Help Expanded Noob Here

HouchinsDJ

HouchinsDJ

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Hey everyone, so I'm planning on attending my first Regional in March at Anaheim and it's Expanded. I have a little experience with Expanded, but overall I would consider myself very inexperienced when it comes to the format. I've been trying out a few decks online (Night March, Zoroark variants, Archie's Blastoise) but wanted to know what you all think would be good to try. I'm open to all suggestions!
 
Personally, I'd vote either Night March or Zoroark/Lycanroc. Whichever you feel more comfortable with should be fine. I personally give the edge to Zoroark/Lycanroc.
 
JGB146 said:
Personally, I'd vote either Night March or Zoroark/Lycanroc. Whichever you feel more comfortable with should be fine. I personally give the edge to Zoroark/Lycanroc.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been playing Night March the most. It's a lot of fun, but one Oricorio or Karen can wreck you. I like Zoroark/Lycanroc too though, and do feel that it's a bit more consistent.

I've also contemplated trying Turbo Darkrai and Turbo Turtles, but both seem to have taken a dip in play recently.
 
HouchinsDJ said:
Yeah, I've been playing Night March the most. It's a lot of fun, but one Oricorio or Karen can wreck you. I like Zoroark/Lycanroc too though, and do feel that it's a bit more consistent.

I've also contemplated trying Turbo Darkrai and Turbo Turtles, but both seem to have taken a dip in play recently.
Click to expand...
Taking a dip in play could be exactly why you should consider playing one of those decks. If the meta is set up to not expect something, then you can take people by surprise by playing them. I personally have no clue why Turbo Turtles stopped seeing play, seeing as it has great matchup, and it's engine is great without relying too much on items.
 
I would fully recommend Turtonator for any Expanded tournament. It cleans up against Night March as everything in that deck knocks itself out after Shell Trap and if a deck can’t OHKO Turtonator (Zororoc’s only potential opportunity to do this is Dangerous Rogue) it tends to lose. Its a scary deck when executed correctly and a favourite amongst the most famous players (besides Pram who would still play NM on danger of death).
 
The big reason why Turbo Turtles fell out of favor is because it had (has) POOR matchups against established tier 1. That, and it worked in Fort Wayne as a rogue deck. Once people got the lists and analyzed them, they saw the flaws and saw how to play against them. Basically, the ‘Wailord 2015’ effect to a degree.

And Zoroark GX isn’t doing it any favors either other than giving TT another unfavorable matchup.


As for OP. It’s good to get some ideas home by, but don’t settle in anything until we get results from Dallas. Between that and the new SM5 set, the meta is going to get a bit wonky again.
 
Merovingian said:
The big reason why Turbo Turtles fell out of favor is because it had (has) POOR matchups against established tier 1. That, and it worked in Fort Wayne as a rogue deck. Once people got the lists and analyzed them, they saw the flaws and saw how to play against them. Basically, the ‘Wailord 2015’ effect to a degree.

And Zoroark GX isn’t doing it any favors either other than giving TT another unfavorable matchup.


As for OP. It’s good to get some ideas home by, but don’t settle in anything until we get results from Dallas. Between that and the new SM5 set, the meta is going to get a bit wonky again.
Click to expand...
I've been out of expanded for a while, so how does Zoroark give Turbo Turtles problems, and what basic flaws does it have? It seems really consistent without heavily relying on items, and Turt with a Muscle Band and a single Steam Up OHKOs a Zoroark GX. Plus, Sudowoodo completely disables Zoro's damage, so if anything, I'd consider that a basic flaw, since that's why Mega Ray died (that and Night March). I think Turbo Turtles has pretty decent matchup across the board, since it has the formula to go toe-to-toe with big contenders. This all happens on paper at least.
 
I think Turbo Turtles has seen a dip in play mainly because of all the Zoroark hype. Not that Zoroark has a distinct advantage over it competitively, but players have been gravitating towards Zoroark variants because it's a new archetype. The same thing happened to Gardevoir in Standard. I still consider it to be one of the best decks in the format, but understand why it's seen a dip in play.
 
HouchinsDJ said:
I think Turbo Turtles has seen a dip in play mainly because of all the Zoroark hype. Not that Zoroark has a distinct advantage over it competitively, but players have been gravitating towards Zoroark variants because it's a new archetype. The same thing happened to Gardevoir in Standard. I still consider it to be one of the best decks in the format, but understand why it's seen a dip in play.
Click to expand...
I had suspected something of the sort, but I'm bad at identifying these sorts of situations.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top