Help The "What Deck Should I Play?" Thread

[Grimsashi]

You could try a Mewtwo deck or some other Psychic deck (Wobbuffet and friends perhaps) with Dimension Valley, but I'm not too sure what similar Standard decks there are.

He is a big fan of M Mewtwo Y, when I brought up the Mewtwo deck. I might put together a proxy M Mewtwo/Bronzong deck to see if he can understand it. It he can get the strategy for this I am pretty confident he can play most of the decks running in standard and expanded right now. Thanks for the idea.

I have never played Land Bats but maybe try Raichu Bats. It seems to be a simple deck that can hit hard. It also has a relevant type due to so many electric-weak Pokemon like Lugia, Yveltal, M Ray. And it uses bats which he's obviously had experience with! Another simple deck would be Gengar Trevenant. Those are my suggestions but I'm not exactly sure of the play style you want.

I think he could run with something like Raichu Bats. Also when I looked into it seems like Lucario/Bats and Man/Bats or BatMan seem to be pretty popular and play a lot like Landy Bats. He will have a lot of great options to try out and run with now.

I am running a Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade deck. So he will definately get good practice with any of these decks against mine. Once again thanks for the ideas.

 

[Brown_Unibrow]

He is a big fan of M Mewtwo Y, when I brought up the Mewtwo deck. I might put together a proxy M Mewtwo/Bronzong deck to see if he can understand it. It he can get the strategy for this I am pretty confident he can play most of the decks running in standard and expanded right now. Thanks for the idea.



I think he could run with something like Raichu Bats. Also when I looked into it seems like Lucario/Bats and Man/Bats or BatMan seem to be pretty popular and play a lot like Landy Bats. He will have a lot of great options to try out and run with now.

I am running a Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade deck. So he will definately get good practice with any of these decks against mine. Once again thanks for the ideas.

At the cities I went to a few days ago, Lucario Bats was the only deck I lost to.

 

[Doctor Trax]

Hello there forum! I'm a sort of new player, but not really. I'm TCG lover so I've been in contact with the game multiple times and I understand the core structures of the metagame. Unfortunately, my local store does not support PTCG anymore, so I turned to PTCGO, and I intend to be only a PTCGO player. With that said, I like to play rogue, funky decks. I thought about some sort of Jirachi XY-promos/Regice(AO) combo, or the Swampert/Slurpuff deck, but I do really know what do. Could you indicate me a good deck to start building & playing?

 

[kai88]

Hey pokebeach, kai here. I was wondering if you could help me. In my area, regardless of division, entei charizard is really big right now. In my area, the meta consists of the following-

-Small amounts of night march
-A good amount of zoroark
-A good amount of manectric
-A LOT of entei charizard
-A few sceptile
-Little to no tyrantrum, nor seismitoad

I honestly have no idea what to run. I should be able to run just about anything. If there is anything I would like to beat, it's zoroark. There may not be too many of them, but they are all played by world champion caliber players. A positive entei matchup would be nice too.

Thanks, kai

 

[bbninjas]

Hello there forum! I'm a sort of new player, but not really. I'm TCG lover so I've been in contact with the game multiple times and I understand the core structures of the metagame. Unfortunately, my local store does not support PTCG anymore, so I turned to PTCGO, and I intend to be only a PTCGO player. With that said, I like to play rogue, funky decks. I thought about some sort of Jirachi XY-promos/Regice(AO) combo, or the Swampert/Slurpuff deck, but I do really know what do. Could you indicate me a good deck to start building & playing?

I'm honestly not sure! There is so many rogues lying around. Is there a sort of playstyle that suits you the best? Do you prefer aggressive/high damage decks? Balanced decks? Gimmicky decks? Mill decks? Lock decks? Slow decks or fast decks?

Hey pokebeach, kai here. I was wondering if you could help me. In my area, regardless of division, entei charizard is really big right now. In my area, the meta consists of the following-

-Small amounts of night march
-A good amount of zoroark
-A good amount of manectric
-A LOT of entei charizard
-A few sceptile
-Little to no tyrantrum, nor seismitoad

I honestly have no idea what to run. I should be able to run just about anything. If there is anything I would like to beat, it's zoroark. There may not be too many of them, but they are all played by world champion caliber players. A positive entei matchup would be nice too.

Thanks, kai

M-Mewtwo-Y would be your best bet. By utilising a combination of Mewtwo-EX's Damage Change attack and M-Mewtwo-Y's Psychic Infinity attack, you can be both a bit controlling and hit quite hard. You can find an article on it with a decklist here. It has positive matchups on all of those you listed aside from Night March (and Vespiquen), on which you can rarely expect to win, due to prize trade, weakness, and speed.

 

[My Little Keldeo]

Hey pokebeach, kai here. I was wondering if you could help me. In my area, regardless of division, entei charizard is really big right now. In my area, the meta consists of the following-

-Small amounts of night march
-A good amount of zoroark
-A good amount of manectric
-A LOT of entei charizard
-A few sceptile
-Little to no tyrantrum, nor seismitoad

I honestly have no idea what to run. I should be able to run just about anything. If there is anything I would like to beat, it's zoroark. There may not be too many of them, but they are all played by world champion caliber players. A positive entei matchup would be nice too.

Thanks, kai

Night March and Fighting / Bats are also two good picks for your local meta. Night March can trade with Entei, and can one-shot any Charizard that is forced into attacking or is Lysandred out. This is a Prize that you should be able to win. While Dark decks cam become problematic due to an even Prizetrade with both Yveltal XY and Zoroark, but if you're playing savvy you can handle it. Night March seems especially solid in a meta where there is virtually no Seismtoad or Giratina. I'm also guessing Bats aren't that popular since you didn't mention them.

Fighting / Bats is another deck that can do well in your metagame. Again, lacking Seismitoad and Giratina, you shouldn't have to worry too much about lock decks. Lucario-EX has a solid 180 HP, wheras Charizard-EX and Entei's damage outputs cap off at 170- ten short of a KO. Coupled with "Bat damage" any Entei should go down quickly. Hawlucha FFI is also a solid card that can hit a Charizard-EX very hard and can KO any Shaymin-EX you manage to pull out. Both Pokemon can take advantage of the handy-dandy Focus Sash, which lets any Fighting Pokemon survive any attack with 10 HP if their HP was full, so even if your opponent plays a Giovanni's Scheme or something, your Pokemon can tank the hit and deny Prizes. Super Scoop Up also helps with keeping Pokemon alive.

Both Night March and Fighting / Bats have had solid performances during this year's City Championships. Either one would do great in your local metagame.

 

[Pointseeker]

Hello everyone,

Was looking for some help in building a first deck. I started out years back in yugioh both as a collector and competitively. My nephew recently got into Pokemon about 6 mo ago. I am familiar with this type of play and have been learning a lot about the game. I wanted to help him build a deck to compete more at local games and start going to tourneys. I was looking at starting him out with a M Rayquaza-EX as it seems to have high hp and a lot of punch, however I don't see this talked about much anymore. I am wondering if anyone still runs this deck or if I should even start constructing it.

Thoughts..

 

[kai88]

Night March and Fighting / Bats are also two good picks for your local meta. Night March can trade with Entei, and can one-shot any Charizard that is forced into attacking or is Lysandred out. This is a Prize that you should be able to win. While Dark decks cam become problematic due to an even Prizetrade with both Yveltal XY and Zoroark, but if you're playing savvy you can handle it. Night March seems especially solid in a meta where there is virtually no Seismtoad or Giratina. I'm also guessing Bats aren't that popular since you didn't mention them.

Fighting / Bats is another deck that can do well in your metagame. Again, lacking Seismitoad and Giratina, you shouldn't have to worry too much about lock decks. Lucario-EX has a solid 180 HP, wheras Charizard-EX and Entei's damage outputs cap off at 170- ten short of a KO. Coupled with "Bat damage" any Entei should go down quickly. Hawlucha FFI is also a solid card that can hit a Charizard-EX very hard and can KO any Shaymin-EX you manage to pull out. Both Pokemon can take advantage of the handy-dandy Focus Sash, which lets any Fighting Pokemon survive any attack with 10 HP if their HP was full, so even if your opponent plays a Giovanni's Scheme or something, your Pokemon can tank the hit and deny Prizes. Super Scoop Up also helps with keeping Pokemon alive.

Both Night March and Fighting / Bats have had solid performances during this year's City Championships. Either one would do great in your local metagame.

I completely forgot to mention fighting bats! It isn't all too popular, however I have come across it once or twice

 

[kai88]

Hello everyone,

Was looking for some help in building a first deck. I started out years back in yugioh both as a collector and competitively. My nephew recently got into Pokemon about 6 mo ago. I am familiar with this type of play and have been learning a lot about the game. I wanted to help him build a deck to compete more at local games and start going to tourneys. I was looking at starting him out with a M Rayquaza-EX as it seems to have high hp and a lot of punch, however I don't see this talked about much anymore. I am wondering if anyone still runs this deck or if I should even start constructing it.

Thoughts..

If you have played a tcg before, you probably understand what a meta game is. You see, there is a specific list of sets that a card is allowed to be from. there is a list on the pokemon official website. Right now, decks like zoroark and manectric are extremely popular right now. These decks are both EXTREMELY powerful against rayquaza, as mega rayquaza, being a colorless type, is weak to lightning types like manectric. Therefore, that is sort of self-explanatory. From there, zoroarks main and only attack does 10+30 for each pokemon on the opponents bench. Remember mega rayquaza is powered by the number of bench pokemon you have, so you will be fighting a losing battle. (As zoroark is a non-EX pokemon) First of all, I am hoping he keeps his cards in sleeves. These sleeves are not only mandatory, but help you keep cards in better condition, longer. Also, bent and damaged cards are illegal. A cheap and simple begginer deck in my opinion would be night march. Made up of mostly commons and uncommons, this is the ULTIMATE "beginner deck".
I myself play night march, and have had lot's of success. The strategy is simple, use cards like ultra ball and battle compressor to dump large amounts of night march pokemon in the discard pile, attach a double colorless energy, and you are on your way

 

[Pointseeker]

Remember mega rayquaza is powered by the number of bench pokemon you have, so you will be fighting a losing battle. (As zoroark is a non-EX pokemon) First of all, I am hoping he keeps his cards in sleeves. These sleeves are not only mandatory, but help you keep cards in better condition, longer. Also, bent and damaged cards are illegal. A cheap and simple begginer deck in my opinion would be night march. Made up of mostly commons and uncommons, this is the ULTIMATE "beginner deck".
I myself play night march, and have had lot's of success. The strategy is simple, use cards like ultra ball and battle compressor to dump large amounts of night march pokemon in the discard pile, attach a double colorless energy, and you are on your way

Yes I do understand meta game. Thanks for the info on the rayquaza deck, I guess this isn't as powerful as it once was when it came out last year. I might try and build him a M-Manectric EX deck then since he already has a couple of those cards. The night march isn't a bad idea either as I was already toying around with Vespiquen which is the same concept.

As far as sleeves I have told him this since he only had some of his cards in sleeves. Is there any particular ones that work best. Right now he has some pokemon sleeves but they are kind of big and since he has small hands sometimes has trouble shuffling. I know when I did Yugioh I had sleeves that were small and thin which made shuffling a non-issue.

EDIT: Sorry also forgot to mention that he would be playing Standard and not Expanded

 

[kai88]

Good sleve brands include ultra-pro, leigon, dragonshield, and Japanese hyper matte sleves. These both last the longest and are of the highest quality.
EBay is a great source of good cards. Instead of trying to get the cards you need from a pack, you can get the cards off ebay for a much better price, and you get the card within 2 business weeks. Night March got me better results then any other deck, so I would play that over manectric.
(Also, the meta is changing, so watch out for that.)

 

[Pointseeker]

Thanks for the tips on the sleeves. How does enay compare to amazon reguarding buying cards. Also I didn't see how the meta is changing other than the regular rotation of cards

 

[Doctor Trax]

I'm honestly not sure! There is so many rogues lying around. Is there a sort of playstyle that suits you the best? Do you prefer aggressive/high damage decks? Balanced decks? Gimmicky decks? Mill decks? Lock decks? Slow decks or fast decks?


M-Mewtwo-Y would be your best bet. By utilising a combination of Mewtwo-EX's Damage Change attack and M-Mewtwo-Y's Psychic Infinity attack, you can be both a bit controlling and hit quite hard. You can find an article on it with a decklist here. It has positive matchups on all of those you listed aside from Night March (and Vespiquen), on which you can rarely expect to win, due to prize trade, weakness, and speed.

I usually like to play very synergistic things: Be it a lock or a super hard hitting setup. I'm currently thinking about a Vileplume/Regice/Miltank, as it's rather easy to build and it's rogue...But if you have any suggestions, be my guest

 

[bbninjas]

I usually like to play very synergistic things: Be it a lock or a super hard hitting setup. I'm currently thinking about a Vileplume/Regice/Miltank, as it's rather easy to build and it's rogue...But if you have any suggestions, be my guest

Yeah, Vileplume may be a nice option. It's not top tier at the moment, but it would be a nice deck for you to try out. If you haven't found a decklist, you can find one here.

 

[Doctor Trax]

Yeah, Vileplume may be a nice option. It's not top tier at the moment, but it would be a nice deck for you to try out. If you haven't found a decklist, you can find one here.

Thanks for the tip. I don't really mind not playing the top tier decks, as my main goal is to have fun and challenge myself with some neat different decks. Shaymins are kinda hard to get right now, so I'm probably do a couple changes and see where it leads to. Thanks once again ;D

 

[Yo-yos]

I have a best of 1 standard tournament in 2 days what should I play? I expect a lot of generic deck choices, toad/tina, raichu/bats, fighting bats, night march, entei/charizard, YZG, etc.

 

[bbninjas]

Maybe you should try either Yveltal or M-Manectric. They're both quite consistent and solid (and thus much less gimmicky). If you go with M-Manectric, you may want to tech in a Weakness Policy or some other counter towards [F] types; perhaps Mewtwo-EX if in Expanded.

 

[Dusty Starr]

So around a year ago or so I started getting back into collecting Pokemon cards and thought about battling; did some online battling but TCG Go derped and ate allof my cards so I stopped that. Either way I am fairly inexperienced, but from what I have played I feel like I would have more fun without using EX Pokemon, both from not having to worry about getting so many extras of them and having a challenge. I don't really mind losing as long as it is not total defeat. X3

Either way, I don't really enjoy the idea of EX Pokemon, and was hoping I could get some ideas for decks that don't use them, or if this is viable at all. :3 I know I should just pick a Pokemon and start from there, but I have been out of the loop since Flash Fire so I have no idea what has come out since then, still catching up. X3

Either way, any help would be appreciated. :3 If it helps I love the eeveelutions, ghost types, water types, and bug types. Looking for decks that are fun to play!

Also, if I want to get into cities and regionals and such, does expanded vs standard matter?

Thank you. :3

 

[bbninjas]

Night March and Vespiquen are both very fast and hard-hitting decks that are non-EX. There is also the Donphan, Vileplume and Sableye/Garbodor also have non-EX variants, however the archetypes aren't really the play at the moment. You can find many other competitive decks here. By the way, you will ideally need to be using Shaymin-EX for extra draw and speed, like all other decks that can afford it.

For Cities and Regionals, I suggest you check this page on the official site. The format - standard or expanded - used is dependent on the championship type. You won't *need* to play in both, technically, although you'll have a better shot at gaining those championship points if you do go to all tournaments.

 

[Dusty Starr]

Thanks for the info! :3 I will look into those decks. A lot of the pokes you listed are ones I like anyways.

Though on Shaymin EX, is it really mandatory? I notice a LOT of decks use it, but man is it spendy for one card... part of the point for not using EX Pokemon is to avoid the huge cost of EX pokes. X3