Plasma Variants (Thundurus EX / Deoxys EX)

Machamp The Champion

Machamp The Champion

TCG Articles Head
Member
This thread is used for all competitive discussion on Plasma variants, including Thundurus/Deoxys/Kyurem, Speed Lugia, or any other deck revolving around Deoxys EX. This includes strategies, playstyles, and techs.

You may post decklists here, but only as a means to add to the discussion. If you're looking for advice on your list, post in the Deck Garage.

Thundurus/Deoxys/Kyurem Skeleton List:

Pokémon: 10
  • 4 Deoxys EX
  • 3 Thundurus EX
  • 3 Kyurem PLF
Trainers: 31
  • 4 Professor Juniper
  • 4 N
  • 2 Skyla
  • 2 Colress
  • 2 Lysandre
  • 2 VS Seeker
  • 4 Switch
  • 3 Muscle Band
  • 3 Colress Machine
  • 2 Team Plasma Ball
  • 2 Ultra Ball
  • 1 Computer Search
Energy: 13
  • 4 Plasma
  • 4 Rainbow
  • 3 Water
  • 2 Lightning
Open Spots: 6


Strategy:
The goal of Thundurus/Deoxys/Kyurem is to rush down your opponent early with quick, strong attacks like Frost Spear and Raiden Knuckle. These attacks do so much damage because of Deoxys EX's Power Connect, which increases all damage Plasma Pokemon deal by 10. Putting 3 or 4 of these guys on your Bench really adds some power to the deck. The issues with this deck are how frail Kyurem is and its heavy reliance on Special Energy. With only 130 HP, devoting 3 Energy to Kyurem can quickly go to waste. And playing 8 Special Energy makes the deck very vulnerable to Enhanced Hammer and Aegislash EX. Regardless, this deck's strong early game and potential high damage output can be enough to take a few games.

Good Additions:
  • Genesect EX
  • Absol PLF
  • Keldeo EX and Float Stone
  • Scramble Switch
  • Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank City Gym
  • Frozen City
  • Plasma Frigate
  • More Basic Energy and Professor’s Letter


Speed Lugia Skeleton List:

Pokémon: 9
  • 4 Deoxys EX
  • 3 Lugia EX
  • 2 Thundurus EX
Trainers: 31
  • 4 Juniper
  • 4 N
  • 2 Skyla
  • 2 Colress
  • 2 Lysandre
  • 2 VS Seeker
  • 4 Team Plasma Ball
  • 4 Colress Machine
  • 3 Muscle Band
  • 3 Switch
  • 1 Computer Search
Energy: 14
  • 4 Plasma
  • 4 Double Colorless
  • 4 Rainbow
  • 2 Lightning
Open Spots: 6

Strategy:
The goal of Speed Lugia is power up a Lugia EX as quickly as possible with Colress Machine and Double Colorless, and take 6 prizes in just a couple turns. With Lugia EX's Overflow Ability, Deoxys EX's Power Connect and Muscle Band, Lugia EX can take 3 prizes off of an EX, allowing you to win the game in just 2 turns! The main problem with this deck is if your first Lugia EX gets knocked out before you win. After using multiple Colress Machines to attack with Lugia EX, powering up a second one can be difficult. But some decks just can't set up fast enough to take down that first Lugia EX, and lose incredibly quickly.


Good Additions:
  • Seismitoad EX
  • Genesect EX
  • Absol PLF
  • Roller Skates or Bicycle or Arco Bike
  • Startling Megaphone
  • Scramble Switch
  • Frozen City
  • Plasma Frigate
 
I found that this metadeck should have been Tier 1.5 or something, because earlier on PTCGO, when I added 2 spiritomb(LTR) to my take on this deck hoping to block G-Booster(omitting Computer Search and/or other Ace Spec cards in-process), using spiritomb's hexed mirror if necessary, as well as cutting the no. of Lugias down by 1, some energy replacements and adjustments, such as halving Double Colorless, adding some Dark and grass energy, adding 3 furious fists eevees, 2 plasma umbreon(with +20 HP ability), and 1 plasma Leafeon, and 2 Cassius, among other adjustments, it managed to beat Virgen, How's that for a tech?

Great blueprint, MTC! If you want, you can modify it if you think it's a good idea to do so!
 
cardgjammer said:
I found that this metadeck should have been Tier 1.5 or something, because earlier on PTCGO, when I added 2 spiritomb(LTR) to my take on this deck hoping to block G-Booster(omitting Computer Search and/or other Ace Spec cards in-process), using spiritomb's hexed mirror if necessary, as well as cutting the no. of Lugias down by 1, some energy replacements and adjustments, such as halving Double Colorless, adding some Dark and grass energy, adding 3 furious fists eevees, 2 plasma umbreon(with +20 HP ability), and 1 plasma Leafeon, and 2 Cassius, among other adjustments, it managed to beat Virgen, How's that for a tech?

Great blueprint, MTC! If you want, you can modify it if you think it's a good idea to do so!
Click to expand...

We don't use Tier 1.5 anymore. It's just not necessary, what with us already having 3 Tiers to work with. And if you'd like to discuss the Tiers of a deck, please use the Tier Discussion thread.

That seems like a lot of stuff to put in the deck just to beat Vir/Gen. That stuff wouldn't be all that helpful against other match ups, especially not playing an Ace Spec. That's really gotta hurt. The Cassius don't even seem particularly helpful against Vir/Gen. I will, however, add Umbreon and Leafeon to the techs section, as Umbreon is a good Pyroar counter, and Leafeon is great against Seismitoad.
 
I think any of the Plasma Eeveelutions are good additions (Well except for Jolteon). Glaceon is one I've been seeing pop up in a few plasma matches. It seems like a good idea since it helps with the hefty retreat costs while providing an obligatory Pyroar counter (which Vaporeon can be good for too).
 
Losing Prism and Blend energies to the rotation really hurt Plasma variants, especially TDK and Aromatisse. While it is possible to run the deck with Rainbow and basic energies, it just doesn't have the same consistency. I plan on keeping my TDK deck together from last format, with a few adjustments to run in Extended if I'm lucky enough to make day two of regionals.

Plasma's still pretty strong though, even with this loss. I think the Eeveelution centered decks should be given their own thread since they're functionally very different from "Big Basics" style decks like TDK and Lugia. Using basic energy is annoying, but Professor's Letter makes them easier to search out. These decks are also heavy on items like Plasma Ball, Colress Machine and Switch, and are thus crippled by Seismitoad, and with the exception of the Eeveelutions deck don't have a hard counter to fall back on. On the other hand, Toad is really Plasma's only bad matchup, especially for TDK. Kyruem can one-shot an opposing Landorus-EX with ease, and ditto with Deoxys against Mewtwo. Thundurus' Fighting weakness is a problem, but between Kyurem and Lugia you should be ahead on the prize trade.
 
An idea for Lugia decks, Cofagrigus. There are times when you're 10 or 20 damage short of a KO, this should solve that problem.
 
Cyclist_BE said:
Whats best? To put up 3 thundurus EX and 2 lugia EX? Or put up 3 lugia EX and 2 thundurus EX?
Click to expand...
IMO, I'd would not want 3 Thundurus EXs in my deck given the popularity of F deck types right now.
 
I'm trying out two new Plasma Decks (playtcg so money isn't an issue for me). One is a Genesect/Deoxys while the other is Kyurem/Deoxys/Beartic.

Here's my Genesect/Deoxys list.

Pokemon 14

4 Deoxys EX
3 Genesect EX
2 Thunderus EX
1 Virizion EX
2/2 Leafeon

Trainers 33

3 Skyla
4 Juniper
4 N
2 Colress
2 Plasma Grunt
2 Shadow Triad
1 Lysandre
1 Pokemon Fan Club
1 G Scope
2 Ultra Ball
2 Plasma Ball
3 Muscle Band
2 Colress Machine
2 M Phone
2 Switch

Energy 13

5 Grass
4 Plasma
4 Rainbow

You're essentially combining the best aspects of Plasma Decks and Genesect Decks. G Scope is kind of weird, and I wouldn't blame anyone for taking it out for the better G Booster or another ace spec, but it's something I wanted to try. And for what it is, it's not bad. It's excellent against Garbodor and can maybe finish something off on the bench that has been softened up with Thundurus or Megalo Cannon snipe. Team Plasma Grunt has proven to be a really nice draw supporter. While Cheren is less situational, the one extra card drawn from grunt makes a lot of difference. And considering the deck has 24 plasma cards not counting the 2 grunts, it's not often when you have nothing to draw.

I had a pretty good game with the deck too. Opponent was playing some kind of Darkrai/Garbodor deck with several hammers. The hammers did a number on me at the start, but I managed to get some cheap hits in with Leafeon and Thundurus. This set up a huge four prize megalo cannon where I took down two Darkrai’s at once (which is what the deck aims to do). From there, it was pretty much over for my opponent.

As for the other deck

Pokemon 15

3 Deoxys EX
3 Kyurem
3-3 Beartic (Plasma Storm)
1 Thundurus EX
1 Jirachi EX
1 Keldeo EX

Trainers 32
4 Juniper
4 N
2 Colress
2 Lysandre
1 Pokemon Fan Club
3 Ultra Ball
2 Plasma Ball
3 Colress Machine
3 Muscle Band
2 M Phone
3 Float Stone
1 Computer Search
2 Frozen City

Energy 13

5 Water
4 Plasma
4 Rainbow

Essentially, a Deoxys/Kyurem deck with Beartic. Beartic has an outrage style attack that does 20 times the number of damage counters on him. Combined with Deoxys and Muscle damage, this can add up quickly. Rainbow energy and Frozen City are great ways of putting damage counters on Beartic to make him angrier (when you put an energy on Cubchou before evolving) in addition to serving their normal uses. I did end up losing my first game with the deck, but I made changes which is what you see here (mainly the Keldeo/Float stone engine for retreating).
 
Lysandre's Trump Card is very good in these kinds of decks. I use it to get plasma energy back in the deck to use Colress Machine.

I don't see M Manectric being that good with Plasma Kyurem, but I don't see it being bad either so it might be worth a shot.
 
Aviste said:
What about M Manectric/ Plasma Kyurem? Would this work
Click to expand...

I've actually seen a lot of people run M Manectric / Kyurem / Black Kyurem EX. It seems pretty solid except for the Donphan matchup...
 
Aviste said:
That's what the kyurems are for. Can I post a deck list here for it?
Click to expand...
Do Kyurems really turn the Donphan matchup? I haven't tested it but it seems like they wouldn't help that much.


You may post a sample decklist for others. If you are looking for deck help then you should post in the Deck Garage.
 
We'll kyurem/deoxys only truly helps if you have 2-3 Lysandres and vs seekers. And maybe a black wall....
 
Camoclone said:
Aviste said:
That's what the kyurems are for. Can I post a deck list here for it?
Click to expand...
Do Kyurems really turn the Donphan matchup? I haven't tested it but it seems like they wouldn't help that much.


You may post a sample decklist for others. If you are looking for deck help then you should post in the Deck Garage.
Click to expand...

Yes. With Lysandre, the easy bench damage, and OHKOing all safeguarders, Kyurem is a big threat to Donphan. It swings the matchup 75-25.
 
Just got the whole deck from a friend and am looking to play this at December's regionals, how would this fare in a meta filled with Donphan, Virgen and Night march?
 
THIRTEEN said:
Just got the whole deck from a friend and am looking to play this at December's regionals, how would this fare in a meta filled with Donphan, Virgen and Night march?
Click to expand...

We'll donphan is why I run 3 Lysandres it work better with lugia to get 2 prizes off of donphan and kyurem/absol is good for the safeguarders.
Virgen I'm not sure about yet. Night march isn't that competitive and basically knock out the joltiks and mew can't do anything. Also use 1 Lysandres trump card. Also it gets you back plasma energy.
 
You don't need 3 Lysandres considering that you play with VS Seeker.

Edit: Also, what good techs are there against Pyroar?
 
THIRTEEN said:
You don't need 3 Lysandres considering that you play with VS Seeker.
Click to expand...
3 Lysandres can be quite useful at times considering the Item-lock decks you might encounter.

THIRTEEN said:
Edit: Also, what good techs are there against Pyroar?
Click to expand...
I use Kyurem (PF) to KO the Litleos and Glaceon (PF) to KO Pyroars.



Btw, is anyone running Target Whistle yet? It's amazing in this deck, IMO if you are running Lugia EX too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top