Note from Phinn: Michael wrote this article, but I have inserted some comments at different points throughout this article. Michael and I have tested this deck together extensively. Almost all of his opinions and gameplans for Kyogre are the same as mine. I planned on writing about this deck, but Michael beat me to it.
Howd’y Cut or Tap readers! It’s Michael Perez. Some of the newer readers may not know me, but I helped Phinn start Cut or Tap back in 2015 and we’ve been testing on and off together since 2012. Last season I went to NAIC to try and get top 4 for my invite since I didn’t compete too much during the pre-Covid part of that season, but I lost my win and in to top 8 to Sander Wojcik and his Mewtwo V-Union deck, my Arc/Inteleon deck was no match. This season I’ve been playing a lot more and am happy to be writing again.
After our poor finishes at EUIC, Phinn started playing around with Kyogre, since Nick Moffitt performed so well with it. Nick’s list is very interesting; no Battle VIP Pass, Galarian Moltres, PokeStop. I’m personally not a fan of some of those card choices. But Kyogre in theory has extraordinary potential right now. Portland is coming up this weekend and I don’t see myself playing any other deck.
Kyogre has positive matchups into Gardevoir ex, Mew VMAX, Lugia VSTAR, Arceus VSTAR, LZ SableZard, LZ Goodra, LZ Tina… Well everything? Sadly no, it has the potential to struggle against Tubo LZB since Vacuum means they have the chance to get to Sableye faster, although LZ mirrors are often just a sackfest or praying the other player misplays. Inteleon + Urshifu VMAX is a big uphill battle, and a lucky Miraidon player with Magnezone VSTAR is capable of ruining your day too. I’m not very worried about these decks however, as I’m predicting they will make up less than 6% of Portland’s metagame.
In the SWSH-on format, Kyogre decks rarely got to use Aqua Storm (on stream at least), but now Kyogre is a real star of the show in certain matchups, and it seems like it’s not quite as difficult to pull off anymore. The list below leans heavy into the Aqua Storm endgame for many matchups.
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Great article! worth the read and clear match ups.