Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

What decks will be top tier next year?

Well, Charizard can eventually 1-shot LuxChomp. However it leaves a lot of bench targets for LuxChomp too.
Regarding Donphan hate, we'll see, we'll see. I think it will do quite well because of all the SP running around.
 
Alex2k said:
I stopped reading after I read

Tier 1:
Donphan
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I didn't. Donphan is a speed deck, and if you run good techs, like ERL, it certainly has the ability to run any matchup. In my playtesting with Donphan/Manectric/ERL, it's only autoloss was Gyarados, which hardly isn't seen anymore.

Of course, after the rotation, Claydol will be gone, but Donphan is still a solid Pokemon. I think it deserves to be Tier 1.
 
pjwlrs said:
Palkia Lock will suck without Azelf MT, Luxchomp will own it especially hard.
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That's why I put it in the second tier. However with Hunter coming out soon, you can abuse mesprits like crazy. You can also use Garchomp to snipe any Luxrays early enough.
 
Tier 1:
(in order)

luxchomp
sabelock
vilegar
gyarados
donphan
charizard
machamp
Other SP decks

Tier 2:
Dialga chomp
palkia lock
blastagator
scizor prime
eveelutions.

This seems like an accurate tier list for the beggining of next year.
 
T1:
yet o be determined

T2:
Yet to be determined

Borderline:
Yet to be determined.



Use logic.
There is a whole new set with many solid cards coming out, and we aren't even sure which of those we will be getting.
We know what works as of right now.
We don't know what will be popular from the next set.
We don't know what will be popular that currently is popular based on other cards' popularity.
We can't know.
 
Elite_4_Allen said:
Nice list, but can you please explain how charizard eats luxchomp?
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It has 140 HP and a weakness Luxchomp can't target, which will make it difficult to take down. Besides this, it deals OHKOs easily (doesn't even need Expert Belt or a full bench). The usual Partners are Ninetales and Typhlosion, but they're not a weak spot like for example Claydol. Ninetales has 90 HP and only 1 retreat, and most times it isn't even worth to knock out since Charizard doesn't rely on Nintales like other decks do on Claydol. Even if it's gone, Charizard can fight on and SP takes at least two turns to get rid of it.

As I said, I played the matchup in my league and was impressed (however my opponents were not pros but knew how to play their deck).
 
How will Gyarados be tier 1? Felicity is gone. I'm trying to work out a replacement for Felicity. Right now I'm trying it with Volkner, but haven't really practiced with it yet. Also I highly doubt we will get Lost Link. Mini-Sets usually don't get released here. The VS set wasn't though that set was more of a learn to play set as each pack was ready to play.
 
The King Of Magikarps said:
How will Gyarados be tier 1? Felicity is gone. I'm trying to work out a replacement for Felicity. Right now I'm trying it with Volkner, but haven't really practiced with it yet. Also I highly doubt we will get Lost Link. Mini-Sets usually don't get released here. The VS set wasn't though that set was more of a learn to play set as each pack was ready to play.
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Volkner works. Gyarados will be strong since it isnt hurt because of losing dol. Regice is still there, so is sableye. Also, rumors have began telling of the highly expected, Rescue Energy. I think that rescue energy will help make gyarados tier1.
 
No one thinking about how good junk arm is in Gyarados? discard 2 Magikarps to get an SSU
/Rescue out of discard? Yes please!
 
Sir Bidoof said:
No one thinking about how good junk arm is in Gyarados? discard 2 Magikarps to get an SSU
/Rescue out of discard? Yes please!
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At the time you need to get back your trainers, Magikarps should already be in your discard pile.
 
Maybe the OP should rephrase the question to, What decks will be Top Tier during next year's Battle Roads?.

If you were to look at what was "Top Tier" coming off of Worlds and into Battle Roads last year, you would have seen: Flygon Variants, Gyarados, Beedrill, and Luxape/Blazeray. Not one of those should be mentioned on the "Tier List" above 2 (Maybe Gyarados coming into Worlds but it won't be the same going into Battle Roads, depending on future releases).

There's just no guarantee that the decks listed will still be as dominant of force come Cities, States, Regionals and into Nats then Worlds. Their are least 4 sets to be released before the end of next season(two of which we already know), so anything can happen.
 
Everyone is forgeting about 1 card that will make stage 2 decks playable!

Twins!
rare candy + stage 2= BEAST

its an auto poke drawer!!!!!! its really gonna make stage 2 decks consistent

Can anyone say Ttar? all it really takes is ONE to create soooooooo many problems for sp decks
 
ROFLcopter

I don't know why people are saying Charizard is tier 1. The best build is like tier 2.5. Anything Charizard can do other decks can do better. Charizard is a beefy beatstick at best. It has no finesse, no disruption, gets walled by stuff like Spiritomb and, next format, Vileplume, is difficult to setup, has energy problems considering its primary engine, Ninetales, requires a discard, forcing you to run more energy, which you then draw into in your opening hand. People still run it with Ninetales, right?

Despite what people seem to believe, it has few good matchups. It's good against Jumpluff if it gets setup properly, which is a large "if." It gets destroyed by Sablelock, since Sablelock makes it even more difficult to setup what was difficult to setup to begin with. LuxChomp is tough, since they can take out your support (Ninetales) early and proceed to switch around and Poké Turn up guys you have trouble OHKOing. Gyarados obviously crushes you. Donphan can go either way, but it's so much easier to setup that I like it better in this matchup.

Straight Champ is not a difficult matchup, considering they can't hit you especially hard, but that's on the expectation that Charizard gets setup. See, my biggest problem with the deck isn't that Charizard is a bad attacker, but that it can't abuse DCE, and dropping stuff like Uxie hurts you. It's also very susceptible to bad starts which, being generally unlucky, I don't like at all.
 
Mithycham will definately be best deck in format. How can it not be come on people. It is the Illinois Secret deck that will dominate at Worlds and even Universes.
 
Ninjask88 said:
Mithycham will definately be best deck in format. How can it not be come on people. It is the Illinois Secret deck that will dominate at Worlds and even Universes.
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Illinois has always had the good decks. I mean, come on... we pioneered Claydol ex and Mismagius/Bibarel, both of which ruled the format. And now we're going to do it again.
 
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I spent a long time thinking about stuff like this and you know what

I gave up.

There is too much of a human element to metagame to really know for sure what will and won't work.
 
V1c10u5 said:
T1:
yet o be determined

T2:
Yet to be determined

Borderline:
Yet to be determined.



Use logic.
There is a whole new set with many solid cards coming out, and we aren't even sure which of those we will be getting.
We know what works as of right now.
We don't know what will be popular from the next set.
We don't know what will be popular that currently is popular based on other cards' popularity.
We can't know.
Click to expand...

I think that this sums up the entire thread. Sure we have a basic idea of what engines will work and that Luxchomp will continue to be played, but we don't know what rogue decks, and possibly T1 decks are going to pop up.
 
Fact is that luxchomp will be popular because it loses nothing that can't be replaced, donphan will rise in popularity as will gyrados. Based on this principle i have devised a formula to detrmine the best decks

Donphan>Luxchomp>Gyrados>Donphan
Random/Rogue Decks

there is your format in a nutshell
 
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