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]

Tree Climber

 

Pokémon [17]

1 — Lugia EX — Ancient Origins (68/98)
1 — Mewtwo EX — Next Destinies (54/99)
2 — Genesect EX — Plasma Blast (11/101)

1 — Regigigas — Phantom Forces (86/119)
4 — Skarmory — Roaring Skies (69/108)

4 — Treeko — Hoenn Collection (XY36)
4 — Sceptile — Primal Clash (8/160)

Trainers [27]

3 — Professor's Letter — XY (123/146)
4 — Rare Candy — Plasma Blast (85/101)

1 — Colress — Plasma Storm (118/135)
2 — Tierno — BREAKpoint (112/122)
3 — Steven — Roaring Skies (90/108)
3 — Skyla — BREAKthrough (148/162)
4 — Cheren — Emerging Powers (91/98)

3 — Chaos Tower — Fates Collide (94/124)

1 — G Booster — Plasma Blast (92/101)
3 — Energy Pouch — Fates Collide (97/124)

Energy [16]

3 — Double Colorless Energy
13 — Grass Energy

Epilogue

For anyone whose climbed a tree before, you might like what we're up to today, because this is a deck all about climbing trees. Our fun begins with Chaos Tower (the tree), and our collection of tree climbers—Mewtwo, Lugia, Genesect, and Treeko—and their "Challenge Accepted".

But before you can climb a tree, you've got to find a tree. And this is we shift our focus to the collection of our resources—and their combing tactical and straight draw technique that hopes to find us the perfect tree to climb.

Now, if there's one thing that provokes a person to want to climb a tree more than anything else—it's to check out a bird nest. And so starting off, we have this here with Skarmory and [Call for Family]. Alongside our collection of Supporters, Skarmory is going to help lead the way for us on our journey.

We want to begin with Skarmory and [Call for Family], looking to put a Treeko and another Pokémon directly onto the bench. However, even despite this, we still want to play first if we can, because we're working with Rare Candy here, and that means we need as much turn advantage as possible to accelerate the evolution process.

Playing first also helps to accelerate our draw potential some—and make use of a possible first turn Steven (when his potential is at its prime).

Since this deck's opening Pokémon provides a tactical draw (opposed to reinforcing our straight draw from the deck), it initially puts the deck at somewhat of a disadvantage for gathering resources. However, that is why we have cards like Professor's Letter, Steven, and Skyla—to help increase our draw potential and concentrate the effectiveness of our draws with Cheren and Tierno.

Steven knows all the best trees to climb, netting us two solid cards, and setting Cheren or Tierno up for an awesome follow up. Professor's Letter is a free tactical draw of two cards—upping our draw potential anywhere from 4 to 6 cards a turn with just a single play from Skyla, Cheren/Tierno, or Steven.

Skyla herself is mostly here (and in high volume) to get us straight to G Booster (as important as that card can be). G Booster is like the Gameboy—that's what you want to take to spend some quality time up in the trees. G Booster gets us over almost all the troubles in the world—and the power light is easy to keep shining bright—between the effects of {Nurture and Heal}, Double Colorless Energy, and Energy Pouch.

I personally like to think of Energy Pouch as the safety restraints for professional tree climbers, but I suppose it could double as our backpack of goodies on more casual adventures.

We can even take a book up there, and learn all kinds of interesting stuff about trees, such as, "Dendro...philiac; a person who has sex...with trees."

Fearless Hyena/Rumble in the Bronx

Pokémon [17]

4 — Kangaskhan EX — Flashfire (78/106)
1 — Jolteon EX — Generations (28/83)

2 — Luxray BREAK — BREAKpoint (47/122)

2 — Luxray — Next Destinies (46/99)
2 — Luxray — Flashfire (34/106)
4 — Shinx — Flashfire (32/106)

2 — Zekrom — Black & White (114/114)

Trainers [27]

1 — Master Ball — Plasma Blast (94/101)
3 — Great Ball — XY (118/146)
4 — Rare Candy — Dark Explorers (100/108)

2 — N — Dark Explorers (96/108)
2 — Skyla — BREAKthrough (148/162)
3 — Cheren — Emerging Powers (91/98)
4 — Tierno — BREAKpoint (112/122)

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

1 — Fighting Fury Belt — BREAKpoint (99/122)
3 — Muscle Band — XY (121/146)

Energy [16]

4 — Flash Energy — Ancient Origins (83/98)
4 — Double Colorless Energy
8 — Lightning Energy

Epilogue

Lights, camera, action!

Grab your snacks and get comfortable, because we're hosting a Jackie Chan double feature today. This presentation is a classic in his movie repertoire. But tonight, we're bringing together two Jackie Chan movies that you'd probably never traditionally see together like this; yet I think make one perfect double feature.

The timeless classic, Fearless Hyena—and the action hit, Rumble in the Bronx.

Our action begins wit the star himself, Jackie Chan. Portrayed here by our masterful array of Pokémon. In Fearless Hyena, Jackie is looking to avenge the death of his fallen master, by beating the master that killed him. And in Rumble in the Bronx, Jackie is looking to somehow save a crippled wizard boy, who although seemingly helpless, has the power to play Game Gear without any actual games in the system. There's also a hot babe too that looks after him—which I guess is reason enough all by itself to save the day.

But either way, we're and looking to get straight down to business, and use Rare Candy to get us to Luxray without any monkey business. From there, we come out with Luxray BREAK (and like all kung-fu masters) hope to land lucky punch in [Wild Fury].

Given the gamble involved with this, Muscle Band is here to back us against the liability that luck might bring to the table. It also pairs very well with [Flash Impact] and [Fang Snipe]. Granting us 80 damage for one energy with the first—then with the second bumping up an already considerably game-breaking attack (what with the ability to discard any Trainer card from our opponent's hand) to a more heftier 60 damage a hit.

This perfect combination of power and technique is just the style needed to bring any opponent down—even at their strongest.

Jolteon EX is another strong card—who at first kind of doubles as our hot lady co-star (a must have in almost every Jackie Chan movie) is another strong card—yet also embodies Jackie's lightning fast moves. Jolteon EX is simply a powerhouse with the ability to shutdown Basic Pokémon, and the utility of this attack works all kinds of magic so that Luxray and Luxray BREAK can shine.

However, I strongly believe that trying to over-rely on one card is bad technique. Jolteon-EX is the kind of card where just one copy is going to win you the game, or the card in general just isn't going to be much help to you. And that's why we have just one copy of Jolteon EX in here—juxtaposed alongside two copies of [Outrage] Zekrom (which is a much more universally offensive and defensive card—and therefore possesses a little more overall potential).

Fighting Fury Belt is also in here as a tech for Zekrom. Think of it as like the legendary jacket that Jackie takes off before getting ready to rumble—or maybe the weighted bags ties to the ropes in Jackie's kung-fu training. It takes the power of [Outrage] to the next level—and gives Zekrom the power to take down an entire army all by himself.

That's sure to come in handy in China and the Bronx. Since with all those people, there's sure to be more weirdos where that came from.

The Price is Right

 

Pokémon [16]

1 — Jirachi EX — Plasma Blast (98/101)
3 — Kangaskhan EX — Flashfire (78/106)

1 — Jirachi — Roaring Skies (42/108)
3 — Jirachi — Mythical Pokémon Collection Jirachi (XY112)

4 — Beldum — Plasma Freeze (50/116)
4 — Metagross — Ancient Origins (50/98)

Trainers [30]

1 — Master Ball — Plasma Blast (98/101)
3 — Level Ball — Ancient Origins (76/98)
4 — Rare Candy — Dark Explorers (100/108)
4 — Trainers' Mail — Ancient Origins (100/98)

1 — Steven — Roaring Skies (90/108)
3 — Skyla — BREAKthrough (148/162)
4 — Cheren — Emerging Powers (91/98)
4 — Tierno — BREAKpoint (112/122)

4 — Steel Shelter — Phantom Forces (105/119)

2 — Weakness Policy — Primal Clash (164/160)

Energy [14]

4 — Double Colorless Energy
10 — Steel Energy

Epilogue

Pokémon trainer—c'mon down!

You're the next contestant on The Price is Right!!

Our announcer Jirachi EX invites you to the gameshow where you try guessing the price of random items for a chance to win a number of amazing prizes—including a BRAND NEW CAR! That's our jackpot prize here—and what we've got up for grabs is a muscle car with [Machine Gun Stomp] Metagross—which would be like is like when we peel off on the race track after our big win.

Our host Bob Barker (portrayed by Kangaskhan EX) wants to help us win this fabulous prize, and we (as Jirachi) are dreaming of it right beside him. This is where our excitement begins—with the uphill climb of [Triple Draw] or [Precognitive Dream]—alongside the help of our loved ones Cheren, Tierno, Skyla, and Steven. We need to get the right number of cards in our hand to match Metagross up against our opponent, and the combination of these cards together has the power to make that dream come true!

With this combined draw power, we will be drawing seven cards a turn on average. That's like playing a free Professor Sycamore each turn! From here, we want to get Beldum on the bench with [Calculate], and guess the price of the Rare Candy. If we're successful in doing this, it's going take us straight to the prize. However, the more competition we're up against, the more prices we might have to guess. But not to worry, because we've come fully prepared this. All of our accessories have been tactically selected to help provide us with a surgical precision in our guesswork.

Starting with Level Ball, this accessory freely fetches the greatest majority of content in our deck, making it be the best ball to roll with over all. Master Ball then takes this potential to the next level, and can be used to absolutely secure a little guesswork for us. This diverse potential between these two accessories enables them to act as exact retrieval whenever it's needed—while doubling as tactical retrieval—that we can use at other times to help thin our deck out and concentrate the potency of our next draw. This helps take a little guesswork out for us, and bring the cards we might be looking for a little closer together.

The numbers can get stretched far and wide—and that's why Skyla is here to help instantly take a little guesswork out for us. Our straight draw can be too narrow to bet on by itself, and even trying to rely on Misty's Determination can simply too much of a gamble here. For best results, we need the quality and assurance of Skyla—taking only one card out of hand—in exchange for the one we need.

Trainers' Mail then backs up both Skyla and Level Ball for what they do in their tactical prowess. In its best potential, Trainers' Mail is going to be exchanging a single card in our hand for another one. This keeps the number of cards in our hand at an equilibrium, while extending our reach towards other crucial Trainer cards in the deck, that we might hope to put into our hand right away.

Weakness Policy also, gives us a very useful card when we need it (effectively removing the crushing weaknesses of Fighting or Fire-type—whose power tends to be dangerously high). Yet can simply be kept in hand whenever it's not needed, and effectively add to our hand size. It's a card that never goes to waste, and always has a use for something good. That's like when you write in to The Price is Right and finally getting selected! Just make sure to pay it forward as a token of thanks.

And that's all folks! Bob Barker reminding you to help control the pet population—don't forget to have your pets spayed or neutered.