An Early Tier List for Sun and Moon Standard

Our brand new Standard format created by the rotation seems to be wide open with many viable choices for League Cups and Philadelphia Regionals. Of course, even in diverse metas there are usually some choices that stand out to be stronger choices than others. In this article, I will give my understanding and observation of a long list of archetypes, create a tentative tier list, and share my top picks for this weekend of League Cups. I included decklists from top events or lists I am confident in after some testing. 

Vikavolt Rayquaza-GX

Many people thought that Rayquaza-GX would lose too many tools to remain viable in the new Standard format, but those people (including myself) turned out to be incorrect. I started testing Vikavolt Rayquaza-GX about two weeks ago (maybe a bit more at the time of this article being published) and immediately told all of my testing group and friends that I was wrong about Rayquaza-GX post rotation. After having tested this new archetype for about 4 days or so, the Melbourne SPE results came out and a large amount of the community began hyping up this new way to play Rayquaza-GX.

This archetype can be built off of a Vikavolt Tapu Bulu-GX skeleton. Unlike VikaBulu, this archetype can make use of Mysterious Treasure to search out Rayquaza-GX, Tapu Lele-GX, and Marshadow SHL. I like this deck more than I ever liked VikaBulu, and a strong factor in this preference is that our main attacker Rayquaza-GX has a GX attack that reads “discard your hand. Draw 10 cards”. Although it is now being countered by Marshadow SHL and higher counts of Judge, having an attack that draws 10 cards on your 4-of main attacker is absolutely nutty.

Zoroark-GX Lycanroc-GX

Anyone who regularly watches or reads the content that I create will know that I am very pleased with the current viability of ZoroRoc. Zororoc is very oppressive vs. other Zoroark-GX variants and Stage 2 decks that need time to set up. This archetype has always felt like a strong combination of draw power, moderate damage, and aggression due to Zoroark-GX’s draw power and Lycanroc-GX’s invaluable ability paired with two great attacks. In my opinion, ZoroRoc would be the center of our current meta if not for Vikavolt Rayquaza-GX. ZoroRoc in its natural form has a shaky matchup versus Rayquaza-GX, but can be built to change the matchup to 50/50 or possibly slightly favorable. Buzzroc lost a fair amount of cards, but it is still a threat to Zororoc. Using Diancie Prism Star as well as Professor Kukui in ZoroRoc allows Claw Slash to one shot Baby Buzzwole and is the main way to do this now that Strong Energy has rotated.

Zoroark-GX Garbodor

Coming off of winning the NAIC and World Championships, I’d say that this archetype demands attention. The deck loses Garbotoxin Garbodor to the rotation, but I think it’s manageable. Personally, I enjoyed the World’s format ZoroGarb variant that omitted the Garbotoxin. I piloted this variant to a 6-2 record in the Nashville Open and I am very happy with the early experience I got without Garbotoxin in the deck for SUM-ON.

Trashalanche is almost always a strong card, and I believe that its current strength is second only to its power it had post-GRI release. With the rotation of Brigette, Professor Sycamore, and Float Stone we have more item cards going directly to the discard pile like Nest Ball, Acro Bike, and Switch. With increased Item inclusion in deck building comes increased viability for Garbodor. Metagross-GX is a large deterrent to playing ZoroGarb as I do not see any reasonable options to make that matchup better, but Metagross-GX is not terribly popular at the moment which is good for this archetype.

Zoroark-GX Decidueye-GX

Zoroark-GX Decidueye-GX

Decidueye-GX was a hugely popular GX Pokemon in late 2016-2017 standard and early 2017-2018 standard, but like most Stage 2’s was pushed out of the meta by the speed of Buzzroc. The current meta seems to reward setting up an oppressive board state, and Decidueye-GX decks can build an impressive board if unchecked. My issue with Zoroark-GX Decidueye-GX is that I have lost games where I set up 3 Zoroark-GX and 2 Decidueye-GX by turn 3… and if I am getting that kind of board state and still losing to things like ZoroRoc and Rayquaza-GX it probably isn’t a Tier 1 archetype. If the meta pushes OHKO decks out, then ZoroDeci would increase in viability; but, as of now Rayquaza-GX/Vikavolt looks like it may be strong enough to stick around through a meta shift and counters.

Malamar/Psychic Attackers/Marshadow-GX

Psychic Malamar lost very little in the rotation, both meaning it should still be a good archetype since it was a good archetype prior and making the lists in theory easier to build correctly than Standard archetypes that lost a lot of cards. Marshadow-GX is a good check to Zoroark-GX variants. Marshadow SHL Let Loose is a good check to Rayquaza-GX’s Tempest GX attack. Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX is a good check to Buzzwole-GX variants. And if that isn’t enough, Necrozma-GX has the potential to one shot anything. With the versatility to efficiently combat most archetypes, the consistency of having Ultra Ball and Mysterious Treasure being able to find almost all of your pokemon, and the rotation of Garbotoxin and Parallel City (two cards that hindered this archetype very much), I think this is a very solid archetype and I expect it to see more success early this season.

Metagross-GX

Metagross-GX is a fairly simple deck to pilot, but it still has a lot of potential in my eyes. The goal is to set up 3 Metagross-GX and then Geotech System 3 times, attack, tank a hit, retreat, max potion, repeat until you win. Basically, the deck loses to anything that can stop this chain like one shotting a Metagross-GX or stopping abilities. The only card in the current Standard format that can stop Geotech System is Glaceon-GX, which is weak to Metagross-GX and should not be a real threat. There are cards with potential to one-shot Metagross-GX, like Ho-oh-GX because of weakness or Rayquaza-GX if they have 8 energy and a choice band. I think this deck is very solid and can create a checkmate board state against some opposing archetypes, but I imagine that its inflexible strategy will keep it from achieving Tier 1 status.

Buzzwole-GX/Baby Buzzwole and Buzzwole-GX/Lycanroc-GX

Buzzwole-GX decks are in my opinion better than recent results and discussion have been making it seem. With the loss of Max Elixir and Strong Energy comes loss of speed and early KO’s, but at the end of the day Buzzwole-GX is still a 190HP basic Pokemon with 3 very good attacks. In addition to Buzzwole-GX itself, we also have Beast Ring which is arguably one of the strongest item cards in the game currently. I believe finding the correct build for Buzzwole-GX is something that has yet to be done for SUM-ON since there are many cards to replace, but I think a close to optimal list can run through Philadelphia Regionals. You can check out my recent video where I dive deeper into it. 

Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX/Magnezone/Ribombee

This is another OHKO deck that has surfaced to combat all of the Zoroark-GX variants that try to win by creating strong board presence. Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX can chain 220 damage every turn with the help of Magnezone accelerating energy and Ribombee/Mt. Coronet retrieving the energy back turn after turn. This deck has a higher guaranteed damage output than Vika Ray, but does not have an infinite damage scaling like Ray-GX has. Another reason I could see people playing this over Vika Ray is because Rayquaza-GX is being heavily countered now and the counters do not work against Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX since it has a different weakness and higher HP.

Zoroark-GX/Golisopod-GX

Zoropod historically has an issue with combatting OHKO decks because of its own inability to consistently return knockouts. Because the current OHKO archetype at the top of our meta is led by the 180 HP Rayquaza-GX, Zoropod is in a spot where it can survive a one-shot meta since it can be built to reach 180 damage turn after turn. Zoropod is a fairly moderate archetype that has mid range capabilities like winning two-shot wars with efficient attack costs and healing cards and also dealing burst damage when needed.

Ultra Necrozma-GX/Malamar

This is probably the archetype in this article that I have the least amount of experience with, but I have played a solid amount of games with it just to get acclimated with the SUN-on lists. Personally, I think this is the high risk high reward version of Malamar, where as Psychic Malamar is a bit more consistent and a little less threatening. Ultra Necrozma-GX needs a metal energy and a psychic energy to attack which has always been an issue with me. It can one-shot just about anything if you have a metal energy and a couple malamar set up which is very appealing. It can also utilize Beast Ring, but this is another high roll aspect of the deck since most lists don’t have a consistent and reliable engine to search out beast ring.

Buzzwole (FLI)/Garbodor/Regirock (CST)/Shrine of Punishment

This archetype saw its early success at the ARG Invitational in August. It did very well at World Championships 2018 both in Day 1 and Day 2. The deck’s strength lies in its focus on one prize attackers and Shrine of Punishment to overall punish your opponents that play GX focused decks. This archetype has a very good matchup to Vika Ray so I expect it to see some play.

Alolan Ninetales-GX/Zoroark-GX

Alolan Ninetales-GX functions similarly to Zoropod in that it prefers playing a two shot game but can one shot intermittently. In my testing of Zoro Ninetales vs Vika Ray, it is much harder for Alolan Ninetales GX to chain one hit KOs than it is for Rayquaza-GX. While Zoropod needs to either use Crossing Cut GX with a Choice Band or riotous beating with damage modifiers, Alolan Ninetales has a 3 energy attack that needs to be accelerated via Aqua Patch. Alolan Ninetales-GX has close matchups vs many of the zoro variants, but because of its poor matchups to the OHKO decks I do not see it being a better choice than many of the Zoroark-GX/X Stage 1 variants.

With all of this in mind, this is my Tier List for SUN-CST. The decks within the tiers are in no specific order aside from Vika Ray.

Tier 1

• Vika Ray
• Zororoc
• Psychic Malamar

Tier 1.5

• Zoro Garb
• Zoro Pod
• Buzzwole-GX variants

Tier 2

• Metagross-GX
• Baby Buzz/Garbodor/Regirock/Shrine
• Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX/Magnezone
• Ultra Malamar

Tier 3

• Zoro Decidueye
• Alolan Ninetales-GX/Zoroark-GX

The choice is yours, there are many viable archetypes. I hope that my tier list and explanations of each archetype makes choosing a deck a little easier. Below are my personal top 3 choices. 

Vika Ray - it will be countered, but I still expect it to be successful. It’s a very powerful deck.

Baby Buzz/Garb/Shrine - if I expect a lot of Vika Ray, this would be a good choice to play.

Zoroark Weavile (Evil Admonition) - something that was not on my tier list because it is a rogue deck at the moment. I have been working on a list for this for a bit now as it counters a lot of the meta.

Good luck this weekend if you are playing in any events, and I will be back next week with lists and techs for Philadelphia Regionals!