Expanded Post-BUS: Necrozma-GX/Dusknoir/Wobbuffet

[Perfect_Shot]

Thought up a cute little concept based off using Necrozma-GX's Black Ray GX attack - with it, you aim to punish EX/GX heavy decks with a Black Ray followed by usage of Dusknoir's (BCR) Sinister Hand and Wobbuffet's Psychic Assault to end games as early as the second turn. Here's the list.

Pokemon - 16

3 Necrozma GX
3 Duskull bus
1 Dusclops bus
3 Dusknoir bcr
3 Wobbuffet phf
2 Oricorio
1 Shaymin EX


Supporters - 10

4 Professor Sycamore
3 N
2 Guzma
1 Pokemon Ranger


Items - 19

4 VS Seeker
4 Ultra Ball
3 Rare Candy
2 Muscle Band
2 Switch
2 Field Blower
1 Computer Search
1 Super Rod


Stadiums - 4

4 Dimension Valley


Energy - 11

7 Psychic Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy


With this deck, the plan is to go second and use Dimension Valley to get a quick Black Ray GX off, ideally hitting 3+ EX/GX for 100 damage each. The turn after, moving 70 or 80 damage from one of them to another with Sinister Hand will usually be enough for a knockout, and the 100 damage on the other will often be enough for Wobbuffet to come in and get another 2 prizes using Psychic Assault. If the opponent has 3 EX/GX in play at the time Black Ray is used 4 quick prizes can be taken on the next turn, and possibly more depending on the HP totals of the affected Pokemon. The more Shaymin-EX they have, the easier winning will be.

Oricorio is here for backup against the likes of Night March and Vespiquen/Flareon. Guzma is used over Lysandre because of the emphasis on switching out after using Black Ray GX. Lastly, the relatively large 3-1-3 Dusknoir line is to help make sure the card is set up as soon as possible and to minimize the chance of it being prized, as it is the key card of the deck.

It shouldn't need to be stated that decks that run limited 2 prize attackers that aren't Night March or Vespiquen absolutely destroy this deck. Luckily, EX decks such as Turbo Dark are all the rage in Expanded, and the hope is it stays that way.

Anyways, that's the story. Feel free to comment, and enjoy!

 

[Shiv Luthra]

Alright , I'm on board with any deck that uses Dusknoir and I also like the new Necrozma. Just a few things I would recommend:

1. Thin the Dusknoir line. I think 3-1-3 is a bit excessive and you could get away with 2-1-2 even with the reasoning you mention. At least test it with a thinner line and see how it goes.
2. I personally favor Float Stone over Switch since I don't think you'd be attaching Muscle Band to anything other than Wobb
3. While it doesn't really work with the strategy you're trying to do (with the two turn win and all) Skyla's always nice for Stage 2 decks letting you search for Candy, Ultra Ball, etc.
4. GARBODOR. Everything's psychic weak so you're just going to get demolished by any Garb deck. I don't really have a way around this...maybe have some other Stage 1 attacker like Raichu or Zoroark and be REALLY conservative with items.

 

[Perfect_Shot]

Thanks for the reply!

As for the points, the Dusknoir line is something I do indeed plan to test when Burning Shadows drops, but I want to wait to have the whole deck in hand (or on PTCGO) before playing with the list.

Float Stone is something I considered, I personally prefer Switch but yeah, I will try it.

The Skyla thing is a good point, but again, something that I'll need to test.

As for Garbodor, I don't think it will be nearly as good in Expanded as it is in Standard. It was built predominantly to defeat 2 prize decks (Which this deck is) but many Expanded decks have 1 prize attackers that simply trade better than Garbodor can (Night March, Vespi/Flareon) or have some way to hamper it while doing solid damage (Trevenant BREAK). This deck theoretically can beat Night March or Vespiquen, and the hope is that those decks 'trash' Garbodor before I have to deal with it.

Either way, without completely ripping the whole concept of the deck apart, I can't really act against Garbodor itself. The plan was in that scenario to target down the GX attackers it uses it wall while they set up and prize a number of them, or use Oricorio's Revelation Dance with Muscle Band to knock out the Trubbishes before they evolve.

 

[Shiv Luthra]

Either way, without completely ripping the whole concept of the deck apart, I can't really act against Garbodor itself. The plan was in that scenario to target down the GX attackers it uses it wall while they set up and prize a number of them, or use Oricorio's Revelation Dance with Muscle Band to knock out the Trubbishes before they evolve.

That is true. I feel that if Expanded Garb decks we're the same as Standard, this deck would have an okay shot at winning since Necrozma shuts down the initial attackers like Tauros and Drampa and then you can manually attach for Prismatic Burst. Espeon/Garb is another story but Expanded Garb decks don't really play either Drampa or Espeon, they play Tool Drop Trubbish which decimates Necrozma. Oricorio would be vital against these Tool Drop decks so if they're popular at the time you play this, I would even consider playing 3.

I agree that you can't put in a counter without ruining everything this deck tries to do. The deck is very feast or famine depending on how many EX/GX you're opponent puts down. If you want to eventually rip the whole concept of the deck apart you could go for Metagross-GX, with a Psychic resistance and a way to power up Necrozma's first attack.

Other cards to consider testing would be Team Magma's Secret Base to put more damage on the board (you then may need Max Elixir to get Black Ray ASAP which would probably make the deck less consistent) and also Target Whistle to repeat prizes on Shaymin or whatever else.

 

[Perfect_Shot]

I agree that you can't put in a counter without ruining everything this deck tries to do. The deck is very feast or famine depending on how many EX/GX you're opponent puts down. If you want to eventually rip the whole concept of the deck apart you could go for Metagross-GX, with a Psychic resistance and a way to power up Necrozma's first attack.

Yeah, you're completely right on that one. I feel that if I was going to pull part of the deck out, it would be the Dusknoir line and the Rare Candy associated with it. Doing so frees up 10 slots, which I could use to up the Wobbuffet count to 4, and possibly add a couple of Shining Mew/Rayquaza for quick Energy acceleration for more reliable Prismatic Bursts, and possibly Mewtwo-GX for a solid ohko GX attack.

Going that route, the goal of the deck doesn't change too much - while I lose the turn 2 win potential (which is very reliant on the opponent being gullible anyways) I can still do the Black Ray plan and instead of moving the damage around, I can just bring in Wobbuffet to knock the targets out one by one with Psychic Assault. With either choice of Energy acceleration, I can use Prismatic Burst more often and easily, which is a huge bonus. I can make a good case for Shining Mew, even with it's low HP, it either forces my opponent to Lysandre up my acceleration target, or take the one prize from the Mew and watch me take two on my turn. Grabbing Energy from the deck is also pretty great.

As for Mewtwo, it provides a strong single Energy attacker and can get ohkos to close out the game after Wobbuffet cleans up.

 

[Perfect_Shot]

A quick bump, and some things I wanted to mention with the Ban List being updated.

With Forest of Giant Plants and Archeops gone, some ways to prevent the quick setup of Dusknoir are now gone. This is great news, as if the deck ends up being less clunky than I think it will be, this will make executing this strategy much more consistent.

As for the Dusknoir-less concept, with the added slots I could add my own Garbodor line, but I would like to see the original concept in action before I make such an adjustment. Only a few weeks until SM3 is out.