| Pokemon -15 | Trainers - 33 | Energy - 12 |
| 4 - Fomantis SUM | 4 -Professor Sycamore | 12 - Grass |
| 2 - Lurantis GX | 3 - N | - |
| 2- Lurantis SM25 | 3 - Guzma | - |
| - | 1 - Brigette | - |
| 3 - Tapu Bulu GX | 1 - Skyla | - |
| - | 1 - Olympia | - |
| 1 - Mew FCO | - | - |
| - | 4 - Ultra Ball | - |
| 2 - Tapu Lele GX | 3 - Max Elixir | - |
| - | 2 - Field Blower | - |
| 1 - Oranguru SUM | 1 - Super Rod | - |
| - | 1 - Professor's Letter | - |
| - | - | - |
| - | 4 - Choice Band | - |
| - | 2 - Float Stone | - |
| - | - | - |
| - | 3 - Aether Paradise Conservation Area | - |
I prefer this version to Vikavolt/Bulu for two reasons:
1) Better KO math. Not needing to discard on Nature's Judgement to 1HKO Lele/anything with 170 HP or less is very easy to achieve with this deck. Extending to 1HKO a 250 HP behemoth? Not super easy, but definitely within the realm of possibility. I feel like these things give Lurantis/Bulu a better tempo.
2) After turning over every Wal-Mart and Target in northeastern Oklahoma to find Lurantis SM25, there is no way I wasn't going to run something featuring it.
Just in general, I feel like this is a strong deck. If a stage 2 deck gets a fast start it has trouble catching up, but I don't feel like it has "bad" matchups. Every game I have lost with it irl or on PTCGO I have felt is due to my own misplays, not some inherent weakness in the deck.
I expected the field to be composed of Gardevoir GX and hard counters to Gardevoir GX.
There were 17 masters in the tournament. This is how my day went:
R1: Solgaleo GX / Rayquaza L ( 0-1-0 )
R2: Tapu Koko/Weavile BUS/Porygon-Z BUS W ( 1-1-0 )
R3: Noivern GX / Rayquaza W ( 2-1-0 )
R4: Metagross GX/Solgaleo GX W ( 3-1-0 )
So a 3-1 record and tied for third (fifth after resistance blah blah blah)
In the first round I was trying to set things up for Bulu to do work with double Sunny Day. This is the wrong approach. I need to test some more, but after losing here (whiffed a piece of that combo to miss a KO, fell behind on prize trade, exchanged a couple knockouts and lost a couple turns later) I thought through my options, and I think the best approach to 250 HP stage 2 decks is to just go all in on a Lurantis GX. Bench all the Fomantis that pass through your hand, even if that means discarding a Bulu or two, and just steer the deck toward hitting your opponent's stage 2 monster first. Obviously, Lurantis GX can't deliver more than 1 250 HP hit, but hopefully you can finish the game on a couple of Leles. It is just a lot easier to get 4 energy on one Lurantis GX + Sunny Day + Choice Band, or even just 5 energy on Lurantis GX, than it is to get double Sunny Day and a Choice Band on Bulu. My round 4 opponent choked on his setup, but this approach forced that issue.
Round 2 and Round 3 were pretty uneventful, just streaming Solar Blade (and I guess a Chloroscythe GX for 200 to take down a Noivern GX). Both concepts had promise, Lurantis / Bulu can just apply a lot of pressure early in the game. I mean, with a little bit of Elixir luck, it is not uncommon or out of the question to be swinging for 170-230 with Solar Blade/Nature's Judgment on turn 2.
Favorite Card of the Tournament Lurantis GX. The more I play this deck the more opportunities I find to just jack someone with Chloroscythe GX. I usually try to highlight a techier card here, but all of my victories were basically just plowing my opponent with Lurantis GX.
Least Favorite Card of the Tournament My current build of this deck has A LOT of slop in the trainers. There is a league cup in two weeks, and I feel like this deck would benefit from just wiping the slate clean and examining what I am really trying to ACHIEVE with my trainers. Outside of Sycamore, N, Guzma, Brigette, Ultra Ball and Choice Band... I am not really sure how much of the other stuff is at an optimal count, and in some instances, how much of it even has a place in the deck.
The Mew tech didn't do much today. I benched it once so I could promote a free retreater off of Guzma, which is part of the reason for its inclusion... But again, I am questioning its place here as a tech attacker / seventh prize in matchups vs Espeon or Necrozma (or I guess Garbodor?), since the only attacks it can make good use of are three energy attacks, and committing that much effort to power up a tech just seems... stupid? Tapu Koko SM30/31 seems like a better choice, since it grants a 2 energy attack that lowers the damage ceiling Bulu/Lurantis GX need to hit and benefits from Aether Paradise Conservation Area.
Olympia felt better than Acerola, but I never played it.
At least half of the people at this tournament were running some brand of Metagross and/or Solgaleo. The Gardevoir GX hate is real in Tulsa OK. That being said, Lurantis/Bulu matches up well against Gardevoir and is probably around 40/60 with stage 2 metal stuff. I have trouble imagining things that would REALLY jam this deck up in the current format. Really, the worst thing I can imagine is Bulu stuff getting popular enough that the mirror would need consideration, because the theorymon for that makes it seem very dumb.
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