Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

ninjask

S

shiny mewtwo

New Member
Hi guys, today i want to talk about a deck that i saw being played at my local league challenge, as you may have already guessed from the title this deck was Ninjask and Shedinja. when i first played agents it i was confused as to what strategy this deck had, if it had any, but i soon got a vague idea to what this decks purpose was, the purpose of this deck is to open with emolga(Dragons Exalted no 45) and use its call for famaly attack on your first turn,(because of the new rule changes this was now posable). Useing call for family, search your deck for 2 Nincada and put them on your bench. Next turn evolve both Nincada into Ninjask, use Ninjasks cast off shell ability to grab 2 Shedinja from your deck and dump them on your bench(you now have 4 pokemon on your bench). Now the stratagy really starts working. now retreat emolga and bring in ninjask, use night slash, which does 60 damige for a cheap :grass::colorless: and at the same time swiches it out, useing the swich out effect bring out Shedinja, the purpose of Shedinja is not to attake but to use its Empty Shell ability, so that when the deffending pokemon KOs Shedinja they dont get a prise card. next turn rense and repeat, bring up emolga, retreat emolga, bring up ninjask and night slash into the 2nd Shedinja. if your bench starts becoming a little empty you may want to use call for family again. though it may seem that you would run out of Shedinja very quikly you would be amazed as to what some super rods, a few level and ultra balls and 2 good ability can do. this deck is best in the early game due to the fact that most Pokemon can not achieve the damage to KO a 60 HP Ninjask(in this ins tense just switch out to another Ninjask or bring up emolga then retreat into Ninjask the next turn.) Note that the Pokemon you retreat does NOT have to be emolga if you have skyarrow bridge in play, shaymin exis in this deck beacuse its your only hope of surviveing in the late game.


deck list:

POKEMON-17

3 Emolga DRE
4 Nincada DRE
4 Ninjask DRE
4 Shedninja DRE
2 Shaymin EX

TRAINERS-33

4 Professor juniper
4 N
4 Colress
4 Skyla
3 Silver Bangle
2 Ultra Ball
4 Level Ball
3 Super Rod
2 Tool Scraper
2 Bicycle
1 Computer Search(ACE SPEC)

ENERGY 10
6 Grass
4 Blend GFPD
 
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This is one of those instances where the tcg released two cards with the specific intention that players would use them to make a deck. I cannot see any other card that would work as good with Shedinja, especially since Ninjask's ability helps to move the deck along. I've played this deck back when I was slightly a beginner, and since then I could give some criticism on how I wished I played it.

I played it with Sableye and life dew, which only slowed me down immensely. The 4 super rod is definitely a good equation for this deck. Experience share is a very good backup. Rescue scarf gets more use out of this deck than possibly any other as using Ninjask's ability again will help. Energy switch is optional and depends on taste (getting that energy off of Emolga could save you the attachment for the turn).

Like you said, level ball and ultra ball are really good. I would set level to 4 and maybe 1 or 2 ultra. I would not recommend any other call for family pokemon and Skyarrow. Instead, stick with the Emolga and free up that 1 or 2 slot from Skyarrow. You don't need Skyarrow really.

As for draw power, Juniper can be dangerous, but not useless. Cards like Colress and N will get those unwanted "drawn-into" Shedinjas back into the deck.

And the preferred ace-spec?
Gold potion is a waste.
Scramble switch is not that great if you're using exp. share and/or energy switch.
Life Dew shouldn't be considered because of shedinja.
Master ball is ok, but level ball grabs everything in the deck, so it will just function as a 5th level ball.
Rock guard? It's there. But then gone. Especially with the common tech-in of scrapper.
Personal favorite: dowsing machine. Endless possibilities, can get you out of many situations and/or give you the upper hand, and can often win you the game.

Interesting deck, though nowhere near competitive. Would be intriguing if someone could somehow make it good enough to go against meta. Protip though: work on your spelling.
 
Hmmm..... Its hard to chose between computer search and dowsing machine, there both good ACE SPECs but there basicly complete oppisites.
 
Cant believe i hadnt thought of computer search.

It would depend. Computer search is best early to mid game. Dowsing is good mid to late. It just depends on your play style I guess.
 
shiny mewtwo said:
Hmmm..... Its hard to chose between computer search and dowsing machine, there both good ACE SPECs but there basicly complete oppisites.
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I would rather have scoop up cyclone

Also have you thought about running devolution spray? It would let you get more shedingas without having to slow your game as much

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castre said:
Computer search is best early to mid game. Dowsing is good mid to late. It just depends on your play style I guess.
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You can also use dowsing machine at the start to set up tho
 
I've run this in the past and recently returned to it. I'm glad to see others enjoying what has been one of my favorite decks to play. I find that having nothing but the nincada lines is phenomenally efficient. Between the room for all the supporters and the level balls/ultra balls it sets up crazy fast even without the call for family, which is less useful with the recent rule changes anyway, so I'm having a little trouble understanding the original poster's comment regarding that.

I've tried it with shaman EX in the past and found it's counter-productive to have him in there, and giving your opponent 2 easy prizes in a prize denial deck is highly demoralizing, I've found. Maybe with the catcher change it's not as bad having him there. I've also tried giratina EX and a myriad of other attackers/support pokemon and always come back to the conclusion that straight nincada/ninjask/shedinja is the way to run it. Might just be my play-style though, I'm curious what other variants of this deck exist.

Some cards I've been tinkering with that I like are Pokemon Center to help extend the life of your pokemon if they aren't getting one-shot; and lasers, for all the typical benefits, although the main benefit (sleep, keeping the active in place for another night slash or two) is inconsistent and quite easy to get out of.
 
inmanjm said:
... and always come back to the conclusion that straight nincada/ninjask/shedinja is the way to run it.....
Click to expand...

Wouldn't you kinda be hurt if you couldn't get a basic first hand though? So many mulligans will allow your opponent to have such a decent hand it wouldn't be funny.
 
inmanjm said:
I've run this in the past and recently returned to it. I'm glad to see others enjoying what has been one of my favorite decks to play. I find that having nothing but the nincada lines is phenomenally efficient. Between the room for all the supporters and the level balls/ultra balls it sets up crazy fast even without the call for family, which is less useful with the recent rule changes anyway, so I'm having a little trouble understanding the original poster's comment regarding that.

I've tried it with shaman EX in the past and found it's counter-productive to have him in there, and giving your opponent 2 easy prizes in a prize denial deck is highly demoralizing, I've found. Maybe with the catcher change it's not as bad having him there. I've also tried giratina EX and a myriad of other attackers/support pokemon and always come back to the conclusion that straight nincada/ninjask/shedinja is the way to run it. Might just be my play-style though, I'm curious what other variants of this deck exist.

Some cards I've been tinkering with that I like are Pokemon Center to help extend the life of your pokemon if they aren't getting one-shot; and lasers, for all the typical benefits, although the main benefit (sleep, keeping the active in place for another night slash or two) is inconsistent and quite easy to get out of.
Click to expand...
would hammers be good for stalling?
 
Hammers tend to be good in mainly darkrai. You can hurt plasma with enhanced hammer though, but it's honestly not that worth it. I would highly suggest against it.
 
The thing is that i dont really know what to put in remove in the deck, i like the idea of lasers for stalling, but every thnig seems pretty importent.
 
castre said:
Wouldn't you kinda be hurt if you couldn't get a basic first hand though? So many mulligans will allow your opponent to have such a decent hand it wouldn't be funny.
Click to expand...
It's actually not that bad. My experience tends to reflect what you will read here, just over half (60%) of each fresh hand of seven during the setup phase will be a mulligan. So yeah, you average spotting them 1 -3 cards in their opening hand. You also have a 40% chance of getting an N if you run 4 copies of it, and of course a 50% chance of getting to go first, which you can use to choose to go first (giving you a chance to N them back down to 6), or second, depriving them of a first turn donk. I tend to go first when I can with this deck since attacking first turn isn't so important and the extra turn to get out some setup is usually helpful, even if it means sacrificing a nincada early (yay super rods) to establish the lineup. If you do end up going second, you get a 50/50 chance of preventing damage to nincada during your opponent's next turn.

Yeah, there are occasional donks, but not as many as you'd think. Maybe about as many as most other decks, even. The new rules at least help with that :)
 
Forgot the chance of N opening hand. Very good point.

However, I might also suggest Tornadus EX (DEX) or Mewtwo EX and maybe run DCE or a throw in stadium like pokemon center. If you don't want that "donk."
 
Hmmm..... taking all your ideas heres a new list:
POKEMON-17

3 Emolga DRE
4 Nincada DRE
4 Ninjask DRE
4 Shedninja DRE
1 Shaymin EX
1 mewtwo EX




TRAINERS-33

4 Professor juniper
4 N
4 Colress
3 Skyla
3 Silver Bangle
2 Ultra Ball
4 Level Ball
3 Super Rod
2 Tool Scraper
3 Pokemon Center
1 Dowsing Machine(ACE SPEC)

ENERGY 10
6 Grass
4 Blend GFPD

Its not all that differnt from my old list but i put in as many of your ideas as i could.
Im am also amazed at how populer this form has become, thank you to all that posted!
 
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