This article covers six decks that I have worked on in preparation for Anaheim. The format for this piece is mostly short descriptions with each piece describing list details. If you’re looking for in-depth match up descriptions, this is not the article for you. I felt it was more important to give people good lists for several options since there are a ton of different decks each of us could play and an equal number of matchups that you could face. In Expanded it does not help as much to understand specific matchups as it does to understand how your deck works to make it easier to deal with any scenario. I am starting this piece with short bit on Groudon, because there’s very little I want to say about it. I’ll start with that.
Groudon
| Pokémon – 12 | Trainers – 39 | Energy – 9 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Groudon EX | 4 | Korrina | 4 | VS Seeker | 4 | Strong | ||
| 1 | Groudon EX | 3 | N | 2 | Focus Sash | 5 | Fighting | ||
| 2 | Primal Groudon | 2 | Lusamine | 1 | Ultra Ball | ||||
| 1 | Regirock | 2 | Pokemon Center Lady | 1 | Switch | ||||
| 1 | Buzzwole GX | 2 | Cynthia | 1 | Escape Rope | ||||
| 4 | Wobbuffet | 1 | Steven’s Resolve | 1 | Hard Charm | ||||
| 1 | Tapu Lele GX | 1 | Lysandre | 1 | Counter Catcher | ||||
| 1 | Oranguru (UPR) | 1 | Guzma | 1 | Professor’s Letter | ||||
| 1 | Faba | 1 | Super Rod | ||||||
| 1 | Wishful Baton | ||||||||
| 4 | Tropical Beach | 1 | Scramble Switch | ||||||
| 1 | Max Potion | ||||||||
| 1 | Beast Ring | 1 | Float Stone | ||||||
Darn Expanded decks messing with my deck list lay out. There are too many 1-ofs, I can’t fit them all in the right column!
Groudon is a pretty solid option for players who have access to Tropical Beach and are willing to take a negative Archie’s matchup. With that being said, those two are pretty big barriers considering Beach is one of the hardest cards to get four copies of and Blastoise will probably be one of the most popular decks.
I have worked on Groudon a good amount although I have no intention of playing the deck and nobody I coach does either (not even sure why I put time into it). I like Groudon a lot, but the Archie matchup is too much of a problem. Just wanted to get this list out for people who are considering the deck. It’s still very similar to Joe’s top 4 list just because nobody can build the deck better than Joe.
I am unsure of the Oranguru spot because I don’t find myself using it much at all. Part of me feels like Oranguru is a staple in control decks and that is reason enough to keep it in the deck, but another part of me says my experience with the card have not warranted it’s spot.
Now for the deck I really love.
Zoroark Garbodor
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