Which theme decks on PTCGO are the best?
I have been doing well with Clanging Thunder, Imperial Command, and Destruction Fang
I have been doing well with Clanging Thunder, Imperial Command, and Destruction Fang
PTCGO What are the best theme decks?
- Thread starter pikachuuuu101
- Start date
Since Sun & Moon, the newest decks are usually the best. Which doesn't mean that every Sun & Moon-era deck is the best, just that is the simple rule of thumb. A glaring exception was the Primarina-based deck released alongside Sun & Moon itself, though after recent (and welcome) creep, now all three Starter Decks released alongside Sun & Moon are pretty poor, now.
Mach Strike is the most solid one right now, if your opponent put Lucario and Garchomp early enough is very hard to make a comeback and Garchomp is able to put tons pressuren with the first attack and snipe the bench not allowing to charge a Pokemon on the bench and with Cynthia you are able to takedown absolute everything
With the new two decks, I have to say I have an excelent run with Tropical Takedown like 30-4, its kinda easy to set up energys for Exeggutor attack, in some games I was able to make 120 attacks on the second turn, have massive draw power I easily take cards to put my deck on 6 left while my opponent still have 30 but It had a terrible match up agaisnt Mach Strike if your opponent put a Garchomp on the field especially with so manys 40hp pokemons
I find Twilight Rogue a little bit inconsistent and had an awful Match up agaisnt Tropical Takedown (Exexggutor kills Lycanrock and Raticcate kills Dusknoir easily), is hard to setup dusknoir an the ability is kinda useless cause your opponent probably will drop a pokemon to avoid the 30 damage or if you have bad luck you will not find pokemon, you can get stuck easily lady is kinda useless on the deck, it should be a second Cynthia or something better
With the new two decks, I have to say I have an excelent run with Tropical Takedown like 30-4, its kinda easy to set up energys for Exeggutor attack, in some games I was able to make 120 attacks on the second turn, have massive draw power I easily take cards to put my deck on 6 left while my opponent still have 30 but It had a terrible match up agaisnt Mach Strike if your opponent put a Garchomp on the field especially with so manys 40hp pokemons
I find Twilight Rogue a little bit inconsistent and had an awful Match up agaisnt Tropical Takedown (Exexggutor kills Lycanrock and Raticcate kills Dusknoir easily), is hard to setup dusknoir an the ability is kinda useless cause your opponent probably will drop a pokemon to avoid the 30 damage or if you have bad luck you will not find pokemon, you can get stuck easily lady is kinda useless on the deck, it should be a second Cynthia or something better
Hands down Mach Strike.
A match like this may even be an outlier. As great as Mach Strike sounds, sometimes it doesn't set up all that fast, either. I was fortunate with a Tropical Takedown match versus it, I think: we both set up attackers ASAP, and I was able to triumph because - even with Ascension - it can takes a bit to build another Garchomp, but a second Exeggutor is just a matter of Evolving and dropping a Grass Energy on it (after the discard is prepped). If my opponent had gotten Lucario out ASAP in addition to Garchomp, yeah he or she could have won, but that isn't always a certainty (it doesn't happen as reliably as I'd like when I'm the one running Mach Strike =P ).
Anyway, here are the SM-era Theme Decks and how I'd rate them. Ratings are out of five, with 1/5 being the low and 5/5 being the high. For now, let's ignore the Weakness/Resistance cycle.
- Forest Shadow = 1.5/5
- Roaring Heat = 1.5/5
- Bright Tide = 1/5
- Steel Sun = 2/5
- Hidden Moon = 2.25/5
- Rock Steady = 2.5/5
- Luminous Frost = 2.5/5
- Destruction Fang = 3.25/5
- Clanging Thunder = 3/5
- Mach Strike = 3.5/5
- Imperial Command = 3.25/5
- Tropical Takedown Grass = 3.75/5
- Twilight Rogue = 3/5
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A match like this may even be an outlier. As great as Mach Strike sounds, sometimes it doesn't set up all that fast, either. I was fortunate with a Tropical Takedown match versus it, I think: we both set up attackers ASAP, and I was able to triumph because - even with Ascension - it can takes a bit to build another Garchomp, but a second Exeggutor is just a matter of Evolving and dropping a Grass Energy on it (after the discard is prepped). If my opponent had gotten Lucario out ASAP in addition to Garchomp, yeah he or she could have won, but that isn't always a certainty (it doesn't happen as reliably as I'd like when I'm the one running Mach Strike =P ).
Anyway, here are the SM-era Theme Decks and how I'd rate them. Ratings are out of five, with 1/5 being the low and 5/5 being the high. For now, let's ignore the Weakness/Resistance cycle.
I haven't used Twilight Rogue, nor have I faced it very much, so I'm not even going to hazard a guess. Even decks with the same score can have it for different reasons; a touchy but powerful deck - over the course of several matches - may perform about as well as a less powerful but more reliable deck. Even taking that into account these are just guesses. I've used all of these, but some I've barely touched Bright Tide, disliking it immediately; it has been a few months since I used several of them. Nothing is a 5/5, and that isn't just because "nothing's perfect" but because I want a serious threshold for such decks since they keep getting better so far. Just setting the "top deck" as 5/5 means rescaling everything in a few months when the next set releases.
- Forest Shadow = 1.5/5
- Roaring Heat = 1.5/5
- Bright Tide = 1/5
- Steel Sun = 2/5
- Hidden Moon = 2.25/5
- Rock Steady = 2.5/5
- Luminous Frost = 2.5/5
- Destruction Fang = 3.25/5
- Clanging Thunder = 3/5
- Mach Strike = 3.5/5
- Imperial Command = 3.25/5
- Tropical Takedown Grass = 3.75/5
- Twilight Rogue = ?/5
Good to find someone who actually play the theme deck and your not the only one having problems setting Mach Strike, 60% of the time I have my Lucario prized and discovering this just after get a head with Timer Ball and complete killing my momentum xD
And you are right the decks keep getting better, when Hidden Moon was released it was easily a 4.75 if not that a 5 actually and now is not that reliable any more
Thanks, @WillyCharizard The weird thing is I'm starting to get a better "Pokémon" feel from the Theme Decks than from the other Formats. Legacy would be better if more people played and it wasn't such a pain to track down older cards, I think, and Standard may be about to get exciting. Or not. For now, I don't feel like playing 2 hours a night to keep up with the PTCGO, so I'm just enjoying the Theme Deck mode.
Oh, and I gave Twilight Rogue some time, and if it had released a few sets ago, it would have been amazing... but as is, it is still competent, probably on par with the best of pre-SM decks. Here's hoping this power creep continues a bit longer. I always wished that Yu-Gi-Oh would have continued the international structure decks; using those Attribute or Type themed Structure decks was almost like a fighting-game approach to the TCG. I'm tempted to track down two copies of whatever YGO DS game contained the series, then two DS units to use them as a kind of self-contained game.
Oh, and I gave Twilight Rogue some time, and if it had released a few sets ago, it would have been amazing... but as is, it is still competent, probably on par with the best of pre-SM decks. Here's hoping this power creep continues a bit longer. I always wished that Yu-Gi-Oh would have continued the international structure decks; using those Attribute or Type themed Structure decks was almost like a fighting-game approach to the TCG. I'm tempted to track down two copies of whatever YGO DS game contained the series, then two DS units to use them as a kind of self-contained game.
Try Mach Strike, it is currently very popular due to combination of Lucario and Garchomp. Garchomp royal blade can cause up to 200 damage so this will be KO for any defending pokemon in the theme deck. If you want to find out Mach Strike Strategy or other theme deck strategy find out here.
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For the newer ones I'd say Mach Strike, so good when everything sets up.
I find myself judging theme decks on the basis of "how easy is it to turn this theme deck into something that can hold up in mainstream competitive, even if not necessarily top-tier?" After all, they are intended as starter decks for new players, and lend towards a particular strategy.
For example, I purchased Steel Sun as my first TCG product, and wanted to finish the Beldum lines. The only Metagross available in Standard at the time was Metagross-GX, whose ability can recycle energy. So for competitive decks, a Steel Sun theme deck could eventually evolve into Metagross-GX/Solgaleo-GX, Metagross-GX/Necrozma-GX, or a Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX variant. A Mach Strike deck might include the Fighting-type versions of the Garchomp line so they can use Brooklet Hill, Strong Energy, Diancie Prism Star, etc. And a Twilight Rogue deck might have BKT Zoroark and/or Zoroark-GX in it, as well as Lycanroc-GX, which can turn into, of course, BuzzRoc.
For example, I purchased Steel Sun as my first TCG product, and wanted to finish the Beldum lines. The only Metagross available in Standard at the time was Metagross-GX, whose ability can recycle energy. So for competitive decks, a Steel Sun theme deck could eventually evolve into Metagross-GX/Solgaleo-GX, Metagross-GX/Necrozma-GX, or a Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX variant. A Mach Strike deck might include the Fighting-type versions of the Garchomp line so they can use Brooklet Hill, Strong Energy, Diancie Prism Star, etc. And a Twilight Rogue deck might have BKT Zoroark and/or Zoroark-GX in it, as well as Lycanroc-GX, which can turn into, of course, BuzzRoc.
Except this is about the PTCGO, and the original post makes it pretty clear that we are discussing their value in the Theme Format of the PTCGO.
Plus, Mach Strike is still a good Theme Deck for someone trying to build "My first deck."
You buy two, and you can create "My First Budget Deck", at least. ^^'
Mach strike is good, the empoleon one is slightly worse but you can make a pretty good deck if you buy 2 copies of it