• When creating a thread in the Deck Garage, make sure that you post one deck per thread, you use the correct prefix, you have the set name/card number next to each card, you give a strategy for non-metagame decks, and give translations for all cards not available in English.

    When posting in a thread, be sure to explain all your suggestions thoroughly. Additionally, do not ask for advice in another member's thread.

Standard Wobbuffet/Bats

OntheMooFarm

OntheMooFarm

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Hello all! I have been playing the TCG for about 5 years, starting with the delicious Gengar Prime and then moving to Gothitelle and Gardevoir. I have now been testing many variants of a Wobbuffet/Crobat build at my local league/tournament, and it has done well so far. The regular decks I face against are Greninja Break, Gardevoir/Aromatisse, Zygarde EX spam, Firefox, Baby Yveltal and Yveltal EX, goddamn Night March, and Bronzong/Genesect EX. Overall, the deck seems to have fairly favorable matchups against everyone besides Greninja due to the T1 ability lock, and it's been very consistent lately now that I have extensively experimented with {and not in the dirty way >:D } Battle Compressor and Vs. Seeker support. Lysandre works wonders. I would like more input from others to see how I can modify this deck. Ironically, it only costed about $40-$50 to put together off of some very favorable trades and a couple purchases from Amazon. Here's the list:

Pokemon (17)

  • 3 Zubat
  • 4 Golbat
  • 4 Crobat line (PHF)
  • 4 Wobbuffet
  • 2 Miltank (FF)

Items (39)

  • 4 Battle Compressor (PHF)
  • 4 Vs. Seeker (PHF)
  • 2 Super Rod (DrEX)
  • 2 Fighting Fury Belt (BRP)
  • 4 Devolution Spray (DrEX)
  • 2 Level Ball (NVI)
  • 2 Ultra Ball (DEX)
  • 1 Startling Megaphone (FF)
  • Professor Juniper (DEX)
  • 3 Brigette (BTH)
  • 2 N (DEX)
  • 2 AZ (PHF)
  • 1 Lysandre (FF)
  • 1 Giovanni's Scheme (BTH)
  • Diomension Valley

Energy (9)
  • 5 Psychic Energy

The biggest issue I'm dealing with now is that Devolution Spray doesn't reuse the entire bat line like Super Scoop Up and AZ, so my damage output is less than what I need sometimes. I prefer consistency over potency, which is why I like Devolution Spray more than a coin flip for SSU and I can sometimes compensate during emergencies with Giovanni's +20 effect and FFB. In short, I'd rather lose with a solid, consistent deck rather than use one that can inconsistently win only ~50% of the time. Besides the lower damage output and the occasional lousy hand, the deck sets up well with Brigette and Juniper and places a lot of pressure on Ability-heavy decks. It's a little slow, but I'm assuming that the lock helps the deck along by shutting down other strategies. I get slammed by the Toad, like many, but Night March hasn't scared me so far because I can shut down Shaymin and snipe their Joltics well with my Bats. The deck has made a couple cool comebacks against big EXs, and it's fun to snipe and KO 50-60 HP basics with bats >:)

I just wish that SSU wasn't so flippy. I hate relying on flips :(

Thanks for helping/reading :)

EDIT: I run 2 AZ because running only 1 and prizing it spells an uphill battle for this deck. 3 Brigette make the T1 (or sometimes T2) setup very consistent, especially if I have a Juniper or N on deck to redraw later.
 
Last edited:
While you have explained most of your choices quite well, I am still going to comment on a few of your choices, I hope that's okay with you.

You have a 3-4-4 line of bats. I take it that this is an error and should be 4-3-3?
Because else I do not understand why you would run 4 golbat and crobat but only 3 zubats, basically wasting 2 of your bat evolutions.
I would run either 4-4-3 or 4-3-3, but never 3-4-4.

I do not think you need miltanks.
Wobb should outdamage the miltanks in 99% of all cases when playing your bats correctly.

Bursting balloons. I feel like every deck that is so relying on damage counters like wobbubats should run at least 3 balloons. It makes the damage from wobb so much higher, makes pricetrading easier, and it will quite often intimidate your opponent into not attacking ( as they fear a revenge kill), giving you free turns.

I think 4 battle compressors is way overdoing it. You are not playing nightmarch or vespiquen, your life does not depend on having your entire deck in the discard. I understand consistency, but imo this is overdoing it. I would say 2 battle compressors if more than enough, that is the same amount most Trevenant BREAK run who really NEED that T1 wally combo. Tbh you might even do okay with just 1 compressor, but 2 is perhaps a suitable compromise, considering you are coming from 4 copies.

While you have made your choice clear, I still think SSU is superior over devolution spray in almost every way, even with the coinflip. Whenever I have a choice between SSU and devolution spray I will almost always run SSU ( exception being M-Alakazam decks probably). SSU does not only help you with your bat damage, it is also a possible escape card to return a badly damaged wobbufet to your hand or to counter someone lysandring something to the active that you cannot retreat.

You have put your dimension valley at the energy section. While I understand the reasoning, without dimension valley you only have 5 energies. That really seems not enough to be consistent to me. I would personally still go from 5 energies to 8 or maybe even 10, with a few mystery energies mixed in to cover retreats. Perhaps I am wrong and this low amount of energies works for you, but I feel it's not enough. If you go for this energy amount you can also cut the super rods and simply play 1 copy of sacred ash.

2 levels balls is..okay. It just sucks you cannot grab wobb with it.

2 ultra balls...any chance to make this 4? 4 ultra balls is close to a golden rule in most decks, and with good reason since it grabs every pokemon you could ever desire.

Brigette..you really do not need 3 brigette, even if you want consistency.
What will Brigette do for you? you will either have wobbufet in the active and grab 3 zubats, or you grab a wobbufet+ another wobb + a bat.
But with enough drawpower your other pokes should appear in your hand pretty soon, meaning those other 2 brigetts will only clutter your hand later in the game.
Maybe, just maybe, 2 could, theoretically, perhaps, be justified, but never, ever 3.
1 copy would be the best, and only 2 if you truly love brigette and intend to marry her.

2 N could work, but I personally love a 3rd N, or maybe even 1 copy of Shauna for a lategame shuffle when N would give you close to nothing.

2 AZ is okay I suppose. not my choice, but 1 or 2 AZ in a deck with bats is mainly personal preference.

Giovanni is situational for bats imo. a 3rd FFB or a muscle band seems more consistent to me.

Just some thoughts, I hope they can help you :)
 
Given your strategy, your deck seems quite solid, except I don't appreciate the "real" value of running 4 Battle Compressor in this deck. Even if the plan is just to "thin-out" your deck to the essential cards, the 4 count seem excessive or just not the most efficient use of those slots as oppose to Acro Bike.

Why no Hex Maniac which would be a strong counter to the Item-locking Trevenant? This is situational of course, but could be quite helpful.

I also preferred running a 4-3-3 Bat line. My thought was that I always wanted an open Bat onto which I could evolve to the next stage.

Suggested changes for your consideration:

-4 Battle Compressor

+3 Acro Bike
+1 Hex Maniac​

I hope you find these comments helpful.
 
DATfairy said:
While you have explained most of your choices quite well, I am still going to comment on a few of your choices, I hope that's okay with you.

You have a 3-4-4 line of bats. I take it that this is an error and should be 4-3-3?
Because else I do not understand why you would run 4 golbat and crobat but only 3 zubats, basically wasting 2 of your bat evolutions.
I would run either 4-4-3 or 4-3-3, but never 3-4-4.

I do not think you need miltanks.
Wobb should outdamage the miltanks in 99% of all cases when playing your bats correctly.

Bursting balloons. I feel like every deck that is so relying on damage counters like wobbubats should run at least 3 balloons. It makes the damage from wobb so much higher, makes pricetrading easier, and it will quite often intimidate your opponent into not attacking ( as they fear a revenge kill), giving you free turns.

I think 4 battle compressors is way overdoing it. You are not playing nightmarch or vespiquen, your life does not depend on having your entire deck in the discard. I understand consistency, but imo this is overdoing it. I would say 2 battle compressors if more than enough, that is the same amount most Trevenant BREAK run who really NEED that T1 wally combo. Tbh you might even do okay with just 1 compressor, but 2 is perhaps a suitable compromise, considering you are coming from 4 copies.

While you have made your choice clear, I still think SSU is superior over devolution spray in almost every way, even with the coinflip. Whenever I have a choice between SSU and devolution spray I will almost always run SSU ( exception being M-Alakazam decks probably). SSU does not only help you with your bat damage, it is also a possible escape card to return a badly damaged wobbufet to your hand or to counter someone lysandring something to the active that you cannot retreat.

You have put your dimension valley at the energy section. While I understand the reasoning, without dimension valley you only have 5 energies. That really seems not enough to be consistent to me. I would personally still go from 5 energies to 8 or maybe even 10, with a few mystery energies mixed in to cover retreats. Perhaps I am wrong and this low amount of energies works for you, but I feel it's not enough. If you go for this energy amount you can also cut the super rods and simply play 1 copy of sacred ash.

2 levels balls is..okay. It just sucks you cannot grab wobb with it.

2 ultra balls...any chance to make this 4? 4 ultra balls is close to a golden rule in most decks, and with good reason since it grabs every pokemon you could ever desire.

Brigette..you really do not need 3 brigette, even if you want consistency.
What will Brigette do for you? you will either have wobbufet in the active and grab 3 zubats, or you grab a wobbufet+ another wobb + a bat.
But with enough drawpower your other pokes should appear in your hand pretty soon, meaning those other 2 brigetts will only clutter your hand later in the game.
Maybe, just maybe, 2 could, theoretically, perhaps, be justified, but never, ever 3.
1 copy would be the best, and only 2 if you truly love brigette and intend to marry her.

2 N could work, but I personally love a 3rd N, or maybe even 1 copy of Shauna for a lategame shuffle when N would give you close to nothing.

2 AZ is okay I suppose. not my choice, but 1 or 2 AZ in a deck with bats is mainly personal preference.

Giovanni is situational for bats imo. a 3rd FFB or a muscle band seems more consistent to me.

Just some thoughts, I hope they can help you :)
Click to expand...

Thank you for the great points! I think that they're all 100% valid, but there are a few things that I think need to be debated. Let me try to respond step by step. The trouble is that a deck can only have 60 cards, so prioritizing these points is pretty tricky.

The bats line was a typo: it's 4 zubat, 4 golbat, and 3 crobat.

I run the Miltanks for matchups against Psychic-resistant pokemon, but I can completely understand why just running Wobbuffets is a better route. Miltank just seemed like a fast, cheap attacker that can dish out damage when my bats are slowing down. But with SSU, that shouldn't be much of a problem :)

Bursting Balloon sounds like a good idea, but how can I squeeze in Balloons when I've got FFB/Muscle Bands already in it? Honestly, RIP Rocky Helmet

I would stick with 2 copies of Battle Compressor. Just enough to get some Supporters in the discard, but not enough to clog my hand.

Your argument for SSU is legit, especially about returning damaged pokemon to the hand. I'll try it out. I'm just not a fan of leaving certain aspects of a deck to chance. My argument for Devolution Spray: if you want to get mathy about it, statistically, .5(5 damage counters) = 2.5 < 1(3 damage counters) = 3, where .5 and 1 are the probabilities of the card working, then times that by the total damage output of the pokemon (Crobat and Golbat, or just Crobat) returned to the hand. So after many games, SSU will generally yield less damage than Devolution Spray. AP Statistics helped a lot with calculating probabilities and means :)

I wouldn't boost the energy count to 10, but I think 7 is a reasonable amount. I don't think Mystery Energy will contribute much to the deck, and I can't fetch it with Super Rod. I prefer Super Rod because it allows for more flexibility with Ultra Ball and Juniper discards; discarding the lone Sacred Ash you have via Juniper could be pretty painful in the long run, if not prizing it altogether! And because the deck runs only 4 attackers that aren't super bulky like a big EX, I like having options to choose from for both Pokemon and Energy. Maybe one Sacred Ash and one Super Rod?

I like Ultra Ball and all, but I think a compromise of three will work out. Having four just kills hand advantage when you don't have Shaymin-EX to back you up. I mainly grab Crobats with Ultra Ball, anyways. Wobbuffet doesn't typically function like your average deck when it comes to supporters and draw power.

*What I think you must remember is that I cannot use abilities other than Psychic types, so maintaining a steady flow of Supporters is key to keeping up with any kind of big EXs that can OHKO my Pokemon left and right. I don't have Shaymin-EX or Octillery to fall back upon, so my options are more limited. I think that's one of the most glaring flaws of this deck. Dead drawing at any point leaves me without resources to stream damage and build up my bench.*

Your points about Brigette are very valid, but the problem with relying on "drawing into Pokes" is that they arrive in my hand at random, and I therefore have little control over the Pokemon I can stream, and when. This makes it very difficult to tack on an acceptable amount of damage for the OHKO or the 2HKO. The build I have relies on precision and efficiency with damage spread, so nailing the correct combos is key to maxing out damage while minimizing resource consumption. This is also why I'm reluctant about SSU, because hitting tails at the wrong time forces me to change the plays I make later down the road. I totally understand why Brigette can clutter your hand late game, but spare Brigettes become Ultra Ball fodder and are easily tossed away with Battle Compressor and Juniper. And yes, she can wind up being a dead draw, but I'll take that chance with a nice Bench than getting a Juniper with a lousy Bench. Having four Ultra Ball, again, cuts my hand advantage and grabs only one Poke, whereas Brigette nets three in any combination.

A third N is a very good idea, not only for refreshing the hand of my slower deck, but also for punishing people that take prizes very early.

I like having AZ because he's Battle Compressor material and he acts as a guaranteed SSU. Having SSU might be powerful, but relying on it can be shaky if only half the time you flip heads.

Giovanni's Scheme IS very situational. I'm dropping him for N.

Overall, I messed around with the damage output of FFB vs. Muscle Band, and Muscle Band can grab an OHKO on certain Pokemon (after bat damage) much more consistently than FFB. It's a good pressure card, and you can be creative with the damage output.

Thanks for all the help!
 
TuxedoBlack said:
Given your strategy, your deck seems quite solid, except I don't appreciate the "real" value of running 4 Battle Compressor in this deck. Even if the plan is just to "thin-out" your deck to the essential cards, the 4 count seem excessive or just not the most efficient use of those slots as oppose to Acro Bike.

Why no Hex Maniac which would be a strong counter to the Item-locking Trevenant? This is situational of course, but could be quite helpful.

I also preferred running a 4-3-3 Bat line. My thought was that I always wanted an open Bat onto which I could evolve to the next stage.

Suggested changes for your consideration:

-4 Battle Compressor

+3 Acro Bike
+1 Hex Maniac​

I hope you find these comments helpful.
Click to expand...

Very helpful, and reassuring! I think Hex is a little too situational, so I'll pass on her.

4-3-3 sounds interesting. I'll try it out.

I'm not too keen on Acro Bike, simply because it only digs down two cards. I'm a big fan of Trainer's Mail, as it digs deeper, grabs me a Trainer, and doesn't require me to basically mill a card like Acro Bike does. I'm thinking of keeping two BCs and replacing the other two with something else. Not sure yet.

Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top