Hey, I am wondering if this deck will be good in expanded. I know it's really good in standard but the two formats are drastically different. Greensboro is comin up and I don't know what to play. Thanks!
Discussion Zapdos Jirachi in expanded
- Thread starter The Golden Mewtwo
- Start date
I don't know how on earth it doesn't just get wrecked by Archiestoise/Wailkarp. And while no one appreciates item lock via toad, Zapdos especially doesn't. Garb's everywhere too, but at least Alolan muk is in standard as well, so I don't know how big a difference that is. Haven't actually seen an expanded Zapdos/Jirachi deck in my testing yet, but there are pretty understandable theorymon reasons people aren't testing it.
Haven't really thought about tbh. More concerned with how to play against tag teams considering all the acceleration in expanded.
Sense zapdos is good against fighting and decks that need to evolve that gives it a good matchup vs decks like zoroark and buzzwole. But ability lock is killer so finding field blowers and the ability to take out muks and garbs can be difficult. But wailord is probably an auto loss there gonna have a lot of time to find an answer to Mr mime and one giratina/volcanion prism effect will set up your board for a sweep from the gx
Short answer: no
Long Answer: Zapdos / Jirachi are good in Standard because the pool of good consistency cards just aren't there and Jirachi just happens to be the best at it at the moment. Expanded is less "rock-paper-scissors" and is more about meeting a "barrier to entry". This barrier being Zoroark-GX. Can Zapdos / Jirachi beat a Zoroark-GX deck consistently, or at the very least have a 50/50 shot against one?
The glaring problem right off the bat is that Jirachi / Zapdos is LOW HP Pokemon. And not only that, low HP Pokemon that can't stream OHKOs at the drop of a hat. There are two types of decks that can get away with running low HP anything:
- A control variant
- a deck that uses one-Prize Pokemon to stream OHKOs (Night March, Vespiquen, Lost March to anme a few).
Jirachi / Zapdos tends to run with a lot of gas in the beginning, but tends to run out of steam quickly. So you're not going to OHKO Zoroark-GXs or Tag Teams quickly or consistently.
Alolan Muk, Garbotoxin Garbodor, and Silent Lab are more commonplace now. Zoroark-GX / Garbodor is being seen as one of the best, and safest, decks to play in Expanded currently. Can you handle turn-2 Alolan Muk/Garbotoxin? Because as soon as they see Jirachi, they are coming out and you're going to be hard pressed to stop it. You might be able to curb a Muk play (KOing a Ditto Prism Star), you won't be able to stop Garbotoxin before it happens.
Credit where it's due, the deck does boast some good consistency. That said, it's not "I'm going to draw a bunch of cards for free every turn" consistent (Zoroark-GX).
If you really want to run a Team Up deck in the next expanded Regional, either go with Archie's Blastoise or Pikachu & Zekrom-GX...or Zoroark-GX / Garbodor. Those are your tier-1 right now.
Pikachu and Zekrom-GX is going to shake the meta up a bit. Not as much as Magikarp & Wailord-GX did for Dallas. I see P&Z-GX pushing some rogue decks off the edge of the meta and onto the floor (looking at you, Trevenant). Zoroark-GX / Golisopod-GX (winner at Dallas) was a great meta call, but the big fish is now Pikachu & Zekrom-GX.
And don't count on Fighting-type decks, as Pikachu and Zekrom-GX decks will run Flash Energy (removes Weakness). The matchup is a lot closer than you'd think. Buzzwole is getting shaky to run, and it's going to get worse when Unbroken Bonds gets released. If I were to put money on which Figthing decks would see a greater degree of success, I'd put it on Lucario-GX with maybe some Enhanced Hammers.
Long Answer: Zapdos / Jirachi are good in Standard because the pool of good consistency cards just aren't there and Jirachi just happens to be the best at it at the moment. Expanded is less "rock-paper-scissors" and is more about meeting a "barrier to entry". This barrier being Zoroark-GX. Can Zapdos / Jirachi beat a Zoroark-GX deck consistently, or at the very least have a 50/50 shot against one?
The glaring problem right off the bat is that Jirachi / Zapdos is LOW HP Pokemon. And not only that, low HP Pokemon that can't stream OHKOs at the drop of a hat. There are two types of decks that can get away with running low HP anything:
- A control variant
- a deck that uses one-Prize Pokemon to stream OHKOs (Night March, Vespiquen, Lost March to anme a few).
Jirachi / Zapdos tends to run with a lot of gas in the beginning, but tends to run out of steam quickly. So you're not going to OHKO Zoroark-GXs or Tag Teams quickly or consistently.
Alolan Muk, Garbotoxin Garbodor, and Silent Lab are more commonplace now. Zoroark-GX / Garbodor is being seen as one of the best, and safest, decks to play in Expanded currently. Can you handle turn-2 Alolan Muk/Garbotoxin? Because as soon as they see Jirachi, they are coming out and you're going to be hard pressed to stop it. You might be able to curb a Muk play (KOing a Ditto Prism Star), you won't be able to stop Garbotoxin before it happens.
Credit where it's due, the deck does boast some good consistency. That said, it's not "I'm going to draw a bunch of cards for free every turn" consistent (Zoroark-GX).
If you really want to run a Team Up deck in the next expanded Regional, either go with Archie's Blastoise or Pikachu & Zekrom-GX...or Zoroark-GX / Garbodor. Those are your tier-1 right now.
Pikachu and Zekrom-GX is going to shake the meta up a bit. Not as much as Magikarp & Wailord-GX did for Dallas. I see P&Z-GX pushing some rogue decks off the edge of the meta and onto the floor (looking at you, Trevenant). Zoroark-GX / Golisopod-GX (winner at Dallas) was a great meta call, but the big fish is now Pikachu & Zekrom-GX.
And don't count on Fighting-type decks, as Pikachu and Zekrom-GX decks will run Flash Energy (removes Weakness). The matchup is a lot closer than you'd think. Buzzwole is getting shaky to run, and it's going to get worse when Unbroken Bonds gets released. If I were to put money on which Figthing decks would see a greater degree of success, I'd put it on Lucario-GX with maybe some Enhanced Hammers.
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