I’m pretty excited for this set and what it will bring for Battle Roads. This set has been getting a fair amount of hype, and for good reason. There are quite a few good cards in this set, and it will certainly change the field for Battle Roads.

If any of you don’t know, this is the 5th set in the Black and White series, and the second set that brings us somewhat broken, powerful, and infamous EXs. This article will cover a lot of this set’s cards, as well as insight for the Battle Roads meta. This includes new decks and how it will affect current decks. Alright, let’s get to the cards! Enjoy!

Venusaur

The first final evolution of this set looks pretty interesting at first glance. Can it bring anything to the table? The 140 HP on a Stage 2 is pretty typical, and not that bad, but still is at risk from all of the hard-hitting Basics of the format. It has an ability called Floral Scent, which lets you search your deck for any Pokemon and put it in your hand. The Ability itself is good and would be fantastic on a Basic, but I think it just can’t work on a Stage 2.

Its attack is called Poison Powder and it does 70 damage and Poison for GGCC, which is really not that good, and is just worse than Nidoking TM’s attack. If you are already running a fun Grass deck and think you might want to put Venusaur in because it seems to “fit,” then just go with Sunflora HS. It is a Stage 1 which makes it easier to get out and has the same ability as Venusaur for Grass decks.

Venusaur’s resistance is pretty much void and its Fire weakness just lets Reshiram BLW OHKO it. What really brings this card down though is its retreat cost. It has a ridiculous four retreat, so it will never really find a place in any competitive decks anytime soon.

My overall rating for Venusaur: 1.5/5

Accelgor

This card looks fun. Unfortunately, 90 HP on a Stage 1 is pretty low. Not low enough to make a card bad, but still low. Its weakness to Fire really makes it fall to Reshiram EX’s Glinting Claw and Typhlosion Prime’s Flare Destroy, which hurts, but luckily they are not played that much. The absent retreat cost is pretty convenient in some situations, but cannot be put to good use because of its attack’s effect.

The first attack, Hammer In, is pretty bad, doing only 20 damage for G. However, the second attack, for only a DCE, is quite nifty. It is called Deck and Cover (lol), and does 50 damage, along with Poison and Paralysis. Then, you have to shuffle Accelgor and all cards attached to it to your deck.

I can see this being a mean combo with Gothitelle EPO 47. You hit them with Deck and Cover, status-ifying them, then after you return Accelgor to the deck, bring in Gothitelle. This will essentially lock your opponent for the turn as they cannot Switch out, retreat, or attack, and you get free damage out of it!

There are a few problems with this strategy but they can be fixed. I will get more into the deck itself later.

My overall rating for Accelgor: 3.5/5

Entei EX

Ah, now we come to this set’s first EX. It has the tied-for-highest HP of all the EXs at 180. As already established, 180 HP on a Basic is insane, but the EX rule essentially lowers it to 90, so it’s not as outrageous as it first seems. However, it has pretty awful stats on the bottom of the card. Three retreat ties it with the EX Dragons, and absent resistance is never nice. The Water weakness isn’t too much to complain about, but it does get OHKO’ed by Kyurem EX.

Its first attack, Fire Fang, is pretty mediocre, doing 30 damage and Burn for RC. The second attack is interesting, and I’m not sure what I think of it. The second attack is called Grand Flame and it does 90 damage for RRC, as well as grabbing a Fire Energy from the discard and slapping it on a Benched Pokemon. This can be okay with the amount of Fire acceleration but overall this card is really not that good.

My overall rating for Entei EX: 2/5

Heatmor

Heatmor, Heatmor, Heatmor. There are varying opinions about this little anteater. If you don’t already know what this does than here is a quick (no, it’s actually kind of long) rundown of the only four things you need know about it. It has 90 HP, it is a Basic, and it is Fire type. Now, what destroyer of dreams is weak to Fire? Of course, Durant.

The fourth and final thing you need to know about this, is that it has attack for C, called Hot Lick, which does a pitiful 10 damage. However, if the Defending Pokemon just happens to be named Durant, Heatmor decides to tack on 50 damage, which, with Durant’s weakness, OHKOs Durant except under highly exceptional circumstances which will never happen. Sorry for the run-on but that is, in my opinion, the best way to put it.

Now, it is easy to think at first that every deck will just tech Heatmor and that Durant is dead forever. And some people think that. Others think that Durant will just be able to tech around it like it did for the States format; and still others think that Durant is still a good play because the odds of a sole Heatmor tech being prized, milled, or unable to attack are too high; and still others have the mindset that most people will think the way of the first opinion and not play Heatmor with the assumption that people will think that Heatmor will be widely played and thus think that no one will play Durant, so Heatmor will be a waste of space. Sheesh, this card is complicated.

I think that people will still play Durant and only decks with abnormal problems with Durant will play Heatmor. Here are two final things to think about. The first is the donk factor. It is extremely common for a Durant deck to open a lone Durant and if they open something else than they are in a bad position anyway. So, if you go first, with a Heatmor/a way to get it and attack with it T1, and your opponent opens lone Durant, you get the donk. Simple as that.

I don’t remember who, but someone said in the comments on this site: “It can’t be a good feeling going into a tournament knowing that you can be donked by any deck in the format.” The second thing to think about Heatmor however, it is obviously a one-trick pony, and will quite often go through a tournament as Junk Arm fodder.

It is worthless against anything but Durant so it is hard to predict what Heatmor will do to the format. If you read all that on a card you already know then I honestly commend you. It really is interesting though.

My overall rating for Destroyer of the Destroyer of Dreams: 3/5

Kyogre EX

This is another letdown of an EX. It’s okay, but not worth it for an EX. See what I mean… It has 170, which is a pretty standard HP range for an EX, but, like Entei EX, the weakness, (absent) resistance, retreat cost, and to some extent, its attacks, are what brings it down. It has a whopping four retreat and a weakness to Lightning. This alone makes it basically unplayable.

For WC, Smash Turn does 30 damage and gives you the option to switch out with a Benched Pokemon. I don’t see why the effect would have any use at all, because how can you switch a Pokemon to your Bench if you don’t even play it?!?! It’s second attack, Dual Splash, lets you whack two Pokemon on your opponent’s field for 50 for WWC.

This is kind of good, and I imagine Kyogre EX would be highly played if you took away the EX rule. I guess these bad EXs make up for Mewtwo EX.

My overall rating for Kyogre EX: 1/5

Empoleon

140 HP for a Stage 2 isn’t bad at all. But Lightning weakness and two retreat are, especially with no resistance to back it up. Its attack and Ability look interesting, let’s check them out. Well, its Ability, Diving Draw, gives us a new draw-engine, but it’s unfortunately on a stage 2, so it’s pretty deck-specific. It lets you discard one card from your hand, in exchange for two from the top of your deck. I think that is nice, and Empoleon can see play if its attack holds it up.

Well, for W you get a Jumpluff HS’s Mass Attack. 10 damage for each Pokemon in play. This won Worlds a few years ago, so it can’t be that bad now. That was my reasoning when I first saw it, however, now we don’t have Broken Time-Space, nor a broken Rare Candy, so swarming these will be difficult. Also, a smart opponent will lower your already not-that-great maximum damage output to even less.

It seems like a good card, but sadly, the fact that its weakness is extremely popular, as well as the fact that its damage output can be controlled somewhat by your opponent, banishes it to the binder or the realm of fun decks. I really, really hope that someone will make this card playable because I really like it, but it cannot stand up in this format. Sorry, Empoleon.

My overall rating for Empoleon: 2/5

Jolteon

This is another card that struck my eye. I don’t know how much it will be played but it looks neat. The Fighting weakness makes it get OHKO’ed by Donphan Prime, which kind of stinks, but it doesn’t make it any more susceptible to Terrakion NVI at least. Free retreat is cool, and absent resistance is boring. It has 90 HP as a Stage 1 which, as stated about Accelgor, isn’t very good.

Its first attack, Electrigun, does 20 for C and you may discard a Lightning Energy attached to it for an extra 40. Just a little interesting. Its second attack is much like Zapdos NXD’s Thundering Hurricane. It lets you flip four coins, and each heads nails you 40 damage, but it costs one colorless energy less than Thundering Hurricane, meaning it is still compatible with DCE. I don’t think Jolteon is going to be played that much, really, but it is pretty nifty.

My overall rating for Jolteon: 2.5/5

Raikou EX

Ooh, now we get a good EX. This one’s getting a lot of hype, so let’s see why. It has 170 HP, dreaded Fighting weakness (which could be helped with Eviolite), absent resistance, and an amazing one retreat! This makes it have free retreat with Skyarrow Bridge!

The first attack, Thunder Fang, is really nothing special, it does 30 damage for LC with flip for Paralysis, which may be helpful at times, but its second attack is much better. For LLC, the funny-named Volt Bolt attack lets you snipe anything for 100! Then you have to discard all Lightning Energy attached to it.

This just begs you to play Eelektrik and Rescue Energy with it, as well as SAB so you can snipe 100 every turn. Too bad Terrakion NVI just gives the deck fits. There is a neat solution to this later in the set though…

My overall rating for Raikou EX: 5/5

Plusle

I honestly don’t understand the hype, and although many people do, I’m going to try and explain my best to help people understand that this card is not as good as Cleffa HS/CL. Sure, it has double the HP as Cleffa and an actual attack, but we already had this argument with Manaphy UL, and look how that turned out. At least Manaphy had free retreat; Plusle can’t even boast that!

Also, it can be OHKOed by a minimum-powered Retaliate thanks to weakness, so why is it hyped at all? Well, it’s because of its first attack, which lets you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw four cards. Oh yeah, and it costs an Energy. But, if you have Minun on your bench, you get eight cards instead.

Still, it requires a slot on the Bench, and with all of my above points, I just can’t see Plusle being played over Cleffa.

My overall rating for Plusle: 2/5

Espeon

This has a unique ability called Solar Revelation, which prevents all effects of attacks done to your Pokemon with Energy attached to them. I can’t see this being used because nothing in the format as of now has an attack that does an effect to your Pokemon (Donphan Prime, Mewtwo EX, Terrakion NVI, Durant NVI, Tornadus EPO, Zekrom BLW and Reshiram BLW etc.). I know there are some low-tier Pokemon that do, such as Kyurem EX and Gengar Prime, but that is no reason to use this card.

However, I wanted to mention it because I’m not sure if things like Raikou EX’s snipe would count as “effects of attacks” because the damage is not printed next to the attack name. If Volt Bolt can be blocked against with Espeon, then I’m sure Espeon will see play but if not, not. Nothing else about Espeon is really worth talking about.

[Editor's note: It doesn't block damage from sniping like Volt Bolt, but it does block Special Conditions like the  Paralysis from Thunder Fang.]

My overall rating for Espeon: 1.5/5 OR 4/5

Cofagrigus

Here is a funny card. Two retreat is pretty bad, but I suppose you can’t really expect a coffin to move around that much. The weakness to Dark may be written off at first, but then you remember that the set is named Dark EXplorers, so you can assume there will be viable Dark-types in the set. It has 100 HP as a Stage 1, which is a little better than what we’ve been seeing, but still not on the level of Donphan Prime.

Its first attack is called Chuck, and it lets you trash as many Pokemon Tools from your hand as you like and deal 40 damage for each Tool you choose to discard. I like this. Mienshao NXD comes to mind because, although it is a Stage 1, it is the only reliable way to get Tools out from your deck. Mienshao can also double as your dark counter.

The second attack is much like Azelf LA’s Lock Up, except for double the energy cost and double the damage. I cannot see that being used. One problem with (attack #1) is that, besides Junk Arm (and Good Rod and Recycle), there is no way to recover Pokemon Tools. So you cannot rely on Cofagrigus for an entire game, much like Magnezone.

I can see this being somewhat good with Rocky Helmet being attached and a whole other host of Tools. You can discard 3 Tools against a musketeer or dragon (besides Virizion, in which case you would just KO), leaving it with just a little HP, and if they want to attack, then Rocky Helmet would just finish them off. Just a fun idea.

My overall rating for Cofagrigus: 3/5

Aerodactyl

Aerodactyl, the only “Revived” Pokemon in the set and only the third ever so far. Thankfully, it is much better than the other Revived Pokemon. Its Ability is called Primal Scream, and it adds 10 damage to your attack power. This alone is pretty good, and, to my understanding, it is stackable. Not that this will matter much; it is hard enough to get out being a Revived Pokemon, and I think it will only see play in the future if there are good Revived Pokemon.

I think that because no deck really has room to fit in the necessary cards just for the Ability. But wait! It has an attack too! Oh… never mind… just 40 damage for CCC. Maybe later Aerodactyl.

My overall rating for Aerodactyl: 1.5/5

Groudon EX

This big, scary, earth-monster thing brings us to our fourth EX of the set. As a card, it is quite interesting, and there are varying opinions about it. It has 180 HP, which is tied for the highest of an EX, as stated before with Entei. Its weakness and resistance are almost as good as you can ask for, but the four retreat is awful.

It resists Lightning, which is pretty much the most played type, and any damage done by Lightning Pokemon is reduced by 40 if Groudon EX holds an Eviolite. This turns Bolt Strike into a 3HKO, Disaster Volt into a 5HKO, and Glinting Claw is now out of the question even more than it was before!

Also, this barely makes Magnezone Prime have to Lost Burn five energy for the OHKO. That’s a record, by the way.

Let’s see if its attacks can hold it up. Tromp is the first attack, and, like Kyogre EX, the first attack is pretty mediocre. This one might actually be able to be put to use, but it’s still pretty bad. For FC it does 20 damage and 10 to everything else on your opponent’s field.

Giant Claw is the second attack for FFC. It is much like the various “Second Strike” attacks we have seen. Giant Claw deals 80 damage, plus 40 more if the defending Pokemon already has two damage counters on it. That is pretty solid, and I can start to see Groudon EX get some spotlight because of it’s resistance to Lightning and Giant Claw. We shall see…

My overall rating for Groudon EX: 4/5

Excadrill

When I first looked at this guy, I was like: “Ugh.” But then I thought a little and he/it could be useful. As a Stage 1, he has 120 HP, which is really good, even though basics have higher HP nowadays. It has a resistance to Lightning, which is always welcome, and also protects it from being OHKO’ed by Bolt Strike.

It has three retreat which, in my opinion, is totally unnecessary. It also has a weakness to Water, like Groudon EX, which is a nice type to be weak to. Unfortunately, this also means that the rare Kyurem NVI’s Glaciate will 2HKO it.

The first attack is called Tunnel Strike, and all it does is snipe for 30, which is fair, but not that good. Its second attack, however, is pretty eye opening. For FF, Dig Uppercut deals 50 damage and you can pick out any card from your discard pile and put it into your hand!

Guess what, we just found another potential partner for Cofagrigus! It reliably gets Tools back, and doubles as a Dark counter! While on the weak side, it can be useful and is the type to be.

My overall rating for Excadrill: 3/5

Umbreon DEX 61

I’m just going to go over the attacks on this one because it’s not very good but deserves a little mention. For C, Confuse Ray deals 20 damage and Confusion which is not really that bad of an attack but it’s on a Stage 1. For DCC, it’s going Sharpedo TM style. Shadow Shutdown deals 60 damage, and if you land two heads out of two flips, all of the Defending Pokemon’s Energy go to the discard!

If you are lucky, you could run this with Sharpedo TM and Fliptini for a fun and annoying deck. Just wanted to mention that and Umbreon could prove handy. Also, it could fit into Leafeon/Amoongus deck.

My overall rating for Umbreon: 2/5

Sableye

Ohmygosh, another Cofagrigus partner! This one is actually highly viable though. 70 HP for a Basic is solid for it not being a legendary, and the absent weakness and resistance can’t really hurt. The one retreat means it is very mobile with SAB as well. So far, pretty good.

So what makes this card viable? Well, it’s certainly not its Confuse Ray attack, which does 10 damage and a flip for confusion for C, but rather its second attack, Dumpster Diving.

Okay, whatever, it’s actually called Junk Hunt, but I’ll still call it Dumpster Diving, because that’s just more awesome. Anyway, for a single Dark Energy (or a Prism/Rainbow), you get any two Items from your discard pile! This is amazing! If you are trying Cofagrigus, forget Excadrill! Sableye’s your go-to here. Dumpster Diving is especially good because you can also grab Junk Arms which can later be used for anything you need.

I imagine this being a staple in any deck that already runs Dark, Prism, or Rainbow Energy and perhaps beyond that! Of course not in Vileplume though. That’s a funny thought. “I’ll use Dumpster Diving for two Trainers that I can’t use so I can Juniper them next turn”. That’s not going to happen.

My overall rating for Sableye: 4/5

Darkrai EX

Alright, here is another one of the most hyped cards in the set. It is a 180 HP dark-type EX. It has a very unfortunate weakness to Fighting, but a very nice resistance to Psychic. The semi-sore retreat cost of two is easily taken care of by its nifty Ability, Dark Cloak.

Dark Cloak states that any of your Pokemon with any Dark Energy attached to it has no retreat cost. I think this is quite nifty, especially since Prism is pretty played and because it can be counted as Dark as well as the energy needed to attack.

Darkrai’s attack is pretty good too. For DDC you deal a solid 90 as well as a snipe for 30. Too bad with the expected uprise in 40 HP Tynamo play, you won’t be able to snipe Tynamo that often. At least you 3HKO Eels, but the past advantage of surprise 30 snipes are gone.

The attack cost and resistance means that a Mewtwo EX needs eight Energy to OHKO a fully charged Darkrai EX with Eviolite. I don’t think Darkrai EX deserves this level of hype, but it will be the cornerstone of the armada of new Dark decks sure to come

My overall rating for Darkrai EX: 4/5

Krookodile

Vile, vile Krookodile. This Pokemon has always had disruptive aspects to it since it came out in Black and White, but was never really played. Lets see if the first Dark-type Krookodile to be printed can outshine the others. Well, its first attack keeps the disruptive trend going. It is Dark Clamp and for DCC, it does 60 damage with a retreat lock.

This isn’t that useful because most decks run Switch, so it could only be useable with Vileplume. Even this wouldn’t be that good, because it is hard enough to get two Stage 2s out in this format, and you’re only doing 60 damage for DCC. It helps a lot, though, that it is compatible with DCE, Special Dark, and Dark Claw (more on that later). For a Stage 2, its 150 HP is really good, as well as a nice Psychic resistance.

Unfortunately, like most dark Pokemon, it is weak to Fighting. It has a disgusting three retreat, but that is easily taken care of by Darkrai EX’s Dark Cloak, which should be played in all dark decks. Moving on to Krookodile’s second attack, Bombast. Is that even a word?!?! It sounds quite funny actually.

Anyway, for DDCC, it does 40 damage for each prize card you have taken. Immediately, for me, the words: “reverse Revenge Blast” come to mind. Normally, this attack on a Stage 2 would be quite awful, but, as stated about Dark Clamp, it is compatible DCE, Special Dark, and Dark Claw which might make this card at least semi competitive. It really seems like this card has potential, even if it’s just for the kind of gimmicky deck that I would use.

My overall rating for Krookodile: 2.5-3/5

Zorua DEX 69

There is only one thing about this card worth mentioning, which puts above all the other Zorua as the Zorua of choice; that is, unless you’re playing Stage 1s, in which case you would use Zorua BLW. Well, no one plays Stage 1s anymore anyway. The thing that makes it better than the other Zorua (I want to put an S to pluralize that so badly!), is its first attack, Ascension.

Ascension requires a Dark Energy and states: “Search your deck for a card that evolves from this Pokémon and put it onto this Pokémon. (This counts as evolving this Pokémon.) Shuffle your deck afterward.” It’s not great, but it’s handy, and it’s enough to make it Zorua of choice, so I wanted to give it a shout-out.

My overall rating for Zorua: 0.5/5 (I mean, come on, it’s a pre-evolution, it’s awful by itself)

Zoroark DEX

Now, I definitely wouldn’t mention Zorua if there wasn’t a noteworthy Zoroark, so here it is. A 100 HP stage 1, pretty typical. Resistance to Psychic and weakness to Fighting, like almost all Dark types. Two retreat, pretty bad. Wait! What? Two retreat on a Zoroark?! What is this madness? (Darkrai says hi.) Oh yeah, hi Darkrai.

Now I feel better, but still, two retreat on a ninja, stealth, illusion fox thing is pretty high. Now for its attacks. For CC, it has this brutal attack called… Brutal Bash. It does 20 damage for each Dark Pokemon you have in play. This means, that in a full-fledged dark deck, you can consistently be whacking for 120. This is absolutely wonderful for just a DCE!

Also, there is the yet-to-be-mentioned Dark Claw, which just makes this card even better! It has a second attack too, but who needs that when you have something as good as Brutal Bash? Well, I’m not going rushing to the next card just yet, Zoroark’s Dark Rush attack is nothing to scoff at. For DD, it does 20 damage for each damage counter on it.

So, without Dark Claw OR Special Dark Energy, you can 1HKO a non-Eviolited EX if you have 90 damage on Zoroark. Of course, like all dark Pokemon’s attacks, this just gets better with Special Dark and Dark Claw, so we can start to see why the dark type is getting the hype it is. At least the Pokemon creators kept the game fair and didn’t make Zoroark a Basic.

My overall rating for Zoroark: 4.5/5

Tornadus EX

Here is another good EX. And by good, I actually mean awesome. This card is the saving grace for all Dark and Lightning decks, which would otherwise be screwed over against Terrakion NVI. Tornadus EX, being a Colorless type, easily becomes a staple and, with an Eviolite, requires Terrakion NVI to 4HKO it or 3HKO it with two PlusPowers. Do the math.

Never mind, I’ll do it for you. Tornadus EX has 170 HP, and a resistance to Fighting. Unfotunately, like Tornadus EPO, it has that horrible weakness to Lightning. This means that Raikou EX or Zekrom BLW can OHKO it if it’s Active. Uh-oh. Well, you just need to keep reminding yourself that it is Lightning’s and Dark’s best bet against Fighting, and to try to avoid dropping it against Lightning.

The one retreat cost is helped with SAB. Its first attack, Blow Through, requires just a DCE, and does 30 damage. This alone is pretty pitiful, but its effect is nice. If there is a Stadium in play, you do 60 damage instead!

Its second attack, Power Blast, does 100 damage for CCC, with a flip to decide if you discard an Energy attached to it. This shouldn’t matter in the Lightning or Dark decks it’s going to be played in because they have back-from-the-discard acceleration, but could be a pain to CMT players. This is definitely a good card.

My overall rating for Tornadus EX: 4/5

Woo-hoo, now for the Trainers.

Enhanced Hammer

Hmm. It looks cool, but it’s just a worse version of Lost Remover. At first I wondered why the heck they even made this card, but then I remembered there was such thing as a rotation, so they (the card makers) probably wanted Special Energy removals after the rotation. This obviously implies that there will be a rotation to BLW-on.

Also, I saw a scan for Drifblim from the dragon sets on The Beach which did more damage for each Special Energy in your opponent’s discard pile, so that is obviously supposed to be used with Enhanced Hammer.

My overall rating for Enhanced Hammer: 1/5

My overall rating for Enhanced Hammer after rotation if rotation is to BLW-on: 3.5/5

Dark Claw and Dark Patch

I wanted to cover these two together because they are so closely tied in that they bring dark decks to life. Dark Claw is a tool, only to be used on Dark Pokemon, that adds 20 damage to that Pokemon’s attacks. This is just phenomenal, and makes it so that it is not too hard for Zoroark DEX to OHKO EXs. That is quite scary.

Dark Patch is an item that, believe it or not, provides Energy acceleration for Dark types. It basically just provides a one-time Dynamotor for Basic Dark energy. This and Dark Claw will drastically shift the format in favor of Dark types from where they were. Now it is easy to see why the Dark type has the hype that it does, and just remember Tornadus EX if Terrakion NVI keeps popping in your head like it does to me.

My overall rating for Dark Claw: 4/5

My overall rating for Dark Patch: 3.5/5

Random Receiver

This card, I believe, is getting justly hyped as the Pokegear 3.0 replacement. It’s an item that says to reveal cards from the top of your deck until you hit a supporter, which you have to keep. I’m sure everyone knows how frustrating it is to whiff Pokegears, something that happens all too often, so this guarantee card is bound to see play.

Also, this will encourage Dual Ball over Collector, just because most of the time you would want hand refresh over Basic search.

My overall rating for Random Receiver: 4/5

Ultra Ball

A lot of people already know what this does because it was supposed to be released in nEXt Destinies, but wasn’t. It is an item contributing to the “ball engine,” which lets you discard two cards from your hand in order to search your deck for a Pokemon.

I still think Pokemon Communication is better, but this could be useful in things like RaiEels (name sounds a little like RaiEggs, doesn’t it?) to get Lightning Energy in the discard.

Not really much else to say about this card, but I am very unsure of how it will effect decks. I think saying it will replace Communication is a bit over-hyping, but we shall see.

My overall rating for Ultra Ball: 3/5

Twist Mountain

Twist Mountain is a Stadium that lets each player flip a coin once per turn, and if that player nails heads, they get to play a Revived Pokemon from their hand that could normally only be played with the unreliable effect of a Fossil. Too bad Archeops and Carracosta are unplayable.

Well, at least Aerodactyl is pretty good, but I don’t know if any deck will have enough room to actually play one or two copies of this and one to three copies of Aerodactyl just for the Ability. I don’t think Twist Mountain is very viable right now. Maybe in the future if they make some good Fossil Pokemon will the Fossil deck idea finally be alive again.

My overall rating for Twist Mountain: 1.5/5

Phew, that’s a lot of interesting cards for one set! So…

How Will Dark EXplorers Effect Current (pre-DEX) Decks?

This section is going to be a mini breakdown of some of the pre-DEX decks, including new tricks and what will happen to them.

Zekeels (or Zeels)

There are varying opinions about what will happen to Zekeels. For sure it will include Raikou EX, and that will help for various reasons and various uses. It does get Ultra Ball, which will be played in it so that you can get early search and early Lightning Energy discards which are both helpful. Of course, Random Receiver will replace Pokegear 3.0 and Tornadus EX will just boss off Tornadus EPO as the Fighting counter. Overall, Zeels is still a contender.

CMT

The “T” in CMT will definitely get replaced. Well, kind of. It will go from Tornadus to Tornadus EX so it is still similar. Tornadus EX has more donking power for the same amount of energy and just provides more protection against Terrakion NVI. As a result of Tornadus EX replacing Tornadus EPO, and because Tornadus EX is much better against Fighting, I expect Eviolite to become more popular in CMT as well as Virizion EPO being less popular.

However, this deck is terrible against full-fledged Raikou EX decks. This is obviously because of Tornadus EX’s weakness and because Raikou EX discards Energy after its attack, thus making Mewtwo EX weaker. Also, Tornadus EX can be OHKO’ed by either Zeel’s or RaiEel’s Zekrom’s Bolt Strike, which is just another two prizes down the drain.

So, because if this, CMT can be shifted a bit to a Terrakion-focused version or just quicker and more focused on taking out Tynamo early. But, if you want to go with the straight CMT, kill-Tynamo-fast version, you still have to think about DarkArk. Tornadus EX thankfully can OHKO Zoroark DEX, but the matchup is still unfavorable because all (or nearly all, if you play interesting techs) of the Pokemon in DarkArk are resistant to Mewtwo.

It just seems that CMT will struggle with DarkArk unless they play two or three Terrakion NVi and use them wisely. Also, I’m just going to get this out of the way now so I won’t have to say it about every deck, Random Receiver will replace Pokegear 3.0 in all decks that don’t play Collector, which as we all know, CMT should not play Collector. Overall, CMT will probably see some play, but will struggle in the long run.

Durant

This is basically covered in the Heatmor section, but not completely. All I have to add is this; Some players will find clever ways to have a surefire way to beat Heatmor (besides just throwing in extra attackers), but most players will avoid Durant just because of the threat of Heatmor, regardless of how much Heatmor is actually played.

Mono-Terrakion and Landorus/Terrakion

Mono-Terrakion still might be a solid play because of all the Dark and Lightning, but I don’t think it will because of Tornadus EX. Also, it can struggle with aggro-Mewtwo attempts. Landorus/Terrakion is still a good play because it can beat Mewtwo with Mewtwo and it could easily tech in a couple Zekrom BLW to create a psuedo-Donphan/Dragons deck with Landorus to at least have a chance against Tornadus EX.

Groudon EX is something that these decks will include and might even replace Terrakion NVI as it is better in most aspects.

Troll

I honestly don’t know much about Troll and how it plays. I’ve never played a game using Troll but I get that the basic strategy is: 1) Get cheap KOs early with Tyrogue HS/CL and Pokemon Catcher. 2) Use Tornadus EPO as early-early mid-game attacker while powering up multiple Terrakion NVI. 3) Use a bunch of Terrakion as heavy hitters. 4) Abuse Super Scoop Up, PlusPower, and Rocky Helmet all the way.

Based on this knowledge (someone correct me if I’m wrong), Troll has a decent chance at staying alive. Any deck with Terrakion and an alternate attacker is automatically in the running just because Dark and Lightning are so good. Also, considering you can run over four Tornadus and Tornadus EX combined, Troll can include Tornadus EX for more power against non-Dark or -Lightning decks, but then you would probably want to run Energy Retrieval because of Power Blast’s effect.

Tyrogue doesn’t exactly lose anything either. With two PlusPowers, Mischievous Punch can OHKO Zorua DEX, which is really all it gains from Dark EXplorers, but nothing to scoff at.

Reshiphlosion

Last but not least, here is Reshiphlosion. It has always been a solid deck, and even won Worlds, but it is really losing popularity because its T2 Blue Flare ratio is not consistent enough. It gets Entei EX to play with, and I’m sure some die-hards will play Reshiphlosion, but I’m not sure it will stand up in the coming format. I am interested in how it does at BRs though, as I really don’t have a solid guess for it. Oh yeah, and it gets Ultra Ball which is nice.

The aforementioned decks, in my opinion, were the only ones worth mentioning. I did not mention things like Reshiboar or Truth, nor decks like DarkArk, because that section was only for the high-performance decks for the States-Regionals format.

Also, this article is getting long enough already, and decks like Reshiboar and Truth are kind of dead. Not completely, and they may make a comeback with Groudon EX and Entei EX, but they would be kind of a waste. Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for, here are the…

New Decks

Of course, with every new set, there are completely new decks created, focused around cards from that set. Dark EXplorers is certainly no EXception. I have created four decks built upon Pokemon found mainly in Dark EXplorers, but obviously, no deck can have Pokemon from only one set, so the decks have some Pokemon from other sets. All of the decks have been tested, but most of them have not been tested that much.

Also, know that I will not give a full analysis on each deck, but just give an overview and matchups for some of them. Two of the decks are completely rogue and two are completely predictable. So, without anymore of a wait. Here are my favorite four Dark EXplorers-based decks!

DarkArk

This deck also goes by Dark.dek or Dark Rush, but I prefer DarkArk. Here is the list I have been using:

Overview

As you can see, this is very mainstream. The strategy is to go aggro Zoroark DEX early, and gradually shift to Darkrai EX. Multiple Absol can fill the bench as Dark-type Pokemon, as well as putting EX Pokemon into Zoroark DEX range with the handy-dandy Eye of Disaster Poke-Body. It can also donk if you get lucky enough!

Although mainstream, this deck has a little tech-iness to it. Zoroark BLW, Cleffa, and Shaymin have all proved themselves multiple times and are amazing in this deck. Zoroark BLW can easily OHKO EXs with or without Absol’s help because it can abuse Dark Claw and Special Dark.

Outside of EXs, Zoroark is helpful in other situations too, again because of Special Dark and Dark Claw. It can easily OHKO Genies and Dragons. There is seemingly no end to what this guy can do! Shaymin helps with instantly charging the active with Dark Patch and is always a generally helpful card. Cleffa is the big surprise here. I found it amazing clutch and used it in many, many games.

Now, I’m sure you’ve noticed the abscence of Tornadus EX here. Before building this deck, I believed that all Fighting-weak decks needed a counter to Fighting, preferably Tornadus or Tornadus EX. But, I found while testing this deck, that Tornadus EX is actually not good in this deck. I almost couldn’t believe it, but there were numbers staring me in the face, so I cut Tornadus EX.

Tornadus EX is still a great Fighting-counter for other Fighting-weak decks, but there are reasons why it’s bad in this. One, it ruins the point of Zoroark DEX, have as many dark Pokemon in play as possible. But Shaymin and Cleffa do that too. Two, the damage output. 100 damage in this deck is really, really low. Well, you could say, Darkrai EX only does 90. But, keep in mind, Darkrai’s attack can be boosted by Special Dark and Dark Claw, Tornadus’ cannot.

Also, Darkrai snipes. Against Fighting, I found it is just better to beat down with Dark, exchanging KO for KO, instead of 2HKO’ing with Tornadus EX, letting your opponent Catcher around and taking valuable prizes.

Matchups

Note: Wins and losses are from DarkArk’s side. This will be the case for the other decks as well. Also, I did not do a set amount of games for each matchup. I did what I thought would be best. For example, if I went 4-0 against a deck, I would not continue to test because I have already “proven” that the matchup is at least somewhat favorable.

Donphan/Mewtwo/Zekrom

Wins (version with Tornadus EX): 1                                                                                                                Losses (with Tornadus EX): 4

Wins (without Tornadus EX): 3                                                                                                                Losses (without Tornadus EX): 2

Wow. Tornadus EX sucks! Just kidding, as talked about before, it is not ideal in this deck. After I revised the deck to the list above, without Tornadus EX, it came down only to which deck went first each game. Every game, the deck that went first always got T2 KO’s with Earthquake/Brutal Bash and the deck that went second fell behind on the prize race on T2 before it got a chance. And yes, it is that easy to OHKO a Donphan.

So, if you lose the opening flip against this deck, then you basically lose unless the deck/player is sub-par or they whiff the T2 Donphan. I don’t even know why I tested against this deck, it’s not that popular, but I suppose it was good to because DarkArk is weak to it.

Zekrom/Eelektrik

Wins: 3                                                                                                                                                 Losses: 3

In my testing, whoever went first won. It was like with Donphan; T2 Brutal Bash and T2 Disaster Volt, with some EXs getting in on the action later. If you opponent whiffs on a T2 attack then you have to go super-aggressive as fast as possible. Obviously, it is great to abuse Catcher to pick off Tynamo, Eelektrik, and Smeargle (if they run it) with Absol. Absol’s use is kind of limited so any opportunity to use it is great.

One thing that is kind of obvious but I found interesting, is that Zoroark BLW is great here. With only one Special Dark and a Dark Claw, you can OHKO Thundurus EPO, Tornadus EPO (again, if they run it), Zekrom BLW, Zekrom EX, and potentially Mewtwo EX. That is something to keep in mind for this matchup. Also, in case you were wondering, I was not testing against the same Zeel I used for States, but a more normal one.

Raikou/Eelektrik

Wins: 2                                                                                                                                                      Losses: 4

I don’t really know what to say about that win/loss record. RaiEels not that different from Zeels. Also, the games were not determined by who went first. The games did not really have anything worth noting; except that there was a Volt Bolt donk. RaiEels can’t really abuse Catcher because of Dark Cloak, which is good. And it is easy to pick off Eels, which is good, so I really don’t know how DarkArk didn’t have a positive record. Maybe six games is just not enough.

As for how to play this matchup, you need to go really aggressive on the Eels, and baiting Volt Bolts is great too. It is really inconvienient that Zoroark has 100 HP exactly. At least the Zoroark BLW trick tech can copy Volt Bolt and easily pick off Eels, and with Absol/Pokemon Catcher helping, winning this matchup, in theory, shouldn’t be too hard. I will provide my Raikou/Eel list later, as it is a new deck.

CMT

Wins: 4                                                                                                                                                Losses: 0

I figured that four straight wins against a former giant in the metagame was enough to prove that DarkArk should be able to take this matchup. Try to take cheap prizes with Zoroark DEX against Tornadus and Celebi when you can, but it is also great to go aggro Darkrai. Mewtwo can’t OHKO Darkrai, and Darkrai can’t OHKO Mewtwo either. But, Darkrai can 2HKO it, as well as setting another Mewtwo up for an OHKO by one of your two Zoroark, or 2HKO a Celebi by sniping.

There are two problems with this matchup, one which is beyond the player’s control. With four Absol, four Zorua, a Cleffa, and a Shaymin, it is easy to get Tornadus donked. It is somewhat easy to get two Basics in your starting seven. However, even if you have a lone Basic, if you go first, and if you start out with any of the 12 draw Supporters or four Dual Ball then you’re probably okay.

The second problem, similar to the first, is that so many Pokemon in DarkArk are in Tornadus range. Which means that they can get many cheap prizes with most CMTs running four Catcher and four Junk Arm. You could just not drop Pokemon down, but that would ruin Zoroark DEX. That is another great reason to go straight Darkrai.

Durant

Wins: 4                                                                                                                                                 Losses: 0

(Same first sentence as CMT) It is just so easy to plow through everything with Darkrai. Just get two set up and you’re good to go. Here is one very important thing to remember when facing Durant with this deck: never, ever, be tempted to use Zoroark DEX (or Zoroark BLW, because that will fail).

Even if you start Zorua, you need to keep too many Pokemon on your bench for it to OHKO Durant. Even with Darkrai’s Dark Cloak in effect, you cannot keep energy on ALL of your Pokemon, especially against Durant. Always steamroll with Darkrai.

One other thing that this matchup has going for DarkArk, is that Durant is bound to Devour some Basic Dark Energy in this first few turns so you can speed up your set up with Dark Patch, which is very helpful. As with all EXs that sweep Durant, pile many Energy onto your attacker because of Lost Remover and Crushing Hammer. Don’t stack enough so that Rotom/Mewtwo + Black Belt can OHKO you, but just so that you can be somewhat safe against the onslaught of Energy Removals.

Landorus/Terrakion

Wins: 3                                                                                                                                               Losses: 3

Hey look! Another even record! Pretty much the same thing. T2 Gaia Hammer or T2 Brutal Bash. Even if you do go first, though, this matchup is still difficult. You need to swarm Zoroark and just beat them down, trading prize for prize each turn.

Whenever you can, since you only can use 4 Zoroark, it is important to take KOs on Landorus with Absol at any opportunity. This is easier said than done, because you need two Special Darks and a Dark Claw to OHKO, but it is still possible and is very helpful.

It is also very important to hold onto all of your Darkrai EX because they can easily be Catchered and OHKO’ed by Terrakion NVI. Groudon EX may seem intimidating, but it does give up two prizes. It can easily be 2HKO’ed. So, even if they get it out, you can still maintain a prize trade. Remember when I said to hold on to all of the Darkrai? Well, if everything goes decent, you should be able to keep up a prize trade until the last prize; one prize for each Zoroark, and one cheap KO with Absol.

Then, you can play Darkrai to easily take the last prize. Overall, if the builds of these two decks are good, and neither one gets unlucky whiffs, then it really boils down to who goes first despite the Fighting weakness. DarkArk, and other variants of Dark for that matter, are surely strong contenders for Battle Roads.

Why I Think This Variant is Best

I think Zoroark/Absol is better than Zoroark/Weavile because Absol is an amazing opener. Putting some EXs in Special Dark + Dark Claw + Brutal Bash range really can put you ahead and is better than some petty one-card disruption and takes up less space. Also, since Absol will have Energy on it a lot because of retreating into Darkrai on T2 (w/ Dark Cloak), Shaymin should be treated as a necessary staple for this deck.

As for Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX; it is more of a different deck than a different variant, but it utilizes the Dark engine so I’ll include it here. It simply does not have enough power. The attackers are nice and bulky but they are EXs, and any deck with not-very-many EX attackers can have trouble. Also, it is just plain easier to go with something you have tested for hours than something you have not.

I myself will not play any Dark decks at Battle Roads, because I have no way (unless I want to go broke for a couple BRs) to get all the cards needed, but expect them at yours.

The Next Deck, Gothigor

Overview

This deck is very complex and odd-looking so it may take awhile to explain. I mentioned this deck idea in the Accelgor section. I thought it was a great idea so I followed through with it. The basic idea is to hit every turn with Accelgor’s “Deck and Cover” attack. (Where did they come up with that name anyway? Deck and Cover, really?) After you return Accelgor to your deck, you bring in Gothitelle EPO 47. This essentially locks your opponent out of their turn. Gothitelle blocks all Items, most importantly Switch and Catcher, while Paralysis blocks attacks and retreats.

You can use Accelgor’s attack nearly every turn with the heavy draw engine and ball engine, while using Dodrio to free retreat Gothitelle every turn. Speaking of ball engine, I’m sure you noticed I chose to run Poke Ball over Pokemon Communication and Ultra Ball. Now, I wouldn’t blame you if you thought: “Wow, Grant’s not very smart, he runs Poke Ball. Wait. What is Poke Ball?”

However, I have a good reason for running Poke Ball. But, since it is a card pretty much never played, even though it’s been out since Jungle, I want to give you a quick refresher. It is a simple Item with ”ball” in it’s name, fitting nicely into the ball engine, and it simply states: “Flip a coin, if heads, search your deck for any Pokemon”. I think this is pretty good actually.

I chose this over Communication and Ultra Ball because the whole game until the last few turns there are really no cards to burn. On Communication: you will need nearly every Pokemon you can get until the lock is established and in this deck I prefer a flip over a Pokemon trade. As for Ultra Ball, this deck cannot stand early/mid-game discards, especially for just a Pokemon; that is the same reasoning I used for only having one Junk Arm, two discards is not worth an Item in this deck.

Also, you can search out any Pokemon besides Gothitelle with just Dual Ball and Level Ball. However, even if the whole game goes well, your opponent can still attack immediately after a KO. Not much can OHKO a Gothitelle without PlusPower, but most decks have something that can, which is why it’s good to set up another Gothitelle. If you have another Gothitelle set up, then you can just continue the lock.

However, in some cases you may not want to. This is because most decks’ only option to revenge KO a Gothitelle is Mewtwo EX. Mewtwo EX needs four energy to OHKO a Gothitelle. So, you could just drop one of your own Mewtwo + DCE for the revenge KO, putting your opponent at the bad end of the Mewtwo war as well as behind on resources.

This is great because if you save both of your Mewtwo, and your opponent sees you’re playing a lock deck, they will probably think you don’t run Mewtwo, so they will be reckless with theirs. This is also a lifesaver against CMT. Smeargle was thrown in the deck because it is great for clutch and starting, and the deck already had Dodrio UD.

Matchups

Zekrom/Eelektrik

Wins: 4                                                                                                                                                    Losses: 2

Just go with the basic strategy for this matchup. Accelgor lock. Set up another Gothitelle if possible in case of the surprise Zekrom EX + DCE + Double Dynamotor revenge KO. Then lock it back up. If they revenge Gothitelle with Mewtwo, obviously start the wars, because this deck runs two and most Zekeels run two. Make sure you save the Mewtwo in your hand as long as possible so your opponent won’t see it coming.

Since no non-EX Pokemon can OHKO a Gothitelle in this deck (besides a lucky Zapdos NXD), you should easily get ahead in the prize trade once the lock goes up. Definitely a favorable matchup.

Raikou/Eelektrik

Wins: 1                                                                                                                                                 Losses: 3

Despite the numbers, this is not that bad of a matchup. It is easily winnable unless your opponent knows exactly how to play against the deck. Most Accelgor decks will play Sunflora and Vileplume instead, so your opponent will be a bit flustered when they cannot Volt Bolt your Accelgor-getting engine.

The natural reaction for most players would be to go aggressive on the Goth line, which is great for you, because that just isn’t consistent and won’t work. Maybe they will even try to target all of the Shelmet! However, the key to beating Gothigor with RaiEels is to go after the Dodrio at every possible opportunity. That is the key. Rescue Energy and Super Rod help a little with this though.

Gothigor will win if they don’t go after the Dodrio, but most likely if you aim after the Dodrio/Doduo all  game then the RaiEels player should win. The only reason Gothigor won one is because I didn’t even know how to play for RaiEels for the first game and went after other stuff.

CMT

Wins: 4                                                                                                                                                       Losses: 2

This matchup is in your favor, and if you get set up then you pretty much have the win sealed. Gothitelle is priority here, like with most matchups, and avoid benching Doduo until you have Accelor/Goth lock ready to go, because of  Catcher. Obviously, also because of Catcher, you want to bench multiple Shelmet and Gothita early on so you can get set up.

Don’t worry of they get ahead three or four prizes, that’s what CMT does, and this deck can easily come back. Mewtwo surprises is the big lifeline here, and you have to play smart. The only reason, I think, that Gothigor didn’t have more wins, is because both decks (mainly Gothigor) had extremely odd luck.

This can be expected sometimes with the flippy ball engine, and you can play around it, but CMT is a great matchup if you do everything correctly and don’t go something like 0-4 on flips early game.

Durant

Wins: 5                                                                                                                                                 Losses: 1

I honestly thought about teching in Heatmor for this seemingly unfavorable matchup, but going with the normal strategy should definitely work. Trainer lock shuts down Durant completely and just forget the common sense of not using draw supporters. Keep up the lock and take an easy win.

If for some reason you are forced into an unfriendly corner, go aggro Gothitelle. It’ll actually be fine if you know they cannot retaliate with something like Rotom + Black Belt or Mewtwo. If there is a threat of Mewtwo than obviously don’t stack energy on a Gothitelle, but build up your own Mewtwo.

DO NOT wait for the surprise (Mewtwo + DCE) drop thinking that they will need 4 energy for the OHKO on Gothitelle because they have Black Belt. You can build up Mewtwo, they won’t be able to use Catcher under Gothitelle. But, to avoid complications, try and keep up the normal lock under (almost) any circumstances.

Landorus/Terrakion

Wins: 3                                                                                                                                               Losses: 3

I thought this would be a better matchup honestly. If they play Shaymin UL or Smeargle, that is great because it’s a free prize because you can KO them with poison going back to your turn, which is a really, really, good thing to be doing. Oh, yeah, in my testing, whoever went first won, so if you go second you’re screwed.

Just kidding, it’s not guarenteed. It’s pretty even because it’s kind of hard to get twelve back to back Deck and Covers while maintaing Gothitelle backup for each one KO’ed by Terrakion/Landorus. And early Catcher prizes really hurt.

Why I Think This Variant is Best

There is really only one other variant to talk about here, and that is Accelgor/Vileplume/Sunflora. Mainly, it is just easier to go with something you’ve tested with and has done decently, than an untested variant, but I really do think the Gothitelle version is better. This deck NEEDS access to Items. Catcher prizes against a built up Mewtwo with your own or a free prize on a 70 HP Pokemon is great.

Random Receiver, although not in my list, can also be a great addition to this deck, and with or without Sunflora, you need setup trainers. Also, Sunflora can be sniped, balls cannot (in this game). Additionally, when you knock out something with Deck and Cover or poison going into your opponents turn, you basically have to send in something that you don’t want knocked out.

With the Gothitelle variant, you have more bench room and can build up another Gothitelle, so, if your opponent can OHKO a Gothitelle, you can easily maintain the lock. The only reason to choose Vileplume/Sunflora over Gothitelle is because of consistency, but if you falter at the very end you can clean up with Mewtwo.

Overall, after testing, I would recommend this deck if you haven’t decided, but want Accelgor. Also, you could use Communication over Poke Ball, but I haven’t tried it. I just like Poke Ball more in here. On to the next deck…

Deck #3, RaiEels

Now, most Eel decks will be more Zekrom or tech based, and will run 1-2 Raikou. This is a full-fledged Raikou deck that is fun and effective. The ideal strategy is to get out 2 Raikou, 2-3 Eelektrik, an SAB, and a Rescue on both Raikou. With that you can snipe for 100 every turn, which is amazing. However, it is a little hard to get all of those out, but the deck can still work without that exact strategy.

Tornadus EX is obviously there because it is the ultimate Fighting-counter boss, and, paired with Eviolite, can give fighting a hard time. Zekrom is there because Raikou EX and Tornadus EX just don’t have the raw power to strike the active, but serve different purposes. Feel free to try Zekrom EX, I’m sure it would be helpful, but I chose not to include it in this list because there are already a lot of EXs.

I don’t have matchup sections for this deck or the next, but the goal is simple. Against Eelektrik decks, snipe Eels. Against Celebi decks, snipe all the Celebi, or Catcher + KO Tornadus EX if they play it down, or just OHKO it if it’s already active. Against DarkArk or Zoroark Rush, prize trade, set up multiple Eels, and 2HKO Darkrai when you can. Against Fighting, go aggro Tornadus/Mewtwo.

Smeargle is to be sent up in between KOs and is excellent clutch draw, should you ever need it. It also can force your opponent to play awkwardly, to avoid giving you a supporter that you probably don’t even need, with your ample supply of supporters. Most of the other odd choices were explained in my last article about Zeels, which is a very similar deck.

And, Last But Not Least, Cofashao

This is a fun little rogue deck that I thought of when I saw Cofagrigus DEX. I have built it and played with it, but not nearly enough to give it a matchups section, or to have me sold on taking it to BRs. I mentioned the vague idea in the Cofagrigus section, but here is a breakdown of the deck.

Most of the time, get Mienshao Hauling In on T2. However, for some games against fighting-weak decks, you might want to T1 use Mienfoo’s Triple Smash, and finish it off with Mienshao’s Meditate on T2. Once your hand is full of tools with the help of draw supporters, top decks, and Haul In, start attacking with Cofagrigus.

Cofagrigus can OHKO anything, but most things you would have to waste an extra tool because it has just a little over an amount divisible by 40 of HP. ex: Zekrom BLW. So, it would be helpful to equip a Cofagrigus with a Rocky Helmet, which is an extremely underrated tool by the way.

If/when you run out of steam with Cofagrigus, start attacking with Darkrai or Sableye. Sableye is preferred so you can start steamrolling with Cofagrigus again after 1-3 Junk Hunts. Darkrai is helpful for Dark Cloak and can soften things up with its snipe for Cofagrigus.

I didn’t use any draw/discard Supporters such as Sage’s Training or Juniper because you kind of need as many resources as possible in this deck, unless you’re Littering them away. This deck itself has serious problems with Durant so Heatmor is there just in case you face it.

Closing

I think that’s all I have to say about Dark EXplorers, so, to wrap it up, I’ll give what I think will be the top 5 decks:

1. and 2. Dark and Eel variants. I cannot put one over the other at this point, they will dominate BRs.

3. Fighting variants. Troll, QuadBulls, and Fighters (Groudon, Terrakion, Landorus, and Exp. Share) are all in the race and are great because the top two are weak to it, even though they do get Tornadus EX

4. Accelgor/Plume and Accelgor/Gothitelle. They will certainly not be the most played, but some players will put in the proper amount of testing and realize that this deck just might be the play for BRs. (like me)

5. Celebi variants. This includes the traditional CMT, CMTechs, and CMTerrakion. They definitely lost power due to Raikou EX, Tornadus EX, and to some extent Darkrai EX, but they maintain the same strengths and will do well in BRs.

~ Honorable Mention ~ Durant. This pesky ant will still see some play and I wouldn’t be surprised if it took a couple early BRs, just because people would not prepare for it under the assumption it was dead because of Heatmor. Make sure to take precautions, Durant still will be played.

I really hope you enjoyed this extremely long (10,000 + words) article. I aplologize for the lateness. I started this even before Roarkiller’s Dark Explorers article, expecting it to be done at a proper time, but I really took the hours to test and think out this article.

Please let me know any comments, disagreements, or questions you have regarding this article, and remember to clike “like” if you think this article deserves it. Thanks for reading and helping me become a better writer.

~ Grant

Dark Explorers Set Analysis: What Does It Mean For Battle Roads? is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

One of the reasons I am writing this article is to try and debunk this misconception. I would also like to show that it behooves all players to consider building rogue decks when preparing for tournaments. Finally, I want to share my process for the construction of a successful rogue deck. First of all, I need to tell you why my insight is valuable by establishing some credibility.

My name is Colin Moll and I am 23 years old. I recently graduated from college with a degree in Economics and Math. I plan to start graduate school in the fall in order to obtain a Master’s in Math. I have been playing Pokemon since I was about 10. I did not really join the competitive scene until Nintendo took over in 2003. Since then, I have been rather active in the community and have had some nice tournament results.

I suppose my “most impressive” placements would be Top 8 at Worlds (2004) and Top 4 at Nationals (2008).  I have won six States, one Regionals (2008), and two Gym Challenges (2004 and 2005). I am also very proud of my smaller tournament wins along with my high placements at various States, Regionals, and Gym Challenges throughout the years.

In regards to how I am doing this year — I have had moderate success. The highlight would be 2nd at Fall Regionals in St. Louis with Zekrom BLW/Pachirisu CL/Shaymin UL/Tornadus EPO (ZPST). My results from City and State Championships were lackluster. I won one out of five City Championships and got top 16 at one out of three State Championships. I did not attend a Spring Regionals. I currently have 28 Championship Points.

Although my States run was pretty bad, I did come up with the Landorus NVI/Terrakion NVI deck (with help from Brit Pybas and Michael Kendle). I was quite pleased to see it do so well across the country. I am most proud of Mason Howerton for piloting my list to a win at the Kansas State Championship!

Hopefully, at this point, I do come across as a reliable source of information regarding the Pokemon Trading Card Game. I have played for a long time and have acquired a vast store of knowledge about the game.

I am going to begin my article by providing you with a claim that I will hopefully convince you is true.

At any given tournament, the best deck is not always a high tiered deck. 

Yes, it seems very vague and uninformative. Why try and prove this claim? For one, I doubt I could prove anything more strict. I cannot prove that the best deck to play at all tournaments is a rogue deck (because it probably is not true).

There are two ways of analyzing this idea of the best deck at a tournament.

1. The deck that actually wins the tournament is the best deck.
2. The deck with the highest probability of winning the tournament is the best deck.

If we only consider #1, then my claim is immediately true. I am not sure how many tournaments have been held over the years, but it does not matter. What matters is that among all of these tournaments, the deck that won in at least one of these tournaments was a rogue deck. What immediately comes to mind is Raichu delta/Exeggutor delta (Raieggs).

This deck was piloted to a first place finish at Nationals 2006 by Martin Moreno and was most definitely a rogue deck at the time. Thus, if we only used the #1 definition of best deck, then my claim would be true.

So now we must consider #2. This is more complex. The probability of a deck winning is a function of multiple things including luck. Since luck is generally just taken as given on any side of the argument, I will leave it out of our discussion.

I believe the most important variables in our probabilistic function are these (obviously my argument will not hold if someone can successfully show that these four variables are not very important):

1. The quality of players running the deck
2. The quantity of players running the deck
3. The quality of players playing decks that typically beat this deck
4. The quantity of players playing decks that typically beat this deck.

In order to improve the probability of a deck winning, 1) and 2) must be maximized while 3) and 4) must be minimized. Thus, the deck with the best 1:3 and 2:4 ratio has the best chance of winning a tournament.

Let us look at an example of how to assess a deck based on these four variables. This will be the “secret deck” example. At a very basic level a secret deck is a rogue deck that is played by a small amount of players at any given tournament. We typically only see them at big events. Usually the players running secret decks are of high quality and have spent a lot of time preparing.

So, in the case of the secret deck, 1) is high and 2) is low. A successful secret deck will be facing a low 3) and low 4). If the deck has these levels for 1-4, then the most likely reason for the deck not winning is because 2) is low. However, if 3) and 4) are low enough, a low 2) can still be overcome.

Again I return to the outcome of Nationals 2006. Raieggs not only took 1st place — it also took 2nd. This is extraordinary due to the fact that it was only run by a handful of people that year! So did Raieggs have the highest probability of winning Nationals in 2006? I cannot say. However, a first and second place finish given the low amount of people playing it that year would indicate that this is likely the case.

I cannot rigorously prove my claim if we define the best deck as the deck with the highest probability of winning any given tournament. However, the case of Raieggs provides a great deal of evidence that my claim is likely to be true.

Hopefully this discussion has convinced you that my claim is true. If you would like to refute my claim that at any given tournament, the best deck is not always a high tiered deck, please do so in the comments section.

Anyway, why spend a fair amount of time trying to prove this claim? What good does that do? Fear not! There is some good! There are implications and corollaries that are true now that I have “proved” my claim. And here are the ones that I would like to discuss…

1. Players that always play high-tiered decks are not always making the best deck choices.
2. Players that always play rogue decks are not always making the best deck choices.

And here is the point!

3. All things being equal, players that are willing to play rogue and high-tiered decks have the best chance at making the best deck choice.

I have never wanted to give off the impression that I only support the use of rogue decks. Throughout the years I have piloted my fair share of archetypes. However, if I have the time to prepare, I try my hardest to find a winning rogue deck.

Many people completely skip this step and automatically assume that the best deck to run for a tournament is one of the high tiered decks. I am sure all of you know players that only play high-tiered decks or only play rogue decks (you may be one of them). This is an erroneous way to play Pokemon if your intention is to win all of the events that you play in.

I assure you that, at 95% of the tournaments I have participated in, my goal was to win. The exception would be a small event with little prize support. I do not believe people want to read anything about these types of tournaments…so I’m not going to talk about them. I must emphasize this point. At all of the competitive tournaments I have played in, regardless of whether I ran a rogue or a high tier deck, my goal was to win.

Before I continue further on rogue decks, I need to cover some principles of the game. There are three components that decide the winner of any given Pokemon game: preparation, play skill and luck. Every player will argue the weight of each component in determining the winner… but I think we all agree that these three things determine the outcome of every game. We will ignore the games that are decided by a misruling or harsh penalty of a judge. Let me give a brief definition of each component:

Preparation: The extent to which a player has gathered information before a game. This component encompasses time spent preparing, play testing, deck choice, deck construction, knowledge of the card pool, and knowledge of expected opponents.

Play skill: The extent to which a player can think strategically during a game and make successful decisions.

Luck: The extent to which the odds favor a player. This component encompasses the opening hand, cards that are drawn throughout the game, coin flips and pairings.

The relationship between these three components is not set in stone. A player lacking in two of the three components may still beat a player lacking in only one of the three areas (think first turn donk). However, a player with all three will always beat a player lacking in at least one.

Furthermore, if both players have similar levels of luck and play skill, then it is the preparation that should determine the outcome. Or if two players have similar levels of preparation and play skill, luck should determine the winner.

There is a causal relationship between preparation and play skill. Preparation causes play skill. In other words, the more you play test and prepare, the more skillful you will become! Since preparation and play skill are the only two of the three that we can control, it behooves us to prepare. It also behooves us to consider the preparation process more carefully.

So, let us look more closely at the different aspects of the preparation component. Here are some more definitions!

Play testing: The playing of informative games that reveal to the players the strengths and weaknesses of both the decks being used.

Deck choice: The type of deck that a player chooses to bring to a tournament or to a game.

Deck construction: The intricacies of executing and building your deck choice. Once you made a deck choice, deck construction is concerned with the counts of each card in a deck along with the “techs.”

For example, if I want to build a deck centered around Nidoking and Nidoqueen, then my deck choice is a Nidoking/Nidoqueen deck. The deck construction aspect is concerned with combining 60 cards in order to make the best possible Nidoking/Nidoqueen deck.

Knowledge of the card pool: The extent to which a player knows the text written on all of the legal Pokemon cards. This is something new players tend to really struggle with.

Knowledge of expected opponents: The extent to what a player knows about the other players participating in a tournament. This includes anticipating what decks people will likely bring to an event. This is almost analogous to “knowing the metagame” for a tournament.

Now that we are using the same definitions, I’d like to continue my discussion of rogue decks by talking about the way that I usually come up with my rogue decks.

Colin’s Process for Building a Successful Rogue Deck

1) Gather information on the expected opponents for the tournament you are concerned with. This includes looking at past deck choices of players that will be in attendance and figuring out what the popular decks are.

If a player has been playing the same deck for the past several tournaments, there is a good chance that they will play it again! This is one small reason that supports the use of rogue decks: people will not be able to predict what you are playing!

2) Form a list of the decks that you expect to see at the tournament you are concerned with. I try to make this list as long as possible. I put the decks in order from most prevalent to least prevalent and give most of my attention to the decks at the top of the list.

So in the case of States this year, my list looked something like this. You should note that this list was made prior to the Fighting decks coming onto the scene.

1. Zekrom/Eelektrik (ZekEels)
2. Celebi/Mewtwo/Tornadus (CMT)
3. Durant
4. Typhlosion/Reshiram
5. Vileplume/Reuniclus based decks
6. Six Corners/Big Basics
7. Electrode Prime based decks

3) Identify weaknesses in each of the decks on your list. You must be thorough with this part of the process. The most obvious weakness of any deck is the actual weakness of the attacking Pokemon… but there are many other less obvious opportunities for exploiting the vulnerabilities of a deck. When I am trying to find the weaknesses of any given deck on my list of expected decks, I ask myself these questions.

A. Does the deck rely heavily upon Special Energy? Usually in each format there is a card (or cards) that punishes the use of Special Energy. Now there is Lost Remover but in previous formats there were things like Crystal Beach and effects of attacks.

B. Does the deck perform one-hit-knock-outs (OHKOs)? In the current format, most decks can and frequently do perform OHKOs. However, in some of the previous formats, the top decks did not. In cases like this, an effective rogue deck that takes advantage of healing could be quite good. An example that seems most obvious is The Truth at Worlds 2011.

C. Does the deck have a problem handling damage spread? Typically decks that require lots of set up have issues with damage spread (think Vileplume based decks). However, decks that have lots of bench warmers are also susceptible (think Entei & Raikou Legend when everyone was playing Uxie LA/Claydol GE/Mesprit LA/Azelf LA).

D. Does the deck rely heavily upon an Ability or Poke-Power? If so, there might be cards that can either stop the Ability/Poke-Power (Battle Frontier, Medicham ex etc), help knock-out the Pokemon with that Ability/Poke-Power (Muk UD, Bellsprout TM, etc.), or punish the Pokemon with the Ability/Poke-Power (Cursed Stone, Gengar SF, etc.).

E. Does the deck primarily use evolutions or basics? In previous formats there were cards like Dark Ampharos and ATM Rock that hurt evolutions. Now there is Jirachi UL…but who plays evolutions anymore? Likewise, there were cards like Machamp SF, Dark Tyranitar, Flygon ex, and Dark Feraligatr that hurt Basics.

Unfortunately, Basics are running rampant right now and there is no viable card that can severely punish them at the moment. Furthermore, there is no card that punishes EX’s either. Let us hope that something viable comes along soon!

F. Does the deck rely heavily upon Trainers? In past formats there were cards like Manectric ex, Slowking Neo Genesis, Spiritomb AR, and Dark Vileplume. Now we have Vileplume UD and Gothitelle EPO. Taking advantage of a deck’s over-reliance on Trainers is something that has been very effective in previous formats.

These six questions are probably the best ones to ask yourself when trying to build an effective rogue deck (there are others but, for now, I am just going to provide you with these six). Once I have answered these questions about all the decks on my expected decks list, I begin to build my rogue deck!

4) Generally, you will notice some overlap in weaknesses. For instance, when I was thinking about the expected decks at States, I noticed that CMT, Six Corners, and Electrode Prime based decks all relied pretty heavily upon Special Energies (and so did ZekEels, but to a lesser extent). In a previous format, the Gardevoir SW/Gallade SW and Empoleon decks also both relied heavily upon special energies.

If there is a significant overlap of one or more weakness, then a deck that can exploit them might be quite good! We included a high count of Lost Remover in our Landorus/Terrakion decks in order to exploit the vast amount of Special Energy that were present in the competitive decks.

I am not going to go into much detail regarding this step. However, I will say that your deck must be consistent! I have seen many attempts at rogue decks that never made it simply because the overall strategy was too broad (way too many different types of Pokemon) or because there were way too many techy cards and too few Supporters.

The best deck is quite often the simplest. 

Yes, we are talkin' 'bout practice.

5) Now, you must rigorously play test your deck in order to determine whether or not it can win!

So, like I said, this is the method I use in order to build most of my rogue decks. Occasionally, I do come up with a rogue deck idea in a different way. The method that I just showed you is basically the way that I come up with a “counter deck.” It is easy to describe because this method is very straight forward. The other way that I come up with rogue decks is a bit harder to describe.

I suppose the best way to go about describing this other method is to point out the difference between a counter deck and a non-counter deck. The counter deck seeks to win tournaments by exploiting the weaknesses of the most popular decks. The non-counter deck seeks to win tournaments by using inherently good cards that do not necessarily have a strict advantage over popular decks.

These decks make use of combos that had not been thought of before. Some examples would be Sableye SF with Cyrus’s Initiative, Jirachi with Swoop Teleporter, and the Magma deck that won Worlds 2004.

The Magma deck may have resembled a “counter deck” in some ways (by using Desert Ruins to punish ex’s for instance), but it was not a hard counter to the popular decks at the time. It was simply a good rogue deck.

Building a successful non-counter deck is quite challenging. The best advice I can offer is to look through your binder (expand your knowledge of the card pool) and observe what “locals” are playing at your league. These players are (generally) not as serious; so they tend to play decks that many competitive players would never even consider. However, they can occasionally stumble upon ideas or cards that could actually have lots of promise!

For instance, the Beedrill GE deck I played at Regionals in 2008 was inspired by a local. The deck was not a hard counter to the top decks at the time (Gardevoir/Gallade and Typhlosion MT/Magmortar SW), but it was very consistent and hit for a lot of damage with little energy.

And yes, look through your binder! Many people did not even know what Exp. Share did until they played the Landorus/Terrakion deck at States. I knew that I wanted to test some decks with Exp. Share before States. I was not successful with my first try (I used it with Gothitelle/Gardevoir)…but I eventually found the right combination of cards that made Exp. Share shine!

[Some insider information here…I really want to make Max Potion shine!]

So there you have it! I really hope that I have encouraged players to consider putting some creativity into their preparation for tournaments.

I could write so much more about rogue decks, but this is all for now. Perhaps I will write some more in the future! If you would like to see additional articles, please provide some feedback and let Adam know.

Thank you for reading!

~Colin

On Rogue Decks is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

CMT (Celebi Prime/Mewtwo EX/Tornadus EPO) is a deck that swarmed our format after Next Destinies was released. It had a very successful States, taking several first place positions and dozens of top cuts. People immediately took to the deck because it is a fast, consistent deck that easily incorporates a card that has defined our current format: Mewtwo EX.

Before Mewtwo EX was released, it was one of the most hyped cards ever to enter into Pokemon TCG, rivaling the level of hype that Darkrai LV.X GE received. Unlike Darkrai LV.X, Mewtwo EX was not a massive flop. This is because Mewtwo EX is a powerful, easy to set up card that has only one truly effective counter: Mewtwo EX.

It’s for this reason that so many people have a genuine love/hate relationship with this card. It’s a very effective card that, with a bit of luck, can win you games, but it can also be the key factor as to why you lost a match. However, I am not here to bemoan the pros and cons of Mewtwo EX, I am here to discuss CMT. I’ll start with List #1:

Standard CMT List

As we go along, I will use this list as a baseline for you to compare to the other CMT lists. In this particular CMT no large risks have been taken. Very few consistency cards have been cut to make way for any unusual or overly creative techs.

The only techs that will stick out are Tyrogue, which is utilized mainly to improve the Zekeels matchup; Shaymin UL, which is mainly used for moving Energy off of damaged attackers to fresh ones before they are returned to hand by Super Scoop Up; and Super Scoop Up, which is used to return damaged attackers to your hand and to allow you to use Shaymin UL Poke-Power more than once.

This list was built with the overall consistency in mind. With four Celebi Prime, one Smeargle, plus a strong Trainer and Supporter line, consistency is rarely an issue with this list. However, to me, it does not posses a strong feel of originality; a feel that it is your own.

Yes, that may sound incredibly tacky, but it’s the odd techs and unusual Trainer lines that make a list your own. If you’re looking for something more creative for your CMT, then the next three lists will definitely be more to your taste. On to list #2:

Terrakion Variation of CMT

Of the four lists present in this article, the Terrakion variation is my personal favorite. Why? To be blunt, CMT has always had a slight disadvantage versus Zekeels, the current BDIF. With the inclusion of Terrakion into your CMT, Zekeels actually becomes an even matchup. Plus, with the likelihood of Zoroark DEX becoming a significant part of our format, having Terrakion as part of your arsenal will give you the type advantage over Zoroark as well.

Despite what you may think, adding Terrakion to your list does not require the removal of many consistency cards.  In this particular list, all that was required was an altered Energy line (which has little-to-no negative effects on the overall consistency of the list) and a thicker line of Switch. I do believe that these small alterations are more than worth the spaces they take. The question is, do you? Now, list #3:

Regigigas Variation of CMT

Since there has been CMT, there has been this argument, “Is Regigigas EX worth playing in CMT?” Like any card, it has both good and bad traits, but the choice to run Regigigas EX is down to you and you alone. This list was made to incorporate Regigigas EX, and as such there are several unusual Trainer lines in this CMT.

To start with, there is a relatively thick line of Switch. This is because Regigigas EX has a massive retreat cost of four, so having a high number of Switch is nothing short of a necessity. Switch is also effectively used in combination with Seeker and Shaymin UL. Here is a theoretical situation:

You are playing against Zekeels, and you have a fully charged Regigigas EX in the active position with an Eviolite attached and 100 damage on it from your opponent’s Zekrom, which hit you with a Bolt Strike during the previous turn. You play Switch, sending up a fresh attacker (Tornadus, another Regigigas EX, etc.) with no energy attached to it.

Next, you drop down Shaymin UL and move the energy from the damaged Regigigas EX to your new active.  Then, for the grand finale, you play Seeker, bringing you damaged Regigigas EX back into hand, and then attack with your new, fully charged active Pokemon.

In a deck running Regigigas EX, I consider Seeker to be superior to Super Scoop Up; this is because with Seeker,  you are not basing your entire game on the luck (or lack thereof) of a coin flip. Mind you, playing Seeker with Regigigas EX does involve altering your list. Some of these alterations include adding a second Smeargle (improving your odds of not starting with Regigigas EX, as well as making it so that Seeker isn’t the only Supporter you play for the turn), and – as I mentioned before – a thicker line of Switch.

Another card included in this list that isn’t found in most CMT lists is Eviolite. Eviolite is added primarily to block the 20 damage that Regigigas EX would otherwise do itself via its Giga Power attack. This doesn’t mean that Eviolite is a card made only to benefit Regigigas EX. Versus mono-Fighting decks such as Quad Terrakion, if you attach an Eviolite to your Tornadus (EPO or EX) all damage done to them, taking Tornadus’ Fighting resistance into account, is reduced by 40 damage.

This gives you a massive advantage over your opponent, improving an already-positive matchup against mono-Fighting decks. Here is list #4:

Teched Out Variation of CMT

Yes, this list is a bit on the nutty side, but there is a method behind the madness. I’ll start with Heatmor. Let’s face it, when you play CMT and your opponent flips over a Durant, you want to cry inside because you realize that you’re in for a harsh match. Heatmor is a card that makes playing Durant much more bearable, and much less complicated. Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying that Heatmor gives CMT (or any other deck, for the matter) an auto-win versus Durant, it simply improves your Durant matchup.

In list #2, there was an explanation as to why Terrakion is a such a positive addition to CMT. The difference with this list is there is only one Terrakion instead of two, and there is one less Fighting Energy. With only two Fighting Energy in deck, you’re not overly likely to draw into them exactly when you need them.

This is where Energy Search comes into play. Instead of hoping and praying that you’ll draw into your small number of Fighting Energy when you need them, Energy Search allows you to search your deck for any one Basic Energy (A.K.A. your Fighting Energy).

The last unusual addition to this eclectic list is Shaymin EX. While this card is considered a staple in many CMT lists, I am not sure that it should be considered a staple to every CMT; but I will get more in depth with Shaymin EX later on. The reasoning behind Shaymin EX’s addition is relatively simple. This list runs multiple techs, and when you run a list with multiple techs, things sometimes just go haywire.

Starting with Heatmor or Terrakion, those horrifying moments when your hand is full of Energy and then you draw into an Energy Search or Energy Retrieval. These things sometimes happen. That’s were Shaymin EX comes in. It is for those games when you need to make a comeback, or when you need a late game sweeper.

CMT: The Tech Garage

In the second part of this article, I will go over multiple interesting techs that could be worthwhile additions to your CMT lists. Some have potential, some are not as successful as you would like, and some are stuck in the murky waters of opinion. I’ll start with the Supporter techs.

Supporters

Judge

Judge is a card that fell off the radar after the fall of Yanmega variants, and struggled to be found in many other lists since.  However, with the release of Zoroark DEX, Judge has once again returned to annoy us all. In CMT, there has been some mild debate as to whether or not running multiple copies of N was a wise decision. As CMT is generally a fast deck, N could be more of a hindrance than a help in some situations, especially towards the end of the game.

Judge has the potential to be a solid idea when added with N. N should never be completely removed from any deck, but a 2/2 split of Judge and N could be a sound addition to your CMT list.

Copycat

If I’m being totally honest, playing this card is not a sound decision. Copycat is based purely your opponent’s hand size, which varies every single turn and is extremely situational. When I first heard of playing this card, the person who suggested it gave this theoretical situation:

You’re in the middle of a Mewtwo war and your opponent just got a KO on your Mewtwo EX. The idea is, instead of playing N and reducing your opponents hand size to near nil, you play Copycat and take advantage of all the extra cards your opponent just got from the Prizes your opponent just took. This may sound wrong to some, but I would rather hinder my opponent than help myself. What say you? Do you agree or disagree?

Items

Lost Remover

We are currently experiencing a format in which Special Energy cards such as Prism Energy, Special Darkness Energy, and Double Colorless Energy are played as frequently as Junk Arm. It seems that the minds behind Pokemon TCG realize this as well, as Lost Remover has essentially been reprinted in the form of Enhanced Hammer.

The ability to remove a Special Energy from your opponent’s field can give you a strong advantage against your opponent, especially in the CMT mirror. Despite the advantage that it can give you (the key word in that sentence being “can”), Lost Remover is a card that you should generally only run one copy of.

Revive

Revive, also known as the poor man’s third Mewtwo EX. CMT gains a major benefit from Revive, as it means all of your Pokemon lines get a +1. In fact, Revive is good enough that running a 2/2 split of Revive and Energy Retrieval could replace Super Rod in CMT; you can get away with this because CMT only runs Basic Pokemon.

Of all the techs and options that have and will be mentioned, I personally consider Revive to be one of the strongest options.

Energy Exchanger

Energy Exchanger is a card that has been considered an option in many decks since the day it was released in Undaunted, a trend that has continued into CMT. Before I continue, I’ll explain what Energy Exchanger does. It allows you to trade one Energy card in your hand for any other Energy card in your deck.

Why is this relevant? Because it allows you to your deck for any Energy; this means you can search your deck for a DCE. In certain situations, trading a Grass Energy for a DCE or even a Fighting Energy could be the difference between winning or losing a match.

The problem is, there are times when you don’t need to swap your Energy, and there are situations when you don’t have any Energy in hand to swap. It’s for these reasons that if you should play Energy Exchanger, you should only play one copy of it, as two is rarely necessary.

Pokemon

Shaymin EX

I know that Shaymin EX was briefly discussed in list #4 (Teched Out), but I felt that it needed a more in-depth look into. Before, I mentioned that Shaymin EX is a staple in many CMT lists, but that I wasn’t certain it should be a staple.

At 110 HP, Shaymin EX is easily KO’d by some of the most popular Pokemon in our current format (Zekrom BLW, Zekrom EX, Tornadus EX and a PlusPower, Terrakion and a Black Belt, etc.), which is not a good trait on a Pokemon EX.

Even though Shaymin EX can be easily KO’d, its strength as a late-game sweeper is currently unmatched, and when combined with N, can be absolutely devastating to your opponent. Not to mention that Shaymin EX has both Resistance and a type advantage over Terrakion, giving you a massive advantage over Mono Fighting decks.

Cleffa HS/CL

Cleffa is a solid idea in deck such as Zekeels, Reshiphlosion, and Vileplume UD variants. Cleffa is not, however, the best card for CMT because the goal of CMT is to be attacking and dishing out damage by turn 1, a goal that can’t be successfully achieved when you use Cleffa’s Eeeeek (which ends your turn). There is a much better option that fits the synergy and idea of CMT like a glove: Smeargle.

If you’re looking for a second opinion on deciding between Cleffa and Smeargle, I would suggest that Smeargle is the better of the two options by leaps and bounds. In the end, Cleffa really doesn’t have a place in CMT.

Tyrogue HS/CL

Ah, Tyrogue. Despite the fact I’ve been donked by this little – enter expletive of choice here – on multiple occasions, I still really like this card. Tyrogue is used primarily to KO Cleffa, other Tyrogue, and Tynamo.  Surprisingly, the addition of Tyrogue actually improves the Zekeel matchup. This is because Tyrogue can KO Tynamo with no Energy cost (and for those of you thinking of the 40 HP Tynamo, all it takes is one PlusPower).

The problem is, with only 30 HP, Tyrogue can be KO’d by a Mewtwo EX with only a DCE, other Tyrogues (gee, a card that is countered by itself… sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it?), and, with enough PlusPowers, every other card in the format. Despite how easily it is KO’d, Tyrogue is still a valuable addition to CMT.

CMT Questions and Answers

1. Super Scoop Up or Seeker?

You may be wondering, Seeker or Super Scoop Up, which is the better option for my CMT? Well, there are pros and cons to both, and I will go over them here.

Super Scoop Up

Of the two choices, Super Scoop Up is the more splashable of the two. That is, putting it into your list does not involve making any alterations to your list. However, it does have a major problem: it is based purely on the luck of a coin flip. Whether or not that’s a risk you’re willing to take is up to you; I’ll leave it at that.

When it comes to how many you should run, the best number in CMT is two. While you can get away with running only one copy, two is a better number because you can draw into them more consistently.

Seeker

If Seeker is your choice, remember that when you play it, it will be your Supporter for turn. In short, if you play Seeker, you should run it in addition to two Smeargle and two or three Switch to utilize it effectively. When it comes to how many you should run, Seeker is a card that you can run only one of (with better success than Super Scoop Up), but running two Seeker improves your odds of drawing into it.

Another factor of Seeker is that it can help or hinder your opponent; so there is a level of risk in playing Seeker as well. This is because it allows your opponent to return a Pokemon to their hand as well. That Pokemon could be a damaged Pokemon EX that would have gained you two prizes (the help your opponent part), or return a Pokemon with a bunch of Energy attached to their hand so that they’re forced to reattach all those Energy (the hinder your opponent part).

Seeker and Super Scoop Up Split

While running three Super Scoop Up is, in my opinion, overkill in CMT, running two Super Scoop Up and one Seeker is a healthy mix of the two cards.  It gives you the option of going for the flip and/or using the Seeker to guarantee one of your Pokemon returns to your hand.

2. Fighting Energy or Prism Energy?

Right, so you made the choice to run Terrakion, and now you have another choice to make: Should I use Prism or Fighting Energy? If you choose to run only one Terrakion, then it would be best to run Fighting Energy. This is because you only run a low number of the Energy for Terrakion, and once Prism Energy is in the discard, it’s gone for the rest of the game.

Fighting Energy, however, can by retrieved from the discard pile via Energy Retrieval and/or Super Rod, making it the better choice when you run a lower amount of the Energy.

Now, if you choose to run two Terrakion and a larger number of energy, then Prism Energy has potential to be the more useful of the two, as Prism Energy gives you a new assortment of attack options. With Prism Energy, you can attack with Mewtwo EX’s Psydrive, which is not only an unexpected play, but a very effective one in the right situation.

It also gives you a new selection of attackers. One example of an interesting addition is Victini NVI 15. Why would this be worth adding to your CMT list? Well, the ability to smash out 100 damage for only two Energy is more than a powerful addition to your arsenal. V-Create Victini can 1-hit-KO a Zoroark and, with a PlusPower, Tornadus and Thundurus EPO. The only issue is Victini’s abysmal 70 HP. This essentially makes the little fireball a free prize to your opponent, but after he takes a prize for you.

In the previous Question/Answer whatsit, I discussed how the two options could be split in the same deck.  This is not the case this time; you must choose that which you prefer: Fighting Energy or Prism Energy.

3. Three or Four Celebi Prime?

I’ll keep this short and to the point. If you choose to run only three Celebi Prime, then you should run two Smeargle so that you have higher odds of starting with a Pokemon that won’t make you cringe (Mewtwo EX, I’m looking at you). If you choose to run four Celebi Prime, then you can get away with running only one Smeargle; though I would still recommend running two copies of Smeargle.

Lastly, for those of you running three Mewtwo EX or a heavy retreater like Regigigas EX, I would recommend running two Smeargle and four Celebi Prime, as starting with a Mewtwo EX or Regigigas EX could cost you the game before you even flip your cards over. There, I told you it’d be short.

4. Dual Ball or Pokemon Collector?

Of all the choices you will have to make, perhaps the most easily overlooked is deciding to run Dual Ball or Pokemon Collector. More often than not, people choose to run Dual Ball because, well, that’s what everyone else is doing, right? Yeah, not quite how you should go about it. There are pros and cons to both, and I will lay them out for you here.

Dual Ball

By far the most popular choice for CMT, Dual Ball fits into the synergy of CMT like a glove. It allows you to hopefully (as it is based on a coin flip) search your deck for one or two Pokemon, depending upon the luck of your coin flips, without using your Supporter for turn. I only have two qualms with Dual Ball.

1. It is a card based on coin flips, and I have seen more than a few people flip double tails, often costing them the game.
2. There are situations (albeit they are very specific and not altogether common) when you do need three Pokemon at once or when you need two Pokemon exactly (which would require a double heads with Dual Ball).

Past those foibles, Dual Ball is a solid choice for CMT.

Pokemon Collector

Of the two choices, Pokemon Collector is the less preferred of the two, but that doesn’t mean it should be overlooked. To run Pokemon Collector involves making alterations to your CMT list. There should always be two Smeargle in a list that runs Collector, as Smeargle allows you to use a Supporter in your opponent’s hand (provided there is one); thus allowing you to play two Supporters in one turn.

Tyrogue also becomes a staple, on the grounds that he is able to attack without having an Energy cost; and with Pokemon Collector in the list, it isn’t uncommon for you to not have the Energy required to attack with Pokemon such as Tornadus EP.

With all of these rather unappealing requirements, why would you even want to run Pokemon Collector? It could be you just don’t like the risk involved in playing Dual Ball, or you may prefer being able to search for three Pokemon at once.

To me, playing Collector and then putting a Smeargle in the Active position is something you would do with Dual Ball, so why not have the benefit of having two extra Pokemon on the bench or in hand to go with it? In the end, it really just burns down to personal preference.

Pokemon Collector and Dual Ball Split

A split line of Dual Ball and Pokemon Collector is not a new or foreign concept in CMT. It is actually one of the most effective splits in found currently in our format at the moment, but how would you do the split? Well, while you can get away with a 1/3 split of Pokemon Collector and Dual Ball, a 2/3 split is a much more effective way to run the split.

Conclusion

Well, you have reached the end of my CMT look-into. I hope that it has given you valuable insight to the workings and options of CMT. It was a challenge to complete, but I’m happy with how it has turned out. Now the question is, what do you think?

Until next time,

Chance

How to Build Your Very Own CMT is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

I personally have gone through some pretty crappy times in the past, but I’ve always been able to put things behind me and emerge (or maybe I should say evolve into) a better person. I’m taking the same stance with SixPrizes, so my plan has been to make site security my number one concern, which has involved upgrading, eschewing, and installing new software.

Through this process, there have been a lot of headaches trying to get software A to cooperate with software B, and software B to cooperate with software C. Things are still definitely not ideal, as you have to login in up to 3 separate places on the site to access everything, but I’m thankful you at least can access everything now.

Before I go into the specifics of all that though (including our new forum software), let’s take care of the April 2012 Writer of the Month results! Drumroll please…

Roarkiller... I am your father.

1st – Roarkiller @ +46
2nd – a hahn @ +41
3rd – Mark Hanson @ +30
4th – pocokemon @ +21
5th – Dane Carlson @ +18
6th – Andrew Wamboldt @ +16
7th – Starmetroid @ +13
8th – Ross Gilbert @ +12
9th – Quarter-Turn @ +10
10th – Grant Manley @ +9
11th – SuperE @ +8
12th – Rahul Reddy @ +7
T-13th – Oscar Morales @ +6
T-13th – Warged @ +6

Roarkiller takes it with a single very well-timed Dark Explorers article, followed closely by a hahn with Mark coming in 3rd. Excellent articles all around everyone! I thought some of the people who finished towards the back of the pack should have gotten some more love, but the low scores might be due to all the login bugs.

Regardless, thanks so much guys for contributing to the site! You’re all awesome. I really appreciate each and every article we receive. If you the reader out there would like to contribute as well, click here for application instructions. We’re always looking for new writers!

Now back to the site developments…

1. New Forum Software!

... and improved!

I am especially stoked to finally move on from our old forum software, vBulletin, to the cutting edge XenForo. vBulletin was the number 1 forum software on the market when we started the forums, so I went with it, but from day 1 I found it kind of clunky and confusing to manage.

I’ve always been somewhat unhappy with the forums, and when we started having login issues last week, I said screw it and decided that we were going to move on. I heard about XenForo somewhere, tried a demo out, learned that big sites like IGN use it and digitalpoint is moving to it, and I was sold.

I spent Sunday doing local testing to make sure the conversion would go through without a hitch, and I spent all day yesterday actually going through with the move. Last night the forums relaunched, and it has been smooth sailing from there.

You can check the improved forums here: http://www.sixprizes.com/forums/

The reason why this new forum software is so cool is that it’s almost like having a mini 6P Facebook. It lends itself much better to social interaction by displaying instant notifications when people quote you, comment on your threads, post on your page, like something you said, etc..

It just does a much better job then vB at everyone engaged in the conversation, and I’m really excited to watch things grow. I’m actually pretty motivated now to pay more attention to the forums and better develop them. If you’re interested in helping out with this, or have any ideas to make them better, please let me know! Either comment or e-mail me.

I’m still busy trying to get other things on the site in order, but once I have some time I’ll shift my focus to cultivating the forums.

For example, yes, the forum design will eventually be updated and it’ll look more like SixPrizes. My priority at the moment is to make sure it (and the rest of the site) is totally functional. I’d rather things work and look bland than not work and look cool.

2. Login Issues

This image gives me shivers.

I think for the most part, the logins should be working now. I’m not 100% though, so please let me know if you’re having trouble logging in to either the articles, the forums, or your membership area.

Don’t assume it’s just you that’s having an issue, or someone has already notified me about it! I usually don’t know about the bugs on the site until I’m told.

Last week I got a bunch of e-mails regarding trouble accessing different parts of the site, but those messages have trailed off the past couple days, so I assume those people are good now and the logins are fixed. Please contact me if that’s not the case though.

At any rate, once I’m sure all the logins are working properly, my next step is to create a single login page so you don’t have to login 3 times. That single login page should log you in everywhere. That’s how the site worked before I had to install all the new software, and I’m trying to get it back to that state.

After I get the single login page working, then I’ll work on aesthetics so all the different parts of the site look more similar and its a seamless transition from section to section.

That’s about all I’ve got to say at the moment… be sure to play around with the new forums and let me know what you think! Thanks for reading and have an awesome day.

EDIT: Apparently they may be a bug where the forums are resetting your password. I’ll look into it tomorrow and try to figure out what’s going on. You can try to update your password here if the forums say your password is wrong when you try to login.

Back to Normal? And WOTM April 2012 Results is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Another set, another article. I know you all missed your favorite SixPrizes writer during the month of March, so let’s get right down to it. If you’d like to read more about how I go about reviewing cards or how I choose which to review, please check out any of my other set reviews.

Also, quick question: Does it help anyone to get financial advice in these articles? I’ve done it a bit before but it seemed to garner little to no response. I’m going to skip it for this article, but if you miss it, please let me know in the comments and I’ll bring it back for next time (or write a mini article about the finances of Dark Explorers, if there’s enough demand).

I’m still going to speak a little bit about which cards you should pick up now and which are bound to go down in price, but it won’t be very extensive and I won’t go into detail.

I’m reviewing these by set number, starting with…

Venusaur DEX

Venusaur is the perfect example of the card that I love to bring to the attention of my readers. No, it’s not very flashy and playing a Stage 2 is pretty much the last thing any of you want to do right now, but the fact of the matter is its Ability is inherently powerful and is worth talking about.

The biggest upside I see to this card is that it allows almost any wacky idea to work: an odd one-of, a wacky tech line, etc. The game is very linear right now and I don’t think it’s quite the right time for Venusaur, but I predict she’ll have her time in the sunlight before too long.

[Editor's Note: Venusaur is a girl???]

Carnivine DEX

Another in a series of one-Energy gust attacks shared by Bellsprout TM and Carnivine TM. This Carnivine is interesting as its attack is strictly better, but requiring a G energy instead of C means a lot. Any Grass deck that requires a Gust effect on an attack will definitely be packing this guy, while any deck with no access to Grass will go for one of his less talented, but less picky cousins.

Something being overlooked by a lot of players right now is his second attack, which, for GGC, allows you to bounce the Defending Pokemon and all cards attached back into your opponent’s hand. The format is definitely not right for this guy yet, but I could see him making an interesting one-of in the future.

Entei EX

As much as I hate to see it, I just don’t think there’s a place for this guy right now. Although I haven’t started testing deeply for this metagame (and when I do, you Underground members will know about it :P), I’ve put a fair amount of theorymon into making this guy work and I just don’t see it.

The best I could come up with was putting a copy or two of him in a Truth variant, but I must warn you, that idea is completely untested and I’m not sure if there are better options. For now, his low damage output is going to banish him to the shadows, it seems.

Blaziken DEX

Like Entei, I want to like this guy. I really do. He has it all: He evolves from the best starter in Gen 3, he’s weak to a fairly irrelevant type, his first attack is a coin flip that’s all upside, and his second attack is aggressively costed with very little upside.

However, in my heart of hearts I know there’s very little reason to run him over Reshiram BLW. He has strictly better stats, sure, but like so many other cards in the format right now, being anything other than a beefy Basic automatically knocks it down a few pegs. It’s not Blaziken’s fault though, really.

Heatmor DEX

It’s hard to say anything about Heatmor that hasn’t already been said. While I don’t think it will kill Durant NVI outright (particularly during low-risk Battle Roads), it certainly makes the deck a lot worse. However, it also does virtually nothing to any of the other cards in the game, which is definitely a nonzero issue.

Overall I think we’re going to see a lot fewer copies of this guy than people previous thought, as most decks should already be packing an answer (whether in the form of a soft counter or knowledge of the match-up) to the metal ants.

Empoleon DEX

Firstly let me say that I absolutely adore this card. I was a huge fan of the original Jumpluff HS deck of this time last year, and Empoleon is essentially a strictly better Jumpluff. However, I’m really unsure of this guy. Keep in mind that I haven’t tested any Empoleon decks yet, but I’m just not sure that a Lightning-weak Stage 2 is what you want to be registering on your deck lists right now.

This may change and trust me, I’ll do anything in my power to break this card, but for now I can’t give it the seal of approval. It’s certainly not unplayable, but I’m not terribly excited about it either.

Raikou EX

My favorite card in the set, not close. You guys may remember a card called Garchomp from the past few formats. It was a basic that sniped your opponent’s bench for three Energy. You may also remember that me and him were bros and I played him in every tournament I ever played while he was legal (except for my one-time Battle Road affair with Jumpluff, but we’ve moved past that).

This guy is like Garchomp C LV.X, except he’s Lightning type, and his other attack has the possibility of Paralyzing the Defending Pokemon! He can also one-shot Reuniclus BLW, Eelektrik NVI, and a slew of other annoying bench-sitters! Oh, and you can replace Luxray GL LV.X with Pokemon Catcher, and Energy Gain with your very own Eelektriks! What’s not to love?

Well, in the sake of fairness, there are a few downsides: First of all, being an EX isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and that Fighting weakness isn’t exactly what we like to see either. Having to discard your energy isn’t all that big of a deal in an Eelektrik world, but is still a negative.

Overall I feel that Raikou is very good and fits into almost any deck playing Eels, but at this point in my testing and the metagame’s maturity, I can’t see myself playing more than two copies. It plays its role and is certainly very powerful, but, like Garchomp, needs to be treated with the right amount of delicateness and affection to assure you don’t get completely blown out.

Tynamos

Although a few players will disagree with me on this one, I think these two Tynamos are strictly worse than your pre-DEX options. In the words of Tyler Ninomura: “Thundershock wins games!”

Aerodactyl DEX

Very interesting card we’ve got here. Much like a few of the other cards on this list, I haven’t gotten around to testing with it yet and can’t speak to its viability with certainty, but I would definitely lean in the “Aerodactyl isn’t powerful enough” direction.

Having to deal with Fossils is a pain, and unless you’re benefiting from it inherently (Tornadus EX, etc.) I can’t see Twist Mountain being something you’re going to want to play, unless Aerodactyl is absolutely essential to your strategy.

I don’t think it’s safe to write this card off completely, but I’m not terribly impressed either.

Groudon EX

Groudon has more potential than most people are giving it credit for. It’s pretty simple to see that in a metagame defined by Pokemon that are weak to Fighting (Darkrai EX, Zoroark DEX, Eelektrik NVI, Raikou EX, Zekrom BLW, Zekrom EX), that an all-Fighting tank deck might be viable. In my mind, Groudon is the perfect candidate for such a job. I’ve been toying around with a few different lists, but they’re all in such an infancy that I don’t think it would be helpful of any of you to share them. Instead, let me run through a few bullet points…

- I expect Terrakion NVI to play a big role in this deck. I’ve been some talk of a Quad Groudon-type deck existing and, while I won’t completely write it off, I can’t imagine the deck is better than Groudon/Terrakion.

- I expect some kind of healing factor to exist. Potion, Moomoo Milk, etc. I’m not sure what it is yet, but my testing has shown that when you have beefy three-Energy attackers, you can’t exactly be letting them die all the time.

- The deck will not exist as a Truth deck. You have a good match-up against Eel and other Lightning decks, sure. And yes, if they ever do send a Raikou up to kill your Reuniclus they’re giving up two prizes, but are you really going to be able to afford to A) Run a thick line of Reuniclus, and B) Dedicate time to building up multiples of them, or several after another?

To me the answer is clearly no. I love Truth-style decks and I wish it would work, but it’s simply not going to.

Sableye DEX

This card is very interesting, and definitely has a place somewhere. Not all Dark toolbox type decks can afford to run this free prize, but I can imagine a type of deck that can run a copy or two for clutch situations. Furthermore, if Sableye ever exists in a format that’s slower and where you’re not always giving up a free prize to use Junk Hunt, he could be a huge player.

Darkrai EX

Aww yeah, here he is, the big hyped card of the set: Darkrai EX.

There’s not anything positive I can say about this card that hasn’t already been said. It’s a fantastic card, its Ability is broken, its attack is good, and it has so many positives it would be hard to imagine it not being a major player in the format for months to come. You all know that, though, so instead I’m going to focus on some of the negatives of the card…

- There are a slew of Fighting Pokemon this card dies to. Terrakion is the obvious star here, as he very easily one-shots Darkrai for days, but even something like Groudon EX is still very good against Darkrai, and I’m sure I’m overlooking a bunch of other Pokemon who can – particularly with the help of things like Eviolite or PlusPower – enter in favorable exchanges with our dark lord.

- It’s the most hyped card/deck of the set, so it’s naturally going to be hated on. I’m not saying this completely kills the card, as it obviously doesn’t, but people are aware of it and, for better or worse, there is going to be a huge amount of Darkrai hate (and maybe even more importantly: Darkrai preparedness) at Battle Roads and Nationals.

- It’s still an EX, and the question of whether or not to play it in a Dark deck is still a very real one. It doesn’t provide such an inherently powerful affect that it’s an auto-include in any Dark deck, and maybe a misjudgment about playing it (or not playing it, or the numbers of it that you play, etc.) is going to hand many players a loss, I predict.

Krookodile DEX

This guy should definitely be on your radar as a late game finisher for any deck playing Darkness Energy. Even at three prizes remaining, 120 before Special Darkness, PlusPower, or anything of that sort is pretty solid. I’m not proclaiming this guy is broken as it’s a Stage 2 that attacks for four(!) Energy, but I don’t think it’s getting quite the respect it deserves.

Zorua DEX 69 and Zoroark DEX

Firstly: Ascension is amazing and is enough to make the new Zorua strictly better than any previous versions.

Secondly: This Zoroark card is kind of ridiculous.

Imagine a scenario, which I suspect will not be that uncommon, in which you start the game with any Dark-type Basic Pokemon and a Pokemon Collector. You’re able to use the Pokemon Collector to get something like Zorua, Sneasel UD, Darkrai, maybe? Or double Zorua and a Sneasel, if you’re only playing Zorua and Sneasels?

Anyway, through a completely realistic means you are able to put a Zorua active with a Darkness Energy on it, and something like Darkrai, Zorua, Sneasel, Zorua on the bench. You Ascension and are immediately threatening 100 damage, without being able to find another Basic Dark-type Pokemon, a Special Dark, a Dark Patch, or anything of that sort. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call “pretty good.”

Blissey DEX

Not incredibly hyped on this guy, but I think he’ll have his place, somewhere. Keep an eye out.

Tornadus EX

“This card is better than Mewtwo.” – Tyler Ninomura

Obviously that statement is taken out of context, but quite honestly…I’m inclined to agree.

Tornadus EX, in my mind, is the best card in the set, and probably the best EX we’ve gotten thus far. This guy has been hyped to everywhere and back, and for good reason. 60 on turn 1 is quite ridiculous, and no other EX card can consistently pump out 60-100 damage pretty much every turn of the game from then on.

It’s also quite splashable, as it only requires Colorless Energy, and although it is Lightning weak and an EX, it’s so powerful from the start that I’ve found it’s sometimes a favorable trade versus lightning decks.

In short, this card is ridiculous and if you’re not picking up your copies now, you’re going to have a long road ahead of you.

Dark Patch & Dark Claw

These cards are inherently powerful and fit into pretty much every deck with a strong focus on Dark Types. I could see the numbers changing (particularly in Dark Claw) depending on what exactly the focus of your deck is, but nonetheless, these are quite powerful Trainers.

Hooligans Jim & Cas

I want to like this card, but I just can’t. Right now we have Judge and N, both of which are “hand control” cards that don’t require coin flips, and in the case of the latter, can be used with at least some strategy in mind (flipping coins and choosing random cards isn’t what I’d call “strategy”).

Maybe someday this card could be worth playing, but considering it’ll always exist in the same format as N, I think that’s a bit of a long shot.

Twist Mountain

If this card ever exists in a format filled with strong evolution cards I could see this being a real threat when paired with Archeops NVI, but until then it’s borderline unplayable, except for perhaps in some kind of Aerodactyl deck.

Random Receiver

I love this card. If you’re not playing a deck that a.) plays Pokemon Collector, or b.) Is a secret deck, or contains some kind of off-the-wall tech which you wouldn’t want your opponent to know about, this is strictly better than Xtransceiver or Pokegear 3.0. It’s great that this exists right now.

Ultra Ball

The best Pokemon search card we have right now in a format full of Eelektriks and Dark Patches. This should have a huge effect on lists and consistency, and I for one think it’s a fantastic inclusion to our format. My only gripe is that we didn’t get it sooner.

Shiny Pokemon Catcher

Obviously the best card in the set, 10/10 not close.

Conclusion

I hope you all enjoyed this article! Sorry that it’s a bit late compared to some of the other set review articles, but I’ve been extremely busy lately and unfortunately haven’t had the time to focus as much on Pokemon writing. However, I’ll have an Underground article out later this month and I hope to be able to provide a Battle Roads report or two, or at least an overview on the metagame.

Also, I’ll be attending U.S. Nationals for the first time this year, so please feel free to say hi if you run into me. I’ll have some sweet Kenny Wisdom/6P freebies on me.

[Editor's Note: Kenny will be staying in my room and sleeping in the bath tub for 3 nights! It's going to be awesome!]

See you then!

xo
kw

Kenny’s Wisdom: Dark Explorers Set Review is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

I had been playing Mewtwo EX / Regigigas EX for a few tournaments and despite some success (winning a Cities, 33rd at ECC, top 4 at States), I had whiffed top 4 at two States on resistance, and despite running 13 Supporters, the deck has literally not had a T1 Supporter in 50% of my games over Aldershot Special Event (Cities) and Ripley BRs. I figured this was a sign that it was time for a break and a change.

A few weeks ago my friend Jak had pointed me towards a video made by The Top Cut of a guy playing straight Kyurem NVI and though I liked the idea, I was not a fan of the list, what with no Moo2 and Kyurem. I chatted to Jak about this for a while and we both agreed it had potential.

So I turned up to Nottingham Battle Roads (always one of the biggest and most competitive in the UK) with Kyurem made, but with Mewtwo / Gigas also made. I was just about to wuss out and switch away from Kyurem when Jak turned up and, after some discussion, and finding out that he made top 2 with it a couple weeks prior, I decided to give it a shot. He said it would surprise me. I figured I was giving up my chance of top-cutting…

I should not have gone into a tournament with so little testing, but I was going for the surprise factor and so I played a few games on PlayTCG, but did not take the deck to league so that, for the first couple of rounds, nobody had any clue that I was playing. Here’s the list:

Post any questions in the comments section, but briefly:

• Twins because the aim is to glaciate, doing damage without taking prizes early
• 2 Moo2s because nobody would expect this deck to get into a Moo2 war
• 2 Kyurem EX because it’s awesome
• Lost Remover to add disruption and buy more time for Glaciating
• Shaymin / Energy Switch to help recover into more Glaciates
• Everything else should make sense

Round 1: Tamzin (Eels)

Tamzin was a very charming lady who had come from a big group all the way from Wales. Which didn’t impress me because I go there for tournaments! This was however her first competitive game, so potential banana skin afoot.

I went second in this game and could not get an early KO as she put up a Zekrom BLW to stall and attached energy. I started lone Mewtwo, but could find no Catchers to kill Tynamos so I had to sit there while she used Bolt Strike to deal 120 to Mewtwo (adding to an earlier 20 from Outrage). I had two Water Energy on him at this point, so I used X-Ball to KO her Zekrom and was then immediately a prize down as she returned the KO with Elekid TM!

This however let me go off very nicely. I had 2 Kyurems on the bench with Exp. Share and I was able to Junk Arm for an Energy Switch and attach an energy to get one of my Kyurems using “Glaciate.” First though I Catchered her 40 HP Tynamo and played a PlusPower. With a 30 HP Tynamo and Elekid on the bench, I was then able to take 3 prizes in one turn!

This left her with just an Eelektrik NVI. She played down a Zekrom and was forced to pass. At this point I used Switch and Shaymin UL to transition from regular Kyurem into Kyurem EX and used Frozen Wings for the KO.

This left her with just a Zekrom which I could kill by dropping a PlusPower and using Hail Blizzard the following turn.

(1-0)

I had a thoroughly enjoyable game here and it showed my deck can work though I felt my nerves were in for a bit of a time of it. I’m used to fast decks that go off T1, not planning to go off several turns into the game!

Round 2: Matt (TyRam)

Matt is a guy from the other local league in Ripley, Derbyshire. On a sad note this league closed recently as that shop was being merged with the one where this very tournament was being held. Luckily a very enterprising and sexy young lady has organised a new league in a shop that technically has the exact same address as the old one!

Anyway, back on topic, Matt has been using more meta decks lately and has been vastly improving in skill. Unfortunately, this was a ridiculously good matchup for me.

I go second but start Kyurem EX. On his turn he whiffs the energy attachment and on my second turn I attach DCE and get my first KO on a Cyndaquil HS. He Catchers a benched regular Kyurem, but a DCE and PlusPower turns into a OHKO on a Cyndaquil. Even Reshiram BLW posed little threat as Frozen Wings provided a OHKO with only a PlusPower.

As the game wore on, Matt had not taken a prize and reverted to his secret backup plan… Regigigas EX! He hit my Kyurem for 80, but that allowed an Outrage for 100. He was able to get a KO on the Kyurem, but I then brought up a Kyurem EX and even an Eviolite wasn’t enough to save poor Gigas.

(2-0)

I was loving being at 2-0, but, let’s face it, my matchups has been fairly fortuitous up til now. Let’s see what round 3 holds.

Round 3: Nicholas (Mew Prime / Vanilluxe NVI)

Nicholas is a lovely chap I have been chatting to on Facebook after meeting at tournaments, and we’d played out this exact matchup on PlayTCG not a week before. I won that one, but it was very difficult. If nothing else, it guaranteed a third nice match in a row.

The start of this game was a little frustrating as I (again!) went second and he started lone Oddish UD to my Mewtwo. He was, however, unable to get a second Basic into play, so I still had a chance to get the donk. I had a semi-decent hand, so I play what I can and then Juniper to maximise my chances of hitting the DCE and avoiding a very tricky matchup. I whiff and am forced to pass.

On his turn he grabs a Relicanth CL, attaches to Oddish, and retreats before… getting a T2 Vileplume! From here I take a couple early prizes (one Relicanth and one Mew), but he used Relicanth to get the requisite Vanilluxe and Unfezant into the Lost Zone and put the lock on.

As he got the lock on I was able to Glaciate, and when he KO’d that Kyurem I was then able to get off a second Glaciate to take another 2 prizes. At this point I knew that two more Glaciates would guarantee me the win, but he had the lock fully on. He actually had both Victinis prized, but got one out with a KO on my Kyurem and didn’t whiff any flips while he didn’t have one.

After a couple turns he KO’d my active Kyurem. My plan was to sacrifice a Kyurem that had a DCE attached to buy time until he whiffed the flip and I could Glaciate again. Then, just in time, I realised that Unfezant BLW’s Fly (with which he got the KOs) meant that I could not attack the active Mew. However, I COULD attack the bench.

So I instead promote a Kyurem with 3 energy and Glaciate, getting me a Prize and leaving me one prize from winning, with 3 Pokémon with 30 HP or less on his bench. He resumed the lock next turn and I attached a Water Energy to my Benched Kyurem, knowing that attaching one more energy would guarantee me the win as he would take a KO and I would then be able to Glaciate for the game.

I waited a couple turns, used Juniper and… still didn’t hit it! I was starting to resign myself to the fact that I would have to sacrifice a Kyurem EX (which I could do without losing), but when he finally hit double tails on Fly I was able to Glaciate for 3 more prizes and game.

(3-0)

I was happy at this, though a little embarrassed that I almost missed the trick and would probably have lost the game if I had. Let this be a lesson kiddies: test your deck!

Round 4: “My Good Friend” Tommy Roberts (Mismagius CL / Terrakion NVI)

This game was very important. In Exeter Tommy’s Zekeels beat my Mewtwo / Gigas after a bad Portrait choice from me and our overall record was now only 4-2 in my favour. This was too close. Luckily, in theory, this matchup should be to my advantage. Before the game Tommy expressed his dismay at the two interesting decks having to play before the last round of Swiss, and I had to agree.

I finally get to go first in this game and I start a Kyurem EX (woop woop). I attach an energy and pass. From here I had complete control. T2 I Catchered his Misdreavus CL with energy and got the OHKO with Frozen Wing and T3 I did the same.

He used Catcher to bring up a regular Kyurem, but my old buddy Shaymin UL helped me move some energy over and I started using Glaciating. I took 3 prizes with Glaciate and with his last hope being Terrakion I switched into Kyurem EX, dropped a PlusPower, and used Hail Blizzard to take my last prize and win 6-0.

(4-0)

That was top cut secured so I knew I could sit back, and as me and Jak were the only 4-0s, I knew it would be a tough Zekeels matchup to decide the number 1 seed.

Round 5: Jak (Baby Mario) (Zekeels)

Yeah, you all know Jak so he gets no intro. Unfortunately, he had tested my deck a lot more than me, so I would lose the surprise factor I had for the other Swiss rounds.

This was one of the most fun games I’d had in ages. He won the flip and got a good start, going 2 prizes up but then I was able to mount a comeback using Catcher and Glaciate, taking out all of his Eels in 3 turns. Alas, he did only use the 40 HP Tynamos though (purely due to Kyurem!), so that made it a little more difficult.

I got down to one prize at which point he had a Terrakion with only 40 HP left. He then dropped N to put me down to one card and I drew: Kyurem EX, Water energy, Exp. Share over the next few turns. Darn.

He was able to pick off a Kyurem EX, and although I was able to get off one more Glaciate, it left me 10 damage off taking out Terrakion and I was powerless to stop him taking out a second Kyurem EX for the win.

(4-1)

It was a very enjoyable game and I ended up 4-1 overall. Matt (from round 2) ended up taking his last game in dramatic fashion (or so I’m told) to finish 3-2 and immediately bump me from 4th seed to 2nd seed. Which was nice.

Turns out I was going into a rematch against a rather good friend of mine. In theory, this was a better match-up for me than Jak or George Boon, who had qualified as 4th seed with his Zekeels deck.

Top 4: T-Dawg (Mismagius CL / Terrakion NVI)

I’m going to deal with these games together because they weren’t very interesting. They were, to be blunt, disastrous.

Game 1 I went second and could not draw a Supporter. Tommy went off well and started taking prizes before I could set up and keep energy on the field. I had one chance to turn the tide, but I could not hit a PlusPower to OHKO his Terrakion.

Game 2 was just as bad. I also did not have a Supporter (well, I only ran 13) and I did manage to grab a win, but only due to Tommy using N to get me a good hand! After the N it went exactly like our game in Swiss with me being set up and picking easy prizes and disrupting his board.

Game 3 was just like game 1. For the THIRD game in a row I could not draw a Supporter and he wrecked my setup before I could get going.

After my deck running fine for 5 games it then went cold in all 3 top cut games. I literally could not draw a Supporter for the first 3 turns in any game. The odds of that are incredibly small. Add to that the fact that (and I counted) I hit exactly 25% on Dual Ball flips over the 3 games. It was never going to happen.

To be fair, Tommy played the game incredibly well. He used Mumble and also Spiritomb TM’s attack to put 10 damage on my Kyurems. I was confused by this until I realised that this put Kyurem’s HP at 120, a multiple of 30. Those of you paying attention will realise that Mismagius’ attack does 30 times the number of Trainers in your hand…

To further illustrate the pure futility of this match, there were 4 incidents where Tommy played Spiritomb or N in order to refresh my hand, in the hopes of me hitting enough Trainers for Mismagius to get the OHKO. All 4 times, looking at the number of cards I had to draw and the number of trainers in my deck, it was statistically unlikely that I would draw enough for Tommy to get the KO. All 4 times he did. Like I said, it was not happening.

(4th)

Having said that, I still made 4th with a largely untested Kyurem deck! I was initially annoyed that Jak lost his top 4 mirror match as that meant that the 3rd and 4th seeds contested the final, leaving me going from 2nd seed to 4th overall and denying me a promo card. I then pulled a Mewtwo from my 2 prize packs and all was ok again.

In the final Tommy went one game down, but brought it back to win 2 games to 1, putting him on 72 Championship Points to make him officially number one in the world. Go Tommy, Go Tommy!

So, is the deck any good?

Short answer, yes!

One of the biggest things about the deck is that it’s so hard for your opponent to KO anything. Oftentimes they will be facing just Kyurem and then can either hit it, allowing you to drop a DCE and hit then back harder, or they can ignore it, giving you time to get energy and Exp. Shares and set up a Glaciate stream.

Once you set up with Exp. Shares you can use Energy Switch and Shaymin to keep the Glaciate stream going and believe me, when you’re hitting everything on the bench for 30 every turn, you win quite quickly. They’re unlikely to OHKO you and when they do KO you if you can recover and keep the stream going for a couple more turns you’ll win.

Of course, a lot of the time, you won’t even need to. Outrage is a real star in this deck and a lot of decks (Quad Terrakion, CMT) literally can’t OHKO a Kyurem, leaving awkward decisions that you can take advantage of as you have the surprise factor. Most people don’t know how to play against this deck.

I see Kyurem EX as the most underrated EX by far, as I stated in a recent COTD. You can often have him going on T2 and 60 damage will usually be enough to grab a prize. If it’s not then you get to remove a special energy, putting your opponent back an energy attachment. This leads to advantageous 2HKOs against card such as Mewtwo and Gigas as you hit for 60, starve them of energy and then hit for 120 and the KO.

Speaking of his second attack, I can’t understand people saying it’s terrible. Let’s face it, with a PlusPower (and you should be running lots in this deck) you OHKO pretty much everything but EXs. So you have to 2HKO things like Mewtwo, Zekrom EX and Reshiram EX. You know what? So does everything else! Except you get to remove special energy and don’t have to discard energy OR self-damage. Seems good to me.

The biggest advantage though is the combination of the 180 HP and weakness to Metal. People talk about Regigigas being hard to KO, but Terrakion says “balls to that.” The only thing that always OHKOs Kyurem is Cobalion EPO. Yeah, nobody plays that.

Combine all of the above and you have answers for pretty much every deck around at the moment. Sweet! Let’s look at some examples:

CMT

If they put out Celebis they will be easy kills with Glaciate. If they use Tornadus your Outrage will OHKO them with a single PlusPower while they 2HKO with more resources. If they start a Mewtwo war you can kill one or two with Kyurem EX and then use your own Mewtwo(s) to finish it off.

You can also Lost Remover their DCEs and Kyurem EX takes care of Celebi AND Tornadus very easily while they’ll be 2HKOing with Tornadus IF they can find two PlusPowers (they could use Mewtwo but it won’t be a OHKO and you then get to OHKO their Mewtwo with yours).

This is legitimately a VERY favourable matchup.

Quad Terrakion

They hit for 90. You have Outrage. Kyurem EX can OHKO with a PlusPower. Most Terrakion players have no idea how to approach this and if they don’t hit you then Glaciate wins the game very quickly.

Again, a VERY favourable matchup.

Zekeels

This is not quite so good. Their Zekroms can OHKO your Kyurems with a single PlusPower and they may run Zekrom EX, which in 3 turns (less with Eels) can OHKO normal Kyurems and give the EX a run for its money.

It’s not all hopeless. Their Eels fall if you can get some Glaciates off and Kyurem can destroy most of their field but their wealth of strong attackers can cause problems. Mewtwo wars can be won by either side.

These matches will be close and often go down to the last prize but Eels does have the edge here. Against a less experiences player though, it can be a veritable feast.

Durant

Thank god I didn’t meet any Durants. You basically have to hope you start Mewtwo or Kyurem EX and they hit no Crushing Hammers so you can stack enough energies for the OHKO. This is unlikely.

Regular Kyurem is awesome, but by the time you get 3 energies onto him Durant is likely to have Eviolites and spreading for 10 is not enough. He then becomes a liability to Pokémon Catcher.

When Jak played Kyurem he managed to deck out a Durant player. Do not rely on this. Durant > Kyurem.

What about when Dark Explorers comes out?

Not good for Kyurem. Tornadus EX, Darkrai EX and Zoroark are all very fast and can take out Kyurem and the EX before you get enough energy onto the field. You lose one of the main advantages you have and although it’s not a lost cause I wouldn’t expect people to do well with Kyurem over Battle Roads and Nats.

This sucks because I love the deck and wish I’d used it for more than one tournament, but it was a deck I put together because I thought it was a good call given the current meta. This turned out to be correct, but I just can’t advise this post-DEX. Sorry. I’m already moving on. Be assured though that I won’t forget about Kyurem and at the first opportunity that bad boy is seeing some more play!

Anything else?

My random message for the day: Don’t count out players OR decks! My friend Derek (or D-man if you wanna sound cool) played Gardevoir NXD / Darmanitan NXD / Gothitelle EPO. This is a deck most people have discounted, but he managed to take down a CMT deck that took second at a Regionals, ruining the player’s chance of top-cutting, despite finishing 4-1. During this game Derek KO’d a Mewtwo using a Darmanitan with a single energy. Twice.

This also produced my favourite quote of the day when he was asked if he played Victini:

“Balls to Victini, that’s for people who don’t have faith in their deck!”

P.S. Follow me on Twitter: @thewossy

Don’t You Forget About Me (We’ll Miss You Kyurem) (Top 4 Report) is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

However, now that I’m finally made my return, I think now’s a perfect time to take a look at our upcoming set, Dark Explorers. I’ll also be covering the topic of countering (read: trolling) the top metagame decks. Are you excited as I am? I hope so, because we’re in for a whole lot of Dark Explorers goodness!

Like Next Destinies before it, Dark Explorers promises to once again give our metagame a good shaking up. I’m saving the EX Pokémon for an in-depth look at end, so don’t worry if they aren’t talked about much at first. So, without further ado, let’s get on to the review!

Venusaur

Venusaur weighs in at 140 HP, which is pretty average these days for Stage 2, and has a 4 retreat cost. It can only deal 70 damage for the cost of [GGCC]. Not to flattering so far, but Venusaur’s Ability is where it shines. With Venusaur, you can search out any Pokémon and put it into your hand. This is a great ability that can really help when you need to get set up quick.

However, there are a couple a major problems that Venusaur has to face. First off, being a Stage 2 slows down Venusaur, and so it tends to slow down whatever deck it is in as well. Venusaur is also a prime Catcher target, and its retreat cost makes it a pain to get out of the active spot without switch.

And with a format dominated by big Basics and fast decks, it almost seems like all the effort it takes to set up Venusaur might not pay off in the long run.

I personally don’t think Venusaur is cut out for this format, but it is an interesting card that could still see some play.

Accelgor

Accelgor is quite an interesting card. Free retreat is nice and 90 HP is okay for a Stage 1, but Accelgor’s second attack is why he deserves attention. The awesomely-named ”Deck and Cover” attack deals 50 damage, as well as both Paralyzing and Poisoning the Defending Pokémon, all for [CC]. The drawback is that you have to shuffle Accelgor and all cards attached to it back into your deck after attacking.

When paired with Sunflora HS and Vileplume UD, Accelgor could keep your opponent on lockdown, and Sunflora could pull Accelgors back out of your deck. While it most likely won’t be Tier 1, this could make for an extremely annoying and fun lock deck.

Blaziken

Another Stage 2 with 140 HP, Blaziken has a retreat cost of 2. Its first attack, for the cost of [RC], deals 40 damage with each 30 additional damage or a Burn, depending on a coin flip (heads for extra damage, tails for Burn). Nothing amazing there. Blaziken’s second attack deals a great 130 damage for [RRC], and you have to discard a single Energy from Blaziken.

As you can see, Blaziken is pretty much an upgraded Reshiram BLW, boasting 10 more HP, 10 extra damage on its main attack, and discarding 1 Energy instead of 2. Sounds great, right? Well, it’s not all great for Blaziken, because being a Stage 2 pretty much makes it harder to use. It can’t pair with Typhlosion Prime very effectively, because setting up two Stage 2 lines really slows down the deck.

However, Blaziken is still a pretty nice card that can OHKO the likes of 130HP Pokémon such as Zekrom and Terrakion, so I feel that he deserves a mention in this review.

Heatmor

Hailed as the Chosen One who is destined to kill Durant forever, Heatmor is a Basic with 90HP and a single retreat. Heatmor’s first attack, which usually only does 10 damage for [C], states that the attack deals 50 more damage if the Defending Pokémon is a Durant. The fact that this is so specific to Durant makes this card rather hilarious, and also deems him one of the biggest trolls in the entire metagame.

The fact that this guy is splashable into any deck means that decks that struggle with Durant (or anyone that just hates Durant, which is a lot of people) can now run the best Durant killer in the game.

While many people have said that this spells the end of Durant, I think that the annoying ant will be hanging around. Durant is a very versatile deck, and I’m sure that Durant players will find a way to get around Heatmor.

And of course there is the fact that Heatmor is useless in every matchup that isn’t Durant, which can be especially annoying if you start with him. However, if your deck has Durant problems, Heatmor can really help you out.

Volcarona

Volcarona is a Stage 1 with 110 HP and a 3 retreat cost. Volcarona’s Ability states that whenever one of your opponent’s Pokémon takes damage from a Burn, place 4 damage counts on that Pokémon instead of the usual 2 as long as Volcarona is in play. This makes the Burn condition go from annoying to scary pretty quick, as 40 damage done by a condition can really cause some problems.

Volcarona’s attack, for [RRC], deals 70 damage and the option to cause a Burn at the price of discarding an energy. When paired with another, stronger Pokémon that inflicts burn, Volcarona can be pretty handy. For me, Volcarona paired with Typhlosion Prime and Arcanine NXD 12 seems like it would be quite fun.

However, Volcarona suffers from problems similar to Venusaur’s; it makes for great Catcher-bait and has a fairly hefty retreat cost. Volcarona won’t be the next BCIF or anything, but it could see some play and is at least a card to keep in mind.

Empoleon

Allow me to introduce one of my favorite cards in the set, Empoleon. Our penguin friend is a Stage 2 sitting at 140 HP and carrying a retreat cost of 2. Weakness to Lightning hurts a lot, since Zeels is currently the BDIF and is looking to only get stronger after Dark Explorers. However, there are a couple of traits that Empoleon has that could allow it to see some play.

First off, it carries a nice Ability that allows you to discard 1 card from your hand in order to draw 2 cards. This is like a more universal version of Ninetales HS/CL, which has proved to be a great card in almost any deck running fire Energy. Empoleon’s attack costs only [W], and deals 10 damage for every Pokémon in play. This attack is almost identical to Jumpluff HS’s Mass Attack, which pretty much operates the exact same way.

With a built-in draw engine and a swarm attack, Empoleon could very well see play in its own deck - possibly paired with the likes of Cincinno BLW, which also focuses in swarm tactics and uses Colorless Energy. While weakness and being a Stage 2 do weaken and slow down Empoleon, I feel in this case that it is still a great card and could very well see some competitive play.

Plusle

Plusle is a 60 HP Basic with a single retreat and a Fighting weakness. The weakness doesn’t matter too much, since most the Fighting types being used right now OHKO Plusle anyway. The only thing that matters is Terrakion NVI’s unboosted Retaliate. Plusle gets some attention because of its first attack, which lets you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw 4 new cards for C.

At first this seems like a mediocre Cleffa HS/CL wannabe, but if you have a Minun on your bench then you get to draw 8 cards instead! A fresh 8-card hand is pretty huge; we all know how good PONT and Cleffa are, so drawing 2 extra cards is even more helpful.

However, having to also fit in Minun and get it onto your bench can be a pain. There’s a Minun DEX, but I think that Minun UL is a better choice if you want to use Plusle. Both of them share Plusle’s stats, but Minun UL can also draw 2 cards for a Colorless Energy. I don’t think Plusle will outclass Cleffa, but it is a good alternative and should be kept in mind.

Espeon

Espeon is a Stage 1 with 90 HP and a single retreat cost. Although Espeon is already fragile, weakness to Psychic stinks with Mewtwo EX still running rampant and showing no signs of slowing down. Espeon’s attack is pretty bad, but its Ability is why it deserves some attention. Espeon’s Ability states: “As long as Espeon is in play, prevent all effects (excluding damage) of your opponent’s Pokémon’s attacks done to any of your Pokémon with Energy attached to them.”

While this is interesting and helpful versus special conditions and things like Cobalion NVI’s Iron Breaker attack, ultimately it doesn’t do a whole lot in our current metagame. Nevertheless, this Ability is quite interesting and could make an impact in the future.

Aerodactyl

Aerodactyl is a Restored Pokémon with 90  HP and a single retreat. Its attack doesn’t even matter; but its Ability does. As long as Aerodactyl is in play, it grants you what is essentially a free PlusPower every turn. And with the new Twist Mountain Stadium (more on that later) it’s not terribly difficult to play.

We all know how much a single PlusPower can matter, so having Aerodactyl can really help you snatch those KO’s that would usually be just out of reach.

Sableye

The infamous Sableye, who singlehandedly forced an early rotation last year, has returned… Well, not really. Sableye is back, but not in its nasty Stormfront form. This Sableye has 70 HP and 1 retreat, and is nothing like its predecessor. The only reason to use Sableye would be for its attack called Junk Hunt. For just [D], Sableye can fish out 2 Item cards out of the discard pile and put them back into your hand.

This is simply a double Junk Arm in attack form, and could be a nice option for Dark decks. While Sableye is technically just a free prize for your opponent, sometimes 1 prize lost isn’t such a big deal if the reward is big enough. My opinion on Sableye is not fully developed yet, but I think it could be a nice addition to Dark.dec once Dark Explorers is released.

Krookadile

Krookadile is a Stage 2 with 150 HP and a retreat cost of 3. Its first attack isn’t too special; for [DCC], Krookadile can deal 60 damage and prevent the Defending Pokémon from retreating. This can be helpful, but it isn’t anything super awesome. The attack that drew me to Krookadile was Bombast, which deals 40 damage times the amount of prizes that you’ve already taken.

This attack is pretty expensive, costing DDCC, and is similar to Shaymin EX’s Revenge Blast. The difference is that it hits for more damage and works off your prizes instead of the opponents, which in my opinion is a little easier to work with because you have more control over the damage output.

It should also be noted that with Dark Claw or a couple of Special Dark energies, Krookadile can OHKO any EX after you’ve taken 4 prizes.

The downsides of Krookadile are the facts that it is a Stage 2 and its attack costs a pretty hefty amount of energy. Its retreat cost isn’t that big of a deal, since it would almost always be played with Darkrai EX. I think Krookadile is quite a viable card in Dark.dec, but only time will tell if it sees any play.

Zoroark

Zoroark is a Stage 1 with 100 HP and a 2 retreat cost. Its first attack, for [CC], deals 20 damage times the amount of Darkness-type Pokémon you have in play. This attack is Zoroark’s big selling point, since it can swing for 120 with a full bench of Dark types with just a Double Colorless. Not to mention access to Special Darkness Energy and the new perks of Dark Patch, Dark Claw, and Darkrai EX’s ability.

Zoroark’s other attack does 20 damage times the number of damage counters on Zoroark for [DD]. While Zoroark can technically OHKO EXs if it only has 10 HP remaining, this is not at all common and therefore this attack is really just a bonus. Zoroark is a very good card and will definitely see play as a main attacker in Dark.dec, so watch out for this card once Dark Explorers is released!

So, that’s all for the non-EX Pokémon of Dark Explorers. Now’s the moment you’ve all be waiting for, folks: it’s time to review the Dark Explorers EX cards!

Kyogre EX

Kyogre is probably the worst EX in the set, and possibly the worst EX card yet. That doesn’t mean he’s a terrible card by any means, but it does mean he’s just not that great compared to the other EXs. Kyogre sits at 170 HP and has a 4 retreat cost, as well as a terrible lightning weakness. Lightning weakness is bad enough for a normal Pokémon in this format, but Kyogre is worth 2 prizes and therefore weakness is an even bigger deal.

Kyogre’s first attack deals 30 damage and allows you to switch it with a Pokémon on your bench for [WC]. This isn’t terrible, considering that it gives Kyogre a way to get around its big retreat cost and possibly score a KO on a baby Pokémon. Kyogre’s second attack allows you to snipe two of your opponent’s Pokémon for 50 damage at the cost of WWC. This also isn’t too bad, but with so many high-HP Pokes out there right now, 50 damage often isn’t enough.

I personally do really like Kyogre, and plan to use him in a fun deck with Feraligatr Prime and Kyurem NVI. Overall, however, Kyogre just can’t stand up to many of the meta’s top threats, and doesn’t really hit for enough damage to get the job done.

Groudon EX

Unlike his rival Kyogre, Groudon EX is quite a good card – especially in this metagame filled with Zeels, and most likely Dark decks once Dark Explorers is released. At 180 HP and a 4 retreat cost, Groudon is a major heavyweight, and he also boasts a nice resistance to Lightning which makes it pretty much Zeels’ worst nightmare already.

Its first attack deals only 20 damage and spreads 10 damage around your opponent’s board, for the cost of FC. But that’s just a warm-up. Groundon’s main attack, Giant Claw, deals 80 damage for FFC. The real kicker, however, is that the attack deals an extra 40 damage as long as the Defending Pokémon has 2 or more damage counters already on it.

That means that Groundon can OHKO every Lightning or Darkness-type Pokémon in the entire format with a boosted Giant Claw. Combined with Groundon’s massive HP and resistance, Groudon is the ultimate weapon against Zeels and Dark.dec. It is also pretty solid even without hitting for weakness, and can hold its own against the likes of most other decks.

I’ll be covering Groudon even more in the Trolling section, but for now I’m just going to tell you to watch out; Groudon will undoubtedly be seeing some play.

Entei EX

When the Dark Explorers cards were first released in the Japanese set Dark Rush, many people seemed to overlook Entei EX and instead hopped on the hype trains driven by Darkrai and Raikou. I’ll be honest – I was kind of one of those people. But now with the English versions coming, I’ve taken another look at Entei and decided that it is actually a pretty nice card.

180 HP is really nice, and is fast becoming the standard for EXs (did I really just call 180 HP “standard?”), and while 3 retreat isn’t that great, high retreats are also fairly common on EX cards. Entei’s first attack deals 30 damage and Burns the Defending Pokémon for the cost of RC. Not exactly great, but it’s a useful attack for taking out baby Pokémon or annoying your opponent with a burn.

Entei’s other attack is Grand Flame, which deals 90 damage and allows you to attach a basic energy from the discard pile to one of your benched Pokémon for the cost of [RRC]. This attack is actually really nice; 90 damage 2HKO’s any Pokémon that isn’t an EX packing Eviolite, and it has built in energy acceleration to boot.

He’s not the best EX on the block, but I really like Entei and think that he is definitely a viable card.

Raikou EX

Along with Darkrai, Raikou EX was hyped as the best EX since Mewtwo. It’s fairly easy to see why, after you take a look at Raikou. With 170 HP and a single retreat, Raikou is pretty lightweight compared to most EXs. This also lets him abuse Skyarrow Bridge. Raikou’s first attack for [LC] deals only 30 damage, and can Paralyze your opponent if you land heads on a coin flip. Not too great, but like Entei this attack can be used to get an easy KO on baby Pokémon and also try to stall with paralysis while you get set up.

Raikou’s second attack, however, is where all the hype comes from. For [LLC], Volt Bolt (love the name) allows you to choose any of your opponent’s Pokémon and deal 100 damage to it, with the price of having to discard all lightning Energy attached to Raikou. A snipe attack with this much power is great, it only gets better when you add Eelektrik and Skyarrow Bridge to the picture.

The idea is to use Eels to power up a pair of Raikous, with one on the bench and one attacking. Once the attacking Raikou uses Volt Bolt, you can retreat for free with Bridge and use the other Raikou to attack. Rinse and repeat. Not to mention that you can use tech him into Zeels for an advantage in the mirror match, as Raikou can snipe out Eels like nobody’s business.

However, there are ways to beat Raikou that I will talk more about later in this article, and we haven’t even seen the card in action yet. Raikou EX is a great card, so expect to see it at your tournaments after Dark Explorers is released.

Tornadus EX

Tornadus EX also carries 170 HP and a single retreat, which gives it the same ability to abuse Skyarrow Bridge as Raikou. Weakness to Lightning is terrible right now, but a resistance to Fighting is pretty nifty with all the Troll decks running around. Its first attack costs [CC] and deals 30 damage plus 30 more damage if there is a Stadium in play. 60 for a DCE is pretty nice already, but it gets better.

For [CCC], the second attack deals 100 damage with the only downside being that you have to flip a coin and discard a single energy attached to Tornadus if you hit tails. This is pretty much Tornadus EPO on steroids. The only things that Tornadus can claim over Tornadus EX are 1: Tornadus only gives up 1 prize, and 2: Tornadus can use Hurricane to help set up other Pokémon.

Other than that, Tornadus EX is the new Tornadus. CMT in particular gets a power boost, and is now able to hit a T1 100 damage instead of 80. That’s some scary stuff. He is also a great tech in Zeels, as he can take on Fighting types with ease. Tornadus EX is another great EX card, and I would expect it to see a lot of play.

Darkrai EX

Ah, Darkrai. The poster-Poke of Dark Explorers has been hyped since it’s reveal in Japan, and it is set to make as big an impact as predicted now. Darkrai EX has 180 HP and a retreat cost of 2, which is fairly average considering. Weakness to Fighting gives Terrakion and friends even more targets, but a resistance to Psychic is a resistance to Mewtwo, which is also really nice. Darkrai’s ability is the main reason that he is so hyped.

The Ability, Dark Cloak, grants every Pokémon on your field with a Darkness Energy attached gains free retreat as long as Darkrai is in play. This Ability is awesome, and when you combine it with the new Darkness Trainers and the fairly large range of viable darkness-type Pokémon, Darkrai is already very viable.

But that’s not all Darkrai is capable of. Its attack deals 90 damage and snipes a benched Pokémon for 30 at the cost of [DDC]. Keeping in mind that this attack can be powered up with Special Darkness Energies and Dark Claw, Darkrai is actually quite threatening offensively as well as being a support Pokémon. Darkrai is, in my opinion, the best EX card since Mewtwo, and is almost guaranteed to see play in the new Dark.dec after this set is released.

Now that we’ve covered all the Pokémon, let’s move on to the Trainer cards. I’ll run through each Trainer card in the set, with the exception of Old Amber Aerodactyl (which should be fairly obvious). Let’s get to it!

Ultra Ball

A long-awaited card by many, Ultra Ball is the first Item card to really be any competition to Pokémon Communication. Yes, Heavy Ball and Level Ball exist, but both are niche cards that only work with certain Pokémon. Ultra Ball is different. The card lets you search your deck for any Pokémon at the price of discarding 2 cards from your hand.

Now, there are pros and cons to Ultra Ball. The biggest advantage that Ultra Balls has over Pokémon Communication is that you don’t have to have another Pokémon in your hand to put back into your deck. Discarding cards to use Ultra Ball can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your deck and/or your situation.

In decks like Zeels that want Energy in the discard pile, this card is much better than Pokémon Communication. But if your deck doesn’t want to be throwing resources into the discard, then Ultra Ball might not be your first choice. There are other factors as well, but the bottom line is that Ultra Ball and Pokémon Communication both have good points and bad points.

It really comes down to what deck you’re running, and your personal preference for your deck. I personally love the card, and can’t wait for Ultra Ball to be released.

Dark Patch

Dark Patch is one of the two Item cards that are made to support Darkness Pokémon. It states that when you use Dark Patch, you may attach one Basic Darkness Energy from your discard pile to one of your benched Darkness Pokémon.

This is pretty crazy not only because it provides Darkness decks with Energy acceleration, but also because it is the first Item card that has ever acted as an accelerator. Along with Darkrai EX and Dark Claw, Dark Patch gives Darkness-type Pokémon are getting a huge boost and ultimately makes Dark.dec possible.

Dark Claw

Speaking of Dark Claw, here it is! This tool card grants Darkness-type Pokémon an additional 20 damage on their attacks as long as it is attached to them. A double PlusPower every turn? And I can still abuse Special Dark Energy and reap the benefits of Darkrai and Dark Patch? Yes, please. I don’t really feel like I need to say more; this is just icing on the cake for Dark.dec.

Random Receiver

This card is similar to Pokegear 3.0, but it has some key differences that make it worth checking out. This Item allows you to reveal the top cards of your deck until you find a Supporter, which you get to add to your hand. The major difference here between Pokegear and Random Receiver is that Random Receiver guarantees you a Supporter, but you don’t get to choose which Supporter you get. With Pokegear, you only get to look at the top 7 cards, but you can choose any Supporter you find.

Like with Pokémon Communication and Ultra Ball, both cards have pros and cons. Between these cards, however, it is more of a matter of personal preference (at least that’s what it seems like right now). I prefer Random Receiver because you get a guaranteed Supporter, but only time will tell if this card will overtake Pokegear 3.0.

Enhanced Hammer

This card is pretty much a Lost Remover; Enhanced Hammer simply lets you choose 1 Special Energy attached to one of your opponent’s Pokémon, with the only difference being that the energy goes to the discard pile instead of the Lost Zone. There is almost no way to get Special Energies back out of the discard pile once they get put there, so there really isn’t much of a difference between Lost Remover and Enhanced Hammer at all.

I personally will probably use Enhanced Hammer simply because it will undoubtedly be legal next format. There is a lot of Special Energy floating around right now, so I think that Enhanced Hammer will be a useful card to have.

Rare Candy

Yes, I know we all know what Rare Candy does. However, having it is this set is great because it gives us Rare Candy next format. I’m also happy just because I haven’t pulled a single Rare Candy since getting back into the TCG last year, so maybe I’ll actually get a few instead of having to buy them as single cards.

Hooligans Jim and Cas

This is the only new Supporter card we get in the set, and it’s definitely an interesting one. When you play Hooligans you flip and coin, and if heads you get to shuffle 3 random cards from your opponent’s hand back into their deck. While this effect is pretty nice for disruption, the coin flip weakens this card immensely.

Coin flips are already annoying on Item cards, but on a Supporter they take on a whole new level of suckiness. Since you can only use one Supporter each turn, getting tails on Hooligans is a wasted turn when you could have used Juniper, PONT, or another draw Supporter. Not to mention that you can’t use Junk Arm to reuse Hooligans, giving you only a single chance to hit heads.

While this card has a nice effect and may see some play in disruption decks, the coin flip ultimately makes Hooligans Jim and Cas only mediocre.

Twist Mountain

And so we come to our final Trainer card, and the final card that I’ll be covering in this review. Twist Mountain is a Stadium card that reads: “Once during each player’s turn, that player may flip a coin. If heads, the player may put a Restored Pokémon from his or her hand onto their bench.”

This may not seem too great at first with a coin flip involved. But if you are familiar with the other way to use Restored Pokémon, then you’ll know that this is a far superior way to use them. First of all, you don’t have to constantly try to keep them out of our hand, and you don’t need to run 4 Fossils and 4 Restored Pokémon to even have a chance of getting it out.

Now Pokémon such as Aerodactyl and possibly Archeops NVI have an opportunity to see some play. This gives Restored Pokémon much more viability, and while they are still harder to use than most Pokémon, it is certainly worth giving Twist Mountain a try.

So, this concludes my review of the Dark Explorers set. This is most likely my favorite set out right now, and I am very excited to play in an HS-DEX format. But wait, there’s more! Now that we know all the cards that deserve mention or might see play in Dark Explorers, we can use this knowledge to prepare for the release of the next set; and more importantly, how to counter the metagame once Dark Explorers hits the format.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present my little guide on how to Troll the Meta!

How to Troll the Meta

First, you need to have a grasp of what the top decks are, and what threats you want to counter. If you want to beat Zeels, for example, you should probably include Terrakion or another powerful fighting Pokémon in your deck. I know that this point can be fairly obvious, but it’s extremely important and is the basis of all counter-meta decks; a.k.a Troll decks.

Because Dark Explorers isn’t actually released yet, I can’t guarantee that certain cards or decks will be as prevalent as most people think they will be. However, I do think that this will be the most likely and accurate list of the top threats that you would want to counter with a Troll deck:

Zeels will obviously still be huge, and you can see why. The deck only gets more powerful with the additions of Raikou EX (sniping) and Tornadus EX (hard counter to fighting decks). CMT will also still be going strong with Tornadus EX increasing its damage and donking power. Dark.dec (based around Zoroark DEX, Darkrai EX, and the new Darkness Trainers) will be the new kid on the block, but it has so many things going for it that it is bound to see play.

Also, I want to note that the same Pokémon that counter Zeels decks also counter Dark.dec, so even if the deck doesn’t see as much play your will not really have to alter any Troll deck greatly. Finally you have fighting decks that will be spearheaded by the likes of Terrakion, Groudon EX, and Landorus NVI, which are played to beat Zeels and Dark.dec. These are the big decks and cards that you will want to be able to have answers to if you want to beat the meta.

Countering Zeels + Dark.dec

So let’s take a look at cards that can help you against these decks. We’ll start countering Zeels and Dark.dec, which are both made up of Pokémon that are weak to Fighting types. The premier Fighting types to use are Terrakion, Landorus, and Groudon EX.

Terrakion will start us off, as he is the current king of Fighting decks. Terrakion can revenge KO any Lightning or Darkness-type Pokémon that isn’t Eviolited Zekrom EX or Darkrai EX, and 130 HP can still take a hit or two. Terrakion can also keep pumping out a steady 90 as long as he survives and you have another energy.

Landorus has less HP, but has a Lightning resistance which helps out against Zeels. Landorus hits for 80, which is just shy of OHKOing Zekrom EX and Darkrai EX, but he also deals 10 damage to everything else in play. As a bonus, Landorus has only 1 retreat (Terrakion and Groudon both have 4) and can set himself up by using his first attack to attach a discarded energy to himself.

Groudon EX is the newest Fighting beatstick, but is the heaviest one as well. I’ve already discussed Groudon’s stats in the set review, but I still want to mention a couple more things in this section. One is that Groudon can work very well with Landorus, who can spread damage for Groudon to power up his Giant Claw.

That way, you get a combination of a lighter attacker with Landorus and a big heavy hitter in Groudon. The only downside is that Groudon loses you 2 prizes when he goes down, so you need to be a little more careful with your Groudons.

Countering CMT

Next we’ll cover CMT, or more accurately two Pokémon that you will run into a lot when playing CMT: Tornadus EX and Mewtwo EX. Both of these Pokémon can also be used in other decks because they are colorless attackers, but I’m covering them as the CMT matchup because the deck is based around them. Tornadus EX walls Fighting types like it’s his job (in many decks, it probably will be), but has a weakness to Lightning that you can exploit.

This is no problem if you’re a Zeels player, but if you are playing a Fighting-based Troll deck you will want an answer for Tornadus EX badly. What is probably the easiest way to beat him is to run a Tornadus EX or Mewtwo EX yourself that can easily 2HKO the opposing Tornadus without worrying about being resisted. You can also run a Lightning attacker such as Thundurus EPO or Zekrom BLW with prism Energies.

However, Zekrom can actually be used to abuse Outrage in a Landorus build, which is nice because you don’t need any Lightning or Prism Energy. While running Prism is usually the better option, it is sometimes nice when you can just rely on Basic Energy that can be recycled, recovered, and is not effected by cards like Enhanced Hammer or Lost Remover.

As for Mewtwo EX, well… you already know that Mewtwo’s best counter is another Mewtwo, and since Mewtwo is such a great card anyway, it’s advisable to run Mewtwo EX if you have any. There’s also Mew Prime, but he’s usually inferior to running Mewtwo EX yourself and doesn’t really work in this situation.

Countering Other Fighting Decks

Finally we’ll cover the possibility of running into another Fighting deck, which are pretty much all Troll decks at this point. Honestly, I don’t think Terrakion would have gained nearly as much popularity if Zeels wasn’t the king of the format; if Fire-type decks ran the format, Water types would be the new Trolls. But I’m getting off topic. Fighting decks are there, and you will face them.

So, how do you beat them? Well, to start of Tornadus EX and his little brother Tornadus EPO both perform well against Fighting types because they resist their attacks. Tornadus EX will almost always be the better option, but if you’re scared about losing 2 prizes than Tornadus is a fine choice as well.

It should also be mentioned that Tornadus can really help set up your other Pokémon, because unless you use Exp. Share than you have nothing even close to Energy acceleration. Those genies are usually the primary choices because they are splashable into every deck.

However, you can also look at the weaknesses of the Fighting types. Groudon EX and Landorus are both weak to water types, while Terrrakion is weak to grass. Shaymin EX makes for a good grass-type attacker, while Kyurem EX is probably the best water attacker.

Assuming you are still running a Fighting-based deck, these attackers can be teched in with Prisms, but Tornadus and Tornadus EX are usually better options.

Now that we’ve established what Pokémon we should counter, and what Pokémon we can use to counter them, I’ve put together a sample Troll deck for post-DEX. It uses most of the cards we’ve talked about in this section, and should be a pretty good example of what a Troll deck could look like:

Troll

This is a fairly standard list, or at least what I think could qualify for a standard list post-DEX. I chose to use the Landorus/Groudon EX combo with Tornadus EPO acting as my accelerator. I also included a single copy of Tornadus EX to seal the deal versus pure fighting decks. Shaymin is extremely useful in this deck; a Shaymin drop can transform a hopeless situation into a perfectly winnable game. And honestly, do I need to explain Mewtwo EX and Cleffa?

The only type of attackers that I did not include are any Lightning attackers to beat Tornadus EX with, but I feel that your own Tornadus/ Mewtwo lineup is enough to face Tornadus EX without a huge amount of trouble. Other than that, there’s not much else to discuss, since the Trainer and Energy lines are pretty standard fare. Just please keep in mind that this list has not been tested yet, and it is just meant to give you an idea of what one Troll variant would look like in the new HS-DEX format.

So there you have it. These decks are mostly likely going to be the ones that you see everywhere, other than possibly a Durant here or there (you can tech Heatmor if you still have an infestation) and random rogue decks which you usually can’t prepare for. There will obviously be other decks, but because Dark Explorers hasn’t hit the tournament scene yet this is really all we can predict.

Thank you so much for reading this very long article, and I hope that I helped to prepare you for when Dark Explorers hits the competitive scene.

-TacoTurtle/Willy

Dark Explorers Set Review + How to Troll the Meta is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Today I will be talking about Bouffalant BLW 91. This card has been played somewhat throughout the format and most recently helped Kyle “Pooka” Sucevich win Wisconsin Regionals. Its use stems from the fact that it is one of the better techs in the current format. To explain why, let’s look at the base stats.

100 HP

100 HP isn’t really anything special. It means that Zekrom BLW will get a KO with Bolt Strike, however it survives common attacks from Thundurus EPO and Tornadus EPO. However, Mewtwo-EX is pretty annoying since it only has to have 5 energy total between both Pokemon to OHKO Bouffalant.

Attacks

The first attack, Retaliate, for 2 Colorless Energy, does a measly 20 damage. However, if any of your Pokemon were KO’d on your opponent’s turn, it does 90 damage! 90 damage is significant against many commonly played Pokemon. For instance, Zekrom dies in one hit if previously used Bolt Strike without Eviolite. And with Tool Scraper coming out in July’s set, Eviolite shouldn’t be played much after that.

You can use Pokemon Catcher in order to OHKO an Eelektrik or Celebi Prime. Costing 2 Colorless Energy means that you can use DCE to power it up in one turn, or energy acceleration such as Celebi Prime can be used.

The second, and rarely used attack, is called Head Charge. For four Colorless Energy, it does 80 damage, and then you flip a coin. If it is tails, Bouffalant does 20 damage to itself. This attack is unfortunately weak because it is extremely expensive and does little damage for its price.

Retreat/Weakness/Resistance/Typing

The retreat cost of 2 means that, even with Skyarrow Bridge, Bouffalant will have to retreat with an energy discard. However, Bouffalant can use the energy it used for Retaliate to retreat. Of course this is an expensive proposition because it quickly strains your supply of energy. Support from switch solves in this problem effectively.

A weakness to Fighting is bad in this format because we have Terrakion NVI running around. Whether it be Quadbulls, which is going to be bigger once DEX hits the scene, Troll, or just as a tech, there are going to be tons of Terrakion running around as long as we have Dark.Dek and Zeels.

It has no Resistance, and the Colorless typing gives it super effective coverage against, well… nothing really. Maybe RDL, but he isn’t being played much.

What decks can run this card?

This card is very splashable in any deck that runs DCE or energy acceleration. It’s splashable nature allows it to be run in a typical CMT list to great effect, because Bouffalant gives CMT something it previously lacked: a way to take the second prize without using Mewtwo EX against Zeels.

The Switches allow for both a fast retreat of Bouffalant and for Celebi shenanigans. Bouffalant disrupts Zeels by one hitting the Eelektrik, and unlike Terrakion NVI it does not require a reworking of the energy lines to be effective.

Zekrom/Eels can use Bouffalant to gain an advantage in the mirror. Unlike Terrakion NVI, Bouffalant does not require the use of Fighting Energy and can combo well with DCE, making it a safer tech overall.

As you can see, it can be used for a wide variety of purposes, but I personally think it fits into CMT really well, just because it gives it that second prize against Zeels without using Mewtwo.

What will happen to it in HGSS/DEX?

With the use of PlusPower, it can OHKO Zoroark DEX, which will be big. It can damage EXs to set them up for KOs, and it can OHKO Absol Prime. It will be good against a lot of things, so it shouldn’t lose any playability.

Overall, Bouffalant makes a great addition to the two best decks in the current format. It makes a less painful tech than Terrakion NVI, because Bouffalant does not require the use of Fighting Energy. 90 damage is a magic number in the current metagame because it allows for one-shots against Eelektrik and a non-Eviolited Zekrom.

Rating: 8/10

I have rated it 8/10 because it fits so well in many decks. It can help both CMT and Zeels in their respective mirror, but is almost useless against things like Troll and QuadTerrakion.

Below are my takes on some lists with Bouffalant in them. Be warned, they are only meant to show how decks could use Bouffalant, they are not perfect.

Zekrom/Eels

CMT

And now that the CotD is done, I want your opinion on something. What does everyone think of the new Shiny Pokemon Catcher? Answer in the comments, and remember to +1!

-Stephan!

Bouffalant (Black & White BLW 91) – Card of the Day is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Base Stats

Kyurem EX is a 180 HP Water-type Pokemon with a x2 weakness to Metal and a retreat cost of three. It has no resistance. The Water typing is OK, as it can make Reshiphlosion and the occasional Reshiboar and Donphan decks a very easy matchup, but those decks aren’t played as much as they used to be (well, I guess Reshiboar never really was played a lot, but that’s aside from the point).

Metal weakness isn’t all that bad, unless you live in a Cobalion NVI-filled area. The three retreat cost used to be a killer, but Darkrai EX can negate that. I suppose the only really good thing about it is the 180 HP; the rest is meh.

Attacks

Kyurem EX is equipped with two attacks: Frozen Wings and Hail Blizzard. Frozen Wings, for the cost of WCC, does 60 damage (stupid power creep… that used to be good!). The attack does, however, have a very interesting effect that discards a Special Energy attached to the Defending Pokemon.

While that is outclassed by Lost Remover (big time), it does mean that you can discard opposing DCE’s and (soon to be popular) Special Darkness Energies while under Item Lock. Not only does this weaken CMT, it also weakens Dark.dec (as it will use Special Darkness energies); its entire Energy acceleration is using Trainer-Items!

Kyurem EX’s second attack, Hail Blizzard, costs two Water and two Colorless Energies, just like Reshiram EX and Zekrom EX! Let’s hope it’s equally as good.

…It’s not. Hail Blizzard does a low 120 damage (well, low considering its Energy cost). To make things even worse, you can’t use the attack next turn! Ugh. But while this does sound like a very, very mediocre attack, believe it or not, it actually can be useful! Hitting hard while discarding Special Energies every other turn is actually very effective. But what would you use it with?

Uses

First off, the underestimated KyuGatr. KyuGatr uses Kyurem NVI, Kyurem EX, and Feraligatr Prime. It’s basically like ReshiBoar, but with Water Pokemon. KyuGatr actually made two different top cut spots at Regionals: Top 16 in Ontario, Canada, and Top 32 in Pleasanton, California.

The Californian KyuGatr also ran Magnezone Prime, both as a form of draw, and to pound hard when you need to. Either way, KyuGatr is highly overlooked, and, if played right, can actually do quite well.

Secondly, Kyurem EX was used in Myles O’Neill‘s EX Corners. Myles did a great job explaining all the intricacies of the deck, so you should definitely take a look at the article if you haven’t already. Basically, the deck is a complete anti-meta deck, running plenty of Mewtwos, Terrakions, Kyurem EXs, and a full playset of Prism Energy, as well as the singleton Reshiram EX for hard hits and Zapdos NXD for sniping.

Now, I’d like to post a list, but I haven’t played a Six Corners variant since before States. By the way, since Dark Explorers is coming out soon, so you might want to make some room for Darkrai EX and Tornadus EX.

[Editor's Note: Kyurem EX/Mewtwo EX/Terrakion NVI made Top 4 at Philadelphia Regionals in Masters, so that's another deck to look at too, which abuses its high HP using Super Scoop Up and Exp. Share to speed it up.]

Conclusion

I wish I could say more about this card (this is kind of a short article, even if it is a CotD), but really, I can’t. Those pretty much are the only two uses for Kyurem EX I’ve seen/used/heard of. Most of the Kyurems you’ll see being used are Kyurem NVI, as it outclasses its EX counter-part by far. However, I think this card deserves a 6.5 out of 10 (Decent/Good).

This card does have its purposes, and has done well in tournaments before. Who knows? Maybe this is only the very beginning of the rise of Kyurem. :P Anyways, thanks for reading, and make sure to comment if you have any deck ideas using Kyurem EX.

Kyurem EX (Next Destinies NXD 38/96) – Card of the Day is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

The PTCGO A.I. is not quite as good as Watson...

My name is Simon. Also, Quarter-Turn. You may have read my article back in November, or you may have seen my game with the infamous Muldin on The Top Cut back in the fall. You have probably played against me on the PTCGO. Or more than likely, you haven’t heard of me at all.

Today, I bring you sad news that, if you play the Trading Card Game Online, you have probably already heard. The PTCGO is going into maintenance again, and they’ll be shutting off the multiplayer feature for an indefinite amount of time. For some of us, myself included, playing online is our main source of playtesting. In fact, I play so often that I’ve earned just over 6200 online Game Points, the most of any player to date. Not being able to play multiplayer for several hours every day will be more than a little disappointing for me and for many others.

That said, we will still be able to play through one overlooked avenue: the A.I. I know, it’s not challenging in the slightest, and it won’t prepare you for Battle Roads very well at all, but it could be a fun way to toy around with some new deck ideas.

I would like to present to you some of the decks I have built specifically for battles against the computer. Mind you, these are fun decks that would never work in a tournament setting, or even against bad players who can read the text on your cards and see your strategy, but they are fun to play in a format where your opponent blindly attacks into your active, with no access to Pokémon Catcher or N.

Deck #1: Druddigon/Kingdra

The object of this deck is that you win without ever attacking. Druddigon + Rocky Helmet is an ineffective wall in competitive play because of Pokémon Catcher and high HP attackers that don’t care about recoil and can dish out more than 100 damage each turn. Fortunately, those two things do not appear in decks the A.I. throws at you, creating an environment that allows this deck to exist.

The game plan is to get Druddigon active right away, attach a Rocky Helmet, build up Kingdra on your bench, and wait for your opponent to kill itself. Straight draw with Cheren and Sage are excellent when your opponent can’t shuffle away your hand with Judge or N. You have N of your own to prevent deck outs, and because it’s a great card in general.

Druddigon’s ability “Rough Skin” is like a built-in Rocky Helmet. When the tool is attached, you throw 40 damage back at any Pokémon that hits you with damage from an attack. Kingdra allows you to place one damage counter during your turn, helping you get those KOs that much sooner.

I don’t like to attack with Kingdra, and most of the time, the Water Energy just acts as extra Switch, but also this: Believe it or not, the computer actually has access to Machamp SF! With one Energy, “Take Out” states that “if the Defending Pokémon isn’t an Evolved Pokémon, that Pokémon is Knocked Out instead of damaged by this attack.”

Not only does that OHKO Druddigon, but it bypasses “Rough Skin” and Rocky Helmet. So, the Water Energy gives you an out against that beast. It’s important to note that once Machamp has two Energy on it, it will usually stop using “Take Out,” so you’re safe then to bring Druddigon back in (LOL).

This deck is surprisingly fun to play. I have built it with just four Druddigon for an extra challenge, forgoing the Kingdra for Potion, Super Scoop Up, and other healing cards, but Kingdra gets very little love in competitive play, so I wanted to give it a chance to shine here.

Deck #2: Mew/Sharpedo Deck Out

Victini is glitched. We know this. But against the A.I., it works sort of. For Sharpedo, it flips the first coin, and asks you if you want to re-flip. If you got tails, you can say yes and it’ll flip two coins again for you, or if you got heads, you can say no to the re-flip, it’ll flip the second coin, and then give you the option of re-flipping just the second coin.

So, the glitch actually works in your favor. Taking advantage of this against the A.I. isn’t unethical as it might be if you were capitalizing on the glitch in multiplayer, so have at it.

The clear objective of this deck is to run your opponent out of cards. This is accomplished with Spiritomb/N + “Strip Bare,” disruption cards, and the fortunate Victini glitch.

Sharpedo’s attack “Strip Bare” lets you flip two coins. If both are heads, your opponent discards all cards from his or her hand. Mew saves space in your deck and allows you to stream Sharpedo. Victini lets you re-flip your coins to increase your odds of getting two heads.

I run only one Victini in this deck because I only own one. If it’s prized, I usually just concede and start over. The computer won’t be offended.

Other interesting cards: Smoochum is for added disruption, Crobat is for an alternate win opportunity in case the deck out glitch comes into effect and you still want to win.

Crushing Hammer is obvious. Lost Remover is less relevant against the A.I., since it doesn’t run much special energy.

This deck would be a more disruptive version of Durant. If you were incapable of flipping tails, I would definitely consider taking this to a tournament. Discarding 6+ cards per turn while leaving your opponent with no hand is incredibly disruptive and flat-out wins you games when you flip right.

Deck #3: Mew/Swanna/Swoobat

Mew + Swanna + spread is indeed legal, works on PTCGO, and is so satisfying when you pull it off. Normally, it would be nearly impossible to make work but again, there exists a format for this combo and it’s called the A.I.

About some of the cards: Swanna has an attack called “Feather Dance” that, for one Colorless Energy, increases your damage next turn by 40. Swoobat’s “Phat Sound” requires you flip three coins. For each heads, the attack does 10 damage to each of your opponent’s Pokémon. For this reason, Victini would work here, as well. When these attacks are used in succession, you could be spreading anywhere from 50-70 damage to each of your opponent’s Pokémon!

The babies are for extra Basics so you don’t have to mulligan too many times. You don’t really have to worry about getting donked. The Prism are just like, why not? Your opponent doesn’t run Lost Remover and who knows, you might just feel like using “Aqua Ring.” I believe the rest is self-explanatory.

I built a version of this with Weavile UD to play in Expert Game just for jokes and to make my opponent laugh the one time every few games I manage to pull the combo off. It’s still satisfying against the A.I., though, especially because the computer always fills its bench with every Basic Pokémon that comes into its hand.

Conclusion

Those are the decks I really wanted to talk about today. Honorable mentions include LostGar to see how many Pokémon you can put into the Lost Zone in one game (20+), Banette TM energy denial to see how many Energy you can lock away, V-Blast Victini for T1 120, Cubone TM/Dunsparce HS, Cubone TM/Bisharp NVI 76, Straight Cubone with Victini, and Volbeat TM/Illumise TM.

These decks may seem elementary and silly. They are, but they’re also fun to play and give you something different to try out while we wait for our multiplayer to come back. The Trading Card Game Online is a really important tool provided to us by The Pokémon Company International. It’s good for the game, and it’s imperative that we not abandon it despite the frustration.

Remember that the site is in beta right now, so this interruption, though discouraging, should not be too unexpected. I don’t expect this kind of article to solve anything, but to at least give you something to play around with and keep you playing while we (im)patiently await the return of our PvP.

PTCGO & Beating the A.I. is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.