Max Raid Battle – Exploring Centiskorch VMAX / Green’s Exploration

Hey what’s up guys!  This is Charlie and I’m happy to be back with another article.  While I haven’t used PTCGO ever in my career, I recently caved and started to build my collection in order to play in some of the major online tournaments that are coming up soon.  I am missing the annual Worlds testing grind as much as anybody, so these events have given me an incentive to mess around in the pre-rotation UPR-DAA format for a bit.  I’ve tested all sorts of absolutely wild decks, but today I wanted to share one of my more successful creations, Centiskorch VMAX / Green's Exploration!

When first looking through scans of Darkness Ablaze, I had already spent lots of time thinking about a deck revolving around Charizard VMAX (it was originally anticipated to release in Rebel Clash, so I thought about this in April) that operated similarly.  You would power up a large Charizard VMAX and OHKO all of your opponent’s Pokemon before they could deal with your Charizard.  But when I first read Centiskorch VMAX, I realized that it could capitalize on Charizard’s strengths even more.  Its attack, G-Max Centiferno, does 40 plus 40 more damage for each Fire Energy attached to Centiskorch and also accelerates a discarded Fire Energy to Centiskorch after the damage has been calculated.  This is an incredibly powerful snowball mechanic because you already have nearly limitless damage and you get a positive return on every attack unlike Charizard’s hefty cost of discarding Energy.  In combination with new cards like Heat Fire Energy and existing cards like Big Charm, Centiskorch VMAX could do something no Pokemon card has ever done before: have absolutely ridiculous HP (over 400 HP is possible!) and also OHKO everything in the format while paying no hefty costs.  In theory, if a Centiskorch deck is built well, it can set up one indestructible Centiskorch and run through the opponent’s entire field without batting an eye.  Adding in a few disruption elements would allow the deck to create both an immovable object and an unstoppable force in one Pokemon before an opponent could deal with it.  I set out to create this exact type of deck, and after trying many different variants, I’ve settled on this list for now.

List and Explanations

I have tested many different combinations with this list and still have many more to test, but this has gotten the job done in testing so far.  Its consistency is still a little bit lacking, but it proves the concept really well and there are a lot more cards in this format that can make this even better.  Let’s get into the individual cards now:

2-2 Centiskorch VMAX

I am still unsure about this thin line, but the idea is that you are only going to ever use one Centiskorch VMAX in a game.  You should never need more than this, so I felt it was justified to keep the line super thin. Voltorb is also a much better starter than Centiskorch, so I wanted to increase those odds as well.  This took a lot of inspiration from Primal Groudon-EX lists of the past where this thin line worked well.  I may up it to 3-2, but I see no need for more than that unless you’re extremely worried about prizing both your Centiskorch VMAX or losing your Centiskorch V early on.

4-2 Electrode GX

Since I currently don’t have another starter Pokemon in this list, I felt that maxing out the Voltorb count would be a good idea since there is almost zero value to your opponent to ever KO them.  For it to matter at all they’ll need to KO two, at which point I can use a third as another decoy to force them down to one Prize.  KOing only one of them will still allow me the chance to use both Extra Energy Bombs (VERY unlikely, albeit possible) and otherwise it’s a better starter than letting damage rack up on your Centiskorch early.  Only two Electrode-GX are necessary because it is very rare to use both in a game.  I like this count, but may go down to 3-2 if I decide to play another starter instead.

4 Green’s Exploration, 4 Welder, 4 Pokegear 3.0

I decided to go for a classic Green’s Exploration engine because this deck can take advantage of so many unique Trainer cards and doesn’t need to draw as many cards as most other decks do.  As long as you can get the first spark going (starting with a Green’s Exploration, hitting an early Welder, etc.), the Green’s engine works perfectly for a deck that plays more from the deck and doesn’t need to do 5+ things a turn in order to win.  I can use Green’s Exploration to search out my Pokemon through Quick Ball and Evolution Incense, I can discard and find Energy by searching out a Giant Hearth, and I can find both Hyper Potion and Life Herb easily whenever I need them.  At the moment, the Green’s Exploration feels like the best thing to make this deck work as intended.

4 Hyper Potion, 3 Life Herb

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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