1st Place Lost Zone Box Deck (Post 2024 Rotation)

In this guide, we’ll be looking at the formidable Lost Zone Box deck post 2024 rotation, featuring Paradox Pokemon.

Since its release, Lost Zone Box hasn’t left the meta. Today, it is widely regarded as one of the best Pokemon decks in the current standard format thanks to countless victories at every level of competition. In this Lost Zone Box deck list and strategy guide, we’re going to share an up-to-date Lost Box deck list that includes cards from the latest sets.

Updated April 5, 2024 to latest innovations in the deck list.

Lost Zone Box Deck List

Pokémon: 13
4 Comfey LOR 79
2 Roaring Moon ex PAR 124
1 Sableye LOR 70
1 Iron Bundle PAR 56
1 Manaphy BRS 41
1 Cramorant LOR 50
1 Raikou V BRS 48
1 Iron Hands ex PAR 70
1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
Trainer: 36
4 Colress's Experiment LOR 155
2 Roxanne ASR 150
1 Boss's Orders PAL 172
4 Super Rod PAL 188
4 Mirage Gate LOR 163
4 Nest Ball PAF 84
4 Switch Cart ASR 154
3 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
3 Switch SVI 194
1 Lost Vacuum CRZ 135
1 Prime Catcher TEF 157
1 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146
1 Counter Catcher PAR 160
1 Rescue Board TEF 159
2 PokéStop PGO 68
Energy: 11
4 Darkness Energy 7
3 Water Energy 3
2 Lightning Energy 4
2 Psychic Energy 5

Card Types

Lost Zone Box – Basic Strategy

Like any box deck, Lost Zone Box can be a bit tricky to use. This is largely due to the fact that it has an answer to any situation in the current meta. This means that unlike other decks which you can setup and play virtually the same way no matter who you face, how you play Lost Zone Box will vary each and every game, depending on the matchup.

That being said, there are a few things that should remain consistent.

Quickly setup your board with Buddy-Buddy Poffin and Nest Ball.
Comfey is your draw engine – play Comfey right away to start drawing extra cards and putting additional cards into the Lost Zone.
Use your many switch cards to use as many Comfey “Flower Selecting” abilities as possible in a turn.
Colress’s Experiment is the card you’re going to want to play ASAP as it allows you to draw five and put two in the Lost Zone. This is going to come in handy later when you need to take advantage of attacks like Lost Mine or Spit Innocently.
Accelerate energies with Mirage Gate onto your various toolbox attackers.
Look for easy potshots you can take late game with Radiant Greninja and strategic damage counter placements with Sableye.
Take out high HP Pokemon with Roaring Moon ex.
Look for opportunities to gain an extra prize with Iron Hands ex.

Lost Zone Box Deck – Core Cards

Colress’s Experiment

Colress’s Experiment is the key card to any deck that leverages the Lost Zone Engine. It is your primary draw supporter, adds vital resources to your hand when you need them, and adds two cards to your Lost Zone with each play.

Cards That Make this Lost Zone Box Deck Unique

While the cards above make up the backbone of your Lost Zone Box deck, this particular deck also runs several unique attackers and cards that give it added utility in the current meta.

Roaring Moon ex adds a powerful attacker to your roster

While this version of Lost Zone Box isn’t the first or only deck to take advantage of Roaring Moon ex’s attack, it does work well here. Roaring Moon has a powerful attack that is able to eliminate any Pokemon it faces in a single attack. Although Roaring Mono ex is also a deck of its own, it works well as an attacker in Lost Zone decks thanks to Mirage Gate.

Once you hit seven cards in your Lost Zone courtesy of Comfey and Colress, play Mirage Gate to accelerate the Darkness Energies you need onto your Roaring Moon ex and take the knockout against beefy defenders like Charizard ex.

Iron Hands ex Adds ways to Get Ahead

There was a lot of hype around Iron Hands ex when it came out in Paradox Rift. And for good reason. Few cards enable you to take an extra prize card, and Iron Hands ex lets you do it when you knock out any Pokemon. The main challenge here is that it takes a lot of energy to get this attack off. However, lots of energy isn’t exactly a huge problem for Lost Zone decks, making Iron Hands ex work really well here.

Iron Bundle helps you avoid sticky situations

There aren’t a ton of ways to counter Lost Zone Box, but one strategy that has the potential to be deadly is to trap you with either Flutter Mane or cards that prevent retreating like Snorlax Stall. To help you out, this deck runs Iron Bundle. Iron Bundle has a handy ability that switches out your opponent’s active Pokemon for a Pokemon on the bench (your opponent chooses their new Pokemon). Think of it as a one way Escape Rope (now that Escape Rope has left the meta).

But Iron Bundle isn’t the only card to help with switching out your opponent’s active. This deck also runs one copy of Prime Catcher – the most Popular ACE SPEC Pokemon card in the game right now. With this, you can switch out your opponent’s Pokemon and choose their new active from their bench, while you also get to switch in a new Pokemon. This can be helpful in getting a more favorable matchup while also getting in a another Flower Select.

Lost Zone Deck Biggest Weaknesses

Lost Zone works really, really well against some decks, and pretty poorly against others. If your strategy relies on having a bunch of low HP Pokemon on your bench (the way Charizard ex does), then it can be pretty tough to win against Lost Zone Box. On the other hand, if your strategy relies solely on high HP Pokemon, it can be pretty hard for Lost Zone Box to beat you.

Apart from the pros and cons of the matchup, here are additional weaknesses in the Lost Box deck to either look to exploit or defend against depending on what you are playing.

Lost City Hinders Lost Zone Box

Being a deck that runs one copy (or max two) of its main attackers, if you can get those attackers out of play early on with Lost City, you can really hurt Lost Box’s chance of winning.

Flutter Mane

Flutter Mane has a one way ability shut off called “Midnight Fluttering” that shuts off your active Pokemon’s abilities. This can be really hard for Lost Zone Box to deal with as it massively relies on Comfey. We’ve already gone over how Iron Bundle and Prime Catcher specifically can help in this situation, but they aren’t foolproof. Sometimes Flutter Mane will shut you down for a few turns completely. Luckily, not a ton of decks are running Flutter Mane at the moment.

Low Supporter Versatility

Lastly, any deck that runs on the Lost Zone engine has a real challenge in that it cannot leverage any supporter early game and hope to play well other than Colress. And as a supporter, that’s kind of a problem. Colress isn’t a very strong supporter. It doesn’t draw as many cards as other supporters like Professor’s Research, or disrupt your opponent’s hand like Iono. Also, if you happen not to draw Colress, you can find yourself quickly behind in your Lost Zone count.

Jirachi and Mist Energy

Lastly, Jirachi and Mist Energy can complicate your strategy. Before these cards came around, there wasn’t a solid way to stop Sableye from tearing through your benched Pokemon with its “Lost Mine Attack.” However, Jirachi is relatively commonly played now, and that card is capable of blocking Lost Mine from damaging benched Pokemon. Likewise, Mist Energy blocks damage done from the effects of attacks, totally protecting against Lost Mine.

All-in-all, Lost Zone Box is easily one of the strongest decks around, with proven results that show it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

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