The Purge — Groudon Erupts into the Meta

Hello PokeBeach readers! Isaiah here, and I am happy to be writing another article for you all! Last time, I talked about Great Tusk , both as a tech card and as a dedicated strategy. I still think that this card is good going forward, but I concede that the dedicated strategy is a bit weaker than I would have hoped. As I continued to play it, I noticed some of the deck’s flaws, and while I think the strategy at its core is viable, its less-than-stellar Charizard ex matchup is a massive hurdle to overcome.

One deck that has interested me more than I expected lately has been Gardevoir ex. While I don’t see myself playing the deck for the upcoming Indianapolis Regional Championships, I do expect the deck to be pretty strong for the event, especially following its Top 4 finish at the Orlando Regional Championships. Gardevoir was one of the most overlooked decks at Orlando, largely because it barely missed Top 8 at the Europe International Championships a short time prior. Even following Orlando, the deck has yet to gain much traction in the eyes of the community, but Indianapolis could be just the moment it’s been waiting for.

Speaking of decks that have been overlooked because they failed to make Top 8, I don’t think I’ve heard of a single player in the community talking about Hunter Butler’s ninth-place Lost Zone Toolbox deck. Over the last few months, both pre-rotation and now post-rotation, Lost Zone Toolbox has sort of struggled to find an identity outside of Giratina VSTAR, which is not really the same deck. Most of the time, people have played Kyogre or the occasional “Paradox Box,” which played Roaring Moon ex and Iron Hands ex, but those decks have not produced the strongest results.

In the new format, it seems this Paradox Box strategy has become the standard for Lost Zone decks, but outside of a second-place finish in the hands of Nicolas Galaz at the recent São Paulo Regional Championships, it has not seen that much play. Hunter Butler took a slightly different approach, using Groudon as an efficient Iron Hands ex answer as well as an overall versatile attacker. It caps at 240 damage, which is able to take meaningful Knock Outs against many of the top decks in the format, including Chien-Pao ex and, after Weakness, Arceus VSTAR. When I first saw this deck, I immediately saw that it had potential, and got to work playing the deck and looking for ways I could make meaningful improvements. I quickly found that the deck was extremely strong, and for that reason, I think there is a fairly high chance that I end up playing the deck at Indianapolis. With that being said, let’s take a look at what drew me to the deck, before looking at how I changed it.

What I Liked About Groudon

I have always kind of been a fan of Lost Zone Toolbox decks, as I think they offer their pilot an incredible amount of tools in any situation thanks to the versatility of Mirage Gate alongside the power of the in-archetype attackers, Cramorant and Sableye. Sableye in particular gives the player the unique ability to set up extremely complex plays with high rewards by meticulously dealing damage in pursuit of the perfect checkmate, but it also acts as one of the most powerful aggressive tools the deck has access to. Against decks like Charizard ex, which can have their Charmander run over if they do not play Jirachi, this comes in particularly handy.

As always, Lost Zone decks get most interesting when you look at what surrounds the actual Lost Zone engine. As I highlighted previously, Groudon is integral to this deck as its catch-all answer for a variety of problematic attackers in the format. It deals with direct counters like Iron Hands ex, and also has broader uses against things that are just a bit too big and awkward. I personally like this card over something like a Hoopa ex / Roaring Moon ex combo because Groudon is only worth one Prize card, making it actually useful against other single-Prize Pokemon like Roaring Moon . I think that Groudon generally complements the other core Pokemon in Lost Zone decks better than the Roaring Moon ex / Hoopa ex package, too, which is a big part of why I like using it.

Iron Hands ex is another core piece to this deck, offering an advantage against single-Prize Pokemon in the Lost Zone mirror or against Gardevoir ex. Arm Press is also useful in a few cases, like for getting a one-hit Knock Out on Lugia VSTAR or Pidgeot ex. However, for this specific case, Raikou V is generally better. As your primary user of Forest Seal Stone, Raikou V hits the board in a surprising number of matchups, offering instant access to a Colress's Experiment or other utility card while also being a reasonable and cheap attacker in many situations. Raikou V is a huge part of the Ancient Box matchup, as it’s a cheap way to Knock Out Flutter Mane so you can start trying to progress the game, with the expectation that you’ll regain the advantage by using Iron Hands ex at the end of the game. Raikou V is also integral to the Prize map against Charizard ex, crippling their Pidgeot ex while also taking a couple of quick Prize cards at the same time. This allows you to more reliably set up your late-game attacking options in the matchup — especially Shaymin V. Shaymin V was the final piece that really got me to consider this deck, as it very efficiently takes down Charizard ex, even making it into one of your most solid matchups.

Other than this diverse roster of attackers, this deck is fairly typical for a Lost Zone deck. It has most of the usual suspects when it comes to the Trainer card roster — built for consistency with a few utility cards to push it over the finish line. The deck is versatile, powerful, and consistent, and for that alone, I think it is a viable contender for Indianapolis. However, I also think that the deck list can be improved. Notably, I think that the deck has a less-than-stellar Ancient Box matchup, not just because of Flutter Mane (and no Iron Bundle to counteract it), but also because it is terrible at Knocking Out a Roaring Moon or Koraidon . With the rise in popularity of Ancient Box, I hoped that I could find a solution to make that matchup a bit better while not having to commit too many cards to it. I also hoped to find a way to beat Charizard ex outside of Shaymin V, as playing only one copy each of Shaymin V and Grass Energy is just asking for something to go wrong. Throughout my searching, I found myself focused on one card in particular: Cobalion. After some testing, I found myself on the following deck list.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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