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Alt. Format (SUM-CST) Viquaza: The Next BuluVolt

John InCENAroar

John InCENAroar

Praising the Vish, Praying for Sableye V
Member
Rayquaza was just revealed today, and going off of what I have seen, it'll fall right in line with the same archetype as BuluVolt, just with a Xerneas BREAK type attack. That being said, here's what I have so far:

Pokemon (18):
  • BAEquaza GX (3) (DPS)
Rayquaza-GX – Dragon – HP180
Basic Pokemon

Ability: Angry Gale
When you play this Pokemon from your hand onto your Bench during your turn, you may discard the top 3 cards of your deck. Then, attach a basic Energy card from your discard pile to this Pokemon.

[G]L][C] Dragon Break: 30x damage. This attack does 30 damage times the number of basic [G] and [L] Energy attached to your Pokemon.

[G] Tempest GX: Discard your hand. Then, draw 10 cards. (You can’t use more than 1 GX attack in a game.)

When your Pokemon-GX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Fairy (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3
  • Grubbin (3) (E.A.)
  • Charjabug (1) (E.A.)
  • Vikavolt (3) (E.A.)
  • Alolan Vulpix GUR (2) (G.S.)
  • Tapu Lele GX (2) (G.S.)
  • Dunsparce CST (1) (G.S.)
Dunsparce – Normal – HP50
Basic Pokemon

[C] Strike and Run: Search your deck for up to 3 Basic Pokemon and put them on your Bench. Then, shuffle your deck. If you put any Pokemon on your Bench, you may switch this Pokemon with 1 of your Benched Pokemon.

[C] Sudden Flash: 10 damage. Flip a coin. If heads, your opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Paralyzed.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
  • Tapu Koko SM31 (1) (DPS/G.S.)
  • Dedenne FOL (1) (Tech)
  • Latios SHL (1) (Tech)
  • Latias Prism (1) (E.A.)
Latias Prism Star – Dragon – HP130
Basic Pokemon

You can’t have more than 1 Prism Star card with the same name in your deck. If a Prism Star card would go to the discard pile, put it in the Lost Zone instead.

[C] Dream Mist: 30 damage. Attach a basic Energy card from your discard pile to each of your Benched Basic [N] Pokemon.

Weakness: Fairy (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Trainer (28):
  • Cynthia (3) (Draw)
  • Copycat (2) (Draw)
Copycat – Trainer
Supporter

Shuffle your hand into your deck. Then, draw a number of cards equal to the number of cards in your opponent’s hand.

You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).
  • Guzma (3) (Control)
  • Choice Band (3) (DPS Mod)
  • Rare Candy (3) (Acc.)
  • Energy Recycler (1) (Recovery)
  • Ultra Ball (3) (Search)
  • Devoured Field (3) (DPS Mod)
  • Mysterious Treasure (3) (Search)
  • Field Blower (2) (Control)
  • Acerola (1) (Recovery)
Energy (14):
  • Grass (7)
  • Lightning (7)

When i said this ran similar to BuluVolt, I wasn't lying. Probably because it's effectively what my VikaBulu list would be when updated to the next rotation and replacing the Bulus for Rayquazas. However, I will explain the categories for which I classified cards, and pray that that inadvertently explains why they're there.

Pokemon:
  • DPS: These pokemon are the source of raw damage. They are what takes the knockouts and wins games. Often times, they are the main focus of a deck.
  • Energy Acceleration (E.A.): These pokemon, at some point in the line (often the final stage), provide a great amount of specialized support and are key parts of many strategies, particularly ones that involve discarding or accumulating large amounts of energy.
  • General Support (G.S.): These pokemon are very useful and fill in the gaps left behind by the core strategy. These allow for an otherwise clunky and awkward decks to streamline into success. As a result, they often become rather expensive.
  • Tech: These pokemon don't offer anything to the core strategy, but are useful in a pinch. Kept in small numbers, they are used to counter specific threats in the metagame. For example, Dedenne is a fairy type that increses damage if a lighning pokemon (Tapu Koko, Vikavolt) is on the bench. With a Choice Band, it does 90 damage, which gets Ultra Necrozma down to 10 hp and OHKOs Other Rayquazas due to weakness.
Trainer:
  • Draw: Pretty self explanatory; used to get the player more cards or new cards.
  • Control: Used to manage the opponent's board to improve your conditions for winning.
  • Acceleration (Acc.): Speeds up the actions taken in a game, often referring to evolution.
  • Recovery: Also self explanatory, used to put cards that were previously used back into usability.
  • Search: Self explanatory, used to find certain things in the deck or discard and make them more usable (i.e. into the hand, or close to it)
That should be everything. I think it works fairly well, but I'll have to see. I don't know if it'll be like U. Necrozma and come with really good synergy, better than Vikavolt. If it does, I'll update, but until then this works.
 
Last edited:
A few thoughts for your consideration:

A critical aspect of your deck is to get your bench setup consistently, early and quickly. The 1 Alolan Vulpix, 1 Dedenne, 3 Mysterious Treasure, 1 Pokémon Fan Club and just 2 Ultra Ball seem woefully lacking in trying to achieve this objective. I'd suggest revising your Pokémon search "engine" as follows:

-1 Dedenne - Alolan Vulpix gets more Pokémon than Dedenne for less energy
-1 Pokémon Fan Club - not strongly needed, given other Pokémon search Items
+2 Alolan Vulpix (or +1 Alolan Vulpix and +1 Cynthia)
​
5 card-draw Supporters seem woefully insufficient. Consider increasing the overall count to at 8; or maybe 7, but incorporate Oranguru (Instruct) for supplemental car-draw support.

I hope you find these comments helpful.
 
After consideration, I can agree with some aspects while disagreeing with others. What I agree with is tahat I probably do need another Vulpix, especially without Brigette. This is the first list I've made where it was gone, so I guess I'm still used to it. Will do that, probably in lieu of the Latios. Fan Club is a substitute for the Brigette, which is less effective, but if I grab a vulpix with it and get it in the active, then I could probably manage for a while. Maybe you're right though, and I should put in two more. I refuse to get rid of Dedenne though, since, as outlined in the Tech description, is used to combat the meta, particularly U. Necrozma and Rayquaza when it gets big like i think it will. While it has search capability, in theory, I have no way to use it as such, so it being a potential option as you described cannot happen and was not intended to happen in the first place.
 
John InCENAroar said:
After consideration, I can agree with some aspects while disagreeing with others. What I agree with is tahat I probably do need another Vulpix, especially without Brigette. This is the first list I've made where it was gone, so I guess I'm still used to it. Will do that, probably in lieu of the Latios. Fan Club is a substitute for the Brigette, which is less effective, but if I grab a vulpix with it and get it in the active, then I could probably manage for a while. Maybe you're right though, and I should put in two more. I refuse to get rid of Dedenne though, since, as outlined in the Tech description, is used to combat the meta, particularly U. Necrozma and Rayquaza when it gets big like i think it will. While it has search capability, in theory, I have no way to use it as such, so it being a potential option as you described cannot happen and was not intended to happen in the first place.
Click to expand...
A Banded Electrichain from Dedenne can't OHKO a healthy Ultra Necrozma, but it can OHKO a Rayquaza. Just something worth pointing out.
 
PlatinumDude said:
A Banded Electrichain from Dedenne can't OHKO a healthy Ultra Necrozma, but it can OHKO a Rayquaza. Just something worth pointing out.
Click to expand...
I fully understand this already. Hence why I have included cards such as Latios and baby Koko to pick them off. In the classification section, I even used that interaction as an example. It has the ability to heavily weaken dragon types GXs for a DCE instead of the 7 energy (or 6 w/ mods) that Rayquaza needs, hence why it exists.
 
List updated with the following:
  • Lost
    • 1 Pokemon Fan Club
    • 1 Charjabug
    • 1 Tapu Koko GX
  • Gained
    • 1 Ultra Ball
    • 1 Alolan vulpix
    • 1 Dunsparce
 
I think you cut vulpix in favor of dunsparce. also dedene for koko GX because it can blow up malamar variants that have alot of energy in play. also what math is D-field for specifically? also finding room for latias prism star and bulu GX since how well the compliment each other. just my opinion do whatever you want with it
 
D-Field exists to hit 190 w/ 6 energy on the board, which is crucial, enabling it to OHKO U. Necrozma and Buzzswole without need 7 nrg or choice band. I do like the idea of latias prism though. I hadnt seen it before. The problem w/ Koko GX is that if the player is smart, he has a maximum of four energy on his board, and while that may be enough for one ko, I just lose 2 prizes and my GX attack, that I could have used as a hand refill. Dedenne, on the other hand, does the same thing, effectively, as a one prize attacker (provided a flying flip had been used before). As I don't see U. Necrozma running max potion or any other healing, they can't combat the Dedenne OHKO. That, and I think it's hilarious to see a 1-prize pikachu clone beat the crap out of the biggest dragon in the format. I may also split D-field and Sky Pillar, I don't know. Another thing: I refuse to not include Vulpix in any list that uses stage two pokemon at a core level. It has worked too well for me to not include it. Since dunsparce has a hit-and-run effect as part of his search attack, I can swap into the vulpix, which ideally gets me what I want/need for no energy.
 
Latias prism seems really good in this deck, especially with the ability of ray possibly discarding multiple energies
 
Yeah, Latias Prism is really decent energy recovery, so I'm adding it.

Gained
  • Latias Prism
Lost
  • Energy Recycler
 
Imo you need to drop Latios in favor of another Chargabug. Two stage 1 middle evolutions is important in case one is prized, you don't want to have to rely on rare candy.
 
I agree that the evolution is important, and I would love to add one more, but the latios has too much potential in sniping two prizes, especially against U. Necrozma. I can't solely rely on Tapu Koko to give Dedenne the knockout, so having another option there is great. at least in orders of biding time until Rayquaza is ready, which may take a few turns. After some testing, I may decide otherwise, but until then I will stick to one.
 
Hmm.. Normally I would play this with some Nest balls. Given some abilities (like Rayquaza and Lele) need to be actived from your hand, I can see why you're not running nest balls.

I don't think 1 Charjabug is a problem. A lot of VikaBulu decks are playing a 4-0-3 Vikavolt line with 4 Rare candy. Given that Espeon EX will rotate out, I don't really see why that shouldn't work. And getting your Vikavolt out 1 turn earlier will give your damage output a boost by 60 during the whole game, which is IMO much more important, so I would start playtesting without 3x Devoured Field, I think there are just better alternatives to add.

I played VikaBulu a lot, and the most important thing is your consistency. So I agree, you need more draw support. Cynthia should be a 4-off I guess. And I would try a Lillie in here.

Hope these suggestions will help, guess I will make this deck as well when Rayquaza is released!
 
I would make these changes
-1 Dedenne
-1 Copycat
-3 Choice Band

+1 Cynthia
+1 Tapu Koko
+3 Wishful Baton

This deck seems really good, with big damage, Pokemon Search, and great energy acceleration.
 
Wishful Baton seems great here, as long as it sticks. I hadn't thought of that in my testing.

Then again, 90% of the time, once Ray sets up even losing 3 energy doesn't stop the OHKO train. And choice band makes Vikavolt a viable 1-prize attacker in some stretch situations (has been clutch in some of my test matches).
 
Alex Sableye said:
Imo you need to drop Latios in favor of another Chargabug. Two stage 1 middle evolutions is important in case one is prized, you don't want to have to rely on rare candy.
Click to expand...
There's so many ways to get the candy that this is very very wrong. Most of the successful lists are already running zero Charjabug to exclusively rely on rare candy. With Volkner in format, you can use him to further increase your chances (while simultaneously enabling the addition of 90 damage per turn, or even 120 if you don't need to grab the candy and instead can grab a choice). This deck works best by outspeeding everything else, and it can't do that if you're wasting turns evolving stage by stage. One latios attack can leave you prepped for a T2 OHKO if you get two Rays out T1 (even without Vikavolt).
 
JGB146 said:
There's so many ways to get the candy that this is very very wrong. Most of the successful lists are already running zero Charjabug to exclusively rely on rare candy. With Volkner in format, you can use him to further increase your chances (while simultaneously enabling the addition of 90 damage per turn, or even 120 if you don't need to grab the candy and instead can grab a choice). This deck works best by outspeeding everything else, and it can't do that if you're wasting turns evolving stage by stage. One latios attack can leave you prepped for a T2 OHKO if you get two Rays out T1 (even without Vikavolt).
Click to expand...
I'm an idiot and thought we were debating Latias Prism, not Latios snipe.

Yeah, drop Latios. But also drop Charjabug. Add more draw support and/or more Volkner.
 
JGB146 said:
I'm an idiot and thought we were debating Latias Prism, not Latios snipe.

Yeah, drop Latios. But also drop Charjabug. Add more draw support and/or more Volkner.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I'm used to Metagross, which relies more on stage evolution instead of candies.
 
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