Hi there, my name is Louis and I have been playing the Pokemon Trading Card Game for the past four years. Today I’m here to talk about what I consider to be the top deck of our current standard format as of December 2015. As some of you may know, the expanded format being played overseas will not be part of our premier organised play events so we can disregard that format in New Zealand. In my opinion, the best deck right now in the standard format is Night March. These little Night Marchers, Joltik and Pumpkaboo may only have 30 and 60 HP respectively but their ability to KO any Pokemon with a single attack reminisces the old Black Kyurem EX/Keldeo EX/Blastoise deck of the 2013 and 2014 format. The difference is that this deck can set up on the very first turn and doesn’t require the world’s promo Tropical Beach which at the time was $200NZD each!
The Night Marchers hit for 20 times the number of Pokemon with the attack Night March in the discard pile. There are three Pokemon with the attack Night March, but only the two basics are used to attack. Joltik’s attack requirement is two colourless, while Pumpkaboo needs three colourless to attack. With a Double Colourless Energy, both Joltik and Pumpkaboo (with the stadium Dimensional Valley) can use the Night March attack which is a very low attack cost compared to other decks in the format. The Night Marchers can easily be put into the discard pile through cards such as Battle Compressor, Acro Bike, Ultra Ball and Professor Sycamore. With Shaymin EX from Roaring Skies, it’s likely that you will see multiple of these cards and go through most of your deck turn one allowing you to attack for 180 to knock out an EX Pokemon with your first attack.
My current list looks a little something like this:
The things that might stand out the most to you is the 1-1 line of Milotic from Primal Clash and also the fact that I only play four Double Colourless Energy as my choice of energies. Both these two decisions go hand in hand. With the loss of Mew EX, basic energies do not do much for us anymore. Attaching a basic energy to one of your Night Marchers is essentially a missed energy attachment for the turn in my opinion. Basic energies also clog up your hand when you want to use Shaymin EX’s Set Up ability. Due to this, I felt that only four Double Colourless Energies were necessary for the deck. The inclusion of the 1-1 Milotic line is to allow me to play a fifth DCE. Milotic’s ability Sparkling Ripples allows you to add a card from your discard pile into your hand. Most of the time you will be using it to get yourself a Double Colourless Energy, but at times it may be for a key card in your discard that could help you win the game like Lysandre or Muscle Band. The rest of the deck is pretty much the standard and the norm for a Night March deck.
The deck’s ability to knockout pretty much every single Pokemon with a single attack is the reason why I think this is the deck to beat right now. The consistency and speed of this deck is unrivalled in the standard format. Try it out for yourself and let me know what you guys think.
Until next time,
Louis.
Article written and submitted by 2-time New Zealand national champion Louis Chi. All opinions expressed are simply opinions and may not represent the views of Card Merchant staff. For further information, feel free to contact Card Merchant staff.
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