Lessons from the Pro: New Season, New Choices

Written by | August 22, 2011 | 29 comments | 1,273 views | Rating: 0

Intro

Hello everyone, and welcome to my newest article. I’ve decided to take a name for my articles because a lot of people are doing it and it’s pretty cool. Now to the article, today I’ll be talking about what next year should look like as far as decks. I’ll also provide a skeleton deck list for each deck. Enjoy!

Decks (List in no particular order)

1. ZPS: Zekrom/Pachirisu/Shaymin

Right now the deck is pretty good, but once Emerging Powers comes out, it’s going to be one of the best decks in the format. The deck is going to acquire Pokemon Catcher, and that will make the deck almost broken.

You’ll be able to drag up anything you like at knock it out. It’ll be very disruptive because the deck gets set up very fast as it is and then they can start hurting your support Pokemon like Vulpix and Cyndaquil right away.

ZPS uses Pachirisu to attach two Lightning energies to itself, and then to use Shaymin’s Celebration Wind to move those energies to one of your Zekroms. That can power up Zekrom very fast and makes it one of, if not the fastest deck in the format.

Vileplume is one of the only disadvantages to this deck. Once Vilepume is out you can’t play Pokemon Catcher, but if you send up the Oddish quick enough, they’ll never get a Vileplume out. ZPS is very fast and can usually set up around turn one.

You’ll be able to start disrupting right away and it’ll hard for your opponents to set up correctly. Another disadvantage to the deck is that if your opponent can get a Donphan Prime out, they’ll usually be able to one hit KO you every time.

That’ll be hard to play against, but if you can get out a Zekrom early enough and start knocking out their Phanpys, you won’t have a problem. Look for this deck to be very good and be at the top tables of your Battle Road and beyond.

ZPS Skeleton – 42 Cards

Pokemon – 9

 Trainers – 21

 Energy – 1212 Lightning

Things you could add: 

Shuffle-draw Supporter cards such as Professor Oak’s New Theory, Judge, etc., draw cards like Professor Juniper, etc., a back-up draw card like Cleffa or Manaphy, more PlusPower, more Lightning energies

2. Donphan and Dragons: Donphan/Reshiram/Zekrom

Donphan and Dragons uses Donphan to use Earthquake early game and stack up damage on benched Reshirams and Zekroms. You can use Bouffalant and Zoroark too if you like. It’s a really good deck and has really good matchups around the board.

You can use Zekrom to knock out Yanmega, Reshiram to nullify Kingdra Prime‘s attack, and Donphan to hurt everything else. It’s very fast because you can get everything out around turn two, and really all you need to have almost everything out is a Pokemon Collector, Donphan or someway to get one, and a Fighting energy.

Not very hard to do given that’s around three to five cards. Look for this deck to counter ZPS and make a splash in the new season.

Donphan and Dragons Skeleton – 49 Cards

Pokemon – 104 Phanpy HS4 Donphan Prime HS

 Trainers – 27

 Energy – 12

Things you could add:

Shuffle-draw Supporter cards such as Professor Oak’s New Theory, Copycat, etc., draw cards like Professor Juniper, etc., Bouffalant, Zoroark

3. TyRam: Typhlosion/Reshiram 

TyRam saw a lot of showings at Worlds. It was a very good play then, but I’m not sure it’ll be as good next season. Beartic will be a big threat to the deck as it will be to every deck. Vileplume can be a big threat because you can’t play Rare Candy evolve into Typhlosion and you can’t play Pokemon Catcher.

ZPS will be a big threat as well because they’ll be able to drag up Cyndaquils before they evolve and knock them out. That’ll be very disruptive and make you lose games. In this deck Reshiram gets energied up by Typhlosion Primes Afterburner which lets you take a Fire energy from your discard pile and attach it to one of your Pokemon, then you put one damage on that Pokemon.

If you put the energy on Reshiram, that already starts to power up it’s Outrage attack so that’s an added bonus to the deck. Reshiram also has an awesome attack that does 120 for two Fires and a Colorless. Then you discard two Fires attached to Reshiram.

When you do that, it’s helping Typhlosion get energies in the discard pile so you can Afterburner them. I think the deck will do okay next season and you should still watch out for it.

TyRam Skeleton – 45 Cards

Pokemon – 10

 Trainers – 23

 Energy – 12

10 Fire

Things you could add:

A draw engine such as Ninetales, more Professor Oak’s New Theory, more Fire energy, more Rare Candy, heavier Typhlosion lines, Defender

4. MegaZone: Magnezone/Yanmega

MegaZone has made a lot of good runs at this year’s Nationals, and at Worlds. At Nationals it took home the gold for Masters, and made lots of other top cut appearances. At Worlds it filled a lot of the top sixteen in Masters, and pulled off the win in Juniors and got second in Seniors.

The deck is very fast so I think it’ll still be above par in the next season. If you can get the Magnezone and Yanmega going turn two, you’ll be winning a lot of your games even with the ZPS and Beartic threats.

Magnezone hits hard and knocks out about everything for at max about three energies, and Yanmega is fast with a great disruptive sniping attack. Look for this deck to still stay tier one and to continue to succeed.

MegaZone Skeleton – 44 Cards

Pokemon – 13

 Trainers – 21

 Energy – 10

Things you could add:

Switches, heavier Magnezone and Yanmega lines, more Rare Candies, more shuffle draw Supporters, more Lightning energies

5. MegaZord: Yanmega/Zoroark/Donphan

MegaZord seemed like it was going to be overplayed at Worlds, but that never ended up happening. I not one made the top sixteen for Masters at Worlds, and I don’t think it was played in high numbers. The U.S.’s Pooka took it to a 3-4 record, but I don’t know of anyone else who used the deck.

I think it could have been played more, and made at least one top sixteen spot. The deck counters about every deck in the format, and doesn’t have an autoloss. I think it’ll still be a good play next year because you’ll be able to set up really fast, and start hitting hard early.

Donphan is heavy damage, Zoroark is for Rayquaza & Deoxys Legend, and other things it can deal heavy damage on. Yanmega is for quick snipes to disrupt your opponent early on. I think it’ll still be out there and be lower tier one next year.

MegaZord Skeleton – 50 Cards

Pokemon – 15

 Trainers – 26

 Energy – 12

Things you could add:

More shuffle draw Supporters like Professor Oak’s New Theory and heavier Copycat/Judge lines, more Pokemon Collector or Communication, Bouffalant BLW #91

6. BearPlume: Beartic/Vileplume

Beartic/Vileplume is a new deck made possible by our new set: Emerging Powers. It utilyzes the new Beartic card that knows Sheer Cold. The attack is awesome. It says your opponents Defending Pokemon can’t attack next turn. That can be very stalling and a great attack. It’s at a relatively cheap cost too. It’s for a Water and Double Colorless, so two energies.

Now they can just retreat or Switch out of that, right? Well when you have Vileplume they can’t play Trainers or Items, so they can’t play Switch. So now they have to waste an energy or two to retreat so now they wouldn’t have the energy to attack with for a benched Pokemon. This will be very disruptive and give your opponent a huge disadvantage.

You can play a Basculin as a nice little Donphan Prime counter which can let you set up if you have a bad start. Cubchoo is your ideal starter. You have a coin flip to see if your opponent is asleep.

Then its second attack for a Double Colorless lets you heal off sixty damage from Cubchoo. That can be annoying for your opponent and let you stall while you get the Vileplume and Beartics out. I think the deck will be a little slow, but if it can set up, it’ll definitely be tier one.

BearPlume Skeleton – 45 Cards

Pokemon – 144 Cubchoo EP4 Beartic EPO

2 Vileplume UD

1 Gloom UD

2 Oddish UD

1 Basculin EPO

 Trainers – 20

 Energy – 117 Water4 Double Colorless

Things you could add:

Shuffle draw Supporters like Professor Oak’s New Theory, some set up Pokemon like Cleffa, more Water energy, another Water type partner or Zoroark, more Basculin

Conclusion

I hope this lock, stocks, and loads you for the new Pokemon TCG season! Have fun and play your hardest! Please check out my YouTube. I have Card of the Days, Recorded Matches, and tips to improve your Pokemon game. Thanks for reading! Good luck in the new season!

-The Purple Pro

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  • Anonymous

    i think this article is great!  thank you so much for the help .you explain it very well .This helps alot of new players. i think pokemon should be more helpfull like yugioh does. like yugioh-card   puts  up decks  after the Big tourny. the only thing i think is right if its nationals and you dont want anyone to know your decklist if you wanna use for worlds. true that they might be net deckers but you should usually  always change it up and put your different approach on the deck. Each deck works with different players play style. Like Ross that deck might work for him and not some one else. but any ways very good article

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MDFBEX2BW2W7GAEWAVU5B2DVFY Lee

    Good job! Won’t ZPS also be prone to Catcher as it will have two free Prizes sitting on its bench that can just get Catchered out? Seems to hurt the deck a little (sort of like how some people may throw out Ninetales in Tyram because of the free prize it offers).

    Also, you offer Basculin as a Donphan-counter for Beartic which is great, however, the real threat to this deck is Yanmega Prime IMO. If we can just find a nice perfect tech against him, the world is ours. Glad to see you have faith in the cold bear, considering he hits Donphan, Reshiram, Typhlosion, and Emboar for weakness and stops cards like Zekrom and Magnezone in their tracks with no easy way to OHKO him. Only problem is Yanmega and Zoroark.

    • Anonymous

      Hmmm, well the Yanmega problem could be solved through Zekrom, considering that you’re already running DCE.  And Zoroark is just hard to tech against, unless you just want to throw in a 1-1 Donphan, but that messes with your consistency.

  • Anonymous

    Fantastic article! The only thing that bothers me is that everyone is thinking that Beartic will only be good with Vileplume. I would think that Beartic could do just as well without Vileplume, and something like 4 catchers. I can’t wait to see how Beartic will do, and to see if it can rise up to tier 1. Also, Twins sounds good if Beartic has to give up the first prize to get set up.

  • Connor Chapkis

    sorry..but..these skeletons are really bad. 2-1-2 typh? even for a skeleton, 3-1-3 should be minimum.
    2-1-2 magnezone in megajudge? really? 3 communication in some lists? i’m pretty sure that 4 is staple..

  • Anonymous

    I’m going to have to disagree with you on Beartic. There are too many big players that counter it for it to be Tier 1. I personally think it’ll sit neatly at Tier 2 since Yanmega and more importantly Zoroark deal with this Pokemon well. Otherwise a good read :)

    • Anonymous

      I agree with you Dan, How do you think Tyram will deal with beartic, Any ideas?

      • Anonymous

        I agree, I honestly think that Beartic is mostly hype. Yanmega, it too prominent and tyRam decks have too little retreat costs for it to matter. Also, againt tyRam or ReshiBoar, you will likely be playing Cather. So, you lose the ability to drag things up like Typhlosion. Also, Beartic’s most useful attack only does 50 damage (100 to fire types). This is just blah. Finally, if for some reason Beartic becomes very popular, people can just tech in Dodrio to give lower retreat. I just don’t see it making it to the top tier.

      • Anonymous

        thanks for the info bro. It really helps.

      • Anonymous

        i have been playtesting a  sleep beartic-ability samurott- 2 dragons (1 reshiram/1 zekrom) deck and it has yet to lose against a fire deck. Sleep Beartic is more consistent at turn 2 than sheer cold beartic because you only need to attach one blue energy to attack and disrupt (by sleeping the defending pokemon)  your opponent.  If you employ max potion you can always heal it to a penalty of 1 energy. Switches also help in rotating beartics as attackers. It is an effective stall tactic until you get a fully charge ability Samurott out which one-shots anything your fire opponent fields. The weakness of the deck i’ve been playtesting  is magnezone-heavy decks. Try it out yourselves.

      • Anonymous

        “Mostly hype.”

        Not all true, I tested it out and it work really really well, even against tyRam, as you guys seem to think that tyRam is way better then it. Sure you can use a pluspower to OHKO Beartic, but then here comes another Beartic slapping 140 damage on you, and if you build it right you would have thought on the whole thing of PlusPowers and countered it before it hapens. And on the thought of countering PlusPower, just flush the idea of a ASAP Beartic setup and go for the ASAP Vileplume setup.

      • Anonymous

        great. if you are that confident in your testing then by all means stand behind it. I will stand by my idea that it is mostly hype.

        however, way more than one match up goes into whether a deck can survive in any given meta game or not. luxchomp had several sub-par match ups, but those decks that had the edge on luxchomp could not keep pace with the rest of the field. heck straight Samurott + water accelerator has a large advantage over Reshiram varients, but they did not see much play. why? because the rest of the field really owned it. there is just too much for it to over come. one of the most important attackers in the format has free retread. it the deck become popular, people can just tech in a 1-1 dodrio to help out. the deck has limited damage output compared to almost everything else (save when playing against fire). the deck lacks internal draw consistency (granted many deck do also). heck people could even tech in 3/4 rainbow and a colbian (whatever the steel deer thing is called) to OHKO Beartic. it just has a lot going against it. even if it matches up well to Reshiram, it lacks against a lot of the field. so, the field becomes Reshiram’s greatest asset against this deck. 

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JI3PPM2AKPNZHWG6Y75VIDEKLQ CalebM

        umm……….no, you CAN’T pluspower or have it used against you…  Thats part of what vileplume stops

      • Carl Scheu

        just retreat the reshiram w/ either afterburner or DCE.

    • Anonymous

      Do you think this will change when Kyurem comes out? Kyurem-Sheer Cold Beartic-Kingdra Prime will be a good deck dont you think?

    • http://twitter.com/AzZ0na Josh

      the fact that you think that beartic needs a donphan counter to be tier 1 proves that it isnt tier 1

      (not PkMnDan) directed at the purple pro

  • oliver barnett

    Note never play 3 shaymin and pachirisu in zekrom IT DOESN’T WORK! have you ever played the deck? on a seperate note Beartic will not be played kids because Yanmega is in format. but still a good article just a couple things i’d like to straighten out

  • http://profiles.google.com/gallaher.spooky.michael Michael Gallaher

    I don’t think Beartic would be good as a main attacker, especially with Vileplume because the bear would be so good with catcher. it doesn’t put out enough damage for the current format, it might be a fun anti-donphan/reshiram tech for decks that have the room. maybe a 1-1 bear line with 2 rainbow energy and max DCE in MegaZorD so you can use Yanmega’s and Zoroark’s attacks too?

  • Anonymous

    that tropical beach stadium will help bearplume succeed ii think, it will still be hard for it to reach tier one though.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JI3PPM2AKPNZHWG6Y75VIDEKLQ CalebM

      Good luck getting a playset!  :3

  • http://oblik.blogspot.com Kevin Kuphal

    ZPS is one deck that I’d like to try out.  I’m a little surprised that I haven’t seen Seeker mentioned more since the deck does have 2 essentially free prizes sitting on the bench waiting to be Catcher-ed.  A turn one/two setup gives you plenty of turns to play additional supporters and could be much more effective than a Super Scoop Up flip in both cleaning up your bench and reducing your opponents for the faster win.

    • Anonymous

      I think he omitted Seeker because he runs 4 Super Scoop Up in his list.  It does the same thing although its flippy but you cna use it to super scoop up your active pokemon.

  • http://twitter.com/poxstep Erick Adi Saputra

    The title definitely doesn’t match the content, the skeletons are either weak or plain standard. Replacing all the reversals into catcher and making it an article is kinda lame and i don’t see anything pro about it.

    If you want to make a post about emerging powers then talk more about other stuff besides the widely known info about catcher and beartic/plume. For example talk about how thundurus can be an option for ZPS to get the T1 donk (pp needed against phanpy), or how tornadus can help the donphan matchup without losing so much space and consistency.. and who even use 3-3 shaymin pachi on their ZPS? and i’d split the ssu with seekers to get rid of a single bench.

  • Anonymous

    Grizzley-lock (aka Bearplume) will be a very big deck in this format, I’m sure of it.

    • Anonymous

      I don’t think it will be represented in high numbers, I think it will be like Reshiboar, being replaced by something better and faster than it, and the deck might be to slow and have bad luck against yanmega, its mostly hype.

  • The Purple Pro

    Can someone explain how this started out as a +5 and dropped to a -6? What am I doing wrong?

    • Anonymous

      I was one of the minuses, and I was thinking about commenting, but I thought that everything I would say was already said by other commenters. But, just to be clear, here’s the why:

      In this article, you took standard lists from the pre-EP time, replaced the word “Reversal” with “Catcher”, and re-posted those lists with some generic comments. But everyone (even me, a mediocre player at best, and I bet even you) knows that Catcher will have at least two major impacts on the way decks are built:

      1. Even more often than before, weak Basics will get KO’d from your bench–either via T2 or T3 Catcher, or by Yanmega sniping. That means that you can assume that any long (Stage 2) evolution line you run, and probably even most Stage 1′s, needs one extra Basic, or you need to run a couple of copies of Revive to deal with the loss. 2-1-2 Typhlosion, 2-1-2 Magnezone, 2-1-2 Vileplume, these just don’t make any sense any more–they need to be 3-1-2 at least, and some people are even considering making them 3-0-2 because the Stage 1 is also so vulnerable to Catcher. (I’m not. But it’s a valid question.)

      2. With the introduction of more hefty, speedy basics (Thundurus, and Tornadus maybe) to complement the hefty speedsters we already have (the dragons, Donphan), any deck that isn’t based around these will start the game behind a prize or two. Now, the Worlds championship game actually taught us that being behind isn’t necessarily a bad thing–that starting behind can be overcome by adding Twins to the supporter engine.  Future TyRam, MegaZone, and Vileplume builds will end up *requiring* Twins in order to come back from losing Basics to Catcher. But your supporter lines are frozen in the pre-EP meta. Your article should have considered this change, and dealt with it.

      Others can chime in, but this is why I voted minus–your article touts that it’s about “New Choices”, but I don’t think you made or argued any new choices at all.

      • Carl Scheu

        I haven’t voted, and I probably won’t b/c I’m about 50-50-

        IDK, but this article IMO is up and down w/ pretty big swings in both directions(as you noted +5 to -5 and now close to being back up to 0), it’s not a bad article, but I do agree w/ the poster above me saying you didn’t introduce new ideas, granted my recent articles haven’t had any either, so IDK why.

        I did find this article to be vanilla, as in, it didn’t generate new ideas or make old ideas better it kinda just did a brief description of each deck w/out going too indepth on matchups or particular lines of cards, which is something I know people want.

        Lastly, I can say, kinda, that it’s not b/c of your grammar or any “silly” writing mistakes, it seemed good to me. I am saying this b/c I know that is something I struggle w/ mightily(or at least used to, I’d have to ask Adam or one of my friends to evaluate that), It was bad to the point where I was told to go to regular english b/c of it. But, I didn’t see anything noticeable(there was one or two typos) so it’s not b/c of that, so you’re not behing you just need to go more indepth

    • Anonymous

      You have good writing style but you need to add “twists” and interesting ideas in your articles (not everyone will agree with your ideas but its good to have twists). Except for Bearplume, you listed old decks without trying to add a twist on it. For example your ZPS list could have had an emerging powers twist by suggesting to add tornadus or thundurus. These two basics actually increases the chance of a first turn donk since both genies can do 80 damage and easily knocks out 80 and below starters.  you have potential but you need more time to ripen your ideas before submitting new articles. I do hope the dislikes wont discourage you but would instead motivate you to be a better writer.