Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Redshift at Nationals

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ya i like this deck thats why i went to 3 pre-releases lmao i only got 5 moltres out of it but ok ya but wouldnt it be better to have 4 pluspowers??? i run with celios network n bebe's search i think it might work idk but if it does maybe i'll be faceing u in worlds or somthing lol
 
With my States tommorrow where I will be testing Redshift, I've posted a radically different list! Check the main article.
 
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Just got home from my States in Leicester. Thanks to everyone who made the day a success and all the feedback to my deck! I of course played my Redshift. Played 4 best of 3 swiss games against 2 Empoleon, Infernape and Porygon-Z. First game versus Empoleon I misplayed by filling my bench too much with 2 Lunatone and a Solrock, having not played for a while. Couldn't win in time for the 2nd of the best of three. Infernape matchup was simple, strength charm/ppowered Scorching wing OHKOd the Infernapes as did Mew* with 2 fires copying fire bravo. Versus Porygon-Z I put too many resources into aggro. I caluclated if I was fast enough in KOing the Porygon2 before it got nasty it would be easy from there on. Playing down 3 Moltres, I flipped three tails in a row :( and couldn't recover. 2-2 overall, not bad considering my flips overall were less than ideal.

In my opinion, Redshift IS a very viable deck, and I am going to play it at Nationals. Today hasn't put me off, I'm focusing on the strengths of the deck and trying to correct the weaknesses. The cessation tech which was originally very dubious turned out to be incredibly useful, I'm going to try and fit three in with a more castaway orientated build.

Biggest suprise of the day was Rotom! I had high hopes for dual trans, but its second attack energy reflect was just sort of "there". Turns out it works extraordinarily well against Empoleon. Puts threat on straight away with a big threat built up with Moltres. I spent today using it with castform, but it actually made me consider running basic lightning. Bringing 130HP pokés to KO range is so good, and better than Solrock.

Solrock didn't turn out very useful as an attacker. Good in turning mentor/roseanne into drawpower that sits there and stays useful. However, not nearly as useful as I'd expected.

Latilock was useless today but I still think it is important to prepare for Glaceon LvX and Magmortar. Such a simple line to help those matchups considerably, along with Mew* (though this is purely speculative) I am yet to play against a Magmortar deck this season. My feelings about the deck were right though, it would be good with reasonable luck - something today simply hadn't gifted me with. Oh well, losing is OK I'm so excited about Nationals and I'll tell you all how it goes next week!
 
I don't think you should go togekiss. You already have a ton to get out. I tried the deck out with a ton of changes. Like get rid of the Lati-Lock. No Tauros is needed either. No Holon's Castforms. No Unown E. 3 Unown Qs. 4 Lunatones and 4 Solrocks. All :fire: energies. I also made a few trainer/supporter/stadium changes. And guess what...it owned. Hope that helps! P.S. The deck idea didn't fail.

:pokeball::pokeball::pokeball:

Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:

Oh yeah! you won't get owned by empoleon because you'll hit 100 on the piplup!:smile:
 
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hi Alex thnx for the game on saturday. soz about the whole empoleon poke power miss play. just to say well done for yesterday. redshift is an excelent deck more consistent than skittles and i really had to think when playing your deck. i came 4th in the end. gd luck in nationals see you there. just to say i couldnt think of much to help your deck it seemed perfect on sat im sure you have some ideas
 
If you play a deck that relies on luck to win at Nationals, you don't have much of a chance. If you get tails flips on Moltres, this deck will run out of steam instantly, not to mention Empoleon's easy OHKOing ability. Good Luck...you'll need every bit to go 8-1 in June.
 
josher3147 said:
If you play a deck that relies on luck to win at Nationals, you don't have much of a chance. If you get tails flips on Moltres, this deck will run out of steam instantly, not to mention Empoleon's easy OHKOing ability. Good Luck...you'll need every bit to go 8-1 in June.
Click to expand...

agreed. i think this will turn out being too luck-based to reliably win. your good luck at one tournament will be balanced by your bad luck at the next; your good luck in Swiss will be balanced by your bad luck in top cut, your bad luck in swiss will keep you from qualifying for top cut, etc. wait for next season; i think moltres wil be a useful attacker once we get Legends Awakened.
 
I really like the idea MU, however in apprentice, I have been having more success with this list:

4 Moltres
3-2-1 Delcatty/EX
3-2-3 Typhlosion (Helps with Empo and the DRE factor)
1 Mew*d
2 Unown Q

4 Call energy
10 Fire
2 Holon FF
2 Cyclone

The consistency was there and the total abuse was nice! Cyclone adds that twist that most arent looking for and the Catty EX for a cleaner is fantastic!! I understand that this kinda of goes against the synergy as Moltres needs it in the discard, but the Upstream after a few tails drops is just sick and it gives you the free retreater you need afte upstreaming and then dropping a Felicity and Energy draw! it is just nice!!

Great conept and doesn't surprise me on the Tails Flips.. I cant get heads to save my games most of the time!!

Side Note:

BEST ARTICLE WRITTEN IN A LONG TIME HERE ON THE GYM!! KUDOS!

Fish
 
Alex,
Just a quick correction about something you said to Stef on Saturday regarding SSU.
You said you weren't keen on it because you were doubling the odds of failing; i.e. fail on the Moltres flip and
the SSU flip.

I'm sure you've already realised the mistake here, but just in case :-
The success of these flips is independent of each other (if one succeeds, you don't do the other).
It is only the failure that is cumulative - 25% chance of both failing.
Thus, obviously, a 75% chance of succeeding in one or the other.

Personally, I still think it's too flippy for consistency, but I sure as heck hope I don't come up against it next week !
 
A little research

Thanks so much for the encouragement! Everyone's advice has been really helpful. I've decided to keep a small amount of secrecy about some additional techs I'll be using at Nationals. But I will be playing Redshift and I've got the guts to flip the coins, irrational hope for the win!

________________

Re: kalisco

About the super scoop up odds. First, what I specifically said to Stef was that super scoop up only increased the chance of charging a Moltres by 12.5%, from 50% to 62.5% and that didn't make it worthwhile for me.

By this I meant playing a Moltres, flipping for super scoop up if it failed and flipping for Moltres' power.

So there are eight possible combinations out of the three flips. Half of those you win with the first flip and don't do any more flips. Out of the other four, only THH lets you charge Moltres, you need to win the SSU flip AND the Moltres flip when you play it down. So that makes 5 winning combinations out of 8 to give 62.5% expected chance.

Here is a flowchart for it. Each junction is a coin flip, heads it goes one way, tails the other. So see there's only two that lead to win? One passes three junctions, so it's 1/2 times 1/2 times 1/2, while the other win stems from just one junction, just a half.

I tested it in BASIC to emulate 10000 Moltres/SSU plays. First to flip for Moltres and if heads record it, on tails flip for SSU and if that's heads flip for Moltres play from hand and if heads record that.

Code: 
10 input "Emulate Redshift: " k
20 for a=1 to k
30 if ran() > 0.5 then
40 let w = w + 1
50 else
60 if ran() > 0.5 then
70 if ran() > 0.5 then
80 let w = w + 1
90 endif
100 endif
110 endif
120 next a
130 let r = (w/k)*100
140 print "Success rate: ",r,"%"

That came back as 62.48%.

_______________________

Did the same thing for 1 Moltres 2 Super Scoop Up 2.

Flowchart of that here.

I used this BASIC code to calculate those odds, results are on the flowchart:

Code: 
10 input "Emulate Redshift: " k
20 for a=1 to k
30 if ran() > 0.5 then
40 let w = w + 1
50 else
60 if ran() > 0.5 then
70 if ran() > 0.5 then
80 let w = w + 1
90 else
100 if ran() > 0.5 then
110 if ran() > 0.5 then
120 let w = w + 1
130 endif
140 endif
150 endif
160 else
170 if ran() > 0.5 then
180 if ran() > 0.5 then
190 let w = w + 1
200 endif
210 endif
220 endif
230 endif
240 next a
250 let r = (w/k)*100
260 print "Success rate: ",r,"%"


So here's a table of Moltres in hand, SSUs in hand and the chance you can get a charged Moltres.

Moltres SSU: 0, 1, 2
1: 50%, 63% 72%
2: 75%, 81%, 86%
3: 83%, 91%, 93%
4: 94% 95%, 96%

Interesting, isn't it? With two super scoop ups available, there is a considerable advantage in chance. Main advantages to playing super scoop ups it would seem:

  • Very useful for the many tools/Unown the deck will be using to recycle etc.
  • Get energies discarded by: pokémon -> hand -> discard
  • Moltres' nasty retreat cost
  • Considerable increase in chance of charging a Moltres
  • Helps the first turn and second turn rush/aggro chance
  • Offers potential solution to the benchpsace dilema. And offers an interesting suprise element, bench full so your opponent doesn't expect a fully charged attack. Suprise! SSU win.

Mega props to everyone as I said at the beginning of the post, but after more reflection, specific credit to Sami and Stef for the SSU suggestions. I'd put SSU aside, but their help has/will take the deck to new heights :) That's the power of Spirit of the Game.
 
If anyone's interested Magic Umbreon took this to nationals and finished 19th, just missing the top 16 cut :( . It was a shame it didn't go further but from what I saw of it it was a very consitant preformer and was the best preforming genuine rogue, so I think it bodes well for the deck.

Nice work!
 
" If anyone's interested Magic Umbreon took this to nationals and finished 19th, just missing the top 16 cut :( . It was a shame it didn't go further but from what I saw of it it was a very consitant preformer and was the best preforming genuine rogue, so I think it bodes well for the deck.

Nice work!"

Congratulations! I'd like to hear more about it! :thumb:
 
The list I played was:

Pokémon: 19
4 Moltres MD 10
3 Rotom MD 13
2 Lunatone GE 76
1 Solrock GE 85
2 Holons Castform HP 44
2 Unown Q MD 49
1 Latias GE 22
1 Latios HP 12
1 Jirachi ex CG 94
1 Mew star DF 101
1 Shuckle GE 109

Trainers: 23
4 Holon Mentor
4 Roseannes Research
3 TV Reporter
2 Stevens Advice
1 Castaway
2 Cessation Crystal
3 Pluspower
3 Super Scoop Up
1 Time-Space Distortion

Energy: 18
10 Fire Energy
1 Water Energy
2 Lightning Energy
1 Psychic Energy
4 Call Energy

_________________________

The build was just right. Latilock made the Sceptile match easy, Mew* very good against Magmortar. Lost against a GG, great player Scott (see post below). I misplayed a little, The other loss was to a Darkrai/Honchcrow/Weavile build. He got everything out extraordinarily fast and I misplayed by not using Rotom enough. Would have been better to build castform onto a Rotom and energy reflect it over to the other, 2HKOing Honchcrow. Instead, I built Moltres. Despite using Steven's and Lunatone to just rush through my deck, I hit none of the three pluspowers and couldn't make the damage to KO Honchcrow. Combination of lack of sleep and the guy talking so much. Great person, but perhaps I might have played a little better if he was quieter.

3 wins 2 losses, some 3-2 went through, but I missed top cut as Kempley said. My big regret is not having the opportunity to test it enough. The week before Nationals (Mon-Fri it was on Sat) was my big GCSE exams. Much revision, stress, hard-work left me really worn out from the week alone. No players in my town, no-one in my family plays and really only had the cards for Redshift. Not great online either, so everything was against me.

A word of warning to anyone who uses Redshift: It's difficult to play. You need to balance techs and gambles with benchspace. Things like crystal beach, psychic lock, random candies can be lethal, but when it sets up good, it really owns.
 
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???

You lost to me in the first game didn't you, I was using Plox. Yeah because you got out Jirachi EX and SSU'd it which slowed me down.

I do like the deck though, mew* being double weak to psychic lock isn't good though.
 
Magic_Umbreon said:
Combination of lack of sleep and the guy talking so much. Great person, but perhaps I might have played a little better if he was quieter.
Click to expand...

This sounds like Kirk to me and I know precisely what you mean. Waffle waffle waffle.

Anyway, great list and I'm impressed with you for doing so well with it at Nats, especially with there being so many Empoleons going around. I wish I'd seen a Sceptile deck though.
 
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