Monkey's Travel in Barrels
Where the ouroboros of the meta comes round after consuming itself there is always a point when it arrives back at the start. Let me set the scene, it was the 10th of March and that was when the meta completely changed. The field was full of Zoroark decks as Adam Hakwins brought home the Malmo regionals with the Weavile version, so with everyone bound to play Zoroark Passimian seemed to be an incredibly good shout to be able to trade positively with these super consistent decks. Then Buzzwole GX came along, this was even before baby Buzzwole was legal and it completely dominated the day with I believe the majority of the Top 8 that day was Buzzwole/Lycanroc. Although I had a very tough start to the day playing teammate Andy King's Zoroark deck to a tie and then losing due to misplays to also teammate Bruce Kelf, it was looking like the monkey magic had left itself at home. This was until I played and won three game in a row to which has meant that I just needed a win and in to get into the Top 8. Sadly I lost that game against a Buzzwole/Lycanroc to which I completely destroyed them for the majority of the turns and then going down to small hands from N's in both cost me the game.
This was not a ramble on about me being annoyed at myself for misplaying that day, maybe. But it is also a sign that I believe that this could once again be the play for worlds but this time with a few tweaks to the deck to be involved to allow it to stand up against the majority of the meta at the current period. Lets go Bananas!
Fantastic Monkeys and Where to Find Them!
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| Passimian, Sun and Moon Base Set |
The Attacking Line
So to break down the fantastic Passimian card to which you will ONLY play a one of in your deck, this is the Kobe Bryant or the Harry Kane of your attack. It has 110hp and is a Fighting-Type Pokémon, the best thing is that it is a basic Pokémon which allows it to be searchable by Nest Ball and Brooklet Hill. This means that it is incredibly easy to get a turn one search of your deck due to these cards which you play. The most important part of the first search is knowing if you have this Passimian in your control or if it is in your prizes which then makes the game a little bit harder but not much. With the retreat cost of one, makes it not too bad to move between pieces but we are playing some free retreaters.The first attack on Passiam is Fling, but you will not be using that as the majority of the time you will be looking to use the second attack as it will more likely do a lot more damage than the first attack will but there could be a time where that could be needed but I would rather use other ways to attack the bench.
Team play, the emphasis is on the name and the effect is exactly the same. For each Passimian on your bench this attack does 30+ damage, with an extra three passimian this attack is already capped in at 100 damage without any form of weakness. This will the the attack you will be calling out for 80% of the game and trust me, its really good with the combinations you can use it with. This attack is for a double colourless energy which allows you to be able to have a single attachment and start attacking as soon as possible (story about that later).
The Defensive Line
These Passimian are the defensive set piece experts, it is like having Bill Russel or Gerrard Pique protecting your prize cards blocking each shot while making sure your attacker has the perfect tools to be able to knockout the opponents Pokémon. Lets huddle round and talk about this other Passimian!
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| Passimian, Ultra Prism Set |
Once again it has 110hp and is a Fighting-Type Pokémon, with it being basic it can be searched by Nest Ball and Brooklet Hill which synergies with the attacking passimian. Once again it has a single retreat cost, which as you do not want it in the active position can be annoying, although you run plenty of switch and items to ease the retreat cost each time. It is also important to find out how many of these are in your deck due to the ability which we will touch on in a second. Although depending on your match up will show the need to preserve or throw away these Pokémon at ease.
The attack is nothing too special although it can be used as a secondary attack against Fighting-Weak Pokémon which can help pick up one hit knockouts on small basics. The attack Rock Hurl does 40 damage but is not effected by resistance so any Ghost Phsyic-Type Pokémon in the TCG will be hit for the same amount. This attack costs a single fighting and a colourless energy which means it is accessible via Counter energy. If you are using this attack though, there is something wrong.
Finally the reason why we play this card over the other Passimian for the last card slots taken up by cards with the same name. Power Huddle, it allows you to do 30 more damage if your Passimian attacks into an evolution Pokémon, this does stack with the attacking Passimian's Team play so where you would usually be doing 100 damage for three benched monkeys, it does a grand total of 190 damage instead now. Obviously this is for against evolution Pokémon and not basics which this deck does struggle with but this is why we play other cards to help hit the weakness' of other cards in the meta.
The Rumble in the Jungle
The Pokemon that really make this deck tick are the tech options which you can choose. There is a vast majority of options you can add into the deck for a specific meta you are expecting to see. But there is first the need to identify what draw support you are going to be using in the deck so lets talk about out playmaker in the team.
Creativity and Vision
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| Octillery, BreakThrough Set |
This is your Tom Brady of the deck which will be looking to feed you your combination cards to be able to constantly achieve the same effective turns of attacks over and over again. This will be Octillery, which sadly will be rotating out of the standard format for the next season. Remoraid has fantastic consistency factor being able to drag it onto your bench from Brooklet Hill and Nest ball to then ultra ball to find the Octillery that you need to evolve into later on in the game. It has 90hp and has a two retreat cost which means it is difficult to move out of the active position at times which is why we run switches and Float stones.
The main reason for Octillery is the ability, Abysall Hand. This allows you to draw cards until you have 5 in your hand, which in a deck which has a high item count you can easily discard many items and supporters to be able to draw the cards you need to be able to take a knockout or set up for the rest of the game. This ability is only able to be used once per turn and as you will be playing a 2-1 Octillery line there will not be a chance to use it twice in the same turn by having two fully functioning.
The Special Team
I promise this is the last time I use a sporting reference in this article, but without these guys in the deck the chance of being even thought about as a meta deck would be completely wiped away. But due to the versatility of the deck and the type of energy that it uses it has a giant advantage against other decks of having to pile loads of energy onto a Pokémon over numerous turns. This deck can power up its techs with the same single energy attachment as it can Passimian. So what could some of these techs be and why?
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| Mew, Fates Collide Set |
The whole point of teching in a Pokémon into a deck is to either help add consistency to a deck to find specific things needed or to be able to turn a match up on its head. Where Passimian only does enough damage to be able to knockout Fighting-Weak Pokémon, it needs other basic attacker which can hit for weakness against other decks as well.
The first card which allows the deck to be able to compete with the majority of the meta currently is Mew, not the EX one but the Fates Collide version. Not only is it a single prized attacker but the actual ability of the Mew is incredible and changes a lot of difficult match ups on its head. The little 50hp attacker with free retreat needs to have an ability like this to justify the small hit points of one of the most popular Pokémon in the game.
Memories of Dawn allows you to copy anyone of your Basic Pokémon's attacks and use it as Mew's as long as it has the energy to be able to use the attack. This means Pokémon such as Buzzwole Gx and Necrozma Gx will be hit for weakness and Knocked out from copying Passimian's Team Play. The best part of Mew is the fact it allows you to have four Passimian on the bench which means you can hit up to 160 damage with a Choice Band, meaning you are just shy of a knockout if you are looking to hit into a Tapu Lele Gx or anything with 180hp.
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| Tapu Koko, Sun and Moon Promo |
With the fact Mew misses out on hitting the important numbers when facing big Gx Pokémon that are not Buzzwole or Psychic-Weak, its important that we do have a way of reaching these numbers. In comes Tapu Koko, the promo from the collection box that released over a year ago now and is still finding relevance in the competitive TCG. Not only does it provide a good spread option, but it also is a Lightning Type which allows you to have a more favourable match up against Pokémon like Celesteela and Ho-oh. Having free retreat allows you to be able to move in between your benched Pokémon so easily that you should be able to end the turn with a card you would like in the active position. The only down side is the 110hp the card has which means it is easily knocked out by Buzzwole GX and gets one shot by Zoroark.
The main attack we are looking at is Flying Flip which allows you to spread 20 damage to each of your opponents Pokémon, only applying weakness to the active though and that goes for the choice band as well. This attack can even be combined with Mew to enable you spread against psychic weak attackers like the Malamar decks that will enable you to get rid of all their energy spread. The second attack is not going to be used as much as Flying Flip but there is the possibility to be able to use it due to the deck playing counter energy. Electric Ball does 100 damage which means that it will be knocking out any Lightning-Weak Pokémon with a Choice Band. Although this combination is hard to achieve, it can be a deadly attack to most Pokémon.
Finally I believe this is the space which can be the most interchangeable but personally I think in the way the meta is shaping up, this could be the right call for playing in this Worlds format. Previously I have played the likes of Sudowoodo (Watch and Learn), Shaymin (Rally Back), Reshiram (Outrage) and Keldeo (Resolute Blade). But I have finally settled for this format the little electric mouse that is just so powerful it can take out a legendary Pokémon in one shot. That Pokémon is not Pikachu, but it is your favourite little snuggle Pokémon, it is Dedenne.
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| Dedenne, Forbidden Light Set |
The little electric/fairy mouse that is able to be used with double colourless energy which also adds synergy with Passimian, Mew and Tapu Koko can easily be charged up in one turn. Although the little mouse is a low Hp for an attacker coming in at 60 hp, you will be able to keep recycling Dedenne through your deck. It has a single retreat cost which is not ideal but better than Octillery, although usually you would promote one of your free retreat Pokémon if you can.
So why get so excited over Dedenne? It is all in the attack. Electrichain for a double colourless energy allows you to do 30+ damage, if the Pokémon has a tool card attached it does 30 more damage. Now you are sitting there thinking how can this be any good? Well let me show you. It will be able to take a one hit knockout on Rayquqza Gx, it will be 10 short of a knockout on Ultra Necrozma and also with the possibility of Noivern seeing some play, it is a very good single prized attacker to have. The reason why I like it so much is because you do not need to use Counter energy onto it to be able to take the Knockouts but you can just use Double Colourless Energy which can allow you to be able to play less Counter Energy for an extra deck space.
Statistics of Damage Output in Match ups
In terms of match ups, this is the whole reason why I am feeling a genuine buzz around this deck at the moment due to the maths which comes with the pure amount of damage this deck can do. It only really struggles against Basic Pokémon it does not hit weakness to, as said above depending on the meta you are seeing can change specific mechanics and make the deck better for each match up you think you will have. So, lets finally crunch some mathematical numbers and see what this deck can really do against your opponent!
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| Scizor Gx, Celestial Storm Set |
- Passimian in active and 3 benched Passimian does 100 damge to a Basic Pokémon.
- Passimian in active and 3 benched Passimian does 190 damage to an Evolution Pokémon.
- Passimian in active and 3 benched Passimian does 220 damange, with Choice Band, to Evolution Pokemon.
- Passimian in active and 3 benched Passimian does 240, with Choice Band and Diancie Prism, to Evolution Pokémon
With this basic structure you can see that doing damage to Evolution Pokémon is the whole key of the deck. It has the possibility of being able to hit those big numbers against decks which involve Decidueye, Gardevoir and Greninja Gx's, meaning that it can take two prizes incredibly easily. The
other benefit is being able to do damage over what you need, for example a Golisopod Gx Armour Press' so it actually has 230 Hp. This is no issue because you are able to hit the numbers needed to knockout that Golisopod. The same goes for the new Scizor Gx, does 30 less damage of your opponents attack, just hit the 240 damage that you need to knockout the Scizor.
other benefit is being able to do damage over what you need, for example a Golisopod Gx Armour Press' so it actually has 230 Hp. This is no issue because you are able to hit the numbers needed to knockout that Golisopod. The same goes for the new Scizor Gx, does 30 less damage of your opponents attack, just hit the 240 damage that you need to knockout the Scizor.
So you can see the benefits of having Passimian but what about Mew, does it really stand up against other Pokémon that well? Well lets have a look at when the Mew attacks:
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| Stakataka Gx, Celestial Storm Set |
- Mew in active and 4 benched Passimian does 130 damage to a Basic Pokémon.
- Mew in active and 4 benched Passimian does 160 damage, with a Choice Band, to a Basic Pokémon.
- Mew in active and 4 benched Passimian does 130 damage to an Evolution Pokémon.
- Mew in active and 4 benched Passimian does 320 damage, with a Choice Band, to a Psychic-Weak Pokémon.
This is why Mew is so overpowered in this deck as it is able to take Passimian's attack and use it for its own. The current meta being Buzzwole Gx, Necrozma Gx and what seems to be gearing up towards Naganadel Gx, this deck can pack a punch against the majority of decks in the current Meta. Even with Stakataka Gx being a threat by making Naganadel more bulky, it still takes a knockout past the ability of the new metal brick Pokémon. As you can see from the simple maths of the deck itself, there is a lot of room to move and develop as you go through the gears playing this deck.
Final Thoughts and A Sad Goodbye!
Overall in terms of the current meta the only issues which face Passimian is the Greninja Break matchup but this deck has seen less play thanks to the Giratina promo tech in the majority of Malamar/Necrozma decks. This is dynamic and accesses the reaches of the upper echelons of the damage needed to knockout the highest Hp Gx Pokemon, while also hitting meta decks of the likes of Rayquaza, Buzzwole and Zoroark. This is why I think Passimian has such a great placing in the meta considering its consistency lacks at times but when it runs hot, WE HAWT!
As I finish this artcle, it comes me that this is going to be the last time that this deck will get a chance in its current state which hopefully it can adapt and overcome some of the previous challenges of rotations to come but a loss of staples such as Puzzle of Time and Octillery, we could be saying goodbye to one of the most fun and budget friendly decks we have at this current moment in time. So as I finish writing this I urge everyone to at least give Passimian a chance before the rotation, as this is just one monkey that needs it final hurrah.
Thanks for reading, any questions or helps on a list do not hesitate to contact me on twitter.
Charlie
@ThePelipperPost
0/??? Championship Points
And where is your list??? I play passimian but now i dont use puzzle , more cynthias ans other shits
ReplyDeleteI’ll add a list to the article later in the week!
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