So a while back I had a bad experience at a regionals tournament, so I took a decent hiatus from Pokemon. I'm now trying to get back into competitive play, but I need to know the format right now so so I can build a tournament worthy deck. So I was hoping some good Samaritan could tell me, what decks/cards are big right now?
Discussion What's the Meta looking like right now?
- Thread starter RainbowGengar64
- Start date
atm malamar varients, pikachu zekrom and zapdos jirachi along with zororoc are proably gonna be the most popular
what the best is would still be up for debate
make sure to check out the newest sets to see what has come out
what the best is would still be up for debate
make sure to check out the newest sets to see what has come out
@RainbowGengar64 To be clear, the latest expansion (SM - Team Up) just became tournament legal February 15. At the time I'm writing this post, that is about three days ago. XP The Expanded Format is even more confusing; we don't even have one major event with the latest stuff legal and we had multiple cards added to the ban list. Two of the cards added to the Expanded Ban list (Delinquent and Unown DAMAGE) were even last minute additions, added late on the14th (maybe even on the 15th, depending on your time zone and how long it took places to report on it).
A good place to get a general idea of what the meta is Limitless TCG. They post tournament results with the decks used in a very easy-to-understand way, and it's fairly easy to recognize patterns due to its visual nature.
You can also check out the articles on the site for meta predictions by the various writers, or the tournament reports themselves although they delve more into the writer's personal experience in the tournament as well as the dominant deck.
You can also check out the articles on the site for meta predictions by the various writers, or the tournament reports themselves although they delve more into the writer's personal experience in the tournament as well as the dominant deck.
Just a heads up, Unown DAMAGE and Maxie's Trick Ball were the ones we were aware of ahead of time. Delinquent and Lusamine were added last minute, but all four had their ban applied as of February 14th.
I also second visiting Limitless to take a look at what's in meta currently. Oceania just got reported in, and there were a lot of Zapdos/Jirachi/Pikarom/Jolteon decks floating around. Ultra Necrozma was also pretty well seen in the matches.
The results out of Collinsville, IL Regional Championship are fascinating. We've snapped back to a Blacephalon-GX/Naganadel win after barely making Top 32 at the Oceania International Championship that was held in Melbourne, Australia. We've got Zoroark-GX/Lucario-GX/Lycanroc-GX, Vileplume Stall, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX, Buzzwole/Buzzwole-GX/Lucario-GX, Malamar/Ultra Necrozma-GX, and Zapdos/Jirachi-GX all within the top eight as well.
Very interesting. Vileplume is actually nuts when you realize the only top deck in the format that isn't basic is zoroark.
Most of the 'good' PikaZek and ZapdosJirachi decks played a Jolteon, from what I recall; and Malamar and Blacephalon can both attack with their respective support Pokémon as needed (I guess Malamar isn't much of an attacker, but Naganadel definitely can hold his own if needed). I wasn't surprised Vileplumes did okay day one, but I was surprised one made it to top 8 for sure.
I feel like Vileplume will stay around format until rotation unless it gets massively nerved. Besides Riley getting 3rd at Collinsville others from Mahone's crew played it like Otto and I believe he just bubbled out of top 8 as well. Honestly, I feel the format is kind of wide open and since there isn't a standards regional for awhile it's going to really be hard to discern what the meta will look like weeks in advance. Especially as more rouge type decks become refined.
After Melbourne I thought that the meta would be very annoying with only three decks, but last weekend shown us that there is much more possible. As usual we will see now a shift again to adjust to the new meta.
Btw: I do not think that it will be enough to have the Malamar as an attcker against Vileplume as the damage output is too low to handle any healing/energy denie strategie, but only time and further testing will prove
For myself I would need more time to rethink niw and test
Btw: I do not think that it will be enough to have the Malamar as an attcker against Vileplume as the damage output is too low to handle any healing/energy denie strategie, but only time and further testing will prove
For myself I would need more time to rethink niw and test
Thing is there are counter walls too. Jolteon is weak to shuckle (not actual weakness. You know what I mean) Naganadel is weak to Whaleboi.
Sure, but both decks with Jolteon also play Tapu Koko GX which takes care of shuckle (and has free entry to active).
It's not that Vileplume is a bad deck, it's just that I don't see it being a good enough matchup against the main decks right now to do well. C&V (maybe alongside Vileplume) feels like the better choice to me honestly, though I tend to think Control as an archetype is weak right now relative to its normal stat, and maybe it's going to be that way until May when more control will be possible thanks to Full Metal Wall etc.
I agree that control/stall does get better with the set in May. L.T. surge and Lucario/Melmetal feel particularly strong for the archetype, but I also think it's relatively decent now as well.
True, now that people know about they can tech for it. Like putting the Persian from team up in any deck that plays the ditto.