Standard BUSHFIRE (Pyroar BREAK / Volcanion / Shaymin EX)

[Dark Espeon]

BUSHFIRE

Pokémon (14):

• 3 Pyroar BREAK (beatdown)
• 3 Pyroar XY11 (beatdown)
• 3 Litleo XY11 (evolution)
• 3 Volcanion (beatdown)
• 2 Shaymin Ex (draw)

Trainer (34):

• 4 Professor Sycamore (draw)
• 1 Giovanni’s Scheme (draw)
• 1 Lysandre (control)
• 2 Wally (evolution)
• 2 N (draw)
• 4 Bursting Balloon (beatdown)
• 3 Trainer's Mail (search)
• 1 Super Rod (retrieve)
• 4 Vs Seeker (retrieve)
• 4 Ultra Ball (search)
• 1 Eco Arm (retrieve)
• 3 Acro Bike (draw)
• 4 Scorched Earth (draw)

Energy (12):

• 12 Fire Energy

STRATEGY:

Go second and start with Volcanion. Use Scorched Earth and Arco Bike to draw and discard Fire Energy. Bench two Litleo and accelerate to them with Volcanion. Evolve them into Pyroar BREAK with Wally and attach Bursting Balloon as soon as Pyroar BREAK becomes active. Hit them with Kaiser Tackle and build another Pyroar BREAK on the bench to take over once the first one is defeated. Bursting Balloon ensures that Pyroar BREAK can either ohko the defender or has another turn to live. Retrieve lost Bursting Balloon with Eco Arm while Super Rod returns lost Pyroar to the deck.

 

[WastedSkyPirate]

Hi @Dark Espeon

With the current card pool, I'm not convinced by Pyroar BREAK. The difficulty is that you are trying to setup what is essentially a Stage 2 Pokemon and meet it's Energy costs for what is, in all likelihood, one opportunity to hit for 180 before being knocked out. If Blacksmith was in the format then at least you'd have a reliable way to meet the Energy costs in one turn. Volcanion, on the other hand, feels a bit clunky here. There's not a reliable way of getting 2 Fire Energy cards in the discard pile each turn and Volcanion's damage output is fairly lame. Volcanion-EX can rectify this but it doesn't have synergy with Pyroar BREAK.

Pyroar BREAK certainly isn't a bad card but I can see it doing better in expanded where it benefits from a decent Pyroar (FLF) and the aforementioned Blacksmith. Meanwhile, the future of Fire in the standard format looks set to be based around Volcanion and Volcanion-EX.

As for your list though, I'm surprised that there's no Professor's Letter included (it was reprinted in BREAKthrough). It combines well with Scorched Earth and, here, Ultra Ball for getting 2 Fire Energy in the discard pile for Power Heater.

 

[Alphahitman4]

Would a couple FFB come in handy to make first Pyroar break attach not do too much impact on its HP? I like the deck, ive always been fond of fire decks

 

[Dracul Kuro Hemming]

Remember that FFB, while can be attached to anything, will only give Basics the extra HP. So Volcanion and Shaymin get the HP boost.

 

[Alphahitman4]

Remember that FFB, while can be attached to anything, will only give Basics the extra HP. So Volcanion and Shaymin get the HP boost.

Yea my, bad dumb thought..

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi WastedSkyPirate,

Thanks for the review. Pyroar BREAK is not the most competitive deck since he is most likely knocked out after one Kaiser Tackle. However he can be decent against Pokémon Ex decks since he is able to trade favorable with Bursing Balloon attached. Pyroar BREAK seems to be less effective against non-Ex decks since a revenage kill is easy to achieve. However, that also holds true in Expanded. Since I already have a Volcanion deck I was looking for a decent Fire BREAK deck.

Reliably getting Fire into the discard could be an issue despite the use of scorched Earth and Acro Bike. Battle Compressor sure was a much more reliable means to achive this aim. Professor's Letter sounds decent. How would you fit one of them into the current build?

The Pyroar that I miss the most is the one from Phantom Forces. Not a fan of the Flashfire version in Expanded since most decks run a mix of Basics and evolutions in addition to the common use of Hex Maniac. There is a solid reason he was not used anymore in the XY-on format. Blacksmith is indeed a relevant loss for this deck. This also holds true for Battle Compressor which were in the original list that i had in mind before the rotation was announced.

Hi Alphahitman4,

Thanks for the review. As Dracul Kuro Hemming pointed out, Fighting Fury Belt only works on Basic Pokémon. Protection Cube could be used in Expanded to reduce the self-damage of Kaiser Tackle to zero but I feel that this does not make that much of a difference since several decks should be able to ohko a HP 160 Pokémon with three energies attached to it. I feel the more offensive road with Bursting Balloon as tool for Pyroar BREAK is more fruitful. As mentioned above it sure is not the most competitive deck but I would be interested in a decent Fire BREAK deck.