1— Mega Blastoise EX — XY (30/146)
3 — Blastoise EX — XY (29/146)
2 — Keldeo EX — Boundaries Crossed (49/149)
3 — Suicune — Plasma Blast (20/101)
4 — Lapras — XY (35/146)
4 — Manaphy — Plasma Storm (34/135)
Trainers [26]
3 — VS Seeker — Phantom Forces (109/119)
4 — Battle Compressor — Phantom Forces (92/119)
4 — Robo Substitute — Phantom Forces (102/119)
3 — Pokémon Center Lady — Flashfire (93/106)
4 — Colress — Plasma Storm (118/135)
2 — Frozen City — Plasma Freeze (100/116)
1 — Rock Guard — Plasma Freeze (108/116)
2 — Float Stone — Plasma Freeze (99/116)
3 — Muscle Band — XY (121/146)
Energy [17]
3 — Double Colorless Energy
14 — Water Energy
MAIN STRATEGY
Manaphy, Lapras & Battle Compressor: This combo is the centerpiece of the Marine deck series. And in this deck, they represent the speedboat, the medical pump, and our sinking children. The strategy between these cards involves throwing Lapras or Manaphy out as your active, then using Battle Compressor to pump three water energy into your discard pile. After that, you'll want to use [Seafaring] to attach as many of those energy as you can onto your benched Pokémon.
Tactically, since Lapras has higher HP, you'll probably always want to lead with it over Manaphy when it comes to [Seafaring]. This should give you more time to flip those coins and get as many energy as you can onto your benched Pokémon. Lapras can double as offensive power when your resources are slim. So if you get into a really bad spot, try using Lapras as a hybrid offensive/defensive piece. Its moderately high HP can buy you some time, and 50 damage for two energy—via [Hydro Pump]—isn't too bad either.
Manaphy has considerably low HP, and since it won't generally give you as much time to flip your coins on [Seafaring], you probably don't want lead with it unless you're sure that you'll be able to make an offensive move anyways within the shortened time frame. After Manaphy gets KO'd, [Last Wish] is going to give you a free card from your deck, and that is always going to be useful (especially in a very bad spot). So if you notice that your hand is a little short on content, you can also consider leading with Manaphy instead for the tactical edge that [Last Wish] provides.
Blastoise EX & Mega Blastoise: Our captain of the ship. Blastoise is our primary offensive resource, which can boast a little tactical potential as well. The strategy involves just placing Blastoise on your bench and letting [Seafaring] do its magic for you. If things go well, you'll be able to blast your opponent's active Pokémon with [Splash Bomb] on your next turn for up to 140 damage (including Muscle Band). From there, you can just keep bombing them directly; or you can use [Rapid Spin] to switch out Blastoise for Suicune or Robo Substitute to protect it from taking a direct hit during your opponent's next turn.
Mega Blastoise is your superpower option—but I've only included one copy of the card specifically to suite games where you have the distinct advantage to Mega Evolve without ever being held back by it. For this reason, you'll want to use [Last Wish] to obtain Mega Blastoise whenever you need it. If you're running this option with Blastoise on the bench, lead with Manaphy to fetch Mega Blastoise, then you can follow up with Robo Substitute and then Mega Evolve without any worry.
Having a few copies of Mega Evolutions can actually hold you back in general. And since Blastoise EX does so well on its own here, I think just one Mega Blastoise should be just fine for this deck. It helps to guide players along. Since whenever you can use it—it's there for you. But when it's not available—it forces you to move along to another option (which will often work out for the best).
Keldeo EX: Our vice admiral—and right hand man Keldeo EX. This is an extremely powerful card that boasts all kinds of tactical potential to it (especially in this deck). For example, [Secret Sword] will be dealing at least 120 damage when you attack—and you can further increase that damage by 20 for each Water Energy you attach after that. This can be a fairly easy feat to achieve in this deck, given how [Seafaring] can grant you up to three energy at a time. And at five energy (including Muscle Band), you'll be doing 180 damage to OHK nearly any card in the game.
The [Rush In] ability offers all kinds of tactical potential all by itself. For example, you can use it to switch out your Robo Substitutes without discarding them, or save any sitting ducks that you might have stuck as your active without any energy on them. Akin to this, [Rush In] can be used to spare your [Seafaring] Pokémon and retreat them for free—allowing them to retain their energy cards—so that they can come right back out and do their thing again if they need to.
As an advanced tactic, try keeping Blastoise and other Pokémon as your lead over Keldeo. This will enable you to scoop up any energies that you've lost along the way with [Seafaring], and attach them all to Keldeo EX to maximize the power of his [Secret Sword] attack before he goes active.
Suicune: Here we have the spirit of the Coast Guard—which is strongly represented by Suicune's purifying nature and its ability [Safeguard]. Suicune is definitely going to be one of your most prominent resources in this deck. It's going to be the card that saves you from the crush of cheap Pokémon EX (like Yveltal EX and Mewtwo EX) that so many people seem to fanatically enjoy just throwing out there and spamming with energies. Suicune can be the only card you need to lock the game down and ensure your absolute victory. And since it's compatible with the Double Colorless Energy, all it takes is a single energy from [Seafaring] to save the day for you.
Colress & Pokémon Center Lady: The navigator and the nurse—essentials to the Marine crew of the Coast Guard. Colress is you main man to navigate the seas, and is going to be ripping up the waters once you've packed you bench with Lapras, Manaphy, and Robo Substitutes. At best, you should come to the point where you have so many cards—that you can't even use them all! It gets that intense.
Pokémon Center Lady is significantly a bit more important than Colress is. It's your only resource to heal your Pokémon from Frozen City damage, recoil (like with Blastoise)—or simply on demand to keep your ship above the water. This can be a really great card to save for Suicune as well, seeing as how Suicune is so tactically important, yet only has 100HP. Because of its power, Pokémon Center Lady is definitely a resource that you'll want to save for your more prominent Pokémon. So save them for when you need them (even if that means shuffling them back into your deck via Colress)—and try not to waste them on anything just because you're scared to let it pass you by.
Vs. Seeker: Marine communications—adding more tactical edge to your crew. Vs. Seeker acts as an extension to your Colress and Pokémon Center Lady cards. However, despite the surplus, try not to waste more than one Vs. Seeker on any Colress—unless you absolutely have to. Pokémon Center Lady is a much more important resource. Once you've got your primary offensive going, just one Pokémon EX backed by Pokémon Center Lady can clear the board entirely by itself. So do use those Vs. Seeker cautiously.
Frozen City: The city in peril—adding more offensive edge to your deck. This card is going to create some very choppy waters for both players. Pokémon is a game where every damage counter can seriously count, so a card like this can be a game breaker. However, you should be able to bear the storm without much trouble, since [Seafaring] gives you a way around Frozen City—granting you energies from your discard pile that won't incur any damage on your own Pokémon. Be warned that this can be a very tough card to play with, but the power of Frozen City can be more than worth it—so just try to stick with it the best you can.
Muscle Band, Float Stone & Rock Guard: Bandages, smelling salts, and the sweet—sweet shoreline. Some of the most welcoming things to any Marine. The spread on these resources is thin, so you're going to want to be extra cautious with how you use them. Muscle Band works best on Suicune, Blastoise EX, and Lapras (in that order). Float Stone has legendarily been Keldeo EX's main tool since it came out—so it should be a given who to save that for. Suicune can be another good option for Float Stone as well. It can be very useful in a crunch, to retreat Suicune for free, and spare it from being knocked out so that it can go on to defend you indefinitely from Pokémon EX.
Rock Guard is a given for any Pokémon EX, since their high HP is the perfect compliment to Rock Guard's high damaging ability. However, Blastoise EX is definitely your best bet when it comes to Rock Guard thanks to the power of [Rapid Spin]. When Blastoise's HP gets really low, you can [Rapid Spin] out back to the bench, and wait for a few Pokémon Center Lady to breathe some life back into your Rock Guarded Blastoise EX. To top it off, even with the standard 120 damage on [Splash Bomb], no typical Pokémon EX will be able to attack Blastoise EX without knocking itself out in the process (adding yet another layer of defensive power to your side).
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