The Full Blitz

T16 @ OCIC w/ PikaRom, Why I Played It, Match Recaps, Matchups In-Depth, and Updates for the New Meta

Hey everyone, Jon here again with another article. I’m writing this as I am flying back from OCIC 🇦🇺 where I was fortunate enough to get 16th/403 with my old favorite, PikaRom. We are in a very exciting point in the game right now, with SWSH officially becoming legal for event play. In this piece, I’ll be going over my thoughts going into OCIC, giving some insight as to why I played PikaRom, an updated list and matchup guide for it, and how I think it holds up for future events. With that being said, let’s go!

OCIC 2020

Going into the event I knew I wanted to play a tried and true concept. I feel as if this is almost always correct at ICs like this when a new set drops. If you recall, I played a very vanilla, aggressive, and consistent Mewtwo deck to LAIC back in November, in hopes to beat out people trying new concepts that the slower TAG TEAM Supporters brought us. It went decently well as I did make it to Day 2. It was also reassuring to see some other people have more success than I saw, using the same ideology.

I also knew that I wanted to max out the consistency of the deck I would play. Something I noticed in testing was that while certain decks tried to include some of the new tools gained from SWSH, they gave up a fair amount of consistency cards, which definitely makes them exploitable.

The last thing I wanted out of my deck was to take at least 50/50s against the main few decks. This meant that it could stand up to ADP, Mewtwo/Mally, PikaRom, Mewtwo, and AbilityZard. I didn’t concern myself with making sure I had a shot against Mill, Obstagoon, or any of the fringe decks, as I didn’t think they’d be heavily played or, frankly, go very far in the event. (Boy was I wrong.)

Why PikaRom

So why did I choose to play PikaRom? Well, aside from it fulfilling the points said above, I had experience with it, and that is so important in an event like this. Here’s the list I played for the event:

PikaRom OCIC 2020

Pokémon (13)

3 Dedenne-GX

2 Jirachi TEU

2 Pikachu & Zekrom-GX

1 Phione CEC

1 Raichu & Alolan Raichu-GX

1 Tapu Koko p

1 Tapu Koko V

1 Zapdos TEU

1 Zeraora-GX

Trainer (36)

4 Volkner

3 Professor’s Research

 

4 Custom Catcher

4 Electropower

4 Energy Switch

4 Quick Ball

4 Switch

3 Electromagnetic Radar

2 Reset Stamp

1 Great Catcher

1 Stadium Nav

 

1 Escape Board

 

1 Thunder Mountain p

Energy (11)

11 L

 

Copy List

****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******

##Pokémon - 13

* 3 Dedenne-GX UNB 57
* 2 Jirachi TEU 99
* 2 Pikachu & Zekrom-GX TEU 33
* 1 Phione CEC 57
* 1 Raichu & Alolan Raichu-GX UNM 54
* 1 Tapu Koko p TEU 51
* 1 Tapu Koko V SSH 72
* 1 Zapdos TEU 40
* 1 Zeraora-GX LOT 86

##Trainer Cards - 36

* 4 Volkner UPR 135
* 3 Professor’s Research SSH 178
* 4 Quick Ball SSH 179
* 4 Electropower LOT 172
* 4 Custom Catcher LOT 171
* 4 Energy Switch SSH 162
* 4 Switch SSH 183
* 3 Electromagnetic Radar UNB 169
* 2 Reset Stamp UNM 206
* 1 Great Catcher CEC 192
* 1 Stadium Nav UNM 208
* 1 Escape Board UPR 122
* 1 Thunder Mountain p LOT 191

##Energy - 11

* 11 L Energy Energy 4

Total Cards - 60

****** via SixPrizes: https://sixprizes.com/?p=79797 ******

List Analysis

This list was built with an extremely straightforward idea in mind: get Full Blitz as early as possible. In testing, it became clear that we won most of the time when we got the turn one Full Blitz going second, or got it turn two when going first. Originally I had tech cards like Absol TEU, Marshadow UNB, and Lysandre Labs in here, but they were all ultimately cut to max out the counts of cards that would help me get an early Full Blitz.

The list is very greedy, I won’t lie. There were legitimate reasons for some of the techs that I originally had in the deck, but I wanted to prioritize making my deck as inherently strong as I could. I don’t know if I would play this list moving forward, but I do think it was correct for an event like OCIC.

Match Recaps

I won’t go over the matches in depth, but here’s what my run at OCIC looked like:

R1: PikaRom … WW
R2: ADP … WLW
R3: (We all forget a round here or there right? I won though.) … WW
R4: ADP … LL
R5: AbilityZard … WW
R6: ADP … LWL
R7: ADP … WW
R8: Binder Drop Mewtwo … WW
R9: ID

6-2-1

R10: ADP … WW
R11: ADP … LWW
R12: Attacking Magcargo-GX … LWW
R13: ADP … LWL
R14: Cinccino Mill (oof) … LL

9-4-1 16th

Sucks to not Top 8, but I can’t really complain. The deck did what I wanted it to do, and I just got a little unlucky toward the end.

Here’s an in-depth analysis on the deck’s matchups:

Matchups

ADP/Zacian: 55% Win Rate

This is probably the matchup you’ll need to be concerned with most moving forward. I don’t know if it was the lack of familiarity with the format or people just thinking the deck is that good that led to so many people playing it to OCIC, but I doubt its popularity will change drastically in the future.

In this matchup you always want to go first. This does hinder your ability to use a Supporter on your first turn, but getting the one turn of attachment and setup over ADP goes a long way.

There are actually multiple ways to route this matchup. If you go first, you can usually assume that you’ll be getting a turn two Full Blitz. This is where the your options open up. You can attach the Energies to your Active PikaRom and go for the early Tag Bolt, or you can spread your Energies to another attacker. I find myself going for the Tag Bolt when the Full Blitz is Knocking Out a 1-Prizer such as Jirachi, putting myself at 5 Prizes, where then a knockout on the ADP-GX and a Zacian V will finish up the game. I also find myself doing this when they bench a Dedenne-GX early. This aggressive play is almost always safe as they really can’t do much until they’ve used their GX attack, so you have the time to pull it off. This same strategy also holds true if you go second and get the turn one Full Blitz, which honestly isn’t too hard to do.

However, if you are in the situation where they get the GX attack off before you can Full Blitz, you pretty much always want to spread your Energies to another attacker, usually ChuChu-GX. These games are still winnable, but you are definitely the one playing on the back foot. You need to hope that your opponent whiffs a fair amount in order for you to keep up.

Some key things to note in this matchup are:

  1. They could be playing Mew UNB, thus making the aggressive Tag Bolt unsafe and a waste of Energies. Try to scope out your opponent’s list in Game 1 of a set to see if you can use this strategy in future games, or if you have a read that your opponent won’t have it, go for it.
  2. They actually can use ADP’s GX attack for the +30 effect, and not the extra Prize effect. They’ll do this if they see you bench 2 TAG TEAM GXs, as those will be their target knockouts to win the game, thus making the extra Prize pretty useless. Have PikaRom be your only TAG TEAM in play until you Full Blitz, as this will force them into the extra Prize line of play.
  3. If you get the early Full Blitz, it’s not always correct to go Aggro PikaRom. Splitting the Energies to a ChuChu-GX is fine too. A line of play that showed itself in testing was to, on turn three, double Custom Catcher up a Zacian V, Lightning Ride-GX it, and pivot into Tapu Koko V. Tapu Koko V has 200 HP and cannot be 1-shot by ADP-GX, leaving them missing a turn of a knockout.

Mewtwo/Mally: 60%

I expected a ton of this deck to show up to OCIC, so I tested this matchup a bunch. There are some things that you cannot control such as being Marnie’d and Night Watch’d into an abysmal hand early, but usually if you play well, you’ll win. This means not playing into a Poltergeist because this is their only way of easily taking 1HKOs on you.

If you get a reasonably early Full Blitz off and split your Energies to a ChuChu, you should always win this matchup. Splitting your Energies to another PikaRom is also valid, as they usually don’t have Bench space for Mew, so Tag Bolt can finish a game.

Some key things to note in this matchup are:

  1. Beware of Mega Lopunny & Jigglypuff-GX as it is another easy 1-shot option for them, should you play into it. Most lists don’t have it right now, but it is quite splashable, so I’m hesitant when I hit this matchup.
  2. Playing a Mimikyu CEC 97 makes this matchup more favorable than it already is.
  3. Never use your GX attack unless it is to win the game, or to stay in the game. If you use it early to take a big knockout but to not win the game, they can use Stinger-GX to reset you both to 3 Prizes, but now you’ve lost your 1-shot potential since you’ve wasted your GX attack. This is how they win most games of the matchup. This goes without mention, but if they waste their GX attack early, then it is safe to use yours.

PikaRom: 50%

This matchup involves a lot more high rolling than the other ones do. It’s always correct to go first should you win the coin flip, as the deck can reasonably get turn one Full Blitz; however, you shouldn’t expect it every game.

In testing, the person who usually won the game was the person who pulled off a Tag Bolt to take 5 Prizes to finish the game. Whether you go first or second, your game plan should be to get Full Blitz as early as possible onto a Benched PikaRom to hopefully pull off what was said above.

Some key things to note in this matchup are:

  1. Some things really are just out of your control. If your opponent gets the triple Electropower Full Blitz knockout on your PikaRom, you’re probably losing.
  2. If you both setup reasonably well, being the person with Thunder Mountain p left in their deck for the endgame is really advantageous.

Welder Mewtwo: 40%

This matchup is honestly the only negative one out of the main few decks. I haven’t decided whether or not I completely prefer to go first or second, but going second is usually the line of play I go with.

It’s rough regardless, but ideally you want your opponent to start going first which means they are just limited to their attachment for turn and cannot Welder. Then, you want to turn one Full Blitz onto another attacker, probably ChuChu-GX. After that you can probably assume that your PikaRom is either dying to a Jumping Balloon or Flare Blitz-GX.

Now you are in Reset Stamp and pray mode. Play Stamp, Knock Out the Mewtwo that was damaged before with Full Blitz with your ChuChu-GX, and hope they don’t draw into the means to Knock Out your Active and win the game. If they whiff for long enough, you’ll be able to Lightning Ride-GX to get the last knockout you need to win.

Some key things to note in this matchup are:

  1. If you can, don’t over-bench GXs early when you Full Blitz. You’ll usually have to have at least 3 in play, but in some niche situations you can avoid benching Dedenne-GX, and your PikaRom will actually survive a Jumping Balloon, thus making them Flare Blitz, which requires an extra Energy.
  2. You probably want to go second. Giving them the opportunity to use Welder twice before you Reset Stamp them is likely too much for PikaRom to handle.

AbilityZard: 55%

In this matchup you always want to go second. Forcing them to go first shuts off their ability to Welder, Flare Starter, and Spreading Flames. It essentially makes it so they cannot blow up in your face with Energies before you can do that to them.

There are multiple ways to route this matchup, as their deck has multiple tools they can use. There are situations where you’ll want to set up the big Tag Bolt turn, but more likely than not, you’ll be Full Blitzing to a ChuChu-GX. Specifically, if you think they will use Heatran-GX to 1-shot your PikaRom, then you can Full Blitz onto another one on your Bench. Winning this matchup really comes down to how well you can trade with them, and how well you can handle them dishing out a lot of damage quickly.

Some key things to note in this matchup are:

  1. Ninetales TEU is their only form of gust. If you see an opportunity to safely Knock it Out, take it. Forcing AbilityZard to go through a PikaRom, then a Koko V/Zeraora-GX, then another TAG TEAM is really hard for them to deal with, and without gust, they can’t avoid it.
  2. In the situation that they make you go first you just need to hope that you don’t get nuked by back-to-back Welders. If they get it, they’ll likely overrun you and you won’t be able to keep up.

Cinccino Mill: 20%

This matchup is so unbelievably bad even with your multiple gust effects. Your only hope is that they stumble early and you can overrun them to the point where they can’t deck you out before you win the game, but that hardly ever happens.

There aren’t many special things to note in this matchup, just survive…


That’s it for the deck’s matchups. With OCIC concluded, we finally have a little bit more of a defined meta, so I can adequately build the deck to not just be an “inherently good and see how far that gets us” list, but I can also build it to cater to what I expect to be popular. To end this piece, I’ll give you guys what I think PikaRom should look like in Standard moving forward, and a little explanation for new inclusions.

Updated PikaRom

Pokémon (14)

3 Dedenne-GX

2 Jirachi TEU

2 Pikachu & Zekrom-GX

1 Hoopa UNM

1 Marshadow UNB

1 Phione CEC

1 Raichu & Alolan Raichu-GX

1 Tapu Koko p

1 Tapu Koko V

1 Zeraora-GX

Trainer (35)

4 Volkner

3 Cynthia

 

4 Custom Catcher

4 Electropower

4 Quick Ball

3 Electromagnetic Radar

3 Energy Switch

3 Switch

2 Reset Stamp

1 Great Catcher

1 Stadium Nav

 

1 Escape Board

 

1 Lysandre Labs

1 Thunder Mountain p

Energy (11)

11 L

 

Copy List

****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******

##Pokémon - 14

* 3 Dedenne-GX UNB 57
* 2 Jirachi TEU 99
* 2 Pikachu & Zekrom-GX TEU 33
* 1 Hoopa UNM 140
* 1 Marshadow UNB 81
* 1 Phione CEC 57
* 1 Raichu & Alolan Raichu-GX UNM 220
* 1 Tapu Koko p TEU 51
* 1 Tapu Koko V SSH 72
* 1 Zeraora-GX LOT 86

##Trainer Cards - 35

* 1 Lysandre Labs FLI 111
* 4 Volkner UPR 135
* 3 Cynthia UPR 119
* 4 Quick Ball SSH 179
* 4 Electropower LOT 232
* 4 Custom Catcher LOT 171
* 3 Energy Switch SUM 117
* 3 Switch SSH 183
* 3 Electromagnetic Radar UNB 169
* 2 Reset Stamp UNM 206
* 1 Great Catcher CEC 192
* 1 Stadium Nav UNM 208
* 1 Escape Board UPR 167
* 1 Thunder Mountain p LOT 191

##Energy - 11

* 11 L Energy Energy 4

Total Cards - 60

****** via SixPrizes: https://sixprizes.com/?p=79797 ******

Card Changes

Explanation for Changes

As said before, with the meta being a little more defined, we can include more techs in the list. A huge problem I ran into was my opponents getting free reign with their Stadiums, as I only had Thunder Mountain p and it probably got used very early. This is where Marshadow and Lysandre Labs come in. Marshadow is mainly for Chaotic Swell, so that you can still get usage out of your Thunder Mountain, should your opponent play Swell first. Lysandre Labs is also good to shut off those pesky cards like Spell Tag, Big Charm, Metal Core Barrier, and Metal Frying Pan that make it harder or less worth it to take knockouts.

Another big switch was adding Hoopa. The deck has always loved a 1-Prize attacker, and while Zapdos is quite good, Hoopa helps with some of your harder matchups, those being Spell Tag Malamar and Welder Mewtwo. Hoopa is just an awkward card for them to deal with while also dealing a fair amount of damage.

Lastly, and probably the biggest change, is the switch from Professor’s Research to Cynthia. I still don’t know how I feel about this, but it’s something that I’ve been trying out. Too often would I dump a lot of needed resources early with Research, but with Cynthia we get to keep them due to the shuffle effect as opposed to discard, but on the other hand we get to see one less card. Saving the resources is usually more valuable though.

Closing Thoughts

Moving forward I think that PikaRom is still a super strong choice, the list just needs to be completely optimized for whatever the meta will be for a given tournament. I’ve noticed that the deck gets pretty disrespected for whatever reason, but I am going to continue to test it until I find something better to play.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions please let me know. I’ll be coming to you guys once more right before Ontario Regionals 🇨🇦, so definitely expect me to be giving you guys even more updates on PikaRom, and who knows, maybe something better if I can find it.

I’ll be skipping Collinsville 🇺🇸 this weekend which I am honestly not too sad about. This season has been extremely kind to me, so I can afford to skip one here or there. Good luck to everyone at future events, and I’ll see ya right before Ontario!

-Jon


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