Dracozolt finds your suffering hilarious

[@Sandiramon]

"It was skillful of me to put the lucky ice-pops in the deck.". Tricky Gym

[@Tenaciousturtl]

This deck makes me wanna get back into the game again

[@Velflunkle]

It's super easy and pretty inexpensive tbh. Just buy some online codes in ebay and trade those packs

[@dadverb]

"Everyone's favorite dragon fish lightning bird thing." lol

[@Siennarchist]

We not talking about mahone making a huge speech about having to roll with the punches in pokemon, taking the good luck with the bad, before getting marnie'd into a hand so dead im surprised there wasnt a cemetery stadium somewhere in there, before top decking pokegear into cheryl saving the game. My god.

[@mr.fluffypantz4150]

All skill

[@Talguy21]

For better or worse, that's card games for you.

[@juliusmeyer4208]

This deck makes me wish we still had green's exploration

[@MazterP28]

You have peony

[@BrandoMan]

Green's was a good card for the meta

[@Bos_Meong]

just make do with skyla

[@MazterP28]

@@Bos_Meong but greens is the same as peony. LOL

[@juliusmeyer4208]

@@MazterP28 Peony isn't really the same Discarding your hand isn't really something you want to do with this deck most of the time, not to mention that after you grab your 2 trainer cards your your hand is either dead or you grabbed a supporter as one of your trainer cards in order to negate this meaning that you've essentially discarded your hand to get 1 trainer card which is pretty awful. Greens allows you to add on to this hand meaning you wouldn't have to deal with the previously stated issue. Also it's just fun to think about because the deck uses no abilities.

[@KarrotStyx]

Built this IRL a few weeks ago. Makes my wife mad everytime I play it against her. Doesn't always win but it takes like 40 minutes per match any way and just ends up being a bad time for your opponent either way

[@thomasaquinas601]

I'm happy to report this deck is a very good counter to Gengar VMAX as long as you can get a couple Cheryl's in a row.

[@georgegotjokes]

"The entire Max Phantom, just completely evaporated" I fuckin LOST IT lmfaooooo

[@SandraThePhox]

I played against this deck a few weeks back and I had no idea what to expect. But I was actually pretty angry when I quickly found out what they were doing and that I had no way to get around it.

[@charlesbronson2926]

Groudon from celebrations has a good matchup, but you’d probably have to trade your life

[@TheC00LK1DjeromE]

Is Full Face Guard your best option for a tool card? Would something more distrubtive like Rugged Helemt or Rocky Helmet be better? Great vid! Love to see lesser used VMAXs on the channel.

[@ZeOrangutan]

IMO Yes you want an HP booster or damage reduction because your main objective is to survive the turn , rocky helmet gives you extra 40 damage for two shots into you, but that math doesnt matter so much because you are already doing 60 Spark + 120 Damage into you + 60 Spark = 240 damage. The extra 20 doesnt matter there in most scenarios. Rugged helmet allows an opponent who plays smart to conserve energy. They are not bad options but I think survival is better for a deck like this.

[@ZeOrangutan]

An example would be the leafeon deck, where without Face Guard , it is swinging in for 300. With pings from 2 quick shooting it is one shotting you.

[@AlexTheDinosaur951]

Why wouldn’t you play Big Charm in this situation over the Full Face Guard?

[@ZeOrangutan]

@@AlexTheDinosaur951 damage reduction lets you survive more turns so if something is 2 shotting you in this case they would have to do a total of 370 damage to knock you out, also avoids getting scrappered. Its deck by deck scenario but in this case it is important to survive the turn and take damage

[@seantaft3853]

@@AlexTheDinosaur951 math favors Full Face Guard most of the time. Full Face Guard reduces by 20 for every attack while Big Charm is +30 HP. The ONLY time Big Charm is better is if you'd be OHKOed by an attack without it; the moment it goes to two attacks, the Face Guard goes to reducing 40 Damage.

[@alessandromasini7697]

18:22 Yes, there are ways to deal with prizes, but it doesn't change the fact that there is a reason why i built my deck in a certain way, and having to add extra copies of certain cards just because they MIGHT be prized is just bad game design. Not to mention that you can still prize both copies and that whenever neither of them are prized the extra copy is a dead card. I can't even count how many times i've prized both Archies/Blastoise, and how many times the extra copies were dead cards the whole game. Or how many times i prized oricorio against mad party, elektross against Eggrow... and how many times i had them in match ups where they were completely useless. 90-10% is a bit generous imo, at least 80-20, and i would even say 70-30, and we didn't even factor the match up component, which is quite relevant, since there are match ups that are straight up autowins/autolosses or 75-25 favoured

[@CaptainVenusaur]

I left a comment talking about this too but I agree. On top of good matchups, there was a lot of game where you don’t really have to think. If you go through the motions, sometimes you just have it, and sometimes you just don’t, all without really having an opportunity to do much

[@blendinblandin7377]

If I had to guess based on this take, I would say you don't like deck building lol. Three points here I disagree with: 1- As much skill in this game is in building your deck as in playing, and putting mechanics in that make you think about your deck building is not bad game design. It's a lot about tradeoffs and what you are willing to risk, and trying to dismiss it by claiming you could theoretically prize multiple copies when it is very unlikely is a little ridiculous- that's what makes it a game. You'll remember the games where you prize the one counter you know you have much better than ones where your deck functions as intended. 2- The 90-10 number is an estimate, but it's not as far off as you seem to think. At the end of the day, you can look at tournament results and the fact that you see the same players winning everything (like stated in the video) proves the game is skill based. The amount of variance in a game that is 30% luck is pretty high, that assumes more than 1 in 5 games are unwinnable/unloseable because of factors purely out of your control, which I would argue is not the case. 3- Matchups are an element of luck on a ptcgo ladder, but most decks worth playing can win any game. In a tournament setting, though, matchups are another element of skill, as many tournaments have been won by people who pick a rogue deck that can beat the most popular deck, and that decision was something that took a lot of knowledge and skill in the matchup.

[@blendinblandin7377]

@@CaptainVenusaur I know the kind of games you're referring to, but I would argue there's no such thing as "going through the motions". You route your win and if your opponent does nothing to disrupt you then it seems easy, but that is likely an expression that your opponent either did not build their deck to beat your or did not see your win condition, meaning you are the better player and won in a skillful way.

[@alessandromasini7697]

@@blendinblandin7377 1) Sure, you will remember those games even if it isn't particulary likely... but why add another element of randomness to a card game and make it a possibilty to have such game losing inconveniences? If prizes weren't a thing, you would simply need to build your decks with a different mindset, which doesn't necessarealy mean it would be less skillful. Its like saying, is it more skillful to know your opponents deck list or not? You can't really tell for sure, but you would definitely need to use a different mind set when playing the game. Guessing is definitely a skill factor too, but I personally think that not having to rely too much on is overall more skillful and for that reason i also think its more skilful to build a deck without having to think about prizes. If you get to see your opponent's decklist you can organize your wincon and gameplan more consistently, and the better player is gonna be more consistently rewarded, because at the end of the day guessing is guessing, and even if you get the majority right, you can't really guess everything right. 2) Let's be honest here, it's the same players winning tournaments, because this game isn't very popular from a competitive point of view and there isn't a lot players variety, at least on limitless (don't really know how it works irl) and its definitely not unlikely to see somone who got first place in a 200 players tournament, end up at 120th or something the next one. Roger Federer (in his prime) may not have won every tournament, but he would never end up lower than 5th place. 3) Sure every match up is winnable, even something like Mew3 and Honchcrow, but in certain match ups you are mostly relying on luck and on your opponent drawing very poorly unless there is a massive skill gap between the players. How are you really gonna beat Dragapult/Calyrex when you are playing Urshifu for exemple? Either by hoping that they don't know their wincon or by hoping that they draw poorly/suboptimally. What if you are technically the better player, but your opponents has a favourable match up AND you draw subpotimally? You will most likely lose, even without extreme scenarios of unwinnable match ups or horrible drawing.

[@seantaft3853]

26:26 the phrase used is "Streamer Luck." The phrase is ironic in that it's 100% skill.

[@Chilli244]

why not push path to the peak on the leaden matchup? 15:20

[@MrTwenty6point2]

"that's a SPICY MEATBALL....right there"

[@psychz7474]

As some one who loves stall Im happy there's a stall deck back in format

[@goncaloferreira6429]

questions: why do you love stall decks? whats the incentiv to play them? arent them against the basic idea of the game , that of battling mons?

[@psychz7474]

@@goncaloferreira6429 yes but all decks are built for attacking if u make them scared of attacking u they loose

[@goncaloferreira6429]

@@psychz7474you dont say...

[@charlesbronson2926]

Why didn’t you use the path to the peak?

[@corymclark]

Built this IRL for when my local league starts up again

[@jamesbarrie4070]

In yugioh the thing thats part of the game that you have to deal with is smelling your opponents BO

[@WGG-01]

you should check out forthewintcg's sandaconda vmax deck. it does a similar thing but can do some crazy spread damage.

[@ForTheWinTCG]

Appreciate the love on the deck bro!

[@stevenandrewpatterson1826]

18:39 that's why town map exists

[@stevenandrewpatterson1826]

And why gladion exists

[@stevenandrewpatterson1826]

19:50 damn does that opponent need to play the newest shiftry

[@stevenandrewpatterson1826]

Cause' f boss

[@march1392]

I wonder how this deck would do in expanded with triple accel to get cheeky knock outs with the max attack.

[@jakem1102]

It's about time!

[@Jjimmythetulip]

This is the most fun deck I have ever played!!!

[@jimmyroyal34]

I really like the mechanic of this deck since healing has always been my thing. I was wondering tho, would it be good to change full face guard for big charm? I appreciate your content and looking forward to see futur builds. Peace!

[@bezzzyl]

More often than not Full Face Guard is the better option. Big Charm nets you +30HP, which protects you from a 1HKO, if that damage is greater than 330, but less than 360 (So a 340, or 350 dmg attack. FFG reduces the dmg by 20 so in theory could sponge the 340dmg attack anyway (As it is now 320), but obviously still falls short of the 350dmg attack that the Big Charm can hold out against. The key difference though is if the damage isn't coming in as big as that. Say it was 180dmg. That x2 is 360, enough to kill the Dracozolt, even with a Big Charm. But the FFG reduces each 180dmg attack to 160, for 320dmg. You are still alive. This bonus only gets better the more attacks they do for lower damage. If they are hitting for 60dmg each turn, Big Charm holds out against 5, but loses to the 6th. FFG holds out against 8, losing to the 9th, as each attack takes that 20 reduction, not a one of like Big Charm.

[@jimmyroyal34]

@@bezzzyl it makes perfect sense. Thank you for this very useful information.

[@cooolth3547]

That leafeon match is the reason you play centre lady in leafeon

[@corydarrow7313]

Playing against Ice Rider Calyrex…their Pokémon are melting in front of you…I see you Mahone

[@dallinadams9422]

Of course there is the matter of budget as well

[@KiddReige]

Hey Andrew. Any tech ideas to use in decidueye against the dragapault matchup?

[@brandonelizarde4585]

Can you revisit this deck for Scarlet and violet?

[@czeco5787]

I think I played you yesterday did you play against a single strike urshifu with this deck?

[@modtyrant1784]

Variance is sort of like an illusion of choice ( bad match ups, dead hands/draws etc ). You have to get a good probability of your strategy whatever it may be but any time you lose because of variance its either out of your hands or inconsistency in your deck. You will know it was a dead game if you replay the match with only cards drawn from the last game and can calculate the odds of wining with that data set ( either inconsistent or dead variance ). A "good game" could potentially be a dead one with no chance at winning. I come from MTG commander but i do love many card games and one of my favorite decks to build in Pokemon, are ones that don't use V or V-max cards and crush decks that try to abuse those powerful Pokemon. Though with my very limited collection of cards i'm surprised that worked out as well as it does. All thought i think the Pokemon mulligan system could use some work.

[@Chilli244]

why did leafeon do 300 damage with grass knot? around 16.00

[@jordanhunsberger9021]

I would agree with %90 over the course of a player’s career (might even be higher in that case), but I feel like luck is probably a lot more than %10 in any single game. I also couldn’t agree more with Andrew’s comments about the the importance of psychological skills (not getting tilted by bad luck, etc.) and I think Pokémon is a great way to learn those valuable life skills.

[@axeyd6347]

Ah so this is why my Dracozolt V traded so easily this morning

[@nerfherder1986]

So what's stopping this deck from being the BDIF with the consistency cards coming out in Brilliant Stars?

[@wackey8356]

mew oneshots

[@goncaloferreira6429]

around 17:32 the thing about pokemon is that it throws its varience at your face with, not just with the the prize system but also alot of cards and abilities that are luck based. that leads to players becoming more salty thanks to more games being more visibly decided by luck rather than skill. on the prize system: it is not perfect and dual masters take on it is probably its best version. No game is perfect and part of loving a game is accepting its flaws.

[@ChawkyVirus]

This deck is even more ridiculous in expanded with Max Potion, Green's, Vs Seeker .... etc

[@hardcorenacho1020]

Is this deck good for competitive play or is it more of a troll deck?

[@CountAffordable]

Watching you play this deck ...HILARIOUS! Ever having to play against this deck myself...RAGE!

[@Tundra0128]

I played someone on the ladder who was using this same deck lol I bet you he saw your video. Either way I scooped out after he hit his 4 moomoo cheese followed by multiple lucky ice pops and then a couple successful crushing hammers

[@kinggrizzlie8858]

Where do I submit deck list?

[@kinggrizzlie8858]

I have a stunfisk deck, that I'd like to share. I have great games with it. Built it myself.

[@darkhistrei-clalu8370]

I main this exact deck and they concede more than they lose or win lol

[@DaAcorn]

Everyone is playing the same game with the same pool of cards. Knowing the odds and playing to your outs has more of an effect on the game than luck, which is why the same players do good every year.

[@brethagen5491]

Tons of skill involved, no doubt about that. But not everyone possesses all of the same cards though. With most of the playable cards being ultra rares it is difficult to amass the necessary components to construct competitive decks. I mean, how many packs do you have to rip to get a 4-3 V-VMAX line? Hundreds. Hopefully putting together good decks will be a little less difficult with the switch to Live.

[@pokisir]

I actually run this deck but as a momentum builder for Ray V/Vmax

[@CaptainVenusaur]

Might be a hot take but a lot of Pokémon is being able to sequence properly and go through the motions. Games pretty often end in 3 to 5 turns without any complex decisions That’s for sure a skill but I feel like that’s more fundamentals, rather than a skill that takes true brainpower Without deck building and gamesmanship (being able to keep a poker face etc) Fundamentals 50% Complex Decision Making 30% Luck 20% Imo

[@11bvette10]

Played against this yesterday irl, I was using josteon… was a super long game of healing back and forth lol

[@russellchaulk9255]

I battled this deck a few days ago. It made my rapid strike urshifu sad.

[@AtlasRega]

That Leafeon player was just squirming so hard 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@ABSupra]

I made this deck like 2 weeks ago and I would never thought Andrew would play it so this is entertaining lol easy dubs people

[@RaichuAM]

WISH I HAD 4 DRACOZOLT V AND VMAXS only got 1 of each sadge :(

[@janskuhravy9842]

Could Special Water Energy work against this deck?

[@MaxPower-ke5rq]

No. The effect is on the Dracozolt

[@tomytrankarov8859]

This deck is op because it makes crushing hammer useless. (Finally it has happened!)

[@MrRubixscube]

i don't understand why you didn't play path to the peak against leafeon V, what did i miss?

[@WhyDoBabiesStareAtMe]

Path doesn't effect Leafeon that much because they use the Inteleon line, other than stopping Greening Cells. Plus, if they put down a Stadium first, it gives you a leg up in the Stadium War.

[@slotholopolis2314]

The other dude is right on with the stadium war. Galar Mine is really important for Leafeon's ability to do enough damage so being able to replace it with Path to the Peak was big.

[@MazterP28]

Another troll deck I must build and play at my league

[@JusticeWllBSrvd]

I played against this deck the other day but I was using your metagross vmax deck and they didn't like that.

[@sltyboi]

People complaining about prize cards got me dying man why search your deck cards are so necessary that way you can make a new game plan with what you have

[@brandonsutantio5388]

I saw the squid game clothing Andrew from Twitter its amazing

[@mak_707]

Ah man, I love when you play against a player with a clearly meta deck with a smug smirk avatar to boot like that last guy only to see them try so hard to beat your troll deck to no avail. They didn't even take a single one of your Dracozolts down! LOL

[@thomasaquinas601]

This is Stunfisk, with 30 more HP, and one less energy requirement. Beautiful! Why not include Big Charm?

[@loganhonts5715]

Eviolite effects build up over multiple hits for more survival potential, but if it's more of a one shot protection, extra hp is better

[@homermalaluan8680]

I fought this kind of deck with my Urshifu rapid strike. It was amazing. But I can easily avoid the 120 dmge.

[@dimitriskontoleon6787]

Bro how many heals on last game! Pfff

[@Tjomsasen]

For those of us who missed you streaming this (sadface): which matchups were bad for this deck?

[@coltoncollects290]

Nice Video! 👍

[@AceSpec]

You make me spend too much money..... good thing these guys are pretty cheap. Awesome budget deck.

[@sunnybrodelightschannel1207]

For real! Same here 🤑🤣

[@moreparmesan5261]

I want to know why the hell that ice rider player didn't go for the knock out on that first game??? That makes no sense at all.

[@drewhjava]

Not dropping the path to the peak in the leafeon match was triggering me. I guess you just wanted to win stadium wars?

[@cjtseng7193]

i wish all dracozolt player matched with urshifu or any fighting deck all day everyday.

[@Aaa-wf6cg]

this deck makes rapidash v look like a s tier card

[@owopest4166]

Ima be hated but ima build this irl

[@Tracer_Sweat]

"Mostly skill" now hold up...is it though? if you have 2 players, say best in the entire world, both have won worlds, if you put them up against each other with the same exact deck, how much of it is skill? how much is luck? or if that was the case could it even come down to who got to go first?

[@on1yslightly215]

the 90/10 on skill is a reach, most TCG's are more luck than players let on, and Pokemon is by far the one with the most luck needed.

[@ilovetivo]

Insane video Mahone

[@itskudah]

id say almost 99% skill 1% "luck" and luck is more just probability. then understanding those odds is also a skill.

[@Rakor96ns]

And 100% reason to remember the name

[@marekplata3691]

This is a copycat of my gallarian Stunfisk deck, which i named “one man army”. same principle, full of pokemon center ladies and potions and rocky guard. i also use 4 IndeedesV to heal from the bench. nice to see a stndard format version of it put into use…

[@stevenrhodes8338]

As a magic player Pokémon seems the most consistent bc one game of magic like he said you can flood when you don’t need to and vise verses also imagine drawing a hand disruption spell late game top decking that’s poo

[@gustavocastro115]

My suicine deck hates this deck! Hits for weakness and also this deck doesn’t even bench… 😃

[@DagDog97]

this is so troll xD ;-;

[@takenname8053]

feels weird being early

[@Tavagaveule]

This deck is ILLEGAL, there is no counter play i hate it ! It's a coinflip when u start the game.

[@Tavagaveule]

@@macadamia12 nobody plays big parasol in the meta. And if we do, dracozolt will play more tools scrappers.

[@nicholasblutreich9544]

I come from semi pro yugioh. Thou think the RNG in Pokémon is bad try playing a tcg without a mulligan and where all the consistent draw power is limited or banned.

[@nicholasblutreich9544]

The amount of draw power in this game is insane to me

[@jesuscamou602]

bad game design is bad game design

[@GODsSPECTRE]

Meh... dracozolt is rubbish compacted to shadow rider. Just don't attack until you have enough energy on to take a 1 hit ko. Or like me play the mewtwo v union and just drop damage counters. Mewtwo's ability prevents effects of attacks so yea. Dracozolt is dead to me.

[@HaiderAli-mq1rs]

Neither of those deck is seeing too much play, especially Mewtwo V-Union. Plus every deck has bad match ups, personally I think Dracozolt has pretty decent match ups against alot of the good decks rn excluding the Urshifu VMAXs

[@GODsSPECTRE]

@@HaiderAli-mq1rs i have zapdos to counter darkness types and play 3 professor Burnet and 2 cramarant to search them early. Shadow rider is really only there to accelerate energy but can attack if needed. V-Unions are underrated i think because no one has really figured out the best way to get them into play in 3 turns. By turn 3 you need to be attacking and hitting big numbers or you risk loosing already.

[@HaiderAli-mq1rs]

I wasn't implying your deck is not good, just that it isn't played enough, so a Dracozolt player would be fine taking an L against you and in favour of the other good match ups it has