, Dark Patch, Dark Patch, DCE, Virbank, Laser, and KO. This sounds so unlikely as I’m sitting here typing this, but it happens all the time and it’s one of the things that makes the deck so annoying to play against because you swear your opponent has to be the luckiest player on the planet until the next Yveltal player does the exact same thing against you.
A Built-In Answer To Pyroar
If you feel really strongly about Pyroar you can even increase the Raichu line to 3-3.
Why I Would NOT Play the Deck
Lack of Consistency
This deck is by far one of the most packed decks in the entire format and the list is incredibly tight. This means cuts have to be made in different places, consistency included. Thirteen “consistency cards” and then of course Dowsing Machine is well below the numbers that I’m used to playing. Many of the consistency cards you can wind up with in bad situations, such as Colress when both players have a small Bench or Bicycle when you have a large hand. This makes an already inconsistent Supporter line feel even worse.
I’m trying to smooth this out, but I’m having a lot of trouble coming up with something I like. The deck basically has to play conflicting cards like Colress and Bicycle.
Slow
The deck can be extremely slow coming out of the gate at the start of the game. Sure, you can get some pretty explosive starts, but many of them revolve around Laser and Virbank while setting up and preparing to counter your opponent’s move. The deck really doesn’t get flowing smoothly until you have a few D Energy in the discard pile.
Deck #1 – Virizion/Genesect
sonofabug.tumblr.comDespite all of the Fire support we saw from Flashfire, Virizion/Genesect is still my favorite deck in the format and my front-running choice for US Nationals. While we saw a lot of great Fire support in the form of Items and Supporter cards, Fire decks still lack strong attackers. Outside of Pyroar (which I feel VirGen deck can handle), Fire just doesn’t have decent attackers that hold up against the format, which makes playing a dedicated Fire deck near impossible for players that want to do well on the big stage.
I want to start off by showing my list, which has changed pretty dramatically from the list I played at Regionals.
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Pokémon – 14 4 Virizion-EX |
Trainers – 32 4 Professor Juniper
4 Ultra Ball
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Energy – 14 9 G |
The one Druddigon I keep going back and forth on, but for right now I’m playing the single copy. The downside is if I open with it I reserve myself to a turn three Emerald Slash at best. However, this is a risk I’m will to take because I feel its pros greatly outweigh the cons. It really increases the favorability of the Blastoise matchup, and a quick 90 damage goes a long way in this meta. Raichu, Jirachi-EX, Druddigon, and Electrode are just a few commonly played 90 HP or less Pokémon that see a lot of play right now. With Lysandre in the format, Druddigon isn’t reserved to only hitting the Active.
1-1 Electrode PLF
Pokémon seems to be slowing down by making its way back to being Supporter based. What I mean by this is a large majority of the strong Trainers are now Supporters (like Lysandre and Pokémon Fan Club). What this means for us is we can’t play a Supporter card in the hopes of drawing into the other Supporter we need. For example, before we could Juniper and hope to draw into Pokémon Catcher, but we can’t Juniper and hope to draw into Lysandre since we can’t play a second Supporter that turn. I even switched the one Level Ball to a fourth Ultra Ball to help increase the utility of Electrode.
This could lead to the argument that we need to play Roserade DRX 15 instead of Electrode. However, I feel very strongly about play Raichu in the deck right now, and with only a 1-1 spot to work with I feel Electrode outshines Roserade.
The last thing I’d like to mention here is that I’ve opted to play Voltorb XY for the simple reason “it does something.” In all of my test and tournament games with the deck I’ve never had the extra 10 HP from Voltorb PLF come into play. While insanely situational, I feel at least Voltorb XY could do something or help me set up a big play.
The other thing is that with Lysandre in the format, players have a more reliable way to bring up the Bench. Even though the Ability is on a coin flip, it does make Voltorb XY a much less appealing target.
These little decisions are all things I’ve thought about far more than I’d like to admit.
2 Lysandre
I originally scoffed at the card because I was already playing four Plasma Energy and three Genesect-EX. The extra “Pokémon Catcher” effect seemed redundant; however the more I tested I noticed I couldn’t always devote my Energy attachment for the turn to bring something up. Especially in the early stages of the game, being able to use Virizion-EX to choose its own target was huge. I really noticed major differences in the Blastoise matchup especially.
I started off by testing one copy, but never drew into it enough to have an impact. I decided to swap out Tool Scrapper for a second copy. I really only had the Tool Scrapper in the deck because of Garbodor, but Lysandre is a far more effective counter since you’re dealing with the threat permanently instead of just buying a turn. Lysandre also has a much wider range of uses while Tool Scrapper is extremely narrow.
By playing two copies of Lysandre I felt pretty comfortable in switching out my fourth Plasma Energy for a second copy of Double Colorless Energy. The main focus of the deck isn’t necessarily Genesect-EX, as it does have to share the spotlight with Raichu and Druddigon. Being able to bring up a Pokémon and attach a DCE to Raichu or Druddigon in the same turn makes for huge plays.
In my testing, the more choices I made in the list to benefit Raichu, the less useful I found Energy Switch. The third copy made its way out of the deck to make room for the first Lysandre. The second copy was swapped out for the fourth Virizion-EX. I felt both of these changes improved my early game and made the deck more consistent, which are things that I really want to focus on for Nationals.
Techs
2-2 Roserade DRX 15
I think a majority of people prefer Roserade over Electrode in the deck. I like the consistency of drawing more cards every turn versus that one-time search. The main argument for Roserade is that you can search out any card in your deck, like Plasma Energy or Shadow Triad.
There are always those moments where the deck needs to stall for a turn or two while it sets up a huge play. Dylan Lefavour did a great job explaining how great Sigilyph is in his last article and Ben Potter won Wisconsin Regionals with it in his list just last month.
I decided not to play Sigilyph for a couple different reasons. The first is I found I had room for one Pokémon tech card and I needed to decide between Sigilyph and Druddigon. The second is since I play Raichu and Druddigon I find I don’t need to buy that one turn as often. It’s easier for the deck to put aggression on the field and you don’t find yourself relying as much on Triad to get a Plasma Energy or finding yourself down that one attachment you need.
Why I Would Play the Deck
Consistency
The deck is very straightforward and sets up every game. All you need to get going is a Virizion-EX and G Energy. The deck also has plenty of space to play a healthy Supporter lineup and even an added consistency tech like Electrode or Roserade.
Board Presence
The deck does a great job at constantly advancing its board presence and living off of the field. Later in the game a majority of what you need is on board, which leaves you far less vulnerable to late game N’s. It’s also much harder for your opponent to disrupt your board. Decks like Blastoise always live under constant fear of Lysandre dragging up a Blastoise and Knocking it Out and leaving them with nothing. It’s much harder to leave Virizion/Genesect in a similar situation.
A Built-In Answer To Pyroar
Not only does the deck have Raichu to deal with Pyroar, but it also has G Booster.
Good In 50 Minutes
The deck can handle 50-minute rounds probably better than any other deck in the format. If you play at a decent pace you can actually fit in three full games.
Why I Would NOT Play the Deck
Fire Weakness
The deck can deal with Fire Pokémon like Pyroar or Ninetales, but struggles against dedicated Fire builds. A well-built Charizard-EX deck might not be common at Nationals, but it would have a very favorable matchup against Virizion. I’m okay with having rough matchups, but I don’t like straight auto-losses when Swiss rounds have never been more important.
Bonus Deck – Aromatisse/Kangaskhan
Aromatisse/Kangaskhan is not a deck that I’m considering playing at Nationals… but part of me really wishes it was one of my options. In my mind the deck is very clearly a tier 2 deck because it requires a bit of setup, relies on coin flips, and at times can have very fragile board states. All of those aside, I have to say this is one of the most fun decks I’ve played post-Flashfire. The full art Kangaskhan looks amazing and the deck is just a blast to play.
Since my last article, I’ve ditched the traditional Aromatisse build and have jumped on the Kangaskhan bandwagon for a variety of reasons. The first is with my shift in thinking, Pyroar will see considerably more play than I originally thought. I’m starting to really favor decks that have “built-in” Pyroar counters and aren’t attempting to play some awkward tech in the hopes of skating by.
However, let’s get back to Kangaskhan and look at just how much synergy the card has with Aromatisse. In my mind, any sort of Energy trans deck should be based around either tanking a Pokémon or abusing Weakness. Kangaskhan fills the former and is the strongest card to tank in the current format. The Mega Evolution has 220 HP, which is enough to even withstand a Black Ballista.
My starting point for the deck was the Japanese list that Henry posted in his last article, but I made my own changes to the deck. Namely, I redid the Pokémon lineup to be a bit more well rounded. The Bench space really isn’t tight since your ideal setup would be Kangaskhan, Aromatisse, and a Victini. That leaves you a good three spots to fill with a variety of Pokémon. One of those three spots should probably be a second Aromatisse since Lysandre will see a good amount of play.
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Pokémon – 16 2 Spritzee XY |
Trainers – 31 4 Professor Juniper
3 Ultra Ball
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Energy – 13 9 Y |
Looking at the Pokémon lineup, I made three major changes from the original list Henry posted. The first is that I added a Xerneas-EX. The card works really well with Double Colorless Energy, which we already naturally play four of. Xerneas-EX also snipes the Bench for 30 and that Bench damage is something I wanted the deck to have. Mr. Mime PLF is seeing next to no play right now and that 30 damage can really take a lot of the pressure off of Kangaskhan flips. Ironically enough, the Xerneas-EX can also hit M-Charizard-EX for Weakness (the “Wild Blaze” one), which is one of the few cards in the format that can 1HKO M-Kangaskhan-EX.
The second card I added to the list was Suicune. As many of you know, I’m a big fan of having a Safeguard attacker to hide behind when you need to buy yourself a key turn or two to set up a big play (such as Mega Evolving). I opted to play Suicune over Sigilyph because that 10 extra HP is starting to matter more and more with popular cards like Pyroar and baby Rayquaza hitting for 90. It’s not that I think that the extra 10 HP will actually buy me a turn, and in many cases I know it won’t. It’s that I can force my opponent to burn that extra resource like Muscle Band or Laser to get the KO.
The deck does play Level Ball, so you could form a strong argument on why the deck should run Sigilyph over Suicune. I just feel the extra 10 HP is more important than the ability to be searched out with Level Ball.
The Trainer lineup is still the same basic Trainer lineup with once again my own small changes. I really don’t understand running three Fairy Garden and then three more switching cards on top of it. Fairy Garden along with Keldeo-EX should be more than enough switching options for the deck. If worse came to worst, you could even manually retreat Keldeo-EX.
Just to reiterate, this isn’t a deck that I’d walk into Nationals with, but if you’re looking to break up the strenuous testing a little bit and relax with a few fun games, this deck is definitely something I’d bring out. I actually think Kangaskhan as a lot of potential in the future, but right now the Mega concept doesn’t have enough support to be tier 1 viable. With one turn often being the difference between winning and losing, it’s hard to waste one just to evolve.
Conclusion
I really hoped you enjoyed the article and have a much better idea at where I’m at heading into Nationals. Throughout the article it’s been pretty obvious that I’m a huge fan of Raichu, Druddigon, and Lysandre. I believe Lysandre and Druddigon will most likely be in just about every deck that makes Top 8 and Raichu will be in at least two to six of them. The format is very slowly moving away from Pokémon-EX slugging it out and turning more into a technical match of trying to make your opponent take more Prizes while making better tradeoffs.
To be honest I really haven’t enjoyed the format as much this year as I have in the past. I was starting to get worried this was due to the direction the game was headed. It’s a pretty big relief that I was wrong and one of the most enjoyable formats we’ve had in a while is happening heading into one of the biggest tournaments of the year.
Moving into the summer months, work is starting to get really crazy and we’re starting to put in more overtime. My free time might be a little less, but playing Pokémon and preparing for Nationals has helped keep the stress down. I’m also really excited about my side project, so please remember to give me some feedback on what you would like to see with that as well.
If you enjoyed the article please remember to give it a “Like!”
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