I've been running and tweaking this deck for that past few months at every League Challenge / Free Play event. In it's current state it works extremely well, but I'm still open to improvements!
Pokémon: 14
The opening strategy varies depending on what deck you're up against. This deck benefits greatly from going first.
Greninja / Night March: It's not hard to get a turn one win against these two decks. Quite often they open with a single active pokemon which is 60HP or less. If you are going first do everything you can to get a Latios EX out in the active spot with a muscle band and one energy (double dragon or psychic, doesn't matter). Using Latios EX's Fast Raid attack will win you the game. Greninja however will be an uphill battle if you allow you're opponent to get out multiple Greninja Break's. If you're opponent is running Octillery over Shaymin EX you will have an even harder time as the cost for you to attack is much greater than your opponents.
Mega Manetric / Any Other EX Deck: Ideally you would open up with Latios EX or Feebas (if you can get Latios EX on the bench first turn) If you start with Latios EX you need to get your bench and draw power situation under controll asap. This usually means getting an Ultra Ball for Hoopa EX and getting two extra Latios EX's and a Shaymin EX. Use Shaymin EX's ability to get more cards and use another draw support supporter afterwards. You should easily be able to get at least one Latios EX with a spirit link and an energy on your first turn. If you open up with Feebas you'll want to use it as a sacrificial pawn to use Teammates on you're second turn.
Core Strategy: You'll want to use Battle Compressor to get all of you're single supports in the discard. Like many decks, VS Seeker will be your MVP here. By turn two or three you should be good to go with M Latios EX. By this time your opponent will likely have a Shaymin EX out, so OHKO it with M Latios EX. On your next turn use Target Whistle to bring that Shaymin EX back in to play again. You should also be working on getting Milotic on your bench to get the Double Dragon Energy's back into you're hand. Devolution spray is useful here to keep using Milotic each turn. Your opponent only needs to play one Shaymin EX to start this cycle. They will most likely stop playing additional Shaymin EX's if they can avoid it which will slow them down significantly. With Muscle Band you can OHKO other low HP EX's like Pikachu EX and use the same strategy against it as you would on Shaymin EX.
Side Strategies:
Matchups...
Night March: Pretty easy win unless you get bad hands. After the first Shaymin EX they wont want to lay any more down which slows them down incredibly.
Greninja: Unless they run Shaymin EX or you can keep sniping Froakie's before they turn vicious on you this is a bad match up for this deck.
Seismitoad EX + Anything: Seismitoad EX will stop you in you're tracks. Luckily popularity for the toad is declining, but if you face one it's most likely game over
Mega Manetric: Can go either way, it will mostly depend on who starts dealing fatal blows first. They will stop laying down Shaymin EX or attach Fighting Fury Belt's to them. Just focus on Pikachu EX using a Muscle Band if you can't use Target Whistle.
Other Decks: If it uses Shaymin EX you'll be off to a good start. Item locking can ruin you if you aren't setup. This is why so much emphasis is placed on getting set up on turn one or two.
FAQ's:
Possible Changes:
I would love to get some feedback on this and am welcome to any suggestions for improvements! I've been tweaking it for a few months and it's really close to being highly competitive. Should i replace Xerosic with Lysandre? Any ideas on how to incorporate Delinquent and Stadiums? Anything that i haven't thought of?
Pokémon: 14
- 3 M Latios EX ROS
- 3 Latios EX ROS
- 2 Hoopa EX AOR
- 2 Shaymin EX ROS
- 2 Milotic PRC
- 2 Feebas PRC / FLF (most likely doesn't matter which set)
- 4 VS Seeker
- 4 Puzzle of Time
- 4 Ultra Ball
- 3 Devolution Spray
- 3 Target Whistle
- 3 Latios Spirit Link
- 2 Muscle Band
- 2 Battle Compressor
- 2 Switch
- 3 N
- 3 Professor Birch's Observations
- 2 Teammates
- 1 Skyla
- 1 AZ
- 1 Xerosic
- 4 Psychic Energy
- 4 Double Dragon
The opening strategy varies depending on what deck you're up against. This deck benefits greatly from going first.
Greninja / Night March: It's not hard to get a turn one win against these two decks. Quite often they open with a single active pokemon which is 60HP or less. If you are going first do everything you can to get a Latios EX out in the active spot with a muscle band and one energy (double dragon or psychic, doesn't matter). Using Latios EX's Fast Raid attack will win you the game. Greninja however will be an uphill battle if you allow you're opponent to get out multiple Greninja Break's. If you're opponent is running Octillery over Shaymin EX you will have an even harder time as the cost for you to attack is much greater than your opponents.
Mega Manetric / Any Other EX Deck: Ideally you would open up with Latios EX or Feebas (if you can get Latios EX on the bench first turn) If you start with Latios EX you need to get your bench and draw power situation under controll asap. This usually means getting an Ultra Ball for Hoopa EX and getting two extra Latios EX's and a Shaymin EX. Use Shaymin EX's ability to get more cards and use another draw support supporter afterwards. You should easily be able to get at least one Latios EX with a spirit link and an energy on your first turn. If you open up with Feebas you'll want to use it as a sacrificial pawn to use Teammates on you're second turn.
Core Strategy: You'll want to use Battle Compressor to get all of you're single supports in the discard. Like many decks, VS Seeker will be your MVP here. By turn two or three you should be good to go with M Latios EX. By this time your opponent will likely have a Shaymin EX out, so OHKO it with M Latios EX. On your next turn use Target Whistle to bring that Shaymin EX back in to play again. You should also be working on getting Milotic on your bench to get the Double Dragon Energy's back into you're hand. Devolution spray is useful here to keep using Milotic each turn. Your opponent only needs to play one Shaymin EX to start this cycle. They will most likely stop playing additional Shaymin EX's if they can avoid it which will slow them down significantly. With Muscle Band you can OHKO other low HP EX's like Pikachu EX and use the same strategy against it as you would on Shaymin EX.
Side Strategies:
- If you're low on energy or attackers you can use teammates to get back two Puzzle of Time's. Try to sacrifice Feebas or Milotic to do this.
- If you only need one or two prizes to win and can KO the active Pokemon easily with Latios EX, Devolution Spray can be used
- Switch can be used in case Feebas, Hoopa EX, Milotic, or Shaymin EX get pulled out with Lysadre. Make sure that sacrificing one of them wont help you out in the long run before doing this.
- If you need a card that isn't in your discard but you have no way of getting it from you deck you can use Battle Compressor and Milotic if that is an option. Or two puzzles of time if you're lucky enough.
Matchups...
Night March: Pretty easy win unless you get bad hands. After the first Shaymin EX they wont want to lay any more down which slows them down incredibly.
Greninja: Unless they run Shaymin EX or you can keep sniping Froakie's before they turn vicious on you this is a bad match up for this deck.
Seismitoad EX + Anything: Seismitoad EX will stop you in you're tracks. Luckily popularity for the toad is declining, but if you face one it's most likely game over
Mega Manetric: Can go either way, it will mostly depend on who starts dealing fatal blows first. They will stop laying down Shaymin EX or attach Fighting Fury Belt's to them. Just focus on Pikachu EX using a Muscle Band if you can't use Target Whistle.
Other Decks: If it uses Shaymin EX you'll be off to a good start. Item locking can ruin you if you aren't setup. This is why so much emphasis is placed on getting set up on turn one or two.
FAQ's:
- Why Birch over Sycamore? You depend on almost every card in this deck, and almost all of them can be used on any turn or the next turn. If you start discarding hands you will run out of steam early on.
- Why psychic energy over water? If you want to use Latios EX's Fast Raid you need psychic. If you'r putting energy on Milotic you're probably loosing.
- Why not one Hoopa EX? In short you need it, if it's prized you'll be slowed down greatly.
Possible Changes:
- Replace Xerosic with Lysandre. This can get you out of a pickle in some cases where you would loose an attacker. It also helps against Trevenant decks.
- Find a place for Sky Field / Parallel City and run one Delinquent. I would love to do this without ruining draw power. Sky field can help you get Shaymin EX's on your opponent's bench with Target Whistle if their bench is full. Parallel City can reduce you're opponents bench to three and you can Delinquent it off to bring out Shaymin EX again. You can also reduce your bench to three to get rid of Lysandre targets.
I would love to get some feedback on this and am welcome to any suggestions for improvements! I've been tweaking it for a few months and it's really close to being highly competitive. Should i replace Xerosic with Lysandre? Any ideas on how to incorporate Delinquent and Stadiums? Anything that i haven't thought of?
