Cool Pool Party

Greninja and Lightning-Lock (Jolteon/Regice) for Week 3 and Beyond

Usually I consider type-based articles to be gimmicky at best. They are often pieces that are more “for fun” than anything else. However, both of my top picks for Georgia Regionals happened to be decks that used Water Pokémon, Water Trainers, and W Energies. Granted, I did poorly at Georgia, but I’ll get to that later. The decks that I’ll be going over today are Greninja and Jolteon-EX/Regice AOR. They are both incredibly strong, and they both can hold their own this weekend and beyond.

Here Come Dat Boi: Greninja

greninja xy 16-9
waddup

Greninja is quite a familiar deck by now. After Grafton Roll made Day 2 at Florida Regionals with it in the Winter, Greninja took off in popularity during States. The appeal of Greninja is that it has an alternate win condition of simply setting up. Of course, every deck has the three direct win conditions: draw 6 Prizes, KO your opponent’s last Pokémon, and deck the opponent out.

Over the years, we have seen some other decks with alternate win conditions. These are a set of conditions that will always (or almost always) lead to one of the direct win conditions if accomplished. Some examples would be setting up Reuniclus BLW and Vileplume UD in the oft-cited “The Truth” deck of 2011, getting out Archeops NVI and Silent Lab in certain matchups with two of the decks mentioned in my last article, using Giratina’s Chaos Wheel against some Night March variants, or setting up a classic 2013 Accelgor DEX + Gothitelle EPO 47 + Dusknoir BCR combo, just to name a few.

Greninja’s alternate win condition is setting up multiple Greninja and BREAK Evolutions. When this happens, the Greninja player takes complete control over the game by placing up to 150 or even 180 damage anywhere — per turn! — with only the use of Abilities. Greninja can then choose from three attacks: Mist Slash, Moonlight Slash, or Shadow Stitching. They all have their own uses. Mist Slash is the least used, but it can go through any protective effects and Resistance. Moonlight Slash does the most damage and conserves Energy. Shadow Stitching hits the opponent with Ability lock for the following turn. Typically, most opposing decks can’t handle Greninja once it’s set up and will fold quickly.

Matchups

In addition to being an inherently powerful deck, Greninja has a favorable matchup spread. As mentioned, not much can handle Greninja when it sets up. These matchups are what convinced me to play the deck. The italicized ones have mostly been theorymon’d; the others I tested more extensively firsthand:

  • Yveltal/Maxie’s — auto-win
  • Primal Groudon — auto-win
  • Turbo Dark — Slightly Favorable to Even
  • Mega Rayquaza — Slightly Favorable to Even
  • Trevenant — Favorable
  • Night March — Favorable
  • Seismitoad/Crobat — Favorable

Given that I got results like these out of testing, it’s no wonder that I decided to play Greninja! Yes, I do have the audacity to call Yveltal an auto-win (or more precisely, 90-10). My list (which is located below) ran 3 Evosoda and 2 Wally to navigate around Archeops. After more than a dozen games of playing Greninja vs. Yveltal/Maxie’s, Greninja only lost one or two times. Jirachi XY67 prevents the option of a DCE-fueled Yveltal-EX, and the deck struggles to KO Greninja and its BREAK form. A Giant Water Shuriken with two Moonlight Slashes is enough to KO a Yveltal-EX or Darkrai-EX with Fighting Fury Belt.

Night March and Rayquaza are favorable because I run 3 Jirachi XY67. Jirachi slows those decks down if you need it to. It is also incredibly helpful against Toad and slams the nail in Groudon’s coffin. 3 Rough Seas could usually slow down Trevenant enough for Greninja to get set up to an extent under Item lock. You wouldn’t try to win a Stadium war, only to prevent Silent Fear from taking many early kills. The Hammers version of Trevenant was ineffective against Greninja and suffered a worse matchup than the normal Balloon version of Trevenant.

Weaknesses

Obviously Greninja’s weaknesses don’t come from its matchups, so what in the world is holding it back? Greninja seems to be more vulnerable to bad variance than other decks, as more things can go wrong when playing it. Greninja’s flaws can show themselves in any matchup, and that is a scary prospect. Here is a list of some of the things that can go wrong:

  • Prizing Frogadier
  • Having too many Frogadier in hand
  • Opening with a recovery card (Super Rod and/or Sacred Ash) and Sycamore
  • Opening with multiple Evolutions and Sycamore
  • Not drawing Energies at the right time
  • No outs to Greninja BREAK getting hit with Sleep/Paralysis (more on this later)
  • Forced to use Sycamore or N when you’d rather have the other
  • Dead hands with only 13 accelerants in deck and four of them being Trainers’ Mail
  • Natural “Stage 3” Evolution clunkiness

None of these are necessarily game-losing tragedies, but they make up most of the deck’s major problems. Just to clarify, “accelerants” is a term I’ve been using lately to refer to early draw cards that can get your deck off the ground on the first turn or two. Examples would be things like Professor Sycamore, Shaymin-EX, etc. Trainers’ Mail qualifies but luck dictates whether it will find something useful.

By playing Greninja you have to just accept the risks that come with it. Of course, the deck worked flawlessly for the most part when I was practicing with it. Prizing Frogadier and having to discard some resources usually didn’t end up killing me. Greninja is also vulnerable to Ability locks such as Garbodor BKP/DRX and Hex Maniac chains. Based on how testing went with Greninja, there was absolutely no reason for me not to play it.

Georgia Report

This is the list that I used at Georgia Regionals:

Pokémon – 17

4 Froakie BKP

4 Frogadier BKP

3 Greninja BKP

1 Greninja XY

2 Greninja BREAK

3 Jirachi XY67

Trainers – 35

4 Professor Sycamore

4 N

2 Wally

2 Fisherman

1 Lysandre

 

4 VS Seeker

4 Trainers’ Mail

3 Dive Ball

3 Evosoda

1 Level Ball

1 Battle Compressor

1 Super Rod

1 Sacred Ash

1 Computer Search

 

3 Rough Seas

Energy – 8

8 W

For the most part, I stand by this list. I was thinking about adding another Super Rod before the tournament, and I wish I had. I would probably cut a Jirachi for a Super Rod looking back. The Pokémon lineup is fairly standard. 3 Jirachi is weird but like I said, it helps tremendously in most matchups. Jirachi shines against Night March, Rayquaza, Yveltal, and Groudon. I think running 3 is justified. I almost wanted to run 4 Greninja BKP but the XY copy deserves its spot.

The Supporter count is absolutely correct. As for Items, I run 7 Pokémon search cards (or 8 if you count Computer Search). I was happy with this decision because Greninja requires many Pokémon in play to work at its best. High counts of these cards made streaming Stage 2s a manageable task. I cut the 4th Dive Ball for a 3rd Evosoda soon before the tournament because Dive Ball is usually used to get an Evolution anyway, but Evosoda can do that and get around Archeops. I didn’t go 2 Dive/4 Soda because it was unnecessary and I also frequently use Dive Ball for a 2nd Froakie. Dive Ball can be used prematurely if you fear Item lock while Evosoda cannot. I also enjoyed the sole Battle Compressor. Silent Lab and Splash Energy are not worth playing in the deck.

Here’s a summation of how my rounds went. I’ll talk a little bit about the tournament as a whole and then I’ll go into detail on each of these rounds.

R1 vs. Night March/Maxie’s — WW
R2 vs. M Manectric-EXLWL
R3 vs. Virizion-EX/Genesect-EXWLL
R4 vs. Turbo Darkrai-EXWW
R5 vs. Seismitoad-EX/Giratina-EXWW
R6 vs. Turbo Darkrai-EXL
R7 vs. Yveltal-EX/Maxie’s — WW
R8 vs. M Rayquaza-EXLL
R9 vs. M Rayquaza-EXLW

4-4-1, 97th/256

4-4-1 is terrible. At the risk of sounding illogical and stubborn, I still think Greninja was one of the best decks (if not the best) for that format. Its matchups were favorable and I did not run into any problems while testing. Additionally, I don’t really think there’s anything I could’ve done better to make Day 2 at Georgia. I would’ve changed one card in my deck and that might have mattered, but I doubt it. I learned nothing because I honestly think my losses were simply bad luck. I hate to say that though, because there’s almost always mistakes in games and things that I can improve on. Blaming losses on luck is the antithesis to becoming a better player and can sometimes be a sign of arrogance or close-mindedness.

That said, I never felt like my opponents outplayed me or that I lost because I did something wrong. This is frustrating of course but I’d rather lose to luck than by misplaying like I did at Virginia Regionals. I actually practiced with Greninja quite a bit and I noticed that practice does help with playing the deck better, even if my record does not reflect it. Overall I still had a ton of fun during the trip and I enjoyed the tournament. I might be a little salty about some things but I really did have a positive experience.

Round 1 vs. Night March (WW)

In Round 1, I played against a Night March deck which did not run Archeops. I do not remember seeing any Hex Manaics either. My deck worked like usual and I won easily without even needing Jirachi. My opponent for this round was the only one of my opponents who made Day 2.

Round 2 vs. Mega Manectric (LWL)

In Round 2 I faced a Manectric deck with Jolteon-EX and Articuno. In the first game I did not set up very well and had mediocre draws while my opponent set up amazingly. He got a kill or two with Articuno and that was all she wrote. In Game 2 I set up as normal and eventually had 4 Greninja including 2 BREAK on the board. My opponent set up almost as well as last game but I won convincingly. Manectric cannot deal with Greninja when both decks are set up to their maximum capacity. Game 3 was heartbreaking as I started with lone Jirachi and a completely dead hand. I lost to a swift T2 Assault Laser to the face.

Round 3 vs. Virizion/Genesect (WLL)

virizion axew emolgasonofabug.tumblr.comRound 3 was against one of Greninja’s rare unfavorable matchups. Virizion/Genesect can plow through everything in one hit starting on T1, just like Night March. The difference between the two decks is that V/G is not disrupted by Jirachi and Water Shurikens nearly as much as Night March is. I mulliganed 12 times during the first game, but unfortunately none of them cut into the match time due to some inconveniently timed repair issues. If some mulligans had taken up match time, it would have ended in a tie rather than a loss. My match ended right before time was called.

Game 2 was unfortunate because my 6 Prizes consisted of the following: 2 Froakie, 1 Frogadier, 2 Greninja, and a Greninja BREAK. I still only narrowly lost. Game 3 I did not run as hot as was required to keep up with the pressure that V/G applies to Greninja and the deck folded under that pressure.

Round 4 vs. Turbo Darkrai (WW)

In Round 4 I played against someone who seemed to be unfamiliar with his deck and with what my cards did. His list was a conventional Turbo Dark, but I was able to set up both games and win easily.

Round 5 vs. Seismitoad/Giratina (WW)

Round 5 was another easy win against Toad/Tina. This matchup is practically an auto-win, especially with 3 Jirachi. Even with Item lock slowing me down, Toad/Tina has virtually no options to win a game against Greninja.

Round 6 vs. Turbo Darkrai (L)

Round 6 featured a long Game 1 and a Game 2 that almost finished against Turbo Dark with Lasers. In Game 1, my deck ran fairly well and I was in a position to win the game in a few turns. However, Hypnotoxic Laser happened and put me to Sleep multiple times at crucial moments. Across both games, my opponent used 5 Lasers and all of them resulted in the dreaded heads-tails combination which caused me to lose the first game. I would have definitely won the first game if Laser had not stuck my Greninja BREAK Asleep twice in a row near the end. I could still use Giant Water Shuriken with it, but I couldn’t retreat into my other Greninja BREAK nor could I attack.

Game 2 ended via timeout, and with me still with 6 Prizes. However, two of my opponent’s Darkrai were heavily damaged (140+ or so), and he had a Shaymin-EX Benched. I was surely going to win that game as well but it too was stolen from me. I was in a position to take 6 Prizes for the tie in the allotted two turns of extra time if I drew well off Sycamore, but I didn’t find any Energies with 4 or 5 remaining in the deck. This match is the reason I named the deck “Salt Water.” I didn’t scoop Game 1 to save time because I thought I was going to win it until the very end.

Round 7 vs. Yveltal/Maxie’s (WW)

Round 7 was against my first Yveltal/Maxie’s of the tournament, and it was a one-sided affair. In the first game my opponent was unable to get Archeops out early. In the second game he tried to lock me out completely with the Archeops + Seismitoad-EX combo, as he ran a tech Toad that I didn’t see in the first game. After I removed all of his DCEs with Stardust, he had no options to retreat the Toad and decked out. His Silent Lab shut down the Keldeo with a Float Stone as well as Darkrai’s Dark Cloak. One of his Shadow Circles was discarded and the other was prized, so he had no way to remove Silent Lab.

Round 8 vs. Mega Ray (LL)

Round 8 was very fun despite being the worst match of the tournament. I was joking and laughing with my opponent during the whole game even though it should’ve been a very serious game because we needed to win out to secure a Day 2 spot. My deck decided to not work at all. Nothing went right and everything went wrong. As my opponent said: “I’ve never gotten this lucky.” I did not take a single Prize and was quickly dismantled 12-0 by Mega Ray. There’s nothing to really say when that happens.

Round 9 vs. Mega Ray (LW)

carnivine-dark-explorers-dex-5
Nobody expects the Carnivine.

I didn’t take this round too seriously because it didn’t really matter, and I was mostly joking around with my opponent until Game 2 when I was just burned out. I almost won the first game because I successfully used Jirachi to run my opponent out of Energies because his last Prize was his last basic Energy that he needed to attack with. Unfortunately, my last 3 Prizes contained Super Rod and Greninja! We ended with a stalemate situation where my opponent didn’t have Energies and I didn’t have an attacker! After a Puzzle into Sacred Ash play, I realized that I would deck out first and would not have enough turns to deal 400+ damage with Stardust so I scooped.

In Game 2 I won but not after some very frustrating Carnivine DEX shenanigans. Carnivine stalled me and made me waste resources by punishing my large Bench. Its attack costs 1 G Energy and drags up a Pokémon from the Bench and Poisons it. After a Moonlight Slash, neither of my Greninja had an Energy, and I cannot retreat and attack in the same turn! Carnivine essentially Lysandre-stalled every Pokémon on my Bench and it was so annoying! I was not used to having to manage my Bench in that matchup.

I eventually won the game though, as my opponent had to play down Exeggcute so I was able to get a free Prize from that and another one from Carnivine. From there I only had to kill one Mega Ray and a Jirachi-EX that found its way onto the Bench. I won on Turn 2-of +3 turns. My opponent actually got the first Prize with Virizion’s Emerald Slash, and that was even funnier when he used the effect to accelerate an Energy to Exeggcute.

Greninja for Week 3

I think that Week 3 will be similar to Week 2. Therefore, I think Greninja will be a solid play for this weekend because it has great matchups against everything that is popular. It does particularly well against Yveltal, Trevenant, Groudon, Toad/Bats, and Night March. It goes close to 50-50 with Rayquaza and Turbo Dark. It has at least a decent shot at beating just about anything else too. Of course, I cannot blame anyone for not playing it after I went 4-4-1, but I do encourage you to at least give it a spin for a few games. It is also one of the few decks that has no trouble with the Jolteon-EX + Glaceon-EX combo which I will look at later.

Greninja for Nationals

dive ball prc 125 16-9
Greninja is primed to make a splash.

Greninja has already proven itself as a top contender in the Standard format, and it gets even better moving forward. N is coming back to Standard with its reprint in Fates Collide, and N is what made Greninja consistent in Expanded. Greninja appreciates N more than any other deck by far. Greninja normally falls behind in Prizes and enjoys the hand disruption + shuffle draw that N provides. Being able to shuffle away Evolutions and recovery cards as opposed to discarding them with Sycamore can be amazing.

I expect Greninja to be a huge top-tier threat in Standard come Nationals. Jirachi allows it to compete with Night March and Vileplume/Vespiquen. High counts of Rough Seas and Supporters helps with beating Trevenant. Shadow Stitching shuts down any Mega Alakazam and Bronzong BREAK decks that might come out of the woodwork. Greninja deals with Toad and YZG variants no problem. Its only real weaknesses are Ability lock and the chances of it imploding in the ways I mentioned earlier.

As for a list, I took my Regionals list as a base and just tweaked it a little bit for Standard.

Pokémon – 17

4 Froakie BKP

4 Frogadier BKP

3 Greninja BKP

1 Greninja XY

2 Greninja BREAK

3 Jirachi XY67

Trainers – 34

4 Professor Sycamore

4 N

2 Fisherman

1 Ace Trainer

1 Lysandre

 

4 VS Seeker

4 Trainers’ Mail

4 Dive Ball

2 Evosoda

2 Super Rod

1 Sacred Ash

1 Battle Compressor

1 Level Ball

 

3 Rough Seas

Energy – 9

9 W

I cut Wally because it is no longer needed to get around Archeops, as Archeops doesn’t exist in Standard. I kept 2 Evosoda because I found it to be a great search card even when I wasn’t facing Archeops. It adds consistency and helps stream Greninja. I went back to 4 Dive/2 Soda because Dive Ball is strictly better in Standard. I added an Ace Trainer for some more drawpower because that is never a bad thing. Ace for 6/3 is always better than N for 6/5. It is better than N only when your opponent has taken 1 or 2 Prize cards, and that is why I went with 1 Ace/4 N. It can potentially steal games by forcing turns of dead-draws.

I added another W Energy for consistency because I had a hard time drawing into them at Regionals. I think 8 is usually enough but without Octillery BKT I have quite a bit of space to work with in this deck. Speaking of Octillery, it is not needed. Its 2 Retreat Cost is a huge liability which I dislike in this deck. Octillery does not synergize at all with Greninja, and the deck has enough drawpower already with 9 draw Supporters, 4 VS Seeker, and 4 Trainers’ Mail.

Lightning-Lock: Jolteon-EX/Regice AOR

jolteon lightning 16-9 35%shelgon.tumblr.com
“Can’t touch this.” ♪♫

The combination of Jolteon-EX, Regice AOR, and now Glaceon-EX goes by many clever names that my friends and I have come up with. Among some others are Huskies, Yellow Snow, and Ice Pupper. For pre-Fates Collide, the premise of the deck was to use Jolteon-EX or Regice AOR to lock your opponent out of the game. The deck was able to do this effectively and consistently against a vast majority of the field. After the initial idea was suggested by my friend Blaine, I went to work on a list.

Here is the list that I very nearly played (and wish I had) at Georgia Regionals. Blaine used it to place Top 4 in Seniors. He lost to a Yveltal/Maxie’s player who consistently hit Gallade + LaserBank for the magical 160 on Jolteon-EX with Weakness Policy. He would have beaten a Gallade-less Rainbow Road in the finals. I might have one or two cards off as I don’t have the list saved, but it looked like this:

Pokémon – 9

2 Jolteon-EX

2 Regice AOR

1 Mewtwo-EX NXD

1 Mew-EX

1 Shaymin-EX ROS

1 Jirachi-EX

1 Smeargle BKT

Trainers – 38

4 Professor Sycamore

2 N

2 Ghetsis

2 AZ

1 Lysandre

1 Pokémon Center Lady

 

4 VS Seeker

4 Ultra Ball

3 Trainers’ Mail

3 Max Elixir

2 Battle Compressor

2 Float Stone

2 Weakness Policy

1 Super Rod

1 Computer Search

 

4 Rough Seas

Energy – 13

5 L

4 W

4 Double Colorless

One of the few problems for the Jolteon + Regice concept in the metagame was Gallade BKT. As such, the deck packs many anti-Gallade cards. Mewtwo-EX, Mew-EX, Ghetsis, and Weakness Policy were all included primarily to counteract Gallade. Between all of them, Gallade cannot usually beat the deck. Mewtwo needs 4 Energies between it and Gallade to 1HKO, while Mew can take a KO with Sensitive Blade off Lysandre even if the Gallade has no Energies on it. Ghetsis is great in most matchups but it is particularly helpful to disrupt Maxie plays. Pokémon Center Lady is for Laser shenanigans. AZ is to clear your board of Escape Rope/Lysandre targets if necessary.

Side Note: Although I run 3 Max Elixir, the deck is not reliant on an Elixir engine. Elixir will frequently whiff Energy, and that is ok. It’s just something to speed the deck up a little bit and make it that much better. Also, the rare, hyper-clutch Elixir plays give you the best feeling.

Just like Greninja, Lightning-Lock has alternate win conditions. Its win conditions are matchup dependent. Sometimes winning is as simple as setting up a Jolteon-EX. Sometimes you need to win a Stadium war against Trevenant or find a way to remove Gallade from the game altogether. This deck is built to be a very hard counter to the metagame. It destroys most matchups, but completely loses to others. Virizion/Genesect, Vespiquen variants, and Greninja are virtually unwinnable. We didn’t test against Sableye but it also seems like a very difficult matchup if you can’t lock them with Ghetsis chains. Now let’s look at its matchups against the popular decks.

Matchups

As mentioned, Lightning-Lock’s matchups are usually one-sided. You will usually play against decks that you beat easily or you lose handily. This adds some riskiness to playing the deck, but you can usually count on opponents to be playing mainstream meta decks. The same formatting (with italics for untested) that I used for Greninja’s matchups applies here.

  • Turbo Dark — auto-win
  • Night March — auto-win
  • Mega Rayquaza — auto-win
  • Trevenant — Highly Favorable
  • Seismitoad/Crobat — Highly Favorable
  • Yveltal/Maxie’s — Favorable
  • Primal Groudon — Depends
  • Night March/Maxie’s — Slightly Unfavorable

Against Turbo Dark, Night March (non-Maxie’s), Mega Ray, and Toad/Bats, you simply need to set up either a Jolteon-EX or Regice and win the game. Those decks have no answer to the proper attacker. Jolteon is the go-to attacker against Yveltal/Maxie’s, and you use all of the anti-Gallade inclusions to handle Gallade.

weakness-policy-primal-clash-prc
Insurance against Gallade.

Night March/Gallade is more difficult than the Yveltal version. Night March can take early kills and can easily KO the Mewtwo that was used against Gallade. Some Night March lists run Target Whistle too, and that is a problem if any Pokémon-EX wind up discarded. It is not a terrible matchup though, and is still winnable. Jolteon-EX with a Weakness Policy will always survive an attack from Gallade and does not have to worry about Lasers which is helpful. Night March can typically get multiple Gallade more consistently than Yveltal though, and that contributes to the rough matchup.

The Trevenant matchup tested way better than we thought it would. Trevenant simply can’t take knockouts. Jolteon and Regice are both effective attackers, though keep in mind Regice can be hit by Mewtwo and Wobbuffet. You must win the Stadium war in order to have the best chance of winning. Sometimes it is better to attack into Bursting Balloon and sometimes it is better to pass. It depends on the situation and it’s up to you to make that call. AZ and Pokémon Center Lady are fantastic cards to have in this matchup.

The Groudon matchup is completely dependent on if they run Regirock XY49 and Scramble Switch. If your opponent runs both of those, then you probably lose the game. If they don’t run both, and only one or none, then you win. Those two cards combined with Focus Sash and Puzzle of Time make the matchup nearly impossible to win. Regirock takes care of Regice and Primal Groudon obliterates Jolteon.

Weaknesses

This deck’s weaknesses are few and far between. It won’t implode as much as Greninja because it needs only a simple setup. Generally an attacker and two Energies are enough to win a game. The only real problems it has are with odd matchups. Genesect-EX can run right through the deck with G Booster. Vespiquen destroys it, but that is no longer much of an issue because Fates Collide blessed the deck with Glaceon-EX.

Night March/Gallade is not a fun matchup, and unfortunately that might see more play with the new Mew. Tyrantrum-EX hasn’t seen any play recently but it has no trouble dismantling this deck. A random Eelektross PLB tech in Eels is also a problem. Although, the fact that I have to name such obscure cards in order to come up with counters to this deck is a testament to its strength.

Jolteon/Regice for Week 3

I think that Lightning-Lock is an incredible play for this weekend. It has a near auto-win against a large portion of the metagame and is favorable against just about everything. If I was going to a tournament this weekend, I would play this deck. Most things about the list should be kept the same, but I would definitely add a Glaceon-EX or two. Glaceon improves the Trevenant matchup even more, and it completely turns the Vespiquen/Flareon matchup.

Although Glaceon also protects itself from Gallade, I believe that Gallade counters are still necessary. Glaceon is terrible against the decks that normally use Gallade, namely Night March and Yveltal. If you rely on Glaceon against Gallade, it will be KO’d by a different attacker and you will lose badly. I would not include the new Mew from Fates Collide. I do not want to add damage modifiers in order for Mew to KO Gallade. There is no reason to use a 50-HP Basic whose Ability can be shut off to do the attacking. Just stick with Regice and the Eeveelutions. I would post a list, but it would be almost exactly like the one above. I would cut a Mew-EX or a Trainers’ Mail for a Glaceon-EX and just go with that.

Jolteon/Regice for Nationals

I suspect that a lot of players are going to try and make the obvious GlaceJolt combo work for Standard. I think that it can definitely still work in Standard. The combo works, and it completely shuts down a lot of other decks. The only things that the deck loses from Expanded are its ways of dealing with Gallade. Mewtwo-EX, Mew-EX, and Ghetsis are no longer legal. I believe that Mew FCO with Fighting Fury Belt is the best way to go about countering Gallade. I am not a fan of this option for Expanded, but it seems to be the only viable way to handle Gallade in Standard. Here is the list I’m working on:

Pokémon – 10

2 Jolteon-EX

2 Glaceon-EX

1 Regice AOR

2 Mew FCO

2 Shaymin-EX ROS

1 Smeargle BKT

Trainers – 37

4 Professor Sycamore

2 N

2 AZ

2 Hex Maniac

2 Lysandre

 

4 VS Seeker

4 Ultra Ball

3 Trainers’ Mail

3 Max Elixir

2 Battle Compressor

2 Float Stone

2 Fighting Fury Belt

1 Super Rod

 

4 Rough Seas

Energy – 13

5 L

4 W

4 Double Colorless

The only Standard-legal cards that I cut from the original list are Pokémon Center Lady and Weakness Policy. Pokémon Center Lady’s main use was to combat Hypnotoxic Laser, and that is now a non-issue. Weakness Policy is a tentative cut. I can definitely see myself adding it back in especially if Gallade becomes popular. I think Mew plus Fury Belt is enough to defeat Gallade decks, but if the Blade Pokémon becomes very prominent then I will want all the help I can get.

I added 2 Hex Maniac to help against Vileplume, Trevenant, and Greninja. While Item-lock decks are positive matchups anyway, there’s always the chance to get locked out of the game if your opponent goes first. Given how popular the those two Item-lock decks were at States, why not take the extra help? Greninja is still a poor matchup, but Hex annoys it and slightly improves your odds of winning.

I’m keeping 4 Rough Seas for now. I think there’s a chance that this many won’t be required because winning a Stadium war against Trevenant is no longer necessary. Glaceon-EX can tank through that deck easily enough. The only things to worry about are Wobbuffet + Bursting Balloon shenanigans. I would never cut Rough Seas entirely, but I’m definitely going to think about dropping the count to 3 or 2.

Conclusion

froakie fletchling 3sunrisespectrum.tumblr.com
“Theories pass. The frog remains.”

I tried to go as in-depth as I could to help you all understand these two phenomenal decks. Greninja and Lightning-Lock are two of the best decks right now. I may not have the results to prove that Greninja is worthy to be played in Expanded, but it did test incredibly well and it has plenty of results in Standard too. Lightning-Lock is a quirky new anti-meta deck that does its job consistently and effectively.

I encourage you all to try out these decks as you prepare for this weekend, Nationals, or any other tournaments you have coming up! They are flexible for both formats and for the most part they work exactly how they’re supposed to. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the analyses of my two current favorite decks.

As always, if you have comments, ideas, or questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or message me!


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