Austin goes over the new Hop's Zacian deck- with plenty of one-prize attackers and easy set up, this deck is a strong contender for post-rotation!

Hop’s Zacian ex!

                New format, new decks! Today, we’re going to be taking a look into what I consider one of the strongest sleeper picks of the upcoming standard format: Hop’s Zacian ex! This version of the deck is not looking to utilize Zacian’s second attack at all, there’s no way to use it in this list! Instead, we’re going to be playing to get a consistent +90 damage to all of Hop’s Pokémon’s attacks. The lines into so many matchups are straightforward, the deck is super low-to-the-ground, and very low maintenance—you don’t need much to get going. Most times, you are attacking for 1 or even 0 energy! Zero! This deck has been testing insanely well for me, and it is a top contender for my pick for the Atlanta regional championships. I want to give credit to AzulGG  for the original list. I’ve since taken it, put dozens of games in with it and have come up with a list that has been flexible, effective, and downright overpowered. Let’s take a look at the current list I have for this deck!

Pokémon (13): 2 Hop’s Zacian ex JTG 111 2 Hop’s Cramorant JTG 138 2 Hop’s Snorlax JTG 117 2 Munkidori TWM 095 1 Iron Bundle PAR 056 1 Tatsugiri TWM 131 1 Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex TWM 141 1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 038 1 Latias ex SSP 076

Trainers (42): 4 Arven SVI 166 3 Boss’s Orders PAL 172 3 Professor’s Research SVI 189 2 Iono PAL 185 1 Penny SVI 183 4 Nest Ball SVI 181 4 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186 2 Counter Catcher PAR 160 2 Earthen Vessel PAR 163 2 Hop’s Bag JTG 147 1 Energy Switch SVI 173 1 Night Stretcher SFA 061 1 Secret Box TWM 163 1 Switch SVI 194 4 Hop’s Choice Band JTG 148 2 Rescue Board TEF 159 1 Technical Machine: Devolution PAR 177 4 Postwick JTG 154

Energy (5): 5 Darkness Energy

 

                The first thing I will say is that this deck desperately wants to go second. The ability to consistently use Zacian’s first attack turn 1 to apply a ton of pressure means that your opponent will usually have a hard time responding to this. When you go second, your opponent is also usually limited to their opening hand as they can’t play supporters, so if they’re a Stage 2 deck, you are usually knocking out one of their little guys and putting damage into play elsewhere. Being able to apply so much pressure turn 1 and impact your opponent’s ability to set up when their Pokemon are knocked out so fast means you often take a decisive lead in the match very early. After playing about 20 games with the deck, I realized that if the opponent goes into Budew, your prize mapping gets that much worse, so I have included the Iron Bundle which you should ideally prioritize getting down if you are forced to go first versus setup decks like Dragapult, Gardevoir, some Tera-Box decks, etc. This way, you can force up one of their other benched Pokémon and also KO the Budew, giving you a huge advantage in the prize trade.

                Overall, this deck seeks to punish slow starts, take advantage of going second to launch overwhelming attacks immediately, and does so as consistently as possible. Next, we’re going to look at some matchups and some basic strategies on what we’re looking to accomplish. The strong part about this deck is that you can quickly pivot to a single-prize board state that still swings for huge 2-prize KOs for little to no resource commitment.

 

TeraBox (55/45):

This matchup is very dependent on skill. The good news is that this deck will typically choose to go first on their own, usually guaranteeing you can attack first. There are not many single-prize Pokémon we need to play down immediately, so their only effective play is to use Pikachu ex to KO Zacian in one hit, however, this play can sometimes prove tricky to consistently setup turn after turn. Usually, you will be able to get one hit in with Zacian before they knock it out with Pikachu anyway. It’s important to remember in this matchup that you CANNOT hit Tera-type Pokémon with the 30 snipe damage. The best target to hit is Fan Rotom as after a few turns, you will be able to knock it out with the 30 snipe damage and potentially knockout another single-prize Pokémon on their side such as Hoothoot or Noctowl. The ideal board state at the end of your turn 1 will be that they have a 2-prize Pokémon in the active and you’ve hit it for 90 or 120 damage and the Fan Rotom for 30. If you’ve hit the Active for 90, you can still find the extra damage buffer on the next turn to clean up that knockout. If they manage to take a knockout with Pikachu on their second turn, you can easily respond with a Cramorant+Counter Catcher KO on one of their benched two-prize Pokémon as well as an Iono to disrupt. Going back to the end of the first turn, if you are forced to knock out, say, a Hoothoot instead and put 30 on the Fan Rotom, this still applies enough pressure that means the damage stacking up on Fan Rotom will let you take a three-prize turn at some point in the game, giving you the line to win.

Once you are at 4 prizes remaining your opponent will rarely have the response available to deal with Cramorant effectively. If they manage to squeeze together another KO with Pikachu on your Cramorant, you will be in a great position because they’re wasting too many resources to take a single prize. Sometimes they can also string together a KO with Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, which still commits a lot of resources for taking a single prize card. If they do this you don’t even need to find a gust to take 2 more prizes, you can take another easy two prize cards with your second Cramorant. Once you go to 2 prizes, you need to find another gust to take your last 2 prizes on one of their benched two-prize Pokémon. The problem for them in this matchup is that they are almost required to play down a plethora of two-prize Pokémon that are not Pikachu ex, giving you many routes to victory.

One thing to keep in mind in most matchups is that you will want to establish one Dark energy on your Snorlax as soon as possible. This leaves your Munkidori able to be established later with a single attachment and your Snorlax able to attack with another single attachment with the Hop’s Choice Band. The good news in this matchup is that the Munkidori is usually a dead card, so you don’t have to worry about attaching to Munkidori almost ever. In one instance during testing, I had to Research away my Switch and my Penny, then the opponent attempted to Sob my Latias ex in the Active until they drew into a better board setup. The Munkidori came in clutch there, using its ability to send the 20 damage that Ogerpon was doing every turn back to their board meaning they were slowly degenerating their own board in the process of trying to stall me. Especially in this matchup, try not to throw away your Switch or your Penny—they can be incredibly useful to keep in case of any sneaky Sob tactics.

Throughout testing, I found that this matchup was more skill dependent on which player would win. How well can your opponent figure out how to play around the immense pressure you’re applying with Zacian on turn 1? How well can you navigate them being able to find any two Trainers consistently throughout the game? Overall, I feel this matchup is pretty positive but definitely requires you to know how to play it.

 

Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex/Noctowl (75/25):

                After testing this matchup several times, it was easy to figure out that this is very favourable for Hop's Zacian. Your ideal turn one consists of swinging with Zacian ex for 60-120 damage on an Active Raging Bolt ex and setting 30 damage on one on the Bench. They will respond with a KO on the Zacian, going to 4 prizes, and you simply respond with two turns of Cramorant taking 4 prizes total, then finding the last two prizes through using Snorlax that you’ve been setting up with Energy attachments on the Bench or with your Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. Playing so many gust options usually means you’ll have the Boss or Counter Catcher in hand to win the game quickly. It’s important to remember that on the turn you are going to take your third and fourth prize card, you can safely bench Fezandipiti ex to draw a ton of extra cards. This will be extremely helpful in finding those last few cards to secure your last KO of the game. One thing to remember that you’ll have to play around is the Bravery Charm or Ancient Booster Capsule that they may play, meaning you may have to aggressively find your gusting options—it’s good to keep this in mind. And always use your Counter Catchers when you can so you end up with less bricks in the late game! Munkidori is a dead card in this matchup also, so don’t worry about trying to set it up.

Roaring Moon ex (75/25):

                This matchup plays very similarly to Raging Bolt, where the opponent is almost forced to play down tons of two-prize Pokémon that will be KO’d easily by Cramorant turn over turn. Set up numbers with Zacian ex first and then get to Crammin’! Make sure you are setting up Energy on Snorlax over the turns as well! There’s not much else to say about this matchup—it’s pretty straightforward!

 

Dragapult ex (50/50):

                This matchup is one that is only 50/50 because you will apply pressure so aggressively that, a lot of times, your opponent will not be able to effectively setup enough before you’ve stacked enough damage on the board. Munkidori is very important in this matchup to eliminate the damage that Dragapult throws on the bench and setup bigger KOs in the later game. This is one matchup where Iron Bundle shines as well! Being able to establish it on the bench early enough means your opponent cannot safely use Budew to Item Lock you as you will usually be able to then take a two-prize lead over them. Conversely to all of this, however, if you stumble even a little and they setup quickly, this suddenly turns into a very poor matchup. Thankfully, this deck is mostly inconsistent nowadays, due to the loss of Lumineon V and Rotom V so the odds you overwhelm their setup is certainly in your favour.

Gardevoir ex (50/50):

                This matchup plays out similarly to Dragapult ex, except they apply much less pressure than Dragapult ex can. Munkidori is another all-star in this matchup, being able to remove any of their own Munkidori’s damage setup back to their board to setup bigger KOs just like usual. Since they also damage their own board, you can take advantage of this and set up Munkidori to take several prizes at once. Keep in mind that they play many Bravery Charms and this can ruin your math if you are not anticipating it. Always have a backup plan! It’s much less important to setup Energy on Snorlax in this matchup but is still a great option to keep in your back pocket to take a big KO on their Benched Fezandipiti ex in the late game when you can no longer use Cramorant.

 

                Overall, I feel like the matchup spread for this deck is too great not to consider this one of the strongest archetypes for upcoming tournaments. The lack of any convenient Bench Barrier Pokémon means this deck can overrun and overwhelm boards quickly, throwing your opponent off their game plan, and catapulting you in the lead to win. This deck does not draw very many cards, but it makes up for this in its ability to play from the board very well. You typically only have to play a few cards a turn and sometimes you don’t need to play any cards because your board state is doing enough on its own! I appreciate you all taking the time to read this article and follow me on Twitter (X) @prcngnpkmn! Have a great rest of your day!

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