Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

NXD-On: Kingdra/Empoleon

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Scizor Master CLR

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I was looking to make a fun and inexpensive water deck and started toying with Kingdra PLF and Empoleon DEX.

Pokémon: 16
4 Horsea (PLF)
1 Seadra (PLF)
3 Kingdra (PLF)

2 Piplup (DEX)
2 Empoleon (DEX)

2 Kanghaskan (PLB)
1 Keldeo EX
1 Mewtwo EX

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums: 34
4 N
3 Professor Juniper
3 Colress
3 Skyla

4 Rare Candy
3 Float Stone
3 Level Ball
2 Ultra Ball
2 Enhanced Hammer
3 Hypnotoxic Laser
2 Virbank City Gym
1 Super Rod
1 Tool Scrapper

Energy: 10
10 Water
Click to expand...
Kangaskhan: Helps me set up so I can have at least one Kingdra and one Empoleon out for T2.
Kingdra: Used to spread damage and snipe basics with low HP. (Maximum damage I've managed with Dragon Vortex has been 120.)
Empoleon: Is there for Diving Draw (getting energies to the discard pile + draw support) and to sweep.
Keldeo EX: Rush In/Float Stone
Mewtwo EX: Just there because I couldn't think of another splashable basic and another Keldeo seemed pointless.

I'm not sure if Kangaskhan will be much help once the new rules come into effect. Maybe I should just max out my Level Ball count? I got rid of Pokémon Catcher so I can see how the decks runs without it and decided to go with Laserbank so I can spread extra damage while attacking with Kingdra (spreading 120 damage).

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
 
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IMO I would max out Ultra Ball. It gives you the ability to discard more than 1-2 energies a turn (Assuming you have 1-2 Empoleons out).

I have ran something similar and was able to get 5-6 energy in the discard pile in a single turn, which can be devastating after having used Tri-Bullet a couple times.
 
Following are some thoughts for your consideration:

-1 Mewtwo EX,
+2 Kangaskhan. Mewtwo doesn't "seem" to fit well in the deck to me, especially since you are not running any DCEs. Maximizing the Kangaskhan count increases your chances of starting with this Poké (your preferred starter, I assume).

-3 Level Ball,
+1 Ultra Ball,
+1 Computer Search / Dowsing Machine. Level Balls become less effective if you max Kangaskhans (finding this Poké to be a great starter in my Kingdra deck). Ultra Balls help search for the needed Poké more effectively while discarding W energy.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful.
 
~Blazi-King~ said:
IMO I would max out Ultra Ball. It gives you the ability to discard more than 1-2 energies a turn (Assuming you have 1-2 Empoleons out).

I have ran something similar and was able to get 5-6 energy in the discard pile in a single turn, which can be devastating after having used Tri-Bullet a couple times.
Click to expand...

I was thinking about doing this. I tested it today against a TDK deck and I found myself wishing the Levels Balls were Ultra Balls so many times. I couldn't knock out a Thundurus EX (which cost me the game) because I needed 2 more energies in the discard pile.

TuxedoBlack said:
Following are some thoughts for your consideration:

-1 Mewtwo EX,
+2 Kangaskhan. Mewtwo doesn't "seem" to fit well in the deck to me, especially since you are not running any DCEs. Maximizing the Kangaskhan count increases your chances of starting with this Poké (your preferred starter, I assume).

-3 Level Ball,
+1 Ultra Ball,
+1 Computer Search / Dowsing Machine. Level Balls become less effective if you max Kangaskhans (finding this Poké to be a great starter in my Kingdra deck). Ultra Balls help search for the needed Poké more effectively while discarding W energy.

I hope you find these suggestions helpful.
Click to expand...

Mewtwo EX was in there just so I could have 10 basics total. He has no particular role other than that at the moment. lol I will be adding at least one more Kangaskhan and see how that goes. 4 seems overkill but it I'll playtest and see if 3 is enough. I have to find a Dowsing Machine. =\

I added Silver Mirror and Silver Bangle as techs. I think they will be even more useful once I add Dowsing Machine? Plasma decks are running rampant around me. My decklist looks like this after taking into consideration today's playtesting and your suggestions:

Pokémon: 15
4 Horsea (PLF)
1 Seadra (PLF)
3 Kingdra (PLF)

2 Piplup (DEX)
2 Empoleon (DEX)

2 Kanghaskan (PLB)
1 Keldeo EX

Trainers: 35
4 N
3 Professor Juniper
3 Colress
3 Skyla

4 Rare Candy
3 Float Stone
4 Ultra Ball
2 Enhanced Hammer
3 Hypnotoxic Laser
2 Virbank City Gym
1 Super Rod
1 Tool Scrapper
1 Silver Bangle
1 Silver Mirror

Energy: 10
10 Water Energy
Click to expand...

I will have to get rid of 2 cards to make room for another Kanghaskan and Dowsing Machine. Or maybe replace them with the Silver Mirror/Bangle techs I added? Maybe remove a Float Stone + something else. Thoughts?

(Thank you so much for your help. :] )
 
You're trying to do entirely too much. I would just say go for consistency with this list.
With a bit of flare, to compete against the overwhelming amount of plasma/special energies in today's format.
Any deck that runs ultra ball should ALWAYS run 1-2 exeggcute now, with the upcoming rule change.
Driblim is just an idea to help with other decks. GL
4-1-3 Kingdra
2-2 Empoleon
1 Exeggcute (propogation)
2-2 Drifblim (1 derail/1 shadow steal)
1 Mew EX
18

4 Juniper
3 Colress
3 N
3 Skyla
13

4 Ultra Ball
2 Level Ball
4 Rare Candy
2 Catcher
2 Switch
1 Super Rod
1 Dowsing Machine
2 Silver Bangle


11 Water Energy
 
When I ran my Empoleon deck, I found that I needed less Professor Juniper cards since I could use Diving Draw. I ran only 2 PJs. With 2 PJs, 4 Ns and 3 Colress and Diving Draw, I believe you'll still have sufficient card draw capability. So, IMHO you could drop 1 PJ, or, as you noted, a Float Stone. Secondly, just 1 Silver Bangle and 1 Silver Mirror will not be greatly effective. So, these 2 cards could be replaced.

With these 3 open slots, you could then add another Kangaskhan (any extras not used for setup can easily become discard fodder for your Ultra Balls and/or Dowsing Machine), Dowsing Machine, and Exeggcute (Propagation).

RS32 offered another viable approach; so, do playtest both approaches: with and without Kangaskhan and determine what works best for you.

rileysill32 said:
You're trying to do entirely too much. I would just say go for consistency with this list.
With a bit of flare, to compete against the overwhelming amount of plasma/special energies in today's format.
Any deck that runs ultra ball should ALWAYS run 1-2 exeggcute now, with the upcoming rule change.
Driblim is just an idea to help with other decks. GL
4-1-3 Kingdra
2-2 Empoleon
1 Exeggcute (propogation)
2-2 Drifblim (1 derail/1 shadow steal)
1 Mew EX
18

4 Juniper
3 Colress
3 N
3 Skyla
13

4 Ultra Ball
2 Level Ball
4 Rare Candy
2 Catcher
2 Switch
1 Super Rod
1 Dowsing Machine
2 Silver Bangle


11 Water Energy
Click to expand...

It seems to me that by ADDING another Poké line (i.e., Drifblim) increases the deck's complexity and lowers setup consistency (now you relying upon chance to have/draw into the needed Poké and/or Ball(s) and even then you may not have enough to place 2 onto the bench at a time to ensure one Poké survives to evolve on your next turn). Secondly, The "low" HP, starting basic Poké will also be readily subjected to an easy KO.
 
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The little changes helped quite a bit! Plasma gave me a bit of a hard time again but it didn't eat me alive. I went 7-3 today (compared to 3-6 yesterday lol).

rileysill32 said:
You're trying to do entirely too much. I would just say go for consistency with this list.
With a bit of flare, to compete against the overwhelming amount of plasma/special energies in today's format.
Any deck that runs ultra ball should ALWAYS run 1-2 exeggcute now, with the upcoming rule change.
Driblim is just an idea to help with other decks. GL
Click to expand...

Ultra balls help be dump water energies in the discard pile though. I removed the level balls and maxed the Ultra Ball count and it worked great today. I was pulling decent damage with Dragon vortex at least twice per game (80+).

I like the idea of Drifblim but adding a 3rd evo line for the sake of a counter is a bit much considering how tight my bench space is with an ideal field (2 Empleon, 2 Kingdra, 1 Keldeo and a Kanga). That would make the deck more inconsistent, I think. I will have to try

I took catcher out completely because with the new rule I will need to run 4 to be able to use 2 successfully. Probabilities and all that.

TuxedoBlack said:
When I ran my Empoleon deck, I found that I needed less Professor Juniper cards since I could use Diving Draw. I ran only 2 PJs. With 2 PJs, 4 Ns and 3 Colress and Diving Draw, I believe you'll still have sufficient card draw capability. So, IMHO you could drop 1 PJ, or, as you noted, a Float Stone. Secondly, just 1 Silver Bangle and 1 Silver Mirror will not be greatly effective. So, these 2 cards could be replaced.

With these 3 open slots, you could then add another Kangaskhan (any extras not used for setup can easily become discard fodder for your Ultra Balls and/or Dowsing Machine), Dowsing Machine, and Exeggcute (Propagation).

RS32 offered another viable approach; so, do playtest both approaches: with and without Kangaskhan and determine what works best for you.
Click to expand...

I keep finding myself unable to us PJ effectively because Diving Draw gets me lots of cards at times and I end up discarding them with DD. I'll be running 2 tomorrow.

Changes made:
+1 Kanghaskan
+2 Silver Bangle

-1 Professor Juniper
-1 Silver Mirror
-1 Float Stone

I'll be removing a Silver Bangle once I get my Dowsing Machine. I shall report back! :D
 
Why kangaskhan over emolga? Emolga does call for family way better since it has not retreat cost. Also, Teching in 1-2 Cilan would be solid in this list for getting you energies to discard. Just a thought.
 
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Emolga presents a higher donk risk. Running Keldeo EX/Float Stone takes care of Kanga's retreat.

I haven't had any issues drawing energies so Cilan would be kind of wasted. We'll see how the new rules make me change my deck list. lol
 
Scizor Master CLR said:
The little changes helped quite a bit! Plasma gave me a bit of a hard time again but it didn't eat me alive. I went 7-3 today (compared to 3-6 yesterday lol).
Click to expand...
Just out of curiosity, what decks did you play against and won vs. lost? Were you playing best 2 of 3 50 minutes matches? Lastly, how "often" do you think you are attacking with Empoleon?

I too have built (3 weeks ago) a playtested a Kingdra deck, but my focus has been more with the pending November 8th rule changes in mind. For example, I run no Pokémon Catcher (which has addded some very interesting "twists" to the game); I don't like the 50-50 odds. But, I have added Escape Rope.
 
TuxedoBlack said:
Just out of curiosity, what decks did you play against and won vs. lost? Were you playing best 2 of 3 50 minutes matches? Lastly, how "often" do you think you are attacking with Empoleon?

I too have built (3 weeks ago) a playtested a Kingdra deck, but my focus has been more with the pending November 8th rule changes in mind. For example, I run no Pokémon Catcher (which has addded some very interesting "twists" to the game); I don't like the 50-50 odds. But, I have added Escape Rope.
Click to expand...

We haven't been playing with 2/3 in 50 mins and they are not playing with the new rules in mind yet. I am so as took out all my catchers. I think I do great considering they are running catchers and I'm not.

If it's a plasma matchup I end up attacking with Empoleon a lot and cleaning up with Kingdra. I've been playing Plasma and rogues, mostly. I do great against rogues but Plasma kicks my butt if I don't manage to load a T2 Empoleon + Silver bangle.
 
Being able to hit 30-30-30 with kingdra makes catcher seem a little less enticing in this list I would agree.
A good way to beat plasma like I mentioned before was either playing mirrors or throwing in a 2-2 balloon line.
I understand that 4 spaces is a lot to ask for in a deck with 2 stage 2s.
 
The more I play with the deck the more I find myself attacking with Empoleon. I'm thinking about switching the evolution lines so it runs like this:

4-1-3 Empoleon
2-2 Kingdra

Thoughts?
 
Were you playing by the new game rules effective today?

Personally, I like starting with Kingdra's Tri Bullet attack just to start getting opponent's Poké into KO range by either Kingdra's Dragon Vortex or Empoleon's Attack Command. Secondly, by initially spreading damage, an opponent may not be able (or want to) heal "little" damage. Pokémon Catcher was used quite effectively prior to today, especially when an opponent benches a Mr. Mime - which had to be Catchered, then 1HKOd. This was an effective strategy I used before the rule changes.

Today, going forward, since a successful Catcher is now based upon a coin flip (ugh), I run no/few Catchers in my decks. "Straight foward" attacking may work better now. IMHO, you will see more players incorporating Mr. Mime into decks just to protect their benched Poké against splash damage from Darkrai EX, Kyurem, Landorus EX, etc. Kingdra's Tri Bullet attack, may become less effective; but, Dragon Vortex is still a very good attack. Empoleon can provide you with potentially more damage output per attack than Kingdra. However, your opponent can also "limit" that damage output by limiting his/her benched Poké. And if you do not KO an opponent's Poké (let's assume a big HP Poké) in one turn, that may give your opponent a chance to heal his/her wounded Poké (via Max Potion, for example).

Should you find Empoleon to be a more effective attacker for your area's meta game, will you still team it with Kingdra? You may also find some other interesting Poké to then combo with Empoleon...
 
We've been playing with the. new rules for a few days now and I noticed exactly that. I'm better off attacking with Empoleon while powering up a mid-late game Dragon Vortex. Mr. Mime hasn't showed up yet but I'm sure it will (making Kingdra useless as an early game attacker). If Mr. Mime becomes popular in my area I just might replace the Kingdra line. Maybe I can promote Empoleon to main attacker and replace Kingdra with Dusknoir BCR? 70-80 damage for 1 energy during T2 is pretty good, IMO. Potentially more with Laserbank and/or Silver Bangle against an EX.
 
Interestingly enough, I saw an European player's post (wanted an "Empoleon counter" for his Blastoise deck - lol) that mentioned that Empoleon was doing quite well in their Regionals... (players running Empoleon decks won 3 tournaments - if I remember his/her comments correctly).

Empoleon-Dusknoir (Sinister Hand) could work very nicely in today's game format.
 
Empoleon/Dusknoir in my opinion could be a potential tier 2(ish) deck that could get away with a few wins in tournaments.
I wouldn't focus as much on the damage output, because you can't turn over Empoleons like you can plasma Kyurems or other basics.
I would suggest instead of even considering lasers/bangles. Put 2-3 max potions in the list.
Max potion is a great card especially if you find yourself needing to buy a turn, rush in with Keldeo and tank an attack, max potion and retreat while you set up another Piplup to Empoleon or something. Not to mention, Empoleon only takes 1 energy.
 
My deck list looks like this at the moment:

Pokémon: 16
4 Horsea (PLF)
1 Seadra (PLF)
3 Kingdra (PLF)

2 Piplup (DEX)
2 Empoleon (DEX)

3 Kanghaskan (PLB)
1 Keldeo EX

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums: 34
4 N
3 Colress
3 Skyla
2 Professor Juniper

4 Rare Candy
3 Ultra Ball
2 Silver Bangle
3 Hypnotoxic Laser
2 Virbank City Gym
2 Float Stone
3 Max Potion
1 Super Rod
1 Tool Scrapper

x1 Dowsing Machine

Energy: 10
10 Water

Mr. Mime showed up today. It was pitiful to see Kingdra be useless early in the game. lol I'll definitely rethink the deck this week and go in the Empoleon/Dusknoir direction.

Thank you all so much for your help!!
 
Very nice list.

Kingdra-Dusknoir is also quite good; I am currently running this deck. I think you'll find running Dusknoir with either Kingdra or Empoleon will have definite positives. Have fun.
 
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