Discussion What is the "Best" Deck in Format?

NeedleKingSR

NeedleKingSR

Night March is overrated
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Now, I know that there are MANY things to consider in a deck, like whether or not it beats the biggest metagame threats, or if it's consistent enough. But every deck will always have some type of counter, even if overcomable, like Gardevoir GX vs. Metagross GX, but maybe unlikely. So, here are a few of my personal nominations and why.

Decks:

Gardevoir GX: Consistency: 7.5/10 | Damage Output: 10/10 | Versus Meta: 5/10 | Overall: 7.5/10 | Main reason why it's not rated so much higher is because ULP is on the brink of release, and then Garde's gonna die.
Metagross GX: Consistency: 8/10 | Damage Output: 7/10 | Versus Meta: 7/10 | Overall: 8.33/10 | Just very consistent, while dishing out big damage. However, it just doesn't do enough damage nowadays, with Golisopod, Zoroark, and Greninja Break running rampant, and no real way to increase its damage output. However, Damage Output will be drastically higher when Dusk Mane Necrozma GX is released. Also, you can consider Solgaleo GX, as it shows some potential, but not a personal favorite due to clunkyness.
Greninja BREAK: Consistency: 7/10 | Damage Output: 7/10 | Versus Meta: 9/10 | Overall: 7.67/10 | I personally haven't ever played this, but from what I can tell, it has a good chance against absolutely any deck in the meta, even Golisopod if you play correctly
Volcanion: Consistency: 9/10 | Damage Output: 9/10 | Versus Meta: 8/10 | Overall: 8.67/10 | I myself don't really like this deck, but I can admire the possible damage output. Absolutely wrecks Metagross, any Golisopod deck, and many others. Also, Steam Up allows for huge damage output when necessary. Just annoying to miss a turn 1 Kiawe.
Golisopod GX (overall): Consistency: 10/10 | Damage Output: 5/10 | Versus Meta: 10/10 | Overall: 8.33/10 | Depending on the secondary attacker, it can handle anything. Garbodor can KO anything, Zoroark can dish out nice damage easily, and Golisopod itself can also dish out nice damage. However, without Garbodor, it's nearly impossible to OHKO any GXs.
Buzzwole GX: Consistency: 9/10 | Damage Output: 9/10 | Versus Meta: 8/10 | Overall: 8.67/10 | One of my favorite decks, really fun to play and really easy damage early game. With both the ability to donk, and also dish out massive damage, and also on a Basic GX, it truly is overall a really nice deck type. I don't know why people think that Buzzwole's pretty bad.
VikaBulu: Consistency: 6/10 | Damage Output: 8/10 | Versus Meta: 8/10 | Overall: 7.67/10 | Not one of my personal favorites, but I can admire it's potential. Personally, I found it too inconsistent. Nothing in the meta really destroys it since Bulu has no weakness, but some decks like Metagross are able to just storm this, with the only way to OHKO a Metagross being Choice Band + Kukui + a Sunny Day Lurantis, if anyone even uses that anymore, while using Nature's Madness, and Metagross being able to OHKO with just a Choice Band. Not very consistent, but can hit 210 damage.
Zoroark (overall): Consistency: 10/10 | Damage Output: 8/10 | Versus Meta: 8/10 | Overall: 8.67/10 | Probably THE most consistent deck archetype, with the attacker also drawing tons of cards similar to the Empoleon from DEX (?) and dishes out easy 120 damage, 180 in expanded, for only 1 energy attachment. Also, the other attacker in the deck can cover almost any weakness, Garb covering Buzzwole, and others like Alolan Ninetales GX and Lycanroc GX for other coverages.

And these are some that I either forgot or I didn't feel like putting on here that people apparently like.

Silvally (overall): Consistency: 8.5/10 | Damage Output: 7/10 | Versus Meta: 10/10 | Overall: 8.5 | Probably my least favorite archetype, as I have no clue how it's really supposed to work, but I can kinda tell from fighting others playing Silvally. Consistency is not as high as Zoroark, for example, because it's a Stage 1 GX that requires at least 2 energy attachments in order to attack at all. Damage mainly depends on the other attacker, but Rebel GX can KO anything. Absolutely destroys the meta, with it being able to hit for weakness against most metagame threats especially after ULP. These include Buzzwole GX, itself, Decidueye, Metagross, Zoroark, Golisopod, Garbodor (though it doesn't matter), the list just goes on. Even stuff like Gyarados if that gets big. Point is, it has the potential to hit for weakness on almost every single metagame threat. Not my favorite, but it's a good archetype.
Decidueye GX: Consistency: 6/10 | Damage Output: 8/10 | Versus Meta: 7/10 | Overall: 7/10 | Definitely not a personal favorite. Though its stats may seem quite low, it just seems to work someway somehow. Mainly dependent on a secondary attacker for most of the damage, like Zoroark GX or Alolan Ninetales GX, but really clunky as a Stage 2 that requires multiple to be in play in order to really operate. It really is weird why it even works, but it'll get a relatively big boost with the help of Leafeon GX in ULP.

Feel free to make suggestions for changes and/or decks I might've missed.
 
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Gardevoir has already been demoted to Tier 3 (according to Some1sPC League Cup Meta Snapshot for the month of December) and it has had nothing to do with the upcoming release of Ultra Prism. The rise of Zoroark/Lycanroc, along with other decks like Zoroark/Golisopod and Buzzwole/Lycanroc simply outpace it. For awhile, we were in a format where running Stage 2's were the norm. The top decks in the format right now all run big Basic and/or Stage 1 Pokémon.

Metagross and Greninja both have problems with consistency, especially Greninja. I do agree that Metagross' damage output just isn't high enough anymore. 180 used to be the magic number to hit. Not it's increased to 210 (the power creep continues).

Two big decks that you didn't list are Zoroark/Lycanroc and Tapu Bulu/Vikavolt. Both are listed as Tier 1 at the moment based on the amount of CP each deck earned at League Cups last month.
 
"VikaBulu: Consistency: 9/10"

If that was true :( I think it's on par with the Greninja at that.
 
Alex Sableye said:
Exeggutor/Venusaur/Leafeon is gonna be big, I can feel it!
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I think that would be a fun deck to play and the strategy behind it makes sense, but my biggest concern with Leafeon GX decks is that you need to have the perfect T1. You need to have an Eevee, a Grass Energy, and a Brigette, or a way to get those, in your starting hand. Anything less and you're already at a disadvantage.

I do like Leafeon though and expect people to try out all sorts of combinations with it.
 
So I just started out in the game and I spent about $250 on a Golisopod GX/Garbodor deck... How does that deck do in the meta today, and was that a bad move? Looking at what is good now, it almost feels like a meta call. Gardovior is the deck's weakness, but that has been outclassed it seems by Zoroark decks and others. But those decks run off of Abilities, so I have no idea what I have done...
 
HouchinsDJ said:
Metagross and Greninja both have problems with consistency, especially Greninja. I do agree that Metagross' damage output just isn't high enough anymore. 180 used to be the magic number to hit. Not it's increased to 210 (the power creep continues).
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I do still enjoy Metagross all the same, but I do agree that 150 and you have to switch out just ain't that much anymore in a cutthroat metagame such as this. That's why I've been experimenting a bit to find something else that "breaks the mold" a bit, since I dislike Complacent Gaming Syndrome.

That said, I still can never beat Greninja lol
 
Anthony Mooney said:
So I just started out in the game and I spent about $250 on a Golisopod GX/Garbodor deck... How does that deck do in the meta today, and was that a bad move? Looking at what is good now, it almost feels like a meta call. Gardovior is the deck's weakness, but that has been outclassed it seems by Zoroark decks and others. But those decks run off of Abilities, so I have no idea what I have done...
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Golisopod/Garbodor is a great deck in today's Meta. It placed second at Memphis recently. I think it's a very strong deck that has a lot of favorable matchups, but can be susceptible to late-game N since it runs no draw support Pokémon.
 
HouchinsDJ said:
Golisopod/Garbodor is a great deck in today's Meta. It placed second at Memphis recently. I think it's a very strong deck that has a lot of favorable matchups, but can be susceptible to late-game N since it runs no draw support Pokémon.
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I assume that the late game draw is why I see Golisopod/Zoroark decks. The big thing with those are that you lose out on that Garbotoxin. The only two things I can think of to do anything about that is Octillery and Orangaru (?). Both of those don't seem that great...
 
Anthony Mooney said:
I assume that the late game draw is why I see Golisopod/Zoroark decks. The big thing with those are that you lose out on that Garbotoxin. The only two things I can think of to do anything about that is Octillery and Orangaru (?). Both of those don't seem that great...
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I actually recently started experimenting with Trashalanche heavy Garb variants with Octillery (would try Zoroark but I don't own them atm) and 0-1 Toxin garb. Hard to tell so far if it's really worthwile. I could see Zoro/Trashalanche/Drampa being decent
 
TheJollyFlyingMan said:
I actually recently started experimenting with Trashalanche heavy Garb variants with Octillery (would try Zoroark but I don't own them atm) and 0-1 Toxin garb. Hard to tell so far if it's really worthwile. I could see Zoro/Trashalanche/Drampa being decent
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That's an odd trio. It sounds like it would have Energy issues. Not too sure if the Zoroark would counteract that, but the consistency would be my main concern.
 
Anthony Mooney said:
I assume that the late game draw is why I see Golisopod/Zoroark decks. The big thing with those are that you lose out on that Garbotoxin. The only two things I can think of to do anything about that is Octillery and Orangaru (?). Both of those don't seem that great...
Click to expand...

Golisopod/Zoroark is certainly more consistent, but Garbotoxin has its perks too. Octillery and Oranguru are both great draw engines but you can't really reliably run them in the Goli/Garb variant because your own Garbotoxin shuts them off.
 
Metagross GX: Consistency: 7/10 | Damage Output: /10 | Versus Meta: 7/10 | Overall: 8/10 | Just very consistent, while dishing out big damage. However, it just doesn't do enough damage nowadays, with Golisopod, Zoroark, and Greninja Break running rampant, and no real way to increase its damage output.

If Gardevoir is 7.5 consistency then metagross should be 7.5 and metagross/solgaleo would be 10/10 damage as you can hit 250 easily
 
I think Silvally/ Metal should be added.
Consistency 9/10| Damage: 8/10| Vs meta 6/10| Overall 7.67/10
The deck has insane consistency, due to it having a decent damage output while accelerating energy. The only really bad matchup is Lycanroc variants but I still find myself able to pull out the win
 
Sure thing! However, I cannot agree with Greninja Break. I either absolutely suck against it, or my opponents never prize Frogadier, but every single time my opponents are always somehow able to get out 2 Greninja Break and a Starmie.
 
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