Never Skip Leg Day — An Offbeat Deck for Memphis

What’s up PokeBeach people? I have been banging my head over what to write this article on. That being said, I think it may be interesting to look over a deck that falls into the middle of the format that can take down Memphis! I would appreciate if you looked at this article as a thought-provoking piece instead of a deck list hub. Expanding on that, there can be quite a bit learned by looking at different decks; good decks and bad decks often share DNA and the difference can be minimal overall. Perhaps a small concept in this deck will spiritually evolve into the winning deck or it might end up changing your outlook on the format. Here are some ways that I use to choose a deck:

• The deck has a strong matchup versus one of the best decks in the format
• The deck has a strong matchup versus the many counters to the best decks in format
• I enjoy playing the deck
• I can play the deck with a certain comfort level
• I have very few bad matchups, but I have very few great matchups

Looking over these results, you can ask yourself why do you play your current deck? The answer has to come from somewhere and it will often fall into one of the categories that I listed. Looking at Memphis, the best decks heading into the tournament are as follows:

• Gardevoir-GX  / Max Potion
• Gardevoir-GX / Sylveon-GX
• Zoroark-GX / Golisopod-GX
• Silvally-GX  / Techs
• Volcanion-EX
• Greninja BREAK
• Buzzwole-GX  / Lycanroc-GX
• Decidueye-GX / Zoroark-GX

I am sure this list doesn’t surprise you, all of these decks either did well at London Internationals or have been seeing success at League Cups recently. That being said, all of these decks have a bad matchup and most of those bad matchups are not listed within those decks. My thought process, when testing for events, leads me into building every deck and continuously evolving them after each new set is released. I believe that this process gives me an upper hand when playing versus most players because in most instances, I have the knowledge of their deck and can use that to my advantage. I want to share with you my personal Metagross-GX list that seems like a decent play heading into Memphis. It gains good matchups in the form of both Gardevoir-GX variants and it has some well-rounded matchups with some of the other top decks. Let’s check it out!

Metagross-GX

This list, while remaining similar to earlier iterations that debuted last year, has somewhat grown over time. It now includes a Celesteela-GX and the format has grown to allow Dhelmise back into the list. These changes are to deal with current format standards such as Gardevoir-GX being popular and Pokemon like Buzzwole-GX having 190 HP. It is possible that this list will grow heading into Memphis, so I will include a few techs below that you can add into the deck if you like. Let’s look at some card explanations here:

Card Explanations

Four Metagross-GX, Three Metang, and Four Beldum

This line is ideal for this deck because it gets to the point! Our goal is to get out as many Metagross-GX in play as possible, and this lineup of Pokemon supports that notion. Metagross-GX is a strong Pokemon because it has plenty of HP, a way to accelerate Energy into play, and an attack that can OHKO some popular threats. I am not a fan of Algorithm GX because your opponent can play an N to quickly take away all of the cards that you have selected. In this version of the deck, we are utilizing Metagross-GX to self-power itself or to power up other Pokemon to take some pivotal Knock Outs. Looking at Giga Hammer, it can do some sizable damage to most Pokemon in the current format. Giga Hammer has a base damage of 150 and can grow to 180 damage by attaching a Choice Band. This deck even has the capability to do 190 damage by playing a Dhelmise on your Bench. Looking at these numbers, let’s look at some of the most popular Pokemon we can Knock Out:

• Gardevoir-GX (Giga Hammer for 150 damage multiplied by two = 300 damage)
• Sylveon-GX (Giga Hammer for 150 damage multiplied by two = 300 damage)
• Buzzwole-GX (Giga Hammer for 150 damage plus Choice Band plus Dhelmise = 190 damage)
• Tapu Lele-GX (Giga Hammer for 150 damage plus Choice Band = 180 damage)

Unfortunately, Metagross-GX has a relatively low amount of fluidity when it comes to damage, but that can all change when we add a tech card or two into our deck. Getting back on topic, we play the Metang and Beldum in our decks because they are the current best option that we have for each. The both can do minimal damage, but have the potential to hit opposing Fairy-type Pokemon for some extra damage. These Pokemon include Ralts, Kirlia, and Sylveon-GX.

Two Alolan Vulpix

This card is meant to search out our important pieces to try and expedite our set-up process in the early game. Alolan Vulpix can also be a decent attacker in some cases such as attacking versus an opposing Turtonator-GX with Icy Snow. You may be looking at Icy Snow as a weaker 20 damage attack, but if you pair that with a Choice Band and factor in Weakness, it can do a whopping 100 damage. Getting back to Alolan Vulpix’s main use, you either need to start with it or Retreat into it to use Beacon. Luckily, most of our Pokemon have a small Retreat Cost and Beacon doesn’t require any Energy to use!

One Celesteela-GX

This is one of the cards that I think could work really well in a Metagross-GX deck because it adds something new, a different Weakness. Beyond having a different Weakness, Celesteela-GX brings an important aspect to the deck, the option to hit over 190 damage. With Celesteela-GX having Blaster GX do a base damage of 180 damage, it can quickly become 190 damage to Knock Out a Buzzwole-GX with the help of Dhelmise. Most importantly, you can attach a Choice Band to do an additional 30 damage to turn Blaster GX into a 210 damage attack! That is enough damage to OHKO opposing Golisopod-GX, Zoroark-GX, and Lycanroc-GX  that run rampant in our Standard format.

One Dhelmise

As stated a few times in the article already, Dhelmise‘s Steelworker Ability can help us Knock Out a few Pokemon that we otherwise would have to attack twice. As the amount of HP continues to trend upwards on new GX Pokemon, Dhelmise seems more and more like a mainstay in the deck.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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