cityofhansen.orgIt’s an exciting time in the Pokémon world! Cities are just about halfway through, and the metagame continues to evolve at a blistering pace. Marathon season seems to always accelerate these changes, and with there being more marathons than ever before, that effect will become even more pronounced this year. Last year, the rise of Seismitoad/Slurpuff largely precipitated by the Dallas Marathon, while Georgia caught the emergence of Malamar. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see something of their nature come to light again this year.
Cities success often comes down to successful metagaming, and a key first step to that is understanding the logic behind different card selections (or non-selections) in a multitude of different decks. In order to anticipate your opponents’ deck (and list) choices, it’s essential to be able to understand their thought processes. Of course, it’s too much to assume totally rational decision making from every person in the room — I’m guilty of sometimes bucking logic myself — but it was safe to guess that nobody was bringing Virizion/Genesect to a room full of Pyroar last season. Making such conclusions is the foundation of metagaming.
Once you move beyond that process to begin counter-metagaming, it’s important to discern trends (are Night March players generally playing 1 or 2 Lysandre?), and have a vast knowledge of how different decks interact. Are players going to include copies of Wobbuffet PHF to deal with the surge in Vileplume AOR play? Will they drop decks like Vespiquen altogether? These are the key questions to answer. While I can’t forecast the metagame for your local City Championship, in going through each deck I’m going to focus on these types of information. My goal is to put you in the ideal position to make the best deck decision down to the last card.
Keeping the above in mind, as the title hints, a lot of ground is going to be covered in this article. For the sake of all of our sanity, I’ll be dispensing with my normal length of list explanations in favor of briefer explorations of key card counts. In exchange, I’m going to look more in depth at strategies for specific matchups. In my conversations with some readers, a preference was expressed for more of that style of content, so I figured I’d give it a spin.
A Note on Expanded: This past weekend, I finally attended an Expanded City Championship, so I have had to put some thought into the format. Going in, I believed it to be very similar to what Fall Regionals left us with, and my experience this past weekend did nothing to contradict that thought. Now that I’ve had to put in some time with the format, I’m going to offer my input where possible. As such, there are a few sections dedicated exclusively to Expanded, and a few sections with decklists for both formats.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Contents
- An Unfezant in a Pear Tree: Yveltal/Gallade BKT
- Two Turtle Pidove: Archie’s Blastoise
- Three French Torchic: Raichu XY/Crobat PHF
- Four Calling Pidgey: Lucario-EX/Crobat PHF
- Five Golden Klefki: Manectric-EX/Raikou BKT
- Six Golduck a-Laying: Houndoom-EX/Bunnelby
- Seven Swanna Swimming: Gallade/Octillery BKT
- Eight Mr. Mime a-Milking: M Mewtwo 64
- Nine Meloetta Dancing: Flareon/Vespiquen
- Ten Arceus a-Leaping: M Sceptile-EX
- Eleven Chatot Piping: Entei AOR/Charizard-EX
- Twelve Marchers Drumming: Night March
- Conclusion
An Unfezant in a Pear Tree: Yveltal/Gallade BKT
Standard
|
Pokémon – 16 |
Trainers – 33 2 Lysandre 1 Judge
|
Energy – 11 7 D |
You’ll notice that this list is very familiar to the one in my November article, and for that reason, I’m only going to discuss the big change — Zoroark. Refer back to that piece (or reach out to me) for clarification on the rest.
Originally, I was gunning for greater consistency with the list, but it became clear fairly quickly that it’s necessary to have the extra non-EX attacker. Zoroark BREAK is also invaluable for dealing with Tyrantrum-EX, and it’s absolutely excellent against M Manectric due to the latter’s inability to 1HKO the BREAK — while achieving Energy acceleration. The shift to Zoroark also provides for a greater emphasis on Float Stone, rather than Switch, for a mobility option.
The biggest cuts have come from the Supporter line, which seems rather uncomfortable, but having less cards to clunk up the deck when searching for a consistent Maxie’s is invaluable. Unown sees a drop for this reason as well. Super Rod makes an appearance to help the cut of the 8th Energy and the resiliency of the Zoroark line. I believe the other cuts should mostly explain themselves, but if not, feel free to seek me out.
In the matter of choosing a deck, this is among la crème de la crème at the moment. It simply has no obvious bad matchups, and it has unparalleled ability to throw bulky non-EXs out turn after turn — a trait of extreme value in this format where Shaymin hunting is the primary means of triumph. It’s one of a rare few decks in which the opponent won’t automatically go for your Benched Shaymin, because Zoroark (BREAK) and Gallade provide a relentless and durable source of damage that an opponent often can’t leave alone.
Additionally, Gallade is one of the best anti-Shaymin cards in Standard. Simply, it’s unparalleled in the ease with which it can take the 2 easy Prizes while not being an easy KO for the opponent on the following turn. Gallade is arguably the glue that holds this deck together, because it ensures you almost never dead-draw and provides invaluable cheap damage.
Night March is likely the roughest matchup for this deck, but Yveltal XY is simply incredible there. Trading Night Marchers (with DCEs) for Yveltals (with Darks that self-replace) is simply not a winning proposition for the Night March player. The key to the matchup is avoiding benching Shaymin-EX, or, truly, even Yveltal-EX. You have a substantially better chance than they do of avoiding benching a Shaymin, and that’s the key to the matchup. Gallade is your easiest route to KOing their Shaymin. Use it.
As mentioned above, the most powerful feature of this deck is its non-EX usage. There really isn’t a plethora of decks capable of hitting 130-150 that don’t already hit 170+, so by using non-EXs of that HP range, you force an opponent to expend the resources it would normally take to KO an EX for the benefit of only 1 Prize card. So, logically, limiting your exposure to the knockout of weak Pokémon-EX is the best option. For this reason, it may be wise to consider Parallel City and AZ to help eliminate Shaymin from the Bench. Moreover, Parallel City can help in mirror by limiting your own Bench — knocking Shaymin off and minimizing opposing Zoroark damage.
The next most difficult matchup is Manectric-EX with Flash Energy, but it’s very manageable. The strength of Gallade cannot be understated, as Manectric is unable to 1HKO a Gallade. Even with the use of Flash Energy, at worst you’ll trade Gallades for Manectrics, which is a very worthwhile exchange. Ideally, you’ll hit back-to-back Lysandre on unprotected Manectrics/Shaymins, and that turns into a 4-for-1 trade. Zoroark BREAK is extremely powerful here as well, as Manectric can’t really do anything against it either. Considerations if you’re especially worried: Enhanced Hammer or Xerosic.
Other than Night March, there really isn’t a matchup that’s especially worth stressing over. Obviously, the deck can occasionally just not set up, and that’s probably its biggest fear. Should M Mewtwo-EX 64 become a mainstream threat, it may be a consideration, but the matchup is actually pretty decent either way. Foul Play for Psychic Infinity is rather terrifying.
That’s going to conclude my discussion on Standard Yveltal/Gallade. This is a deck that is obviously only more powerful in Expanded, so we’re going to take a look at that now.
Expanded
Rather than covering Yveltal-EX/Hypnotoxic Laser, something that’s sure to see play in Expanded (and for which decklists are commonplace), I’d like to take a look at adapting the above concept for the Expanded format.
|
Pokémon – 15 |
Trainers – 34 1 Lysandre 1 Judge
|
Energy – 11 7 D |
It’s only a slight adjustment from Standard, because the strengths of this deck carry over well. Dark Patch is obviously the big addition, and while Gallade minimizes its necessity in keeping up in the faster format, it certainly doesn’t eliminate it. Yveltal-EX has to become a bit more of a focal point in this edition of the deck, as Seismitoad-EX is still alive and well in the Expanded format. There simply isn’t a more efficient attacker against the Toad available. Of course, Promo Jirachi has its use, but in Seismitoad variants featuring Crobat, its utility is only so great.
Expanded also brings us Archie’s Blastoise as a foe, which definitely alters the way we need to approach games to some degree. Giovanni’s Scheme makes an appearance to allow Gallade BKT to hit 170, which gives the deck an easy way to dispose of Keldeo-EX without risking a Yveltal on the front lines. The matchup was very close in the past, but now with this option, I would argue it falls greatly in Yveltal’s favor.
The cuts made for the new additions aren’t especially comfortable, but this is an extremely tight list. The 2nd Lysandre isn’t especially necessary in either format, but so much of Standard is purely reliant on Shaymin wars that it can be equivalent to a Game Loss just to prize your lone copy. That’s a bit less true in Expanded, where attacking EXs like Keldeo, Yveltal, and Virizion can still make appearances.
More painful are the changes in the Pokémon line. With Dark Patch’s appearance, the 3rd Yveltal XY becomes expandable. Darkrai-EX replaces the 2nd Float Stone with the knowledge that Zoroark BKT can function as a Dark Patch-enabled Keldeo-EX. Speaking of Keldeo, it’s a notable omission to be sure: the added firepower of Zoroark (BREAK) is too good to pass on, so Keldeo takes a back seat for now.
It’s unfortunate to lose Unown, but with the knowledge that Bench space will be extremely tight through all stages of the game, I’m not sure there’s room for its limited utility. Jirachi is definitely a better use of the space given Seismitoad’s inevitable presence.
Obviously, Archeops is a very good tech on paper. My concern is that decks that it’s effective against (Vespiquen, for example) have easy outs in the way of Hex Maniac and Wobbuffet PHF. Moreover, a tech copy of Wally could easily make its way into such lists to evade Archeops’ effect. As it sits, this is an inclusion here, but I’m very close to omitting it completely — in favor of the 2nd Gallade.
Overall, like in Standard, this deck should be a serious contender. Dark Patch only makes it better, and Zoroark is a new tool in a box that has already seen Expanded success. Dark Patch is the unparalleled king of Energy acceleration (well, for two more months, anyway), and that’s invaluable for sure. Against foes like Seismitoad, Jirachi will put in more than its weight in worth — DCE is, after all, a finite resource.
Even if Jirachi eventually falls to Crobat or other shenanigans, the resources spent on recovering will make winning the rest of the game extraordinarily difficult. If you were going into a room you knew was propagated with Seismitoad, it wouldn’t be unwise to consider a 2nd Giratina or potentially a Yveltal list with less of a focus on Gallade (if any focus at all) — i.e., more Supporters.
Night March will probably be an interesting matchup, and that is best dealt with by a TAG TEAM of Gallade and Yveltal XY, with Zoroark assisting as needed. Particularly in Expanded, Night March will be faced with a difficult dilemma. They can continue plugging away with Night Marchers, which Yveltal XY will eat alive, or, they can shift to a Mew-EX and let Gallade make favorable exchanges. Of course, that’s a hyper-simplification — it’s not that easy to chain Gallades — but it’s a rough roadmap to follow for the matchup. If you’re super worried about Night March, the 3rd Yveltal XY is a good option to consider.
The other biggest foe is Vespiquen, and in all likelihood, that’s going to be a big part of the Expanded metagame. The best route is definitely going to be to try taking as many easy Prizes as possible with Yveltal XY, and transitioning to a Gallade-focused attack mid game. You really have two win conditions: run them out of resources (i.e., DCE, but, keep in mind Flareon/Blacksmith) or Knock Out 2 Shaymin. Odds are, you aren’t going to take 5 knockouts (1 EX and 4 non-EXs) before they take their 6 Prizes, so you’d better be gunning for Shaymin before they can make them disappear. Definitely not the best matchup in history.
That’s going to wrap up my long-winded discussion of Yveltal. In both formats, it’s a deck that has significant potential to be successful, and that’s why I’ve dedicated such a large chunk of this article to it. I can’t emphasize enough the strength of chaining bulky non-EX attackers, and this deck is one of the best in that department. I have significant doubt that it disappears anytime soon.
Two Turtle Pidove: Archie’s Blastoise
I originally intended to keep the Expanded-exclusive deck to the end of this piece, but the pun was too good to pass up. Here’s my current list:
|
Pokémon – 14 |
Trainers – 35 1 N 1 Lysandre
|
Energy – 11 11 W |
If this looks familiar, that’s because it is. I’ve cut the Victini experiment in favor of a more direct Vespiquen counter in Kyogre-EX. Kyogre also has potential uses against Tyrantrum (depending on their Bronzor choice) and Night March. Otherwise, the previously-missing Hex Manaic has been inserted, and there’s no reason to consider cutting it.
pkmngif.tumblr.comThis deck gained nothing from BREAKthrough, except perhaps Fisherman. I’ve found that the largest obstacle to a T1 Archie’s is usually a dead Supporter, so I’ve elected to omit Fisherman for the moment. While the deck is Energy hungry, I’ve never had too much of an issue with running dry, so it’s not something I’m rushing to add.
The only other notable omission is probably Jirachi XY67. It seems good in theory, but when you consider the bulky Retreat Costs of most of the deck, it quickly becomes an exercise in futility to get it (and keep it) out when it’s necessary. You’re better off taking an offensive approach and using Keldeo/Wailord as attackers to attempt to break the lock. The deck has enough issues not filling its Bench with junk attackers in pursuit of the T1 Archie’s as it is.
The Stadium debate can still be had, but as I believe Seismitoad-EX to be an imminent and pervasive threat, Rough Seas makes too much sense to omit. Should Seismitoad somehow cease to exist, Tropical Beach would be an acceptable alternative.
If there are any lingering other questions on the list, feel free to ask in the comments. With all of that said, I’m nervous about this deck’s viability. The Night March matchup will be perfectly manageable by virtue of Wailord, but the advent of Yveltal/Gallade and the status of Vespiquen is going to make this very difficult. Ironically, I think Seismitoad might be one of the better matchups — and that should tell you everything you need to know about the spread of matchups.
One option may be to bring my Victini scheme back, as that would drastically improve the Vespiquen matchup — in fact, it may well be the only way to make the matchup positive. However, it’s undoubtedly a gimmick — and reliance on gimmicks is always something to be concerned about.
Should I be wrong about the ease of executing the Gallade + Giovanni combo, the Yveltal matchup may be workable. However, I don’t believe it was a great prospect from the beginning, and the addition of that weapon to Yveltal’s arsenal makes me very extremely leery. If they can manage to chain Hex Maniac for even a short period of time, the matchup seems like it would get extremely ugly.
Moreover, the deck has another fundamental fault: the essential use of Archie’s to attack. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but something I noticed during Regionals was the disadvantage I was at against decks like Yveltal when I was unable to set up my attacker (Archie’s) and Lysandre in the same (early) turn. Such matchups quickly devolved into an EX war, and if they were able to start that by Lysandre + KOing an EX, I quickly lost.
Cities results so far have seen the deck have a bit of success, which is why it’s making any appearance in this article at all. However, if not already obvious, it definitely doesn’t headline my list of Expanded choices at this stage. However, it’ll still be played inevitably, so my goal in providing the list is to provide a starting point for testing against it.
I tend to believe most of that success is due to the underdevelopment of the format and folks’ affinity for Archie’s Blastoise in general. As we head to Regionals and people test more, I tend to believe this is something that will see a lack of play — and a lack of success.
Three French Torchic: Raichu XY/Crobat PHF
|
Pokémon – 29 2 Milotic PRC |
Trainers – 25 2 Brigette 1 AZ 1 Lysandre
|
Energy – 6 2 W |
The theoretical antithesis to Yveltal-EX. There simply isn’t another deck in format quite as well adapted to deal with the Yveltal threat — and it’s definitely no slouch against other decks as well. It can effectively trade with Gallade, which is a fairly unique trait, and Shaymin-EX + Yveltal-EX fall easily.
My big issue with Raichu has always been the issue of chaining attackers. Simply, it’s not exactly an easy task to chain 90-HP Stage 1s that require DCEs to attack. Mitotic seeks to alleviate that issue by providing outs to more DCE. Milotic is by far one of my favorite cards in the format, as it also adds extra consistency by providing an emergency out to a Supporter (or other necessary card).
Brigette may warrant a higher count, but in the interest of space, I’m currently only playing the 2 copies. It’s both good for early setup and for replenishing your Bench after the play of a counter Stadium (or, in the worst case, a Parallel City). The easiest cut would probably be a Level Ball.
The lack of a full playset of Sycamore may seem a disturbing trend that’s developing throughout the article, but I assure you I’ve not lost my mind. In this list, it’s a concession to the importance of resource management — discarding excess DCE on turn 1 or being forced to jettison a large part of your Pokémon line is simply unacceptable.
The value of Teammates cannot be understated. Without it, streaming attackers becomes infinitely more difficult. Streaming attackers is absolutely paramount. I don’t believe that requires too much further explanation.
This deck seems like a perfect answer … on paper. Type advantage over Yveltal-EX, non-EX status, Crobat for Night March, and more factors all make this seem like the ideal deck. Unfortunately, in practice, it’s much more difficult to capitalize on this brilliant theory. Streaming Raichu is simply a more difficult task than it sounds.
However, that’s the purpose of Milotic, and there’s much to be won or lost in the minutia of playing this deck. In a broad stroke, the biggest issue on paper with this deck is the play of opposing Stadiums — Parallel City being the ultimate evil. In practice, however, it can almost be a welcome event when your opponent makes such a play. It may cost you setup in the form of Pikachu or Zubat, but the recycling of Shaymin and Milotic is much more valuable than it seems. The best way to keep attackers coming is to keep the Shaymin flowing. It’s essential that you set yourself up to discard wayward Shaymin at every opportunity.
The other general fact with this deck: Jirachi XY67 is a pain. It continually eats DCEs — Crobat is the best remedy for the situation.
Against Night March, your best bet is to use Golbat and Crobat to deal with the opposing attackers while using Raichu to capitalize on the presence of opposing Shaymins. The matchup seems very easy on paper, and it’s not all that difficult, but I express caution: your own Benched Shaymins can become trouble in very short order.
The Yveltal/Gallade matchup is more difficult than it seems, but still trends in this deck’s favor. The aforementioned non-EX attacker stream from Yveltal is rather troublesome, as Zoroark BREAK proves an effective non-DCE option and Gallade is rather bulky. Yveltal is generally able to function on minimal Shaymin usage, whereas Raichu is absolutely dependent on Set Up. As long as the exposure to 1-for-2 Prize trades is minimized, the matchup should be fine — but it can spiral out of control easily.
It goes without saying that Lucario/Bats is not an ideal matchup. It, however, is not a completely lost cause. A Muscle Banded Crobat is durable and surprisingly effective for attacking the Psychic-weak Lucario-EX. With careful use of AZ, and sparing utilization of Raichu, you would be surprised how close the matchup can be.
Vespiquen is another close matchup, and the victor largely depends on their attacker suite. The Bronzong variant works out to be a pretty decent matchup, as even though you may have slightly more difficulty chaining attackers, the Crobat line can serve to effectively swing the Prize trade by the end of a game. Moreover, Milotic/Sacred Ash gives you an edge in the continuing production of attackers. The danger, again, is Shaymin abuse.
However, in the case of the Entei variant of the Bees, your chances are much diminished. Blacksmith + Combat Blaze proves troublesome, as it is more easily streamed than any other attacker on either side of the matchup. Your best bet: capitalize on opposing Shaymins, and don’t be afraid to use Skill Dive + a Bite to prey on opposing Combee.
Overall, you may notice a theme: these matchups are close. Much comes down to the specific techs present in a particular iteration of an opposing archetype. The theoretical coverage is thorough, but the potential pitfalls numerous. Quite frankly, any misstep in technical play — or missed beat in draw — will likely spell defeat in almost any matchup — laugh at me if you will, but it’s not a deck to play on little sleep.
In Expanded, I believe this is simply outclassed by Vespiquen and other Stage 1 beatdown decks (i.e., Donphan). For that reason, I’m not even going to go there. Onward.
Four Calling Pidgey: Lucario-EX/Crobat PHF
Theme you’re going to notice: decks I believe in as legitimate options will have lengthier profiles than those that I don’t. Those I’m including as nods to conventional wisdom/the national metagame will fall under the latter. Here’s an example:
|
Pokémon – 18 |
Trainers – 33 3 Korrina 2 Lysandre 1 AZ 1 Judge
1 Switch
|
Energy – 9 5 F 4 Strong |
I could feasibly be accused of trying to do too much in here, but it’s worth the tradeoff. Brit Pybas’ list from the beginning of the format is the streamlined version of mine, opting to not include Super Scoop Up in favor of greater consistency. I believe both are fine options for the deck, but my reasoning for Super Scoop Up is multifold. Initially, it may be a concern to have such a thin Crobat line. However, the thinner line is partially remedied by Super Scoop Up, as it provides the ability to reuse the Bats you do run. While doing that, it also providing you the healing utility that’s obviously a part of SSU — and a clear benefit tot the deck. By playing less Crobat/Golbat in exchange for the SSUs, you keep the opportunity for the extra damage while also adding healing utility.
That healing utility takes form in many ways. For example: a common anti-Focus Sash strategy is to hit for 30 with Shaymin’s Sky Return — disabling Sash and removing Shaymin from the board. A Super Scoop Up heads in this scenario resets the Focus Sash, which essentially nets an extra turn due to an opponent’s wasted attack. Even the threat of the Super Scoop Up can often force an opponent into trying to hit the 180+ needed to remove the Focus Sash from play. Once they commit the resources to hitting high enough damage to remove the Focus Sash, a Super Scoop Up can erase the damage anyway.
As explained, I believe SSU is well worth the inclusion in here, but I can’t fault anyone trying to fit the extra consistency. This is one of a very few instances in which I can’t justifiably push for an option to be objectively “better” than another, but I do believe Super Scoop Up is worth the inclusion in this deck.
I believe the rest of the list should be clear without me dedicating length to it here. As for the deck’s viability, as I alluded above, I simply can’t see it. Yveltal XY is the best Focus Sash counter in existence. Vespiquen can simply run hot enough to mow through this deck. Gengar/Trevenant would have a party.
Obviously, if you’re going into a room confident it contains a strong majority of Night March, do pull the trigger. I don’t expect the deck to fade away anytime soon, as it does boast a strong Manectric matchup in addition to the Night March factor. Much of Cities success is dependent on hitting 3-4 good matchups in a row, and as a deck very attractive to newer players with a love for linearity, it’s not disappearing anytime soon. So, in spite of my harsh words, it’s still something to keep an eye out for in the meta.
I’m not going to spend any more of our time here. If you have any particular questions on things I didn’t cover, or disagree with me on the deck’s viability and would like thoughts on a specific list, feel free to reach out.
Five Golden Klefki: Manectric-EX/Raikou BKT
|
Pokémon – 13 |
Trainers – 38 2 Lysandre 1 Judge
1 Switch
|
Energy – 9 7 L 2 Flash |
Another deck you ought to recognize from my previous article, but there’ve been significant changes. Primarily, Gallade BKT makes an appearance. It’s a card whose potential impact on a match simply cannot be understated. The bulk and Shaymin-eliminating capability it offers fits anywhere, and in a deck already running Trainers’ Mail, Acro Bike, etc., it’s too good not to consider.
The lack of DCE is obviously not ideal for Gallade, and I’m going to be trying a mix of Lightning/DCE at some point; possibly with Zoroark BKT as well. But, for the moment, I believe Gallade gives this the extra oomph to see greater success at Cities (and it’s already doing fairly well).
Otherwise, Parallel City is something I should’ve probably included in the prior iteration, but it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind at that point. Parallel City is particularly interesting in this deck, as you’d be surprised how often it’s beneficial to put the blue side toward your own board. Discarding extraneous Shaymin is the obvious benefit (and you have no great need for extra 5 Bench spaces anyway), but against decks like Vespiquen and cards like Seismitoad-EX, the -20 is amusingly useful. An Assault Vested M Manectric with the red side of Parallel City facing a Vespiquen player? Not common, obviously, but a nightmare scenario for that opponent. Gallade also becomes a monster in that matchup with this combo — and it’s much more realistic there. Pokémon Center Lady is a potential inclusion to make it even more maddening.
Flash Energy is still a necessary evil, primarily due to Gallade BKT’s rise to prominence. A note for those expecting to play against a field of heavy Manectric: Xerosic or Enhanced Hammer could make your day much more fun.
Something I’ve flipped and flopped on is the switch card suite. Float Stone, Escape Rope, AZ, and, of course, Switch are all viable options. I’m comfortable with the number included, but the composition is something I’ve struggled to solidify. Float Stone would seemingly be an excellent inclusion with Gallade added, but the deck is already saturated with Pokémon Tools and M Manectric already provides a decent level of free-retreat mobility.
Thus, I’m left with a split of Switch and Escape Rope. It’s admittedly a rather arbitrary arrangement, but for the minute number of scenarios where you have both in hand at once, more options is better than less. Escape Rope is obviously the more dynamic card, but it admittedly can be a breeding ground for some rather ugly situations where you’re forced to compromise superior board position to achieve the switch effect. My friend and colleague Alex Hill is very much an anti-Escape Rope person for situations of that nature. I tend to lean toward this sort of even split for the marginally greater spread of options.
It’s worth noting that Gallade’s advent does cause some problems for the conventional 7-Prize strategy. Rather than simply benching the 1 non-EX to force your opponent to take additional KOs, there may be games where you try to force 3 non-EX KOs. Notably, if you intend to do that, Shaymin management becomes paramount. Unfortunately, there’ll be a greater than normal number of situations in which 2 non-EX + 2 EX is the winning formula, and that’s potentially a dent in this variant’s viability. It’s definitely something to keep in mind.
Gallade definitely increases the palpability of this deck’s matchup spread. Rather than rolling over and dying against Yveltal/Gallade (you might be surprised how ugly it is), you now have a tailor-made answer to trade with their own Gallades while having the other benefits I’ve gushed about throughout the article. Night March struggles to hit 210, and Raikou can often sweep provide a positive exchange (or force them to overextend to take a single Prize).
Raichu is absolutely demolished by anything M Manectric, but this variant in particular. Rough Seas is the antithesis to Crobat; Parallel City is fairly obnoxious to Raichu. By far one of the more lopsided matchups we have in the game right now.
One of its more interesting matchups is Houndoom Mill, which is completely dependent on how well you can preserve the initial precious Energy attachments on your board. Should you go first and manage to establish a (Benched) Manectric-EX with a basic Energy and Spirit Link, you’re well on the way to success — just be sure to be constantly accelerating Energy even at the cost of not taking Prizes. If you open Shaymin and it gets Head Ringered, it’s very ugly.
I bring up the Houndoom issue to raise a larger point: one of my ultimate concerns with this deck, and M Manectric in general, is the complete reliance on the first Energy attachment. If it’s missed, you’re set back indefinitely. If it’s Hammered away, the result is the same. On principle, I don’t like decks that have such a generic weakness, and that’s a definite dent in the viability of this. However, the having such high HP, good typing, and a solid attack make this a foe likely to succeed in a metagame of Vespiquen, Night March, and Raichu. I would stray away from it if there was high amounts of Yveltal/Gallade or Lucario/Bats.
Six Golduck a-Laying: Houndoom-EX/Bunnelby
Standard is increasingly like Expanded: burn through your deck as quickly as possible to find the means to take 6 Prizes. With Battle Compressor, Trainers’ Mail, Acro Bike, etc. all in the format, it’s crazy how much of a player’s deck can be gone on turn 1. Consider: a Top 8 match I judged two weekends ago saw 11 minutes go by before both players’ first turns were complete, and neither player was particularly slow. That sort of madness opens the door for concepts like this.
|
Pokémon – 9 |
Trainers – 43 3 Professor Birch’s Observations 2 Xerosic 2 Lysandre 1 Judge 1 AZ
3 Head Ringer
|
Energy – 8 8 R |
I think the headline here is going to be my feelings toward Trick Shovel. I don’t believe that any matchups with this deck ever come close enough to justify the entire playset. Either you’ll get destroyed because they have a sustainable attacker that won’t be easily disrupted (M Mewtwo 64) or smart play can maximize the use of every Energy attachment to make the matchup winnable (Vespiquen, Night March). In both cases, you can get lucky and steal games with lucky Melting Horn discards or earlier Head Ringers, but the matchups aren’t ideal. Given the polarity of the matchups, I feel high counts of Trick Shovel don’t do enough to justify their spots in the deck. A 1-of does make sense, as it can throw a wrench in an opponent’s plans (and the threat of more than one forces them to play differently in the late game) and be recycled with Bunnelby if necessary.
I’m not sold on Aqua’s Secret Base yet. Perhaps it ought to be a 4-of to ensure it sticks, but I don’t know that it really does enough to justify that hefty a cost in deck space. Bunnelby can recycle it, so there is some degree of ability to win a Stadium war, but it might be most prudent to only play it as required to establish a lock or after Melting Horn has eaten a few of their Stadiums.
While you do have Hard Charm, Assault Vest, and Super Scoop Up to make Houndoom more durable, the ultimate goal here is to run your opponent out of resources rather than simply fight a race against their 6 Prizes. In this way, this deck acts as a cross between the infamous Wailord-EX deck from Nationals and the Durant NVI decks of old. For this reason, it takes a bit more thought than either of those two decks — it’s necessary to discern when to expend resources trying to disable an opposing attacker or when to simply go for the discard effects.
That distinction in style from both Wailord and Durant is especially present when playing against the deck. Against Wailord, it was acceptable to simply wait in patience until you drew the exact combo necessary to break the game open. Against Durant, it was necessary to balance all-out blitzkrieg with the need to preserve a deck size that shrunk rather quickly. Houndoom can’t simply exchange Prizes for 4 cards in the way Durant could sometimes afford, so it has to employ some of the Prize-denial suite to have a chance. So, when playing against Houndoom, you basically need to map 6 Prizes out as soon as turn 1 and calculate exactly the resources you’ll need to make those.
Benching a Shaymin is more or less a deathwish when playing against the deck. Start Shaymin? You’d better hope they don’t get the Head Ringer down before you can Sky Return it off the board, or it’s going to be a serious problem. If a Shaymin is played, I hope it’s nothing short of a last-ditch effort to take 2 Prizes in a turn. Otherwise, it’ll be Lysandre + Head Ringer’d and getting it out of the Active Spot will become a cumbersome (and, likely, repetitive) task.
While playing Houndoom, decks that have finite (Bronzong aside) Energy resources, such as Night March, Vespiquen, and Raichu are best dealt with by running those Energy dry and simply sweeping with a single mill attacker. Whether that’s done by trading Bunnelby for Joltik or taking Prizes off of Vespiquen doesn’t especially matter; what matters is that DCE bite the dust. In the case of Bronzong in either of the two Battle Compressor decks, it’s often a very legitimate strategy to Lysandre + KO it with Grand Flame. Alternatively, it’s viable to Lysandre + stall it — so, benching the line at all can be a double-edged sword for the Night March player.
Now, even with that said, both of those matchups are losable. If the opponent is able to capably utilize each DCE for an EX knockout, there’s one to spare. If a DCE lasts more than a single turn, it’s a disaster. If an opponent plays Bunnelby, I believe it’s obvious that the pitfalls can become numerous. Winnable, but also very, very losable.
Overall, as I’ve tried to impart, you’re fighting a resource war — and the Prize clock. It’s that dual opposition that makes the deck rather fragile, but also is a part of its dynamic strength. Like most other decks I’ve covered so far, if it hits enough favorable matchups, it can easily carry you to a City Championship victory.
Seven Swanna Swimming: Gallade/Octillery BKT
|
Pokémon – 16
|
Trainers – 37 4 Brigette 2 Lysandre 1 Judge 1 Korrina
1 Switch
|
Energy – 7 3 W |
If you’ve not caught my feeling yet, let me spell it out: Gallade BKT is one of the most format-defining Pokémon in the past few years. Obviously, in most circumstances, it’s used as a Maxie’s trick, but its potential extends well beyond that. This hasn’t exactly been a heavyweight at Cities, but it’s seen success about on par with its small level of play, so I thought I’d give it a look today.
The obvious goal is to use Gallade’s bulk, the only trait making it a viable attacking Stage 2, to withstand opposing 1HKOs while utilizing the many favorable attacking scenarios we’ve already examined. This list also has Fighting Stadium, Muscle Band, and Giovanni’s Scheme, allowing Gallade to easily reach the magic number of 170 (and stretch to 190) — good for knockouts on foes like Houndoom-EX, Manectric-EX (w/ Flash Energy), and Yveltal-EX.
Octillery serves as auxiliary drawpower, but with Premonition, draws can be well optimized. It’s in the strength of this combo that the deck derives its viability; otherwise, it would likely be too difficult to stream Gallade.
The list is a bit rough, as I’ve only recently begun experimenting with the deck after it saw mild success at a few Cities I attended. I’ve elected for a split in Remoraid. If there’s a particularly oppressive Stadium that needs removal, the option is there with Ion Pool, but more often I’d expect Wild River to be beneficial in protecting the precious Jet Pokémon.
The list is basically built to stream Gallade. Another option I considered was a Pyroar PHF line with Blacksmith and Entei AOR 14 to provide both an alternate attacker and a consistentgust option. I’ve elected for heightened consistency, but if you wanted to try that option, I’d cut things like the 3rd Remoraid, 2nd Lysandre, and 4th Trainers’ Mail.
Theoretically, this deck will do best against things that are utterly reliant on Shaymin (Raichu), weak to Fighting, or attempt to stream EX attackers (Tyrantrum). I would expect it to struggle against things like Vespiquen that can comfortably use Parallel City to remove its Shaymins, any kind of Item lock, or perhaps Night March.
An approach that could help some of those deficits, though at the expense of other positives of the deck, would be Training Center/Assault Vest. My issue with that approach is the gimmicky nature of Training Center — it would require some sort of Ninetales PRC trick to insure against the multitude of Stadiums that see play in today’s game. Something like that would certainly be entertaining, and maybe viable if we had 70-card decks, but as it is, I can’t see all of that fitting well enough to justify the benefit.
I’d discuss the matchups more in depth, but I believe it’s fairly straightforward how to play this. I’m not yet sure if it’s a world-beater, but it’s definitely something worth thinking about when faced with a metagame mostly consisting of Manectric and Yveltal.
Eight Mr. Mime a-Milking: M Mewtwo 64
|
Pokémon – 15 |
Trainers – 36 2 Lysandre 1 Judge 1 Professor Birch’s Observations 1 AZ
|
Energy – 9 5 D
|
This is what I’ve seen the most Cities success with, ironically. I will tip the hat to Jando Luna for inspiring me to try Zoroark with M Mewtwo, as the musings I detailed in my last article never really turned into anything substantiative. His success at an event I attended led me to try the combo, and I’ve now played it at two of my last three events to T8 and 9th-place finishes.
This is actually not the list I played for either of those events — for the Top 8 I had a 2nd Hex Maniac over the Zoroark BREAK, and for the unfortunate bubble, this list featured Pokémon Center Lady instead of AZ. Truly, it was more or less an tiredness-driven oversight that the BREAK was omitted from the first list, but I definitely wouldn’t make the Pokémon Center Lady choice again.
It bit me in the first round when Houndoom Mill opponent got the T1 Head Ringer on my Mewtwo, forcing me to simply attach the extra Energy in order to attack every time. Had I had AZ, I could’ve found a 2nd Mewtwo-EX, attached a Spirit Link, and been in much better shape. Moreover, I would’ve then been able to be more liberal with my use of Shaymin-EX in the matchup, as I would’ve been assured a way to remove it from the Active Spot. Instead, I lost by a single card. It’s small list choices like this that can greatly impact the flow of your tournament experience — I certainly couldn’t complain about my 9th-place finish, as that’s the typical outcome of losing Round 1.
I’ve taken a backwards way to get there, but this deck is designed with a metagame of Yveltal/Gallade and M Manectric-EX in mind. Decent matchups against M Sceptile, Tyrantrum, Lucario, and Vespiquen are good things to have, but it was the deck’s strength against those two that made it attractive.
The M Manectric matchup is certainly losable, but the speed with which you can set up an early knockout, hopefully ridding them of all Energy, can decide a game. One of my teammates and I played the matchup during my Top 8 run, and he simply scooped to my turn 2 Psychic Infinity for 190. That’s obviously not an every-game thing, but the fact that you can take 1HKOs, whereas they will never do so, turns it positive. The Pokémon Center Lady was originally included for this matchup, but it’s not really necessary — and the pitfalls have been described above.
Neither Vespiquen nor Night March are spectacular matchups, though it’s much easier to beat the former than the latter. If your meta projects to have a lot of Night March, please do yourself the favor of finding another deck. With Zoroark, the Vespiquen matchup does become a bit more winnable. Additionally, a M Mewtwo with Parallel City’s red side facing Vespiquen is rather durable — and a game state to pursue.
Speaking of Parallel City, I’ve found that, in this deck, I almost always play it with the blue side facing myself. The value of discarding your own Shaymin-EX, and reducing opposing Zoroark BKT damage, is substantial. That’s not to say the Giant Stump effect can’t be good on your opponent — just that it’s often more beneficial on yourself.
Overall, this is one of my favorite decks in the current format. Unfortunately, a very polar Night March matchup makes it an iffy play in an unknown metagame. I’ve been able to leverage Yveltal’s dominance in my region as reason to believe Night March will stay away. For the most part, that’s been correct, and I actually beat the only one I’ve played against due to his dead-draws. If you believe Night March is taking a back seat, this is a good deck to consider.
Nine Meloetta Dancing: Flareon/Vespiquen
carbink.tumblr.comToday, I’m only going to be covering the Expanded version of this deck. Friend and colleague Alex Hill expressed a strong desire to cover the list he and I have played for our Standard events, and I’m acquiescing. You’ll see that discussion on next week.
Now, with that said, I’d like to address the commentary in my last article: I still mostly stand by my assessment of Vespiquen’s vulnerability in the Standard format. Large and away, it simply is too frail in too many situations to see widespread success. It’s not nearly the deck that it is in Expanded, but, as Alex will explain, it does have a place in the format.
With that aside, I played Vespiquen at my Expanded event this past weekend, and I’d like to take a look at that list here.
|
Pokémon – 28
|
Trainers – 25 1 N 1 Colress 1 AZ 1 Lysandre
1 Town Map
|
Energy – 7 3 R |
There’s definitely not a shortage of weird decisions in this list. For that reason, rather than a narrative, I’m going to approach this as a point-by-point discussion:
2/2 Eevee Split
This decision was made to balance two separate issues Vespiquen has in Expanded: Kyogre-EX DEX and Archeops NVI. Playing all of either Eevee leaves you vulnerable to the alternative threat, so a split is needed. When you aren’t playing against either threat, I’ve found it advantageous to search/evolve the PLF one first, as it can be good late game to have Energy Evolution available. It both enables an Evolution out off of an N and the ability to bench, Energy Evolution, and Blacksmith all in one turn for a surprise attacker. That may seem rather fringe, but it’s more than the PLF version will offer you.
3 Vespiquen
Well, basically, we needed an extra spot and this was the best available cut. With Town Map, you can reasonably expect to have access to 6-of 7 available attackers, making the 8th a tad extraneous. Vespiquen was cut over Flareon due to Flareon’s Blacksmith compatibility.
Extremely good against a wide variety of decks, but in Expanded, its primary purpose is to mitigate Donphan’s arsenal of Tools. There’s great value in turning off Muscle Band — good luck stacking 3 Strong Energy on a Donphan — but greater value yet in turning off Focus Sash. Banette is also invaluable in almost any matchup, but the effect is especially great where a Spirit Link is involved.
What has to be balanced when playing against a deck with a Mega is whether the Banette line is more useful in the discard or in play. This often is a determination you’ll make during the initial deck search based on the number of Pokémon taking up residence in your Prize cards.
My #1 regret in the list. I went 3-3 on the day with this list, with all 3 losses coming to decks playing Vespiquen. In the two true mirror matches, I was winning both games until Enhanced Hammer/N shenanigans stole them from me. Having a Basic attacker to interrupt the stream of Stage 1s would’ve been invaluable in both games, and I was disadvantaged due to my opponent having this option and I lacking it. Would consider cutting the 3rd Sycamore or perhaps the Audino for it.
1 AZ
Didn’t really care for this in hindsight either. The idea is to have a reusable switch out; the reality is you hardly have any switch at all. Simply, you can’t afford to waste a Supporter on the effect. It’s only truly good as an emergency when you’re out of Energy or something of that nature. I’d rather fit a Switch and Float Stone, but space is so tight that this is an unfortunately necessary compromise.
As I’ve emphasized through most of the article, there’s definitely validity in placing Parallel City the “wrong” direction. This is even more true here where the -20 damage can be a major problem.
Life Dew played no small part in my aforementioned mirror losses. However, with the status of Tool Scrapper as a widespread inclusion throughout the format, I simply don’t believe Life Dew is particularly useful enough outside of mirror to justify its play over the consistency of Computer Search.
So far, it seems that this deck has been a staple in the Expanded format. I don’t expect that to change any time soon, and it perhaps may even get bigger prior to Regionals. Unlike Blastoise, I do believe its success is sustainable. It seems that this concept has been around forever, and to a degree, it has. For that reason, I don’t feel as though it’s necessary to delve too much into specific matchups — in my other Expanded profiles, I cover the Vespiquen matchup, so there’s no great need to reciprocate.
Given BLW–BKT is still a rather cloudy format, it’s difficult to completely assess a deck’s viability. Most of what I’ve been saying about decks’ viability in Expanded is based on conjecture and historical precedent, but once the entire player base turns its eyes toward the format, I believe things will begin to take greater shape.
Ten Arceus a-Leaping: M Sceptile-EX
|
Pokémon – 15 |
Trainers – 36 2 Lysandre 1 Professor Birch’s Observations 1 AZ 1 Judge
1 Switch
|
Energy – 9 9 G |
This is another deck that I don’t love, but it’s had some interesting results so far, so here it is. One such result: teammate Chris Derocher took Top 4 at the one City any of my group have played this list for. My list hasn’t really evolved too much since the deck started to exist, but there’re some things unusual here. The greatest strength of this deck is its healing/tanking capabilities, so I’ve played to maximize that here.
The 4th Spirit Link probably seems weird, but in the interest of maximizing (re-)setup speed, it’s worth playing. It also enables the use of AZ as more than a last-ditch healing card, as having the spare Spirit Link means the one lost by AZ won’t be sorely missed. Otherwise, the full set of Super Scoop Up make clear the intent of this deck.
I’m playing 1 of the Promo Sceptile-EX mostly due to its strength in mirror. Ariados has no effect, and M Sceptile falls just short of the 2HKO, so the 3 for 130 suddenly becomes an attractive option. There’s no harm in having the last-ditch Agility option either.
Virizion AOR is an unsatisfying use of a deck spot, but having absolutely no answer to Regice AOR is a risk not worth taking. It also has the benefit of forcing a 7th Prize, and can be used to 1HKO Shaymin in a pinch.
As I mentioned above, the strength of this deck is in its healing. For that reason, it’s inherently weak against anything that can 1-shot a Sceptile (or match its healing ways beat-for-beat). Being immune to Golbat/Crobat PHF damage is an enormous benefit, and that gives it generally positive matchups against things like Lucario-EX/Crobat. Being able to void Focus Sash with Ariados is beneficial as well.
Night March is likely to be troublesome for the exact reason I mentioned above: the 1HKO threat. However, if they prize even 2 Night Marchers, that threat dissipates. Then, the biggest concern becomes limiting exposure to easy Shaymin-EX knockouts. Vespiquen comes down to their ability to Lysandre for cheap Prizes. If they manage to steal a few easy Prizes, Sceptile probably can’t win. Should that fail to occur, there’s a decent chance of success.
Overall, the math to 1HKO Shaymin is perfect and the healing attractive, but I believe the metagame is trending the wrong way for this to see too much success. The next deck we’re going to discuss, Entei, is an obvious thorn in this one’s side — and it’s most definitely on the up-and-up. Barring a decided shift in the meta, I’m not really sure why I’d consider this for an event anytime soon.
Eleven Chatot Piping: Entei AOR/Charizard-EX
Every Cities season seems to have a deck that pops out midway through that transforms the metagame. Last year, that deck was Seismitoad-EX/Slurpuff PHF. This year, I believe Entei is well on its way to doing so.
|
Pokémon – 8 |
Trainers – 40 2 Lysandre 1 Xerosic 1 AZ
1 Eco Arm
|
Energy – 12 8 R |
The great strength of this deck is having a non-EX that can be adapted to have either the damage resiliency or damage output of an EX. Assault Vest can increase Entei’s “practical” HP to 210, and Muscle Band allows Entei to hit 170 with its second attack. Blacksmith allows blistering speed, and that’s another aspect of the deck’s strength. It’s not impractical to chain an Entei every turn if necessary.
However, that’s obviously not an ideal circumstance. Ideally, on the turn after you Blacksmith, a Lysandre will be forthcoming for 2 Prizes on a Shaymin. That’s the general blueprint for success, though, different matchups call for different responses. In the case of Night March and Vespiquen, there’s validity in using combinations of Giovanni’s Scheme, Muscle Band to chain knockouts with the first attack while using Assault Vest to make a return knockout very difficult to attain. Not only is that approach valid strategy, but also likely the best approach to winning those matchups.
AZ is an odd inclusion, but in the absence of all other Switch cards (or a niche for those cards to fill), it’s the best one available. Serving to clear Shaymin off your field is a nice secondary purpose, and Parallel City is here for that reason as well.
Against other decks, you often can win through sheer speed alone. When that doesn’t happen, your biggest foes will be things like Tyrantrum-EX that can consistently knockout an Entei. Your number one strategy at that point needs to be simply trying to chain Entei to trade with those EXs. If at any point you manage to one-hit an EX, your chances of success explode exponentially.
This deck is fairly decent against the various mill concepts making rounds due to the resource re-establishment offered by Blacksmith. Streaming attackers shouldn’t be terribly difficult, and as such, the biggest key to the mill matchups.
Charizard mostly acts as something with automatically-high damage output and decent HP. It’s also the only card in the deck that can hit 170 damage on the same turn as a Blacksmith is played, and there’s certainly value in that.
I’ve seen some lists omitting Battle Compressor, or, at a minimum limiting its count. I don’t really understand that notion, as I believe it’s invaluable to have the out to discarding Energy and a copy of Blacksmith on turn 1. Moreover, it allows you to empty the deck of unneeded cards later in the game. It’s also good for discarding the tech Supporters for easy use later in the game. Someone posited to me a few days ago that every good Standard deck has either 4 Battle Compressor or 4 Crushing Hammer. It’s an exaggeration to be sure, but it’s also not far off either. Too good not to run here.
The deck has too many must-runs for the list to be truly “flexible,” but it’s certainly a very sound concept. That lack of flexibility is something I typically loathe in a deck, as I tend to believe that as lists get closer to each other, luck’s role expands exponentially. Currently, I don’t have too much of an issue with that trait in this deck, as it’s relatively underrepresented. However, I expect this to begin to take off even more at Cities in the coming weeks, and that’s something that will likely scare me off to a degree.
Twelve Marchers Drumming: Night March
For our final deck today, we see one of the most philosophically polar decks in the TCG today — and possibly the worst pun in this article. Night March seems to, like no other, have both apologists and fervent detractors. Whatever side you fall on, it’s a deck that has had a nationwide presence in both Standard and Expanded events, so I’ll be taking a look at it in both formats here.
Standard
|
Pokémon – 18 |
Trainers – 35 2 Lysandre 1 Judge 1 Xerosic
1 Town Map
|
Energy – 7 3 M |
Bronzong is an absolute necessity in Standard, and the only question is whether a thicker line would be appropriate. I do think a 2-2 line is something worth exploring, but I’ve instead chosen to dedicate those spots to the Town Map and 4th Dimension Valley — things that help access the 1-1 line and minimize its necessity on a game-to-game basis.
Speaking of the 4th Dimension Valley, I know that some of you are raising your eyebrows right now, as there’s a thought process in some regions of the country that playing more than 3 is unneeded in Standard. However, my perspective is that it’s worth playing the 4th copy for bouncing opposing Stadiums/winning the Stadium war at large. It also allows Pumpkaboo to be more usable with Bronzong later in the game, which is well worth enabling. It’s also simply a relevant enough card to the strategy to want a full playset of.
Bronzong’s sizable Retreat Cost justifies the 2nd switch card. An AZ over the Escape Rope would be something worth exploring, but Escape Rope seems to have use in matchups like Entei/Charizard where you prefer not to fruitlessly attack into something with 200+ “HP.”
Xerosic is obviously great for Special Energy denial, but it’s really in here for dealing with Focus Sash. Lucario/Bats seems like a horrible matchup on paper, but it improves a great degree with such an inclusion — that is, unless they adapt properly. Quite honestly, once they determine you play Xerosic, there is no reason their strategy shouldn’t morph to simply using Skill Dive and Surprise/Sneaky Bite to deal with all of your Night Marchers and a Hawlucha knockout on Shaymin-EX. Should your opponent continue plugging away with Lucario (you’d be surprised how often it happens), you have a very real chance of winning.
Hex Maniac has been omitted because I simply don’t see many circumstances where I could use it and achieve greater utility than if I had used Teammates or Judge. Expanded is a different story with Archie’s Blastoise playing a prominent role, but Standard offers only Magnezone BKT as a comparison. If for some reason Magnezone is seeing play near you, I’d hope you were contemplating playing different deck rather than whether a Hex Manaic was justified in Night March. If there’s a Pyroar FLF in the room you feel extremely compelled to tech against, it’s a different story. However, there simply isn’t a deck in Standard that is completely shut down by a turn of Hex Manaic, so I wouldn’t include it for a general metagame.
Town Map, as I’ve alluded, is primarily for the Bronzong line. However, its use doesn’t end there. In Standard, with the lack of Mew-EX and Silver Bangle, every Night Marcher matters. Moreover, even with Bronzong, every DCE is an essential part of winning almost every game. The ability to draw the Prizes you need — when you need them — is incredibly valuable in any deck, but especially in one that is reliant on specific combinations of cards.
The last significant choice in the list is Bronzor. I believe the extra Retreat Cost is a worthwhile trade off for the extra 10 HP, and in matches with mirror and Vespiquen — often 1-Prize affairs by the end — it can act as an emergency last attacker. With only 3 Basic Energy, it’s not exceptionally likely that you’d be able to count on retreating Bronzor PHF with a single Metal anyway.
This deck’s matchups are some of the closer in the game at the moment. Yveltal XY is the antithesis to the deck, and there simply isn’t a better counter in existence. Any deck that wants to beat Night March badly enough could do it by simply playing 4 Yveltal/Recovery and benching nothing else. However, obviously, that’s not actually viable as a deck concept. I’ve found that, while Yveltal/Gallade and this deck typically trade pretty evenly, Yveltal will almost always come out on top unless there’re Shaymin-EX shenanigans.
That brings me to my next point: the single biggest issue with this deck is its own Shaymin-EX. If your opponent can Knock Out 3 Shaymin before you can take 6 Prizes, none of the attacker-streaming cards in this deck matter at all. Thus, it’s important to be conscious of where your opponent’s potential Prize cards are going to come from, and keep in mind how much time you have left to take your 6.
Otherwise, your matchups come down to planning 6 Prizes and executing. It’s obviously preferable to take out low-hanging fruit like Shaymin or basic forms of Megas before attempting to knockout 200+ HP juggernauts, or your resources will be thin in the late game. It’s discerning the right times to make those stretches that leads to success with this deck.
Expanded
|
Pokémon – 19 2 Mew-EX |
Trainers – 34 2 Lysandre 1 N
|
Energy – 7 3 P |
No Archeops? I’ve never been a huge fan of the tech, but especially now with Hex Manaic, I really don’t believe it impacts enough to truly justify its inclusion in here. The doubts are much the same as what I raised with Archeops in Yveltal. That decision leads me to play Dowsing Machine over Computer Search. Computer Search is primarily useful for hitting the last part of the Maxie’s or Archie’s combo, and that’s obviously not an issue here. So, I elect for the added out to a poor early-game discard.
Jirachi-EX is another Expanded mainstay that I’ve omitted here. I believe Battle Compressor is only marginally less effective for accessing tech Supporters, and given Jirachi’s status as a 90-HP liability, I’d rather not bench it. Shaymin at least has an attack that can clear itself from the board in cases of emergency.
Jirachi Promo is particularly useful with Mew-EX, as the matter of its low HP/keeping it Active become less relevant. With Mew, I would argue there’s a very real chance of beating even the more resilient Seismitoad variants. Given Seismitoad’s continued existence in that format, that makes the count of Jirachi worth upping. However, I would like to note: you’re liable to lose 6 Prizes before they run out of Energy and Lasers if you simply plug away with Stardust. Your best bet is to use Jirachi as a route to get Item access, and begin plugging away with Night March.
Psychic is the basic Energy of choice to allow Pumpkaboo + Muscle Band to Knock Out opposing Joltiks in the mirror. Coincidentally, it would allow a Latios-EX inclusion, but I simply don’t believe Latios to be more than a misguided gimmick in decks like this. If one did insist on such an inclusion, adding more Muscle Band would be a natural change.
I believe Vespiquen has an inherent advantage over this deck because of Night March’s reliance on attacking with Mew at least once in the game. That’s not to say it’s a lost cause, but that Night March is pre-disadvantaged in the Prize trade by that fact. This fact leads me to be skeptical of the deck’s Expanded outlook to a degree, but such unparalleled speed will always be playable to an extent. After all, we’re only two sets from this deck being the dominant concept at Worlds 2015.
Now, the above is simply due to its Vespiquen matchup. I do believe other decks have a real chance of falling to Night March, and as I said, speed of its nature is something unlikely to fade completely anytime soon. As we approach Regionals, this is a deck I’ll be keeping in mind, as its unparalleled consistency is attractive despite my fears with this one matchup.
Conclusion
pokemonscreenshots.tumblr.comTo those who are still with me, I hope you’ve garnered some useful insight in making deck choices for your upcoming tournaments. I’d be remiss to not briefly directly address the coming storm, which is marathon season. City marathons are my favorite part of the Pokémon season, and the nature of having 6 or 7 tournaments in a row is another aspect of why I chose this approach to writing today — many tournaments typically necessitate many decks. I know I’ve often had a quick need for decklists in the seemingly simple task of testing matchups, and on frantic, tired nights of marathon weeks, coming up with a list off the top of one’s head is not the easiest task. I hope to help fill that gap for anyone attending a marathon this year.
I’d much agree with something Ryan Sabelhaus wrote last week: don’t play the same deck for every tournament! You won’t do yourself any good by staying behind the pace of an evolving metagame, and I don’t believe I’ve ever played a marathon in which the metagame didn’t rapidly vary from day to day.
I’ll be in Dallas this coming week for its marathon, and know I’ll be seeing some of you there. In any event, I’ll be back early in January with a recap of how my tournaments went, and how to apply the acquired knowledge to future Cities. Hopefully, I’ll be able to help give some insight into the metagaming process that I strayed away from getting into today.
Until then, I wish you all the best of luck in your endeavors.
Christopher
…and that will conclude this Unlocked Underground article.
After 45 days, we unlock each Underground (UG/★) article for public viewing. New articles are reserved for Underground members.
Underground Members: Thank you for making this article possible!
Other Readers: Check out the FAQ if you are interested in joining Underground and gaining full access to our latest content.
Leave a Reply