Lugia EX / Kyurem

[yorepoor]

Pokemon:

• 
  2 Lugia-EX (PLS 108)
  4 Deoxys-EX (PLF 53)
  2 Kyurem (PLF 31)
  2 Thundurus-EX (BLWP 81)

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums:

• 
  2 Escape Rope
  2 Colress
  2 Startling Megaphone
  3 Colress Machine
  2 Switch
  2 Skyla
  3 Lysandre
  3 N
  4 Professor Juniper
  4 Team Plasma Ball
  3 Muscle Band
  1 Dowsing Machine
  2 VS Seeker
  1 Ultra Ball
  1 Frozen City

Energy:

• 
  4 Plasma Energy
  4 Rainbow Energy
  4 Double Colorless Energy
  1 Lightning Energy
  1 Water Energy
  1 Psychic Energy

Strategy:

Speed Lugia, but without accepting matchup against Donphan. Honestly, Speed Lugia can counter Donphan now VS Seeker is in the format. Most is standard Speed Lugia (attach a Muscle Band to Lugia, bench 4 Deoxys, Plasma Gale twice and win.)
The 2 Kyurem and water energy are for annoying Safeguarders, which would otherwise shut down the deck. In case we don't get to use Kyurem in those cases, we have 3 Lysandre and 2 VS Seeker to Lysandre away Safeguarders and Plasma Gale something.
Some poeple like to run 0 N in this, but you shouldn't forget that this deck isn't just good at winning right from the beginning, it can also get KOs later in the game and N is a great help for that. Furthermore, I think N is important for consistency.

I'm new to competitive, and I based this around lists I've seen around the internet. Some balances and stuff may not be ideal, but it's been working really wel on simulators.

Suggestions?

Edit: Title
E2: Latias EX, Frozen City, and an extra Plasma Ball in place of 3 Ultra Balls
E3: Decided to drop Latias for N. You really need consistency in the beginning of the game, and the third N can provide that.

 

[Gengar master]

RE: Lugia EX / Donphan

Where's the Donphan?

 

[TuxedoBlack]

RE: Lugia EX / Donphan

Where's the Donphan?

Lol. GM beat me to it...

Are you finding that the 4 Ultra Balls and the 3 Team Plasma Balls excessive or redundant? I'd suggest:

• 
  -4 Ultra Ball - not really (except to dump unwanted cards and/or energy) needed since all of your Poke are TP.
  -1 Skyla - not "strongly" needed IMO, given inclusion of Shadow Triad
  
  +1 Professor's Letter - to help you search and get needed basic energy
  +2 Shadow Triad - great Supporter for TP decks
  +1 Frozen City - counter Stadium
  +1 Pokemon Fan Club - to help get more Poke onto your bench faster

Btw, don't assume you'll be playing against decks that run some EX Poke or that you'll be able to Plasma Gale for multiple prizes. Decks like Donphan (Tier 1 deck) do not typically run any EX Poke and should your opponent run Garbodor (and you can not remove Garb's attached Tool), Plasma Gale is les efffective.

Lastly, how do you plan to deal with Pyroar match-ups with this deck?

I hope you find these comments helpful.

 

[yorepoor]

RE: Lugia EX / Donphan Tech

Oh, I meant to Donphan Tech, as in that it includes a Kyurem lol.
Anyways, might be a good idea to scrap a few Ultra Balls. Both Pooka and a list I found on http://google.com/ or something had them, so I figured I'd probably best include them. Not sure if I like losing Skyla, but I'll explain that in a bit.
Professor's Letter will really speed up this deck probably.

Shadow Triad might work to build general speed, but if you closely look at what you'll be ablo to recover in this deck:
-Colress is a supporter itself, so you'll have to wait a turn without it being N'd away
-Colress machine can work out
-Team Plasma Ball can work out
-Plasma Energy is easier to get with Colress Machine most of the time
-I honestly rarely have any problems with losing any pokemon, maybe deoxys sometimes.
So I don't think it'll be worth it in this fast deck, Skyla would probably be the better option most of the times, since you can actually search for stuff without needing it to be in the discard pile

Frozen city might really work for Lugia to get those all-important ohkos.
Pokemon Fan Club will actually be really nice for slow setups and when I need Deoxys.

And yeah, I know the 2 Kos thing only works against EXs, but I'm prepared for them. For Donphan I've got 3 Lysandre 2 VS Seeker, and it's the whole reason Kyurem is in this (actually put 2 Lysandre in the list, I'll edit that right away) and for Garbodor there's Startling Megaphone.
Pyroar... I honestly think I shouldn't even try with a Plasma Deck. Stall with Frozen City?... Probably not lol.

I found them really helpful, thanks a lot! I don't have the cards, but i'll definitely try to trade for them at my upcoming tournament.

 

[TuxedoBlack]

RE: Lugia EX / Donphan Tech

Pyroar... I honestly think I shouldn't even try with a Plasma Deck. Stall with Frozen City?... Probably not lol.

I run a 3-3 PF Eeveelution line to counter Pyroar, Seismitoad, Yveltal EX, etc.

 

[FaustVIII]

RE: Lugia EX / Donphan Tech

It seems to me like teching Kyurem against Donphan is kind of pointless.
Even with a Muscle Band, you'll need at least 2 Deoxys to be able to one-shot him. And if you have 2 Deoxys and Donphan is active, why not kill it with Lugia for an extra prize? It's not like the 30 bench damage is gonna get you anywhere with his 130 health anyway.
The much better tech I think, which also condones your Ultra Balls, is Latias. It straight up negates Pyroar, and sharing an energy requirement with Deoxys (and Lugia, technically) makes it real useful. What I did in mine was ONLY run 4 DCE, 4 Rainbow and 4 Plasma. Yes, you're vulnerable to hammers. But where does this deck get without DCE anyway? So here's a thing:

-2 Kyurem
-1 Ultra Ball (4 is very very overkill)
-1 Water Energy

+1 Latias-EX
+1 Plasma Badge (for Latias)
+1 Plasma Ball
+1 Colress Machine
Also, consider Scramble Switch over DM. It cleans up your Lugia, so to speak. And you can use it to fill up Latias.
Other than that, Frozen City is pretty good, but don't lose sleep over it, eheh.

 

[yorepoor]

RE: Lugia EX / Donphan Tech

It seems to me like teching Kyurem against Donphan is kind of pointless.
Even with a Muscle Band, you'll need at least 2 Deoxys to be able to one-shot him. And if you have 2 Deoxys and Donphan is active, why not kill it with Lugia for an extra prize? It's not like the 30 bench damage is gonna get you anywhere with his 130 health anyway.
The much better tech I think, which also condones your Ultra Balls, is Latias. It straight up negates Pyroar, and sharing an energy requirement with Deoxys (and Lugia, technically) makes it real useful. What I did in mine was ONLY run 4 DCE, 4 Rainbow and 4 Plasma. Yes, you're vulnerable to hammers. But where does this deck get without DCE anyway? So here's a thing:

-2 Kyurem
-1 Ultra Ball (4 is very very overkill)
-1 Water Energy

+1 Latias-EX
+1 Plasma Badge (for Latias)
+1 Plasma Ball
+1 Colress Machine
Also, consider Scramble Switch over DM. It cleans up your Lugia, so to speak. And you can use it to fill up Latias.
Other than that, Frozen City is pretty good, but don't lose sleep over it, eheh.

Well, the whole point of Kyurem was to counter the Spinning Turn walls. Without Kyurem, my whole deck would be locked down by Safeguard, and the 30 damage can actually help with KO'ing Donphan later on.
However, I do think Latias is pretty good. Latias doesn't have a Power Connect bonus, but being able to 2 shot most EXs isn't bad (with a muscle band). Cobalion can deal more damage with the same attack, but he can't shut down VirGen like Latias can. It's good against Pyroar too, yeah. It also might provide an answer to Aegislash EX, stalling for a Lysandre.
Not sure about the Plasma Badge, since even with 4 Power Connects latias still won't ohko anything and I still can't really Plasma Ball for it.
Colress Machine is really good, and it's kind of though to decide since I oftenly end up with a Colress Machine, but no Plasma Energy left in my deck. Running 3 makes this happen less.
Yeah, Scramble Switch might actually work really well for Lugia. He's often nearly knocked out, and being able to switch to a new one without needing to get all my energy back is pretty good. Dowsing Machine is less useful now that VS Seeker is back anyways.

 

[FaustVIII]

A neat trick I use is put in one Maintenance just so you can put the Plasma Energy back in the deck and Machine them. But the main reason to have 4 Machines is to draw them faster. If 3 works better for you, just stick with it.
The same goes for the Badge, although in addition to Deoxys it does allow you to use Machine on Latias if you need the colorless energy faster. And if we're gonna talk max damage, 4 Power Connect lets it 1HKO Pyroar where Band does not. That is assuming he doesn't hit Frozen City.
I still can't really see the Kyurem doing much, because you'd have to attack with something else than Lugia in order not to 1HKO Donphan from full health. I guess it's useful to start with so you can easily take out Phanpy though.

 

[thood]

Well since you're playing Plasma I assume you already now this, but you are taking an almost guaranteed auto-loss to Pyroar decks. Maybe drop Thundurus EX and find roomfor at least a 1-1 M-Manectric EX line, although 2-2 would be much better. M-Manectric also can accelerate energy from the discard to benched Pokemon, is Lightning Type, boasts more HP, and can OHKO Pyroar for 2 Energy. It should easily replace Thundurus EX in all Plasma Decks. Although not a necessity, you should also try to squeeze in 2 Manectric Spirit Links, since Plasma decks don't really like wasting turns, and Mega evolving is one of the biggest turn wasters in the TCG.

 

[FaustVIII]

It should easily replace Thundurus EX in all Plasma Decks.

Manectric doesn't pick up Plasma or Rainbow Energy.

 

[yorepoor]

Well since you're playing Plasma I assume you already now this, but you are taking an almost guaranteed auto-loss to Pyroar decks. Maybe drop Thundurus EX and find roomfor at least a 1-1 M-Manectric EX line, although 2-2 would be much better. M-Manectric also can accelerate energy from the discard to benched Pokemon, is Lightning Type, boasts more HP, and can OHKO Pyroar for 2 Energy. It should easily replace Thundurus EX in all Plasma Decks. Although not a necessity, you should also try to squeeze in 2 Manectric Spirit Links, since Plasma decks don't really like wasting turns, and Mega evolving is one of the biggest turn wasters in the TCG.

Yeah, but the problem with Mega Mactric EX in Plasma is that it can only attach basic energy, which is kind of a big deal. The nice thing about Thundurus is that your Plasmas aren't gone from play when you use them.
And yeah, you are taking an auto-loss, but my main way of dealing with that (and Aegislash) will probably be Latias EX, which I didn't update the list with because i'm an idiot.