Things That Go Bump in the Night (March)

Dear Reader, if you follow my articles for this website, you might know that despite going to all three weekends, I didn’t place so well during the Fall Regionals cycle. The one time I made it to Day 2, I was foiled by TOM, who has apparently gotten his act together since then. (Thank goodness.) Therefore, I was a bit nervous heading into my first attempt at a Winter Regional. It ended up going pretty well for me and I was able to walk away from the weekend with a Top 8.

In this article, I’ll go through a bit of the process I used to choose my Day 1 and Day 2 decks and talk about the lists and some of the matchups I faced. Lastly, I’ll look forward to States and talk a bit about the development of the Primal Clash metagame and outline what I think are some good plays for Week 1.

Virginia Regionals

Prior to the event, I had actually done quite a bit of testing. The weeks before, I had narrowed my Day 1 choice down to three decks: Landorus/Bats, Virizion/Genesect/Bats, and Night March. Here are the three lists I was considering:

Option 1: Landorus/Bats

I had been experimenting with this deck for a little while because I have always really liked Landorus-EX as a card since its days as a partner for Tornadus and Mewtwo-EX. I think the version with the Super Scoop Ups is vastly superior to any version without them. This was a very good play for the weekend due to the lack of Seismitoad-EX decks, which were mostly scared away by Virizion/Genesect’s domination of the ECC. However, I felt like its Yveltal-EX matchup was shaky, especially if Yveltal played Garbodor. This is just personal preference, but I also felt as though I could never run hot enough with the deck during playtesting, and I didn’t feel super comfortable with it, so I decided against playing it.

Option 2: Virizion/Genesect/Bats

If I can get away with it, V/G is pretty much always on my short list. It performed amazingly at the ECC, and I absolutely loved the winner’s addition of Bats to the deck. I tried the thicker line that his teammates used to make Top 4, and I found myself really liking the ability to 1HKO without using G Booster. I also hated taking out Drifblim, my nice one-Energy, non-EX, non-Basic attacker, so I appreciated Crobat’s ability to provide a similar function.

It’s definitely debatable, but I kept the Deoxys-EX in the list. I know that Golbat can easily serve the same purpose in a game, but the inability to deal with attackers like Yveltal XY and Xerneas XY in one easy attack really irritated me. I like the idea of saving the Bats to achieve 1HKOs on Pokémon-EX when it really matters and just dealing with the small threats using a single Megalo Cannon. However, that spot could easily be used for a Jirachi-EX or whatever your personal preference is. Enhanced Hammers are also not quite as necessary as before and can be substituted out for more consistency cards or different options like a Lysandre’s Last Resort, which I really like to reuse Bats or get back pieces of the line that have been discarded prematurely.

I ultimately decided against playing V/G because it has a really iffy Landy/Bats matchup. It’s also not that great against Fairy variants. Those two decks were getting enough hype to where I just didn’t feel comfortable bringing the deck to the tournament. Additionally, there is always the lurking threat of Night March and Flareon decks, which V/G really can’t keep up with.

Option 3: Night March

A day or so before the event, Jimmy Pendarvis, Henry Ross-Clunis, Dylan Dreyer and I decided to go with Night March. It absolutely destroys Virizion/Genesect and Fairies, which we expected to see spike in popularity after how well they did at the ECC. Night March also has a great matchup against Yveltal decks, which we also expected to see a few of due to its decent matchup against V/G.

Night March struggles a bit against Seismitoad decks, however, with the hype that V/G was getting, I thought Toad decks might turn out to be relatively few and far between, because they were somewhat of a risky play for Day 1. Additionally, the fast-paced style of the list provided for explosive first turns most of the time, and we found this to be enough in testing to bring the Toad matchup to around a 50/50. For example, if on your first turn you play one Battle Compressor and manage to get two other Night Marchers in the discard pile through Ultra Ball, Computer Search, or Professor Juniper, you’re already set up to do 100 damage before they can Quaking Punch. With 3 Roller Skates and 4 Bicycle, this isn’t even a difficult task to accomplish with the deck.

A strategy that is also extremely useful when facing Seismitoad decks is using Mew to copy their Quaking Punch. This way, you can trade pretty evenly with the Toads. Following the above scenario, you can use Quaking Punch with Mew two or three times (depending on if you have a Muscle Band attached) and finish the Seismitoad off with a Night March for the KO. Meanwhile, the Toad player is stuck hitting Mew for 30-50 damage, which is a 3HKO at worst. This strategy is very effective because it also eliminates their Crushing Hammers, Super Scoop Ups, and Max Potions, cards which the deck really relies on. Naturally, this line of play is eliminated if the Toad player manages to place a Tool on Trubbish before you Quaking Punch and subsequently evolve into Garbodor without the use of Ultra Balls. Typically, this isn’t going to happen, because it is rather a lot to ask for in one turn from a deck that usually plays low Ultra Ball and Float Stone counts.

We decided not to include tech attackers like Leafeon and Flareon in order to make the deck as fast and streamlined as possible. We figured that the enormous amount of pressure put forth very early in the game would overwhelm most decks. We added Virizion-EX and basic G Energy to the list for protection against Hypnotoxic Lasers, which can be a problem due to only playing one switching card. Virizion can also be used as a fairly effective backup strategy against Toad, although this occasion never came up for me during the tournament. Mr. Mime proved itself to be very useful against the high number of Landorus-EX decks, however.

I did play Jirachi-EX in this deck. While normally I don’t like the card, as I’ve discussed before, the consistency argument won me over in this case. In playtesting, I very frequently experienced dead-draws at an unacceptable level without this card. It has great synergy with the high count of Ultra Ball and got me out of many a terrible situation Day 1. It did end up impacting me negatively in my Top 8 match with Yveltal/Garb, but overall I do feel that it was an asset rather than a detriment in this particular tournament experience. I’ve come to the conclusion that blanket statements can’t be applied to Jirachi, and that it definitely makes sense in certain decks, but I still do not believe it should be a staple in every deck, and I do not include it in the majority of my lists.

Day 1: March to March

I got to Virginia pretty late on Friday night because I had a meeting for my upcoming MFA Thesis show in the evening. (I’m an art major. I know, I’ll never get a job, right?) Henry Ross-Clunis was nice enough to let Jimmy, Dylan and I stay at his house about 20 minutes away from the venue. Thanks for that, Henry! We were all pretty tired, so we played a few games and decided to call it a relatively early night.

Unfortunately, I did not take any notes during my Swiss rounds on Day 1. I wish I had, and I’m not really sure why I didn’t to be honest with you. I’m definitely going to start being better about that in the future, so my apologies for right now! I remember a few of my rounds, so I’ll discuss what I do recall.

I sat down across from Zach Lesage for my first round. I knew that Zach is a good player from Canada, and this round wouldn’t be easy. I had heard that a lot of the Canadians were playing V/G, which didn’t turn out to be accurate! Zach was playing a Landorus/Victini/Mewtwo deck if I recall correctly (sorry if I misremembered, Zach!). At any rate, this turned out to be a very positive matchup for Night March, as Big Basic decks usually are.

Next round, I played against Marc Albright. He was also playing Night March, which is a truly terrible mirror to play. Yes, there are very basic things you can do to make it a bit better, such as not using Mew to attack. However, I feel that it really comes down to who runs better. For example, during the first game I was forced to discard a DCE on my first turn in order to get set up. This lost DCE turned out to really matter, because I ran out of Energy to finish out the game. In the second game, I drew dead for the first four turns. By then he was 3 Prizes up and there’s no way to come back from that without a dead-draw from the opponent at the end of the game, which didn’t happen. Both games were very close.

Rounds 3-7 are a bit blurry for me memory-wise. I do know that I played against a Metal deck, which is a pretty good matchup for Night March. This person ran 2 Trump Cards, but the deck can set itself up again so fast when not under Toad lock that it didn’t end up mattering. I also played against a local player from my area, Tito Algarin. Tito had been playing Night March at several Cities I’d seen him at, so I thought I was in for another mirror. I breathed a sigh of relief when he flipped over an Yveltal-EX, and I won that series. The second game got a bit hairy when he started Toad, but the Quaking Punch method I described earlier got the job done.

One thing that I enjoyed about Night March was that my series all ended very quickly. Either I won the series 2-0 or lost it 0-2. The only round in which I played three games was against a V/G player (the only V/G I played against in all of the tournament), after I lost the first game due to a misplay on my part. I had a VS Seeker in my hand prior to taking a knockout, and I ought to have played it to get a Supporter back preemptively. He used Trump Card on the very next turn, leaving me with the useless VS Seeker and no Supporter with which to continue the game. I dead-drew for a few turns after that and lost, which was completely my fault.

I finished Day 1 with a 6-2-1 record. I had lost rounds 2 and 8, to the Night March mirror and to a Manectric-EX/Mewtwo-EX deck. The Manectric deck essentially used Mega Manectric to power up Mewtwo-EX. Mega Manectric is a bit difficult to deal with for Night March. My strategy is usually to deal damage with several Pumpkaboos and Joltiks in the early game and allow them to be Knocked Out, hopefully 2HKOing the first Mega and maybe 1HKOing another EX as they go down. Then at the end of the game, I can usually manage to have 10 Night Marchers in the discard, a Joltik on the Bench and a Muscle Band on Mew to 1HKO a second Mega if necessary. It also helps that Mega Manectric cannot 1HKO Mew without a Muscle Band, which they probably don’t have attached if they evolved through Spirit Link.

I lost this series because I needed the last Double Colorless in my deck to obtain the last KO, and it turned out to be my sixth Prize. In the second game, I prized all three Dimension Valleys, making it very difficult for me to get the ball rolling and making the deck function far too slowly to overcome the Megas.

Tristan Macek and I ID’d the last round. It had been a very long day. The tournament didn’t end until about 11 PM, and results weren’t posted until midnight. We got back to Henry’s about 12:30 AM, completely exhausted. Henry, Jimmy, and I all made Day 2. Dylan experienced some unfortunate pairings matchup-wise and didn’t quite get there.

Day 2: Winging It

We didn’t really have a plan for Day 2, but we didn’t feel like we should play Night March again. There were a lot of Landy/Bats Day 1, and that matchup was a bit worse than we anticipated it being. Because we were so tired and didn’t have anything creative prepared, we went with a very standard Yveltal/Garbodor list. In theory, it should be able to deal with Landy/Bats, V/G and Toad pretty well. It was a deck we had all taken to tournaments in the past and felt pretty comfortable playing with. Here is our list:

Yveltal/Garbodor

I remember most of my rounds from Day 2. Round 10 I was paired with a local Pokédad from my area in his breakout performance (congrats again by the way!). He was playing Mewtwo/Wobbuffet/Bats. A few little things happened that tilted this series in my favor. The first game, I was able to Lysandre and Y Cyclone a Jirachi-EX from his Bench for my last 2 Prizes. The second game he started Chandelure-EX, which isn’t a good card in the matchup due to its Weakness to Darkness. This allowed me to take 2 Prizes quite easily, putting me ahead in the Prize trade. Toad is also pretty effective in this matchup. One play that threw me for a loop was in game two, he ended his first turn with Wobbuffet Active, preventing me from playing my Jirachi from my hand to get a Supporter and forcing me to essentially lose a turn.

Round 11 I played versus Arjun Khadse with a Virizion/Mewtwo/Toad deck. These were interesting games because I had never tested this matchup and didn’t know anything about his deck, so I was going into the series with pretty much no information. I appreciated my deck choice in this round, as Yveltal is very consistent and powerful pretty much all the time. I believe in the first game I got three Energies on the board my first turn due to Dark Patch.

I played against Erik Nance with Tool Drop in Round 12. This was a very favorable matchup for me, as I could Toad and Garbodor lock him early in the game, preventing him from placing any Tools down and discarding extras that may have already made their way onto Sigilyph. Erik played very well and gave himself the best chance possible in the matchup, making both games very close.

After this point, my record was 9-2-1, or 28 points. If I tied the next two rounds, I would have 30 points total, giving me a good chance to get into Top 8. I ended up ID’ing with Brandon Salazar and my final opponent in rounds 13 and 14. Because we were able to see our resistances, I knew that one player with 30 points would bubble, but my resistance was not the lowest, so I figured I would be safe from the bubble and didn’t want to take the risk of losing a game and being out of the Top 8.

My thoughts held true and I made it in as the 8th seed. Jimmy Pendarvis ended up placing 11th with the same list I played. My Top 8 matchup was against Brandon Salazar playing Landorus/Crobat. Theoretically, this matchup shouldn’t be too bad for Yveltal. I win the opening flip, electing to go first. However, game one I open lone Jirachi … truthfully, I was shocked that this hadn’t happened to me yet in the entire tournament. Although it did cost me this game, it served me very well in every other game so far. I suppose it turned out to be a double-edged sword. I N, hoping to access a Basic, an Ultra Ball, a Computer Search, anything. My Supporter is to no avail, and I attach a Dark to the Jirachi so I can retreat it next turn and pass.

Brandon opens Zubat, benches Hawlucha, attaches Muscle Band and F Energy, puts down Fighting Stadium and KOs my Jirachi for game.

I elect to go first again during game two. He opens lone Zubat. I have Virbank City Gym and Hypnotoxic Laser in my hand. I think to myself, maybe this will make up for my lost game one! I play the combo, attach a DCE to a Toad and pass. The game is looking like it will mirror the first one as Brandon plays an N. However, he finds a Basic and an Energy and swings into my Toad.

The game progresses fairly evenly from there. However, I am unable to activate Garbodor before all my Benched Trubbish are KO’d by Bats, and I just can’t keep up with the rapid damage output without it. Brandon takes game two and moves on to the Top 4.

Overall, I really liked my return to playing Yveltal. (The last time I used it was when I played the Hard Charm version to top cut a City Championship.) The deck has a lot of consistent power and, with the addition of Dark Patch on Day 2, a decent amount of late-game recovery and comeback potential. Dylan Dreyer played the deck both days in Florida this past weekend, using almost the same list we used for Day 2 in VA to get a Top 8 finish. I’m sure he’ll discuss that in his article coming up soon.

In conclusion, I am very happy with my performance on Day 2, having come up from a lower seed, starting out the day 3-0 to finish in the Top 8. This event left me with 266/300 CP. I only have two League Challenge finishes, so theoretically I could round out the invite with Points obtained along that route. However, I am fortunate enough to have four State Championships within easily drivable distances, so hopefully I can secure my invite through those tournaments.

I did not attend Florida Regionals, so I’ve had a bit of time to think about States. We learned a few things from Florida, but in my opinion, the format is still largely untapped. The new set has been discussed at length, but I’m going to try and add to the discussion by going over a few decks that I think could be effective at States.

Scouting for States

Night March 2.0

Although I wasn’t at Florida, I gave Drew Guritzky the Night March list I played at VA for Day 1. He removed the Roller Skates for Acro Bikes, but other than that the list remained essentially the same. The deck took him to a 7-2 finish on Day 1, proving that it can still hang with the new set. Additionally, Adrian Rodriguez played it Day 2 in Florida and finished in the Top 8.

Here’s an updated list for the new format:

So many Bikes!! I’ve replaced the Roller Skates (which I hate, I never flip heads!) with Acro Bikes, which I feel are very good in the deck. It’s still going for that strong early game, run-them-over type of strategy, but the Acro Bikes give more consistent draw than the Skates. Teammates is excellent in the deck. I could see making room for a second Escape Rope or a fourth Stadium to help deal with Groudon.

I think that Night March is still a strong play heading into Week 1-of States. It still has the same advantages that it had last format. It’s true that Primal Groudon is a new threat that’s been added to the metagame, but Night March can surprisingly still deal with its massive 240 HP. I like Andrew Wambolt’s addition of the Manectric-EX, so if you don’t expect a lot of Toad at your States then you could cut the Virizion and G Energy for a Manectric and Lightnings. It can allow you to snipe Groudon for that extra 20 damage for free at the beginning or end of the game.

Speaking of Groudon…

Groudon-EX/Landorus

I feel like the way to play this deck is as a slow setup deck, taking advantage of Primal Groudon’s invulnerability from Trainers. This way, you can sit back behind Landorus, who acts as a cheap wall while accelerating Energy to your Groudons. Eventually Groudon will be ready to come up to bat (on his own terms, you can’t boss him around) and he is very hard to take down. You could use Focus Sash to hang on through G Booster and go back to the Bench. I like having the Tool Retriever to get the Spirit Links off, and it’s pretty readily accessible through Korrina. Scramble Switch is insanely good with this combo as well if you can pull it off.

This list is a bit weak to Genesect-EX, which is why we have the three Silent Lab and the two Focus Sash. It’s going to be an unfavorable matchup pretty much no matter what, but it gets better with these additions.

So far, those are my top two plays for the first week of States. There are just so many options, however, and new ideas keep coming up all the time. There are a lot of new potential combinations, and I encourage everyone to try and break the format!

Please comment and rate to let me know if you liked the article!

Nicholena xx

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