Help Want to do Expanded Regionals... What to play?

Cati

Aspiring Trainer
Member
What should I play expanded Competitive? I might go to an expanded regional but I don't know what's good! Pls Help! Thanks!

UWU b
 

Scoop

Literally a sheep
Member
What should I play expanded Competitive? I might go to an expanded regional but I don't know what's good! Pls Help! Thanks!

UWU b
I’ve been enjoying Archies for the last few months in expanded. Feel free to PM me or something if you want a bit of insight/advice on it, I’m not the greatest at the TCG but I’m more than happy to share my list and discuss!
 

Merovingian

Dead Game Enthusiast
Member
Yeah, we need to know which Regionals. If it's the first two, actual metagame advice will help here. If it's Dallas, it gets Cosmic Eclipse and that set has at least two new decks that are going to see Expanded play. One of which I think is a tier-1 contender and will shake things up if it's taken seriously if people catch onto it, the other is a mid-tier-2 play (Reshiram & Zekrom-GX).

The other 3 Regionals after Dallas should have the new "no supporter turn 1" rule (assuming it comes into play when our Sword & Shield Base Set becomes legal and not earlier).

Expanded Regionals are a mess this year, and it would really help if we knew which one(s) you are planning to attend because there are 3 different courses of action to take here.
 
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K_la

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Mew & Vileplume looks great on paper, but of the three recent league cups I've been to have shown these decks not to play to their expectations.
 

Merovingian

Dead Game Enthusiast
Member
Mew & Vileplume looks great on paper, but of the three recent league cups I've been to have shown these decks not to play to their expectations.

As someone who runs a deck that absolutely dies to Vileplume, I am going to hold you to this. I want this. And I will hold you personally responsible if Dallas is swarmed with it.
 

K_la

Aspiring Trainer
Member
As someone who runs a deck that absolutely dies to Vileplume, I am going to hold you to this. I want this. And I will hold you personally responsible if Dallas is swarmed with it.

I was going to play it for Portland, but the poor showing I've observed from it have turned me off. If it does well I'll be holding myself accountable for playing dark box instead of it, lol.
 

novato

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I would think that whoever goes to any of these regionals, without zoroark or mew3, would be giving a lot of advantage.
 

FacepalmMaster

1 2 3 5 6 7 8 9
Member
While not a t1 contender ive been testing zorocheckmate and i feels strong against any deck that plays ex/gx pokemon and even stronger against tag team decks. damaging a tag team and using stinger gx it busted and having the non gx naganadel to ohko mew3 is great as a suprise option. zorogarb is a little unfavorable but if you can pull of the mime jirachi combo you will win. night march loses if they bench 2 shaymins and persian gx can ohko greninja berak with slash back+kukui. against buzzgarb you can use stinger to avoid the sledgehammer turn after koing their diancie and octillery so the deck functions a lot worse and non gx naganadel can be really useful if power plant didnt exist i might actually say that this matchup is favorable. using stinger against hitmonchan makes it hard for them to get enough damage on the board but they have wobbofett. archiestoise is annoying if the get the cross division but you can play the bronzong combo so thats nice. the other decks ive been testing have been buzzgarb(feels inconsistient and dies to control) and zorogarb which just feels underwhelming if they play around your items(ik its a good choice right now but not even 3hkoing some cards is just dumb)
so right now zorocheckmate is my top pick for portland
 

Merovingian

Dead Game Enthusiast
Member
I would think that whoever goes to any of these regionals, without zoroark or mew3, would be giving a lot of advantage.

For Richmond and Portland, there's several non Zoroark/Mew3 decks that are viable. Plenty of them.

Dallas will be the first Regional that uses the new bans. Assuming we don't have the "No Supporter T1" in place, it's going to be a gas. If this is the case, I will be bringing some non-Zoroark and MewMew, homegrown Texas spice to Dallas.


Turbo dark is nuts. Archies is really good but turbo is slightly better

Palkia-GX allows Archies to dominate Turbo Dark. Turbo Dark is like the bottom end of the tier-1 ladder right now.
 

Nyora

A Cat
Member
Yeah, we need to know which Regionals. If it's the first two, actual metagame advice will help here. If it's Dallas, it gets Cosmic Eclipse and that set has at least two new decks that are going to see Expanded play. One of which I think is a tier-1 contender and will shake things up if it's taken seriously if people catch onto it, the other is a mid-tier-2 play (Reshiram & Zekrom-GX).

The other 3 Regionals after Dallas should have the new "no supporter turn 1" rule (assuming it comes into play when our Sword & Shield Base Set becomes legal and not earlier).

Expanded Regionals are a mess this year, and it would really help if we knew which one(s) you are planning to attend because there are 3 different courses of action to take here.
What is this tier-1 contender you speak of? :eek:
 

Nyora

A Cat
Member
For Richmond and Portland, there's several non Zoroark/Mew3 decks that are viable. Plenty of them.

Dallas will be the first Regional that uses the new bans. Assuming we don't have the "No Supporter T1" in place, it's going to be a gas. If this is the case, I will be bringing some non-Zoroark and MewMew, homegrown Texas spice to Dallas.




Palkia-GX allows Archies to dominate Turbo Dark. Turbo Dark is like the bottom end of the tier-1 ladder right now.
I should’ve read more before this for no double post, but would the usage of Baby Mew or even Mew-EX to beat MewMew easily with weakness (granted no Jirachi GX) along with the easy to get Dead End GX and just squeezing in 1 attack in there not work vs. Archie’s?? I feel like the mu isn’t as bad as it seems because of palkia. It definitely isn’t great but I think it is winnable.
 

Laurier_Ex

Ninja master
Member
I know that many people will not take me seriously if I say this because I have no claim apart from my own experience and I am just playing on PTCGO but Ninja Box is just as good if not better than any Mew3 decks out there. It is less susceptible to be countered and can wreck Turbo dark or most of the other top tier decks as well.

It’s hilarious to see I have been posting about this deck for that long and still, very few people still realize how strong, flexible and adaptative this deck can be. I would take my Ninja Box deck to any event over any of the other top decks.
 

The Last Shaymin

Floof
Member
well obviously rowlet is a good deck, it just won

another strong deck is turbo dark. it wins the zorocontrol matchup easily.

Something else is gardeon.

Archies is bad, dont play it.
 

Merovingian

Dead Game Enthusiast
Member
well obviously rowlet is a good deck, it just won

EggRow was a fantastic metacall, that said, I think it'll underperform in Portland for two reasons:
- Decks that tend to win a Regional don't repeat the same success at the next one. ZoroToad last format was an exception to this due to its dynamic design.
- Archie's SEVERELY underperforming means that Fire-type decks could EASILY jump back in the format. We have seen Turbo Welder ReshiZard take some top spots in Cups in August and September and then take a backseat for October. But it being able to easily donk an EggRow, as well as make Zoroark decks VERY nervous, it's not out of the question. Especially when Standard players can take the deck and literally add 10 Expanded cards and they are good. To add to that, a Fire Box deck did make day 2 and was featured on stream, so the concept is viable.

another strong deck is turbo dark. it wins the zorocontrol matchup easily.

The Dark box that won second is the deck people are going to flock to. The traditional Turbo Dark didn't do so hot.

Something else is gardeon.

This was a cool metacall. Using Power Plant and the GX attack was nasty to see against those Zoro decks. Apparently, it has a good matchup spread, especially against EggRow (it lost in Top 4 because they Prized BOTH of their only Spritzees in one game and drew bad in the other, IIRC).

Archies is bad, dont play it.

Someone in one of the meta-forecasts said it best, I think it was Kiernan Wagner, "It loses to reasons outside your control. Why play the most luck-based deck in the format when there are other better options?"

I mean, he's right. How many matchups have you heard (when regarding Archies) have gone along the lines of "If Archies wins the coin toss, it's favored". Between the coin toss, the T1 Archies, and Order Pad, and the recent POOR showing at Richmond. I think the proof is there that Archie's isn't able to hang as well as it used to.

Watch, I say this and it gets Top 8 at Portland.
 
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