Notes & Combos

Climbed from Ultra 1 to Master.

I built this deck with the concept of playing Haymaker in TCG Pocket. It works because the top decks of the format like fielding small basics, like Igglybuff and Swablu, which can all be one-shot by Hitmonchan ex and let you gain tempo while building up a Mega Lucario on the bench. Giovanni and regular Lucario help to meet damage benchmarks for tankier Pokemon, and Korrina is a burst option to steal points.

Teal Mask Ogerpon stands in for Scyther in this list and is a fantastic tech option in this meta; it turns off Swablu and Iggly and also lets Hitmonchan survive an attack from Mega Blaziken. On top of that, it can be searched off the opponent's Fragrant Forest, giving you free advantage vs Sceptile and Meowscarada decks.

Pokemon Communication is the other notable tech option in this list, it acts like a wildcard search for any of your missing combo pieces and lets you run fewer Lucarios. Just as importantly, it acts as a hand-thinner in a meta where everyone is running 2 Copycat, denying your opponent in potential advantage.

Lastly I want to note that using 1 Shiny Hitmonchan seemed to genuinely increase how often I saw it on my first turn. I'm not sure if this was just placebo effect or some issue with the draw algorithm like in Duel Links, but it might be worth consideration.

This deck is powerful when it gets early momentum, but suffers in matchups where the opponent uses big basics (eg. Suicune Baxcalibur, Mega Absol) or can hit the 130 damage benchmark easily to KO Hitmonchan. In those cases, change tactics to building up energy on Mega Lucario for a big damage comeback.