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.