Returning after a long pokehiatus

[richie910842]

Hey everyone, my fiance and I are getting trying to get back into this game after having to put it down for largely financial and time related resaons about *thinks for a moment* six years ago, *feels old*. Ive already seen at least one very similar post to this, so it doesnt seem to be an uncommon condition.

Im really trying to get caught up on the current state of play. I know all the principles of the game, with the exceptions of new mechanics and current rulings, but not necessarily whats out there now. (Let me give you an example, before I quit in the "berfore times", a very common conversation would go like this:

"Hey, I built this awesome deck!"
"Can it counter LuxChomp?"
"Hmm, probably not . . ."
"Then, unfortunately, right now, its not a very good deck :frown

Is there anything out there right now that's so common I need to be aware it exists? (Im not asking for deck lists, just the primary cards, I'll look them up.)

Also, what are the common deck components? I'm sorry for all the old card comparisons, but they're really my only point of reference. When I played before, it was tough to find a deck that wouldn't be stronger for having a particular Claydol and particular Uxie in them, nor a deck without them that would fair well against a deck that did have them do to their sheer draw power. Also A particular azelf comes to mind that could single handedly prevent you from getting prize locked. There were also a few trainer cards worth noting of which every deck would typically run 3-4.

I saw an Octillery that allows you to draw back to five once per turn, which is like a less powerful/broken version of old Claydol (who was "put up to two on the bottom of you deck, draw to six"), and a Shaymin ex that is a, quite frankly, cooler version of the previously stated Uxie. I saw a trainer thats a one-sided team rocket, but it has neither the searchability nor access to the prize cards, and may leave your deck strategy bare to your opponent:frown:.

Are these the cards that all the kids are using these days? (Sorry, old joke I'm 31, but seriously, please help me out with this.)

 

[richie910842]

I'll also ask for a bit more specific information, since we just made some, (what I assume to be), awesome pops! (I'm not really sure of relative rarity, these all came from our first 13 packs since trying to get back into the game):

Break Raticate
Break Greninja
Darkrai EX
Full art mega Glalie

Its that Raticate that intrigues me the most, my first thought was "this would be amazing if I could poison from the bench, but they probably wouldn't print this card if that was in the current format" then I read the text for Ariados, I think ancient origins, and was thinking "Ok, I can get away with it, my guy will get poisoned too, and there's a lot of high damage attacks being thrown around, but this guy seems fast, and will certainly do his damage before going down, throw in some of the gust-of-wind type trainers and a decent necro engine and this can be an annoying deck." Then I looked up the the "base" Raticate from the same set that is immune to status conditions and thought "this is becoming officially unfair, these cards go together too well, they wouldn't put something out there like this unless there was a REALLY good counter to it . . ." followed immediately by "hmm, an old Unown G ("prevent effects of attack from affecting this Pokemon") would've shut this deck down, I wonder how common that type of mechanic is in the current format"

So would this deck work, or are there common cards that would prevent Raticates attack?

Also a few questions about Break Pokemon

They remind me a lot of lvl Xs, do they have the same rules where they count towards 4 card limits (i e I cant have 4 Raticates and 4 break Raticates, but only 2:2 3:1 or 1:3)?

Can I evolve them on my bench or do they have to be my active?

Are they searchable as "Pokemon or evolution cards", or do I have to be able to search for break Pokemon specifically, and if so what cards do that?

 

[MegaVelocibot]

Edits upcoming to address other points.

Hey everyone, my fiance and I are getting trying to get back into this game after having to put it down for largely financial and time related resaons about *thinks for a moment* six years ago, *feels old*. Ive already seen at least one very similar post to this, so it doesnt seem to be an uncommon condition.

Im really trying to get caught up on the current state of play. I know all the principles of the game, with the exceptions of new mechanics and current rulings, but not necessarily whats out there now. (Let me give you an example, before I quit in the "berfore times", a very common conversation would go like this:

"Hey, I built this awesome deck!"
"Can it counter LuxChomp?"
"Hmm, probably not . . ."
"Then, unfortunately, right now, its not a very good deck :frown

Is there anything out there right now that's so common I need to be aware it exists? (Im not asking for deck lists, just the primary cards, I'll look them up.)

Yep. Swing by The Charizard Lounge; they're usually good at posting what decks won what tournaments. Night March is one of the biggest boogeymen, given a card that was a counter to it was banned because of its ability to draw through your whole deck then recycle all the cards (Lysandre's Trump Card).

Also, what are the common deck components?

The general staples are VS. Seeker (can use your old Supreme Victors ones, as it's recently reprinted), Professor Sycamore (Professor Oak as a Supporter), Ultra Ball (Computer Search but only for Pokemon), shuffle-draw Supporters, search or draw Items, and supporting Stadiums. Lysandre (Supporter Gust of Wind) is generally at least a one-of.

Are these the cards that all the kids are using these days? (Sorry, old joke I'm 31, but seriously, please help me out with this.)

Current format is XY-on, with rotations near the end of every summer, usually an announcement at some point that season before then.

"this is becoming officially unfair, these cards go together too well, they wouldn't put something out there like this unless there was a REALLY good counter to it . . ." followed immediately by "hmm, an old Unown G ("prevent effects of attack from affecting this Pokemon") would've shut this deck down, I wonder how common that type of mechanic is in the current format"

Not that common, but there is a tool that prevents Special Conditions (Sparkling Robe). Most decks deal with Special Conditions through Switch, Escape Rope, Manaphy-EX/Float Stone and Zoroark, etc.

So would this deck work, or are there common cards that would prevent Raticates attack?

Stage 2 are difficult to set up in this environment, which a Stage 1 BREAK functionally is (without the ability to skip ahead via Rare Candy). Even one as powerful as Zoroark BREAK has met with little success, but there's no reason not to try! Not every deck has to be one to dominate any tournament that will ever happen. The turns dedicated to getting Energy on and the Raticate BREAK evolved are also difficult in the current environment.

Also a few questions about Break Pokemon

They remind me a lot of lvl Xs, do they have the same rules where they count towards 4 card limits (i e I cant have 4 Raticates and 4 break Raticates, but only 2:2 3:1 or 1:3)?

Different names, so no shared limit.

Can I evolve them on my bench or do they have to be my active?

Anywhere in play is fine.

Are they searchable as "Pokemon or evolution cards", or do I have to be able to search for break Pokemon specifically, and if so what cards do that?

They count as Evolution cards, as a subset of Pokemon.

 

[richie910842]

Thanks a lot, all that information really helps. I had no idea things were that fast right now! I thought the "megas take an extra turn to evolve" would slow a things down. (Its a new mechanic to me, I know they're meaty, but giving my opponent a free shot on a "claim two" ex everytime I evolved kinda scared me away from them.

Do you think Id have better luck building around the Glalie? I still want to try Raticate, cause it seems fun, but would the Glalie be more competitve?

Sounds like Grininja (a stage 2 break) will probably be useless until the next cycle

 

[Noah121]

Almost all Mega-Evolution Pokemon have Item cards called "<Pokemon Name> Spirit Link," which all have the text, "Your turn doesn't end if the Pokemon this card is attached to becomes M-<Pokemon-Name>-EX. This mechanic began in the Phantom Forces set.

 

[MegaVelocibot]

Ironically, Greninja is not in as bad shape, given the nice support it has from XY Greninja, the new BREAKPoint Frogadier, and Archie's Ace in the Hole (if need be).

 

[richie910842]

Hmmm, ok, so looks like I have two pretty good prospects. Ill try writing up a deck list for each and throw them on Deck Help. What else is good for resing energy to hand aside from fisherman? Greninja will probably need a lot of that.

 

[Otaku]

Hmmm, ok, so looks like I have two pretty good prospects. Ill try writing up a deck list for each and throw them on Deck Help. What else is good for resing energy to hand aside from fisherman? Greninja will probably need a lot of that.

Probably a bit late to point out, but Superior Energy Retrieval (not to be confused with Super Energy Retrieval) is your go to card for reclaiming basic Energy from the discard pile in most decks that want to keep a lot of Basic Energy in hand. Fisherman is there as well, but it is there as an extra option and one that doesn't mind Item lock. I recommend trying to get some copies of Greninja (XY 41/146); while it does not hit very hard its Ability is "Water Shuriken", which as you might expect is like "Giant Water Shuriken" found on Greninja BREAK. If you Evolve Greninja BREAK from Greninja (XY 41/146) and have the Energy to pay for it, you may use both Abilities on an Active Greninja BREAK. Benched Greninja (XY 41/146) or Greninja BREAK that Evolved from Greninja (XY 41/146) can use the regular Water Shuriken as well, again you only need the Energy to pay for it. Getting as many as you can to the field at once can very quickly swing the game in your favor!

 

[richie910842]

Hmm, I should have gotten an email because Im still subscribed to this thread, still I guess restumbling only two days after a surprise post isnt too bad Ive actually been trying to build this deck since my last post. (I should post this whole list in deck garage in a little bit.) Ive even proxied it to try its flow, which isnt too bad. Ive been going with 2/2 octillery line to keep my hand full. and Greninja (fortunately and unfortunatly) seems to work best as a 4/4/4/4 (Yeah, thats 16 cards for one family), since frogadier fills the bench so well and Greninja functions best the more of himself there are on the bench. Ive been able to get 3 giant water shurikens off in 1 turn using gren's free retreat and escape rope. I didn't realize that XY could small shuriken from the bench, I had thought that it was literally a smaller version of GWS. Still, his retreat makes me nervous . . . Ive been relying one "bench Dancing" to get mulitple GWS's and easily sending out my "least hurt" and letting my last turn's active get to the bench to rough seas heal. Even that one retreat can stop up the dance.