1) The number 1 deck to choose, which to no surprise is LuxChomp.

LuxChomp uses a combo of Luxray GL Lv.X and Garchomp C Lv.X. Luxray GL Lv.X has one of the best Poke Powers in our current format. His Poke Power, Bright Look allows you to switch any of your opponent’s benched Pokemon into the active position when you put Luxray GL Lv.X ontop of Luxray GL. Luxray GL Lv.X’s attack does 60 for 1 Electric Energy and an Energy Gain.

Garchomp C Lv.X also has the Power to take out one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon with his attack Dragon Rush for a Double Colorless Energy and an Energy Gain you can do 80 damage to any of your opponent’s Pokemon in play at the cost of discarding 2 Energy attached to Garchomp C Lv.X. These abilities allow you to disrupt your opponent’s set up to never let them set up or slow their set up by taking out essential Pokemon for their set up.

Techs that should be in the deck:

Bronzong G

Toxicroak G Promo

Crobat G

Lucario GL

Ambipom G

Unown G GE

Possible techs:

Sableye SF

A Mewtwo Counter (Banette PL, Mismagius SF)

Honchkrow G

Dragonite FB

Dragonite FB

Dragonite FB, in my opinion is an extremely overlooked tech. The SP mirror match is extremely rough and it usually comes down to whoever gets the early advantage, Dragonite FB’s attack, Mach Blow for a Double Colorless Energy and an Energy Gain does 20 damage, but if the defending Pokemon is an SP Pokemon it does 80 Damage instead. Dragonite FB can knock out Luxray GL, Garchomp C, Garchomp C Lv.X, Ambipom G, Crobat G and many other Pokemon in one hit.

2) LuxPluff

LuxPluff is an extremely speedy deck which features Jumpluff and Luxray GL. Jumpluff for 1 Energy can use his attack, Mass Attack, which does 10 damage times the number of Pokemon in play, both yours and your opponent’s. This can do between 20-120 damage for 1 energy. Like LuxChomp, LuxPluff focuses on using Luxray GL Lv.X’s Poke Power to bring up your opponent’s key Pokemon and knock them out with Jumpluff.

Techs that should be in the deck:

Azelf MT

Mesprit LA

Possible techs:

Regice LA

Chatot MD

3) CurseGar

CurseGar is a slow deck that also slows your opponent down. It features Gengar from Arceus and Spiritomb from Arceus to get a continuous trainer lock on your opponent. Gengar’s attack Shadow Skip allows you to hit your opponent’s active Pokemon for 60 and one of their benched Pokemon for 10 and then switch Gengar with one of your benched Pokemon. You will switch with Spiritomb usually. Spiritomb’s Poke Body blocks off all of both yours and your opponent’s trainers while Spiritomb is the your active Pokemon.

Techs that should be in the deck:

Mewtwo LA & Mewtwo Lv.X (Usually a 2-1 line)

1 or 2 Gengar SF

Gengar Lv.X

Nidoqueen RR

Possible techs:

Mr. Mime MT

Wobbuffet Promo

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The list above is exactly like Chris Fulop’s list besides the absence of Chatot MD in my list.  I substituted Chatot MD for a fourth Rare Candy simply for the fact that it increases your chances of getting a turn 1 Jumpluff.  One of the decks weaknesses is being under a Trainer lock, which is why the deck incorporates multiple ways to get a Spiritomb of your opponents out of the active position.

Jumpluff

The main attacker in the deck.  Jumpluff can hit between 20-120 damage for 1 energy by using Mass Attack.  Jumpluff’s biggest weakness is simply the fact that he has 90 HP and can be knocked out by a lot of the format in 1 hit once they set up.

Luxray GL Lv.X

Luxray GL Lv.X is a perfect partner for Jumpluff because it allows Jumpluff to utilize his speed by bringing up your opponents benched Pokemon they are trying to set up using Luxray GL Lv.X’s Poke Power, Bright Look.  You can use Bright Look when you level up your active Luxray GL to Luxray GL Lv.X, Bright Look lets you pick one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon and switch it with their active. Then you can Poke Turn Luxray GL Lv.X and knock out that Pokemon with Jumpluff to get ahead in prizes early and not let your opponent set up.

Jumpluff has free retreat which makes this combo much more likely to happen.  Luxray GL Lv.X can also pull up another Pokemon to get you out of the Spiritomb lock.

Regice

Regice using his Poke Power, Regi Move allows you to discard two cards from your hand and then your opponent has to switch their active Pokemon if their a basic Pokemon with one of their benched Pokemon.  This is another way to get you out of the Spiritomb lock.

Crobat G

The deck uses Crobat G to add additional damage with his Poke Power, Flash Bite to ensure a knock out.  Flash Bite allows you to place a damage counter on any of your opponents Pokemon when you put Crobat G from your hand onto your bench.  Crobat G is a perfect fit for the deck because you already use Poke Turns for the reuse of Luxray GL Lv.X.

Heavy Claydol Line

Claydol is commonly used in almost any deck, thus I’m not going to go in depth about Claydol.  However, this deck utilizes a heavy Claydol line to get out a Jumpluff on turn 1 as much as possible.  You usually want to have 2 Claydols in play.

There are also some more techs you can use in Jumpluff that are not in my list, the techs you use differ among your meta game.

Azelf MT and Mesprit LA

This tech was used in John Kettler’s Regionals deck.  This tech is great in an SP heavy meta game.  Azelf’s Poke Body increases the cost of attacks for all of your opponents basic Pokemon by 1 if you have Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie in play.  Mesprit’s Poke Power, Psychic Bind locks off your opponents Poke Powers the turn you play Mesprit.

Chatot MD

Chatot MD can simply refresh your hand during a Power lock.  For 0 energy Chatot can use his attack Mimic to shuffle your hand in your deck and draw the same number of cards your opponent has in their hand.  This tech is a great option for a meta game that has a lot of PLox, Palkia Lock, or SP to refresh your hand through a power lock.

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The local metagame thus far has been almost entirely SP dominated, with LuxChomp, BlazeRay, etc. all ruling the roost. Not knowing how to play Machamp, and being an SP player since their introduction, I decided to stick with my old favorite, LuxApe. In hindsight BlazeRay or LuxChomp probably would’ve been the better choice, but I felt far more comfortable with LuxApe, just based on how long I’ve played it and how much I’ve tested with it.

There are 30 players in the Masters Division, which means a T4 cut. Just 2 more and we would’ve ended up with a T8. Sad face.

Anyway…

Round 1: Andrew J w/ Ekans

I got the feeling that this guy was a new player as I didn’t recognize him from any past events, and he was playing an odd deck in no sleeves, heh. He goes first with a lone Ekans GE. He attaches and passes. I draw, start with Infernape 4, attach a Fire Energy and an Energy Gain, and proceed to drop 2 Crobat Gs, and Poke Turn them both, using their Flash Bite Poke-Power a total of 4 times for 40 damage on Ekans. I then use Infernape 4′s Split Bomb attack for 20 damage and the KO. I don’t enjoy winning like that, and it was made all the worse by Andrew being such a great guy. 1-0

Round 2: Chad w/ Scizor/Cherrim

This game was much like the last, unfortunately. He goes first, opening with a lone Cherubi SV to my Infernape 4. He attaches and attacks with Razor Leaf for 10 damage. I draw, attach a Fire Energy and an Energy Gain to Infernape 4, drop 2 Crobat Gs for a total of 20 damage, and then Split Bomb again for the K.O. and win. 2-0

Round 3: Jim w/ SP Toolbox

As any experienced SP player knows, SP mirror matches can be very difficult, so suffice to say I wasn’t exactly looking forward to this one. I forget exactly who went first or second, but the game was fairly close up until Jim played Regigigas FB and uses it’s Rainbow Lariat attack to swing for 120 damage every turn, essentially killing everything I had. 2-1

Round 4: Jerrod w/ Scizor/Cherrim

At this point I’m beginning to think that I am incredibly lucky and there is no way I can win at this game without donking. Much like the other games, he opens with a Grass that’s weak to Fire,  does some stuff, and then I Flash Bite and Split Bomb for the win. I am terrible at this game. 3-1

Round 5: Ashley C. w/ Gengar

Oh look I’m playing my fiance. Better yet, this match will determine which of us makes the cut and which of us doesn’t, heh. This is a very long game and I don’t remember exactly all of the details, all I know is that I had to K.O. her Mewtwo Lv. X on 3 occasions, and that’s what really sealed the game. Still, it was pretty competitive, with her a prize ahead when time was called. I was happy that the better player won, and that B-Side had at least some representation in the top cut.

All in all I ended up getting 8th, which makes me even more bitter there wasn’t a T8,  haha. Still, I had fun with friends and teammates and thought that I played to the best of my ability, and that’s really what the game is about, right?

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I decided to use Palkia Lock w/Luxray, because it was a deck I definately felt comfortable with it and it’s adaptability to the different scenarios that come up during a game and knew I could outplay a lot of my opponent’s solely based on their misplays against such a complex deck. Another huge factor is the natural inconsistency in a lot of decks, relying heavily on Claydol GE and Uxie LA to get going, and negating either or both can be a huge edge over your opponent. With all this in mind I chose Palkia Lock w/Luxray and here is the list I used at the tournament:

Round 1 vs Shuppet DONK

I went first and saw a Shuppet, so I knew early game is crucial to survive the onslaught of damage. Fortunately for me I started with a Palkia G and a Call Energy in hand going first. I got a bit set up and went down 3 prizes to 6 but after that, the Azelf MT came into play and him needing to attach 2 energy’s to Shuppet made it clear Luxray bait. Azelf MT coupled with well timed Mesprit’s and Spray’s handed me the match. 1-0

Round 2 vs Blastoise / Delcatty

An early Luxray KO on his Baltoy sealed the game as he was left topdecking and his Blastoise, Delcatty and Metang followed soon after that. He also got no help from “Dig Well” either as he discarded vital Trainers and Pokemon both times he used it. 2-0

Round 3 vs Salamence

I managed to win this game in 4 turns:

• Turn 1: Call Energy with Palkia G for Luxray GL and a 2nd Palkia G.
• Turn 2: Cyrus for a Water Energy, TGI Energy Gain and another Cyrus and KO Bagon.
• Turn 3: Attach to benched Palkia G and KO another Bagon.
• Turn 4: KO the last Pokemon in play (Baltoy) for the game. 3-0

Round 4 vs Machamp / Gengar (current Mexican National Champion)

I had a very nice hand this game, which managed to compensate against his Turn 1 Machamp KO on my active Palkia G. I responded with an Unown G’d Uxie for 50, with the Lv.X in hand. He thankfully rolled 1/4 heads and so I was able to get rid of the Machamp decently early. I blocked a few of his Uxies and his draw eventually died down and he had to rely on topdecking to keep going. I went ahead and was able to grab my last prize against a Machamp with Mismagius and Lucario GL. 4-0

Round 5 vs Flygon / Machamp

I knew it was Flygon because he was sitting next to me the last Round. He got a bad start, and I had a debate between KOing Baltoy or Machop on Turn 2 with Luxray GL Lv.X. I ended up picking Baltoy after planning ahead in case he managed to get out Machamp but turns out he had neither Machamp nor Claydol in his hand and after 4 Turns the game was done. 5-0

Round 6 vs Gengar / Nidoqueen / Ampharos

We were both secured a Top 8 placing but I still wanted to win for the rating points. I started off strong and got ahead, and after his Claydol was down, his deck died down and he conceded when I had 2 prizes left. 6-0

Going 6-0 after a disappointing BR’s run earlier in the season was a pretty nice confidence booster, but seeing the field of the Top 8 against my deck, I knew I was in for a hard time as the Top 8 consisted of the following decks:

• Palkia Lock w/Luxray
• Gengar / Machamp
• Gengar / Machamp
• Flygon / Machamp
• Dialga G / Garchomp C
• Gyarados / Palkia Lv.X
• Blaziken FB / Luxray GL / Garchomp C
• Rampardos

As you can see the field was FAR from favourable for me, and my bracket ended up being the worst one as you will read now.

Top 8 vs Machamp / Gengar (current Mexican National Champion)

Same matchup, same person, and now in a best of 3 scenario which I thought would make it harder for me. Game 1 started off pretty badly for him I believe, and I got up and running and had responses to his threats in the form of Unown G’d Pokemon, Poke Turn + Crobat to avoid Fainting Spell and OHKO’s against the Machamps as he got average flips with Hurricane Punch. Game 2 he got off to a worse start and I was far too ahead for him to cope at the end. 7-0

Top 4 vs Machamp / Gengar

Another one of these, but the games played out the same way as before. Against decks like these is where Palkia Lock truly shines, exploiting a lack of raw draw power aside from Claydol. I had an awkward start but after I kept the Power Lock going he couldn’t cope with it and ended up scooping Game 1. We were only 4 or 5 turns in of Game 2 when time was called and we were still tied at 6 prizes, so I took the game. The scenario at the time was his bench of 5 Basics and his about to be KO’d Claydol against my decent set up, so things were looking bright for me that game as well. 8-0

Top 2 vs Gengar / Nidoqueen / Ampharos

Finally after bad matchups for Top 8 and Top 4, I’m paired against a favourable one. I know as long as I can avoid Fainting Spells I’m good to go against this deck. Game 1 went standard as the others and I was way ahead towards the end and he ended up scooping. Game 2 he started off strong against my first real bad start of the day. He used “Poltergeist” Turn 2 against an Uxie with me holding 4 TSS’s. I had a hard time coping there but I managed to tie the game at 3-3 at one point. Time was then called and I won, but I think if the game had gone on, his lack of Claydol would’ve given me a narrow win in the end. 9-0

And so I finish the tournament truly undefeated, and expecting around 75+ points for this performance in my rating. I started out at 1603.75, pretty much null, so I should’ve won 8 points or better most likely during Swiss, and almost 8 points or so in each of the Top 8 matches.

I feel Palkia Lock is a very strong choice of a deck if Dialga G isn’t showing it’s ugly face around your area (but even Blaziken FB Lv.X could find its way into the deck to deal with it). Early game it has disruptive advantage over every single deck out there and so it can pretty much seal the deal early game. Dealing with enemy Claydol’s has been very important since last season and this deck is one of the best ways to deal with it.

Well I hope you enjoyed reading this, and with Winter break starting on Tuesday, I will hopefully bring you tons more new articles featuring CC reports, deck analysis and other interesting tidbits. Thanks for reading!

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It’s about a pretty new deck that should be seen at some Cities. As you may have realized because of the title, it’s the Gliscor-Spiritomb Lock. The main strategy of this deck is to paralyze your opponent’s active Pokémon with Gliscor Lv.X’s Poké-Power “Shoot Poison” and return it to your hand with the regular Gliscor’s “Burning Poison” attack to do it again and again. You may think you won’t do any actual damage by doing this, but the paralyzing special condition comes along with Poison and “Burning Poison” can Burn your opponent’s active Pokémon.

There are two things that definitely hurt this deck, first being TGI Power Spray or any Power-lock in general. Secondly, Unown G or basically anything that can avoid Special Conditions (Xatu SW, Recover Energy GE). There are some other cards which can be awful for Gliscor/Spiritomb players too; I’m talking about field manipulation cards which either switch out your opponent’s active Pokémon or yours. Cyclone Energy or Warp Energy are two really good examples, there’s nothing you can do against them (except if you tech in Empoleon SF, but it’d be rather slow), so beware of them.

The only thing that comes into my mind what could defeat this is Scizor MD. It hits for 80 damage against Pokémon with any Special Energies attached for just one Metal Energy. Besides that it does really well against one of this decks worst matchups: Plox! They play many Special Energy cards like Call or Upper Energy, plus Scizor has Psychic resistance which is pretty good against Gardevoir because of her already low damage output.

Other annoying cards for Gliscor are Warp Point and Switch, but that’s were this decks techs hit the floor. Spiritomb from the brand new set Platinum: Arceus prevents both players from playing normal Trainer cards, like Switch and Warp Point. Spiritomb’s “Darkness Grace” attack also can help you setup, but he’s mainly there for “Keystone Seal”.

Another nice tech for Gliscor decks are either Palkia Lv.X from Great Encounters or Luxray GL Lv.X from Rising Rivals. Both have the ability to pull in one of your opponent’s benched Pokémon. Also both have their own advantage; while Palkia Lv.X can’t be Power Sprayed, Luxray GL Lv.X can dish out a fair amount of damage for low cost. This is just personal preference, but I like Palkia Lv.X better because it can’t be Sprayed which is really good in case you need to pull in something weak for a prize or even your final prize.

This deck has some good matchups along with a few bad ones. For example against decks like Venusaur, which can’t even be effected by Special Conditions, you’ll fail badly. Also, with really fast decks like SP-Toolbox / Variants, Kingdra, or Gyarados you may have problems, but it depends all on your techs. If you have a Mr.Mime MT in your hand you can easily stall around against them since they don’t need much energy to attack. All in all this is a pretty decent deck and it should do well at some cities.

[Editor's Note: Just in case it is unclear, the combo is that you send Spiritomb out after returning Gliscor to you hand, which prevents your opponent from removing the Paralyze special condition with a card like Switch or Warp Point. You then retreat Spiritomb (for free if you have an Unown Q attached) and Level Up a second Gliscor that was on your Bench from last turn to repeat the process. Your opponent will never be able to attack unless they evolve or play a Cyclone or Warp Energy.]

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So here’s the plan. Because it only takes 1 Fighting Energy, I can keep Mankey in my hand with a Fighting Energy, or get both on my turn with Roseanne’s Research. Once the Darkrai Lv.X is up in the Active position, I can drop Mankey on the Bench and put the Energy on him. Next, play a Switch or retreat for the OHKO. My deck already runs two Switchs and has mostly low cost retreaters. Even if Mankey gets taken out next turn, its a trade off I’m willing to make.

That got me thinking about what other Level Xs the little monkey could take down in one fell swoop. Here’s the list, starting with arguably the most popular Lv.X in the format right now:

Luxray GL Lv.X, Raichu Lv.X, both Electivire Lv.Xs, and Absol G Lv.X. Additionally, Snorlax Lv.X and Porygon Z Lv.X could be OHKOed with Mankey plus a Crobat drop or a Plus Power.

Now while Darkrai is my own local metagame problem, Luxray GL Lv.X is much more widely popular opponent. What do you think, is Mankey SV worth becoming a staple tech in many decks, or is there just too little room for the little guy?

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I had the honour to watch most of his Final match, as it was shown in the big screens while it was going on live. I consider this deck to be the perfect anti-metagame deck one could possibly want for the Worlds metagame.

This deck targets the basic skeleton in which decks are based on. Both Luxray GL Lv.X and Honchkrow G are able to get easy prizes against low HP Basic Pokemon. With these kind of speedy attackers, along with “Flash Bite” from Crobat G, Takuto was able to get ahead in prizes very quickly, along with disrupting his opponent’s energy drops on the Pokemon that got KO’d. This strategy worked particularly well against any Stage 2 decks he came up against, that require a few turns of evolving and powering up their main attackers. Baltoy and anything that had an energy card attached were probably his main targets to slow his opponents down.

To back up this quick attack strategy, he has several responses to the popular cards that were present at Worlds, allowing him to respond accordingly in case his opponents were able to set up a threatening Pokemon.

Opposing Luxray GL Lv.X’s that would threaten Honchkrow G were dealt with by using Toxicroak G Promo. Machamp SF with a combination of Skuntank G + Toxicroak G PL + a Stadium card, or Uxie Lv.X + Lucario GL and his main attackers backed up by an Unown G. Flygon RR was dealt by the inclusion of Ditto LA.

The most troublesome matchups this deck could possibly have, is against other high HP SP Pokemon, such a Luxray GL / Infernape 4 and Palkia Lock decks. Against both of these, Takuto opted to include a 1-1 Mewtwo Lv.X line to help him deal with their high HP, as they weren’t easy low HP targets for Honchkrow G or Luxray GL Lv.X.

I think the only truly significant card that can stand out as missing from the decklist is Bronzong G. That card could make the deck a lot more effective at dealing with Flygon RR, rather than having to wait 3 full turns to power up Ditto LA. Although since every single attack he used during the game requires a single energy after factoring in TGI Energy Gain, it could justify Bronzong G’s exclusion from the deck.

One final thing to note in the list is the use of 3 TGI Power Spray as opposed to 4. I reckon the reason for this is that since he can so easily KO Batloys or even Claydols with his main attackers, using 4 isn’t as necessary as in other SP decks. 3 is the minimum I would play though, as sometimes you might only be able to 2HKO Claydol but want to prevent further set up of your opponent, and you will also want to stop Uxie’s “Set Up” and other Poke-Powers throughout the game.

I’d like to once again congratulate Takuto on such an amazing performance, and I really look forward to using this deck for a few games against our fellow readers in the online League here at SixPrizes.com.

So what do you all think about this deck? Is it effective at tearing down the main skeleton of decks early game? What changes would you make to it to help it deal with potential new Supreme Victors threats? Will this deck be popular during BR’s?

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There are several cards that compliment Honchkrow SV, such as Dusknoir DP and Honchkrow Lv.X. A deck based around these 2 could net quite a few very easy KO’s on Pokemon.

If your opponent tries to fill up their bench to avoid letting you revive a Basic Pokemon, you can use Dusknoir’s “Dark Palm” to make sure you can use “Darkness Restore”, as well as disrupting the opponent’s strategy by shuffling back in their deck a threatening Pokemon. The sole presence of Dusknoir though will probably make your opponent limit his own bench to 3 Pokemon, so you’ll be able to use “Darkness Restore” at will most likely. Next card that would go well with this pair of Pokemon, would be Honchkrow Lv.X. Honchkrow Lv.X’s “Feint Attack” allows you to target the Basic Pokemon you brought back into play, and KO it immediately with the help of a Crobat G PL.

If you do not want to risk running a Stage 2 line, you can use a more straightforward version of the deck, by pairing Honchkrow SV with Honchkrow G PL. Honchkrow G PL also enjoys having low HP targets to snipe quickly, once again with the aid of Crobat G’s “Flash Bite”.

The last card that should work pretty well with Honchkrow SV and Honchkrow Lv.X is the new Metagross SV. It’s Poke-body “Gravitation” reduces 20 HP from every Pokemon in play (both yours and your opponent’s). With this, you no longer depend on Crobat G allowing you to KO 50 HP Basics, as 40 damage with “Feint Attack” will usually be enough to finish off the Basic Pokemon that was brought back into play.

My final recommended card for use with Honchkrow SV is Unown “Q”. This card allows you to “Darkness Restore” a Basic Pokemon, and then maybe have something like Luxray GL Lv.X use Bright Look and KO it right away.

You can use Honchkrow’s power once per turn, but once you have set up, your opponent probably has 6 turns remaining in which he must get rid of your Honchkrow swarms or else the same Pokemon will keep getting KO’d over and over again until you take your 6 prizes.

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This article may be a tad bit overdue considering everyone and their grandma knows about this deck, but I still feel it’s worth discussing.

This combination of Pokemon cards proved strong enough to win the U.S. National Championship, and although it had a somewhat poor showing at Worlds, I still feel that Luxray GL/Infernape 4 is an extremely viable deck and will perform well at Autumn Battle Roads.

Here is one possible take on the deck:

There is enough room in this list to take a few cards out for a tech 1/1 line, Claydol GE, or Stadiums if you wanted to, but I feel that this is a solid base for deck focused on Luxray and Infernape.

What makes this such a formidable deck is that it has so much firepower. Even though Luxray GL LV.X is the star, Infernape 4 is just as gnarly. “Split Bomb” is an incredible early game attack to set up your opponent’s Pokemon with damage for later knock outs. It is also worth noting that the card has 90 HP, which in my opinion is vastly better than having only 80 HP. The LV.X can do 100 damage, which is an ever so enticing number; 100 damage is enough to knock out a ton of Pokemon in one hit. Infernape 4 by itself may not be great, but it sure is a superb compliment to Luxray GL.

What make Luxray GL LV.X a great card is its ability to snag easy prizes. “Bright Look” may be the best Pokemon Power in the game and the card does 60 damage for only 2 energy (1 if you have an Energy Gain attached). This makes the card dangerous at any point of the game.

You can play this deck with or without Claydol; I think it’s really a matter of preference. If you play Claydol, either a 1/1 or 2/2 line will suffice. Claydol can be considered a somewhat of a hinderance because so many decks aim on shutting it down, but you will run into problems against Gengar. Without Claydol, it is going to be extremely difficult to limit the number of Trainer cards in your hand in order to lessen the damage done by “Poltergeist”.

What do you guys think of Luxray/Infernape? Do you still consider it a solid option for Battle Roads? Let’s get some good discussion going. :)

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A few notes about the list…I had originally used 2 Honchkrow G, but discovered that I really did not need more than 1. I took 1 out for Drifblim FB SV for a few games, but I just found it way too difficult to use effectively. My theory was that late game I would be able to put “Flash Impact” damage from Luxray onto it (up to 90 damage) and then drop Technical Machine G on to hit anything in play for 90, but it would always get sniped by something before I could actually attack with it.

I decided to put Quagsire GL RR in after testing with Quaziko tonight. My bench was getting filled to capacity with the recoil damage from “Flash Impact”. It was the only attack I used pretty much the whole game, every game, and it left all my Pokemon severely weakened by the time I promoted any of them to the active position. If I had a Quagsire in the deck, I could have just let it absorb damage the whole game and my Pokemon would have been much stronger and less vulnerable to easy knock outs.

The strategy of the deck really depends on what you are playing against. If your opponent is using 3/3 Claydol, Broken Time-Space, and Cynthia’s Feelings, then pretty much forget about targeting Claydol unless it is VERY early in the game and you think they may not have the resources to recover. Focus on attacking Uxies, Crobat G’s, and any basics for easy prizes. Do not try to knock out every Claydol your opponent gets in play…it won’t happen! You will waste too many resources trying to do this and your opponent will just plop a new Claydol down every time you do KO one.

However, if your opponent does not play a super heavy Claydol or Cynthia’s Feelings (aka most SP decks), go for the Claydol early. This will hinder their draw power (check out this article for more detail on the subject) and you should be able to get ahead and stay ahead for the remainder of the game.

I like the Aaron’s Collection, Night Maintenance, AND Premier Ball all in the deck because Luxray GL LV.X is really your only attacker, so you need multiple ways to keep it going.

3 Crobat G has also been very money so far. I just like knowing I have that many copies in the deck to get the extra damage you need for the all important pushover prizes.

Anyways, here is some detail about the games I played using the deck:

I first used it against Jeremy’s Dusknoir with Honchkrow SV variant. His deck was honestly too slow and clunky to compete in the current format. It was a cool idea, but it just never got going in any of the games we played.

Game 1 I took out a Baltoy and Claydol by turn 3 with Luxray and proceeded to Power Spray him for a few turns. He was never able to recover and I won handily.

Game 2 I decided that targeting his Claydols was too risky of a strategy (I was rather fortunate in game 1), so I focused solely on Dusknoirs and Uxies. As soon as Jeremy put an energy on any Pokemon, I gusted it up and attacked it. There was just no way he could catch up on energy drops without Double Rainbow or Scramble Energy available anymore. I won again with ease.

Game 3 was more of the same, I attacked whatever Jeremy tried power up and there was no way he could respond.

In all, Dusknoir with Honchkrow SV is just too sluggish of a concept to use at the moment. I did however feel that my deck performed the way I wanted it to. It was quick and drew easy prizes the whole game.

Tonight I played a few games versus Quaziko’s Kingdra deck. I went 1-2, though I feel I should finished with 2 wins. The main problem was that “Flash Impact” was hitting my benched Pokemon for damage, as well Kingdra’s “Dragon Pump”, so I was giving up extremely easy prizes to him. After those games I realized that Quagsire GL Rising Rivals probably would have bailed me out big time.

My strategy may have also been off a bit in the first 2 games we played. I lost both of those trying to target his Claydols early thinking I would be able to swing momentum in my favor right of the bat, but he responded with Uxies, Cynthia’s Feelings, and Claydols via Broken Time-Space the following turns.

I should have just focused on attacking anything BUT the Claydols. I now know it is almost never worth the risk to aim at Claydol early against a deck like that.

I still think this list can be slightly better. It is late right now so I can’t think of anything good to add. I was thinking that one more tech Pokemon or maybe a couple stadiums would be good. Give me some ideas! :)

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