Every metagame has its top tier decks, and then there are always the other decks that are playing catch up, trying to tech against them.
The top tier decks are always the most popular though, so going in to any tournament using one of them, you must always be prepared to the possibility that as the tournament progresses, your odds of getting paired against a mirror match increase dramatically.
I think it’s safe to assume that if you are reading this article you are pretty well informed on the metagame – what has and hasn’t been doing well this current season.
First and foremost we have the most successful SP variant: LuxChomp. I know we have had countless articles about this deck, and you must all know its ins and outs pretty well by now. I myself used LuxChomp in a total of 4 State Championships for a combined total of 23-6, where 4 of those 6 losses were to other SP variants or mirrors.
The next 2 SP variants that have been causing ruckus this season are DialgaChomp and SableLock. These two decks have a less aggressive approach than LuxChomp, but are still pretty deadly. Fresh off week 2 of States, our very own J-Wittz took the aggressiveness of LuxChomp and the disruption of SableLock and combined them into a new monster: LoxChomp, which he took to 2 States finals and I’m sure would’ve done just as well or better than me at States had he gotten more opportunities.
Even with the different strategies employed by each SP variant, they all have one thing in common when it comes down to battling against each other: The Colorless War. I don’t know who coined the term ‘The Colorless War’ but I think it’s the most appropriate way to describe what goes on during an SP mirror match.
When this ‘war’ starts, all of the 4 previously mentioned decks set aside their main strategies, be it aggression (LuxChomp), tanking (DialgaChomp) or disruption (LoxChomp and SableLock) and put forth all their resources into having enough colorless Pokemon powered up and ready to do respond to OHKO’s.
Of course there are other components to the mirror match which influence such as TGI Poke Turn counts, TGI Power Spray counts, TGI Energy Gain counts, running Twins or not and tech Pokemon like 1 or 2 Crobat G, Drifblim FB, Bronzong G and Toxicroak G DP41 that I will elaborate further on in the article.
To start us off I will use my last LuxChomp list I used at States as an example of a list geared specially against mirror matches, which my metagame was filled of when I headed into States.
I feel I was only missing the 1 Twins to make my list the safest possible against mirrors, but given the consistency of the list, I was never behind in any mirror matches where having the Twins would have helped.
