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Standard Blacephalon/Naganadel

PokémonTCG_Trainer

Aspiring Trainer
Member
4x Blacephalon-GX
4X Naganadel (Lost Thunder)
4x Poipole (Lost Thunder)
1x Tapu Lele-GX

16X Fire
1x Beast Prism Star

2X Ultra Space
1x Heat Factory Prism Star

4X Sightseer
3X Cynthia
3X Kiawe
2X Guzma

4x Ultra Ball
4X Mysterious Treasure
3X Beast Ring
2x Choice Band
2x Acro Bike

So basically you just try to set up as many Naganadel as possible while getting Fire energy in the discard pile so you can set up Blacephalon-GX's Mind Blown attack to do massive damage. This deck can set up really fast, especially if you can Kiawe Turn 1. In a perfect world, you can hit a max of 310 damage on Turn 2 and keep going. (5 Fire to Lost Zone+30 from Choice Band+30 from Beast Energy)
 

Superstarr

Aspiring Trainer
Member
3 kiawe seems a bit much, t1 going first it’s a pretty great supporter. Going second you could honestly just gx attack as a meant of immediately initiating a orize race.
After t1 going first kiawe seems pretty useless unless you are absolutely in dire need of setting up a big ko. I think you could shave the kiawe number down to 0 or 1 and really not miss it at all. I think you need some out to not just scoop to sceptile. Some people are testing alternate attackers such as reshiram or sallazzle gx but I think 1 or 2 plumeria is fine for all intents and purposes.
Not maxing out on beast ring seems like you are doing yourself a disservice, if you get to beast ring turns and you whiff it then that is more than likely the pivotal point where your opponent will run away with the game. I think 4 of optimal for this deck. I also think ignoring field blower is a sure fire way to scoop to spell tag which is already a tough matchup to begin with it also allows you to remove remove devoured fields/ choice bands off of zoroarks which will result in them having to rely on the Lucanroc gx to get a Ohko and then puts them in a position where they can’t Ohko your blacephalons with zoroartks while you can Ohko them.
 

Duo

RIP Nessa 2023
Member
I agree that 3 Kiawe is too many for this deck.

Kiawe is only used for your turn 1 going first when you can't attack anyway. Otherwise, if you're turn 1 going 2nd or any other turn in the game, you should be using the GX attack as early as possible to take prize advantage while your opponent has no threats on the board yet, or if your opponent is starting to build up threats, go for the burn & confuse to deter them from going in on you (like if you set up slower than your opponent in the mirror match). In a lot of ways, I would almost rather play turn 1 Steven to make sure I have Beast Rings in my hand and then play draw supporters like Sightseer or TV Reporter instead of Cynthia to keep them in my hand and make sure I'm ready to respond to any threats.

I also agree that Beast Ring needs to be run at 4. It's a primary win condition for the deck and you always maximize on your win conditions.

I'm thinking that Turtonator GX is a great Pokemon to run in Blacephalon decks going forward. At least it's the tech I would play if I were to build this deck. The GX attack can give you huge energy, and unlike Reshiram GX, I'd say that Bright Flame is a far more servicable attack that only costs 3 energy, hits for 160, and OHKOs the mirror match, Ray GX, Buzzwole GX, and all of the Necrozma GXs with Choice Band. Primarily only to be used when you see your opponent playing the Sceptile, but also not a bad Pokemon on its own merit to just come in and solo on the front line for a little bit. Discarding 2 energy for attack doesn't lose you anything since you can Naganadel them back on and then use them as fuel for Blacephalon GX later. I'd say it's a whole heck of a lot more useful than blowing your supporter for turn on Plumeria, and Plumeria only being played exclusively for the Sceptile. Turtonator can stand up to many other meta relevant threats while keeping your supporter for turn available.

Perhaps with a Turtonator focused build, I would go ahead and keep Kiawe at 2 and perhaps choose to open games with Kiawe onto Turtonator so that I can still save Blacephalon's GX attack for later. Haven't playtested this deck extensively to really know how well that works, but I know how it plays in theory.
 

snoopy369

Aspiring Trainer
Advanced Member
Member
Any considerations for the Sceptile deck that can "wall" against any Ultra Beast attacks?

Think that depends on how many of those show up, no? I've never seen one (with limited playtime, admittedly), so I've not worried about it - but if one did, I imagine its weakness to fire would make it pretty manageable with a fire tech card, or even just attack with Tapu Lele, no?
 

Audiofreak19

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I was thinking about this earlier and I was thinking about using Enti-gx or Turt-gx which I think is better. It should be a one off tech specifically for this.
 

Audiofreak19

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I think you definitely need a tech card for sceptile. I played one yesterday at a local tourney and luckily enough took the game for the tourney but I played him 2 more times after for fun and got hosed only being able to get down to 3-4 prizes. Also I was not running plumeria which I don’t think honestly that it will help all to much as this was an eggs deck with no gx.

I was not running a tech and it also didn’t help that I started lele twice. I fact out of the 5 games I played last night in total I started lele 3 times. That could be due to not a good shuffle although I did pile shuffle each game.
 

Pokefam

300 something/400
Member
Cut all kiawes Lillie is much better turn 1. Don't bother teching for sceptile its an autoloss if they set up
 

Audiofreak19

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I can see that. Also my matchup against zoro rock came down to the wire as I would like more choice bands to ohko zoro with only 4 energies vs the 5. But if they tech dumbbells which I have heard some are then it makes it a little more difficult but then it’s a 2 shot game
 

TuxedoBlack

Old School Player
Member
Think that depends on how many of those show up, no? I've never seen one (with limited playtime, admittedly), so I've not worried about it - but if one did, I imagine its weakness to fire would make it pretty manageable with a fire tech card, or even just attack with Tapu Lele, no?
Note that that Sceptile'sAbility protects all of the opponent's Pokémon with attached G energy from any of your Ultra Beast attacks... Tapu Lele GX might be an option; but most likely, it will not be a "good" option given it limited damage output. Just be aware.
 

Audiofreak19

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I have tried lele but it’s difficult to get enough energies on it in time and once the sceptile is out is usually too late.
 

Vom

livin' in a lonely world
Forum Mod
Member
I haven't actually tried it yet (I haven't seen enough/any Sceptile representation) but I figure Charmeleon DRM makes for a more permanent tech against Sceptile than Plumeria. It does 80 damage for [R][R][C], and it can accelerate Energy unto itself with its Ability (when you play it you mill 5, then attach any Fire Energy discarded to itself).

It OHKOs Sceptile, and if you slap a Choice Band on it it does 110 damage, which adds up with Naganadel's attack quite nicely if you're not hitting for weakness. Furthermore, it's a Stage 1, so you can just add a 1-1 Ditto-Charmeleon line so it really doesn't take up much space.
 

TuxedoBlack

Old School Player
Member
Another option I've used (and now like a lot) is Ho-Oh GX. Since you're running Kiawe, this Pokémon provide you with another legitimate attacker that cn snipe opponent's benched Pokémon and also provides Weakness diversity. I'd suggest -1 Blacephalon GX for +1 Ho-Oh GX.
 
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