Zekrom/Tornadus (ZPST)
Zekrom/Tornadus
Deck Founded: 2011 (HGSS-On)
Other Names: ZPST, Black Out
Top Performances: 1st Canadian Nats 2011, 1st Mexican Nats 2011
Skeleton List
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Pokemon
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T/S/S
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Energy
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4 Zekrom
3 Tornadus 2 Pachirisu
2 Shaymin
1 Cleffa
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4 Pokemon Collector
4 Pokemon Communication 4 Junk Arm
6 Draw Supporters
4 Pokemon Catcher
3 Pluspower
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8-10 Lightning
4 Double Colourless |
Spaces Available: 7-9
Strategy:
This deck was originally thought of as a donk based deck by getting 120 damage going turn 1, but has been developed further into a deck that can go the distance. Zekrom is there as your main attacker while Pachirisu attaches energy to itself with Shaymin moving it onto Zekrom to power up ‘Bolt Strike’. It certainly has proven itself winning 2 National Championships in 2 weeks so it definitely one to beat or run yourself.
Techs:
You have a fair amount of room for techs in this deck, but a lot of space is going to be taken up by extra draw support or Pokemon to cover for it’s biggest weaknesses.
3 Pachirisu or 3 Shaymin: Both of these are key elements of the deck and one of them is best made up to 3 just to give you the extra use of their Powers when needed later on. An extra Pachirisu will give you more energy attachment, but another Shaymin will allow you to further manipulate your energy when your active Zekrom becomes heavily damaged. Further testing will confirm your choice on this one.
Defender: This card can be key in a lot of matchups, but I’ve not included it in the skeleton since people seem to do okay without it. I really think this should be included in the deck since it now reduces the damage you are forced to add to yourself while protecting you further from your opponent’s next attack. The 40 damage you are forced to add really can help your opponent out so reducing that risk is something you should definitely consider.
Tornadus EP Tornadus was brought to this deck from Emerging Powers and has already been proven to be a great asset to the deck. Yanmega used to be quite a popular addition to this deck because of its ability to handle Donphan Prime with its -20 resistance to Fighting, however Yanmega really lacked the firepower to successfully deal with Donphan and that’s where Tornadus comes in. Tornadus shares the same resistance as Yanmega, along with the same HP, but Tornadus has a much better attack that not only deals with Donphan in two hits, but also helps the ZPS strategy along. ‘Hurricane’ costs a Double Colourless plus another energy to do 80 damage (60 to a Donphan) and the small print shows that you have to move an energy to one of your benched Pokemon which can be a Lightning energy in this deck. With you doing 60 damage to a Donphan while they are only doing 60 to you and you are powering up Zekrom at the same time, you are definitely going to be able to deal with Donphan a whole lot better. It’s an easily splashable tech in this list and has actually become mandatory enough to be in the skeleton above along with some Double Colourless there as well to aid the strategy. Definitely try this out if you haven’t yet.
Energy Retrieval: When suffering a KO, you’re going to be losing a lot of energy so this card is definitely an option, even as a one-off since you should be running a high amount of Junk Arm. Plucking back 2 Lightning from the discard will open up another use of Pachirisu during your next turn to get that energy back on the field, ready for another attack.
Revive: I personally like using this in the deck since it can effectively give you a 5th main attacker and bringing Zekrom straight back after a KO your opponent has fought hard to get can really keep the pressure on. If needed, you can use it more than once a game as always with Junk Arm, but I find just this small form of recovery this deck can take advantage of can really keep you in the game after falling behind.
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