Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Why didn't Flygon win Nationals?

A

atomant

New Member
Hello,

Right now I'm considering buying a Flygon.LVX. The problem: It's expensive (about $40 with shipping), and I'm perplexed as to why Flygon didn't do so well at the U.S Masters division at Nationals?

To be honest, I think the Flygon deck in general is awesome. It has an efficient draw engine (two Claydol), powerful attacks (Flygon with a big bench of evolutions just add on the counters), and energy acceleration(Weavile and Upper Energy).

I'm not here to vaunt about how I feel this deck should have won Nationals, but if we can discuss the flaws of the deck, its match ups, and the trouble it may have run into at Nationals ,you guys or girls can save me from spending $40 on a card that I don't mind borrowing from a friend for the grinder (I do like to own my cards for major tournaments--various reasons).

Thanks for reading. Let the posting begin.

P.S:

Care to take a look at my Flygon list? Check the link below.
http://pokegym.net/forums/showthread.php?t=105111
 
atomant said:
Really? The LV.X hurt its bench?
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I think the problem is that the Palkia player will Psychic Bind you several turns in a row until they can do 80 to your Claydol, severely decreasing the consistency of a deck that already struggles in that department.
 
paint panic said:
I think the problem is that the Palkia player will Psychic Bind you several turns in a row until they can do 80 to your Claydol, severely decreasing the consistency of a deck that already struggles in that department.
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This Palkia deck, is that Palkia and Dialgia G? How many of those decks were in the top 64?
 
Palkia G can be used with either Dialga or Luxray, but either one of them soundly beats the heck out of Flygon.

Lots of them were in top cut. ;)
 
Flygon is just naturally inconsistent, more so than other decks. Because unlike other Stage 2 decks in the format, it has to have 3 energies to really do anything. It get's out sped, and then runs out of steam late game, whereas other decks can keep going until the game is over.
 
The main flaw with Flygon LV. X decks is that A. It's a stage 2 LV.X, which (in a pokemon season that's being ran by SP) is too slow. B. Not all decks use evolved pokemon. C. Not all decks use Lv. Xs. It's a good deck, but it's a totally situational win.
 
i think the problem is that people STILL haven't realized flygon is a TECH that can also attack and they try to build their decks around it being their main attacker and they fail. it does great as a supporting pokemon (discarding stadiums, proving you with a free turn, enabling free retreat to your attackers), but it's iffy as a main attacker.

could also be because people are so reluctant to run memory berry with it, if ever there was a pokemon line that screamed, "give me a memory berry!", it's this one. i mean 1 energy for 200+ late game damage can really turn the tide...
 
My son and I ran a Mightyena/Flygon deck for nationals and did not fair so well. Mightyena was the primary attacker with Flygon as a tech. In testing, the deck had some really good matchups and generally beat Gengar (pretty easy with OHKOs on Gengar for no NRG), Dialga G and Palkia G (OHKO their Lvl X's or they get hit for 80 every turn), Luxray (OHKO on plain Luxray or OHKO the X). Some pretty even matchups with Machamp, GG. The really bad matchup was with Beedrill, and I ran into 3 of these!!!. Palkia G was a pain to get through the power lock but once we were through we just walked through them. Lost Cyclone was not too damaging we could see it coming and prepare.

We did not do so well and after reviewing our matches, we realized that we lost at least 6 matches to slow starts and that is what killed the deck. It was just too inconsistent to compete well in the current format and make it through swiss. This happened even though we tried to make the deck as consistent as possible. In my view, the only evolution decks that can survive in this format are those that have 1 attacker and are quick to set up (e.g. Beedrill, Gengar, Machamp) and Flygon does not fit this mold.

Waynegg - we messed around with memory berry but found that we could pretty easily use Vibrava for the same purpose (even with a 2-2-2-1 Flygon line). That attack was game changing in many of our matchups!
 
Palkia variants in top cut...well, lot's of them

I know there were at least 6-7 in top 32 and up, and there were A LOT more in top 128 and up, it's just a really good deck, and it does Flygon in
 
Decks which run Luxray generally pull apart your support pokemon making it difficult to get Flygon powered quickly and fully
 
Flygon is inconsistent and outsped most of the time. In seniors, which applys to me, I saw a few at the top tables with Weavile, like Grafton's and one made top 8 with Nidoqueen in it.
 
I ran Flygon/Weavile at Nationals and made T64. Here's why it's not that good, as I unfortunately found out the hard way:
- Gengar is a bad, bad matchup if they get a couple Fainting Spell flips. Needing to attach three energies to attack hard and then getting KO'd by a power is a big hurt. Also, Weavile and Claydol both are vulnerable to Shadow Room.

- Speedrill is generally faster and more consistent, which means they start OHKOing Flygons and you can't recover.

- It's inconsistent. The deck needs too many non-speed oriented cards to work, and drawing into a lot of those early game means trouble.

Maybe I've just stated the obvious, but why not.
 
While Dark Flygon sets up pretty slowly (even with 3-3 Weavile and 3-3 Claydol lines), I think 1-1 Palkia is a definite play there.

Restructure, change your active pokémon dark with Weavile, free retreat with Flygon. It's not actually THAT hard to pull out, and you can easily stall a turn or two against Claydol based decks to build up. With thick Weavile lineups, you can do 70 (plus Special Darks)+50 (plus special darks) combo with Flygon and Uxie, effectively negating the Fainting Spell.

Of course Palkia Lv.X is a bit of a Luxray bait nowadays, but if you happen to be OHKOing them with Flygons, it's generally not a big deal to sacrifice a Palkia now and then. The advantages are far greater.
 
Flygon is a bit slow, but if it can get set up, it's very hard to beat.

Underestimating it is every bit as stupid as overhyping it imo.
 
Politoed666 said:
I ran Flygon/Weavile at Nationals and made T64. Here's why it's not that good, as I unfortunately found out the hard way:
- Gengar is a bad, bad matchup if they get a couple Fainting Spell flips. Needing to attach three energies to attack hard and then getting KO'd by a power is a big hurt. Also, Weavile and Claydol both are vulnerable to Shadow Room.
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Huh? KO the gengar with a 50 damage psychic Restore.
 
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