With the release of Team Up I have begun to tinker with my Zorark Lycanroc deck. Even before the release of this new expansion I have heard both positive and negative comments on including Magcargo in a Zoroark Lycanroc list.
I have always chosen to include Magcargo in my pre Team Up list, and recently I even went to a 2 Magcargo, 1 Slugma, 1 Ditto line to ensure I always had access to Magcargo. The ability to have perfect draws has been exceptionally useful. Getting the needed acerola or Guzma, the critical DCE or ect., has often made the difference between victory and defeat. The naysayers often tell me that because of the consistent draw power of Zoroark, Magcargo is simply a "win more" card and that the slots could be filled by other, more effective cards. However, up to this point I have always included Magcargo and have had success.
One of the reasons that I felt confident on including Magcargo was that I was not playing a Weavile line in the deck nor was I including Alolan Grimer. Instead, I was relying on Ditto to use the Alolan Muk tech when it was needed. However, with Team up and the introduction of Zapdos, the consensus is that one can no longer just rely on Ditto when using Alolan Muk, and Alolan Muk itself has becomes an even more critical card in countering the Jirachi engine so many decks are going to rely on.
Thus, I am going to be forced to include an Alolan Grimer taking up ever more space and making the inclusion of Magcargo ever more questionable. According to the results from Japan, where Team up is already in play, the consensus is that Weavile is a must for Zoroark Lycanroc lists. I for sure see Weavile as very powerful and useful, but I am wondering if it is worth including a 1 & 1 Weavile Sneasel line and cutting the 1 & 1 Magcargo & Slugma. With Lycanroc I am already able to make at least one big one hit KO's using the GX attack, so is Weavile that critical?
With Weavile you would have an additional one kit KO attacker that would give one prize or ideally none at all with Black Market Prism Star. There is no question this is a big plus for Zoro/Roc decks which often are taking KO's with two attacks. But in a meta that is dominated by one hit KO attackers, and will be even more so with some of these big hitting Tag Team GX's, this fear is this deck might quickly fall to far behind in the prize race. Still the clear benefit of sticking with Magcargo is that the deck maintains the the perfect draw ability and in terms of my play style, I keep the deck engine that I am used to and have confidence in. Looking at tournament results from Japan about half of the lists are including Magcargo and almost all are including Weavile. Both seem to be very important to post Team Up Zoro/Roc decks. I have only rooms for two lines and the choices are Magcargo, Weavile, or Alolan Muk. Since Muk seems absolutely critical I have to choose between the former two.
I am curious what advise the Poke Beach community can give me regarding this issue and which option if best given the changes Team Up makes to the meta. Any input and all opinions are welcome. Thanks you for you time and your input.
I have always chosen to include Magcargo in my pre Team Up list, and recently I even went to a 2 Magcargo, 1 Slugma, 1 Ditto line to ensure I always had access to Magcargo. The ability to have perfect draws has been exceptionally useful. Getting the needed acerola or Guzma, the critical DCE or ect., has often made the difference between victory and defeat. The naysayers often tell me that because of the consistent draw power of Zoroark, Magcargo is simply a "win more" card and that the slots could be filled by other, more effective cards. However, up to this point I have always included Magcargo and have had success.
One of the reasons that I felt confident on including Magcargo was that I was not playing a Weavile line in the deck nor was I including Alolan Grimer. Instead, I was relying on Ditto to use the Alolan Muk tech when it was needed. However, with Team up and the introduction of Zapdos, the consensus is that one can no longer just rely on Ditto when using Alolan Muk, and Alolan Muk itself has becomes an even more critical card in countering the Jirachi engine so many decks are going to rely on.
Thus, I am going to be forced to include an Alolan Grimer taking up ever more space and making the inclusion of Magcargo ever more questionable. According to the results from Japan, where Team up is already in play, the consensus is that Weavile is a must for Zoroark Lycanroc lists. I for sure see Weavile as very powerful and useful, but I am wondering if it is worth including a 1 & 1 Weavile Sneasel line and cutting the 1 & 1 Magcargo & Slugma. With Lycanroc I am already able to make at least one big one hit KO's using the GX attack, so is Weavile that critical?
With Weavile you would have an additional one kit KO attacker that would give one prize or ideally none at all with Black Market Prism Star. There is no question this is a big plus for Zoro/Roc decks which often are taking KO's with two attacks. But in a meta that is dominated by one hit KO attackers, and will be even more so with some of these big hitting Tag Team GX's, this fear is this deck might quickly fall to far behind in the prize race. Still the clear benefit of sticking with Magcargo is that the deck maintains the the perfect draw ability and in terms of my play style, I keep the deck engine that I am used to and have confidence in. Looking at tournament results from Japan about half of the lists are including Magcargo and almost all are including Weavile. Both seem to be very important to post Team Up Zoro/Roc decks. I have only rooms for two lines and the choices are Magcargo, Weavile, or Alolan Muk. Since Muk seems absolutely critical I have to choose between the former two.
I am curious what advise the Poke Beach community can give me regarding this issue and which option if best given the changes Team Up makes to the meta. Any input and all opinions are welcome. Thanks you for you time and your input.
