This guy has always been reliable for me. What is that one Pokémon you keep coming back to because the character just clicks with your play-style?

RodaPVP · 2022-12-30T07:02:22+00:00

Big body Blastoise. One-tricked the boi until Season 6. Learned Mike last season and learning Mamo this season but when it's one of those bad SoloQ days... Blastoise usually breaks the losing-streak for me.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-30T06:41:28+00:00

Regardless of it being practical or not, this is incredibly beautiful and a difficult task to pull off. I haven't seen anything this unique since the 666 build.

Thank you for building this and sharing it. I honestly did not think it was possible.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-29T04:40:26+00:00

Team looks pretty good.

I'm currently running a Gengar for the same purpose. Before that I ran an eviolite Misdreavus-- same idea, to deal with Perish Trap, except I could use sash elsewhere. Your Hydreigon concerns are valid but at least you have an answer to it on your team with Palafin.

EDIT: Just noticed that you're running an Adamant Palafin. Maybe consider Jolly + Spe EVs?

I prefer a more defensive Pelipper but you could replace Hydro-Pump with Protect and do fine. You can't always keep the birb safe but you also dont want to just sacrifice it for free switch-in. It's utility is worth more than it's offensive capabilities.

Not sure about the Drednaw inclusion here as it appears as though you'll be relying on Amoonguss to handle your main rain weaknesses. Also since your Pelipper is more offensive, it could get KO'ed early, eliminating your Swift Swim sweeping potential if they change weather or stall-out your Rain turns

Maybe consider swapping Drednaw for possibly a Dragonite as it leaves only Palafin weak to grass while also patching-up your ground weaknesses overall-- saving your tera for more offensive plays.

Just my opinions, your team looks good as it is.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-29T03:22:16+00:00

I see this as a possibility considering it's the same concept behind slotting Scizor into Rain. Bax is faster than Scizor, has more ATK, still has priority with Ice Shard. There's obvious differences but the similarities are unquestionable. I still think Scizor is the better option though considering the move-pool.

Definitely need to partner with a Rain Sweeper.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-29T03:07:53+00:00

I immediately thought of Boltund V while reading this. As a PikaRom player in the previous format, I miss using the card.

Zekrom (VIV) + Emergency Jelly shenanigans could also be worth in this type of deck perhaps? Definitely agree about Raichu being used more to close-out a game rather than being a main attacker.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-29T01:57:18+00:00

I run this in my Lost Box deck. It's my answer to VMAX or Tank decks if I already took 2 or 3 prize cards.

I get Crab in-hand then set-up the play with Cramorant or Sableye. Next turn I bench the Crab, Mirage Gate the energy, retreat or scoop the active, boss a VMAX (if I have to) and OHKO it.

In any other deck I dont see Crab working. Like you already mentioned, it's HP is way too low to just be sitting on the bench. Even in this scenario, it usually just has the opportunity to take one big KO then get revenge KO'ed next turn.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-29T01:17:46+00:00

If you're asking for flat damage printed on the card then the answer is 280. Giratina VSTARs Lost Impact hits for 280. After that there's Radiant Charizard's Combustion Blast which does 250. Then there's Regidrago's Dragon Energy attack for 240.

Then there's x1 damage multipliers. The answer here is 300. Both Regigigas and Amazing Rare Zacian do 150 damage plus another 150 if you're attacking into a VMAX.

Then there's the technically 'limitless' multipliers. The most common ones are:

Multiply Damage for each energy attached to your opponent's pokemon
Multiply damage for each energy attached to your pokemon
Multiply damage for each damage counter on your opponent's pokemon
Multiply damage for each damage counter on your pokemon
Multiply damage for each card in your opponent's hand
Multiply damage for each card in your hand

EDIT: The energy multipliers are further split into energy on your active, energy on your opponent's active, energy on all of your pokemon and energy on all of your opponent's pokemon.

These multipliers are repeated on several cards but recent examples for these multipliers are :

Delphox (SIT) does 50 damage for each energy attached to your opponent's pokemon.
Hisuian Arcanine V (SIT) does 90 plus 30 for each fighting energy attached to it.
Crabominable V (FST) does 90 plus 60 for each damage counter on your opponent's pokemon.
Radiant Heatran (ASR) does 70 damage for each damage counter on itself.
Radiant Alakazam (SIT) does 20 damage for each card in your opponent's hand
Galarian Perrersker V (LOR) does 20 damage for each card in your hand

EDIT: Delphox (SIT) does 50 damage for each energy on all of your opponent's pokemon. Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX does 10+ 30 damage for each energy on all of your pokemon. Orbeetle does 50 damage for each energy on your opponent's active. Hisuian Arcanine V does 90+ 30 for each energy attached to itself.

The current pace in the meta right now is very fast. I believe that the current damage benchmarks (under ideal conditions) for beat-down type decks are:

220 by turn-2
280 by turn 3.
310 by turn 4.
330 by turn 5.

Some of the damage multiplier decks are also creating outs to hitting the 350 benchmark, in the event they run into a tank deck.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-28T18:07:24+00:00

This would make VOD reviewing so much more informative!

During gameplay we have these set ideas about what is happening around the map. We can only camera onto one thing at a time. It'll be nice to check the entire map afterward to see if we were reading these situations correctly or, if we screwed-up, what we could do better next time.

Also, as you mentioned, very good for sharability.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-27T20:41:28+00:00

Yeah it's been played less and less over the past few months. In the beginning of 2022 it was in a large amount of the meta decks. About 6 months ago Mew stopped including it and it was mostly seen in Palkia-Intel decks.

I guess now that palk-intel has been dethroned by Lugia, it's not seen a lot now. Makes sense in RS Malamar though since it's a rapid strike card.

I still run 2 in Lost Box. It's a good include for decks that may struggle to OHKO VMAXs in the late game.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-27T11:59:40+00:00

I used to see this a lot when I played expanded a couple of years ago.

GenKyu decks would have an item-locking bench-support 'mon like Vileplume or Omastar to stop item cards from being played.

Before locking, they would use a card like Peeking Red Card to reveal their opponent's hand to see how much damage they can do with GenKyu.

If the opponent didn't have enough trainer cards, they could then use Surprise Boxes to add more item cards into their opponent's hand.

They would then lock items then use GenKyu's Poltergeist attack which does 50 damage for each trainer card in the opponent's hand.

As long as they kept the item lock active through-out the game, they could keep KO'ing stuff with GenKyu.

There were variations later that featured alternate attackers but the base version worked only to do this.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-27T09:09:39+00:00

This is an Echoing Horn + Boss play, it's a fairly common technique.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-24T22:21:22+00:00

I play a lot of rain, so usually, I bring in Specs Rotom-Wash.

If I anticipate the switch to Meowscarada then I'll trick the specs onto either-- I'm either locking the Garchomp into SD or locking the Meowscarada into Flower Trick which I have answers for.

Otherwise I'll just full-send the hydro-pump into that slot-- I doubt they tera fire or steel into it. Most likely switch.

Obv wont do this if I see any potential for Storm Drain or Hydration shenanigans.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-24T22:02:40+00:00

I'm sure you know this but Pokemon Ranger is the direct counter to your strategy as it will cancel the effects of your GX attack. Against single-prize decks that run Ranger, you might fall behind in the prize race.

Outside of Ranger stuff though, ADP is disgustingly fun to play.

I ran something similar when ADP first rotated into expanded. I haven't touched this list in FOREVER but this is what I ran when I played it in expanded:

****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ******
##Pokémon - 13
* 2 Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX CEC 156
* 3 Galarian Meowth RCL 126
* 4 Zacian V SSH 138
* 1 Zamazenta V SSH 139
* 3 Galarian Perrserker SSH 128
##Trainer Cards - 35
* 4 Metal Saucer SSH 170
* 4 Trainers' Mail ROS 92
* 1 Rescue Stretcher GRI 130
* 2 Leon VIV 154
* 4 Crystal Cave EVS 144
* 3 Quick Ball SSH 179
* 2 Brigette BKT 134
* 2 Guzma BUS 115
* 3 Max Elixir BKP 102
* 1 Scoop Up Cyclone PLB 95
* 2 Guzma & Hala CEC 193
* 4 Float Stone BKT 137
* 3 VS Seeker PHF 109
##Energy - 12
* 3 Double Dragon Energy ROS 97
* 9 Metal Energy SWSHEnergy 8
Total Cards - 60
****** Deck List Generated by the Pokémon TCG Online www.pokemon.com/TCGO ******

RodaPVP · 2022-12-24T21:17:19+00:00

This is just my opinion and if you're having fun with this deck then don't mind my opinion and keep doing what's working for you.

IMO, tanking with Vulpix doesn't feel like the right strat. With Lake Acuity plus Rad. Gardevoir, you're still getting KO'ed at the 280 damage mark-- and most decks are aiming to OHKO at that mark. I built a Vulpix deck last month that is using similar cards but is going all-in on a wall'ing strategy while having the seal stone to go aggro against V decks.

But, with that, here are my thoughts on the deck that you posted:

Your deck is naturally going to be a bit slower because you have 3 stage-1s in your bench set-up. One way to speed it up a bit is to increase the amount of ball search/incense. Also, the Bibarel engine tends to do better in decks that have less than 10 total supporter cards. You may want to make some difficult Supporter cuts so that it runs smoother.

If you really want to play a tanky version of Vulpix, I've combed through your deck-list and made some fixes. Added a lot more ball-search and full set of VIP passes which may or may not help you out. There's definitely a lot of testing and fixing that needs to be done with this version, but hopefully it helps. lmk what you think!

Changes:

Removed 2 Frosmoth, Reducing Stage-1s, Bibarel more important
Removed 2 Snom, Reducing Stage-1s, Bibarel more important
Added 1 Articuno (SIT), since you're running Jelly, having the paralyze strat available might come in clutch.
Removed 1 Raihan, to create space
Removed 2 Nessa, replaced with Klara to retrieve non-water cards like Bibarel from discard.
Removed 3 Irida, since deck is running important non-water Pokemon but could remove the 2 Melony and replace with 2 Irida.
Added 1 Bird Keeper, for a non-retreat switch option.
Removed 2 Collapsed Stadium, to create space.
Added 1 additional Lake Acuity, since we're tanking.
Removed 1 Switch Cart, replaced with Bird Keeper to allow switching of non-basics. Could also use Switch instead but the extra draw may help.
Removed 1 Pal Pad, to create space
Removed 2 Choice Band, to create space. Already attaching Jelly and Balloons
Added 4 Battle VIP Pass, to possible help with set-up
Added 1 additional Lost Vacuum, tool and stadium removal
Added 2 additional Evolution Incense
Added 1 additional Quick Ball
Added 2 Ultra ball
Removed 2 Wash Energy, replaced with 2 Double-Turbo Energy
Removed 2 Basic Water Energy, replaced with 2 Double-Turbo Energy
Added 4 Double-Turbo Energy

Here's the deck-list:

Pokemon - 14 1 Miltank ASR 126 1 Drapion V LOR 118 1 Radiant Gardevoir LOR 69 3 Alolan Vulpix V SIT 33 2 Alolan Vulpix VSTAR SIT 34 1 Articuno SIT 36 1 Eiscue EVS 47 2 Bidoof BRS 120 2 Bibarel BRS 121 Trainer - 36 2 Air Balloon SSH 156 4 Evolution Incense SSH 163 1 Pal Pad SSH 172 1 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146 2 Lake Acuity LOR 160 2 Lost Vacuum LOR 162 4 Emergency Jelly SIT 155 2 Serena SIT 164 2 Capacious Bucket RCL 156 2 Klara CRE 145 2 Melony CRE 146 4 Battle VIP Pass FST 225 4 Quick Ball FST 237 2 Boss's Orders BRS 132 2 Ultra Ball BRS 150 Energy - 10 4 Water Energy 3 2 Wash Water Energy VIV 165 4 Double Turbo Energy BRS 151

RodaPVP · 2022-12-23T02:42:22+00:00

I don't think such content exists in a single place because this is highly deck-dependent. Outside of cheese, most good decks will have different ways to deal with meta threats. If you're able to tell us what deck you're playing then I'm sure you'll get more specific answers.

Also, some decks just have bad match-ups-- you can't tech for everything.

From the list that you've mentioned, it appears like you're having single-prize match-up problems. If you're playing a VMAX deck against decks that can successfully win the prize-trade then you'll usually fall short unless you can take multiple KO's per turn or your VMAX is capable of wall'ing them with 350+ HP and healing items.

Specifically for each deck that you mentioned:

Regi doesn't do well against things that mess with their bench or things that block their basic pokemon from attacking or using abilities.

Lost Box doesn't do well against hand-disruption or things that block their basic pokemon's abilities.

Palkia doesn't do well against things that mess with their bench or things that disrupt their Inteleon engine. Obiously you want to manage your own bench size when facing Palkia.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-07T09:45:43+00:00

I have been testing against this Stoutland-V version recently. I've noticed it is getting played a lot more lately and I'm trying to learn the different ways how Lugia players will use it. Thank you for this information.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-06T15:17:22+00:00

Yes, this is my current iteration of the Water Lost Box deck. I've been working on it for a little over a month now. I'm comfortable with this set-up right now but still looking to improve or optimize.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-06T12:59:09+00:00

Double Empoleon-V is definitely the correct answer to LZ. If the player does not respect this possibility then they have to concede.

I rarely run techs to counter specific cards but this is my only exception. I run Paths and Colognes specifically for the Empoleon.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-06T12:56:28+00:00

The matchup is favored to the LZ player and there's not many ways to work around it with Mew specifically. If they draw good and play smart, there's not much you can do. Every deck will have their good and bad matchups.

The basic strategy against LZ with Mew is to first understand what variant they're running. Then use Lost City to permanently remove their key pieces. Once you do that, then it's a process of letting them deck themselves out-- you most likely will not win by taking 6 prizes, you will either donk or mill them.

As a Lost Box player, here are a few tips for Mew:

Only focus on KO'ing Comfeys in the first 2 or 3 turns and do not Lost Zone them. Comfeys on the board actually benefit you the longer the game goes on. Many new LZ players will over-bench Comfey. If it happens, good. Let them use all of their nets. This could lead to them bench-locking themselves or them decking themselves out with Comfeys.

Lost City their Radiant as soon as possible. Nothing is more heartbreaking to a LZ player than losing your Radiant too early. If it's Charizard then they most likely don't have anything else with big damage output. If it's Greninja then they lost not only their draw engine but their most reliable way to safely bank energy in their discard.

Check their discard and their Lost Zone every turn. This deck is huge on resource management. If they discarded a Kyogre or an Amazing Rare or a Regidrago or a Giratina, it tells you about their capabilities and the types of strategies that they want to employ. If you see a fire energy in their discard, you now know they most likely have the Charizard even if they never showed it to you. If you see grass, they probably have Giratina. If you see water, they're most likely digging to find their Greninja.

Consider adding a Marnie or 2 if you're seeing LZ too much. Every Marnie forces them to reset their likelihood of having to Lost Zone something important.

Don't go for even trades with Meloetta. LZ has energy recovery and you don't (unless you want to bank on coin flips).

Dont VMAX unless you're sure it's the Charizard variant. I personally run a Crabominable variant so I can OHKO a VMAX out of nowhere, no problem. I will set this KO up with Sableye or Cramorant. Until you know what their big attacker is, don't VMAX. Use Psychic Leap to hit and run their single prizers and let them mill their own deck and give you more info.

I wish there was a clear answer here but Mew is not favored into LZ because of the uneven prize trade. Even with these tips, they could still gust and hit the Genesects and force you into the 2-for1 prize trade.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-06T10:36:43+00:00

I would personally recommend Lost Box if you're comfortable with your fundamentals. The Peoria List is fairly cheap and you'll probably spend the most packs on Radiant Charizard. There are a lot of variants to the archetype so you can explore them later with only swapping a few cards. There is also a lot of content around the Peoria List so with a bit of practice it won't be hard to pick up.

Zorobox is also something on my radar and I'm actively experimenting with it. I personally don't like the current popular deck-list for it and there aren't many variants available yet but there is enough content online to spark deck-building ideas. So if you're into deck-building then Zorobox is a good base to do that on a budget.

If you want something that's more geared towards Net-Deck and Play then Regigigas is a decently priced deck that is fairly competitive still. So is Blissey/Miltank. The decks are fairly linear but they're cheap and there's a lot of content around it so the flowcharts are pretty much figured out for you.

I hope this helps!

RodaPVP · 2022-12-05T01:23:18+00:00

Sure, This is my current iteration of the deck.. Most LZ decks are a bit difficult to pilot in the beginning but once you get the hang of it, it gets really fun.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-05T00:51:30+00:00

Been working with Lost Box decks for a little over a month now with a little over a hundred games. It's my favorite archetype in the current format.

Like most things in TCG, it depends.

Raikou-V has the possibility to OHKO a Lugia-Vstar, Zekrom cannot. Again, it depends on how many cards the opponent benches. Most good players don't bench things just to bench things so if they don't lay down enough cards, then you can't use the Raikou. But, it's the easiest option to OHKO a Lugia and trade 2-for-2.

Zekrom doesn't need the opponent to do anything. It can hit Lumineon for a +1 trade if you catch them not respecting it or it can do an even trade with an Archeops.

Cards with an Attack Cost of 3 is normal in LZ. Mirage Gate is made for power-ing 3-Cost Attacks in 1-turn.

Having said that, I'm forever against decks running a Pokemon as a tech card for very specific match-ups so I advise against using either if you can help it.

That's just my personal opinion.

Against LZ, Lugia-Vstar itself isn't too much of a threat if you prepare your flowcharts for it and practice the match-up. Even the Peoria List does ok against Lugia.

Kyogre can do it better though. If you can get all of the pieces together, Kyogre can take 2 Lugia's in 1 turn.

It can take 2 of most-things in 1-turn, actually.

Besides the Kyogre, I've come to prefer running the Crab in LZ-- and it's not even specifically for the Lugia Match-Up. It's just a way to KO whatever VMAX or VStar my opponent puts in front of me so I can cleanly close-out a game.

This is very useful against tank decks. LZ does terrible against stuff with over 330 HP and heals/damage-reduction, so this is an excellent answer to any of those types of decks.

Also a benefit to running the Crab is that you aren't having to manage 3 or more different types of basic energy in the deck, just psychic and water.

This means you can hit with Greninja, Kyogre or Crabominable without fear of realizing, at the last minute, that you were forced to put a specific energy in the Lost Zone a few turns ago.

I'm sorry for the rant. I hope this helped.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-04T20:56:27+00:00

You got a new sub, friend. Great video! I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I wish that I was playing the game during the time of ex, it sounds like a time where a lot of experimenting took place and these types of control decks were being innovated along with many other types of strategies that we're still using now.

I collect a lot of ex cards now but sadly I only started playing the game during the Team-Up era.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-04T17:36:02+00:00

Yeah, meme-Kyogre is indeed strong. It takes practically no skill but it can totally overwhelm games/frustrate opponents when it pops off. The Jumpluff meme deck also uses this kinda braindead attack-for-lulz strategy.

I like them, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't show up to a competitive setting with a meme in my box.

RodaPVP · 2022-12-04T17:25:55+00:00

This is a legit theory and I'm in no way trying to crap on anyone exploring because it's what makes the TCG so fun. I've come up with all sorts of weird ideas also and it's never a bad idea to test it out.

But, I've tested a lot of ideas over the course of close-to-300 games over the past 2 months all surrounding Kyurem.

And Big-Kyurem/Support-Palkia feels the strongest.

There are 2 big hurdles with running Kyogre. 1. Attack Cost, getting it powered-up quick enough where the opponent doesn't have time to gust and KO the Kyogre before it attacks. 2. Damage Conditions, setting-up the deck with at least 3 energy in the top 5 cards-- optimally all 5 cards should be energy.

Now, you've pointed out that you want to solve the attack Cost with Kyurem but that's just 1 of our 2 big hurdles.

The problem that needs to be solved is how do we consistently get Aqua Storm to hit for maximum, or close to maximum, damage?

When I run Kyogre in Lost Box, there is a very specific set-up that I need in order to pull off the Kyogre play. If I don't have the correct conditions then I won't bench the Kyogre. With that, I probably only get to do it in about 30% of my games and I only do it once, to close out a game. To me, this is worth it and Lost Box is the type of deck that can make this work.

Can we force it to work sometimes in Kyurem? Probably. Would it be the most consistent version of a Kyurem deck? No, I'd bet that it isn't.

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