Battle Roads: Epic Rival, NEED TO BEAT HIM!

[Haxorus3465]

Alright, guys. Battle Roads is coming to San Diego, and I need help. This guy in my division is going to run Terrakion-EX/Mewtwo-EX (so my friends say), and he's one of the best players I've ever seen. I have the following cards available for decks:

Darkrai x3
Hydreigon x3
Garbodor x3
Durant x4
Tornadus x2
Hammers x8 (both)
Zebstrika x3

Decks:

Hammertime
Garbodor/Zebstrika
Garbodor/Durant
Hydrai
Darkrai/Tornadus

Which should I use? I'm thinking Zebstrika Garbodor Darkrai Tornadus, but I'm not sure. Any ideas on how to beat this guy using TerrakionEX/MewtwoEX?

 

[Tanaki]

Run Darkrai/Hydreigon. Terrakion isn't a huge threat unless you take a prize or it gets the land crush setup, and that's all decks. Mewtwo gets shut down by darkrai bigtime since it will likely never have the energies it needs to get the OHKO and you can simply use Max Potion when you're in serious danger of being KO'd. Eviolite makes Darkrai nearly impossible for a Mewtwo to KO. If you're worried about the matchup against Mewtwo, either run Sigilyph, Mewtwo or Mew.

 

[Haxorus3465]

Thanks so much! I was all nervous thinking your reply was gonna be: just use the deck you're most comfortable with! But I love all those decks haha and thanks again!

 

[Tanaki]

Thanks so much! I was all nervous thinking your reply was gonna be: just use the deck you're most comfortable with! But I love all those decks haha and thanks again!

Well, I would normally just say use the deck you like, but given the BW-on format currently there isn't a huge variety of decks making waves. It's pretty much just a lot of decks either built around Garchomp/Altaria, Rayquaza, or Hydreigon. Everybody needs a dragon-type for the dragon matchup.

The way I look at it is:
-Eel variants: Fast-Medium setup speed; almost always auto-loses if you take out the Eels. The number of Tynamo setup first turn compared to the amount of pokemon catchers you have access to normally determines how well your matchup goes, but energy starvation will destroy Eels.

-Garchomp/Altaria: Medium setup speed; severely weakened if you take out Altaria. The Altaria are easy to KO at 70HP; early-game electric-types will cripple the support structure of the deck, and mid-late game dragon-types will handle attackers.

-Darkrai/Hydreigon: Fast-Medium-Slow Setup speed; Hydreigon setup can be stopped, but Darkrai forces opponents to be careful about Catcher usage since a failed attack can lead to harsh consequences with Darkrai's free retreat ability.

Overall:
Eels: Counter-offensive
Garchomp: Aggro
Hydreigon: Counter-defensive

Mewtwo EX is a strongly aggressive card, so setting up a strong defense against it shuts it down. And Terrakion is conditionally counter-offensive, so you just have to make sure you knock it out or limit its resources before you take a KO.