Whats up, Cut or Tap readers?!?! I am back again with another article for your reading pleasures, and this time I decided to straight-up drop some lists! I have a bunch of different decks that I always play around with online since I coach players on a professional level, and I want to share some of the lesser-discussed decks. I also wanted to include my personal list for what I played in Ft Wayne Regionals (and how I attended that Regionals by nothing other than a miracle) and my thoughts on how Pokemon should change their structure for Regionals, for the enjoyment of the players. Hopefully all of you get a chance to try some of these lesser-tested decks in both formats, and that these lists inspire you to look outside of the box.

Most of the decks below are not 100% polished, but I do hope that you can play around with them, test them, fix them, and have some fun. If you don’t look outside of the box sometimes, you may never know if the grass is greener on the other side. For all we know, Zygarde EX may turn into a deck like Ross Cawthon’s The Truth from 2011, or Gyarados may strike again similar to 2009/2010 and bring utter dominance within the game. I am all about expressing creativity, especially if that creativity will keep me prepared against the format, and I think seeing some possible deck lists is a really cool idea for an article. Feel free to leave any and all comments about these decks below, or feel free to talk to me online or in person about some of your crazy ideas for decks – you never know, right?

Table of Contents

1) Article Introduction
2) My Ft. Wayne Regionals Flop
3) My Regionals Volcanion List (Standard)
4) Mega Blastoise EX (Standard)
5) Mega Altaria EX (Standard)
6) Gyarados (Standard)
7) Mega Mewtwo EX (Standard)
8) Mega Scizor EX (Standard)
9) Zygarde EX (Standard)
10) Xerneas BREAK/Giratina EX (Standard)
11) Raichu/Golbat (Standard)
12) Donphan/Jolteon (Expanded)
13) Night March (Expanded)
14) Changes That I Would Like To See At Regionals
15) League Cups?!?!
16) Closing Thoughts

My Ft. Wayne Regionals Flop

I did get the chance to play in Ft. Wayne after being denied time away from work from my boss, due to reasons I don’t know how to explain, other than calling them a miracle. I tried to get multiple likes and comments on my Facebook page to show my boss (I got way over 100 likes and multiple heartfelt comments that made my day), I tried for multiple months to get strong staff hired and trained, and I asked a few times in person to see if anything had changed. I basically got a text message from my boss a week before the event asking me if I still wanted to go; Obviously, I said yes and was super ecstatic, but where would I even begin? I started by trying to find people who would drive with me and go, tried to find a hotel, and I tried to see what I would play. All of these efforts took a few hours, but I got everything back on track and was feeling accomplished that I planned a whole international road trip on the fly.

My next goal was figuring out the Master Division metagame, and what I should ideally play for myself in order to get some much needed Championship Points. My read on the metagame after ARG Virginia and Dortmund Regionals was that Yveltal-based decks will be played en masse, M Gardevoir EX will be played due to its new Evolutions tricks and Dark-based deck popularity, M Scizor EX will stop in to stomp M Gardevoir EX, and M Rayquaza EX and Volcanion decks will both be played and do alright. I really wanted to pilot a deck with counters to bad matchups, and Volcanion fell into that category for me. The deck is very neutral towards the field with minimal auto-losses, plus it can take free games in the form of a Turn-1 win, or it can just do a crazy amount of damage within the first few turns.

Long story short: I started my tournament off at a reasonable 4-1-1 and then I faced a case of rough hands or staring at unbeatable fields. I tested almost 300 games total with Volcanion before the event, I felt confident in my list and how I could handle some of my tougher matchups, and I thought I had the metagame figured out. In hindsight, I wasn’t incredibly far off, with 2 Volcanion decks making Top 8 at the event. Hopefully you guys can learn from my losses and take my following list to some success at your next tournament. Anyways, here is my list that I played at Regionals:

Volcanion (Standard)

This list, in my opinion, looks pretty flawless for a teched-out Volcanion decklist. It has answers to Garbodor BKP in the form of Lysandre and Pokemon Catcher, to attempt a Knock Out on an early Trubbish drop. I also play Pokemon Ranger for all things Jolteon EX and Regice (and it helps recover from Volcanion EX’s own attack, too). Parallel City is also good against Mega Gardevoir EX and Mega Rayquaza EX by limiting their Benched Pokemon. The deck also carries one copy of Entei AOR 14, which can allow for a huge surprise Knock Out, or power up a Volcanion EX out of nowhere if you have no other choices in a game. Overall, I still really like this list in theory, but I would totally play a vanilla Volcanion list instead of a teched-out list at a major event such as Regionals. Now don’t get me wrong, I like my list a lot – I feel like I may have done better had i given myself a tad more consistency by teching the deck out a little less.

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