2013

Landorus EX/Lugia EX: The Ultimate Speed Deck?

coolestman22 February 21, 2013 5 Comments

Hey OneHitKO, it’s been awhile since I did a deck analysis article, so I decided to write up an article about a deck that I feel is amazing in this format, which is Landorus/Lugia. This article is mostly just me overhyping the deck, but I have tested it and it is amazing. The article may just lead you to believe it is more amazing than it actually is.

Before you start wondering if this is just another big basic deck, well, it pretty much is. However, it has a much different

Who knew Basics could get so complicated?

strategy than many big basics do. With this deck, instead of just attacking with whatever you draw into, your goal is to use Landorus EX’s Hammerhead the first few turns to put 60 damage on two of your opponent’s EX’s. Then, use Lugia to kill both of them for three prizes a piece, and win when you kill both of them.

Now, there’s plenty of things that can go wrong with this plan. Eviolite, Aspertia City Gym, and your opponent not dropping an EX in the first place can mess with your strategy. However, winning by Turn Four is not always necessary, even if it is possible. Your gameplan should just to be to achieve this strategy as fast as you can, and hopefully you can knock out two EX’s before they knock out three.

The thing about other speed decks is that when the setup deck catches up to them, they tend to be forced to rely on how far ahead they were in that current gamestate. However, now there’s a speed deck that can win before the setup deck does set up. Instead of focusing on taking out the engine or the pre-evolutions of the engine of the setup deck, you can instead focus on just winning the standard way before your opponent can take advantage of being fully set up. In some matchups you will want to try to deny your opponent setting up, but in most cases you fare well enough to just take enough of an early lead to the point where your opponent can’t use their main attackers they need to use to knock out your attackers in one hit because Lugia would just come in and take three prizes off them.

The deck is nowhere near as broken as it is in theory, but it’s still amazing, and there’s a great chance that I’m going to be playing it for a States.

A basic skeleton for the deck looks like this:

Pokemon

4 Landorus EX
2 Lugia EX
-6

Items

4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Bicycle
4 Colress Machine
3 PlusPower
3 Switch/Escape Rope mix (I prefer 2 Switch, 1 Escape Rope, because early game Escape Rope is really helpful for hitting for weakness with Landorus as well as getting the Lugia you started with out of the way)
2 Ultra Ball
2 Eviolite
2 Hypnotoxic Laser
1 Tool Scrapper
1 Ace Spec (Anything but the Tools are good in here).
-26

9 Different Supporters (Ideally 3-4 N, 3-4 Juniper, 1-2 Bianca, 0-1 Skyla, 0-1 Colress) If you play Scramble Switch or Gold Potion you should play one more Supporter)
-9

2 Counter Stadiums (Virbank, Frigate, Aspertia, Battle City, and Skyarrow Bridge are all good)
-2

6 Fighting
4 Double
4 Plasma
-14

Total – 57

This gives you a little bit of wiggle room, and you could easily make more if you felt it was necessary. Ideally I would put one more Supporter out in as well as an additional Tool Scrapper and Switch, but you could do whatever with your build.

The four Landorus is to make your odds of starting with it as high as you can. If you get a T1 Hammerhead it will help

Why does Landorus look like he’s pouting about something?

you out so much, and starting with it makes it so much easier to do so. Landorus is going to be your attacker for the earlier part of the game, and generally you will use it more than you use Lugia (Because the idea with Lugia is to attack with it twice, Landorus is more there to set up for Lugia), and you don’t necessarily know how long that will take), so having four is more necessary.

In testing I started out with three Lugia, but I’ve found that over the course of the game you almost never attack with more than one. The second is there in case one is prized, because you generally only take one prize with Landorus. Any more is bad for the deck because it detracts from your chances of starting with Landorus and becomes a dead draw once you have one Lugia in play.

Catcher is pretty self-explanatory, it’s a staple in everything. In here, it has slightly different functions, however. Either you can use it to hit around Resistance or hit for Weakness with Landorus, or chase the benched EX’s with damage on them that set up for a Lugia kill. 4 is necessary in this deck because frequently you find yourself needing three to four over the course of the six or seven turns the game should last if you’re playing a favorable matchup. This is one of those decks that is made so much better by Catcher instead of just being able to use it.

Bicycle is good in any deck that aims to attack on Turn One. It’s also amazing because late game you often find yourself needing a specific resource or two, and Bicycle helps you chase it down by giving you more than one draw card to use during your turn. I play four because it’s just so good in this deck.

In theory you could get away with three Colress Machine, but I like four for consistency purposes. Ideally you want to have your Lugia powered up by Turn Three or Four, which usually means you need to hit at least one Colress Machine to do so. Playing four maximizes your odds of doing so. According to the rules team from PokeGym, you can play a Colress Machine even if four Plasma Energy are in visible areas of play (i.e. Field, Discard, Town Mapped Prizes), so there’s no harm in them being dead draws late game.

I like PlusPower in the deck just because a lot of the time Landorus won’t do quite enough damage (Some instances an Eviolite or Aspertia City Gym might appear, and there are times a Hypnotoxic Laser is used to put 10 + 30 on a newly played EX), so PlusPower is just there to make sure Lugia can get kills. It’s a valuable resource to have and it should be considered as a four-of if you can find the space without cutting consistency.

Switch is there for three scenarios. First, if you start with Lugia you need to be able to get a T1 Hammerhead without using 2 Colress Machine and discarding two Plasma Energy. Switch is mainly there for T1 scenarios where you need to get a Landorus active.

It’s also useful when you’re done with the Landorus phase and need to start attacking with Lugia. It helps a lot if you can get the Switch instead of having to manually attach a Double Colorless to Landorus and manually retreat him (Although if you are forced to do this it isn’t terrible, you just have to manually attach a Fighting to him if you want to Hammerhead again). This also applies to when you’re attacking with Lugia and then need to attack with Landorus again for whatever reason.

Finally, it’s your best defense against Catcher stalling. Frequently your opponent will be forced to Catcher-stall you to

buy time to set up whatever they need to set up, so having the clutch Switch when you need it is huge. For this reason I would advocate running at least four Switching cards.

I want to talk about the usefulness of Escape Rope in this deck for a bit as well. Escape Rope is great on Turn One to force your opponent to start with their less desirable starter as well as hit for Weakness or get around Resistance without having to use a Catcher. I honestly like a 3/2 Switch/Escape Rope split the best so you have a decent chance of drawing an Escape Rope when you need it while still prioritizing Switch, but some variants may have space concerns that don’t allow that split.

I only play two Ultra Ball because that’s all that I’ve found necessary in testing. I’ve considered going up to four, but I’ve also considered going down to zero. Ultra Ball is mainly there to thin out your hand for Bike and Bianca, but it’s also good for grabbing a Landorus on Turn One and getting a Lugia to Colress Machine to as soon as possible. It’s one of those cards that you don’t need every game, but you’re glad you have it when you do, and two is the perfect number for one of those cards.

Eviolite is there simply to make Lugia harder to kill. If you lose your Lugia and all of the Plasma Energy it’s usually going to be really hard to get a new Lugia swinging. Eviolite is there to keep it alive for the extra turn you need to win. Two is a good number for it because it allows you to get one when you need one or before while still not filling the deck up too much with dead draws late game.

Hypnotoxic Laser is mostly there for the early game Landorus phase when you’re trying to get damage on EX’s. Hypnotoxic can allow you to get 10 or 20 more which sometimes puts it in Lugia kill range. I was a bit skeptical on it at first but it has proven itself to be amazing in testing.

In my personal build I actually play two Tool Scrapper, as Eviolite really messes this deck up. However, in most scenarios with this deck one Scrapper is enough. You basically need to ensure that you can Tool Scrap Eviolites when it’s absolutely necessary or before, and playing two helps this a lot. I would advise playing two, but if you can only fit one that’s fine. two is also helpful because Garbodor has been on the rise since the end of Regionals.

The Ace spec slot is mostly personal preference. Dowsing Machine can get you a 5th Catcher or 4th PlusPower and provides another out to a Supporter. Scramble Switch is good for powering Lugia up quicker. Gold Potion helps keep Lugia alive for an extra turn, and Computer Search helps with the early game. I would advise testing all four and choosing the one that suits your playstyle or personal preferences the best.

Supporters are necessary in any deck as they provide you with a mediocre but acceptable draw engine. 9 is a good number in a deck with 4 Bikes and an Ace Spec that nets you a Supporter, but if you opt for Scramble Switch or Gold Potion you’d be better off playing a tenth.

Professor Juniper is the best draw Supporter in here because it nets you the most cards, and in a deck like this you want to be going through your deck pretty quickly to get everything you need when you need it. I would advise playing four Juniper, but if you want to play more conservatively three works fine.

N is also really good in here, better than in most decks, because you’re taking prizes in clusters and not in ones and twos. What I like about this deck is you can be going for the game winning Catcher, N, and still have a reasonable chance of drawing it, because often you find yourself with three prizes left and the Catcher away from winning because of how amazing Lugia is. It’s the best shuffle-draw Supporter you can have in this deck and it’s ideal when you don’t want to have to Juniper away a hand of vital Catcher, Switch, PlusPower, Tool Scrapper, Plasma Energy, or whatever resource you find yourself running out of.

The last Supporter slot is probably best suited for Skyla. Skyla is another out to a game winning Catcher, and in a deck with Bicycle you can Skyla and still draw cards. Bianca works fine, but I like Skyla better just because of the consistency of it.

Stadium Wars are becoming a thing again, and having a kickgym for Vitrbank and Tropical Beach can come in quite

Play your own Stadiums to keep Cleveland Browns Stadium out of play.

nicely. My favorite counter Stadium in this deck is Plasma Frigate because it denies Raikou and Zekrom the knockout on your Lugia as well as protecting Landorus from Keldeo on some occasions. Aspertia City Gym is also nice because it keeps Lugia alive longer, so my personal split on that is 1/1, but you could find yourself playing more or different Stadiums if you found that was what was best in your testing.

6 Fighting Energy is the minimum one can play because you really want to get a Turn One Hammerhead, especially if you go second. I have upped my count to seven just because of how crucial the Turn One Hammerhead is in here. A high count is also nice when you feel that Land’s Judgement is your best play.

Four Plasma Energy is necessary just for consistency purposes. There’s the possibility that you will be forced to Plasma Gale a third time for whatever reason, and there’s also a good chance you will be discarding one with Professor Juniper, Ultra Ball, or your Ace Spec, so having four just helps when you’re in these situations.

Double Colorless is there to power up Lugia quicker. Four Double Colorless is not as necessary, but I still feel it’s important for having the Double Colorless when you need it (Which is usually Turn Two and Three). It’s also good for retreating Landorus manually when you don’t have a Switch or Escape Rope. You could go down to three if you felt it necessary to fit something else in, but most of the time it’s better to stick to consistency and play the fourth Double Colorless.

Matchups

So how does this deck play out against the field? Well, I’ve tested a couple matchups, and this is what I’ve learned:

Vs. PlasmaKlang – Bad.

If they’re playing the variant with Klinklang BLW and Darkrai and Keldeo, you at least have a chance at this matchup. Wait until they drop both Darkrai and Keldeo and then start Hammerheading.

If they’re just playing PlasmaKlang and Cobalion, your best bet is to wait until they only have two prizes left, counter their Tropical Beach, Catcher and Hypnotoxic Laser their Plasmaklang, and N them to two. If they draw a Switch or a Supporter before Klinklang dies, you’re screwed, but it’s better than no chance at all. There’s also the possibility of an early game Lugia killing Klinks if you’re lucky.

Vs. Blastoise – 50/50

Believe it or not, this matchup would be highly favorable if it weren’t for Black Kyurem EX PLS. However, in my testing Black Kyurem can often one-shot your Lugia and take all the Plasma Energy with it unless it has both an Eviolite attached and an Aspertia in play. Your best bet is to just play aggressively and try to win as fast as you can. Don’t worry about Landorus’ weakness until a Keldeo starts attacking, and then if you’re forced to you can Plasma Frigate + Plasma Energy. And don’t try to deny them Blastoise unless they only have one Squirtle and no Ditto in play, because it will be inevitable. If you can, try to Eviolite your Lugia and get Aspertia into play before you get into Lugia phase, because you never know when Black Kyurem will come down and bash you for 200 damage.

Vs. Darkrai/Lasers – Favorable.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t tested this that much. However, both of your EX’s having 180 HP and not 170 as well as their reliance on EX’s to attack means this matchup is in your favor. Landorus can hit for weakness if you need it to, and if they start with two Darkrai in play you almost always pull off a win. Just stick to your normal gameplan and you should be fine.

Vs. Darkrai/Hammers – Unfavorable.

Because you lack a form of energy acceleration that can be used more than three times per game reliably plus your reliance on Special Energy, Hammerspamming could give you some trouble. Your best bet is to do the Landorus phase like normal except without powering Lugia up, and then power Lugia up all at once with Colress Machine. Ideally they will only hit one Hammer and you can Plasma Gale another Darkrai for the win, but this strategy is iffy. I don’t think Hammertime will be all too popular, so having a bad matchup to it isn’t a terrible thing.

Vs. RayEels – Favorable

This matchup is probably the only good matchup in which you don’t take your normal gameplan. Instead, what you should do is try to Catcher out Tynamos and Hammerhead them, setting Rayquaza EX up for a Lugia kill while you do so. After you’ve killed two Tynamo and set an EX up for a knockout with Lugia, you can use Lugia to kill that EX. From there, you just need to take one more prize, so you can do that however you see fit.

If they set up a Rayquaza and enough Eels and they’re able to use Dragon Burst a couple times, you’re in trouble. However, you should be able to Catcher-KO their Eels before this happens too much. Your gameplan should be to deny Eels until you can win in about two turns.

Another way to approach the matchup is just to spam Lugia early game and kill Eels, but this is generally only a good strategy if you feel that it can be done easier than the Landorus strategy. If you have the option, go with the Landorus plan.

Vs. Snorlax/Lugia/Plasma Stuff – Even

I haven’t tested this matchup (I honestly don’t even know if the deck is any good), but from what I know about the deck the matchup seems like it would be 50/50. You run Switch, meaning retreating under Snorlax isn’t terribly hard. And Lugia with a PlusPower one-shots Snorlax for two prizes, as well as Landorus with a Hypnotoxic Laser or PlusPower two-shots Snorlax. Overall you should try to approach the matchup as familiarly as you can, but if you’re forced to kill a Snorlax with Landorus that’s fine. Get an Eviolite on your Lugia so Snorlax can’t OHKO it, and, if necessary, Aspertia City Gym as well (Although this would make it harder to take knockouts on your opponent’s Lugia if you chose to do so).

You’re going to need to take a bit longer to win this game, but unless a Snorlax starts wreaking havoc on your field and you are unable to power something up to stop it, you should have a good shot at winning first.

Vs. Garbodor – Favorable

In the little bit of testing I’ve done against Garbodor it’s been favorable for me, but that might just be because I played two Tool Scrapper. Usually Garbodor variants play EX’s to attack, so I usually take advantage of that and Tool Scrapper Garbodor when I’m about to take a prize. I haven’t done quite enough testing to say more than this, sorry.

So what do you guys think about Landorus/Lugia? Do you guys think that it is the ultimate speed deck that Pokemon has never had in a Modified format before, or do you think it is overrated? Discussion is encouraged, so make sure to leave a comment and leave your opinion on Landorus/Lugia.

Website

OneHitKO.com Now Hosting Fun Browser Games To Play

Ed February 8, 2013 4 Comments

Well guys, we haven’t had much for new articles lately. I wanted to come up with something fun for the people that still stop by here, so I rounded up a bunch of in-browser games for you to play. Leave a comment at the bottom, and let everyone know which game is the best one!

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Is It Playable? Uncategorized

Is It Playable? Victini EX

coolestman22 February 1, 2013 4 Comments

Hey OneHitKO people, I decided to write another article. Since it was a month between the last two, I decided to actually sit down and write something.

First of all, I’ll give you guys a recap of how my Regionals went. I played Ho-oh with 3 Mewtwo, 2 Tornadus, 2

Terrakion, and 2 Sigilyph. I won my Round One match pretty easily against Hydreigon, played an amazing game against Blastoise round two and narrowly won, and beat VileBox round 3 (The deck was legit somehow, but the reason I beat it was because it didn’t have energy acceleration and I was able to KO their attackers because I had previously attacked them with Tornadus EX).

From there I then proceeded to lose the remaining four games (Two of them I would’ve won if I had hit a Rebirth flip) to Blastoise, Darkrai/Mewtwo/Bouffalant, Blastoise, and Darkrai/Landorus, and whiff prizes all together. I don’t feel like I misplayed at all in the first three games, my deck just failed me. In the game against Darkrai/Landorus I was tired and upset and decided that it was a good idea to discard two Catcher with Computer Search, then needed a Catcher to win late game and missed it.

So I’m sitting at 265 CP’s right now. My current goal is T8 States, T8 Regionals, and win a Battle Road (Which I believe puts me right at 400), but I doubt I’m going to be able to do that just because of a lack of self-confidence.

Most everything in the set is either good or not good, which is why I chose not to do a set review. However, there are a few debatable things, namely Victini EX. I thought I’d do something to explain my opinion on the matter and possibly give you guys another perspective to look at.

Well, first of all, when you first look at the card you wonder why it would be good in the first place. An EX with 110 HP that doesn’t do much damage shouldn’t be seen as amazing by any means, even when you do attach a Victory Piece. Even with the rise in Metal types, Intensifying Burn will only be good until the Klinklang PLS hits the field, and unless you attach a Victory Piece that will usually be around the time you’re able to attack with it (Or maybe the turn after).

However, Turbo Energize isn’t a half bad attack. Being able to power up another legitimate attacker for next turn is always a good thing, and Victini EX based decks could be able to go off around Turn Two.

So, do I think Victini is any good? Well, I definitely think it will be a half-decent archetype. However, I doubt it will ever be Tier One. Keldeo decks destroy any Fire attackers, which is what is easiest to use with Victini, and Keldeo is going to be good for a long time. Even with Plasma Frigate out now, you would have to run Plasma Energy for that, and having all your good attackers be weak to Water can’t cut it in this format. Keldeo will be a threat until either it’s rotated or a grass deck becomes amazing, and I doubt that any decent grass deck will pop up soon.

Also, Victini is two free prizes at pretty much any point in the game. In a format with Catcher, Victini is pretty much just a sitting duck for the entire game. Going down two prizes is never good, and it puts you in a lot of situations where you’re hoping your opponent won’t draw a Catcher. There’s a reason people prefer not to start with Shaymin EX, and having an EX with 110 HP that’s designed for early game uses will always have that issue until Catcher is rotated (And even then, if we go DRX-on Ninetales could pose a threat to it).

There are some problems with having energy acceleration based on attacks, as well. You have an early game boost, but then what? It’s hard to power up another attacker afterwards. Even if you do play the EtherDex engine, you still have a tough time powering something else up unless you’re attacking with Entei EX for a decent chunk of the rest of the game. With decks with energy acceleration that works much better in the early game sometimes you just fizzle out late game (ZPST was a great example of this), and unless you want to do a damageless attack with a 110 HP EX late game you’re going to be stuck manually powering your attackers up.

I don’t actually know if Victini was good in Japan, but even if it was, they have a different tournament structure than us. They need to play early game decks to have a shot at doing well. We, however, can afford to play slow decks because we don’t have to win 3 games against different opponents in a small time period while also waiting in a line for a certain period of time. We can afford to play decks like The Truth and Klinklang because we don’t need to play fast decks in our metagame.

Another big issue I see with Victini is that you need to play Fire Energy. There are four ways to deal with this: You can run a mix of Fire Energy and the Energy you want to run, which makes the deck clunky. Or you can run Fire attackers, which are x2 weak to Keldeo and usually aren’t very good. Or you can run Prism, which are discarded with Enhanced

Hammer and Cobalion EX, and aren’t searchable with Victini’s attack. Or you could use Colorless attackers, such as Mewtwo EX and Tornadus EX. However, with stuff like that you’d be better off without Victini and instead with EtherDex, Ho-oh, or no acceleration at all.

So that’s my short rant about Victini. Let me know what you guys think about Victini down in the comments, and I’ll try to have a deck analysis article out soon (If you guys have any requests, go ahead and post them in the comments). I should have something out next week or in a couple weeks at the most. Thanks for reading, and so long!

Regional Championships Uncategorized

What Should You Play For Regionals – A Metagame Analysis Article

coolestman22 January 12, 2013 No Comments

Hey OneHitKO people, it’s been more than a month since this site had an article, so I figure I should get something out before Regionals. I’m sorry for not getting something out sooner, it completely slipped my mind. This article is mostly about what decks you should consider based on playstyle and what types of decks you have the most experience

playing.

First of all, I want to start by saying that these are pretty much just things to try out, they are by no means official guidelines for you. I’m just throwing ideas out for you if you’re completely unsure of what to play, like I am.

I also want to do a little Cities recap and mention what I think the Tier system looks like right now. These are just my opinions, so you shouldn’t base any big decisions off these, I just wanted to give a bit of a guideline for you so that you have a guideline for your own opinions.

The BDIF

Blastoise/Keldeo. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory, actually, Blastoise is a deck that has both a good early game and a good late-game. Blastoise has the ability to go off on Turn Two and then keep going strong until you take your six prizes. Although for the past three Regionals the deck that I believed was the BDIF hasn’t won any (that being Gothitelle, CMT, and Hydreigon), I don’t think this will be the case for Blastoise as it has a lot more going for it than these decks and there should be a lot more people playing it as it isn’t as debatable as the last and it also isn’t as easily countered. The only big problem with the deck is that it’s hand reliant, so in the late game N is a threat to you, but people are playing Tropical Beach to semi-solve this problem. I feel like Blastoise is going to be the deck dominating Regionals.

Tier One

Landorus/Mewtwo/Tornadus. I am a bit skeptical on this deck as it doesn’t have much of a late-game, but everyone knows how good early-game pressure can be and the threat of donking is nice as well. It’s a solid play if it’s what you’re playstyle likes.

Darkrai/Hydreigon. It’s slow, but it makes up for that by fully healing Darkrais at no cost via Max Potion. I like the deck a lot because it’s got a nice feeling to it, because Darkrai is an amazing attacker and it’s even better when it can power up a supporting attacker this easily. The problem is that it has a bad matchup against anything with Landorus and the Deino you play is basically a statement of who you would rather get donked by.

RayEels. I really like this deck in this metagame because of all the focus around EX’s, however I hate how much you get donked when you play it. It takes advantage of the heavy EX reliance of the format. The Landorus matchup is good when you survive the donk, and it’s definitely a solid play for Regionals (Especially as it basically wins if it sets up and stays set up) if you’re willing to take a loss or two to a donk during the event.

Ho-oh. This is basically a version of Landorus/Mewtwo with a lategame instead of a whole lot of earlygame, and it also has easier access to Sigilyph. It’s also a lot of fun to play because of the colorfulness of the deck. It also has a better Blastoise matchup than people seem to think, because you play Sigilyph and you don’t especially rely on Ho-oh, you only need it in a couple situations. It also uses Terrakion better than any deck in the format right now because it can accelerate Fighting Energy. The problem with the deck is that because of the colorfulness, you don’t always have the exact Energy you need, but most Ho-oh variants I’ve seen only need two types (Fighting and Psychic) and those types are easily accessed via Rebirth.

Tier Two

Darkrai Variants including Darkrai/Fighting, Darkrai/Aspertia, and Darkrai/Mewtwo. Darkrai is still a strong play for Regionals regardless of how the meta develops, and I love using it as Energy acceleration for other attackers as well (Via Dark Patch/Energy Switch). The problem with Darkrai is that it doesn’t do too well against Landorus, but if you play the right supporting attackers this shouldn’t matter too much. They also aren’t great against Keldeo, but the matchup is winnable so long as you don’t play too many Landorus.

Klinklang – I really like Klinklang, but I haven’t tested it. I know that it is an interesting option and I really like the idea of a deck that hits for weakness everywhere, and I like how it has a nice little box of attackers that you can shift between at your disposal that do different things. I also really like the use of Max Potion with the deck because this format has a lot of cards that focus on 2HKOing, which is amazing for Klinklang. Of course, the less-than-ideal matchup against Hammertime and RayEels isn’t the best, so if you’re willing to take a couple autolosses Klinklang is a good play, and without these autolosses I have no doubt Klinklang would be a Tier One deck.

Hammertime – Hammertime probably has the most interesting concept of any deck in the format, and I really like the idea of Hammer spamming to lock the opponent out of Energy. Hammer Control single-handedly wins games, and being able to just sweep with Darkrai without the threat of being attacked back is amazing. This deck pretty much wins to a deck that doesn’t have energy acceleration, but it unfortunately has a bad matchup against Blastoise, probably the deck that will see the most play at Autumn Regionals. Still, Hammer Control is a really cool idea and Esa Juntunen is a genius to have come up with it.

Aspertia Eels – This is probably one of the most underrated decks right now. Bouffalant is one of the best attackers in the game right now in my opinion, and when you give it an Eviolite, an Aspertia, and a reliable engine like Eelektrik, it’s amazing against any EX in the game. Tornadus EX and Mewtwo EX are also great right now because of their sheer usefulness in the early game, and Aspertia is just amazing, and having access to Raikou is also great. The thing I like about Aspertia Eels the most, however, is that even though it uses an Eel engine, taking out the Eels won’t actually do much for you because you can manually power up all of your attackers in two turns, it just helps you in the early game. However, I’m not too convinced that there will be enough people who are playing this for it to succeed. I feel like if enough people played it it could easily be Tier One, but not enough people are convinced yet.

Matchups

A big part of every metagame is matchups. You can’t play something if it doesn’t beat the popular decks, even if it is amazing against everything else (I learned this the hard way), so knowing matchups are a big part of deciding on a deck.

While I’ll be talking about matchups for the entire article, I wanted to have a section devoted to it just to give you a basic guideline of what beats the decks that you need to be able to beat.

The decks you should be looking to beat right now are Blastoise, Landorus/Mewtwo/Tornadus, and Darkrai variants. If you can beat those, that’s huge, if not, you might want to play a tech.

I really want to put a chart here, but we don’t have tables, so I’ll just write what I can here:

The decks I feel have the best matchups against those are Ho-oh, Blastoise with Pokemon Center, and anything with Bouffalant/Aspertia/Eviolite. As I’ve said before, Bouffalant is amazing because it 2HKOes every EX we have and gets 2HKOed back by a good amount of them if you have the Aspertia/Eviolite. This is a favorable prize exchange for you because Bouffalant isn’t an EX. However, it’s too situational to be that good.

So yeah, if you’re playing Bouffalant or Keldeo you should be alright. I’m sorry I can’t say more, I really wanted to do a table, but that isn’t supported on this program.

So What Exactly Should I Play?

Well, that depends on the kind of deck you want to play. As I’ve said before, playstyle is key in choosing your deck. This serves as a guide to decks for what you want to play.

If you want to play a defensive deck, your best bet is probably Klinklang. I like Hydreigon, but it falls too much to Landorus and it just doesn’t have the same feel to it. Hydreigon isn’t a terrible call, and if you’d rather play Hydreigon go ahead, but I honestly am a bigger advocate of Klinklang now not only because of the not-autoloss to Landorus but also because of the toolboxy feeling to the deck, but if Hammertime is more prominent in your area I would say go with Hydreigon.

If you want to play a fast, aggressive deck that focuses on denying setup and attacking early, my recommendation to you is Ho-oh. Ho-oh is great because it applies early-game pressure and also has a late-game, unlike Landorus/Tornadus/Mewtwo which is all early-game and no late-game. It’s also great for Mewtwo wars, not only because Mewtwo is one of your main attackers, or that you play PlusPower, or you can take an early-game lead and then start one that will end up in your favor, but because you can actually pull off a Psydrive against a Mewtwo with no Energy attached. Ho-oh also has access to Terrakion, Sigilyph, and Bouffalant for the whole 7-prize thing, and you can tech pretty much anything into your list.

If you want to play a deck that aims for an early attack but then keeps going until the game is over, your best bet is probably Blastoise. With all due respect to Darkrai, the T1 Night Spear just isn’t common enough to justify playing Darkrai over Blastoise. Unless you’re really worried about N or you’ve been testing Darkrai longer, I would definitely rather play Blastoise. The T2 Secret Sword is just about as common as the T2 Night Spear, and Blastoise is a lot better in the late game seeing as you have the option of powering up a Keldeo to OHKO everything. Not to mention that a lot of people are teching Terrakion, which is amazing against Darkrai and insanely mediocre against Keldeo.

If you want to play a deck that focuses on limiting your opponent’s options, play Hammertime. With all due respect to Garbodor, Garbodor is just too inconsistent to work right in this metagame. Hammer Control is amazing, and unless you play against Blastoise all day long you should have alright matchups. Theoretically you could play Hammertime with Garbodor, but that’s probably too inconsistent unless you build it exactly right. And plus, limiting attacks is much better than limiting Abilities.

If you want to play a deck that focuses on killing whatever your opponent throws at you, you actually have a really interesting decision to make. Your two options are either RayEels or a Blastoise variant that focuses on loading up a Keldeo to kill everything instead of speed. Honestly this decision is based on how much you want to get donked. If you are fine with being donked once or twice, RayEels is much better when set up than Blastoise, even a variant that focuses on dishing out large amounts with Keldeo. However, if you want to play it safe, a Blastoise variant like that is almost as good, just a bit more hand-reliant.

If you have no idea what such Blastoise variant would look like, all I can say is that it plays 1-2 Cilan, 4 Energy Retrieval, and 15 Energy (I’ve even seen a version that plays 1-1 Musharna NXD) instead of techs like Super Scoop Up, Mini-Keldeo, or Eviolite. Honestly I was skeptical when I heard about this, but it works. I have no idea how it works or if it actually works or if the people I saw playing it were just lucksacking, so try it for yourself.

Overall I would say that the best possible play for Regionals in any age division is probably Blastoise/Keldeo with 1 Pokemon Center. Without Pokemon Center the matchup against Darkrai/Hydreigon is iffy, but with it it becomes 65/35 in your favor because they can no longer OHKO you with Hydreigon after hitting you with Night Spear bench damage. If you can access 3 Keldeo and 1 Beach, Blastoise is a great play because it is arguably the best Energy acceleration in the format and it is fast but can still maintain itself later on.

Here is a sample Blastoise list for those of you who have nothing to go off:

4-1-3 Blastoise
3 Keldeo EX
-11

4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Rare Candy
3 Ultra Ball
3 Energy Retrieval
1 Level/Heavy Ball
1 Super Rod
1 Computer Search
-17

4 Professor Juniper
4 Bianca
3 Skyla
2 N
-13

1 Tropical Beach
-1

13 Water Energy
-13

Total – 55

This list gives a bit of room for techs, which include Mewtwo EX, Keldeo BCR 47, Super Scoop Up, Pokemon Center, and I’ve even experimented with Kyogre EX for a bit. You could also opt for more consistency, as a T2 Blastoise is always important and great when you can get it.

To play the hard-hitting variant, add a Cilan, Energy Retrieval, and 2 Water Energy and you should have yourself a variant that focuses on killing things in one hit.

Another good play is Ho-oh because it has no real autolosses and a favorable Blastoise matchup if you know how to play it. Speed is huge in this format because you can take out your opponent’s strategy completely if you have a good enough early-game, and Ho-oh is a great deck to play to get that speed.

Again, if you’ve never played Ho-oh, I can give you an example list to get you started, because Ho-oh is one of those decks that everyone should get to play.

3 Ho-oh EX
3 Mewtwo EX
2 Tornadus EX
2 Terrakion NVI
1 Sigilyph DRX
-11

4 Ultra Ball
4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Energy Switch
3 PlusPower
3 Random Reciever
3 Switch
1 Computer Search
-22

4 Professor Juniper
4 N
2 Bianca
-10

1 Skyarrow Bridge
-1

4 Double Colorless
3 Fighting
2 Psychic
1 Lightning
1 Water
1 Fire (Got that Elemental Blast)
-12

Total – 56

Some possible techs include Landorus EX, Bouffalant DRX, Shaymin EX, and Registeel EX.

I think I’ve already explained this, but the reason I like Ho-oh in this metagame so much is because it has a good early game and a good late game. It’s amazing how many things this deck can do, and I like how playing a Water-weak EX hasn’t held it back. I don’t think this deck would be as popular if it weren’t for Pooka, but I’m glad that he has popularized this deck for us because I believe that it truly has the potential to be the BDIF. I bet it would be like Aspertia Eels if it weren’t for him: Good, but underrated.

I guess with Ho-oh you sometimes have to deal with poor flips, but this was never a problem for Pooka. You shouldn’t rely too much on Rebirth, and by the time you might need to you should have 2-3 Ho-oh already in the discard pile. It’s still a risk, but it’s probably a risk worth taking as Ho-oh is just amazing when it runs right, and it almost always runs right.

And finally, I’d like to touch on the deck I feel is the most underrated of any deck right now: Aspertia Eels. As you could probably guess from the deck’s name, it revolves around using Eelektrik to power up Colorless attackers, which you give an HP boost with Aspertia City Gym.

Here is a basic skeleton list to get you started, although to be honest I have no idea what a list should look like:

4-3 Eelektrik NVI

3 Bouffalant DRX
2 Tornadus EX
1 Mewtwo EX
1 Raikou EX
1 Emolga DRX
-15

4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Ultra Ball
3 Switch
3 Eviolite
3 Random Reciever
1 Super Rod
1 Computer Search
-19

4 Juniper
4 N
3 Bianca
-11

2 Aspertia City Gym
-2

7 Lightning Energy
4 Double Colorless
-11

Total – 58

As you can see, the list is a bit tight, but there’s a little wiggle room for techs. These include Zekrom BW, Regigigas EX, or my personal favorite, Zapdos NXD.

Let me advocate for Zapdos a bit: Let’s say you get a Random Spark on Turn Two. That 50 can set a Keldeo EX up for an OHKO from Bouffalant, or it can knock out a Tynamo your opponent has, or you can hit a Deino for 50 to then have Raikou come in and knock it out later. It’s completely untested, but I feel like Zapdos should get a bit of credit because it’s an interesting option for the deck.

So there you have it: The (In my opinion) most underrated deck in the format. I can see why people wouldn’t want to play it, but that’s a great deck and it’s definitely a great option if you want to play something good that people probably haven’t tested against. I love Bouffalant in this format, especially with Aspertia and Eviolite, and I want to see him used more often because he is amazing. I could even see an Aspertia Blastoise deck working (Although to be honest Eels are a much better engine). Tornadus EX is also amazing for early game pressure against decks like Blastoise, Hydreigon, and Klinklang that need to set Stage Twos up to win.

So that’s it! If you have any questions about the article or the decklists or comments about the metagame then feel free to let me know, we have a wonderful comment section below. I respond to everything, so go ahead and post. Good luck at Regionals if you’re going, and if I helped you choose a deck with this article that’s great, because this article was mostly for people who are unsure of what to play. I should have a Regionals report up if I do alright either here or on the SixPrizes forums, so check for that, and I should have something about Plasma out after Regionals. I bid you farewell until I decide to write again!