Lost in the Thunder Standard and What's on the Horizon

Greetings Flipsiders! Lost Thunder has been out on PTCGO for a week now and I can’t remember the last time that a new set brought so many possible combinations and deck ideas. An important part of testing with a new set is to not discount the top contenders from the format previous to the newest set. In this article I will be covering 1 archetype from the SUM-CST Standard format and one archetype that proved itself for the SUM-LTH format in Japan already.

Shrine Decks

Single Prize Attackers w/ Shrine of Punishments is an archetype that encompasses many variants that performed well in Standard Format for the first portion of the 2018-2019 season. The Buzzwole (FLI)/Garbodor/Weavile (UPR)/Shrine deck was one of the most notable versions, so I will evaluate its potential for SUM-LTH. With the following list, I have tried to keep the variant true to its pre-Lost Thunder construction while also adapting and adding a couple new cards.

Notable Inclusions/Counts

2-2 Weavile and 1-1 Garbodor

At a glance, I expect Weavile’s Evil Admonition to be more of a threat than Garbodor’s Trashalanche with the release of Lost Thunder. There are many decks being built around new abilities and even just teching in new Pokemon cards with very good abilities. A few of these are Alolan Ninetales-GX, Zebstrika, and Naganadel. Benching a Sneasel or two can intimidate your opponent into playing down less Pokemon with abilities and sacrificing their set up. If your opponent doesn’t play around your Weavile’s Evil Admonition, you will likely be taking some easy knockouts.

1 Ditto Prism Star

Ditto Prism Star is an awesome addition to this deck since we are playing 3 different Stage 1 evolution lines. Ditto can be our 3rd Sneasel, 3rd Slugma, or 2nd Trubbish depending on the situation.

1 Nihilego

I have been very eager to play with this card ever since I first saw it. In addition to your opponent preparing for the Sledgehammer turn (when they have 4 prize cards remaining), your Weavile’s Evil Admonition, and Garbodor’s Trashalanche, Nihilego now also threatens the opponent when they have 2 prize cards remaining. In testing, Nihilego has been a great game finisher.

Shaymin SHL is a wonderful inclusion if you are expecting to see a fair amount of Lycanroc-GX in your meta. I suggest dropping one Pokemon and the single basic Fighting energy for 1 Shaymin SHL and 1 more Counter Energy if you are going this route.

Tier 1? Probably Not.

This deck has already proved its strength and I have done some preliminary testing against new archetypes. It’s matchup vs. Blacephalon/Naganadel is positive due to Blacephalon-GX being a GX Pokemon that has to overextend to KO one prize Pokemon. The matchup versus Psychic Malamar (Gaskan) is fairly close, and the matchup versus Spell Tag Malamar seems less than desirable due to Spell Tag, Giratina’s Fighting resistance, and your deck’s overall inability to take advantage of any aspect of their board aside from abilities. With Weavile being 90 HP and only one of the several attackers in the list I have built, it is not enough to beat Spell Tag Malamar in most games. Depending on where the meta goes in terms of one prize attackers, GX focused decks, and which Malamar variant is better, this variant of Shrine could see success but likely not as much as it had in the past.

Spell Tag Malamar

This list is inspired by the 1st place list from the Champions League Tokyo event that was on September 16th. I believe that the changes I have made are for the better.

Notable Inclusions/Counts

3 Spell Tag/2 Escape Board/1 Adventure Bag

A huge issue I had with this deck initially was getting stuck in the active and not having a good Pokemon to send up when something was knocked out. Escape Board is an easy solution to this as it is a tried and true method for Malamar decks. Spell tag is an important part of this variant, so I still wanted a 4th out to it due to its usage diminishing the longer the game goes on. Adventure Bag is essentially a 4th out to Spell Tag and a 3rd out to Escape Board.

1 Tapu Lele (Psychic Promo)

With all of the ways this deck offers to spread damage around the opponent’s board, I was very surprised that this card wasn’t included. Magical Swap is a very real win condition for this deck, and one that your opponent may not be prepared for since this card was not present in the 1st place list that has gained traction as the generic Spell Tag list.

Also included in the Tokyo list, Onix is a great attacker vs any Zoroark-GX variant to OHKO opposing Zoroarks.

Acro Bike is an exceptional item card to use for drawing in Malamar variants as it discards a card in the process of also drawing you a card. This is good because you want to 1) discard Giratinas 2) discard Psychic energy and 3) thin out your deck in general.

2 Shrine of Punishment

While I think 1 copy is way too low, I don’t think you need to max it out at 4. Either 2 or 3 copies is understandable depending on what decks you want to have better matchups versus and what decks you are expecting. With the combination of 3 Spell Tag, Tapu Koko, 2 Shrine, Shining Arceus, and Black Ray GX vs GX decks, you have plenty of ways to spread damage. If you were to cut all Spell Tags from the deck, I’d say that 3 or 4 Shrine would probably be necessary.

Matchups

I have done more testing with this list against a variety of decks, so I can go into more depth than I did with Buzz Shrine.

Very Favorable Vs. Blacephalon/Naganadel

They have two attackers in their deck: Blacephalon-GX and Naganadel (LTH).

Blacephalon-GX is an inefficient attacker against all of our one-prize Pokemon. If they ever KO a Spell Tag’d Pokemon of ours we either clean up a KO or set up one or two KOs for later. Shrine only needs to stick for one turn to whittle Blacephalon-GX’s down to a desirable amount of hit points.

Naganadel only OHKOs our Giratinas when the opponent is at 3 prize cards. Otherwise they are swinging for 80 while we hit them for 130 with Giratina. The only downside in Tina vs Naganadel is we have to damage one of our Pokemon for 40 damage with Tina’s attack. Giratina has 130 HP so 130-40 = 90 and Naganadel doesn’t one shot it.

Favorable Vs. Psychic Malamar (Gaskan)

If Gaskan keeps Deoxys as their one prize attacker of choice, then Spell Tag Malamar trades favorably vs them. Giratina one shots Deoxys while Deoxys does not one shot Tina. We also have the option of spreading with koko and Shining Arceus to later damage swap to ko multiple Malamars.

Unfavorable Vs. Alolan Ninetales-GX(LTH)/Decidueye-GX (with either Zoroark GX or Swampert as draw support and back up attacker)

Because of the Decidueye Feather Arrows to get around Spell Tag and the usual inclusion of Max Potions to heal their bulky Pokémon, they can usually outlast our onslaught of smaller Pokémon whether it be Giratina hitting for 130 or smaller spread damage. A slow set up on their side can give us more time to spread damage and set up for a big Black Ray GX or Damage Swap turn. I don’t consider this unwinnable, but most games seem to be on DeciTales side at least in my testing and my group’s testing.

Unfavorable Vs. Sceptile-GX/Lurantis (Promo)

Most of my testing for this matchup has been on the side of Sceptile-GX. Spell Tag Mally’s saving grace is Necrozma-GX. If you can take an OHKO on Sceptile-GX that’s really good and can potentially swing things into your favor. The issues lie within the inherent healing and tanking qualities of Sceptile-GX. Personally I am playing 3 Max Potions in my Sceptile list, so in addition to the Life Forest Prism and Jungle Heal GX it is very hard for Spell Tag Mally to win the game by spreading damage.

Very Favorable Vs. Rayquaza-GX variants

This is favorable for Spell Tag Mally for the same reasons Blacephalon is a favorable matchup. We out trade all of their main attackers (Rayqauza-GX and Zeraora-GX) and spread damage really adds up here. If they are playing Stadiums and Field Blowers to counter our Shrine and Spell Tags it hurts their consistency and they do not have reliable outs to guarantee hitting them.

Favorable Vs. Buzzwole-GX variants (Lycanroc-GX, Alolan Ninetales-GX, Zygarde-GX, etc)

The only reason why I don’t have this classified as “Very favorable” is because Lycanroc-GX can pose an issue for us as can aggressive starts where they kill our inkays. Tapu Koko and Shining Arceus do not do much for us here, but Giratina one shots Buzzwole and Buzzwole-GX while any KO on us will usually proc a Spell Tag as Buzzwole-GX lists run little to no field blowers. If they try to focus on Alolan Ninetales and Lycanroc a Black Ray GX followed by Damage Swap will be advantageous for Spell Tag Malamar in most situations, especially if Shrine of Punishment can spread some damage as well.

Overall I think Spell Tag Malamar has some really great matchups, but people are prepared for it because of its performance in Tokyo. I think Field Blower being a more frequent inclusion across the board can definitely spell disaster for this deck.

Wrap Up

There are a lot of viable decks right now. My favorite decks at the moment are Spell Tag Malamar, Sceptile-GX/Lurantis, and Naganadel/Quagsire water box. I’m testing more of these and other decks every day and I doubt I could feasibly talk about every viable archetype within one or two articles. Luckily my next major tournament is Roanoke Regionals and we will see the results of Latin America Internationals before then. I’ve provided you with these two lists as a good start to Lost Thunder legal standard and I will be back with more next week. Sceptile-GX is on my list of archetypes that I want to write about, but I’ll have to see how the next few days of testing goes and if anything new pops up. Have fun with this great set!