2 — Giratina EX — Dragons Exalted (124/124)
2 — Giratina EX — Ancient Origins (57/98)
2 — Latias EX — Plasma Freeze (85/116)
1 — Hydreigon EX — Roaring Skies (103/108)
3 — Audino — Boundaries Crossed (126/149)
4 — Swablu — Ancient Origins (24/98)
2 — Altaria — Dragons Exalted (84/124)
2 — Altaria — Boundaries Crossed (152/149)
Trainers [25]
2 — Enhanced Hammer — Primal Clash (162/160)
2 — Red Card — XY Base Set (124/146)
4 — Level Ball — Ancient Origins (76/98)
2 — Judge — BREAKthrough (143/162)
2 — Shauna — XY Base Set (127/146)
3 — N — Dark Explorers (96/108)
3 — Professor Birch's Observations — Primal Clash (159/160)
3 — Fairy Garden — XY Base Set (117/146)
1— Life Dew — Plasma Freeze (107/116)
3— Head Ringer — Phantom Forces (97/119)
Energy [17]
4 — Double Dragon Energy — Roaring Skies (97/108)
4 — Blend Energy — Roaring Skies (117/124)
4 — Prism Energy — Next Destinies (93/99)
2 — Rainbow Energy — XY Base Set (131/146)
3 — Double Colorless Energy
MAIN STRATEGY
Originally, this was the only Giratina card in this deck (and the centerpiece of this deck itself). It was present in high volume and ruled the Active Pokémon spot with its crushing power. However, in the re-development process to perfect this deck, I slid a copy aside to make room for two copies of the {Renegade Pulse} Giratina, from Ancient Origins. It's a bit of a steeper climb to begin attacking, yet this Giratina EX offers some great tactical contrast with the power of its two effects.
Mega Evolutions have been pretty prominent on the scene since there introduction. So being able to stop them cold in their tracks with {Renegade Pulse} is worth all the space we've made for it. It's a much stronger strategy to handle Mega Pokémon opposed to trying to beat them with the raw power of [Shred] Giratina alone. That is an extremely powerful card—yet my logic is like this. It's so powerful—that one should be enough. And if it's not enough, you have to be better off with something more tactical to back you up. Well, {Renegade Pulse} Giratina is just that. It's a perfect contrast to our original Giratina EX—given the unique tactical edge it provides for our defense.
[Chaos Wheel] itself dealsa heavy 100 damage, which is enough to KO lots of things in one hit (and most everything else in just two). [Chaos Wheel] is also going to lock our opponents down from playing some of their most prominent content. This can be crushing at any time in the game—yet I would say that late-game scene sees greater potential for this. For this reason, it's best to keep {Renegade Pulse} Giratina on the bench as our strong reserve. If we need it right away, we can send it out. Yet the four energy climb on [Chaos Wheel] can be too easily derailed for comfort.
That is why [Shred] Giratina should be our lead between the two. It boasts more raw power, the damage of [Shred] can overrides effects and abilities—while at only three energy to attack—it's also a lot easier to recover from if we happen to get derailed by something like [Enhanced Hammer].
[Shred] is also our lead attack for Giratina as well, so stick to your guns while this Pokémon is active. [Dragon Pulse] is like your bomb—don't waste them. If you have to attack twice anyways to knock out a Pokémon, there's no reason not to use [Shred]. If you spam [Dragon Pulse], you can end up wasting precious cards that will get discarded from the top your deck—so reserve this attack for one-hit KOs. Together, the two attacks boast some amazing power—and that is why this Giratina is still the centerpiece of this deck by far.
xxSWEETYxx is a beautiful & powerful dragon. Give her all the attention you can. This dragon can make all of your riding dreams come true if you give her the attention she needs.
In this constellation, Latias EX and the defensive power of {Bright Dawn} reinforces the defensive power of Giratina & {Renegade Pulse} to stop the advance of certain Pokémon cold where they stand. Latias EX even boasts a little more power than Giratina as well, given how {Bright Dawn} revolves around Pokémon with abilities (rather than Mega Pokémon).
Abilities are an even more prominent attribute in the game, and that means Latias EX is going to be able to stop some of the most powerful cards dead in their tracks. Cards like {Rush In} Keldeo EX, {Verdant Wind} Virizion, and even {Safeguard} Suicune. Cards like Suicune would be a predator to Latias EX, yet this scenario flips around the other way entirely here. Not only does Latias EX stop Suicune instead—but [Barrier Break] can rip through Suicune's {Safeguard} ability as well (damaging what should normally be an untouchable Pokémon).
It's such an amazing card—that adds so much power to our deck. With nearly perfect offensive and defensive potential, it's about as close to riding a real dragon as it gets.
Hydreigon just the same—is here to add power. But not for the tactical power of {Dragon Road}—for the raw power of [Shred]. This Pokémon adds another heavy unstoppable attacker to our offensive line-up. And it's the very reason why I have Hydreigon EX in this deck over some of the other options that were available. The power of [Shred] is simply unsurpassable. And when it comes to unstoppable power like this—you can never have too much. That's what makes Hydreigon the greatest selection here among all other options.
{Dragon Road} is a really nice bonus too. It give us a back up a on the moving power of Fairy Garden. Which is another one of those aspects of such importance—there's almost no such thing as having too much of it. Hydreigon EX is truly like riding a hydra dragon Ferrari—given how it provides such a diversity of power, speed, and handling—for our riding pleasure.
Altaria & Audino: Altaria is like a dragon ride for the kids. It's goes up and down—and weeeeee! We're too big to ride this dragon, so we just watch like Audino. This pair of Pokémon continues reinforcing the raw and tactical power of this deck through constellations.
Altaria is like a second centerpiece—and gives us a background task to accomplish while we feed our dragons energy. {Fight Song} increases the power of our dragon's attacks by 20 damage each—so we want to get all of our little Swablu on the bench—so they have some fun too riding Altaria. Since this is a priority of ours, Level Ball has been placed here in high volume to help out.
You see—{Fight Song} can provide us so much power—that it makes Altaria a main resource in the deck by default. And that's why it's in our best interests to build the deck structure with an emphasis on supporting this Pokémon as a main resource. And that's what Level Ball is for—it acts as four on-demand copies of either card. This is one of the greatest uses for Level Ball in the game.
It's like the Love Up. That's when the love we have for someone levels up—because they treat us so good. The method for using Level Ball is going to involve focusing your attention on Swablu first, then shifting over to Altaria once you've got at least two of them on the bench. This deck provides a lot of wheel power, where Level Ball helps to increase the power of our Supporters, by thinning the deck if we focus its potential on cards that we can put to use right away (such as Swablu).
From there, our copies of Altaria will come closer together naturally, while left-over copies of Level Ball can be used as on-demand copies of Altaria if we don't draw into one. If you try to go one for one, that's only to hold you back, because you won't be able to evolve your Swablu to Altaria right away. That bench time is very important to the flow of the cards. So for best results, focus Level Ball's attention on Swablu with the method I've explained here.
Audino works as our assistant caregiver here in the usual ways. As a Basic Pokémon, Audino provides some cover for the opening spot—helping to reduce the trouble of starting with Swablu. [Hip Bump] can be used to stall for time as always, yet this offensive potential shouldn't be something you have to exercise very often in this deck. Our Double Colorless Energy are a rather precious resource to our main dragon. So much so, that we want to put an emphasis on desperately saving them for xxSWEETYxx. Sparing one for an Audino shouldn't be too bad—but not one more.
Audino is more of a tactical resource in this deck. Where the offensive power of our dragon Pokémon takes such precedence, that Audino shouldn't even have the opportunity to be of much use for anything else. Save them in your hand, or shuffle them back into your deck for later. What we want to do here is reserve the power of {Budybody} to save our dragons from Special Conditions. Audino provides the contrast we need to cover this short-range weakness of this deck. And it's your only ticket out of troublesome conditions like Asleep, Poisoned, and Paralyzed—so hang on to them for dear life to keep your dragons from getting hijacked like that.
Enhanced Hammer, Red Card, & Judge: At first glance, you might think that these cards represent the justice system and we're in big trouble. But nope—these cards represent us. We are justice. Because we have a dragon, the golden hammer of Thor, and we can throw kinetic cards like Gambit. You better watch your ass. Because if you think you can escape justice, we're coming for yours next.
This deck heavily relies on the power of Pokémon EX, and that makes it rather vulnerable when it comes to Prize cards. In addition to that, our Pokémon EX heavily rely on Special Energy cards, which furthers our vulnerability to being derailed by Special Energy removal. This dependency also creates a lapse of at least two turns before our dragons are initially ready to go. And so, in addition to this deck always wanting to play first for the energy lead—that's what these tactical weapons are all about. They're intended to oppress our opponent's resources and break their pace so that we can strongly overtake them once our dragons are ready to roll.
Enhanced Hammer should be used right away to break our opponent's energy pace, while you'll want to generally keep your Red Card on reserve to help balance the short end of your Supporters. Red Card makes an excellent compliment to the wheel Supporters we have here, since it can take away from any advantage they might gain from cards like N—while evening the scale for cards like Shauna, as well as the short end of Professor Birch's Observations.
As for Judge, it's a really great compliment to Red Card itself. It's like Red Card on a stick—as some might say. It's a wheel supporter than doubles as two additional copies of Red Card—putting more of that power in our hands without totally taking away from our own card advantage.
We've only got two though, so try not waste them. Save them for later in the game unless your opponent searches for something important, or their hand is dangerously high. Judge can pose as a liability early on in the game (due to the short range of the draw we get)—so try to filter out your decks a much as possible before you use them—and lean towards Red Card in the meantime. It's an expendable Item Card that takes nothing away from us by using one. I'm not saying to waste them either, but keep in mind that Judge is here to back us up on this, so don't be timid when it comes to throwing the Red Card down. Lay it down—and the hammers too—and let there be justice for all!
Professor Birch's Observations, Shauna, & N: Professor Birch's Observations would be like the news reporters running all over town—collecting eyewitness reports of a flying Ghost Rider on a dragon. Shauna would be like our girlfriend—she wants to rides the dragon. And that would make us N—we want to take her on the wildest ride of her life.
Since this deck is so concentrated, and doesn't have many spare resources, the Supporter spread here relies exclusively on wheel cards to spare our resources from being lost to discard. This is a deck that aims to thin itself out very well—and very quickly (where the power of wheel Supporters can thrive). The technique for using this blend of Supporter involves channeling the ones with highest draw range first (in order to amass as many cards as we can to get as much as we can into play). This is going to concentrate our deck, and help to increase the potency of our lower range wheel Supporters (detracting from the chance we get short-handed by them when we use them).
If you use them early on in the game (before the deck has been thinned out), then the chance of redundancy in your draw is going to be very high—and you're very likely to draw into overlapping content rather than the cards you're looking for. So stick to the Supporters that have the highest draw ranges first, and save the other ones cover the difference later.
This would mean playing N early in the game, Shauna through the mid-game, and then save Professor Birch's Observations for the late-game scene. If you're feeling lucky, you can trying play Professor Birch's Observations through the mid-game instead. You should have Red Card and Judge there to back you up on the short-end—so put that fatty to work. He's like a dragon in ways. And I guess if you're comfortable with yourself, you can ride him to Shauna, and then Shauna to victory! As her boyfriend, that's of course the dragon we want to ride most of all.
Head Ringer, Life Dew, & Fairy Garden: Head Ringer is like the bad ass tunes we jam while riding the dragon. Everything is better with good music—and Head Ringer brings the noise like the Skull Candy Smokin' Buds 2 (which are some really badass headphones). Head Ringer is another tactical utility help control the pace of the game in our favor. I opted for this Pokémon Tool card over the raw power of Muscle Band, because the potential advantage it provides is far superior to suite the needs of this deck. Losing a turn to Head Ringer is going to set our opponents back a more than the additional 20 damage from Muscle Band would set us ahead.
Not only does Head Ringer potentially waste an energy of our opponent's, it can spare our dragons from damage when our opponent's can't attack, as well as buy us the turn we need to fully energize our dragon. Head Ringer also prevents our opponents from using their own Tool cards (such as Spirit Links), and all these benefactors together are what make Head Ringer the superior choice as far as I can tell. Power is great—and a concentration of power can be really devastating—but tactical contrast reigns supreme when you've already got as much power we do here. We have 70, 80, and 90 damage [Shred] attacks—as well as multiple copies of {Fight Song}. Alongside the vulnerabilities we have, what we need in a Tool card is some contrast to that power. Contrast is going to cover our weakness, and that's going to enable us to exercise the power we have to its greatest potential without disruption.
Life Dew is like the magic potion. Because having a dragon like automatically makes us a wizard or something. And wizards have to have magic potions. So like—here it is. This deck solely relies on the power of Pokémon EX, which again are a huge liability when it comes to Prize cards. For this reason, I felt like this deck absolutely needed Life Dew to ease the tension of that aspect. In a deck full of Pokémon EX, that kind of potential is unmatched by anything else. And that's what makes it the best Ace Spec card for this deck—hands down. So just chug it. It's like Red Bull. It gives you wings.
Fairy Garden would be the resting place for our dragons. Because I guess that's where dragons like to sleep—on a bed of roses. There's not much else to it though. It's a great card to have in the deck so that we ace out our opponent's Stadium cards, as well as move our heavy dragons around. Fairy Garden is like a perfect compliment to this deck with heavy the presence of Special Energy cards here. There's such a liability in losing one, that the ability to move our dragon out on one energy is prime. And although we have Audino to back us up against Special Conditions, this is more of that potential you just can't have too much of—and that's logic here behind Fairy Garden. Against crushing Special Conditions such as Poison and Confusion—Fairy Garden is sure to be a life saver.
Lay them to rest there and let the sleeping dragons lie. Legend says to never wake a sleeping dragon, and I don't know why—but if it's anything like being woken up in the middle of night by our baby—I can't even.
No comments:
Post a Comment