Recently ZoroPod seems to have come back into the top tier. It could have been seen as a fluke if the deck had only seen success at one event, but ZoroPod performed better than any other deck last weekend with a first place at Mexico City’s Special Event and a second place at Sheffield’s Regional. The deck even scored top four at Hong Kong’s Special Event (though results from Hong Kong probably shouldn’t be taken too seriously).
2nd place Sheffield ZoroPod:
| Pokémon – 18 | Trainers – 35 | Energy – 7 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Zorua | 4 | Guzma | 4 | Ultra Ball | 4 | Double Colorless | ||
| 4 | Zoroark GX | 4 | Brigette | 3 | Evo Soda | 3 | Grass | ||
| 3 | Wimpod | 2 | N | 4 | Puzzle of Time | ||||
| 2 | Golisopod GX | 1 | Professor Sycamore | 3 | Field Blower | ||||
| 2 | Mew EX | 1 | Mallow | 2 | Float Stone | ||||
| 3 | Tapu Lele GX | 1 | Cynthia | 1 | Counter Catcher | ||||
| 1 | Acerola | 1 | Choice Band | ||||||
| 3 | Parallel City | ||||||||
There are some things I like about this list and I certainly did give the deck a decent shot in testing, playing about 10 games or so with the exact list. I have to admit, I was surprised by how well the deck can get away with so little draw. Two N and one Cynthia is incredibly low. I realized it was not actually that necessary to have more draw. The reason I don’t mention Sycamore here is because I never play it. Out of those ten or so games, I Sycamore’d twice. The card is terrible in this deck.
Overall, the reason I liked working with the list is because it made me realize some of the cards I had considered staples or counts that I thought were staples, were not. Only one Acerola and no Max Potion might seem low, and it is, but it actually works pretty well. One Choice band is not optimal, but you can get away with it. Koko is a card I have always known to not be a necessity in the deck, but many players have not realized that. Enhanced is very commonly played in Pod as well, but this list has zero.
Three Evosoda was something I liked a lot. I already have that count in my ZoroGarb list, and I’m happy to add the third in this deck. I played three Evosoda in ZoroPod right when the archetype emerged and liked it a lot, my opinion really never changed.
Parallel is a card that I find unattractive because of the fact that it lowers both of your attackers’ damage outputs, however after playing against other Zoroark decks a lot, I realize how nice it can be. Four Brigette is similarly powerful for mirror.
Pablo Meza 1st place Mexico City ZoroPod:
| Pokémon – 19 | Trainers – 34 | Energy – 7 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Zorua | 3 | Guzma | 4 | Ultra Ball | 4 | Double Colorless | ||
| 4 | Zoroark GX | 3 | Brigette | 1 | Evo Soda | 3 | Grass | ||
| 3 | Wimpod | 3 | N | 4 | Puzzle of Time | ||||
| 2 | Golisopod GX | 1 | Professor Sycamore | 3 | Field Blower | ||||
| 2 | Mew EX | 1 | Mallow | 1 | Float Stone | ||||
| 3 | Tapu Lele GX | 1 | Cynthia | 1 | Counter Catcher | ||||
| 1 | Tapu Koko | 2 | Acerola | 2 | Choice Band | ||||
| 1 | Professor Kukui | 2 | Enhanced Hammer | ||||||
| 1 | Parallel City | ||||||||
This version is far more standard than the Sheffield list. The most notable differences are having Enhanced Hammers, and fewer Evo Soda and Parallel. This list also plays Kukui, which is my favorite aspect of it. Frankly, I don’t have a whole lot else to say about it. I’m not a big fan of this list, but there are certainly some parts that I like about it.
My version takes a little bit of inspiration from both lists.
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