So, this deck is somewhat-clunky-ish deck where Jellicent (BCR) increases the retreat cost of opposing Pkmns, and Ferrothorn (BKT) spreads damage depending on the opposing retreat cost.
I haven’t updated my decks to UBR era, and I’d say that Power Plant would be the *perfect* counter against Silvally-GX. (At least, that’s until the stadium goes away)
2x N FCO
1x Tate and Liza CES
1x Gladion CIN
1x Brigette BKT
3x Guzma BUS
3x Ultra Ball SUM
2x Evosoda XY
3x Metal Frying Pan FLI
1x Super Rod BKP
2x Float Stone BKT
1x Pal Pad UPR
1x Special Charge STS
2x Field Blower GRI
4x Team Aqua’s Secret Base DCR
4x Shield Energy
3x Metal Energy
4x Double Colorless Energy SUM
I think I forgot to put in ACE SPEC Computer Search though... oof
Avalugg Mill Deck from Steam Siege! (Let’s hope XY will still be around after Expanded Rotation next yr tho...)
3x Avalugg STS
1x Bergmite FLI
2x Bergmite STS
1x Victini (*) DRM
2x Electrode-GX CES
2x Voltorb ROS
2x Magcargo CES
2x Slugma CES
2x Oranguru SUM (banana master (shout-out to Donald of DarkIntegralGaming)
4x Mallow GRI
1x Brocc’s Grit EVO
1x Computer Search BCR
4x Ultra Ball SUM
2x Battle Compressor PHF
3x Counter Catcher CIN
4x Nest Ball SUM
2x Evosoda XY
2x Float Stone BKT
1x Pal Pad UPR
4x Counter Energy CIN
15x Water Energy
Basically, this decc plays from behind: use Battle Compressor to get the Energies into the discard, then Electrode-GX to sacrifice Prizes for Counter value and Energy Acceleration, which pays off for Avalugg’s heavy energy cost for satisfying mill results. Magcargo and Mallow for obvious reasons. Victini for late-game clutch KOs and energy recycling.
Today is a big day in Pokemon. Firstly, the [2016 format rotation] begins today and of course the biggest news of all, [Pokemon has banned another card!]
If you are unaware of this card, [Shiftry NXD 72], and what the fuss is all about, kindly go check [the post I made about it back in June] (which I will maintain was the first of its kind, but I digress).
Pokemon gave two reasons for why the ban was being enforced:
Creates a strategy that frequently wins on the first turn of the game
Creates a non-interactive play environment where the opponent has little impact on the outcome of the match
These reasons—particularly the 2nd reason—are very valid concerns for this card, and I even mentioned this is in [another post] I made about the deck (feat. video by pokedecks). To allow this card to be played in this manner is not within the spirit of the game.
I think that the general consensus about this decision is positive. From what I’ve heard this deck has been a scourge on PTCGO’s Expanded since Ancient Origins was playable. On the other hand, this news is a slap in the face for anyone who rushed out to buy a playset, and I’ve heard some have paid top dollar for them where they were scarce.
I just want to bring up another point about [Forest of Giant Plants] before I go. While discussing about the Shiftry ban with my good friend and infrequent co-author on this blog, Jonathan, he mentioned that he felt Pokemon should consider nerfing Forest of Giant Plans (or as it’s commonly called on forums Broken Vine Space, named after [Broken Time-Space]. I just like calling it FGP). Now, I’m not calling Jonathan out; we had an interesting discussion about this, and he can come on here any time and defend his position (｀ω´) . He cited that another potentially “broken” Expanded deck could abuse FGP in the form of [Latios-EX/Forretress]. Don’t get me wrong, it is a powerful deck that truly abuses FGP and cards that are also used in Turbo Shiftry like [Devolution Spray], [Super Scoop Up], and [Scoop Up Cyclone], but I don’t believe this deck is “broken” in the same way that Shiftry is, and certainly not powerful enough to have to nerf FGP (if anything, if the deck indeed becomes a problem, maybe Devolution Spray is the card to nerf). The difference being that while Latios/Forretress can get T1KOs on EXs, it is far from being guaranteed, and it simply isn’t consistent enough, plus if the opponent is able to put 2 EXs in play at the start of the game, it’s an auto-loss for Latios. Shiftry is consistent enough because that deck nets wins regardless of the amount of health the opposing Pokemon have.
And that’s all I have for right now. I’m excited that this decision was made, and I’m also excited that the rotation has finally happened. I’ve refrained from posting here and even going on PTCGO since Worlds mostly because I’m tired of seeing and playing with all these old cards we’ve had forever (I’m looking at you, [N]!) But I expect to be slightly more active than usual on here, so look out for more deck breakdowns and other posts in the coming weeks! Until then, happy battling!
-Ethan
If you’re unaware, a couple sites and groups started posting screenshots of what appeared to be leaked information about a future banned cards list for next year’s [Expanded Format]. This “news” came suspiciously early, so close to the announcement that all Regionals will be Expanded Format only. As many people have assured on forums and Facebook, this leaked information is all hoaxed. I’m inclined to believe that it very much is hoaxed. The sources for all the screenshots were very suspect, particularly one that was designed to look like it had come straight from the Pokemon website, but the cards on that list in particular were cards that had been recently hyped on the Facebook group Virbank City.
Before I had concluded for myself that I believed the news to be fake, I had already started typing up this big long post about all the cards that were alleged to be banned in the future. Now that the hoax has been revealed, it seems rather pointless for me to post it. But as I was writing it, I was realizing the gravity of some of these potentially powerful cards, particularly as Ancient Origins appears on the horizon.
Should there ever be a Pokémon ban list?
I think that it would be in Pokémon’s best interest to actually implement a ban list for the Expanded Format. I mean, this isn’t unheard of. As I understand it, Yu-Gi-Oh’s tournament format “Advanced Format” is Unlimited (in Pokemon terms), with a ban/restricted list that’s updated every 3 months. Magic the Gathering has a bunch of formats each with their own amount of legal sets and banned/restricted lists. This just makes simple sense. As sets are developed and released, cards are designed with a general understanding of the current Standard Meta in mind. When a new card is designed, there’s no way a development team can keep track of how that card interacts with every other card the company’s ever made so there are bound to be some very intense and incredible combos. The easiest way to keep a game balanced is to decide which cards are the problem causers and either ban or restrict them.
Over the course of the next season, if Pokemon intend on the Expanded Format playing a bigger role in the Championship series than it did this year, as new sets come out, they should be thinking about making their own ban/restricted list. Taking into account Ancient Origins, I want to touch on some cards in next year’s Expanded that would become crazy powerful. In no particular order.
Lugia-EX
[Lugia-EX PLS 108] Technically, this card should have stepped up its game when Roaring Skies came out. [Shaymin-EX ROS 77] would give it the speed it needed, [Altaria ROS 74] would protect it against [Manectric], and the number of other people playing Shaymin would increase its chances of winning the game in 2 easy KOs. The reality was that relying on your opponents’ Shaymins to net you the win just wasn’t rational, and otherwise, the deck was just too slow on the damage output. Getting out all your [Deoxys-EX] was your first priority and a little too time consuming. This could all change with [Hoopa-EX]. Now one Ultra Ball turns into 3 Deoxys; or 2 Deoxys and a Lugia, or 2 Deoxys and a Shaymin. Then it’s a matter of finding one or two [Team Plasma Balls] or drawing into the Pokemon you need. Plus all the [Colress Machines] you’ll find if you abuse Shaymin correctly. All you need then is a [Muscle Band] and you’ve set up a 180 attacker who’s taking an extra prize on whatever its KOing. Now is this [Seismitoad/Flip Cards] level of abuse? I don’t think so. As fast as it is, it’s still easily beatable by [Rayquaza decks] and [Manectric decks]. If it came down to it and this deck was utterly crushing the competition, restricting the number of Deoxys you could run in an Expanded deck would be enough to nerf it.
~Click Keep Reading to see more potentially bannable cards~
M Tyranitar-EX
[M Tyranitar-EX] In Standard Format, this card has great potential. The damage output this Pokemon has is practically unrivaled by any other Pokemon we currently have. If you put down 2 [Forretress FLF 60]—which itself takes advantage of [Forest of Giant Plants] because Pineco is Grass type—you’re going to one-hit anything on your opponent’s side of the field (EVEN WAILORD). What balances Tyranitar is its attack cost. DDCC is far from impossible, but you’ll be putting in the leg work to get those energy on; either by using [Yveltal XY 78] or evolving Tyranitar and accelerating with [Mega Turbo].
In Expanded, however, setting up a T1 [Tyranitar-EX] with all the energy it needs for its Mega form would be incredibly easy. This deck would be playing at least 3 Mega Turbos alongside 4 [Dark Patch] and of course a few [Battle Compressor]. Now that we’re thinking Expanded, let’s also throw in a playset of [Frozen City], forcing the other player to play their own stadium or else every Pokemon they put energy on will be facing certain doom. Is it broken beyond repair? Hm…remains to be seen, I would have to see a deck like this in action in order to make that call. If so, banning Mega Tyranitar would be the only solution.
Shiftry
[Shiftry NXD 72] The Virbank City Facebook page has been all a-buzz about this card today. Now, I definitely cannot take credit for this, but I want to point out that I was talking about this card a [month and a half ago]. Of course, someone else was bound to come up with it independent of me, but oh well. I would have liked to surprised the community with this as a rogue deck.
At any rate if you are unfamiliar, and you neglected to click the link I just provided, basically the concept of Shiftry is that it acts as a “donk” deck, or in other words, a deck that can win on its first turn. With the help of Forest of Giant Plants, you would be able to evolve a [Seedot] all the way up into a Shiftry in one turn because both Seedot and [Nuzleaf] are Grass types. You would do this to utilize Shiftry’s Giant Fan ability which on a successful coin flip lets you choose a Pokemon of your opponents’ and bounce it back into their deck. Now, you would play this alongside the cards [Devolution Spray], [Super Scoop Up], [Scoop Up Cyclone], and [AZ] so that you could use Giant Fan as many times as you possibly can, with the goal of forcing all of your opponent’s Pokemon back into their deck. Which, if you can do this successfully, you win.
EDIT: Just wanted to mention that I don’t think you would be able to Devolution Spray a Pokemon and then re-evolve the same Pokemon you just Devolved, but you would be able to Devolve and evolve onto a second Nuzleaf, in case you’re having difficulty finding more Shiftry.
I can see this card getting banned if it’s successful enough. If it were to be banned, the reason could probably be that the intended win condition would “not be within the spirit of the game”. There’s no battle taking place here, one person is trying their damnedest to flip a boatload of heads to try to win in one turn, ideally their first turn. Another thing about this deck is if rounds are best-of-three and Shiftry wins game 1, the opponent knows that their main priority is to bench as many Pokemon as they can. However, when they go to game 2, the Shiftry player just immediately takes the game 2 loss and it goes to game 3 with the Shiftry player taking the first turn.
Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to try this deck, because I so very badly do.
Exeggutor
Here at the top of the segment on [Exeggutor PLF 5] I’m going to say straight up: this card should absolutely be banned in Expanded. In case you live under a rock (or maybe you just don’t follow the Pokemon TCG all that closely, that’s unnecessary for me to be presumptuous) an infamous card from the 2010-2011 season is effectively getting a reprint. [Vileplume ANO 3] will be the ultimate bane of many players this coming season. Its ability simply states “Each player can’t play any Item cards from his or her hand.” This same effect was used in a deck known as [The Truth] which was piloted to 2nd place at Worlds in 2011 by infamous deck builder Ross Cawthon. Notice that Vileplume is a grass type, meaning it can come out as early as turn 1 with Forest of Giant Plants in play. Couple that with Exeggutor also coming out turn 1, and what you’re seeing is that by an opposing player’s 2nd turn, they’ll be effectively item-locked and supporter-locked. Now, maybe I’m being a little harsh. It’s not so bad because the Exeggutor/Vileplume player would be locked by their own ability, so [Hammers] couldn’t come into play, and maybe Exeggutor’s damage output won’t be able to keep up with the opposing player. But seriously, this deck will bring matches to a grinding halt. Exeggutor has already caused enough rage quits, this deck will exponentially raise that number.
I’m certain there are plenty of other cards that will see buffs from Ancient Origins, but I think these ones in particular are the ones that will be closest to seeing either bans or restrictions placed on them in Expanded because of it. If you can think of another, [send me an ask] to tell me about it I’ll happily discuss it with you! In the meantime, start thinking about what you’re going to be playing for the Expanded tournaments in our future.
The tournament organizer for Houston's Regionals has announced that the Expanded format will be used for the entirety of Houston's Regional tournament (for
Hey all! This is some pretty darn exciting news!
Firstly I’d like to retcon some posts I’ve made in the past in regards to the Expanded format. You may have read posts by me where I talk about how Expanded format is used exclusively for Top Cut on Day 2 of two-day events: Regionals, Nationals, and Worlds. Well, it turns out I was wrong. I’ll admit I never looked into Nats’ and Worlds’ specifics far enough to find out how they were actually going to play out. So it came as a surprise to me when I watched the US Nats stream that the finals weren’t in Expanded format. And well, it looks like Worlds will also be playing out as Standard-only.
HOWEVER, next year we’ll be having some Regional Championships play out as [Expanded Format]-only for the full 2 day event. Houston is confirmed, and I’ve heard that Philadelphia will also have an Expanded-only regionals.
Honestly I’m SUPER PUMPED about this and YOU SHOULD BE TOO! Your old cards don’t go to waste, and the possibilities of Expanded decks are somewhere close to limitless! This will make for some really fun tournaments.
I very much hope that next year’s MA Regionals will be Expanded because I doubt I’m going to be able to make it to any other Regionals. If I do, I’m going to have to really force myself not to play [this deck] idea I had ages ago.
Anyways, what do you think of this development? Like it? Hate it? Send me an ask or reply to this please?
