Battle Styles — Bronzong and Top Picks for the New Set

Hello Pokebeach readers! In this article I’m going to be talking about Bronzong from Battle Styles. In previous seasons, Energy transfer decks would use Max Potion to take favorable trades with Pokemon that couldn’t OHKO their attackers. However, Max Potion isn’t legal in this format. So this deck takes advantage of the new supporter card Cheryl, but since Cheryl doesn’t heal Basic Pokemon, this deck is going to attack with a Pokemon VMAX — Copperajah VMAX! With its massive 340 HP, this Pokemon is never getting OHKO’d. Bronzong combined with Cheryl lets the Copperajah VMAX out trade and two shot everything your opponent throws at you. Normally, these Energy transfer decks run a form of Rainbow Energy like Aurora Energy along with different attackers from various Pokemon types to abuse Weakness and take easy KOs. The reason I’ve choosen not to do that is because most Basic Pokemon get OHKO’d in this format, meaning the Energy transfer is nearly useless aside from being Energy acceleration when combined with Metal Saucer. This strategy isn’t strong enough to contend with the Tier 1 decks in the current meta. That is why I’ve chosen to lean toward a Copperjah VMAX build trying to take as many hits as possible while pressuring your opponent with consistent 240 damage.

The Copperajah VMAX / Bronzong List

Evolution Lines

I’ve opted for a 3-2 Bronzong line because it isn’t needed in the early game. Bronzong is important to set up somewhere in the middle of the match so you can start using Cheryl. Since you don’t need Bronzong immediately, cutting back on the line helps improve the deck’s consistency. The Copperajah VMAX line is a bit thicker at 3-3, but this is because it is not really needed until about turn 3 as you will often use Zacian V throughout the early turns. These thinner lines help make space for higher counts of cards such as Pokémon Communication and Metal Goggles, which really let the deck work to its fullest.

Three Zacian V

Three copies of Zacian V are needed to ensure the deck is consistent, especially as you don’t attack in the early turns. But Zacian V is also a great attacker in this deck because it it hits for about the same amount of damage as Copperajah VMAX, as well as being a Basic Pokemon. You can attach Metal Googles onto Zacian V, which takes it out of range against many of the top decks in Standard. As you can see in this list, the deck isn’t running a ton of support Pokemon and that’s because it wants to play around Boss's Orders. It is difficult for your opponent to use Boss’s Orders to take a Knock Out on Zacian V with Metal Googles attached.

Two Boss’s Orders

Unlike most decks, this deck often doesn’t get free turns to play Boss’s Orders. Boss’s Orders isn’t as reliable since this deck doesn’t play Dedenne-GX or Crobat V. However, with how the deck is built Boss’s Orders isn’t that important. Most decks get two shot by a Copperajah VMAX, plus many decks can’t afford to switch between attackers constantly so they often attack with the damaged attacker. This means we can lower its Boss’s Orders count to make more space for consistency cards and healing options. Another reason this deck doesn’t play a higher count of Boss’s Orders is because most turns are spent healing your Active Spot Pokemon with Cheryl. Decks like Arceus and Dialga and Palkia-GX (ADP) / Zacian V and Eternatus VMAX will try and two shot your Copperajah VMAX then take some easy Prizes with Boss’s Orders, so you need to keep using Cheryl and Bronzong to stop that. But if you play Cheryl, you can’t play Boss’s Orders on the same turn. Boss’s Orders isn’t a very pivotal card in this deck unlike the majority of decks in the current Standard format.

Four Pokemon Communication

If you’ve read some of my other articles you will know I despise Pokemon Communication. I think the card is inherently inconsistent because you are forced to have another specific card in your hand.  However, this deck plays a fair amount of Pokemon along with two different Evolution lines. Currently, the only other way to search for these Evolution Pokemon would be Evolution Incense, but I don’t play it because it doesn’t allow you to get Basic Pokemon — making it completely useless on turn 1, the most important turn of the game. For that reason I have begrudgingly chosen Pokemon Communication as my secondary Pokemon search card. Pokemon Communication gets the job done in most scenarios because it finds you your Copperajah VMAX as well as Bronzong. If another search option were to be released, I would recommend using that over Pokemon Communication because the natural inconsistencies behind Pokemon Communication can make the difference between winning and losing a game.

Switch

Most Energy transfer decks in the past would run some form of a free retreat option. However this deck doesn’t have access to that, so it unfortunately has to play four Switch. This deck runs Switch mostly as an anti-stall card and to get your Copperajah VMAX into the Active Spot. You could cut down on Switch to make room for better cards, but in this list I felt I wanted to maximize consistency in the early turns to ensure you aren’t giving up free Prizes.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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