Over the past couple of weeks I have been testing a lot of different Lurantis-GX and Lycanroc-GX based decks... And some Vikavolt-GX decks because every time I open more than 3 Guardians Risings packs at a time I pull one.
Then I saw Andrew Wamboldt's Umbreon/Zoroark list at The Charizard Lounge. I usually run half a dozen or so games online with lists he posts because I know they will run smoothly, and some will expose me to clever interactions between cards (the Shiftry FLF/Landorus FFI deck from a couple years ago for example).
This deck blew me away. The versatility of Foul Play in the current meta is obscene. There are so many useful moves to copy, and (as he notes) adding Choice Band pushes several attacks into OHKO territory. I tested away the past week or so, re-familiarizing myself with best practices for dropping damage counters on benched pokemon, and learning moves to copy that never really see play (using Garbodor BKP Offensive Bomb is not really a sound strategy... But desperate times, man).
Then on Saturday morning I realized that I only had 3 Choice Band irl, as opposed to the 4 I had been testing with on ptcgo. I figured someone at league would have one for me to borrow, but just in case... I tried a few things.
This is the list I ended up playing:
| Pokemon - 19 | Trainers - 31 | Energy - 10 |
| 4 - Eevee SUM 101 | 4 -Professor Sycamore | 6 - Dark |
| 3 - Umbreon GX | 4 - N | 4 - Double Colorless |
| 1 - Flareon AOR 13 | 2 - Lysandre | - |
| - | 1 - Brigette | - |
| 3 - Zorua BKT 89 | 1 - Professor Kukui | - |
| 3 - Zoroark BKT 91 | 1 - Teammates | - |
| 2 - Zoroark BREAK | 1 - Team Flare Grunt | - |
| - | - | - |
| 2 - Tapu Lele GX | 4 - Ultra Ball | - |
| - | 4 - VS Seeker | - |
| 1 - Oranguru SUM 113 | 1 - Super Rod | - |
| - | 1 - Field Blower | - |
| - | 1 - Special Charge | - |
| - | - | - |
| - | 3 - Choice Band | - |
| - | 2 - Float Stone | - |
| - | - | - |
| - | 1 -Altar of the Moone | - |
| - | - | - |
| - | - | - |
| - | - | - |
Okay, so this list is basically identical to Andrew's original. I didn't like Lillie because most of the situations I was finding to use it (don't need to play Lysandre, don't want to lose things in your hand), I was served just as well, or better, by the draw of Professor Kukui. Having a 9th draw supporter to pull in your opening hand makes sense from a statistic perspective... But when you also have 4 Ultra Balls to grab Tapu Lele (who unlike Shaymin-EX, Jirachi-EX, etc. is not a bench liability (and honestly, in some matchups is a solid attacker)), that point is kind of moot.
So with Lillie and Choice Band #4 we have two spots to fill. Options range from the very conservative and boring consistency buffs (Skyla and Professor's Letter...?) to spicy disruption tech (Delinquent and Hex Maniac). After some testing, my favorite answer was in the middle (Teammates and Team Flare Grunt). All of these options (and the inclusion of Brigette) represent the power of Tapu Lele. One of the biggest things I have learned in testing this format is how beneficial it is to have a Tapu Lele in deck, and an open bench space in the mid to late game.
I was very tempted to make these two like... a Vaporeon and Rough Seas, but decided that hitting Rough Seas with Umbreon in the same game I OHKO Drampa GX hitting Berserk with Foul Play would trigger some type of cute play singularity.
(seriously though, my league just has a long standing love affair with Volcanion)
6/4 Tulsa, 19 Masters
R1: Solgaleo GX/Solgaleo/Rayquaza W ( 1-0-0 )
R2: Metagross GX/Solgaleo GX L ( 1-1-0 )
R3: Vikavolt/Tapu Bulu GX W ( 2-1-0 )
R4: Vespiquen/Zoroark/Eeveelutions W ( 3-1-0 )
R5: Lapras GX W (4-1-0 )
T4: Vespiquen/Zoroark WW ( 5-1-0 )
T2: Garbodor/Drampa GX/Tauros GX WW ( 6-1-0 )
Final Standing: 1/19
OMG yes, I finally won a tournament! This means that every article I write will now begin with an insincere salutation + an account of my TCG accomplishments!
In round 1... basically I set up quickly and my opponent did not. I had Flareon up on my second turn, and took my fourth prize in response to his Sol Burst GX. Some luck was involved, but the two things I was expecting were beefy pokemon with fire weakness and Garbodor variants soooooo... this was really just validation of the deck choice.
I should have won round 2. This isn't a "durrr I had the WORST top decks" should have won, this is a "I Wonder Tagged for Sycamore instead of N after my opponent used Algorithm GX" should have won. My thinking was "Flareon is in my prizes. I will probably need Flareon to win regardless of his setup. Which supporter will advance my board state the fastest?". The answer to that is almost always Sycamore. That was the wrong way to look at this situation (and I don't know if it is good or bad that I acknowledged this as I was making the (wrong) decision???). However... DESPITE that misplay, I still would have won this game if I had placed my Shadow Bullet snipe damage better. I never shifted my thinking away from "spread in case he heals again" (I had seen two max potions) to "keep pulling high retreat cost guys active while all of his energy is stuck in play and snipe Tapu Lele to death" (ps: you really think he plays more than 2 Max Potion??!?). Basically, I made bad decisions in the moment against a deck I had never played against. I see three major reasons I was even able to get to the point where a second mistake cost me the game 1) extra draw from Oranguru 2) Teammates 3) Metagross GX just... doesn't work well if Solgaleo is not on the field.
My favorite thing about this deck is that it can play two different styles, and even shift between them in the same game. If you start fast, as I did in the first two games, you get a very offensive minded deck, ideally setting up multi KO turns. If you start slow, or just want to slow down your opponent, you can use Dark Call GX and Team Flare Grunt to buy yourself time while putting them into awful situations. Round 3 was the first time I did that! And then I closed the game knocking out Tapu Bulu GX and Vikavolt with Foul Play on back to back turns. I don't know how my opponent didn't scream 😈
In round 4, the situation to discard two DCE with Dark Call GX while my opponent had two special charge in the discard pile presented itself. I took it and it sealed the game. Vespiquen is a matchup that forces you to be mindful of who you leave active though.
Round 5 was another witch obnoxious cute stuff. I had been Streaming N to negate his Collect bounty, and assembled a decent bench in the process. He had three Lapras out, the active with three energy, a fury belt, and 150 damage on it. One powered up on the bench with a Choice Band. One on the bench with one energy. I had an Umbreon GX with one energy active, an Umbreon with one energy on the bench, a Zoroark on the bench, Oranguru on the bench, and Tapu Lele on the bench. He had just knocked out an Umbreon that I had been spamming Shadow Bullet with. He had dropped Rough Seas his previous turn, which told me that it would be REALLY nice to Foul Play Blizzard Burn with Choice Band. So on this turn I KO the active Lapras dropping a choice band onto active Umbreon + play Kukui. He promotes Choice Band Lapras, aqua patches to benched Lapras, and hits me with Ice Beam GX. I had DCE, two Dark, an ultra ball and like an Eevee in hand. Using stand in would break the paralysis, but I couldn't get a 1HKO... So I check his discard pile. He has played 4 aqua patch, and there was a alot of water energy in there too. Hmmmmmm.
So I attach DCE to benched Umbreon GX and pass. He KOs the active Umbreon. I ultra ball for Lele, grab teammates, grab Zoroark BREAK + choice band. Stand In and Foul Play Blizzard Burn for KO. My opponent seemed to literally not know what had hit him, which is understandable, but kind of funny? I got a VS Seeker off the prizes. He promotes benched Lapras, uses Blizzard Burn to knock out Zoroark Break. I promote Umbreon GX, VS seeker for Flare Grunt, use Flare Grunt + Dark Call GX to discard all of his energy. He plays an N, and then scoops.
First game of T4 my opponent got an awful start and scooped after 3 turns. The second game played out a bit longer, but ended much like my other Vespiquen matchup did, where he ran out of resources to recover energy. Sidenote: I think hitting Mind Jack with Foul Play is the closest the Pokemon TCG gets to Steph Curry corn ball celebrations.
I had a slow start in the first game of T2, but recovered by spamming Flare Grunt and hitting Dark Call GX at a good time. He ran out of resources to recover energy and scooped. The second game I had a good start, but he got Garbodor BKP setup quickly, which greatly impairs the mobility of this deck. I misplayed at one point, gearing up a Zoroark, assuming stand in would be the second to last action of my turn... but then had the "oh yeah, Garbodor... is it 2014???" reaction. Inexcusable, but ultimately not fatal. Time was eventually called and I was ahead on prizes 4-3 after T3.
I got 28 packs, which yielded two Vikavolt GX, two Turtonator GX, and one Choice Band. The second place guy got a regular art Tapu Lele and secret rare Field Blower. Sigh.
My overall impression of this deck is still very positive. So positive in fact, that I am kind of nervous it will catch on and (combined with Drampa) lead to a rise in Lycanroc decks, which... I am convinced is basically an autoloss for Umbreon/Zoroark.
The card I had the most question about through my testing was Super Rod. Playing Vespiquen in Standard for most of the season, and Raikou/Eels in Expanded, I obviously gravitate more toward Rescue Stretcher. However, in this deck Super Rod is absolutely the right play. Yes, there are times it would be great to just pull a Zoroark BREAK from the discard pile... But 6 dark really is cutting it close. Occassionally whiffing energy is the only issue I have had with this list, and playing against anything that runs hammers/flare grunt/Drampa, etc. you can quickly find yourself in a position you can't win from.
A low key major plus to anything that plays off of Energy Evolution is all of the deck searches it provides. Don't waste these! Not everyone is Rain Man. It is ok if you forget if you prized a float stone in the current game or the previous one, just try to think ahead enough that you can take advantage of every search. (this has nothing to do with why half of my games hit time on round).
Favorite card of the tournament: This is hard. All of the attackers fulfilled their roles. Tapu Lele unlocks a new/old frontier of tech supporters. Team Flare Grunt was undeniably clutch in multiple games. But Oranguru. What a great card. The extra draw Oranguru provides got me back into a game where I (foolishly) allowed my opponent to keep a 5x computer search. When I am able to turn 1 Brigette, I typically grab Eevee/Zorua/Oranguru. Just getting an extra card or two every few turns + N protection is soooo valuable.
Least favorite card of the tournament: Tempting to say Flareon, because it was a dead card after round 2, but that is why it is a tech. I was surprised I had so few matchups for it to earn its place in the deck. Altar of the Moone though? The only time I played this was to get rid of it in front of an N. For the most part, Stand In, Stafe, and Float Stone give this deck the mobility it needs. I may feel different if I had played Altar of the Moone in more of an enabling way (let us enjoy retreating for free) and less of a defensive way (omg just need my stadium so I can get rid of whatever annoying stadium opponent played). Dropping it for a Skyla, or even a 7th dark energy is definitely something I will explore.
Umbreon / Zoroark is a fascinating deck. Thanks to Andrew for posting the source list. Barring a swell in the Lycanroc ranks, I believe this deck has the tools to be very competitive for the remainder of the season.
Oh yeah, one more thing
Final roll call of attacks I copied with Foul Play:
Drampa GX - Righteous Edge
Drampa GX - Berserk
Tapu Bulu GX - Nature's Judgement
Vikavolt - Electrocannon
Zoroark - Mind Jack
Lapras GX - Blizzard Burn
(sadly, none of these topped one I hit while testing on PTCGO, where my opponent had a big baller Tapu Lele with 4 energy on it and I copied Energy Drive with 1 Dark + DCE + Choice band on Zoroark Break for KO)
So with Lillie and Choice Band #4 we have two spots to fill. Options range from the very conservative and boring consistency buffs (Skyla and Professor's Letter...?) to spicy disruption tech (Delinquent and Hex Maniac). After some testing, my favorite answer was in the middle (Teammates and Team Flare Grunt). All of these options (and the inclusion of Brigette) represent the power of Tapu Lele. One of the biggest things I have learned in testing this format is how beneficial it is to have a Tapu Lele in deck, and an open bench space in the mid to late game.
I was very tempted to make these two like... a Vaporeon and Rough Seas, but decided that hitting Rough Seas with Umbreon in the same game I OHKO Drampa GX hitting Berserk with Foul Play would trigger some type of cute play singularity.
(seriously though, my league just has a long standing love affair with Volcanion)
6/4 Tulsa, 19 Masters
R1: Solgaleo GX/Solgaleo/Rayquaza W ( 1-0-0 )
R2: Metagross GX/Solgaleo GX L ( 1-1-0 )
R3: Vikavolt/Tapu Bulu GX W ( 2-1-0 )
R4: Vespiquen/Zoroark/Eeveelutions W ( 3-1-0 )
R5: Lapras GX W (4-1-0 )
T4: Vespiquen/Zoroark WW ( 5-1-0 )
T2: Garbodor/Drampa GX/Tauros GX WW ( 6-1-0 )
Final Standing: 1/19
OMG yes, I finally won a tournament! This means that every article I write will now begin with an insincere salutation + an account of my TCG accomplishments!
In round 1... basically I set up quickly and my opponent did not. I had Flareon up on my second turn, and took my fourth prize in response to his Sol Burst GX. Some luck was involved, but the two things I was expecting were beefy pokemon with fire weakness and Garbodor variants soooooo... this was really just validation of the deck choice.
I should have won round 2. This isn't a "durrr I had the WORST top decks" should have won, this is a "I Wonder Tagged for Sycamore instead of N after my opponent used Algorithm GX" should have won. My thinking was "Flareon is in my prizes. I will probably need Flareon to win regardless of his setup. Which supporter will advance my board state the fastest?". The answer to that is almost always Sycamore. That was the wrong way to look at this situation (and I don't know if it is good or bad that I acknowledged this as I was making the (wrong) decision???). However... DESPITE that misplay, I still would have won this game if I had placed my Shadow Bullet snipe damage better. I never shifted my thinking away from "spread in case he heals again" (I had seen two max potions) to "keep pulling high retreat cost guys active while all of his energy is stuck in play and snipe Tapu Lele to death" (ps: you really think he plays more than 2 Max Potion??!?). Basically, I made bad decisions in the moment against a deck I had never played against. I see three major reasons I was even able to get to the point where a second mistake cost me the game 1) extra draw from Oranguru 2) Teammates 3) Metagross GX just... doesn't work well if Solgaleo is not on the field.
My favorite thing about this deck is that it can play two different styles, and even shift between them in the same game. If you start fast, as I did in the first two games, you get a very offensive minded deck, ideally setting up multi KO turns. If you start slow, or just want to slow down your opponent, you can use Dark Call GX and Team Flare Grunt to buy yourself time while putting them into awful situations. Round 3 was the first time I did that! And then I closed the game knocking out Tapu Bulu GX and Vikavolt with Foul Play on back to back turns. I don't know how my opponent didn't scream 😈
In round 4, the situation to discard two DCE with Dark Call GX while my opponent had two special charge in the discard pile presented itself. I took it and it sealed the game. Vespiquen is a matchup that forces you to be mindful of who you leave active though.
Round 5 was another witch obnoxious cute stuff. I had been Streaming N to negate his Collect bounty, and assembled a decent bench in the process. He had three Lapras out, the active with three energy, a fury belt, and 150 damage on it. One powered up on the bench with a Choice Band. One on the bench with one energy. I had an Umbreon GX with one energy active, an Umbreon with one energy on the bench, a Zoroark on the bench, Oranguru on the bench, and Tapu Lele on the bench. He had just knocked out an Umbreon that I had been spamming Shadow Bullet with. He had dropped Rough Seas his previous turn, which told me that it would be REALLY nice to Foul Play Blizzard Burn with Choice Band. So on this turn I KO the active Lapras dropping a choice band onto active Umbreon + play Kukui. He promotes Choice Band Lapras, aqua patches to benched Lapras, and hits me with Ice Beam GX. I had DCE, two Dark, an ultra ball and like an Eevee in hand. Using stand in would break the paralysis, but I couldn't get a 1HKO... So I check his discard pile. He has played 4 aqua patch, and there was a alot of water energy in there too. Hmmmmmm.
So I attach DCE to benched Umbreon GX and pass. He KOs the active Umbreon. I ultra ball for Lele, grab teammates, grab Zoroark BREAK + choice band. Stand In and Foul Play Blizzard Burn for KO. My opponent seemed to literally not know what had hit him, which is understandable, but kind of funny? I got a VS Seeker off the prizes. He promotes benched Lapras, uses Blizzard Burn to knock out Zoroark Break. I promote Umbreon GX, VS seeker for Flare Grunt, use Flare Grunt + Dark Call GX to discard all of his energy. He plays an N, and then scoops.
First game of T4 my opponent got an awful start and scooped after 3 turns. The second game played out a bit longer, but ended much like my other Vespiquen matchup did, where he ran out of resources to recover energy. Sidenote: I think hitting Mind Jack with Foul Play is the closest the Pokemon TCG gets to Steph Curry corn ball celebrations.
I had a slow start in the first game of T2, but recovered by spamming Flare Grunt and hitting Dark Call GX at a good time. He ran out of resources to recover energy and scooped. The second game I had a good start, but he got Garbodor BKP setup quickly, which greatly impairs the mobility of this deck. I misplayed at one point, gearing up a Zoroark, assuming stand in would be the second to last action of my turn... but then had the "oh yeah, Garbodor... is it 2014???" reaction. Inexcusable, but ultimately not fatal. Time was eventually called and I was ahead on prizes 4-3 after T3.
I got 28 packs, which yielded two Vikavolt GX, two Turtonator GX, and one Choice Band. The second place guy got a regular art Tapu Lele and secret rare Field Blower. Sigh.
My overall impression of this deck is still very positive. So positive in fact, that I am kind of nervous it will catch on and (combined with Drampa) lead to a rise in Lycanroc decks, which... I am convinced is basically an autoloss for Umbreon/Zoroark.
The card I had the most question about through my testing was Super Rod. Playing Vespiquen in Standard for most of the season, and Raikou/Eels in Expanded, I obviously gravitate more toward Rescue Stretcher. However, in this deck Super Rod is absolutely the right play. Yes, there are times it would be great to just pull a Zoroark BREAK from the discard pile... But 6 dark really is cutting it close. Occassionally whiffing energy is the only issue I have had with this list, and playing against anything that runs hammers/flare grunt/Drampa, etc. you can quickly find yourself in a position you can't win from.
A low key major plus to anything that plays off of Energy Evolution is all of the deck searches it provides. Don't waste these! Not everyone is Rain Man. It is ok if you forget if you prized a float stone in the current game or the previous one, just try to think ahead enough that you can take advantage of every search. (this has nothing to do with why half of my games hit time on round).
Favorite card of the tournament: This is hard. All of the attackers fulfilled their roles. Tapu Lele unlocks a new/old frontier of tech supporters. Team Flare Grunt was undeniably clutch in multiple games. But Oranguru. What a great card. The extra draw Oranguru provides got me back into a game where I (foolishly) allowed my opponent to keep a 5x computer search. When I am able to turn 1 Brigette, I typically grab Eevee/Zorua/Oranguru. Just getting an extra card or two every few turns + N protection is soooo valuable.
Least favorite card of the tournament: Tempting to say Flareon, because it was a dead card after round 2, but that is why it is a tech. I was surprised I had so few matchups for it to earn its place in the deck. Altar of the Moone though? The only time I played this was to get rid of it in front of an N. For the most part, Stand In, Stafe, and Float Stone give this deck the mobility it needs. I may feel different if I had played Altar of the Moone in more of an enabling way (let us enjoy retreating for free) and less of a defensive way (omg just need my stadium so I can get rid of whatever annoying stadium opponent played). Dropping it for a Skyla, or even a 7th dark energy is definitely something I will explore.
Umbreon / Zoroark is a fascinating deck. Thanks to Andrew for posting the source list. Barring a swell in the Lycanroc ranks, I believe this deck has the tools to be very competitive for the remainder of the season.
Oh yeah, one more thing
Final roll call of attacks I copied with Foul Play:
Drampa GX - Righteous Edge
Drampa GX - Berserk
Tapu Bulu GX - Nature's Judgement
Vikavolt - Electrocannon
Zoroark - Mind Jack
Lapras GX - Blizzard Burn
(sadly, none of these topped one I hit while testing on PTCGO, where my opponent had a big baller Tapu Lele with 4 energy on it and I copied Energy Drive with 1 Dark + DCE + Choice band on Zoroark Break for KO)
