A Combustion Blast from the Past — SableZard Reemerges

Hello PokeBeach readers! Isaiah here, and I am happy to be writing another article for you all. Previously, I talked about the return of League Challenges and League Cups, both of which are now back in full swing, as well as a deck that I considered to be a top pick for both of those levels of play, being the [card name=”Mirage Gate” set=”Lost Origin” no=”163″ c=”name”][/card] Lost Zone decks. Since then, my mentality has not changed at all. While I have not been playing the deck as much lately myself, the deck is still easily the best deck in the current format thanks to its versatility and ability to beat almost anything as long as it gets set up. While it was not the focus of the article, the inclusion of [card name=”Kyogre” set=”Celebrations” no=”3″ c=”name”][/card] really allows the deck to take a step even further by being able to take wins in the most unlikely of circumstances, making the deck even stronger in tournament play. At the recent Hartford Regional Championship, we saw multiple of these Lost Zone decks do quite well, with two in the Top 8 and many more in Top 16 and Top 32. While the deck did not end up winning the event, it is evident that the deck is in strong contention for being the best deck in the current Standard format.

[cardimg name=”Meloetta” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”124″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

With this being said, the next thing to consider, of course, is what deck did win in Hartford? To the surprise of maybe literally everyone, it was the [card name=”Fusion Strike Energy” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”244″ c=”name”][/card] variant of [card name=”Mew VMAX” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”114″ c=”name”][/card] in the hands of Rowan Stavenow that took home first place, giving Mew VMAX its first major event win within the United States. At first, I was genuinely dumbfounded that it had worked out that way, I mean who would have thought that a year and a half after the deck first came out and about six months after the deck began to start teetering on being obsolete would end up being the time that the deck finally won a major event. However, once I got to thinking about it, I started to realize that the deck might have been better than the community realized, and it actually may have even been the perfect deck to play in Hartford (or Malmö, which it also won). After the Portland Regional Championship, there seemed to be three decks at the front of everyone’s mind. The first of these was, of course, [card name=”Arceus VSTAR” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Giratina VSTAR” set=”Lost Origin” no=”131″ c=”name”][/card], which is what won in Portland. The next one was [card name=”Lugia VSTAR” set=”Silver Tempest” no=”139″ c=”name”][/card], which was known to be extremely strong, but a second place finish in Portland added the extra layer of certainty about the deck’s strength as well as building up hype for the deck being a good pick. The third important deck here was a bit of a weird one that may have flown under the radar for some, being Arceus VSTAR / [card name=”Duraludon VMAX” set=”Evolving Skies” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Umbreon VMAX” set=”Evolving Skies” no=”95″ c=”name”][/card]. As a potent combination of attackers, with massive amounts of HP, good typing, and powerful Abilities, this “Arceus Pile” as some would call it ended up being one of the best performing decks of the weekend thanks to this combination of factors. Now the next question is, what does this have to do with Mew VMAX? Well, all of these decks are heavily based on Pokemon V that are critical to keep in play for the second turn in order to evolve into a critical Pokemon VSTAR, and Fusion Mew is the perfect deck for capitalizing on this, being the only deck in the format that can threaten a Knock Out on these Pokemon on the first turn when going second. In a remarkable series of events, all of the decks that were set to be the most successful in Hartford all lost to a random deck that many had completely dismissed due to the emergence of a new variant of the archetype.

This series of events has been seen before throughout the game’s history, such as [card name=”Eelektrik” set=”Noble Victories” no=”40″ c=”name”][/card] randomly doing well again during the 2017 season, six years after the card was originally printed. For a more recently example, though, we can look at the main topic of this article: The [card name=”Radiant Charizard” set=”Pokemon GO” no=”11″ c=”name”][/card] build of Lost Zone, best known as SableZard. The combination of [card name=”Sableye” set=”Lost Origin” no=”70″ c=”name”][/card] to set up math for Radiant Charizard while also picking off easy early game Prize cards will always be an extremely potent strategy, and always has been, but during the Silver Tempest format it fell off a bit. I have a lot of theories about why this happened, but it ultimately boils down to the deck being a bit less explosive than the Mirage Gate builds. The deck has an extremely bland game plan and is never really capable of doing more than 120 damage until the last two or three turns of the game, which was not nearly enough to stay in contention in the Silver Tempest format thanks to the speed of Lugia VSTAR. The deck also was really not as effective as one would hope against other Lost Zone decks thanks to [card name=”Scoop Up Net” set=”Rebel Clash” no=”165″ c=”name”][/card] opening up the opportunity for offsetting math for critical multi-Prize turns with Sableye while not having a [card name=”Radiant Greninja” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”46″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Raikou” set=”Vivid Voltage” no=”50″ c=”name”][/card] to take multi-Prize turns in other ways. As a result of this, the deck just completely fell off, seeing minimal significant results throughout the format. After rotation, though, the deck seems like it has found new footing. The deck started off strong with a Top 4 finish at the Europe International Championship and has had relatively middling results ever since, but I think this is a case of the deck underperforming relative to the deck’s strength in the format, as the deck is almost certainly much stronger than it seems based on the results that it has been putting up, and as the format grows increasingly focused on multi-prize Pokemon that are within range of being easily Knocked Out with Radiant Charizard, such as most Pokemon VSTAR, this deck will continue to get better. In my opinion, this deck will almost certainly win a Regional before the release of Paldea Evolved shortly before the North America International Championship. With this all being said, let’s take a look at my current deck list.

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My SableZard List

As of now, I would say that a lot of SableZard lists are within a few cards of each other, with most variation sitting within the [card name=”Pokégear 3.0″ set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”186″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Switch” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”194″ c=”name”][/card] counts, along with some other techs like [card name=”Echoing Horn” set=”Chilling Reign” no=”136″ c=”name”][/card], [card name=”Mawile” set=”Lost Origin” no=”71″ c=”name”][/card], or the [card name=”Magma Basin” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”144″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Mirage Gate” set=”Lost Origin” no=”163″ c=”name”][/card] package (for earlier Combustion Blasts). In my opinion, I think that the deck is best built when it is as streamlined as possible, as the consistency and speed of getting to use Lost Mine is one of the deck’s biggest strengths over the Mirage Gate builds. As such, my list has a slightly elevated count of both of these cards and generally steers away from techs. As I mentioned previously the deck’s simple strategy of using [card name=”Cramorant” set=”Lost Origin” no=”50″ c=”name”][/card] to make progress while working toward Lost Mine and eventually closing out the game with Combustion Blast is incredibly effective against most of the format, easily dismantling a lot of decks that cannot trade favorably with [card name=”Radiant Charizard” set=”Pokemon GO” no=”11″ c=”name”][/card].

Deck List

[decklist name=”sablezard” amt=”60″ caption=”” cname=”Sableye” set=”Lost Origin” no=”70″][pokemon amt=”13″]4x [card name=”Comfey” set=”Lost Origin” no=”79″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Sableye” set=”Lost Origin” no=”70″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Cramorant” set=”Lost Origin” no=”50″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Radiant Charizard” set=”Pokemon GO” no=”11″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Manaphy” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”41″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Drapion V” set=”Lost Origin” no=”118″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Hawlucha” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”118″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”41″]4x [card name=”Colress’s Experiment” set=”Lost Origin” no=”155″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Klara” set=”Chilling Reign” no=”145″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]1x [card name=”Boss’s Orders” set=”Rebel Clash” no=”154″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Raihan” set=”Evolving Skies” no=”152″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Roxanne” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”150″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]4x [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Sun and Moon” no=”123″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Fog Crystal” set=”Chilling Reign” no=”140″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Escape Rope” set=”Battle Styles” no=”125″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Switch Cart” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”154″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Pokégear 3.0″ set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”186″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Switch” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”194″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Level Ball” set=”Battle Styles” no=”129″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Lost Vacuum” set=”Lost Origin” no=”162″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Echoing Horn” set=”Chilling Reign” no=”136″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Hisuian Heavy Ball” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”146″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Choice Belt” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”135″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Defiance Band” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”169″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]2x [card name=”Beach Court” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”167″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”2″][/card][/trainers][energy amt=”6″]4x [card name=”Psychic Energy” set=”HeartGold and SoulSilver” no=”119″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]2x [card name=”Fire Energy” set=”HeartGold and SoulSilver” no=”116″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card][/energy][/decklist]

The Elephant in the Room

When I have talked to friends about my deck list, the most common and immediate criticism has always been the same six words.

“Where are the Battle VIP Pass?”

[cardimg name=”Battle VIP Pass” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”225″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

I cannot overstate how much I hate [card name=”Battle VIP Pass” set=”Fusion Strike” no=”225″ c=”name”][/card] right now. I think the card has its fair share of uses in a variety of decks, but in decks like [card name=”Gardevoir ex” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”86″ c=”name”][/card] or SableZard where you do not need a gigantic Bench on the first turn (well, I guess you do in Gardevoir if you do not play Mirage Step [card name=”Kirlia” set=”Chilling Reign” no=”60″ c=”name”][/card]), the card just does not pull the weight that I would like it to, and it instead ends up jamming up the hand in a way that it negatively impacts the deck’s function for the rest of the game, which in the case of some decks, this is quite bad. A great example of this is in the [card name=”Kyogre” set=”Celebrations” no=”3″ c=”name”][/card] Lost Zone deck that Nicholas Moffit played for the Europe International Championship as well as Alex Schemanske played it for the Portland Regional Championship. In Kyogre, one of the easiest ways to lose is to be hit by a [card name=”Judge” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”176″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Roxanne” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”150″ c=”name”][/card] into a small enough hand that you are left with minimal plays and ultimately get blown out of the water. If you play Battle VIP Pass, the likelihood that this happens increases significantly to the point that it is barely worth playing the card out of risk, instead favoring more copies of [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”181″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Level Ball” set=”Battle Styles” no=”129″ c=”name”][/card] to still provide ways to search Pokemon that are burnable in the future. This introduces the second valuable point, which is that playing extra non-Battle VIP Pass Items opens up the option to play them more throughout the game, not restricting you to a single turn. This is important for Kyogre because you can, sometimes, get forced to Bench your Kyogre because you have run out of ways to search it and need to have access to it. With more non-Battle VIP Pass options, this happens less frequently, as it gives you more ways to find what you need when you need it, especially after hand disruption.

In SableZard, the role is slightly similar. While the deck is not as intensive on needing a huge combination of cards after a Roxanne or Judge, the deck’s main strength is that neither form of hand disruption is too effective as there will almost always be a few outs in a relatively thin deck, meaning that you will almost always have a play. Playing less Battle VIP Pass helps to achieve this goal because it is unable to get in the way of your game plan as excess Pokemon search is always burnable once the necessary pieces have been found. Removing Battle VIP Pass also is not too consequential, as the deck typically will not even use two in a game anyway, leaving a lot of wasted potential in the deck that could instead be better used with [card name=”Fog Crystal” set=”Chilling Reign” no=”140″ c=”name”][/card] which can also find Energy or Level Ball which allows you to find [card name=”Hawlucha” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”118″ c=”name”][/card] to use it where Battle VIP Pass (or even Nest Ball) could not.

Other Card Inclusions

One Manaphy

One of the most common discussion points that I have had with my friends is whether or not two [card name=”Manaphy” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”41″ c=”name”][/card] is necessary in Lost Zone decks. I think that at least one copy is an absolute must, but the second one is a bit excessive. A lot of the time just using [card name=”Klara” set=”Chilling Reign” no=”145″ c=”name”][/card] to keep recovering it is enough in the Lost Zone mirror, as they also have their own plays that they need to work towards. Also, as funny as it may seem, if your Manaphy is Knocked Out more than four times, you had probably lost anyway, so I feel fairly comfortable with just one.

With this being said, an idea that a friend of mine had recently was to include a copy of [card name=”Rescue Carrier” set=”Evolving Skies” no=”154″ c=”name”][/card] to allow for recovering Manaphy while playing [card name=”Roxanne” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”150″ c=”name”][/card] in the same turn while also having its fair share of reasonable applications. I actually really like this idea and I plan on putting some testing into it, but I simply did not have the time to do so between the idea being thought of and me writing this article, so it finds a spot for itself here as an item on my to do list.

One Raihan

When I first started experimenting with this deck, I was not huge into the inclusion of [card name=”Raihan” set=”Evolving Skies” no=”152″ c=”name”][/card]. Most of the time a single card is not changing anything for your combos, as the number one combo piece in the deck is a Supporter card anyway, being Klara. However, Raihan has slowly started to make a stronger case for itself by continuously proving its uses against Pokemon VSTAR decks like Arceus VSTAR / Giratina VSTAR, which can typically be a matchup where you may need to use Radiant Charizard on three different turns. Raihan gives your Radiant Charizard the extra Energy that it needs to use Combustion Blast on this turn while also searching for a [card name=”Defiance Band” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”169″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Choice Belt” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”135″ c=”name”][/card] to clean up a full Knock Out if necessary. Raihan is also a surprisingly good card for finding a Fire Energy on the Radiant Charizard turns if you have yet to see one that game.

Echoing Horn and Hawlucha

These cards are both absolutely infuriating to play, as they almost always do nothing, much like [card name=”Drapion V” set=”Lost Origin” no=”118″ c=”name”][/card], but unlike Drapion V, they are not a win condition against one of the most popular decks in the game. Both of these cards are meant to have super powerful use cases in specific matchups, especially against other Lost Zone decks, but a lot of the time, they take a trip to the Lost Zone when seen at an inopportune moment off of a [card name=”Colress’s Experiment” set=”Lost Origin” no=”155″ c=”name”][/card] or [card name=”Comfey” set=”Lost Origin” no=”79″ c=”name”][/card]. Despite the hatred that I have for both of these cards, I cannot deny how impactful they can be in their respective use cases, so they are worth playing and talking about.

[card name=”Echoing Horn” set=”Chilling Reign” no=”136″ c=”name”][/card] is useful in a surprisingly large number of matchups despite the annoyance that I showed with the card. It offers the ability to introduce free Prize Cards to the board at a moments notice, opening up a free target for a [card name=”Boss’s Orders” set=”Rebel Clash” no=”154″ c=”name”][/card], or, in some cases, the use of Sableye to pick off a low HP Pokemon with ease via a Lost Mine while also possibly setting up damage on other Pokemon that the opponent has in play is also quite impactful, often winning the game against a deck like Arceus VSTAR / Giratina VSTAR which prides itself on having a ton of high HP Pokemon, but the deck also needs to draw cards occasionally, so putting [card name=”Bibarel” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”121″ c=”name”][/card] in play can become an unfortunate liability in the long run, introducing the possibility of a second Prize card once the opponent uses Echoing Horn on Bidoof.

Unlike Echoing Horn, [card name=”Hawlucha” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”118″ c=”name”][/card] is pretty much only useful against other Lost Zone decks, opening up the idea of Knocking Out two Comfey with one Lost Mine, giving the deck a way to get ahead in a matchup where that can be difficult. Hawlucha adds a unique level of depth to the mirror, especially since Knocking it Out results in that player getting to use it again thanks to Klara. In all honesty, I almost never use Hawlucha for this purpose, which is infuriating because it is always taking up a space, but it absolutely is necessary for the Lost Zone mirrors. Interestingly, another way that Hawlucha can be used is in tandem with Echoing Horn. Against another Lost Zone deck, you may be able to set up their only Sableye with just 10 HP left on it, Knock it Out with Hawlucha, and then use Echoing Horn to recover something else from their discard pile, locking them out of using Sableye, likely for the rest of the game, establishing a clear path to victory.

Choice Belt and Defiance Band

One inclusion that I have been a bit conflicted on is the number of “Belts” to play and which ones to play. As of now I have settled on two total, with one each of [card name=”Choice Belt” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”135″ c=”name”][/card], which is the most generically useful, and [card name=”Defiance Band” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”169″ c=”name”][/card], which is only usable when behind, but it is also capable of hitting Gardevoir ex. This last part is especially significant, as Gardevoir ex is, irritatingly, just barely too big for a Radiant Charizard to finish off the Knock Out, meaning that it needs a little extra help. Sometimes you will see a [card name=”Cleansing Gloves” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”136″ c=”name”][/card] in this place, but I think that the Defiance Band’s uses against the Pokemon VSTAR decks is simply too good to pass up.

Energy Split

This is just a brief point that I wanted to make, but I think that there is a valid case for playing three Fire and three Psychic instead of my current split. With four Fog Crystal, finding the Psychic Energy generally is not too difficult, but finding Fire Energy can be a big issue. Conversely, finding Energy to make sure we are not wasting our ability to Retreat on any given turn is equally valuable, and I am not certain which is better. As of right now, my swinging factor is that I do not own three HGSS Fire Energy, but going forward that should not be my only reason.

Conclusion

As we continue through the final leg of the Scarlet & Violet format, we are seeing the game take on a rapid evolution, with many players trying new consistency engines for tried and true archetypes as well as trying to make brand new ideas work based on the newly limited card pool that have. SableZard is a beautiful deck to have in the format, as the simplicity of the concept is something that almost anyone can enjoy, but being able to play it perfectly adds a whole new dimension to the deck, making it an extremely potent threat going forward.

With that, this article draws to a close. I hope you enjoyed giving this article a read, as I enjoyed writing about one of my favorite decks while also ranting about one of my least favorite cards. As always, feel free to ask questions in the Subscriber’s Hideout, on Twitter (@ICheville), or on Facebook (Zaya Lee).

Until next time!

– Isaiah

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