Thunderstorm Warning
Here's the deck that started it all. This was my very first deck coming back to the Pokémon Trading Card game. I built this deck from scratch with a strategic concept in mind—that at the time—sought to do the unthinkable and play second in order to get a jump on the damage stack. This Slugger style deck utilized heavy volumes of [Outrage] Dragons with Switch—to circumvent Special Conditions and effects (such as Hypnotoxic Laser)—while creating an immense HP cache between all the Benched Pokémon. This HP cache would hopefully prevent the opponent from gathering the first Prize, and ultimately hope to get a jump on the Prize card exchange as well.
Akin to this, Pokémon-EX were very prominent at that time, and some decks were loaded with nothing but them. Considering this, I sought to load my deck with a majority of single Prize Pokémon to offset the exchange of Prize cards further. The strategy worked especially well since it further enabled heavily damaged [Outrage] Dragons to swing back out later and deal epic amounts of damage. At two for one, I only have to knockout 3 Pokémon-EX—while the opponent would have to Knock Out at about 5 Pokémon on average to claim victory (even with my own Pokémon EX).
This deck also sought to make explicit use of Lysandre, Pokémon Center Lady, and Ghetsis at the time, which was totally unseen in any format, and especially crushing to players who were unaware of their tactical prowess. One of the biggest combos of this deck back then was the starting combination of just [Dragon Pulse] Rayquaza and Muscle Band—dealing an immense 60 damage for just one energy—that players then desperately struggled to keep pace with. In my initial test run, I went undefeated for 10 rounds straight before finally just calling it quits.
The decklist has changed a bit since then, such as the removal of [Team Plasma] Zapdos (which I can almost swear attributing a great amount of success to—thanks to the super utility of the [Agility] attack)—as well as a questionable tech of Eco Arm. Jolteon-EX now takes the place of Zapdos to some questionably greater success, but the tech of Eco Arm might be better off swapped out for another copy of Lysandre or Pokémon Center Lady. I believe the original deck ran three of each, and their heavy volumes were immensely useful.
The Meta has changed a lot as well these days, introducing a number of cards (such as Max Elixir and Strong Energy) that fairly make this deck obsolete. The utility of Ghetsis is especially significant to this, as its was a terrifyingly crushing card at the start of the XY series. Yet as players these days veer more towards the utility of Supporters in the Expanded format these, it sees that Ghetsis doesn't have quite as much of an impact as it used to. I believe I originally included 3 Ghetsis in this deck for good measure—and playing a Ghetsis on turn one would reasonably end the game right there.
Titanic
Prepare yourself for the most terrifying experience you've ever known, aboard the legendary Titanic on the fateful night it strikes an iceberg in the Atlantic and begins to capsize. I considered this deck at one time to be among one of my most unique and powerful. It utilizes a very heavy defense strategy between the effects of Hard Charm, Jamming Net, and multiple {Ice Shield} Aurorus. This super defensive strategy can turn Kyurem-EX in the sink shipping iceberg itself—or have Keldeo-EX hanging on forever—as these combined effects (including Rough Seas) prevent total of 90 damage on average and will have the opponent dragging along the icy edge to their doom. This particular decklist is an outdated one—and will be updated with a replacement of 1 Zekrom for 1 more Keldeo once the servers go back up.
Toaster for Breakfast
Bill Murray is stuck in an endless reoccurring phenomenon where he wakes up everyday stuck in the day that should have just passed, Feburary 2nd, Groundhogs Day. Among the midst of his despair being stuck in this endless miserable cycle, Bill Murray wants to kill himself with a toaster in the bathtub. Here's an entertaining deck that actually began as a {Dual Brains} Magnezone deck revolving around [Gyro Ball] and Robo Substitute. I don't remember what happened that night, but this is the deck is evolved into.
Here be have the typical [Call for Family] strategy to load up the bench and take some of the strain off the resourcing demand for Stage 2 evolution climbing. The idea here is to get out both Magnezone, then use their abilities to quickly power-up your lightning Pokémon for the swift kill, and keep alive as long as possible under the burn of their heavy voltage.
Tokyo Biker Gang
Motorcyles are extremely popular in Nihon. There are various biker gangs among the metropolis of Tokyo—both male and female. These biker gangs take in the sights of the city, and revel in all that is the glory of the motorcycle. This deck pays tribute to these inspiring people, utilizing an Out-Fighter strategy that aims to build up Politoad and Poliwrath from the bench, so that Politoad's Ability unlocks free McDonalds for everyone, thus enabling Poliwag, Politoad, and Poliwrath to ignore all Colorless energy in their attacks. This enables those Pokémon to attack for free, which boasts some serious horsepower at the hands of Poliwath's fist-bumping, bench punching [Steamroll], and Poliwhirl's gut-busting HP punishing 100 damage [Finishing Blow].
Frozen City here acts as an amplifier to boost the total amounts of damage breached by our Pokémon—successfully stacking with the power increasing effects of Muscle Band and Silver Bangle—as well as the disruption power of the mighty Lysandre. Karen makes a special appearance in this deck as useful tech to extend the appearance of our Tokyo bikers and hopefully enable them to ride on long into the night.
Tony Hawk's Birdhouse
Here's an oldschool deck of mine where I thought to combine the immense power of Team Plasma Pokémon (namely Lugia-EX and it's {Overflow} Ability) with the disruption power of {Drive Off} Swellow. Tapping into [Team Plasma] Tornadus-EX and the effect of its mighty [Windfall] attack, the idea is to pop off a 900 degree aerial spin with N, providing double 6 card draws each turn to blindly flip through the contents of the deck to accomplish a number of basic missions.
The first mission is to fill the bench up as quickly as possible. Deoxys are needed to supercharge the power of Tornadus and Lugia to One-Hit KO potential. The second mission is to pop off as many Colress Machine as possible so that Tornadus or Lugia can begin attacking ASAP. The third mission is to get Taillow on the bench and evolve it to Swellow so that its {Drive Off} effect can be used as powerful disruption against any opponent's preventive effects. As typical with Skateboarding, the Team Plasma strategy here generally suffers in the damage stack, where the heavy consistency of Pokémon Center Lady helps to dial back that damage to keep the downhill jam rolling all the way across the finish line.
Total Recall/Kindergarden Cop
Here we have another Double Feature deck in the same style as the Jackie Chan Fearless Hyena/Rumble in the Bronx deck—presented back in June 2016. This Double Feature stars the legendary bodybuilding action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, in two of his most popular movies of the 90's. This deck utilizes the mighty [Recall] Charizard with the lightning step evolution chain jumping combination of Evosoda and Wally. This combination enables a Rare Candy like effect while the Supporter side of the combo helps to guard against Item lock effects. [Recall] Charizard embodies a Slugger strategy, and aims to act as this deck's protector, doing massive amounts of damage between attacks of Charizard's previous evolutions.
This Slugger strategy gives way for M Charizard to build up from the bench, and ultimately swing in to take everyone down by the force of its daunting [Heat Inferno] attack. Frozen City acts as bracer to the deck's damage theme, and could even use another copy somehow—maybe exchanging 1 Judge for 1 more Frozen City.
Trans Am
One of the most legendary muscle cars of all time, the Pontiac Trans Am once ruled the ranks of the drag scene. This deck seeks to pay tribute to this legendary monster of the stretch, with the fast-paced hard-hitting power of [Burning Roar] Entei. This card takes a very special deck structure to tap into its potential. You'd never be able to tap into it going by the mainstream. This forces a person to start from scratch to figure out the dynamics, but its power is reasonably worth all the effort. [Burning Roar] can attach up to 4 energy total, but with the proper deck consistency, returns about 3 energy on average. This is an immense boost, that can enable a player to swing out the next turn and start dealing some massive damage.
To further the potential of this deck in particular, Lugia-EX is included here over say, Flareon-EX for the type diversity that Colorless provides. It helps to give some edge against Water-type Pokémon, alongside another really advanced tech of 2 [Torment] Semisage. Semisage not only provides the Type advantage in many cases, the effect of its attack also enables a permanent lockdown against M Pokémon, and a powerful stall to prevent other Pokémon from being able to use their most powerful attacks outright.
Trapped on the Moon
Here's a unique pallet swap using my Lunatone/Ether deck engine as seen in End of the World. This deck paints the grim tale of being trapped on the moon's icy abyss. The Ether/Lunatone combination can enable Yveltal-EX to attack on Turn 1—effectively getting a huge jump on the damage stack with anywhere from 60~100 damage! Meanwhile, the remaining Ethers can then be used to energize Kyurem-EX from the bench—whose powerful [Icecalibur] attack deals 130 damage itself and can lockdown the opponent by preventing their Active Pokémon from attacking.
For some type diversity, I included Reshiram and Zekrom here as tech cards. They make good alternative sluggers—given their high HP and the raw power that the [Outrage] attack can boast akin to that. This deck utilizes heavy Float Stone, so Team Aqua's Secret Base makes a perfect placement here. Float Stone just works wonders, and is provided in high volume (despite Darkrai-EX) to extend upon that mobility power as best as possible.
Trauma Ward
A hot busty nurse is in her third trimester and is about to give birth any day now. Suddenly, her water breaks, and her hot young boyfriend is on a race to rush her to the hospital. I came up with this deck concept when thinking how to make use of the Mythical Collection Manaphy. It utilizes a Max Elixir/Trainer's mail combo in conjunction with a heavy healing Rough Seas/Pokémon Center Lady combo. Froslass provides additional support as an outlet for [Rapid Spin]. This can be used to Mega Evolve—or just to buy some extra time to heal up—while an opponent that can't get around Froslass risks having their Active Pokémon Knocked Out by the effect of {Drag Along}.
Splash Energy helps to create an extension on Froslass and M Blastoise—enabling this deck to include fewer physical copies of those cards—in place of more technical contents (such as Trainers' Mail).
Tree House
Here's a pallet swap of the Tree Climber deck I posted back in June 2016. This deck seeks to utilize Kangaskhan and M Kangaskhan-EX, who are about to build a tree house together in their giant backyard. [Triple Draw] Makes a really powerful utility to take in a bulk of cards for Rare Candy evolution line jumping. Normally, a heavy tech of 2 Skyla would be recommended to support this, but I personally don't it would be needed here given the immense consistency and aggressive straight draw volume of effects between [Triple Draw], Cheren/Tierno, Steve, and Professor's Letter.
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