This was a very nice and fun article, Its really good to see some more interesting and definetly more affordable lock decks talked about in detail, and its nice to see someone that knows their probability math as well.
Thanks for the input! I don't have the best budget out there; never really have. So making budget builds and disseminating them is something I enjoy doing.
And you can thank Rukan Shao for getting me onboard the math wagon. He has written a few articles in the past that delved heavily into the hypergeometric side of things. I'll make a seperate post later in competitive content regarding an online calculator and how to use it. It's really facinating stuff and using it can help figure out if you're undervaluing or overvalusing certain deck aspects. If you can throw math at it, do it!
I have a few questions about your thoughts on some aspects of the deck, as well as some silly tech ideas:
Okay. Go!
Would it be better to cut one of the Faba for Enhanced Hammer?
This would give you the ability to remove special energies while still using another supporter and you'd still be able to put it in the Lost Zone that turn if needed with Girafarig. Im assuming you want 4 Faba to have as many as Seismitoad's DCE?
Faba plays a big role here, and in the version I'm messing with for post-Unbroken Bonds, it's worth running four. It plays a dual role:
- gets rid of Special Energy, the decks that this affects the most are ones that lean hard on Double colorless Energy
- gets rid of tools, something you ABSOLUTELY need for Garbodor matchups
I suggest using 4 for the post-Dallas fix because I believe that the next upcoming Expanded Regionals will see Zoroark-GX / Garbodor as THE Zoroark-GX deck to play--at least where we are currently standing, it's up there. The only way they can nail you with Garbotoxin and have it stick is if they attach a Tool AND N you in the same turn. You have several outs to both Raichu AND Faba and you're always drawing a six card hand. From experience, as long as you have your out to Faba, you more than likely have your Raichu out as well.
While it does eat up a Supporter for the turn, it's able to answer multiple problems while simultaneously giving you more room in your deck to use other things, whereas Enhanced Hammer only has one use. Multi-tool cards are good business!
Why no Red Card? 1 copy being repeatbly usable with Junk Hunt seems like it could be really useful to try and slow them drawing outs to shock lock.
I have considered Red Card. But it fell to the wayside similar to how this build can't use Trick Shovel + Hiker: theres no way for you to capitalize on it. Being able to VS Seeker-to-N and putting an opponents hand to 2 or 1 is really what you're shooting for in late game. You don't N in mid game unless you need a draw option from an opponents recent N play. It's always early and late game where hand disruption comes in. But yeah, it's usually not worth disrupting an opponents hand as, if they don't draw into the solutions they are trying to look for, they flat out don't have it. An opponent can have a 14 card hand of zero answers, it's better to use that deck space for consistency and bolstering your own outs.
For the Celebi Prism tech to function vs Item Lock have you considered using Ditto Prism and Sparkling Ripples Milotic? Ditto remains functional as an extra Pikachu when not needed, and Milotic remains functional by being loopable with double devolution spray, essentially opening the option for Junk Hunt to grab you energy and stadiums as well, which also makes the Silent Lab option way more useful by letting you never run out of it.
I put a LOT of time trying to work Celebi Prism Star and other weird stuff (like Champions Festival. I wasted a week trying to work with that stupid thing) as a way to beat Trevenant and Item lock builds. It's easy getting set up, but keeping those Evolutions in hand in the face of Red Card, Marshadow, and multiple N without being able to use Ultra Ball or Level Ball is HARD. I have considered Milotic, as well as Crawdaunt (Ability is a come-into-play Team Flare Grunt), Roserade (come into play Computer Search), Misdreavus (come into play, N for only your opponent), Delcatty (come into play Lusamine), Ninetales (come into play Lysandre), Herdier (Come into play Dowsing Machine), and considered the new Alolan Muk. Everything listed except for the new TEU Alolan Muk is searchable by Level Ball as well. I did try out a sort of 'Ditto Prism toolbox' for a bit. It's a fun idea, and I'd put the most stock into Dragons Exalted Roserade (#15), if you Prize your Ditto, it stings, and it's not something you want to spend a turn fetching out with Gladion as that's a LOT more trouble than its worth. It is something I am considering for the post-Unbroken Bonds variant.
Also at least one stadium is needed to avoid auto loss to Wondrous Labyrinth removing access to Junk Hunt and Life Forest permenantly making Grass pokemon not stay paralyzed. Black Market seems potentially really powerful, since it offers a simpler alternative lock of just looping Junk Hunts while making them unable to take prizes.
I've been eyeballing Black Market Prism Star. Been considering it, but I have no idea where to put it. The other part is that, because your opponent has to use Guzma to get out from under Paralysis lock, chances are they will tend to dodge going after Sableyes if they can help it. You CAN theoretically win and not rely on Paralysis lock if you can mill all their Stadiums. The problem is being able to do so since a lot of decks are packing 3 Stadiums on average. The prospect is nice, but I haven't been able to test it enough to form a solid "it's good/it's bad". That said, it makes for a VERY good early or late game play from what limited testing I have done with it so far
The only deck at Dallas that could effectively use Life Forest Prism Star was Cradily, and the ban of Lusamine kneecapped the deck. Zoroark-GX / Golisopod-GX COULD use it, but with a seeming decline in Zoroark-GX / Seismitoad-GX and potential talks that Archies Blastoise may be using EEvee & Snorlax-GX instead of Magikarp & Wailord-GX, I have to question if the Grass-typing is worth it in a meta where Grass Weakness isn't nearly as prevalent. Expanded doesn't have a lot of good Grass options, and I don't think Celebi & Venusaur-GX will cut it as it seems to be a slow moving deck.
And if you really wanted to get crazy, you could run Wonder Labyrinth yourself, with counter energy letting you continue to Junk Hunt as long as the opponent has taken at least one prize.
Thought aboiut Wonder Labyrinth. The thoyght of 1/4 of the decks Energy being forced on you to attack seems a bit much. I feel like it'd hurt you more than others, and the only decks it truly would hurt is Zoroark-GX builds, and you have favorable matchups against all the variants except Zoroaro-GX / Golisopod-GX. But with a lot of Special Energy reliant decks utilizing a tiny number of Basic Energy, they can circumvent the negative effect of Labyrinth. I'm not keen on the idea that it will 100% hurt me, but kinda sorta might hurt them.
Not sure how many of these ideas can fit into a 60 card list or how good they are in practice, but thought Id at least mention them. Sorry if post is a bit long and rambly.
It's all good. You never know unless you ask! IF you think of anything else, throw them at me!
