7 Decks and Thier Techs

Taking a Different Path…

Well… after writing a really long article on Accelgor for this site, I clicked submit and everything but 200 words got deleted. Oh well. So after that happened I decided to do something new! Today I will write an article about every meta deck in this format, including 7 skeleton lists, and every tech that I could find for each one! Also included is a mini Battle Road report where I did absolutely horrible.

Deck #1- Garchomp/Altaria

        Gartaria is an extremely hyped deck that is supposed to be hyper consistent and fast. Not all of this is true. Gartaria is a deck that performs the best against the “stupid rogue” decks because of it’s pure consistency and simplicity. Let’s look at the skeleton list.

Pokemon-19

4- Garchomp

3- Gabite

4- Gible

3- Altaria

3- Swablu

2- Emolga

Trainers- 24

4- Professor Juniper

4- N

3- Bianca

2- Cheren

4- Pokemon Catcher

3- Level Ball

2- Rare Candy

2- Super Rod

Energy- 11

7- Fighting

4- Blend WLFM

So this list leaves 6 spots open. The skeleton list that I have provided does not run Rayquaza, and because of that there is no reason to run switch either.

Rayquaza

This is probably the most common tech that you can find in most lists. Rayquaza can be used as an early donking option because of his lightning energy requirements. He can be powered up using Blend Energy and then strengthened with Altaria. The only setback is the space that you have to give up for him. He has 3 retreat and that outs you in a position where you need Switch.

Terrakion NVI

This is one of the more uncommon techs to deal with the bad matchup against Darkrai and can swing a match in your favor along with messing with your opponent’s mind when played down. Watch out for this tech, because it can also soften up EX Pokemon to get in the OHKO range for Garchomp

Deck #2- Darkrai/Hydreigon

        HDD is the deck that everyone is calling BDIF because of it’s increased speed with Dark Patch and that it can take down anything when setup.

Pokemon- 13

3- Deino NVI

1- Zwelious

3- Hydreigon

3- Darkrai

3- Sableye

Trainers- 33

4- Professor Juniper

4- N

3- Bianca

2- Random Receiver

4- Pokemon Catcher

3- Dark Patch

3- Rare Candy

3- Max Potion

3- Ultra Ball

2- Level Ball

2- Eviolite

Energy- 12

4- Blend Energy

8- Darkness

This list leaves 2 spots open for more tech Pokemon to squeeze in. Let’s look at the many techs that this deck has to offer.

Shaymin EX

With 4 N in this deck, Shaymin can be a perfect late game sweeper if you drop him down, move the energies to him and use N. In most games he will take you 4 prizes at least before he gets beaten. Some cards that can take him down are Zekrom, so Eviolite can fix the Zekrom problem pretty easily.

Sigilyph

Sigilyph can deny your opponent to take prizes by walling their EX Pokemon. And also if your opponent gets any ideas like loading energy on Mewtwo to OHKO your attackers you can use Sigilyph to actually OHKO him!

Entei EX

Entei can be powered up by Blend and hits for good damage while burning your opponent with his other attack. He can 2HKO any EX without Eviolite attached and will be able to wall with an Eviolite and Max Potion.

Registeel EX

I’ve been working on a list that runs 2 Regi and uses Triple Laser combined with healing to KO many Pokemon through the spread damage. He isn’t the best idea against the mirror but work against almost every other matchup.

Giratina EX

Giratina can be useful in matchups against Rayquaza. For :PGC: he does 90 and doesn’t apply any effects except for weakness and resistance. This will 2HKO any EX guaranteed and can be used to knock out opposing Giratina and Rayquaza.

Deck #3- Terrakion EX

            The only thing that I see going for this deck is that it can hit Darkrai for weakness and can beat Eels. If you have a Darkrai infested meta, I highly recommend this deck.

Pokemon- 8

3- Mewtwo EX

3- Terrakion EX

2- Terrakion

Trainers- 36

4- Juniper

4- N

4- Bianca

2- Random Receiver

4- Catcher

3- PlusPower

3- Switch

3- Potion

2- Ultra Ball

2- Tool Scrapper

2- Eviolite

2- Exp Share

1- Energy Switch

Energy- 13

9- Fighting Energy

4- Double Colorless Energy

This deck does not leave much room for tech options but with 2 open spots in the list there has to be something good.

Bouffalant

The 1 problem this deck has is Shaymin EX. After you have taken 3 Prizes they can OHKO Terrakion EX with an Eviolite on it so Bouffalant can be an easy was to get a return knockout on a Shaymin that just Knocked Out Terrakion EX or can just get easy prizes with his ability to be able to get loaded up in one turn.

Deck #4- Klinklang

            Klinklang has a version where it only runs Registeel EX and Cobalion to avoid cards like Garchomp taking away special energy. But this is the better version.

Pokemon- 15

4- Klink

2- Klang

3- Klinklang

2- Groudon EX

2- Registeel EX

1- Kyogre EX

1- Darkrai EX

Trainers- 32

4- N

4- Bianca

2- Cheren

3- Random Receiver

4- Max Potion

4- Heavy Ball

3- Rare Candy

3- Ultra Ball

3- Switch

2- Eviolite

Energy- 13

4- Blend Energy WLFM

4- Prism Energy

5- Metal Energy

There isn’t much to say about this deck except for that it can use much more attacker options than Hydreigon even though I will only list 1.

Mew EX

Mew is a surprising tech that I myself had to consider, and reconsider, and then reconsider again until I liked the idea. Mew can use any attack on the field and can OHKO a Mewtwo with Giant Claw. The only downside to Mew that I can see is it can get knocked out easily and have your energy get taken off the board.

Deck # 5- Rayeels

        Rayeels is a deck that can get a really good first turn with threatening to do 240 damage on turn 2.

Pokemon- 13

4- Eelektrik

4- Tynamo (any kind but free retreat)

2- Rayquaza EX

2- Mewtwo EX

1- Rayquaza

Trainers- 31

4- Juniper

4- N

2- Bianca

2- Cheren

4- Catcher

3- Switch

3- Ultra Ball

3- Level Ball

2- Super Rod

2- Tool Scrapper

2- Skyarrow Bridge

Energy- 14

8- Lightning Energy

6- Fire Energy

So this list has everything necessary in a Rayeels deck like both Rayquaza, Mewtwo EX, and the only forgotten card in the list is Zekrom BLW.  Zekrom can hit cards like Tornadus EX for weakness and has obvious synergy with Eelektrik. Its main purpose in here is to provide with a strong attacking option and to knock out Sigilyph DRE. Rayquaza can already do that for us but Zekrom can be a more flexible attacker when we actually need something like this.

Deck #6- Eelektrik

Eelektrik is the BDIF. I think that most of us would agree because it is the most versatile deck. Any attacker that uses colorless or lightning energy to attack can be shoved into this deck and will work most of the time.

Pokemon-14

4- Eelektrik

4- Tynamo (Again, any but free retreat.)

2- Zekrom

1- Raikou

3- Mewtwo

Trainers-30

4- Juniper

4- N

2- Bianca

2- Random Receiver

4- Pokemon Catcher

4- Ultra Ball

2- Level Ball

3- Switch

2- Eviolite

1- Super Rod

2- Skyarrow Bridge

Energy-13

9- Lightning Energy

4- Double Colorless Energy

Again, this deck has an extremely high amount of techs, but it would be easier to go over them in a way like this. Pluspower could be useful against opposing Mewtwo or just good in most situations against all different kinds of decks. Tool Scrapper can also be used but I would prefer Tool Scrapper in Rayeels and Pluspower in this deck because you just need Pluspower in most situations where you are 10 HP away from knocking out a Pokemon, which actually happens a lot. Tornadus EX is a good starter especially with a high count of Skyarrow and DCE. Raikou is a card that fits into almost any Eel deck and Zekrom and Mewtwo is pretty self explanatory.

Deck #7- Ho-oh EX

Ho-oh is an underrated deck that people call Tier 3 when I think it is Tier 1.5-2. Ho-oh can get the coolest donks out there and is extremely fun to play along with being a good surprise deck and able to win tournaments.

Pokemon-8

3- Ho-oh EX

2- Mewtwo EX

1- Braviary DRE

2- Rufflet DRE

Trainers- 30

4- Juniper

4- N

2- Bianca

4- Random Receiver

4- Energy Switch

4- Ultra Ball

3- Switch

3- Super Scoop Up

2- Pokemon Catcher

Energy- 18

2- Psychic

2- Fighting

2- Darkness

2- Water

2- Fire

2- Grass

2- Lightning

2- Metal

2- Double Colorless Energy

One of the main additions is a 4^th Super Scoop Up. SSU is a card that this deck can’t live without. Don’t ask me why, but SSU is what makes this deck so good. You could also add some more energy to make the deck more consistent but other than that this deck is a real Meta deck and I would at least Playtest against it.

Mini Tournament Report

So yesterday I went to a Battle Road and did horrible. I’ve never done this bad. I ran a Groudon EX, Registeel EX, Terrakion, Mewtwo EX deck expecting a lot of Darkrai when there was only 1! And I didn’t even face it! So here are how the rounds went…

Round 1 vs. Wesley (Hydreigon NVI, Eelektrik)

Win

Round 2 vs. Ben (Zekeel)

Loss

Round 3 vs. David (Garchomp)

Loss

Round 4 vs. Jake (Garchomp)

Loss

So there was one point in game 1 where I knocked out his Raikou EX to win the game and then we played it out as if I didn’t knock out Raikou (We just did this for fun). Instead, I passed and he used Juniper to hit a Pokemon Catcher and took 6 prizes in one turn with Berzerker Blade! Even though I won 0-5 he had so much potential on the next turn.

After game 2 I was 1-1 and the paring got messed up. I was 2-0 and playing a really hard 2-0 and Ben was 1-1 and was playing an easy 1-1. So instead of re-pairing they just swapped records and I had to play up in a match that I should have easy won if I faced the other 1-1. This resulted in Seniors having 4 3-0s and 2 4-0s which I really hated. Oh well.

Closing Thoughts

I think that all 7 of these decks deserve to be Tier 1 but not all are. Any of these would be an awesome play for Battle Roads and will definitely take home some wins. In the next couple of days I will have a tournament report of another Battle Road attended. Also, in the comments tell me if you liked this article or not and leave a comment on which of the 7 decks you like the most.