Fighting ‘till the end
Terrakion variants and their position in the meta
Terrakion variants and their position in the meta
Contents :
1.0: Introduction
2.0: A note on the rest of the article
3.0: Quad Terrakion
3.1: The bare bones
3.2: Possible techs
3.3: Strengths and weaknesses
3.4: Matchups
4.0: Landorus/Terrakion
4.1: The bare bones
4.2: Possible techs
4.3: Strengths and weaknesses
4.4: Matchups
5.0: A basic threat list
6.0: Closing
1.0: Introduction
Ever since Terrakion was released in Noble Victories, it has attracted attention as a counter to the ubiquitous Eelektrik decks. Decks including Terrakion made the top cut at a few Cities, but really broke through after Curran Hill won Virginia States with Quad Terrakion. Most Terrakion variants utilize Exp. Share to create a continuous stream of Terrakions, and use their favorable typing to hit lots of popular decks for weakness. So let’s take a look; are Terrakion decks any good now that they’ve lost their surprise factor?
2.0: A note on the rest of this article
There are three major Terrakion decks in the format: Quad Terrakion, Landorus/Terrakion and Troll (Tornadus/Terrakion). However, Troll is very different in playstyle and build, because it is more focused on Tornadus, and some lists run Landorus over Terrakion. For those reasons, I don’t consider Troll a conventional Terrakion variant, and I won’t be discussing it in this article. In the “strengths and weaknesses” section, I will explain the decks’ relative advantages in the context of gameplay rather than matchups. No card will be explained in-depth more than once, unless its purpose differs per deck. Any repeat explanation will be given in spoiler tags to prevent page stretching. None of this should cause much confusion when reading the article. When commenting, however, please make clear which Terrakion variant you’re talking about to prevent confusion.
3.0: Quad Terrakion
Quad Terrakion is pretty much the original Terrakion deck. The deck was created to counter a meta largely dominated by ZekEels, and led Curran Hill to a States win. After that, the deck has become quite popular and many variants have developed over time. Quad Terrakion’s defining factors are 4 Terrakion, little to no other Pokemon, and a high trainer count. This generally includes a large amount of consistency cards and several “tech” trainers; cards specifically played for certain situations or matchups. The game plan usually consists of denying your opponent easy prizes while getting the most out of Terrakions high HP. Terrakion can OHKO most of the meta, while 2HKO’ing the rest. If the deck doesn’t fall behind early, it can be very hard to keep up with. This is mostly because it can usually trade prizes one for one or better while using little resources.
3.1: The bare bones
Now let’s take a look at a skeleton list for Quad Terrakion. Then, we will go over the cards one by one.
Pokemon: 4
4 Terrakion
Trainers: 32
4 Professor Oak’s New Theory
4 Professor Juniper
3 N
4 Exp. Share
4 Heavy Ball
3 Pokemon Catcher
3 Junk Arm
2 Random Receiver
2 Revive
2 Switch
1 Super Rod
Energy: 12
12 Fighting Energy
Total: 48
Terrakion: This guy is your main, and possibly your only, attacker. So, let’s see why he is good enough to build an entire deck around. First off, 130 HP is great for a Basic Pokémon, it puts Terrakion out of OHKO range for most of the metagame. Notable exceptions include Zoroark, Mewtwo EX, and Zekrom EX. The regular Zekrom can also OHKO with just one Pluspower . Note that the damage output of the first two varies, and Zoroark needs a Dark Claw to OHKO. The high HP also means your opponent won’t get any easy prizes off it, while you can use Pokémon Catcher to get ahead in the prize exchange.
Fighting is probably the best type to be right now; it gets to hit two of the top archetypes of the current meta (Eels and Dark) for weakness. But it’s not all upside, it’s also quite easy to tech against. For example, Tornadus EX is a common sight at tournament tables, and its resistance and high HP can make life hard for a Terrakion player.
Weakness to Grass is not much of a problem right now, since the only Grass Pokemon seeing a lot of play at the moment is Celebi Prime which is not used for attacking. It does, however, leave us vulnerable to techs like Virizion. It also makes the matchup against the occasional Lilligant rogue deck a little harder.
Not having a resistance is a shame, but it’s not much of a problem. Nothing in this meta does 140 damage by default, and 80 damage is uncommon too. Because these damage numbers would be turned from OHKO’s to 2HKO’s and from 2HKO’s to 3HKO’s respectively, lacking a resistance is ok.
Terrakion also sports a retreat cost of four, which is a bit of a double-edged sword. Since Terrakion usually is the only Pokemon in your deck, you can run Heavy Ball to search for it. On the other hand, it means your Terrakion won’t be getting out of the active spot easily. If you play carelessly, a well-timed Pokemon Catcher can easily put you a few turns back. This makes it necessary to run Switch . Retaliate, along with its Fighting type, is what really makes Terrakion shine. For two energies, it does thirty damage. But, if your opponent Knocked Out one of your Pokémon through attack damage last turn, it does ninety damage. Doing thirty damage on turn two is pretty good, you can take early prizes by hitting Tynamos or baby Pokémon. However, thirty damage on the second turn is low against a fast setup, meaning you can fall behind just as easily. A 90 damage Retaliate can OHKO every Fighting-weak Pokémon in the format, excluding EX’s with Eviolite attached. When followed up with another boosted Retaliate or a Land Crush, it does a total of 180 damage, which is enough to KO anything.
Retaliate allows you to set up a chain with Exp. Share . Say, you have a Terrakion (with energy) active, and any number of Terrakion with Exp. Share on your bench. When the active Terrakion is Knocked Out, you move an Energy to each of the Terrakion with Exp. Share attached. Then, promote any of your Terrakion, attach an Energy, and Retaliate for ninety again! This can be repeated as long as you have a way to get Terrakions and Exp. Shares back.
Note that Retaliate checks what happened the turn before you use it - the damage boost is not an effect on Terrakion. This means it doesn’t matter which Terrakion is attacking, if the condition is met, it hits for 90. Mentioning this should be unnecessary, but one of my opponents at Battle Roads did make this mistake, and it ended up costing him the game.
Terrakion’s second attack, Land Crush, complements Retaliate very well. For 3 Energy, two of which have to be Fighting, it does 90 damage. So if your opponent didn’t KO anything last turn, you can just attach another Energy to your active Terrakion and hit for ninety anyway. When it gets knocked out afterward, Exp. Share saves your Energy attachments so you don’t fall behind. As I already said when talking about Retaliate, 90 damage is a very good number to be on in this meta, 2HKOing anything in the game, and OHKOing everything with Fighting Weakness. While Land Crush doesn’t provide low-costed damage the way Retaliate does, it makes Terrakion a lot harder to play around. When a Terrakion has two Energies attached, it’s going to hit you for 90 no matter what you do.
So all in all, Terrakions typing and damage output are very well-positioned in the current meta, but it’s hurt by its inability to do a lot of damage early on, especially when you’re going second.
Professor Oak’s New Theory : This shouldn’t need much explaining. Professor Oak’s New Theory (PONT from now on) allows you to shuffle your hand into your deck and draw six new cards. This gives you the option to play anything useful from your hand, then shuffle the rest back into your deck. Because
your hand is shuffled back, it is not as useful when you’re digging for that game-winning Pokémon Catcher . On the other hand, it allows you to preserve cards you might need later on. It can also refill your deck against Durant by shuffling a large hand back.
Professor Juniper : In roughly the same vein as PONT, Professor Juniper makes you discard your hand to draw seven new cards. The discard can be compensated for with Junk Arm , but it is generally inadvisable to play Juniper when you have a large hand. The discarding means you are not refilling your deck. This makes Juniper your supporter of choice when you’re going through your deck for one or two specific cards. Drawing an extra card compared to PONT also makes it better after playing out most of your hand early on. On a side note, don’t use this against Durant if you can avoid it. Thinning your deck by seven cards saves them two turns of milling, which can easily cost you the game.
N : To round out the three best supporters in the format, we have N. When you play N, each player shuffles his or her hand into his deck, then draws as many cards as he has Prize Cards left. This serves a double purpose in the deck. Early in the game, it functions as a PONT for both players. Later in the game, giving your opponent a small hand helps you lock up the game. Playing an N early on can also benefit your opponent, so be careful if your opponent starts slowly.
N also provides a good way to control aggressive starts by your opponent. Another use for N is to shuffle away the cards your opponent draws from your mulligans. Since Quad Terrakion usually runs 4-6 Pokemon, this comes up surprisingly often, and can helps to mitigate the advantage your opponent gains of this. N is incredibly versatile, but three N is enough. If you don’t mind the timing and difficulty involved in playing it profitably, feel free to add a fourth one though.
Exp. Share: You thought Terrakion was the most important card in the deck? Wrong. Exp. Share is what makes Quad Terrakion tick. When your active Pokémon is Knocked Out by damage from an opponent’s attack, you can move a Basic Energy to the Pokémon that Exp. Share is attached to. This saves your Energy attachments, so you won’t fall behind against decks with acceleration. By moving one energy, then attaching another, Exp. Share also allows you to Retaliate for ninety damage out of nowhere whenever a Terrakion is Knocked Out. Chaining your Terrakion this way allows you to put a lot of pressure on your opponent, hopefully running them out of resources so you can take the win. Because this requires very little investment after the initial setup, you can focus on disrupting your opponent and taking cheap prizes. There is simply no excuse for running less than four Exp. Share in this deck. Be careful with it though, because it only activates when your Active Pokemon is Knocked Out. This means they can be played around by playing a Pokemon Catcher and attacking the energized Terrakion on your bench.
Heavy Ball: Because Terrakion has a retreat cost of four, it can be searched out with Heavy Ball, and not playing much besides Terrakion means Heavy Balls can function as Terrakion number 4 to 8. It can also be retrieved with Junk Arm. When you already have all of your Terrakion in play, it becomes premium fodder to discard with Junk Arm. However, you probably want all of your cards to be useful, so running 3 Heavy Balls rather than 4 is a possibility. I do recommend running the full set, though.
Pokémon Catcher: Pokémon Catcher is considered one of the best Trainers in the format, and for a reason. It pulls one of your opponents Pokémon into the active spot, which serves so many uses it’s not even funny. Most importantly, it helps you take easy Prizes by dragging a low-HP Pokemon into the active spot for you to Knock Out. It also helps you attack anything your opponent doesn’t want you to attack: bench sitters, backup attackers, weakened EXs, you name it. Catcher can also be used defensively by dragging something with a big Retreat Cost to your opponent's active. As long as it’s stuck in front, your opponent can’t attack. This might give you a few turns to load up a new Terrakion or draw into anything you need. You can get away with 3 Catchers in this deck, because Terrakion can trade off favorably against most of the meta anyway. However, running four is a very valid choice.
Junk Arm: Junk Arm is basically an additional copy of every Trainer is your deck. However, don’t use it carelessly, because it creates a 2-card disadvantage. As such, Junk Arm is best used to get out of tough situations or to seal the game. However, this disadvantage can be combined with shuffle-draw supporters to thin your deck. It also mitigates the loss of resources by Juniper discards. Since you run high counts of most cards, reducing the disadvantage of discarding, three Junk Arms help a lot. Whether or not you run a fourth one is up to personal preference.
Random Receiver: Random Receiver allows you to reveal cards from the top of your deck until you find a supporter. Because Quad Terrakion doesn’t run Pokemon Collectors, you are guaranteed to get a draw supporter, making it superior to Pokegear 3.0 for this deck. I recommend playing it as early as possible, even if it’s not necessary. Why? Because after playing a supporter, you can always Junk Arm for it if you draw badly.
Revive: Revive immediately returns a Pokémon from your discard pile to your bench. This is crucial in long games, because you only have four Terrakion to work with. It’s very helpful to continue a Retaliate chain with. Its use is very linear, so there’s not much else to say about it. I recommend running 3 recovery cards as a minimum, and 2 Revive are necessary to get Terrakion back instantly. Running three recovery cards (2 Revive + 1 Super Rod) means you effectively have seven Terrakions, so you never have to lose by running out of attackers. A third Revive can be added, but four would definitely be too much.
Switch The main (and pretty much only) use of Switch is to keep attacking possible. Or rather, to make attacking possible in the face of Pokémon Catcher shenanigans. Basically, it offsets Terrakions high retreat cost so you can always have an energized attacker active. You might want to add a third Switch, but two has always been enough for me.
Super Rod: Super Rod is the third recovery card in the deck. Rather than return a single Pokémon, it allows you to shuffle up to three in a combination of Pokémon and Basic Energy into your deck. It refills your deck against Durant, it helps when you’re running out of Energy, and it can get multiple Terrakion out of your discard pile in one go. A single Super Rod is the way to go in my opinion.
That’s everything for this section. No, I’m not going to explain why this deck runs Fighting Energy.
3.2: Possible techs
I will discuss possible techs to fill out the skeleton here. I use the following rating system for tech cards:
Highly Recommended: Awesome. Just put it in unless you have a good reason not to do so. The only reason these cards aren’t in the skeleton list is that they’re not essential to the deck’s functioning.
Recommended: These cards are pretty good. You won’t see them in all lists, but they will show up a lot and are definitely worth testing. A large part of deck customizing is choosing which cards from this category you’re going to play.
Viable: These cards are certainly playable, but not universally useful. This category is full of specific answers or annoying tricks that might steal games. However, they usually take too much space or are too situational to toss in without second thought. All cards listed here are to some degree playable. This does not mean anything not listed is bad – in fact, feel free to discuss other techs below. Not everything listed below is guaranteed to work for you either, it’s just a selection of popular and interesting options.
Landorus: Landorus is a nice tech in Quad Terrakion. At 110 HP, it fits in with the theme of denying easy knockouts. It also shares its great typing with Terrakion. It has resistance to Lightning, which is great, because it’s one of the most played types at the moment. Weakness to water matters against the occasional Kyurem rogue deck, but doesn’t make much of a difference otherwise. A retreat cost of only one energy is good enough. Abundant Harvest allows you to attach one Basic Energy from your discard pile to Landorus, providing an effective form of energy acceleration. This can set you up for a Gaia Hammer on turn 2, doing 80 damage and 10 damage to each benched Pokemon. This also includes your own bench.
Playing Landorus gives you a much more powerful plan for the early game, which remedies one of Quad Terrakion’s most important problems. It also makes the matchup against any deck with Crushing Hammer much more manageable by accelerating. This might become more important, because Esa Juntunen recently won Finnish Nationals with a Darkrai/Tornadus variant with 4 Hammers. Even though he had 2 byes and 2 rounds against a near auto-win matchup, Esa is a very good player and people will probably copy his idea. I personally expect to see more deck variants with Crushing Hammer popping up as a result of this. You can find Esa’s report here, by the way. This relative immunity to energy removal combined with acceleration from the discard also gives you a highly effective plan against Durant. This section is only about a one-of Landorus tech. If you want run it in multiples, it requires some adaptations to the deck (see the Landorus/Terrakion part of the article). Recommended
Groudon EX : Look, it’s Godzilla! This behemoth fits into Quad Terrakion very well, and it’s easy to see why. Groudon EX sports a giant 180 HP, which is the highest available right now. It also shares its huge retreat cost with Terrakion, but you should already have taken measures against that. A Weakness to water is largely irrelevant at the moment, and the resistance to Lightning makes Groudon EX the final nail in ZekEels’ coffin when playing against Quad Terrakion.
Tromp does 20 damage to the active Pokemon, and 10 to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon for 2 Energy. This is not a spectacular damage output, but it’s a potential 80 damage on the second turn. However, it becomes a lot worse when there’s a Tornadus staring you down. It does provide some additional reach in terms of damage output though, so all in all, it is by no means bad. It also helps you set up for the second attack.
Giant Claw does 80 damage for three energy, but adds 40 more to that when the defending Pokemon already had two or more damage counters. The extra damage will rarely be useful, except against opposing Pokémon EX. All in all, Groudon EX adds a lot in terms of tanking and adds some damage variance, which might help you set up some KO’s. Giving up two prizes and not being much more efficient than Terrakion makes it difficult to use well, though. You could tech a few of these guys, but I think you’re better off running Groudon Tank. Viable
Lost Remover Lost Remover lets you put any Special Energy card on your opponent’s side of the field into the Lost Zone. This is very useful, because CMT and Zoroark variants run a lot of Special Energy, and ZekEels and Darkrai often have a few DCE as well. Since CMT’s early game is very reliant on Double Colorless Energy, you can greatly improve one of your toughest matchups by running a few of these. The energy removal also helps to stall: your opponent loses one of their attachments, and one of their precious Special Energy cards. For all of these reasons, Lost Remover is pretty much a staple in Quad Terrakion. The only valid reason to not run them is being absolutely certain you won’t see any CMT. Highly Recommended
Crushing Hammer Crushing Hammer has one of the most powerful effects in the game. The bad news? It requires a coin flip. However, flipping a coin to discard any energy card is still great. When combined with Lost Removers, it can force CMT players to overextend their deck early on, making it much easier to run them out of resources later. Crushing Hammer can also be used to keep Energy off Mewtwo EX , which can be problematic otherwise. Against any deck without Energy acceleration, it can buy you so much time it’s not even funny. Actually, decks with acceleration won’t enjoy it either, especially if they start slowly. I personally love this card in Quad Terrakion. If you can find the space for it, and you don’t mind flipping, try it out! I’d like to give this a Recommended rating, but I’m probably biased. Viable
http://pokebeach.com/scans/black-and-white/96-pluspower.jpg [/url Pluspower does exactly what it says on the box. But seriously, 10 points of damage you can [url=http://pokebeach.com/scans/triumphant/87-junk-arm.jpg]Junk Arm for is pretty good, because it makes your damage output unpredictable. This helps you in making surprise knockouts, which is otherwise hard for a deck with completely fixed damage. It’s not indispensable, but very very good. Highly Recommended
Black Belt A kind of super Pluspower , Black Belt makes your attacks do forty more damage for the turn, but it can only be played when you’re behind in prizes. 130 is not the magical number for this meta, but a surprise Black Belt can still turn a game around. Apart from being more restrictive, it provides the same advantage Pluspower does. If you run this in multiples, consider playing Pokegear 3.0 over Random Receiver, because it reduces your chance of hitting a draw supporter. Recommended
Mewtwo EX The much-reviled destroyer of formats himself, Mewtwo EX! Even with dark decks on the rise, Mewtwo EX is one of the defining forces of the meta. It also happens to be Quad Terrakion’s nemesis. A Mewtwo EX with Eviolite takes three Land Crushes or boosted Retaliates to KO, and only needs four Energy to OHKO a fully loaded Terrakion. The worst thing? The meta revolves around Energy acceleration, so it can catch you completely by surprise. Therefore, you might want to tech a Mewtwo EX of your own for returning the KO. I don’t recommend this, however, because you don’t play any DCE or acceleration. That means you need Shaymin to get it charged instantly, or risk it being Catchered and KO’d for two prizes. All in all, Mewtwo EX takes a lot of building around, and the payoff is, in my opinion, too low. Play at your own risk. Viable
Seeker Seeker simply makes each player pick up one of their Benched Pokemon. This serves two purposes for Quad Terrakion. Firstly, it allows you to pick up a damaged Terrakion when your opponent starts attacking the bench to negate your Exp. Share. This won’t happen every game, but the prevalence of Darkrai EX and Raikou EX means it’s likely to happen at least once per tournament.
Seeker’s other use is to close out games before they begin. This is especially likely to happen against ZekEels, as they run 4 Tynamo, which can be KO’d with an unboosted Retaliate. So if your opponent has two Pokémon in play on your second turn, and one of them is a Tynamo, it’s game over. You Pokémon Catcher the Tynamo, play Seeker to make them pick the other Pokemon up, and KO the Tynamo to end the game. Other situations in which Seeker ends the game can also occur. This should not, in itself, be your reason to play Seeker though. It is quite unreliable as a source of surprise wins, and reduces your chances of hitting a draw supporter with Random Receiver. Viable
Twins I know I’m pushing it with this one, but I think Twins could be a valid addition to Quad Terrakion decks. Ironically, you will mostly be using it early in the game. Terrakion will have a hard time keeping up with fast Dark decks, so running a few Twins might help to set up Retaliate chains faster, and keep them going later in the game. Searching any two cards from your deck is just incredible, but the problem is it becomes a dead card after you take over the game or if your opponent starts slowly. All in all, Twins is an interesting option, and worth testing, but mostly outclassed by other cards. If T1 Darkrai becomes popular, this might be a good addition. Viable
For filling out the skeleton list given above, I recommend adding the following:
- At least two more draw supporters or Random Receivers
- Two Lost Remover
- At least two Pluspowers
- One more Switch
- A Rescue Energy
- Anything else you want to play
3.3 Strengths and weaknesses
When compared to other Terrakion decks, Quad Terrakion is by far the most consistent. It also is the strongest in terms of trainer-based interaction with other decks. This is largely because of how little setup it requires. Not being able to run a lot of Pokémon beyond four Terrakion means it is not as versatile as Landorus/Terrakion or Troll, and the highly linear style of play makes it difficult to play perfectly. Playing Quad Terrakion is a high-risk choice, but I think it still has what it takes to make great tournament finishes.
3.4: Matchups
Now, to be honest, I hate matchup sections. It all differs depending on the list, each player’s skill with the deck, and some luck. In addition, terms like “Favorable” or “Highly Unfavorable” are rather arbitrary. However, since a matchup section is mandatory, I will try to make these descriptions as unbiased and informative possible.
CMT/Celebi Variants: Unfavorable to highly unfavorable : CMT is probably this deck’s worst matchup among current meta decks. Their starts can be blisteringly fast, they run a lot of Mewtwo EX, and you can’t OHKO any of their attackers. To make it all worse, they might even tech either of the Virizions, so they can hit you for weakness. But not all is lost in this matchup: they can run out of gas if you get your Exp. Shares into play fast to set up a series of Retaliate KO’s. If they let your Terrakion live, make sure you have enough Exp. Shares around, and if you do, attach another Energy for the Land Crush.
N’ing them down to two or three cards later in the game will probably help, because CMT is completely dependent on its hand. CMT’s Energy Acceleration is all geared toward the early game, so you can swing the game around with well-timed Lost Removers and Crushing Hammers (if you run them). Whether or not this matchup is winnable depends on their start, but it will be a difficult game either way.
Eels: Favorable to Highly Favorable I’m not going to jump on the bandwagon and call the Eels matchup “Slightly Favorable”. In my experience, the only real answer Eels has to a stream of Terrakions is the dreaded Mewtwo EX, which is not impossible to deal with. Smart catchering and use of Energy removal is key in this matchup, because Eelektrik can only attach to the bench. This is very important, because it reduces the Eel’s famous ability to come back from anything. Be careful though, because the possibility of Mewtwo EX or Tornadus EX coming out of nowhere can really ruin your day. While Eels is a favorable matchup, it is by no means an autowin, and should not be taken too lightly.
Darkrai/Tornadus: Slightly Unfavorable to Slightly Favorable You can do 180 damage to a Darkrai EX, usually OHKOing it. They run Tornadus EX and can deal upward of 100 damage on the first turn. Both sides have strong threats, so this matchup largely depends on the Darkrai build. If you’re up against one of the Hammertime lists, with lots of Energy removal, you’re at the mercy of their Crushing Hammers . If it’s a classic speed list, you just need to take out the Tornadus EX, possibly with assistance from Lost Remover and sweep. And, of course, you need to avoid benching out early on. All in all, there are a lot of variables, but here are a few pointers:
- Feel free to use Lost Removers on a Darkrai’s energy. Since most lists only run one kind of Special Energy, it doesn’t matter on what Pokemon is it. This also prevents them from moving it over with a Shaymin. Even though Tornadus EX should be your priority, depriving their entire field of energy means you won’t get hit by a Tornadus EX out of nowhere.
- DON’T PANIC! Tornadus EX can be hard to deal with, but if you can keep on attacking through it all, you’re trading off favorably. A Tornadus EX takes three hits to KO, while it 2HKO’s your Terrakions, and since it gives up 2 prizes, the worst outcome is a minor card disadvantage for you.
- Save up your N for later in the game. They play largely from their hand, so unlike ZekEels, you can easily shut them down by getting them down to 1 card, then KO’ing an energized Darkrai or Tornadus.
- If you run heavy energy removal, this matchup should become a lot easier, allowing you to buy a lot of time whenever you need it. Landorus also helps against the Hammertime variant.
Zoroark: Favorable Zoroark is a very fast deck, with higher damage output than CMT or Darkrai/Tornadus, and they can KO your Terrakions on turn 2. However, all of their Pokémon are OHKO’d by a boosted Retaliate. This means you should be fine as soon as you get enough Exp. Shares into play. It is very important to get two or three Terrakion in play before they can attack, simply to avoid benching out. Be careful, because they might play Seeker .
Trainer Lock variants: Unfavorable to Slightly Favorable Trainer lock decks are slow. Terrakion doesn’t like fast starts, so that’s a good thing for us. However, they lock trainers when they are set up. Since trainers make up over a third of a Quad Terrakion deck, that’s going to make your life a lot harder in this matchup. You also have only four Terrakions to work with, unless you run alternative recovery cards. What mostly determines this matchup is simply their choice of attackers and how many Exp. Shares you can get into play before they lock you. Go after their Oddishes or Gothitas early on to keep the lock away for as long as possible, then try to outrace their attackers.
Groudon Variants: Slightly Favorable Groudon EX is mostly played as a tank deck, using three or four Groudons and not much else, and trying to keep them alive as long as possible. You can 2HKO them for two prizes when your Terrakions are fully charged, but they will probably play Eviolites or healing cards to make that more difficult. The trick here is not dropping your Terrakions unless your active one will be KO’d next turn, because two Tromps will put them in KO range for Giant Claw. Since they play a lot of healing cards and other forms of card disadvantage, a mid-game N can really swing things in your favor. If they run a lot of Energy removal, it might be a good idea to put more energy than necessary on a Terrakion if it’s out of their KO range. If they draw well, this matchup can be difficult, but in the end, you only have to KO three Pokemon where they have to take out six Terrakions, which gives you the advantage.
Durant: Even to Favorable The Durant matchup is largely luck-dependent: if they flip well on Crushing Hammer, your life becomes really difficult. If they don’t flip well, you can set up a Terrakion and sweep them. The important thing is not to bench anything, because they can Catcher it to buy time. Don’t play any Supporters that thin your deck if you can avoid it. If you run Landorus, however, it becomes a completely different story, getting a Landorus out early helps you get around Crushing Hammer, and provides a faster attacker than Terrakion. The only disadvantage compared to Terrakion is needing a Pluspower to OHKO an Eviolited Durant, but that is worth it when looking at the speed and pressure Landorus provides.
Terrakion Variants: Even to Slightly Unfavorable The mirror matchup is obviously even, with a small advantage for a list with Crushing Hammers. The important thing is to stabilize into a Retaliate chain and prevent your opponent from doing the same. Hammers obviously help in this, and running more Switches saves you from disruption by Catcher. This matchup is often decided in the mid-game, where one player loses a turn of attacking because of a lack of Energies. Landorus/Terrakion variants can be a bit more difficult, because they have Landoruses they can charge on turn 2 and the constant threat of a Mewtwo sweep. Even though they will probably take the lead early on, it is definitely possible to catch up later on, but it’s more difficult than in a “real” mirror match.
And that’s it for the Quad Terrakion part of the article! Read on for Landorus/Terrakion. Remember, from this point on, I will put repeat card descriptions in spoiler tags, and add comments if the purpose in the deck differs.
