Ns Zoroark FINALLY WORKS

maksi maksi Standard 53,313 views Apr 20, 2025 Updated Apr 23, 2025
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Standard Format: Illegal

This deck is not legal in Standard format:

  • Ditto (Regulation Mark: G) is not legal in Standard format. Legal marks: H, I, J.
  • Squawkabilly ex (Regulation Mark: G) is not legal in Standard format. Legal marks: H, I, J.
  • Boss’s Orders (Ghetsis) (Regulation Mark: G) is not legal in Standard format. Legal marks: H, I, J.
  • Defiance Band (Regulation Mark: G) is not legal in Standard format. Legal marks: H, I, J.
  • Iono (Regulation Mark: G) is not legal in Standard format. Legal marks: H, I, J.
  • Jacq (Regulation Mark: G) is not legal in Standard format. Legal marks: H, I, J.
  • Nest Ball (Regulation Mark: G) is not legal in Standard format. Legal marks: H, I, J.
  • Super Rod (Regulation Mark: G) is not legal in Standard format. Legal marks: H, I, J.
  • Reversal Energy (Regulation Mark: G) is not legal in Standard format. Legal marks: H, I, J.
Deck Primer

I DID IT, I FIGURED IT OUT!

The problem is most people play this deck the way they would play Gardevoir or Dragapult - beginning as a stall deck, setting up, and then being super aggressive later.

This doesn't work with this deck because the damage output isn't high enough. Instead, this deck strongly benefits from being ultra aggressive and stopping your opponent from even setting up - And if they do get to set up, you can still keep up because you are ahead in the prize trade.

Your primary tactic

...

I DID IT, I FIGURED IT OUT!

The problem is most people play this deck the way they would play Gardevoir or Dragapult - beginning as a stall deck, setting up, and then being super aggressive later.

This doesn't work with this deck because the damage output isn't high enough. Instead, this deck strongly benefits from being ultra aggressive and stopping your opponent from even setting up - And if they do get to set up, you can still keep up because you are ahead in the prize trade.

Your primary tactic is going first (this is VERY important!) and benching 1-2 Zoruas, a Darumaka, and a Squawkabilly first turn. This is so that second turn, you can hit for 90 plus 90 on the bench for a two prize turn before they could evolve even once.

In addition to these 4 mons, you most often want one Reshiram and one Pecharunt. The Ditto can help you get the Squawkabilly if you dont have a Nestball or Ultraball first turn, because the Squawkabilly is extremely important to getting all the resources fast enough.
Make sure to pay good attention to your hand and your opponents board state first turn. You might need to prefer finding a Pecharunt (i.e. if your Zorua isn't in the active) or a Reshiram over a Darumaka. Just play it slow and look through your deck to see what's prized and what you're most likely to draw from your Squawkabilly.

If you have basic pokémon in hand but also have the items to get them, make sure to use the items first. This assures that the deck is thinned, making you draw into better cards later.

Because the meta resolves so much around Budew locks, many of this decks cards resolve around not needing items to go set up your board turn after turn. This is why there are 8 energy and no Earthen Vessel, and 2 Ns PP Up in favor of 2 Powerglass and 2 Janines Secret Art. This is also why there are 3 Jacqs in here, you want to either have a Jacq or Zoroark in hand after the Squawkabilly, so that you can set up easily under Item lock.

Furthermore, since we want to be ahead in the prize trade, I opted not to have a counter catcher, no Reversal Energy, and no Defiance Band. I used to play with Maximum Belt, and I'm still unsure as to what to put in this deck as an Ace Spec. Feel free to experiment. I believe the Hero's Cape might be more versatile, as it can be used to deny prize trades and even help powering up Powerful Rage!

The Budew is a recent addition and I'm not sure if it is needed - however, you do have the occasional game where you will have a horrible first hand. Being able to keep up pace by Budew locking your opponent in these situations should be helpful.
The Eternatus is here as an out to Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex (Twilight Masquerade) . It can also help fix your prize trade by potentially forcing your opponent into taking a one-prizer (therefore having to take "more" than 6 prize cards). And you can hit an ex-Pokémon for 90, which can even help with giving it barely enough damage to get the KO.

Don't undervalue Pecharunt as a late game attacker, especially as with Janines Secret Art it can be powered up in one turn.
Btw, don't forget that if you still need 2 energy on one pokémon, it's smarter to first use your trades to find one energy before using Janines Secret Art - otherwise you'll decrease your likelihood of drawing into one afterwards.
Also also - Because we draw and discard so much, it is crucial that we have two Super Rods and one Night Stretcher, rather than 2 Night Stretchers and one Super Rod. The Super Rod can help make Janines Secret Art possible, and if you properly thin your deck, you will likely draw into anything you put into the deck with the Super Rods. It's just better, trust me - Especially since you will discard the Super Rod with the Squawk in those matchups where you need it most :P

And btw, also don't undervalue Squawks Motivate Attack. You can make some smart decisions keeping your Super Rod in deck, if you can gust up a pokémon that your opponent can't retreat, followed by a Motivate.

And that's it! Another possible card that could be helpful is a Pal Pad, some extra Ionos or Boss's Orders can really swing a game around for you, but it's hard to say what to take out for it, especially as this is a dead card in the beginning and you don't want to take crucial cards out for it like the extra Iono or a Ditto. A Bloodmoon Ursaluna could also be nice but its also a dead card in the beginning and you do not want it to be your only starter. Same is true for Fez, there's no bench space for it and it's not a great single starter. I was also thinking that Tatsugiri might be nicer than Budew, but idk.

I hope y'all have fun with this deck! I urge you to try it out, I really think you could even have success playing this competitively, which sets it apart from other Ns Zoroark decks which are mid. I've been grinding for weeks to perfect this list and I'm sure there's still ways to make it even better. So I'd love some extra suggestions and I will respond to all of them, as well as any questions. If you make a video with this list, I'd love it if you sent me the link in the comments!

 

EDIT: I removed the Luminous Energy for a Reversal Energy, and a Binding Mochi for a Defiance Band. While you still want to play from the front with this deck, you do sadly have to go from behind a little bit when facing Gholdengo sometimes and especially Raging Bolt. These two cards are least helpful in any scenario and so adding them back here can help those worse matchups into being pretty fair.

Card Types

Trainer 33
Pokémon 19
Energy 8

Energy Types

Darkness 15
Fire 4
Colorless 3
Dragon 3
Grass 1

Energy Curve

Distribution of attack energy costs in your deck

1 Energy 9 attacks
9
34.6% of attacks
2 Energy 10 attacks
10
38.5% of attacks
3 Energy 5 attacks
5
19.2% of attacks
4 Energy 2 attacks
2
7.7% of attacks

Opening Hand Probability Calculator

Calculate the probability of drawing specific cards in your opening hand

%
Probability of drawing at least of in your opening hand

Comments

maksi avatar

GangSlater i will copy this from the description:

The Eternatus is here as an out to Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex (Twilight Masquerade) . It can also help fix your prize trade by potentially forcing your opponent into taking a one-prizer (therefore having to take "more" than 6 prize cards). And you can hit an ex-Pokémon for 90, which can even help with giving it barely enough damage to get the KO.

LimeLemon avatar

maksi Have you considered Unfair Stamp as your ACE SPEC? In testing of my N's Zoroark decks I've found that Unfair Stamp as the ACE SPEC helps as Disruption that brings your Opponent's hand down to 2 Cards which slows them down quite a bit while you get 6 Cards which can potentially give you a much better hand. Besides that the rest of your list looks pretty good!

maksi avatar

LimeLemon Hi! Yes I have. It served me fine :) It's for sure not a bad option and I don't think you'd be wrong to play it. Personally I have often gotten into the situation where I had Unfair Stamp on my first hand and then I had to Squawk it away. This doesn't happen quite so often with the Heros Cape because you can just attach it to pretty much any two prizer, Budew or Eternatus (or ofc Zorua) and it'll be at least somewhat useful there.

Prime Catcher is another one that is pretty good. What I like about Heros Cape too is that it is a really solid answer to Bloodmoon Ursaluna. And Unfair Stamp also has the issue of not doing thaaat much for decks that have a draw engine, like Dudunsparce or Zoroark or Drakloak.

I'll continue to test every option and weigh which Ace Spec is most effective against which matchups. If you have great success with Unfair Stamp, let me know please! :D

LimeLemon avatar

maksi Alright then, well have a good day!

Waffle Enthusiast avatar

Interesting concept for a list, but why are there no copies of Arven or Professor's Reseach?

maksi avatar

Waffle Enthusiast I'm sure you read my description to get an understanding of the deck, so you probably know that this list is trying to continuously be able to go 90/90 while under Budew lock. This is why there are Jacqs, because like I explained, you need 2 Stage 1s without item access on your second turn. For this reason, Arvens are onbiously bad, since they would quite literally give you a card that you can not do anything with. Unless you magically have everything else, a supporter that just gets you a tool is pretty useless, you can run a stadium for that.
Since we are running our deck quite thin quite quickly by using the Squawkabilly on our first turn, and discarding at least two more items and 2 energies per turn, you will most often go down to a deck size of 30 by the end of your second turn. Like I said in the description, I tried running Carmines and Professors, but ran into the issue of too often having to discard pieces that were crucial for the late game, like being down too many energies, too many Ns PP Up, too many Super Rods, Bosses Orders, etc etc etc. So since we have so much draw power built in, it is much better to not discard more than you need and instead focus on using that tight space to run enough of everything you actually do need to have a competitive chance.

ReshRevenge avatar

I agree, Zoroark needs to be fast and hit first. I did experiment with Squawk as well but became frustrated it clogs up the bench, so it has to get the job done before Squak becomes a problem. Running Carmine doens't work because you need to play other supporters to set up fast.

As an alternative to Eternatus, I have been using Okidogi. He also helps when item lock because he can acceletrate it's 3 energy needs with a single colorless, such as reversal energy. When poisoned, Oki hits at 260, with a Mochi it's 300. Oki also can hit Cornerstone Oger, but Corner is fighting and Oki is weak to fighting. The Hero's cape helps it escape the one shot. But in my one match with Corner, it bossed up Oki and knocked it out. So eternatus is interesting if only it didn't need a fire.

maksi avatar

ReshRevenge reversal energy only works on non-ex pokemon, so not on okidogi

ReshRevenge avatar

Maksi maksi his first attack to accelerate 2 [D] energy can be achieved with 1 reversal energy this provides colorless energy to any card.

https://pokemoncard.io/card/okidogi-ex-sv6pt5-36

Waffle Enthusiast avatar

maksi I did read the description but it seems I missed that part you had said, my apologies.

wilsonhalim avatar

Hey maksi 

Good touch there adding Ditto, as a Zoroark player, i too have tried to figure a way to fight or challenge the top meta decks, after a few tries, i ended up adding a Zard ex as a combo, and surprisingly, it does work, you can take a look at my list ( called Zoroark Zard in my deck list )

Let me know what you think and you might try them too to see if it's to your liking, but i managed to get a consistent win with my version, only to lose to Gholdengo ( this deck is still too op to fight on )

maksi avatar

wilsonhalim nice idea, but why not use pecharunt? pech also does a lot of damage late game. your version misses all the parts that makes mine fast

Pixel God 88 avatar

I know why you play jacq, but why do you need to play 3 why not play 2 and play another N's pp up?

 

WildBunnicorn avatar

Hey! Not sure if you'll see this, but I have issues dealing with mimikyu that has that anti ex ability. A friend of mine runs it and while I can still beat her, its all based on luck. I was wondering how you would deal with that as I'm still new at tcg! I was thinking putting back in the prism energy and putting that on eternus or putting in a ignition enegry for the darmantian? 

Love the deck btw! I'm in love with N and use this as main deck currently! I even bought it to play it irl.

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