How to Prepare for Nationals + 10 Decks to Watch Out For

Hi everyone! Today I’m going to be talking about preparing for Nationals, and showing you some skeletons and explanations of some of the predicted top decks.

Preparing for Nationals

1. Starting testing HS-ON decks now. You’re going to want as much knowledge of the decks to expect as you can get. Right now if you hadn’t started testing and finally went hard-core around two weeks from the day of the event, do you think you would have near as much knowledge of the playing field as you would if you started now? If you can start now you’ll be much better off than waiting to the last minute to fix things up.

2. Have some rough idea of what you want to play. Right now I’m liking MagneBoar, and that’s what I’m going to play more. If you don’t have somewhat of an idea, you’re going to be left with two weeks left scrambling and under the stress of choosing your deck. Last year I wanted to play Jumpluff, and for my last Battle Road I took Jumpluff to test it out. I went 6-1 at the Battle Road and won the tournament. Coming prepared will help.

3. Know where you’re going to stay. Make reservations now. I’ve heard a lot of people complaining of forums about how they can’t find a room in a hotel. If you can reserve a room now, you’ll be much better off than being at the tournament site begging people if you can stay in their room.

4. Know what other people are playing. Browse around on the forums such as PokeBeach of PokeGym or even the SixPrizes forums. Look in the deck garages and see what people say they are playing for Nationals. This will help you get a feel for what the format is going to look like, and show you what to test against.

5. On the night before the event, don’t stay up too late. I know you’ll have to test a lot, but you need your rest. You can still play plenty of games, but you’re going to want 8-10+ hours of sleep. I know this might not be the way you roll, be this is how I do it.

I hope these tips help you have an enjoyable and fun time at Nationals!

Deck Lists and Explanations

1. Magnezone/Emboar

What?

A lot of people are hyping this new deck. MagneBoar is very fast and consistent. It sometimes can have a few bad starts though. MagneBoar uses Magnezone Prime for its Magnetic Draw Poke-Power and its amazing attack Lost Burn.

Using Emboar’s Inferno Fandango, you can attach as many Fire Energies as you want to your Pokemon in your turn. You can attach Energies to your Magnezone and then Lost Burn them off to do tons of damage. Some builds play a 1/1 or 2/2 line of Rayquaza & Deoxys Legend aka RDL.

RDL’s attack Ozone Buster is broken. It does 150 damage for two Fire Energies, a Lightning, and a Colorless. Once you attack you discard all Fire Energies from RDL. Now at first sight this may seem very bad, bur RDL has a Poke-Body that says when you knock out one of your opponents Pokemon, draw two Prizes. Broken.

If you have two Lightnings attached to your RDL and two Fires, you can discard the Fires and get basically two Prizes every time. 150 knocks out almost every Pokemon in the game in one shot.

Why?

MagneBoar is fast, fun, and pretty consistent. I think it would be great choice for Nationals.

Magnezone / Emboar Skeleton – 49 cards (11 open spots)

Pokemon – 17 3 Cleffa HS/CL 2 Magnemite TM 2 Magneton TM 2 Magnezone Prime TM 2 Tepig Promo 2 Pignite BW #17 2 Emboar BW #20 1-1 Rayquaza & Deoxys Legend UD

Trainers – 18 3 Pokemon Collector 2 Judge 2 Professor Oak’s New Theory 4 Rare Candy 3 Pokemon Communication 2 Energy Retrieval 2 Junk Arm

Energy – 14 9 Fire 5 Lightning

2. Reshiram / Emboar

What?

Reshiboar is a more consistent version of MagneBoar, but it gives up the late game. You’ll start off very fast hitting 120 every turn with Reshiram, until you either run out of energy, or they KO your Reshiram and you can’t recover. I think that MagneBoar has a better late game with RDL, but it’s up to preference.

Why?

I think that ReshiBoar is a pretty good choice for Nationals. It has a very good early game, and if they can’t set up quickly, they’ll lose.

Reshiram / Emboar Skeleton – 53 cards (7 open spots)

Pokemon – 16 4 Reshiram BW 2 Tepig Promo 1 Pignite BW #17 2 Emboar BW #20 2 Vulpix UL 2 Ninetales HS/CL 3 Stantler UL

Trainers – 21 4 Pokemon Collector 3 Pokemon Communication 3 Junk Arm 2 Energy Retrival 2 Rare Candy 2 Interviewer’s Questions 2 Professor Oak’s New Theory 3 Fisherman

Energy – 16 14 Fire 2 Double Colorless

3. Donphan / Yanmega

What?

Donphan / Yanmega is a fun disruption deck. You can disrupt your opponent by playing Judges. You can give them bad hands, and then control their top decks by using Slowking HS/CL. In the early game you set up a quick Yanmega Prime and Slowking.

You can start Judging, and after you Judge, control their top decks by using Second Sight. In doing this you can slow their set up down a ton, and now you can start setting up a Donphan to KO their Pokemon after they finally set them up,

Why?

It can ruin your opponents hand and give them bad draws. It could be the new SableLock.

Donphan / Yanmega Skeleton – 54 cards (6 open spots)

Pokemon – 19 2 Phanpy CL 2 Phanpy HS 4 Donphan Prime HS 4 Yanma TM 4 Yanmega Prime TM 3 Smeargle

Trainers – 25 4 Copycat 4 Judge 3 Pokemon Collector 3 Pokemon Communication 3 Junk Arm 3 Switch 2 Pokemon Reversal 3 Super Scoop Up

Energy – 10 7 Fighting 3 Rescue

4. Kingdra / Mandibuzz

What?

KingBuzz is a spread and snipe deck. You spread damage by using Kingda’s Spray Splash, and then you snipe the Pokemon you did it to with Mandibuzz. It’s a very effective combo. The only decks it has bad matchups against are Zekrom and MagneBoar.

Why?

It’s consistent and fun to play. Many people will be running some kind of Baby Pokemon such as Tyrogue, Cleffa, Elekid, ect. it will be very easy to KO these thirty HP Pokemon when you can snipe them for sixty which is an OHKO.

Kingdra / Mandibuzz Skeleton – 51 cards (9 open spots)

Pokemon – 21 3 Vullaby BW 3 Mandibuzz BW 4 Horsea UL 3 Seadra UL 4 Kindgra Prime UL 2 Zorua BW 2 Zoroark BW

Trainers – 27 4 Pokemon Collector 4 Rare Candy 3 Pokemon Communication 3 PlusPower 3 Junk Arm

Energy – 13 4 Darkness (Special) 3 Darkness (Basic) 3 Water 3 Double Colorless

5. Zekrom

What?

In my opinion Zekrom isn’t up to par because it loses to Donphan so much, but it was suggested to me that I add it to this article. Zekrom utilizes Shaymin UL, and Pachirisu CL.

First you play a Pachirisu and do Self-Generation and attach two Lightning energies to Pachi, now you can use Shaymin’s Celebration Wind and move those Energies to your Zekrom.

Why?

It’s a Basic and has a very good attack. It can OHKO a lot of things and beats two very good decks; Blastoise / Floatzel, and Kingdra / Mandibuzz. It also fairs fine against other decks.

Zekrom Skeleton – 50 cards (10 open spots)

Pokemon – 14 4 Zekrom BW 4 Elekid TM/Cleffa HS/CL/Other starter 3 Pachirisu CL 3 Shaymin UL

Trainers – 22 4 Pokemon Collector 3 Dual Ball 2 Energy Retrieval 4 Super Scoop Up 2 Seeker 3 Junk Arm 2 Professor Oak’s New Theory 2 Interviewer’s Questions

Energy – 14 12 Lightning 2 Double Colorless

6. Blastoise / Floatzel

What?

Blastoise / Floatzel is a deck where Floatzel uses its Aqua Acceleration to attach a Water Energy to Floatzel, and
then you Blastoise – Wash Out. Wash Out lets you move a Water from one of your Pokemon to Blastoise. You can move the attached Energy to Floatzel to Blastoise.

Why?

It’s consistent, easy to play, and can disrupt your opponent badly by KOing their Pokemon before they evolve. I think it would be a very good choice for Nationals if you teched in some kind of Zekrom counter; Throh, Donphan, ect.

Blastoise / Floatzel Skeleton – 54 cards (6 open spots)

Pokemon – 19 3 Cleffa HS/CL 3 Buizel UL 3 Floatzel UL 4 Squirtle UL 2 Wartortle UL 4 Blastoise UL

Trainers – 21 4 Pokemon Collector 4 Pokemon Communication 2 Professor Oak’s New Theory 2 Copycat 3 Rare Candy 3 Switch 2 Energy Retrieval 1 Junk Arm

Energy – 14 10 Water 4 Double Colorless

7. Steelix

What?

Steelix is a tank deck where you set up a Steelix, and then go ahead wreaking your opponent with heavy attacks. It’s easy to set up because you can use Skarmory to attach Special Metals to Steelix. Scizor is a nice partner to back up Steelix when it gets KOed.

Why?

I think it’s a ligit contender for the Nationals playing field. It may be a tad slow though. I think if you have a build where you can set it up early enough, then it’s a good choice for Nationals.

Steelix Skeleton – 50 cards (10 open spots)

Pokemon – 16 4 Onix UL 4 Steelix Prime UL 4 Skarmory UL/CL 2 Scyther UL 2 Scizor Prime UL

Trainers – 20 4 Pokemon Collector 2 Twins 4 Pokemon Communication 2 Energy Retrieval 3 PlusPower 3 Potion 2 Pokemon Reversal

Energy – 14 6 Meta (Basic) 4 Metal (Special) 4 Double Colorless

8. Scizor

What?

Scizor is faster than Steelix if you play it with Electrode. You can set up a ton of Energies on your Scizor when you use Electrode’s Energymite. Now that your Electrode is KOed, you can use Twins to set up even faster! Once you start tanking with all those Special Metals, you’ll be off to an early lead and have a nice chance at the game.

Why?

It’s fast, and relatively an easy deck to play. It can start rolling early, and once you start tanking, it’s hard to knock out.

Scizor Skeleton – 55 cards (5 open spots)

Pokemon – 16 4 Skarmory UD/CL 4 Scyther UD #65 4 Scizor Prime UD 2 Voltorb TM 2 Electrode Prime TM 1 Cleffa CL 1 Shaymin UL

Trainers – 26 3 Pokemon Collector 3 Twins 3 Pokemon Communication 4 Super Scoop Up 4 PlusPower 3 Switch 3 Junk Arm 2 Dual Ball

Energy – 13 7 Metal (Basic) 4 Metal (Special) 2 Rescue

9. Tyranitar

What?

Tyranitar is a tank deck with very high damage output. Tyranitar can be paired with Serperior to continuously heal and tank even more. Tyranitar can also be played with Mandibuzz to use Darkness Howl and then snipe the bench with Mandibuzz.

T-Tar’s Megaton Tail can deal some heavy damage and you’ll be taking the early lead. Tyranitar has a whopping 160 HP and can be hard to KO, and even more so when paired with Sperperior.

Why?

If you want to play a good tank deck, here’s where it’s at. Tyranitar has good match ups all around, except for Donphan, and has great attacks to lighten any deck.

Tyranitar Skeleton – 55 cards (5 open spots)

Pokemon – 23 2 Zorua BW 2 Zoroark BW 4 Larvitar UL #51 3 Pupitar UL #39 4 Tyranitar Prime UL 2 Snivy BW #1 1 Servine BW #3 2 Serperior BW #6 1 Smeargle UD/CL

Trainers – 18 4 Rare Candy 3 Pokemon Communication 4 Pokemon Collector 2 Professor Juniper 2 Twins 2 Switch

Energy – 14 4 Double Colorless 4 Darkness (Special) 3 Darkness (Basic) 3 Rainbow

10. Cinccino

What?

Cinncino is fast and fun deck. You swarm out Cinncinos, and then max out Cinncino’s attack by doing 100 damage. 100 for a Double Colorless is amazing. In a slower format this is what might come to bite your back.

I think that Cinccino would be a ton better if you had an ideal way to counter Donphan. Donphan OHKOs Cinccino, so that match up will pretty much be an auto-loss.

Why?

Cinccino can take down other decks pretty easily with its high damage and speediness. It has decent games around the board too.

Cinccino Skeleton – 49 cards (11 open spots)

Pokemon – 20 4 Minccino BW 4 Cinccino BW 3 Zorua BW 3 Zoroark BW 4 Cleffa BW 1 Bouffalant BW 1 Tyrogue HS/CL

Trainers – 19 4 Pokemon Collector 4 Pokemon Communication 4 Super Scoop Up 2 Seeker 2 Dual Ball 3 Junk Arm

Energy – 10 4 Double Colorless 3 Darkness (Special) 3 Rescue

The Best Choice (In my Opinion)

When you look at the match ups, I think that MagneBoar is best overall choice for Nationals. Why? It has great match up all around the board. It’s consistent, it’s very fun, hits very hard, and has very good synergy.

I hope this article has shown some insight on the Nationals format and given you some good Nationals preparing skills. Thanks for reading!