NXD+ Standard FF Butterfree w/ Miltank

[Coggs]

Hey there. Getting back into pokemon since falling out around the Stormfront era for other issues. Anyways, I'm getting back into the game again and I want to strat with a simple deck while I figure out the meta, and start getting more cards.

Onto the deck. The idea is simple. Use Caterpie and Metapod's Ability to get Butterfree on the board as fast as possible. Then with Butterfree's first attack or just with Miltank you can get high damage rolling right out of the gate. The rest of the deck is what I need help on.

Pokemon:
4x FF Butterfree
4x FF Metapod
4x FF Caterpie
4x FF Miltank
An then either.
4x PF Leafeon
4x PF Eevee
Or
2x XY Swellow
2x XY Tailow
4x PB Virizion EX

I don't have the Virizion yet, but I can either trade or buy them. So then we have the obvious:

14x Grass Energy

And another thing I'm having trouble with is trainers.

4x Cheren/Tierno
4x Professor's Letter
4x Muscle Band
4x Ultra Ball
2x Eviolite
4x Pokemon Catcher

I was also thinking about adding Virbank+Hypnotoxic for that extra damage in the later game.
But really any opinion and criticism

 

[TuxedoBlack]

There are a variety of Stage 2 decks that take advantage of Miltank great first attack. So, assuming the deck's core will be the 4-4-4 Butterfree line and 4 Miltanks, then following are some options you might want to consider to complete your total number of Poké:

• Decks (current and new) you expect to encounter at upcoming tournaments. For example, with the soon to be released Furious Fists sets (card scans are available for viewing), there are several cards that will give strong support to F type decks. So, should you possibly include some "counters" to those cards?
• Although D type decks will lose some strong support via next season's announced card set rotation, Yveltal EX is still one of the best attacking Poké in the game; so, I still expect it will be popular.
• Counters to popular decks in your area.
• Good Poké that could support Miltank and still take advantage of Virizion EX's Emerald Slash attack should you start with it.

Although I'm a huge fan of that particular Leafeon, your opponent can actually "manage" its damage output. Swellow's Ability provides some interesting options too, and its attack requires only C energy which alos fits nicely with your current energy strategy.

The Virizion EX provides your Poké status condition protection, as well as some energy attachment acceleration. Given its capability to search and attach G energy, following are a few choices for your consideration to receive the energy:

Raichu - Stage 1, free retreating, L Poké that can 1HKO L-weak Poké like Yveltal EX and Lugia EX.
Mewtwo EX - Basic Poké whose X-Ball attack (for CC energy) is still one of the best attacks in the game and a solid counter to several of the Furious Fists Poké.​

So, in addition to your Butterfee line (not sure if a 4-4-4 line would be any better than a 4-3-3 line - after all, you are not attacking with Butterfree and don't need many on your bench), the 4 Miltanks and the 2 Virizion EX, consider adding just a few more Poké to total about 17-19 (10-12 being Basic).

If you then "assume" that you will be attacking with Miltank 90+ of the time, then your deck could run efficiently with fewer than 14 G energy, IMHO. So, if you were to then initially start with 10 G energy, then you would have 31 remaining card slots for Trainers.

For your Trainers, I'd suggest you consider starting with:

10-11 card draw Items/Supporters like Cherren/Tierno, Professor Juniper/Sycamore, Colress, N, and Shauna
4 Ultra Ball
3 Muscle Band
2 Lysandre - to bring an opponent's benched Poké to the active position
1 Pal Pad - to recover and recycle discarded Supporters
​

Fill in the remaining slots (e.g., Lasers and Virbank would work well since you run Virizion EX, Startling Megaphone, Switch, etc.), then playtest, playtest, playtest. Tweak your deck, if need be, then playtest, playtest, playtest. Tweak some more, playtest... Repeat cycle till you're satisfied with the deck.

I hope you find these comments helpful.

 

[Coggs]

Thank you, that was actually really helpful for me.

Unfortunately, I'm only playing with my friend at the moment and we haven't gone to a League yet, so I'm not too sure what we'd be going up against mostly.

As far as the Pokemon go, I believe, as you said, that the 4-3-3 Butterfree line would be better. And Virizion EX would definitely be more useful than Swellow or Leafeon in the long run. And as far as trainers go, I do see where I messed up there. Thought with the Virbank+HypnoToxic, should I go with 2-2 or 2-4? Or would another combination be better?
Probably only going to run about 10-8 energies then.

 

[Walrusaurus]

Thank you, that was actually really helpful for me.

Unfortunately, I'm only playing with my friend at the moment and we haven't gone to a League yet, so I'm not too sure what we'd be going up against mostly.

As far as the Pokemon go, I believe, as you said, that the 4-3-3 Butterfree line would be better. And Virizion EX would definitely be more useful than Swellow or Leafeon in the long run. And as far as trainers go, I do see where I messed up there. Thought with the Virbank+HypnoToxic, should I go with 2-2 or 2-4? Or would another combination be better?
Probably only going to run about 10-8 energies then.

I think 4-4-4 Butterfree might be the best, still. Besides that, don't run any Pokemon other than a single Virizion-EX and 4 Miltank FLF. This deck's strength is it's early game. So you would want a lot of damage modifiers: go 4 Muscle Band, and 4 Hypnotoxic Laser and 2-3 Virbank City Gym. I also suggest to put it a lot of Pokemon search cards to help you get the turn 1 Powerful Friends for 80+.

And yes, you're right that 8-10 Grass is enough, but you could probably cut down to something like 7 (or 6 if you want to use Professor's Letter) if you really need the space.

Here's an example of how I believe a list should look like:

18 Pokemon:
4 Miltank FLF
4 Caterpie FLF
4 Metapod FLF
4 Butterfree FLF
1 Virizion-EX
1 Jirachi-EX

33 Trainers:
4 Professor Juniper/Sycamore
4 N
2 Colress
1 Lysandre
2 Bicycle

4 Ultra Ball
2 Level Ball
2 Switch
4 Muscle Band
4 Hypnotoxic Laser
1 Professor's Letter
1 Computer Search
1 Super Rod

2 Virbank City Gym

9 Energy:
5 Grass
4 Double Colorless
---------

I hope this helps.