Blog Fear the Night: Yveltal in the Standard Format

I disagree with your assessment of the match-up with darkrai-giratina. I would say it's closer to 55-45 as they can remove your DCE and block any attempts at attaching a replacement or a first while you cannot remove their DDE or block it . And if they run Garbodor themselves, Fright-Night is nullified, making their Fighting Fury Belts active and making 3hkos on on Giratina into a 4hko, and the same goes for Darkrai. Also Giratina-Darkrai runs 2 copies of float stone usually so Lysandre isn't always a counter play. I've also seen darkrai-giratina's that run Hydreigons, which means if there is a stadium in play, they only have to drop a single energy, which isn't hard to come-by when it comes to that deck.
 
I really enjoyed reading this article. As meta game is getting started near my place, That's for sure that I'll try playing with that list ;) because it is basically M Mewtwo EX, Darkrai/Tina and Xerneas Rainbow.
 
This was great! Im just getting into the Pokemon TCG and this was gonna be my first deck that I was gonna take to a tournament! I was playing Yveltal/Zoroark but I think I might switch it up to Yveltal/Darkrai!
 
I enjoyed your article and I love the BT yveltal in the new format, my only issue with this list, I know you can't account for every strategy, is that Jolteon craps all over this. I feel like this is the "rock>paper>scissor" format!
 
Thanks for the article; it was a good read.

Any particular reason(s) why Yveltal BREAK was not incorporated into your list?

Lastly, The "small," investment in a 1-1 Garbodor line is quite risky. Should either Pokémon be prized, you potentially may lose access to the vital resource when needed. I'd suggest either bumping up the line to 2-2 or completely replace the line with 2 Hex Maniac.
 
Last edited:
Fantastic article!!! I really like your analysis! I would say you probably need to test your darkrai/giratina and rainbow road matchups as those are closer to 50/50 in my testing. My question is how does it do against the mirror? Hope this helps and thanks for this great analysis of Yveltal!:)
 
About your closing statement about matchup analysis I agree that you make it seem like the matchups against every meta deck are always in your favor but this seems to be a trend in every single deck article I've ever read. If your deck is good against every deck in the format then, gosh, it must be the best deck! Why wouldn't I run it?? Sarcasm aside because authors tent to over inflate their matchup ratios I don't find them to be that useful (not to mention they never take into account your opponent's behavior or techs). A simple paragraph explaining your plan of attack against the meta decks is good enough, no need to quantify anything. This goes for all single deck articles, not just yours.
 
Vexen_IV said:
I disagree with your assessment of the match-up with darkrai-giratina. I would say it's closer to 55-45 as they can remove your DCE and block any attempts at attaching a replacement or a first while you cannot remove their DDE or block it . And if they run Garbodor themselves, Fright-Night is nullified, making their Fighting Fury Belts active and making 3hkos on on Giratina into a 4hko, and the same goes for Darkrai. Also Giratina-Darkrai runs 2 copies of float stone usually so Lysandre isn't always a counter play. I've also seen darkrai-giratina's that run Hydreigons, which means if there is a stadium in play, they only have to drop a single energy, which isn't hard to come-by when it comes to that deck.
Click to expand...

All the Darkrai/Giratina lists I've seen and played against don't run any cards to remove DCE once it's already been attached; So, as long as you get a DCE attached on your first turn, even a T1 Chaos Wheel on their part isn't enough to prevent Pitch-Black Spear. And once we get a Pitch-Black Spear off, Fighting Fury Belt can easily be not enough to prevent Yveltal-EX from knocking out the damaged (by 60) attackers. Garbodor is only helpful if they can get it out really fast (one interesting thing to note is that an online Garbodor means one less available Float Stone). This is because a single extra Pitch-Black Spear (unanswered by an immediate KO thanks to a Giratina-EX being stuck in the active with an offline Float Stone) is just too much to bounce back from. That Hydreigon idea is definitely interesting and actually could make some impact. Thanks for the heads-up, I'll have to watch out for that. Overall, though, from my testing against (typical) Darkrai/Giratina lists, I've found that as long as the Yveltal player can apply immediate pressure with Yveltal BT (which is quite easy to do) even optimal play on the Darkrai/Giratina player's part isn't enough.
 
Amazing08 said:
I really enjoyed reading this article. As meta game is getting started near my place, That's for sure that I'll try playing with that list ;) because it is basically M Mewtwo EX, Darkrai/Tina and Xerneas Rainbow.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Yeah, that meta sounds pretty ripe for this list to counter.
 
Croppernicus said:
This was great! Im just getting into the Pokemon TCG and this was gonna be my first deck that I was gonna take to a tournament! I was playing Yveltal/Zoroark but I think I might switch it up to Yveltal/Darkrai!
Click to expand...

Thanks! Awesome, good luck. Yeah, I like Zoroark but I feel that with all the Parallel City and Garbodor in the meta he's just too easy to play around. At any rate, he's unlikely to be worth taking away list spots from Mew, Umbreon-EX and Darkrai-EX.
 
Bournopolis said:
I enjoyed your article and I love the BT yveltal in the new format, my only issue with this list, I know you can't account for every strategy, is that Jolteon craps all over this. I feel like this is the "rock>paper>scissor" format!
Click to expand...

Glad to hear! Yeah, Jolteon definitely hard counters this list. I've played around with putting a one-of Pokemon Ranger into the list in order to slightly soften that threat. But (at least for the moment) I've taken it out due to the fact that I almost never come across decks that use Jolteon. Fact is: Jolteon doesn't seem too good in today's meta. She was great in last year's standard thanks to Night March's dominance. But today, with the prevalence of Mega Evolution decks (and the fact that lots of decks run Pokemon Ranger), she's only really deadly against Yveltal (even Volcanion decks are safe since they almost always run Pokemon Ranger so that Volcanion-EX can attack twice).
 
TuxedoBlack said:
Thanks for the article; it was a good read.

Any particular reason(s) why Yveltal BREAK was not incorporated into your list?

Lastly, The "small," investment in a 1-1 Garbodor line is quite risky. Should either Pokémon be prized, you potentially may lose access to the vital resource when needed. I'd suggest either bumping up the line to 2-2 or completely replace the line with 2 Hex Maniac.
Click to expand...

Thank you!

It's tempting for sure, but space is super tight for this list. Also, Baleful Night's Energy requirement can be tricky to pull off, considering that you normally just want to have a DCE and a Dark attached to Yveltal BT (Ninja boy, yes, but still...).

Hmm, I don't think Garbodor is overly vital. There aren't any abilities in the meta that hard counter this deck (like Pyroar's Intimidating Mane). The only ability we totally need Garbodor against is Giant Water Shuriken. Replacing the line with Hex Maniac is tempting, but: Hex has way less impact against Giant Water Shuriken which was one of the main reasons we wanted to turn off abilities in the first place. I'm totally opposed to the idea of a 2-2 Garbodor line (even against Greninja where we really need it, it's still more likely than not that any part of the line won't be prized), but if Greninja vanishes from the meta (which is likely), I agree that it would probably be worth replacing Garbodor for Hex.
 
Gabking5458 said:
Fantastic article!!! I really like your analysis! I would say you probably need to test your darkrai/giratina and rainbow road matchups as those are closer to 50/50 in my testing. My question is how does it do against the mirror? Hope this helps and thanks for this great analysis of Yveltal!:)
Click to expand...

Aw, thank you!!

Yeah, Rainbow Road can be pretty close. But Darkrai/Giratina: 50/50?

Oh man, the mirror....! Well, I would say that the more of these points that a given player achieves, the more likely they will win:
-gets off the first Pitch-Black Spear
-gets Parallel City out first (sticking the opposing Yveltal player with only three benched spots).
-successful Max Elixirs
-starts with either Yveltal BT or Mew
-is weary of benching EXs
-times Evil Ball KOs correctly: they KO the threat but have little enough Energy attached to make it difficult or impossible for an opposing Evil Ball KO.
-does the math!
-goes first!? Actually, it's really hard to say whether that's overall an advantage or not in the mirror (of course against every other deck in the meta, going first is definitely preferable).

Overall, the player with more experience playing the deck definitely has an advantage. Probably more-so than the Yveltal-EX decks of Expanded where T1 Ghetsis+Lab is often actually a factor.

It does and thanks again!
 
Expert_Occultist said:
About your closing statement about matchup analysis I agree that you make it seem like the matchups against every meta deck are always in your favor but this seems to be a trend in every single deck article I've ever read. If your deck is good against every deck in the format then, gosh, it must be the best deck! Why wouldn't I run it?? Sarcasm aside because authors tent to over inflate their matchup ratios I don't find them to be that useful (not to mention they never take into account your opponent's behavior or techs). A simple paragraph explaining your plan of attack against the meta decks is good enough, no need to quantify anything. This goes for all single deck articles, not just yours.
Click to expand...

Haha yeah, good point. I can see what you mean; I often feel that, too. I agree that the accuracy of numerical matchup ratios can be offset by intangibles like opponent's behavior and techs. On the other hand, I'm not sure that the author giving a general opinion via a ratio really hurts enough not to give one. Kinda nice for the reader to get an instant evaluation/opinion in numbers... But maybe you're right that simply sticking to explaining the plan of attack is good enough to let the reader form their own objective opinions.
Thanks for the feedback!
 
Jedithious said:
All the Darkrai/Giratina lists I've seen and played against don't run any cards to remove DCE once it's already been attached; So, as long as you get a DCE attached on your first turn, even a T1 Chaos Wheel on their part isn't enough to prevent Pitch-Black Spear. And once we get a Pitch-Black Spear off, Fighting Fury Belt can easily be not enough to prevent Yveltal-EX from knocking out the damaged (by 60) attackers. Garbodor is only helpful if they can get it out really fast (one interesting thing to note is that an online Garbodor means one less available Float Stone). This is because a single extra Pitch-Black Spear (unanswered by an immediate KO thanks to a Giratina-EX being stuck in the active with an offline Float Stone) is just too much to bounce back from. That Hydreigon idea is definitely interesting and actually could make some impact. Thanks for the heads-up, I'll have to watch out for that. Overall, though, from my testing against (typical) Darkrai/Giratina lists, I've found that as long as the Yveltal player can apply immediate pressure with Yveltal BT (which is quite easy to do) even optimal play on the Darkrai/Giratina player's part isn't enough.
Click to expand...

Then you've played against subpar Dark-Tina decks then as they should carry at least one enhanced hammer for mirror match ups. And your point about one less float stone is not correct. FFB can be used to turn on Garbotoxin, it doesn't get the effects of it, but it is still a tool, and therefore not necessary to have a float stone on it.
 
i first built m mewtwo deck then got 4 shaymin and built m ray deck and last i built this deck couple days ago. i see its god deck but is it good to play in tournaments instead of m ray or m mewtwo deck in online game?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top