Kingdra/Yanmega

Kingdra/Yanmega
Deck Founded: 2011 (HGSS-On)
Other Names: KYJ (w/Jirachi)
Top Performances: 2nd Canadian Nats 2011, 4th US Nats 2011

 

 
 

Skeleton List

Pokemon	T/S/S	Energy
3-3 Yanmega Prime 2-1-2 Kingdra Prime 1 Cleffa	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Pokemon Communication 3 Rare Candy 2 Dual Ball 3 Copycat 3 Judge 4 Draw Supporters	Completely dependant on techs

Spaces Available: 25!
Strategy:
This deck’s main focus is to get damage around the board as soon as possible, taking cheap early prizes with Yanmega before the opponent can get set up making it very hard to play against. Kingdra is there to add the crucial damage to Yanmega’s attacks and can also be used creatively to take more than one prize in a single turn, making the gap between you and your opponent even larger.

Techs:
The great thing about this deck is that it has a lot of options when it comes to what to pair this with. You can either go for straight consistency, adding in more lines of your main Pokemon or go for a different strategy to back up your attackers and take prizes different ways.

Jirachi UL: This guy has most commonly been paired with these two so that you can spread damage on the opponent’s side of the field and then use ‘Time Hollow’ to devolve them and KO the Pokemon below. This card is great against the many decks that use Rare Candy right now, effectively have them wasting resources to gain back control or leaving them with a Stage 2 in their hand that they can’t use.

 
 
 
 

More Kingdra and Yanmega: Choosing to bump up your main attacker lines to 4-4 of Yanmega and 3-1-3 or 4-2-4 of Kingdra will boost your consistency considerably. You’ll be able to get multiple Kingdras out in a single game more often and the Yanmegas will keep coming strong in the early game to keep the damage coming. This obviously narrows your room for more tech Pokemon or single Trainers, but I personally find it to be better to thicken up the Kingdra line if anything.

 
 
 

Zoroark BW: Zoroark will cater for this decks main weakness, big hitters such as Zekrom, Reshiram and Magnezone. Not only does Magnezone and Zekrom hit for weakness, but their HP is fairly tough to deal with when you haven’t got the best start. Zoroark is there to back up your attackers and return the KO by copying big attacks such as Bolt Strike and Blue Flare. You will have to run Double Colourless Energy to get this tech running smoothly, which will be covered further on.

 
 
 

Max Copycat or Judge: I personally prefer to max both of these to keep consistency high, but if you want that extra space for something else then I would at least max one of them. These cards keep Yanmega hitting for free since you don’t run the energy support with Judge being more disruptive, but Copycat can net you more cards during set up or preparing you for the next turn. Whichever style of play you prefer will make your decision on this one.

 
 
 

Kingdra UL: This Kingdra can be used for anything that’s playing with Fire. Since a single Fire type on the bench will make your Kingdra severely underpowered, this one can be there to deal high, double weakness damage to Pokemon such as Reshiram, one of the harder matchups. It’s also not bad for picking off the bench with ‘Water Arrow’ if that’s what your left with to attack at the current time.

 
 
 
 

Pokemon Catcher: The newest threat from Emerging Powers, but for all decks and this can be used very effectively in this deck to grab cheap prizes all game. Since your main attackers either attack for free, or even nothing, playing Pokemon Catcher will ensure that you can drag up those weaker Basics that your opponent is trying to set up and KO it before they become a threat with either a ‘Dragon Steam’ for 60, or ‘Sonic Boom’ for 70. Both of these Pokemon can get the job done right and I would also suggest that you add in the likes of Junk Arm if you do include this. Since you can use Pokemon Catcher to grab those weak Basics early on, why not have the option of using it later in the game too through Junk Arm, so that you can drag up those heavily damage Pokemon your opponent is trying to hide on the bench. I would suggest adding 2-3 Catchers along with 2-3 Junk Arm if you like the sound of this.

 

Max Potion: Also from Emerging Powers comes the slightly hyped Max Potion. This card is going to be a great asset to anything running low energy attackers, which is exactly what we have here. As mentioned above, both Kingdra and Yanmega have very low attack costs and some pretty nice HP, so if your opponent tries to tack damage on for a KO next turn, you can always use Max Potion to heal without missing that energy too much. This card can give you that extra turn ahead in the Yanmega-race since you will be able to heal off the damage your opponent’s Yanmega is trying to tack onto you and tip the tide of the prize race with just the one card. As with Pokemon Catcher, if you do add this in, also go for some Junk Arm so that you can reuse it later on in the game if you ever need it. I would recommend playing 1-2 Max Potion with 2-3 Junk Arm.

 

Energy: You have a few options here. Rainbow Energy can be included if you’re running the variant with Jirachi. This means that you can use it for both Kingdra and Jirachi whenever you need since it acts as every type. The only downside is the 10 extra damage which can really build up and bite you back in the late game. If you are going for Jirachi then you can include Psychic Energy as well. This means it can power itself up if there’s some already in the discard while Rainbow Energy can power up Kingdra.
If you’re going for Zoroark, then include at least 3 Double Colourless when dealing with a 2-2 line. This will cover you when you need to use it and means you can draw into it fairly consistently. When taking this approach, Water Energy can be used to power up Kingrda instead of Rainbow, saving the 10 damage.
A final consideration could be Rescue Energy. This can save your Yanmegas early on in the game to keep them cycling around and keep the pressure on, or can save a crucial attacker when facing a KO. No more than 2 would be suggested though.

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