"Going Deep Into Mossdeep"- A Look At Standard Format Decks in Champaign/Urbana

I live in a city called Champaign, Illinois. Champaign and its twin city, Urbana, house both the University of Illinois campus and a vibrant Pokemon community.

Over the course of this past league season, the C-U (Champaign-Urbana) Pokemon League has been hosting weekly tournaments. We nicknamed this tournament series "the Mossdeep Open," and made it open to anyone who wants to join in and play some Pokemon. On the final weekend of the Mossdeep season, we invited the top six performers from the weekly tournaments to compete in a single-elimination tournament. The bracket was as follows:

The first and second seed got a bye, and the other four players played off to see which two would continue onto the top four. Two rounds later, we had our winner!

When we were creating our weekly tournament system, we decided that we would switch the format often to keep things fresh. Our first three tournaments were held in the Expanded format, but the finals were held in the standard format which was XY-AOR.

XY-AOR is a bit of a "ghost" format, because no major tournaments will be played with this combination of sets. Fall Regionals are Expanded and Cities will allow cards from XY to XY8, but no tournaments will use XY-AOR except for a few League Challenges. This means that people who only test for Regionals won't get a chance to play XY-on until they start preparing for Cities. I thought it would be interesting to show some lists in the Standard format for those who want to catch a glimpse of what the format looks like if they have a League Challenge to hit up or if they simply don't want to be thrown head-first into Standard come November.

I'm going to take a look at all six lists, their strengths, and their weaknesses. I'll recap how each deck performed, and what possible improvements that one could make to the list.

6th Place- Ben Barham with Primal Groudon

Pokemon: 10

3 Groudon EX
3 Primal Groudon EX
3 Wobbuffet
1 Bunnelby

Trainers: 39

4 Sycamore
4 Korrina
2 Steven
2 Lysandre
1 Pokemon Center Lady
1 Ace Trainer
1 Teammates

1 Switch
2 Battle Compressor
4 VS Seeker
1 Hard Charm
2 Focus Sash
4 Robo Substitute
2 Mega Turbo
2 Enhanced Hammer

3 Silent Lab
2 Fighting Stadium
1 Shrine of Memories

Energy: 11

4 Strong Energy
7 Fighting Energy

Ben's run came to an end in the quarterfinals when he had to play a mirror match against 3rd seed Nick Nosalik. Ben's list is pretty standard for the most part. For example, he runs a 3-3 line of Primal Groudon, 3 Wobbuffet, and 1 Bunnelby. Wobbuffet can slow down the opponent by not allowing them to play Shaymin, and it provides a decently-sized wall for Groudon to set up behind. Bunnelby serves several purposes in the deck, such as putting Stadiums back into the deck, but with a very high count of six stadiums, it may have been an unnecessary inclusion.

In terms of his Supporter lineup, Ben opted not to run any shuffle draw like Shauna or Professor Birch's Observations. Instead he ran a full line of both Professor Sycamore and Korrina in an effort to search out Groudon efficiently and also be able to draw many cards. Ben also played two Steven, which can guarantee him an energy on the turn that he plays it.

Instead of running the "standard" two Hard Charm and one Focus Sash, Ben opted to run two Focus sash instead, which would stop Vespiquen from knocking him out in one hit.

Ben told me that if he could go back and build a version of the deck that worked better in the mirror match, he would have dropped a Silent Lab and a Robo Sub for Professor's Letter and a third Mega Turbo. Running Professor's Letter allows for a Korrina that searches out Letter, which can then search out basic energy. Running Professor's Letter also means that Ben probably could have reduced his count of Steven to either one or zero.

Ben also says that he thinks that the winner of the Groudon mirror match is determined by who can get out two Groudons first. Both going first and never missing an energy drop can help swing that one way or the other.

5th Place- Andrew Weiss with Fairy-Box

Pokemon: 16

3 Spritzee
2 Aromatisse
1 Charizard EX
1 Malamar EX
1 Xerneas
1 Xerneas EX
1 Kangaskhan EX
1 M Kangaskhan EX
1 Manectric EX
1 Lugia EX
1 Aegislash EX
1 Seismitoad EX
1 Shaymin EX

Trainers: 32

4 Ultra Ball
3 Muscle Band
1 Level Ball
4 VS Seeker
1 Startling Megaphone
1 Escape Rope
1 Sacred Ash

4 Professor Sycamore
4 Shauna
2 Lysandre
1 Pokemon Fan Club
1 AZ
1 Ace Trainer

4 Fairy Garden

Energy: 12

4 Rainbow Energy
4 Fairy Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy

Andrew showed us that Fairy Box is not dead. Even with only four Rainbow Energy in deck, Andrew can always pick the optimal Pokemon for the job. Packing a solid 3-2 line of Aromatisse and a whopping eleven one-of Pokemon, it must have taken him a long time to fill out his decklist. There are also four Fairy Garden in the list, because Darkrai EX is no longer in format to give free retreat to the Pokemon with Rainbow energy attached.

Fairy decks lost Max Potion, and its subpar replacement is AZ. With Aromatisse in play, Max Potion effectively healed all of the damage from the its target at no cost. With AZ though, the healing counts as your Supporter for the turn, as opposed to being an Item like Max Potion. In addition, AZ forces you to discard all cards attached to the Pokemon that you target. Aromatisse can move the energy onto another Pokemon so that you don't lose the energy, but Aromatisse can't move Pokemon Tools, so an AZ could lose you the Muscle Band you had attached.

Andrew lost in the quarterfinals to a Vespiquen deck. If the Vespiquen player can get enough Pokemon into the discard pile, it can knock out anything on Andrew's side of the field with a couple of exceptions. One of these exceptions is M Kangashkan EX whose 230 HP is simply too much for Vespiquen to deal with. The other exception and Andrew's biggest hope to win the matchup is Aegislash EX. Aegislash can't be affected by Pokemon that have special energy attached, and Vespiquen decks rely largely on Double Colorless Energy. Unfortunately for Andrew, both of the Vespiquen decks that showed up to the tournament ran Bronzong, which let them reuse their basic energy, which was enough to completely overwhelm Fairy Box.

4th Place- Nick Nosalik with Primal Groudon

Pokemon: 10

3 Wobbuffet
3 Groudon EX
3 Primal Groudon EX
1 Bunnelby

Trainers: 39

2 Escape Rope
1 Switch
4 Robo Substitute
2 Mega Turbo
4 VS Seeker
2 Battle Compressor
1 Focus Sash
1 Ultra Ball
2 Hard Charm
2 Enhanced Hammer

4 Professor Sycamore
4 Korrina
2 Lysandre
1 Pokemon Center Lady
1 Teammates
1 Steven

1 Silent Lab
2 Fighting Stadium
1 Scorched Earth
1 Shrine of Memories

Energy: 11

4 Strong Energy
6 Fighting Energy
1 Psychic Energy

Besides a lack of Professor Birch's Observations, I believe that this is what a standard Primal Groudon list will look like. The Pokemon line looks fairly normal, there are five Stadiums and of course there are three switching cards to make up for a lack of Float Stone.

The three tech supporters are Teammates, Steven, and Pokemon Center Lady. Teammates is a fun inclusion because we run a high count of Robo Substitute. You can only play Teammates if one of your Pokemon was knocked out on the previous turn, and Robo Substitute counts as a knocked out Pokemon even if it doesn't give up a prize. When you load up a Groudon and it gets knocked out, you lose a lot of resources and momentum. Therefore, it's in your best interest to keep him alive, and Pokemon Center Lady helps heal and prevent knockouts. You can reuse the Center Lady with VS Seeker and make the one-of go a long way.

This is where I want to talk about Groudon's place in the Standard format. The fact is that Groudon is an amazing deck. It is hard to take down, one Groudon can take many prizes, and it is a deck that does not need to run Shaymin EX to function. So what is holding this deck back? As long as Vespiquen sees play, that Grass weakness is a huge drawback. The fact that Vespiquen can take down a fully powered Primal Groudon at very little cost means that Groudon will fall and Groudon will fall hard.

This is where Ben Barham thought, "I'll just play two Focus Sash." Focus Sash is great, especially because it can't be removed with Startling Megaphone or Xerosic. Once the Focus Sash is attached, it's there to stay. Damien Hardy, the runner-up of the tournament, thought that far ahead and included Faded Town in his Vespiquen list. That extra damage completely negates Focus Sash and makes Groudon obsolete.

I think that if Vespiquen ever falls out of favor, then Groudon has a real chance at being a Tier One deck. It has a huge amount of HP, huge damage output, and sets up without Shaymin. But that Grass weakness hurts it pretty badly. A Groudon deck with two Weakness Policy included has been severely neutered, but that may be the best way to run Groudon at the moment.

3rd Place- Brandon Flowers with Night March/Giratina EX/Latios EX

Pokemon: 20

4 Pumpkaboo
4 Joltik
4 Lampent
3 Shaymin EX
1 Bunnelby
2 Latios EX
2 Giratina EX

Trainers: 31

2 Acro Bike
4 Trainers' Mail
3 Battle Compressor
4 VS Seeker
2 Muscle Band
4 Ultra Ball
1 Switch
1 Escape Rope

4 Professor Sycamore
1 Professor Birch's Observations
1 Lysandre
1 Hex Maniac

3 Dimension Valley

Energy: 9

3 Psychic Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
2 Double Dragon Energy

I want to preface what I say about this deck by emphasizing that it was a huge metagame call. I don't think that this deck would succeed if it wasn't placed in a field of decks that it wasn't prepared for. As it was, Brandon's strategy was to shore up the Vespiquen matchup with Giratina, donking Combees with Latios EX, and win against everything else with Night March.

There are a couple of problems with this deck. I don't think that it was necessarily built poorly, but I don't think that Night March is playable in XY-on with the current cardpool. After playing a few games with both this and other variants of Night March in XY-on, the deck just doesn't do enough damage. I'm going to excerpt something I wrote on the blog back in January:

I challenge you to build a Night March deck without Mew. It is possible, but you run into a few problems: 

 

A. You run out of Night Marchers to attack with. To knock out an EX in one hit, you need nine Night Marchers in the discard pile. With Muscle Band, you only need eight. With Silver Bangle, you only need seven to knock out EXes with 170 HP. That leaves you with three to five attackers, assuming that no Night Marcher is prized (which one or two always are, believe me). Your opponent gets six prizes, so by not running another attacker, you are not running the deck to its full potential.

B. You miss attacks because there isn't enough time to attach two energy cards to an attacker. Joltik needs a DCE, and Pumpkaboo also needs a DCE along with Dimension Valley. Assuming that you never miss an energy drop but that your attackers are always knocked out in one hit (which isn't unrealistic when the HP of your attackers are so low), you get to attack four times, tops. This is not acceptable or fast enough. That's where Mew EX comes in; Mew can attack for one energy with Dimension Valley in play and a Joltik on the bench. This lets you use energy more efficiently, and also Mew EX doesn't get OHKOd as often as Joltik and Pumpkaboo. This also gives more flexibility with basic energy, as Mew can use attacks of Pokemon that your opponent has in play.

Without Mew EX, there is no way for you to use Night March without a DCE. Also, to use the Night March attack for 180 damage, you must discard eight Night Marchers and have a Muscle Band attached. Against a good deck and a competent opponent, it is practically impossible to take all six prizes with the few Night March attackers you have, especially if you have any Lampents prized.

This meant that when I played games with Night March/Giratina, I was forced to use alternate attackers that couldn't use Night March. Even in matchups where it isn't optimal to attack with Giratina, you are still forced into trying to use him. Giratina is a very good card with both a strong ability and a strong attack, and I don't know what the best partner for it is. In Expanded, Seismitoad/Giratina saw some success, and people have talked about pairing it with Vileplume or Reshiram ROS, but I don't think an optimal partner has been released yet. I think that Giratina is a great card, and that you should try and get your hands on a couple of them, but for now I think he belongs in a binder.

2nd Place- Damien Hardy with Vespiquen

Pokemon: 24

4 Combee
4 Vespiquen
4 Unown
3 Shaymin EX
2 Pikachu
2 Raichu
2 Bronzor
1 Bronzong
1 Vulpix
1 Ninetales

Trainers: 28

4 Battle Compressor
2 Muscle Band
4 Ultra Ball
1 Escape Rope
1 Switch
1 Sacred Ash
4 VS Seeker

4 Professor Sycamore
1 Professor Birch's Observations
1 Lysandre
1 Ace Trainer
1 Teammates
1 Hex Maniac

2 Faded Town

Energy: 8

4 Double Colorless Energy
4 Metal Energy

1st Place- Luke Selig with Vespiquen

Pokemon: 25

4 Combee
4 Vespiquen
4 Unown
2 Bronzor
1 Bronzong
2 Swirlix
2 Slurpuff
3 Shaymin EX
1 Bunnelby
1 Vulpix
1 Ninetales

Trainers: 27

4 Battle Compressor
4 VS Seeker
4 Ultra Ball
2 Muscle Band
2 Escape Rope
1 Sacred Ash

4 Professor Sycamore
1 Professor Birch's Observations
1 Lysandre
1 Teammates
1 Hex Maniac

2 Faded Town

Energy: 8

4 Double Colorless Energy
4 Metal Energy

Both Luke and Damien played lists that were pretty similar to each other. This can be attributed to the fact that they tweaked the deck together right before the tournament. In terms or Pokemon, they both opted to play a 2-1 Bronzong line instead of playing Eeveelutions. The only thing that they knew they would want to hit for weakness was Primal Groudon, so they only needed to be Grass type, removing the need for Flareon or Jolteon. The Bronzong provides a bit of a safety net in that basic energy can be discarded early with Sycamore without stress. It also helps you attack without the use of Double Colorless Energy, which is helpful against Aegislash EX or against anything that knocks out Vespiquen consistently in one hit.

Why not play a 1-1 Bronzong? Why so many Pokemon? Anything that isn't needed in a certain matchup can be discarded with Battle Compressor, so that extra Bronzor can get thrown away to add 10 damage to Bee Revenge.

Luke chose to play Bunnelby, which can get back resources like Double Colorless Energy, and also mill in a pinch. Luke won the second game of the finals by discarding the top card of Damien's deck. And again, if Bunnelby isn't needed, he can be chucked into the discard pile with Battle Compressor.

Luke played Slurpuff and Damien played Raichu. Raichu provides an extra attacker and helps the deck hit for weakness against lightning-weak Pokemon, which is helpful since the deck doesn't run Eeveelutions. Raichu also has free retreat, which can be handy at time. Luke's Slurpuff gave him some extra draw power, and apparently that was what it took to win the Vespiquen mirror.

I don't think that Vespiquen is the absolute best deck in the Standard format. I do think, however, that it will be a popular choice and that your deck needs to be able to beat it. I think that Vespiquen in Standard is very similar to how Night March was last season, except for that the queen bee has a built-in way to counter Seismitoad EX.

What are good decks in Standard?

Vespiquen, according to the results of the Mossdeep Open, is the deck to beat. It can hit large amounts of damage easily and run a lot of different tech Pokemon, but it is reliant on Special Energy. One can add in Bronzong or Flareon/Blacksmith to combat this.

Metal without Rayquaza is very good in that it didn't lose a lot from Expanded to Standard (except for Keldeo EX and Float Stone), but the fact is that a Fire Weakness is a huge liability with Flareon being so popular. If you have a way to deal with Flareon, then Metal will be a fantastic choice.

Groudon is good, but as we discussed earlier, is crippled by its weakness to Grass. If you can find a way to deal with Vespiquen, a fully loaded up Primal Groudon that can easily take six prizes is nothing to sneeze at.

Metal/Rayquaza lost nearly nothing to rotation. The colorless M Rayquaza EX is packing a punch as always, and I would not count this deck out. Here is another example of where the weakness to Lightning can really hurt Rayquaza, but the deck has a built in answer to that with Altaria. If Jolteon is popular, Altaria is a must-run. Note that if a Vespiquen player uses Hex Maniac to shut off Altaria, they will also shut off Jolteon! Manectric decks can still use this to their advantage, though.

Dragon Rayquaza is strong, and it didn't lose anything important going into an XY-on format. It's weakness, Fairy, isn't easily exploitable without Max Potion in the format. It can easily tech in a couple of Giratina EX to deal with the Vespiquen matchup, and it has Reshiram ROS and Druddigon FLF as good non-EX attackers. Don't sleep on this deck!

Camerupt is good, but it has some problems if the Camerupt EXes are getting knocked out in one hit. It does, however, have a built-in non-EX attacker that accelerates energy to itself in Camerupt from Double Crisis. One flaw that the Camerupt deck suffers from is that it can't use Blacksmith and Lysandre on the same turn. What's the point of doing massive amounts of damage if you can't cherry pick who you do the damage to? That is something to think about. The deck also has a hard time if you can't find Sky Field early. The deck is definitely most testing, but Vaporeon will see an uptick in play if it gets even remotely popular.

M Manectric is my favorite deck going into the Standard format. It can be a little slow coming out of the gates, which means it takes a neat autoloss to decks that can do 170 damage on the first turn, and the strategy relies on keeping your M Manectrics alive. You lose to Groudon and the odd Golurk, but it is surprisingly easy enough to hold your own against everything else. The deck can add Regice pretty easily, which is a nice pseudo-Safeguard option.

Some other decks to look out for are Yveltal, Raichu/Bats, Mienshao, Golurk, Lucario/Hawlucha/Bats, Hippowdon, Aromatisse, Sceptile, Vileplume variants, Trevenant variants and Pyroar.

--

I had a lot of fun commentating these tournaments, and for the Sootopolis Open series, the lovely Damien Hardy and Luke Selig will get to co-commentate. Come watch us Sunday afternoons at twitch.tv/cupokemon at approximately 2:30 PM; we'll be playing XY-on these next two weeks and then switching back to Expanded!

Thanks for reading!

CR