Discussion Lost March decks, too late to start?

Madifz

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I’ll follow this advice, now I’m focusing on gathering enough cards to create a lost march in our TCG online account, the trades rarely ask for something fair so I’m openinjg Lost Thunder’s booster to replicate mine there.

This variant with Marshadow seems cool, but wouldn’t professor elm also help? I mean, sometimes I use it to bring Skiploom (sometimes 3 of then) wouldn’t that card being really important to Lost March?

Thanks!

Believe it's a difference in play style, but I definitely prefer this list as it makes use of the lillie ball engine. After Elm, you may end up with a dead hand, and with lost march that could cost the game.
 

Toni Kensa

Playing and Collecting
Member
Believe it's a difference in play style, but I definitely prefer this list as it makes use of the lillie ball engine. After Elm, you may end up with a dead hand, and with lost march that could cost the game.

I confess I started using Elm as I saw it could bring both Hopip and Skiploom in the same draw and all Lost March lists I saw until today used at least 2 of it. But to be sincere, I just did play 5 matches and I agree with you, the dead hand is a problem to me. Can't say if it would be better if I get spinarak LOT Professor Elm's Lecture would get optimized or if only playing 5 matches isn't enough to understand and deal well with it.

What I normally do with Elm's Lecture is trying to bring Hopip and Skiploom as soon as possible, what to bring is according with the situation (more hopips on the bench call for more skiplooms and so on...) and mid/late game only bring Natu.

About "lillie ball engine", what's this?
 

Madifz

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Basically use balls to get pokemon on board and thin hand down and then lillie. Works when you play Lillie first too.
 

Toni Kensa

Playing and Collecting
Member
Basically use balls to get pokemon on board and thin hand down and then lillie. Works when you play Lillie first too.

Talking about using balls, I’ve been stuck with many trainer cards on my hand lately and using them as discard to my ultra balls. Is ir recommended? Do I have to keep in mind how much do I have x how much I did discard to make a balance?

Thanks!
 

snoopy369

Aspiring Trainer
Advanced Member
Member
Talking about using balls, I’ve been stuck with many trainer cards on my hand lately and using them as discard to my ultra balls. Is ir recommended? Do I have to keep in mind how much do I have x how much I did discard to make a balance?

Thanks!

Certainly, trainer cards are usually the bulk of what you're discarding - trainers and techs that aren't appropriate for this match-up, and maybe energy if you have drawn more than you need.

Some trainer cards are more or less situational, and you have them there either for specific opponents or for specific times. Professor Elm's Lecture is a great example of this in most decks - less so in Lost March, but for example in ZoroDeciTales you have it for turn 1 and then it's pretty much useless. So it's my first card to UltraBall/Trade.

Other trainer cards are always useful - Cynthia, for example, and you might not use them that turn but it's pretty useful in general. You probably don't want to dump that if you have other things to dump. But I'd certainly dump a Cynthia if I didn't have anything else specifically useful to dump. Those I'd rank second in my list of things to dump.

Finally, very few (but some) trainer cards have a lot of utility and you'd probably want to avoid dumping them if you can. For some matchups, Guzma is a good example of this - you really want to keep it around if at all possible, because it's going to be the card that lets you win. Lost March may care a bit less about Guzma if you've already got a lot of lost zone Pokémon (and can just KO whatever's there), but it's still pretty useful for grabbing good targets, IMO (for example, if you're doing more than 240, you can gust in a Decidueye if you're playing ZoroDeciTales to avoid your Natus getting wiped out).

You should have a good idea of which trainer card is in which bucket by playing a lot. Just play a lot, discard freely, and see what trainers you're sad to have lost and which trainers you find are less helpful. If they're less helpful all the time, you may want to remove them from the deck; if they're less helpful later in the game then they're great ultraball targets.
 

Toni Kensa

Playing and Collecting
Member
Certainly, trainer cards are usually the bulk of what you're discarding - trainers and techs that aren't appropriate for this match-up, and maybe energy if you have drawn more than you need.

Some trainer cards are more or less situational, and you have them there either for specific opponents or for specific times. Professor Elm's Lecture is a great example of this in most decks - less so in Lost March, but for example in ZoroDeciTales you have it for turn 1 and then it's pretty much useless. So it's my first card to UltraBall/Trade.

Other trainer cards are always useful - Cynthia, for example, and you might not use them that turn but it's pretty useful in general. You probably don't want to dump that if you have other things to dump. But I'd certainly dump a Cynthia if I didn't have anything else specifically useful to dump. Those I'd rank second in my list of things to dump.

Finally, very few (but some) trainer cards have a lot of utility and you'd probably want to avoid dumping them if you can. For some matchups, Guzma is a good example of this - you really want to keep it around if at all possible, because it's going to be the card that lets you win. Lost March may care a bit less about Guzma if you've already got a lot of lost zone Pokémon (and can just KO whatever's there), but it's still pretty useful for grabbing good targets, IMO (for example, if you're doing more than 240, you can gust in a Decidueye if you're playing ZoroDeciTales to avoid your Natus getting wiped out).

You should have a good idea of which trainer card is in which bucket by playing a lot. Just play a lot, discard freely, and see what trainers you're sad to have lost and which trainers you find are less helpful. If they're less helpful all the time, you may want to remove them from the deck; if they're less helpful later in the game then they're great ultraball targets.

Professor Elm works very well for me until mid game, I’ll follow your advice discarding the second one with less guilt. My fear of discarding Supporters is normally irrational, I know, I’ll be more brave to use this deck lol

Cynthia is also the second one to get stuck in my hand, I normally have something here and there which I don’t want to put back on my deck so it gets there on my hand for some turns.

What about lost blender? Sometimes I discard a whole Jumpluff chain (basic, stage 1 and stage 2) to accelerate my damage output at the beginning, it did work for some matches but maybe I was lucky. Do you also use it this way?

Using Great Ball is an effective option for this deck? I know it’s not as fast as ultra, but not as risky as timer ball, it’s not rare to get two tails for me.

I had 6 games with this deck, without changing anything until I reach 10. Thanks for sharing your experience with me!
 

snoopy369

Aspiring Trainer
Advanced Member
Member
I'm not a Lost March expert by any means, I'm sure others will chime in.

With 24 pokémon on average, Great Balls will basically always hit, and basically always hit something useful. So I'd definitely include it. Late in the game the numbers may not be there anymore - particularly when you no longer really need more Pokémon on the table - so it's a great Ultra Ball target. Note that the effective decks in regionals seem to have more Great Balls than any ball - even ultra ball - see Limitless' deck page.

One ball you might consider based on my experience playing against players who were quite good with Lost March is Timer Ball. Timer ball not only gets you those Skiplooms, but also is great in the early game to grab those Trumbeaks.

I think Lost Blender is particularly useful when you've drawn a Jumpluff, since then you can do as you say and get it into the lost zone with at least one other in the line. You could also Ultra Ball it to the discard pile and then Rescue Stretcher it back. I otherwise think Lost Blender is more useful to get your techs out of your hand that don't work with that matchup - if you play Machoke, say, or an extra Marshadow that you don't need on the table right now.
 

Toni Kensa

Playing and Collecting
Member
I'm not a Lost March expert by any means, I'm sure others will chime in.

With 24 pokémon on average, Great Balls will basically always hit, and basically always hit something useful. So I'd definitely include it. Late in the game the numbers may not be there anymore - particularly when you no longer really need more Pokémon on the table - so it's a great Ultra Ball target. Note that the effective decks in regionals seem to have more Great Balls than any ball - even ultra ball - see Limitless' deck page.

One ball you might consider based on my experience playing against players who were quite good with Lost March is Timer Ball. Timer ball not only gets you those Skiplooms, but also is great in the early game to grab those Trumbeaks.

I think Lost Blender is particularly useful when you've drawn a Jumpluff, since then you can do as you say and get it into the lost zone with at least one other in the line. You could also Ultra Ball it to the discard pile and then Rescue Stretcher it back. I otherwise think Lost Blender is more useful to get your techs out of your hand that don't work with that matchup - if you play Machoke, say, or an extra Marshadow that you don't need on the table right now.

You’re right, great ball’s the highest one on limitless, I’m impressed this one being used so much but as you did explain now it makes sense.

I’m currently using one timer ball to bring Trumbeaks, when both heads come, 40 points of additional damage plus the chance to ban Supporters is fantastic but relies on luck. Seeing limitless’ page, I did put a card that’s not so common, but that doesn’t mean I’m on the wrong direction right?

Is machoke a must? Seems great to protect the bench, I don’t put many simultaneous Lost March monsters on the bench to avoid being smashed by Tapu Kokos’ spread attack but that would need a ditto prism and magcargo to be flexible?

Thanks!
 

PokeMedic

Don't talk to me or my Pokemon ever again
Articles Staff
Member
I saw some nice spread decks counter Lost March. Seems like it became such a scary deck that everyone wanted to find out how to beat it early.
 

Toni Kensa

Playing and Collecting
Member
I saw some nice spread decks counter Lost March. Seems like it became such a scary deck that everyone wanted to find out how to beat it early.

Yes, that was my point about this topic, people start to expect it until it becomes inviable to use Lost March on tournaments, since people make all their decks “Lost March proof”.
 

Toni Kensa

Playing and Collecting
Member
I'm seeing some Lost March decks using Super Boost Energy Prism, why this? To avoid Shuckle GX?
 

Kawari1

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Playing only Lost March Deck Variants I think that with the addition of emolga and Pokemon communication will really keep lost march alive for the next months ( I hope because I only have lost march decks xD). But like mentioned with the introduction of annoying cards for lost march like Black Market it is really hard sometimes for a Lost March deck
 

Andeh

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I started running my own Lost March deck that is pretty close to what a lot of people have been putting out. I did modify it a bit to get a Super Boost Energy in the deck to counter the Shuckle's out there, but I never really dead drawed. I run a bit of Cynthia's and two Marshadow's, so I always felt like if I was dead drawing with my deck, I could mix it up to help get me back in. My main pokemon in the deck were the Hoppip line, Trumbeaks, and Natu. At that point, I felt like I was really bulking out too much with pokemon, but I kept it down to 4 DCE and 4 grass + 1 SBE. This felt optimal against most decks (minus of course the spreads that just really annihilate you.
 

Matux

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I played a lot lost march recently with the 4 emolga techs and the deck was really consistent for a single prize attacker.
The main problems that can make you loose a game are :
-> Spread (Koko, Ultra Necrozma GX, ...)
-> Low setup. Versus a GX deck, you will probably need to take 4 KO because your opponent will force a seven prize card attacker and you guzma line in thin. So, if your opponent can take a KO every turn. You have 2 turns to setup and sometimes, you need three. Versus a single prize deck with basic pokemons (passimian, zapdos), they will take a KO every turn since turn 1 when you will have difficulties being able to take a KO on the second turn some games.
-> Consistency. Some games, you will break after a marshadow, it's less reliable than Tapu Lele GX, even if sometimes, you will win because you bricked your opponent.

Overall I think it's a really strong deck atm with almost an autoloss to spread decks and I'm very hyped by the fact that the deck will earn Bench Barrier mew soon to solve this.
At least, I think TPCi made a nice balanced "new Night March". It's definitely one of the best one prize attacker deck right now.
 

Otaku

The wise fool?
Member
I’ll follow this advice, now I’m focusing on gathering enough cards to create a lost march in our TCG online account, the trades rarely ask for something fair so I’m openinjg Lost Thunder’s booster to replicate mine there.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of predatory trades posted on the PTCGO but you just need to ignore them while searching out the good ones or posting your own. It helps to just deal in unopened booster packs; while Tokens are technically the currency of the PTCGO, it is really unopened booster packs. ;)

Anyway, I was debating taking up Lost March myself. I'd meant to, stuff happened, and then I'm like "Right... TEU is out and I still don't have a Lost March deck!" though I probably should focus on priority TEU packs, unless I find I've got most of what I need for Lost March already.
 

DorilMagefont

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Does the rise of Zapdos Jirachi oppress Lost March? Zapdos's 80 damage for 1 energy seems like a nightmare for Lost March.
 

Andeh

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Yep. If you run Thunder Mountain and can get it out quickly, can do 70 for free, and even worse is that Jumpluff is weak to Lightning, which means even without the bonus damage, an electro power can cause a knockout.
 

Otaku

The wise fool?
Member
Yep. If you run Thunder Mountain and can get it out quickly, can do 70 for free, and even worse is that Jumpluff is weak to Lightning, which means even without the bonus damage, an electro power can cause a knockout.

  1. Zapdos' attack states it does not apply Weakness.
  2. Lost March attackers are OHKO's for many (most?) competitive decks anyway.
The main issue is that it is another deck that hits as hard and fast as yours does, and is either built around single-Prize Pokémon or has the option of keeping its Pokémon-GX off the field and just relying on Zapdos. The Zapdos deck is also a turn faster and (I think) a little more reliable but cannot hit as hard as Lost March in the long run. Head-to-head, Zapdos is stronger. Relative to the rest of the metagame? I'm not so sure.

Addendum: Oh, and I did finally build and play a Lost March deck. ;) Had to deal with this exact matchup.
 
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