This article was initially released back in October of last year, but with not enough detail. That was when I was trying for the first time to make the deck tick after the Hex Maniac ban. ZoroGarb is the deck I am suggesting players pilot for Hartford Regionals this weekend making now a great time to rewrite this piece and post it. Any Expanded meta that looks to be very diverse ends up being the time when I suggest ZoroGarb. As usual I have made some tweaks and this piece explains your five most relevant match ups (Mirror, Archie’s, Toad Zoroark, PikaRom, Hitmonchan).
Usually I like to use this space to discuss my other thoughts about the format and deck, but we all know what’s going on in Expanded. Let’s go right into the list and match ups descriptions.
ZoroGarb
| Pokémon – 22 | Trainers – 32 | Energy – 6 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Zorua (DEX) | 2 | Colress | 4 | Ultra Ball | 4 | Double Colorless | ||
| 4 | Zoroark GX | 1 | N | 4 | VS Seeker | 2 | Psychic | ||
| 1 | Oranguru (UPR) | 1 | Guzma | 1 | Red Card | ||||
| 2 | Exeggcute | 1 | Brigette | 2 | Float Stone | ||||
| 2 | Tapu Lele GX | 1 | Professor Sycamore | 1 | Rescue Stretcher | ||||
| 2 | Shaymin EX | 1 | Pokemon Ranger | 2 | Choice Band | ||||
| 1 | Klefki | 2 | Battle Compressor | ||||||
| 1 | Wobbuffet | 3 | Sky Field | 1 | Super Rod | ||||
| 2 | Trubbish (NVI) | 2 | Pokemon Communication | ||||||
| 1 | Garbodor (GRI) | 1 | Bursting Balloon | ||||||
| 1 | Garbodor (BKP) | 1 | Dowsing Machine | ||||||
| 1 | Ditto Prism Star | 1 | Field Blower | ||||||
Notes on the changes:
Sudowoodo is primarily a card I had played to help with Archie’s and ZoroGarb, however it does not seem like either of those decks are too hyped. In fact, it doesn’t seem like any one archetype outside of PikaRom is seeing hype. Most of what people are interested are control variants and the best one-card tech to deal with those decks is Oranguru. It seems like the best cut for that Guru is the Sudowoodo, but I’m not terribly certain of that. Frankly I have never been a fan of the card since it clogs up your bench when you face other decks that have their own Sudowoodo. Other cuts could have been the Red Card, second Psychic, or Pokemon Ranger…But I wouldn’t.
Toad Zoroark Lasers may see more play than it has in the past since the deck won, which is why Ranger is in the list. Players will argue that DDG players are the only ones who ever use the archetype, but now that the variant is easier to play I expect more copycats in the meta. With that being said, even if nobody but DDG plays it, that Ranger still could make a huge difference in day two.
The second psychic is in the list both because it will help with control decks and because it makes fighting decks easier to beat. I have streamed three Trashalanche Garbodors in a row against Hitmonchan several times and it is because I have two Psychics, a ditto, and the Super Rod.
All of the baseline consistency has stayed the same. I never mess with the 2 Compressor, 2 Shaymin, 2 P-Com, 4 VS etc. engine anymore. We hit the sweet spot with consistency and I don’t consider dropping any of these cards anymore. Maybe when the new set is released a couple things could change. I’m looking at you Dedenne.
Match ups
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