Standard SUM-UNB Baby Blacephalon

[MegaAbsol10]

Baby Blacephalon, a card that at first glance seems terrible, but (in theory) is made busted by the immense amount of fire support in Unbroken Bonds. As I said before though, this works in theory. I am yet to print out my proxies for Unbroken Bonds (which I plan to do tonight), but I wanted to get this list out there as this deck is the primary deck I intend to play post Unbroken Bonds. Here's my current list:

Pokémon (6)
4 Blacephalon (UNB)
1 Eevee (SUM)
1 Flareon-GX (SMPR)

Trainers (39)
4 Welder (UNB)
4 Green’s Search (UNB)
2 Guzma (BUS)
1 Cynthia (UPR)
1 Judge (FLI)
4 Nest Ball (SUM)
1 Ultra Ball (SLG)
4 Fire Crystal (UNB)
4 Pokégear3.0 (UNB)
3 Fiery Flint (DRM)
3 Beast Ring (FLI)
2 Energy Retrieval (SUM)
1 Rescue Stretcher (GRI)
2 Wishful Baton (BUS)
1 Heat Factory ◊ (LOT)
1 Unmanned Power Plant (UNB)
1 Ultra Space (FLI)

Energy (15)
14 Basic Fire Energy
1 Beast Energy ◊

Basic Deck concept: Charge up a Baby Blacephalon using Welder and Fiery Flint T1 and proceed to just slam into your opponent, using Retrieval, Fire crystal and Fiery Flint to get more energy into your hand. It's as simple as it gets really. As you get close to the end of the game, use Power Burner GX to finish off your opponent. Only bench Eevee once you know that it and Flareon are both in deck, because Energy Evolution will shut off Green's Search. This means that you have to evolve Eevee immediately after putting it down, as Green's Search is essential to the deck.

Notable Exclusions

• I've seen Blacephalon GX being thrown into consideration as a 1 of tech, however I believe that Flareon may work slightly better
• Victini <> is something that I was considering a lot, with it's attack being Flareon's GX attack, but you shuffle the Energy back in. However, Flareon just takes the game with Power Burner, and you're going to be using it to finish the game anyway, so the shuffle effect doesn't really matter. However, if you do choose to run Blacephalon GX, get rid of the 1-1 Flareon for Blacephalon and Victini <>
• Mismagius is the final Pokemon that I think is worth explaining it's exclusion. The reason I don't run a 2-2 Mismagius is because I believe that it's very overhyped. Giving your opponent a prize card is a very bad thing. You're going to be drawing enough anyway, so I don't think it's worth giving up 1, maybe even 2 prizes just for a slightly better Lillie.
• Dusk Stone, however this is only if you run Mismagius, so it doesn't need to go in this list
• 15th Fire Energy is something I'd love to run, but I cannot find the space. The only thing I could consider cutting is (Unmanned/Abandoned/Deserted) Power Plant, but I feel that it would be a great help to have Power Plant in the list.

I know I went on a little bit with this one, but I just love this deck so much, that I had to give my full explanation on it. Let me know of any changes or improvements that you'd make to the list. Thanks!
-Absol

 

[Rudolph]

I have seen some Japanese lists that also include Volcanion UNB in their lists.

In case you end up going second you can use Flare Starter to great effect.

Don't know how you feel about this, seeing as it's only played as a one of, same as Blacephalon-GX

 

[MegaAbsol10]

I have seen some Japanese lists that also include Volcanion UNB in their lists.

In case you end up going second you can use Flare Starter to great effect.

Don't know how you feel about this, seeing as it's only played as a one of, same as Blacephalon-GX

If you're going second, you're hoping to attack with Blacephalon Turn 1, using Welder and Fiery Flint. Volcanion's Retreat cost as well is annoying.

 

[SupremeLeaderQuagsire]

Victini <> is something that I was considering a lot, with it's attack being Flareon's GX attack, but you shuffle the Energy back in. However, Flareon just takes the game with Power Burner, and you're going to be using it to finish the game anyway, so the shuffle effect doesn't really matter. However, if you do choose to run Blacephalon GX, get rid of the 1-1 Flareon for Blacephalon and Victini <>

Victini's shuffle effect can be extremely powerful in the midgame. It gives you extra usage from your Fires without burning more Crystals/Retrievals, on top of hitting for potentially high damage. This extra utility puts Victini that much higher than Flareon, in my opinion. You probably won't use it in GX matchups, but you also wouldn't use Flareon either. Blacephalon-GX does the job of taking your last prize against one prize matchups anyways, which is why I think the Flareon is unnecessary. I personally think Victini and Blace-GX get the job done better while providing extra utility.
I also like the idea of Roast Reveal Salazzle for power drawing, but I still need to test and tweak.

 

[MegaAbsol10]

Victini's shuffle effect can be extremely powerful in the midgame. It gives you extra usage from your Fires without burning more Crystals/Retrievals, on top of hitting for potentially high damage. This extra utility puts Victini that much higher than Flareon, in my opinion. You probably won't use it in GX matchups, but you also wouldn't use Flareon either. Blacephalon-GX does the job of taking your last prize against one prize matchups anyways, which is why I think the Flareon is unnecessary. I personally think Victini and Blace-GX get the job done better while providing extra utility.
I also like the idea of Roast Reveal Salazzle for power drawing, but I still need to test and tweak.

Thanks for the feedback! I see where you're coming from with using Victini and Blacephalon over Flareon, and I'll certainly take it into consideration. I was thinking about Roast Reveal, but that makes it so you can't use Green's Search, which is amazing in the deck. I'll still test both variants though.

 

[SupremeLeaderQuagsire]

I was thinking about Roast Reveal, but that makes it so you can't use Green's Search, which is amazing in the deck. I'll still test both variants though.

Roast Reveal effectively replaces Green’s in this deck. The immense draw power provided by Salazzle is enough to warrant it over Green’s. If you have two in play, you get an extra 6 cards a turn. With 3 in play you get an extra 9. The only reason I’m slightly skeptical is the deck space you have to give to your Salazzle engine and ball search. Victini also is WAY better in this variant and a necessity in my opinion, since you burn so many Energy a turn.
Basically, it comes down to this: Green’s doesn’t get you nearly as many cards and also “forces” you to run Baton in order to keep energy live since you can’t use Welder on a Green’s turn. Salazzle doesn’t let you choose specific cards but nets you more cards, which a good chance to hit one of your 4-of staples you need that turn. You can still Welder, but you lose energy a lot quicker, which Victini can help mitigate. I’m going to test both variants this weekend, so we’ll see if each is has the same strengths and weakness in play as they do on paper.

 

[CrownAxe]

Have you play tested this deck yet? My concern is blacephalon getting OHKO'ed with just 120 hp so you having to set up 3 fire energy multiple turns in a row

 

[SupremeLeaderQuagsire]

Have you play tested this deck yet? My concern is blacephalon getting OHKO'ed with just 120 hp so you having to set up 3 fire energy multiple turns in a row

This is the biggest problem I have with the deck. However, there are solutions. The safest option is to run Roast Reveal Salazzle as your engine over Green's Search so you can stream Welders each turn. The much greedier option is to run Wishful Baton. I think if this deck gets popular, especially the Wishful Baton variant, more and more decks will start to incorporate one or multiple copies of Field Blower, which completely ruins this deck if you build with Baton in mind. And with Green's coming out alongside Blacephalon next set, Blowers are as easy to find on knockout turns as ever This is another pro Salazzle builds have over Green's builds. Salazzle completely replaces Green's, which allows you to play a different supporter, so streaming Welder is now an option. I still think these Salazzle builds will run a copy or two of Baton, but now it isn't necessary, unlike the Green's build.
As a side note, 120hp is a "perfect" amount of hp for this card to have, since you dodge OHKOs from Zapdos with a single Electropower in effect, forcing your opponent to either commit more to knock your Blacephalon out or to let it live for another turn.

 

[Audiofreak19]

Your gonna need more rescue stretchers than just one for 5 Pokémon. Your not always going to have access to the one of when you need it. For this deck I would recommend 2 min but possibly 3

 

[MegaAbsol10]

Your gonna need more rescue stretchers than just one for 5 Pokémon. Your not always going to have access to the one of when you need it. For this deck I would recommend 2 min but possibly 3

Probably Yeah, I'm going to post an alternative list tomorrow with Salazzle and update the current one.

 

[AngryBokoblin]

Remember ninetales from Team Up?
If you play the salazzle, the tales can replace guzmas so you can welder those turns.

 

[P3DS]

I feel that it is slightly better with blacephalon GX in the list. Flareon is cute, but the energy will be going to the wrong place. Plus, prize flareon and bench eevee, no more green. People are suggesting salazzle, but it is unneeded. The combination of green and welder is just better. Salazzle forces discard of fire energy, Important for you to attack with. Replace green with welder, and say good bye to a lot of your consistency power. You need ultra balls, nest balls, new draw supporters. You don't have room,so greens search fixes that

Blacephalon GX provides a stronger endgame attacker. Beast ring+5 energy to kill pikazek, 6 if you want to kill all but padding wailord. You generally have 1-2 baby blace setup, so it works better. Your worst case scenario is KOing 3 ancient crystal refigigas, 2 regular and a wailord. Making a total of 28 energy discarded. Worst case.

My recommendations are:
-1-1 flareon (bring back if you need evolution - see bus vileplume, or add secret hood for vileplume/sceptile)
-1 beast ring (cute, but you want the energy in hand)
+1 blacephalon gx
+1 fiery flint
+1 Lusamine prism star (3 prize turn is critical. With blace gx, all your mons are beasts)

See what you think