In order to counter Mewtwo LV.X, you need to get Banette out. This is problematic because 1. Banette is not so easy to search out and mainly because of 2. SP will not give you an opportunity to get Banette out. Here’s the scenario: You attack with “Fade Out”, return Shuppet to your hand, and send Mr. Mime out. Mewtwo LV.X comes out and uses “Energy Absorption” to get 2 Energies on it. You play Shuppet back down, attach the Psychic Energy, leave Mr. Mime out, and pass hoping to get Banette out next turn.

Here’s the issue: The SP player will retreat Mewtwo, send out Luxray GL and level it up, forcing you to bring Shuppet out via “Bright Look” and then knock it out. This is where the game swings. It is going to be somewhat difficult to knock out that Luxray, and if you don’t your opponent can just retreat for Mewtwo to stall.

When they try to stall, you will put Shuppet on the bench and attach an Energy. Your opponent will then be able to gust it up again in most cases for another easy prize. You also never have the opportunity to get a 2nd Shuppet on the bench with an Energy attached because you have to use your Energy attachment to put the Psychic back on the Shuppet which you return to your hand every turn.

Basically you never get the opportunity to even get Banette out. We were not playing Poke Blower +, but I suppose if you played it, then you would have the opportunity to knock out Mewtwo before it levels up and could probably win. Otherwise there is little you can do. Of course this is only against SP where Luxray GL LV.X can gust up your Shuppet; anything else with Mewtwo would not have such a detrimental effect.

Dialga G LV.X is a problem because it is resistant to Psychic -20, shuts of Mr. Mime’s PokeBody, and can do “Deafen”. “Deafen” is going to prevent you from attaching PlusPowers and Expert Belt, so Shuppet will only be doing 10 per turn to Dialga. I guess you could try to get Banette PL out and do maybe 40 a turn instead, but regardless the SP player can easily Poke Turn Dialga once it’s damaged and you are never going to get a prize from there on out.

So in all, Shuppet appears to be shut down pretty badly by those two cards if SP is playing them, and usually they will be playing one of the two. As for other matchups, I’m not really sure how Shuppet would fair. I have a feeling that it would not do too well against Flygon though.

We also tried a Kabutops / Omastar deck out…to be honest it was pretty terrible. Kabutops is bad because it only does a max of 70. Even though it only takes 1 Energy, Kabutops is not the easiest Pokemon to get in play. The effort it takes for a max of 70 just doesn’t cut it. Omastar is better though, it might be worth tinkering with. I would focus solely on Omastar and just getting tons of Fossils in the discard. I actually think that might be a legit deck, but forget about Kabutops.

If you can get 8 Fossils in the discard and have Expert Belt attached, you will be doing 130 for 2, which is going to OHKO a lot of Pokemon. Omastar will probably be 2HKO, so if you can just keep the Omastars going you might be able to overwhelm your opponent. We were thinking of maybe using Chatot G and Mr. Mime in the deck, so early game you could grab Fossils and Rare Candies then stall with Mr. Mime. Spiritomb would probably shut the entire deck down though.

I am really not sure what any of the deck lists were that we played with, Ian just threw the decks together and it was late at night so I wasn’t paying very close attention to the contents of the decks. Everyone bug him to post the deck lists, at least for Shuppet. :p

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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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The final way is a much less common way, where previous to Worlds 2009, it was an unheard of successful tactic: Decking. Once a player cannot draw 1 card from his deck during the start of his/her turn, that player loses.

Flygon Lv.X’s “Wind Erosion” Poke-Body had never been seen before on a Pokemon Card. Cards such as Rhyperior DP tried to promote decking as a viable game winning strategy, but aside from Battle Road level events, it did not shine in the big ones.

The deck “Flygon Lock” is based on “Wind Erosion”, by locking one of your opponent’s Pokemon with a high retreat cost or non-threatening attacks in the Active position. The following sample list, used by Sebastian Crema from Canada, is the one that placed highest amongst the Master Division at the Pokemon TCG Worlds 2009 event.

Memory Berry is what really makes the deck accomplish its main purpose thanks to Trapinch SW’s “Sand Tomb” attack. By using Palkia Lv.X’s Poke-Power “Restructure”, and then utilizing “Sand Tomb” on an Azelf LA, or Claydol GE for example, you are effectively buying turns to let “Wind Erosion” erode away at your opponent’s deck, making it thinner by 3 cards for every turn Flygon Lv.X is in the Active slot.

This combo works against pretty much any non-SP deck, as at the time of the Pokemon TCG World Championships, the decks being used included very few if any Switching cards. The most common way to try and get out of the “Wind Erosion” lock was using Super Scoop Up or attaching an Unown G to prevent “Sand Tomb” from trapping your Pokemon. The 2 Switch included in the decklist allow for less pressure on Flygon RR to always have the correct energy to free retreat your Benched Pokemon and also helps in promoting Palkia Lv.X to be leveled up.

Nidoqueen RR’s Poke-Body “Maternal Comfort” is used to support Flygon Lv.X and allow it to survive for as long as possible to discard as many cards as possible from your opponent’s deck. That way, even if your opponent has powered up a Claydol and tries to chip away slowly at Flygon Lv.X’s HP, you can minimize the damage dealt to it. Setting up Nidoqueen RR is not an issue in this deck, as “Restructure” allows for alot of free turns while your opponent has something Active with a high retreat cost.

This deck’s hardest matchup is against Pokemon SP such as Palkia G. Pokemon SP decks are both fast and can disrupt your set up with TGI Power Spray. The answer to this is the 1-1 Mewtwo Lv.X tech line. Some competitors at the Pokemon TCG World Championships using Pokemon SP based decks did not use a Mewtwo Lv.X counter as they considered it would not be popular enough or even do well enough to merit one. That is exactly what happened to Sebastian in his Top 16 match, where he got Mewtwo Lv.X out Turn 2 both games and his opponent conceded quickly as he had no response to it.

Finally the single Bubble Coat, as explained by Sebastian, was included to help against mirror matches. I personally dislike this single card included, as without a way to guarantee it the turn you might need it, odds are you won’t have it then but it’s a minor difference in playstyle and this 1 card doesn’t affect the performance of consistency of the deck.

Along with Sebastian’s success, there were other players who used this deck effectively both at the main event and the Grinder, as several people grinded in to the main event using this particular strategy (though not this exact list). Michael Chin from the USA also performed well and got Top 32 with the deck, but unfortunately was paired with Sebastian. Nick Fotheringham from the UK got 3rd place with this strategy in Seniors as well.

Unfortunately for the deck, both Garchomp C Lv.X and Blaziken FB from the new Platinum: Supreme Victors set are very potent threats to this deck, disrupting it’s set up by having easy KO’s on Claydol or nullifying Palkia Lv.X’s “Restructure” with Blaziken FB’s “Luring Flame”. Despite this though, this could be a strong solid option for Battle Roads, as usually people are trying out new ideas, and they might not even include Mewtwo Lv.X counters in their SP based decks. This could be compensated though, by making the Mewtwo Lv.X line thicker perhaps, by maximizing it to a 2-2 line?

As for Stage 2 decks though, since all of them rely on Claydol, this deck should still have a huge advantage against all of them.

One final thing to note about the deck, is to make sure you play in a timely manner, as decking an opponent takes longer than KOing 6 Pokemon, and so your opponent might try to play slower if he/she is up in prizes, so make sure you have practiced enough with this deck to make your turns go quickly but without making mistakes, so you can guarantee you will be able to deck your opponent out before time runs out.

So with BR’s coming soon, can this deck still compete with the new threats from Supreme Victors? Do you think this should use a 2-2 Mewtwo Lv.X line? If matchups had worked out differently, do you think this deck could have beat Steven Silvestro’s Beedrill / Luxray GL deck? Give us your opinions!

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But is Mewtwo LV.X truly a legitimate way to dominate those basic filled SP decks? I believe it is first necessary to figure out exactly what other Pokemon can be used with it, and how likely it is to give you that oh so sweet Psybarrier victory.

The goal is to get Mewtwo LV.X out for its Poke-Body, but we do not want to use its attack; we want to attack with its basic form of Mewtwo. There are currently two Mewtwos available to play; Legends Awakened and Majestic Dawn. Though the LA variety only requires 1 Psychic Energy for its attack, I believe the MD Mewtwo is the better (and necessary) play at the moment because of its 10 extra HP. It does require 2 Psychic Energy to do damage, but the difference between having 80 and 90 HP is enormous in my opinion.

The aim is to get Mewtwo LV.X out as soon as possible against any SP deck. In almost all cases, it is going to take you two turns in order level up (unless you are playing Level Max). This means that Mewtwo (the non-LV.X) will be on your bench for 1 turn, unguarded, vulnerable to an attack.

Nearly every single SP deck uses Luxray GL LV.X. As soon as you drop the Mewtwo, your opponent will do everything possible in order to play a Luxray and use “Bright Eyes” to gust Mewtwo to the active position and try to knock it out. “Flash Bite” does 60 damage, but your opponent could easily drop a Crobat G and Poke Turn to add an extra 20 damage to total 80 damage, which will knock out Mewtwo LA.

Mewtwo MD only has 10 more HP, so you might be thinking, “Couldn’t your opponent just play another Poke Turn or Crobat?” During the first few turns of the game, which is when you will be seeking to get Mewtwo LV.X in play, it is going to be difficult for your opponent to get Crobat G, 2 Poke Turn, Luxray GL LV.X, and most likely an Energy Gain all out in play. 1 Poke Turn is not much to ask, but trying to get 2 out in time may be pressing it because Cyrus is the only sure way to draw one, and you can only play 1 Cyrus each turn.

Having the extra 10 HP simply makes Mewtwo that much more difficult to knock out, and if they don’t knock it out, you may have won the game right then and there. It requires them to have one more component in hand in order to eliminate it, and we want to have the odds in our favor as much as possible. Early in the game is really the only time in the game when the stars may not be aligned for our opponent.

So now that we know we are going to need at least two Psychic Energies in our deck to make use of Mewtwo LV.X, I feel that means Mewtwo must be used in a Psychic oriented deck. Possibilities for partners could include Gengar SF, Gallade 4 RR, and Flygon RR. You could try running just 2 to 3 Psychic Energies in any deck for Mewtwo, but the odds that Mewtwo, Mewtwo LV.X, and the Psychic aren’t prized are not too auspicious.

Flygon is an interesting accomplise to use with Mewtwo because Flygon LV.X can easily eliminate Dialga G LV.X, which is one of the counters to Mewtwo LV.X that an SP deck can play. Dialga G LV.X shuts off “Psybarrier”, allowing these pesky SP basic Pokemon to attack it. It is also resistant to Psychic Pokemon, thus making it quite a formidable counter to Mewtwo. Fortunately, Flygon LV.X has got Mewtwo’s back against this foe.

The only other Pokemon an SP deck might play that could take out your Mewtwo LV.X would be a Ninetales MT. However, I don’t think many people are using that card at the moment.

Is Mewtwo LV.X worth playing in any of those 3 afforementioned decks? I actually think it is, at least for the first couple Battle Roads this autumn. Until people start playing Dialga G LV.X and Ninetales MT in their decks, Mewtwo can guarantee you a win. It is just too good of an opportunity to pass up. Once you get it out, just don’t play down any more Pokemon, and you’ve got the game.

However, I am not sure how any of those decks would fare against any non-SP decks. I think Gengar could have some success against the Flygons and Beedrills of the World, but a Flygon playing Psychic Energy and Pokemon may not.

What do you guys think about Mewtwo LV.X? Are there any other decks that it could slide into, or is it too limited in its ability to be played? Let me hear your opinion. :)

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I’m not a big fan of Claydol, but I guess if you have to put him in there, take out the Uxie line due to the probable high usage of Drifblim FB.

The main point of this deck is to keep your opponent’s Pokemon asleep, and drain their HP with Darkrai G’s “Eerie Aura” Poke-Body and Drapion LV.X’s “Triple Poison” Poke-Power. Then, while you are stalling, built up your Drapion Lv. X and/or Darkrai G to do some better damage.

The best Pokemon to start with would be Mewtwo. For one energy, his “Hypnoblast” attack does 10 damage and puts your opponent’s Pokemon to sleep. If your opponent is using an SP deck, level Mewtwo up for security if coin flips are going their way and they’re waking up. Froslass GL also wouldn’t be a bad start with his dragging out and putting to sleep “Sleep Inducer” attack, but unless you have Darkrai G also out, you are not going to be doing any damage. If you are stuck with neither of these two Pokemon to start, hopefully you will at least have a call energy or something to get then out quickly.

Since all of the Pokemon in this deck, except Froslass GL, are either Darkness or Psychic, and none of them have free retreat, Moonlight Stadium is a must here. It can also help you get your Level X’s out there and retreat them to the bench. If I’m going to put a Stadium into a deck, I always put in at least three so you have a better chance of drawing into them and so you can keep your opponent’s stadiums off the field.

Given that you will be putting your opponent asleep continuously, your opponent will probably be going through their TGI Poke Turns, Super Scoop Ups, Switches, and Warp Points pretty quickly if the coin flips are going at all in your favor. Getting rid of their TGI Poke Turns will lessen the impact of the popular Crobat G, and keep your opponent from picking up their damaged SP Pokemon mid/late game. If they are changing their active Pokemon with Warp Point, Switch, or maybe a Poke-Power, this can be to your advantage later game.

Hopefully you are putting at least one damage counter on their Pokemon during the whole sleeping process, and this damage can be used later to add the sleeping effect of Darkrai G’s “Darkness Sleep” attack, or leave Pokemon vulnerable to a sniping KO by Drapion LV.X’s “Sniping Tail” attack. The other heavy attacks in this deck are Mewtwo LV.X’s “Giga Burn” for 120, and Drapion’s “Derail” for 60+ (with Special Darkness Energy) with the added effect of discarding all special energy attached to the defending Pokemon. Also, Froslass GL can do 50 for one energy and an Energy Gain to a sleeping or poisoned Pokemon with its “Wake-Up Slap” attack.

This deck can be very effective, but it is a little on the flippy side. If you can keep your opponent’s Pokemon asleep, they won’t be able to attack you (besides with Snorlax), and that means your opponent can’t take their prizes. You can have one of the best Pokemon out there, but if it’s asleep, then there isn’t too much you can do with it.

Overall, this can be a really slow deck, and the strategy of sleep stalling can be greatly hindered by your opponent evolving and leveling up their Pokemon, or if they are just getting really lucky with coin flips. Also the Supreme Victor’s Venusaur can completely shut down this deck. Bench space can be a problem with this deck, so you should only put down what is really necessary, and only use Azelf if one of your Level X’s are prized.

Let me know what you think of this deck. Comments and criticism would be great.

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