Only One Can Be the Best – Optimizing Tera Box
After testing the new format, one card has proven itself to be insanely broken and problematic: Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex. Wellspring Ogerpon is basically a consistent turn 2 Radiant Greninja’s Moonlight Shuriken in a format with no Manaphy. There is no real defense against this monster. If it gets to go first, it will mercilessly tear apart the your setup before the game really begins. Since you likely won’t have a response ready, it can spam its attack thanks to Crispin and Sparkling Crystal, generating enormous tempo and applying maximum pressure. Over in Japan, some players identified this and brought Tera Box to the Champions League. Fan Rotom with Noctowl is the premium consistency engine in a post-rotation world without options such as Lumineon V, Rotom V, and Forest Seal Stone. There’s just no match for the utility of Fan Rotom. Not only does Noctowl enable Wellspring by constantly searching out Crispin and whatever else you need, but it also enables the Teal Mask Ogerpon ex plus Energy Switch combo. And why stop there? These Energy acceleration options can be applied to any attacker, not just Wellspring. Pikachu ex is a durable nuke that works perfectly in this deck, while Lillie’s Clefairy ex is the efficient damage-dealer that also counters Dragon-type matchups.
It does not take a rocket scientist to see that this deck is obscenely good. The general consensus is that it’s the clear BDIF. If you aren’t playing this deck, you sure need some sort of answer prepared for it. This deck is incredibly format-warping due to Wellspring Ogerpon’s attack. Every deck needs to be able to receive a Torrential Pump sniping the Bench on turn 2.
As of now, the format is still somewhat undefined and there aren’t any clear-cut counters to this deck yet. If you can find the perfect list, you’ll be at an advantage in the early stages of this format, playing the best deck with the best list. That’s what I’m going over today. Tera Box is not perfect or foolproof, but it is incredibly powerful, versatile, and consistent. It is truly ridiculous that this deck is allowed to exist, so let’s dive deep and push it to its limits.
I don’t think this deck needs to be revolutionized or reinvented. I’m just interested in making the 60 cards as optimized as possible. Wellspring is the core of the strategy. It’s usually the go-to early-game attacker, and often ends up being useful on later turns as well. I think two copies of it are non-negotiable. Unfortunately, the untimely loss of Hisuian Heavy Ball makes things a little more awkward for toolbox decks with lots of techs, so we also need to account for our Prize cards. As such, the deck should play two Teal Mask Ogerpon, even though you only ever need one of them. It’s too integral for the deck functioning, opening up lots of Energy Switch plays. Of course, Fan Rotom is also too critical to play just one. Aside from that cast, everything can be played as a 1-of. Yes, even Lillie’s Clefairy ex. Even if a good one-of Pokemon is prized, you can usually find something else to do to make up for it. In the case of particularly important ones, like Clefairy in certain matchups, you can still take a few Prizes to try and fish it out. Another reason why one Clefairy is acceptable is because it isn’t needed in plenty of situations, and there are commonly games where you do not end up using it at all. Of course, like any one-of, there will be times where you’re frustrated to prize it, but I am ok with the risk-reward trade off in this particular instance.
Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex and Ditto have become quite common in this deck, and for good reason. This deck relies on high-maintenance combos for tempo and taking Prize cards. Ursaluna is the perfect partner to close things out, as it can get two cheeky Prize cards basically for free. You can blow through all of your resources to blitz Prize cards and rely on the low-maintenance Ursaluna to clean up. This same concept was applied in decks like Lugia VSTAR and Lost Box before, and it works just as well here. Ditto is an amazing consistency booster by effectively allowing Fan Rotom to search for anything, which is just insane. In previous Terapagos decks, Ditto was a rare inclusion because it was difficult to push into the Active Spot on turn 1, but that is not the case here, so it gets the green light. If you’re lacking a Tera Pokemon for the turn 2 Noctowl (or if you want to save the Nest Ball for something else), Ditto transforms into that. Other common uses for Ditto are shifting into Latias ex or Budew. Let’s take a look at the list:
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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