Standard Deck Tech: Yveltal + Flying Pikachu VMax - Top 8 Liverpool

Hello to all. I'm Rodrigo, bringing news about Pokémon TCG, and now I bring news from Liverpool's Regional, in England.

The winner's deck was a Mew VMax deck, but I'll also write about some of the Top 8 decks which deserve the spotlight due to their creativity or new mechanics.

That being said, let's discuss the eighth place, the Yveltal + Flying Pikachu-VMax control deck, used by the notable control archetype deckbuilder, Sander Wojcik.

Decklist

Yveltal: Main Attacker and Special Energy Disruptor

1) Attack - Cry of Destruction (C)(C): discard up to 3 opponent special energies in play.

2) Attack - Dark Feather (D)(C)(C): you deal 100 damage.

Your goal is to be the perfect counter for Pokémon which use special energies, particularly Lugia VSTAR SIT 139, due to its excessive use of Powerful Colorless Energy DAA 176. This first attack breaks down completely this strategy of attaching special energies with Archeops SIT 147, and removes this advantage.

Besides that, we have the Mew VMAX FST 114 deck trending, with the use of the Fusion Strike Energy FST 244. We can also disrupt this strategy.

Flying Pikachu-VMax: The Second Attacker

1) Attack - Max Balloon (L)(C)(C): this attack deals 160 damage and, in the next round, it comes in to deal with some basic Pokémon Techs, such as the Vikavolt V + Aerodactyl VStar deck, San Diego's winner deck, because of the excessive use of Vikavolt V DAA 60 and Raikou V BRS 48.

And we still have the Blissey V CRE 119 deck, which, even though it wasn't seeing much play in the latest regionals in top cuts, is tough to deal as it is a basic Pokémon which gets attack power per special energies.

There are also punctual attackers, such as Galarian Moltres EVS 93 and Radiant Charizard PGO 11, which can appear, and which Flying Pikachu VMAX CEL 7 can stop.

Miltank: Anti-V Single Prize Attacker

As a fast and efficient improvise attacker, and with the high demand of V type Pokémon currently in the game, Miltank becomes quite useful for matches in which your opponent fills the game with this type of Pokémon with this rarity. Out of the most common ones, Mew VMAX FST 114 itself always places numerous Genesect V FST 185 to fill the board.

Regieleki “Baby”: Attacker Against Lugia-VStar

In essence, it is a "perfect" counter to Lugia V SIT 138, in case they are being set up in the game's bench, already causing downfalls. Even if you can't apply weakness to the bench, 120 damage is really helpful to pressure down your opponent.

The same goes to Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR ASR 40, which is also quite interesting to focus on dealing damage, but as it was said, this attack can't apply weakness to double the damage.

But, in itself, what can disrupt these strategies are Sobble, Drizzle e Inteleon lines, which generally stay in the bench, so they can do the search of Trainer cards, and this "sniper attack" is extremely useful in this case.

Recursive Pokémon

- Starly DAA 145 comes in as a single combo, alongside the ability Sky Circus, in which, if Starly was moved from the bench to the Active position with the use of the Trainer card Bird Keeper DAA 159, it creates a temporary effect: its attack cost doesn't require the energy tribute to be able to attack, that means it attacks for free!

With that, we have its attack Keen Eye, which can look in your deck for two cards and place them in your hand, and after that, shuffle your deck.

- Radiant Greninja ASR 46 has Concealed Cards, which makes you discard one energy card from your hand to draw the top 2 cards in your deck.

- Eldegoss V CPA 5 has Happy Match, which makes it, if summoned from hand and put in your bench, search for a Supporter card from the discard pile and place it in your hand; as if a built-in VS Seeker ROS 110.

- Manaphy BRS 41 comes in with Wave Veil, which grants protection to your benched Pokémon in case they suffer direct opponent damage, against the Pokémon who can attack in a "sniper" way.

- Snorlax LOR 143 has its ability Unfazed Fat, which prevents all opponent attack effects against this Pokémon.

- Snorlax VIV 131 comes in with Gormandize, which grants you an absurd "draw power" up to 7 cards in your hand, in case you use this ability.

Trainer Cards

- Colress's Experiment LOR 155 is useful to look at the top 5 cards in your deck. You get 3 cards in your hand, and the other 2 will be discarded to the Lost Zone.

- Thorton LOR 167 you trade one basic Pokémon from the discard pile to be promoted into play for another basic Pokémon in its place. This new basic Pokémon gets all damage counters, special conditions, energies, tools, that is, everything that was connected to the previous Pokémon.

- Peonia CRE 149 is useful to look at 3 face down Prize Cards and swap them with 3 cards in your hand, so they can be placed there, and these Prize Cards that were collected will stay in your hand.

- Boss's Orders BRS 132 is useful to pull a particular enemy benched Pokémon to deal the damage to victory, so you can speed up your Prize Card draws.

- Bruno BST 121 is useful to shuffle your hand back into the deck and draw 4 cards. However, if your active Pokémon was Knocked Out previously, instead of drawing 4 cards, you draw up to 7 cards.

- Bird Keeper DAA 159 is useful to swap a benched Pokémon into the active Position, and, if you do, you draw 3 extra cards in the process.

- Sidney FST 241 is useful to look at the enemy hand and choose a combination of two tool, special energy or stadium cards that can be discarded in case you do this effect.

- Lost Vacuum CRZ 135 is an Item card that, to be played, you need to pay a tribute of discarding a card from your hand to the Lost Zone. If you do, you choose an Item Tool or Stadium card in play and send it to the Lost Zone.

- Trekking Shoes CRZ 145 lets you look at the top card in your deck, allowing you to choose to get that card you saw and place it in your hand or discard it.

- Scoop Up Net RCL 165 is useful to retreat a Pokémon in play into your hand that isn't GX or V type, this way doing a "loop", particularly with Snorlax VIV 131, so you can place it in an ideal moment for card draw when needed and taking it out when it isn't useful for your play.

- Echoing Horn CRE 136 is useful to bring a basic Pokémon from the enemy discard pile to the bench.

It is made for a type of play such as bringing a low HP Pokémon to the bench so you can Knock it Out easier, pulling a Boss's Orders BRS 132 to finish it.

- Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146 is useful to look for any basic Pokémon that is in the Prize Cards. And if you do, get that Pokémon and swap it with this card.

- Quick Ball FST 237 is useful to look for a basic Pokémon from your deck with the tribute cost of discarding one card in your hand.

- Yell Horn DAA 173 is useful to make both active Pokémon confused.

And in that, there is a combo: you put down one of the two Snorlax (Snorlax LOR 143 or Snorlax VIV 131). As they are high HP Pokémon, they are useful, so you can take more opponent damage momentarily and, in that, you can use Yell Horn DAA 173 to make your opponent confused and then, use Scoop Up Net RCL 165 to recall it back to your hand and then place it in play, this way leaving your opponent with the "Bad Status" and you are free of the card's effect, getting an advantage.

- Cape of Toughness DAA 160 grants 50 extra HP to basic Pokémon which aren't GX.

It is a useful card to grant Snorlax LOR 143 and Snorlax VIV 131 more health, leaving them in a "tanker" role, and is also useful to Yveltal CEL 19 and Miltank ASR 126.

Stadium

Galar Mine RCL 160 is useful to increase the tribute retreat cost by two colorless energies among the active Pokémon in play (yours and your opponent's).

Special Energies

- Capture Energy RCL 171 is useful only to summon from the deck a basic Pokémon to your bench, in case you charge some of your Pokémon with it, as a way to speed up your setup.

- Twin Energy RCL 174 is useful as a sort of Double Colorless Energy SUM 136 which can't be equipped in GX or V type Pokémon.

- Double Turbo Energy BRS 151 is useful as a sort of Double Colorless Energy SUM 136 which, when equipped to a Pokémon, has a 20 damage reduction in its overall attack.

- Speed Lightning Energy RCL 173 is useful to be attached to any electric type Pokémon. If you do, you draw 2 cards.

Advantages

- As a good control deck, it has a single role: disrupt your opponent and frustrate them as best as it can, and, of course, each control deck has a sort of specific goal, be it controlling cards in hand, discarding basic and special energies, eliminating stadiums or opponent's tools.

It doesn't have a focus on massive damage, such as the basic Pokémon decks, but rather a focus on disrupting the opponent's game development, and it takes advantage of tiredness and missplays.

The deck fulfills this role perfectly with Yveltal CEL 19 being the remover of special energies, at least 3 energies at once (keep in mind decks need 4 copies of each particular energy) and Miltank ASR 126 as a perfect counter to V Pokémon, which is trending in the current metagame.

Disadvantages

- Even if it fulfilled a good control role, even more coming from Sander Wojcik, and has reached Top 8, I still feel some of its combos triggers can fail. And, sometimes, there are cards that might disappoint you, in a situation you might need a certain card, and it doesn't come in time, many times due to the smaller number of copies or because they are in the Prize Cards.

Again, as the deck's focus isn't massive attack, it really lacks it, for instance, against Single Prize decks, such as the use of Lost Box with Sableye LOR 70 and Cramorant LOR 50, which can cause a lot of destruction to this deck.

There have been better control decks of this one, such as this Mewtwo VUnion one which is much more efficient and more assertive with the goal it intends to do and can act fast with the necessary combos, in my humble opinion. But that doesn't make this one any less interesting!

It is a deck that demands a lot of studying and training for the player to know when to use it, how to use it and when to apply certain plays and specific combos, so you can get an advantage.

It isn't recommended for beginners or casual players, but for those who are veterans and have a certain mastery of Pokémon TCG, and those who like the control archetype, it is another option.

Now it's up to you: what did you think of the deck? You're welcome to comment down below.

See you next time!