Standard Out of the Box Zoroark GX/ Celesteela GX for NAIC

[Chaoguy]

I have been thinking hard about what to play at nats, and I wanted to see if I could take advantage of Celesteela's huge HP and useful Fighting resistance in a deck that would have good matchups with all of the meta decks:

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

##Pokémon - 14

* 4 Zorua SGL 52
* 3 Zoroark-GX SLG 53
* 2 Celesteela-GX UPR 144
* 1 Kartana-GX CIN 117
* 1 Mew-EX LTR 139
* 1 Mewtwo EVO 51
* 2 Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60

##Trainer Cards - 38

* 4 Puzzle of Time BKP 109
* 2 Timer Ball SUM 134
* 1 Super Rod BKT 149
* 1 Professor Sycamore BKP 107
* 1 Multi Switch GRI 129
* 3 Guzma BUS 115
* 4 Ultra Ball SUM 135
* 3 Brigette BKT 134
* 1 Float Stone BKT 137
* 3 Cynthia UPR 119
* 2 Field Blower GRI 125
* 2 N NVI 92
* 1 Choice Band BUS 162
* 2 Parallel City BKT 145
* 1 Mallow GRI 127
* 2 Acerola BUS 112
* 2 Fighting Fury Belt BKP 99
* 1 Professor Kukui SUM 128
* 2 Beast Ring FLI 102

##Energy - 8

* 4 Double Colorless Energy FCO 114
* 4 Metal Energy 8

Total Cards - 60

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

The list is super duper tight since I am trying to fit so many things in there for the different matchups, so I struggled with consistency in the handful of games I playtested on PTCGO.

The strategy is similar to ZoroPod in that you continually threaten 2 turn knock outs while denying the opponent OHKOs.

Unfortunately it looks like this deck is just going to end up being a marginally worse ZoroPod, but I wanted to get some outside opinions on this list to see if there are any tweaks you could think of to push this deck over the edge.

 

[Lord Goomy]

Are we using Rocket Fall or Moon Press as the main attack?

 

[DashKing]

Hello @Choaguy
I think Timer Ball is a weaker version of evosoda and isn't worth for the chance to grab 2 Zoroarks.
Change:
-2 Timer Ball
+2 Evosoda
-1 FFB (I don't really know what could be dropped)
+1 Zoroark BTH
I also think that a Zoroark BTH would be nice here. Its a one-prizer that can KO Zoroaks w/ kukui+choice band and also be a quick answer for a buzzwole (both one prize and GX)

 

[chef_penguin]

I've been doing a lot of testing with Zoroark Garb, and I can say that BKT Zoroark really puts in the work. If your opponent has a full bench and you have choice band, you smack for 190 and that is a very important number right now. And it's a one prizer.

 

[RisingRaichuu]

How are you going to power up Celesteela? Elixirs maybe?

 

[Timmony_tcg]

The main problem that I see with this deck is that Celesteela needs two attachments to do anything, whereas Golisopod only needs one. You're going to have a rough time pulling off effective Beast Ring turns when you only have a maximum of four Basic Energy in deck (and the chances of you having all four of those in deck in the mid-game are unlikely at best, considering the Energy might be prized, discarded off Trade/Sycamore/something that got KOed, already attached to something else). I feel the minimum amount of basic Energy that should be in a Beast Ring deck should be around 7.

If you went with a higher count of Beast Ring, you could potentially include attackers like Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX and/or regular Dusk Mane Necrozma, which can both provide useful OHKO options in the mid to late game.

In any case, Celesteela is an interesting idea for a secondary attacker, since it resists Fighting and pretty reliably 2HKOs the entire format with Choice Banded Rocket Fall. Unfortunately, Golisopod does the same - again, for only one Energy attachment, and not even needing Choice Band or any other damage multiplier. I think the only way to make this stand out from ZoroPod is to make more use of the strong Metal-type Ultra Beasts we have available right now