Hey everyone, Wallysson here.
is one of the simplest decks in the format. It's very linear: you put the right Pokémon in the discard pile, attach one Energy and hit for 170, turn after turn, and almost every game follows that same script. Even so, over the last few weeks it showed up in two Regionals in a row with big results, with Rahul Reddy making Top 4 in Louisville and Maxime Launay reaching the final in Nice, and I don't think that was luck. For me the deck started performing because good players started polishing the list, and that's what I want to show in this article: Rahul's and Maxime's lists, the techs that are showing up, how I see each matchup and why it didn't make Top 8 in Puebla.
How the deck works
Dhelmise hits for 30 with one Psychic Energy, and if you have four Pokémon with the Hide 'n' Sneak Ability in your discard pile, the attack does 140 more and becomes 170. The Pokémon with that Ability in the list are , , and , so a good chunk of the deck's Pokémon are there to go to the discard pile, not to be evolved. Since Dhelmise only gives up one Prize, the game the deck wants to play is hitting Pokémon ex for 170, since they give up two, and putting another Dhelmise into play every time the previous one goes down.
In practice, the turn that gets the deck going usually looks something like this:
or to find Dhelmise and the Hide 'n' Sneak pieces. Poké Pad searches for any Pokémon without a Rule Box, which is basically the whole deck.
discarding two Pokémon with Hide 'n' Sneak from your hand. She draws three cards for each one, so that's six new cards and two Pokémon in the discard pile.
If another Ultra Ball shows up in those six, you discard two more cards to pay for it and you already have all four in the discard pile.
Without Gwynn, the way there is (look at the top six, keep two and discard the other four) or (discard two cards from your hand to draw one).
With four in the discard pile, attach the Energy and hit for 170. If it's , it also searches for two Basic Psychic Pokémon for your Bench, so the same Energy that powers the attack already puts the next Dhelmise into play, and that's what makes the deck so consistent.
Banette deserves a separate comment, because it isn't in the list just to be discarded. Puppet Pull hits for 80 for one Energy and searches your deck for any card, so on that turn when your hand came out awkward you still attack and set up the piece you were missing for the next Dhelmise.
Rahul's and Maxime's lists
The core of the two lists is the same, and there isn't much room for it to be different: Dhelmise, the Shuppet and Banette line, Poltchageist, , the search Items and the Energy. The difference is in what each of them did with the space that's left.
The first one is Rahul's list, who finished 4th in Louisville:
