"Joltik's Big Break"- Night March After the Ban-Hammer and an Interview with Edan Lewis

Lysandre's Trump Card has just been banned.

Confused? Vince Krekeler will explain

This changes things completely. Madison Regionals just happened, and Jason Klacynski's winning deck centered around playing Trainers' Mail, Shaymin EX, Ultra Ball, and Super Scoop Up to draw through his deck multiple times per game. This let him reuse his Crushing Hammers, Hypnotoxic Lasers, and other disruptive cards. Cards like Acro Bike and Battle Compressor let you thin your deck, and this lets you draw the cards you want faster. Look at the following skeleton list:

4 Shaymin EX

4 Ultra Ball

4 Super Scoop Up

4 Acro Bike

4 Trainers' Mail

4 Battle Compressor

4 Professor Juniper

4 VS Seeker

1 Lysandre's Trump Card

With a deck like this, it is easily possible to draw through your entire deck. In the Night March list that I have built currently, I don't run the Shaymin EX or the Super Scoop Up, but I run everything else. As a result, I can draw through my whole deck relatively quickly, and if I am in danger of decking out, I just need to play Lysandre's Trump Card to reset the deck and do it all again. These Item cards are ridiculous, and without Trump Card, decking out is a very realistic and threatening possibility. What happens now that Trump Card is gone?

Trick Shovel

The Shovel is now playable. Before, with a Lysandre's Trump Card and a full count of VS Seeker in many decks, once something was discarded, one Trump Card would be all that it took to negate the effect of the discard. Even if the Trump Card was discarded, any one of the four VS Seeker in the deck would help bring it back and shuffle the entire discard pile back into the deck.

Trick Shovel is a cool little disruptive trick now, since you might be able to discard something that your opponent won't be able to recover. A Special Energy, a Stadium, or an Item card would be something especially handy to put on the top of your opponent's discard pile. If your deck has lots of space, Trick Shovel could be very cool.

Night March and Flareon

Flareon and Night March are both decks with strategies revolving around getting Pokemon in the discard pile to make their attacks stronger. If you play a Lysandre's Trump Card against them, they wouldn't necessarily have a problem getting many Pokemon back into their discard pile the following turn. However, a Lysandre's Trump Card combined with Quaking Punch is very hard to work through because both Flareon and Night March rely a lot of Items to function. The fact that Trump Card is gone means that this is no longer a tool that Seismitoad decks will have to use against these decks. This means that if you can get enough Pokemon in the discard pile during your only turn without Items, there is no way for Seismitoad to negate that. This is especially good news for those with decks capable of getting nine Night Marchers in the discard pile on the first turn!

I don't have much experience with Flareon, but I know that Steven Bates has been messing around with Flareon with Trainers' Mail, Shaymin EX, and the other new cards from Roaring Skies on his Twitch stream, so feel free to check that out if you're looking for more information about Flareon specifically.

Night March, on the other hand, is a deck that I have a bit more experience with. I played it during Cities, and I have also won a couple of League Challenges with it. I think that Night March gained a lot from the new set, even before Trump Card was banned, with the release of Trainers' Mail. Between Acro Bike, Trainers' Mail, and Professor Sycamore, it is easy to draw into the Battle Compressors you need to really get going. Here is my current list:

Pokemon: 16

4 Lampent

4 Pumpkaboo

4 Joltik

2 Mew EX

1 Jirachi EX

1 Empoleon

Trainers: 37

4 Ultra Ball

4 Trainers' Mail

4 Acro Bike

4 Battle Compressor

1 Computer Search

4 VS Seeker

2 Muscle Band

1 Float Stone

1 Hard Charm

4 Professor Sycamore

1 Archie's Ace in the Hole

2 Lysandre

1 Lysandre's Trump Card

4 Dimension Valley

Energy: 7

4 Double Colorless Energy

3 Water Energy

Okay, if you're looking for the basic gist of what Night March does, I wrote about it here, and Andrew Wamboldt wrote about it here. TLDR; the Night March attack does 20x the number of Night March Pokemon in the discard pile. We try to draw through the deck to draw into Battle Compressor, which is an Item that lets us put three cards from our deck into our discard pile. We attack with Pumpkaboo and Joltik, and also Mew EX to try and take at least one prize card every time we attack.

1 Archie's, 1 Empoleon, 1 Jirachi EX

I wrote about using Archie's in combination with Empoleon here, but to summarize, Archie's Ace in the Hole requires that it is the only card in your hand when you play it down. In return, you can put a Water Pokemon from your discard pile onto your bench and draw five cards. This list is actually able to use Archie's in a large percentage of the games you play, and if not on your first turn, eventually during the game the play tends to present itself. One problem is that one of the pieces may be prized, but we cross our fingers and hope that doesn't happen.

Empoleon is good to have in play because it allows you to both draw cards and discard a card (like a Night Marcher for example). You can attack with it since you run water energy, and you can also copy its attack with Mew's Versatile Ability.

It really helps to practice "getting the Archie's". If you have three cards in your hand that you can't play, along with two Ultra Balls, you should be able to get the Archie's and here's how: use the first Ultra Ball to discard two useless cards and grab Empoleon. Use the second Ultra Ball to discard Empoleon and the third useless card and grab Jirachi. Play Jirachi down and use its Ability Stellar Guidance to grab the Archie's, play down the other cards, and voila! Now you have Empoleon in play! This also works with Computer Search + Empoleon, Computer Search + Battle Compressor, and Computer Search + Ultra Ball.

One other thing to note is that you can attach a Tool to Jirachi if need be, so that is one way to get rid of a card even if you can't dump it before using Stellar Guidance. Also, Trainers' Mail is a card that you can always fail if you need to have fewer cards in hand.

2 Mew EX

In previous formats, it wasn't as easy to knock out Mew EX in one hit as it is now. It is better to attack with Joltik or Pumpkaboo, since they give up less prizes, but since you reasonably need more than three attackers during a game, we still need some Mew. Mew EX also lets you copy your opponent's attacks. If you whiff the energy but you have the Dimension Valley, you can copy an opponent's Manectric EX's Overrun. You can copy an opponent's Quaking Punch to slow them down, you can copy Empoleon's Attack Command, and most importantly you can copy Night March, possibly with Dimension Valley in play to reduce the Energy cost.

1 Float Stone, 1 Hard Charm, 2 Muscle Band

(Borrowed from Danmark Man Dark) 

"The Float Stone is my one Switch card. This means that we don't really have a good way to remove Special Conditions. The advantage of Float Stone is that it lets you have someone that can retreat for free when you have a Pokemon knocked out, and I liked to attach Float Stone to Jirachi or Empoleon. Muscle Band lets you hit magic numbers while needing one less Night Marcher in the Discard Pile. I kept Hard Charm in the deck because it helps in the Seismitoad matchup and the Donphan matchup. You might take it out for a Muscle Band or an Escape Rope, depending on how much Head Ringer is in your area."

This is one way to play Night March. Empoleon gives you continual draw throughout the game, and you can still grab all of your Battle Compressor on your first turn. What if, however, you gave into the temptation and played Shaymin yourself? Why don't we play Shaymin in the first place? The reason we don't play Shaymin in the list above is because Shaymin isn't really helpful for getting Archie's Ace In The Hole into play. You want your hand size to be at zero, and Shaymin really does not help with that. But let's say, hypothetically, that we don't care about Archie's? What would that list look like?

Pokemon: 16

4 Pumpkaboo

4 Joltik

4 Lampent

1 Mew EX

3 Shaymin EX

Trainers: 37

4 Acro Bike

4 Super Scoop Up

4 Ultra Ball

4 Trainers' Mail

1 Computer Search

4 Battle Compressor

2 Muscle Band

1 Float Stone

4 VS Seeker

4 Professor Sycamore

2 Lysandre

3 Dimension Valley

Energy: 7

4 Double Colorless Energy

3 Basic Energy

I highly encourage you to play a few games with both of the decks, and feel the difference. With the first list, you can draw through a good chunk of your deck, but with the second list, you literally draw through almost your whole deck. Every Ultra Ball lets you see at least three new cards, so it is comparable to always flipping heads on Roller Skates.

1 Mew EX

We don't need so many Mew EX in this game. Bench space is also limited because of all the Shaymins, so if we aren't using two Mew we definitely do not want to bench two Mew.

4 Super Scoop Up

As soon as a Shaymin hits the field, Super Scoop Up becomes live, drawing you even more cards if you hit heads. Super Scoop Up makes Shaymin even better than it already is, because on average, every game you will be able to use Shaymin an extra two times.

Less Tools, less Stadiums

With less EX attackers, it is less important to play down the Pokemon Tools with such urgency. Hard Charm is what was cut from the last list, and that was a bit of a luxury anyway. A Stadium is something that clogs up your hand to limit you from drawing as many cards with Shaymin EX. In addition, since you are drawing so many cards on your first turn, you can easily draw into Dimension Valley.

Overall, the difference between the two lists are

-1 Dimension Valley, -1 Trump Card, -1 Hard Charm, -1 Empoleon, -1 Archie's, -1 Jirachi EX, -1 Mew EX

and +3 Shaymin, +4 Super Scoop Up

Night March in Action

Although I have two League Challenge wins under my belt with the first list shown, I'm sure that you all want to see a field-tested version of the deck that has seen results. My friend Edan Lewis was kind enough to talk with me about the list he used at the Regionals in Madison this month.

Edan Lewis is a player in the St. Louis area who made it to the Top Eight in Madison. Edan played Night March with Shaymin and Empoleon on the first day of the tournament, earning a record of 6-2-1. The next day, Edan went 4-1 with Seismitoad/Yveltal.

"Fighting Energy is Computer Search. And I took out Trump Card before the tournament for Trainers' Mail."

Pokemon: 20

4 Lampent

4 Pumpkaboo

4 Joltik

2 Mew EX

1 Jirachi EX

2 Shaymin EX

1 Mr. Mime

1 Exeggcute

1 Empoleon

Trainers: 34

4 Ultra Ball

3 Ultra Ball

4 Trainers’ Mail

4 Battle Compressor

4 VS Seeker

1 Silver Bangle

1 Muscle Band

1 Town Map

1 Computer Search

4 Professor Sycamore

1 Archie’s Ace In The Hole

1 Lysandre

1 N

4 Dimension Valley

Energy: 6

4 Double Colorless Energy

2 Water Energy

What decks did you play against on Day One?

LWL - Toad/Aromattise
WW - Mega Manectric/Camerupt
WW - Medicham/Machamp/Lucario
LL - Toad/Shaymin
WW - Colorless Rayquaza
WLW - Colorless Rayquaza
LW - Toad/Shaymin
WW - Primal Groudon/Wobuffet/Hawlucha/Landorus
LWW - Tool Drop

So you run two Shaymin and no Super Scoop Up. How did that work out?

Really well, I only needed Shaymin to Set Up one or two times. I used Shaymin’s attack to weaken some Megas so I could Set Up again. I used it a lot in my Primal Groudon matchup. I bring up Pumpkaboo because of its Fighting Resistance. I also used it against Colorless Rayquaza, but in some of my games I managed to take down two Rayquazas with eleven Night Marchers in the discard pile. Primarily my first Rayquaza matchup. The second didn’t run Altaria so that was a bit easier.

Did you play against any Seismitoad? What is your strategy against those decks?

I lose!

I try to get Empoleon out [on the] first turn to discard Night Marchers and Quaking Punch/Sky Return to try to stall.

How many did you play against Day One?

Three. I lost to two and tied one. I beat everything but Toad! The tie was Toad/Shaymin. In the third game my board state was ahead of them so I would have probably won.

Night March was a big gamble. I shouldn’t have played it in that meta. I just got grateful with good matchups.

How was Day Two?

I went 4-1 on Day Two with Toad/Yveltal.

WW Primal Groudon/Wobuffet
WLW Entei/Pyroar
WW Toad/Shaymin (Jason K. who took 1st place)
LL Virizion/Genesect (Dane who took 2nd place)
WW Colorless Rayquaza (Andrew Wamboldt) (Read his report here)

In Top Eight I didn't draw very well and couldn't get some Dark Patches off before the Item lock. I found that was crucial in my Swiss match against Jason, plus Jason didn't draw very well during our Swiss match. Jason's deck is very, very consistent and just drew much better than mine did in Top Eight. First game in Top Eight, my Keldeo was prized so I didn't have a way to stop my poison, and 2nd game he didn't play down any Toads so I couldn't get any Toads Head Ringer'ed to delay the Item lock another turn and I didn't get any Dark Patches off to overpower Jason's Toads with Yveltal. There is not much you can do when your opponent hits heads about 80 percent of the time with Crushing Hammers and Super Scoop Ups.

What do you think is in store for Night March in the future?

The Trump Card ban probably pushes the deck to Tier 1-1.5.

--

A big thanks goes to Edan for talking with me about his list, and he gives a different perspective than I do. He plays both Empoleon an Shaymin, while also fitting in Mr. Mime and Exeggcute, which is impressive.

Night March is especially viable in the format after June 15th because of its sheer speed and strength. It is a deck to watch out for and an incredibly strong deck to play. Feel free to try both lists out, and leave any comments or questions down below.

Thanks for reading!

CR