I would like to share a deck with you that I have been rolling with, both in real life, and online, that my friends have described as "just unfair" or "it shouldn't work but for some reason it does. I've seen other "guides" for decks similar to this, that just don't do it justice and mostly misses the mark when it comes to the whole point of playing a deck like this. It works similarly to night March, however has pros and cons to that deck:
Pros:
+Is attached to a higher HP body
+Does not require DCE to function
+Does not get hard countered by Karen
+Benefits from a huge supporter pool
Cons:
-Tends to be a little slower than night march
-Much easier to mill yourself into a loss
-Stadium control is much more important than in night march
-Requires more deck space for evolutions
Now let's look at the deck list:
Pokemon: 12
4-1-4 Chandelure SS
2 Talonflame SS
1 Wobuffett PF
Stadiums: 4
4 Dimension valley
Trainers: 38
4 professor sycamore
4 N
4 Ultra Ball
4 VS Seeker
4 Rare Candy
3 Battle Compressor
1 Skyla
1 Lysandre
1 Pokemon Center Lady
1 Brock's Grit
1 Wally
1 Karen
1 Misty's Determination
1 Team Flare Grunt
1 Xerosic
1 Steven
1 Hex Maniac
1 Pokemon Ranger
1 Delinquent
1 Muscle Band (To become Choice Band with Guardians Rising)
1 Dowsing Machine
Energy: 6
1 Mystery Energy
5 Psychic Energy
Now to explain my thought process on this:
Starting with the basics, the Litwick I have chosen naturally pairs well with the strategy of the deck, being able to discard 2 cards from your deck on your first turn for no energy in some cases with dimension valley up can lead to a nice start, Lampent on the other hand, if you are attacking with it, chances are, your back is up against a corner, and surprisingly it has come up clutch, either with its draw power and opponent hazing forcing a discard, or putting them to sleep and stalling out one more turn. Chandelure is by far the meat of this deck, capable of both digging through your deck with multiple sinister selections per turn, and following it up with past friends, which late game caps out at 250 damage for one psychic energy with dimension valley and choice band.
Talonflame is a great pairing for this deck due to its low basic Pokemon count, as well as its ability to easily discard cards from your deck, similarly to how greninja functions with it. It is by far one of the best starts you can have and makes setting up your chandelures a breeze.
Wobbuffet, is another great starter to completely shut down shaymins, vileplume, and others while still allowing you to sinister selection from your bench, it also comes with a semi useable attack at the cost of one energy as a revenge killer after your chandelure failed to OTK the enemy.
Now on to the bulk of the strategy, all the supporters you have to choose from:
Some of these can be interchanged with other supporters if you wish, these are just the ones I've found to be successful.
Skyla and lysandre are absolutely core necessary, as lysandre allows you to one shot EXes on the bench to end the game as quickly as possible, skyla is crucial to grabbing rare candies, stadiums, etc.
Pokemon center lady is a tech in versus virbank poison decks
Brocks grit helps to grab back any energies you've discarded, and occasionally grabs chandelures back that you've also discarded
Wally is only semi useful, as an out to skip rare candy, however is mostly unused due to lampent somehow always ending up in your prize pool (eye roll)
Karen is a versus night March tech
Mistys determination and Steven in my opinion are both low tier supporters that are often simply discarded, however have clutch potential
Xerosic and team flare grunt are both for slowing your opponent down depending on the situation (I find myself using xerosic a lot to remove fighting fury belt to one shot EXes since 170 is much easier to hit for than 210
Hex maniac, Pokemon ranger, and delinquent all have their own specific uses that should be pretty self explanatory.
The play style of this deck is very simple in its goals, yet complex in the many ways you can get there: discard as many supporters as possible as fast as you can to one shot the opposing pokemon. Because of this, it is important to play extremely aggressively when it comes to your hand. You cannot be afraid to professor sycamore at the cost of a rare candy, or an evolution, or a stadium or a VS seeker, all of which are cards that you almost be mindful of as you destroy your deck. As you get through the game, it is also important to watch your deck count as it gets into the single digits. It is very easy to deck yourself, however a late game N or brocks grit can save you by pumping more cards back into your deck to keep you going
Cards you should be Using VS seeker on:
Professor sycamore: 75% of the time
N: 5% of the time (when you need a new hand but have too many resources to discard in your hand)
Skyla: 5% of the time (to get rare candies stadiums etc)
Lysandre: 5% of the time (to win the game faster by one shotting EXes and GXes)
Everything else: 10% of the time (completely situational)
Why don't I use more mystery energies?
I only use 1 for a number of reasons, you can't use them on talonflame, they can't be picked up by Steven, and surprisingly they're not that useful
If I have a psychic energy on a chandelure, I almost never have a reason to retreat, the only Pokemon I really feel good about having a mystery energy on is wobbuffet.
Other supporters I can tech in?
2nd skyla or lysandre
Teammates
Ace trainer
How this deck does against others (To be expanded upon):
Beats:
Mega mewtwo
Vespiquen decks
Espeon GX
Mega Alakazam
Trevanent Break
Goes even with:
Lurantis GX
Keldeo EX
Volcanion decks
Night March
Loses to:
Darkrai decks
Mega Scizor
I would love to hear any comments, complaints, critiques, everything you have to offer on this deck, it is cheap to make, fun to play, a high skill ceiling and takes LOTS of practice to play especially in person. I will be updating this frequently as I gather more information as I play.
Pros:
+Is attached to a higher HP body
+Does not require DCE to function
+Does not get hard countered by Karen
+Benefits from a huge supporter pool
Cons:
-Tends to be a little slower than night march
-Much easier to mill yourself into a loss
-Stadium control is much more important than in night march
-Requires more deck space for evolutions
Now let's look at the deck list:
Pokemon: 12
4-1-4 Chandelure SS
2 Talonflame SS
1 Wobuffett PF
Stadiums: 4
4 Dimension valley
Trainers: 38
4 professor sycamore
4 N
4 Ultra Ball
4 VS Seeker
4 Rare Candy
3 Battle Compressor
1 Skyla
1 Lysandre
1 Pokemon Center Lady
1 Brock's Grit
1 Wally
1 Karen
1 Misty's Determination
1 Team Flare Grunt
1 Xerosic
1 Steven
1 Hex Maniac
1 Pokemon Ranger
1 Delinquent
1 Muscle Band (To become Choice Band with Guardians Rising)
1 Dowsing Machine
Energy: 6
1 Mystery Energy
5 Psychic Energy
Now to explain my thought process on this:
Starting with the basics, the Litwick I have chosen naturally pairs well with the strategy of the deck, being able to discard 2 cards from your deck on your first turn for no energy in some cases with dimension valley up can lead to a nice start, Lampent on the other hand, if you are attacking with it, chances are, your back is up against a corner, and surprisingly it has come up clutch, either with its draw power and opponent hazing forcing a discard, or putting them to sleep and stalling out one more turn. Chandelure is by far the meat of this deck, capable of both digging through your deck with multiple sinister selections per turn, and following it up with past friends, which late game caps out at 250 damage for one psychic energy with dimension valley and choice band.
Talonflame is a great pairing for this deck due to its low basic Pokemon count, as well as its ability to easily discard cards from your deck, similarly to how greninja functions with it. It is by far one of the best starts you can have and makes setting up your chandelures a breeze.
Wobbuffet, is another great starter to completely shut down shaymins, vileplume, and others while still allowing you to sinister selection from your bench, it also comes with a semi useable attack at the cost of one energy as a revenge killer after your chandelure failed to OTK the enemy.
Now on to the bulk of the strategy, all the supporters you have to choose from:
Some of these can be interchanged with other supporters if you wish, these are just the ones I've found to be successful.
Skyla and lysandre are absolutely core necessary, as lysandre allows you to one shot EXes on the bench to end the game as quickly as possible, skyla is crucial to grabbing rare candies, stadiums, etc.
Pokemon center lady is a tech in versus virbank poison decks
Brocks grit helps to grab back any energies you've discarded, and occasionally grabs chandelures back that you've also discarded
Wally is only semi useful, as an out to skip rare candy, however is mostly unused due to lampent somehow always ending up in your prize pool (eye roll)
Karen is a versus night March tech
Mistys determination and Steven in my opinion are both low tier supporters that are often simply discarded, however have clutch potential
Xerosic and team flare grunt are both for slowing your opponent down depending on the situation (I find myself using xerosic a lot to remove fighting fury belt to one shot EXes since 170 is much easier to hit for than 210
Hex maniac, Pokemon ranger, and delinquent all have their own specific uses that should be pretty self explanatory.
The play style of this deck is very simple in its goals, yet complex in the many ways you can get there: discard as many supporters as possible as fast as you can to one shot the opposing pokemon. Because of this, it is important to play extremely aggressively when it comes to your hand. You cannot be afraid to professor sycamore at the cost of a rare candy, or an evolution, or a stadium or a VS seeker, all of which are cards that you almost be mindful of as you destroy your deck. As you get through the game, it is also important to watch your deck count as it gets into the single digits. It is very easy to deck yourself, however a late game N or brocks grit can save you by pumping more cards back into your deck to keep you going
Cards you should be Using VS seeker on:
Professor sycamore: 75% of the time
N: 5% of the time (when you need a new hand but have too many resources to discard in your hand)
Skyla: 5% of the time (to get rare candies stadiums etc)
Lysandre: 5% of the time (to win the game faster by one shotting EXes and GXes)
Everything else: 10% of the time (completely situational)
Why don't I use more mystery energies?
I only use 1 for a number of reasons, you can't use them on talonflame, they can't be picked up by Steven, and surprisingly they're not that useful
If I have a psychic energy on a chandelure, I almost never have a reason to retreat, the only Pokemon I really feel good about having a mystery energy on is wobbuffet.
Other supporters I can tech in?
2nd skyla or lysandre
Teammates
Ace trainer
How this deck does against others (To be expanded upon):
Beats:
Mega mewtwo
Vespiquen decks
Espeon GX
Mega Alakazam
Trevanent Break
Goes even with:
Lurantis GX
Keldeo EX
Volcanion decks
Night March
Loses to:
Darkrai decks
Mega Scizor
I would love to hear any comments, complaints, critiques, everything you have to offer on this deck, it is cheap to make, fun to play, a high skill ceiling and takes LOTS of practice to play especially in person. I will be updating this frequently as I gather more information as I play.
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