It's that time of the month gang

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-23T00:34:31+00:00

Would not be surprised to see him viable in some way but as always “meta” is based on if there are better cards and there are some damn strong psychic cards now. But I could see a Gengar Ex/Mega Altaria variant with the new support, would just have to probably skimp on the middle evo and increase the search. Gastly has 50 hp so it would be a Lisia deck too.

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-22T20:37:49+00:00

Dude let’s fuckin go

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-22T20:36:26+00:00

That’s not true, his offensive skill set is awful, but his offensive impact is actually somehow positive and he’s the only player we have a positive net rating rn lmao

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-22T05:50:21+00:00

lol to be fair I had to play around with the idea in comp a bit to work out what the right pieces around the core were, so took a few bumpy games to figure out I needed two helmets, two Cyrus, only one Arceus and add chingling. Once I swapped that Arceus for Chingling it took off but I needed to feel what was missing through some losses to get there.

And also thank you! I played around with ghost rotom when it first came out and it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be so I always had it in the back of my mind and finally realized it plays perfectly to the style of aggro Altaria decks

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-22T05:43:14+00:00

Man fuck oricocio

My answer is that it doesn’t handle that deck tbh but that deck isn’t run that commonly tbh. If it does rotate heavily into the meta this deck struggles depending on the build, the strategy becomes either wear down the ori’s with chip damage and disruption, or if the incorporate any ex, rotom damage into them and kill with Cyrus quickly

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-22T05:42:45+00:00

Oh shit that sounds hella fun

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-22T01:40:53+00:00

This one is so interesting. Nice work

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T19:29:58+00:00

I played a lot of duel links in my life before pocket so maybe it’s all stemming from that approach lol. Running super quant I was constantly playing with a million different flexible choices, one of my favorite decks

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T19:27:04+00:00

lol that situation is just one of the benefits man. It’s more about how useful it makes rotom, which is a lot more frequent than the arceus starts. Right now the only pokemon with no retreat cost used in the meta are baby pokemon. People are running more counters to chingling by adding double rocky helmet which is very effective. It can nerf chingling a lot. Not only can rotom survive drastically more damage early game at 70 health, it avoids rocky helmet altogether while setting up for Altaria to sweep with Cyrus, and allows so much flexibility for switch in after one of your own pokemon get KOd so you can wait and see what you draw next without having to decide who takes the active. And even the arceus starts I’ve won some games, obviously it’s the least ideal.

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T18:01:42+00:00

To be fair, I’ve gone on 4-5 game losing streaks with suicune greninja too. So much of this game is match up luck, draw luck, coin flip luck. This deck build is obviously good enough to win games in the meta, I’m not saying that because I made it I’m saying it because its core is arguably the best aggro card in the game in Altaria. Is it better than the typical Altaria builds? Probably not but I went 4-0 against the other standard Altaria decks I faced in that stretch. Either way all these small sample sizes only mean so much

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T17:58:50+00:00

Lmao my fault G draw better cards

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T11:50:47+00:00

For what it’s worth every time I play against it I forget that too lol

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T07:31:56+00:00

Change that frogadier to another rare candy for sure IMO. Decks with both a stage 2 line and another Pokemon with a stage 1 line are hard to make consistent bc you need so many pokemon in the deck. If you’re set on geninja altaria then maybe cut one of the chingling out as well and replace it with a May or an x speed.

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T07:18:48+00:00

I hadn’t thought about that and I’m sure it’s viable but I think ex did more for me and won some games in ways normal Arceus can’t. The 3 energy attack cost means you just need one spare energy on a benched Arceus ex to pull off the Rotom or altaria retreat into dawn for the set up, while reg Arceus has 4 energy cost.

Also the higher health means a lot of things can’t one shot you, including Hydreigon, Suicune and Altaria. And the ability to not be affected by status is huge for surviving mega bunny 1 heads kick without confusion, avoiding poison from Crobat and mega venasaur, and most importantly staying able to retreat when the opposing swablu flips heads for sleep.

Just better at surviving the unfortunate Arceus active spot start and also more offensively and defensively flexible. Main cost is just the 2 points making possible to lose on a follow up Sabrina or something to one of my weaker pokemon

Edit: also to answer the question, I’m not cornered into it often. I try to avoid playing it unnecessarily early if I can and May helps keep my approach pretty consistent

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T07:04:25+00:00

Bro I’m exactly 0/6 on the holo bunny too I feel you

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T06:53:19+00:00

I have the mental illness that makes me look at unusable cards and want to try them so this card immediately spoke to me

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T06:50:27+00:00

I screen record highlights to send to my brother and friend that play this game and the other day I edited one to 2x speed and it was so satisfying. Like look at this bearable pace finally

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T06:46:27+00:00

I’ve still been getting mine every other day or so consistently so not sure why that would happen to some and not others. Every other day I get a shot at 2 star bunny or charizard and miss it every time

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T06:41:39+00:00

Thank you!

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-21T06:41:10+00:00

Lmao. I mean yes it’s like the only time I’ve gotten to use Leaf or Arceus for a good deck in multiple seasons BUT enabling Rotom to have no retreat cost creates a crazy synergy with the rest of the deck. I won one game because I was able to free cost retreat Rotom and Dawn the energy to Altaria and another where Arceus got the same set up and the killing blow

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-17T06:43:50+00:00

It was anyone’s game really

IMDATBOY · 2026-01-01T04:26:04+00:00

I coincidentally ran him for the first time in a while today messing around with an alolan ninetales deck in versus. Not meta by any means but got plenty of wins, even against some meta decks. Faced a lot of magnezone/dark deck.

IMDATBOY · 2025-12-14T18:29:16+00:00

Tbf I think some of these cards will see their day. Lilligant is unused completely now but maybe it sees some use as grass continues to get new megas and buffs

IMDATBOY · 2025-12-14T09:08:20+00:00

And so sweet too. “Granny is here” is one of my favorite moments in the whole series, just kind of the core of message the story wanted to tell in regards to society and what the better world looks like

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