Testing Standard: Lurantis / Tapu Bulu pt. 2

In an effort to increase his content output, Johnny is going to begin posting test logs. These will be short entries with high level thoughts and observations that will hopefully increase thinkspiration in the Pokemon TCG space.

Male pronouns will be used throughout these articles because Johnny has fallen victim to cis male white hetero normative corporate oppression. Or he is just trying to spin these blogs off in less than 30 minutes and making universally agreeable+grammatically correct pronouns is exhausting.

All obvious considerations about small sample size should be observed. 

 Played: Lurantis / Tapu Bulu

I made a few changes to the deck I was running the other day, but it is basically the same.

I bumped Max Elixir down to 3 because I am a big dumby and thought I owned 4. I only own 3 and the fourth one I ordered last weekend did not arrive in time for the tournament on 9/10 :'(

Can probably borrow one at league, but I kind of hate doing that. Actually kind of liked having the Professor's Letter. The extra Choice Band was also nice, as I didn't have any of the annoying "wouldn't it be nice if I hadn't prized/discarded on first turn Sycamore any Choice Band" games.  

Pokemon

4 - Fomantis
2 - Lurantis SM25
2 - Lurantis GX

3 - Tapu Bulu GX

2 - Tapu Lele GX

1 - Oranguru SUM

1 - Mew FCO

Trainers

4 - Professor Sycamore
3 - N
3 - Guzma
1 - Brigette
1 - Acerola
1 - Skyla

4 - Ultra Ball
3 - Max Elixir
2 - Field Blower
1 - Super Rod
1 - Professor's Letter

4 - Choice Band
2 - Float Stone

3 -  Aether Paradise Conservation Area

Energy

12 - Grass

Game 1 vs Gardevoir GX: I went first, started Bulu, ultra balled for Brigette, grabbed 2x Fomantis and Oranguru. Couldn't tell if the guy had a bad start, or was trying to keep a light bench. He started Lele and put on some early pressure, beating up bulu (who I should have attached float stone to and retreated turn 1 instead of attaching energy and leaving active). I hit a couple of elixirs onto Fomantis, took down a Gardevoir GX with Chloroscythe+4 energy+choice band, then just cruised. I don't know if I would call this a "skill" element to the deck, but there is definitely value in NOT evolving into Lurantis GX unless you plan on using a Lurantis GX attack that turn, keeping Fomantis gives you another elixir target which opens up some nice plays, and with Aether conservatory blah blah blah it effectively has 90 HP which keeps it out of "free prize" territory. 1-0

Game 2 vs Metagross GX: I really hate playing against this deck. It is just so dumb. I went first, started two fomantis. I prized one of the Lurantis SM25, so I knew this had the opportunity to get weird, but I had Guzma in my opening hand and knocked out a Beldum on my second turn with Solar Blade. I had another Guzma in hand, and was planning on dropping off his Metang and laughing as this stupid deck tried to function with only 2 Metagross GX, but he N'd me and I had to take the knockout on the vulpix he left active. Not all bad, because Flower Supply + Sunny Day = dead Vulpix + two energy on Bulu. He got two Metagross GX up the next turn and decided to attach+double Geotech System onto the Lele he promoted and attack Lurantis GX... which was fine, because I had Choice Band on my benched Bulu. Made a painful decision to Sycamore away my last Lele trying to hit one for the active Lurantis GX, but I whiffed. I could have KO'd the Lele with Chloroscythe, but I really wanted to save my GX attack for the upcoming treadmill of asinine bullshit between Bulu and Metagross. So I paid to retreat into Bulu, took the KO with Nature's Judgement+Choice Band+Sunny Day. He got his third Metagross GX, and decided to Guzma the damaged Lurantis GX on my bench, which was fine with me as I didn't see any more optimal plays for a Lurantis GX with 1 energy and 120 damage. So I promoted Bulu and began the idiotic cycle Metagross wants. He Lele'd for Sycamore on his next turn... which may have been necessary, but I only had two prizes left, and while he didn't know Lurantis SM25 #2 was one of them, without it killing a Lele was my easiest path to victory (barring terrible draws and/or misplays on his part). Like 7 turns later or something, I empty my hand with Ultra Balls and hit Skyla off of Instruct, then Skyla for Guzma, as he has played 3 N and I assume he doesn't have anymore. On his turn, he played Guzma to pull Oranguru active and promotes his Lele... which was actually kind of clever, but I had Float stone in hand, natch. 2-0

Game 3 vs Greninja Break: ok, the other day I thought it was impossible to lose this matchup in the absence of highly unlikely events. WELL. This Greninja player used Lele, which previous matchups did not. That, plus hitting Bubble a couple of times, retreating the break into Froakie to use bubble instead of attack with Shadow Stitching several times with puprose being to protect Greninja Break, good placement of Giant Water Shuriken, locking me up with Shadow Stitching... yeah. Actually having to play this matchup on a level where thinking was required made me realize a few things, mainly that you can't be careless with benching 2 prize pokemon. I knew this, in theory, but playing having played things that hit everying in Greninja for weakness for the past year (Vespiquen, Lurantis variants), I guess I forgot? It is probably worthwhile in this matchup to try and Utilize Lurants SM25 as an attacker. Just challenging to think through things like "will I be ok if I discard my last Bulu on Sycamore? he will be Giant Water Shuriken bait for a couple of terms, but Super Rod is in the discard too so I may be stuck without an attacker :[". 2-1

Thoughts on my list The extra Guzma was nice. Metagross guy was the only one who really took a shot at locking me up. Guzma as a card... I am not sure how I feel about it. Obviously it is something you have to include in basically every competitive deck; gust effects are just too valuable. All of the conditionals on Guzma are kind of a pain in the ass though. Like, I want to switch with it, but can't because my opponent's bench is empty. I want to gust with it, but can't because my bench is empty. The value it puts on both planning ahead, and just planning to have cheap/free retreaters doesn't really feel like strategy... it just feels annoying. Important thing for me is to be mindful of where my float stones are.

I feel like this deck kind of begs for a couple of Energy Switch, but I just can't figure out where the space would come from.

The more I think about Acerola in this deck, the less I like it. A lot of the time that I have access to it and an opportunity to use it the result will be a Tapu Bulu and three grass energy in my hand... Which is ok for prize denial, but kind of useless if I don't have a Lurantis GX or second Bulu setup and ready to do real damage. I might replace it with Pokemon Center Lady, or just swap with Olympia.

Overall I feel like there are a few other ideas to try here, but I don't think I am going to implement any of them for the League Challenge tomorrow. I am curious just to see what other people are running.

Testing Standard: Lurantis / Tapu Bulu

In an effort to increase his content output, Johnny is going to begin posting test logs. These will be short entries with high level thoughts and observations that will hopefully increase thinkspiration in the Pokemon TCG space.

Male pronouns will be used throughout these articles because Johnny has fallen victim to cis male white hetero normative corporate oppression. Or he is just trying to spin these blogs off in less than 30 minutes and making universally agreeable+grammatically correct pronouns is exhausting.

All obvious considerations about small sample size should be observed. 

 Played: Lurantis / Tapu Bulu

Quick aside: for the past three months, any time I drove by a walmart or target I would stop to see if they had promo Lurantis. I am not proud to say I have checked for promo Lurantis in 4 states, but omg that thing was hard to find. Just buy the single, I know... but then how do I get it online? trade 8 GRI boosters for it??? That is asinine.

Now that I have it, I plan on playing that dude's peppermint pants off.


Pokemon

4 - Fomantis
2 - Lurantis SM25
2 - Lurantis GX

3 - Tapu Bulu GX

2 - Tapu Lele GX

1 - Oranguru SUM

1 - Mew FCO

Trainers

4 - Professor Sycamore
3 - N
2 - Guzma
1 - Brigette / Pokemon Fan Club
1 - Acerola
1 - Olympia
1 - Skyla

4 - Ultra Ball
4 - Max Elixir
2 - Field Blower
1 - Super Rod

3 - Choice Band
3 - Float Stone

3 -  Aether Paradise Conservation Area

Energy

12 - Grass


Game 1 vs Gardevoir GX. Started Fomantis with one Bulu on the bench, went second. Was attacking with Bulu on my second turn. I didn't draw spectacular, Bulu+promo Lurantis just has a math advantage over Gardevoir GX. 1 - 0

Game 2 vs Greninja Break. Started Bulu, ultra balled for Lele and grabbed Fan Club. This was a situation where I prefer Fan Club over Brigette, because I did not have a draw supporter in hand, so I could grab a Lele for my next turn. Not sure if this is actually a good practice, I mean... early game, just playing your hand out and hitting Instruct may be enough to hit a draw/search supporter.Anyway, my opponent N'd me, and none of this really mattered because I was taking knockouts with Horn Attack. He conceded after his second turn.  2 - 0

Game 3 vs Turbo Dark. Two Mulligans on my side, but went first. I chose to Lele for N instead of Fan Club so that my opponent would not start with 8 cards in hand. This was kind of dumb because all I had in my opening hand was a fomantis and a lele. A couple of other misplays that had to do with forgetting my prizes (two choice band were prized) caused me to miss a knockout and fall too far behind. I think this matchup is definitely winnable, I just made a lot more mistakes than my opponent. 2 - 1

Game 4 vs Lycanroc GX / Salazzle GX. Went first and setup with Brigette. Drew well throughout, and Oranguru was clutch. Discarding on Nature's Judgement early in the game is not ideal with this build. I also discarded my super rod off a Sycamore on my second turn and that almost came back to bite me, as I had been thinning my hand with ultra balls to get max draw on Instruct and try to hit energy/elixir, and in the process dumped my third and fourth fomantis... and then the Bulu I was planning on riding for the rest of the game got rocked by Dangerous Rogue GX. Oops. I drew well enough to build another Bulu and win, but definitely should have been more mindful of the game state. September is for learning what cards do! 3 - 1

Game 5 vs Greninja. Went second and just started abusing him with Bulu. Trying to imagine a start bad enough to actually tank this matchup... is very hard. (start one lele, prize the other, opening hand of 4 elixir, super rod and Acerola, then whiff energy and draw support for several turns???) 4 - 1

Game 6 vs Metagross GX. I was able to get a solid setup, just never drew into choice band despite all three being in deck. That forced me to either whiff KOs or overextend (ie discard on Nature's Judgement to knock out Necrozma GX when I had both promo Lurantis out) to take them. I realized too late in the game that Necrozma is actually a great target for Mew FCO. Metagross is difficult to handle if you can't shut off abilities or N away Algorithm GX... but I think with some better draw, and better utilization of tech, I could have won this. 4 - 2

Thoughts on my list: I played a very similar build at league last weekend and rolled seniors all afternoon. When this deck comes out in the right order and you draw decent (which happens about 60% of the time?), it is a bear to deal with. The clean math of Nature's Judgement + Sunny Day + Choice Band is very strong against decks I am discovering to be popular in new Standard. An underrated part of this is how well Sunny Day + Flower Supply flows into Tapu Bulu.

Is it better than Vikavolt / Tapu Bulu? That is really hard to say. I have not played Vikavolt / Tapu Bulu yet (plan on doing that tomorrow), but at face value I see them trading a lot of things off with each other. The Lurantis build offers perfect math and OHKO on anything in the format. The Vikavolt build allows you to power up most attackers in one turn.

The supporter line in this list needs some work. I would definitely yank Olympia for another Guzma, and possible replace Acerola with a Max Potion, Pokemon Center Lady, another N... or maybe Sophocles? Acerola is great for clearing a spot on a cramped bench, but when your best access to her is through Tapu Lele, it is kind of self defeating. Skyla is rarely an optimal play, but the deck really struggles if you can't access choice band when you need it.

On that note, I had initially considered trying out fighting fury belts, but after playing with this deck over the past week or so, it is clear that the strength of this deck is hitting perfect numbers, and choice band plays a huge roll in that.

Float Stone could drop to 2.

I hate playing Aether Paradise Conservation Area because that name is way too long to type, much less say, but I think it is handy against Gardevoir and anyone relying on Choice band to hit 180. That being said, 3 stadiums might be excessive given the 2 field blower.

I have played this with Tapu Koko SM30 in Mews slot. My only requirements for this slot is that I want a something that has free retreat, and some type of useful attack. Tapu Koko has some nice bulk to it with Aether Paradise Conservation Area out, but after I saw how easy it is to get SM25 Lurantis out, and how infrequently people mess with it due to how quickly your attackers put pressure on, Flying Flip became a lot less appealing. There are a few players who are in love with Espeon at my league, which opens some decent opportunities for Mew. I am probably putting too much thought into this, but in small tournaments I like to decrease my mulligan odds as much as reasonably possible, so while 10 basics has you mulligan 23% of the time, 11 bumps that down to 19%... and I have convinced myself that is worth something?

Another choice would be to just add another Lele, but I have not found a useful attacking roll for Lele in this deck, so starting Lele without a way to get it off the field is kind of frustrating.

I feel like 12 energy is perfect. As are the Fomantis/Lurantis, Tapu Bulu and Oranguru counts. If you are playing a deck that aims at turn 1 Brigette, you HAVE to include Oranguru. I am going to start counting how many cards I pull with Instruct in each game, but will not be surprised if the average is like 8-10.

Overall The list needs some light massaging to smooth out opening hands. If it starts well, this deck builds momentum quickly and is difficult to slow down. I am curious to experiment with Vikavolt / Bulu to compare.

Testing Standard: Vespiquen pt: 2

In an effort to increase his content output, Johnny is going to begin posting test logs. These will be short entries with high level thoughts and observations that will hopefully increase thinkspiration in the Pokemon TCG space.

Male pronouns will be used throughout these articles because Johnny has fallen victim to cis male white hetero normative corporate oppression. Or he is just trying to spin these blogs off in less than 30 minutes and making universally agreeable+grammatically correct pronouns is exhausting.

All obvious considerations about small sample size should be observed.

Played: Vespiquen

Used the Charizard Lounge list again. Thought I might have to change things up a tiny bit to prepare for the league challenge tomorrow since I only have 3 Shaymin, but my local game store had a Shaymin show up since Wednesday. I have never paid $60 for a pokemon card before, but I did spend $100 on tins black friday 2015 (50% off yo) in an (failed) effort to pull my fourth one... which is kind of the same thing? Anyway, word to Wizard's Asylum. Let's go!

Game1 vs Haxorus. Got to a quick lead knocking out a couple of axew before my opponent got setup, but was 10 damage short of knocking out the first Haxorus. This decided the game as he intelligently kept his bench small, and I missed the cards necessary to put resurrect vespi from the discard once things got to that point. In the turn I missed Haxorus, I could have discarded combee off of a Sycamore, but benched it to prep a second vespi. Should have paid more attention to opponent's board state and extended to take the ko. Perhaps a good rule on this is to dump <= x (x = 3?) parts of the Vespi line as long as you have Revitalizer in deck? 0-1

Game2 vs M Ray. This player made a few puzzling plays, and I had kind of a slow start, but eventually pulled out of it. Klefki is so clutch in this matchup. 1-1

Game3 vs M Scizor/Garb. Started zorua with a klefki on the bench. One appealing thing about using Raichu instead of Zoroark is that Pikachu actually has a useful attack (nuzzle for one colorless, flip coin for paralysis), whereas Zorua does not (all require dark energy). Opponent had a strong setup, and I had hand of evolutions, non draw supporters, and energy. I don’t think this matchup would be too bad if you can get a couple Zoroark setup to attack immediately, and get Unown (and possibly Klefki, if you don’t have a setup to take down Garb immediately). Whiff on that stuff, and get basically no setup like I did… and it gets ugly fast. 1-2

Game4 vs Yveltal/Yveltal EX/Zoroark. I went first, started with Forest of Giant Plants in hand and blew up from there. I knocked out baby Yveltal on my second turn with Bee Revenge for 150 and he conceded. 2-2

Game5 vs M Mewtwo/Garb: In the game, damage change goes through Klefki, which seems wrong, but I need to check. After that happened I just went HAM on Shaymin and Hoopa. I should have taken garb out early though. I had it set up to draw out my deck with Shaymin and Lysandre an injured Mewtwo (bumped shrine with forest, natch) for game, but my opponent got Garb up the turn leading into when all this stuff was going to happen. It didn’t occur to me until this happened that I would need abilities late. I had ignored trub early because I had already used 4 Unown and all but 2 Klefki by the time I was attacking for OHKOs. Solid game, ignoring Garb was dumb. To win this matchup, I think Lysandre will need to be used at least 3-4 times… which is kind of extreme, but getting up to 210 damage with 26 pokemon in the deck is difficult since outside of Klefki and Unown, your engine for discarding them is Ultra Ball + Sycamore, and discarding 19 with that combo requires some combination of luck and a willingness to burn pokes out of your hand at a break neck pace, assuring yourself Revitalizer and Special Charge can re-assemble anything you lose in the process. Might be worth experimenting with Giovanni’s Scheme? 2-3

Update: I looked at the cards and the PTCGO behavior is correct. Damage Change doesn't inflict damage equal to the amount on Mewtwo EX, it moves that number of damage counters onto the opposing active pokemon. Klefki's Wonder Lock ability prevents damage done from the attacks of Mega Evolution Pokemon, but not effects of attacks, which the placement of damage counters is. I think this is why my wife hates this game?

fyi Suicune BKP Wind Charm ability reads "As long as this Pokemon is your Active Pokemon, prevent all effects of your opponent's attacks, except damage, done to each of your Pokemon (existing effects are not removed). Doesn't fix anything here, but if Mewtwo gets big... something interesting could be built with Suicune, Klefki and Palkia?

Game6 vs M Audino: not sure how much this one was modified from the wordl’s winning list, but my opponent ran the same pokemon lines and lots of 1 of tech supporters, which makes me think it probably wasn’t modified very much. My setup came really slow, and I had to drop shaymin several times early. Was able to sky return twice (in part due to lack of better attacker) promoting miracle locked Vespiquens. Got some nice hands in mid game and was able to N him to 2 before knocking out his only M Audino with energy on it (Audino EX on bench with no link or energy, Shaymin on bench with no tool or energy, Magaerna EX on bench with on metal energy), and after digging some, he conceded on his next turn. Among the 8 cards I had in hand was Lysandre, DCE, VS Seeker, etc. so I am pretty confident I would have been able to ride this one to a win. 3-3

Game7 vs M Scizor/Garb: Went first and setup pretty solid, was doing 110 damage with Vespi on my first attacking turn (probably should have sky returned tho, played down one shaymin on first turn). Discarded both Special Charge on my first turn, but had checked the deck and I had all four DCE… so I thought this would probably go ok if I didn’t get caught by hammers. Grabbed trub with Lysandre on my third turn, benched a Klefki, and my opponent conceded. Would have liked to see how this played out :[ 4-3

Thoughts on the list: I was leaning hard toward experimenting with the AOR eeveelutions in place of fourth shaymin and some of the zoroark line, and teching the trainers a bit more in place of the duplicates of revitalizer and special charge... but after playing today, and getting a better feel for the deck, I think the only changes I would look into is Raichu for Zoroark, and finding a way to add Giovanni's.

I don't find myself using Stand in very often, and I don't have a strong grasp on how much people are playing around Zoroark vs. just being sensible with their bench usage. I am beginning to see more times when the extra HP from the Break is clutch, so as long as Zoroark is in, the break is staying in too.

I think my thirst for Giovanni's is just an attempt to cover for early game misplays I am making. Hopefully I will continue to improve my feel for when+how to discard my attacker lines. A better solution here may be finding room for level ball?

Overall: I feel a lot better about this deck than I did earlier in the week, and I think most of that has to do with my overall comfort level with the game returning. Before a tournament I typically go with decks that I am winning ~80% of my PTCGO games with. That isn't the case here, and I hope my level of play returns to where it was a couple seasons ago soon, but I am happy with the progress I have made.

I am surprised that I have only seen Volcanion once since getting back into PTCGO. That isn't even my biggest matchup concern though. If the in PTCGO ruling, that Damage Change is not blocked by Klefki when used by M Mewtwo, then that matchup will be brutal. If that is the case, I think the M Mewtwo/Vespi matchup will be totally reliant on having access to Lysandre at the right times... Which is sub optimal if the deck is popular :[

Testing Standard: Vespiquen

In an effort to increase his content output, Johnny is going to begin posting test logs. These will be short entries with high level thoughts and observations that will hopefully increase thinkspiration in the Pokemon TCG space.

Male pronouns will be used throughout these articles because Johnny has fallen victim to cis male white hetero normative corporate oppression. Or he is just trying to spin these blogs off in less than 30 minutes and making universally agreeable+grammatically correct pronouns is exhausting.

All obvious considerations about small sample size should be observed.

Played: Vespiquen

I used the list Andrew Wamboldt posted on the Charizard Lounge a couple days ago. I have huge respect for the resources Andrew has developed. He is an inspiring deck builder and his stuff is enjoyable to read.

A big part of the respect I have for him is due to him keeping his blog free. I am still stunned that pokemon sites have pay walls. It is 2016. You are not a newspaper exploiting baby boomers. Half of your writers barely seem literate (and a large number of the remainder open all of their articles with intensely uninteresting recounts of their resume). I am not paying more for a few pokemon articles a week than I do for Netflix, or nearly as much as I pay for NBA League Pass. Maybe it is just because my day to day as an embedded software engineer exposes me to a world where everything is either open source, or has viable open source alternatives, but I am still shocked that the pokemon community supports this model of information sharing.

ANYWAY

the games:

Game1 vs Xerneas Break/Giratina. Awful setup, didn’t draw into a supporter until the fourth turn, by which time I was way too far behind. 0-1

Game2 vs Darkrai/Giratina/Garbodor. I wasn’t able to get my mid game board state to a point where I could use Pokemon Ranger against Giratina without falling behind. The solution here is probably to make a more aggressive run at Giratina early. This seems extremely obvious now that I type it out, but didn’t occur to me in game… Probably because I am still feeling out this deck? I played Flareon variants a lot in the 2014/15 season… but that was a long time ago man. 0-2

Game3 vs Wailord. Had a solid start and came out really aggressive since I knew I could knock Wailord out. Drew through most of my deck without hitting DCE… which showed up when I had 8 cards left in deck. And by showed up I mean he discarded three on a team rockets handiwork and the last one on the same turn with Bunnelby. Nice. 0-3

Game4 vs Mega Rayquaza. Kind of difficult to decide who to protect with Klefki at times in this one. I won fairly easily, chipping down one mega ray early and then lysandreing Shaymin for the final four prizes. Zoroark and Klefki seemed to push my opponent into sub optimal plays. 1-3

Game5 vs Volcanion EX. The game didn’t recognize me playing a Lysandre and timed out… which was annoying, because despite the weakness issue, I think this is definitely a winable matchup. I need to work on being more aggressive with early discards, especially when it comes to discarding parts of the Vespiquen line, as falling 10 or 20 damage short of a KO can really set the deck back. 1-3 (I just won't count game errors?)

Game6 vs Mega Tyranitar + Clauncher. Much like the Mega Rayquaza matchup, to lose this game you have to either have a horrendous start, or they have to get extremely lucky draws, ie being able to lysandre around klefki for several turns. The situation klefki presents reminds me of Substitute Robot in Donphan when it ran wild on cities in 2014. 2-3

Thoughts on the list I need to spend some more time with this deck to pick up on some of the intricacies. I had a few situations where I was short 10-30 damage, that I am pretty sure were do to benching extraneous attackers early on.

I kind of hate Acro bike, but I understand why it is here. Really... I just hate discarding VS Seeker.

In the solitaire games I ran, and in the Xerneas game, I had serious supporter drought early game. This is probably due to reluctance to play Shaymin. I never had more than one on the field, and never lost on to knockout thanks to sky return... but perhaps I need to read these situations better and push Shaymin occasionally?

I am going to experiment with replacing Zoroark Break with something else. I understand the logic Wamboldt presented in his article, but I never had it in hand when I could use it, and usually didn't have the resources or motive to go find it.

Overall The only issues I ran into with this deck were due to my own misplays, or supporter drought/the deck seeming to come out backwards... Which could also possibly root in misplays. So I am confident that with some more practice and study I pilot this deck to more success than I found online tonight.
 

Testing Standard: Darkrai/Giratina/Garbodor

In an effort to increase his content output, Johnny is going to begin posting test logs. These will be short entries with high level thoughts and observations that will hopefully increase thinkspiration in the Pokemon TCG space.

Male pronouns will be used throughout these articles because Johnny has fallen victim to cis male white hetero normative corporate oppression. Or he is just trying to spin these blogs off in less than 30 minutes and making universally agreeable+grammatically correct pronouns is exhausting.

All obvious considerations about small sample size should be observed.

Played Darkrai/Giratina/Garbodor

Pokemon

3 - Darkrai EX BKP

2 - Giratina EX AOR

2 - Trubbish BKP

2 - Garbodor BKP

2 - Shaymin EX ROS

1 - Hoopa EX AOR

1 - Yveltal XY 

Trainers

4 - Sycamore

2 - N

2 - Lysandre

1 - Hex Maniac

1 - Pokemon Center Lady

4 - Ultra Ball

4 - VS Seeker

4 - Max Elixir

3 - Trainers Mail

1 - Escape Rope

1 - Switch

1 - Super Rod

3 - Fighting Fury Belt

2 - Float Stone

1 - Parallel City

Energy

9 - Dark

4 - Double Dragon

Game1 vs Regice deck. I didn’t have pokemon ranger, so this would be difficult. Thought I might be able to pull out a win because he played a lot of Shaymin, but my setup came together too slow to one hit shaymin when I needed to. 0-1

Game2 Played Xerneas break/Giratina. I think my strategy made this one worse than it should have been. Benching my own Giratina is a major liability in this matchup, and their attachments quickly get out of control, building Xerneas Break’s attack to kind of ridiculous levels. 0-2

Game3 vs Mega Gyrados. Got a decently quick setup for the first time, but got stuck with awkward hands where I needed to switch baby Yveltal to the bench (was only basic in opening hand) to attack with Giratina. Put a Fury belt on a shaymin I was planning to sky return which prevented a knockout, which was a nice little play… but I only had it on my bench in the first place because I wasn’t hitting supporters early and had to bench Hoopa-Shaymin on turn one, then ultra ball a shaymin on turn 2. The decision to bump Hoopa instead of the second Shaymin would be a great subject to discuss in the comments. 1-2

Thoughts on my list: The power of the archetype is immediately apparent. I wasn't able to get it to set up smoothly in any game I played (counting some solitaire before hand), either due to early supporter drought, or just bad luck/play. It has been six months since I last played... which I am sure did not help me.

Hex and Pokemon Center lady could come out. I love cute plays, but getting the one of supporter when you need it is considerably more difficult without battle compressor.

If you are going to use parallel city, 1 is enough. I did not have issues getting it when I needed it, which is similar to my experience last season. If you are concerned about your opponent getting it down first, you should probably just play M Scizor or something, because reworking a deck to let you bump Shaymin's consistently looks like it will be costly in this format.

I was expecting issues with switching to optimize Max Elixir, but this never really came up.

I found Super Rod more useful for stacking the deck in your favor for late game Max Elixir than pulling back pokemon.

I will probably practice some more with this list, and re-work it some, just to determine how consistent I can get the setup to be.

Overall Garbodor was not useful in any of these games… and really, not sure if Darkrai is an optimal attacker if the deck cannot be accelerated more to get him in range to ohko more stuff earlier. Possible I was just playing terrible, but the deck definitely seems to have a timer, ie if you do not get ahead of your opponent early, you will quickly be at an insurmountable energy deficit.

Based on some solitaire, these three games (lolz), and other anticipated archetypes… I am not sure why anyone not using a mega would incorporate Garbodor, as the only ability that looks like it will be present is Giratina’s, and I guess Volcanion (presumably will be played).

I need to play some more in general to get the rust off, then I will return to this deck to make a more useful read on its place in the meta.