The Cold, Grimm Future — Why Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex is the Newest Meta Deck
Hello everyone! We’re just a few weeks away from the NAIC, a tournament that looks like it will snag the title for largest tournament ever outside of Japan and China. It is also the biggest tournament of the year for many players, and is the last chance to get those much-needed points to try to get into (or stay in) those coveted top spots for the World Championships invite.
Making things more fun is that the NAIC will be played in a new format, as the just-released Destined Rivals set will make its tournament debut. Destined Rivals continues the theme of Trainer’s Pokemon, adding to the mix Misty, Ethan, Cynthia, Marnie, Steven, and, of course, Team Rocket. In addition, there are a few strong new tech Pokemon, such as Shaymin, which gives us back a form of Bench Barrier. Over here in Japan though, the format with these cards isn’t all that different from the format currently being played without Destined Rivals in the rest of the world, and many of the decks that have done well in City Leagues and at Champions League Aichi weren’t actually new archetypes. Ethan’s Typhlosion, Rocket’s Mewtwo ex, Ethan’s Ho-oh ex, and Cynthia’s Garchomp ex have all seen some play, and while I have some optimism that there is potential in these decks (Ho-oh in particular), thus far none have been able to break out to become major threats. Instead, there’s been a lot of Raging Bolt ex, Dragapult ex, and Charizard ex — not exactly a big shakeup! There has been one exception, though. The one new archetype that has made an impact is Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex, and that’s the deck I’m going to talk about in today’s article. Unlike the other new stuff, Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex has done well, landing four of the Top 16 spots at Champions League Aichi, and it has seen play at a rate on par with the most popular decks in the format. Japan and North America aren’t quite one-to-one, but if there’s a deck from the new set that I would expect to see at the NAIC, it’s this one. Not simply because it has been popular, but because it is a strong archetype, one easily able to compete with the existing metagame, and I have a feeling a decent number of players will jump to it as their deck of choice once they test it out.
One of the interesting things about the Grimmsnarl deck is that it isn’t a “Marnie deck”; rather, it is an evolution of our current Froslass / Munkidori / Budew archetype. For those of you familiar with that deck, Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex may seem like a bit of an odd addition — after all, Froslass is a pretty slow-going deck, whereas Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex is explosive and aggressive. As it turns out, though, Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex pairs perfectly with the multiple Munkidori strategy. Not only does it use the same type of Energy, so you don't have to try and awkwardly add some Darkness Energy into a deck that wouldn't otherwise play them, but it also powers itself up, so you don't ever have to decide between attaching to Munkidori and setting up your attacker. The spread damage from Shadow Bullet also naturally combos with the damage-moving effect of Adrena-Brain, so this deck has a ton of flexibility in how it places damage.
Once set up, the deck has damage output on par with that of Dragapult ex, but with the added flexibility of being able to put more damage onto the opponent’s Active Pokemon if needed — or spread a bit more damage if that’s a better move. This deck certainly doesn’t need to stick with its predecessor’s slow, grind-it-out style — but the thing is, it still can! As you’ll see in the list, the deck still has the same Pokemon core, including multiple Budew. So, if the match calls for Item disruption and a longer game plan, that is an option. The addition of Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex doesn’t take away from the existing strategies built into the Froslass / Munkidori / Budew deck; rather, it adds to them in a way that makes the deck considerably more dangerous. In addition, thanks to some of the new Trainers, the deck is extremely consistent, so when playing it, you won’t have any trouble executing whichever strategy the situation calls for.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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