This is a deck that I've also been working on for a while alongside Ray/Zeraora. I have made a thread on this deck before, but I'd rather not bump that old discussion as there are some new things to talk about now that the format has changed significantly since the last time I talked about this deck.
This time, I'm going to talk about pros and cons of this deck first before posting the deck list as this deck has been a huge problem child for me. This post is longer than most of my other ones, so brace yourself.
Pros
- The new Promo Solgaleo GX negates all weaknesses, making it a good match up against Blacephalon GX/Naganadel. The amount of energy Blacephalon GX has to burn through in order to grab KOs on 250 HP is staggering, and with Psychic resistance to boot, Naganadel isn't getting anything done very quickly either. Ultra Road moves you in & out of burn/confusion as well.
- Promo Solgaleo GX can GX attack to heal all damage from all of your Pokemon. This makes this deck also very resilient to non-GX Malamar decks trying to pick at you with Giratina, Shrine, and Spell Tag. You can erase several turns of poke damage to put you ahead or back on pace.
- Mt. Coronet is a great stadium card that solved this decks issue of not being able to have any energy to attach from hand after Sol Burst GX pulls all the energy out of your deck and later gets thrown into your discard. It also allows you to fight the stadium wars that have become even more popular lately.
Cons
- It's a Stage 2, so your consistency is automatically not as stable as a deck like Blacephalon GX/Naganadel. You are more or less forced to play Professor Elm on turn 1, and if you whiff that then you're in for a bad time.
- This deck runs low counts of its top end, making it even more inconsistent than most Stage 2s. In a standard Stage 2 deck, you generally run 3 GX and 1-2 non-GX top end. Due to both Solgaleos being GX, you are forced to run a 2/2 split in your top end, making the odds of finding the right one for the right time even harder.
- Recovering from KOs is rough. If you prize 1 kind of Solgaleo GX and your only other one gets KO'd, you are hustling real bad for a Rescue Stretcher ASAP.
Trying to Find Workarounds
Thankfully Alolan Ninetales GX comes included with Alolan Vulpix to help with grabbing the GX Pokemon the deck needs, but at the same time relying on Beacon puts you a turn behind in set up if you're going 1st. The best fix that I could find for this solution is to run at least 1 copy of Olivia who can grab you 2 GX Pokemon. Ideally, this would be one of your Solgaleo GX and a copy of Alolan Ninetales GX.
I know people are going to freak out at the mentioning of an incredibly unconvential supporter, but I also want people to take into consideration the sheer benefits it has for this deck. Let me break this down with the numbers.
Playing Olivia searches out 2 Pokemon GX from your deck, one of which is basically always going to be Alolan Ninetales GX (2 cards searched).
Playing down Alolan Ninetales GX searches you two item cards, one of which is likely going to be Rare Candy (4 total cards searched).
Assuming you chose to grab SuMo Solgaleo GX and opt to Sol Burst GX that same turn, you are now searching out 5 energy cards from your deck (9 total cards searched).
By this process, Olivia searches you NINE guaranteed cards and immediately puts your setup in go mode next turn. Even if you do opt to go for the other Solgaleo GX due to match up, the baseline is that you're still searching for 4 cards through Olivia. That's better than Steven searching you 3 and ending your turn with the drawback of not being able to search for energy (we need you back Professor's Letter).
The problem with this is that the deck becomes even more supporter heavy. When T1 wants to be Professor Elm and T2 wants to be Olivia for a nearly guaranteed T2 Sol Burst GX, where's the room for draw supporters to advance the deck?
And so I decided that 4 copies of Acro Bike are just straight up mandatory for this deck. Not only do they help you put energy in the discard pile to potentially allow you to not need Sol Burst GX at all, but they are basically your only outlet for pushing through your deck and finding the supporters you need like Elm. I would do something like run a 2/2 Zoroark GX line, but that makes this deck even clunkier and squeezes your bench space absolutely dry. I think Acro Bike is the only solution to this.
So finally, here's the list that I'm working with now.
Pokemon x16
SuMo Solgaleo GX x2
Promo Solgaleo GX x2
Nebby x4
Alolan Ninetales GX (Fairy) x2
Alolan Vulpix x2
Tapu Lele GX x2
Celesteela x1
Solgaleo Prism Star x1
Supporter x13
Cynthia x4
Guzma x3
Professor Elm x3
Sightseer x2
Olivia x1
Item x17
Ultra Ball x4
Acro Bike x4
Rare Candy x4
Choice Band x2
Rescue Stretcher x2
Nest Ball x1
Stadium x3
Mt. Coronet x3
Energy x11
Metal Energy x8
DCE x3
Let me talk about the debateable card choices here.
3 Copies of Professor Elm - I am a firm believer of there's no such thing as too many copies of Elm/Brigette in a Stage 2 deck. You want this card in hand turn 1 of every game, preferably without Lele. Any extra copies of Elm that show up later in the game can get discarded by Ultra Ball, Acro Bike, and Sightseer, so frankly I think it's totally fine.
There's only 6 Draw Supporters? - With 4 Acro Bikes and this deck wanting to play Elm on Turn 1 every game whereas others are playing Lillie, you are going to on average be playing less draw supporters throughout the entire game. This deck naturally runs a fairly low maintanence set up once you actually get set up. Ultra Road, Turbo Strike, and Mt. Coronet You can go a turn or two without playing a draw supporter and be fine in most situations unless your opponent has an amazing set up.
2 Copies of Rescue Stretcher - 1 might arguably be enough, but with the inclusion of Acro Bike, having 2 copies gives you more freedom of decision as well as makes it much easier to find when you need to recover from a KO. Rescue Stretcher is rarely the item of choice when putting down your first Alolan Ninetales GX, so you need a few copies to see it naturally.
2 Copies of Choice Band - Choice Band makes Celesteela and Solgaleo Prism Star hit for 190. This gives you incredibly favorable trades with all basic GX decks, which happen to be quite popular lately. Depending on circumstance, you will end up using Alolan Ninetales GX to grab one of these. I think 1 copy is too low, but it might be a trade I have to make. 230 is also just not enough damage to OHKO a lot of Stage 2s should the release of Alolan Ninetales GX Fairy cause an influx of Stage 2 decks to start popping up.
Celesteela and Solgaleo Prism Star - These two are here for back up damage and back up energy acceleration. You aren't always going to get Promo Solgaleo GX going for energy acceleration, but you can at least get SuMo Solgaleo GX in play and use Solgaleo Prism Star as an accelerator. It can also save your GX attack if you get lucky enough to see 3-4 basic energy in discard early on. As for Celesteela, remember that Sol Burst GX searches 5 of any energy card, including DCE. It takes only 3 energy cards to use Celesteela from Sol Burst outside of its condition. The other 2 can go to Solgaleo to power up Sunsteel Strike. Boasting 140 HP, Celesteela is an amazing match for basically every other non-GX attacker as most of them cap at 130 damage.
1 Copy of Nest Ball - Professor Elm can't search for Celesteela and Solgaleo Prism Star, but Alolan Ninetales GX can search for a Nest Ball to do that for you. It does come up, so having at least 1 copy to make your non-GX cards that much more accessible is a great option. 4 Ultra Ball alone is a little bit sketchy, so having a 5th ball card can help.
3 Copies of Mt. Coronet - as stated up top, this prevents the deck from bricking on energy when you dry up your deck after a Sol Burst GX. Promo Solgaleo GX can attack to accelerate 2, but SuMo Solgaleo GX needs 3 energy to attack, so you always need an energy in hand to attach at least every other turn.
8 Metal/3 DCE Energy Pool - 3 copies of DCE I find to be the perfect number. You want some for Promo Solgaleo GX, and as mentioned above, you also want some to use Celesteela outside of its prize gimmick, but you don't want much more than that since DCE is not beneficial for SuMo Solgaleo GX or Solgaleo Prism Star. I actually want room for a 9th Metal Energy in this deck, but 3 copies of Mt. Coronet should allow me to always see energy in hand anyway. This deck does not need a very high ceiling of energy since Sunsteel Strike is constantly just using the same 3 energy to attack every other turn, but a 9th Metal energy does help with getting the early attach for turn to even use Sol Burst in the first place. Acro Bike also really helps out with this. If I Acro Bike and pull Metal Energy and Mt. Coronet, obviously I discard the energy and keep Mt. Coronet, and I can effectively have both.
This time, I'm going to talk about pros and cons of this deck first before posting the deck list as this deck has been a huge problem child for me. This post is longer than most of my other ones, so brace yourself.
Pros
- The new Promo Solgaleo GX negates all weaknesses, making it a good match up against Blacephalon GX/Naganadel. The amount of energy Blacephalon GX has to burn through in order to grab KOs on 250 HP is staggering, and with Psychic resistance to boot, Naganadel isn't getting anything done very quickly either. Ultra Road moves you in & out of burn/confusion as well.
- Promo Solgaleo GX can GX attack to heal all damage from all of your Pokemon. This makes this deck also very resilient to non-GX Malamar decks trying to pick at you with Giratina, Shrine, and Spell Tag. You can erase several turns of poke damage to put you ahead or back on pace.
- Mt. Coronet is a great stadium card that solved this decks issue of not being able to have any energy to attach from hand after Sol Burst GX pulls all the energy out of your deck and later gets thrown into your discard. It also allows you to fight the stadium wars that have become even more popular lately.
Cons
- It's a Stage 2, so your consistency is automatically not as stable as a deck like Blacephalon GX/Naganadel. You are more or less forced to play Professor Elm on turn 1, and if you whiff that then you're in for a bad time.
- This deck runs low counts of its top end, making it even more inconsistent than most Stage 2s. In a standard Stage 2 deck, you generally run 3 GX and 1-2 non-GX top end. Due to both Solgaleos being GX, you are forced to run a 2/2 split in your top end, making the odds of finding the right one for the right time even harder.
- Recovering from KOs is rough. If you prize 1 kind of Solgaleo GX and your only other one gets KO'd, you are hustling real bad for a Rescue Stretcher ASAP.
Trying to Find Workarounds
Thankfully Alolan Ninetales GX comes included with Alolan Vulpix to help with grabbing the GX Pokemon the deck needs, but at the same time relying on Beacon puts you a turn behind in set up if you're going 1st. The best fix that I could find for this solution is to run at least 1 copy of Olivia who can grab you 2 GX Pokemon. Ideally, this would be one of your Solgaleo GX and a copy of Alolan Ninetales GX.
I know people are going to freak out at the mentioning of an incredibly unconvential supporter, but I also want people to take into consideration the sheer benefits it has for this deck. Let me break this down with the numbers.
Playing Olivia searches out 2 Pokemon GX from your deck, one of which is basically always going to be Alolan Ninetales GX (2 cards searched).
Playing down Alolan Ninetales GX searches you two item cards, one of which is likely going to be Rare Candy (4 total cards searched).
Assuming you chose to grab SuMo Solgaleo GX and opt to Sol Burst GX that same turn, you are now searching out 5 energy cards from your deck (9 total cards searched).
By this process, Olivia searches you NINE guaranteed cards and immediately puts your setup in go mode next turn. Even if you do opt to go for the other Solgaleo GX due to match up, the baseline is that you're still searching for 4 cards through Olivia. That's better than Steven searching you 3 and ending your turn with the drawback of not being able to search for energy (we need you back Professor's Letter).
The problem with this is that the deck becomes even more supporter heavy. When T1 wants to be Professor Elm and T2 wants to be Olivia for a nearly guaranteed T2 Sol Burst GX, where's the room for draw supporters to advance the deck?
And so I decided that 4 copies of Acro Bike are just straight up mandatory for this deck. Not only do they help you put energy in the discard pile to potentially allow you to not need Sol Burst GX at all, but they are basically your only outlet for pushing through your deck and finding the supporters you need like Elm. I would do something like run a 2/2 Zoroark GX line, but that makes this deck even clunkier and squeezes your bench space absolutely dry. I think Acro Bike is the only solution to this.
So finally, here's the list that I'm working with now.
Pokemon x16
SuMo Solgaleo GX x2
Promo Solgaleo GX x2
Nebby x4
Alolan Ninetales GX (Fairy) x2
Alolan Vulpix x2
Tapu Lele GX x2
Celesteela x1
Solgaleo Prism Star x1
Supporter x13
Cynthia x4
Guzma x3
Professor Elm x3
Sightseer x2
Olivia x1
Item x17
Ultra Ball x4
Acro Bike x4
Rare Candy x4
Choice Band x2
Rescue Stretcher x2
Nest Ball x1
Stadium x3
Mt. Coronet x3
Energy x11
Metal Energy x8
DCE x3
Let me talk about the debateable card choices here.
3 Copies of Professor Elm - I am a firm believer of there's no such thing as too many copies of Elm/Brigette in a Stage 2 deck. You want this card in hand turn 1 of every game, preferably without Lele. Any extra copies of Elm that show up later in the game can get discarded by Ultra Ball, Acro Bike, and Sightseer, so frankly I think it's totally fine.
There's only 6 Draw Supporters? - With 4 Acro Bikes and this deck wanting to play Elm on Turn 1 every game whereas others are playing Lillie, you are going to on average be playing less draw supporters throughout the entire game. This deck naturally runs a fairly low maintanence set up once you actually get set up. Ultra Road, Turbo Strike, and Mt. Coronet You can go a turn or two without playing a draw supporter and be fine in most situations unless your opponent has an amazing set up.
2 Copies of Rescue Stretcher - 1 might arguably be enough, but with the inclusion of Acro Bike, having 2 copies gives you more freedom of decision as well as makes it much easier to find when you need to recover from a KO. Rescue Stretcher is rarely the item of choice when putting down your first Alolan Ninetales GX, so you need a few copies to see it naturally.
2 Copies of Choice Band - Choice Band makes Celesteela and Solgaleo Prism Star hit for 190. This gives you incredibly favorable trades with all basic GX decks, which happen to be quite popular lately. Depending on circumstance, you will end up using Alolan Ninetales GX to grab one of these. I think 1 copy is too low, but it might be a trade I have to make. 230 is also just not enough damage to OHKO a lot of Stage 2s should the release of Alolan Ninetales GX Fairy cause an influx of Stage 2 decks to start popping up.
Celesteela and Solgaleo Prism Star - These two are here for back up damage and back up energy acceleration. You aren't always going to get Promo Solgaleo GX going for energy acceleration, but you can at least get SuMo Solgaleo GX in play and use Solgaleo Prism Star as an accelerator. It can also save your GX attack if you get lucky enough to see 3-4 basic energy in discard early on. As for Celesteela, remember that Sol Burst GX searches 5 of any energy card, including DCE. It takes only 3 energy cards to use Celesteela from Sol Burst outside of its condition. The other 2 can go to Solgaleo to power up Sunsteel Strike. Boasting 140 HP, Celesteela is an amazing match for basically every other non-GX attacker as most of them cap at 130 damage.
1 Copy of Nest Ball - Professor Elm can't search for Celesteela and Solgaleo Prism Star, but Alolan Ninetales GX can search for a Nest Ball to do that for you. It does come up, so having at least 1 copy to make your non-GX cards that much more accessible is a great option. 4 Ultra Ball alone is a little bit sketchy, so having a 5th ball card can help.
3 Copies of Mt. Coronet - as stated up top, this prevents the deck from bricking on energy when you dry up your deck after a Sol Burst GX. Promo Solgaleo GX can attack to accelerate 2, but SuMo Solgaleo GX needs 3 energy to attack, so you always need an energy in hand to attach at least every other turn.
8 Metal/3 DCE Energy Pool - 3 copies of DCE I find to be the perfect number. You want some for Promo Solgaleo GX, and as mentioned above, you also want some to use Celesteela outside of its prize gimmick, but you don't want much more than that since DCE is not beneficial for SuMo Solgaleo GX or Solgaleo Prism Star. I actually want room for a 9th Metal Energy in this deck, but 3 copies of Mt. Coronet should allow me to always see energy in hand anyway. This deck does not need a very high ceiling of energy since Sunsteel Strike is constantly just using the same 3 energy to attack every other turn, but a 9th Metal energy does help with getting the early attach for turn to even use Sol Burst in the first place. Acro Bike also really helps out with this. If I Acro Bike and pull Metal Energy and Mt. Coronet, obviously I discard the energy and keep Mt. Coronet, and I can effectively have both.
