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New Archetypes and Updated Decks with Forbidden Light!

In this piece I am not going to talk about the cards that I don’t think are good becuase I see no point in doing so. Instead, I am only going to focus on the cards that I think actually have potential to be top tier and what I think they can combine with. This piece also has multiple lists for the potential top-tier archetypes. Because the cards are so new, I want to make it clear that the lists are still very much a work in progress.

This article has lists for:

  • Exeggutor Zoroark
  • Buzzwole Greninja
  • Buzzwole Lycanroc (w/ Beast Ring)
  • 19 Energy Zygarde GX
  • VikaBulu Florges

there is also a list for Ultra Necrozma Malamar, but it is only one card off of the one that Andrew Mahone posted to Darium’s Pokemon. His list already looks amazing and I don’t think there is much that should be changed.

Let’s get into it.

Exeggutor (with Zoroark)

Exeggutor is pretty good considering the high 160 HP on a one-prize Pokemon. Only needing one energy to get attacks off is a great attribute that is comparable to other Zoroark partners such as Golisopod GX and Lucario GX. If the attack cost was colorless instead of Grass, I would call it a definitive strong card. One of the biggest problems Zoroark decks (and other archetypes) have, is that an opposing Lycanroc GX is very hard to deal with. Buzzwole is not too tough because of Mew EX and Mewtwo, but Lycanroc has no real one-shot response unless the Zoroark variant is playing Golisopod.

ZoroRoc can potentially use their own Lycanroc to combat it, but that is assuming they have not already used Dangerous Rogue and that there is a Rockruff on the bench with one energy. Usually, the BuzzRoc player will bring up that Rockruff to take a KO on it. Aside from that, the BuzzRoc player also has to have a bench big enough for Dangerous Rogue to knock out Lycanroc (or the ZoroRoc player needs Strong and Choice Band). Anyway, this is a little aside from the point. What I am getting is that Exeggutor is a good counter to probably the format’s strongest attacker: Lycanroc GX.

The issue, of course, is going to be getting the energy in the discard. That is why I think Zoroark is the best partner for Exeggutor; Trade gives you a way to consistently and easily discard energy. Sycamore and Ultra Ball might be enough on their own, and in that case, you could combine Exeggutor with something like a fighting type for hitting Zoroarks for weakness. Whatever it goes with cannot be a high commitment because the need to discard different energy takes up a lot of space in a list. Right now Zoroark seems like the obvious partner. I like the idea because you can have type advantage over everything in BuzzRoc between Exeggutor and Mew EX.

You might be thinking a lot of this argument could be made for Golisopod Zoroark since it also has the type advantage, and you would be right. The difference is that Eggs give up one prize instead of two and have different requirements for damage output. For Pod the need to have something else active and then bring it up is a big pain. Exeggutor needs energy in discard instead, which is annoying as well, but certainly different. It may even be worse because it should take up more spots in the deck. The main selling point is just the fact that it only gives up one prize, but that is a great selling point frankly.

Here’s my list for the deck:

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