More on Pidgeotto Control — 2nd Place at Atlantic City and Still Looking Strong
[cardimg name=”Pidgeotto” set=”Team Up” no=”123″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]
Hello everyone! This is Grant Manley here, this time coming off a second-place finish at the first US Regional of the season. I played [card name=”Pidgeotto” set=”Team Up” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] Control, one of the decks I wrote about in my last article, but with a twist. On the Thursday night before the tournament, my friend, Chip, suggested playing [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”name”][/card] in the deck. With no time to test, as Friday was spent in the car, we actually decided to include four copies of Jirachi. Up until that point, I fully intended on playing the 60 cards that I posted in my last article. Today I want to go over Pidgeotto Control a bit more in-depth. I more or less scratched the surface last time because I also discussed my pet deck that was essentially just [card name=”Shedinja” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”95″ c=”name”][/card] / Beast Box, which I still think has merit.
Jirachi in Pidgeotto Control
After playing the Jirachi version of Pidgeotto Control, I strongly believe that it is the superior version of the deck. I also really like the 60 cards that I chose to play in Atlantic City, and I think that’s the optimal 60 going forward. Here’s the list:
[decklist name=”Pigeotto Control” amt=”60″ caption=”” cname=”Articuno-GX” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”31″][pokemon amt=”19″]4x [card name=”Oranguru” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”114″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Pidgeotto” set=”Team Up” no=”123″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Pidgey” set=”Team Up” no=”122″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]1x [card name=”Pidgey” set=”Team Up” no=”121″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]4x [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM161″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]1x [card name=”Ditto Prism Star” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”154″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]2x [card name=”Articuno-GX” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”31″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”37″]4x [card name=”Professor Elm’s Lecture” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”188″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]2x [card name=”Mars” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”128″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Lt. Surge’s Strategy” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”178″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Tate and Liza” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”148″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Jessie and James” set=”Hidden Fates” no=”58″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Cynthia” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”119″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]4x [card name=”Pokégear 3.0″ set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”182″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Acro Bike” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”123″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Crushing Hammer” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”166″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Custom Catcher” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”171″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Reset Stamp” set=”Unified Minds” no=”206″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Chip-Chip Ice Axe” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”165″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Pal Pad” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”132″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Escape Board” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”122″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]3x [card name=”Power Plant” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”183″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”3″][/card][/trainers][energy amt=”4″]1x [card name=”Recycle Energy” set=”Unified Minds” no=”212″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]3x [card name=”Water Energy” set=”XY” no=”134″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card][/energy][/decklist]
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For a more general idea of what this deck does and how it plays, I’m going to have to refer you to my last article. I want to talk about the inclusion of Jirachi; while the concept is that more Jirachi equals more consistency, its uses are a bit more specific than that. Without Jirachi, this deck was prone to extremely weak opening hands and early games – if you didn’t get [card name=”Professor Elm’s Lecture” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”188″ c=”name”][/card] turn 1, it was going to be a wild ride. If you didn’t find Professor Elm’s Lecture by turn 2, it was going to be downright rough, and Jirachi somewhat alleviates this so I wanted to run four copies to improve consistency as much as possible. Starting with Jirachi, or drawing it on turn 1, makes the early game so much better; it greatly increases the turn 1 Professor Elm’s Lecture odds. It also allows for more frequent turn 1 and turn 2 Professor Elm’s Lecture plays, which is ideal.
With the one [card name=”Escape Board” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”122″ c=”name”][/card], Jirachi is an excellent pivot throughout the game but no more than one Escape Board is needed, and I’ve found the one copy to be enough. You can usually find it soon enough if it isn’t in your Prizes. Not only do you get a free Stellar Wish after your Active is KO’d, but you get a free Stellar Wish every time you use [card name=”Tate and Liza” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”148″ c=”name”][/card] for the switch effect! Additionally, since you don’t need to use Resource Management every turn when you’re sacrificing Prize cards, you can sacrifice a Jirachi without Escape Board just to get use out of Stellar Wish. If you aren’t constantly losing [card name=”Oranguru” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”114″ c=”name”][/card], you won’t have to spend a Resource Management slot putting another Oranguru back as often.
Finally, [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”name”][/card] helps recover from [card name=”Judge” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Reset Stamp” set=”Unified Minds” no=”206″ c=”name”][/card]. Thanks to [card name=”Pidgeotto” set=”Team Up” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] and Jirachi combined, you can frequently find a combo off an opposing Reset Stamp to six.
The Cuts for Jirachi
[cardimg name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]
Deciding what to cut to make space for four Jirachi was a bit difficult. We (me and Chip) ended up getting rid of [card name=”Pokémon Communication” set=”Team Up” no=”152″ c=”name”][/card] entirely, as well as the second [card name=”Cynthia” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”119″ c=”name”][/card]. The reasoning for this was that we were cutting consistency cards for better consistency cards. The Pokemon Communication cut also made sense with our other cuts: [card name=”Mew” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”76″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Girafarig” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”94″ c=”name”][/card]. The more we thought about Mew, the more useless it seemed. Clearly [card name=”Pikachu and Zekrom-GX” set=”Team Up” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card] favors Full Voltage GX over Tag Bolt GX in the matchup anyway, and Venom Shot from other decks isn’t a huge issue either. The main use for Mew in my testing was actually as an attacker against [card name=”Malamar” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”51″ c=”name”][/card]. Not only could Mew start attacking quickly because it only required one Energy, but a KO from Psypower could take out an opposing Mew or [card name=”Mimikyu” set=”Guardians Rising” no=”58″ c=”name”][/card] without triggering [card name=”Spell Tag” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”190″ c=”name”][/card]. However, I’d rather have Jirachi than a niche option against Malamar.
Girafarig was the most difficult cut, but I think it was right in the end. Girafarig has marginal utility against [card name=”Mewtwo and Mew-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”71″ c=”name”][/card] and Malamar decks, however, in testing, we found it wasn’t all that crucial to winning either matchup. Girafarig was still a favorite in the list because I wanted to have a win condition against other stall decks such as mirror matches and infinite [card name=”Poipole” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”55″ c=”name”][/card]. In all likelihood though, you’ll still tie against the mirror in swiss even with Girafarig, so it isn’t an extremely useful card overall.
For the Escape Board, the second [card name=”Recycle Energy” set=”Unified Minds” no=”212″ c=”name”][/card] was an easy cut. In the previous iteration of this deck, Recycle Energy was often used as a retreating pivot so you were still in a good spot even if you didn’t always have a second Oranguru on the board. The Escape Board takes that role by turning Jirachi into a pivot. I still would like a second Recycle Energy in the deck, but it was a fine cut.
Matchups
More on the Mewtwo and Mew-GX Matchup
In the finals of both Atlantic City and Cologne Regionals, Pidgeotto Control lost to Mewtwo and Mew-GX. Because of this, and because of the threat that an early Cross Division GX poses to the birds, a lot of people think that Mewtwo and Mew-GX is favored against Pidgeotto, however, this is not the case. To be honest, I thought Azul’s build was my easiest matchup in the entire Top 8 bracket. It was ironic that I lost to him yet beat my two more difficult matchups. In testing, Chip and I went somewhere in the range of 10-2 or 11-2 against Mewtwo and Mew-GX (with [card name=”Marshadow” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”81″ c=”name”][/card]). This was before Jirachi, so the two losses were due to bricks on Pidgeotto’s part. This figure is not an exaggeration; it was the matchup we tested the most. We used Girafarig sometimes and found it to not be terribly effective.
Their best option is to try and get the turn 2 Cross Division GX for 20 damage counters, but this is not easy to do. They have to draw very well in the first place and you need to flip tails on all available [card name=”Crushing Hammer” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”115″ c=”name”][/card], though you sometimes won’t find any right away. Even if they achieve that, it’s not hard to get back into the game with some combination of [card name=”Power Plant” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”183″ c=”name”][/card], Reset Stamp, and Cold Crush GX. After all, they have to commit a lot of Energy to that play. If they don’t pull off the board wipe with Cross Division GX, the matchup is completely free because they cannot beat the multiple Power Plant combined with Crushing Hammer spam and the normal hand lock strategy.
Is Malamar a Bad Matchup?
In testing, Malamar seemed like a decent matchup. The route we went was with [card name=”Mimikyu” set=”Sun and Moon Black Star Promos” no=”SM99″ c=”name”][/card] to copy Resource Management as often as possible to try and get an ideal deck. I tried to thin out my hand of all the useless cards and I did not rely on Mew as much because it could be easily KO’d. I would also use [card name=”Giratina” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”97″ c=”name”][/card] to take Prizes here and there, and just hoped to draw out of the lock. Against Michael Catron in the actual tournament, he never used Mimikyu at all, though he still kept it around for the option. He ran two Mew, and used as many Psypower as possible to set up a game-winning Cross Division GX. My response was to try and stall Malamar active. In theory, he would be forced to use Mimikyu eventually, at which point I would KO it and continue dragging Malamar active.
All of our games played out weirdly, so it was hard to tell exactly what was “supposed” to happen. I wasn’t sure what strategy he would go for until we played each other in Swiss. Near the end of the game, we chose to ID because we couldn’t tell who was going to win. In Top 8, I actually locked him game 1 but couldn’t quite deck him out because I prized [card name=”Jessie and James” set=”Hidden Fates” no=”58″ c=”name”][/card]; The best I could do was use [card name=”Mars” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”128″ c=”name”][/card] every turn until the end of the game, and try to use Reset Stamp and Mars to hit his last [card name=”Switch” set=”EX Delta Species” no=”102″ c=”name”][/card]. I wasn’t able to lock him game 2 but won because he made a critical error of using his last Switch at an unimportant time. I got lucky in game 3, winning by taking a Prize in time because he had a completely dead opening hand. I left feeling like the matchup is unfavorable for Pidgeotto, especially with his second Mew. It would probably be worse if the Malamar player runs [card name=”Jynx” set=”Team Up” no=”68″ c=”name”][/card]. Either way though, the matchup is still winnable for Pidgeotto, just not great.
Pikachu and Zekrom-GX Popularity
In the tournament, I only managed to go 50-50 against Pikachu and Zekrom-GX, but that’s only because of some weird extenuating circumstances (and bad luck) that I need not go into right now. Pikachu and Zekrom-GX is a very favorable matchup for [card name=”Pidgeotto” set=”Team Up” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card], and I believe that PikaRom’s growing popularity is good for Pidgeotto. Even with no Mew in the Pidgeotto list, they still tend to favor Full Voltage GX over Tag Bolt GX, but of course, you need to watch out for Tag Bolt once they get to two or three Prizes remaining. The normal hand lock strategy works against PikaRom more often than not.
Other Matchups
Decks like Ability [card name=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Blacephalon-GX” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”52″ c=”name”][/card] were extremely easy in testing and in the tournament. I went 4-0 against Blacephalon variants and 1-0 against Ability Reshiram and Charizard-GX. I believe Chip also went undefeated against these decks. I didn’t run into any [card name=”Gardevoir and Sylveon-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”130″ c=”name”][/card], but that matchup is nearly an auto-win. The same goes for [card name=”Green’s Exploration” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”175″ c=”name”][/card] / Reshiram and Charizard-GX, I easily 2-0’d both the Green’s Exploration / Reshiram and Charizard-GX builds I played against. All of these decks don’t have options to deal with the hand lock. Pidgeotto Control easily exploits their linear strategies.
Surprisingly, there ended up being two [card name=”Quagsire” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”26″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Naganadel” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card] decks in the Top 16 of Atlantic City. Fortunately, I didn’t have to play against any of them during the tournament. The matchup is atrocious and there’s really nothing that Pidgeotto can do to beat them.
Playing the Deck Correctly
First of all, you have to play fast! You also can only play this deck in a best-of-three setting with at least 50 minutes on the clock. If you don’t play fast, an opponent playing slow could potentially tie a 50-minute game 1. I had a few first games take a long time, and I play very fast. Against Pidgeotto Control, it’s correct to concede once they’ve locked you and try to win game 2 normally and then tie overall, however, some people will drag out the entire game 1, so you have to play fast.
For the early game, you ideally want to play [card name=”Professor Elm’s Lecture” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”188″ c=”name”][/card] on both turn 1 and turn 2. What isn’t always obvious is the proper sequencing to get there. To be honest, I’m not yet a master of the sequencing myself. If I start with [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”name”][/card] and have the choice between Stellar Wish and [card name=”Pokégear 3.0″ set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”182″ c=”name”][/card], I usually use Stellar Wish first. This can find me the Professor Elm’s Lecture so I can save the Pokegear 3.0, or it can find me another Pokegear 3.0. At the very least, it can thin out a non-Supporter card to increase my odds of finding Professor Elm’s Lecture off the Pokegear 3.0. Even before Stellar Wish though, I’ll usually use any [card name=”Acro Bike” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] first to reach further into the deck. If I use Elm, have [card name=”Pal Pad” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”132″ c=”name”][/card] in my hand, and don’t have another Professor Elm’s Lecture by the end of the turn, I’ll often use the Pal Pad to put the Professor Elm’s Lecture I just played back into the deck. This increases my odds of finding Professor Elm’s Lecture on turn 2, and it thins a Pal Pad out that I likely won’t need until much later.
If I get Professor Elm’s Lecture on my first turn and want another one on my second turn, what I do depends on my options in hand. If you don’t have any Supporter in hand, many of the previously mentioned sequencing rules apply. Sometimes I will use Pokegear 3.0 but save any available Air Mail and Stellar Wish if it looks like I may use a shuffle-draw Supporter that turn. I usually want to have Air Mail and Stellar Wish available on the back end of shuffle-draw Supporters, even if it prevents me from digging harder for Professor Elm’s Lecture. As always, there are exceptions to every rule, the game of Pokemon constantly presents us with unique situations, so the right play may be unconventional at times.
[cardimg name=”Custom Catcher” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”171″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]
Don’t forget that [card name=”Custom Catcher” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”171″ c=”name”][/card] can actually be an important draw card. Every now and then, my hand looks bad, but I can play it out and use Custom Catcher to draw two or three cards. Air Mail is often best saved until the other end of the Custom Catcher play.
Keep in mind that Pokegear 3.0, [card name=”Professor Elm’s Lecture” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”188″ c=”name”][/card], Pal Pad, and Stellar Wish can sometimes be useful just to shuffle the deck. When you put cards back onto the bottom with Resource Management, you may want to shuffle the deck to try and draw those cards with Air Mail.
Your mid game is usually focused on assembling the combo pieces to hit your opponent with the lock once they go down to three, two, or even one Prize. You also want to thin out cards that won’t be useful in case your opponent hits you with a [card name=”Reset Stamp” set=”Unified Minds” no=”206″ c=”name”][/card] or a [card name=”Judge” set=”Forbidden Light” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card]. Just feed them [card name=”Jirachi” set=”Team Up” no=”99″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Oranguru” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”114″ c=”name”][/card] until you can hit them with the full combo. Don’t try to go in with Cold Crush GX or Reset Stamp unless you have the complete lock ready to go.
Once your opponent is locked, it’s all about decking them out as fast as possible. The exceptions to this are against Green’s Exploration / Reshiram and Charizard-GX and sometimes Blacephalon-GX. Against those decks, [card name=”Articuno-GX” set=”Celestial Storm” no=”31″ c=”name”][/card] can potentially sweep them for a faster game. This was useful for me once during the tournament; I had two Energy in my Prizes against Blacephalon-GX and wasn’t able to beat the lone [card name=”Naganadel” set=”Lost Thunder” no=”108″ c=”name”][/card] strategy so I was forced to concede the first game. Thanks to Articuno-GX being able to OHKO the entire deck, I was able to hand lock my opponent and take KO after KO with Articuno-GX. I managed to finish three full games this way and won the round.
Anyway, once the opponent is locked, I try to discard their entire hand every turn, while controlling the topdeck with [card name=”Chip-Chip Ice Axe” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”165″ c=”name”][/card]. You can sometimes let your opponent take a Stadium or an Energy as long as they can’t immediately take advantage of it. If they don’t play down the card you give them, it gets discarded with [card name=”Mars” set=”Ultra Prism” no=”128″ c=”name”][/card]. Attached Energy gets removed with [card name=”Crushing Hammer” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”115″ c=”name”][/card] and Stadiums get promptly removed with [card name=”Power Plant” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”183″ c=”name”][/card]. When the opponent’s deck gets low enough, finish them with Reset Stamp to force them to draw cards, discard with [card name=”Jessie and James” set=”Hidden Fates” no=”58″ c=”name”][/card] and Mars, and follow up with a second Reset Stamp to deck them out. With a brisk pace of play, you can accomplish this almost every time within 50 minutes.
Conclusion and the Future of the Bird
Essentially, [card name=”Pidgeotto” set=”Team Up” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] absolutely isn’t going anywhere. I expect it to be somewhat popular at Knoxville, and I am likely going to play it again. I do not anticipate making any huge changes for the deck. It works well against the relevant decks. Just avoid Quagsire / Naganadel and the deck should do extremely well. While that deck may see a bit more popularity because of its bit of success at Atlantic City, and because it easily beats [card name=”Mewtwo and Mew-GX” set=”Unified Minds” no=”71″ c=”name”][/card] and Pidgeotto, it should make up a relatively small portion of the meta. decks like [card name=”Quagsire” set=”Dragon Majesty” no=”26″ c=”name”][/card] still struggle with [card name=”Pikachu and Zekrom-GX” set=”Team Up” no=”33″ c=”name”][/card] and Ability [card name=”Reshiram and Charizard-GX” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”20″ c=”name”][/card], especially because Pikachu and Zekrom-GX builds are probably going to include more copies of [card name=”Power Plant” set=”Unbroken Bonds” no=”183″ c=”name”][/card] to deal with Mewtwo and Mew-GX.
I think this list was the second most broken deck I’ve played at an event ever (behind [card name=”Wobbuffet” set=”Phantom Forces” no=”36″ c=”name”][/card]). It is downright unfair to strip your opponent of their Energy and their hand, and there’s really nothing they can do about it. The deck does get boring and repetitive at times, but overall it is fun and brutally effective.
Thank you for reading! I hope this guide to one of the most broken control decks of all time was helpful. Feel free to comment with any questions about anything I missed.
–Grant
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