Alt. Format To Item or Not to Item (That is the Question)

[President Pokemon]

This is a list I have made for worlds, where both Noivern-GX and DDE are going to be legal. (They also might reprint it, which I hope)

2x Tapu Lele-GX
4x Noibat
3x Noivern-GX
3x Trubbish
3x Garbodor (GRI)

4x DDE
6x Psychic

2x Field Blower
2x Delinquent
4x Crushing Hammer
3x Team Flare Grunt
2x Enhanced hammer
2x Team Skull grunt
4x Choice Band
2x Nest ball
4x Ultra Ball
4x Sycamore
3x N
2x wally
1x Hala

If you open with Noibat as your starter and Trubbish on your bench, then you can lele for wally and force your opponent to either use as much items as possible because they know the lock is coming, which will then power up Garb, or they can not use items and sycamore items into the discard, powering up Garb, or N for bricked hands. Then you can force the discard of items with deli and field blower.

 

[President Pokemon]

Should I call it Garboivern or Noiverbodor?

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi President Pokemon,

Not entire sure on the chocies here. It is far too early to consider reliable lists for Noivern GX at the moment but I would rather focus on hand denial and abilities denial with Noivern GX since he already shuts down trainers.

SONIC WAVE

Pokémon (14):

• 2 Tapu Lele GX (beatdown)
• 4 Noibat (needs evolution)
• 4 Noivern GX (beatdown)
• 2 Alolan Grimer (evolve)
• 2 Alolan Muk (denial)

Trainer (34):

• 4 Professor Sycamore (draw)
• 1 Professor Kukui (draw)
• 3 Delinquent (control)
• 1 Lysandre (control)
  
• 1 Bridgette (search)
  
• 3 N (draw)
• 1 Rescue Stretcher (retrieval)
• 3 Choice Band (beatdown)
• 2 Escape Rope (control)
  
• 4 Vs Seeker (retrieval)
• 4 Red Card (disable)
• 4 Ultra Ball (search)
• 3 Parallel City (disable)

Energy (12):

• 4 Double Dragon Energy
• 8 Darkness Energy

The main idea of this list would be to keep their hand size at four to two cards at the start of each of their turns and to lock them out of abilities with Alolan Muk and lock them out of item cards with Noivern GX. Red Card and Delinquent are rather disruptive. Assume that but have been used with success the opponent is left with no more than two cards at the start of their turn. If they topdeck a draw supporter you will be fine with it since they neither used Lysandre nor any energy discard supporter that turn and you can reuse that same combo on another turn anyway. This leaves the opponent with a small window to get value from the cards they have drawn. Since you lockdown abilities drawing into Shaymin Ex or Tapu Lele GX will not benefit the opponent much. Note that this is not a turn 1 lock. Turn one use Tapu Lele GX and Bridgette to get the needed basics out to evolve them. Turn two is where the lock is supposed to start. Now you evolve into Alolan Muk and Noivern GX and support them with Red Card and Delinquent. Hand deniual is powerful in all card games especially when the setup turns are a little slower than last format. Please let me know what you think about these considerations.

 

[President Pokemon]

You can Wally and DDE for a T1 item lock if I'm not mistaken.

I was thinking maybe switching 1x GRI Garb for a BRP Garb and adding some float stones for ability lock.

 

[Dark Espeon]

You can Wally and DDE for a T1 item lock if I'm not mistaken.

I was thinking maybe switching 1x GRI Garb for a BRP Garb and adding some float stones for ability lock.

Hi President Pokémon,

Sure it can be dune but if you miss the Double Dragon Energy or if you are unable to redue their hand sizes and therefore the options available to them the lock is less effective. People now run Items that have a direct beenfit for their board state and cut off items that do not fit that bill. As a result this makes item lock on its own much less effective. In the past it also cut off access to Pokémon but now we have Tapu Lele GX and cards such as Pokémon Fanb Club and Bridgette are almost stables. Thus item lock on its own does not hurt that much anymore in the new format. Pair it with ability lock and hand disruption and it could be back in buissness. If you have turn one item lock most decks will simply counter it with Tapu Lele GX and optimal supporter usage to still set up nicely. I feel that lock decks need to priorize ability lock and use item lock and hand disruption to make sure that the ability lock can be retained. Together these three lockdown mechanics are quite effective. I am not sure at all that item lock on its own is viable with decks that run a lot of self-sufficient attackers. For that reason i feel that early ability lock and later item lock might be superior to the classic approach we took with Toad. remember that Toad was great in a rather different format that did not have an reliable search cards. I am in fact not pleased with my list. i would have prefered Garbodor instead of Alolan Muk but had issues to fit in four Float Stones.

 

[President Pokemon]

Thank you for your help, I really need to rethink my list!

 

[President Pokemon]

You are right about item lock on its own not being as effective anymore.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi President Pokémon,

No problem. You are welcome. Item lock is still decent and viable but it needs assistance. Not pleased with my list either because the parts still do not click as a team and as self-sufficient attackers at the same time. Nonetheless Noivern GX sure has potential. It has item lock and can be combined with two types that are well known for some form of disruption and it also has a rather versatile moveset similar to Alolan Ninetales GX. In addition to Darkai and Alolan Grimer this card indeed holds promise.

 

[President Pokemon]

Do you think this list can work?

4x Noibat
3x Noivern-GX
3x Trubbish
2x Garbodor (GRI)
1x Garbodor (BRP)
2x Tapu Lele-GX

4x DDE
4x Psychic

4x Float Stone
2x Field Blower
4x Delinquent
2x Team Skull Grunt
2x Choice Band
3x Nest Ball
4x Ultra Ball
4x Sycamore
3x N
2x Wally
4x Red Card
2x VS Seeker

Once again, thanks for your help and time.

 

[Dark Espeon]

The energy count is real low. does not make sense to run wally in a deck that has a high likelihood to miss energy attachments. I am also not sure whether Noivern GX needs a cleaner such as Garbodor. If you can keep their hand low by controling it with Delinquent and red card while locking out Tapu Lele GX, Shaymin Ex and item cards you can affort to go for a 2hko. starting from my list above I would consider these modifications:

- 2 Alolan Grimer
- 2 Alolan Muk

- 2 Escape Rope
- 1 Red Card

+ 2 Garbodor BKP
+ 2 Trubbish

+ 3 Float Stone

Noivern GX has three real versatile attacks. I would focus on getting Garbodor on the bench with Float Stone and power up two Noivern GX to switch between them. Stuff that I would still like to include are Acerola and one Enhanced Hammer. Personally I believe it is too early to settle on an initial list since he have not even seen half of the SM3 cards thus far.