Deck Profiles: BRS - PRE Episode 8 | Espathra

Episode 8 of deck profiles: BRS - PRE will be about Espathra ex.

I've been talking a lot in my deck profile videos for this format (BRS - SSP) that PRE is just an extension of SSP and not the ushering in of a new format, but after Regional Merida showing that pro players have moved on from decks like Regidrago and Charizard, I wanted to give a sort of salute to them for putting decks that don't let you play the game away like Charizard, Regidrago and Lugia and make a deck profile video regarding these recent changes.

Espathra is an interesting archetype in that on paper, it is very effective at what it does: attacking early and disrupting your opponent. However, on paper, it is also a traditional control archetype whose goal is to slow your opponent down while you are trying to win traditionally (through taking prize cards). But taking prize cards isn't its forte. It doesn't "hit numbers" like decks like Charizard and Lugia do. But it's not supposed to. It's supposed to take key knockouts while your opponent can't attack. That's how it wins. By making your opponent unable to attack. And so, Espathra is a very sophisticated card and has a very sophisticated win condition.

Espathra was off my radar for SSP because it looked like it was gonna be a very fast paced, high-octane format, but I was wrong and Regional Merida proved me so. Hopefully it doesn't pick up steam again and people have to pull out Dragapult Iron Thorns again to slow it down, but so far, so good.

I hope you enjoy this video and continue to support my work.