Hello readers, and welcome back to another article here at Schemanske’s Corner! I hope everyone enjoyed the free article written by Xander. Ironically, I was planning on writing about Mew this week, as I suspect that Liverpool will be the last tournament it is viable for until rotation happens. Since I no longer have to do that, I’m going to be jumping right into my first thoughts on Crown Zenith, as I haven’t done any further testing in this format since San Diego. I’ll briefly cover the list I played (poorly) at San Diego, as I think it has the potential to be very successful when not played badly into weird matchups. Let's get right into it!
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My San Diego Play
As advertised, I played Lost Box Charizard to the event. While the list was a bit different that I posted here, that was mostly a last-minute decision I made in preparation for significant amounts of Lugia with average players piloting it. The list I played took a much better Lugia matchup than the previous iteration, but it sacrificed some of the less common matchups in the process, along with some consistency.
Here’s the PTCGO import1
This is the list I came up with for San Diego, and while it’s nothing overly special, I think I'm the first one to have played this specific combination of cards in Lost Box. Zeraora is something I've had in my back pocket for pretty much the entire season since I played in Toronto, but there was never really a good opportunity to play it. Regis was the correct call for Arlington, and in hindsight, this deck was probably the wrong choice for San Diego, but I can’t be too upset because I finally got to play the list that I’ve wanted to all format. I honestly was planning to play the rather normal list I posted leading up to San Diego, but with the frightening silence regarding all things Vikavolt, and the increase in Regis hype, I was convinced I needed to do something different with my deck. Does this take a better Regis? No, but I could at least be playing cards my opponent didn’t know about, which could cause them to play differently.
So, what led to these changes in the first place? There’s the obvious fact that Zeraora should improve the Lugia matchup by providing yet another way to take an OHKO on a VSTAR in the early game that didn’t require a ton of Energy on a Radiant Charizard. Obviously, Dunsparce exists so there’s potentially not any value gained by attacking with Zeraora. However, the very fact that your opponent is forced to play down Dunsparce is a very significant advantage in the matchup. It’s a free KO with Sableye, and since it only takes six damage counters, you can easily set up another KO on anything small with another Lost Mine. The other big reason behind Lightning Energy as a whole was that I wanted to have another target with Mirage Gate that would allow for more flexibility in the mid-game with Ordinary Rod. Yes, you’re still playing the same number of Basic Energy, but now you’re less likely to get stuck with only one type left in the deck.
Zeraora also does something that is pretty significant in a long event where you’re playing many games. It provides you with a 5th starting Pokemon that can easily result in a Flower Selecting. While it's not quite as good as Comfey, it’s the next most efficient starter since it has a free Retreat Cost. I had multiple opponents act very surprised that it was able to retreat for nothing, which definitely made it feel like it was at least getting some value. Finally, Zeraora greatly improves the Vikavolt Aerodactyl matchup. With a pivot that needs no Energy to retreat, Lost Box can easily stream Cramorant as long as you have Klara in your hand. Zeraora also trades very well into Vikavolt V if they’re not playing Regieleki VMAX. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Vikavolt Aerodactyl is a very favorable matchup for this list.
That’s all I have to say about this version of Lost Box. Going forward, I think that there’s an argument to be playing a Cape of Toughness to improve the Regis matchup, and if that’s done, there’s probably a decent chance of it doing well in Liverpool.
I closed my computer here on Thursday, and then proceeded to forget that I had any responsibilities until Friday morning. Oops?
Crown Zenith Thoughts
There really aren’t that many cards in Crown Zenith that I see having any impact on the upcoming format, but with what few cards do impact the format, I can see things getting very interesting.
Sky Seal Stone
This is probably the card I see having the most impact on the format, as it theoretically forces DTE Mew almost entirely out of the format. The big thing here is that you can easily skip the Roxanne turn(s) entirely by taking a KO on Genesect V and then using Drapion V with Sky Seal Stone to take four Prize Cards at once on a Mew VMAX. It’s really not going to be very hard to find decks that this card is good in, but my first instinct is to throw together a Lost Box deck that abuses the extra Prize Card that it takes into the Lugia matchup, as that is probably the scariest matchup Lost Box has that can be improved by it. For instance, if we take my Arlington list, cut Zeraora for Raikou V, and then add a Sky Seal Stone or two, we suddenly have a very good Prize trade going.
It’s also possible that Sky Seal Stone ends up enabling some for of Ditto V box to become functional. It’s hard to say if that kind of deck will be truly capable of standing up to the single Prize decks that are so dominant in this format. Regis doesn’t lose anything, and Lost Box decks probably only get better with Crown Zenith. Just how impactful Sky Seal Stone will be remains to be seen, but at the very least I cannot see it being a flop entirely.
Radiant Eternatus
I’m sure many of us did a double take when we read this card when int was first translated. Searching out and playing down two VMAXs when you bench a Radiant Eternatus is a broken Ability no matter how you slice it. There are a few issues with it, naturally, but there’s a ton of potential for some crazy decks to show up. The biggest issue Radiant Eternatus faces is that VMAXs are almost entirely outclassed by VSTARs and the good single Prize decks. Mew, Duraludon, Flying Pikachu, Eternatus, and Espeon VMAX are essentially the only relevant VMAXs left, and each of them has a specific reason they are good. Duraludon and Pikachu have protection, Espeon provides protection, and Mew has an entire engine dedicated to it. For the most part, those are going to be the VMAXs that Radiant Eternatus makes better, with the exceptions of Mew and Eternatus.
However, there are additional VMAXs that Eternatus does make potentially viable. Regieleki VMAX becomes stronger due to being able to drop two of them immediately when going first, but I don’t know how much that’ll matter since most decks that would want Regieleki are reliant on Radiant Greninja. Kyurem VMAX gets a boost, but with Lugia around with Yveltal, there’s not a ton of room for Kyurem in this meta. Finally, any VMAX with a retreat cost of Zero becomes much better in the form of Cheryl loop stall. Togekiss has potential here but will likely be bad because of its Lightning Weakness and low HP. Corviknight has potential as well, but has the same issues into Lugia. It’s possible that the stall strategy will have to wait until rotation occurs.
Zamazenta
This is the last card I can see having any real impact on the meta in Crown Zenith. Lost Box might enjoy having this as an attacker, but the real winner is likely to be the deck that just recently popped up again: Goodra VSTAR with the Lost Zone engine. Zamazenta fills a niche in that deck easily and allows for a strong response when a Goodra does go down. I think there will be a lot of experimentation that needs to be done, but there’s a ton of potential for Lost Box to abuse this new attacker. I strongly suspect that some sort of Amazing Raikou Lost Box with Zamazenta has a strong placement immediately.
Final Thoughts
Apparently, having class on every day of the week is a lot more time consuming than I thought it was in the past. I fully planned to have this article out a day earlier, but the time to get it out disappeared entirely. I’m sure I’ll be able to fit in articles once I get used to my new schedule, but releases will be on different days than the usual Thursday routine I had settled into. I’m guessing that Wednesday becomes the new day, but that depends on how terrible one of my classes ends up being.
Liverpool is coming up, and while I’m not going, I have an interest in all of the Americans that attend because of the stipend race, so I’ll be watching the event with great interest. If I was going, I would probably be playing something like Goodra or Regis, but I think there’s potential for a control deck to pop up this weekend because of everyone’s favorite control player, Sander.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or PM me somewhere, I'll be happy to answer. Good luck this weekend in the Team Challenge if you’re playing and got unlucky with the bracket! I'll see you next time!