Help haven't played since 2015, need briefing

juunkmilk

juunkmilk

3nd coming
Member
haven't played a serious deck in a serious tournament since i think states 2015? sort of been waiting for big basics to stop, favorite format was like DP-UL which i think was like 2011? because it was fast and there were like 100 viable decks to play. it looks like the game is about to be really fun again and i want to get back into it but it's daunting bc i totally lost track of the meta, hoping for like a brief rundown of the best decks in format so i can look into them, list of legal sets, and any changes to tournament rules. thanks!
 
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I would suggest taking a look at some of the tournament results from the recent regionals. they will give you a good idea of what does well. they also have the deck list.
it has changed too too much since 2015. Still Ultraball and Sycamore and draw support. as usual, the meta slowly evolves along the year.
 
Best decks: Zoroark + fill in the blank, Gardevoir, Volcanion. This is my opinion, I'm sure others will provide alternatives.

Lots of changes in tournament structure. No more state tournaments, just big regional ones and a massive (1400 players, I was one of them) International tournament in late June, last major event prior to Worlds.

Most non GX Pokemon aren't competitive. Many of the GX's aren't competitive. There are only about a dozen good decks. Check out Team Fish Knuckles he's been previewing the best decks before tomorrow's regionals in Memphis.

But the game is more popular than ever. There've never been more players active in the game than right now.
 
I agree with all other replies. The format is very different now, actually almost each deck is based on GX Pokemon, and very often evolved GX. The staple cards are: Tapu-Lele GX (when you play it on your bench it searches for a Supporter, and has good attack, it's around 45$, most decks use 3), Double Colorless Energy, Sycamore (discard hand, draw 7), Guzma (chose a new active Pokemon for both players), N (both players shuffle hand in Deck and draw a card for each prize card), Ultra Ball (discard 2 search Pokemon) and Brigette (search deck for 3 basics).
Most decks use 4 Sycamore, N, Guzma, Ultra Ball, and 1-2 Brigette (Tapu-Lele is used to find Brigette often)
 
There is definitely a lot more variety in decks than some previous metas have shown. And Evolutions are much more viable, with almost every top tier deck playing evolutions in some capacity (either as support Pokémon or as primary attackers). Most versions of Volcanion are the biggest exception here.

Key concepts you need to know:
* Burn has changed so that now you receive damage first, then flip to see if it sticks
* A new type of two-prize Pokémon exists now, called GX. These can be basics or evolutions. If evolutions, the follow the same evolutionary track as non-GX versions, so you could have a deck containing Vikavolt and Vikavolt GX, which are two separate stage 2s that evolve from Charjabug.
* GX Pokémon have a GX attack. This attack is typically a very strong attack capable of turning the tides of the game. Each player is only allowed to use one GX attack per game.
* Ultra Beasts are a new type of GX that came out in the latest set. So far, they are the same as other GX Pokémon, however upcoming sets have shown that they will be getting additional support.
* In the next set, they are adding a prism card type, which is a card (of any type) that can only have one named copy in a deck (that is, you can play sixty prism cards, but they would all have to be different cards). Once a prism card is discarded, it goes into the lost zone (which basically makes it so that they can't be recovered).
 
thanks all! especially @JGB146 definitely been wondering about rule changes. i'm testing stuff on ptcgo, looking forward to playing for real, love that stage 2s are viable again. by the way anyone in maryland / dc?
 
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