'Unbroken Bonds,' May's English SM10 Set!

cardgjammer

Aspiring Trainer
Member
The fire one has a bunch of really good cards.

Yeah, but theme-deck-level wise, the looks are telling between the two:

I believe that Lightning Loop TD crushes Battle Mind by means of the absence of a Pokemon-based energy accelerator on the BM side(where's Volcanion when this deck could use one? Enhanced draw is no good if you don't have the energy and/or the base damage output) plus no absence of such accelerator on the LL side(Magnezone-based acceleration vs. Trainer-based acceleration), and no gust effect on either deck that could have thrown the Magnezone out to the discard for a prize card draw... Also, LL is more like an improved Storm Caller TD because SC needs four energies used up at a minimum to win, but two need to be in the lost zone from ability usage, while LL needs three used up at a minimum to win, but the three can be discarded, and that's where Magnezone comes in, as you can meet the AC by infinite lightning attachments... No gust effect means Trainer acceleration is more likely to lose out to a bench-sitter's energy acceleration ability...

edit: Then again, playtesting will confirm or deny...
 
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Flygonite

Meta/budget player
Member
Yeah, but theme-deck-level wise, the looks are telling between the two:

I believe that Lightning Loop TD crushes Battle Mind by means of the absence of a Pokemon-based energy accelerator on the BM side(where's Volcanion when this deck could use one? Enhanced draw is no good if you don't have the energy and/or the base damage output) plus no absence of such accelerator on the LL side(Magnezone-based acceleration vs. Trainer-based acceleration), and no gust effect on either deck that could have thrown the Magnezone out to the discard for a prize card draw... Also, LL is more like an improved Storm Caller TD because SC needs four energies used up at a minimum to win, but two need to be in the lost zone from ability usage, while LL needs three used up at a minimum to win, but the three can be discarded, and that's where Magnezone comes in, as you can meet the AC by infinite lightning attachments... No gust effect means Trainer acceleration is more likely to lose out to a bench-sitter's energy acceleration ability...

edit: Then again, playtesting will confirm or deny...

Battle Mind is infinitely more consistent than Lightning because of the fact that it has a Salazzle that draws 3 by discarding one fire energy alongside the supporters, meaning you can use the Mewtwo play to recycle your Welder and then immediately draw into it, instantly setting up any attacker. Its energy searcher is also a stage 2 with a 110 damage attack and 140 with Incineroar on bench. The fact that you can actually comfortably use the Cynthias is a plus over Lightning that wants to have both energies and mons to evolve into on hand, and it also doesn't send as many energies as Lightning does to grave for the sake of doing damage. Lightning also has a worthless line of colorless attackers, one of which does 90 damage in average and one that does 70 damage?? what the hell?

Lightning only has damage output as its main draw. Also the supporter and supporting mon lines are clearly unbalanced, seeing as how Fire has both Salazzle and Welder, and the other deck has 2 less suporters but also 2 more useless mons.
 

momand

Aspiring Trainer
Member
The fire deck looks really good:
2 Mewtwo, 2 Meowth (Persian GX), 2 Salazzle, 2 Cynthia, 2 Welder

Phenomenal
 

Wavestripe

Med Student
Member
Battle Mind is infinitely more consistent than Lightning because of the fact that it has a Salazzle that draws 3 by discarding one fire energy alongside the supporters, meaning you can use the Mewtwo play to recycle your Welder and then immediately draw into it, instantly setting up any attacker. Its energy searcher is also a stage 2 with a 110 damage attack and 140 with Incineroar on bench. The fact that you can actually comfortably use the Cynthias is a plus over Lightning that wants to have both energies and mons to evolve into on hand, and it also doesn't send as many energies as Lightning does to grave for the sake of doing damage. Lightning also has a worthless line of colorless attackers, one of which does 90 damage in average and one that does 70 damage?? what the hell?

Lightning only has damage output as its main draw. Also the supporter and supporting mon lines are clearly unbalanced, seeing as how Fire has both Salazzle and Welder, and the other deck has 2 less suporters but also 2 more useless mons.

They have the same amount of supporters! In the zeraora deck there's 4 lookers to make up for the 2 welders on the other end
 

elFacho

Aspiring Trainer
Member
These decks could really use that one copy of Rare Candy that some theme decks have given in the past.
 

RiverShock

Aspiring Trainer
Member
It bothers me that these decks only have 2 Items each. Did the rotation really kill the item pool THAT badly? They should really be encouraging Item use. (The amount of Supporters is nice, but the Trainer line-up could still be a little more balanced.)
 

Team Rocket Agent

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Remember when theme decks used to suck REALLY bad? So happy pokemon the past year or so has been putting a lot better effort into theme decks now.
 

OVERGRO

Pokemon is lyfe.
Member
I wonder which Turtonator it is. If it's the one from Dragon Majesty, that's 150 damage per Welder (180 with a benched Incineroar).
 

MoFoTY86

Aspiring Trainer
Member
OOOOOooooo Cynthia and Welder as well as fire support. Mewtwo taking the best deck trophy once again.
 

Kashvinder Mann

Aspiring Trainer
Member
If the Turtonator in Mewtwo's deck is the one from Dragon Majesty, I'd be tempted to get that deck with Salazzle in it too.
 

BoldAsLove

Aspiring Trainer
Advanced Member
Member
Since my son really wanted to read these deck lists, and we couldn't make out the images on my phone, I went ahead and typed up what I could make out from the laptop, so figured I'd share:

Battle Mind Theme Deck:
Mewtwo x2
Incineroar x2
Torracat x3
Litten x3
Salazzle x2
Salandit x3
Darmanitan x2
Darumaka x3
Turtonator x2
Meowth x2
Cynthia x2
Fisherman x2
Hau x4
Lillie x2
Looker x2
Switch x2
Welder x2
Fire Energy x15
Psychic Energy x5


Lightning Loop Theme Deck:
Zeraora x2
Magnezone x2
Magneton x3
Magnemite x3
Raticate x2
Rattata x3
Dodrio x2
Doduo x3
Stunfisk x2
Meowth x2
Cynthia x2
Fisherman x2
Hau x4
Lillie x2
Looker x4
Switch x2
Lightning Energy x20
 

Wolfshadow

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Captivating pokepuff + Omastar + Honchkrow GX + Dusk Stone? I don't know much about expanded, but adding in Zoroark GX for more consistency and having pokepuff for Omastar's ability? Seems pretty broken to me.
 
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