#deck: zoroark lycanroc

[raindropsonwhiskers]

Okay, this is going to be. A little incoherent. But I blame @rearranging-deck-chairs for Daemon-posting and getting me in that headspace of rotating the blorbos with some Creachurs. That being said, it's time for a vague AU that smushes Pokemon into Doctor Who and resultant Spydoc Thoughts (also, plot spoilers for ScVi's late game)

So, Thirteen's team is very... haphazard. She didn't put thought into planning them, they just kind of happen to her. There's very little rotation, just occasionally giving breaks to team members.

Togekiss - Twelve had a Togepi for a while. Like, a Very long while. Hell, Clara probably got her for him (not that he knew that for a time), and it took until Bill for the two of them to become close enough that she evolved into a Togetic. Usually, the Doctor puts aside their old team upon regeneration, but Twelve specifically wanted to pass her along as part of his wish that his next self would carry that hope and kindness. It... doesn't always work out, but Thirteen can't quite make herself give up on that. Togetic gets evolved into Togekiss sometime during season 11, after Thirteen properly accepts that she's travelling with her fam.

Porygon - I just adore the idea of Thirteen with a Porygon, okay? The whole line suits her very well. She picks it up fairly early - while she's still stuck on Earth and building her little teleporter post-WWFTE, most likely. Could she evolve it? Easily! Will she? Eh, probably not. It enjoys hanging out in her sonic and making friends with the TARDIS and eating Ryan's data (when it can)

Absol - She gets an Absol stalking her sometime during season 12 (pre-FOTJ) and can't shake him, so eventually he becomes an unofficial team member. He's not trying to be a bad omen, really, he just can't help but sense disaster around her. Flux is... a bad time for him

Beldum - This one is in the same boat as Porygon, where she could evolve it but never sees the point. She picks it up on a junk planet pre-Tsuranga and it just vibes with her. It gets along with her Porygon quite well

Helioptile - Just. Just look at it and tell me it doesn't scream Thirteen. Funky little electric lizard friend. The Doctor catches her sometime in season 11 and names her Tiny in honor of the P'ting

Sandy Shocks - My reasoning behind this one is twofold. A) it's fitting that the Doctor would have a paradox mon, and this one suits her vibes best. B) if any Doctor deserved a Pokemon that's the result of experimentation by an unethical and obsessed scientist who is also a deeply shitty mother, it's Thirteen. She picks this one up late - barely pre-Flux, some solo adventure with Yaz where they find one and it takes a shine to her (and vice versa)

Silvally - As with Sandy Shocks, this Pokemon suits the themes of Thirteen really well. She finds them during Flux, most likely, as a Type: Null that Tecteun kept (analogous to the Ood?). The two of them don't have all that long together, in the grand scheme of things, but they evolve relatively quickly

For the Master, he did plan his team much more deliberately, and he actually does some rotation.

Zoroark (Unovan) - Is this obvious? Yes. Will that stop me? No. He's trying very very hard to cultivate an appearance of over the top evil for the most part, and underlining how much of a deception O was with a Pokemon known for deceit is very in line with his actions

Lycanroc (Midday) - What his Zoroark spends most of its time illusioned as when he's O. Might well have belonged to the original O, just to drive the point in

Meowscarada - It's a dramatic magician cat that's part Dark type. He chose this on purpose and honestly, it's probably a shiny to boot

Farigiraf - He probably chose this one for the Psychic typing and good resistances, but the whole 'secondary head overtaking the primary upon evolution' thing feels like it should be a metaphor

Tyrantrum - Gives that Rock type coverage once he ditches Lycanroc, but its vulnerabilities and short temper fit him a little too well

Toxapex - Solid type coverage for a lot of things he's weak to, and it has the patience a lot of his other team members lack. Sometimes you just need to lay your plans and be able to sit back and wait

Aegislash - This one is almost purely for the sake of decent team comp. That being said, I feel like it fits well with Toxapex; willing to play the long game and adapt to the circumstances

Iron Jugulis - As with the Doctor, it makes sense for the Master to have a paradox Pokemon. One of the robotic future iterations made most sense, given the Cyberium, and a futuristic Hydregion - a Pokemon I can't help but associate with Ghetsis, and thus Immense Suffering - felt apt

Mimikyu - There is no Pokemon more suited to this vaguely upright bundle of identity issues shaped like an approximation of a Time Lord than this. He's probably aware of this but it latched onto him and they relate to each other. He makes it little Doctor outfits while he's Rasputin-ing

[ptcgdecklist]

Zoroark GX / Lycanroc GX - Poet Larsen (US) - Top 16 - Portland Regionals - March 2018 - Standard

[howaboutalittlehelpneos]

What are everyone’s teams in your Pokemon au? Do you have a plot set out or is it a more causal au?

Oooooh this is a fun one

You'd better fucking BELIEVE we have a plot set up, I have poured so much effort into the Pokemon au

Okay, so: when it comes to teams, I decided that everyone should have at least one legendary Pokemon in their party as a way to be faithful to the ace monster concept, but it wasn’t until much later into the au that I realized I’d failed to do that with Sora’s team, which led to a very fun plot point involving his secret 7th Pokemon he keeps in his box

Teams under the cut because it’s gonna be a long one, boys

Yuya has: Groudon, Sandshrew, Popplio, Hippopotas, Aipom, and Ekans

In his box, he’s got Phanphy, Charmander, Politoad, Ducklett, Liepard, Skorupi, and Lycanroc (Midnight form)

I wanted him to have as many Pokemon as he could that reminded me of the monsters in his deck, and since Yuya is a coordinator in this au instead of a regular trainer, it just felt right that he’d have a lot of different partners he could swap out for various contests

Also I’m mad that there isn’t a legendary dragon that looks like Odd Eyes, so I had to give Yuya Groudon instead, making him the only Yu boy in this au to not have a legendary dragon type Pokemon

Yuto has: Eternatus, Bisharp, Aegislash, Aggron, Lucario, and Shadow Rider Calyrex

Okay listen, I know I was supposed to only give everyone One legendary Pokemon, but with Calyrex I feel justified because it looks So Much like it could be one of Yuto’s Phantom Knights, I mean

Just look at it

Yuto gets to have two legendaries to make up for Arc-V killing him off so early into the show

Aside from this guy, the rest of Yuto’s team just felt like it should be comprised of steel types ow the edge so that’s what I gave him. His Pokemon are as edgy as he tries to appear to be and that is enough to amuse me.

There also weren’t exactly many good Pokemon equivalents of his archetype, so I made do with what I had.

Yugo has: Latios, Scizor, Claydol, Porygon 2, Ponyta (Shiny), and Sudowoodo

Yugo was honestly so hard to come up with a team for because all his Speedroid cards are just like... toys and stuff for the most part, so I agonized over what I should pick for him for a Long time. In the end, I feel like I got close enough to his general aesthetic with the Pokemon I picked.

(His Ponyta is there because of Speedroid Horse Stilts, and while it is a shiny, the dumbass has no idea about it, and thinks he just happened to get a special blue horse that was born a little differently- he never claimed to be smart.)

He also deadass thought Sudowoodo was a grass type for the longest time. Rin had to be the one to tell him it wasn’t. 

“Yugo. Sudowoodo? It sounds like pseudo? As in fake wood?”

“Ohhhhh is that what its name means? Wow Rin you’re so smart.”

No Yugo you’re just exceptionally stupid.

Yuri has: Naganadel, Seviper, Victreebel, Toxicroak, Vileplume, and Roserade

For the most toxic of battlers, I felt it only necessary to give Yuri an all poison type team. I included an even mix of plants in there to tie into his Predaplant deck, Seviper for the snake eye vibes, and Toxicroak... just feels right, you know. I couldn’t find any other poison plant themed Pokemon that seemed like they’d fit his vibe, so he gets a poison frog instead.

Yuzu has: Meloetta, Sylveon, Meowstic (Female), Gardevoir, Florges, and Jigglypuff

I tried to stick with Pokemon that had very feminine vibes for Yuzu, since her deck is comprised of pretty singing ladies, so Meloetta and Jigglypuff in particular feel very fitting in that regard.

Serena has: Cresselia, Delcatty, Glameow, Lopunny, Persian, and Pyroar (Female)

The moon vibes with Cresselia felt perfect for Serena, and as for the rest of her team, all cats and a bunny to pay homage to her Lunalight deck ^^

Rin has: Celesteela, Mismagius, Hatterene, Glaceon, Froslass, and Chimecho

Her team vibes with the witch part of her Wind Witch deck, at least for Mismagius and Hatterene. Glaceon, Froslass, and Chimecho are there due to the etymology of her name, where possible meanings of it include “cold” and “bell”, which I thought was pretty cool, no pun intended.

Ruri has: Galarian Articuno, Pidgeot, Noctowl, Chatot, Altaria, and Unfezant (Male)

Some softer birds for the soft bird girl, for the most part. I liked the thought of her team being all birds like her Lyriluscs, and just... yeah. They’re all very friendly birds that Ruri’s bonded pretty closely with. Also I made sure she had Galarian Articuno for no reason other than it is purple like her, and I think that’s all the reason I need.

Gong has: Kartana, Machoke, Samurott, Golisopod, Hariyama, and Conkeldurr

Gong was really easy to assign a team to- just had to find as many samurai themed Pokemon as possible, and fill in the rest with really strong fighting types, like Machoke, Hariyama, and Conkeldurr.

Shingo has: Type: Null, Dusclops, Misdreavus, Spiritomb, Decidueye, and Cramorant

With Shingo, I tried to go for Pokemon that had the same vibes as some of his Abyss Actors, and I think Dusclops is the best example of this. Tbh I am very proud of giving him a Type: Null because Type: Null is an amalgamation of other Pokemon, something that was created in a lab to be a fighting machine. There’s nothing natural about Type: Null, and it’s kind of terrifying to Yuya specifically, who’s always viewed Pokemon as creatures to befriend. This experiment created purely to kill... unnerves him, and serves as a very good foil to his beliefs when it comes to Pokemon.

And they were narrative foils

Oh my god they were narrative foils

On a sillier note, I chose Cramorant purely because of this quote from its bulbapedia page: “Cramorant are also rather unintelligent as they can't remember which Pokémon they fight in mid battle, but never forget Trainers that they trust. However, they try to attack their Trainers if they steal food from them.”

I just thought the idea of Shingo having this dumb bird that occasionally pecks at him over food would be funny tbh, gotta dunk on the rival at least a little bit.

Sora has: Banette, Vanillish, Swirlix, Stufful, Litleo, and Buneary

In his box, he has a Guzzlord

I feel like Sora’s team is very straightforward, as it’s a mix of sweets themed Pokemon, and Pokemon that represent monsters in his deck- Stufful for Flufflal Bear, Litleo for Fluffal Leo, and Buneary for Fluffal Rabbit. Guzzlord... is relevant later on in the plot after shit goes down, that’s all I’ll say for now.

Masumi has: Diancie, Sableye, Corsola, Aurorus, Tyranitar, and Lycanroc (Dusk form)

Gem Knight girl deserved to have a bunch of good rock type Pokemon, and Diancie is like. The best possible legendary I could have given someone like her lol, the crystal aesthetic is just perfect for her. Not much to say here honestly, I just really vibed with these specific rock types and thought they’d make a good team for her.

Yaiba has: Zeraora, Kecleon, Pangoro, Scyther, Purugly, and Stantler

So I actually threw this list together just now because I realized Masumi was the only member of her trio to have a full team, and that just wasn’t right. I tried to base this team off the XX-Sabers as well I could, but it was a little hard with how many humanoid cards Yaiba has. With his legendary, I actually chose it based off this monster right here! 

I think they’ve got similar enough vibes aesthetically for Zeraora to fit him. Scyther is based on Emmersblade, Kecleon on Ragigura, Stantler on Garsem, Purugly on Gardestrike, and Pangoro... Honestly, it just makes me think of Yaiba himself when I look at him. I think they’d get along well.

Hokuto has: Deoxys, Espeon, Grumpig, Starmie, Lunatone, and Malamar

Psychic type Pokemon just sort of felt right for him to have, considering that his deck is based on constellations and has an overall space theme to it. Not sure why that translates over to psychic in my brain, but you know what, it looks right, I love this team for him, and I’m not gonna question it.

I especially think Deoxys makes a good legendary for him considering it is literally a space alien, and Hokuto’s whole thing is space, so yeah, he gets to have the space alien.

Shun has: Galarian Moltres, Skarmory, Fearow, Dodrio, Staraptor, and Talonflame

Pretty straightforward team I feel- it’s all birds of prey for the Raid Raptor boy, and I just thought the Galarian version of Moltres was neat. Makes me think of his Blaze Falcon since they’re both black and red.

Dennis has: Hoopa, Mr. Mime, Delphox, Zoroark, Alakazam, and Hawlucha

Hoopa seemed like a very good legendary for Dennis to have, given his deck archetype and all, he just kind of looks like a little circus dude. Its unbound form makes me think about the swap Dennis has when it gets revealed that he’s actually been a double agent the whole time, and the play gloves finally come off.

The rest of his team... I feel like they speak for themselves. I tried to give him Pokemon that matched up with his deck archetype, so there’s Delphox to rep the fire themed monsters, Mr. Mime because it just fits Dennis’ general personality- and I love the thought of those two being friends and just copying each other’s theatric poses. Chaotic dynamic duo.

(Also: Zoroark's ability letting it disguise itself as another Pokemon is just another parallel to Dennis pretending to be one of the good guys at first, and I love it)

Shinji has: Buzzwole, Beedrill, Vespiquen, Ribombee, Kricketune, and Leavanny

I tried to give the bee man all the bees I could, but there are only so many bee Pokemon out there 😔 I knew the rest of his team had to be insect types to make up for it, so I picked Kricketune because he is just... a friend... a musical buddy who definitely gets along well with the kids. Leavanny is just a bug mom who also helps patch up the kids’ clothing when they get tears in them, which I just love the idea of. Sweet bug mom whose dex entry talks about how they sew for other Pokemon looks after her trainer’s kids when she’s not battling.

Buzzwole: witness the fitness

Throwback to the Smash Bros mains lmao 

Crow has: Murkrow, Braviary, Starly, Swellow, Pikipek, and Corviknight

Bunch of birds for my Blackwing user... This team was partially picked out by June, and it was mostly meant for the Other Pokemon au, but I don’t really see a reason to change his team here. Crow is the one person without a legendary on his team, which makes me sad, but there really isn’t a legendary bird out there that fits his vibes, so as much as I wanna give him a legendary, he will have to make do without one. Sorry Crow.

Hoo... that’s finally all the teams down. Now I can talk about the plot! So, as I briefly mentioned in a previous post (I think), this particular au is inspired by Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum! It’s the era where contests really became a big thing, which is perfect for a lot of these characters because it’s easy to translate dueltaining over to coordinating in this world. Much like in canon, Yuya aspires to be as great a coordinator as his dad was, and strives to entertain people the way Yusho could. He’s not much for battling, and far prefers getting to show off his Pokemon’s talents in contests than anything. 

Academia is going to play the role of Team Galactic in this au, which is incredibly fitting with their mission in canon: to remake the universe in their leader’s image. In this case, with Leo Akaba taking on the role of Cyrus, his intent is, presumably, to either destroy the universe that took his daughter from him, or create a new one where she can live once again, no matter the cost.

Sora being a key member in Team Galactic is a very big part of the plot in this au: his mission was to capture one of the lake legendaries, Uxie, since Leo needed all three of them for his plan to remake the universe, but things don’t exactly go well for him, and he ends up losing his battle against Uxie, resulting in all of his memories being locked away, and essentially making him a blank slate.

Side note: the Galactic grunt haircut reminds me a lot of Sora, I mean just look at it

Practically same bangs as him, just add an upturned ponytail and you’ve got my son.

This post is getting very long... but I will add one last plot related thing to it before I go: Uxie can erase memories, Mesprit can erase emotions, and Azelf can erase willpower. All three of these lake legendaries play a very important role in the plot, due to being the keys to Leo Akaba’s plans to remake the universe. Sora was touched by Uxie, effectively doing away with all memory he has of being in Team Galactic. Yuya ends up touched by Mesprit in an attempt to save them, and subsequently loses his emotions as a result. Riley?

Riley had been affected by all three of them before the plot began, which is why she is the way she’d been in Arc-V: Emotionless, unable to remember anything about her past except for those brief, fleeting flashes of memory when put into certain situations she’d experienced before, and without any will of her own. She’s so dependent on her older brother because she quite literally has no clue what to do with herself without being told to, and needs orders to function.

Hoo, if you’ve made it all the way to the end of the post, congratulations! I think this is the longest one I’ve made... ever lmao. I hope you guys found it enjoyable! If anyone wants to know more about certain aspects of this au, feel free to ask! I look forward to talking about it more c:

[ptcgojpn]

ルガルガンゾロアーク（Standard2018構築）

****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******

##Pokémon - 18

* 4 Zorua SLG 52 * 4 Zoroark-GX PR-SM SM84 * 4 Rockruff PR-SM SM06 * 3 Lycanroc-GX GRI 138 * 3 Tapu Lele-GX GRI 137

##Trainer Cards - 33

* 2 Field Blower GRI 163 * 4 N FCO 105 * 2 Acerola BUS 142 * 2 Brigette BKT 161 * 2 Professor Kukui SUM 148 * 3 Choice Band BUS 162 * 2 Professor Sycamore STS 114 * 2 Guzma BUS 143 * 4 Ultra Ball SUM 161 * 4 Puzzle of Time BKP 109 * 1 Rescue Stretcher BUS 165 * 2 Enhanced Hammer GRI 162 * 1 Float Stone BKT 137 * 1 Mallow GRI 145 * 1 Energy Loto GRI 122

##Energy - 9

* 2 Fighting Energy GRI 169 * 4 Double Colorless Energy GRI 166 * 3 Strong Energy FFI 104

Total Cards - 60

****** Deck List Generated by the Pokémon TCG Online www.pokemon.com/TCGO ******

[undauntedtcg]

My Favorite Deck of All Time: ZoroPod

Before I begin, I apologize for the amount of time this post took. I hope the content makes up for the deviation from my normal schedule.

 I was playing some 2017-2018 format games on TCG ONE with my ZoroPod and I realized a few things. The first? This is still my favorite deck. The second? I’ve played it in both standard formats since the deck’s creation. 

So start off, I have to rewind things a bit! Welcome back to 2017.

Gardevoir just won the world championships and rightfully so, it was the most powerful card ever printed at the time. (230 HP after a rare candy...good times) A couple regionals passed by and stories began to emerge about something terrifying: The “Optimal” Gardevoir list. It was basically a two shot deck that, if it got bored, could ramp up to 210 damage without breaking a sweat. If it weren’t a stage two deck, it would’ve been unbeatable. 

A couple funny little sets came out, Shining Legends and Crimson Invasion. The cards were...divisive to say the least. Zoroark GX was at the forefront of these discussions. Most people just thought it was a worse Octillery that gave up two prizes, others thought it was a fantasatic secondary attacker. Worthy of a 2-2 line at most. Around this time, I had just picked up Ninetales GX/Zoroark, liking the synergy between Trade and Aqua Patch. Others picked up Lycanroc GX, Decidueye GX and Golisopod GX. But never with more than a 2-2 Zoroark line. )You can check out my favorite example of the community having it all backwards here: Pablo Meza’s ZoroPod) Then, the Vikings came.

Tord Reklev and a great many European players came to the European International Championships playing a list that revolutionized the game for years to come. The first true Zoroark deck was born, as was the first ZoroPod list I’d ever pick up.

The List

Pokemon (20) 4 Zoroark GX 4 Zorua 1 Zoroark 3 Wimpod 2 Golisopod GX 1 Tapu Koko 1 Mewtwo 1 Mr. Mime 3 Tapu Lele GX

Trainers (33) 4 N 4 Guzma 3 Brigette 3 Acerola 2 Professor Sycamore 1 Mallow

4 Puzzle of Time 4 Ultra Ball 4 Field Blower 2 Enhanced Hammer 2 Choice Band

Energy (7) 3 Grass Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

The first thing you’ll notice is that there are far more than two Zoroarks. Actually, there are five. But that’s not the only thing about Tord’s list that was revolutionary.

Puzzle of time hadn’t been seen in a while, but it was perfect for Zoroark. You draw so many cards that you’re nearly guaranteed to be able to find the puzzles when you need them, and you can reuse effects like Acerola up to 7 times in a game! This truly is the two shot deck of the century.

Many people still liked Drampa Garb going into EUIC. For obvious reasons, Zoroark decks are heavily ability reliant. So why not just play four blower and four puzzle to make sure they can’t turn off your abilities? As it turns out, you really don’t need 4 field blower to beat Garbodor, as your Guzmas can do a lot of that work instead. But I’d take overkill to under-preparation any day.

Lastly, Brigette was only a 1-2-of in most evolution decks at the time. However, with Zoroark’s trade to get rid of the extra ones, 3 copies doesn’t clog up the deck and it makes hitting it turn one way more likely. Most games, if you got turn one Brigette, you won. If you missed it, things didn’t go too well.

After EUIC, people were very afraid of ZoroPod. It seemed pretty much unbeatable. Tord Reklev had completely broken the Pokemon TCG.

But what about Gardevoir? The list was optimal! Broken even! Well, it was good against the old decks. But playing a stage 2 deck means that more often than not, you collapse after a Zoroark spends three turns picking off Ralts while you struggle to draw rare candy.

Fast forward to Leipzig regionals, just a while after EUIC and people had found the counter: Mill. Turns out, Quad Sylveon autowins Zoroark match-ups when you only play seven energy and four Puzzle of time.  

The rise of mill gave Tord the idea of a new deck using his Zoroark engine: Zoroark Gardevoir. He won his third international championship in a row with that deck, but we only care about ZoroPod today, so we have to skip ahead to after Ultra Prism became legal. To Prague we go!

Tord won the Prague SPE with ZoroPod, but the list changed significantly. 

The New List

Pokemon (19) 4 Zoroark GX 4 Zorua 3 Wimpod 2 Golisopod GX 1 Tapu Koko 1 Mew EX 1 Oranguru 3 Tapu Lele GX

Trainers (34) 4 Guzma 3 N 3 Brigette 2 Acerola 2 Cynthia 1 Mallow

4 Puzzle of Time 4 Ultra Ball 2 Field Blower 2 Evosoda 1 Enhanced Hammer 1 Max Potion 2 Choice Band 1 Float Stone

2 Parallel City

Energy (7) 3 Grass Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

Ultra Prism gifted us with a couple cards that helped ZoroPod a ton.

Remember how Mill was this deck’s worst matchup? Not anymore. Resource management can put back puzzles, energy, really anything you need...infinitely. Now, you decked Sylveon out instead of the other way around. The card was also pretty insane in the mirror match, letting you get more value out of your cards than your opponent.

Cynthia proved to be far better than Professor Sycamore in Zoroark decks. You can get a new hand without discarding cards or refreshing your opponent’s hand.

Aside from new cards, there are other additions to the list to help deal with a Zoroark heavy metagame, or just improve consistency.

On the added consistency side of things, Evosoda is such an obvious inclusion to the deck. It’s like playing extra copies of your stage ones, and, unlike Ultra Ball, you didn’t have to discard cards to get to those evolutions.

Don’t get me wrong, Acerola is still the best healing card in the deck. But it is a supporter and you sometimes find yourself needing to heal and get another supporter effect. Max potion let’s you do exactly that.

The last new addition is Parallel City! For some reason unknown to myself, after winning EUIC and OCIC, Zoroark decks were getting pretty popular. With Parallel City, you could limit the damage output of all those other peasants playing the exact same archetype as you. That’ll show ‘em. The card could also be used to clear inconveniences like Tapu Lele GX off of your bench to deny prizes.

ZoroPod continued, barely changing for months to come, until we get to the final list from this format, Brian Miller’s World’s Top 8 deck.

The ultimate ZoroPod list!

Pokemon (18) 4 Zoroark GX 4 Zorua 3 Wimpod 2 Golisopod GX 1 Mew EX 1 Oranguru 3 Tapu Lele GX

Trainers (34) 4 Brigette 3 Guzma 3 N 1 Acerola 1 Cynthia 1 Professor Sycamore

4 Puzzle of Time 4 Ultra Ball 3 Field Blower 3 Evosoda 1 Enhanced Hammer 1 Max Potion 1 Counter Catcher 1 Choice Band 2 Float Stone

3 Parallel City

Energy (7) 3 Grass Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

Most of what’s different about this list is what it leaves out. 

No new additions to the Standard Format made it into this list. In fact, there’s only one new card!

Somewhere between the Prague SPE and NAIC, Counter Catcher became a standard inclusion. With all the hyper-aggressive decks in the format, ZoroPod fell behind in prize cards all the time. Instead of matching that aggression, which this deck cannot do, it just takes advantage of being behind. You could N your opponent low and play a pre-errata Pokemon Catcher to deal with one of their major threats. Or more commonly, kill their draw support Pokemon.

Now, one last card that didn’t make it into any of these three lists but did become a standard somewhere in between. An honorable mention, if you will.

Delinquent allowed for so many insane plays. Counter catcher to kill their draw support Pokemon, Parallel city to force them to discard a couple other benched Pokemon, and then you simply delete the opponent’s hand. Seems pretty balanced, right? A weird T1 Delinquent Zoroark deck actually got the card banned in expanded, so take that information however you may.

And then rotation hit.

Zoroark lost pretty much every card that made the deck good in the previous format. Brigette, Puzzle of Time, Evosoda and Parallel City no name a few. 

Basically, everything that drew me to the archetype was gone. But the first cup of the season was upon me, so we ran it.

The List

Pokemon (21) 4 Zoroark GX 4 Zorua 4 Wimpod 2 Golisopod GX 2 Tapu Koko 1 Deoxys 1 Dedenne 1 Oranguru 3 Tapu Lele GX

Trainers (32) 4 Lillie 4 Guzma 2 Professor Kukui 2 Acerola 1 Judge 1 Cynthia

4 Ultra Ball 4 Nest Ball 3 Choice Band 2 Enhanced Hammer 1 Rescue Stretcher 1 Pal Pad

2 Devoured Field

Energy (7) 3 Grass Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

This deck, to put it gently, is garbage. With no consistent way to find evolutions and no guarantee of a good set up, there is almost no reason to play this deck if you weren’t already a Zoroark player from the previous season. But, let’s have a look at some of the things that changed.

Some people that, arguably, had worse ideas than the Zoroark players tried to make BuzzRoc work in the new format. While imperfect, Deoxys established a favorable prize trade. Dedenne can one-shot the new top tier threat, Rayquaza GX with a choice band, DCE and Tapu Koko on the bench. The deck’s match-up spread would just be terrible without this.

Now that Brigette is gone, we have two supporter options for the first turn of the game: Lillie or Pokemon Fan Club? Fan Club only grabs two basics. Yes, that’s only one less than Brigette, but it’s a huge difference. Nest Ball in combination with Lillie was usually enough to get basics down. But that ended up not being the deck’s main problem anyway.

You’ll notice that Ultra Ball is the deck’s only method of finding its evolutions. Well, as it turns out, in Bo1 cups, you can get screwed over by that very easily. Every one of my losses in the cup were not because I couldn’t find my basics, but rather because on the second turn the Zoroark’s didn’t show up. 

I loved all of the previous year’s Zoroark decks, so I’ll be the first to admit that this hurt. Between that and the dominance of Shrine of Punishment, I was fairly disillusioned with the game after that tournament. I attended a couple tournaments after this, most notably getting 2nd at an ARG State Championships with ZoroGarb, but for the most part I stopped playing for a full Quarter. 

I only played ZoroPod one more time in the Standard format, sometime after Team Up was released.

The List

Pokemon (20) 4 Zoroark GX 4 Zorua 3 Wimpod 2 Golisopod GX 1 Ditto* 2 Tapu Koko 1 Oranguru 3 Tapu Lele GX

Trainers (33) 4 Professor Elm's Lecture 4 Guzma 4 Cynthia 2 Acerola 1 Judge

4 Ultra Ball 4 Pokemon Communication 2 Enhanced Hammer 2 Choice Band 1 Max Potion 1 Rescue Stretcher 1 Pal Pad

3 Devoured Field

Energy (7) 3 Grass Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

Lost thunder gave us a couple cards to help our consistency. Sadly, a once powerful deck had almost been entirely power creep’d out of the format. I had a couple decent results with this list in spite of that though, so let’s take a look at what changed.

Elm’s lecture almost replaces Brigette in this deck. Wimpod has 70 hp, rendering it unsearchable with this card. However, Ditto* nearly filled the void. The deck regained much of it’s consistency with this card and I’m thankful for that.

Pokemon Communication had amazing synergy with Elm’s lecture. The number of outs you had to turn one Elm and turn 2 Zoroark increased a lot. This card is what made Zoroark playable again, change my mind.

Apart from that, the list hasn’t really changed, Just some engine adjustments.

Now, the only thing we haven’t covered is ZoroPod in the Expanded format. On average, I attend one expanded  tournament per season, and I didn’t play ZoroPod at any of them. However, I can direct you to Dean Nezam’s 1st place list from Dallas Regionals.

So that’s my history with the deck! I know it sounds silly, but I’ve become very attached to this deck. I attribute the majority of my success and my entrance to the competitive scene to this deck. 

The thing that I loved most was ZoroPod’s incredible consistency. At it’s best in 2017, it just felt like the deck let you play Pokemon every game. Something that many, less consistent archetypes didn’t do. (Looking at you, Buzzroc)

It’s best not to dwell on the past, but sometimes, when I’m disallusioned by the current state of the Pokemon TCG, I think back to my first tournament with this deck and think “What I wouldn’t give for just one more tournament.”

In the present, many people play old formats at regionals after being knocked out of contention for day 2. Usually it’s 2006 and 2010 formats that get all the love. But in a decade or so, once the 2018 Worlds format is but a distant memory, I’ll be playing my Zoropod.

[voluntaryreboot]

League Challenge Report - Portsmouth UK, February

Well I wanted a platform to ruminate on my TCG performances and report on tournaments which didn't necessarily make the cut for a Reddit post or whatever. I’m not sure what the community on Tumblr is like but it’ll be fun to find out. So let’s dive right on in.

The Deck & Preparations 

This was my first tournament after I won a League Cup with Buzzwole/Lycanroc. I really like that deck - and I’ve won 70CP with it - but I don’t enjoy how fragile it is and I don’t think it’s a great choice if you’re going to a BO1 tournament, because it can brick in the early game, you can run out of steam in the late game, or you can simply find yourself with a poor setup and being run over by a deck that’s teched well against you. Mew EX and Mewtwo EVO are the two biggest threats, but any player who knows what they’re doing can manoeuvre around you and make it very difficult. 

So I decided to creep into my binder and revive an old friend. Ever since Burning Shadows I’ve been enamoured with Golisopod, and Tord’s list at London Internats with Zoroark was a real game changer. I played that deck a lot in the aftermath but never really took it to tournaments because it had an unfavourable Gardy matchup. Now that Gardy has been sidelined I think it’s the deck with the best matchups across the board, and some of the inclusions at Colinsville were reallly interesting. Not to mention the fact it broke into top 8 again, and in fact won the whole thing. I don’t like the Lurantis line (I think this misses the point of the deck - it isn’t a 1HKO list and if you’re playing it like that it feels like you’re sacrificing the versatility, not to mention the fact Golisopod is a secondary attacker and not the primary focus of the deck anyway) so I opted for something more akin to Russel LaPerre’s list, with a few changes. At this event I was really just here to play Zoroark again and have fun, with no expectations or aims other than getting another Magnezone (places 1-4 prize card). 

As often happens, I travelled to this with a fellow member of Team Oddish, Joe. Joe was running the Buzzwole/Lycanroc deck we both played to major success at the Southampton cup, and you can read about that here. We also met Shakil, who used to run Typlosion but is now taking the game seriously and travelling to other events. Great to see more people getting properly into the game. 

Round 1 - Zoroark/Garbodor vs Michael

Originally I had a bye but not long after there was a repair, so I got to actually play. This round was against one of the better players from Portsmouth, but he was running Zoroark with Garbodor and the balloons and stuff. I spent four months playing Garbodor decks and run three field blowers, so this match wasn’t a huge problem. I avoided trades of items and kept the count very low (it would take 11 items in discard for Trashalance to be a threat, but rather safe than sorry) until I knew I had game in hand. Michael later said he misplayed a lot but I didn’t really see it from his supporter choices and the moves he made. He did whiff the items for lock a couple of times or evolved into the wrong Garb but I don’t think it was relevant to the outcome of the match. 

1/0/0.

Round 2 - Alolan Ninetails / Zoroark vs Shakil 

I very quickly dispatched Shakil with the BuzzRoc deck at the League Cup and he held up this deck as his ‘other choice’ for the event. I told him he definitely made the wrong choice and this is why. Luminous Barrier is a tough one for this deck to work around. In the event however he benched both his Leles and got a Zoroark up which allowed me a route to 6 relatively easy prizes. We had plenty of time afterwards and went for a game 2 where he got the lock up with two loaded baby Ninetails and avoided benching anything else, which made my life significantly more difficult. We couldn’t finish that match but I think he was en route to win it. 

2/0/0

Round 3 - Empoleon / Zoroark vs Marcus 

Marcus is one of Po Town’s best players and he travels to a lot of events (I hung around with him at London Internationals a little) so this was a match that wasn’t to be taken lightly. However, Empoleon is a pretty tough deck to pilot because it depends on your opponent playing into it. It reminds me of Garbodor in that its main strength is when your opponent can’t exercise self restraint. This time it wasn’t a problem because I got a turn 1 parallel city up and kept my bench to a modest three, which meant even when he was hitting energy (he whiffed for several turns in the early game) he wasn’t able to take any big OHKOs. In the first turn he had to Lele for Brigette for 2 and struggled to get much going for him, so I was able to use Koko for Flying Flip and setup future First Impression plays. Empoleon having 160 can be an awkward number for this deck, so being able to do a couple of those really helped. He eventually drew into a field blower and tried to kick off a little but I had the second parallel in hand and consolidated the board for a win. 

3/0/0

Round 4 - Zygarde / Buzzwole / Zoroark vs John

This tournament was weird because I knew everyone I played against, which hasn’t happened before. It was also weird because every deck that I came up against had Zoroark. My opponent opened a Zygarde which was pleasing because it’s grass weak. I won the flip but opened with a Zorua and thought it was going poorly because he got a buzzwole turn 2 and had taken 3 prizes from Zorua very quickly. However, this was part of the strategy, because my opponent didn’t have a great setup and I had both wimpod on the bench. I think I N’d to 3 and proceeded to OHKO two Zygarde to even the score pretty quickly due to having both Golisopod in deck. He whiffed an Elixir or two which would have probably changed the balance a little but after being told he only had 7 fighting in the list it wasn’t a huge surprise (I hit it roughly 50% of the time with 9 in the list, and he had already played a couple down). There probably is scope for a Turbo Buzzwole/Zoroark deck but Zygarde is a massive liability and generally a bad card so it would have no place in it if I was building it. But I wasn’t, and it did, so I won. 

4/0/0

The Results and Coming Up

This was right down to the wire because after all rounds completed there were two players on 4/0/0. For reasons unknown, my resistance was better, so I ended up winning outright. The prizing for this challenge was awesome (as is the norm at Portsmouth) and I got a Guzzlord GX box and 2 packs of Ultra Prism, from which I pulled a M Audino GX and a Charizard GX. Can’t complain about that at all. 

Really I just wrote this post to get some #content on the blog, but I’ve got a League Cup next week and I think I’ll take this list to it. I’m also considering BuzzRoc but I think I enjoyed the Golisopod play style so much and the matchups are so strong across the board that it’s The Play for the weekend. 

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3197: Eevee & Snorlax-GX (Team Up)

Eevee and Snorlax-GX, while a somewhat odd combination of Pokemon that would become rather typical of the era, had some interesting attacks. It was good at punishing anything that evolved and had a GX attack that could get a huge hand refreshment. These attacks required a ton of Energy, so you had to accelerate to it. The nature of this meant that you had to pair this with something that was going to have said acceleration quickly, had a Pokemon that could attack well on its own but would like the backup, and something that could sometimes run lower on cards to maximize a potential draw at the right time. This typically meant running this in a Fire deck, and only in SUM-On because that was where a good amount of Evolved Pokemon at under 240 HP were still common.

270 HP was where you'd want a Tag Team to be at, and that was a lot of bulk to get through. Its main job was to be a huge pain to things like Zoroark-GX, which couldn't even KO it in 2 hits without some help. The Fighting Weakness could potentially come into play a little, as while the type had fallen off quite a bit, Lycanroc-GX was a Stage 1 that could actually hit really hard. The Retreat Cost here was 4, meaning you did have to be careful here. Getting ahead on Prizes meant an unprepared Eevee & Snorlax-GX was easy bait for anything like a Counter Catcher, or at any point a Custom Catcher.

Cheer Up was an attack that did no damage for a Colorless Energy, but it did let you attach an Energy card from your hand to 1 of your Pokemon. You could use this if you didn't have anything better to do, but you'd normally want something else up front if you didn't get stuck starting with this. It was, at least, better than nothing on turn 1 if you were going second.

Dump Truck Press started at 120 damage, but it cost 4 Energy. The price was too steep unless you had the second effect. That effect involved doing 120 more damage if the opponent's Active Pokemon was an Evolution Pokemon. This meant a KO on the top choices out of those in the SUM-On format, including Zoroark-GX and Persian-GX. The issue was that any Basic Pokemon, including Tag Teams, were taking a lot less, so it was a huge match-up play. In the right match-up, it was great, but it was kind of stuck in one format.

Megaton Friends GX had some good moments. It was costly, as 4 Colorless Energy meant you were still leaning on Welder a lot here, and it was your one GX attack. That being said, you did 210 damage which was usually enough for the role being played here, and you also drew cards until you had 10 in your hand. This set you up nicely for your next turn as well as long as you didn't immediately get hit by a Judge. Usually you'd be okay though, and even if not it tended to force that play instead of a different Supporter.

Eevee & Snorlax-GX was a backup option in Reshiram & Charizard decks for the most part. Reshiram & Charizard-GX performed rather well against a lot of things, but Eevee & Snorlax-GX cleaned up Stage 1 Pokemon so well that it was often brought along too. Having a copy or two was reasonably common until the game shifted almost entirely to Tag Teams, and while a few Evolved Pokemon came back later in the Sword & Shield era it never found a great home partly due to higher HP numbers. It sure had a few good months, though, at least in that one deck.

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3159: Lycanroc-GX (Team Up)

This was the second Lycanroc-GX to be released, and unlike the first one, this didn't force switches. It did, however, discard an Energy from the opponent's Active Pokemon when coming into play and provided a big GX attack for later portions of the game in some match-ups. Since the other Lycanroc-GX was still rather good while available in the SUM-On format, this Lycanroc had a natural landing spot for a while since there was a useful trait or two to be had here.

200 HP was on the lower end of Stage 1 Pokemon-GX, but the numbers on these sorts of Pokemon were all in a similar range where they'd basically fall to 2 hits from most notable opponents. The Grass Weakness was rarely an issue as Golisopod-GX or the occasional Tag Team were both rather rare. The Retreat Cost here was 2, making Switch nice due to its single turn role.

Twilight Eyes was a disruptive Ability that worked when playing Lycanroc-GX from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokemon on your turn. It let you discard an Energy attached to the opponent's Active Pokemon, and if you were playing this card down at all you were likely aiming to do so. This could slow the opponent down for a turn and also power up a rather useful GX attack.

Accelerock was a solid 120 damage for a Fighting and 2 Colorless Energy. Solid, but not spectacular, as attacks were starting to reach toward 150 at times. It was slightly stronger than the other Lycanroc-GX, at least.

Splintered Shards GX had its big moments at times. It just required a Fighting Energy to use (on top of the GX attack for the game, of course) and did 30 damage for each Energy card in the opponent's discard pile. Decks tended to run moderate amounts of Energy at the time, so getting a quick big hit in wasn't rare in the later portions of a game. This was best against the likes of Fire decks that tended to run more Energy than most (though Blacephalon-GX tended to do other things with those than discarding them) and Lightning decks that had solid Energy counts and a Weakness to consider.

Lycanroc-GX got a copy into quite a few Zoroark/Lycanroc decks in the SUM-On format for that one big hit late in a game. It wasn't always going to have the opportunity, but with the split evolution letting you just evolve your Rockruff into the other one instead it wasn't exactly taking up a lot of space to give those moments. After the rotation and the loss of the first Lycanroc-GX, this one generally disappeared as it wasn't really good enough to build around. The role it had beforehand was pretty good, though, and you'd need a really good reason if you wanted to skip it in a Lycanroc deck.

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3165: Yveltal (Team Up)

Yveltal was capable of being an annoyance. It could discard Special Energy from the opponent's Pokemon or prevent retreating, both of which were useful in spots. Both things were on attacks that didn't do much damage, so there was also a big opportunity cost to using them. This also meant that Yveltal was generally limited to Darkness-type decks. There were some good options for the type available, and Yveltal didn't require any extra deck space to fit in, so there was certainly some chance for this to get into some decks if it was actually wanted.

110 HP was high enough that opponents would be using their better attacks a lot of the time to get the KO. That being said, it wasn't like Yveltal would be a hard Prize for the biggest decks of the time, outside of the stall decks that didn't aim to take Prizes in the first place. The Lightning Weakness would have meant something if Zapdos could actually hit that Weakness, but since it couldn't you weren't going to see notable changes in almost any situation. If using Yveltal in the SUM-On format, the Fighting Resistance could let it survive a hit from Lycanroc-GX. Yveltal could also retreat for free, useful in the spots where it did survive thanks to disruption from its own attacks.

Derail was cheap at a single Darkness Energy. 30 damage wasn't a lot, but the effect could be nice. It had you discard a Special Energy card from the opponent's Active Pokemon. This was a bit limited at the time, as a ton of decks ran Basic Energy. There were the early Zoroark-GX decks to target, and later decks at least had the type-specific Special Energy to help against. This could help buy a turn in the right spot or help force them to run out of Energy sooner, but wasn't useful in a lot of match-ups due to how the game was at the time.

Clutch did 60 damage for 2 Darkness Energy, which wasn't really the point. It also prevented the Defending Pokemon from Retreating during the opponent's next turn. This was best once Boss's Orders was released, as Yveltal could pair with that to trap something harmless up front for a while. It is important to note that many decks at that time used multiple copies of Switch, so locking something in wasn't as powerful as you might imagine. There would, of course, be spots where the opponent didn't have that available, and Yveltal could help keep things shut down for a bit like this.

Yveltal had a couple of nice traits that were only useful in certain spots. Being a Basic Pokemon meant fitting in easily, as long as the deck had the right type of Energy. Yveltal's biggest chance came once Eternatus VMAX was released, as that deck needed to have a ton of Basic Darkness-types anyway and that was a spot where just sitting on the Bench was a positive even when it couldn't help otherwise. Yveltal was basically limited to that deck, however, as it didn't have a ton of other landing spots and Spiritomb was rarely looking for this sort of disruption.

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3100: Ditto Prism Star (Lost Thunder)

Ditto Prism Star played the standard Ditto role in the sense that it transformed into other things. This version was a Prism Star, giving Ditto one shot total, but it made up for it for being able to evolve into any Stage 1 card you wanted. While there were a lot of good decks based on just Basic Pokemon at the time, the fact that a card could fit into literally any deck with multiple Stage 1 lines was still pretty crazy. The question wasn't if Ditto Prism Star got into decks, it was how many would it fit into.

The stats here, to be fair, were really bad. 40 HP was not going to be taking any but the weakest attacks. Ditto Prism Star was largely reliant on the rest of the deck to provide protection, whether it was from having an attacker that was a more pressing issue for the opponent or from locking things down for a turn. The Fighting Weakness, amusingly, mattered a little in the SUM-On format due to Buzzwole and Buzzwole-GX still being reasonably good there and having attacks that did just 30 damage. The Retreat Cost was 1, mostly for when you were unlucky enough to start with this. Decks running Ditto Prism Star tended to run a good amount of Basics, so it was only an occasional problem.

Almighty Evolution was the Ability here, and also the only thing Ditto did since there wasn't even an attack on the card. It was, however, very powerful. Once during your turn, you could put any Stage 1 card from your hand onto Ditto Prism Star to evolve it. There was the standard evolving restriction here, in that you couldn't evolve during Ditto's first turn in play, so you had to keep it alive for a turn. That's where the help mentioned came into play.

Ditto Prism Star was an automatic inclusion in any deck with multiple Stage 1 lines. The obvious, and most common, partner was Zoroark-GX, which was a very powerful option in the SUM-On format. It could pair with Lycanroc-GX, Dewgong, Weavile, Golisopod-GX, and a host of others, and Ditto Prism Star could evolve into whatever was needed. It could even provide a way into something like Alolan Muk for decks with just 1 line of Stage 1's. Once rotation happened and these decks mostly got worse, Ditto Prism Star had fewer uses, but still got into a solid number of decks. Stall decks featuring things like Magcargo, Pidgeotto, and Cinccino could still make fine use of Ditto Prism Star.

Ditto Prism Star was a card any serious player had a copy of. Being restricted to 1 per deck and having such low HP still wasn't enough to prevent it from being a staple in every deck with multiple Stage 1 Pokemon. Just having that flexibility, as well as the option to toss in a random Stage 1 for a specific match-up if you wanted, was a big deal. If you could use Ditto Prism Star effectively, you would almost always be better off doing so.

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #2862: Lucario-GX (Forbidden Light)

You couldn't go too long without an interesting Lucario card in the TCG, likely due to the general popularity of the Pokemon. A Promo card was released of it as a GX, which quickly also got a print in Forbidden Light. This Lucario was strong for very little Energy, but only on the turn it evolved. It was otherwise a solid attacker for a type that had tons of them and had a possible trick up its sleeve to take multiple Prizes if it had been damaged but not KOed, a common situation for a Pokemon-GX. There was still a ton of competition to worry about, and standing out was going to be a problem even if the card was pretty intriguing.

Lucario-GX had 210 HP, which was as close to standard for a Stage 1 Pokemon-GX as you could get. It would generally survive a hit, and that GX attack meant that people had to play carefully around that to prevent a giant hit on an important Pokemon by leaving Lucario-GX heavily weakened. The Psychic Weakness did mean that Garbodor, Necrozma-GX, and Mewtwo & Mew-GX could handle it rather well, and that held the card back a bit but certainly didn't destroy its chances of being useful in a lot of games. The Retreat Cost, at 2, made Switch nice to have if you could fit it in your deck.

Aura Strike just needed a Fighting Energy. The base was just 30 damage, which would have been just a worse version of an attack on Buzzwole-GX if it wasn't for the effect. If Lucario-GX had evolved from Riolu during that turn, 90 was added for a very impressive 120 for that one Energy. Being able to get a second-turn big chunk of damage could make a big difference, and it was especially good in the BKT-On format where that Energy could be a Strong Energy. Add Regirock-EX and Diancie Prism Star into the mix and you were surprisingly close to some lower-end Pokemon-EX and Pokemon-GX HP numbers. It was still good, but not as devastating, in later formats, as the number on turn 2 for low Energy was impressive but the boosts weren't as available after the XY cards rotated out.

Cyclone Kick was just a solid 130 damage for 2 Fighting and a Colorless Energy. This was similar to what some other Fighting-types could do, and Lucario-GX could make progress if given the Energy to use it.

The GX attack here was a powerful one if Lucario-GX had taken even a moderate amount of damage. Cantankerous Breakdown GX needed 2 Colorless Energy and did 30 damage for each damage counter on Lucario-GX. This meant that even the bulkiest Pokemon were likely to fall to a Lucario that had only lost half of its HP. Going for a two-hit KO on it, which was a pretty typical thing to do against Pokemon-GX, would open you up to that, and you sometimes had to try to play around it which could be hard for those Zoroark decks, for example, which just tried to hit fast for 120 or so.

Lucario-GX had some pretty good finishes, both in Fighting decks with some of the Zygarde-GX, Buzzwole and Buzzwole-GX, and Lycanroc-GX cards mentioned so much before and with Zoroark-GX, using a bit of Fighting Energy and powering up the GX attack with Double Colorless. It was something you'd see sometimes, as it was quite good in its own right but everything it paired well with was too. Its perk with Zoroark decks was that it did well against other Zoroark, and Fighting decks liked having the GX attack around. It's hard to really place Lucario-GX due to its odd situation of only fitting into already good decks and being very functional but not making them way better. It was important to know what it did so you could prepare for it if nothing else, and Lucario fans had good ways to fit it in for some success.

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #2996: Counter Gain (Lost Thunder)

Counter Gain was one of the comeback measures that were released in the middle of the Sun & Moon era, with there being several doing this to some extent. This one was a Pokemon Tool, and when it was attached to a Pokemon, the attacks on said Pokemon cost a Colorless Energy less. This only worked if you had more Prize cards remaining than your opponent, so it was good in decks that sometimes fell a bit behind but also had Colorless Energy requirements somewhere. This made it into quite a few Zoroark decks, whether to make a quick attachment to Lycanroc-GX enough to use the GX attack there or for a play like using Oranguru to get back resources for no Energy. There was also a good bit of use of this in Arceus & Dialga & Palkia VSTAR decks, which sometimes did fall behind when setting up for later damage boosts and extra Prizes. Keldeo got a bit of help there, and the common Girafarig play to send stuff into the Lost Zone could also work in some spots. Some stall decks even used this with Lugia-GX, making a Double Colorless Energy enough to send the opponent's Active Pokemon to the Lost Zone with that GX attack. There were plenty of little things you could do with this, and it was worth it for decks that had a solid chance of falling behind early.

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #2894: Deoxys (Celestial Storm #67)

Deoxys was a Pokemon that had two different sides. One was the Deoxys that tried to punish Pokemon with Psychic Weaknesses that had too much Energy attached, though with a generally low damage ceiling. The other side was a Psychic deck exclusive that provided a single Prize attacker with reasonable damage. This provided some potential for use, though it was almost entirely tied to the success of a couple of types in the game. Good thing one of those was the ever-present Psychic.

120 HP wasn't bad for a Basic Pokemon by any means. There were a lot that were lower than this, but 120 was still just low enough to be Knocked Out by a wide variety of Pokemon from nearly any top deck that focused on attacking. Even something like Lycanroc-GX, which hit 110, had ways to get there even after Strong Energy was gone due to Diancie Prism Star. The Psychic Weakness could be a little annoying due to the prevalence of the type, even if it helped Deoxys see play. The Retreat Cost was just 1, useful in case the opponent didn't have an answer ready after Deoxys got a Prize or 2 off of whatever it was attacking.

Psychic was the first way Deoxys could contribute. The cost was 2 Colorless Energy, which made it accessible to any deck already using Double Colorless Energy. It did 20 damage for each Energy attached to the opponent's Active Pokemon, and it was useful in specific situations. The big one was against Malamar decks using Marshadow-GX, as it was common to put 3 Energy onto one. A Choice Band Psychic from Deoxys got a KO against a Marshadow-GX due to Weakness. It tended to be used to get a quick chunk of damage on something in other cases, almost always targeting Weakness since the attack was too weak otherwise.

Power Blast didn't rely on the opponent at all, instead requiring 2 Psychic and a Colorless Energy. It also required the discard of a Psychic Energy attached to Deoxys, and this made it exclusive to Malamar decks. 120 damage was actually rather good, as it took out pretty much anything in 2 hits outside of Tag Teams, which just needed a Choice Band (though with that unavailable in UPR-On Malamar was quite a bit less useful in that format). Having good damage while only giving up that single Prize was a pretty nice role, and some Malamar decks of the era ran a couple of these as a result.

Malamar could fit into Malamar decks to use both of its attacks as well as decks running Zoroark-GX or Tapu Koko to hit Psychic Weaknesses from Pokemon that needed a few Energy to do their jobs thanks to needing just Double Colorless Energy for that attack. There was some limit to Deoxys' use as there were plenty of GX Pokemon that were quite a bit stronger, and if it couldn't access Power Blast it was only going to hit some very specific Pokemon, mostly to avoid using something with 2 Prizes that had a Fighting Weakness. The result was a rather solid card that saw a good amount of play in the late BKT-On and early in the SUM-On formats before slowly losing steam over time. The game around it was built in a way where its strengths were generally useful.

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Pokemon Card of the Day #2927: Slaking (Celestial Storm)

Slaking was functionally an update to the Slaking card printed 15 years earlier in the Ruby & Sapphire set. The goal here was the same: Get up front to block the opponent's Abilities and hit things rather hard, right until you force yourself to switch out because of the attack's downside. The downside, along with Stage 2's not being at their greatest point by any means, did hold Slaking back quite a bit. Shutting down Abilities, however, messed with a lot of, but not all, decks, so if you could find the right partner you potentially had a deck that could work anyway. Finding that was not going to be even close to easy.

160 HP was very nice. You needed good HP for a Stage 2, and anything that forced Pikachu & Zekrom-GX to use an Electropower without giving up a second Prize was certainly in a good spot. A Fighting Weakness did cause issues right after Slaking was released against the Buzzwole/Zygarde/Lycanroc group. That group of Pokemon did see less play as time went on, so that Weakness mattered most in the BKT-On format and early in SUM-On. Any deck with Slaking would want a few switching cards available, as it wanted to switch out often but was stuck with a Retreat Cost of 3.

Lazy was actually a very good Ability. It worked whenever Slaking was your Active Pokemon and blocked all Abilities on the opponent's side of play other than another Lazy. This meant Zoroark-GX wasn't drawing cards, Malamar wasn't accelerating Energy, Mewtwo & Mew-GX wasn't copying attacks, and Zeraora-GX didn't help with retreating, among others. While it was very annoying that the attack didn't gel well with Slaking sitting up front at all, Lazy could be a huge setback to an opponent if you could actually get multiple Slaking in play. This was, of course, rather hard to do.

Critical Move hit pretty hard for the price. 160 was well above average for 3 Colorless Energy when it first came out, though Tag Teams did reach 150 pretty easily without drawbacks. The good news was that Slaking was a Pokemon that gave up just that one Prize, and that power was great on this sort of Pokemon. The problems here were that you not only had to discard an Energy attached to Slaking to use it, but Slaking also couldn't attack during your next turn. That's why you had to try to get multiple Slaking out, so you didn't miss out on an attack while locking the opponent down.

Slaking saw little play since getting multiple Stage 2 Pokemon out, getting Energy onto both, and switching them around constantly was a lot to ask. It did mess up some good Pokemon when it all came together, which was not that often but was certainly possible. Getting something like Swampert out as well could help with the Energy issues even if the set-up was really clunky, and Lazy was all about hitting the right match-up. Mewtwo & Mew-GX was never happy to see this, but Reshiram & Charizard-GX didn't care, for example. If you wanted something different and were willing to gamble on match-ups and card luck, Slaking provided that. It wasn't much more than a fun diversion in practice, however.

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Pokemon Card of the Day #2908: Registeel (Celestial Storm)

Registeel was an odd sort of Pokemon that had a little use on both offense and defense. It was a Metal-type attacker that only worked against Pokemon with Abilities, but did provide good damage from a reasonably bulky single Prize Pokemon. The defensive value simply came from its solid HP and a damage-reducing Ability of its own, possibly helped a little by a good Resistance. Nothing about any of this was amazing, yet it was enough that a few people saw some potential in it for their decks.

120 HP was a solid number for a Basic Pokemon, especially one with built-in damage reduction. The Ability combined with the HP number left it out of KO range for the likes of Zoroark-GX and Lycanroc-GX, for example, and that could be useful early on in the SUM-On format. The Fire Weakness was notable against Blacephalon-GX, which was going to cause an issue against a few match-ups. The Psychic Resistance, on the other hand, could provide a tiny bit more protection against Malamar decks. The Retreat Cost was 3, so if you could provide switching help it was a very good idea to do so.

Exoskeleton was a very simple Ability that made Registeel take 20 less damage from attacks after applying Weakness and Resistance. This made 140 the magic number to get a KO, and since 120 was such a common number around the time Registeel was released, there was some potential to tank a strong hit against the right deck.

Silver Fist needed a Metal and 2 Colorless Energy. Against many Pokemon it was just a very poor 60 damage. 60 was added if the opponent's Active Pokemon had an Ability, and 120 for 3 off a Pokemon like this was actually quite solid. This could provide an alternative attacker in a Metal deck, though the type wasn't the best in the format where Registeel's bulk was at the right amount to be relevant.

Registeel only saw a small amount of play. A bit of it was as an alternate attacker to help against Zoroark-GX, for the most part. The other use was just to sit there and tank hits from Pokemon that couldn't quite deal 140 damage while stalling. Registeel's window closed once the more powerful Tag Teams were released, with the best ones all dealing enough damage to get through that HP. Registeel, overall, was a decent card that had a small window of usefulness for a couple of decks.

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Pokemon Card of the Day #2818: Lycanroc (Forbidden Light)

While by no means being as impressive as Lycanroc-GX, which could force switches, the Forbidden Light version of Lycanroc did have one interesting attack. It depended on the opponent’s deck, which meant some match-ups would go much better than others. This was a time where Zoroark-GX wanted to fill its Bench and slots would often go to Pokemon such as Dedenne-GX and Tapu Lele-GX after their Abilities were used. Large Benches were not rare, and since Lycanroc could theoretically just get a slot in a deck already using Lycanroc-GX, there was a better chance for this than for some other Stage 1 Pokemon.

While 120 HP was not surprising for a Stage 1, it was just low enough to be a bit awkward as that was one of the most common numbers for good attackers to hit even when Lycanroc was first released. The Grass Weakness wasn’t too important as a result, as said type was somewhat rare and tended to find ways to reach 120 already. The Retreat Cost, at 2, meant switching cards were typically nice to have around, which was common for most Fighting-types at the time.

Dangerous Rogue was the reason you’d even think about including Lycanroc in a deck. A Fighting and a Colorless Energy was enough for an attack that did 20 damage for each of the opponent’s Benched Pokemon. The value here was when the opponent had a full Bench, and that meant 120 damage for just 2 Energy. This could get higher with Strong Energy, Diancie Prism Star, and Regirock-EX, and in the right spot Lycanroc was a pretty strong attacker. This was most likely in the BKT-On format, where most of the best decks tended to work best with a ton of Pokemon in play. Later formats were much more of a mixed bag.

Accelerock was a solid 100 damage for 2 Fighting and a Colorless Energy, and by that point it was probably better to use another attacker. It’s not like the GX Pokemon of the type didn’t do this better, but it could still work if really needed.

Lycanroc could work out in a few match-ups, such as those against Malamar, as a single Prize attacker that fit in nicely in decks already running Lycanroc-GX. The Zoroark-GX match-up was also nice, though one that tended to matter more if Garbodor showed up and not as much elsewhere due to how Fighting was as a type. Lycanroc wasn’t used in a lot of decks simply due to the choices that type had available at the time. It was a decent choice to consider yet was by no means a staple.