The Easiest Broken Deck — Turbo Iron Hands ex
Several post-rotation decks performed well at the massive Fukuoka Champions League tournament in Japan. This tournament was the first to showcase the new Temporal Forces set as well as the post-rotation format. I wrote about this tournament a couple of weeks ago, and I covered most of the decks that made Top 16. The results seem to indicate a format just as diverse as the one we have now, and even after seeing the results, the meta remains unsolved and open-ended. New formats are always exciting, as there is a lot to explore, and I’ve been testing various decks for post-rotation which I like quite a lot.
Last time, I wrote about Charizard ex, which I believe to be the best overall deck, however, at the end of my Champions League review, I indicated that a new deck that quietly snuck into Top 16 has some real potential; turbo Iron Hands ex. Iron Hands ex has been popular both in Japan and in our format since its release in Paradox Rift thanks to that unique and powerful Amp You Very Much attack. With Temporal Forces, Iron Hands ex gains a ton of new cards and thus receives a massive power buff.
What has Iron Hands ex Gained?
First and foremost is Iron Crown ex. Iron Crown ex’s Ability buffs the damage of your Future Pokemon by +20 — if you have three Iron Crown ex on your Bench, Iron Hands ex’s Amp You Very Much now deals 180 damage. This is insane! I cannot understate how huge this is for Iron Hands ex. Previously, Amp You Very Much was a strong attack, but it could only one-shot weak single-Prize Pokemon. This made Iron Hands ex notorious as an option to counter single-Prize attackers, but its downside was its low damage output, which limited the card’s overall usefulness — that weakness is now completely negated. With four Iron Crown ex and a Future Booster Energy Capsule, Amp You Very Much deals 220 damage, enough to one-shot most two-Prize Pokemon as well as nearly all single-Prize Pokemon. This sounds like a lot of setup, but it’s relatively easy to find a swarm of Iron Crown ex thanks to Techno Radar.
Next is the new Miraidon. Miraidon’s attack deals 40 base damage and searches out two Basic Energy from the deck to directly attach to Iron Hands ex. This serves several purposes; Iron Hands ex requires four Energy to use Amp You Very Much… Even with access to Electric Generator, this is a very steep cost. Miraidon smooths out this process and offers a way to consistently charge up Iron Hands ex. Even after some unlucky whiffs from Electric Generator, Miraidon saves you. In short, it’s a consistent game plan — you are almost always attacking with Miraidon to start the game and set yourself up. Additionally, Miraidon applies pressure. Against any deck with single-Prize Pokemon like Charizard ex and Lost Zone box, Miraidon easily deals enough damage to take an early KO. Thanks to Iron Crown ex and Future Booster Energy Capsule, Miraidon’s attack KOs weak single-Prize Pokemon. This applies pressure and takes Prize cards, which gives you an easier Prize map along with Amp You Very Much. This level of synergy is crazy!
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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