Expanded Pidgeotto control expanded help

[ccearleyart]

Hey pokebeachers!

I want to try pidgeotto control in expanded. Any good cards you would recommend adding/ replacing?

Right now I’m using omnipokes deck list as a starting point

I don’t have any custom catchers and missing 2 pokegears, but I imagine in expanded there should be some better cards I could use to replace them.

Thanks for the help!

##Pokémon - 18

* 1 Ditto {*} LOT 154
* 4 Oranguru UPR 114
* 4 Pidgey TEU 122
* 4 Pidgeotto TEU 123
* 2 Girafarig LOT 94
* 1 Mew UNB 76
* 2 Articuno-GX CES 31

##Trainer Cards - 38

* 2 Mars UPR 128
* 2 Chip-Chip Ice Axe UNB 165
* 4 Professor Elm’s Lecture LOT 188
* 2 Pokémon Communication TEU 152
* 1 Pal Pad UPR 132
* 1 Tate & Liza CES 148
* 2 Reset Stamp UNM 206
* 2 Lt. Surge's Strategy UNB 178
* 2 Cynthia UPR 119
* 1 Brock's Grit TEU 135
* 2 Power Plant UNB 183
* 4 Crushing Hammer SUM 115
* 1 Jessie & James HIF 58
* 4 Pokégear 3.0 UNB 182
* 3 Custom Catcher LOT 171
* 1 U-Turn Board UNM 211
* 4 Acro Bike CES 123

##Energy - 4

* 1 Recycle Energy UNM 212
* 3 Water Energy SMEnergy 3

 

[rewster1]

Hand control is much less foolproof in expanded, as most decks are half full of items like vs seeker and trainer's mail and pokemon like shaymin ex that can get you out of hand lock in no time. Any octillery deck is going to be immune unless you have, say, garbotoxin and magearna on your bench to selectively ability lock them.

This deck as it is now is going to be too slow I would say, and pidgeotto is really fragile (a weavile benches you with one energy). But not everyone is playing weavile, and you can make it better if you put in your own trainer's mails, VS seekers, battle compressors (to give vs seeker targets), level balls, counter catchers, N's (a supporter that helps you hand lock while drawing you six new cards is probably nice).

There are other hand disruption cards available in expanded, like red card, but unfortunately the best hand lock card was delinquent and it is now banned. You can try attacks like noibat's destructive sound, which can delete items from their hand, or absol's future sight to rearrange the top 4 cards of their deck so that they don't get playable cards for a few turns, but actually winning with this strategy (rather than just slowing them down while you build up a big sweeper) may prove difficult.

 

[ccearleyart]

Thanks Rewster! I really appreciate the help! Those are some great ideas

I played a few games last night and it was really difficult. I couldn’t keep energy off them fast enough.

I will try out some these suggestions and test it again .

 

[Merovingian]

I'll do you one better: Zoroark-GX / Oranguru control. I would highly encourage you to look into that deck.

The problem with Pigeotto control in Standard is that Pidgeotto was Zoroark-GX-lite. It works for Standard because--well, rotation happened and you're working with improvised weapons.

In Expanded, you have a literal weapons cache.

Zoroark-GX / control is a good archetype to work with. If you're looking for more of a hand control-ish kind of deck. Sableye / Garbodor is where it's at.

Be warned, Sableye / Garbodor is a hard-up control deck and one of the hardest decks to pilot correctly in Expanded; high skill floor AND ceiling.

Anslo, Jessie & James is banned in Expanded. I know you said you copied the deck off of Omnipoke, but point still stands.

But yes, look into Zoroark-GX / control and Sableye / Garbodor. See if either of those jive well with you, report back.

 

[rewster1]

Yeah, Merovingian is absolutely right, zoro control is what pidgeotto control was based on, and comes with a built in ohko attacker (with sky field in expanded) and zoro is quite a bit tankier as a bench sitter as well. I wasn't sure where you stood on actually having expensive cards like a playset of zoroark, but I probably should have mentioned that. You also gain access to foul play zoroark (copies the opponent's active pokemon's attacks regardless of cost), bkt zoroark (great when your opponent also takes advantage of sky field, and has the same ability as Dawn Wings GX) and even zoroark break if you wanted, which does foul play for a single energy.

Also I don't know where my mind was at before, garb turns off magearna, so that's not even a valid combo. You'd want to use field blowers and a u-turn board most likely.

 

[Merovingian]

I wasn't sure where you stood on actually having expensive cards like a playset of zoroark, but I probably should have mentioned that. You also gain access to foul play zoroark (copies the opponent's active pokemon's attacks regardless of cost), bkt zoroark (great when your opponent also takes advantage of sky field, and has the same ability as Dawn Wings GX) and even zoroark break if you wanted, which does foul play for a single energy.

You can pick up a playset of Zoroark-GX for about $10 on TCGPlayer. The biggest expense for Expanded comes from getting Dowsing Machine and/or Computer Search: the two Ace Specs that will go in 95% of any Expanded deck you ever build. Remember, either get them in the off season between NAIC and Worlds for cheapest prices, or get them either way before an Expanded Regionals or a week or two after. But prices are starting to climb, so jump on it, Apache.

As for the baby Zoroarks, Foul Play is the better choice with the high-hitting Tag Teams right now. the BKT version (Mind Jack/"Stand-In" whatever you refer to it) was best when the field was Zoroark-GX saturated. These days, it'll only be good if your opponent uses Sky Field (assuming they are using a deck that properly utilizes it) or does an incredible doofus move by using a deck that can't benefit from Sky Field, but manages to bench 8.

That said, Zoroark-GX / Garbodor is the de-facto Zoroark-GX deck to play competitively and they are packed TO THE GILLS to optimization and techs.

The other issue with playing control is that you have to know your deck REALLY well as well as know the meta you're going into even better. some control decks can be adjusted to work in a meta and you can change some cards out as necessary, others only work when they catch opponents off guard and can only work if they fly under the radar.