Competitive Decks that Don't Run Shaymin

[CruelBear]

Medicham is a cheap and very good deck, today in a game i hit 260 on turn 3, its a 4-4 line of medicham PRC w/ ancient trait and a 2-1-2 line of machamp FFI. Pairing that with Strong energy and Fighting Stadium (Also Machamps Ability Boosts all Fighting attacks by 20). The Omega Barrage is very effective in the fact that it lets you attack twice

The issue I have with Medicham is needing 2 energy to attack. How do you get over that?

I have to admit, I'm still pretty skeptical that any Machamp FFI variants (whether Medicham or Lucario EX) can do well in my home state, but I guess it couldn't hurt to give them a try. Not sure where I could find a prototype decklist, though.

I can get you the list I'm using later tonight, if you want that. I can say that it still needs some refinement, but it's working well enough so far. If you're worried about Machamp itself being too slow to get out, then you're worried about the wrong thing with this deck. Between Korina, Sycamore, and Ultra Ball, you're pretty likely to have a Machop on your bench turn 1, and it evolved either turn 2 or 3. But it often doesn't matter that much early in the game. You're still able to do quite a bit before getting Machamp out.

 

[RunningWithScizors]

Sure, I'd be glad to have your Machamp deck list. At least it would give me something to work on.

The only thing I was skeptical about was whether or not a rogue deck could prosper in a place where archetypes pretty much reign. I'm not worried about anything.

 

[CruelBear]

2 Hawlucha
1 Landorus
2 Lucario
3-0-3 Machamp

4 Acro Bike
1 Energy Retrieval
1 Professor's Letter
3 Switch
4 Rare Candy
1 Sacred Ash
2 Ultra Ball
4 VS Seeker
3 Muscle Band

2 Fighting Stadium
1 Silent Lab

4 Korrina
4 Sycamore
2 Birch
1 Lysandre
1 Xerosic

4 Strong Energy
6 Fighting Energy

And there's one free spot I keep trying different things in. So far it's up to 14 wins/4 losses. I had forgotten I already got rid of the Landorus EX, probably for Sacred Ash. But I'm really not sure it's been useful yet, so that can be swapped out for whatever.

 

[Alderein]

You at least have one Shaymin, right? I did a M Latios-EX with the bats that only ran one Shaymin that will easily survive rotation

 

[ArccherSlash]

I have to admit, I'm still pretty skeptical that any Machamp FFI variants (whether Medicham or Lucario EX) can do well in my home state, but I guess it couldn't hurt to give them a try. Not sure where I could find a prototype decklist, though.

Well i run a Lucario in the medicham list and it still puts in work no matter what, you can have my list if you want

The issue I have with Medicham is needing 2 energy to attack. How do you get over that?



I can get you the list I'm using later tonight, if you want that. I can say that it still needs some refinement, but it's working well enough so far. If you're worried about Machamp itself being too slow to get out, then you're worried about the wrong thing with this deck. Between Korina, Sycamore, and Ultra Ball, you're pretty likely to have a Machop on your bench turn 1, and it evolved either turn 2 or 3. But it often doesn't matter that much early in the game. You're still able to do quite a bit before getting Machamp out.

The energy is somewhat easy to get into play but it is sometimes hard to get

 

[Zygarde262]

Anything that doesn't run heavy counts of Silent Lab or Wobbuffett right now should probably be running multiple Shaymins. In the current format, you either play Shaymin or you counter it, the card is that good. However, in some decks, you can get away with running a 1-1 split of Shaymin and Jirachi instead of 2+ Shaymins (for example, my current Night March list utilizes the 1-1 split). My advice would be to either do that or to just run Groudon, who seems to be the best partner for Wobbuffett right now. If you plan on getting more Shaymins in the near future as you say, then Groudon/Night March should tide you over until rotation, by which time you'll probably have access to additional Shaymins and can reevaluate what you want to play at that time.

 

[RunningWithScizors]

How do you run a Primal Groudon deck with Wobbuffet? The deck's slow enough as it is and uses Landorus FFI to accelerate Energy. Besides, we lose Float Stone in rotation.

Well i run a Lucario in the medicham list and it still puts in work no matter what, you can have my list if you want

Sure. I wouldn't mind seeing it.

You at least have one Shaymin, right? I did a M Latios-EX with the bats that only ran one Shaymin that will easily survive rotation

I have 1 Shaymin, but only a 2-2 M Latios EX line. That's not going to be enough.

 

[ArccherSlash]

Sure. I wouldn't mind seeing it.

This is My List for Medicham

1 Lucario-EX (FUF 107)
2 Machop (FUF 44)
1 Machoke (FUF 45)
4 Meditite (PCL 79)
2 Machamp (FUF 46)
4 Medicham (PCL 81)
4 Strong Energy (FUF 104)
6 Fighting Energy (XY 137)
4 Level Ball (NXD 89)
2 Korrina (FUF 111)
1 Escape Rope (PCL 127)
1 Switch (ROS 91)
1 Xerosic (PHF 110)
1 Shauna (PHF 104)
4 Professor Sycamore (PHF 101)
1 Professor's Letter (XY 123)
1 Maxie's Hidden Ball Trick (PCL 158)
2 Repeat Ball (PCL 136)
2 Professor Birch's Observations (PCL 159)
3 Muscle Band (XY 121)
2 Rare Candy (PCL 135)
2 Lysandre (FLF 90)
1 Battle Compressor (PHF 92)
2 Ultra Ball (FLF 99)
2 VS Seeker (PHF 109)
3 Fighting Stadium (FUF 90)
1 Teammates (PCL 141)