Alt. Format Metal Box post Guardians Riding

[AlphaVoxel]

What's up PokeBeach!? I am extremely excited for Guardians Rising and all the amazing stuff that comes with it. So, in an attempt to kick things off, I have a decklist for you all! Enjoy!

[Pokemon]: 15
2x Genesect EX
2x Solgaleo GX
1x Cosmoem
2x Cosmog
3x Metagross GX
3x Beldum
1x Magearna EX
1x Tapu Lele GX

[Trainers]: 32
3x Reverse Valley
3x Professor Sycamore
2x Professor Kukui
2x N
2x Lysandre
3x Skyla
1x Karen
4x Vs Seeker
2x Professors Letter
2x Field Blower
2x Fighting Fury Belt
4x Rare Candy
2x Float Stone
2x Energy Retrieval

[Energy]: 11
11x Metal Energy

There it is! The idea is to set up with Solgaleo and get as much on the field as possible. Solgaleo/Genesect are main attackers, Metagross provides energy recovery, and Magearna is mostly there to protect against devolution (Espeon EX or whatever), and other problems such as status. Field Blower is there for Garbodor, as that would be a huge problem for this deck. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas! I know for sure I will be building this deck when the cards come out, so... XD

 

[swaginator5000]

So what happens if you get t1 item locked? It will be next to impossible to set up and win those games you might need more of the stage 1s for when this happens.

 

[superdan51]

So what happens if you get t1 item locked? It will be next to impossible to set up and win those games you might need more of the stage 1s for when this happens.

Im gonna go ahead and say that this deck wont be anywhere close to competitive until rotation, and the deck looks real good when rotation hits. 90% of decks get gimped on turn one item lock its not like this deck is something special. Also this is the Alt Format deck garage, which is for post rotation, because no stage two decks are able to excel while Hoopa and shaymin are still in the format

Also OP, I would switch those Reverse Valleys for Alter of the Sunne. It makes the Volcanion matchup wayyyy better because Volcanion will be running the same stadium, and that means that they cant one shot you a lot of time where they usually can

 

[AlphaVoxel]

Yeah, I know decks like this suffer with Item lock, so I'll probably end up adding 1-2 Pokémon Ranger to deal with that. I am also looking to see where rotation ends up before doing anything too drastic (I don't know whether it will or not, so...).

 

[Sergiohmygod]

This could be fun, but I think there are a few on-paper issues to work out before you move on to play testing:

1) The one that stuck out the most to me was 3 Skyla. That's insane. Sure you're dependent on Rare Candy but that's more Skylas than you have Ns and equal to the amount of your Sycamores. Those Skylas are going to be dead cards quite more often than not and I think you'll be yearning for more draw power.

2) Only 3 Sycamore?

3) Float Stone and Magearna kind of fall into the same category here because they're both functionally replaceable with Solgaleo's Ultra Road. Unless you really care about that 10-20 special condition damage between turns affecting your 250HP Pokémon, Magearna's not necessary. In fact I think she's more of a Lysander-able liability that's gunna cost you 2 prizes. Float Stone is good for when you're ability locked, which is bound to happen sometimes. However, since we're all talking post-rotation, Field Blower is going to be a thing. Nothing is stopping the Gab/Wob player from just Blowing away your float stones and trapping you. Bet best imo is to just play Field Blowers of your own. It won't save your from Wob but he's way less common than Garb so I think it's worth the risk.

4) 2 Fury Belts just for Genesect seems a little excessive, even if he's gunna be the main attacker. Especially in the Field Blower format we're headed to. It's also not impossible that you'll prize both Genesects sometimes, which is actually a bit of a problem on its own.

5) 2 Professor's Letter seems a little excessive. I know you're discarding up to 3 Energy per turn and Metagross only recovers 1, meaning you definitely want a manual attachment each turn, but with Sol Burst pulling 5-11 Energies out of your deck on turn 3, Letters are going to be real dead real fast. Maybe play one if your testing leaves you desperate for crucial manual attachments.

6) Don't play Ranger (especially not 2) to counter item lock. Hex is what you want and you really only want 1 or else it's gunna be 2 dead cards against any non-Decidueye deck.

7) Altar of the Sunne isn't nearly as good now that Field Blower has been announced. It gives you no benefit on your turn and is bumped by Stadiums AND Blower. Definitely stick to Reverse Valley.

Heavy Ball might be an option as well, so long as you don't have trouble getting your Basics out. It'll let you search your Stage 1s and 2s, meaning you might have to evolve up the ID fashioned way but you'll have less dead hands full of Rare Candies that you can't use or throw away.

Edit: autocorrect and the Apple keyboard is general absolutely went to town sabotaging this reply, jesus. Fixed what I hope are all of the mistakes.

 

[superdan51]

This could be fun, but I think there are a few on-paper issues to work out before you move on to play testing:
7) Altar of the Sunne isn't nearly as good now that Field Blower has been announced. It gives you no benefit on your turn and is bumped by Stadiums AND Blower. Definitely stick to Reverse Valley.

Reverse Valley also does nothing on your turn, most decks will only run one field blower and at least Alter of the Sunne gives you a chance with the Volc matchup once they use burn their Field Blower. Most people say theyll run two or three, but thats also what they said about Tool Scraper and Megaphone and most people ended up only running one. Alter of the Sunne is the best stadium for this deck, it makes the worst matchup better and is wayyy better than Reverse Valley. Your argument that Alter does nothing on your turn compared to Reverse Valley is moot because Reverse valley does nothing on your turn either. If im gonna pick one im gonna pick the stadium that improves matchups not the one that slightly reduces damage done

 

[Sergiohmygod]

Reverse Valley also does nothing on your turn, most decks will only run one field blower and at least Alter of the Sunne gives you a chance with the Volc matchup once they use burn their Field Blower. Most people say theyll run two or three, but thats also what they said about Tool Scraper and Megaphone and most people ended up only running one. Alter of the Sunne is the best stadium for this deck, it makes the worst matchup better and is wayyy better than Reverse Valley. Your argument that Alter does nothing on your turn compared to Reverse Valley is moot because Reverse valley does nothing on your turn either. If im gonna pick one im gonna pick the stadium that improves matchups not the one that slightly reduces damage done

Oh my bad I was thinking Parallel, not sure how I goofed that up. I'm honestly not a fan of desperately trying to improve losing matchups with cards like Weakness Policy or Sunne in general though, I feel like I'd rather improve my 50/50 matchups than turn my 10/90 into a 25/75. Especially with a Stadium which can be bumped in so many ways now.

 

[superdan51]

Oh my bad I was thinking Parallel, not sure how I goofed that up. I'm honestly not a fan of desperately trying to improve losing matchups with cards like Weakness Policy or Sunne in general though, I feel like I'd rather improve my 50/50 matchups than turn my 10/90 into a 25/75. Especially with a Stadium which can be bumped in so many ways now.

I dont understand what matchups are an issue that run a huge bench, both pokemon that you should be playing with have 250 hp, as Genesect is basically useless compared to Solgaleo. Also with waterbox on the rise volcanion decks are gonna be running Alter of the Sunne as well. So after the Volc player burn their field blower theyre done, they wont be running any other stadium so you wont have weakness after than one blower. This greatly increases your one worst matchup. This deck has no really big weakness apart from Volc. Its beefy and has a very high damage potential thanks to Choice Band and energy recycling

 

[Sergiohmygod]

I dont understand what matchups are an issue that run a huge bench, both pokemon that you should be playing with have 250 hp, as Genesect is basically useless compared to Solgaleo. Also with waterbox on the rise volcanion decks are gonna be running Alter of the Sunne as well. So after the Volc player burn their field blower theyre done, they wont be running any other stadium so you wont have weakness after than one blower. This greatly increases your one worst matchup. This deck has no really big weakness apart from Volc. Its beefy and has a very high damage potential thanks to Choice Band and energy recycling

Haha alright alright. You make a lot of assumptions and take a lot for granted in there but granted that if it were all true you'd be completely correct. I totally agree.

 

[superdan51]

Haha alright alright. You make a lot of assumptions and take a lot for granted in there but granted that if it were all true you'd be completely correct. I totally agree.

I think that the current format is too fast for a deck like this to work, but after rotation it might be really good. Im just guessing based on previous things ive seen and how rotations worked, but everything at this point is just speculation and assumptions. I could be completely wrong and everything could change when SM3 comes out or someone finds some other really cool combo, or Incineroar GX does well when victini drops. I like Metagross so I want it to do well, because it hasnt gotten this good of a card in a long time, and if everything works out well we might be looking at one of the better decks to emerge from the SM era, only time will tell, and lots of cards to release before then