The Best Rogue Deck That Nobody Plays — Zoroark Box
Hello, everyone! Today, I am going to share my “secret” rogue deck that actually gets some wins in the current format. Zoroark is a cool and interesting card that has been around for a while, but it has never been competitively viable, always being gatekept by something or other. Most recently, Sableye was the biggest problem for Zoroark, but this is somewhat solved now by the addition of Jirachi to the game. Zoroark made Day 2 at the recent Charlotte Regionals, so it’s clearly at least somewhat relevant.
Zoroark’s matchups are pretty good right now, and it absolutely dominates players who don’t know how to play against it. This turns out to be most people, since nobody actually plays Zoroark, so it’s sure to surprise most opponents. The deck has a shot to beat just about anything besides Snorlax Stall, and it is certainly good at what it does. However, it does have some issues.
One of Zoroark’s biggest issues is the Prize cards. Zoroark relies on a plethora of singleton Pokemon, and if certain ones are in the Prizes at the wrong time, you can be in serious trouble. Its second biggest issue is that it is difficult to play, and struggles against nonlinear strategies. If the opponent fully understands Zoroark’s limits and capabilities, they can play in all sorts of ways that are out of the ordinary. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Zoroark will lose, but it makes games more complicated, and you have to prepare for a variety of different situations.
If you’re playing a meta deck, in most matchups, you know that your opponent is going to try and KO one of your Pokemon with one of their main attackers. With Zoroark, your opponents can attack with just about anything. They can pass and try to deck you out, or try to force you to take Prize cards. They can disrupt you with Boss stall, and they can simply wait around for opportune moments to use various cards or attacks.
To play Zoroark, you need a good understanding of the meta decks — what cards they play, the ways they can disrupt you, and all of their possible responses and tricky plays. When testing Zoroark, I found the deck to be surprisingly brain-melting. Against good players, that is. Against your average tournament opponent, they will try to Prize-trade you by playing their deck normally, and you will crush them.
Here’s my current list. I’m not sure that it’s 100% optimal yet, but it seems good to me.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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