pokemonscreenshots.tumblr.comHey everybody! Winter Regionals are (finally) done and I hope you were able to pull off a good run. If you were like me and bombed, fear not! There are still a lot of events left in the season and plenty of Championship Points that are left to be earned.
For now, we can mostly forget about Expanded and refocus on the Standard format. The results from the past few Regionals have actually had a lot of impact on my Standard testing pool as I’ve seen the sheer power of cards like Yveltal BKT and Trevenant BREAK. Additionally, the ECC (European Challenge Cup) highlighted the main threats in the stagnant metagame so we have a very good idea of what we’ll need to test against.
Christopher did a great job of covering most of the popular decks in his article last week so I’m going to talk about some of the decks that are flying under the radar. But before we jump right into the deck analysis, I have a few tips to consider as you test and craft decklists.
Musings on the Standard Format
1. Don’t Be Delinquent
This is something that I’ve had to learn the hard way from testing with BKP legal is to do all you can to have more than 3 cards in your hand. Delinquent can come out at any time and discard a sizeable chunk of your hand. Especially in a format without N, it is often better to not use Ultra Ball to discard unwanted resources to instead pad your hand size and keep more than 3 cards.
Often, you can’t help but put yourself in situations where a Delinquent will get rid of your whole hand. And even sometimes when you have more than 3 cards in hand, a Delinquent can completely decimate your game plan or eliminate all of your remaining win conditions. Just know that there is always the potential for your opponent to disrupt your hand and try to play around it when possible.
2. The Pieces Fit
One of the most impactful cards from BREAKpoint is Puzzle of Time. It has drastically changed how I build decks and how I play each game. For the first time in about a year, I feel comfortable with dropping my VS Seeker count lower than 4 in every non-Vileplume deck. I know that Puzzle of Time isn’t the same as VS Seeker but I can use it as another out to get the game-winning Lysandre or other Supporter when I really need it.
Puzzle of Time also lets me play more tech cards in my decklists. Since I can grab a card like Startling Megaphone or a 1-of Stadium like Faded Town at the crucial point in a game, I’m more likely to include them in a list. In game, I like to discard these kinds of cards early, knowing that I can find them more easily this way than if they were in my deck. Don’t be afraid to dump your resources in decks that utilize Puzzle of Time!
3. It’s Tool Time!
freewebs.comPokémon Tools are more prevalent in the format currently than they have been since at least 2010. Fighting Fury Belt may seem slightly underwhelming after the +20 damage from Muscle Band has been utilized in nearly every deck for the past two years. Don’t be disillusioned with the card because of the perceived slight damage reduction.
Back in 2010 and 2011, we had Expert Belt, a card that provided a similar combination of damage and HP boosts. Expert Belt was heavily played in those formats and it even had the drawback of giving up an extra Prize when the Pokémon it was attached to got Knocked Out! Fighting Fury Belt is almost strictly better with benefit of +40 HP vs +20 HP. It will certainly be played in many different decks to boost damage output as well as stifling 1HKOs.
Bursting Balloon also has the potential to shake up the format. The most obvious partner is Trevenant as it has good synergy with Item lock, limiting your opponent’s chances to discard the Tool. Trevenant BREAK also benefits from the card as it helps to build up damage on your opponent’s board with your spread damage.
Seismitoad-EX is another card that will see a lot of impact from Bursting Balloon. Jirachi XY67 is no longer a perfect answer for decks that struggle with Quaking Punch. Discarding a DCE is usually not worth giving up a knockout, especially with Puzzle of Time giving you easy access to your spent resources.
On the flip side, Bursting Balloon can be pretty hard for Seismitoad to deal with if your opponent gets one attached before you can use Quaking Punch. Taking 60 damage is a tough price to pay for establishing Item lock, especially if your opponent is playing a deck that is resilient to that kind of a lock. If you choose to hold off for a turn, they could just drop another Balloon, potentially buying themselves another turn of Items.
I highlight these two cards to illustrate just how strong Tools are in the new format, especially when you consider the options we already had, mainly Muscle Band and Float Stone. Nearly every deck will need to play something to mitigate the usefulness that their opponent gets out of different Tool cards.
Xerosic and Startling Megaphone are the two main options, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. I really like Yveltal BKT in the new format as it’s more searchable than Startling Megaphone and doesn’t demand the use of your Supporter for the turn like Xerosic. It obviously doesn’t actually discard any Tools but the main use is to turn off a Fighting Fury Belt for a turn after the Pokémon it’s attached to has enough damage built up on it for a knockout.
Obviously you shouldn’t play a Yveltal BKT in every deck but I would recommend a copy in any deck that plays D Energy. No matter what deck you’re building, make sure you give yourself a way to deal with your opponent’s Tool cards.
Now that we’re thinking about the format in the right way, let’s look at some decks that have been played before but get some new tricks with the release of BREAKpoint!
Meta Updates
ebay.comVespiquen/Night March
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Pokémon – 26 |
Trainers – 30 1 Lysandre 1 Judge 1 Xerosic
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Energy – 4 |
I’m not sure if this deck is really much better than a more conventional Night March deck. The main advantage that it has is a way to deal with Jolteon-EX without relying on a Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick to get out Garchomp BKP. Using Vespiquen in addition to Pumpkaboo and Joltik also means that you’ll almost never run out of attackers without having to use Milotic, Buddy-Buddy Rescue, or Super Rod.
Vespiquen also provides a solid answer to Seismitoad-EX. As I mentioned earlier, Jirachi XY67 is fairly useless now so I cut it from the list (as well as every other list in this article). Provided you can set up under the Item lock, Vespiquen should be able to easily sweep through a field of Seismitoad, even with a small number of Pokémon in the discard pile. Traditional Night March decks often struggle against Seismitoad unless they get enough resources down T1 to stream 1HKOs for 3 turns.
Most of this list is pretty straightforward, playing 26 Pokémon and a large core of essential Trainer cards leaves little room for other techs. The techs I did add are mostly to cover game-ending weaknesses that the deck has. Xerosic and Enhanced Hammer are used as a way to get around Giratina-EX’s Chaos Wheel. Either by using them both together or by using Puzzle of Time to play 2 Enhanced Hammer in the same turn, you can typically guarantee a turn where you can attach Special Energy cards. Of course, this won’t work if they use other Energy acceleration like Max Elixir or Bronzong. However, I expect that Giratina is most likely to be played in a Seismitoad/Giratina deck, if at all.
Hex Maniac is a card I’ve always liked but here it’s included to counter an Aegislash-EX that could otherwise singlehandedly defeat you. I also use it to get a crucial turn of Items against Trevenant and Vileplume decks. Parallel City helps you to win against other non-EX decks and is now better than ever with Puzzle of Time to use it multiple times or grab it after you had to discard it early. Startling Megaphone is very helpful against Fighting Fury Belt, a card that could otherwise prevent you from getting key knockouts since your damage output is strictly capped.
This is a deck I’ll be looking at if I think that Trevenant won’t be played too highly. It has a strong matchup against most Yveltal variants as well as Manectric decks. Night March variants were the top performers at Cities and I expect that success to carry over to States as well.
Yveltal/Garbodor/Delinquent
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Pokémon – 14 |
Trainers – 35 2 Lysandre 1 Xerosic 1 Judge
1 Red Card
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Energy – 11 7 D |
Garbodor, my old friend. It’s been a while. This is a very new approach to an old favorite. Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank City Gym are no longer in the format, leaving us with far fewer options to control the game state. Instead, I have introduced a different way to take hold of a match — hand control. By using Delinquent in conjunction with Garbodor, Red Card, and/or Seismitoad-EX, you will severely limit your opponent’s options.
This deck has several other ways to disrupt your opponent’s game plan. Xerosic and Team Flare Grunt can starve them of Energy in the turns following a Delinquent. Parallel City gives you insurance against a Shaymin-EX they may topdeck, provided you don’t already have a Garbodor down. It can also force them into a far from ideal game state where they don’t have their preferred attacker in play. Startling Megaphone and Enhanced Hammer provide solutions to immediate problems in games that you can’t completely control. And the support from Puzzle of Time makes this all possible by recycling the necessary resources.
Of course, this deck can also function without total control of the game state. The three different Yveltal cards are some of the best attackers we’ve ever seen in the game. Garbotoxin has ruled over different formats for the past two years and this one isn’t any different. This new Yveltal/Garbodor deck might not be able to keep up with all of the fastest decks in the format but it has the consistency and the options to deal with a large majority of it.
Malamar-EX and Darkrai-EX may seem slightly out of place in this deck but they serve very important roles. Darkrai gives you a way to deal with Lightning-type attackers and has the potential to sweep through your opponent’s field late in the game if you play your (Energy) cards right. Malamar is used as a soft counter to Jolteon-EX, something that we would otherwise have potentially no way to defeat. If they do bench other Pokémon, Escape Rope and Lysandre can get around Jolteon’s protection. If they don’t, make sure that you don’t play a Tool on Garbodor to shut off Hyper Hypnosis!
This is the deck that I’m most interested in testing over the next couple of weeks. It’s not the same kind of total control deck that we’ve seen like Trevenant/Accelgor but instead is more versatile. I think it has a real chance to thrive in a metagame where Night March doesn’t flourish.
Entei
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Pokémon – 9 |
Trainers – 39 2 Lysandre
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Energy – 12 8 R |
I’m not sure that this deck has a real chance in the new format but here’s how I would play it. This list is very similar to the list that Christopher Schemanske saw success with in the Texas Marathon. Unfortunately I had to cut the Pokémon Catcher that he added but the space was needed to fit in Puzzle of Time. I never liked Eco Arm but it is obvious that the deck needs a way to recover Tools.
Playing Puzzle of Time also lets you slightly diversify your Tool arsenal. Bursting Balloon is a nice new addition to increase your damage output at crucial turns or dissuade your opponent from attacking you. I have thought about adding Fighting Fury Belt but it is largely unnecessary since you can already attach Muscle Band and Assault Vest to the same Entei. However, if the new Darkrai-EX starts to pick up steam, I could see Fighting Fury Belt giving Entei some more sustainability.
The rest of this list is very standard so I won’t dwell on it much longer. Entei has two major problems in this format. First, Seismitoad-EX is stronger now than it was during Cities and Trevenant is one of the best decks so it can be difficult for an Item-based deck to set up. Second, Tool removal is more important than ever. Entei doesn’t even need to be specifically countered to do poorly. However, I think this deck is worth testing against and may still have the tools (haha, get it?) to do well in the right metagame.
My favorite part about switching over to the Standard format now is the vast number of new decks that seem poised to make an impact. When BREAKpoint was first announced, I was pretty underwhelmed by the lack of options I thought that it would bring to the format. However, I have been pleasantly surprised by the new decks that are now potential contenders. Lets take a look at a few of my favorites.
New Decks!
pixiv.netGreninja
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Pokémon – 18 4 Froakie XY03 |
Trainers – 34 2 Wally 1 Professor Birch’s Observations 1 Judge 1 Lysandre
1 Switch
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Energy – 8 8 W |
Greninja is a deck that I experimented with briefly before Nationals 2014. The ability to place 3 damage counters on a Pokémon once a turn for every Greninja you had on the board was incredibly strong then and still is today. With the release of BREAKpoint, there are tons of new options available for Greninja decks to more reliably set up and deal more damage.
It’s still strange for me to see a list with a Pokémon line as thick this but it’s for a good reason. Frogadier has one of the best setup attacks we’ve seen in a long time, allowing for an explosive start in nearly every match. Froakie is maxed out as well to give you the best chance to get off an early Water Duplicates. With Wally, you can even do it on the first turn of the game!
Once you do fill your board with Frogadier, you have two options to evolve into. Typically, I like to evolve the Active Frogadier into Greninja BKP to start the Ability lock as soon as possible. With a full set of Dive Ball, it’s easy to find exactly the Greninja you need at any given time.
After a few turns, you have plenty of Greninja down and several BREAK evolved as well, meaning you just need to find as much Energy cards as possible. This list has tons of different ways to grab Energy from Fisherman to Energy Retrieval and Professor’s Letter. Once again, Puzzle of Time shines here to give you good ways to grab all of the Energy cards you need.
This list is pretty straightforward other than the long list of 1-of Item cards. Each one is incredibly situational but can impact the game state tremendously when played at the right time. Octillery helps to draw into them and Puzzle of Time retrieves them once they hit the discard pile so there isn’t usually a ton of trouble with finding them. You don’t play any Pokémon-EX so you have the time to manipulate a game into the perfect position.
I haven’t yet put a lot of time into testing this deck but it is obviously very strong. Being able to fairly easily drop 12 damage counters on your opponent’s board before attacking is almost unheard of, especially without having to utilize any Pokémon-EX. I’m not sure how it will fare in the metagame as I’m skeptical about how well it can do against Item-lock decks. However, it should easily prey on most other decks. Be sure to give Greninja a try in the coming weeks.
Seismitoad/Slowking
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Pokémon – 12 |
Trainers – 41 2 Lysandre 1 AZ 1 Xerosic 1 Judge
2 Head Ringer 1 Switch
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Energy – 7 3 W
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Seismitoad-EX has been one of my favorite cards of the past few years. It’s typically my go-to when I start testing a new format. Item lock is and always will be incredibly powerful. Now that we can use Bursting Balloon to stop Jirachi from completely shutting us down, I think Seismitoad has a much better chance to thrive in this format.
I’m trying out Slowking as Seismitoad’s new partner. Instead of using Crushing or Enhanced Hammer, I’ve seen success with just moving those Energy cards to undesirable Pokémon like Shaymin-EX. You have to be deliberate when moving Energy off of your opponent’s Active Pokémon though. Against a deck like Trevenant, you want to completely run them out of Energy. If they only have basic Energy, make sure not to move too many to a single Shaymin-EX. If you do, they can Sky Return to save their Energy without losing much of their board position.
I’m thinking about adding a Team Flare Grunt to help against Trevenant or other decks that function with cheaper attacks. If your opponent uses any of the new, typed, Special Energy cards like Strong and Mystery Energy, you can freely move them to Shaymin to have them discarded.
Delinquent makes an appearance here once again. It would be a shame not to play it as another way to control the game state and limit your opponent’s options. In many games, the combination of Delinquent and Quaking Punch buys me enough turns to take a commanding lead. The Stadiums in this list are mainly to deal with M Manectric but I also like Silent Lab to counter Shaymin-EX or other Basic Pokémon at crucial points in the game. One scenario that has come up in testing is where an opposing Wobbuffet is shutting off my Slowking’s Ability. Silent Lab turns off Bide Barricade, but unlike Garbodor, still lets me use Slowking’s Royal Flash.
Lugia-EX is deceptively good in this deck. After I build up Energy cards on a Benched Pokémon, Lugia can come in and easily Knock them Out. This can be done all in one turn with a successful flip on Royal Flash paired with a Lysandre, making it an easy way to eliminate a potential threat. Deep Hurricane is also a surprisingly viable option to close out a game and Puzzle of Time lets you retrieve any Stadiums discarded in this way if you have to use it early in the game.
Seismitoad/Slowking could also be played in a more similar vein to the Seismitoad/Giratina decks that saw some success at Cities. By cutting out the W Energy for Double Dragon, and the Lugia-EX and a Delinquent for a pair of Giratina-EX, you could further restrict your opponent’s desired Energy placements. I don’t think this is quite as strong given the way that the other components of the deck already stifle many of your opponent’s options but it is worth considering if you have the time to test it.
The main problem with Seismitoad that I’ve found so far is Trevenant. The damage spread from Trevenant BREAK combined with Trevenant XY shutting off your Super Scoop Up that you would want to use for recovery is usually too much to handle. Your damage output is too limited and you can’t do enough to stop them from getting off 4-6 Silent Fear attacks. In addition, the resurgence of Trevenant will probably lead to more people playing M Manectric and less people playing Night March. As much as I want Seismitoad to be good, I’m not sure that the format is all that welcoming for it. But if things change, I’m confident that a list similar to this one will be very strong.
Two Shades of Jolteon-EX
pokemontime.tumblr.comThe last two decks I want to showcase are a couple of Jolteon-EX variants. Jolteon came out in the Generations side set and is seeing astronomical levels of hype. It’s easy to see why; the game has revolved around Basic Pokémon for over four years. Immunity to all Basics with an attractive attack cost and free retreat makes for a very powerful attacker. Here are the ways that I’m trying to use Jolteon:
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Pokémon – 17 |
Trainers – 31 2 Lysandre 2 Brigette 1 Judge 1 Xerosic
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Energy – 12 3 M 3 L 2 F |
This list is based off of a deck that a local player saw some good success with during Cities. The main idea is pretty simple — use Bronzong for Energy acceleration and then Smeargle can turn those M Energy cards into whatever type you need for your attacker. His list was using Stunfisk BKT but Jolteon-EX is a much better addition in its place.
Lugia was the main attacker in this deck before we added Jolteon and it’s still going to play a big part in the strategy. However, many decks will be easily dispatched by Jolteon and its immunity. Gallade and Garchomp are two of the biggest threats to this strategy and that’s where Lugia comes in. It has Resistance to both of them and easily 1HKOs them both with Deep Hurricane. The other popular Pokémon that can attack Jolteon is M Manectric-EX but Regirock covers that weakness very well. Theoretically, these three Pokémon deal with a large portion of the format.
One of the biggest problems with this deck is its speed. You typically want to use Brigette in the early turns to set up. From there, you need a few more turns to get Energy in the discard pile, evolve your Bronzor, and get the necessary attackers down on the board. Decks like Night March can capitalize on this. If you’re too slow, Jolteon-EX might not even be enough to win a seemingly auto-win matchup. Let’s take a look at my other approach to see how we could handle these speed problems.
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Pokémon – 11 |
Trainers – 37 2 Lysandre 1 Judge
2 Switch
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Energy – 12 5 L 3 F |
Now, this deck is actually really exciting for me. It reminds me of the old 4-Corners deck that was played in late 2011. Those types of decks often played Electrode Prime for Energy acceleration but now, we have something much better. Max Elixir is one of the best Energy accelerators the game has ever had. It can be splashed into almost any deck as long as you include enough Energy to make it worthwhile.
This list plays a speed engine focused on whittling down the cards in your deck to maximize your chances to find an Energy card with Max Elixir. One addition that I made after playing a few games was a Super Rod to further increase your odds of success with Max Elixir later in the game. I really like using Puzzle of Time to grab a Max Elixir and a Super Rod on turns where I really need to find an Energy. You can even use Smeargle to swap out your Energy cards and put the necessary ones back into your deck.
Rough Seas is the Stadium of choice in this deck, mostly to turn Trevenant even further into your favor. They will struggle to knock your Jolteon out while you 2HKO most of their deck, especially if you find a way to attach a Muscle Band. Rough Seas also deals with damage from Golbat and Crobat that might try to whittle your Jolteon down. There might be a better Stadium out there, I want to test with Parallel City or Silent Lab in the near future.
This deck seems to have all of the answers to the popular decks in the format. It’s definitely high on my list for the first weekend of States. The sheer power of Jolteon-EX is so appealing, it would be a shame to ignore it. Any unprepared player will certainly be unable to beat it. Make sure you don’t make that mistake no matter what deck you choose to play.
Conclusion
I can’t believe that State Championships start in less than two weeks! They have definitely snuck up on me this year. I got a good start on my testing this past weekend but I’m still feeling fairly unprepared. Ideally the metagame will develop quickly so we can narrow down our focus.
I’ll be playing in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio’s State Championships in the next few months. I wish you all the best in whatever States you are able to get to. Hopefully you can finish off those invites in these next few weeks. Take care!
Alex
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