Super Battle Zone

       Hopefully, there's still enough players to make the Super Battle Zone tournaments worth it.   Unlimited.  Interesting.  Before Aquapolis, unlimited had stayed the way it was for the past year- with Slowking/Murkrow, not necessarily Sneasel, dominating the unlimited scene.

       I have preached the strength of Murkrow and it became clear that a 3 ER/3 SER Slowking deck with Murkrow can consistently take out almost any deck in unlimited.   If you're one of the players that still believe decks like Clefable/Muk are a "Slowking metagame," then you're simply an idiot... if you believe unlimited is a format where speed and first and second turn wins run, you're an idiot.  Unlimited is a slow, strategic game of evolutions and trainer conservation.  Nothing is more important than playing your trainers at the right time.   Unlimited is not what many people think it is- a second turn Wigglytuff- or an unstoppable Rocket's Zapdos/Sneasel deck (which is a horrible, horribly deck).   Do you know what is good in unlimited?  This is what's good in unlimited:

1) Slowking/Murkrow (Slowking, Murkrow, various metagame options)
It doesn't have to play more than 1 Sneasel.  You can even get away with zero.  You play heavy removal, Pokémon Flute and/or Erika's Perfume, and you make something vulnerable to a Mean Look that wins the game.  Simple as that.  The deck is strong to the point that Rocket's Zapdos, Electabuzz, Chansey, often Scyther and Sneasel often cannot avoid a nasty Mean Look, especially with a Healing Fields in play. And if an Unown or Slowpoke or something like that gets benched, oops, you pretty much lose.

2) Focused Chansey (Chansey, Unown M, Scyther, Igglybuff)
I talked about Alex Brosseau constantly about this.  Focused Chansey doesn't lose because the "Unown" gets Mean Looked, or the Chansey for that matter.  Against a low ER/SER Slowking, go for a quick Chansey.  Against a high ER Slowking, build Scyther, and maintain ER control to prevent the Beat Up option.  If you build Scyther with recycles you should be able to avoid the Mean Look.  But what has really helped this deck, and other decks vulnerable to Mean Look is the new Warp Energy.  This card is amazing.  It really hurts Murkrow.  No cards stop you from playing energy.  But more importantly, regarding Scyther, it's new evolution is amazing.  In fact, you don't necessarily play Scizor in a Chansey deck, you could play Chansey in a Scizor deck.

3) Scizor (Scizor, Chansey, Igglybuff)
The Aquapolis Scizor, in unlimited, is a better Steelix.  This is because Scyther has so many advantages (mainly free retreat) over Onix, and Aimed Grasp is great against Slowking.  It's second attack is simply better than Steelix's Tail Crush in every way, and although it is 30 HP less than Steelix, the only KO options are basically Double-Edge (assuming no metals on Chansey) and Beat Up (2+ dark) if YOU have no metal attached.  So basically, they'd have to remove your metals to KO you, an obvious conundrum, especially with Eco in play, and you're in good shape.  Scizor is amazing.  It should be a dominating unlimited deck.  That's how good it is.

4) Snechu (Sneasel, Pichu, Tyrogue)
This deck can't die.  It's good against Slowking and we all know that Sneasel is simply broken.  It can take down anything.  It is your modern day haymaker.  It's the only good deck with no evolutions.

5) Arithmetic (Rocket's Zapdos, Muk, Tyrogue)
I don't even know if people play this deck.  It's sickeningly powerful because it works so well with Muk, a high ER/SER line, and Pokémon Tower, which are drastically detrimental to the development of most popular decks, including Slowking, Chansey, Scizor, etc.  And don't play Electabuzz- in any deck.  It is too vulnerable to Tyrogue and it's 2 retreat hurts it.

6) Typhlosion
This deck working, I swear, was a fluke.  It shouldn't be able to beat Sneasel/Slowking or Snechu.  It does work well with Pokémon Tower, but it is difficult to make the ER/SER line high enough to beat Sneasel while playing a stage 2.  I stressed that it worked in unlimited, and it does, sort of, but in general, I believe that good players with good decks beat it.  It does beat Scizor.

7) Unremoveable Scizor (Brock's Ninetales/Scizor)
This replaces Brock's Ninetales and Steelix together.  I guess you could always play at least 1 Steelix.  Anyway, if you don't expect Muk or Typhlosion, this deck dominates, and does very well against Slowking.

Now, I didn't list Cleffa...  all these should max out, and I didn't list Tyrogue in decks that played only 1-2. 

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With Aquapolis, all of these decks and nearly every modified deck should be playing Pokémon Fan Club- 2 of them.  The card is amazing in every deck.

And as for Super Battle Zone, any of these decks can dominate the tournament.  It's up to you what you wish to play, but these are all good choices.

I'll be at the Chicago Pastimes SBZ.  Hopefully I'll see some of you there.

Thanks for reading.

-Jason Klaczynski