Dude, Where's My Energy? (Thundurus EX / Magnezone)

[darkpulse24]

Pokemon (9):

• 
  4 Thundurus-EX
  2-1-2 Magnezone (PLS 46)

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums (39):

• 
  4 Team Flare Grunt
  4 Professor Sycamore
  2 Xerosic
  3 Skyla
  2 Shauna
  2 Lysandre
  1 N
  
  4 Muscle Band
  4 Head Ringer
  4 Ultra Ball
  3 Rare Candy
  2 Startling Megaphone
  2 Battle Compressor
  2 Professor's Letter

Energy (12):

• 
  4 Plasma Energy
  8 Lightning Energy

Strategy:
The remnants of Team Plasma and Team Flare forge an unlikely alliance. Will Kalos be theirs once and for all? Thundurus-EX's Raiden Knuckle leads the battle, powering your benched Pokemon lightning fast using the new Battle Compressor to discard multiple energies at once. Magnezone's Dual Brains ability brings up the rear, allowing Xerosic and Team Flare Grunt to work together and wipe the enemys field clear of energy. With Head Ringers attached to their Pokemon, your opponent will never be able to launch a counterattack, especially when Thundurus-EX further depletes their energy resources with Thunderous Noise!

So... basic strategy is to power up Thundurus-EX by getting energy into the discard thanks to Battle Compressor to prepare it for the main attack, Thunderous Noise: base 90, with effect of discarding an energy attached to the defending Pokemon if Thundurus-EX has a Plasma Energy attached.

The goal here is not quick OHKOs. If the opponent has no energy to work with then I can afford to do 2HKOs or 3HKOS.

Magnezone (PLS 46) is one of my favourite cards, so I had to chuck it in as a tech for its ability (Dual Brains: lets you play 2 supporters per turn). Its attack isn't bad either. With a Magnezone up, there are possibilities. I can play a Shauna, then a Sycamore, or one of them and a Skyla. Or a Team Flare Grunt and Xerosic on the same to really hit the opponent hard. Basically, Magnezone gives possibilties, providing I have a supporter in my hand, which is very likely due to the amount in this prototype deck.

Also, I can't rely just on Thundurus-EX for removing the opponents energy. So with Magnezone, being able to use for example a Team Flare Grunt and Sycamore in the same turn is pretty cool, IMO.

I couldn't find a scan of Xerosic in English, but basically it is a supporter that allows you to discard either one tool card or one special energy on the field. This can help take care of threats on the opponents bench since Team Flare Grunt and Thunderous Noise only work against the active Pokemon.

 

[Pipotchi]

Its definitely a cool idea. It would be nice to see a dowsing machine (or at least any ACE SPEC) here in order to get back a Lysandre or Head Ringer, so you could drop a muscle band for that since you will be hitting 2hkos on EXs with thunderous noise anyway. Also it would be nice to see a rare candy dropped since you run 3 rare candy and 2-1-2 magnezone. You could use the additional card for either another magneton (if you are afraid of seismitoad, although he doesn't seem too scary against this deck), or you could run a stadium such as frozen city which would really force your opponent to make choices as to where they put their energy.

Also I noticed you don't run any switch, so perhaps this could be important since Magnezone has a hefty retreat cost and would need 3 energy to move out of the active with its attack. Not having any switches and also not having any counter stadiums opens you up a fair bit for getting hurt by laserbank hax, which is going to be a problem for you even if they cant attach energy.
I'd also be tempted to drop a team flare grunt and go for a VS Seeker as well, just since that can pull back a team flare grunt but also can get you another lysandre or xerosic.

But yea, I really like the deck idea but some switches would round it out. There are lots of places you could cut cards from, you could even run 3 thundurus instead of 4 but I can understand why you chose 4 if you want to improve your chances of starting with one. And you could consider running a heavy line of Plasma Frigate too in order to keep your Thundurus EXs free from being weak to the currently very popular fighting pokemon. you could run techs to counter those pokemon, but stuff like donphan doesnt stay in the active after it gets a knockout, so going for something defensive instead might be better.

 

[Kecleon-X]

You desperately need VS Seeker. VS Seeker makes Magnezone (and pretty much any other deck) really good. You can use a Flare Grunt, then VS Seeker for it, only to play it again without using much materials. I would definitely look into running that, as well as trying to perhaps fit in Enhanced Hammer.

 

[darkpulse24]

Thanks for the feedback It is performing well so far in trials on TCGO without the upcoming Phantom Forces card in this decklist. I currently run 2 Frozen City in it, but I think that will be redundant when I get Xerosic and Head Ringer. It seems like I have an overkill of energy effects already, without Frozen City:

-Thunderous Noise attack (energy from opponents active)
-Team Flare Grunt (energy from opponents active)
-Xerosic (any DBC/Plasma/Rainbow/Strong energy from opponent)
-Head Ringer (forces opponent to overextend themselves)

The more I write the more it seems that this will really be a viable energy lock of sorts. Time will tell if it is really as good as it seems as Xerosic and Head Ringer will be hard to get a hold of in the early stages of PHF release.

I think having 3 Rare Candy (even though there's a Magneton in there) will help with consistency. In many decklists I see with a 2-1-2 line they add an extra Rare Candy.

I totally forgot about Enhanced Hammer and VS Seeker! I'd definitely want 1-2 VS Seeker in there. Not so sure about Enhanced Hammer. If I added that don't you think there would be too much energy discarding effects in this deck? Since I'm running Magnezone I can afford to use Xerosic instead, and bypass item lock if I come across it.

Thanks for suggesting Dowsing Machine, but is it worth it alongside VS Seeker? In this supporter-heavy deck most of the trainers I want will be supporters and with VS Seeker I don't have to discard anything. With Dowsing Machine I could discard some energy to help Thundurus-EX but I already have Battle Compressor and Ultra Balls for that. I'll try Dowsing Machine in my practice deck tonight anyway.

 

[bowlerdude04]

This is a really cool idea, it sounds pretty viable. I think Plasma Frigate might be your best stadium choice because fighting decks can often attack for one energy and reach pretty hefty amounts of damage, especially attacking for weakness. I would definitely run some Vs. Seeker. As far as ACE SPECs go, Dowsing Machine is useful but maybe not necessary - I would consider Computer Search, too, as it would help your early game Magnezone setup more, while Vs. Seeker provides a lot of the same capability as Dowsing Machine for this deck.

For various reasons (Magnezone + Vs. Seeker reusability + getting around Item lock), it also might be helpful to switch 1 Ultra Ball for 1 Trevor. It's one less thing you can get energy in your discard pile with, so it might not be to your taste, but it's got some potential benefits too.

Good luck with this deck, I love the idea you have here

 

[bbninjas]

Very cool deck! I would like to point out with the head ringer that you can only attach it to EXs so maybe 4 is a bit too many, but other opinions on this would be good! I personally would add a backup/support such as Mewtwo or Seismitoad. I also would think about getting Manetric EX (possibly Mega+Spirit Link) in there if you are running a lot of Flare gear.

 

[darkpulse24]

Thanks very much all for your comments and suggestions! I'm really pleased that I found a good use for Magnezone and the new Phantom Forces trainers. I pulled a Battle Compressor today at the prerelease, so that's my first start to getting all the other cards. I also traded for some FA Thundurus-EXs.

I will definitely be running Plasma Frigate as this deck is easily beat by Fighting types. One game I was taking a long time to set up and a mere Makuhita managed to take out Thundurus-EX.

I actually agree with taking a Head Ringer out. I didn't realise till after posting this decklist that it only works on EX Pokemon. And the VS Seekers as well will be essential.

Hopefully I don't need to run backup attackers, such as Manectric-EX. Ideally the energy depletion strategy will work efficiently and be the powerhouse of this deck. I don't see why not, since supporter lock is nearly non-existent (though I will be experimenting with supporter locks in another deck).

 

[Jonathas]

It's a very cool deck! Congrats!
Actually, I'm thinking to build a similar one.
I would like to know what would you do against Pyroar? Try to attack with Magnezone?
Thanks!

 

[GadgetJax]

Take into consideration that Enhanced Hammer will be reprinted, which can help and harm this deck. The reason it's good is because it can replace a copy or two of Xerosic, but bad because it can get rid of your Plasma Energy, which leaves you open to a Spinning Turn from things like Donphan. Because of that, I recommend some kind of tech card in here to deal with Pokemon that are either Fighting Types, Safeguarders, or Pyroar. The best option for you is probably a 2-2 line of Beartic.

 

[darkpulse24]

Yes, Magnezone can be an alternate attacker for Pyroar. It can hit for 100 with muscle band but it has the awkward drawback of forcing an escape rope switch. Which can be helpful or bad depending on the situation.

I feel that adding enhanced hammer to the deck is overkill for the existing energy-discarding effects I already have. Xerosic is preferred since I have Dual Brains and can bypass item lock. Also, Xerosic can get rid of any team flare tools the opponent tries to attach to my Thundurus Ex.

To be honest it is sort of a good thing if someone uses enhanced hammer against me because I can retrieve it with raiden knuckle. There will be times when enhanced hammer really ruins my game (eg plasma frigate wont work and fighting types will wreck me). I'm not sure about adding another evo line to counter this, as magnezone 2-1-2 is clunky enough as it is. Did you mean plasma beartic or the latest beartic?

 

[Pipotchi]

I actually tried playing this deck on playtcg, and while it caused a few ragequits, it got destroyed surprisingly by a lot of things. The problem mainly was, once it falls behind, quite a lot of different decks had enough resources to stay afloat. For instance, vs yveltal (which should be a fantastic matchup), raiden knuckle is 100 dmg with a muscle band, which was enough for it to accelerate to someone else if it attacks first, and then retreat with darkrai EX into something else to take the next hit. and vs other decks that only take 30/50 from raiden knuckle that have accelerators, they can really take the lead very quickly. and if you start with a magnemite with no switches, your game is hugely hindered by not being able to attack early and having to either attach and discard for retreat or wait for being koed. so i found the deck really reliant on a good start, which is also really hard when you have 6 starting pokemon and i once mulliganed 5 times before getting a magnemite. which pretty much ended the game for me

So i think the deck needs some switches in it at the very least i think. and youre right about enhanced hammer, i didnt find it very detrimental to the deck at all. have you done any playtesting yet? just wondering how easily you are finding it to set up your magnemites, cus i had quite a difficult time personally but you probably are better at using the deck and have had better results. also, these were all games vs tier 1 decks so it doesnt mean the deck is necessarily weak or anything. but i did struggle vs things like donphan, yveltal, and even had quite a hard time vs night march (although that deck is stupid)

 

[darkpulse24]

Hmm, this is not very reassuring. To be honest my decks seem to be the ones that sound good in theory but collapse out of inconsistency when it comes to playing them. I thought I had semi-perfected this one, as I said it currently performs average to good in TCGO. And I thought that with the new Team Flare cards this deck would only get better. Did you copy the exact same decklist I made above or did you make some changes?

I'm going to wait till I get cards on TCGO instead of trying playtcg. Then I'll be testing it out. I will make room for at least 2 Switch and some VS Seekers. I imagine most players on playtcg would use Tier 1 and Tier 2 decks. On TCGO I regularly get matchups in Ranked with people who play some variant of the Mystic Might theme deck or people who use a combination of Serperior/Emboar/Samurott (the really bad ones with no abilities). So to be honest that's not a good matchup as I can't estimate how effective my deck can be and what its limits are against the meta. Its a shame. I wish there was a filter you could choose to not be matched up against players using starter decks etc.

 

[Pipotchi]

I think when I played it, I dropped a professor's letter and something else (probably a muscle band?) to put 2 switch in, but I was admittedly pretty unlucky with drawing them too. Also I think I dropped the 3rd rare candy for a magneton which in hindsight i dont know if it was better or not. Although playtcg is actually not a great testing ground either in my opinion- I played vs someone who just ran 4-4 mega manectric which is absolutely fantastic vs a lot of things, but when it comes to a tournament setting this could never be used because donphan and fighting decks completely obliterate it and it would never stand up to these decks. But it does a good job of beating someone who doesn't use those decks. I dunno, I think that during playtesting you will know when you beat a deck which actually is decent and when you get beaten by rogues but the general idea behind this deck undoubtably has its merits. I dont think I played very well this weekend at all, I was getting kinda frustrated at myself earlier trying to play tier 50 decks vs donphan and night march. (note to self... shiftry is not a good attacker in the era of 60hp pokemon that hit for 180 turn 2)

 

[darkpulse24]

I'm thinking of dropping Magneton and keeping the Rare Candy at 3. In 9/10 games I use Rare Candy to evolve Magnemite.

Did you get a chance to use Battle Compressor in these tests? Did it help?

What about Head Ringer? Were you able to use Team Flare Grunt or Thunderous Noise and keep them in a lock with Head Ringer?

 

[Pipotchi]

Vs decks like Yveltal or anything with a setup basic/ any acceleration it was hard to keep anything in a lock, since thundurus isnt removing more than like 1 energy a turn at the beginning. Especially vs yveltal, since you put energy in the discard which gets fished out with oblivion wing and strapped to a darkrai EX or yveltal EX on the bench. But again, it relies again on the first couple of hands, since you lose some steam if they get a muscle band on their EX as they put it down. I think you will need to try out the deck for yourself ^^ I think dropping the magneton might be a good idea though

 

[darkpulse24]

Ok I have collected most of the Phantom Forces card in this decklist and gave it a play. Preliminary results are...poor.

There just isn't enough room for everything. It's like there are so many things crammed in that it's impossible to use them. All the nice techs like Flare Grunt, Xerosic and Head Ringer are in the way of other cards that would improve consistency. If I take them out to add more basic trainers then I only have Thundurus-EX to rely on for this energy starve strategy. And that's pretty pointless.

Well I've already invested into this idea a lot - over the weeks I've collected 4 FA Thundurus-EX (great looking FA card) in my folder. And of course I have bought the Magnezones. So, I'll keep experimenting with the new PHF cards. At least Magnezone has so many more potential options. It is quite versatile. Thundurus-EX on the other hand, may need to wait till a new expansion comes out with some Lightning Pokemon support.

A big thanks to everyone who commented on this thread and tried the deck out!