2011 Pre-Rotation (MD-CoL) Decks

• Legal Sets
  • DP Majestic Dawn
  • DP Legends Awakened
  • DP Stormfront
  • Platinum Base
  • PL Rising Rivals
  • PL Supreme Victors
  • PL Arceus
  • HeartGold & SoulSilver Base
  • HGSS Unleashed
  • HGSS Undaunted
  • HGSS Triumphant
  • HGSS Call of Legends

• 1st Turn Rules
  • On their first turn, the player who goes first may NOT play any trainers, supporters, or stadiums
  • The player who wins the coin flip MUST GO FIRST
  • The coin flip happens AFTER the setup phase

The 2010-2011 is one of the wildest sets on record. Black & White released in April of this year, and with it, the 1st turn rules were changed so that there was no limit to what a player could do on turn 1. This resulted in decks being able to consistently donk the opponent before they could even draw a card, causing TPCI to rotate the remaining Diamond and Pearl/Platinum expansions in the middle of the season.

Because of this, many of the archetypes on this page will have their best finishes at either US Regional Championships, Foreign National Championships, or the European Challenge Cup. This is because US Nationals, Canadian Nationals, and Worlds were played with different legal sets and different 1st turn rules, and they were the only 3 events played with these new rulesets.

In both the States and in Europe, LuxChomp reigned supreme, taking 1st and 2nd place at the majority of events – the decks that came out in response were different. Vileplume was played in both places, but in the States, it was almost as popular as SP Decks were. Vileplume/Gengar had several top placements at regionals, and Vileplume/Machamp performed highly as well, with some players opting to play both, similar to GeChamp lists in 2009. Vileplume/Magnezone lists saw play in the states as well, with some variants opting to use the newly released Scizor Prime on top of it. VileGar saw play in Europe as well, but MewDos evolved as a spinoff of the popular Gyarados archetype, and ended up taking top 8 in the European Challenge Cup. Mew/Gyarados saw much less play in the states, with only John and Stephen Silvestro doing well with the deck at Florida Regionals.

CurseGar

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
1 Gengar Lv. X 2 Gengar (AR) 1 Gengar (SF) 3 Haunter 4 Gastly 2 Crobat Prime 2 Golbat 2 Zubat 2 Espeon 2 Eevee 4 Spiritomb 1 Unown Q	4 Bebe’s Search 4 Pokemon Collector 4 Judge 3 Professor Oak’s New Theory 2 Cyrus’s Conspiracy 2 Expert Belt	8 Psychic Energy 4 Call Energy 3 Warp Energy

Decklist: Attempted reconstruction based on tournament reports

CurseGar was presumed dead by the majority of players this season, but one player from Utah managed to take this decklist to a top 4 finish at the Colorado Regional Championships. It functions similar to 2010, where you Shadow Skip and hide behind Spiritombs to lock item cards, but it plays a couple of newer tech cards that replace the Claydol line, as well as a lot of the item cards, since most decks will be locking with Vileplume. Crobat Prime is the first one; the quadruple damage counter poison allows you to effectively deal with threats like Tyranitar Prime or Donphan Prime that would otherwise shut down your damage output. The second is Espeon – this was a cool inclusion that removed 4 damage counters from your side of the field, and placed them on the opponent’s side in any way you wanted. This was especially useful against opposing Gengar decks, as it meant their Shadow Room was only doing 20 damage per turn, and you could easily play around Fainting Spell.

DialgaChomp

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
2 Dialga G Lv.X 2 Dialga G 2 Garchomp C Lv.X 2 Garchomp C 1 Uxie Lv.X 2 Uxie 1 Toxicroak G Promo 1 Dragonite fb 1 Skuntank G 1 Toxicroak G 1 Crobat G 1 Bronzong G 1 Azelf 1 Unown Q	4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy 3 Pokemon Collector 2 Bebe’s Search 1 Twins 1 Aaron’s Collection 4 Poké Turn 3 Energy Gain 3 Power Spray 2 SP Radar 2 Snowpoint Temple 1 Pokemon Contest Hall 1 Expert Belt	4 Metal Energy (Special) 3 Double Colorless Energy 3 Call Energy 1 Metal Energy (basic) 1 Psychic Energy

Decklist Credit: PTCG Archive

Continuing its strength into the 2011 season, DialgaChomp was one of the premier SP decks to beat. Dialga’s ability to lock up items, combined with Garchomp C’s ability to heal was tough to beat, especially in a 30-minute time limit. Garchomp made this extra difficult as once time expired, it could snipe a threat with Dragon Rush, and take an easy prize card for the lead.

Toxicroak G acts as a tech against Luxray GL, but sees extra use against all of the Magnezone decks this season as well. Skuntank G adds to Dialga’s damage output, but is ALSO very nice against Magnezone, as poisoned Magnezone Prime can’t use its poke-power to draw cards. Drifblim FB is a cool inclusion as well. It hits pokemon on the bench for weakness, which means it can target down Uxie, Azelf, and Ralts for easy KOs as well.

Flygon/Drapion/Vileplume

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
1 Flygon Lv. X 3 Flygon 3 Vibravca 4 Trapinch 2 Vileplume 2 Gloom 2 Oddish 1 Drapion Lv. X 3 Drapion 3 Skorupi 4 Spiritomb	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Twins 4 Bebe’s Search 3 Professor Oak’s New Theory 1 Palmer’s Contribution 1 Lucian’s Assignment 1 Seeker 1 Judge	5 Darkness Energy (Basic) 4 Double Colorless Energy 2 Grass Energy 2 Warp Energy

Decklist: Attempted reconstruction based on tournament reports

The monstrosity appearing above you was a rogue deck that a dutch player took to Western Canadian Nationals, placing top 8 and coming 1 card short of the semi-finals, whiffing the energy card she needed in sudden death to win the game. The idea is similar to VVV decks from 2012 – you establish item lock with Vileplume, and then use Drapion to inflict special conditions on the opponent, while also preventing them from retreating. Drapion’s Poke-power can inflict poison that places 3 damage counters instead of just 1, and the basic Drapion’s attack for ZERO energy does 10 damage and flips a coin – if heads, your opponent is paralyzed. If tails, they cannot retreat. Either way, your opponent will be trapped active, taking 30 between turns for poison, which racks up rather quickly.

Flygon gives the deck a beefy attacker that can snipe down opponent’s Level X cards that might be hiding on the bench. The whole deck is also based around evolutions, so Flygon itself hits pretty hard. If you can lock items and then consistently swing for 80-100 damage, it’s going to be difficult for the opponent to respond. Drapion doesn’t need to be active to use its poke-power either, so you can abuse Flygon’s poke-body to hide it on the bench, repeatedly inflicting the opponent with poison.

LostScor

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
1 Gengar Lv. X 2 Gengar Prime 1 Gengar SF 3 Haunter 4 Gastly 1 Gliscor Lv. X 3 Gliscor 3 Gligar 4 Spiritomb 2 Uxie 1 Azelf 1 Unown Q	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Bebe’s Search 3 Seeker 1 Professor Oak’s New Theory 1 Looker’s Investigation 1 Twins 2 Pokemon Communication 2 Expert Belt 1 Luxury Ball 3 Broken Time-Space 1 Lost World	4 Rainbow Energy 3 Fighting Energy 2 Psychic Energy 2 Warp Energy

Decklist: Attempted reconstruction based on tournament reports

Gliscor/Lost World was a really cool deck that topped at a few US Regionals. Similar to GliscTomb in 2010, you had the option to Night Slash and hide behind Spiritombs, keeping your opponent’s items locked. However, Gengar Prime added an entirely new dimension. Because all effects of attacks are completed before checking for knockouts, you can use Night Slash to score a KO, and then switch into Gengar Prime, which means your opponent’s pokemon will be put into the Lost Zone rather than the discard pile, like usual. This makes it impossible for decks to re-use their attackers, and it also opens the door for you to legitimately win with Lost World before you are able to take 6 prize cards.

VileGar

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
1 Gengar Lv.X 3 Gengar 3 Haunter 4 Gastly 4 Spiritomb 2 Vileplume 2 Gloom 3 Oddish 1 Shedinja 1 Nincada 1 Froslass G 1 Uxie Lv.X 2 Uxie 1 Azelf 1 Unown Q	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Bebe’s Search 4 Twins 1 Looker’s Investigation 1 Palmer’s Contribution 2 Seeker 3 Broken Time-Space	5 Psychic Energy 3 Warp Energy 3 Rescue Energy

Decklist: Attempted reconstruction based on the 1st Place Texas Regionals Report

The path of Gengar in competitive play has been an interesting one. In 2009, Gengar Stormfront was the centerpiece of a couple strong archetypes, most often paired with Nidoqueen. In 2010, however, CurseGar was released, and it stole the spotlight, with Gengar SF being more of a situational tech attacker. In 2011, Vileplume gave Stormfront Gengar new life, as it could permanently lock items in the opponent’s hand, making it much more likely that Poltergeist would do large chunks of damage.

This deck was at the high end of tier 1, and was seen as one of the most solid choices to counter a format that was initially dominated by SP decks. Seeker made it easier for Gengar to tank attacks, allowing it to outlast the opponent once the item lock has been established. Some lists opted to tech in Lost World and Gengar Prime as well, to give the deck multiple win conditions. The techs from the list above are meant to resemble the 1st place Texas Regionals list which I found in a report on pokegym. Froslass GL is very nice against a lot of decks, as it swaps something from their bench to their active and puts them to sleep, potentially letting you spread damage around with Gengar. Shedinja helped a lot against Steelix and other decks that relied on Poke-Bodies and Poke-Power pokemon as their main attackers, since Shedinja prevented these pokemon from damaging it. However the 1 energy snipe attack meant that it synergized nicely with the rest of the deck even in other matchups.

Game Over

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
2 Dialga Lv.X 2 Dialga 2 Palkia G Lv.X 2 Palkia G 2 Drifblim 2 Drifloon 4 Jirachi 2 Uxie 1 Azelf	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Seeker 3 Twins 2 Bebe’s Search 2 Cynthia’s Feelings 1 Copycat 3 VS Seeker 3 Level MAX 3 Warp Point 2 Bench Shield 2 Research Record 1 Pokemon Rescue 1 Luxury Ball	4 Double Colorless Energy 4 Rescue Energy 2 Upper Energy

Decklist Credit: PokeGym users: DarthPika, PikaMaster, Waynegg

“Game Over” could be argued as Pokemon’s first true “Combo” deck – rather than taking 6 prizes or milling the opponent, “Game Over” tries to assemble a group of cards that allow the player to win the game immediately (similar to Exodia in Yu-Gi-Oh!). Once setup, your deck wins the match by benching your opponent – removing all of their pokemon in play. Thanks to all the search power provided by Jirachi and Twins, the deck finds its combo pieces very reliably, and can set up quicker than you might expect!

The combo can only be achieved after your opponent flips double tails on Dialga Lv.X’s Time Skip poke-power, which allows you to take 2 turns in a row. After doing this, you use Palkia G Lv. X’s Lost Cyclone to reduce both players to 3 bench pokemon. Then use Seeker, and copy Seeker with your Jirachi, reducing your opponent’s bench to 2, then 1. Your opponent is forced to draw-pass due to Dialga’s Time Skip, then you play another Seeker (or VS Seeker) to nab their last bench pokemon, before shuffling their active in with Drifblim! (Make sure to play some of your own benched pokemon back down, so you don’t bench yourself too!)

For more tips on some of the more unique card choices in this deck, check out the article I’ve written over in the “articles” section!

Gyarados

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Gyarados 4 Magikarp 4 Sableye 1 Luxray GL Lv.X 1 Luxray GL 1 Uxie Lv.X 2 Uxie 1 Azelf 1 Mesprit 2 Unown Q 1 Crobat G 1 Combee 1 Smeargle 1 Regice	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Looker’s Investigation 3 Seeker 2 Bebe’s Search 4 Poké Turn 3 Pokemon Rescue 1 Luxury Ball 2 Expert Belt 3 Broken Time-Space 4 Junk Arm	4 Warp Energy 2 Rescue Energy

Decklist Credit: PTCG Archive

While HGSS Triumphant released cards that were suitable for many different decks, many of them honestly could have been hand-picked for Gyarados. It had already been a decent tier 1 archetype in 2010, and Seeker, Rescue Energy, and Junk Arm ensured this deck kept its place at the front of the line. The goal is still to fill your discard pile with Magikarp and then hit hard with tail Revenge, but now with Seeker, you can abuse Mesprit’s Psychic Bind ability without relying on Super Scoop Up flips. (you can also use Seeker to switch out with Warp Energy, and then heal your Gyarados). Rescue Energy also gives you a much easier time playing around item lock.

Luxray GL Lv.X is still solid for bringing up specific threats, especially Vileplume which might otherwise lock up your items. You don’t have to worry about targeting down the opponent’s Claydol in this format, so feel free to go after your opponent’s attackers before they can set up. Smeargle is a new addition that helps the consistency of the early game quite a bit, and it is also a great choice to push active after a KO if you don’t have anything you need to pull active with Luxray. Combee is also nifty to grab Magikarp out of the discard pile – note that “honey” is technically not a poke-power, so you can use it freely without fear of Power Spray.

LuxChomp

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
2 Luxray GL Lv.X 2 Luxray GL 2 Garchomp Lv.X 2 Garchomp C 1 Uxie Lv.X 2 Uxie 1 Ambipom G 1 Dragonite 1 Lucario GL 1 Bronzong G 1 Toxicroak G PR DP41 1 Crobat G 1 Chatot 1 Unown Q 1 Azelf	4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy 3 Pokemon Collector 3 Bebe’s Search 1 Aaron’s Collection 1 Twins 1 Looker’s Investigation 4 Poké Turn 3 Energy Gain 3 Power Spray 2 SP Radar 1 Luxury Ball 1 Premier Ball 1 Expert Belt	4 Double Colorless Energy 4 Call Energy 3 Lightning Energy 1 Psychic Energy

Decklist Credit: PTCG Archive

The deck with the most results from the 2010 season picked up right where it left off in 2011, and dominated the local standings before Vileplume Undaunted was printed. As always, this deck can play aggressive, using both Bright Look and Dragon Rush to pick off opposing bench sitters before they are ready; completely ignoring starter pokemon like Spiritomb. Techs can be varied depending on personal preference, although with the rotation of Claydol and the introduction of Vileplume, Entei-Raikou LEGEND is slightly less effective this year than the previous ones.

Blaziken FB has some extra utility, hitting Steelix Prime and Dialga G Lv. X for weakness while also being able to pull Vileplume and Magnezone Prime to the active spot (also burning Magnzone Prime, shutting off its poke-power!) Roserade GL is also an effective option – it can pull Vileplume and Magnezone up and inflict them with special conditions as well, while spreading damage to the bench. Unown G rotated coming into this season, so decks won’t have an effective way to prevent this switch from happening.

Machamp/Vileplume

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
2 Machamp TM 95 2 Machamp SF 20 4 Machoke 4 Machop 4 Spiritomb 1 Azelf 1 Unown Q 2 Vileplume 2 Gloom 2 Oddish 1 Uxie Lv.X 2 Uxie	4 Pokemon Collector 3 Bebe’s Search 3 Seeker 1 Palmer’s Contribution 3 Copycat 3 Professor Oak’s New Theory 2 Judge 4 Broken Time-Space	7 Fighting Energy 3 Double Colorless Energy

Decklist: Attempted reconstruction based on tournament reports

While they might seem like a contradictory pair due to Machamp’s Aggressive nature in years past, Machamp/Vileplume saw a lot of success in US tournaments. Machamp Prime’s Poke-Power allows it to swap into the active position and move energy to itself, so the player can tank a hit, switch pokemon, then Seeker the original Machamp to prevent the opponent from taking a KO. 4 Broken Time-Space with thick evolution lines also opens up games where you can immediately set up Machamp or Vileplume, and then Judge the opponent before the have a chance to work themselves into the game.

Machamp in general was such a strong answer to SP pokemon in this format because of Unown G’s rotation – decks no longer had a way to protect themselves from Take Out’s effect of automatically KOing unevolved pokemon. Machamp Prime also gives you a larger attacker to lean on, and is generally preferred over the Level X because of its high HP and poke-power.

MagnaRok

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Magnezone 1 Magnezone 2 Magneton 2 Magneton 4 Magnemite 4 Spiritomb 2 Regirock 1 Skuntank G 1 Azelf 1 Unown Q 1 Entei & Raikou LEGEND (Top) 1 Entei & Raikou LEGEND (bottom)	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Engineer’s Adjustments 2 Judge 2 Pokemon Communication 1 Luxury Ball 2 Broken Time-Space 2 Sunyshore City Gym	7 Lightning Energy 7 Fighting Energy 2 Rescue Energy 2 Warp Energy

Decklist Credit: PTCG Archive

While Magnezone Prime saw the majority of its success after the mid-season rotation, this unique deck did see a lot of success. It utilizes Regirock’s ability to discard 2 cards in order to attach a fighting energy to itself out of the discard pile, which not only powers up Magnezone Prime’s attack, but also empties your hand to draw more cards off of Magnetic Draw. Magnezone Stormfront can also accelerate energy out of the discard pile, while Spiritomb uses its item lock to shut down faster, SP decks while aiding your early game setup.

Entei/Raikou LEGEND can take a big OHKO on pokemon like Steelix Prime, but it also has the opportunity to pick up easy KOs on Uxie and Azelf. Unlike most 2010 decks, where ERL takes KOs on both sides of the board, Thunder Fall doesn’t quite KO your own Regirock LA or Magnezone Prime, so you can often use it to clean up the opponent’s board without worrying about sudden death.

Magnezone/Scizor

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
1 Magnezone Lv. X 2 Magnezone Prime 1 Magnezone 1 Magneton (SF 42) 2 Magneton (SF 43) 4 Magnemite 3 Scizor Prime 3 Scyther 2 Vileplume 2 Gloom 2 Oddish 4 Spiritomb 1 Azelf	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Engineer’s Adjustments 4 Bebe’s Search 2 Judge 2 Twins 2 Broken Time-Space 1 Palmer’s Contribution	4 Metal Energy (Special) 4 Metal Energy (Basic) 7 Lightning Energy 2 Warp Energy

Decklist: Attempted reconstruction based on tournament reports

Magnezone/Scizor was yet another Magnezone deck that did very well at the regional level. Scizor Prime was a strong attacker by itself – its poke-body prevented opponents from damaging it with pokemon that had special energy attached, which was a pain for any deck relying on Double Colorless Energy to deal with. It also did more damage the more metal energy that you stacked on it, so naturally, Magnezone SF makes a great partner, to really bolster the damage output. The Magnezone line itself allows you to draw cards easily, and Magnezone Prime has very high damage output as well. Magnezone Lv. X can paralyze the opponents, which is especially strong in the Vileplume version of this deck, since paralysis is difficult to erase under item lock. The tournament report I read on this deck didn’t come with a list, so it’s possible the Magnezone numbers are flipped, with 2 energy acceleration and 1 Prime, but I chose to start with the extra prime to consistently draw cards.

Magnezone/Steelix

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
1 Magnezone Lv.X 2 Magnezone 1 Magnezone 3 Magneton 3 Magnemite 2 Spiritomb 1 Skuntank G 1 Ditto 1 Azelf 1 Uxie 1 Blissey 1 Chansey 2 Steelix 2 Onix	4 Pokemon Collector 3 Bebe’s Search 3 Judge 2 Twins 1 Palmer’s Contribution 1 Luxury Ball 2 Expert Belt 1 Pokemon Communication 1 Energy Exchanger 1 Warp Point 1 Sunyshore City Gym 1 Broken Time-Space 1 Ruins of Alph	4 Call Energy 4 Metal Energy (Special) 3 Lightning Energy 2 Double Colorless Energy 2 Warp Energy 1 Rainbow Energy

Decklist Credit: Tobias Thesing, 2nd Place German Nationals

Tobias Thesing piloted this cool rogue deck to a 2nd place finish at his native National Championships. The deck focuses on using Special Metal Energy to turn his pokemon into tanks that can threaten OHKOs against common metagame archetypes. Skuntank G’s Poison + Steelix Prime’s attack leads to an OHKO on Gengar Stormfront, with the poison damage playing perfectly around Gengar’s fainting spell poke-power. Expert Belt + Skuntank allows you to cleanly KO Gyarados, and Gengar Lv.X, while Ruins of Alph allows you to get around Luxray GL and Magnezone Prime’s resistances.

Twins is key here, as this deck is slow, and twins allows you to grab the specific piece you need in any given scenario, which is crucial in a deck filled with 1-of tech cards. Most of the time you will want to grab 1 card + your second twins, netting you more cards in the long-run.

MewDos

3 Gyarados 4 Magikarp 2 Mew 2 Crobat G 2 Uxie 4 Smeargle 1 Unown Q 1 Azelf 1 Mesprit 1 Toxicroak G PR DP41 1 Combee 1 Regice 1 Sableye

4 Pokemon Collector 3 Seeker 1 Sage’s Training 2 Cyrus’s Conspiracy 1 Looker’s Investigation 1 Bebe’s Search 2 Pokemon Rescue 2 Warp Point 3 Broken Time-Space 2 Expert Belt 1 Luxury Ball 1 VS Seeker 2 Poké Turn 1 Energy Gain 4 Junk Arm

2 Rescue Energy 2 Warp Energy 2 Psychic Energy

Decklist Credit: Unknown player, 1st Place Austrian Nationals

Mew Prime is another card that saw a lot of success after the mid-season rotation, but still saw some play beforehand. This was another reason Gyarados was thrust into the spotlight this season, as this unique version saw almost as much success as the “regular” version did. MewDos traded a little bit of consistency for a stronger matchup against LuxChomp and Machamp, as you gained the ability to actually OHKO Machamp, as well as getting an OHKO on Luxray GL Lv.X Without needing to give up 2 prize cards via Expert Belt (which a regular Gyarados would ALWAYS need to do).

The list above features 4 Smeargle to help the early game consistency, and also grab you some supporters after a pokemon is KO’d. On top of this, there are a couple of regular gyarados techs in here too – Mesprit, Combee, Regice, and Crobat G all play the same roles as they would in a normal gyarados list. It is possible to re-arrange some of the techs to fit in Luxray GL Lv. X if you desire, but the extra pokemon make this a little harder to pull off consistently. Another list ran in my area by Yoshi Tate also saw a lot of success using Absol Prime as an alternate attacker – it hits Gengar for weakness, and allows you to put Gyarados into the Lost Zone without needing to give up a turn of offensive pressure.

MewPerior

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
4 Mew 2 Rhyperior Lv.X 2 Delcatty 2 Skitty 2 Smeargle 1 Uxie Lv.X 2 Uxie 2 Unown Q 1 Crobat 1 Gengar 1 Mesprit 1 Crobat G 1 Dialga	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Seeker 4 Pokemon Communication 1 Luxury Ball 1 VS Seeker	4 Cyclone Energy 3 Double Colorless Energy 3 Rescue Energy 14 Psychic Energy

Decklist Credit: Top Cut Retro Decks

This deck is another one of Jimmy Ballard’s rogue creations. It seems like a meme at first, with 24 energy and very few trainers, but realistically, the deck doesn’t have the need to be playing items repeatedly once it gets set up. You just want enough so that Mew Prime can keep taking KOs with Rhperior’s Hard Crush Attack. Delcatty and Dialga G stack the top of your deck to make it easy to stream several KOs in a row, while Rescue Energy ensures you don’t run out of Mews to attack with.

Unlike most players that tried to create a similar deck, Jimmy included two alternate attackers that can both be situationally useful – Crobat Prime and Gengar. Crobat inflicts poison which shuts down poke-powers, while Gengar can snipe bench sitters for easy prize cards in a format where Unown G had rotated out.

Regigigas/Abomasnow

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
2 Regigigas Lv.X 2 Regigigas PR DP40 1 Uxie Lv.X 3 Uxie 3 Mesprit 1 Azelf 1 Abomasnow 1 Snover 1 Crobat G 1 Unown Q 1 Regice	4 Pokemon Collector 3 Sage’s Training 3 Twins 3 Seeker 1 Bebe’s Search 1 Judge 1 Cyrus’s Initiative 1 Black Belt 3 Pokemon Rescue 3 Expert Belt 2 Pokemon Rescue 1 Switch 1 Warp Point 1 Luxury Ball 1 Premier Ball	4 Double Colorless Energy 4 Water Energy 3 fighting Energy 3 Metal Energy (Basic)

Decklist Credit: Top Cut Retro Decks

As it was in 2010, Regigigas continued to see success in 2011 as the Garchomp Slayer. With Expert Belt attached, Drag Off cleanly OHKO’d Garchomp C due to weakness, and was one of the main arguments and reasons people started shifting towards a 3-1 Garchomp C Lv.X line instead of a 2-2 (although all the top performing lists historically still ran 2-2). As it has for the last three years, the thick line of pixies ensure a clean setup, as well as strong disruptive capabilities in Mesprit (which has been enhanced through the use of seeker) as well as a multitude of targets to sacrifice to Regigigas’s ability (no pun intended).

While this deck demolished most SP variants, and could even put Vileplume in awkward situations, Regigigas’s success was somewhat diminished this year as the rotation of Unown G meant it could no longer protect itself from Machamp’s Take Out attack. It also suffered from a couple of new Prime pokemon (Magnezone most notably) that had the ability to actualy hurdle over 150 HP – a feat that was difficult, if not impossible in years prior.

SableLock

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
4 Sableye 2 Garchomp C Lv.X 2 Garchomp C 1 Uxie Lv.X 2 Uxie 2 Crobat G 1 Honchkrow 1 Murkrow 1 Ambipom G 1 Dragonite FB 1 Toxicroak G 1 Bronzong G 1 Azelf 1 Unown Q	4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy 2 Pokemon Collector 1 Bebe’s Search 2 Judge 2 Cyrus’s Initiative 1 Aaron’s Collection 4 Poké Turn 4 Energy Gain 4 Power Spray 2 SP Radar 1 VS Seeker 1 Luxury Ball	4 Double Colorless Energy 3 Darkness Energy (Special) 2 Darkness Energy (Basic) 2 Psychic Energy

Decklist Credit: PTCG Archive

Once the premier SP deck after LuxChomp, SableLock (while still successful) saw diminished success in 2011 as item lock from Vileplume and Unown G’s Rotation (Machamp had a field day this format) made it much harder for SableLock to do its job. You did still possess Donk potential in Sableye, as well as immense disruptive capabilities in turn 1 Judge/Cyrus’s Initiative, the deck just had a slightly harder time in this metagame.

Several top players actually sought to innovate the deck to keep it up with the times, and ended up combining SableLock with LuxChomp in a deck that could play to the strengths of both archetypes, This variant saw success as well, as Bright Look only added to the disruptive capabilities this deck already possessed. SableLock with Blaziken FB (aka ChenLock) also saw some solid finishes in this season.