Standard Deck Tech: Yveltal Control - Top 8 on LAIC 2022.2

With the event that we had at the end of November with the Latin America Internationals, based here in Brazil, in the state of São Paulo, we had the predominant presence of the Lugia VStar deck, which was not a surprise for many.

However, a deck that reached the top 8 through the control strategy surprised many for being a forgotten card in Celebrations: the Yveltal.

The player Sander Wojcik brought this possibility and surprised many with this ingenuity, and even in the deck, he managed to bring a Pokémon like Pidgeot V LOR 137 and Greedent V SHF 53 in a useful and efficient way.

Decklist

Yveltal: the basic concept of the deck

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

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

The main issue is Yveltal being the perfect counter to Lugia VStar due to the deck's overuse of special energies.

Its first attack breaks for good with the strategy of powering up the opposing deck's energies with Archeops SIT 147 and taking resources away from Powerful Colorless Energy DAA 176, which is wonderful.

1) Attack - Crunch (C)(C): Deals 40 damage and discards an Energy from your opponent's Active Pokémon.

2) Attack - Stumbling Press (C)(C)(C): Deals 180 and flip a coin. If tails, this attack has no effect.

Here, the first attack only comes for taking energy from the opponent to delay their plans.

Pidgeot is a type of attacker that is hit-and-run, always ensuring the maintenance of essential resources if they are attached to it, and returns them to the deck, having a management security zone.

Here, for the second attack, it comes in as a "counter" of Blissey V CRE 119 and many Radiant Pokémon such as Radiant Charizard PGO 11 and Radiant Greninja ASR 46, in addition to the Amazing Rare themselves such as Reshiram SHF 17, Raikou VIV 50 and Rayquaza VIV 138.

Miltank comes in as a "counter" to Blissey V CRE 119 in most matchups, in addition to any Pokémon V in the current Standard format.

Recursive Pokémon

- Snorlax VIV 131 comes in with the ability Gormandize, which you can draw cards until you have seven in your hand, and if you do, your turn ends.

- Pyukumuku FST 77 has Pitch to Pyukumuku, where if it is in your hand, you reveal it and put it on the bottom of the deck as the last card so that it draws the top card of the deck, but you cannot use this ability effect more than once on your turn.

- Manaphy BRS 41 has Wave Velt, which grants protection to your Benched Pokémon if they take direct sniper damage from the opponent's attacks.

- Radiant Gardevoir LOR 69 has the Ability Loving Veil, which grants 20 damage reduction from attacks of opponent's Pokémon V against your Pokémon.

- Eldegoss V CPA 5 has Happy Match, which if played from your hand and put on your Bench, it looks for a Supporter card from the discard pile and puts it into your hand. It's practically a VS Seeker ROS 110 as a Pokémon.

Trainer Cards

- Professor's Research BRS 147 is the draw accelerator: you discard your hand and draw 7 new cards.

- Cheren's Care BRS 134 serves to recover a colorless Pokémon in play to your hand, healing it (obviously) and all cards attached to it, whether energy or tools, return to your hand as well.

- Sidney FST 241 serves to reveal the opponent's hand and with that choose a combination of two cards that are special energies, stadiums or tools and discard them.

- Flannery CRE 139 is used to discard a special energy card and an opponent's stadium into play.

- Boss's Orders BRS 132 pulls a specific Pokémon from the opponent's Bench to deal damage for victory, and of course, your targets will be ultra-rare Pokémon such as V, VStar, VMax or VUnion to speed up the prize cards.

- Bird Keeper DAA 159 serves as a “Draw Power”, where you promote a Pokémon from the Bench to Active Position and draw 3 cards in a row.

- Cyllene ASR 138 recovers cards from the discard pile, for each coin that is hit in the process.

- Peonia CRE 149 serves to grant a type of “exchange” of cards: you “draw” the 3 prize cards you have and replace them with 3 cards from your hand in their place, thus picking up some useful card that are stuck on prize cards.

- Lost Vacuum LOR 162 to be performed, you need to pay a tribute that a card from your hand needs to go to the Lost Zone. If you do, you choose a Tool Item or Stadium card in play and send it to the Lost Zone.

- Forest Seal Stone SIT 156 serves as a tool that can be attached to a Pokémon and has the same effect as Arceus VStar's VStar ability, but it has to be equipped to a Pokémon V.

- Quick Ball FST 237 is used to search a basic Pokémon from the deck with the Tribute cost of discarding a card from your hand.

- Cape of Toughness DAA 160 is used to increase a basic Pokémon's HP by 50.

- Yell Horn DAA 173 serves to confuse both active Pokémon (yours and your opponent's).

- Lucky Egg SSH 167 serves as a “Draw Power” Tool item for the Pokémon it is attached to. If your opponent Knocks Out the Pokémon that has it attached, you draw a specified number of cards until you have 7 in hand.

- Galar Mine RCL 160 Increases the Retreat Cost of both Active Pokémon (yours and your opponent's) by two colorless Energy.

Special Energies

- Twin Energy RCL 174 grants two colorless Energy and cannot be equipped to Pokémon GX or V.

- Double Turbo Energy BRS 151 grants two colorless energies, however its attack is reduced by 20 points.

- Wash Water Energy VIV 165 Guarantees that if attached to a Water Pokémon, it will prevent the opponent's attack effects against that Pokémon.

Advantages

It is a list made to “counter” the Lugia VSTAR SIT 139 and remove the 4 Powerful Colorless Energy DAA 176, being a headache for them, since there are no possibilities or recursive return cards for those energies.

Another deck that suffers against it is Mew VMAX FST 114, which runs plenty of special energies, mainly Double Turbo Energy BRS 151 and Fusion Strike Energy FST 244.

Disadvantages

- Lugia VSTAR SIT 139 if it manages to set up first and already has 4 Powerful Colorless Energy DAA 176 to hit 300 damage, and has variations of secondary attackers like Radiant Charizard PGO 11 and Yveltal SHF 46: in other words — the deck that Tord Reklev ran in the same LAIC tournament.

- Electric decks that contain Raikou VIV 50 as a sniper, if you don't have Manaphy BRS 41 to protect your Pokémon.

- Electric control decks and damage increase from Regieleki VMAX SIT 58 and Vikavolt V DAA 60 who are also on the rise, since this Yveltal deck runs many items.

- Deck that gives One Hit KO like Yveltal SHF 46.

- Decks that hit quickly and aggressively like Regidrago VSTAR SIT 136.

- Lost Box, especially with Sableye LOR 70 as an attacker, if it fits their combo.

It is a deck that secured a good placement in the top 8 of the finalists and surprised everyone by a forgotten card like Yveltal and gained notoriety, proving once again that Pokémon is not just meta cards and anything is possible as long as you study, dedicate yourself to understanding the Metagame and understanding the cards as a whole and from there being able to draw with your creativity what to do. So much so that on this list we saw two underrated and indeed weak Pokémon such as Pidgeot and Greedent stand out.

And now it's up to you: what do you think of the deck? Your considerations and opinions about it? You are welcome to comment below on the site, as your opinion is welcome.