Even when looking through the many powerful Pokémon in the Pokémon TCG: XY—Ancient Origins expansion, Mega Tyranitar-EX stands out as a game-changer. Its aptly named Destroyer King attack has enormous potential, capable of Knocking Out Pokémon-EX of virtually any size. Plus, Mega Tyranitar-EX itself has 240 HP, making it one of the hardest Pokémon to take down.

Building a Mega Tyranitar-EX deck is an exercise in focus—every decision you make should be aimed at using the Destroyer King attack as early and often as possible. There are a lot of challenges to overcome: powering up Destroyer King, adding extra damage to the opponent to maximize the attack’s effectiveness, and even getting Mega Tyranitar-EX into play in the first place. We’ll take a look at all of these issues to craft a powerful and successful deck.

Take a look at our example Mega Tyranitar-EX deck.

Rise to Power

First things first: getting the star of this deck into play. There are a number of cards that are good at drawing Pokémon from your deck, but none are more suited for this deck’s needs than Hoopa-EX. When it comes into play, you get to search your deck for three Pokémon-EX and put them into your hand. Just one Hoopa-EX can get both Tyranitar-EX and Mega Tyranitar-EX, plus another useful Pokémon such as Shaymin-EX. Alternatively, you can use Ultra Ball to find the Pokémon you need—which is also useful for stocking your discard pile with Energy (we’ll get to that shortly).

For this deck to work quickly, it must also include the Tyranitar Spirit Link Tool card, which allows you to Mega Evolve Tyranitar-EX without ending your turn. The value of Spirit Link cards is often offset by the limitation on Tool cards—usually, a Pokémon can only have one Tool attached, and the Spirit Link takes up that space even after it’s served its purpose. Fortunately, Mega Tyranitar-EX’s Θ Double Ancient Trait gets around that by letting you attach two Pokémon Tool cards! There’s a lot of room to be creative here with a second Tool card. Our example deck includes Weakness Policy to offer some protection from Fighting-type Pokémon, Sparkling Robe to ward off Special Conditions, and Hard Charm to soften the blow from attacks. Exp. Share could also come in handy to recycle Energy, and Lucky Helmet could help keep up the flow of cards into your hand. Experiment to see which Tool cards work best for you.

Hail to the King

At two Darkness and two Colorless Energy, the Destroyer King attack is expensive to use—and if it were any less fantastic, it’s a good bet that many top players wouldn’t even try to make Mega Tyranitar-EX work because of that cost. That’s a testament to how good Destroyer King is, capable of delivering Knock Outs on even the toughest Pokémon if everything goes right. The most common way of fulfilling Destroyer King’s Energy requirements is through the use of Mega Turbo, an Item card that lets you attach a basic Energy card from your discard pile to one of your Mega Evolution Pokémon. It’s perfectly suited for powering up Mega Tyranitar-EX, and because it’s an Item card, you can play several in a turn.

Mega Turbo obviously won’t work without Energy in the discard pile. To set that up, players typically turn to Ultra Ball (which pulls double duty in this deck, as mentioned above), or Professor Sycamore (which also lets you draw a bunch of new cards). With this kind of quick setup, you can frequently get Destroyer King fully powered up and hitting in the first two turns of the game. That’s unbelievably fast, especially for the damage potential of this attack.

Appetite for Destruction

Destroyer King works best if your opponent’s Active Pokémon has already taken damage. With two damage counters on its target, the attack does 230 damage (110 base damage plus 60 more for each damage counter). That means that even the 250-HP Wailord-EX can be taken down in one hit, if it takes 20 damage before Destroyer King does its thing. Golbat is perfectly suited for this task—its Sneaky Bite Ability lets you put 2 damage counters on one of your opponent’s Pokémon when Golbat comes into play. You can even evolve into Crobat on the next turn and get a bigger effect with its Surprise Bite Ability, which puts 3 damage counters on one of your opponent’s Pokémon.

The combination of Mega Turbo and Golbat is highly effective for setting up a big hit with Destroyer King. But it’s not the only way. Yveltal can fill both needs—Energy retrieval and damage—with its Oblivion Wing attack. The attack is cheap and useful, making Yveltal an easy alternative to slip into this deck. You don’t have to choose one approach over the other—include them both to give yourself some flexibility.

Interim Leader

We opened by saying that every decision in this deck is built entirely to support Mega Tyranitar-EX. But what happens if it all goes wrong and you just can’t get Destroyer King up and running? It’s unlikely, but it could definitely happen. Our example deck includes Lugia-EX to cover this scenario, since it’s a Pokémon that can hold its own until Mega Tyranitar-EX can get set up. Lugia-EX’s Aero Ball attack requires only 1 Double Colorless Energy (which this deck already includes), and with 170 HP, Lugia-EX should be able to weather a hit or two before making way for Mega Tyranitar-EX.

With the proper support, Mega Tyranitar-EX has the power to reign over Pokémon TCG decks for a long time to come. There’s a lot of room for creativity in this deck—just remember to stay focused on using the Destroyer King attack early, quickly, and for as much damage as possible. With this in mind, Mega Tyranitar-EX can help crown you the victor!