Kingdra

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Every day I'm Shucklin'
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108-kingdra.jpg


Now this one's a strange one. I really like the look of Kingdra's second attack. Attach a bangle and you've pretty much have a guaranteed knockout.

Now of course its a Stage 2 so its going to take some time to get set up, even if you're lucky with your first few draws.

Any ideas/deck suggestions?
 
Yeah, this one seems like it could be really good. It just needs some professors letter/energy retrieval to keep the energy flowing and it can attack every turn. I also think a copy of the PLS Kingdra wouldn't be a bad idea to get energy back while doing tons of damage. The only problem is coming up with backup attackers. There's Miltank, but that's useless until Kingdra is in play. Manectric/Mega Manectric might work though.
 
While Kingdra is powerful, the problem it faces is that EX's are usually around 170 and 180 HP. You'll either have to use Silver Bangle in place of Muscle Band, or a more interesting choice...

Try Forretress and Muscle Bands. Forretress drops the extra damage, and then Muscle Band hits to get the Knock Out. Forretress is also a good attack against Fairy Types, which hurt Kingdra.
 
You could run a typical Kingdra/Greninja deck, but run a 2-2 or 3-1 BCR-PRC kingdra line.
This list is a little old, but you can work around it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iidxx5t8Yms
 
After an initial review, I too was drawn to this Kingdra's second attack and started looking at my old PLF Kingdra list to get some ideas about a new deck. I thought I would start with:

2 Kingdra (PLF)
2 Kingdra (PC)
2 Seadra
4 Horsea...

Then "reality" kicked in when I started trying to determine how to get 3 distinct energy onto the PC Kingdra without falling too far behind in the prize count early game.

Adding secondary attackers or initial starting Poke is not my issue as much as being able to accelerate the distinct required WWL energy onto the PC Kingdra for Dragon Blast. Until I can solve this issue "reasonably", then a PC Kingdra deck is not that "tournament-worthy," IMO.
 
Even with @ Growth you think the energy requirements are too stiff?

I assume you'd have to run more energy search/recovery cards than usual (maybe 2 Professor's Letter and 3 Energy Retrievals?), but that doesn't seem like too much to overcome.

Maybe pair it with Wailord EX who can sit out front and absorb damage while you build up Kingdra, then AZ Wailord to remove damage and switch into a fully powered Kingdra. Rinse and repeat as necessary. It's not going to be fast, especially at first, but it could definitely sweep up pretty fast once set up.
 
The Ancient Trait could combo nicely with Energy Retrieval / Superior Energy Retrieval, and perhaps Kingdra PLF as a backup means of recycling energy. Discarding energy is good in this format (so long as you can recover it) since it reduces vulnerability to Yveltal-EX and Mewtwo-EX. Still, the cost is a little awkward and it's a Stage 2, meaning it will be hard to get out. 130 HP and a Fairy Weakness may also be unkind in the months to come, especially if M-Gardevoir-EX becomes popular.
 
I never realized how poor the wording for Ancient Traits are.

Do I attach one energy+2 more?
Does it have to be basic? Can I attach to DCE?
Can I attach energy of different types like 1 fire 1 water?

This card is a stage 2 which is not the best, but if the trait lets you attach both a water and electric it would be a really good card. I think the other kingdra has an attack that meshes with this where you do damage based on energy in the discard, and they are shuffled back. It will be a fun Tier 4 deck. It will have nice company with Swampert/Slurpuff and Miltank/Empoleon/Dusknoir.
 
Mr.Muffin said:
I never realized how poor the wording for Ancient Traits are.

Do I attach one energy+2 more?
Does it have to be basic? Can I attach to DCE?
Can I attach energy of different types like 1 fire 1 water?

This card is a stage 2 which is not the best, but if the trait lets you attach both a water and electric it would be a really good card. I think the other kingdra has an attack that meshes with this where you do damage based on energy in the discard, and they are shuffled back. It will be a fun Tier 4 deck. It will have nice company with Swampert/Slurpuff and Miltank/Empoleon/Dusknoir.
Click to expand...

I don't think you should label the tier of the deck yet, we don't know for sure what will work and what won't work.
 
This card is awful in the current format.

I don't mean to be harsh, but Stage 2 attackers are pretty much a thing of the past right now. For a Stage 2 to even hope to come close to working, it needs to have something extremely good going for it...and this one doesn't (heck, the good stage 2 attackers that are currently legal like Empoleon are seeing absolutely zero play right now). Hitting 170 or 180 doesn't instantly make a card good like it used to, especially with the popularity of mega Pokémon. To make matters worse, this thing can't even be streamed--you have to feed it two energy every turn to attack at all, and once the first or second one goes down, you won't have 3 energy to attack with the next one (assuming you even get 3 Kingdra up--without level ball, getting multiple Stage 2's out quickly is very difficult. Add a not-so-good fairy weakness and you have a card that is slow, weak, and outclassed.
 
Blah said:
This card is awful in the current format.

I don't mean to be harsh, but Stage 2 attackers are pretty much a thing of the past right now. For a Stage 2 to even hope to come close to working, it needs to have something extremely good going for it...and this one doesn't (heck, the good stage 2 attackers that are currently legal like Empoleon are seeing absolutely zero play right now). Hitting 170 or 180 doesn't instantly make a card good like it used to, especially with the popularity of mega Pokémon. To make matters worse, this thing can't even be streamed--you have to feed it two energy every turn to attack at all, and once the first or second one goes down, you won't have 3 energy to attack with the next one (assuming you even get 3 Kingdra up--without level ball, getting multiple Stage 2's out quickly is very difficult. Add a not-so-good fairy weakness and you have a card that is slow, weak, and outclassed.
Click to expand...

Repeat and Dive Ball will make it so much easier to get multiple in to play without item lock, with item lock it's a different story, but without you could set up faster than before.
 
I forgot that the pre-evolutions are water types.

Even so, as you say, item lock basically tears the deck to pieces as you can't use rare candy or any search. But even not considering all of the early game set-up problems...why? Why are you playing this card over any of the other decks in the format? Again, doing 170-180 doesn't instantly make a card good anymore, because plenty of other cards do it too. And again, streaming Kingdras is hard enough without having to worry about energy conservation, which becomes a serious problem in this deck because you have to feed Kingdra every time you want to attack.

It boils down to this--it's pointless to set up a stage 2 attacker that eats your energy like crazy when you could do just as much damage with the basics in the format. Combine the early game set-up issues, the problems with energy, and the collapse that occurs when you face item lock (which is VERY popular right now), and you get a card that has no place in the format. Don't fall into a trap where you try and find every out to make a card good--wishing it will be good doesn't make it happen. It needs to have something special going for it, and doing 150 with a drawback isn't even remotely special.
 
Blah is mostly right, and I don't think anyone is discussing this as a future Worlds winner, just simply a cool card that could be fun to play around with at league, especially since we're all going to be getting one for free anyway.

It's kind of funny that Kingdra gets none of the benefits from the new Rough Seas Stadium despite its early evolutions and energy costs coinciding with the card. Could've made it slightly more playable lol.
 
totodile_it_down said:
Blah is mostly right, and I don't think anyone is discussing this as a future Worlds winner, just simply a cool card that could be fun to play around with at league, especially since we're all going to be getting one for free anyway.

It's kind of funny that Kingdra gets none of the benefits from the new Rough Seas Stadium despite its early evolutions and energy costs coinciding with the card. Could've made it slightly more playable lol.
Click to expand...

If you want the extra hp, Training Center does the job a lot more broadly though.
 
I do agree that Ancient Kingdra probably won't see play, but I don't think it's because it's bad.

The issue it faces is that it's useless in comparison to Ancient Swampert from this set. Swampert gets a better attack, great draw support, and has 10 more HP.

When people tell you that the format is filled with Item Lock, they mean the format is filled with Seismitoad-EX. I don't see Trevenant around as much as before, and Dragonite PLF hasn't seen any play since the days of Legendary Treasures. Zebstrika is rotated, and it seems that Accelgor has dropped a tier in Expanded. If Seismitoad-EX wasn't around, I could defenitely see Kingdra be at least semi-competitive.

Even without Seismitoad, you could defenitely get around the Energy problem with PLF Kingdra, which is an okay card on it's own anyway.
 
I think using the Manaphy from PC can help refresh your hand and set up pretty quick. It isn't ideal but using that would make this deck fast enough, IMO
 
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