Yveltal’s Descent! Yveltal Deck May 2015
Pokemon (9):
2x Darkrai EX
1x Malamar EX
3x Yveltal
2x Yveltal EX
1x Mewtwo EX
Trainers (37):
1x Battle Compressor
3x Bicycle
1x Energy Switch
1x Enhanced Hammer
1x Escape Rope
4x Hypnotoxic Laser
3x Muscle Band
1x Professor’s Letter
1x Switch
4x Ultra Ball
3x Virbank City Gym
3x Vs Seeker
2x Colress
1x Lysandre
3 N
1 Pokemon Fan Club
4x Professor Juniper
Energy (14):
4 DCE
10 Darkness
The main focus of the deck: Yveltal EX
The strategy behind this deck is very straightforward; power up Yveltal EX and deliver massive amounts of damage to your opponent very quickly. By combining muscle band, Hypnotoxic Laser, Virbank, and energy manipulation you can keep an aggressive assault going and continue to claim prizes.
Yveltal EX is an extremely powerful EX monster. It is a darkness Pokemon has base 170hp and is weak to electricity while resisting fighting types. A fighting resistance is very effective because that means Yveltal resists Lucario and Landorus EX two powerful monster in the current metagame. Yveltal is so powerful thanks to its evil ball attack which does 20 damage plus 20 additional damage for each energy attached to both active Pokemon. That’s huge, much like Mewtwo EXs X-ball which basically defined the Pokemon TCG for a format or two. Yveltal does an extra 20 damage which can lead to many easy one-hit knockouts or OHKO’S.
Supporting Cast
Darkrai Ex is another great darkness monster. With 180 HP Darkrai can certainly take a hit or two. But with a fighting weakness you must be cautious putting it on the front line. Should Darkrai EX see combat it’s Night Spear attack does 90 damage for three energy and an additional 30 to a benched Pokemon which can destroy weaker basic Pokemon looking to evolve or soften up Ex Pokemon for an easy OHKO. Darkrai’s true usefulness however, lies in its ability Dark Cloak. Dark Cloak gives any of your Pokemon that have a darkness energy free retreat which is very helpful allowing you to energize attackers on the bench and move weaker attackers from the active spot for free.
Yveltal has amazing synergy with this deck. Many people think Yveltal has no usefulness in this deck because it is slower and in a format full of OHKO’S using a turn to do so little damage is not as effective. But Yveltal can be very good when combined with a couple of items. Muscle Band gives you a 50 damage attack that powers an attacker on the bench. Hypnotoxic Laser poisons and combined with Virbank City Gym for 1 energy you got 80 damage on the active, poison and powering a benched attacker, preferably Yveltal EX. Assuming the pokemon stays active coming back into your turn the active will have 110 damage and you’ll be threatening a 2-hit knockout while placing two energy on a benched Yveltal EX. Though it may be a bit slower than the powerful EX version you’ll notice that any knockout you can claim without using Yveltal EX is extremely
important because most players plan for your most devastating beast and attempt to stop it. If you can claim knockouts while powering up that beast the game will quickly swing in your favor.
Malamar EX gets a noticeable mention in the deck for its AMAZING ability. With Hyper Hypnosis Malamar will always put your opponents active to sleep when you attach an energy to it. Now this may seem counterproductive since you need energy to power Yveltal EX but a turn of sleep can sometimes win you the game. I’ve had many instances playing against Seismitoad decks where putting the active Seismitoad to sleep for a turn allowed me to play items on my next turn and continue acceleration. You’ve also got Yveltal and Energy Switch to still put energy on your EX so you don’t miss a turn.
The Trainers and Supporters
The trainers are very standard to accelerate through the deck and provide consistency. 4 juniper, 3 N, and 2 Colress along with 3 bicycle gives you plenty of draw power. The lone copy of a Pokemon Fan club can grab all of your Pokemon since they are all basic. For more consistency and as a way to put darkness energy into the graveyard for Yveltal, there are four ultra balls to grab the Pokemon you need as well.
Lysandre and Escape rope provide ways to move your opponents active to eliminate threats that are ready to attack before they have the opportunity, and the 3 VS seeker are nice to utilize Lysandre over when necessary.
You’ve also got damage manipulation with Muscle band, Hypnotoxic laser, and Virbank City Gym. Virbank can be dangerous since many players run Hypnotoxic laser so it’s important to consider your matchup and use Virbank as a way to ensure a knockout rather than sustain damage when you know your opponent also has significant ways to poison.
Strengths of the deck
This deck is very efficient at manipulating resources and claiming prizes. The speed at which Yveltal can do huge amounts of damage with very little investment leads to unexpected knockouts. If your opponent does not have prepared attackers to retaliate with, Yveltal and Darkrai EX will put extreme pressure on the opponent.
Speed and efficiency define the keys to success in this deck. Remember to stay aggressive while powering benched attackers to ensure you always have effective turns of damage output.
Weakness of the deck
This deck will immediately struggle if you miss energy drops. Yveltal EX needs at least two turns to attack since Evil Ball requires a darkness energy and a colorless energy it takes two energy drops or a drop and an oblivion wing. Therefore every turn that you miss energy will mean fewer attacks and less damage.
Beware Pyroar! The only defense this deck has against Pyroar is Lysandre. If Pyroar is active NONE of your attackers can do damage to it. As a result in order to take prizes you have to Lysandre up other targets. Therefore in the Pyroar matchup you must preserve your powered attackers and use every Pokemon that’s not a Pyroar as your advantage, especially Litleo. If your opponent only plays Pyroar then your key to victory will be Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank city Gym.
What do you think?
Yveltal EX leads the charge in some extremely powerful decks and this one is no different! Do you think it could be better? I certainly do so make sure to leave your improvements in the comment section below! Thanks for reading see you next time!
