2011 Post-Rotation Decks

• Legal Sets
  • HeartGold & SoulSilver Base
  • HGSS Unleashed
  • HGSS Undaunted
  • HGSS Triumphant
  • HGSS Call of Legends
  • Black and White Base

• 1st Turn Rules
  • There are NO RESTRICTIONS to what the player going first is allowed to do in this format. They draw, they may attack, and they may play Trainers, Supporters, and Stadiums.
  • The player who wins the coin flip MUST GO FIRST (not that there’s any reason for them to choose otherwise)
  • The coin flip takes place AFTER the setup phase

2011 was a pretty crazy season. Due to the change in first turn rules (and the potential for SableDonk to win games before the opponent could even draw a card), TPCI rotated all of the Diamond and Pearl/Platinum sets roughly two weeks prior to US Nationals. As a result, the decks on this page all have their events EXCLUSIVELY from US Nationals, Canada Nationals, and Worlds, as no other events took place with these sets and 1st turn rules.

The rotation was necessary, but it definitely came as a shock to the TCG community. Not only was this a completely unprecedented move in TPCI’s history, but this was also an extremely large rotation – 7 sets phased out, which was far more than any in recent memory. Many of the decklists here might be sub-optimal, because we really didn’t get that long to test the decks before our biggest tournament of the year, nor did we have any clue what the metagame was going to be like at US Nationals. In addition, several pokemon in the HGSS expansions shot up in price overnight, the most drastic of them being Yanmega Prime. This card was a 4-of in multiple different archetypes, and went very quickly from being a $5 card to an $80 card.

While the decks might not be supremely optimal, this format had several exceptionally strong consistency options – Cleffa, Professor Juniper, Twins, and Sage’s Training allowed most decks to set up very easily and consistently, while Junk Arm ensured you almost never ran out of gas in the end game. When you pick up a deck in this format, you can be sure that your deck will do what it is meant to do a high percentage of the time – provided you avoid getting donked by Tyrogue.

Kingdra/Yanmega

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
4 Kingdra 2 Seadra 4 Horsea 4 Yanmega 4 Yanma 2 Jirachi 1 Blissey 1 Chansey 2 Cleffa 1 Tyrogue	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Copycat 4 Judge 2 Professor Juniper 4 Rare Candy 4 Pokemon Communication 2 Junk Arm 3 Pokemon Reversal	3 Psychic Energy 3 Rainbow Energy 2 Rescue Energy

Decklist Credit: Dylan LeFavour, Top 4 US Nationals

Because the rotation occurred only 2 weeks before the tournament (which took the playerbase by surprise), this format was fairly untested going into nationals. Kingdra/Yanmega was a popular choice in the early stages of this format, as it was extremely consistent, and its low energy attacks (or zero energy, in Yanmega’s case) meant it required minimal setup in a format where Uxie and Spiritomb were no longer allowed.

Jirachi is a nifty inclusion, as Yanmega and Kingdra can both spread damage around the opponent’s field, allowing you to take multiple KOs at once by devolving your opponent’s field. Blissey Prime is also cute, allowing you to heal off damage that something like Donphan or Reshiram did while needing very little resources to power your field back up. Tyrogue is included here because it has the potential to donk Cleffa, and it can also potentially net you 30 damage while stalling your opponent for a turn.

MagneBoar

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Magnezone 1 Magneton 3 Magnemite 2 Emboar 1 Pignite 3 Tepig B 2 Reshiram 2 Cleffa 1 Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND (top) 1 Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND (bottom)	4 Pokemon Collector 3 Twins 3 Professor Oak’s New Theory 1 Fisherman 4 Pokemon Communication 4 Rare Candy 3 Junk Arm 2 Energy Retrieval 2 Switch	9 Fire Energy 4 Lightning Energy 2 Rescue Energy

Decklist Credit: David Cohen, 1st Place Worlds

Magnezone was one of the other Prime cards from the HGSS era that immediately spiked in usage post-rotation – because Uxie (and its Lv.X) were forced to exit the format early, a lot of decks lost their main draw engine. Many players turned to Magnezone, since its ability is reminiscent of Claydol GE, but it can also double as a heavy-hitting attacker. Emboar really picked up steam going into the World Championships, as its ability to accelerate energy allowed you to steamroll your opponent’s field, and OHKO anything they put in front of you. Rayquaza/Deoxys LEGEND was a nifty addition as well, as 150 damage was enough to OHKO almost any pokemon in the format, and its poke-body allowed you to steal extra prize cards in a format filled with single-prize attackers.

MewBox

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
4 Mew 3 Yanmega 3 Yanma 2 Zoroark 2 Zorua 2 Crobat 1 Tyrogue 1 Jirachi	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory 3 Copycat 2 Judge 1 Black Belt 4 Pokemon Communication 4 Junk Arm 3 Pokemon Reversal 2 PlusPower 2 Defender 2 Dual Ball 1 Revive 1 Energy Exchanger	7 Psychic Energy 2 Double Colorless Energy

Decklist Credit: Austin Zettel, Top 16 US Nationals

MewBox was an unorthodox deck that utilized different pokemon depending on the matchup. It sought to be an anti-meta deck in a format that had immediately become centralized around 4 pokemon – Yanmega Prime, Donphan Prime, Kingdra Prime, and Reshiram BW. 

Against ReshiPhlosion, you almost always See Off a Zoroark immediately, and engage in a prize race as Foul Play always OHKOs Reshiram, since the only means of accelerating energy is with Afterburner, which places a damage counter on the Reshiram. Against Donphan, Crobat Prime is usually the more useful attacker, allowing you to poison the pokemon with a hefty retreat cost, and then snipe the bench to set up KOs for later. Against Stage 2 Variants like Kingdra and Magnezone, the goal was to usually damage the Stage 2 pokemon, and then devolve them later with Jirachi.

The list above is Austin Zettel’s list from US nationals – he opted for Defender, because it allowed his Mew Primes to survive attacks from Donphan and Yanmega. Other variants of the deck however traded off the extra item cards for thick line of Vileplume UD, as well as the Muk from the same set. This allowed you to drag up Magnezone Primes, lock their Poke-Power with the special condition, and also prevent them from switching via Switch or Super Scoop Up.

Prime Time (Yanmega/Magnezone)

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Yanmega 4 Yanma 4 Magnezone 1 Magneton 4 Magnemite 1 Kingdra 1 Horsea 1 Jirachi 1 Cleffa	4 Pokemon Collector 3 Judge 1 Copycat 2 Sage’s Training 2 Twins 4 Pokemon Communication 4 Rare Candy 4 Pokemon Reversal 4 Junk Arm 1 Switch	5 Lightning Energy 4 Psychic Energy 2 Rainbow Energy

Decklist Credit: Joshua “J-Wittz” Wittenkeller, Top 8 World Championships

This deck was the heavy favorite post-rotation – with 3 different modes to win, you had an answer for practically every situation, and as a result, this deck crushed both at US Nationals and Worlds. Yanmega was the main attacker – Copycat and Judge allowed you to copy the opponent’s hand size for Yanmega easily, but Magnezone’s ability combined with the use of items like junk arm let you copy them manually if you played smart with your resources. Magnezone could also function as a heavy hitter – since Yanmega didn’t require any energy, you were often free to slowly power up one large Magnezone attack.

The deck pictured above is Joshua Wittenkeller’s (aka J-Wittz) list from the World Championships, but a different version by Justin Sanchez won the US National Champioships. His list cut the Kingdra line for some extra consistency cards, as well as a Pachirisu from Call of Legends, which allowed him to power up a massive Magnezone attack in a single turn.

ReshiPhlosion

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Typhlosion 1 Quilava 3 Cyndaquil 4 Reshiram 2 Ninetales 2 Vulpix 1 Samurott 1 Oshawott PR BW08	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory 2 Professor Juniper 1 Engineer’s Adjustments 4 Rare Candy 4 Pokemon Communication 3 PlusPower 3 Pokemon Reversal 3 Junk Arm 1 Revive 1 Energy Retrieval	12 Fire Energy 1 Rescue Energy

Decklist credit: Josue Palomino, Top 4 World Championships

This deck was another that was favored due to its consistency and ease of setup. Ninetales HGSS was another consistent draw engine post rotation, and Typhlosion Prime allows you to re-attach all of the discarded energy to Reshiram. Samurott was a nifty tech by Josue Palomino in his top 4 worlds list – its attack does 70 + 20 for each water energy attached, but because it hits for weakness, it doesn’t actually need any water energy to land OHKOs in the mirror match. It also OHKOs Mew Prime, and won’t be KO’d in response by either deck because of the built-in damage reduction in its ability.

Stage 1’s (Zoo)

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Donphan 3 Phanpy 3 Yanmega 3 Yanma 2 Zoroark 2 Zorua 1 Tyrogue 1 Manaphy 1 Bouffalant	4 Pokemon Collector 3 Professor Juniper 3 Judge 3 Professor Oak’s New Theory 4 Pokemon Communication 4 Junk Arm 3 PlusPower 3 Pokemon Reversal 2 Switch	9 Fighting Energy 3 Double Colorless Energy

Decklist Credit: PTCG Archive

Donphan/Yanmega didn’t rely on rare candies to set up, allowing it to get going quickly and consistently, even against Item Lock. Similar to other Yanmega decks, you can use Judge to copy your opponent’s hand size and attack for zero energy – this was the preferred strategy in mirror matches. Against Magnezone, you had the option to attack with Donphan, which could OHKO due to weakness with one PlusPower. Zoroark guarded against ReshiPhlosion, as it cleanly OHKO’d Reshiram for a double colorless. Manaphy was a unique inclusion by Kyle Suchevich in his 2nd Place Nationals list – on the surface it seems “worse” than cleffa because it requires an energy attachment, but it also can’t be donked by Tyrogue.

Also for those keeping track at home, yes, this is in fact the THIRD YEAR IN A ROW Pooka makes it to the semi-finals of US Nationals, and the FOURTH year in a row he makes top cut.

The Truth

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
2 Vileplume 2 Gloom 3 Oddish 2 Donphan 2 Phanpy 2 Reuniclus 2 Duosion 3 Solosis 1 Blissey 1 Chansey 2 Zekrom 2 Pichu 1 Cleffa 1 Suicune & Entei LEGEND (Top) 1 Suicune & Entei LEGEND (Bottom)	4 Twins 4 Sage’s Training 3 Pokemon Collector 2 Seeker 1 Copycat 1 Professor Oak’s New Theory 3 Rare Candy 3 Pokemon Communication 1 Tropical Beach PR BW28 4 Rainbow Energy	4 Double Colorless Energy 2 Fighting Energy 1 Fire Energy

Decklist Credit: Ross Cawthon, 2nd Place Worlds

A Rogue deck taken to worlds by Ross Cawthon, The Truth turned into one of the most iconic rogue decks in the history of the Pokemon TCG. This deck had two modes of play – one was to pressure the opponent aggressively with Donphan Prime (which did 10 damage to each of your own benched pokemon) then use Reuniclus’s ability to swap all of the damage onto your own Zekroms, allowing you to take easy KOs with Outrage.

The second, more important mode was more complex – it involved setting up a Vileplume and a Reuniclus, and subsequently a Suicune & Entei LEGEND. Suicune/Entei was nearly impossible to OHKO with anything other than Magnezone Prime – so Ross would soak up the damage with Suicune/Entei, and then redistribute all the damage to his bench with Reuniclus. Then, when it had all piled up, Ross would play his Blissey Prime, healing all damage from each of his pokemon in play, completely un-doing all of the damage his opponent worked for. Suicune/Entei also sniped for 100 damage with its main attack, so Ross was able to pick and KO the pokemon that were most threatening to his board state, making it nearly impossible for the opponent to work their way back into the match.

One quick note is that more copies of Tropical Beach might be optimal – this was the first year Beach was used as the worlds promo, so Ross only had access to the 1 single copy.

Tyranitar/Serperior

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
4 Tyranitar 3 Pupitar 4 Larvitar 2 Serperior 2 Servine 2 Snivy 1 Tyrogue 3 Cleffa 1 Shaymin 1 Jirachi 1 Unown	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory 3 Professor Elm’s Training Method 3 Twins 4 Pokemon Communication 4 Rare Candy 2 Switch	4 Darkness Energy (Special) 4 Rainbow Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

Decklist Credit: James Arnold, Top 8 US National Championships

Tyranitar Prime was initially hyped in 2010, but finally saw success at a high level event (US Nationals) in 2011. Tyranitar Prime spreads 20 to all non-dark pokemon on the field, including your own. However, Serperior heals 10 from your own pokemon between turns, so you essentially negate the damage to yourself while spreading 20 around your opponent’s field for just 1 energy. Once damage was spread around, you could use Power Claw and Megaton Tail to clean up – special darkness energy boosted their damage output further. Jirachi could also take several KOs at once once damage was spread enough – Rainbow Energy provides the Psychic that Jirachi is looking for, and Shaymin can move several of them over in one turn.