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.