Hello SixPrizes! It looks like City Championships are finally over and the dust is settling from the flurry of new decks being seen at these tournaments. I was very luck to earn my invite to this year’s World Championships with some City Championship trophies from the Georgia Marathon, but earning my invitation this early has actually inspired me to playtest more in order to earn a coveted spot in the top 16 players for our region. Securing a spot in Day 2 would be a huge accomplishment this year, especially with the large amount of players coming to tournaments from the lower Championship Point requirement for entry into Worlds.
With Cities in the rear-view, it’s time to get ready for the upcoming Winter Regional Championships that start in February. Due to the large amount of Championship Points given out, along with two byes at the National Championships on the line, these tournaments are absolutely crucial for earning an invitation to Worlds. If there is one thing that I’ve learned from my success at Regionals, it would be that these tournaments are all about preparation, consistency, and a positive attitude.
This article will focus on helping everyone with these attributes, through providing 10 possible decks that have been performing very well lately, along with insight into their strengths and weaknesses.
I always feel that the best way to get ready for Regionals is to try out every possible deck idea and consider every possible option before making a final decision on what to play. Being prepared for Regionals means being prepared to see a wide variety of deck choices, which will certainly be the case based on the large amount of different decks winning City Championships this year. I will warn that these decks are just my personal take and may be completely different than some would expect, but hopefully they can inspire some thought and adequate testing in preparation for February.
After my analysis of these decks, we’ll take a look at some cards from the new set that show potential for the Regionals that will allow Primal Clash to be played. I don’t have any decks built with Primal Clash cards, because I don’t have any new cards and would like to focus on the first week of Winter Regionals, but I’ve taken a look at the set and see plenty of potential for new decks and ideas.
I’ve also stated this plenty of times before, but make sure not to stress on new ideas and decks for Primal Clash with the upcoming Regional Championships on the horizon. Focus on the next tournament and prepare for this current format. There will be plenty of time to try out new ideas during the two-week hiatus after the first week of Regionals on February 14-15.
Let’s get into the article!
Table of Contents
- Quaking in My Boots
- Time to Go “Turbo”
- “Repel’s Effect Wore Off”
- Wiley Old Veterans
- New Kids on the Block
- Primal Instincts
- Conclusion
Quaking in my Boots
Seismitoad/Slurpuff
|
Pokémon – 12 3 Swirlix PHF |
Trainers – 41 4 Professor Juniper
4 Hypnotoxic Laser
|
Energy – 7 4 Double Colorless |
This deck is fairly new around the tournament scene and has made quite the splash during City Championships. I piloted a list that was three cards off the one presented above and made top 8 at the first tournament of the Georgia Marathon. From personal experience with the deck, it is an extremely competitive choice that is possibly one of the most annoying things to play against during a tournament. Let’s get into the strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths
– This deck is extremely consistent. With the added draw power from Slurpuff’s “Tasting” Ability, there is a possibility of drawing around 3-4 cards per turn. It is much easier to draw into cards that are needed to achieve knockouts, especially with this many cards being drawn without even using a Supporter card.
– The best strength that this deck has to offer would be the ability to play such a wide variety of interesting Supporter cards. Team Flare Grunt helps to slow down an opponent, especially under Item lock. Pokémon Center Lady is a great way help keep a hurt Seismitoad-EX alive, while also giving added protection against anything that can cause Special Conditions.
The final interesting Supporter card is my personal favorite: Cassius. Something that I added into my deck before the tournament while looking through my binder, this Supporter allows us to shuffle a damaged Seismitoad-EX and DCE into the deck, send up a Slurpuff to draw an extra card for “Tasting,” and also has the possibility of drawing back into those same cards that turn.
– Since this deck plays Lysandre’s Trump Card and 4 VS Seeker, it allows games to be played on your own terms. The games can last for a very long time and usually end up with the Seismitoad/Slurpuff deck eventually wearing down an opponent through never being able to play Item cards or Knock Out Seismitoad-EXs.
Weaknesses
– Since the section is named weaknesses, it’s only fitting that the biggest downside of this deck is the inability to deal with Virizion-EX. Hypnotoxic Laser is a big way this deck has of dealing damage, which is shut down because of Virizion-EX’s Ability. Not only the lack of using Lasers, but also the Weakness to Grass, is a huge problem for this deck. Virizion/Genesect is almost an auto-loss for this deck, which can be bad based on the types of decks played in your area.
– Series with this deck usually last for a very long time due to the repeated use of Lysandre’s Trump card to extend the games. To play this deck and perform well at Regionals, you must be prepared to play very quickly and efficiently in order to make it through to the second day.
Seismitoad/Yveltal
|
Pokémon – 9 3 Seismitoad-EX |
Trainers – 40 4 Professor Juniper
4 Hypnotoxic Laser
|
Energy – 11 7 D |
Seismitoad-EX and Yveltal-EX have been paired since the beginning and have proven to be a strong combination together. Seismitoad-EX has a way of slowing the game down and allowing Yveltal-EX decks enough time to get substantial amounts of damage done with Evil Ball. With Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank to help add damage output, this build has no problem dropping huge amounts of damage once the Yveltal-EXs start coming out. This deck is more focused around beginning the games with Quaking Punch, which helps to assure that there is plenty of time to set up attackers on the Bench.
Strengths
– With every other deck featuring the infamous toad, this deck relies on the strength of not allowing opponents to play Item cards. When paired with the Special Conditions of Hypnotoxic Lasers, opponents could be forced to stay Asleep a turn and fall too far behind.
– A big upside to this deck playing Darkness Pokémon and Energy is the addition of Darkrai-EX. Being able to retreat a Seismitoad-EX for free with a D Energy is very helpful to getting a hurt Toad out of the Active Spot. Energy Switch are also played to help get extra D Energy off Seismitoad-EX and put onto an attacking Yveltal-EX.
– Through the use of Enhanced Hammers, Head Ringers, and Hypnotoxic Lasers, opponents are placed into awkward positions in which they may end up losing a turn without attacking on occasion. Sometimes opponents actually end up having to attach Energy cards onto their Poisoned Active Pokémon just to do some damage before they are Knocked Out from Poison. The multiple Max Potion can also negate an opponent’s turn through taking off the damage they just placed, while also putting D Energy in the discard pile for Yveltal XY.
Weaknesses
– With Manectric-EX decks roaming around City Championships, Yveltal-EX’s Lightning Weakness comes into play in a big way. Seismitoad-EX must carry the heavy load through this matchup and prevent these decks from playing down their Manectric Spirit Links. If M Manectric-EX comes into play, this deck struggles very badly to overcome even one of these Mega Evolutions.
– Opposing Head Ringers are extremely annoying to deal with and can slow down the strategy of this deck. If this deck can’t slow down an opponent with a quick Quaking Punch, it essentially becomes a very slow-paced Yveltal-EX deck with too many Seismitoad-EX.
Time to Go “Turbo”
Manectric/Seismitoad/Drifblim
|
Pokémon – 11 |
Trainers – 39 4 Professor Juniper
4 Hypnotoxic Laser
|
Energy – 10 6 L |
My love for Manectric-EX is not just for the Mega Evolution. I got the inspiration to make this deck after watching some YouTube videos of people performing well at Cities with this deck. After forming an initial list and adding in plenty of tech cards to help face the decks that were popular in the current meta (Seismitoad-EX, Fairies, Yveltal, etc.), I felt satisfied with how it was running during my testing. A week after that, Jose Marrero came out with a list that he was using and performing well with in Florida. I realized that our lists were only about 4 cards off, which were honestly just different preferences in play style.
Overall, this deck has been a strong contender in testing and completely shuts down Special Energy attachments. The obvious strategy with the deck is to begin attacking with Seismitoad-EX and stop Items from coming down, which will allow you to place Head Ringers on any threats. Set up different knockouts for Manectric-EX to help along with, while preparing to end the game with a huge Drifblim knockout on an opposing Pokémon-EX (assuming your opponent plays Special Energy cards).
Strengths
– Lightning is a very good type to have in the current meta, assuming your opponent isn’t running a Fighting deck. Cards like Yveltal-EX, Lugia-EX, Hawlucha FFI, Crobat PHF, and plenty more all have Lightning Weakness. This makes knockouts much easier to accomplish on these Pokémon that are normally considered difficult to Knock Out (aside from Hawlucha).
– The biggest strength of this deck in my opinion is Manectric-EX’s second attack. You either get to hit them for 120 damage and punish them for playing a Pokémon Tool card down or you can put a Head Ringer on them and do the added damage regardless. Add a Muscle Band, Hypnotoxic Laser, and Virbank City Gym to that damage and we are reaching knockout potential on most Pokémon-EX.
– Drifblim is honestly one of the scariest cards to face when playing a deck that has plenty of Special Energy cards. Every Professor Juniper must be watched to ensure Special Energy cards don’t go in the discard pile. Other essential cards have to be discarded with Ultra Balls to keep the damage of Drifblim’s attack in check. Regardless of how careful an opponent can be, eventually they have to discard or play down some Special Energies, which fuels up that Shadow Steal attack.
– Having a counter to every Fighting Pokémon is also very helpful in this meta. Donphan, Lucario-EX, Landorus-EX, Hawlucha, and more Fighting cards all have a Weakness that can be found and abused in this deck, allowing it to compete with these builds even with the liability of Manectric being Weak to Fighting.
Weaknesses
– Decks that don’t run any Special Energy cards have a pretty big advantage over this deck, as they aren’t punished for playing down Energy cards. This also essentially makes Enhanced Hammer and Xerosic non-factors throughout the matchup, aside from discarding some Tool cards. Luckily, most decks play Special Energy cards and Drifblim can take full advantage of that.
– Special Conditions are very annoying to deal with, especially when playing against a Seismitoad-EX variant. This deck struggles against Seismitoad-EX variants that are more focused on attacking with Seismitoad-EX, while also not being able to deal with the combination of Malamar-EX/Seismitoad-EX for being put to Sleep. With no Pokémon Center Lady, one bad Sleep check can cause this deck to lose momentum too quickly to recover.
– Virizion/Genesect is also a big problem for this deck, as they don’t run many Special Energy cards and stop our Hypnotoxic Lasers. Head Ringer can help to buy some time, but if they get even a marginally good setup, V/G will eventually be able to overpower this deck.
Manectric/Pyroar
|
Pokémon – 15 3 Manectric-EX |
Trainers – 33 4 Professor Juniper
4 Ultra Ball |
Energy – 12 |
This is one of the more interesting Manectric-EX builds that I’ve been working on over the past couple of weeks. Dylan Dreyer and myself tried to get this deck to work during the Georgia Marathon, but couldn’t pull the trigger to play a deck that lost to Orion Craig’s Seismitoad/Malamar/Fairies deck that was growing in popularity.
If you are looking for a fun deck that can potentially earn some free wins, while also pulling off a pretty cool strategy in the process, then I would consider giving this a try. M Manectric-EX can effectively 2-shot anything being used in popular decks, aside from Tool cards reducing damage.
The concept of the deck is actually pretty simple. Attack with Mega Manny and attach R Energy to a “Flare Command” Pyroar, use those R Energy to bring up and attack whatever you like, and use Max Potions to keep the M Manectric-EXs alive through constantly reattaching the Energy being discarded. The “Intimidating Mane” Pyroar is used to help against Metal, Virizion/Genesect, and Yveltal-EX decks.
Strengths
– Constantly being able to use “pseudo” Pokémon Catchers throughout the game is such a great luxury for this deck. Anything can be brought to the Active Spot and attacked, which doesn’t allow opponents to set up big attackers on the Bench. Decks that rely on evolving, such as Crobat decks, don’t have the luxury of buying time and hiding on the Bench. Drawing into the game-winning Lysandre is also much easier when there’s already a R Energy on a “Flare Command” Pyroar before a late-game N.
– Pyroar FLF is still wildly underrated in this meta and can win games just from its presence. I’ve seen plenty of Yveltal/Hard Charm builds that literally don’t have a counter to one Pyroar coming down.
– Type advantage over Yveltal-EX, Virizion-EX, Genesect-EX, and all Metal Pokémon-EX is extremely helpful.
Weaknesses
– Having no Stadium cards is extremely annoying to deal with. Shadow Circle preventing Weakness on Yveltal-EX, Virbank City Gym causing extra Poison damage to accumulate faster, and Fighting Stadium causing extra damage are very aggravating examples. With absolutely no breathing room in this deck to add in extra cards, opponent’s Stadium cards will come out and stay out for the extent of the battle.
– Fighting Pokémon can cause very big problems for this deck. They can do large amounts of damage and, assuming they also play Garbodor, will be a near auto-loss to deal with. There is almost no hope in these matchups, aside from getting out an “Intimidating Mane” Pyroar and sweeping the game from them not having any counters to it.
“Repel’s Effect Wore Off”
Landorus/Crobat
|
Pokémon – 17 |
Trainers – 33 4 Professor Juniper
3 Ultra Ball
|
Energy – 10 6 F 4 Strong |
This deck is the definition of sweet, simple, and to the point. Games get done pretty quickly, attacks come flying out of the gates on turn 1/2, and damage comes dropping down from Bats on the turns after then. With so much consistency and every Pokémon having free retreat, aside from your main attacker that you want Active, there is almost no way of starting badly. Hawlucha can drop big damage on opposing Pokémon-EX, which can also reach knockout potential with the added damage from dropping Golbats and Crobats.
With one of the only problems coming from getting Pokémon down on the board, the ACE SPEC that I’ve chosen for this deck is Master Ball. The card is extremely effective in this deck with Korrina and I wouldn’t change it for Computer Search, but that’s just my opinion.
Strengths
– Damage comes down so quickly and can be spread to wherever you want it to go. Landorus-EX is already a big threat with Muscle Band, Strong Energy, and Fighting Stadium on its own, but now has the added damage coming from Golbats and Crobats. knockouts will happen faster than you expect, so be careful about getting N’d down to a low hand early in the game.
– Every Pokémon in the deck has free retreat, which helps Landorus-EX to always get into the Active Spot pretty quickly. There are no bad starters, no question of who to send up after a Pokémon is Knocked Out, and no need for extensive amounts of switch cards to get attackers out.
– Korrina has always been one of my favorite cards; it is possibly the best consistency card in the game in certain situations. Getting to basically Ultra Ball and grab a free Item card at the same time just can’t be beat! With the ability to use this card repeatedly with 4 copies and VS Seeker, there shouldn’t be any problem with grabbing a useful Item when any situation arises.
– This deck does a very good job of covering up weaknesses and exploiting strengths. Landorus-EX can hit Manectric-EX for double the damage, but also is Weak to Seismitoad-EX. These are two of the most popular cards in the current meta. With 3 copies of Hawlucha and plenty of Golbats and Crobats coming down, Seismitoad-EX becomes an even to semi-favorable matchup.
Weaknesses
– A quick Quaking Punch can hurt this deck very badly. Inability to play Item cards means that Head Ringers will come down on every Landorus-EX, Muscle Bands can’t be used to help Knock Out the Seismitoad-EX quickly, and Korrina is weakened immensely.
– Zubats and Golbats are very fragile. They are extremely important for dropping large amounts of damage in one turn, which can be stopped completely if they are Knocked Out before evolving. Charging up a Landorus-EX to be dealt with is a good solution to this problem, but can still cause this deck difficulties in getting the right damage output.
Mewtwo/Crobat/Wobbuffet
|
Pokémon – 17 |
Trainers – 34 4 Professor Juniper
4 Ultra Ball
|
Energy – 9 5 P 4 Mystery |
An interesting deck that I saw along the Georgia Marathon was this gem. Piloted by Andre Eliott, who was using 4 Mewtwo-EX as his attackers, this deck was literally just using Psydrive to Knock Out anything in its path. It was surprising how quickly he could pile damage on the board, especially with me not realizing how effective Psydrive was with Dimension Valley now available to use.
There were plenty of Wobbuffet/Crobat builds seen during the GA Marathon, which brought me to try and build an effective list of my own. I decided that Gengar-EX was a good addition to the deck, since we already have Wobbuffet to switch into for Ability locking. I also went with Master Ball for this deck, as it is crucial to get Zubats into play or evolve them right away to get damage on the board to mess around with.
Strengths
– This deck has plenty of surprise factor when it comes to damage being placed down. A fresh Pokémon-EX can all of a sudden be Knocked Out with just a 2-Energy Mewtwo-EX, Muscle Band, and a Crobat coming down. AZ helps to keep the damage coming down, along with some Head Ringers to delay opponent’s attackers. Plenty of tricks up our sleeves for this certain build.
– Mystery Energy is an effective way of retreating attackers for free, while also maintaining the Energy that they have on them. This can of course be the target of Enhanced Hammers, but can prove very effective while it is on the board.
– With 4 Stadium cards, it is very hard to lose the Stadium war with this deck. Expect Dimension Valley to be on the board for the majority of the game.
Weaknesses
– Max Potion and other healing cards are very annoying to deal with. Constant damage coming down and finishing off knockouts are the reasons that this deck is very effective, which can all be stopped from a good amount of healing cards.
– There come certain situations where you are forced to discard the Bat evolution lines before they are played, which can prove to be very costly with no recovery cards to get them back. Be careful with what you are discarding, as you might need those cards later in the game.
Wiley Old Veterans
Virizion/Genesect/Drifblim
|
Pokémon – 11 4 Virizion-EX 1 Drifloon PLB 1 Deoxys-EX |
Trainers – 36 4 Professor Juniper 1 Colress
3 Ultra Ball |
Energy – 13 9 G 4 Plasma |
This deck just won’t go away. It’s too consistent to be stopped and has an effective strategy that has some of the best players still playing this. There are videos of very skilled players, such as Dustin Zimmerman, piloting their Virizion/Genesect decks during City Championships and performing very well with them. With the added help of some Enhanced Hammers, Xerosic, and Drifblim to deal with Special Energy cards, this deck can still take out some of the most popular decks being played. And besides, who can resist just using G Booster to clear anything in your path?
Strengths
– Consistency is key for winning tournaments. This deck almost has too much consistency, if that’s even possible. Four copies of Virizion-EX, Professor Juniper, N, and Skyla are the reason that this deck almost always gets a turn 2 Emerald Slash.
– This deck doesn’t overcomplicate itself with trying to tech for every single possible deck that it may see. It uses an effective and efficient strategy to deal good amounts of damage, while making sure that it can setup the same way throughout the entirety of the tournament.
– The ability to deal with Special Energy cards is also very helpful for this deck. In some cases, there may be no Energy left on the board after a big G Booster attack finishes off one of their attackers, which is where Drifblim is able to come in clutch and attack for just one Energy card to finish off the game.
Weaknesses
– This deck can be beaten by Metal decks, Pyroar FLF, Spiritomb LTR, and Head Ringer. Metal can do 170 damage with relative ease from a Dialga-EX with a Muscle Band, which spells out a terrible matchup for Virizion/Genesect. Weakness to Pyroar is self-explanatory, while Spiritomb and Head Ringer are the more realistic examples of just slowing down the only strategy that this deck uses.
– Decks without Special Energy cards are also fairly annoying to deal with, as there are plenty of unplayable cards for those matchups from the Enhanced Hammers, Drifblim line, and possibly the Xerosic.
– Another fairly important weakness that this deck has would be that it is fairly easy for the opponent to predict what is going to happen in upcoming turns. The strategy is simple and easy to follow, which goes for you and your opponent as well.
Donphan/Hawlucha
|
Pokémon – 14 4 Donphan PLS |
Trainers – 35 4 Professor Juniper 1 Colress
2 Ultra Ball
|
Energy – 11 4 F |
This deck has certainly been losing some steam lately. It was the talk of the town a couple of weeks ago, but just can’t seem to keep up with the constantly changing format. This observation might only be plausible for my area, as there has been plenty of City Championships being won in other parts of the U.S. with Donphan builds. Only time will tell if this deck can continue to survive in this format, which is already quite impressive with the huge amount of Seismitoad-EX decks being played.
Strengths
– The ability to hide on the Bench after an attack is very helpful in creating long games with plenty of opportunities to attack. Robo Substitutes and Lysandre’s Trump Card help to prolong the game and force more attacking out of each side, which favors Donphan in the long run.
– Donphan’s attack Wreck is a force to be reckoned with. It can Knock Out basically anything in its path with such a large damage output, which can help to take out an opponent’s main attacker.
– The added advantage of having no Pokémon-EX is also very helpful to draw games out, as an opponent will only get to draw 1 Prize card after having to waste a Lysandre to Knock Out a very large HP Donphan.
Weaknesses
– With the addition of VS Seeker coming back, it is relatively easier to retrieve Lysandres and use them throughout the game. The Bench may not be as safe as it previously was before the resurgence of VS Seeker.
– Low damage output can sometimes spell out disaster for this deck. It can’t muster up enough damage sometimes, especially to Pokémon that aren’t EXs.
– Seismitoad-EX is very hard to deal with, which isn’t a good sign for this deck. Even with 3 Hawlucha, I’ve managed to get overtaken by Seismitoad-EX decks with relative ease.
New Kids on the Block
theparakeetoutburstonthepillow.tumblr.com
Bronzong/Dialga/Aegislash
|
Pokémon – 16 2 Dialga-EX PHF |
Trainers – 32 4 Professor Juniper
4 Ultra Ball |
Energy – 12 8 M |
I have always been fond of the Eelektrik NVI/Rayquaza-EX deck of the previous format, so it was only natural that I managed to secure my invite to Worlds from winning a City Championship with this deck. The list was mostly the inspiration of watching a Georgia player named Nathan Brower, who was able to pilot an extremely similar build of this to a Cities win as well.
After seeing how effective Mewtwo-EX was performing for him during some tournament games, I decided to test my own version of the deck and knew that it was a strong contender. In many instances, my opponents couldn’t find a response to a Mewtwo-EX with a huge amount of Energy attached to it, as Mewtwo-EX is hardly played anymore.
Strengths
– Playing 3 Battle Compressor helps to thin out the deck very quickly, which helps to utilize those 4 VS Seeker and draw into just the essentials. It becomes surprisingly easy to draw into everything that is needed after some compressing has been done.
– Mewtwo-EX has proven to be an extremely strong attacker in almost every matchup. Unless other decks are playing multiple Mewtwo-EX to play along with the Mewtwo war, they are going to be forced to find an alternative strategy for avoiding X Balls.
– The ability to completely start over with another attacker is easy to accomplish with AZ and Bronzongs, which allow the deck to be much more versatile than I would have figured. Switching into an Aegislash-EX in the middle of the game to finish off opponents with Special Energy cards proved to be very effective throughout the tournaments.
Weaknesses
– Garbodor LTR has proven to be a very big weakness to this deck, even with the 2 Mewtwo-EX and Lysandre. Most decks with Garbodor also use Head Ringers, which is too much to handle during the opening turns of the game. No Abilities and no way of attacking with Mewtwo-EX to Knock Out the Garbodor is difficult to recover from. Startling Megaphone can sometimes help in these situations, but is mainly just used for the Yveltal/Hard Charm matchup.
– Lysandre’s Trump Card has effected this Metal deck very badly as well by stopping the Ability to attach Energy cards from the discard pile and also getting rid of VS Seeker targets for future turns.
Yveltal/Hard Charm
|
Pokémon – 10 3 Yveltal-EX |
Trainers – 38 4 Professor Juniper
3 Ultra Ball
|
Energy – 12 8 D |
This list may look similar to Dylan Dreyer’s list that he recently used in his very well-written article about the GA marathon, which is because I based my list off of how well this deck was performing. The large amount of healing cards, Hard Charms, and disruption cards were too enticing for me to leave this deck out. The damage output may not be the greatest with these builds of Yveltal-EX, which can sometimes become a problem with games lasting too long and going to time.
I’m not sure if this is the best play for the upcoming Regional Championships, but everyone should certainly be prepared to play against at least one of these decks throughout the tournament.
Strengths
– The ability to constantly reduce damage and then eventually heal everything off is almost unfair. There have been plenty of times during games that I’ve dropped the 3rd Max Potion and seen the disappointment in my opponent’s eyes. This much healing and damage reduction in one deck has proven to be very effective.
– Keldeo-EX and Darkrai-EX allow an easy way of getting around Status Conditions, which have been rising with the popularity of Seismitoad/Malamar/Fairies and the ever-present Hypnotoxic Laser.
– This deck surprisingly has a good amount of room in the list, which is why I was able to play 3 Head Ringers to slow down an opponent’s start in order for me to have time to set up big Yveltal-EXs.
Weaknesses
– Shadow Circle may be an answer to the Fighting and Lightning Weaknesses of Darkrai-EX and Yveltal-EX, but it is a very easily countered answer. In one turn, the Stadium can be replaced and our main attackers could be in a large amount of trouble.
– Damage output is a very big problem for this deck, as plenty of games seen with this deck have gone to time. To play this deck at Regionals, the games must be played quickly and with a relatively small amount of mistakes in order to see success.
Primal Instincts
Now that I’ve gone over plenty of deck choices and options to help you prepare for the upcoming Regionals, I guess we can take a little break from the current format and take a peek at some options coming out in Primal Clash. This set doesn’t look to be that great, but certainly has some cards with plenty of potential. Let’s take a look at some of my favorite options.
My optimism may be steering me completely wrong on this one, but Hippowdon could be a very interesting card to play out of this new set. The second attack is terrible, but the first attack called Resistance Desert, along with some of the Fighting support cards to add damage, could prove effective. Having 130 HP is also another positive for this card, while the 4-Energy Retreat Cost would definitely be a downside.
With the ability to put any card on top of the deck, which can then be drawn into with a Supporter card, this Pokémon shows plenty of potential. Its Alpha Growth trait also allows an extra Energy attachment to Swampert after an initial Energy is placed down. This can allow Hydro Pump to become a decently strong attack for a Pokémon with a great ability.
M Gardevoir-EX
This powerhouse Mega Evolution could prove to be what Mega Kangaskhan always attempted, but inevitably failed to be: a powerful attacker in a Xerneas-based Fairy deck that can utilize a Spirit Link. With an attack that is constantly growing every turn, along with 210 HP, this Pokémon could be a force in Fairy builds.
Being utilized in decks that play Battle Compressor could be this card’s calling in life. Only one copy is necessary, as it could be discarded during a Battle Compressor and utilized whenever necessary through a VS Seeker. This will allow a great Supporter card to see some use, regardless of the strange conditions needed to perform its effect.
I’m not sure why, but the Stadium cards in this set are very applicable in meta decks. I can see this card coming to great use in some Fighting builds that run M Manectric-EX, while also helping to fuel a Blacksmith for a Fire-based deck as well. There are plenty of good options to try for this Stadium.
Conclusion
With City Championships over and the second round of Regional Championships on the way, it seems hard to believe that almost half of the season is over. This format has shaped up to be one of the most unpredictable that I’ve ever witnessed, especially with the huge variety of decks that have brought home some City Championship trophies. This season has been a blast so far, especially with the Georgia Marathon being such a great success again.
I’m sure that this article might be too long for some readers and I probably lost some of you along the way, but preparation is vital for success at Regionals and I just wanted to try my best to help everyone be ready. Thank you to everyone that enjoyed my article and I wish you all success at the upcoming Regional Championships. Feel free to reach me through messaging and ask me about any questions that you may have. Thanks for reading!
– Ryan Sabelhaus <3
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