Discussion Talking About Your Local Meta!

Zamuron

Aspiring Trainer
Member
So ive seen that my local league has a different meta from the outside world. Of course there is still garb, but i think its pretty unic? Unik? idk, but in this thread we will be talking about how your, and other people's leagues are, and how to do well in them.
I want to show you my local meta, so you can get a better understanding about this thread.

Thriving Decks

- You probably saw this coming, but garb is probably the most thriving deck in my league, and probably also yours. Ive mainly seen Garb / Drampa decks, but i think i saw a few Espeon / Garbs.

- This might come as a surprise to you, but Rainbow Road is actually pretty popular here! Theres about 2-3
people playing it every time and there about 13 people in it. If you dont know, its main attacker is xerneas from BKT, using Rainbow Force (10+ 30 more for each different type on your bench) . In addition you play Sky Field, to get more pokemon on the bench.


Interesting Decks

- The guy playing this deck, used to play Deci Plume, but after having multiple losses, he changed the deck.
Ive seen him with Houndoom EX in the active, while still having Decidueye and Vileplume benched.
I tried asking him why he played it like that, but i still dont get it. But for all i know, he could be playing
Wailord EX!

Random Decks

- There is a handicap guy playing Ninetales GX.
But his deck might be a little worst than others.

- There is also a guy playing Vespiqueen, he did use to play Night March in it, but dropped it.
Like many others he is really sad that its rotating :(.

Im sure theres more, but because of summer, i have not been the for weeks! Luckily the prerelease is coming soon!

Conclusion
And that concludes it! What do you think is gonna be good here, and what is bad?
Also, do please talk about your local meta!
 

JDA

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Cool topic, will come back on this in August as Im waiting for the Burning Shadows.
 

TheMuddyGamer

God of Water
Member
A few points before I get started on decks, I have two local leagues around me, both play in the expanded format and lastly I only go to them about twice a month each.

Now the good part, the decks.
I've been playing Bulu/vikavolt as I like building standard decks even in expanded format. I was glad to see another player was running the deck as well and even more delighted to see our lists varied quite a bit.

I saw quite a few garb decks mostly of espeon variety but to my surprise saw an espeon deck that wasn't espeon/garb instead was a fun espeon/wobuffet.

One guy plays metagross to my dismay. It seems to be my worst match up or maybe it's just I haven't figured out my tricks to best it.

To round out the other decks I've seen at locals, we got volcanion without turtanator, keldeo/blastiose, and a interesting turtanator/delphox deck.
 

MagicFash

Aspiring Trainer
Member
At a league I go to, I've seen Mega Gardy still being viable, I've seen Primarina GX, I've seen Incineroar/Turtonator, DeciPlume, and Metagross
 

AuraJackle

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Well my leauge is composed of 2 real players and I switch decks every week it seems to keep things interesting . But my local meta is filled with good players so top cutting is rather difficult which is part of the reason why I try to be flexible with my decks so I can switch if I think something will do well. Also night March rotated out last year and anyway why would you be sad of it going away lol
 

JDA

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Still to give some feedback before it's actually August, this is my opinion of the upcomming meta:

Thriving decks
New sets, new format, new meta. So far I think a lot of decks are viable to play competively. I see a lot of potential basically everywhere and am actually really happy that VS Seeker is gone as it allows a format to snowball. The advantage of this is that the format with VS Seeker is faster but the disadvantage of such fast formats is that Stage 2 have no real place to excist. So far the game is setting up for a place where they do have some form of existance available. However what the creators should keep in mind is that it's very easy for GX's to continue to thake over. For the game itself I also hope Tapu Lele GX will get a promo variant. I feel some things are cool to have in a very expensive form (such as secret rares) but if we're talking pure utility I do hope that in two sets Tapu Lele GX will see a promo in a tin. To me this is just healtier to the game in general.

A lot of the supporter/trainer engines will work. I feel that Choice Band is a great game balancer and am very happy it's there. At the same time I think Tapu Lele is such a staple it can become unhealthy at the way it's available now.

Future decks
As above, a lot of the excisting decks will continue on, most of them have a place to remain. Especially the slower decks, provided some additional protection is added for them in the next set with a Supporter or Stadium. I personally think Kaiwe is the next big Supporter card and Im uncertain how healthy it actually is for the game to have that card around. It reminds me of the Trick Supporters but worse. A turn 1 Kaiwe is just extremely big and in my theoretical approach there is very little that can actually stop it.
Now Volcanion is just a 130 hp guy but there are so many GX and EX left who can abuse it that it's very difficult to come back from such a fast set up.

So do I think Kaiwe gets banned? Well... Maby eventually, if enough hop on board for it and other types do not get some sort of power house Supporter.

Summary (not really concluding anything)
The format for the future looks very healthy. With just one card being too much of a staple to my liking that has some more difficult acces to aquiring. Burning Shadows is a fantastic set and a great follow up to Guardians Rising. I really like how the game is set up for the next format and I secretly hope we will not see too many Basic GX's OR we will simply see a card that finally rewards playing stage 1 and 2 pokemon. I know that they are there but by comparison it's just minimal, with the likes of Brigette, Pokemon Fan Club, Nest Ball etc.

Looking foward to play again though. Cheers!
 

Rezolution

Professional Idiot
Member
Ok, so at my league I play Volcanion, the top 8 NA internationals list. We have a Alolan Ninetails player, which kills me. A Mega Ray player, who might be switching to Greninja Break. We have a Bulu/Vikavolt player and a Water Box Player. Finally we have to deal with a Jolteon/Glaceon player. I need some advice here. How does one beat a jolteon lock with your only evolved pokemon being Starmie?
 

Zamuron

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Ok, so at my league I play Volcanion, the top 8 NA internationals list. We have a Alolan Ninetails player, which kills me. A Mega Ray player, who might be switching to Greninja Break. We have a Bulu/Vikavolt player and a Water Box Player. Finally we have to deal with a Jolteon/Glaceon player. I need some advice here. How does one beat a jolteon lock with your only evolved pokemon being Starmie?
Guzma, my freind, Guzma.
 

Hiker Tony

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I need some advice here. How does one beat a jolteon lock with your only evolved pokemon being Starmie?

Pokemon Ranger removes the effect. so does Lysandre/Guzma/Escape Rope. The other option is to KO them before they can get enough energy on it.
 

DragonFang101

Funky China Man
Member
In my league, we got 3 Greninja Players, 2 Ninetales players, 1(or maybe 2) Zoroark BREAK/ Drampa GX players, 3 Metagross players, 5 or so players like me who like to screw around with strategies that aren't very common, and all the rest play Garb variants :)
 

DragonFang101

Funky China Man
Member
In my league, we got 3 Greninja Players, 2 Ninetales players, 1(or maybe 2) Zoroark BREAK/ Drampa GX players, 3 Metagross players, 5 or so players like me who like to screw around with strategies that aren't very common, and all the rest play Garb variants :)
And on top of all that, a partridge in a pear tree.
 
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