Another month has gone past, meaning it's time for another Fun Deck Friday! With the new Evolutions set coming out in a week, I thought it would be a good opportunity to add in some of these new cards into a deck.
Remember, while this may not be the best deck in the format, it should be a lot of fun and reasonably cheap to build.
What's the deck?
This month, I'll be making a colourless deck, using a bunch of quick attackers. Unlike most Fun Deck Friday decks, this one will have a few EXs and very few evolutions. This is designed to function like a "big basic" deck, meaning you minimise the time used on set up and start hitting from the first turn.
This colourless deck is based around Pidgeot EX (new in the Evolutions set), Talonflame, Lugia EX and Rayquaza EX.
With Talonflame, you only want to run the Talonflame, don't worry about its previous evolutions. If you don't draw one in your opening hand, just discard the rest. The main point of this card is to get yourself drawing cards early, so if you don't open with it, just use it to discard with Ultra Ball or other similar cards.
The basic idea of this deck is that you run a toolbox of low-energy basic Pokemon and use whichever one is most useful at the time. In some games, cards like Pidgeot will be invaluable, while in other games, it will be completely useless. The trick with getting this deck to work well is to get to know when to use what cards.
Why is it good?
- Pidgeot EX is meant to be used where your opponent is using low-HP pokemon that do a lot of damage. Generally you'll want to use this near the beginning of the game. So if your opponent has something out with relatively low HP but is doing a bit of damage per turn, you can hit it back for the same amount for just one energy. I would advise running no more than 2 of these because it is a very situational card and doesn't have amazingly high HP or attack.
- If you find you really like Pidgeot EX, you can also try running the Mega. This will give you the ability to switch around your opponents Pokemon and it does a bit more damage.
- You want to use Rayquaza EX when your opponent is using set-up EXs or if they start with a bad EX (like Hoopa or Shaymin) so you can do a decent amount of damage for one energy. Again, it doesn't do a lot of damage at once so you'll need to use it sparingly
- Lugia EX is a much more versatile attacker and probably the one you'll find yourself using later in the game in most games. You can use Lugia to punish your opponent for having a lot of energy if your opponent has loaded up one Pokemon with a lot of energy. Alternatively, you can use the second attack to do a lot of damage at once if you need to. Your opponent may be using a stadium card, in which case you can discard theirs and disrupt their play, or you can use your own
- If you get the hang on switching around Pokemon and using the right one at the right time, this can be a hugely versatile deck that gives you a lot of options.
- You can start attacking from the first turn (assuming you go second) with any of these Pokemon, so it gets going straight away.
What are the weaknesses?
- Most of the deck has a weakness to lightning, so if you play in an area with a lot of lightning decks, you may want to run Weakness Policy, or maybe consider trying one of the other fun decks from previous articles.
- There's no one easy strategy to follow, so it will take a lot of play-testing to get used to the deck and learn how to play it.
- There are a lot of EXs, meaning your opponent only has to knock out 3 to win the game
- There's no big-hitter in the deck. Lugia EX can do 150 if there's a stadium in play, but sometimes that may not be enough.
What else can you use with it?
- Another option for combating weakness is to run 1 Altaria and use its ability. It's a basic and you can just put it on your bench when you need it and discard or ignore it when you don't, so I'd suggest running a copy in the deck for those match-ups when you need it.
- As always, if you can afford it, Shaymin EX can help you draw cards faster. With so many EXs in the deck, I wouldn't necessarily advise that you run more than 2 Shaymin, otherwise you'll find you'll lose quite quickly as your opponent will keep bringing out your Shaymins and knocking them out for easy prizes. If you're going to use Shaymin, try and use Sky Return as fast as possible so they don't stay on the field for too long.
- Winona is a must in this deck. It allows you to search for any 3 of your Pokemon, so I'd definitely suggest running a few.
- Double colourless energy is another card that is essential for this deck, you get 2 energies for the price of 1!
Where can I get the cards?
The cards are from all over the place, I'd suggest getting some Evolutions to try and get the Pidgeot EX and Double Colourless Energy and then trading the other cards you get for the cards from other sets that you want for the deck.
Conclusions
This is a much less coherent deck than many others from the past and has less big hitting cards, meaning it is not ideal for everyone. If you like playing a deck that can easily knock things out in a single hit but requires a bit more set up, you may want to consider a different deck. This deck is ideal for people who like to try and outsmart their opponent by knocking out weak things first and stopping their opponent from setting up.
You'll need to run lots of Lysandre because you'll need to stop your opponent setting up their powerful Pokemon so you'll need to take them out before they're charged up. Even though you should run a few EXs with this deck, it still works out pretty cheap and can be a lot of fun to have as a secondary deck in your collection to bring out when you feel like playing a deck that requires a bit more thinking and foresight.
Hope you enjoy the deck and we'll see you next month for another Fun Deck Friday!
