PMPT 42: 5 Crazy Decks in Top Cut

It’s a new week with new data! I have had a very consistent morning ritual every Monday for the past few months to start off the week: I wake up, brew some coffee, reflect on the big wins, then immediately open up all tournament data for PMPT like the nerd I truly am. Pocketmads.com has been a great addition to that routine; last Monday’s article was made examining the three most prominent Hoopa decks in the tournament since the info was easily available with its metadata page.

This week, I saw a different trend: there was a significant amount of unique decks that made it to top 63. This isn’t new - every week we have “rogue” decks making it to day 2. This is, however, our third tournament in the Ruler of the Skies meta. Usually at this time we see fewer changes to the tournament scene as proven decks stay on top. That’s why seeing the decks win a minimum of five games to come back for top cut surprised me.

This article is not a replacement for Maddy’s Meta Report, due to come out at the same time as this analysis. I’d check out what he has to say to get a better understand of the meta as a whole. Instead, I want to look at five of these underdogs that performed so well. Of course I’m proud of Nhakho’s third place finish with Koraidon, or Seedax’s highest perform Mega Venusaur; I’ve simply seen those do well already. Here’s what stood out to me this morning:

Zoroark

1. ×2Zoroark ex
2. ×2Zorua
3. ×1Bombirdier
4. ×1Darkrai ex
5. ×1Hoopa ex
6. ×1Mega Absol ex
7. ×1Roaring Moon
8. ×2Deceptive Needle
9. ×2Poké Ball
10. ×2Professor's Research
11. ×1Copycat
12. ×1Cyrus
13. ×1Field Blower
14. ×1Pokémon Center Lady
15. ×1Sabrina

See this deck on PocketMads

Zoroark ex hasn’t been on my radar with its seemingly uphill battle against the sea of grass decks around. The more popular Dark Hoopa decks took the meta by storm with its balance of control and aggression. Looking more intently, however, I see that Zoroark deserves this sixth place finish. Going 8-2-1, kylorde rocketed through the weekend with the ability to switch out the most necessary mon for the job with its Bombirdier, a card most dark decks are no longer including. This player’s only loss day 1 was against said dark rival, while FrogEX | Léo to them out with Vespiquen in top 8.

Wurmple

1. ×2Beautifly
2. ×2Cascoon
3. ×2Dustox
4. ×2Silcoon
5. ×2Wurmple
6. ×2Leaf Cape
7. ×2Lucky Ice Pop
8. ×2Quick-Grow Extract
9. ×1Copycat
10. ×1Cyrus
11. ×1Professor's Research
12. ×1Sabrina

See this deck on PocketMads

I go back and forth with how good Beautifly and Dustox are, and I think this archetype is extremely meta-dependent. The cumulative five players who piloted this won 100% of their games against Dark Hoopa and 50% of their games against Mega Lucario. This gave maims123 good odds going into a tourney where those two decks alone made up 20% of the metashare. It was taken our by the fan favorite below, but its impressive run was worth highlighting.

Clemont

1. ×2Helioptile
2. ×2Magnemite
3. ×1Heliolisk
4. ×1Heliolisk
5. ×1Magneton
6. ×1Magneton
7. ×1Magnezone
8. ×1Oricorio
9. ×2Clemont
10. ×2Clemont's Backpack
11. ×2Poké Ball
12. ×2Professor's Research
13. ×1Copycat
14. ×1Cyrus

See this deck on PocketMads

Fitypaldis piloted this to second place with great aptitude. We first saw this deck from Jacobjayyy last week, opting to use Clemont to full effect. Though it took out two Lucarios prior to finals, Lead secured the wins very early each game to knock out this acrhetype. This deck is pure aggression - using both split copies of both Magneton and Heliolisk gives the player options on how to quickly take down their opponent.

Eevee Box

1. ×2Eevee
2. ×2Eevee ex
3. ×2Flareon ex
4. ×2Leafeon ex
5. ×1Flareon
6. ×2Poké Ball
7. ×2Professor's Research
8. ×1Copycat
9. ×1Cyrus
10. ×1Eevee Bag
11. ×1Elegant Cape
12. ×1Flame Patch
13. ×1Rainbow Cave
14. ×1Training Area

See this deck on PocketMads

I absolutely love Eevee decks. ProtoTCG took this one to 20th place with a 6-2-1 score. using both Leafeon ex for early aggression and Flareon ex to finish out games has been a solid gameplan for months; the inclusion of Flareon and Rainbow Cave only gave this archetype more ways to be aggressive while setting up on the bench.

Crabominable

1. ×2Crabominable ex
2. ×2Crabrawler
3. ×2Froakie
4. ×2Greninja
5. ×2Copycat
6. ×2Poké Ball
7. ×2Rare Candy
8. ×2Soothing Shore
9. ×1Cyrus
10. ×1Heavy Helmet
11. ×1Lucky Ice Pop
12. ×1Professor's Research

See this deck on PocketMads

5cmDAL surprised us all with this deck. It’s pure aggression - bring out Crabominable ex, start punching, and never stop punching. As always, adding a Greninja to a deck seems to make anything work; however this setup really went up a notch with both Heavy Helmet and Soothing Shore ensuring the crab kept going as long as it could.

Honorable Mentions

I wish I had time to talk about every cool deck this weekend, but it’s worth noting a few more. Shedy brought Luxury to a 5-3 finish. There were several Mega Sharpedo ex decks here, but my favorite pair with it was Alolan Ninetails by Soulidus. Breaking2mirror piloted a Psychic Eevee Box that wasn’t sleep! Lastly, McLeoid showed us Hydreigon still has legs with a 7-1 score.

There were even more decks than the above listed that surprised me this weekend. Let me know on Discord which were your favorites, and I’ll see you on the Ladder!