Farewell Friends — My Entire Collection

Fire Yoshi

 

Let'sa go! This is a deck with a Super Mario theme that utilizes [Sol Generator] Solrock as the primary starter to gather Burning Energy for M Houndoom-EX (Fire Yoshi). From there, M Houndoom and swing in and boast some One-Hit KO potential with [Inferno Fang] (and a play on Professor Kukui if needed). Professor Kukui is a new addition to this deck that seeks to add some much needed firepower. It's so important, that it could be in this deck's best interests to find a way to get another copy of Professor Kukui in here. I would have done this myself, but this is a very technical odd-end that would need to be playtested, so I just left it as it is for balance (replacing Tierno for Professor Kukui).

 

Since its damage effect would go wasted while Solrock leads, Kukui finds itself on the lower end of the split with Cheren. The additional card that Cheren provides is really important to resource the quickest setup possible at the start of the game alongside Scored Earth.

 

Float Stone was originally included to provide quick mobility for M Houndoom in the absence of typical One-Hit KO potential, enabling Reshiram, Houndoom, or another M Houndoom to move in the for kill. And remains as it's still an amazing card with M Houndoom. Float Stone is also a must for Camerupt-EX, a power tech in this deck alongside [Team Magma] Camerupt, that in some really creative fun, can turn into Fire Mario, and shoot Fire-energy like fireballs with [Explosive Jet] to deal crushing amounts of damage that can One-Hit KO any single Pokémon in the game.

 

 

Five Star Running Back

 

This is a unique deck I came up with featuring a Football theme. There's a special concept behind this deck, in which it's intended to be played against itself, creating a theme deck like matchup that hopes to be as fun as a real game of Football between the checks and balances the deck offers among its own content. A nice adaptation to this deck not included here to fit the entire deck in a single frame includes replacing a copy of [Take Down] Tauros for a copy of Lucario-EX.

 

 

Flash of the Blade

 

"You'll die as you lived in a flash of the blade...in a corner forgotten by no one.
You lived for the touch, for the feel of the steel
One man—and his honor!"

 

Here's a classic deck of mine featuring a turbo Ancient Trait Excadril hyper-defense strategy. The idea here was to do the exact opposite of what was popularized in the mainstream with Ancient Trait Excadril at that time, with people were using an offensive strategy with Muscle Band to unlock 140 damage attacks, that can potentially overlap onto the opponent's Benched Pokémon through the effect of Omega Barrage. One big problem with that style of deck is that it leaves Excadril pretty vulnerable at just 120HP. 

 

That's where I got the idea for this deck which seeks to use [Dredge] to load up Excadril with Shield and Metal Special Energy. These energy reduce the damage of an opponent's attack by 10 each, then stacking with the effects of Hard Charm, Jamming Net, and Parallel City to prevent up to 90 damage from the opponent's attacks! Excadril can then attack for 100 damage a turn, in increments of 50 each, while the opponent is entirely helpless dealing 10 or 20 damage on average if they're lucky.

 

I had originally stacked this with Super Potion, which could enable a single Excadril to basically finish off an opponent by itself. Super Potion has since been replaced with Pokémon Center Lady for the bonus guard against Special Conditions (as Steel Shelter has also since been replaced with Parallel City to supplement damage prevention—especially against Fire-type Pokémon disadvantage). A final tech on Tauros-GX finds its way here just because, and a copy of Hard Charm as been replaced with a tech on Assault Vest for much of the same reason.

 

 

Flea Bomb

 

This is a [Team Plasma] Tornadus/[Super Fang] Raticate deck that I came up with seeking to use the hyper card advantage of [Windfall] to resource Raticate from the bench, then quickly enable a series of One-Hit KOs between its [Super Fang] attack and Hypnotoxic Laser. The theme for this deck revolves around the concept strategy, essentially dropping the bomb on the opponent with Raticate to wipe them out through [Super Fang] and poison damage.

 

The original deck led with 4 [Team Plasma] Tornadus, but this final edit includes a split between Lapras-GX for the diversity it hopes to provide against Type-disadvantage. [Team Plasma] Kyurem has always been a staple to this deck, and was included to provide a strong Swarmer in place of Tornadus as the starting Pokémon. This was originally supplemented with 3 Colress Machine, which has now been dialed down to just two, but should still be fine for building up Kyurem from the bench.

 

Disruption from Judge has since been added to help to hold the opponent's card advantage back while [Windfall] or [Collect] leads to instantly bounce back from it. There's somewhat of an overhead resourcing all the cards this deck needs, so the disruption from Judge hopes to really come in handy. A double wheel powerplay from N then backs this up, given how this deck really can't afford to discard any precious copies of cards. This also explains why this deck only techs a single copy of Professor Sycamore—which just like the Nuclear Disarmament—was kept around just in case.

 

This deck includes Plasma Frigate to help ward off Type-disadvantage further, but could possibly see some great success replacing it for Parallel City. Parallel City helps to reduce the damage of prominent types, which can be essential to the frailty of Raticate, especially on the transition after a Knock Out. Parallel City can also be used in a powerplay that enables a heavily damaged Tornadus (that led with [Windfall]) to retreat to the bench, and duck into the shelter of the discard pile, when Parallel City crunches the bench.

 

  

Flying Goomba

 

Here's a cool concept I came up with when I got the crazy idea to create a deck that had three Stage 2 Pokémon in it. While pondering the idea, I came up with a brilliant concept to possible make this work that involved fragmenting one of the Stage 2 lines, and then including 3 Rare Candy to help compensate the difference between various gaps between Basic and Stage 2 cards.

 

To reinforce this, I included [Call for Family] to help set the foundation for such a heavy and diverse Stage 2 climb. [Call for Family] effectively helps thin the deck as well, which concentrates the flow of the cards, and effectively brings everything that much closer together.

 

The three Stage 2 Pokémon in this deck were selected by the concept idea to begin with the full Gengar and Crobat line, as the two Pokémon have amazing Synergy with one another, and their middle evolutions both boast helpful Abilities. I then filled in the final spot with Ancient Trait Nidoqueen, for its quick hitting power, and Ability to get a jumpstart on Benched Pokémon as Knock Outs from its Omega Barrage effect overlap. A diverse array of Supporters find their place here to help reinforce this deck's potential as best I could come up with.

 

The theme between them paints the picture of a Flying Goomba, an enemy in the Super Mario 3 games that was able to spit out little tiny flying Goombas that could swoop down on Super Mario and slow him down.

 

 

Flying Nimbus

  

This is an original concept I came up with and pitched on Reddit, where it seemingly caught on, and became somewhat of a mainstream concept. I came up with this deck seeking to utilize a technique I pioneered for myself in the development of the Supercharged and Poundtown decks. This technique involves utilizing [Geomancy]'s energy acceleration to quickly rev up Colorless attacks where Double Colorless Energy can then be used to quickly close the gap on their costs. I was looking to centerpiece [Toss and Turn] Snorlax here, which obviously makes another great selection for this technique.

 

The strategy here involves that exact technique, while building up {Goodnight, babies} Hypno from the bench. From there, Hypno's Ability can be used to disrupt the opponent's Pokémon and boost the damage of Snorlax's [Toss and Turn] attack. Fighting Fury Belt then helps boost this damage a little more, atop a nice HP boost to help guard Snorlax on the transition after a Knock Out.

 

This deck includes Fairy Drop to heavily offset the damage stack, while a tech on {Victory Kiss} Jynx turns it into a free play on Super Potion, and also doubles as a great enabler for Altaria-EX and its [Powerful Gain] attack. Altaria is important to diversify against Type-disadvantage. Fighting-types can deal a lot of damage very quickly, easily KO'ing Snorlax (or the even mightier Snolax GX) in a single attack. Altaria however turns the tables against Fighting-types with its resistance factor—and the amazing healing synergy between Fairy Drop, {Victory Kiss}, and the effects of its own attacks.

 

As a fun fact, I had originally included two Rainbow Energy here to enable a powerplay between [Powerful Gain] and {Victory Kiss} Jynx. It was later omitted though, as I felt it wouldn't see enough potential in this deck structure to bother including it.

 

Chaos Tower is provided in a split with Fairy Garden to unlock more potential for {Goodnight, babies}, so it can be used just as effectively with Altaria and M Altaria as it can be with Snorlax and Snorlax-GX. A possible tech on Big Malasada can be added here in place of a Fairy Drop to provide an extension on this—and boost some synergy with {Goodnight, babies} while Fairy Garden is in play.

 

Professor Kukui is a last minute addition to this deck, hoping to add some prime potential I recognized. Professor Kukui stacks nicely with Snorax's [Swallow] attack; enables M Altaria to breech One-Hit KOs against 130HP Pokémon; and enables Snorax-GX's [Thunderous Snore] to breech One-Hit KOs against 210HP Pokémon (such as many Megas and other Fighting Fury Belters).

 

An additional note about the presence of Professor Kukui is that it helps to keep the opponent at a disadvantage after a play on Judge, which further explains this deck only techs a single copy of N.

 

...

 

"On the next, Dragon Ball Z...Goku has gotten so fat that he can no longer call upon the Flying Nimbus. Upon trying, Goku falls through the mighty cloud and crashes to the ground with a thunderous boom."

 

 

Friend Zone

 

Here's a deck I originally came up with for the Standard format right before the turn of the 2017 Season. This is a [Gale Thrust] Scizor deck based on the nightmare of being put in (or stuck in) the Friend Zone. The strategy for this deck strives to make an invincible combination out of Max Potion/Float Stone/{Metal Links}—and Scizor's [Gale Thrust] attack. These cards possess some amazing synergy together, acting as both enabler and amplifier to Scizor and its own potential.

 

The technique here is pretty simple. Float Stone enables free retreat between Scizor, which can enable two Scizor to switch in and out between one another to deal 110 damage with [Gale Thrust]. Max Potion can then be used for a full heal on a heavily damage Scizor, while {Metal Links} (and the turn's energy play) can easily make up the difference for the energy loss.

 

Although it's the centerpiece card, this deck doesn't really want to start with Scizor (since it can't make use of [Gale Thrust] that way). It also may suffer having to waste its first turn energy play on another Pokémon other than Scizor (because it may not be able to make that double energy play). [Quick Guard] can be useless against Wally/evolution decks, as Scizor-EX can be useless against anti-EX effects. Considering all this, the deck structure here seeks to diversify as much as possible to help guard against all these obstacles. 

 

This is then backed up by a heavy volume of Float Stone, which is present here in the least consistency needed to support availability for a quick retreat and attack with Scizor on Turn 2. Olympia helps to provide an extension on Float Stone and doubles with Pokémon for some additional healing power alongside Max Potion. This is great with Float Stone, as a free retreater can move in after a Knock Out and enable Pokémon Center to heal an additional 20 from a Pokémon before moving it in for the attack.

 

A number of techs play their own special parts in diversifying this deck's potential. Aegislash is included for potential lockdown effect and synergy with {Metal Links}. Snorlax-GX also makes a last minute appearance for the natural synergy with {Metal Link} and Float Stone. Cobalion-EX provides an ace against Jolteon-EX and other preventive effects—while a tech on Bronzong BREAK helps to provide an additional extension on this.

 

Since Fire-type Weakness can be so prominent, I originally wanted to include a copy of Lugia-EX (alongside the 2 copies of Weakness Policy) to help give this deck more of a fighting chance against Fire-type decks, but later decided to just leave it as a suggestion for everyone to experiment with for themselves. If you're not going to be up against this, the Weakness Policy can obviously be replaced with a copy of Pokémon Center and a copy of Lugia-EX or one of the Cobalion to strengthen the core of this deck further.

 

 

Frogger My Nig

 

Here's an oldschool deck of mine among the very first decks I came up with at my return to the Pokémon Trading Card game in 2013. This is a deck based on the Classic arcade game Frogger.

 

The strategy behind this deck centerpieces to terrifyingly power Stage 1 Pokémon—[Revenge] Toxicroak and [Sludge Drag] Muk alongside Virbank City Gym and Robo Substitute to lure out the opponent's Pokémon one after the next and squash them. As a powerplay with [Sludge Drag], considering using it to drag out a number of the opponent's Pokémon, in order to stack up some damage on each of them for an easier finish with [Revenge], [Pester], or [Smash Uppercut].

 

Robo Substitute is a great enabler for [Revenge] and Teammates, that provides some bonus here enabling this deck's Pokémon to hide behind Robo Substitute while Virbank City Gym poison damage quickly stacks up.

 

A final edit of this deck includes Silent Lab to help give this deck a fighting chance against {Verdant Wind} Virizion-EX and {Mystic Heart} Magearna-EX. If those aren't a concern, this deck can replace Silent Lab for another Virbank City Gym and something else (such as Hypnotoxic Laser—which was originally present in a whole playset here—but was later omitted to make room for Silent Lab and tech 2 Enhanced Hammer (to some lesser or greater success) in its place. 3 Hypnotoxic Laser could be a great replacement for Silent Lab and a copy of Enhanced Hammer if not needed.

 

A tech on Ditto has been here for the flavor ever since the start, and its {Transform} Ability provides a neat evolution chain cache—enabling Ditto to {Transform} into Croakgunk or Grimer—then evolve straight into a Stage 1 Pokémon as long as Ditto has been on the bench for a single turn.

 

  

Frost Bite

 

This is an Ether/Lunatone deck from my "Everything Does Better on Ether" kick. This was before the release of Max Elixir, where the potential of Ether might have possessed some challenge to it, but was well worth it for the power it could provide. Yveltal-EX leads this deck, and through the power of {Premonition} and Ether, this deck can play second and attack with Yveltal on the first turn!

 

This deck majorly centerpieces a M Glalie and Frozen City combo, where the technique involves using Yveltal's [Y Cyclone] to pass energy back to a benched Glalie to bypass the Frozen City effect. From there, M Glalie can swing in and leave the opponent trapped under ice facing increasing heavy damage.

 

4 Lunatone is traditionally recommended for this style deck, but here I've opted out a copy for 2 Darkrai-EX, as I believe consistency of {Dark Cloak} is very important. 14 Basic energy is also the minimum for an Ether/Lunatone deck (given the short range of Ether's effect). This deck could even possibly want to exchange a copy of Double Colorless Energy for another Basic Water energy—in the same way it might want to replace a copy of Darkrai for another Lunatone.

 

The Supporter array is designed to provide the best selection to this deck's primary needs (Pokémon and Ether), while the direct retrieval effects provide the advanced potential to shuffle up the deck for a second chance of making use of an Ether in hand (via a second {Premonition} Lunatone on the bench). A last moment addition from Lapras-GX hopes to further this deck's adaptability, and further provides a decent alternative starter to Yveltal-EX.

 

 

Frozen Yogurt D.C.

 

Here's a deck of my from the mid-term of the return to the Pokémon Trading Card game. This is a [Team Plasma] Tornadus deck that pairs the powerhouse with Water-type, including [Team Plasma] Articuno-EX as the backup Plasma Pokémon, with [Team Plasma] Glaceon riding shotgun, and a special guest appearance from {Slippery Soles} Vanilluxe.

 

The original strategy for this deck thought to use [Windfall] and Colress Machine to power up Articuno-EX for an unstoppable offensive with [Frost Prison], while the combo between {Freeze Zone} and {Slippery Soles} enables this deck to serve everyone up, and potentially finish them all in a single attack with [Blizzard]. This final edit of the deck strives for more adaptable potential, and dials down the presence of Articuno to a single tech. Articuno can be a really poor starter when facing Anti-EX effects, while the burning up all your Colress Machine trying to make the bird fly can put this deck in immense debt (given the high energy costs of its Pokémon—and the dependency on Plasma Energy for their power).

 

This final edit here includes Glaceon-EX for offensive diversity, and the potential to shutdown Evolved Pokémon. Rainbow Sherbet Lapras-GX now headlines the starting pair for this deck, as its [Collect] attack works nearly as well with Judge as [Windfall] does, to disrupt the opponent's card advantage, while enabling this deck to speed ahead of it. Another last minute addition from Parallel City provides a crucial powerplay for this deck, that enables it to drop the President back off at the White House (mostly safe and sound) after a heavy lead with [Windfall].

 

Brb...the President of the United States of America is taking us all to Dairy Queen now.