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Standard Raichu / Crobat / Ninetales

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Peter

Peter

Aspiring Trainer
Member
**Final deck modification has been applied**
Pokémon:19
  • 4 Pikachu
  • 4 Raichu
  • 4 Zubat
  • 3 Golbat
  • 2 Crobat (I prefer 2 crobat, it reduces the odds of having more than one crobat on turn one or two)
  • 2 Shaymin EX
Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums:33
  • 4 Professor Sycamore
  • 2 Professor Birch's Observations
  • 2 Shauna
  • 2 Lysander
  • 1 AZ
  • 1 Xerosic
  • 3 Level Ball
  • 3 Ultra Ball
  • 3 Muscle Band
  • 4 VS Seeker
  • 2 Trainers' Mail
  • 3 Sky Field
  • 1 Sacred Ash
  • 2 Super scoop up
Energy:8
  • 4 Fire Energy
  • 4 Double Colorless Energy
Strategy:

I got sick and tired of looking for decent crobat/raichu decks and decided to make one up myself. I have not been able to fully test this deck to its highest potential with the sudden XY format, but as far as consistency, I feel that I have it. The plan and goal is simple, get as many pokemon to the bench as fast as possible turn one with shaymin draw power and the use of sycamores and birches. I run 4-4-2 crobat line instead of the traditional 4-3-3 or 4-4-3 in order that i reduce the possibility of having more than one crobat at a time in my hand. The items are fairly limited, due to the new release of vilplume and seismitoad lock decks. I use xerosic as a tech for the deck to slow down my opponent. I traditionally run more than one disrupter in the deck (Xerosic) in other decks, but due to the limited space in my deck, it seems to be the only tech i can use to slow down a giratina deck, a seismitoad lock, or any other decks that rely on a strong DCE to win. I appreciate any and all comments to this deck, as I know it is fairly new, but I have searched around all throughout online to figure out the best combination of cards for this deck in this format. As stated before, there are not that many good raichu/crobat variant deck that I have seen and I feel as if i have combined some of the positive changes people have requested on this deck, and condensed it down into a single deck list. Please comment to let me know on what you guys think of it.
 
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Hi Peter!


So after looking at your deck, some of these things should be noted:

Shaymin-EX: While I love this card, you have to remember that cards like Hex Maniac and Silent Lab are widely played. Having an unbalanced draw engine could make you vulnerable to things like Silent Lab or item lock so always beware of this. Even with Ninetales, it is something that can't be looked over.

Xerosic: Another great cards but in my opinion usually works best with cards like VS Seeker so increasing your VS Seeker count or adding another Xerosic should fix this issue.

AZ: Another card that is used with VS Seeker or in higher counts, especially with Shaymin-EX.

Overall, I do see this as a fairly solid deck and could be quite fun to play. You do have a free card slot to use so it would be wise to add it to your draw engine in order to keep consistency flowing.

Another card I could see being an issue at times is Pokémon Fan Club. It's more of an early game card in my opinion to set up but other than that may wind up being a dead draw card. Nonetheless, it's a great card for this deck to support your low Ultra Ball and Level Ball counts. If you see this card clogging your hand more often than not, swapping it out may be wise.

I hope this helps! Good luck and have fun!
 
I've not played a lot of bats but when I have I've favoured a 4-3-2 line. Ideally you'd want a Zubat, Golbat and Crobat benched going into your turn so you coud AZ up the Crobat and play all three down again. 4-3-2 favours this setup needing only a 3-2-1 line in a perfect game to achieve. Super scoop up also allows you to do the same freeing yourself to use a draw supporter. I wouldn't rely on Shaymin-EX to setup too much though. The core strength of this deck relies upon one hit koing EX's for two prizes whilst giving up one prize card in return. Shaymin as Lysandre bait may be more damaging than rewarding, try running a single Shaymin and just playing it when necessary, then AZ/scoop up as soon as possible. To counter this loss in draw/consistency, more Level/Ultra Balls and Trainers Mail will help. Definitley another VS seeker and stadium, two each if you have space (Lugia-Ex doesn't care about your Ninetales), and last but not least, sacred ash. Shuffling 5 pokemon into the deck will help allow you to keep attacking non ex's for 6 prizes. Hope some of this helps anyway, but of course experimenting yourself is the only way to find out what works for you, good luck! :)
 
After careful consideration, I decided to take out a few things as recommended by the comments. I have since reduced the shaymin count from 4 to 2, 4-3-2 crobat lineup opposed to the 4-4-2, and decided to take out the pokemon fan club. With the extra 4 spaces, i added 1 more shauna (for additional support), 2 lysander's (that were not included the first time), 2 more vs seekers so that xeriosic and lysanders could be used more frequently. I thank you guys for the support and feedback on the deck. It plays rather quick and competitively.

** The deck has been updated **
 
Looks pretty good, the only thing I'd change is 1/2 extra level ball and one sacred ash. Level balls help so much with consistently, getting out everything bar crobat, and the ash is there for when your four Raichus won't stretch to taking six prizes vs non ex decks. Otherwise just keep playing and see what works for you :)
 
After looking at the deck once more, I found that vulpix and ninetales to not be fairly useful. A single hex maniac can change the game on my opponents side and allow him to change the stadium for their favor. I will consider taking out the 2-2 ninetales lineup. I will add 1+ sky field due to the loss of ninetales, and one sacred ash. What are the two spots that can aide my deck?
 
If your taking out the ninetales line consider adding
+1 skyfield
+1 sacred ash
+2 Super Scoop Up

SSU allows you to reuse shaymins, and your crobat lines, yes it is a flip but if you manage to flip that heads early game and pick up a shaymin it can just give you so many more options.
 
With all cards considered, i have made the last update to the deck. I threw in 2 super scoop ups in the deck, added one sacred ash, and one additional sky field for the loss of ninetales lineup. I believe this will be a strong deck that might become in the competitive scene soon. Thank you all for your inputs in the deck, they have helped me realize a few mistakes on my end.
 
After play testing this deck a few times over this past week, I noticed that 4 muscle bands was a tad bit excessive in the deck and rather redundant. Zubats are already doing 20dmg once it becomes golbat and if I could not get a muscle band turn one or two, the odds were I could level ball or use a supporter to find other means of doing 20 more damage. I have since replaced one muscle band with a level ball. My only other problem in the deck is that, once my opponent gets a stadium card in play I am forced to drop my bench count to 5. There are no ways of bringing back the Pokemon like excecute did back when he was still legal. I can still do decent damage with the crobats, and lysanders have won me most matches to kill easy prize cards like shaymin or non ex's. As far as the build set up on this deck, I feel that it is quick as hell. Play testing this deck about 20 times, I learned that I get set up pretty quick turn one, and by turn two I can essentially get the knockouts on most things. Against a giratina/Seismitoad matchup, I was far faster setting up than my opponent. And even when my opponent locked my tools,stadiums, and DCE, I still had already set up most of my fighting energies and DCE on my pikachus/crobats. A solid deck i believe for the current format.
 
Go four stadiums, then ensure you win the stadium war. Essentially do your best not to play a Skyfield until your opponent plays a stadium. Most decks won't play more than 4 stadiums therefore their placement first along with careful management of your resources can enable you to exhaust their stadiums first. Ninetales isn't worth anything with Hex and Wobuffet rampant. And last but not least after you lose a stadium drop this!
433px-SacredAshFlashfire96.jpg


Or the new superod of breakthrough, shuffle 3 in combination of basic energy and pokemon into your deck. There's even revives, max revives and the new "buddy buddy rescue" to look at. Although that last one has a few unique pro's and cons. Beware of Lugia-Ex's second attack that removes stadiums, however he's lightning weak so you should trade well.
 
I don't run the bats variant of this, but one thing to watch out for is Lucario-EX speed decks or fighting decks in general, but particularly Lucario-EX as for one energy it can KO your Pikachus. That on turn one can be pretty devastating when you only have one type as your main damage dealer. I included 3 Flash Energy in my deck to try and allow Raichus to fight back, and have 2 Lugia-EX as back up attackers.

As well, if you run any electric energy (and if you're playing post-breakthrough), Raichu BREAK is a nice addition for the extra health, and the extra attack option for when it's vital you hit those higher numbers.
 
I've trialed flash energy in Manectric. I dropped it in that deck as turbo bolt can't utalise it. I'm generally not a fan though, not because Enhanced Hammers are everywhere but for the loss in deck versatility, becaue sometimes your'e gonna want to attach a basic energy and muscle band on a Unown, for a cheap ko on a fellow Unown etc. Not that you're playing Unowns, but you couldn't attach Flash to any of your bats for attack/retreats. Somethinng to consider anyway. Oh and I wouldn't worry about Lucario, Raichu has 90HP, trying to account for weakness is a bit defunk. Besides you can 1HKO him just as easily, taking an extra prize in the process. It's all about that prize trade, don't be afraid to bench Shaymins with momentum! If you've an attacker threatening a Shaymin is generally safe on the bench.
 
Great idea!! I actually play tested this deck and swapped the two trainers mails with one shaymin and a Bridget to get your pokemon back on your bench as soon as possible! It does extremely well competitively!
 
For the past few months, I have been analyzing this deck to it’s maximum potential because competitively, a raichu/crobat deck can deal massive amounts of damage early game. By doing over 30+ trial and error matches, mixed in with some more trial and error, I had concluded what this deck lacked originally.

By removing these cards listed:
- 1 Professor Birch
- 1 Lysander
- 2 Trainers mail
- 1 Sacred ash

And replacing them with the following cards:
+1 Shaymin
+ Jirachi (Promo xy 67)
+1 Ultra Ball
+1Super Rod
+1 Sky Field

This will maximize your stadium priority, provide a backup if 2 or more energy/pokemon were either forced away through means of ultra balls or sycamore, and finally one more shaymin for addition draw power and bench space. I understand that shaymin becomes a liability, but due to the extremely fast set up this deck has, having a shaymin or two benched turn one will not be an issue. SOOO many people have been using Jirachi XY 57 promo as a mean for a tech for the their deck and this deck is no exception. For only one energy, it discards a special energy and if this attack was used to discard an energy, you prevent all damage done to jirachi next turn. It is a "just in case" option for all giratina, toad decks that rely on double colorless. After I use it's ability, i can resume my attack power by retreating for one energy off of jirachi. This is a card that will be a staple for this standard format. Seismitoad/Giratina, Regice, Manectric/Bats are just a few of the decks that i have been practicing against to improve this deck.
 
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