Zombie Bot Net

Pokémon [17]

2 — Shaymin EX — Roaring Skies (77/108)

3 — Chandelure EX — Legendary Treasures (77/113)

4 — Joltik — Phantom Forces (26/119)
4 — Pumpkaboo — Phantom Forces (44/119)
4 — Lampent — Phantom Forces (42/119)

Trainers [31]

1 — Computer Search — Boundaries Crossed (137/149)
4 — Trainers' Mail — Ancient Origins (100/98)
4 — Battle Compressor — Phantom Forces (92/119)

2 — Hex Maniac — Ancient Origins (75/98)
2 — Ace Trainer — Ancient Origins (69/98)
2 — Judge — BREAKthrough (143/162)
4 — N — Pokémon League Promo (BW100)
4 — Professor Juniper — Dark Explorers (98/108)

4 — Dimension Valley — Phantom Forces (93/119)

4 — Fighting Fury Belt — BREAKpoint (99/122)

Energy [12]

4 — Mystery Energy — Phantom Forces (112/119)
4 — Double Colorless Energy
4 — Psychic Energy

Epilogue

Happy Halloween!

It's Trick or Treat time—and I'm handing four unique Night March variants this year!

Night March is of course, the widely popular deck that has been haunting players since its release in the Phantom Forces expansion. Back when Night March was first released, I wasn't really interested in the deck to be honest, because it seemed a little underwhelming on the creative side to me. However, I did put a Night March deck together—and the tests I did run proved it to be considerably more successful overall than the traditional style Night March was being run in.

Night March has always had (even back then) a few significant vulnerabilities to it. I would image that's why Night March hasn't won Worlds since it's release (despite its said domination in the Tournament scene elsewhere). This is not to say that Night March couldn't have dominated Worlds, because I strongly believe it could have. However, the build for Night March that would being used for Night March in the mainstream was simply too underwhelming—and didn't properly diversify its resources to combat against some of the more physically and/or tactically dominating cards.

For example, one of my most prominent principals for the Pokémon Trading Card Game, is that one should always try to have some kind of big body Basic Pokémon in their deck (in order to hold down the fort if-and-when needed). Big body Basics make great walls, and great starting Pokémon that can often be used in a Slugger-style combat strategy to grind down the lead in one's favor—or narrow the lead that an opponent has so significantly—that a pass can be made on them for the lead in the follow up.

This was the first aspect I checked when developing my Night March deck structure. And all four of these Night March decks incorporate a more diversified strategy from the mainstream—that I've been perfecting from the start with the intention to unlock some alpha potential for Night March.

Zombie Bot Net here is actually the first and original Night March concept that started this all. Originally, Zombie Bot Net was a deck about the darkness of the cyber world—enraptured by a diverse collection of Pokémon EX—that each represented some of the most prominent names in computer science. I'm talking about Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak. It's probably undoubtable—that in the Golden Age of the internet—these boys had their fair share of "fun" with the technology that they helped to pioneer.

And so Zombie Bot Net was intended to enrapture the essence of that concept, embodied by the theoretical truth that that every operating system is basically a Zombie Bot Net—and harmlessly fixing players as the unstoppable force—and ghost within the machine.

In it's maturity, this deck has taken on a more refined form, and the theme has been concentrated to better generalize the concept. After all, in the Bronze Age of the cyber world we live in today, the dangers of the cyber world have grown immensely. Like a zombie apocalypse, the plague has nearly consumed the world, with millions and millions of cyber residents becoming infected and developing the mindless aggression of a bloodthirsty zombie. The hunger is so real. And it seem to be never-ending. Not a single of them ever growing ill from their endless cyber cannibalism.

And that's where Zombie Bot Net begins—with Chandelure-EX—our hacker. [1] This card is our technical centerpiece, and big body Basic for this deck—whose presence is intended to give us some edge against more technical content that might otherwise be able to easily pick apart our Night Marchers—and bring us to a quick Game Over.

Chandelure-EX has been a really powerful card since the release of Dimension Valley. The Special Conditions of Burned and Confused alone make a deadly combination, that can enable an opponent's most powerful Pokémon to be finished off without a chance of it getting to land a single attack in return. Top this tactical advantage off with the fact of 70 damage for just two energy (alongside Dimension Valley)—and Chandelure holds the power match the offensive speed of the most aggressive cards in the game.

Chandelure also works very well with Mystery Energy, which definitely works in our favor here, as Mystery Energy is a staple in this Night March deck (as well as the other three—given the amazing tactical advantage it provides).

You see, if you're using Pokémon EX in Night March, Mystery Energy can be used to open up worlds of mobility for the most prominent content in your deck. This includes the technique of being able to send a Mystery Energy equipped Pokémon Active on the transition of the KO—and provide to us an entire turn to gather any resources that we might need—while leaving us the option to switch up our final Active Pokémon before the turn ends. Get enough experience with this technique and you'll see just how amazing this is (especially when it comes to dealing with aspects such as checking Weakness and Resistance—or meeting energy needs in order to attack).

As an advanced technique, don't be scared to stack your Mystery Energy either. This mostly works best with the Pokémon EX. But the important thing is that in the event of disruption such as Enhanced Hammer, the option to retreat for free will remain (thanks to your remaining Mystery Energy). I can't even begin to express the greatness of having the one-up on Enhanced Hammer. But the fact stands, that stacking your Mystery Energy can enable you to sneak in a different Pokémon—throw an energy on it—and hit the opponent with a much more effective attack.

The rest of the strategy really plays out the same as another Night March deck.

You want to get to your first two Battle Compressor as quickly as possible—and use them to being empowering your Night March. On the first Battle Compressor, you always want to reach for 3 Lampent. It serves no other purpose in this deck, and only adulterates the flow of the cards otherwise.

On the second Battle Compressor though, you're going to want to pay close attention to the board in order to properly select which Pokémon to discard between Joltik and Pumpkaboo.

First thing you want to consider is how Stadium heavy your opponent's deck might be. Against more Stadium heavy decks, it's less likely you're going to be able to Night March with Pumpkaboo, because it's sure to be a struggle keeping Dimension Valley out there so that you can easily attack for just two energy. Because of this, you'll want to filter the remaining Lampent (if you can)— and 2 Pumpkaboo—reserving your Joltik to best your chances of being able to Night March.

The second thing you want to consider—are the factors of Weakness and Resistance between sides. If you're up against a Dark-type deck, Pumpkaboo would naturally struggle, so once again you'll want to use Pumpkaboo to make up the bulk of your second Battle Compressor. However, if you're up against a Fighting-type deck, then you'll want to use Joltik so make up the remaining bulk instead. And reserve as many Pumpkaboo as you can, for their combined edge over Fighting-type Pokémon.

On your third Battle Compressor, you'll want to start waning whatever content that might be adulterating the consistency of your deck. This would stuff like extra remaining Chandelure—a remaining Battle Compressor itself (as it can be no longer needed)—or content such as Dimension Valley (if we're up against Psychic decks where that card is sure to rule throughout the game). A good protocol to stand by is to always leave yourself a Night Marcher or two—and leave the consistency of Supporter base as strong as possible. You'll often need it through the mid-to-late game.

Night March is not always going to be some unstoppable crush of the dead. If you're as mindless as a zombie when playing it, then you're likely to end up as dead as one.

This principal of awareness also if-and-when selecting between which Supporter to play on our opening turn. This deck has a tactical Supporter array, that aims to profit off the low resource dependency of the Night March strategy. It's low resource needs, open up the potential to spam through in heavy volume, without potentially suffering too strongly from the losses that can come with that.

Keep in mind that cards like Professor Juniper can always have their liabilities (even for Night March). And that's why there's still so much reinforcement to Professor Juniper here. Supporter consistency is really important for Night March—due to its frailty. But even if you get a Professor Juniper in your opening hand, purging your hand on the first turn for those seven cards may not always be your best option. Don't be so desperate for that extra card. If you can get a Battle Compressor in your opening hand, you're almost always better off making N your first play over Juniper.

Not only are there a number of alternative Supporter cards in this deck, these Supporters are also provided in heavy volume, to help protect against excessive Supporter discard via Professor Juniper. The heavy volume makes the discarding of a Supporter or two (via Juniper) an affordable expense, where the consistency of our Supporter base should still be pretty prime if we have to wheel next turn.

There's no recovery if we lose any precious resources like Double Colorless Energy though, and no room to tech such content. (with no point of ever really doing so—since you can do even better if you simply play your cards right). The deck structure is primed for everything it would need to do—but this potential can become useless to you if you play your cards like you're brain-dead.

This can mean obsessively chasing for cards without considering all the options. Pace yourself if you can. It can be exactly what you need to win against more technical decks. Think of it as Resident Evil (if you've ever played that game). Trying to make a speed run out of every stretch may only get you eaten alive. We have Chandelure-EX in here to not only make this possible—but make it comfortable. So don't be scared to pace yourself on some games.

With that said, Judge makes an appearance here as a special addition to my style of Night March decks. And it makes Night March brutally oppressive. The type of oppression that very few decks can recover from when faced off against the crush of Night March. So on a really good opening hand (where you get at least 2 Basic Pokémon and a Battle Compressor), you can probably easily afford to play Judge as your opening Supporter.

Don't be scared of playing it either. The foundation of the deck structure is strongly reinforced with a large number of Supporters and Supporter-esque content to maximize the success of a short draw. This reinforced deck structure also plays out to be especially beneficial if-and-when Judge were to be played against us. It's like going up against another hacker. Our deck is already structured to best recover from a short draw—so it's not likely to break the stride of our Night March Deck—as it might do to various other Night March decks that aren't primed to make a recovery from a first turn Judge.

This reinforcement includes a tech of 2 Shaymin-EX (without Ultra Ball—as I find Ultra Ball isn't really needed at all if you have the rest of your deck structure in place). Shaymin's place here is to top off our Supporter potential, and Night March is such a special type of deck, that there's almost never a bad time to play Shaymin-EX for the {Set Up} draw.

Night March only needs to get to a few distinct resources at any given time—where even a short draw of just three cards turns Shaymin-EX into a free play of Cheren/Tierno (before an even bigger card advantage play with one of our Supporters). Even at only 3 cards, it can be a really great play to make in-fact. As it can enable you to retain the bulk of cards in your hand, for a more consistent straight draw off the top.

If things don't work out, you can get a second chance from your wheel Supporter, or you can make a desperate run for it with Professor Juniper. The only real precaution one needs to take when playing Shaymin for the {Set Up} in this deck—is to save them for the mid-to-end game as best you can. At the start of the game, there are simply too many cards in the deck, and this greatly detracts from the proficiency of {Set Up}.

Of course, if it would draw you 4 or 5 cards at the start of the game, then the choice is obvious. But just keep in mind that you're almost always better shuffling it back into your deck with N or Judge at the start of the game—rather than playing Shaymin-EX before your Supporter. If it comes back around, then you're potentially in luck to make an even better double play with it! So try not to be too desperate.

Keep this same principal in mind for Trainers' Mail at the start of the game as well—when you get a Trainers' Mail in your hand alongside a copy of Battle Compressor. Trainers' Mail can extend our reach to Battle Compressor in our opening hand when we don't initially get one. The consistency is prime. But this consistency narrows significantly as the number of Battle Compressor left in our deck drops to 3 or below.

In games like this, consider just making your first play with the Battle Compressor in your opening hand—and then shuffle Trainers' Mail back into your deck to further extend your reach after your extended draw with whatever wheel Supporter you play.

The story behind our Supporters elaborates upon just how the Zombie Bot Net comes to life. You have Hex Maniac (the hacker). Whose not just any hacker—but an Ace Trainer among hackers! The technique is complex—but the logic is simple. Our hacker takes the malicious code, and embeds it onto a certain, inconspicuous video. And before you know it, our hacker has the biggest zombie bank one can image.

Whew~

So much data.

But every bit is truly important if you want to execute Night March perfectly. Any given error can become the fatal one—that sees your Zombie Bot Net wiped off the face of the Earth.

To Tame a Land

 

Pokémon [17]

 

3 — Regirock EX — Fates Collide (43/124)

 

4 — Solrock — Primal Clash (83/160)

2 — Aerodactyl — Dark Explorers (53/108)

4 — Gible — BREAKpoint (68/122)
4 — Garchomp — BREAKpoint (70/122)

 

Trainers [30]

 

1 — Computer Search — Boundaries Crossed (137/149)
1 — Enhanced Hammer — Primal Clash (162/160)
1 — Max Potion — Plasma Freeze (121/116)

4 — Rare Candy — Primal Clash (135/160)

3 — Ultra Ball — Dark Explorers (102/108)

2 — N — Noble Victories (101/101)
3 — Skyla — BREAKpoint (122/122)

3 — Professor Juniper — Plasma Freeze (116/116)

4 — Korrina — Furious Fists (111/111)

3 — Twist Mountain — Dark Explorers (101/108)

2 — Focus Sash — Furious Fists (91/111)
3 — Float Stone — BREAKthrough (137/162)

 

Energy [13]

4 — Strong Energy — Fates Collide (115/124)
9 — Fighting Energy

 

Epilogue

 

 It's time for the grand finale!

 

"He is the king of all the land, in the kingdom of the sands, of a time tomorrow."

This line must be referring to the Fighting-type Garchomp from the BREAKpoint expansion. A card that is simply ace and king—with a wrath that can fall upon its opposers harder than the curse of the Pharaoh! This Fighting-type Garchomp is just an amazing card—whose power and utility seems to have been custom tailored to suite the stylish artwork provided by the amazingly talented TOKIYA.

 

Given that it's the Halloween season, I've prepared a number of treats for you all. And this one I've decided will be the first. What we have here is an Iron Maiden puzzle. Probably the best kind of puzzle you could ever get in your trick or treat bag.

What I'm presenting to you is a really powerful Out-Fighter/Slugger-style Garchomp deck. Even has it stands, the deck is amazingly powerful. And its tactical utility—alongside the crushing power of [Turbo Assault] Garchomp—sees very little of defeat. Although there could be a number of reason for this, I'd like to think that this is majorly thanks to the power of Focus Sash. A pretty popular card in the tournament scene, that I believe is an absolute must if you're going to run with this Garchomp.

 

In this deck especially, [Turbo Assault] Garchomp already has more than enough speed and power in this deck between potency of its own attacks—alongside Strong energy—and the quick power increasing Abilities of {Ancient Scream} Aerodactyl and {Regi Power} Regirock. So much so, that as far as Pokémon Tool cards go, this Garchomp as so much natural speed and power that most of the other Tool selections available to us become entirely useless or redundant.

I've said it before that you can never have too much power—and that fact still stands as the golden truth. But what we need is power of another kind entirely—the power to live on. And that's exactly what Focus Sash aims to provide to Garchomp—everlasting life! The holy grail and the fountain of youth, considerably erasing Garchomp's most vulnerable attribute, and ascending it unto an even higher level of immortal power.

 

Now, even despite the importance of this card to our centerpiece, this deck runs a Pokémon Tool card split of 3-2—with Float Stone at the heavier end of the spread—because the structure of a good deck needs to cater to the vulnerabilities of every card as best it can. With 3 copies of Regirock EX here (alongside its high energy attack/retreat cost)—the presence of this card alone makes for a considerable majority in our Pokémon base—with a significantly sizable collection vulnerabilities itself.

Akin to this, I came to decide that Float Stone would definitely need to be provided here (and in this consistency at the least) in order to turn Regirock EX from potential slave to immortal power itself. This isn't really a new technique for me either, I've run this exact 3-2 split with Float Stone and other Pokémon Tool cards in number of decks prior to this one. It's a technique I picked up awhile ago, and quickly came to discover how amazingly proficient it is with how much versatility it brings to the table for decks that would otherwise have a number of mobility or mobilization issues.

 

A similar strategy embodies the 3-2 split between {Ancient Scream} Aerodactyl and Regirock EX. Both cards have abilities that increase the power of your Pokémon, but the tactical split between them provides some amazing versatility to the deck structure. You see, Regirock not only has a number of vulnerabilities in its high energy attack/retreat costs, it also forces us to give up 2 prize cards when KO'd. Aerodactyl on the other hand is much lighter—swifter—and ultimately a more versatile card over all. It provides the same 10 damage, but can be retreated for only a single energy, and only gives up a single prize when KO'd. That alone opens up all kinds of mobilization options for us.

Conversely, Aerodactyl might force us to run Twist Mountain—but that's ok—because Twist Mountain by itself can be used to ace our opponent's Stadium cards and keep them in slavery. SLAVERY. It's serious business. And considering how there are a number of other Stadium cards out there (such as Virbank City Gym) that can turn the tides of this—and put the chains on us—just having Twist Mountain around to break those chains and set us free becomes its own Godly power.

 

On the topic of Godly power, this deck also started out with a tech of 2 Enhanced Hammer. Another prominent utility technique of mine—due to its potential to powerfully offset the game pace for an opponent—especially in the face of some excessively ruthless speed or power. Enhanced Hammer is just a really amazing tech. And due to the prominence of Special Energies, it makes a really amazing tech to run with a little consistency. Unfortunately, (like many other techs) it's a card that doesn't always come in handy. And in all my experience with running this card as a tech, fairly often enough becomes deadweight that just sits around in your hand or adulterates the potency of your draw.

Enhanced Hammer is somewhat of a double-edged sword—that can become a small speedbump of its own. And normally, I would have probably never considered splitting the tech (because that's just how good Enhanced Hammer can be despite it all). However, Rare Candy decks by nature have a distinct sense of frailty to them, that can greatly worsen the severity of such a speedbump. So considering this, I got the idea to split the tech of Enhanced Hammer between Max Potion.

Max Potion would obviously make an amazing alternative tech for Garchomp (in respects to its light attack and retreat costs). And accustom to this deck in particular, Max Potion could become combo materia with Focus Sash—giving you a second chance to make use of Focus Sash when a player offsets the damage stack in a way that would render the card entirely useless. Max Potion could also be used to wipe any Pokémon clean of damage—and alongside Garchomp's [Turbo Assault]—begin to boost that Pokémon's energy right off the rip. Tag this with another Garchomp—and you'll almost always have a game-breaking powerplay.

 

And this explains the split between these two cards as a tech here—in place of a consistent featuring just one card or the other. Each has its own unique utility, yet can also have its own significant drawback when the card's respective potential can't be tapped into. For this reason, and given this deck's distinct ability to casually select between either card (through the support of Korrina and Skyla)—the versatility made available to the deck by running both should appear obvious.

Now, even in all its power, this deck does has one major weakness. It's sure to struggle terribly against Item lock effects. And herein lies your puzzle—to unlock the affinity that breaks the chains on Item lock effects—and affectively reduces their power to absolutely nothing.

I've been running this blog for almost two years now, and by this time have provided an immense measure of insight regarding the basic architecture and greater intricacies of the Pokémon Trading Card Game's dynamics.

 

For anyone who's been with me from the start (and actually been paying attention), you should by this time be able to solve this puzzle for yourself without any help at all.

However, there are sure to always be new visitors, who might be reading this article as their very first. So to be the very best host I can, I'm going to provide a little insight as to where one might want to start when solving this puzzle to unlock the affinity for this deck against Item lock effects.

 

The first step of this would naturally begin with cutting down on our Item dependency. This deck as it is critically relies on Items cards such as Rare Candy. So much so, that without their power, our deck is almost sure to face defeat against Item lock effects. However, this doesn't mean that your best option is to remove all Item cards from your deck entirely.

 

As far as overall deck potential goes, you definitely want to diversify the content of your deck as best as you can, to prevent your deck from veering from one extreme to another.

For example, if you we're to try catering too strongly to an Anti-Item lock strategy for this deck. Against non-Item lock decks that embody different strategies (such as many raw power Swarmer decks)—the time-lapse involved with the Evolution chain climb for Garchomp might still see your deck facing defeat due to a technicality. For this reason, keeping just a little Item utility around can actually help to increase the potency of your deck structure overall.

 

If you pay close attention, you'll realize that this deck as it stands could exercise some special potential for this technique (given its heavy use of Korrina—and her explicit tactical retrieval power). Letting that potential go entire to waste could be a bad idea, and going without Korrina entirely could be an even worse idea yet. Korrina (as a direct retrieval utility) is a very powerful card—even in the face of Item lock.

 

So instead of taking out all the Rare Candy here as you reinforce the deck structure to protect against Item lock effects, consider a tech of just 1 Rare Candy instead. Just one can be all you need at the start of the game (if-and when the opportunity presents itself to make use of it). With this technique, you can seize the day, and get your first Garchomp out quick. Then bridge off Korrina (and other technical Supporters) to climb the evolution chain for the rest of your Garchomp from the bench.

 

With that said, Wally would probably make a great addition to the deck structure as you reinforce it against Item lock. Wally would be a prime selection—given how this deck explicitly revolves around Stage 2 evolution chain climbing. Garchomp is our primary resource—and more than a worthy enough power to focus the potential of our Supporter base around. Akin to this, Wally makes a really great accessory to Korrina, by doubling up on our evolution chain line climbing through the combination of unique support each cards offer to the suite.

 

When accommodating Wally, we would naturally want to also consider reducing the presence of Ultra Ball to just a single copy (or possibly consider removing Ultra Ball entirely) in place of Wally. Whatever you do, just make sure that Wally's presence isn't underwhelming. Consistency is one of the greatest keys to success in this game, so you'll want to dial back on other less useful cards (such as Skyla if you have to) in order to ensure Wally's presence is as consistent as it needs to be for success.

Since we would be reducing our Item dependency so strongly here, Skyla will naturally become another card that we might be better off dueing without entirely. For this reason, would want to consider increasing the presence of more universal supporters (such as N) with the space opened up from the omission of Skyla.

 

Supporter presence is going to be very important to make up for the absence of Item card utility. It might even be a good idea to reduce the Pokémon Tool card split down to a simple 2-2. Every single extra Supporter card is significant, so that one extra card can make up all the difference. There is only a small window of opportunity against Item lock to make use of your Tool cards on the first turn. And although the consistency helps with this, you might still be better off reinforcing your draw potential instead (as you add Stage 1 Pokémon to the equation).

 

How exactly you go about all of this though—is up to you from here. I leave this puzzle to you as a Halloween treat. Take the wisdom I've provided and see if you can use it—To Tame a Land.

 

 

A Real Live One

Pokémon [14]

3 — Thundurus EX — Roaring Skies (26/108)
1 — Mewtwo EX — Next Destinies (54/99)

4 — Zapdos — Roaring Skies (23/108)
2 — Zekrom — Zekrom Figure Box (BW24)

2 — Blitzle — Noble Victories (35/101)
2 — Zebstrika — BREAKpoint (49/122)

Trainers [30]

1 — Computer Search — Boundaries Crossed (137/149)
2 — Energy Switch — Roaring Skies (109/108)
2 — Trainers' Mail — Ancient Origins (100/98)
4 — Max Elixir — BREAKpoint (102/122)

2 — N — Battle Arena Deck (BW100)
3 — Professor Sycamore — BREAKpoint (107/122)
4 — Professor Birch's Observations — Primal Clash (134/160)
4 — Giovanni's Scheme — BREAKthrough (138/162)

2 — Parallel City — BREAKthrough (145/162)
2 — Rough Seas — Primal Clash (137/160)

4 — Fighting Fury Belt — BREAKpoint (99/122)

Energy [16]

2 — Double Colorless Energy
14 — Lightning Energy

Epilogue

A Real Live One is a tribute to the classic Iron Maiden live album featuring some of the most iconic art in metal history. In fact, among their collection of iconic art, A Real Live One definitely stands out as one of the more intense visions of the beast, as it was the first to showcase Eddy the Head in such a dynamic vehemence. Yet sadly, this iconic art was replaced on the Japanese release of the album with an artwork featuring Eddy the Head rocking out in full Nihon glory.

Now, I'm sure a lot of Japanese fans felt ripped off by this, but without further ado ladies and gentlemen, that is where our deck here begins today—with the legendary high voltage theme of A Real Live One—and none other than the legendary Eddy the Gyp (or Eddy the Jap) on lead guitar.

Starting out, A Real Live One is a Swarmer-style deck, which means we want to get the first attack, and attempt to overwhelm our opponents with a lighting fast offensive that jumpstarts the damage stack. Our primary starter for this deck is [Drill Peck] Zapdos, which has been genuinely overlooked since its release due to its low damage, high second attack cost, and average measure of HP.

However, I would like to believe this has more to do with people genuinely lacking a fuller understanding the game's dynamics. Since as a swarmer—this card can do amazingly well.

For instance, [Drill Peck] can begin offsetting the damage stack in your favor for a single energy, respectably setting up for an easy knockout against a lead EX with your follow-up attacker. In some cases, you can even follow up with another Zapdos to get the job done—thus helping to spare your Prizes—while enabling you to continue to building your offensive momentum from the bench.

From there, the power of Fighting Fury Belt takes Zapdos' general potential and supercharges it. Tuning the power of [Drill Peck] up to a decent 30 damage for 1 energy—while boosting Zapdos' HP up to the EX class of 160.

Fighting Fury Belt would of course represent the Iron Maiden tour shirt (one of the single most legendary accessories to be gained from an Iron Maiden live show). I mean, it's quite possibly the climax of the show for many. And is so empowering, many people leave with it being one of their now most prized possessions.

And that is exactly the same effect it has for us here—dynamically empowering our Swarmer Pokémon on all levels. Which is why it's included in high volume here—it better suites our Swarmer strategy than a split between it and other tactical Pokémon Tool Cards (such as Float Stone) would do.

The Swarmer strategy does not primarily involve retreating or any fancy maneuvers. It involves a direct and consistent well-thought-out offensive movement. Whatever you send out as your Active, aims to stay your Active until it's knocked out. This is not to say that you should never retreat—or that there won't be games where retreating will be great move to make despite the expense. But this expression aims to elaborate on truest style of a Swarmer-type deck, so that it can understood how exactly Fighting Fury Belt best suites that style.

More offensive power—more staying power. For a Swarmer-style deck, that's all there is to victory. And so that is the method behind the madness here. Understand this well—and use this understanding to plan your follow up attackers as thoughtfully to execute this strategy right.

Now, while our opening Swarmer is attacking, we have a collection of energy acceleration Items we want to use to further accelerate our offensive momentum and further overwhelm our opponent with the damage. These two Items are the high voltage lines of Max Elixir and Energy Switch.

Max Elixir is actually a new edition to this deck from the original version, which was centered around Energy Switch—first seeking to  utilize cards such as [Charge] Thundurus and [Energy Glide] Emolga EX to gather energy—and then make explicit use of Energy Switch to quickly power up the mighty [Voltage Rush] Thundurus EX.

However, there was a lack offensive potential at the start of the game, which saw that deck structure falling behind the damage stack too often for comfort and not being able to make up for it later. And it was from this analysis, that I got the notion of switching up the deck's style to a true Swarmer type—utilizing [Drill Peck] Zapdos to get the edge on the damage stack for a single energy—while attempting to empower the High Voltage Eddy the Head Thundurus EX from the bench with cards like Max Elixir and Energy Switch. This turned out to be much more successful, and led me to realize what amazing combo potential Energy Switch and Max Elixir had together.

They work really well to quickly energy your Pokémon's more costly attack, where in some rare cases for this deck, it might even be in your best interests to use them to power up Zapdos for [Raging Thunder]. Zapdos is one of your only lines of defense against Fighting-type decks—and at 130 to 150 damage a hit—this attack can even be used to entirely overwhelm some of them entirely.

Meanwhile, [Outrage] Zekrom on the bench acts as the perfect lightning rod for [Raging Thunder]. First, the damage can be used to empower Zekrom's [Outrage]. Yet secondly, it can be subsided by the effects of Rough Seas, to curb the liability of letting Zekrom sit on the bench in the lower ranges of HP.

Not that you should have much to fear (including the dark), as Zekrom's HP jumps up to an astounding 170 when rocking the almighty Iron Maiden tour shirt (respectfully turning Zekrom into one of the most formidable Pokémon to match against your opponents Pokémon EX).

For contrast, [Outrage] Zekrom only gives up a single prize when KO'd—while being able to take massive amounts of damage—and deal out a maximum of 210 damage between [Outrage], Fighting Fury Belt, and Giovanni's Scheme.

This is amazing potential! Yet even this pails in comparison to our lead powerhouse—Thundurus EX—who can swing off the bench entirely fresh and one-hit K.O. a number of things between just a single pair of [Voltage Rush]—and Fighting Fury Belt or Giovanni's Scheme. And if your opponent can't knock Thundurus EX out during their next turn, this can turn into a double play (with Thundurus EX potentially catching two bodies—and claiming up to four prizes total between them).

This level of power in the game is almost unsurpassed!

But that's not even the end of it, the voltage cranks up even higher when Zebstrika comes into play, and [Zap Zone] makes our voltage damage totally unstoppable! This is in fact the entire reason behind Zebstrika—and it plays a very crucial role in this deck for this reason.

We're running a lot of Basics—and we rely heavily on the power of Pokémon EX—to point where this deck would have a wide-range vulnerability if it weren't for the power of [Zap Zone] being able to remove all restrictions and enable us to power through our opponent's defenses (as only A Real Live One would be expected to do).

Furthering the power at our fingertips, our Stadium cards here are another pair of cards that play a crucial role in this deck. And to explain the tactical split between them, this split is intended to provide diversity to the scope of unique benefits that each card offers to this deck over the other.

For example, Rough Seas can be amazing to turn back the hands of time and offset the damage stack, but it's an "after the fact of"  type of card. In the sense that it can only be used "after the fact of damage being done"—and so it can't be used for something like actually preventing a knockout from occurring in the first place. Parallel City on the other hand can do just that—and therein lies its greater potential for a number of cards in this deck (such as [Outrage] Zekrom especially).

The Blue Side enables us to cut down our opponent's bench without any restrictions to our damage restrictions (since we're not running any of those types)—while the Red Side provides an added defense against some of the most popular types in the game. This is an immense benefit, as if we were just running Rough Seas exclusively, it would turn into a vulnerability against us when facing Water-type decks. However, with the Parallel City split, we can actually use our other Stadium to get the edge against them.

As a fun fact, Silent Lab was another possible Stadium tech that I had considered for this deck. But I quickly came to the conclusion that it wouldn't likely be of any significant use in the numbers it's run in—so this card was ruled out in place of providing more consistency for a better tech option.

Chaos Tower was also originally apart of this deck as a tech, but was omitted for the same reason, accompanying the fact the card actually becomes a liability when we need to use it to remove Poisoned—and then the other side cancels out our ability to leave our opponent's Paralyzed with Thundurus EX.

Making sure to rule out as much liability as possible is absolutely crucial to the potency of your deck structure. Which you are about to learn more about, as we come full circle to our collection of Supporters here—which themselves have been tactically arranged with the intention to help accentuate the flow of the cards—as well as  the flow of power through our hands.

On the broad end of this spread, we have a tactical split of 6 wheel Supporters and 3 Professor Sycamore. This is typically the split I like to run to help secure the heavy involvement of Professor Sycamore type cards in my deck structure. Those cards can be such a liability, so it naturally makes a lot of sense to cushion them with a wide-array of alternative card advantage options (in order to help lessen the possibility of Professor Sycamore working against you—by causing you to discard any number of precious cards that you won't be able to make use of later when you might desperately need to).

At the bulk of this wheel cushion, we have Professor Birch's Observations, which is an especially good card to run in this split. The reason for this being that Professor Sycamore makes one of the absolute best cards you could hope to catch on the short end of the draw with Professor Birch's Observations.

Bringing up the rear, N is our backup to Professor Birch's Observations itself. This was originally arranged the other way around (with 4 N and 3 Birch), but when the volume of Professor Sycamore went up to three to Support to short end of Birch, the volume of the two wheel Supporters was exchanged to better suite the deck structure as a whole.

This arrangement here aims to keep the flow of the cards as one-sided as possible—sparing just 2 copies of N for emergencies—or as an endgame disruption to the end the tour for our opponents.

On the far end of this array, I then replaced 2 copies of Great Ball that were in this deck with 2 copies of Trainers' Mail to help further accentuate reach of the safety net. To explain this, these 2 copies of Trainers' Mail (with the addition of Computer Search) take the volume of our Supporter base to an average of 13 cards (with a first play of Professor Birch's Observations). Now, the actual number is really 15, but this accounting for at least two of those cards being prized (which is generally a very common scenario).

In turn, the 13 Supporter-esque cards accounted for here, push our success rate of recovering a Supporter-esque card on short end of a 4 card draw to 116%. This 100% threshold is the probably the least amount you safety you want available to cover from the short end of Professor Birch's Observations.

At the farthest end of the spread, Giovanni's Scheme has been included in such high volume thanks to its extra potential for recovering from a short Professor Birch's Observations. Yet Giovanni's primary role here is not to accelerate the flow of the cards—it's to further the grip of power in the hands of our already overwhelmingly powerful Swarmers.

You see—money is power. And just like how you can never have too much money—you can never have too much power. This is one of Giovanni's most passionate beliefs. And the potential that Giovanni's Scheme provides to this deck serves as a living proof that this belief holds some definite truth in the world. Seizing the reigns of an immense power—and turning its touch into a death grip.

Rainbow Rising

 

 

Pokémon [21]

2 — Hoopa EX — Ancient Origins (89/98)

1 — Rayquaza EX — Roaring Skies (75/108)
1 — M Rayquaza EX — Roaring Skies (76/108)

1 — Ho-Oh EX — Dragon's Exalted (119/124)
1 — Jirachi EX — Plasma Blast (60/101)
1 — Shaymin EX — Roaring Skies (77/108)
1 — Virizion EX — Plasma Blast (9/101)
1 — Yveltal EX — XY (79/146)
1 — Jolteon EX — Generations (28/83)
1 — Latias EX — Plasma Freeze (85/116)

1 — Klefki — Steam Siege (80/114)
1 — Suicune — Plasma Blast (20/101)
2 — Xerneas — BREAKthrough (107/162)
2 — Lunatone — Plasma Storm (73/135)
4 — Skarmory — Roaring Skies (69/108)
 
Trainers [23]
 
2 — VS Seeker — Roaring Skies (110/108)
4 — Ultra Ball — Dark Explorers (102/108)

1 — N — Noble Victories (101/101)
1 — AZ — Phantom Forces (117/119)
1 — Lysandre — Flashfire (104/106)
2 — Pokémon Fan Club — Flashfire (106/106)
2 — Colress — Plasma Storm (135/135)
3 — Cheren — Boundaries Crossed (148/149)
4 — Steven — Ancient Origins (95/98)

3 — Sky Field — Roaring Skies (89/108)

Energy [16]

2 — Rainbow Energy — XY (131/146)
4 — Prism Energy — Next Destinies (93/99)
4 — Double Colorless Energy
6 — Fairy Energy
 
Epilogue

Our headliner for tonight is none other than the legendary Rainbow! And on the roster, are a brilliant array cards representing some of their most iconic lines and songs. Prepare yourself for an evening of mystery, as the symbolism of the cards will be left in enigma tonight, so that functional details can be thoroughly explained.

You see, this is a complex toolbox style deck, full of so much flavor—that much like all the previous band members of Rainbow—we'd never be able to comfortably fit all on one stage in one night if we tried.

Beginning the anthology, [Rainbow Force] Xerneas naturally takes place as the centerpiece of our deck. [Rainbow Force] Xerneas however—has a few challenging aspects concerning its potential—such as its low HP and moderately high energy costs to attack. For this reason, Rainbow Rising involves a Out Fighter style of play, where our primary objective is to set up our offensive resources from the bench, in order to come out swinging with one crushing punch after the next.

Akin to this, we have our primary starter [Call for Family] Skarmory, who aims to add the most tactical foundation to our Out Fighter style toolbox setup. Depending the state of your opening hand, you can either use Skarmory as a decent wall while you spend your energy turns on your Benched Pokémon—or for a single energy—can be used to hyper-accelerate your bench stats with [Call for Family].

On our opening turn, our biggest play will almost always involve {Scoundrel Ring}—which is why there are 4 Ultra Ball and 2 Pokémon Fan Club to back up our access to Hoopa EX. Which cards in particular that should be reached for with this play will majorly depend on our advantage or disadvantage in our hand and on the board.

One of the best turn one plays with {Scoundrel Ring} involves reaching for any tactical EX card—along with both Rayquaza and M Rayquaza EX—in order to Δ Evolution on turn 1 without any consequence since we're not using a Spirit Link here. If one of the two Rayquaza are missing, then the next best move will be reaching for any tactical combination of EX instead.

You should know what you need when you go to reach for it.

Among the technical selections, Shaymin EX is here to provide a free draw option if-and-when our opening hand is empty; Jirachi EX is here to provide a bridge between the diverse array of Supporters (especially when left without one); and Ho-Oh is here to be used tactically with Ultra Ball—alongside the amazing potential of being able to boost our bench stats from the discard pile with {Rebirth}.

Other technical selections include Virizion, Latias, Jolteon, and Yveltal EX. Virizion EX in only here to protect us against Special Conditions if-and-when needed. This can be really useful—or really useless—so this might not be a card you need to place emphasis on. Latias EX is somewhat the same. It can entirely block Pokémon with Abilities (and retreats for one energy)—yet requires a lot of technical energy attack otherwise—so arguably has only defensive potential here.

Joleton EX is our primary technical powerhouse. Providing us an unstoppable path through (and heavy cover against) all Basic Pokémon with [Flash Ray]. Jolteon EX also retreats for free—making it a great transitional resource to move in between knockouts of your Pokémon. Keeping the option of free retreat at your fingertips before you would pass over the turn is definitive strategy—so make good use of it as often as the opportunity presents itself.

Yveltal EX is our secondary backup technical powerhouse. Many times over, raw power may be all you need to win the game, and [Evil Ball] is genuinely just that. [Y Cyclone] is also very amazing for this deck—as it allows us to salvage our precious Double Colorless Energy—and transfer Rainbow Energy without the consequence of damage.

These attributes (especially the immense power [Evil Ball]) are what made Yveltal EX the prime selection for the Dark-type slot over other tech options—such as {Sealing Scream} Spiritomb or Malamar EX.

At the end of our tactical collection of Pokémon, we have Klefki, Suicune, and Lunatone.

Klefki is an ultimate tech against Mega Pokémon. It can either buy us a free turn to further set up—or enable us exchange attacks with a Mega Pokémon entirely undamaged. Klefki also counts as an additional type for [Rainbow Force] as well, so it fits perfectly on the bench to double as an accessory for that.

Suicune is our anti-EX tech. The stand-alone potential of the {Safeguard} Ability sets it apart from other anti-EX options like {Resistance Blizzard} Regice. It's more versatile and undemanding—enabling us to work around it at our leisure. Suicune can also be mobilized right away against EX swarmers. And as a standard basic—is less of a liability. All of these reasons being why I felt like this Suicune would make the greatest selection for the Water-type slot here.

Last we have Lunatone—which is probably our greatest tech in the entire deck—and possibly the greatest tech of all time. The ability the filter through the top two cards of your deck is simply champion class potential. It most prominently enables you to get to precious Supporters and Double Colorless Energy twice as fast as you normally would. That alone is game-breaking. To top it off though, Lunatone makes a decent starter to set up from the bench behind—while doubling as a prime transitional resource to send active and stall for time (giving up only a single prize if Knocked Out).

Moving over to the second stage, our collection of Supporters is tactically arranged to help bring everything together with highest definition of digital quality. Although there are many other Supporters I would have liked to include in this deck for their Rainbow-esque style. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to compromise if you want things to work out for the best.

And that was the scenario here, which boiled down to only being able to add the additions of AZ and Lysandre as tactical Supporters (without any room for Pokémon Center Lady, Pokémon Rangers, Skyla, or Xerosic). Additionally, you only get one power play with each, and only two copies of VS Seeker to extend upon that potential. They are very much just our special effects though.

Taking center stage—is the array of our draw supporters—lead by Steven. Steven makes makes one of our best turn one plays, seconded only by Pokémon Fan Club. Steven is great here because it works tactically to bridge us between a diverse array of different Supporters with different potential depending on our current advantage.

When the advantage is strongly in our favor, we might want to reach for a Colress, but N is most likely always going to be our best reach with Steven. It's a powerful turn two play to replenish your hand on the second turn and disrupt any of our opponent's retrievals retained in their hand.

Designing this deck engine, I started with a lot of N, but the short wheel effect seemed to work against the deck more than anything else. That's when I had the idea to reduce N to a tech and replace the majority of those Supporter slots with Cheren for the straight draw potential.

This replacement made the deck engine significantly more proficient, as Cheren naturally works wonders with Steven, but here unlocks some really amazing potential with Colress. The straight draw potential enables us to more potently draw from the top of our deck—while retaining a large number of cards in our hand after a big play with Colress.

And that is the secret behind Cheren here—so try not to waste them so you can tap into this potential where it was intended—to catch the Rainbow.

Somewhere Back In Time

Pokémon [19]

2 — Hoopa EX — Ancient Origins (89/98)

4 — Alakazam EX — Fates Collide (125/124)
3 — M Alakazam EX — Fates Collide (118/124)

4 — Deoxys — Roaring Skies (33/108)
2 — Hoopa — Steam Siege (51/114)

2 — Porygon — Plasma Blast (72/101)
2 — Porygon-Z — Ancient Origins (67/98)

Trainers [27]

1 — Master Ball — Plasma Blast (94/101)
2 — Rare Candy — Dark Explorers (100/108)
3 — Ultra Ball — Flashfire (99/106)

1 — Elesa — Legendary Treasures (RC20/RC25)
2 — N — Dark Explorers (96/108)
2 — Colress — Plasma Storm (118/135)
2 — Teammates — Primal Clash (141/160)
3 — Cheren — Dark Explorers (91/108)
4 — Steven — Roaring Skies (90/108)

2 — Sky Field — Roaring Skies (89/108)
2 — Dimension Valley — Phantoms Forces (93/119)

3 — Alakazam Spirit Link — Fates Collide (90/124) 

Energy [14]

4 — Mystery Energy — Phantom Forces (112/119)
3 — Double Colorless Energy
7 — Psychic Energy

Epilogue

In this rendition of Masterpiece Theater, Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrian is being dragged on a journey through time and space by the legendary immortal Eddie the Head, who's hunting down some of the most notorious evils ever to haunt the tides of time. Now this probably wouldn't have ever been the case, but Nicko McBrian doesn't have anything better to do. He's all out of dope—and the end of his rope.

And thus begins our journey somewhere back in time, in hopes of scoring some ancient treasure from the past—with our endearing heroes Eddie the Head (portrayed by Deoxys and Hoopa)—and Nicko McBrian (portrayed by Alakazam).

You've got to watch them be quick or be dead, and that's why we want to always play first if we can, and on our best games, probably lead with [Close Encounter] Deoxys to get the jump on our game. Our first move is looking to get Hoopa EX on the table and summon up as many Alakazam (or Mega Alakazam) we can use to fill the bench, and setup for the grandeur of Mega Evolution.

You see, our old friend just isn't suited for the harsh conditions of time travel. He has a fear of the dark, and it's not likely that he would last very long as he stands. For this reason, we're seeking to ascend Nicko McBrian to the legendary status of Time Lord (king of all the land—in the kingdom of the sand).

This of course would be a dream come true for Nicko McBrian (who's always dreamed of being a Time Lord)—and a dream come true for his road crew (who have always dreamed of possibly traveling time with one). With that said, they've pledged their loyalty to Nicko McBrian, and their secrecy to Eddie the Head to help us with as much as they can.

Know them well—and know well enough to lead with anything that's a straight draw when the consistency of the deck is in its highest concentration—unless of course the hand itself is empty. We have two power plays with MI6 Colress. We'll want to save them for when the bench is fully loaded. Two power plays Teammaters. We'll want to save at least one of them for an emergency—in case we need to locate a Porygon-Z (hallowed be thy name) and have it take us home through the Stargate.

From there, we have four plays with Steven and three plays with Cheren (both representing Bruce Dickerson). Now, we can't take Bruce back in time, because he'll be running all over the place and touching everything. But with all the energy he has (and the compensation we offer him) he can work some miracle to pull some strings for us in the present.

As always, a great 1-2 Supporter play involves Steven—then Cheren. As one tactically thins the deck, and sets up for the other to make a more concentrated draw next turn. Cheren is also great to net some extra cards as bait for Ultra Ball—so don't even go thinking you know better and removing them for something else.

Last in line, we have two powerplays with Jesusfreak Steve Harris (aka N). We can use one right away (and it's recommended to do so) but we'll always want to be cautious to save the other for the end of the game. That's when Eddie is likely to reveal the tragic revelation to him that Jesus was truly a terribly man—and when N most prominently become the savior himself—shuffling our hand back into our deck and potentially saving us from running out of cards and losing the game.

Now from here, our offensive will mostly depend on our place in time between—Dimension Valley (the brutal past) [1]—and Sky Field [1] (the unforeseeable future).

Dimension Valley is obviously our most favorable hunting ground, since it enables us to lead with attacks such as [Close Encounter] and [Hyperspace Punch] for free—while enabling us to use other attacks such as [Hyperdrive Smash], [Suppression], and the powerful [Zen Force] for a single energy.

However, we'll always want to lead with Sky Field unless it's a matter of life and death. The reason for this is because Sky Field serves but one purpose, and then doesn't have much potential afterwards. This purpose involves playing Sky Field and bridging off multiple Hoopa EX to overload the bench—then acing out Sky Field to remove the otherwise sitting duck Hoopa EX from the enemy's line of sight.

[Hyperspace Fury] is far too resource demanding here for us to make any use of—and therein lies the importance of removing Hoopa EX from play as a liability once his work is done.

Not that we aren't prepared for all out war here, because we are. With many tactical additions such as 4 Mystery Energy to provide free retreat to almost everyone—and 3 Double Colorless Energy to suite the tactical retreat of cards like Hoopa, Hoopa EX, and Alakazam especially. Since this power play help us to significantly preserve those resources and put them to greater use—it's still significant.

Playing Sky Field first also helps to draw out Stadium bait from our opponents—so we can more comfortably make the jump to Dimension Valley without as much fear of getting trapped between from here to eternity (the worst song in Iron Maiden history).

An with that said, may we all take a lesson from Eddie the Head,

"Do not waste your time always searching for those wasted years. Face up...make your stand. And realize you're living in the golden years."

Dark Mountain

Pokémon [16]

2 — Darkrai EX — Dark Explorers (63/101)
2 — Darkrai EX — BREAKpoint (74/122)

2 — Larvitar — Fates Collide (40/124)
2 — Tyranitar — Fates Collide (56/124)

1 — Sableye — Dark Explorers (62/108)
3 — Spiritomb — Legendary Treasures (87/113)
4 — Yveltal — Generations (RC16/RC32)

Trainers [29]

2 — Pal Pad — Flashfire (92/106)
2 — Rare Candy — Primal Clash (135/160)
3 — Battle Compressor — Phantom Forces (92/119)

2 — Skyla — BREAKpoint (148/162)
2 — Giovanni's Scheme —  BREAKthrough (138/162)
2 — Professor Birch's Observations — Primal Clash (134/160)
2 — Teammates — Primal Clash (141/160)
4 — Steven — Roaring Skies (90/108)
4 — N — Dark Explorers (96/108)

3 — Shadow Circle — XY (126/146)

1 — Dark Claw — Dark Explorers (92/108)
2 — Fighting Fury Belt — BREAKpoint (99/122)

Energy [15]

4 — Dangerous Energy — BREAKpoint (99/122)
11 — Dark Energy

Epilogue

Giovanni is a buffet of manliness. This is well known in the Pokémon world. But we've got here is a deck that provides this perspective in a whole new light—to show just how boss the boss really is.

We're going deep into the darkest depths of Mt. Silver, where Giovanni personally catches one of the most dangerous and powerful Pokémon of them all—Tyranitar. It might be previously unseen in the series, but Tyranitar would definitely be one of the Pokémon in Giovanni's top arsenal.

It's a Pokémon that embodies the status of elite power and respect, because it's so dangerous and elusive, only the most powerful trainers in the world could ever survive the expedition to capture one.

You see, unlike in the game, the most powerful Tyranitars in the world wouldn't be among the ones raised from Larvitar, but instead would be among one of the wild Tyranitar that exist as the alpha male and apex predators of Mt. Silver. And it shouldn't be a mystery as to why. Mt. Silver is a harsh environment, whose conditions would naturally breed strength in wild Pokémon that simply can't be achieved through traditional training.

If you wanted the strongest Tyranitar, in its prime, then you would have to journey through one of most dangerous territories in the Pokémon world, to fight a brutal monster in its natural habitat. And that's where our adventure begins—emblazoned by our collection of Pokémon and Supporters.

Giovanni has all kinds of people on his payroll—and his collection of Supporters here are intended to provide us with a lot of options—to successfully guide us through the darkest depths of Mt. Silver.

At the start of the game, we're just looking to set up with Battle Compressor and get ready for whatever Mt. Silver throws at us. Battle Compressor is like the juice. Everybody knows that Giovanni gets juiced. But for this expedition, he's going to need to get extra juiced. This doesn't mean getting careless though. Giovanni is a very smart man—so unless we want to waste it (or have it accidentally become our undoing) we'll need to be as tactical as possible with Battle Compressor.

First we need to pay careful attention of our deck's contents, because its consistency will ultimately want to define how we make our first play.

Typically, we're going to want to juice two Dark energy to set up for [Oblivion Wing]—and one spare Pokémon (to increase the consistency of our deck some). This will most likely be a Spiritomb—yet this is also where the caution begins.

Next check the board. If we don't already have a Spiritomb out, and we notice one or more of them as been prized, then we'll want to juice a different Pokémon instead (because juicing for Spiritomb would reduce the consistency too dramatically—and getting Spiritomb out to lock-down ACE SPEC cards right away is a top priority of ours every game).

If this is the case, you'll want to juice something like a spare Yveltal or Darkrai EX—which also serve as our best options for our second play with Battle Compressor (alongside two more Dark energy).

We traditionally only need three copies of Yveltal at most, and generally won't even be able to make use of another copy (since Tyranitar wants to be among the last two Pokémon we send out). The same is also very true for our Darkrai with {Dark Cloak} (since we traditionally only need one copy on the bench for its ability—and generally won't be able to make use of it for anything else).

Shadow Circle can be another prime selection to juice (in place of a Pokémon), but only if we absolutely don't need them, since they are really important for acing our opponent's Stadium cards.

Something we never want to ever consider juicing are Supporters. We need to keep out options as open as possible, and juicing our Supporters is only going to detract from the potency of our deck. Even if it's just one—it's still a bad choice. Because we can't assure the flow of the cards in each wheel, making every Supporter card very significant to the consistency of our deck.

We need to keep our team tight. Each crew member provides a unique talent to the team—and it's not ever certain which one we'll need to call—and when.

We have a couple primary objectives to accomplish in our opening turn. Get Yveltal active, get Spiritomb and Darkrai out on the bench, and hit the juice with Battle Compressor.

Now N is our primary resource for this. It unconditionally gets us the most cards one can wheel for at the start of the game, while Professor Birch's Observations acts our emergency backup (to increase the probability of being able to wheel in our opening turns).

Next we have Steven, who's like our soldier of fortune, providing us with the expert route to all our most important needs—alongside the luxury of selection between wheel Supporters (for when it's either in our favor to disrupt our opponent's hand with N—or when it's in our best interests to leave them empty handed with Professor Birch's Observations).

Steven is also our primary gateway to Teammates, which is our key card for summoning Tyranitar in the darkest hour. Skyla then acts our backup for this, while doubling as a tactical retrieval when we need to get to cards like Pal Pad, Shadow Circle, and Battle Compressor—when we need them right away—or can't afford to wheel for them.

On the far end, we have Giovanni's Scheme, which serves two main tactical purposes. The first is to provide a net for card advantage against the low end of Professor Birch's Observations—in addition to reinforcing the card advantage potential against the number of our spot retrieval Supporters.

Giovanni's Scheme can double as straight draw, and that's what sets it apart from other tactical Supporters. This potential comes in especially useful here, where the number of cards in our hand can fall dramatically low due to the aforementioned conditions—in addition to a late-game N.

Secondly, Giovanni's Scheme doubles as two tactical copies of Dark Claw—so that we can further expand upon that potential if it happens to fall out of reach or has otherwise been appropriated elsewhere.

This is very useful for Tyrannitar itself—when we don't want to underestimate dangers of gambling on [Dark Mountain]. It's also a very powerful with the combined power of Darkrai EX & Fighting Fury Belt—as the additional 30 damage between them can work miracles to instantly close any gaps between the power of Darkrai's [Dark Pulse] and the opponent's surmounting HP.

As for the rest, Giovanni is a man with the spirit of a legendary Pokémon, and that's the symbolism behind our collection of legendary Pokémon here.

They're intended to represent the man himself in some light or another. Out to capture one of the most dangerous wild Pokémon in the world with his bare hands—dressed to kill in Fighting Fury Belt. [1]

Merciless Corporate Ladder

Pokémon [18]

1 — Aegislash EX — Phantom Forces (65/119)
1 — Tyrantrum EX — Tyrantrum EX Box (XY70)
1 — Latias EX — Plasma Freeze (85/116)

3 — Deoxys — Roaring Skies (33/108)
4 — Skarmory — Roaring Skies (69/108)

2 — Flygon — Furious Fists (74/111)
2 — Flygon — Primal Clash (110/160)
4 — Trapinch — Boundaries Crossed (83/149)

Trainers [25]

1 — Computer Search — Boundaries Crossed (137/149)
3 — Professor's Letter — BREAKthrough (146/162)
4 — Rare Candy — Dark Explorers (110/108)

1 — Cheren — Dark Explorers (91/108)
1 — Fisherman — BREAKthrough (136/162)
1 — Ace Trainer — Ancient Origins (69/98)
2 — Teammates — Primal Clash (141/160)
3 — Steven — Roaring Skies (90/108)
4 — Tierno — BREAKpoint (112/122)

1 — Parallel City — BREAKthrough (145/162)
2 — Chaos Tower — Fates Collide (94/124)

2 — Fighting Fury Belt — BREAKpoint (99/122)

Energy [17]

4 — Double Dragon Energy — Roaring Skies (97/108)
3 — Double Colorless Energy
10 — Steel Energy

Epilogue
Today we're here to illustrate the fundamentals of the merciless corporate ladder. With us for this demonstration, is our top performer, Tyrantrum EX; who busts into the office with [Dragon Impact]—and with [Despotic Fang] demands a raise and a bl**j**.

Unfortunately, even our top performer is not yet considered an earner, and only earners are entitled to such benefits—so our top performer storms out of the office—and begins on rampage looking to secure the profits of a legendary earner.

This is the harsh reality of the merciless corporate ladder, which can generally be found located at the heart of every city, where it potentially stretches into infinity. Here, many hard working business people get up early in morning and scurry into the streets on their rush to work, while many more are sent on many flights all over the place, to attend important business meetings with international partners.

And that's where out our entry level business man comes in. He dreams of early retirement and flights to exotic island locations. But in the meantime, is stuck with Deoxys and the business team pulling doubles for our two primary divisions. As with any typical company, these two main divisions would be the investment division and sales of service division.

[Rainbow Shower] Flygon represents the head of the investment division, and [Sand Flap] Flygon represents the head of the sales of service division.

Through the work of Deoxys, Skarmory (and our business team of Supporters), we're looking to help the head of the division (or get some help from them) so that we can climb a few rungs on the merciless corporate ladder. This can be a very tedious effort, and can even take ever member of our business team to get the job done, but in the end we can be the ones fishing or lounging on that exotic island location.

Now, what they teach you in merciless business school, is that consistency is king when it comes to success. So consistency is the first factor we need to secure if we hope to successfully climb any rungs up the merciless corporate ladder.

Starting off, we have our opening Pokémon, and with only 4 copies of Skarmory or Deoxys in our deck, we would only have a 47% chance of drawing one in our opening hand. That is not very consistent at all, and we probably wouldn't be able to set up for a fighting chance half the time.

And that is why we have copies of them both here, which together, bring the probability of success in our opening hand up to an amazing 82%. This is about the least amount we want when it comes to a deck where the opening play is as important as it is for us here on the Merciless Corporate Ladder.

To further our continuity, the draw potential of our entry level workers is doubled up by the potential of our draw Supporters—comprised of 4 copies of Tierno (our main mule), 3 copies of Steven (our genuine overachiever), and 1 copy of Cheren (because there's always that one guy at the office who's done for the day—and it's only 8:03). [1]

Between this team of Supporters, we have an 80% chance of drawing one of them in our opening hand. However, with only 3 Steven (arguably our best opener), there's only a 35% chance of drawing a copy of him for our opening turn. You see, a first turn Steven can be very important to get us to Teammates or Ace Trainer so we can make a very key transitional play once Deoxys or Skarmory has punched the clock.

At this point, you might be saying, "Why not just run 4 Steven?" Well, because more copies of Steven would be more likely to actually create a greater redundancy before anything else. And this, in the most important (and common) scenario, where our hand is loaded with cards, and we're better off drawing 3 more cards (before trying to reach for something else).

Steven also has the overlapping energy effect with Professor's Letter, which can create even more redundancy if Steven is present in higher volume, and ultimately make for greater waste (rather than greater benefit).

Considering this—this is why we're better off overlapping the effects of Cheren and Tierno with 5 copies total (opposed to dialing down to 4 copies between them—in place of another Steven).

In addition to that, there should be no need to run 4 Steven, because the odds are still looking prime in our favor for what we use Steven to do on the first turn (reach for a copy of Teammates or Ace Trainer).

You see, with a total of 3 copies between our follow up Supporters, behind our 3 copies of Steven—and 4 copies left between Cheren and Tierno after the first—the numbers tell us that there should still a 100% chance of drawing two supporters in our opening hand (with the first being a copy of Cheren or Tierno).

The exact number is actually 1.016949152542373. But that's too technical—and all that matters is that this decimal value equates to a positive 100% chance of scoring two Supporters in our opening hand. And if one of them is our follow up Supporter, we don't even need Steven in our opening hand.

So there's not much to worry about, and that's why we're better off concentrating the potential of our straight drawers, to better secure a more solid flow of the cards overall.

If we do have the luxury to reach for one with a first or second turn Steven, the one we will want to reach for will depend on the contents of our hand more than anything else. If we have a strong setup, with a lot of cards already in our hand, then we'll want to reach for Teammates first. A little teamwork can be all it takes to instantly close a deal, so we can follow up with the head of the investment division for a power play with [Rainbow Shower].

Otherwise, if our hand is almost on empty, we'll want to reach for Ace Trainer instead (to strongly re-up our hand—and put the advantage as strongly in our favor as possible).

Either way, our first business move should always be made towards strong investment, which here involves getting [Rainbow Shower] Flygon on the bench and ready to distribute the goods.

For our investment options, we're mostly looking to invest in our top performer Tyrantrum EX. Who can possibly swing out next, and clear the year's fiscal goal right on time when the pressure is on, or maybe even with a fiscal quarter remaining when the business is easy. Double Colorless Energy works wonders to help in this, allowing us to discard just one of them, and 1 Steel energy, to meet the costs of [Dragon Impact]. The attack itself (at 190 damage)—alongside {Despotic Fang} (negating the effects of all cards)—can take us straight through some of the toughest hard-ballers in the business.

In addition to this, we will want to diversify our investments, and traditionally invest as much energy as possible into Aegislash EX—who depending on the situation—can lock the entire game down by itself and take us straight up the merciless corporate ladder like a luxurious escalator.

Second to Aegislash, a small investment of a single energy in Latias (or one our Flygon) can also prove itself to be a wise investment choice. With just one Double Dragon Energy alongside that, Latias EX (our office space eye candy) can do the same for us that Aegislash can do—only against Pokémon with Abilities. And Flygon, can make for a really great transitional Pokémon between one of our main leads. A heavy 70 and 80 damage can really go places; their Stage 2 type can power us around the bend of anti-Basic and anti-EX effects and Abilities; and all their HP can buy us some time to further power up one of those leads from the Bench for an even stronger follow up.

Supplementary to that, tack the sales chart (Fighting Fury Belt) onto any one of our star leads, and they might be able to take us on an unstoppable climb up the merciless corporate ladder!

However, no matter how high you make it up the corporate ladder—make sure to never interrupt the boss' banana unless it's really important! [1]