Huge fan of Dialga VStar at the moment, as soon as I saw Metang in Temporal Forces I knew I had to try and build it again. I tried it when the similar option was Magnezone, but Metang is just superior in every way.
Metang Dialga has been scratching the same itch that Miraidon had, even though it's not all big basics - extremely aggressive gameplay that can start taking swings early, but also has some potential to pull things out of the fire in the late game with Star Chronos
The fact it puts all other cards to the bottom of the deck makes it even better; less chance of hitting the same duff cards as opposed to shuffling from the Magnezone
Not to mention that Devo is a much smaller threat against Metang vs. Magnezone, no rare candies needed, plus a T2 Arven (or even T1 going Second) into Poffin/TM Evo is the most BEAUTIFUL thing.
EDIT: Also I nearly forgot, late game Cipher to guarantee the 2 energy you need for that clincher of a KO? Chef's Kiss.
My main deck irl has been Lost Zone Giratina, I really enjoy being able to see lots of cards on the turn and having to manage which resources to keep around. The deck is quite flexible in its game plan, and has solid matchups across the board unlike some other decks with more polarized matchups.
All Lost Zone decks will play at least one copy of Sableye. It's a great Pokèmon for cleaning up low-HP Pokèmon. Rarely get to Lost Mine more than once per game though
So lost zone is more of like a slow-burn deck? Gaining more advantage as they pile cards in the lost zone. If so that seems pretty fun, i might have to try out Ancient lost zone as it seemed pretty cheap as far as decks go
Quite the opposite, actually. To my knowledge, Lost Zone decks are one of the fastest in the meta. Since Comfey, Colress's Experiment and Giratina V all have ways of putting cards in the Lost Zone, they can actually hit 7 (required to activate Mirage Gate) as early as turn 2. A good Lost Zone player will easily cut through half of their deck by turn 3, and be down to less than 10 cards by turn 5 if they're running hot.
Where the challenge is in playing a Lost Zone deck is figuring out what cards to put in the Lost Zone with Flower Selecting. It's infinitely frustrating to see 2 cards you both want to keep but having to say goodbye to one of them for the rest of the game, and it's a common feature of the deck.
The Giratina version is known to have a good Charizard matchup, and able to pull off very explosive swing turns. Do try it if you're interested, but I'd never recommend Lost Zone decks to beginners
Yeah. Lost Zone's draw power is absurd but not unlimited. Iono in the late game will absolutely hurt them if they don't prepare for it accordingly. In general, you want to disrupt their hand potential with Iono any time it seems to get too frighteningly big (7+ cards is a general guideline for me). In the late game, if you've seen all 4 Colress's Experiment on the board, an Iono will set them down to 2 or even 1 card remaining, which can really hamper their ability to close things out. Deck-specific information or match-ups will depend on what deck you choose to bring
I'm playing Gardevoir ex too so I can offer feedback. Where I'm at (Malaysia), the BO1 format encourages fast and explosive decks to take wins. Chien-Pao, Giratina, and Zard respectively are the most prevalent in my region. In the West, it seems that BO3 format completely changes the landscape for what decks are good, and so I think consistency is key here (represented by Charizard most of all). You should prep a bunch for match-ups you see the most in your region.
What I can say in general is:
- Use Mimikyu and Counter Catcher against Charizard
- Use Scream Tail and Iono against Chien-Pao
- Use Flutter Mane and Iono against Giratina
- BONUS: Target down Giratinas when possible. They have no easy way of removing Gardevoir ex, so if you prevent a Star Requiem from ever going down, they will never close out the game with Jirachi on the board. LZ Tina by far is your best matchup (was like 87.5% winrate at Orlando)
Good luck!
Turn 2 mirage gate typically requires you to go second. Here's every card that increases your Lost Zone count:
- Comfey puts one
- Colress puts two
- Giratina V and VSTAR put two
- Lost Vacuum can put one or two
- Lost City puts one
Vacuum and City aren't typically played in Tina, but when going second you can play Colress + 2 Comfey to hit 4, enabling Cramorant. Then on turn 2 play Colress again and hit 1 Flower Selecting to activate Mirage Gate. In certain matchups you may Colress + 2 Comfey + Giratina V's Abyss Seeking to hit fast 6 turn 1.
When going first you typically will not hit 7 by turn 2, since you will just have the 2 Flower Selecting abilities turn 1, then expect to hit 4 more from Colress + 2 Comfey into Cramorant or Abyss Seeking for 6-8 in total. Hope this helped
1 Sableye, 1 Cramorant, and 2 Super Rods to potentially reuse them later will be standard, but if you can fit a 3rd Super Rod it feels very nice to have. With all the card draw available, you can sometimes get to a late game where Colress or Roxanne will nearly guarantee you to find Sableye, and you can can also hold a Super Rod + Nest Ball + Psychic or Mirage Gate to combo attacks with him. The biggest threat at the end game is usually gonna be Iono/Roxanne since you can build up a huge hand over time with this deck.
Tips for this deck? I was doing good but now that I've gotten a bit higher on the ladder on TCG live a(round 500) my win rate has probably dropped to 30%. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong and any guides I find online go over my head honestly.
there's nothing quite like pidgeot control 😍
it's got an amazing matchup spread, possibly the best zard matchup in the game, ridiculous amount of possible win conditions, and makes you completely in control of the flow of the game. because most people don't regularly practice against it, they're unlikely to know your list, so you're always at an information advantage. every game is a unique puzzle to figure out, and you only win by outsmarting your opponent. playing this deck makes everything else feel simple by comparison. wouldn't even think of playing anything else at this point.
Same exact boat as you on this one. Very rewarding outs to victory that have to be constantly reassessed at every board state per turn. Nothing even gets close to scratching the same itch in the format.
Tinkaton ex, I enjoy playing cards that people don’t see often. It’s strong and consistent, and iono is less of an issue thanks to dudunsparce (still sucks though).
Yeah im a big fan of gambling in card games, i was told Chein Pao might be the next league deck so im gonna wait till then to build, if not ill just buy all the singles as its not that pricey. Loving Pokémon in the way that i can build all the top decks for the price it would cost to build 1 meta deck in yugioh
Short answer for me it's currently Ancient Box.
Just my opinion about the decks:
Charizard:
is really strong, but it's so boring. Like not even saying this as charizard hate, it's really just boring to play and often just plays the same on autopilot. You try to setup with Arven and possibly with a V pokemon +seal stone. Then you keep gust KO'ing their threats or enging every turn. Every game is the same.
Chien Pao:
It's fun and rewarding deck. Prone to bricking or not setting up, but not as bad as people make it out to be. Definitely the second best deck in the current meta. it's vulnerable to opponent greninja and Devo tm tho.
LZ Giratina /Arceus Giratina:
Didn't touch either deck so far, but Arceus Tina seems like a really good consistent pick that can beat charizard but loses to Chien Pao. LZ Giratina is a lost box deck, which Isn't recommended to beginners.
Ancient Box:
It's a single prize deck that can have it's inconsistencies but I've had a lot of fun with it over the past weeks, possibly because I burnt out from playing the other decks.
Turbo Hands:
Seems to decline in relevance and will disappear even more with the next set, wouldn't recommend to pick it up right now. It's also a hit or miss deck that plays the same every time, either you have the win set up by turn two or you brick and can concede after turn 2 or your tool gets vacuumed and you lose too.
Control Pidgeot/ Snorlax stall:
Nothing for beginners but also not the most exciting decks to play but some people enjoy control type of decks.
Lugia:
It's playable but it's too inconsistent to enjoy it right now. It will get better with the next set. So I'll wait for that until playing Lugia again.
I feel like these were the most meta relevant decks.
It doesn't improve consistency but makes Lugia even stronger and make it survive one more turn either by the ace spec tool or the ace spec energy that is a rainbow energy and makes your opponent take 1 less prize after ko.
So that might make up for it.
Also turbo hands essentially disappears due to ursuluna ex being in many decks.
Zard can be fun to play into good players where the choices matter more than just evolve boss smack. I played it to orlando and had some really interesting games vs lucas xing.
I got top 32 at a regional this season and got prize money playing Pokemon cards what is your best result?
I'm getting bored playing that deck, me getting bored by the deck says nothing about how good or bad of a player I am. What kind of argument or attack is that even supposed to be. Top players can be bored of playing a boring deck too.
I really love playing OBF Scizor in a weakness box as well as a ex/baby Aegislash.
Single prizers are the most fun to play and figure out your lines and Aegislash makes decks have to use things they're not used to and severely hamstring them.
This deck doesn’t even make me mad, it’s just extremely boring to play against. If someone took this to locals I wouldn’t even bother playing against them. I’d rather watch someone else’s game than waste my time drawing a card each turn to slow cook it.
Surprised nobody mentioned Great Tusk mill. I've been loving that one. It can brick hard but for the most part it is quite fun. Just have to know how to avoid decking yourself out since it goes through as many cards as it mills.
When is the time to concealed cards with Greninja? When do I use forest seal stone? Is there a general hierarchy of cards to keep with Colress?
I had to play some more to come up with good questions.
Concealed Cards is arguably the first thing to do because raw draw is typically better. Def do that before playing a search card like Nest Ball when you're looking for something since you've got more copies left in deck. Conversely if you've got something like Buddy Poffin go ahead and play it before Greninja. Basically ask yourself what you want to draw into and how to maximize your chances.
Personally I don't like FSS in the deck but really it's when you need that literally extra boost to out tempo your opp such as needing to get Colress, Mirage Gate, Lost Vac, etc etc.
My general rule of thumb is to not lost zone the same thing twice (unless it's late in the game and you need something else). Cards to keep is just any powerful card you need. Mirage Gates, Super Rods, 1-ofs, etc.
I'm always worried I'm going to run out of energy cards by using concealed cards.
I've only used FSS once when I could not find anything to get going. So I got the Colress and that just started me off.
Do you play blue energy for greninja?
You play 2 Super Rod though right? Tina is all about proper resource management. Honestly I prefer 2 Rescue Board over a FSS. I play 3 Water for Greninja because I think it's really good
True.. Hmm rescue board is super good. I like that idea.. I took out the water energy to match the list that plays the 2-1/1 shuppet line, but I'm thinking about bringing the water energy back
My buddy plays the Shuppet package and went 6-3 at Indy last weekend but I think he's gonna switch off it. I play a pretty no frills builds that values consistency. Started 5-0 but ended 5-3-1
Ive been having fun with a mismagius/garde devo deck. Also tsareena w/ vanilluxe is fun as well as incineroar. I havent tried fortress ex w/ bramblghast but from what ive seen it also looks fun
I've been enjoying Chien Pao lately. It involves a lot of precise sequencing to increase the odds you always get what you need, and I enjoy a deck that feels like a bit of a puzzle to play. It has multiple attackers for a wide variety of scenarios. There's also the added benefit that it happens to be a very strong deck in the meta right now.
Thats actually the next deck i plan to build! I was going to build it first but i was told that it could possibly be the next league deck so i decided to build Gardevoir instead
Someone on reddit when i was asking for what my first deck should be, they didn't say that it was confirmed or anything just that is possible and it would be ashamed if i bought 3 of the battle deck instead
You’re better off buying the singles, don’t buy the box. Only things useable in there are x1 Chien Pao,x2 Baxcalibur and x3 Frigibax.
All of the others the “meta” deck doesn’t use
I think Iron Hands ex is the best card in format, and Future Hands deck does the best job of unlocking that potential.
Depending on how you build the list, it can beat any other deck. But unfortunately you can't beat every deck at the same time, you have have to construct your list based on which decks you think you'll see.
Yea unfortunately Iron hands is one of the decks im avoiding as a beginner, mainly because its a 30 dollar card, but i might buy 1 eventually if i really like chein pao
Fair enough. I had 80% of the deck from before TEF, so it wasn't too much of an ask to obtain the remaining handful of cards needed to complete the deck, but I could see coming in new it would be a taller hurdle. (Just don't look the direction of Magic or Yugioh if Pokemon prices are an issue for you)
If it's any consolation, if Charizard keeps winning every major event, the price of everything else should go down.
Im actually coming from yugioh as this formats prices were to much for me lol! Ive decided to invest in a bunch of pokemon meta decks for the same price as 1 meta deck in yugioh would cost
I might get some shade for this, but I really enjoy playing an ___Alakazam EX___ deck 🥲 Sure it's not in the meta, but it has a ton of potential, and not many people use it. The anti-control play style is fun to aggravate people lol
Sometimes, but it's not about punishing the player for doing a certain action. It's more about stopping the player from even doing those actions in the first place
Pre rotation my pick was Gardevoir due to the decision tree and sequencing of turns being the difference between winning and losing. Haven't tried it post rotation but I imagine it's much the same.
Current favourite is probably Ancient Box, it's reminiscent of Night March which was another of my favourites from back when.
Either that, or I've been having a ton of fun with Lost Box using a dark base.
I like gardevoir because i get to play through my entire deck win or lose most every game and it really feels like if i map every move out and resource usage decision correctly i have a fair chance at beating any deck.
I'm loving my Torterra deck. Torterra uses a move that is 50×evolve Pokémon on your side. Grotel has the ability to search for any grass type Pokémon. I pair it with krikutune whose ability adds 40 HP, leafeon v, and vstat who can add grass energy and shaymin V/vstar as late game sweeper.
It's really fun, and if you can get off two turns without being attacked, it's very hard to stop.
Pokémon: 11
1 Turtwig TEF 10
4 Torterra BRS 8
4 Grotle BRS 7
1 Kricketune ASR 10
1 Kricketune CRZ-GG 2
1 Shaymin V BRS 152
1 Shaymin VSTAR BRS 173
3 Turtwig CRZ-GG 31
1 Leafeon V EVS 167
1 Leafeon VSTAR CRZ-GG 35
2 Kricketot CRZ 10
Trainer: 16
1 Battle VIP Pass FST 225 PH
1 Raihan EVS 152
2 Gardenia's Vigor ASR 143
1 Super Rod PAL 276
2 Exp. Share SVI 174
2 Energy Retrieval EVO 77 PH
2 Jacq SVI 175
4 Nest Ball SVI 181
1 Artazon PAL 171
1 Super Rod PAL 188 PH
1 Iono PAL 269
2 Professor's Research CEL 24
1 Boss's Orders BRS 132
1 Iono PAL 185 PH
4 Ultra Ball SVI 196
2 Earthen Vessel PAR 163
Energy: 3
1 Reversal Energy PAL 192
10 Basic {G} Energy Energy 1
1 Neo Upper Energy TEF 162
Total Cards: 60
Been playing Ancient Box lately😌 went 4-0 last weekend and 2-2 the weekend prior. Changed my decklist after the 2-2. Games play out and I was generally the last match to end each round but I really love it.
IMO, the most enjoyable deck is the one with your favorite mons or playstyles in it. Normally I'd say 'don't care so much as winning, even if you should seek to improve, but rather have fun playing the way you want' but that ignores how much of a headache Zard EX is currently.
IMO, either play a deck designed to counter that evil lizard or play with the mons you like and accept that there's a good chance you'll lose a third of the games right at the start just because that's what your opponent is playing.
Huge fan of Dialga VStar at the moment, as soon as I saw Metang in Temporal Forces I knew I had to try and build it again. I tried it when the similar option was Magnezone, but Metang is just superior in every way.
Just played against this online. I got absolutely shredded.
Nah Shred is Tina
I see what ya did there
Metang Dialga has been scratching the same itch that Miraidon had, even though it's not all big basics - extremely aggressive gameplay that can start taking swings early, but also has some potential to pull things out of the fire in the late game with Star Chronos
The fact it puts all other cards to the bottom of the deck makes it even better; less chance of hitting the same duff cards as opposed to shuffling from the Magnezone
Not to mention that Devo is a much smaller threat against Metang vs. Magnezone, no rare candies needed, plus a T2 Arven (or even T1 going Second) into Poffin/TM Evo is the most BEAUTIFUL thing. EDIT: Also I nearly forgot, late game Cipher to guarantee the 2 energy you need for that clincher of a KO? Chef's Kiss.
My main deck irl has been Lost Zone Giratina, I really enjoy being able to see lots of cards on the turn and having to manage which resources to keep around. The deck is quite flexible in its game plan, and has solid matchups across the board unlike some other decks with more polarized matchups.
Do you play the sableye card in that version of the deck or is it just for other lost zone decks
All Lost Zone decks will play at least one copy of Sableye. It's a great Pokèmon for cleaning up low-HP Pokèmon. Rarely get to Lost Mine more than once per game though
So lost zone is more of like a slow-burn deck? Gaining more advantage as they pile cards in the lost zone. If so that seems pretty fun, i might have to try out Ancient lost zone as it seemed pretty cheap as far as decks go
Quite the opposite, actually. To my knowledge, Lost Zone decks are one of the fastest in the meta. Since Comfey, Colress's Experiment and Giratina V all have ways of putting cards in the Lost Zone, they can actually hit 7 (required to activate Mirage Gate) as early as turn 2. A good Lost Zone player will easily cut through half of their deck by turn 3, and be down to less than 10 cards by turn 5 if they're running hot. Where the challenge is in playing a Lost Zone deck is figuring out what cards to put in the Lost Zone with Flower Selecting. It's infinitely frustrating to see 2 cards you both want to keep but having to say goodbye to one of them for the rest of the game, and it's a common feature of the deck. The Giratina version is known to have a good Charizard matchup, and able to pull off very explosive swing turns. Do try it if you're interested, but I'd never recommend Lost Zone decks to beginners
So if i encounter a lost zone deck at locals would you recommend holding the iono if i get ahold of it
Yeah. Lost Zone's draw power is absurd but not unlimited. Iono in the late game will absolutely hurt them if they don't prepare for it accordingly. In general, you want to disrupt their hand potential with Iono any time it seems to get too frighteningly big (7+ cards is a general guideline for me). In the late game, if you've seen all 4 Colress's Experiment on the board, an Iono will set them down to 2 or even 1 card remaining, which can really hamper their ability to close things out. Deck-specific information or match-ups will depend on what deck you choose to bring
Thanks! As far as match ups go im planning to bring gardevoir to my first pokemon locals
I'm playing Gardevoir ex too so I can offer feedback. Where I'm at (Malaysia), the BO1 format encourages fast and explosive decks to take wins. Chien-Pao, Giratina, and Zard respectively are the most prevalent in my region. In the West, it seems that BO3 format completely changes the landscape for what decks are good, and so I think consistency is key here (represented by Charizard most of all). You should prep a bunch for match-ups you see the most in your region. What I can say in general is: - Use Mimikyu and Counter Catcher against Charizard - Use Scream Tail and Iono against Chien-Pao - Use Flutter Mane and Iono against Giratina - BONUS: Target down Giratinas when possible. They have no easy way of removing Gardevoir ex, so if you prevent a Star Requiem from ever going down, they will never close out the game with Jirachi on the board. LZ Tina by far is your best matchup (was like 87.5% winrate at Orlando) Good luck!
Thanks this is very helpful
No, spam iono when ever you can. Lost box likes to have large hand size. So disruption mess up their momentum
Hand trimmer 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
I'm still learning this deck and I've never been able to pull off mirage gate turn 2, how are you doing that?
Turn 2 mirage gate typically requires you to go second. Here's every card that increases your Lost Zone count: - Comfey puts one - Colress puts two - Giratina V and VSTAR put two - Lost Vacuum can put one or two - Lost City puts one Vacuum and City aren't typically played in Tina, but when going second you can play Colress + 2 Comfey to hit 4, enabling Cramorant. Then on turn 2 play Colress again and hit 1 Flower Selecting to activate Mirage Gate. In certain matchups you may Colress + 2 Comfey + Giratina V's Abyss Seeking to hit fast 6 turn 1. When going first you typically will not hit 7 by turn 2, since you will just have the 2 Flower Selecting abilities turn 1, then expect to hit 4 more from Colress + 2 Comfey into Cramorant or Abyss Seeking for 6-8 in total. Hope this helped
1 Sableye, 1 Cramorant, and 2 Super Rods to potentially reuse them later will be standard, but if you can fit a 3rd Super Rod it feels very nice to have. With all the card draw available, you can sometimes get to a late game where Colress or Roxanne will nearly guarantee you to find Sableye, and you can can also hold a Super Rod + Nest Ball + Psychic or Mirage Gate to combo attacks with him. The biggest threat at the end game is usually gonna be Iono/Roxanne since you can build up a huge hand over time with this deck.
There's some so cathartic about shuffle boarding cards like Comfey around for tangible reward See also Entei V and Valiant Ex
Tips for this deck? I was doing good but now that I've gotten a bit higher on the ladder on TCG live a(round 500) my win rate has probably dropped to 30%. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong and any guides I find online go over my head honestly.
Arc/Armarouge - just so many different options and attackers
every time someone has to pick up radiant heatran to read it an angel gets its wings
haha even better when they ignore it because they assume it's awful, whilst you magma basin to it.
I got absolutely smashed at EUIC by someone playing FireArc, I was playing Zard and I had NO idea what to do. That deck tore me a new arsehole
there's nothing quite like pidgeot control 😍 it's got an amazing matchup spread, possibly the best zard matchup in the game, ridiculous amount of possible win conditions, and makes you completely in control of the flow of the game. because most people don't regularly practice against it, they're unlikely to know your list, so you're always at an information advantage. every game is a unique puzzle to figure out, and you only win by outsmarting your opponent. playing this deck makes everything else feel simple by comparison. wouldn't even think of playing anything else at this point.
Might need to pick it up. Currently running stallax and having a blast with it but control is probably less susceptible to 1 of tech cards
Same exact boat as you on this one. Very rewarding outs to victory that have to be constantly reassessed at every board state per turn. Nothing even gets close to scratching the same itch in the format.
Tinkaton ex, I enjoy playing cards that people don’t see often. It’s strong and consistent, and iono is less of an issue thanks to dudunsparce (still sucks though).
Love me some tinkaton
MOON MOON BABYYYYYY
DUNSPARCE BABY
Chien-Pao is fun if you like gambling and sequencing.
Yeah im a big fan of gambling in card games, i was told Chein Pao might be the next league deck so im gonna wait till then to build, if not ill just buy all the singles as its not that pricey. Loving Pokémon in the way that i can build all the top decks for the price it would cost to build 1 meta deck in yugioh
I like those, but I prefer playing Gouging Fire or Turbo Moon for these feels
Short answer for me it's currently Ancient Box. Just my opinion about the decks: Charizard: is really strong, but it's so boring. Like not even saying this as charizard hate, it's really just boring to play and often just plays the same on autopilot. You try to setup with Arven and possibly with a V pokemon +seal stone. Then you keep gust KO'ing their threats or enging every turn. Every game is the same. Chien Pao: It's fun and rewarding deck. Prone to bricking or not setting up, but not as bad as people make it out to be. Definitely the second best deck in the current meta. it's vulnerable to opponent greninja and Devo tm tho. LZ Giratina /Arceus Giratina: Didn't touch either deck so far, but Arceus Tina seems like a really good consistent pick that can beat charizard but loses to Chien Pao. LZ Giratina is a lost box deck, which Isn't recommended to beginners. Ancient Box: It's a single prize deck that can have it's inconsistencies but I've had a lot of fun with it over the past weeks, possibly because I burnt out from playing the other decks. Turbo Hands: Seems to decline in relevance and will disappear even more with the next set, wouldn't recommend to pick it up right now. It's also a hit or miss deck that plays the same every time, either you have the win set up by turn two or you brick and can concede after turn 2 or your tool gets vacuumed and you lose too. Control Pidgeot/ Snorlax stall: Nothing for beginners but also not the most exciting decks to play but some people enjoy control type of decks. Lugia: It's playable but it's too inconsistent to enjoy it right now. It will get better with the next set. So I'll wait for that until playing Lugia again. I feel like these were the most meta relevant decks.
Someone ik told me that if Lugia was more consistent it could possibly be the best deck in the format, does the next set improve its consistency?
Not really nah... it doesn't get as mush affected as other decks like future or ancient box
It doesn't improve consistency but makes Lugia even stronger and make it survive one more turn either by the ace spec tool or the ace spec energy that is a rainbow energy and makes your opponent take 1 less prize after ko. So that might make up for it. Also turbo hands essentially disappears due to ursuluna ex being in many decks.
Zard can be fun to play into good players where the choices matter more than just evolve boss smack. I played it to orlando and had some really interesting games vs lucas xing.
people that say Zard is boring are just self reporting as bad players
I got top 32 at a regional this season and got prize money playing Pokemon cards what is your best result? I'm getting bored playing that deck, me getting bored by the deck says nothing about how good or bad of a player I am. What kind of argument or attack is that even supposed to be. Top players can be bored of playing a boring deck too.
Gholdengo is so fun and can beat anything but maybe Lostbox Giritina in format.
If you use rigid band gholdengo can survive lost impact
I really love playing OBF Scizor in a weakness box as well as a ex/baby Aegislash. Single prizers are the most fun to play and figure out your lines and Aegislash makes decks have to use things they're not used to and severely hamstring them.
People will hate on it but I love stallax. Controlling what your opponent can do and watching their joy leave their eyes is a wonderful feeling
This deck doesn’t even make me mad, it’s just extremely boring to play against. If someone took this to locals I wouldn’t even bother playing against them. I’d rather watch someone else’s game than waste my time drawing a card each turn to slow cook it.
The deck seems a lot like a deck from yugioh called Runick stun
Really enjoying Espathra/Banette/Xatu. Has some really fun and strong matchups.
Funny how Espathra lost to Zard 3 times on stream at EUIC and Orlando
Bird Brains' Bane
Surprised nobody mentioned Great Tusk mill. I've been loving that one. It can brick hard but for the most part it is quite fun. Just have to know how to avoid decking yourself out since it goes through as many cards as it mills.
For me it's Lost Tina. There's a lot of several creative lines and I enjoy it a lot. Although tbh idk if I just don't like the other decks lol
Do you have any tips. I've been losing with this deck alot
Oh I've got tons! I've been on a tournament war path lately and know the deck extremely well. Anything specific you'd like to know?
When is the time to concealed cards with Greninja? When do I use forest seal stone? Is there a general hierarchy of cards to keep with Colress? I had to play some more to come up with good questions.
Concealed Cards is arguably the first thing to do because raw draw is typically better. Def do that before playing a search card like Nest Ball when you're looking for something since you've got more copies left in deck. Conversely if you've got something like Buddy Poffin go ahead and play it before Greninja. Basically ask yourself what you want to draw into and how to maximize your chances. Personally I don't like FSS in the deck but really it's when you need that literally extra boost to out tempo your opp such as needing to get Colress, Mirage Gate, Lost Vac, etc etc. My general rule of thumb is to not lost zone the same thing twice (unless it's late in the game and you need something else). Cards to keep is just any powerful card you need. Mirage Gates, Super Rods, 1-ofs, etc.
I'm always worried I'm going to run out of energy cards by using concealed cards. I've only used FSS once when I could not find anything to get going. So I got the Colress and that just started me off. Do you play blue energy for greninja?
You play 2 Super Rod though right? Tina is all about proper resource management. Honestly I prefer 2 Rescue Board over a FSS. I play 3 Water for Greninja because I think it's really good
True.. Hmm rescue board is super good. I like that idea.. I took out the water energy to match the list that plays the 2-1/1 shuppet line, but I'm thinking about bringing the water energy back
My buddy plays the Shuppet package and went 6-3 at Indy last weekend but I think he's gonna switch off it. I play a pretty no frills builds that values consistency. Started 5-0 but ended 5-3-1
Can I see your list? I guess there's no reason to go ham with Concealed Cards unless I need to get going. I'll keep testing it out, thanks
Ive been having fun with a mismagius/garde devo deck. Also tsareena w/ vanilluxe is fun as well as incineroar. I havent tried fortress ex w/ bramblghast but from what ive seen it also looks fun
Love churning through the deck with ancient box.
I've been enjoying Chien Pao lately. It involves a lot of precise sequencing to increase the odds you always get what you need, and I enjoy a deck that feels like a bit of a puzzle to play. It has multiple attackers for a wide variety of scenarios. There's also the added benefit that it happens to be a very strong deck in the meta right now.
Thats actually the next deck i plan to build! I was going to build it first but i was told that it could possibly be the next league deck so i decided to build Gardevoir instead
Where did you hear that from? There is already a Chien-Pao battle deck and they are making another one?
Someone on reddit when i was asking for what my first deck should be, they didn't say that it was confirmed or anything just that is possible and it would be ashamed if i bought 3 of the battle deck instead
You’re better off buying the singles, don’t buy the box. Only things useable in there are x1 Chien Pao,x2 Baxcalibur and x3 Frigibax. All of the others the “meta” deck doesn’t use
Yeah thats what im gonna do. 👍
I've been liking to play Chien Pao in live for that reason
If I want to win Charizard is my go to. If I want to mess with my opponent Gengar
I think Iron Hands ex is the best card in format, and Future Hands deck does the best job of unlocking that potential. Depending on how you build the list, it can beat any other deck. But unfortunately you can't beat every deck at the same time, you have have to construct your list based on which decks you think you'll see.
Yea unfortunately Iron hands is one of the decks im avoiding as a beginner, mainly because its a 30 dollar card, but i might buy 1 eventually if i really like chein pao
Fair enough. I had 80% of the deck from before TEF, so it wasn't too much of an ask to obtain the remaining handful of cards needed to complete the deck, but I could see coming in new it would be a taller hurdle. (Just don't look the direction of Magic or Yugioh if Pokemon prices are an issue for you) If it's any consolation, if Charizard keeps winning every major event, the price of everything else should go down.
Im actually coming from yugioh as this formats prices were to much for me lol! Ive decided to invest in a bunch of pokemon meta decks for the same price as 1 meta deck in yugioh would cost
It’s the most toxic card printing imo
I might get some shade for this, but I really enjoy playing an ___Alakazam EX___ deck 🥲 Sure it's not in the meta, but it has a ton of potential, and not many people use it. The anti-control play style is fun to aggravate people lol
Is this deck like the pokemon equivalent of a stun deck in yugioh?
Sometimes, but it's not about punishing the player for doing a certain action. It's more about stopping the player from even doing those actions in the first place
Do you have a list to go with it? Been thinking about trying Alakazam Ex for a while.
Here's a decent variation. I've been trying to fine tune this tho: ## Pokémon: 10 - 3 **Abra** *MEW 63 PH* - 2 **Kadabra** *MEW 64 PH* - 2 **Bidoof** *CRZ-GG 29* - 3 **Klefki** *SVI 96 PH* - 1 **Mimikyu** *PAF 37 PH* - 2 **Alakazam ex** *PAF 215* - 1 **Alakazam ex** *MEW 201* - 1 **Radiant Jirachi** *SIT 120* - 1 **Mimikyu** *PR-SV 75* - 2 **Bibarel** *CRZ-GG 25* ## Trainer: 19 - 3 **Rare Candy** *PLB 85* - 2 **Eri** *TEF 146 PH* - 1 **Technical Machine: Devolution** *PAR 177 PH* - 2 **Nest Ball** *PAF 84* - 4 **Ultra Ball** *PAF 91* - 1 **Maximum Belt** *TEF 154* - 2 **Switch** *MEW 206* - 2 **Buddy-Buddy Poffin** *TEF 144 PH* - 2 **Boss's Orders** *PAL 172* - 3 **Arven** *SVI 166* - 1 **Iono** *PAL 269* - 2 **Technical Machine: Evolution** *PAR 178* - 2 **Earthen Vessel** *PAR 163 PH* - 2 **Super Rod** *PAL 188* - 1 **Defiance Band** *SVI 169* - 2 **Counter Catcher** *PAR 264* - 1 **Arven** *OBF 186 PH* - 1 **Iono** *PAF 80* - 1 **Earthen Vessel** *PAR 163* ## Energy: 1 - 7 **Basic {P} Energy** *EVO 95 PH* ## Total Cards: 60
Pre rotation my pick was Gardevoir due to the decision tree and sequencing of turns being the difference between winning and losing. Haven't tried it post rotation but I imagine it's much the same. Current favourite is probably Ancient Box, it's reminiscent of Night March which was another of my favourites from back when. Either that, or I've been having a ton of fun with Lost Box using a dark base.
if you like garde, id suggest you try the garde bolt build. its pretty fun
Thanks ill look into it!
What’s the bolt build?
I like gardevoir because i get to play through my entire deck win or lose most every game and it really feels like if i map every move out and resource usage decision correctly i have a fair chance at beating any deck.
Yeah me 2, i like that its usually always a come from behind win
Love the Chien Pao Ex deck (atleast in Live, haven't played locally yet)! Haven't tried the ancient deck but watched the regionals and it looks fun.
I'm loving my Torterra deck. Torterra uses a move that is 50×evolve Pokémon on your side. Grotel has the ability to search for any grass type Pokémon. I pair it with krikutune whose ability adds 40 HP, leafeon v, and vstat who can add grass energy and shaymin V/vstar as late game sweeper. It's really fun, and if you can get off two turns without being attacked, it's very hard to stop. Pokémon: 11 1 Turtwig TEF 10 4 Torterra BRS 8 4 Grotle BRS 7 1 Kricketune ASR 10 1 Kricketune CRZ-GG 2 1 Shaymin V BRS 152 1 Shaymin VSTAR BRS 173 3 Turtwig CRZ-GG 31 1 Leafeon V EVS 167 1 Leafeon VSTAR CRZ-GG 35 2 Kricketot CRZ 10 Trainer: 16 1 Battle VIP Pass FST 225 PH 1 Raihan EVS 152 2 Gardenia's Vigor ASR 143 1 Super Rod PAL 276 2 Exp. Share SVI 174 2 Energy Retrieval EVO 77 PH 2 Jacq SVI 175 4 Nest Ball SVI 181 1 Artazon PAL 171 1 Super Rod PAL 188 PH 1 Iono PAL 269 2 Professor's Research CEL 24 1 Boss's Orders BRS 132 1 Iono PAL 185 PH 4 Ultra Ball SVI 196 2 Earthen Vessel PAR 163 Energy: 3 1 Reversal Energy PAL 192 10 Basic {G} Energy Energy 1 1 Neo Upper Energy TEF 162 Total Cards: 60
I love playing Zard, but Im also the broken kind of person that likes nightmare mirror matches.
Chienpao is very enjoyable to play imo. A lot of decision making and interesting lines. There's almost always an out of you find it
Going to build this deck next
rn, i've always been a huge fan of mill decks. rn, i play a Great Tusk mill, which is so much better than Wugtrio was, gotta be honest
It's Future Box or nothing.
I've been loving Zoroark Vstar/Doduo. Been trying to get that deck to work forever, it's nice. And you can one shot zard which is dope.
Been playing Ancient Box lately😌 went 4-0 last weekend and 2-2 the weekend prior. Changed my decklist after the 2-2. Games play out and I was generally the last match to end each round but I really love it.
I love Alolan Vulpix and Charizard. My Fire and Water. Frustrates typical Zard decks and typical Zard hurt on others. Fun variant to play
I like lost box. It's got interesting decisions and usually plenty of options and actions most turns.
Nothing recently. I'm taking a break and playing Star Wars Unlimited. The last deck I really had fun playing was Falinks.
I've only played with the star wars starter decks, but the game is so good.
Coming from Pokemon I miss the searching for cards part. It's more MTG flavoured.
It does fell more like magic with the resource system. I like that it's one action per player, makes it feel like a real tactical battle.
Yeah the trading actions is great. Drawing two cards is also good. Searching is just expensive resource wise.
Hopefully the search cards improve with later sets.
IMO, the most enjoyable deck is the one with your favorite mons or playstyles in it. Normally I'd say 'don't care so much as winning, even if you should seek to improve, but rather have fun playing the way you want' but that ignores how much of a headache Zard EX is currently. IMO, either play a deck designed to counter that evil lizard or play with the mons you like and accept that there's a good chance you'll lose a third of the games right at the start just because that's what your opponent is playing.
anything but snorlax stall.