Hello fellow Pokebeachers, in an attempt to improve my writing skills and knowledge of Pokemon, I'm going to be writing weekly articles on the Pokemon TCG (called Pika's Deck Garage, or PDG), about whatever decks seem like they could be good, and any new cards are revealed and whether they are good. Anyways, let's get started on the article! (I have never attended a highly competitive event, but I am pretty up to date with what’s going on in the world of Pokemon). I'm using http://limitlesstcg.com/tournaments/?id=115 for tournament statistics, just to credit sources.
So... Shrine of punishment decks, coming off an incredible run at Santa Catarina Regionals with 7 of the top 8 decks being Buzzwole Shrine variants, running either Garbodor or Weavile as a finisher. With this, they are definitely going to be an important matchup, and anybody going into Philadelphia is likely going to play at least 2 matchups against it.
There are not many ways for GX heavy decks, particularly decks like Zoroark to win this match up, short of running 4 field blowers or a completely different game plan for the one match up. One of the biggest problems with this match up is the need to play fast to beat Buzzwole, while still keeping your item/ability counts low. The weakness to Fighting is also incredibly tough to overcome.
-----Metagross can have a pretty good match up vs the Garbodor variant, being able to keep down item counts, and resisting Garbodor (this match up can be tilted towards the Garb player with Bodybuilding-Dumbbells, putting Garb out of reach of 1 hit KOs). On the other hand the Weavile match up is not great, as its spread damage hitting every single pokemon they want to play disables the max potion game plan that Metagross normally wants with. This can be soft countered by staggering Metagross's, though this does leave you with less energy recycling. Another way for Metagross to win this match up is to play a non gx attacker, such as Heatran, to take Kos with an even prize trade (the 130 hp even let's it trade well sometimes against sledgehammer turns)
-----Gardevoir is an interesting match up, with Garb being un-favored in the match up, and Weavile being pretty good. Buzzwole with Shrine can offer good early game pressure, but Garbs late game can be all but shut down by Gardies GX attack. On the other hand Weavile can offer significant pressure later on, hitting nearly all of the Pokemon Gardevoir plays. Gardie could attack with the Xerneas BUS, but this is not that effective, unlike Metagross’s optional tech
-----Vika-Ray has a pretty awful match up against both Garbodor variants, having to play tonnes of Pokemon with abilities as well as items. There's not really much that can be done to help this match up, through a Zekrom can be played to help a bit.
-----Buzzwole GX does destroy the Weavile variant of the deck, though is itself destroyed by the Garbodor variant of the deck. Garb hits it for weakness, and Buzzwole has to play at least a few of them to set up anyways. Buzz can use rock types for weakness diversification, but even then the match up is not great.
In the mirror match up, I’d probably favor the Garb variant, just because Garb can actually do something in this match up. A few useful techs for the mirror are more Lillie to keep item (and Pokemon with abilities) counts low, more Guzma to target down evolving basics and take faster prizes, and Bodybuilding Dumbell to help mess up math with Buzzwole.
-----In terms of lists, here's a good one (https://bit.ly/2CQhrzL) that I made. I haven’t gotten to play many
games with it yet, but it seems to get turn 1 Buzz 90% of games, and is able to apply pressure later on quite well.
Anyways, that's all for today! Any feedback would be great, and I hope this article was pretty good for a first time!
So... Shrine of punishment decks, coming off an incredible run at Santa Catarina Regionals with 7 of the top 8 decks being Buzzwole Shrine variants, running either Garbodor or Weavile as a finisher. With this, they are definitely going to be an important matchup, and anybody going into Philadelphia is likely going to play at least 2 matchups against it.
There are not many ways for GX heavy decks, particularly decks like Zoroark to win this match up, short of running 4 field blowers or a completely different game plan for the one match up. One of the biggest problems with this match up is the need to play fast to beat Buzzwole, while still keeping your item/ability counts low. The weakness to Fighting is also incredibly tough to overcome.
-----Metagross can have a pretty good match up vs the Garbodor variant, being able to keep down item counts, and resisting Garbodor (this match up can be tilted towards the Garb player with Bodybuilding-Dumbbells, putting Garb out of reach of 1 hit KOs). On the other hand the Weavile match up is not great, as its spread damage hitting every single pokemon they want to play disables the max potion game plan that Metagross normally wants with. This can be soft countered by staggering Metagross's, though this does leave you with less energy recycling. Another way for Metagross to win this match up is to play a non gx attacker, such as Heatran, to take Kos with an even prize trade (the 130 hp even let's it trade well sometimes against sledgehammer turns)
-----Gardevoir is an interesting match up, with Garb being un-favored in the match up, and Weavile being pretty good. Buzzwole with Shrine can offer good early game pressure, but Garbs late game can be all but shut down by Gardies GX attack. On the other hand Weavile can offer significant pressure later on, hitting nearly all of the Pokemon Gardevoir plays. Gardie could attack with the Xerneas BUS, but this is not that effective, unlike Metagross’s optional tech
-----Vika-Ray has a pretty awful match up against both Garbodor variants, having to play tonnes of Pokemon with abilities as well as items. There's not really much that can be done to help this match up, through a Zekrom can be played to help a bit.
-----Buzzwole GX does destroy the Weavile variant of the deck, though is itself destroyed by the Garbodor variant of the deck. Garb hits it for weakness, and Buzzwole has to play at least a few of them to set up anyways. Buzz can use rock types for weakness diversification, but even then the match up is not great.
In the mirror match up, I’d probably favor the Garb variant, just because Garb can actually do something in this match up. A few useful techs for the mirror are more Lillie to keep item (and Pokemon with abilities) counts low, more Guzma to target down evolving basics and take faster prizes, and Bodybuilding Dumbell to help mess up math with Buzzwole.
-----In terms of lists, here's a good one (https://bit.ly/2CQhrzL) that I made. I haven’t gotten to play many
games with it yet, but it seems to get turn 1 Buzz 90% of games, and is able to apply pressure later on quite well.
Anyways, that's all for today! Any feedback would be great, and I hope this article was pretty good for a first time!
