Hi Cut or Tap readers, my name is Connor Pedersen. I am a senior who lives in Fair Oaks, California and I have been playing Pokémon competitively for about four years. Some of my most notable accomplishments have been multiple regional Top Cuts, two regional wins, Top 32 at Worlds 2014, and 2^nd at Worlds 2016. Players have been so focused on Australia that a lot of them have forgot about Collinsville Regionals. Today I’m going to go over my top contenders for Collinsville.

Mega Gardevoir

Mega Gardevoir has always been a huge threat in Standard with cutting multiple Regionals, and winning Dallas Regionals. Most people push Mega Gardevoir to the side when thinking about Expanded decks, however I think it has a lot of potential in this current meta. Gardevoir has potential because of how much it gains from Expanded, mainly with Jirachi Ex and Dimensional Valley. I am currently working on a list for Mega Gardevoir and here is what I have so far:

Card Explanations

2 Jirachi EX

This card is great because of how many one-of Supporters you run. Jirachi in Mega Gardevoir actually can be considered a consistency card, since it can search to get a Supporter to get you out of a bad hand, but it’s also a tech card for certain matchups; examples are needing to get a Hex so you can evolve your Mega Gardevoir under Archeops against Yveltal Maxie’s, or to get your Professor Kukui to one-shot a Greninja Break.

2 Hex Maniac

I feel this count has become a standard in decks like Mega Gardevoir, considering the amount of decks it gives a hard time to, between shutting off Archeops or Greninja. The main reason you run two Hex Maniac is because having only one, and it being prized, is very bad against decks that rely on Abilities, and can be the difference between a win and a loss. Don’t be afraid to play this card on Turn 1; I see many players always go for a Sycamore or an N on the first turn of a game, really for no reason except to draw cards where playing a Hex could easily ruin your opponent’s Turn 1. This is especially the case with Mega Gardevoir, considering all you need to really set up is a Hoopa, so you can often sacrifice your Supporter for turn to heavily disrupt your opponent’s turn.

4 Dimensional Valley/ 1 Sky Field

One of the biggest gains for Mega Gardevoir in Expanded is Dimensional Valley. This makes Mega Gardevoir become a very flexible one-energy attacker which is especially useful against Trevenant. This is also useful because it allows Mega Gardevoir to really become a tank with Max Potion.

The main reason I play one Sky Field is because, if Yveltal/Maxie’s or any other deck playing Silent Lab is able to lock a Lab in play for a turn, it can put you out of the game instantly since most of your draw cards are basic Pokemons’ Abilities. Another bonus to the one Sky Field is it can get you scenarios where you can one-shot a Pokemon without having to use a Professor Kukui.

[Note from Phinn: Sky Field has utility in conjunction with Kukui, especially in the Darkrai matchup, where you can Despair Ray discarding 7 Pokemon, and Kukui to hit exactly 180. (Notice Darkrai’s Psychic resistance)]

Matchups:

Trevenant 70/30

One of Mega Gardevoir’s best matchups, if not the best, is Trevenant. With Dimensional Valley, you only need one energy to attack. Then, if Trevenant uses Silent Fear, you can just discard all the benched Pokemon that got “Silent Feared” by using Despair Ray while getting a kill on the active Trevenant. On top of all this, considering Mega Gardevoir runs two Hex and Mega Gardevoir relies on Pokemon a lot for consistency, item lock really isn’t a problem for Mega Gardevoir. And as a bonus, Trevenant uses the same stadium as you, making it so you don’t have to worry about the stadium war.

Raikou Eels 70/30

Another one of Mega Gardevoir’s good matchup is Raikou Eels. Pretty much all you do in this matchup is use Hex Maniac in conjunction with Max Potion at the right time, mainly when you’re about to kill a Raikou that has just attacked you. This combo at the right time completely ruins Raikou Eels and usually puts them out of the game entirely.

Yveltal/Maxie’s 65/35

Yveltal/Maxies is also a good matchup for Mega Gardevoir. If they try to get Archeops and Yveltal BKT out, no problem – just Stellar Guidance for a Hex and then evolve. If they ever try locking a Silent Lab in play, it shouldn’t be a problem since you run five stadiums! Even if they try using Gallade, you just “Max Potion” all their damage off. The reason I give yveltal a 35% chance of winning the matchup is in case the player runs Tauros, which can be problematic. I’ve considered a Ratatta for this reason, but I feel this matchup is favorable enough that you should be winning even if they run Tauros.

Talonflame Greninja 60/40

This matchup is mainly based on using Hex Maniac, Professor Kukui, and Max Potion at the right time. If you use these cards at the right time, then you shouldn’t have a problem winning this matchup just because it makes it very hard to kill a Mega Gardevoir.

Toad Bats 45/55

This is a harder matchup, although it’s still very winnable. One of the main reasons this matchup can be difficult is because a Ghetsis/Silent Lab can put you very far behind in the game. This is the main reason why I consider Toad to have a bit of an upper hand in this matchup, but other than that, I think its 50/50 and really comes down to Super Scoop Up flips since Toad is usually three-shotting a Mega Gardevoir with Bats, and Mega Gardevoir is two-shotting Toad. Don’t forget that Dragonite has an attack for four energies that discards an energy attached to your opponent’s active pokemon, which can actually be very useful in this matchup, mainly because if the Mega Gardevoir player ever gets a turn of items in the game then he will most likely win. If you think Toad/Bats will be popular at Collinsville then I recommend playing a Pokémon Ranger. Normally Pokemon Ranger isn’t amazing against Toad, but with Mega Gardevoir’s ability to go through most of your deck in one turn, it can actually very much affect the game.

Rainbow Road 35/65

This matchup is not good mainly because while you are one-shotting Xerneas, they are able to one-shot you back with ease, plus Xerneas is only one prize while Mega Gardevoir is two. The best way to beat this is to chain Hex early game, considering how much it can disrupt Rainbow Road.

Primal Groudon 15/85

This matchup is awful since Groudon one-shots your Mega Gardevoirs with ease. Oh, did I mention that Wobbuffet shuts down half of your consistency cards?

Darkrai Dragons

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