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Alt. Format Phanthom Force (Dragapult Vmax / Blacephalon / Sigilyph / Giratina / Malamar)

Dark Espeon

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PHANTOM FORCE

250px-887Dragapult.png


Pokémon (18):
  • 1 Blacephalon SM11a (beatdown)
  • 3 Dragapult Vmax (beatdown)
  • 4 Dragapult V S2 (beatdown)
  • 1 Giratina SM8b (beatdown)
  • 1 Mewtwo SM10 (retrieve)
  • 1 Sigilyph S2 (beatdown)
  • 2 Malamar (accelerate)
  • 2 Inkay SM8b (evolve)
  • 2 Jirachi SM8 (search)
  • 1 Oranguru S1 (draw)
Trainer (32):
  • 2 Boss’s Orders (control)
  • 3 Prof. Research (draw)
  • 3 Cynthia (draw)
  • 3 Marnie (draw)
  • 4 Mysterious Treasure (search)
  • 4 Scoop Up Net (retrieval)
  • 3 Escape Board (retreat)
  • 3 Spell Tag (beatdown)
  • 4 Quick Ball (search)
  • 3 Viridian Forest (draw)
Energy (10):
  • 6 Psychic Energy
  • 4 Horror Energy

STRATEGY:

Start with either Jirachi to draw trainer cards or with Dragapult V. Bench one Inkay in addition to another Dragapult V. Use Viridian Forest to obtain Basic Energy and thin the deck. Viridian also combos well with Giratina who benefits the most from Scoop Up Net to place additional damage counters on the bench.

SPOILER:

Dragapult V
Basic Psychic Pokémon
HP: 210
[P] Bite: 30
[P][P] Assault Jet: 60+
If this Pokémon was on your bench and became your active Pokemon during this turn, this attack does 80 more damage.
Retreat Cost: C
Weakness: D
Resistance: F

Dragapult Vmax
Vmax Pokémon - evolves from Dragapult V
HP: 320
[P] Shred: 60
This attack’s damage is not affected by effects on your opponents active Pokémon.
[P][P] Giganto Phantom: 130
Put 5 damage counters on your opponents benched Pokémon in any way you like.
Retreat Cost: C
Weakness: D
Resistance: F

Sigilyph
Basic Psychic Pokémon
HP: 110
Ability: Counterattack
If this Pokémon is your active Pokémon and is damaged by an opponent’s attack, put 3 damage counters on the attacking Pokémon.
[P][C] Psycho Damage: 30+
This attack does 10 more damage for each damage counter on your opponent’s active Pokémon.
Retreat Cost: C
Weakness: L
Resistance: F

Boss's Orders
Trainer - Supporter
Choose 1 of your opponent’s benched Pokémon and switch it with their active Pokémon.

Scoop Up Net
Trainer - Item
Put 1 of your Pokémon (excl. Pokémon V and Pokémon GX) into your hand. Discard all cards attached to that Pokemon.

Horror Energy
Special Energy
This card provides 1 [P] energy while it’s attached to a Pokémon.
When the [P] Pokémon this card is attached to is your active Pokémon and is damaged by an opponents attack, put 2 damage counters on the attacking Pokémon.
 
Last edited:

jamashawalker

Ikouze!
Member
Hey again. I can't wait to try Dragapult out too. Like many other pokemon fans it's one of my favorite pokemon from sword and shield.

To start on your deck. The idea should be similar to Mewtwo/Psychic Malamar, just with Dragapult Vmax as a back up attacker. I can't put the exact things to trade in and trade out, but I can help you on where I see some changes that could be made.


-Running a 3-3 Malamar Line. Mewthree Malamar already has a difficult time setting up with a 3-3 Malamar line even with all the consistency it has. Setting up with a 2-2 line would be even harder. We only need 1 Malamar in play, but we want to set it up as quick and consistent as possible.

-Possibly running Poke Comms in the deck. Since we are running different stage 1s and a lot of single use attackers, we don't want to discard them with Professor's Research. Also it gives you more outs to finding the pokemon you need in a certain scenario.

-If you're not feeling Poke Comm then I do strongly suggest Lana's Fishing Rod and dropping down to 3 Spell Tags. That way you can get back that blacephelon/Mimikyu you didn't want to discard with Prof Research.

-Latios GX. He is entirely dependent on if ADP Zacian will still be big in the format. And by the looks of things, it will be here for awhile. So if ADP Zacian will still be big , DEFINTELY add Latios GX to stop its GX attack.

- Mew. Pikarom only gets better next set. The last thing we want is to be vulnerable to a turn 2 Tag Bolt. Also that new Inteleon V/VMAX will cause problems setting up inkays on the bench.

Now what to take out...

-I like Sigilyph as an attacker but I don't believe he is a 2 of considering he's a situational attacker like Mimikyu and Blacephelon. 1 of with a lana's fishing rod should be plenty enough.

-Tool Scrapper. If we do get better tools for sure. But ATM there are no tools that hinder this deck's performance. You'll be using Tool Scrapper mostly just for Escape Boards/Air Ballons or opposing spell tags. If the metagame calls for it, keep it.


Those are just some of my suggestions to start. All of this can change depending on the meta but overall I'm loving how Dragapult V/Vmax is looking. I'm going to proxy test ASAP even though all of the cards aren't announced haha GREAT DECK LIKE ALWAYS
 

Dark Espeon

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Member
Hi jamashawalker,

Thanks for the review. I agree with a lot of the suggested modifications and decided to run a 3-3 Malamar line. I also increased the Dragapult V count to three and cut one Spell Tag for a Lana's Fishing Rod to retrieve discarded Pokémon that could be used later on. I retained Tool Scrapper to deal with Metal Frying Pan and Giant Charm since both could skrew with the math of the deck.
 

jamashawalker

Ikouze!
Member
Been testing this deck out a lot against my wife and I'm in love with it!! Dragapult VMAX is terrifying against Jirachi based decks or evolution decks. From my testing if I was able to attack twice with Dragapult Vmax with a spooky energy attached, I was able to close out games with that much spread. Went with your idea of the 3-3 Dragapult line because leading with it and just attaching an energy is already and amazing start. In the 10+ games we played, I only needed Malamar two times due to some rough starts. I suggest keeping the 3-3 line of Malamar still.

Against each deck I played against my strategy stayed the overall same. Attack first with Dragapult VMAX until it goes down, then immediately retaliate with Baby blacephelon (This is where I mostly just won because there was so much damage on the board). Then have another Dragapult V on the bench ready to go after blacephelon goes down, this happened only twice. Yeah I would rate this as a big threat towards the top tier stuff considering how fast it is at spreading damage on the board and taking tons of cheeky KOs on low HP pokemon on the bench.

GREAT DECK OVERALL!
 

Dark Espeon

Dark Avatar
Member
Been testing this deck out a lot against my wife and I'm in love with it!! Dragapult VMAX is terrifying against Jirachi based decks or evolution decks. From my testing if I was able to attack twice with Dragapult Vmax with a spooky energy attached, I was able to close out games with that much spread. Went with your idea of the 3-3 Dragapult line because leading with it and just attaching an energy is already and amazing start. In the 10+ games we played, I only needed Malamar two times due to some rough starts. I suggest keeping the 3-3 line of Malamar still.

Against each deck I played against my strategy stayed the overall same. Attack first with Dragapult VMAX until it goes down, then immediately retaliate with Baby blacephelon (This is where I mostly just won because there was so much damage on the board). Then have another Dragapult V on the bench ready to go after blacephelon goes down, this happened only twice. Yeah I would rate this as a big threat towards the top tier stuff considering how fast it is at spreading damage on the board and taking tons of cheeky KOs on low HP pokemon on the bench.

GREAT DECK OVERALL!

Great to hear. Still waiting for the cards to be relased to start testing. The list was just an idea based on the consideration that this card lends itself to a speed tactic. Dragapult Vmax at furst glance does not seem much of a threst but it is quite fast and easy to stream. The deck should start to be rolling on the second turn fairly consistent with little difficulties to stream attackers. This in turn should allow it to outspeed a number of relevant decks in this format. Did you use Sigilyph in your test matches? How important was the third Dragapult Vmax in your test turns?
 

jamashawalker

Ikouze!
Member
Did you use Sigilyph in your test matches? How important was the third Dragapult Vmax in your test turns?

I didn't use sigilyph once. This was due to how powerful Dragapult VMAX was and how it had a much bigger impact in the matches. It was either get the KO with sigilyph while my wife's hand size was large so she possibly had boss's orders to just gust around it... or I could attack with Dragapult VMAX get the KO and spread 5 damage around while leaving a big threat in the active. And the game closers with Blacephelon. I believe sigilyph works best in pure Psychic Malamar based decks when you reset them down to a low hand size and are able to get the KO with Sigilyph. It feels situational but pretty good if the time ever arrives against bigger VMAX pokemon.

100% 3-3 Line of Dragapult VMAX line. There were too many times where one was prized or I had to discard it with professor's research. Dragapult VMAX's bulk pairs perfectly with Spooky energy+ getting another Dragapult VMAX set up on the bench. Something I had to adjust to on the fly was reminding myself that VMAXs are evolution pokemon. So you have to get your V on the bench ready before your other VMAX has even taken damage.
 
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