Eggs In a Basket
I absolutely hate the win streak events. I don’t really get FOMO, and I don’t care about cosmetics–I don’t even use emblems. But something about competing in an event just worms its way into my brain and I can’t rest until I finish it. Part of it is the because I’m very hard on myself when I lose. I don’t really like competing in TCG tournaments for that same reason. The second half is that, unlike a tournament where once you’re out you can go lick your wounds until the next one, this event allows you to re-queue right away so I end up grinding until I get it done.
I’ll have to keep working at it so I can, well at least tolerate if not have fun, but for now I’m very glad I manged to clear this one in a day instead of the few days it took me last time. Here’s some tips that will hopefully help you get through this nonsense.
Headspace
First off, it’s really easy to get bummed out by this event. Honestly, if I wasn’t so stubborn I wouldn’t even try. With that in mind, it’s arguably more important to get in the right headspace prior to going for a streak than it is to play the right deck or make the right plays. I’m not quite there yet (obviously), but here is where I’m trying to get mentally.
Accept Variance
I’m not a statistician, so bear with me here.
Variance is a statistics term that refers to the distribution of probable events, but you can also think of it like luck. Card games are fun in large part because of variance, after all the skill you develop is making the best use of the resources you have (ie. the cards you draw), not all the resources available to you (ie. the cards in your deck). But when variance is too high, it starts to feel like your decisions don’t matter and that, in my opinion, just sucks the fun out of the game.
Best of 1 games have a high variance. If you get bad draws or terrible coin flips, that’s it you lose the game and your streak. Even if that is unlikely, since it needs to happen only once to ruin your run, the variance of getting 5 games in a row where you don’t experience a run-ruining event is wide. This is why I think these events would be more enjoyable if they allowed some amount of losses before ending your run. I found 5 success before 3 failures to be a sweet spot in 4e D&D skill challenges, so I’d probably try that first. Of course, this means players wouldn’t play as much which is the whole point of the event so I’m not sure the Pokemon company would go for it.
Before starting the event, accept that you are going to lose some runs to random bullshit. What you want to do going in is maximize your chance of winning by: (1) playing a deck that has pretty even matchups and (2) minimize your miss-plays. When you focus too much on those unlucky games, there’s a chance you might get tilted, and at that point you’re going to start losing games due to poor play anyways. Take a break if this happens.
Besides being “zen” about losses, or whatever, one thing I always do with this event is fish for my first win. If a game even looks like I might lose it, I just conceded and move on. A random player gets a free win, which is nice for them, but it also means I don’t have to expend any energy on that first win, I can just focus on the next four.
Take Breaks
This leads to the next big point–energy. Like, you’re physical and mental energy not the game mechanic. Card games take a toll on you, it’s a fair amount of thinking trying to see one to two moves ahead. When you’re tired, you’re more likely to make mistakes and ruin your run. There’s no time limit or penalty for stopping, so take as many as you need.
This event is irrelevant
The emblem is a stupid cosmetic that, frankly, looks lame. Like a badge announcing to everyone you’re a huge try-hard. That’s why I don’t use any emblems. The quests, which give actually useful rewards…and shine dust, don’t care about your streak. The only thing I think is worth doing for everyone is going in and getting 10 wins. That’s 2 booster packs worth of hourglasses, which is pretty sweet.
I’m a huge try-hard
Shocker coming from the guy writing a Pokemon Pocket post, but I get really into this competitive nerdity. I started with a Fire/Water deck that is basically the Bull Frog deck that Jeff showcased about a month ago, except it used Flareon as its main attacker instead of Tauros. This deck wasn’t my idea, but I don’t remember where I saw it. Probably on one of Jeff’s weekly reviews.
UR Control
Pokemon (x12)
Trainers (x8)
This deck is really fun, but it’s not super consistent. I would often find myself missing one of my evolutions which would cost me the game. I’m going to continue to play this deck in both normal queues and in NOEX, but I got frustrated with it after going 4-1 a few times.
I tried again with this Pikachu ex net deck. It uses Galvantula to help in the Metwo match up and did pretty well! I went 4-1 with it once, before burning out on the play style.
At this point, I guess I decided that since I wasn’t stressed and anxious enough already, I’d just build a deck specifically for this event based on the decks I had seen so far. Building decks has always been my favorite part of collectible card games, but as I’ve gotten older I haven’t had the time to make anything except clunky, untuned piles of cards. Doing this during my least favorite event was probably not the best or most original idea, and the deck I built might not actually be any good, but it seems to have worked out.
Pain Points
The first thing I did was try to figure out what I was bothering me about the decks I had played. The biggest thing was feeling like I lost as soon as I got heads on the initial coin flip. Like I talked about before, Tempo is huge in this game and for the decks we can make right now being one energy behind can mean you never really had a chance. In my opinion the only two cards that can make going first not feel like the end of the world are Misty and Exeggutor ex. I had hoped to play a Starmie ex/Lumineon deck, but I only have a single Starmie ex. This mean I’d have to build a deck around Exeggutor.
Threats in the format
I got around 30 games before deciding to build my own deck and grouped the decks I saw into four categories. The first, random Single prize decks and “anti-meta” Fighting decks, usually don’t do great into Exeggutor ex so I didn’t feel like I needed anything special to beat them.
The second group were “small ex” decks–things like Pikachu ex, Starmie ex, Celebi ex, Arcanine ex, and Mew ex. All of these are pretty fast decks that use weaker ex Pokemon to try and close the game out early. Crucially, they all die to Tauros and Giovanni, so I’d found my second Pokemon.
Next, I grouped “big ex” or “setup” decks. These take multiple turns to set up and use a single large ex Pokemon to sweep. Charizard ex, Mewtwo ex, and Gyarados ex all fall into this category. For these, I knew that Mew ex would be a good choice since Genome Hacking would often get set up before they would, preventing them from switching in their sweeper in the first place. If they ever did, Mew ex would come in and clean up.
Finally, there were “medium” ex decks like Aerodactyl ex and Venusaur ex. These were the rarest, so I didn’t think too much about them. I mostly just hoped that some combination of heads flips on Exeggutor would be enough to take me through. I group other Exeggutor decks here as well.
After a few games I realized that fast decks, like the Blaine variants, would be able to knock out two of my Ex Pokemon before I could set them up. Often, I’d be just 1 energy short of winning. I decided to add baby Exeggutor to have another 1 prize Pokemon that could wall and still deal damage with a single energy. This turned out to be huge since it would allow me to stall an additional turn and get the last point I needed to win.
The deck I used ended up looking like this.
Eggs in a Basket
Pokemon (x9)
Trainers (x11)
Instructions included
I felt good going both first or second–which was the main thing I wanted out of my deck. Going first, you really want to open on Exeggcute and get into Exeggutor right away. It happens often enough to win a few games on its own. A single heads on your attack is enough to derail your opponent’s game plan.
Going second your choices open up a lot. I normally would not attach to Exeggcute going second unless I needed to mark 20 damage on their active Pokemon. This way, I can build up one of the three energy attackers and then, if Exeggcute lives, go right into attacking with Exeggutor the next turn.
Exeggutor defines your early and mid game. You want to get it up, keep it healthy to stall out as long as it takes to power up one of your 3 energy attackers, and get at least 1 knock out. If you manage to do that, you’re in a really strong position to finish out the game. When you have to choose between baby and ex Exeggutor, pick based on the match up. If you think Exeggutor ex can live at least 3 turns, use him. If not, it’s better to use baby Exeggutor to give up a single prize, then switch in to a Tauros as a 2nd stalling Pokemon so you can power up your bench.
Normally, you’ll power up either Tauros or Mew–though in some games you’ll get to do both. Prioritize based on what your playing against. If it’s a Small ex Pokemon, go for Tauros. In pretty much every other case you want to power up Mew. Once your second attacker is powered up, you don’t want to switch in until you can get a KO. Keep Exeggute up dealing damage and soaking hits as long as you can.
When powering up you usually want to have 2 Energy and then stop. You can attach the third energy on switch in. Then you can either: start powering up a second attacker or adding energies to Exeggutor so he can retreat. If you need to use Giovanni to get a Knock Out, prioritize adding energies to Exeggutor before powering up a second attacker. If you use Leaf to pull Exeggutor out, you can’t play Giovanni and you will miss your Knock Out.
Tauros serves as a sacrifice when you need to stall an additional turn. Keep an eye on the point count and don’t be afraid to send them out to stall, especially in match ups where it’s otherwise useless. You should try to force your opponent to take 3 knock outs to win.
Against big ex decks, just having a Mew ex with two energies on your bench is enough to pressure your opponent. They can’t safely switch in their big attacker without getting knocked out. Any Pokemon that dies to it’s own attack–Ninetales, Marshadow after a KO, etc–is at risk, but players often miss this. Since we’re only using grass energy, you can also copy Celebi’s attack which is hilarious. Against Pikachu es, all Mew can really do is buy 1 turn and then retreat, but it’s not a good wall. Giving up two points is huge, you do not want Mew to get knocked out. When in doubt, just don’t play it.
Erica buys you a lot of time, even on baby Exeggutor. It’s easy to waste these by keeping Exeggutor “topped off”, but generally if it won’t let you survive the next attack or at least force the opponent to have Giovanni, it’s not worth playing. The exception here is when you need to play 2 Erica in a row to survive a series of attacks, or when you want to survive two attacks in a row but need to play a different supporter next turn.
Leaf can be used to switch in and deal damage with your Mew/Tauros, but it is most often used to swap into a fresh Exeggutor. Having to go through 320 HP is rough on a lot of decks. Against other Exeggutor decks using Leaf to swap into one after the other tanks a hit helps you gain Tempo, especially when they can’t do the same.
Finally, Blue is mostly used to survive one shots. These come in two varieties: Negating opposing Giovanni and forcing your opponent to have Giovanni. In the first group, you have things like guaranteeing a full health Exeggutor lives through Metwo ex Psydrive, or keeping an Exeggcute alive vs Farftech’d. For the second group, it helps force your opponent to get three heads on Celebi against a Tauros. Against Dragonite, keep in mind that damage to your bench is also reduced. Blue is not very common right now so not a lot of player’s play around it.
What about….?
I tried the Mythical Island Exeggcute a bit, but the extra energy did not come up as often as the 20 damage did. I think it works well with the Mythical Island Exeggutor, but being effectively another 3 cost attacker makes the deck way too slow.
A case could be made for swapping out the Blue for a Potion or something. I opted against it because it felt like the only Pokemon I wanted to heal was Exeggutor.
The only other card I considered was Sabrina, but most opponent’s seemed to manage their bench very well or always have some kind of retreat enabler. I’m starting to feel like Sabrina just isn’t as useful as it used to be, but it may just be that I don’t know how to play it right.
Free at last
If nothing else, I’m glad that I got back into building decks. I’m really looking forward to the new set. I’ve been hoarding hourglasses to make sure I can play at least some of the new cards on day 1. Another fun thing was I got to make some CSS for deck lists, which was neat. Feel free to steal that–my site is on Github.
Anyways, hope this isn’t too frustrating for you out there! Feel free to add me in game, my friend code is 6634048049077669. Good luck!
