New Tricks for the Lost Zone

There have been a number of decks that use Mew Prime’s (HS—Triumphant, 97/103) Lost Link Poké-Body to great effect. This Poké-Body lets Mew use any of the attacks of any Pokémon in the Lost Zone. A new deck that we’ve seen here at Nationals utilizes Accelgor (Black & White—Dark Explorers, 11/108) and its Deck and Cover attack to do damage, as well as to keep your opponent from being able to retaliate by constantly Paralyzing the Defending Pokémon.

However, when you use Deck and Cover, the Pokémon and all cards attached to it get shuffled back into your deck. That includes Mew Prime if it’s the Pokémon that plays the attack. For this reason, you want as few cards in your deck as possible—you want to make it as likely as possible that Mew Prime will be the card you draw. As a result, cards that send cards to your discard pile, such as Professor Juniper and Sage’s Training, are critical for this deck.

Additionally, because Mew Prime is being returned to your deck, you need another Pokémon to keep time while you get Mew Prime out. That’s where Chandelure (Black & White—Noble Victories, 60/101) is helpful. Its Cursed Shadow Ability lets you put 30 damage on any of your opponent’s Pokémon however you like. Then you can retreat Chandelure after it has done its damage. Smeargle (HS—Undaunted, 8/91) can also fill this role.  Coming up to the active slot, it can use its Portrait Poké-Power to use one of your opponent's Supporter cards. Then if you have the Skyarrow Bridge (Black & White—Next Destinies, 91/99) Stadium card in play, you can retreat Smeargle for free to bring a new Mew up for the attack.

This deck relies on making sure that the Defending Pokémon stays paralyzed and stays in the active position. So it’s also important that your opponent can’t use Switch cards to swap in another Pokémon. That’s where Vileplume (HS—Undaunted, 24/91) becomes critical: it prevents either player from playing Item cards. Note that Professor Juniper and Sage’s Training are both Supporter cards, so they can still be used when Vileplume is in play.

Prevent your opponent from attacking or retreating by Paralyzing the Defending Pokémon, prevent your opponent from using Item cards with Vileplume, and keep your deck thin so you can always get Mew back into your hand. That’s a recipe for frustration for your opponent, and victory for you. It's also the kind of creativity required to succeed at the Pokémon National Championships.

We asked Adam Garcia to give us a little bit more insight into this interesting and effective deck.

How did you come up with the idea for this deck?

At first I was looking for a Vileplume variant to play at Nationals. The third-place finisher from last year’s Nationals approached me with this idea. I saw him play a few games with it, and I thought it was really interesting, so I built it the night before Nationals started.

So you haven’t played it much yourself!

No, before Nationals started I played maybe one real game. But I finished 4-1 after the first day.

Is it your style to look for decks that are out of the ordinary?

I definitely like playing decks that aren’t the “normal” ones you’ll see. My play style is very much control-based, and it’s always been that way. This is the control deck, I think.

What kinds of decks do you worry about with this deck?

Well, my one loss was against a Darkrai deck, but it was really the result of a terrible draw. But usually against Darkrai I can hold out. Plus when I’m paralyzing every turn, Darkrai can’t take advantage of its free retreat cost. This deck is vulnerable to getting early wins, so a turn-one Darkrai is scary. Of course, it’s scary for anyone!

Really no matter who I play, this deck requires a lot of calculation. The most important thing is that the opposing Pokémon takes the poison damage that will knock it out after its turn—that way my opponent can’t bring up another, non-Paralyzed Pokémon at the beginning of his or her turn. 

How would your deck match up against someone using the same deck?

That’s a match I don’t want to see. Since Mew Prime can use attacks from both Lost Zones, it would be dangerous to be the first to send Accelgor there. The game will play really fast, and Chandelure doing its damage each turn becomes really important.

Good luck to all of today’s competitors at the Pokémon National Championships!

Return to the National Championships page for more stories from the 2012 Pokémon National Championships.