Standard Hot Poison Wrath (Salazzle/Poliwrath) Rogue Competitive

[DJ Abel]

Hi guys! First post on this forum. I just started playing the TCG again for the first time since Black and White sets started, and I've been having a lot of fun in the new format! I recently went to a regionals tournament with a Solgaleo/Lurantis deck and it was probably the closest to Meta I've ever played and I didn't do horribly at all! In high school, I was always the rogue deck player with trainer combinations that never worked in my favor.

Since my friend helped me with my Solgaleo/Lurantis decklist, and it generally functions very smoothly and well, I thought I'd use that structure for my first rogue-competitive decklist.

I have not tested this list at all, but I'm hoping it will be fun! My main meta deck that I definitely want to beat in a matchup is Volcanion since as a steel/grass player it's my auto-loss match-up ;p

POKEMON- 15
4 Poliwag- SUM 30
2 Poliwhirl- EVO 24
3 Poliwrath- SUM 32
3 Salandit GRI 15
3 Salazzle GRI 16

TRAINERS- 34
4 Rare Candy SUM 129
4 VS Seeker PHF 109
3 Devolution Spray FCO 95
3 Trainer's Mail ROS 92
3 Ultra Ball SUM 135
3 Choice Band GRI 121
2 Dive Ball PRC 125
2 Escape Rope PRC 127
1 Rescue Stretcher GRI 130
3 Professor Sycamore BKP 107
3 N FCO 105
2 Lysandre AOR 78
1 Teammates PRC 141

ENERGY- 11
4 Double Colorless Energy
7 Basic Water Energy

TOTAL: 60


Strategy: The main tactic is to use Poliwrath's Wake-up Slap. For 3 energy, it's pretty useless when it only does 80 damage. But that doubles if the Active Pokemon is affected by a special condition, which is where the sly lizard Salazzle comes into play! Its ability automatically burns and poisons your opponent's Active Pokemon when it is played to evolve Salandit from your hand. Rinse and repeat this with Devolution Spray. With Choice Band, you'll be doing 190 to ANY GX or EX! (Auto KO to Volcanion/Turtonator).

Obviously, it would be more safe to run a 4-4 line of Salandit/Salazzle and a 4 line of Devolution Spray. But I find that would just be too clunky, so I cut each number by 1. If you think about how many charged Wake-Up Slaps it would take to KO 3 GX/EX, it shouldn't take any more than 6 times playing Salazzle down.

I basically mimicked the Supporter and trainer lineup from my Solgaleo/Lurantis deck, since that also was centered around a Stage 1 Evolution (primarily benched until needed) and a Stage 2 Evolution. Obviously, what could make this deck more competitive is the fact that it runs No GX/EX (come at me with the comments about running no Shaymin/Tapu Lele. I'm really trying hard not to make that happen although I know it may be a naive move on my part and I'm definitely willing to put either in the lineup.) I'm trying to put up the 1 prize attacker game as a last chance defense against a meta that swings fast and hard. And with Trashalanche Garbodor, I don't even know what it will look like at the upcoming league cups...

Obviously, if needed I can always switch in some Poison Barbs to help charge Poliwrath's attack when I can't play down Salazzle. I prefer Choice Bands for now just because of the HP of some meta decks' HP. I'm not opposed to somehow finding Kukui (Potential 210 to KO Alolan Ninetales and others.) I also would love a way to fit a Special Charge in there, especially with so much energy denial being ran lately, I just don't know what I could take out. I'm open to all ideas this is really my first draft of building this deck!


Any and all suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks so much in advance guys I hope I didn't ramble too much

 

[Giufla91]

HI, great idea and very clear description ...I was thinking at something like that

Pokemon 17
4-2-4 Poliwrath (if he has to be your main attacker you have to be sure to pick it up)
3-3 Salazzle (I think, as you already said, is the perfect number)
Add something like oranguru (I believe you want to keep it budget, don't you?)

Supporter and trainer 33
3 sycamore
3 N
2 lysandre

4 vs seeker (if your are lucky to have these )

3 Ultraball (works great with oranguru)
2 dive ball
3 level ball (picks up poliwag, poliwhirl, salandit)

2 choice band
2 escape rope
3 rare candy (not more for a line like 4-2-4, even more for the line 4-2-3 you suggested)
2 rescue stretcher
3 devolution spray (very important for your strategy)

Energy 11
4 DCE (I've seen both poliwrath and salazzle can use it so.... I agree with your choice of 7 water energy but I'd like to test it with some rainbow energy, what do you think?)
7 water energy

 

[DJ Abel]

Hey, thanks for your feedback!

I picked the 4-2-3 line with Solgaleo GX with 4 rare candy when I played it, and it usually seemed to work fine. There would be occasions when an annoying amount of them would be prized/discarded early on, so I see why 4 might be better.

I thought about Oranguru and Remoraid/Octillery with Brooklet Hill. The Octillery would just be too clunky with already so much Pokemon. I'm not opposed to having Shaymin EX/Tapu Lele GX in here because I'm not on a budget, but the second main idea of this deck's strategy was supposed to slow down my opponent from drawing prize cards. I just have a feeling that at any moment, my opponent will Lysandre snipe any 2-prize draw power on my bench before I even get a chance to set up a consistent attack. I could be wrong though.

I thought Oranguru/Octillery also might be too much of a liability in a deck that doesn't have the room to run Float Stone or much more than 2 switch cards.

Rainbow Energy is totally a possibility but with a low HP deck like this it might hurt more often than it helps. That was my rationale for keeping it out right now.

I counted out your Trainer line, and it adds to 32 so I'm guessing you left room for that possible 4th rare candy?
The part I'm most curious about in the Trainer's lineup was adding 3 more level ball to the Search support instead of Trainer's Mail. I like the trainer's mail in situations where I have my Salandit in play but need Devolution Spray or a Ball, or even in situations where I need to set up quickly again and need a Rare candy. Trainer's Mail helps with that support.

I may take out 1 Choice Band for another rescue/recovery from discard card, but I wanted a little more since there are cards like Field Blower in play now. Maybe I'm being too precautious with that.

Thanks so much for your feedback again! It'll really help me draft this deck going forward

 

[Kietharr]

Hypno BKP/All Night Party is a generally more efficient way to get a status every turn, I find, since you don't benefit from the poison/burn damage anyways.

 

[DJ Abel]

I totally missed BKP Hypno! It definitely would be more efficient, but Hypno worries me for 2 main reasons: Hypno is weak to Garbodor and Lele and is easier to 1 shot. Then, All Night Party could be made useless against meta that might run delinquent and other stadiums. On top of that, the growing popularity of field blower makes it a much more clunky card to have. In general, I think Devolution Spray is a more safe card to run against meta.

Also, the Hypno combo would rely on having both All night Party and Hypno set up each turn, whereas all you need is some way to play Salazzle down per turn, not Salazzle AND Devolution Spray each turn.

If I were to try out the Hypno combo, what editshould would you suggest?