Austin goes over Mega Lopunny ex/ Dusknoir in this deck analysis

Hello, everyone! I’ve been absolutely gunning through the PTCG Live ladder with Mega Lopunny ex/Dusknoir! This is one of the fastest ladders I’ve ever reached Arceus on and it was primarily with this deck. This deck is blazing fast, aggressive, and very resilient to disruption. Gaining a lot of popularity in the recent weeks, this deck has been proving itself a nuisance matchup for lots of Stage 2 decks. In my opinion, this deck is one of the strongest new archetypes coming out of the new Phantasmal Flames format and is certainly one to look out for. Let’s take a look at the list.

Pokémon (23):	Trainers (32):	Energy (5):
3 Duskull SFA 018 3 Dusclops SFA 019 3 Dusknoir SFA 020 2 Buneary PFL 083 2 Mega Lopunny ex PFL 084 2 Pidgey OBF 162 2 Pidgeot ex OBF 164 1 Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex TWM 141 1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 038 1 Latias ex SSP 076 1 Mega Kangaskhan ex MEG 104 1 Ditto MEW 132 1 Klefki SVI 096	4 Lillie’s Determination 2 Boss’s Orders 2 Hilda 2 Iono 1 Wally’s Compassion 4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin 4 Rare Candy 4 Ultra Ball 3 Nest Ball 2 Night Stretcher 2 Switch 1 Counter Catcher 1 Jamming Tower	4 Jet Energy 1 Enriching Energy ACE SPEC

 

     This list is still a work-in-progress, but I believe for the current format it is 99% to being complete and is one of my top picks heading into the Toronto Regional Championships. The general idea with this deck is to set up as many Dusknoir as you can to take multiple prize turns, using Mega Lopunny ex’s hyper-efficient Gale Thrust to eliminate basically any threat that could appear. Using Pidgeot’s Quick Search Ability and drawing cards by way of Mega Kangaskhan ex and Fezandipiti ex, this deck offers a great amount of consistency that is almost unparalleled. Couple those draw engines with the fact this deck has extremely low resource maintenance, and you have a strong contender to win a regional championship.

Some lists opt to play the full four Duskull, however I found the fourth copy to be superfluous and often a dead card in the late game. This deck takes prizes very aggressively, so you will often find yourself Iono’d to one or two by the third or fourth turn of the game. This means that you will not have a very thin deck which can decrease your odds of drawing what you need. While you do have very powerful search options and draw support, the thought of drawing that extra Duskull when I really need a Boss for game just does not jive well with me and three is more than enough to close games.

The top 32 list from the Stuttgart Regional Championships played a 4-2-3 line of Duskull/Dusclops/Dusknoir. However, after playing quite a few games with the list, I found that one card I was missing a lot was Dusclops! Two copies was simply not cutting it. In lieu of this, I replaced one of the four Duskull for the third Dusclops to even up the Dusknoir line and increase consistency. Ideally, you will be able to Rare Candy more often than not, but if you’re unable to, simply getting Dusclops evolved can be enough to get Dusknoir out the next turn and maintain the aggression.

When I originally played this deck, I tried Pidgeot in the deck and did not like it. The original list I played only played a 1-0-1 line, then a 1-1-1 and it was very inconsistent to setup Pidgeot with both of these iterations. After trying the deck without Pidgeot (which I also enjoyed thoroughly), I went back and squeezed in the 2-0-2 line of Pidgeot to give it another go. I found that Pidgeotto is pretty unnecessary in a lot of cases, and you will be able to use Rare Candy to get Pidgeot online very often. You’d much rather be able to establish the Pidgey down and find the Pidgeot thereafter. Playing a 1-1-1 line really asks a lot of your Prize cards throughout a whole regional tournament. After playing around with the counts of everything else, this is the final 60 that I’ve come to with Pidgeot, firmly standing on playing a 2-0-2 line. Pidgeot can still be somewhat inconsistent to set up, but once it is, the deck flows so much smoother than I’ve ever played before. Pidgeot will definitely be the ideal way to play the deck moving forward.

With the printing of Mega Evolution came the most aggressive hate piece for Dusknoir thus far: Psyduck MEP 007. This card singlehandedly stops Dusknoir from using its Ability by simply existing on the Bench. The good news about Psyduck is that we also already have the counter: Klefki SVI 096! The reason why this deck is so good is that it’s resilient to disruption as well as being resistant to hate pieces that try to disrupt you from doing what you do. It’s important to remember that if you’re playing against a deck that typically plays Psyduck to leave a space on your Bench open for your Klefki! If they land a Psyduck in play, you will not be able to clear space for the Klefki until they take a Knock Out or you Knock Out the Psyduck—don’t get punished! Being able to abuse cards like Jet Energy and Switch, we can get the Klefki into the Active spot, pop our Dusknoir/Dusclops, retreat back into the Lopunny and take a huge swing turn in the game. This fact alone is one of the main selling points of this deck in the current metagame. Since it is so low maintenance, meaning you need few resources to get going, it’s prone to having more real games than dead games. Even games where it seems like you’re very behind, you can come back out of nowhere by way of Dusknoir and Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex.

One of my favourite cards in the history of the Pokémon TCG is Max Potion. Any excuse to be able to fully heal your Pokémon at essentially no cost is a huge draw for me. This list is able to use a Supporter that is similar to Max Potion: Wally’s Compassion! Rather than discarding the Energy attached as Max Potion requires, this card returns all the Energy attached to your hand, which is actually an extremely huge upside in a deck which only needs a single Energy attachment to attack! While I do not think this card warrants more than 2 copies in the list, most lists I’ve seen don’t even play this card. However, I think this is wrong and this card should NOT be slept on. Wally’s endless utility comes in being able to reset your Jet Energy to switch between Lopunny with ease or even reusing the powerful ACE SPEC this deck plays: Enriching Energy! Enriching Energy draws four cards when it gets attached, which is already good enough, but being able to draw 8 cards over the course of a game, basically for free, can be game changing. In my original list with no Pidgeot, I played two copies of this card, as I found it to be one of the best cards in the deck. Having to find room for Pidgeot, however, was difficult and the decision to cut one of the Wally’s had to be correct. If there was space for a second one, I would play it in a heartbeat, however I have not found room for the second copy just yet. In games of Pokémon, you and your opponent should be “Prize mapping” throughout the course of a game. Often, your opponent will see two-hitting your Lopunny as part of their Prize map to keep tempo in the game. Wally’s use in being able to essentially take an extra turn and jump ahead in the Prize map cannot be understated—the card is that powerful.

Let’s take a look at some matchups and talk about the struggles and strengths of each one. During these discussions I will also discuss tech ideas for worse matchups and the general gameplan for each matchup. Wildly enough, this is one of the few decks that may actually change whether it wants to go first or second depending on the matchup. First of all,  you will always want to choose to go second blind. If you’ve scouted during the tournament what your opponent is playing before you setup, then you should change how you approach each matchup through your choice to go first or second.

 

Gholdengo ex (50/50):

     Many people seem to think the Gholdengo matchup is tougher than it really is. While I will never say it’s free, I do think a lot of people overexaggerate how difficult the matchup is. The good news is that Dusknoir really puts a damper on Gholdengo’s Ability to maintain an explosive draw engine. In this matchup, you will ideally go first, but you also don’t hate having to go second. If going second, you will want to set up and leave a one-Prize Pokémon in the Active spot. If you can help it, the best Pokémon to leave in the Active when you end your first turn going second is going to be Klefki.

     Klefki will hinder their draw power from Lunatone MEG 074 and prevent them from finding their Gholdengo ex consistently with Genesect ex BLK 067. Without these resources Gholdengo can have a very difficult time setting up, and you can then use this extra time to set up your Dusknoir to blow up as many Gimmighoul as possible. Even leaving them with only one Gimmighoul will ensure their draw engine is reduced enough that they shouldn’t be able to play a real game. The good news about Dusknoir being used here is you can also Iono them to lower hand sizes at will, thereby increasing their chances of dead drawing. In the same vein, given that Mega Lopunny has a monstrous 330 HP, they will need several Superior Energy Retrievals to get a Knock Out, and if they are down to one Gholdengo ex and a Fezandipiti ex, this can prove challenging enough to come back from.

     If they get a Gholdengo setup and don’t have much else going for them, and if you have the Prize cushion available to pop a Dusclops, simply use this Cursed Blast to put 50 damage on the Gholdengo to then clean it up with a Mega Lopunny. When using this method, you can attack into the Gholdengo first for 230 damage without taking a Knock Out. This will prevent them to use Fezandipiti to draw extra cards. Meanwhile, you should be setting up Dusknoir/Dusclops on the Bench to follow up as well as another Buneary. If they Turo the Gholdengo, they usually have to re-Bench the Gimmighoul which will be easily picked off by a Dusknoir. In this set up, after they Knock Out the first Mega Lopunny, they will be at three Prizes remaining, you will pop the Dusknoir(s)/Dusclops as described above, forcing them to draw 2 Prizes, then Iono them to one card in hand. This will effectively wipe out two Gholdengo from play (most Gholdengo setups will only be able to get 3 in play at all) and maybe leave them with a Fezandipiti/Genesect as well. It will be difficult for them to see enough cards to take the Knock Out here. Once you survive that turn, you will try to Iono their hand to one once again, and do any combination of: Counter Catcher their Fezandipiti or Genesect ex and take a Knock Out or clean up the remaining Gholdengo from there (or another Benched Pokémon, if any).

Dragapult ex (45/55):

This matchup is hard to put a win percentage on it, but after testing the matchup extensively, I’ve concluded it is a slightly unfavoured matchup at with about a 45%-win percentage. However, there are aggressive lines to take using Dusknoir to really sequester your opponent’s setup. This will be a common theme of Mega Lopunny/Dusknoir decks, and you can steal games from technically unfavoured matchups out of nowhere because Dusknoir is just that absurd. You’ll want to go second in this matchup to improve your chances at having a better setup.

One thing to keep in mind for this matchup is keeping track of your Duskull/Dusknoir in play or that have been used. If you have a late start getting your Dusknoirs setup, it’s important that you don’t Bench single Duskulls, as these can be picked off by Phantom Dive before you can even use them. Even if it looks like they can’t attack with Phantom Dive during their next turn, you never know if a Dragapult list plays Rare Candy or not so it’s best not to be taken off guard if they can jump a Dragapult into play. Once you’ve used one or two Dusknoir/Dusclops, however, you should avoid Benching or setting up any other Duskulls for the rest of the game.

Your opponent will also be able to use their Dusknoir against you, so it will be pertinent to keep close track of the Prize trade assuming your opponent will be able to use their Dusknoir as well. From my experience in the matchup, it’s much better to try to use your Dusknoir to Knock Out their Dreepy/Drakloak wherever possible, provided you can wipe all or all but one of them from play. This will prevent them from drawing many cards to recover, and you should be able to Iono them to low hand sizes thanks to Dusknoir forcing your opponent to take Prizes. Notably important as well: using Dusknoir also forces your opponent’s Lillie’s Determination to draw 6 instead of 8 as usual. Going back to the Dusknoir lines, if you are projected to be able to successfully wipe out all their Dreepy/Drakloak, there is the opportunity to put down more Duskulls to set up further Dusknoir Knock Outs. Just be sure you don’t put your opponent to two Prize cards left with having your Fezandipiti ex or Latias ex in play as your opponent can get a sudden win with Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. Overall, the matchup is still technically unfavoured, but if you can get some cheap Dusknoir Knock Outs quickly and aggressively enough, you can ruin their setup before they can even put a game plan together.

Gardevoir (50/50):

This matchup has the same problem that the Dragapult matchup has: these decks are tier one for a reason, and Mega Lopunny is not tier one for another reason. Gardevoir has similar resiliency to Dragapult, however they also have similar weaknesses: if you can use Dusknoir to Knock Out their Ralts before they can get setup, they will usually be unable to come back at all. Like the Dragapult matchups, you’ll want to go second in this matchup to improve your chances at having a better setup.This matchup is one where you’d like to set up Dusknoir as often as possible, even being able to put your opponent to one or two Prizes, as this usually means you’ve decimated their board and they don’t play cards like Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex to make surprise attacks out of nowhere. Overall, I’d say this matchup is closer to 50/50, since this deck has a slightly bigger weakness to having all their Ralts/Kirlia Knocked Out before they can do anything about it and they don’t have a great way to have surprise attacks without their Gardevoir ex in play. A good amount of time, you’ll be able to steal the game through use of spamming Dusknoir, but you will also experience variance where Gardevoir has a perfect setup, gets two Gardevoir ex in play, and it feels impossible to win from there, so that’s why I put this matchup at a 50/50.

Tera Box (70/30):

This matchup is honestly one of the freest for Mega Lopunny. This deck must have two-Prize Pokémon on the Bench to get going, all of which get Knocked Out very easily to a Mega Lopunny Gale Thrust. You can pick off their Hoothoot through Dusknoir, and overall, it is just a very poor matchup for your opponent. Ideally, your opponent will try to either get a Knock Out on an Active two/three-Prize Pokémon or use Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex to Knock Out two little guys to hinder your board. However, in most cases these plays can be punished by using Iono to put your opponent to a low hand size after using Dusknoir to pick off their Hoothoots, which will deny your opponent any real way to draw out of their new, dead hand. Typically, you’ll want to go second into most matchups, however, this is one you’ll want to try going first into. You will want to get into Klefki as quickly as you can to remove their ability to use Fan Rotom’s Fan Call Ability and will restrict their setup. They also usually want to go first, and preventing them from setting up their board first is beneficial. Due to these advantages, I’ve found this matchup very favoured for Mega Lopunny.

Mega Absol Box (80/20):

Ah, yes. Mega Absol: the surprise deck at the Milwaukee Regional Championships. This matchup is undoubtedly one of the best ones that Mega Lopunny could ask for. With a relative inability to one-hit Knock Out Mega Lopunny (except through a very lucky Mega Kangaskhan), being able to take six Prizes over the course of two turns cannot be understated. You’ll want to go second in this matchup, to prevent them from using Technical Machine: Turbo Energize.

 In order for Mega Absol to really function, they will almost always need Mega Kangaskhan Active and drawing cards with its Run Errand Ability. However, a Dusknoir+Gale Thrust hits for a whopping 360 damage, altogether. This one-hits Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Absol with a Bravery Charm. Notably, this does not one-hit them if Lively Stadium is in play, but you will simply bump the stadium, or even use a Dusclops to finish the remaining damage off. With the high number of Jet Energy this deck plays, they can’t even rely on an Yveltal Clutch stall strategy to buy time. This matchup is pretty self-explanatory and honestly plays itself. It’s important to note that if the Mega Absol doesn’t have a Bravery Charm on it, it also gets Knocked Out with a Dusclops+Gale Thrust for 280 total damage. If they ever Bench Munkidori or Yveltal, you can also take a three-Prize Knock Out on one of the Mega Pokémon and then use Dusknoir to clean up the Munkidori/Yveltal and then Gale Thrust a different two-Prize Pokémon off the Bench. Even if Mega Absol gets to stripping your hand, you should be able to use Pidgeot ex to get whatever card you’d like anyway. This matchup is too free, and there shouldn’t be much difficulty navigating it. Just make sure you don’t put 60 damage into play to avoid the Terminal Period play—this is one way I’ve seen people throw the matchup. Sometimes, you just don’t have to attack. Just bide your time and wait until you can take a one-hit Knock Out.

Crustle (100/0):

I’m mostly including this one as a joke, but your Mega Lopunny has a Shred attack for 160. There should be no way they win. They should concede immediately and go get lunch.

Go second, first, it doesn’t matter.

Final Thoughts:

I think this deck should have a major showing at the Toronto Regional Championships. At the time of writing, it is vastly underrated deck people are sleeping on- this deck has the potential to take down an entire tournament. With solid matchups across the board, being able to steal games it shouldn’t be able to with the use of Dusknoir and a consistent attack for 230 damage, and having access to a consistent Shred attack, this deck basically does it all. It is super consistent, hits like a truck, and takes opponents by surprise. Most people won’t be testing this matchup because the deck is currently underrated, allowing you to come in and sweep free dubs with the big bunny. The only matchups I’m even a little worried about are decks like Raging Bolt and Gholdengo where they don’t have true damage ceilings, however, I think a lot of that worry is mitigated by being able to abuse Dusknoir to force your opponent to take Prizes while simultaneously taking important Knock Outs, and using Iono to put them at very low resources. I think if you trust in the deck and what it's supposed to do, it will pay dividends in the end.

Thank you everyone for reading. Remember I offer coaching on Metafy, link is on my X (formerly Twitter) page @prcngnpkmn. If you have any questions, feel free to DM me there! Best of luck to all those who are playing in the Toronto Regional Championships!

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