The Hoopla About Hoopa — Safeguard Pokemon in Standard

[cardimg name=”Hoopa” set=”Shining Legends” no=”55″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

Hello again! March is now over, and we’ve gotten past the string of Regional Championships in Costa Mesa, Charlotte, and Portland. Now, with the release of [card name=”Lucario-GX” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM100″ c=”name”][/card] and the Collectors’ Tin promos, we finally have all the playable cards we’ll be getting until Forbidden Light becomes legal in mid-May. The only card we are missing is the lackluster Raikou-GX, to be released on April 20th. This means that the format used for Portland will be the same for the next month or so, encompassing not only our April League Cups, but also the Sindelfingen Regional Championship, the Latin American International Championship, the Salt Lake City Regional Championship, and the Toronto Regional Championship. With most of those dates being nearly a month away, we’ve got plenty of time for testing and exploration of this format.

After the back-to-back events in Charlotte and Portland, not to mention the array of Special Events and the Perth Regional Championships, we’ve now had multiple looks at what is possible in this Standard format. So much to analyze! As the title suggests, in this article I’ll be focusing on Pokemon with the “Safeguard” Ability, and how they’ve performed in this Standard format. That is, we’ll look at Pokemon with Abilities that protect them from some type of opposing Pokemon such as Pokemon-GX, Basic Pokemon, Pokemon that rely on Special Energy, or something else. Examples of this include [card name=”Xurkitree-GX” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”142″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Mew” set=”Evolutions” no=”53″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Carbink” set=”Fates Collide” no=”50″ c=”name”][/card], and, most importantly in our format, [card name=”Hoopa” set=”Shining Legends” no=”55″ c=”name”][/card]. Hoopa, in particular, has seen success as the centerpiece of decks in multiple Regional Championships, and as such will be examined even more closely.

These kinds of cards are far from new; Pokemon like Mr. Mime from Jungle and [card name=”Wobbuffet” set=”EX Sandstorm” no=”26″ c=”from”][/card] have embodied this archetype nearly since the game’s release. In recent times, it was Pokemon such as [card name=”Suicune” set=”Plasma Blast” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Pyroar” set=”Flashfire” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card], and Carbink that were the go-to walls, while Pokemon such as [card name=”Regice” set=”Ancient Origins” no=”24″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Jolteon-EX” set=”Generations” no=”28″ c=”name”][/card], and [card name=”Glaceon-EX” set=”Fates Collide” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card] have managed the same effect via their attacks. Pokemon like these are certainly going to stick around in some form or another. Knowing what makes them effective, as well as when and how to play them effectively, will be a useful skill not just now, but far into the future. Before I go into the various ways to play these cards, let’s first look at why some of these Pokemon are so effective in this format, while others have seemed lackluster.

Evaluation Criteria

For any anti-meta card like Hoopa to be strong, the metagame needs two factors. First, the types of cards the Pokemon is designed to counter must be prevalent in the meta. Second, those decks that are adversely affected by the wall Pokemon must not naturally play any effective counters to that Pokemon. If this is the case, then you have a format full of easily countered decks; if this is not the case, then those supposedly countered decks either don’t make up enough of the format to matter, or won’t be adversely affected.

To figure out if these factors will continue to hold true, we can use recent Regional results to try and evaluate the meta. In my last article, I went over the results from Collinsville Regionals to show how to use that to make a prediction for the expected meta prior to the Charlotte Regional Championship. We’ll perform a similar analysis here, though instead of trying to predict future tournaments, we’ll instead just look at recent Regionals results to see what a player would have seen/should have expected. Thanks to RK9Labs, we once again have Regionals data, which we can look at to see how decks have performed thus far in our new Lucario-GX inclusive meta.

With this data, we can now look back to see if our above criteria were met during Portland Regionals. For our example, we’ll use the required criteria for Hoopa, since it has been by far the most successful of these Safeguard Pokemon in recent events. First, we want to look at what percentage of decks relied on EX or GX Pokemon as their attackers. Then, we want to take those decks, and estimate what percentage of them did not have an effective Hoopa counter.

The first question is easy to evaluate, as we simply look for the decks where the principal listed attacker(s) were EX or GX Pokemon. Looking at this data, we can see that out of the 469 decks, roughly 401 of them were EX/GX-focused, with the other 68 focusing on non-EX/GX Pokemon. Of course, this doesn’t mean that all 401 of those decks represented positive matchups for a Hoopa player, as only one of the criteria has been met so far. After all, a deck like [card name=”Gardevoir-GX” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”93″ c=”name”][/card] would be included in that 401, but due to the presence of [card name=”Gallade” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”84″ c=”name”][/card] in the deck, wouldn’t represent a positive matchup.

Now we have the slightly trickier analysis of figuring out how many of those 401 decks had a reliable non-EX/GX attacker (or other threats, such as [card name=”Garbodor” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card]) that could effectively deal with Hoopa. Some testing here can also be important to figure out what exactly constitutes a reliable counter. As one example, would [card name=”Rockruff” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”73″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Riolu” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”66″ c=”name”][/card] count? Given the prevalence of [card name=”Lycanroc-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”138″ c=”name”][/card] and Lucario-GX decks, whether or not they can do this is a pretty big deal. For the purposes of this example, I’ll assume that the Hoopa player is playing a build that can reliably deal with basic Pokemon such as Rockruff and Riolu, but not decks that naturally utilize non-GX attackers such as Gallade or various Metal attackers. With that, we get to 252 decks that fit both criteria, or roughly 54% of the field.

What this means, effectively, is that once a Hoopa-based deck with our assumed build runs into one of those matchups, they will almost certainly win. Given the natural consistency of decks like Quad Hoopa, and the relative few attacking options for an opponent whose deck fits both of our criteria, these matchups will be about as close as you can get to auto-wins. In Portland, that meant that a player playing such a Hoopa deck could go into the tournament expecting to get five of these automatic wins! From that point, such a player would only need to go 1-1-2 or better in their other matchups to secure a Top-32 finish, or 0-3-1 or better for a chance at some Championship Points. It’s easy to see then how despite making up a small share of the overall field, some of these Hoopa players were able to do so well!

Likewise, we can also use a similar strategy to see why other wall-type cards, such as Xurkitree-GX, fail to have the same impact. While Special Energy are certainly well-utilized in this meta, the number of decks that would appear to be walled by a Xurkitree-GX are rather small, and the number of those decks that can play counters to Xurkitree are rather high. In this case, even a single Basic Energy could work for a lot of decks! So, unlike Hoopa, which can take a decent number of games from the opponent, Xurkitree-GX cannot provide that kind of consistent and immediate payoff. The same goes for Mew; while roughly half the field in Portland were reliant on evolved Pokemon for attacking, the presence of [card name=”Tapu Lele-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”137″ c=”name”][/card] in nearly every deck makes Mew an easily countered wall. That isn’t to say that cards such as Xurkitree-GX or Mew are useless in this format, as they can still be decent tech Pokemon — but we’ll go into that a bit later in this article.

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Deck Variants

Now that the rationale behind the effectiveness of [card name=”Hoopa” set=”Shining Legends” no=”55″ c=”name”][/card] decks has been explained, let’s look at some of these Hoopa builds:

Wall Hoopa

Wall-style builds were the first ones to really take advantage of Hoopa’s defensiveness. The first strong example of this was Yehoshua Tate’s [card name=”Wishiwashi-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”133″ c=”name”][/card] / Hoopa Stall deck from the Memphis Regional Championships. This deck exemplified perfectly what these variants try to do – put up a wall, make your opponent expend resources to try and get past it, and slowly but surely eliminate those resources, eventually putting your opponent in a position where they cannot win. Decks like this tend to play little-to-no Energy to make room for a high amount of Trainer cards, particularly Supporter cards. This makes sense; after all, you rarely need to attack, unless you are doing so to further your stalling goals. The Wishiwashi deck only played one Energy for using Xurkitree’s GX attack, my own [card name=”Decidueye-GX” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”12″ c=”name”][/card] / Hoopa deck only played two Energy for using Hollow Hunt GX, and some other builds play no Energy at all!

[cardimg name=”Oranguru” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”114″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

More than any other deck I’ve played, these style of Hoopa decks dominate the matchups they do well in. Thanks to the high level of healing and disruption, some decks can find it impossible to deal effective damage before they eventually run out of cards. This unfortunately comes as a double-edged sword, however, as the deck’s bad matchups tend to be atrocious. Further, these style of Hoopa decks can be easily countered with the release of [card name=”Oranguru” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”114″ c=”name”][/card], as Resource Management easily lets your opponent recover any Energy or other resources that you’ve managed to get rid of, and also effectively shuts down the deckout strategy that Wall Hoopa relies on. For more specifics on matchups for these variants, as well as my own top-64 list, I went over them in my previous article — definitely take a look!

Attacking Hoopa

While wall-type Hoopa decks have begun to die down, Attacking Hoopa has come to the forefront of the Standard meta after a strong performance in Charlotte, followed by an even stronger performance in Portland. Rather than passively whittling away at the opponent, Attacking Hoopa takes a proactive approach to winning, as it aims to take Prizes rather than win via deckout. The general strategy is rather straightforward: you simply power up your Hoopa and go straight after your opponent, 80-100 damage at a time.

As with the other Hoopa decks, this one takes advantage of the fact that you can’t be hit by your opponent’s strongest Pokemon, forcing them into non-ideal attackers. For nearly all matchups, this means that your Hoopa will have the advantage in terms of HP, damage output, and, most importantly, being able to continually attack your opponent. This deck was further able to take advantage of players reducing their [card name=”Field Blower” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”125″ c=”name”][/card] counts in Portland to fully utilize [card name=”Fighting Fury Belt” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”99″ c=”name”][/card]. With 160 HP, even Fighting-type non-GX Pokemon can struggle to get a one-shot, as this places it out of the range of most attacks from Rockruff and Riolu, and puts it above the KO range of other typical counters, such as [card name=”Oranguru” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM13″ c=”name”][/card].

[decklist name=”Attacking Hoopa” amt=”60″ caption=”” cname=”Hoopa” set=”Shining Legends” no=”55″][pokemon amt=”9″]4x [card name=”Hoopa” set=”Shining Legends” no=”55″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]1x [card name=”Oranguru” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”114″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Oranguru” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”113″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Tapu Koko” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM30″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Mewtwo” set=”Evolutions” no=”51″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Giratina” set=”XY Black Star Promos” no=”XY184″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”38″]4x [card name=”Professor Sycamore” set=”Steam Siege” no=”114″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Guzma” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”143″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Cynthia” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”148″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”N” set=”Noble Victories” no=”101″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Acerola” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”142″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Gladion” set=”Crimson Invasion” no=”109″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]4x [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”158″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Max Elixir” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”102″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]2x [card name=”Super Rod” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”149″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Rescue Stretcher” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”165″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Special Charge” set=”Steam Siege” no=”105″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”161″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Enhanced Hammer” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”162″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]4x [card name=”Fighting Fury Belt” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”99″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]2x [card name=”Float Stone” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”137″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Reverse Valley” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”110″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Parallel City” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”145″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card][/trainers][energy amt=”13″]9x [card name=”Darkness Energy” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”168″ c=”deck2″ amt=”9″][/card]4x [card name=”Double Colorless Energy” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”166″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card][/energy][/decklist] 

This decklist, if you haven’t seen it yet, is the one piloted by Hunter Butler, Daniel Altavilla, and Hayden Cameron-Jacobus to three day-two finishes at Portland Regionals, including a 8-1 day one by Daniel Altavilla. For Attacking Hoopa decks, this list is the current gold standard, and the best starting place for anyone looking to play the deck themselves.

Safeguard Pokemon as a Tech

[cardimg name=”Xurkitree-GX” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM68″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

Given the Pokemon-GX dominated format we find ourselves in, it’s not at all surprising that decks that focus around countering those GXs have come into existence. However, it isn’t necessary to focus your strategy around cards such as Hoopa and Xurkitree-GX in order to get some use out of them.

In many decks, simply adding a single copy of these cards can be enough to push your opponent off their strategy, and force them to either utilize resources to get around your wall Pokemon or, in an even better scenario, buy you a turn so that you can more properly set up your own strategy. Importantly, the scenarios in which these kinds of Pokemon can be effectively used as tech cards are far more common than the scenarios in which a deck focusing on that Pokemon would be effective. In the case of the tech, you don’t need to worry about how effectively your opponent can get past your Safeguard Pokemon; rather, you just need to know that it can disrupt them. In terms of our above analysis, this would be that we only need to worry about the first criteria, not the second. This means that the Safeguard Pokemon we may have decided against before, such as Xurkitree-GX and Mew, can now find themselves playing critical roles in certain matchups.

In general, these techs will be most effective in decks that require some setup to get going, such as Stage-2-based decks, or in decks that often find themselves in battles where continuous Knock Outs are critical. If you can manage to attack with the wall Pokemon, it can be even more effective in forcing your opponent to answer your tech, but that isn’t necessary if your goal is to simply buy a turn or two. If the Safeguard Pokemon can help improve otherwise tough matchups, it will be even more effective. Examples of this include one Xurkitree-GX in [card name=”Vikavolt” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”52″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Tapu Bulu-GX” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM32″ c=”name”][/card] decks, or one Hoopa in [card name=”Sylveon-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”140″ c=”name”][/card] decks to help slow down aggressive [card name=”Buzzwole-GX ” set=”Crimson Invasion” no=”104″ c=”name”][/card]decks.

Hybrid Decks

Another concept I’ve recently been testing is the idea of a hybrid deck. Basically, this takes the “tech” concept to the extreme, combining a heavier line of Hoopa with a typically powerful, but slow, Stage 2 Pokemon.

My two favorite versions of the deck so far have been to pair multiple Hoopa with a Pokemon such as [card name=”Gardevoir-GX” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”140″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Solgaleo-GX” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”173″ c=”name”][/card]. You might notice that both of these pairings have a few things in common: both are hard-hitting, high-HP Stage 2 Pokemon, both can accelerate Energy — Solgaleo-GX via its Sol Burst GX attack and Gardevoir-GX via its Secret Spring Ability — and both can make use of [card name=”Max Potion” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”164″ c=”name”][/card]. That last point I’ve found particularly useful, as it allows you to mitigate an opponent’s attempts to 2HKO your Benched GXs, in addition to allowing you to stall longer with Hoopa if necessary. Additionally, both Gardevoir-GX and Solgaleo-GX decks can easily be adapted to allow for Hoopa to attack — you just need to include a few of either [card name=”Rainbow Energy” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”137″ c=”name”][/card] or Darkness Energy.

These hybrid decks don’t have a single strategy; rather, you can adapt your plans depending on what deck you are facing, and what situations you find yourself in. If your opponent’s deck naturally struggles against Hoopa walls, you can focus entirely on Hoopa throughout the match, either as an attacker or defensively; if your opponent has reliable counters for Hoopa walls, you can instead focus on building up your other attackers. In a lot of cases, this means you can tailor your plans to suit the matchup, in a way that you simply can’t with a “pure” Hoopa deck, while also giving you some excellent strategic options you don’t normally have in a Stage 2 deck.

Countering Hoopa

Alright, we’ve established what kind of [card name=”Hoopa” set=”Shining Legends” no=”55″ c=”name”][/card] decks exist or can exist. For some decks, this isn’t much of a concern, particularly for those decks that naturally have strong non-GX attackers. For other decks, particularly [card name=”Zoroark-GX” set=”Shining Legends” no=”53″ c=”name”][/card] based decks, Hoopa remains a much larger threat. With the data from Portland Regionals, we can see that Hoopa decks didn’t have that large of a meta share. In fact, out of the 469 recorded decks, only eight were Hoopa decks! Yet, despite being only 1.71% of the field, three of those eight decks managed to place 7th, 12th, and 24th; well above what would have been an average result. Like [card name=”Espeon-GX” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM35″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Garbodor” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card] decks, I expect Attacking Hoopa to see an increase in play going into the May Regional Championships.

Against Wall-style Hoopa decks, [card name=”Oranguru” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”114″ c=”name”][/card] is by far the most effective counter; not only does it completely shut down their strategy, but it is also easily added to any deck, and can provide benefits outside of just the Hoopa matchup. While such a surefire tech is nice, it unfortunately isn’t terribly useful against the attacking version of Hoopa, as it doesn’t deal nearly enough damage.

For that build, a different kind of tech is needed. Given the prevalence and recent results of Attacking Hoopa when compared with Wall Hoopa, any deck build should prioritize the matchup against the former. To effectively tackle attacking-style Hoopa decks, one needs to be able to damage Hoopa easily and reliably. There are two main ways to do this.

First, and most obviously, you can have a reliable non-EX/GX attacker. The most effective candidate for this would be a Pokemon that can both one-shot the Hoopa as well as not be one-shot in return, ideally one that works within the Evolution lines or already-existent typing of the deck. Thanks to Weakness, this is most easily accomplished by Fighting-type Pokemon, but isn’t limited to them. Possible Colorless-type attackers include [card name=”Oranguru” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM13″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Shining Lugia” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM82″ c=”name”][/card], both of which can hit 120 damage for three Colorless Energy, which is not terribly difficult to achieve if you play [card name=”Double Colorless Energy” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”166″ c=”name”][/card] and/or Energy acceleration.

The second way you can damage Hoopa is to simply shut off its Ability, and then hit it with your normal GX attackers. Garbodor can pull this off without a problem, but typically isn’t a card you can include in a deck without purposefully building around it. The other option you have is more easily included, and that is [card name=”Alolan Muk” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”58″ c=”name”][/card]. Alolan Muk also has benefits in that it can work with [card name=”Zoroark-GX” set=”Shining Legends” no=”53″ c=”name”][/card] decks without shutting off your own Trade Ability. There are drawbacks; this tech takes up two slots, rather than one; [card name=”Alolan Grimer” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”57″ c=”name”][/card] makes for an easy target for [card name=”Guzma” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”143″ c=”name”][/card] before it evolves; and it shuts off some of your own Abilities when in play, notably Tapu Lele-GX. Yet, while Alolan Muk may not be ideal, it does provide an excellent option for those decks that otherwise lack a reliable way around Scoundrel Guard.

Upcoming Events

[cardimg name=”Field Blower” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”125″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

In Brazil/Toronto

For major tournaments such as the upcoming International Championships and Regional Championships, the effectiveness of shield-Pokemon based decks will almost certainly depend on how players react to its recent success in Portland. As we stated above, Hoopa decks were able to take advantage of a meta in which their criteria for success was met; however, that may not hold true as people respond to the results and adjust their decks accordingly.

Two major card choices — a reduction in [card name=”Field Blower” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”125″ c=”name”][/card] usage and usage of the non-ideal Rockruff and Riolu — were important in helping to tilt the scales further in the favor of the various Attacking Hoopa decks that did well. Problematically for those planning on continuing with Attacking Hoopa, both of these choices can be easily changed in a way that reliably benefits the opponent. This can be further generalized as a lack of a surprise factor for Hoopa decks. As such, anyone planning on playing either the traditional Wall-type or Attacking-type Hoopa decks shouldn’t be shocked if their opponents are well prepared for them.

For those attending Toronto Regionals, pay close attention to the results of the LAIC and Sindelfingen Regionals to see how Hoopa decks fare in those tournaments, as well as the more widespread results of Standard League Cups. If the field looks ripe for countering, then it may be beneficial to tech in a Safeguard Pokemon or to play a deck such as Quad Hoopa — or to at least be prepared for your opponents to do so. If not, take advantage by planning ahead: drop your own Safeguard counters in favor of something more beneficial.

In League Cups

For your local tournaments, as always, you want to have some idea of the expected metagame before choosing a deck. This is especially true if your options include decks such as Attacking Hoopa and Wall Hoopa, or if you expect to see any of those decks in your opponent’s hands. If you want to play either Hoopa build, decks to look out for include Gardevoir-GX / [card name=”Gallade” set=”BREAKthrough” no=”84″ c=”name”][/card] decks, [card name=”Volcanion-EX” set=”XY Black Star Promos” no=”XY173″ c=”name”][/card] decks, and any other strong non-GX decks. Even less obvious decks such as [card name=”Alolan Dugtrio” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”79″ c=”name”][/card] can cause a bunch of problems for you! You also need to be on the lookout for counter techs such as Oranguru or well-prepared Fighting-type decks; avoid playing Hoopa if these are popular.

In general, Hoopa tends to be best as a “surprise” deck. If people think that the deck is likely to be played, they are more likely to build their deck in a way to counter it, and vice versa. You want to play it in the cycles where no one expects the deck, and thus no one is prepared for the deck. Take advantage of your knowledge of local players when deciding whether or not a Hoopa deck is a good call.

After Forbidden Light

Unfortunately for adamant lovers of Hoopa decks, the release of Forbidden Light brings with it more possible counters for anti-GX walls. The new non-GX Buzzwole adds yet another layer of difficulty for those trying to deal with Fighting-type decks, as it easily one-shots Hoopa with a combination of any two of these options: Diancie Prism Star, [card name=”Strong Energy” set=”Fates Collide” no=”115″ c=”name”][/card], and Fighting Fury Belt. Alternatively, they can one-shot any Hoopa with a single Beast Energy.

I imagine the future of Quad Hoopa will be similar to other decks with easily-added counters, such as [card name=”Greninja BREAK” set=”BREAKpoint” no=”41″ c=”name”][/card], in that their success will be determined by how effective the deck is expected to be. Again, if people expect the deck to be strong, those people will plan to counter it (and thus it won’t be strong), and vice versa.

Conclusion

That’s all I’ve got for today! If you have any questions about the article — specific matchups, the deck variants, or anything else — as always be sure to ask! I’ll be sure to respond quickly! Either message me directly, or even better, simply comment below or in our Subscriber’s Secret Hideout! Thanks for reading!

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