Standard Aerodactyl/Jirachi

[Wechselbalg]

I'm not playing Erika because it's bad early game and I can't have 100% control over what supporter I get in the beginning of the game. I'm not playing Ditto either because I want to reduce the chances of starting with something useless in the active. I'm thinking of adding 1 Chimeco.

Spoiler: the list

Pokémon - 13

1 Absol TEU
4 Aerodactyl
4 Jirachi
2 Inkay
2 Malamar

Trainers - 36

3 Escape Board
4 Unidentified Fossil
1 Viridian Forest
4 Lillie
2 Mysterious Treasure
2 Rescue Stretcher
4 Ultra Ball
3 Guzma
3 Cynthia
1 Tate & Liza
3 Choice Band
2 Shrine of Punishment
4 Fossil Excavation Map

Energy - 11
7 Psychic
4 DCE

Any thoughts?

EDIT:

I wanted to post the updated list as well, since I find it to be very consistent.

Spoiler: updated list

Pokémon - 15

1 Absol TEU
4 Aerodactyl
3 Jirachi
1 Giratina LOT
3 Inkay
3 Malamar

Trainers - 34

3 Escape Board
4 Unidentified Fossil
4 Lillie
2 Mysterious Treasure
1 Rescue Stretcher
4 Ultra Ball
3 Guzma
4 Cynthia
1 Tate & Liza
3 Choice Band
3 Shrine of Punishment
2 Fossil Excavation Map

Energy - 11

7 Psychic
4 DCE

 

[Lord Goomy]

Looks good to me. I don’t think you need Chimecho (I never liked the card in the first place, that’s my opinion). I’d also consider taking out Viridian Forest for another Shrine, my personal preference. Anything you’re specifically having problems with?

 

[Wechselbalg]

I'm thinking of adding Onix against Pikarom altough I'm not sure if it's worth it because if I have to start with it I just lose lol

I think Chimecho is a nice tech in any Malamar build but I don't think there is room for it. I was actually thinking of adding a 3rd Shrine instead of Viridian Forest - the additional discard is nice but I really need that additional Shrine Damage against anything that has more than 210 HP.

 

[AntiYouJD]

4 Jirachi is a bit overkill, even for this deck. Same thing goes for the Excavation Maps, Jirachi can fetch you Fossils if you haven't found any, and rou'll never need to retrieve too many fossils from the discard pile.
On the other hand, you ABSOLUTELY need at least one more Malamar line. If 1 gets prized and you lose the other one, this deck will simply lose. Even if you don't prize one, you'll always want at least 2 Malamars on the bench in order to attack even if you whiff DCE. You'll also be able to tech in a Giratina once you've got 3 Malamar lines, which is a good self-retrieving attacker while Aerodactyl isn't ready.

 

[Laurier_Ex]

If I could afford at least 2 more Jirach for the engine, I would try to run a deck list similar but with Hitmonchan paired with Kabutop and Aerodactyl from Team Up and also Diancie PS.

 

[Wechselbalg]

If I could afford at least 2 more Jirach for the engine, I would try to run a deck list similar but with Hitmonchan paired with Kabutop and Aerodactyl from Team Up and also Diancie PS.

That's not a bad idea but in that case I wouldn't bother with Aerodactly and just focus on Hitmonchan and Kabutops.

 

[Wechselbalg]

4 Jirachi is a bit overkill, even for this deck. Same thing goes for the Excavation Maps, Jirachi can fetch you Fossils if you haven't found any, and rou'll never need to retrieve too many fossils from the discard pile.
On the other hand, you ABSOLUTELY need at least one more Malamar line. If 1 gets prized and you lose the other one, this deck will simply lose. Even if you don't prize one, you'll always want at least 2 Malamars on the bench in order to attack even if you whiff DCE. You'll also be able to tech in a Giratina once you've got 3 Malamar lines, which is a good self-retrieving attacker while Aerodactyl isn't ready.

Thanks a lot, I liked the suggested changes and adjusted my deck accordingly!

 

[Laurier_Ex]

That's not a bad idea but in that case I wouldn't bother with Aerodactly and just focus on Hitmonchan and Kabutops.

Since they both evolve from Unidentified Fossil and they both provide something different, Aerodactyl is not a burden even if you tech 1-2 in your deck. You should adjust the amount to your liking and from the feeling you get from playing the deck and learning about the match ups and the meta. I believe Aerodactyl could win you some games that Kabutops by himself could possibly not. I can't answer if he is worth a spot but i would keep it in mind most definitely.

 

[Wechselbalg]

Since they both evolve from Unidentified Fossil and they both provide something different, Aerodactyl is not a burden even if you tech 1-2 in your deck. You should adjust the amount to your liking and from the feeling you get from playing the deck and learning about the match ups and the meta. I believe Aerodactyl could win you some games that Kabutops by himself could possibly not. I can't answer if he is worth a spot but i would keep it in mind most definitely.

Kabutops is a stage 2 which means you need to commit 4 deck spots for Rare Candy and 1-2 spots for Kabuto. Aerodactyl needs only colorless energy to attack, but since you want to play it with Kabutops, you need to use fighting, which doesn't have energy acceleration, meaning that if you cannot attach a basic and a DCE to your fossils every single turn starting on the very first, Aerodactyl is not going to win you anything that Kabutops itself couldn't have. Once both Aerodactyls go down you will most likely lose anyway, since you focused on Aerodactyl and now your Kabutopses are all going to die since you can't attach energy to them quickly enough. Also, with only 1 or 2 Aerodactyls in the deck, you also have a good chance of prizing at least one, or you could prize too many Kabutopses in MUs where Kabutops should be the priority.

The only reason Aerodactyl is viable in the first place is because of the [C][C][C] attack cost + Shrine of Punishment, which, combined with Malamar, enables you to stream Aerodactyls and dish out 180- 210 damage every turn (plus the chip damage from the shrine) without having to worry about energy attachments.

The only reason to play Kabutops is the supporter lock+ the fighting typing which hits Pikarom and Zoroark for weakness. The fact that you can lock your opponent's supporters mitigates the fact that Kabutops needs a manual basic energy and DCE attachment.

In short, the two cards require a different playstyle and mixing the two will create an unreliable strategy that is not consistent enough for a BO3 format.

 

[Laurier_Ex]

Kabutops is a stage 2 which means you need to commit 4 deck spots for Rare Candy and 1-2 spots for Kabuto. Aerodactyl needs only colorless energy to attack, but since you want to play it with Kabutops, you need to use fighting, which doesn't have energy acceleration, meaning that if you cannot attach a basic and a DCE to your fossils every single turn starting on the very first, Aerodactyl is not going to win you anything that Kabutops itself couldn't have. Once both Aerodactyls go down you will most likely lose anyway, since you focused on Aerodactyl and now your Kabutopses are all going to die since you can't attach energy to them quickly enough. Also, with only 1 or 2 Aerodactyls in the deck, you also have a good chance of prizing at least one, or you could prize too many Kabutopses in MUs where Kabutops should be the priority.

The only reason Aerodactyl is viable in the first place is because of the [C][C][C] attack cost + Shrine of Punishment, which, combined with Malamar, enables you to stream Aerodactyls and dish out 180- 210 damage every turn (plus the chip damage from the shrine) without having to worry about energy attachments.

The only reason to play Kabutops is the supporter lock+ the fighting typing which hits Pikarom and Zoroark for weakness. The fact that you can lock your opponent's supporters mitigates the fact that Kabutops needs a manual basic energy and DCE attachment.

In short, the two cards require a different playstyle and mixing the two will create an unreliable strategy that is not consistent enough for a BO3 format.

I think that we misunderstand each other although I agree with your reasoning. I never intend on having Kabutops as the main attacker ideally. Hitmonchan only needs a single energy and attacks while rotating onto Kabutops for supporter lock with the strafe effect. You can use Hitmonchan to attack and Kabutops to do the supporter lock. This can effectively mitigate energy acceleration while you focus attaching energy onto Aerodactyl instead of placing it on Kabutops which will be the sitting duck in the active.

Maybe it would take too much switching to work since Kabutops has a retreat cost of 2 energies and this might just be me dreaming of something that just doesn't work. Maybe paired with Silvally-Gx and Necrozma-Gx or with a Solgaleo-Gx line? Solgaleo-Gx paired with Jirachi and Kabutops just seems very broken to me if it sets up.

 

[Wechselbalg]

Maybe it would take too much switching to work since Kabutops has a retreat cost of 2 energies and this might just be me dreaming of something that just doesn't work. Maybe paired with Silvally-Gx and Necrozma-Gx or with a Solgaleo-Gx line? Solgaleo-Gx paired with Jirachi and Kabutops just seems very broken to me if it sets up.

Case closed, I think.