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Standard M Steelix EX/Zoroark GX

YuriGirl

YuriGirl

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Was trying to come up with a decent deck using Steelix EX with a friend and settled on a Zoroark GX variant.

****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******

##Pokémon - 18

* 4 Zorua SLG 52
* 1 Zoroark BKT 91
* 4 Zoroark-GX SLG 53
* 3 M Steelix-EX STS 68
* 3 Steelix-EX STS 67
* 3 Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60

##Trainer Cards - 30

* 2 Kiawe BUS 116
* 1 Professor Sycamore STS 114
* 1 Professor Sycamore BKP 107
* 4 Ultra Ball SUM 135
* 3 Steelix Spirit Link STS 106
* 2 Choice Band GRI 121
* 2 Enhanced Hammer GRI 124
* 4 Puzzle of Time BKP 109
* 2 Field Blower GRI 125
* 1 Acerola BUS 112
* 4 N FCO 105
* 1 Mallow GRI 127
* 2 Guzma BUS 115
* 1 Pokémon Fan Club FCO 107

##Energy - 12

* 3 Metal Energy 8
* 5 Fire Energy 2
* 4 Double Colorless Energy NXD 92

Total Cards - 60

****** Deck List Generated by the Pokémon TCG Online www.pokemon.com/TCGO ******

Some reasoning and thoughts behind card choices:
  • Zoroark GX - The main draw power in the deck, and comes with a decently strong attack which can clean up after collateral damage from Canyon Axe. Running 4 is a must just to get one online that much earlier.
  • Zoroark BKT - Alolan Ninetales exists. A tech to a tech.
  • M Steelix EX and Steelix EX - The power house of this deck. Using Kiawe to accelerate energies early game and lazily setting a second one up on the bench using DCE is the key to making this work.
  • 2x Field Blower - Running 3 or 4 would be nice, but there's not a lot of room in the deck.
  • 1x Acerola - Running 2 or 3 would be nice, but I don't know how important it'll turn out to be and other cards seem better on paper.
  • 2x Guzma - Another card I'd like to run more of but without any space for it.
  • 2x Kiawe - The card that makes this deck run. Immediately sets up Steelix for the following turn so that Canyon Axe can get chopping. Running 2 so that if 1 gets prized, the other is still usable. Not too keen on running more since a late game Kiawe isn't terribly impressive.
  • 1x Pokemon Fan Club - Steelix being an EX means that Brigette is sadly not effective here. Pokemon Fan Club is the next best thing.
  • 2x Choice Band - Running more would be nice, however M Steelix EX one shots both Gardevoir and Zoroark due to type advantage, so the choice bands are limited in use to taking out Buzzwole, Drampa, and Volcanion decks.
  • 5x Fire Energy - We wanna hit 3 or 4 energies with Kiawe every single time. One extra energy to account for prizing and energies ending up in your hand.
  • 3x Metal Energy - Only as many as we absolutely need.
I need to get my hands on the Zoroarks to actually try this out, but on paper, this seems like a decent enough deck to try out, but I'm still looking to optimize it a bit more.
 
-1 Zorua
-1 Zoroark-GX
-1 Zoroark

-1 Acerola
-1 Pokémon Fan Club

-2 Choice Band
-4 Puzzle of Time

Your main priority in a M-Steelix EX deck is to get two Steelix EX in play on T1 for a Tapu Lele-GX into Kiawe (or a manual Kiawe, if you're lucky) setup. Having a higher Zorua count only makes it so that you start with Zorua more often. Besides, Zoroark-GX is not the main attacker, you don't need 4 copies of it. If your locals are filled with A. Ninetales/Hoopa, then I guess Baby Zoroark is warranted, but I'd leave it out of the "official" build.

Acerola does you literally nothing here, don't be afraid to drop it. It's meant for faster and/or lighter decks that can spring an attacker with little to nothing.
Pokémon Fan Club would be a T1 play, but you have a priority check on Kiawe and your T2 supporter ideally should be draw power. No reason for it.
Your M-Steelix EX are glued to Spirit Link, no matter what. Sure you could attack with Zoroark-GX and even Tapu Lele-GX, but they're supplementary. There's a better alternative here.
Not a fan of Puzzles here because of such critical deck space and nothing extremely urgent to recover from discard, except for an ill-played Spirit Link removed before you evolved.

With these notes in mind, here are my suggestions:

+1 Dhelmise

+1 Professor Sycamore
+1 Guzma

+1 Steelix Spirit Link
+1 Field Blower
+1 Super Rod
+1 Special Charge
+2 Nest Ball

+1 Metal Energy
+1 Fire Energy

Dhelmise's slight boost coupled with Canyon Axe's aftereffects can go a long way into one-shotting more fragile targets.

You want a third Professor Sycamore to prevent bricking while you don't set up and to increase your chances of a late-game Syca boost.
You said it yourself, you need a third Guzma.
An extra Spirit Link is ideal so that you can spare an emergency discard or can recover from a blowered Link while you failed to evolve.
Each M-Steelix EX that goes down will take with it a lot of energy. Super Rod and Special Charge make sure you still have something to attach to whatever comes next and may power up a second emergency Kiawe in a stalemate.
Nest Ball will bring your Steelix EX into play with more efficiency than Pokémon Fan Club.

An extra Metal energy is necessary to account for prizing and drawing into it, while an extra Fire energy is ideal for a second Kiawe and because your energy math is a bit off, considering your attackers.

As extra food for thought, consider Altar of the Sunne against Volcanion and your replacement for Choice Band here, Strong Energy. The former is a bit obvious, but the latter would act as your damage boost to M-Steelix EX while not clashing with Spirit Links. Coupled with Dhlemise, you take some surprising knock-outs (including the dreaded Volcanion EX/Turtonator GX).

And finally, remember that you deal double damage on Drampa-GX as well.
 
K-Genesis said:
-1 Zorua
-1 Zoroark-GX
-1 Zoroark

-1 Acerola
-1 Pokémon Fan Club

-2 Choice Band
-4 Puzzle of Time

Your main priority in a M-Steelix EX deck is to get two Steelix EX in play on T1 for a Tapu Lele-GX into Kiawe (or a manual Kiawe, if you're lucky) setup. Having a higher Zorua count only makes it so that you start with Zorua more often. Besides, Zoroark-GX is not the main attacker, you don't need 4 copies of it. If your locals are filled with A. Ninetales/Hoopa, then I guess Baby Zoroark is warranted, but I'd leave it out of the "official" build.

Acerola does you literally nothing here, don't be afraid to drop it. It's meant for faster and/or lighter decks that can spring an attacker with little to nothing.
Pokémon Fan Club would be a T1 play, but you have a priority check on Kiawe and your T2 supporter ideally should be draw power. No reason for it.
Your M-Steelix EX are glued to Spirit Link, no matter what. Sure you could attack with Zoroark-GX and even Tapu Lele-GX, but they're supplementary. There's a better alternative here.
Not a fan of Puzzles here because of such critical deck space and nothing extremely urgent to recover from discard, except for an ill-played Spirit Link removed before you evolved.

With these notes in mind, here are my suggestions:

+1 Dhelmise

+1 Professor Sycamore
+1 Guzma

+1 Steelix Spirit Link
+1 Field Blower
+1 Super Rod
+1 Special Charge
+2 Nest Ball

+1 Metal Energy
+1 Fire Energy

Dhelmise's slight boost coupled with Canyon Axe's aftereffects can go a long way into one-shotting more fragile targets.

You want a third Professor Sycamore to prevent bricking while you don't set up and to increase your chances of a late-game Syca boost.
You said it yourself, you need a third Guzma.
An extra Spirit Link is ideal so that you can spare an emergency discard or can recover from a blowered Link while you failed to evolve.
Each M-Steelix EX that goes down will take with it a lot of energy. Super Rod and Special Charge make sure you still have something to attach to whatever comes next and may power up a second emergency Kiawe in a stalemate.
Nest Ball will bring your Steelix EX into play with more efficiency than Pokémon Fan Club.

An extra Metal energy is necessary to account for prizing and drawing into it, while an extra Fire energy is ideal for a second Kiawe and because your energy math is a bit off, considering your attackers.

As extra food for thought, consider Altar of the Sunne against Volcanion and your replacement for Choice Band here, Strong Energy. The former is a bit obvious, but the latter would act as your damage boost to M-Steelix EX while not clashing with Spirit Links. Coupled with Dhlemise, you take some surprising knock-outs (including the dreaded Volcanion EX/Turtonator GX).

And finally, remember that you deal double damage on Drampa-GX as well.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestions! Taking them into mind I've gone
-1 Zoroark
-1 Acerola
-1 Pokemon Fan Club
-2 Choice Band
-3 Metal Energy

+1 Dhelmise
+1 Guzma
+2 Nest Ball
+1 Energy Recycler
+3 Rainbow Energy

Dhelmise, Guzma, and Nest Ball were all explained by you so I won't go into those.

Energy Recycler over Super Rod and Special Charge because Energy Recycler will reload a late game Kiawe singlehandedly.
Rainbow Energies replacing Metal Energies because of the inclusion of Dhelmise, and sometimes it's just going to need to attack. M Steelix won't care much about losing 10 of its 240 HP.

And reasons for not doing any of the other changes

4 Zoroark GX - as I said earlier, the more Zoroark I have, the earlier I get one. The deck doesn't have a better way to get M Steelix EX, Steelix Spirit Link, and Rainbow Energy all in hand at once, so Zoroark's draw engine is critical here. Getting stuck with one as your active isn't the worst thing that can happen, and the extra Guzma makes that situation less painful.
4 Puzzle of Time - We're running 4 Zoroark, so we're going to be discarding a lot. Sometimes those discards won't be favorable. Puzzle of Time fixes that while giving us a way to fish DCE out of the discard pile.
0 Super Rod and 0 Special Charge - Puzzle of Time and Energy Recycler have this covered.
Leaving Steelix Spirit Link untouched - 3 should be enough as long as the deck is capable of taking kills. We only NEED 2 in the deck to start with for setting up the second Steelix, so if the third is prized that's not something to worry about.
Leaving Field Blower untouched - I wish I could include more, but I'm wary on cutting anything else in the deck for it.
Leaving Fire Energies untouched (and not running 4 Rainbow Energy) - Gonna need to see some actual math on this one before I change it without testing it first.
 
I definitely think that Hoopa EX would be a great choice for this list, especially since it doesn't rely on a bunch of techs, and relies on EX Pokemon. Hoopa would be great as this deck's alternative to Brigette.
 
TSA123 said:
I definitely think that Hoopa EX would be a great choice for this list, especially since it doesn't rely on a bunch of techs, and relies on EX Pokemon. Hoopa would be great as this deck's alternative to Brigette.
Click to expand...
Can Hoopa EX fetch Megas?

EDIT: Looks like it can. This gives me an idea for an entirely different deck without Zoroark at all...
 
Last edited:
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