Dark Mountain

Pokémon [16]

2 — Darkrai EX — Dark Explorers (63/101)
2 — Darkrai EX — BREAKpoint (74/122)

2 — Larvitar — Fates Collide (40/124)
2 — Tyranitar — Fates Collide (56/124)

1 — Sableye — Dark Explorers (62/108)
3 — Spiritomb — Legendary Treasures (87/113)
4 — Yveltal — Generations (RC16/RC32)

Trainers [29]

2 — Pal Pad — Flashfire (92/106)
2 — Rare Candy — Primal Clash (135/160)
3 — Battle Compressor — Phantom Forces (92/119)

2 — Skyla — BREAKpoint (148/162)
2 — Giovanni's Scheme —  BREAKthrough (138/162)
2 — Professor Birch's Observations — Primal Clash (134/160)
2 — Teammates — Primal Clash (141/160)
4 — Steven — Roaring Skies (90/108)
4 — N — Dark Explorers (96/108)

3 — Shadow Circle — XY (126/146)

1 — Dark Claw — Dark Explorers (92/108)
2 — Fighting Fury Belt — BREAKpoint (99/122)

Energy [15]

4 — Dangerous Energy — BREAKpoint (99/122)
11 — Dark Energy

Epilogue

Giovanni is a buffet of manliness. This is well known in the Pokémon world. But we've got here is a deck that provides this perspective in a whole new light—to show just how boss the boss really is.

We're going deep into the darkest depths of Mt. Silver, where Giovanni personally catches one of the most dangerous and powerful Pokémon of them all—Tyranitar. It might be previously unseen in the series, but Tyranitar would definitely be one of the Pokémon in Giovanni's top arsenal.

It's a Pokémon that embodies the status of elite power and respect, because it's so dangerous and elusive, only the most powerful trainers in the world could ever survive the expedition to capture one.

You see, unlike in the game, the most powerful Tyranitars in the world wouldn't be among the ones raised from Larvitar, but instead would be among one of the wild Tyranitar that exist as the alpha male and apex predators of Mt. Silver. And it shouldn't be a mystery as to why. Mt. Silver is a harsh environment, whose conditions would naturally breed strength in wild Pokémon that simply can't be achieved through traditional training.

If you wanted the strongest Tyranitar, in its prime, then you would have to journey through one of most dangerous territories in the Pokémon world, to fight a brutal monster in its natural habitat. And that's where our adventure begins—emblazoned by our collection of Pokémon and Supporters.

Giovanni has all kinds of people on his payroll—and his collection of Supporters here are intended to provide us with a lot of options—to successfully guide us through the darkest depths of Mt. Silver.

At the start of the game, we're just looking to set up with Battle Compressor and get ready for whatever Mt. Silver throws at us. Battle Compressor is like the juice. Everybody knows that Giovanni gets juiced. But for this expedition, he's going to need to get extra juiced. This doesn't mean getting careless though. Giovanni is a very smart man—so unless we want to waste it (or have it accidentally become our undoing) we'll need to be as tactical as possible with Battle Compressor.

First we need to pay careful attention of our deck's contents, because its consistency will ultimately want to define how we make our first play.

Typically, we're going to want to juice two Dark energy to set up for [Oblivion Wing]—and one spare Pokémon (to increase the consistency of our deck some). This will most likely be a Spiritomb—yet this is also where the caution begins.

Next check the board. If we don't already have a Spiritomb out, and we notice one or more of them as been prized, then we'll want to juice a different Pokémon instead (because juicing for Spiritomb would reduce the consistency too dramatically—and getting Spiritomb out to lock-down ACE SPEC cards right away is a top priority of ours every game).

If this is the case, you'll want to juice something like a spare Yveltal or Darkrai EX—which also serve as our best options for our second play with Battle Compressor (alongside two more Dark energy).

We traditionally only need three copies of Yveltal at most, and generally won't even be able to make use of another copy (since Tyranitar wants to be among the last two Pokémon we send out). The same is also very true for our Darkrai with {Dark Cloak} (since we traditionally only need one copy on the bench for its ability—and generally won't be able to make use of it for anything else).

Shadow Circle can be another prime selection to juice (in place of a Pokémon), but only if we absolutely don't need them, since they are really important for acing our opponent's Stadium cards.

Something we never want to ever consider juicing are Supporters. We need to keep out options as open as possible, and juicing our Supporters is only going to detract from the potency of our deck. Even if it's just one—it's still a bad choice. Because we can't assure the flow of the cards in each wheel, making every Supporter card very significant to the consistency of our deck.

We need to keep our team tight. Each crew member provides a unique talent to the team—and it's not ever certain which one we'll need to call—and when.

We have a couple primary objectives to accomplish in our opening turn. Get Yveltal active, get Spiritomb and Darkrai out on the bench, and hit the juice with Battle Compressor.

Now N is our primary resource for this. It unconditionally gets us the most cards one can wheel for at the start of the game, while Professor Birch's Observations acts our emergency backup (to increase the probability of being able to wheel in our opening turns).

Next we have Steven, who's like our soldier of fortune, providing us with the expert route to all our most important needs—alongside the luxury of selection between wheel Supporters (for when it's either in our favor to disrupt our opponent's hand with N—or when it's in our best interests to leave them empty handed with Professor Birch's Observations).

Steven is also our primary gateway to Teammates, which is our key card for summoning Tyranitar in the darkest hour. Skyla then acts our backup for this, while doubling as a tactical retrieval when we need to get to cards like Pal Pad, Shadow Circle, and Battle Compressor—when we need them right away—or can't afford to wheel for them.

On the far end, we have Giovanni's Scheme, which serves two main tactical purposes. The first is to provide a net for card advantage against the low end of Professor Birch's Observations—in addition to reinforcing the card advantage potential against the number of our spot retrieval Supporters.

Giovanni's Scheme can double as straight draw, and that's what sets it apart from other tactical Supporters. This potential comes in especially useful here, where the number of cards in our hand can fall dramatically low due to the aforementioned conditions—in addition to a late-game N.

Secondly, Giovanni's Scheme doubles as two tactical copies of Dark Claw—so that we can further expand upon that potential if it happens to fall out of reach or has otherwise been appropriated elsewhere.

This is very useful for Tyrannitar itself—when we don't want to underestimate dangers of gambling on [Dark Mountain]. It's also a very powerful with the combined power of Darkrai EX & Fighting Fury Belt—as the additional 30 damage between them can work miracles to instantly close any gaps between the power of Darkrai's [Dark Pulse] and the opponent's surmounting HP.

As for the rest, Giovanni is a man with the spirit of a legendary Pokémon, and that's the symbolism behind our collection of legendary Pokémon here.

They're intended to represent the man himself in some light or another. Out to capture one of the most dangerous wild Pokémon in the world with his bare hands—dressed to kill in Fighting Fury Belt. [1]