The Pokémon TCG seems to be in a good place right now and is certainly heading down a positive path. The Worlds invite threshold has been lowered to a much more attainable 300 Points, the format is healthy with a large variety of decks, and prize payouts are good for tournaments all around.
Cities are in the rearview mirror and for a select few, this means their World Championship invites are secured. This leaves the majority of players still looking toward Winter Regionals, States, and then Spring Regionals to finish off their invites.
Underground has pretty thoroughly covered a large part of the current format (BCR–PHF) and will continue to do so through Winter Regionals. In the interest of jumping off the beaten path as well as focusing on an area I really enjoy (deck building with new sets), I’m going to take this article to discuss a wide variety of decks coming out of Primal Clash. I know I’ve been saying this a lot lately (to my own pleasant surprise), but Primal Clash looks to be an incredibly influential set that can really shake up the meta once again.
Primal Clash will be legal for all State Championships in March plus Florida Regionals at the end of February. Even if this article is a little bit early for you, I hope you will enjoy a look into the very near future. One of my main goals with writing is to get players thinking and discussing, and I’m sure this article will do just that. The more sets that are released, the tighter lists are getting and the more debatable card choices become.
I’m going to start off by giving my list for each deck, and then I will discuss the deck and some of my more arguable card choices. Finally, I’ll be detailing what I feel are the strengths and weakness of each deck. But first, I’d like to open with some discussion on Jirachi-EX.
Article Breakdown
- Jirachi-EX Discussion
- Kingdra
- Mega Aggron
- Mega Kyogre
- Emboar/Camerupt
- Diancie Toolbox
- Mega Gardevoir
- Sabelhaus Special
- Virizion/Genesect
- Conclusion
Jirachi-EX Discussion
It seems like everybody has their own opinion on whether or not Jirachi-EX should be played ubiquitously. The discussion never seems to revolve around a certain deck; instead it’s more of a general attitude of whether Jirachi-EX should be run at all. The answer seems to come down to personal preference — some people run it in every deck and others run it in none.
In my mind, I feel Jirachi-EX should be played in just about everything right now with the exceptions being decks that don’t run enough Pokémon search cards and decks that play extremely low Basic counts.
I’m going to take a few minutes to walk you through my line of thinking and ultimately try to convince you to start playing Jirachi-EX if you’re not already.
Reasons to Play Jirachi
1. It greatly improves your consistency.
It gives all your Ultra Balls and other Pokémon search cards the ability to grab a Supporter. For many decks, this adds 4-5 “outs” to a Supporter in the opening hand.
2. It instantly makes all your VS Seekers live.
Today most decks run 3-4 VS Seeker for its unmatched utility. The biggest downside to VS Seeker is it’s a dead card until you have Supporters in your discard pile. Jirachi helps fulfill this requirement.
3. It lets you get by with “tech” Supporters.
I define tech Supporters as Supporters that you run only 1 or 2 copies of. Examples of tech Supporters would be Pokémon Center Lady and Xerosic. I also consider Lysandre a tech Supporter since it’s normally played in low counts and is situational. Jirachi-EX allows you to pull these Supporters out of your deck when you need them. By playing such low counts, it’s not realistic that you would be able to find them when needed otherwise.
Dispelling the Counter-Arguments
1. Jirachi-EX is an easy 2 Prizes for the opponent.
There are only two situations where Jirachi-EX comes into play. The first being you open with it (which I’ll discuss in a minute) and the second is when you put it into play from your hand. If you put Jirachi-EX into play, you’re making a conscious effort to do so. At this point, it’s reasonable to assume that using Jirachi-EX to grab a Supporter is the most optimal play you could make. It’s also reasonable to assume you’ve weighed the pros and cons of putting Jirachi-EX into play and decided that the rewards of getting a Supporter outweigh the 2-Prize risk. Thus, this counter argument makes no sense if you’re consciously making the effort to put it into play.
If you don’t need to play Jirachi-EX down, then don’t play it down. At this point Jirachi-EX has absolutely no downside other than taking up a spot in your deck.
2. Jirachi-EX is a horrible opener.
This is what I consider to be the only real risk of playing Jirachi-EX because this is the only way Jirachi-EX enters play in a way other than my choosing. However, the risk of opening lone Jirachi-EX is usually considerably lower than what players think it is. (See “Stats on Starts” for the math.) This is where balancing the number of your Basics comes into play. Of course a deck that runs 6 Basics including Jirachi-EX has a much higher chance of opening with it than a deck that runs 12.
This ultimately leads to a pair of questions: “What percentage of games that I open with Jirachi-EX do I lose due to opening Jirachi-EX?” and “What percentage of games do I lose due to not playing Jirachi-EX?”
In my experience the number of games I have lost due to playing Jirachi-EX is significantly lower than the number of games I have won because I played Jirachi-EX.
The win vs. loss ratio is ultimately the question that all players should be considering. The risks and benefits are all subpoints to the much larger question. The big picture of whether the game was won or lost and Jirachi-EX’s impact on the game are what players need to assess.
When to Play Jirachi
1. I consider Jirachi-EX a near staple only because most of my decks play 3-4 Ultra Ball. If I were running a deck that used other options to search out Pokémon (such as Team Plasma Ball, Dive Ball, etc.) or relied on a very low Ultra Ball count for whatever reason, then Jirachi-EX probably shouldn’t be played in the deck.
2. Putting aggression on the opponent is key to making Jirachi-EX a smaller liability. Jirachi-EX should really be only 2 free Prizes if they are your opponent’s last 2 Prizes. If you’re hitting your opponent hard every turn, then Knocking Out Jirachi-EX does very little to solve the real problem, which is whatever is actually doing damage. Only in games where you’re extremely passive might your opponent feel they can bring up and Knock Out Jirachi-EX earlier.
The other risk to Knocking Out Jirachi-EX early is you will have the option to N your opponent to a hand containing 2 fewer cards. I understand that a player does not want to pass up 2 easy Prizes, but those 2 Prizes actually hurt in the big picture of winning the game.
Kingdra
pokemontime.tumblr.comPrimal Clash has brought competitive forms for two of my favorite Pokémon: Kingdra and Gardevoir. Gardevoir is obviously good while Kingdra, on the other hand, is a bit more mysterious. I feel like the card has a lot of potential, but right now Stage 2 Pokémon are just so hard to play. This is mainly due to the popularity of Seismitoad-EX and the Rare Candy ruling that forces a Pokémon to be in play at least one turn. I don’t want to oversell the deck, but at the same time I don’t want to overlook a deck that has a potential place in the meta.
Right now, I see Kingdra as a tier 1.5 deck or a high tier 2 deck with the ability to hit tier 1 depending on how the format shifts.
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Pokémon – 13 4 Horsea PRC |
Trainers – 37 4 Professor Juniper 1 Teammates
3 VS Seeker |
Energy – 10 |
Being a Stage 2 deck, the Pokémon and Energy lines have to be incredibly focused to make room for the much-needed larger Trainer lineup. My Pokémon lineup is a 4-2-3-1 Kingdra line and then 3 support Pokémon. I went with 3 copies of Manaphy PRC. I considered Jirachi-EX for a while, but ultimately felt that the risk of opening it was too high due to how few Basic Pokémon the deck runs.
I feel my Supporter lineup is standard for the most part, except some arguments could be made on my Teammates and Skyla counts. Something new I’m trying with my consistency is that I’m playing 4 copies of Acro Bike to give the deck some added speed. Since I also play Lysandre’s Trump Card, the discarding really doesn’t hurt the deck and it allows you to burn through cards very quickly. More testing with the deck will determine if I stick with Acro Bike or attempt to go back to more of a straight Supporter build featuring a high count of Teammates.
Strengths
- No EXs means the opponent has to Knock Out 6 Pokémon
- Manaphy gives the deck great draw and something to set up Teammates
- Lysandre’s Trump Card allows the deck to burn through resources carefreely
Weaknesses
- Item lock like Seismitoad-EX
- Stage 2 decks will always struggle with consistency more than Basic decks
- Needs Muscle Band to hit the 170-damage mark
Mega Aggron
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Pokémon – 15 3 Bronzor PHF |
Trainers – 33 4 Professor Juniper 1 Lysandre 1 Xerosic
4 VS Seeker |
Energy – 12 8 M |
When I was designing this deck, I based it heavily off a standard Metal deck and then I started deviating from there. In the Pokémon lineup, I cut most of the tech Pokémon you find in a traditional Metal deck and replaced them with a 2-2 M Aggron-EX. The main focus of the deck is getting Aggron into play as fast as possible and then accelerating Energy onto it. All the clever techs really aren’t as necessary when you’re swinging for 240 damage per turn.
Something else that might seem to stick out for some people is that I play 2 copies of Victini so I can reflip for Aggron if I get tails. The 2nd copy may seem like overkill, but getting heads is so important I feel it’s worth the second copy in case one gets Knocked Out or is prized.
Something that really draws me to this deck and Mega Pokémon in general is that they do so much damage that I don’t have to devote 3 or 4 slots in my Trainer lineup to Muscle Band. You don’t need to add 20 more damage when you’re already swinging for 240!
Strengths
- 1HKOs almost any Pokémon in the format
- High health
- Energy acceleration
- Lots of deck space
Weaknesses
- Coin flips (even with Victini there is still a 25% chance of getting tails)
- Anything Fire is extremely hard
- Very linear compared to a traditional Metal deck
Mega Kyogre
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Pokémon – 13 4 Kyogre-EX PRC |
Trainers – 35 4 Professor Juniper 2 Lysandre
4 VS Seeker 4 Kyogre Spirit Link |
Energy – 12 12 W |
I wanted to build the deck completely as a rush deck and since the entire idea is to rush out Primal Kyogre-EX as fast as possible, the rest of the Pokémon in the deck should be support Pokémon. Manaphy and Jirachi both help with consistency. Garbodor, on the other hand, serves as disruption and slows the opponent down. By playing Garbodor, I can also get away without playing an answer to Safeguard.
My Trainer lineup is also extremely focused around getting multiple Kyogres into play and attacking quickly.
Strengths
- Can attack turn quickly
- Hard to deal with early game
- Energy acceleration
- Easy to cycle attackers
Weaknesses
- Weak to Grass
- Will most likely need to 2HKO most EXs unless previously damaged
- Very linear
Emboar/Camerupt
ebay.com|
Pokémon – 16 3 Tepig LTR 3 Fennekin KSS |
Trainers – 34 3 Professor Juniper
3 VS Seeker |
Energy – 10 10 R |
After looking at this deck, the biggest question in a lot of minds is probably what would make Emboar playable when Blastoise hasn’t made a splash all year? (I know — I’m funny, right?) In my mind, the answer comes down to a few different things: unlimited damage cap, the built-in draw power of Delphox, and the addition of Teammates. I also feel like with Primal Clash being full of Grass-Weak Pokémon, that having a type advantage over Grass Pokémon is an added bonus.
Looking at the Pokémon lineup, you probably see exactly what you were expecting to see in an Emboar/Camerupt deck which is both Emboar and Camerupt. However, it’s really Delphox that’s the star of the deck with its ability to draw large amounts of cards. In the past, running out of resources was a major concern, but with Lysandre’s Trump Card in the picture, you can burn through your deck without worry. The deck also has a much easier time of giving up its Supporter for the turn so it can play Lysandre’s Trump Card.
The Trainer lineup is divided into either getting Delphox into play (which in turn gets Emboar into play) or getting Energy back from the discard pile to have Emboar throw them all right into play. When it comes to a deck that attempts to set up two Stage 2 Pokémon, simplicity in the Trainer lineup is key.
As for the Energy, only 10 R Energy may seem low, but you draw through your deck so fast you’re always able to find them when you need them. Superior Energy Retrieval and Lysandre’s Trump Card both make sure you never run out.
Strengths
- Unlimited damage potential
- Excellent built-in draw
- Type advantage over Grass Pokémon
- Strong non-EX attackers
Weaknesses
- Slow setup
- Seismitoad-EX
- Consistently getting set up
- Water Weakness
Fairies
Kyle Sabelhaus hit the nail right on the head when he said Fairies was one of the most mysterious decks in the format. The archetype is still relatively new and largely unexplored in the current meta. People just haven’t spent the time or effort trying to perfect the Fairy archetype and they certainly don’t have much to go on from their peers.
Fairies have been introduced to the meta very slowly and they keep getting better and better with each set. With the release of Primal Clash, their place in the meta is only going to be more solidified. Today, I’m going to look at three distinctive Fairy decks that are going to be coming out of Primal Clash. The first is a Diancie deck that focuses on shutting your opponent’s EXs out of the game. The second is the far more hyped Gardevoir-EX variant, and lastly I’ll being getting Sabelhaus Fairies ready for States.
I want to start with some of my beliefs about Fairy decks:
- They should be built around getting Energy into play as fast as possible and keeping that Energy in play.
- They should be designed around keeping Pokémon alive through cards like Max Potion. This can also be referred to as a Prize denial strategy, though Prize denial isn’t as important as keeping key Pokémon and Energy in play.
- The Trainer lineup should be extremely focused, but the Pokémon lineup should contain a great amount of utility.
In my opinion, there are tons of different ways you can build Fairies. One of the great things about the deck is that you can build it to fit personal play-styles and expected metas. Even very experienced Fairy players can have large disagreements on card choices. These lists are based off of my personal preferences and are not built to counter any particular meta. Many cards can be subbed in and out. Darkrai, Keldeo, Malmar, Seismitoad, and such are all very strong options to consider.
My core concepts should be the start of your testing, but if you really want to play Fairies at States, there is no way around putting in the time and work to really learn the deck.
Diancie Toolbox
ebay.com|
Pokémon – 15 1 Diancie-EX 2 Xerneas XY 1 Suicune PLB |
Trainers – 34 4 N 2 Colress 1 Skyla 2 Lysandre 1 Xerosic
|
Energy – 11 |
I went with a very subtle approach to Diancie, which is reflected in the thin 1-1 line. Since Diancie doesn’t have a Spirit Link card, the only way to get it into play is by ending your turn. It’s not realistic to force yourself to give up at least two turns over the course of a game. The deck goes to a lot of trouble to keep Diancie alive with cards like Max Potion and Dowsing Machine.
This leads into the next question: “What makes Diancie so good?” Being able to do 100 damage for 3 Energy certainly isn’t anything special in today’s format. However, being able to attack and have the added bonus of giving all your Pokémon Safeguard for the next turn is amazing.
Sure, cards like Suicune and Sigilyph also have Safeguard without relying on an attack, but they don’t have the high Hit Points that Diancie does. Most opponents have options in their deck to play around these low HP Pokémon like Yveltal XY or Terrakion LTR. The bulky 190 Hit Points of Diancie combined with Max Potion and Dowsing Machine make a wall that your opponent will not be able to power through unless they run a large number of non-Pokémon-EX.
Of course, the deck does have some weaknesses to take into account. Since the attack only hits for 100 damage a turn, it will normally require two hits to Knock Out a Pokémon. An opponent who is ahead on Prizes might simply be able to Prize rush you with a combination of Lysandre and VS Seeker. The deck might also have issues with decks that run large numbers of non-Pokémon-EX like an Yveltal deck that runs 3 Yveltal XY. Of course, the greatest bane to the deck would have to be G Booster. It shreds through Diancie’s protection and will score a 1HKO every time.
These are all very valid concerns but also major reasons that Diancie should be seen as an option and not necessarily the main focus of the deck. The deck is meant to be played as a toolbox Fairy deck with Diancie being your go-to option against EX-heavy decks.
Strengths
- Strong against EX-heavy decks
- A lot of utility
- Prize denial
Weaknesses
- Susceptible to G Booster
- No Spirit Link to Mega Evolve
Mega Gardevoir
I absolutely love Gardevoir and it’s easily in my top 5 favorite Pokémon. In the TCG, whenever I’ve gotten a chance to play Gardevoir, I’ve jumped at it. When I heard we were getting a Gardevoir-EX in Primal Clash my first reaction was, “Please don’t let it be horrible,” and for the most part I’m not disappointed. Gardevoir isn’t “stupid broke” or anything, but it does have a ton of potential. Fairies in general also have a lot of untapped potential, so these two things together really made me interested in trying to bring Gardevoir to tier 1.
|
Pokémon – 16 3 Spritzee FLF |
Trainers – 32 4 Professor Juniper 2 Lysandre 1 Xerosic
3 VS Seeker
|
Energy – 12 12 Y |
I’ve gotten many different answers when talking with friends about how they plan on using Gardevoir. The most common answer I’ve gotten is they plan on using Gardevoir as a tech in their already-made Fairy deck replacing the 1-1 Kangaskhan. This seemed like a logical starting point for many Fairy players.
However, the more I thought about it, Kangaskhan and Gardevoir are extremely different. Gardevoir is incredibly strong and has the ability to sweep games. If the opponent can’t keep it in check, Gardevoir gets out of hand really fast. I sort of broke my own rule here and opted for a Pokémon lineup based around getting Gardevoir-EX out ASAP over a highly diverse lineup. I still do run some interesting techs like Spiritomb, Keldeo, and Jirachi, but Gardevoir will always be the main attacker in the deck.
The first thing I want you to note is that I don’t play any Rainbow Energy in the deck. My thinking was if I wanted to get and keep Energy in play, I didn’t want to have to worry about the incredibly popular Enhanced Hammer. This set the tone for my Pokémon lineup and forced me to play Pokémon who only require Y Energy.
The Trainer lineup is a little different than what you expect from a Fairy deck. I guess there is no such thing as a traditional Fairy deck, so let me say different from the list that Kyle Sucevich made popular. I’m playing a very fast list with high counts of Ultra Ball and a Computer Search. I’m also running the Jirachi/Teammates combo. All these things work together really well compared to a list relying on Pokémon Fan Club.
The one thing I feel like I’m really going out a limb on is my 1 copy of Lysandre’s Trump Card. It’s either ingenious or downright horrible, and it’s going to be hard to tell which until Primal Clash lists start to catch up with the rest of the format. I wanted to play it to recycle key cards like Max Potion and Fairy Garden, Mega Gardevoir, Spirit Link, and of course Y Energy. The question is whether or not Lysandre’s Trump Card helps the opponent more than it helps me. Much like Emboar, I feel Fairies is also a deck that doesn’t have to play a Supporter every turn, so it’s far more likely to have a free turn to play the Trump Card.
Strengths
- High damage output
- High Hit Points
- Easy healing
Weaknesses
- Very linear
- Metal Weakness
- Reliant on keeping a lot of Energy in play
The Sabelhaus Special
shinyhunterj.tumblr.comRyan Sabelhaus is setting his career in stone as one of the game’s greats. He’s coming off another Regional win and has already locked up his Worlds invite for 2015. Not to be outdone, Kyle Sabelhaus is proving that he might actually be the real star of the family, and after 4 City Championship wins with his unique Fairy deck, he is well on his way to convincing the rest of us as well.
Kyle did an excellent job of discussing the deck in his last article, covering all of the options and then giving a skeleton list. I’m simply going to fill it in with my card choices and update it a little bit for what I believe is going to be popular at States.
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Pokémon – 13 3 Spritzee FLF 3 Seismitoad-EX |
Trainers – 35 4 Professor Juniper
4 Ultra Ball
|
Energy – 12 |
The list is incredibly tight on space (like every Fairy deck) but still has some room to play around with personal preference. I won’t go into much detail because Kyle did a great job of explaining the deck as well as different options.
The obvious weakness is, of course, the Virizion/Genesect matchup. There really is no easy way around that, and it’s very hard to tech heavily enough for that deck. Although I’m not a huge fan of Shaymin-EX, I added him to the deck because Grass Weakness seems to be incredibly popular in Primal Clash.
Outside of Virizion/Genesect, there are two big things that would scare me playing this deck at States. The first is the 50-minute best-of-three format that States will be using. This deck is designed to be a control deck that grinds out wins slowly by controlling the opponent and forcing them to miss attacks. This leads to very long games and I feel I would be hard-pressed to finish even two games in 50 minutes let alone win a three-game series. The second thing that really scares me is all of the new high-Hit Point EXs in the new set.
Strengths
- High chance the opponent will miss multiple attacks over the course of the game
- Item lock
Weaknesses
- Very slow
- Low damage output
Virizion/Genesect
The last deck I want to discuss is a very standard Virizion/Genesect. It’s also a deck that has been covered a lot here on SixPrizes, so it isn’t one I plan on going into much detail about. I think Virizion matches up really well with many of the decks coming out of Primal Clash.
I won a Cities this year with Virizion/Genesect that was heavily teched to beat Donphan with a 1-1 Drifblim line, Deoxys-EX, and Enhanced Hammer. I feel with Primal Clash we will start moving away from Special Energy decks (I’m talking about more than 4 Special Energies) and then Drifblim will serve less of a purpose and is more likely to get in the way of our consistency.
|
Pokémon – 10 4 Virizion-EX |
Trainers – 36 4 Professor Juniper 1 Lysandre
1 Bicycle 2 Escape Rope |
Energy – 14 |
I toyed around with the idea of playing Weakness Policy in here, but the Pokémon Tool spots are already pretty well used. I don’t think a single Weakness Policy would dramatically change the deck and I certainly wouldn’t play 3 or 4 copies of it. In my mind, Weakness Policy is not a general inclusion but more of an attempt to directly counter a particular deck or meta.
Conclusion
I hope after reading this you feel confident heading into the Primal Clash format. There are still many unexplored decks and ideas, but hopefully this article will give you a great starting point and a look at some new possible archetypes. For me personally, I’m really looking forward to playing around with Fairies decks. I’ve always wanted the archetype to be good and I finally feel like it’s getting to the point where it’s going to be tier 1 and a common sight on the tournament scene. The fact that Gardevoir will be played in many of the lists is icing on the cake for me.
I’m hoping to be at St. Louis Regionals in February, but right now, that’s very dependent on work. I’m being optimistic though, and I really hope I get to see a lot of old faces and meet some new ones as well.
If anyone has any questions, discussions, or input, I’d love to talk about them on the forums. Also, if you enjoyed the article, please remember to give it a like.
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