The FUTURE of Lost Box

What’s the best version of Lost Box for the rest of this format? Victor discusses his favorite and the reasoning behind the deck-list.

Since the release of Lost Origins, Lost Box has gone through a surprising number of iterations. It started off nice and simple with Cramorant, Sableye, and Radiant Charizard being your only attackers and back then, that was enough. Sableye was one of the best late game attackers in the game, being able to threaten multiple multi-prize turns.

Two rotations later, and well… Lost Box has gotten a bit complicated. Since then, we’ve seen Iron Hands ex, Jirachi, Klefki and Flutter Mane being added to the game and although Lost Box isn’t exactly dead as some people had thought it would be, it definitely has had to adapt in order to survive. Heck, even Charizard ex while not being a direct counter to Lost Box, poses a problem with its massive 330 HP, multiple uses of Radiant Charizard is no longer a winning strategy. You have to get a bit creative.

Because of these factors, out of all the meta-archetypes in the game right now, Lost Box is by far the least set in stone. If you sit across a Charizard or a Chien-Pao or a Gardevoir, you can be pretty confident that you have a good idea of what they can hit you with. But right now, there are at least 4 different ways to build Lost Box. In fact,

Stéphane wrote an article about Lost Box just a couple weeks ago, but it’s quite different from my take so here we are.  I’m a bit biased but I think my “Future” Lost Box concoction that I piloted to 100th this past weekend to Orlando is the superior version but let’s talk about why!

Everyone’s first instinct is to look at all the shiny Rule Box Pokemon in the list - I promise we’ll get to them but for now let’s talk about the engine and how it differs from some other Lost Box lists out there.

Most of the trainers and items you pretty much would expect so I won’t get into it too much, but when I first started building the deck, I was pretty adamant that I wanted Forest Seal Stone and additional Supporter search. Having additional outs to Colress’s Experiment almost feels like a requirement for the deck to function and is my main qualm with the Roaring Moon + Hoopa ex Lost Box variant.

In this case, additional outs to Colress takes the form of Lumineon V which ended up being a great inclusion. I find that the number of games it loses you is much lower than you’d expect. You might use Lumineon V to close out a game or get such a substantial lead that its presence doesn’t change the prize map of your opponent. Or maybe you’re attacking with a two prizer anyways. And of course, you can always rely on Aqua Return to put it back in the deck if you need to keep it safe from your opponent’s clutches. Pokégear is an okay replacement but not only can it whiff Colress and takes more deck space (1 Lumineon V + Ultra Ball vs 2 Pokégear is effectively one deck space vs two since you can cut a Nest Ball for Ultra Ball), Pokégear is only really viable if you have other Vs that you want to put down early game like Raikou V. Overall Lumineon more than pulled its weight, even being the MVP in my Round 8 against Arc Armarouge hitting several Pokémon in that deck for weakness. 

The second copy of Lost Vacuum was the 60th card to make it into the list and after playing a weekend with it, I don’t think it can get cut. It lets you push so hard for 7 or 10 in the Lost Zone which opens up a lot of winning plays should your opponent just be a smidge slower than they would like to be.

As for the stadiums, I actually prefer Pokéstop over Artazon and Town Store IF you have room for Pal Pad. But we didn't, so Artazon and Town Store it had to be. I actually had a decklist error and played with Pokéstop over Artazon in Day 2 but I did mean to play the exact same 60 Xander Pero and Edwin Arrollo played. 

Onto the real interesting part though, the attackers. Let’s start with Iron Crown ex. The most obvious synergy with the deck is Iron Crown’s ability Cobalt Command. Much like Turbo Iron Hands, this deck can potentially Amp You Very Much against Pidgeot ex, Lugia VSTAR, Baby Roaring Moon with no tool to take extra prizes against targets that would normally not be vulnerable to 120. Not to mention it allows Iron Valiant to attack for 200+20+20 which takes out Iron Hands.

But believe it or not, the original and primary reason that Iron Crown ex is in the deck is actually for its attack. Twin Shotels goes through all effects meaning that it can do 50 damage to any 2 Pokéstop on the field regardless if Jirachi and Manaphy are in play or not. Which means, if you draw well, you will always have a chance to Twin Shotels KO a 50 HP Pidgey before your opponent has a chance to evolve it up. This comes up the most against Charizard Pidgeot of course and is the main reason I prefer this version of Lost Box a bit better than other variants, even the ones that did better than I did at Orlando. The Zard matchup doesn’t always play out this way but having such a strong Plan A into Zard and refusing to let them set up their main support Pokémon, while not foolproof, gives this version of Lost Box a stronger Zard matchup than other variants.

Iron Valiant ex as an attacker in Lost Box isn’t a brand-new idea, but this may be the first time it’s done well at a major event. At its core, it’s a replacement for Dragonite V that Turbo Lost Box used to play. Iron Valiant’s 200+20 isn’t too far off from Dragonite V’s 250. It still KOs relevant V Pokémon such as Arceus V or Giratina V and doesn’t require you to play any strange energy types. Tachyon Bits can also be used in some pretty fun ways to surprise clutch losing games such as using Tachyon Bits along with Lost Mine to KO two 70 HP Pokémon, using Tachyon Bits to KO a damaged Manaphy so you can use Moonlight Shuriken on the same turn, or using Tachyon Bits + Shaymin’s Revenge Blast to hit 280 on a VSTAR for your last two prizes. 

Minior + Supereffective Glasses is a combination that has seen success pre-rotation. Snorlax isn’t really a significant meta threat anymore, but Lost Box does need a way to KO Iron Hands in the Turbo Hands and Chien Pao matchups and Minior doesn’t require any new energy types so in it goes. Just make sure that you Vacuum away any pesky Future Booster Energy Capsules!

Shaymin V is honestly a subpar card - I’d rather bring back Tropius but since it’s rotated, Shaymin will have to do. You need some way to OHKO Charizard ex given it’s massive presence as basically undisputed BDIF. Other Lost Box lists utilize Roaring Moon ex but Shaymin has some noticeable benefits such as being a Forest Seal Stone user and being overall less restrictive on deck building requiring only a single Grass.

The deck overall is really solid, really fun, and really difficult. The three players that played it to Orlando made Day 2 but none of us were able to make deep runs mostly due to mistakes of our own. I feel pretty confident I could’ve achieved at least top 16 with the deck if not top 8 if I were a perfect player but alas, that is both the primary strength and the main weakness of a deck like this. If you like decks with a high skill ceiling and have enjoyed Lost Box decks in the past, give this one a try! Trust me - it definitely remains a good play for Indianapolis and LA.