Yo! How’s it going guys, Phinn again. In an effort to keep content consistent, I decided to write a piece about my Yveltal deck in Standard. I have been working on this list for a while now, because I don’t care to test any other deck in Standard…. though to be honest, I don’t test much other than Yveltal in Expanded either. Yveltal BKT and Yveltal EX are just too strong for me to pass up. Now that Seismitoad isn’t as strong as it was, I have moved to the Dark Side, and I doubt I will leave for a long time. In all honesty though, it isn’t just because I like using Yveltal; I actually just think it’s the best deck in the Standard format. I explain why below, and I think if you read this piece all the way through, you will think the same.

I want to apologize for talking about Yveltal so much.  We’re running out of cover photos for my articles because it seems like all I can talk about is dark birdies. I actually do use other decks in testing, and I have other lists that I refine. The thing is, my real passion is Dark. I have the most ease writing about it. To be fair, I have also tested Volcanion and Rainbow Road, but I feel that there are other people who can go more in depth about the decks.

In the second half of this piece I go into a lot of depth about my list and counts. I also explain why 3 VS Seeker (instead of 4) is good in this new format. Even the most experienced players can learn from what I have to say about this list and the format.

I include a short story at the end about playing against Greninja, explaining why my list has so much synergy. It’s Poke’fiction, if you will. It explains what needs to happen to win the Greninja matchup with Yveltal.

But doesn’t Yveltal stink in Standard?

No. Just no. it’s actually amazing – probably better than it is in Expanded!

I don’t get why people are sleeping on Yveltal in Standard. It’s amazing, because the deck is inherently consistent. The great thing about Yveltal is the fact that you need so little to get going. To attack for decent damage, the only thing you need is two energy on an Yveltal EX. This means that you can be dead drawing, but won’t lose, because you can keep tempo even in unlucky situations. Yveltal is less vulnerable to bad luck because of this.

A deck like Greninja (for example), needs a Froakie, then a Frogadier, and an energy, just to make sure they keep tempo on their first turns. Although that isn’t too difficult when the whole deck is built to pull that off, it still can be hard when you are dead-drawing and do not play Shaymin EX. You also have to evolve two more times to set up completely. Yveltal doesn’t have to do any of that. You just need to attach energy and hit maybe one or two Max Elixirs. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

Mega decks are mega popular in standard

Yveltal BKT is inherently strong against any Mega deck. Shutting down the Spirit Links gives a huge advantage any time you can start with BKT Yveltal or can retreat into it. Even against the variants that play Garbodor, they have to get the Garbodor in play on their second turn to avoid being slowed down. Getting the Mega, a Spirit Link, Garbodor, and another tool for Garbodor is a lot to ask for by turn two.

Even if they do get Garbodor in play, BKT Yveltal helps to set up really good math in the early game. You can easily sweep in the later game with Yveltal EX after setting up damage with BKT. At an LC a couple weeks ago, I played against Mega Mewtwo and swept the whole game with two Yveltal BKT. The card is insane against any deck that is EX based.

Shaymin EX is still really big

For as long as Shaymin is popular, I believe that Yveltal BKT will be strong as well. You put quick pressure by taking 2 prizes as early as turn 2. Yveltal BKT also gained a big advantage from rotation. There was a great counter to the card that almost everybody played: AZ. Before rotation, people could reset the bench damage to a Shaymin by playing AZ. Now they can’t do anything about it. They basically just have to accept that you’re getting an easy two prizes. The rotation of AZ also makes it so you don’t have as much urgency with knocking Shaymin out. When AZ was around I would try to hit Shaymin twice and do so quickly, to give them less time to nullify the bench damage. Now you can just hit the Shaymin once and take your time to finish it off. This allows you to use that damage on other EXs to keep your board state on tempo, and then take the last two prizes on Shaymin on your last turn.

I should note though that Parallel City is pretty popular, which will put some pressure on you to knock out Shaymin. However this is not much of a problem, because you play your own Parallel City, and they can’t play theirs once yours is in play.

There is tons of room to tech for bad matchups

Now that Maxie, Gallade, Archeops, Dark Patch, AZ, Computer Search, Ghetsis and Jirachi EX, are not in the deck; you have tons of room for whatever you want.

Many people have used this room to play Mew and Max Elixir. I have decided to use it a little differently. I still play Max Elixir, but I find Mew to be a bit lackluster. The card doesn’t provide you with any new options, it only uses the attacks of the Pokemon you have in play. Sure, it hits Mewtwo EX for weakness, but only while they do not have Garbodor in play. Once Garbotoxin comes online, your Mew is just a low HP Pokemon with free retreat – fairly useless. This isn’t just one matchup either; many decks play Garbodor right now, making Mew’s use very limited. I don’t like it.

With that being said, I will cover what I do with the new room that Yveltal has. Here is my list:

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