Magic_Umbreon
Researching Tower Scientist, Retired
Lucario Tech
Win/Loss: 5-2
DECKLIST
Pokémon: 14
2 Absol SW 21
4 Riolu DP 61
3 Lucario DP 6
1 Lucario LvX NDP 12
2 Sableye CG 10
1 Minun SW 32
1 Absol ex PK 92
Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums: 29
4 Pokédex DP 111
2 Castaway CG 72
2 Buffer Piece DF 72
1 Strength Charm DF 81
1 Timespace Distortion MT 124
1 Scott PK 81
3 Roseanne's Research SW 125
2 Team Galactic's Wager MT 115
1 Team Galactic's Mars SW 126
2 Super Scoop Up DP 115
1 Warp Point CG 84
4 Celio's Network CG 73
2 Lake Boundary MT 112
2 Professor Birch PK 80
1 Professor Rowan SW 123
1 Master Ball PK 78
Energy: 16
4 Multi Energy PK 89
3 Darkness Energy MT 119
9 Fighting Energy PK 108
STRATEGY
Absol
Absol is a card I'm sure everyone's heard about; you can't miss it. Absol's raid is useful here to damage Banette who otherwise might give the Lucario line a hard time. Baleful wind is a solid, early game disruptive move to slow down your opponent while you draw and search for setup.
Riolu
Although wild kick is dependant on a coin flip, it can set up a lot of pokémon for a KO once Riolu evolves. 60HP is nice as is the retreat cost. A solid starting pokémon that once again sees a lot of play for a reason. Wild kick can be fuelled by 13 of the energies in the deck for a potential turn one win.
Lucario
What I like most about Lucario is that it has an attack for every number of energy attached from one to three once levelled up. Aura sphere is a strong, efficent attack and provides very useful sniping while feint is just nice and easy for if you want to attach energy elsewhere. Again, the theme present in the deck remains of light retreating pokémon with Lucario's low single retreat cost so you can easily drop an Absol to raid or anything else and save energy for fast damage later.
Lucario LvX
My favourite card since I first saw it, everything's 'right' about it. While Gallade is superior in a good few ways, Lucario LvX's ability to use Lucario's attacks gives it a wide range of options to suprise your opponent. Stance is a great poké-power and comboes with the card itself's close combat attack. Level Up, do 80 and don't sufer the +30 side effect from close combat. Simple, easy. 110HP means you'll survive things and with buffer piece you have equivalent endurance of Blissey, Empoleon or Gallade. Smash things with this or spread damage while you build up another.
Sableye
Disable is a useful attack against many pokémon with only one decent attack. Examples include Blissey, Absol, Gallade and random things like Stantler or Beduw. If you stack darkness energy onto it, the damage from disable will pile up quite nicely while you attach energy to the rest of your bench. The colourless resistance and lack of weakness give it a little bit of durability but it can run away when you want it to with that low retreat cost. Excavate is the other main reason Sableye is included. Knowing what you'll draw next is a great advantage to have. Cleaning your deck of cards you won't need means your draw ends up a lot better. A good few cards here, such as Master Ball and Pokédex will be of much greater use after excavate. If a good card is there, you can grab it otherwise you'll have a range larger than before.
Minun
Drawing two is a great help and Minun doesn't even need to be in play or in your hand when a pokémon of yours is KOed. Just search it out and play it the turn after something is KOed and give your hand a nice boost. Best of all, Minun can stay there for the next opportunity for a quick draw. Remember, that it does not combo with super scoop up (read the poké-power carefully).
Absol ex
Ah, so much fun and game-changing. Easily obtainable from your deck, the ability to move counters at your command has many uses. One is to pile the damage done by Aura Sphere to the bench on one pokémon. If you can KO the defending pokémon even if it had 30 more HP, then save those counters and place them where another poké is in KO range. E.g. the defending pokémon has 90 max HP and has taken 40 from aura sphere. By playing Absol ex, you can take 30 from the active to KO the 50HP basic you targetted with Aura Sphere on the bench, then use close combat on the active for two KOs!
Pokédex
When you pick up a pokédex, it's as if you're given the choice of what to pick up from two cards. Best of all, unlike pokénav, the card you don't want is out of the way for other pokédices (haha what a crazy plural!), master balls, draw from mars or birch, minun's minus charge and sableye's excavate.
Castaway
Use castaway to keep your hand balanced with tools, energy and supporters. Not very helpful against the baleful wind of Absol because after you play the energy your trainer-saturated hand will burn away. Nethertheless, it's useful to hang on to so you can search out tools for the appropriate moment such as doing the extra damage required to KO a pokémon.
Buffer Piece
You don't want your pokémon to be KOed and buffer piece means they may well survive an attack they otherwise wouldn't. Particularly useful for Sableye who becomes considerably less fragile and not so vulnerable to the attacks you don't disable.
Strength Charm
You play strength charm when your attack is just 10 below what it needs to be to KO. It's a suprise to your opponent who thought their pokémon was safe for one more turn and turns their game on its side.
Timespace Distortion
One of the ways you re-use Stance. Also useful if your tech basics end up in the discard due to your own discard, being KOed or discarded by Absol or Umbreon*. When a Lucario of yours ends up there, it's a lot more efficent to retrieve and evolve then to get a new one with a supporter.
Scott
Can be used for pulling lake boundary and specific supporters from the deck where appropriate. I haven't actually played it at the tourney I tested this list at but I didn't face Blissey etc.
Roseanne's Research
My favourite supporter at the moment because it seems to be good all round at pretty much any point in the game. Putting another riolu on the bench, drawing with minun, shifting the game with Absol ex, there's lots this can do and even get you out of an energy drought. Currently, three are in here because you only need so many basic pokémon and for energy, castaway is generally a better choice as it can setup a supporter for the following turn.
Team Galactic's Wager
Shuffling your opponent's hand back is crucial and if you have less in your hand it's a worthy gamble. Lots of your deck is "disposable" by that I mean you can play things like master ball, buffer piece or warp point to free your hand and improve your draws. This is primarily for Birch, but together with Sableye's excavate you can keep very careful, tight control of your deck's contents and draw nice hands even if you lose the RPS. Two was a conservative estimate but it's been so useful I might add another.
Team Galactic's Mars
Just one, but a great threat when searched with Castaway or Scott. If you excavate right, the draw two has a much wider range and you'll still get something useful while attacking your opponent's hand can help if you're using Absol.
Super Scoop Up
Re-use Sableye, Absol ex or Lucario Level X's poké-powers or return important energies and recover your pokémons' HP. Scoop Up your active for free retreat as well. Doesn't combo with Minun but for everything else it's a useful surprise card.
Warp Point
Retreat when you otherwise couldn't or simply to save energy. Cessation crystal can be temporarily shut off when it is on their bench, so warp it away when needed.
Celio's Network
There's enough ways to get Absol ex, so this is preferable to Bebe's Search. The main use of Celio's Network is to evolve your Riolus by fetching Lucario or level up to Lucario LvX.
Lake Boundary
Helpful against Blissey to give big power to your fighting attacks or to OHKO Banettes with Absol's raid. This stadium is even more useful if you include pokémon of other types, such as psychic to hit Gallade and opponents' Lucarios hard. The ability to counter opponents' stadiums is small but potentially helpful. Strategies such as Speed Stadium and the elite four stadiums from power keepers will weaken your opponents' pokémon slightly when removed.
Professor Birch
Birch has given me consistently high drawpower though is not of best use after Minun. Use if before Minun however and you can draw 9 cards in one turn giving you almost every option you'd need. Particularly useful to recover lost ground if you lose at galactic's wager or after losing cards versus Absol or Mars.
Professor Rowan
Useful in some situations amd can be searched out when necessary. The card you save will differ dramatically from game to game to fit in with your plan.
Master Ball
Very efficent, low resource high return trainer. Comboes with Sableye's excavate to give it more range. An easy way to pull Lucario and its LvX from your deck or to assist in swarming.
Multi Energy
Pays for the attack costs of the deck very well, fuelling Absol's raid or aura sphere together with a fighting energy.
Darkness Energy
Useful for doing extra damage with the deck's darkness type pokémon. Save it for them and the extra damage may well not be expected and put your opponent in a tricky position.
Fighting Energy
The energy required by the Lucario line, a high quantity is included to make Riolu's wild kick likely and an early Aura Sphere for strength and disruption. Both roseanne's and castaway will return this energy. Absol's baleful wind can be paid for with this energy too as can Sableye's disable (two other great starters here).
TECH IDEAS
- Absol ex can be included or removed based on personal preference but I have included and described it earlier because for me it is a staple part of the strategy. Same goes for the other basics in my list.
- Shuppet's ascension can be paid for with any energy in the deck, making it another great starter although it's considerably lower HP than the other deck's basics is a risk. Useful resistance however.
- Banette can take down a troublesome Absol with its Ghost Head attack. The second attack may help against psychic-weak decks particularly with lake boundary in play but would make energy costs tricky.
- Shuckle's poison is useful but needing two energies is expensive. The addition of grass energy if multi is not depended on may reduce consistency. Helps against Flygon ex delta species and other active pokémon with annoying poké-powers or poké-bodies.
- Gallade is a beast capable of massive damage. If rare candy is included, it can also benefit Lucario meaning it can be levelled up a turn earlier than otherwise. Not that skipping:
- Kirlia is necessary as it can help you setup with multi or a basic psychic search out by roseanne's or castaway.
- Double rainbow energy can give a Lucario the ability to attack earlier than your opponent might have expected and saves an energy attachment that can be placed elsewhere. Overall, for me this advantage is outweighed by the disadvantages of Aura Sphere's double reduction, many basic pokémon in the deck that it cannot be attached to and being disabled by crystal beach.
- Latios ex delta species can retreat for free with its pokébody and can be used as a water type attacker with multi energy. Anything with bench sniping will gain two easy prizes from it though.
- Cessation crystal to shut off pesy poké-powers and bodies but demands very careful use,
- Crystal Shard can get around resistance and make use of pokémon's colourless weakness.
- Latias delta species is the other half of a lati-lock disabling poké-bodies such as Magmortar's healing, Ampharos's jamming, Bastiodon and Dugtrio's bench protection, Garchomp's rainbow scale and Electibvire LvX but not much else. Spearhead is an alright opening move and can guard against riolu's wild kick but otherwise it's very metagame specific.
- Cyclone energy is another way of forcing a switch to get rid of cessation crystal while helpfully providing energy for some but not all of your deck's starters.
- Basic darkness energy allows you to use Absol's raid setup completly by Roseanne's or if Absol is gained otherwise, castaway returns darkness.
- Mismagimus suggested by FriedBlaziken to exploit the psychic weakness and energy-heavy attackers like Gallade. Misdreavus is a nice mini-Absol too.
- Mew suggested by FriedBlaziken could copy Gallade's attack for massive damage and comboes with the deck's disruptive discarding of opponents' cards to copy as well as burning your hand to work like Birch.
- Clefable: you metronome psychic cut and flip all your prizes and take 1 for the gallde you pwn, you'd need a couple dres to speed it up since boost doesn't fit with lucario - thanks to TODDakaESTEBAN
CLOSING WORDS
Please give feedback, tech ideas and criticism is highly appreciated. Thanks for reading.
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