Biting Bats (Crobat / Sableye / Yveltal EX expanded format)

[Pipotchi]

Pokemon:

• 
  4 Zubat
  4 Golbat
  3 Crobat
  3 Sableye
  2 Yveltal EX
  1 Darkrai EX

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums:

• 
  3 Devolution Spray
  2 Target Whistle
  1 Head Noiser
  1 Startling Megaphone
  1 Energy Retrieval
  1 Sacred Ash
  1 Battle Compressor
  2 Hypnotoxic Laser
  2 Virbank
  1 Switch
  1 Life Dew
  3 Ultra Ball
  2 Dark Patch
  2 VS Seeker
  3 Sycamore
  3 N
  2 Skyla
  2 Xerosic
  1 AZ

Energy:

• 
  3 DCE
  6 Dark

Spoiler: zubat

Zubat – Psychic – HP50
Basic Pokemon

[C] Skill Dive: Choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon. This attack does 10 damage to that Pokemon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokemon.)

Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 1

Spoiler: golbat

Golbat – Psychic – HP70
Stage 1 – Evolves from Zubat

Ability: Sneaky Bite
When you play this card from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokemon, you may choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon and place 2 damage counters on it.

[C] Barrage Fly: Does 10 damage to all of your opponent’s Pokemon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokemon.)

Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 0

Spoiler: crobat

Crobat – Psychic – HP130
Stage 2 – Evolves from Golbat

Ability: Abrupt Bite
When you play this card from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokemon, you may choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon and place 3 damage counters on it.

[C] Skill Dive: Choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon. This attack does 30 damage to that Pokemon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokemon.)

Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 0

Spoiler: target whistle

Target Whistle – Trainer
Item (Team Flare Gear)

Choose a Basic Pokemon from your opponent’s discard pile and put that Pokemon on to your opponent’s Bench.

You may play as many Item cards as you like during your turn (before your attack).

Spoiler: battle compactor

Battle Compressor - Trainer
Item (Team Flare Gear)

Search your deck for up to 3 cards and discard them. Shuffle your deck afterward.

You may play as many Item cards as you like during your turn (before your attack).

Spoiler: xerosic

Xerosic – Trainer
Supporter

Choose 1 Special Energy or Pokemon Tool from either your Pokemon or your opponent’s Pokemon and discard it.

You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).

Strategy:

(how the hell did i write this wall of text)

This is a version of the Sableye Forretress deck, but I think this deck actually is a little bit stronger perhaps. This is because Forretress requires your opponent to bench lots of pokemon and also requires you to get out a Dusknoir to move the damage around. One of the nice things about the Crobat line is that it can target any pokemon you like with larger chunks of damage and can start taking knockouts earlier. Diggersby also has nice typing synergy with the bats and can also stall for time with Dig, which gives it some extra use even if it gets hurt by fighting types.

Anyway the idea of the deck is probably obvious from the listing and the previous paragraph, you set up zubats on the bench and continuously evolve and devolve them using devolution spray in order to put large amounts of damage on the opponent's side and target down weak pokemon like Jirachi EX, or pokemon key to the opponent's strategy such as Aromatisses. Against big pokemon EXs there are a few techs in this deck. Seismitoad can hit landorus EX quite hard while also being able to slow down decks while the bats do their thing. And then Mewtwo EX is a good attacker to beat the other fighting types that would threaten Diggersby, being able to hit them for weakness. Virizion EX is a good card against opposing Seismitoad EX which will completely shut down the deck, and also deals with Donphan which is another big pokemon right now. Plus preventing status is always useful if running virbank so thats a good bonus as always. Really these techs are all just to beat the pokemon that Diggersby hates, but virizion EX and mewtwo EX both work successfully together as well and Seismitoad EX and mewtwo EX is a thing too, so if I somehow get locked out of items and abilities, these pokemon can hold their own for a bit.
Another good tool that this deck can abuse is target whistle. Because you can hit the bench with the bats with relative ease, bringing back beatable pokemon from the discard will allow you to continue to take prizes even if something is put into the active spot which you can't beat, which will be frustrating for your opponent.


Diggersby is the "lesser" Sableye, but I think Pickup is still insanely strong and worth using, and there are a few new things that allow Diggersby to be even stronger right now- Target Whistle, VS Seeker, and Battle Compactor. Being able to reuse target whistle over and over again is good for you and very bad for your opponent, because it means if a pokemon was discarded then there will always be something vulnerable on their side of the field. Usually you should discard the pokemon that will not be helpful in the match, but target whistle allows this deck to abuse that. VS Seeker is obviously another good card with Diggersby- that means that not only can you pick up any Item from the discard, you can use the VS Seeker the next turn to pick up any supporter too. That means much less worry about draw supporter, and the ability to reuse frustrating cards such as Xerosic (the current equivalent of enhanced hammer). Lastly, Battle Compactor is great because it lets you put 2 item cards in the discard from your deck to instantly grab with diggersby with pickup. This is pretty great because it means you can instantly get to the cards you need. I really love the potential of Diggersby right now, even though its a stage 1 and normal type Pickup is probably stronger now than Junk Hunt was.

And then there are the obvious standard cards to use with Diggersby too such as Hypnolaser. This can buy time for the bats and also deal a lot more damage. I chose Virbank because I am not too worried about attacking with the bats for free- their attacks arent great, and Mewtwo benefits from DCE anyway because its extra damage added to his attack. None of the other attackers in my team really benefit from Dimensional Valley either. I have an energy retrieval in the deck to hopefully be able to pull back some of the water energy if it is necessary, which Diggersby could Pickup if necessary. Sacred Ash and Megaphone are important and useful in the deck for obvious reasons too.

For Supporters I went with something quite plain apart from the addition of Xerosic. This card is not necessarily good in most decks but here it acts as the enhanced hammer in the Junk Hunt deck, being able to be grabbed with VS Seeker and Pickup to be used repeatedly. Being able to discard DCE and Strong Energy repeatedly is currently a very powerful tool in the metagame (and this deck, since diggersby hates fighting types). I also didnt run any Lysandre because the bats can hit anywhere.

I think thats everything explained. I really like the current options that Diggersby has, and I think even though fighting pokemon will knock it out regularly, Junk Hunt strategy and the existence of Life Dew mean that it will always be able to do what it wants to do without hindering the team too much. I think this deck has a chance. But I would like to hear some feedback too. I know there are a ton of pokemon in the deck, all of which seemed useful for me but I could perhaps cut down on to add more items.


edit: Switched Suicunes for Virizion EXs, and water energies for grass energies


Some numbers to hit:

yveltal Evil Ball 4 total energy + 1 crobat evolution + virbank/laser = 100 + 30 + 30 = 160 dmg.
virizion emerald slash + 3 crobat evolutions + virbank/laser = 50 + 90 + 30 = 170 dmg.
mewtwo X Ball 4 total energy + 2 crobat evolutions + virbank/laser = 80 + 60 + 30 = 170 dmg.
mewtwo X Ball 6 total energy + 1 crobat evolution + virbank/laser = 180 dmg
seismitoad quaking punch + 4 crobat evolutions + virbank/laser = 30 + 120 + 30 = 180 dmg.
target whistle + enemy jirachi EX = game over in 3 turns

I dont expect to hit these every turn (at all) but its nice to see that this deck can really achieve surprisingly fast and scary damage output unlike the Forretress devolution deck. Mainly this deck is about disruption with the item cards like laser, using Seismitoad, repeated energy and tool removal but it can still hit 180 once or twice a match which is good to know

 

[Carpey]

RE: Biting Bats (Crobat / Diggersby)

First off, no. No, you do not need to worry about Mr.Mime because it blocks "damage" while Sneaky Bite is "placing damage counters". The only reason you would want to run a Lysandre is if you want to Laser a certain Pokemon. I think the second Megaphone is not necessary, and another Xerosic should help you out more. Otherwise, the list looks as good as it can get before any testing. I like the inclusion of the Life Dew because it works out well on Seismitoad especially. Has Diggersby been working out if you've done any testing?

 

[Pipotchi]

RE: Biting Bats (Crobat / Diggersby)

I can't test the deck yet because Phantom Gate hasn't been released and I cant play with the bats on playtcg, but I think after playtesting I will just find out how fast the deck is. But as far as I can see the deck should be fine, Diggersby is only a stage 1 and everything else about the deck counters fighting types (bats resist fighting, psychic water and grass hit all the fighting pokemon for weakness). I think it should be fine, the issue will be in putting up new diggersbys every turn if they get knocked out in quick succession but all the EXs are good at giving me recovery time. But only playtesting will confirm that for sure (and I know it cant be played quite as carelessly as sableye, but pickup is still great). I will replace the Megaphone for Xerosic for now because I think that probably is a good idea. And ah, I didnt notice that it was damage counters. Thats a big relief for me!

 

[spartanzdude3]

RE: Biting Bats (Crobat / Diggersby)

Isn't devolution spray rotated out? I think it would be legal for just expanded. I definitely like the idea of the deck regardless!

 

[Pipotchi]

RE: Biting Bats (Crobat / Diggersby)

It was in BW-Promos so it just about held on I think. You scared me for a second though...

 

[Kecleon-X]

RE: Biting Bats (Crobat / Diggersby)

Have you considered Super Scoop Up and AZ? Since you won't really be attaching much to Crobat if anything at all, AZ might be a good thing to put in, especially if you already have a Golbat and a Zubat on the bench as you could simply slap the whole line down again.

 

[Pipotchi]

RE: Biting Bats (Crobat / Diggersby)

I could probably afford to run a single AZ, but what card would be good to replace it with? I guess a devolution spray would be the best thing to swap it out with if I wanted to run it? It solves the problem of them putting 70 dmg on my crobat and then I am unable to devolve it because golbat would then get instnatly knocked out, so perhaps it could have a place in the deck. Super scoop up probably isnt so great here though since I have enough cards that I need to pull back every turn and I dont wanna waste a turn on tails

I was wondering about AZ before, but I kinda disregarded it without putting in much thought because I thought i would clash with my other supporters a bit too much. But using AZ to pick up Crobat from the bench to act as a devolution spray or a Diggersby from the active to perform a switch might be useful. The only thing Im still worried about is that I might be starting to thin out my deck a bit too much if I eat any more into the core of it to add extra bonus cards (even tho Diggersby Pickup makes me want to add like 1 of every single supporter card in the game)

Also just to be sure, are you recommending I use an AZ or are you just asking me if Ive considered it?

 

[Kecleon-X]

RE: Biting Bats (Crobat / Diggersby)

I could probably afford to run a single AZ, but what card would be good to replace it with? I guess a devolution spray would be the best thing to swap it out with if I wanted to run it? It solves the problem of them putting 70 dmg on my crobat and then I am unable to devolve it because golbat would then get instnatly knocked out, so perhaps it could have a place in the deck. Super scoop up probably isnt so great here though since I have enough cards that I need to pull back every turn and I dont wanna waste a turn on tails

I was wondering about AZ before, but I kinda disregarded it without putting in much thought because I thought i would clash with my other supporters a bit too much. But using AZ to pick up Crobat from the bench to act as a devolution spray or a Diggersby from the active to perform a switch might be useful. The only thing Im still worried about is that I might be starting to thin out my deck a bit too much if I eat any more into the core of it to add extra bonus cards (even tho Diggersby Pickup makes me want to add like 1 of every single supporter card in the game)

Also just to be sure, are you recommending I use an AZ or are you just asking me if Ive considered it?

Well, I was more or less asking both. It wasn't in your list, so I was wondering if there was a reason why.

But yeah, I would try to put in an AZ, especially since, if you face Seismitoad, you're going to be sunk. Item lock really makes your deck sad, methinks, and running a Supporter that pulls them back is a good thing, in my opinion. What I might take out for it would either be a Virizion EX, seeing as two is a bit excessive and starting with it wouldn't be too great, or the Seismitoad EX, considering the fact that you only run one and the odds of starting with it are slim at best.

Though, I should tell that to Jirachi, seeing as every time I run that thing and don't want to start it, it's always the only Pokemon in my hand. XD

 

[Pipotchi]

RE: Biting Bats (Crobat / Diggersby)

well I run Virizion EX for Seismitoad (2, because it hurts my deck so much), as well as Xerosic to remove DCEs from Seismitoad. The Virizion also means I can set up any of the other pokemon without item cards. The Seismitoad got added because its the best basic water type that can operate with just DCE, because the aim of these 3 EXs are to use typings which knock out all the fighting types that threaten Diggersby. (Virizion covers donphans, Seismitoad covers Landorus, Mewtwo covers most of the rest). So I think the Seismitoad can be important in this deck, and not necessarily just to start with- since if I can stall turns I can set up bats and diggersbys and still get a huge amount of damage just from the bats and 30 from quaking punch.

Thats my logic anyways, so I really think the Seismitoad has a place here- but I will try and think of somewhere else to put an AZ.

 

[onionsaur]

RE: Biting Bats (Crobat / Diggersby)

First off I LOVE Diggersby as a card. So this is a pretty exciting deck idea!

If I were to make a deck like this I think I would put in a Victini or even two. You want those Zubat lines to excel, and while victini may be capture bait, it gives you a 75% chance of Diggersby not being hit if and when you need to use dig.

 

[spartanzdude3]

RE: Biting Bats (Crobat / Diggersby)

It seems that it was only reprinted in the Japanese promos. Sorry . Unless if you are in Japan, than that's great. Please let me know if I am missing it somewhere though if I'm wrong.

If it is not legal, I would place super scoop ups in place of the sprays.

 

[Pipotchi]

RE: Biting Bats (Crobat / Diggersby)

Ah, nvm then. This deck is ruined without being able to use devo spray, super scoop up is just not worth the turns spent using pickup. I thought I had found something diggersby could be used in, but it was too good to be true. Oh well!

 

[Pipotchi]

RE: Biting Bats (Crobat / Diggersby)

Ok, I've updated this deck to be in the expanded format. I changed the diggersby to sableye and therefore was forced to go for a dark deck, meaning yveltal is the new main attacker here. The deck hits a lot harder with Yveltal EX. Hitting a Genesect EX with 3 energy on it with Evil ball does 120 damage, which can be boosted to 180 with 2 crobat evolutions meaning that the deck doesn't care so much about virizion blocking poison. But with poison, yveltal knocks out pokemon EX with 3 energy on them with just one crobat evolution.
Raichu is a bit scary for the deck but can hopefully be knocked out on the bench really easily- pikachu is knocked out by a golbat evolution + a night spear/skill dive, or raichu itself is knocked out by 2 crobats and a night spear/skill dive.

hoopefully all the cards i used this time are fine! ><

The cards I added are: Sableye, Yveltal EX, Head Noiser, Skyla, Dark Patch, Switch, and Dark Energy. I removed a lot of devo sprays because yveltal gives the deck the option to go more full-on aggressive rather than sniping so i wanted to give it options for that as well. (although it can still play a retrieval game with sableye)
Head Noiser is especially good with the deck since it means that they have to attach an extra energy to their EX which means 20 extra damage for Yveltal EX- plus, Xerosic removes their DCEs which means that they can't even attach multiple energy particularly fast. This would really slow down something like a Seismitoad EX if it had to attach 3 times with basic energy in order to quaking punch. This deck really appreciates stuff which has to spend time setting up on the bench, because it has access to so much bench sniping with the bats and now also Darkrai can help deal damage to the bench. If you managed to evolve 2 crobats and hit with a night spear's additional 30, you are dealing 90 to a benched seismitoad.. which can be turned into a ko the next turn.