Discussion Ultra Necrozma-GX/Malamar

[HouchinsDJ]

I built Andrew Mahone's list he posted on Derium's Competitive Pokémon channel as a starting point:

Just wanted to know if anyone has built their own list and what the results have been so far. I haven't been able to test this list too much but plan to this weekend when I have more time.

 

[Kietharr]

I playtested some lists with proxies back when it was announced, I ended on about the same energy count, I think I ran 9 psychic instead. I doubled up on Dawn Wings and ran another super rod over the letter.

Pro: Extremely consistent setup, I notice less variance in t1 for this deck than anything else I've played in recent memory. No Brigette necessary so you can focus on drawing hard from turn 1 on. Running 4-4 ultra/treasure lets you get all of the pokes you need to win a game out by turn 2 or 3 at the latest and also lets you be very efficient about thinning your hand and getting energy in discard before playing a Cynthia to shuffle it back in.

Con: Dual energy jank is still a thing, it's not that big of a deal but I ended up in losing situations when a metal energy was prized and I was unable to get to the metals I needed to attack after losing a necro. His letter is a kind of solution to that but it's one of those cards that doesn't feel very impactful at low counts imo.

Matchups: Very positive vs most of the tier 2 decks. Zoroark and Buzzwole felt fairly positive, Garbodor was positive but less so than Zoro/Buzz. Garde feels like the deck's biggest weakness right now.

 

[uncleyuri]

I’ve seen the list with more emphasis on regular Necrozma-GX and also Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX as well. They can both one shot Buzzwole and have pretty good GX attacks. They also don’t have the dual energy attack cost. Just something to mess around with.

 

[Rooie]

You'd need to discard 4 energies with Necrozma-GX to OHKO a Zoroark-GX, though. Sounds like a problem to me.

 

[ozzie347]

You'd need to discard 4 energies with Necrozma-GX to OHKO a Zoroark-GX, though. Sounds like a problem to me.

Necrozma's GX attack is sorta your solution to that. You hit all their GX/EXs for 100 then you only need 2 energy for every KO after that point. You're playing a 2-hit game against Zoroark decks anyways, so it definitely sets you ahead in the prize race. The regular Necrozma list also runs Wobbuffets to KO with after the GX attack and to shut down non-psychic abilities. I still think the 2/2 Ultra Necrozma/Dawn Wings is a better list though.

 

[Gameguard]

Im tying to understand why stage 1 90hp is even worth putting in a deck. Its so easly knocked out. Tgebability is 1 p energy from discard to bench. Wouldnt just using metagross be better? Yes thats a sage 2 but it has so much more hp. Only down side is its a stage 2.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Im tying to understand why stage 1 90hp is even worth putting in a deck. Its so easly knocked out. Tgebability is 1 p energy from discard to bench. Wouldnt just using metagross be better? Yes thats a sage 2 but it has so much more hp. Only down side is its a stage 2.

Hi Gameguard,

Malamar is much easier to set up which allows the deck to be much more offensive. He is ment to be a bench sitter only used to accelerate energies from the discard to the main attackers of the deck. With two benched Malamar you are attaching two additional energies each turn to your attackers provided that there are sufficient energies in the discard. Metagross GX is a stage two and much harder to set up which slows the deck down a lot.

 

[JGB146]

The downside of Metagross being a stage two and it being two prizes is actually a big deal. An opponent now can simultaneously disrupt your energy supply, remove an attacker, and get two prizes. Yes, Metagross has HP that makes it a letl great trader, but still.

Further, being a stage 2 means you need to run way more space that just a 4-3 line. You need room for candies, and stage ones, and searching out the right ones at the right time means running Skyla and Vulpix. That's over 25% of your deck, just for the energy acceleration, and it's necessarily slower because you have to evolve multiple stages and you can't use mysterious treasure to have up to 8 ball cards.

 

[HouchinsDJ]

Im tying to understand why stage 1 90hp is even worth putting in a deck. Its so easly knocked out. Tgebability is 1 p energy from discard to bench. Wouldnt just using metagross be better? Yes thats a sage 2 but it has so much more hp. Only down side is its a stage 2.

Being able to accelerate Energy from your discard to your bench is incredibly powerful. HP alone doesn't make or break a card. Malamar being a Stage 1 means you're able to set up faster than you would running Metagross-GX, and in a format where you have to keep up with Buzzwole-GX, speed is important. Running a Stage 2 as you're primary means of Energy acceleration is not a consistent strategy. You can't grab Metagross-GX or it's previous evolutions with Mysterious Treasure, a card that Ultra Necrozma-GX and Malamar greatly benefit from. Your opponent only has so many Guzma in their deck, and as long as you're able to get multiple Malamar on the field you're not going to care if your opponent "wastes" a turn using a Guzma on one of your Malamar for one prize because that means you still have your big attackers on the field, and getting another Malamar on the bench isn't that difficult.