Optimal Upgrades — Standard Malamar and Expanded Doll Stall

Hello everyone! I’ve been playing a lot of Standard lately because of League Cups and League Challenges, and I think I have optimized Malamar. It is consistent, versatile, and powerful; albeit, a bit slow. I’ve played Malamar at most small events this season and it’s only missed CP for me once out of 17 events. If you ask me, Malamar is the best Standard deck. Lots of people have been asking me about my Malamar list, which I’ve put below. Although there aren’t any major Standard events in the US until Sword and Shield comes out, this Malamar list can be used at smaller events until then. 

Additionally, I have some significant updates to my Expanded format Doll Stall deck after working on it some more and playing it at another League Cup. Doll Stall is extremely strong in the Expanded format right now, but it’s rather underrated as people don’t like playing control decks. It’s currently one of my top considerations for the upcoming Dallas Regionals.

Malamar (Standard)

This concludes the public portion of this article.

If you'd like to continue reading, consider purchasing a PokeBeach premium membership! If you're not completely satisfied with your membership, you can request a full refund within 30 days.

Each week we post high-quality content from some of the game's top players. Our article program isn't a corporate operation, advertising front, or for-profit business. We set our prices so that we can pay the game's top players to write the best content for our subscribers. Each article topic is carefully selected, goes through multiple drafts, and is touched up by our editors. We take great pride in our program!