Dark Days Ahead — Your Complete Guide to Yveltal / Garbodor

Hey there PokeBeach! I’m thrilled to be able to write the first premium article to appear on the site in 2017 – while it only occurred by happenstance and this distinction was not given to me based on merit in any sort of way, I still feel obligated to make this article my best one yet to set the tone for the new year, so hopefully I will be able to live up to that lofty goal I just set for myself. Today, I’ll be concluding my three part, month long series of in-depth articles focusing on a single deck by talking about the current, undisputed best deck in the Standard format: Yveltal-EX / Garbodor. While I am by no means the best Yveltal player in the world (I’m looking at you, Frank Diaz, Israel Sosa and Brad Curcio), Travis Nunlist and I have basically spent the past week leading up to this article perfecting our list of the deck, and I truly believe it is the best list that I have seen currently. Oh, and I guess Olliver Barr helped us develop the list as well. Please note that this list was created before the results of Dallas Regionals. I will go over some of the changes I would make to the list after seeing the Dallas metagame as well. Without further ado, let’s just jump right into the list!

I absolutely love writing these in depth, one deck per article, articles as I think I do the best job of explaining my thought processes and card choices in this format. However, this article program is all for you guys, the subscribers, so if you don’t like this sort of style of writing from me and would prefer me to talk more broadly in my articles and thus cover multiple decks, please let me know either through our Subscriber’s Secret Hideout and / or Facebook, I’m always trying to improve as a content creator so the more feedback you provide me with, the better. Now, let’s really get into the list.

Yveltal / Garbodor

Before I explain my card counts and choices, let me start by saying that this was created with the thought process of beating three particular decks: Yveltal-EX / Garbodor, Volcanion, and Greninja. These three decks were the three clear top dogs heading into Dallas Regionals, so with that in mind Travis and I created a list geared towards having the best possible matchups against these three.

Card Explanations

Four Yveltal-EX

When Phillip Schultz released his Top 4 London International list, a ton of players gave him flack for cards and counts such as four Yveltal-EX, zero Fright Night Yveltal, and Town Map. While some of those criticisms were certainly justified (Town Map? Come on Phillip!), Travis and I soon realized that Phillip was onto something. Yveltal-EX is by far the best attacker in this deck, and maybe in the game, so playing four made tons of sense after we played a few games with the deck. Four Yveltal-EX will almost certainly become a staple for the deck going forward.

One Yveltal XY

Wait, Eric, isn’t that a typo? Fright Night Yveltal is clearly the better non-EX Yveltal? Wrong! While Fright Night is an incredibly good card, it is absolutely useless in two of the three matchups that we were intent on beating (the mirror and Greninja). Thus, we chose to play the Oblivion Wing Yveltal as our non-EX attacker. Oblivion Wing is a great attack which makes Evil Ball Knock Outs easier in the mirror, as well as allows you to play a seven Prize game against your opponent. It is also not a liability which could be stranded Active by Enhanced Hammer and Team Flare Grunt unlike Fright Night. Be careful as to what Tool you attach to this guy though, as he could become a liability late game to be stranded if you put a Fighting Fury Belt on it. Oblivion Wing also gives us an out to get our Energy back, and since we don’t run Super Rod this attack was absolutely invaluable to us. All in all, it’s easily the best non-EX tech for the mirror, and I absolutely love this card.

2-2 Garbodor

2-2 is really the only viable line to run since we don’t run Super Rod. If we decided to be really cheeky, a 2-1 line with a Super Rod is also acceptable, but it’s not something we ever really considered, nor do I think it is optimal.

Two Shaymin-EX

This is standard, not much really to talk about here. Shaymin-EX is the best card in the game.

Four Professor Sycamore, Three N, Two Lysandre

Again, a standard counts of cards. A fourth N would be really nice, but space is really tight in this list and there are cards we value more that we did not get to include anyways, so it is more of a pipe dream than a feasible addition.

Two Team Flare Grunt

Now here’s where the list gets really spicy. Almost always, the optimal play in Yveltal mirror is to Y Cyclone when you have three Energy, as you want to make your opponent’s Evil Ball do as little damage as possible. Team Flare Grunt punishes the optimal play, as it would strand your opponent with zero Energy Active (assuming when they Y Cyclone they throw back a Double Colorless Energy and did not Y Cyclone with three Dark Energy). Forcing your opponent into sub-optimal plays to play around this card is absolutely incredible, and as long as Yveltal is the best deck in the format, one, if not two Team Flare Grunt should be a staple in this deck.

One Pokemon Center Lady

This is another tech Supporter card that also punishes Y Cyclone. Because Pokémon Center Lady exists, players are incentivized to Evil Ball to get off as much damage as possible, leaving their Yveltal with more Energy on them and more susceptible to getting Knocked Out from your own Evil Ball. This card also helps out a lot against Greninja, allowing you to clear your board of Bursting Balloon chip damage or a Moonlight Slash that could otherwise allow them to take a Knock Out that turn. This card is also the only way to beat M Gardevoir-EX without Fright Night Yveltal, as it allows you to trade 3HKOs with them. I’d also like to give a shout out to fellow PokeBeach writer Jimmy Pendarvis for including both this and Team Flare Grunt in his Fort Wayne winning list. These two tech Supporters have completely changed how the mirror is played and is a great example of how small innovations can completely change how matchups go.

One Delinquent

This is probably the most cuttable card in the list. Delinquent allows you to punish opponents who play sub-optimally and leave themselves with a small hand size. I love playing it in almost all of my lists as I know very few players tend to play around it, giving me an alternate win condition in games where I could be losing heavily. However, it is certainly a luxury and something that can go in favor of another tech or consistency card.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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