What are we going to do next format?

Written by | July 16, 2010 | 49 comments | 1,714 views | Rating: 0

Well…the new format is Majestic Dawn on. So what did we lose that is very important? The first 2 cards on your list should be Roseanne’s Research and Claydol from Great Encounters. You guys should all know what they do. Roseanne’s increased the consistency of stage 2 decks considerably because of it’s searching capability and same with Claydol, except that with it’s Poke-Power “Cosmic Power”, you were allowed to draw. I mean with these cards gone, what are we going to do now?

To start off with on how I believe the top winning decks of the formats gonna be next.

1. LuxChomp
2. Other SP Variant (Palkia Lock, DialagaChomp, BlazeChomp, BlazeRay, Gengar C)
3. Gengar Dusknoir
4. Charizard
5. Others

Why is SP decks standing at top again? Well even with Roseanne’s gone, they can still easily search out their Pokemon via SP Radar, Bebe’s Search, Pokemon Collector, and Pokemon Communication. But the biggest thing is that they have a huge advantage with the whole Cyrus’s Conspiracy engine which let’s them pick up an Energy also. Other than Roseanne’s, Cyrus’s Conspiracy is the only supporter that will let you get an basic energy from your deck.

However, for most stage 2 decks, without Roseanne’s, getting energies is just that much harder and they will need some techs to make up for it. Let’s see what kind of option Stage 2 decks have left.

1. Bronzong Stormfront

This is the most talked card right now for stage 2 decks, and even SP Decks. Its Poke-Power “Cycler” lets you put back a card from your hand to the deck and search out any 2 basic energies once per turn. Which can boost up the consistency in almost all stage 2 decks.

However, I find many downsides to this card. First of all, with Moonlight Stadium gone, his 3 retreat cost is asking to be “Bright Look”ed in the face by Luxray GL LV.X and get stalled while they get a huge set up going.

His attacks are mediocre too. His first attack does 20 damage for 1 Psychic and an Colorless, however if you have the same number of card in your hand as the opponent, it will do additional 40 and confuse the defending Pokemon. His second attack is even worse and doesn’t deserve to be talked about. And most important of all, his Poke-Power can be Power Sprayed.

2. Energy Search

Well, not much to talk about. Trainer card, you use it, search for a basic energy in your deck. I’ve seen some people try to use it, but it’s just horrible. Being a trainer means that if your going against a Gengar Dusknoir list or some other decks with Spiritomb, you will have a hard time getting energies. And the 1~4 card space it takes up in the deck just to get 1 or 2 energy is just not good enough.

3. Poke Drawer +

Despite being a trainer, I love this card and believe that it will be good next format. Playing 2 at the same time allows you to search for any 2 card in your deck. This can be game breaking when you can finally break out of that Spiritomb Lock, drop the 2 Poke Drawers and search for any 2 cards which can change the game around.

4. Increase the amount of Uxies and Super Scoop Ups

Higher amount of Uxie means that you can use many of them to draw more and with Super Scoop Ups, you can pick them back up, and draw more till you get those cards you need. Super Scoop Ups are also very good in healing your heavily damaged Pokemon whether they are Stage 2, Stage 1 or SP. (Although you would want Broken Time-Space up to Super Scoop Up your Stage 2 Pokemon unless you got a back up attacker ready)

5. My Personal Favorite, Incorporate SP Engine to your stage 2 decks.

Lately I’ve been playtesting many stage 2 decks with the SP Engine. For instance, I made a deck called BlaziKing (LuxiKing is definitely better but I do not have Luxray GL LV.X). With the SP Engine incorporated to your stage 2 decks, you can use cards such as Crobat G for additional damage, Toxicroak G and Ambipom G to turn the tide in LuxChomp match ups, and further more just scare your opponent by having a SP start :P. Maybe after extensive testing, I’ll make an article on my BlaziKing deck.

Conclusion

Well I hope this has given you some idea for next format’s deck if you do not want to run a 100% SP based deck like LuxChomp or just a pure stage 2 deck. But you know, if you can’t beat them, better join them right? Good luck all of you in the next format!

Image Credits: PokeBeach, Pokegym, and Pokemon Paradijs

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  • SkyAoiSora

    It's nice to see someone post an article like this. =] I know there's much controversy over when we should start looking at the new format, but as someone (I think Adam?) had posted a few days ago (if not yesterday), the only POP tournament left is Worlds, and not many people are going.. So we non-ubercrazypros want to start talking about the rotation. =]

    Considering your article, it almost seems the only ones “worth playing” are pokedrawer and Cyrus's conspiracy… However I think another good way to go would be to play cards that thin out your deck (in order to have slightly higher odds to top-deck or uxie the cards you need), such as poke-drawer+ and (if you can fit it in your type of deck), Uxie Lv. X. Energy Search is only worth running if you've got a rainbow deck, but who plays rainbow these days, right?

    Also, another thing I noticed when trying searching for rogue strategies while bored was something about Ninetails. Depending on what kind of deck you run, pay attention to what type of energy are needed for your attacks. Try and find a sum of all the different types of energy you need. If you happen to have a deck that asks for a lot of colorless, but not much type-specific, running a Ninetails with a few fire energy could be worth looking at. However, this is definitely NOT for every deck. Actually I'd say this would be a very rare case that you should run this. But, I do think it's something that should be kept in mind when looking over your speed-lacking deck.

    Another card that I find very worth of playing, even in a deck that does not use sabledonking, is Sableye itself. (SF) When Supporters were first introduced, I found it was way too easy to have too many supporters in your deck. In fact, this phenomenon continued all the way until the rise of Sableye. If you're lucky enough to start off with a Sableye SF, it's a wonderful start to be able to impersonate a Pokemon Collector. It brings out three basics for 0 energy so long as you have a Pokemon Collector in your deck! So get a Crobat, an Uxie, and a main attacker and you've already got an edge because while you're setting up those cards, you can impersonate the next turn to draw more! I really think Sableye is a card that's worth looking at with all the supporters that came out with the HGSS-On cards. Also, running a 2-2 Sableye Sp. Dark is often worth it, again, depending on what type of deck you're running. I found that, for me, running a 2-2 Sableye-Sp.Dark, I get about 10-15% of my games won by sabledonk. That's not just 10-15% of my won games, it's of all my games. =] Maybe I'm lucky? Maybe I don't play against SP enough? *Shrugs* It works for me, and I think it's something worth considering. =]

    I'll add anything else I think of. I hope at least someone finds this comment useful about which other cards you can use with the format shift and tips on how to use them. =]

  • http://forum.pokemon.fi/ Master Entei

    Nice article! Your views don't differ much from mine, other than maybe Poke Drawer. I haven't tested it with an Uxie engine, but you'd think it's harder to get two out without Claydol.
    Bronzong is kinda mediocre, but could work in some decks.
    Unless you're playing a deck with 3 or more types of Energy in it, I wouldn't recommend Energy Search to anyone. Just put more Energy in it's place.
    Super Scoop Up is definetly going to see more play next format, with any low-energy decks being able to take advantage of it via Uxie and BT-S.
    Cyrus's Conspiracy is so beast, it can be put into decks that it's not meant for. This isn't that bad of a substitute for Roseanne.

  • Peter

    Sableye is a great starter and has so many potentials in al ldeck such as you can impersonate cyrus to get a supporter for next turn such as collector, energy, and a TGI Trainer if you run one Xd or you can just impersonate collector to get 3. However, I was looking at an immediate searching tools so bascially supporter, or poke powers and trainers, no attack based search tools such as Sableye. And the only reason I don't run Sableyes in my build is the 1 retreat cost with moonlight gone, sure there is Unown Q but I'd rather use Unown Q on Uxie to lv up and retreat back or for an immediate cause such as having a high retreat get forced active

  • Peter

    Definately Super Scoop Up iis going to see way more play. However, i cant help but feel that the top decks are just going to be SP Decks and MAYBE a few stage 2 with SP Incorporated :(. I personally find cyrus conspiracy not that good in an stage 2 deck with no SP Pokemon to use its full potential with. I mean for your one turn supporter, you use cyrus to get just 1 energy and a useful supporter for next turn. But i just find it so slow, the opponent can judge you, and amount of sablelocks going tobe huge so they could just cyrus's initiative it away and such.

  • SkyAoiSora

    *Shrugs* Different tastes in combos/decks/strategies/ways of playing I guess. =]

  • JPN-Gallade

    Very well written article! Great job writing it! You made some very key points about next year's format. You even brought up some good cards that could do well next year. Surely, it looks like PokeDrawer+ and Bronzong SF will see some play, and maybe Energy Search too. An SP Engine in a stage 2 deck sounds pretty interesting too.

    As for what can be added in this article, although they haven't been released, how about Hunter or Twins? For the case about Hunter, within your article, you said that you should run more Uxies and Super Scoop Ups to give Uxie more potential. Well, with Hunter, you can actually easily pull out the Uxie from the bench easily, allowing you to have easier drawpower. As for Twins, they would probably fit under the PokeDrawers category. If you are behind on prizes, you can automatically search for two of any cards using it. Plus, unlike PokeDrawers, Twins doesn't get trainer locked. Though they aren't released yet, do you think they could work to make decks more consistent next year?

    Well, still, this indeed was one very nice article. Incredibly well written, and I really enjoyed reading it.

  • SkyAoiSora

    Nice! I hadn't thought about those. :P But I don't remember what Hunter does… could you refresh me please? And I know twins is awesome =] Blackbelt will surely see a lot of play, especially in donk decks. I'm actually planning on making a deck using something along the lines of shuppet, sableye, crobatG, pokeblower, pluspower, maybe KingdraPrime, Black Belt, e-belt, and a bunch of other low-cost high-hitter cards. I might incorporate some sablelock techs in there too. Oh and GarC X. Of course that would be key as well. =]

  • tweedmoore

    Unown R, rescue, and pokedex, poke collectors can be used in a machamp donk deck along with Uxie, I think 1st turn Machamp is going to be enormous. I don't think drawers or energy search are worth while.

    But why the absence of mention of Interviewers Questions?

  • Espeon200

    I love Interviewer's Question, but if you're playing a deck with only 8 energy in it, Interviewer's can sometimes fail outright. Even in the Raindance deck I'm testing out right now which runs roughly 16 energy there have been times when I Interviewed my deck and came back with no energy. Of course there have also been times when I interviewed the deck and came back with six energies which is a huge deck-thinning, so I guess it just depends on what kind of deck you're running.

  • Espeon200

    One question that this article brought up for me is whether Cyrus's Conspiracy would be worthwhile in a deck completely devoid of SP. I mean, you're guaranteed a basic energy and another supporter meaning that, provided your opponent doesn't mess with your hand you can grab another Cyrus and have up to four turns where you're guaranteed to play your energy.

  • SkyAoiSora

    I guess it would also be useful in choosing which Supporter you would like to play next, which, if you're running a supporter-heavy deck, could be useful. But in my opinion, I still prefer sableye for that. =]

  • Icy11893

    it wont be SP 2 words (no unown G)

  • JPN-Gallade

    Hunter – Supporter

    “Each player returns one of his or her bench Pokemon and all cards attached to it back into his or her hand. You return your cards first.”

    ^That's what Hunter does if you were asking.

    Basically, Hunter is an automatic Super Scoop Up where you don't need to flip. Hunter will certainly help many decks that use Uxie for draw. Thanks to Hunter, you may not need to worry about getting tails from Super Scoop Up. Plus, Hunter is a supporter, and will not get trainer locked.

  • SkyAoiSora

    :O Oh wow! And if your opponent has a full field, then it can possibly in some circumstances help disrupt. =] Cool! Thanks a bunch, JPN-Gallade! =] I think this will indeed be one of those big cards to play :P This isn't one of those supporters like Twins/Black Belt though, right? Where you can only play it if you have more remaining prizes than your opponent?

  • blooper785

    doesnt matter if thers no unkown g theree isnt gonna be alot of machamp out there and this guy is missing a huge deck donphan

  • Espeon200

    I wouldn't think it would need to. It seems to be pretty balanced since not only is it a supporter, but it also lets your opponent pull a Pokemon back… so they can Uxie again too.

  • blooper785

    theses still donpahn though god the list is still pretty intact except 4 rosennes which is pretty much in every deck so whats so bad bout it oaks new theory works amzingly in that deck and i only run six energy

  • blooper785

    what does black belt do

  • SkyAoiSora

    Black belt is a supporter coming out on August 18th in Clash at the Summit (our next set). You can only play this card if you have more remaining prize cards than your opponent. This turn, your active pokemon's attack to the defending pokemon does 40 more damage (before applying weakness and resistance)

    :D

  • Mewuk85

    We still have spirtomb to help us grab evolution cards an help donk and snipe abilities. + with T-tar its a great way to set upon un favored 1st turn draws.

    Aren’t SP pretty much going to be full teched out in 2011/2012. I wish they would have just went HGSS forward that would be fun. But were stuck playing the same old cards again….. It’s still fun.

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DARK PALM> LOL

  • Mewuk85

    What about typhlosion prime's “after burner” with a ninetails “roast reveal” They willwork hand and hand. mayb wih carizard tech.

    lots of people are running it online, works pretty well. unlees power spray or bright looked then your……….lol

  • Mewuk85

    will work ,maybe, with, charizard, lol

  • Jediderr

    I disagree. I expect to see several varieties of GeChamp at Fall Battle Roads. There are several ways to speed up that deck and it still only needs 1 fighting, psychic, or rainbow energy to make it go – especially against SP Decks.

    Donphan is another fast deck, but it damages your own bench. The deck that I haven't seen mentioned is Tyrannitar Prime with Spiritomb. That has some potential to disrupt the metagame this fall.

  • Peter

    well thats only for a specific deck such as charizard..

  • Peter

    yes spiritomb does get us the evos but what about the energies? :P

  • Peter

    I played tyranitomb for nats and trust me, they will be horrible without claydols

  • Peter

    yes but i can only see taht working if you have like 3 basics and a spiritomb active

  • Peter

    yes hunter is a great card :D however its not released yet xD should have added tho

  • Mewuk85

    So the question is energies? Any one know any of the new T,S,S coming out. or are we all in ? Its exciting isn’t it. Can't wait to see the new pokemon and their body's and powers hopefully, it will expand our horizons.

  • Peter

    There hasnt been any known T/S/S that gets you energies 100% from the deck like roseannes :( i hope the reprint it in the newer packs xD

  • Mewuk85

    That would be nice.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/pgmcsskater pgmcsskater

    ahh what about shuppet and donphan? those are two very fast decks in the next format. I also think that Gengar SF will eat alive the next format because of the amount of T/S/S support almost all decks will run. And also what about Regigigas? It loses roseaane's, but still uses AMU and is fast and disruptive.

  • Pjb92_99

    shuppet and donphan will be pretty good next format, but with the increase in SP decks, and with vileplume coming out, i think almost all SP Decks will start teching in 1-1 or 2-1 DGX, and if they deafen turn 1, shuppet just auto loses :P. Gengar SF Deck such as Gengar/Dusknoir will be very good, i think i stated it as a lot of the gengar dusknoir was 2SF/1AR and those worked better than 2 AR/1SF. I have no idea for regigigas, i have never seen the deck

  • Tyco

    What bout Jumpluff Decks…!?
    … I still think that they're pretty awesome..^^

  • Peter

    Jumpluff, I REALLY cant see working well without claydols. I mean Claydol was the pure reason why Jumpluff was soo good IMO, taking up bench, good draw, and without them its just that much worse. It will be harder to get energies with just 3 uxies with no roseannes

  • TheFreshness

    shuppet will also be losing mr. mime which usually plays a fairly big part in these decks

  • Fplesko

    I've been testing Tyranitomb with 1/3 Uxie, SSU & some “draw supporters” — along w/3 VS Seekers. Not as efficient as 1 or 2 Claydols, but the draw is decent enough.

  • http://www.adamcapriola.com/ Adam Capriola

    Mr. Mime is getting rotated out.

  • mewuk85

    every one wait untill next weekend its gonna be awesome.

  • mewuk85

    dont worrie something will come along.

  • mewuk85

    thats good!!!

  • mewuk85

    true

  • mewuk85

    hell yeah!!

  • mewuk85

    huh we need better cards than that thats a waste of time.

  • mewuk85

    Nice article SkyAoiSora Lol!!!!!!!!!!!

  • mewuk85

    would be great to have special dark metal energy back. without the old rules.

  • mewuk85

    Sablelock just kills it in so many match ups.

  • TheWiiMan

    I am nutral on the energy search idea its like and energy that counts as any type (if you run more than one kind of energy) that can be trainer locked.

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