Farewell Friends — My Entire Collection

Severe Weather Warning

 

This is a pallet swap of the very first deck I ever built coming back to the Pokémon Trading Card game at the start of the XY era. This is in-fact the second deck I ever created, boasting the same [Outrage] Dragons Slugger strategy that Thunderstorm Warning has, with the addition of the Fire-type (and Yveltal-EX) to further diversify upon the potential Type advantage. This diversity was the main idea behind this deck, as I was naturally seeking to unlock some alpha potential against the Meta between [Outrage] Dragons through their universal Colorless attack and the wide array of diversity between their Types. I didn't really put this deck as much use, but as I recall it did just as well (if not a little better) than Thunderstorm Warning—with the addition of Yveltal-EX.

 

Back in its prototype version, there was only a single copy of Yveltal-EX in this deck, with [Dragon Pulse]/[Shred] Rayquaza taking the lead as it does in Thunderstorm Warning. In this final edit of the deck, I've respectively moved Yveltal-EX to the front as the primary lead where I didn't originally want to put it—because Yveltal-EX was such a cliché card back then—and I was looking to do something unique. [Shred] Giratina-EX also takes the place of [Dragon Pulse/[Shred] Rayquaza here to some lesser or greater success. And last but not least, this deck has been affixed with a Bursting Balloon/Rock Guard/Eco Arm strategy—to further its uniqueness—and help to set it apart from its counterpart.

 

 

Shikaka

 

Bubblebee tuna! Greetings, this deck takes us on an adventure to Africa with the one and only Ace Ventura Pet Detective in search of the legendary Shikaka (albino bat). The strategy here is an improvised M Gengar/Bats tactic that includes a tactical 2-2 split between [Ultra-Toxic Fang] Golbat and {Surprise Bite} Golbat. The reason for this tactical split is to help provide diversity to this deck's offensive potential against anti-EX effects. {Surprise Bite} Golbat is considerably too weak for this, and Kangaskhan's [Comet Punch] is considerably too unreliable. [Ultra-Toxic Fang] however is insanely powerful alongside Virbank City Gym in this deck—dealing 40 outright—then stacking up 60 damage in Poison on the opponent's Active Pokémon between turns.

 

AZ is the choice technical Supporter for this deck for its diverse utility here. However, this deck has an immense resource overhead with heavy Crobat line, so it needs lots of card advantage Supporter to heavily reinforce it. That is why you only get 1 powerplay with AZ here—with an extension on this potential provided by Scoop Up Cyclone. This deck also runs 2 Robo Substitute to help reinforce Gengar-EX's [Dark Corridor] attack, and your best move can be to chalk up a Prize for a greater powerplay off Teammates. However, AZ and Scoop Up Cyclone still hope to act as more advanced copies of Robo Substitute—providing a full HP reset, opening up bench space, and also enabling the exchange of one Crobat for another.

 

 

Shinobi Vs. Dragon Ninja

 

Here's a deck that seeks to make a power combination between M Gallade-EX and [Team Plasma] Weezing. These two cards boast some powerful synergy together in this deck with Dimension Valley, where Weezing's [Smogbank] loads the opponent's Pokémon up with damage counters for M Gallade-EX to swing in and quickly finish the opponent off. [Team Plasma] Weezing also boasts a very powerful ability, that acts as disruption against the opponent's draw, discarding 4 card off the top of their deck when Weezing is Knocked Out. This can cause an opponent to lose precious copies of game saving cards. And with 4 copies of Weezing here, this deck aims to be seriously competitive.

 

A few ninja tools of the trade are also included here to further this deck's versatility and adaptability. Enhanced Hammer can be a heavy disruption that forces an opponent back one extra turn they can't afford, while Escape Rope and Scoop Up Cyclone provide this deck to pull off some advanced ninja moves with Mystery Energy, as well as help to guard against Special Conditions.

 

 

Simply Teaching

 

The half-art Ancient Trait cards boast some incredible artwork, they look even more brilliant in real, so I set out to see if I could build a competitive deck for each that tapped into their potential. I never did get around to finishing that, but this here is the deck concept I came up with that revolved around Ancient Trait Eelektrik. The theme here is about a very talented woman in the art of Suki Suki, who stumbles upon a charm school, and seeks to teach the girls everything she knows about the art she's mastered.

 

The deck strategy here is a heavy healing one, that seeks to utilize the combination of {Victory Star} Victini and {Victory Kiss} Jynx to bring out some alpha potential in Thundurus-EX and the Ancient Trait Eelektrik line. The combined effects of these two cards strongly reinforce coin flip attacks, and also help to offset the damage stack and boost survival. Alpha Recovery Eelektrik gains an especially benefit from this, as with just 1 copy of Rough Seas and Jynx out, the opponent will have to deal a One-Hit KO to knockout Eelektrik. Might not seem difficult today, but this was back Seismitoad-EX rules the Meta with a max 50 damage a turn at most bridging off Item lock to win.

 

I hate to think that a based on just Eelektrik could be super competitive, and I'd also hate to waste the potential to make use of its Stage 2 evolution, and that's why 2 copies of [Suction Heal] Eelektross also make an appearance here. This Black White era card boasts a lot of synergy in this deck between the combination of its attacks. The first of which stacks perfectly with the heavy healing theme here, and the second which boasts some Lysandre-like potential, that can flat claim Benched {Set Up} Shyamin-EX for two Prize cards.

 

In this final edit, I removed a copy of [Thunder Fang] Raikou-EX for an additional copy of Mewtwo-EX to provide a higher consistency (for a higher availability) against Fighting-type decks where Mewtwo-EX turns the tides from Type disadvantage to a powerful Type advantage.

 

 

Skurt Reynolds

 

"I ain't wit it had to swerve, I ain't wit it had to swerve, I ain't wit it had to swerve
...like skurt!"

—heRobust

 

This is M Tyrannitar deck that pairs the heavyweight with a duo of [Dark Wing] Yveltal and [Mighty Wind] Togekiss-EX. Given the utility of their energy acceleration attacks, both of these cards boast some amazing potential with M Tyrannitar-EX in an Out-Fighter strategy. The theme of the deck here is about dirty men who knock women up and then leave them when they're pregnant. The strategy here involves powering up Tyrannitar/M Tyrannitar-EX from the bench with Yvetal or Togekiss-EX. There's a lot of support for quick resourcing to bring this all together, while cards like Rocky Helmet and Rock Guard help to setup for the big finish once M Tyrannitar-EX hits the Active spot.

 

 

Skydiver

 

Here's a deck that seeks to combine the power of {Fight Song} Altaria with the mighty {Bust In}/[Jet Sonic] Dragonite-EX. This Dragonite-EX was an entirely overlooked card, yet I believe this card possesses some alpha potential that could have easily took 1st Place at the Worlds Championship. This deck is about a Fat Japonais Gold-digger, who lives for the thrill of life, and is about to take life to the next level by becoming an accomplished Skydiver.

 

The strategy for this deck and its setup revolves around the team of [Energy Stream] Zekrom and [Energy Glide] Emolga-EX, whom both boast immense potential with {Bust In} Dragonite. [Energy Stream] Zekrom might actually work a little better with 3 Ultra Ball, but I don't really think this deck can afford to be discarding cards all like that. The 2-2 split here between Level Ball and Ultra Ball helps to provide continuity. This deck doesn't really need to attach heavy amounts of energy to Zekrom anyways, since Double Dragon Energy can easily make up the difference.

 

Zekrom and Latias-EX both provide amazing barriers for a start-up involving [Energy Glide] and Emolga, which is a prime combo of mine with {Bust In} Dragonite-EX. The copy of AZ here helps to provide an extension on Scoop Up Cyclone, enabling a powerplay with Dragonite-EX for a full-reset and another play on {Bust In} next turn. The 2 copies of Sky Field also provide a similar potential, hopefully enabling this deck to load up the bench with Altaria, then make a powerplay with {Bust In} from the hand when the bench was previously loaded.

 

 

Slip N' Slide

 

A young doctor is having some trouble adjusting to the Hospital life, when the head nurse (who has some seniority over him) steps in to help guide him. The two get off to a really good start, and to repay the favor, the young doctor (being considerably talented) offers to help her with some pain she's been experiencing. "I'm just going to put a little pressure here...and...****"  "And now a little pressure here...****" It wasn't soon after, and with his magic touch, the nurse was feeling better than ever. The two become very close friends with each other after, and eventually went on to get married.

 

 

Slow Jamz

 

"She said she wants some Marvin Gaye, some Luther Vandross
...a little Anita...will definitely set this part off right."

 

This here is a {Fight Song}Latias/M Latios deck about the sweet art of lovemaking. The primary strategy here revolves around the tactical power of Latios-EX and its [Mach Flight] attack, which gained a lot of potential with the release of Double Dragon Energy, given how it enables Latios-EX to attack right away on a single energy.  Latias-EX and Hydreigon-EX also boast some very technical effects and ability, which between them all aims to create a very formidable team on all fronts.

 

Heavy use of Fighting Fury Belt helps to offset the damage stack as a compliment to the power boosting effect gained from {Fight Song} Altaria. This is further akin to a decision I made to reinforce the deck structure in favor of Latios-EX/Basic support/Fighting Fury Belt being the first priority strategy over M Latios, Latios Spirit Link, and Shrine of Memories as the second priority strategy.

 

The combat logic behind this decision involves the fact of the uphill energy costs for the attacks this deck's Pokémon. A strategy more focused on M Latios would desperately rely on being able to keep Shrine of Memories active (which can be a rather unreliable venture—even with heavy consistency). Now, M Latios does retreat for free, but the only card you're going to be able to move in and attack right away with is another copy of Latios-EX (given how it's the only Pokémon that can attack on a single energy). Considering this, I decided to reinforce the deck structure here around this deck's most versatile option in attempts to spare myself any run around.

 

I would have liked a heavy tech of 2 Lysandre here as well, but I'm not entirely sure how I would fit it in. The obvious adjustment would be 1 less Bridgett, 1 less Misty's Determination for 2 Lysandre. However, running less Bridgette terribly hoses the consistency so that it might not ever be of any significant use at all. While with the sniping power of M Latios, I question if Lysandre is really needed here at all. To me, it seems better to reinforce the flow of the cards for this deck as much as possible, because this deck possesses such a diverse array of multifaceted resources. That's why all the Supporter cards in this deck help get to these resources.

 

Even the heavy consistency of Misty's Determination is really important, because it can use unneeded copies of Bridgett and Latios-EX to provide the greatest extension possible to very crucial cards—such as Double Dragon Energy, Double Colorless Energy, Shrine of Memories, Latios Spirit Link, and copies of Altaria. Spamming through the deck with Professor Juniper can be considerably careless, and ultimately waste precious resources and run you out of cards. So the heavy utility of Misty's Determination here hopes to spare it from any premature Defeat.

 

This deck here is actually running naked with just 4 copies of Misty's Determination alone. As it can be a somewhat unreliable card itself, and that's why I prefer to run it alongside 4 copies of VS Seeker to back it up.

 

 

Slurm

 

Furturama was the inspiration behind this parody deck, namely the Slurm episode featuring the party animal Slurms MacKenzie. The strategy here is a Virbank/Poison strategy that runs dual Muk lines between the terrifying [Sludge Drag] Muk and [Team Aqua]'s Muk. These two cards boast a lot of synergy together, and could probably make an interesting deck with both lines in highest volume, but for this deck I decided to dial down the [Team Aqua] Muk to make room for a considerably more powerful starter in Philip J. Fry—Toxicroak-EX. Poison doesn't really work against Float Stone, so it's important to have some type of hard physical power to lean back on.

 

Unfortunately, I never really got to give this deck a go, because I came up with the idea the Unlimited format was removed from the online venue. But the main strategy is all here and solid, and with a 3-2 split between Virbank City Gym and Silent Lab, this deck might even gain a fighting chance against cards like Virizion-EX.

 

 

Smoke on the Water

 

"We all came out to Montreux, on the Lake Geneva shoreline...

But some stupid with a flare gun...burned the place to the ground."

 

Here's another oldschool deck of mine from the Flashfire era based on the legendary Deep Purple, that  retells the tale of this song in graphic illustration. The original concept behind this deck was to create something that tapped into the potential of [Clamp Crush] Cloyster. At its release, I recognized this card had some amazing potential to it. Not only does its [Clamp Crush] attack leave the opponent's Active Pokémon Paralyzed, but it also discards an energy card attached to that Pokémon!

 

I originally thought to pair this with Team Flare Grunt to double up on the energy discard and more effectively set opponents back entire turns. However, I found myself struggling to make explicit use of Cloyster as it tended to be more of a vulnerable card than anything else. It's [Clamp Crush] attack just doesn't do enough damage (even despite its effect) and its second attack is entirely unreliable, for even more unreliable amounts of damage. Finding a strong pair for this card would be important to bring up the bulk for this decks potenital, and that was where M Blastoise came into the picture.

 

The original deck featured the original [Hydro Bombard] M Blastoise, to provide an extension on the damage done across the board, and provide a compliment to the potentially underwhelming power of [Clamp Crush] Cloyster. A [Seafaring] strategy was then tagged with this to accelerate the offensive time frame. However, this updated version of the deck seeks to take full advantage of the crushing [Dread Launcher] M Blastoise, whose 180 damage attack not only boasts more potential in an Out-Fighter strategy, but also boasts a lot more technical potential as a finisher with Lysandre.