It isn't time for
Zoroark to shine, but soon it will be time for
Zoroark decks to extinguish the light of hope in it's opponent's eyes.
Zoroark is once again a threat, though like a lot of decks it requires proper support
and exploiting those players who haven't play-tested against it. So why do I believe he is suddenly getting useful again? We are seeing more Evolutions being played, and a greater variety of Pokémon EX. This is the life's blood for the
Zoroark backed deck.
We also have the appropriate partners for it. First there is the abundance of disruptive Items and
Sableye. It doesn't matter that an opposing attacker should OHKO
Zoroark if it never gets the chance to attack because
Hammer spam is stripping Energy away fast enough and/or
Pokémon Catcher and
Tool Scrapper are disrupting set-up something fierce.
Zoroark are easier than ever to get out, and now most decks are relying on either a Stage 2 attacker with great attacks or a Pokémon EX... or has them on the Bench as support.
Let us look at some examples of how a
Zoroark (with minimal support) can take down many commonly played Pokémon. This is "can", not "will", so I am laying out strategy and not destiny: the
Zoroark player will need a good deck and to work for these outcomes! :lol:
- Hydreigon with Dark Trance has 150 HP and an attack that does 140 damage; PlusPower or Dark Claw easily turn the attack into a OHKO. The Energy discard doesn't bother Zoroark most of the time; if Zoroark itself is OHKOed, obviously that Energy was gone anyway, and much of the time when Zoroark survives the next hit, you already used a Double Colorless Energy or you plan on using one the next turn to attack.
- Darkrai EX can't OHKO a Zoroark without help (as in, boosting damage). If you can "isolate" Darkrai EX from its common sources of Support, you should be hitting it without it being able to easily hit back. Since it is run in many decks without Hydreigon (to enable Max Potion optimization) and Zoroark (who unlike Darkrai EX should be packing something to boost damage) can take out Hydreigon with one boosted attack, this goes from a "Yeah, right.
" To a "Yeah... right! "
- Empoleon in a straight head-to-head match-up only OHKOs Zoroark if both players have a combined total of 10 Pokémonin play. While tricky, if you can make do with a Bench of no more than three (or only fill your Bench when you've got two copies of PlusPower or a Dark Claw handy), it is trading a Stage 1 for a Stage 2.
- Garbodor depends on what is supporting your Zoroark and what is supporting the opponent's Garbodor. If your opponent can't get Garbodor out of the Active slot, this can buy you time to set-up or at least an easy 2HKO.
- Mewtwo EX is interesting, and will likely either be very easy or very hard as a match-up. Zoroark will always have the option of discarding Energy and hitting with Psydrive... which means even a Mewtwo EX with Eviolite can be 2HKOed, and conveniently will make it harder for Mewtwo EX to turn around and 2HKO Zoroark (let alone OHKO it unless it actually can use Psydrive itself). If Mewtwo EX is loaded with too much Energy for X-Ball, Zoroark may even be able to OHKO it!
That is probably plenty; as you can see
Zoroark can be quite effective, but none of them are super easy. You'll need a real deck backing it, whether with direct support or trying your luck with a 1-1 line.
Now
Zoroark still faces some major hurdles; it's Weakness makes it extra vulnerable to Fighting-Types, who seem to just be getting a little stronger each set. Since it only has 100 HP anyway (which is why any hard hitting deck is a threat), that Weakness only matters on occasion.
Zoroark is also vulnerable to opposing "combos" more than other decks.
Garchomp backed by
Altaria,
Darkrai EX backed by
Hydreigon (and vice versa),
Eelektrik in multiples backing up just about anything, etc. are real problems. Note that what I said about
Darkrai EX and
Hydreigon above still hold true, but if you can't take out one or the other, both will stomp you. =P
Garchomp on its own is interesting since both it and
Zoroark are likely to be using Special Energy (
Blend Energy WLFM and
Double Colorless Energy, respectively) and thus Mach Cut will matter. Dragonpulse is not fun for either deck to use heavily, either;
Garchomp can't use it for a
Double Colorless Energy or
Dark Patch to pull off in one turn like
Zoroark can, but
Garchomp has to have taken 40 points of damage before getting hit by it in order for
Zoroark to score a KO.
Altaria is a pain since alone,
Zoroark isn't able to OHKO it and a good
Garchomp/
Altaria deck just retreats or uses
Switch and takes out
Zoroark in one shot.
Eelektrik decks may loose an attacker in one hit but usually are designed to set them back up the next turn without breaking a sweat, taxing
Zoroark decks to do the same. Fortunately
Zoroark doesn't have to be alone, either.
There are quite a few potential
Zoroark partners. You can try to make the old "Dark.dec" concept work, with a greater emphasis on its individual components since Dark Trance decks do a better job of utilizing
Darkrai EX. I haven't had a lot of luck with this, but I found it frustrating enough that I kind of gave up early.
Garbodor may be a partner; suddenly the combo decks that are hardest for
Zoroark to deal with may become its best match-ups... or at least a lot less painful. Another option would be to try and make
Aerodactyl functional, especially if you can make room for the
other damage boosting effects on top of it. So many Pokémon have attacks that hit hard enough to
nearly OHKO themselves... at least when said attack is being duplicated by Foul Play!
I faced one concept that has been tossed around recently and it seems to have at least some merit:
Zoroark/
Mew EX. As both are relatively small, they end up wanting many similar pieces of support, and a Benched
Zoaroark or
Sableye allows
Dark Patch/
Energy Switch for expensive-but-fast, from-the-discard Energy acceleration.
With a
Zoroark on the Bench,
Mew EX now enjoys a discount on copying the Defending Pokémon's attacks and something to deal with Safeguard (or be less vulnerable to Goldbreaker), while
Mew EX and a few useful-to-copy attackers provide
Zoroark with the support it needs when the opponent doesn't have anything useful to copy (like a
Ho-Oh EX or
Rayquaza EX).
In the future,
Zoroark will have some important help.
Hypnotic Poison Beam is two sets (about six months) away, but provides both extra damage and potential disruption because it is an Item that Poisons the Defending Pokémon and gives you a coin-flip based chance of putting that Pokémon to Sleep (good in case it survives). There are several other "goodies" that can help as well, plenty that can hurt, but I think it will be a "net" gain in the end.
So
Zoroark is looking better now, maybe something you can win a tournament with provided you have not only a solid build and practice thoroughly, but catch your opponent's with it off-guard. Six months from now who knows, but I think it looks flat out promising by then.
