Crushing Waters (Empoleon/Terrakion)

[ChaosBlack]

This is the skeleton for the deck I ran at battle roads last saturday. I left with a winning record (4-2) which I was fairly happy with considering I'm still kind of a scrub to the Pokemon TCG. I would like to maybe top cut in the one of approaching BR's next week, but living in a state where you have to go up against 2 world champs doesn't exactly help...anyway, onto the list.

4-1-4 Empoleon DE
3 Terrakion NV
2 Pichu

14 Pokemon.

3 N
3 Juniper
2 PONT

8 Supporters

4 Junk Arm
4 Rare Candy
3 Catcher
3 Switch
3 Exp. Share
3 Dual Ball
2 Random Receiver
2 Communication
2 Super Rod
2 Lost Remover

28 Trainers

4{W}
4{F}
2 Rainbow

10 Energy


Main point of the deck is to quickly fill the bench to power up Empoleons attack. Terrakion acts as a secondary attacker as well as a counter to Lighting and Dark.


Now, the first thing people are going to wonder is why I don't play Collector. I did a lot of testing with both methods and found Pichu+Dual Ball to be slightly better with set up. Plus without collector, I feel more comfortable playing Random Receiver and a lower Supporter count. Some have suggested Smeargle but I personally don't like it in this deck. Since energy, Switches and attachments are crucial at many points, I don't like the idea of having to waste on just to retreat a Smeargle stuck active after using Portrait. I'd like to keep in Lost Remover since it can make for amazing disruption (it even won me one of my games). Any ideas/constructive criticism will be noted.

 

[Trapinch]

Your list looks very well made, but if it were me, I would put in more search cards. I hope this helps!

+ 1 communication
+ 1 dual ball
- 1 super rod
- 1 switch

Getting empoleons fast and your pichus at the beginning is crucial. This is why you would want to play max dual ball and more communication. With a 4-1-4 Empoleon line and 3 Terrakion, I don't see the point in two super rod. I would take out one switch because you play junk arm and you should be able to diving draw for them.

 

[ChaosBlack]

I agree that I could drop a switch for another dual ball but I found that 2 super rods works well. Back when I only ran one, I would run into situations where I needed to get Pokemon back into my deck to get onto my bench to power up Empoleon and my one super rod was either prized or I couldn't draw into it without putting myself at risk of decking out. I personally think that 2 super rods is better in this deck, but that's just me.

 

[Trapinch]

I never took into account decking out, but it's still your personal preference.

 

[Blah]

- 1 Rare Candy
-1 Empoleon (seriously, 3 should be more then enough)
- 1 Juniper
- 1 Lost Remover

+ 2 N
+ 1 PONT
+ 1 Catcher

Decking out is a HUGE problem with Empoleon; Juniper is just going to make that worse. Maxing out N can really help prevent that, and PONT is just 1 less card then Juniper. Juniper is still a good card though, so keeping 2 is fine.

Lost remover isn't THAT important of a card, especially in Empoleon which is already tight for space. Catcher is very important in this deck because the unreliable damage output makes it absolutely necessary to pick and choose what you want to kill.

 

[Lumos77]

I love this deck and went 4-1 at BR. Some things you might want to do though.
+1 Terrakion (trust me, you need 4 for the Darkrai Matchup)
+2-3 Max Potion (Empoleon loves this)
+1 Energy Retrieval (A good player will play around your Exp Shares to drive you into an energy drought, so this can come in handy, and if not just Diving Draw it)
+1 Water Energy
+2 Fighting Energy (I've found it helps)
And to make room
-1 Exp Share
-1 Super Rod
-2 Random Receiver
-3 Duel Ball (Pichu is all you'll ever need)

Mostly these are nit-picky things but I think they really will help, though none of them are mandatory except Max Potion. I also play 4 Collector instead of Pichu in my deck, but that is solely a matter of preference.