Battle Roads Report: X Balling the Format

mantachiehighschool.comHeading into this weekend of tournaments, I put a lot of focus into testing out a bunch of different decks to try to get down some really strong plays for this weekend to try to maximize my odds of getting some Championship Points. I will only be able to play in four Fall Battle Roads altogether, so I need to make the best of the small pool of them I have available to me, so having a second weekend of whiffing points was not an option.

I do have some comfort in knowing I have Spring Battle Roads ahead to gain points, and I do plan to play in much more of those than I do these Fall ones, as hopefully my schedule will free up some more by then. However, I still want to get a solid amount of points from the Fall so I don’t have to over stress at the Spring ones for points.

To start the week, the decks I was considering playing for the weekend were Zoroark DEX/Sableye DEX/Darkrai EX, Emboar BLW 20/Rayquaza EX, and Ho-Oh EX.

What I liked about Zoroark/Sableye/Darkrai is that it had one of the most consistent setups in a format where poor starts can cost you a game. The consistency of being able to hit into a turn 2 140 damage Brutal Bash was something I felt could be strong for the weekend, but after some thorough testing, I found the deck’s Rayquaza/Eelektrik and Ho-Oh matchups to not be up to par, so I stopped testing the deck late in the week.

pokemon-paradijs.comEmboar/Rayquaza was a deck a I wanted to try out after having played Rayquaza/Eelektrik the previous weekend. I liked that the deck was able to get a turn two Rayquaza EX and start 1HKOing EXs on turn two. From there, all it took was an Energy Retrieval and manual attachment to recharge Rayquaza EX for another Dragon Burst for 180, and unlike the Eelektrik variant, you didn’t have to worry about switching Rayquaza EXs out of the Active Spot to recharge, making for a much more deadly deck. The problem I had is no matter how consistent I made the deck, I wasn’t hitting the turn two Emboar often enough.

Lastly, Ho-Oh EX is a deck I really wanted to try out after taking a liken to CMT last season. The decks are very similar in that they just take advantage of a bunch of colorless attackers and aim to get off to an aggressive start. Through my testing of this deck, I realized just how good Mewtwo EX was in the current format, even with Rayquaza EX around to one shot it.

With that in mind, I wanted to build decks for this weekend that were able to take advantage of X Ball to its fullest potential. I knew Ho-Oh EX would be the play for at least one tournament, but personally, I like to taste some variety in these smaller event series, so I wanted to play two different decks for the two tournaments this weekend.

The deck I decided on playing for my first tournament of the weekend was Darkrai/Mewtwo/Terrakion, which is a deck I had done some testing with previously in the format, and having played Darkrai variants almost exclusively all of last Spring, I had a good feel for this deck. After running it through some intensive testing, I found it to have around 50/50 matchups with Ho-Oh, Hydreigon, and Rayquaza/Eelektrik, while having favorable matchups against the rest of the decks in the format, so I knew that it would be a strong play for this weekend.

The decklist I ended up using is almost identical to the list I posted in my last Undergorund Article – My Abusive Relationship with Bianca, Dancing in the Dark, and Shiny Dragons. The only difference I made was cutting a Random Receiver for a fourth Energy Switch. If you want to see the list for that deck, just check out the link if you are an Underground member, or sign up for the Underground to gain access to it.

Eureka, MO Battle Roads Report

en.wikipedia.orgThe first tournament I had on my plate for this weekend was at B&B Games in Eureka, MO. I had a lot of confidence heading into this tournament, as I have experienced a great share of success at this store in my short Pokémon career.

To recap my tournament history at this store, I went 1-4 with a horrid Samurott/Beartic/Zoroark deck at my first ever competitive tournament. However, one of the league leaders in the area gave me a playset of Junk Arm and gave me a lot of good advice on what it takes to make a competitive deck after I played him in the last round of that tournament.

I got 3rd place at the City Championship there with Tyraintar Prime/Kyurem NVI/Cobalion NVI/Vileplume UD/Reuniclus BLW. I made top cut at Missouri States there with Celebi Prime/Mewtwo EX, and then I went 4-0 for 3rd place after top cut with Darkrai EX/Mewtwo EX/Terrakion NVI at the Battle Roads there last Spring.

I actually ended up playing the same deck I had played at my last Battle Roads there, just modifying it to keep it up to date with the changes to the format after rotation. Having done well with the deck here before, I knew it would be the right play for this tournament for feng shui purposes.

One of the things I loathe ever doing in a tournament is playing a mirror match, unless I feel like there is something I can add to the deck or build the deck in a certain way to give it an edge in mirror. I liked this deck as my deck choice as I felt the odds of playing mirror would be slim to none.

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Round 1 – Rayquaza/Eelektrik (Charlene Clements)

Well, no easy rounds for me, as I get paired up against a really good player for the first round. I go for the aggressive start with Mewtwo EX and X Ball a Tynamo for a prize on turn one. She uses Celestial Roar and nets two Energy off of it, and 1HKOs my poor Mewtwo EX with Dragon Burst on the turn after.

In the mid game, I transition to using Darkrai EX and begin Catcher KOing Eelektrik with Night Spear while strategically spreading damage across her field. Over the course of two turns, she uses Shred with Rayquaza DRX to Knock Out my Eviolited Darkrai EX.

I had sniped 30 damage onto a Rayquaza EX with Night Spear earlier, so it was sitting on the bench with two Energy and 30 damage on it. I attach an Energy to my Mewtwo EX and then play two Energy Switch to move two more energy onto my Mewtwo EX, and am able to setup a massive X Ball for 160 out of nowhere to Catcher KO the Rayquaza EX.

I am left with a monster of a Mewtwo on my field, and she is forced to Catcher stall and play N to try to fight back into the game. I hit into an Energy and am able to retreat to Mewtwo EX and X Ball her Zekrom BLW to win the game. Her Super Rod was prized and she ran out of Fire Energy, so she was unable to ever attack with Rayquaza EX by this point in the game.

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Round 2 – Rayquaza/Eelektrik (Anthony Eason)

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Once again, I decide to just go with the early Mewtwo EX for some early aggression in an attempt to take out his Tynamo in the early game, as Rayquaza EX cannot function without its energy acceleration. Unfortunately, I cannot hit a Pokémon Catcher, so I am just forced to X Ball into his Rayquaza EX, putting it up to 160 damage with my first Mewtwo EX.

He is able to get four Lightning Energy on his Rayquaza EX to 1HKO my Eviolited Mewtwo EX with Dragon Burst. I respond back with another Mewtwo EX and X Ball his damaged Rayquaza EX for 2 Prizes. He Bolt Strikes my Mewtwo EX with Zekrom, and I respond by using X Ball for the Knock Out to take my third prize.

He then Dynamotors energy onto an Eelektrik and uses its attack to Knock Out my Mewtwo EX to take his third and fourth prizes.

I don’t have much of an opportunity to win this game, but if I can Knock Out an Eelektrik, I can prevent him from setting up a strong enough Dragon Burst for the 1HKO. Through the magic of Dark Patch and Energy Switch, I am able to create a powered up Darkrai EX out of thin air, and Catcher his Eelektrik with no energy on it to keep some Lightning out of the discard pile, and snipe 30 onto his Tynamo.

Before doing this, I had N’d him to 2 cards. He gets a Professor Juniper though, but is unable to evolve it into Eelektrik on this turn. He promotes either the Tynamo or Rayquaza EX to prevent the double Knock Out, but my hand consists of an Energy and three Pokémon Catcher. All of those Pokémon Catcher that I couldn’t seem to hit in the early game finally decided to make an appearance.

I catcher up his Eelektrik and take the double knockout to win the game.

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Round 3 – Darkrai/Mewtwo/Terrakion (Andy Hahn)

Well so much for not running into the mirror match today, I guess great minds just think alike. I hadn’t tested this matchup in the current format as I honestly didn’t expect to run into the mirror match. I know I had played Darkrai variants a lot more than Andy had in the previous format, so I was hoping that would give me a bit of an edge in understanding the deck to the fullest potential.

Our lists were also within a few cards of each other. We had some differences in the Supporter engine, which I think gave me an edge in the mirror, but he also played Super Scoop Up which I did not, which gave him some healing options that I did not have. I think I played Switch in my version while he did not, but I’m not entirely sure on that.

I go with Mewtwo EX in the early game and work on Knocking Out the Terrakion that he benched to start the game, as I didn’t want that thing on the field Retaliating my Darkrai EXs. He gets the early prize lead taking 3 Prizes to my one. I N him to three cards, and he pretty much dead-draws for the rest of the game.

After playing the N, I respond to his Mewtwo EX with my own and X Ball it for 2 Prizes. I was really worried after he had Knocked Out my Mewtwo EX on the previous turn. I used Super Rod to put my Mewtwo EX back into my deck and used Ultra Ball to search it back out. While doing the search on Ultra Ball I noticed that my other Mewtwo EX was prized, which isn’t very good in the mirror match for this deck. I was fortunate to hit into my Super Rod when I did.

From there, he is just left with a Sableye and Darkrai EX on his field, and promoted his Sableye to the Active Spot, but he doens’t have any energy to even use Junk Hunt. I just leave Mewtwo EX active, choosing not to play more energy on it to prevent him from getting an easy KO on it with his own Mewtwo EX, and just start attaching energy onto my Terrakion. I Knock Out his Sableye over the course of two turns with X Ball and draw my second Mewtwo EX off of my Prize cards.

My next turn, I play down that Mewtwo EX and attach a DCE, making sure I have the response Mewtwo in case a Mewtwo war were to break out. I just X Ball for 40 into his Darkrai EX that had an Eviolite and DCE attached to it for two turns to put it up to 80 damage. On my next turn, I attach to my active Mewtwo EX and play two Energy Switch and use X Ball for 100 damge to win the game.

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Round 4 – Hydreigon/Darkrai (Jared K.)

pokemon-paradijs.comThis was my opponent from my first round last week. I got his name wrong for my first report. For whatever reason, it seems like I need to meet a person twice before I’m able to get their name down. He’s a really nice guy, and it makes for some quality games of Pokémon.

I couldn’t get any attackers setup quickly, and just ended up going with Darkrai EX after I got it powered up to spread some damage around his field. I actually could have won the game on turn 2 if I had played my first turn differently, as I could have gotten a Mewtwo EX setup with three energy and X Ball’d his Deino to win the game, but I made the conservative, smart play and focused more on my long term game than the potential of trying to bench my opponent on the second turn, while leaving myself with an overall weaker board position if my opponent were able to get more Basics out.

I am able to take a double Knock Out on a Zweilous and Sableye for two of my prizes. I get two more of my prizes after Tool Scrapping an Eviolite off of a Darkrai EX and using Retaliate with Terrakion for my next 2 Prizes. He responds by Knocking Out my Terrakion with Hydreigon, as I was unable to get an Eviolite attached to it to prevent the Knock Out.

He has two Sableye on his bench, which I zero in on as being my last 2 Prizes. I decide that it’s Mewtwo time, and power up a strong Mewtwo EX to Knock Out these Sableye. I N my opponent to two cards, and take the first prize on a Sableye with X Ball, bringing the game down to 2-1 Prizes.

I feel like I have a relatively strong board position in this game. I have some Darkrai EX with damage on my bench, but he doesn’t have much of an opportunity to touch them. He has three Pokémon Catcher in the discard pile and he can never promote Sableye to Junk Hunt for another Pokémon Catcher, as I will just X Ball or Night Spear the Sableye to take my final prize.

I am unable to draw into my game winning Pokiemon Catcher and retreat into Sableye and use Junk Hunt to put two Pokémon Catcher in my hand, preparing to win the game on the next turn. He has a Professor Juniper though, and is able to draw into his fourth Pokémon Catcher to bring up one of the damaged Darkrai EX to Knock Out and win the game.

3-1

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Round 5 – Terrakion-EX/Empoleon

I poured a solid amount of time into testing the Terrakion-EX matchup with this deck and found it to be a really good matchup, as Mewtwo EX could X Ball a loaded Terrakion-EX for 100 and two shot it, while forcing a 3HKO if I were able to get an Eviolite attached to Mewtwo EX.

I am unable to get off to a fast start this game, starting a lone Darkrai EX. I get a Mewtwo EX next turn and attach a Dark Energy to it, and just pass. He uses Rock Tumble with Terrakion-EX to hit my Darkrai EX for 100 damage. I attach a DCE to Mewtwo EX, retreat to Mewtwo, and then Catcher KO a Piplup. I do this because if the player plays Mew-EX, it would need an Empoleon out to have a one energy attack to 1HKO my Mewtwo EX with.

He uses a Pokémon Catcher to Knock Out my Darkrai EX with Pump Up Smash and benches another Pipulup. I play a Tool Scrapper to remove the Rescue Scarf on his Terrakion-EX, double Dark Patch to my benched Sableye and then double Energy Siwtch to my Mewtwo EX, and attach another Energy to my Mewtwo EX and X Ball for 180 to Knock Out his Terrakion-EX.

From there he evolves into Prinplup and benches another Piplup. I Knock Out his Prinplup with X-Ball and he scoops.

4-1

I ended up finishing the tournament finishing in third place, which is a very good finish, adding 10 Championship Points to my season total and adding another Victory Cup to my collection. This puts me 1/40th of the way toward earning my World Championship invite!

Final Thoughts on the Deck

DMT is going to be a strong deck heading into Regional Championships. It has all of the ingredients that is needed to be successful in this format. It has Sableye as a consistency crux, and Darkrai EX to give everything free retreat to free you from your opponent’s Catcher stalling. Terrakion gives it an answer to 1HKO Darkrai EX in the Hydreigon matchup to prevent them from endlessly tanking their Pokémon. Mewtwo EX gives the deck an option with unlimited damage potential, allowing you to take big knock outs out of nowhere.

The deck can also take some easy prizes with early Night Spears or X Balls. It has some donk potential with the two attacks, and although I never really setup a fast Darkrai in this tournament, I know through testing and the results of others, I know this is highly possible.

The deck is no longer the juggernaut it was during the World’s format, as the loss of Shaymin UL, Junk Arm, and Smeargle greatly decrease the deck’s power, but it is still a deck that is very good and has 50/50 matchups against all the other top tier decks, so it will be a strong play heading into Regionals.

The one question I have remaining with this deck is what is the proper number of Mewtwo to play. I would really love to play three Mewtwo EX, as it is such a strong card, but I don’t really know where I can find room for it in the deck. Two Mewtwo EX and Super Rod works out alright, but having three Mewtwo EX would help alleviate some of the tough situations where you have a prized Mewtwo EX and you need to hit your Super Rod to get Mewtwo EX back into the deck. Hopefully with some more testing I can find some of the excess to strip away from the deck to fit in a third Mewtwo.

St. Peters, MO Report

memegenerator.netThis Battle Roads got off to a poor start for me, with me ending up at the wrong location. My phone had died the night before, so I didn’t have a phone to text anyone to quickly fix the problem, so I had to find an internet connection in the mall I was at to figure out the right location. I plug the address into my GPS and my arrival time is right at the start of registration. I get into the store at about 10 minutes after registration was supposed to close, and quickly hash out my decklist with a little help from some other players.

Luckily thanks to the help of some of the great tournament staff, I was able to get into the tournament and escape without a game loss round one, which would have pretty much made it impossible to have any chance of winning the tournament, and would have made placing well difficult as well.

I decided to play Ho-Oh EX, as it was a deck concept I was a greatly interested in. I had some good success with CMT last Spring, and this deck was similar, just using Ho-Oh EX as the energy acceleration instead of Celebi Prime. I got some good help and insight into the deck from Rachel, the Arizona player who has been tearing up Battle Roads with the deck for a total of 50 Championship Points so far, through HeyTrainer. Out of respect for the players that worked on building this into such a strong deck, I can’t share a list for this deck.

The attacker lineup I decided on was two Mewtwo EX, two Terrakion NVI, a Sigilyph DRX, and a Registeel-EX. This gave me a versatile attacker lineup, and my main goal with the deck was to start Mewtwo wars and then finish them off with Sigilyph.

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Round 1 – Zekrom/Eelektrik

I get the turn one Mewtwo EX and DCE and use Pokémon Catcher to Knock Out a Tynamo. I had to Professor Juniper away two more Pokémon Catcher, which made me nervous about this matchup, but it was a necessary play as you can’t leave a Mewtwo EX active with a DCE, as it’s just a Mewtwo EX, DCE, and PlusPower away from losing you the game.

He is left with Zekrom on his field and outrages me. I take the 2HKO on Zekrom, at which point he responds with the Knock Out on my Mewtwo EX with his own. I am able to get three Energy on my next Mewtwo EX to respond to take my third and fourth prizes.

From there, he is just left with Zekrom-EX, Thundurus, and Eelektriks in play. He promotes Zekrom-EX and Strong Volts my Mewtwo EX for 150. I then retreat to Terrakion and Land Crush for the victory.

1-0

Round 2 – Terrakion/Terrakion-EX and Stuff

This round I was paired against a poke dad, who said he hasn’t gotten a lot of the new cards for the format and that him and his son in Juniors were just returning to the game after being out of it for a few months. Nothing really specatcular happened this game. I just setup some big Mewtwo EXs and swept his board with it, while using Tool Scrapper to remove his Exp. Shares.

2-0

Round 3 – Garchomp/Terrakion (Andrew Newman)

audiofiles1.jerryseinfeld.nl
Hello, Newman.

I knew this would be a tough game from the get go. Andrew Newman is a very strong player that has been playing Pokémon for a really long time, so he has a strong grasp on the game and he is a player who is really able to effectively create rogue decks that are able to counter the metagame well. He had some success during City Championships playing Landorus/Terrakion, well before the deck got popular during State Championships, and he made a good run during States with a Donphan and Dragons deck.

My goal this game was to lead early with Mewtwo EX and try to take out his Gibles, Knocking Out his Garchomp lines and forcing him to have to hit his Super Rods to keep up any type of Garchomp stream. After I would have the Garchomp lines eliminated, I would deal with the Terrakions with my Ho-Oh EX to finish off the game. I am able to Knock Out two Gible on turns 2 and 3, but he is able to remove DCEs from my Mewtwo EX with Mach Cut, which really helps to knock Mewtwo EX down a notch.

If my memory serves correct, I am able to heal my Mewtwo EX with a SSU, and take a third prize on something else, but he Ns me to three cards, and I don’t really draw much of anything for a few turns, and miss my Rebirth flips for 3-4 turns which led to me having multiple turns without attacking, while he was able to setup another Garchomp on his bench and get energies on his Terrakion. From there I really had no way of coming back and he takes the final knock outs to win the game.

His deck was really strong, and definitely was the best use of Garchomp I’ve seen yet. He ended up going 5-0 and winning the tournament with the deck. I will cover the deck some more later in this article, as it is a really neat concept.

Round 4 – Registeel-EX/Terrakion NVI/Mewtwo EX/Garbodor (Colin Moll)

pokemon-paradijs.comI had tested quite a few games with Colin and have had the opportunity to play against this deck a number of times in our testing. In our testing games, Colin wasn’t playing Mewtwo EX, but by now, I figured he had slipped at least one into the deck as the deck really needs it to deal with opposing Mewtwos.

I start Mewtwo EX, and am unable to get it going on turn one, and just pass. He starts Registeel-EX and Terrakion and attached to Registeel to start his turn and leaves it active. I am able to get a Ho-Oh and three energy in the discard pile on turn 2, and hit my Rebirth flip and attach another Energy to Ho-Oh and switch into it to 1HKO his Registeel-EX.

From there, I setup Mewtwo EX as well, and just start taking easy prizes with Pokémon Catcher and either Ho-Oh or Mewtwo EX, Knocking Out his Garbodors and Trubbish. I race off to a quick 5 Prizes, at which point he Ns me to one. I pretty much just dead-draw from here on out. I do draw into a Random Receiver, but hit an N off of it, so that’s no help.

I have multiple ways to win the game. For a couple of turns, just drawing into a sixth energy type to attach to Ho-Oh would have given me the necessary damage output to 1HKO a Terrakion to win the game. At other points a Mewtwo EX and DCE could win it. I just can draw into none of it and lose the game.

I didn’t test this matchup at all with this deck as I felt Garbodor was probably dead in our metagame. Garbodor never really made any impact on this game, as I got my Rebirth flip well before Garbodor was setup, and from there my deck doesn’t have much reliance on Abilities outside of Sigilyph’s Safe Guard. The Garbodor lines just ended up being a bunch of easy prizes for me to pick off.

I question if I chose the right strategy of just taking out whatever prizes I could. I had an end game plan of 1HKOing a Terrakion with Ho-Oh, but I just never could draw into that last energy needed to do it. If I were to go back and do this game over, I think I would just attack into his Terrakions repeatedly with Ho-Oh/Mewtwo EX and then forced a Mewtwo war to end the game after he’s out of Terrakion and cannot play down Registeel-EX as it will be an easy 2 Prizes for Ho-Oh.

2-2

Round 5 – Terrakion-EX

lolbrary.comI have to leave for work, so I decide to just go yolo with Mewtwo EX to make for a quick game. I am able to X Ball into his active Terrakion-EX with a Giant Cloak attached to put it at 180 damage, planning to Tool Scrapper it later for a 2 Prize Knock Out. On my next turn, I SSU my benched Mewtwo EX, and re-attach the DCE that was attached to it to my active Mewtwo EX.

I then play two Energy Switch to move two more Energy onto my Mewtwo EX and then catcher ko his benched Terrakion-EX with no damage on it. At this point he scoops up all his cards and rage quits.

3-2

I ended up getting 13th place out of 34 players and missed out on the kicker points on resistance. Two 3-2 players from the event ended up landing into kicker points from the event.

Final Thoughts on the Deck

Overall, I like the deck very much. It really does remind me of CMT. I don’t think I quite like this deck as much as I liked CMT just because of the natural inconsistency that comes from using Ho-Oh EX as your energy acceleration. If you aren’t hitting your Rebirth flips, which was the case for me throughout most of the day, Ho-Oh EX becomes a really aggravating source of Energy acceleration.

I do like how I built the deck though. Playing 4 Switch and 4 SSU gave me eight potential outs to switch Pokémon out of the Active Spot, which gives me a strong ability to get the attacker I need in place for the right place at the right time.

pokemon-paradijs.comI do like how aggressive this deck can be at getting attackers powered up on turn one and turn two to start taking early prizes. My only concern is that I’m not sure if a deck like this is the right deck for the current metagame. Getting off to a fast start is great, but if your opponent Ns you to a small hand and you dead-draw, you just kind of lose the game from that. The deck doesn’t play off the hand quite as much as CMT did, as you can quickly get attackers powered up out of the discard pile with Rebirth, but it still plays for the most part out of the hand which makes it really vulnerable to N.

My only qualms with my build of the deck are the attacker lineup I chose for the deck. Registeel-EX was useless for me all day. The idea behind Registeel-EX is that it gives you an early attacking option to spread damage against evolution decks to soften them for knockouts and ideally, being able to Knock Out multiple pre-evolutions all at once. However, I feel that just powering up a fast Ho-Oh EX or Mewtwo EX and taking out the pre-evolutions one by one is a stronger play.

If I were to play this deck again, I think I would cut Registeel-EX for a third Mewtwo EX. This should greatly help the deck in finishing out the Mewtwo war as well. My original intention for a Mewtwo war was to go through two Mewtwo EX to start it, and then finish it off with Sigilyph. This unfortunately doesn’t work quite as well against decks with non-EX attackers that can deal with Sigilyph. I think being able to finish out a Mewtwo war with three Mewtwo EX is the correct way to go about it. One thing that should be noted about this deck is that it has the ability to setup a Mewtwo EX to use Mewtwo’s second attack, Psydrive, which can be very strong in finishing out a Mewtwo war.

Mewtwo EX is also the best starter this deck can have against almost every deck in the format, so increasing your probability of starting with Mewtwo EX would also be a benefit from this change. I would really like to find room for a fourth Mewtwo EX as well, but I’m not sure what can be cut from the deck to make room for it.

This is another deck that I feel is a strong play heading into Regionals. It is able to get off to a fast start to put early pressure on your opponents, and it has answers for every major metagame threat, as well as just generally being good through the power of Mewtwo EX.

Garchomp/Terrakion

pokemon-paradijs.comThis was the deck that ended up winning our second tournament of the weekend, and it is a deck that I think is very strong.

I think by now, most competitive players would agree that Garchomp/Altaria is a Tier 3 garbage deck that struggles to beat pretty much any major metagame deck — such as Rayquaza/Eelektrik, Hydreigon/Darkrai, DMT, Zekrom/Eelektrik, Empoleon… and the list goes on and on.

However, that doesn’t mean that Garchomp is a bad card in itself. What this deck does is cut off the excess fat of Altaria and instead focuses on doing big damage with Garchomp’s second attack, Dragon Blade. Most Garchomp/Altaria decks just focus on doing around 100 damage with Mach Cut, but the problem with those decks is that after you Knock Out the Garchomp lines, they’re left with a field with non-attackers and you just have a bunch of easy prizes to pick off to win the game.

This deck, however, after you take out the Garchomp lines, you still have Terrakion to deal with, which is a strong threat, especially in a metagame that is still full of Darkrai and Eelektrik decks.

Grachomp is a really strong Pokémon. It has built in consistency in setting up with its Stage 1 Gabite with its Dragon Call Ability. With its second attack, Garchomp is able to 2HKO every Pokémon-EX. At 140 HP, Garchomp can be difficult to Knock Out, and even when it does have damage on it, that damage can quickly be removed with Max Potion.

The deck deals well with the major metagame threats. You have Garchomp to 1HKO Hydreigon and Rayquaza EX and Mach Cut can be used to slow down Mewtwo EX as well as remove Blend Energy from Hydreigon on the turns you can’t quite hit for the 1HKO on Hydreigon. It has Terrakion lying in rest to deal with any opposing Darkrai EX or Eelektrik that these decks would be playing as well.

Here is my take on how I would build the deck.

Pokémon – 15

4 Gible DRX 87

3 Gabite DRX 89

4 Garchomp DRX 90

2 Terrakion NVI

2 Emolga DRX

Trainers – 34

4 Professor Juniper

4 N

2 Bianca

2 Random Receiver

 

3 Level Ball

3 Pokémon Commnication

3 Pokémon Catcher

3 Rare Candy

3 Switch

3 Exp. Share

2 Max Potion

2 Super Rod

Energy – 11

6 F

4 Blend WLFM

1 W

pokemon-paradijs.comOne thing I found to be true about this deck is that even with Altaria being cut out of the deck, space is still extremely tight. There just isn’t room for great cards like Tool Scrapper in the deck, even though the card would be great in conjunction with Terrakion for taking Eviolite off of Darkrais for the 1HKO.

I really like the 3/3 split between Level Ball and Pokémon Communication. Level Ball can be used to get more Basics out onto your bench and also to search for Gabite so you can start up your Dragon Call stream. Pokémon Communication gives you a search option for any Basics, Gabite, Garchomp, and most importantly Terrakion, which cannot be searched out by Dragon Call.

I made sure to include some Water Energy into the deck as I feel it’s very important to be able to setup Garchomps to use Dragon Blade. I wish I could find room for a second Water Energy, but space is tight, and I would need to do more intensive testing with the deck to figure out what could possibly be cut to make room for it, or if it is even all that necessary. Energy Switch would be nice in the deck to combo well with Max Potion and to get Terrakion’s setup out of nowhere, but there really isn’t space to allow it.

As a result, you just have to rely on Exp. Share for your energy acceleration. This isn’t ideal with Tool Scrapper in the format, but if you strategically plan when you place down your Exp. Shares you can hopefully avoid your opponent having the Tool Scrapper in hand right away to get some use out of the Exp. Shares.

I think the deck definitely could be a strong play moving forward. I don’t think it’s a deck I would be comfortable playing, just because of how vulnerable it still is to Rayquaza donks. It’s not quite as vulnerable as regular Garchomp/Altaria is, but the potential for that to happen is still very real.

Conclusion

georgebeatz.blogspot.comThis just about wraps up my Fall Battle Roads schedule. I have one more slated for two weeks from now, and that will put an end ot my Fall Battle Roads. The decks I am leaning toward for my last Battle Roads are Rayquaza/Eelektrik, Terrakion-EX, and Ho-Oh, all of which I think are pretty strong decks.

I will have plenty of time to get in some good testing to figure out what the right play is, as I have next weekend off from Battle Roads. I would really like to end Fall Battle Roads with a win, which will put me at 25 Championship Points, which would be solid for having only played in four tournaments in the series. I know I have Spring Battle Roads to build up most of my Battle Roads points from, but it would be nice to get a good head start through Fall Battle Roads toward my point total for the tournament series. If I am in contention for a Worlds invite in the Spring, I plan to travel and play in many more Battle Roads than I did for the Fall.

My only fear is that our area might be too difficult for anyone to really earn a Worlds invite from. We are loaded with a lot of strong players and at any given tournament there are 12-15 strong threats to take home first place. So far at Battle Roads we have been having different winners every tournament and the top 4 has been changing just as much.

I have one more Battle Roads to focus in on and I will be devoting most of my playtesting to getting together the best deck possible to win that tournament, and then move forward with intense testing for Regionals after I’m officially done with Battle Roads.

Reader Interactions

19 replies

  1. Bryan Ward

    “Most Garchomp/Altaria decks just focus on doing around 100 damage with Mach Cut”

    I was actually not aware of this, and my friend has been using it to do usually 140+ damage with Dragonblade. Is that why I’ve always thought it wasn’t that bad? I usually have a rough time beating him with Empoleon because he can easily OHKO all my attackers, and I can only OHKO Altaria.

      • Bryan Ward  → theo

        Against pretty much everything with more than 100 HP, besides EXs, it seems Dragon Blade is better. Yet most Garchomp decks don’t have more than 1 basic water energy. I also don’t agree with the statement that after knocking out 4 Garchomp, all you have left is Altaria. If you run sufficient Super Rod and/or Rescue Scarf counts, you should easily be able to use 6 Garchomp. Getting them out after a super rod shouldn’t be a big deal with Gabite, just don’t evolve all your Gabite as soon as you can.

  2. Cori James

    I really liked this article. It has the right balance of writing about the match and personal commentary. However, I would have really like to see at least a partial decklist for DMT. I know a lot of people know it, but would have added to the article.

  3. Dan W

    “Student threw sandwich across class shouting YOLO” XD How did you find that!?
    I enjoyed reading this article. It’s always fun to read game reports that have a good amount of detail into them.

  4. Lukas Moore

    Round 5 at Eureka, MO was Aaron Stahnke, who ended up 3-2.

    • Joe Lewis  → David

      It you’re going to assault our eyes with all caps, at least learn to spell rogue correctly. Thank you, have a nice day.

    • Jak Stewart-Armstead  → David

      Rogues, by definition, are best kept secret. When they are plastered across the front page of a free website, they lose a lot of their power.

      But by all means, use the time spent waiting for someone to spoon-feed you a rogue deck, to develop one of your own and write an article on it.

      • David Robinson  → Jak

        its not that im just sick of seeing the SAME DECKS OVER AND OVER this format is about building decks to counter the popular ones and no one is making a article about the cards that are so called “not worth talking about” its just sickening to see all these articles that explain how they did at a tournament when no one cares then gives the deck list with a half way done explanation BECAUSE EVERYONE KNOWS THE DECK and after the 30 FREAKIN darkrai hydreigon articles people still talk about it but not registeel or terrakion EX and the little cards that dont get light that are good

        • Jak Stewart-Armstead  → David

          Looked at the last couple pages of articles on BR deck

          Garbodor/Terrak
          Budget Zekeels
          Garbodor/Terrak/Registeel
          Empoleon/Stunfisk
          Empoleon Accelgor

          Where are all these reports featuring Darkrai/Hydreigon that you are moaning about? Should people not write a report if they played it?

          No-one is saying that any cards shouldn’t be talked about (except you, ironically), but if people aren’t mentioning the stuff YOU want mentioned, then write an article, or at least suggest one (being constructive rather than font shouting and using hyperbole like ‘sickening’ is probably a good idea). Don’t whine because they didn’t somehow telepathically know to play/test/write about the cards you care about

        • Andrew Wamboldt  → David

          It’s unrealistic to expect anyone to share a rogue deck, especially this close to regionals. If anyone has a good rogue, they should rightfully keep it a secret until regionals.

          This was also a tournament report, so naturally I wrote about the decks I did play. And honestly, a lot hasn’t been written about DMT in the current format.

          To top it all off, I actually did talk about a rogue deck in Garchomp/Terrakion.

        • Herp Derp  → David

          Your lack of logic, proper grammar, and proper spelling makes me nauseous, please use Microsoft Word or Apple’s Pages (from iWork) to spell check your sentences. To end this comment, I like yogurt. (awkward silence).

    • Andrew Wamboldt  → Tyler

      Yes, it is. Deck is still really good and can beat any deck in the format.
      If you were able to play Darkrai well last format, you can probably play it well in this format. Not quite as powerful as last format, but early Mewtwo and Darkrai still gives Eel based decks problems, Mewtwo is strong against the format as a whole, and Terrakion is there to counter Darkrai based decks.

  5. Micah Smyth

    I made up Samurott/Beartic and won a tournament with it. I like the deck quite a bit.

  6. Herp Derp

    When you said “This just about wraps up my Fall Battle Roads schedule.” I was like “Am I supposed to eat it”? (like food wraps)

  7. Bori Cser

    That was a really interesting and detailed article, thanks for taking the time to write it!

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