Crown Zenith has presented some new interesting cards that we all should be aware of going into Orlando Regionals. We have a new archetype in the form of Lost Box Eternatus variants and some other strong cards that will improve existing archetypes. In the first section of this piece I cover these new changes and a few hyped cards. After that, the rest of this article is all about Eternatus Flying Pikachu Duraludon. Many of you will probably not have played any games with this deck yet, and it has a strategy that is different from anything else in the format currently. I show my list and explain exactly why it is built the way it is, followed by the general strategy of the deck and how to play match ups against the most popular decks.

Eternatus Flying Pikachu Duraludon

The new archetype getting attention going into the Crown Zenith format is centered around Radiant Eternatus. The two VMaxs that seem to pair best with Eternatus are Flying Pikachu and Duraludon. The idea behind these two seems to be that they each cover popular match ups, and hypothetically a deck with both can beat everything that is popular. Flying Pikachu is there to beat Regis and Lost Box, while providing some utility through its typing in the Lugia match up. Duraludon VMax is, and has been, very good against Lugia because it walls out all the entire deck other than Yveltal, which can be stopped through Big Parasol. Mew seems to be a deck that is not answered by this combination thus far, but then again, any deck can play two Drapion V and beat Mew. We also will see Vikavolt pick up in play, but Max Balloon locks Vikavolt players out of the game.

I have been testing this version of Eternatus to see if it is worth the hype it has been getting. At first I thought the deck was bad, but I later realized I simply had a bad list and was not approaching the strategy properly. Now that I have fixed the list and learned the correct strategy, I have found that it is testing quite well. Conceptualize this deck as a turbo version of Arceus Duraludon mixed with Lost Box. You should also think about it as an attacking wall deck. It’s fairly unique.

Zamazenta

The next ‘big thing’ coming out of Crown Zenith is Zamazenta (one-prize, not the VStar). I will assume you have already read the card. Zamazenta is not worth the hype. There are a few arguments for the viability of Zamazenta, all of which I find flimsy and shortsighted.

The first is that it is a great way to one-shot Stoutland V after a Lugia player goes up in the prize trade with it. It seems like almost everyone is talking about Zamazenta in the context of a Lost Box deck. However, there is really only one Lost Box deck that would play Zamazenta, which is the Rayquaza variant. However… you know what else will one-shot Stoutland? Rayquaza. In this context as a Stoutland Counter, Zamazenta is providing utility that Rayquaza already covers. However, Zamazenta is worse for this purpose because of the Energy requirement. Needing specifically two Metal and one of any other Energy is actually worse than needing three different Energy. This is because Mirage Gate forces you to grab two different Energy cards; in other words it cannot search out two Metal. What this means is that you will need to have a Metal in-hand to use Zamazenta, whereas Rayquaza would allow you to have any of Fighting, Lighting or Grass in-hand. Once there are seven cards in the Lost Zone, Raihan can fetch Energy from the discard so that you do not need the Metal in-hand, but Stoutland is usually used early game, which is when Colress has to be used instead of Raihan.

One might make the argument that Zamazenta does not have to discard all the Energy attached to it, where Rayquaza does. There is some level of credibility to this argument because it means Zamazenta persists as a threat, where Rayquaza stops being as much of a threat as soon as it attacks. This is actually significant because an opponent might opt to Boss Radiant Greninja or a different Pokemon with Energy attached, preferring to knock one of those Pokemon out instead of a Rayquaza that no longer has Energy. In situations like this, Zamazenta would be better, again because it retains the Energy upon attacking. Still, Boss counts are not very high in most decks, and it usually will not make a huge difference if your opponent were to knock out Greninja as opposed to Rayquaza.

There is also the argument that Zamazenta is a generally powerful Basic-V killer. All of the Basic Vs, including Stoutland, Raikou V, Lugia V, and many others will be one-shot by Zamazenta. I could go over why this makes no sense in more detail, but I will simply reiterate that Rayqauza does the same thing, but with a slightly higher damage output. Rayquaza dishes out 240 damage for three Energy instead of 220.

Zamazenta does have 10 more HP than Rayquaza, and it has the damage reduction Ability that Rayquaza does not have. Zamazenta is just a little more beefy, which can be good in mirrors. Cramorant will one-hit Rayquaza if the opponent uses Zigzagoon, for example, where Zamazenta would still have 40 HP left. Rayquaza would go down in one attack from Sableye as well, whereas the opponent would need to use Zigzagoon to knock out Zamazenta. Still, if you are putting Zamazenta in your list to deal with the mirror, you probably are better off playing Snorlax to fit this purpose. Snorlax’s Ability is far better in the mirror and it takes any three Energy you can scrape together to use it.

Zamazenta is not good in Lost Box decks. There are other attackers that are simply better at achieving what Zamazenta wants to do.

Sky Seal Stone

This is the best card to come out of Crown Zenith, in my opinion. Any card that allows you to take an extra prize, without a massive drawback, is worth considering. There are two ways I can see this card being used. The first is maybe more optimistic, which would be in Suicune. My readers probably know I love Suicune and would love to see it come back. The idea is that with Ludicolo, Suicune can potentially one-shot anything and take an Extra prize through Sky Seal Stone. One-shot Mew Vmax, for four prize cards. Lugia has a big bench most of the time, so damage output against that should be high. Three prizes on a Lugia Vstar can create a solid prize trade.

Anyway, before I start on a huge tangent about my favorite deck, I should cut myself off and mention that Lost Box playing some V techs will be great with Sky Seal Stone.

Nick Moffit placed 10th at San Diego Regionas playing a Rayquaza Lost Box deck that had Galarian Zapdos V and Raikou V. I would potentially expand this further to include Drapion V. Sky Seal Stone means four prizes on Mew VMax when using Drapion V. Sky Seal Stone means three prizes on Lugia VStar when using Raikou. Galarian Zapdos V will not necessarily be able to pull off the same sort of play because it is primarily used against Vikavolt, however the Item lock will stop you from attaching the Stone to Zapdos. That being said, Eternatus VMax has been played in higher numbers and Zapdos will still net you four prizes on a knock out against it. Even against decks where you are not hitting for Weakness, a one-two punch can net you that extra prize. Maybe you are up against a Duraludon deck and you do not hit for a knock out with Rayquaza. Just follow up with an attack from Raikou or Drapion with the Stone attached to get four prizes. Remember that Drapion’s attack cost actually does go down for each Duraludon VMax in play because it is a Single Strike Pokemon. You may want to read Drapion V’s Ability again because I had forgotten about this entirely until a couple weeks ago; Fusion- and Single- and Rapid-Strike Pokemon lower Drapion’s attack cost.

Eternatus Flying Pikachu Duraludon VMax (EPD)

I am attracted to this deck when I think about the Lugia match up. I find that Lugia does struggle quite a bit with Eternatus Flying Pikachu Duraludon (which I will refer to as EPD from now on). Anything that beats Lugia and is consistent is pretty solid in my view. Here is the list I have been using to beat Lugia repeatedly:

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