Expanded Unown DAMAGE/ Reuniclus (BLW)/ Wailord EX/ Weavile (STS)/ Klefki (STS)/ Magma Secret Base

[DKQuagmire]

This idea was come up by Youtuber ZapdosTCG (after watching his video on the new Unown cards). He came up with this awesome winning game strategy for using Unown DAMAGE.
All credit for this deck idea should go to him.
since the card is new i'll go over it at the end of this decklist.

#25 Pokemon
3 Unown (DAMAGE)(SM8)
3 Solosis (Noble Victories)
1 Duosion (BLW)
3 Reuniclus (BLW)
3 Wailord EX
3 Sneasel (ULP)
3 Weavile (STS)
3 Klefki (STS)
1 Ditto Prism Star
1 Mr. Mime (BKT)
1 Oranguru (SM)

#4 Supporters
4 Apricorn Maker

#27 Items and Stadiums
1 Computer Search Ace Spec
4 Team Magma's Secret Base
4 Nest Ball
4 Level Ball
3 Ultra Ball
2 Field Blower
4 Random Receiver
3 Rare Candy
2 Rescue Stretcher

#4 Energy
4 Warp Energy

This is just a first draft, and i'm sure you guys can come up with better ideas for a list, but imagine this.
Imagine you board looks like this. Unown with the DAMAGE ability Active. 1 Damage swap Reuniclus on the bench. 1 Steam Siege Weavile on the bench, and 2 Wailord EX on the Bench. Team Magma's secret base is in play. I have a Klefki in hand. I put Klefki onto bench. Take 20 damage from the Team Magma Secret Base. Use Damage Swap Reuniclus to move Klefki's damage to Wailord EX. Attach Klefki to Wailord using it's ability. Use Weavile's ability to return Klefki to the hand. Play Klefki back down. Take 20 from Magma Stadium. Damage Swap to Wailord. Attach to Wailord. Use weavile's ability, return Klefki to hand. Play Klefki onto bench. Take 20 damage. Damage swap to Wailord. Attach to Wailord. Return Klefki to hand.... YIKES.... Just repeat this process over and over and over again in an infinite combo until you have 66 damage counters on the board and you win the game!

also the damage counter maths is perfect.

Wailord EX can have 24 damage counters on it
2nd Wailord EX can have 24 damage counters on it
Reuniclus can have 8 damage counters on it
Weavile can have 8 damage counters on it
Klefki will have 2 damage counters on it

24 + 24 + 8 + 8 + 2 = 66

-----------------------------

Unown – Psychic – HP60
Basic Pokemon

Ability: DAMAGE
Once during your turn (before your attack), if this Pokemon is your Active Pokemon, and your Benched Pokemon have a combined total of at least 66 damage counters on them, you may choose to win the game.

[P] Hidden Power: 10 damage.

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

 

[Chicken Nugget Master]

Yes I saw a HeyFonte post about this, and the idea really appealed to me. I also created a rough list, but with Ultra Ball, Nest Ball, Level Ball (as everything except Wailord can be searched with these) Apricorn Maker as the only supporter (as once you've set up, you have essentially won) and Random Receiver to find the Apricorn Makers without fail. Here are my suggestions:

You won't need duosion, as your goal is to have everything up t2, so drop the duosion and add maximum candies.

A 3-3 weavile line is probably better than 2-2, on the off chance your prize cards are cruel to you.

Mr. Mime is 100% necessary as a Buzzwole counter, as Buzzwole can donk solosis while it is on the bench (there has not been a solosis with more than 30hp ever printed)

Giratina Promo is also necessary as a Trevenant counter, and maybe also counter catcher to move trevenant out of the active (remember you can KO your own Pokemon as often as you want here so being behind on prizes really isn't an issue)

A 4th float stone is crucial here as you need to be able to put unown into the active to win the game.

Focus on maximum counts of the core essential cards, as your goal is extremely straightforward, although hard to set up so maximum consistency is key. Don't waste time on 1 ofs for certain situations like teammates or colress, although of course keep the 1 of computer search!

Choice Helmet and Vs seeker aren't needed, just trust me. Rescue Stretcher is OK, but as a 2 of at most.

I will post my own list when I have had time to proxy test this deck and find out the best way to play it, but until now I would keep these suggestions in mind when building your list.

 

[AuraJackle]

Will most certainly be banned on card release if tpci sees this as being a toxic win strategy that consistently gets running. Just like shiftry

 

[AlphaVoxel]

I very sincerely hope I don't have to play against this at League or regionals or something. This seems like a very interesting deck, and, if you play it well enough, could certainly be good. The only downside is that if your opponent can get enough spread damage on you, you're toast. Here is what I might suggest:

Throw in 1 Weavile from Burning Shadows. It's first attack, Rule of Evil, places 60 Damage on anything that has an ability (your and your opponent) for only a single colorless energy. This will help you get some damage onto the board, and can also help disrupt your opponent a bit. The only downsides are that it makes things a fair bit easier for your opponent to KO your stuff, especially with spread damage (watch out for Necrozma). You would also have to run a single energy, but that is easily searched with Computer Search (and isn't detrimental if you prize it).

Also, as noted above, cut the Duosion, but maybe leave 1 in just in case. Vs Seeker should also probably be at 4, but doesn't really need to be.

Hope this helps a bit!

 

[PMJ]

Someone needs to proxy this and see if it's actually viable because if you hit the nuts you're winning on turn 2. You'll have to find room for some Tool removal to take care of Garbotoxin unless Alolan Muk becomes the new meta.

I love that someone actually came up with a working strategy for this.

edit there is no way you are winning on turn two but it's still pretty darn cool

I very sincerely hope I don't have to play against this at League or regionals or something. This seems like a very interesting deck, and, if you play it well enough, could certainly be good. The only downside is that if your opponent can get enough spread damage on you, you're toast. Here is what I might suggest:

Throw in 1 Weavile from Burning Shadows. It's first attack, Rule of Evil, places 60 Damage on anything that has an ability (your and your opponent) for only a single colorless energy. This will help you get some damage onto the board, and can also help disrupt your opponent a bit. The only downsides are that it makes things a fair bit easier for your opponent to KO your stuff, especially with spread damage (watch out for Necrozma). You would also have to run a single energy, but that is easily searched with Computer Search (and isn't detrimental if you prize it).

Also, as noted above, cut the Duosion, but maybe leave 1 in just in case. Vs Seeker should also probably be at 4, but doesn't really need to be.

Hope this helps a bit!

Magma Base does all your damage for you, so doing additional damage is unnecessary. Your win condition is setting this scenario up, so every card in your deck should serve as a means to that end.

Setting this strategy up is very tight. You only have five Bench spaces to work with and four of them are Weavile (90 HP), Reuniclus (90 HP), and two Wailord-EX (500 HP). You need to leave a spot open for Klefki looping, and then the 65th and 66th damage counters you need to claim victory will come from dropping Klefki down one last time for the last 20.

Taking an odd amount of damage also screws up your math, since you won't be able to bring your Pokemon to 10 HP, which is required for this strategy to work at all. I would suggest finding room for a Damage Mover or two.

 

[DKQuagmire]

Magma Base does all your damage for you, so doing additional damage is unnecessary. Your win condition is setting this scenario up, so every card in your deck should serve as a means to that end.

Setting this strategy up is very tight. You only have five Bench spaces to work with and four of them are Weavile (90 HP), Reuniclus (90 HP), and two Wailord-EX (500 HP). You need to leave a spot open for Klefki looping, and then the 65th and 66th damage counters you need to claim victory will come from dropping Klefki down one last time for the last 20.

Taking an odd amount of damage also screws up your math, since you won't be able to bring your Pokemon to 10 HP, which is required for this strategy to work at all. I would suggest finding room for a Damage Mover or two.

Damage mover is only moving 3 damage counters which reuniclus is doing already. But it could be an option to keep whatever is the active pokemon healthy.
Another option is the plain standard potion card. It used to only heal 20, but as of the black and white base set it got printed with a new errata that said it now heals 30 damage (3 damage counters), which is great if you have an odd number of damage counters on your side of the field, in the time it took to set this whole thing up.

I can't believe i'm even thinking of "Potion". A card that's been in every format since base set, as being a viable card in this deck. ROFL.

But if there is an odd number of damage counters in play, wouldn't it make sense to just move all but 1 damage counter from Klefki before turning it into an tool card. Klefki loses all damage counters on it when it becomes a tool card. so for example if it has 3 damage counters on it. move 2 counters to Wailord. keep the last one on and make it a tool card. simple.

EDIT: made some heavy changes to the first list.
Dropped all the Brigette and Elm's Lecture to instead focus on an Apricorn Maker and a Random receiver engine. Removed Guzma and Colress and added 2 AZ. AZ will be my way to pick up whatever is active when unown comes into play, so I can promote unown as my new active pokemon. I might consider playing Switch or Escape rope though since it's only your side of the field that really matters and not theirs. I removed all my Float Stone to fit in 3 Random Receiver

I bumped up the numbers of Sneasel and Weavile and added Mr. Mime for Buzzwole GX and an Oranguru. AZ will Scoop these guys up when I got my combo going. I realised that this deck can run into a zero card hand situation after turn 1, where you have to constantly rely on what you top deck. Having Oranguru around gives me a better hand each turn and draws me into more stuff. I have also added 2 Field Blowers and maxed out the VS seeker.

EDIT 2:
I added back in the Float Stones because that can be a critical win condition, and also decided to run 4 level ball. What was I thinking. Every card except Wailord and Oranguru has 90 HP or less. I took out the VS Seekers, Gladion and Skyla. I left AZ in there just in case also went down to 3 ultra ball. I think between 4 Apricorn maker 4 nest ball, 4 level ball and 3 ultra ball that's enough of a ball search engine. Decks that play mysterious treasure can often get away with having 3 or less ultra ball. Heck there was even a deck in the finals with no ultra balls and just mysterious treasure. (also I needed deck space)

Hopefully the deck is looking a bit more streamlined.

 

[treyh37]

might want to add a fighting fury belt, bodybuilding dumbbells or giant cape just to give you the extra hp so you're not that vulnerable to snipe/spread.

 

[DKQuagmire]

Just realised that you don't need AZ to pick up the active pokemon, (If you can't find a float stone). On the turn you have the full combo you can Klefki loop to knock out your own active pokemon (If its Reuniclus or Weavile you don't really want to knock them out. use a float stone for these), then promote Unown.
This opens up space for the 4th Float stone and maybe a Giratina promo for Trevenant BREAK. Though i'm leaning towards something like 2 Guzma.

A smart Trevenant player, won't evolve into the BREAK, if they know you have the Giratina promo, which could make it a pretty useless card. and deck space is tight enough as it is. Guzma works under trainer lock, which would allow you to go off by dragging a Tapu Lele GX or unevolved Trevenant (Phantump) active.

I think at this point I have addressed all the concerns made by @Chicken Nugget Master
But I must thank you for some of your amazing card ideas.

 

[PMJ]

Forgot that you can just shove any unwanted damage onto Klefki before you tool it.

 

[Chicken Nugget Master]

You don't need guzma, play counter catcher instead. The requirement for having more prizes left is extremely easy to achieve as you can just over damage one of your pokemon to the point where it is KOd, forcing your opponent to take a prize. Trust me, counter catcher is better.

Edit: Oh wait you are right maybe Guzma would be better, never mind that. Trev players do still get item lock when they haven't evolved into the BREAK evolution yet.

On an unrelated side note, TPCi need to print some sort of card that negates the abilities of Stage 1 [P] Pokémon, then Trev and Alolan Muk wouldn't be a worry anymore. If only...

 

[DKQuagmire]

You don't need guzma, play counter catcher instead. The requirement for having more prizes left is extremely easy to achieve as you can just over damage one of your pokemon to the point where it is KOd, forcing your opponent to take a prize. Trust me, counter catcher is better.
Edit: Oh wait you are right maybe Guzma would be better, never mind that. Trev players do still get item lock when they haven't evolved into the BREAK evolution yet.
On an unrelated side note, TPCi need to print some sort of card that negates the abilities of Stage 1 [P] Pokémon, then Trev and Alolan Muk wouldn't be a worry anymore. If only...

The problem with counter catcher is it is a trainer item card. The Trevenant card from XY base set, will prevent you from using any trainer item cards whatsoever.
Trevenant does not prevent you from playing supporter cards though, and any supporter card that can force an opposing active Trevenant out of the active position to something else would give you at least 1 more turn.

This is still a very difficult matchup. Especially if the Trevenant player goes 2nd and they get their first turn assention off. I think at that point, it's probably best to just concede the game.
The deck currently plays no Duosion, meaning you rely on Rare candy to get Reuniclus into play. Being unable to play Rare Candy is basically an auto loss for this deck.
Maybe it's worth considering a 1 copy card of Duosion for just such an occasion.

 

[Chicken Nugget Master]

The thing is though, Trevenant will ALWAYS go second to get T1 Ascension now the ban list has taken effect. Which means you'll always go first. And as it is only the active phantump that can use ascension, you can guzma/lysandre anything on their bench and end the item lock. Forget what I said about the counter catchers, they are irrelevant and a 1/1 Guzma/Lysandre split is probably the way to go. We can also probably cut the Giratina promo for the Instruct Oranguru, as you will either have won or conceded the game before they get their first Trev BREAK out, that's assuming they decide to evolve it at all.

 

[momand]

Maybe you could run Skyla just to help get Magma's Secret Base/Rare Candies out? I dunno just a thought

AZ could also be run to get your other Pokemon (Giratina/Oranguru/Mr. Mime) off the board to assist the loop.

 

[Chicken Nugget Master]

Maybe you could run Skyla just to help get Magma's Secret Base/Rare Candies out? I dunno just a thought

AZ could also be run to get your other Pokemon (Giratina/Oranguru/Mr. Mime) off the board to assist the loop.

Skyla is outclassed by Trainers Mail purely because it is a supporter and not an item in my opinion, and you won't need AZ because you can infinitely loop damage, so you can just KO those Pokemon instead of using AZ on them (just be careful how many prizes you're giving up here). The only supporter you would be playing in an ideal world would be Apricorn Maker, but Guzma/Lysandre is unfortunately necessary in order to deal with Trevenant.

Also just for clarification, I would play the Solosis from Plasma Blast and the Sneasel from Ultra Prism, just so you don't get hit by any "copy 1 of your opponent's Pokemon's attacks" style attacks and for the 70HP on Sneasel so it won't get 1HKOd whilst on the bench (when you don't have Mr. Mime down) by a Buzzwole GX with Wide Lens attached.

I'm very passionate about this deck if you couldn't tell!

 

[Merovingian]

For sake of space, you could cut down the Sneasel line to 2-2 and maybe cut a Klefki.

Not sure if Instruct Oranguru is needed.

Maybe consider Beacon A Ninetales and the Fairy A Ninetales to grab Pokémon and Items. Throw in Ditto Prism Star for evolution versatility.

Considering you don’t run anything that shuffles your hand back and that you probably won’t play Float Stone until you’re about to combo out, maybe go with 4 Warp Energy in case of Item Lock or something?

I love goofy decks, but if I have to face this in Dallas, I’m not going to be terribly trilled.

 

[DKQuagmire]

For sake of space, you could cut down the Sneasel line to 2-2 and maybe cut a Klefki.

Not sure if Instruct Oranguru is needed.

Maybe consider Beacon A Ninetales and the Fairy A Ninetales to grab Pokémon and Items. Throw in Ditto Prism Star for evolution versatility.

Considered by you don’t run anything that shuffles your hand back and that you probably won’t play Float Stone until you’re about to combo out, maybe go with 4 Warp Energy in case of Item Lock?

Wow. Warp energy. I never even thought or considered that card. It might just be the card we need to deal with trainer lock, and we can get away with playing those instead of guzma/ lysandre, meaning all the random recievers will get the apricorn makers ONLY. also, once attached to a pokemon, as long as it's not attached to something like Wailord you'll be able to pay the manual retreat cost (if the cost is 1), if you need to promote it active later on in the game.
Ditto Prism star is a nice option. But unless I play Duosion I can't rare candy Ditto into reuniclus, as ditto won't let me play rare candy on it.
Oranguru is there to draw cards since after turn 1, you hand size will be basically zero every turn. When your about ready to combo off, you just need to klefki loop all the damage to oranguru to knock it out, to free up a bench space.

EDIT
Taken out all the float stone and guzma, for 4 warp energy, and added Ditto Prism Star. Also cut 1 Wailord EX for a Duosion for now.
Also made notes for the Solosis/ duosion and Sneasel, now i'm playing energy.

 

[Chicken Nugget Master]

For sake of space, you could cut down the Sneasel line to 2-2 and maybe cut a Klefki.

Not sure if Instruct Oranguru is needed.

Maybe consider Beacon A Ninetales and the Fairy A Ninetales to grab Pokémon and Items. Throw in Ditto Prism Star for evolution versatility.

Considering you don’t run anything that shuffles your hand back and that you probably won’t play Float Stone until you’re about to combo out, maybe go with 4 Warp Energy in case of Item Lock or something?

I love goofy decks, but if I have to face this in Dallas, I’m not going to be terribly trilled.

Great ideas @Merovingian, goodbye 4 Float Stone and hello 4 Warp Energy! My only concern is that Float Stone can be Trainers' Mailed, whereas Warp cannot. As @DKQuagmire already said, ditto probably wouldn't help this deck as much as we'd like it to, but it was still a good idea nonetheless. I also agree with him about the instruct Oranguru, and it is very useful just for that extra card or three it gets you, and then pops off to the discard pile once you're done with it.

As this deck doesn't (and rightly shouldn't) play any Gladion/Rotom Dex etc, in case our prizes decide to be really mean to us and prize 2 copies of a single card, we still have just enough Pokémon to get out the combos that we need to. As @PMJ correctly stated, this deck's win condition lies entirely in its setup, so all our efforts should be focused on that (with the exception of cards like Field Blower for Garb and Guzma/Lysandre for Trev) and if that means playing 24 Pokémon, then so be it. I would like to have more space, so we can have both Random Receiver and Trainers Mail, but I guess the only way we'll find out what is best and what isn't is by proxy testing, so I'll be doing a lot of that tomorrow and posting my results here.

 

[pikachuuuu101]

Should I build this for a while
Or just proxy test against myself, as this deck really just battles itself

 

[Merovingian]

Wow. Warp energy. I never even thought or considered that card. It might just be the card we need to deal with trainer lock, and we can get away with playing those instead of guzma/ lysandre, meaning all the random recievers will get the apricorn makers ONLY. also, once attached to a pokemon, as long as it's not attached to something like Wailord you'll be able to pay the manual retreat cost (if the cost is 1), if you need to promote it active later on in the game.
Ditto Prism star is a nice option. But unless I play Duosion I can't rare candy Ditto into reuniclus, as ditto won't let me play rare candy on it.
Oranguru is there to draw cards since after turn 1, you hand size will be basically zero every turn. When your about ready to combo off, you just need to klefki loop all the damage to oranguru to knock it out, to free up a bench space.

EDIT
Taken out all the float stone and guzma, for 4 warp energy, and added Ditto Prism Star. Also cut 1 Wailord EX for a Duosion for now.
Also made notes for the Solosis/ duosion and Sneasel, now i'm playing energy.

Great ideas @Merovingian, goodbye 4 Float Stone and hello 4 Warp Energy! My only concern is that Float Stone can be Trainers' Mailed, whereas Warp cannot. As @DKQuagmire already said, ditto probably wouldn't help this deck as much as we'd like it to, but it was still a good idea nonetheless. I also agree with him about the instruct Oranguru, and it is very useful just for that extra card or three it gets you, and then pops off to the discard pile once you're done with it.

I'd only consider Ditto Prism if you run something like 1 A Fairy Ninetales GX for Item searching. Otherwise, you'd only be able to evolve to Weaville or Duosion, and that sucks.

I thought about the Warp Energy VS Float Stone idea, it makes a bit more sense to run Float Stone because Trainer's Main CAN search it out. And also opens doors in case you decide to run Order Pad. If you're against Item Lock builds, you're in big trouble anyway and it's really unlinely that you'll win against them. And if anyone runs Lysandre Labs, you should be bumping it with Magma Base anyway before you go off.
If anything, I'd focus more on consistency than trying to have an out for every matchup, as you WILL hard lose to certain decks in Expanded. And Item Lock is looking a bit niche and anti-meta at the moment, so it's on the fringe and definitely tier-2 at most where we are currently at.

As this deck doesn't (and rightly shouldn't) play any Gladion/Rotom Dex etc, in case our prizes decide to be really mean to us and prize 2 copies of a single card, we still have just enough Pokémon to get out the combos that we need to. As @PMJ correctly stated, this deck's win condition lies entirely in its setup, so all our efforts should be focused on that (with the exception of cards like Field Blower for Garb and Guzma/Lysandre for Trev) and if that means playing 24 Pokémon, then so be it. I would like to have more space, so we can have both Random Receiver and Trainers Mail, but I guess the only way we'll find out what is best and what isn't is by proxy testing, so I'll be doing a lot of that tomorrow and posting my results here.

I've been testing out HAND OTK and I've noticed that Pokemon doesn't have a lot of reliable Item-based draw. It's definitely not how Yugioh operates, or has operated (I ran Yugioh OTK/FTK decks for 5 years and built/ran the Self-Destruct Button FTK in regional tournaments).
The big difference between Yugioh and Pokemon is that Pokemon is more resource based and Yugioh you're literally working with a full deck. With Pokemon, you can't min/max OTK decks and you're inevitably going to have extra cards somewhere to ensure your prize cards don't screw you out of your condition. And you have Energy, or in your case, Pokemon to add to the problem.
DAMAGE has a bunch of Pokemon; HAND has a bunch of Energy. I fear that both of our builds will clump pretty bad by proxy that we have a lot of moving parts going on. At least, I have as much Item based draw in the deck as I can afford (besides Gym Badge) and it still has problems.

If you do proxy testing, test out 2 Unown instead of 3. If you prize 1, you're not in bad shape, but prizing both is REALLY not likely to happen. 3 seems a bit like too much clump.


Food for thought. Since you run a bunch of 60 HP and less Pokemon, and that Duosion is 60 HP, maybe consider running Professor Elms Lecture and also have a focus on Timer Balls for Weaville and Duosion/Reuniclus/Fairy A Ninetales for Ditto Prism if you do ever run it

 

[PMJ]

Not sure that Guzma/Lysandre is needed at all. You aren't winning the Trevenant matchup, Items or no Items. In a best of 3 you might meme out a win against it if you're lucky but then the jig is up and they will never bench anything for you to gust out.

Oranguru seems sketchy. I don't know if I'd bother with it.