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Calamari Deck! (Malamar EX / Victini)

C

cturino

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Pokemon:

  • 4 Malamar-EX
    2-2 DRX Umbreon
    2 Victini
    1 PLF Mr. Mime
Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums:

  • 4 N
    4 Professor Juniper
    2 Colress
    2 Shauna
    3 Skyla
    2 Lysandre
    1 Pokémon Fan Club
    4 Ultra Ball
    2 Professor's Letter
    2 Switch
    3 Muscle Band
    1 Silver Bangle
    1 Computer Search
    4 Hypnotoxic Laser
    2 Virbank City Gym
Energy:

  • 12 Darkness Energy

Strategy:
This entire deck is based around Malamar-EX's attack Calamari MAX and Victini's Ability Victory Star. Calamari MAX does 60 damage for each heads you get when you flip a coin for each energy attached to Malamar. Using Victini's Victory Star Ability which allows to reflip coins once per turn, depending on the outcome, we can do some serious damage. I also added DRX Umbreon with Shadow Shutdown, which says to flip 2 coins. If both are heads, you get to discard all energy attached to the Defending Pokémon. I figured this can just put a hole in several decks' strategies, as Umbreon can buy some time for us to power up a Malamar. With cards like Muscle Band and Silver Bangle, we want to boost the damage as much as possible, as this is very important for Calamari MAX, as you don't always get great results, even with Victini around. Mr. Mime is just to block damage to the bench (Landorus-EX, Darkrai-EX, the occasional Kyurem). You have your normal supporters and items, except for a few items. I have included 2 Professor's Letter in the deck as it is very important that your Malamar have a good amount of energy attached to them. I recommend at least three energy per Malamar. Of course, you don't have to put all four in play, but at least 2 or 3. I also added Hypnotoxic Laser and Verbank City Gym just for extra damage, as the coin flips are erratic. Suggestions to improve deck would be much appreciated!
 
RE: Calamari Deck! (Malamar-EX / Victini)

I've been playing the same kind of deck except with PLF Vanilluxe. Vanilluxe has some stronger points over Malamar EX since it can start flipping from only one energy, and they can be of any type. It can utilise Plasma Energy/Colress Machine as well. Whereas Malamar requires at least 1 dark energy and 1 colorless to start off with. But being a basic Pokemon makes Malamar EX much more efficient and easy to set up.

Anyway, I would get rid of Muscle Band and Silver Bangle. If you want to have tools in your deck I suggest Hard Stone or Rocky Helmet to increase your chances of survival. Muscle Band and Silver Bangle are redundant in this because ideally you will be hitting hard anyway (if you're not then you need to think twice about using Calamari MAX). And by ideally I mean having at least 6 energy attached to your active Malamar EX to maximise the number of heads you could roll. An extra 20 or 30 damage with those tool cards will make little difference, especially if you have a really bad roll of tails even after using Victinis ability.

I used Scramble Switch as my Ace Spec in the Vanilluxe ChillMAX deck. Say if my active Vanilluxe could only take one more hit before being knocked out, I can Scramble Switch it back to the bench to save a prize card and replace it with another Vanilluxe, while transferring all that energy to the new one with full HP.

Also, where are your DBCs? You need at least 4. Attach a dark energy on turn 1 and then a DBC on turn 2 and 3 and already you could be hitting for up to 300 (with luck of course).

And you might want 2-3 Rainbow Energy. Optional, but if you get locked by Suicune/Sigilyph the only way you can get around that is by using Lysandre (which could be prized or at the bottom of your deck) or swapping out to Mr Mime, Victini or Umbreon to try and do some damage. Umbreon uses dark energy so thats fine but the other two need their own type energy, which can some in the form of Rainbow Energy. It is sort of a last resort, maybe Umbreon as a backup attacker is enough for you.

Oh and I just saw that you are running Hypnotoxic/Virbank. To me this seems redundant as well since it shifts focus away from CalamariMAX and energy acceleration (which there is none of in this deck anyway).

-3 Muscle Band
-1 Silver Bangle
-x Dark Energy
+4 DBC

I'm not sure about the rest and what to add as I'm still new to this. Hope this helps!
 
RE: Calamari Deck! (Malamar-EX / Victini)

Thanks for the advice darkpulse! I definitely appreciate your feedback, but I think I'll still keep by Muscle Bands and Silver Bangle. I prefer them to Rocky Helmet just because you know your attack does more damage. And because you're new to the TCG, I'll just tell, 20 or 30 damage can sometimes really make the difference.
 
RE: Calamari Deck! (Malamar-EX / Victini)

The Umbreon from Dark Explorers (The Shadow Shutdown one) has rotated out of competitive play. Besides, I don't feel that it's strong enough on it's own. A good support Pokemon with Malamar-EX is Hydreigon from Legendary Treasures, along with Max Potion. Try it out if you can!
 
RE: Calamari Deck! (Malamar-EX / Victini)

Thanks, GadgetJax! That sounds like a pretty neat idea with Hydreigon. I don't believe DRX Umbreon has rotated out due to Expanded Format, though.
 
RE: Calamari Deck! (Malamar-EX / Victini)

...and the thread prefix says BW-On.

I think Umbreon should be replaced with Raichu because you can OHKO Pyroar more easily with it. Raichu also helps against YveltalEX, which will be exploiting the amount of energy you are putting on MalamarEX. You should also include at least 1 DarkraiEX to take advantage of the free retreat that comes with playing Darkness Energy. Double Colorless Energy is great because you get two more flips for one attachment, and Dark Patch can reuse Darkness Energy while powering up your attacks in a blink.

-2 Umbreon
-2 Eevee
-1 Victini (It's really not necessary enough to justify playing two)
+2 Zoroark
+2 Zorua
+1 DarkraiEX

-4 Darkness Energy
-1 Shauna (The least powerful of your draw supporters. No more than 1 is needed)
-1 Ultra Ball (Comp. Search can serve as an Ultra Ball, too)
-1 Professor's Letter (Usually you only want more than one if playing multiple Basic Energy types or a Rain Dance strategy)
-1 Skyla (The list looks pretty consistent, so you won't need to be doing as much searching)
+4 DCE
+4 Dark Patch

-1 Silver Bangle
+1 Muscle Band (I don't think Silver Bangles are good unless your main attackers are non-EX)

Good luck with your deck.
 
Carpey said:
...and the thread prefix says BW-On.
Click to expand...

Eh? Ah, um... That should be Future.

... You saw nothing.

f8f.gif
 
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