Discussion Guarding against disruption vs finding what you need - what's the right play?

[DorilMagefont]

Played an interesting game today that got me thinking about this question. Suppose the situation is this:

It's your first turn and you went first. You have your main attacker as the active Pokemon + an energy attached. You also have a ditto prism star on your bench. Your opponent has a jirachi in the active. In your hand, you have a Lillie, an ultra ball, and two energies. You are running Alolan muk that can shut down jirachi and also a tapu Lele gx. Do you:

-Ultra ball for Alolan Muk, revealing what you have, then Lillie for 7?

-Ultra ball for a tapu Lele gx and Lillie for 7.

-Keep your existing cards and Lillie for 5.

-Ultra ball for a secondary attacker/another basic to develop the board then Lillie for 7

I played a game where I chose to find a Muk and won straight up after that because my opponent couldnt do anything after his T1 setup without jirachi. However, his 1 disruption tech got prized which is just dumb luck. Upon reflection it seems like the best play is to ultra ball to develop your board with a basic and draw into your other answers. Do folks think this is true? Is there nuance to this?

 

[snoopy369]

There's definitely nuance, but I think you did the right thing. Particularly if your opponent is playing a deck that doesn't often play Let Loose Marshadow, you're fine ultraballing for Muk and Lillie for 7. It's not like Muk's existence is a secret, after all. Get the biggest draw you can, force your opponent to spend resources to counter you - sure, you may not get to play that Muk (due to let loose or your opponent KOing your Ditto), but you keep the pressure on them and force them to spend their resources earlier.