Baby's First Halloween

 

 

Pokémon [19]

1 — Shaymin EX — Roaring Skies (106/108)
1 — Espeon EX — BREAKpoint (117/112)
1 — Cresselia EX — Boundaries Crossed (67/149)
2 — Mew EX — Legendary Treasures (RC24/RC25)

2 — Mew — Fates Collide (29/124)

4 — Joltik — Phantom Forces
4 — Pumpkaboo — Phantom Forces
4 — Lampent — Phantom Forces

Trainers [29]

4 — Battle Compressor — Phantom Forces (92/119)
4 — Trainers' Mail — Ancient Origins (100/98)

1 — Skyla — BREAKthrough (148/162)
2 — Pokémon Fan Club — Generations (69/83)
2 — Teammates — Primal Clash (141/160)
4 — N — Dark Explorers (96/108)
4 — Professor Juniper —  Dark Explorers (98/108)

1 — Life Dew — Plasma Freeze (112/119)
3 — Fighting Fury Belt — BREAKpoint (99/122)

Energy [12]

4 — Mystery Energy — Phantom Forces (112/119)
4 — Double Colorless Energy
4 — Psychic Energy

Epilogue

Trick or Treat! Surprise—one more!

It's baby's first Halloween—and we're sure to be up all night—with this Night March featuring Cresselia, Espeon, and Mew-EX!

This Night March is a very special one, as Mew's special abilities enables us to replace need of tech Supporters in [Night March] with more the adaptable tech of special addition Pokémon. This how Cresselia and Espeon have found their home here. These two might traditionally seem entirely incompatible for Night March, yet alongside Mew's dynamic link to them, these two cards seek to replace special techs such as Hex Maniac, Pokémon Rangers, and Weakness Policy.

Cresselia-EX of course, would represent our baby's beautiful mother. And her [Psychic Protection] is intended to deal heavy damage and remove all Weaknesses from our baby. Weakness to Psychic Pokémon is a very prominent Weakness to have, and with Mew's considerably low HP, the ability to remove Weakness is prime for baby to grow up as strong as can be.

Espeon-EX on the other hand represents baby's older sister. And like any good sister, she's around to watch out for Mew through the combined effects of her [Miraculous Shine] and [Psyshock] attacks. The effects of these attacks enable some really dynamic potential against her sister's natural enemies. I'm talking about cards like {Intimidating Mane} Pyroar, [Flash Ray] Jolteon-EX, and {Safeguard} Suicune. Predator boys, bully girls, and possibly even mom herself—if baby doesn't grow up to be a polite well-mannered girl.

Against the typical threats, [Psyshock] can be used to put our foot down, and say "No" to preventive effects. Against Suicune and Jolteon—just a few [Psyshock] will be all it takes. However, against threats like Pyroar, we'll want to hit them with a [Miraculous Shine] after [Psyshock]—to put them in their place—and reduce them to the childish pups they are.

These two together hope to keep baby safe from trouble.

Now, babies need a lot of special care, and that's why our deck structure here is specially arranged to make like as comfortable as can be for our baby. With the addition of Mew (and Mew's unique Ability to use the attacks of other Pokémon) there's less need for us to offensively rely on Night Marchers themselves. For typical Night March decks, there's can be a significant importance to pace yourself, and spare a number of your Night Marchers to ensure you can make it through the night.

However, we only need a single Night Marchers on the bench, to lead the Night March with Mew. This can open up the special opportunity for us to discard a few extra Night Marchers with Battle Compressor—ultimately increasing the premiere amount of damage we can do to our opponent's at the start of the game. Given this special potential, our deck structure here takes on a special form, to properly suite baby as the new center of our life.

Now, despite baby's potential, we still need to pay close attention to what we're up against, or else baby might pick up on our careless habits, and create all kinds of problems for itself growing up.

Considering our best first play with Battle Compressor—it's still clearly 3 Lampet—because Lampet has no other use except to prepare us for the Night March. From there, our best second best play will involve the remaining Lampent (if possible), yet from there, will want to lean towards Pumpkaboo to make up the difference as often as possible. This is due to Mew's special potential with Joltik, enabling Mew to use [Night March] for less energy than Pumpkaboo. This affinity lessens our dependency and resources—which can be pretty significant when it comes down to the grind. And thus reduces Pumpkaboo to our baby food, unless of course we're up against something like a Fighting-type (or Bench damaging) deck—where Pumpkaboo has some elevated potential.

From there on out, the potential of Battle Compressor can vary dramatically. We might want to consider saving them for an emergency like Karen—or we can begin cleaning up anything we might not be requiring the help of anymore. An example of this would our two prized tech cards, Cresselia and Espeon-EX. If you notice that they may not especially be needed for this game, then consider giving one of them a rest. Just make sure you keep at least one of them around to cover us in the event that can't use [Night March] anymore. Their attack's can act as an emergency backup for Mew.

Thankfully, we don't have to worry about Pokémon consistency as much as we might have to normally, because we have Pokémon Fan Club here in a little consistency to support our reach to any Pokémon we might need. This is a special tech addition to this deck, that's intended to provide the versatility desperately needed when our resources get scattered like toys all over the house.

Be it heavy Battle Compressor use—or the addition of just 1 tech copy between Pokémon like Shaymin, Cresselia, and Espeon—Pokémon Fan Club provides the expertise to ease all our worries. It can instantly bring us any of the tech cards we need—as well as double as an instant ticket to specific Night Marchers (if say our needs become very specific).

As for Night Marchers, we still want to lead with them as strongly as possible, because baby is sure to need some time before baby is ready to take its first steps. Item lock can still be a significant problem for us as well here, which is why it's going to be a very good idea for us to play first as much as we can (to better our success against our worst match up—Item lock).

In addition to that, we have another special tech addition for this deck in Teammates, that can enable us to quickly set up baby for Night March, but has a very distinct restriction to it, so that they wouldn't likely come through for us as often if we play second. For all these reason, we want to play first—in hopes of making explicit use of Battle Compressor before any Item locking potentially sets in—as well as give us the post-offensive edge off the damage stack to make best use of Teammates.

Our deck structure here is primed in full consistency with 4 Trainers' Mail and 1 tech of Skyla to best our chances with Battle Compressor in our opening turn. Skyla is like is our babysitter—providing an extension to Teammates, Battle Compressor—and whatever else we might need—if nothing else. This small extension (provided by a single copy of Skyla) is more than enough support for our since, given how we're still very competent for ourselves between our heavy presence with N and Professor Juniper.

At the start of the game, alongside all of the extensions we can get from Trainers' Mail, N and Professor Juniper are still significantly our lead to gather and provide all of baby's needs.

Be it a new diaper—or a warm baba.

In fact, make it a pumpkin diaper and a bottle of orange milk!

Because it's baby's first Halloween—and our pumpkin deserves to celebrate it in style with a special treat!

Horror Movie Marathon

Pokémon [18]

2 — Shaymin EX — Roaring Skies (77/108)
4 — Toxicroak EX — Flashfire (102/106)

4 — Joltik — Phantom Forces (26/119)
4 — Pumpkaboo — Phantom Forces (44/119)
4 — Lampent — Phantom Forces (42/119)

Trainers [30]

1 — Scoop Up Cyclone — Plasma Blast (95/101)
3 — Trainers' Mail — Ancient Origins (100/98)
4 — Battle Compressor — Phantom Forces (92/119)

1 — Professor Birch's Observations — Primal Clash (134/160)
2 — Cassius — X&Y (115/146)
3 — Judge — BREAKthrough (143/162)
4 — Professor Juniper — Dark Explorers (98/108)
4 — N — Fates Collide (105/124)

4 — Dimension Valley — Phantom Forces (93/119)

4 — Fighting Fury Belt — BREAKpoint (99/122)

Energy [12]

4 — Mystery Energy — Phantom Forces (112/119)
4 — Double Colorless Energy
4 — Psychic Energy

Epilogue

Trick or Treat! Get close everyone—it's time for a horror movie marathon!

Our man Cassius has all the projectors rolling, so there's sure to be a scary movie for everyone's tastes tonight. This style of Night March features the devilish Toxicroak-EX—our horror movie monster. Given the aspect of challenge involved, Toxicroak actually makes a scary addition to the Night March deck structure. If you're not absolutely meticulous, you could end up caught in your own deathtrap.

Not very promising, as all horror monsters (even supernatural ones) have their weaknesses—and Toxicroak-EX is no exception to this. It has a time-lapse to its offensive potential, and the lessened 170HP that's akin to all Psychic Pokémon-EX released in this generation. It might not seem like much, but that 10HP really makes a world of difference on the damage stack—and stack that up next to the fact of Toxicroak's quickest attack being a two-energy attack that only invokes a Special Condition—we can expect the sharpest edge of the damage stack to draw our blood every game.

Toxicroak can still take some heavy hits—like many of scariest horror movie monsters. And what this amounts to is a threshold, where the technique (as seen in many horror movies) will always involve going for the kill right away—yet retreating if need be to keep from being the one put to death. Like an reverse play of Silence of the Lambs. Our serial killer has Cassius to help best his chances of survival.

Unbeknownst to the audience, Cassius was once a serial killer. And although he's become reclusive, and regressed from this style of life, he still enjoys lending his expertise to any aspiring monsters. Scary, I know—but that's just the dark reality of some people. And good reason for us all to wary of each person we meet—never knowing how dark their past might have been—or just how dark their spirit might still be.

As the night begins, the monster wants to being devouring people right away. That is why Toxicroak is provided in such high volume here. As with all Night March decks, we want to play second, and hope to attack first. This is naturally staple in Night March for it's high-offense, low-defense attributes. However, this deck sees some elevated importance for this, as Toxicroak's best offensive potential lies at start of the game—and has its power potentially fade as the game progresses.

As soon as the door closes, Toxicroak has the option to quickly use [Triple Poison] with the utility of Double Colorless Energy, or for just a single Psychic alongside Dimension Valley. This speed makes Toxicroak's hand—a hand of death. And this first attack begins the deathgrip, where escaping the hands of the monster (before it can kill you) becomes the struggle between life and death.

Depending on the victim, the kill might come quick. But if the killer happens takes any critical damage, expect that he's going to make a retreat for it, and seemingly vanish in the style of our man Cassius. This is where the pressure begins to intensify. Missing out on that opportunity assures that the killer will be back for them—yet leaves them in terror of never knowing when.

The suspense alone can be enough to kill a person. And the killer's victim aren't the only ones sure to be left in suspense. You see, the presence of Cassius here detracts significantly from potency of our card advantage. Unlike some other tech Supporters, Cassius can't be used as any significant hard disruption. Cassius is much more technical than that, so he won't ever be able to buy us any time if-or-when it's desperately needed. We're on our own when it comes to that.

For this reason, after Toxicroak has made its first appearance, and is waiting in the shadows on the bench. You'll want to use Battle Compressor to discard any additional copies of Toxicroak left in the deck right away. Toxicroak's offensive potential is significantly restricted, and so with Cassius naturally giving us an extension on the copies we do have, trying to make too strong of an appearance is sure to be dangerous for the killer.

You never know, our selection of victims could end up pitting killer against killer. And if you want to beat another killer, you'll have to be able to best them in a battle of wits. It's a game they're sure to play. And not being able to outmatch their every move is certain make it the last game you ever play.

Not that this shouldn't be easy for us. Extensive precautions have been taken to turn any aspiring challengers into our play things. If you pay close attention, you'll notice that there are a number of aspects, distinct to this deck structure, that have been checked against in order to provide us the edge against even the darkest soul.

First, we have the technicality of Cassius not being able to act as disruption. Then, we have the selection of Super Scoop Up as our Ace Spec. Which might enable our movie monster to vanish like a bat in the night, but more importantly doesn't provide us any ready potential to cross running waters. There is the ability to Super Scoop Up Shaymin-EX for the {Set Up} with our Vampire bride—yet it won't ever be able to provide to us any of the materials that might needed for the ceremony—in the same way that power alone offered to her in immortal life might not be all that's needed to keep her love with us forever-after.

This of course, will take all of no less what it does to retain the heart of any other woman (beauty, brains, and brawn). And this explains the reason behind the 1-3—3-4 split between Judge, Professor Birch's Observations—Trainers' Mail, and Fighting Fury Belt. At the start of the game, despite how sweet the taste of power can be—an oppressive play of [Triple Poison] and Judge may not always assure our eternal success. It's a very bloodthirsty world, where there are sure to be adversaries in all things. And we can rest assure that some of them are going to be much stronger than the average.

Therein lies the importance for to put the charm on as hard as possible. This being represented by Fighting Fury Belt. The glory of all power in love—the strength of mind, heart, and soul. These dynamic attributes, that each person must not only learn to make their own, but absolutely master if they wish for no one to ever be able to see them for anything less than strength-in-perfection. Not just strength—but strength in depth. And that's why we absolutely need 4 copies of Fighting Fury Belt here, to maximize its availability to us (as dire as it's needed—upon our first impression).

Akin to this, Judge has been toned down to 3 copies, in order to increase the chance of the first Supporter we play providing to us as many cards as possible, while decreasing the possibility of us having to make a restrictive play on Judge at the opening of the game (due to having no other choice). This adaptation also sees 1 copy of Trainers' Mail (a Supporter-esque card—whose range is considerably limited given its 4 card restriction) replaced with a copy of a hard Supporter instead.

Like making a Vampire bride out of a chubby, yet still considerably cute Asian woman. Something is far better than being left with nothing for eternity. And so, this solid copy of an actual Supporter card, over a copy of Trainers' Mail (which is only a Supporter-esque card—that doesn't guarantee anything) aims to make a world of difference to the quality of eternal life.

The Supporter in selection also just happens to be our best option among options as well (due to it's less restrictive nature and greater potential range), further welcoming its place here. However, Professor Birch's Observation can be like the Vampire's gaze itself here—a gamble at times. The victim could end up trapped in the Vampire's stare—or the Vampire could end up trapped in the emptiness of nothing if the victim is able to direct its stare into the mirror.

With our confidence in the balance, that's definitely not a technique we want to use too often, so just 1 copy of Professor Birch's Observations puts that confidence in our hands, without allowing us to get overconfident, and push our luck to any dangerous lengths.

After all, even the legend of the night is not entirely immortal.

Where even the Vampire (in all its power) is sure to inevitably meet its end—at the hands of its own ignorance—or ugliness.

Thriller

Pokémon [20]

2 — Shaymin EX — Roaring Skies (106/108)

2 — M Mewtwo EX — BREAKthrough (160/162)
4 — Mewtwo EX — BREAKthrough (158/162)

4 — Joltik — Phantom Forces (26/119)
4 — Pumpkaboo — Phantom Forces (44/119)
4 — Lampent — Phantom Forces (42/119)

Trainers [28]

1 — Master Ball — Plasma Blast (94/101)
3 — Trainers' Mail — Ancient Origins (100/98)
4 — Battle Compressor — Phantom Forces (92/119)

1 — Steven — Roaring Skies (90/108)
2 — Judge — BREAKthrough (143/162)
2 — Ace Trainer — Ancient Origins (69/98)
4 — Professor Sycamore — X&Y (122/146)
4 — N — Noble Victories (92/101)

4 — Dimension Valley — Phantom Forces (93/119)

3 — Fighting Fury Belt — BREAKpoint (99/122)

Energy [12]

4 — Mystery Energy — Phantom Forces (112/119)
4 — Double Colorless Energy
4 — Psychic Energy

Epilogue

Trick or Treat! Hold on tight—because it's getting close to midnight!

The autumn equinox is said to be a time of the year when the veil between the material world and spiritual realm grows thinnest—setting the atmosphere for all kinds of supernatural activity to take place. Our deck today retells the events of one such story around this time, when the moon was full—and magic in the air was primed—to make way for one unforgettable night.

[Damage Change] Mewtwo-EX takes center stage here once again as our lead for the Night March. And the dance performed this evening, would look to be something like the dance of the dead.

Mega Mewtwo Y also makes its addition to this very special Night March, and its presence here unlocks the power to eat some of our greatest natural enemies alive. Cards such as {Intimidating Mane} Pyroar—and [Flash Ray] Jolteon-EX—who restrictive effects against Basic Pokémon are transcended by the power of M Mewtwo-EX.

Adapting this addition took a lot of strict discernment. There are a number of options that one might naturally consider, yet their place in the Night March deck structure (and the ulterior effects that they might have on the rest of the Night March content) makes them considerably dangerous additions—under the speculation of a greater light. Navigating the darkness is never easy. It always helps to have experience, and experience is what guided me to abstain from certain potential techs for deck, in order to best implement M Mewtwo-EX into the Night March line-up.

This is still majorly a Night March deck most of all. So the bulk of that content must get the explicit support it needs—lest its power potentially be lost to you at some crucial time due to the inconsistency you've created trying to over-diversify and stretch your resources too thin.

In this process, the first major aspect that would need to be assured was of course—consistency. Not all content that appears as a tech truly holds the nature of—or can be played with consistent success as a true tech. And M Mewtwo-EX is one of those cards, when it comes to its role our Night March deck here. It's not so much of a tech—as it is a potential lead.

There can be a dire need to Mega Evolve as soon as possible. Like having the serial killer at your feet, stalking your every step behind you. Nothing will get you safety in this desperate chase like consistency will. And therein lies the importance of providing at least 2 copies of M Mewtwo-EX here.

In the event that one gets prized, or we are left without an option but to discard one of those copies, having that additional copy at arm's reach is the difference between life and death. Anytime you have a card as important as this, you absolutely must reinforce your deck structure with at least two copies of that card if you want to secure enough consistent success to make it through your darkest nights.

Now, being left with just a single copy in the general scenario isn't exactly reliable itself. And that's where the addition of Master Ball as our Ace Spec comes in. Master Ball becomes our unrestrictive extension to M Mewtwo-EX. I hate to say that this deck structure can afford to discard to many cards. It definitely needs to keep its Supporter base as heavy as possible—to keep the power of Judge strongly in our favor. And pretty much all the other spare content we would have—is appropriated by Battle Compressor (leaving us very little to spare). It's not to say that such a thing would be entirely unaffordable, but that for this deck structure in specific, a free ticket is by far our best option.

There's actually isn't anything too significant that Computer Search could do for this deck (at an expense)—that Master Ball shouldn't be able to do at no cost at all. In the worst case scenario, catching a Master Ball on the other end of a Judge provides a free ticket to Shaymin-EX, enabling us to instantly boost our hand, and spare us precious resources (such as energies—and say additional copies of Dimension Valley) that could end up pulling us down into the grave with it if otherwise thrown away.

By not excessively discarding our resources like this with cards like Ultra Ball and Computer Search, there's less chance we'd ever have to make a desperate search for one of them. And with [Damage Change] Mewtwo taking the lead here in Thriller, we're sure to have all the time we need to shuffle for whatever cards we're looking.

And that's why Master Ball makes the most proficient Ace Spec for this Night March deck structure. It provides the best reinforcement to our most prominent needs—without excessively tearing away from the foundation the deck—when its consistency is so crucial to our survival.

Approaching the midnight hour, Steven is our final tech addition for this deck, representing the legendary Vincent Price. Steven takes its place here in exchange for a copy of Trainers' Mail. The reason for this being that our Supporter base suffers a little to make room for M Mewtwo-EX, and Steven is a sure bet as an actual Supporter card, where Trainers' Mail simply isn't as reliable (given its considerably short range).

As a fun fact, Steven was a tech that I originally ran in the Zombiepowder deck, proving itself to be an amazing addition to the deck due to its restrictive conditions. For example, Steven makes an amazing play late in the game—after a late game N leaves you alone in the dark with nothing else. The same can be said for Steven getting you to any energy you might need—like that desperate jumpstart you need to peel out on the killer. Night March is a very energy restrictive deck, where Steven's direct energy retrieval can come in handy at almost any time in the game.

Despite all this potential, Steven was ultimately ruled out for that deck, as the 2 copies of Random Receiver (that were also originally apart of that deck) were removed to reinforce the hard Supporter base—where Steven then became redundant—and so his slot was used to top off the number of Trainers' Mail to better the consistency of Zombiepowder's opening hand.

Steven would go on to find his place as the ultimate finishing touch to the Thriller deck—as Vincent Price is to the Thriller song itself. This would be first due to the need for more hard Supporters, in the face of accommodating for Mega Mewtwo Y. And secondly due to Steven's extra potential to pick and choose between Supporters, which promises to be great potential in the event that our more technical content (such as Ace Trainer) would suddenly become a deadly obstacle to us.

Ace Trainer is traditionally a bad card to run alongside [Damage Change] Mewtwo, but with the addition of our Mega Evolution, sees new life given the high possibility of having to chalk up a prize card anyways in order to Mega Evolve without a Spirit Link. If there's a high possibility of making this play early in the game (when we would likely need to make it most), then that's definitely the ace we want to have at the end of our suite.

Steven on the other end of that makes for a cold pair—the Joker's stare. The mysterious-enigmatic man in grey. Whose chilling words epitomize the haunting touch of what awaits that fateful day.

"...And though you fight to stay alive, your body starts to shiver.

For no mere mortal can resist—the evil of the thriller!"

Zombiepowder

Pokémon [18]

2 — Shaymin EX — Roaring Skies (77/108)
4 — Mewtwo EX — Triple Power Tin (XY107)

4 — Joltik — Phantom Forces (26/119)
4 — Pumpkaboo — Phantom Forces (44/119)
4 — Lampent — Phantom Forces (42/119)

Trainers [30]

1 — Revive — Black & White (102/114)
3 — Trainers' Mail — Ancient Origins (100/98)
4 — Battle Compressor — Phantom Forces (92/119)

2 — Lysandre — Flashfire (90/106)
4 — Judge — BREAKthrough (143/162)
4 — N — Fates Collide (105/124)
4 — Professor Juniper — Plasma Blast (84/101)

4 — Dimension Valley — Phantom Forces (93/119)

1 — Life Dew — Plasma Freeze (107/116)
3 — Fighting Fury Belt — BREAKpoint (99/122)

Energy [12]

4 — Mystery Energy — Phantom Forces (112/119)
4 — Double Colorless Energy
4 — Psychic Energy

Epilogue

Trick or Treat—the Night March continues!

Zombiepowder is being handed out at this house. And this deck is easily one of the most fierce Night March decks I'll be treating you to. I'm not talking about the potential to cheat spam your way through your entire deck with an unrealistic flow of the cards. I'm talking about the true power to obliterate some of the strongest demons in the Pokémon Trading Card Game world. Monsters that could normally crush Night March into dust themselves—such as Landorus-EX, Greninja BREAK, {Forest's Curse} Trevenant, and legendary bird of nightmares—Yveltal & Yveltal-EX.

Zombiepowder is really that powerful! It can freeze them all cold, and leave them petrified in defeat.

This is mostly thanks to the determination of our endearing hero—Mewtwo-EX. Who is looking for the Zombiepowder to bring his dead mother back to life. The Zombiepowder is represented by a split tech of Revive and Life Dew. These two cards take advantage of the unique potential of this deck structure and the general potential of Night March itself. Each enable their own unique powerplay.

Starting with Life Dew, whose power lies in simply attaching it to any Night Marcher. Life Dew is a crushing tech for Night March. There's no time to waste on collecting prizes against it, so that the use of Life Dew ultimately creates a loss that no one can afford. Tag this up with Revive, and it gives you a small extension on how many Joltik or Pumpkaboo you can use to best match up the Weakness and Resistance attributes of your opponent's Pokémon.

Revive has arguably always been a questionable addition to Night March. But it doesn't often stick around, because the consistency they run it in is always too high. Just one Revive is all you need. And in this deck structure, it can enable some crushing special moves at the start of the game.

In some tough matchups, there can be an urgency to get Mewtwo-EX out as soon as possible. You usually need it to hold down the fort, because you're up against some Swarmer or Slugger strategy that some edge on Night March, and you really can't afford to wish on the luck of the draw. The consistency of Mewtwo-EX is prime to suite its availability to us in our opening hand (especially given its explicit potential as a great starting Pokémon).

But this deck structure is very unique, and the utility of our Supporter array (despite the special advantage it can provide in place of other structures) don't promise us the ability to always be able to get to Mewtwo-EX as fast we might need to.

But that's where this special tech comes in—which simply involves using your first Battle Compressor to discard a Mewtwo-EX. Then using Revive right away to put Mewtwo-EX right onto the bench. It's not always going to be your best play with Revive, so don't make the move unless you really need it. However, this move makes for a really strong setup for a crushing first turn play with Judge.

Judge takes its place in this deck in full volume, given how well its suites the dynamic power of [Damage Change] Mewtwo-EX. [Damage Change] can be an insanely hard barrier to get past. So once Mewtwo-EX goes out there—it might not be going anywhere. This is exactly why Ace Trainer isn't included in this deck. Thanks to the power of Mewtwo and [Damage Change]—there is a strong chance that we wouldn't even be able to make use of Ace Trainer.

Judge on the other hand see a whole new world of potential. It can be used here to put the opponent on the very worst end of both Mewtwo and Night March. Quick, powerful, and technical. These are the kinds of attributes that thrive under the oppressive conditions of Judge. Very few cards are built to survive under these conditions. And only one of them has the power to consistently heal itself (transcending the entire damage stack) as our hero does.

These aspects make Judge prime for this deck. And the rest of our Supporter array primes our chances to hit the ground running—rather than have our coattails stuck in the bus door. [1]

Among our best recoveries, we have Shaymin-EX and Professor Juniper. Shyamin-EX instantly bounces us back to a full hand. And drawing into Professor Juniper on the rebound almost always ensures a perfect play with her. We can also play N on the rebound, which is definitely better than nothing.

For Night March, the need might not always be there to keep the opponent's hand down. Just tripping the opponent up for a single turn can put them to far behind the Night March for them to be saved. Playing another Judge doesn't essentially hurt either, as it can knock an opponent's hand back down after they've potentially recovered it.

Now, contrary to this, Judge isn't always going to be our best first play (even with the power of Mewtwo-EX at our side). It mostly depends on if-or-not we get a Battle Compressor in our opening hand. If we don't (or we can't reach to one in our opening turn), then we're going to want to reach for more cards—and that means making a play with N or Professor Juniper on our first turn instead.

The rest of the deck plays our exactly the same as Zombie Bot Net. So if you haven't taken the time to read it, you should definitely give it a run to brush up on the Night March intricacies.

One of the only real difference between the two decks—is the replacement of Hex Maniac with Lysandre as the Supporter tech.

Hex Maniac was actually the original tech Supporter for this deck. Provided in order to deal with the problem of {Intimidating Mane} Pyroar being able to stall to victory. Unfortunately, Hex Maniac alone wouldn't solve the problem of [Flash Ray] Jolteon-EX being able to do potentially do the same thing between multiple copies. So Lysandre was opted for as the tech Supporter instead, as consistency is important here, and I had ultimately discerned there was no way to tech enough content to fully cover both scenarios (if simply a deck simply provided those cards in high enough volume).

In the end, Lysandre would make the better tech for Zombiepowder. As it would seal up our success against a greater majority of content. The only technicality we would have with Lysandre—is against {Intimidating Mane} Pyroar. Where Pyroar would likely have to stall to victory (hardly considering it victory)—and where up to three Hex Maniac could be needed—thus far exceeding any consistent resourcing anyways.

Lysandre also enables a unique powerplay with Mewtwo-EX (providing a full heal off a clean Pokémon from the opponent's bench). This powerplay diversifies Mewtwo's offensive potential, by proving an exit to situations when we might be stuck at a standstill, against an opponent's Active Pokémon with too much damage on it to benefit off [Damage Change]. In this case, we can just launch our offensive with [Scatter Shot] and soak up as much damage as we can. Then Lysandre one of our opponent's clean Pokémon from the bench, and [Damage Change] for the win.

It's not only the special moves you have, but how you execute them. So save your Trainers' Mail in times of need. Poor execution can be sure to take you from the most feared warrior in the land—to the laughing stock of the demon world. Definitely the last thing you want to be in a world where all the jokes have such a cruel end. And there's no end at all—for the light to shine.

Zombie Bot Net

Pokémon [17]

2 — Shaymin EX — Roaring Skies (77/108)

3 — Chandelure EX — Legendary Treasures (77/113)

4 — Joltik — Phantom Forces (26/119)
4 — Pumpkaboo — Phantom Forces (44/119)
4 — Lampent — Phantom Forces (42/119)

Trainers [31]

1 — Computer Search — Boundaries Crossed (137/149)
4 — Trainers' Mail — Ancient Origins (100/98)
4 — Battle Compressor — Phantom Forces (92/119)

2 — Hex Maniac — Ancient Origins (75/98)
2 — Ace Trainer — Ancient Origins (69/98)
2 — Judge — BREAKthrough (143/162)
4 — N — Pokémon League Promo (BW100)
4 — Professor Juniper — Dark Explorers (98/108)

4 — Dimension Valley — Phantom Forces (93/119)

4 — Fighting Fury Belt — BREAKpoint (99/122)

Energy [12]

4 — Mystery Energy — Phantom Forces (112/119)
4 — Double Colorless Energy
4 — Psychic Energy

Epilogue

Happy Halloween!

It's Trick or Treat time—and I'm handing four unique Night March variants this year!

Night March is of course, the widely popular deck that has been haunting players since its release in the Phantom Forces expansion. Back when Night March was first released, I wasn't really interested in the deck to be honest, because it seemed a little underwhelming on the creative side to me. However, I did put a Night March deck together—and the tests I did run proved it to be considerably more successful overall than the traditional style Night March was being run in.

Night March has always had (even back then) a few significant vulnerabilities to it. I would image that's why Night March hasn't won Worlds since it's release (despite its said domination in the Tournament scene elsewhere). This is not to say that Night March couldn't have dominated Worlds, because I strongly believe it could have. However, the build for Night March that would being used for Night March in the mainstream was simply too underwhelming—and didn't properly diversify its resources to combat against some of the more physically and/or tactically dominating cards.

For example, one of my most prominent principals for the Pokémon Trading Card Game, is that one should always try to have some kind of big body Basic Pokémon in their deck (in order to hold down the fort if-and-when needed). Big body Basics make great walls, and great starting Pokémon that can often be used in a Slugger-style combat strategy to grind down the lead in one's favor—or narrow the lead that an opponent has so significantly—that a pass can be made on them for the lead in the follow up.

This was the first aspect I checked when developing my Night March deck structure. And all four of these Night March decks incorporate a more diversified strategy from the mainstream—that I've been perfecting from the start with the intention to unlock some alpha potential for Night March.

Zombie Bot Net here is actually the first and original Night March concept that started this all. Originally, Zombie Bot Net was a deck about the darkness of the cyber world—enraptured by a diverse collection of Pokémon EX—that each represented some of the most prominent names in computer science. I'm talking about Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak. It's probably undoubtable—that in the Golden Age of the internet—these boys had their fair share of "fun" with the technology that they helped to pioneer.

And so Zombie Bot Net was intended to enrapture the essence of that concept, embodied by the theoretical truth that that every operating system is basically a Zombie Bot Net—and harmlessly fixing players as the unstoppable force—and ghost within the machine.

In it's maturity, this deck has taken on a more refined form, and the theme has been concentrated to better generalize the concept. After all, in the Bronze Age of the cyber world we live in today, the dangers of the cyber world have grown immensely. Like a zombie apocalypse, the plague has nearly consumed the world, with millions and millions of cyber residents becoming infected and developing the mindless aggression of a bloodthirsty zombie. The hunger is so real. And it seem to be never-ending. Not a single of them ever growing ill from their endless cyber cannibalism.

And that's where Zombie Bot Net begins—with Chandelure-EX—our hacker. [1] This card is our technical centerpiece, and big body Basic for this deck—whose presence is intended to give us some edge against more technical content that might otherwise be able to easily pick apart our Night Marchers—and bring us to a quick Game Over.

Chandelure-EX has been a really powerful card since the release of Dimension Valley. The Special Conditions of Burned and Confused alone make a deadly combination, that can enable an opponent's most powerful Pokémon to be finished off without a chance of it getting to land a single attack in return. Top this tactical advantage off with the fact of 70 damage for just two energy (alongside Dimension Valley)—and Chandelure holds the power match the offensive speed of the most aggressive cards in the game.

Chandelure also works very well with Mystery Energy, which definitely works in our favor here, as Mystery Energy is a staple in this Night March deck (as well as the other three—given the amazing tactical advantage it provides).

You see, if you're using Pokémon EX in Night March, Mystery Energy can be used to open up worlds of mobility for the most prominent content in your deck. This includes the technique of being able to send a Mystery Energy equipped Pokémon Active on the transition of the KO—and provide to us an entire turn to gather any resources that we might need—while leaving us the option to switch up our final Active Pokémon before the turn ends. Get enough experience with this technique and you'll see just how amazing this is (especially when it comes to dealing with aspects such as checking Weakness and Resistance—or meeting energy needs in order to attack).

As an advanced technique, don't be scared to stack your Mystery Energy either. This mostly works best with the Pokémon EX. But the important thing is that in the event of disruption such as Enhanced Hammer, the option to retreat for free will remain (thanks to your remaining Mystery Energy). I can't even begin to express the greatness of having the one-up on Enhanced Hammer. But the fact stands, that stacking your Mystery Energy can enable you to sneak in a different Pokémon—throw an energy on it—and hit the opponent with a much more effective attack.

The rest of the strategy really plays out the same as another Night March deck.

You want to get to your first two Battle Compressor as quickly as possible—and use them to being empowering your Night March. On the first Battle Compressor, you always want to reach for 3 Lampent. It serves no other purpose in this deck, and only adulterates the flow of the cards otherwise.

On the second Battle Compressor though, you're going to want to pay close attention to the board in order to properly select which Pokémon to discard between Joltik and Pumpkaboo.

First thing you want to consider is how Stadium heavy your opponent's deck might be. Against more Stadium heavy decks, it's less likely you're going to be able to Night March with Pumpkaboo, because it's sure to be a struggle keeping Dimension Valley out there so that you can easily attack for just two energy. Because of this, you'll want to filter the remaining Lampent (if you can)— and 2 Pumpkaboo—reserving your Joltik to best your chances of being able to Night March.

The second thing you want to consider—are the factors of Weakness and Resistance between sides. If you're up against a Dark-type deck, Pumpkaboo would naturally struggle, so once again you'll want to use Pumpkaboo to make up the bulk of your second Battle Compressor. However, if you're up against a Fighting-type deck, then you'll want to use Joltik so make up the remaining bulk instead. And reserve as many Pumpkaboo as you can, for their combined edge over Fighting-type Pokémon.

On your third Battle Compressor, you'll want to start waning whatever content that might be adulterating the consistency of your deck. This would stuff like extra remaining Chandelure—a remaining Battle Compressor itself (as it can be no longer needed)—or content such as Dimension Valley (if we're up against Psychic decks where that card is sure to rule throughout the game). A good protocol to stand by is to always leave yourself a Night Marcher or two—and leave the consistency of Supporter base as strong as possible. You'll often need it through the mid-to-late game.

Night March is not always going to be some unstoppable crush of the dead. If you're as mindless as a zombie when playing it, then you're likely to end up as dead as one.

This principal of awareness also if-and-when selecting between which Supporter to play on our opening turn. This deck has a tactical Supporter array, that aims to profit off the low resource dependency of the Night March strategy. It's low resource needs, open up the potential to spam through in heavy volume, without potentially suffering too strongly from the losses that can come with that.

Keep in mind that cards like Professor Juniper can always have their liabilities (even for Night March). And that's why there's still so much reinforcement to Professor Juniper here. Supporter consistency is really important for Night March—due to its frailty. But even if you get a Professor Juniper in your opening hand, purging your hand on the first turn for those seven cards may not always be your best option. Don't be so desperate for that extra card. If you can get a Battle Compressor in your opening hand, you're almost always better off making N your first play over Juniper.

Not only are there a number of alternative Supporter cards in this deck, these Supporters are also provided in heavy volume, to help protect against excessive Supporter discard via Professor Juniper. The heavy volume makes the discarding of a Supporter or two (via Juniper) an affordable expense, where the consistency of our Supporter base should still be pretty prime if we have to wheel next turn.

There's no recovery if we lose any precious resources like Double Colorless Energy though, and no room to tech such content. (with no point of ever really doing so—since you can do even better if you simply play your cards right). The deck structure is primed for everything it would need to do—but this potential can become useless to you if you play your cards like you're brain-dead.

This can mean obsessively chasing for cards without considering all the options. Pace yourself if you can. It can be exactly what you need to win against more technical decks. Think of it as Resident Evil (if you've ever played that game). Trying to make a speed run out of every stretch may only get you eaten alive. We have Chandelure-EX in here to not only make this possible—but make it comfortable. So don't be scared to pace yourself on some games.

With that said, Judge makes an appearance here as a special addition to my style of Night March decks. And it makes Night March brutally oppressive. The type of oppression that very few decks can recover from when faced off against the crush of Night March. So on a really good opening hand (where you get at least 2 Basic Pokémon and a Battle Compressor), you can probably easily afford to play Judge as your opening Supporter.

Don't be scared of playing it either. The foundation of the deck structure is strongly reinforced with a large number of Supporters and Supporter-esque content to maximize the success of a short draw. This reinforced deck structure also plays out to be especially beneficial if-and-when Judge were to be played against us. It's like going up against another hacker. Our deck is already structured to best recover from a short draw—so it's not likely to break the stride of our Night March Deck—as it might do to various other Night March decks that aren't primed to make a recovery from a first turn Judge.

This reinforcement includes a tech of 2 Shaymin-EX (without Ultra Ball—as I find Ultra Ball isn't really needed at all if you have the rest of your deck structure in place). Shaymin's place here is to top off our Supporter potential, and Night March is such a special type of deck, that there's almost never a bad time to play Shaymin-EX for the {Set Up} draw.

Night March only needs to get to a few distinct resources at any given time—where even a short draw of just three cards turns Shaymin-EX into a free play of Cheren/Tierno (before an even bigger card advantage play with one of our Supporters). Even at only 3 cards, it can be a really great play to make in-fact. As it can enable you to retain the bulk of cards in your hand, for a more consistent straight draw off the top.

If things don't work out, you can get a second chance from your wheel Supporter, or you can make a desperate run for it with Professor Juniper. The only real precaution one needs to take when playing Shaymin for the {Set Up} in this deck—is to save them for the mid-to-end game as best you can. At the start of the game, there are simply too many cards in the deck, and this greatly detracts from the proficiency of {Set Up}.

Of course, if it would draw you 4 or 5 cards at the start of the game, then the choice is obvious. But just keep in mind that you're almost always better shuffling it back into your deck with N or Judge at the start of the game—rather than playing Shaymin-EX before your Supporter. If it comes back around, then you're potentially in luck to make an even better double play with it! So try not to be too desperate.

Keep this same principal in mind for Trainers' Mail at the start of the game as well—when you get a Trainers' Mail in your hand alongside a copy of Battle Compressor. Trainers' Mail can extend our reach to Battle Compressor in our opening hand when we don't initially get one. The consistency is prime. But this consistency narrows significantly as the number of Battle Compressor left in our deck drops to 3 or below.

In games like this, consider just making your first play with the Battle Compressor in your opening hand—and then shuffle Trainers' Mail back into your deck to further extend your reach after your extended draw with whatever wheel Supporter you play.

The story behind our Supporters elaborates upon just how the Zombie Bot Net comes to life. You have Hex Maniac (the hacker). Whose not just any hacker—but an Ace Trainer among hackers! The technique is complex—but the logic is simple. Our hacker takes the malicious code, and embeds it onto a certain, inconspicuous video. And before you know it, our hacker has the biggest zombie bank one can image.

Whew~

So much data.

But every bit is truly important if you want to execute Night March perfectly. Any given error can become the fatal one—that sees your Zombie Bot Net wiped off the face of the Earth.

To Tame a Land

 

Pokémon [17]

 

3 — Regirock EX — Fates Collide (43/124)

 

4 — Solrock — Primal Clash (83/160)

2 — Aerodactyl — Dark Explorers (53/108)

4 — Gible — BREAKpoint (68/122)
4 — Garchomp — BREAKpoint (70/122)

 

Trainers [30]

 

1 — Computer Search — Boundaries Crossed (137/149)
1 — Enhanced Hammer — Primal Clash (162/160)
1 — Max Potion — Plasma Freeze (121/116)

4 — Rare Candy — Primal Clash (135/160)

3 — Ultra Ball — Dark Explorers (102/108)

2 — N — Noble Victories (101/101)
3 — Skyla — BREAKpoint (122/122)

3 — Professor Juniper — Plasma Freeze (116/116)

4 — Korrina — Furious Fists (111/111)

3 — Twist Mountain — Dark Explorers (101/108)

2 — Focus Sash — Furious Fists (91/111)
3 — Float Stone — BREAKthrough (137/162)

 

Energy [13]

4 — Strong Energy — Fates Collide (115/124)
9 — Fighting Energy

 

Epilogue

 

 It's time for the grand finale!

 

"He is the king of all the land, in the kingdom of the sands, of a time tomorrow."

This line must be referring to the Fighting-type Garchomp from the BREAKpoint expansion. A card that is simply ace and king—with a wrath that can fall upon its opposers harder than the curse of the Pharaoh! This Fighting-type Garchomp is just an amazing card—whose power and utility seems to have been custom tailored to suite the stylish artwork provided by the amazingly talented TOKIYA.

 

Given that it's the Halloween season, I've prepared a number of treats for you all. And this one I've decided will be the first. What we have here is an Iron Maiden puzzle. Probably the best kind of puzzle you could ever get in your trick or treat bag.

What I'm presenting to you is a really powerful Out-Fighter/Slugger-style Garchomp deck. Even has it stands, the deck is amazingly powerful. And its tactical utility—alongside the crushing power of [Turbo Assault] Garchomp—sees very little of defeat. Although there could be a number of reason for this, I'd like to think that this is majorly thanks to the power of Focus Sash. A pretty popular card in the tournament scene, that I believe is an absolute must if you're going to run with this Garchomp.

 

In this deck especially, [Turbo Assault] Garchomp already has more than enough speed and power in this deck between potency of its own attacks—alongside Strong energy—and the quick power increasing Abilities of {Ancient Scream} Aerodactyl and {Regi Power} Regirock. So much so, that as far as Pokémon Tool cards go, this Garchomp as so much natural speed and power that most of the other Tool selections available to us become entirely useless or redundant.

I've said it before that you can never have too much power—and that fact still stands as the golden truth. But what we need is power of another kind entirely—the power to live on. And that's exactly what Focus Sash aims to provide to Garchomp—everlasting life! The holy grail and the fountain of youth, considerably erasing Garchomp's most vulnerable attribute, and ascending it unto an even higher level of immortal power.

 

Now, even despite the importance of this card to our centerpiece, this deck runs a Pokémon Tool card split of 3-2—with Float Stone at the heavier end of the spread—because the structure of a good deck needs to cater to the vulnerabilities of every card as best it can. With 3 copies of Regirock EX here (alongside its high energy attack/retreat cost)—the presence of this card alone makes for a considerable majority in our Pokémon base—with a significantly sizable collection vulnerabilities itself.

Akin to this, I came to decide that Float Stone would definitely need to be provided here (and in this consistency at the least) in order to turn Regirock EX from potential slave to immortal power itself. This isn't really a new technique for me either, I've run this exact 3-2 split with Float Stone and other Pokémon Tool cards in number of decks prior to this one. It's a technique I picked up awhile ago, and quickly came to discover how amazingly proficient it is with how much versatility it brings to the table for decks that would otherwise have a number of mobility or mobilization issues.

 

A similar strategy embodies the 3-2 split between {Ancient Scream} Aerodactyl and Regirock EX. Both cards have abilities that increase the power of your Pokémon, but the tactical split between them provides some amazing versatility to the deck structure. You see, Regirock not only has a number of vulnerabilities in its high energy attack/retreat costs, it also forces us to give up 2 prize cards when KO'd. Aerodactyl on the other hand is much lighter—swifter—and ultimately a more versatile card over all. It provides the same 10 damage, but can be retreated for only a single energy, and only gives up a single prize when KO'd. That alone opens up all kinds of mobilization options for us.

Conversely, Aerodactyl might force us to run Twist Mountain—but that's ok—because Twist Mountain by itself can be used to ace our opponent's Stadium cards and keep them in slavery. SLAVERY. It's serious business. And considering how there are a number of other Stadium cards out there (such as Virbank City Gym) that can turn the tides of this—and put the chains on us—just having Twist Mountain around to break those chains and set us free becomes its own Godly power.

 

On the topic of Godly power, this deck also started out with a tech of 2 Enhanced Hammer. Another prominent utility technique of mine—due to its potential to powerfully offset the game pace for an opponent—especially in the face of some excessively ruthless speed or power. Enhanced Hammer is just a really amazing tech. And due to the prominence of Special Energies, it makes a really amazing tech to run with a little consistency. Unfortunately, (like many other techs) it's a card that doesn't always come in handy. And in all my experience with running this card as a tech, fairly often enough becomes deadweight that just sits around in your hand or adulterates the potency of your draw.

Enhanced Hammer is somewhat of a double-edged sword—that can become a small speedbump of its own. And normally, I would have probably never considered splitting the tech (because that's just how good Enhanced Hammer can be despite it all). However, Rare Candy decks by nature have a distinct sense of frailty to them, that can greatly worsen the severity of such a speedbump. So considering this, I got the idea to split the tech of Enhanced Hammer between Max Potion.

Max Potion would obviously make an amazing alternative tech for Garchomp (in respects to its light attack and retreat costs). And accustom to this deck in particular, Max Potion could become combo materia with Focus Sash—giving you a second chance to make use of Focus Sash when a player offsets the damage stack in a way that would render the card entirely useless. Max Potion could also be used to wipe any Pokémon clean of damage—and alongside Garchomp's [Turbo Assault]—begin to boost that Pokémon's energy right off the rip. Tag this with another Garchomp—and you'll almost always have a game-breaking powerplay.

 

And this explains the split between these two cards as a tech here—in place of a consistent featuring just one card or the other. Each has its own unique utility, yet can also have its own significant drawback when the card's respective potential can't be tapped into. For this reason, and given this deck's distinct ability to casually select between either card (through the support of Korrina and Skyla)—the versatility made available to the deck by running both should appear obvious.

Now, even in all its power, this deck does has one major weakness. It's sure to struggle terribly against Item lock effects. And herein lies your puzzle—to unlock the affinity that breaks the chains on Item lock effects—and affectively reduces their power to absolutely nothing.

I've been running this blog for almost two years now, and by this time have provided an immense measure of insight regarding the basic architecture and greater intricacies of the Pokémon Trading Card Game's dynamics.

 

For anyone who's been with me from the start (and actually been paying attention), you should by this time be able to solve this puzzle for yourself without any help at all.

However, there are sure to always be new visitors, who might be reading this article as their very first. So to be the very best host I can, I'm going to provide a little insight as to where one might want to start when solving this puzzle to unlock the affinity for this deck against Item lock effects.

 

The first step of this would naturally begin with cutting down on our Item dependency. This deck as it is critically relies on Items cards such as Rare Candy. So much so, that without their power, our deck is almost sure to face defeat against Item lock effects. However, this doesn't mean that your best option is to remove all Item cards from your deck entirely.

 

As far as overall deck potential goes, you definitely want to diversify the content of your deck as best as you can, to prevent your deck from veering from one extreme to another.

For example, if you we're to try catering too strongly to an Anti-Item lock strategy for this deck. Against non-Item lock decks that embody different strategies (such as many raw power Swarmer decks)—the time-lapse involved with the Evolution chain climb for Garchomp might still see your deck facing defeat due to a technicality. For this reason, keeping just a little Item utility around can actually help to increase the potency of your deck structure overall.

 

If you pay close attention, you'll realize that this deck as it stands could exercise some special potential for this technique (given its heavy use of Korrina—and her explicit tactical retrieval power). Letting that potential go entire to waste could be a bad idea, and going without Korrina entirely could be an even worse idea yet. Korrina (as a direct retrieval utility) is a very powerful card—even in the face of Item lock.

 

So instead of taking out all the Rare Candy here as you reinforce the deck structure to protect against Item lock effects, consider a tech of just 1 Rare Candy instead. Just one can be all you need at the start of the game (if-and when the opportunity presents itself to make use of it). With this technique, you can seize the day, and get your first Garchomp out quick. Then bridge off Korrina (and other technical Supporters) to climb the evolution chain for the rest of your Garchomp from the bench.

 

With that said, Wally would probably make a great addition to the deck structure as you reinforce it against Item lock. Wally would be a prime selection—given how this deck explicitly revolves around Stage 2 evolution chain climbing. Garchomp is our primary resource—and more than a worthy enough power to focus the potential of our Supporter base around. Akin to this, Wally makes a really great accessory to Korrina, by doubling up on our evolution chain line climbing through the combination of unique support each cards offer to the suite.

 

When accommodating Wally, we would naturally want to also consider reducing the presence of Ultra Ball to just a single copy (or possibly consider removing Ultra Ball entirely) in place of Wally. Whatever you do, just make sure that Wally's presence isn't underwhelming. Consistency is one of the greatest keys to success in this game, so you'll want to dial back on other less useful cards (such as Skyla if you have to) in order to ensure Wally's presence is as consistent as it needs to be for success.

Since we would be reducing our Item dependency so strongly here, Skyla will naturally become another card that we might be better off dueing without entirely. For this reason, would want to consider increasing the presence of more universal supporters (such as N) with the space opened up from the omission of Skyla.

 

Supporter presence is going to be very important to make up for the absence of Item card utility. It might even be a good idea to reduce the Pokémon Tool card split down to a simple 2-2. Every single extra Supporter card is significant, so that one extra card can make up all the difference. There is only a small window of opportunity against Item lock to make use of your Tool cards on the first turn. And although the consistency helps with this, you might still be better off reinforcing your draw potential instead (as you add Stage 1 Pokémon to the equation).

 

How exactly you go about all of this though—is up to you from here. I leave this puzzle to you as a Halloween treat. Take the wisdom I've provided and see if you can use it—To Tame a Land.