I tried running budget Shock Lock at Dallas and somehow got the worst brick hands I could ask for, as well as some seriously weird matchups (Bird Trio / Milotic was a hopeless autoloss).
If I were going to Collinsville, I'd run this, depending on how geared people are for teching for Shock Lock:
POKEMON: 19
- 4 - Raichu (BUS)
- 4 - Pikachu (CEC)
- 3 - Sableye (DEX)
- 2 - Emolga (TEU)
- 2 - Dedenne-GX
- 2 - Yveltal (TEU)
- 1 - Girafarig (LOT)
- 1 - Ditto Prism Star
TRAINERS: 33
- 4 - Professor Juniper/Professor Sycamore/Professor's Research
- 4 - N
- 3 - Faba
- 2 - Bellelba & Brycen-Man
- 2 - Team Rocket's Handiwork
- 1 - Pokemon Ranger
- 4 - Ultra Ball
- 4 - Quick Ball
- 2 - Devolution Spray
- 2 - Ordinary Rod
- 1 - Scoop Up Cyclone (ACE SPEC)
ENERGY: 8
- 8 - Darkness Energy
Thoughts for Collinsville/Takeaways from Dallas
- Mewtwo & Mew-GX - You have to playtest this matchup like CRAZY. This matchup (and to a lesser extent, Shock Lock) is why you are fielding 2 Yveltals. IF you point all your Faba at Dimension Valley, and hit their Mewtwo & Mew-GX with Derail constantly, they can't keep up. As soon as you see M Gardevoir EX in the discard, hit it with Get Lost (which drops their damage potential to abysmal numbers). Them using Cobalion-GX makes the matchup hard, but not unwinnable--you just dont shoot for paralysis lock as your primary goal, but you do get out a couple Pikachu out early to bait out their GX attack and force them to go Lost Bommerang GX (I'm more scared of them using Iron Law GX). But there's A LOT that happens in this matchup that could go very very wrong very very quickly.
- Shock Lock - lean on Derail. If you Prize your Scoop Up Cyclone, scoop and go to Game 2. As long as you have Scoop Up Cyclone in your deck, you can constantly Paralyze them and Scoop up your Paralyzed Sableye, advance another Sableye and get Devolution Spray and Scoop Up Cyclone back. This puts them on finite resources. Once you are in a favorable position and they can't Paralyze you, manually retreat and send up Yveltal and Derail/Clutch.
- If Mewtwo & Mew-GX and/or Shock Lock are not meta priorities, you can drop Yveltal. Add a 2nd Girafarig.
- If Zoro Garb is taking a massive hit as I've been reading, you can drop all instances of Faba and add Stealthy Hood. Try and find room for 4 because Wobbuffet is said to be HUGE.
- Turbo Dark is an easy matchup, just watch for CEC Guzzlord. If they fill their bench before they drop CEC Guzzlord, don't use the secondary effect of Bellelba & Brycen-Man, even if you have a Dedenne-GX on your bench. Just use the Dedenne-GX to bait out Guzma.
- Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX - This matchup is weird. They won't be able to attack for a bit. But make sure you get a Sableye active and a Sableye on your bench, both with Energy. Mill their deck ASAP and hit them often. They can run a bunch of outs to Paralysis lock, so its important that you hit them often, especially with Bellelba & Brycen-Man. They WILL get you with the GX+ attack. So have Sableye active and another on your Bench, both with 1 Energy. Also, once they get 4-5 Energy in play, make sure you have 1 VS Seeker in your discard pile and don't Junk Hunt for it until they use the GX attack. They are going to get out of paralysis lock with AZ or Guzma, so you don't know who will get hit, so you have 2 Sableye ready to go. You lose your hand. IF you don't draw out of it next turn, Junk Hunt a VS Seeker and an Ordinary Rod (or a devolution spray if your setup has a Raichu in play). Beyond the GX attack and getting the lock back up, you just need to hit their deck as hard as you can. Also, if they tech GRI Comfey, it's an autoloss.
I have been on a hiatus since Dallas and I haven't tested the deck in a bit, if there are any matchups you can think of that anyone would want clarification on, let me know.