Full Retaliation

 

Pokémon [16]

1 — Manaphy EX — BREAKpoint (116/122)
4 — Seismitoad EX — Furious Fists (106/111)

4 — Magikarp — Shiny Gyarados Box (XY143)
4 — Gyarados — Ancient Origins (21/98)

1 — Suicune — Plasma Blast (20/101)
3 — Lapras — BREAKpoint (28/122)

Trainers [30]

2 — Red Card — X&Y (124/146)
4 — Dive Ball — Primal Clash (161/160)

2 — Xerosic — Phantom Forces (110/119)
2 — Judge — BREAKthrough (143/162)
2 — Shauna — X&Y (127/146)
3 — Professor Juniper — Plasma Blast (84/101)
4 — N — Fates Collide (105/124)

4 — Team Magma's Secret Base — Double Crisis (32/34)

4 — Hard Charm — X&Y (119/146)
3 — Jamming Net — Phantom Forces (98/119)

Energy [14]

4 — Splash Energy — BREAKpoint (113/122)
4 — Double Colorless Energy
6 — Water Energy

Epilogue

Ho ho ho~ Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus in the on the double getting all his presents to the good boys and girls all over the world. But some boys and girls aren't going to be getting anything nice for Christmas, because they've put their name on the naughty list this year, where they'll face the Full Retaliation of Santa's Workshop!

Our journey on this still magical Christmas Eve begins with Santa Claus and his sleigh—Seismitoad-EX and [Errand Running] Lapras. These are our primary starters for this deck. The consistency here leans in favor of Seismitoad-EX, because the damage exchange and Item Lock disruption provided Seismitoad is a bit more significant of a contributor to our competitive potential. Lapras however still makes an excellent follow-up for us, with its unlimited retrieval power for Trainer cards, that can powerfully help us setup to make victory of the night!

The hearts of children all over the world are spilling over in anticipation tonight, and you can just see from Manaphy's expression, that they can hardly sleep tonight. The magic of their hearts is what propels us on this night with our top Reindeer, Suicune, as the bells jingle around us, and the presents are placed for deserving (while the undeserving await the wake up call of their life).

Suicune and Manapy are our main tech cards. Manaphy enables quick mobilization, to switch from setup to offensive right away, or enable tactical maneuvers on a rough exchange. Suicune on the other hand is an offensive/defensive powerhouse, that can become our ultimate driving force, and plow through the ranks of Pokémon-EX as we jingle all the way!

We don't have any time to waste on Christmas Eve, so we always want to play first as often as we can. You might question this because of Item Lock, but trust that Item Lock can be tough whenever it falls. You don't need to always worry about getting it down right away with the first attack. We have a couple more pressing issues at hand, such as locking down our perimeters, to help ensure our safety from the creatures of the night.

And for this night in particular, safety is by far our biggest concern.

Santa Claus has a lot of experience under the his belt, and that's why we're utilizing this supreme defensive strategy, incorporating the combined power of Hard Charm and Jamming Net, to put up our maximum defenses. This strategy by nature further suggests we play first for best results, to make best use of Jamming Net, in hopes of quickly wrangling any creatures of the night before they get too out of control.

If that does happen, Santa Claus has all the might to wrangle one with his bare strength, between the combination of Xerosic of Jamming Net. This tech addition of 2 Xerosic is a prominent signature of mine whenever running Team Flare Gear. It helps to make best use of the gear, and in a single powerplay, can turns the tides against the opponent in the very heat of battle!

Now, the action begins once we get Team Magma's Secret Base in play. This represents Santa's Workshop, and the homes of all the people in the world, whose warm welcome awaits the arrival of their presents. The presents of course are represented by the golden Magikarp, but some people aren't going to be getting any sweet presents at all. The most they'll be getting is coal—and the coal is definitely the last thing you want to see here—just the same as it is on Christmas Day.

Finding coal on Christmas morning has to be one of the most heartbreaking things ever, sure to make even the toughest boy or girl break down in tears. And maybe that's why it's so befitting that Splash Energy represents the coal in our deck. Equipping [Full Retaliation] Gyarados with this lump of coal enables the full wrath of the North Pole to extend its reach to all naughty children on the list.

You see, Splash Energy can return Gyarados and Magikarp to our hand, thus enabling us to place our golden presents elsewhere on the bench, then triggering Team Magma's Secret Base, and ultimately taking the power of the next [Full Retaliation] back up to its maximum intensity.

Santa Claus has no problem giving naughty children what they deserve. He has a hard policy for being naughty. So hard—that it takes two Hard Charm to represent it. And equipping two Hard Charm to Gyarados is one of the best powerplays you can make with this deck! It stacks with Jamming Net to super-reinforce our jolly team against the bad vibes of naughty boys and girls. Many of them are sure to be very bitter on Christmas morning—we can even expect some hate mail from them later.

Hate mail is of course a good way to instantly land yourself on the naughty list for next year—represented by Red Card. Red Card stacks really powerfully with N, and our other draw Supporters, in hopes the naughty boys and girls will eventually learn their lesson and clean their act up. Red Card can be a powerful disruption by itself, but it's provided here in a tactical split between Judge. This tactical split provides us an extension on our disruption potential, which can work a miracle for us in times where it seems like we might not make it through the night.

It also provides us an extension on our draw potential, which you can almost never have too much of. Draw power is as important as teamwork—and here the two go hand-in-hand to make the Christmas magic happen. Santa's expertise once again comes into play here, understanding that some of our resources are very precious to us (such as our special energy) so that we can't really afford to discard them (especially at the opening of the game). For this reason, Professor Juniper has been tuned to 3 solid copies to help reduce the chance of Mrs. Claus having to make any hasty decisions.

This aims to work out for the best, because 3 copies is a really prime consistency for any card you'd like to get to within a single shuffle and draw with Supporters like N and Shauna. The midrange consistency helps to keep that card out of the opening hand, but sees its probability of being draw significantly increase, once the hand has been played out, and is then replenished in near full.

Lots of help surrounds Mr. and Mrs. Claus in the form of our wheel Supporters base, whose heavy presence is intended to reinforce the chance of having alternative play options to Professor Juniper when it is in our hand. Many times over, our best play can involve wheeling out instead of discarding to draw, because discarding to draw can not only waste precious resources entirely, it can reduce the consistency of our deck's best content, and dramatically effecting our ability to finish the job we set out to do!

8 to 3 is a pretty heavy split—granting us lots of grace to make our rounds long into the night without losing anything important along the way. Good little boys and girls like Shauna are counting on us to deliver the goods. And Shauna is here as our little helper because we can count on her just the same. You see, Professor Birch's Observations was our main option, and although it seems like that card would fit the theme perfectly, we really can't afford to make any gambles on Christmas Eve.

Getting the short end of Professor Birch's Observations can be a dramatic hold up for us (one that we might not be able to recover from). But thinking smart, and taking no chances, we ask Shauna to come along on the ride with us. Because it's easy to see how the magic of a young girl's heart can be always be counted on to keep our pace steady as we drift through the night.

Proclaiming Merry Christmas to all...and to all a goodnight~