What’s going on SixPrizes! It’s been about a month since my last article when I highlighted my top plays for Spring Regionals and for today I thought I’d deviate from my normal offering of tier lists and top decks. Instead, I’ll be providing a recap of my Georgia Regionals experience along with predictions on how the top decks will change with the release of Fates Collide. To round out the piece, I’ll be sharing some of my rogue decklists which might be able to make a splash during this final week of Spring Regionals. This article will be strictly Expanded as my next article will provide the Standard lists I’ll be testing heavily in preparation for US Nationals.
Contents
Georgia Report
Traveling to Georgia Regionals, I knew I wanted to play an Yveltal variant similar to that of the list Brad Curcio and I played at Florida Regionals because Trevenant BREAK is the best deck in the format (in my eyes, anyway) and its skill cap is relatively low, meaning many players can pilot it without needing too much experience.
Knowing my area favored Mega Rayquaza, I wanted to include 2 Parallel City instead of 2 Reverse Valley but chose not to after some discussion with Brad Curcio and William Herman regarding how important Reverse Valley is in the Yveltal mirror match. We opted instead to play a 2nd Maxie’s, 2nd Gallade, and no Archeops since we thought the meta would be filled with more Basic-oriented decks and most of those matchups can be handled if we get both Gallade on board.
Here’s the list I ended up playing for Georgia Regionals:
|
Pokémon – 12 1 Yveltal XY 2 Gallade BKT |
Trainers – 37 3 Professor Sycamore
4 VS Seeker 2 Fighting Fury Belt
|
Energy – 11 7 D |
Round 1: Turbo Darkrai (LL)
Game Plan: After revealing his opening turn Max Elixir, I knew I was playing against Turbo Darkrai so from the get-go my thought process was to get a Gallade online and set up a backup attacker to deal with a potential Mewtwo-EX. Until the Maxie’s combo drops, I want to use a combination of Silent Lab and Yveltal BKT to pressure any attackers played on the Bench. I also refrain from ever attaching more than 1 Energy onto Yveltal-EX as I don’t want it to get Lysandre’d for an early KO from an opposing Evil Ball and put me into a position where I need to use a 3-Energy attacker like Yveltal BKT or Darkrai-EX to combat them.
Game 1: My opponent started with an amazing hand of Ultra Ball, Trainers’ Mail, Battle Compressor, and Dark Patch to get his field loaded and he ultimately drew a VS Seeker to Ghetsis my hand dead. I believe I lost 5 cards and drew only Energies the following turn to lose.
Game 2: I’m unable to get the turn 1 Maxie’s combo so I go for a Ghetsis instead which nets me 2 cards. I see my opponent has an N in hand which made my turn relatively moot. He noticed I didn’t have much of a follow-up after my Ghetsis and chose to be patient and hold off using N.
A few more turns go by without any attacks and only minor Energy attachments until he draws a Professor Juniper and starts attacking with Darkrai-EX BKP. I end up with a hand of Professor Sycamore and 3 VS Seeker after I use an N.
I believe I might have forced my Maxie’s play a little too much. Twice I set up my hand to get the combo if I drew a playable card for my next turn and both times I was punished with an unplayable Stadium or extra Supporter.
Round 2: Seismitoad/Giratina (WW)
Game Plan: I believe this matchup is favored for Yveltal as Yveltal-EX does massive damage to Giratina-EX and Seismitoad-EX but it’s imperative to Keldeo-EX down as soon as possible and make sure to never play down my own Silent Lab. After turn 1, I believe it does more harm than good by cutting off Dark Cloak and Fright Night which are crucial to denying Toad/Tina Prizes and Poison damage. I make sure on my first Compressor to check if I have access to Dark Cloak and AZ because those cards could be critical toward Prize denial should the game draw out and I need Shaymin-EX or Jirachi-EX to bail me out of a tough spot.
Game 1: I get a turn 1 Yveltal BKT and Yveltal-EX loaded with Dark Patches and am able to follow up with a turn 2 Keldeo-EX with Float Stone which slowly wins me the match from there. I controlled the tempo of his board multiple times via Yveltal BKT; he couldn’t use his Keldeo to swap out his attackers and slowly lost control.
Game 2: He opened a Giratina-EX to my Darkrai-EX BKP. I’m able to get a turn 1 Dark Pulse with Fighting Fury Belt, Reverse Valley, and 3 Dark Patches onto my Bench to get a 2HKO on his Giratina-EX. I proceed to sweep the game from there.
Round 3: No-show
We had lunch break after Round 2 and my opponent decided not to show up; he wanted to take his time to eat.
Round 4: Mega Rayquaza (LWT)
Game Plan: Much like every matchup, a turn 1 Ghetsis is devastating but I believe this is one of the three bad matchups for Yveltal and hitting the turn 1 Ghetsis/Silent Lab combo is the best way to swing the early game into my favor. I wanted to use Yveltal BKT to shut off his Spirit Links and Lysandre to bring up Hoopa-EX on turn 2 or 3 so he’d be forced to work around Fright Night to retreat, which usually means he’ll need AZ.
Game 1: He wins the coin flip and is able to turn 1 Ghetsis me into a dead hand. I draw Energy for the next two turns and lose.
Game 2: I open with my own turn 1 Ghetsis and drop 4 cards out of his hand. I then load up an Yveltal-EX with a combination of Dark Patch and DCE to take out his lone Rayquaza-EX in the following turns.
Game 3: He opens with a turn 1 Ghetsis and drops 2 cards from my hand. Luckily, I opened with an N so the game isn’t completely over and he has almost no follow-up. I draw for the turn and get a Professor Sycamore and attach to my Active Fright Night and bench a few of my backup EX attackers. He draws and still has quite an underwhelming hand and I’m able to pressure with Yveltal BKT on his Shaymin-EX, Hoopa-EX, and 2 Mega Rayquaza.
I make the mistake of hitting the 2 Mega Rayquaza, thinking he’ll attack with them and I can then follow up with Yveltal-EX to clean up. He correctly notices the win is out of reach and plays for the tie. We’re heading close to time and I’m rushing my plays as I believe I can end the game once I get Lysandre in the discard, but once I finally get a Compressor I notice the Lysandre is prized and if he plays at a slow pace and retreats or uses AZ I might not be able to finish.
Time finally gets called and I’m out of options to take 4 Prizes and we end in a draw. I’m a tad bit upset over the Lysandre being in my Prizes but I know my opponent did not slow play for the tie; he merely played to it as his most optimal match outcome.
Looking back, had I not attacked the Mega Rayquaza twice and just pressured it using Darkrai-EX or Yveltal-EX I would’ve pulled the Lysandre off my next 2 Prizes and found a way to take out the final Rayquaza or Hoopa in the final two turns of time.
Round 5: Trevenant BREAK (WW)
Game Plan: I’m playing my friend William Herrmann piloting Trevenant BREAK and I know he doesn’t play Weakness Policy or Crushing Hammers so I’m favored if I don’t dead-draw Items and optimize my Bench correctly. Much like every deck vs Trevenant, I want to use as many Items as I can on my first turn then save any VS Seeker I draw to grab Lysandre back the same turn I use it to break Forest’s Curse. Getting a turn 1 Keldeo and Float Stone is critical and hitting a turn 1 Gallade would help the matchup immensely.
Game 1: He wins the coin flip but misses Wally and I get a turn of Items. I draw a near-perfect opening where I end with a hand full of Energy and Professor Sycamore, a Keldeo-EX with a Float Stone, an Yveltal XY in the Active with Energy, and a Benched Yveltal BKT with a D Energy. Sadly, I prized Darkrai-EX LTR so I have to play accordingly with my attackers and Rush In.
We’re in a joking, lighthearted mood as he knows I opened up super strong but a nice N and Wobbuffet with Bursting Balloon stall my plays the following turn. In my eyes, using an Oblivion Wing to damage a Wobbuffet with Bursting Balloon would put myself in an awful position to be revenge KO’d and I’d get little benefit from the extra Energy attachment so I chose to be patient. He finally gets 2 Trevenant BREAK online and manages to remove the Energy from my Yveltal twice with Team Flare Grunt but I drew into another Energy and Yveltal-EX began sweeping his Trevenants. He scooped once I AZ’d that same Yveltal-EX with 150 damage on it.
Game 2: He hit a turn 1 Trevenant this time but I opened with a Darkrai-EX BKP and a Professor Sycamore which got me a Lysandre, Battle Compressor, and 2 Dark Patch. On turn 2 I’m able to get a 1HKO on his Trevenant and he scoops shortly thereafter.
Round 6: Damage Change Mega Mewtwo (LWW)
Game Plan: He opened with a Mewtwo-EX LTR so my initial assumptions are “Turbo Darkrai.” He proceeds to attach a P Energy and Spirit Link and in my head I’m thinking “What is this madness?!?” Since he had P Energy, I assumed it was going to be Damage Change so my game plan started to build as follows:
Get Yveltal BKT in the Active ASAP to force him to Mega Evolve without the Link effect. Build up a Darkrai-EX BKP with Fury Belt then Dark Patch only 1 Energy to each of my Yveltal attackers or keep them in hand. If he overextends Energy on a Mega Mewtwo then punish with a hefty Evil Ball. If I’m able to get off 2 Pitch-Black Spear on 2 Mewtwo-EX, I want to keep any Jirachi-EX or Shaymin-EX off the Bench as a simple Lysandre/Damage Change on either one would snatch away any chance of winning.
Game 1: He opens the Mewtwo-EX, attaches a Spirit Link and P Energy then plays Jirachi-EX to search for Ghetsis and drops my hand down to 1 card. I draw Energy the next two turns and lose.
Game 2: I get a solid opening but miss my Yveltal BKT and I have to play to my Yveltal-EX as the only attacker. He gets a quick Mega Mewtwo-EX online and puts early pressure on me. I finally get to a Yveltal BKT on turn 3, Dark Patch to it, and force some small damage on the Mega with Pitch-Black Spear. We trade back and forth with him dropping Yveltal BKT then I bring up Yveltal-EX to revenge-KO it. The following turn he makes another M Mewtwo-EX and drops my Yveltal-EX for a quick KO.
I’m in a tough spot where I cannot reach a KO with a fresh Yveltal-EX and Yveltal BKT is going to get instantly KO’d should I attack with it, leaving him with 2 Prizes. I figured since he has a Benched Mewtwo-EX with a Spirit Link he may end up Mega Evolving with Fright Night Active and I’ll make my way back in the game. I use Pitch-Black Spear to poke the Active Mewtwo-EX and Benched Shaymin-EX.
He draws and Mega Evolves with Yveltal BKT Active. I inform him his turn just ended and he graciously says “Oh wow I messed up” and is perfectly fine with ending his turn. This felt sort of mean to do but it is the game plan I needed to follow in order to overcome this tough matchup. My opponent being a great competitor understood and stated it was his mistake. We proceeded to play on with me taking a KO on Shaymin-EX. A little later, my loaded Yveltal-EX KO’d the fresh Mega.
Game 3: He starts off slowly and misses Links to attach to his Mewtwo-EX and I’m able to get some early damage in with Darkrai-EX BKP. The following turns I Dark Patch to Yveltal BKT and Yveltal-EX then keep applying pressure until he finally makes a Mega with 6 Prizes left to my 2 then takes a KO. I put 8 Energy on my Yveltal-EX with a Fighting Fury Belt and Reverse Valley in play and unleash a huge Evil Ball.
His following turn he’s stuck in an awkward spot where he needs a Spirit Link and Mega to KO my Yveltal-EX. He’s forced to use Shaymin-EX’s Set Up with 1-of his final 2 Mega Mewtwo in hand. He sadly draws into the second Mega and his only Supporter for the turn is Professor Sycamore so he scoops and tells me about the situation.
We discuss if he should have just gone for the Sycamore instead of the Set Up but since he played VS Seeker and Skyla he had better chances of hitting the Spirit Link than he did getting the 2nd Mega. I chalked it up to bad luck and he agreed as we both think using Set Up was still the most optimal route to getting where he needed to with the Mega.
Round 7: Raikou/Eelektrik (WW)
Game Plan: This matchup is extremely simple. Use Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick to get out Gallade BKT and sweep his board with it. In the meantime, try to use Darkrai-EX LTR with a Fighting Fury Belt to Lysandre and take quick KOs on Eelektrik should the opportunity present itself.
Game 1: He opens fairly well and gets 2 Tynamo down with a Raikou Active. I get a turn 1 Gallade and retreat to a Keldeo-EX. The following turn he couldn’t get any Energy in his discard pile after evolving to Eelektrik and I miss my DCE for Gallade. I instead begin attacking with my Darkrai-EX BKP and my opponent soon realizes he prized all his Battle Compressor. His deck gets extremely thin about two turns later and he uses Colress to deck himself out.
Game 2: After Game 1 we have a short discussion about how tired he is and he’s not looking forward to this next game. I get another turn 1 Gallade and he scoops on turn 3 after realizing he wouldn’t be able to stop it.
Round 8: Trevenant BREAK (LWT)
Game 1: I open with a Jirachi-EX and have an extremely slow start due to my opponent’s Active Wobbuffet. Once I get some attackers online with Yveltal XY he is able to use Team Flare Grunt to remove most of the Energy I’ve drawn and he puts me in an awful board position.
Game 2: I get a decent start and a turn 1 Ghetsis which brings him down to just a Lysandre in hand and he needs to get lucky in order to make it a long game. He draws and passes then I attack his Wobbuffet with Yveltal XY and he draws a Sycamore to bring himself back in the game. We play a drawn-out game with me using Darkrai-EX BKP to sweep two of his Trevenant BREAK and he eventually decks out without being able to take the final 4 Prizes.
Game 3: We go into time on turn 3 and realize neither of us are going to take 6 Prizes or Bench out so it’s going to be a tie which we accept.
Round 9: Night March (LWL)
Game Plan: I believe this matchup is extremely close and I’ll need to use Ghetsis early to prevent him from going off and taking extremely quick KOs. I plan to use both my Darkrai-EX with Fighting Fury Belt to force awkward exchanges (thanks to Psychic Resistance) then use Yveltal XY to KO any Joltik or Pumpkaboo without Fighting Fury Belt. The plan could also be to hit a Night Marcher with Fury Belt attached with an Oblivion Wing then promote Yveltal BKT to KO it going into my turn.
Game 1: He gets an amazing start with 3 Battle Compressor, Professor Sycamore, and Shaymin-EX. I opened up Jirachi-EX so the game is over by turn 3 without any chance of me using N to draw out the game.
Game 2: I’m able to get my game plan going with a Darkrai-EX BKP and Darkrai-EX LTR early which puts me at a lead of 3 Prizes to 6. He finally gets enough Night Marchers in the discard pile to 1-shot my Darkrai-EX LTR and slowly starts clawing back in the game. I use an Oblivion Wing against a Joltik and Pitch-Black Spear against Mew-EX with a Fighting Fury Belt and build up a Yveltal-EX which is able to seal the game.
Game 3: My opponent opens poorly with a P Energy on his Mew-EX and a Joltik on the Bench and passes. I Battle Compressor 2 D Energy and Ghetsis then use VS Seeker to Ghetsis him to a dead hand. I load up a Darkrai-EX and prepare to take a huge lead and end the game. He draws a Jirachi-EX to grab a Professor Sycamore and proceeds to draw 3 Battle Compressor, an Ultra Ball, and a Fighting Fury Belt. He grabs Shaymin-EX and takes a nice KO on my Darkrai-EX and I’m too far behind to win the game.
I finished 37th and took home 12 packs and a dash of salt after that last round.
Takeaways from Week 2
Here are my big takeaways from the second week:
> Turn 1 Ghetsis is ridiculous. It ends games on the opening turn. I have never had so many games end with little to no interaction as I did during this past weekend — all due to an opening turn Ghetsis which stripped either my or my opponent’s hand clear of Items and lost said player the game.
If I’m able to find two extra spots in any deck Week 3, I’m going to add a Jirachi-EX and Ghetsis because this combo is absurdly unfair.
> 2 Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick and 2 Gallade BKT felt like overkill and I wouldn’t play that heavy of a line again. I wouldn’t say playing the extra 2 cards felt useless, but whenever I needed Gallade for a matchup, none of the 4 cards for this combo were prized and I often could not get them out anyway due to unplayable cards in hand. I’d much rather convert two of these cards into Supporters to help combat turn 1 Ghetsis.
> Mewtwo-EX LTR is a great addition to any deck that can play Double Colorless Energy. Treynor Wolfe and Austen Vance piloted their version of Yveltal/Maxie’s — which played Mewtwo — to a victory and Top 8 respectively. The strength of Mewtwo is in its ability to combat Gallade highly effectively.
Adjustments to Top Tier Decks
I’m excited for Week 3 Regionals as Fates Collide Release should shake the meta a bit in terms of what decks people are choosing to play and what tech high tiers will pack. Here are my thoughts for which cards the top decks will be adding.
Trevenant BREAK
This deck should see little to no changes moving into Week 3. The most successful Trevenant BREAK deck from this past weekend, piloted by Christian Ortiz at Georgia Regionals, played a heavy line of Red Card, Crushing Hammer, and Weakness Policy. After seeing this deck in action and theorizing matchups, I expect it to see in Week 3 and I believe this is still the most optimal list to play.
The only two threatening cards to be released from Fates Collide are Bronzong FCO and Zygarde-EX. Bronzong’s Ability may prove to be troublesome but since it is an Evolution and played in small counts your opponent would need to get an Ultra Ball off early to find it from their deck and not discard it through an early Professor Sycamore. Zygarde-EX could be problematic due to its Cell Storm attack which would heal 30 damage from it each turn but some form of Energy removal should be able to regulate this card, unless there is an Energy Keeper Carbink in play.
Yveltal/Maxie’s
Umbreon-EX — The release of Umbreon-EX gives Yveltal decks another strong minion against Mega Rayquaza, Mega Manectric, Primal Groudon, and Mega Alakazam which could see some play in Week 3. While I think Mega Rayquaza is a strong deck, the release of Mew from Fates Collide should bring more attention to Night March — which is considered a tough matchup — so I expect to see less Mega Rayquaza and few Mega Alakazam. I’m choosing to include this card as I believe some players will play the new Mega Pokémon out of sheer love for Alakazam or Rayquaza and I don’t mind including 1 card in my deck if it means swinging a matchup heavily in my favor.
Parallel City — As I stated earlier, I was back and forth on playing 2 copies of this card and I definitely think it’s strong but it doesn’t affect Night March and Trevenant BREAK enough to make me want it over Reverse Valley for Week 3. I expect to see less Mega Rayquaza and I’ve already included Umbreon-EX to help with that matchup more.
Mewtwo-EX LTR — Following Treynor Wolf’s victory, there’s been quite a stir about the strength of Mewtwo and whether or not it is warranted for Week 3. I believe with the release of Mew FCO, Mewtwo-EX may not be needed in these decks anymore. More Night March or Mew toolbox decks should see play and playing more Pokémon-EX that are Weak to Psychic may not be the best option to take.
Night March
Mew FCO — While I don’t believe this card is as devastating in Expanded as many other people believe it is, this card does provide another non-EX attacker for Night March. I believe most players will include 2 or 3 of these in their Night March decks and it’ll influence particular decks to change their Tools from Fury Belts to Muscle Bands in order to counter this little boost in HP over Joltik.
Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick — The most successful Night March lists that came out of Week 2 Regionals played the Maxie’s/Archeops/Gallade combo which should prove itself useful once again in Week 3 against any newcomers from Fates Collide. I would expect every Night March deck to play this.
What You’re Here For: Decklists for Week 3
Finally, let’s get into the decklists I’m testing for the final week of Regionals. I’m heavily biased toward playing Yveltal/Maxie’s as of this moment, but one of the rogue decks I’ve listed below could end up being more compelling.
Yveltal/Maxie’s
|
Pokémon – 13 2 Yveltal BKT 1 Umbreon-EX |
Trainers – 36 3 Professor Sycamore
4 VS Seeker 2 Fighting Fury Belt
|
Energy – 11 7 D |
Card Choices
1 Umbreon-EX — As I mentioned earlier, Umbreon should prove useful when combined with Fighting Fury Belt and Reverse Valley against Primal Groudon, Mega Alakazam, and Mega Rayquaza. I expect to play against maybe two of these decks during Day 1 at Massachusetts Regionals.
The rest of the list is fairly standard. I’m going back to playing Archeops again as I believe Bronzong BREAK could put Metal decks back on the map. Archeops could also prove useful against Mega Alakazam decks should they not open with Wobbuffet.
Other Options
1 or 2 Muscle Band — I’ve considered adding 1 or 2 Muscle Bands alongside my Fighting Fury Belt to give Yveltal XY that perfect 50 damage needed to KO a Mew FCO should I have Silent Lab in play controlling my opponent. I think this addition could also help the early game against Trevenant BREAK if I’m able to Oblivion Wing with a Muscle Band and Reverse Valley on turn 1 to either 1HKO Trevenant XY or 2HKO Wobbuffet.
2 Darkrai-EX BKP — Adding another Darkrai-EX BKP should help swing the matchups against Trevenant BREAK and Night March as attacking for Weakness with a Psychic Resistance should prove troublesome to them in the early game. Attaching a Fighting Fury Belt to him puts him in prime position to take 2 Prizes before going down.
3 N — I want to include another Supporter in the deck — more than likely N — for Week 3 as the number of games decided by turn 1 Ghetsis during my Georgia Regionals experience was extremely frustrating. I felt like some games were completely out of my control and increasing the N count in my deck should make this opening turn Ghetsis less game breaking.
Mega Alakazam
|
Pokémon – 15 |
Trainers – 37 4 Professor Juniper
3 Super Scoop Up
|
Energy – 8 |
Card Choices
No Crobat — As you can see I chose not to include any of the Crobat PHF line in my list as I don’t believe it is the most optimal way to build this deck. I’ve found my best build to be a consistent line of 4-4 Mega Alakazam and Hoopa-EX to fish them out while having Wobbuffet control my opponent’s early setup. This deck should struggle a bit with Trevenant BREAK and Night March but it by no means takes a complete auto-loss to them. I’ve had multiple donk scenarios or early Prize swings against both decks where the fact that they attacked me for Weakness did not influence the outcome of the game.
3 Super Scoop Up/3 Devolution Spray — While I do believe Super Scoop Up is an incredibly powerful card, I do not like relying on coin flips to take KOs should my setup be less than ideal. I’ve found Devolution Spray to be incredibly useful and strong as I’m able to keep the same Alakazam-EX in play and evolve it instantly without any sort of variance taking control of my decision making. I still included 3 copies of Super Scoop Up because the benefits from healing, adding Spirit Links back to hand, and picking up any Hoopa-EX or Shaymin-EX on the board are astounding.
1 Startling Megaphone — I can’t begin to express how many times this deck has created turn 2 or 3 donk scenarios. The main issue I found with my donks not occurring has been because of the strength of Fighting Fury Belt and I wanted to add some form of Tool removal to keep control over the HP of opposing Pokémon.
1 Absol ROS — Using the Cursed Eyes Ability to shift the damage from Alakazam-EX to the Active has made for some ridiculous plays. I recommend playing at least one in your list, even when you’re playing multiple Wobbuffet.
Bronzong BREAK
|
Pokémon – 19 4 Bronzor NXD |
Trainers – 31 3 Professor Sycamore
4 Ultra Ball 1 Sacred Ash
|
Energy – 10 10 M |
I chose to build my Bronzong BREAK list similar to that of the Klinklang/Bronzong list Dylan Bryan and Johnny Rabus created/piloted to a Top 8 at Nationals 2015. This deck should take on most of the meta barring opposing turn 1 Archeops. Bronzong BREAK has proven to be such a strong card against Night March and Evolution decks as loading Energy onto a Bronzong has been relatively easy to do. Yveltal should be a simple matchup considering Genesect-EX can clear itself of Energy to 1HKO Yveltal-EX.
Card Choices
1 Bronzong FCO — This card has proven its worth against Yveltal BKT and Trevenant BREAK. Metal Fortress will block Silent Fear, Tree Slam, and Pitch-Black Spear which is critical for those decks to combat the onslaught coming from Genesect-EX. I’ve hardly used its Guard Press attack but I’m sure it would come in handy at times to damage an attacker when I’ve evolved to Bronzong BREAK.
1 Jirachi-EX/Ghetsis — I couldn’t include this tech in the Alakazam list as I always wanted to open Wobbuffet but here we can play the game-breaking Jirachi/Ghetsis combo to take early-game control.
2 Genesect-EX FCO — While I often felt pressured when 1 copy of this card is prized, I believe 2 copies of Genesect-EX should suffice as a solid attacker with a great Ability to complement Keldeo-EX during my early turn setups. He’s one the best attackers Metal has received in a while and after playing a few games with him I’d always include him over Dialga-EX.
Other Options
1 Cobalion-EX — All the hype behind Night March might influence more players to pick up Seismitoad/Crobat or Seismitoad/Giratina which take a complete beating from Cobalion.
1 Parallel City — Often I’ve found myself in complete control of the game until an opponent can mount a comeback off a few attackers and multiple Lysandre on all my Benched Pokémon-EX, so I was thinking about including 1 Parallel City to clear them off my Bench to seal games. This could also help with the Mega Ray matchup which is a bit troublesome.
2 Blend Energy WLFM/Glaceon-EX — If you think you’re going to run into multiple Evolution decks such as Flareon/Vespiquen then you can include a copy of Glaceon-EX and a few Blend Energy in order to stall them with Crystal Ray.
Carbink BREAK
|
Pokémon – 16 1 Carbink FCO 49 3 Regirock-EX |
Trainers – 34 3 Korrina 2 N
2 Power Memory 1 Switch 1 Tool Scrapper
|
Energy – 10 6 F 4 Strong |
I’ve found Zygarde-EX to be an amazing attacker as he hits relatively hard while being a huge tank. Similar to the Metal list, playing a Hoopa-EX with Sky Field to grab all your Pokémon-EX has been amazing. Carbink is usually tanky enough to absorb one or two attacks from your opponent while loading up a Zygarde-EX to sweep a board full of attackers. As mentioned earlier, the healing of Zygarde against Trevenant makes it extremely powerful and problematic for them to deal with if you regulate your Bench appropriately.
Card Choices
1 Carbink FCO 49 — I found that there will be situations where your opponent will rely on Energy removal in the form of Team Flare Grunt or Crushing Hammer to control your Landorus-EX or Zygarde-EX and the 1 copy of Carbink can help sustain your pressure.
1 Switch/1 AZ — Yveltal BKT puts an absurd amount of strain on this deck if they’re able to Lysandre one of your heavy-retreat Pokémon-EX, so playing a single copy of Switch to grab off Korrina is perfect.
1 Pokémon Center Lady — I chose to include a copy of Pokémon Center Lady to heal the damage from a Pitch-Black Spear or Silent Fear when you’re looking to sweep an opponent with a beefy Zygarde-EX.
Other Options
4 Max Elixir — You can choose to remove part of the control factor and play a heavier line of Energy then add 4 Max Elixir to power up your setup earlier, but I feel like this isn’t as optimal in Expanded.
1 Escape Rope — Similar to the decision to play Switch, you can include 1 Escape Rope to move Yveltal BKT out of the Active and get your Float Stone back online to retreat to an attacker.
1 Max Potion — To complement the healing factor of the deck, you can choose to play Max Potion to clean off the Zygarde-EX and build it back up with Carbink BREAK, but since this build runs a Bench filled with Pokémon-EX I feel like heavy-hitting decks would resort to using Lysandre to take KOs.
Conclusion
That’s all I have for today everyone. I hope you enjoyed my ideas and assumptions of the meta moving onto Week 3-of Regionals and that these rogue decks sparked your creative energies for either this coming weekend or Nationals. I’m excited to be moving on from Expanded as turn 1 Ghetsis into dead hand has been extremely stressful and annoying to deal with.
I’ll be attending Massachusetts Regionals this weekend hoping to replace the 15-point Regionals performance I had in Georgia, putting me back into the top 100 before the Nationals stipend is announced.
Have a good one!
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