GLC Munkidori Psychic

Munkidori: The Psychic Defining Card of 2024

Would you like to play a deck where you can draw +5 cards before you even played a supporter, accelerate 3+ energies a turn, and recur a toolbox of attackers for every situation you find yourself in? 

Decklist

The Core Deck

These 52 cards serve as the core for “munkidori crispin psychic” to maintain a consistent engine and gameplan. 

Here are the 8 other cards I currently include in my build:

Notes on the 8 flex spots

• Latios can be replaced with another heavy hitter. Some psychic players find success with Iron Boulder because it can find an earlier attack. I prefer Latios because it hits the correct numbers for Wailord and requires less cards that I need to build my deck around.

• Galarian Articuno can be another pokemon or even a trainer. I find it’s important for this spot to be something that can attack early. Some players have added Genger in this slot, to combo with compressor and munkidori and have an easy early attacker.

• Lost City can also be Parallel City, Training Court or another stadium of your choice. I typically play LC at a large event for the autowin vs Sableye and other cheese decks, in addition to the ability to snipe key resources versus set up decks.

• I play Avery when I don’t play Parallel. Be mindful that it can conflict with Munki, so you probably won’t use it in the late game once you’ve established moving damage. It is good to have a bench reduction trainer with the over abundance of decks that fill their bench turn 1-2. 

• Energy Retrieval and Evosoda are great, but are not staples. If you find yourself underutilizing Xatu after making changes, consider adding these back in. I often regret cutting Evosoda despite it being a mid card because I want to aggressively evolve 1-2 stage 1s on turn 2 and it’s an extra out that I can draw or find off Mew to get there quickly.

• Bird Keeper can be any consistency supporter, or even Lusamine if you are happy with the amount of draw support you see turn 1 as you test the deck. With Mew, it essentially sees 4 cards, creates a pivot you can accelerate to, and helps grow your hand. 

• 6 psychic energy has felt great to me. You want it for early xatu draws, early retreat into wob or mew t1, and extra attachments mid game if you’re setting up two attackers. But I’ve seen builds have success with 5 basics, so that’s something to consider. 

• Lusamine should definitely be a consideration in one of these slots. It was in my original list and I’m working on getting it back in. Currently, I am over valuing early game set up and consistency over power slightly, as the format is incredibly fast right now. Also, Dimension Valley is less important in psychic builds that play both Xatu and Malamar. That said, it will always be on my mind for the 60 cards before I lock in a list for a tournament. 

• This article is specifically on the crispin munkidori engine, as that’s how I’ve played the deck to success. Some players have cut crispin and the darks for rainbow energies and those builds will still be strong too.

• In the “65” you could also consider Escape Rope, Float Stone, Scoop Up Net, Colress’s Tenacity, and Parallel City.

 

Here are other ways you can find space with these 8 slots to make other archetypes within this core engine. Below is a control build with a higher power level, focused on increased disruption, at the sacrifice of some consistency.

Munkidori Control (Surge Disruption Loop)

Here are the additions from the core 52

At the sacrifice of some consistency items, this build has a higher power level once you’re playing the game. Surge and Lusamine slot in naturally: Surge, as you’re typically playing from behind; Lusamine, as recovering Dimension Valley is already good in any psychic deck. Delinquent rounds out the payoff so that you can Surge loop it or Hex every turn with CynLyn or Lusamine. Training Court replaces Energy Retrieval because I like having at least 3 stadiums with Delinquent. I kept the attackers and Lost City the same as the prize mapping game plan remains the same. 

Munkidori Natu Blindside

Another example of a subarchype of Munki is Natu Blindside. here are 8 cards added to the 52 card core to make use of the Delta Natu and Blindside combo - a combo made famous by RunJaimeRun and known as Combo Psychic on the GLC website.

Here are the changes from the control build above

You can see how slight changes can present a completely different sub archetype within this archetype of Crispin Munkidori. In this build, you’re still prioritizing a higher power level, swapping the brick slots that Surge and Delinquent can hit early hands with, for other power cards in Devo and Blindside. Scoop Up Net slots in nicely as it can help reset a Galarian Articuno, move a Wobbuffet, or play into the Natu combo. 

My Baltimore Regionals Deck Version (the original build)

1. I played this version of psychic because it beats turbo colorless, raindance water, and lzp - the three most common and arguably best types at big events like regionals and ics - without sacrificing losing to random jank

 

2. Please note the timing of this deck in that Marshadow just got banned, Crispin wasn’t even legal in standard until the following week, and so this was my first time playing this deck, so you’re seeing a ‘successful’ list that is honestly not optimized, although I’m happy with it for a first build. It’s awesome getting the Twitter DMs from people who played this and found success with it, as well as seeing it when I’m browsing limitless sometimes (i.e. https://play.limitlesstcg.com/tournament/6758a49595f729096d7202fc/player/theshed/decklist) - but there’s a lot of changes I’d make that seem small, but aren’t, which is why I wanted to write this article (plus Wheatr asked me to and I would do anything for him):

3. Changes to My Current Build

   1. Shuffle draw replaced with growing hand, allows you to draw +5 with your Xatu Kirlia engine before commiting to a supporter

   2. Energy retrieval overperformed in testing and slipped in

   3. Evosoda feels like a necessary evil for early game consistency, despite my multiple attempts to cut it

   4. The stadium supporters felt unnecessary and were cut one by one. I placed an overemphasis on Dvalley when the board engine does enough to set up your attackers every turn.

 

How to Play

Midrange

“Hard to play”. It’s no secret the midrange decks are hard to play across TCGs, and not as recommended for beginners as something like an aggro deck. You’re going to start from one prize behind almost every game. This is not a ‘bot’ or ‘caveman’ deck, but also, come on, it’s just a card game… it’s also feasible to learn this deck after a few reps and shouldn’t keep you from playing it. I’ve gotten messages from lots of people saying “this deck is a little above me”, such as the screenshot above, after trying it. To that, I refer to this meme:

Losses are important lessons. When you can identify what you did wrong, you’re growing as a player and actively getting better with the deck. You can use that knowledge for the next game to make the right play when the situation comes up again. This is the perfect time to keep going, not give up. Honestly, this is true for all difficult decks to play, and for all players (I am on week 2 of trying to learn to play Leviathan optimally even though it quickly became one of my favorite decks and taught me worlds about water control as a whole for other archtypes). 

Control/Disruption is Key

1. Wobb

   1. I hate fan rotom. It can’t be overstated how much Rotom, Bolt, Poffin, and other cards that dropped last year have sped up GLC to the point where good decks attack and take KOs turn 1 or 2. Those Gloria days are gone. My use of Psychic has skyrocketed, despite the Marshadow ban, since Rotom got printed just because of my desire to turn that card off turn 1. You need a broken disruption card like Wobb to warrant playing a set up deck. 

   2. This should be well known, but worth mentioning for new players. Wobb is incredibly good into other set up decks. Set up your board behind it, while types like Rain Dance Water and grass might be locked out of the early game. By the time you break your Wob lock with an attack, your board is so far ahead, you can probably sweep through the game. 

   3. An advantage that Munki has over traditional psychic is this, and it’s huge: After Wobb takes a hit from Zapdos, Hoopa, or Fan and doesn’t get KOed, you can move it to the bench and use it as a leachseed for munkidori for 3 turns of the game. You didn't even need to set up tina - you just got a free set up of early pings. This actually comes up a lot and will make your opp think twice about swinging into Wobb if they have to 2 shot it.

2. Cuno and Lost City

 

You can win games with Lost City alone, but it’s even more deadly when you have a 120 snipe that auto powers up. In a lot of match ups, you can target their support for your first 1-2 prizes, follow up with a hand disruption or hex and KO a main attacker for your third prize, and win from there. 

3. Munkidori Math

Do not use the Munki to “fix math” on taking out the active - you are wasting the power of the monkey - use to pressure support mons on the bench, like Skwovet, Frosmoth, etc. This is the most common mistake I see with the deck and it severely lowers the power level. You want to cheat an extra prize and make decks scared to bench the little guys. Think about how less powerful Turbo Colorless is without the squirrel. 

4. Hex, Avery, Guzma

Quintessential GLC disruption supporters to vets but they are of the utmost importance here because you can control the board in different ways with each. In the same way you have a toolbox of attackers, you have a toolbox of disruption supporters depending on what will limit your opponent’s gameplan the most. You can tutor your supporter with Gallade every turn once it’s established to guarantee that you have the right disruption in play when you need it. 

Set Up

1. Natu, Inkay, Ralts

   1. Get these down on the bench ASAP. They are your core engine. Once they’re evolved for a few turns, you’re playing with your deck in your hand. In order, prioritize benching Natu, then Ralts, then Inkay, so you can get into the game. 

   2. Ralts is kind of bait…. People often gust or snipe it, because that is usually correct vs traditional psychic. Xatu and Malamar’s acceleration is actually the most important thing. The xatu engine at its core is less susceptible to snipe because of the redundancy of the three.

 

2. 2 of the best starters in the game - get your Wobb or Mew in active

   1. Wobb is MU and situation dependent; covered above

   2. Mew can get 1/3rd of the deck - 20 items by design that can tutor everything from pokemon, energies, and supporters. It is lowkey (okay, high key) also the core engine of the deck. Prioritize it early and it will find your other pieces because VIP and Poffin are broken. In addition to getting into the game early, Mew can also find key pieces mid game, like an evolution piece (Incense, Evosoda, Mysterious Treasure), Battle Compressor, recovery, Town Map, Pokegear, or Vs seeker. Items can almost tutor into everything in your deck. Mew is worth recovering to keep around on your bench, especially with U-Turn Board. I can’t see myself playing a modern psychic deck without Mew.

 

Attackers

1. Articuno is probably your first attacker. Against aggro, it allows you to respond prize for prize early. Against set up decks, it allows you to KO their engine. Also, easy to power up late game with Tulip and Energy Retrieval. Again, should be used to target down support mons or to stay even in the prize race while you’re still setting up.

2. Tina when you’re established with Xatu/Malmar and can get online as soon as you can to start building Munki pings. This is your main attacker. The power to be recycled indefinitely means that usually only Hex will stop your KO next turn when you have a Xatu Malmar bench. Not needing to find an attacker to bench every turn really helps your resources and allows you to focus more on other aspects of the game.

3. Mimikyu - you’ll kind of intuitively know when to copycat. KO Wailord, Snorlax, and some of the other best cards in the game, but also, don’t be afraid to filch in an early grind game.

 

4. Gallade - pre-Crispin, I tried Selenic Mirage Garde and the deck just kept feeling like it was missing something. Gallade was what it was clearly missing: Having an engine piece that can hit hard is crucial. Don’t forget that Muscle Band, or even a Tina 10 ping (when coming to the bench) plus gust, can take some bigger KOs without even wasting your monkey damage. However for the best beatstick…

5. Latios. The ultimate beatstick that is ridiculously easy to power up with this engine. I’ve tried Lunatone, I’ve tried Mewtwo … I wanted to be able to smack down the active without other conditions. If I can get 3 energies on there, which is delightfully easy, I can prob clear whatever is in front of me. Iron Boulder and Necrozoma don’t have the numbers I want to hit in a metagame where whales are popular and one of the best decks, so they’re not a consideration for me.

 

6. Munkidori. Lowkey an actual attacker. Not just for the confusion to stall a turn in an otherwise losable game, but for the damage. Take a set up deck like lightning spread - Guzma up a Flaaffy, hit for 60, and move the 30 to it the following turn for KO, and then end your turn with a second KO. This comes up vs set up decks. Watch the gameplay video in this article, the munki takes a KO (spoiler?).

Midgame Plan

1. Mew, Kirlia and Xatu for +5 draw and acceleration pre supporter

2. Start to establish Munki

3. Recycle attackers

4. Prize map is clearly established

Endgame Plan

1. Your deck is completely accessible. In fact, It is most likely in your hand if you weren’t disrupted. Even if you were, Gallade is established.

2. Munkidori and Tina have looped twice 

3. Best recovery you could ask for. Both stretchers and Tulip are all right to hand. Xatu attaches the extra energy, you can attach one from hand, and Dynamotor a third from the graveyard.

4. Everything to close out your prize map should be made available with proper thinning and on board support to make your odds of your opponents’ disruption sticking low

Supporters

Mid supporters that overperform

1. Bird Keeper - did they try to gust stall? Is your articuno stuck in the active after attacking and discarding energy? BK into Mew, draw 3, grab a 4th card off mew, and then pivot into your new attacker (if Cuno, repowered up now through xatu and malamar now that its on the bench). Growing your hand versus shuffle drawing is stronger in this engine. 

2. CynLyn - I’d almost play it just for the draw 3. In an engine that sees 5 extra cards a turn (mew, kirlia, xatu), I’m happy with a draw 3 supporter, so also adding back a crucial disruption piece for next turn, like hex, avery, guzma, or iono? Broken. 

3. Crispin and basic dark energies. Basic energies are easier to search and recur. Crispin is a mid supporter on its own, but with the xatu and munki, becomes a +2 energy attachment and +30 dmg. Set up is really important in this deck, and Crispin does that, akin to Sonia in the glory GLC days. If you play a special energy build in its place, I obviously won’t fault you, but especially the recursion, in a meta where enhanced hammer is so, so good, is worth having the darks to me. It’s not a hill I would die on, but it feels better. It can’t be overstated how nice it is to be able to have Gallade over Garde in the deck, and that’s possible because Raihan and Crispin give the extra assurance of having enough energy to power up both your attacker for turn as well as placing a dark on Munkidori in one turn.

 

Rest of the supporters

1. Arven, Iono, N, and Juniper for consistency and set up. I’ll never play a good deck without both Iono and N because of their versatility for being such good cards to find t2 but also how many games I’ve won from N to 1. 

2. Hex, Guzma, Avery for disruption. Avery because set up decks are still a thing and I don’t run parallel. If i had the space for a thicker supporter count, this would be parallel. Hex and guzma are staples in good decks. 

3. Tulip for recovery. This card is so broken that I found myself using Vs Seeker for it so often that I ended up adding energy retrieval just to have a second one and being able to play a disruption supporter on the same turn. It allows for easy 3 energy accelerant turns and articuno pops. I play it over klara for the latter and the amount of times I grab 3 energy since our main attacker - giratina - can self recur. Klara was in my first ever build and I cut it because grabbing 3 energy comes up that often. You can play either though; i wouldn’t die on this hill.

 

Other Card Choices

1. Compressor should be in every good GLC deck. It thins and makes your recovery, as well as Tina, come alive. It’s a card that really rewards thoughtful piloting. And of course, you can find it off Mew.

They’ll never print a card like this in standard again. It’s currently an ace spec because the effect is so strong. Consider this when our format allows us to play cards like it, hex, surge, delinquent, etc. 

2. VIP isn’t greedy. It’s actually the exact opposite. My deck is way more consistent because it has legitimate access to this card. Wouldn’t you run 2 buddy buddy poffins if you could? Two poffins that you can find off a basic (Mew) at that? When you whiff it, you have refinement, ub, treasure, compressor, cynlyn, research, and other ways to make it not matter. Every good set up deck should play this card if they don’t have a good call for family attacker. 

3. Town map is a staple in GLC combo decks. Too many people sleep on this card. That is a greedy cut. I’ve come back from games where I prized xatu and malamar thanks to this card and articuno to pluck them out of prizes. Those kind of come backs aren’t possible without map. And it isn’t even your supporter for turn! Again (theme), a card you can find off Mew to boot.

 

Common Questions

1. No bench barrier? Munkidori is your BB. Match ups like Hitmons and Electric spread with Raichu are free. The fear is snipe, aka raging bolt and kyogre. IMO, let them KO a bench thing. We have tons of recovery and come back. If they have the nuts, they have it. I’m not wasting a deck space and bad starter in such a wide open meta for just snipe when my main pokemon already counters spread.  

2. I keep bricking, what do you mean that this deck is consistent? How you navigate your opening hand is extremely important. From what pokemon you tutor out (Mew vs Wobb for example) can cost you the game, and trust me, it has happened to me too. You need reps with this deck and I would not recommend this as your first psychic deck if you’re getting started with glc. I more often go for Mew than Wobb in this deck, which is something strange to a lot of us GLC veterans. The problem is, that it all depends on your hand, match up, and other factors for what is correct in a particular moment. It’ll take getting comfortable with the deck to see that it is consistent, since the opening lines are not always intuitive. 

3. Why muscle band? It is proactive vs reactive (spell tag). Tina + MB = 150 which is perfect math for Lax. Latios + MB + Hex = whale killer… as well as most meta walls (turtle, bear). This lets Munki be used for the higher purpose rather than fixing math on the active. 

4. Crispin with *only* 2 energies? Can honestly say needing a 3rd energy has never come up and I’m well over 50 games with this core. Crispin is only for the early game when my energies are in deck, even if a dark is prized. By the late game I’m looking to play a power supporter and the crispy boy is probably being ultra balled away. As sonia and bridget in glc past, it’s early game consistency is so strong that it’s worth the include and it consistently will work full power without bricking your deck with a 3rd dark. 

5. What is my ideal bench? I got paralleled, what do I keep? To answer the latter first, the general answer is Xatu, Malmar, and Kirlia/Gallade. Something counterintuitive to other types, you typically will only have one attacker on your board at a time. You will recycle it or power up another attacker on your next turn. With that in mind, a ideal board is an attacker in your active, and your bench comprising of xatu, malamar, gallade, munkidori, and mew. Once your attacker is KOed, promote Mew with U-turn, and re-establish your attacker. You will want to power up a second attacker at times to play around hex a turn before you think your opp will use it. 

6. No Float Stone or Rope? Rope is often my 61st card, but for my 60th, bird keeper feels better since the deck has a lower supporter count and the draw 3 can be crucial. Mystery engine replaces Float so that we don’t have tools that can be Field Blowered: U-Turn returns to hand, and I don’t attach Muscle Band until its relevant, so by the time its Blowered, its math already applied to take a KO on my previous turn. Same idea for Dimension Valley and Lost City - the damage was already done on the turn I played them. 

7. Dude, Evosoda?! Set up is everything and I want to get my core engine set up ASAP, which is comprised of 3 stage 1s. If it’s dead… you’re in a good spot - your board is established - go Refinement, UB, QB, or MT it away. I’ve tried cutting this card, it’s always better with it in it. 

8. Where do I put my Giratina damage? The real answer: it depends. Read the situation and predict your opponents prize map to play around it. Typically, when you’re in the mid to late game it goes on xatu. It’s one of the 3 you won’t give up if they have a parallel/avery, so you can keep the dmg on board to move on your turn, but you also are probably down to your energy being mostly in the graveyard, so it isnt the best gust target for them, compared to malamar, and if they gust the munki, you can recur it and still have the damage on the bench for next turn.

 

In summation, this deck rewards thoughtful play and rewards fans of the format (re: fellow GLC nerds) who can identify what the other pilot is attempting to do. You have a toolbox of attackers, a toolbox of disruption, and a plethora of strategies for tackling whatever comes at you. When it all comes together, you’ll feel unstoppable. Practice setting up against various match ups to learn the different lines of how to play versus what. 

I keep all of my decks and opinions loudly public for the love of the game. I make competitive decks, but don’t consider myself a sweaty player, because that would diminish my love of the game. I’m a Father of 2 who loves playing Pokemon with my wife and my friends every week. I don’t know a game that takes my mind off world news and current affairs better than pokemon, especially GLC, so I enjoy these deep dives. With that said, you can always DM me questions and you will always have access to my current version here even after this article is posted: deck list

If you learn best from videos:

1. Here is a <10 min deck profile I made after Baltimore that covers the early concepts of this deck:

2. Here is live gameplay from 12/31/24 vs Dragon. It shows how to set up, unique lines, and how disruption can let you come back from behind:

You never know what undervalued card might just be broken. People said Munkidori wouldn’t be good when it was released; in truth, it’s one of the most broken cards in standard and glc. If I had another 50+ person tournament tomorrow, I would sleeve up this deck with no hesitation, with all of the information I shared with you above, because it consistently does exactly what I want it to do against the best decks and the wide open meta. I hope you can use this insight to your advantage, in piloting and crafting.

Love you all in this amazing, fun community. Keep brewing friends! 

With love,

Zmancuddles 

My socials are twitter, twitch, and youtube. Follow me for competitive decks, like this one, and for the zaniest meme decks you never knew could function. It’s up to you to decide which is which :)