Standard Rubbish Heap (Muk & Alolan Muk GX / Seviper / Nihilego)

[Dark Espeon]

RUBBISH HEAP

Pokémon (10):

• 4 Muk & Alolan Muk GX (beatdown)
• 2 Nihilego SM8 (beatdown)
  
• 4 Seviper SM8b (enable)

Trainer (38):

• 3 Bill's Analysis (search)
• 3 Guzma (control)
• 4 Cynthia (draw)
• 4 Lillie (draw)
• 4 Mysterious Treasure (search)
• 2 Field Blower (discard)
  
• 3 Buff Padding (enable)
• 4 Energy Lotto (search)
• 4 Nest Ball (search)
• 3 Switch (retreat)
• 4 Dust Island (disable)

Energy (12):

• 4 Double Colorless Energy
• 8 Psychic Energy

STRATEGY:

Start with Muk and Alolan Muk GX and bench two Seviper. Next turn use Severe Poison to poison the opponent. Make sure the status effect sticks with Dust Island and increase it's effectiveness with Seviper. Switch between Severe Poison and Poison Absorption to heal Muk and Alolan Muk GX.

SPOILER:

Muk & Alolan Muk GX
Basic Psychic Pokémon
HP: 270
[P][C][C] Severe Poison
Your opponent’s active Pokémon is now poisoned. Put 8 damage counters instead of 1 on that Pokémon between turns.
[P][C][C][C] Poison Absorption: 120
If your opponent’s active Pokémon is poisoned, heal 100 damage from this Pokémon.
[.]+ Sticky Mix GX
Your opponent’s active Pokémon is now poisoned and paralyzed. If this Pokémon has 4 or more energy attached to it, put 15 damage counters instead of 1 on that Pokémon between turns for poison.
Retreat Cost: CCCC
Weakness: P

Dust Island
Trainer - Stadium
When a player switches their poisoned active Pokémon with the effect of a trainer card, their new active Pokémon is now poisoned. If there is an effect that alters the amount of damage counters taken from poison, that effect carries over as well.

 

[Lord Goomy]

3 Dust Island should be, in my opinion, sufficient.

 

[iGeek256]

Try having an Alolan Muk - SM, in order to counter decks with poison resistants cards like Cobalion GX

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi Lord Goomy,

Thanks for the review. Since most decks in the local meta run three stadium cards themselves I like to have four Dust Island in this deck since it is vital to the tactic of this deck.

Hi iGeek256,

Thanks for the review. On the one hand I like the idea to use Alolan Muk to shut down Zeraora GX and Giratina since those are two weaknesses to this deck. However it conflicts with Seviper and I am not sure that the deck works well without them to boost the poison damage between turns. Is there any alternative assistance Pokémon that works with Alolan Muk and Muk & Alolan Muk GX?

 

[AntiYouJD]

Try having an Alolan Muk - SM, in order to counter decks with poison resistants cards like Cobalion GX

That would also turn off Seviper's Ability, which would be counterproductive.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi AntiYouJD,

Thanks for the review. While Alolan Muk turns off Seviper it would alo turn off Zeraora GX and Giratina which seem to hurt the deck. This raises the question whether there is an additional partner for Muk & Alolan Muk GX other than Seviper that would work with the tactic of this deck and Alolan Muk alike. Any ideas here?

 

[jinjitsu]

In theory, something like Alolan Dugtrio to prevent retreat could be possible. It isn't turned off by Alolan Muk but it's a stage 1 and could be very clunky to add in the deck.

 

[OppositeAttract]

Considering you play only psychics maybe run 4 mysterious treasure. Also some counts (not sure how many) of Koga's Trap might be beneficial to have the option of poisoning a fresh pokemon, heal, without spending a turn doing severe poison.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi jinjitsu,

Thanks for the review. Not sold on Alolan Dugtrio because Alolan Muk solves the free retreat issue Zeraora provides. I was looking for an alternate low cost attacker since it is hard to fit both Alolan Muk and Garbodor into this deck. Any ideas?

Hi OppositeAttract,

Thanks for the review. Took out one Ultra Ball for a fourth Mysterious Treasure. Not sold on Koga's Trap since it is my supporter for the turn and Poison Barb is supposed to enable me to hit and heal a new opposing Pokémon that attacked Muk and Alolan Muk GX.

 

[OppositeAttract]

Hi jinjitsu,

Thanks for the review. Not sold on Alolan Dugtrio because Alolan Muk solves the free retreat issue Zeraora provides. I was looking for an alternate low cost attacker since it is hard to fit both Alolan Muk and Garbodor into this deck. Any ideas?

Hi OppositeAttract,

Thanks for the review. Took out one Ultra Ball for a fourth Mysterious Treasure. Not sold on Koga's Trap since it is my supporter for the turn and Poison Barb is supposed to enable me to hit and heal a new opposing Pokémon that attacked Muk and Alolan Muk GX.

Not sure what type of alternative attackers you'd be looking for but ariados from celestial storm for a colorless does 20+ 50 more for each special condition affecting your opponents active.
Baby espeon from lost thunder does 20 more damage times the energy attached to your opponents pokemon for one psychic.
Nihilego from lost is also a decent one of for its copying effect when the opponent is at 2 prizes.
Lunala prism is also good at accelerating psychic energy back into play for one energy and is a decent one prize attacker if when accelerating from the discard you attach to it.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi OppositeAttract,

Wanted a Basic Pokémon that can attack for one attachment and hit decent numbers for a variant with Alolan Muk from both sets. In a variant with Alolan Muk I would run three Alolan Grimer in addition to one Alolan Muk from SM1 and two Alolan Muk from SM9. Since Seviper conflicts with Alolan Muk SM1 I would also need to find another Basic Pokémon that can take its spot to assist Muk and Alolan Muk GX. I would like to keep the counts close to the one above.

 

[John InCENAroar]

Seeing as how Muk-two TTGX has a really high energy cost, it's probably not going to be active fast enough in a setting where the new mismagius is enabling Counter cards and potentially ushering in a new wave of speed deck. In order to counteract this, may i suggest swapping Garbodor, which does not appear to synergize with the core of this deck at all and serves a s a 1-energy swing tactic, for the Crimson Invasion Mismagius with Chaos Wheel (which, might I mention, can be put out T1 thanks to Dusk Stone). It should, in contrast with a late-game hard-hitter like Garb, Slow down your opponent long enough to get Muk-two online so that you can effectively be in the active spot. Heck, if you wanted, you could have two CW and one of the KO ability, for a T1 bump in resources and Counter Card usability as well. Just a thought.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi John InCENAroar,

Thanks for the review. I see the argument regarding Garbodor and will remove him from this list. I believe that attack cost Muk and Alolan Muk GX is manageable since it costs no more than two attachments with Double Colorless Energy. I modified the list above to include Red's Challenge to search for Double Colorless Energy and to focus more on the status effect theme. I am not that sold on Mismagius from Crimson Invasion since Chaos Wheel does not hit hard enough and he is rather easy to knock out in one hit.