Once Regionals ended and I started thinking about the new set, I decided I wanted to build a Lugia LEGEND list. I had seen a thread on PokeGym or somewhere about Lugia top 4ing a European Battle Roads when paired with Kyurem. I thought that was interesting but I didn't think the spread damage was really helpful with Lugia, and that maybe there was a better partner that would also fit better into the metagame. My original list ran 2 Terrakion, 2 Kyurem, 2 Zekrom, and 4 Exp. Share and was… oh god. I don't even know. After a practice match where I accidentally got a turn one Terrakion KO by Shaymining from a lucky legend box I realized that what I could do was make something vaguely reminiscent of quadbulls that had a weird, inconsistent, but EX-countering style of energy acceleration.
For a while I was also running a Rayquaza Deoxys Legend, and if we were still in the HGSS-NXD format, I would recommend it. Mewtwos in basically every deck, and you can OHKO them for 3 prizes? Yes, please. But now there are fewer (though hardly no) Mewtwos, and a whole lot of things with a shot at OHKOing RDL that RDL can't OHKO. So it came out. The Kyurem also weren't doing anything for me; the Zekrom wasn't really either, or at least it wasn't doing as much as another Terrakion would in its place. I tried a ton of things --- there was a Heatmor in there for a long time, and I briefly considered a Thundurus to get more energy on the field and to counter Tornadus EX, which utterly blew through earlier variations of the deck. I was bolstered by a lot of good testing, though so I decided to carry on and see what I could do with the list at Battle Roads.
Here is the list I ended up taking to the Tucson Battle Roads:
11 Pokémon:
3 Terrakion NVI
2 Smeargle
2 Shaymin UL
2-2 Lugia LEGEND
9 Supporters and Supporter-seeking Trainers:
4 Juniper
3 N
2 Random Receiver
24 Trainers:
4 Junk Arm
4 Legend Box
3 Dual Ball
3 Switch
3 Super Scoop Up
3 Super Rod
2 Pokemon Catcher
2 Exp. Share
16 Energy:
4 Rainbow Energy
3 Fire Energy
3 Water Energy
3 Lightning Energy
3 Fighting Energy
I feel obligated to explain some of the choices here. My original list tried to work more like a standard deck would, running 10 draw supportes and skyarrow bridge and only one SSU and Smeargle. I ran two Flower Shop Lady in an earlier version and that was nice, but usually I had enough energy left in deck and the FSL took up my draw supporter for the turn. I spent some time late last night and this morning with wilyfungi on IRC talking about different ways to build the deck, and inspired by the Darkrai/Smeargle lists that have been going around, he built something with three Smeargle that had an unfortunately tendency to deck out. With this list I tried to split the difference, finding something that had early game donk/runaway potential but still left options for the late game in case the first few legend boxes whiffed.
I don't think Lugia LEGEND is the new best deck in format; this was a 28-Master battle roads in Arizona with some strong players (a few top 32 and top 16 regionals players) but I am not suggesting that this is the play for Nationals or even that it will win you your Battle Roads. It did win me mine, though, and I don't think it was just incredible luck; I think the deck is for real. Take a look at the results and see for yourself!
Round 1: Joey, with Straight Darkrai
We bantered a bunch before the game, and I said "Hey you are going to win this, it's cool" and he said "Yeah, but you always say that" and I turned over a Terrakion after we both mulliganed like four times. (We have some history of hilarious games, including a cities top cut where he ended up attacking me with Bellossom's Dance 'Till Dawn.) He started Tornadus EX, looked a bit relieved, and went second; I was able to get the donk with Lugia LEGEND after a couple of Junipers. Thanks, Smeargle! I was pretty excited; I'd had it happen a bunch in testing, but this was a tournament game where I donked an EX. It can be done.
Round 2: Roseanna, Eels/Ampharos
Roseanna is a player from my local league who really loves Electric Pokémon and plays a list with a variety of attackers, but focuses on Ampharos Prime and then sweeps in with Zekrom. It's not a tier 1 list, but when it gets started quickly, as it did in this game, it can be pretty intimidating. Luckily for me, she couldn't hit Plus Powers when she needed them, and so I was able to grind the win out with Terrakions even though I couldnt't get Lugia onto the field.
Round 3: Joseph, CMT
This went mostly like game 1 --- I donked a Terrakion, which was the only active Pokémon. I was sort of astounded that I pulled this off twice. Luckily we got to have some real games in top cut.
Round 4: Garrett, Zeels
This game was very close. I got a turn 2 legend box and it wasn't game-deciding but it gave me momentum and an early lead; late in the game, though, I was running out of resources and he looked set up to sweep my field. After carefully counting my discard and concluding that my second Shaymin was my sole remaining prize, I found a way to win: I junipered to deck myself out, and super rodded only three fire energy back into the deck. This put Garrett in an untenable position: Do 100 damage with Tornadus EX and get the return KO from Lugia, or switch into either Thundurus or Raikou and KO Lugia, but then suffer the Terrakion-Exp.Share retaliate KO. He tried to run through his deck to get to three Plus Powers, but couldn't. If he hadn't had two prized Thunduruses, he would have had a better shot at things; of course if I had had the second Shaymin I would have had the final Lugia KO like three turns ago and could have spent my last junk arm on the catcher. Eels is actually a pretty tough matchup for this deck; other things have more difficulty KOing Lugia, and Eels also often runs two Tornadus EX. But it's winnable!
Round 5: Zury, Zeels
Two prized legend boxes and a prized Lugia top. I didn't stand a chance. I don't know if this even went three turns; I may have hung on by a thread for a while, but she essentially crushed me.
Nonetheless, I top cut at 2nd, with an opponents' win percentage of 72%, which I think is the highest I have ever seen and was definitely the highest at the tournament. With five rounds, things can get weird, but being a bit nervous I was very happy to know I would be in cut and not have to face Zury again immediately. (Zury is not only a tough matchup, but my housemate, and while we're okay with playing each other, it's always nicer to not.)
Top 4: Zach, Entei
Zach is another teammate/testing partner of mine, and he was playing Quad Entei with Ninetales/Volcarona. Technically speaking I had type advantage on him, although being able to swing for 400 instead of 200 doesn't actually matter that much. Entei is a tough matchup for a lot of decks because it can use SSU and switch to make it hard to take prizes, but Lugia does not care about your damage-manipulation shenanigans, and I got pretty lucky with Lugia, particularly in the first match. Entei also can't KO Terrakions or Lugias in a single turn, so it has to swing a whole lot of times to get anywhere against my deck.
2-0
Top 2: Joseph, CMT
When Joseph and I met in round 3, we didn't get to play a real game at all. I'll take the win, but I'm glad that we got to play a serious best of 3; it was challenging and also a good test of the deck against CMT. The first game I had good luck with Lugia and got off to a great start; he was able to set up Tornadus EX but I could knock it out, and it went quite well for me. He made an unfortunate accidental misplay at one point, forgetting to celebration wind in order to move energy so he could retreat and attack, but I don't think it would have affected the outcome of the game overall; I just had a great setup and was pressing advantage effectively.
The second game wasn't close at all, in the opposite direction; he went first, swung into my Terrakion start for 60 damage with Mewtwo, and then I couldn't find another basic.
Game three was very close, and sort of reminiscent of the game with Garrett, in that I had to deck myself out to win, using the last resources I knew were left in the deck from counting everything. We both had pretty good starts, but I had trouble with prized Lugia peces and had to engage in some awkward shenanigans including manually retreating a Terrakion (ugh!) into a Smeargle to keep myself in the game. In the end, though, I only needed to take out a Terrakion, a Smeargle, and two Tornadus EXes to win, while he needed to take six knockouts, most of which did not come easily. Even then I was lucky that he hadn't been able to get a Juniper out of his hand, or I would have been reliant on topdecks for a turn or two to hopefully manage to finish the game. Very close, and thanks for some great games!
Props:
Judging and organization at the tournament, A+++ as usual
My testing partners Zach, Zury, Greg, and Mekkah for their help honing this, particularly Mekkah for playing game after game with whatever deck I asked for
wilyfungi for the last-minute suggestions on trainer lines
The looks on people's faces when they heard me say "Legend Box"
Winning my first Battle Roads ever with a rogue deck, bringing my CP total to 25
Slops:
…nothing, actually. Today was really awesome.
Thanks for reading!
For a while I was also running a Rayquaza Deoxys Legend, and if we were still in the HGSS-NXD format, I would recommend it. Mewtwos in basically every deck, and you can OHKO them for 3 prizes? Yes, please. But now there are fewer (though hardly no) Mewtwos, and a whole lot of things with a shot at OHKOing RDL that RDL can't OHKO. So it came out. The Kyurem also weren't doing anything for me; the Zekrom wasn't really either, or at least it wasn't doing as much as another Terrakion would in its place. I tried a ton of things --- there was a Heatmor in there for a long time, and I briefly considered a Thundurus to get more energy on the field and to counter Tornadus EX, which utterly blew through earlier variations of the deck. I was bolstered by a lot of good testing, though so I decided to carry on and see what I could do with the list at Battle Roads.
Here is the list I ended up taking to the Tucson Battle Roads:
11 Pokémon:
3 Terrakion NVI
2 Smeargle
2 Shaymin UL
2-2 Lugia LEGEND
9 Supporters and Supporter-seeking Trainers:
4 Juniper
3 N
2 Random Receiver
24 Trainers:
4 Junk Arm
4 Legend Box
3 Dual Ball
3 Switch
3 Super Scoop Up
3 Super Rod
2 Pokemon Catcher
2 Exp. Share
16 Energy:
4 Rainbow Energy
3 Fire Energy
3 Water Energy
3 Lightning Energy
3 Fighting Energy
I feel obligated to explain some of the choices here. My original list tried to work more like a standard deck would, running 10 draw supportes and skyarrow bridge and only one SSU and Smeargle. I ran two Flower Shop Lady in an earlier version and that was nice, but usually I had enough energy left in deck and the FSL took up my draw supporter for the turn. I spent some time late last night and this morning with wilyfungi on IRC talking about different ways to build the deck, and inspired by the Darkrai/Smeargle lists that have been going around, he built something with three Smeargle that had an unfortunately tendency to deck out. With this list I tried to split the difference, finding something that had early game donk/runaway potential but still left options for the late game in case the first few legend boxes whiffed.
I don't think Lugia LEGEND is the new best deck in format; this was a 28-Master battle roads in Arizona with some strong players (a few top 32 and top 16 regionals players) but I am not suggesting that this is the play for Nationals or even that it will win you your Battle Roads. It did win me mine, though, and I don't think it was just incredible luck; I think the deck is for real. Take a look at the results and see for yourself!
Round 1: Joey, with Straight Darkrai
We bantered a bunch before the game, and I said "Hey you are going to win this, it's cool" and he said "Yeah, but you always say that" and I turned over a Terrakion after we both mulliganed like four times. (We have some history of hilarious games, including a cities top cut where he ended up attacking me with Bellossom's Dance 'Till Dawn.) He started Tornadus EX, looked a bit relieved, and went second; I was able to get the donk with Lugia LEGEND after a couple of Junipers. Thanks, Smeargle! I was pretty excited; I'd had it happen a bunch in testing, but this was a tournament game where I donked an EX. It can be done.
Round 2: Roseanna, Eels/Ampharos
Roseanna is a player from my local league who really loves Electric Pokémon and plays a list with a variety of attackers, but focuses on Ampharos Prime and then sweeps in with Zekrom. It's not a tier 1 list, but when it gets started quickly, as it did in this game, it can be pretty intimidating. Luckily for me, she couldn't hit Plus Powers when she needed them, and so I was able to grind the win out with Terrakions even though I couldnt't get Lugia onto the field.
Round 3: Joseph, CMT
This went mostly like game 1 --- I donked a Terrakion, which was the only active Pokémon. I was sort of astounded that I pulled this off twice. Luckily we got to have some real games in top cut.
Round 4: Garrett, Zeels
This game was very close. I got a turn 2 legend box and it wasn't game-deciding but it gave me momentum and an early lead; late in the game, though, I was running out of resources and he looked set up to sweep my field. After carefully counting my discard and concluding that my second Shaymin was my sole remaining prize, I found a way to win: I junipered to deck myself out, and super rodded only three fire energy back into the deck. This put Garrett in an untenable position: Do 100 damage with Tornadus EX and get the return KO from Lugia, or switch into either Thundurus or Raikou and KO Lugia, but then suffer the Terrakion-Exp.Share retaliate KO. He tried to run through his deck to get to three Plus Powers, but couldn't. If he hadn't had two prized Thunduruses, he would have had a better shot at things; of course if I had had the second Shaymin I would have had the final Lugia KO like three turns ago and could have spent my last junk arm on the catcher.
Eels is actually a pretty tough matchup for this deck; other things have more difficulty KOing Lugia, and Eels also often runs two Tornadus EX. But it's winnable!Round 5: Zury, Zeels
Two prized legend boxes and a prized Lugia top. I didn't stand a chance. I don't know if this even went three turns; I may have hung on by a thread for a while, but she essentially crushed me.
Nonetheless, I top cut at 2nd, with an opponents' win percentage of 72%, which I think is the highest I have ever seen and was definitely the highest at the tournament. With five rounds, things can get weird, but being a bit nervous I was very happy to know I would be in cut and not have to face Zury again immediately. (Zury is not only a tough matchup, but my housemate, and while we're okay with playing each other, it's always nicer to not.)
Top 4: Zach, Entei
Zach is another teammate/testing partner of mine, and he was playing Quad Entei with Ninetales/Volcarona. Technically speaking I had type advantage on him, although being able to swing for 400 instead of 200 doesn't actually matter that much. Entei is a tough matchup for a lot of decks because it can use SSU and switch to make it hard to take prizes, but Lugia does not care about your damage-manipulation shenanigans, and I got pretty lucky with Lugia, particularly in the first match. Entei also can't KO Terrakions or Lugias in a single turn, so it has to swing a whole lot of times to get anywhere against my deck.
2-0
Top 2: Joseph, CMT
When Joseph and I met in round 3, we didn't get to play a real game at all. I'll take the win, but I'm glad that we got to play a serious best of 3; it was challenging and also a good test of the deck against CMT. The first game I had good luck with Lugia and got off to a great start; he was able to set up Tornadus EX but I could knock it out, and it went quite well for me. He made an unfortunate accidental misplay at one point, forgetting to celebration wind in order to move energy so he could retreat and attack, but I don't think it would have affected the outcome of the game overall; I just had a great setup and was pressing advantage effectively.
The second game wasn't close at all, in the opposite direction; he went first, swung into my Terrakion start for 60 damage with Mewtwo, and then I couldn't find another basic.
Game three was very close, and sort of reminiscent of the game with Garrett, in that I had to deck myself out to win, using the last resources I knew were left in the deck from counting everything. We both had pretty good starts, but I had trouble with prized Lugia peces and had to engage in some awkward shenanigans including manually retreating a Terrakion (ugh!) into a Smeargle to keep myself in the game. In the end, though, I only needed to take out a Terrakion, a Smeargle, and two Tornadus EXes to win, while he needed to take six knockouts, most of which did not come easily. Even then I was lucky that he hadn't been able to get a Juniper out of his hand, or I would have been reliant on topdecks for a turn or two to hopefully manage to finish the game. Very close, and thanks for some great games!
Props:
Judging and organization at the tournament, A+++ as usual
My testing partners Zach, Zury, Greg, and Mekkah for their help honing this, particularly Mekkah for playing game after game with whatever deck I asked for
wilyfungi for the last-minute suggestions on trainer lines
The looks on people's faces when they heard me say "Legend Box"
Winning my first Battle Roads ever with a rogue deck, bringing my CP total to 25
Slops:
…nothing, actually. Today was really awesome.
Thanks for reading!
