1932 World Series
It's the 1932 World Series, and New York White Sox star player Babe Ruth is in a brutal pitfight with the Chicago Cubs team, as they aggressively harass the All Pro from the bench throughout the series. It would be here, that the Babe would make his legendary called shot, winning the World Series and writing history in his last game.
This is a {Royal Flash} Slowking deck I came up with looking for the strongest synergy with the {Royal Flash} effect. After a little deliberation, I decided to pair it with Sesimitoad-EX, despite how immense it would offset the Type-disadvantage factor.
The reason for this is pretty simple. The only harder to deal with than disruption—is more disruption—and considering this I reinforced this deck as heavily as I could with as much disruption power I could get in here. Judge was obviously at the center of this, given how well its disruption power compliments Sesimitoad-EX and its Item lock effect.
The original deck engine I came up with was something like 4 Giovanni's Scheme, 4 Judge, 4 Professor Sycamore, 1 N, and 3 Professor Birch's Observations—super reinforcing the Supporter base to help secure a recovery—given how much this deck wants to play Judge on the first turn. I also ran a simpler Pokémon base, consisting of just 4 Seismitoad-EX, 1 Manaphy-EX, a 4-4 Slowpoke/Slowking line, and 3 [Resistance Blizzard] Regice.
This deck structure was very successful in majority. Giovanni's Scheme provided a nice power boost alongside Muscle Band for [Quaking Punch]. While the heavy Supporter base made for some great resourcing power. Slowking would stack up on the bench quickly, firing off 3 {Royal Flash} a turn, and effectively shutting down the opponent's Active Pokémon one after the next.
This final edit of the deck retains its greatest potential, with a number of adaptation that seek to optimize on it a bit. Tauros-GX now finds a nice place here as an alternative starter to back up the power of Seismitoad-EX. Its damage-based attacks also compliment the downside of Seismitoad's [Grenade Hammer] attack, effectively creating a better satellite for the damage when Rough Seas isn't available.
Another adaptation involves Professor Kukui, who now also replaces the majority of Giovanni's Scheme. Since this deck isn't running Ultra Ball (which can net an additional card when it comes up next to Ultra Ball on the wheel with Judge), Professor Kukui effectively provides a better play, netting two additional cards while boosting the lead Swarmer by 20 damage (instead of having to choose between one or the other—draw or powerboost).
Giovanni's Scheme remains as a tech here, to push the volume of powerboosting Supporters over the 50% mark, and effectively extend the power boosting effect to a more significant volume. This aims to be especially beneficial here, since Seismitoad-EX genuinely suffers when it comes to the power factor, and {Royal Flash} can't be expected to compensate for that entirely by itself.
There's always the time-factor to consider, and every turn that goes by provides an opportunity for the opponent to make a game changing play with something like Pokémon Center Lady or Lysandre. So even with the heavy disruption power here (between {Royal Flash}, Judge, and Item lock) you still want to KO the opponent's Pokémon as quickly as possible.
To help support bench building for Slowking, I decided to include two copies of Pokémon Fan Club, which compliments the 2 copies of Dive Ball and effectively provides a technical volume of 4 copies total in support of this factor. Pokémon Fan Club can also grab two Pokémon at a time, which reasonably plays out like the technical volume of like 6 copies total.
N and Professor Birch's Observations make up the final two techs in the Supporter base. Their purpose is really just to provide a little extra cushion to the probable success of recovering from Judge. Based on my experience with this, it does bring the volume up to a pretty secure volume, while the split between them helps to keep the draw as one-sided as possible.
The split between Rough Seas and Team Aqua's Secret Base aims to accommodate for diversity in a competitive environment. I had designed this deck for the Standard format, where Rough Seas can quickly turn against this deck facing other Water-type decks with Sesimitoad's low attack power. Considering this, I included Team Aqua's Secret Base in a split to help provide some alternative Stadium potential to compliment the Item lock/{Royal Flash} combo; successfully making it harder (if not impossible) for the opponent to retreat—so that Seismitoad can finish them off—rather than have them get away.
Given how troublesome an issue Type-disadvantage can be (even with Judge and Item lock), especially considering Grass-type and the presence of Forest of Giant Plants, I included 3 Weakness Policy to combat that as best I could. I would have preferred 4 Muscle Band, but this had to accommodated for, and the volume needed to be significant if any hope of making use of it with the heavy presence of Judge here.
Enhanced Hammer was dialed down to a tech to help make room for more crucial contents. I had originally included Enhanced Hammer has a heavy tech of 2 copies (which is how I prefer to run it), and this would definitely be a considerable adaptation to make (if Grass-type isn't going to be an issue). I would then suggest replacing Weakness Policy for a 2-2 split between Fighting Fury Belt and Muscle Band, then using the remaining spot to bring the presence of Enhanced Hammer back up to a heavy tech for a little extra pop.
A creative addition to this deck includes a tech on [Walk Off Homer] Slowbro. It does offset the proportion for the Stage 1 line, but 4 Slowking is absolutely essential to secure the potential of {Royal Flash} as quickly as possible. And it's not really so bad, since when this deck is off to a good start, it can reach for a [Walk Off Homer] Slowbro instead to put that game-winning power on reserve for itself.
This is a really great effect for this deck coupled with Seismitoad's offensive power issues, where the last thing this deck wants to do in a close matchup, is have to wait three or four turns with [Quaking Punch]/[Grenade Hammer] before it can bring the game to a close. Considering the time-factor (as mentioned before), this threatens to be that so close—yet so far kind of scenario. And so aside from the flavor that it adds to this deck, that is the main inspiration behind the presence of [Walk Off Homer] Slowbro here. It hopes to enable this deck to re-enact that legendary moment, providing the confidence and comfort to be able to call your big victory on the spot, and make it happen in an instant.
700 Horsepower
Here's a deck about a young Science teacher from my High School. She was a real babe with blonde hair, big breasts, a slim waist, perfect thighs...and she drove a Nissan 350Z! She had mentioned once or twice about her love for driving it, and this deck does its best to wrap that love up in one pretty package.
This is an original turbo M Gardevoir deck of mine. This is the last M Gardevoir deck I've built, about third in the series I have, and it developed with the very special intention to unlock the potential of [Find Keys] Klefki. It's kind of my signature to find a use for such obscure cards. I love the challenge of it, and that's where I draw inspiration from to develop decks like this.
[Find Keys] Klefki is a really challenging card to make use of it. However, I found that it could have some special potential with M Gardevoir, especially when it comes to directly retrieving copies of Gardevoir Spirit Link. This is a pretty important card for M Gardevoir, and traditionally one might want to run a bunch of copies to ensure availability for it, but I found that [Find Keys] can make an excellent outlet to Gardevoir Spirit Link, effectively enabling the deck to include less copies, and use the extra space for more technical content.
Xerneas is still the primary starter here, but Klefki makes a great alternative starter considering this potential. Klefki enables M Gardevoir to set up from the bench (where its One-Hit KO potential is prime). And in this deck, is complimented by a number of other tactical Item cards—so that whichever Item card Klefki finds as the opening starter—it aims be a useful one for M Gardevoir!
In the final edit of this deck, I only made some slight adjustments. My original runs with this deck were very solid, so I didn't feel there was any need to change things too dramatically. Lugia was originally included for the Type-diversity and synergy with Xerneas and [Geomancy], but has now been split between a tech on Tauro-GX, for the even greater offensive potential available there. I also split the previous 4 copies of Shauna between 2 Skyla, to help provide a more effective extension to Gardevoir Spirit Link in place of Klefki and [Find Keys].
I decided to swap out the original [Life Leap]/[Shinning Wind] Gardevoir-EX, for the more universal (and undeniably more powerful) [Link Blast]/[Luminous Blade] Gardevoir-EX. It's a pretty rare case, but in the event you have to start with Gardevoir-EX, it's better off having that extra offensive potential there if need it. I then polished this deck off with with 2 copies of Xerneas BREAK, to provide some backup horsepower to the mighty M Gardevoir. Preventive effects can be very troublesome for M Gardevoir, and previously Xerneas struggled to make up the difference, while Xerneas BREAK should have no problems taking this potential from 0 to 60 in the blink of an eye.
Aisu Kuraima
This is an old-school deck of mine revolving around the classic NES game Ice Climbers. Although they tend to end up to be immensely susceptible to Type-disadvantage, I enjoy making fun decks that are linear to a single Type, and this is one of the last surviving deck retaining that style of development.
The main idea here was to centerpiece [Team Plasma] Articuno-EX and create a turbo deck of some kind for this very powerful card that was significantly neglected throughout the Plasma era. This deck contains an array of flavorful references to the game—from the Ice Climbers themselves, to the ice pick, to the safety ropes, to the legendary Eggplant bonus of heaven!
The strategy here opens up with either [Team Plasma] Cryogonal or [Team Plasma] Kyurem as the primary starter. Both make very nice setups for [Seafaring] Manaphy to swing in after them, and pick up the energy lost to energize [Team Plasma] Articuno in a single turn (alongside Colress Machine). Articuno is the primary offensive resource here, with its [Frost Prison] attack, which is the only card in the game that I know of with the unlimited potential to Paralyze the opponent every attack.
Articuno traditionally faces some trouble with HP, coupled with its high attack costs. To support this here, Fighting Fury Belt now takes the place of Reversal Trigger (which was previously included for some mass direct retrieval potential with Teammates).
Fighting Fury Belt is a very powerful card with [Team Plasma] Articuno, like the warmest Tundra outfit you can get, the security that is offers is a life-saver. Pokémon Center Lady then backs this up a lot, helping to offset the damage stack dangerously against the opponent's follow-up, facing the imminent sweep to follow with a single connect of [Frost Prison].
Frozen City is a natural for this deck given the Team Plasma theme and the utility of [Seafaring]. It makes a great accent to help get an edge on the damage stack with Kyurem's [Frost Spear] as well as Cryogonal's [Cryofreeze].
The resourcing strategy for this deck combines bulk draw with the very rare opportunity to achieve bulk direct retrieval. N, Judge, and Professor Juniper makes up the suite of bulk draw, while a heavy presence of Teammates pairs really well with this deck's star openers to directly retrieve key cards, while paring extraordinarily well with Manaphy's {Last Wish} Ability, to grab any three cards this deck needs from the deck.
[Team Plasma] Glaceon was included to this deck to help with mobility, especially to easily alternate between damaged and fresh Articuno-EX. I originally ran Glaceon in a 3-3 line for quick and efficient success with getting her on the table.
I don't really feel a 2-2 line is as reliable as it needs to be, but I hate to remove a more prominent resource for another copy of Eevee (to help the line get its feet on the ground), because from what I can tell that would just hold the deck back even more.
Lapras-GX is a neat last minute addition to this deck, provided its synergy with the [Seafaring] effect, and its immensely powerful attacks to provide some much needed bulk power here.
One considerable adjustment for this deck could include switching the volumes of Enhanced Hammer and Escape Rope—depending on your game environment. Just be aware that Escape Rope boasts more universal potential over all here. It helps to provide an extension to [Team Plasma] Glaceon's Ability to prime mobility—as well as to Pokémon Center Lady as a guard against Special Conditions. Enhanced Hammer on the other hand—although it can be very powerful—can more importantly become a dead card altogether. And considering this I just decided to leave it as a tech here.
American Biker Gang
Here's the original deck that
Tokyo Biker Gang spawned off to became a variant of. This is my original {King's Song} Politoad/Poliwrath deck. The opening strategy for this deck utilizes Seismitoad-EX and its Item lock effect as an effective Swarmer with powerful disruption to stall for time, while the Politoad and Poliwrath lines gather on the bench in powerful gangs.
Although this strategy deters from the [Call for Family] setup, there are two copies of [Call for Family] cards on the far end to help create a catch for the opening spot (if you can read this—the b*tch fell off). This catch help to prevent this deck from starting with Poliwag, which is a very bad selection here, given there are no Wally or Rare Candy to hyper-accelerate the evolution line jump.
Tauros-GX takes a last minute seat in this deck as a creative addition. Like the legendary Harley Davidson, the might of Tauros can surely be relied on to get this deck through some tough stretches. However, it's only provided as a tech to keep the Prize exchange liability down as much as possible.
The Supporter base strategy for this deck focuses primarily on resourcing bulk cards to support the evolution line jump. This deck originally contained 3 Level Ball, 3 Evosoda, and a tech on Repeat Ball to maximize this potential—but this has now been boiled down to 4 copies of Dive Ball—with a tech on Evosoda (to push the number of resourcing cards past the 50% percentile clench mark).
The Item cards were narrowed down so the excess slots could be re-appropriated to add more Supporters to the deck and better accommodate for Karen, who provides a more definite extension to the Poliwrath line, and whose presence suggests a little more resourcing will be needed to make use it. This space was used to add a copy of Judge, Professor Birch's Observations, and Steven to the mix here. This deck has a big resource dependency, so it needs big resources to help meet those demands.
Judge is included as a tech, for the disruption potential, which can come in very hand, and should be immensely supported here with the elevated volume of card advantage Supporters.
A neat variant strategy for this deck could include running 3 or 4 Team Flare Grunt, as they have a lot of natural potential with Seismitoad-EX—first supporting the two energy cost of [Quaking Punch] during a slow start—and secondly by doubling up on disruption against the opponent facing Item lock. A 3-2 split between Xerosic could be even better in-fact. This adaption would want to follow-up with splitting the starting Pokémon gig between Tauros and Seismitoad—in a 3-3 split—then appropriating the remaining slot for another Supporter card.
Team Flare Grunt and Xerosic supports Tauros as well as it does Seismitoad, and the split between them helps to diversify against Type-disadvantage (which this current version lacks).
I had originally sought to combat that in this deck with 2 copies of Weakness Policy, but this deck really needs the power of Muscle Band to carry it, and without it, further suggests replacing Silent Lab for Training Center to compensate for it. From which at that point, I would have been changing the face of this deck far too dramatically, so I just decided to just leave it as a suggestion in lieu of another adaptation that would compliment this one.
That being—replacing a few [Submission] Poliwrath here—for the new Sun & Moon [Split Spiral Punch]/[Wake-Up Slap] Poliwrath; whose disruption potential with the Confusion adds a lot of survival potential to the line facing the time-lapse of the evolution climb. Based on my experience with the deck, this can be an effective advantage to have, potentially helping to finish off the opponent's Pokémon and prevent it from potentially One-Hit KO'ing Poliwrath next turn.
Amy Ruvs Acid
Amy is a little Asian girl from Hawaii who ruvs a lot of things—and this deck outlines her ruv for tripping on LSD on ruining the potency of her cerebral receptors. This is a really fun and interactive deck to play. So fun—that you can easily replace it with LSD and save yourself the dangers. This is an Ancient Trait Banette deck that somewhat began as a variant of the
PeeWee's Playhouse deck. The main idea here originally was to replace M Alakazam to centerpiece Mew-EX instead.
I had originally thought to compliment this with [Damage Change] Mewtwo, for the natural synergy I felt it would have with Fighting Fury Belt and Mew's vulnerability. However, I found this to be more counter-intuitive than anything else later for a number of reasons.
The first major reason is because this array increases the deck's vulnerability to Psychic-type Weakness, where [Damage Change] doesn't see enough potential with Mew to matter (since the One-Hit KO damage against Mew—even with Fighting Fury Belt—is breeched too easily). The second has to do with this deck center-piecing Ancient Trait Banette, leading it to take a Swarmer-style combat strategy half the time. And akin to this, [Shatter Shot] can't traditionally finish the job on the follow-up to Banette, and [Damage Change] becomes entirely useless with 50 to 100 damage sitting on the opponent's Active Pokémon after Banette is through with them.
From this, I decided to switch up the style and include Chanelure-EX instead. The Special Condition disruption is really intuitive to protect Mew-EX from retaliation damage, benefits Type-disadvantage scenarios, and provides more diversity to this deck's tactical potential. From there, I decided to toolbox a little; teching a copy of Espeon-EX to combat preventive effects; a copy of {Safeguard} Sigilyph to provide a power option with one; a copy of Tauros-GX (mostly as a placeholder for Tapu Lele-GX); and polished off with two copies of [Psychic Assault] Wobbuffet for its synergy here with the damage counter theme.
This deck runs a hard disruption strategy, which hopes to send the opponent on a very bad trip. This includes leading with N for its natural disruption potential, topped off by 3 copies of Red Card to turn N into a lite Ace Trainer. The mathematical proportions for the card disadvantage effect is heavily topped off here with 2 copies of Judge, which brings the total volume to 5 cards. This hopes to reliable extend the disruption potential over the course of three turns (consecutive or divided), which in most cases is a far greater hold up than the typical deck can recover from.
The bulk draw here was originally topped off with a split between Shauna and Professor Sycamore With the high volume of Ancient Trait Banette, running more than 2 Professor Sycamore is likely to see you wasting copies of cards that you could have really used later. So the split with Shauna helped to preserve precious resources with the Wheel effect, while still enabling a reload on the hand in search of other prominent needs (such as Energy cards).
I later got the idea to split Shauna between two techs alongside Steven, which should effectively provide a little more selective and versatile potential to this deck's resourcing strategy overall. This adaptation was inspired by two major aspects. The first is the energy base, running dangerously low here at just 15 copies, where Steven provides a natural extension on to bring the technical volume up to 16 copies (one of my sworn by mathematical proportions for success when running Judge—or heavy Wheel effects). The second is the presence of Lysandre and Pokémon Center Lady; which were added to this deck to provide some advanced tactical support among various game scenarios.
Given the even split between them, availability and access can become somewhat unreliable factors, where the tech on Steven further provides an extension to both of them—effectively bringing the technical volume of at least one of them to another sworn by value for technical Supporters—the presence of three copies.
With the release of Fighting Fury Belt, it found a natural place in here to compliment Mew among other things. However, a really great adaptation to this can involve splitting Fighting Fury Belt with Weakness Policy to significantly increase this deck's viability against Type-disadvantage matchups.
Yveltal-EX especially faces a problem against Banette with Weakness Policy in place, pushing its [Evil Ball] attack into a Two-Hit KO range (where otherwise it can easily deal a One-Hit KO). This additional turn can enable Banette to stack on another 50 damage on Yveltal with [Curse Deeply], leaving it with anywhere from 70 to 110 HP left (depending on the presence or absence of Fighting Fury Belt), and thus making it a lot easier to finish off with [Eerie Light], [Psychic], [Psyshock], and [Psychic Assault].
Weakness Policy adds some nice flavor to the deck's theme, and it sure to add a lot of potential to this deck facing more competitive gaming environments, so definitely consider that as a power-option here.
Ancient Aliens
This is a deck about how the Pharaohs...were Ancient Aliens. This is a {Power Connect}/Plasma Badge deck that I boiled down from a more complex version featuring the just the Deoxys combo with Cresslia-EX and [Team Plasma] Espeon. This version replaces Espeon for [Darmagriiigus] Cofagrigus, to make [Team Plasma] Deoxys more versatile. This is a card that has legendarily suffered from longevity issues since as far back as I can remember, and it's not exactly complimented by the fact that it's a 2 Prize card either.
I would traditionally would combat this with cards like Super Scoop Up and Scoop Up Cyclone, but another very solid option is [Darmagriiigus], which can serve as a two-for-one (proving both full heal and heavy damage). This combo is strongly complimented by the effect of Mystery Energy, which makes both Deoxys and Cofagrigus easy to mobilize between one another. I naturally felt like this would be a much more versatile combat strategy, so it takes center stage here as the main theme.
The resourcing strategy for this deck primarily works off the consistency factor, using bulk draw of N, Professor Juniper, and the tech on Professor Birch's Observations to resource important cards from their bulk volumes provided. For a deck like this, which should be able to hit the ground running, it aims to be an effective resourcing strategy that can build up great momentum while the Pokémon probes the opponent's defenses.
Misty's Determination is a new tactical addition to this deck provided in the final edit to help bridge the absence of "Ball" effect cards to resource important Pokémon. Misty's Determination effectively provides an extension on them all, with the added versatility to provide an extension on every other card in the deck. Skyla then backs this up some, with an emphasis on Trainer cards alone, to help bring the range of coverage to a fuller volume, with the potential of an unlimited range direct retrieval effect.
Professor Kukui is another tactical addition to this deck provided in the final edit, with the primary intention to provide some power support to [Team Plama] Deoxys. Aside from HP, another typical shortcoming this card faces is its inability to One-Hit KO Pokémon with [Helix Force]. The attack traditionally falls a bit short, always pushing it into the Two-Hit KO range—but between Fighting Fury Belt and Professor Kukui the additional 30 damage can effectively enable [Helix Force] to beat the turn clock more effectively. Since the damage effect would go to waste early in the game, while say Deoxys leads with [Close Encounter], I dialed the volume down to help prevent it from going to waste.
Ghetsis is the disruption support. With how prominent Item cards tend to be in this game (especially in the Expanded format), I shouldn't even have to explain how powerful Ghetsis can get. That being said, Ghetsis was a natural addition to this deck, not only for the flavor it adds here, but as advanced alien technology to wormhole disruptive Item cards (or supportive Item card) that the opponent is attempting to strategically hold (or hide).
Ghetsis makes a much stronger play at the start of the game than its previous accessory—Colress—who once shared a split spot with Ghetsis here. Considering this, I removed Colress entirely in the final edit to double up on the presence of Ghetsis, in order to help ensure more effective availability of its disruptive potential with the consistency factor, and effectively provide more versatility to combat potential turbulence at the start of the game.
As you might notice, there's no Pokémon GX in this deck (not even as a placeholder). Tauros-GX wouldn't be a bad addition, but it would genuinely suffer from mobility problems here so I just left it out. When the new and up-and-coming Tapu Lele-GX is released, I think that would make a much better Pokémon GX addition to this deck.
Arabian Nights
Here's a deck I came up with for the Standard format in the 2016/2017 Season. This is a Max Elixir/Carbink BREAK deck that seeks to tap into the mighty power of Fighting-type Pokémon. Since the release of Strong Energy, the Fighting-type has been a VERY dominant Type in the Pokémon Trading Card Game, seemingly boasting more and more competitive potential every set.
The game pace that Max Elixir creates for Fighting-type Pokémon is nuts, and one Fighting-type Pokémon in particular boasts a lot of special potential—Machamp-EX. [Steaming Mad] is an attack that can retaliate on a heavy damaging Pokémon with the same potential as [Mad Bull GX].
This makes Machamp an especially bad matchup for a number of tankers, that pool all their resources into a single card with the intentions of being able to rely on it alone. For some Type-diversity, a Zygarde array is included here for their natural potential following [Diamond Gift]. Loaded up with Strong Energy, any one of these cards becomes a powerful force to be reckoned with.
To help offset the damage stack, I thought to improvise a bit an include {Victory Kiss} Jynx in this deck. I find that the {Victory Kiss} Ability is really intuitive with [Steaming Mad], as removing just a single damage counter can place the opponent on the far end of a Three-turn Knock Out scenario.
And when facing them immense damage of [Steaming Mad] and [Ranging Hammer], this can quickly place them at the far end of the Prize Exchange as well (especially if their Pokémon face energy hikes that they can't meet within a single turn). Even when they can, the heavy presence of Pokémon Center Lady couples with {Victory Kiss} Jynx, and can offset the opponent so immensely facing Machamp, that they might not be able to get past him at all.
Some quirks about this deck include the split between Chaos Tower and Parallel City. I expect a very competitive scene, where Special Conditions are predominant, and that's why Chaos Tower is on the higher end of the split here. A majority of the mainstream tends to be more simple-tactics, brute forcers, where you might want to switch it up and place Parallel City on the higher end of the split.
If you're not expecting any Special Conditions at all (which seems odd with Espeon-GX around), I would just put 3 copies of Parallel City in here for best results. It works wonders against {Steam Up}/[Power Heater] Volcanion/Vocanion decks, so the consistency can be prime for great things. I'd really love some copies of Magnetic Field, to remove the Resistance factor take this deck's Fighting-type potential to the next level, but it's sadly long rotated out and has yet to return. If it happens to, please keep that in mind as it's a really powerful utility against powerful cards with Fighting-type Resistance.
Another quirk revolves around the energy base. If maybe, this deck might be able to afford one less Fighting-type energy in place for another Stadium or Supporter. The volume that is present is to help ensure 100% success of Max Elixir during its most crucial period at the start of the game. In really competitive games, it is absolutely essential that you make effective use of your first copy, because there's no way to tell how few and far between the other copies are after the Prizes have been set.
I would suggest running at least 20 games (on paper) with 12 energy to evaluate if that one less energy decreases the proficiency of your first play on Max Elixir.
Consistency success is an aspect that can also explain the 2-3 split between Fighting Fury Belt and Float Stone. And this is another quirk I'd like to mention, as although this elevated split helps to dramatically increase success of Pokémon Tool availability during the first few turns of the game (when tactical maneuvers are most important) it also increases the vulnerability of this deck against Item lock. Possibly, I would suggest dialing back a copy of Float Stone for another Supporter (such Lysandre), which can be tested by playing against Item lock decks to see how much better it does.
The tech on Tauros-GX is yet another quirk about this deck. In the final edit, I removed a copy of Zygarde-EX to include it, just to have some GX attack at this deck's disposal. It's definitely better than nothing, but would be much better replaced by a Basic Fighting-type Pokémon GX if one comes along.
Judge is the last quirk I'd like to talk about. You will notice that this deck replaces VS Seeker with copies of actual Supporters. This helps to protect this deck against Item lock, and helps to ensure a much more successful fluid operation at the start of the game. Akin to this, Judge can be really crushing against players in the Standard format who run the cliché 4 VS Seeker suites, as (especially a First-turn play on Judge) can leave them stranded without any way to recover from it.
Professor Birch's Observations and Skyla were the original selections I had considered replacing for Judge, but it would have to be tested, so it's up to you from here on out. So definitely consider taking any number of the adaptations I've suggested (the Energy—the copy of Float Stone), and using them to implement 2 or 3 (maybe even 4)copies of Judge into this deck to evaluate how well you can crush the opposition with it.
Arabian Powerlifter
This is a deck that seen a dramatic transformation. It originally began as a variant of the
Osama Bin Laden deck, replacing the Virbank City Gym/Hypnotoxic Laser strategy with a Training Center/Fighting Stadium/Plus Power strategy instead.
This version of the deck changes things up entirely and takes the form of a Swarmer strategy, incorporating Max Elixir/{Regi Power} for energy and damage acceleration, alongside a Bursting Balloon/Rock Guard/Eco Arm suite to bring the pain even heavier than before. The setup for this deck majorly involves sending [High Jump Kick] Hawlucha out as the primary Swarmer, as for a single energy, Hawlucha can make a very effective Swarmer to wear down the opponent's Active Pokémon.
Pokémon Center Lady is included here for its natural potential with Swarmer decks. Pokémon Center Lady helps to guard against Special Conditions, so Swarmers aren't held back by them turns they can't afford. The 60 damage she heals also helps to offset the damage stack, and hopefully get a jump on the Prize exchange, in the same way it can do for Slugger-style strategies.
The 2-2 Primeape line is a creative addition that provides a check against preventive effects. It's a [Flash Ray] Jolteon-EX destroyer for sure—and boasts some immense damage potential alongside {Regi Power}, Strong Energy, and Bursting Balloon/Rock Guard—potentially forcing a 200HP Pokémon into a self-KO scenario on average.
The split between Magnetic Field and Parallel City is tactical addition that helps to provide the best possible fighting chance for this deck against its most prominent challenges. Bench loading decks can be real trouble, as well as the Resistance factor, so I figured an even split between them was naturally the safest bet.
To explain the tech on Lunatone, it's just kind of something I left in here from the original version of this deck (where it was included to help compliment the presence of Judge). {Premonition} Lunatone is a championship card, so it does promise to offer champion class potential to any deck that it's in. It's especially essential to this deck in any way though, so it can easily be replaced with another strong Fighting-type Pokémon (such as Landorus-EX) or another copy of Tauros-GX (or Lugia-EX) to expand upon this deck's Type-diversity potential.
Army of the Pharaohs
Here's a deck about Moses, who in ancient times said, "Let my people go!" This is a creative Ether/Lunatone deck I came up think seeking to see how well the synergy of the Ether/Lunatone combo might compliment the mighty Tyrantrum-EX and it's [Dragon Impact] attack. During the initial test run, I was able to bridge off Ether very successfully, and hit [Dragon Impact] three turns in a row for the win. So I considered the deck pretty well composed as it was.
This final edit of the deck doesn't change much, as I didn't want to mess with the deck structure as successful as it had played out previously. There are just a couple simple adjustments here though, which include replacing a copy of Trainer's Mail and Judge for 2 copies of Misty's Determination.
To explain this adaptation, Misty's Determination holds a lot of potential in this deck. It can reach for far off copies of Ether without disrupting the energy contents of the deck, while also enabling a player to discard extra copies of cards and concentrate the proficiency of wheel draws. Given this, Misty's Determination has a little more potential than Judge and Trainer's Mail (while also helping to make the deck a little less susceptible to Item lock)—so I figured I shouldn't even have to test this adjustment to know it should be a good one.
Professor Kukui is another really solid card in Ether/Lunatone strategies, given its ability to take the top two cards off the deck, and effectively give you a second chance with Ether (so long as you have an additional Lunatone on your bench). I had thought bout including that here, but since this deck majorly incorporates the Out-Fighter strategy with its [Sol Generator] setup, it seemed pretty obvious that Professor Kukui wouldn't be as solid an option in this deck structure specifically.
The general deck strategy involves utilizing [Sol Generator] to provide instant access to powerful Double Dragon Energy, while Lunatone and Ether then further compliment the energy acceleration, and enable one of this deck's powerful Dragon-type Pokémon to full energize in a single turn!
The Pokémon base here has a slight adaptation to it here from the original version, which includes replacing a copy of Flygon-EX with a tech on [Shred] Giratina-EX instead (for the adaptability and boost to offensive potential). The strategy between this deck's offensive resources is a brute force [Shred] strategy, which seeks to deal heavy damage quickly, while piercing through the magic of preventive effects (as Fighting Fury Belt—acting like the Spirit of God—helps to provide longevity to our Savior).
[Flying Press] Hawlucha takes a spot here in high volume as a catch for the opening spot. The 60 damage for a single energy provide some nice alternative potential at the start of the game, while its free retreat cost enables all kinds of tactical maneuvers as well (such as enabling this deck to play N and then adapt for a better setup after the wheel comes around).
Shauna also has an important purpose to her high presence in this deck. Shauna's wheel effect is very intuitive to the Ether strategy, as the mid-range 5 card draw provides a nice medium between being able to resource additional copies of important cards like Ether and Lunatone, while also taking in a moderate range of cards overall to help preserve the deck's energy contents.
One possible adaptation to this deck to optimize it further, could involve reducing Trainers' Mail to a tech in lieu of another copy of Misty's Determination (or maybe an Ultra Ball—depending on the game environment you play in). Misty's Determination would be the better choice I think, given how it offers a very similar effect to what Trainers' Mail is here for, only with a wider range, and more diverse potential to grab Special Energy.
There are a lot of additional copies of cards like Hawlucha and Solrock in this deck, so I'd further question if it might benefit a little more with the extra potential help this deck trim the fat some.
Asteroid Field
"Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1."
Here's an old-school deck of mine from my original collection. This is an original concept I came up with (that eventually made it into the mainstream), where I had thought to combine {Toolbox} Sigilyph, [Tool Drop] Trubbish, Elesa, and Dimension Valley for the natural synergy I saw between them. This would effectively create a very powerful deck, would be able hit the opponent with heavy damage, very quickly, on a single energy, while also pitting them against a brutal Prize grind facing a heavy volume of single Prize Pokémon.
As most decks at the time were packed with nothing but 2 Prize Pokémon-EX, I saw a lot of natural potential for this deck to be able to sweep players with an offset Prize exchange. However, there were some obvious challenging factors that the deck would still face, so I began structuring it from the ground up, to bring the cards together as quickly as I could, and reinforce against the most prominent weak points I could discern.
It had turned out less was needed than I thought, and the deck came together very quickly to do just as I had intended. I believe the original version utilized [Triple Draw] Kangaskhan-EX and Float Stone, which made for very quick and powerful resourcing alongside Elesa, N, and Colress. This version of the deck replaces [Triple Draw] with a more tactical split between [Call for Family] Skarmory and [Close Encounter] Deoxys, proving less liability in the Prize exchange, while remaining some very potent resourcing potential between their unique effects.
This deck includes a defensive suite between Assault Vest, Eviolite, and Jamming Net to create a more solid defensive strategy to check against {Toolbox} Sigilyph and its major vulnerabilities. Jamming Net has been tuned down from the typical 3 copies that I like to run. The dialed down volume hopes to cut back on the liability of Jamming Net becoming a dead card with no Xerosic (or the like-effect) around to provide an extension on its playability. The high volume of Elesa hopes to bridge the consistency factor and still make it quickly and easily resourceable.
Also included in this final edit is 2 copies of Weakness Policy, to provide a check against Type-disadvantage, accommodating for how prominent an issue that tends to be for Psychic-type Pokémon especially. Espeon-EX is another tactical addition to this deck with the intentions of providing a check and balance against preventive effects such as [Flash Ray] Jolteon-EX (which threatens to be a very bad matchup for this deck). However, between the Defensive suite, and the effect of [Psyshock], this deck should have a fair chance to overthrow even Jolteon-EX.
On a final note, I would suggest experimenting with Ace Trainer in place of Colress. This was an adaption I had strongly considered for this deck, but never got a chance to actually test it out. Ace Trainer holds a lot of suggestive potential in this deck, so it's strongly suggested to give it a go and see how it does.
Atomic Fireball
This deck was originally a variant of the Carnival Night Zone deck, which sought to inverse the headliner, and centerpiece the {Mystical Fire}/[Blaze Ball] Delphox instead. The setup for this deck further involved Ancient Trait Torchic to reinforce the straight draw strategy, backed up by an explicit use of Ace Trainer to disrupt the opponent's card advantage facing the Prize exchange factor.
I eventually thought to switch up the style entirely, and replaced the Rare Candy strategy with a hyper-evolution Wally/Evosoda strategy instead. [Call for Family] Skarmory is the primary starter for this deck—boasting a ton of synergy with the Evosoda/Wally combo—and further complimented by the tech on {Flash Fire} Flareon-EX (who can grab the energy off Skarmory so it doesn't go to waste).
Judge finds a natural place here in the resourcing strategy given its synergy with {Mystical Fire} and hopes to provide some strong disruptive power to combat the challenging factor of the time-lapse in the evolution climb. This is then reinforced with the heavy-split between N—to provide a high volume of alternative draw support for Professor Juniper—so that it can take its place at the forefront of the resource strategy and provide greater resourcing potential facing the start of the game.
The ideology here is that the majority of resources in hand should be playable between [Call for Family], Evosoda, and the consistency factor of the Pokémon base. So over the course of two turns—especially facing the crunch of the game's opening—one should be able to empty their hand enough so that Professor Juniper isn't a liability.
The heavy volume of Professor Juniper also hopes to enable this deck to make very effective use of Wally at the start of the game, with Professor Juniper's heavy draw there to heavily make up for lost time and resources. Any energies discarded, Blacksmith or Entei-EX can pick up later, while an alternative draw option should almost always be available, helping to ensure everything plays out very proficiently as it is.
I couldn't find any way to diversify against Type-disadvantage too much here, so I did the next best thing, and included 2 copies of Weakness Policy instead to provide some edge against Type-disadvantage. I'd be pretty sure that it works wonders with Delphox BREAK, and sure to be amazing for Flareon and Entei as well.
The theme for this deck revolves around my cousin Nick, who used to live right next to a corner store, where as children, when I would spend the night as his house, we would go there to get 25cent soda and chips. The store has a small penny candy display at the front desk, and Nick's favorite candy was the Atomic Fireball, and so that's where the flavor for this deck draws its inspiration from.
![[1]](http://i.imgur.com/wUrPrym.png){kind=link}