Which Theme Deck is best?

[WaffleLycanroc]

I have been wondering which one is the best, I have tested some of them and I have to say Blazing Volcano is really good as well as Storm Caller and other new theme decks.

[GR0]

Blazing Volcano yeah. Relentless Flame would be 2nd best, but since it's also a Fire deck, I'd say Imperial Command and Hydro Fury are better for that reason since they deal double damage to Fire decks (with Torrential Cannon being the 3d best Water deck). And Water decks could possibly grow further in power since 1 of the next Theme Decks is a Psychic/FIRE deck (Mewtwo as cover card, but that doesn't have to mean Psychic is the main type: it's a Supporter-support Pokemon and the next set will introduce Welder as well as have Kiawe return).

Edited March 7, 2019 by GR0

[Lalamon]

GR0 is right.

 

Blazing Volcano is best. Relentless Flame is second. But water decks revived because hit for weakness to fire. Imperial Command is best counter and Torrential Cannon the second for me.

 

Is almost the same of above message but I think very close

 

Storm caller have advantage to not having weakness to main tier one types and hits double to Empoleon from Imperial Command.

[Otakutron]

Blazing Volcano seems to be the overall best Theme Deck right now.  It as multiple solid opening options and can still function adequately with an incomplete setup.  Its only real weakness is... well... its [W] Weakness.  All but three Pokémon in it are [W] Weak, and while two of those are [G] Types, one of the three Weaknesses you're likely to see on [W] Types, only one of them can attack for damage and that one (Heracross) requires you have a Stage 2 in play to really be effective.

 

I'm either more or less generous than the others who have commented, depending on how you look at it.  There is no "next best deck" to me, because several are so close I consider them tied.  Relentless Flame and Torrential Cannon are the two newest ones, but they share the same flaws

• dual Stage 2 lines trying to work on a Theme deck's "budget"
• "Main" Pokémon damages itself just enough to matter
• Relies too much on the secondary Stage 2 line for consistency
• No Guzma

Torrential Cannon suffers from the Pidgeot line being pretty bad, except for Pidgeotto.  Golduck isn't bad, it just isn't all that good.  Nidoqueen is good but doesn't provide enough of a consistency boost until you actually reach Nidoqueen herself, and as an attacker she does need at least two other Evolutions on your Bench so she can do decent damage.  Rapidash is like Golduck; not bad but not really good, either.  Relentless Flame would be better if exploiting [W] Weakness wasn't so effective right now; Charizard itself is just a really great attacker.

 

Storm Caller is that deck that when it works, it works; a sick Paralysis-based lock with either Bench damage or strong attackers.  It just doens't work reliably enough to be as good as Blazing Volcano... but until we get another, strong [F] Type Theme Deck, it'll remain about as good as the others I'm going to mention.  Hydro Fury and Leaf Charge just a tiny bit worse than Storm Caller but saved by Type-matching.  Storm Caller can punish some [W] Pokémon, but Leaf Charge nails two out of the three major Weaknesses and doesn't fear the Naganadel.  When Leaf Fury is working (and you're not dealing with the one Ultra Beast currently in a Theme Deck), Sceptile is great because it can be an expendable attacker; hit hard for one Energy, Sceptile gets KO'd sooner or later, but all the Energy you had attached to everything else is still there, ready to fuel the next Sceptile or the actual Pokémon to which it is attached!  Hydro Fury, once setup, has bonus search and draw effects that combo well together.  What it does not have is a truly strong, reliable attacker other than Marshtomp.  There are others, but they're expensive or conditional.  I also have found that it is less reliable in spite of having so much that should make it reliable. @_@

 

Tropical Takedown is, in many ways, a "lesser" version of Blazing Volcano.  I am speaking in the broadest terms though; what I mean is that there are many decent alternate openers and attackers for this deck.  They just are not as good as what Blazing Volcano has, so the deck isn't as reliable about setting up.  It does have more Types of attackers, helping it with Type matching, and once you've set it up the Alolan Exeggutor is a dream.  Power creep would have left it behind if not for these factors, I think.  Which is what happened to Twilight Rogue; I sometimes use it to try to grind out challenges, and while exploiting [F] and [P] should make it awesome, the deck just bricks too often.  Not a problem against most older Theme Decks, but any of the ones I've already mentioned?  Even Storm Caller is likely a bad matchup for it. @_@

 

Mach Strike still has some chops because of Gible and Gabite having Ascension.  Other cards still matter, of course, like Lucario and Cynthia and Gumshoos, but if you open with a Gible and your opponent can't bring the heat fast enough, Garchomp should take a solid lead before it falls... and that assumes it can't snipe Evolving Basics on your opponent's Bench to just control the game.  Imperial Command is the all-around [W] deck.  It should not be as reliable as the later ones, but in my experience, somehow seems to be (more a knock on them than an accomplishment on its part).  It only has one really great attacker, but it has two decent backups.  It doesn't have as many good openers as I'd like, but it has more than one.  While pure [W], it has some attackers that are [G] Weak, some that are [L] Weak,and some that are [M] Weak; mostly [G] Weak, though.

 

Anything older just can't seem to hang, and the only reason Mach Strike and Imperial Command are still viable are the specific tricks of either deck... including the lack of a modern, SM-era [Y] Theme deck to make Garchomp sweat its Weakness (like the other Stater decks), and the fact that Relentless Flame and Blazing Volcano make hitting [W] Weakness so valuable for Imperial Command... plus how Hydro Fury and Tropical Takedown just aren't as good at exploiting the Weakness themselves as most of us would like.  If the next two to four Theme Decks are good enough, most of these "runner-ups" might fall short, whether they're currently brand new or looking long in the tooth.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Otakutron

[OfficerShane]

In no particular order:

 

Tropical Takedown -- (played correctly - will decimate any opponent or deck, unless they are expecting it, 9 of 10 wins in a row in theme) 

Blazing Volcano

Relentless Flame

Hidden Moon

Mach Strike

Imperial Command

Torrential Cannon

Sky Guardian

Stone Heart (played correctly)

Night Striker

Hydro Fury

Green Tornado

Forest Shadow

Battle Ruler

Clanging Thunder

Earth's Pulse

Destruction Rush

Destruction Fang

Aurora Blast

Wave Slasher

Swift Current (dare I say)

Midnight Surfer (again, dare I say)

 

Basically, it has been my experience, that most theme style decks are equal. It is not a matter of a better deck but a better player who understands his deck. People will all suggest that one deck they win the most with as the best, but it may be terrible for you because you don't understand or see the underlying strategy placed within that deck. Ergo, my best suggestion is decide what type of deck is your favorite then click the view (eyeball) icon and read through the decks that are the Pokemon type you want. When you see that one that gives you that "Ah-HA!" moment, that is probably the best deck for you... 

That is my best advice on this question... Come with something no one uses or is expecting and develop your own strategy with that deck, not the one with 1 million views on the Tube or Goo's top search hit. 

 

Sure they can grab a Charizard deck and punch themselves for energy, but I will eat it alive all day! I will block their evolutions, return their Charizards to their decks, or instant KO their already damaged Pokemon, and pick off all the low/no energy Pokemon supporters they left behind. I will lay traps for them to fall into and rip their basic strategy to pieces. 

 

Learn to play the deck not rely on cards... 

Edited March 8, 2019 by OfficerShane

[OfficerShane]

Glancing over previous responses I'll say this:

 

Otakutron makes some great points BTW... 

In terms of expensive... I dunno, it's been my experience that you can get 500 tokens to purchase whatever deck you want in a few hours easily. (I only have 5 left to buy, all HG-SS)

Just enter expanded or unlimited versus matches with any deck (I've used decks that were designed for a loss just to stall and get evolutions in play for challenges) and you will likely get 9 out of 10 people concede on the first turn of play boosting you through the VS ladder extremely fast. Until the mods can get a handle on this, it's there for the taking. This will work until about halfway through the 2nd tier and will net you a GX card, a booster, and a few chests in the process. After that, you'll start encountering actual players, that will actually play against you. I wouldn't stop until you start getting 3-4 losses in a row regularly. Then you've hit the wall that this works on. By then you should have at least 400-600 P-Tokens. Don't forget to grab your daily login prize, and also do your trainer challenges under the Level # tab on the top bar of the screen there. 

Just my honest opinion. 

[WaffleLycanroc]

Thanks, Everyone!

Edited March 9, 2019 by WaffleLycanroc