Scoping out Metal for the Malmo Regionals

Hello everybody and welcome to another article, this time taking a look at some of the new Metal archetypes ready for Malmo regionals that is taking place this weekend. Metal is a type that really hasn’t received much support over the past few sets, which really meant that Gardevoir was dominant for the first few months of its release. It ended up winning the World Championships and further showed its worth until Crimson Invasion was released. The deck slowly began to die down after Zoroark was released as the way Zoroark decks were built, they were able to deal with everything Gardevoir could do. However, in recent events, Tord Reklev won his third International Championships in Sydney, Australia this past weekend with a build that combined Zoroark’s draw power with Gardevoir’s inherent strength as an attacker. This has completely shaken up the meta during the final week of tournaments before Ultra Prism is legal and means that Metal may again be the type that counters the strongest archetype in the game.

With that said, I want to have a quick discussion about what I consider are the three best Metal archetypes in the format with the new support it has gained.

Magnezone

Magnezone was the deck that when the set was released seemed to be the most auto-build of all of the decks from the set. The Ability ‘Magnetic Circuit’ is a Metal type reprint of various ‘Deluge’ style Abilities in the past, allowing you to attach as many Metal Energy to your Pokemon on your turn as you like. This has often been the skeleton of successful builds in the past and the speed of the format right now is perfect for this style of deck. Vikabulu is still a serious contender within the format and performs similarly to the deck so there is definitely room for another Stage 2 based set up deck I think.

To complement Magnezone’s Ability, you’ll want an array of Metal type attackers that can benefit from quick set up. This set contained two fantastic options in Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX and Dialga-GX. I have gone over both of these GXs in a lot of detail in an earlier article but in case you aren’t aware what they do I’ll take a brief look now. Dusk Mane Necrozma-GC boasts 190HP which is pretty relevant when 180 was always a key number to hit. 3 Colourless Energy gives you access to Claw Slash that deals a flat 60 damage, and 3 Metal and a Colourless lets you use Meteor Tempest which does a huge 220 damage with the caveat that you have to discard 3 of the Energy you have attached to you after. This is a huge amount of damage and will quickly make light work of whatever your opponent has decided to leave in the Active position going into your turn. Finally, for 3 Metal Energy you may use Sun’s Eclipse GX for 250 damage provided you are behind on prizes. Again this is a really strong attack and pretty much guarantees a KO at some point during the game if you are behind. Being weak to Fire is slightly awkward as

Dialga-GX is also a super strong Pokemon to have access too, having 180HP and the Dragon typing. Unfortunately, Dialga does have Fairy weakness which is pretty sad with Gardevoir’s recent rebirth but with the type of attacker Dialga is, this is largely irrelevant. Dialga’s first attack, Overclock, let’s you draw until you have 6 cards in hand for a single Metal Energy. This is fantastic in the early turns for added consistency when setting up. A Metal and 2 Colourless Energy lets you use Shred which as before goes through all effects on the opponent’s Active Pokemon which is a nice bonus. However, Dialga’s GX attack is where he really shines in this deck. Timeless GX lets you deal 150 damage for 3 Metal and 2 Colourless but then lets you take a whole extra turn. This is such a huge effect that we haven’t really seen before and it really is game breaking. Games can literally be won solely on being able to take an extra turn. This leads to drawing extra cards, using more Supporters, Stadiums etc, and just getting into a better board state in general to be able to close out the game.

The deck itself is all about building up a Magnezone to begin with and then start building up strong attackers in a single turn to overpower the opponent. In the early turns, the deck will build up a Magnezone behind a Dialga that uses Overclock in the first 1-2 turns to help keep the deck drawing cards. Then either attacking early with Timeless GX to force people out of the game through not having a board, or saving the Timeless to the late game and attacking with Dusk Mane. Sun’s Eclipse is still a very valid option in the deck and can sometimes be just as good as taking two turns as 4 Prizes can still win a game from out of nowhere. The deck also has Solgaleo Prism Star to help the late game set up against Ability lock decks as it can still pack a whole bunch of Energy onto the board quickly on a one Prize Pokemon. It also makes for another strong attacker later on in games as a final way of finishing off an opponent’s two Prize Pokemon.

Fundamentally the decks biggest weakness is itself. The deck is still built around a Stage 2 and this is a huge factor when considering a decks consistency. There will be games that they deck that doesn’t set up Magnezone and thus just crumbles because the Energy required for the attackers is just too much alone. I think this is actually one of the decks only real weaknesses and because of this if you are a player that would usually play decks like Vikabulu or Gardevoir you should definitely give this a go as this seems just as good as those with two very strong attackers and lots of options and versatility which those other two decks can sometimes lack.

Turbo Metals

Turbo Metals takes a different approach on building up Dusk Mane Necrozma to deal huge damage. The deck tries to use Registeel in the early turns to build up various attackers as a bit of a sacrificial lamb in order to activate Dusk Mane’s GX attack. The deck can also play various other Metal attackers such as Cobalion or Genesect-EX to help support other matchups in general which is a nice addition meaning you’re not all in on Dusk Mane Necrozmas.

Registeel is a really nice set up Pokemon that helps you build up the Necrozmas in the early turns. It has low enough HP to allow it to get Knocked out pretty early which helps set up for the four Prize swing later on in the game. 60 with a Choice Band is good numbers for setting up knock outs on future turns with other attackers which is also a great to help take prizes in the late game instead of using Meteor Tempest. Genesect-EX is a nice midrange attacker that hits 130 with a Choice Band. This is a pretty strong number considering its one-shots Gardevoirs whilst two-shotting everything else in the format really. This attack also has variable damage meaning you can choose to do more damage to close out games if needs be. Cobalion is a brilliant late game sweeper if Dusk Mane Necrozma doesn’t get set up in time. It can take a KO on a Lele pretty easily if the deck has run relatively well overall and is only a one Prize attacker which is another bonus to using it over Dusk Mane.

The biggest weaknesses I have found with the deck is that there are some consistency issues on the whole. I think the potential that Dusk Mane Necrozma has in this format is crazy but ultimately the deck felt unfortunately inconsistent. This was super upsetting to see in playtesting so I have gone back to the drawing board as I am certain this is one of the best ways to build Dusk Mane Necrozma for sure. I think it’s a fantastic counter to Zoroark decks and in general if the deck can go behind on Prizes and then take 4 back with a single Dusk Mane, the game is often unlosable.

Silvally Metals

The final build I want to briefly talk about is Silvally Metals. Silvally has always had potential in my eyes as it has the incredibly strong set of tools it has received. And in Ultra Prism, Fire and Electric Memory were also released which is another boost to the versatility of Silvally. The main benefits of running a Silvally style deck is that it works similarly to the Turbo Metals build but you are much beefier set up attacker that also has a strong GX attack too, along with a great ability. Fighting Memory and Psychic Memory both are very good types to be right now. Fighting hits Zoroark-GX for Weakness and Psychic hits Buzzwole-GX for Weakness and these two attackers are without a doubt some of the strongest in the format currently.

The deck ideally takes the first two Prizes with a combination of Registeel and Silvally-GX whilst setting up 2 Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX on the bench to ideally take the last 4 Prizes of the game. You also have the Silvally’s GX attack as I mentioned earlier that also helps with not having too much pressure on the Dusk Mane Necrozmas. The Ability on Silvally certainly helps the flow of the deck and means there really aren’t many Guzma stall plays that the Opponent can pull off.

However, one of the biggest issues of the deck is the fact that Silvally is actually weak to Fighting itself and whilst we do have Psychic Memory, this is only a 1/2 card inclusion that helps counter the Ultra Beast. That, along with the fact that Silvally requires two attachments, means that the deck doesn’t always have the ramp that Dusk Mane really wants in general to try and out beat people out of the game. Enhanced Hammer is a premium tech card right now and hurts the decks set up stages for sure since Double Colourless is a super important card for being able to use Silvally in the early turns.

Thanks for reading my summary of the best 3 Metal decks in format right now. I think Metal has a lot of good new support from this set and really could begin to be a force to deal with but the lists I have played all still feel like they need to be refined before they are super competitive. That being said I think with some work, Metal is definitely oen to watch and I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to do very well in this weekend Regional Championships. Make sure you check out Omnipoke for full lists of all three of the decks above and stay tuned for updates from Malmo regionals this weekend!