Mewtwo EX & ReshiPlosion

Reshiram EX isn't part of this deck - find out why!

Hi to all The Deck Out followers!

Typhlosion/Reshiram – the most played deck in the World Championships. The endless no-brainer mirror matches frustrated everyone who was playing in the Worlds last year. However, due the rise of Chandelure, Kyurem and Ross.dec the ReshiPlosion list its winning momentum. However, can a single card like Mewtwo EX change ReshiPlosion back to the winning path? I guess we’ll find out.

This will probably be the second last article of this Mewtwo EX series – last being Zekrom.

Anyways, there is still one deck to go so let’s take a look at the skeleton list of this deck.


Pokémon:

4x Reshiram
4x Cyndaquil
2x Quilava
4x Typhlosion
2x Mewtwo EX
1x Cleffa
=17


Trainer:

1x Pokegear 3.0.
4x Pokémon Collector
4x Professor Juniper
4x Sage’s Training
2x N
4x Rare Candy
4x Pokémon Communication
4x Junk Arm
1x Switch
2x Pokémon Catcher
2x Eviolite
=32

Energy:

3x DCE
8x Fire Energy
=11



I made it once again, a 60 card skeleton. Who would have thought that even ReshiPlosion can be this full?


Card Explanations

There really isn’t a point going through all of these cards in-depth because I’ve already done it in my early ReshiPlosion article. If you want to get more in-depth explanations from the certain cards of this deck, I suggest you check it out. You can find it here.(LINKZ)

Reshiram

Reshiram is the main attacker in this deck even if the deck runs Mewtwo EX. Reshiram is still able to OHKO most of the things in the format and 2HKOs everything in the format. Reshiram is exceptionally good card because it discards energy from itself. That isn’t usually considered a good thing but at the moment it seems like it is. There are many good and played attackers in the format that hit more for each energy you have attached to yourself. Good examples are of course Mewtwo EX; Cobalion(NVI) and Rotom, which Durant usually uses. These all cards are almost useless against Reshiram. Reshiram, which works as a great main attacker in this deck is one of the reasons, there is a point making an article about this deck once again.

Typhlosion

Typhlosion is the secondary attacker and energy accelerator of this deck. The deck runs 4-2-4 of Typhlosion but it could also run 4-2-3 or even 4-3-4 line of Typhlosions. The Typhlosion line should be built around the lines you are the most comfortable with. Typhlosion is one of the cards that takes energy from the discard pile so the deck’s draw engine should be built around powerful discarding draws because Typhlosion makes it poissible.

Mewtwo EX

Typhlosion energy accelerates any Pokémon with its power and Mewtwo’s X-Ball makes a good use out of its power. Mewtwo EX isn’t a card this deck would desperately need but because Mewtwo EX is in the format and many other decks use it as the main attacker, Mewtwo EX is a great secondary attacker in this deck because it’s capable of OHKOing your opponent’s Mewtwo EX thanks to Afterburner’s energy acceleration. The reason why Mewtwo EX can’t be the main attacker of this deck is that Afterburner damages it. Mewtwo EX is easily OHKOed by another Mewtwo EX even if it doesn’t have any damage counters on it already and Afterburner makes it even easier. There is no point giving your opponent easy two prizes with already damaged Mewtwo EX until it’s absolutely necessary to use Mewtwo Ex.

Cleffa

Well I’m running a stage2 Pokémon in my deck and my deck isn’t built to hit T1, so it’s only natural to run Cleffa in the deck. Cleffa is – simply put – the best starter for almost every deck.



Pokegear 3.0. -  Pokémon Collector

Nothing new here, consistency, consistency and once again – consistency. I can’t emphasis that enough.

Professor Juniper – Sage’s Training

As said earlier, discarding draws are SO good in this deck. The deck runs a maximum amount of Junk Arms and is able to take energy from the discard pile. The final list might be able to get even Pokémon from the discard pile (with Super Rod) so the only thing you can’t get from discard pile with this deck is special energy and Supporters. Professo Juniper is the best straight draw of the format and Sage’s is the second most efficient straight draw in this format. If you are able draw the two best straight draws of the format, there is no reason not to run them.

N

N should be a staple card for every deck that runs a Pokémon EX. Taking 2 prizes instead of 1 one is probably one of the reason why PCL decided to reprint N. When you take 2 prizes, your hand size increases at the same time a lot while your prize amount decrease a lot. N balances things. Suddenly, your opponent’s 8 card hand turns into a 2 card hand thanks to N. N wasn’t able to make that big of an impact after its release because decks were only attacking with non-EX Pokémon and taking 1 prize at the time. Thanks to N and EX-format you’re now able to come back from even a 4-1 prize position because you can take those 4 prizes faster with your EX attacker and even faster if you are able to kill your opponent’s Pokémon EX in the process.

Pokémon Communication

The deck needs Typhlosions for a proper set-up so Communication is a must. Also, thanks to Mewtwo EX, the list has more Pokémon in the deck, which makes Communication more useful than in the earlier versions, which ran only Pokémon amounts between 12 and 14.

Rare Candy

The deck has 4 Stage2 Pokémons and you want to run 4 Candies to get them into game as soon as possible.

Switch

Every single main Pokémon of your deck has a retreat of 2 (Reshiram, Mewtwo EX and Typhlosion) so you really want to have Switch whenever necessary to conserve energy.

Pokémon Catcher

Every non-trainer lock deck should run these. No exceptions.

Eviolite

The main attackers of this deck are both big HP Basics so Eviolite is a great card in this deck and is useful at all times. Later on in this article, I’ll introduce a “combo” that needs an Eviolite to work properly.

Energy

I’m not quite certain about the energy lines of this deck. You want to consider running 3 different kind of energy in the deck – Fire, Rescue and Double Colorless Energy. You need to run a good amount of Fire energy to get Afterburner working properly. However, you may also want to run Rescues to get back your attackers. DCE is of course for Mewtwo EX’s X-Ball but it’s also a great card with Reshiram because Reshiram can Outrage with DCE. Getting a T1 Outrage may help you in the early game to deal just the extra damage you need to win the game.



THE list

I’ll now show you how my ReshiPlosion list looks at the moment. The list has included the “combo” I mentioned earlier.

Pokémon:

3x Reshiram
4x Cyndaquil
2x Quilava
3x Typhlosion
2x Mewtwo EX
1x Cleffa
=15


Trainer:


4x Pokémon Collector
4x Professor Juniper
3x Sage’s Training
3x N
4x Pokémon Communication
4x Junk Arm
4x Rare Candy
1x Switch
1x Pokémon Catcher
1x Super Rod
1x Pokémon Center
3x Eviolite
=33

Energy:

2x Double Colorless Energy
2x Rescue Energy
8x Fire Energy
=12

As you can see from the list, it’s pretty teched. There is one of everything in the trainer lines. I also reduced the Typhlosion line into 4-2-3 because I noticed Cyndaquils get killed very easily in the early game. That’s one of the reasons, I have Super Rod in the list as well.

The combo, which I mentioned earlier on in this article is the Afterburner + Pokémon Center combo. Pokémon Center is surprisingly good card in this deck because Afterburner damages the Pokémon you attach energy to. Getting a full HP Reshiram with Eviolite attacking is a huge deal against many decks. There are only some Pokémons in the format that are able to OHKO a Reshiram like that. Even Mewtwo EXs have problems with OHKOing Reshiram like that. With quick math, Mewtwo EX needs 7 energy attached to it to OHKO a Reshiram like that which has just hit Blue Flare. Pokémon Center is a stadium card so it’s a great tech against trainer lock decks as well. In the past, there was nothing to counter Tropical Beach but now ReshiPlosion can win by countering Tropical Beach and killing the draw of a trainer lock in an instant. Stadiums are back and I’m very glad about it, it’s one more aspect to keep in mind while building a deck from now on.

There is one question you might be asking – why am I not running Reshiram EX? The reason is that this deck doesn’t need it. In fact, Reshiram EX is only in the way for this deck. It’s too easily OHKOed by Mewtwo EX because it requires 4 energy to attack high damage and it might deal damage to itself while it already has damage after AfterBurners. If you want to attack with an EX in this deck – Mewtwo EX is your guy – not Reshiram EX. This might seem illogical but if you’ve played both versions of this deck, you know that in fact it’s pretty logical.

The list runs very well and if you enjoyed playing ReshiPlosion earlier in the HGSS-on format, I suggest you test this list and see how well it runs for you. Whoops, I almost answered the next topic, I’m about to discuss. The real question is…

Will ReshiPlosion make a comeback?

The answer for this question is one simple word – yes. I’m pretty guaranteed about that answer. The EXs were a blessing to a ReshiPlosion and the metagame treats ReshiPlosion nicely on the other parts as well.

Remember the small bug that keeps bugging you in every tournament? It name is Durant and its auto-loss is ReshiPlosion. The metagame in Pokémon is usually just like Rock-Paper-Scissors and while ReshiPlosion wasn’t a set a go able to keep up with the most top decks of the format, it suddenly becomes a great answer against many decks. In my opinion, the irony of this is that ReshiPlosion gained almost nothing new from the Next Destinies. However, since the metagame changed, ReshiPlosion only needed to wait its chance to rise to the top once again.

When I say that the format is a Rock-Paper-Scissor format, I mean it literally. Thanks to double weaknesses, the type advantage of hitting to the weakness is huge. While ReshiPlosion only hits at two different weaknesses that aren’t even that popular (Fire and Psychic), the main thing is that there is nothing to OHKO Reshirams or Typhlosions. The only playable Water type Pokémon in the format are Kyurem and Kyurem EX. Kyurem isn’t able to do anything else than spread and you can win the spread by just playing the game correctly. Kyurem EX possesses no real threat because even though they can OHKO you, you can still 2HKO them easily with Reshiram. Since it’s an EX-Pokémon, 2HKOing it isn’t a big issue. 

Reshiplosion isn’t always the winner of Rock-Paper-Scissor but the most important thing is that it never loses in RPS. That’s a huge asset when comparing to the other decks this format has to offer.

Conclusion

Even though ReshiPlosion isn’t the most versatile deck of the format, I think it’s one of the better decks of the format. It has everything besides versatility: good typing, weaknesses, combos and most of all consistency. I hope this entry helped you to get your ReshiPlosion up-to-date and able to stand against most decks of this format.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for this article or for my upcoming Mewtwo EX- series articles, let me know. I’m always happy to answer any comments and questions that you might come up with.

Thanks for reading!