We learned a lot at the EUIC earlier this month. First of all, Zoroark GX is good. Zoroark GX is really good. It brings so much to the table. It adds consistency to your deck and provides a solid, high HP attacker. Secondly, we saw a few decks establish themselves as the best in format. Tord won with Zoroark GX/Golisipod GX. It is tanky and consistent. I believe it is the best deck in the Standard Format. I believe the second best deck is Gardevoir GX. Christopher Schemanske’s list was very strong, featuring two gallade and four max potions (to make room, it cut the Sylveon line for a single Alolan Vulpix). Zakary Krekeler’s second place Silvally GX/metal is also a very strong deck, but I must admit I am not familiar enough with the deck to give it a specific ranking.
I have been wanting to make a counter deck, and the meta seems established enough for one to perform decently at a tournament. Looking at these three decks, I decided I really wanted to play a deck that could easily OHKO Silvally, Gardevoir, and Zoroark or Golisipod. I immediately noticed that Silvally and Zoroark share a times two weakness to fighting. Since Zoroark is the main attacker in Tord’s deck, I decided to target that.
Gallade is my favorite fighting attacker and it can easily clean up Zoroarks and Silvallys. Since Psychic Memory isn’t played in many lists, both decks have a hard time consistently OHKOing in return. Plus, Gallade only gives up one prize while Zoroark and Silvally give two.
I needed to add something that could easily OHKO Gardevoir. The only thing I could think of was Celesteela GX, Scizor EX, or Magearna EX. Scizor’s advantage over Magearna is that it requires Gardevoir to have an extra energy for an OHKO. The advantage of Magearna over Scizor is, beside its ability, it requires fewer metal energy. Celesteela has both of those advantages and has a potential OHKO on things like Golisipod GX with its Blaster GX attack. Adding Celesteela wasn’t hard since I only had DCE in the deck up to that point. I made two lists. One failed severely, while the other soared. Here is the one that has performed well:
3-3 Zorark GX
The Zoroark line is where you start your game. You can put pressure turn two while using its ability to help set up your other attackers. Two-shotting everything in the game is also a good attribute.
3-2-3 Gallade
Gallade is so strong. It hits 130-160 almost every turn and can easily take out your opponent’s Zoroark GX. This not only takes away an attacker from them, but also hurts their consistency. Gallade’s Premonition ability is very strong before using Zoroark. Instead of getting the top two cards, you get to choose two of the top 5 to get. This allows you to find the energy or choice band you need or to set up another Gallade.
1 Tapu Koko
This attack is very nice for cleaning up or setting up your Gallade to hit 180. The free retreat is also really strong for Guzma plays or for promoting after your active is knocked out.
2 Celesteela
I chose to play two Celesteela because it is your go-to attacker against Gardevoir. However, you don’t want more than that because in most matchups you only set it up for a single GX attack.
4 Guzma
This deck has very specific answers to very specific cards. You want to have your desired attacker hitting their perfect target. For instance, you often use Guzma to pull Gallade and Zoroark into the active. I would definitely not cut a Guzma.
2 Brigette
This is one of the changes between my lists that seems to make a big difference. I want to get out a lot of basics early so I can setup the correct attacker for each matchup. 2 Brigette allows me to do that consistently. I played one in my other list, and I definitely felt the difference. After seeing Tord’s list, I may even consider a third.
4 Choice Band
Choice Band is really important for Celesteela to OHKO Gardevoir with its first attack or 210 HP Pokemon with its GX attack. Choice Band also allows for Tapu Koko to clean up or set up one-shots for Gallade and Zoroark.
4 Rare Candy
This was the other big difference between my lists. The fourth Candy helped me find Gallade early, and I can discard the others later.
2 Rescue Stretcher
Since you want to use the same Pokemon over and over in most matchups, a second Rescue Stretcher is worth the slot. It will allow you to recycle Gallade or Celesteela, especially if one is prized.
3 Field Blower
With Garbodor dropping in popularity, I could see going down to two Field Blower.
4 Metal
I wanted to just play three, but finding a metal allows me to use Blaster GX without wasting a second DCE, and I can even attack with Zoroark or Gallade with two metal. It also increases the likelihood of getting an early attachment onto a Celesteela before you can evolve and attack with Zoroark.
The deck is very consistent as it is based on a powerful archetype that has popped up from time to time, Gallade/Octillery. The difference is your Octillery can do a lot of damage and has more hp.
Matchups:
At the EUIC, about 25% of the day two meta was Gardevoir. Against Gardevoir, quickly establish a Zoroark GX and go for two shots, but don’t expect to necessarily get them off as Gardevoir might heal it off with Max Potion. In the meantime, establish your Gallades and Celesteelas. Preferably, you attach a metal to Celesteela before attaching a DCE to keep it from being vulnerable to Gardevoir. Once you have a Celesteela, start taking OHKOs.
Just under 20% of the day two decks at the EUIC used Silvally. Against Silvally, you will again usually establish Zoroark early, but you don’t typically want more than one, since Silvally can one-shot Zoroark with a Fighting Memory. Focus on getting as many Gallade up as possible. Gallade one-shots Silvally, Registeel, and Zoroark, all of which were featured in multiple lists that made day two.
Not including the Silvally decks, about 30% of the decks in day two of the EUIC featured Zoroark. Again, you will start with Zoroark GX and shift into Gallade as quickly as possible. Against the Golisipod variant, you will probably have to take an OHKO with Celesteela’s GX attack. All together, 75% of the day two decks have a main attacker that is weak against one of your attackers. So it is definitely possible to do well with this deck in a tournament, as many players will copy the most successful decks from the EUIC. Also, the deck can beat many decks that are not weak against it. If you are looking for a fun deck and a change of pace, consider CGZ, and counter the meta.
