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At my last Cities (in which I went 2-4 with Zekrom, huge failure), I traded for enough Magnezone to play it in a deck because I knew it was getting good, especially after it won a Regionals in a deck that also featured Typhlosion and Reshiram.
There aren't any leagues within even 45 minutes of my house, and the closest one meets at an inconvenient time, so I have only a few ways to test a deck. I played a lot of solitaire hands against my own Reshiphlosion, ZPST, and Cobalion/Kyurem/Electrode decks on Redshark. There are advantages and disadvantages to that. The best advantage is that you can choose what deck you want to play against, so you can get a feel for a matchup. Also, you get to play against your own list, so you know that it won't be a bad random list. However, the disadvantages to that method as well. You know what's in your opponent's hand, so you know when using Judge/N would be a good decision or a bad one. Also, you always know what your opponent is thinking (because it's yourself) so there's not any element of surprise (like a Catcher target).
The other way I test is with PlayTCG. It's good because I can just pick a public game for a match, or I can send the link to one of my friends to play against them. Unless I ask a friend to play a certain deck, I don't get the advantage of always playing against a metagame deck that I want to test against. However, that can also be a good thing. You won't know what your opponent will play in a tournament, it could be some random deck. Playing a public game on PlayTCG is often the closest thing you can get to a tournament setting other than sitting down at league or with some friends.
Anyways, I started my list very similarly to the one that was posted in the article on http://google.com/. My personal philosophy is that it is okay to "netdeck" with the intention of seeing how a list is commonly constructed. However, I never play a list verbatim (or card for card) that I find on the internet. The main reason for this is that people often have different playstyles. Mine is a lot riskier than others. I play Super Scoop Up in many of my lists, especially when Uxie and Claydol were in the format. Now, I play Professor Juniper and Sage's Training more than I do other forms of hand refresh such as Cheren or Professor Oak's New Theory. It's just who I am. The funny thing is that, along with a risky-ish list, I almost always play Cleffa as a backup plan. It's just too good not to use, especially if you are playing a deck that's not all Basics and doesn't have a high Supporter count (and even if it does).
I have been playing ZPST for a while, and didn't find that Pokemon Collector was all that useful, so I originally cut the count down to 2. Through my testing, I found that I really needed more in this deck. Pokegear 3.0 was a good addition as well, especially since the deck uses Junk Arm a lot to get Lightning in the discard. That way, even a dead looking hand could turn the game around with some discarded energy and a supporter. I also originally tested a full count of N, but didn't find the disruption to be that useful. With a bulky attacker like Magnezone, or a quick hitter like Tornadus or Thundurus, the opponent wasn't that likely to be winning early in the game. It's still a useful card and combos well with Magnetic Draw, so I kept 3 in.
Magnezone is just one of the best cards in the format right now. It has no autolosses (except trouble with Donphan, but that's manageable), is both an attacker and an engine, and is a great tank with more than the "magic number" of HP (130 is thought of as the magic number because it's out of the OHKO range of both Zekrom and Reshiram). Eelektrik fits both the deck and my playstyle perfectly, allowing the attachment of a Lightning energy from the discard to any benched Pokemon, quickly powering up a Lost Burn. If you played your cards right (literally), you could get 3-4 new energy onto the field in one turn, and that is enough to KO any Pokemon in the format (barring any Defenders/Eviolites/etc). The only problem is that you can not attach to the Active Pokemon with Eelektrik, but I rarely found that to be a problem. Since Donphan isn't really that popular in my metagame, I thought that this deck would be a safe play. Throughout the week, I tested a lot, and thought I had the best list that I could have for Magnezone/Eelektrik.
However, on Friday night, I started thinking that my list was inconsistent, and I continually drew dead in the solitaire games that I was playing. 15 minutes before I left on Saturday morning, I changed my list about 4 times. I would have played a list with Thundurus, however, I realized I only had 1 instead of the two that I wanted to play. Instead, the only real changes that I made were subbing out the Professor Oak’s New Theories for Professor Junipers, and dropping my 4th Magnemite for a 14th Energy. Both of these fixes were pretty much the best things I could have done.
Here’s what my list looked like for the tournament:
Pokémon (17):
3 Tynamo (NV 38)
3 Eelektrik (NV 40)
3 Magnemite (TR 68)
2 Magneton (TR 43)
3 Magnezone (TR 96)
1 Tornadus (EP 89)
1 Zekrom (BW 114)
1 Cleffa (HSP 12)
Trainers (29):
4 Junk Arm (TR 87)
3 Pokemon Communication (HGSS 98)
3 Rare Candy (UL 82)
2 Pokemon Catcher (EP 95)
2 Switch (HGSS 102)
1 Super Rod (NV 95)
1 PlusPower (UL 80)
1 Pokegear 3.0 (HGSS 96)
4 Sage's Training (UD 77)
3 Pokemon Collector (HGSS 97)
3 N (NV 101)
2 Professor Juniper (BW 101)
Energy (14):
14 Lightning Energy (BW 108)
I think I'd drop the Zekrom for an Emolga (free retreat, really quite helpful) but leave the Tornadus for the Donphan matchup (which is sort of common in my area, especially when someone wises up and sees that half of the local meta is lightning).
The Cleffa is needed for sure, saved me a ton. The deck often draws dead, or gives you a hand that you can’t do anything with because there are so many energies and trainers. PlusPower is really quite sick, saving an Energy on so many common Lost Burns (Tornadus, Yanmega, Lanturn, Reshiram w/ 2 Afterburners) and you only need it once or twice a game.
You could do for adding another Juniper and another Energy, I'll probably look to do the same myself. There's really no wrong way to play this list, it's just personal preference.
There were about 20 people in Masters (so, very small for my area actually) and a Top 4 cut.
Round 1 v. Mike McElwain w/ Lanturn/Eelektrik
Mike, commonly known as Bertolli, is a new player, but one of the best in the area. He got 2nd at Regionals this year with a very creative Donphan/Tornadus deck. We both opened Tynamo, and I went first for the only time all day until the finals. I just attached to Magnemite after a Collector start. He attached, flipped tails for Paralysis, and passed, clearly having nothing in his hand. I missed the donk by a Switch, and retreated my Tynamo to bring up a Magnezone with 1 energy. He hit a Juniper and had to discard a lot of stuff that he didn’t want to. I exploded on my next turn with 2 Magnezone and 2 Eelektrik, and he was never able to respond.
1-0
Round 2 v. Keaton Gill w/ Lanturn/Eelektrik
I started Tynamo again, and assumed that this wouldn’t really be a hard matchup. I just beat this same deck last round, why would I lose to it now? However, I prized a Tynamo and both of my Magnetons (and this was one of the only rounds I would want to use them all day). He had a good start to my subpar one, and used Catcher to KO all of my Tynamo before I could evolve them. My Super Rod proved very valuable here, since that is what eventually allowed me to set up. However, he was far enough ahead of me by the time that I never recovered.
1-1
Round 3 v. Vanilluxe/Vileplume/Victini
I had a really good start, and though I would be able to slow him down by knocking both of his Oddish out. I Catchered one up on my 2nd turn, hoping to cripple him really hard by taking the 2nd one down on the next turn, but he had Twins in hand. However, even though he had the lock up, he still had a bad hand, forcing him to Eek. I got a Prize off of that, too, and I think I even got a Prize off of another Cleffa that he used later in the game. Once he finally got his Vanilluxe up, I knew I was in trouble.
Then, I got really lucky. He prized not one, but both of his Fliptini, and not able to reflip his Double Freeze flips. Since I play 2 Magnetons, I was able to get 2 Magnezone in play, and this really sealed the game for me. I took one prize when he flipped double tails, another after he knocked out that Magnezone, and the last when he again flipped double tails. This was not a match that I should have won, and I might need to play an Unown (CURE) tech if I see any more of this deck in the future.
2-1
Round 4 v. JW Kriewall w/ Magnezone/Eelektrik
He went first, but I had a clearly superior set up. I hit the Turn 1 Collector (which, if you didn’t know, is absolutely crucial for this deck) and he did the same on his 2nd turn. I was able to Catcher up most of his Tynamo and just ignored his Zekrom and Magnezone that he was building energy onto. Later, after I destroyed his energy acceleration, I took out the Zekrom with 3 Energy after he used Bolt Strike (so I only needed to Lost Burn 2 energy instead of 3). From there, he had pretty much nothing that could respond to my great set up.
3-1
My round 1 opponent dropped, so I knew my resistance wasn’t very good. I didn’t know if there would be any 3-2s making cut, but I knew I wouldn’t be the one who made it in if I didn’t win.
Round 5 v. Mike Kozerski w/ Terrakion/Cobalion/Zoroark/Yanmega
I started bad, and had to Eek once or twice. I was not very happy to see his Terrakion NV on the bench. I knew that it was easily able to OHKO me with Land Crush, and it would also make me weary to take an early KO because he would return it for 2 energy. I made it my first priority, and Catchered it up and took a 3 energy Lost Burn on it the first chance I got.
I overextended and took 3 quick prizes for 2-3 energy each. However, this really crippled me. I ended up with 4 Energy in play, one on two different Magnezone, and one on a Tornadus. He Catchered up my Zekrom and basically stalled me for a while. I had only 1 Energy in my deck but couldn’t retreat or do anything basically. I was up a prize, and he knew if he KOed me, I could return it with Magnezone. I think he thought I would deck myself out because all of my Junk Arms and Switches were discarded since I tried to do too much stuff in the early game. I saved myself with a Pokémon Communication, then an N to shuffle my hand of 12 into my deck and draw 3.
He Catchered up my Magnezone and tried to KO it with Land Crush, but only had 1 Fighting Energy (he thought his Sp. Metal was another for some reason). He couldn’t get the KO, so I somehow got the KO on his Terrakion. He returned the KO on Magnezone. I couldn’t do anything, so he somehow matched hand sizes and attacked my Eelektrik as time was called. I passed on Turn 1. He Catchered Eelektrik on Turn 2, and I brought up a Magnezone, attached the last energy in my deck, and took a 2 Energy Lost Burn for the game.
4-1
After the toughest match of the day, I was ready for Top Cut. I squeaked in at 4th and had to play one of the best players in the area.
Top 4 v. Dan Richard w/ Cobalion/Kyurem/Electrode
Game 1: I started fairly strong and went second again. No surprise there. His real downfall was his 2 Energymites (Electrode’s PokePower) which yielded only 1 energy each. I overwhelmed him.
Game 2: I had a terrible start and was forced to Eeeeeeek. He obviously elected to go first, and was able to achieve a 4 energy Energymite by using a Research Records. He KOed my Cleffa with Cobalion (which is actually the way you want to go against my deck, not being able to attack with a Pokemon that has a retreat cost of 3 is crippling) and I had nothing.
Game 3: I was able to finally go first, and got the Collector start. He tried to get an early Kyurem to spread on my Tynamos, but again only got 1 Energy off of his Energymite. I took his Kyurem out and he eventually scooped because he couldn’t do anything.
5-1
Top 2 v. David Wilber w/ ZPST
Game 1: I had a great start, and went first. I was able to use Collector and get set up. The trick to this matchup is to take out all of their energy in play so that they don’t get to attack. ZPST needs a lot of energy, and they only have a shot because they can load energy on in the early game with Pachirisu and Shaymin. Late game, they usually have a full bench and limited resources, so they aren’t able to quickly load energy.
Game 2: I did the same thing as game 1, I just had to get lucky to avoid the donk. It came down to my active Magnezone having 0 energy, against his Zekrom. I also had a Magnezone with an energy on the bench. I used Pokegear to check the 5 cards left in my deck, and saw that there was an energy and a Switch. I used Juniper to discard my Energy in hand, among others, drew a Switch and an Energy. I used Eelektrik to get the Energy back from the discard, attached to the benched Magnezone, used Switch, and took the Zekrom out with a 3 Energy Lost Burn to win the tournament.
6-1
Looking back, I got lucky a ton. I didn’t go first very often, but almost every other time that I needed something, I got it.
I also played the deck a lot differently than other people would. I never attacked with anything other than Magnezone. I would set up like I was going to, but always ended up needing the energy that I placed on Zekrom or Tornadus to score a crucial KO. The only time I would have used a different Pokemon was if I played against a Donphan. I would just have used Tornadus in that case, and Super Rod would give me a 2nd. For that reason, I think I’ll swap the Zekrom out for an Emolga in order to better use Eelektrik, then free retreat to whatever I attached the energy to.
Here is my analysis of the metagame through 2 weeks of Cities:
Reshiram/Typhlosion decks have reportedly made cut a total of 28 times. However, they only have 2 wins out of those. In addition, straight Reshiphlosion (no substantial techs such as Magnezone or Kingdra) didn’t win a single Regionals. The fact is that Reshiphlosion has very few options compared to other decks in the format, and has no outs against trainer lock. It can’t come back from being down a prize, and many players are finding ways to play around it. Expect to see it at future tournaments, but don’t expect it to do very well.
“Gimmick decks”, such as Vanilluxe and Chandelure, are actually viable. These decks were just thought to be fun decks when Noble Victories first came out. However, they are adding more options for players, and the majority of people like that. Chandelure has made Top 4 at least 10 times, and Vanilluxe has a handful of appearances as well. They are very hard decks to play against because people don’t often expect them and usually don’t test against them.
Going along that same vein, we see that Durant has won 2 BRs as well. I have also heard that it won a French Regional tournament so it shouldn’t be written off as a junk deck.
Metagames are very different from place to place. Mine is Electric heavy, with at least half of the decks at my City Championship consisting of main attackers such as Magnezone, Lanturn, and Zekrom. However, a tournament in Idaho had not a single Lightning based deck make the Top 4. This makes for some stale gameplay for a while, until people begin to counter the local metagame. Personally, I think that a Donphan/Zoroark (and maybe Terrakion) deck would be able to have a good run in my local tournaments. Also, the meta diversity makes large tournaments, such as States, a huge tossup. Many people from all over will be playing decks that do well against their local metagame, but maybe not against other decks that are popular somewhere else.
Also, I had a conversation with my Top 4 opponent. We think that the overall metagame is the best that it has been since the late Diamond and Pearl era. No longer is Luxchomp the best and only deck in the format. Now, many decks can be successful, and they actually require the player to think ahead, and aren’t simply “auto-pilot” decks.
This was the complaint about the early HGSS-on format. There were only 6 sets legal (5 if you don't count Call of Legends which consisted of mostly cards that were reprinted from earlier sets), and the number of viable decks were low. There were pretty much only 3 real decks that one could play, Yanmega/Magnezone (with or without Kingdra), Reshiram/Typhlosion (although some played it with Emboar instead of Typhlosion), and ZPS (there was no Tornadus at the time). Because of the limited cardpool, David Cohen and google Cawthon (who got 1st and 2nd at Worlds, respectively) were able to counter the popular decks and be successful.
Now, however, Emerging Powers and Noble Victories have effectively changed our format by bringing new cards to the table that drastically change the amount of viable decks. Eelekrik, Super Rod, N, Pokemon Catcher, Chandelure, Kyurem, Tornadus, Vanilluxe, and Victini are just a few of the cards we have recently gotten that have diversified the metagame, and have brought the game to a good state.
Next set is expected to bring Mewtwo EX which will likely become the best attacker in format. The format will quickly become stale once again, similar to the Gallade/Gardevoir era. You will have to go by the old saying, “You either beat em, or you join them.” If a deck doesn’t run Mewtwo, and can’t beat it, it basically will have no chance of winning. However, I say we just cross that bridge when we come to it.
That’s all for now, and I hope you got something out of this article that you can use in the future. Thanks for reading!
At my last Cities (in which I went 2-4 with Zekrom, huge failure), I traded for enough Magnezone to play it in a deck because I knew it was getting good, especially after it won a Regionals in a deck that also featured Typhlosion and Reshiram.
There aren't any leagues within even 45 minutes of my house, and the closest one meets at an inconvenient time, so I have only a few ways to test a deck. I played a lot of solitaire hands against my own Reshiphlosion, ZPST, and Cobalion/Kyurem/Electrode decks on Redshark. There are advantages and disadvantages to that. The best advantage is that you can choose what deck you want to play against, so you can get a feel for a matchup. Also, you get to play against your own list, so you know that it won't be a bad random list. However, the disadvantages to that method as well. You know what's in your opponent's hand, so you know when using Judge/N would be a good decision or a bad one. Also, you always know what your opponent is thinking (because it's yourself) so there's not any element of surprise (like a Catcher target).
The other way I test is with PlayTCG. It's good because I can just pick a public game for a match, or I can send the link to one of my friends to play against them. Unless I ask a friend to play a certain deck, I don't get the advantage of always playing against a metagame deck that I want to test against. However, that can also be a good thing. You won't know what your opponent will play in a tournament, it could be some random deck. Playing a public game on PlayTCG is often the closest thing you can get to a tournament setting other than sitting down at league or with some friends.
Anyways, I started my list very similarly to the one that was posted in the article on http://google.com/. My personal philosophy is that it is okay to "netdeck" with the intention of seeing how a list is commonly constructed. However, I never play a list verbatim (or card for card) that I find on the internet. The main reason for this is that people often have different playstyles. Mine is a lot riskier than others. I play Super Scoop Up in many of my lists, especially when Uxie and Claydol were in the format. Now, I play Professor Juniper and Sage's Training more than I do other forms of hand refresh such as Cheren or Professor Oak's New Theory. It's just who I am. The funny thing is that, along with a risky-ish list, I almost always play Cleffa as a backup plan. It's just too good not to use, especially if you are playing a deck that's not all Basics and doesn't have a high Supporter count (and even if it does).
I have been playing ZPST for a while, and didn't find that Pokemon Collector was all that useful, so I originally cut the count down to 2. Through my testing, I found that I really needed more in this deck. Pokegear 3.0 was a good addition as well, especially since the deck uses Junk Arm a lot to get Lightning in the discard. That way, even a dead looking hand could turn the game around with some discarded energy and a supporter. I also originally tested a full count of N, but didn't find the disruption to be that useful. With a bulky attacker like Magnezone, or a quick hitter like Tornadus or Thundurus, the opponent wasn't that likely to be winning early in the game. It's still a useful card and combos well with Magnetic Draw, so I kept 3 in.
Magnezone is just one of the best cards in the format right now. It has no autolosses (except trouble with Donphan, but that's manageable), is both an attacker and an engine, and is a great tank with more than the "magic number" of HP (130 is thought of as the magic number because it's out of the OHKO range of both Zekrom and Reshiram). Eelektrik fits both the deck and my playstyle perfectly, allowing the attachment of a Lightning energy from the discard to any benched Pokemon, quickly powering up a Lost Burn. If you played your cards right (literally), you could get 3-4 new energy onto the field in one turn, and that is enough to KO any Pokemon in the format (barring any Defenders/Eviolites/etc). The only problem is that you can not attach to the Active Pokemon with Eelektrik, but I rarely found that to be a problem. Since Donphan isn't really that popular in my metagame, I thought that this deck would be a safe play. Throughout the week, I tested a lot, and thought I had the best list that I could have for Magnezone/Eelektrik.
However, on Friday night, I started thinking that my list was inconsistent, and I continually drew dead in the solitaire games that I was playing. 15 minutes before I left on Saturday morning, I changed my list about 4 times. I would have played a list with Thundurus, however, I realized I only had 1 instead of the two that I wanted to play. Instead, the only real changes that I made were subbing out the Professor Oak’s New Theories for Professor Junipers, and dropping my 4th Magnemite for a 14th Energy. Both of these fixes were pretty much the best things I could have done.
Here’s what my list looked like for the tournament:
Pokémon (17):
3 Tynamo (NV 38)
3 Eelektrik (NV 40)
3 Magnemite (TR 68)
2 Magneton (TR 43)
3 Magnezone (TR 96)
1 Tornadus (EP 89)
1 Zekrom (BW 114)
1 Cleffa (HSP 12)
Trainers (29):
4 Junk Arm (TR 87)
3 Pokemon Communication (HGSS 98)
3 Rare Candy (UL 82)
2 Pokemon Catcher (EP 95)
2 Switch (HGSS 102)
1 Super Rod (NV 95)
1 PlusPower (UL 80)
1 Pokegear 3.0 (HGSS 96)
4 Sage's Training (UD 77)
3 Pokemon Collector (HGSS 97)
3 N (NV 101)
2 Professor Juniper (BW 101)
Energy (14):
14 Lightning Energy (BW 108)
I think I'd drop the Zekrom for an Emolga (free retreat, really quite helpful) but leave the Tornadus for the Donphan matchup (which is sort of common in my area, especially when someone wises up and sees that half of the local meta is lightning).
The Cleffa is needed for sure, saved me a ton. The deck often draws dead, or gives you a hand that you can’t do anything with because there are so many energies and trainers. PlusPower is really quite sick, saving an Energy on so many common Lost Burns (Tornadus, Yanmega, Lanturn, Reshiram w/ 2 Afterburners) and you only need it once or twice a game.
You could do for adding another Juniper and another Energy, I'll probably look to do the same myself. There's really no wrong way to play this list, it's just personal preference.
There were about 20 people in Masters (so, very small for my area actually) and a Top 4 cut.
Round 1 v. Mike McElwain w/ Lanturn/Eelektrik
Mike, commonly known as Bertolli, is a new player, but one of the best in the area. He got 2nd at Regionals this year with a very creative Donphan/Tornadus deck. We both opened Tynamo, and I went first for the only time all day until the finals. I just attached to Magnemite after a Collector start. He attached, flipped tails for Paralysis, and passed, clearly having nothing in his hand. I missed the donk by a Switch, and retreated my Tynamo to bring up a Magnezone with 1 energy. He hit a Juniper and had to discard a lot of stuff that he didn’t want to. I exploded on my next turn with 2 Magnezone and 2 Eelektrik, and he was never able to respond.
1-0
Round 2 v. Keaton Gill w/ Lanturn/Eelektrik
I started Tynamo again, and assumed that this wouldn’t really be a hard matchup. I just beat this same deck last round, why would I lose to it now? However, I prized a Tynamo and both of my Magnetons (and this was one of the only rounds I would want to use them all day). He had a good start to my subpar one, and used Catcher to KO all of my Tynamo before I could evolve them. My Super Rod proved very valuable here, since that is what eventually allowed me to set up. However, he was far enough ahead of me by the time that I never recovered.
1-1
Round 3 v. Vanilluxe/Vileplume/Victini
I had a really good start, and though I would be able to slow him down by knocking both of his Oddish out. I Catchered one up on my 2nd turn, hoping to cripple him really hard by taking the 2nd one down on the next turn, but he had Twins in hand. However, even though he had the lock up, he still had a bad hand, forcing him to Eek. I got a Prize off of that, too, and I think I even got a Prize off of another Cleffa that he used later in the game. Once he finally got his Vanilluxe up, I knew I was in trouble.
Then, I got really lucky. He prized not one, but both of his Fliptini, and not able to reflip his Double Freeze flips. Since I play 2 Magnetons, I was able to get 2 Magnezone in play, and this really sealed the game for me. I took one prize when he flipped double tails, another after he knocked out that Magnezone, and the last when he again flipped double tails. This was not a match that I should have won, and I might need to play an Unown (CURE) tech if I see any more of this deck in the future.
2-1
Round 4 v. JW Kriewall w/ Magnezone/Eelektrik
He went first, but I had a clearly superior set up. I hit the Turn 1 Collector (which, if you didn’t know, is absolutely crucial for this deck) and he did the same on his 2nd turn. I was able to Catcher up most of his Tynamo and just ignored his Zekrom and Magnezone that he was building energy onto. Later, after I destroyed his energy acceleration, I took out the Zekrom with 3 Energy after he used Bolt Strike (so I only needed to Lost Burn 2 energy instead of 3). From there, he had pretty much nothing that could respond to my great set up.
3-1
My round 1 opponent dropped, so I knew my resistance wasn’t very good. I didn’t know if there would be any 3-2s making cut, but I knew I wouldn’t be the one who made it in if I didn’t win.
Round 5 v. Mike Kozerski w/ Terrakion/Cobalion/Zoroark/Yanmega
I started bad, and had to Eek once or twice. I was not very happy to see his Terrakion NV on the bench. I knew that it was easily able to OHKO me with Land Crush, and it would also make me weary to take an early KO because he would return it for 2 energy. I made it my first priority, and Catchered it up and took a 3 energy Lost Burn on it the first chance I got.
I overextended and took 3 quick prizes for 2-3 energy each. However, this really crippled me. I ended up with 4 Energy in play, one on two different Magnezone, and one on a Tornadus. He Catchered up my Zekrom and basically stalled me for a while. I had only 1 Energy in my deck but couldn’t retreat or do anything basically. I was up a prize, and he knew if he KOed me, I could return it with Magnezone. I think he thought I would deck myself out because all of my Junk Arms and Switches were discarded since I tried to do too much stuff in the early game. I saved myself with a Pokémon Communication, then an N to shuffle my hand of 12 into my deck and draw 3.
He Catchered up my Magnezone and tried to KO it with Land Crush, but only had 1 Fighting Energy (he thought his Sp. Metal was another for some reason). He couldn’t get the KO, so I somehow got the KO on his Terrakion. He returned the KO on Magnezone. I couldn’t do anything, so he somehow matched hand sizes and attacked my Eelektrik as time was called. I passed on Turn 1. He Catchered Eelektrik on Turn 2, and I brought up a Magnezone, attached the last energy in my deck, and took a 2 Energy Lost Burn for the game.
4-1
After the toughest match of the day, I was ready for Top Cut. I squeaked in at 4th and had to play one of the best players in the area.
Top 4 v. Dan Richard w/ Cobalion/Kyurem/Electrode
Game 1: I started fairly strong and went second again. No surprise there. His real downfall was his 2 Energymites (Electrode’s PokePower) which yielded only 1 energy each. I overwhelmed him.
Game 2: I had a terrible start and was forced to Eeeeeeek. He obviously elected to go first, and was able to achieve a 4 energy Energymite by using a Research Records. He KOed my Cleffa with Cobalion (which is actually the way you want to go against my deck, not being able to attack with a Pokemon that has a retreat cost of 3 is crippling) and I had nothing.
Game 3: I was able to finally go first, and got the Collector start. He tried to get an early Kyurem to spread on my Tynamos, but again only got 1 Energy off of his Energymite. I took his Kyurem out and he eventually scooped because he couldn’t do anything.
5-1
Top 2 v. David Wilber w/ ZPST
Game 1: I had a great start, and went first. I was able to use Collector and get set up. The trick to this matchup is to take out all of their energy in play so that they don’t get to attack. ZPST needs a lot of energy, and they only have a shot because they can load energy on in the early game with Pachirisu and Shaymin. Late game, they usually have a full bench and limited resources, so they aren’t able to quickly load energy.
Game 2: I did the same thing as game 1, I just had to get lucky to avoid the donk. It came down to my active Magnezone having 0 energy, against his Zekrom. I also had a Magnezone with an energy on the bench. I used Pokegear to check the 5 cards left in my deck, and saw that there was an energy and a Switch. I used Juniper to discard my Energy in hand, among others, drew a Switch and an Energy. I used Eelektrik to get the Energy back from the discard, attached to the benched Magnezone, used Switch, and took the Zekrom out with a 3 Energy Lost Burn to win the tournament.
6-1
Looking back, I got lucky a ton. I didn’t go first very often, but almost every other time that I needed something, I got it.
I also played the deck a lot differently than other people would. I never attacked with anything other than Magnezone. I would set up like I was going to, but always ended up needing the energy that I placed on Zekrom or Tornadus to score a crucial KO. The only time I would have used a different Pokemon was if I played against a Donphan. I would just have used Tornadus in that case, and Super Rod would give me a 2nd. For that reason, I think I’ll swap the Zekrom out for an Emolga in order to better use Eelektrik, then free retreat to whatever I attached the energy to.
Here is my analysis of the metagame through 2 weeks of Cities:
Reshiram/Typhlosion decks have reportedly made cut a total of 28 times. However, they only have 2 wins out of those. In addition, straight Reshiphlosion (no substantial techs such as Magnezone or Kingdra) didn’t win a single Regionals. The fact is that Reshiphlosion has very few options compared to other decks in the format, and has no outs against trainer lock. It can’t come back from being down a prize, and many players are finding ways to play around it. Expect to see it at future tournaments, but don’t expect it to do very well.
“Gimmick decks”, such as Vanilluxe and Chandelure, are actually viable. These decks were just thought to be fun decks when Noble Victories first came out. However, they are adding more options for players, and the majority of people like that. Chandelure has made Top 4 at least 10 times, and Vanilluxe has a handful of appearances as well. They are very hard decks to play against because people don’t often expect them and usually don’t test against them.
Going along that same vein, we see that Durant has won 2 BRs as well. I have also heard that it won a French Regional tournament so it shouldn’t be written off as a junk deck.
Metagames are very different from place to place. Mine is Electric heavy, with at least half of the decks at my City Championship consisting of main attackers such as Magnezone, Lanturn, and Zekrom. However, a tournament in Idaho had not a single Lightning based deck make the Top 4. This makes for some stale gameplay for a while, until people begin to counter the local metagame. Personally, I think that a Donphan/Zoroark (and maybe Terrakion) deck would be able to have a good run in my local tournaments. Also, the meta diversity makes large tournaments, such as States, a huge tossup. Many people from all over will be playing decks that do well against their local metagame, but maybe not against other decks that are popular somewhere else.
Also, I had a conversation with my Top 4 opponent. We think that the overall metagame is the best that it has been since the late Diamond and Pearl era. No longer is Luxchomp the best and only deck in the format. Now, many decks can be successful, and they actually require the player to think ahead, and aren’t simply “auto-pilot” decks.
This was the complaint about the early HGSS-on format. There were only 6 sets legal (5 if you don't count Call of Legends which consisted of mostly cards that were reprinted from earlier sets), and the number of viable decks were low. There were pretty much only 3 real decks that one could play, Yanmega/Magnezone (with or without Kingdra), Reshiram/Typhlosion (although some played it with Emboar instead of Typhlosion), and ZPS (there was no Tornadus at the time). Because of the limited cardpool, David Cohen and google Cawthon (who got 1st and 2nd at Worlds, respectively) were able to counter the popular decks and be successful.
Now, however, Emerging Powers and Noble Victories have effectively changed our format by bringing new cards to the table that drastically change the amount of viable decks. Eelekrik, Super Rod, N, Pokemon Catcher, Chandelure, Kyurem, Tornadus, Vanilluxe, and Victini are just a few of the cards we have recently gotten that have diversified the metagame, and have brought the game to a good state.
Next set is expected to bring Mewtwo EX which will likely become the best attacker in format. The format will quickly become stale once again, similar to the Gallade/Gardevoir era. You will have to go by the old saying, “You either beat em, or you join them.” If a deck doesn’t run Mewtwo, and can’t beat it, it basically will have no chance of winning. However, I say we just cross that bridge when we come to it.
That’s all for now, and I hope you got something out of this article that you can use in the future. Thanks for reading!
