Some PTCG Basics
Nathan covered nearly everything required to pick up some cards and play the game except for Active and Benched Pokemon. At any given time, you only have one active Pokemon. This is the only Pokemon that can attack, or be attacked. At the same time, you can have up to five benched Pokemon. A sample board is shown below. This may sound a little silly to some of you Hearthstone-heads out here; "oh, so any Pokemon I choose can have taunt? Dumb." And you would be right, were it not for cards like Boss's Orders allowing us to aggressively move around our opponent's Pokemon. Cards like that are what make turbo decks possible.
Miraidon EX Deck Profile
Deck Overview
When looking at the different deck strategies provided by Nathan's blog-- Miraidon EX would be considered a "Turbo" Deck. We rely on almost exclusively Basic EX Pokemon with large health pools and try to rush down our opponent before they can establish their board. We do this using a mixture of cards that are aggressive, supporting, and somewhere in the middle.
Flexible Cards
The backbone of this deck is Miraidon EX. Using his Tandem Unit ability, we can search our deck for up to two Basic electric-type Pokemon, including another Miraidon EX. We use this ability early into the game, ideally on our first turn, to get out the attacking options most relevant for our current matchup. At the same time, his Photon Blaster attack deals enough damage to knock out most opposing Basic EX Pokemon for a somewhat costly three energies. Raikou V is another Pokemon that doubles as a supporting and aggressive Pokemon. Its Fleet-Footed ability can draw a card, which is crucial in the late game, and because we can fill our bench with Miraidon EX, its Lightning Rondo attack can deal heavy damage for an efficient two-energy cost.
Aggressive Cards
Cards like Raichu V are only included to be able to knock out our opponent's Pokemon. Its Dynamic Spark attack deals 60 damage for each electric energy we discard from our Pokemon. This attack is costly, but can be used to take big KO's against bulky Stage-2 Pokemon. Iron Hands EX, on the other hand, has the weakest attacks we have seen yet in terms of damage dealt. The value of this card comes from its second attack, Amp You Very Much. For four energies, this attack deals 120 damage, but if your opponent's Pokemon is knocked out, you take one more Prize card. This allows you to quickly draw prize cards against Stage-2 decks before they can get set up, or deal a final blow on an opposing Pokemon EX softened up by one of our other attackers. In a game where taking 6 Prize cards wins you the game, this attack can make all the difference.
Supporting Cards
I can hear what you're saying-- "But Lucas!! Nathan said we are only allowed to attach one energy per turn. How are we able to pull off attacks for three or four energies early in the game?" That's where pure gambling enters the picture. The Electric Generator item allows you to look at the top five cards of your deck and attach up to two electric energies you find there to your benched Pokemon. As some of you may recall, we are allowed to play as many Item cards per turn as we would like. Because of this, we spend most of our first turn frantically digging through the deck to get as many Electric Generators as possible. That's where cards like Squawkabilly EX and its Squawk and Seize ability come in handy, allowing us to see as many cards as possible as early as possible.
The Cup
Now that you either skipped the first two sections or have a pretty good understanding of how to pilot a Miraidon EX deck yourself, let's move on to the results of the League Cup I played in this past weekend.
Round 1 - The Mirror
In round 1, I faced off against another Miraidon EX deck in a mirror match. My opponent chose to go first, which is questionable in this situation. Typically, when two Turbo decks face-off, the first player to take two Prize cards wins the game. These decks don't typically run any cards to disrupt the cards in their opponent's hand, so it is easy to chain attacks against them. You aren't allowed to attack going first, giving me a very good chance at taking the first KO.
During his first turn, my opponent chooses to bench Squawkabilly EX to move through his deck aggressively-- a choice that may make sense at a glance. After all, I, the local subject matter expert, just said we want to see more cards, right? So benching this Pokemon to use his ability on the Only Turn We Can should always be a part of our game plan. Right??!? Not right. Wrong, actually. You see, Squawkabilly EX is weak to electric-type moves, meaning he will take double damage from any attack I use. And with a small health pool of 160, my opponent has--at the least, just given me an easy path to taking the first two Prizes and--at the most, gave me an opportunity to take three Prizes with one attack by knocking out his Squawkabilly EX Iron Hands EX's Amp You Very Much attack.
My first turn is, honestly, pretty weak. I get no energy off of my first Electric Generator and only one on my second, which I attach to Raikou V. I decide the best course of action is to use this turn's manual energy attach on Raikou V and use its Lightning Rondo attack on one of my opponent's Pokemon for ~100 damage. His active Pokemon isn't a threat, so I use Iron Bundle's Hyper Blower ability to have my opponent switch his active Pokemon (he gets to choose the replacement), and to my surprise, he promotes Squawkabilly EX. With weakness, I am barely able to KO his Squawkabilly EX with Raikou, taking an early two Prize card advantage.
He is unable to piece together an attack on his second turn, passes over to me, and I return with another 2-prize knockout. He slams his cards on the table to show me his "unlucky" hand before storming outside for some air. Something about card games, everyone thinks they're the least lucky player alive when the stars don't align to give them the perfect cards. Nevertheless; we start 1-0.
Round 2 - New Donk City
My second game is against one of this deck's worst matchups: Charizard EX. His 330 HP is a number my deck has a lot of difficulty reaching, and he can chain attacks pretty easily. My opponent wins the coin flip, chooses to go first, flips over their Charmander, draws for turn, and .. passes. I have a decent hand, use Miraidon EX to get Raikou V from the deck, use two electric generators to get one energy onto the Raikou, attach for turn, and knock out his Charmander with Lightning Rondo.
Now here's a situation that hasn't been discussed. You just knocked out your opponent's active Pokemon and they have nothing on their bench to promote. What happens now? Do they try to find another Pokemon? Get a chance to draw for a new one? We switch to hearthstone and hit face? Nope. The game is over the moment one player has no Pokemon remaining. KOing your opponent's lone Pokemon in the early game is commonly referred to as "Donking" your opponent. So, after taking only one Prize card, I've won the game. We are now 2-0 with the Donk.
Round 3 - Tryhard Central
My next opponent was playing a deck that, frankly, is too complicated for me to try to explain in this post. Miraidon is probably a 3/10 on the complexity scale (mostly due to the different attacking options), and this guy is playing a deck that is closer to an 8/10. I'm not a big fan of playing against this deck, partially because it naturally builds up a massive hand of cards (which I can't disrupt), and partially because the people who pilot it are nearly always sweaty turbo-virgins. This specific guy was chill, but I still hate this deck.
My opponent won the coin flip, chose second, and over a very long game with lots of back and forth, I was able to win by knocking out his Pikachu EX with my Iron Hands EX's Amp You Very Much attack to take my final three prize cards in one turn. He had the option to KO my Iron Hands EX the previous turn but didn't consider this line of play. We move to 3-0.
Rounds 4 & 5 - Very European
Going into Round 4 undefeated, we are afforded a very European luxury-- Ties. If I intentionally draw the next two games, I am guaranteed to move on to the Top Cut. My opponents understand this too, so I spent the next hour and a half saying "Draw?" twice and sitting to watch the rest of the games play out--taking note of any interesting cards in my future opponent's decks. We exit the Swiss rounds with a record of 3-0-2.
Top Cut
Despite not playing my last two games, I exit the Swiss stage of the tournament in 2nd place out of 22 players. Due to the size of the field, top eight players will move on to the Top Cut. Matchups in this phase of the tournament switch to best-of-three single elimination sets.
Top Cut - The Elite Eight
I lost. I've already written about 2000 words and have tilted enough about losing this shit for me to do a full write up on this best-of-three. I am playing the same opponent as round 3. In game 1, I draw fairly well and can chain attacks, but he is able to high roll me and KO my Iron Hands EX's back, leaving me with no viable attackers and two Prizes remaining. Game 2, I run him
over with Iron Hands EX's Amp You Very Much and he concedes on his third turn to conserve time in the round. In game 3, we both draw poorly. I play poorly and am not able to piece together an attacker in time. He takes a few knockouts before time expires and he is declared the winner.
With plenty of Ricky Bobby-esque disappointment, I drove home a loser. That said, I was a loser with some fuckin packsssss, baby! For making the Top Cut, I earned 12 Series 5 Play Pokemon! packs, 4 Series 6 Play Pokemon! packs, and 3 Surging Sparks packs.
Decklist and Prizing
Peep that deck list photo, pretty clean stuff. The list is not a standard Miraidon EX list in the current metagame, but for Knowers, it should be a reasonable Prime Catcher variant. This form of the list prioritizes aggressively moving your opponent's Pokemon with Prime Catcher and doesn't worry about utilizing its own Stadium cards.
The PULLS
The Play Pokemon! packs don't really have any chase cards or much to pull that's worth big bucks, but they do have a LOT of playable cards. For standard packs, I'd approximate I get one playable card every 2-3 packs. With the Play Pokemon! packs, I get anywhere between 2-3 playable cards Per Pack. Wow! Numbers!! And what these packs lack for in ceiling, they make up for in floor, with many common cards being worth $1-2. The best pull of the evening was a Full Art Milotic EX from a Surging Sparks pack, with all the Play Pokemon! packs netting me a "metric assload" of staple cards.
I'll be playing more stuff, and hopefully winning, so I'll keep y'all updated, but for now: Good Afternoon, Good Evening, and Good Night.
Hey lucas THank you for posting your blog today! Late read but wow was it worth. A pokemon strategy for the ages.
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