"Will Darkness Prevail?"- A look at Zoroark BREAK/YveltalEX/Regirock, a possible play for Winter Regionals!

     Hello fellow Pokemon players! My name is Evan Smith and today I am going to talk about a pretty viable pick for Winter Regionals! NOTICE: I apologize for no codes in this article or the last one, I promise you all that I will put 3 codes in the next Pokemon article.

The Meta

                                          There are so many decks I can't even count...

     I believe the meta for this years Regionals will be Yveltal/Darkrai, Blastoise/Keldeo, Night March, Vespiquen/Vileplume, Exeggutor/Vileplume, Regice/Vileplume, VirGen, Accelgor, Sableye, Giratina/Seismitoad, Seismitoad or Giratina/Garbodor, LandyBats, Latios/Bats, and Wobbats. There are probably many more decks that I didn't cover but I think if you can beat at least 60% of these decks you should do well.

     With these decks in mind try to make sure that you try to beat the most popular of the decks.

     I feel that Vespiquen/Vileplume will be heavily popular for Week 1 of Regionals. So this may call for Wobbats or another ability-lock deck. This also calls for a fast deck to get the ability lock. Even Latios/Bats might do well for a donk.

Yveltal

The evil bird will never die off...

     I would definitely play Yveltal since it is still considered a deck with 50/50 match-ups all around. If you want to play safe then thus is the deck for you. Here is the list:

Pokemon-17

3 Zorua (Moonless Madness)

1 Zoroark (Stand In)

1 Zoroark (Foul Play)

2 Zoroark BREAK

2 YveltalEX

2 ShayminEX

2 Regirock

1 DarkraiEX

1 Sableye (Junk Hunt)

1 Smeargle

1 Wobbuffet (Bide Barricade)

Trainers-33

2 Professor Sycamore

1 N

1 Colress

1 Lysandre

4 VS Seeker

4 Trainers' Mail

4 Acro Bike

3 Ultra Ball

3 Dark Patch

2 Battle Compressor

2 Muscle Band

1 Tool Scrapper

1 Super Rod

1 Computer Search

3 Sky Field

Energy-10

5 Darkness

2 Fighting

3 Double Colorless

     I attempted to tech this deck out for most match-ups. It runs pretty consistently and gets energy in the discard for Dark Patch. Here I will go into explanations for my card counts:

3 Zorua/1 Zoroark (Stand In)/1 Zoroark (Foul Play)/ 2 Zororark BREAK

     I chose to opt out of running KeldeoEX for a single Zoroark with Stand In, since I am already running Zoroark. I also wanted a regular Zoroark with Foul Play to get that attack out turn 2 if needed, but it costs a DCE. I chose to run 2 Zoroark BREAKs so I have essentially a KeldeoEX that costs one prize, has Mind Jack still, and Foul Play only costs one energy. The only downside; it takes a minimum of 3 turns to set up. If you want you can opt out of running the regular Zoroark with Foul Play and play 2 Zoroarks with Stand In.

2 YveltalEX

     I only run 2 YveltalEX due to the decks main attacker being Zoroark. I also find that I normally use only 1 YveltalEX most of the time. I also only run 3 DCE so 2 is plenty.

1 Wobbuffet (Bide Barricade)

     This is to give you a chance against Vesiquen/Vileplume. You (hopefully) go first, get Wobbuffet in the active (after you set up since it will be difficult to retreat it), and pass. You disrupt their set up by either; negating Vileplume for a while, force them to use Lysandre (while wasting a chance for Professor Sycamore, giving you a chance to use abilities again, and getting it out of the active for you) on it , or not letting them use ShayminEXs and JirachiEXs.

2 Professor Sycamore/1 N/1 Colress/4 VS Seeker/4 Acro Bike/4 Trainers' Mail/3 Ultra Ball/2 Battle Compressor/1 Computer Search

     Please do not quote my previous article about the Professor Sycamore counts, I didn't have the space and had to cut it. I chose to rely on items more instead of supporters, which does make this deck vulnerable to item-lock decks. The pros of this is that it results in a much faster deck. I would rather go fast than go slow.

3 Double Colorless

     I run 3 DCE because I feel a 4th one would be unnecessary. I understand that it could be used for Regirock, but if your attacking with Regirock you're most likely not using YveltalEX. I also am not comfortable with running only 4 Darkness energy.

     Thanks for reading, and until next time, test on!