Discussion What are the Best Plays for US Internationals?

[MewsGame]

As I'm sure most of you are aware, Internationals are coming up in a short 11 days, and now is when you should be ordering what you need, but also begin tirelessly testing match ups to give yourself an edge. Guardians Rising shook up the format way more than I expected, and completely changed what was considered "top tier". That being said, the format is currently in a position where over 10 decks are very competitively viable. So choosing a single deck can be a tough choice to make. Unlike how it has been for the past 2 or so years in standard, there is no single, or few, decks that are the things you have to beat, but instead now it's more of a, "Well how do I match up against the board" type thing. I don't know if that made sense to anyone besides me, but I'm stuck in sort of a loop of determining what outcomes decks have against each other, and what deck has the best overall match ups, and since every weekend of Guardians rising legal tourneys has ended very differently, I am even more undecided. So below is a small list of decks I consider to be very powerful, and contenders, for this weekend -
- Vespi/Zoroark
- Garboder/Drampa
- Garboder/Eeveelutions
- Volcanion
- Zoroark/Drampa
- Deciduplume
- Metagross
- Water Box
- Vika/Bulu
- Greninja
- There's probably more, but I'm just forgetting them at the moment.
So what I'm asking here is what are your guy's decks for internationals, and describe why you feel it's a good meta-call. (i.e. how does it play against some of the decks I mentioned). Also, if you're going with a "sleeper deck", and don't want to reveal what it is, simply saying sleeper deck is perfectly fine. I wish that I was able to come up with a good idea for a sleeper deck, but it never happened. If you're wondering what I'm debating between, it's Volcanion and bees. I want to play bees more, but I need to practice A LOT with it if I do. (So also give me tips for bees in standard please ). Thanks for reading this, and sorry it's kinda lame with no graphics or anything, but this is more informational as opposed to entertaining. Also as aforementioned, tell me your thoughts on the subject. I'm very curious to find out other people's thought process.

 

[Draskk]

Hi! I completely support your choice of Vespiquen (believe it or not ) and I think it has a very strong place in the meta. It has even to favorable matchups with every deck except for Decidueye/Plume, and isn't as vulnerable to Oricorio and Karen as you may think. For example, for an Oricorio to take down two Vespiquens, you need 18 Pokemon in your discard pile. This is not something that will normally happen, unless you over extend. For instance, I was playing Garbodor against Vespiquen, and my Oricorio was only able to take out one Vespiquen the entire game because of how well my opponent managed their discarded Pokemon. Karen is only really bad late game after you've expended all your resources to get Pokemon in your discard. Anyways, I also have a deck list that I thought I'd share with you, bear in mind it's kind of budget-y but I will go over what I would change after the list:

****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******
##Pokémon - 28
* 2 Eevee AOR 63
* 2 Oranguru SUM 113
* 1 Shaymin-EX ROS 77
* 1 Tauros-GX SUM 100
* 2 Zorua BKT 89
* 2 Zoroark BKT 91
* 3 Klefki STS 80
* 1 Flareon AOR 13
* 4 Combee AOR 9
* 4 Vespiquen AOR 10
* 1 Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60
* 4 Unown AOR 30
* 1 Vaporeon AOR 22
##Trainer Cards - 28
* 1 Rescue Stretcher GRI 130
* 1 Lysandre FLF 90
* 4 Acro Bike PRC 122
* 4 Professor Sycamore BKP 107
* 1 Teammates PRC 141
* 2 Special Charge STS 105
* 2 Forest of Giant Plants AOR 74
* 1 Revitalizer GEN 70
* 4 Ultra Ball SUM 135
* 2 N NVI 101
* 2 Choice Band GRI 121
* 1 Float Stone BKT 137
* 3 VS Seeker PHF 109
##Energy - 4
* 4 Double Colorless Energy FAC 114
Total Cards - 60
****** Deck List Generated by the Pokémon TCG Online www.pokemon.com/TCGO ******

I thought it would be helpful to share my list as a base for you to edit .Basically the only thing I want to change with the list is taking out Tauros for a second Lele. In my testing, I have used Lele and Oranguru much, much more than I've used Shaymin. Shaymin is useful for digging for something but Lele outclasses it in every way when you just need a draw supporter. As to keeping Oranguru at two, you could lose one for a second Shaymin, but I honestly use Lele and Oranguru more. I hope this was helpful to you

P.S: If you want to practice, let me know, we could probably arrange a TCGO match at some point

 

[MewsGame]

I really appreciate all the help and feedback! I find your list to be very interesting, and I'll be sure to try it out. I think you're totally right with bees having good match-ups across the board, which I think is mostly just because it's a good prize trade deck. I'd love to test with you whenever you're available, and my user on there is MajesticKarp (Let me know who you are though so I know who to accept). But I think my game plan at the moment is to bring 3 decks to internationals, which are eeveelutions/garbage, Volcanion, and of course bees. I just want to scout out how the meta looks in the practice play rooms and make my decision the night of. Currently I'm most comfortable playing with Volcanion, but I'm practicing with bees so that it's a viable option. The garboder deck is basically just in case I see tons of anti-play towards bees and Volcanion, because both those decks, especially bees, are becoming popular, thus making people want to counter it.

 

[Draskk]

I really appreciate all the help and feedback! I find your list to be very interesting, and I'll be sure to try it out. I think you're totally right with bees having good match-ups across the board, which I think is mostly just because it's a good prize trade deck. I'd love to test with you whenever you're available, and my user on there is MajesticKarp (Let me know who you are though so I know who to accept). But I think my game plan at the moment is to bring 3 decks to internationals, which are eeveelutions/garbage, Volcanion, and of course bees. I just want to scout out how the meta looks in the practice play rooms and make my decision the night of. Currently I'm most comfortable playing with Volcanion, but I'm practicing with bees so that it's a viable option. The garboder deck is basically just in case I see tons of anti-play towards bees and Volcanion, because both those decks, especially bees, are becoming popular, thus making people want to counter it.

Thanks for the compliment on the list! My IGN is GekkisaiDaiNi, we can actually go on now if you like. It is a good idea to test multiple different decks, and both the options you have are also powerful decks. I'll send you a friend request and you can PM me ingame (Hopfully I don't lag out like earlier xD)