It's good to be back - Palkia EX and the tournament system analysis

Because it's the cooler Palkia EX.

Hello everyone!

So I was supposed to do a report from the ECC a few weeks back. However, due to my busy schedule, I didn’t find any time to write the report. Also, since the new set has now been released, I see no reason to analyze the results of the ECC matches I played. Instead, I decided to do an article on the deck I played in the ECC since it’s even better now in the new format.

Today I will first discuss my ECC experience briefly and since it was my one and only(?) tournament this year, I will also reflect my experience on the best-of-three and 50 minutes Swiss rounds. However, mainly I will be focusing on the deck and how it worked out for me and how it looks like in the new format. There may be some issues with my match-up understanding, because I didn’t playtest a single game with any deck before the ECC, so my game understanding is a bit rusty.

Anyways, let’s get going (old habits die hard, haha).




The ECC experience and my thoughts about the tournament system


I really didn’t have any expectations of my result in the ECC. All I wanted was a positive result, because it would have been embarrassing if I went something like 0-8 in the only tournament of the year, haha. Of course I couldn’t expect a lot, because I hadn’t playtested at all and I got the list directly from my Japanese friend Ukinin-san (of course I had to take away the Muscle Bands, because they were illegal).

In the first day I did well with 6 wins, 2 ties and 1 loss. The only loss was to an Empoleon/Dusknoir deck, which just run through me and I didn’t have a chance against it. The first day was a horrifying experience with 14 hours of playing Pokémon. In the old day, I would have welcomed it, but let’s just say that my stamina isn’t as good as it used be since I hadn’t been playing in 8 months! I was dead-tired after the first day of playing.

In the second day of the tournament, I started the day with 3 ties. I didn’t realize that I should have been able to win at least one of those games, so after I understood, I had no chance of get through to the top8, I just asked my opponents if they needed any CP points. For some reason, they didn’t need, so we played them out either way and I lost both of the remaining matches.

I don’t know if the new system is better than the old one. Due to the first turn rule, it’s very difficult to donk in the new format, so I don’t know if best-of-three is necessary. Sure, best-of-three has more skill involved in it than best-of-one, but the time limit of 50 minutes also brought some very negative sides in my opponents as well.

In the first 4 games, I went 2-0, so I didn’t notice anything out of ordinary. However, in the first match where I lost my first game, I noticed that my opponent started to stall in a very visible manner. As I am not playing competitively anymore, I didn’t really care about the stalling, but if I was still playing competitively, I would have gotten very mad. After the first win, a few of my opponents started to shuffle just a little longer, think just a little bit more, search for their deck for 5 seconds longer etc. Everything they did in the first, game, they did purposefully slower in the second game and when the play tempo changes between games, it’s pretty obvious what’s happening.

As it is a competitive game, I am pretty sure that my opponents weren’t the only players doing that kind of things. For the sake of SoTG, I sure hope Pokémon does quickly something to the 50-minute time limit, because it simply isn’t enough and encourages subtle stalling. Thankfully, I don’t have to anymore sit and watch someone lose a meaningful match just, because their opponent is stalling.

Also, I think the 14 Swiss rounds are just… too much. Especially for a newbie for me who doesn’t have any stamina, haha.  





The list and the newly fixed list


So, my ECC list looked like this, because Muscle Bands weren’t legal in the ECC.


Pokémon:

3x Palkia EX
3x Deoxys EX
4x Snorlax
1x Genesect EX
=11

Trainer:

4x Professor Juniper
4x N
3x Colress
2x Bianca
1x Skyla
2x Shadow Triad
4x Team Plasma Ball
3x Colress Machine
4x Float Stone
1x Switch
1x Max Potion
4x Hypnotoxic Laser
2x Virbank City Gym
2x Tool Scrapper
1x Dowsing Machine
=38

Energy:

4x Double Colorless Energy
4x Plasma Energy
3x Psychic Energy
=11

And the list I would play in the current format.

Pokémon:

3x Palkia EX
3x Deoxys EX
4x Snorlax
1x Genesect EX
=11

Trainer:

4x Professor Juniper
4x N
3x Colress
2x Bianca
1x Skyla
2x Shadow Triad
3x Team Plasma Ball
3x Colress Machine
2x Muscle Band
4x Float Stone
1x Max Potion
4x Hypnotoxic Laser
2x Virbank City Gym
2x Tool Scrapper
1x Dowsing Machine
=38

Energy:

4x Double Colorless Energy
4x Plasma Energy
3x Psychic Energy
=11


Strategy

In most games you want to start, because of one simple reason – your opponent wants usually start. I noticed that for me it didn’t usually matter, whether I went first or second, because if I went first, I got the one turn advantage, but if I went second, I could  very often hit in T1, which was huge. I decided to go first only, because I remembered that the stage2 decks always wants to go first as well as do the Virizion EX variants.

In short, the strategy is quite simple. Attach 3 energy to Palkia EX and start hitting with it, while bringing Snorlax to the active spot. The Snorlax should have a Float Stone attached to it when you bring it to the active spot, or you should at least have an access to Float Stone the next turn. Palkia EX hits from 50 to even 120 damage with Strafe with the help of Deoxys EX, Muscle Band and Poison. You wanto to save the Lasers for the cases, when you really need them.

The great thing about this deck is the few resources it needs. In many games, I had a huge supporter drought, but it didn’t matter, because you only need a Basic Pokémon and 3 energy in order to attack! There were some games I was able to win even with only one Supporter during the whole game.

Snorlax is not only there, because of its ability, but because of it attack as well. It’s a wonderful late game finisher, because you always have time to attach 5 energy to Snorlax as long as you play wisely. TeamPact OHKOs pretty much everything in the current format (especially with Deoxys EX and Muscle Band), so it’s a real game-ender.



Card Explanations


I will analyze the card choices of the new version of the deck, which is superior to the old list.




Palkia EX


Palkia EX only has only one job in the deck – to hit Strafe. You attack with Strafe about 95% of the games. Usually you want to switch out Snorlax, but you should also remember that you don’t HAVE TO switch Pokémon with Strafe. There are certain situations, where you want to take a hit with Palkia EX, because it has such a huge amount of HP. It’s good to remember that most of your opponent’s don’t really remember this and it may mess up with their calculations.

Deoxys EX

Deoxys EX sits on the bench and gives Palkia EX additional hit power. However, you mustn’t underrate Deoxys EXs attack either. It’s still highly effective against the likes of Keldeo EX and Snorlax, because they have high energy costs. This deck runs Psychic Energy, because from time to time you want to use Helix Force in order to OHKO your opponent’s main attackers, but in many games it’s just more safe to use Strafe to the end.

Snorlax

Snorlax is the deck’s heart & soul. Its Ability stops from your opponent from retreating and it has humongous 130 HP (which is a lot for a non-EX Basic Pokémon). You usually want just to use Strafe in order to bring Snorlax to the active spot. With the help of Lasers, your opponent may be in big trouble if they don’t happen to have a Switch or Escape Rope in their hand. There are many other Pokémon that can be ran besides Snorlax (e.g. Sigilyph, Suicune, the random Item lock stage1 Pokémon of the new set), but I still believe Snorlax is THE play in this deck. It worked for me, so it should work for you too.

Genesect EX

Funny fact about Gensect EX. Only one day before the tournament, I learned that you can choose which Pokémon to bring to the active spot with Genesect EX! it was a good thing I read the card, because otherwise I may have dumped it from my deck, haha. Genesect only work in the deck as a Catcher and it helps you to get the easy prizes in the late game. Combined with Shadow Triad, you may have as many as 6 Catchers in your possession during a game!

Professor Juniper – N – Colress

Nothing new here. The deck could probably use 4 Colress and 1 Bianca, but I hate playing 4 Colress, because sometimes in the early game it’s just awful and Supporters should be good along every step of the game. However, especially in the mid – and late game Colress is so good that you don’t really want to play less than 3 of them.

Bianca

If there was a better straight draw, it would easily replace Bianca. Bianca is a bit oddball here since mostly I had more than 6 cards in my hand whenever I had Bianca in my hand. Colress is 90% of the time better, but sometimes you just want the direct draw card. Bianca is the best there is – at the moment – because you don’t want to rely on Team Plasma Grunt even though you have a lots of Plasma cards in your deck.

Skyla

I felt like the original list (which didn’t run any Skyla) needed at least one Skyla and added in it. It served the purpose very well. I would like to fit maybe even 2 or 3 Skylas in to the deck, because you usually just want one certain Trainer card from your deck, but there just isn’t enough space for it. After all, Colress is still better than Skyla.

Shadow Triad

One of the most important cards of the whole deck. Getting Plasma Energy and Hypnotoxic Lasers back are HUGE for this deck. IN some situations, I retreated with Genesect EX only to get Plasma Energy back to my hand with Shadow Triad and use Red Signal again. Shadow Triad is a very versatile card in this deck and as I have said so many times before, versatility is the things that makes all the cards and decks good.

Team Plasma Ball

Nothing interesting here. You can search for every single Pokémon in your deck with Team Plasma Ball and since you don’t want to discard any cards you don’t want to play Ultra Ball instead of Team Plasma Ball.

Colress Machine

The deck doesn’t necessarily need Colress Machine, but Colress Machine makes the deck more agile in surprising situations where e.g. your Palkia EX is OHKOed from bench or when you need a surprise attack with Snorlax or Deoxys EX. With the help of Colress Machine, I also got a lot of T1 Strafe, which put immediately pressure on my opponent.
Muscle Band

I would have loved to use Muscle Band in the ECC. With the help of Muscle Band and Deoxys EX, you pretty much 2HKO everything. Now, I wasn’t able to 2HKO anything, and not even OHKO Pokémon with weakness. Muscle Band makes the deck sooo much better, and even though I haven’t played the deck with Muscle Band, I’m sure it’s very strong with it.
Float Stone

You usually want to attach Float Stones only to Snorlaxes, but of course there are sometimes exceptions. What you should keep in mind is that your opponent often does run Tool Scrappers. That’s’ why you don’t really want to attach more than one Float Stone at a time on your Pokémon. The only exception is of course, if you are forced to discard Float Stones with Juniper. In the early tournament, I played down the Float Stones too carelessly and it almost cost me some games.

Max Potion

Max Potion is quite an obvious addition to the deck. You have meatwalls that don’t have energy attached to them and one main attacker, with all the energy on it. With the help of Max Potion, you can use cards like Genesect EX to meatwall some serious damage and just heal it away. The deck would like to play more Max Potions if – you guessed it-  it had more space!

Hypnotoxic Laser - Virbank City Gym

Since you aren’t a stage2 deck and can’t hit for 200, you need to play these cards. Snorlax makes Laser even better, but usually you don’t really need the Sleep, because the extra damage is the key in this deck. With the combination of Poison, Muscle Band and Deoxys EX, Strafe is able to hit all the key HP amounts in the current format.

Tool Scrapper – Dowsing Machine

Silver Mirror and you are screwed. That’s why 2 Tool Scrappers and a Dowsing Machine is a must in my opinion. You may also think that Garbodor gives the deck trouble, but in my experience, it usually only helps me out. Of course, sometimes you want to get rid off Garbodors Ability as well, so Tool Scrapper does work for that as well. Dowsing Machine is in the deck, because it’s so VERSATILE.

Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy and Plasma Energy are the cards you usually have on Palkia EX. However, you need Basic Energy also, if your opponent decides to start pounding Enhanced Hammers on you (a strategy, which in my experience didn’t work out too well).
The Basic Energy question is interesting in this deck. One could argue that Prism Energy or Blend GRDP is a better choice, because you could use Genesects attack as well, but due to the Hammer threat, I think Basic Energy is the way to go. Also, the original list played Grass Energy, because they wanted to make Genesect EX to attack, but I think Deoxys EX is superior to Genesect EX in most situations – especially in the current format, where there are Pokémon with high energy costs roaming around.

A quick match-up review
I will be taking a look at the match-ups I played in the tournament, I really can’t theorymon this format at all, because I have zero experience from it excluding the ECC.

Genesect EX/Virizion EX variants

The more straight the variant is, the more trouble it causes to the deck. I defeated all the 4 variants I played against, but I am pretty sure I would have lost to a straightforward Genesect EX without any gimmicky techs like Garbodor.


Darkrai EX variants


Garbodor or not, this match-up is highly favorable. I tied 2 Darkrai EX variants, because of my (yes I play very slowly nowadays) and my opponent’s slow play, and won 2 Darkrai EX variants, so I guess the match-up is pretty good. I believe the match-up is even easier when your opponent plays down Garbodor, because it messes up their game as much as it does mine.

Team Plasma Lugia EX deck

This is one match-up, I had huge problems dealing with. I think there is something you can do now, thanks to Muscle Band, but without Muscle Band the match-up was extremely difficult. The reason for this is that I couldn’t 2HKO Lugia EX, where as they OHKO my Snorlaxes for two prizes. The prize exchange isn't in your favor and it undermines the whole strategy of your deck. I believe it’s about 50-50 with the help from Muscle Band.

Empoleon/Dusknoir

Dunnolol. I believe this match-up is extremely bad if they get the Dusknoir up. At least I was completely sweeped away by the deck. The problem is that they can KO Palkia EX whenever they want and it pretty much destroys your whole game plan. You need a whole new game plan against this deck and I wasn’t able to figure it out in one tournament.

Blastoise variants

Even if they get a T2 Blastoise running, you are safe. My opponent played Catchers, hit some heads and still lost the game. The key to victory here is the fact that Kyurem EX is weak to Palkia EX and Keldeo EX can be easily OHKOed by Deoxys  EX. Just get the early lead with aggressive Strife and you are safe after the late game Ns since you need a lot less resources to the prize exchange than they do.





Conclusion


Anddd, that’s about it! I hope you enjoyed the article as much as I enjoyed writing it! I have been writing a lot of Finnish and less English since I stopped writing to my blog, so forgive me for all of my grammar errors and brainfarts. I may play at Nationals, I may translate in the World Championships (or even play there!), but at the moment everything is wide open. I have no plans about Pokémon and I will just go with the flow and how I feel like at the moment. I just watched the Indigo League series from Netflix and got very nostalgic and remembered why I fell in love with Pokémon in the first place (I mean the first episode, wow, just wow).

However, I will still update my blog’s Facebook and Twitter from time to time (like every two months, lol), so if you like to keep up what I am doing in the Pokémon field, be sure to follow me there! It may even be that I will write a second article sometime this year! Of course I don't know if I should write to someplace else than my blog, but feel free to state your opinion about that as well.

Anyways, thanks for reading and feel free to spread the word about the article since no one really doesn’t even know, that The Deck Out site still exists, because the domain changed. Oh and also, feel free to comment on anything!

Thanks for reading!