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Standard Decidueye GX/Zoroark GX Deck List

Duo

Duo

RIP Nessa 2023
Member
This idea came to me as I was thinking about the best way to make Zoroark GX shine without creating redundancy by having too many attackers and by having a way of uncapping Zoroark GX's damage output per turn.

*This current list reflects changes & discussion up to 10/8/17.

Pokemon x22

Decidueye GX x4
Dartrix x2
Rowlet x4
Zoroark GX x3
Zorua x3
Tapu Koko Promo x2
Tapu Lele GX x3
Hoopa x1

Supporter x14

Sycamore x4
N x3
Guzma x3
Mallow x2
Brigette x2

Item x17

Rare Candy x4
Ultra Ball x4
Choice Band x3
Float Stone x2
Rescue Stretcher x2
Field Blower x2

Energy x7

DCE x4
Rainbow Energy x3


I think the idea is fairly simple. Early on you focus on Zoroark GX to access draw power, consistency, and Mallow to grab things like Rare Candy/Decidueye or your energy cards since you will be wiffing energy a lot. If you can build up 3 Decidueye GX with a full bench, Choice Banded Zoroark GX will be hitting 150 + 60 from arrows for 210. You now have an answer for 1 hit KOing everything up to 210 without a single flying flip.

I think Mallow is essential in this deck due to how easy it is to get Rare Candy/Decidueye and access to any resource you're missing at the time. With a lot of 2 ofs and 3 ofs, you aren't always going to have everything that you need at all times.

For this deck in particular, I am willing to give in to the 2 Brigette argument. If you don't set up Decidueye, you don't win. You can't wiff Decidueye GX any game and make a late game recovery like Gardevoir GX can.

Tapu Koko is here as a way to make it so that you don't absolutely need 3 Decidueye GX every game. 1 to 2 flying flips and 2 Decidueye GX will see you through every match up.

The 7 energy count is fairly standard for Decidueye GX focused lists, and I think it will be just fine here as well. Hollow Hunt GX has crazy synergy with Trade, and if you really need your energies back you can just Hollow Hunt GX for them. A lot of options with this deck.
 
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I really like this deck idea. Was thinking of good bench sitters to run in zoroark and didn't consider decidueye, which isn't as clunky with the power of zoroark/mallow to get them out consistently. Mallow with zoroark basically becomes a "discard 1 card, search your deck for any two cards and put them into your hand" supporter, which is insanely good. I might consider running 3, possibly even 4.

I don't like double Brigette very much either, but it's pretty good in this deck compared to most since instead of being a dead card like in other decks, it just becomes fodder for Trade.

Only other considerations I have is 1 or 2 hoopa from shining legends would work well in this deck if you absolutely need it for some matchups after testing. Also for my personal version I'm going to try and fit in puzzle of time since it's easier to get 2 puzzles when you need them with mallow-trade combo. There is some synergy with hollow hunt as well to deal with the occasional situation of having 1 puzzle get discarded by syca or other means leaving you with an uneven amount, hollow hunt can bring out one puzzle and 2 other cards, then puzzle for 2 more next turn. With that you can spam things like max potion even more, might even put in one enhanced hammer which can be used up to 5 times with puzzle and hollow hunt if your opponent strongly relies on special energy. So at best it's devastating and you use it to discard every dce, at worst its 1 dead card which can be used as fodder for trade.
 
I honestly am thinking about dropping a Sycamore for a 2nd Brigette. I personally think 10 draw supporters (4 Sycamore, 4 N, 2 Mallow) is just too much draw support. You're never EVER going to play all 10 draw supporters in a single game, and I prefer early N over early Sycamore since I just do not want to discard a full hand if it's bricked. And with Zoroark GX, you're going to be generating a lot of natural draw consistency without having to full hand dump.

I think Hoopa is redundant because of Decidueye GX's tankiness and Max Potion. I know it's not exactly the same thing since Decidueye still gets steam rolled by fire and Hoopa can block all those big Ho-Oh/Turtonator numbers, but when you're looking at 1 Zoroark GX, 3 Decidueye GX, 1 Koko, and 1 Lele on your field when you're fully set up, you really don't have room for that Hoopa anywhere.

The 2 risks for this deck, in my opinion, are getting your energy fast enough and properly managing your Pokemon ratios. Having 3 Decidueye GX might not be the right call when you can flying flip once to effectively mitigate the need for the 3rd one altogether, but what this gives you is a little bit of a fall back plan.

If you're bricking on energy, you can still have Decidueye GX start establishing damage counters anywhere on the field. In games like this, you'll max out Decidueye GX, ignore Tapu Koko, and just use a Float Stone to Guzma pivot.

If you're doing well on energy but bricking on your Decidueye, then you will just go in with flying flips for 2 to 3 turns and maybe make 1 or 2 Decidueye GX to wrap things up.

I think this versatility is the deck's strong point. As long as you don't brick on BOTH energy and Pokemon, you always have an outlet to establish your board. Every other build of Zoroark GX I can think of right now requires you to have both your energies and your Pokemon at the same time (Gardy GX/Zoroark GX, Lycanroc GX/Zoroark GX, Alolan Ninetales GX/Zoroark GX). This build has 2 paths and Mallow can either bridge the gap or reinforce your advantage in either department.

I'll be testing this thoroughly once my Zoroark GX cards come in. I think this has tier 1 potential. Decidueye GX is just the perfect Pokemon for increasing Zoroark GX's damage with the perfect GX attack to synergize with Trade, and you have no fantastic attacks on your side of the field for other Zoroark GX to copy that would be worth it at all.
 
I like the concept! I think a third Field Blower should be considered. Decks that heavily rely upon abilities like Tapu Bulu/Vikavolt and Metagross tend to run 3 nowadays. Having Feather Arrow and Trade shut down would be a bad time for this deck!
 
I actually don't have any lele's because poor so that's my reasoning for including things like hoopa. Will upgrade to them when I accumulate enough packs online, and will probably drop hoopa if he doesn't end up getting used much in testing.

Houchins mentioned what I was going to mention but forgot in my first post, would definitely have 3 field blower in case you dont have guzma on hand to kill the garbodor. Another reason i like puzzle is so you can fish guzma or blower out right when you need them.

Also I agree on the draw supporter aspect, especially with zoro's innate draw power. Honestly I would drop even more of the draw for some more mallow, because all syca does is give you 7 chances to get the cards you need in a certain scenario. Although in most scenario's you're only looking for 1 or 2 key cards anyway, and mallow will assure that you get them while not discarding/shuffling your original hand in the process. With 4 dce and 4 mallow I honestly think thats enough to consistently get energy out.

Although this is all speculation on my part, since I've done very little testing with zoroark and 0 testing with decidueye. Please continue to update the thread once you start testing with your cards, I'm excited to see how well this pair combos together.
 
The discussion of Sycamore and Mallow card ratios is pretty tough to be honest.

While it's true that Sycamore is a blind grab, being a blind grab is actually not the worst thing ever. The fact that you're digging 7 cards deeper into your deck, 9 cards deeper if you Trade + Sycamore on the same turn, means that you are less likely to need to rely on a supporter like Mallow to get the resources you need simply because the probability of drawing your cards increases by a significant amount since you are thinning your deck by a significant amount.

IMO, the main thing when it comes to draw supporters is considering how likely that draw supporter is able to grant you continuity for the next few turns to come. Mallow helps you accelerate a set up for a turn, but it's not necessarily always the best if the rest of your hand looks like crap.

The reason why I never liked Skyla in, say Gardevoir GX, is that usually I would Skyla for a rare candy or an ultra ball, grab my missing piece for rare candy + Gardevoir, play it, and that's all I had for the turn. It's great that I got a Gardevoir GX in play, but if I have no energy in hand, no way to get in the active or no other supporters or Lele in hand for the next turn, sometimes it feels like I'm just setting up a victim for my opponent to benefit off of.

Mallow to a lesser extent functions the same way. She grabs you 2 crucial cards instead of 1, but you absolutely cannot ignore the state of your hand. If your hand is not already sitting on an N or a Sycamore in order to push you deeper into your deck for the following turn, then playing Mallow needs to be significant enough to generate momentum or shift the advantage in your favor.

Keep in mind that Mallow NEVER digs deeper into your deck. Mallow coordinates with existing draw power in order to get the job done. It's true that she can grab you 2 crucial cards you need, but she can never fix the rest of the cards in an unplayable hand and she does not influence the draw rate of the rest of the cards in your deck nearly as much as thinning it by 7 cards does.

Another concern is that Mallow requires Zoroark GX to be set up and no Garbotoxin to be in play. Any time Zoroark GX is not on the field or Garbotoxin is in play, Mallow is a dead card. Right now I have a general rule of thumb for Zoroark GX/Mallow combo and that's "a field blower for every Mallow." I don't think this is a golden rule, but it seems to be holding up so far in play testing. Since you are absolutely reliant on the ability draw, you must have the freedom to use it at all times after Zoroark GX is in play. Having the same ratio of Mallow & Field Blower means that you at least have mathematically equivalent odds of naturally drawing both. It just doesn't always happen in practice.

The last thing to consider is play timing. Sycamore is great early and late game whereas Mallow is great during mid game, about during turns 3 thru 5 depending on the game. Early game if your opening hand is just terrible, then a Sycamore usually gets the job done. Most of the reason why I don't care about prizing Brigette is because if I prize Brigette, I open Sycamore and just grab 2-3 basics and I still have something to set up anyway. There's a limit to how fast you can set up 3-4 Pokemon in a stage 2 deck. You have to be looking at a full house of stage 2s and rare candies in hand, and even then that's a terrible hand since all you have is Pokemon and no continuity. Anyway, one early Sycamore is usually all you need to accelerate yourself into a hand that can last you for 2-3 turns and will probably be the card that digs you into your Mallows. Mallow is best played when you are at the cusp of going from set up phase into aggression phase. Finding the energy or choice band you need to generate threats on your side of the field in an instant is the most effective timing, or searching for a Field Blower in anticipation of your opponent dropping Garbotoxin on their following turn. During the late game when your deck is 20 cards thin, playing a Sycamore will simply get you what you need by virtue of probability.

All of this being said, I do want to believe that Zoroark GX will start adjusting draw support ratios. People still play 4/4 Sycamore/N in Octillery decks because Octillery's ability is not reliable. You will not always satisfy the conditions to use it. Zoroark GX, however, will always be usable even after a Sycamore, and you actually have to start worrying about decking yourself out. If you have a Zoroark GX on the field starting on turn 3 and you always keep it in play/restore it during a 10 turn game, you will be drawing 14 cards from Zoroark GX alone throughout the game. That's 2 Sycamore's worth. You should always be assuming that Zoroark GX will grab you, over time, at least the same amount of cards that a Sycamore will without having to blow your supporter for turn.

I also think it's important to take into consideration the practicality of Zoroark GX. Let's be real about something. In any deck that doesn't run Alolan Vulpix or Diancie, you are usually going to be grabbing your Zoroark GX through Ultra Ball, meaning you already discard 2 cards for the turn, and then you're looking to discard a 3rd on Trade. You need a hand size to survive that interaction, so you are absolutely looking to play an N or a Sycamore after you Ultra Ball for a Zoroark GX in order to have a choice of what you want to discard. Because of this interaction, I actually do think that Sycamore is more valuable than Mallow. In playtesting, I have found ways to lock myself out of using Trade because I only have 2-3 cards left and I absolutely cannot discard any of those in order for me to have a turn upcoming next. Something we all need to consider is that the value of Zoroark GX in a deck is determined by the ease of which the deck can get it set up. IMO, Gardevoir GX and Alolan Ninetales GX are currently the 2 best decks at getting Zoroark GX without requiring Ultra Ball or blind draws. Having the most consistent access to the most consistent card is already an advantage in itself. Having Zoroark GX 1 to 2 turns sooner than your opponent is VERY important.

This post got really long winded, but basically what I'm trying to say is that the issue we need to be thinking about is raw draw power of Sycamore + Trade for 9 cards in 1 turn versus the search power of Mallow + Trade for 2 guaranteed cards. When I look at this mathematically, Sycamore + Trade seems to be the better option every time. By the time you have Zoroark GX in play, your deck will be 40 cards or less. Digging 9 cards deep is drawing 25% OR MORE of your remaining deck in one turn. That is MASSIVE. The fact that you are not ability reliant either makes it a much safer supporter.

I still believe in the power of Mallow, but I don't believe her count should ever exceed 2. Digging 9 cards deeper in one turn is just way too fantastic.

I will need to do playtesting to see if a 3rd field blower is needed, but it is something that crossed my mind. Other ability decks like Metagross and Bulu need 3 because they have no method of recovering them. Gardevoir GX and Decidueye GX both have ways of recovering their Field Blowers which is why I'm starting at the base line of 2. Deck space is ridiculously tight here.
 
That's true. Hollow Hunt can grab Field Blower so I can see staying at 2. I would still prefer 3 though because I feel like using Hollow Hunt should be a last resort, and you play nothing but Special Energy so if your opponent is playing any energy removal you're probably going to want to save Hollow Hunt for getting Energy back. That's another concern I saw with your list. With Kartana and Xurkitree coming out soon, I don't know how viable running only Special Energy is going to be. A lot of decks are going to have to start adapting to that.
 
I'm a bit worried about the special energy reliance myself, which is another reason why I think Gardy GX & Alolan Ninetales GX are top candidates for the forseeable future.

I think we'll have to see how things go because Kartana and Xurkitree are not techs that every deck can afford. If nothing else, they're techs that your bench space might not be able to afford.

Metagross GX likes to have 3 Metagross GX in play with an Alolan Vulpix and at least 1 Lele and Necrozma if you're going for heavy offense. There's not a lot of room for Kartana GX, and discarding 1 special energy at the cost of 1 bench space might not be the best play. And ironically speaking, most decks that want to consider Kartana GX are relying on special energy themselves (Rainbow Energy). Xurkitree is probably only going to see play in Tapu Koko, Tapu Bulu, and Raichu GX decks which are currently a small/unpredicable amount of the meta.

I honestly do want a special charge in this deck just in case, but for the time being I think we can roll without it. More than anything, I want to see if the core concept of the deck is even effective before I start worrying about other things just yet.
 
Duo said:
This idea came to me as I was thinking about the best way to make Zoroark GX shine without creating redundancy by having too many attackers and by having a way of uncapping Zoroark GX's damage output per turn.

Pokemon x21

Decidueye GX x4
Dartrix x2
Rowlet x4
Zoroark GX x2
Zoroark x1
Zorua x3
Tapu Koko Promo x2
Tapu Lele GX x3

Supporter x14

Sycamore x4
N x4
Guzma x3
Mallow x2
Brigette x1

Item x18

Rare Candy x4
Ultra Ball x4
Choice Band x3
Float Stone x2
Field Blower x2
Max Potion x2
Rescue Stretcher x1

Energy x7

DCE x4
Rainbow Energy x3


I think the idea is fairly simple. Early on you focus on Zoroark GX to access draw power, consistency, and Mallow to grab things like Rare Candy/Decidueye or your energy cards since you will be wiffing energy a lot. If you can build up 3 Decidueye GX with a full bench, Choice Banded Zoroark GX will be hitting 150 + 60 from arrows for 210. You now have an answer for 1 hit KOing everything up to 210 without a single flying flip.

Mallowing for Max Potion is effectively prize denial if anyone starts to swing at your Decidueye GX to try and eliminate your free damage. Hollow Hunt GX means you do have access to 4 Max Potion per game, theoretically. Decidueye GX is fantastic because not only does it add to Zoroark GX's damage, but it makes this deck become unbelievably tanky. I think Mallow is essential in this deck due to how easy it is to get Rare Candy/Decidueye and access to any resource you're missing at the time. With a lot of 2 ofs and 3 ofs, you aren't always going to have everything that you need at all times.

I'm still not on board the 2 Brigette train yet. 3 Lele, 4 Ultra Ball, 1 Brigette is 8 ways to open turn 1 Brigette. Adding a 2nd one adds a dead, unplayable card that increases your odds of opening Brigette by only 2% relative to running 8. The 2nd copy is literally only if you're afraid of prizing. And since you are running Zoroark GX, you kind of WANT to Lele for Brigette for the increased damage to Riotous Beating.

Tapu Koko is here as a way to make it so that you don't absolutely need 3 Decidueye GX every game. 1 to 2 flying flips and 2 Decidueye GX will see you through every match up.

The 7 energy count is fairly standard for Decidueye GX focused lists, and I think it will be just fine here as well. Hollow Hunt GX has crazy synergy with Trade, and if you really need your energies back you can just Hollow Hunt GX for them. A lot of options with this deck.

EDIT: Forgot to talk about the Mind Jack Zoroark. Against someone with full bench + choice band, you're hitting 190 + 60 for 250 to "OHKO" Metagross GX and other Decidueye GX. Sometimes simply hitting for 190 to OHKO something like a lele or Turtonator or Ho-Oh or Tapu Bulu with a 1 prize attacker is just the best play to make.
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I made this deck about a month ago, and since the cards finally came out, I finally playtested it last night. I played against pretty much every deck in the format beisdes gardevoir and decidueye/zoroark puts in MASSIVE work. but there are certain things this deck needs to win, and pretty much no exception. You need 2 bridgette, 2 tapu koko promo, and all 3 zoroarks need to be GX, you cant go for those cheeky stand in plays. Originally, I put in 1 stand in zoroark as well, but you absolutely need the GX instead. And you need at least two rescue stretchers minimum cause this deck is a late game deck, and guzma/mallow trade for game is extremely crucial. One more card that is your win condition against a couple of decks and can give you that extra turn you need to win, is the new hoopa with the ability. He throws every deck for a loop and its definitely worth the one-of spot. Run 2 bridgette because early game board state is everything with this deck because it doesn't have a lot of raw power like gardevoir, and it requires you to get your pieces going, and you can always discard it later with trade. But with that all said our lists were super similar, and I even had 2 max potions as well, but through a lot of playtesting last night, those were the conclusions I came to. Also, its good to know im not losing my mind and seeing other people thinking the same stuff. I like your deck, bro.
 
I'm really not after cheeky stand in plays with the non-GX Zoroark. As you suggested Hoopa, I am also worried about Hoopa and Alolan Ninetales BUS walling me. I simply have it there for the counter and would otherwise likely never use it. I was worried that simply using Feather Arrow is not going to make the cut for taking out those kinds of Pokemon fast enough, but it probably in practice really is. By focusing on your win condition of having 3 Decidueye GX on the field, you can simply get over those threats in 2 turns without even attacking.

I can remove the 2 Max Potion for a 2nd Brigette and a 2nd Rescue Stretcher, kill the Zoroark non GX for the third GX, but that just leaves room for the 1 of Hoopa. I can get rid of 1 Sycamore or 1 N or 1 Mallow to make room for that. Out of every deck in the game, this is probably the only one I'm going to say that yes, two Brigette is absolutely part of making sure you can open with your win condition since your Pokemon are your damage and you can't just get away with only having one set up.

Thank you for dropping your feedback. I think the Gardevoir match up will be the hardest match up for this deck due to 20 darkness resist and 230 HP which will require you to flying flip twice at some point in the game before you go in, but that should still be fine. As for Garbodor match ups, hopefully Guzma carries you through whenever field blower is MIA. Other than that I think we're looking at a solid deck.
 
Great idea by the way! A few tweaks I would make were perhaps (bear with me now) make are removing a Tapu Koko promo and adding a Jolteon EX instead. The volcanion match-up is rough and Jolteon could easily give you the edge needed to win. Not to mention that Xurkitree GX's ability (Preventing damage done to it by opponent's pokemon with special energy attached) can be broken through by Jolteon's move Swift. Also, Jolteon has free retreat and could be discarded by Zoroark GX's Trade if it isn't needed.

Just as another fun idea, I think this deck could easily utilize the power of Puzzle of Time with Mallow and the "Sycamore + Trade for 9 cards" to return any important resources or really anything else. The only problem with this is that room is tight, and four Puzzle of Time is a bit much to squeeze in. I've been testing a little though, and they do help a lot, if its looking at the top three for that one crucial card + Trade, or returning a rare candy, choice band, anything. Maybe something that could be thought about.

The baby zoroark is very useful as a one-prize attacker, but I would think that a third Zoroark GX would be a lot more important as you need to make sure you have a Zoroark Gx in play at all times. The baby will not help if you can't get a DBC or rainbow energy when you need it. Also, you already have Tapu Koko promo as a one prize attacker that sets up those "Riotous Beatings". If you can fit in a third Zoroark GX in without taking out the baby, that would be best.

If room is needed for extra cards, I would maybe consider removing one N. This maybe a crazy idea, but if I were to N myself to three cards and draw valuable resources that I could not discard for one Trade or Sycamore for nine with Trade, I'd go for the Sycamore. This is only if room is needed for things like Puzzle of Time or other inputs.

After all of that, these would be the changes I'd make.

-1 Tapu Koko promo (Mentioned above)
-1 Rare Candy (This deck gets going mid to late game, so one turn of Dartrix to Decidueye GX won't hurt as bad+ you have Puzzle of Time)
-1 N (Mentioned above)
-2 Max Potion (Rather focus on set up and damage output)
-1 Tapu Lele GX or baby Zoroark (This is mainly for the third Zoroark GX)

+1 Jolteon EX (mentioned above)
+4 Puzzle of Time (mentioned above)
+1 Zoroark GX (mentioned above)

Let me know what you think and if any of these suggestions prove useful! Thanks for getting this idea out there!

Edit: Completely forgot to mention Hoopa's Scoundral Guard! A great inclusion in this deck if you could find room. Also, I'm not 100% sure that Swift can break through Xurkitree's ability Flash Head (or the new Hoopa's ability) but based on the wording "This attack's damage isn't affected by Weakness, Resistance, or any other effects on your opponent's Active Pokémon." , I'm pretty sure it does. I'll look through the compendium at some point to find a ruling if no one knows.
 
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Duo said:
I'm really not after cheeky stand in plays with the non-GX Zoroark. As you suggested Hoopa, I am also worried about Hoopa and Alolan Ninetales BUS walling me. I simply have it there for the counter and would otherwise likely never use it. I was worried that simply using Feather Arrow is not going to make the cut for taking out those kinds of Pokemon fast enough, but it probably in practice really is. By focusing on your win condition of having 3 Decidueye GX on the field, you can simply get over those threats in 2 turns without even attacking.

I can remove the 2 Max Potion for a 2nd Brigette and a 2nd Rescue Stretcher, kill the Zoroark non GX for the third GX, but that just leaves room for the 1 of Hoopa. I can get rid of 1 Sycamore or 1 N or 1 Mallow to make room for that. Out of every deck in the game, this is probably the only one I'm going to say that yes, two Brigette is absolutely part of making sure you can open with your win condition since your Pokemon are your damage and you can't just get away with only having one set up.

Thank you for dropping your feedback. I think the Gardevoir match up will be the hardest match up for this deck due to 20 darkness resist and 230 HP which will require you to flying flip twice at some point in the game before you go in, but that should still be fine. As for Garbodor match ups, hopefully Guzma carries you through whenever field blower is MIA. Other than that I think we're looking at a solid deck.
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Duo said:
I'm really not after cheeky stand in plays with the non-GX Zoroark. As you suggested Hoopa, I am also worried about Hoopa and Alolan Ninetales BUS walling me. I simply have it there for the counter and would otherwise likely never use it. I was worried that simply using Feather Arrow is not going to make the cut for taking out those kinds of Pokemon fast enough, but it probably in practice really is. By focusing on your win condition of having 3 Decidueye GX on the field, you can simply get over those threats in 2 turns without even attacking.

I can remove the 2 Max Potion for a 2nd Brigette and a 2nd Rescue Stretcher, kill the Zoroark non GX for the third GX, but that just leaves room for the 1 of Hoopa. I can get rid of 1 Sycamore or 1 N or 1 Mallow to make room for that. Out of every deck in the game, this is probably the only one I'm going to say that yes, two Brigette is absolutely part of making sure you can open with your win condition since your Pokemon are your damage and you can't just get away with only having one set up.

Thank you for dropping your feedback. I think the Gardevoir match up will be the hardest match up for this deck due to 20 darkness resist and 230 HP which will require you to flying flip twice at some point in the game before you go in, but that should still be fine. As for Garbodor match ups, hopefully Guzma carries you through whenever field blower is MIA. Other than that I think we're looking at a solid deck.
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Let the testing continue my man, and keep me updated on any good stuff you come up with. W e c a n p i n o n e e r a n e w m e t a
 
I am leaning towards cutting N to 3 in order to make room for Hoopa as first mentioned by Bella and then brought up again by Mark Dabson. I know there are a handful of very competitive Volcanion lists who have cut their Ns to 2 or 3 in order to make room for everything else for the very reason of not wanting to N yourself down to a pitiful looking hand.

Puzzle of Time is a very interesting concept for this, or I guess for any Zoroark GX/Mallow list. My only issue with that is that it's adding a 3rd layer of potential Mallow dependancy in order to execute. Not always, since you might just Sycamore into 2, (I can't tell you how many times I have 2 Ultra Ball in hand after a Sycamore) but sometimes. It also might make for awkward trades if Puzzle of Time is the best choice to discard for Zoroark GX's ability and then you end up drawing into another one after that happens. Oops. When I update my list, the deck is going to have a whopping 22 Pokemon count in it. I think 2 Rescue Stretcher is all the resource recovery you'll need because you are most likely going to be Sycamoring away a handful of Pokemon more so than a handful of anything else.

If I'm going to slash rare candy to 3, I would replace it with 1 special charge to address the incoming Kartana GX. Plus, Special charge in a lot of ways acts like having 6 DCE in the deck. You WILL have Pokemon get knocked out with DCE attached to them, and at some point in time you WILL have 2 DCE in discard. Shuffling those back into the deck and then Mallowing for them later is pretty good.

I can see the reasoning behind Jolteon EX, but not only are you hitting harder by simply using 3 feather arrows per turn on a Xurkitree without needing a Choice Band, but right now it's simply impossible to determine its necessity when the card is not available to us right now. I also see Hoopa as a much better counter to Fire. You're simply invincible while you sit back and spam feather arrows to get them in range. Not to mention you can also sit there and tank Xurkitree GX while you hit it with your Feather Arrows, though you might lose some cards from your deck doing that. I also think that 2 Tapu Koko is strictly mandatory in any list that is considering using it as an attacker.

These are cool ideas but I can't quite get behind them yet.
 
I just got 2 more Decidueye GX online so I'm going to try this deck out. I'll let you know how my results are!
 
Understandably, it is hard to tell what the best ideas for the deck are at such an early point in release. I guess it will take time and testing to figure out what this deck needs; whatever it takes to move it forward is the best option. I have a more "techie" play style, so consistency is somewhat lost in my lists (which doesn't help in this meta), and I think I now get that what this deck needs is consistency (and I forgot about Kartana GX). For now, I think we will have to wait until Crimson Invasion releases to solidify this list.

Thanks for the feedback and keep the idea going! You have definitely got yourself a great deck here.

P.S. Just to explain my reasoning behind Jolteon EX, I was assuming that by the time your opponent has Xurkitree GX in active (if they don't start with it) you may have two Decidueye GX in play, a Zoroark GX or two, and the Jolteon EX (plus Tapu Lele GX). This will give you 100 damage after a Swift+Choice Band and two feather arrows instead of three turns of wasting all assumed three feather arrows (in my case two, which would take 5 turns) on the Xurkitree GX. Also, the Jolteon helps with Volcanion and free retreat. You don't have to set it down and could instead play the Tapu Koko promo if needed. That was my thought on the Jolteon EX, but I don't know as I haven't played enough with it.
 
For some reason I had isolated Jolteon EX as if I did not have any Decidueye GX in play and I have no idea why I did that, so thank you for re-explaining your point on Jolteon EX.

I can see its value, and dealing double damage to Ho-Oh GX to hit for 120 choice banded or actually just going all in choice banded hitting with its 2nd attack is an OHKO, and even if Fighting Fury Belt is in play, you have feather arrow to close that gap as well.

Definitely a worthy pick now that I didn't forget about feather arrow. At this point it boils down to Hoopa vs Jolteon EX sheerly out of deck space concern. At this moment in time, I think Hoopa has much more value granted how hard Alolan Ninetales BUS can win games all on its own.
 
The Jolteon EX vs. Hoopa is really (in my opinion) a matter of preference and your local meta. If a lot of people play Volcanion, honestly either would work and without Hex Maniac in standard anymore, Hoopa is very powerful (especially as a basic). Hoopa works against Gardevoir GX, Darkrai EX (Edit: I forgot Jolteon EX does as well), really almost anything that includes Exs/ GXs.

The edge of Jolteon is free retreat and Swift (getting through Xurkitree GX) with dominance over Volcanion/ Darkrai. Hoopa on the other hand, is much more versatile and now that the subject is approached, I think is probably better than Jolteon EX. To sum it up, Jolteon is more offensive while Hoopa is more defensive.

Once again, it is a matter of preference, local meta, and what is available to you as well as time to test and edit the deck as it moves along.

Thanks for the feedback and I defiantly enjoy what this deck is becoming. Zoroark GX/ Decidueye GX will rule the meta game!

Edit: I would like to mention it, as I hadn't thought to much about it, but would you need to up the count of rainbow energy if you included Jolteon EX or Hoopa? Just a thought.
 
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Grrr, I want to try this deck so bad but I can't justify spending 22 packs on the zoroarks (ptcgo) when I just know they will drop in price eventually.

It seems like space is a big issue with this deck, I'm interested to see what you all recommend after more playtesting. In the mean-time I have a bit of a weird idea but I think it might work and will save space so hear me out. I know duo still isn't on board with the idea of running puzzle but for those who are, instead of running 4 puzzles run 3. There's several situations that can happen with a 3 count:
  • It gets stuck in your prizes and you dont get it till the very end so it doesn't matter anyway
  • You use 2 puzzles then hollow hunt one of them back to use 2 again
  • You get the 3rd from prizes or draw the 3rd and are unable to hollow hunt...
And for that third scenario, if you think about it it's not that bad. The puzzles first ability lets you look and rearrange the top 3 cards of your deck, which is usually pretty useless so people sometimes forget it even has this ability, but with Zoroark-GX it gets a whole lot better. It let's you choose 2 out of the 3 cards you want to use with the Trade ability, and knowing which cards you're able to draw with it can totally change what you plan to do that turn. And in the case you don't want to draw any of the 3 cards, just N/Ultra ball/do something that lets you shuffle your deck so that trade will draw completely different cards. Just a thought for any variations that are super tight on space

With puzzle I'm also considering dropping the counts of other things you usually wouldn't like rare candy and some pokemon-tool cards, since they usually end up in the discard early.
 
I really dont feel like reading the book of a discussion you guys have had but i still want to throw in my 2 cents on what i will be testing and the changes from my current decideye ninetails to decidueye zoroark

current list
##Pokémon - 21

* 4 Rowlet SUM 9
* 3 Dartrix SUM 10
* 4 Decidueye-GX SUM 12
* 1 Tapu Koko PR-SM SM31
* 1 Tapu Koko PR-SM SM30
* 1 Jirachi PR-XY XY67
* 1 Espeon-EX BKP 52
* 2 Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60
* 2 Alolan Vulpix GRI 21
* 1 Alolan Ninetales BUS 28
* 1 Alolan Ninetales-GX GRI 22

##Trainer Cards - 31

* 2 Rescue Stretcher GRI 130
* 2 Max Potion GRI 128
* 3 Rare Candy SUM 129
* 4 Professor Sycamore BKP 107
* 2 Brigette BKT 134
* 1 Skyla BKT 148
* 2 Field Blower GRI 125
* 2 Guzma BUS 115
* 4 N NVI 92
* 3 Choice Band GRI 121
* 2 Float Stone BKT 137
* 4 Ultra Ball ROS 93

##Energy - 8

* 4 Rainbow Energy SUM 137
* 4 Double Colorless Energy SUM 136

Total Cards - 60

Changes id make

-2 vulpix
-2 ninetails
-1 skyla
-1 sycamore maybe

+2 zoroark gx
+2 zorua
+2 mallow
 
I have just tested a bit and I don't know if I was playing the deck incorrectly, but I never used Tapu Koko for the past five games. I only played against Metagross GX and Tapu Bulu GX/ Vikavolt (haven't lost yet!) but I didn't see Tapu Koko the whole game. Was I doing something wrong, or was it situational?

By the way, this deck is amazing! Even if you set up a little slower, it rolls straight through anything set against you and controls almost the whole game. Can't wait to use this deck in tournaments!
 
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