Lost Zone Box is Incredibly Strong!

[Cyrus] Hey TSS readers, welcome back to another article by yours truly, it’s the time of month again where I offer my wisdom here. Today I’m going to be going over my Lost Box list for Indianapolis regionals. My student, Kamil Bidzinski piloted almost this exact sixty to a 9th place finish, bubbling out of top 8 at 6-1-1 at both EUIC and Orlando (A tragic bubble at both events). The list is incredibly consistent and has options for tackling just about every matchup, this deck has been slept on in this format because it doesn’t have a lot of matchups that are super free for it, but it is incredibly well rounded. Further proving the strength of the deck, it just finished 2nd place at Sao Paulo regionals with a very similar list.

A lot of Lost Box lists have opted to remove the Sableye for more consistency or other options but with most Charizard-ex lists cutting Jirachi, and it being one of your primary win cons against Chien Pao-ex, an otherwise really tough matchup, the card provides a lot of utility. It’s also an incredibly important option against Lost Zone Giratina VStar. Sableye also allows you to punish a lot of common mistakes. Here are some examples:

• Arceus VStar players benching a second one prize Pokemon.

• Gardevoir-ex players benching Klefki (you can bring it up to shut off your opponent’s Jirachi and then use Lost Mine.

• Counter Catcher on a Pokemon that isn’t set up to attack against Ancient Box, then Roxanne, and Lost Mine to set up for either double Amp You Very Much for game or a follow up turn where you knockout all of their attackers in play.

Roaring Moon-ex is one of the best cards to set up with Mirage Gate in this format, and honestly just one of the strongest attackers in this format in general. Of course the one shot potential on anything is an incredibly important tool in a deck that typically likes to prey on low HP Pokemon but the value of Calamity Storm can’t be overstated. Using Calamity Storm in the first couple of turns to knockout a two prize Pokemon like Arceus V or Giratina V can be very difficult to respond to, allowing you to knockout another two prize Pokemon with the Roaring Moon-ex and make a 2 for 4 prize trade, which will immediately but you ahead in some matchups like Arceus VStar which can otherwise be very trick to deal with. Of course using Roaring Moon-ex twice or once followed by a Mew-ex attack is our main win con against Charizard-ex. Usually you’d like to take one prize with Cramorant, one with Sableye, and then two attacks from the likes of Roaring Moon-ex and Mew-ex is your typical prize map. Roaring Moon-ex can also be a strong attack against Iron Hands-ex/Iron Crown-ex, you want to use it to Calamity Storm a Mew-ex or Iron Crown-ex, that way it can tank a hit from Iron Hands-ex.

Raikou V is here almost exclusively as simply the best Forest Seal Stone target. Playing Forest Seal Stone in the deck is essential in my opinion, a card in your deck that just says “search for whatever you want” is just far too valuable to pass up. Raikou V does serve an important purpose as an attacker that doesn’t need Mirage Gate though. Raikou V is your most efficient way to deal with a Flutter Mane, can easily chase things like Rotom V, or Lumineon V, and is a very cost efficient attacker in the Lugia matchup as well. Having an attacker that doesn’t necessarily need a full Mirage Gate to be set up, can draw you a little bit extra, and isn’t capped at 110 damage is a very valuable option.

Iron Hands-ex, although very resource intensive, has become something of a staple in Lost Box decks, even many of the Radiant Charizard lists are opting to include it. Iron Hands-ex’s use is simple, it is a key attacker into Chien Pao-ex, Lugia VStar, other Lost Zone decks, Gardevoir-ex, and Pidgeot Control. It can make it much more difficult for your opponent to put something in your way that you can not take two prize cards on. For example, if your opponent swings with Radiant Charizard in Charizard-ex, you can use Iron Bundle, and everything on their bench will be able to be knocked out by either Iron Hands-ex or Roaring Moon-ex, allowing you to simply set up whichever you need to based on your opponent’s promotion. 

Mew-ex gives you some much needed extra draw to play around Iono, Judge, Roxanne, and Eri. Benching Mew-ex in advance before turns where it will be key for your opponent to disrupt you, is a great way to make sure you find what you need to close out games. Additionally Mew-ex adds some fantastic options to the deck, for example:

• Burning Darkness-ex for your last two prize cards.

• Copying your opponent’s Moonlight Shuriken.

• Copying Dialga VStar for an extra turn.

• Copying Lost Impact as your most efficient way to knockout a Giratina VStar.

• Copying Great Tusk or Chi-Yu-ex to surprise mill out your opponent.

• Copying Alolan Vulpix VStar’s attack to hit through it. 

Hoopa-ex is here to take an easy two energy knockout on two of the biggest threats to the deck, Arceus VStar, and Iron Hands-ex. These are two of your worst matchups, and although Hoopa-ex is easily the least versatile of the attackers in this list, it takes these matchups from unfavorable to even, or even favored depending on your opponent’s decklist.

Spiritomb is here to make your matchup against Snorlax and Pidgeot Control favorable by limiting their draw. It also nerfs the setup greatly of decks like Charizard-ex and Lugia VStar which are also reliant on Rotom V or Lumineon V.

Lastly we have the Iron Bundle. Iron Bundle fits in this deck possibly better than any other deck in the format. The name of the game for Lost Box in this format is capitalizing on whatever area of your opponent’s set up that they falter in. Iron Bundle forces your opponent’s board to be that much stronger to play around your many many win cons by pushing whatever they are trying to soak up a hit with out of the active position. The Radiant Charizard situation I referenced earlier is one of the many situations where you will be able to win the game as long as your opponent’s active Pokemon is swapped with anything at all on their bench.

Use Iron Bundle and Spiritomb to mess with your opponent’s board, use Moonlight Shuriken and Lost Mine to pick off your opponent’s Pokemon as they try to get them set up. Use Raikou V to have an efficient attacker for turns where you are heavily disrupted, use Iron Hands-ex to deal with single prize attackers that will try to out trade you in the prize race, and use Roaring Moon-ex and Mew-ex to clean up your opponent’s high damage, high HP threats.

This deck is very strong and very fun to play but has a dozen ways to win most matchups, so you want to make sure you get your reps in with it. If you think you might want to bring this to Indianapolis, you better start practicing your sequencing and making sure you know all of your lines now, get to it, thank you for reading! If you need more help learning how to play all of this deck’s matchup, be sure to check me out on Metafy!

• Cyrus Davis