Alt. Format Cursed Forrest (Trevenant / Shaymin EX)

[Dark Espeon]

CURSED FOREST

Pokémon (12):

• 4 Trevenant (disable)
• 4 Phantump (evolve)
• 4 Shaymin EX (draw)

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums (38):

• 2 Professor Birch's Observation (draw)
  
• 4 Professor Sycamore (draw)
• 2 Team Flare Grunt (discard)
  
• 1 Lysandre (control)
• 3 Wally (evolve)
• 1 AZ (retrieval)
• 2 Enhanced Hammer (discard)
• 3 Muscle Band (beatdown)
• 1 Sacred Ashes (retrieval)
• 4 Trainer's Mail (search)
• 3 Head Ringer (disable)
  
• 3 VS Seeker (retrieve)
• 1 Eco Arm (retrieval)
  
• 4 Ultra Ball (search)
• 4 Color-Drained City (disable)

Energy (10):

• 4 Double Colorless Energy
• 6 Psychic Energy

Strategy:

Go first and start with Phantump. Use Wally to evolve into Trevenant turn one to lock out items. In this deck Trevenant is used to attack while Shaymin Ex draws cards. He can knock out Mega Pokémon Ex in two hits with Muscle Band and Color-Drained City and also hits for more than Seismitoad Ex in control mirror matches. The trainers have been chosen to set up fast and disable the opponent while he or she is under item lock.

Spoilers:

Eco Arm
Trainer - Item
Shuffle 3 Pokémon Tool cards from your discard pile back into your deck.

Color-Drained City
Trainer - Stadium
Between turns, place 2 damage counters on each Mega Evolved Pokemon in play.

 

[mikebploz]

This looks like a really cool deck idea! Probably the only downside to this deck is the fact that none of your Pokemon have more than 110 HP. Mega Manectric decks or Landorus/bats would be devastating if they get set up. I'd recommend a wall of some sort JUST in case you can't get an early Trevenant and the opponent can get an early setup. The first thing that comes to mind is a Wailord EX, but really the decision is up to you.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi mikebploz,

Thanks for the review. The main idea is to use status condition and energy discard to slow the opponent down in addition to the turn one item lock with Trevenant and Wally. This does not work well in case of Landorus Crobat due to the low attack cost but I do not see this deck to be that common with the new set. Head Ringer would be a nice addition to this deck but I was unable to fit two or three of them into the deck without sacrificing the consistency of a turn one item lock. Walls would be much less ideal since Trevenant needs to be active to lock down items.

 

[Gengar master]

Have you tried Jirachi EX? It can guarantee you the Wally and is easily accessible via 4 Ultra Balls.
You could do:
-1 Wally

+1 Jirachi EX

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi Gengar master,

Thanks for the review. Did not try it out thus far because I do not own one but will be sure to test it on PlayTCG to see how it does.

 

[DKQuagmire]

I have wanted to try out this deck concept too, after watching videos of this deck in action.

Here are the few cards I would like to mention which you could add to this deck.

• Dragalge. This card can be used, to prevent retreating when your opponent is poisoned. Could be a nice little tech card to have.

• Gengar EX. He can also make a nice addition, with its second attack poisoning the opponent and switching it with a bench Pokemon. This is especially good when you encounter a Seismitoad deck, and you are unable to play your Lasers, and you need a means to poison your opponent and keep your lock up. (Poison and switch to Trevenant on the same turn)

• Silent Lab. Another card worth a mention, which may seem like an odd choice, and somewhat counter intuitive, as it turns off your Shaymin's abilities. But this card will be good when facing a Sigilyph or Suicune (the ones with safeguard obviously), who you will have no way to deal damage to them, other than by poisoning them, or by piling on the energy onto Trevenant, to attack with him instead. If worse comes to worse, you can always just Lysandre the safeguard Pokemon out.

• Max Potion. Since Trevenant will be taking all the attacks for you, and as long as it is able survive the hit, you can keep him going longer by just healing off all the damage from it using a Max Potion, keeping him alive for another turn.

I hope these options are helpful in anyway.

 

[lrodjrod]

I have wanted to try out this deck concept too, after watching videos of this deck in action.

Here are the few cards I would like to mention which you could add to this deck.

• Dragalge. This card can be used, to prevent retreating when your opponent is poisoned. Could be a nice little tech card to have.

• Gengar EX. He can also make a nice addition, with its second attack poisoning the opponent and switching it with a bench Pokemon. This is especially good when you encounter a Seismitoad deck, and you are unable to play your Lasers, and you need a means to poison your opponent and keep your lock up. (Poison and switch to Trevenant on the same turn)

• Silent Lab. Another card worth a mention, which may seem like an odd choice, and somewhat counter intuitive, as it turns off your Shaymin's abilities. But this card will be good when facing a Sigilyph or Suicune (the ones with safeguard obviously), who you will have no way to deal damage to them, other than by poisoning them, or by piling on the energy onto Trevenant, to attack with him instead. If worse comes to worse, you can always just Lysandre the safeguard Pokemon out.

• Max Potion. Since Trevenant will be taking all the attacks for you, and as long as it is able survive the hit, you can keep him going longer by just healing off all the damage from it using a Max Potion, keeping him alive for another turn.

I hope these options are helpful in anyway.

I don't think you understand how the deck works.
You don't want to use more EX pokemon.
You want to use Shaymin-EX as a pokemon to draw cards, and Trevanent as item lock.
It does the same damage output as seismitoad but the difference is, Seismitoad-EX cannot reset himself on board.
Shaymin-EX can, seeing as it's attack picks himself up.
Silent Lab, I can agree with.
Draglege, not worth the space; theres supporters for that, you don't want to use up bench space.
Max Potion? Trev is too fraile and even then, the point of the deck is to rely on your 25% chance of screwing your opponent out of the game.
You can set up more Trevs as well, you shouldn't run a 2-2 or 3-3, when you're trying to get it t1 every single game.
Wasting these spots (Gengar, Drag) just slowers the deck down. If anything, you want to make the pace of the game faster, and faster.

 

[DKQuagmire]

I don't think you understand how the deck works.
You don't want to use more EX Pokemon.
You want to use Shaymin-EX as a Pokemon to draw cards, and Trevanent as item lock.
It does the same damage output as Seismitoad but the difference is, Seismitoad-EX cannot reset himself on board.
Shaymin-EX can, seeing as it's attack picks himself up.
Silent Lab, I can agree with.
Dragalge, not worth the space; there's supporters for that, you don't want to use up bench space.
Max Potion? Trev is too fragile and even then, the point of the deck is to rely on your 25% chance of screwing your opponent out of the game.
You can set up more Trevs as well, you shouldn't run a 2-2 or 3-3, when you're trying to get it t1 every single game.
Wasting these spots (Gengar, Drag) just slows the deck down. If anything, you want to make the pace of the game faster, and faster.

To be fair though. With the Prices of Shaymin EX going for anything around £20 or more, cards like Gengar EX, make a nice substitute as a budget alternative in this deck.
I've opened over 40 Roaring Skies packs, and have not seen a single Shaymin EX.
The other cards where only suggestions, but I will agree that they would take up valuable space in your deck, for better cards.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi DKQuakmire,

Thanks for the review. Dragalge does not seem to fit since he slows the deck down and there is no need to install a retreat lock with a massive amount of hammers. Silent Lab does not seem to work either since I need Shaymin Ex to draw more than half of the deck within the first two turns. Without Shaymin Ex the deck would be too slow to be effective. Gengar Ex would fit in principle but does not assist the current version much. Nevertheless I believe that Gengar Ex can be effective with Trevenant in a deck on his own but the current built focuses on attacking with Trevenant. For this reason Max Potion would be inefficient. It discards the already low amount of energy in this deck and Trevenant has low HP.

Hi lrodjod,

Thanks for the review. The main focus of this deck is to attack with Trevenant. With Muscle Band he hits the active for 80 and deals 20 to two benched Pokémon. This suffices to knock out Pokémon Ex in two hits. Check this video for an idea on how the deck is used:

Hi folks,

Revised the trainers a little after some matches and clarified the strategy of this deck in the original post.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi folks,

Revised the deck with Lysandre's Last Resort ban in mind and the new cards from Bandit Ring.