Breaking Through with Xerneas Break

Hello Flipside readers!  My name is Jeremiah Schmutz, but I am probably more well known by my gaming alias, Seagrove.  This is my first article for FlipSide Gaming, and I look forward to writing many more! Since this is my first time here, I thought I should introduce myself.  I have been playing the Pokémon TCG since it began, but I had no idea about the existence of the competitive scene until 2015.  I began my competitive journey in December of 2015 by placing 2^nd at the Fort Mill City Championship.  I have been hooked ever since.  Last season was my first full season, and Rainbow Force Xerneas was my favorite deck for the year.  I was still able to earn half of my season’s championship points with it.

Today, I want to look at another Xerneas deck that most people have not considered for the current standard format, Xerneas BREAK.  Xerneas BREAK has a long and diverse history.  Xerneas performed well at the beginning of last season while partnered with Giratina EX.  Xerneas was quickly replaced with Darkrai, but Turbo Darkrai ended up outshining either of the decks with Giratina EX.  At the Dallas Regional Championship, Sam Chen and a few others debuted a Xerneas BREAK/Lugia EX/Snorlax GX deck.  Even the players who built it would have told you it was a meme deck.  Most recently, we saw a few European players, including Joe Bernard, play Xerneas BREAK alongside an assortment of attackers and support Pokémon like Oranguru and Mewtwo EVO.  Unfortunately, the deck never established itself as anything more than a surprise play.

Coming into this format, I knew I wanted to play something with Garbodor BKP.  Shutting off abilities with Garbotoxin is extremely powerful as around 80% of the strong decks in the format depend on abilities.  Eventually, I realized Xerneas Break was the perfect pair for this Garbodor.  It is a huge one-prize attacker that sets itself up and doesn’t rely on abilities.  After quite a bit of testing and a few final changes suggested by my friend, Stephen Hunter, I have landed on the following list:

The two cards that make Xerneas BREAK and Garbodor the perfect pair are Exp. Share and Fairy Garden.  Xerneas BREAK really wants to have a few Exp. Share in play to preserve energy despite knockouts.  Garbodor really wants a tool card attached.  While other decks have to play Float Stone on Garbodor (although it is less of a necessity now with Guzma) we can play Exp Share because our free retreat comes from Fairy Garden, a card we wanted in the deck anyway.  Often, we only play one Tapu Lele GX, so the fact that both Garbodor and Xerneas give one prize makes our opponent take 5-6 knockouts to win the game.

Now we will look at a few of the card and count choices in the deck.

4 Xerneas BREAK: in some older lists, three Xerneas BREAK were played.  One of the strengths of this deck is surviving a hit.  A lot of decks can’t hit 150 nearly as easily as they hit 130, so having access to our BREAKs early and often is super important.

2 Tapu Lele GX: You only really want to play one if you can help it, and a third is too much since we will have Garbotoxin active most games.  Super Rod allows us to reuse Lele if needed.

2 Super Rod: if you ever have a slow start or get knocked out early super rod is an incredible recovery tool for the deck.  Often your opponent will try to hit a field blower/knockout combination in the mid game.  If they are successful, you can use super rod to put the energies back in and easily hit your mid to late game Max Elixirs.

1 Brigette: I was at two copies, but I took one out for a Nest Ball after playing the list in a couple tournaments.  You only need one about one out of three games.

3 Fairy Garden:  It was suggested to me that I play four Fairy Garden, but I have found I always have them when I need them.  As long as you are careful, and don’t play it down without reason, you should have no issue getting your correct Pokémon active with three Fairy Garden and two Guzma in the deck.

2 DCE:  I could see myself adding a third DCE for a Brigette.  While four is absolutely unnecessary, three is nice if you prize or discard one early.  Do not take out a Fairy for another DCE.  There are a few reasons for this.  First, you need Fairy Energy to attack.  Also, you really want to see one on your first turn so you can brigette and Geomancy.  Finally, you need to hit your max elixirs, even after using Geomancy.

Finally, a few general tips for playing the deck:

1. Keep track of the amount of Fairy Energy remaining. You don’t want to think you can Geomancy for two energies and take a one shot on the following turn when you only have one left in deck. Also, it is important for knowing your chances of hitting an elixir.  While sometimes it is better to just play an elixir, it is often better to N the item back into your deck until you can use Super Rod to recover your energy.

2. Consider how much damage is needed for a knockout and how you are going to get to that damage. Do you have access to enough energy to aim for one shots, or do you need to go for two shots? Will you be able to use choice band to add to your damage or do you already have an Exp. Share attached to the only Xerneas you can prepare for next turn?

3. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket (or even two to three baskets). Ideally you want all of your benched targets to be equally good Guzma targets for your opponent. Tapu Lele GX is worth two prizes, but it only has one energy.  Garbodor has three energies attached, but your opponent knows it won’t be attacking.  Make sure you are spreading out energy and tools so that a single Guzma followed by a knockout won’t obliterate your board state.

Thanks for reading.  I am almost definitely going to be playing this for my first League Cup of the rotation, so I will see if I can give an update on how it goes.

Update:  I played the list at a local tourney and won.  I then took it to a League Cup the following day and made top 8.  I played the exact list above except I played a second Brigette instead of the nest ball (which I regretted).