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Alt. Format Post Rotation Sylveon GX/Silvally GX Coverage Deck (WIP)

Duo

RIP Nessa 2023
Member
Hello all. Let me start by dropping the list

Pokemon x17

Sylveon GX x3
Eevee x4
Silvally GX x3
Type Null x4
Tapu Lele GX x3

Supporter x14

Cynthia x4
Sightseer x4
Guzma x3
Pokemon Fanclub x2
Acerola x1

Item x17

Ultra Ball x4
Nest Ball x4
Psychic Memory x3
Fighting Memory x2
Fire Memory x2
Adventuring Satchel x2

Energy x12

Fairy Energy x8
DCE x4

This is very much a prototype list still, but it covers the bases for discussion moving into the next rotation.

Right now, there are a handful of decks that are pretty much guaranteed going to see play. I'd say these decks are the following, in no particular order:

1. Rayquaza GX/Zeraora GX
2. Naganadel GX/Stakataka GX
3. Malamar variants
4. Zoroark GX variants

This deck aims to have OHKO coverage over all 4 of these deck types.

Sylveon GX can OHKO any Dragon Types, which covers Ultra Necrozma GX and Rayquaza GX.

Access to Silvally's Memory mechanic allows you to OHKO the following:

Psychic Memory: All psychic attackers such as Nagandel GX (even with 3 Stakataka GX in play) and Necrozma GX. Also OHKOs Buzzwole GX, though Buzzwole OHKOs you in return.
Fighting Memory: Zeraora GX and Zoroark GX
Fire Memory: Stakataka GX, Dusk Mane Necrozma GX, and Genesect GX.

Outside of decks that Sylveon and Silvally can't particularly cover, such as perhaps Gardevoir or grass decks like Shiftry GX, there is the back up plan in the form of Necrozma GX + Tapu Lele. Between Black Ray GX and Magical Swap, it is possible to take massive prize advantage and momentum from your opponent regardless of what they play (assuming they have at least 4 or 5 GX Pokemon in play).

Regardless of all of this, Sylveon GX/Silvally GX will still stand as a fairly decent 2 hit KO deck that is made very consistent by Silvally GX's free retreat for basics and Sylveon GX's Magical Ribbon for hard search and guaranteed board state progression.

The general mindset of the deck is as follows:

Turn 1: Do whatever it takes to get a Sylveon GX in play through Ultra Ball + Lele + Fan Club + Nest Ball for Eevee and attaching Fairy energy to search it out. Also get at least 1 Type: Null in place. If you are going second, then go ahead and Magical Ribbon for a DCE, Silvally GX, and whichever Memory will help you best in your current match up. Magical Ribbon is the reason why you can run thin counts of the most relevant Memories and still guarantee to see them every match.

Turn 2: Evolve up to Silvally GX and choose to attach your DCE wherever most relevant. If you're facing Dragon, attach the DCE to Sylveon GX and swing for an OHKO. If not, attach to Silvally GX and wait for turn 3. If you went first and could not magical Ribbon on T1, then this is the turn you would Magical Ribbon and hopefully also perhaps have even evolved up to Silvally GX and attached a Fairy Energy to it already.

Turn 3: By turn 3, you should, at minimum have a Sylveon GX in play and a Silvally GX in play, and one of them will be ready to attack for an OHKO capitalizing on your opponent's Pokemon weaknesses. Optimally you should have at least 1 Fairy Energy in discard as well in case your attacker is Silvally GX who can accelerate energy onto other Pokemon at the same time.

**Thanks to Silvally GX's ability, you should ALWAYS make sure you leave your active Pokemon as a basic. This will allow you to more easily switch into the active with Sylveon GX that was evolved on the bench if you didn't manage to start it in the active.

I think this is a cute rogue deck that, even in the mirror match, could take OHKOs with Fighting Memory on opposing Silvally GX.

Thoughts always welcome. This deck is very much a 1st draft.


EDIT1: Removed Lillie in order to make room for 3 Psychic Memory. Due to Buzzwole GX's popularity and the potential popularity of Naganadel GX, I think this deck just needs a slightly heavier focus on the Psychic end. This focus can change as the meta changes. T1 Lillie will occasionally grant you advantages when you end up setting up with Nest Ball, but you are going to be doing T1 Fan Club in most of your games.
 
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~~May I ask why there are no tapu lele gx’s in this list~~

Ignore, im blind
 
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actual question, how do you feel about using the new alolan ninetails in this deck. IMO it seems like a much better attacker than sylveon, with a great GX and a great ability to boot.
 
No for a few reasons.

1. Alolan Ninetales can't search out energy to guarantee the DCE for either of your attackers. This deck's main flaw is its reliance on DCE which is only a 4 of in the deck at best which hurts consistency, and there is no more special charge. Magical Ribbon solves this by making sure you have a DCE early while you play draw supporters to find the rest later in the game. I have considered playing Diantha and purposefully letting a Sylveon GX get KO'd so that I can recover a DCE. It doesn't seem like a good play though.

2. Alolan Ninetales can't benefit from the speed of Energy Evolution Eevee to get T1 evolutions, both for evolving your basics quickly to prevent them from getting OHKO'd, and so that you can Magical Ribbon immediately T1 going second.

3. Energy Evolution Eevee makes it so that the 8 Fairy energy you run ultimately act as 8 more "Ultra Balls" that search Sylveon GX out of your deck. This adds a level of consistency and speed that Alolan Ninetales doesn't have in terms of getting set up. You have to Beacon to find your Pokemon, which expends your attack for turn at least once early on, just the same as Magical Ribboning.

4. Alolan Ninetales GX needs Choice Band to OHKO UNGX and Ray GX. When I'm already running 6 Memory Cards, I really don't want to have to add 2-3 more Choice Band on top.

5. Even though it's basic energy, Alolan Ninetales GX still takes 2 turns of attachments to attack, and you still have to run DCE in the deck to make Silvally GX servicable. DCE is really awkward on Alolan Ninetales, although it still works.

6. Plea GX is better than KOing an Ultra Beast when you already have a Pokemon that can take OHKOs with a GX attack. This deck is designed to OHKO meta relevant Ultra Beasts without needing the GX, but in case you do, Rebel GX on Silvally GX covers you for if you need to swing for 200+ without memory. With 5 Pokemon in play, you can even OHKO Naganadel GX with 4 Stakataka GX in play, and the nature of that deck is to have a full bench in general due to Naganadel GX's 1 energy attack. I see no need for 2 OHKO GX attacks in the deck when I can instead run an OHKO and a utility GX attack.

An example situation of Plea GX being useful: Rayquaza GX set up amazingly well and has 2 Rayquaza GX in play with 3 energy a piece, with or without wishful baton on them. Taking a KO on one would still guarantee a counter KO on you next turn and you would lose the battle of momentum. So instead, you Plea GX the 2 Rayquaza GX away (Guzma if needed), removing 180 damage from Ray GX immediately from the field, both threats, and forcing your opponent to make the decision to mill 3 cards when playing down Ray GX again if they want to get caught back up.

Another potentially good situation is to just simply Plea GX away 2 Malamars in a Malamar deck and force your opponent to have to spend 1-2 turns to get them back in play again.

7. Magical Ribbon can be used repeatedly while Alolan Ninetales' ability is a once per evolution. If your opponent is setting up slow, you can Magical Ribbon twice to make sure they can't steal momentum back from you later.

Now, having ability based searching is better than search on attack, but you really are allowed to attack for 0 damage at least 1 turn of the set up phase and be okay. The main concern for me is the inability to guarantee your 4 DCE on the first attacker early on. That's really the main deal breaker for me. Even if you search our your memory and something like nest ball to set up more Pokemon, if you don't have the energy to go with it, you're still a turn behind. There's also the fact that Magical Ribbon can search your draw supporters or your Guzmas and establish a level of control without forcing you to search Ultra Ball off Alolan Ninetales to consume a bench space with Lele to do the exact same job.

I think Alolan Ninetales (fairy) has a place, but I'm not certain it's this deck. I think it benefits Stage 2 decks more than Stage 1s.
 
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I like that you're balls deep into Silvally now! You and i have some similar taste in deck mechanic interests.

I'd probably agree with you that while Alolan Ninetales Pink Edition is pretty cool, its main attack is weak and its search ability isn't as OP as it looks, it doesn't belong here. Though that GX attack swing you back into a winning direction in a lot of instances. Overall, It would require a 2/2 line that would end up being inconsistent and you've got too many other priorities in the deck to have it in there. Now, if we moved this entire deck over to fairy, added Diantha, drop Silvally completely...

The above list looks fine, but my personal tweaks:

-Move the fire memory and put it into a flex category.
-Would probably add in 1 Acerola because its just too good imo (save your prizes/DCE). Though i know you've got your tin foil hat on in prep for the OHKO meta coming.
-Tapu lele GX down to 2 since you've got Sylveon or find a way to add in Diantha because you can Tapu that out and grab from your discard pile and get DCE back.
-How often do you see yourself pulling off a Tapu lele + Necrozma Bray combo, is this really a backup?
-Field blower x1 because choice bands hurt, and if youre lucky you can remove 2 or 1 and a stadium. I expect more Altars and more Ultra Spaces.
 
Admittedly I was very 50/50 about fire memory at first, but Naganadel GX/Stakataka GX is the main reason why I decided to keep fire for now. If you OHKO a Naganadel GX with Psychic Memory, you give your opponent access to Beast Ring to make Stakataka GX a viable 2 hit KO attacker immediately. The Psychic Memory you just used is now working against you, and if there are enough Stakataka GX in play, you will actually need 3 hits to KO (120 - 20 resistance, -20 more from two Stakataka GX in play = 80 damage for 3 hit KOs needed) vs Stakataka GX's 2 hit KO. No fire memory in deck means that you will just straight up lose to any Stakataka based decks, and that's not acceptable to me when Naganadel GX/Stakataka GX is looking like the best 2 hit KO deck next rotation.

I'm not sure about Diantha because I expect to use Silvally GX as an attacker just as often as Sylveon GX. I don't want to play a conditional when my main attacker might not always be fairy.

The Necrozma + Lele strategy was just thrown in because the deck has the energy typing to do it. In hind sight, it honestly can't be set up gracefully at all.

Field Blower actually needs to be included in the list to help with situations mentioned above - I want to be able to Field Blower my own Pokemon Tools to switch Memory if needed and I don't have a 2nd Silvally GX.

In a rush to get this post done so sorry to kind of gloss over the other things you mentioned, but for now I'll remove the Necrozma + Lele strategy and think about what I can put in to fill the spots.
 
Alrighty, so now that we know Adventuring Satchel is going to be a thing, let's fudge this list a bit.

The 2 Necrozma GX + 1 Tapu Lele strategy is realistically just not going to happen in many games. The number of turns it takes to get the GX attack off and then Magical Swap is just...way too slow in this deck.

We can very easily replace those 2 Necrozma GX with 2 Adventuring Satchel, allowing Sylveon GX to search it out, and letting Adventuring Satchel search us out two types of memory.

This is useful for things like versus Naganadel/Stakataka GX where you would want one Psychic and one Fire, just to make sure you can't get walled by one or the other.

Lastly, we can use that 1 Tapu Lele spot for an Acerola. As OHKO heavy as the upcoming format is, at the end of the day you're not going to be playing games where OHKOs are the only thing ever happening. Ray GX takes time to snowball, Malamar decks need time to reach OHKO amounts of energy, etc etc. People are going to be swinging for 2 hit KOs just to apply pressure if the situation calls for it. Play an Acerola, save a life, and save a DCE.
 
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