u/Benis_Putt87

Recently picked up Basic Box after a pretty decent but telling 2-3 night at locals with Chomp. Was my first time playing against people who were regional-tier players (or at least who went to a regional and competed, didn’t ask them about their placements). Good night all around and got a lot of pretty nice feedback on my play. But it all made me conclude that it was time to go away from a straight beat stick deck like Garchomp and into something that was a little more nuanced. And tbh I didn’t really expect to like Slop Box as much as I do. Thought it would be clunky and weird and tbh, without any guidance it definitely can be. But after a dozen or so games I’m very much liking the feel and want to play it as my main deck at locals. Just want to know your thoughts or advice with the deck and if there’s any nuggets of info that are vital to piloting it. Running a pretty stock version of it ripped from a top8 placement at worlds running Prime Catcher. Tbh I’m sold on the spec card since there’s a lot of talk around teching for tools atm and Im more inclined to go for the extra insurance against retreat lock since I can only comfortably use Iron Leaves once, maybe twice in a game if I push it

Pokémon: 15
2 Latias ex SSP 76
1 Chien-Pao SSP 56
1 Raging Bolt ex TEF 123
1 Fezandipiti ex ASC 288
2 Lillie's Clefairy ex ASC 280
1 Iron Crown ex TEF 206
3 Meowth ex POR 121
4 Mega Kangaskhan ex MEP 25
1 Iron Leaves ex TEF 25
2 Teal Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 211
1 Enamorus TWM 93
1 Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 64

Trainer: 16
2 Cyrano SSP 170
4 Energy Switch PBL 107
1 Prime Catcher TEF 157
2 Night Stretcher SFA 61
2 Boss's Orders PAL 265
4 Ultra Ball 30C 128
4 Crispin PRE 171
1 Jamming Tower TWM 153
3 Area Zero Underdepths SCR 131
1 Special Red Card CRI 113
2 Glass Trumpet SCR 135
1 Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking TEF 145

Energy: 5
6 Basic {G} Energy SVE 17
2 Basic {P} Energy SVE 21
2 Basic {L} Energy SVE 20
2 Basic {F} Energy SVE 22
1 Basic {W} Energy MEE 3

Total Cards: 60

Surely most people run into this dilemma a lot, but I genuinely feel like I’m not playing poorly enough to be where I’m at in terms of ELO? But surely I must be? That’s the internal conflict going on atm and the reality is it’s a bit of both but I feel like it’s a valid question to at least propose (switching decks).

I’ve been playing almost exclusively Cynthia’s Garchomp for most of the current season, hit masters about 2 weeks ago, and have been doing brutally awful ever since. Currently have about 130 games with the deck (includes most of the climb to masters) with about a 57% WR, but as soon as I hit master league I lost most of my games and went on a losing streak that tanked me all the way to 1386. Have since clawed back to about 1445 but have been in limbo since. I basically never won more than a game or two at 1500 and just can’t manage to get back to that number (which, with an honest look at myself as a player is where I believe I should be at. Maybe not climbing much but 1500 feels reasonable.) I don’t face any deck I would consider meta or highly competitive anymore besides the occasional poorly played slopbox. Haven’t seen a pult in ages. Am I just stuck in gimmick deck hell? Is this where I should be? Just frustrated because I feel like I just get outgimmicked by everything which makes me feel like something with a more consistent match spread might be the answer

Been playing a lot of Cynthia’s Garchomp, posted a few times in relation to the deck and I’ve appreciated the discussion. Just hit Master for the first time last night and want to see how high I can climb. After 58 games I’m sitting at about a 59% WR but have been tweaking the deck as I go so that’s not totally representative of my current list. At the moment it’s pretty decently teched against slowking/zam and naturally has a decent matchup against multiprizers that aren’t grass so overall I’m pretty happy, just wanna hear thoughts on what people would change!

Pokémon: 11
4 Cynthia's Gible DRI 102
4 Cynthia's Gabite ASC 110
3 Cynthia's Garchomp ex ASC 111
4 Cynthia's Roselia DRI 7
4 Cynthia's Roserade DRI 8
1 Cynthia's Spiritomb ASC 133
1 Meowth ex POR 121
1 Shaymin DRI 185

Trainer: 14
3 Cynthia's Power Weight DRI 162
4 Poké Pad POR 81
1 Xerosic's Machinations SFA 64
1 Night Stretcher SFA 61
1 Prism Tower CRI 80
4 Lillie's Determination ASC 192
3 Boss's Orders PAL 265
3 Hilda WHT 84
1 Premium Power Pro ASC 199
1 Special Red Card CRI 113
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
3 Fighting Gong MEG 116

Energy: 3
4 Basic {F} Energy SVE 22
1 Neo Upper Energy TEF 162
4 Rocky {F} Energy POR 87

I’ve tried out unfair stamp and budew in place of xerosic and the 4th roserade, but I really like neo upper agaisnt pult, drill, and zoro. Still not totally sold on xerosic over judge since it’s only super valuable into zam but at the same time I don’t see a huge reason to run judge over it? I guess it does give you a new hand which is nice in a deck with no solid draw engine beyond corkscrew. Also prefer prism tower over watchtower for hand thinning, and because it always seemed like I’d play watchtower and then someone instantly had a bump? Maybe I was just getting unlucky idk. Suggestions are appreciated!