Hey guys, it’s been quite a little while since I’ve last written and so much has changed! I’ve been more proactive then ever trying to lock up my Day 2 invitation for Worlds and I’ve been fortunate enough to rack up quite a few Championship Points. With a lot of testing and a bit of luck, I managed to win my first Regionals in Masters with Exeggutor and Manectric/Aegislash and locked up another Top 4 at Regionals by playing Groudon/Dragonite in the Standard portion of the event. While all that has been very exciting, there’s still quite a bit of work to be done with Lysandre’s Trump Card leaving the format. Everything has been shaken up, players’ heads are spinning on what to play, and that has made me more ambitious than ever to playtest in order to get that big finish at Nationals!
After Lysandre’s Trump Card’s ban, it was obvious that Seismitoad-EX decks based around reusing overpowered Item were now unplayable and Night March became significantly stronger. No longer can players use the infamous Quaking Punch and Trump Card combination to stop Night March from executing its strategy. While Item lock certainly slows the deck, the Night March deck now has the ability to simply run through three Seismitoad-EXs with a fast start if they can discard enough Pokémon on the first turn with Battle Compressor and draw enough Energy under the lock. However, many players were quite confused on how the metagame would develop.
This past weekend, the results illustrate this thought process. Nobody really knew which decks to prepare for, but players felt like Night March was the deck to beat. All this Night March hate meant that even though Night March was one of the top decks post Trump Card, it’s not unbeatable if everybody is ready for it. I feel that the best way to prepare for the various Nationals coming up is to briefly cover Night March so that everybody understands what makes the deck so good and has a solid list to test against. I then want to discuss the various ways to beat Night March as well as a few decks that were able to successfully do just that this past weekend. Lastly, I’ll go over cards and decks that I believe have potential as the format shifts to this anti-Night March metagame.
But first, I want to briefly recap the Groudon/Dragonite deck I played at Georgia Regionals and its place in the post-Trump Card metagame with all the questions I’ve been getting about it.
In-wind-cible: Recapping Groudon/Dragonite
pokemonscreenshots.tumblr.comAt first glance, Groudon/Dragonite seems like a deck that should be relegated to PTCGO. It appears clunky, inconsistent, and gimmicky, but really fun when it works. After testing the format with Shaymin-EX ROS quite a bit, Seismitoad-EX variants were certainly insane, but I just couldn’t create a Trevenant deck I was happy with. It struggled even more against Manectric-EX than Seismitoad-EX decks from testing, so with Seismitoad decks having the most hype and the assumption that players would also find Seismitoad to be the superior Item lock deck in testing, I began to search for a counter. I wanted something that beat Seismitoad as well as the counters to Seismitoad, which I assumed would be Manectric and Groudon variants.
Groudon appeared to beat Seismitoad and Manectric if you could get four Energy attached to it, so I just needed something to secure the mirror matchup and shore up the matchup against random non-EX decks, especially Raichu variants. On paper, Dragonite did just that by letting your Groudon live forever in the mirror matchup. It would also allow you to heal another faster-to-set up Fighting attacker, such as Landorus-EX, in the non-EX matchups. This allowed you to get ahead in the Prize trade since Landorus-EX normally trades 2 for 2 in Prizes and the healing from Dragonite essentially erases your opponent’s previous turn of attacking. After a sleepless night of testing with my friend Russell LaParre the Thursday before Georgia Regionals, this is the list we had tweaked by the time the sun came up:
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Pokémon – 20 4 Dratini ROS |
Trainers – 31 4 Korrina
2 VS Seeker
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Energy – 9 5 F 4 Strong |
“That’s so many Dragonite and so few Groudon!”
I feel like when many people heard about my success with this idea, they assumed it was a normal Groudon/Wobbuffett build with a small Dragonite line splashed in. But when you think about it, you need to devote a lot of space to the Dragonite gimmick if you want it to work consistently and if the Dragonite gimmick isn’t necessary to win games then we probably shouldn’t be playing it at all. Following this train of thought, we have to cut quite a few cards from the traditional Groudon deck in order to make room for 10 spots to fit the Dragonite line!
However, this isn’t necessarily that difficult as Dragonite makes the need for some cards obsolete. For example, if the deck works as intended, your Primal Groudon should never get Knocked Out in a matchup against an EX deck. Unlike a normal Groudon deck that needs to set up two copies of Primal Groudon, our first Primal Groudon ideally lives forever as we can heal it once or twice with Dragonite and just win the game with a few attacks. This logic explains why we cut most of the other cards as well.
“Where is all the Energy? I thought Mega Turbo was insane in Groudon?!”
Since our Primal Groudon ideally lives forever, we only need to charge up one Primal Groudon per game. This means that we don’t need as many Energy as a tradition Groudon variant as they often need two copies of Primal Groudon to win. By the same virtue, Mega Turbo is also unnecessary. Mega Turbo speeds up the process of charging both Primal Groudon since faster decks pressure the Groudon player to set up before they fall too far behind in Prizes to catch up. However, our strategy is just to let one Groudon live forever, and thus we can get away with not playing Mega Turbo at all.
“Wouldn’t Rare Candy get Dragonite into play faster? What about Scoop Up Cyclone or AZ to use Dragonite multiple times like Crobat decks do?”
Originally we tried the deck with Rare Candy, but in practice it doesn’t work out as well as running a bunch of Dragonair. Dragonite isn’t an Evolution you need or want on Turn 2 or Turn 3, so the extra speed that Rare Candy offers a traditional Stage 2 deck isn’t necessary. When your opponent damages your Dragonite and plays N, it’s much easier to simply evolve Dragonair into Dragonite compared to fishing for both Dragonite and Rare Candy. There’s not much more intimidating than an Active Primal Groudon with a Dragonair on the Bench. Your opponent will feel helpless with nearly any EX-based deck. If your opponent plays Lysandre on Dragonair, then Groudon gets a knockout and 2 Prizes. If your opponent attacks into Groudon, then you heal off all the damage by evolving into Dragonite. This strategy forced my opponent into many lose-lose situations throughout Regionals.
Scoop Up Cyclone and AZ seem like a strong inclusion since they see success in some Crobat variants. However, Groudon/Dragonite is a deck that only needs to heal twice in order to have enough time to draw 6 Prizes. A 4-3-3 Dragonite line is usually enough to accomplish this goal, and thus these spaces are better used on making the deck more consistent.
“I tried this deck out, it’s so inconsistent!”
This is something that’s very true and scared my friends that helped me tweak the deck from playing it. My mindset going in was that I would lose about 20% of the games because my deck would draw dead or not set up properly. However, when my deck set up, it was a monster and nearly unstoppable since no deck can deal with the lose-lose situation Primal Groudon with a Benched Dragonair puts them in. This meant that as long as I wasn’t unfortunate enough to have this happen twice in a best of three, all my losses would happen in 5–10 minutes and I could play three complete games to largely avoid ties. This proved to be true as I finished at 8-1 with not a single tie over 9 rounds, and quite a few of my series were 2-1 victories.
The Future of Groudon/Dragonite
Groudon/Dragonite was not a deck that relied on Lysandre’s Trump Card at all, so it would make sense that the concept remains viable heading into Nationals. However, the answer is a bit more complicated than that. Primal Groudon decks thrive when the metagame is filled with EX-based decks (and Raichu-based decks if you play Landorus-EX). At Regionals for example, the top tables were littered with Seismitoad, Manectric, and Groudon decks, which are essentially free wins for Groudon/Dragonite. Groudon’s biggest issue in general, with or without Dragonite, is Night March.
Night March is a speedy non-EX deck, which already spells bad news for the Groudon player. Most fast non-EX decks can be dealt with thanks to Dragonite and Landorus-EX, but Pumpkaboo shuts this strategy down. The Fighting Resistance on Pumpkaboo means that Landorus-EX, or any cheap Fighting-type attacker for that matter, can’t trade efficiently with it.
This means that in order to win you need to draw incredibly well and the Night March player has to whiff late game off of an N. However, if Night March sees a decline in play, you could play almost this exact list and see success, obviously cutting Trump Card of course!
Keep Your Friends Close: Scoping the Frontrunner
koolaid-girl.tumblr.comThat brings us to the most hyped deck in the post-Trump Card format, Night March. The deck focuses on discarding all of its adorable Pokémon to do absurd amounts of damage for a single Energy very quickly. This strategy shouldn’t really catch anybody off guard now that it’s been discussed to death, but if your Nationals deck isn’t equipped to deal with it then it doesn’t really matter if you know exactly what your opponent is trying to do; you can’t slow them down by simply splashing Lysandre’s Trump Card.
I’ll only be providing a solid list to test against and highlighting a few cards that stand out since other writers — such as Ryan Sabelhaus — already did a great job covering the deck:
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Pokémon – 17 4 Joltik PHF |
Trainers – 36 4 Professor Sycamore
4 VS Seeker 1 Escape Rope
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Energy – 7 4 Double Colorless |
The Great Debate: “Trainers’ Mail vs. Acro Bike”
In Night March, I believe it’s essential to discard Pokémon as fast as possible so that’s what the Trainer engine should attempt to optimize. With the current card pool, I believe this means attempting to find as many Battle Compressor as possible in the first couple turns. Therefore, I feel that it’s a mistake to start playing Acro Bike without first playing four copies of Trainers’ Mail. While Acro Bike may discard a Night Marcher, it could also force you to choose between two crucial cards. The odds of discarding Night Marchers also get slimmer after you play one or two Battle Compressors.
Trainers’ Mail, on the other hand, gives you a better chance at finding a Battle Compressor compared to Acro Bike, simply because it lets you look at twice as many cards on the top of your deck. I could see some merit in playing a couple copies of Acro Bike in addition to four copies of Trainers’ Mail, but at this time I haven’t found the space. Possible cards to remove for Acro Bike would be the AZ, 1 Silver Bangle or 1 Muscle Band, and Mr. Mime if you don’t expect that much Landorus-EX.
“AZ in Night March?!”
I don’t believe AZ is a staple in Night March by any means, but in practice I liked having the option to essentially Battle Compressor for a switch card in tandem with VS Seeker. This is because it’s difficult to draw your single copy of Escape Rope when playing the deck. Very often you’ll end up making this play when you unfortunately open with a lone Shaymin-EX, which essentially turns AZ into a pseudo draw Supporter as you can replay the Shaymin on the same turn. I would definitely play a copy of AZ over a second copy of Escape Rope just to have this cool option, but if you’re comfortable running one switch card then Night March still runs smoothly without it.
“Night March would be lost without Town Map!”
I see so many Night March builds not playing this card and it just blows my mind. With 12 Night Marchers in the deck, it’s quite likely at least one of them end up in the Prizes. There’s also the chance of prizing multiple Double Colorless Energy, which Night March relies on to stream attacks quite a bit. Not having enough Energy to stream attacks or having your maximum damage output capped can easily lose you games, whereas a single copy of Town Map can turn the games you prize three Night Marchers into a win. Being able to thin every useless card out of your deck with Battle Compressor and having control over your Prizes makes it very difficult to steal a game from Night March with a strong enough lead.
“Fight Spinning Turn with Spinning Turn!”
Usually the type of basic Energy you choose to add into Night March doesn’t make a big impact, so most people don’t really put much thought on which type to add in. In my testing, I’ve found that it can be quite useful to copy an opposing Donphan’s Spinning Turn after they promote a Robo Substitute. Ideally, Night March would simply Lysandre a Benched Donphan every turn, but in practice it’s often difficult to Knock Out Donphan while also constantly drawing into Energy and potentially getting N’d.
On the turns where you need to Sycamore in order to refill your hand with Lysandre, VS Seeker, and Double Colorless Energy, it’s more optimal to Knock Out Robo Substitute with Spinning Turn and promote Pumpkaboo for the Fighting Resistance compared to wasting a Double Colorless Energy on a Pumpkaboo that might get Knocked Out. You can make a similar play with Shaymin-EX’s Sky Return for a Double Colorless Energy, but playing F Energy gives you more outs to employing this hit-and-run strategy against Donphan.
Crushing the Critters: Three Tactics for Trumping Night March
napet.tumblr.comWhile Night March is certainly powerful, this past weekend proved that it’s possible to counter these adorable critters. Night March strives on being able to outspeed decks by discarding Pokémon to attack quickly and 1-shot opposing Pokémon-EX to gain a favorable Prize trade. A majority of the decks that performed well either found a way to cheat Night March in the Prize race or attempted to shut its strategy down completely. I’ll be categorizing these decks along with lists to add to your Nationals testing gauntlet.
1. Going Batty
Crobat variants can generally trade favorable against Night March. It’s very frustrating to play against Crobat as a Night March player. Your low HP Night Marchers can be Knocked Out through Abilities alone, allowing your opponent to potentially have multi-Prize turns. If you attempt to play around this by using Mew-EX as an attacker, they can Knock it Out with easily with a Crobat due to Mew’s Psychic Weakness. Occasionally the Night March player can outspeed the Crobat variants and run away with the game, but more often than not the Crobat variants always seem to catch up in Prizes by using Crobat as a non-EX attacker and taking advantage of the many low HP Pokémon Night March is forced to play.
Raichu/Crobat
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Pokémon – 25 4 Raichu XY 3 Golbat PHF |
Trainers – 28 3 Colress
4 VS Seeker 2 Silver Bangle
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Energy – 7 4 Double Colorless |
Raichu/Crobat was one of the strongest decks with Trump Card still in the format and it certainly still has some viability. The deck simply now needs another one-Energy attacker that doesn’t rely on Double Colorless Energy. Yveltal XY fills that role quite nicely as it allows you to keep Energy in play, trades with Night Marchers, and resists all the Fighting decks that are gaining popularity. Yveltal and Crobat give the deck an unfair advantage in the Prize trade against Night March, while Kecleon gives the deck another attacker against the Colorless Rayquaza-EX and opposing Raichu variants.
The deck can surprisingly put up a fight against the traditional Donphan variants thanks to the Fighting Resistance on Yveltal and Crobat. I believe the reason the deck didn’t see as much success this past weekend was the sudden surge in Landorus/Bats. Mr. Mime is an attempt to make the matchup more manageable by protecting your Zubats from Hammerhead and Golbat on the second turn, giving you a chance to stabilize and place damage on the Landorus-EX in order to set up 1HKOs with Raichu.
Landorus/Crobat
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Pokémon – 19 3 Crobat PHF |
Trainers – 32 4 Professor Sycamore
4 VS Seeker
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Energy – 9 5 F 4 Strong |
The build of Landorus/Crobat hasn’t really changed all that much — the deck simply came back due to a projected lack of Seismitoad variants and a ton of Night March hype. Miltank is the only card that might seem out of place, but it’s a solid non-EX attacker when facing other non-EX decks that can’t be hit by Hawlucha. The deck naturally wants to search out Crobat, so it fits into the deck pretty naturally if more non-EX decks gain popularity. Playing Miltank also allows you to deal 80 damage with a basic F Energy when facing Seismitoad variants, while saving Strong Energy for Hawlucha’s Flying Press. This allows you to 2-shot Seismitoad-EX with either a Fighting Stadium or a single Golbat.
After Landorus/Crobat’s success in Denmark, the copies of Silent Lab are a counter to the copies of Mr. Mime that players will likely start splashing back into their decks. While this deck was a solid call for this past weekend, I’d be hesitant to play it moving forward as its popularity will likely cause players to shift away from Night March, a good matchup, to decks such as Seismitoad, Trevenant, or Yveltal, which can be relatively tough matchups.
2. Subbing Out
pokemontime.tumblr.comDonphan can use Robo Substitute to get ahead in the Prize trade when facing Night March. Back during the beginning of Cities, Donphan prevented Night March from seeing large amounts of success. It can be very difficult for the Night March player to draw enough copies of Lysandre and VS Seeker to play around Robo Substitute as Donphan can consistently start attacking Turn 2. If the Night March player is forced to spend too many turns Knocking Out Robo Substitutes, the Donphan player has time to set up multiple Donphan and can likely take a Prize every turn. Here is an updated list for the current metagame, inspired by its success in Mexico:
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Pokémon – 16 4 Donphan PLS |
Trainers – 33 3 Korrina
3 Float Stone
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Energy – 11 5 F |
“Only 2 Robo Substitute? Magnetic Storm?! This list is terrible!”
This was the reaction when the Mexico-winning list was posted and I’m sure some players just wrote it off as Mexico having a weak player base if this deck could win. However, I believe this player made an ingenious metagame call by playing a Donphan deck that was also well equipped to handle all the Crobat decks people would be playing to counter Night March. Magnetic Storm allows Donphan to 2-shot both baby Yveltal and Crobat much easier with Spinning Turn.
I’ve personally never been a fan of the full 4 copies of Robo Substitute either. Against the decks like Night March where Robo Substitute is strongest, you’re usually winning if your opponent has to Knock Out more than two of them since you pull ahead in the Prize trade. If your opponent is able to successfully Lysandre around Robo Substitute, then the extra copies simply become dead cards in your hand. Since the card is searchable via Korrina, I don’t really put much value in playing more copies to draw into them easier. If you feel there are a lot of matchup where denying Prizes with Robo Substitute is essential to winning then you can make space for a third copy, but I’d advise against playing four without a very specific matchup and purpose in mind.
“No Primal Groudon? And why the Dedenne and Mr. Mime?”
The other changes I made were mostly to adjust to the metagame. Primal Groudon is pretty unnecessary as Seismitoad variants have declined in play, and the version with the most promise plays Crobat. Primal Groudon is not a very good tech against Seismitoad/Crobat since your opponent can set up the Benched Primal Groudon for a knockout with either X Ball or Grenade Hammer by placing damage on it. This means that your Primal Groudon only takes 2 Prizes in exchange for quite a bit of investment.
Dedenne was added in as Yveltal could easily see play again. Mr. Mime is very important with all the hype Landorus/Crobat has been getting after Denmark. Donphan is a solid hit-and-run concept, but in order to be successful with the deck you have to have an accurate read on the metagame and play the right tech Pokémon accordingly. It’s very possible the metagame shifts drastically if something crazy wins in Canada this weekend.
3. Planting Roots
pokescans.tumblr.comTrevenant can stop Night March from even setting up by going first and playing Wally. A first turn Wally into Trevenant is simply a nightmare for Night March to deal with and makes the game next to unwinnable. Night March can only hope to go first or hope the Trevenant player whiffs this combination. Without Trump Card for turbo Shaymin variants and a lack of both Manectric-EX and Yveltal-EX, Gengar-EX seems to be the most solid partner. I’m still not sure what the perfect way to build this deck is as there’s a lot of flexibility to adjust to the metagame, but this is what I have so far:
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Pokémon – 16 |
Trainers – 35 4 Professor Sycamore
4 VS Seeker 2 Trainers’ Mail
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Energy – 9 |
Gengar adapts a hit-and-run strategy with Trevenant, similar to Donphan variants. While Trevenant is a solid wall against Item-heavy decks and decks hindered by Trevenant’s Fighting Resistance, the deck can struggle with attackers that can easily deal with Trevenant’s 110 HP. Sigilyph and Robo Substitute were an attempt to play around this by giving the Gengar player another option in terms of Pokémon to promote, but these cards can be swapped out for different walls depending on the metagame. Sigilyph can be very strong in the mirror matchup, so it seems like a strong choice heading into this weekend if other players bandwagon on Gengar/Trevenant’s success. The single copy of Silent Lab is just for an out against opposing Safeguard Pokémon without having to commit Energy to Trevenant.
The Metagame is Evolving! (Latest Thoughts)
While I hope that analysis gives everyone a better idea on which decks are rising in popularity and why, it would be silly and a bit ignorant to expect the metagame to remain stagnant until US Nationals. This post-Trump Card format is still relatively new and just like players tried to metagame against Night March, they will now begin to metagame against the anti-Night March decks. While I can’t always predict the future, I’ll be giving an educated guess at what this anti-anti-Night March metagame will look like!
Back in Black
With all the hype and success Fighting is having, players might be scared to bring a Raichu variant to a large event like Nationals. These Fighting decks could also encourage players to jump on the Gengar/Trevenant bandwagon, as you can essentially beat all the decks from this past weekend and just tech Sigilyph for mirror. This swings the door wide open for the tried and true Yveltal variants to come back into the metagame. These Yveltal decks would have to have a heavy focus on baby Yveltal, likely playing three or four copies, in order to deal with Donphan and to have a non-EX that trades with Donphan.
I haven’t put much time into testing Yveltal as I find the deck boring to play and I prefer a deck with more options, so I’ll avoid posting an untested list. But in terms of which variants to expect, I’d anticipate players running it alongside Raichu or Ninetales. Ninetales can lock Donphan out of the Stadiums it needs to achieve 2HKOs, while also providing a way for Yveltal-EX to survive against Colorless Rayquaza-EX. Raichu gives Yveltal an option against Colorless Rayquaza-EX decks that decide not to run Altaria, as well as another strong non-EX attacker in general for matchups where Yveltal-EX trades unfavorably with your opponent’s Pokémon.
Take to the Skies
It seems like Colorless Rayquaza-EX is beginning to slip under the radar with the loss of Trump Card. However, the Rayquaza/Bronzong variant that Squeaky Marking had success with during Regionals is still very viable in this format, especially if players aren’t preparing for it. The deck settles for a Turn 2 Emerald Break rather than burning through half the deck in order to use Emerald Break Turn 1. The sacrifice in speed allows it to have other options in its arsenal while also being less vulnerable to Enhanced Hammer as Bronzong can retrieve Energy.
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Pokémon – 21 3 Shaymin-EX ROS |
Trainers – 30 3 Professor Sycamore
4 VS Seeker 2 Trainers’ Mail
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Energy – 9 5 M |
Without Trump Card, the deck has to become slightly less of a turbo build, which means cutting Acro Bike. It’s also risky to play this deck with less than four copies of Sky Field without Trump Card to recycle them, as Rayquaza-EX often needs Sky Field to achieve 1HKOs. The Altaria could be removed for more consistency, but I feel that it’s an important tech at this point in time since Raichu and Joltik are both still very much a threat.
If you decide to go the Altaria route, Winona takes the place of Pokémon Fan Club since it drastically improves your ability to consistently set up Altaria. Winona is searchable Turn 1 with Jirachi-EX, as well as with Battle Compressor in tandem with VS Seeker. Even in matchups where Altaria is unnecessary, I’ve opened with Ultra Ball, M Rayquaza-EX, Rayquaza Spirit Link quite a few testing games, which is a perfect opportunity to Jirachi for Winona for two Rayquaza-EX and a Shaymin-EX in order to set up for a Turn 2 Emerald Break. Aegislash-EX is very strong against decks that rely on Double Colorless Energy to attack, namely Night March and Raichu variants. Playing M Energy means that it’s easy to splash Cobalion-EX as a Safeguard counter.
Keep Calm and Quaking Punch On
Seismitoad certainly isn’t the monstrosity it once was with Trump Card since it has a finite amount of resources it can play, but Turn 1 Item lock is still incredibly strong. There is more incentive to play Seismitoad if players continue to bandwagon on the Fighting decks, so I think it would be a huge mistake to write Seismitoad off when testing for Nationals. I believe Seismitoad/Crobat is currently the strongest version simply because Crobat gives you the best chance at beating Night March and Groudon decks. Here’s my take on the deck post Trump Card:
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Pokémon – 14 3 Golbat PHF |
Trainers – 38 4 Professor Sycamore
4 VS Seeker 3 Muscle Band 1 Switch
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Energy – 8 4 Double Colorless |
Without Trump Card, Seismitoad decks unfortunately have to go back to playing basic W Energy, which cuts down on quite a bit of deck space. This resulted in only 3 copies of Seismitoad-EX and a thinner Crobat line. I feel that this change is a bit safer because of the single copy of Sacred Ash making up for any unfortunate prized Seismitoad-EXs or discarded Crobats.
1 Head Ringer seems odd because it’s usually a card you run multiples of in order to start with it, or a card you don’t play at all. In the current metagame, there simply aren’t tons of Pokémon-EX to target with Head Ringer. Your opponent will likely put extra Energy on Yveltal-EX anyway in order to do more damage and they likely won’t want to attack with Landorus-EX. This leaves the 1-of Lucario-EX, opposing Seismitoad variants, and Rayquaza-EX as the biggest targets. This isn’t really a strong enough argument to play multiple copies of Head Ringer.
However, a cool play you can make as the Seismitoad player with the single Head Ringer is actually placing it on the Shaymin-EX your opponent is likely to Bench. This allows you to target that Shaymin-EX with Lysandre, place damage on it, and force your opponent to retreat it rather than use Sky Return. This allows you to pick up an easy 2 Prizes by simply evolving to Crobat in order to finish off Shaymin-EX. Mewtwo-EX can then easily come in and clean up for the last 2 Prizes with two Double Colorless Energy attached. And the non-EX matchups of course require careful navigation by using Crobat as attacker at the right time.
Can’t Stop the Joltik Inside of Me
Despite all the Night March hate this past weekend, there’s a chance that these critters can continue to march on as US Nationals approaches. If players start to discount the deck because it’s not making Top 8, Night March can easily become a very strong contender by teching for the current counters and preying on players unprepared to play it. In the past, Night March was able to deal with Fighting variants by playing Hard Charm in tandem with Pumpkaboo’s Fighting Resistance, but this strategy won’t be as effective if Magnetic Storm becomes common in Donphan.
Instead, I would suggest adding Archie’s Ace in the Hole and Empoleon into Night March. This can be done by cutting the excess cards I discussed in the Night March section, swapping 1 Shaymin-EX for 1 Jirachi-EX to search for Archie, and of course switching to W Energy in order to attack with Empoleon.
Getting out Empoleon against a Landorus/Crobat deck gives you another way to get ahead in the Prize trade, as Empoleon often trades 2 Prizes for 1 Prize against Landorus-EX. Empoleon also survives two Spinning Turns when facing Donphan, but more importantly allows you to dig through your deck with Diving Draw every turn in order to chain Lysandre on your opponent’s benched Donphans more effectively. And of course a Turn 1 Empoleon certainly improves your consistency throughout the game in other matchups!
Conclusion
pokemonscreenshots.tumblr.comPhew, that’s quite a bit of information to take in, but I hope that gives everyone a broader perspective on what to expect in the upcoming weeks! Whether you add these decks to your testing circle or pick them up yourselves, you should be more prepared for Nationals as a result. Something crazy could certainly win in Canada and shake things up, but I think that’s more likely to happen at US Nationals due to the sheer amount of players and a slightly more defined metagame.
It’s hard to give advice on what to play as I don’t really have a deck myself yet. The best advice I can give somebody is to test against all of the decks mentioned in this article, take the results from Canada into consideration and then try and come up with a deck that has solid results based on what you expect to see. That’s what I’ll be doing myself next week as I try and come up with something crazy that’s strong against the metagame.
Regardless, I’m really excited to see how US Nationals unfolds and hang out with people I only get to see a few times a year. If you see me at Nationals feel free say hello! As usual, if you have any questions feel free to comment or message me. I’m happy to give clarify anything or give feedback on any ideas you need help with. If you enjoyed the article, don’t forget to give it a +1!
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