Standard Blacephalon UNB (Post SwSh) (Updated Feb. 26th)

[Firewyn]

UPDATED DECKLIST AS OF FEBRUARY 26TH

Hi Guys, Firewyn here.

It's been a very long time since I have been at the beach.

Here's the decklist with some explanations

****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******

##Pokémon - 14

* 4 Jirachi TEU 99
* 4 Blacephalon UNB 32
* 1 Blacephalon-GX LOT 52
* 1 Cramorant V SSH 155
* 1 Victini {*} DRM 7
* 1 Zacian V SSH 138
* 1 Mew UNB 76
* 1 Oricorio-GX CEC 95

##Trainer Cards - 30

* 4 Welder UNB 189

* 4 Quick Ball SSH 179
* 4 Acro Bike CES 123
* 4 Fire Crystal UNB 173
* 3 Fiery Flint DRM 60
* 2 Energy Retrieval SSH 160
* 2 Escape Board UPR 122
* 2 Switch SSH 183
* 1 Great Catcher CEC 192
* 1 Lucky Egg SSH 167
* 1 Pal Pad SSH 172

* 1 Heat Factory {*} LOT 178
* 1 Ultra Space FLI 115

##Energy - 16

* 15 Fire Energy Energy 2
* 1 Beast Energy {*} FLI 117

Total Cards - 60

Thoughts:
- Finding the deck to be really good when it gets going quickly, but at times if I over commit, it can sputter and you lose the speed of the deck.

Tell me what you think, I'm hoping to playtest this deck for Toronto Regionals in one month's time

Thanks
- Firewyn

EDIT 1: Thought of Cramorant V for a little while, but decided to cut it.... Should I put it in???
EDIT 2: Changed deck from BabyBlacephalon/Naganagel to Green's Blowns
EDIT 3: Added thoughts to updated decklist
EDIT 4: Updated the decklist drastically since last shown.
EDIT 5: Realized I put the wrong playtest list. Updated!

 

[snoopy369]

I don't understand the purpose behind using Naganadel in a Baby Blacephalon deck. Naganadel makes sense in Blacephalon GX (as you need energy on the board), but not really in Baby Blacephalon - you need that energy in your *hand*, not on the board. It looks to me that you've taken a Blacephalon GX deck and just swapped out most of the GXs for Babies. You don't even have energy switches, so the energy on those Naganadels would be lost, unless you're using them as attackers, which is pretty inefficient.

I'd stick with the baby build or the GX build and pick one - they're both fun, and both effective. You could win with either.

 

[Firewyn]

I don't understand the purpose behind using Naganadel in a Baby Blacephalon deck. Naganadel makes sense in Blacephalon GX (as you need energy on the board), but not really in Baby Blacephalon - you need that energy in your *hand*, not on the board. It looks to me that you've taken a Blacephalon GX deck and just swapped out most of the GXs for Babies. You don't even have energy switches, so the energy on those Naganadels would be lost, unless you're using them as attackers, which is pretty inefficient.

I'd stick with the baby build or the GX build and pick one - they're both fun, and both effective. You could win with either.

Yea, thinking about that, I was more leaning towards baby Blacephalon at the start. I’ll change the deck a bit and update it later this morning.

 

[Firewyn]

Have Updated the decklist from a BabyBlacephalon/Naganadel to a Green's Blowns

 

[Firewyn]

Decklist Change.... again....

-1 Shrine
+1 ResetStamp

 

[snoopy369]

Few comments:

Beast Energy is okay if you're going to play Guzma and Hala, but overall I find it a bad card; example: my son and I played a game last night, I played Lapras VMax (you'd think this was like the perfect matchup for him practically - types are irrelevant as I'm doing 180+ no mater what, and he's winning in 2 or 3 KOs max). He lost, partially because he didn't manage his fire crystals/energy retrievals properly, but partially because of Beast Energy. He got to one point where he couldn't KO me because he was one energy short - and it was because earlier in the game he had to attach a Beast Energy as a fourth energy to one of his Blowns, because he needed the extra 30 but couldn't discard it and retrieve it like normal energy. If you pull it at the right time it's okay, but otherwise it's worse than a fire energy - and it's not really much _better_ than an extra fire energy. I'd dump Guzma and Hala (which isn't very important, anyway, as you don't care that much about your only stadium that likely is out for a single turn if opponents are playing multiple stadiums anyway) and dump beast energy and just have the one.

Green's Blacephalon build was good last year, but this year it suffers significantly from the turn 1 supporter rule. If you go second, you're okay, but if you go first you are basically lose a turn. Jirachi Blacephalon is _much_ faster in my experience - too fast, sometimes (part of my son's problem last night - he kept discarding energy before it was time to take KOs, because I was delaying things on my end, and so he ended up using too many retrievals/crystals early on). I'd much rather play that, if I have a choice anyway (maybe you don't have Jirachi, in which case that's cool of course!) Green's is also a LOT harder to recover from Reset Stamps late game.

Beastite is interesting in the Green's build, I might reduce to one though - I don't think it's very useful until the end, and so I'd rather it not clog things quite that much.

Energy Retrieval should be added - only four Fire Crystals means you probably won't be able to KO my Lapras deck for example (including the minimum of 9 you'll need for attachments, and the 12-17 you'll need for KOs, if I play optimally, you'll run low on energy if you prize even one of the crystals); it also means it's harder for you to get what you need - making you way more reliant on finding those Green's (and since you need to Welder every other turn, basically, that's a problem). Victini Prism Star could help with that to some extent, but I feel like the faster lists are eschewing Victini for 6-7 total energy retrieval cards (between Fire Crystal and Energy Retrieval), and Victini's big problem is it shuffles them back into the deck - making it harder to find them again (maybe you still have a Flint, maybe not).

Speaking of recovering from Reset Stamp: one thing to consider teching is Zacian V. That gives you both something to do on your non-attacking turns, which will happen sometimes, and a way to recover from a Reset Stamp. Oricorio GX is also a key tech I feel like in this deck - more so than Cramorant which I've seen only limited utility from - as it lets you draw out of a KO, which you're taking all the time anyway (and maybe took the turn they Reset Stamped you). Lucky Egg is a third card to help with this - I feel like it's critical in these decks.

 

[Firewyn]

Updating the decklist shortly.... it has changed drastically from the last build.

 

[Firewyn]

Re-Updated the decklist as of today, put the wrong playtest list:

- Added a 4th Jirachi
- Dropped 1 Fiery Flint (questionable :/)