Plasma list comparison and analysis

Hello everyone!

Today I’ll be doing something different than usually. I take a look at TWO Plasma lists. Why I am
going to do this? Because I want to do something different from time to time and I believe this helps me to straighten my thoughts about my Nationals' deck choice.

2 Kyurems is the bare minimum for Plasma lists

I’ll analyze both lists piece-by-piece and how I see them. I'll also take a look at the pros and cons of both decks. I hope this will help you to build an even better Plasma list of your own and that you will learn something about the article and my insight on Plasma decks. It's been a good while since I made my last Plasma article, so I think it's about a time to make an up-to-date version of Plasma article.

List Number 1



Pokémon:

4x Deoxys EX
3x Thundurus EX
3x Tornadus EX PLF
2x Lugia EX
1x Kyurem PLF
=13

Trainer:

4x Professor Juniper
4x N
3x Skyla
2x Bianca
1x Colress
4x Pokémon Catcher
3x Colress Machine
4x Hypnotoxic Laser
2x Switch
3x Team Plasma Ball
1x Max Potion
1x Float Stone
1x Scramble Switch
1x Virbank City Gym
=34

Energy:

4x Plasma Energy
4x Prism Energy
3x Double Colorless Energy
2x Blend Energy WLFM
=13


The Good

4-2 Hypnotoxic Laser / Virbank City Gym

What I like about this list is the 4 Lasers and 2 Virbanks. I have very hard time fitting 4-2 line of these cards in any Plasma variant, because Virbank is especially against any other Basic deck very useless as it can benefit them more and if they are able to play it before you, you have 2 dead cards in your deck. I prefer playing 1 Virbank just, because my opponent will probably play it.

4 Deoxys EX

4 Deoxys EX is pretty much a must for every Deoxys EX deck. Granted, you will open with a LOT since you only have 6 non-Deoxys EX attackers and that’s why you really should have enough Switch cards in your deck if you are playing 4 Deoxys EX. Most Plasma lists need 4 Deoxys EX, because if you run 3 and prize even one of them, you are in huge trouble if your opponent KOs one of your remaining Deoxys EXs. 1 Deoxys EX on the bench is NOT enough.

14 Supporters

I would love to find space for a 15^th Supporter in Plasma decks, but the fact is that the space is just TOO tight in Plasma lists. If you can put 15 supporters in Plasma deck and still fit all the techs you want, you are a master deck builder.



The Bad


1 Lugia EX & 1 Tornadus EX

What I don’t like in this list are the low amounts of REAL attackers. Lugia EX can be considered as a tech, if you only run one of them and you can’t rely your game plan on one Lugia EX. Tornadus EX on the other hand – well, it’s just a starter. Hitting 120 with 4 energy is just ridiculous for Plasma decks, because they don’t have enough energy acceleration. Against most decks Tornadus EX is as an attacker very bad as it’s weak to Lighting (Thudurus EX / Eelektrik variants), it uses too much energy resources (Enhanced Hammer Darkrai EXs eat you alive if you attach 4 energy to Tornadus EX) and it isn’t a fast attacker, which you would need against decks like Gothitelle/Accelgor. If you Windfall just once against Gothitelle with this list, you probably have already lost the game.

1 Kyurem

So, you have 1 Lugia EX, 1 Tornadus EX and 1 Kyurem. Thinking about drawing all the 5 prizes with Thundurus EX and Poison? Kyurem is THE attacker in this deck and without energy disruption like Hammers, Kyurem would be a staple of at least 3 in every single deck. However, I think everyone knows that 1 Kyurem is not enough. You will open with it too rarely (T1 Frost Spear is so good) and it’s your ONLY non-EX attacker in the deck. Practically you can scoop against Klinklang with one Kyurem and even against some random Sigilyph deck will win you, because of this. You can’t even force your opponent into a 7-prize game with only one non-ex attacker in your deck.

2 Switch – 1 Float Stone – no Keldeo EX

So the deck runs 6 good starters, 4 bad starters and 3 Switch cards…in most games you will open with the Pokémon you don’t want to open and with 3 Switching cards there is nothing you can about it! Also, I don’t even think that Thundurus EX can be considered as a good starter since the deck only runs 6 energy suitable for Thundurus EX. I have trouble drawing my 8 Lighting energy in the first turn and I don’t know what kind of magician you have to be in order to get the 6 energy working. I believe most lists play even more than 8 energy suitable for Thundurus EX.

Also, Special Conditions will kill you with 2 Switches. If you have discarded one Switch in the early game, good luck at getting rid off Special Conditions with one Switch in your deck… One unfortunate heads tails from the Hypnotoxic Laser and you are in a prize and coming back will be difficult. Not to mention, it would be pretty annoying if this happened to your fully loaded Tornadus EX or Lugia EX.

I don’t understand the Float Stone either. There really is no situation, where it’s better than Switch. It doesn’t get you rid of the Special Conditions and in most situations it’s just used one time. Not to mention that if your opponent happens to run Tool Scrapper, it isn’t useless, because they can always use it on Float Stone, whereas normally it would be a dead card in their deck. Running Float Stone is just not optimal without Keldeo EX.  

  3 – 1 Team Plasma Ball / Ultra Ball

First, 4 Balls is an overkill and second, the deck really wants Ultra Balls, so you can discard the energy in the early turns. Ok, maybe this deck wants to run Plasma Balls just, because you will never have enough energy in your hand in the early turns, which you can use to discard and to use Thundurus EXs attack to get the energy back. I think the optimal amount for Plasma lists is 3 Ultra Balls or in some extraordinary situations maybe 2 Ultra Balls and 1 Team Plasma Ball. I’ve tried both and time after time I go back to 3 Ultra Balls, because it’s so good in T1.

Energy Lines

This is the most bugging part for me in the list. 3 DCEs, but only one Lugia EX. Running Tornadus EX is no excuse to run 3 DCEs, because Tornadus EX can’t be one of your main attackers in the current metagame (otherwise you’ll get toasted). Tornadus EX is just not energy efficient enough compared to its firepower in the current format.

Also, as I explained before 6 Lighting energy (Blend and Prism) aren’t just enough. You won’t draw into them in the early turns, and early turns are the MOST IMPORANT turns for this deck. It should be a fast deck and these energy lines just don’t support the early turns well enough.

You can always use DCEs to retreat your Deoxys EXs, but do you really want to attach an energy for retreating, where you normally could just attach energy to one of your attackers? I think not. Back in the day, when I ran 2 Lugia EX in my Plasma, I even then ran 2 DCEs, because finding space for 3 is impossible. Unless you run 6 Lighting energy of course…

Colress

Especially with this amount of Balls and since you want your bench full almost all the time, Colress is very good in this deck. I think 2 Colress is the optimal count, because in the very early in the game you and your opponent will probably have at least 6 benched Pokémon combined. And after that, everything more than 6 is just plus for you.

Overall thoughts about the list

The biggest problem I have with this list is that I believe it’s too inconsistent and has no real game-plan. The deck can’t rely on Thundurus EX in the early game, due to the very low energy amounts. It can use Tornadus EX as the main attacker in every match-up, but we all know what happens if you do that. The deck could use the one Lugia EX to tear through everything since the deck DOES run Scramble Switch. However, with the lack of Thunder Knuckle energy, loading all those energy on Lugia EX isn’t an easy task. Kyurem is a very bad in this list since you don’t really have energy on it. You’ll be drawing DCEs and Plasma all the time even though you would like to get Blend and Prism energy.

The list has no real focus on anything and that’s the only thing Plasma lists should do. Have focus on early hitting with Thundurus EX, have focus on Lugia EX etc. In this deck it seems that there are just random cards put in together, which have no real synergy and top of that even the trainer and energy lines don’t support the lack of focus in the list.


List Number 2


Pokémon:

3x Thundurus EX
4x Deoxys EX
2x Kyurem
1x Landorus
1x Lugia EX(Plasma Gale)
=11

Trainer:

4x Professor Juniper
4x N
2x Bianca
2x Colress
2x Skyla
3x Ultra Ball
4x Colress Machine
4x Pokémon Catcher
4x Hypnotoxic Laser
1x Virbank City Gym
4x Switch
1x Dowsing Machine
1x Max Potion
=36

Energy:

4x Prism Energy
4x Blend Energy WFLM
4x Plasma Energy
1x Double Colorless Energy
=13

The Good


2 Kyurem – Landorus

For a long time I ran 3 Kyurem, but soon noticed that Landorus really is worth its space in the metagame full of RayEels, Darkrai EX and Plasma mirrors. It’s very good against all of these decks and with its second attack it can also give headache for Gothitelle from time to time. Kyurem is very good in the early game and so is Landorus. Whether you want to open the game with Kyurem or Landorus is a very difficult question. It depends mainly on what your opponent opens with.

Also, it’s good to mention that with these 3 non-EX attackers you are always able to force your opponent into a 7-pirze game when played wisely and it gives you directly and advantage especially in the mirrors unless your opponent is in a topdeck mode. If that’s not enough, with 3 non-EX attackers you don’t have to worry about Plasma Klinklang match-up.  

The amount of good starters

This deck has 7 good starters compared to the first list. On top of that it has 4 Switch cards. And a lot better energy lines to actually SUPPORT the attacker you might open with. You don’t really get anything by opening with Thundurus EX if you aren’t able to draw energy to it and get energy to discard pile.

Stable energy lines

8 Blend/Prism is the ultimate minimum I would ever play in Plasma. I still sometimes whiff the energy with these energy lines, but playing more would make the rest of the deck worse. 8 Blend/Prism is already a compromise and I think running anything less than 8 is just a bad gamble.

3 Ultra Balls

A lot of people asked why I played Ultra Ball in the first place, but as everyone has already tested Plasma, I think everyone is comfortable with running Ultra Balls in Plasma. You want those energy to the discard pile and you want them as soon as possible. Preferably in T1. As I said before, I used to run 2-1 Ultra-Plasma, but I just found Plasma Balls weren’t good enough.

4 Switch

It’s 4 Switch or bust. Or 2 Keldeo EX and 3-4 Float Stones. There is no other way of running this deck in my opinion. You MUST have someone attacking T1 and switch cards are your insurance for that in the early turns. If you run less than 4 Switch cards, a skilled player will get you stuck in the late game and feed on easy prizes.  




The Bad



Gothitelle/Accelgor match-up

Since the deck doesn’t run Keldeo EX, Gothitelle/Accelgor is a very difficult match-up unless you are able to get a very strong start. I know what I am talking about, because I tested this match-up a lot before my Nationals and it was one of the main reasons, why I decided to run Gothitelle instead of Plasma. Without 2 Keldeo EXs, the match-up is favorable for Gothitelle without a T1 OHKO by Plasma.  



Overall thoughts about the list

I’m quite happy with the list, but the fact that I didn’t play it in the National Championships obviously tells you that I’m not quite comfortable how the deck still functions. I would prefer having 2 Lugia EXs in the deck, because I really like the Lugia EX approach, but finding space all the things necessary is very difficult in a Lugia EX variant. If I had played Plasma in the Nationals, this list would have been the list.



Conclusion


I hope this article was useful for every one of you and gave you clear picture of my opinion how Plasma decks should be built and how they should not be build. I really liked to do this kind of article, where I compare two of the lists, because it really puts things in a different perspective.  I think I will do these in the future as well!

Anyways, now it’s your turn. What do you think about the lists? Which of the lists in the article would you prefer more and what does your dream Plasma list look like? Are both lists just bad? What are your favorite techs in the Plasma? Feel free to leave any comments and questions considering the entry!

Thanks for reading!