- Legal Sets
- Black & White Next Destinies
- BW Dark Explorers
- BW Dragons Exalted
- BW Boundaries Crossed
- BW Dragon Vault
- BW Plasma Storm
- BW Plasma Freeze
- BW Plasma Blast
- BW Legendary Treasures
- X & Y Base Set
- XY Flashfire
- BW Promos numbered BW33 and higher
- XY Promos numbered XY01 and higher
- First turn rules
- On their first turn, the player going first may not attack
- The player who wins the coin flip CHOOSES to go first or second (although 99% of the time, you will choose to go first)
- The coin flip occurs BEFORE the setup phase
- Other Notes
- Rare Candy is NERFED in this format. Unlike previous years, you may NOT use Rare Candy on your first turn, or on a pokemon that had just come onto the battlefield that turn. All basic pokemon needed to sit for at least 1 turn before they could evolve with Rare Candy.
When BW Next Destinies was released in 2012, it brought a lot of changes to the trading card game. The return of EX-pokemon means we had 2-prize threats again, although this time around, there was a few key differences. Firstly, all pokemon-EX were basic pokemon, so a lot of the strategies that they pushed required minimal setup through evolution. Secondly, pokemon-EX this time around had MUCH larger HP and Damage output, which made it a little more difficult for the smaller, single-prize pokemon to keep up. There were a few decks that did, but it took awhile to find the proper decklists.
In 2014, more and more sets revolving around pokemon-EX released, and centralized the format around decks that used “Big Basic” type strategies. They were extremely consistent, and often put out a lot of offensive pressure pretty quickly, and due to minimal deck slots being devoted to pokemon (since they didn’t really need evolutions or rare candies), they could fit a lot more tech options into their trainer slots, or just more consistency options that allowed their decks to acheive their main strategy time and time again.
On another note, 2014, with the release of XY, was also one of (if not *the*?) first season that TPCI really worked to make the competitive game more accessible. While the game was ultimately a lot simpler than it had been in previous years, there are still a lot of skill-intensive matchups to be found. We saw a MASSIVE spike in players during this timeframe, and Pokemon also decided to have live streams for the US National and World Championships – and many vods using the decks below can actually be seen on youtube, with former top players such as Kyle Suchevich, and Josh Wittenkeller on the mic!
Blastoise/Black Kyurem

Top 8 World Championships
Top 16 World Championships
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
3 Blastoise 1 Wartortle 3 Squirtle 2 Black Kyurem EX 2 Keldeo EX 1 Black Kyurem 1 Electrode 1 Voltorb | 4 Skyla 3 Professor Juniper 3 N 1 Colress 1 Lysandre 4 Superior Energy Retrieval 3 Rare Candy 3 Ultra Ball 2 Pokemon Catcher 2 Startling Megaphone 1 Professor’s Letter 1 Max Potion 1 Level Ball 1 Heavy Ball 1 Super Rod 1 Dowsing Machine 3 Tropical Beach | 9 Water Energy 2 Lightning Energy |
Decklist Credit: James Good, Top 8 World Championships
James Good took this deck to a top 8 finish at the World Championships. This deck (among others in this list) were strong, but slightly underplayed due to how rare and expensive Tropical Beach was. Many stage 2 lists needed it to survive the early game against the faster, more aggressive EX-heavy decks, but they costed hundreds of dollars.
The strategy here is like a very simplified version of the 2006 LBS deck – your Black Kyurem does 200 damage, but discards 3 energy attached to it when you do so. Blastoise’s Deluge ability lets you attach as many water energy as you like, so you load up the Black Kyurem and attack repeatedly. Keldeo can also be used in the same way (it does 50 + 20 for each water energy attached) but would often eat a huge Evil Ball or X-Ball from Yveltal EX or Mewtwo EX for doing so. Instead, it mostly functions as a way to get around status conditions (which run rampant thanks to Hypnotoxic Laser). You attach a float stone to it, and can always “Rush In” and retreat in order to heal yourself of Sleep or Poison.
Big Basics/Garbodor

1st Place US National Championships
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
3 Landorus EX 2 Mewtwo EX 2 Raichu 2 Pikachu 2 Garbodor 2 Trubbish 1 Druddigon | 4 Professor Juniper 3 N 3 Skyla 2 Lysandre 1 Shauna 4 Hypnotoxic Laser 3 Ultra Ball 2 Switch 2 Bicycle 2 Level Ball 1 Enhanced Hammer 1 Computer Search 3 Muscle Band 2 Float Stone 2 Virbank City Gym | 7 Fighting Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy |
Decklist Credit: Brandon Salazar, 1st Place US Nationals
Brandon Salazar won the US National Championships using a strategy centered around being clean, simple, and a little disruptive. Landorus is a big attacker early – for one energy it can use Hammerhead to do 30 to the active and 30 to a benched pokemon. For 3, it can do 80, or it can choose to discard all fighting energy attached to it to do 150. Usually, one Landorus uses Hammerhead early, to chip the active pokemon a little bit, and set up benched pokemon for KOs later in the game. Raichu, Druddigon, and Mewtwo can all come in and clean up a pokemon that has been weakened. Then, one large Land’s Judgement for 150 damage will usually clean up the last 2 prize cards.
This deck also preys on weaknesses really well – Yveltal decks are weak to both Lightning and Fighting, depending on who the attacker is. Blastoise and Dusknoir decks also rely on their abilities in order to win matches – which Garbodor shuts down as long as a pokemon tool (ideally, Float Stone) is attached to it. This was a very strong anti-meta deck for the US National Championships, and remains a strong choice to play for fun.
Toxic Haymaker

Top 4 World Championships Seniors
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
3 Landorus EX 2 Cobalion EX 2 Mewtwo EX 2 Toxicroak EX 1 Virizion EX 1 Reshiram 1 Druddigon | 4 Professor Sycamore 4 N 3 Colress 4 Hypnotoxic Laser 4 Max Potion 4 Switch 4 Muscle Band 3 Ultra Ball 2 Random Receiver 1 Computer Search 3 Virbank City Gym | 4 Prism Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy 2 Fighting Energy 2 Rainbow Energy |
Decklist Credit: Grant Manley, Top 4 World Seniors
Grant Manley took this deck to top 4 in the Seniors Division at the World Championships. It’s a different take on what “big basics” can do – it still uses Landorus EX for good early pressure, and Mewtwo EX to take out threats that try to build up a lot of energy. But it includes some other cool cards as well – Cobalion EX, which discards special energy with Righteous Edge (which was huge against Yveltal and Plasma decks), and Virizion EX, which protects anything with a Grass (or in this case, Prism/Rainbow) Energy from special conditions. A couple of other tech attackers allow you to play the type advantage game very easily, and the low energy requirements means Max Potion can make it very difficult for your opponents to take down your threats.
Empoleon/Dusknoir

1st Place US Nationals Seniors
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
4 Empoleon 1 Prinplup 4 Piplup 3 Miltank 2 Dusknoir 1 Dusclops 2 Duskoull 1 Jirachi EX 1 Exeggcute | 4 Skyla 4 N 3 Professor Juniper 2 Colress 1 Lysandre 3 Muscle Band 2 Tropical Beach 4 Rare Candy 3 Ultra Ball 2 Super Rod 2 Switch 2 Startling Megaphone 2 Level Ball 1 Dowsing Machine | 6 Water Energy |
Decklist Credit: Ishaan Jagiasi, 1st Place US Nationals Seniors
Empoleon/Dusknoir was a pretty popular single-prize deck – Empoleon provided a very nice amount of draw power once you could get the first one set up, and Dusknoir allowed you to pick and choose who, and when pokemon got KO’d. Miltank also gave you a solid basic pokemon to put out and attack with, allowing you to keep your stage 2 pokemon safe on the bench.
Something to note when playing this deck – a lot of players would make the mistake of taking KOs early. They would Attack Command, then use Dusknoir to move any extra damage to the bench, and then take KOs. Instead, it is usually better to evenly distribute the damage around the opponent’s bench, rack it up over multiple turns, and then take multiple KOs at once. Not only will you be able to choose which pokemon are the most threatening to you, but you will also keep your prize count high for whenever your opponent plays an N.
Landorus/Raichu/Drifblim

Top 16 World Championships
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
3 Landorus EX 3 Raichu 3 Pikachu 2 Drifblim 2 Drifloon 1 Electrode 1 Voltorb 1 Mewtwo EX 1 Jirachi EX 1 Palkia EX | 4 Professor Juniper 4 N 3 Colress 2 Lysandre 3 Ultra Ball 3 Switch 1 Level Ball 1 Computer Search 4 Muscle Band 4 HypnoToxic Laser 2 Virbank City Gym | 7 Fighting Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy |
Decklist Credit: Ross Cawthon, Top 16 World Championships
Ross Cawthon is considered one of, if not THE most innovative and creative deckbuilder in the game’s history. It should really say something that in this format, even HE was playing decks centered around Landorus EX. Similar to Brandon Salazar, he includes Raichu as a means to hit Yveltal EX for weakness, as well as to get around Pyroar’s Intimidating Mane ability, but he also includes Drifblim. Drifblim is a neat pokemon against Plasma – its attack costs 1 less energy for each Team Plasma Pokemon on the opponent’s field, which means it usually attacks for ZERO energy in that matchup, doing 70 damage, and discarding their special energy. Palkia EX isn’t used in most matchups, but it is a very crucial tech against Blastoise/Black Kyurem, as it hits the Black Kyurem for weakness.
Mega Kangaskhan/Aromatisse

Top 4 World Championships
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
2 M Kangaskhan EX 2 Kangaskhan EX 2 Aromatisse 3 Spritzee 2 Mewtwo EX 1 Xerneas EX 1 Keldeo EX 1 Xerneas 1 Suicune | 4 N 3 Colress 3 Professor Sycamore 2 Lysandre 1 Bianca 4 Fairy Garden 3 Muscle Band 3 Max Potion 2 Ultra Ball 2 Level Ball 2 Tool Scrapper 1 Heavy Ball 1 Super Rod 1 Startling Megaphone 1 Dowsing Machine | 7 Fairy Energy 2 Double Colorless Energy 1 Rainbow Energy 1 Water Energy |
Decklist Credit: Michikazu Tsuda, Top 4 World Championships
While XY was pretty similar to Black & White in terms of mechanics (it still centered around basic EX Pokemon), the one new mechanic it did introduce was Mega Evolution. Mega Evolution pokemon had even bigger HP and, at times, damage than regular EX pokemon, but the trade off was that your turn ended when you mega evolved (until Spirit Links were released in later sets, but they weren’t out yet at the time of worlds 2014!). This deck, taken by Michikazu Tsuda to Top 4 of the World Championships revolved around Mega Kangaskhan EX and Aromatisse. Mega Pokemon had SUPER high HP totals, and were basically impossible to OHKO. As a result, Mega Kangaskhan could soak up damage super well. Then, Aromatisse would allow you to move all your fairy energy away while you use Max Potion to heal, keeping your energy on the board!
A couple of unique tech pokemon are featured in this deck – Mewtwo was a neat late-game cleanup tool. Since this deck very often kept a ton of energy in play at once, aromatisse could swap every thing over to a Mewtwo and load it up for a large attack pretty easily. Rainbow Energy could also be moved around the board with Aromatisse, so it was pretty easy to get Suicune up and running, which was great in certain matchups, since Suicune can’t be damaged by EX-pokemon.
After the rotation took place, this strategy was super popular the following season, using more Rainbow Energy and tech attackers, while aromatisse made it easy to power them all up, similar to how Klinklang functioned in the 2012 season.
Pyroar

2nd Place US National Championships
2x Top 8 US National Championships
2x Top 16 US National Championships
Decklist Credit: Michael Pramawat, 2nd Place US Nationals
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
4 Pyroar 4 Litleo 1 Mewtwo EX 1 Charizard EX | 4 Professor Sycamore 3 Blaacksmith 2 N 2 Lysandre 4 Ultra Ball 4 Switch 4 Pokemon Catcher 4 Roller Skates 3 Bicycle 2 Level Ball 1 Computer Search 3 Muscle Band 2 Tropical Beach | 8 Fire Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy |
In a metagame that had been completely dominated by basic pokemon like Yveltal EX, Genesect EX, and Lugia EX, Pyroar stood out as the perfect answer to the metagame. Michael Pramawat was the biggest benifactor, getting 2nd place at US Nationals with the above list, but many other players had a field day as well. Pyroar’s Intimidating Mane ability prevents it from being damaged by EX pokemon. Many decks did play a way to get around this (such as Yveltal using Garbodor, or Landorus using Raichu), but many struggled to get through 4 Pyroar in a row. Pyroar abused Blacksmith to get energy into play quickly, and Lysandre/Pokemon Catcher to try and quickly pull up evolution pokemon before they were set up, and KO them, leaving the opponent powerless to get through Intimidating Mane. If this didn’t work, Mewtwo EX and Charizard EX could both be very threatening late-game attackers with higher HP totals to work through once the opponents’ resources had been depleted.
Sand Slammer (Flygon/Dusknoir/Accelgor)

Top 8 US National Championships
2x Top 16 US National Championships
Top 32 World Championships
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
4 Flygon 1 Vibrava 4 Trapinch 2 Accelgor 3 Shelmet 2 Dusknoir 1 Dusclops 2 Duskull 1 Mewtwo EX | 4 N 4 Skyla 2 Colress 1 Professor Juniper 4 Tropical Beach 3 Float Stone 4 Rare Candy 4 Ultra Ball 3 Level Ball 2 Max Potion 2 Startling Megaphone 1 Sacred Ash 1 Switch 1 Dowsing Machine | 4 Double Colorless Energy |
Decklist Credit: Henry Prior, Top 8 US Nationals
Accelgor was an extremely popular pokemon that several people tried to make work – although it took a bit of tinkering to get the right list. Flygon and Dusknoir were the first partners for Accelgor that saw serious tournament results. For just a Double Colorless, Accelgor did 50 damage, and Paralyzed/Poisoned the defending pokemon, while shuffling itself back into the deck. The strategy here is to push up Flygon after Accelgor gets shuffled back in – as Flygon does 10 damage to each of your opponent’s pokemon in between turns. This racks up damage really quickly for Dusknoir, who can then re-distribute the damage as you see fit. Similar to Empoleon/Dusknoir, most of the time, it will be better to keep the opponent’s active pokemon alive, and take multiple KOs at once late in the match, but this can vary depending on the strategy.
Don’t be afraid to play the patient game when using this deck – in his Top 16 match, Henry Prior often had an Accelgor set up, but would take an extra turn to draw extra cards, to make sure he had everything he needed for future turns before attacking and sending his accelgor away. The video of this match can be found on Youtube.
Speed Lugia

Top 8 World Championships
Top 32 World Championships
2x Top 16 US National Championships
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
4 Deoxys EX 2 Thundurus EX 2 Lugia EX 1 Kyurem | 4 Professor Juniper 2 Colress 2 Lysandre 1 Shauna 1 N 4 Colress Machine 4 Bicycle 4 Muscle Band 3 Ultra Ball 3 Roller Skates 3 Switch 2 Team Plasma Ball 2 Escape Rope 2 Tool Scrapper 1 Pal Pad 1 Computer Search | 4 Double Colorless Energy 4 Plasma Energy 4 Prism Energy |
Decklist Credit: Vincent Azzolin, Top 8 World Championships
SPEED should be the only thing on your mind when playing this deck. The goal is to set up a Lugia EX as fast as possible, and then start taking KOs before your opponent can really get going. Lugia EX’s ability allows you to take extra prize cards whenever it takes a KO – so if you KO smaller, pre-evolution pokemon, you’re still taking 2 prize cards, while KOs on EX pokemon meant you got half your prizes at once. The attack, however, requires you to discard a Team Plasma Energy, so once you run out, there’s not much left for you to do. Thundurus EX can help you get the energy back, while laying down some chip damage. Kyurem is nice as it hits Landorus for weakness, but it’s mostly just a “free” inclusion here. Since every other pokemon in this deck is an EX, KOing Kyurem usually has no effect on the outcome of the game – since it only gives up 1 prize card, and your opponent will still need to take 3 KOs on EX pokemon in order to win the game.
TDK (Plasma)

Top 32 World Championships
Top 4 US National Championships
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
4 Kyurem 4 Deoxys EX 2 Thundurus EX 1 Genesect EX | 4 Professor Sycamore 4 N 2 Colress 1 Shauna 1 Skyla 1 Lysandre 4 Switch 4 Hypnotoxic Laser 3 Colress Machine 3 Team Plasma Ball 2 Startling Megaphone 1 Ultra Ball 1 Bicycle 1 Computer Search 3 Muscle Band 1 Virbank City Gym | 4 Plasma Energy 4 Prism Energy 2 Water Energy 1 Lightning Energy |
Decklist Credit: Calvin Nordberg, Top 4 World Championships
TDK (stands for Thundurus/Deoxys/Kyurem) was the first team plasma deck to take off once the plasma sets hit the states. Deoxys EX allows all of your Plasma Pokemon to do 10 extra damage, and it STACKS, so getting multiple out means you could be doing 30+ extra damage. Kyurem functions as the main attacker in this version of the deck – ideally you use Frost Spear multiple times early in the match to spread the damage around and eventually take a KO, then Thundurus and other Kyurems can clean up the already damaged pokemon at the end of the match.
This deck, used by Calvin Nordberg to get Top 4 at US Nationals features Genesect EX, which is a neat inclusion. It didn’t attack in most matches (although it theoretically could with 2 Prism Energy attached), but was instead used for its Red Signal ability, allowing you to pull up specific threats and KO them. Other versions of the deck included Plasma Absol or Plasma Landorus as tech cards that were useful in specific matchups.
Trevenant/Accelgor

1st Place World Championships Seniors
Decklist Credit: Michael Diaz, “Popular Decks” World Championships
Trevenant was the second partner for Accelgor that saw widespread success – it just took a couple of attempts to get the list right. This list traded away Flygon and Dusknoir for Trevenant – a pokemon that prevented your opponent from playing Item cards. This meant that they could no longer use Switch or Escape Rope to get out of your paralysis, making it very difficult for them to ever attack. The extra space is dedicated to a ton of consistency cards, such as Heavy Ball, Level Ball, and Mew EX – an extra attacker that could copy Acelgor as a basic pokemon (while also hitting Mewtwo EX for weakness!)
It should be noted that the decklist above was a Masters Division decklist that TPCI posted on their website – the Seniors version of the list (as well as others) traded away some consistency cards to ALSO include Dusknoir in this. It potentially set up a nasty combo, where you could manipulate the damage in such a way that the opponent always died to poison coming back into your turn, thus preventing them from ever getting a chance to attack! While this deck failed to do well in the masters division at worlds, this is probably because Virizion/Genesect was played by such a MASSIVE amount of people in masters, and it basically hard countered this deck due to its immunity to special conditions.
VirGen (Virizion/Genesect)

1st Place World Championships
2nd Place World Championships
Top 4 World Championships
2x Top 8 World Championships
Top 16 World Championships
3x Top 32 World Championships
Top 8 US National Championships
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
4 Virizion EX 3 Genesect EX 1 Mr. Mime 1 Deoxys EX 1 Jirachi EX | 4 Professor Juniper 4 N 4 Skyla 2 Shadow Triad 1 Colress 3 Muscle Band 3 Skyarrow Bridge 4 Ultra Ball 3 Energy Switch 2 Enhanced Hammer 1 Super Rod 1 Tool Scrapper 1 Escape Rope 1 Team Plasma Ball 1 Professor’s Letter 1 Colress Machine 1 G-Booster | 9 Grass Energy 4 Plasma Energy |
Decklist Credit: Austin Zettel, Enrique Avila, Cody Walinski, US Nationals
Virizion/Genesect was one of two decks that completely dominated the vast majority of the metagame in this format. While it mostly fizzled out at US Nationals due to the overabundance of Pyroar that popped up at that tournament, it had a supreme resurgence at the world championships, claiming 3 of the top 4 spots, as well as several other spots in top cut. the deck is clean, simple, and surprisingly customizable. The main strategy is pretty obvious – Virizion EX uses Emerald Slash to get some chip damage down and then accelerate 2 Grass Energy to your Genesect EX. Genesect EX can then use Megalo Cannon and G-Booster to fly through prizes in the mid to late game.
A couple of tips when playing this deck – similar to Accelgor/Flygon, it’s ok to play the patient game. All you want on the first turn is to make sure you attach a Grass Energy to a Virizion – don’t overextend if you don’t have to. You also generally will find it beneficial to Emerald Slash twice before going in with Genesect, although this will vary depending on the game.
The tech cards featured in this deck are Mr. Mime, to prevent Night Spear and Hammerhead damage, as well as Deoxys EX, to get an extra 10 damage with Genesect. However, some other tech options that you might include are Drifblim or Bouffalant from Dragons Exalted, Shaymin EX from Next Destinies, or other trainer cards, such as Lysandre or Town Map. All of these options saw some degree of success at either US Nationals or Worlds.
Yveltal/Garbodor

Top 8 World Championships
4x Top 16 World Championships
8x Top 32 World Championships
Top 4 US National Championships
2x Top 16 US National Championships
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
3 Yveltal EX 2 Garbodor 2 Trubbish 1 Sableye 1 Yveltal 1 Darkrai EX 1 Absol 1 Jirachi EX | 4 Professor Juniper 4 N 2 Lysandre 1 Colress 4 Ultra Ball 4 Dark Patch 4 HypnoToxic Laser 2 Bicycle 1 Switch 1 Professor’s Letter 1 Dowsing Machine 3 Muscle Band 3 Float Stone | 8 Darkness Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy |
Decklist Credit: Isaiah Williams, Top 4 US Nationals
Yveltal was the 2nd of the two decks that dominated the metagame, and arguably, it was the most centralizing. It is the reason many people decided to include Raichu as tech attackers in their decks (some people even included it in their Yveltal decks!). While some versions were more aggressive, trying to power up Yveltal and Darkrai very quickly, the more common version is the one above, that traded some of the speed in order to include Garbodor. This allowed you to shut down abilities, and made it much easier to deal with decks like Blastoise, Accelgor/Flygon, and Plasma.
A couple things to keep in mind when playing this deck: First, Y-Cyclone is generally the preferred attack until the late game. Even if you can take a big KO early with Evil Ball, it’s not difficult for your opponent to power up their own Yveltal, a Mewtwo EX, or a Genesect with G-booster equipped, and take a KO in response. This would make you lose all your energy in play, which is why Y-Cyclone is generally preferred. Secondly, all of the tech attackers are useful at some point, and they’re very good pokemon to throw out if your opponent has an even number of prize cards. Sableye especially doesn’t look like it would have a big impact on the game, but if your opponent has 4 prizes left and you only have 2 Yveltal EX in play, who cares if it gets KO’d? Your opponent will need to take 2 KOs anyways, and getting back Dark Patch or Dowsing Machine can have a bigger impact than you’d expect.
Similar to Virizion/Genesect, Yveltal decks are very customizable. This version is based on the one that made top 4 at US Nationals, in the hands of Isaiah Williams. In Chase Maloney’s version (top 8 at worlds), he included Sawk from Plasma Blast as an extra attacker against Plasma decks. Other versions that saw success at worlds included Bouffalant from Dragons Exalted, Hard Charm, Max Potion, and even Scramble Switch as situationally strong tech cards, while non-Garbodor variants could load up on extra Darkrai EX, and disruptive cards like Crushing Hammer, Enhanced Hammer, and Pokemon Catcher.
Yveltal EX continued to be at the forefront of the metagame for the next three years in a row, both in Standard and Expanded. It is one of the strongest attackers that Pokemon has ever had in its history.
Yveltal/Dusknoir

Top 16 World Championships
Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
---|---|---|
2 Yveltal EX 2 Darkrai EX 2 Dusknoir 1 Dusclops 3 Duskull 2 Yveltal 1 Sableye 1 Keldeo EX 1 Jirachi EX | 4 Professor Sycamore 4 N 2 Colress 1 Lysandre 4 Ultra Ball 3 Bicycle 3 Dark Patch 3 HypnoToxic Laser 2 Enhanced Hammer 2 Startling Megaphone 1 Rare Candy 1 Level Ball 1 Super Rod 1 Dowsing Machine 2 Muscle Band 2 Virbank City Gym | 9 Darkness Energy |
Decklist Credit: Mia Violet, Top 16 World Championships
In one of my favorite performances by a rogue deck ever, Mia Violet took this innovative Yveltal/Dusknoir build to Top 16 of the World Championships. Unlike most Yveltal variants, this deck will use Evil Ball and Night Spear to try and put as much damage in play as possible, thus allowing Dusknoir to do what it does best, and manipulate high amounts of damage to take multiple KOs on crucial threats. In most cases, you will only have 2 or 3 Energy on your Yveltal when using Evil Ball (hence the lack of Double Colorless Energy), but it will still put more damage on the board than Y Cyclone would.
In addition to the Dusknoir package, this deck plays Enhanced Hammer and Startling Megaphone – Hammer hurts Plasma and opposing Yveltal decks, significantly slowing them down, while Startling Megaphone not only removes pesky damage-incresing tools like Muscle Band, but also gets rid of Float Stone on Garbodor, to clear the path for your Dusknoir’s powerful ability. Mia continued to play and edit this deck in future seasons, and eventually, would Top 8 a Regional Championships with a newer version that included Yveltal BREAK.