ThePelipperPost Cup Report: Cornwall Cups @ Bazbo Comics and Mad for Miniatures

Cornwall, known for the amazing Cornish Pasty, was the host of our League Cup adventures for the weekend. We travelled to St Austell's Mad for Miniatures on Saturday and then the beautiful Truro on the Sunday with Xeon City Gym and Bazbo Comics. The weather was really nice both days even though that it basically felt like it was always going to have a light drizzle. 
I visited Cornwall with three fellow players: Tim Yusuf, James Vincent and Mitchell Taylor. After detours to see the Stonehenge and traffic delaying our arrival we finally landed in Redruth and the play testing began for the weekend. I decided that day one Zoroark/Garbodor would be the play to which we wrote up the lists we all were going to play then settled for the evening to play some other card games and enjoy the evening. 

Mad for Miniatures League Cup

The Cup at Mad for Miniatures only had around 15 Masters overall so we had 4 rounds of Swiss with no top cut, this was a tad odd due to the norm of a top cut in the majority of tournaments we have been to. So who ever finished as top seed, won the entire 50 points and mat.
Prior to the tournament, we were able to encounter a wild Ross Gilbert, creator of PTCGradio and has worked on numerous occasions with the Pokémon Company. This was a really awesome moment to meet someone who enabled me to get into Pokémon with the videos and podcasts he produces, so it was great fun sharing a laugh and listening to Ross.
This was a very fun League Cup in which personally I was not incredibly well with being ill the Friday night so not only did I suffer in the way that I played but it allowed me to really enjoy playing my opponents and helped me as a warm up coming up to the second cup on the Sunday (which is how I took it).
I finished 10th playing Zoroark/Garbodor, the deck itself was very interesting and ran extremely well apart from the round two loss to Mitchell Taylor in which we fought a close match. Then I drew two games either side of playing Mitch, which I finished the day with a rather interesting win over Sylveon after winning the first game then resource management for the eventual win as Oranguru pushed my resistance up allowing me to finish with an amazing 62%.
This helped a lot with fellow player Mitchell, who went on to win the event with some amazing plays to completely dominate his remaining rounds after a close tie with Ross Gilbert in the first. He finished on a record of 3-0-1 which allowed him to gain his first points and champion's mat since the beginning of his playing career.
This was the list that was played over at the cup on the Saturday:

Once we got back to the house we decided to switch up decks due to the fact that we wanted to try a different part of the meta as personally I thought there was not enough ability to hit big numbers in the deck so I switched up my variant to Zoroark/Lycanroc. I have been practising a lot with both of these variants for competitions if I ever had to play in one and this was my time to play both decks in two separate tournament.

Xeon City Gym League Cup

The Sunday of the cup at Bazbo Comics, we all were feeling pretty lifted after the day one win at the other cup and each of us really felt we had a chance with the decks we had picked. The field was pretty similar to the first day with a few players changing decks but the majority all playing the same deck. There was an increase in metal variants with Turbo Metals and Metagross and friends coming out which took up the top tabled for the majority of the day.

There also was a vast amount of Vikavolt Tapu Bulu which turned up making up three of the decks, overall there was a total of 16 Masters. Judging ZoroRoc being a majority two-shot deck, this was a meta which did not ideally suit my deck choice although it is incredibly consistent.

Round One: Vs VikaBulu - Jessica Brennan

Jessica came second in the cup on the Saturday playing exactly the same list as she did to make it that far then and from the convincing play style shown throughout the match, she played it so well. The first game was an extremely close game in which I was able to take the game by the narrowest of margins, especially due to Lycanroc's weakness to Grass-type Pokémon. 

Parallel city was a major card in this match up allowing me to reduce my opponents bench space as well as being able to reduce the damage given from attacking Tapu Bulu's. This saved my Zoroark's in the first game so that I was able to take two-hit knockouts, plus the demanding needs of Bulu needing a grass attachment and a strong charge to be able to consistently attack.

I was able to get rid of the Oranguru early with Parallel and then slowly make Jess burn through her resources to finally arrive at the win.

The second game was not as great due to the turn two Vikavolt and Jessica just started slamming Pokémon into the discard pile consistently, even with the odd Parallel City to try and stop the onslaught but it was not able to be done so that game which was extremely well played by Jessica was a very tight affair.

The tie was the correct and fair result for the match up which personally from this moment I was wondering if I should have stuck with Zoroark/Garbodor seeing the amount of Tapu Bulu in the field.

WL (Tie), 0-0-1

Round Two: Vs BuzzRoc - Mitchell Taylor

This seemed familiar, mainly due to us being paired up in the second round of the cup at St Austell, this was going to be an incredibly interesting match up with Buzzwole Gx being an unfavourable match up especially the fact I substituted the Mewtwo from Evolutions for an Oranguru from Ultra Prism due to the threat of Mill that turned up day one.

The first game, Mitch had such a fast and explosive start taking out a Rockruff early with a Jet Punch for 60 with a Strong Energy and Regirock Ex on the bench. It was then followed up with Knockouts onto numerous Gx Pokémon and he quickly ran away with the first game after developing another Buzzwole Gx.

The second game was a lot closer as I was able to take an early knockout onto a Remoraid stopping the draw support from Mitch's deck which allowed a slow and clunk game from him. I was able to take knockouts using Lycanroc's Dangerous Rogue Gx and after that Mitch was not able to recover.

In the third, I had such a horrible start to the game starting Tapu Lele Gx and missing the chance to get a starting hand Brigette. I was able to take the initiative to start taking knockouts using Mew Ex, early and fast forcing four prizes in two turns. When Mitch then placed three energies and attacked with Regirock Ex for 100 damage on the Mew while benching another Buzzwole Gx that was when I was able to search out for a Guzma in my deck to take out the final Buzzwole to turn the game into a win. 

LWW, 1-0-1 

Round Three: Vs VikaBulu - Dan Clatworthy

Once again another Tapu Bulu match up, this was not a great game.
Both players misplayed in this match a lot allowing each other to win a game a piece and make the game a tie. I missed 10 damage onto a bulu with a Lycanroc Gx which was an instant return knockout and then in the second game my opponent decided to retreat out to save a Pokémon rather than knocking out the active.
I think a tie was a fair result for the match as time way called.

LW, 1-0-2

Round Four: Vs Gardevoir - Anas Toumia

This was the first game which was incredibly close to being a tie but I ran out winning, this was due to in the first game I was able to take knockouts onto Remoraid and Gallade early to not give my opponent a chance to continue setting up his bench. Playing a stage 2 Pokémon is obviously extremely clunky and they were only able to achieve 1 Gallade and 1 Gardevoir which were dealt with in the first game. I started Mew Ex on this occasion which due to the slow start took 4 prizes before a Gardevoir finally knocked it out.

In the second game there was not that much time left with 15 minutes being left by the time this game started. This was either going to be where I was in for a chance to get into T4 or not, so I needed to make sure either I took a quick win or had to tie out the game so I won overall. Anas hit everything in his opening hand playing everything down he needed having Alolan Vulpix in the active and searching his deck while I had an Oranguru in the active, and an opening brigette but nothing else for the next few turns.
If Anas was able to be quicker attacking into my Pokémon he could have won the game and it would have ventured to a tie. He did not start being aggressive early but waiting for me to start playing my Zoroark Gx's down to play, which I did not do for the entire game due to knowing he had two Gallade ready to knockout any of my Zoroark. Instead I was able to play my game around Rockruff's Corner attack which enabled me to get the win after making it awkward for my opponent to do anything in the game.

WT, 2-0-2

Round Five: Vs Metagross Box - James Raymond

This was my win and in round and both me and James needed to win this to be able to reach a top cut finish. I lost the toss and went second although James' turn one was very weak for a Metagross deck. I was able to take some early prizes. Here due to the high Hp of Metagross the majority of my attacks were two shots until I was able to power up a Dangerous Rogue Gx to sweep something up towards the middle of the game. 
James tried extremely hard to fight back in this game but he struggled with the initial energy discard which helps with developing his board state for later in the game and with a minimal amount of energy in the discard and no Metagross to swing or use the Geotech ability to charge so game one was an incredible uphill struggle for him due to Zoroark's consistency.
The second game was very pressured and interesting as both players were able to set up well and start looking to take prizes when they could. James was very aggressive with his energy discard this time round and was able to start charging Metagross up turn three or four, before he then placed Dusk Mane Necrozma down to start swinging.
It was close to coming down to time again and James only had a couple of prizes to take, time was called and James had two turns to take a knock out onto two Pokémon. He managed to on turn 0 forcing me to promote a Tapu Lele Gx so I knew it would get immediately knocked out with out a choice band. I then drew into Guzma and a Strong energy to place onto my benched Rockruff, used the Guzma to bring up a Metagross with no energy attached and used Corner once again to stop him from retreating. If he was able to find a Guzma then that would have been game but thanks to a previous N the turn before I was able to shrink his hand so he could not draw into one.
Corner winning me two rounds of the day.

I would like to make a special thanks to James and Jess, they were absolutely lovely throughout both the days and both were very kind giving a fantastic reputation for the area as it has been the first time travelling to Cornwall to play! (You need to get a cat and call it Meowth!)

WT, 3-0-2

Top 4: Vs Turbo Metals - Ross Gilbert

Once into the Top 4 I was paired with Ross, which was extremely exciting for myself as we had been finally paired against each other after having shared a laugh and a joke through the weekend at both cups. Before I break down the game, this has had to be one of the most entertaining and enjoyable games of Pokémon I have ever played. It did not seem like a Top 4 match up and was more like a fun game at league or a testing session, with both myself and Ross exchanging sassy jokes and talking about generic Pokémon TCG trivia.
As game one started we both got off to incredibly good starts, with Ross firing on all cylinders with a turn one sycamore to discard nothing (swiftly met with a high five). As he developed his board state incredibly quickly and filling up his bench. Within my first turn I was able to Parallel his board state so he had to get rid of some of his bench sitting Pokémon such as Mr Mime and Oranguru.

My personal aim here was to force Ross into taking the first price with a big Meteor Tempest so I could reply with a Watch and Learn from Sudowoodo to then force a trade in prizes with either of us having to then take a turn to set back up due to the nature of the Turbo Metals deck I was sure it was more likely to be Ross. The first game did not plan out amazingly well as instead of me using Guzma to bring up the benched Dusk Mane I instead Acerola'd a Zoroark which straight away turned out into Ross' favour and he ran out with the first game.
In the second game how ever, I distinctly remember both of us getting amazing starts again although this time Ross had started a Cobalion in the active rather than a Mew, this lead to him retreating and radiant starring to get his energy around the board. with there being 5 benched Pokémon I once again hit him with an early Parallel and made him discard his Oranguru and a Tapu Lele leaving him with no options of a draw support. I then used Corner to keep the Cobalion in the active position. 
The corners had been my way of getting an extra turn back throughout all my games this weekend especially if I was behind at any point. This was even much the case against Ross as it turned out I had used Corner to stop his energy acceleration causing him to lose vital turns of Radiant Star. Although he did pull out a Guzma with a Skyla, it was a shame that I did not have an N for my next turn.
One of my favourite plays of the weekend was being able to knockout a Dusk Mane Necrozma in game 2 with a Tapu Lele as I was able to bring up a fully charged Dusk Mane with Bloodthirsty eyes and then use Kukui to gain 20 damage and draw the Double Colourless Energy off of those two cards, with a choice band and DCE already attached I was able to take the knockout with the most suprising attacker.
With Ross needing to take three prizes where as I had to take two, this lead him to an awkward situation as he was not able to get the extra energy to be able to knockout anything else due to a missed elixir and he took out a Tapu Lele but I 2 puzzle of time to grab the Sudowoodo and Counter energy to win the game by copying the Dusk Mane's, Suns Eclipse Gx.
In the final game of the Top 4 it went to sudden death as neither of us were able to take a Knockout easily. I was able to hit a corner with a strong energy onto the Solgaleo Prism star and then was able to search out all the pieces I needed to take a knockout by using 4 puzzles of time at once to be able to guzma up my own Rockruff to be active, then hit a lycanrox GX and an energy to be able to Dangerous Rogue to win the game.
It was unfortunate for Ross as he was unable to find a Float Stone in his 8 card deck in his previous turn which allowed me to win the game. If he was able to find one then he would have won. This is why Pokémon is such a great game as this one moment was down to the luck of the draw and you never know what could happen.
Although I can not remember every detail of this game I was just full of so much adrenaline when it had finished, it felt like I blacked out for an hour while playing. 
I would just like to say that Ross was a fantastic competitor to play against and he made it extremely hard to win the round through all the jokes, it was an absolutely fantastic game of Pokémon. It was a pleasure spending time with him over the last few days.

LWW (Sudden Death), 4-0-2

Final: Vs Turbo Metals - Michael Hill

The final was also incredibly fun game as I ran away with Game one against Michael with the roguest of Tapu Lele Gx I have ever seen in a competitive game. With the Tapu Lele taking a knockout on a Dusk Mane Necrozma with 3 DCE on the Tapu Lele and then with a choice band after using Guzma to bring up a charged Dusk Mane, took a knockout. This was much of the same in the first game and after that the final was an extremely tight game with both players coming out happy from the final game.

Just like the others I would like to say thank you to Michael, Gemma and Austin who were fantastic people who as a group we have met and made some extremely good friends going forward into our final weeks of our first competitive season playing Pokémon.

Here is the list I played:

Final Thoughts

My Rogue Tapu Lele Gx in the final!

I would just like to say a huge thank you to Paul over at Xeon City Gym, who ran a fantastic tournament down in Cornwall at Bazbo Comics. It opened up our eyes into what a League Cup should be ran like and the kind of things which we were able to take from Paul was insightful but most of all the fact it was truly nice to be a part of the community which he has built down in Truro. I must say that in contrast the Sunday at Bazbo was ran a whole lot better than the Mad at Miniatures, mainly due to no Top Cut ruling but that is always down to Tournament Organisers discretion, but both the League Cups were extremely fun. This highlighted the fantastic community in this part of the United Kingdom. We look forward to heading back down to the region at some stage before the end of the season to take part in the League cup they will hold. 

With Forbidden Light to be legal for the first time this weekend we now look at Tours, France to see how the current meta will change with quite a few viable cards being included in this new set. This will help everyone with their development of decks to come for regionals, especially Sheffield for those in Europe. 

The next event I will be at playing will probably be Sheffield as I will be Judging at the Marquee Models League Cup, 3rd June. I do not know when I will be available to get to the next League Cup but hopefully I can put in some testing before travelling up north to the Steel City.

I look forward to seeing many of you at Sheffield,

Charlie

@ThePelipperPost
107/250 Championship Points

Gone in a Flurry! The Lowdown on Zoroark Gx and Greninja Gx

Welcome back to another blog on The Pelipper Post, today I will be discussing my opinions on the deck I will be looking to develop over the coming quarter which instantly took my fancy when the cards for the latest Pokémon set, Forbidden Light (FOL) was released.
Many looked straight to the Ultra Necrozma Gx with the new Malamar but I strongly felt obliged to look else where due to the outright dominance of big basic decks which are usually categorised off as high-roller decks. Saying that I did my time over the last year playing Tapu Bulu/Vikavolt and Buzzwole Gx, but for me the enjoyment of playing card games is the outrageous combinations you can pull off in your deck and Greninja Gx allows you to pull this off consistently, yet with a 'Combo Wombo' style.

Card Breakdown: Greninja Gx

Greninja Gx, Forbidden Light Expansion

Greninja Gx is a Stage 2 Water-Type Pokémon which evolves from Froakie and Frogadier with a Grass-Type weakness. With the Pokémon being known for its agile frame and the swift movements of a martial-artist allowing the Pokémon to look graceful in combat as Greninja toys with its opponents. With this fitting description of the popular Kalos Pokémon, it is no wonder why it only has 230hp which is relatively low considering the other Gx cards that have been released, such as Solgaleo Gx (250hp), Decidueye (240hp) and Charizard (250hp). The disappointing part of the card though is the retreat cost which is 2 energy, which has previously seen as a single energy and no energy on numerous cards which has been printed since the start of the XY era. 

The art on the card is probably my favourite out of all the new cards from the set which is not a Full Art supporter. The lines which show the wind motions of Greninja's limbs as they move quickly, really shows the power and elegance of the Pokémon. I really enjoy the waterfall background done by 5ban Graphics as it sets the tone for what kind of place you would usually find a Greninja relaxing and resting before the Pokémon's next adventure. The Full Art and the Rainbow Art show a very strong and powerful image of the frog-like Pokémon although I believe that the Full Art out classes the Rainbow due to its natural depth in colours but both get completely over shadowed by the regular art. Personally I would prefer to use the regular art cards anyway due to their cheaper nature in price and for the art they are superior to the others although not as shiny.

Scoop Up Cyclone, Plasma Blast Expansion

Getting back to the actual card itself, Greninja Gx's main use is the ability Shuriken Flurry, this allows you to put 3 damage counters on any of your opponents Pokémon, when you evolve the Pokémon from your hand. This is basically Crobat from Phantom Forces with its Surprise Bite ability, which saw a lot of play with Landorus Ex in many winning decks. This ability stacks which means if you place down 3 Greninja Gx in a single turn then you will be able to place 9 damage counters anywhere on the board, with possibilities to devolve, scoop up or Acerola the card back into your hand to be able to lay down the entire line again and use the cards ability. 

Although having the ability to place these damage counters, Crobat was a much more powerful force than what Greninja Gx first appears to be. This is due to the lack of AZ and Scoop Up Cyclone which allows you to pick up your Pokémon without the possibility of needing a probability of a coin flip or damage onto a Pokémon in the standard format.

Although with the higher Hp than the Crobat and the entirely usable attacks of the Gx card itself really allows Greninja Gx to hold its own and be a renewable source of damage output that can cylce itself over a greater period of time, which is deemed to be a lot more effective than the attacks of the Crobat. 

Which moves us onto the only attack on the card (that is not a Gx), Haze Slash. This attack should only really be used as a back up attack in which ever deck you play Greninja Gx in, unless you decide to build a quad frog deck. This is due to the attack only being able to really hit 110 or 140 with a choice band for a water and a double colourless energy (DCE). This is two attachments to get this attack going which is quite slow considering Golisopod, Zoroark, Lucario and Zygarde Gx all have a single energy attachment to achieve the attack cost. How ever there are a few ways to get over this situation, Multi Switch being one of those if you are being forced to attack with a Greninja Gx and you can switch either a DCE or a water energy onto your active and start swinging. The maths although does really get helped by Greninja's ability as it enables you to hit 170hp if you evolved the same turn which is a knockout on a Tapu Lele Gx. The second part of the attack though is the really viable reason you could cycle your Greninja's. The effect of Haze Slash reads, you MAY shuffle this card and all cards attached to it into your deck. This is where there is not ideally the need for having AZ or Scoop Up Cyclone as it will help cycle itself through so you are always trying to do that extra damage by chaining the evolutionary line. With the option of keeping the Greninja Gx on the field as well due to the wording on the card, it may make a fantastic run and hide Pokémon but at times will be capable of taking a hit against the majority of the current standard meta. Although if you see a Golisopod Gx it is not all doom and gloom. 

Finally leaves us with the last attack on the card, which is also the most powerful, the Gx attack. Shadowy Hunter Gx! Thanks TPCi... Personally I do not love the name of the Gx move but as we found out a couple of World Championships ago, its not all about the name of the move or Pokémon that matters (Mega Audino, Magical Symphony). This Gx move allows you to snipe 130 worth of damage to a single Pokémon on your Opponents field, obviously not applying weakness or resistance to benched Pokémon, although if you are able to devastate numerous Pokémon with spreads of damage then this could be more of an amazing Gx move. Personally I like the Gx attack for the damage output onto the active Pokémon, as it hits some amazing numbers if combined with the ability of the card itself. The base 130 damage with a choice band raises the attack to 160, if then a Greninja Gx was put into play that turn it deals 30 more damage making it 190. This deals with the majority of Basic Gx Pokémon, apart from Zygarde Gx. If you are able to either evolve into another frog or play a Professor Kukui, you can be hitting up to 210/220 damage which is currently the magic number when playing the TCG. This gives you a massive opportunity to hit numbers which only the Lycanroc Zoroark varient can hit with their single Gx move, which personally makes this deck a lot stronger than the Golisopod Varient. 

Support Cards

The Greninja Gx card is incredibly good, but like most decks there has to be some form of support for the card and this helps increase the good matchups and decrease the bad. The support cards can range from other Pokémon that can help aid Greninja Gx due to their own damage output, draw support and abilities. These support cards can even be Trainer or Energy cards which can help aid with consistency of how the deck runs throughout a match making critical plays that benefit the players board state.

Frogadier, Forbidden Light Expansion

The first card I would like to talk about is the Frogadier from Forbidden Light as this is one of the main crucial components of why the Greninja Gx card is so strong in the first place. This card has the ability, Quick Shuriken (Translation from Facebook), which allows you to put two damage counters onto any of your opponents Pokémon when the Frogadier is evolved from your hand onto a Froakie on the field. This once added up with Greninja Gx's ability adds up to a total of 50 damage onto a Pokémon over two turns, which then will allow a Pokémon such as Zoroark, Golisopod or Buzzwole to come and sweep up with their attack for turn. This will help be key in a number of knockouts you will wish to take with your main attacker. The attack water drip is not so great but deals 20 damage to the opponents active Pokémon and the card is rounded off with a single energy retreat cost which has been the same with all previous Frogadier cards as well as its weakness to Grass. The Hp is about right for a stage one Pokémon although it is a little light compared to other cards coming out in the set such as Braxien or Amaura. 

Timer Ball has been a card that has always been disregarded as a rubbish trainer card due to the need of hitting heads consistently to make any impact in the deck. This time round though the reward heavily outweighs the risk due to how reliant on evolution Pokémon this deck is, Zoroark Gx is a stage one, Greninja is a Stage 2 and the abilities of the Frogadier and Greninja require you to play the cards from your hand. Timer Ball allows you to follow these conditions that are put on yourself from playing this deck, if you are extremely unlucky you will end up rolling 4 tails and get yourself no Pokémon at all, although with the thick evolution lines we have in the deck it allows you to easily find them if you so wish to. Timer Ball though outclasses Evosoda which means you have to evolve a Pokémon on your bench straight from your deck to which can not be played to thin your deck if you have already used all of your trades, where as Timer Ball allows you to throw it away by whiffing a search in your deck as its private content. This card can also make or brake a final knockout onto a Pokémon as it will allow you to search for one of your frogs that you are able to play at that time which might not be the one in your hand at the current point in time. Timer Ball is a very nice inclusion into this deck.

Devolution Spray, Evolutions Expansion

Another card which after some thought is worth testing with this deck is Devolution Spray, it allows you to devolve one of your Pokémon on your side of play and then put the card into your hand. This will allow you to continuously evolve Froakie into Frogadier or then into Greninja Gx, this will help to be able to consistently have damage output on your Quick Shuriken's that will allow you to completely swamp these big basic Pokémon and start chipping away at Stage 1's on your opponents bench. The Devolution spray has taken spots previously taken by Super Scoop Ups just because it will allow instant damage even if cycle through just a single Frogadier and two Froakie on your bench, which can allow you up to 20 or 30 damage extra than you previously would have. 

Finally the main support Pokémon being Zoroark Gx, being one of if not the best card in format currently. Zoroark has huge versatility in the TCG as it has been paired with many different partners and has still worked extremely well. The reason why I believe Zoroark Gx is the best partner for Greninja Gx is the capability to output damage and draw cards which there is no other card in the format which can match that function. This helps leave space for cards such as Devolution Spray, Timer Ball and thick lines of Pokémon mainly due to how easy it is to get rolling turn 2 with multiple Zoroark in play. 
The card is mainly based around its ability Trade, this allows you to discard 1 card from your hand and draw two cards. This works well as a deck thinner and usually 9/10 times lands you with the card you want, after being able to use multiple Trade's in a single turn. This means lots of draw supporters in the deck are not ideal due to the amount of cards you do draw, this means more cards like Cynthia and N are being used over Professor Sycamore as they can cycle cards back into your deck if needs be.

Zoroark Gx, Shining Legends Expansion

The attack on Zoroark's Gx card is fairly good as it allows you to do 20 damage for each Pokémon you have in play, with a choice band you are hitting 150. Once this is added up with some Frogadier evolutions then you are easily knocking out Basic Pokémon, or some of the awkward non-Gx stage two Pokémon such as Empoleon. This adds to the diversity of the already powerful Zoroark card, allowing more damage manipulation that previously expected. Zoroark usually only has Devoured Field and Kukui to possibly hit 180, but in this deck there is a high possibility of hitting even bigger numbers using Greninja Gx. In terms of similarities to Decidueye Gx and Salazzle variants of Zoroark decks, this is a lot quicker to be set up and easier to have damage output straight away as a Stage 1 Frogadier puts 20 damage on any Pokémon in play which outclasses Decidueye. Salazzle has been a good manipulator of damage for Zoroark but as its damage between turns it does lack that killer instinct, as usually your opponent is able to heal or retreat out of the Burn/Poison on their active before they are knocked out.

Zorark/Greninja Gx Deck List

The Deck List is one I have personally developed over the past two months since the release of the confirmed set list. I have worked incredibly hard to hopefully formulate the best list I am capable of building, although I understand other people may prefer other cards, which are not in my list but this is my opinion on how I like to play my decks and develop them for consistency. Consistency is something which I have toned back within this deck though, due to the amount of Pokémon having to be included within the list. With publishing this list there are still one or two inclusions which personally I am still testing and not 100% on them being in the deck come the next quarter. Finally lets get on with the list.

Techs and Tinkerings

Tapu Koko Promo SM31

This is something that makes the matchups with Stage 1 Pokémon a lot easier to deal with as it allows you to do that extra 20 damage early on in the game while setting up the rest of your board by using Flying Flip. It also is a fantastic pivot point if it shows up in the active position allowing myself to switch into a suitable attacker depending on what is in the opponents active position. Although I have sacrificed some of the Greninja Gx line for this card, it is an inclusion which I am not 100% on at this moment in time. 

Mew Ex RC24

Mew Ex, Legendary Treasures Expansion

This card is what is swinging matches currently against Buzzwole Gx decks allowing you to hit for the Psychic-weakness and being able to copy every Pokémon's attacks in play. With its Versatility because of the ability on the Mew Ex allows this to be an inclusion in a high number of decks currently that struggle against Buzzwole Gx, which in the Forbidden Light expansion is getting more toys to play with than previously so hitting weakness against Buzzwole Gx is incredibly good. With the Versatile ability, Mew Ex could even copy Greninja Gx's attacks to shuffle the card into your deck to avoid the easy knock out on a 120hp Ex Pokémon. 

Greninja BKP

There is only one use for this card, Shadow Stitching. This locks off your opponents abilities and in the current meta where they are running wild with the only denial being Garbotoxin Garbodor then there is a massive gap in the market for some ability denial. The only way a player can get round the ability lock will be through playing a Pokemon Ranger tech themselves which for one match up I do not believe people will be playing it. It can slow your opponent down and increase the likelihood of your Malamar/Vikavolt type decks being slowed down. This may go up to around 2 copies depending on how the meta will unfold.

Professor Kukui

Kukui has not seen as much love as it could have, mainly due to the big basics that allow decks to hit 210 with ease. Although Kukui has seen some play in decks which damage output needs to be raised, for example with Zoroark GX. As explained earlier that 20 damage can help knock out a Pokémon after just one Quick Shuriken or Shuriken Flurry in a turn. This card really helps your numbers for damage and even without an ability spread you are able to knock out a Tapu Lele Gx, then with the ability to draw two extra cards means that you may be able to dig once more after using all of your Trades to find the Choice Band, energy or Puzzle of Time needed for this or next turn.

Splash Energy, BreakPoint Expansion

Splash Energy

Splash energy adds to the consistency of your ability to find Greninja pieces as if they get knocked out of play then you are able to put them straight back into your hand. This enables you to easy keep your lines in play rather than your discard pile. This could be crucial to make sure we have access to the ability on Frogadier and Greninja or doesn't allow the new Lysandre Prism to be able to take out vital pieces in our discard pile. The only issue with this is going to be the developing special energy denial but i believe that with Puzzle of Time you can easily replenish the Splash energies into your hand. This can easily be substituted for regular water energy as you can use Rescue Stretcher your lines back in, which with Splash energy, Stretcher just adds another way to grab pieces back into your hand or deck.

Multi Switch

This is one of the inclusions which is 50/50 but running so many splash energies in the deck allows you to move a Double Colourless Energy to a Greninja Gx with ease. If I was running more water energy then I would look to maybe replace this with Aqua Patch, although being able to move a DCE from one Zoroark to another could also be a very good play to preserve damaged Pokémon rather than using Aqua Patch to the benched Frog. 

Match Ups: Place in Meta

Personally I do not see many decks which this deck has a bad match up other than those who run Garbodor in their decks. Greninja has an obvious Grass-weakness, to which Golisopod is still going to be running around in the current standard meta. All Zoroark Varients could see a dip in play due to how dominant Buzzwole Gx will be in the next Quarter. Although I see that this variant can destroy Buzzwole rather easily unless paired with Garbodor, which will be difficult with abilities being taken down. Due to the lack of testing so far I will list the majority of the main stays in the Meta that I believe to be favourable and unfavourable match ups:

Buzzwole/Lycanroc - 60-40                                   Zoroark/Lucario - 60-40
Buzzwole/Garbodor - 20-80                                  Zoroark/Gardivoir - 60-40
Buzzwole/Lucario - 70-30                                     Zoroark/Glaceon - 60-40
Zoroark/Lycanroc - 60-40                                     Volcanion/Kiawe - 80-20
Zoroark/Golisopod - 30-80                                   Sylveon - 60-40
Zoroark/Garbodor - 20-80                                    Turbo Metals - 70-30
Malamar/Ultra Necrozma 70-30

I will hope to have a future article which will go more in-depth on the match ups but only due to testing a few currently this is all that I can tell you. 

Conclusion

In conclusion the deck itself has a lot of work still to be done to enable a consistent 60 cards to be able to played at a tournament, the makings of the deck have only just started and the testing will continue to develop this hyped archetype. I personally will continue to test this deck in the lead up to Sheffield Regionals, UK, as I think that this is a fantastic deck considering all the big basics that are being floated around currently and has a great depth of possibilities to play the deck.

Thank you very much for reading this article, please support the Blog by sharing this with your friends and drop me a follow on Twitter @Thepelipperpost. I will be posting updates on testing sessions and deck lists which I have made from the new cards in the Forbidden Light set, I will be looking to write about Buzzwole Gx and the support it is getting from the new expansion and look to develop my updated Buzzwole Gx list. 

Charlie

@ThePelipperPost

67/250 Championship Points