Blog What's Yet to Come — A Look at Four Viable Decks After Rotation

PkmTrainerBeezus

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I feel like Pokemon Ranger and Hex Maniac are needed in these decks or they'll just automatically lose to Giratina if it gets off the first attack. Especially if you can't get the special energies for M-ray/M-Mewtwo need, or you can't get that float stone to turn on Grabodor's ability in M-Scizor or M-Mewtwo.
Special conditions like sleep, confusion and paralyzation are also great against giratina. I was play-testing against it last night and special conditions are really helpful. you dont always need to rely on supporters especially when you will need that supporter to help better your hand and or disrupt your opponets hand.
 

LightningCloud224

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I don't like the idea of mega Ray being locked by garbodor then parallel city happening. There is no reliable recovery off this in new standard. You are then forced to use basic ray if you haven't already evolved and/or over extended.
 

poke4trade

Raising Ash
Member
Dude, I completely agree. I run a fire deck and Blacksmith was a really good card, but fire decks were too dependent of it. Now, that it's gone I can use other Trainers cards instead (I'll use Delinquent).

Also, Volcanion ex with Baby Volcanion can be very effective with Flareon Ex, and dont forget that Tools now are even harder to discard so Entei is another good possibility to use (Fighting fury belt + hard charm or assault vest or healing scarf).

@Chris_Freak Yep, these are the strategies I'm talking about. I know it sounds strange, but Steven and Psychic Mind Reading works well with the line up. I'd post my deck list, but I forgot it, at work. I do know my deck list is counter intuitive, it runs Max Elixir and Energy Reset. I only run Valcnion EX and Valconion. I usually can outpace my opponents in speed and dmg. output.

Night March is a tough one. Torchic is needed for that match up.

I have another deck that does fairly well too. It runs Regice. I play rainbow energy with it. Rainbow Energy counts as fire energy and can be pulled off with Energy Reset. In essence, you can charge Regice with Power Heater and play rainbow energy to activate R. Blizzard. The deck is a huge monkey wrench with M Mew Two decks. It gives a round two attack. I run Rough Seas in my deck. I can heal off Valconian EX and Regice. Plus, special charge is an added bonus. And if I hit the max elixirs it is tough to navigate around with the new format. The format is slower. I like it.

Lysander is a bit harder to play. Because he is a harder play, I've taken him out of some of decks. The strategy is to out pace the opponent. It works well in the next format. Two Lysanders in a deck give bigger probability of dead drawing. 2 lysanders, Ranger, and Hex, gives 4 non draw supporters. Non draw supporters are going to be the Achilles heel of next season because it's hard to thin the deck.

When you dig at the cards a bit there is all sort of nonsense out there that works well with Volcanion EX. White Kyruem also can fit in the deck to proceed with early snipes. Not me, but when the pros finish worlds, I think we are going to be in for a real treat when it comes to deck lists.

With the new competitive format, and all the League Cups we are going to have, next season is going to be a bit harder to nail down what is doing well, and when. Next year, might be the first year for some creative plays like the above. Literally, we have the potential of having a League cup (city) every weekend through out year with the new format in every single state. It is a lot of games. It will depend on card shops, and how many they would like to run. It will be more like MOTG tournaments. It's going to be much harder tracking down what is a good deck. It's doable, but it's going to be harder.
 
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Gordon325

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Do Pikachu XY and Xerneas XY have reprints in different sets? If not those cards won't be legal, I know there are newer Pikachu to choose from, but the Xerneas plays a fairly important roll.
 

FierySplash

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Great Article!

I run Valcanion EX now in new standard, against current standard. I've played against most of the competitive decks. I do really well. I've played under item lock and ability lock. Maybe I'm just lucky with it. I have a current 8-0 winning streak with the deck. I know this sounds weird, but you do not need black smith. It slows the deck down.

There is some out of the box strategy with the deck that will catch on after rotation. Right now, people are thinking blacksmith, after rotation, when trainers play with the deck a bit more, they will realize the card slowed it down. Blacksmith is just overbearing on the deck. It requires the deck to produce to many resources all at once.

The deck is a Paradox. You play the deck against the grain to make it work.

I'm going to play it at the side events at worlds. I wouldn't right it off as Tier two. With the right deck list, it will enter the competitive super zone at tier one.

Garbador really isn't a threat to the deck. If anything Garbador hurts the opponent. It slows them down. Like Yveltal, Baby Valcanion speeds everything up creating multiple attackers to fast for a garbador lock deck.
Building a Volcanion deck myself, mind if I pm you and compare lists?
 

MelancholyFairy

Tricky Fox
Member
Do Pikachu XY and Xerneas XY have reprints in different sets? If not those cards won't be legal, I know there are newer Pikachu to choose from, but the Xerneas plays a fairly important roll.
Yep! The Raichu was reprinted in Generations, and Xerneas was reprinted in Steam Siege.
 

sluggisha

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Congrats Eddie!,You need to pick journalism courses on your next semester,along with your photography ,you could be the reporter with the one-two punch! Your article is very well written and totally punk rock ,how you uncover the secret powers in each deck.You are an expert on the subject,and it shows in your writing.I'm proud to see you do something with your knowledge ,BBD
 

fr33land

Weak competitive trainer.
Member
Does anyone else think pikachu ex magnezone has a great chance in the new standard? The boogie man for stage 2 decks the Toad is gone, so is trevenant xy. The deck would only lose battle compressor as a quick access to fisherman and so forth. With the removal of obatacles to rare candy do you think it has improved? What new cards would benefit the rain dance deck?
 
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