Dude, I completely agree. I run a fire deck and Blacksmith was a really good card, but fire decks were too dependent of it. Now, that it's gone I can use other Trainers cards instead (I'll use Delinquent).
Also, Volcanion ex with Baby Volcanion can be very effective with Flareon Ex, and dont forget that Tools now are even harder to discard so Entei is another good possibility to use (Fighting fury belt + hard charm or assault vest or healing scarf).
@Chris_Freak Yep, these are the strategies I'm talking about. I know it sounds strange, but Steven and Psychic Mind Reading works well with the line up. I'd post my deck list, but I forgot it, at work. I do know my deck list is counter intuitive, it runs Max Elixir and Energy Reset. I only run Valcnion EX and Valconion. I usually can outpace my opponents in speed and dmg. output.
Night March is a tough one. Torchic is needed for that match up.
I have another deck that does fairly well too. It runs Regice. I play rainbow energy with it. Rainbow Energy counts as fire energy and can be pulled off with Energy Reset. In essence, you can charge Regice with Power Heater and play rainbow energy to activate R. Blizzard. The deck is a huge monkey wrench with M Mew Two decks. It gives a round two attack. I run Rough Seas in my deck. I can heal off Valconian EX and Regice. Plus, special charge is an added bonus. And if I hit the max elixirs it is tough to navigate around with the new format. The format is slower. I like it.
Lysander is a bit harder to play. Because he is a harder play, I've taken him out of some of decks. The strategy is to out pace the opponent. It works well in the next format. Two Lysanders in a deck give bigger probability of dead drawing. 2 lysanders, Ranger, and Hex, gives 4 non draw supporters. Non draw supporters are going to be the Achilles heel of next season because it's hard to thin the deck.
When you dig at the cards a bit there is all sort of nonsense out there that works well with Volcanion EX. White Kyruem also can fit in the deck to proceed with early snipes. Not me, but when the pros finish worlds, I think we are going to be in for a real treat when it comes to deck lists.
With the new competitive format, and all the League Cups we are going to have, next season is going to be a bit harder to nail down what is doing well, and when. Next year, might be the first year for some creative plays like the above. Literally, we have the potential of having a League cup (city) every weekend through out year with the new format in every single state. It is a lot of games. It will depend on card shops, and how many they would like to run. It will be more like MOTG tournaments. It's going to be much harder tracking down what is a good deck. It's doable, but it's going to be harder.
