2016 Decks

Legal Sets

• X & Y Base Set
• XY Flashfire
• XY Furious Fists
• XY Phantom Forces
• XY Primal Clash
• Double Crisis
• XY Roaring Skies
• XY Ancient Origins
• XY BREAKthrough
• XY BREAKpoint
• Generations
• XY Steam Siege
• Promos: XY01-XY116, XY121-123, XY127-156, XY176

First Turn Rules

• On their first turn, the player going first may not attack.
• The player who wins the coinflip chooses if they would like to go 1st or 2nd (usually you will choose to go first, although there are times where it is beneficial to go 2nd)
• The coinflip occurs before the setup phase

Other notes:

• Lysandre’s Trump Card is BANNED
• Rare Candy is nerfed – you may not play Rare Candy on a pokemon that just came into play that turn, or on your first turn

There are a few different years on this website that I have referred to as “turbulent.” Years where the metagame shifted drastically when new sets released, tournament results varied, diversity was huge in the metagame, and top players kept coming up with new ways to shake up the metagame. 2016 was not one of those years.

I could write great lengths about the strength of Night March in this format, but the tournament results speak for themselves. For the first time since 2008, we played a format where there was a true “Tier 0” deck that stood above all others. Night March dominated in top 8 of the Standard regionals, it took almost 40% of the top 64 decks at US Nationals, and capped off the season by taking 11 of the top 32 spots at the World Championships.

Many of the decks in this section had the specific goal in mind of countering Night March – the disadvantage of being the Tier 0 deck is that EVERY top player is coming prepared to play against you. The finals of the World Championships featured Greninja BREAK – a deck favored from the release of BREAKpoint due to its favorable interactions with Night March, and a surprise rogue Mega Audino deck from Japan that not only stood up to Night March, but many of its best counters as well.

As an aside, this year was probably the year my hometown testing group performed at its best. Between Madison Regionals 2015 (the very last regionals of that season) and Worlds 2016, our group accomplished:

• Regionals Top 4
• 2 Regional Top 16s
• 6 Regional Top 32s (including my first ever in masters!)
• Boston Open Top 32
• US Nationals 2nd
• US Nationals 9th
• US Nationals Top 64
• World Championships 2nd
• World Championships Top 64

While this list of accomplishments is probably small compared to the top players in today’s game, I will always be proud of my friends and what we accomplished in this timeframe. These people are my closest friends today, and the memories made together will always be something I look back on and cherish.

Carbink/Zygarde

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Carbink BREAK 3 Carbink 2 Zygarde EX 1 Zygarde 2 Shaymin EX 1 Lucario EX 2 Vileplume 2 Gloom 2 Oddish 1 Jirachi	4 AZ 3 Professor Sycamore 2 Korrina 2 N 4 Ultra Ball 3 Trainers’ Mail 2 Level Ball 2 Fighting Fury Belt 1 Float Stone 1 Revitalizer 1 Heavy Ball 4 Forest of Giant Plants	4 Strong Energy 5 Fighting Energy

Decklist Credit: Sejun Park, Top 32 World Championships

If you’re wondering if you’ve heard Sejun Park’s name before, you probably have. He is most well known for his accomplishments in the pokemon video games, most notably his victory in the 2014 World Championships using a team that featured Pachirisu. Many players might not be aware that Sejun also has 2 top 32 finishes at worlds in the Trading Card Game, once in 2016 with the above decklist, and once in the current season (2023) with Mirraidon ex/Flaaffy. Sejun also has multiple VGC top 8 finishes, a Pokemon Unite top 8 finish, and is the only player to qualify for the Pokemon World Championships under every single available Pokemon series – TCG, VGC, Pokken, Pokemon Unite, and Pokemon GO.

Carbink/Zygarde was a strong anti-metagame pick for worlds this season. Carbink’s Safeguard ability protected it from pokemon like Seismitoad EX or Darkrai EX while Vileplume locked items that decks like Night March relied on to be able to deal significant chunks of damage. Zygarde was a TANK – with Fighting Fury Belt, it had 230 HP, and Cell Storm healed Zygarde, while AZ could be used to pick it up and deny prize cards. 4 Copies of AZ was pretty unique to Vileplume decks this season – not only did it allow you to heal your basic pokemon and conserve prize cards, but you could also potentially pick up your own Vileplume in order to play item cards like Ultra Ball or Fighting Fury Belt, since Forest of Giant Plants allowed you to put your Vileplume back into play immediately.

Dark Dragons

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
2 Giratina EX 2 Hydreigon EX 2 Darkrai EX 2 Shaymin EX 1 Yveltal 1 Hoopa EX 1 Latios EX	4 Professor Sycamore 3 N 2 Lysandre 1 Hex Maniac 1 AZ 4 VS Seeker 4 Ultra Ball 4 Max Elixir 3 Trainers’ Mail 2 Parallel City 2 Enhanced Hammer 2 Float Stone 1 Startling Megaphone 1 Fighting Fury Belt 1 Muscle Band	4 Double Dragon Energy 10 Darkness Energy

Decklist Credit: Liam Williams, Top 4 US Nationals & Sorina Radu, Top 16 US Nationals

Dark Dragons was a unique spinoff of the Turbo Dark deck that had initially developed in the expanded format – the goal against some decks is to use Darkrai’s Dark Pulse attack, which deals more damage for each Darkness energy you have in play. Since Double Dragon Energy provides 2 of every energy type (including Dark), attaching this to a Dragon pokemon gives you 2 Energy for Darkrai’s attack. Against other matchups, the various Dragons can be used for their strong disruptive abilities – Giratina EX can’t be damaged by Mega pokemon, and it prevents the opponent from playign Stadium cards or Special Energy Cards (most notably Double Colorless Energy, which appears in almost every deck on this page.) Hydreigon EX gives your Dragon pokemon less retreat, and its Shred attack hits through all effects, giving you an easy out to pokemon like Carbink. Latios EX’s Fast Raid is a unique attack – it ignores the usual rules of not being able to attack on the first turn, and gives you the potential for Turn 1 KOs on small pokemon like Joltik, Froakie, or Zubat. Some versions of this deck did include the Breakpoint Garbodor, to shut down the abilities of opponents. While this was very powerful when it was set up, it did hinder the consistency of the deck quite a bit.

Greninja

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Greninja BREAK 3 Greninja (BREAKpoint) 1 Greninja (XY Base) 4 Frogadier 3 Froakie 4 Talonflame	4 Professor Sycamore 4 N 1 Pokemon Ranger 1 Fisherman 1 Ace Trainer 3 Rough Seas 4 VS Seeker 4 Dive Ball 4 Bursting Balloon 2 Level Ball 2 Super Rod 1 Battle Compressor 1 Startling Megaphone	8 Water Energy 2 Splash Energy

Decklist Credit: Cody Walinski, 2nd Place Worlds & Enrique Avila, Top 64 Worlds

Greninja BREAK had been favored since its release in BREAKpoint for a few reasons – it had a solidly favorable Night March matchup, it was relatively simple to understand, and while it could at times struggle with consistency, Greninja had the ability to “high roll” any event. This deck’s best draws were virtually unbeatable. Mega Sceptile is probably the only deck in the format that can beat you if you get multiple Greninja BREAKs into play at the same time. Steam Siege gave the final piece of the puzzle to Greninja in the form of Talonflame – a higher HP starter that made it less likely you got “donked,” and significantly reduced the non-games that this deck played, which is huge in a deck whose biggest weakness is arguably its own inconsistency. Cody’s big addition to this list for Worlds was Splash Energy – some players had tested this card earlier in the season by dropping some of the 8 basic Water Energy to make space for it (8 Water Energy was pretty standard), but didn’t favor the card because you couldn’t discard it for Giant Water Shuriken, and it could be discarded by Enhanced Hammer. Cody decided instead to add the Splash energy in addition to the 8 Water Energy, since having the ability to consistently use Giant Water Shuriken was so important.

While the finals match was rather lopsided – Mega Audino was an incredible meta call by Shintaro Ito – if you want to see why Cody and Enrique chose to play Greninja, I highly recommend watching Cody’s Top 4 match vs Ross Cawthon here. Cody wins the set by taking three knockous in a single turn. While Michael Lux and myself didn’t contribute to this decklist in the same way we did with Wailord in 2015, we spent many hours throwing everything we had at Cody and Enique in helping them prepare for Worlds. We lost a lot of games that summer, but it was incredible seeing our best friend play in Championship Sunday at worlds.

Mega Audino

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 M Audino EX 4 Audino EX 2 Shaymin EX 1 Magearna EX 1 Cobalion 1 Absol 1 Hoopa EX	4 Professor Sycamore 2 N 2 Lysandre 2 AZ 1 Pokemon Center Lady 1 Xerosic 1 Hex Maniac 4 VS SEeker 4 Ultra Ball 4 Trainers’ Mail 4 Audino Spirit Link 2 Float Stone 2 Parallel City 1 Mega Turbo 1 Startling Megaphone 1 Super Rod 1 Escape Rope	6 Metal Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

Decklist Credit: Shintaro Ito, 1st Place World Championships

Shintaro’s Mega Audino deck completely blew away the competition at worlds this year. Nobody saw this deck coming – it had seen absolutely zero tournament success prior to this event, so nobody was prepared for what this deck could do. Mega Audino’s Magical Symphony attack was just poised so perfectly in the metagame – 110 damage was enough to KO some popular pokemon in the meta, including Vespiquen and Shaymin EX. The 50 damage dealt to the bench was also crucial in a lot of matchups – it could take secondary KOs against smaller basic pokemon, like Joltik or Combee, or it could build up for a bigger KO against something like a Shaymin EX. Absol was an amazing card to manipulate damage on the opponent’s side of the field – it potentially allowed Audino to KO pokemon like Frogadier or Pumpkaboo as well. Magearna EX was a great tech against Trevenant in particular, protecting your field from Damage Counters being placed, while Cobalion was a fantastic pokemon to close the game out with.

When using this deck, pay special attention to how you use Parallel City! It’s a versatile card that can be used differently depending on the matchup. One side limits the player to 3 benched pokemon, which can be great for preventing an opponent from having a super aggressive start. The other side, however, reduced the damage dealt by Grass, Water, and Fire pokemon, which is INCREDIBLE in a format that has decks like Vespiquen, Volcanion, or Greninja. Limiting yourself to 3 benched pokemon seems like it would be a downside, but you can also use this to remove a damaged pokemon from play, potentially denying your opponent an easy KO.

Mega Sceptile

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
4 M Sceptile EX 44 Sceptile EX	4 Professor Juniper 3 Pokemon Center Lady 2 N 2 SKyla 2 Steven 1 Fisherman 1 Shauna 1 Lysandre 1 Xerosic 1 Pokemon Ranger 1 Giovanni’s Scheme 1 Hex Maniac 4 VS Seeker 4 Ultra Ball 4 Sceptile Spirit Link 4 Trainers’ Mail 2 Mega Turbo 1 Energy Retrieval 1 Professor’s Letter 1 Repeat Ball 1 Battle Compressor	10 Grass Energy

Decklist Credit: Fabien Pujol, Top 32 World Championships

Mega Sceptile was an interesting pick for worlds – it does struggle a bit a against night march due to its aggresive and hard-hitting attacks, but it performs pretty well against most of the other decks in the field. Mega Sceptile aimed to tank and heal against most decks in the format – 220 HP, while not imposible, was a difficult number to hit. Jagged Saber would deal out reasonable damage (OHKOing small attackers like Joltik & 2HKOing most large ones) while completely healing all damage from a pokemon on your bench, AND accelerating energy to it, ensuring you never run out of attackers. Mega Sceptile also had a unique ancient trait – Theta Stop. This protected Mega Sceptile from the effects of your opponent’s abilities on this pokemon, so decks like Greninja BREAK couldn’t even touch you.

Metal

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
1 Bronzong BREAK 4 Bronzong 4 Bronzor 2 Genesect EX 2 Aegislash EX 2 Cobalion 1 Magearna EX 2 Shaymin EX	4 Professor Sycamore 3 N 2 Lysandre 2 AZ 1 Xerosic 4 VS Seeker 4 Ultra Ball 4 Max Elixir 3 Float Stone 3 Fighting Fury Belt 1 Battle Compressor 1 Sky Field	10 Metal Energy

Decklist Credit: Gustavo Wada, Top 8 World Championships

Metal continued to see success in the 2015-2016 season. While the Mega Rayquaza version had fallen out of favor due to the omnipresence of Night March, the Toolbox version gained some new tools that allowed it to stay relevant in the metagame. Cobalion and Magearna EX are here for the same reason they are in Mega Audino above, although Magearna is significantly more important here for Trevenant as the Bronzongs have fairly low HP and are more susceptible to Silent Fear. Aegislash was still strong into the field, as its immunity to Special Energy made it very difficult for Night March to break through. Genesect EX was a strong attacker – it had uncapped damage potential, and its unique ability allowed it to shuffle Pokemon Tools around, making it easier to retreat to the bench and charge up large attacks. Bronzong BREAK also appears as a great finisher vs Night March and Vespiquen decks, allowing you to take multiple KOs at once to clean up the match.

Night March

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
4 Joltik 4 Pumpkaboo 4 Lampent 3 Shaymin EX 2 Mew	3 Professor Sycamore 2 Hex Maniac 2 Lysandre 1 N 1 Teammates 1 Pokemon Ranger 1 AZ 3 Dimension Valley 4 VS Seeker 4 Ultra Ball 4 Puzzle of Time 4 Battle Compressor 3 Trainers’ Mail 2 Fighting Fury Belt 1 Target Whistle 1 Escape Rope 1 Startling Megaphone 1 Special Charge	4 Double Colorless Energy

Night March was, as stated above, the true tier 0 deck of the format. It was the undisputed BDIF, and it was the first thing you had to be prepared to fight against at any competitive event. Unlike Gardevoir/Gallade in 2008, which was so strong not only due to its power, but its surprising amount of versatility, Night March was so strong due to its raw power and consistency. This deck was much less customizable than Gardevoir/Gallade due to the engine of the deck having so many required cards in order to work – 4 of each Night Marcher, Shaymins for strong draw options, and 4 Battle Compressor to get everything into the discard pile. Most decklists, while not EXACTLY the same, will look pretty similar to the one above. The customizations usually came in the trainer section, such as Eric Gansman’s top 16 worlds list including a Captivating Pokepuff and a Pokémon Catcher. Since you only ran 4 Double Colorless Energy, there wasn’t many options for tech attackers.

The strategy here is simple – use battle compressor to pile Night March pokemon into the discard pile, and then deal more damage to the opponent based on how many are in there. Mew allows you to copy the Night March attack while keeping a Night March pokemon safe on the bench. Fighting Fury Belt was more popular than Muscle Band this year – this may seem like a weird inclusion because Joltik and Pumpkaboo have such low HP anyways, but it protected them from being KO’d by mere chip damage that pokemon like Golbat/Crobat, Mega Audino, or Oblivion Wing Yveltal would provide. Your pokemon would still be KO’d in one hit, but your opponent would be forced to spend more resources to do so, and keeping up with Night March in a fast-paced prize trade was very hard for most decks to do for 4-6 turns consecutively. All Night March needed was 1 more Double Colorless Energy, and it was back into the fray.

PlumeBox

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Vileplume 3 Gloom 3 Oddish 2 Jolteon EX 2 Glaceon EX 2 Aegislash EX 1 Trevenant EX 1 Magearna EX 1 Yveltal EX 3 Shaymin EX	4 AZ 4 N 3 Professor Sycamore 2 Lysandre 2 Ninja Boy 4 Forest of Giant Plants 4 Ultra Ball 4 Trainers’ Mail 2 Level Ball 1 Parallel City	4 Double Colorless Energy 4 Rainbow Energy 1 Lightning Energy

Decklist Credit: Sam Hough, Top 4 World Championships

While Generations was mostly a filler set competitively, aimed at collectors instead, it did give us Jolteon EX, a card that could protect itself from basic pokemon. Sam Hough saw the potential for a very unique style of control deck – it functions somewhat similar to FairyBox or Klinklang from previous seasons, where you use a variety of different attackers depending on the matchup, but instead of moving the energy around and healing, you just protect yourself from taking any damage at all. Jolteon EX protected itself from basic pokemon, Glaceon EX protected itself from Evolution pokemon, Aegislash EX protected itself from anything using Special Energy, and Magearna EX protected you from secondary effects, like placing damage counters. Vileplume glued everything together, stalling opponents’ abilities to set up while you got the appropriate attacker into play and powered up.

One of the most common ways to play around a pokemon like Jolteon EX was to play both an Escape Rope and a Lysandre on the same turn, because whenever a pokemon hits the bench, all effects of attacks are removed. However, since Vileplume locked the use of item cards, this wouldn’t be possible, and all the opponents would be able to do is KO a bench pokemon, leaving the active attacker safe and unharmed. In addition to this, Sam smartly plays 4 copies of AZ. Similar to the Carbink/Zygarde deck above, you can use this to heal one of your attackers and deny prize cards. However, there is an amazing secondary function AZ has in this deck – you can use it to pick up your ENTIRE field, leaving only 1 pokemon in play. If your opponent is playing something like Night March and can only attack you with basic pokemon, leaving ONLY 1 Jolteon EX in play makes it impossible for Night March to ever deal any damage, making you free to attack and take 6 prize cards unchallenged. This play can be tricky to set up, but when you pull it off, it feels super nice!

Trevenant

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Trevenant BREAK 4 Trevenant 4 Phantump 3 Shaymin EX	4 Professor Sycamore 3 Wally 2 Team Flare Grunt 1 N 1 Delinquent 1 Xerosic 1 Lysandre 4 Dimension Valley 4 Ultra Ball 4 VS Seeker 4 Crushing Hammer 4 Trainers’ Mail 3 Red Card 2 Head Ringer 1 Super Rod	7 Psychic Energy

Trevenant BREAK moved away from Gengar EX this season, instead focusing on a straightforward and consistent list that activated item lock as early as possible. The release of Trevenant BREAK provided you with some extra HP, and a spread option, potentially taking multiple KOs at the same time. While 30 doesn’t seem like a lot of damage against higher HP pokemon, the energy disruption from cards like Head Ringer or Team Flare Grunt really kept the opponents off balance, and potentially stole you enough turns to seal the game. While Trevenant didn’t perform the best at worlds in the Masters division, it crushed at US Nationals, and in both of the younger divisions. I do remember both Cody Walinski and Enrique Avila telling me it was EVERYWHERE in the masters division at worlds – it just didn’t have the performance to sneak into the top 32.

VespiPlume

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Vileplume 3 Gloom 3 Oddish 2 Bunnelby 1 Toxicroak EX 4 Vespiquen 4 Combee 4 Unown 4 Shaymin EX	3 Professor Sycamore 1 Lysandre 1 AZ 3 Acro Bike 2 Float Stone 1 Special Charge 2 Revitalizer 4 Battle Compressor 4 Forest of Giant Plants 4 Ultra Ball 4 Trainers’ Mail	4 Double Colorless Energy

Decklist Credit: Fred Hoban, Top 8 US Nationals

The first of many Vespiquen decks that will be featured on this page – Vespiquen was almost as popular as Night March was in this season. While it was slightly less consistent as an evolution pokemon, it still functioned almost as consistently and aggressively as Night March did, but the advantage was that Vespiquen usually fared well into Night March counters. Some of them, like Yveltal, relied on dealing super small amounts of damage that were enough to KO Pumpkaboo or Joltik, but they weren’t enough to deal with Vespiquen. Others, like Seismitoad EX, you just happened to hit for weakness. Either way, Vespiquen was positioned really well in this metagame, and because Vespiquen’s attack is powered up with ANY pokemon and not just Night Marchers (more on this later), Vespiquen ended up being a surprisingly versatile attacker – Vespiquen saw success when paired with Vileplume (above), Night Marchers, Yveltal, Zoroark, Yanmega BREAK, Excadrill, and one unique deck that even merged Vespiquen, Night March, and Vileplume all together in one deck!

Since Vespiquen already wants to use Forest of GIant Plants, this deck uses the other pokemon that benefits the most from this stadium – Vileplume. In an ideal game, on turn one, you pile enough pokemon into your discard pile that your Vespiquen can attack for enough damage to 2HKO to OHKO most things. Then, you get vileplume in play to shut down items. At that point, your own items will be locked too, but it theoretically shouldn’t matter as Vespiquen will be able to run through the opponent’s board as they struggle to respond without their crucial items to set up their attackers. When you play this deck, make sure you try to get your Float Stone attached to your Oddish/Gloom before you put your VIleplume into play. Once Vileplume is out, you can’t attach Float Stone any more, and your only way to switch it would be with your 1-of copy of AZ. Fred Hoban lost a rather unfortunate streamed set in Top 8 of US Nationals, where he was unable to find his Float Stones before setting up Vileplume, and his opponent trapped Vileplume active with Lysandre and decked him out to win the game.

Vespiquen/Night March

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
4 Joltik 4 Pumpkaboo 4 Lampent 3 Vespiquen 3 Combee 3 Shaymin EX	3 Professor Sycamore 1 Lysandre 1 N 1 AZ 1 Hex Maniac 1 Teammates 4 VS Seeker 4 Ultra Ball 4 Battle Compressor 4 Puzzle of Time 4 Trainers’ Mail 2 Dimension Valley 1 Town Map 1 Escape Rope 1 Target Whistle 1 Special Charge 1 Startling Megaphone	4 Double Colorless Energy

Decklist Credit: Luca Schuster, Top 8 Worlds

This deck was popular as early as City Championships in the fall, and it stayed popular all throughout the season. Both Vespiquen and Night March benefitted from throwing pokemon into the discard pile, so it made a lot of sense to combine them both into one deck. While the Night March pokemon couldn’t hit as high of a damage cap as consistently as they would without the Vespiquen, this allowed you to have multiple different attackers depending on the matchup – Vespiquen will give you a decent attacker into Seismitoad and Yveltal, while Joltik and Pumpkaboo are easier to set up and stream as attackers since they are basics. Be aware that this deck, though it plays Vespiquen, opts for Dimension Valley instead of Forest of Giant Plants, so you don’t have a way to slam down a Vespiquen in one turn if it’s needed.

Vespiquen/Yanmega

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Yanmega BREAK 4 Yanmega 4 Yanma 3 Shaymin EX 4 Vespiquen 4 Combee 1 Ariados 1 Spinarak	4 Forest of Giant Plants 4 Professor Sycamore 2 N 2 Judge 1 AZ 1 Lysandre 4 VS Seeker 4 Ultra Ball 4 Bursting Balloon 2 Level Ball 2 Battle Compressor 1 Special Charge 1 Revitalizer	4 Double Colorless Energy

Decklist Credit: Jesper Eriksen, 1st Place Worlds (Seniors)

Jesper Eriksen took this rogue deck all the way to a Seniors Worlds title in 2016. 2 Grass attackers was extremely strong into a metagame where Seismitoad and Greninja were 2 of the stronger answers to Night March. Yanmega’s extra HP would also probably prove useful against Trevenant, another popular anti-Night March choice. While normally evolution decks would struggle to keep up a consistent string of Evolutions and energy cards to repeatedly attack into Night March, Yanmega’s unique ability allowed it to attack for 0 energy when you had exactly 4 cards in hand, so you could keep up with the prize trade more consistently. This would also be a plus against Giratina EX, which sought to lock, players’ Double Colorless Energies in their hands. Judge was also a pretty strong disruption card – while N was favored in most decks due to its consistency, Judge could be played on turn 1 to disrupt players and slow down their starts, allowing you to jump to an early lead.

Vespiquen/Yveltal

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
4 Vespiquen 4 Combee 4 U nown 3 Yveltal 2 Octillery 2 Remoraid 1 Malamar EX 1 Shaymion EX 1 Druddigon	3 Professor Sycamore 2 N 2 Lysandre 1 Hex Maniac 1 Brigette 1 AZ 1 Teammates 4 VS Seeker 4 Ultra Ball 4 Battle Compressor 2 Muscle Band 2 Float Stone 1 Special Charge 1 Revitalizer	5 Darkness Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

Decklist Credit: Ross Cawthon, Top 4 Worlds

If you can count on 1 player to bring something wacky to a high-level event, it’s Ross Cawthon. 5 years after his most iconic performance at worlds with the Truth, Ross ran it all the way back to top 4 with a unique Vespiquen variant, that paired with Yveltal among other tech cards. Yveltal, while only doing 30 damage most of the time, had the crucial Dark typing, allowing it to hit Pumpkaboo and Joltik both for one-hit KOs in the Night March matchup. As usual, Vepiquen is useful for the higher HP or for the Seismitoad matchup in particular. In quite a few matchups, Ross would actually use Yveltal’s Oblivion Wing to slowly power up Darkness Blade, which was strong enough to take KOs on single prize pokemon like Vespiquen. While MAXamar did certainly provide the option to have a huge attack to end the game, this was mostly a tech for Giratina decks (although it sometimes came up against Seismitoad as well). Hyper Hypnosis could put Giratina EX to sleep, and potentially break its lock, allowing you a turn to attach Double Colorless Energy.

Volcanion EX

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
4 Volcanion EX 4 Volcanion 2 Shaymin EX	4 Professor Sycamore 2 N 2 Blacksmith 2 Lysandre 2 Pokemon Ranger 4 Acro Bike 4 Ultra Ball 4 VS Seeker 4 Energy Retrieval 3 Fighting Fury Belt 2 Trainers’ Mail 2 Battle Compressor 2 Escape Rope	13 Fire Energy

Decklist Credit: Kojiro Tsuruta, Top 16 Worlds

Volcanion EX was one of the decks that was most hyped coming out of Steam Siege, and 2 Japanese Players piloted it to Top 16 of the World Championships. Interestingly enough, Volcanion seemed like it always had a negative matchup to one or more of the top decks for its entirety in the Standard format, but there always seemed to be 1 Volcanion player that snuck through the field into the top cut. Against smaller, single prize decks like Night March or Vespiquen, you had the opportunity to trade off KOs with your single prize Volcanion, which simultaneously powered up your other attackers. Against higher HP EX decks, your Volcanion EX could add a bunch of damage, and push you over the top. The extra HP from Fighting Fury Belt was generally more useful than the extra 10 damage from Muscle Band would have been – it made it much harder for Night March and Vespiquen to take one hit KOs, while Volcanion EX provided all the extra damage you needed anyways.

Once Evolutions released that winter, some Volcanion decks started including Starmie from Evolutions, to more easily re-use their energy cards, but Starmie had not yet released for the World Championships this season. Scorched Earth would also become more popular as Silent Lab started seeing more play.

WaterBox

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 Seismitoad EX 3 Shaymin EX (Roaring Skies) 2 Manaphy EX 1 Shaymin EX (XY Promo) 1 Glaceon EX 1 Articuno 1 Hoopa EX	4 Professor Sycamore 3 N 2 Delinquent 1 Hex Maniac 1 Team Flare Grunt 1 Xerosic 1 AZ 1 Lysandre 4 VS Seeker 4 Ultra Ball 4 Max Elixir 3 Energy Switch 3 Fighting Fury Belt 3 Rough Seas 1 Parallel City	12 Water Energy

Decklist Credit: Brit Pybas, Top 32 Worlds

WaterBox was a really cool option against a lot of decks in the metagame – you had all the power of a normal Seismitoad deck for locking up opponent’s items, but you also had alternate attackers so that you didn’t just fold to Grass decks. Manaphy EX gave all your pokemon with Water energy free retreat, which allowed you to cycle through Seismitoads while healing them with Rough Seas and the Grass-type Shaymin EX, similar to how Mega Manectric decks functioned in 2015. Articuno was another neat tech that helped a lot against single prize decks in particular, stealing extra prize cards against lower HP pokemon like Joltik or Combee, swinging the race in your favor. This deck also featured an abundance of disruption cards, with options to remove Energy, Pokemon Tools, Abilities, or to just discard cards from the opponent’s hand. Be sure to look for cool plays where you can use Rough Seas, play Delinquent, then play ANOTHER Rough Seas to heal that extra damage!

YZG

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
1 Zoroark BREAK 4 Zoroark 4 Zorua 2 Yveltal (Radiant Collection) 1 Yveltal (BREAKthrough) 2 Gallade 1 Druddigon 2 Shaymin EX	2 Professor Sycamore 2 N 2 Lysandre 2 Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick 1 Hex Maniac 1 Giovanni’s Scheme 1 Xerosic 4 VS Seeker 4 Ultra Ball 4 Trainers’ Mail 3 Battle Compressor 3 Muscle Band 2 Float Stone 2 Target Whistle 1 Reverse Valley	5 Darkness Energy 4 Double Colorless Energy

Decklist Credit: Kevin Baxter, Top 32 US Nationals

Yveltal/Zoroark/Gallade, also known as YZG, saw the bulk of its success at the beginning of the season. Before the metagame had really branched out into a bunch of different Night March counters, YZG was constructed with 1 goal in mind: to beat all Night March variants. In the City Championships metagame that was very heavily dominated by Night March and Trevenant, it was a fantastic meta call. 4 Copies of Zoroark did just enough to KO most single prize pokemon, the Yveltals did just enough to take out smaller pokemon like Jolteon and Pumpkaboo, while Gallade and Druddigon gave you 2 generic hard-hitters against higher HP threats. In this matchup, it is not uncommon at all to try and set up a turn where Shaymin’s Sky Return takes a KO on a Joltik, to remove it from play entirely. Keeping Shaymin out of the Discard Pile was important, because most Night March lists played Target Whistle, and would be able to put it back into play. When playing this deck, unlike the expanded Yveltal/Maxie’s decks, you will not always get your Maxie’s off in the first 2 turns. Keep this in mind, and don’t recklessly discard your resources just to get the Gallade out.

Fun anecdote regarding the YZG deck:

One of my favorite memories in pokemon comes from City Championships this season – myself and some friends drove down to some city championships in Indiana. This would be the first tournament YZG debuted at. I (playing Night March) played agaisnt Dustin Zimmerman (using the new YZG) in round 1 of the tournament and lost. I reported that the matchup was probably bad to the other members of my car, and they were CONVINCED that they would win and had the matchup solved. Round 2 Dustin plays against another member of our car ride – Enrique Avila. Also playing Night March. Dustin wins again. The group remains convinced the matchup is fine. Round 3 Dustin plays against Cody Walinski – also in our carpool. Also on Night March. Dustin Wins again. Cody insists he got lucky with a Shaymin Sky Return play, and that it’s a good matchup. Round 4 Dustin plays against Caleb Gedemer. Also in our carpool, also on Night March. Dustin wins again. Dustin Zimmerman singlehandedly 4-0’d our entire carpool. After this last round, Caleb and Cody were FINALLY ready to admit the matchup was unfavorable for Night March. We stayed for a few more City Championships, and some members of our carpool did walk away with CP, but I don’t think we have ever been so brutally demolished by the same person, before or since.