So this is an article I wrote for the community blog, but they had shut it down a while ago. So here it is, as I didn't want to waste it. Enjoy and feel free to discuss.
The Dark Knight - An Analysis of Umbreon-GX/Eeveelutions
I really like Batman. He's my favorite superhero of all time. So I was really hyped about The LEGO Batman Movie, and after watching it, well it reminded me of Pokemon. No matter what's the most powerful card in the format, you need friends to back it up. And with a new set on the way, the timing seemed perfect.
Sun & Moon has been a... interesting set. From costing like a quintillion dollars to complete, introducing a new mechanic, having a rigged way to get Holos or better, and easily having some of the most competitive cards since BREAKpoint (a solid year!), it's been a joy to crack open packs. But it's introduced one of my favorite cards in a while: Umbreon-GX! Yeah... I believe this card has a ridiculous amount of potential. And I'm about to butcher this decklist up! But hey you'll get enjoyment after my horrendous jokes, and this may give you some ideas to make your own list. And hey, if I help someone out then this article has been worth it. Let's get ri-i-i-i-ght into the decklist!
Which Variant of Umbreon-GX Should I Play? / Why I'm Not Covering the Others Later On
Espeon-GX Variant
Bad card, but looks sick
The Espeon-GX variant of the Umbreon-GX deck is in my opinion, the least playable of these decks at the moment. Espeon-GX allows you to punish M Mewtwo-EX hard and maybe Yveltal-EX, but other than that, there's not much. Plus your removing consistency from your deck to worry about the Psychic Energy to get Espeon-GX out in play, which could better be used to make the deck work quicker. The problem is that this deck is trying to be relevant in this current format. But with decks in the format like M Rayquaza-EX which can get set up way quicker than you, Espeon-GX is going to slow you down and potentially lose you the game just because of that. Once the format slows down, this deck has potential. Being able to decide where to place ten damage counters on your opponent's Pokemon is a huge advantage. An annoying Passimian wearing you down, an intimidating Solgaleo-GX being set up on the Bench, or a pesky Decidueye-GX taunting you from the Bench? Divide GX can help you knock them out or wear them down to set them up for an easy knockout. Be careful, though, you can only use that attack once, so you really need to use it at the right time. GX attacks in general, are going to take a lot of practice and knowledge of the format to use effectively. And honestly, if Umbreon-GX and Espeon-GX didn't have Eevee as the same base card, would anyone actually plan on running this?
Yveltal-EX Variant
Hard to believe this card came out three years ago
Alright, I'm going to be straight on this: the Yveltal-EX variant of this deck is my least favorite of the three, so I'm going to be more negative about it. This deck tries to do too much at one time, and as a result, it doesn't do enough of them right. To start off you're running about two of everything. Which is better than one, but it's simply not consistent enough to get what you truly need out. What you need is sometimes three of certain Pokemon, such as the Eevee line, Yveltal-EX, and even the normal Yveltal, but if you do that you remove consistency, making the issue even worse. I feel it either needs to do just Yveltal-EX and Garbodor, Garbodor and Umbreon-GX, or Umbreon-GX and Yveltal-EX, not all three. I feel it's lumping Umbreon-GX in it just since it's new. But you do get a lot of power, and you deal with a lot of issues. And as the format slows down, this is going to look a lot less appealing. So yeah, it may be better than Espeon-GX, but I just don't like it at all. Not a good deck, or particularly interesting concept. It's too crowded and doesn't do enough right to consider this over other Dark variants. Could you say that's pretty Yvel of me? I'll walk myself out.
Eeveelutions Variants (AKA the Ones We're Going Over)
Kind of reminds me of Goku
This is it, in my the opinion, best, and my favorite deck of the three, and the one we'll be going over in more depth later on in the article. Simply put, having the Eeveelutions has an answer for almost everything in the current format. Going against Yveltal-EX or M Rayquaza-EX, you have Jolteon. Volcanion-EX, you got yourselves a Vaporeon. Lurantis-GX or Decidueye-GX, well Flareon can help you with that. Now I will admit it isn't perfect. Since we only run one of each of those cards, consistency can be an issue, however, we have a lot of trainers in out card to help us deal with that. What we can't deal with is them being in the Prizes. Zoroark is another good attacker taking advantage of the Eeveelutions. Unlike the Espeon-GX deck, you don't have to waste deck space on different types of Energy, and you're doing just enough that your deck is good against a good amount of the format, but not enough that your overly cluttering your deck like the Yveltal-EX deck. It combines the best of the other variants, and then some more. And since I like it, I want to talk about it, so...
The List
Deck Name:
Umbreon-GX/Eeveelutions
Total Cards:
60
Deck Caption:
Kick Gluteus Maximus and look cool while doing it!
Pokemon (16)
Trainers (0)
Energy (10)
4x Eevee Sun and Moon 101
3x Umbreon-GX Sun and Moon 80
1x Flareon Ancient Origins 13
1x Vaporeon Ancient Origins 22
1x Jolteon Ancient Origins 26
2x Zorua BREAKthrough 89
2x Zoroark BREAKthrough 91
2x Shaymin-EX Roaring Skies 77
4x Professor Sycamore BREAKpoint 107
2x N Fates Collide 105
2x Lysandre Ancient Origins 78
1x Team Flare Grunt Generations 73
1x Hex Maniac Ancient Origins 75
1x Professor Kukui Sun and Moon 128
4x VS Seeker Roaring Skies 110
4x Ultra Ball Sun and Moon 135
4x Trainers' Mail Roaring Skies 92
3x Float Stone BREAKthrough 137
2x Nest Ball Sun and Moon 123
1x Super Rod BREAKthrough 149
1x Town Map BREAKthrough 150
1x Special Charge Steam Siege 105
3x Reverse Valley BREAKpoint 110
6x Darkness Energy Call of Legends 94
4x Double Colorless Energy HeartGold and SoulSilver 103
Card Choices
Now I know some of my card choices seem a little unusual, so I would like to explain in detail why I choose these cards for the deck.
4x Eevee
Eevee's here simply for evolution for the four different Eeveelutions we run. By the way, most of the time you're going to be evolving your Eevee's into three Umbreon-GX, and one Eeveelution based on the match-up. Energy Evolution is a great Ability, allowing you to evolve on your first turn (or the first time you play Eevee down,) as long as you attach a basic Darkness Energyfrom your hand to it, you can just search your deck for an Umbreon-GX, and boom, first turn you get 200 HP. 60 HP isn't bad for a basic that evolves, but we're planning on evolving, so it's not that big of a deal. Quick Draw is a horrible attack, for a Colorless Energy, flipping a coin, and then drawing a card as long as you flip heads. So 50% of the turn you're just wasting a turn, but hopefully, you shouldn't be attacking with Eevee. A weakness to Fighting isn't horrible, so we'll take it over others, no Resistance is sad, but a lot of Pokemon don't have it so it isn't that bad. Two energies to Retreat is pretty poor, but it's manageable. This card is just in here for evolution mainly (duh PineDog, of course, Eevee's going to be used for evolution.)
3x Umbreon-GX
Umbreon-GX is the main attacker of this deck, so yeah he's kind of important to this decklist. So let's get right into this, oh boy. Now it's is a Stage 1, but that doesn't really matter. As previously mentioned in the Eevee passage, we can evolve almost directly into Umbreon-GX via Energy Evolution. And for it being plausible to get it out on turn one, 200 HP is really good, preventing most OHKO. Dark is a good type, as it allows you some pretty legendary partners, in Yveltal, and Zoroark. But other than Zoroark, we're not going to worry about that.
Na na na na na na na na na na Umbreon Man!
You have a weakness to Fighting, which isn't bad. As only Passimian is really a threat in the format with the Fighting type. A Resistance to Psychic is great, as you remove 20 damage from cards such as M Mewtwo-EX and Lunala-GX. A Retreat cost of two, which is bad, but we have a card in this deck to deal with this, which I'll cover later. Now its first attack is Strafe which only costs a Darkness Energy and deals 30 damage. However, you can switch Umbreon-GX with one of your Benched Pokemon, if you so choose. This is great if you are in a pinch and need an easy way to get out of the Active. However, it's probably better if you just used Float Stone to Retreat. Unless you don't have that Float Stone or no way to attack with a Pokemon from your Bench, then this is a better option. This gives Umbreon-GX a lot of mobility, letting you get out of sticky situations. Now the better attack of the two is Shadow Bullet, which calls back to the old Darkrai-EX's attack Night Spear. It's literally the exact same attack, but instead of costing two Darkness and a Colorless Energy, instead it's one Darkness and two Colorless Energy. Which is a lot better since you can attach a Double Colorless and basically fulfill the Energy cost since we're using a Dark Energy to evolve Eevee. You're dealing a straight 90 damage to the Active Pokemon, which could be improved with a Choice Band. But that's not released yet, so we're not counting that. So currently in Standard, there are very few ways to boost your damage output. 90 damage is pretty bad in the current format since that's less than most EX's and GX's HP. But we do get to do 30 damage to the Bench. Some already damaged Pokemon on the bench you want to soften up? Some threatening Pokemon on the bench well, 30 damage will make it a lot easier to deal with it later on in the game. Dark Call GX is a fabulous GX attack. Costing a mere Dark Energy and Colorless Energy, you get to discard 2 Energy Cards from any of your opponent's Pokemon. This is literally game-changing, as this allows you to get rid of anything threatening, or severely cripple your opponent's Active Pokemon. It also allows you to get rid of Special Energies. Now knowing when to use this GX attack is going to take a lot of practice to make the most of it. It'll take an extensive knowledge of the format and what will damage your opponent the most. It's going to have a steep learning curve. Umbreon-GX is your main attacker and consistent, having the Ability to just deal with issues on the Bench, and it's powerful and consistent.
1x Flareon / Vaporeon / Jolteon
I'm just going to loop all three of these together as we don't care about attacking with them. They have pretty pitiful HP, weaknesses we don't care about, and bad Retreat cost. If one of these gets stuck in the Active, without a Float Stone, your pretty effed. So I'm not going to go over this. Now anyways, the only reason we run these cards is their sick abilities.
I wonder what those things in the background are.
In summary, each of them allows each of your Stage 1 Pokemon in play to become the same type as the Eeveelution (Fire for Flareon, Water for Vaporeon, and Lightning for Jolteon.) To say this is great is an understatement. These types are a very common weakness, Jolteon gives Umbreon-GX strength over M Rayquaza-EX and Yveltal, Vaporeon gives strength over Volcanion-EX, and Flareon gives strength over Decidueye-GX and Lurantis-GX. That's a good chunk of the current meta, which you now have the advantage sincetheir now weak to you. Now, most of the time your evolution method with the four Eevee's will be two-three Umbreon-GX's, and one-two of these Eeveelutions. Now, these aren't without their weaknesses. You can really only run one of these per decklist if you don't the deck will be quite clunky with ten Eeveelutions and only four Eevee's, being almost a third of your deck. So you have to worry about getting it out quickly enough, which is why we run a single copy of Town Map. Now in the future, if one of the popular decks starts to lose popularity, that Eeveelution can be replaced with another. For example, if Volcanion-EX gets a quick counter, and stops being played much, you can drop the Vaporeon. Instead, you can place another Jolteon or Flareon in its place. These cards allow you to get the upper hand over the meta, boosting the measly 90 damage from Umbreon-GX's attacks to 180 HP, a very good amount. Plus the card art looks beautiful.
2x Zorua / Zoroark
Zorua/ Zoroark are the secondary attackers of the deck, being another Stage 1 that can deal with the format. Now we use the Moonless Madness Zorua, merely because that attack with instant confusion is pretty good for just a single Darkness Energy. I'm not going to covering most about Zorua, as we mostly focus on Zoraork, and it doesn't have anything too special about it, unlike Eevee.
Zorro! I mean Zoroark!
Zoroark has 100 HP, which is okay for a Stage 1 non-EX or GX. Darkness is a good type, as it splashes easily in this deck. It has a weakness to Fighting, which I already said is good since not much great cards are that type. And a Resistance to Psychic, which again is really good. You have a Retreat cost of two, that's pretty bad. Zoroark is a prime target to attach a Float Stone to because of its Ability Stand In. Stand In allows you to switch Zoroark with your Active Pokemon as long as it's on your Bench. This is great as if you have a damaged Pokemon is your Active Pokemon, or you need to get an attacker of your Bench to the Active position. Attaching Float Stone allows you to switch in, and then Retreat for free. Now, this can be countered by Garbodor, which kind of shuts down this deck, and there's not an easy counter to get rid of Garbodor, so that kind of sucks. But against a deck without that card, this is a great mobility boost to this deck, allowing you to basically bypass the Retreat cost. Mind Jack costs a mere two Colorless Energies, which can be easily fulfilled by a Double Colorless Energy. It does a mere ten damage but does 30 more for each of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. That means on average you're doing 160 damage since most decks have five Pokemon on their Bench. And some, decks like M Rayquaza-EX can have up to eight on your Bench. And if you get the weakness with the Eeveelutions, you're doing 320 damage, enough to knock out anything. Zorua and Zoroark are here to boost the mobility of this deck and provides secondary attacker in case Umbreon-GX goes down.
2x Shaymin-EX
Shaymin-EX is a staple in all decks, so this isn't going to take long to explain. Shaymin-EX is good simply because of the Ability, Set Up makes all decks more consistent, as once you play Shaymin-EX from your Bench you draw cards in your hand until you have six cards in your hands. This card allows you to draw up to six cards from your deck. If you're out of valuable resources, you can make an effort to keep going. 110 HP is poor for an EX that gives up two Prizes if knocked out. Colorless lets it be splashed into all decks, a weakness to Lightning isn't terrible as you only really get a weakness to Jolteon-EX. A Resistance to Fighting is kind of useless, and a Retreat cost of one isn't horrible. And Sky Return can get you out of a sticky situation in case Shaymin-EX gets stuck in the Active without a Float Stone or Zoroark in play. And allows you to use the Ability again. And that's all there really is to it, as it's a pretty basic card, and used in a lot of decks.
4x Professor Sycamore
Professor Sycamore allows you to just discard your hand and draw a fresh seven cards, effective and consistent, it just lets you get a new start if you get a horrendous hand.
2x N
N allows you to get up to six cards by shuffling your hand into your deck if you have all of your Prize cards, getting you a new hand without discarding any precious resources. It can also be a disruption card if your opponent has fewer Prize cards than you, by forcing them to get a smaller hand size while you get a new hand.
2x Lysandre
Lysandre is great for pulling up a target on the Bench, whether it be an easy Prize target in a Shaymin-EX or weak Pokemon, or forcing a Pokemon with a high Retreat cost up, serving as a wall while you set up your Pokemon. It also can force an unprepared Pokemon out, which can get rid of threats in the future.
1x Team Flare Grunt
Team Flare Grunt lets you discard an Energy from your opponent's Active Pokemon. This can slow your opponent from setting up as quickly and potentially be getting rid of Special Energies.
1x Hex Maniac
Hex Maniac is good for shutting down abilities, now this actually hurts your deck more than it could hurt your opponent, so it takes careful knowledge of when to use it, mostly in the early game to slow down your opponent's set up, plan to use this at the end of your turn once you've made the most of your abilities, or if your abilities aren't benefitting you. Or if your opponent is hurt more than with lack of abilities
1x Professor Kukui
Professor Kukui is the new professor in town and gives you two effects. You draw two cards, which isn't bad, but pretty abysmal compared to other draw support, but you do 20 more damage with your attacks, with up to 40 more with weakness. This is great for boosting the damage of your attacks to reach crucial knockouts, as Umbreon-GX often misses the 200 damage mark, which can force you to make awkward two hit knockout, Professor Kukui helps that by getting 240 damage with weakness.
4x VS Seeker
VS Seeker lets you grab a Supporter card from your discard pile and put it in your hand, which is useful if you have a dry hand. This is best paired with Supporters that can be used situationally, such as Team Flare Grunt and Hex Maniac. Maxed out for consistency.
4x Ultra Ball
Ultra Ball is a very consistent card, letting you discard two cards from your hand and searching your deck for a Pokemon and putting it in your hand. This is great as you can get rid of useless cards slowing down your deck, and then getting a Pokemon. This is your main way of getting Pokemon out in the field other than just drawing into them. Mainly used for getting out the Eeveelutions. Maxed out for consistency.
4x Trainers' Mail
Trainers' Mail lets you look at the top four cards of your deck, and then selecting one of those Trainer cards (assuming there is a Trainer card) and putting it in your hand. This makes it easier to get vital trainer cards into your hand, to let them be used. Sometimes doesn't work all the time, but is usually very effective, sometimes you just grab a Trainer card to discard it with Ultra Ball.
3x Float Stone
Float Stone is a Tool card that most of the time will be attached to a Zoroark or Umbreon-GX, as I mentioned in the card choice for Zoroark, it basically gives all Pokemon free Retreat choice, if abilities are still in place. And giving it to Umbreon-GX is their just to make sure you can always Retreat with it, even you don't have a Zoroark in play, or if a Garbodor is out in play, shutting down all abilities.But all cards are benefitted by it. You can run it if it floats your boat!
2x Nest Ball
Nest Ball is another card to just get out more Pokemon, Nest Ball searches your deck for a Basic Pokemon and put it on your Bench. Use it for Eevee and Zorua, do not use it for Shaymin-EX. Being placed directly on your Bench, you won't access the Ability, since that requires you to play it down from your hand, but using this plays it from your deck, not your hand. Only two of them are run, just because of Ultra Ball's better overall.
1x Super Rod
Since a lot of Pokemon in this deck are really important, having them discarded is an issue, either being knocked out by an opponent or having to discarded early on by a Professor Sycamore, the same applies with Basic Energies. Super Rod lets you shuffle those back into your deck. This could also be used just in case you have few cards in your deck, and need to prolong you decking out.
1x Town Map
Town Map is used to make sure you get out the right Eeveelutions in play since we only run one of each. We're trying to get out them to get Weakness.
1x Special Charge
With Double Colorless Energy being an important card in our deck, it's good to have an easy way to get them back in if they get placed in the discard pile. Which is why we run Special Charge.
3x Reverse Valley
Reverse Valley is our Stadium of choice, with the side we'll be using allows our Dark Pokemon to deal ten more damage, getting our maximum damage output to 240 damage with a Weakness, Professor Kukui, and this. The other side is fine since most decks don't run Metal Pokemon.
6x Darkness Energy
Used as our Basic Energy of choice, providing the Energy requirements for Umbreon-GX and Zorua.
4x Double Colorless Energy
Double Colorless Energy provides two Colorless Energy, which helps us with Umbreon-GX, Zoroark, and Shaymin-EX's, attack cost for a single attachment.
Other Options
Now for these other options, I should be mentioning that instead of giving different counts of cards that we run, that's up for personal preference. Instead, I'll be going entirely different cards that could be useful in certain match-ups or have a certain niche, but I didn't think fit into the normal decklist. Again, it's all up to personal preference with how you run these cards, I won't, however, be covering cards that make it an entirely new deck like Yveltal-EX or Espeon-GX. Oh, also I'm going to be covering these from newest cards (Sun & Moon) to oldest (Primal Clash.) I also won't be covering cards that are releasing in the set Tapu Guardians, but Tapu Lele-GX and Choice Band could be useful.
Tauros-GX
I feel that in the future Tauros-GX is going to become a staple of most decks that run Double Colorless Energy, which we run. This cards specific place in this deck is to give us a basic attacker to use that's not the dark type.
All this text has me Snoring!
We can counter Glaceon-EX, which shuts down our deck, and against Pokemon that has a Resistance against dark, Tauros-GX can help us counter them. Tauros-GX is also a great wall to put up while you're setting up as the more they attack you, the more powerful they make this, meaning if they don't knock us out quickly, we can hit them for crazy amounts of damage. It just techs in quite well in this deck.
Oranguru / Octillery
So I'm putting these two together as they serve the same purpose, poor man's Shaymin-EX. Between the two of these, Oranguru's better for space, as it's simply a Basic Pokemon we can place down. Octillery however, has more power, since with it's Ability you can draw up to two more cards. Now it should be mentioned that you shouldn't ever attack with these two, they both have pretty weak attacks. If you can fit a 2-2 Octillery line in your deck, go with that, if not two Oranguru should suffice. This is assuming you can't afford a Shaymin-EX, which is better and more consistent that any of these for a quicker setup. Now I should also mention that you could throw in an Oranguru if you want to boost consistency if you find yourself setting up quite slowly.
Mewtwo
We'd run this card to help us with our M Mewtwo-EX matchup. For a single Double Colorless Energy, you deal a slightly weaker version of M Mewtwo-EX's attack. Now I wouldn't send this out as your first attacker, it would be a lot better to wait for your opponent to attack your Active Pokemon, Retreat with Zoraork or a Float Stone and then counter the M Mewtwo-EX with Psychic. Really I think this is one of the more unusual and kind of useless option, as it's mostly useless in most of your match-ups. So really if M Mewtwo-EX is a common deck in your area, then including a copy or two of Mewtwo could really help.
Darkrai-EX
Really Darkrai-EX serves as another Basic attacker, while Tauros-GX is a nice wall at the beginning of the game, Darkrai-EX serves as a good late game attackers. As the more Energy you place onto the field setting up Umbreon-GX, the more damage Dark Pulse deals more damage. This serves just in case Umbreon-GX gets knocked out or you need to set up quickly. It has a lot of bulk for a Basic Pokemon. And it fits in well since it uses Double Colorless Energy and doesn't take up much space being a Basic.
Yveltal
Here's the better choice against M Mewtwo-EX, Yveltal as when you put it in play, all Tools in play are now worthless. This is good against Mega decks, as once they need to evolve, you get a free turn to attack them. This is great, as instead of waiting for three turns to attack them, and Pitch-Black Spear is a good attack which allows us to further spread damage on the Bench, dealing more damage on the Bench, but less on the Active Pokemon. This could be used if there are a lot of potential threats or easy targets on the Bench to try and weaken up.
Match-Ups
Turbo Darkrai - Poor
The meanest of rye cakes. Get it? Dark rye! That was horrible.
The Darkrai-EDarkrai-EX match-up (most notably Turbo Darkrai and Darkrai-EX/Giratina-EX) is a poor match-up, simply due to the fact that Turbo Darkrai is in fact, quick! Our deck simply can't set up quickly enough to deal with it, and we don't get the Weakness advantage, as Darkrai-EX is weak to Fighting, which we don't run, nor is there an easy Fighting Pokemon to tech in the deck. Your best bet is to Lysandre up Baby Yveltal and Shaymin-EX with aJolteon out. Other than that, there's not much you can do, our deck is built on consistency, not speed, so when faced against a deck that is incredibly quick, and powerful, without us not having the Weakness advantage, we easily lose this match most of the time, unless they get a really bad start, we're most of the time losing.
Vespiquen / Zebstrika - Even
This deck doesn't have a clear winner, it'll come down to wit and luck. We have the advantage over Vespiquen and their Zebstrika is pretty useless, as we don't have a Resistance to Fighting, other than Shaymin-EX, but that's honestly an easy knockout easy, so it doesn't really give them a distinct advantage, as it just hits the OHKO. But they have the speed advantage over us, and they run a 1-1 Garbodor line, which if they can get out, were pretty effed. You have to get that out quickly if it manages to be put in play. If any game has an advantage, I'd say it's us. Since we play for more consistency rather than speed. Any Vespiquen decks can be very inconsistent, running sixteen other Basic Pokemon rather than Combee, even getting out their main attacker against us could be difficult. Thier best attacker is Mew-EX as we don't have a strength advantage over them, however, most of the time, these decks don't run more than one, and that's not consistent enough. And that Mew-EX has little HP, which can make it easy to knock out. But it's still even, as once Vespiquen gets set up, were screwed, but if we can attack them earlier, we have the victory.
Mega Rayquaza - Very Positive
This is probably our best match-up in the format. We have two attackers that can easily unravel their deck.
Luv u green snek
Now as a player that has played M Ray before, I can tell you that the deck isn't the most consistent, which is pretty good for us (by the way I did well in a Regionals with a build of the deck that only ran one Shaymin-EX, so that's my proudest Pokemon accomplishment so far.) We have Zoroark which can deal 250 damage if they have a full Bench, which isn't a difficult task to complete while playing M Ray, and Jolteon which can give Umbreon-GX, or Zoroark the Weakness advantage, which can be overkill for Zoroark's attacks, and Umbreon-GX, when combined with a Professor Kukui, lets us knock the out M Ray. And Magearna-EX is useless since we don't even use Special Conditions. As long as you get the right cards out, you have a very, very good chance of winning.
Mega Gardevoir - Even
This is a match that technically is not in our favor, but honestly, it's not that bad. Giratina-EX is not that good against us, as their Ability is bad, and honestly, it's not the absolute end of the world if we can't play Stadiums or Tools, Special Energies are the bigger deal, but if we can get them out early in the game, then Chaos Wheel doesn't cause, much... chaos. M Gardevoir-EX does have a Resistance to us, yes, but without Weakness were not dealing much damage, so trying to get the most damage on M Gardevoir-ex not going to happen. Your best plan to try and win is to target Shaymin-EX and other Bench sitters. Don't try and get out Flareon and Jolteon, as they won't be useful against really anyone. You have the slight disadvantage due to the Weakness, but could you get the victory as long as you play your cards right, and have a little bit of luck.
Mega Mewtwo - Very Poor
I can't come up with a funny joke for this.... ITS HEAD LOOKS LIKE A TAIL
Yeah, this is probably your worst match-up. Yes, we do have a Resistance to Psychic, but they still have an advantage. Unless we can knock out M Mewtwo-EX probably getting the knockout, assuming they attack you the turn before, then we attack, and they finally attack. Only if we get the Professor Kukui and Reverse Valley both turns, were not even getting a two-hit knockout. We have to take three turns to knock out one, and in that turn, they can just knock us out. Literally, none of our Pokemon can get a OHKO. That's bad enough, but they also have a Garbodor. Yep, a Garbodor, that straight up destroys our deck, we can't even target their Shaymin-EX with a Jolteon, we lose out own Shaymin-EX's consistency, and we lose free Retreat with Zoroark. They also have a Jolteon-EX, which is useless, and a good player wouldn't play those cards out against you. Your only chance of winning is to knock out Trubbish's and Shaymin-EX's earlier. You're most likely going to lose this match, it's a very tough match.
Volcanion - Positive
Yeah, we get the advantage in this matchup. One word, Vaporeon. Boom, that pretty much wins you the match, with that in play you knock out the baby Volcanion no matter what. And with the Professor Kukui and a Reverse Valley you can knock out Volcanion-EX in one hit. However, what you should do is soften it up with Shadow Bullet on the Bench. Both of the decks can be quite slow, so having a type advantage helps. It requires three Steam Up's to get a OHKO on our Umbreon-GX. They can set up quickly with baby Volcanion, but unless we start off very poorly and can never get momentum, were probably going to shut them down, and I almost forgot, Vaporeon could be in your Prizes, which would suck, but you can still deal damage, in that case, it no longer becomes a clean sweep, but in becomes more so an even game. This is a match-up where having the type advantage really shows it's usefulness.
Lurantis-GX - Positive
The new kid on the block.
Another match-up where having an Eeveelution really helps. The most common variant of this deck is one with Solgaleo-GX, and both of those are weak to Fire, which Flareon happens to give to Umbreon-GX and Zoroark.
This is more of the same reasoning as Volcanion-EX, while Lurantis-GX can set up faster than us, once the initial burst is over, our type advantage starts to steamroll them. Really the only chance of losing is if Flareon ends up in the Prizes, or if we get a really bad start up. I feel that between this and Volcanion-EX, the Volcanion matchup has a better chance of beating us. So take from that what you will, but honestly Lurantis-GX isn't that big of a deal in the current format, so if you have to deal with it, your going to win most of the time.
Mirror Match - Even
By definition going against the exact same version of yourself (in this case the deck,) one won't have a distinct advantage over each other, instead, it'll rely on how you play your cards, and luck. The Eeveelutions are going to be useless in this matchup, maybe Jolteon if your targeting Shaymin-EX. With Umbreon-GX, your going to have to rely on using Shadow Bullet to knock out Eevee and Zorua off the Bench, or weaken an Umbreon-GX on the Bench. Really, Umbreon-GX is going to be your main attacker during this match-up, as Zoroark can do 160 damage, but that's not that much when you could target and weaken up potential threats on the Bench. But don't worry about it, Umbreon-GX isn't the most common deck in the format.
Final Thoughts
I do believe Umbreon-GX has a lot of potential in the current format, the best deck in format? No, definitely not. I don't think it's going to be the most powerful or best deck. I believe it's going to be good, yes, but not on the terms of Turbo Darkrai-EX or M Rayquaza-EX, yet.
The Dark Knight - An Analysis of Umbreon-GX/Eeveelutions
I really like Batman. He's my favorite superhero of all time. So I was really hyped about The LEGO Batman Movie, and after watching it, well it reminded me of Pokemon. No matter what's the most powerful card in the format, you need friends to back it up. And with a new set on the way, the timing seemed perfect.
Sun & Moon has been a... interesting set. From costing like a quintillion dollars to complete, introducing a new mechanic, having a rigged way to get Holos or better, and easily having some of the most competitive cards since BREAKpoint (a solid year!), it's been a joy to crack open packs. But it's introduced one of my favorite cards in a while: Umbreon-GX! Yeah... I believe this card has a ridiculous amount of potential. And I'm about to butcher this decklist up! But hey you'll get enjoyment after my horrendous jokes, and this may give you some ideas to make your own list. And hey, if I help someone out then this article has been worth it. Let's get ri-i-i-i-ght into the decklist!
Which Variant of Umbreon-GX Should I Play? / Why I'm Not Covering the Others Later On
Espeon-GX Variant
Bad card, but looks sick
The Espeon-GX variant of the Umbreon-GX deck is in my opinion, the least playable of these decks at the moment. Espeon-GX allows you to punish M Mewtwo-EX hard and maybe Yveltal-EX, but other than that, there's not much. Plus your removing consistency from your deck to worry about the Psychic Energy to get Espeon-GX out in play, which could better be used to make the deck work quicker. The problem is that this deck is trying to be relevant in this current format. But with decks in the format like M Rayquaza-EX which can get set up way quicker than you, Espeon-GX is going to slow you down and potentially lose you the game just because of that. Once the format slows down, this deck has potential. Being able to decide where to place ten damage counters on your opponent's Pokemon is a huge advantage. An annoying Passimian wearing you down, an intimidating Solgaleo-GX being set up on the Bench, or a pesky Decidueye-GX taunting you from the Bench? Divide GX can help you knock them out or wear them down to set them up for an easy knockout. Be careful, though, you can only use that attack once, so you really need to use it at the right time. GX attacks in general, are going to take a lot of practice and knowledge of the format to use effectively. And honestly, if Umbreon-GX and Espeon-GX didn't have Eevee as the same base card, would anyone actually plan on running this?
Yveltal-EX Variant
Hard to believe this card came out three years ago
Alright, I'm going to be straight on this: the Yveltal-EX variant of this deck is my least favorite of the three, so I'm going to be more negative about it. This deck tries to do too much at one time, and as a result, it doesn't do enough of them right. To start off you're running about two of everything. Which is better than one, but it's simply not consistent enough to get what you truly need out. What you need is sometimes three of certain Pokemon, such as the Eevee line, Yveltal-EX, and even the normal Yveltal, but if you do that you remove consistency, making the issue even worse. I feel it either needs to do just Yveltal-EX and Garbodor, Garbodor and Umbreon-GX, or Umbreon-GX and Yveltal-EX, not all three. I feel it's lumping Umbreon-GX in it just since it's new. But you do get a lot of power, and you deal with a lot of issues. And as the format slows down, this is going to look a lot less appealing. So yeah, it may be better than Espeon-GX, but I just don't like it at all. Not a good deck, or particularly interesting concept. It's too crowded and doesn't do enough right to consider this over other Dark variants. Could you say that's pretty Yvel of me? I'll walk myself out.
Eeveelutions Variants (AKA the Ones We're Going Over)
Kind of reminds me of Goku
This is it, in my the opinion, best, and my favorite deck of the three, and the one we'll be going over in more depth later on in the article. Simply put, having the Eeveelutions has an answer for almost everything in the current format. Going against Yveltal-EX or M Rayquaza-EX, you have Jolteon. Volcanion-EX, you got yourselves a Vaporeon. Lurantis-GX or Decidueye-GX, well Flareon can help you with that. Now I will admit it isn't perfect. Since we only run one of each of those cards, consistency can be an issue, however, we have a lot of trainers in out card to help us deal with that. What we can't deal with is them being in the Prizes. Zoroark is another good attacker taking advantage of the Eeveelutions. Unlike the Espeon-GX deck, you don't have to waste deck space on different types of Energy, and you're doing just enough that your deck is good against a good amount of the format, but not enough that your overly cluttering your deck like the Yveltal-EX deck. It combines the best of the other variants, and then some more. And since I like it, I want to talk about it, so...
The List
Deck Name:
Umbreon-GX/Eeveelutions
Total Cards:
60
Deck Caption:
Kick Gluteus Maximus and look cool while doing it!
Pokemon (16)
Trainers (0)
Energy (10)
4x Eevee Sun and Moon 101
3x Umbreon-GX Sun and Moon 80
1x Flareon Ancient Origins 13
1x Vaporeon Ancient Origins 22
1x Jolteon Ancient Origins 26
2x Zorua BREAKthrough 89
2x Zoroark BREAKthrough 91
2x Shaymin-EX Roaring Skies 77
4x Professor Sycamore BREAKpoint 107
2x N Fates Collide 105
2x Lysandre Ancient Origins 78
1x Team Flare Grunt Generations 73
1x Hex Maniac Ancient Origins 75
1x Professor Kukui Sun and Moon 128
4x VS Seeker Roaring Skies 110
4x Ultra Ball Sun and Moon 135
4x Trainers' Mail Roaring Skies 92
3x Float Stone BREAKthrough 137
2x Nest Ball Sun and Moon 123
1x Super Rod BREAKthrough 149
1x Town Map BREAKthrough 150
1x Special Charge Steam Siege 105
3x Reverse Valley BREAKpoint 110
6x Darkness Energy Call of Legends 94
4x Double Colorless Energy HeartGold and SoulSilver 103
Card Choices
Now I know some of my card choices seem a little unusual, so I would like to explain in detail why I choose these cards for the deck.
4x Eevee
Eevee's here simply for evolution for the four different Eeveelutions we run. By the way, most of the time you're going to be evolving your Eevee's into three Umbreon-GX, and one Eeveelution based on the match-up. Energy Evolution is a great Ability, allowing you to evolve on your first turn (or the first time you play Eevee down,) as long as you attach a basic Darkness Energyfrom your hand to it, you can just search your deck for an Umbreon-GX, and boom, first turn you get 200 HP. 60 HP isn't bad for a basic that evolves, but we're planning on evolving, so it's not that big of a deal. Quick Draw is a horrible attack, for a Colorless Energy, flipping a coin, and then drawing a card as long as you flip heads. So 50% of the turn you're just wasting a turn, but hopefully, you shouldn't be attacking with Eevee. A weakness to Fighting isn't horrible, so we'll take it over others, no Resistance is sad, but a lot of Pokemon don't have it so it isn't that bad. Two energies to Retreat is pretty poor, but it's manageable. This card is just in here for evolution mainly (duh PineDog, of course, Eevee's going to be used for evolution.)
3x Umbreon-GX
Umbreon-GX is the main attacker of this deck, so yeah he's kind of important to this decklist. So let's get right into this, oh boy. Now it's is a Stage 1, but that doesn't really matter. As previously mentioned in the Eevee passage, we can evolve almost directly into Umbreon-GX via Energy Evolution. And for it being plausible to get it out on turn one, 200 HP is really good, preventing most OHKO. Dark is a good type, as it allows you some pretty legendary partners, in Yveltal, and Zoroark. But other than Zoroark, we're not going to worry about that.
Na na na na na na na na na na Umbreon Man!
You have a weakness to Fighting, which isn't bad. As only Passimian is really a threat in the format with the Fighting type. A Resistance to Psychic is great, as you remove 20 damage from cards such as M Mewtwo-EX and Lunala-GX. A Retreat cost of two, which is bad, but we have a card in this deck to deal with this, which I'll cover later. Now its first attack is Strafe which only costs a Darkness Energy and deals 30 damage. However, you can switch Umbreon-GX with one of your Benched Pokemon, if you so choose. This is great if you are in a pinch and need an easy way to get out of the Active. However, it's probably better if you just used Float Stone to Retreat. Unless you don't have that Float Stone or no way to attack with a Pokemon from your Bench, then this is a better option. This gives Umbreon-GX a lot of mobility, letting you get out of sticky situations. Now the better attack of the two is Shadow Bullet, which calls back to the old Darkrai-EX's attack Night Spear. It's literally the exact same attack, but instead of costing two Darkness and a Colorless Energy, instead it's one Darkness and two Colorless Energy. Which is a lot better since you can attach a Double Colorless and basically fulfill the Energy cost since we're using a Dark Energy to evolve Eevee. You're dealing a straight 90 damage to the Active Pokemon, which could be improved with a Choice Band. But that's not released yet, so we're not counting that. So currently in Standard, there are very few ways to boost your damage output. 90 damage is pretty bad in the current format since that's less than most EX's and GX's HP. But we do get to do 30 damage to the Bench. Some already damaged Pokemon on the bench you want to soften up? Some threatening Pokemon on the bench well, 30 damage will make it a lot easier to deal with it later on in the game. Dark Call GX is a fabulous GX attack. Costing a mere Dark Energy and Colorless Energy, you get to discard 2 Energy Cards from any of your opponent's Pokemon. This is literally game-changing, as this allows you to get rid of anything threatening, or severely cripple your opponent's Active Pokemon. It also allows you to get rid of Special Energies. Now knowing when to use this GX attack is going to take a lot of practice to make the most of it. It'll take an extensive knowledge of the format and what will damage your opponent the most. It's going to have a steep learning curve. Umbreon-GX is your main attacker and consistent, having the Ability to just deal with issues on the Bench, and it's powerful and consistent.
1x Flareon / Vaporeon / Jolteon
I'm just going to loop all three of these together as we don't care about attacking with them. They have pretty pitiful HP, weaknesses we don't care about, and bad Retreat cost. If one of these gets stuck in the Active, without a Float Stone, your pretty effed. So I'm not going to go over this. Now anyways, the only reason we run these cards is their sick abilities.
I wonder what those things in the background are.
In summary, each of them allows each of your Stage 1 Pokemon in play to become the same type as the Eeveelution (Fire for Flareon, Water for Vaporeon, and Lightning for Jolteon.) To say this is great is an understatement. These types are a very common weakness, Jolteon gives Umbreon-GX strength over M Rayquaza-EX and Yveltal, Vaporeon gives strength over Volcanion-EX, and Flareon gives strength over Decidueye-GX and Lurantis-GX. That's a good chunk of the current meta, which you now have the advantage sincetheir now weak to you. Now, most of the time your evolution method with the four Eevee's will be two-three Umbreon-GX's, and one-two of these Eeveelutions. Now, these aren't without their weaknesses. You can really only run one of these per decklist if you don't the deck will be quite clunky with ten Eeveelutions and only four Eevee's, being almost a third of your deck. So you have to worry about getting it out quickly enough, which is why we run a single copy of Town Map. Now in the future, if one of the popular decks starts to lose popularity, that Eeveelution can be replaced with another. For example, if Volcanion-EX gets a quick counter, and stops being played much, you can drop the Vaporeon. Instead, you can place another Jolteon or Flareon in its place. These cards allow you to get the upper hand over the meta, boosting the measly 90 damage from Umbreon-GX's attacks to 180 HP, a very good amount. Plus the card art looks beautiful.
2x Zorua / Zoroark
Zorua/ Zoroark are the secondary attackers of the deck, being another Stage 1 that can deal with the format. Now we use the Moonless Madness Zorua, merely because that attack with instant confusion is pretty good for just a single Darkness Energy. I'm not going to covering most about Zorua, as we mostly focus on Zoraork, and it doesn't have anything too special about it, unlike Eevee.
Zorro! I mean Zoroark!
Zoroark has 100 HP, which is okay for a Stage 1 non-EX or GX. Darkness is a good type, as it splashes easily in this deck. It has a weakness to Fighting, which I already said is good since not much great cards are that type. And a Resistance to Psychic, which again is really good. You have a Retreat cost of two, that's pretty bad. Zoroark is a prime target to attach a Float Stone to because of its Ability Stand In. Stand In allows you to switch Zoroark with your Active Pokemon as long as it's on your Bench. This is great as if you have a damaged Pokemon is your Active Pokemon, or you need to get an attacker of your Bench to the Active position. Attaching Float Stone allows you to switch in, and then Retreat for free. Now, this can be countered by Garbodor, which kind of shuts down this deck, and there's not an easy counter to get rid of Garbodor, so that kind of sucks. But against a deck without that card, this is a great mobility boost to this deck, allowing you to basically bypass the Retreat cost. Mind Jack costs a mere two Colorless Energies, which can be easily fulfilled by a Double Colorless Energy. It does a mere ten damage but does 30 more for each of your opponent's Benched Pokemon. That means on average you're doing 160 damage since most decks have five Pokemon on their Bench. And some, decks like M Rayquaza-EX can have up to eight on your Bench. And if you get the weakness with the Eeveelutions, you're doing 320 damage, enough to knock out anything. Zorua and Zoroark are here to boost the mobility of this deck and provides secondary attacker in case Umbreon-GX goes down.
2x Shaymin-EX
Shaymin-EX is a staple in all decks, so this isn't going to take long to explain. Shaymin-EX is good simply because of the Ability, Set Up makes all decks more consistent, as once you play Shaymin-EX from your Bench you draw cards in your hand until you have six cards in your hands. This card allows you to draw up to six cards from your deck. If you're out of valuable resources, you can make an effort to keep going. 110 HP is poor for an EX that gives up two Prizes if knocked out. Colorless lets it be splashed into all decks, a weakness to Lightning isn't terrible as you only really get a weakness to Jolteon-EX. A Resistance to Fighting is kind of useless, and a Retreat cost of one isn't horrible. And Sky Return can get you out of a sticky situation in case Shaymin-EX gets stuck in the Active without a Float Stone or Zoroark in play. And allows you to use the Ability again. And that's all there really is to it, as it's a pretty basic card, and used in a lot of decks.
4x Professor Sycamore
Professor Sycamore allows you to just discard your hand and draw a fresh seven cards, effective and consistent, it just lets you get a new start if you get a horrendous hand.
2x N
N allows you to get up to six cards by shuffling your hand into your deck if you have all of your Prize cards, getting you a new hand without discarding any precious resources. It can also be a disruption card if your opponent has fewer Prize cards than you, by forcing them to get a smaller hand size while you get a new hand.
2x Lysandre
Lysandre is great for pulling up a target on the Bench, whether it be an easy Prize target in a Shaymin-EX or weak Pokemon, or forcing a Pokemon with a high Retreat cost up, serving as a wall while you set up your Pokemon. It also can force an unprepared Pokemon out, which can get rid of threats in the future.
1x Team Flare Grunt
Team Flare Grunt lets you discard an Energy from your opponent's Active Pokemon. This can slow your opponent from setting up as quickly and potentially be getting rid of Special Energies.
1x Hex Maniac
Hex Maniac is good for shutting down abilities, now this actually hurts your deck more than it could hurt your opponent, so it takes careful knowledge of when to use it, mostly in the early game to slow down your opponent's set up, plan to use this at the end of your turn once you've made the most of your abilities, or if your abilities aren't benefitting you. Or if your opponent is hurt more than with lack of abilities
1x Professor Kukui
Professor Kukui is the new professor in town and gives you two effects. You draw two cards, which isn't bad, but pretty abysmal compared to other draw support, but you do 20 more damage with your attacks, with up to 40 more with weakness. This is great for boosting the damage of your attacks to reach crucial knockouts, as Umbreon-GX often misses the 200 damage mark, which can force you to make awkward two hit knockout, Professor Kukui helps that by getting 240 damage with weakness.
4x VS Seeker
VS Seeker lets you grab a Supporter card from your discard pile and put it in your hand, which is useful if you have a dry hand. This is best paired with Supporters that can be used situationally, such as Team Flare Grunt and Hex Maniac. Maxed out for consistency.
4x Ultra Ball
Ultra Ball is a very consistent card, letting you discard two cards from your hand and searching your deck for a Pokemon and putting it in your hand. This is great as you can get rid of useless cards slowing down your deck, and then getting a Pokemon. This is your main way of getting Pokemon out in the field other than just drawing into them. Mainly used for getting out the Eeveelutions. Maxed out for consistency.
4x Trainers' Mail
Trainers' Mail lets you look at the top four cards of your deck, and then selecting one of those Trainer cards (assuming there is a Trainer card) and putting it in your hand. This makes it easier to get vital trainer cards into your hand, to let them be used. Sometimes doesn't work all the time, but is usually very effective, sometimes you just grab a Trainer card to discard it with Ultra Ball.
3x Float Stone
Float Stone is a Tool card that most of the time will be attached to a Zoroark or Umbreon-GX, as I mentioned in the card choice for Zoroark, it basically gives all Pokemon free Retreat choice, if abilities are still in place. And giving it to Umbreon-GX is their just to make sure you can always Retreat with it, even you don't have a Zoroark in play, or if a Garbodor is out in play, shutting down all abilities.But all cards are benefitted by it. You can run it if it floats your boat!
2x Nest Ball
Nest Ball is another card to just get out more Pokemon, Nest Ball searches your deck for a Basic Pokemon and put it on your Bench. Use it for Eevee and Zorua, do not use it for Shaymin-EX. Being placed directly on your Bench, you won't access the Ability, since that requires you to play it down from your hand, but using this plays it from your deck, not your hand. Only two of them are run, just because of Ultra Ball's better overall.
1x Super Rod
Since a lot of Pokemon in this deck are really important, having them discarded is an issue, either being knocked out by an opponent or having to discarded early on by a Professor Sycamore, the same applies with Basic Energies. Super Rod lets you shuffle those back into your deck. This could also be used just in case you have few cards in your deck, and need to prolong you decking out.
1x Town Map
Town Map is used to make sure you get out the right Eeveelutions in play since we only run one of each. We're trying to get out them to get Weakness.
1x Special Charge
With Double Colorless Energy being an important card in our deck, it's good to have an easy way to get them back in if they get placed in the discard pile. Which is why we run Special Charge.
3x Reverse Valley
Reverse Valley is our Stadium of choice, with the side we'll be using allows our Dark Pokemon to deal ten more damage, getting our maximum damage output to 240 damage with a Weakness, Professor Kukui, and this. The other side is fine since most decks don't run Metal Pokemon.
6x Darkness Energy
Used as our Basic Energy of choice, providing the Energy requirements for Umbreon-GX and Zorua.
4x Double Colorless Energy
Double Colorless Energy provides two Colorless Energy, which helps us with Umbreon-GX, Zoroark, and Shaymin-EX's, attack cost for a single attachment.
Other Options
Now for these other options, I should be mentioning that instead of giving different counts of cards that we run, that's up for personal preference. Instead, I'll be going entirely different cards that could be useful in certain match-ups or have a certain niche, but I didn't think fit into the normal decklist. Again, it's all up to personal preference with how you run these cards, I won't, however, be covering cards that make it an entirely new deck like Yveltal-EX or Espeon-GX. Oh, also I'm going to be covering these from newest cards (Sun & Moon) to oldest (Primal Clash.) I also won't be covering cards that are releasing in the set Tapu Guardians, but Tapu Lele-GX and Choice Band could be useful.
Tauros-GX
I feel that in the future Tauros-GX is going to become a staple of most decks that run Double Colorless Energy, which we run. This cards specific place in this deck is to give us a basic attacker to use that's not the dark type.
All this text has me Snoring!
We can counter Glaceon-EX, which shuts down our deck, and against Pokemon that has a Resistance against dark, Tauros-GX can help us counter them. Tauros-GX is also a great wall to put up while you're setting up as the more they attack you, the more powerful they make this, meaning if they don't knock us out quickly, we can hit them for crazy amounts of damage. It just techs in quite well in this deck.
Oranguru / Octillery
So I'm putting these two together as they serve the same purpose, poor man's Shaymin-EX. Between the two of these, Oranguru's better for space, as it's simply a Basic Pokemon we can place down. Octillery however, has more power, since with it's Ability you can draw up to two more cards. Now it should be mentioned that you shouldn't ever attack with these two, they both have pretty weak attacks. If you can fit a 2-2 Octillery line in your deck, go with that, if not two Oranguru should suffice. This is assuming you can't afford a Shaymin-EX, which is better and more consistent that any of these for a quicker setup. Now I should also mention that you could throw in an Oranguru if you want to boost consistency if you find yourself setting up quite slowly.
Mewtwo
We'd run this card to help us with our M Mewtwo-EX matchup. For a single Double Colorless Energy, you deal a slightly weaker version of M Mewtwo-EX's attack. Now I wouldn't send this out as your first attacker, it would be a lot better to wait for your opponent to attack your Active Pokemon, Retreat with Zoraork or a Float Stone and then counter the M Mewtwo-EX with Psychic. Really I think this is one of the more unusual and kind of useless option, as it's mostly useless in most of your match-ups. So really if M Mewtwo-EX is a common deck in your area, then including a copy or two of Mewtwo could really help.
Darkrai-EX
Really Darkrai-EX serves as another Basic attacker, while Tauros-GX is a nice wall at the beginning of the game, Darkrai-EX serves as a good late game attackers. As the more Energy you place onto the field setting up Umbreon-GX, the more damage Dark Pulse deals more damage. This serves just in case Umbreon-GX gets knocked out or you need to set up quickly. It has a lot of bulk for a Basic Pokemon. And it fits in well since it uses Double Colorless Energy and doesn't take up much space being a Basic.
Yveltal
Here's the better choice against M Mewtwo-EX, Yveltal as when you put it in play, all Tools in play are now worthless. This is good against Mega decks, as once they need to evolve, you get a free turn to attack them. This is great, as instead of waiting for three turns to attack them, and Pitch-Black Spear is a good attack which allows us to further spread damage on the Bench, dealing more damage on the Bench, but less on the Active Pokemon. This could be used if there are a lot of potential threats or easy targets on the Bench to try and weaken up.
Match-Ups
Turbo Darkrai - Poor
The meanest of rye cakes. Get it? Dark rye! That was horrible.
The Darkrai-EDarkrai-EX match-up (most notably Turbo Darkrai and Darkrai-EX/Giratina-EX) is a poor match-up, simply due to the fact that Turbo Darkrai is in fact, quick! Our deck simply can't set up quickly enough to deal with it, and we don't get the Weakness advantage, as Darkrai-EX is weak to Fighting, which we don't run, nor is there an easy Fighting Pokemon to tech in the deck. Your best bet is to Lysandre up Baby Yveltal and Shaymin-EX with aJolteon out. Other than that, there's not much you can do, our deck is built on consistency, not speed, so when faced against a deck that is incredibly quick, and powerful, without us not having the Weakness advantage, we easily lose this match most of the time, unless they get a really bad start, we're most of the time losing.
Vespiquen / Zebstrika - Even
This deck doesn't have a clear winner, it'll come down to wit and luck. We have the advantage over Vespiquen and their Zebstrika is pretty useless, as we don't have a Resistance to Fighting, other than Shaymin-EX, but that's honestly an easy knockout easy, so it doesn't really give them a distinct advantage, as it just hits the OHKO. But they have the speed advantage over us, and they run a 1-1 Garbodor line, which if they can get out, were pretty effed. You have to get that out quickly if it manages to be put in play. If any game has an advantage, I'd say it's us. Since we play for more consistency rather than speed. Any Vespiquen decks can be very inconsistent, running sixteen other Basic Pokemon rather than Combee, even getting out their main attacker against us could be difficult. Thier best attacker is Mew-EX as we don't have a strength advantage over them, however, most of the time, these decks don't run more than one, and that's not consistent enough. And that Mew-EX has little HP, which can make it easy to knock out. But it's still even, as once Vespiquen gets set up, were screwed, but if we can attack them earlier, we have the victory.
Mega Rayquaza - Very Positive
This is probably our best match-up in the format. We have two attackers that can easily unravel their deck.
Luv u green snek
Now as a player that has played M Ray before, I can tell you that the deck isn't the most consistent, which is pretty good for us (by the way I did well in a Regionals with a build of the deck that only ran one Shaymin-EX, so that's my proudest Pokemon accomplishment so far.) We have Zoroark which can deal 250 damage if they have a full Bench, which isn't a difficult task to complete while playing M Ray, and Jolteon which can give Umbreon-GX, or Zoroark the Weakness advantage, which can be overkill for Zoroark's attacks, and Umbreon-GX, when combined with a Professor Kukui, lets us knock the out M Ray. And Magearna-EX is useless since we don't even use Special Conditions. As long as you get the right cards out, you have a very, very good chance of winning.
Mega Gardevoir - Even
This is a match that technically is not in our favor, but honestly, it's not that bad. Giratina-EX is not that good against us, as their Ability is bad, and honestly, it's not the absolute end of the world if we can't play Stadiums or Tools, Special Energies are the bigger deal, but if we can get them out early in the game, then Chaos Wheel doesn't cause, much... chaos. M Gardevoir-EX does have a Resistance to us, yes, but without Weakness were not dealing much damage, so trying to get the most damage on M Gardevoir-ex not going to happen. Your best plan to try and win is to target Shaymin-EX and other Bench sitters. Don't try and get out Flareon and Jolteon, as they won't be useful against really anyone. You have the slight disadvantage due to the Weakness, but could you get the victory as long as you play your cards right, and have a little bit of luck.
Mega Mewtwo - Very Poor
I can't come up with a funny joke for this.... ITS HEAD LOOKS LIKE A TAIL
Yeah, this is probably your worst match-up. Yes, we do have a Resistance to Psychic, but they still have an advantage. Unless we can knock out M Mewtwo-EX probably getting the knockout, assuming they attack you the turn before, then we attack, and they finally attack. Only if we get the Professor Kukui and Reverse Valley both turns, were not even getting a two-hit knockout. We have to take three turns to knock out one, and in that turn, they can just knock us out. Literally, none of our Pokemon can get a OHKO. That's bad enough, but they also have a Garbodor. Yep, a Garbodor, that straight up destroys our deck, we can't even target their Shaymin-EX with a Jolteon, we lose out own Shaymin-EX's consistency, and we lose free Retreat with Zoroark. They also have a Jolteon-EX, which is useless, and a good player wouldn't play those cards out against you. Your only chance of winning is to knock out Trubbish's and Shaymin-EX's earlier. You're most likely going to lose this match, it's a very tough match.
Volcanion - Positive
Yeah, we get the advantage in this matchup. One word, Vaporeon. Boom, that pretty much wins you the match, with that in play you knock out the baby Volcanion no matter what. And with the Professor Kukui and a Reverse Valley you can knock out Volcanion-EX in one hit. However, what you should do is soften it up with Shadow Bullet on the Bench. Both of the decks can be quite slow, so having a type advantage helps. It requires three Steam Up's to get a OHKO on our Umbreon-GX. They can set up quickly with baby Volcanion, but unless we start off very poorly and can never get momentum, were probably going to shut them down, and I almost forgot, Vaporeon could be in your Prizes, which would suck, but you can still deal damage, in that case, it no longer becomes a clean sweep, but in becomes more so an even game. This is a match-up where having the type advantage really shows it's usefulness.
Lurantis-GX - Positive
The new kid on the block.
Another match-up where having an Eeveelution really helps. The most common variant of this deck is one with Solgaleo-GX, and both of those are weak to Fire, which Flareon happens to give to Umbreon-GX and Zoroark.
This is more of the same reasoning as Volcanion-EX, while Lurantis-GX can set up faster than us, once the initial burst is over, our type advantage starts to steamroll them. Really the only chance of losing is if Flareon ends up in the Prizes, or if we get a really bad start up. I feel that between this and Volcanion-EX, the Volcanion matchup has a better chance of beating us. So take from that what you will, but honestly Lurantis-GX isn't that big of a deal in the current format, so if you have to deal with it, your going to win most of the time.
Mirror Match - Even
By definition going against the exact same version of yourself (in this case the deck,) one won't have a distinct advantage over each other, instead, it'll rely on how you play your cards, and luck. The Eeveelutions are going to be useless in this matchup, maybe Jolteon if your targeting Shaymin-EX. With Umbreon-GX, your going to have to rely on using Shadow Bullet to knock out Eevee and Zorua off the Bench, or weaken an Umbreon-GX on the Bench. Really, Umbreon-GX is going to be your main attacker during this match-up, as Zoroark can do 160 damage, but that's not that much when you could target and weaken up potential threats on the Bench. But don't worry about it, Umbreon-GX isn't the most common deck in the format.
Final Thoughts
I do believe Umbreon-GX has a lot of potential in the current format, the best deck in format? No, definitely not. I don't think it's going to be the most powerful or best deck. I believe it's going to be good, yes, but not on the terms of Turbo Darkrai-EX or M Rayquaza-EX, yet.
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