Richmond Recap, Portland Predictions: How the Expanded Meta Has Changed in the Last Week

✎ Tate Whitesell (@twhitesell42) / Luke Morsa (@Celios_Network)

Last weekend we saw the first major Expanded event of the 2019-20 season, and the first ever major Expanded event with Unbroken Bonds and Unified Minds as legal sets, in Richmond, Virginia. Just one week later, the same format returns to our attention in Portland, Oregon as the West Coast gets its first taste of Regional action this season.

JW Kriewall took down Richmond with the new Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX/Vileplume archetype, earning his second Regional win six years after his first. But he wasn't the only one to perform well with the deck. "RowlEgg" (as we'll call it to save space in this article) earned nine of the 39 Day 2 spots in Richmond, making it the most represented deck in Day 2. Two different testing groups actually developed their lists independently: Ian Robb (who made Top 8) and his testing partners played a Sceptile-GX line, while Kriewall's group (including Michael Zele, also in Top 8) did not play the Sceptile-GX but opted to play two Steven (or, exclusively for Kriewall, one Steven and a Shuckle-GX).* In PokéStats chat we've been a bit back-and-forth on whether RowlEgg will perform well again in Portland. Tate believes it might be a bit of a trap situation where players assume other players will tech for RowlEgg or play counter decks, but no one actually does, which clears the field for RowlEgg to do well again. Others of us aren't so sure and believe RowlEgg will see much less play and success in Portland.

For this short article, Luke has prepared a few words on each of the format's major archetypes, and we also got in touch with JW Kriewall himself to get his thoughts on RowlEgg for Portland. At the end of the article, Tate will share a counter-meta list he built after analyzing the Richmond metagame and theorizing decks that could beat the variety of strategies seen there.

* Note that Grant Manley, who made Top 4 in Richmond, has said that although the Sceptile-GX was intended as a Zoroark-GX counter, he actually thinks the two Steven are a better counter for that purpose. 

JW Kriewall on RowlEgg

Was it a one-time thing, or a new Expanded meta staple? 

"Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX/Vileplume was such a force in Richmond because nobody respected Vileplume or Power Plant. Many of the expected decks going into the tournament had heavy reliance on Items, Basic Pokémon, and Abilities. Thus, crafting a deck to shut down each of those types of cards helped my deck win the tournament. I expect Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor / Vileplume to perform well again in Portland, but not be nearly as dominant as it was in Richmond. Since it is no longer an unknown quantity, attendees will not only know how to tech their decks to beat it, but will also develop gameplay strategies to maximize their chances of winning. Look for there to be a handful in Day 2 of Portland, but I expect it to succumb to counter decks such as Zoroark-GX Control with Reset Hole Marshadow, and Turbo Dark with Weavile-GX."

Deck profiles

Luke's thoughts on how the major Expanded archetypes performed in Richmond and how we think they'll hold up in Richmond

Zoroark-GX/Garbodor

our pre-Richmond power ranking: #11 of 11

at Richmond: 1 in Day 2

Zoroark-GX/Garbodor is a good mid-range deck that has multiple routes of play depending on the matchup and the player's choice of techs. N plus Garbotoxin is a powerful combination that has the ability to control games that at first seem to swing out of favor.

Night March

our pre-Richmond power ranking: #2 of 11

at Richmond: 2 in Day 2

Even in today's game with all its high-HP attackers, Night March remains strong due to its massive damage output from single-Prize attackers. It can be countered (to varying degrees of effectiveness depending on the Night March player's skill) with one-card techs: Seismitoad-EX or Karen. 

Trevenant BREAK

our pre-Richmond power ranking: #4 of 11

at Richmond: 2 in Day 2

Trevenant is not objectively strong compared to many newer cards, but it is subjectively strong in the right meta. The combination of Item lock and spread damage, plus disruptive cards like Counter Catcher and Faba, can make it quite difficult to play against. 

Buzzwole/Garbodor

our pre-Richmond power ranking: #3 of 11

at Richmond: 4 in Day 2

Evolving from the previous Shrine of Punishment-based build, Buzzwole/Garbodor now runs Power Plant and leans on the Let Loose plus Power Plant strategy of turn 1 disruption. Ability lock makes the Zoroark-GX and Mewtwo & Mew-GX matchups strong, and the deck's reliance on single-Prize attackers means it trades favorably in most matchups.

Archie's Ace in the Hole

our pre-Richmond power ranking: #9 of 11

at Richmond: 0 in Day 2

In my opinion, the only thing still keeping this deck afloat is Espeon & Deoxys-GX. The possibility of a turn 1 Cross Division GX against decks like Zoroark-GX or Sableye/Garbodor is a fearsome threat. Archie's is a high-risk, high-reward deck with strong potential but a very volatile setup and strategy.  

Sableye/Garbodor

our pre-Richmond power ranking: #1 of 11

at Richmond: 0 in Day 2

Reset Stamp, Mars, Chip-Chip Ice Axe, repeat. This deck is potentially even stronger than Pidgeotto is in Standard because Expanded has a larger pool of disruptive Trainers to work with. We were surprised to see none in Day 2 in Richmond, but it would not likely have performed well in Day 2 against all the RowlEgg decks. 

Vespiquen

our pre-Richmond power ranking: not ranked

at Richmond: 2 in Day 2

The two Vespiquen players in Day 2 in Richmond played Bronzong FCO to block damage and damage counters to their Benched Pokémon, helping against Espeon & Deoxys-GX as well as Trevenant BREAK. This deck does have some rough matchups, especially if Archie's adds Articuno back into the deck as we expect it might, but the presence of Flareon in the list is very good for the RowlEgg matchup. 

A case study in metagame prediction and building a counter deck
Tate's thoughts on Lucario-GX/Octillery for Portland

After analyzing the Richmond metagame I thought about what decks could counter the variety of strategies we saw in Day 2 there. I realized that a potential weakness of RowlEgg would be a deck that could trade two-shots (since RowlEgg does not have much OHKO potential) while surviving under Item lock and having an out to Vileplume BUS. To that end, I thought a deck with a heavy count of Acerola (to win two-shot wars without using Items) and non-Item-based search would be strong. Based on the success of Turbo Dark and Zoroark-GX variants, I also thought a Fighting-type deck would be strong. What Fighting-based archetype could survive in a two-shot war and function well under Item lock? It seemed like Lucario-GX, which I was first told about by Zachary Everest, would fit the bill.

Here's the list I would likely use if I was able to teleport to Portland in the next few hours. It's pretty rough, as I made it yesterday and tested about 10 games with it, and I'd probably be testing and refining it in my hotel room late into the morning hours, but the concept of this deck feels very strong to me. The matchup spread against the Richmond Day 2 meta feels great. Octillery is a great card and I think this deck even beats control decks because you only need one Energy to attack with Lucario-GX and they cannot lock your hand when Octillery is in play. Zygarde-EX is mostly in the deck to deal with Trevenant and to give you a non-Psychic-weak attacker. One Beast Ring has felt really strong to close out games with Buzzwole-GX or baby Buzzwole. I noticed that very few lists in Richmond played Field Blower so I think Focus Sash also has tremendous value right now.

Studying metagames and using them to predict future tournaments and craft decklists that counter the expected meta is one of the most fun parts of Pokémon for me, so I wanted to add this section on to the article to discuss it a little bit.

Don't miss our Portland Regionals coverage all weekend long right here on PokéStats. We'll have the same live match data, top-player and metagame updates, and round/day recaps as we did for Richmond, and you won't want to miss it. 

League Cup List Roundup: Feb 3-4, 2018

In our most recent League Cup sample, covering February 3-4, VikaBulu took 20.43% of the sample's CP to become the #1 deck in the rankings. While it won only 2 of the 14 Standard Cups in the sample, it took many 2nd-place and Top 4 finishes, making it appear to be a strong contender as we head towards the end of Quarter 2 and the last weekend of Cups before Ultra Prism is legal.

VikaBulu lists from a few weeks ago, modeled after KicaBulu, took a bad matchup to Gardevoir-GX, which at that time was not heavily played. Now, Gardevoir is seeing more play: it was the #3 deck in last weekend's sample, with 13.26% of the total CP. For this reason, many of the newest VikaBulu lists are reverting to the older, techier concepts that are able to beat Gardevoir.

Another deck to watch would be Buzzwole-GX/Garbodor. Several good players chose to play it at their Cups and Marc Lutz took 3rd place at Leipzig Regionals with a version that played Carbink BREAK.

Regardless of your deck choice, you'll probably need to know how to handle matchups against those decks, Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc (#2 in the sample) and, of course, Zoroark-GX decks if you're playing a Cup this coming weekend. Here are some of the most interesting lists we've compiled from last weekend to give you a few ideas of potential plays, or just to scout the potential competition:

Nathaniel Lamar, 1st place Dublin, OH - VikaBulu

Note the Charjabug and unusual 8-4 Energy split. The list also plays Brigette (KicaBulu does not), and the 3 Field Blower should also be a good choice for next weekend as Garbodor decks continue to maintain presence in the format.

Ryan Ferry, Top 4 Dublin, OH - Buzzwole-GX/Garbodor

R1: W Vikabulu 1-0 - Garbotoxin is good. Early pressure with Buzzwole was nice too. Vikabulu's spike in usage at cups is one of the reasons I wanted to play Buzzwole Garb.

R2: L ZoroPod 0-1 - Laid bricks the whole game, highlight of this game was using Sudowoodo to armor press and get more than 1 turn of usage out of Sudowoodo.

R3: W Greninja Zoroark 1-0 - Garbotoxin once again saves this matchup for me. He only got out one break and not being able to trade for a majority of the game hurt him a lot.

R4: L Gardy 0-1 - He got out 2 Gardys turn 2 and I couldn't hit float stones to lock abilities until too late. Was so upset about this one, because Gardy can be an amazing matchup if you don't brick, I almost dropped thinking I was mathematically eliminated, but I decided to play it out because Josh and Nate were doing so well and figured I'd have nothing else to do lol.

R5: W Sylveon/Zoroark (Owen Rob) 1-0 - Very interesting deck, being able to lock trade all game was great. Buzzwole and Trashalanche swept through. Enhanced Hammer is great.

R6: W Honchkrow Tapu Koko Counter Energy Spread (Steve Guthrie Jr.) - Garbotoxin early and Trashalanche late kept Steve from setting up too quickly. Single prize exchanges late game made this game significantly easier. Forced me to think a LOT about when to KO things and letting Steve KO a buzzwole first to slow down his counter energy usage helped me a lot, along with him not drawing so great.

Squeaked into Top 8 by a little over 1%!!!

T8: W Gardy 2-1 - Austin Ellis has been consistently doing very well at regionals this season and is a very, very good player. I knew I'd have to play well and get kind of lucky to get out of top 8 against him with the win. Trashalanche took the game with a choice band he N'ed me into, because he didn't twilight in game 3 and had exactly 10 items in discard. He got off to kind of a slow start, letting Buzzwole apply pressure early as well.

T4: L VikaBulu - Game 1 was a disaster for me. Deck basically imploded. Not much noteworthy here. Game 2 was a lot closer. I got down 6-2, and got the trashalanche Garbotoxin combo out, making life a lot harder for Nathaniel Lamar. Tied the game up at 2-2, and Special charged 2 rainbows back in before sycamoring, needing a choice band and a rainbow to take the win with 2nd trashalanche. Hit the band, didn't hit the energy. Nate advances and goes on to win!

I now understand when certain players after they do well at an event say they "Will never play that deck again." Playing this deck when all cylinders are firing, it's amazing and not much can beat it. When it bricks, you just kind of sit there doing nothing, and that's a really really bad feeling. This deck had it's ups and downs and if not for barely squeaking into top 8, I'd have a completely different attitude about the day on an individual level. Garbodor decks have now gotten me over half my CP and I'm not sure how I feel about that lol. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to hit me up!

Joshua Sutherland, Top 8 Dublin, OH - Greninja BREAK

Enrique Ochoa, 2nd place Spokane, WA - Silvally-GX/Metal

"Mewtwo was for Buzzwole (which I never played), Kartana was eh, Cobalion was MVP, and never had to use the Memory cards. I would have liked more metal energy and maybe an Oranguru"

Charlie Lockyer, 1st place Lancaster, PA - VikaBulu

Jeremy Sussman, Top 8 Lancaster, PA - VikaBulu

League Cup Decklist Roundup: December 9-10, 2017

Here are the decklists PokéStats has collected from League Cups over the past weekend.

Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX

Brandon Mesimer - Top 4

Notable aspects: Mew FCO

Player notes:

• "Mew is good for the mirror, the list definitely needs an Acerola though. Mewtwo EVO takes a DCE to get powered up; I like Mew because it can use Buzzwole's and Zygarde's attacks." 
• Matchups:
• "R1 Gardy W 
  R2 Buzzwole L
  R3 Volcanion L 
  R4 Silvally/Metal W 
  R5 DeciZoro W 
  T8 Bulu WLW 
  T4 Volc LL"
• "I like the deck but volcanion is definitely a tough matchup"
• On Zygarde-EX: "I used it maybe one to two times throughout the day, after playing it today I would add another Regirock-EX, 4th Guzma, or an Acerola over the Zygarde"
• "Sudowoodo was clutch, good in the Gardy matchup and can be used against Bulu and other decks"

Decidueye-GX/Zoroark

Evan Campbell - Top 8

Notable aspects: 3 Evosoda, 2 Grass Energy

Ryan Ferry - Top 8

Notable aspects: Mewtwo EVO, 2 Max Potion

Player notes:

• "List is pretty tight, so not much room to get too techy, but, Buzzwole is hard because it puts on so much early pressure. Lost in top 8 to SHADOWSTITCHSHADOWSTITCHSHADOWSTITCHSHADOWSTITCH"
• On Evosoda: "it serves a lot of utility in that you have many targets for it, and resources are valuable, so you don’t want to always use ultra ball to grab the Evolutions when you have some pop in your hand"
• "I’ve found space is a huge issue with the deck because of the number of moving pieces involved. Would highly recommend Special charge because Enhanced Hammer exists. CB is amazing in certain matchups, but, we have Hollow Hunt as an option as well, so we can get one of those back if need be, so I didn’t feel the need for 3."
• "I like baby Zoroark because it can give you an option to get heavy things out of the Active along with an efficient attack that even if it doesn't take KOs, can put on good chip damage for future KOs, and help force the 7 prize game. Mewtwo was not used for anything other than Buzzwole, but Buzzwole is a very hard matchup, so I will take what I can get in terms of what can help me out in that one."
• "Buzzwole has to overextend to one shot [Mewtwo], or you're forcing them to use the Guzma on other stuff. 70 [Mr. Mime's HP] is super easy for Buzzwole to hit with just 1-2 Energies"

Gardevoir-GX/Sylveon-GX

Nolan Randall - Top 4

Empty sleeves? Second Parallel City and second Psychic-type Ralts
Notable aspects: 2/2 Ralts split, 2 Parallel City

Player notes:

• "My teammate Draydon Davis who helped me with the list got 5th place, the only difference between our lists being a Zoroark GX line instead of an Octillery line. The blank sleeves are a 2nd Parallel, as well as 2 Psychic Ralts. The reasoning behind playing Sylveon instead of Max Potions was because we expected a decent amount of DeciZoro as well as Lycanroc/Buzzwole, and it also helps make Metagross much more winnable."
• Matchups:
• "R1: Zoroark/Lycanroc Win 1-0
• R2: Drampa/Espeon/Garb Loss 1-1
• R3: Decidueye/Zoroark Win 2-1
• R4: Brokenvoir Win 3-1 
• R5: Vikavolt/Bulu Loss 3-2 
• R6: Golisopod/Zoroark Win 4-2 
• Top Cut:
• R1: Metagross/Zoroark 2/1/0 Win
• R2: Golisopod/Zoroark 0/2/0 Loss"

Gourgeist

Gibson Archer-Tang - Top 8

What's the glare over? 2 Zoroark-GX and a second Zorua SHL
Notable aspects: 1-1 Octillery and 2-2 Zoroark-GX, 1-1 Garbotoxin, Counter Catcher, Nest Ball, 4-3 Gourgeist, "only" 13 Tools

Player notes:

• On the 1-1 Garbotoxin: "It’s terrible, I literally only played it because I couldn’t find a fourth Klefki. Maybe with more refinement the Garb could work due to Klefki's Ability but I'd have to test it a lot"
• "I wanted to play Giratina [promo] and 4 Klefki but couldn't find the fourth"
• "I just ended up throwing stuff in there"

Metagross-GX

Ryne Morgan - Top 4 on Saturday and Top 8 on Sunday

Notable aspects: 2 Necrozma-GX, 2 Alolan Vulpix, no Solgaleo-GX, 2 Rescue Stretcher, only 1 Field Blower and 1 Brigette, heavy Psychic Energy count

Player notes: 

• On the single Field Blower: "It's not a matter of greed, it's simply a matter of deciding what is necessary for the deck to function properly in the meta. It was not a choice I made lightly, but it's a choice that has continued to not do me harm throughout current play. Should things shift into a position in which tools/stadiums because more troublesome such as a re-surge in garbotoxin, I would certainly be adjusting accordingly."
• On the 4-2-4 Metagross line: "It's not terrible but I'm thinking I'll up it [to 3 Metang]"
• "I tried Mimikyu but never used it. Double Necrozma was much better"
• "I've hit two Top 8s and three Top 4s in the last three weeks [with this list]... the same [list] also finished 1st at 2 Cups within the past 2 weeks"

Silvally-GX/Metal

Armando Lopez - Top 4

Notable aspects: Mewtwo EVO, 2 Guzma, no Psychic Memory

Player notes:

• "Overall the deck ran very well all day, the only change I would make is to find some room for a 3rd Fighting Memory in this Zoroark heavy meta. It has good matchups and a lot of versatility. I chose to play Mewtwo over a psychic memory since it's easier to get in play and can deter opponents from loading up a really big Buzzwole."
• "Matchups:
• Round 1 - Espeon Mismagius Gardodor W
• Round 2 - Volcanion L
• Round 3 - Buzzwole Lycanroc W
• Round 4 - Zoroark Golisopod L
• Round 5 - Greninja W
• Top Cut:
• Top 8 - Zoroark Decidueye WW
• Top 4 - Zoroark Golisopod WLL"

• "Kartana is very valuable against Buzzwole, Slice Off on a Strong Energy can set them back quite a bit. And Celesteela's resistance allows it to soften the blow of Jet Punch."
• "Against Volcanion I was struggling to set up, by the time I got rolling he was too far ahead."

Student Loans - Standard version

Alex Hill - Top 8

Notable aspects: 2-2 Espeon-GX, 1 Drampa-GX, 1-1 Alolan Muk, 2-1 Meowstic GEN, 3 Max Elixir

Toad/Tina (Expanded)

Jeff Stratford - Top 8
Carly Clements and Zak Andrews played similar lists to a Top 4 and Top 8 finish, respectively, at the same Cup.

Notable aspects: 1 Trainer's Mail, Gladion

Trevenant BREAK (Expanded)

Jackson Paulson - 2nd place

Notable aspects: Limitless's new list concepts: Espeon-EX, 4 Enhanced Hammer, 4 Rescue Scarf

Player notes:

• "My list is only 1 card off of the Limitless list (I cut a Tapu Lele for Shaymin). Xerosic, Delinquent and either another Shaymin or another Lele are cards I want to try and add in the future. Especially Xerosic"

VikaBulu

David Miller Jr. - Top 4

Notable aspects: Mew FCO, Xurkitree-GX, Puzzle of Time, Float Stone, 3 Lele

Player notes:

• On Xurkitree: "I feel like it would be helpful against Zoroark decks but unfortunately I ran into a lot of Volcanion and it wasn't useful. It seems like a nice surprise but the deck is already looking to do so much without adding another wrinkle." 

Zoroark (Expanded)

Dylan Fritts - 1st place

Notable aspects: very similar to the consistency-based lists from San Jose Regionals 

Player notes: 

• Matchups:
• "R1: Zygarde/Landorus/Scramble Switch W
• R2: Gyarados W
• R3: Vespiquen W
• R4: Seismitoad/Zoroark W"

ZoroPod

Eric Perez -  1st place

Erratum: a couple dice were placed incorrectly - there should be -1 Wimpod +1 Mallow.
Notable aspects: 1-1 Machoke line

Player notes: 

• "The Machoke was very worth it. I used it against Greninja, Weavile/Noivern spread, and Decidueye/Zoroark. I would have not won finals without it."

Noah Bujak - Top 8

Notable aspects: Giratina XY184, 3 Lele, 4 Grass Energy

Player notes: 

• Matchups:
• Round 1: Greninja W (1-0) - I whiffed Energy the first few turns, but once I got attacking with a Giratina on the bench, he couldn’t deal with the 'Pods.
• Round 2: Gardevoir W (2-0) - He never attacked with Gallade so my Enhanced Hammers and Acerolas overwhelmed him.
• Round 3: Mirror L (2-1)- I’ve never played this deck before this tournament, so I knew any mirrors today would be an autoloss. Looking back, I think that what I did wrong was that I was too scared of Enhanced Hammer, so I was attacking with pod. However, since I had to dedicate resources to attacking with Pod, I couldn’t trade as well, so I wasn’t able to Acerola as efficiently, so my Pods went down and I lost.
• Round 4: Bulu W (3-1) - I picked off his Grubbins before they evolved, so he never got set up.
• ID into Top 8 (3-1-1)
• Top 8: Mirror LWL - Pretty much the same thing that happened in game 3. I got a lucky Crossing Cut play to win game 2 though.
• "Overall, I’m not too disappointed with my result, but I wish I had practiced the mirror earlier in the week so I knew how to play it better. If I were to play it again, I’d definitely try to put in another Acerola. I think one Grass Energy would probably be the best cut."

EUIC Deck Roundup: Wojcik's Wacky Heatmor Mill

Sander Wojcik's Heatmor/Raichu/Fliptini/techs deck has been one of the most-discussed of the tournament thus far, with PokeStats's tweet about his list being our most-retweeted one of the weekend so far. Here's another look at the list, which finished 16th place overall after being the 6th seed entering Day 2:

Wojcik noted that "Xurkitree and Ninja Boy were MVP over the weekend." The variety of unorthodox cards in this list is incredible, from Durant BPT to Lusamine to Gladion to Counter Catcher to the 3-1 split of Pikachu prints (one has 60 HP but can Paralyze for a [C], while the other three have 70 HP but Paralyze for a [L]).

UPDATE (11/20): Wojcik was generous enough to share a wealth of information about the list in HeyFonte. I've reproduced it below so it can be found more easily and accessed by those of you who are not in HeyFonte (or on Facebook at all). Wojcik's comments have been slightly edited for clarity.

First of all, one important distinction to realize is that the goal of the deck is to run your opponent out of ways to take Prizes, not necessarily to mill your opponent; milling is just one way you can try to accomplish your goal in certain scenarios. You basically want to set up ‘inevitability’ (a very interesting article about this concept, from a different game: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=2754).

This is because the lock is self-enforcing once you have Heatmor, Victini and multiple Pikachus going: you’ll return 1.25 cards, or 5 cards every 4 attacks, on average with Heatmor + Victini. (chance tree breakdown: 5/16th to get 2 heads, 10/16th to get 1 heads, 1/16th to get 0 heads)

This means Heatmor actually generates card advantage, besides returning Devo Spray. So given enough time, you can start to accumulate resources and make it even harder to break out of the lock, or get enough resources to switch into attacking with Durant while keeping the lock up manually. This means that draw-passing by the opponent while getting Paralysis chained is actually advantageous for Heatmor in the long run, and not an even situation without progression.

Since milling is inferior to ensuring the lock, and is only relevant against matchups that have a high number of outs to the lock, 1 Handiwork and 1 Durant suffice as ways to pressure your opponent’s deck. Especially Durant is efficient: getting even 3 attacks off from Durant is as valuable as 6 Handiworks! This also introduces a important interacting that occurs: since Guzma is the main way to break out of the lock, the Active Pokémon is generally in a safe spot and can’t be hit, meaning that if you can maneuver Durant into the active with 2 energy (this gets easier with Ninja Boy Heatmor into Durant + attach Rainbow), Durant can often consistently put a quick clock on your opponent’s deck. It’s worth noting that once you hit enough switching cards with Durant/Handiwork, it’s safest to switch back into Heatmor. One last thing on Durant: the ideal size of your opponent’s deck to pull the trigger on Scrape Down is 9, since it puts him at 4 cards on the start of his turn, meaning that Guzma instead of N on that turn loses the game, and N will only dig a deeper hole, creating a win-win situation. 14 or 19 cards in decks are also efficient numbers to use Durant, since it sets up the 9 card deck.

Some of the techs:

Xurkitree GX: Originally the plan was to use Lighting GX to force the 7-Prize game, but Xurkitree turned out to be widely useful during playing, putting opponents further out of reach of winning, and providing a nice wall to force the opponent to commit awkward energy attachments. Against Gardevoir, they can normally take 6 prizes through evolving active Ralts and KOing for the first prize, 2 Guzma for the 2nd and 3th prize, 3rd Guzma for Twilight GX and last 3 Guzma for 4th, 5th and 6th KO. Before the addition of Xurkitree, the gameplan was to build up resources throughout the game (the games go long so there is lots of opportunity to do this) and pull the trigger to go heavy on Durant and Handiworks the turn after they Twilight GX, since their deck composition has the highest % of Guzmas (all 3) at that point, giving the highest odds of hitting one Guzma to get out of 6 KO range. The Xurkitree approach was way more consistent: pulling off a Lighting GX at any point in the game and bouncing the Xurkitree with Acerola/Ninja Boy ensured that 6 KOs isn’t enough. This way Xurkitree (and Gladion to fetch it out of prizes) won all 5 of my rounds against Gardevoir. Note that if Gardevoir ever starts Lele or attacks with Magical Ribbon/Beacon and you can paralyze their non-evolving active, Gardevoir can only take 5 Prizes and Xurkitree isn’t even needed.

Jirachi: The idea was to have another way to deal with decks that had access to Rainbow + Acerola and ran heavy Special Energy (namely GoliGarb and BuzzGarb), and in combination with Counter Catcher to punish Choice Band on Garbotoxin by preventing DCE to be used to retreat. The 10 damage it deals is a major weakness, since it activates Acerola, so it really is only useful against decks that already play Rainbow themselves. Although I used Jirachi in a round to take an absurdly close win for a 1-1 tie against Golisopod/Zoroark/Rainbow which would otherwise have been extremely tough, this card was the most underwhelming card in the deck against the meta that showed up.

Acerola: Functions as a 5th and 6th devolution Spray in combination with Rainbow, as well as to take Lele and Xurkitree off the board to prevent your opponent from taking 2 prizes in one attack. Acerola also helps against Po Town (you can effortlessly chain through a Po Town by returning Acerolas), against spread and Greninja snipes (if you do manage to get a BREAK locked active, your 70-HP Pikachu can live through Water Shuriken and then heal with Aerola). Getting back Acerola with Lusamine is also really efficient. 

Ninja Boy: Similar to Acerola, used to swap GX off your board after being used. As stated before, can be used to go from Heatmor into Durant to start trying to mill relevant switch cards at a high rate. An interesting application with Ninja Boy is if your opponent manages to take out all your Pikachu at some point, you can Stretcher them back and Ninja Boy something you already had in play into a Pikachu and immediately evolve it that turn, continuing the lock (I actually did this at some points during the tournament). Also servers as another semi-switching card if needed, which is something this deck is relatively light on with only 1 Float Stone.

Tapu Lele + Brigette: Giving up additional Prizes is in direct contrast with the goal of the deck, but with Acerola, Rainbow Energy and Ninja Boy in the deck, playing 1 Lele and 1 Brigette for more solid openings becomes viable. Even without those, giving up 2 Prizes with Lele can be counteracted by Xurkitree/Durant/Handiwork plays, or even be irrelevant in certain matchups. Most decks can’t OHKO 170 HP untill later on in the game, so there’s usually time to take it off the field. That being said, not using Lele when not necessary is always better and puts less strain on digging for cards to take it off the field, so playing only one for early game situations is fine. Using the Lele when there’s only one Prize left for your opponent is also inconsequential, obviously.

Lusamine: This card is the single most valuable card to return in a drawn-out game. Games can go 20, 30, or more turns, and playing Lusamine every few turns to get back double Acerola, single Acerola + Handiwork/Ninja Boy, or even Skyla/N to improve your deck composition to draw back into your combo pieces after your opponent Ns you. Lusamine is a key component in setting up resource-intensive plays (such as transitioning into Durant while keeping the Paralysis lock going, or making a Xurkitree play and then bouncing back into Heatmor), and, when combined with Acerola, frees up Oder Sleuth to get back other cards besides Devolution Spray, such as Field Blower or Counter Catcher.

Gladion: It’s fun to compare Gladion to Skyla, Skyla has acces to the entire deck but Gladion has a monopoly on access to the cards in the Prizes, and can get Energy/Pokemon if they happen to be Prized. Gladion obviously shines in this deck with so many moving pieces and one-ofs.

3 Ultra Ball, 2 Nest Ball: Ultra Ball discards are very painful for a deck this resource-oriented, and while Ultra Ball provides unparalleled versatility in the short term, the value of trading 3 cards for 1 diminishes when the games go super long and every resource matters. Nest Ball is because you need as many Pikachu as possible (to always have 2 ready in case 1 gets taken out), and only 1 Raichu at a time.

Counter Catcher: Opens up counterplay to Zoroark builds with only 1 Stand In, Greninja, and Garbotoxin with Choice Band attached. Also helps Jirachi hit Special Energy on the bench. 


A game example is probably needed to see how things fall together, so I’ll go over the streamed match a bit. Although the Greninja matchup is something unique in and of itself, there were some interesting situations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0eGsInG9Io

Game 1: This game had some really simple, yet great plays from both sides in my opinion. Around 13:00, I draw into Ultra Ball, Puzzle of Time, N, Float Stone, Rainbow Energy and Counter Catcher off of an N. I know from experience that my best win condition in the matchup is Thunder Wave, so I opt to discard to Float Stone, which I could’ve used to retreat Xurkitree and attack with Heatmor, and keep Rainbow and Counter Catcher, which I value more, since I need to give up Xurkitree anyway to active Counter Catcher. I could’ve GX attacked with Xurkitree with the Rainbow, but I’m aware prizes are irrelevant in the matchup and board position is all that matters. After I go for Counter Catcher and hit the heads, there’s another great play in the match: Michael scoops immediately after just one single turn of lock. This was incredibly well played by Michael; he could’ve waited to see if I miss a turn of lock through consecutive tails or Ns, but the odds aren’t worth for the time it would take.

Game 3: Aside from the bad coin flips, I can explain my win condition here: I paralyze a Greninja with Pikachu; it BREAK evolves and goes to the bench; I Counter Catcher and Paralysis-lock the BREAK active, breaking the Shadow Stitching loop. Although the Break can still use GWS, the 60 isn’t enough to KO anything at once, and chaining Acerola to heal the damage eventually outlasts the 6 basic waters Greninja has. Using Starmie to get infinite GWS isn’t viable, since I can Catcher it up and lock it active. This whole sequence of course requires 2 heads with Pikachu, and you usually get 3 to 4 opportunities to hit those before you run out of Prizes to give up, as Greninja can close out the game with a burst of BREAKs to take the last prizes, but I have Acerola to heal the increments of Stitching damage for a few turns, and can weave in Heatmor attacks. Micheal definitely played the matchup well, the 6 tails flips were unfortunate but the odds weren’t in my favor to begin with since I don’t play Pokémon Ranger. GGs.

I beat Zoroark builds with Stand In twice and tied a ZoroarkPod (with Rainbow) on Day 1, but the Zoroark Golisopod deck with 4 Puzzle isn’t close to being consistently winnable. It turned up big at London, with several making top 32 and Tord of course winning the event with it -- big props for the innovation and accomplishment! Day 2 I lost against it twice, so it’s unrealistic I could’ve gotten further in the tournament since I’d have hit that matchup again at some point. In the future, I would play a Marshadow-GX to improve the matchup; Marshadow can pivot between Heatmor's, Durant's and Xurkitree's attacks seamlessly and is safe itself in the Active against decks that only run Guzma to get out of the lock. I didn't play it because I was afraid it would be too fragile against decks that played Rainbow Acerola, but those didn't end up being abundant.

EUIC Deck Roundup: Slutsky Has High Praise For Ghaziaskhar's Gardevoir List

Michael Slutsky started off the European International Championship at 0-2, then won his final 7 rounds to advance to Day 2 as the 21st seed. Finishing in 18th place overall, Slutsky posted his decklist, the 4-Max Potion build of Gardevoir-GX created (to much fanfare and Facebook memes) by Sina Ghaziaskar.

Slutsky called the deck "actually broken" and "probably in the top 3 most powerful decks I've ever played" (and he's been playing for a while). "Credit to Seena for inventing this," Slutsky added; "dude knew exactly what he was talking about and had he not leaked this deck, it would have 100% won this tournament."

Christopher Schemanske is now in Top 8 as the 4th seed with this same list, and will be on stream shortly. Another notable facet of the list is the second Gallade, which allows the list to easily take down Pokemon like Zoroark-GX, Silvally-GX, and Registeel, all of which have been popular this weekend. 

"Back in Black": 2017 Yokohama Regionals results (Top 8 decklists and analysis)

First we got Stellar Guidance + X Ball;
now it's Diving Draw + Circle Circuit.

PokéStats is back with more results and analysis from Japan's tournament setting. The latest tournament in that land of XY-on was held in Yokohama this past weekend; the new Shining Legends set was legal for play.

The most-used card from the new set was, without a doubt, Zoroark-GX. The combination of Empoleon DEX's Diving Draw and Raichu XY's Circle Circuit found a home in an astonishing 15 of the Top 16 decks and all 8 of the Top 8 decks, whether as a 1-1 support line or as a 4-3 main-attacker line. The Shadow Fox was paired most frequently with either Night March or Lycanroc-GX GRI, although the winning list was a less conventional Toolbox deck featuring some other new and unusual cards.

Below I'll give the Top 8 lists and address a few points of each list that I believe are noteworthy. At the end of the article I'll look at how previous Japanese powerhouses translated to success in the rest of the world, and predict what effect Zoroark-GX might have on the meta outside Japan.

Top 8 breakdown:
4 Zoroark-GX/Lycanroc-GX GRI (2 with Flareon, 1 with Alolan Muk)
3 Night March/Zoroark-GX (1 with Milotic)
1 Zoroark-GX Toolbox

Translated article about first-place deck

Click through to see the lists and analysis: 

Champions League Chiba Top 8 decks

The latest Japanese "Regional" took place on the weekend of May 20-21. PokeStats previously reported on the Osaka Regionals back in April, and I'll be doing the same thing for May's Chiba Regionals: providing the event's top decks, then, in a day or two, coming back and analyzing those decks and providing lists for them. An insight into the Japanese metagame is always interesting, even though they play the BLW-on format: we get to see some innovative deck ideas that give us ideas for new ways to use cards, as well as ideas for dealing with these crazy Japanese lists should we run into them at Worlds or Internationals.

Champions League Chiba was a bit unique in that there were actually two tournaments, and each tournament was split into an A group and a B group. So, here are the Top 8's for all four groups!

Tournament 1, Group A

1. Volcanion/Turtonator-GX
2. Garbodor GRI/Eeveelutions
3. Seismitoad-EX/Decidueye-GX/Alolan Ninetales-GX
4. Volcanion/Turtonator-GX
5. Garbodor GRI/Big Basics
6. Volcanion/Turtonator-GX
7. M Rayquaza/Metal
8. Vespiquen/Zoroark/Eeveelutions

Tournament 1, Group B

1. Volcanion/Turtonator-GX
2. Turbo Dark
3. Vikavolt/Tapus 
4. Raichu/Lycanroc-GX GRI
5. Turbo Dark
6. Night March/Vespiquen
7. M Rayquaza/Metal
8. Vespiquen/Lycanroc-GX GRI

Tournament 2, Group A

1. Volcanion/Turtonator-GX
2. Greninja BREAK
3. DeciPlume/Alolan Ninetales-GX
4. Lycanroc-GX
5. Lycanroc-GX
6. Turbo Dark
7. Volcanion/Turtonator-GX
8. Seismitoad-EX/Decidueye-GX

Tournament 2, Group B

1. Garbodor GRI/Raichu
2. M Rayquaza/Metal
3. Volcanion/Turtonator-GX
4. Volcanion/Turtonator-GX
5. Alolan Ninetales-GX/Garbodor BPT
6. Raichu/Lycanroc-GX GRI
7. Lycanroc-GX
8. Vikavolt/Tapus

UPDATE 5/29/16: Here is the meta share graph for the above results. 

Osaka Regionals: A Look at the Japanese Meta! (Top 16 Decklists!)

Osaka Regionals - technically the Osaka 2017 Champions League - were held in Japan recently in Japan's, um, interesting format, which consists of XY through some future Sun and Moon set (SM1+ or something). Basically, cards like Drampa-GX, Sylveon-GX, Choice Band, and Sudowoodo are legal in Japan right now - but so are things like Seismitoad-EX and Battle Compressor that we only see in Expanded. '

Source: http://www.pokemon-card.com/info/2017/20170224_000634.html

Why am I bringing this up now? As we near the May 3 release of Guardians Rising, I think it'd be interesting to look at the Japanese meta and see how some of the new cards may impact the rest of the world. Obviously the decks in this post aren't that useful for crafting decklists outside of Japan, considering the wacky format, but they will let the rest of us see how cards like Drampa and Sylveon are being used, giving us insight into their competitive potential over a month before they're legal overseas. 

There's also the added benefit of having a little knowledge of those crazy Japanese decks should you run into a player from Japan at an Internationals or even the World Championships. 

So without further ado, here was the Top 16 (Masters Division) from Osaka: 

1. M Rayquaza/Metal
2. Yveltal-EX/Garbodor/Tauros-GX/Drampa-GX
3. Umbreon-GX/Zoroark BREAK/Eeveelutions
4. M Gardevoir STS/Dimension Valley/Max Potion
5. Sylveon-GX/Disruption
6. Espeon-GX/Vespiquen
7. Yveltal-EX/Tauros-GX/Drampa-GX/Alolan Muk
8. Drampa-GX/Garbodor
9. Volcanion
10. Lunala-GX/Gengar-EX/Wobbuffet
11. Sylveon-GX/Vileplume/Eeveelutions
12. Seismitoad-EX/Decidueye-GX
13. Zoroark BREAK Toolbox
14. Seismitoad-EX/Decidueye-GX
15. Sylveon-GX Toolbox/Disruption
16. Seismitoad-EX/Decidueye

The big takeaways from this Top 16 seem to be:

•  Toad/Decidueye was hyped and is a strong contender but ultimately failed to make Top 8
• the Japanese meta favors "Toolbox" decks with a variety of tech cards and strategies
• Sylveon-GX is a strong meta force
• Drampa-GX is a worthy tech in many decks but can also work on its own

I'll look at some of these concepts in more detail later. For now, let's dive into those decklists. Because some of them are just ridiculous. I'll take some notes on all the Top 8 lists; for the rest, I'll just present the lists. One man can only do so much work.

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