Standard Fire and Ice (Volcanion Ex / Volcanion / Heatmor)

[Dark Espeon]

FIRE AND ICE

Pokémon (12):

• 4 Volcanion Ex (beatdown)
• 4 Volcanion (beatdown)
• 2 Heatmor (beatdown)
• 2 Shaymin Ex (draw)

Trainer (36):

• 4 Professor Sycamore (draw)
• 2 Pokémon Ranger (enable)
• 2 Fisherman (retrieval)
• 1 Lysandre (control)
• 1 AZ (retrieval)
• 2 N (draw)
• 1 Startling Megaphone (discard)
  
• 3 Fighting Fury Belt (beatdown)
• 1 Energy Retrieval (retrieval)
• 1 Professor’s Letter (search)
• 3 Trainer’s Mail (search)
• 1 Super Rod (retrieval)
• 4 Vs Seeker (retrieval)
• 4 Ultra Ball (search)
• 2 Dive Ball (search)
• 4 Scorched Earth (draw)

Energy (12):

• 12 Fire Energy

STRATEGY:

Go second and start with either Volcanion or Heatmor. Use Ultra Ball and Dive Ball to search for Volcanion Ex and fill the bench with them. Steam Up discards basic fire and accelerates damage to enable the non-Ex attackers knock out the defender in one or two hits. Heatmor can ohko the defender with one Fire in case he has Muscle Band attached while Volcanion non-Ex accelerates the discarded energies to the bench. Volcanion Ex can be used as the main attacker to take down defenders that are not within the range of the non-Ex attackers.

SPOILER:

All translations have been taken from Pokébeach.

Volcanion Ex
Basic Fire and Water Pokémon
HP 180
Ability: Steam Up
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may discard 1 Fire Energy card from your hand. If you do, during this turn, the attacks of your Basic Fire Pokémon do 30 more damage to your opponent’s active Pokémon.
[R}[R][C] Volcanic Heat: 130
During your next turn, this Pokémon can’t attack.
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3

Volcanion
Basic Fire Pokémon
HP 130
[R] Power Heater: 20
Choose 2 of your benched Pokémon. Attach a Fire Energy from your discard pile to each of them.
[R][R][R] Explosive Flame: 100
Weakness: Water (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2

Pokémon Ranger
Trainer - Supporter
Remove all effects of attacks on both players and all Pokémon.

 

[DATfairy]

I like where you are going with this!
Since the set is not out yet I will simply tell you what I see/what I think might be worth considering.

Some things I have noticed:
I take it this deck will try to play the game at a speed similar to nightmarch, meaning you go 2nd, use that turn to fully setup and grab the KO right away.
Have you considered a Hoopa ex, maybe even two?
It might considerably quicken your setup if you go hoopa -> volcanion 1, volcanion 2, Shaymin 1.
And if you have an ultra ball after that you can find another Hoopa to bring out the last 2 volcanions.
This would make for some tight benching, so it might be nice to play a few skyfield copies ( would go with at least 2 ) so you can play everything down on your setup, then you can place your scorched earth next turn, to get rid of the used hoopa's and the used shaymins.

Also, in order for you to hit for full damage, you have to have 4 energies in your hand at each given time for those volcanions to discard.
with that in mind, do you think that a single copy of professors letter is enough?
I would honestly run more letters, so you after you have the first 4 energies down you can simply fisherman->vs seeker every turn to grab them back if needed.

Did you also take a look at possible counters?
With garbodor making a strong showing lately at tournaments ( and not just in darkrai/giratina/garbo), you need some tool removal or a single garbodor shuts your entire strategy down. Do you think you have the room for perhaps 1-2 startling megaphones or a Xerosic?

Pokémon ranger seems like a good card, but do you really need two of them?
As far as I know the only effects worth blocking are regice and jolteon-ex ( and maybe pyroar FLF but that won't be legal for long when this set comes out most likely).
I think 1 of them is enough, perhaps add a battle compressor to the list so you can make sure to draw the supporter you need when you need it.

Basically: I like the concept you have here, but have doubts about the speed with which it can be setup, if your stream of energy will be reliable enough to discard 4 energy every turn and its ability to shutdown the likes of garbodor.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi DATfairy,

Thanks a lot for the review. Do like most of the ideas to improve the deck. Not entire sure on Hoopa Ex since the deck does not run Ninja Boy to turn him into someone more useful once he hit the bench. The main idea is to have both Pokémon Ex and non-Ex attackers. Thist means that the deck also wants to attack with Volcanion Ex. For that reason I included a second Pokémon Rangers since it shuts down side effects of attacks on both sides and allows Volcanion Ex to attack on consecutive turns. I also feel that it is needed to have a chance versus Greninja decks.

Included a Startling Megaphone that has been missing in the original list and will consider a second one instead of the fourth stadium card. The single Professor's Letter worked fine for me since the deck can access the energies rather fast and I like to break even on energy search and retrieval cards to have more choices at hand.

While the deck sure is not as fast as Night March it is at least as fast as Darkness and Water decks focused on Basic Pokémon. Garbodor is a risk but it can be Lysandred out and knocked out. Hex Maniac is another issue if it can be streamed but there is little that can be done to handle that.