Alt. Format Pollution Bad (Galarian Cursola V)

[John InCENAroar]

I am scared of this deck, plain and simple. It's a gimmick, to be sure, but I think it has the tools to be worth respecting after its introduction.

Pokemon (12):

3 Galarian Cursola V

Spoiler

Galarian Cursola V – Psychic – HP190
Basic Pokemon

Ability: ‪Eating Aura
As long as this Pokemon is your Active Pokemon, when your opponent attaches an Energy from their hand to 1 of their Pokemon, put 3 damage to that Pokemon.

[P][C] Hallow Missile: 60 damage. Put 3 damage counters on your opponent’s Benched Pokemon in any ****ing way you like.

When your Pokemon V is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 2

4 Arctozolt

Spoiler

Arctozolt – Lightning – HP130
Stage 1 – Evolves from Rare Fossil

Ability: Numbing Vortex
Whenever your opponent attaches an Energy from their hand to 1 of their Pokemon, put 2 damage counters on that Pokemon.

[L][C] Electro Ball: 70 damage.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2

3 Crobat V

Spoiler

Crobat V – Darkness – HP180
Basic Pokemon

Ability: Night Asset
Once during your turn, when you play this Pokemon from hand to your Bench, you may draw cards until you have 6 cards in your hand. You can’t use more than 1 Night Asset Ability during your turn.

[D][C] Poison Fang: 70 damage. Your opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Poisoned.

When your Pokemon V is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1

2 Galarian Zigzagoon SSH

Trainer (39):

2 Marnie
4 Prof.’s Research
2 Red's Challenge
1 Piers

Spoiler

Piers – Trainer
Supporter

Search your deck for 1 [D] Pokemon and any 1 Energy, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).

4 Rare Fossil

Spoiler

Rare Fossil – Trainer – HP70
Item

Play this card as if it were a 70-HP [C] Basic Pokemon. At any time during your turn (before your attack), you may discard this card from play.

This card can’t retreat and isn’t affected by Status Conditions.

You may play as many Item cards as you like during your turn (before your attack).

2 Boss’ Orders
4 Quick Ball
2 Scoop Up Net
4 Team Yell Grunt
1 Wondrous Labyrinth PS
2 Chaotic Swell
3 Pokemon Communication
2 Evolution Incense
2 Giant Bomb
4 Crushing Hammer

Energy (9):

4 Horror [P]
4 Speed [L]
1 Hide [D]

Spoiler

Hide [D] Energy – Special Energy

As long as this card is attached to a Pokemon, it provides [D] Energy.

The Retreat Cost of the [D] Pokemon this card is attached to is 0.

The gimmick of this deck is punishing you for attaching energy from your hand. Galarian Cursola V, your ideal Active, drops three damage when an energy gets attached from hand, while Arctozolt drops 2 per. Arctozolt's ability is not limited to 1 charge per turn, so with four on the bench, and Cursola V in the active, you can passively deal 110 damage to a pokemon whenever an energy gets attached from hand to it. Due to the way the card is worded, this damage is triggered twice after the use of a Welder. While it is unlikely that all 4 Arctozolt will be put into play at the same time, the average will likely turn out to be 2, which still grants 70 *passive* damage per energy. This damage will completely invalidate some decks, namely Baby Blowns, which generally lacks the healing required to sustain attaching three energy, or one, even, since the damage it takes from Zigzagoon and Horror [P] energy can ususally KO it after a couple of turns. Furthermore, using cards like Yell Grunt and Crushing Hammer, I can attempt to remove energy from my opponent's board and force them to take even more damage reattaching them.

The stupidest part of this deck imo is the ability to utilize the bonus effects of both Horror [P] *and* Speed [L] energy, two of the most broken energy cards ever printed. Cursola V uses Horror Psychic, in addition to the ability and attack that drops counters on the bench, to spread at levels akin to Dragapult VMAX, while Arctozolt can use Speed Lightning as a tertiary draw because it's a [L] type pokemon. Though this deck plays more defensively, considering the Giant Bomb option of defense and Wondrous Labyrinth PS also increasing the cost of my own pokemon's attacks, this deck can still apply some level of pressure in the early game due to the ever-mounting opportunity cost of traditionally attaching an energy to a pokemon.

Though match-ups against TAG TEAMS or VMAX pokemon can get dicey if they are quick to set up before you, as are matchups where pokemon have high HP and low attack costs (for instance, Eternatus VMAX is pretty much an auto-loss, given Weakness and only needing 2 energy to attack, as is Rillaboom VMAX due to Voltage Beat attaching straight from the deck), the sheer ability to completely counter less fortunate decks, specifically Welder decks, is utterly terrifying to me.

Humanity has been killing the planet with waste from our energy production. Now, nature seeks to take vengeance upon us by attacking us at the roots of that production. God help us all.

Edit 1: Replace healing engine of Canned Goods and psychic energy for denial engine in Crushing Hammer and Yell Grunt.

Edit 2: Reduce Piers count for Red's Challenge due to dubious pokesearch utility.

Edit 3: Remove Porygon Z energy accel engine in favor of a 2/2 Zigzagoon/Net combo, Wonder Labyrinth PS, and a max line of Yell Grunt. Also swapping Air Balloon for Giant Bomb to focus on a defensive role for Cursola over and offensive one like before.

 

[Sword.N]

I'll consider adding some energy removal, namely Hammers and Team Yell Grunts, in order to force the opponent to attach energies continuously. Cut the amount of energy cards and Canned Goods to make room for that.

 

[John InCENAroar]

After thinking about it some more, I definitely do see the denial aspect being key here.

Replacing 2 Cans, 3 Psychic, and 1 Chaotic Swell for 4 Hammer and 2 Yell Grunt

 

[Dravinator]

I love this deck! It reminds me of Gengar CRI decks but better!

I am not sure abut your Piers line, as the only Pokemon it can search for is Crobat V. The only reason I would keep it over adding Sonia would be that it can search for any energy, not just basic.

[P][C] Hallow Missile: 60 damage. Put 3 damage counters on your opponent’s Benched Pokemon in any ****ing way you like.

Is this move supposed to say that? I am sure you'll know what I mean if you read it.

EDIT: Nevermind, WPM has a sense of humor

 

[John InCENAroar]

Precisely. I currently don't run any basic energy, so Sonia would be purely for PokeSearch, which I think is solid enough already. I suppose I could swap them for some Rosa or Red's Challenge, maybe? Would that be better?

 

[Dravinator]

Considering Red's Challenge is a once per turn Computer Search, I would probably use that instead. You can search for anything (special energy, Pokemon, you name it), but due to the high cost I would probably run 2-2 Piers and Red's Challenge.

Rosa is good, but she doesn't search for special energy and one of your Pokemon have to be Knocked Out last turn, so she is tougher to utilize.

 

[John InCENAroar]

Yeah, ok, that makes sense. Swapping 2 Piers for Red's Challenge.

 

[rewster1]

I'm excited about arctozolt but G. Cursola looks weak to me. I think I would want to go the sableye V route, as 3 zolts sets up OHKO on anything. Mimikyu to stop mallow and lana and you're good to go. Might even do a clay/lure ball engine to dig for fossils and the flippy energy acceleration item. I realize that'd be a different deck altogether though. I'm just curious about how you beat big things especially with healing.

 

[John InCENAroar]

It's tough to KO big VMAX pokemon when they don't attack for huge damage, sure; like I said in my strategy rundown, Eternatus is basically an auto-loss. If I'm going to run the denial route, the theory behind it is that even if they do continue to heal, they shouldn't be able to attack and so I remain in the active. I did, however, forget that wondrous labyrinth existed though, so I'll probably find some way to squeeze that in. What I could also potentially do is swap the Air Balloons for Giant Bombs, so that whenever I do get OHKOed by something big like a VMAX, I run a chance of chunking HP and hopefully KOing it with that damage. Heck, with the Labyrinth, I wouldn't be attacking as much and probably wouldn't need the Porygon Z line, which I could fill with Zigzagoon and a couple of Scoop Up Net for a few more counters.