Thriller

Pokémon [20]

2 — Shaymin EX — Roaring Skies (106/108)

2 — M Mewtwo EX — BREAKthrough (160/162)
4 — Mewtwo EX — BREAKthrough (158/162)

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

Trainers [28]

1 — Master Ball — Plasma Blast (94/101)
3 — Trainers' Mail — Ancient Origins (100/98)
4 — Battle Compressor — Phantom Forces (92/119)

1 — Steven — Roaring Skies (90/108)
2 — Judge — BREAKthrough (143/162)
2 — Ace Trainer — Ancient Origins (69/98)
4 — Professor Sycamore — X&Y (122/146)
4 — N — Noble Victories (92/101)

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

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

Energy [12]

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

Epilogue

Trick or Treat! Hold on tight—because it's getting close to midnight!

The autumn equinox is said to be a time of the year when the veil between the material world and spiritual realm grows thinnest—setting the atmosphere for all kinds of supernatural activity to take place. Our deck today retells the events of one such story around this time, when the moon was full—and magic in the air was primed—to make way for one unforgettable night.

[Damage Change] Mewtwo-EX takes center stage here once again as our lead for the Night March. And the dance performed this evening, would look to be something like the dance of the dead.

Mega Mewtwo Y also makes its addition to this very special Night March, and its presence here unlocks the power to eat some of our greatest natural enemies alive. Cards such as {Intimidating Mane} Pyroar—and [Flash Ray] Jolteon-EX—who restrictive effects against Basic Pokémon are transcended by the power of M Mewtwo-EX.

Adapting this addition took a lot of strict discernment. There are a number of options that one might naturally consider, yet their place in the Night March deck structure (and the ulterior effects that they might have on the rest of the Night March content) makes them considerably dangerous additions—under the speculation of a greater light. Navigating the darkness is never easy. It always helps to have experience, and experience is what guided me to abstain from certain potential techs for deck, in order to best implement M Mewtwo-EX into the Night March line-up.

This is still majorly a Night March deck most of all. So the bulk of that content must get the explicit support it needs—lest its power potentially be lost to you at some crucial time due to the inconsistency you've created trying to over-diversify and stretch your resources too thin.

In this process, the first major aspect that would need to be assured was of course—consistency. Not all content that appears as a tech truly holds the nature of—or can be played with consistent success as a true tech. And M Mewtwo-EX is one of those cards, when it comes to its role our Night March deck here. It's not so much of a tech—as it is a potential lead.

There can be a dire need to Mega Evolve as soon as possible. Like having the serial killer at your feet, stalking your every step behind you. Nothing will get you safety in this desperate chase like consistency will. And therein lies the importance of providing at least 2 copies of M Mewtwo-EX here.

In the event that one gets prized, or we are left without an option but to discard one of those copies, having that additional copy at arm's reach is the difference between life and death. Anytime you have a card as important as this, you absolutely must reinforce your deck structure with at least two copies of that card if you want to secure enough consistent success to make it through your darkest nights.

Now, being left with just a single copy in the general scenario isn't exactly reliable itself. And that's where the addition of Master Ball as our Ace Spec comes in. Master Ball becomes our unrestrictive extension to M Mewtwo-EX. I hate to say that this deck structure can afford to discard to many cards. It definitely needs to keep its Supporter base as heavy as possible—to keep the power of Judge strongly in our favor. And pretty much all the other spare content we would have—is appropriated by Battle Compressor (leaving us very little to spare). It's not to say that such a thing would be entirely unaffordable, but that for this deck structure in specific, a free ticket is by far our best option.

There's actually isn't anything too significant that Computer Search could do for this deck (at an expense)—that Master Ball shouldn't be able to do at no cost at all. In the worst case scenario, catching a Master Ball on the other end of a Judge provides a free ticket to Shaymin-EX, enabling us to instantly boost our hand, and spare us precious resources (such as energies—and say additional copies of Dimension Valley) that could end up pulling us down into the grave with it if otherwise thrown away.

By not excessively discarding our resources like this with cards like Ultra Ball and Computer Search, there's less chance we'd ever have to make a desperate search for one of them. And with [Damage Change] Mewtwo taking the lead here in Thriller, we're sure to have all the time we need to shuffle for whatever cards we're looking.

And that's why Master Ball makes the most proficient Ace Spec for this Night March deck structure. It provides the best reinforcement to our most prominent needs—without excessively tearing away from the foundation the deck—when its consistency is so crucial to our survival.

Approaching the midnight hour, Steven is our final tech addition for this deck, representing the legendary Vincent Price. Steven takes its place here in exchange for a copy of Trainers' Mail. The reason for this being that our Supporter base suffers a little to make room for M Mewtwo-EX, and Steven is a sure bet as an actual Supporter card, where Trainers' Mail simply isn't as reliable (given its considerably short range).

As a fun fact, Steven was a tech that I originally ran in the Zombiepowder deck, proving itself to be an amazing addition to the deck due to its restrictive conditions. For example, Steven makes an amazing play late in the game—after a late game N leaves you alone in the dark with nothing else. The same can be said for Steven getting you to any energy you might need—like that desperate jumpstart you need to peel out on the killer. Night March is a very energy restrictive deck, where Steven's direct energy retrieval can come in handy at almost any time in the game.

Despite all this potential, Steven was ultimately ruled out for that deck, as the 2 copies of Random Receiver (that were also originally apart of that deck) were removed to reinforce the hard Supporter base—where Steven then became redundant—and so his slot was used to top off the number of Trainers' Mail to better the consistency of Zombiepowder's opening hand.

Steven would go on to find his place as the ultimate finishing touch to the Thriller deck—as Vincent Price is to the Thriller song itself. This would be first due to the need for more hard Supporters, in the face of accommodating for Mega Mewtwo Y. And secondly due to Steven's extra potential to pick and choose between Supporters, which promises to be great potential in the event that our more technical content (such as Ace Trainer) would suddenly become a deadly obstacle to us.

Ace Trainer is traditionally a bad card to run alongside [Damage Change] Mewtwo, but with the addition of our Mega Evolution, sees new life given the high possibility of having to chalk up a prize card anyways in order to Mega Evolve without a Spirit Link. If there's a high possibility of making this play early in the game (when we would likely need to make it most), then that's definitely the ace we want to have at the end of our suite.

Steven on the other end of that makes for a cold pair—the Joker's stare. The mysterious-enigmatic man in grey. Whose chilling words epitomize the haunting touch of what awaits that fateful day.

"...And though you fight to stay alive, your body starts to shiver.

For no mere mortal can resist—the evil of the thriller!"

Zombiepowder

Pokémon [18]

2 — Shaymin EX — Roaring Skies (77/108)
4 — Mewtwo EX — Triple Power Tin (XY107)

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

Trainers [30]

1 — Revive — Black & White (102/114)
3 — Trainers' Mail — Ancient Origins (100/98)
4 — Battle Compressor — Phantom Forces (92/119)

2 — Lysandre — Flashfire (90/106)
4 — Judge — BREAKthrough (143/162)
4 — N — Fates Collide (105/124)
4 — Professor Juniper — Plasma Blast (84/101)

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

1 — Life Dew — Plasma Freeze (107/116)
3 — Fighting Fury Belt — BREAKpoint (99/122)

Energy [12]

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

Epilogue

Trick or Treat—the Night March continues!

Zombiepowder is being handed out at this house. And this deck is easily one of the most fierce Night March decks I'll be treating you to. I'm not talking about the potential to cheat spam your way through your entire deck with an unrealistic flow of the cards. I'm talking about the true power to obliterate some of the strongest demons in the Pokémon Trading Card Game world. Monsters that could normally crush Night March into dust themselves—such as Landorus-EX, Greninja BREAK, {Forest's Curse} Trevenant, and legendary bird of nightmares—Yveltal & Yveltal-EX.

Zombiepowder is really that powerful! It can freeze them all cold, and leave them petrified in defeat.

This is mostly thanks to the determination of our endearing hero—Mewtwo-EX. Who is looking for the Zombiepowder to bring his dead mother back to life. The Zombiepowder is represented by a split tech of Revive and Life Dew. These two cards take advantage of the unique potential of this deck structure and the general potential of Night March itself. Each enable their own unique powerplay.

Starting with Life Dew, whose power lies in simply attaching it to any Night Marcher. Life Dew is a crushing tech for Night March. There's no time to waste on collecting prizes against it, so that the use of Life Dew ultimately creates a loss that no one can afford. Tag this up with Revive, and it gives you a small extension on how many Joltik or Pumpkaboo you can use to best match up the Weakness and Resistance attributes of your opponent's Pokémon.

Revive has arguably always been a questionable addition to Night March. But it doesn't often stick around, because the consistency they run it in is always too high. Just one Revive is all you need. And in this deck structure, it can enable some crushing special moves at the start of the game.

In some tough matchups, there can be an urgency to get Mewtwo-EX out as soon as possible. You usually need it to hold down the fort, because you're up against some Swarmer or Slugger strategy that some edge on Night March, and you really can't afford to wish on the luck of the draw. The consistency of Mewtwo-EX is prime to suite its availability to us in our opening hand (especially given its explicit potential as a great starting Pokémon).

But this deck structure is very unique, and the utility of our Supporter array (despite the special advantage it can provide in place of other structures) don't promise us the ability to always be able to get to Mewtwo-EX as fast we might need to.

But that's where this special tech comes in—which simply involves using your first Battle Compressor to discard a Mewtwo-EX. Then using Revive right away to put Mewtwo-EX right onto the bench. It's not always going to be your best play with Revive, so don't make the move unless you really need it. However, this move makes for a really strong setup for a crushing first turn play with Judge.

Judge takes its place in this deck in full volume, given how well its suites the dynamic power of [Damage Change] Mewtwo-EX. [Damage Change] can be an insanely hard barrier to get past. So once Mewtwo-EX goes out there—it might not be going anywhere. This is exactly why Ace Trainer isn't included in this deck. Thanks to the power of Mewtwo and [Damage Change]—there is a strong chance that we wouldn't even be able to make use of Ace Trainer.

Judge on the other hand see a whole new world of potential. It can be used here to put the opponent on the very worst end of both Mewtwo and Night March. Quick, powerful, and technical. These are the kinds of attributes that thrive under the oppressive conditions of Judge. Very few cards are built to survive under these conditions. And only one of them has the power to consistently heal itself (transcending the entire damage stack) as our hero does.

These aspects make Judge prime for this deck. And the rest of our Supporter array primes our chances to hit the ground running—rather than have our coattails stuck in the bus door. [1]

Among our best recoveries, we have Shaymin-EX and Professor Juniper. Shyamin-EX instantly bounces us back to a full hand. And drawing into Professor Juniper on the rebound almost always ensures a perfect play with her. We can also play N on the rebound, which is definitely better than nothing.

For Night March, the need might not always be there to keep the opponent's hand down. Just tripping the opponent up for a single turn can put them to far behind the Night March for them to be saved. Playing another Judge doesn't essentially hurt either, as it can knock an opponent's hand back down after they've potentially recovered it.

Now, contrary to this, Judge isn't always going to be our best first play (even with the power of Mewtwo-EX at our side). It mostly depends on if-or-not we get a Battle Compressor in our opening hand. If we don't (or we can't reach to one in our opening turn), then we're going to want to reach for more cards—and that means making a play with N or Professor Juniper on our first turn instead.

The rest of the deck plays our exactly the same as Zombie Bot Net. So if you haven't taken the time to read it, you should definitely give it a run to brush up on the Night March intricacies.

One of the only real difference between the two decks—is the replacement of Hex Maniac with Lysandre as the Supporter tech.

Hex Maniac was actually the original tech Supporter for this deck. Provided in order to deal with the problem of {Intimidating Mane} Pyroar being able to stall to victory. Unfortunately, Hex Maniac alone wouldn't solve the problem of [Flash Ray] Jolteon-EX being able to do potentially do the same thing between multiple copies. So Lysandre was opted for as the tech Supporter instead, as consistency is important here, and I had ultimately discerned there was no way to tech enough content to fully cover both scenarios (if simply a deck simply provided those cards in high enough volume).

In the end, Lysandre would make the better tech for Zombiepowder. As it would seal up our success against a greater majority of content. The only technicality we would have with Lysandre—is against {Intimidating Mane} Pyroar. Where Pyroar would likely have to stall to victory (hardly considering it victory)—and where up to three Hex Maniac could be needed—thus far exceeding any consistent resourcing anyways.

Lysandre also enables a unique powerplay with Mewtwo-EX (providing a full heal off a clean Pokémon from the opponent's bench). This powerplay diversifies Mewtwo's offensive potential, by proving an exit to situations when we might be stuck at a standstill, against an opponent's Active Pokémon with too much damage on it to benefit off [Damage Change]. In this case, we can just launch our offensive with [Scatter Shot] and soak up as much damage as we can. Then Lysandre one of our opponent's clean Pokémon from the bench, and [Damage Change] for the win.

It's not only the special moves you have, but how you execute them. So save your Trainers' Mail in times of need. Poor execution can be sure to take you from the most feared warrior in the land—to the laughing stock of the demon world. Definitely the last thing you want to be in a world where all the jokes have such a cruel end. And there's no end at all—for the light to shine.

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."