Hi there. In this post, I cover the Pitch Black prerelease decks.
I write this out before July 4 when prereleases start. There are Youtubers out there that like to frontrun and open stuff before they release. As of late I like Chilenan Youtuber Thero Dactilo when it comes to Pokemon prerelease information.
Pokemon Proxies to see Future set translated cards
Pokemon (9)
Trainers (21)
Energy (10)
Bastiodon is the featured Metal attacker with Skarmory as the secondary attacker.
It seems like the ideal early game with this 40 card deck is to use Skarmory as an early game attacker. On the bench you would setup the Antique Armor Fossil and work your way up to Bastidon.
There is no Energy Retrieval to pick up Basic Metal Energy. Any discarded Metal Energy from Skarmory would be compatible with Phillipe and Bastiodon.
This deck looks strong and hard to beat if you are against this in a prerelease event. You could add Bronzor and/or Bronzong as alternate attackers. Mega Excadrill ex is very good if you are lucky.
Another Youtuber Leaked Deck Video in Spanish
This Slowbro deck is giving me mixed thoughts. You have a 4-4 Slowbro evolution line along with a 2-2 Type:Null and Silvally evolution line. With the energies you have 2 Telepathic Psychic Energy, 3 Basic Psychic Energy and 2 Ignition Energy. Ignition Energy makes sense if you cannot get zero cards in hand for Slowbro's All Out Attack.
Looking at this deck list, this deck is not for beginners. Good sequence and resource management is crucial to get effective attacks going. I think you may not get many attacks off so you have to be pretty sure that the attack is good.
The Slowbro offers good firepower at the cost of having a zero card hand. Silvally lets you search for one Supporter card if you have zero cards in hand.
Adding a Jynx or Marshadow could be okay in this deck. Banette (with Shuppet) is good too if you get lucky from the packs.
Dhelmise is a dangerous attacker once at least 4 Hide 'n Sneak Pokemon are in your discard pile. This is very good in prerelease and in standard competitive play.
If you have Sinistcha and 6 or more Hide 'n' Sneak Pokemon in the discard, you can deal spread damage on the opponent's Pokemon (except for the opponent's Hide 'n' Sneak Pokemon).
After looking at this decklist, the Dhelmise deck is interesting. You are maxed out at 4 Shuppet, 4 Banette, 4 Poltchageist, 4 Sinitcha, one Spiritomb and 1 Dhelmise. If you get more Dhelmise from the packs, then this deck is more dangerous.
Note that there is no recovery in this deck. Once the lone Dhelmise gets Knocked Out, the firepower of this deck goes down. You would then have to rely on damage spread attacks from Sinitscha and maybe Spiritomb.
The Miraidon Lightning deck features Miraidon and the Vikavolt evolution line. You get 4 Miraidon and a 4-3-4 Vikavolt evolution line. (4 Grubbin, 3 Charjabug and 4 Vikavolt)
In the preconstructed deck, you get playable Supporters like Lillie's Determination, Hilda, Poke Pad and Brock's Scouting. Voltaic Lightning Energy is needed for Vikavolt but it also works well with Miraidon with the +20 damage boost.
Miraidon is good for the early game. Set up towards Vikavolt on your Bench. Vikavolt is the heavy hitter in this deck that can compete against Pokemon ex and Mega Pokemon ex.
The Miraidon mirror matchup could be tricky I think. If you hit with Miraidon against an enemy Miraidon then your Miraidon is at 90HP and the opponent's one is at 30 HP. If the opponent 30 HP Miraidon hits you then it is a double knockout. The Photon Cord ability does not activate if you deal damage to itself and get Knocked Out.
When it comes to inclusions, adding Manectric and/or Mega Zeraora ex is good if you get lucky with the booster pack pulls.
The Slowbro deck seems the weakest out of the four. It looks like a hard deck to pilot and is not beginner friendly based on the decklist. Slowbro's firepower with the All Out attack is really strong. If this deck is used well, then Slowbro can be really good.
Miraidon with Vikavolt looks pretty easy to use. Late game Vikavolts look tough to beat.
Bastiodon looks like a slower setup deck. Early game Skarmorys are there to deal some damage. The Bastiodon player could either do a slow setup and attack gameplay style or maybe stall and deckout the opponent.
Dhelmise looks strong. The weak point is that there is no recovery and there is only one Dhelmise included. Pulling more Dhelmise would make this prerelease deck almost like a competitive meta deck.
There are other cards that could swing the tide to your favour. It depends on what you pull.
Dark attackers, Dark Bell, Tropius and the Toucannon evolution line look decent here. There is also a Crushing Hammer reprint in this set as a Full art Card.
Thank you for reading.
