If you’ve spent some time playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game, you’ll notice that players gravitate toward the super-powerful and rare Pokémon that can change the tide of battle in an instant—cards like Mega Mewtwo-EX. The rarest cards with the highest-damage attacks can be fun to use, but with some ingenuity, you can build decks using some of the more common cards that can hold their own with any opponent. It’s amazing what a little creativity and planning can do to build decks from these cards that are good enough to compete against even the most intimidating Pokémon. Check out a couple of these powerful decks as you consider what to play against your friends, on the Pokémon TCG Online, or at your next Play! Pokémon competition.
Bee Revenge
The last time we looked at decks without Pokémon-EX or Pokémon BREAK, Vespiquen had recently risen to prominence, and that card has gone on to do pretty well in competitive play (including winning the Senior Division at the 2016 Pokémon World Championships). As we examine the landscape again, the Beehive Pokémon still reigns, although newer cards have come out over the past few months and added a few tweaks to this regal deck. Take a look at an example deck and read on to see how it works.
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Vespiquen Deck
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4Double Colorless Energy
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4Professor Sycamore
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2Lysandre
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2N
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1Delinquent
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1Pokémon Ranger
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1Teammates
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4Level Ball
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4Ultra Ball
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4VS Seeker
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2Revitalizer
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2Special Charge
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1Float Stone
At first glance, Vespiquen doesn’t look like a very
impressive Pokémon—it only has 90 HP, and its attacks seem relatively weak. But
don’t be fooled! The Bee Revenge attack has the potential to do incredible
amounts of damage, and it has been a centerpiece of several tournament-winning decks.
The concept is pretty straightforward: get a lot of Pokémon in the discard
pile, and then do tons of damage with the Bee Revenge attack. Even the biggest
and baddest Pokémon-EX aren’t safe
against the wrath of Vespiquen.
In the current era of Pokémon-EX and Mega Evolution Pokémon, it’s not unusual to face off against Pokémon that have over 200 HP—that means you’ll need a lot of Pokémon in the discard pile for Bee Revenge to be effective. To discard Pokémon easily, this deck relies on a lot of tricks and Trainer cards. Ultra Ball and Professor Sycamore are two of the Trainer cards that help achieve your goal, letting you discard Pokémon from your hand.
The other key cards for this strategy are Unown and Klefki. Unown’s Farewell Letter Ability puts it into the discard pile immediately, and Klefki’s Wonder Lock Ability lets you attach it to one of your other Pokémon as a Pokémon Tool card until the end of your opponent’s turn (at which point it gets discarded). And if your opponent is playing with Mega Evolution Pokémon, attaching Klefki as a Tool has a handy benefit: it protects the Pokémon it’s attached to from being damaged by those Pokémon’s attacks. If you need to get Klefki into the discard pile immediately, here’s a nifty trick: use Wonder Lock to attach Klefki to Unown, and then use Farewell Letter. Both Pokémon will go into the discard pile right away to pump up Vespiquen’s Bee Revenge attack.
This deck needs roughly 26–30 Pokémon to function properly,
so there’s plenty of room to add other Pokémon alongside Vespiquen, Unown, and
Klefki. You’ll want to draw a lot of cards over the course of the game, and
there are some Pokémon that can help in that department. Shaymin-EX is usually the best
option, but it’s certainly not easy to get your hands on one, so our deck list
includes Octillery instead. It’s not on the same power level as
Shaymin-EX and its Set Up Ability,
but Octillery’s Abyssal Hand Ability will provide a steady stream of cards over
the course of the game. The major advantage it has over Shaymin-EX is that it doesn’t give your opponent
two Prize cards when it’s Knocked Out.
It’s typically good to have a “sidekick” Pokémon alongside Vespiquen, but since this deck uses only Double Colorless Energy, you’ll need to avoid attacks with type-specific Energy requirements. Zebstrika is a particularly good fit in the current environment. It isn’t very useful against most Pokémon, but thanks to its type and the additional effect of its Crashing Bolt attack, it’s an extraordinary counter to popular Pokémon such as Yveltal-EX, Mega Rayquaza-EX, and Shaymin-EX. Zoroark is another option: its Mind Jack attack can do a lot of damage against decks that use the Sky Field Stadium card to put down a lot of Benched Pokémon. Vaporeon is an unusual alternative, but its Aqua Effect Ability allows Vespiquen to hit the popular Volcanion-EX for Weakness. There are many ways to build this deck, and they all have different strengths.
Many of these cards can be obtained through recent Pokémon TCG products. Octillery and a lot of the Trainer cards are in the latest Battle Arena Decks, and Zebstrika can be found in the Wave Slasher theme deck from XY—BREAKpoint. Otherwise, here are some suggestions for substitutions:
Revitalizer → Super Rod
Level Ball → Acro Bike
Float Stone → Switch
Delinquent → Hex Maniac
Circle Circuit
Another deck that works well in this category of decks built from common cards is based around Raichu, a card that saw action as soon as it was released in the first Pokémon TCG: XY expansion and has maintained some attention with its inclusion in the special Generations expansion. Like Vespiquen, decks built around this Raichu have seen decent success even at the highest levels of competition, including the Pokémon TCG US National Championships. Take a look at a typical Raichu deck (seen here with its frequent partner Golbat) and read on to see how this deck works.
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Raichu Deck
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4Double Colorless Energy
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4Professor Sycamore
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2Lysandre
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2N
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1Giovanni's Scheme
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1Karen
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1Pokémon Ranger
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1Teammates
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4Sky Field
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4Level Ball
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4Ultra Ball
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4VS Seeker
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2Repeat Ball
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2Special Charge
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1Float Stone
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1Super Rod
This deck functions similarly to the Vespiquen deck, but it has one major difference: instead of putting a lot of Pokémon into the discard pile, you want to put a lot of Pokémon onto your Bench to pump up Raichu’s Circle Circuit attack. Use the Sky Field Stadium card to increase the size of your Bench to 8, allowing Raichu to attack for as much as 160 damage in a single attack. The Circle Circuit attack costs two Colorless Energy, which means you can put the pressure on your opponent in a flash by attaching a Double Colorless Energy to Raichu.
Sometimes the Circle Circuit attack can’t do quite enough to
Knock Out those big Pokémon-EX in
one attack, but there are a few tricks that can help get the job done. The main
method in this deck is Golbat’s Sneaky Bite Ability, which can put
two damage counters on a Pokémon when you play it to evolve one of your Zubat. You could also use Giovanni’s Scheme, which can add
20 damage to your Pokémon’s attacks. If your opponent’s Active Pokémon has a
pesky Pokémon Tool card, such as Fighting Fury Belt or Assault Vest, Rattata’s Mischievous Fang Ability can
discard that Tool to make it easier to get that KO.
Over the course of the game, a lot of your Pokémon might end up in the discard pile. They could get Knocked Out, you could discard them with Professor Sycamore, or your opponent might play a Parallel City Stadium card and force you to discard some of your Benched Pokémon. To keep filling up the Bench for Circle Circuit, you’ll need to use Super Rod or Karen to shuffle those Pokémon back into your deck so you can get them into play. Karen is the more powerful method of the two, shuffling all Pokémon from the discard pile into the deck, but it uses up your Supporter card for the turn. So even though Super Rod has a much smaller effect, sometimes having an Item card to recover some Pokémon makes all the difference.
If you’re looking to upgrade this deck, replacing Octillery
with Shaymin-EX will speed things up
quite a bit. Typically a deck like this wants to play as many Shaymin-EX as possible—you need a lot of Pokémon
on your Bench, so why not use one that draws a bunch of cards? Another option
is Mew-EX. Its Versatile
Ability allows it to use Raichu’s Circle Circuit attack, and its 120 HP makes
it a little more durable than the 90-HP Raichu. It gives you a Basic Pokémon
that can get around Glaceon-EX’s Crystal Ray attack, and it has a different type and Weakness
than Raichu.
If you need to find some of these cards, Raichu, Octillery, and many of the Trainer cards can be found in the latest Battle Arena Decks. Otherwise, here are some substitutions you could make.
Karen → Brock’s Grit
Repeat Ball → Trainers’ Mail
Lysandre → Pokémon Catcher
Teammates → Skyla
These are just a couple of the decks you can build without any Pokémon-EX or Pokémon BREAK that continue to be successful at all levels of play. And of course, the broad range of cards and strategies means there are plenty more ideas out there, and there’s always room for creativity. To stay up to date on the latest Pokémon TCG strategies, be sure to check back at Pokemon.co.uk/Strategy. Good luck, Trainers!
