First or Second — Combo Decks Done Right (Featuring Exodia)

Hello everyone! Recently, I’ve been working on a couple of Expanded decks as I’m having more fun with the format, even though most online tournaments are currently running Standard. Rebel Clash introduced a few powerful cards into the game. Dragapult VMAX ruins the Standard format by gatekeeping anything that has an evolution or low HP in general, especially combined with multiple copies of Marnie. Because of this, my attention has shifted to the Expanded format.

Another card that everyone has their eye on is Scoop Up Net. This card is neat because it allows extra uses of cards such as Galarian Zigzagoon, Mewtwo, Jirachi, Jirachi Prism Star, etc. It doesn’t work with Pokemon V or Pokemon-GX, but this restriction does not apply to Pokemon-EX in the Expanded format. Naturally, Shaymin-EX is the best partner for this card. Scoop Up Net allows for many extra uses of Shaymin’s Set Up Ability, which is a huge boost for combo decks. I enjoy coming up with broken decks and I’ve been refining two first-turn-kill (Exodia) decks that heavily rely on Scoop Up Net.

Honchkrow-GX Lock

My first idea was to build a combo that locked my opponent’s hand on turn 1. However, the carefully crafted ban list invalidates about every hand-disruption card you can think of. There are very few options, but among the cards that aren’t banned are Honchkrow-GX, Dusk Stone, and Marnie. This combo can reliably work on turn 1 if you go second. If your opponent wins the opening flip and chooses to go second, you’ll have to wait a turn to pull it off.

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