Time for some heavy metal that can hit some pretty heavy numbers!
A new set has been release and it is time for some new decks to rise. There will be plenty of new tricks, new cards and new strategies that players will try to pull. All of this just in time for League Cups. What can you expect from these new cards? Who knows as the meta is in flux! Though there are some things that just won’t bend to the pressures of new things. They stay hard as steel and just as strong. It is able to hit over and over again to prove that it can withstand any hit and then hit harder.
Do you need a deck that can withstand the heat of the Alola metagame while using some awesome strategies from Guardians Rising? We have a deck that is tough as nails and hits like a truck. There is a systematic method to this deck’s madness. It works with a heart of gold to ensure that you will be riding the road to victory. Get ready to be a fan of recycling your metal as we use Metagross GX and Solgaleo GX in a deck call The Metal Factory!
Decklist
Pokemon- 20
Beldum (GRI) x3
Metang (GRI)
Metagross GX x3
Cosmog x4
Cosmoem
Solgaleo GX x3
Dhelmise
Shaymin EX
Tapu Lele GX x2
Magearmna EXTrainers- 30
Professor Sycamore x3
N x4
Lysandre x2
Hex Maniac
Brigette
Skyla
Hala
VS Seeker x4
Ultra Ball x4
Rare Candy x4
Field Blower x2
Max Potion
Heavy Ball
Rescue StretcherEnergy- 10
Metal Energy x10
Deck Breakdown
This deck has two Stage 2 Pokemon which sounds impossible to get out but you will be surprise at how easy it is to constantly get more then one Solgaleo GX and Metagross GX game after game. Once you get Solgaleo GX on the field then you can set up anything you want to attack and take knockouts.
So how do you set up a Solgaleo GX and Metagross GX so easily? That is by using cards like Brigette and Rare Candy. The best turn one is use Brigette to grab a few Cosmog and Beldum to put them on the field. Grabbing Brigette can be easy if you can get a Tapu Lele from your hand on the field. Once you have gotten your army of tiny Pokemon then you can use Rare Candy to skip that State 1 phase and to into your Stage 2 Solgaleo GX or Metagross GX. You will want to aim for Solgaleo GX so you can use Sol Burst GX and set up a Solgaleo GX or two. That way you can begin your assault with a fury of Sunsteel Strike to take your prizes.
Though how can you ensure that you can continue your onslaught of Sunsteel Strike if the attack keeps discarding any energy on Solgaleo GX? That is when we hit up the recycling system known as Metagross GX’s Geotech System. This ability allows you to attach Metal or Psychic Energy from your discard on to your Active Pokemon. So if you can set up two Metagross GX and attach an energy from your hand then you can refuel Solgaleo GX for another Sunsteel Strike. Get two Solgaleo GX up then you can set up a constant stream of Sunsteel Strike that can knock out any hunky Pokemon that wishes to terrorize your matches.
Metagross GX is no slouch either. It has an attack called Giga Hammer that does 150 damage. This is perfect for Pokemon who Solgaleo GX’s Sunsteel Strike may be a bit too much. Some of these Pokemon include Guardian Rising’s Garbodor who only has 120 HP and isn’t worth discarding three Metal Energy for but just perfect for Metagross GX to hammer in. The only negative aspect of Giga Hammer is that you can’t use it again next turn. That can be fixed if you have two Solgaleo GX to use Ultra Road to put Metagross GX on the bench and then put it back in the active. The perfect system to recharge and go back into battle quickly!
Time to talk about the Pokemon techs in this deck!
Tapu Lele GX makes this deck so flexible! It can be used to grab Brigette in the early game to put down your Cosmog and Beldum. It can be used later to retrieve a Skyla to use to grab a Rare Candy to evolve your Basics into Stage 2s. Tapu Lele GX can even be used in the late game to call up Lysandre to pull up an EX Pokemon or GX Pokemon to take your final knockout. Fighting against a bad match up? Attach two energy onto Tapu Lele GX to make it brawl it out with Energy Drive while you build up your bench. This card is amazing and perfect for this deck!
Magearna EX is a card that I love and is underrated just like every card in this deck. Mystic Heart protects all Pokemon with Metal Energy attached from effects of your opponent’s Pokemon attacks. That means you don’t have to worry about energy discard effects like Lycanroc GX’s Crunch or weird stalling effects. A lot of GX Attacks have effects that makes you discard energy such as Umbreon GX’s Dark Call or Sylveon GX’s Plea that makes you return your Pokemon back into your hand. These effects can set you back so much but Magearna EX protects you from it. Nothing feels better then watching your opponent waste their GX attack because they can’t touch any of your Pokemon because of Magearna EX’s Mystical Heart ability. Magearna EX is the cute factory manager that ensures things move like clockworks.
Dhelmise is maybe the one card that could be removed if you wanted but then you will not be able to hit certain numbers. Solgaleo GX can only hit 230 damage but with Dhelmise that damage output becomes 240 which is enough to knock out Decidueye GX. If you know that you are facing against Decidueye GX then you want to get Dhelmise out on the field to allow Solgaleo GX to knock that dirty owl out of it’s roost. You could replace Dhelmise with a different Pokemon such as Genesect EX to be another attacker but I am favoring Dhelmise in case you need to hit that 240 to knock out Decidueye GX.
Now lets talk Trainers.
Rare Candy is the lifeline of this deck. If you can’t get this card then this deck slows down so much. You can play your game without it but then you miss that turn two Sol Burst GX. You can hold off on evolving your Beldum into Metagross GX but you want to get Solgaleo EX out to set up the rest of your bench and Rare Candy makes that happens.
Max Potion is pretty handy in this deck as it allows you to heal your Solgaleo GX after it has done a heavy Sunsteel Strike. After Solgaleo GX attacks, it just stays in the active and your opponent can simply attack it. The big cat will just take it because it is almost impossible to knock it out from full. After that, you can just use Max Potion to remove the damage and not worry about discarding energy. It is pretty magical as you take all of your opponent’s hope of knocking out Solgaleo GX with a single card. The same can be done with any Pokemon that is close to the edge of being knockout.
Playing two Field Blower is amazing as it can be used to get rid of your opponent’s Stadium or get rid of Tools that you want gone. BREAKpoint Garbodor is keeping you from Ultra Road-ing and turning off your Geotech System? Use Skyla to deliver a brand new Field Blower to blow off that Tool to turn on your abilities. Your opponent is having too much fun on their Stadium? Blow it away! I was unsure about having two Field Blower instead of Alter of The Sunne to negate Fire weakness but this item is needed if you want to avoid that dreaded Ability Lock of Garbodor which will cripple this deck. Also, pulling out the second Field Blower is always fun as your opponent will not see it coming!
Hex Maniac is in this deck to give you hope of turning off Vileplume’s Item Lock. You really depend on your Rare Candy to get Solgaleo GX and Metagross GX out. If you can use Tapu Lele to grab a Hex Maniac to provide you a window to use your Rare Candy then that could be enough to scare the big owl out and take a win.
The Match Ups
So how does this deck hold up against some of the hyped decks and old favorites?
Trashalanche Garbodor
Garbodor from Guardians Rising is getting a lot of hype. This card does more damage for each Item in your discard. It literally uses your trash against you. That does sound bad but this deck was made to counter that thanks to only playing seventeen Items and GX Pokemon with huge HP. If you some how found a way to discard all your items and if the active Garbodor has a Muscle Band then they can only hit you for 200 damage. That will knock out Tapu Lele, Magearna EX and Shaymin EX but it won’t knock out Metagross GX and Solgaleo GX who will be in the active most of the time. Even if they do attack these Metal beasts their Trashalanche won’t be enough to knock them out thanks to Metal Pokemon’s resistance to Psychic.
So how you you take down this trashy opponent? Metagross GX will be taking out the trash in this match. Make sure that your Solgaleo GX’s Sol Burst GX attack puts enough energy on your Metagross GX in order to use Giga Hammer. Set up another Solgaleo GX or Metagross GX. That way you can keep knockout out Garbodor with a Metagross GX no matter what. Simply make sure that you keep an eye out on how many Items you use. Try to use Rare Candy and maybe a Heavy Ball to get what you need. Most of the time you will find either Solgaleo GX or Metagross GX in your hand to not worry about searching for it. Use one of your Ball items to search out the missing piece.
Trashalanche Garbodor likes to pair up with big GX Pokemon like Tapu Lele GX, Tauros GX and Drampa GX who can hit for heavy damage. Though they can be handled with Solgaleo GX’s Sunsteel Strike. None of those Pokemon can cleanly knockout Metagross GX or Solgaleo GX but Solgaleo GX can erase them from the field with one attack. The best part is that knocking out Tapu Lele GX, Tauros GX and Drampa GX gets you two prizes and speeds up the game.
Sylveon GX Ribbon
This is an easy match. Just go straight for setting up Metagross GX and make sure you have plenty of Metal on your bench in order for Magearna EX to provide protection from Plea GX. Sylveon GX can try to throw as many Crashing Hammer and Team Flare Grunt that it wants but you can recover your lost energy thanks to Metagross GX.
You will want to use Sol Burst to put energy on Metagross GX to use Giga Hammer to hammer in those Sylveon GX. That is it. Set up either two Metagross GX to swap between attackers thanks to Solgaleo GX’s Ultra Road or set up two Solgaleo GX to use Ultra Road twice to recharge Metagross GX. If you want to end things with fireworks then have Solgaleo GX on the bench ready to fire a Sunsteel Strike on an unsuspecting Fairy.
You can lose this match up. Sylveon GX can turn off your abilities by grabbing a Hex Maniac and use Plea GX to return two of your Stage 2 Metal Pokemon after a turn where you are recharging after an attack. Though that takes some well time planning that may not be able to happen when you keep firing attacks.
Volcanion EX (/Any Fire Decks)
This is your worst match up but it is winnable. You will just need to be willing to sacrifice a Solgaleo GX.
In this match up you will need that turn two Sol Burst GX to set up a benched Solgaleo GX. The active one may die but you can try to get that one set up with two energy. You will do this in case the benched Solgaleo GX with three energy is knocked out. Hopefully by the time that happens you have Metagross GX on the bench to recover energy from the discard. If you can knock out your opponent’s big Fire GX Pokemon and EX Pokemon quickly with Solgaleo GX then that is enough to set back your opponent to take a win from behind.
Stalling out the Fire deck also works out. Volcanion EX loves Float Stone and have no problem with setting up a benched Volcanion EX to attack. A well timed Field Blower may be all you need to stall for time as you set up a Solgaleo GX or two along with two Metagross GX. That way you can ensure that the Sunsteel Strike will never stop raining down. Just be prepare to lose a Solgaleo GX alone the way.
Decidueye-Vileplume
Pray that you can use your Rare Candy on Solgaleo GX before Vileplume comes out to play.
Maybe even Metagross GX. It is possible.
Vileplume isn’t a priority in the Decidueye-Vileplume deck but if your opponent can get up Vileplume with a Float Stone in their first turn then they will do it. Just hope that you can get a Turn Two Sogaleo GX out before Vileplume is set up.
If Vileplume is set up then get that Hex Maniac out to turn off the Item Lock and evolve a Solgaleo GX. Then you have some hope and with that anything can be possible.
Get out Dhelmise so you can knock out Decidueye GX with no problem by using Sunsteel Strike. If you knockout enough owls then the game is basically yours.
Anything Else
Just use Solgaleo GX’s Sunsteel Strike. It will knockout almost anything in the game. There are not many things in the meta that will level a 230 damage attack.
Darkrai EX? It dies with one Sunsteel Strike. Just hope that you get to go first and that they do not try to pick off your Cosmog before they become Solgaleo GX. After that it becomes one hit KOs for you.
Yveltal EX? It is gone with one Sunsteel Strike. It will need a lot of energy to knockout Solgaleo GX and Metagross GX. If they do then get rid of that energy by knocking it out with Solgaleo GX. Just watch out for BREAKpoint Garbodor but that is why you run Field Blower.
Final Thoughts
People are saying that nobody uses Metal which means they think it is safe to use decks like Sylveon GX and Ninetales GX. Let them! That means nobody will see the Metal train coming. This deck runs like a well oiled machine and wouldn’t mind take out a few fairies and ice foxes out of the way. Anything else that gets in the way has to answer to a big hit from Solgaleo GX.
If you are playing this deck then you should be afraid of Fire. That is this deck’s natural weakness. Though you need to plan to stall and hit hard to win this match up. If you can set Fire decks back then they can’t recover. Darkrai EX is a scary opponent because they can move fast but Solgaleo GX can handle that ghoul easily.
The guardians are rising and the meta looks to be a mystery. If you want to ride on a fun deck that wins then I will highly suggest this one! The hype train is real so make sure to hope on Solgaleo GX with Metagross GX providing the fuel because you are going to hit everything hard.
Good luck in your League Cups!
