Alt. Format (BKT-ULP) Luxray/Garb hehehaha

[John InCENAroar]

Luxray has always been one of my favorite Gen 4 pokemon, especially since my first clear of Omega Ruby had one on my team and he was my first ever lv. 100 pokemon. It's great to see this deck in action and I really love the combo the just revealed today. Here is the list I think works well.

Pokemon (21):

• Shinx (3)
  
  Spoiler

  [*]Shinx – Lightning – HP50
  Basic Pokemon
  
  Ability: Runaway Evolution
  This Pokemon can evolve the turn it was played if it’s the first turn of the player going second.
  
  [L] Sparking: 10 damage.
  
  Weakness: Fighting (x2)
  Resistance: Metal (-20)
  Retreat: 1
  [*]
• Luxio (3)
  
  Spoiler

  [*]Luxio – Lightning – HP80
  Stage 1 – Evolves from Shinx
  
  [C] Electromagnetic Barrier: 30 damage. Your opponent can’t play any Item cards from their hand during their next turn.
  
  Weakness: Fighting (x2)
  Resistance: Metal (-20)
  Retreat: 1
  [*]
• Luxray (3)
  
  Spoiler

  [*]Luxray – Lightning – HP150
  Stage 2 – Evolves from Luxio
  
  Ability: Intimidating Fang
  As long as this Pokemon is your Active Pokemon, any damage done to this Pokemon by an opponent’s attack is reduced by 30 (before applying Weakness and Resistance).
  
  [L][L][C] Voltage Arrow: Discard all [L] Energy attached to this Pokemon. This attack does 150 damage to 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokemon.)
  
  Weakness: Fighting (x2)
  Resistance: Metal (-20)
  Retreat: 0
  [*]
• Luxray BREAK (2)
• Shining Celebi (2)
• Trubbish BKP (2)
• Garbodor GRI (2)
• Tapu Lele GX (2)
• Drampa GX (1)
• Mr. Mime (1)

Trainer (28):

• Professor Sycamore (3)
• Cynthia (3)
  
  Spoiler

  [*]Cynthia – Trainer
  Supporter
  
  Shuffle your hand into your deck. Then, draw 6 cards.
  
  You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).
  [*]
• N (2)
• Guzma (3)
• Choice Band (2)
• Float Stone (1)
• Ultra Ball (3)
• Volkner (2)
  
  Spoiler

  [*]Volkner – Trainer
  Supporter
  
  Search your deck for an Item card and a [L] Energy, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.
  
  You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).
  [*]
• Wally (1)
• Brigette (1)
• Field Blower (2)
• Rescue Stretcher (1)
• Max Potion (4)
  

Energy (11):

• Counter Energy (2)
• Double Colorless Energy (1)
• Psychic Energy (5)
• Rainbow Energy (3)

So, the strat is to get up into Luxio ASAP with the Combination of Brigette and Wally, then evolve into Luxray/BREAK for extra tankiness while you sit there with your celebi Item locking them forever. Then, once they've discarded all of their items with Sycamore, Garb comes in for the big plays. Counter energy exists to take "revenge kills" with the snipe attack off of Luxray with the attachment of a psychic energy. Now I know that the Drampa may seem extraneous, but I think it has a bit of merit, being able to take big knockouts on something in the active like a Lele with a choice band and damaged pokemon on the bench (which will happen with Rainbow. Tell me what you think, I want to know how to improve.

 

[John InCENAroar]

However, I would prefer that there be no mention of Mismagius from Crimson Invasion, as I feel that the purpose of item locking is lost with the inclusion of Mismagius, as it loses the effect. I've seen a lot of people say it's good, I see it as a free prize for my opponent to take advantage of.

 

[Kietharr]

this deck makes no sense on a systemic level, you can't assume they will Sycamore their items in a format that is going to include Cynthia, which if Legacy is any indication will play heavily into the SM5 on standard supporter lineup. N will also still be around. Decks are generally content to play slower these days as it is so they may not mind janking out on shuffles for a few turns. Lack of the ability to run Garbodor BKT due to reliance on Celebi also hurts your ability to deal with Gard and Volc, both of which can accelerate with minimal item use.

You are completely correct to include Drampa because without it you lack a way to apply pressure if your opponent doesn't play into your hand. That's why cards like Drampa, Golisopod and to a lesser extent Espeon are played with Garb, they apply pressure in a way that 30 damage plus item lock simply doesn't. 30 damage isn't even donking basics, and Luxray isn't dropping big attacks without counter energy.

If you want to do Luxray, I'd just as soon see you try to go full on BREAK with a fliptini.

 

[DKQuagmire]

I like the mr mime inclusion. makes buzzwole decks completely useless now. unless it has strong energy.
choice band seems fine at bumping up the damage output, but you don't seem to have any way to do big damage to decks that don't play gx or ex cards as the main attacker. like garbodor
Not sure how i feel on victory star victini. first you need 4 energy on the luxray break, and since you don't play lightning energy you must rely on counter energy working by having your opponent have less prize cards than yourself, which in my opinion is a bad thing.
also if that luxray is knocked out, thats lots of energy cards discarded that you can't recover, since theres no super rod/ energy retrieval etc. (Special energy needs special charge)

I would just focus on Luxio's attack through out the game, only switching to other pokemon when you would normally have a ko.

 

[Kietharr]

I'm not calling Luxray BREAK a good deck (and obviously you'd change your energy comp if you were focusing on it) I'm just pointing out that item lock in this deck isn't creating enough pressure to consistently win games. Unlike toad where you have lasers and bats to pump up damage, and operates in a meta where decks are still built with more items, a lot of decks are going to be content to let you chip them for 30 damage as they build a slow but insurmountable advantage.