Hey all! It’s time for another piece about the Junior and Senior metagames as we gear up for Salt Lake City Regionals, as well as the upcoming Brazil Internationals.
I’m going to try something new this time and make this article applicable for both events. My plan is to update it after Salt Lake City with the successful decks and potentially changed recommendations, so keep an eye out for that sometime around April 12–14. If you “like” the SixPrizes Facebook page, I’ll make a post there when I update it so you don’t have to keep checking it.
Let’s jump right in.
Juniors
Anaheim Top 8 (PRC–SM)
- 2 M Gardevoir/Giratina-EX
- 2 Darkrai/Giratina
- 1 Yveltal/Garbodor
- 1 Turbo Darkrai
- 1 Water Toolbox (Lapras-GX/Manaphy-EX/Palkia-EX)
- 1 M Mewtwo/Garbodor
Melbourne Top 8 (PRC–SM)
- 2 M Gardevoir/Giratina-EX
- 1 M Rayquaza
- 1 Turbo Darkrai
- 1 M Alakazam/Espeon-GX
- 1 Decidueye/Vileplume
- 1 Volcanion
- 1 Vespiquen
Juniors Top 8 decklists for Anaheim and Melbourne can be found at the preceding links.
The Juniors metagame seems to be shifting in Standard. Dark decks (Darkrai and Yveltal) were the focus of the division in Dallas, Athens, and Anaheim. But between Anaheim and Melbourne, we’re starting to see lots of decks that seem to be aimed at beating Dark decks. This is especially true when you consider that the 4 Juniors in Top 8 of Melbourne that are from the USA were playing the M Gardevoir, Turbo Darkrai, and Rayquaza decks. Gardevoir is a pretty hard counter to Darkrai and Yveltal, dealing enough damage to 1HKO them with ease while having also resisting their attacks. Rayquaza counters the Turbo Darkrai variants that have seen success while Turbo Darkrai is typically able to beat Yveltal.
One word of caution: I don’t think the M Gardevoir deck that took 1st and 2nd is the catch-all play that it seems to be.
On the surface, it beats Dark decks, Decidueye/Vileplume, Vespiquen, and can even beat Volcanion and most Mega decks, dealing with almost the entire format. However, I’ve found the deck to be largely inconsistent, with most lists only having space for 5 draw Supporters, 3 Trainers’ Mail, and 2 Shaymin-EX. If it draws well, I can see how it has won major events. But there’s a reason it hasn’t done well in the Masters division: it doesn’t have the consistency needed to typically survive 9 rounds (coincidentally, typically as many as you’d play to win an event in Juniors/Seniors). In time, Junior players will learn how to counter this deck, and I think it’ll see a decline in the next few weeks.
Recommendation
My top pick in Juniors is once again Decidueye/Vileplume. I liken this deck to the Luxray GL/Garchomp C (Luxchomp) deck that was popular in 2010. It has the tools to win almost every matchup and is typically hard to counter. However, it’s hard to play perfectly, even for older players. If a Junior can play this deck incredibly well, I think they’ll be able to pick up a few good tournament wins. Juan Pablo Arenas did this with Luxchomp back in 2010 and took 2nd place at Worlds.
There are a lot of options with choosing which GX attack to use, picking your 3 cards with Hollow Hunt-GX, and correctly placing Feather Arrow damage turn after turn. Sometimes, there’s not a strictly right choice. You have to have a solid game plan going into every match and be flexible to bend with the game as it changes.
The base list for this deck is pretty rigid. There were 4 variants of Decidueye/Vileplume in the Masters division Top 8 in Melbourne and they all stuck to the same ~55-card skeleton. The major differences are 0 vs 1 Tauros-GX, 1 vs 2 Lugia-EX, 0 vs 1 Meowth FCO, 0 vs 1 Beedrill-EX 157, 2 vs 3 Lysandre, 2 vs 3 Float Stone, and 3 vs 4 G Energy. Personally, I’ve been playing the same list I made Top 8 with, but I cut the Unown for a 3rd Lysandre and I highly recommend the addition. The list itself is pretty simple and easy for a Junior to understand — it’s just a matter of perfecting in-game decisions.
Otherwise, Dark variants are still successful in the division and would be a good pick, even though they could continue to see opposition. You rarely have to worry about consistency issues and they’re relatively easy to pick up. Counters are ineffective if they’re inconsistent and played poorly, so you might as well stick with something you know well if you don’t know what to play. Plus, I don’t think all Juniors consider the metagame, and often just pick their favorite decks. There should be plenty of matchups that Dark decks can win, even if the top players are playing counter decks. Personally, I would go with Yveltal over Turbo Darkrai because it’s a bit more versatile, but both are good picks.
Update (4/10/17)
Salt Lake City Top 8 (PRC–SM)
- 3 M Rayquaza
- 2 Turbo Darkrai
- 1 Lycanroc-GX
- 1 M Gardevoir/Giratina-EX
- 1 Lapras
(Thanks to Brent Halliburton for tweeting the results to me!)
So, one thing I failed to realize about the Junior metagame is that the younger kids seem a lot more apt to pick up a deck that just recently did well. They care less about the metagame and what could be a strong play to counter what everyone else is playing, and more about the new and fun deck that their friend did well with. Several parents pointed this out to me this week and it seems that this “rule” has held true in the division.
To illustrate this point, I’m told that there were several players piloting the M Gardevoir/Giratina-EX deck in Juniors. However, as I mention above, I don’t think the deck is terribly consistent. This is apparent when you consider that only 1 of these decks made Top 8. This may also be attributable to the fact that at least 3 M Rayquaza decks are at the top tables, I’m not completely sure.
The winner of this event ended up being the Lycanroc-GX deck, something that I would attribute to the strength of the player playing it more than the deck being the perfect meta call. While it is very strong against Dark decks, I would expect it to lose to Gardevoir and Rayquaza decks most of the time. However, I think disruption is especially strong in the Junior division, so the energy denial that Lycanroc provides probably carried it far. I also would guess that many Juniors were unfamiliar with the deck which probably helped it win.
As far as a recommendation, I still think Decidueye will be strong in Juniors. It handily beats Lycanroc so it should be able to capitalize on a metagame shift in favor of the new kid on the block. You could try dropping a Trainers’ Mail, Level Ball, or even Lysandre to fit in a Jirachi XY67 if you expect a lot of Rayquaza. Otherwise, I would just steer clear of Dark if you see Lycanroc pick up steam as I expect it might.
Update (4/27/17)
Brazil Results (PRC–SM)
Juniors in Brazil were all over the place, once again. I unfortunately don’t have the full Top 8 results right now, but I do know that the Top 4 consisted of a Volcanion, a Mewtwo, a Rayquaza, and a Decidueye deck. There was also at least one other Rayquaza deck in Top 8, meaning it probably has some staying power in the division as we saw with the Salt Lake City results. Additionally, the League Cup from the day before was swarming with Volcanion decks. I’m fairly sure this is due to the player preferences of the Latin America region and wouldn’t expect this to be the case in America.
As we move into Roanoke’s Regional Championship, I’d make sure I’m playing a deck that can beat Rayquaza. Zebstrika could be an easy fit into just about any deck to deal with that problem. There hasn’t been a lot of Decidueye in the division, so a deck like Gyarados or Vespiquen might be able to capitalize on the metagame.
This might actually be the first time where I actively would dissuade a Junior player from playing a Dark deck! A metagame with a lot of Rayquaza would be dicey to pilot a Turbo Darkrai deck in, and any Lightning-type counters to Rayquaza will similarly counter Yveltal. While I think Dark decks will see play, the results from Brazil leave me hard pressed to recommend them if you want to win the tournament.
Seniors
Anaheim Top 8 (PRC–SM)
- 2 M Rayquaza
- 1 Vileplume Toolbox
- 1 Turbo Darkrai
- 1 Lurantis/Vileplume
- 1 M Gardevoir/Giratina-EX
- 1 Mewtwo-EX BKT 62/Garbodor
- 1 Decidueye/Lugia-EX
Melbourne Top 8 (PRC–SM)
- 2 Decidueye/Vileplume
- 2 M Mewtwo/Garbodor
- 2 Yveltal/Garbodor
- 1 M Gardevoir/Giratina-EX
- 1 Volcanion
Seniors Top 8 decklists for Anaheim and Melbourne can be found at the preceding links.
The Seniors metagame seems to be falling in place with the current Masters metagame right now. Decidueye, M Mewtwo, and Yveltal are the top decks, with Volcanion having a small presence as well. I would probably just disregard Anaheim’s results in this division as they seem to show an unexplored format. Now that we know what can compete in the PRC–SM format, I think we’ll continue to see tournaments with Top 8s similar to Australia.
Looking more in depth at the Melbourne results shows that the 3 Seniors in Top 8 from the USA played the 2 Decidueye decks and one of the Mewtwo variants. I believe the Mewtwo was played to counter the Decidueye that other Seniors were playing, and that will likely continue as a trend in the division. You’ll either have to play Decidueye or play to counter it. Personally, I don’t think that the counters are overly effective as a T1 Vileplume can just lock a deck completely out of the game, no matter how it techs for the matchup.
Recommendation
As far as a counter to Decidueye, Yveltal/Garbodor could be a good option. It’s not necessarily a hard counter, but you can play cards like Olympia, the 3rd Lysandre, Wobbuffet and even a 4th Float Stone to give yourself a good chance to win. Check out the list that Christopher had in his latest article. You can try adding Olympia to help against Decidueye, or Mewtwo EVO to counter M Mewtwo. I also still like the Tauros-GX + Ninja Boy combination in the deck if you can find space for it. Decidueye can have a problem with Tauros as it’s difficult to 1HKO so it always can threaten a Mad Bull-GX or Rage at some point in the game.
I also think Decidueye could do well in Seniors for the same reasons I like it in Juniors. The top Senior players have the chance to outplay their opponents and the options to win even difficult matchups. However, after the deck’s success among American players in Melbourne, I’d expect some counters to the deck to pop up. Make sure your Senior knows how to play around Wobbuffet and how to play the Mewtwo matchup before giving them Decidueye for a major tournament.
Rayquaza could be an under the radar play that counters both Decidueye and some of the other decks that are doing well. It would easily beat any Gardevoir variants that pop up after it won in Melbourne. Yveltal and Mewtwo decks have been dropping their Parallel City counts to 1 or even cutting them entirely. Energy denial is at an all time low since Standard started this year. It beats Volcanion which could be seen as a logical Decidueye counter. I’m not saying it’s the best deck in the format, and think it has some consistency issues, but it could take advantage of the metagame as it stands. I posted a list in my last article that should be a good starting point.
Update (4/10/17)
Salt Lake City Top 8 (PRC–SM)
- 2 Yveltal
- 2 Turbo Darkrai
- 1 M Rayquaza
- 1 Decidueye/Vileplume
- 1 Decidueye/Techs
- 1 Lapras
The results from the Senior division in Salt Lake City seem to signal a resurgence of Dark decks in the division. They were barely present in the last few weekends after dominating the Standard format for the early parts of the year. Part of this could be due to the noted West Coast bias toward Dark decks, but I also think they were pretty good calls for the metagame.
I’m glad to see that half of the Top 8 was comprised of decks that I thought could do well. It’s a bit harder for me to give recommendations on divisions where I’m just observing instead of the one I play in. However, trends still exist and I have the experience to read into them pretty consistently.
Moving forward, I think we’ll see the Senior division feature much of the same decks. Dark will probably recede a bit, down to about an average of 2-3 Top 8 placings per tournament. Decidueye will probably keep a solid spot in the metagame, and then any number of decks from Lapras to Mewtwo to Volcanion could see success.
The M Gardevoir/Giratina deck that has been played in Juniors and took 1st Place in Melbourne for Seniors could actually be a good call moving forward, although I would make some significant changes. Basically, my idea would be to cut all of the Dragon support while adding an extra Shaymin-EX and some more Supporter cards to up your consistency. I don’t think the Dragon engine really adds to the deck, especially since you’re not focused on speed. A slightly thickened Gardevoir line and more Y Energy should work just as well as far as upping your damage output in most matchups.
Update (4/27/17)
Brazil Results (PRC–SM)
Unfortunately, I also was unable to collect full Top 8 results from Seniors in Brazil. However, I did hear of everything from Turbo Darkrai to Volcanion to Xerneas BREAK/Giratina doing well. Top 8 included all of those decks, as well as a Yveltal/Zoroark deck. Past the results of Top 8, I heard of Carbink/Vileplume, M Gardevoir, and other fringe decks. There seem to be few trends to follow in the division based on the results from Brazil.
The one trend I saw was that most of the North American players were piloting Dark decks of some sort. I’d expect them to continue to be heavily played in Roanoke as they were in Salt Lake City as well. Decks like Decidueye and Rayquaza are the best bets against them, although something like Vespiquen/Zebstrika wouldn’t be a bad call either. Lycanroc would be a fun deck to try out if you want to see how energy denial can do in the format.
As far as decks not to play, I’d say Volcanion and Lapras are poorly positioned in Seniors. Lapras struggles a lot with Turbo Darkrai, as Yveltal XY thwarts any of your attempts to deny your opponent’s energy. Volcanion seems to be heavily countered in the division. Most Dark decks are including heavy Ability lock with Garbodor, Hex Maniac, Silent Lab, or some combination of those cards. Neither deck has done particularly well in the division recently and I can now see why.
Conclusion
countylemonadeRight now, I think the Standard format is relatively healthy and has a ton of viable decks. There’s not really a right or wrong answer, so it’s easy to stick with the deck you’re most comfortable with. Many matchups are close to even, so familiarity with your deck and list can make all of the difference.
Keep your eyes peeled for the update to this article, coming just after Salt Lake City Regionals. I think I’m going to employ a similar model for most of May when we have tournament after tournament for 5–6 weeks. It should be better than clogging the front page with content that doesn’t apply to everyone
Good luck to everyone competing in Salt Lake City and São Paulo! I’ll be attending the International event in a few weeks; feel free to say hey if you see me there.
Alex
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