Standard My competitive Greninja BREAK decklist!

[Pokeman]

This is my well tested & competitive deck that I have been working on for sometime now, I recently started into the game again & was a very successful player, but I am not very familiar with a lot of other decks besides a few. Though I go to the same league as Cody which took 2nd in Worlds this past season and he gave me some ideas. I have beaten almost everyone I've played with this list, which includes multiple Garbador decks mainly ran with Mewtwo EX. I am posting my deck for feedback on my deck on how the list looks & am open to share it on the Beach. I would also appreciate ideas to add in or take out and a reason behind backing up your idea. The deck is a speed deck which is trying to setup 2 Breaks as soon as possible so I can start using it's amazing ability. Also using Talonflame for a secure setup and prefered start to the opening of the battle. I'm am very willing to answer any questions about why I play a certain card or on why I play that many of a card. Just ask and bring my list into a conversation. Thank you!

Pokemon-

3 Greninja BREAK
3 Greninja 40/122
1 Greninja XY162
4 Frogadier
3 Froakie
4 Talonflame

T/T/S/S-

4 Professor Sycamore
4 Dive Ball
4 VS Seeker
4 Bursting Balloon
3 N
2 Giovanni's Scheme
2 Trainers Mail
2 Faded Town
1 Rough Sea
1 Ace Trainer
1 Lysandre
1 Pokemon Center Lady
1 Brock's Grit
1 Pokemon Catcher
1 Max Potion
1 Energy Retrieval

Energies-

8 Water Energy
1 Splash

 

[WastedSkyPirate]

Hi @Pokeman

Thanks for posting your list!

Greninja is a funny one, in that the lists that are achieving top 32 placements at Regionals have a lot of variance. This suggests that we haven't yet figured out the best formula for Greninja BREAK. Some lists opt for consistency, whilst others play a few one-ofs such as Rare Candy, Max Potion, Wally, etc. This makes Greninja BREAK a great deck for discussion!

Your list has some interesting card choices. I'd be keen to hear your explanation for running the following:

• Giovanni's Scheme
• Pokemon Center Lady
• Brock's Grit
• Pokemon Catcher
• Rough Seas

Meanwhile, the notable omissions are:

• Fisherman
• Ultra Ball / Level Ball
• Super Rod
• Professor's Letter
• Faded Town (more)

I'd argue that you need a single copy of Fisherman; it's critical to have Energy recovery available to you throughout the game (via VS Seeker), such that when you eventually have one or more Greninja BREAK on the board, you have a way of accessing the Energy in your discard pile.

Your list runs one Brock's Grit and one Energy Retrieval but I worry this limits your options - discarding your Energy Retrieval early in the game could be fatal as you would then have no card capable of putting Energy from the discard pile/deck directly into your hand. Whilst Brock's Grit looks good on paper, it forces you to potentially shuffle in undesirable pieces (e.g. Talonflame). I feel two Super Rod is the better choice as it gives you greater flexibility without using up your Supporter.

I suggest supplementing your four Dive Ball with two or three Ultra Ball or Level Ball. You want to give yourself the highest chance of finding all of your Greninja pieces in the right order and, for that, more than four Ball cards are needed. Of course, you also want to avoid being donked, so finding an out to a benched Pokemon is usually one of your top first-turn priorities. As for which Ball to use, I would recommend Ultra Ball. Since we no longer have Battle Compressor to discard one-of Supporters and Talonflame, Ultra Ball becomes the best method of discarding cards. Greninja decks tend to N/Ace Trainer a lot, so having the chance to Ultra Ball away undesirable draws, and not shuffling them into your deck again, is important for consistency.

Anyway, those are my initial thoughts on your list, I hope you find them useful

 

[Asmer]

I would like to point out that returning Frog Lines with Splash Energy seems ever so slightly more useful than returning them to the deck with Brock's Grit. Also, I would also like to highly suggest adding in a Fisherman, if only for the fact that it truly does no worse than help the deck. Sadly, I would offer more advice/suggestions, but I'm running on no sleep. ^^;;

-Asmer

 

[Pokeman]

Thanks for both of your feedback, I've actually played Fisherman Super Rod and as well as I did stick in 1 Professor's Letter in my list before hand, until I did some Tweaking play testing and was trying out some other direction with the deck. I agree about the extra ball line up, I was considering taking out the 2 trainer mails to add in 2 Ultra Balls and give a test run. As for my explanation on the cards your interested in, that you picked out... Well for starters I did some testing with a switch out of Rod & Fisherman in replacement of 1 ER & 1 Brock's Grit, to find it nothing, but smooth. It abled me to cut out an energy as well. I found that drawing early game Rod would not only be pretty much garbage, but not returnable back which led me to Brock's Grit, having it early game and tossing it away for a new hand, also kept the option available to recycle energies/pokemon whenever needed with the use of a Vs seeker. Being aware of Talonflame getting shuffled back in came to mind playing the card, but never came to an issue of even shuffling back 1, I've always find myself getting a line of some sort back/a group of energies leaving the Talonflames still in the discard pile. With getting back 6 cards I found adding fisherman wasn't very necessary due to not having a whole lot to bring back to my hand, which gave me the ability to cut the supporter in replacement with a normal trainer that will give me back 2 energies to use with Greninja's ability/attach for turn and giving me the freedom of still being able to play some sort of supporter that could make matters more effective. Giovanni's Scheme is like a must for me in this deck, I REALLY like this card. It's 2 mediocre cards built in 1!!! Mainly best used for it's 20 extra damage with can kill off a M EX, which I felt comfortable only playing 1 faded town due to this card being in here. Another reason I think this card is great with being N'd late game or even mid game and I draw this or rip it with a Trainer mail or just find my hand at a lower count at anytime, playing this card has given me on average 3 cards, with all the testing I've done, I kept note on how many cards I would find myself drawing. Lastly the card in combo with the 1 catcher I play, which I had more catchers in before I replaced a Greninja for the promo, but GS+ an obvious heads, hence being flippy, but being a major effective card if the luck is right, gets a 1 shot on a benched Garbador. I cut down to 1 on catcher as a very light tech now with that potential outcome, but I don't hesitate adding in 1 more, if needed. Just due to a chance card i don't want to rely on it, but play it as a potential to an outcome that could be very helping. I find myself running into a lot of different style decks, center lady teamed with a Rough Sea, I find an underrated combo in this deck, being as I usually end up pitching away PCL early game, I find having it available in situations can be very comfortable in situations where I want to keep my Greninja alive, if its not facing a of course 1 shot, but the combo is no different then playing a Golden Potion, being as a situational card I find the 1 great, don't take my word for my card choices, try giving it a shot As for now next I will try out some Ultra Balls and see how useful they can be, thank you.

 

[LightningCloud224]

This I need to test to understand. It looks promising but at the same time odd.

 

[Pokeman]

This I need to test to understand. It looks promising but at the same time odd.

What is standing out as the odd part you've came to state? Is there something you'd think I should be playing in here that would be more effective/don't get why I play it?

 

[Asmer]

What is standing out as the odd part you've came to state? Is there something you'd think I should be playing in here that would be more effective/don't get why I play it?

Well, in fairness, while the build does provide quite a lot of utility as a whole, for a Greninja BREAK deck...

It looks about as consistent as milk left out in the Arizona sun during the Summer.

That's what threw me off as well. Granted, if you've tested it and it works, it works. What's there to question then? But... keep in mind that we'll all initially be confused just because as a general, players are typically used to visual consistency over 1-ofs. xP

Still, I'm glad it runs well for you. Keep up the good work!

-Asmer

 

[LightningCloud224]

Well, in fairness, while the build does provide quite a lot of utility as a whole, for a Greninja BREAK deck...

It looks about as consistent as milk left out in the Arizona sun during the Summer.

That's what threw me off as well. Granted, if you've tested it and it works, it works. What's there to question then? But... keep in mind that we'll all initially be confused just because as a general, players are typically used to visual consistency over 1-ofs. xP

Still, I'm glad it runs well for you. Keep up the good work!

-Asmer

Asmer puts it straight but harshly. What I'm looking at is a totally different engine for Greninja that looks interesting enough that I require time to test it to see how consistent or inconsistent it is. Not getting time quite yet, might be a few days.

 

[WastedSkyPirate]

Hi @Pokeman

Just to come back to you on your choice of healing cards (in particular, Pokemon Center Lady and Rough Seas), can I ask which matchups you find that these are most useful?

As far as I am aware, all of the top finishing lists from recent Regionals opted to forgo Rough Seas in favour of Faded Town or Silent Lab. Part of the thinking being that not many of the big decks right now will struggle to OHKO Greninja BREAK. M Mewtwo (Y), M Rayquaza, Rainbow Road, Volcanion, M Gardevoir (STS) and even Yveltal don't struggle to hit 170.

I'd argue that you're better to ditch Rough Seas all together in favour of a Faded Town. I'd also switch out Pokemon Center Lady for Fisherman or a consistency card (Trainers' Mail or Ultra Ball).

EDIT:

I agree with @LightningCloud224 in that it's hard to critique without testing. For a start I like the idea of some of your card choices (e.g. Giovanni's Scheme) but I don't know how they work in practice.

 

[Asmer]

Asmer puts it straight but harshly. What I'm looking at is a totally different engine for Greninja that looks interesting enough that I require time to test it to see how consistent or inconsistent it is. Not getting time quite yet, might be a few days.

Yeah, sorry about that. I've never been known for subtlety... ^^;;

-Asmer

 

[Pokeman]

well I made a change today by adding in a second Faded Town for a minus of a rough sea. What is your guys thoughts on 1-1-1 starmie break?

Edit: I am considering playing it in here and taking out ER the 1 Rough Sea and PCL. Also then if I did that I would want to add in either 2 Level Balls or Ultra Balls in replacement of the Trainers Mail.

 

[Asmer]

well I made a change today by adding in a second Faded Town for a minus of a rough sea. What is your guys thoughts on 1-1-1 starmie break?

Edit: I am considering playing it in here and taking out ER the 1 Rough Sea and PCL. Also then if I did that I would want to add in either 2 Level Balls or Ultra Balls in replacement of the Trainers Mail.

The first thing that popped in to my mind is why you would want to play a 1-1-1 anything. The second is why Starmie BREAK? There shouldn't be anything BREAK-wise that you should be struggling against that I can think of and if you're worried about the Mirror, I would personally tech something that takes less deck space. Then again, try it out. It could work.

-Asmer

 

[Pokeman]

Well mainly it is just a 1-1 Starmie that is on a every match up basis that is mainly helpful to have a trade in on a garbage card in hand like Talonflames or whatever else even toss the Starmie Break if the match up doesn't find use for it. Yes though on the mirror match, I was thinking if I go up against Greninja break deck a Giovanni Scheme plus a star break with of course a shuriken will kill a Greninja and hit benched Greninja's setting up a kill for next turn. It also can combo with the 1 promo Greninja I play too. I tested it out & it honestly ain't bad at all, low cost attack that can be explosive in a mirror or else if I go up against some generic deck I may go up against could be a great card. Only 1 retreat makes it a manageable card in my opinion. Only issue I see is that I see that could hurt slightly is the extra basic lowering the chance of Talonflame start, hence I haven't came across that issue in the 6 games I've tried this lineup yet, I haven't came across any 1 shot decks really, so the loss of rough sea and PCL is something I''ll have to try and get confortable with, but I still have the max potion, which makes me kind of want to add a second max potion somehow. The decks I have battled in the recent weeks have been a Quad Raikou deck, Aerodactyl/Zorark/Yanmega, Mewtwo/Garbador, this dark deck that does 20+20 more for each energy on you and your opponent's active with Garbador & this fairy deck with Gardevoir & other fairy variants. I a week ago in the finals of a tournament I beat this Talonflame BREAK/Zorak deck. With my original list before making some changes I went undefeated with a win.