Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

What do you think are the top decks in E-On?

Status
Not open for further replies.
It honestly doesn't matter.I said in my post that the top decks r tied, but if i had to rate based on what i have played against and with.In my experience BAR is just to slow for me to play.
 
Last edited:
I would agree, BAR seems to be fine, but it gets unstable at times, and when it has problems, it has MAJOR problems.

Nice to see all the debate about it, and I will be happy to eat my words if in PWNS me in Chicago.

Scary to have to travel hundreds of mile to play, only because I am running EVERY city champioship in my area.

We will see what happens in Chicago.

Meganium45
 
I thought Jedidrew was from TN?

OK, maybe I am wrong. There are a few places who would claim to play with the best players in the Country, and heck, with Ness gone, I guess my region could lay claim to that as well.

That does not matter, what matters is what decks are out there against what decks.

From what I have seen, with a tight Garde deck, you have to either be ready to deal with Gardevoir, or lose to Gardevoir. I have not seen one deck cripple this much attention since Gatr. I think it will be interesting to see how it does in cities. RAQ decks have a tendency to go 3-1 around here, which is the same as a lot of other major decks. Right now, Garde is floating at the top.

There are a lot of other decks that have to be dealth with, such as the Sneasel EX variants that are popping up, AggronEX/Wailord, Shenja (no idea how to really spell it), and of course RAQ. Amphy EX caught on here for a brief time, and then faded away. I have no idea why it did not stay around.

Well, to let you all know, a Garde deck took 1st this week yet again, with a strong showing by a Dragon Wind Salamance deck of all things, along with Shenja, RaichuEX and Magcargo EX. A lot of different decks that all did very well.

The format seems pretty balanced, who knows what to play come February?

Can;t wait to start hearing results!

Meganium45
 
just to let evryone know, there was a tournery today in Mexico, there were the following decks:

2 Kingdra ex variants
1 Swampert decks
2 Slaking decks
1 Flygon
1 Niniken
1 BAR (sorta)

The BAR player had no idea how to play BAR, the kingdra decks were built really good. neways, 6 out of 8 decks were made to counter Niniken, 5 round tourney, I played using Niniken against both Kingdra decks, both Slaking decks and 1 Swampert deck. I came undefeated in the tournery, Ninken does not lose to water, even if it is water swarm (Kingdra). want more proof? Play against me, no one has contacted me so far for a game AIM, appr or w/e.

- MuD
 
First off, Blaziken is #1. Wether it be with Ninetales, or Rayquaza, or Rayquaza and Amphy. It is hands down the best deck. Gardy is just not close to it. The 2nd best, IMO, is Aggron Wailord. Wailord gives Blaziken issues, and is a major reason why Ninetales Blaziken is iffy.

And I back up JediDrew 100%. He goes to my league, and Blaziken wins every weeks tourney. Not even close. The finals usually are two Blazikens...same with t4 lol. We have ALOT of great players too, as most of them have major accomplishments under their belts in this game. ALmost everyone follows the best decks and metagame online and have been playing since at least 2000.
 
I still think BAR or blaziken/rayquaza in general is still unreliable.Garde still seems to be at the top right now.Don't get me wrong, I think BAR is a good deck, just not the most reliable/faster of the dominant decks right now.
 
Mudkip said:
dude, havent we played against each other before? seriously, the next time i see ya at AIm, ill play you with this deck, also, jermy, salamence doesnt beat blaze/tales since delcatty owns it. ive never faced a muk ex deck with this, so i cant really say, but i guess warp point solves that. so i pretty much think this and BAR are top decks, BAR can beat everything but muk ex, slaking (maybe) and blaze/tales, and blaze tales beats everything cept for kingdra, slaking and muk ex (maybe) so i agree that BAR is higher up, since kingdra is more widely played than blaze/tales, actually irl i dont think anyone but me plays blaze/tales, ya in mexico they play it too, but the decks here are not exactly well built.
Click to expand...

Sally does Beat Blaze/Tales. Delcatty is not that strong, i mean c'mon. If I see a Vulpix and a Torchic down, I know the catty is coming, and I can focus on that. Getting 2 Salamence up is pretty much GG on that I would think. I dunno, play me sometime and we'll see.

As for everyone saying "this is unbeatable" etc... nothing is unstoppable. I explained my top5 and whatnot in an earlier post so I won't get into that again. I think we'll see a few surprises come about when city champs hit.
 
some one please tell me how do you get a BAR to beat a Slaking. The only way I can think of is to make it as fast as possible with rare candy and kitty, but then aren't you weak to Omastar.
 
Last edited:
Well, no one plays Slaking. That's how you beat it. Haha, well I actually do play Slaking, but I haven't had much time to play against Blazzy decks on apprentice with it. It really depends on how you build the deck, cause some Slaking decks are slow, and those would loose because he's not a very hard KO for Rayquaza. They just need to put energy straight onto Ray. If more people made Slaking decks, then maybe Blazzy wouldn't be as good, but right now I'm the only one playing it so yeah.

Nike, what do you play with Salamance? I haven't played against it and was just curious cause I think Salamance has great potential.
 
Venusaur said:
Adding to what plaid said, Slaking usually only comes out turn 3 at the earliest. By then the blaziken player couldve already charged up a Rayquaza ready to KO the slaking.
Click to expand...

That is DEFINITELY best situation though, jermy. Not everyone miraculously busts that stuff out like you do lol.

Plaid, catch me online sometime if your on AIM, i'll let you check my list out. I run it with just basics so I can grab a t2-3 Sally really fast.

As for Slaking... maybe with some kind of gust ability it can beat Blazy. I think its too slow attack wise. You can Critical whatever for 100 to sometthing... but then Ray comes up and obliterates you. Slaking does stop Blazy's power though, which is real nice. Its really really hard to swarm with it, and that's why I think it can't beat blaziken. With Victreebell it might work... but thats a big MIGHT.
 
If you use Buffer Piece with Slaking it can help, since you might be able to get a few ko's in before Rayquaza can kill you. It needs 5 energy on it to KO Slaking with a Buffer, so if you can stall long enough you should have another Slaking ready to use a boost on.

Slaking and VBell sounds like a really odd combo, but it might be able to work. The only problem is that you can't attack every turn, but if you get to pick you KOs, that could make up for it. I'll tinker around with that idea and see if it works. It just might be a little hard to get it all out. And what else would you use with Slaking and VBell?
 
Last edited:
i been kinda low on the internet thing and this whole discussion. But my opinion of all the T5 decks are varied. there are an absolute TON of variations and different player preferences. Heres my top 5 and why i think they should be there.

1) Amphy Ex/ Amphy
This is 100% biased but i think amphy is hands down the best deck. In about a month of playing the deck in sanctioned play its has only about 4 loses(not including 2 or 3 T8 losses) out of 24 matches roughly.it also won me the weekly tourney that i play at and T2 me for two weeks straight(i think). it is a complete powerhouse and has completely blown out many of the leetist decks going around. it wins hands down with its pure speed and raw power.

2) Muk EX/ Umbreon
Psycodad made this deck ELITE in my eyes. this deck beats 90 percent of what comes by it. Muk is a beast that just shuts down everything. I have heard many stories of the deck that was ridiculed(or so psycodad says) but has found its way to being at the top. its EXTREMELY consistant for the most part and the many combinations that are put into the deck make it work so good. easily the second best deck out of everything i have seen lately if not the first. this decks dominates but has shown to be weak to very few decks.

3) Blaziken/ Raquaza/ Magneton/ Delcatty
Its not BAR but it might be better. Its proved to be very efficent in my area and is very resourceful. I have seen the BAR deck played by viper and it was alright but i think this deck is better. You cant move the energies but they can be gathered with magneton. Also using the stage one maggy lets you free up space for speed. Great deck

4) AggronEX/ Wailord
This deck is just huge and the damage dealt is great. its got so much going for it mainly because Muk EX cant do much exept poison it. Aggron has no power and is resistant to grass i think. Amphy gives it a great run for its money but in the end with resistance(Amphy EX) and metals(Aggron EX) it just becomes a slugfest.

5) Gardy EX/ Gardy
I am probably crazy for putting this at #5 but its really slowed down with all the up and coming decks that either beat it or weaken it. theres gotten tp be a ton of things gone wrong with the Muk Ex and Aggrons brutal power. It is great dont get me wrong but i just think it has slowed down much.

I think this is as it stands now but is subject to change my opinions after the upcoming events. There are a TON of decks out there like i said and a TON of variants to all of these decks.
 
Hey Matrix
Thanks for the props. I thimk ridiculed is a bit strong. More like questioned, doubted, etc.. As far as a list I still think muk ex doesn't belong that high, maybe 5th or 6th but I know you have played against it and witnessed 1st hand what it can do. After seeing gardy/lord in action I am starting to like gardy again. Still, I may play some off the wall rogue that has been testing well for me.
 
i agree with crimson, i really think that everyone is disregarding kingdra as a non-contender, where as it really has the potential to run against almost any type of deck out there

i've played against psyduck's blaze/eggs deck numerous times and have won all but one, and that deck was a big worry to me

these colorless weak types are easy for kingdra to beat since i run crystal shards,........

a shard and a boost beat latias, latios, and ray............. so it's not like they worry me much

magneton is too weak to stay up against a kingdra........... and wobb can defend vs an amphy

along with that, kingdra can utilize the best healing card (nurse) which makes life better

and even though it doesn't do much damage, if all else fails, retaliate can be a last resort

i just think that quite a few people will receive a reality check when their decks get run over by a kingdra
 
1. Gardevoir/ex - In my opinion, this is easily the best deck... It's incredibly fast, it works even if you don't get an abundance of energy, and the damage that it can do is unlimited, it doesn't top off of at 70 or 90 or whatever... Granted this is a bit biased because I've won 20+ matches with it, against only 3 losses, but I honestly think this is the strongest deck available.

2. Rainbow Burn - Flygon in general is just a beast, if you get enough energy in your hand, one Energy Shower can get you set up for the rest of the game. Magneton is my favorite variant of this, but I've seen a bunch of them. As long as you've got a NH Flygon or two to counter other dragons, not much can solidly beat this.

3. Amphy ex - I like Amphy ex, mainly because of how much it hurts Gardevoir, what I don't like is that it's damage tops out at 70, and it doesn't even deal that solidly. Not to mention that there's not much other Lightning-types that deal solid damage, in my opinion Magneton's the best one, and he's hurt because of his HP and reliance on an abundance of energy.

4. Chicken Eggs - This would be higher on the list, but it's based too much on flips, I mean if you can swarm the Blazikens fast enough then you're doing a solid 80-120 per turn with Eggy.

OtherHonorable Mentions
- Blaze/Tales
- Sceptile Tech
- Aggron ex/Wailord
- Kingdra/ex Variants

The deck I seriously just don't like that everyone else seems to be praising is Blaze/Amphy/Rayquaza... I mean, I get the strategy and everything, but it doesn't seem like a good deck to me... I have played against it, and I've never had any trouble in wiping it out. Seriously, it doesn't even look like a good deck on paper to me, if two Stage 2s didn't work in the faster, Neo-On format, why would it work now?

Anyway, that's just my two cents...
 
Venusaur said:
Well a good player has to be playing the BAR deck for it to work. But I know why you think it's bad. Theres an old pokemon saying that says "Two stage 2s in a deck dont work." Thats true, but only if youre relying on 2 stage 2s to attack. I dont. All you need is 1 Amphy sitting on the bench. No attacking with him. Most of the focus goes on Blaziken. It's like this. Instead of oracling for a Blaziken and rare candy, you get an ampharos and rare candy. Just a 1 card difference. So thats why it works. And it didnt work in neo-on because if you laid a stage 2 on the bench to help you out, it would get gusted and KOed. There is no gust in this format aside from a couple pokemon's powers. BAR has the advantage over gardevoir for a lot of reasons but I dont wanna post them again but theyre on the 2nd-3rd page on this thread. If you STILL dont like it, download apprentice and play me sometime :).
Click to expand...

Well said Jeremy. The deck seriously is very good, just because you wiped it out with someone else playing it, doesn't mean that someone else was a good player or even built it right. Don't judge how good the deck is by the deck list... judge more so on the player. A good player can work against anything, just because you have deck advantaged does NOT mean you automatically win, I can't tell you how many times people thought they would beat me simply because I was weak to them... and that came back around to bite them in the butt and they lost horribly.
 
YoungJohn06 said:
Well said Jeremy. The deck seriously is very good, just because you wiped it out with someone else playing it, doesn't mean that someone else was a good player or even built it right. Don't judge how good the deck is by the deck list... judge more so on the player. A good player can work against anything, just because you have deck advantaged does NOT mean you automatically win, I can't tell you how many times people thought they would beat me simply because I was weak to them... and that came back around to bite them in the butt and they lost horribly.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I was talking about: :"A good player can work against anything, just because you have deck advantaged does NOT mean you automatically win..." Very well said. Jermy, this was my point before when you and I were arguing back and forth. It was like a tennis match, seriously. But moving on.

The Duece, I like your thinking since you put Gardy at number one, that's my kind of thinking. But I can't believe BAR isn't on your list. I don't even like BAR that much, and I put it may high on my list, number two I think. You've gotta learn to respect a good deck when you see it, or else you'll get pummeled when you face it. Even if you don't like it that much.

Besides, usually I visualize BAR players as starting off with Sparce, getting the basics, (mareep, chick, ray) oracling next turn, evolving to blaze, considering they have one. Then start powering up Quaza, get sparce knocked out, send up quaza, evolve to the big A (mphy), power up ray, get up another blaze by maybe turn four, and YOU ARE IN CONTROL! But if that's wrong, tell me. That's my experience in playing against it. If the BAR player gets set up this quickly, they dominate from that point on. I've played against BAR, and it's simply one of the best decks in the current format. No questions asked. It just is, and you can't argue with it. Because if you do:

1. You haven't ever played against it.
2. You haven't ever beaten it and you're holding a grudge.
3. You just don't know what you are talking about.

Signing off,
 
SuperWooper said:
The Duece, I like your thinking since you put Gardy at number one, that's my kind of thinking. But I can't believe BAR isn't on your list. I don't even like BAR that much, and I put it may high on my list, number two I think. You've gotta learn to respect a good deck when you see it, or else you'll get pummeled when you face it. Even if you don't like it that much.
Click to expand...

I do give credit wherever I think it's due, as I've said, I've played against the deck, and I've never seen it effetcively get pulled off, I've played against it around 5 times against mostly different people, 3-4 times they just didn't get the full setup, and the other couple of times Quaza was smashed by Gardevoir/Wobbuffet with a Crystal Shard.

I mean, I get the strategy of the deck, and it's pretty obvious that if it gets fully setup and everything, then it'd be very strong, but I just don't see this being able to get two or three Stage 2s set up that fast.

Granted, optimal situation, you've got 2 Blazikens, and an Amphy on the bench, while Raquaza is active, and ready do deal 120, but if you're using that logic then you also have to expect that your opponent can get 2 Gardevoir/Gardevoir ex out with Boosts and Crystal Shards ready just as fast. Or that you'll have to face 2 fully charged Flygons by turn 3.

I'm not doubting that BAR is a good deck, hey if it's the deck that you use, then more power to ya... but, I have played against it, and I have yet to see it work, and I just can't see it out-speeding some of the other decks in the format
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top