The Ascent of the Crazy Crab – Klawf / Terapagos ex Breakdown
Hey PokeBeach readers, Ciaran back with another article today! As I expected, Surging Sparks did not bring us any new Tier 1 archetypes focused on the Pokémon in the set, but it did seriously buff some old archetypes. We saw Miraidon ex win the Sacramento Regional Championships, making great use of the new Magneton. The deck was able to mow through the plethora of Regidrago VSTAR decks en route to a victory. The finals was a Miraidon ex mirror-match, showing just how powerful the deck has gotten with the addition of Magneton. We have also seen other archetypes take advantage of new cards like Energy Search Pro powering Gholdengo ex to three Top 8 placements across the Regionals in this format. As expected, Pikachu ex has helped Lost Zone decks compete in the meta, but they haven’t been able to break through to a top cut yet. Precious Trolley has also been a big boon to help decks with their setup, and we saw a super unique build of Gardevoir ex make Top 8 in Stuttgart using the card in combination with Call Bell to help the deck set up. There have also been some Charizard ex decks running the ACE SPEC to help their turn ones.
Klawf’s Place in the Meta
All of these decks are cool, but my favourite deck that has seemingly jumped from meme status to real Tier 1 contender with the release of Surging Sparks is none other than Klawf! The deck has always been on the fringes of competitiveness and has had some success from time to time, but never produced consistent results. Surging Sparks has provided the deck with two key cards that help a lot with consistency in Latias ex, and the previously mentioned Precious Trolley. The deck has also found a new partner in Terapagos ex that helps unlock the full potential of Precious Trolley and hit higher damage numbers!
One of the problems Klawf has had is that the most damage it can do is 240 if you have Binding Mochi and Radiant Hisuian Sneasler in play. With Area Zero Underdepths you can fill your Bench to eight Pokémon and have Terapagos ex hit for 290 damage after our modifiers! This is enough to take out VSTAR Pokémon such as Lugia VSTAR and more importantly Regidrago VSTAR. To me this is the biggest reason the deck is strong, being able to use a one-Prize attacker, but having Terapagos ex, and later on in the game Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex, to hit bigger numbers. Most other decks can’t efficiently weave in a single-Prize attacker that does as much damage!
Not only does Area Zero Underdepths help the deck do more damage, but it also lets the deck play a plethora of support Pokémon. Besides your main attackers, the deck needs space for Bench-sitters that enable setup and damage. Pokémon such as Latias ex, Squawkabilly ex, Brute Bonnet, Radiant Hisuian Sneasler, and Oranguru V. It is not uncommon to play Precious Trolley on turn one and grab six to seven Pokémon. Talk about insane value from one card! Without Area Zero your Bench does get clogged quickly. The other nice thing about this deck is that after you are established it isn’t that back-breaking to have your Stadium replaced since you can discard your setup Pokémon such as Squawkabilly ex or Lumineon V. You also don’t solely rely on Terapagos ex for damage as you have Klawf and Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex to hit for Knock Outs.
The most underrated part of this deck however is that you get to Knock Out your Poisoned opponent with poison damage during the Pokémon Checkup stage more often than not. While this might seem inconsequential, it has huge ramifications in-game. Having your opponent’s Pokémon Knocked Out during Pokémon Checkup stops a lot of popular cards from working — the most relevant one being Fezandipiti ex. This card is a mainstay in the game currently and enables decks to consistently dig for their combo pieces and execute their strategies. The Flip the Script Ability allows you to draw three cards if any of your Pokémon were Knocked Out during your opponent’s last turn. If you can force a Knock Out through poison the Ability can therefore not be activated! Fezandipiti ex isn’t the only thing you can play around — common cards such as Unfair Stamp, Legacy Energy, and Gift Energy can all have their effects nullified by a poison KO. By managing your Bench you can alter how much damage Terapagos ex does and force Knock Outs through the poison tick. Mastering this aspect of the deck is important if you want to see success with Klawf!
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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