The New Control

This deck relies on using Boss’s Orders (Rebel Clash) to drag up one of your opponents heavier Retreaters and keep it in the Active Spot for the rest of the game. While that sounds easy enough to get around, the deck runs plenty of disruption, and can even add to your Retreat Cost. How might it add to the Retreat Cost? This deck runs Absol (Team Up) and Galar Mine (Rebel Clash) to add up that Retreat Cost. Now you might be thinking of a few strategies, but this Control deck is reactive and well equipped with answers...

Well, this deck will use Boss’s Orders over and over because it can eventually get it back with Cynthia & Caitlyn (Cosmic Eclipse), Pal Pad (Sword and Shield), and Munchlax (Unified Minds) to keep on bringing up that Pokémon. This deck also can use Allan Muk (Team Up) and Scoop Up Net (Rebel Clash) to continuously try and mill your deck of Switch. This also helps with the eventual end goal of running your opponent out of resources and decking them out. If you have an Air Balloon (Sword and Shield) this deck also runs Tool Scrapper (Rebel Clash) to take that away too!

That’s a great question, but I gotchu there too! This deck can use Mawile-GX (Unified Minds) to bring heavy Retreaters out of your hand. You might be one step ahead and try to keep Pokémon out of your hand by discarding them, but this deck can also add Pokémon back to your hand by using the often undervalued Surprise Box (Unbroken Bonds). Even if they already used Mawile-GX, they can still use Giovanni’s Exile (Hidden Fates) to discard their Mawile-GX, and get it back with Ordinary Rod (Sword and Shield).

This is another solid answer, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that this deck doesn’t have answers to that either. Between Crushing Hammer (Sword and Shield) and Wondrous Labyrinth (Team Up), this deck can rip your Energy off your Active in a pinch. Koga’s Trap (Hidden Fates) is also an answer because you can Poison and Confuse your opponents Active Pokémon. This can slow down their attacks and it can even draw you Prize Cards from Poison eventually. Giratina (Unified Minds) in combination with Scoop Up Net is another way around Energy if your opponent plays Special Energy.

This is an excellent last question! This deck plays Aipom (Promo) which can Yank Out by discarding random cards from your opponent’s hand until they have 5 cards in their hand. They can also play Reset Stamp (Unified Minds) to always shuffle your hand back in your deck if Aipom isn’t a viable option.

Overall, your setup each game is based around using Snorlax (Vivid Voltage) to draw cards with Gormandize and to wall out Knock Outs with Lillie’s Poké Doll (Cosmic Eclipse) so that you can stall your opponent from drawing Prize Cards. This will give you time to get your game plan in place to continuously get a Pokémon that you want in your opponents Active Spot. The goal is to then start reacting to each of your opponents plays by discarding their Energy, gusting up their heavy Retreaters, and taking away their resources. The main goal is to trap something in the Active Spot and eventually win! Use all of your recovery cards to bring back valuable resources that will help you win with your tailored game plan for each match. If any of your Pokémon were Knocked Out, don’t forget that Oricorio-GX (Cosmic Eclipse) is always a consistency crutch that can gather you back cards. Once you are in a dominant position, keep on gather back resources to keep that position until you win the game or your opponent concedes when they run out of all options. Do keep in mind that this deck takes more time than most decks so make sure that you are making your decisions at a brisk pace to allow for more turns in the game.