A Certain Luster

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Hey, Trainers! Last week, I conducted a poll on Twitter to see what kind of article you wanted to see. 57.5%, or 73/127 people, wanted to see an article with one rogue deck and one “known” deck, so that’s what I’ll be bringing you this week! Today, I’ve got two takes on Reshiram & Zekrom-GX, and my top list for Dallas Regionals, featuring Ultra Necrozma. Let’s check it out!

v1: Taking a Trip to TurboTown

The idea for utilizing Reshiram & Zekrom-GX originally came from a late night of Expanded testing, where I ran into a Rayquaza-EX/Eelektrik deck, straight out of a little less than a decade ago. When I started building the deck myself, to remind myself of the old days, I remembered that there was a significantly stronger version of Rayquaza-EX, and built the Naganadel list farther below. While I’ll cover that deck in a moment, I wanted to have a little more pure aggression for my list, to truly scrap with the Turbo Greninja & Zoroark-GX decks. So, after looking through different forms of Energy acceleration, I found Milotic FLF, and combined it with Tapu Koko p and Max Elixir to create the list below:

Turbo ReshiRom List

Key Cards

2-2 Milotic FLF, 3 Max Elixir, 1 Tapu Koko p

These 8 cards are the core of our Energy acceleration, and based around trying to get 3 basic Energy into play on any given turn of the game. On turn 1, you can Battle Compressor, use Dance of the Ancients, play a Max Elixir, attach a Double Dragon, and do 270 damage on the first turn of the game. Milotic is generally there for powering up a secondary attack, and it’s not all too common that you’ll end up using two in a game, but you’ll almost always need one to make sure that you can get all the way through a game. Just be careful about Garbotoxin and a late N when considering Milotic; you may want to use the Energy Grace Ability a turn or two early just to make sure you can still attack. Of course, if these cards completely fail, you do have N’s Resolve, but that’s certainly a last-ditch option.

3 Professor Sycamore, 1 N, 2 Shaymin-EX ROS, 1 Dedenne-GX, 1 Tapu Lele-GX

Each of these cards serves an individual purpose in the consistency engine of this extremely aggressive deck. Dedenne-GX is there as a slightly higher-HP Shaymin-EX and is primarily used for digging extra deep through the game. I originally omitted Tapu Lele-GX, but its ability to go through Wobbuffet’s Bide Barricade and utility in searching out cards like Guzma and N’s Resolve are both crucial to winning games. Shaymin-EX is for all other situations: drawing a few extra cards here and there, maybe a Sky Return or two, and drawing out of mid-game disruption. Professor Sycamore and N are fairly self-explanatory; there’s no better Supporters for digging through your deck at full speed and disrupting in the late-game.

1 N’s Resolve

As you’ll see, this is a card I’ve chosen to omit in the other Reshiram & Zekrom-GX list. However, N’s Resolve allows you to take a quick 4 Prize cards against decks like Turbo Dark and Zoroark-GX/Garbodor, and can allow for a quick come-from-behind victory, as it requires very little boardstate to pull off. If you’ve got a Reshiram & Zekrom-GX in the Active, and you’re planning on attaching 2 Double Dragon Energy or using Energy Grace to go for a Cross Break-GX attack, just remember that you need to have a Dragon Pokémon on your Bench to use N’s Resolve. It may sound obvious, but Bench space can get limited fast, especially if decks choose to pack Parallel City in their lists. As aforementioned, N’s Resolve can serve as some quick acceleration in a pinch, but anytime I’m considering this play, I count the cards in the deck and the Energy remaining to make sure that it’s worth my while.

1 Giratina-EX AOR, 1 Fighting Fury Belt

Unlike N’s Resolve, these are cards featured across both lists. Giratina-EX has been the most reliable out to Ultra Necrozma decks that I can find so far. However, it’s not always the best move to come out of the gate strong with it; sometimes, it’s better to take 1–2 Prizes with Reshiram & Zekrom-GX, let them take a KO, and then use Energy Grace or Dance of the Ancients and N alongside a Chaos Wheel to try and lock them out of the game. However, if your opponent has cut Pokémon Ranger, as many have, Giratina-EX and Parallel City can completely lock your opponent out of the game. In the Ultra Necrozma matchup specifically, it’s worth trying to gauge if they play basic Energy, and make sure to limit your Items as soon as you see a Trubbish.

1 Comfey GRI

Comfey is a quick, 1-Prize answer to Dead End-GX in an effort to make the Turbo Dark matchup that much better. It can also be useful against niche decks that try to use Hypnotoxic Laser to boost damage output. However, be careful of benching multiple Reshiram & Zekrom-GX, as your opponent can always use Guzma and Hypnotoxic Laser if you don’t have a Double Dragon Energy attached.

v2: A Mysterious Approach

This was my original concept for Reshiram & Zekrom-GX, and I really like the versatility of tech options in this iteration of the deck. This deck focuses on abusing Wobbuffet, Naganadel, and Mysterious Treasure, versus the overwhelming speed and aggression of the previous list. When building the deck, I tried to channel some of the features that Drampa-GX/Garbodor decks used in the past. I know that they may not sound like similar decks, but they both focus on establishing Psychic Stage 1s, utilizing Pokémon-GX, and abusing Special Energy. Let’s take a look:

ReshiRom/Naganadel List

Key Counts

3 Wobbuffet PHF

This card is so strong in the Expanded format. It gives you a wall of a starter against Ultra Necrozma decks, can paralyze Turbo Dark decks, turns off Zoroark-GX’s Trade as well as Vileplume AOR’s Irritating Pollen, and ultimately has great synergy with Tapu Lele-GX. The list of cards that Wobbuffet invalidates goes on and on, making it one of the strongest starters in the Expanded format and perfect for this deck.

4 Professor Sycamore, 1 N, 1 Cynthia, 1 Brigette, 2 Battle Compressor, 2 Tapu Lele-GX

Like the Drampa-GX/Garbodor decks of the past, I chose to include 1 Brigette alongside 6 draw Supporters, each of which abuses their own specific purpose. Brigette is awesome for setting up 2–3 Naganadel and searching Tapu Koko p, which is only included for its extra firepower as the game goes on. Cynthia makes an appearance because of the number of awkward hands this deck can face—it always seems too easy to find a hand of 2 Naganadel, a VS Seeker, and no Poipole, and that’s when Cynthia comes in clutch. Professor Sycamore, as explained above, is always great.

1 Teammates

Teammates opens up a number of plays this deck which can completely swing games. One play I find myself going for against Ultra Necrozma decks is to establish Tapu Koko p or Naganadel, grab Fighting Fury Belt and Energy Switch off Teammates after a Wobbuffet KO, bench Giratina-EX, attach, and use a quick Chaos Wheel to lock them off of Energy. Teammates is great for searching out your 1-ofs, Special Energy, and generally smoothing out the middle turns of the game. It also opens up a certain number of tech options, like Great Catcher.

1 Fighting Fury Belt, 1 Stealthy Hood, 1 Bent Spoon

I know that these thin counts make a number of players nervous, but each of these cards has a very specific purpose:

• Fighting Fury Belt, as mentioned before, helps 1-shot Ultra Necrozma and give a little extra HP for when you have to worry about decks that can do 300 to a Reshiran & Zekrom-GX.
• 1 Stealthy Hood is extra useful for going through Garbotoxin and Disgusting Pollen, but is probably the most flexible card in this list.
• Bent Spoon is for ignoring the effect of attacks like Luster Purge and Dead End-GX, as we only play Mysterious Treasure and other cards like Comfey are impossible to search out besides using Brigette.

One could definitely play Dowsing Machine instead of Computer Search to make these techs better, if you think certain matchups need to be improved.

Card Considerations

1 Faba

Faba would probably be better than a 3rd Field Blower simply because it can be recycled with VS Seeker. Faba is also nice for Stall decks like Sableye or Durant, which aim to recycle Life Dew with Lana’s Rod. If you want to make space for Faba, you could cut the 2nd Field Blower or the 3rd Float Stone.

1 Pokémon Ranger

Jolteon-EX, Seismitoad-EX, ADP-GX, and Noivern-GX are all cards with effects worth removing. Pokémon Ranger helps mitigate these issues. I haven’t found these cards effective enough (or fast enough, more accurately) to cause huge issues for this deck, but I could certainly see making some space for the card. It’s another tech slot, so you’d probably need to cut Stealthy Hood or Bent Spoon for it.

Muscle Band, Choice Band, or 2nd Fighting Fury Belt

Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno-GX does have 300 HP, ADP-GX has 280, Zoroark has 210, Ultra Necrozma has 110. All these cards have slightly more HP than 90, 180, or 270 damage, so these Bands could help. I would opt to play a Choice Band or a 2nd Fighting Fury Belt first, because Choice Bands fixes more numbers and we already play Fighting Fury Belt to help out with the Ultra Necrozma matchup.

1 Naganadel-GX FLI

One option for the Turbo Dark matchup could be going for a Stinger-GX and then setting up enough Naganadel or using Tapu Koko p to take 1 TAG TEAM KO and win the game. The biggest problem I had when trying this strategy was finding the Energy fast enough to justify the entire strategy and setting up a strong enough board to grapple with a TAG TEAM off of Stinger. It’s still a concept worth considering, I think.

1 Guzma & Hala

This is a card that’s been in an out of my list. While you can search out a bunch of 1-ofs and a Double Dragon Energy, while discarding basic Energy or other, less useful cards, I don’t often find myself finding this on a turn where it’s truly useful. More often than not, I think that Teammates works better, but sometimes it serves as a sort of 2nd Teammates. I’m not sure where the cut would necessarily be for this card, but I also might want to include more Stadiums or Tools to make a more consistent overall deck.

Comparing/Contrasting ReshiRom Variants

I’m sure you’re curious as to which variant to start with going into Dallas . For that, we can shoot a few comparisons figure out which one is better.

Vs. TAG TEAMs

First, both decks deal fairly well with TAG TEAM decks, but the more aggressive iteration does better against TAG TEAMs overall. This is because it can hang tight and start cranking out massive amounts of damage on the first turn—as it stands now, the Treasure (Naganadel) version can only hit 190 damage, maximum, on the first turn. But, on the other side of the coin, the Treasure version does a better job of slowing down other decks, like Archie’s Blastoise or Turbo Dark, meaning that the slugfest of two TAG TEAM GX decks is delayed until your board is fully established.

Vs. Control and Walls

Another variance is in their ability to deal with Walls and Control-type decks. Both decks can play cards like Latios-EX ROS, Hydreigon-EX, or Dialgia-GX UPR due to their Dragon typing to try and shred through certain attackers (Xurkitree-GX, Aegislash-EX, or Jolteon-EX all come to mind), but the Treasure version, thanks to Naganadel, is naturally better for Control variants which try to limit Energy or Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX decks which try to abuse Vileplume BUS’s Disgusting Pollen. The Turbo version simply lacks answers to Vileplume or Jolteon-EX as it stands now, and can be crippled by turn 1 Item lock. Possible techs include Jolteon-GX or Eelektross UNM, but neither one of those is incredibly effective and both are invalidated by a Vileplume-GX, which I expect to see in most Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX variants.

Vs. Ultra Necrozma

One major similarity, however, is that both decks can struggle to find a consistent answer to Ultra Necrozma decks. As aforementioned, Giratina-EX is my main answer to this, but a Pokémon Ranger + Field Blower + Double Dragon Energy turn will result in a free 2 Prizes for them. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find an answer that truly feels consistently powerful in beating these decks. Unlike the Turbo version, the Treasure version has more tech space and capabilities—one of those ideas has been 2–3 Max Potion in addition to Giratina-EX to try and make sure that your Reshiram & Zekrom-GX survive for a few extra turns if they manage to get through Chaos Wheel. The Turbo version feels relegated to Chaos Wheel and pray, or some other kind of consistent healing.

Final Thoughts

So ultimately, it’s a hard question to answer, and one that probably depends more on your expected metagame for any given tournament than personal preference. Personally, I’m a bit superstitious in my fear of Control and Wall decks, and I like the versatility that the Treasure (Naganadel) version offers. I wouldn’t go as far as to say the Turbo version is a “Trap,” however; if you hit Zoroark-GX and TAG TEAM decks, I can see the deck going far at any event. I’m going to keep working on both lists to see where I end up.

A Different Kind of Dragon Dance

TAG TEAM Pokémon-GX are fun and all, but I was as excited as anyone to continue refining my take on Ultra Necrozma. My initial testing had put it in the “Treasures” category, which I covered in my last article, but after a few additional weeks of grinding and refining, I’m ready to present my current top pick for Dallas Regionals, featuring Bronzong, Brigette, and Stealthy Hood:

Ultra Necrozma List

Consistency Engine

So, if you haven’t noticed by now, the deck functions on a search-heavy engine supplemented by Pokémon draw, in the form of Octillery’s Abyssal Hand Ability. I’ve seen plenty of complaining on Twitter and Facebook about how Ultra Necrozma is a trap because of its inconsistency and inability to close out games, but this version of the deck is built to combat those issues. Here’s some of the reasoning behind the more unorthodox consistency counts:

• Stealthy Hood is truly a consistency card in this deck, as it goes through Garbotoxin in the late game (and helps out against Disgusting Pollen in a pinch), forcing your opponent to play Field Blower multiple times to fully lock off your draw. It also allows Octillery to function through Bide Barricade, whether it be your own or your opponent’s.
• Double Teammates is critical, because you’ll probably be playing the card at least anywhere from 2 to 5 times in a given game. It has great synergy with making sure that you always have the next attacker ready and finding the turn 2 attack.
• 2 N isn’t the most typical count for many decks, but this deck thrives off of locking your opponent’s Basics’ Abilities and N’ing them to low numbers, all while refilling your hand with Abyssal Hand. N is a critical card for this deck, especially in the late game, and so it warrants two slots instead of the typical one.
• Yes, there’s only 2 Professor Sycamore in this deck. Professor Sycamore typically your best Supporter on the second turn of the game for making sure that you find both copies of your Stage 1 lines and for finding the Double Dragon Energy. One of these might end up being a Colress, to abuse Bench-heavy decks like Turbo Dark, but many opponents tend to limit their Bench when they realize their support Pokémon do nothing.
• There’s also only 2 Silent Lab, contrary to the heavier lines seen in other builds. Silent Lab is really only there for the turns when (A) you whiff Alolan Muk or (B) your opponent KOs Alolan Muk. It’s also good if you start with Guzma & Hala and an Ultra Necrozma, so you can guarantee the turn 1 attack. With Alolan Muk, I don’t think more than two is necessary.
• I could see some confusion about playing Tapu Lele-GX in a deck like this, but fellow author Xander covered it best in his most recent article, where he says that “Tapu Lele-GX gives the deck an out to a Supporter with Mysterious Treasure. […] Not running Tapu Lele-GX is foolish.” The card is great anytime you need a Supporter early, like a turn 1 Brigette or Professor Sycamore.
• I’ve opted to play Dowsing Machine over Computer Search because of the deck’s strong consistency overall. Dowsing Machine feels so much better than Computer Search when you can search out two cards of your deck almost every turn.

Tech Slots

1 Shrine of Punishment, 2 Choice Band

Alongside these cards, a card that’s been in and out of my list is Hypnotoxic Laser. Shrine of Punishment and Hypnotoxic Laser serve the same purpose: to allow Ultra Necrozma to do 210 damage. This is really only relevant in the Zoroark-GX matchups, but Shrine can also allow Ultra Necrozma to hit 180 damage easier. One cute play, if a Zoroark-GX player misses an attack on an Ultra Necrozma with a Choice Band, is to do 200 to two Zoroark-GX, then slam down Shrine of Punishment and take 4 Prize cards all at once. After considering the options, I’m fairly certain that I would include a 2nd Shrine of Punishment before I went back to Hypnotoxic Laser.

1-1 Bronzong NXD

This is where the list gets a little wild. Bronzong’s Heal Block Ability is incredibly powerful against Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX decks in particular, as you completely shut off their Max Potion, but also has utility in the Mewtwo & Mew-GX Toolbox matchup. While it is possible to play a Scoop-Up Block Mr. Mime and attach a Stealthy Hood to it, you can’t really fit both into the deck, and Mr. Mime can be easily foiled by Field Blower. Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX can definitely be a hairy matchup if they get down a Wonder Energy and you can’t remove it, so that’s why I’m such a big fan of Bronzong NXD.

1 Pokémon Ranger

Despite my hopeful attempts at Giratina-EX being an answer to Ultra Necrozma, Pokémon Ranger is simply an automatic inclusion for me. It gives so many answers to so many different decks, but you simply cannot function against ADP-GX if they manage to keep their Altered Creation-GX effect in play. If I do choose to play Ultra Necrozma in Dallas, this is one tech I have a lot of difficulty ever seeing myself cutting.

Conclusion

That’s going to end my third article here on SixPrizes. I have really high hopes for Reshiram & Zekrom-GX and Ultra Necrozma in the Expanded format, and I’ll probably end up playing one of the two at Dallas Regionals next week. The most important thing to me, anyway, is that the Expanded format is finally fun again. I’ve been having a blast just throwing ideas together, and the meta for Dallas is sure to be diverse. As per usual, you’re free to reach out to me on Twitter, Facebook at Em Taylor, or in the comments below with any feedback or constructive criticism. I’ll be in Dallas, so come say hello and let me know how your day is going. As per usual, thank you so much for working through a little over 3,100 words with me, and I hope that your 2020 is off to a fantastic start. All the best, and until next time, is this Emery signing off.

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