Standard Lugia EX / Zoroark / Gallade

[KingPig12]

Here is my secondary deck. Tips, feedback, and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated! Thank you!

DISCLAIMER: Please do not suggest using Yveltal EX over Lugia EX. I realize that Yveltal is stronger, but I dont any of it at the moment. I have just settled with using Lugia and it works just fine. Once I get my hands on some Yveltal, I will replace the Lugia.

Pokemon:

• 2 Lugia EX (AOR 94)
• 3 Yveltal (XY 78)
• 2 Zorua (BKT 89)
• 2 Zoroark (BKT 91)
• 1 Zoroark BREAK (BKT 92)
• 2 Gallade (BKT 84)
• 2 Shaymin EX (RSK 77)

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums:

• 3 Muscle Band
• 2 Float Stone
• 1 Professor's Letter
• 4 Ultra Ball
• 4 Trainers' Mail
• 4 Battle Compressor
• 1 Super Rod
• 4 VS Seeker
• 3 Professor Sycamore
• 1 Judge
• 2 Maxie's Hidden Ball Trick
• 1 Xerosic
• 1 Lysandre
• 2 Shadow Circle

Energy:

• 4 Double Colorless Energy
• 9 Darkness Energy

Strategy:

This deck utilizes arguably the most useful and power cards in BREAKThrough: Zoroark and Gallade. Zoroark is basically the love child of Keldeo EX from Boundaries Crossed and Absol from Plasma Freeze. Its Stand In ability allows you to switch Zoroark with your Active, and its Mind Jack attack does 10 plus 30 more for each of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. All this for a DCE and youve got a very powerful attacker. Also, the inclusion of Zoroark BREAK has won me more games than you would think. Zoroark BREAK's attack copies an attack from your opponent's Active and uses it against them for a single Darkness Energy. With Zoroark BREAK, I beat too many M Mewtwo X decks to count. Besides Zoroark, we have Yveltal to charge up our attackers on the Bench, which could be Zoroark or Lugia EX. Lugia does the same thing as the Mewtwo EX from Next Destinies, doing 20 damage times the number of Energy attached to both Actives. This works great against decks that like having a lot of Energy on the board, such as Mega Mewtwo Y, Fairy, and Metal. Gallade is included to help deal with the deck's glaring weakness to Lightning Pokemon such as Mega Manectric and Raikou. For a DCE it does 60 plus 70 if you played a Supporter that turn, one-shotting Manectrics and Raikous efficiently. Maxie helps get out Gallade, Battle Compressor puts things in the discard pile like Supporters, Darkness Energies, and Gallade. This deck is one of the most powerful in the format right now and is very successful at tournaments as Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

 

[TuxedoBlack]

IMO and experience from running a similar deck, the 4 Trainer's Mail and 4 Battle Compressor seem excessive. These can not replace solid, card-draw Supporters which you currently only have 4 - woefully insufficient for consistent, card-draw support (despite the 4 VS Seeker and 2 Shaymin EX - which may not be available). I'd suggest for your consideration:

-1 Trainer's Mail - most important, IMO, to se to draw into cards that can dump the Maxie's and Gallade into discard pile
-2 Battle Compressor

+1 Professor Sycamore
+2 Professor Birch's Observations / or Shauna
​

Further, a 3rd Zorua dramatically increase your chances of getting both Zoroark into play too. Consider -1 D energy for this Pokemon.

I hope you find these comments helpful.

 

[GolurkChamp2597]

Also, you may consider an inclusion of regirock AOR. Although it's not better than Gallade in any way (believe me I know from experience) it creates less reliance on Maxie

 

[Ki1inWithaSmi1e]

Why are you choosing lugia over yveltal ex? Due to its ability to attack for a single attachment, or what? Curious hehe

 

[Mora]

Why are you choosing lugia over yveltal ex? Due to its ability to attack for a single attachment, or what? Curious hehe

DISCLAIMER: Please do not suggest using Yveltal EX over Lugia EX. I realize that Yveltal is stronger, but I dont any of it at the moment. I have just settled with using Lugia and it works just fine. Once I get my hands on some Yveltal, I will replace the Lugia.

 

[TCGDeoxys]

Excuse me if I am incorrect, but Shadow Circle is in expanded.

 

[LightningCloud224]

Excuse me if I am incorrect, but Shadow Circle is in expanded.

You are incorrect. Shadow Circle is from the XY base set, so it is in standard.

 

[KingPig12]

Drop the Break. drop Xerosic, you only need 1 stadium since it isn't great and 2 in one hand sucks for Maxie's. Giovanni's. Best supporter for Gallade.

I play the BREAK because it is too useful for me in this deck. It has helped me win so many games against things like Mega Mewtwo X, Entei, etc. I am considering a Giovanni tech but idk Xerosic has gotten rid of so many special energies and tools like band, sash, and so on.

 

[fr33land]

Yeah, I deleted that post. I've since added a copy of the Break to my own version and it's really cool and it hasn't hurt the deck at all. I don't think I've gotten it in play yet, but it hasn't made the Hidden Ball Trick any harder. Also, I think I run 8-9 supporters, anyways 1 more than your list, it seems like too many sometimes, but I don't want to cut AZ and so on, so all in all I think I was better off keeping my trap shut. I'm gonna keep testing my list.
One suggestion I will make is Faded Town as your stadium. Most Megas will be difficult or impossible to one bang for the deck, so some damage on them already might be good.
Shadow Circle is kind of bad. First, your weakness is spread out among your attackers a bit and Shadow Circle can be easily discarded on your opponent's turn before they attack so you're not likely to benefit from it (since Mega Man and Raichu are likely to run 3-4 Rough Seas) but the whole point of running Gallade is so you have a favourable match up against the electric decks anyways, no?
For supporters I've got
2 Sycamore
2 Maxie's
2 Giovanni's
1 Judge
1 Lysandre
1 AZ
I agree that solid draw supporters are good, but I don't want any more than that for sure. The more Sycamore and so on you have the less likely you'll make the conversion. I'm trying my version with Unown, which I have used successfully before in Maxie's decks. You can Ultra Ball an Unown, bench it, Maxie's, then get a 6th card which you can use Premonition for once Gallade is in play.

 

[LightningCloud224]

I play the BREAK because it is too useful for me in this deck. It has helped me win so many games against things like Mega Mewtwo X, Entei, etc. I am considering a Giovanni tech but idk Xerosic has gotten rid of so many special energies and tools like band, sash, and so on.

I agree that Xerosic is more useful in the current metagame due to a strong reliance on double colorless for acceleration. The break is very good against a variety of threats, including an enemy gallade.
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As for the actual list, why not parallel city for bench manipulation shenanigans. it is very useful against skyfield users and can block the opponents maxie's

 

[KingPig12]

I agree that Xerosic is more useful in the current metagame due to a strong reliance on double colorless for acceleration. The break is very good against a variety of threats, including an enemy gallade.
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As for the actual list, why not parallel city for bench manipulation shenanigans. it is very useful against skyfield users and can block the opponents maxie's

I dont play parallel city because it decreases Zoroark's damage output with Mind Jack. It could be a consideration for a tech but it just cripples Zoroark a lot

 

[Jayt88]

I dont play parallel city because it decreases Zoroark's damage output with Mind Jack. It could be a consideration for a tech but it just cripples Zoroark a lot

You should try it. It works to get rid of your own Shaymins as well while possibly reducing your opponent's damage, or serve as a make shift deterrence to rayquaza decks in case you can't get your zoroark out on T2, you are also able to limit bats decks for a period of time.