Hey, Cut or Tap readers! At the time of writing this, I’ve just gotten home from Dallas Regionals. I managed to put up what was probably my worst tournament performance ever, playing Vileplume. Despite this, Dallas was a very fun experience, and I had a great time ringing in the new year with friends from all over the US and Canada. Dallas saw a very interesting Top 32 – not because it had a plethora of decks, but rather because of the diversity within deck archetypes.
When I say diversity within decks, I’m referring mainly to tech cards, which (for those who are unaware) are cards that are not necessary for a given deck to function, but rather are played with the intent of alleviating poor matchups, or further boosting favorability among a given field. With this in mind, the second portion of that definition is especially important. An added consistency card isn’t necessary for a deck to function, and doesn’t directly boost the favorability of the deck in its field, so it doesn’t necessarily quantify “tech card.”
Today, I’m here with Danny Altavilla with the intent of talking all about teching! For my portion of this article, using an Expanded Yveltal/Maxie’s list as an example, I will be showing you how to fill in a deck with techs for a certain meta.
Yveltal/Maxie’s
| Pokémon – 9 | Trainers – 31 | Energy – 11 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Yveltal EX | 3 | Professor Sycamore | 4 | Ultra Ball | 7 | Darkness | ||
| 2 | Yveltal BKT | 1 | N | 4 | VS Seeker | 4 | Double Colorless | ||
| 1 | Darkrai EX DEX | 1 | Lysandre | 4 | Dark Patch | ||||
| 1 | Gallade BKT | 1 | Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick | 3 | Battle Compressor | ||||
| 1 | Archeops NVI | 1 | AZ | 3 | Trainers’ Mail | ||||
| 1 | Shaymin EX ROS | 2 | Fighting Fury Belt/Muscle Band | ||||||
| 1 | Jirachi EX | 1 | Float Stone | ||||||
| 1 | Computer Search | ||||||||
| 9 | Open Spots | 2 | Silent Lab | ||||||
The above list is very bare-bones, but it can easily be filled in to suit a variety of metas.
Now, on to a full list:
| Pokémon – 11 | Trainers – 38 | Energy – 11 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Yveltal EX | 3 | Professor Sycamore | 4 | Ultra Ball | 7 | Darkness | ||
| 2 | Yveltal BKT | 2 | N | 4 | VS Seeker | 4 | Double Colorless | ||
| 1 | Darkrai EX DEX | 2 | Lysandre | 4 | Dark Patch | ||||
| 1 | Yveltal XY | 1 | Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick | 4 | Trainers’ Mail | ||||
| 1 | Keldeo EX | 1 | AZ | 3 | Battle Compressor | ||||
| 1 | Gallade BKT | 1 | Xerosic | 2 | Fighting Fury Belt | ||||
| 1 | Archeops NVI | 2 | Float Stone | ||||||
| 1 | Shaymin EX ROS | 1 | Computer Search | ||||||
| 1 | Jirachi EX | ||||||||
| 2 | Parallel City | ||||||||
| 2 | Silent Lab | ||||||||
This is probably the type of list that I’d be playing in a meta full of item lock decks, like Seismitoad or Trevenant. You’ll notice that this list has very few techs, boasting just three cards that I’d even consider techs, with the other three cards just filling in consistency. The first tech, Yveltal XY can be very helpful against any decks playing Crushing Hammer and Team Flare Grunt, which are generally found in item lock-type decks. The second tech, Keldeo-EX, is very strong versus any Hypnotoxic Lasers that the Seismitoad decks may be playing. Finally, Xerosic can be very strong against Seismitoad-EX, to potentially stop a turn of Quaking Punch in a pinch. I think that all-in-all, this is a very safe way to build the deck; with all of this in mind, though, this definitely isn’t the only way to build it.
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