Standard Rogue Moles ( LoT Alolan Dugtrio with 0 energies)

[DATfairy]

This started out as a joke mostly, but I found that when it works it is hilarious.
Basically you attack for free and use energy removal to aim for those sweet 2 hit KO's.
It will never win any official tournaments, but its a funny roguedeck and getting concedes from Celesaur, Pikarom and Zoro-variants because of stacking shrine damage, angry moles hitting for 60+30+shrines, and energy removal makes it worth the risk for me.

List Explanation:

Lost Thunder Dugtrio hits for 60 damage for free. thats 90 with a choice band, 120 with all 3 dhelmise up, 140 with kukui. This deck is tailored to grab 2 hit KO's. To make the KO's easier we naturally play a full set of 4 shrines.

To get the kills reliably we need some disruption. To that end we have the standard 4 crushing/2 enhanced hammer, we have a copy of plumeria for those moments where THAT energy over there really needs to go NOW and THIS TURN.

Draw engine of 4 cynthia and 3 lillie and a single erika for late game. Kukui is there in case you are just a tiny but short of grabbing a K.O, Jasmine is there in case you start 2nd so you can grab a full house of moles quickly and painlessly. You also have the option to grab Marshadow if you either have a very weak hand or when you know your opponent has a key-piece in their hand and it needs to go ( like when alolan vulpix grabs its evo and you know your opponent has some big bad rare candy mons in his/her hand)

If you happen to go first ( or 2nd in a situation where you do not have jasmine in hand nor the bikes to try and dig for it a bit), you have 4 nest balls for a combo of moles and dhelmise of your choosing, 2 timer balls and 4 ultra balls to grab the dugtrio's.

A set of 4 guzma, a Tate and Liza and a switch should prevent you from being stuck with Dhelmise in the active for very long.

4 rescue stretcher and 1 copy of aether foundation employee allow you to both cycle your dugtrio's with ease and to give you the option to aggressively use ultra ball in the early stages while recovering discarded mons.

What this deck does:

*Setup is relatively easy
* disrupts pretty well
* grabs the 2 hit KO's on bigger pokes ( I was surprised by how many Pikarom and Celesaur variants this deck actually manages to take down).
*People might actually hate you for it
*If your opponent plays a slow deck, he or she will lose.

Where this deck struggles:

*The amount of switching options is limited, thus a nicely timed guzma on a Dhelmise slows you down hard.
*This deck cannot keep up with cards that constantly heal themselves with max potions or fully looped acerola.
*Playing against non-GX decks requires careful thinking since you lose your single price attacker advantage ( that said, you WILL destroy all possible garchomp/lucario variants if played right).
*Decks that constantly recycle energy will make your life a lot harder. Not impossible, but it does make your disruption a lot weaker ( malamar and naganadel are the bane of my existance)

THE LIST

****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******

##Pokémon - 12

* 2 Alolan Diglett SUM 86
* 2 Alolan Diglett LOT 122
* 4 Alolan Dugtrio LOT 123
* 3 Dhelmise GRI 59
* 1 Marshadow SLG 45

##Trainer Cards - 48

* 1 Plumeria BUS 120
* 1 Professor Kukui SUM 128
* 1 Tate & Liza CES 166
* 4 Rescue Stretcher GRI 130
* 3 Lillie SUM 147
* 2 Enhanced Hammer GRI 124
* 2 Timer Ball SUM 134
* 3 Acro Bike PRC 122
* 4 Shrine of Punishment CES 143
* 1 Switch SUM 160
* 4 Nest Ball SUM 123
* 4 Cynthia UPR 119
* 4 Guzma BUS 115
* 4 Ultra Ball SUM 135
* 4 Crushing Hammer SUM 115
* 3 Choice Band GRI 121
* 1 Jasmine TEU 145
* 1 Aether Foundation Employee LOT 168
* 1 Erika’s Hospitality TEU 140

##Energy - 0


Total Cards - 60

****** Deck List Generated by the Pokémon TCG Online www.pokemon.com/TCGO ******

What do I ask of you, pokebeach users:

I am not a stellar deckbuilder. I have a simple goal with this deck: Troll with free dugtrio attacks while disrupting enough to grab 2 hit KO's while cycling through my moles. And to do this as consistently as possible. Is this list the best I can do or can it be better, more consistent? And is 4 stretcher + employee overkill on pokemon recovery and should I cut some of them out of my list in favor of other options?

Stuff I considered:

* Add Tapu Lele. Decided against this because I felt a constant stream of single price attackers was a great plus, and shrine would burn my own leles.
* Add team skull grunt. Felt it was a big gamble, especially because I already run hammers and preferred plumeria's reliability.
*Add some Jirachi. Could help with the setup, but would probably require a few copies of it and a few escape boards, cluttering the list. Not to mention they are pretty expensive right now.

 

[FourteenAlmonds]

What is your preferred starting supporter? I see both Lillie and Jasmine here, both of which have a turn 1 benefit.

 

[NaganadelIsBeast]

Seems like a fun deck. Can’t try it though because I don’t have some key cards, like Dhelmise, Marshadow, missing a copy of Alolan Dugtrio, but I guess that’s it. Some suggestions:

-2 Timer Ball, not reliable enough
-2 in any combination of Aether Foundation Employee and Rescue Stretcher, you shouldn’t reserve 5 spots for Pokémon recycling, 3 is more than enough
-1 Jasmine, only good on first turn, and you have enough Pokémon search and Retrieval already
-1 Tate & Liza, Items have same function, and Cynthia is better

I reccomend adding 2 Jirachi, 2 Escape Board, and 2 Switch

Just what I think can make this deck better.

 

[rewster1]

It's hard to improve it too much when there is an obvious performance ceiling here. However a single jasmine with no leles gives you maybe a 13% chance of hitting it. Plus it's just outright better to go first so that 60 base damage can occasionally take out your opponent's unevolved starter. Also I don't know what celesaurs you are playing against, but I never get a concede because of shrine... they play 5 stadiums, and heal constantly with gardenia and shaymin. Unless you have been seeing more of the parasect or lurantis aggressive versions. Your base damage is completely mopped up just by three benched shaymins, so I think you'd need alolan muk or (*beats dead horse*) heal block lunatone to shut them down. Or if you had a way to recycle hammers, that might be good.

I think I would do
-1 jasmine
-2 rescue stretcher
-1 aether foundation employee
-1 tate and liza
-3 acro bike
-2 timer ball
-2 enhanced hammer
+2 oranguru ULP
+4 looker
+2 looker whistle
+2 any basic energy (or counter gain if you want to stick with a no energy meme/theme).

This would allow you to really double down on hammers since you could looker them back repeatedly (along with recycling the lookers). It also means you can worry less about going down to just 2 stretchers, since you have another recovery option, and gives you more overall draw. If you use the e-hammers often, leave them in and take out a shrine and a band since you now can get those back too if needed.

Still doesn't give you a win con against malamar or naga quag, but it could help some matchups.

 

[ninetales1234]

With no Tapu Lele GX, I'd consider a Magcargo/Oranguru engine, or maybe even forget the Oranguru and up the number of Kukui to add damage but also get Smoother Over'd cards immediately.

 

[Nyora]

Now that Unbroken Bonds is out, you have access to more disruption. It takes away from your power and adds more cards, but holy crap is it ever disruption
. Of course, I’m talking about Lucario & Melmetal-GX. You’ll need Energy, DCE specifically, but lucametal does 2 things. It reduces damage, which combined with one of the Metal tools, is a -60, for 150 to OHKO Dugtrio. This doesn’t sound very hard, correct? But lucametal also discards all Energy attached to your opponent’s Active, which again, may not seem like a huge deal. After all, your opponent can easily save Energy right? That’s where Skull Grunt comes in. A powerful combo would be to pull off putting up Lucametal, Skull Grunt, and Metal Goggles on dugtrio. This disrupts so much of your opponent’s energy. If you are able to play a Marshadow at any time, it makes it even harder to refcover from. And of course, while your opponent recovers, Alolan Dugtrio is dishing out 60-90-110 damage a turn, with Shrine damage. (Watch out, as Lucametal also takes Shrine Damage. If your reaallly worried, you can play Acerola, as it can not only deny KOs on lucametal, but even possibly Dugtrio.)
I hope that all helps!!! Honestly I feel the damage part of this deck is outclassed by Caturday, but as far as disruption goes I prefer Alolan Dugtrio (even though Litten’s Big Bite is amazing for offensive disruption.)