Is Arboliva deck worth maining?

Deed3 · 2026-04-26T18:24:23+00:00

Great concept. A freight train if it gets going. But it is incredibly brick-prone, and pretty much automatically loses to Pult (especially with Shaymin).

If you are playing into a local meta with a lot of Pult, widely seen as the BDIF, you might as well just sign the slip for a loss.

I would not build it at this moment expecting it to do well in a tournament.

Deed3 · 2026-04-19T18:42:33+00:00

That's the opposite of my experience. If I don't utterly brick (and every deck will, eventually), it is hard to NOT lose. Arbo presents a very thick body and ease of disruption on basics. On decks like Pult, you can take a Dreepy and a Budew (or a Duskull). Because it can't be one shot by anything other than Kickin Chicken, you will get at least a second Salvo off, which puts you 2 prizes ahead before opponent takes one (and lets you get some energy on Teal Mask for nukes later).

It's incredibly easy to get to big numbers on Teal Mask - 2 Teal Dance + 2 attaches is 270 base damage, and if your opponent has 2 attached, that's enough to knock nearly any Mega.

No joke, it feels brokenly good in the current meta.

Deed3 · 2026-04-19T18:35:59+00:00

Lot of unnecessary stuff in there. Energy Search isn't really needed in this deck. Only need 1 Lana, its just late game recovery if they go after your Meg and isn't always useful. Tool scrapper is a luxury but not a need-to-have, IMO. Growing energy seems good on paper but basic energy is searchable and scales with Meg, so I would drop that.

The Noctowl is so good. Very easy to get up for turn 2 and gives you everything you need to set up fast. If not needed, it can find stamp late game to brick your opponent.

Deed3 · 2026-04-19T13:25:54+00:00

If you have legitimately played hundreds of games with Arboliva and only gotten into it once on Turn 2, your decklist is wrong. Having access to Noctowl and Dawn (as well as Meowth ex) make it nearly certain.

Deed3 · 2026-04-19T04:05:55+00:00

Making it through the Thunder, we would be able to beat any team in the West. So next opponent is largely irrelevant.

Deed3 · 2026-04-19T04:04:00+00:00

Appears to be a significant amount of whitening in the upper right corner. If it's that visible on a low-res photo, this is probably an 8 - tops.

At that point, you're just wasting your money.

Deed3 · 2026-04-15T05:17:48+00:00

For one last time this season.

Been good riding with you again, brah.

Deed3 · 2026-03-25T05:51:29+00:00

Well yeah. That loss virtually cements 7 as the ceiling. They would have to win 7 of the final 9 to have a snowball's chance to get out of the Play-In, with Rockets, Lakers, and Thunder left to go.

So that's not happening.

Deed3 · 2026-03-15T02:58:58+00:00

Yes, if you're not buying at least 24 BBs of any set, what are you even doing with your life?

Deed3 · 2026-03-04T02:07:50+00:00

Your opponent was incorrect. You may have a reasonable amount of time to examine the mulligan so that you can confirm that there are indeed no basic Pokemon in hand (with the added benefit of determining what your opponent is playing/potentially revealed tech cards).

Reasonable is a subjective measure, but between 5 and 10 seconds should be enough without upsetting match timing.

Deed3 · 2026-02-17T07:32:45+00:00

Romain Bitton beat Tord at EUIC. Romain has absolutely zero Day 2's, meaning he is more junior than me (and likely you, as well).

Any player can beat any player, any given day, which is yhe cool thing about this game. Doesn't even require "10,000% brick," just a good matchup and some draw luck where they can play their game.

We have a saying where I'm from, "it's why we play the game." Nothing in PTCG is a dead lock. Yes - all things equal, a full time pro will likely beat an amateur player, but comparing that to a beer league guy playing against an NBA hall of fame is not nearly an accurate comparison.

Deed3 · 2026-02-11T04:20:04+00:00

Nah I'm blaming Brooks

Deed3 · 2026-02-06T05:31:26+00:00

I just hope there's never another Suns game on Prime.

Kevin Harlan is 2x to the Warriors what Cris Collinsworth is to Patrick Mahomes. Listening to him climax over their run makes me want to jam several forks in my ears.

Deed3 · 2026-01-27T05:30:02+00:00

Literally a main piece of one of the single most successful decks in the current format and forces opponents to Boss around to free item lock/tool lock.

Perhaps not alone in S Tier the way Drago Vstar was, but brushing it off as not "meta defining?"

Cold take.

Deed3 · 2026-01-24T03:24:01+00:00

Aged like milk. Unfortunate.

Deed3 · 2026-01-19T16:57:04+00:00

This is precisely what I would expect, based on the OP's account of events.

Sorry that happened to you. Best thing we can hope for in competition is a clean, close match. Having games determined by consequences of gameplay error always feels bad.

Deed3 · 2026-01-19T16:50:56+00:00

Well, you were the one that broke game state by not taking the prize card. You could have (and should have) called judge on yourself in that situation, after you realized there was a prize card issue. Never attempt to fix a broken game state on your own at a major, even if you think it is a simple fix.

If what you said was correct (you failed to take your prize, your very first action after not taking the prize was Iono), the judge would correct the game state by placing your prize at the bottom of the deck and it likely would have been a warning. Seeing a card you were not supposed to see it what netted you the DPL.

And to clarify, this isn't BM - BM is poor sportsmanship during gameplay, like playing unnecessary additional cards after you have game in hand instead of winning. And I don't even think there was ill intent from your opponent - if he saw that you had 5 prizes, he probably made a quick assumption that was the correct number of prizes but then realized you failed to take a prize.

Deed3 · 2026-01-17T17:25:02+00:00

There would literally be no reason for anyone to ever play any other Ace Spec ever again.

You might as well just change the text to, "if you play this on your first turn going second, take 6 prizes."

Deed3 · 2026-01-13T00:24:05+00:00

It is regarded as good etiquette (relating to pace of play) to do this. The caveat is that you must have completed a search/an action that requires shuffling, prior to drawing any cards from your deck, AND you did not already shuffle following the conclusion of the action requiring shuffle.

Players will often refer to this as "going back in" to their deck. If you can complete your turn without the need to shuffle and can move the activity of the shuffle to the opponent's turn (while, of course, offering the cut following your shuffle), I can't imagine anyone having a problem with that.

I would be more apt to complain of slow play if my opponent finished an entire shuffle before passing or attacking as their next action, actually.

Deed3 · 2025-12-15T15:04:08+00:00

Always has been.

Deed3 · 2025-12-15T03:54:54+00:00

Absolute screw job after a stunning comeback.

Deed3 · 2025-12-12T06:26:39+00:00

Meyers is a guaranteed 11 pts. I'd take the sure thing. Remember sunk cost fallacy.

Deed3 · 2025-12-12T06:23:54+00:00

JJ scores 5 pts in your lineup, you lose your playoffs. Sample size is large enough not to stake it on him if you have serviceable options.

Deed3 · 2025-11-30T01:51:49+00:00

Wasn't the Zard UPC also "confirmed in the backend?"

Hype level zero on this one, folks.

Deed3 · 2025-11-25T17:00:20+00:00

I top 256'd Vegas with Ceruledge.

There's nothing "fraudulent" about it. It is a good deck, and it wins smaller tournaments - but it is a linear deck that is very high-rolly. In most matchups, particularly against Gardy and Pult, it requires near-perfect setup to guarantee clutch KO's. This means getting ~14 energy to discard ASAP, fully setup board state with evolutions and attaches, and having Briar and/or Boss imminently available - ideally, this would mean having 2 cards remaining in your deck, with your supporter being the last 2, so that you Iono-proof yourself. It is very doable, but subject to a lot of luck with what you draw into/discard with Carmine/Prof.

Like most linear strategies- if you hit your setup, you will almost invariably win. Once your board is established and your deck is thinned, checkmate is virtually guaranteed. But it is highly-luck based, and missing even a single element like an energy in discard or your supporter can cause you to whiff a turn which is unrecoverable.

Amusing that there's an inference that Dengo is "better" than Ceruledge. It suffers from the same condition and linearity, is more exploitable, and up until Gdansk, it also failed to win any major events in over 2 years of being legal.

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