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.