I've been looking for a deck that's fairly fast and can sweep well, but isn't Vespiqueen (It's too "Mainstream"... also I got bored of it). This is what I came up with:
Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, criticism etc.
Pokemon:16
Strategy:
This deck uses both Excadrill and Huntail as main attackers, with Shaymin-EX for draw support and consistency. Excadrill dredges for energies and Huntail sweeps. Excadrill also makes a good attacker when needed.
To my knowledge there is not a single energy acceleration method that can get this many energies out in a single turn.
Huntail's "Poweful storm" attack does 20 damage times the number of energies on your side of the field, this can be any energy type - not just water energies. This is what we capitalize on.
The trick is to get as many energies as possible on the field as quickly as possible, previously this was done by using pokemon with the 'Growth' trait - but this is limited to 2 energies per turn and I wanted to do something different, hence we get to Excadrill and his "Dredge" attack.
Excadrill: Can attack twice per turn
Dredge - search your deck for 2 energy cards and attach them to excadrill (can be any energy card).
The ability to attack twice each turn combined with being able to search out any energy with Excadrill means he can effectively search out 4x Double colorless energies in a single attack.
That's 9 energies... in 1 Turn.
Once he's done his job swap into the Huntail and start sweeping with the 200 base damage single energy Powerful storm attack.
Obviously this is risky, so don't just load every energy at once if you aren't certain your Excadrill will be safe - often times it's better to dredge once, then attack with Mach claw so you put some pressure on your opponent.
Card Choice breakdown:
Wally / Trainer's Mail - Ideally we'd like to attack with Excadrill the very first chance we get. Wally lets us get an attack off a turn earlier than we usually can. This momentum can often be too much for many decks to handle, aside from the fastest ones of course.
Energy Recycler - Excadrill can drain your deck of energies ridiculously fast, and if he gets KO'd we need a way to get some energies back. Due to his dredge attack they are more useful back in the deck than in the hand. I've started to consider this an essential in any deck running this Excadrill, far too many times I have simply run out of energies.
Switch / Escape Rope - we run a high number of these due to the high retreat cost of our Excadrills, we need a way to ensure we can swap from Excadrill to Huntail and Vice-Versa easily. When XY8 gets released and we have access to Float stone again that may be the better option. Alternatively using Rainbow energy and Fairy garden could work (I have not tested as I don't have access to rainbow energy).
Muscle Band - It allows Excadrill to hit for 70 damage each hit, total of 140 damage. This makes beating low-hp decks easier and can provide a knockout that otherwise would be impossible.
Lysandre - He wins games.
Excadrill - Fast energy acceleration and a good attack. Powers up Huntail very quickly.
Huntail - powerful attacker, can get above the 140 damage cap that Excadrill has and allows us to 1-shot EX's where Excadrill cannot. Covers Excadrill's fire weakness nicely.
Pokemon fan club - helps a lot with evolution lines and can fetch Shaymin-ex for draw support.
Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, criticism etc.
Pokemon:16
- 4 Drilbur (Primal Clash 89)
- 4 Excadrill (AT) (Primal Clash 97)
- 3 Clamperl (Primal Clash 49)
- 3 Huntail (Primal Clash 50)
- 2 Shaymin-EX (Roaring Skies)
- 4 Professor Sycamore
- 2 Professor Birch's Observations
- 2 Pokemon Fan Club
- 2 Lysandre
- 2 Wally
- 3 VS Seeker
- 2 Trainer's Mail
- 4 Ultra Ball
- 2 Switch
- 1 Escape Rope
- 2 Energy Recycler
- 4 Muscle Band
- 4 Double Colorless Energy
- 5 Steel Energy
- 5 Water Energy
Strategy:
This deck uses both Excadrill and Huntail as main attackers, with Shaymin-EX for draw support and consistency. Excadrill dredges for energies and Huntail sweeps. Excadrill also makes a good attacker when needed.
To my knowledge there is not a single energy acceleration method that can get this many energies out in a single turn.
Huntail's "Poweful storm" attack does 20 damage times the number of energies on your side of the field, this can be any energy type - not just water energies. This is what we capitalize on.
The trick is to get as many energies as possible on the field as quickly as possible, previously this was done by using pokemon with the 'Growth' trait - but this is limited to 2 energies per turn and I wanted to do something different, hence we get to Excadrill and his "Dredge" attack.
Excadrill: Can attack twice per turn
Dredge - search your deck for 2 energy cards and attach them to excadrill (can be any energy card).
The ability to attack twice each turn combined with being able to search out any energy with Excadrill means he can effectively search out 4x Double colorless energies in a single attack.
That's 9 energies... in 1 Turn.
Once he's done his job swap into the Huntail and start sweeping with the 200 base damage single energy Powerful storm attack.
Obviously this is risky, so don't just load every energy at once if you aren't certain your Excadrill will be safe - often times it's better to dredge once, then attack with Mach claw so you put some pressure on your opponent.
Card Choice breakdown:
Wally / Trainer's Mail - Ideally we'd like to attack with Excadrill the very first chance we get. Wally lets us get an attack off a turn earlier than we usually can. This momentum can often be too much for many decks to handle, aside from the fastest ones of course.
Energy Recycler - Excadrill can drain your deck of energies ridiculously fast, and if he gets KO'd we need a way to get some energies back. Due to his dredge attack they are more useful back in the deck than in the hand. I've started to consider this an essential in any deck running this Excadrill, far too many times I have simply run out of energies.
Switch / Escape Rope - we run a high number of these due to the high retreat cost of our Excadrills, we need a way to ensure we can swap from Excadrill to Huntail and Vice-Versa easily. When XY8 gets released and we have access to Float stone again that may be the better option. Alternatively using Rainbow energy and Fairy garden could work (I have not tested as I don't have access to rainbow energy).
Muscle Band - It allows Excadrill to hit for 70 damage each hit, total of 140 damage. This makes beating low-hp decks easier and can provide a knockout that otherwise would be impossible.
Lysandre - He wins games.
Excadrill - Fast energy acceleration and a good attack. Powers up Huntail very quickly.
Huntail - powerful attacker, can get above the 140 damage cap that Excadrill has and allows us to 1-shot EX's where Excadrill cannot. Covers Excadrill's fire weakness nicely.
Pokemon fan club - helps a lot with evolution lines and can fetch Shaymin-ex for draw support.
