Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Mercury (HL-on) *WAITS FOR ARCHAIC'S OPINIONS :P*

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Wilson

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Deck List

Pokemon 22
4 Ralts ds/em
2 Kirlia ds
3 Gardevoir ds
1 Gardevoir em
2 Starmie ds (metal navigation)
2 Staryu dx
1 Rayquaza * dx/Latias/tios *
1 Porygon uf
1 Porygon frlg
2 Porygon ds
3 Holon's Castform

Trainers 26
4 Holon Transceiver
3 Celio's network
2 Holon Mentor
2 Warp point/switch
2 Holon Adventurer
2 Copy cat/Rocket's admin
3 Rare candy
2 Dessert
1 Magnetic storm
1 BF
1 Holon Researcher
1 ATM Rock
1 Pokemon Retriever
1 Holon Farmer

Energies 12
2 Holon Energy WP
4 Metal
2 Water
4 Psychic

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ARCHAIC'S Fixes
Pokemon 22
4 Ralts ds/em
2 Kirlia ds
3 Gardevoir ds
1 Gardevoir em
2 Starmie ds (metal navigation)
2 Staryu dx
1 Rayquaza * dx
1 Porygon uf
1 Porygon frlg
2 Porygon ds
3 Holon's Castform

Trainers 27
4 Holon Transceiver
3 Celio's network
2 Holon Mentor
2 Warp point/switch
2 Holon Adventurer
2 Copy cat/Rocket's admin
4 Rare candy
3 Dessert
1 Magnetic storm
1 Holon Researcher
1 ATM Rock
1 Pokemon Retriever
1 Holon Farmer

Energies 11
2 Holon Energy WP
4 Metal
2 Water
3 Psychic


StrategyYou know it. So, please leave your comments, thoughts, and critism upon this deck.

Thanks:biggrin:
 
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a few of your cards will be rotating soon. I would suggest using thoses slots to max out celio, candy, and TVR. Also, you are running VERY thin on energy, and probably wont draw one for a couple of turns at this rate.
 
At worst I could give him five turns to draw into energy and that is if his starmie is not evolved in five.
 
starmie always seems to hold this deck back. dont get me wrong it has huge potential early game but there has been too many where if he was anything else i could have won. i find that playing a 1-1 starmie has worked especially with a porygon back-up. that 1-1 would be better suited as a DX magcargo gets all other stray energy which usually comes a turn too late without him and something is wasted to compensate, such as a briney or worst your monster.
 
^ thanks for posting, guys.

Since I haven't playtest this deck yet due to my preparation of examinations, still I'll playtest later when I got the time and will be writing a report after finishing the city champs. I assume that Mercury has a high potential to include in one of the best archetype decks.

Articuno9-* title edited* .If it's dx-on, I would be trying Boiling Mercury after the release of FEOD :) The reason why I didn't max out the celios because of it can't be searched by Holon Transceiver whereas Holon Researcher yes. Also, I put 2 candies because of they are merely for Gardevoir d which is the only stage 2 Pokemon in this deck. An exact list of Mercury is running 12 energy cards (excluding Holon's Magtrode, etc).Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm running 3 Holon's Castform and Holon Farmer.So, I think that should be no problem. Holon Castform is definitely a bad starter . I need to test this deck out in order to see how it works. Thanks anyways

kajo- Starmie d can get you a metal Energy through its poke-power 'Metal Navigation' and the flow of energy is controlled or manipulated by Gardevoir d.

MadHatter-yea please. Thanks:thumb:

celeni-Could you PM me your list? I would appreciate if you could share your list with me. Thanks in advance.

I decided to play 1 BF because both Exploud ex CG and Aggron ex CG are obstable that can really eat this deck up, IMO.
 
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Deck List

Pokemon 23
4 Ralts ds
2 Kirlia ds
3 Gardevoir ds
1 Gardevoir em(Still dont know why Mercury People play this but w/e)
2 Starmie ds (metal navigation)
2 Staryu dx
1 Mew ex HP
1 Rayquaza * or Alakazam*(it does work surprisingly well in Mercury)
2 Porygon uf
2 Porygon2 ds
2 Holon's Castform
1 Holon's Magneton

Trainers 25
4 Holon Transceiver
2 Holon Adventurer
3 Celio's network
2 Holon Mentor
1 Warp point
2 TV Reporter
4 Rare candy
2 Space center
2 Meteor Falls
1 Scott
1 Holon Researcher
1 Holon Farmer

Energies 12
3 Holon Energy WP
4 Metal
2 Water
3 Psychic


this a DX-ON list
 
celeni said:
starmie always seems to hold this deck back. dont get me wrong it has huge potential early game but there has been too many where if he was anything else i could have won. i find that playing a 1-1 starmie has worked especially with a porygon back-up. that 1-1 would be better suited as a DX magcargo gets all other stray energy which usually comes a turn too late without him and something is wasted to compensate, such as a briney or worst your monster.
Click to expand...

The 2-2 line is to make the deck more consistant, so you don't miss out if 1 is prized. With Starmie's free retreat, and Staryu's own attack, even after you've got the Metals out, they're good stallers and suicide fodder. Also allows you to pull the trick with warp point for what's basically a Pokémon Reversal without a flip, bringing out and immediately retreating Starmie.

With your original list Wilson, here's what I would have done differently.
-1 Mew ex LM
-2 TV Reporter
+2 Holon Adventurer
+1 Desert Ruins
-1 Space Center
-1 Swoop Teleporter
+2 Rare Candy

With the DX-on list...well, it's hard to reach a solid decision at this point. LBS is being rotated out, and that was Rayquaza *'s primary purpose. It's yet to be seen if Ray should remain in, or if it's going to be replaced later. We need to see which way the metagame will go first.

Holon Castform is certainly a horrible start for this deck, with no delta basics. Boiling Mercury won't have that problem, but....well, given the attacks of the Psychic versions of Ralts and Kirlia, I'm not sure that Mercury should remove those for their Fire type versions, come FEOD.
 
since when is starmie ever needed in the event of it being prized. more often than not its possible to work around it. besides metal work in mercury as they do in the delta deck as mini energy roots/buffer picece in one. in other words the metals are more of a tool like holon wp.
 
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celeni said:
starmie always seems to hold this deck back. dont get me wrong it has huge potential early game but there has been too many where if he was anything else i could have won. i find that playing a 1-1 starmie has worked especially with a porygon back-up. that 1-1 would be better suited as a DX magcargo gets all other stray energy which usually comes a turn too late without him and something is wasted to compensate, such as a briney or worst your monster.
Click to expand...

Exactly how I play this deck. 1-1 Star and Cargo FTW.
 
Archaic said:
With the DX-on list...well, it's hard to reach a solid decision at this point. LBS is being rotated out, and that was Rayquaza *'s primary purpose. It's yet to be seen if Ray should remain in, or if it's going to be replaced later. We need to see which way the metagame will go first.
Click to expand...

I disagree, Ray* is still a decent card in Mercury.
Decks it can still hurt with its 100 damage:
Mewtric
Flariados
Shiftry
Delcatty Variants
Swampert Decks


I would imagine this deck would fair well against a shiftry deck when Gardy d ex comes out
 
magcargo combines with porygon2 for a quick search plus drawing. starmie is only a benefit in that it supplies extra energy, i have won several games where i didn't use starmie at all. with holon wp you have plenty of free retreaters so starmie isn't absoluted needed for that either.



wilson- post or pm me what you thought of my list and feel free to ask questions.
 
Archaic (The inventor of Mercury:p)- I'm hoping that you can stay on in this topic actively as there are many arguements between me, celeni, MadHatter and the others. My only hope is you can give us as well as Mercury fans like me a detailed explanation. And, what's your perspective after the release of CG?Are there any drawbacks if Mercury facing them especially from what I can see is CG's exs such as Shifty ex, Exploud ex(if you are playing ex pokemon), Aggron ex, etc. Also, any changes of your deck after Nationals? Could you share it with us? Ah yes, does Macargo fit in this deck? Beats me:confused: . Thanks in advance.

celeni-That's very kind of you.

MadHatter-yea Ray* ftw.
 
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At this point, I really don't feel like I can comment on how Mercury will end up. What the deck was supposed to be for the HL-on metagame is now set in stone, as far as I'm concerned. DX-on....until we know what the other archetypes being played in tournaments are, it's very difficult to say. Mercury has always been a reactive, rather than a proactive, deck. It's not a deck that a format will be build around trying to beat, like LBS turned into. It's one of the decks which goes out and finds a way to beat that popular deck.

Really, there's not much point in saying "this will be a problem" or "that will be a problem", if no one can find a way to put those cards into a decent deck, that will get played on a high level and with great frequency.

As far as my own build of Mercury went...no, there were no changes to it after Australian nationals. If I'd gone to worlds, I would have made a few changes (replacing Registeel ex and the Holon's Magneton's with Ray* and Holon's Castforms), but no sweeping ones. I haven't really had a decent chance to play any games since the end of our nationals, so I haven't had the time to tweak the deck further. Not that it needs much tweaking in the still relatively weak Australian meta.

I will say though that I strongly disagree with those who don't play 2 Starmie in Mercury. The quick attachment of energy is part of what makes the deck. Going down to 1 makes the deck last consistancy in that area, and going to none...well, that just eliminates some of your options in how you can actually play the deck, and thus limits the kinds of strategies you can employ.
 
A charizard d deck (like im playing) will destroy this deck, Ray * is worthless, Gardevoir D is also worthless. Chargon sets up too fast to be beaten by Mercury. Gardevoir D gets OHKO'ed by Charizard, and you don't have the time to get enough energy to use black magic. Charizard D does a consistent 120 damage
 
Don't have enough time to get enough energy? What are you smoking? Mercury puts out Black Magic attacks from Turn 2, easily. Hell, if any deck is going to have energy problems in this matchup, it'd be yours, with the constant loss of the Metal energy just in using that attack. I'll admit that haven't played any Charizard d decks yet in playtesting, but I fail to see how a Charizard d deck would walk all over Mercury.
 
There's a lot of decks that destroy Mercury, hence why it never won anything significant in the U.S.
 
But now those are gone! To me, LBS was the only threat, and that was the #1 played deck in the US, THAT is why Mercury never caught on, and of course, T2 whiscash stopped it from becoming Godly.
 
moza said:
But now those are gone! To me, LBS was the only threat, and that was the #1 played deck in the US, THAT is why Mercury never caught on, and of course, T2 whiscash stopped it from becoming Godly.
Click to expand...

Last time I checked, Arch kept on toting his horn stating that Mercury is good only because it has a great LBS matchup.

Either way this deck is too slow and inconsistant.
 
More like no one gave it a chance, Scizor. Mercury actually had very good matchups against most of the archetype decks played at Worlds 2006. Only a few players used it, but those who did use it achieved very respectable results (a high finisher in the 15+ grinder, and a top 32 in 11-14). It could have done quite well in any US tournament after City's, when SMP started going out of favour. The reason it never won anything over there is because it never got played by more than a bare handful of players, and never had proper testing done on it in the US metagame until only a week or two before worlds. That no one seemingly "discovered" the Ray* tech in the US metagame until after Nationals is a direct follow-on from that.

It annoys me somewhat when so many people proclaim things about Mercury when they've never even tried the deck. Some, like Ryan and Pablo, have since come to be and changed their minds about that, but many still have this weird kneejerk reaction against it. It amazes me that people can still decry it as slow, especially now, when Pidgeot is gone. It's possibily one of the quickest decks for setup in the current format, at this point in time.

As for consistancy issues....the only time I've seen them crop up, is when people go and do silly things like take the Starmie or P2 lines down to 1-1. I've never had any problems with consistancy playing the deck, so I really don't see what the issue is here. Are you referring to the problem of doing consistant levels of damage? That's not a deck consistancy problem. And in a day when we *still* see people consistantly loading their benches, that's not a problem from a metagame perspective either. You would've thought Giant Stump would've taught people how to manage their bench, but apparently not.
 
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