A Star in the Trash — Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX / Garbodor

Hey there, PokeBeach readers! Although as I am writing this, Toronto Regionals has yet to occur, I am already looking forward to and primarily testing the upcoming format that includes the new set, Forbidden Light. When I first began building decks with this new set, I obviously began with Buzzwole-GX decks with all of the new tools that it received in Forbidden Light, as well as the new archetype, Malamar / Ultra Necrozma-GX While I was testing these decks on the Pokemon Trading Card Game Online ladder, I came across a deck that absolutely crushed my Buzzwole / Lycanroc-GX deck. This piqued my interest. That deck, as you might be able to guess from the title of this article, was a Metal deck centered around Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX and Garbodor. Since then, I have been playing around with my own list to great success. Today, I will be going over my list for this deck, as well as the matchups I have been able to test so far (unfortunately, the set has only been out for a week or so online, so I will not be able to go over every single deck in this new meta as I have not played versus every deck yet). Without further ado, let’s get into it.

How Does This Deck Work?

While we have seen Metal variants with Max Elixir and Garbodor instead of Magnezone in the pre-Forbidden Light format, none of those decks really had much success at the Regional level or above. However, with the release of Forbidden Light, this archetype gained one card that gives it the midgame staying power that I believe it needs to compete with the top decks in the format: Beast Ring. Beast Ring in combination with Max Elixir means that even after you Meteor Tempest and take one Knock Out, you will have plenty of Energy on board to follow up the next turn with another attack with your Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX (remember, they are Ultra Beasts after all).

Aside from Beast Ring offering the deck much needed midgame consistency, this deck functions very similarly to pre-Forbidden Light Max Elixir Metal decks. I run Registeel and Solgaleo Prism Star to help me accelerate more Energy early and midgame if I can’t attack with Dusk Mane Necrozma. I also run Parallel City and Garbodor to help me counter both Zoroark-GX decks and the new Malamar / Ultra Necrozma-GX deck, as they are both very reliant on having a full Bench as well as their Abilities. And that’s really it! The deck is very straight forward and does not have many frills or techs to it, but what it lacks in techs, it makes up for in consistency. Without further ado, let’s take a look at my list.

Four Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX

Unfortunately, there really are not that many good Metal attackers in the format. Because of that, I decided to just max out my Dusk Mane line so I can stream them as quickly as possible. While it is not the best starter in the deck, I have seven outs to being able to retreat it (four Float Stone and three Guzma), so starting it rarely ever becomes an issue. Dusk Mane Necrozma is an incredibly good card. Its first attack does 60 damage for three Colorless Energy. While this is a very vanilla attack, it does hit some important numbers in the format as it Knocks Out Zorua as well as the Corner and Promo Rockruff. Plus, with Fighting Fury Belt, you can Knock Out all of the 70 HP Basics in the format, such as Rockruff and more. Its second attack does a massive 220 damage for four Energy. While you have to discard three Energy in order to use this attack, you can easily power up your Dusk Mane with cards like Max Elixir and Beast Ring, as well as retreating into one of your support Pokemon like Registeel or Solgaleo Prism if necessary.

Finally, Dusk Mane Necrozma’s GX attack also does a massive 250 damage for only three Energy, although you can only use this attack if you are down on Prizes. This attack is amazing in this deck, as you often will fall behind on Prizes while you set up multiple Necrozma and Garbodor. If you are able to use the same Dusk Mane Necrozma to GX attack one of your opponent’s threats and then follow it up with its second attack to take another big Knock Out, you usually will have no problem winning. It’s very difficult for your opponent to be able to deal with one Dusk Mane Necrozma taking multiple consecutive Knock Outs while you set up another in the back to deal with their response.

2-2 Garbodor

A 2-2 line of Garbotoxin Garbodor was included to help this deck deal with the Ability reliant decks in the format, such as Malamar / Ultra Necrozma and Zoroark decks. However, Garbodor has turned out to be helpful in every matchup, as basically every deck plays Tapu Lele-GX. Due to this and the fact that this deck plays zero Abilities outside of my own Tapu Lele, I usually set up Garbodor every game. While I considered a 3-2 line of Garbodor when building the list to increase my chances of getting it out (as it is a prime Guzma / Lycanroc-GX target before it is able to evolve), I have not struggled to get Garbotoxin online in most of my games thanks to the added consistency I have included in this list. As such, I valued the extra space more than the third copy of Trubbish, and I settled on the 2-2 line.

Two Registeel

If I could play three Solgaleo Prism Star instead of these Registeel, I would in a heartbeat. Alas, that is not possible, so as such, I have to include other alternate attackers in my list that accelerate Metal Energy meaning two Registeel have made it into my list. The 30 damage is very rarely significant (unless you manage to Knock Out something like a Remoraid or Zorua in two attacks), and I have yet to use Registeel’s second attack in a game, so all you really need to know about this card is that it is your go-to Energy accelerator while your opponent’s Bench is limited or you cannot get much effective use out of your Solgaleo Prism.

One Solgaleo Prism

Speaking of Solgaleo, let’s talk about what is in my opinion the most underrated Prism Star Pokemon printed. While it may seem counter-intuitive to play this card in conjunction with Parallel City its first attack is incredibly powerful even if your opponent only has a Bench of three. After a couple of Meteor Tempest, you should have plenty of Basic Energy in your discard pile to get multiple massive Radiant Star attacks off. While just one is usually enough to power up enough Meteor Tempest to finish off the game, two basically guarantees that you will have sufficient Energy in order to close out the game. With 160 HP, a resistance to Psychic (which is very strong in the current meta thanks to all of the Buzzwole-GX hate in the format), and an irrelevant Weakness to Fire, Solgaleo Prism is also a tank, as very few things are able to Knock it Out in one hit. If timed correctly, this Pokemon has a massive impact on every game that it is used in, and as such it is easily my favorite Pokemon in the deck.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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