Help Deck Cores for SUM-ON

K

KindFawn

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I was wondering if someone would be able to provide some simple cores for decks that are going to be played after SUM-ON. I am a returning player and it would be a huge help in figuring out which deck I would like to settle on.

Gardevoir GX

Metagross GX

Any Zoroark Variant

Malamar

Also interested in Banette GX, but the main four are what I listed above.
 
I am playing a zorocargo deck on ptcgo, the strategy of the deck is to use magcargo`s smooth over ability to place any card on the top of your deck, and usr zoroarks trade to draw it heres a core list:

4 Zoroark GX
4 Zorua
2 Magcargo
2-3 Slugma
1 Ditto Prism Star (optional)
1-3 Lele GX

4 DCE

4 Cynthia
2 Ultra Ball
1 Copycat
4 Choice Band
3 Acro Bike
 
I am also running a ultra necrozma gx malamar deck, heres a deck skeleton:
2-3 Ultra Necrozma GX
1-2 Dawn Wings GX
4 Malamar
4 Inkay
1-3 Lele GX
Another attacker if you wish, i like ultra necrozma the best so i run 3.
3-4 Sight Seer
 
Well to start, I am a huge fan of the "new" Apricorn Maker which I honestly think is a much better, much more versatile Pokémon Fan Club. If you wanted to use it like a Fan Club, you could search for Nest Balls, and not only get decent setup, but you slightly thinned your deck as well. And speaking of Nest Balls, you would run a whole playset of them, which seems a little weird, but you need bench setup, esspecially if you're playing a Zoroark deck. So with that said, you might run into a Nest Ball into your opening hand, and if you do, you can search for your Apricorn Maker through other means like Tapu Lele or Ultra Ball for Lele, and there's your post-rotation Brigette. Even in the mid-game, you can use Apricorn Maker to search for Ultra Balls and Timer Balls to get evolution pokemon in your hand, which was something Brigette did not have and was simply discarded by Zoroark's ability afterwards. Now the flaw here is that's more items in the discard pile meaning Trashalance Garbodor, if it ever gets played, will do more damage than usual, but I think it's worth it esspecially now that ability-lock Garbodor in the next format will no longer be a thing. Here's what I'm usually running in the post-rotation decks I currently have built for playtesting:

4x Cynthia, because it's a 4-of in every deck, no questions asked.
1x Lillie if you open with Ultra Ball into Lele, grab this, burn any other items you have in your hand (like Nest Balls), and draw a bunch of cards leading to more setup.
2x Apricorn Maker which I think is a fine number. You don't need a third copy if you play Lillie because a first-turn Lillie has the potential to grab setup cards with it's massive draw on the first turn. As for items that go with this supporter line:

4x Ultra Ball No real excuse to run any less 98% of the time in all of the past formats.
4x Nest Ball for reasons stated above.
1-2x Timer Ball as I think it's going to be the new Evosoda given that it's searchable via Apricorn Maker and it gives your Zoroark's more consistency like Evosoda has done (all be it on coin flips, but that's still 2 coin flips meaning a 75% chance).

All the decks you listed on your first post seem like very good choices. Gardevoir can be a massive threat to newcomer Rayquaza, Metagross just got better now that most of his arch nemesis's have faded away (specifically BKP Garbodor, BKP Greninja, Volcanion, N, etc.), Zoroark is one of the best Pokemon in standard right now and he'll probably remain the same in this upcoming format now with Magcargo joining him and other certain cards rotating, and the ladder is true for Malamar variants so use cards like Ultra Necrozma as you please.
 
Holden Sheeks said:
Well to start, I am a huge fan of the "new" Apricorn Maker which I honestly think is a much better, much more versatile Pokémon Fan Club. If you wanted to use it like a Fan Club, you could search for Nest Balls, and not only get decent setup, but you slightly thinned your deck as well. And speaking of Nest Balls, you would run a whole playset of them, which seems a little weird, but you need bench setup, esspecially if you're playing a Zoroark deck. So with that said, you might run into a Nest Ball into your opening hand, and if you do, you can search for your Apricorn Maker through other means like Tapu Lele or Ultra Ball for Lele, and there's your post-rotation Brigette. Even in the mid-game, you can use Apricorn Maker to search for Ultra Balls and Timer Balls to get evolution pokemon in your hand, which was something Brigette did not have and was simply discarded by Zoroark's ability afterwards. Now the flaw here is that's more items in the discard pile meaning Trashalance Garbodor, if it ever gets played, will do more damage than usual, but I think it's worth it esspecially now that ability-lock Garbodor in the next format will no longer be a thing. Here's what I'm usually running in the post-rotation decks I currently have built for playtesting:

4x Cynthia, because it's a 4-of in every deck, no questions asked.
1x Lillie if you open with Ultra Ball into Lele, grab this, burn any other items you have in your hand (like Nest Balls), and draw a bunch of cards leading to more setup.
2x Apricorn Maker which I think is a fine number. You don't need a third copy if you play Lillie because a first-turn Lillie has the potential to grab setup cards with it's massive draw on the first turn. As for items that go with this supporter line:

4x Ultra Ball No real excuse to run any less 98% of the time in all of the past formats.
4x Nest Ball for reasons stated above.
1-2x Timer Ball as I think it's going to be the new Evosoda given that it's searchable via Apricorn Maker and it gives your Zoroark's more consistency like Evosoda has done (all be it on coin flips, but that's still 2 coin flips meaning a 75% chance).

All the decks you listed on your first post seem like very good choices. Gardevoir can be a massive threat to newcomer Rayquaza, Metagross just got better now that most of his arch nemesis's have faded away (specifically BKP Garbodor, BKP Greninja, Volcanion, N, etc.), Zoroark is one of the best Pokemon in standard right now and he'll probably remain the same in this upcoming format now with Magcargo joining him and other certain cards rotating, and the ladder is true for Malamar variants so use cards like Ultra Necrozma as you please.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the extensive advice! I already kind of want to play malakar, would you run the apricot engine un that?
 
KindFawn said:
Thanks for the extensive advice! I already kind of want to play malakar, would you run the apricot engine un that?
Click to expand...
My concern with Apricorn Maker in Malamar is that you want to run 3-4 mysterious treasures for your Lele's and Malamar's (nest ball doesn't help with Lele, and you want to be able to discard energies for Malamar), and Apricorn Maker doesn't grab those. OTOH you can get those with Ultra Balls, and you still have the discard power, but it can be more costly. Right now I want to test Apricorn Maker with 4 Mysterious Treasure, 4 Ultra Ball, and 3 Sophocles (legal now)/3 Sightseer (legal later).
 
KindFawn said:
Thanks for the extensive advice! I already kind of want to play malamar, would you run the apricot engine in that?
Click to expand...
No problem!

I think that for Malamar variants, you already have a lot of speed via not only your Ultra Balls but your Mysterious Treasures as well. So since you already play so many items, I'd think Lillie would be a better set up card than Apricorn Maker since not only can you easily burn your items in your hand, but some of those items discard cards that you couldn't normally get out of your hand like extra energy or a supporter you can't play because you're using Lillie. I still run 4 Nest Balls in my personal post-rotation Ultra Necrozma / Malamar deck yet I don't use Apricorn Maker. Not like that list for the deck is pure art or anything but I would rather play more draw supporters in a deck that could really use it when it doesn't have access to something like the Zoroark Engine. I actually play 2 Lillies instead of 1 just because of the need of an extra draw supporter (and of course if one gets prized). Thankfully you don't need as much bench setup as Zoroark does, all you really need is a couple Inkays out to set up Malamars, but you have access to 16 cards that do so (The 4 Inkays themselves, 4 Ultra Balls, 4 Nest Balls, and 4 Mysterious Treasures, all possible of getting out Inkays), so you should have no problem opening up with those cards.

Might as well share my list for the deck in the spoiler below:

Pokémon: (15)
2x Ultra Necrozma-GX
2x Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX
2x Tapu Lele-GX
1x Mewtwo (SM77)
1x Shining Mew (attach a psychic energy to it, and attach energies from the deck. Not only does it set up your Ultra Necrozmas, it just gets them out of your deck so when they hit the discard pile, Malamar is already set up. It's a card I'm just currently experimenting with.)
3x Malamar (FLI51)
4x Inkay (FLI50)

Energy: (12)
1x Beast Energy
1x Unit Energy LPM
2x Metal Energy
8x Psychic Energy

Trainers: (33)
4x Cynthia
2x Lillie
1x Copycat
4x Guzma

2x Altar of the Moone

4x Ultra Ball
4x Mysterious Treasure
4x Nest Ball
3x Choice Band
2x Switch
2x Beast Ring
1x Rescue Stretcher

I might take out a Dawn Wings Necrozma for another Ultra Necrozma, since Buzzwole is gonna be nowhere near as dominant as he was in the previous format, as well as maybe tweak some other things because I don't think I need 4 switching cards, the 2 Altars and 2 switches. But other than that, most of it looks fine to me.
 
Holden Sheeks said:
No problem!

I think that for Malamar variants, you already have a lot of speed via not only your Ultra Balls but your Mysterious Treasures as well. So since you already play so many items, I'd think Lillie would be a better set up card than Apricorn Maker since not only can you easily burn your items in your hand, but some of those items discard cards that you couldn't normally get out of your hand like extra energy or a supporter you can't play because you're using Lillie. I still run 4 Nest Balls in my personal post-rotation Ultra Necrozma / Malamar deck yet I don't use Apricorn Maker. Not like that list for the deck is pure art or anything but I would rather play more draw supporters in a deck that could really use it when it doesn't have access to something like the Zoroark Engine. I actually play 2 Lillies instead of 1 just because of the need of an extra draw supporter (and of course if one gets prized). Thankfully you don't need as much bench setup as Zoroark does, all you really need is a couple Inkays out to set up Malamars, but you have access to 16 cards that do so (The 4 Inkays themselves, 4 Ultra Balls, 4 Nest Balls, and 4 Mysterious Treasures, all possible of getting out Inkays), so you should have no problem opening up with those cards.

Might as well share my list for the deck in the spoiler below:

Pokémon: (15)
2x Ultra Necrozma-GX
2x Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX
2x Tapu Lele-GX
1x Mewtwo (SM77)
1x Shining Mew (attach a psychic energy to it, and attach energies from the deck. Not only does it set up your Ultra Necrozmas, it just gets them out of your deck so when they hit the discard pile, Malamar is already set up. It's a card I'm just currently experimenting with.)
3x Malamar (FLI51)
4x Inkay (FLI50)

Energy: (12)
1x Beast Energy
1x Unit Energy LPM
2x Metal Energy
8x Psychic Energy

Trainers: (33)
4x Cynthia
2x Lillie
1x Copycat
4x Guzma

2x Altar of the Moone

4x Ultra Ball
4x Mysterious Treasure
4x Nest Ball
3x Choice Band
2x Switch
2x Beast Ring
1x Rescue Stretcher

I might take out a Dawn Wings Necrozma for another Ultra Necrozma, since Buzzwole is gonna be nowhere near as dominant as he was in the previous format, as well as maybe tweak some other things because I don't think I need 4 switching cards, the 2 Altars and 2 switches. But other than that, most of it looks fine to me.
Click to expand...
I like @Holden Sheeks list, it is very similar to the one I like and am planning for post rotation (of course Holden beat me when I played it in the July Tournament . . . ha!). A couple of things, I would consider testing:

Lunala prism star instead of the Shining Mew or Mewtwo. Mew helps setup which is great for this deck, since you want to go fast, but it can't attack or take a hit. Lunala Prism is on the opposite end, it can help you in the end game if you've lost Malamars, or possibly tank, and it can sometimes setup for an attack if you still have your Malamars set up. I might even consider fitting all three in.

Volkner is kind of a Skyla-lite. It can only get items in this deck (instead of any trainer), but it might be worth replacing a couple of nest balls with it so that you might have the opportunity to grab that one item you need when you need it (esp. beast ring).
 
PrimePokeDaddy said:
I like @Holden Sheeks list, it is very similar to the one I like and am planning for post rotation (of course Holden beat me when I played it in the July Tournament . . . ha!). A couple of things, I would consider testing:

Lunala prism star instead of the Shining Mew or Mewtwo. Mew helps setup which is great for this deck, since you want to go fast, but it can't attack or take a hit. Lunala Prism is on the opposite end, it can help you in the end game if you've lost Malamars, or possibly tank, and it can sometimes setup for an attack if you still have your Malamars set up. I might even consider fitting all three in.

Volkner is kind of a Skyla-lite. It can only get items in this deck (instead of any trainer), but it might be worth replacing a couple of nest balls with it so that you might have the opportunity to grab that one item you need when you need it (esp. beast ring).
Click to expand...
I guess I could try Lunala Prism Star, probably has much better usage than SM77 Mewtwo since it can not only be a prize-one attacker, but can recover energies when needed. The only thing that ever told me not to run it was it could be OHKO'd by Zoroark-GX, a card I believe will still be everywhere post-rotation format, but maybe it's not the worst thing ever. People still ran Dawn Wings after all even when the card was still popular and taking names.

Volkner on the other hand? Eh, you're definitley right that it grabs Beast Ring at the right time when you need it, but besides that, I'd think I'd rather use my supporter for the turn to refresh my hand or catch something on the bench, while still having the potential to Beast Ring on the same turn if you have another way of getting the card into your hand. You're already sort of solitaring through your deck with so many items that discard and thin your deck, so running into the Beast Ring even right when you need it shouldn't be that hard. Thing is, the Ultra Necrozma lists that did really well in Madison regionals and also ran Beast Ring didn't run Skyla to search it out, which tells me that it wasn't a necessary card to put in. Overall, I might experiment with 1 Volkner since it's still searchable via Lele, in which that card is searchable by Ultra Balls and Mysterious Treasures, but I'm not too sure about it to be honest.
 
Holden Sheeks said:
I guess I could try Lunala Prism Star, probably has much better usage than SM77 Mewtwo since it can not only be a prize-one attacker, but can recover energies when needed. The only thing that ever told me not to run it was it could be OHKO'd by Zoroark-GX, a card I believe will still be everywhere post-rotation format, but maybe it's not the worst thing ever. People still ran Dawn Wings after all even when the card was still popular and taking names.

Volkner on the other hand? Eh, you're definitley right that it grabs Beast Ring at the right time when you need it, but besides that, I'd think I'd rather use my supporter for the turn to refresh my hand or catch something on the bench, while still having the potential to Beast Ring on the same turn if you have another way of getting the card into your hand. You're already sort of solitaring through your deck with so many items that discard and thin your deck, so running into the Beast Ring even right when you need it shouldn't be that hard. Thing is, the Ultra Necrozma lists that did really well in Madison regionals and also ran Beast Ring didn't run Skyla to search it out, which tells me that it wasn't a necessary card to put in. Overall, I might experiment with 1 Volkner since it's still searchable via Lele, in which that card is searchable by Ultra Balls and Mysterious Treasures, but I'm not too sure about it to be honest.
Click to expand...

Dark weakness is a definite drawback of Lunala Prism Star. However, it is definitely an endgame piece in any game. Zoroark is already a tough matchup for this deck, but in the current format, I find that Lunala Prism Star has actually been a hero against Zoroark, sacrificing itself with 2 prizes left to get energy to an Ultra Necrozma that Zoroark can't knock out.

I actually started putting Volkner and Skyla in after seeing Madison regionals. In my notes I was finding myself with extra Ultra Balls, but not what I needed, so I dropped the Ultra Ball count to 3 and added a Skyla, then dropped Nest Ball from 2 to 1, and added another. I treat them a little like I treat Lele. Lele is like a supporter wildcard, but comes at the cost of benching it and creating a 2 prize target. Volkner/Skyla are essentially item wildcards that can get you that one piece you need when you need it. For example, when you have the energy, but need a switch, a choice band, a mysterious treasure, or a beast ring etc. But it comes at the cost of using your supporter for the turn. If you need more than one piece you can still draw for them, but I've found Volkner/Skyla to be very useful mid-game when you are looking for something in a 25 card deck. I think it may come in even more handy as the draw supporters generally have less draw power/usefulness with the loss of Sycamore and N. The major problem with Volkner over Skyla is that Volkner can't search for a stadium or another supporter (and after rotation, no professor's letter for energy). Skyla could get you out of a bricked hand with a draw supporter for next turn, but Volkner has to do it through a mysterious treasure, or a ball that isn't nest ball, for Lele.
 
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