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Standard Marshadow GX Toolbox (SHADOWBOX!)

EarthwormZim

EarthwormZim

Aspiring Trainer
Member
***List Updated 10/24/2017***

Pokémon (21)

  • 4 Marshadow GX
  • 2 Jolteon EX
  • 2 Glaceon EX
  • 1 Espeon EX
  • 1 Tauros GX
  • 1 Drampa GX
  • 1 Necrozma GX
  • 2 Tapu Lele GX
  • 1 Oranguru (SUM)
  • 1 Litwick (STS)
  • 1 Tapu Koko (SM30/SM31)
  • 1 Clefairy (EVO)
  • 1 Shining Mew
  • 1 Magearna EX
  • 1 Jirachi XY67
Trainers (27)

  • 4 Sycamore
  • 4 N
  • 2 Guzma
  • 2 Sophocles
  • 1 Ninja Boy
  • 4 Ultra Ball
  • 3 Fighting Fury Belt
  • 2 Special Charge
  • 3 Field Blower
  • 2 Brooklet Hill
Energy (12)

  • 4 Double Colorless Energy
  • 4 Rainbow Energy
  • 4 Strong Energy
Strategy

Get as many basics into the discard and load up Marshadow GXes on the bench with a Rainbow Energy and a DCE/2 Strong Energy. The Sycamores, Sophocles, Plumeria, and Ultra Balls let you get desirable Basics into the discard fast. Litwick also has an attack for 1 colorless that lets you search for any 2 cards from your deck and put them into the discard. Primary strategy is to use Jolteon EX and Glaceon EX attacks, letting you shut down basics and evolution Pokémon, respectively. Drampa GX lets you hit bigger numbers to finish off bulkier Pokémon (and is easy to activate Berserk with Rainbow Energy). Tauros GX is there mostly for it's GX attack, and is a great Ninja Boy target to get surprise KOs. Necrozma GX punishes decks that load the bench with EX/GX Pokémon, softening them up for KOs (Tapu Koko does the same but smaller numbers against all Pokémon). Clefairy is a fun tech with its Metronome attack for 3 colorless. Espeon GX helps with Stage 2 decks running around (Metagroos and Gardevoir mostly). Oranguru is best to put on the bench, since its Instruct ability ensures you can always discard 2 cards to use Plumeria/Sophocles/Ultra Ball when in top deck mode or after a late game N.

Really fun deck that's easy to set up and has a lot of answers for various situations. Plan on trying out Kartana GX for its ability or to be able to snag a final prize, or even shuffle a wounded Marshadow GX back into the deck, only to be brought back with Brooklet Hill the next turn. I also am looking at including a single Shining Legends Hoopa for the EX/GX protection to help stall/set up.

Let me know what you think/leave suggestions!
 
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@EarthwormZim Great List, Thanks for sharing!

I have been play testing Marshadow-GX for some time now. My list is far from ideal but it's similar to yours. I'd love to chat about different strategies and making the Marshadow Toolbox deck more consistent.

Some other cards that I've included are:

Spinda SUM 102 - "Teeter Punch" is a very powerful attack if you only have a single energy on a Marshadow-GX (especially if it's a Strong energy) add a choice band and you can do 80 damage + confusion for a single energy. This forces the opponent to expend energy retreating or use up precious float stones/escape rope/switch/Guzma or test the odds with a coin flip for 30 damage if it's tails.

Magearna-EX STS 110 - This card serves a few purposes. The "Mystic Heart" ability can help block Espeon-GX's confusion and Drampa's "Righteous Edge" if you have a Rainbow energy on your active pokemon. I also found out that if you have a Rainbow energy on Magearna you can block Greninja's "Shadow stitching" ability blocking attack (you'll need Rainbow energy on Marshadow as well). Magearna is also a very strong attacker against metal weak pokemon such as Gardy-GX and Ninetales-GX. Magearna's "Soul Blaster" attack can OHKO any metal weak pokemon. If Magearna is in the discard Marshadow-GX can use "Soul Blaster" as a decent 120 damage attack.

Remoraid BKT 32 - Works very well with Brooklet Hill

Octillery BKT 33 - The "Abyssal Hand" ability works extremely well with Mallow to get you the cards you absolutely need right away.

Mallow GRI 127 - This card is very powerful when teamed up with Octillery.

Psychic's Third Eye BKP 108 - This card seems like it's never had a purpose....until now! Not only can the Marshadow Toolbox deck effectively stop your opponent's moves on the table but with this card you can anticipate their next move as well and plan your actions accordingly. With is card you can Look at your opponents hand, then discard the cards (pokemon) you want into your discard pile and then get back the same amount of cards that you've discarded. This card really helps with conserving resources instead of using Sycamore to discard your entire hand.

My main offensive strategies are:

- Use Drampa-GX's "Berserk" + Choice band (or Strong energy + Fighting fury belt) to do 180+ damage. This will OHKO most pokemon.

- Necrozma-GX's "Black Ray GX" to hit popular evolution GX pokemon (Gardy-GX, Metagross-GX, Ninetales-GX and Decidueye-GX) for 100 damage and follow up with Espeon-EX's "Miraculous Shine" to devolve their pokemon into knockouts. This is a major set back in the late game.

- Use Clefairy's "Metronome" + Choice band to copy the attack of Tapu Bulu-GX, Ho-Oh-GX, and Turtonator-GX and OHKO these pokemon. You can also copy GX attacks, which is sweet.

- Use Glaceon-EX's "Crystal Ray" and Jolteon-EX's "Flash Ray" to block damage from evolution and basic pokemon ( but this becomes increasingly difficult with all the evolution pokemon + Tapu-Lele decks out there)

- Use Espeon-EX's "Psyshock" to hit through any damage lock ability (ex: baby ninetales, greninja, new shining legends Hoopa)

I think that new upcoming cards like Mew & Hoopa from Shining legends and baby Tapu-Lele promo (SM45) may be helpful in this deck as well.
 
Well, at this moment in time no one really plays Oricorio in Standard. With Vespiquen being out of rotation there isn't a reason to run Oricorio (or Karen for that matter). Besides, you usually only have 5 or 6 key pokemon in the discard so that's only 50-60 damage.
 
Skater_J said:
Well, at this moment in time no one really plays Oricorio in Standard. With Vespiquen being out of rotation there isn't a reason to run Oricorio (or Karen for that matter). Besides, you usually only have 5 or 6 key pokemon in the discard so that's only 50-60 damage.
Click to expand...
That is true. I just wanted to make sure you thought of that in case of a suprise deck or whatever.
 
LucHawk said:
That is true. I just wanted to make sure you thought of that in case of a suprise deck or whatever.
Click to expand...

For sure, I agree that's it's a valuable idea to think about! @LucHawk are you going to try the Marshadow Toolbox deck? Definitely post your feedback/results if you do.
 
Skater_J said:
For sure, I agree that's it's a valuable idea to think about! @LucHawk are you going to try the Marshadow Toolbox deck? Definitely post your feedback/results if you do.
Click to expand...
I have been thinking about a Marshadow Toolbox for Standard for a while, and I will share it when I complete it.
 
After play testing the brooklet hill/octillery/mallow build for about 3 weeks now I am now confident in saying that it is too slow for the Marshadow Toolbox deck.

After switching back to a 2 x Oranguru and 2 x Tapu Lele-GX build I went on a 5 game win streak :). 2 of each card helps with consistency in case 1 of either is prized.

I feel that in this deck you don't want to start with Marshadow as you can get trapped in the active with no pokemon in the discard pile. So I run only 3 Marshadow-GX. The most ideal starting pokemon would be Drampa-GX to "Big Wheel GX", Litwick, Spinda, Tapu Koko promo or Tauros-GX.

I also feel that only 1 Jolteon-EX is needed as most of the Teir 1 decks these days are evolution based so you'll be using Glaceon-EX more. Glaceon-EX can also hit for weakness against: Volcanion-EX, Turtonator-GX, and most fire pokemon. Just add a choice band for some OHKO's. Darkrai-EX is another popular basic deck and Marshadow-GX can hit for weakness.

I think 3 field blowers is best for this deck to stop Garbotoxin and get rid of random Float stones and Choice bands. I also think 3 Guzma is a good idea to get less ideal starter pokemon out of the active and move up your opponents high retreat cost pokemon.
 
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I got really hyped and trilled about Marshadow-Gx. I played him mostly in expanded and i was a bit decieved by the experience honestly. Tried it in the standard format also but not as much. The basic idea seems awesome but there are some pieces missing right now i feel.

This deck feels really similar to the Ninja Box deck i am playing in expanded in a lot of ways honestly. Both decks play a lot of basic attackers and both have the same weakness; energy conservation and acceleration. Right now this weakness cannot be solved and this hurts both decks a lot. Having "Shining Mew" in the arsenal in a near future will help Marshadow as much as it will help my Ninja Boy deck. Searching for this special energy is vital and accelerating it is the cherry on top of the cake.

A few things i dislike about Marshadow compared to Ninja Box:

-The discarding instead of preserving aspect is the first and main difference i see between the two decks. Personally, i see preservation as being better than dicarding as a mecanic in a deck with the stall option. Discarding is not as good when playing Jolteon-Ex and Glaceon-Ex i think because 1 of your win conditions is stalling and decking out your opponent. It might not apply to most decks or even the current top tier decks right now but that is one thing to consider. Discarding too much will make you deck out before your opponent if the tuning is not right.

-The other thing is that Ninja Box removes a problem that as been pointed by Skater_J; having Marshadow stuck in the active without any pokemon in your discard. Having only 2 Guzma and 1 Ninja Boy copy renders you more vulnerable to this fact. This can sometimes be frustrating i can tell. Following the same idea, Strong Energy can sometimes be a nuisance if you get another pokemon type stuck in the active and you can't attach the Strong Energy you have.

-Skater_J also mentionned the Garbotoxin aspect. This is not something you need to fear as much in the Ninja Box.

-Something else; Ninja Box hits for weakness and aims for OHKO. Marshadow as some potential in this regard but not as much.

One downside of the Ninja Box deck would obviously be that you cannot switch between Flash Ray and Crystal Ray as conveniently. And then comes a more important thing, the drawing aspect. Ninja Box contains more Ninja Boy and fewer draw supporters. The drawing is what makes the Ninja Box deck hard to adapt for standard.

As i see it right now, this deck still has a powerful engine but it is missing something. Shining Mew will be partly solving the problem with special energy gathering and acceleration for both the Marshadow and Ninja Box decks soon and reduce their main weakness.
 
Ilovepokemom said:
Maybe run seismatoad in expanded, and maybe Mewtwo ex BREAKthrough with damage swap for healing.
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Seismitoad is less effective in this meta. The Trashalanche era makes it so that people are less reliant on items now and have more supporters for instance. Mewtwo ex BREAKthrough is one of the cards i don't have sadly. Definitely a great pokemon but i cannot comment on the efficiency. As of yet it needs 3 turn attachment. With Shining Mew that will be possible in 2 turns.

If i had to name a good pokemon that was not named in the posts before me that could be included in the deck i would say Comfey. This pokemon deserves an honorable mention and is underestimated. Gets you out of trouble in lots of cases if you can attach rainbow energy. I would in this case include Machamp since he is also a Fighting type and can attach Strong Energy. If you are able to attach Rainbow energy, Machamp-Ex can hit for big numbers with Steaming Mad without being affected by confusion. The Comfey/Machamp pair with the fighting fury belt is nice. And personally i find Magearna-Ex very helpful in this meta and would definetly consider including it.
 
@Laurier_Ex you hit the nail on the head with the major issue being energy acceleration. Enhanced hammer is also a killer against this deck. I am definitely looking forward to trying shining Mew, it should be a major help with consitency!

Great thought about the Magearna-EX/Comfey + Machamp-EX combo! I may have to try Machamp-EX instead of using Tauros-GX.

Keep the ideas coming! Love it!
 
Skater_J said:
@Laurier_Ex you hit the nail on the head with the major issue being energy acceleration. Enhanced hammer is also a killer against this deck. I am definitely looking forward to trying shining Mew, it should be a major help with consitency!

Great thought about the Magearna-EX/Comfey + Machamp-EX combo! I may have to try Machamp-EX instead of using Tauros-GX.

Keep the ideas coming! Love it!
Click to expand...

The way i could partially solve the energy problem in expanded is by including an energy conservation pokemon. This can only be done in expanded with the help of the Omega trait. Electrike and Regirock promo work with Ninja Boy. Then you have resistance to Hammers, Guzma, Lysandre, Xerosic and Team Flare. The only thing that can get to you is Escape Rope (this can be solved by benching 1 at least another pokemon), abilities (ex: Lycanroc's Bloodthirsty Eyes) or damage to the bench attacks.

Happens to me sometimes that i can chain OHKO with Machamp-Ex and Comfey. Comfey in standard might not be as good for the reason being that it's effectiveness is correlated to the number of "Fairy Energy" you have in the deck (same goes for Magearna-Ex except with Metal). Since Prism and Rainbow count as such, it means you have up to 4 in standard and up to 8 in expanded doubling the odds. So Magearna and Comfey are both better in the Expanded deck for this reason. I guess, here again this is why i am so eager to try "Counter Energy". This will not be as good as Prism since it is only activated when you are down in prize cards but it will still allow more easily the inclusion of Magearna and Comfey in Standard. The times where either of those 2 pokemon save your life in this meta is countless (against ex: Drampa-Gx, Lapras-Gx, Darkrai-Gx, Espeon-Gx, Tapu Fini Gx, Umbreon-Gx, ...).

So now, what i want to achieve myself is bringing Ninja Box into standard with the hope that Counter Energy and Shining Mew will solve it's biggest problems. The scenario would be:

- Shining Mew on the active, attach a Rainbow Energy to Shining Mew
- Use his attack to attach 2 special energy on the bench
- Opponent takes out Shining Mew
- The bench pokemon comes in (depending on the case you will want Jolteon-Ex, Glaceon-Ex or your opponents weakness). Granted you play against Metagross-Gx, you could Ninja Boy into Entei and OHKO him (granted you are behind in prize cards). Granted it is Mewtwo-Gx, you could Ninja Boy into Girtina promo and OHKO him. If it is Gardevoir, Ninja Boy into Magearna and OHKO him and so on. So reaching for the OHKO is not hard (unless the right pokemon is prized in which case you use Jolteon/Glaceon/Machamp/Tauros). Reaching for the energy is always a bit more tricky.

The hard part is always to find that energy you need in order to attach it to Shining Mew on the first turn without using a supporter since you will want to use Ninja Boy ideally 2 turns in a row. Tapu Lele or Ultra Ball for the Ninja Boy is not the hard part. In expanded i use Shaymin and Unwon and i can easily find one of those 8 Prism and Rainbow Energy. In standard you need to use Energy Loto? Reaching for one of those 4 Rainbow Energy on the first turn is hard without supporters.
 
@Laurier_Ex I used to add Energy Loto into the deck but I found that I always needed that extra slot for something else. I determined that I would just discard like mad in the early game to dig deep for the rainbow energy and then get the energies back in the mid game with Special charge (I have 2 in my deck). This also gives you a much better chance to hit energies each turn in the mid to late game.
 
The other day I added 2 x Pokemon Fan Club to my list and found that it works quite well in this deck! You can search for 2 of the pokemon you need to discard and then use an ultraball to discard them and grab either an attacker (likely Marshadow-GX) or a support pokemon like Oranguru or Tapu-Lele GX.
 
Haven't checked my post in awhile and just read through some of the comments. Thanks for the input!

With the list above, I was able to go on a 14-15 game winning streak on the PTCGO ladder, and was taken down by a Golisopod/Garbodor deck (always got the Guzma/Acerola he needed) and then by Metagross right after (my fault though. Didn't think he would be able to get another Metagross into play to Geotech System enough times to attack, so I used Flash Ray to shut out Tapu Lele. He ended up using Rare Candy into a second Metagross letting him Geotech twice and manual attach for the KO and the win. Should have played it safe with Crystal Ray since Lele wouldn't have OHKO'd me anyway.)

I'm planning on dropping a Rescue Stretcher for Hoopa (Shining Legends). Not sure it'll be good enough as a staller though. Rescue Stretcher (and Plumeria) I'm usually not too excited to see, though Plumeria has occasionally saved me in a pinch.

What are people's thoughts on using Choice Band instead of FFB? On the one hand, CB lets you OHKO Lele (and other basic GX Pokemon) with a Berserk, on the other, FFB saves you from a banded Golisopod from OHKOing your Marshadow. I almost feel like I should drop both Plumeria and 1 FFB and add 2 CB and a third Guzma. Or possibly drop 1-2 Strong Energy. Not sure. I'm planning on taking this deck IRL to a tournament this weekend and want to tweak it to make it as good as possible. Don't want to change too much necessarily since I have a lot of experience with this current build.

Either way, if you have the cards I recommend giving it a shot. Very versatile and fun deck that can be customized to handle whatever you want it to. I plan on playing this deck until the new Solgaleo GX comes out (I currently own Solgaleo GX/Rayquaza both in paper and PTCGO, and can't wait to upgrade).
 
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