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Standard Dual Rainbow Road

Javi Blizz

Javi Blizz

Spanish TCG Player
Member
Hi guys! After helping in @Tendo 's Rainbow Road thread, I'd like you to give your opinions about my deklist and which things you'd change (and why). I've chosen the Dual Type way instead of the heavy EX line since they only give one prize and have some great attacks.

Pokemon:
3x Xerneas BKT
2x Mew FC
1x Carbink FC (Safeguard)
1x Volcanion EX
1x Shaymin EX
2-2x Galvántula SS
2-2x Bisharp SS

Supporter:
4x Professor Sycamore
3x N
2x Lysandre
1x Pokemon Ranger

Items:
3x Ultra Ball
2x Level Ball
3x Trainers' Mail
3x Max Elixir
3x Vs Seeker
2x Super Rod
2x FFB
2x Float Stone

Stadium:
2x Skyfield
1x Faded Town

Energies:
4x DCE
7x Fairy Energy

Strategy: benching as many different types as you can to hit as much as possible. Mew can be used as a pivot and as extra Xerneas (except against Garbodor, but with Super Rod, 3 Xerneas are all we need, the fourth is unnecesary). It also serves as an excellent pivot and gives you another type to hit for weakness. Galvantula 2HKOes Shaymin EX and Manaphy EX letting you earn 4 prizes in a turn (I thought it was all theorymon, but proved to be true in some matches during last toornament), and Bisharp can act as a Revenge Killer if necessary, both for a single [C] energy. As we want as many different types as possible onto our bench, I've opted for running one single Shaymin EX (and I'm not going to run more than one)

So, feel free to comment ;)
 
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I really like your version of this deck! I'll definitely be switching some things around in my deck using your advice (thanks for that by the way)!
The only thing I would change would be to add 1-2 Brigette. Brigette is really nice when you're first starting up because you can get 3 basics out on turn 1, rather than having to draw for them or search for them with level balls.
Otherwise, I feel like this deck could win you a lot of matches!
 
I thought about adding Bridgette, but I think it slows down the deck, althoug it fill your bench. The deck has a lot of insta-play items, so you can play Sycamore/N safely, and probably you'll want to play at least 1 Max elixir and your tools in T1.

But feel free to test it, and tell us if it goes fine :)
 
I play the deck almost like this. I don't play skyfield, and have a 2-2 galvantula, 2-2 bisharp, volcanion, 2 shaymin, 4 xerneas.

For your list, I would trade a mew for another xerneas.
 
Phoenix15 said:
I play the deck almost like this. I don't play skyfield, and have a 2-2 galvantula, 2-2 bisharp, volcanion, 2 shaymin, 4 xerneas.

For your list, I would trade a mew for another xerneas.
Click to expand...

I'll try to get another copy, but Mew works much better than it could seem. But it's all about playtesting, so okey

Do you play any specific stadium instead of Skyfield? I was thinking to replace it, or maybe changing one for a Paralell City/Faded Town/Chaos Tower
 
That's true. I don't play carbink or mew however.
I'm also careful about silent lab. I limit my self to 1 shaymin use if I can afford it (which is most of the time). That helps me not get messed up by silent lab as much
 
Phoenix15 said:
That's true. I don't play carbink or mew however.
I'm also careful about silent lab. I limit my self to 1 shaymin use if I can afford it (which is most of the time). That helps me not get messed up by silent lab as much
Click to expand...

I see...however, I don't think I'll play it. Any other stadium that you think could be useful?
 
Hi Javi Blizz,

Nice list. Consider these modifications:

- 1 Revive 8not needed that bad here)
- 2 Float stone (not needed in this deck)
- 3 Skyfield (not needed with the dual types)

+ 3 Fairy Garden (nice free retreat)
+ 1 Fighting Fury Belt (helps the math)
+ 1 Fairy Energy (better Max Elixir odds)
+ 1 Vs Seeker/Bisharp (personal preference)

Hope this provides some initial assistance.
 
You have to run Ninetales. That's not optional. Too many people are carrying Parallel city. I played a match against someone who played 3 parallel city.
My version of this runs Magearna. I have no DCE, and run 8 fairy and 4 metal energy. I also run 4 elixir and 4 puzzles, but that's my personal preference and my rainbow road is still in the development stage. I've only played 12 matches with it.
 
21times said:
You have to run Ninetales. That's not optional. Too many people are carrying Parallel city. I played a match against someone who played 3 parallel city.
My version of this runs Magearna. I have no DCE, and run 8 fairy and 4 metal energy. I also run 4 elixir and 4 puzzles, but that's my personal preference and my rainbow road is still in the development stage. I've only played 12 matches with it.
Click to expand...

Hi @21times

Can I ask what exactly Magearna-EX is protecting you from that you're concerned about?
 
Dark Espeon said:
Hi Javi Blizz,

Nice list. Consider these modifications:

- 1 Revive 8not needed that bad here)
- 2 Float stone (not needed in this deck)
- 3 Skyfield (not needed with the dual types)

+ 3 Fairy Garden (nice free retreat)
+ 1 Fighting Fury Belt (helps the math)
+ 1 Fairy Energy (better Max Elixir odds)
+ 1 Vs Seeker/Bisharp (personal preference)

Hope this provides some initial assistance.
Click to expand...

Hi @Dark Espeon , thanks for the suggestions!

I think I'll try switching the Revive for the FFB. However, I fail to see why is Fairy Garden better in this deck than Float Stone. I mean, the only pokemon which are going to hold energies here are Mew (which still has free retreat), Xerneas (once it's in the active place, it'll be there until it's KOed) and Galvantula&Bisharp in some situations (which are going to be KOed next turn). Maybe I'm missing something, so I'd like you to explain me :)

I want to change the stadium, so, if not Fairy Garden, which one would you play?

21times said:
You have to run Ninetales. That's not optional. Too many people are carrying Parallel city. I played a match against someone who played 3 parallel city.
My version of this runs Magearna. I have no DCE, and run 8 fairy and 4 metal energy. I also run 4 elixir and 4 puzzles, but that's my personal preference and my rainbow road is still in the development stage. I've only played 12 matches with it.
Click to expand...

Sorry @21times , but I have to disagree with your post:

-Ninetales isn't a must here. With 2x Super Rod + 3x Ultra Ball +2x Level Ball it is very easy to recover from a Paralell City. It also forces you to include a water pokemon in the list, as you can't play Volcanion EX then.
-Margeana looks awful in this deck. As an EX pokemon, it has a very mediocre HP, equilibrates the prize trade (which is in our favor) and don't add anything useful to the deck. If you don't want to play Bisharp and want to use a [M] pokemon, just run Stardust Jirachi.
-No DCE : Really? How do you plan to attack turn after turn when your Xerneas get OHKOed? You're not going to hit 100% Max Elixirs, and then you lost the match. Also, you have the problem to start getting [M] energy instead of [Y] energy from the Max Elixir.

I don't want to sound like I'd like to argue or something like that, just want to tell my opinion ;)
I've played more than 12 matches and finished 2nd in a tournament last weekend with this deck xd
 
21times said:
It was good enough for Shintaro.
Click to expand...

Hi @21times

You're right - it was good for him in the XY-STS format and playing it with Audino was a stroke of brilliance. It was particularly useful for protecting his DCEs from being discarded by Jirachi. Furthermore, it gave him security against haxy things like Froakie's Bubble.

However, as you said you're not playing DCE, so I'm struggling to think of what protection Magearna-EX gives you. It's one of those cards that will have some uses that others just haven't thought about (as Shintaro proved) so I want to check I haven't missed anything!

Hi @Javi Blizz

I really like this deck list! Just a note on the Stadium; if you want to change it then one decent alternative at the moment is Faded Town. As Megas are being tipped for a resurgence, this Stadium can net you some key KOs. You'll only need 6 different types in play in order to reach 210 damage (220 with a Fighting Fury Belt).

Faded Town would probably be best as a 1 or 2 count but no more.

Also, Javi - what do you feel are this deck's good and bad matchups?
 
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Javi Blizz said:
Hi @Dark Espeon , thanks for the suggestions!

I think I'll try switching the Revive for the FFB. However, I fail to see why is Fairy Garden better in this deck than Float Stone. I mean, the only pokemon which are going to hold energies here are Mew (which still has free retreat), Xerneas (once it's in the active place, it'll be there until it's KOed) and Galvantula&Bisharp in some situations (which are going to be KOed next turn). Maybe I'm missing something, so I'd like you to explain me :)

I want to change the stadium, so, if not Fairy Garden, which one would you play?
Click to expand...

You can also attach a single Fairy Energy to Volcanion Ex and enable him to retreat for free with Fairy Garden. Skyfield does not seem to be needed at all in this deck because you do not need more than three to five benched Pokémon with all the dual types in this deck. Thats one of the reasons Xerneas is superior to M Rayquaza Ex. You could also attach Float Stone to Volcanion Ex but Fairy garden is more versatile. However keep in mind that I run the slightly faster Ex version of this deck with Ninja Boy to turn a bench sitter into Xerneas out of nowhere. Another stadium that would work is Faded Town but more than one of them does not seem to be needed.
 
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Dark Espeon said:
You can also attach a single Fairy Energy to Volcanion Ex and enable him to retreat for free with Fairy Garden. Skyfield does not seem to be needed at all in this deck because you do not need more than three to five benched Pokémon with all the dual types in this deck. Thats one of the reasons Xerneas is superior to M Rayquaza Ex. You could also attach Float Stone to Volcanion Ex but Fairy garden is more versatile. However keep in mind that I run the slightly faster Ex version of this deck with Ninja Boy to turn a bench sitter into Xerneas out of nowhere. Another stadium that would work is Faded Town but more than one of them does not seem to be needed.
Click to expand...

I see, with Ninja Boy it has sense to attach [Y] energy and retreat. It sounds interesting, but I think I'll firstly try your last suggestion, a 1-of Faded Town
 
Sorry if I came on a little too strong with the Ninetales. All I'm saying is that a lot of people are running parallel city now what with the prevalence of M's Gardevoir and Rayquaza and the current popularity of Rainbow Road. I took out Ninetales after a couple of matches and paid for it a couple of times - I think maybe the only matches I've lost came when Ninetales was not in the deck, but I could be wrong about that. As I mentioned, one of my opponents actually ran 3 parallel city.

As for Magearna, this is a little bit more of personal preference. None of the major youtubers are featuring this in their Rainbow Road decks (unlike Ninetales). I really like the idea of not having energy removed or being paralyzed, poisoned, confused, or put asleep. Also, I have seen enhanced hammers used quite a bit in this new rotation - I believe that is because special energy is being used in the vast majority of decks in the new meta (I'll have a small study out on that probably later this week). I know there's nothing I can do about Flare Grunt, but these hammers and Flare Grunts have been very frustrating.

Furthermore, I am having tremendous success (again, small sample size with only 12 matches), but I've won 10 of my 12 matches using Max Elixir and puzzles to bring them back in. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe DCE's are better, but I'm seeing excellent energy acceleration. In almost half of my matches, I'm hitting for 200+ in turn 2 or 3.

But I get that I do things a little differently than many other people - I also don't like to run Sycamore and rarely use Trainers Mail, so I know I'm a little bit goofy:)
 
21times said:
As for Magearna, this is a little bit more of personal preference. None of the major youtubers are featuring this in their Rainbow Road decks (unlike Ninetales). I really like the idea of not having energy removed or being paralyzed, poisoned, confused, or put asleep. Also, I have seen enhanced hammers used quite a bit in this new rotation - I believe that is because special energy is being used in the vast majority of decks in the new meta (I'll have a small study out on that probably later this week). I know there's nothing I can do about Flare Grunt, but these hammers and Flare Grunts have been very frustrating.
Click to expand...

Just a heads up that Magearna-EX will only prevent the additional effects of attacks to your Pokemon with Metal Energy attached. So things like Team Flare Grunt and Crushing Hammer will still remove Energy and Abilities like Ariados' Poisonous Nest will still Poison your Active Pokemon. Furthermore, Jolteon-EX's Flash Ray will still protect it from your Xerneas' Rainbow Force as the effect of Flash Ray is on Jolteon-EX not your Pokemon.

@Javi Blizz

As @Dark Espeon says, Ninja Boy is a very good card in this list. Not only does it turn a bench sitter into a Xerneas but it can also net you the corresponding Basic for a Dual-Type you have in your hand. This could be the difference in getting a KO or not!
 
Oh yeah definitely it's not a complete barrier, but it's great against Registeel, Zorua, Darkrai, Froakie, Gastly, Jirachi, etc.
 
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