David and Goliath-GX: Can non-GX Decks Work in the Worlds Format?
Take a look at this list of some of the best decks of the post-rotation format: [card name=”Pikachu and Zekrom-GX” set=”Team Up” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card], Weavile-GX with Darkrai and Umbreon-GX and Mega Sableye and Tyranitar-GX, [card name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card] with [card name=”Ultra Necrozma-GX” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”95″ c=”name”][/card] or Garchomp and Giratina-GX, [card name=”Blacephalon-GX” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”52″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Naganadel-GX” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”56″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card]… Notice anything? All these decks use, mainly or exclusively, GX attackers. At least for the time being, it seems that the metagame will be saturated with these big, Basic Pokemon.
There are several reasons for that. First, it became harder to search for Pokemon when some of our best consistency cards, such as [card name=”Ultra Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”135″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card], rotated. If you’re limited in the number of Pokemon you can search, then it’s better if your deck only relies on a small number of Pokemon to work. This favors Basic Pokemon over Evolutions since you need several Pokemon to get an evolved Pokemon into play, but it also favors Pokemon-GX, and especially Tag Teams; not only can they be searched with Cherish Ball, but they also require fewer resources to be searched out in the first place. On average, a Pokemon-GX will trade for two non-GX Pokemon since it gives twice the amount of Prizes; however, the non-GX Pokemon require more resources, since you need two of them, which may mean you need to expend two cards to search for them.
A related, but separate, issue is that they take up more space in the deck. Evolutions take more space, and playing a 4-4 line of your main attacker gets you six less free spots than playing two copies of a Tag Team Pokemon; this is why Evolutions need to be designed to be very powerful so they can compete with big Basics. This doesn’t matter as much for Basic Pokemon, but it ends up mattering a lot in the post-rotation format due to the loss of [card name=”Rescue Stretcher” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”130″ c=”name”][/card]. If you only play four copies of a non-GX Pokemon, once they’re Knocked Out, you don’t have any left. If you don’t have any attackers left, your opponent has won. So how do build your deck so that your opponent doesn’t only need to take four Prizes to win?
[card name=”Lure Ball” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”138″ c=”name”][/card] isn’t bad, but it doesn’t recover Basic Pokemon, so this doesn’t solve the issue. This leaves us with two solutions: The first is to play the only recovery card we have that can recover both Basic and Evolution Pokemon: [card name=”Brock’s Grit” set=”Team Up” no=”135″ c=”name”][/card]. The issue is that it’s a Supporter, and you can rarely afford a turn to play it, if you can even draw it in the first place. This makes it a weak option. The second option is to have secondary attackers. Think about [card name=”Zapdos” set=”Team Up” no=”40″ c=”name”][/card] / Ultra Beasts: the deck didn’t need to play four Zapdos because it had cards like [card name=”Buzzwole” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”77″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Nihilego” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”106″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Tapu Koko-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”47″ c=”name”][/card] to use in its place. In this format, having secondary attackers is not easy, because, once again, we don’t have easy ways to search for them.
You might think that the logical conclusion to these points is that non-GX attackers are bad. However, this is incorrect: in reality, non-GX attackers are bad, except for [card name=”Giratina” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”97″ c=”name”][/card], which is the king of the world.
[cardimg name=”Giratina” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”97″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]
Giratina is an exception to everything I’ve said above because of Distortion Door. Forget about the two damage counters: they’re nothing compared to the fact that this is an attacker that can come back from the discard over and over. You only need to search it once, and then you have, effectively, an infinite number of your main attacker in your hand. You only need to play one in your deck, or two if you want to avoid prizing issues, and you can attack with it for the duration of the game. No Rescue Stretcher is needed. This sets Giratina light-years apart from the rest of the non-GX attackers. Plus, its damage is extremely relevant in this format. 130 damage deals with most non-GX attackers, and can 2HKO most Tag Team Pokemon (with help from Distortion Door and Spell Tag) which, as we’ve already discussed, are the most prominent attacking Pokemon in the format. Giratina trades favorably with Pikachu & Zekrom-GX and Reshiram & Charizard-GX, and that’s without taking into account that its partners, Ultra Necrozma-GX and Garchomp & Giratina-GX, can also threaten OHKOs.
To me, Giratina is the Pokemon that most defines the format. If the meta was only big Basic Pokemon-GX, then there would be ways to counter them. For example, you could try building a deck around Dragonite-GX that can OHKO them with its huge damage and withstand an attack in return. Or you could play Keldeo-GX and be immune to all of their attackers. Maybe these strategies will turn out better than I’m making them sound, but anyone who wants to try them will have to deal with one issue: how do they beat Giratina? Giratina laughs at Keldeo-GX’s Ability, and Dragonite-GX’s Sky Judgment is completely inefficient against a 130 HP attacker: it will run out of Energy before it can win the game.
Now that we’ve established Giratina’s central place in the format, here’s an important question to understand the Worlds metagame: is it really the only non-GX attacker that can compete, or is there hope for other ones as well? In this article, I want to find out what non-GX decks can be successfully played in this format.
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1. Building a Non-GX Deck
What is needed for a non-GX deck to compete in this format? There are three criteria: The deck needs consistency, a reason to be played over Malamar, and a way to beat Malamar. Yes, these are pretty Malamar-centric, but, again, Giratina is the king of the non-GX world.
Note that you can probably get a playable deck that doesn’t fit all these three of these criteria, but if your chosen non-GX deck doesn’t fulfill at least two of them, it probably isn’t worth playing.
Let’s explain these criteria in detail:
a) Something That Gives it Consistency
As we’ve established, non-GX decks have consistency issues right now. Try playing [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”name”][/card] / Zapdos without Nest Ball or Ultra Ball: getting your Pokemon in play is miserable. Even if you do, the lack of [card name=”Guzma” set=”Burning Shadows” no=”115″ c=”name”][/card] means that they don’t actually do much, but that’s another topic. Non-GX decks need ways to search for their Pokemon other than [card name=”Pokémon Communication” set=”Team Up” no=”152″ c=”name”][/card]. [card name=”Net Ball” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”187″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Mysterious Treasure” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”113″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Ultra Space” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”115″ c=”name”][/card] all qualify, as does [card name=”Professor Elm’s Lecture” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”188″ c=”name”][/card] somewhat.
This criterion is merciless: it leaves out a lot of decks. [card name=”Quagsire” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”26″ c=”name”][/card], for example, isn’t worth considering because there’s no way other than Pokemon Communication to search for [card name=”Wooper” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”25″ c=”name”][/card] and Quagsire. With such a deck, you’d have a hard time setting up, something which the better decks of the format can abuse.
b) A Reason to Be Played Over Malamar
[cardimg name=”Alolan Exeggutor” set=”Team Up” no=”114″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]
Say you have a deck that runs well. Maybe it can contend with some of the top decks in the format. There’s something you should consider, though: is there a reason to use what you’re using rather than Giratina in a Malamar deck? Basically, your deck needs to do something better than Malamar. Maybe there’s a popular matchup that Malamar struggles with, but that your deck destroys — but we need something that justifies playing an attacker that’s not infinitely recurring.
This is an issue I’ve had with [card name=”Alolan Exeggutor” set=”Team Up” no=”114″ c=”name”][/card]. In theory, the deck benefits from the rotation. It can use a combination of Net Ball and Mysterious Treasure to find [card name=”Exeggcute” set=”Team Up” no=”8″ c=”name”][/card], Alolan Exeggutor, and [card name=”Shuckle” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”16″ c=”name”][/card], and deal decent damage. You could run [card name=”Altaria” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”40″ c=”name”][/card], and possibly [card name=”Lance Prism Star” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”61″ c=”name”][/card], to get its damage higher and reach 2HKOs on Tag Teams as well as a OHKO on Giratina which, combined with Alolan Exeggutor’s solid 160 HP, gives it a way to beat Giratina. Still, I can’t find a good reason to play this deck, and have to deal with evolving your attackers and recovering them from the discard, over Giratina which doesn’t have to worry about that — and therefore won’t lose games because it couldn’t get a second attacker going or because they were all in the discard. As long as Alolan Exeggutor doesn’t meet these criteria, I won’t try to make it better.
c) A Way to Beat Malamar
This is probably the least important of the three since, in theory, it would be worth running a deck that loses to Malamar but beats everything else. However, this is probably not a realistic thing to expect. Plus, I expect Malamar to be highly played at Worlds and the DC Open, so if your deck is as good as a Malamar deck that loses the mirror match, you probably won’t do too well. If you’re not beating Malamar, you need to compensate it highly in other matchups.
[card name=”Spiritomb” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”112″ c=”name”][/card] is an example of a Pokemon that doesn’t meet this criterion. It can deal 220 with a [card name=”Hustle Belt” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”134″ c=”name”][/card], much higher than Giratina, and you can use Professor Elm’s Lecture to build up your squad. But Giratina destroys it with the help of [card name=”Spell Tag” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”190″ c=”name”][/card], so it’s not a very appealing choice.
Note that there are cards that can help any deck against Malamar. [card name=”Absol” set=”Team Up” no=”88″ c=”name”][/card] makes it harder for them to rely on Jirachi, and Hoopa is a good counter to Giratina. However, both of these cards are non-GX Pokemon that are hard to search for, so they’re not easy to tech into decks…
2. The Breloom Experiment
I don’t know all the decks that meet these criteria above. Maybe, going through them you’ll find an attacker that’s been overlooked and that could make a good rogue deck! My own unlikely candidate for that role is Breloom, which you may remember from Unified Minds prereleases. Breloom has all the qualifications for the job:
- Shroomish is a Grass-type Pokemon, and Breloom uses Grass Energy to attack. That makes Net Ball a perfect fit for the deck. The deck can also use Professor Elm’s Lecture.
- Breloom is a Fighting-type Pokemon that hits for 120 damage. That should remind you of Buzzwole, and of its amazing ability to OHKO Pikachu & Zekrom-GX. All the main attackers in Dark Box also share a Fighting Weakness, which makes Breloom a great counter to that deck. Thanks to [card name=”Diancie Prism Star” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”74″ c=”name”][/card], Breloom reaches 280 damage on the likes of Darkrai & Umbreon-GX, Mega Sableye & Tyranitar-GX, and [card name=”Greninja and Zoroark-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”107″ c=”name”][/card], as well as Weavile-GX itself. That makes it surprisingly relevant in the metagame!
- Breloom will always trade unfavorably with Giratina, but there’s a way to make the Malamar matchup better: use [card name=”Venomoth” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”11″ c=”name”][/card] to snipe Malamar itself! As long as the Active Pokemon is Asleep, you can take KOs on the Bench.
Here’s a sample list to get you started. Credit goes to my friend Ithiel for showing me the deck and building the initial list. I’ve since made minor changes.
[decklist name=”Breloom” amt=”60″ caption=”” cname=”Mew” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”76″][pokemon amt=”23″]4x Breloom (Unified Minds)4x Shroomish (Unified Minds)2x [card name=”Venomoth” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”11″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Venonat” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”9″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]4x [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Mareep” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”75″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]1x [card name=”Ditto Prism Star” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”154″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Diancie Prism Star” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”74″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Kartana” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”19″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Mew” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”76″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”30″]4x [card name=”Lillie” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”122″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Cynthia” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”119″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Professor Elm’s Lecture” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”188″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Brock’s Grit” set=”Team Up” no=”135″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]4x [card name=”Net Ball” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”187″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Pokémon Communication” set=”Team Up” no=”152″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Switch” set=”Roaring Skies” no=”91″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]2x [card name=”Acro Bike” set=”Primal Clash” no=”122″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Escape Board” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”122″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”2″][/card]4x Slumbering Forest (Unified Minds)[/trainers][energy amt=”7″]7x [card name=”Grass Energy” set=”Call of Legends” no=”88″ c=”deck2″ amt=”7″][/card][/energy][/decklist]
As always, let’s talk about some cards in the deck.
Card Explanations
Four Breloom, Four Shroomish, Three Mareep
This is the heart of the deck. You use [card name=”Mareep” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”75″ c=”name”][/card] to make your opponent Asleep, which lets Breloom hit for 120 damage. If really needed, you can use Spore but it should only be used as a last resort.
Four Jirachi
Since we’re playing [card name=”Escape Board” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”122″ c=”name”][/card] to let Mareep retreat, [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”name”][/card] is a natural fit in the deck. Four copies guarantee you the best odds to start with it.
Two Venomoth, Two Venonat
This is mostly used against Malamar, although Assassin Flight can snipe other Pokemon depending on the matchup. Remember that it can only target the Bench!
We use the [card name=”Venonat” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”9″ c=”name”][/card] with Radar Eyes since it can be used to set up if we have a dead hand. Its 60 HP lets us search for it with [card name=”Professor Elm’s Lecture” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”188″ c=”name”][/card].
One Diancie Prism Star
A key piece of the deck, it lets Breloom attack for 140 damage. This is necessary against Dark-type Tag Teams, Raichu & Alolan Raichu-GX, and [card name=”Naganadel” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card]. The latter would otherwise be a good counter to Breloom, hitting it for Weakness, but since it is KO’d back, Dark Box decks can’t use it as they would lose their Energy too fast. Unfortunately, Giratina’s Fighting Resistance means that Breloom won’t OHKO it.
One Kartana
[card name=”Kartana” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”19″ c=”name”][/card] fits well in any deck that plays Net Ball. It’s a good starter thanks to its free retreat and can attack once for 130 damage. There’s no reason not to run it.
One Mew
I’m not sure whether [card name=”Mew” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”76″ c=”name”][/card] is totally necessary, but it’s important. You want to protect your Bench since you need a Mareep at all points that can come in and put your opponent to sleep. Several decks have snipe options, including Pikachu & Zekrom-GX’s Tag Bolt GX, and having Mew is a good way to insure yourself against these attacks.
Four Lillie, Three Cynthia, Two Professor Elm’s Lecture, Four Net Ball, Four Pokemon Communication
I’ve opted for a mix between a pure Elm’s engine and a pure [card name=”Lillie” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”125″ c=”name”][/card] engine; a pure Elms engine would be unrealistic without [card name=”Tapu Lele-GX” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”60″ c=”name”][/card] to increase your odds of finding it on turn one. Net Ball is a no-brainer; and, with 23 Pokemon in the deck, we’re comfortable running four copies of Pokemon Communication. Professor Elm’s Lecture is still good on turn one if you have a follow-up, since it can grab Mareep and Shroomish, so you can keep Pokemon Communication for Breloom on turn two.
Four Switch
You want Jirachi Active for Stellar Wish, and you’ll also need Mareep Active for Fluffy Pillow. You don’t always need both in the same turn, but in order to get the best out of your turns, you need to max out on [card name=”Switch” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”147″ c=”name”][/card].
Four Slumbering Forest
This Stadium is the key to winning your bad matchups. Since sleep-curing cards are as rare as they’ve ever been, you can sometimes win a turn if you can’t get the KO by putting your opponent to sleep and hoping they don’t wake up. As long as your opponent doesn’t have a Switch and Slumbering Forest sticks in play, if you use Breloom’s Spore to put your opponent’s Pokemon to sleep, odds are actually in your favor that it stays Asleep until your next turn. Specifically, there’s a 9 out of 16 chance, or 56.25%, that this happens. Against opponents that you won’t OHKO, or when you’re using Venomoth, Slumbering Forest can also let your Active Pokemon survive until the next turn. Note that some decks like Blacephalon-GX / Naganadel generally don’t play Switch and will have a lot of trouble with this Stadium!
Other Options to Consider
Pheromosa & Buzzwole-GX
Just like Kartana, [card name=”Pheromosa and Buzzwole-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”1″ c=”name”][/card] can be searched with Net Ball and uses Grass Energy, so it could fit in the deck to have a usable, and strong, GX attack. The issue is that, without a Gust effect, Beast Game GX is not as strong, since you need to get your opponent’s Pokemon down to 50 HP or less and hope they don’t retreat. On the other hand, Slumbering Forest makes it harder to retreat, so maybe it’s worth trying it out. Maybe you could even fit [card name=”Custom Catcher” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”171″ c=”name”][/card] in the deck!
Hoopa
Hoopa could make the Malamar matchup better by taking Prizes in the early game. I’m not sure whether it’s worth it, but depending on how Malamar lists evolve and what the matchup looks like, it’s a tech that could make a difference. This deck plays four Pokemon Communication, which makes Hoopa easier to use.
Froslass + Unit Energy GFW
Breloom is going to struggle against [card name=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card], especially since they’re running [card name=”Mixed Herbs” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”184″ c=”name”][/card] and sometimes Great Potion. These healing cards make even a 2HKO impossible and could even prevent a 3HKO. A way to beat that matchup is to include another powerhouse of the Unified Minds prerelease format: Froslass. For one Energy, Froslass can deal 140 damage, which due to Reshiram & Charizard-GX’s Weakness is a OHKO. You’d need to run [card name=”Unit Energy GFW” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”137″ c=”name”][/card] to use this attack, and probably rely more on Professor Elm’s Lecture to help search for Snorunt, but it completely changes the matchup.
Pokegear 3.0
If you change the deck to rely more on Professor Elm’s Lecture, [card name=”Pokégear 3.0″ set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”182″ c=”name”][/card] provides another out to it. It could replace [card name=”Acro Bike” set=”Primal Clash” no=”122″ c=”name”][/card], although that makes the deck slightly slower.
U-Turn Board
It’s possible to run the deck without Jirachi, although if you play less Pokemon then Pokemon Communication gets worse. If you do so, though, replace Escape Board with U-Turn Board so that, even if Mareep is Knocked Out, you can get back its Tool to attach it to the next one.
Shrine of Punishment
As with any non-GX deck, there’s a temptation to run [card name=”Shrine of Punishment” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”143″ c=”name”][/card]. I think that Slumbering Forest provides too much utility for the deck, but Shrine of Punishment does help with some math, especially to 2HKO Tag Team Pokemon if Diancie Prism Star is prized or Knocked Out.
3. Conclusion
Don’t underestimate Breloom! I don’t see myself playing it for Worlds right now, but it’s proven much better than I thought, and it might be the perfect metacall at some point if the Fighting-weak decks start doing the best. Non-GX decks have some inherent issues, as discussed in the introduction, but they also have some unique benefits: when a non-GX attacker can OHKO a Pokemon-GX or even a Tag Team, you have a very good matchup on your hands. At the North American International Championship, some non-GX decks based on [card name=”Doublade” set=”Team Up” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Spiritomb” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”112″ c=”name”][/card] had unexpected success specifically because of that. Therefore, don’t be surprised if, sooner or later, a deck based on some unexpected non-GX attacker surprises everyone with a big win!
Hopefully this article has given you the keys to find such a deck.
Good playtesting!
Stéphane
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