What’s up SixPrizes! Not much about myself has changed since my last article, but Salt Lake City Regionals and Latin America Internationals have changed our meta once again. Darkrai-EX decks made up half of Day 2 in Salt Lake City, but only one made Top 8. I think the rise of Volcanion-EX and Decidueye/Vileplume was the main cause. Most Darkrai-EX variants lowered counts of Silent Lab to focus their attention toward Decidueye/Vileplume, which greatly hindered the Volcanion matchup. Ultimately, Rainbow Decidueye/Vileplume prevailed in Brazil. This came to me as quite a surprise because most players believe the regular version to be better. This variant takes better matchups to Turbo Dark and Volcanion, but sacrifices shots at Lapras and Dark/Tina, and suffers a worse mirror.
I will be attending Roanoke, but I don’t really know exactly what I want to play. Decidueye/Vileplume is definitely the BDIF, both in popularity and performance. What I mean by this is that lots of people play the deck, and it succeeds. In Salt Lake City, M Mewtwo was the most played deck, but it underperformed. It would be interesting to see all of the decks from Brazil. Alas, no event other than Salt Lake City Regionals released archetypes from the weekend. I think this would be an incredibly good tool for people trying to metagame future events.
Perspective Lens: The Meta for Roanoke
I’m incredibly ready for Guardians Rising to arrive, most notably to improve the Standard format. All of the major decks have been established, with Decidueye/Vileplume being the frontrunner. Its matchups are stellar in comparison with other decks. If you are attending Virginia Regionals, play a deck that can compete with Decidueye/Vileplume. The other decks you should worry about are Volcanion, Darkrai variants, and M Rayquaza. Tier 2 decks that continue to be played are Yveltal/Garbodor, Vespiquen, Lapras, and M Mewtwo. I label these as Tier 2 because these decks heavily underperformed in Salt Lake City and Brazil.
Salt Lake City Popularity
- Darkrai Variants (50-50 split between Turbo and Dragons)
- M Mewtwo
- Volcanion
- Decidueye/Vileplume
- Yveltal/Garbodor
- M Rayquaza
- Vespiquen
- Quad Lapras
Predicted Popularity for Roanoke:
- Darkrai Variants
- Volcanion
- Decidueye/Vileplume
- M Mewtwo
- M Rayquaza
- Quad Lapras
- Yveltal/Garbodor
- Vespiquen
I continue to put Darkrai Variants at #1 because it’s such a consistent deck that many people enjoy. It’s been viable since January; most players have the cards for it. This is also why I ranked Volcanion at #2. Both of these decks are easy for newer players to pick up on. These were also the most popular decks a few months ago. Less competitive players may not drop tons of money on the game, so they will continue to play the same deck. I expect the meta to be closer to Athens Regionals (with current updates) based on location. M Mewtwo, Volcanion, and Turbo Dark were all highly played decks at that event. Decidueye/Vileplume is #3 on the list because of its success.
Moving toward the bottom of the list, M Rayquaza is #5. M Rayquaza performed exceedingly well in Athens, and also managed to take a Top 4 finish this past weekend in São Paulo. It is extremely strong against Darkrai Variants and Volcanion, but can struggle against Decidueye/Vileplume after Item lock. It also can steal games away from any deck that has a slow start. If I was choosing to play the deck with the most raw power in Virginia, I would choose M Rayquaza.
I predict that Quad Lapras, Yveltal/Garbodor, and Vespiquen will be played in low numbers. Despite all of the hype, Lapras did not take any Top 8 spots in Brazil. A few of them made Top 32, but not enough to where I would consider the deck viable. Lots of North American players played Lapras, and many of them did poorly. Yveltal/Garbodor is a completely dead deck in the meta, but I think it will be played just because it is Yveltal-EX. I don’t think that the deck is good in the meta by any means, but people love to play it. Vespiquen is the last deck on my list, for good reason. Vespiquen is simply underwhelming at the moment. It has a terrible matchup against Decidueye/Vileplume, and everything else isn’t much better.
Retooled Revision: Quad Lapras 2.0
molcat.deviantart.comI won’t discuss the deck past this in this article because of my coverage and Brit’s. Quad Lapras is my fallback deck for Roanoke, but currently I’m exploring other options. The performance of NA in Brazil with Lapras has me leery of the deck’s ability to succeed at larger tournaments.
|
Pokémon – 5 |
Trainers – 45 4 N 2 Lysandre 1 Olympia 1 Skyla
1 Switch
|
Energy – 10 10 W
|
Turbo Darkrai
Since its rise in Dallas/Athens, Darkrai has been a large part of the Standard meta. Recapping from above, it recently took 4 spots of the Top 8 in Salt Lake City and 1 spot in São Paulo. I’d argue that Turbo Darkrai is sporadic and clunky sometimes, but has tons of raw power. A beautiful starting hand from Darkrai is better than a beautiful starting hand with other decks. Max Elixir is the true bread and butter of this deck because it permanently increases the damage of Dark Pulse by 20.
By my logic, any card that breaks the rules of the games is inherently broken (with some exceptions). Max Elixir, Dark Patch, and now Aqua Patch are all cards that break the “one Energy per turn” rule. Exp. Share is incredibly good at managing mid-game Energy loss through knockouts. The deck is perfectly linear, which makes its strong. Chris Siakala’s list from SLC is what I would use going forward.
Briefly discussing his list, I really like the Team Flare Grunt. It has good utility against both mirror and Decidueye/Vileplume. In the mirror, it’s useful for lowering damage from opponents. If your opponent has a bad turn, it may force them to Oblivion Wing to buy time. Lysandre can quickly clean up the game from there. It also is good against Decidueye/Vileplume to slow them down. Most lists run 3 Grass, so landing Grunt on a Decidueye-GX could potentially buy a turn. It also is great against M Mewtwo because Darkrai shouldn’t usually be doing 210. The problems come in this matchup if the M Mewtwo player is able to 1HKO a Darkrai twice. The game is mostly unwinnable from there unless there’s nothing left after that Mewtwo.
I like the 2-1 Silent Lab/Parallel City split because of Volcanion. Silent Lab is required to win that matchup, but its also good against all decks on the first turn. Parallel City is great for removing Shaymin-EX (like always). Parallel City is incredibly useful against M Rayquaza as well. That matchup is winnable with a Turn 1 Silent Lab. In the late-game, Parallel City + N is a good combo when both Silent Lab have been used. The damage reduction is important against Volcanion and Decidueye.
I don’t know if Darkrai will win the tournament, but it’s the deck I would feel the most comfortable with aiming for Top 32. It’s easy enough to go 6-1-2 or 7-2 with Darkrai because the deck runs itself and doesn’t have any auto-losses. That being said, it doesn’t have any strict auto-wins either. The deck wins off of drawing well in comparison to the opponent.
My biggest fear playing Darkrai is my own deck. I’ve had games where the deck draws cards in the correct order, but I’ve also had games where I have 4 D Energy in my opening hand. There’s variance with any deck, but it seems to happen a lot with Max Elixir decks. Drawing too many Energy early on drastically reduces the odds of Max Elixir later on. Darkrai and Volcanion would be terrible decks without Max Elixir.
Comparing Turbo Dark to Darkrai/Giratina, I don’t know which deck I prefer. Turbo Dark is the more popular and consistent variant, but Giratina-EX and Salamence-EX have their uses. Darkrai/Giratina has to cut the unnecessary cards for the Dragon package. Going into a tournament, I would still choose to play Turbo Dark over Darkrai/Giratina. Darkrai can still beat every deck that the Dragons help against, and the extra cards added in can swing specific matchups based on the meta. Both variants were played in similar numbers in Salt Lake City, with 3 Turbo Dark and 1 Darkrai/Giratina making Top 8.
Volcanoes
The last Standard deck I’m going to talk about is Volcanion. It’s extremely powerful when it sets up and has a decent matchup against Decidueye/Vileplume. I’d call Volcanion the most consistent deck in Standard because everything relies on Energy Acceleration, while it has a Hoopa engine — and it is fast. I view Volcanion as a great deck for a long tournament because it is not as mentally taxing as other decks. Games are also decided more quickly, which gives extra time in between rounds to relax or get food. I certainly don’t base my deck choices off of these factors, but a tournament definitely is more fun when you have breaks.
|
Pokémon – 10 |
Trainers – 38 2 Lysandre 2 N 1 Olympia
1 Switch
|
Energy – 12 12 R |
There isn’t anything too extreme about this list. I’ve decided to remove any tech cards for the moment to smooth out the consistency and firepower. I really enjoy 4 Trainers’ Mail because I can thin my deck enough to find Max Elixir. It’s really useful as the game goes on because N’s to 1-2 cards are less impactful. The main strength of Volcanion is its speed and high damage output. Connecting 2 Energy with Power Heater is incredibly important because Volcanion can only keep up with decks when it’s moving quickly.
I’ve removed Pokémon Ranger from the deck because I find it to be incredibly lackluster. In every case, another Olympia would be better because a Float Stone is usually available to facilitate a rotation. I would never add a 2nd Olympia, which makes me extremely skeptical of Ranger.
One option I’ve seen people run is Professor Kukui. Professor Kukui is necessary against M decks if one Volcanion-EX is prized. It’s not worth running though, as those matchups are bad anyway. M Mewtwo can deal with Volcanion easily in combination with Garbodor. M Rayquaza does 180-240 damage to no response from Volcanion. M Gardevoir is the closest match, but with the inclusion of multiple Hex Maniac that matchup becomes worse.
M Gardevoir has sadly died off, waiting for a time when M Mewtwo rises as BDIF. I don’t expect it to make any performance in Roanoke, but hopefully there are some people with hope left!
I’ve chosen to omit Salamence-EX here because I find it to be worthless, especially without Sky Field. Most of the times my Field will be comprised of Hoopa-EX, 3 Volcanion-EX, 1-2 Shaymin-EX, and 1 Volcanion. There isn’t much room for Salamence-EX. If I was running a 2-1 Sky Field/Scorched Earth split I would consider it, but I don’t know if I actually would play it. It benefits the mirror match, Rayquaza, and Turbo Dark mostly. M Mewtwo is still unfavorable. I think Salamence-EX is a personal preference, especially if these decks see play in your area. However, with Decidueye/Vileplume being the #1 deck, I can’t run another heavy Retreat Cost card that is useless for that matchup.
My last point of discussion is whether to include Pokémon Catcher. Gustavo Wada ran a list with them to a Top 8 finish in Melbourne. The merit to running them is to absolutely cheese wins. Volcanion can already win games by being faster than other decks, and Pokémon Catcher can singlehandedly win certain games. Envision: the Shaymin-EX you played on your first turn was just killed on the first turn of the game by a triple Steam Up + Power Heater. I’ve had this happen to me before — I instantly lost. The main benefit to Pokémon Catcher is being able to use Professor Sycamore and still have a chance at a “gust” effect.
The cuts required for Pokémon Catcher are the “unnecessary” cards. Trainers’ Mail, Supporters, or Switching cards are options. Trainers’ Mail is great for picking up the speed of the deck, but with Pokémon Catcher, the deck can act slower and take the correct prizes. Instead of taking an Active Shaymin-EX, you can target down the main threat of your opponent. Supporters that could be cut are N and Lysandre. Switching cards are extremely important in Volcanion to smooth over the mid-game. Nothing feels worse than passing the turn or Retreating for 3 Energies. However, Pokémon Catcher has the benefit of slowing down the opponent. By taking away the main threat (or even taking easy prizes on a Shaymin-EX), you put yourself in a better position to win.
My parting advice is to remember that Volcanion is built to be consistent. Pokémon Catcher is a neat gadget that’s fun and can win games, but ultimately cuts into consistency. It hurts the Decidueye/Vileplume matchup, but can improve others. Unlike a Hex Maniac or Team Flare Grunt tech in other decks, Pokémon Catcher doesn’t automatically boost the win percentage of the deck. Its genericness is good, but may be unnecessary. Dragging up a Garbodor and removing it is extremely useful, but the deck already has the tools to do so. Yveltal/Garbodor has died out as a deck, and I see no hope for M Mewtwo to rise. It’s seen poor performances in the past two tournaments. Diluting the core of Volcanion with Pokémon Catcher may make for awesome games won, but you may be forgetting about the time where you dead-drew or needed a Stadium from Trainers’ Mail.
Breaking Barriers: Moving onto Guardians Rising!
Seattle Regionals will be the first major tournament where GUR is legal. I had the opportunity to attend Anaheim Regionals upon Sun and Moon’s release, but because of school and other factors I can’t go to Seattle. I’ll have the pleasure of watching from the sidelines. The decks I’m going to cover today heavily rely on cards from Guardians Rising. Many cards like Field Blower, Rescue Stretcher, and Tapu Lele-GX will appear in a majority of decks. In my opinion, the most interesting decks will be those that are new, similar to Decidueye/Vileplume.
There are plenty of insane cards in the set, as well as some mediocre cards. I scanned through the set list and compiled some of my favorites groups. Keep in mind this list is based off of the card’s raw power and potential. Several cards may be incredibly weak in this meta, but may shine after the rotation or in conjunction with future sets.
Editor’s Note: We know some of these links are currently not quite working as intended (especially the Trainers), and are working to fix the problem.
Top Tier Contenders:
- Turtonator-GX
- Tapu Koko-GX
- Garbodor
- Oricorio 56
- Tapu Lele-GX
- Sudowoodo
- Sylveon-GX
- Rayquaza
- Drampa-GX
- Lycanroc-GX
- Aqua Patch
- Choice Band
- Field Blower
- Rescue Stretcher
Dark Horse Favorites
- Alolan Ninetales-GX
- Wishiwashi-GX
- Vikavolt-GX
- Trevenant
- Aether Paradise Conservation Area
- Altar of the Moone
- Brooklet Hill
- Hala
- Mallow
Might See Play…Someday.
The Revenge of the Trash – Garbodor Returns!
Garbodor GUR is a perplexing card. Long a support Pokémon thrown into decks like M Mewtwo and Yveltal-EX, suddenly the trash can has become the attacker! Trashvalance does 20× the number of Items in the opponent’s discard. Yes! There’s finally a card that can punish people who play every card in their hand!
In all seriousness, I believe Garbodor to be an extremely healthy, but also unhealthy, card. It is healthy because decks that utilize Max Elixir or many “burn” Items such as Trainers’ Mail get bitten. However, decks that don’t utilize these fast cards will still have 9+ Items in the discard pile after the first few turns. Garbodor can hit 180+ against most decks very easily, leading it to be a threat against every deck. Hopefully by some miracle Garbodor will slow down the format, but I think decks will simply try to out-speed it.
|
Pokémon – 15
|
Trainers – 36 4 N 2 Lillie 2 Lysandre 1 Brigette
|
Energy – 9 6 P |
Here’s a starting list for the deck. These were the first 60 cards that came to my mind when trying to construct this deck. It has a thick Garbodor line, with one Garbodor BKP for Ability lock. I included 2 Wobbuffet PHF because the Decidueye/Vileplume matchup would be horrendous without it. Also, Altar of the Moone is also extremely helpful for moving Wobbuffet in and out of the Active with simply a P Energy. I put one Oricorio in because of Vespiquen. I believe that Oricorio has more uses because it works in all matchups. It also can snipe off of the remaining HP after a Trashvalance that didn’t quite 1HKO.
Drampa-GX is an incredibly splashable card, similar to Tauros-GX. It provides the deck with an extremely useful GX attack in the early game — assuming the opponent doesn’t have N. I think it will be useful in decks like M Gardevoir or M Rayquaza that don’t opt for any GX attacker. Righteous Edge is also an extremely good attack against a majority of decks in Standard. It has never been easier to get Team Flare Grunt out of the deck because of Tapu Lele-GX, making Energy denial readily available. I expect one form of counter to Decidueye/Vileplume to be a Drampa-GX and Team Flare Grunt package. Both of these cards are also inherently strong by themselves.
My Supporter line may look strange, but there’s a purpose to it. There’s a 4-3 split between N and Professor Sycamore, two of the best cards in format. I’ve included 2 Lillie as well. This is more than decks usually run, and you may be thinking: “Why include so many Supporters when you have access to Tapu Lele-GX?” Well, to answer that I’d have to say that Tapu Lele-GX takes up a Bench space. You’ve probably noticed the singular copy of Brigette. My main goal on the first turn is to Brigette and lay down multiple Trubbish. The biggest problem with Evolution decks at the moment is setting up. Garbodor GUR doesn’t run as quick of an engine as Vespiquen, so I needed to compensate by including Brigette. The surplus of draw Supporters is there because I need to have them for the next turn. I simply cannot risk drawing poorly with a deck like this.
As for the how the deck favors against the current meta, I’d say pretty it’ll do pretty well. All of the prominent decks in Standard are extremely fast, with plenty of Items to feed off of. Turbo Darkrai and Volcanion both run the same engine with approximately 25 Items. 25! That’s over half the deck! Only 9 of them need to be in the discard to do 180 damage to Volcanion-EX. 11-12 Items are required to KO a Volcanion-EX or Darkrai-EX with a Fighting Fury Belt. Only 6 Items are required to kill a M Mewtwo! Garbodor is extremely strong.
Garbodor also has the benefit of being a 1 Prize attacker; it takes the same trades as Vespiquen. I’d be interested to see a version that completely substitutes Zoroark and Zebstrika for Garbodor. Now the deck can run 3 Garbodor GUR and 1 Garbodor BKP. Both Pokémon’s damage output increases as the game goes on. I’d be interested to see if there were any stalling cards in Vespiquen/Garbodor that would force them to drop extra Items.
Fighting Chance – The Rise of the Angry Wolves
Lycanroc-GX SMPR was just recently introduced as a promo, and was a decent card on its own. The main strategy of the deck was to use Carbink BREAK and Lycanroc-GX SMPR to outlast the opponent, similar to Carbink/Zygarde in Expanded. However, this deck lacked any late-game finisher. Lycanroc-GX PR had a weak GX attack in comparison to the new one. With the inclusion of the new Lycanroc-GX, Brooklet Hill, and Sudowoodo, I believe this deck can compete.
|
Pokémon – 18 |
Trainers – 33 3 N 1 Lysandre 1 Lillie 1 Olympia
|
Energy – 9 5 F 4 Strong |
I’ve opted for a 2-2 split of Lycanroc-GX for various reasons:
- Lycanroc-GX SMPR is best in the early stages of the game against all decks
- Lycanroc-GX GUR is required at certain times for a Lysandre effect
- When Lycanroc-GX GUR is prized, I will have a bad time
I could see myself going to a 3-1 split (in favor of the promo), but I believe 2-2 to be correct. The deck has Rescue Stretcher to deal with any of those problems. I run 1 Energy Keeper Carbink to deal with any other Lycanroc-GX decks, as well as Quad Lapras if that continues to appear. Technical Supporters like Team Flare Grunt will be at an all time high after Guardians Rising, too. It’s a standard 3-2 Carbink BREAK line, because it’s important, but also unimportant — the deck can function without Carbink BREAK. However, it is extremely strong against Volcanion, Darkrai variants, and M Rayquaza. Max Potion is a card that would be harder to utilize without the Energy recovery.
Oriocorio is a card I thought of last minute. This one has an ability that searched the deck for 2 Energies when you bench it. This is useful for collecting Energy to Diamond Gift. The other tech option I included is Sudowoodo. Sudowoodo is an incredibly good card. I think it’s good enough to throw in a variety of decks because it absolutely destroys M Gardevoir and M Rayquaza. Both decks become capped at 150 and 120 damage, respectively. If either deck plays Hex Maniac to counter Sudowoodo, then Shaymin-EX and Hoopa-EX are turned off for the turn.
Sudowoodo acts as a softer Parallel City against other decks, but it can’t be “Parallel locked.” If your opponent plays Parallel City down first, you can never put yours into play. Sudowoodo can be played down into opposing Sudowoodo, or into Parallel City (if you want to). Sudowoodo’s niche is incredibly healthy for the meta because it can also act as a preventative measure to your opponent leaving an open Bench space or Shaymin-EX or Tapu Lele-GX.
I use Enhanced Hammer and Max Potion because of the possibilities with Crunch and Diamond Gift. Those are the main two attacks of the deck; both of these Items combo well with them. Enhanced Hammer is great for stripping Benched Pokémon of Energy when the opponent stops attaching to the Active. It also is useful for doubling up on Energy removal with Crunch + Enhanced Hammer. Max Potion is great because the deck has bulky attackers. Lycanroc-GX is built to outlast the opponent, and overpower them at the end. This is extremely similar to the game-plan of Quad Lapras. Max Potion is better utilized in this deck because of Carbink BREAK.
Brooklet Hill is my go-to Stadium, with a single copy of Scorched Earth. Brooklet Hill is useful for pulling Rockruff and Carbink from the deck. I don’t need to use a Brigette + Tapu Lele-GX engine because of it.
“Buzz Buzz” – The Electric Bee
pokemontime.tumblr.comWith the introduction of Vikavolt-GX, this deck may finally have potential! Previously, the deck lacked a good Lightning type attacker. Now, it has Vikavolt-GX and Tapu Koko-GX to bring offensive power. Vikavolt SUM has an astoundingly good Ability, filling the Energy Acceleration niche that is so present in today’s game. The problem with Vikavolt is that it is extremely slow and difficult to set up. Although this is still true with Guardians Rising, the deck is in a better position to succeed than before.
|
Pokémon – 16 |
Trainers – 32 4 N 2 Lillie 2 Lysandre 1 Brigette
|
Energy – 12 6 L 6 G |
This deck seems incredibly strong upon first glance. The deck should be able to overcome the natural inconsistencies of a Stage 2 deck because Vikavolt-GX is huge. My game-plan with this deck is to hopefully get the T1 Brigette onto 3 Grubbin, and plan for a Vikavolt-GX on the second turn. Its first attack does 50 for one L Energy, and attaches an Energy to itself. After this point, I would try to set up Vikavolt SUM. This is to help transition into the mid-game quickly while doing tons of damage.
Tapu Koko-GX provides the deck with a strong GX attack, which is useful since Gigatron-GX is bad. Leafeon-EX is in the deck to deal with Fighting Pokémon like Lycanroc-GX. Another option is Trevenant-EX PRC, but I simply wanted something that would guarantee 100+ damage. Leafeon-EX does 90+30 with a Stadium for GGC, which is better than 50+20 for each G Energy attached. Leafeon-EX is more reliable than Trevenant-EX for the niche it fills.
I choose to run 2 Max Potion for the same reason that I do in the Lycanroc-GX deck. Vikavolt SUM has incredibly capabilities for reloading an attacker. Vikavolt-GX also has an attack that discards Energy, so there is already inherent benefit. Max Potion + Tapu Koko-GX is an inherently strong combo that a deck can be built around itself, but I feel that it’s too gimmicky. One Hex Maniac can shut down such a trick.
The last point of discussion on the Items is 3 VS Seeker. With a Stage 2 deck, the main loss will be from a slow start. I opted for an 2nd Lillie over the 4th VS Seeker. I think that this will give me better first turns in setting up Vikavolt-GX. The only Supporters that would require a VS Seeker on the spot are Brock’s Grit and Lysandre. Brigette is bad past the first turn. One could say that a 4th VS Seeker could grab another draw Supporter, but I change out the 4th VS Seeker for one.
Rough Seas is by far the Stadium of choice. I was thinking about Aether Paradise Conservation Area, but that only applies to Basics — and, it also has a long card name that I would have to write down on a decklist! In all seriousness, Rough Seas is better because it works with Evolutions too.
As far as matchups go, this deck seems pretty good against Turbo Dark, Volcanion, Lapras, and M Rayquaza. Decidueye/Vileplume and M Mewtwo seem incredibly difficult because of Vileplume and the inability do 1HKO a M Mewtwo. I plan on trying out Choice Band, Professor Kukui, or maybe even a Psychic type attacker that uses C Energy. Unfortunately Tapu Lele-GX doesn’t hit for Weakness.
Lochness Monster on Wheels
Quad Lapras decided to take a U-Turn in the way the deck is built. Instead of outlasting opponents, why not just do 190 damage on the first turn? That sounds like a good plan.
|
Pokémon – 10 |
Trainers – 38 2 Lysandre 1 N
|
Energy – 12 12 W |
My first though was to build this identically to Waterbox from 2016 Nats-Worlds, but then I realized something: It’s okay to use Collect after Blizzard Burn with a different Lapras-GX. Ideally, there is a first turn attack. If I wanted to go all in on this game-plan, I would include 3 Energy Switch in place of spare cards like Oricorio, 2nd Hex Maniac, and Parallel City. However, I believe these cards are better than Energy Switch. Each of these fulfill a certain weakness of the deck. Oricorio is great because Lapras-GX has no weak attack usable for a small amount of Energy. Oricorio is also a 1 Prize attacker that can snipe. Have you recognized that I love this card? The 2nd Hex Maniac is there for Decidueye/Vileplume, but I think that’s an iffy matchup anyway. The only way I see it as winnable is if Decidueye/Vileplume has an extremely slow start, or Lapras-GX lands a first turn attack. Parallel City is in place to remove Shaymin-EX off of the Bench. Simple.
I run an extremely fast engine that is incredibly vulnerable to Garbodor GUR. If someone plays Garbodor on its own, I would not play a single Item unless it’s absolutely necessary. If it’s paired with something like Vespiquen that already does enough damage to kill a Lapras-GX, it’s a lost cause anyway — so don’t worry about it. Meanwhile, Aqua Patch and Max Elixir are two incredibly broken cards, and they probably are even more so when put together.
I think this deck will destroy all EX or Basic GX decks. M Mewtwo or M Rayquaza may be harder because of 220 HP. Decidueye would also give this deck trouble. I don’t know how popular M Mewtwo and M Rayquaza will be post-GUR because of Garbodor and Sudowoodo, respectively. Even with these decks in format, I would not be surprised if Lapras was able to overcome them by sheer speed. Regice AOR could be a nice inclusion to counter those decks (as would Glaceon-EX).
Conclusion
ebay.comI’m incredibly excited for Guardians Rising because it changes the format — either for the better or the worse. I’d argue that Sun and Moon helped, but also hurt the format. Decidueye/Vileplume is incredibly unbalanced when it sets up, but can crash and burn with a slow start. Comparing this to Guardians Rising, there are only a few cards I see that are unhealthy. Garbodor, Aqua Patch, and Choice Band are my Top 3 unhealthy cards. Cards that are healthy for the meta are Sudowoodo, Field Blower, Tapu Lele-GX, and Drampa-GX.
Every time a set releases, I create many deck ideas and discuss them with friends. PRC–GUR will be the format for all of the tournaments this year once it releases, so experiment! League Challenges and League Cups can be used as tournaments to try out ideas, where Regionals are the tournaments to take your best deck to. Looking at the list I made, I can think of another 5-10 decks I didn’t mention that may come out of Guardians Rising. The possibilities are endless!
For the tournaments before Guardians Rising releases, the meta is completely figured out at this point. This is the last Regionals of PRC–SUM, so investing time in a rogue deck isn’t a very good option. I don’t plan on thinking up any crazy decks before Guardians Rising; I’d advise you to pick your favorite meta deck and play it. Like I said above, Turbo Darkrai and Volcanion are the two most consistent decks in Standard. Other decks that I favor are M Mewtwo and Decidueye/Vileplume. I said that M Mewtwo did poorly, but I believe in the right hands and meta that it can succeed. Whatever deck you choose, make sure you’re comfortable and enjoy playing it. What’s the point of playing Pokémon if you’re not having fun, right?
Anyway, I hope to see you all at Roanoke! If you see me, feel free to say hi or talk about your day. It makes me incredibly happy to see people taking my advice or even reading my articles. I’ll also be in Madison and Mexico City later on this year. I hope to see you all there!
Xander
…and that will conclude this Unlocked Underground article.
After 45 days, we unlock each Underground (UG/★) article for public viewing. New articles are reserved for Underground members.
Underground Members: Thank you for making this article possible!
Other Readers: Check out the FAQ if you are interested in joining Underground and gaining full access to our latest content.
Leave a Reply