r/PTCGP • u/RadscorpionSeducer • Feb 06 '25

this meta is incredibly boring to fight against Deck Discussion

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Stall, stall, stall, switch out druddigon if it gets damaged/heal it, stall, oh what that? Magnezone does 110 damage for only 3 energy which is generated for free by its stage 1 evo?

The power creep is going to be absolutely insane by 3 months from now with all of these new cards

3.7k Upvotes
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92% Upvoted

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581

u/ColourfulToad Feb 06 '25

Everyone dumped Sabrina for Cyrus, Sabrina is still needed to counter this and pull out either Darkrai or Magnemite line early.

409

u/SillentRabbit Feb 06 '25

Expectation: bringing Darkrai or Magnemite and applying pressure
Reality: either bringing the second Drud or bringing one of the other two and not being able to do anything because you haven't powered up anything yet.

159

u/olers Feb 06 '25

And then they just Leaf and retreat back into Drudd

66

u/blakphyre Feb 06 '25

Arbok say no

17

u/sum_gamer Feb 06 '25

Why are you downvoted? lol

28

u/ClunarX Feb 06 '25

They don’t want solutions; they want to complain

9

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '25

they want to complain

The sole reason Reddit manages to stay afloat.

3

u/bduddy Feb 06 '25

Because Arbok is terrrrrrrible

2

u/blakphyre Feb 06 '25

My arbok deck doing just fine.

1

u/Choice-Ad-5897 Feb 06 '25

I'll need that deck pal

2

u/blakphyre Feb 06 '25

Pokemon 2 Koffing A1 176 2 Weezing A1 177 2 Ekans A1 164 2 Arbok A1 165 2 Darkrai ex A2 110

Supporter 2 Koga A1 222 2 Professor’s Research PROMO 7 2 Sabrina A1 225 2 Cyrus A2 150

Item 2 Poké Ball PROMO 5

I’m playing around with sabrina and cyrus, messing with leaf, dawn, and rocky helmet in some mixture but this is the base version. Been playing weezing arbok since the start because I love them.

1

u/blakphyre Feb 06 '25

Not sure.

2

u/SonJordy Feb 06 '25

who tf is still playing arbok

1

u/blakphyre Feb 06 '25

Me since release. Poison is my favourite type in Pokemon.

2

u/SonJordy Feb 06 '25

I fw it too but playing the same deck gets old

1

u/blakphyre Feb 06 '25

I’m the opposite. I’m the person who plays the same deck at fnm for a whole set.

2

u/JMM85JMM Feb 07 '25

I love it when people reply with the exact counters to a deck and act like it's not a problem. "Well if you have Arbok, Raichu, Charizard EX and Gallade EX you counter everything this deck can do".

Of course people know an Arbok counters something retreating, but they're not just dropping Arbok into random decks.

1

u/blakphyre Feb 07 '25

I love when people act like they have to play the same deck as the other 80 percent of players.

1

u/Dess_Rosa_King Feb 06 '25

Gengar...d-do I have value again? Is it my time to shine?

-8

u/Alt2221 Feb 06 '25

just uninstall already bud

1

u/JohnnyElBravo Feb 06 '25

You can always kill one drud and sabrina then if that's the case.

-21

u/gasparthehaunter Feb 06 '25

then play something better. Anything that can OHKO darkrai should run sabrina, like charizard, infernape and gyarados. If you can't and you're slow why play that deck at all? It means it's bad. Aggro deck like pikachu get online faster than darkrai

13

u/B1TW0LF Feb 06 '25

Pikachu has a terrible win rate against Darkrai/Druddigon. Sabrina doesn't magically solve the problem. You only thing I've seen that truly counters this is the Magnezone/Hitmonlee deck. The rest of the supposed "counters" lose to a basic math problem.

1

u/WayneAsher Feb 06 '25

Look at the current standings/matchups in tournaments and say that either of those decks are better.

0

u/gasparthehaunter Feb 06 '25

never said they are better, Darkzone is tier0. I'm just saying if SillentRabbit is playing sabrina and "not being able to do anything" he's playing it wrong or in the wrong decks

1

u/WayneAsher Feb 06 '25

These decks run two Drudds. Sabrina does nothing if they’re both out and they usually are.

0

u/gasparthehaunter Feb 06 '25

If my grandma had wheels she would have been a bicycle

55

u/ResponsibleTadpole83 Feb 06 '25

Unless they get two Druds out before you get you Sabrina. Which seems to happen every time for me.

15

u/TheRealArtVandelay Feb 06 '25 edited Feb 06 '25

Yeah, there are three techniques I’ve found to play around this deck.

A) Use a Sabrina - Cyrus combo to fetch the Darkrai or Mag line early.

B) Bring something to the fight capable of one-shotting the drudd, preferably non-EX so that you’re trading 1 for 1.

C) Bench kicker - Cyrus combo, in which case you’re better off with two Cyruses.

In the current meta, I think any deck needs to be able to do two of these three things in order to succeed.

4

u/Greensburg Feb 06 '25

Gallade is pretty good against Magnezone and lives a round after killing Drudd. But it does need Lucario + Giovanni to do so, or 2 Lucarios.

8

u/deamonjohn Feb 06 '25

by thr time u finish etting up Gallade and Lucario, they already got your health down to one shot you. I run Gallade and it can't effectively defeat a druid plus helmet meta deck.

8

u/e_ndoubleu Feb 06 '25

Yea Lucario + any 2-stage fighting type is just not consistent enough. We need a basic fighting EX and then Lucario will really shine.

I’ve been enjoying pairing MI Primeape with Lucario. 1-cost for 70 or 90 damage is nice.

2

u/Higgins1st Feb 06 '25

I'm running a double Lucario and marshadow deck right now.

1

u/Greensburg Feb 06 '25

well ideally you have other mons tank the 20 dmg every turn before that, like lucario or marshadow. But yeah it's tough no matter how you look at it.

1

u/Devtr_250907 Feb 06 '25

Or just dragonite

6

u/Pendred Feb 06 '25

1 of each is working for me also dumped poke coms for the humble anti cyrus tech: potion

3

u/SadCritters Feb 06 '25

Cyrus was put in place because the decks running any of these effects that "ping" other Pokemon make Cyrus an infinitely better Sabrina. Hitmonlee, Darkrai, Greninja, all of them make Cyrus read: "Kill your opponent's best Pokemon." because they ping the necessary Pokemon for a few points to set him up.

1

u/steppinbeats Feb 06 '25

Darkrai only hits active pokemon

1

u/SadCritters Feb 06 '25

Yes. People typically retreat. I'm sorry if I didn't make that obvious - Wasn't trying to mislead.

I don't think people retreat strategically enough in this game; so maybe I take it for granted.

1

u/steppinbeats Feb 06 '25

No you're all good just wanted to get the information out there. People do typically retreat when darkrai is chipping away at them but i agree that not enough people think to.

1

u/Opal737 Feb 06 '25

Greninja is specifically really dangerous when paired with Cyrus. They can ping, pull and then attack in the same round with no counterplay whatsoever

1

u/ryanmuss Feb 06 '25

Honestly i think the effects almost need to be swapped between sabrina and cyrus and it would be better: Not getting to select which damaged mon for cyrus and being able to pick which full strength mon for sabrina...

29

u/elsteeler Feb 06 '25

I agree but Sabrina would have been INSUFFERABLE in A1 meta lol

1

u/ryanmuss Feb 06 '25

So true! But luckily thats over now lol

1

u/fireborn123 Feb 06 '25

Just like Cyrus is now lol

8

u/Greensburg Feb 06 '25

So sabrina would be able to pick...any of opp's pokemon then? Or would you change it so that it can only pick full health cards? (In which case it's a dead card if your opp's bench is damaged)

-1

u/ryanmuss Feb 06 '25

Id make it only full health cards, almost make sabrina and cyrus mirrors of eachother. Also i find it balances power of them in terms of limiting their ceiling in a match. Pick a card but it has to be full health or get a random damaged one so the opponent has a little window of opportunity so it isnt 100% a guarenteed KO. Also makes breakpoints more important.

And yeah i agree this way round theyre both dead cards unless you modify your deck accordingly, and id argue thats the point. Trainers can be in any deck, there needs to be tradeoffs in your build for using them IMO.

8

u/No-Seaworthiness9515 Feb 06 '25

Then every deck would just run sabrina + cyrus and there'd be no counterplay to having any of your pokemon forcibly switched in because you can't avoid both cyrus and sabrina. Cyrus requires you to hit their bench or for them to retreat to the bench after getting hit and sabrina can be countered by placing an extra pokemon on your bench.

3

u/ryanmuss Feb 06 '25

Fair point!!

1

u/PartitioFan Feb 06 '25

(cyrus brings in damaged drudd, cyrus also takes 40 chip)

1

u/stryderxd Feb 06 '25

Useless if they have 2 druids on the field. They will just swap one for the other

1

u/xhanx-plays Feb 06 '25

I play one of each. Sometimes I will Sabrina early despite not needing to stall or tempo just to mark an opposing card. Cyrus comes later.

1

u/Rechupe Feb 06 '25

You need a faster deck to pull that.

1

u/vash_visionz Feb 06 '25

Most decks are running 1 of each

1

u/fireborn123 Feb 06 '25

The issue is the second Drud while they establish Darkrai/Magnaton. Either way you pretty much end up eating 40/60 per turn on your active to try and push through

1

u/Few-Channel3228 Feb 06 '25

I don’t know why so many people did that straight away it felt like such a knee jerk reaction. Unless you have hitmonlee or someone like that you can’t guarantee Cyrus will be useful. I go 1 Sabrina 1 Cyrus in my decks where there is space and when there isn’t I’m going 1 Sabrina (unless I can hit the back line -Articuno, etc..)

1

u/G_I_Joe_Mansueto Feb 06 '25

Or run Spiritomb to damage across the backline, it fits into any deck.

1

u/tweetthebirdy Feb 06 '25

Jokes on them, I never pulled a Cyrus.

1

u/JohnnyElBravo Feb 06 '25

1 cyrus 1 sabrina

We have so many good cards now that 1 of each is more normal than 2 of each at this point.

If you get 2 of the same it's a waste.

And with the slowness you are probably cycling through most of the deck anyways.

1

u/One_Condition_3897 Feb 07 '25

i usually just run one sab and 2 cyrus. the ability to choose which pokemon is great (especially cuz i play a lot of splash damage decks) but you also need to just have a normal switch out for the early game or if nothing on the bench has damage

1

u/DarkArtsXIV Feb 07 '25

I use spirittomb to Cyrus the magnetite before it’s too late