Driving and Drawing — Silvally-GX and Zoroark-GX for London

Hey PokeBeach! London’s International Championships are getting closer and closer. We’ve seen multiple Regionals pan out in the BREAKthrough through Burning Shadows format. We’re getting not one, but two new sets to mess around with for The European International Championships — Shining Legends and Crimson Invasion. John has done a fantastic job of looking over some cards released in these new sets here. Today, we’re going to be looking at some new archetypes that I think could be viable for London.

To start off, I’ll show you some interesting takes on Silvally-GX, a powerful new Stage 1 that has a plethora of uses due to its Colorless typing and strong Ability. Afterwards the other interesting card to look at is Zoroark-GX. Zoroark-GX paired with Alolan Ninetales-GX  provides a great draw engine in Trade and two powerful attacks that aid Alolan Ninetales-GX throughout the game, which is what I’ll look at first. Then, the addition of Zoroark-GX to the Zoroark / Drampa-GX deck could revitalize the old archetype that hasn’t seen play since rotation.

Silvally-GX and Partners

Why Silvally-GX?

Let’s begin by looking at why I think Silvally-GX has some potential. Its pre-evolution, Type: Null is a bulky 110 HP Basic, meaning it’s going to survive hits that other evolving Basics, like Ralts, wouldn’t. The attacks aren’t too shoddy either — for a Double Colorless, Armor Press deals 30 and reduces damage by 30, while Slash Claw does a simple 70 for one more Colorless. Upon evolving, Silvally-GX grants all Basic Pokemon free retreat with Gyro Unit. Obviously this a huge plus, as this means that any Tapu Lele-GX, Type: Null or other Basic Pokemon don’t need to waste Energy to retreat or have Float Stone attached.

This frees some space in the deck, since Float Stone isn’t really a necessity. Moving on Silvally has a three Energy attack that deals a strong 120 along with the added effect of attaching a Basic Energy of any kind to the Bench. This gives the deck a huge amount of versatility. The Pokemon you choose to pair with Silvally-GX depends entirely on what you want to beat in the meta. Rebellion-GX is the exact same attack as Lycanroc-GX‘s Dangerous Rouge GX, except for a three Colorless cost. Benches are relatively large at the moment, with Brigette plus a Tapu Lele-GX instantly powering up Rebellion GX to 200.

Finally we have the inclusion of the Memory Tools that Silvally-GX can make use to change its typing to either Fighting or Psychic depending on which one you attach. I feel like these Tools are what makes this Pokemon viable. Drampa-GX, Zoroark-GX, and Silvally-GX are all Pokemon which should see play for Internationals and they all share a common Fighting type Weakness.

Changing Silvally-GX to a Psychic type isn’t as powerful, but could be useful against Necrozma-GX and Espeon-EX, which do see some play at the moment.

What To Pair it With?

So we have our accelerator and a good attacker, but now we need to add some supporting Pokemon to the deck to improve matchups. Let’s start with the obvious type — Metal. The deck doesn’t have much in the way of dealing with a big Gardevoir-GX, so Metal-type attackers are crucial to try and hit a OHKO through Weakness. Here is a starting list I’ve been toying with:

Pokemon

Starting off, we have a regular line of 4-3 Silvally-GX to make sure we aren’t hurt by prizing and also to draw Type: Null on the first turn. Three Tapu Lele-GX is almost an auto-inclusion in most decks now as consistency boost and a great Double Colorless attacker. Instead of the usual Tapu Koko to spread damage, Latios hits much better numbers with Break Through. Silvally-GX deals 120 damage or 150 with Choice Band, so combined with the 30’s from Latios and Po Town, it’s possible to take down a good amount of threats in the format. Break Through is great for setting up Espeon-EX‘s Miraculous Shine on low-HP basics such as Ralts or Beldum with Po Town in the deck, which is why I’ve included a single copy.

Our Metal-type suite consists of one Registeel, one Cobalion and one Magearna-EX. Registeel is a great single-Prize attacker that combined with a Choice Band OHKOs a Gardevoir-GX, and can be set up in two turns using Turbo Drive and manual attachments. Registeel’s first attack can also OHKO Ralts early on for a single Energy, and gives a small bit of Energy acceleration akin to Silvally-GX, if needed. Cobalion is the revenge attacker, which can take a OHKO on Gardevoir after a single GX has gone down, given that Cobalion has a Choice Band attached;  If any more of your Pokemon have been KOd, then the Choice Band isn’t required. Finally, we have Magearna-EX. Its Mystic Heart Ability blocks multiple effects that can cause issues, such as Espeon-EX’s Miraculous Shine devolving Silvally-GX or Drampa-GX’s Righteous Edge removing Double Colorless. Soul Blaster is a powerful attack that requires only two attachments to get going, and does enough damage on its own to OHKO any Fairy-threats.

To finish off, we have a single Drampa-GX for good measure. Righteous Edge and Big Wheel GX are both great single Energy attacks that are useful early on. The deck does play Po Town, so it’s possible to damage Silvally-GX if needed to activate Drampa’s Berserk attack for big damage.

Items, Supporters and Stadiums

Supporter lines at the moment are relatively similar: four counts of N and Professor Sycamore for draw, three Guzma for our ‘switching’ effects, one or two Brigette to search for Basics on turn one, and finally one or two Acerola as a damage-nullifier. Silvally-GX is no different with the only other inclusion being a single copy of Skyla, to easily search out a specific Tool through Tapu Lele-GX’s Wonder Tag. Speaking of Tools, we have four “Memory” to attach to Silvally-GX. I went for three Fighting Memory and only a single Psychic Memory — the London metagame should include a greater amount of Fighting-weak Pokemon compared to Psychic. The most important Psychic-types either don’t have a Weakness or are already OHKOd by Drampa-GX. I could understand a even split of the Tools just in case, though.

Three Choice Band is important so that you can hit numbers with pretty much every Pokemon in the deck, whether it’s boosting Drampa-GX’s Berserk to 180, letting Registeel OHKO a Gardevoir-GX or getting an all-important boost in damage so that Tapu Lele’s Energy Drive deals numbers. Two Field Blower is standard for a deck that does use Abilities but aren’t reliant on them, and a single Stretcher gives the deck a means to recover a single or multiple Pokemon if needed. Finally as talked before, Po Town sets up numbers on any opposing evolutions for either KOs via damage or Espeon-EX’s devolution.

Energy

Since Turbo Drive lets us recycle Energy, eight total Metal is enough throughout the game. Four Double Colorless is a given for a deck that’s never unhappy to see this type of Energy.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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