Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Arcanine (Do you really want to damage me?)

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legotack

legotack

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Pokémon: (18)
4 Growlithe RR
4 Arcanine RR
2 Uxie LA
1 Uxie Lv. X LA
1 Azelf LA
1 Unown G GE
1 Heatran LA (preferably the fire one)
1 Heatran Lv. X SF
1 Torchic PT
1 Combusken PT
1 Blaziken PT

Trainers/Stadiums/Supporters: (31)
2 Lucian's Assignment
2 Broken Time-Space
4 Super Scoop Up
2 Level Max
2 Quick Ball
4 Roseanne's Research
4 Bebe's Search
3 Warp Point
3 Night Maintenance
3 PlusPower
2 Rare Candy

Energy: (11)
11 :fire:

Possible techs:

Rayquaza LA + Stark Mountain LA
Could be used for extra energy acceleration.

Skuntank G
For extra damage counters on both me and my opponent. Would have to play more stadiums, though.

Lucario GL and/or Lake Boundary
Since Arcanine has no weakness, could be used against decks such as Scizor/Cherrim, or Shaymin variants.

Mespirit
To lock powers.

Claydol instead of Uxie
I personally don't like this, but you could play it anyway, for a different type of draw.

Manectric PT
To stop Gengar from attacking your bench.

Any other possible techs are welcome by PM or by posting.

Strategy:
Get out Growlithe as soon as possible and then use Stoke to get another fire from your deck and attach. T2 you should have three energy on Growlithe. Then evolve and start either using Burn Out or Flames of Rage. Arcanine SW for a quick 120. Uxie is in my opinion better than Claydol, also considering that it will probably be rotated next season.

A closer look:

Pokémon:
Growlithe RR
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=45521

The preferred starter for this deck. Its first attack, Stoke, let's you search for an energy, which, will help you get a powered up Arcanine T2. Its second attack, Take Down, does 50 damage while doing 10 damage to yourself. This may seem like a double-edged sword, but this just lets you do more damage as an Arcanine, although you probably won't be using this attack too much.

Arcanine RR
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=45569

This is your main attacker. Its first attack, Burn Out, does 30 damage, but 60 if you want, although you get burned. If you flip off of it before your opponent's turn, fine, but if you don't that's just even more damage using Arcanine's second attack, Flames of Rage. This attack requires only three energy, although you have to discard one to use this 60-damage attack. It also does this plus 10 damage for each damage counter on Arcanine, which is a major revenge move.

Uxie LA
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=35717

Uxie's :ppowr:, Set Up, allows you to draw cards until you have seven cards in your hand, but only once on the turn you put it down. This is a very useful draw card, but could be replaced with Claydol if you would like.

Uxie Lv. X LA
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=35735

Uxie Lv. X's :ppowr:, Trade Off, allows you once per turn to look at the top two cards of your deck, choose one, and put the other at the bottom of your deck. Very useful draw power, but can be tricky to get out because it is a Lv. X, and must have Uxie active. Level Max and Warp Point are helpful in these situations.

Azelf LA
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=35737
Azelf lets you look at your prizes and pick out Pokémon and put them into your hand, potentially saving that Uxie Lv. X from prize card doom.

Torchic PT
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=42329
Torchic is really just to get evolved into Blaziken, but if worst comes to worst it can do 80 damage which is a lot for a non-SP basic.

Combusken PT
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=42275
Just to evolve to Blaziken.

Blaziken PT
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=42236
Excellent :ppowr:, which burns the Defending Pokémon. Can also do 100 for three energy, and you can just bring back the discarded energy with Heatran Lv. X's :ppowr:.

Heatran
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=40058 OR http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=35664 OR http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=39993
Heatran is mainly to level-up to Heatran Lv. X, but LA #6's :ppower:, Flash Fire, can maybe save some energy if you don't have a Lucian's or Super Scoop Up in your hand.

Heatran Lv. X
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=41013
Heatran Lv. X, in combination with Blaziken and Arcanine, is amazing. It's first :pbody:, Heat Metal, prevents the opponent from removing the burned condition without going to your bench. It also does 30 damage instead of 20 between turns. As well as all that, it makes their coin flip tails for burn in between turns. If Gengar starts sniping at Heatran, kill Gengar before it can go through Heatran's 120 HP. It's second :ppower:, Heat Wave, can restore your discarded energy at the end of your turn, but it can't do more than two energy at a time, which isn't a problem for this deck.

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums:
Lucian's Assignment
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=45526

Lucian's Assignment lets you move as many energy as you like from one of your Pokémon to another. Although this is a supporter, it lets you save all of your energy from a dying Arcanine and move it to your next Growlithe/Arcanine in line. Combo this with Super Scoop Up and Broken Time-Space to never let your Pokémon die.

Broken Time-Space
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=42335

This card lets me evolve, even if I've just put the Pokémon I wish to evolve on the field that turn. This helps me power up Growlithes faster.

Super Scoop-Up
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=34897

This card lets you flip a coin, and if heads, you can grab a Pokémon and all cards attached to it and put it into your hand. This cancels out damage counters and special conditions, completely refreshing that Pokémon. If you use Lucian's Assignment first, you can refresh your Arcanine, giving your opponent no way to get a prize card.

Level Max
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=42338
Level Max, if you flip heads, can get an Uxie Lv. X or Heatran Lv. X straight from your deck and onto your benched Uxie or Heatran. With this there's almost no need to have Uxie or Heatran be active.

Quick Ball
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=34925

This card has you reveal cards from the top of your deck, one by one, until you hit a Pokémon. Then that Pokémon goes to your hand. Excellent at getting out a Pokémon in a tough situation.

Roseanne's Research
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=40062

This card belongs in every deck. It lets you search for any combination of basic energy and basic Pokémon and put them into your hand. It can either fill up your bench to prevent a donk or fill up your hand to energize your active Arcanine/Growlithe.

Bebe's Search
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=45479

This card also belongs in every deck. Use it to search for any Pokémon card of your choice, with the only penalty being that you have to put one card from your hand into your deck.

Warp Point
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=34941

Warp Point is great for disruption and makes a solution to Arcanine and Growlithe's 2 :colorless retreat cost.

Night Maintenance
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=40080

Night Maintenance can recycle your energy and your Pokémon into your deck. Really saves the day sometimes.

PlusPower
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=42343

PlusPower adds that extra 10 damage to your Pokémon when you really need it. It's also stackable, so you can do up to 40 extra damage with 4 of them together.

Rare Candy
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=40061

Rare Candy lets you evolve straight from Torchic to Blaziken.

Energy:
:fire: Energy
http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=31505

Not much explanation needed here, use it to power up Arcanine and Growlithe.





Hope that this helped. Any feedback is more than welcome. I will be testing this deck on June 13 at Battle Roads.
 
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This is a good list, just a few small things. I don't see Contest Hall being very helpful here especially since both players can use it and SP decks will take adavantage of it more then you can. One Level Max is not great because if you flip tails it's going to be really difficult to get the Uxie X out especially with Arcanine having two retreat. So I'd put one of the Contest Hall spots into another Level Max. A single copy of Great Ball also seems kind of bad unless you're in some weird situation and just happen to get it when you need it so I'd put the other Contest Hall spot into a Great Ball. 4 Lucian's seems a bit much since it takes your supporter for your turn so I'd take out one for another Quick Ball just to add even more consistency. Energy Pickup may also be something to consider since you will evenutally run out of energy from discarding for Arcanine's second attack. If you were to add those I'd take take out the Lucian's.

So overall the changes would look lik this:

- 2 Contest Hall
-1 Lucian's

+ 1 Great Ball
+ 1 Quick Ball
+ 1 Level Max

and possibly

- 3 Lucian's

+3 Energy Pickup

If oyu happen to play in a Battle roads with this I'd really appreciate if you let me know how you did because Arcanine is one of the cards I've been looking at and it would be cool to see how it does in an actual tournament. :)
 
i'd suggest adding more level maxes and run a 2-2 heatran line. that way you wont lose all of you energy from discarding.
+3 lv max
+ 2-2/1-1 heatran
+ stark mountain
- 2contest hall
-3 lucians
- 1 great ball
try to add more plus powers. and claydol is beter than uxie for draw. it depends really. good luck with it.
 
Lurb:
I will definitely take out the contest hall and one lucian's for a great ball, quick ball, and level max. I don't think I'm going to take out the rest of the Lucian's though, because they always save my energy. I will think of something soon for the energy pickup. Another thing. Great ball can get me an Uxie X from my deck and put it straight onto my bench. Lv. X's don't count as evolved pokemon, so I can thus put it straight on my bench.

On June 13 I will be playing this in a Battle Roads and will post my results as quickly as possible.

Edit:
Great Ball can't be used to get Uxie Lv. X, says so here:
http://pokegym.net/forums/showthread.php?t=101300

shikaXD:
Thanks for the suggestions, and I will put in more level maxes but I don't think I'm going to run a 2-2 Heatran line. I think it will slow my deck up too much, but I will play energy pickup for that problem, although in my testing it hasn't been a big problem. I will try to find space for more pluspowers. I think for this deck Uxie is better than Claydol because as with Heatran, Claydol just isn't fast enough for this deck and if I made it faster to get out using supporters/trainers, I would just be wasting cards that I could have used to get out more Arcanine.


Thanks for the comments, and please try to help me some more.
 
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Lv X's don't count as evolved pokemon, but they also aren't counted as basic pokemon which is what the great balls look for. Just because Uxie is a basic doesn't mean Uxie Lv X is a basic
 
Thank you for the clarification on the rules, ShinigamiTakuto.

Also, should I maybe take out one Uxie so I don't start with it as often? It would also make room for other things, such as energy pickup.
 
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I don't know where you would put it but what about
1-2 Starks
1 Reyquaza
You speed gain the energy you discard then starks them up for a quicker charge?
 
Some matchups

I just was over at my friend's house and now have two matchups:

Infernape 4: 25/75

Flame wheel can OHKO you, so you can't really fight back much. Your only hope is that they have a bad start. A good strategy here is to warp point to a benched Arcanine and try to kill something weak on their bench.

Abomasnow: 80/20

First of all, they're weak to you. Second of all, they can't OHKO you, so just dish out the damage before they can set up, because it takes two turns to use their weak attack. Just keep on pursuing them until they die.


Tell me if these are inaccurate.
 
I dont understand why you have level max in here? Your running a uxie X and it is possible that since your only running a single level up card that there wasted draws. I really like the 2-2 or even a 1-1 Heatran line then the level max are good, but only because arcanine is tossing its energy away. I would consider if you were willing to a Balzkin PL would be nice as well since your main attacker is a stage one and quick to evolve and with heatran the Blaziken would be great burn tech and save your hide. thats jsut me, personally I see dialga G stopping you because they dont have to attack a palkia G or somehting running it will easily win here. Because Dialga time crystal and then you still have a weakness to water. As for the buzz bout walren RR it will also be a game over move.
 
Level max is very important to get out Uxie X without having to use warp points, and they help a ton. What would I take out for Heatran and Blaziken? I would also have to add rare candy because otherwise blaziken will be too slow. I probably would lose to Dialga G, but it's just one matchup. Why will I lose to Walrein?

Edit:
ATM I am buying a Heatran off of Ebay and I think it will work really well in this deck, contrary to what I said before. I will also put in 1-1-1 Blaziken. Thanks for the tips!
 
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Walren will hit for 70 base and possibly more if you have no energy plus they will remove your energy constantly so you will loose out to kingra as well but in a diffrent way. Palkia G will also hit ya pretty hard. With arcanine only having 100hp its pretty flimsy kinda like AMU only having 90 and being able to be koed fairly quickly. I guess its all about how its played but weakness or no they are hard uphill battles for you. just my humble opinion. I saw the card as possible but may be better in august when next set hits.
 
Timespiral said:
Walren will hit for 70 base and possibly more if you have no energy plus they will remove your energy constantly so you will loose out to kingra as well but in a diffrent way. Palkia G will also hit ya pretty hard. With arcanine only having 100hp its pretty flimsy kinda like AMU only having 90 and being able to be koed fairly quickly. I guess its all about how its played but weakness or no they are hard uphill battles for you. just my humble opinion. I saw the card as possible but may be better in august when next set hits.
Click to expand...

I think that with the Blaziken+Heatran tech I will have more of a viable chance against those decks, and by tomorrow I will have tested (just setting up, because no one at my house plays), and will see if they make the deck too slow.
 
Yea I play my lil bro but T-Tar is easily countered and that is what he plays. You will have issues and hard battles but in the end you may come out ahead.
 
Thanks for the matchup. Was this with Heatran/Blaziken/Arcanine or straight Arcanine?

Heatran/Blaziken is a great tech, and if I can get the normal heatran by BR I will play it.
 
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In my experience this won't work, particularly, and ironically, with the advent of Upper Energy. Decks like Flygon are near automatic loss,as is anything that can reliably OHKO you. and with a 100 HP that's not saying much. Even Palkia Dialga G is kind of a bad matchup, because Dialga will shut off your body asnd leave you at Palkia's mercy. Even Snorlax is kind of tough to beat.
 
Even snorlax? I play snorlax and it has pretty good advantages. As for the deck I would have to say at some point there is a losing factor. The heatran Blaziken did ok jsut you have t o be careful and with so many water types running about its hard.
 
The Supes said:
In my experience this won't work, particularly, and ironically, with the advent of Upper Energy. Decks like Flygon are near automatic loss,as is anything that can reliably OHKO you. and with a 100 HP that's not saying much. Even Palkia Dialga G is kind of a bad matchup, because Dialga will shut off your body asnd leave you at Palkia's mercy. Even Snorlax is kind of tough to beat.
Click to expand...

Now that I think about it, should I play Upper? If I'm really stuck I can attach upper to blaziken, then next turn attach a fire and fire spin for 100, then heatran back. Just in case I'm really stuck, because on average Arcanine is doing more than 100, so I would want to use that as much as possible.

I'm playing a 1-1 line of Heatran and a 1-1-1 line of Blaziken with 2 Rare Candy. I'm also teching in an Azelf. I will make these changes to the deck shortly.

Timespiral said:
Even snorlax? I play snorlax and it has pretty good advantages. As for the deck I would have to say at some point there is a losing factor. The heatran Blaziken did ok jsut you have t o be careful and with so many water types running about its hard.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that Snorlax has advantages over this or that I have advantages over Snorlax?



Edit:
Just took out tech Arcanine SW because it is of no use to me.
 
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This is a large suggestion, feel free to discard it. I've found that magmortar is majorly underused. Torid wave(it's power) burns the defending pokemon and puts 3 damage counters instear of 2 if your oppenent flips tails. and it does a 100 snipe for 3 fires and discards 2. This is a deadly combo with heatran.
 
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