Another month has passed already! Which means it's time for another Fun Deck Friday! If you're new to this, it's where I take a deck that's a little different to the standard "power up big EXs and attack for massive damage" deck and explain why this deck works and why it's a little more fun than the standard strategy in meta decks.
With Steam Siege being less than a week away from release, I thought it would be a good idea to do a Fun Deck Friday based around Steam Siege cards. Remember that rotation isn't until September, so I will look at some cards that would be great in this deck that are legal for now, but I will also look at some post-rotation options.
So what does the deck do?
This deck is a fire-based deck that mainly works around Infernape and Volcanion EX. Basically, you want to be using Infernape to attack with either Flare Blitz or Flare Up, depending on how strong your opponents Pokemon is. You can use Volcanion EX to get energies in the discard for the second attack or to bulk up other Volcanion EX attacks.
Volcanion EX also helps by getting plenty of fire energies into your discard so you can use Flare Up when you need to. With this deck, you'll need to run a few more energies than usual so you have plenty to discard and recycle.
Why is it good?
- Volcanion EX has a reasonably okay attack, so if you need to attack with it, you can. This also gives you the opportunity to hit things for weakness that have fire OR water weakness.
- Infernape and Volcanion are both weak to water, and while there are a few water decks floating around (get it.. floating! Ha ha we're such comedians), such as Greninja and the occasional Kyogre that's getting in its last few games before rotation, there's not heaps of them, so you should be fine most of the time. If you're hugely concerned about weakness, run a couple of Weakness Policy.
- You get to recycle your energy a lot, so you have less of a tendency to run out
- There's a lot of existing fire support. Fiery Torch and Blacksmith (both from Flashfire, so will be rotated soon) give you plenty of opportunity to power up your Pokemon.
- Infernape isn't an EX, so they have to knock out lots of Pokemon to win, whereas you can just knock out 3 of their EXs to win the game
- You can hit Sceptile and Vespiquen decks for weakness, so you won't even need the power up that Volcanion EX provides.
- Because of Flare Up, it's highly unlikely you'll ever lose a game by decking out.
Why is it not so good?
This deck is a 
very crammed deck. You'll need to run around 14-16 energies, as well as 12-20 Pokemon, depending on how you build it. This leaves around 28 spots in an average build for trainers and supporters. You'll have to be very careful about the cards you choose to run. I usually suggest running 9-12 draw supporters (you can get a run down of good draw supporters here) so this only leaves about 18 spots for all your searching cards, fiery torch, blacksmiths and other trainers. If you run the Delphox build (explained below), this problem becomes even bigger. So if you run this build, I suggest running it as a post-rotation deck and not using cards like Fiery Torch, so you can save yourself some space.
Setting up a stage 2 can be problematic, it takes a long time to set them up so you really need some early attackers, I'd suggest running something like Talonflame (also from Steam Siege) without running its basic and stage one and hoping you draw it in your first hand. This also gives you the option of running Talonflame BREAK if you'd like, but again this is a trade off with space. You'll need to test the deck a few times to see if it's worth the space for you.
None of the Pokemon have exceptionally high HP, which means they can get knocked out relatively easily by strong decks. Volcanion also has a retreat cost of 3, so if your opponent manages to Lysandre it out, you may have a hard time getting it out of the active spot. Volcanion's ability also doesn't buff up Infernape because he's not a basic, but you can use it to buff other Volcanions.
What are some other options?
- Delphox BREAK. This is another option to help you get your energies on your Pokemon. This will be the best option to power up your pokemon after rotation hits. This will help you cycle your energies super fast after you use Flare Up.
- Professors Letter. You'll need to run a few of these to help you get your energies back into your hand to put on your Pokemon.
- Talonflame BREAK. As already mentioned, if you're going to run Talonflame, you could run Talonflame BREAK. I would generally advise against this as it takes up too much room in your deck and you're probably better off focusing on getting out an Infernape and attacking with that. However, if you find that Talonflame BREAK works for you, it is another option you can use.
- Rare Candy. You'll need these to help set up your Infernape (and Delphox) quickly.
- Bunnelby. If you're finding that you keep running out of resources, Bunnelby can be a useful card for getting back a couple of cards you need with its Rototiller attack.
- Sacred Ash. like Bunnelby, if you find all of your Pokemon are going to the discard and you need them back, try running a couple of Sacred Ash. Sacred Ash can actually mean you can run less Pokemon and just recycle them with this card when they get sent to the discard pile. Again, this is a Flashfire card so will be rotated shortly.
- Entei. This would get the buff from Volcanions ability, so has the potential to do a lot of damage and also punishes your opponent for having a large bench.
What about after rotation?
After rotation, this deck loses Blacksmith, Fiery Torch and Sacred Ash, which means you will have to rely on Delphox BREAK a lot more. You still have 2 months to use these cards, so plenty of time to use this build, but do be prepared to lose them shortly.
Instead of Sacred Ash, you may want to try Super Rod instead. This also gives you the option of putting back energies if you're not in a position to use the Flare Up attack, but need more energies.
Other than that, the deck remains pretty much the same. Infernape, Volcanion EX and Delphox BREAK will be in the format for a while, so you'll be able to use them for years, and who knows what further support could come out for fire!
Conclusions
The biggest problem you're likely to have with this deck is running out of space for cards, you'll need to test a few times to work out what you have too many of and what you need more of. Remember, this is meant to be a fun deck that is a little cheaper to build than a normal tournament-level deck, so while you may not win 100% of your games, it will be a huge amount of fun to stun your opponents with this unique deck!
With most of the cards coming from Steam Siege, this is a very easy deck to build, just get yourself a bunch of Steam Siege and you should be able to get yourself a good base for this deck! Steam Siege can be found here.
Don't understand some of the words in this article? Check out our glossary here! All cards are linked to an online copy of the card, so if you're not sure what it does, click the name in orange and it will show you an online version of the card.
