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Standard Trevenant-EX lock deck

TheUltimateAbsol

TheUltimateAbsol

Truth or Ideals? It's all Black and White to me
Member
Okay, this might sound stupid, but what if you did that late game lysandre on Hoopa-EX to deck out your opponent not only late game, but all game?

XY5_EN_19.png

PURPOSE: Lysandre/Catcher your opponent's bench-warming and harmless pokemon into the active spot. Spam Dark Forest to prevent that Pokemon from retreating. From there, Mill your opponent out of cards, or knock out his Mega Pokemon from the bench.

Enter Trevenant-EX. A bulky, 180 HP Pokemon-EX whose first attack prevents retreating. Essentially, if you bring up a Hoopa-EX, Garbodor, etc. to the active, it will not be able to retreat, even if there is a float stone attached.

"But what if my opponent uses that magical-one-of-tech?"
Interesting question. A person usually has 4 outs to this retreat lock. They are
  • Switch
  • Escape Rope
  • Olympia
  • Pokemon Ranger + retreat
Although these do break the lock, these items are ONE USE. That means, when you use it, it's gone. Because Night March isn't the dominating force anymore, decks aren't quite always able to reach those OHKO numbers. Thus, your Pokemon can at least survive one attack. Heal with Max Potion, attach another energy, and you can then proceed to set up the retreat lock again.

"But VS seeker allows my opponent to bring back Olympia and Ranger over and over again!"
Yes... but keep in mind, they need a VS seeker to begin with. Your opponent will not have every resource available to him/her at a given time, and they have to dig for more. More digging = More cards used.
You can also make it unsafe for your opponent to use these techs simply by reducing their hand size. This is done through the use of delinquent, and is actually quite effective

"Can't my opponent just do nothing and win the game?"
Yes, and no. Unlike Wailord, this deck does damage to the defending pokemon. So if they just pretend not to care about their dying pokemon, they will fall behind.

"Surely with powerful, high-HP mega Evolutions, this deck will not work."
Contrary to belief, this factor of the meta is what makes the deck so good. Mega Evolution decks first of all need a lot of resources to get going. If they bench a Hoopa in the process, that makes a prime target to lysandre up and stall the game.
Additionally, Mega Evolution decks face two fronts of pressure. This deck uses 4 copies of faded town, so without even attacking a Mega Evolution, it will still take damage between turns. While your opponent has a Mega Evolution in play, Trap a benchsitter in the active and watch those numbers on Mega Mewtwo scale past 200!

The Deck

****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******

##Pokémon - 3

* 3 Trevenant-EX PRC 19

##Trainer Cards - 49

* 4 Max Potion EPO 94
* 4 Pokémon Catcher BKP 105
* 4 Trainers' Mail ROS 92
* 2 N DEX 96
* 4 Faded Town AOR 73
* 2 Team Flare Grunt XY 129
* 4 Puzzle of Time BKP 109
* 3 Fighting Fury Belt BKP 99
* 4 VS Seeker ROS 110
* 4 Crushing Hammer KSS 34
* 2 Lysandre FLF 104
* 2 Enhanced Hammer PHF 94
* 2 Team Rocket's Handiwork FAC 112
* 4 Professor Sycamore XY 122
* 2 Repeat Ball PRC 136
* 2 Delinquent BKP 98

##Energy - 8

* 8 Grass Energy CL 88

Total Cards - 60

****** Deck List Generated by the Pokémon TCG Online www.pokemon.com/TCGO ******
 
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I love where the deck idea starts and I may have an idea to share with you that could reduce a lot of the decks point issues. I noticed you only play 3 trevenant EX, which is your immediate problem. Have you ever considered doing your trevenent EX lock, with vileplume to shut down items entirely. No VS seekers, no switches. Just supporters. Lysandre the weak pokemon like hoopa, shaymin for total destruction. Like I said, it would be your call to do, but i highly suggest running that. Switch stadiums for forest of giant plants and go to town with the deck.
 
Peter Torres said:
I love where the deck idea starts and I may have an idea to share with you that could reduce a lot of the decks point issues. I noticed you only play 3 trevenant EX, which is your immediate problem. Have you ever considered doing your trevenent EX lock, with vileplume to shut down items entirely. No VS seekers, no switches. Just supporters. Lysandre the weak pokemon like hoopa, shaymin for total destruction. Like I said, it would be your call to do, but i highly suggest running that. Switch stadiums for forest of giant plants and go to town with the deck.
Click to expand...

Vileplume does seem like an instant partner for this strategy, but it's just too much to cram in. With vileplume taking around 6-11 spaces, the list is already tight enough. Even more, the deck would require switching tools (to get Vileplume out of the active), which is very scarce when you have no access to items.

More importantly, Vileplume prevents you from using Max Potion, a key staple in this deck for staying alive. If they manage to get a Pokemon with some energy out and you can't lysandre, you are out of luck! Or the more likely situation: If you KO a Pokemon, they can send up a completely loaded Pokemon and it all would go downhill from there.

It also shuts down your own access to Catcher, making the lock much harder to execute. Although Vileplume may seem like it would provide a tougher lock, I believe it is an unnecessary add-on that would clunk up your own deck rather than win games.


But that 4th Trevenant... Yeah I need that.
I was just playing with 3 because I only had 3, and I didn't feel much motivation to change the list.
 
This is a really cool-looking deck, and I think it could see some fun plays. I saw the main idea (trapping) and thought about the Dual Type Galvantula. I think it could be a better attacker for this effect and makes it harder for your opponent to win prize wise. It deals more damage for one, it only gives your opponent a single prize card (if they manage to KO it), and it can be situationally used to take out Shaymin EX's on the other side of the field. I'm not sure if the single prize trade matters that much because you aren't meant to be KO'd in the first place, but it could have its advantages. You can run Wally to get a T1 Galvantula, and just stall from there. I understand that it could make the deck inconsistent, but these are my thoughts.

Another possible addition could be to run Red Card to mill their cards down. I'm not too sure as to what you could cut, but thats it from me.

Take it with a grain of salt, but these are my thoughts.
 
Very clever... props.

In addition to the cards listed above as "lock breakers," let's not forget Stand In Zoroark (with Floating Stone attached) too.

From my perspective, the only near auto-loss this deck should have is Volcanion which you may not encounter many of those decks in big tournaments. In addition, decks running Vileplume will be a challenge, as well.

Needless to say, a lot of your success hinges upon favorable flips (between Crushing Hammer, Pokémon Catcher and TR Handiwork) too at the right time.

Have you considered running Judge as well for more diversified card-draw support? I've found this Supporter to be quite helpful at key times during games.

Lastly, with only running 3-4 Basic Pokémon, no doubt you will mulligan a number of times, no doubt; so running more Ns and/or Judges will help reduce your opponent's potential advantage early game.
 
Like it! I kinda wanna use trevenant EX too! Maybe you could use vileplume? Item lock would be help full.
 
Ninja boy could be a counter to this strategy. Such as ninja boy hoopa into shaymin sky return. I would definitely up your pokemon count to four. Pokemon ranger and magearna would also be a problem.
 
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Been playing with this, it's some kind of evil genius. 6 wins 2 losses in the client so far.

A few brief notes and I'll come back with more detailed ones later.
-Ninja Boy is another 'out' of this retreat lock.
-As is, evolving the pokemon you just hit.

My first deck edit was to flip the N/Sycamore counts. No harm changing the count to 2-4 instead of 4-2 seeing as a) you're hardly ever taking a prize so it's not like N hurts yourself late game, and b) helps conserve resources since the point is to mill them before yourself after all. I also added an extra trevenant & belt at the expense of one stadium and one energy.

The two losses so far came against Rainbow Road - that Carbink that blocks all our energy removal cards was the difference. And another to a Greninja deck. Even with the weakness in my favour, his constant evolving meant I couldn't trap any pokemon to the active. Plus it has such low energy costs and so many recyling cards I feel like it's maybe the toughest match-up you'll have. Nothing this deck tries to do is easy to do against a greninja build.

Re: the Greninja match-up, there might be ways to win but it'd require deck tweaks, and switching over to a different tactic of taking out froakies with a belt on (30*2 for weakness), while building up to the second attack to take out the bigger fish.
 
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TuxedoBlack said:
I believe Ninja Boy does not remove the no retreat lock effect from the new Defending Pokémon.
Click to expand...

Correct, it doesn't remove the lock. I didn't phrase that correctly. But it means a stranded Hoopa-EX can suddenly become an attacker. In that way, it is an 'out'.
 
Okay so I'm really enjoying this deck. It's serving me well on the client (22W/8L), and I feel like it could competitively be a rogue that can make some top cuts as no-one is prepared for it. Half the fun of the thing is that unlike something like Wailord or Houndoom mill, your average player doesn't realize what you are doing until too late.

The Meta decks it has the most difficulty with are Volcanion & Greninja. Greninja for it's snipe/massive early damage/evolving breaking your retreat lock. And Volcanion just for weakness mostly. In order to negate these two decks, I believe partnering with Garbodor is the way to go. Greninja is a lot tamer without Shiruken, and a baby volc with a belt, still needs three turns to KO you assuming you are without - *if* you turn off steam up. I am still tinkering with a build. Obviously you will start running into bad starts and that kind of thing. Float stones will be needed. Olympia & Ninja Boy could be added too. I think one super rod is a good addition regardless for recycling energy that you'd healed off.
 
Awesome article! With Trevenant, I see mainly fatty Lysandre stalls, and then playing out hammers and other energy denial, eventually either milling your opponent or simply knocking out their Pokemon. Keep in mind you have Team Aqua's Secret Base as a resource to use. Use that, and your opponent is paying more energy, and wasting more resources to get themselves back on track again.

Happy building!
 
Yog said:
Okay so I'm really enjoying this deck. It's serving me well on the client (22W/8L), and I feel like it could competitively be a rogue that can make some top cuts as no-one is prepared for it. Half the fun of the thing is that unlike something like Wailord or Houndoom mill, your average player doesn't realize what you are doing until too late.

The Meta decks it has the most difficulty with are Volcanion & Greninja. Greninja for it's snipe/massive early damage/evolving breaking your retreat lock. And Volcanion just for weakness mostly. In order to negate these two decks, I believe partnering with Garbodor is the way to go. Greninja is a lot tamer without Shiruken, and a baby volc with a belt, still needs three turns to KO you assuming you are without - *if* you turn off steam up. I am still tinkering with a build. Obviously you will start running into bad starts and that kind of thing. Float stones will be needed. Olympia & Ninja Boy could be added too. I think one super rod is a good addition regardless for recycling energy that you'd healed off.
Click to expand...

Thank you a lot for the feedback. Garbodor would also be able to completely shut down things like zoroark, which would usually kill the deck in a heartbeat. I haven't had too much time to test it yet, but all I can say is that it might make the deck a bit more inconsistent given the use of more Pokemon and a need to retreat
 
I feel like really only hiccup would be ninja boy into an attacker, with so few monsters an early ninja boy could make you lose. I'd maybe throw a Hoopa EX in so you can max out the Trevenant off the bat so you dont have that issue.
 
@Yog This sounds a bit unconventional, but have you ever thought of replacing the Fighting fury belt with Floral crowns instead? You get to do less damage (more stalling!) and you restore HP over time, making it beneficial in mulitple ways to stall.
 
TheUltimateAbsol said:
@Yog This sounds a bit unconventional, but have you ever thought of replacing the Fighting fury belt with Floral crowns instead? You get to do less damage (more stalling!) and you restore HP over time, making it beneficial in mulitple ways to stall.
Click to expand...

The whole deck is unconventional, so I reckon you've got license to do whatever the heck you want :D

I've been working on this Garb build. In order to fit the 2-2 line, plus 3 Float stones, you have to remove some stuff. After trying various parts it's kinda coming down now to either the hammers OR the potions. I was trying to do half and half but that just leaves you short on both. In a given match you seem to want one or the other.

It's something like;
-3 repeat ball
+2 heavy ball
+1 ultra ball

-1 FFB
-2 potion
-2 C. hammer
-1 E. hammer
-1 trainer mail
+2 Trubbish
+2 Garb
+3 Float stone

I will try it today with one Crown in place of an FFB. I reckon it's going to be a case where you want one in some matches, and the other in other matches.

Also just a side note, but without any Shaymin draw here, and a kind of low Supporter count, Random Receiver could be a really good addition.
 
If I were to cut a few corners, this can easily be the cheapest competitive deck for any player out there:

* 3 Trevenant-EX = $8.25

* 4 Max Potion = $1.20
* 4 Pokémon Catcher = $1
* 4 Trainers' Mail = $12
* 4 Judge = $1.60 (Or N, just $14.40 more)
* 4 Faded Town = $1
* 2 Team Flare Grunt = $0.80
* 4 Puzzle of Time = $4.60
* 3 Floral Crown = $0.60
* 4 Random Reciever = $0.80 (Or VS seeker, just 16 dollars more)
* 4 Crushing Hammer = $1.60
* 2 Lysandre = $1
* 2 Enhanced Hammer = $0.50
* 2 Team Rocket's Handiwork = $0.50
* 2 Professor Sycamore = $1
* 2 Repeat Ball = $0.50
* 2 Delinquent = $0.50

* 8 Grass Energy = $1

= $38.45
:)

Now if only there was a good replacement to Trainers' mail...
 
Yo I've been testing the build for awhile.
It's very difficult to play, but is seriously so good. Especially the out of game mechanics.
 
Running Vileplume would make it 5 times harder for you opponent to switch. Also, Float stone would let you cycle through your Trevenant so you can make sure they all are healing each turn. Vileplume, would shut down escape rope, switch, VS Seekers for stuff, and general set up. Although under item lock you don't play as many cards, you discard so many things from the Sycamores you manage to top deck.
 
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