How to Modify Your Deck for Battle Roads

Written by | September 14, 2011 | 36 comments | 1,390 views | Rating: +6

Gee willikers, Batman! I love my Yanmega/Magnezone deck! It’s so versatile, it’s almost like your utility belt and Stage One Rush. Can I take it to Battle Roads?

Well, Robin, I am glad to see you are enthusiastic about going to your first tournament after the World Championship. However, don’t you think that you’re going into something where you’re not looking before you leap?

What do you mean, Batman?

Robin, you know full well that whenever a villain escapes, I mean, a new set is released, there are many expected and unexpected strategies that you have to look out for. Like when I take on The Joker, I always know that he won’t stop until I either punch him in the face or foil his plans. And that’s exactly what it seems will be happening at the first Battle Roads.

What do you mean?

With these Emerging Powers, it seems that players have acquired two cards that are certain to be played by many. One is Pokemon Catcher while the other is the menacing Beartic.

Gosh, Batman.  I’ve heard of those cards, but I’ve never thought of how to counter them.

You’ve still got a lot to learn, kid. Always remember to be prepared for a threat, no matter how unlikely.

Alright, I’m done with my terrible attempt at making Batman play Pokemon TCG. He seems to be more of a MTG player to me, anyway. But you know who would probably be a Pokemon player? Deadpool.

Okay, okay, I’ll stop with the superhero references (and Monty Python references) and go to what you’re all waiting for: How to make that expensive deck that you have pay off in the long run. Right now with Catcher and Beartic and… everything else that was already running around, it’s going to take a little bit of work, but let’s see if we can pull something off.

MegaZone

First off, we have Yanmega/Magnezone, mainly because it has been foretold to be the BDIF, even though many will agree, disagree, play a deck to completely counter it, not really care, eat their lunch, etcetera. So, let us see what is currently being run, and by that I mean my current, unaltered, I didn’t go to Worlds, I have had way too much homework so I only got in two games against a lock-deck, The Royal Bug-Zapper.

Pokemon – 234 Yanma TM3 Yanmega Prime TM

3 Magnemite TM

2 Magneton TM

3 Magnezone Prime TM
2 Horsea UL

1 Seadra UL

2 Kingdra Prime UL

2 Cleffa HS/CL

1 Tyrogue HS/CL

 

 Trainers – 274 Pokemon Collector4 Judge

3 Copycat

3 Pokemon Reversal

4 Pokemon Communication

4 Rare Candy

4 Junk Arm

1 Switch

 Energy – 105 Lightning3 Rainbow

2 Rescue

I know, I know, “Why are you running 2 Cleffas and 1 Tyrogue?!? The maximum amount of baby Pokemon you should be running is one!!! And what happened to Jirachi?!? Also, you need Twins!!!111one” This was right after Nationals and I still made it to my monthly championship’s Top 2, alright? What happened during the Top 2 match was a different story entirely, but I’ll leave it at that.

So, what fixing does this list need? Honestly, assurance against the lock and replacing is about all this deck really needs. It still has the ability to hit fast and hit hard, but it’s definitely going to have a hard time when it gets locked down, so let’s see what we can do here.

Obviously, we’re going to cut most of the babies. As much as I dislike having Cleffa as snipe-bait and an almost assured late-game prize for your opponent, it increases my consistency, so I will be leaving one in.

The debate to finally switch the Rainbow Energies to Water has finally been won, as I always refuse an attachment due to the single damage counter. I’m going to drop at least one Pokemon Communication for a Elm’s, and possibly drop a Candy and a Junk Arm for two Twins. Last, but not least, replace Reversal with Catcher. For those keeping track, here’s what the changes look like:

-1/1 Cleffa/Tyrogue
-1 Pokemon Communication
-1/1 Rare Candy/Junk Arm
-3 Rainbow Energy
-3 Reversal

+1 Elm’s
+2 Twins
+3 Water Energy
+3 Catcher

Now, this leaves you with 2 spaces to work with, though I suppose you could make more. And with Catcher in the format, I would like to increase my switch count to 2 and debate really hard on the last card, probably putting in another Seadra, for no other reason than I like Kingdra on the field. This should mean that your final list should look something like this:

Pokemon – 224 Yanma TM3 Yanmega Prime

3 Magnemite TM

2 Magneton TM

3 Magnezone Prime TM

2 Horsea UL

2 Seadra UL

2 Kingdra Prime UL

1 Cleffa HS/CL

 Trainers – 284 Pokemon Collector4 Judge

3 Copycat

3 Catcher

3 Pokemon Communication

3 Rare Candy

3 Junk Arm

2 Switch

1 Elm’s

2 Twins

 Energy – 105 Lightning3 Water

2 Rescue

 

This deck may be a little tighter, but it definitely gives you a better option against trainer-lock.  This should take care of whatever lock you get into, unless you’re unlucky enough to get caught in Aipom-lock.  If only we had a Supporter that searched out energy again. *sigh* I miss Rosanne’s Research.

Reshiphlosion (or Tyram)

Anywho, let us now hit another very popular deck that I have a little bit of experience with (read against), ReshiPhlosion, or as I like to call it, Flaming Porcupine with a Dragon! (Just kidding. I prefer ReshiPhlosion.) Here is a generic list (as put together in a hahn’s article Revisiting an Old Friend):

Pokemon – 184 Reshiram BLW3 Cyndaquil HS

2 Quilava HS
3 Typhlosion Prime HS
2 Vulpix UL
2 Ninetales HS
1 Cleffa HS/CL
1 Tyrogue HS/CL

 Trainers – 294 Pokémon Collector4 Pokémon Communication
4 Professor Oak’s New Theory
2 Professor Juniper
4 Junk Arm
3 Rare Candy
3 Pokémon Reversal
3 PlusPower
1 Energy Retrieval
1 Revive		 Energy – 1313 Fire

As much as I enjoy this generic list, it just won’t do that well in a format with Catcher and Trainer lock. The reason? Ninetales. It’s too easy to take advantage of. It’s almost necessary to get energy into the discard, but it’s too difficult to keep on the field and it basically gives your opponent a free prize.

And, honestly, if you don’t drop more than one energy in the discard before it’s KO’d, it’s kind of hard to take advantage of the game and win. Not impossible, but definitely difficult. So how can we make this list better?

TWINS!!!!!

Okay, that’s definitely one option, but definitely not the only one. First, we switch the Reversals for Catchers, and switch the Junipers for Sage’s Training. Then we drop the Ninetales lines, and increase the Typhlosion line. I don’t like to do it, but bad things happen when Ninetales is in the active slot and that’s not good for your game, unless you want to base your deck off of Twins, then by all means, go for it. I don’t think it will work, but hey, your call.

I’ll also drop a PONT for a Switch, because we all know that with Catcher out, you’re going to want to move your Typhlosion out of the way without having to manually retreat him. Also, for some strange reason, I believe that you should also run some form of Tornadus or Zekrom. Otherwise, I think that the list should be something like this:

Pokemon – 18

4 Reshiram BLW

4 Cyndaquil HS
2 Quilava HS
4 Typhlosion Prime HS
1 Cleffa HS/CL
1 Tyrogue HS/CL

2 Zekrom BLW/Tornadus EPO

Trainers – 29

4 Pokémon Collector

4 Pokémon Communication
2 Professor Oak’s New Theory
2 Sage’s Training
4 Junk Arm
3 Rare Candy
3 Pokémon Catcher
3 PlusPower

1 Twins
1 Energy Retrieval
1 Revive

1 Switch

Energy – 1313 Fire

It looks a little bit techy, but this is how I would prefer to run it. This will run into a little bit of trouble with the trainer lock, but overall I think if will do fine, especially since Typhlosion Prime can actually do something in the active, rather than just sit there if moved to the active position.

However, there are way too many unique builds of ReshiPhlosion for this one too be considered “the good one.” Play with whatever you feel the most comfortable with, but this is just a suggestion for what you can to adjust to the current format.

Stage 1 Rush

And now we shall take the discussion to Stage 1 Rush. This is a deck that I am somewhat familiar with, though I haven’t played around with it as much as I should. (I have three Yanmega, four Donphan, and two Zoroark for goodness sake!)

However, I love this deck’s versatility and ability to adjust to the metagame without having to overhaul lines and it maintains the same strategy after changing. I’m starting to convince myself to start playing this deck. Now, if only I had a list…

Pokemon – 17

3 Phanpy HS

3 Donphan Prime HS
3 Yanma TM
3 Yanmega Prime TM
2 Zorua BLW
2 Zoroark BLW
1 Cleffa HS/CL

Trainers – 33

4 Pokemon Collector
4 Pokemon Communication
3 Pokemon Catcher
3 Junk Arm

2 Switch

2 Max Restore
3 PlusPower
3 Professor Oak’s New Theory
3 Judge
3 Copycat
3 Professor Juniper

Energy – 10 

6 Fighting

4 Double Colourless

Now, the problem with me writing anything about Stage 1 Rush is that Daniel Middleton already did it! His list (above) has much more depth than I could ever hope to put into a list like this. The only thing that I do not like about this is that there is no Twins. Is there a need for one? No, not really, but come on! Just kidding.

Don’t put Twins in unless you find yourself running behind during many of your games, which I do not see happening. The Supporter count offers protection from Trainer lock while still giving enough balance to the Trainers to let you keep up with other decks when you’re not under Trainer lock. Seriously, I know Daniel gets a lot of credit, but can we give him even more for this list?

About the only thing that I think could be changed about the deck is what I would deem a metagame call. I would increase the Zoroark line by a 1-1 and drop the Donphan line by 1-1. I just don’t see Magnezone coming up during Battle Roads and I see Reshiphlosion or Tyram coming up to be the MPDIF (most played deck in the format) and Zoroark is a major counter to it.

However, if more people end up running Stage 1 Rush, you may need to keep the lines the way they are and find a way to squeeze in Basculin #24 because of his ability to hit Donphan.

Other Musings

The other decks that I would like to talk about, such as Vileplume and Gothitelle, really don’t fit the format of this article, mainly because they already are prepared to take on the decks above and don’t need any major modifications. They were made for/in a Pokemon Catcher format and that’s what their main job is.

As for ZPS, it’s been talked about by more people that have much more experience with the deck than I do, and they have done really good with their analysis on the deck. As for Magneboar, the only thing I’d want to change is finding a way to squeeze in Pokemon Catcher to the Worlds’ list, but it seems solid enough for this format otherwise.

However, what I do want to talk about is the lack of rogues coming out. We had one big one take the scene at Worlds, and that’s all that’s really been put out there and receiving hype. What I want all of us to do, unless you’re going to Battle Roads to gain points for Worlds already, is to start coming up with new deck concepts, or pick up some that have already been thrown around and make them awesome.

magneto1992 once suggested to me running a Tyranitar Prime deck with Electrode Prime for energy acceleration and increasing your Twins engine. Throwing in a Serperior or Reuniclus would help this deck take large amounts of damage without worrying about losing your main attacker.

Another idea is to use what my brother is attempting to make, which is combining Roserade, Mew Prime, and Leafeon to inflict damage based on the status conditions on the opponent’s Pokemon. Mew provides the free retreat cost and dumping a Muk into the Lost Zone increases disruption even more. It’s a little slow, but I think it could grow into an amazing deck.

I’m currently toying with a Kingdra/Cinccino/Weavile/Zoroark deck that I don’t exactly have a decklist for, but it’s an idea that I think could become very good. I know that we haven’t had a very large card pool, and Emerging Powers didn’t help that fact, but there are enough decent cards out right now that I bet someone could (and someone already has) make the next deck to take on the current BDIF and win.

Conclusion

What I hope you go from this article is that your deck will probably need to add Twins, Switch, and keep your Supporter lines thick because a Trainer lock format could be blowing in soon. These small modifications should allow your deck to both play from behind and be able to take on the trainer lock more securely than before.

With that, I wish you luck at Battle Roads. I may or may not be going, depending on how ready I feel for my midterms which are coming up really soon, and quite early. Play well, win, but most importantly, have fun.

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  • Anonymous

    Sorry, but had to downvote this one.  Here’s why:

    3 Water energies in Yanmega/Zone?  No jirachi OR pachi? Are you kidding me?!?
    There’s “making your own spin on things” but this is a bit much.

    Also, I was expecting at least some dicussion after you brought up the topic of rogues, and was left sadly dissapointed when you told US to find rogues, not that you had any ideas (save for Kingdra/Cinccino/Weavile/Zoroar, which should have gotten a paragraph at least explaining the mentality behind it)

    • http://twitter.com/AzZ0na Josh

      “making your own spin on things” – that means making a crappy list right???

      • Anonymous

        “making your own spin on things” would be a unique tech, or perhaps a separate playstyle of the deck.  For Yanmega/Zone such things have included:
        ~Fire counters (kingdra non-prime, Samurott, Gyarados, etc)
        ~Absol Prime
        ~Jirachi vs Pachi
        ~Shaymin/zekrom tech
        ~Smeargle tech
        ~Rescue energy

    • Anonymous

      Okay, as I believe I have stated in other places, I have learned not to judge a list until I have see it perform. In this instance, I have piloted the deck myself and I have found that it has worked. I have found Jirachi too tricky for me to play, which is mainly because of my luck, and this list has given me a lot of success. Don’t judge until you play it.

      And sorry for not expanding only idea, but it was 2:45am when I was finishing up this article for you guys and I needed to get to sleep. When I have more time, I will probably write a full article about it.

      Thank you for writing why you downvoted the article, but I do not believe your first point is valid.

      • Anonymous

        I’m not sure if you’re a forums-goer as well, but if you are, I’d like to remind you of the “miss flower” incident.  I play one or two rounds at the minimum with a deck before i downvote or criticize it.  I logged 5 or so matches with it in redshark, and I found it underperformed when matched up against anything not named “donphan” or “mew”

        You have only 5 cards in your deck that can provide lightning energy.  Because of that, in testing, I often missed an energy drop, or could not attack with magnezone that turn.  In addition, when I did have the lightning energy, I was forced to burn my extras because I had no other energy to burn.  10 energy means at maximum, 500 damage.  Even assuming we lost burn every single energy, that makes:
        500 -reshiram kill (150)
        350-reshiram kill (150)
        200-reshiram kill (150)
        50 damage left.
        3 reshirams, out of energy

        Even assuming we use spray splash” to deal 100 damage, that’s still only 4 reshiram kills you can manage, and that once again assumes we NEVER get knocked out with energy attached in any way shape or form.

        This makes your tyram and reshiboar matchups even worse than they are with the classic build.  I’ll grant you that adding in water energy and 2-1-2 kingdra makes Donphan a much easier matchup, but I’m still forced to conclude that you probably did not play a true gauntlet of the rest of the format when testing your personal list.  Which is to be expected, as there wasn’t a very defined metagame before nats this year.

      • Anonymous

        magnezone doesn’t always have to attack for you. You still can use yanmega because if you attack with magnezone all the time what is the point of putting in yanmega. You would put in emboar instead of yanmega if magnezone was your only attacker. 

      • Anonymous

        Two things.  One, no need to necro old threads, this is a month old.

        Secondly, I’m well aware of the workings of yanmega/zone, i’ve been playing it since regionals LAST year.  MY point stands that ten energy, 5 of which are non lightning, puts one at a serious disadvantage.  Against decks like tyram, one needs t be able to ohko several typhlosions and then move on to reshirams.  Ten energy and a lack of a way to accelerate that energy is not nearly enough. 

    • Anonymous

      I understand your point here (Uh oh, here I come), but not every single list can be accurate in a tournament-preparing article. The reason people post one deck list in an article is because it is a deck that they can go to a small tournament and easily expect to win with, but when people post 3 or more decklists in the same article, usually they’re only about 60-80% on average.

  • http://twitter.com/KOSHININGU Shining Yue

    i’m curious, why the tornadus in tyram?

    • Adam Bigott

      Donphan and Beartic, both of which will see good amounts of play at BRs, give Reshiram trouble. Donphan is fast and will take the lead early against Reshi and requires 2 plus powers to get those oh so important OHKOs. Beartic takes advantage of Reshiram’s 2 retreat cost and hits for weakness. Tornadus is good in Reshiram because it slows down donphan and can also give you a cheaper retreat cost pokemon to deal with pesky Beartic. Since the deck is in a panic to get out typhlosions, having your back up attacker being a basic makes these matchups more favorable.

      • http://twitter.com/AzZ0na Josh

        since when does Tyram worry about donphan??? and Beartic? ROFL copter -___-

      • Bilbo Bagins of the Shire

        Donphan decks are starting to Include Max Potions, while others already have Blissey Prime tech’d in. If you don’t OHKO it, then they will heal off all the damage, making your turn a complete waste….

        Then again, Tornadus also doesn’t OHKO it, so that arguement for Tornadus in to help becomes less helpful..

        My friend is testing TyRam with a Lanturn Prime tech to take care of Donphan. I used to use Lanturn Prime in my Emboar deck, and that had great results, so I am sure it could be of use to tech into a TyRam deck. Have to check to see his trainer/energy count, but since Lanturn is in (2-2) then Ninetails is replaced by it.

        EDIT: yes this does leave you vulnerable to a counter KO next turn, but its better than taking 3 turns with 2+ more pokemon to knock out one donphan..

      • Anonymous

        since when is Tornadus the answer?

      • http://twitter.com/KOSHININGU Shining Yue

         Well I can’t really agree on that, Donphan sure teds to need 2 hits, but it can’t ohko you neither. And I wouldnt worry for beartic, even with trainerlock, 2 retreast cost isnt a big deal if you can afterburn twice a turn. I dont think beartic will see much play either.

        Things said, I agree with the exclusion of Ninetales. I’m playing tyram since the rotation and cutting Ninetales off was the first thing I did after catcher release, the setup isnt slower at all. The second thing I did was adding 3 Twins.

      • Adam Bigott

        Right but it doesn’t need to ohko you. Donphan based decks will probably be up on prizes. If you exchange prizes at the same rate as your opponent, then you will lose. Hitting a double plus power is not a reliable way to take them out, so using a quick basic like tornadus that can take 3 eqs and kill in 2 is not a bad idea.

      • Anonymous

        I don’t see why Tornadus helps this, because, as Bilbo Bagins of the Shire pointed out, Donphan players use Max Potion. And Switch. And SSU. So you really can’t count on killing Donphan unless you do it in one hit.

  • Anonymous

    The Yanmega/Magnezone decklist is pretty awful,2 Magneton and only 5 lightning energies with no pachirisu but 2-1-2 Kingdra Prime?
    I don’t see that decklist a lot of future.

    • http://twitter.com/mngf87 Martin Garcia

      actually pachirisu is not a must in yanmega/magnezone, neither is jiirachi by the way.
      The second magneton is solid will al the trainerlock hype, so i cant agree with you there.
      The funny thing is the lists have far worse mistakes than those, and almost nobody is pointing them out, like 3 water energies, not having 4 communication or junk arm, only 3 magnemite, and the unnecessary second seadra.

      • Anonymous

        Ummm… The decklist DOES have 4 Communication and 4 Junk Arm.  I like running the 3 Water Energies, as I have explained above, though I do like your idea of having a fourth Magnemite instead of the second Seadra.  I may take you up on that.

        Also, my caps are meant to be italics, but I don’t know how to do that.

        EDIT: My original list. I modified it for the trainer locks that I know are going to be coming, where I don’t want to be stuck with all of those trainers in my hand.

  • Anonymous

    It’s a really good concept for an article, and the comedy intro was well done.

    That’s enough to get it a Like from me. I don’t read these articles for the deck lists, so unless they are violently wrong, I don’t really care.

  • Anonymous

    I liked this one.  Simple as that.  Good lists or not.  I was really had by the musings, which spawned musings of my own and now I’ve fixed a deck … and THAT is the point.

    • Anonymous

      Thank you for posting this.

  • Aaron Minjoot

    I’m curious to know your take on Reshiboar. I know many will say post-Catcher, the big-red-dancing-boar is a huge liability, but it has quite favorable match-ups against the MPDIF, TyRam, and didn’t need much change apart from adding Switches since EP came out. I run a list with no Ninetales from the start, with high Supporter counts for hand refresh, hence my query.

    Your article is a nice refresher for those not realizing the impact of EP, a thumbs up from me. Hopefully, I might come out with an article for a post-Catcher Reshiboar, even with all the direct NO its been getting. It’s been my favorite deck so far, with Mismagius-Vileplume-Slowking my other liking.

    • Anonymous

      Hmmm… I would like to see that list, but honestly need to test more.  The problem with Reshiboar is that, in my opinion, it works very well against Tyram because of the speed, but it works poorly against the rest of the field because of the bad support Pokemon.  Also, recovering energy is difficult, especially if we get an up-swing of trainerlock decks in the format.  However, if it’s working for you, go for it.

      And I am now intrigued by your Mismagius/Vileplume/Slowking.  Controlling top-decks and doing Poltergeist damage sounds like a lot of fun and I would love to see a list.  I may need to write an article on possible rogues for this format, even with the limited card pool.

      • Aaron Minjoot

        I’m hoping to test my list a bit more, I have yet to pit it against many other top tier decks lately (only tested against a Mewbox-Mismagius a few weeks ago, where it did badly). TrainerLock is evil against Reshiboar, huge retreat, no Switch and Catcher (if its a Gothi Lock) = bad bad news. I don’t use RDL, nor Ninetales, just purely Reshirams and Boars, with some techs like Bouffalant 

        Thanks for your positive feedback. I’m hoping that Lock deck can be a good rogue, will put more time into it once I get my Reshiboar fine tuned. Might do a write up for it soon.Hit me up on PM if you want some insight. :)

  • Anonymous

    Is it really because of the weird deck list or people just love to bash articles these days?

    at least the intro was fun.

  • Tom Filbey

    Alright this is my first post so cut me some slack if I make a few typos or anything small!

    Alright! I’m going to get right down to it, half these deck lists suck. The only one I can almost agree with is stage 1 rush, but there are major flaws in all these deck lists.

    Megazone:
    Alright so I almost fell out of my chair laughing at this list;not really but it lightly states what I think of this horrid deck list. Having two stage twos in a deck is just unthinkable anymore. With catcher out, either will auto get sniped down, that’s not even taking into effect yanmega. I play Mega-Dondra and I must say it’s almost imposibble to get kindra out because he is sniped off as a horsea or catchered up and caught there. Plus with tyram, Magneboar, etc…kingdra does AT most 50 damage to a FIRE pokemon. With this saying, it is almost laughable to have this tech in Megazone, just put in plus powers to add consistency. I mean..Magnezone can easily hit for 150.

    Okay now onto why you have almost zero energy in this deck. I really don’t understand. Are you going to be attacking with yanmega the whole time? What about fighting donphan(flowerguard = kingdra useless)?what about fighting zekradonk? I could go on and on but I won’t but what I am mainly saying is that you need to focus yanmega + magnezone. I know a VERY experienced player who has played this deck and he went straight magnezone + yanmega. Now you might say, “OH! You haven’t tried, you don’t know!” but yes i have seen it and played against it. Kingdra was played in it, my friend and I decided it destroyed consistency of the deck.

    Consistency issues: take out twins, it destroys the consistancy of this deck, I know I state in the next paragraph. Out of all honesty, you should be getting turn two OHKO with yanmega. If not you should be close. Also take out a catcher, with the amount of Junk Arms, you only need two. Also you need PONTS because what if your opponent has zero cards, i surely wouldn’t want to judge or copy it, haha!

    Lastly, this deck NEEDS a pachirisu just to slap down to energy and exploding doing 50-150 when your opponent didn’t even see it coming. Pachi is an AMAZING tech in this deck, taking it out is like saying you don’t need energy to attack.

    Tyram:
    Now I agree with a lot of this deck accept for a couple consistency issues and techs.

    Alright so first off I do not agree with tornadus, tyrogue, cleffa or zekrom. These are not needed in the deck. To come anywhere near OHKOing a reshiram with a donphan, you need 3 energy. Do you know how hard this is to get? I play Mega-Dondra, as I stated before, and I usually tech it up with Yanmega while I power up donphan, and usually that only gets me at MOST two KOs. After that donphan is out, you’re opponent is pretty much out of a high hitter. Zekrom, I thought about this but I never put it in. Reshiram can easy OHKO kingdra, yanmega, beartic(not even weak), and so on. Tyrogue is a bad idea, it offers and EASY prize for any deck. Yeah sure it might be cleffa donk but now a days any good player won’t get tyrogue donked.

    I am going to have cleffa in it’s in special section because I understand it is a HIGHLY debated tech. It works better in some decks then others, I understand, I use it in Mega-Dondra, but in this deck, I say take it out. You may ask why? Wel i’m going to tell you. It offers an easy prize, can slow you down by staying asleep(I wouldn’t want to use a switch), and you DON’T need an energy to use it. YES I said don’t. The reason i say this is because you NEED a way to get energy in the discard earlier(yeah yeah not hard with junk arm). So I suggest MANAPHY. Yes, I said it, BECAUSE it is a much harder prize to take then cleffa and the only drawback is that you draw one card less. Oh but it takes an energy! Yes, this is a good thing, if it does in fact get taken out, you have an energy in the discard pile. Now you’re set up to charge up those reshirams! I am a big supporter of Manaphy because I DO play tyram, I plan on taking it to battleroads because it is disgustingly good and sooo easy to play but also the reasons why I stated before.

    Now for the trainers/supporters. I really do not believe sage’s training is as good anymore, yes I was a HUGE supporter of sage’s but now I am leaning towards JUNIPER. I was playing against a tyram player and he Junipered away TWO typhlosions turn one. He still one. He has 4 in the deck just as this deck list does. Juniper GREATLY increases consistency of this deck. Plus you can more easily throw some fire energy into the deck. Alright so now I turn my attention towards Engineer’s Adjustment. I pretty much think this is a NEED in this deck because ninetails is now out. If you have NO way to get a fire energy in the discard pile, this is a back up to get fire in there. Plus you draw FOUR cards, this is almost as much as cleffa and manaphy get you. I would suggest you take out twins for either Junipers or Engineer’s, twin’s ruins consistency and it blatantly states that you have a chance to lose. I’ve tried to play twins, but I believe it belongs in trainer lock decks ONLY. I mean come on, you have ONE, what is that going to do? To make some room I suggest running only 3 communications, this deck has so much hand refresh and is SUPER consistent with junk arm, pokemon collector, 4-2-4 typhlosion, and 4 reshiram. I also suggest trying to fit in two revive for consistency and encase one is prized.

    Now the energy is almost right on, but I suggest run 11 fire, 2 DCE, mainly for the reason to donk. Your opponent has cleffa? Reshiram + plus power + DCE. Haha yes I agree this is really hard to get but it also has another benefit….what’s the retreat cost of any of your pokemon in this deck?

    Stage 1 rush:
    While writing this response, I looked over this list again and I believe it to be very well made. I really do not have much to say about it. So i am sorry for calling this list out. All i can suggest with this is to mess around with the energy line. Maybe run 5 fighting, zekrom(for yanmega counter), and an energy retrieval.

    Twins:
    I am going to address this by itself because I think you are just completely out of your mind if you think this belongs in any deck outside lock decks.

    Alright so twins looks like a great card, it seems like an amazing tech against lock decks, it grabs two cards out of your deck. These are all true but here is my insight.

    lock decks are not going to slide into format anytime soon. The ONLY, ONLY, lock deck I can see doing GREAT is flower guard. I have played against flower guard and this deck is crazy good. Now for beartic and Gothitel: I have played beartic-vileplume, it is not that great. Yeah sure it get’s the lock down really fast but it is easy to take out. One beartic is dead, and you need to be ready with another which is hard with a 3 energy attack cost. I have also played a deck called “Badnews bears” (ursaring, beartic, vileplume) and I must say this was a very good rouge deck, but I can honestly tell you I am not worried about it locking me down to the point where I’m going to lose. Now with Gothitel, eh, I haven’t played it but I have heard it isn’t the greatest deck and still needs some work. i would LIKE to see a good varient. But in saying all of this, I honestly think an extra PONT, Juniper, Sage’s, Engineers, Judge, or Copy cat will be infinitely better BECAUSE it get’s those trainers out of your hand/out of your deck so you’re opponent cannot copycat your hand and start winning. With the consistency of the decks now, if you just use any OTHER supporter, you will be fine.

    Please respond if anything is unclear.

    • Anonymous

      I agree with some of the reasonings behind some of your decisions, like your argument for replacing Sage’s with Juniper and replacing Cleffa with Manaphy for Tyram.  I quite enjoy my PERSONAL list for MegaZone, so please stop insulting it.  If it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work for you.  I’m interested in seeing what your Mega-Dondra looks like because it seems like a very reasonable deck to play, though I am concerned a bit with the Earthquake damage and what that can do throughout the game to your team, although I suppose Max Potion will help. Though I am concerned about the sniping that can occur to your damaged benched Pokemon.

      I do disagree with your idea on Twins because the World Championship Magneboar deck used Twins in its list, and it wasn’t a lock deck.  The card helps you if you lose the coin flip or fall behind on prizes, making the game a little more fair and allowing for come from behind wins with any deck.

      • Tom Filbey

        I was just giving my personal experience with MegaZone, it just seems to clunky to work, well that is in MY area. If that deck were here, it’d get crushed. Sorry if I made some rude comments, I just STRONGLY disagree, but HEY if it works for you it works for you. I am always up for someone running a deck they can play.

        I agree, I was also worried about the earthquake effect on my bench, but I never really feel an effect from it because you have to play it at right points or to get crucial prizes. I use donphan in cases I need it. I played dondra last format too so I’ve been playing it for a VERY long time and know how to use earthquake, like to take out a Luxchomp or magnezone ;). I’ve juggled the idea of max potion but I haven’t been able to fit into my deck yet. It’s a very good deck and I’ve beat almost every deck i’ve come across…except my friends are starting to tech against it haha! So i can say i’ve succesfully beat tyram, Megazone, and zekradonk at least 75% of the time. I must admit though…my friend who plays tyram has figured out how to beat me >.< You will see it in the future I believe, my friend is actually going to be making an article on my region (nebraska) and the metagame here. going through all the decklists here. But if you would like to see it ahead of time i can always private message you about it.

        Although twins was in the championship deck, that doesn't mean its the thing to go with. I mean these guy's are EXTREMELY skilled at playing and maybe it works for them. I just don't see any case at where to use it because if I am losing, I am going to lose unless my opponent makes a mistake. I don't play twins because it's a card you can use 50% of the time. I like cards you can use ALL the time. Yeah I can say you will need to come back if you lose the coin flip but I honestly cannot say if you only run ONE twins, that the likelihood of it popping up and being able to use it will be very likely.

      • http://twitter.com/GTP24 Poteet24

        twins (specifically in tyram) is really good.  one may not be enough…

      • Tom Filbey

        Why is it good in tyram? I play my own version of tyram and also my friend plays a version of tyram and I haven’t seen a case where I need it. I really cannot see any plausible situation in which tyram would be down a prize. If it is, it’s because of a bad starting hand, judge, or some other unthinkable reason. To be consistent with twins and to get the right chances you will need about 3 twins and be down a prize, the likely hood for this to happen in tyram is very unlikely unless you’re facing zekradonk. Running a 2/3 twins and having them in your hand alongside being down a prize is very unlikely. I would rather have some sort of hand refresh or draw engine.

    • Anonymous

      ok, what is Mega-Dondra? That sounds really wierd.

  • Anonymous

    Guys, stop downvoting these things just because of a mistake in a decklist. First of all, why does it matter? If the article is teaching you about the ins and outs of zekrom (for instance), why does the skeleton list matter? Is it really fair to downvote an article based solely on the fact that they included a decklist that you did not agree on?

    • http://adamcap.com/ Adam Capriola

      Amen brother.

    • Anonymous

      yah its mean.