The Past and Future of Yanmega/Magnezone

Hi – and welcome back to The Deck Out!


As promised, it's time for some magnetic craziness. In today's update, I will discuss Magnezone/Yanmega and how it can be made as tournament-viable as possible. First, let's take a look at the skeleton.


Pokémon:

3x Magnemite
1x Magneton
3x Magnezone Prime
4x Yanma
3x Yanmega Prime
=14

Trainer:

4x Pokémon Collector
3x Copycat
3x Judge
4x Rare Candy
4x Junk Arm
3x Pokémon Catcher
4x Pokémon Communication
=25

Energy:

10x Lighting Energy
=10

=49


As I mentioned in one of my previous blog updates, Magnezone/Yanmega’s skeleton has room for almost anything you want to put in there. As you can see this skeleton has 11 spaces for something. This skeleton already has a lot of supporters and Catchers so most skeletons have even more space. However my main goal in this update is to investigate how to make Magnezone/Yanmega playable once again. But before I do that, I must remind you, what kind of deck Magnezone/Yanmega was before Catcher was released.



The Past


Pokemon:

3x Magnemite
1x Magneton
3x Magnezone
4x Yanma
4x Yanmega
2x Horsea
1x Seadra
2x Kingdra
1x Absol Prime
1x Cleffa
1x Jirachi
=23


Trainer:

4x Pokemon Collector
3x Judge
2x Twins
4x Pokemon Communication
4x Rare Candy
3x Pokemon Reversal
3x Junk Arm
2x Copycat
2x Switch
=27


Energy:

2x Rainbow Energy
2x Psychic Energy
6x Lighting
=10


It’s amazing how all this fits into a deck and still making it fairly consistent. There are things like Absol Prime, thick Kingdra line and even Jirachi and 4-4 Yanmega line. But the problem lies within Pokémon Catcher. With Catcher around you can’t say that this deck is consistent. As long as your opponent understands to Catcher your Magnezones and Magnemites, this deck loses all its steam. Pretty much every deck in the present metagame, just runs through this deck with speed and consistency. You can’t use Judge to disturb them because you will just ruin your own game. I have said bad things about this kind of Yanmega/Magnezone for a while now in this format so I guess, I will take a positive point of view once for this deck. That’s why I shall give you…


The Future



Pokémon:

4x Magnemite
2x Magneton
4x Magnezone Prime
3x Yanma
3x Yanmega Prime
2x Pachirisu
1x Shaymin
1x Cleffa
=20

Trainer:

4x Pokémon Collector
3x Sage’s Training
2x Judge
1x Switch
4x Rare Candy
4x Junk Arm
3x Pokémon Catcher
4x Pokémon Communication
1x Super Scoop Up
1x Energy Retrieval
1x Flower Shop Lady
=28

Energy:

12x Lighting Energy
=12


Strategy:


As you can see, my vision of the future Magnezone/Yanmega differs greatly from the past Magnezone/Yanmega. My Yanmega/Magnezone aims at maximum consistency and continuous Magnetic Draw despite the Catchers. It also runs fair amount of Energy and 2 Pachirisus. It also runs Energy Retrieval; it seems I’m aiming at an energy heavy deck here. Indeed, I’m trying to get this deck hitting massive damage every time needed.

This deck aims to hit with Yanmega the few early prizes just like the past Magnezone but with this build, it’s manageable to keep Magnezones alive all the time. Thick 4-2-4 line guarantees that your opponent can’t be OHKOing your Magnezones all the time, he/she will eventually run out of resources if she/he tries it. After the short introduction into the deck, it’s time for some more explaining for the chosen cards.




Card Choices



2 Pachirisus + Shaymin

These 3 cards are the heart of this deck. These cards are all “teches” this version needs. With these Pokémon you can easily make Magnezone hit 3-4 times 150 damage almost every turn and take the remaining prizes with Yanmega Primes. Magnezone works in my opinion the best with energy acceleration because it combos with Magnetic Draw power – the more you accelerate energy from your hand, the more you draw cards with Magnezone Prime.

If your opponent tries to KO Magnezone that doesn’t have energies on it and can’t OHKO it you have Shaymin here which helps to move energies to the active Magnezone. Shaymin + Pachirisu combo also works as in a Zekrom deck. You can easily come from 0 energies to 150 damage in a single turn.


Sage’s Training

I haven’t personally likes Sage’s Training in Yanmega/Magnezone before but now the winds have changed. You need to get Magnezone to play ASAP and this time you’re allowed to discard energies because of huge amount of energies you’re running compared to previous versions. Sage’s lets you also discard tech trainer cards like SSU and Energy Retrieval which are easy to get from discard pile with Junk Arm. 3 Sage’s should be enough to get T2 Magnezone regularly and T3 Magnezone always. Sage’s has always had a good synergy with Junk Arm but in this deck it works even better than before.


Switch & Super Scoop Up

Magnezone’s retreat is ridiculous – 3 – that’s a known fact. Before I ran 2 Switches because the needed to get Magnezone from the active position whenever it was incapable of attacking. In this deck I only need Switch for emergency situations. Magnezones should be able to hit every turn possible because of Shaymin, Pachirisu and Super Scoop Up. You are able to load Magnezone Prime any time you need to.

Super Scoop is mostly used for Pachirisu or Shaymin. Probably you will use it more on Shaymin because you already have 2 Pachirisus in the list. In emergency situations SSU will also work like a Switch and it can win you the game if you scoop any Pokémon that is just a few damage away from getting Knocked Out. You can easily run 1 of both because they are anyways usually used by Junk Arm whenever you need them and discarded by Sage’s. Switch and SSU are great trainer teches for almost any deck in the format but in this deck they work extremely well.



Energy Retrieval

I’ve discussed Energy Retrieval before in this update but to repeat, its purpose is to get energies back from discard pile which you will discard with Sage’s. This way you don’t worry about energies while using Sage’s and can focus on getting more important cards like Candies and Pokémon lines from Sage’s. Energy Retrieval works also great against decks like ReshiPlosion because sometimes they try to hurt you by discarding energies with Flare Destroy. Energy Retrieval nullifies the effect from Flare Destroy because this dek has a great energy acceleration as long you have energies in your hand.



Flower Shop Lady

Flower Shop is only a natural continuation for this deck’s strategy. This list is all about consistency and full steam ahead until the last prize. Flower Shop Lady works as a second Energy Retrieval and it lets you get back the precious Magnemites and Magnezone’s from your discard pile. You don’t always have time using Flower Shop Lady in the game because of other Supporters but usually when you do have time, it helps you a lot.



Past vs. Future


As you can see this deck is a whole different deck than the past version. It carries the same name but it’s very different compared to the past version. The past version’s strategy was a much more complicated and versatile but the future version focuses only on full-steam-ahead –strategy. It tries to take 6 prizes without any tricks, first you use Yanmegas and Catchers to take 2-3 easy prizes and then you come attacking with Magnezone 3 times to clean the rest of the field. It’s not difficult and it should be easily manageable.
The future version also abandons the disturbing your completely and just focuses on fulfilling its own strategy. I ran 2 Judges but you can also ran 2 copycats if you think copycats help you more. The only meaning of Shuffle&Draws is to guarantee the hitting capability of Yanmega in the early turns. Judge may be a better choice because if you get a Catcher from Judge, you can still use it and Magnetic Draw to get back to 4 cards in your hand.


The past problems

As said earlier, the past version was a lot more versatile than the future version. In my opinion the past version had only 2 serious problems – it ran out of resources easily against decks like ReshiPlosion and it needed Reversal headses to win games. Of course the second problem is now fixed with Catcher but now it still may run out of gas and it has faced a new – even more severe – problem because of catcher.

In fact the resources problem was the reason I didn’t play it for Worlds and I got a reminder of it 1 of my Worlds’ match. In one of my game, I managed to deck out Con Le, who was playing this deck because I realized he had ran out of all resources and if he wanted to attack with Yanmega, he would have to use Copycat to deck himself out instantaneously.

The past version focused on not autolosing to anything and it managed it to do fairly well. It had strategy against everything and was a great deck with full of combos. However it now, the pat version will have too much consistency problem because of faster decks and Catcher. The time has overrun the past.


The future problems

Well, of course the future isn’t problem-free. The future faces problems from a very familiar card- Donphan Prime. Donphan OHKOs Magnezone’s easily and Yanmega does nothing on them because Donphan can easily just get around of Yanmega with Catcher. I’ve tried to find a solution for this but the truth there is none. Some may think that Donphan would be easily counterable with Kingdra Prime but as soon you lay down the Horsea, it will be OHKOed. This format doesn’t have a good Donphan counter and that’s why Donphan turned into a very good card in this format – it’s almost impossible to OHKO and abuses Catcher and Max Potion very well.

If you want to do something about Donphan in Magnezone/Yanmega, I suggest running 1-2 Pluspowers. Magnezone needs normally 4 energies to OHKO Donphan, which is simply too much. With Pluspowers Magnezone needs “only” 3 energies to OHKO Donphan. That is an ok amount but they will just build another Donphan and OHKO your Magnezone back. Donphan is only a stage1 Pokémon so it’s a lot easier to get into play than Magnezone Prime. It’s tough to admit but the future has no true answer against Donphan Prime.


There is more to the future than you may first think of

Since we have changed the idea of Magnezone/Yanmega so radically, there are a few things you could consider running in Magnezone/Yanmega.

First, because we are already running Zekrom like energy accelerators why not run Zekrom? Zekrom would be awesome in match-ups like mirror or Reshiplosion where it can OHKO almost anything. Zekrom would be a great opener too – if you open with Yanma or Zekrom and Collector in hand, you can probably get aT1 Zekrom hitting 120 damage. It will hurt any deck and give you time to set-up the rest of your field. 

Pluspower. I mentioned about it earlier and will mention it again. The extra 10 damage are crucial against various things. Reshiram has 110 HP after 2 Afterburners, Yanmega Prime has 110 HP, Donphan has 160HP(Resistance + Body) etc. Pluspower is a great tech for Yanmega/Magnezone  because its differences in damages are huge(40,50,70,100,150 etc.). With Pluspower you can save the 1 crucial energy many times, which may win you the game.

Seeker. You can play this instead of SSU or you can play SSU and Seeker. With Seeker you don’t have to flip and you may get some occasional Seeker donks because your opponent doesn’t expect Seeker. Seeker helps recycling key cards like Pachirisu and Shaymin so it would be a great add to this deck if you have some room for it.

More energy. Yes 12 may still not be enough. If you find yourself struggling with 12 energies I would recommend to add your energies to 14. That way you can also put in Rescue Energies, which help greatly when Magnezones are KOed.






Match-ups

Well this is it, where things get interesting. I will rate the most popular match-ups for both Past and Future because I’m sure many people still play the Yanmega/Magnezne/Kingdra/Jirachi version of this deck.

Stage1 variants

The past: This was one of the best match-ups of the last format. It has variables which decide how the match goes. If stage1 decks runs Reshiram or not (this one is huge because it decides if the deck has a proper counter against Kingdra or not), how both players handle their energy attachments, what kind of hands do the stage1 deck draw from Judges and of course – how the Reversal flips go. Well now we can rule out the last variable – Reversal flips, what does it mean in practice? It means that Donphan can just sit in the front and kill everything with Catcher (excluding Yanmegas). Yanmega can try to do the same (use Catchers and hit 70 to anywhere) but yeah I guess you figured it out already, Yanmega is bad at OHKOin things unlike Donphan. Catcher makes this match-up pretty one-sided – Donphan just rolls over Magnezone even though it has Kingdra in it, thanks to Catcher.

The Future: Unlike before, now we don’t have Judges, Reversals or even Kindra in this match-up. What we have then? A lot of Magnezones and Lost Burns. The number one goal for The Future is to KO Phanpys/Donphans as soon as possible. The Future don’t have to worry about Catchers to Magnezones because it will already have Magnezone in the front line. You have fuel Lost Burns as soon as possible an KO the Donphans. After that you can play freely. Use Magnezones and Yanmegas wisely because as long as they play something like Yanmega/Donphan/Zoroark, you have the edge with your Yanmega. Yanmega is an easy OHKO to Magnezone(even easier with PlusPower) and Zoroark is just bad against Yanmega. You, however have to be careful against Zoroark because they can do some crazy things with their Foul Play and your Lost Burn.


Zekrom/Tornadus

The Past: Yanmega/Magnezone has some serious problems with a speed like Zekrom/Tornadus – no matter of the variation. Both, Kingdra and Yanmega have Weaknesses to Zekrom so go figure how to beat this match-up. Yanmega is OHKOd by a Strike Blt fueled Outrage and Kingdra needs only 1 Pluspower after that. Both Kingdra and Yanmega are unable to KO Zekrom even after 1 Strike Bolt. Tornadus gives this match-up some more instability. Usually Zekrom speed is enough in this match-up to win the game. The past has no answers for multiple Zekrom OHKOs because it has no decent energy acceleration.

                                  
The Future: The greatest thing about the future is its energy acceleration. It can manage easily 3 direct OHKOs against Zekrom – at least after Strike Bolt. It also has a larger Magnezone line so it’s not difficult to get another one hitting even though Zekrom uses double PlusPowers to OHKO you back. The only difference in this match-up compared to the past’s match-up is that you can use Magnezone as your main attacker – and that’s what makes the whole difference in this match-up. You can continuously OHKO them but they canät you – simply put, you win the prize race. Of course it’s no to be forgotten that Zekrom/Tornaduses speed is still exceptional – even the future may have some problems in the early game if it’s having a slow set-up.



Reshiram/Typhlosion

The Past: This was always 50-50 in my opinion and the true variable in this match-up were Reversal Flips. Now we don’t have to flip anymore so Magnezone gets Typhlosion in the active Position always and ReshiPlosion gets anything in the active Position. I think the tables haven’t turned in this one. It’ still 50-50 and this time it’s all about consistency and if ReshiPlosion is able to OHKO Magnezones once they come into play. If they do OHKO them, their Typhlosions will be kept alive because Yanmega/Magnezone once again has nothing to OHKO them with in play.


The Future: Here the difference is once again all about the energy acceleration. Flare Destroy doesn’t hurt you that much anymore because of Energy Retrieval and Flower Shop Lady. You have an access to continuos OHKO on Typhlosions and once you have this option, you must do it. If you try to win the prize race in a Magnezone vs. Reshiram game, even this deck’s energy acceleration doesn’t match into that. Once you take care of their energy accelerators, you’re free to attack with Yanmega while attacking occasionally with Magnezone to kill the most dangerous Reshirams. Remember, you can hit 70 to Reshiram with only 1 energy on it because its Outrage does only after Sonicboom and doesn’t OHKO Yanmega. If you’re able to get Typhlosions KOed before they do a serious harm to you by loading every Reshiram attack ready, you have a great change winning this game.



Magneboar

The Past: In theory this is an autowin for the past. It takes Emboars easily away with Jirachi or Magnezone and after that Magneboar is useless. This was a good match for the past in the previous format and it’s now also.


The Future: Well, the future may not have Jirachi to devolve Emboars but as stated earlier, 150 damage is piece of cake for this deck. Once Emboar is played, it will be KOed the next turn. The future is also faster so it will have a prize lead so Magneboar can’t win the game by manually loading its attackers. Easy match-up.



Gothitelle/Reuniclus

The Past: You can OHKO them or just snipe and devolve their Reuniclus. You can also disturb them with Judge so they don’t even get a set-up.. Nearly an autowin for the past.


The Future: Well , you can OHKO them even easier!  This match-up is simply too easy because of the huge energy amount the future is running.



Mew/Vileplume/Yanmega/Techs

The past & future: It’s useless to rate these match-ups differently because MewBox/Vileplume variants’ match-ups are always hard to rate. It’slightly favorable for Yanmega/Magnezone variants, because Mew is too weak and Yanmega has the weakness to Magnezone. The future has a slight helper in this match-up as well because of Shaymin. You can move the energies to the Magnezone Mew switches to the active position with Muk’s attack. It’s slightly favorable for both variants just like before.



The key of the future

Well as you may have noticed, it seems like the future has no worse match-ups than the past and it’s true. I have stated many times that consistency will win in this format and I will state it a lot more times in the future. The future IS consistency. You can’t afford getting slow starts in this format where decks like Zekrom/Tornadus can easily end the game in 5 of your turns. If you want to win, the deck you’re playing can’t be inconsistent.   

Conclusion

In my opinion the future version of the Magnezone/Yanmega has a lot more answers against today’s metagame than the past version. Its key elements are consistency, hard-hitting capability more than 2 times in a game and a superior draw engine compared to any deck of the format. It gets everything when it needs them. If you aren’t yet a part of the future, I suggest you’ll at least try the future out and see if it works for you.


That’s for Magnezone/Yanmega. Hope you enjoyed the read and don’t hesitate in giving feedback and comments! If you have any questions feel free to leave a message to the comment field or e-mail me to: thedeckout@gmail.com. I'll improve my blog by adding more pictures for the future entrys so be sure to look forward for it!




// Be back to The Deck Out this Friday when you’ll get full analysis of the new ranking system – Championship Points and my thought and predictions about it. Be sure not to miss this exclusive article!