P!P/Rules Lysandre's Trump Card's Ban and Deck Building

[bbninjas]

With LTC's ban I'm pretty much in the dark on how decks were built before Phantom Forces to be played conservatively. What items are used to get cards back from the discard, and how many of each? How do you actually play conservatively? When to and when not to Juniper, Ultra Ball etc? And perhaps most importantly, what type of deck engine is still viable? Is the typical one that follows pretty much adequate?

Juniper x4
N x4
Colress x2
VS Seeker x3
Ultra Ball x3

 

[Purrloin]

Don't forget Dowsing Machine (Plasma Storm #128). Until it gets rotated, I'm guessing a lot of people will be sticking it into decks while they get used to not having Trump Card again.

 

[Shax]

With Lysandre's Trump Card banned, what will be the shake up of the metagame's top decks? I fully expected Rayquaza varients to be tier 1 solely because of strategies that involve speeding through your deck and using Mega Turbo or Hammer's to come out on top of a match. With Trump Card gone, this recycle strategy is no longer valid and if they do intend on speeding through their deck, it will be one time only.

Will it still be Yveltal with Seismitoad?

 

[My Little Keldeo]

Where there's Yveltal / Seismitoad, there is also Virizion / Genesect to fight the good fight and give them a run for their money, especially the Raichu variant. With Seismitoad, Night March, and Flareon decks losing a key card for recycling precious resources, VirGen may still be able to have a presence at Nationals and Worlds.... especially if Primal Groudon remains a player. Honely I think Mega Rayquaza can still make a splash, but it will require some restructuring. Keep and mind that everything I'm saying right now is about the current format and not once rotation hits. Running four copies of Sky Field will still allow RAyauza to win any Stadium war, and while discarding it will knock Pokemon off the field, most lists are already running Exeggcute PLF, which can be returned from the discard via its Propogation ability and re-benched after playing a new Sky Field. Ninetales PRC can also help, locking Sky Field in play. Losing Trump Card simply makes it a race for Rayquaza to take all of its prizes before decking out, because you will draw much of your deck during the first few turns. If you are able to score a KO every turn, that shouldn't be a difficult task, though it's certainly more easily said than done, especially if Garbodor returns to the scene.

 

[crann777]

Yeah, the basic engine is still good. Don't Juniper more than twice in a game unless your hand is garbage, and a late-game N can extend your deck a couple of extra turns. Most decks are pretty energy efficient right now, but if necessary run 2 energy retrieval and a sacred ash.

 

[Ivy_Profen]

I hate the idea of losing all of those one of cards I like to play.

Idk how to live my life anymore without being able to Juniper a hand of 2 or 3 of my shiftrys/double colorless and still be able to come back...

 

[LostRealm]

The hard task is getting back those special energies back.

 

[My Little Keldeo]

The hard task is getting back those special energies back.

The only cards that are are capalbe of doing this from an "all purrpose" persective right now are Bunnelby and Milotic from Primal Clash. Bunnelby's attack lets you shuffle any tow cards from your discard pile into your deck, while Milotic's Ability lets you put one card from your discard into your hand when it hits the field. This is good news for decks that rely on DCE, as at least they have some way of recovering them. Both of these have drawbacks however. Bunnelyby is a 60 HP Basic, and while it can attack twice, possesses no damaging moves and is an easy prize for your opponent. Milotic is a Stage 1, will sit on the Bench and be possible Lysandre bait for the rest of the game, but after some thought I believe it may actually be viable.

Flareon has a third option for getting those Special Energies back, and that is Thundurus-EX. Since Flareon and its brother Leafeon are both loyal to Ghetsis and his goons, you can Raiden Kunckle energy onto them while also hitting your opponent's active for 30 (or 50 with a Muscle Band). This will require running [L] Energy in the deck instead of or in addition to Grass / Water, but it could become an option.

Interestingly, both Milotic and Thundurus-EX give you the option of discarding DCE via Battle Compressor than retrieving them- an easy way to pop them out of your deck in a pinch!

 

[Ironman131]

Still play the cancer engine but play Tirtouga or Archen from Plamsa blast to make sure you dont deck out.

 

[Otaku]

Still play the cancer engine but play Tirtouga or Archen from Plamsa blast to make sure you dont deck out.

Well, at least don't deck out without "help" from your opponent or a misplay; N isn't gone yet and that isn't counting the people thinking Bunnelby is looking like a good deck addition.