But the most important lesson was the value of play testing. Really working out a deck list until it is as lean as possible. Due to this, on the drive back from St. Louis, I decided that before the next league meeting, I was going to select my deck for states.
XY had not officially released, but I had read the scans. There are quite a few fun cards, but none of the pokemon really inspired me along the lines to build a deck around them. A friend and I discussed a Malamar/red card hell deck for about an hour on the way back from regionals... But we both knew it would not be competitive.
I knew I wasn't going to lay down enough money for Yveltal EX singles, and it would take an absurd swing of luck pull three. The fairy decks I have seen seem to lack enough punch to win consistently, and I am not going to buy beaches, so pairing Ray/Boar with Delphox is moot.
So that left me looking at old ideas and trying to pick one that would remain competitive, or get a boost with a small splash of the new stuff.
Palkia with Trevenant was the first deck to consider, but three games against Darkrai/Garbodor at league told me that even if you can slow their setup, dark types just blow through Trevenant too easily.
Then a meta-hater Magnezone/Sigilyph/Deoxys/Genesect deck. This was a blast against anyone who benched more than one Lugia EX or Yveltal EX, but Gyroball isn't quite as disruptive as I had hoped. I still run this online a few times a week, but my current build just hasn't proved capable of setting up Magnezone by turn 2-4 consistently. Beach would really help it, but again... Not buying that. $200 for a pokemon card is asinine.
So I began reading into current archetypes, and found Colin Moll's Hydreigon list. I love the flexibility that Dark Trance provides, I love Safeguard, and Dragon Blast is powerful enough to take care of non-EX nuisance pokemon such as Snorlax PLS, Reshiram LTR, etc.
So I tinkered with it, playing in online and in league for the past month, and this is the list I settled on for the first XY League Challenge:
| Pokemon - 16 | Trainers -33 | Energy - 11 |
| 4 - Deino PLF | 3 - N | 7 - Darkness |
| 1 - Zweilous LTR | 3 - Professor Juniper | 4 - Blend GRPD |
| 3 - Hydreigon LTR | 2 - Shauna | - |
| 2 - Sigilyph LTR | 1 - Colress | - |
| 2 - Sableye DXP | 4 - Dark Patch | - |
| 2 - Darkrai EX LTR | 3 - Ultra Ball | - |
| 1 - Yveltal XY | 3 - Random Receiver | - |
| 1 - Virizion EX PLB | 3 - Max Potion | - |
| - | 3 - Rare Candy | - |
| - | 2 - Enhanced Hammer | - |
| - | 2 - Tool Scrapper | - |
| - | 1 - Super Rod | - |
| - | 1 - Silver Bangle | - |
| - | 1 - Silver Mirror | - |
| - | 1 - Computer Search | - |
Round 1 - W vs Mewtwo EX/Mew EX/Chandelure EX/Gardevoir
Round 2 - L vs Lugia EX/Deoxys EX/Thundurus EX/Genesect EX/Snorlax PLS
Round 3 - W vs Yveltal EX/Darkrai EX/Sableye DXP/Bouffalant DEX
Round 4 - L vs Yveltal EX/Sableye DXP/Garbodor LTR/Bouffalant DEX
Round 5 - T vs Lugia EX/Deoxys EX/Thundurus EX/Genesect EX/Absol PLF/Heatran EX
My favorite thing about this style of Hydreigon build (ie walling with Sigilyph instead of using a handful of tech attackers) is how often it either mounts a huge comeback, or just backs an opponent into a corner within the first 3-5 turns.
The round 1 matchup was easily my worst start ever with any version of Hydreigon. A Juniper, three rare candies, a Sigilyph and two blends in my opening hand... but I was able to pull out of it and hit energy and dark patches down the line to end up blowing through my opponent with successive Dragon Blasts after feeding a few one prize attackers.
On the opposite end of this, the game I tied I pulled Sableye and both enhanced hammers in my opening hand, junk hunting to lock my opponent out of energy until I was ready to begin Dragon Blasting.
The losses were close, and the tie would have gone to me given 5 more minutes.
It has been very tempting to for me to add Raichu XY, or Chandelure EX, something that either has 1HKO punch without a tool attached, or can punch out high damage pokemon that end up on the bench. However, since space is so tight on the bench I often end up with this special tech either wasting away on my bench while blocking out a more crucial strategic piece or unavailable in the discard pile when I need it.
Anyway, I finished 6 of 15, won a booster pack... and despite spending the evening experimenting with Luxray/Ninetales builds online, I will probably be playing something very close to this at states.
