[gal=49766]Jumpluff[/gal]
With States in the books, everyone is looking ahead to the upcoming Regional Championships. One of the things which makes Regionals following States such an intriguing set of tournaments each year is that it, alongside Nationals/Worlds, are the only pairs of tournaments which have unchanging card pools. Therefore, the results from States are critical when determining what the metagame will look like for Regionals. There is a clearly defined overall Metagame, and it can even be argued that the local metagames have also been established rather clearly. This gives players who have time put in time and effort a distinct edge against the field. When you can limit the expected field of decks down to about 5-6 important decks, it is easy to not only test those decks interactions with each other, but it is possible to craft decks to "beat the metagame", or at least the probable decks to play against. As a result, Regionals has always been a favorite stop in the tournament season for a crafty deck builder. Hopefully, there are a lot of excited deck builders out there who are looking to sink their teeth into this puzzling metagame.
Now, looking at the results of States, I feel it is easy to identify the top 4 decks in the format. Beyond those, there are a number of viable Tier 2 decks that are both interesting, and likely to show up at Regionals as well. Some of these decks become more or less viable depending on how the metagame shifts. Some of them are also under-explored and far from optimally built. A deck can often be a few tweaks or tech cards away from being "almost good enough" to being good enough to take down a major event. Now, lets address the decks I just brought up.
Tier 1 Decks
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Gengar ( Curse )
LuxChomp
Gyarados
Jumpluff
Tier 2 Decks
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Palkia Lock
Gallade Gardevoir
Flygon
Kingdra
Shuppet
Donphan
Charizard
Dialga Garchomp
I'm leaving out a few decks I'm sure, and some of the Tier 2 decks are well positioned to potentially make the jump up a tier. For sake of simplicity, I'd lump most of the various "Garchomp/Luxray/X" decks in with LuxChomp. So the decks with the 1-1 Blaziken FB Lvl X, and various toolbox builds would fall under that.
Most players by now are familiar with the SP decks, and are also familiar with Gengar and Gyarados. They have been established archetypes for awhile now, and there is plenty of information available on them online. I'd like to take this opportunity to go in depth with the more mysterious Tier 1 choice, Jumpluff. Not only is it the new deck in town, but it is also, in my opinion, the best choice to run at a tournament. The deck not only has a plethora of great match-ups, including wins against the rest of the Tier 1 decks, but it also has a ton of intangibles working in its favor. Before I get into it's match-ups, and then those intangibles, I will show you the current list I'm using for the deck, as well as an in-depth analysis of why the cards, and their counts, were included.
Pokemon ( 26 )
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4 Hoppip ( HGSS )
2 Skiploom ( SW )
4 Jumpluff ( HGSS )
3 Baltoy ( GE )
3 Claydol ( GE )
1 Unown Q
1 Chatot ( MD )
2 Crobat G
1 Luxray GL
1 Luxray GL Lvl X
2 Uxie ( LA )
1 Azelf ( LA )
1 Regice
Energy ( 6 )
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4 Grass Energy
2 Multi Energy
Trainers ( 28 )
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3 Roseanne's Research
2 Pokemon Collector
3 Bebe's Search
4 Pokemon Communicator
1 Luxury Ball
4 Broken Time Space
3 Rare Candy
1 Night Maintenance
2 Warp Point
4 PokeTurn
1 Expert Belt
Let me first address that the Regice spot is a bit of a rotating card. I opted to run Regice for a couple of reasons, going into a fairly undefined metagame. The main logic behind its inclusion is that the deck's primary purpose is to be as fast as possible. Random, powerful stage 2 decks running an engine fueled by Spiritomb would serve a particular problem for this deck. Not only does a Spiritomb opening really hamper our ability to set up as quickly as our hands would otherwise allow, but those decks are also capable of getting out a plethora of large HP evolutions who serve to really mess us up midgame and late game. I guess this brings us to an interesting point that needs to be brought up in regards to this deck.
This decks goal is to win as illegitimately as it possibly can. By that, I mean, the decks goal is to take 6 prizes. It isn't about establishing a strong board control. It isn't about disrupting your opponent's set up, or locking them out of the game. In fact, your deck really doesn't interact with your opponent's deck at all. Your job is to take 6 prizes, in 6 turns. If your opponent is developing an entire field of attackers that are one hitting you in return, that is perfectly acceptable. People have gotten the wrong idea in Jumpluff that its 90 hit points are relevant. With this build, you expect your Jumpluff to get KO'ed each turn. You run enough draw power to replace it. The game is literally all about putting them on a 6 turn "clock". Once you take your first prize, your deck should win in 6 turns. Uxie, Azelf, Claydol, basics, stage 1s, etc, are all beautiful targets to take out.
Thus, we want to keep our list as streamlined and speed focused as possible. People who know me, and know my deck lists, also know that this whole theory goes against the type of decks I've built for the past 11 years I've played this game. Usually, I prefer options over speed, but this format is extremely fast. I'm not going to force an approach that isn't suited for being as competitive as possible. This format is as fast as the game has seen in its history, even dating back to the old days of Haymaker and Trapper. So we want to take that potential speed and capitalize on it. We want a Jumpluff to hit turn one, as many games as possible. For Jumpluff to not hit on turn 2 at the latest is a very slow game for this deck.
The decks game plan really requires you to take the first prize. Most match-ups, this is fairly easy. Now, this isn't going to always be the case. If you wind up taking the second prize, you are still in perfectly fine shape. Let me make this clear to you. You will be losing a lot of Jumpluffs. So, during all of your turns, you really want to be meticulous in your choices because you want to set up your hand and deck so that you optimize your ability to get a "replacement" Jumpluff each turn. It isn't that hard, but every little thing you do (such as deck thinning) will really matter over the course of the game. If you fall behind on your first prize, this isn't bad for a few reasons. Usually, your opponent has to overextend to accomplish this. That means they bench Claydol, Uxie, maybe an Azelf, and other supporting cards. This is great because it loads their bench for your damage output, and it also gives you free targets for you to kill later in the game. Also, they are exposing their attacker to you first. Most decks that do get that sort of speedy set up aren't able to also have a return KO on your Jumpluff if it responds and immediately KOs their attacker. Even SP decks have a limited amount of "gas" in them. They have to keep hitting level X cards, keep having the proper energy, keep having Energy Gains, and keep having Crobats and Poketurns. So even if they get ahead at first, and can keep up briefly, there is a good chance that they eventually miss a KO on you. Then you take the lead, and hold it.
Anyway, before we go any farther, I want to go over a card by card analysis of the deck, and why I went with the numbers I did for each of them. Some are a bit self explanatory but will be addressed anyways.
4 Hoppip: You want to maximize your ability to get a T1 Jumpluff. It's attack is also decent. This card has only 30 hit points and is a liability early, but at the same time it is ideal to open with too. This liability will be addressed by other card choices. We use the HGSS Hoppip due to it's nice hit and run attack. Neither Hoppip is really outstanding but of the two the newest one offers the most perks.
2 Skiploom: With Skiploom we clearly go with the older Secret Wonders option. It's Poke-Body makes it a little less frail, but it's attack is legitimate, too. The Expert Belt for 40 hit and run option is viable. There are certain match-ups where this gets used ( Gallade Gardevoir being one of them. ) Now, originally we ran 3 Skiploom. 3 Skiploom isn't incorrect, or bad. In fact, 3 is probably the "correct" number. The only problem is, this deck needs a 3rd Skiploom less than it needs other consistency cards. With Pokemon Communicator, the Skiploom count becomes less important. Thus we are able to manage with 2 of them just fine.
4 Jumpluff: Again, we want to optimize the ability to get them quick, and often. Anything less than 4 of these is foolish and goes against the basic idea and premise of the deck.
3 Baltoy: This will cover the Claydol as well. The deck wants to get out Claydol fast, and can abuse multiple copies very well. You want to keep two of them out at any given time, so running a thick line like this is certainly worth it. You also want as many basics as possible, not only to fill your bench for maximum damage early, but to shuffle around with Pokemon Communicator, and to help reduce the risk of getting a lone Hopping killed on the first turn.
3 Claydol: See above on the reasoning for this one.
1 Unown Q: This little guy is an interesting inclusion that I feel a lot of builds don't run. The card serves as a "secondary opener" in that it has free retreat cost. You want to be able to get a Jumpluff active when you get it out, so your free retreat Pokemon help enable this. Unown Q also serves the purpose of making any of your "one retreat" Pok[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]é[/FONT]mon into a free retreater as well. He also serves a few other interesting uses. One, some games, players will "lock" a Claydol active. Flygon may use Inviting Trap, and then try to lock it in place if you miss your Warp Point. SP decks will Bright Look it active, and deal it damage, and then try to snipe around it with Garchomp, only to eventually kill it with Crobats. This can set you back key turns of attacking and give them a chance to stabilize. With Unown Q, it gives you a searchable way to equip it, plus attach a Grass energy and get a Claydol out of the active position out of nowhere. The last bit of insurance may surprise you. You can use Unown Q to attack. Some players, for Ohio States, opted to run a Ditto to beat Jumpluff. Many of these were used in mirror, under the assumption that Ditto is a basic, that can copy a Jumpluff's attack for the easy KO that can help ease the pain of Jumpluff replacement. Now, this is somewhat true. The problem is, with Unown Q here, you can use a Crobat, and simply do 20 more damage to it with Unown Q and maintain the trade just as easily without having to devote a spot in your deck to an otherwise subpar or worthless card. The card is honestly multipurpose and helps to answer a number of the decks potential annoyances.
1 Chatot: Chatot is another free retreating basic which serves a number of purposes. It allows you to escape bad hands, and also is a hard to "donk" basic that leads to a quick Jumpluff. The card is also crucial against Palkia, Gallade Gardevoir, and the Sableye Garchomp deck from Florida. Those decks aim to disrupt set up and lock decks out of the game, and can also cut off your Pokemon Powers. With a majority of the decks draw power stemming from Pokemon Powers, Chatot also helps to overcome this weakness by giving you a searchable draw engine even when under Psychic Lock, or Mesprit lock.
2 Crobat G: Crobat G was the original "good opener" for the deck that also served as a searchable, re-usable Plus Power. The original list ran 4 copies, but 2 of them went to Chatot and Unown Q for their overall utility. Four proved to be too many because we eventually ran out of bench space to use them anyways, so other Pokemon who served different roles but also were what I call "Proxy Hoppip", in that they would easily lead to a Hoppip the turn the deck "goes off" made the cut instead.
1 Luxray GL: This card is your "guaranteed" means of getting easy KOs mid and late game. It is also your means of getting around Mr. Mime. A 1-1 line is perfectly acceptable in this deck, as while you do run Multi Energy, it is never intended to attack. It can attack against Gyarados ( rarely ) and somewhat more frequently against Palkia G.
1 Luxray GL Lvl X: Covered above.
2 Uxie: Uxie rarely needs explanation. The card is critical in allowing us to get cards early and refuel our hand. The card has great interaction with Pokemon Communicator in that the card helps you get crucial Pokemon but also rids your hand of "two" cards, allowing Set Up to get that much extra mileage. While 3 would be nice, the deck doesn't really have room to fit it and its mid-game use is a bit suspect. There are match-ups where it gets used very strategically as well. I will address those later.
1 Azelf: The deck runs thick lines of its critical cards, being Jumpluff and Claydol. Sure, we run 1-1 Luxray, but Azelf theoretically isn't "needed" so why is it such a great card in this deck? This deck cares about every little bit of difference you can make in setting up. Azelf helps you in that if you play a Roseanne or a Collector, you can free an evolution from your prizes. With either one of those being able to occasionally get a basic PLUS effectively a Claydol or Jumpluff ( with 4 Jumpluff and 3 Claydol the odds of one of them being prized isn't all that low at all ) or even gets you another basic that is also in your deck, but netting you an extra benched Pokemon ( adding to your Jumpluff damage ) and also empties a card from your hand to get you a second card from Set Up or Cosmic Power. This one card difference can be very important and I often try to T1 Azelf even if nothing "bad" is prized. It also lets you map your prizes. In situations where you can get a Jumpluff out if you "overextend" but afterward wouldn't wind up with a Claydol, it lets you have a very good chance to get a supporter or draw card out of the prizes once you get the kill. The card really helps smooth over the decks speed and consistency, despite generally being looked at as a "prize fixer" only.
1 Regice: I addressed Regice above, but it is a way to deal with early Spiritomb and Mr. Mimes, while also messing up SP decks at times, and helping to empty your hand of worthless cards if you need to use multiple Cosmic Powers or Set Ups in a turn. Cards got a ton of versatility actually. It may not make the final list, as it can be cut for other cards, but it is extremely strong at the moment. It also is crucial in beating Dialga G decks as it forces it out of the active position each turn.
4 Grass Energy: Tech for fueling Jumpluff
2 Multi Energy: Also fuels Jumpluff, conditionally enables Azelf, Luxray, Crobat and Claydol to also attack. We needed enough Grass to be able to search them out and Night Maintenance them, so the left over energy spots go to the Multi. Yes, 6 energy is enough with Roseanne. It isn't safe enough to the point where we can make the full switch to Pokemon Collector over Roseanne though.
3 Roseanne's Research: The card is self explanatory in that it gets you Pokemon, and Energy and helps you set up well. It is "inferior" to Pokemon Collector, but with the deck running only 6 energy, you need at least 3 of them to consistently get a turn 1 energy drop.
2 Pokemon Collector: This deck can get a lot of mileage out of 3 Basic Pokemon, so this card is just fantastic. It might warrant more than a 2 of, but with the deck needing Roseanne, it gets stuck at this count.
3 Bebe's Search: This card is another obvious one, as it gets you your evolutions. You generally want to use Roseanne or Collector on your first turn, and Communicator helps take the place of this card to a degree but you can't not run a large count of these.
4 Pokemon Communicator: This is the best card in the deck. This card does such an unreasonable amount to help speed this deck up that I'd run 8-12 of them if I were allowed. I am not even exaggerating. The card lets you get any Pokemon you want without using a Supporter and ALSO thins your hand for Set Up and Cosmic Power. Mid-game, it lets you "set" your hand for turns of Jumpluff replacement so you can use that and a Bebe or Roseanne mid-game to get Jumpluff going.
1 Luxury Ball: OK, the card gets you a Pokemon, I won't go into too much detail here, but I will note that I feel this card is worse than Pokemon Communicator in this deck. The ability to thin your hand is actually an advantage of Communicator, not a drawback.
4 Broken Time Space: OK, perhaps Pokemon Communicator isn't the best card in the deck. This card is extremely strong and lets you get silly starts. I've had a game where I had 3 Claydol, and 2 Jumpluff in play turn one because of this. It really helps you get your Pokemon into play quickly and works beautifully with your thicker Claydol line.
3 Rare Candy: This makes up Broken Time Space #5-7, while also helping to fill the void of your lower Skiploom count. While 4 would be nice, this is again a space cutting measure.
1 Night Maintenance: Sometimes, you need a 5th Jumpluff. This card used to be a Palmer, but I didn't like having to use a Supporter to get Jumpluffs back, but perhaps it is better than Night Maintenance because it lets you get 2 sets of Jumpluff and Hoppip back. Really, you rarely need 6 of them, and it hasn't ever been an issue for me yet, but perhaps it may be.
2 Warp Point: This card helps you steal cheap kills, and also helps you bench your active when needed. This is useful if a Claydol winds up active, or if you start with Regice, or need to get Jumpluff active without wasting your t1 attachment to retreat. I had 3 originally, and 3 PokeTurns, but I went with 4 PokeTurn and 2 Warp Point because double Mr. Mime became an annoying issue.
4 PokeTurn: The card lets you re-use Bright Look, while also getting extra damage and mileage out of Crobat's Flash Bite. This is an important card to ration, and you need to use it differently depending on the match-up.
1 Expert Belt: This card is a great way to get extra damage out of your Jumpluff, and also potentially give it extra hit points to survive an attack. The card is good when players try to limit their bench to reduce your damage. It really helps to give the deck some extra juice towards the end of the game once you've exhausted your Crobat/PokeTurns, and have run out of benched Pokemon to steal KO's on.
The Intangibles
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This is an interesting term. Intangibles are effectively the aspects of a deck that don't directly relate to in game play. I'll break this section down into the favorable traits this deck has in hopes of better explaining what the term means.
It Can Steal Games: Being a deck capable of scoring one hit kills on the first turn, the deck is able to take bad matchups and steal those games outright. Decks such as Flygon, or even Gengar, are stuck in situations where if you get paired against a tough match-up, your forced into a long drawn out game. It cannot capitalize on the bad starts of an opponent. Jumpluff, on the other hand, is very good at "donking". While this seems like a bad reason to choose to play a deck, over the course of a long tournament, your likely to get a stolen win or two.
It Plays Very Quick Games: By being done with your game early, you are at an inherent advantage. You have more time to rest, and relax. You also get time to talk to your friends more which, outside of being fun, means you get more information on what other players are using. Being stuck in 40 minute games all day long not only restricts your ability to gather accurate information on the metagame, but it also gets mentally exhausting over the course of a day long event.
It Has A Very Good "Game Three": Jumpluff is such a huge favorite in matchplay. Its speed gives it a ridiculous edge for any game 3 you must play. Jumpluff doesn't play to win 2/3, it plays to break even and go 1 and 1. Game 3s are very easy for it. If you play against a bad match-up and lose game one, you can get ahead in game 2 when time is called, and then steal game 3 with your quick starts. This means, if you make it past the Swiss rounds, you have a huge edge.
Matchups
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Mirror Match: I might as well start off with this one. Jumpluff mirror is honestly quite luck based. Whoever takes the first prize is at a very significant advantage. The games are almost entirely start based as both decks should be more than able to take a prize each turn here. The only way that games "change" here are if a player somehow "wiffs" on a Jumpluff during the exchange. It isn't likely, but it is possible, especially since they are stuck getting their Jumpluff KO'd first usually. If a Hoppip gets caught on the bench, 3 Flash Bites could theoretically jump a player ahead in the race. If a player is able to get Luxray up early enough, they may be able to cut off Claydol and prevent the mid to late game exchanges if they are unable to replace Jumpluff. Luxray could bring up Claydol, and you can Leaf Guard and hope to later "steal" the prize with Flash Bites if they DO manage to Warp or Unown Q it to safety. Obviously turn 1 kills are an issue here as well. If you want to test for mirror? Goldfish, while assuming Jumpluff dies each turn. Just get used to replacing them [Editor's Note: "Goldfishing" is playing test games in solitaire mode, checking for first hand draw, set up speed, etc.]. Any time you can get a kill without using a Jumpluff is a HUGE benefit. If you can use Bright Look on an Uxie and use your own Uxie with Crobats and/or Expert Belt, thats a huge advantage too.
LuxChomp: This matchup is quite favorable. As usual, the matchup is all about exchanging prizes. The only difference is, they need more energy drops, they need their own specific energy drops, they need energy gains, and they need to keep getting back the correct basics, and more difficultly, their Level X cards. On top of this, Jumpluff is usually the faster deck, letting you take the first prize. After that, they can occasionally keep up for awhile, but either you simply keep trading off until you take your last prize first, or they wiff an attack. Theoretically, if they hit extremely well, they can keep up, and thus maintain the exchange, so if they get the first kill, and draw very well, they can beat you. The match-up is generally fairly straightforward to play out, but at the same time, sometimes requires you to just have some experience behind you in the match-up. Here, you will generally use PokeTurn on Crobat to make sure you get the crucial one hit KOs midgame. If you can be sure they do not have Power Sprays for it, using Luxray to get to attackers they are building is important.
The wild-card here is going to be Power Spray. Occasionally they will be able to slow you down pretty bad early and steal games as a result of it. This is a matchup where it is less important to overextend into a turn one Jumpluff than it is to make sure you get there. If they do not have enough basics to spray, you can overextend, but if they do, be safe and make sure to aim for multiple Claydols or Uxie just to be safe. Usually a turn 2 Jumpluff, instead of a turn 1 one, is enough to win the match-up so there is no need to get fancy IF getting fancy could leave you without draw power. ( Chatot is nice for this )
One of the other things worth noting is that they also need to use a Crobat to kill your Jumpluffs. Remember, a lot of how you play against them comes down to probability. As you're trading KOs, they have to keep hitting energy, energy gain, their level x, and PokeTurns. Sometimes you just have to play around the fact that if they have a 4-5 card hand, even with Cyrus, the odds of them continually getting all the cards they need are very low. Don't fall into the mistake of trying to be tricky and use Leaf Guard to not die, that just gives them turns to set up and stabilize and be ready to keep up.
Now, I'll lump in Blaziken FB "splashes" into this matchup as well. The Blaziken doesn't actually impact the game as much as you would think. Blaziken's attack KOs Jumpluff easily enough, but that isn't anything Garchomp isn't usually able to do ( Garchomp can kill a benched target, which in the grand scheme of things is fairly similar ). If Blaziken goes for a OHKO on Jumpluff with it's 80 damage attack, it leaves itself open for an easy KO. While Blaziken makes it more difficult, it doesn't sway the matchup much. Luring Flame is also not as good as one would suspect here. If they bring up Claydol, that is still a turn they do not take a prize. If you either use Unown Q to retreat, or hit a Warp point, they simply sacrifice a prize and accomplish nothing. A smart opponent shouldn't even try to Luring Flame unless desperate because if it does "backfire", and it often should, it sets them back a lot of ground. The only time Luring Flame becomes effective is if they bring up Claydol, you can't get it out, and they bring up Garchomp and start sniping things. Even then, if you attach an energy to Claydol, they snipe something, and next turn you retreat for Jumpluff, they STILL net the same prize count as if they just killed something to begin with.
Something you need to learn to play around is a scenario where midgame an SP deck gets down to 1 or two Pokemon in play and tries to play this way in order to limit your damage output. Keep something in mind though. They are able to either limit their bench, OR play Power Spray, not both, so the second they switch to this approach, you can loosen up your play. Use Luxray GL Level X to gust the benched Pok[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]é[/FONT]mon. Set up big kills with Crobat G uses, etc.
This brings up a generic bit of advice for playing this deck. Many different decks will smartly adapt to try and limit the number of cheap KOs they offer you, while also limiting their bench so you can't chew through their high HP Pokemon. There is a bit of an art to countering this. Save the cheap kills for late into the game if at all possible, because once they set up, they don't have to keep dropping targets. Resist the urge to kill a Claydol if you can kill something that could otherwise gain enough hit points that it isn't a stealable prize later. Feel free to Luxray basics and stage 1s of stage 2 Pok[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]é[/FONT]mon early to kill it while leaving a Spiritomb, or Sableye, or Chatot in play. These Pokemon not only can be picked off later on, but also are +10 damage at all times. You need to learn to be selective in what you kill. The longer you save the cheap kills for later into the game, the more damage you can do to other threats. You selectively "prevent" them from limiting their bench size if you can.
Gyarados: This is a matchup a number of people claim is bad for Jumpluff. I could not possibly disagree more. First and foremost, you are faster than them. By a significant margin. You can usually take 2 prizes before they get a kill on you, which gives you plenty of grace. They run into a major problem. They cannot have more than one high HP Pok[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]é[/FONT]mon in play at a time. Your job, therefore, is to gust and warp around Gyarados and steal other kills. Between that and you being inherently faster, your in pretty good shape here.
There are a few interesting scenarios and tricks to go over in this match-up though. First, if you can kill a Gyarados early, without using Expert Belt, do it. Their bench can be killed later, but if you start picking off the bench, the 130-150 HP Atrocious Pokemon becomes VERY difficult to answer if they have no benched Pokemon to augment your damage. Trying to jump 70 to 150 is very difficult.
Eventually they will try to get into a scenario where they JUST have Gyarados in play, and nothing else. Lets say this happens. Lets say they get the dreaded lone Gyarados, Expert Belt. There are a few options. Leaf Guard with a Belt forces them to do a lot of extra damage to eat through your Jumpluff, and odds are they can't. This 50 damage ( or even 30 if you go unbelted ) also threatens them with getting benched. This means they have to Super Scoop Up Gyarados. In order to do so, they have to bench a Pokemon. They have to successfully scoop Gyarados, and get the benched Pokemon back to their hand. And get enough damage to break through Leaf Guard. This lets you get around that scenario a bit better. Another option, although more difficult to accomplish, is the "big burst" turn. From the start of the game, you should be trying to power a Luxray to attack with. If you get Trash Bolt online, your doing base 100 damage to Gyarados. With Expert Belt, 120. At which point you can finish it off with Crobats. Save your Crobats for the end game, you want them. This is another fun use of Unown Q, where you leave it benched as a place holder. Then, when they KO Jumpluff, you free a spot. Then, you attach Unown Q, for another spot, and can use both Crobat while midgame still accomplishing max damage output.
The most crucial point to remember is that you want to leave them with a bench if you can. If they get to a point where they have 3-4 benched guys, start killing Gyarados. Use your Crobats here, and kill Gyarados and kill the other guys later. Remember, you should be up prizes from early on too.
If you are really worried about this matchup there are a number of things you can do to fix it. Lucario GL Lvl X makes the "attack with Luxray" plan far more viable. Giratina (Let Loose) punishes them once their bench gets small. A Mr. Mime makes for an interesting trick as well. If you get into Leaf Guard mode, they have to Warp around Jumpluff if they want a KO, so you promote Mr. Mime. The Mime is also good for building up your Luxray to attack. All of these cards are insurance against them.
Gengar ( Curse ): This is also a good matchup. Luxray allows you to chase down and kill Gengar, who often has to have an Expert Belt on him to maintain a relevant enough damage output. The deck isn't all that fast, requiring 3 energy to get online against you. Spiritomb can slow you down a bit, but this isn't an issue in this matchup. They aren't threatening anything if they do get set up. It isn't to a point where once they set up, they are one-hitting your Jumpluffs and having too high of HP to answer. Gengar can be picked off by Luxray, and killed. Regice helps even more so here, as does Luxray to get Spiritomb away. You will be up prizes, and whatever they hide behind will usually die.
There are two complications here. The first is Mr. Mime. A lone Mime obviously does nothing due to Regice, and Warp Point, and clearly, Luxray. Builds are now running 2 Mr. Mime. This changes things, but not too much. Simply Luxray around them. And while you're at it, start attaching extra energy to Jumpluffs so they can punch through Mime.
They want you to get a full bench, and get both Mr. Mime in play. At this point, they can Dark Palm Luxray continually so that it cannot even get a turn in play to Level Up, and you get blown out by the Mime wall. If you try to power a benched Jumpluff with multiple energy, it gets Dark Palmed at 2. The problem with this is, by the time this becomes an issue, you're ahead on prizes. They do not pressure you enough for this disruption to matter.
You can simply attach extra energy to Jumpluff WHILE benching Luxray each turn. They either get rid of Luxray, or the Jumpluff. Either way they cannot answer both. Another good answer is to fill your bench with cards like Uxie, who can Psychic Restore to the bottom to retroactively reduce your Bench size, and also Crobat G, who can be returned to hand with PokeTurn. Unown Q works here as well. So you can counter their attempt to lock you out of Luxray by doing either of those tactics.
This is, of course, if you actually fill your bench. You really do not need to. Keeping your bench at 3 is perfectly fine here. The Pokemon the deck hides behind all have low hit points. In order words, your job is to keep your Bench as small as possible early until you NEED to overextend to keep taking prizes, at which point you should be down to roughly 2 prizes. The other downside of Dusknoir is that they cannot try to even the prizes without killing whatever Pokemon you feed them. So for them to try and WIN, they inadvertently have to destroy their own Dusknoir/Mime lock.
If you REALLY want to beat Cursegar/Mime/Dusknoir, simply change the Luxray line to 2/1 so that they can't palm both Luxray.
Kingdra: This deck beats you. Well, it should. Its damage output is just as high as yours, and can keep a small bench. They have 130-150 hit points, and steals prizes every 4 turns due to Dragon Pump on Claydols. Eventually they can get a small Bench of multiple Kingdras, and they run Super Scoop Ups, so you have a really difficult time taking prizes. Unlike other high Hit Point Stage 2 decks that can potentially do this, they are fast, and very energy efficient, so you cannot even attack that weakness. There is very little you can do besides to hope to get a far better start than them to win this match-up. If you wanted to tech a 1-1 Blissey prime line, perhaps that may give you a fighting chance, but other then that this match-up is very subpar for Jumpluff. Luckily, Kingdra isn't very heavily played right now due to other questionable match-ups, namely against SP decks.
Donphan Prime Blissey: This is an interesting match-up that I haven't actually tested, namely because I do not feel Donphan is particularly great. It has auto losses to Gyarados, Kingdra, and Palkia G Lvl X. It does have a very strong Luxchomp match-up though. I'm not sure about Gengar. As for Jumpluff, there are answers for this. First and foremost, it is possible to steal prizes here, just like in any matchup. There is an obvious downside though: With an Expert Belt, Donphan has a remarkable 160 effective hit points. Even if they have a full bench that is difficult! This is a very important matchup not to kill benched Pokemon against until later into the game! You really do want to have enough of a damage output here that you can punch through those hit points. This is the one matchup where I'd imagine you play against your core ideals. You will use Leaf Guard. Jumpluff is resistant to Donphan, so with Leaf Guard your reducing a whole 50 damage per hit. Get an Expert Belt ASAP here. You want to be hitting for 30 each swing. They are hitting you for 10 damage without an expert belt. With an Expert Belt, 30. They can power up for a 90 swing, but which only does 60 still, but keep in mind you will be applying damage, and threatening that OHKO. This forces them to Blissey, thus keeping that magical 90 threat away. Keep your Crobats ready here. Assuming they have 2 benched Pokemon, your doing base 90 damage. 110 with an Expert Belt. If you hit Donphan for 30, it leaves the Belted elephant at 110. Your going to need to use 2 Crobat to get a OHKO after your Leaf Guard.
Another option here is to actually power up Crobat to Toxic. Crobat's resistance makes it a very hard kill as well. This magical 40 damage between turns where they cannot use Blissey to heal allows you to score far easier OHKOs. If you really want to improve this matchup, either add something water, or add more Expert Belts. With only one, it becomes a bit difficult, but you have so much fighting resistance that I can't imagine this matchup being terribly negative.
Charizard: Ok, this matchup isn't good for you. Again, I don't feel like Charizard is the best deck choice simply due to weakness, but it beats Jumpluff and I can't imagine how one would change that. I guess its hypothetical that you can outspeed it and steal enough KOs before they get fully set up with huge hit point guys who kill you for one fire energy, but it isn't a good matchup clearly. Luckily for Jumpluff, the two decks that are best vs. it aren't really very good in the metagame at the moment.
Palkia Lock: This is an interesting matchup. It really depends on how well they lock you out of the game. The bench limiting isn't even really an issue, you have plenty of expendable Pokemon. The issue is you not getting set up at all. Mesprit is a huge pain, and can really mess you up. Power Spray is less of an issue due to the numerous Claydols and Uxie you play to get around it. Leaf Guard helps reduce their damage output, and the bench damage they do never becomes a real issue because they have to keep using Lost Cyclone and you can ditch Pokemon before they die. Chatot helps with forcing through getting set up. If you get a strong hand, or they cannot keep up the lock, your in good shape. Luxray becomes a legitimate attacker as well in this matchup as a 2 energy foil to Palkia. If you get a quick enough Jumpluff DESPITE their disruption, you should win. If they get too far of a lead against you before you set up, you are in for some trouble. This is by far the hardest SP variant to play against for this deck. Sadly there isn't a whole lot to suggest in regards to play tactics outside of telling you to do your best to stick to the standard game plan past their disruption. Eventually they will run out of power sprays and Mesprit, and at that point you really need to hammer them, and hopefully pick apart their set up with Luxray as they will be out of Sprays since they aggressively use them to keep you locked down.
This actually brings up a point I want to address. In order to improve your SP matchup, you could add a Spiritomb. This is good for a number of reasons. One, it lets you set up past power Sprays. It also slows them down, while setting you up, so it could enable you to get ahead easier. This would be most useful vs builds that have heavy Power Spray presence. Now, the other reason the card becomes good is that it lets you use Unown Q on it so that you can promote it between turns when a Jumpluff gets killed, and you can freely use your powers to get your replacement Jumpluffs out and set up unopposed.
Gardevoir Gallade: This matchup is becoming less relevent as the deck is growing worse against the rest of the metagame, but should still be addressed. This is one of the decks I wanted to have Regice for, as if they get Spiritomb up and you wind up with a slow start, they can overwhelm you.
After that, there are really 2 style of games you'll need to learn to play. You can adjust those playstyles with the bits of advice listed above for specific matchups. First, practice against SP. Figure out how to deal with their disruption and learn how to adjust to them attempting to limit their bench. Second, test against the "big evolution" decks that will threaten "inevitability". That means, the longer the game goes on, the more it favors you. This applies to much matchups. It is very applicable for Jumpluff. You need to learn to manuever around games where late game, the kills will be harder to get. If you playtest against Flygon a bunch of times, the same skills you learn there will apply to Gyarados, and Gallade Gardevoir, and other decks. Obviously there will be slight differences, but the core concepts remain the same and can be adjusted.
Lastly, as I brought up throughout the matchup section, the deck can run cards to help it win, or further secure, matchups as you see fit. This is the build I felt most comfortable going into States with. If you know your metagame will shift towards a specific deck, you can tweak it by adding cards to sway that matchup. The deck isn't set in stone, but let me warn you: do not add too many silver bullet answers to the deck. First and foremost it's consistancy is important. Do not ruin that to try and secure too many matchups. That approach works in many decks, but this is not one of them. Hopefully you have enjoyed this read, and you may even pick up what I feel is the best deck in the format, Jumpluff, for Regionals. This primer should help you jump head first into the deck, and be able to get the most mileage out of it. Good luck, and happy testing!
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It will actually help some people out :thumb:
