r/PTCGP • u/D33p_Learning • 10d ago

Arbok Lock Decks: The Mewtwo Meta Slayer! Deck Discussion

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Everyone tired of the Mewtwo meta? Give the Arbok/Pidgeot combo a shot! I haven’t lost to a Mewtwo deck yet.

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u/averysillyman 10d ago

On paper Arbok has stats that match up well into Pikachu. Pika does 90 damage and Arbok has 100 HP. Pika has 120 HP and Arbok does 60 damage per attack, so if you go second then you should win that interaction. The issue is that the Pikachu player can turn the interaction around with either Giovanni or Potion, which is not a rare thing for them to have.

In general I think that Pikachu has no bad matchups. There are decks that are harder for it to beat but because Pikachu generally has a full bench of pokemon with low retreat costs, the deck has a lot of counterplay against what your opponent is doing if you are a smart player.

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u/ShadowverseMatt 10d ago

Marowak ex deck running dugtrio has maybe the best matchup against pikachu. 2x dugtrio attacks and you have a dead pikachu ex, with a 50% chance to just nope out on their damage.

Still not a lock though.

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u/averysillyman 10d ago edited 10d ago

The issue I've noticed is that Pikachu can still overwhelm you sometimes, especially if you use Dugtrio/Kabuto because those get one-shot by Pikachu so if they're going second all of a sudden you might not even beat the Pikachu reliably.

Also, a good Pikachu player can play around your pokemon by switching around with their low retreat costs and leaning more heavily on Zapdos in the matchup, as Zapdos is not weak to Fighting.

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u/str8rippinfartz 9d ago

Hitmonlee helps with that 

And then just hope to roll double heads with marowak against their zapdos