Great Tusk’s New Place in Standard

Hello PokeBeach readers! Isaiah here and I am happy to write another article for you all! Last time, I talked about my current favorite archetype [card name=”Roaring Moon” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”109″ c=”name”][/card] and how I felt it was one of the most powerful decks in the current format. Since then, the Orlando Regional Championship has occurred, and sure enough, I was pretty spot on about Roaring Moon’s position in the current format.

With about 11% of Day 2 at the Orlando Regional Championship being Roaring Moon-based decks and with both the [card name=”Koraidon” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”119″ c=”name”][/card] and [card name=”Dudunsparce” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”129″ c=”name”][/card] variants having appeared in the Top 8, the archetype produced one of the strongest results of any deck in the field this weekend. As I expected, the Koraidon version ended up producing the stronger result of the two variants, placing second in the hands of Jake Ewart. His list was mostly standard, but it did come with a few techs as well. Notably, he included a [card name=”Great Tusk” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”97″ c=”name”][/card] and a Fire Energy.

[cardimg name=”Noivern ex” set=”Paldean Fates” no=”220″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

I remember in the week leading up to the Orlando Regional Championship, I made an offhand comment about including Great Tusk as well as a Fire Energy to some friends of mine, including fellow writer Charlie Lockyer, but I mostly mentioned it as a joke. To my surprise, this tech ended up being good enough that not only did Charlie end up playing it, but other players also came to the same conclusion and chose to play it themselves. The Fire Energy is a surprisingly effective answer to the problem of [card name=”Noivern ex” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”153″ c=”name”][/card], offering a way to cut through the effect of Covert Flight via Koraidon’s Shred attack. I am not sure if this particular tech is going to stick, as it is not super useful overall, and arguably is not even that important against Noivern ex if you play the Great Tusk as well. I am especially fond of the Great Tusk inclusion, though, and I expect that change to stick going forward.

One of the biggest arguments for Great Tusk which is also often the default assumption for the card’s purpose is to use it as a way to mill against [card name=”Snorlax” set=”Pokemon GO” no=”55″ c=”name”][/card] decks, giving you a mill win condition against them rather than taking Prize cards. While this is a viable win condition, it is almost never going to come up, as the better strategy is generally to put as many [card name=”Flutter Mane” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”78″ c=”name”][/card] in play as possible and fill the rest of your board with attackers, essentially removing Block as a win condition. Where this card truly shines is in the mirror match. Thinking about how the deck operates, it is almost a guarantee that you will get to the bottom of your deck rather quickly as you try to get to take a Knock Out every turn. As a result, it’s easy to end up with fewer than four cards in your deck, turning Great Tusk’s Land Collapse into an instant win condition. This means that you should almost always win the mirror because you will either be ahead on Prizes or your opponent will be ahead and likely play into Land Collapse. This emergence of Great Tusk has completely warped the mirror and will likely have a significant effect on the Indianapolis Regional Championships in early May.

Jake Ewart was not the only player to see success with Great Tusk in his deck, though. When the set list for Temporal Forces was revealed, many players immediately saw potential in a mill strategy similar to the old [card name=”Durant” set=”Noble Victories” no=”83″ c=”name”][/card] from Noble Victories, but once the set came out, it became immediately apparent that the deck could barely compare to the power of Durant back in 2011, but that did not stop people from at least giving it a chance. Unfortunately, only one player playing Great Tusk Mill was able to make it into Day 2 of the Europe International Championship with the deck, and they ended with an underwhelming 204th place finish. At the Orlando Regional Championship, though, Grafton Roll and Michael Canaves decided to try a unique take on the deck, and as I have been playing it lately, it has immediately become one of my favorite archetypes in the current format. In their deck, they decided to take inspiration from the [card name=”Dudunsparce” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”129″ c=”name”][/card] build of Roaring Moon and use it as the primary draw engine for their Great Tusk deck. This change has felt like a massive improvement in my games so far, making the deck feel much more effective at finding the Ancient Supporter cards that it needs as well as all of its combo pieces in general. While Grafton Roll finished in a fairly mediocre 130th place and Michael Canaves barely missed Day 2, I could see this deck being extremely strong going forward, and at the current time, I could feasibly see myself playing it at the Indianapolis Regional Championship at the beginning of May.

With that in mind, how about we take a look at a deck list for this idea?

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Great Tusk / Dudunsparce

[cardimg name=”Great Tusk” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”97″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

In general, the core strategy of [card name=”Great Tusk” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”97″ c=”name”][/card] mill is to, well, mill the opponent. If you are not familiar, mill is a term that comes from an old Magic: The Gathering card called Millstone which was released in 1994. The core of this card’s effect is to discard the top two cards of a player’s deck, and from that the term mill was born. Now, 30 years after the original Millstone released, the term mill has become ubiquitous when it comes to describing similar effects across all card games. Since in Pokemon you lose when you run out of cards in your deck, mill decks have been a strategy for years as a way to aggressively dig for that win condition as opposed to stall decks which generally slowly make the opponent run out of resources which ultimately make them naturally run out of cards. Milling can be extremely powerful in formats where high-power cards are played in low quantities and ways to recover those cards are even less present. In the Temporal Forces format, people have been spreading many of their resources fairly thin, trying to fit techs for many matchups or needing to fit wide Evolution lines into decks like [card name=”Charizard ex” set=”Obsidian Flames” no=”125″ c=”name”][/card] alongside the [card name=”Rare Candy” set=”Paldean Fates” no=”89″ c=”name”][/card] to support it. The biggest culprit when it comes to high power resources played in low quantities, though, are ACE SPECs. [card name=”Prime Catcher” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”157″ c=”name”][/card], in particular, is an extremely powerful card (especially against Great Tusk) that leads people to be more willing to spread their [card name=”Boss’s Orders” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”132″ c=”name”][/card] and switching effect counts pretty thin, so milling a Prime Catcher often opens up avenues for alternate ways to win such as by dragging up a high Retreat Cost Pokemon with a [card name=”Counter Catcher” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”160″ c=”name”][/card] and then using that to buy yourself time to sneak in some extra uses of Land Collapse. Oftentimes, you will end up barely winning the game, but, as a wise person once said, the number of Prize cards the opponent takes does not matter unless they take all of them.

My deck list here is almost exactly the deck list that Grafton Roll and Michael Canaves played at the Orlando Regional Championships, with the only changes being the removal of cards that I felt were fairly weak and did not contribute much to the overall strategy of the deck. With that being said, I do think their deck list overall may have been fairly close to perfect, so I do not feel super qualified to make any super significant changes yet beyond the ones that I have made.

Deck List

[decklist name=”tusk mill” amt=”60″ caption=”” cname=”Mimikyu” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”97″][pokemon amt=”13″]4x [card name=”Great Tusk” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”97″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Dudunsparce” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”129″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Dunsparce” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”128″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]1x [card name=”Mawile” set=”Lost Origin” no=”71″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Radiant Greninja” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”46″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card]1x [card name=”Mimikyu” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”97″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/pokemon][trainers amt=”37″]4x [card name=”Explorer’s Guidance” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”147″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Professor Sada’s Vitality” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”170″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]1x [card name=”Eri” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”146″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]4x [card name=”Nest Ball” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”181″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Pokégear 3.0″ set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”186″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]4x [card name=”Counter Catcher” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”160″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]3x [card name=”Earthen Vessel” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”163″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]3x [card name=”Super Rod” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”188″ c=”deck2″ amt=”3″][/card]2x [card name=”Pal Pad” set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”182″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Hisuian Heavy Ball” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”146″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]2x [card name=”Ancient Booster Energy Capsule” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”159″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]2x [card name=”Bravery Charm” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”173″ c=”deck2″ amt=”2″][/card]1x [card name=”Hero’s Cape” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”152″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”1″][/card]2x [card name=”Artazon” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”171″ c=”deck2″ divide=”yes” amt=”2″][/card][/trainers][energy amt=”10″]4x [card name=”Double Turbo Energy” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”151″ c=”deck2″ amt=”4″][/card]5x [card name=”Fighting Energy” set=”HeartGold and SoulSilver” no=”120″ c=”deck2″ amt=”5″][/card]1x [card name=”Psychic Energy” set=”HeartGold and SoulSilver” no=”119″ c=”deck2″ amt=”1″][/card][/energy][/decklist]

Deck List Brakdown

Dudunsparce Line

[cardimg name=”Dudunsparce” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”129″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

I did not spend as much talking about the [card name=”Dudunsparce” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”129″ c=”name”][/card] line as I probably should have during my last article, but that is partially because I was not super sure about how I felt about it at the time. As I have spent more time playing with it, though, I think that this draw engine is certainly one of the most powerful draw engines that I have seen when compared to people’s initial impressions of the card. While it is not on the same level as [card name=”Drizzile” set=”Sword and Shield” no=”56″ c=”name”][/card] from a couple of years ago or more infamous cards like [card name=”Claydol” set=”Great Encounters” no=”15″ c=”name”][/card], Dudunsparce has a level of versatility that is somewhat unmatched, especially in the current state of the game.

Starting with Dudunsparce itself, drawing the cards before you shuffle Dudunsparce in is huge because it plays better with [card name=”Iono” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”185″ c=”name”][/card] so that you can plan according to cards on the bottom of the deck while also guaranteeing that you do not redraw that same Dudunsparce (though you could still draw into other Dudunsparce if needed). Additionally, the option to use the Ability while it is in the Active Spot is remarkably significant. I distinctly remember thinking that it had to be on the Bench for a while and I was confused as to why people thought the card was good since you could not preemptively evolve into Dudunsparce to secure a larger hand after an Iono or [card name=”Roxanne” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”150″ c=”name”][/card], without the risk of it getting stuck in the Active. Now that I learned that you can do that, my win rate with the card has increased dramatically, and I am sure it is easy to understand why.

Drawing three cards at will is extremely powerful, opening up unique ways that you can order your turns so that you are more likely to draw into the exact cards that you need in various situations. This type of agency is always extremely powerful and is a large part of why cards like [card name=”Kirlia” set=”Silver Tempest” no=”68″ c=”name”][/card] are usually good. The fact that Dudunsparce shuffles itself into the deck is especially important as well since it allows you to keep cards in your deck throughout the game, slowing the rate at which you run out of cards in your deck, or even allowing you to have an infinite deck in some situations. If you have two [card name=”Dunsparce” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”128″ c=”name”][/card] and two Dudunsparce, you can shuffle in a Dudunsparce line to draw the next Dudunsparce line every turn so that you guarantee a card in your deck each turn, and if you attach an Energy or a Pokemon Tool to the Dudunsparce, you can have three or even four cards in your deck, which can be useful for buying some time against a deck with [card name=”Chi-Yu ex” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”40″ c=”name”][/card].

Speaking of Dunsparce, I think that card is the real reason that people overlooked this draw engine for so long. It is unbelievable how long it took for me to learn that this card has no Retreat Cost, and once that clicked, it was game-changing. Dunsparce having no Retreat Cost turns the card into the perfect pivot option any time one of your Pokemon gets Knocked Out, which may not seem super significant at first, but with Pokemon that are all only worth one Prize, having a way to pivot five times in a game without needing to burn an Energy on paying Retreat Cost is a huge deal. In the [card name=”Roaring Moon” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”109″ c=”name”][/card] version of Dudunsparce, this is especially significant for the use of [card name=”Dark Patch” set=”Astral Radiance” no=”139″ c=”name”][/card], but in the [card name=”Great Tusk” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”97″ c=”name”][/card] deck, it has a slightly different use. In this deck, the pivot allows you to decide between using a Great Tusk with a [card name=”Double Turbo Energy” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”151″ c=”name”][/card] or one with Basic Energy on it to better prepare for the future. Additionally, it allows you to pivot into something like [card name=”Mawile” set=”Lost Origin” no=”71″ c=”name”][/card] on a turn where it can be powerful without having to deal with awkwardly moving a heavy Great Tusk or play a [card name=”Jet Energy” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”190″ c=”name”][/card]. Overall, the Dudunsparce line solves so many problems for so many decks, and I would not be surprised if it sees consistent play throughout the entire time that it is in the Standard format.

Mawile

[cardimg name=”Mawile” set=”Lost Origin” no=”71″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

One of the more awkward matchups for this deck is [card name=”Iron Hands ex” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”70″ c=”name”][/card] / [card name=”Iron Crown ex” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”81″ c=”name”][/card]. Thinking about the deck from a mathematical perspective, against a normal deck, if the opponent takes a Knock Out every single turn, you can mill around 24 cards, which is certainly not 60, but considering that they have to play cards to establish attackers, 24 is a fairly sizable amount, and if you can get to 28 or 32 in a game, it starts to be hard to beat. Against Iron Hands ex, however, Amp You Very Much allows them to take half as many Knock Outs to win the game, only giving you time to mill like 12 to maybe 20 cards if you are lucky, which is not exactly a super meaningful amount, especially against a deck like Iron Hands ex which doesn’t draw that many cards anyway.

This is where [card name=”Mawile” set=”Lost Origin” no=”71″ c=”name”][/card] comes in.

Against Iron Hands ex, your strategy becomes to burn all of the opponent’s ways to switch out an Iron Crown ex and then use Tempting Trap on it indefinitely (with an infinite deck thanks to [card name=”Dudunsparce” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”129″ c=”name”][/card]) so that they eventually run out of cards naturally. More often than not, the opponent has to place several Iron Crown ex on their Bench too, as that is the only way Amp You Very Much can reach for a Knock Out, but doing this makes them more vulnerable to Tempting Trap, as they likely do not play enough Psychic Energy to power up all of them. Alternatively, they could choose to not put Iron Crown ex on their Bench (or usually only one) and in that case, Amp You Very Much is not taking the Knock Outs, buying you more time to use Land Collapse. It is important to note, though, that sometimes you want to use Giant Tusk in this matchup to take all six Prize cards rather than trying to run them out of cards, so it is important to assess the board state and plan your game out accordingly.

Mimikyu

I do not know how much I actually like [card name=”Mimikyu” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”97″ c=”name”][/card] in this deck. While Safeguard is generally a good Ability, I do not find it useful a lot of the time. Most of its strength is against the [card name=”Charizard ex” set=”Obsidian Flames” no=”125″ c=”name”][/card] matchup, which can be difficult at times, as Charizard ex does not have a lot of ways to damage a Mimikyu, and if you high roll a bit on the turns you use Land Collapse, you may get lucky and discard enough [card name=”Boss’s Orders” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”132″ c=”name”][/card] or even their [card name=”Prime Catcher” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”157″ c=”name”][/card] so that they cannot get around the Mimikyu enough times to take all six Prizes. This can force them into using [card name=”Charmeleon” set=”Paldean Fates” no=”8″ c=”name”][/card] instead, which is where you switch back to Land Collapse. Eventually, all of their Charmeleon can get stuck underneath Charizard ex or they may run out of Energy so they cannot sustain going back and forth between attackers, which is where Mimikyu is perfect. For this reason, I do think Mimikyu is generally worth playing, but I do think that it is certainly one of the weakest cards in the deck list.

My Changes

Fourth Counter Catcher and Fourth PokeGear 3.0

[cardimg name=”Hand Trimmer” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”150″ align=”right” c=”none”][/cardimg]

In their posts about the deck, Michael Canaves and Grafton Roll both noted that the [card name=”Hand Trimmer” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”150″ c=”name”][/card] in their deck was fairly underwhelming, and I can see why. The card kind of sucks, for lack of a better term. The opponent is allowed to keep exactly the cards that they feel they need to keep to win the game, which essentially turns playing Hand Trimmer into strictly a downside as it also forces you to discard cards most of the time. I also removed [card name=”Technical Machine: Devolution” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”177″ c=”name”][/card] from the deck list as it seemed difficult to use in practice, and now with people switching to a second Charmeleon in Charizard ex decks and even the occasional [card name=”Arctibax” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”59″ c=”name”][/card] in [card name=”Chien-Pao ex” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”61″ c=”name”][/card], I struggled to find situations where the card was useful enough to be worth the space it takes up. I chose to cut these cards for a fourth copy of [card name=”Pokégear 3.0″ set=”Scarlet and Violet” no=”186″ c=”name”][/card] and a fourth [card name=”Counter Catcher” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”160″ c=”name”][/card] to make finding those cards a little more consistent, as they are both exceptionally powerful cards that heavily contribute to the deck’s overall strategy.

Pokemon Tools

This deck plays more HP buffing tools than the average [card name=”Great Tusk” set=”Temporal Forces” no=”97″ c=”name”][/card] deck, and for a good reason. HP buffing, in general, is exceptionally strong right now. Turning Great Tusk into a 190- or even 200-HP beast allows it to dodge some critical Knock Outs ([card name=”Arceus VSTAR” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”123″ c=”name”][/card] using Trinity Nova with a [card name=”Double Turbo Energy” set=”Brilliant Stars” no=”151″ c=”name”][/card] comes to mind as a big use case), so making sure that you find these critical cards when you need them is important. [card name=”Ancient Booster Energy Capsule” set=”Paradox Rift” no=”159″ c=”name”][/card] is naturally the best of the non-ACE SPEC Pokemon Tools since it adds more HP overall, however, you also cannot attach Ancient Boost Energy Capsule to your other Pokemon, so playing a few [card name=”Bravery Charm” set=”Paldea Evolved” no=”173″ c=”name”][/card] is still good. One important use for Bravery Charm is to make it so that your Dunsparce don’t get Knocked Out by Moonlight Shuriken, giving you time to evolve them where they continue to be protected, or if they are damaged, you can shuffle them back into the deck and deny the Prize card.

Conclusion

I think that Great Tusk has a ton of potential as we continue to dive deeper into the Temporal Forces format, both as a tech card and as a full strategy. Going forward, I would certainly expect to have to consider Land Collapse as an option in any deck that plays an Ancient Supporter, as the sheer power of randomly winning a game because the opponent was not careful can be difficult to turn down.

With that, this article comes to a close. As always, if you have questions, feel free to reach out in the comments or on social media and I will happily answer them!

Until next time!

– Isaiah

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