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Expanded Converting my poor Standard Blacephalon to a more viable expanded variant. Advise?

Charmaster:)

Collecting, playing, & making family memories.
Member
I have made this decklist for my revamped, expanded format Blacephalon (aka Baby Blowns) deck. I think I hit all the essential cards but any advise in terms of techs, or advise on whether or not I made a wise choice in removing Great Ball, Giant Hearth, and Superior Energy Retrieval? Finally, should I replace two of these cards with Wishful Batons, and which ones?
Blacephalon x 4 Unbroken Bonds 32
Jirachi x 4 Team Up 99
Dedenne GX x 1 Unbroken Bonds 57
Crobat V x 1 Darkness Ablaze 104
Zacian V x 1 Sword & Shield 138
Cramorant V x 1 Sword & Shield 155
Oricorio V x 1 Cosmic Eclipse 95
Mewtwo x 1 Unbroken Bonds 75
Victini (*) x 1 Dragon Majesty 7
Exeggcute x 1 Plasma Freeze 4
Total Pokémon = 15

Fire Type Energy x 17
Total Energy = 17

Welder x 4 Unbroken Bonds 189
Boss’s Orders x 1 Rebel Clash 154
Heat Factory (*) x 1 Lost Thunder 178
Fiery Flint x 4 Dragon Majesty 60
Fire Crystal x 4 Unbroken Bonds 153
Quick Ball x 4 Sword & Shield 179
Scoop Up Net x 4 Rebel Clash 165
Switch x 4
Ordinary Rod x 1 Sword & Shield 171
Enhanced Hammer x 1 Phantom Forces 94
Field Blower x 1 Guardians Rising 125
Total Trainer Cards = 28
 
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Charmaster:)

Collecting, playing, & making family memories.
Member
Sorry, I just realized I did not include a single set number.
Fixed it.
 
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The Last Shaymin

Floof
Member
I'm not entirely sure Baby Blowns is in a good spot in expanded right now, but we can always try.

I think Zacian and maybe Jirachi is really too slow for expanded right now. Expanded is all about rushing to hit turn 1 ...things.

I do have a couple ideas though. I think you can either go the deck based Firey Flint + Vinctini ♢ route, which you chose, or a discard pile based Battle Compressor, Fire Crystal, and Superior Energy Retrieval route. I think it is worth testing both types, I personally like the discard based engine because it thins out the deck, which increases consistency. If you do go the discard pile route, you can tech in some niche supporters such as Pokemon Ranger and Blacksmith, and run a playset of VS Seeker.

Another thing to make the deck more turbo is to put in a couple of Scorched Earth. Basically a worse version on Heat Factory, this can let you get the couple of cards you might need.

Also, there are better options for some of those trainer cards. We can replace Boss' orders with Guzma, which synergizes with Jirachi, and Ordinary Rod can be replaced with Rescue Stretcher, because it goes back into your hand which is super broken for Baby Blowns.

Instead of Mewtwo, you could put in some VS Seekers, but your only supporter is Welder really. I would probably only put in VS Seekers if you are building the discard based version.

To answer your question, I think that Superior Energy Retrieval is a really good card but I'm not sure its necessary for your draw engine. Great balls are just bad, and Giant Hearth can be Scorched Earth, but you should really run at least one of either of them.
 

Charmaster:)

Collecting, playing, & making family memories.
Member
Wow! That was certainly a surprise! Testing is going to be a bit of a problem, though, as my only regular opponent is my brother who uses Lucario & Melmetal GX and Mad Party. Speaking of Mad Party, I’ve heard Oricorio is a good tech counter. I’m afraid I’m also rather budgeted and (although I’ll probably be using proxies for a while due to not having any actual events to attend), four dollars a VS Seeker for a full compliment of VS Seekers seems a bit much when Dedenne GX’s cost $4 and Crobat V’s cost $15 (and I’m not even going to THINK about Jirachi Amazing Rare!), so do you think I could make Mewtwo work, since I’m going to probably have Scoop Up Nets anyways and since it is more reusable thanks to said Scoop Up Nets? I don’t actually own all the cards in there above list, as it’s more a simple remix of standard Baby Blowns than anything else, so I should have guessed that it was far from ideal.
I just thought “hey, I already have Baby Blowns, love the Blacephalon strategy, might as well reuse it.” Which I probably will to a limited extent, but all the points you make are great points I never considered.
 

Charmaster:)

Collecting, playing, & making family memories.
Member
Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on the Salazzle draw engine? I noticed you were running a Cinchino draw engine in one of your decks, so would you recommend Cincino over
Salazzle? And would you advise leaving them out altogether?
 

The Last Shaymin

Floof
Member
Wow! That was certainly a surprise! Testing is going to be a bit of a problem, though, as my only regular opponent is my brother who uses Lucario & Melmetal GX and Mad Party. Speaking of Mad Party, I’ve heard Oricorio is a good tech counter. I’m afraid I’m also rather budgeted and (although I’ll probably be using proxies for a while due to not having any actual events to attend), four dollars a VS Seeker for a full compliment of VS Seekers seems a bit much when Dedenne GX’s cost $4 and Crobat V’s cost $15 (and I’m not even going to THINK about Jirachi Amazing Rare!), so do you think I could make Mewtwo work, since I’m going to probably have Scoop Up Nets anyways and since it is more reusable thanks to said Scoop Up Nets? I don’t actually own all the cards in there above list, as it’s more a simple remix of standard Baby Blowns than anything else, so I should have guessed that it was far from ideal.
I just thought “hey, I already have Baby Blowns, love the Blacephalon strategy, might as well reuse it.” Which I probably will to a limited extent, but all the points you make are great points I never considered.
If you have trouble against Mad Party, I would run the Oricorio as it is indeed really good against the deck. You can always test online, as in person tournaments are not going to exist for a rather long time. I would say that until then, do not get any real cards. Proxies are good enough for testing. I would test with the VS Seekers, as many people at tournaments would be willing to let you borrow some (around me, at least) and they would imporve your sequencing skills at the very least. I would say that Mewtwo is an option that exists, so if you can make it work, go for it. It's certainly not terrible by any means, and it might surprise your opponent as well.

Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on the Salazzle draw engine? I noticed you were running a Cinchino draw engine in one of your decks, so would you recommend Cincino over
Salazzle? And would you advise leaving them out altogether?
The Cinccino draw engine was mostly a meme, haha. I remember the glory days of Pidgey Blowns so I wanted to recreate it the best I could in expanded. If you are worried about N, I would probably run Cinccino and it lets me get a massive hand as well. I think Salazzle isn't as good because you want to keep the fire energy in your hand and resource conservation is an important part of the deck. I would try either kind, as Cinccino is somewhat inconsistent but if you can make it work, go for it.
 

Charmaster:)

Collecting, playing, & making family memories.
Member
Is there any way to test decks online using anything but the PTCGO? Because Baby Blowns in the PTCGO is a much more substantial investment than physically and I own none of the really important cards.
 
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