With the announcement of the new Kingdra ex from Shrouded Fable, I decided to cook up a quick list, let me know what you guys think:
Strategy
Kingdra ex's King's Order attack lets you add any 3 Water Pokémon from your discard pile onto your Bench. This can be used to eliminate a lot of set-up usually required for Chien-Pao decks, and protect yourself from the increasingly more popular TM Devolution. With Palkia's VSTAR ability and Baxcalibur's Super Cold, you can easily attach many Water energies to Kingdra ex for a powerful Hydro Pump or one of your other Pokémon. By not having too many Basic Pokémon in your deck, you increase the chance of starting with a Horsea in the Active Spot (although it might result in more mulligans). Then by turn 2, you might be able to have your Kingdra in play already and use its King's Order attack for one energy.
Decklist rundown
Pokémon - 18 (8 Basic, 10 Evolution)
1x Radiant Greninja (ASR) - draw engine, has the useful Moonlight Shuriken to snipe some Benched Pokémon
4x Horsea (???) - basic Pokémon, in order of preference, I'd pick PAR > LOR > SFA > 151
2x Chien-Pao ex (PAL)/Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex (TWM) - Chien-Pao can retrieve Energy from the deck, while Ogerpon can trap the opponent's Active Pokémon. Both can use relatively strong attacks, with Chien-Pao discarding Energies for higher attack power vs. Ogerpon shuffling the Energies back into the deck for a sniping option.
1x Manaphy (BRS)/Lumineon V (BRS) - it would be best to limit the amount of Basic Pokémon to prevent starting with an unfavourable Pokémon, so I'd go for only one of these. Manaphy provides a bit of Bench protection while Lumineon can get a supporter like Irida from the deck.
1x Seadra (SFA) - having a Seadra might not be necessary, since you'll either be Rare Candy-ing on King's Order-ing your Kingdra ex into play, but having one copy might be useful in item lock situations. Shrouded Fable's Seadra has the attack "[W] Call for Backup: Search your deck for up to 3 Pokemon, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck." which could be helpful in getting the right Pokémon into the discard pile.
3x Kingdra ex (SFA) - the big man himself. Can put Water Pokémon from the discard pile onto the bench and attack with Hydro Pump
1x Kingdra (LOR) - disruption and draw, has the ability to make either player shuffle their hand and draw 4. Easy to bring out considering we're running 4 Horsea, 4 Rare Candy AND we have King's Order.
3x Baxcalibur (PAL) - energy acceleration with Super Cold
2x Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR (ASR) - energy acceleration with its VSTAR ability to retrieve lost Energies, and has an attack that gets stronger the more Benched Pokémon there are in play, which you will have many of
Trainer - 33 (11/12 Supporter, 18/20 Items, 0/1 Tools, 2 Stadiums)
4x Irida - best supporter for Water decks. Can get you a Rare Candy and Kingdra ex at once, or Earthen Vessel/Ultra Ball/Superior Energy Retrieval plus a Pokémon to be discarded so they can be brought onto the bench with King's Order
4x Professor's Research/Carmine/Serena/Morty - all decent options to get the Pokémon in hand into your discard pile for King's Order while allowing you to draw more cards. Considering we want to go first and would like to use King's Order on turn 2, we need Pokémon in the discard pile, so Carmine might be the strongest option, but making a combination of these is very possible
1x Iono - does what Iono does. Only 1 because of limited deck/supporter slots
2x Boss's Orders - gusting, could consider swapping 1 with Counter Catcher
3x Superior Energy Retrieval - put necessary cards in your discard while retrieving lost Energy from Greninja/Chien-Pao/KOs. Only 3 instead of 4 because Kingdra unlike Chien-Pao doesn't discard the Energies.
8x Ultra/Nest Ball/Buddy - in any combination, but at first glance I'd do 4-1-3 or 4-2-2. Discarding and getting any Pokémon you want has the strongest priority, followed by getting many Horsea in play
3x Earthen Vessel - discard a necessary Pokémon and get two Energies
1x Super Rod/Roseanne's Backup - in case we discard too much. Consider Roseanne's Backup if you're playing one of the Tool ACE SPECs
4x Rare Candy - it's Rare Candy
1x Prime Catcher/Unfair Stamp/Hero's Cape/Survival Brace - Prime Catcher for gusting and switching, it's still the most powerful ACE SPEC in game. Unfair Stamp to punish a KO while giving you some solid draw options. Hero's Cape to give Kingdra a bulky 410 HP. Survival Brace is a decent alternative to put on a Horsea at the start, to ensure you get at least one King's Order off, or to prevent Kingdra from being OHKO'd by a boosted Iron Hands ex
2x PokéStop - discard Pokémon, get items, it's a win-win.
Energy - 9
9x Water Energy
Let me know what you guys think or if there's something obvious I missed!
Strategy
Kingdra ex's King's Order attack lets you add any 3 Water Pokémon from your discard pile onto your Bench. This can be used to eliminate a lot of set-up usually required for Chien-Pao decks, and protect yourself from the increasingly more popular TM Devolution. With Palkia's VSTAR ability and Baxcalibur's Super Cold, you can easily attach many Water energies to Kingdra ex for a powerful Hydro Pump or one of your other Pokémon. By not having too many Basic Pokémon in your deck, you increase the chance of starting with a Horsea in the Active Spot (although it might result in more mulligans). Then by turn 2, you might be able to have your Kingdra in play already and use its King's Order attack for one energy.
Decklist rundown
Pokémon - 18 (8 Basic, 10 Evolution)
1x Radiant Greninja (ASR) - draw engine, has the useful Moonlight Shuriken to snipe some Benched Pokémon
4x Horsea (???) - basic Pokémon, in order of preference, I'd pick PAR > LOR > SFA > 151
2x Chien-Pao ex (PAL)/Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex (TWM) - Chien-Pao can retrieve Energy from the deck, while Ogerpon can trap the opponent's Active Pokémon. Both can use relatively strong attacks, with Chien-Pao discarding Energies for higher attack power vs. Ogerpon shuffling the Energies back into the deck for a sniping option.
1x Manaphy (BRS)/Lumineon V (BRS) - it would be best to limit the amount of Basic Pokémon to prevent starting with an unfavourable Pokémon, so I'd go for only one of these. Manaphy provides a bit of Bench protection while Lumineon can get a supporter like Irida from the deck.
1x Seadra (SFA) - having a Seadra might not be necessary, since you'll either be Rare Candy-ing on King's Order-ing your Kingdra ex into play, but having one copy might be useful in item lock situations. Shrouded Fable's Seadra has the attack "[W] Call for Backup: Search your deck for up to 3 Pokemon, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck." which could be helpful in getting the right Pokémon into the discard pile.
3x Kingdra ex (SFA) - the big man himself. Can put Water Pokémon from the discard pile onto the bench and attack with Hydro Pump
1x Kingdra (LOR) - disruption and draw, has the ability to make either player shuffle their hand and draw 4. Easy to bring out considering we're running 4 Horsea, 4 Rare Candy AND we have King's Order.
3x Baxcalibur (PAL) - energy acceleration with Super Cold
2x Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR (ASR) - energy acceleration with its VSTAR ability to retrieve lost Energies, and has an attack that gets stronger the more Benched Pokémon there are in play, which you will have many of
Trainer - 33 (11/12 Supporter, 18/20 Items, 0/1 Tools, 2 Stadiums)
4x Irida - best supporter for Water decks. Can get you a Rare Candy and Kingdra ex at once, or Earthen Vessel/Ultra Ball/Superior Energy Retrieval plus a Pokémon to be discarded so they can be brought onto the bench with King's Order
4x Professor's Research/Carmine/Serena/Morty - all decent options to get the Pokémon in hand into your discard pile for King's Order while allowing you to draw more cards. Considering we want to go first and would like to use King's Order on turn 2, we need Pokémon in the discard pile, so Carmine might be the strongest option, but making a combination of these is very possible
1x Iono - does what Iono does. Only 1 because of limited deck/supporter slots
2x Boss's Orders - gusting, could consider swapping 1 with Counter Catcher
3x Superior Energy Retrieval - put necessary cards in your discard while retrieving lost Energy from Greninja/Chien-Pao/KOs. Only 3 instead of 4 because Kingdra unlike Chien-Pao doesn't discard the Energies.
8x Ultra/Nest Ball/Buddy - in any combination, but at first glance I'd do 4-1-3 or 4-2-2. Discarding and getting any Pokémon you want has the strongest priority, followed by getting many Horsea in play
3x Earthen Vessel - discard a necessary Pokémon and get two Energies
1x Super Rod/Roseanne's Backup - in case we discard too much. Consider Roseanne's Backup if you're playing one of the Tool ACE SPECs
4x Rare Candy - it's Rare Candy
1x Prime Catcher/Unfair Stamp/Hero's Cape/Survival Brace - Prime Catcher for gusting and switching, it's still the most powerful ACE SPEC in game. Unfair Stamp to punish a KO while giving you some solid draw options. Hero's Cape to give Kingdra a bulky 410 HP. Survival Brace is a decent alternative to put on a Horsea at the start, to ensure you get at least one King's Order off, or to prevent Kingdra from being OHKO'd by a boosted Iron Hands ex
2x PokéStop - discard Pokémon, get items, it's a win-win.
Energy - 9
9x Water Energy
Let me know what you guys think or if there's something obvious I missed!
Last edited: