Awkward HydroPony (Blastoise / Keldeo EX)

[KittehCatten]

I want to try to get into competitive play this season, and I'm giving a shot at building a deck.

Awkward HydroPony Deck
Pokemon:

• 
  x3 Keldeo EX (BW61 promo)
  x3 Blastoise (Plasma Blast 16)
  x1 Mr. Mime (XY 91)
  x1 Greninja EX (XY20 promo)
  x2 Wartortle
  x3 Squirtle
  x1 Xerneas EX (XY 97)

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums:

• 
  x1 Life Dew (Ace Spec)
  x1 Rare Candy
  x2 Evosoda
  x4 Professor Juniper
  x1 Switch
  x1 Cilan
  x1 N
  x1 Ultra Ball
  x2 Poke Ball
  x2 Pokemon Catcher
  x1 Eviolite
  x1 Shauna
  x1 Professor's Letter
  x1 Muscle Band
  x1 Red Card
  x2 Fairy Garden
  x2 Level Ball
  x1 Energy Retrieval
  x1 Pokemon Fan Club

Energy:

• 
  x10 Water Energy
  x7 Fairy Energy
  x2 Double Colorless Energy

Strategy:
This deck is meant to be able to take a few routes to getting Keldeo up and ready. Obviously, (Insert standard HydroPony deck strategy here) with some completely random techs. Greninja is a solid backup attacker if things go sour, Xerneas is another, Mr. Mime can recover HP early game, and you have all the Fairy energy floating around for Fairy Garden which is perfect for Keldeo's rush in. So rate the awkward HydroPony pl0x.

Replace fairy garden with Float Stone? But...

Spoiler

1. With the 4 cap only a max of 4 of my pokemon can retreat with it, and you recommend 3. Since my pokemon generally have high retreat costs (4 retreat Blastoise is a prime target because helpless support is helpless) I want to be able to have the freedom of all my pokemon being able to retreat. Sure, Keldeo's ability Rush In may be prime for retreat, but 7 free retreats are better than 3 that take up a Pokemon Tool slot and Keldeo isn't always ready for battle if it switches in without a Float Stone. Keldeo may need a life dew or muscle band attached since this deck in its current state can kind of be slow to start up. Sure, only 1 Keldeo with attached Float Stone on the field may seem like a good alternative, but
2. VIRIBANK CITY GYM is another target with Fairy Garden. Running 2 can effectively counter most decks running 2 viribank. I am considering removing Mr. Mime (found to be pretty useless so far) so HP restoration won't be an option (see Potion removal)
and even though Keldeo is essentially a special condition remover I don't want to need to deal with the OHKOs Hypnotoxic Laser is behind.

 

[LoneWolf2113]

RE: Awkward HydroPony (Blastoise/Keldeo EX)

Well, first of all, I don't play a Blastoise/Keldeo deck so I don't know how accurate this advice will be. I'm just gonna give advice as to which trainers that you could play outclass others. For example, Ultra Ball is ALWAYS better that Poke Ball since it doesn't require a coin flip, and giant cape isn't really played, especially in Blastoise decks.

-2 Poke Ball
-1 Giant Cape
+3 Ultra Ball

Life Dew can work with some things, but Blastoise usually always wants Dowsing Machine

-1 Life Dew
+1 Dowsing Machine

Juniper is simply a better supporter than Cheren or Cilan and Lysandre outclasses Pokemon Catcher

-1 Cheren
-1 Cilan
+2 Juniper
-2 Catcher
+2 Lysandre

Multiple Rare Candy is required in any Stage 2 deck, so as to make sure that they are efficient enough. You usually want 1 Rare Candy for each Stage 2 Evolution

-1 Eviolite
-1 Wartortle
+2 Rare Candy

I feel that Float Stone definitely outclasses Fairy Garden.

-1 Garden
-2 Evosoda
+3 Float Stone

(Not that I don't believe in the power of Evosoda, it's just more powerful in Stage 1 decks)

N, Colress, and Skyla are all really great supporters

-1 Rainbow Energy
-1 Red Card
-2 Potion
-2 Revive
-1 Fairy Energy
+3 N
+4 Skyla
+2 Colress

This is really all the advice I have to give right now. I'm having a hard time keeping up with the things I've taken out and put in. Once you've updated the list, I may be of more use, but I'm getting confused. Sorry.

Hope this helps,
LoneWolf2113

 

[KittehCatten]

RE: Awkward HydroPony (Blastoise/Keldeo EX)

I updated the deck list to your reccomendations, LoneWolf, with the cards that I have (not the greatest collection of practical cards >_<)
But Cilan is my go-to card for Energy along with Letter.
I didn't even know Lysandre existed. (It was brought to my attention during an online TCG match Catcher was flip-reliant)
I THOUGHT I HAD MORE N O_O
Rare candy why so rare you're only uncommon T_T

Replace fairy garden with Float Stone? But...
1. With the 4 cap only a max of 4 of my pokemon can retreat with it, and you recommend 3. Since my pokemon generally have high retreat costs (4 retreat Blastoise is a prime target because helpless support is helpless) I want to be able to have the freedom of all my pokemon being able to retreat. Sure, Keldeo's ability Rush In may be prime for retreat, but 7 free retreats are better than 3 that take up a Pokemon Tool slot and Keldeo isn't always ready for battle if it switches in without a Float Stone. Keldeo may need a life dew or muscle band attached since this deck in its current state can kind of be slow to start up. Sure, only 1 Keldeo with attached Float Stone on the field may seem like a good alternative, but
2. VIRIBANK CITY GYM is another target with Fairy Garden. Running 2 (see updated list, I found another) can effectively counter most decks running 2 viribank. I am considering removing Mr. Mime (found to be pretty useless so far) so HP restoration won't be an option (see Potion removal)
and even though Keldeo is essentially a special condition remover I don't want to need to deal with the OHKOs Hypnotoxic Laser is behind.
Adding that to the strategy...

 

[LoneWolf2113]

4 Float Stone would be good. I was just worried that you wouldn't have the space for it. Virbank is always a bit of a nuisance but it may not be too big of a worry if you play 4 Float Stone, which lets you retreat out of the poison for free. I'd choose it over Fairy Garden retreat since it would cut down on space. You wouldn't really need to have free retreat for everything with Fairy Garden since you can just use Keldeo's Rush In with a Float Stone to retreat for free out of poison or anything else without having to run the Gardens and Fairy Energy.

 

[KittehCatten]

Virbank is always a bit of a nuisance but it may not be too big of a worry if you play 4 Float Stone, which lets you retreat out of the poison for free.

What I explained was because in between turns you still take poison damage, you will have 30 damage on your pokemon before you can do anything, plus a good attack from an EX during the same turn and some previous bench damage and you're knocked out. After watching tournaments, I see many decks have this and I don't want them to have that power since I am not running it.

4 Float Stone would be good. I was just worried that you wouldn't have the space for it.

because 2-3 garden take up more space than 4 float stone.
Well I guess carrying an entire garden with you may be a little big...

 

[LoneWolf2113]

2-3 garden are less space, that is true. However, 2-3 garden + however many Fairy energy isn't. If you carry, say, 3 Garden, and at least 1 Fairy Energy for each Pokemon, that's 8 spaces at minimum whereas 4 Float Stone, while they can be discarded, take up less space, giving you more space for techs. In regards to the first response, it is true that many decks run both Hypnotoxic Laser and hard hitting EX Pokemon, but you would have the same problem with Fairy Garden and Fairy energy on your Pokemon. If you're KO'd on your opponent's turn due to Poison damage or just damage from a Pokemon, you wouldn't be able to retreat it since it would then be in your discard pile. If you aren't KO'd then great. You can retreat to get the Poison off with a Fairy Energy/Garden combo. Or you can retreat with Float stone which doesn't take up your energy attachment for turn (granted with Blastoise it may not matter as much late in the game). In any other case, I'd say run Tropical Beach to counter the LaserBank combo, but since it's most likely going out of format this September and costs around $200 (US) for just 1, then i'd be against it. That's why I don't play 'Stoise. Lol. In my opinion, I'd go with Float Stone over Fairytreat (I just made that term up. I doubt if it's a real thing), but still you should playtest both combos at your local league, or just with friends. Then maybe they could show you what combos would work best for the deck you're wanting to run. Even so, I say drop the Fairy stuff since Keldeo needs all those Water Energy to be efficient enough to get OHKO's on Pokemon EX and whatnot. Don't need those Fairy energy crowding his attack.

 

[skyla27]

Here, i play a Blastoise deck IRL, so ill give you my list and you can try it and see if it suits your style. My list is also a bit unrefined, so bear with me, im just showing you how i play mine:


4 Squirtle
1 Wartortle
3 Blastoise
3 Keldeo EX
1 Blastoise EX
2 Suicune
1 Voltorb
1 Electrode (Magnetic Draw ability)

14 Water

4 Sycamore
4 N
4 Skyla
4 Ultra Ball
4 Rare Candy
4 Professor's Letter
3 Superior Energy Retrieval
2 Startling Megaphone
1 Escape Rope

Okay, now, just to highlight a few things: Most Blastoise players run between 9-13 energy total in their deck, and that is considered a high energy count by today's standards. If you play the Black Kyurem variant of this deck, you'll run around 9-11 water energy and then 2-4 lightning. If you run the straight Keldeo variant, youll run 11-13 water straight away. I run 14 because I tried to keep my trainers consistent and not include anything extra. This is a very basic trainer list as you can see, no ace specs and no real techs to speak of. Just the bare necessities. Electrode is very important even as a one of, as it can very easily get you an early game setup when youre having a tough draw. Aside from that, the most important cards in this deck are your skylas and your superior retrievals. the retrievals allow you to attack something like an Yveltal a little more fearlessly knowing you can just get those energies back next turn if you suffer a KO. Makes using Keldeo a whole lot easier. If youre going to use an ACE SPEC, I recommend either Dowsing like the person above me mentioned, or i would use Scoop Cyclone to let you pick up a badly damaged EX that's not quite KO'd, because Blastoise's ability can just re-drop whatever energies you had on that hurt pokemon all at once. But this is only my take, I also play a version where i keep the trainers the same, but i drop Blastoise EX, Voltorb/Electrode and 3 Water for 3 Yveltal EX and 3 Dark Energy. Its a good deck if you take the time to put it together properly, and although Tropical Beach is optimal for good success, you can definitely still compete without it if you build right.


P.S. one more version that might work- cut the voltorb/electrode, Blastoise EX , one water energy and a squirtle. Add one wartortle, 2 Delphox XY and 2 Fennekin. That might do you even better ;p

 

[Cody Carrico]

I would personally consider consider running Shauna over N. N is great if your opponent is losing and wont get as many draws but if the situation is the other way then you could put yourself into trouble. As stated before in stage 2 decks rare candies are a must have, it simply speeds things up alot.