Tag: Decidueye GX

“My Eye on Anaheim: Top 16 Masters Report with Decidueye/Vileplume”
Today’s tournament report is written with players of all skill levels in mind, as well as lay people who know nothing about Pokémon cards! Whether you’re here for the story or the strategy, I hope all of you who take the time to read this report enjoy it very much. Most of all, I hope it all makes sense!

Table of Contents:

–Part 2–
6. The Journey to Anaheim
7. The Tournament Report
8. Some Final Thoughts on the Deck, and Ideas Going into Collinsville
9. Conclusion

6. The Journey to Anaheim

For those unaware, my trip to Anaheim almost didn’t happen. I got an unfortunate notice from my airline that my flight had been CANCELLED due to historic rainfall and even flooding throughout much of Southern California. I queued myself up for the only standby flight option available, but knew this was a long shot. So while on the hunt for Chicken McNuggets (I get a strange craving for them every time I go to an airport), I stumbled upon my airline’s customer service counter. By chance there was a new option available: a one-stop flight going through Chicago and then to Los Angeles! I hopped on it almost immediately, and while it was certainly much longer and less comfortable than my original direct flight was intended to be, it was my only chance to play.

Thanks to my incredible friends Alec and Robby, I actually had a ride waiting for me at LAX! Things were all around coming up Milhouse, and my tournament was on.

This image is oddly appropriate for today’s entry

7. The Tournament Report

Round One: VS Volcanion

I played against a LOT of Volcanion decks1

Game One: I go first and miss the turn one Vileplume Item lock. However, his start isn’t particularly explosive either, and so I’m able to get out both a Decidueye GX and Vileplume by turn two. I then proceed to win what should be an otherwise unwinnable matchup in a relatively unconventional manner: I use Lysandre to force one of his three Retreat cost Volcanion EX into the active position, and slowly whittle down his energized Volcanion EX with Feather Arrow. This buys me time to set up a second Decidueye GX, and about six turns in, I’ve taken out both his Volcanion EX. It’s a very slow way to win, taking well over 30 minutes, but it gets the job done.

Game Two: This game his start is much faster while mine is considerably slower, resulting in a quick early lead for him. I keep myself above water (above steam?) with my Lugia EX and Tauros GX, keeping his Volcanion EX in check. At about the mid-point marker in the game, where I just began to gain back control with my delayed start to Vileplume, time was called, and I won the match. (1-0)

Round Two: VS Volcanion

Game One: My opponent’s list had a couple neat variations which made it unique, including a tech Zoroark line and Hex Maniac. Unfortunately he seemed to struggle to get these out or get to play them at the right time, and had an awful opening start to boot. My start wasn’t too great either, with neither Supporters nor Shaymin EX outs, but fortunately I got out a turn one Decidueye GX. So then I improvised by using my Hollow Hunt GX on the first turn, grabbing back the two Trainers’ Mail I used to set up my Decidueye previously. Those Trainers’ Mail in turn nabbed me a Sycamore and a Level Ball, getting me out of the awful start and into a board with multiple Decidueye GX’s and a Vileplume. I won quickly from there.

Game Two: I go second yet again, and while my opponent’s start is – for the second time – much stronger, I draw into an incredible chain that lets me streamline all of my Stage Two Pokémon very early, again locking him out of the game. (2-0)


Round Three: VS Volcanion

Game One: Unlike the previous lists, this one ran a copy of Entei AOR (Combat Blaze), offering my opponent a viable non-EX attacking option against my deck. Unfortunately for him, I got the lock out and just benched him.

Game Two: Our starts weren’t particularly bad this game, but his fast Entei, multiple successful Max Elixirs, and multiple Float Stones on multiple Volcanion EX’s turn one before my Vileplume lock made solving this game a real puzzle. I never at any point thought I was 100% out of it until the very last turn, and a couple whiffs on Lysandre or Energy for Steam Up could’ve kept me alive, but this was the only Volcanion game of the tournament where my opponent’s superior setup just overran me.

Game Three: In what might be one of my best hands of the tournament, I set up a combined two Decidueye and Vileplume on turn one, allowing me to blaze through his deck in record time. (3-0)


Rounds Four and Five: VS Volcanion

Unfortunately, it’s at this point where my memory gets incredibly fuzzy. I just found it so incredible that I would pair against this seemingly “bad” matchup five times in a row, systematically dismantling all of them. However, I won the first match in a similar manner to rounds one through three, and was only a turn off from winning the fifth match. The fourth list was pretty normal, while the fifth list had a couple fun Sun and Moon choices like Lillie. (4-0-1)


Round Six: VS Mega Ray

My only losses the entire weekend were to this ugly, overgrown Groundhog-Snake thing

Game One: This matchup was a big motivation behind my decision to run Jirachi, and the Jirachi was helpful in staving off his early start. However, due to a couple Forest of Giant Plants being prized, and being unable to draw my other two, my Vileplume lock took far too long to set up in order to stay ahead of my opponent. I sure was missing those Reserved Tickets!

Once I finally got my lock going, including a fat Dragonite EX out in the active, he already had an Olympia sitting in his hand to switch out! I conceded pretty quickly after that.

Game Two: I drew a bad opening hand and got stomped! (4-1-1)


Round Seven: VS Turbo Darkrai

Game One: My heart sunk a bit when all I saw was a line of Decidueye GX, a second Rowlet, and some Energy. Fortunately, this was all that I needed to stay afloat in the game: His start wasn’t too incredible, and so my Decidueye GX became an incredible wall on the third turn. Its bulk in turn got me through the game

Game Two: One aspect of his list which was relatively unique was the inclusion of two Hex Maniac. Their value really showed this game, as he was able to do a good job keeping me locked, and after a relatively long slug fest, he finally won.

Game Three: Unlike the past couple games, which were characterized with a slow start and Hex lock, I charged into my Stage Two lineups right away. I then played very quickly in my effort to draw six prizes before the clock expired. I can’t characterize my choices as optimal, especially with some questionable Feather Arrow targets, but I made it with less than a minute to spare.  (5-1-1)


Round Eight: VS Mega Mewtwo (Ross C.)


I decided to write this round before any other, and this description in particular because I think a couple of the interactions Ross and I had were incredibly fascinating.

First, I have a routine I offer every game to my opponents: I position myself to flip a coin, and then ask them if they want to call Heads, Tails, or in the air. He immediately asked if I’d be willing to do a roll of the die – something I normally wouldn’t do, but I went ahead and did anyways because I like Ross and have known him for a long time. I figured his motivation to ask for a die roll was based on past interactions, which I later confirmed by asking him. I then followed that up with, “Well, why didn’t you just call the flip in the air?”

At that point he simply said, “I didn’t hear you say that. But sure, that would’ve been fine.”

My takeaway: some flexibility in your early game routine (change randomizers or offer to flip in the air) is actually a really effective trust-building tool.

However, long live the coin master race

Second, Ross shuffles on his lap. This results in his deck going below the table, which is a serious problem because your cards should never go below the table. Again, I like Ross, have known him for forever, and have an immense respect for the quality of his game. However, I don’t care if you’re El Chapo Guzman or Mother Theresa: keeping your hand above the table is one of those ironclad rules of any card game. So I asked him multiple times to keep his deck above the table – something he complied with without any issue. The shoe was on the other foot, and he was willing to get a bit out of his comfort zone for the sake of respect.

My takeaway: respecting your opponent’s reasonable requests and maintaining trust makes asking for your own reasonable requests that much easier. 

So that was fun – a couple neat takeaways. Now let’s get back to the games…

Game One: Ross won the opening fli—errr…dice roll, and opted to go first. Normally this would put a lot of pressure on a list like mine because of the threat of early Garbodor, but fortunately his lines make it harder to get out that all-important early Trubbish with Float Stone. This meant I had no threat of losing my Abilities, and so Vileplume’s Item Lock came out with no real threat to it, alongside Decidueye a turn later. We then spent a very long time making trades of Decidueye swarms against Mewtwos, while I simultaneously put damage on his Shaymin EX on the bench. He was never able to hit me with too good of a Shrine of Memories/Damage Change combo, but he did save a Shaymin from certain death. Ultimately, however, a very well-timed, luckily-drawn Lugia EX with Double Colorless Energy gave me just the damage output I needed to Knock Out his final Mewtwo, and seal the game.

(Also, I’d like to note that while Espeon GX didn’t get a chance to make a difference, it very well could have thanks to its GX attack. Ross just didn’t have the Lysandre to bring up my no-Float Stone VIleplume into the active position.)

Game Two: He again went first, and again couldn’t get out a fast Garbodor, but the difference here was that his start was a lot more aggressive than the last game. I brought up a Tauros to attempt to keep his Mewtwo from going too out of control as I built up other attackers, but that hardly lasted long enough to make a difference. Although Decidueye still did a good job exchanging with his Mewtwos, it wasn’t enough to seal the game. So by top being called and the third turn before the match’s end, his Mega Mewtwo Knocked Out the last Pokémon he needed to tie up the match. (5-1-2)

Round Nine: VS Mega Gardevoir (Stefan Tabaco)

Game One: Going second, I got stuck on a first-turn Hex Maniac with a lone Oddish and a Sycamore in hand. However, Tauros GX is pretty good in this matchup, so I decided to position myself to get my Oddish out of the active position and into the Tauros. So I used Ultra Ball for Tauros, benched it, hoped for the best and…drew an entire turn one Vileplume under Ability lock, on top of a Float Stone and a Double Colorless Energy! I then immediately used Tauros GX to take control of the game while slowly building up my benched Decidueyes. He made a good comeback without much to work from, but he couldn’t come back when I had two Deidueye in play.

Game Two: Although I had two Oddish prized, a dirty little secret to this deck is that you can play whole games without ever locking Items once. His start wasn’t too stellar, so Decidueye was able to carry the game unassisted at all by Vileplume. (6-1-2)

…And with that, I was on to day two! I at least made the cost of my trip back, and at 22^nd seed could only go up from there.

Round Ten: VS Mega Ray (Michael)

Game One: I didn’t get any Stage Two Pokémon until turn three, but when I finally got out the heart of my deck, it was an unstoppable setup. Jirachi promo put in lots of work, slowing him down and knocking off Double Colorless Energy cards he would have no way to get back under item lock.

Game Two: I drew an unplayable hand and lost.

Game Three: I drew another unplayable hand and lost again. (6-2-2)

Round Eleven: VS Turbo Darkrai (Joshua)

Game One: I drew incredibly and won to an unplayable hand.

Game Two: I drew incredibly and won a somewhat dragged-out, but still mostly hard-to-play hand for my opponent. (7-2-2)

Round Twelve: VS Turbo Darkrai (Mark Garcia)

Game One: I drew incredibly and won to an unplayable hand.

Game Two: I drew incredibly and won to an unplayable hand.  

…Wow, those sure were some interactive games versus Turbo Darkrai, huh?!

Round Thirteen: VS Mega Mewtwo (Ryan Sabelhaus)

Game One: Unlike my series with Ross, this iteration of Mega Mewtwo was an exact copy of Igor Costa’s second place deck list from a few weeks back – think the list I posted last week, but with an extra Trainers’ Mail instead of a Tauros GX. As such, his Garbodor lock was much more reliable, getting out turn two. I flailed around a bit to see if I had a way out of it, but I just wasn’t drawing into my Energies to see light at the end of the tunnel. I scooped relatively quickly.

Game Two: In another moment of totally interactive gameplay, I…got out a turn two Vileplume, and he did not get a Garbodor out. It was a little bit more questionable due to his ability to Hex to open up attachment of Float Stone and Evolution into Garbodor. However, I sniped his only Trubbish before that could happen, and didn’t have too much trouble cruising to a win.

Game Three: At the beginning this game was looking a lot like game one, but I was able to get two damage counters on his Trubbish by the first turn. This made all the difference, as within several turns that later set me up for the perfect opportunity to Knock Out his Trubbish with a Razor Leaf. He also found himself in a horrible draw spot, stuck with two Double Colorless on a regular Mewtwo EX…with no way to evolve it. I seized on the chance and knocked it out. While he ultimately got out a Mega Mewtwo EX, the aggression paid off, and I was quickly getting into a spot where I could stick his benched Hoopa EX in the active position while tearing apart his bench. Unfortunately time was called and I knew there was no way on Earth I’d draw all my prizes in time, so I made the simple plays that guaranteed the tie. (8-2-3).

Round Fourteen: VS Vespiquen/Zoroark/Herdier (Dan Lynch)

Game One: I got out a quick lock, but not much in the attacking options. It worked out pretty well for me, but opened up the possibility for a comeback. He did just that with some big hits with Zoroark and Orangaru, but they cost nearly all of his Double Colorless attachments. Once the fourth energy was down, I had the game.

Game Two: I found myself one card off of the turn one Vileplume, which set me back greatly for the rest of the game. I never did get Vileplume out past that point, and while my Decidueyes put up a lot of fight, and my Jirachi especially put in work, he always had the knock out in hand. I then, with multiple prizes left to his one, was dead on arrival.

Game Three: Without much time left, I capitalized on an explosive start and start Knocking Out his Pokémon very, very quickly. Unfortunately, he always seemed to have a Basic, and when time was called, I was – again – a turn off of winning an unlosable match. (8-2-4)

8. Some Final Thoughts on the Deck, and Ideas Going into Collinsville

So that was it – the end of Decidueye/Vileplume’s crazy Regionals run. In the process I played against some incredible players, beat some matchups which common knowledge, but fell just a bit short of continuing in the top eight. I really wanted to win this one, but I did finish well enough to justify continuing my season to more Regionals and traveling!

I wouldn’t have made too many changes to Decidueye – all of which were addressed above in the list discussion. For Collinsville and the Expanded format, Decidueye/Seismitoad is looking like a clear frontrunner. I also wouldn’t discount Decidueye/Vileplume either, especially because you get crucial cards like Jirachi EX, Computer Search, and Tool removal (eat that, Garbodor!). Of course your matchups change as well, which include Archeops Noble Victories: the prehistoric, Evolution-devastating bird monster.  Despite how big of a threat Archeops can be, it will practically have the same effect Garbodor had on me this Regional: clearly a concern, but nothing you can’t handle, and especially something you can beat or at least stalemate.

This Regionals inspired me to keep thinking outside of the box, so it’s entirely possible I’ll use something radically different should I go to Collinsville. Nevertheless, if Decidueye proved it can compete with the best in Standard, then it can surely handle a much friendlier Expanded format!

9. Conclusion

In the old days, tournament reports were concluded with “props” section. Since I’m no longer a 14 year-old kid, I feel less interested in “props” – I could go on and on about the things I like. Instead, let’s take this moment to highlight some people I owe a ton of gratitude to for helping me survive this torrential weekend:

–Robby and Alec, my friends and roommates this trip. In a 20-year storm they stuck around waiting to come pick me up, tested and theorymonned…and most importantly talked me out of M Beedrill EX, haha. Robby was also the sole person aside from random opponents on PTCGO who got a chance to see how powerful Decidueye can be against its supposed autoloss, Volcanion.

–The airline customer service rep who miraculously routed me through the only path possible to get to Anaheim.

–My girlfriend Yanet did a really good job keeping me relaxed the Friday before the tournament. Everything needed to go right for me to not only get that new flight, but get to it on time, and she really helped me get in the right mindset for that.

–Second City Gym, the tournament organizer, for being ready to refund my entry fee in case I couldn’t get on a flight. Good customer service experience for my first regional of the season!

–MTGDeals.com for having exactly what I needed to finish my deck.

–Luck! I’m a lucky, blessed person in more ways than one, including getting this golden opportunity to jumpstart my 2016-2017 competitive season.

 

Til next time,

~JK

 

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“My Eye on Anaheim: Top 16 Masters Report with Decidueye/Vileplume”
Today’s tournament report is written with players of all skill levels in mind, as well as lay people who know nothing about Pokémon cards! Whether you’re here for the story or the strategy, I hope all of you who take the time to read this report enjoy it very much. Most of all, I hope it all makes sense!

Table of Contents:

–Part 1–
1. A (Re)introduction
2. A Sorta-Kinda Comeback, and Where We're at Today
3. The Importance of Anaheim
4. The Reasoning Behind Decidueye
5. The List: Analysis and Explanations

1. A (Re)introduction

My name is John Kettler, and I’m a life-long fan of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. I’ve been playing since this game first came out wayyyyy back in my childhood (“something-something you know you’re a 90’s kid when…”). I then became inspired by the online community to become competitive in 2003, when I made a name for myself as a player of unique, strange, and fun decks ,most of which I made on my own or with close teammates. Extended to our complete network, there were around two-three dozen of us spending the better part of 2003-2007 monopolizing the scholarship and travel awards available. 

Later I began college, and as such saw a slight but insignificant slip in my results. But while I stopped dominating events the way I once did, I stayed relevant through founding the site you’re now reading: HeyTrainer.org. Founded on the ideals of free speech and free dumb, HeyTrainer.org was a reaction to a community with very few good spaces for the adult players  – ironic, since at least 70% of the people who play Pokémon cards competitively are adults! Henceforth, I became less known for the playing, and better known as “Mr. HeyTrainer.”

However, we’re all three-dimensional people, so naturally our passions extend beyond any one particular thing. One such other great passion of mine is law – specifically areas with cutting-edge political questions such as immigration and family law. Finally (and most importantly), I’ve found myself in a serious relationship of three years! Thus, I balance a lot of things these days, and some of those things take priority over others. As much as I love Pokémon, I want to advance my career more than I want to play this game; and because we’re long distance, I will easily choose spending time with my girlfriend over playing Pokémon any day of the week.

The result was an erosion in my obsession for the game. Rather than stay well ahead of the curve as I once did, I began to lose my touch in both playing and deck building. Unlike older name players who aged like fine wine, I looked more like Casey at the Bat, putting up wildly inconsistent performances from 2012-2014. Some of this can be chalked up to the change of invitational structure, which emphasizes lots of tournament success over a few hot runs, but ultimately, not winning a National or World Championship falls squarely under your shoulders. I also neglected my poor brainchild HeyTrainer.org, which – although inspiring countless of the major Facebook groups which exist today – is now a Rocky Balboa in the Face(book) of countless Apollo Creeds.

2. A “Sorta-Kinda” Comeback, and Where We’re at Today

Starting with the middle of 2014 and continuing today, my tournament performances improved substantially. I started earning invites again, learned how to stress out less, became more honest with myself as a player, and found inspiration all over again. Johnny got his jam back, but there was one thing missing: a revived HeyTrainer!

Although I came dangerously close to closing this site for good, I decided that the forum once famous for its “anything goes” mindset needed to keep on existing for a new generation of players sick of the Facebook groups. I also saw a drop in quality of a lot of the “premium article” websites: places which charge players money to read articles meant to improve their performances at tournaments. Although notable exceptions exist for both, including but not limited to the HeyFonte Facebook page and the Pokebeach premium article program, I determined that our community has a void which desperately needs to be filled.

Therefore, the principal focus here is pretty simple: an increase in high-quality, free content for players, coupled with an unstoppable passion for this quirky card game of ours!

3. The Importance of Anaheim

Starting with the current season, the official organizing body for Pokémon tournaments – Play! Pokémon – increased the prize support of Regional Championships: prestigious events which represented the populations of several states or provinces. What once saw a prize of just a few boxes now sees a first place cash award of $5,000, as well as greater implications for multiple free trips across the world year-round! Unfortunately, all good things have a tradeoff, and the tradeoff this season was a severe cut in local tournaments, including individual State Championship event. The end result is that you now have a very hard time pursuing a competitive season outside of a few hours’ distance; otherwise, you won’t get the achievement points (Championship points) necessary to get free stuff. You also won’t have half a prayer to compete in the World Championships, the most prestigious and valuable tournament of the entire season!

Historically I love playing, but I also historically don’t like forking out tons of money to travel all over the world playing Pokémon. That’s why I have a harder time justifying tournament costs larger than the entry fee and a few bucks for gas.

A nice thing about living in Texas is that I never missed my local Regional Championship, meaning I had at least one good chance before the National and World Championships to test my mettle versus elite players in the real, non-online world. However, as mentioned earlier, I chose not to go to this year’s Regional Championship because it was scheduled the weekend of New Year’s. New Year’s was special for two reasons: it was my first time to celebrate a New Year in person with my girlfriend; and the First of January happens to be my mother’s birthday! For those reasons, it ultimately made more sense to skip the Regional entirely.

Don’t mistake prioritizing the important things in life for a lack of love for the game, though: I was still hungry for some good performances, and so the idea of flying to Anaheim for a Regional Championship came to be. I thought, “If I do well enough here, I can justify playing in more tournaments! If not, then let’s just roll the dice at the National Championship.”

4. The Reasoning Behind Decidueye

And thus, I decided that I should be perfectly willing to bet it on a new, risky concept out of Sun and Moon: Decidueye GX. The Pokémon Trading Card Game is mostly about getting Damage onto opposing Pokémon, and this card lets you put Damage in play…for free. You don’t even have to PAY anything!

Free and powerful…Sound familiar?

Well, other than that one little joke, I don’t need to spend much time telling you about the merits of Decidueye GX itself. That’s because I’ve already done it twice: once last week, and again the week before that. The purpose of this section, however, is to address why I risked my season on such an unconventional, new concept.

As mentioned above, this tournament was the bellwether for my entire season: If I did well, then I would play at more Regionals; if I did not do well, then I’d stake it all on Intercontinentals – a.k.a., the Artist Formerly Known as Nationals. So since my season’s path depended on this single Regional, I had much less pressure on me to play something safe. This freedom from safety in turn gave me the freedom to stick with what would otherwise be a very scary deck: After all, it’s a deck centered around getting at least two Stage Two Pokémon in play in a format full of Basics! How could that win games?!

Well, Basics can’t do nearly as much when all of their absurdly powerful Tools and Items aren’t there to assist them, right? Plus, the ability to deal Damage anywhere in the field combined with Item lock means you can even stick these powerful cards in unwinnable positions. Also, I uh…played a deck exactly like this at Nationals 2012, in an era even worse for Evolutions and better for Basics. And at that tournament I got 10^th out of over a thousand people.

That memory suddenly put a lot more wind in my sail for Decidueye, so I knew it was an insane enough concept to work. All it needed was a good enough list…

5. The List: Analysis and Explanations

Here is the list I used, in all its crazy glory!

Does this look familiar? It should, because I spent a whole fourth of my last blog entry talking about Decidueye! As I mention in that article and in my Quick Search entry, my preferred way to run the list is Vileplume, and the changes to make the list I posted there to Vileplume were not that hard.

From the Vileplume-free list I posted, literally all you have to do is cut VS Seekers and Fighting Fury Belt. No giant mystery – just don’t run the stuff you either won’t use under Item lock, or won’t want to play before Item lock!

Let’s look at the choices in detail:

4-4-4 Decidueye GX line: Decidueye is your everything, so of course it makes sense to run a decent-sized line of it. However, I have multiple reasons for why I run a maximum count. First, the more pieces you run, the more likely you will get your free Damage faster and in numerous quantities. Second, Decidueye GX’s GX Attack, Hollow Hunt GX, is incredibly important in smoothing out every aspect of our deck, but you won’t be getting it out nearly as often and when you need it without four! Finally, I’m fairly convinced that without a 4-4-4 line, you don’t have nearly as many swarming options as needed to last a full game.

2-2-2 Vileplume line: At first I started with a 3-3-3 line, but was inspired by Andrew “Russian Charizard” Wamboldt’s Lurantis/Vileplume article to give 2-3-3 a try. I quickly became addicted to the greater space, so I then dropped it down all the way to 2-2-2, which was just the sweet spot needed in order to fit all the variety tech attackers I wanted, which will be discussed below.

1 Lugia EX: Of all the Big Basics you could pair with Decidueye GX, Lugia EX is the strongest. Its Aero Ball Attack puts immediate offensive pressure on your opponent in any situation, and Feather Arrows combined with its second Attack, Deep Hurricane, allows for incredibly high Damage caps to be reached. With some careful planning, it’s not unheard of to position a One-Hit Knockout against a Mega Pokémon through Deep Hurricane! Lugia EX was by far my favorite Basic tech of the weekend.

1 Tauros GX: While Lugia EX is a great offensive hitter, Tauros GX is great for revenge kills and defensive positioning. If the opponent attacks a Tauros GX with even a medium-sized attack, you’re suddenly putting nearly all of the format in range for a one-shot KO. While Tauros had its moments, I was longing for a second Lugia EX more often than not, especially in the Mega Mewtwo matchup.

1 Jirachi XY67: Jirachi made it in as the 60^th card because of a theory process I went through on the airplane right to the event. Since I was torn between about half a dozen tech Attackers for only 2-4 spots total, I went down the line and considered exactly which matchup each helped out in the most. This theorizing led me to conclude that I had two blind spots: Mewtwo/Garbodor and Mega Rayquaza. To help alleviate both of those matchups, I decided to run promo Jirachi exclusively for its Stardust Attack. Not only do I discard their few-and-far-between Double Colorless Energies, but slow down a very fast, aggressive assault, buying me time to double my Feather Arrow output. Although Jirachi ultimately didn’t win me any of my four matches versus those decks in practice, I think it has the potential to turn both of those matchups in your favor. Perhaps the safer, cleaner play would be to run Meowth Fates Collide, which we’ll discuss in a bit.

3 Shaymin EX: Shaymin EX’s Set Up is the heart of nearly all draw power in the current format, and my deck is no exception. However, the difficult decision for me was whether I wanted to run three or four copies. A deck featuring Forest of Giant Plants for fast evolutions is about speed, so of course you would want a higher-than-average count of a card capable of getting your deck size below 30 on turn one. What I found in testing is that with the fourth Shaymin EX, I saw diminishing returns, to the point where its removal was hardly noticed.

4 Sycamore: I’ve seen many fast setup decks survive without a maximum count of Sycamore, but when you aren’t running any copies of VS Seeker to get them back, it’s essential to run as many as you can.

3 N: Hand replenishment is great, and hand disruption under Item lock is even better. What makes N particularly special in this deck however is its great synergy with Feather Arrow Knock outs. When your Opponent has a heavily damaged EX Pokémon with little health left, but is currently two prizes ahead of you, N lets you get the advantage of a bigger hand, score the Knock Out on the heavily damaged EX, and then maybe even score another KO with an Attack. This suddenly means that thanks to N, you get to create an even bigger comeback win than normal. 

2 Lysandre: While I felt fine with the above Supporter counts, running only two Lysandre copies was one of the toughest decisions I had to make. Part of having a solid lock with Decidueye GX and Vileplume includes having the wherewithal to bring up a high Retreat Cost Benched Pokémon and snipe the actual threats. For that reason, I actually ran three copies through the majority of my testing. I finally decided to bring it down to two because I was confident in Hollow Hunt GX getting back the used Lysandre copies, as well as to keep my Set Up Abilities from yielding fewer cards.

4 Ultra Ball: Gets anything; thins your hand out for stronger Set Up Abilities.

4 Trainers’ Mail: Your games are often made or broken on how fast you can fetch a Forest of Giant Plants.

3 Level Ball: The count on Level Ball was one of the most contested aspects of my list, but rarely because it wasn’t useful. Rather, I thought about all the other possibilities that could be obtained at the expense of this quick, dirty way to fetch every one of your pre-evolution cards. I came down as low as one in order to fit a nifty little idea (more on that later), but when that idea was ruled out, three Level Ball became my final choice: enough to fetch your lines consistently, but not so many they detract from your deck’s versatility.

2 Revitalizer: Revitalizer is an incredible way to fix bad Professor Sycamore discards, make your explosive starts even more explosive, or just help you get around games with bad prizes. I actually started out with three Revitalizer but cut it to two due largely in part to the desire to keep my Set Up draws from being clogged, but also because I determined that really careful playing foregoes any need for the third copy. It’s a large reason why I took my typical prize-searching process much more seriously: because I knew that while I had some slack in case something was prized or discarded, I didn’t have much!

2 Float Stone: Due to my confidence in maintaining Feather Arrow aggression regardless of what my Active was, I actually spent much of testing with one or even zero Float Stone. That meant if a Vileplume got brought into the Active position by Lysandre, I was totally ready for that. However, I determined that not running enough Float Stone copies made splashing in tech Basic attackers completely unfeasible, so keeping space for that many copies became a necessity.

4 Forest of Giant Plants: Save the rainforests; fight climate change!

4 Double Colorless Energy: Nothing special here – 4 DCE is just really good for everything including attacking, retreating, and getting Shaymins out of play. Hypothetically you could run fewer than a maximum count if you were only running Decidueye and Vileplume, especially since you have Hollow Hunt GX to get them back. However, the inclusion of the tech attackers all but forces you to have this many.

4 Grass Energy: Unlike running two copies of Revitalizer and Lysandre, there are many things that can happen outside of your control if you ran any less than four Grass Energy in this deck. Not running VS Seekers means you will constantly want to have access to Hollow Hunt GX, Decidueye swarms, or even the ability to pay Vileplume’s hefty three Retreat cost. Running fewer than four also risks putting otherwise easy matchups in the tossup column, like Greninja and Waterbox. Grass Weakness doesn’t mean anything if you can’t ever attack with Razor Leaf, right?!

Other Possibilities

Meowth, FTC: It does a clean 50 damage to anything in play as long as it has Damage on it already – pretty neat, huh? Combined with Decidueye GX however, it becomes an immediate OHKO threat to any small Basic, most import of which is Trubbish BKP. Most lists running Garbodor BKP and its Ability-locking Garbotoxin have to wait a turn before evolving their Trubbish, so a Meowth strike can prevent what could otherwise be a very ugly board situation.  I’ve actually switched it into my current list on the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online, and it’s working as well as I knew it could. The only downside is that I have nothing to tilt my Rayquaza matchup other than just getting set up first.

Trevenant EX, PRC: The only thing that can prevent locking a high Retreat cost Pokémon in the active position while you go to town on the rest of your opponent’s threats is a pesky Float Stone, or reduced Retreat cost via Float Stone. What better way to deal with both of those than a Pokémon which locks the active with Dark Forest, without any hope of Retreat beyond a Pokémon Ranger or Olympia? Trevenant EX is also great because it lets you work on killing two, possibly three different Pokémon all at once! That said, I think the list does a fine enough job keeping Pokémon locked as-is, and it’s not high up on the list of choices.

Beedrill EX, XY157: Beedrill EX, unlike Meowth, is an unconditional way to rid yourself of a Tooled-up Garbodor while Vileplume is also in play. I like it almost as much as Meowth, especially because its second Attack can risk big damage for only two Energy, but the Meowth and Jirachi are both much more versatile in shoring up even matchups. It’s also a very vulnerable EX to potentially leave Active with as much as a DCE and Grass on it.

M Beedrill EX, XY158: This is my garbage gimmick idea. By Mega Evolving an already-included Beedrill EX, you now create an even more frightening lock via auto paralysis and quadruple poison, thus accelerating anything you had in mind. The idea is 100% untested, and thus gets no more respect from me than “crazy-awful 11^th hour idea,” but actually could be a really scary deck I you could somehow fit it.

1-1 Raticate EVO: Rattata is another decent way to deal with Float Stoned Trubbish. However, my favorite theory was to put opponents in horrible positions with Raticate’s Crunch, discarding all Energy while you Feather Arrowed from the safety of the Bench. Shadowy Bite is also an incredible way to punish decks with lots of Special Energy.

X number of Celebi, XY93: Celebi is cool because it can augment Decidueye’s Feather Arrow Damage targets while offering what could be on a good flip the deck’s best stall wall via Leap through Time. I ultimately determined that because of how common Silent Lab, Garbodor, and Hex Maniac are, the last thing I needed was a copy of a card that had no hope of significantly improving any matchup past Gyarados AOR (which you shouldn’t have a problem against anyways).

2-4 Reserved Ticket: One of the wildest versions of this list that appeared to have some success was running copies of Reserved Ticket. Much of this deck’s problem is not drawing cards, but getting a copy of Forest of Giant Plants out into play. One solution I settled on was to run copies of Reserved Ticket, which despite relying on a flip increases your odds of rigging the top card with Forest. I ultimately settled on not running this for two reasons: first, I put a lot of premium on deck space dedicated to actual attackers; second, I wasn’t too keen on playing an Item that doesn’t actually thin your deck.