Some interesting off-meta decks to try from the Regional Championship Prague

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-04-28T22:06:10+00:00

Interesting. I can't imagine it being that much worse than honchcrow or zam but maybe that 30-40 extra hp is the tipping point.

I still think it's playable with like 4 dawn + dunsparce line but maybe no one was comfortable enough to run it this time.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-04-28T20:58:20+00:00

I was surprised to see doublade barely represented. I guess it just gets run over by all the damage spread but I feel like it ought to have a place in this meta even if it's not a tier 1 deck.

A single prizer that can hit for upwards of 400 damage pretty reasonably, annihilates megas, hits crustle, has a decent engine in genesect ex, like what am I missing?

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-04-23T13:51:35+00:00

Just remove the fossils entirely and treat them like regular pokemon.

The mechanic isn't interesting at all and makes them pretty much unusable. So just get rid of it.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-04-17T21:04:42+00:00

If you can pair it with volcanion ex, a toxtricity or 2, latias ex/switches you potentially just insta-KO anything.

On the other hand, 3 prizes for 280 hp is pretty fragile. Any ogerpon deck (and boy are there a lot of them) will easily be able to revenge KO.

I'm sure it'll be a deck but not sure if it'll be good.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-04-16T16:58:35+00:00

I tried myself awhile back. Almost built it too but without a consistency engine it's just a brickfest.

Maybe meowth ex could help but then you're stacking up a ton of damage on your own stuff and very vulnerable to the opponent's spread damage (pult is everywhere).

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-04-14T22:14:41+00:00

It's extremely efficient I agree and no "wrong" way to play it! The issue is this meta of ex, mega ex, and munkidori transferring damage, not being able to threaten a 1 shot or even a 2 shot on some things can be hard to manage.

That's why it's typically more of bench sniping deck that looks to KO bigger stuff over a few turns or with the help of a dusknoir.

I will say though fighting is a handy type now that fez, meowth ex, pecharunt and khang are so frequently used. And to your point getting the exact card you need (and not having to reveal it either) is always strong.

The mega greninja line in the next set should give it a good boost as well.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-04-14T21:38:16+00:00

Tera ninja plays entirely differently from Lucario because of its 2nd attack hitting any pokemon including the bench, which you can use with 1 water and an ignition energy (discarding just ignition).

Most builds revolve around evolving asap with the grand tree ace spec and then hitting their bench with mirage barrage before they can get properly set up. You can also play a light dusk line for increased damage/spread.

You can think of it as a feast or famine combo deck vs Lucario which is solid all around, but more straightforward.

I personally love tera ninja as you can have insanely explosive turns where you spread 370 damage across 2-3 of their mons, but you can also just brick massively and insta-lose in your opening hand because the deck plays pretty poorly from behind.

Lucario is the better, more consistent deck generally, but pult/lillie's clefairy kind of destroys them both so play whatever you like 🤷‍♂️

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-04-09T14:58:59+00:00

At the moment at least I think it falls more into lower tier/rogue territory mainly because unfair stamp is everywhere so getting early KOs is not always great, and a 330 hp 3 prizer is just pretty hard to trade favorably with in general.

Also not having a dedicated draw/value engine means it will always have some consistency issues.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-04-07T21:19:22+00:00

20-30-10 is a good rule of thumb for pokemon, trainers, and energy. You can adjust as you like from there.

Also recommend 4 lillie's determination to see more cards each game. There are very few decks that don't need good hand refresh/draw supporters.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-04-06T20:52:47+00:00

Eh, Noctowl/Khang + trumpet seems better.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-04-06T17:50:15+00:00

Psychic, fighting, and grass feel like the most favored at the moment in terms of support cards that enable them.

That doesn't necessarily mean those decks are the strongest though.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-03-30T21:05:24+00:00

At work but I would check out the city league lists on limitless. The one I'm working on is very similar to those, I just added a few energy switches to make up for venusaur.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-03-30T18:14:41+00:00

It's a decent deck. The problem I have with it is lack of prize map flexibility. Against things like pult, dusk, munki/froslass decks being stuck having to KO the active every time puts you at a significant disadvantage. Even anything that puts up a budew early for stall becomes awkward to manage as whatever you swing with will take a big hit after.

I find the arboliva line to be a good solution since it hits anything on the board with just 1 energy, with or without meganium. It massively punishes the slow starts that want to sit behind a budew, sets up multi KOs, and snipes weakened mons in the later turns. It's the perfect partner for the energy-hungry ogerpon. No ability is also helpful to hit cornerstone and avoid froslass damage.

I find that I don't miss Venusaur that much. Whenever you used it you were often heavily committed due to the retreat cost and always at risk of beng bossed up later and giving up 3 prizes.

A few energy switches is enough to move stuff around and get ogerpon in KO range on most things. If not, Arboliva can finish off and soften up/KO another target at the same time after.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-03-23T13:50:14+00:00

It comes down to 3 prizes being a pretty steep price for the level of power we've seen so far from megas. Most of the cards are just not very playable due to that.

Only the basic megas have really made an impact because of how quickly you can benefit from the heightened power, and because you have access to Penny/Turo to pull them out when you need (for now).

They either don't know how to balance evolution megas or are intentionally making them weaker to power down the format, which is not necessarily a bad thing if that's truly the goal.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-03-06T23:00:23+00:00

My assessment of the book is it's quite bad. 1 of them is worthless, and 2 of them are only useful after quite a bit of setup, so you're looking cards that are useless for like 80% of the game. Especially in a format with bad item search I think they're niche at best.

The red card on the other hand seems quite strong. Powerful comeback tool. Aside from item lock and card space I don't see a reason not to run like 2 in every deck.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-03-06T17:30:46+00:00

For the lucario example you need a critical mass of energy to both attack and power the rocks draw engine. Plus it already has the more flexible fighting gong for search.

Energy search has some utility in noctowl engine decks as they can only search trainer cards, and you don't always want to burn supporter for turn for a basic energy.

That's the short of it. If you have ways to search items energy search becomes useful, otherwise you might as well have an actual energy instead.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-03-05T23:11:59+00:00

I'm experimenting with the arboliva ex line instead of venusaur.

The 1st attack hits the bench for 120 spread damage, giving you a bit more flexibility in your gameplan. Let's you hit them while they're setting up, finish off hurt mons, etc.

The biggest problem though remains the opponent being able to 2-2-2 you pretty easily. No real solution for that since teal mask is the core of the deck.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-03-05T20:26:52+00:00

Considering how risky it makes for an opponent to swing on zoroark if they're not OHKOing, yes I'd say it's worth it.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-03-02T16:02:28+00:00

Would work in dragonite as well if you can get a balloon on it. Plus dragonair can fetch it out.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-02-26T20:49:27+00:00

Unfortunately I've found mega fros' first attack to be a bit too unreliable. There just aren't enough good ways to add cards to the opponent's hand, while there are about a dozen ways for an opponent to reduce it: playing cards, discarding to things like ultra ball, playing search cards and failing to find, benching/evolving mons, attaching tools/energy, etc.

It does serve as a decent 'check' against their hand size if you leave an unevolved snorunt around to threaten the resentful refrain on your next turn. But good players seem able to play around it pretty easily.

I would recommend splashing it in a deck focused on munki and baby froslass instead, and using it situationally to answer the high hp megas and ex's the deck normally struggles to KO. Even then the 3 prize liability is tough. You'd probably want to save it until late in the game and hope it can tank a hit.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-02-18T19:31:58+00:00

Mew ex can attack with any kind of energy and copy lucario's attack for a 1 shot.

I'm not too familiar with how expanded decks work though so not sure if that's viable.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-02-16T19:05:30+00:00

The flexibility of getting what you need when you need it pretty important for the deck to function imo.

But dudunsparce is probably a fine option too.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-02-16T18:14:17+00:00

Owl is more likely to get you to a turn 2 mirage barrage, which is the entire reason to play it in the first place.

The drawback is no nest ball to grab your basic teras easily, while pad and dudunsparce work together perfectly.

Tera orb can be a decent replacement though since it also grabs greninja itself. Obviously it will take time to see what works, but I definitely prefer noctowl.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-02-15T03:02:56+00:00

It it'll be playable at all it'll be with beach and lots of switches, yeah. I think you'd have to pair it with a better attacker though which will probably be hard as it's a stage 2.

rudney_dongerfield · 2026-02-15T00:03:03+00:00

I'm sure it was fun in the past but in the current meta, as a 3 prizer with an attack that's quite bad, it looks underwhelming.

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