Hello guys! I’m here to talk about the new format for those who are just getting in to the game and thinking of playing competitively. I’ll just talk about the meta decks, core strategy, their counters, and some decks that people did not expect to be performing as well as they are now.
So to start off, I think it’s only fair to talk about the top decks of the format. Currently, the dominating decks are:
1. LuxChomp
2. DialgaChomp
3. VileGar
On the other hand, there are some decks thats seeing some play and with a fair success such as the Arceus deck, but I will discuss those later in the article.
LuxChomp
We’ll begin with the almighty LuxChomp. For those who have been playing for a while, this is your best friend and your worst enemy. Ever since the release of Double Colorless Energy, it has dominated the tournament scene (including a 1st place finish at Worlds this year).
Why is LuxChomp so good?
1. The new format hardly affected the deck.
2. It abuses the SP engine.
3. There is a lot of room for techs to counter a lot of decks.
The core strategy of the deck? To me, personally, there is no strategy; you just attack with your best 2 attacking SP Pokemon, Luxray GL LV.X and Garchomp C LV.X. Luxray GL LV.X’s Poke-Power will let you drag up any Pokemon from the bench when it is played from your hand. You can choose to “Flash-Impact” for an easy 60 damage or stall while Garchomp C LV.X will heals all your SP Pokemon, then use it to snipe for 80 damage.
Overall, because of the SP engine, it is too quick for many decks to compete with, and even with for trainer locking decks it’s hard to win because LuxChomp can kill the source of your lock fast.
So what are LuxChomp’s counters?
1. Machamp
Machamp has the attack “Take Out” which automatically KOs the active Pokemon if it is a basic. This basically kills LuxChomp and any other SP Variant. However, it is Stage 2 and if you choose to run a Machamp deck, as it stands now, it is not a very formidable deck against other popular decks like VileGar.
2. Donphan Prime
Donphan Prime is a fighting Pokemon, 120 HP, and has the type advantage against Luxray GL LV.X. He also has a great body “Exoskeleton” which reduced all damage by 20. It is a better tech against Luxray GL LV.X than Machamp in my opinion as it is a stage 1 Pokemon and for 1 fighting energy, it can still OHKO Luxray GL LV.X and serve as a good donker.
3. Relicanth SV
I really do not see people using this anymore but it is a fairly good counter. For 1 fighting energy, it does 30 damage for each Pokemon Tool and Stadium the opponent has in play. This means it can snipe and has type advantage. Against most SP decks you will see 2 Energy Gains in play, which means you will be OHKOing an active Luxray GL LV.X.
4. Ambipom G
Ambipom G is a counter used against Garchomp C and can serve as a good donking card. For 2 colorless energy or 1 colorless and Energy Gain, it does 60 damage to the active if the active has no energy attached. This makes for a perfect counter for Garchomp C LV.X after he uses “Dragon Rush” as you have the type advantage and Garchomp C LV.X will most likely not have any energy on him.
5. Dragonite FB
It is an all around SP Counter. His first attack “Mach Blow” does 80 damage to an SP Pokemon for 3 colorless energy or 2 colorless and a Gain. 80 damage can knock out any non-leveled up SP Pokemon in most cases, and can OHKO Garchomp C LV.X with type advantage.
6. Trainer Locking
Cards like Spiritomb and Vileplume lock trainers, making them very deadly against LuxChomp and other SP Variants. However, LuxChomp can easily work around it with the Poke-Power “Bright Look” to move your Spiritomb to the bench or to get your Vileplume to active to snipe it out in 2 turns.
I’m sure there are many more counters to LuxChomp, but these are the most commonly used and if there are any I forgot, you can add them in the comment box below.
DialgaChomp
DialgaChomp is another SP variant, much slower than LuxChomp but very potent. Its strategy revolves around tanking with Dialga G LV.X with special metal energies and using the attack “Deafen” to trainer lock and stadium locking your opponent while non SP Poke-Bodies are blocked by Dialga G LV.X’s Poke-Body. When Dialga G LV.X is about to die, it uses Warp Energies to switch into Garchomp C, only to level up to its LV.X and heal all SP Pokemon, including Dialga G LV.X. You then retreat Garchomp back to Dialga G LV.X and repeat the process. It is very deadly and worthy of being in the top 3 decks.
What are DialgaChomp’s counters?
1. Ambipom G/Dragonite FB
DialgaChomp also snipes around with Garchomp C and is an SP deck, so like LuxChomp, Ambipom G and Dragonite FB are good techs against DialgaChomp.
2. Blaziken FB LV.X
This is a great card against Dialga G LV.X and other decks. He has a great disrupting attack “Luring Flame” which brings a benched Pokemon to active and burns it. Its LV.X card has a Poke-Body which deals 40 more damage to a burned Pokemon. Regardless, his attack “Jet Shoot” will almost always OHKO Dialga G LV.X, making it the perfect counter to Dialga G LV.X.
3. Fire Decks
Decks like Charizard and Arceus do wonders against Dialga G LV.X due to Dialga G LV.X’s weakness to fire.
Dialga G LV.X does not much counter as LuxChomp, however, as it is a much slower deck, giving other speedy decks a higher chance of winning against it. Nonetheless, it is a great deck and you should watch out for it.
VileGar
VileGar is a new deck that came out just a few weeks ago upon the release of HeartGold SoulSilver Undaunted. It uses Spiritomb as a starter for early trainer lock and to evolve Oddish in to Vileplume and Gastly in the Gengar SF. Vileplume from Undaunted, with its Poke-Body locks all trainers while in play. When your opponent has a hand full of unused trainers, you use your Gengar SF’s attack “Poltergeist” to OHKO almost anything in the way. Gengar also has a great Poke-Power “Fainting Spell” which lets you flip a coin when your Gengar is knocked out, and if you get heads, the attacking Pokemon is also knocked out and you take a prize.
What are some counters to VileGar?
1. Blaziken FB LV.X
I briefly talked about this card earlier, but I will go a little further. Although Vileplume has x2 weakness to Psychic, not Fire, Blaziken FB LV.X can use the attack “Luring Flame” to bring Vileplume to the active and burn it. Next turn, Blaziken FB LV.X will use “Jet Shoot” for the OHKO.
2. Dialga G LV.X
Dialga G LV.X’s Poke-Body shuts off all non-SP Poke-Bodies, which means that the Vileplume which used to be a threat to you is now a useless Pokemon. However, watch out for the Poke-Power “Level-Down” from Gengar LV.X.
3. Uxie LA
Not much of a counter, but it is a good card that can go around the Poke-Power “Fainting Spell”. After hitting for 20 damage for 1 energy, or 40 with Expert Belt, you can return Uxie to the bottom of the deck, evading “Fainting Spell”.
4. Umbreon UD
Umbreon UD has a great attack called “Moonlight Fang” which does 30 damage for 1 darkness energy. It also has a great effect which prevents Umbreon from taking any damage from Pokemon with Poke-Bodies or Poke-Power. This is a great counter because every Pokemon in standard VileGar deck has a Poke-Power or Poke-Body and they cannot use trainers such as Pokemon Reversals to remove Umbreon from the active. Also with Gengar’s weakness, you will be hitting 60 for 1 dark energy.
Overall, VileGar is a very good deck. However, I believe that it is far too early to be called perfect because it allows itself to be countered in many ways with almost no answers.
The Other Decks
I will just be mentioning some additional decks that are getting recognition from Battle Roads. I will not be listing the counters to these decks, but their main strategies.
Decks that are seeing some play in Battle Road with a fair amount of success are:
1. Arceus
2. Scizor Prime
3. Machamp
Arceus
Arceus is a very cool deck in my opinion. Surprisingly it is doing very well, and if used correctly, it can easily counter DialgaChomp and LuxChomp. A well built Arceus deck will be supporter based, running maxed out Pokemon Collector, Bebe’s Search, Professor Oak’s New Theory, Cynthia’s Feeling, and other drawing cards. It will only run 2 or 3 trainers like Beginning Door and 4 stadiums which are Ultimate Zone.
Arceus revolves around hitting for the opponent’s weakness using it’s Arceus LV.X’s Poke-Body to use any of the Arceus attack thats in play. It is very reliant on Ultimate Zone, so getting rid of the Ultimate Zone will give you a few turns to catch up, but you will find yourself in lots of trouble when your opponent is taking a prize per turn while you can’t get set up due to Arceus’ 80 damage snipe with “Sky Spear” and hitting for your weaknesses.
Scizor Prime
This is also a new deck that came out with the release of the Undaunted set. Its Poke-Body prevents Scizor Prime from taking damage from Pokemon with Special Energies attached. Decks such as DialgaChomp and LuxChomp runs many special energies preventing them from damaging Scizor Prime. Since Scizor Prime is a metal Pokemon, it can abuse special metal energies. It uses Skarmory from UD as a starter to put many special metal energies as possible on Scizor Prime to tank and hit hard with “Metal Scissor”.
Machamp
With the increase in SP decks, Machamp is also seeing an increase. For 1 fighting energy, it will automatically KO all Basic Pokemon in the active, making it an ideal counter to SP Pokemon and for fast donk. However, if it misses the donk, it has hard time competing with other stage decks and it is easily countered by trainer lock deck such as the VileGar.
So thats it! It is a fairly long article, but I hope this can help many players who just got in the game!
This is Peter Bae, and I am going to bed!
