Teching for your meta can and will help you in the long run, as being able to counter your opponents deck and turn its weakness to your advantage is great. Right now in the Pokemon meta there are 5 big decks and several decks that sit on the edge of what we like to call tier 1. These decks are CaKE, Durant,Eelzone, ZPST, and Chandelure/Vileplume. Sometimes teching for these decks is easy sometimes not so much so here are a few good counters to your meta.
Donphan (Prime) – Fighting – 120 HP
Stage 1 Evolution – Evolves from Phanpy
Poke-Body: Hard Body
Damage done to this Pokemon by attacks is reduced by 20.
[F] Earthquake: 60 damage. Does 10 damage to each of your Benched Pokemon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance when doing damage to the Bench.)
[F][F][F] Heavy Impact: 90 damage.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: Lightning (-20)
Retreat: 4
First up is Donphan, this card is a great counter to ZPST, and Eelzone. Being able to hit the decks big attackers for 120 damage for only 1 energy while they struggle to kill you because of your pokebody and lightning resistance. Eelzone can potentially tech in Cryogonal from the noble victories set and use its Ice Shard attack on you. However, since, Donphan hasnt really seen that much play time recently the chances of this are slim.
Scrafty – Darkness – HP90
Stage 1 – Evolves from Scraggy
[D] Spit Acid: 20 damage. The opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Burned. Flip a coin, if heads, the opponent’s Active Pokemon is also now Paralyzed.
[D][D][C] Hi Jump Kick: 70 damage.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: 1
Next up on the list is Scrafty, a cvard that I recently came into notice of myself. Chandelure is weak to Dark and while under a trainer lock Scrafty can sit and dismantle your opponents Chandelures with its first attack. by Paralyzing your opponents Chandelures your prevent them from retreating and trainer cards cannot be used under trainer lock. you could even tech this into your own chandelure deck as a way to keep a heavy retreat cost pokemon like Terrakion, and Magnezone Prime active with no way to retreat and then use your chandelure to spread damage longer. Obviously it needs some energy investment to hit hard but thats not what its there for.
Zoroark – Darkness – HP100
Stage 1 Evolution – Evolves from Zorua
[D] Nasty Plot: Choose any 1 card from your deck and put it in your hand. Shuffle your deck afterward.
[C][C] Foul Play: Choose 1 of your opponent’s Active Pokemon’s attacks, and use it as this attack.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: 1
When Black&White were first released this card was very hyped for its ability to one shot the Zekrom and Reshiram with a Plus Power for 1 Double Colorless Energy. While it still serves that purpose it now can also slow down CaKE, by using Foul Play on your opponents Cobalion you can deny them the chance to attack. This will either force them to retreat for that Kyurem which cannot kill you in one turn and will allow you to use Glaciate as well, or into another Cobalion which will just allow you to use the same tactic.
Absol (Prime) – Darkness – HP80
Basic Pokemon
Poke-Body: Eye of Disaster
As long as this Pokemon is your Active Pokemon, whenever your opponent plays a Basic Pokemon from his or her hand onto the Bench, place 2 damage counters on that Pokemon.
[D][C] Bloody Claw: 70 damage. Place 1 Pokemon card from your hand in the Lost Zone. If you can’t place a Pokemon card in your Lost Zone, this attack fails.
Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: 1
Durant decks are popping up all over the place and this Pokemon is the exterminator so to speak. Starting Absol against the Druant match is amazing cause when your opponent places those Durant's down they each take 2 Damage Counters. Cahndelure decks tech this in to make durant easier to kill as trainer lock will keep your opponent from using Revive to keep bringing them back.
The last Card I wanna look at is a card that is both meta and anti-meta, I am talking of course about Vileplume.
Vileplume – Grass – HP 120
Stage 2 – Evolves from Gloom
Poke-Body: Allergy Flower
Neither player can play any Goods cards from his or her hand.
[G][G][C] Dazzle Pollen: 50 damage. Flip a coin, if heads this attack does an additional 20 damage. If tails, the opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Confused.
Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
This is by far one of the most broken cards in the game right now and has been apart of so many good decks(Vilegar,The Truth,Chandelure/Vileplume). So many decks in this game rely on trainers to set up and press thier advantage. Vileplume shuts all that down with ease and then lets you take care of winning the game. I myself have been in games where i seem to be in control then Vileplume hits the field and just like that I lose. Dodrios rise in play has made it so you cant even use a attack to make Vileplume active to KO next turn, making one of the most broken cards even more amazing.
These are just a few of the techs you can use to secure a good chance of winning in this game. The joy of Pokemon is with the variety of decks that are played there is so much tech out there so take time playtest and see what feels right to you.
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