Ghost Town

Energy – 12

8 D

Up until the week before Phoenix Regionals, I was set on playing a straight Yveltal/Darkrai that fellow Underground writer Andrew Zavala and I had tweaked for a while. While we were testing, Yveltal decks were growing in popularity so I decided to change the deck up and add in the Raichu line, which served me well last season. Not only did Raichu improve the “mirror” matchup, but it also gave you an out against Pyroar FLF and a nice attacker against Lugia-EX.

Looking back, I feel like this was a solid play and I was really bummed to miss top 32, but I did finish 63rd and earned some nice packs. (I pulled two Seismitoad-EX – not too shabby!)

Week 2 – Houston

After my not-so-great performance in Arizona, I looked over the decks that had done well at the Philadelphia Regional Championships, and I stumbled upon Dylan Bryan’s Donphan deck. I messaged him and got the list and tweaked a few cards to fit my own playstyle, and I almost instantly decided that I would play the deck.

One of the main changes I made was dropping a Bicycle for a Snorlax PLS, which was another big “wall” that could be extremely useful in the mirror, but it ended up being a near dead card throughout most of the tournament. I also added a Sacred Ash which saved me many times, getting back my 1-ofs and even parts of my Donphan line.

When I arrived in Houston, I heard from my friend Jose Marrero that the League Challenge Friday night was filled with Donphan, which immediately made me question whether I should play the deck or find a counter for it. I was surprised at how quickly the deck spread after Dylan posted his article, but it definitely ended up being one of the top decks the next day.

I stuck it out and ended up playing Donphan anyway, and I almost wish I hadn’t. Despite having a decent finish, I feel like I should have played my Seismitoad-EX/Victini-EX/Raichu XY deck instead. I like playing weird decks, and that one was a bit different from the rest of the field.

Pokémon – 15

4 Phanpy PLS

3 Donphan PLS

2 Sigilyph LTR

2 Hawlucha FFI
1 Kyurem LTR

Trainers – 34

4 N

3 Korrina

1 Pal Pad

1 Bicycle

1 Sacred Ash

3 Fighting Stadium

Energy – 11

4 Strong

4 F

3 Double Colorless

I started out the tournament at 1-1-2, losing a mirror match against Josh Marking and tying two other games against an Yveltal/Raichu deck and a Tornadus/Landorus/Garbodor deck. From there, I won out until the very last round, where I would end up playing my good friend Justin Sanchez in a really close match, but lost to finish 5-2-2.

Top Cards of Phantom Forces

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So far every set from the XY era has has left a mark on the game, and I think this set will be no different. With the release of some really cool Team Flare cards, as well as a new form of Energy acceleration in Bronzong and some awesome EXs, I think the format will be very fun and diverse.

Here are some of my favorite cards from Phantom Forces:

7. Dimension Valley

Two new Stadium cards were released in this set, but only one of them makes my list. The other, Steel Shelter, is a really good Stadium for Metal decks and will definitely see some play. But the real player here is Dimension Valley, which reduces the attack cost of all Psychic-type Pokémon by C. You can pair this with cards like Pumpkaboo PHF, Trubbish PLS 65, Mew-EX, and many more to reduce their costs and attack for very cheap. I think the release of this and Steel Shelter will bring back some Stadium wars, which should be interesting.

6. Battle Compressor

I find this card so interesting. It lets you search deck for three cards and put them into your discard pile, which pairs nicely with a lot of cards. To name a few: Pumpkaboo PHF + Lampent PHF + Joltik PHF, Weavile PLF + Exeggcute PLF, Bronzong PHF + M Energies, and VS Seeker + Supporters. It also lets you thin out cards that you might not use in a matchup. Overall, I think it’s a really cool card and I can’t wait to see how it will impact the format.

5. Lysandre’s Trump Card

I remember a lot of players were going crazy when this card was first revealed, talking about how it would break the format and such. Well, I definitely don’t think that will be the case, but it does allow you to play a bit more carefree with your resources since it will shuffle everything (but itself) back into the deck. Combine this with VS Seeker and you will never deck out. The card is also really nice for decks like Tool Drop that lose all their Tools on the field to Startling Megaphone. It can also really hurt decks that focus a strategy heavily on their discard pile like Night March and Bronzong-based decks.

4. Enhanced Hammer

As upset as I am over this card being reprinted, it definitely deserves a spot as one of the top cards being printed in Phantom Forces. It was recently rotated out of the Standard format, but with this reprint it will once again be legal and now it’s better than ever. With Strong Energy, Mystery Energy, Double Colorless Energy, and Rainbow Energy all being heavily played, this card will be just as strong as before and continue to change the way decks are built.

3. Manectric-EX & M Manectric-EX

Now that we have the new Spirit Link cards, Mega Pokémon are a lot more playable (but unfortunately only Gengar and Manectric have access to them right now). If you’re not sure what the Spirit Links do, they are Tools that allow you to evolve one of your Pokémon-EX that has been out for a turn into its Mega Evolution without ending your turn. Now that we have that out of the way, both Manectric cards are fantastic. For LC, Manectric-EX can do 120 damage if the opponent’s Active Pokémon has a Tool attached. If it doesn’t, you could attach one of the new Flare Tools yourself.

M Manectric-EX is even better, doing 110 damage for LC while also putting two basic Energy from your discard pile onto one of your Benched Pokémon. I’ve attempted to find the perfect build for this type of deck, but it’s extremely hard to fit everything in and still keep it consistent. M Manectric-EX a great card and I think if you can build the right list, you’ll be able to take down anyone. Dylan Lefavour talked about two interesting lists in his article last week, which you can check out here.

2. Head Ringer

This is the better of the new Team Flare Tools being released in Phantom Forces, which are new Tool cards that you can play onto your opponents’ Pokémon-EX. This one makes their attacks costs C more to attack, while the other makes their attacks do 20 less damage to your Active Pokémon. I think these are extremely interesting cards. They will make non-EX cards much more playable and make you reconsider how you build and play your decks.

1. VS Seeker

When I heard that this card was going to be reprinted, I had mixed feelings. It saw some play back in the 2010 format, but was mainly a 1-of since a lot of the draw power at the time was Poké-Power based. Since then, card draw has switched over to mainly Supporter form, and I think that makes this card great for the format. It may not be extremely effective early game, but in the late game this card is amazing. It fetches out Professor Juniper, N, Colress, or any other Supporter that you may need and is just an Item. Hopefully this card will boost the consistency of decks and makes the format smoother. I definitely have high expectations for it.

New Decks

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With all these awesome new cards coming out, what are some new decks that we will see? I think there is a lot of room for the format to grow with these new cards, especially with the awesome new Trainer cards and the amount of support we get for Metal types. I’m only going to be covering four of the new decks that may make an impression on Standard, but I am sure there are plenty of other cool ideas out there.

Mewtric 2.0

The first of the new decks we’re looking at is fairly simple. The point of this concoction is to use Mew-EX’s Versatile Ability in conjunction with Dimension Valley to copy Manectric-EX’s Assault Laser attack and hit for up to 120 damage for just a single Energy. When paired with the new Flare Tools, you can reach that max number on the very first turn of the game. Below is a very basic list of the concept, which can be changed up to fit your playstyle or even tech in some other attackers.

Pokémon – 9

4 Manectric-EX

1 M Manectric-EX

4 Mew-EX

Trainers – 41

4 Professor Juniper

3 N

1 Shauna

2 Skyla

2 Lysandre

1 Xerosic

4 Bicycle

4 Head Ringer

2 Switch

Energy – 10

10 L

As you can see, this list is focused on consistency. Being able to hit a turn one Assault Laser is the primary focus of this deck, so that’s what I’ve built it around. There is a 1-of M Manectric-EX which is mainly included to deal with Pyroar FLF. It is also a bulky attacker that can do a decent amount of damage.

The deck deals a lot of damage extremely quickly. After you attack with your first Mew for a while, you can power up a Manectric-EX, which is much safer to attack with. Unfortunately, the deck struggles against non-EX-based decks due to the fact that they can avoid attaching Tools and limit the amount of damage you do greatly.

Haunted House

Phantom Forces is based around spooky Pokémon, and the most ghostly Pokémon in the set is easily Gengar-EX. Its attack is a hit-and-run for PCC that does 60 and poisons. Using Trevenant XY as well as Dragalge FLF, you’re able to set up two different types of locks while protecting your main attacker.

Pokémon – 17

Trainers – 32

4 N

3 Lysandre

Energy – 11

4 Mystery

3 P

The deck is interesting, but unfortunately very clunky. I know a lot of players have tried to make it work, but I haven’t heard of very many that have actually figured it out yet. It’s fun to play, but can fall apart pretty easily. I decided to keep M Gengar-EX out of the deck mainly to improve consistency and due to the fact that it isn’t the best attacker out there. It could have potential, but I feel like M Gengar-EX doesn’t have a great place in the format at the moment.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of Gengar-EX and I think that the deck will probably fall apart after people realize that Donphan is better and runs much more smoothly. Gengar also has a weakness to Yveltal-EX that is pretty hard to avoid without destroying the deck’s consistency.

Metal Mansion

By now I’m sure you’ve heard about Bronzong, aka Eelektrik 2.0, but this wouldn’t be an article about the new decks if we didn’t talk about this big hunk of steel. Its Ability is very familiar and is basically just Eelektrik NVI’s Dynamotor for M Energies. With the addition of two awesome new Metal EXs (Dialga-EX and Aegislash-EX), this deck will be a strong contender in the upcoming Standard format.

Pokémon – 16

Trainers – 32

3 N

1 Xerosic

3 Switch

1 Startling Megaphone

3 Steel Shelter

Energy – 12

8 M

The primary focus of the deck is pretty simple; set up a few Bronzong and use Metal Links to power up heavy hitters like Dialga-EX and Cobalion-EX. I think the deck is extremely powerful and definitely deserves a spot in the top tier for now. You could even cut the Double Colorless Energy and add Rainbow Energy to support any Pokémon you like (within reason), such as Manectric-EX, Terrakion LTR, or Yveltal-EX. I prefer the list above due to speed and it being less clunky.

Aegislash-EX is one of my favorite cards out of the new set, and I could even see bumping up the count to two in the list, but this depends on your local metagame. Dylan Lefavour even ran a total of three in his build, which I found to be interesting. It is great against decks like Donphan, Yveltal, and Gengar that rely heavily on the use of Double Colorless Energy.

Night March

Of all the decks in this article, this is probably the worst. I hate to say it, but this deck is not that great, though it is definitely fun to mess around with. I haven’t had a ton of time to test it, but I have played a few games with the list below. It’s able to dish out a high amount of damage for the first few turns of the game, but can miss a beat and completely fall apart if you aren’t careful. It’s a great deck for new players that do not want to dump a bunch of money into cards, but do not expect to win big events with it.

Pokémon – 14

4 Pumpkaboo PHF

4 Joltik PHF

4 Lampent PHF

2 Mew-EX

Trainers – 36

4 Professor Juniper

3 N

1 Shauna

1 Bianca

4 Bicycle

2 Max Revive

2 Switch

2 VS Seeker

4 Dimension Valley

Energy – 8

4 P

This build is focused on one thing: speed. All you want to do is get enough Night Marchers into the discard pile to 1HKO all of your opponent’s Pokémon, and then keep a steady stream of attackers coming using Max Revive and Mew-EX. The other option you have when playing a deck like this is the slower but more sturdy Gourgeist PHF route. I think that route is decent, but I feel like this version is more stable and dishes out damage a lot faster.

Updated Decks

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Now that the newcomers are out of the way, we can take a look at a few decks that should be familiar. I feel like these decks will continue to be top decks over the next three or so months and be able to take quite a few City Championship wins.

Tool Drop

This deck saw some play last year, but had very few accomplishments compared to the other decks of the time. It was a very well-known concept that focused on Trubbish PLS 65’s Tool Drop attack while using Sigilyph PLB’s Toolbox Ability to do 20 damage times the number of Tool cards attached to all Pokémon in play. The deck died off after the release of Startling Megaphone and is still extremely limited by this card, but with the release of Lysandre’s Trump Card and Dimension Valley, I think the deck could be viable once again.

Pokémon – 9

4 Trubbish PLS 65

4 Sigilyph PLB

1 Mew-EX

Trainers – 43

4 Professor Juniper

3 N

2 Lysandre

2 Lysandre’s Trump Card

4 Head Ringer

2 Bicycle

Energy – 8

8 P

Like before, the deck is extremely fragile and if you run out of Trubbish and Dimension Valley, you can fall behind quickly since you’ll have a hard time attacking. I’ve found that having Hard Charm in the deck is extremely good against decks like Donphan, Virizion/Genesect, and others since they will not be able to 1-shot you like they normally would. Tool Drop also has access to the new Team Flare Tools, which boost the damage that Tool Drop does and sets back the opponent up to an entire turn if they can’t get rid of the Flare Tool.

The deck has a lot of strong matchups and can dominate the early game, but can fold to a well-timed Startling Megaphone or even a Quaking Punch. I think the deck will see play, but it can easily be countered and could fall off the radar before it has any solid accomplishments.

Seismitoad/Garbodor

I personally hate this deck. If you’ve ever been under the total lock that is Seismitoad/Garbodor, you understand why. Being able to shut off all Items and Abilities at the same time while removing your opponent’s Energy is extremely powerful. With the release of Head Ringer, this deck becomes more powerful and has a few better matchups.

Pokémon – 10

Trainers – 41

4 N

2 Skyla

3 Head Ringer

1 Switch
1 Escape Rope

4 Hypnotoxic Laser

3 Virbank City Gym

Energy – 9

5 W

Of all decks I’ve had to build this season, this one was the hardest by far. There are so many key cards that you need to fit into this deck, but it’s really hard to squeeze everything in. A few cards I’d love to have in the list include a Xerosic, a second Escape Rope, and maybe a Team Flare Grunt.

Other than that, I think the deck is extremely powerful and very disruptive. The deck only got better with the new set, gaining the extremely annoying Head Ringer as well as Lysandre’s Trump Card to shuffle back in all of your opponent’s useless discarded Item cards so that they continue to draw dead while you Quaking Punch them to a slow and painful victory. One of the main problems this deck faces is the new Metal deck and Cobalion-EX’s Righteous Edge in particular, which can prevent you from using Quaking Punch turn after turn.

Virizion/Genesect

Although the release of the new Team Flare Tools, namely Head Ringer, slow down this deck tremendously, I still think it’s going to survive and thrive like usual. The deck did take down a few Regional Championships last month. It’s insanely consistent, and with the addition of VS Seeker, I think the deck only gets better. Below is a fairly simple list, but a great place to start.

Pokémon – 11

3 Genesect-EX

Trainers – 35

4 N

2 Skyla

2 Shadow Triad

1 Startling Megaphone

1 G Booster

Energy – 14

10 G

4 Plasma

I think the deck is going to be hurt quite a bit if Head Ringer sees a lot of play, but if you can manage to avoid playing against decks that play that card, you should have some pretty solid matchups. With the reprint of Enhanced Hammer, you can have a slightly better (but still bad) matchup against Pyroar decks, especially when using Drifblim. I feel like Drifblim is a better fit than Beartic FFI or Abomasnow PLB in this deck, due to its ability to hit for infinite amounts of damage, as well as attacking for only a single Energy.

VS Seeker is also extremely strong in this deck, since you normally need your Shadow Triads and other situational Supporters frequently. The 1-of Tool Retriever is mainly in the deck to help against Head Ringer, but can also be fairly clutch to pick up Muscle Bands and G Booster also.

Donphan

I know that I covered this deck near the beginning of the article, but I still think that the deck has a shot at being a top contender in the new format. With the release of Lysandre’s Trump Card, the deck can now completely reset, which is awesome, because you get back all your walls, as well as your Float Stones and Energy. Unfortunately, the deck doesn’t have the best time against Seismitoad-EX, and Enhanced Hammer gives the deck problems.

Pokémon – 14

Trainers – 35

4 N

3 Korrina

2 Lysandre