The Worst Feraligatr List You’ve Ever Seen

Several weeks ago, the Fukaoka Champions League was broadcast form Japan as the world’s first post-rotation tournament for G-block on. While I was watching, someone mentioned that people were playing Feraligatr . My first thought was “yup, that sounds about right for Japan,” and I internally lumped it into the same category as Conkeldurr and Slowking. As we know, Feraligatr ended up winning the massive 5000-player tournament. If it’s your first time looking at the card, you would immediately take note of its Ability. You might think “wow, this does a ton of damage,” “Maximum Belt lets this one-shot anything,” or “Reversal Energy helps Feraligatr attack easily.” Wrong, wrong, and wrong again.  Feraligatr is actually a control deck.

When I looked at the winning list, I actually wasn’t surprised that this deck took first. Feraligatr was perfectly poised to take out the field, utilizing various control strategies mixed with damage when the situation calls for it. These types of decks are extremely strong into the right meta, and they are also incredibly difficult to play against. The surprise factor also matters more in a best-of-one environment, as it is entirely possible for opponents to be caught off guard in every single round. Even intelligent players can struggle to play perfectly against Feraligatr, especially if it’s their first time seeing the deck. I actually had a ladder encounter with Feraligatr right when Prismatic Evolutions dropped. I was playing Dragapult ex, and I was stunned at how thoroughly I was checkmated by this ragtag board of single-Prize Pokemon. I was careful not to get retreat-locked, and I even tried to utilize my Mimikyu countermeasures efficiently, but none of it mattered.

Since getting my hands on this deck, I’ve made quite a few adjustments to the Japan-winning list. I cut the heavy Milotic ex package for a few reasons. Milotic ex isn’t necessarily bad, but I wanted to free up the deck space. Milotic ex is only useful into a few very specific matchups, namely Dragapult and Tera Box. However, I don’t think you even need Milotic ex to beat those decks. What’s more, Tera Box decks are now including Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex, effectively neutralizing Milotic ex. Milotic is also dead weight in most other matchups. That said, one consideration is actually the other Milotic, which greatly helps with the retreat-lock game plan that the deck employs in certain matchups. Many decks only have Professor Turo's Scenario as their way around retreat-lock, which Milotic counters. If you do play Milotic, you’re highly incentivized to also play Milotic ex because it now only takes up one slot in exchange for hard countering some decks.

When tinkering with the deck, I noticed that Milotic isn’t just hogging the four slots for its 2-2 line, but there’s some implied space there as well. What I mean is that after removing the two Milotic ex, you’re also free to cut Crispin and lower the amount of Energy. This leaves a lot of space to streamline the deck and make it more consistent. The chief complaint among those trying out Feraligatr is that it is inconsistent and clunky, which is the natural result of having no Pokemon-based consistency or draw engine. There’s unfortunately no great answer to this, so I’ve simply increased the amount of Supporters, as that is the only real way to improve the deck’s natural consistency. Playing a Supporter every turn is basically all this deck wants to do, and the game plans organically come to fruition so long as you’re able to do that.

This deck reminds me a lot of Pidgeot ex Control because of the game plans it uses. First, it can commit to a retreat-lock strategy, which is an easy way to win games if the opponent has something on the Bench that can get trapped and not many switching cards. With most Pokemon relying on Latias ex for mobility (all Basics) or having low retreat costs themselves (Noctowl), there’s no real reason for decks to play a bunch of switching cards. At most, one copy Professor Turo’s Scenario is a staple. Because of this, Totodile  ‘s Big Bite is a very real win condition. Like any good Control deck, this deck can also pivot or mix and match strategies as needed. Thanks to Relicanth , Feraligatr can deliver a powerful hit-and-run attack and hide behind a Mimikyu with Luxurious Cape. Mimikyu with the Cape is a very sturdy wall that almost nothing can take down in one hit. Even if they can attack into Mimikyu, Munkidori can heal it, and Feraligatr can outpace the opponent’s damage thanks to its Ability.

Although Feraligatr will almost never win a fair Prize race, it can utilize bursts of high damage to pressure opponents or remove key threats from their board. This is very reminiscent of Control decks picking strategic spots to attack in order to put a squeeze on opponent’s resources or maintain a stranglehold on its position. It’s also possible to blitz Prize cards in specific spots to close out a game that is nearing its end. With its array of cheeky tricks and Munkidori’s damage manipulation, Feraligatr aims to play a long and drawn-out game. The deck wants to put a strain on the opponent’s resources, forcing them to slow down and giving them many opportunities to make mistakes.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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