TWO OR THREE MEWTWOS???

States is in the book, and well, we have a two deck format. As I predicted, the two best decks, by a substantial margin, were Zekrom/Elektrik and Celebi/Mewtwo variants (not that I went out on much of a limb with that prediction). Now, this isn’t to say that there aren’t other decks being played, but no other builds saw near the popularity, nor the amount of success that Zeels and CMT had.

The “break out” decks were Donphan Prime/Mewtwo EX, Terrakion NVI, and Terrakion NVI/Landorus NVI (referenced to as the overarching “Terrakion” from now on). There was also a Tornadus EPO/Landorus/Terrakion deck that showed up and did fairly well. I’ll open by saying I don’t like these decks, and feel like they are an attempt at metagaming while being significantly less powerful than the decks they are trying to beat (they just feature type advantage).

I understand that the format really is a 2 deck machine, and this is about as good of scenario as any to try an exploit them, but by doing so you are giving yourself such an underpowered deck in the process. You are in foul shape if you play against any other deck that has power behind it.

The big “break out” card from States is Exp. Share though. When I wrote about the set and reviewed it, I mentioned the card had potential and wouldn’t be surprised if it saw play. On the same note, I was pretty confident it would NOT, so I am, in actuality, surprised. It makes sense though.

pokemon-paradijs.comRight now, we are running a bunch of attackers needing 2-3 energy that are all Basics. Celebi or Eelektrik provide the minimal, yet sufficient, energy acceleration. Eviolite has hit a state of being underwhelming. The format requires just a LITTLE bit of energy acceleration to keep up with exchanges, and there are very few competing Pokémon Tools. We have Junk Arm to give us “8” copies of the card. It’s a non-specific form of energy abuse.

My biggest “issue” with decks such as Terrakion is that restricting yourself to a card that is good (notably better vs Zeels than other decks, of course) is that I feel we are thinking way too small. It’s simple, but 2-3 Terrakion would be fine. I’d rather see more diverse attackers which help to shore up other matchups. I’m more of a fan of the Tornadus/Terrakion builds than straight Terrakion.

Evan Baker, from Michigan, ran a very intriguing (and in my opinion promising) list at MI states, but fell to a Durant list in top 8. I don’t have his exact list, and I’m unsure if he aims to use it again at Regionals, so I’m not going to try and “guess” at his list. I’ll stick to lists I have tested and can vouch for opposed to blind guess work.

First up…

CMT

Pokémon – 11

4 Celebi Prime
2 Mewtwo-EX NXD
2 Tornadus EPO
1 Virizion EPO
1 Shaymin UL
1 Tyrogue HS

Trainers – 35

4 Professor Oak’s New Theory
4 Professor Juniper

3 N
1 Sage’s Training

1 Pokémon Collector

 

4 Junk Arm

4 Pokémon Catcher

3 Dual Ball
3 PlusPower
3 Switch
1 Super Rod
1 Eviolite

 

3 Skyarrow Bridge

Energy – 14

10 G
4 Double Colorless

Tech Options

pokemon-paradijs.comNow, I guess I should make a few explanations here. I made a huge point last article to discuss how Eviolite was unnecessary, and arguably a “bad” inclusion in this deck. Now, I’m championing the inclusion of at least one copy of the card. The matchups that we expected going into States were mirror, Zeels, and occasionally other matchups where the card just did not provide much of an advantage. The -20 damage almost never provided an incrementally relevent advantage in the exchanges.

Now though, with decks such as Donphan/Mewtwo (or Donphan/Dragons, or a hybrid of the two) plus Terrakion (or Terrakion/Landorus) aiming to two-hit your cards, the cards value skyrockets. It still is bad against mirror and Zeels, but the other relevent matchups it becomes far more useful against now.

As for Virizion, I am suggesting the EPO one, not the more commonly played/accepted NVI one. I’m going to give credit where credit is due, and point out that Amelia Bottemiller was the one to bring this card up to me. I hated the NVI one being in the deck, and was a bit skeptical of this one as well, but after playing some games against her, the card showed some pretty strong value.

It is a great lead against Eels to kill Tynamo, but its healing attack (particularly if paired with an Eviolite) gives the Fighting decks absolute fits. It is also a powerful Grass type attacker, and non EX, capable of hitting for 100 damage in one attack, which has actually proven to be extremely useful. It was just one more attack to have to play around. I don’t think I’d run more than one, but one is certainly worth it.

I am at 2 with Mewtwo at the moment, and the “popular opinion” on Mewtwo EX seems to be 2 or 3 copies. Having judged States and done quite a bit of deck checks, plus having tested with a number of players, I can say that the split really has been somewhere down the middle. I think a lot of it depends on how you wind up approaching matchups.

Some people prefer to try and base their games around the Mewtwo exchange, at which point 3 is likely correct, but others are more conservative and prefer different leads, and try to force other players into being the first one to promote Mewtwo. If you find that due to the way you play the deck, you wind up being very aggressive with your Mewtwo, you probably do want the third copy.

I’m a far more conservative player, and I’ve had no issues with only having 2 copies, but I don’t want to say that other approaches are necessarily bad. If you’ve read my articles for any extended period of time, you know I will not hesitate to call a deck, or card, outright bad. (Reshiphlosion!) Certain players simply have different play styles. Certain decks perform better (and even more so, certain builds of those decks) for certain play styles. You can have two players who play very differently get very different results with the same deck.

In 2007, I was getting incredibly good results with Metagross d/Dragonite d, and Jason Klaczynski was tearing it up with Banette ex, but whenever we’d try each others lists, despite both being very good players, we’d have subpar results. Theoretically, there is always a “best” line of play, or best approach to a particular game. Even the game’s best players have preferences and biases in how they play.

No one plays a game with perfect information (their opponent’s hands, their lists, what draws will yield, etc.) so players tend to skew their decisions based on their preferences. Given the same game state, myself, Klaczynski, Pooka, and Jay Hornung could very well end up with vastly different paths for the rest of the game, and it would be very difficult to analyze that specific path and say it was even questionable.

Players do develop their own style, and certain styles lend themselves better to lists and decks in general, which play to the strengths of their style. It is one of the reasons why a player can net-deck a list from someone who had a great deal of success with a deck, and not perform up to expectations. At the end of the day, no matter how much “better” a list supposedly is, if you aren’t winning with it, you aren’t winning with it. You need to be comfortable with your limitations as a player.

The games best players are far from “perfect” players, and do better when they find decks that line up with their specific honed skill sets. A lot of times, it’s why you’ll find a player who just hits a huge hot streak. They find that deck that’s right for them, and pilot it at a level which takes them really far. Of course, there’s always variance, but synching up with a deck that’s appropriate for you can be huge.

There have been many different formats I’ve played in, and sometimes I’ll just go into a tournament feeling like I’m on the top of the world, and can just tell I’m going to do well. I have complete confidence in my deck. Other times, I am second guessing myself, and just feel like I have to over-perform to get the results I want. I’m not playing worse… and I generally play what I feel is a good deck or the best deck even.

Right now, we have only a few viable archetypes that I can legitimately suggest someone use. Yet there is a lot of room for variation in those lists. In the comments in the forums for my last article, people were critical of my “split” of attackers in Zekrom Eels. They wanted a more streamlined and consistent series of openings. I’d much rather have options than a particular set opening in a deck like that, since this format seems to be far more dependent on how decks open than on matchups.

A player who prefers a set opening will find a reactive list like I prefer to perform weaker for them, where as if I use a list skewed to their play style, I find it handicapping the number of plays I have. We’d both likely have weaker results with the others lists because our personal playstyles emphasize different kinds of play. We could both be very good players, but very different ones.

This ties back in with the Mewtwo debate. It’s the same deck, with the same general options and attackers, but the way you prefer to approach matchups can change, and when doing so, you need to tweak your list to focus on those strengths. If you prefer to put yourself into the Mewtwo war, don’t load yourself with cards who show their strengths toward other avenues of attack. Focus on what YOU will be doing.

Cards can mistakenly be viewed as underwhelming or unnecessary when you wind up not playing into their strengths. It’s easy to do too. I think everyone has written off a card as being far worse than it is because they weren’t really playing into its strength. That is one of the issues we run into as writers for this site. We can offer up good decklists, but everyone’s going to have their own tweaks and preferences that we can’t just give a blanket list to cover.

When you have a number of good writers with good lists, people will be able to find the lists that work best for them.If you aren’t a fan of someones particular list, be it mine, or Jay’s, or Kettlers, or Esa’s, or anyone else’s, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are providing weaker information. It just may not line up with how you’d play the same deck. Sometimes you’ll find a player who seems to be the only one who wins with a particular deck. They aren’t just getting super lucky. They aren’t cheating. It’s familiarity.

schools.bcsd.comAnother example, and one that almost undermines my point due to the success I had with it later, was Speed Spread in 2007. Four players used the deck at States. I went 3-3 with it. The other 3 players all won their States. I knew it was the best deck, but I couldn’t make it work optimally for me. By the time Nationals had rolled around, and I got to log a ton of games with it, I managed to reprogram myself to play that particular deck, but it still felt unnatural, even though I won the event.

Some matchups which my team felt were very favorable, I still found myself struggling with. You can definitely force yourself into learning a deck, but it takes a lot of time and a huge number of games, and often times it isn’t even worth it.

All of that leads me to the final conclusion: If you want to run 2 Mewtwo, run 2 Mewtwo. If you want to run 3, run 3. The only catch I will add is that if you do go with 2 Mewtwo, I highly suggest having either Super Rod, Revive, or a Shaymin EX in your list so you can complete a Mewtwo-esque war if you are forced into a game state where you need to lead Mewtwo like that. I’m really conservative with my approaches, hating to even lead Mewtwo into a near blank board, where a player has only a 25-30% chance of returning the KO.

I find myself preferring a slower, more methodical approach where I play it safe, opting not to just offer up a small chance of being just blown out if they “have it” even if it statistically favors me. I’d rather pick a different spot, but I know a lot of people who prefer to gamble there and it doesn’t perform poorly for them either.

The one card that has caught on, and I discussed a bit before in prior articles was Tyrogue. It is primarily just a card to punish Tynamo, but it gains strength as more people add Tyrogue for that exact purpose as well. It also kills random Cleffa/Pichu and can be used as a nice “set up” attacker, so it can give you a T2 KO on Pokémon like Tornadus.

pokemon-paradijs.comI like how it is a good opener, and I feel it is almost necessary if you want to try and run cards like Shaymin EX and Terrakion, so you don’t get stuck opening with them. Obviously my “default” list doesn’t run them, but the card is good without that synergy.

The card that I actually saw a decent amount of at States, including in some of the winning lists, was Regigigas-EX. I still do not like the card, as I feel like it is too easy to Catcher around, and it doesn’t really apply any pressure. It has a giant “Terrakion me” target on its somewhat stupid looking face as well. (The stupid looking face part is personal bias.)

Now, I haven’t felt the need for the card, and it hasn’t done great for me in testing, but I’m not going to deny success. Perhaps I am missing something about the card entirely, or more likely, I am not playing up its strengths. This is an open call to all players who have had success with Regigigas.

In the forums, make a case for the card. Defend it, tell me why it works for you. I don’t want “It has a lot of HP, can be tough to kill. Is a tank.” and stuff like that. I want specifics, matchup uses, what types of scenarios it works best in. I’d love to get an in depth discussion about the card going, as it is pretty polarizing to me.

Zeels

Pokémon – 16

4 Tynamo NVI 38
3 Eelektrik NVI
2 Mewtwo-EX NXD
1 Zekrom-EX
2 Zekrom BLW
1 Cleffa HS
1 Thundurus EPO
1 Tornadus EPO
1 Shaymin UL

Trainers – 30

4 Pokémon Collector
4 N
4 Professor Juniper

3 Sage’s Training
2 Professor Oak’s New Theory

 

4 Junk Arm
2 PlusPower
2 Pokémon Catcher

1 Eviolite
1 PokéGear
1 Switch
1 Pokémon Communication
1 Level Ball

Energy – 14

10 L
4 Double Colorless

Tech Options

pokemon-paradijs.comNow, you’ll see pretty quickly that this list is packing a huge 13 draw Supporter count, plus a Pokégear. This can be trimmed if there are cards you’d like to add to the deck, and I’m sure a lot of players will feel safer going with 3 Catcher, even though I feel it is unnecessary. Cut a Sage, a PONT, or a Juniper if you’d like, but keep N at 4.

I was running 3, up from 2, recently, and got a chance to talk to Austin Reed after his victory at Indiana States. He ran 4, which seemed excessive to me, but the more and more I thought about it, the more obvious it became that he was 100% correct. Testing confirmed it as well.

The deck, using Eelektrik, had one huge inherent advantage over its contemporaries: it was by far the best deck at playing with no hand. Its energy came straight from the discard pile, so N became much less of a double-edged sword than it is in other decks. You can just keep slamming it down and it will almost always hurt the opponent more than you.

That is why I wanted such a high Supporter count. You want to be abusing N and disrupting their game and forcing them to miss return KOs, so you want to have as many Supporters to draw off of N as you can. This is another reason I’m more than fine at 2 Catcher. When you embrace this approach, you REALLY want to kill the active Pokémon most of the time, to strip their energy in play.

When you do that, it really forces them to hit off their N draws. You still need Catchers obviously, and more is fine, but you have to fit other cards too, and something has to give. I prefer hand disruption as an approach, and when you focus on that, Catcher’s value DOES go down.

Eviolite has gained value as well, as the Fighting type decks do end up playing the two hitting game. Terrakion has some major issues against a Mewtwo with an Eviolite. If you want to load up your matchup against that deck, a 2nd Tornadus and a 2nd Eviolite makes you into a pretty strong favorite. The “end game” I aim for in that matchup (outside of stiffing them with Ns all game) is to set up energy across your field, and using Shaymin to power out a huge Mewtwo out of no where.

With an Eviolite, Mewtwo can sweep through three Terrakion without dying (they need THREE PlusPowers during the end game, after you N them, to make it a 2HKO). Donphan has similar issues against Eviolite.

A card I’ve really been impressed with the more I’ve gotten used to playing with is Zekrom-EX. It’s oddly been my “lead off” attacker against CMT if I can get it going, as it’s impossible to one-hit, and can chew through Tornadus easily. It forces them to open with Mewtwo a lot, and if you start hitting for 150, a Zekrom-EX with an Eviolite becomes very difficult for Mewtwo to deal with.

After smacking them, Mewtwo nets a total fo 20 damage off of its energy, so to 2-shot Zekrom-EX with an Eviolite, you need an attack with 3 energy on Mewtwo, and one with 4 the next turn. If you can pull off the 2× PlusPower KO, it becomes very difficult for them to do this either early game, or if you N them late game. For everyone who feels like Terrakion is absolutely unnecessary in CMT, play against a player who knows how to abuse Zekrom-EX in that matchup, and it definitely changes the dynamic quite a bit.

I’m convinced that Zeels is a favorite over CMT by this point (particularly if they do not run Terrakion), and Zeels has the best Durant matchup. Unfortunately, Zeels is also far weaker against the Fighting decks than CMT is, so we find ourselves in a bit of a rock-paper-scissors scenario matchup wise. CMT performs worse against Zeels, and is still an underdog against Durant. Durant is pretty much “bad,” but it also is played a ton. Players without all the EX cards still default to it, and certain players will always play it regardless of viability.

The “change” I’ve made to the list, and one that Tracy Key got to test out at MI States (she went 5-2, but her breakers were like 47% which baffles me) is going down to 1 Switch opposed to the super standard 2. No one gusts anything without killing it anymore, and even to “buy time” players don’t do it because they just assume you have 2 or more Switches.

The only real “need” to Switch a lot is to get energy to the active off of Eelektrik, but Shaymin acts as a 2nd Switch for that. As long as you adjust your play to acknowledge that you’re Switch-light, it has made almost no negative impact on how the deck has played. If you’re unwilling to take the gamble, add the 2nd Switch back in, but I’m confident it is a safe card to shave off the list.

My favorite card in the deck, and one of my favorite in the format at the moment, is Shaymin. It just makes it hard to predict your game plan, and it lets you power out a huge Mewtwo without having to leave it vulnerable on the bench the whole time. With decks like Terrakion and Donphan popular at the moment, the card really gives you better game against those decks, and while I felt it was an auto-inclusion prior to the existence of those decks, I feel like it becomes even better now.

Durant

Pokémon – 5

4 Durant NVI
1 Rotom UD

Trainers – 45

4 Pokémon Collector

4 Professor Oak’s New Theory
4 Professor Juniper

4 Twins
3 N

1 Flower Shop Lady

 

4 Level Ball
4 Junk Arm
4 Pokémon Catcher
4 Crushing Hammer

4 Revive

3 Eviolite
1 Lost Remover

 

1 Battle City

Energy – 10

4 Special M

3 M
3 Prism

Ok, this is a deck that pretty much hasn’t evolved. Its plan is so linear that it really can’t. Not much has changed here, but I’ll include the list for completions sake, and to uh, pad my word count or something.

Vanilluxe Vileplume

Pokémon – 22

3 Oddish UD
2 Gloom UD
2 Vileplume UD

4 Mew Prime
2 Unfezant BLW
2 Vanilluxe NVI

4 Relicanth CL
2 Victini NVI 14
1 Cleffa HS

Trainers – 28

4 Pokémon Collector

4 N
4 Professor Oak’s New Theory

4 Twins

2 Sage’s Training
1 Professor Elm’s Training Method
1 Flower Shop Lady

 

4 Pokémon Communication
4 Rare Candy

Energy – 10

4 Prism
4 Rainbow
2 Rescue

pokemon-paradijs.comHere is a deck that some people used at States, and unfortunately didn’t quite do as well as it could have. I want to give credit to Tyler Ninomura for bringing the deck’s viability to my attention before States. No one bothered to use it week 1 at Oregon despite talk of it as an option being thrown around, and I know Tyler and I believe Kenny Wisdom used it at BC States, but didn’t make cut with it.

This is the “New” Truth, in my opinion. The format has gotten so fast, and Pokémon can hit for 150 damage now, so the 1HKO barrier has changed. In addition, if you do run a 180 HP attacker, you still give decks plenty of time to stack energy on Mewtwo to enable a 1HKO anyway.

The “hard lock” that The Truth used to offer no longer exists in this format, and with it, many people felt the viability of Vileplume in general. Chandelure NVI fell off the map, and so did Reuniclus BLW builds. The previous “3rd best” Vileplume deck, Vanilluxe, offers hope though!

The format has actually “evolved” in such a way that it favors the status locking ice cream cone (or in this case, Mew pretending to be him… more on this later). For one, EX cards offering 2 Prizes opposed to one is hugely beneficial to the deck. It makes it so you can minimize the number of times you have to expose yourself to poor flips.

The longer the game goes, the more times the annoying “4 tails” happens. By speeding up games, we decrease the sample size of flips, so its less likely you just hit a few too many bad sessions.

In addition to this, all of the Pokémon are Basics now. It used to be a huge pain that you could just use a Stage 1 as an attacker, and then evolve out of it (or a Basic) and get KOs, particularly on Mews this way. The old approach pretty much proved the 130 HP Vanilluxe to be the better route, being more stable than relying on the cuter but more fragile Mew approach.

Unfortunately, the high HP count is no longer a safe number, so you benefit far more from having access to Fly by Unfezant available to you. The deck, hypothetically, has good matchups against both CMT and Zeels.

One of the problems the deck had, was that it hated a T1 Mewtwo EX. Oddish, Mew, Cleffa… all killed by a DCE and Mewtwo. You got either turn one’d a lot, or you gave up prizes early. By falling down 3-4 Prizes as you set up (you NEED to See Off twice, so you’re losing a ton of ground), you are stuck with little margin of error when it comes to your flips. You can’t really fail any flips without risking just losing entirely. Plus, it put your Mew count dangerously low as they died.

pokemon-paradijs.comI saw someone at States running Relicanth CL in the deck, and that actually does a ton to help the deck out. It pads the deck’s Basic count while giving it draw power, and it lets you dump Pokémon into the Lost Zone without exposing your Mews. Now, the biggest “issue” here is that you only run 2 copies of each evolution, which may need to change.

Unlike with Mew, you need to actually have the card in your hand. As a result I maxed out Pokémon Commication, and added a PETM, but it may not be enough. You can be reactive to your hands as to whether you lead with Relicanth or Mew, but Relicanth is your ideal opener due to its higher HP, but its Retreat Cost sucks. It’s not perfect, but its better than being a cardboard Mewtwo EX shooting gallery.

Let me preface this by saying that this is also a work in progress. The previous VVV list wasn’t getting the job done, and likely needed a bit more work, and after adding Relicanth, the deck is probably even more raw and unrefined than it would have been otherwise. The numbers likely need tweaked, and I’m not even sure entirely on its viability, but it is a good alternative to the other decks in the format for people who just want to be different, don’t have Mewtwo EXs, or are tired of the same old decks.

Why isn’t it winning though? Why is it not a deck I’d recommend as a play for Regionals overall? It has a lot of intangibles going against it. When it is firing off right, with average flips, it beats the best decks in the format. Unfortunately, it gets first turned a LOT. It can get some clunky, and very slow hands as well.

It has a time issue, even in Swiss, particularly if an opponent plays methodically against it. It gets worse in match play. I can definitely make Game 1 take 35+ minutes even in a loss, and Game 2, I can usually take 4 Prizes, and they likely don’t have the time to catch up. Plus you can’t really lose Game 3 sudden death.

On top of this, you just leave yourself wide open to raw variance. If you manage to just flip poorly? Good luck. You just throw games away on the back of a coin. You leave yourself open to game losses that don’t hinge on skill, but just on luck, even when your deck fires off perfectly.

You also have issues against random evolution decks, if they play smart against you. It just isn’t a gamble I’d want to be taking if I was serious about going deep in a tournament. When it fires off “as it should,” it is the best deck in the format by a decent margin, but its “misfires” are so severe that it really turns me off to the deck as a whole.

Tornadus Terrakion Mewtwo

Pokémon – 11

3 Tornadus EPO
3 Terrakion NVI
2 Mewtwo-EX NXD
1 Tyrogue HS
1 Shaymin UL
1 Smeargle UD

Trainers – 37

4 Professor Oak’s New Theory
4 Professor Juniper

3 N

1 Sage’s Training

 

4 Dual Ball
4 Junk Arm

3 Exp. Share
3 Pokémon Catcher
3 PlusPower

2 Switch
1 Pokégear 3.0
1 Eviolite
1 Lost Remover
1 Super Scoop Up

 

2 Skyarrow Bridge

Energy – 12

8 F

4 Double Colorless

pokemon-paradijs.comThis is another deck that I am warming up to, but one that I will openly admit is VERY undertested for me. I like this deck better than the Donphan deck, and better than straight Terrakion. I’m at a state where the luxury cards are still in a state of “try a moderate number and see how they play in the deck.” It’s been doing pretty well for me so far, and in theory I really like the deck. I’m just not close to having a final version yet. I’m including it for you guys so you know where I’m at, and you have something to work off of.

I like this deck for a number of reasons though. You get most of the perks of Terrakion, where you have a powerful game against Zeels due to type advantage. I stand by the fact that 4 Terrakion is overkill. Having Tornadus as a back up attacker is nice, and also helps you conserve energy, and be a faster deck as a whole. Terrakion is slow, not “really” attacking until turn 3, so people can have some leeway to set up a game plan usually. Tornadus threatens a much more intimidating clock, which is huge in my eyes.

The other issue Terrakion has is that it can’t one shot Mewtwo. Having even 2 Mewtwos of your own allow you to circumvent the “tanked Mewtwo” issue (which, if this deck replaces the other Fighting type decks, Eviolite’s surge in usefulness might diminish again) by allowing you to KO it.

It also lets you go aggro Mewtwo right out of the gates to punish a slow start. Terrakion is way too much of a metagame card, offering a very underwhelming presence outside of type advantage, so having Mewtwo gives the deck a proactive element that I really find necessary in a deck.

I like Shaymin with Mewtwo in general, and adding Smeargle and Tyrogue are measures taken to try and offset starting with it, while giving the deck some utility as well. Switch/Skyarrow Bridge/Super Scoop Up give the deck switching options. Skyarrow is great with Tornadus and Smeargle… Switch is needed for Terrakion… and SSU is great right now. It can punish people for leaving EX cards “hanging” or trying to go for the 2 shot route. Everyone takes for granted that no one runs ways to heal cards. Just the one SSU can steal games if you flip well with it.

Donphan Mewtwo

Pokémon – 14

4 Phanpy HS
4 Donphan Prime
2 Mewtwo-EX NXD
1 Zekrom BLW
1 Reshiram BLW
1 Kyurem NVI

1 Shaymin UL

Trainers – 34

4 Professor Oak’s New Theory
4 Professor Juniper

3 N
1 Sage’s Training

 

4 Dual Ball
4 Junk Arm

3 Pokémon Catcher
3 PlusPower

3 Switch

2 Heavy Ball
1 Lost Remover
1 Exp. Share
1 Super Scoop Up

Energy – 12

8 F
4 Double Colorless

pokemon-paradijs.comOk, you know how I was pretty rough on a list for Tornadus/Terrakion/Mewtwo? This is even less tested. I also think it is just worse, so I’ve made it a lower priority than the Terrakion/Tornadus build. I know the deck had most of its success in the Northeast, but its seen a bit of play around the country as well.

This deck’s game plan is similar to the above one. Mewtwo is good, and Zeels hates Fighting. Donphan is a tank, and is very hard to kill. Unlike mono-Terrakion, the deck can attack on the second turn as well.

I’m not sure the best way to “support” the deck either. I’m running “rainbow dragons” to start, but they seem underwhelming. The deck is hard to kill early, and has some power and type diversity to it. I’d like to include Tornadus, but the more and more I’m looking at the deck, I fail to see why I’d want to run this over the more streamlined Terrakion build.

If you want, cut some of the dragons to add in Tornaduses, but I’m not really sure the game plan for the deck overall. I never really liked Donphan in the first place, but I can’t deny that being good against Lightning is a powerful and valuable trait right now. Tornadus is gaining in popularity overall, and if people really test and start to change their lists around to counter these Fighting decks, I feel like they will be in a far worse position come Regionals.

Terrakion

Pokémon – 4

4 Terrakion NVI

Trainers – 43

4 Professor Oak’s New Theory
4 N
4 Professor Juniper

2 Sage’s Training

 

4 Dual Ball
4 Junk Arm
4 Pokémon Catcher
4 Exp. Share
4 PlusPower
3 Switch

2 Lost Remover
1 Pokégear 3.0
1 Super Rod

 

2 Ruins of Alph

Energy – 13

9 F

4 Rescue

pokemon-paradijs.comI’ve had about a week to test this as well. I think I addressed this deck quite a bit in passing in prior paragraphs while comparing it to other decks, or in regard to how they do against it in general. Again, I don’t like this deck, and have a pretty good record against in with both CMT, and with Zeels. I think it is too one-dimensional, and the more people test against it, the worse and worse it should do.

By the time I logged 5 games against it, I was already noticing a vast improvement in how well I was dispatching it. Now, I’m not writing it off entirely. This whole new wave of decks is still undertested, and while testing teams and players are building their attempts at them, the exact winning lists aren’t as easy to find, and people who are experts with them likely have their own approaches to the deck that we haven’t zeroed in on yet.

My initial stance is that the decks are bad, but I refuse to write them off entirely either. If the deck whiffs on its Exp. Shares, it has a very hard time keeping up on energy, and when that happens, it can fall behind easily, and it doesn’t do a very good job catching up once it does.

Reshiphlosion

Pokémon – 16

4 Cyndaquil HS
1 Quilava HS
3 Typhlosion Prime
4 Reshiram BLW
2 Mewtwo-EX NXD
1 Reshiram-EX

1 Cleffa HS

Trainers – 32

4 Professor Juniper
4 N
4 Sage’s Training

 

4 Pokémon Collector
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokémon Communication
3 Junk Arm
2 Pokémon Catcher
2 PlusPower

 

1 Pokémon Center

Energy – 12

10 R
2 Double Colorless

pokemon-paradijs.comAhhh yes. My good friends Typhlosion and Reshiram. The deck performed alright at a few States, and I believe it even won one. [Editor’s Note: It won 2.] Now, I was happy to not test this thing for a few months now, but now that it did well enough to be back on the radar, I feel like it needs addressed again.

The deck still has a very bad matchup against Zeels. On the other side, you have a great Durant game, you should just smoke the Donphan and Terrakion decks, and you have a good game against CMT (or at least a reasonable one). I really dislike being a substantial underdog against what I consider to be the best deck (CMT still being a close second, as the only two tier 1 decks… everything else is tier 2 by a decent margin).

Now, I’m not sure what the “current” Reshiphlosion lists really are looking like. You have the “core” of the deck being fairly standard, but now we have access to Mewtwo and Reshiram-EX as well. I’m running 2 DCE to help with both of these, but I’m not sure if I should try and fit in more. The deck is extremely tight so far, and you can’t really go less than 10 fire.

I hate going only 3 Typhlosion Prime, but I needed space, and once they get out, they don’t die that much, and if they do, it keeps your energy on the field so it isn’t so bad. I’m actually unsure on whether I want to incorporate Mewtwo in here or not, but I’d like at least 1 at the very least as a counter-Mewtwo card. I’m at 2 so I can partake in the Mewtwo wars, even if I don’t have the best deck to abuse it.

Reshiram gives me that 150 damage output, and is a pretty big tank at times. I could add in Eviolites or Fliptini and put more of a focus on Reshiram if it turns out to be very powerful (I actually think it could, the decks at the moment are very under-prepared for a tank like that), but right now I’m experimenting with it as more of a one shotter and additional attacker than focusing on it, which may just be incorrect.

As the weeks progressed and more decks were being built to try and beat Zeels, these decks wound up being pretty weak against “Big Fire,” so I don’t even think Typhlosion is terribly positioned overall, even though it still has major issues against the best deck in the format. It’s also a bit slow, so I don’t recommend using it, but it has had enough success that I guess it is an option still.

Conlusion

Heading into Regionals, we have a pretty defined metagame. I’ve said it plenty of times so far, but I’ll restate it: Zeels and CMT are still the best decks. That doesn’t mean there is no work to be done before Regionals though! Even if I recommend using one of those decks (the next most promising deck, in my eyes, is the Tornadus/Terrakion/Mewtwo one), we have to acknowledge that the new wave of decks to come out of States WILL be played.

CMT and Zeels should be updated to try and give them the best odds against those decks, as they were built specifically to beat the big two. Don’t let them continue to evolve and up their games while taking no counter measures to do the same back. Eviolite is a great start against most of them, and make sure you play a ton of games vs them so you know how the games flow! You can learn a lot by doing this.

An evolving metagame doesn’t mean you need to switch your deck up, but it does usually mean your list can be improved, and it should always react to changes in what is being played.

I actually have another article scheduled for next week (I got a pretty bad placement on scheduling for April, and no one would switch with me), so I’ll have more refined lists heading into Regionals, plus I have a fun idea to mix up the writing from what I normally do, so hopefully everyone will enjoy an out of left field approach.

(Don’t worry, it’s the last stretch to Regionals, so there will be deck content and updates, but the core of the article will be something different.)

And lastly, a reminder to discuss Regigigigigigigigigas! Hit up the forums! I look forward to seeing what people have to say!


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