GLC Munkidori Psychic - DRI

Hello everyone! My name is brooke and I love playing Psychic in GLC.

Recently, I competed in the Full Grip Games cash events with Crispin Munkidori and finished in the top 8 at both events, going undefeated in Swiss both times! 

I have been working on the list with the creator of the archetype, Zmancuddles, and I wanted to write an article that talks about where the deck is right now and possible future directions.

This article will cover how Crispin Munki differs from other Psychic archetypes and why you should play it, the list I played to the 3k, potential card inclusions to consider, and why you might not want to play it. However, if you have not read Zman’s excellent Crispin Munki primer, please read that before this article! It is a fantastic introduction to the archetype.

What is Crispin Munki? Why should I play it?

Crispin Munki is a midrange Psychic archetype that features Munkidori from Twilight Masquerade and Crispin from Stellar Crown. Psychic is already known for stellar Energy acceleration thanks to Psychic Recharge Malamar and Clairvoyant Sense Xatu, but including Darkness Energy to enable Adrena-Brain allows you to play Crispin for an additional source of Energy acceleration that can fuel aggressive early games! I have used Crispin to attack on turn 1 with Wobbuffet countless times, immediately pressuring my opponent to get an attacker together while under Ability lock. At the 1k, I even used Crispin and Muscle Band to take a turn 1 KO on my opponent’s Tatsugiri with Munkidori!

However, the real strength of this archetype lies in its consistency and its resiliency. With 20 Item cards in the deck, Mysterious Tail Mew helps bolster your set-up, turning any Basic Pokémon search into additional looks at Pokémon search, recovery cards, or interaction for your opponent. It’s no Fan Rotom, but I am always ecstatic to see it in my opener and love how it provides value turn after turn. And, hey, if your opponent is KOing Mew, they’re not KOing your evolving support Pokémon!

Resiliency in this deck comes in the form of sticky attackers, strong support Pokémon, and several recovery options. Giratina from Lost Thunder is a constant, recurring threat that enables Munkidori in any matchup, and Xatu and Malamar can get a 3-cost attacker set up in one turn without a problem. Even if your opponent takes out one of your support Pokémon, you still have a powered up Giratina and can spend your turn using Tulip or Stretchers to begin to reestablish what was KOed.

As a setup deck, you will often be playing from behind. But having access to Adrena-Brain allows you to pressure your opponent’s Benched support Pokémon and eventually catch up! Adrena-Brain enables turns where you KO an attacking threat and a Pokémon that will help your opponent stay in the game. This ability to consistently come back and work through KOs and hand disruption is, in my opinion, why you should play this archetype. If you’d like to see a game demonstrating how this deck can play from behind, check out this streamed game from the 1k! I intentionally stayed behind on Prizes to prevent my opponent from being able to leverage their own comeback cards like Counter Energy and Counter Gain.

Other Psychic archetypes either don’t have this capability or utilize strategies that are too fragile and are easily countered. Psychic archetypes that can make comeback plays rely on weaving together precise sequences of cards, like Blindside Natu or Parallel City and Dusknoir, or are slow to get online and susceptible to disruption, like Lost Zone. 

Crispin Munki lets you build up resiliency and remain flexible in your role in the game, which makes it strong, but also challenging to pilot precisely. If you take only one piece of advice away from this article, be mindful of the resources you have available. Prize checking is important in any GLC game, but knowing what Pokémon are prized and how many recovery options or Gust options you have access to is critical for this deck! A game where both Xatu and Malamar are prized looks very different from a game where you have access to both of your Energy acceleration options.

As you learn the lines, you can start to push yourself to string together attackers with as few resources as possible. Anyone can Raihan for Dimension Valley and Psychic Recharge to get an attack off, but being able to conserve powerful resources turn over turn will carry you into the endgame where you can close out the game in any number of ways.

Now, I’ll get into what list I played to the 3k and my matchups, why I played the cards that I did, and what other options you could consider for the archetype!

Decklist and Matchups

darkside 👨‍🍳🐒🔮Crispin Munki 👨‍🍳🐒🔮 

• R1 Klinklang Metal, 1st - W
• R2 Aggro Water, 1st - W
• R3 Psychic (Dusknoir, no Togekiss), 1st - W
• R4 Psychic (Dusknoir, with Togekiss), 1st - W
• R5 Hydro Pump, 2nd - W
• R6 ID
• R7 Psychic (Mirror), 1st - W
• T8 Ursaluna Control - LL

I had a pretty smooth run through Swiss! I pulled off some very powerful starts, especially round 5. My opponent had a very solid set up and was threatening a Wailord, but I got my Energy acceleration established and Pokégeared into Guzma to take out their Frosmoth, which disrupted them enough such that I could press my advantage to the end of the game.

The closest game of the event was round 2 against Aggro Water. I missed a couple of key KOs, and it ultimately came down to my last turn in time. I had to use Nest Ball, Mysterious Tail, Pokégear 3.0, and Buddy Catch to thin before using Professor Juniper to draw the rest of my deck, which had the exact pieces I needed to win.

My Top 8 match was streamed! I have only played against Colorless Control once before and I was very unfamiliar with Lion’s turbo build. That lack of familiarity definitely hurt me in the games, as I was trying to navigate tough draws and Prizes while figuring out what my opponent was capable of doing! Lion had a sweet deck and played the match very well; I hope I get the opportunity to play against him again! (And maybe have the energy to retreat into Wobbuffet on turn 1 next time. ::P)

The list that I played at this event is very similar to the list that I made top 8 with at the last FGG GLC event with some small, but impactful changes!

Additions

• Iron Boulder
• Marnie
• Parallel City

Removals

• Latios
• Mr. Mime
• Avery

Iron Boulder/Marnie

Let’s start with the Boulder in the room. Before this event, I hated this card! The lists that I saw when Iron Boulder first released were going very deep on hand disruption to match hand sizes, going as far as playing Judge Whistle. Over time, lists have scaled back on the hand disruption, but I was still resistant to playing it. This deck already asks a lot of you mentally, and I was not leaping at the chance to have my opponent’s hand size as another thing that I would need to track.

But I did want to give it a fair shot, especially as the need to hit 180 with Latios has lessened with fewer HP boosting tools in the metagame. A 2 Energy attack and 140 HP were certainly appealing characteristics!

The addition of Marnie was to have another option to force hand size matching. It was helpful to have, but I matched most hands pretty naturally. 

To my surprise, Iron Boulder overperformed at this event. It was easy to set up early and was a difficult threat for many of my opponents to have a response to. That early pressure allowed me to more effectively set up my board for the rest of the game, and I only had to care about hand sizes as long as Iron Boulder stuck around! The 2 Energy attack cost allowed for more manual attachments to Pokémon like Munkidori or Gallade to prepare for a Hex Maniac turn. Iron Boulder, I am sorry for ever doubting you.

The swap from Latios to Iron Boulder definitely hurt in my top 8 match. The 10 damage difference and needing to match hand sizes made it tough to use Iron Boulder effectively! But given its performance in the rest of the event, I will be playing Iron Boulder for the foreseeable future.

Parallel City

At the $1k in March, the only change I made from Zman’s original list was cutting Lost City for Bench Barrier Mr. Mime. At that event, I definitely missed having the additional Stadium and knew that I would play another Stadium at the next event. I decided on Parallel City due to the power of interacting with an opponent’s Bench. I swapped out Avery because I believe that Parallel City provides a stronger Bench limiting effect, and I valued that more highly than the synergy with Buddy Catch Gallade and the additional consistency that another draw 3 Supporter can provide.

I liked Parallel City a lot in the event! It put in good work against my Water and Psychic opponents. I might play Avery over it in a future build, but for now I will be sticking with Parallel City as my Bench interaction.

Alternate Card Options

Anyone who has worked on building a GLC list knows that every GLC list is really 65 cards and you just have to pick which 5 you don’t get to play. Here’s the 5 cards that I most want to find a place for in Crispin Munki and why!

Scoop Up Net

With the addition of Iron Boulder to the deck, there’s now 3 Pokémon with 2 or more Retreat Cost that you don’t want in the Active spot on turn 1 (Giratina, Galarian Articuno, Iron Boulder). That means in almost 1 out of every 8 games you’ll have one of these as your only Basic in your opener!

While the deck has mobility for these Pokémon in the form of Bird Keeper, Guzma, and Mystery Energy, using something as precious as your only Gust Supporter just to move your starting Pokémon out of the Active feels really bad and you would have to discard Mystery Energy to retreat Giratina or Iron Boulder! Adding Scoop Up Net gives you another option to move these Pokémon, plus you can find it off of Arven or a card draw Supporter!

Other options I would consider to fulfill this purpose would be Escape Rope or Float Stone.

Lost Vacuum

After the 1k, I played around with Lost Vacuum after seeing it in Ben Morse’s winning Colorless list. There is a lot to like about it! Permanent interaction for U-Turn Board is very powerful and additional Tool or Stadium interaction beyond Field Blower isn’t always expected, opening up some lines where you can take an opponent off-guard. I’ve had games where the additional piece of interaction is very useful against an opponent that staggers key Tools to avoid both getting taken out at once.

It didn’t make the cut for this event because I found that I wasn’t playing against much U-Turn Board and that I could manage just fine with the Field Blower as long as I was aware of when it was best to deploy it. 

Pal Pad

Pal Pad allows you to reuse your strongest Supporter options and often gets to act like a second VS Seeker if you have Gallade established. A second VS Seeker sounds pretty good in a singleton format, but in my testing, I’ve found Pal Pad to be a bit overkill in terms of late game recursion. This deck can take 6 Prizes without needing to use a powerful Supporter like Raihan or Tulip even once, so why play another card that lets you play them twice?

I’ve found Pal Pad to be most useful in games where I have to discard late game resources to early Ball search or to a Professor’s Research, but overall, Pal Pad has remained off the list because it sacrifices early game consistency for late game closing power, which this deck has plenty of if you can get set up!

Another card that could fulfill a similar purpose would be Lusamine, which provides the additional effect of recurring Dimension Valley or Parallel City in addition to being tutorable off of Gallade.

Lost City

I have a love/hate relationship with Lost City. I love when I get to use it in combination with Galarian Articuno to snipe my opponent’s key support Pokémon! But I hate when my opponent gets to use my own Lost City to take out Giratina or one of my own key support Pokémon!

In this list specifically, I have also found it difficult to find Lost City when I need it and to bump my own Lost City if I need to get rid of it. It’s a card that I want to play more with, but I left it off the list for the 3k because I didn’t want to play an unfamiliar card that I’ve struggled to make good use of, even when I recognize the potential it has!

Mr. Mime PLF

Bench Barrier is a great insurance policy. You put a lot of turns and resources into setting up your Xatu, Kirlia, and Malamar, why let your opponent just Galarian Articuno or Kyogre or Raging Bolt snipe them away? 

My main reason for not playing Mr. Mime is that playing the insurance policy does not come without its costs. If you have to use half of a Buddy-Buddy Poffin to get your Bench Barrier, you’ve already taken away a Basic Pokémon that your opponent could have sniped.

Getting the Bench Barrier does prevent them from taking a Prize card and allow you to protect the Basics that you did get, but in some games, I’d almost prefer my opponent take a Prize card and turn on my Counter Energy to enable a return attack!

Why shouldn’t I play Crispin Munki?

While I think this deck is a lot of fun and a strong choice in GLC, there are some aspects of the deck that might turn someone off from playing it. 

1. This is a setup deck. While you have access to several strong Basic attackers, they are most effective when you have Xatu or Malamar helping to power them up immediately. The deck is designed to prioritize early game setup through extra Item-based search and Mysterious Tail Mew, but sometimes you will have slow starts. You also will frequently give up the first Prize. The deck is designed to flip the Prize race with Munkidori, but if you don’t like playing from behind, this is probably not the deck for you!

2. One small decision can lose you a game. I have lost games with this deck because I misplaced 1 damage counter off of Munkidori several turns prior. You need to be able to have short- and long-term vision with this deck and know what your opponent’s deck is capable of doing!

3. Including Munkidori comes at a cost. The Munkidori package takes up 4 deck slots in the deck. That is a lot of cards for a Gym Leader Challenge deck! Those slots could be a Dusknoir line plus Rare Candy, a Guzma & Hala package, or additional Supporters like Boss’s Orders or Teammates. I believe that this deck and its success justifies the inclusion of the Munkidori package over these other options, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss playing my custom Teammates! If you like having those redundant options, you should maybe consider a different archetype.

Conclusion

Crispin Munki is a solid option in the current GLC metagame. While playing it optimally is a challenge, this archetype rewards you for the effort you put in! If you have any questions about the archetype or card choices, check out the Crispin Munki Psychic channel in the Cardboard Warriors Discord, and feel free to ping me in there (@brookehorse)! 

Special thanks to my partners, Edelgard and Nat, for both of y’all’s support, Zmancuddles for developing the coolest archetype in Gym Leader Challenge, Full Grip Games, Natalie, and Andrew Mahone for hosting an incredible event, my friend Avery and the entire Pittsburgh Pokémon scene!

See y’all at the next 3k!