Salutations! This article will have three different sections, each with a different focus. The first section will contain a full review on the latest TCG set: Plasma Freeze. The second section will focus on decks that will arise from cards that can be found inside of any Plasma Freeze booster packs. The third second will focus on updating the current top decks in the format with the cards from Plasma Freeze. Enjoy!
New Cards: Plasma Freeze Overview
Tornadus EX
Tornadus will become a very strong card in the upcoming format. Its Fighting Resistance makes it a solid counter to Landorus-EX and Terrakion NVI. Jet Blast, with 4 Plasma Energy, allows you to 1-shot any EX in the format barring any Eviolite, Giant Cape, or Aspertia City Gym.
This will become one of the most flexible EXs in the format. It has access to Colress Machine, gives a hand refresh, and has a serviceable attack that can 2HKO any EX with only one Plasma Energy attached to it. Definitely a card you want to get your hands on.
Thundurus EX
Thundurus will be one of the most highly sought-after cards in the set and for good reason. Its first attack, Raiden Knuckle, deals 30 damage and allows you to attach an Energy card from your discard pile to one of your Team Plasma Pokémon for the cost of one L Energy.
This is where the greatness factor kicks in. Lugia EX’s attack Plasma Gale does 120 damage but you must discard a Plasma Energy attached to it or the attack does nothing. And Lugia’s Ability Overflow allows you to take an extra Prize when you knockout a Pokémon with its attack. Raiden Knuckle allows you to power up Lugia quicker than normal and recover Plasma Energy for extra attacks.
Thundurus’ second attack, Thunderous Noise, costs LLCC and does 90 damage and if you have a Plasma Energy attached to it you discard an Energy attached to the Defending Pokémon. The Plasma Energy requirement is somewhat annoying but the attack has potential in a format where Special Energy will become much more prevalent.
All in all, Thundurus is a card that will make shock wave in the format.
Deoxys-EX
Deoxys-EX is another card that will make Team Plasma decks great. Its ability Power Connect adds 10 damage to the attacks of all of your Team Plasma Pokémon besides any Deoxys-EX. This Ability will add to the power of Lugia EX by giving it a higher damage output, increasing its chances of Knocking Out a Pokémon and taking an extra Prize.
Its attack, Helix Force, does 30 damage for PC and does an additional 30 damage for each Energy attached to the Defending Pokémon if Deoxys has a Plasma energy attached to it. The attack serves as a makeshift Mewtwo counter at the best. However, Deoxys is another card to get your mitts on at Prereleases because it is essentially a searchable PlusPower for Team Plasma Pokémon.
Latias-EX
pokebeach.comLatias-EX has potential in the upcoming format. It has an interesting Ability called Bright Down. It prevents all effects of attacks, including damage, done to Latias by Pokémon that have Abilities.
This is going to be a card that can give many decks fits because it is invulnerable to its main attackers.
Chandelure
Yet another fascinating Stage 2 Pokémon from Team Plasma! Chandelure will see the most play because of its Ability Flare Navigation. It allows you to search your deck for a R Energy and attach it to one of your Pokémon. You must then put one damage counter on that Pokémon.
The partners that immediately come to mind are the primary attackers from Emboar decks such as Reshiram-EX and Reshiram BLW. Another attacker to consider for this deck is Regigigas-EX, whose second attack requires four C Energy and does 50 damage and an additional 10 for each damage counter on it. This generates a lot of power for the deck because of the potential damage output of the card. With Aspertia City Gym in play and Giant Cape attached, Regigigas can deal a maximum of 260 damage.
Chandelure’s attack, Absorb Life, does 70 damage and heals 30 from Chandelure. Unfortunately for Chandelure, it has a Water Weakness. This will cause it some huge problems in a format that has Keldeo and Blastoise running rampant through the Battle Roads.
Metagross
Metagross is another interesting Stage 2 Team Plasma Pokémon. Its Ability Plasma Search allows you to search your deck for any Team Plasma card and put it into your hand. Its attack, Mind Bend, does 60 damage and automatically confuses the defending Pokémon for PCCC.
While the Ability is useful and the attack is serviceable, Metagross is most likely not worth the space in a deck that is needed to consistently get a Stage 2 into play.
Raticate
A bad 70 HP, a nice lack of Retreat Cost, a bad Fighting Weakness, and an amazing first attack. Its attack Transfer Junk allows you to search your discard pile for a Team Plasma Pokémon, a Team Plasma Trainer card, and a Team Plasma Energy and put them into your hand for the cost of a single C Energy. Its second attack, Bite, does 30 damage for two C Energy.
While the first attack is a spectacular recovery mechanism in any Team Plasma deck, its low HP and the even lower HP of its Basic Pokémon, Rattata, will severely limit its playability in this high damage output format.
Kyurem
pokebeach.comKyurem is an important card to include in any deck that runs Prism Energy, Blend WLFM, and Thundurus EX. It has a bulky 130 HP and a three energy Retreat Cost, making it searchable by Heavy Ball.
Its first attack, Frost Spear, does 30 damage and 30 to one of your opponent’s benched Pokémon for the cost of WC. This is a very strong opening attack because it can be set up with a Colress Machine and a Blend WLFM or Prism Energy and its power can be raised by the presence of Deoxys-EX on your bench. Its power can also be boosted by a first-turn Hypnotoxic Laser or Deoxys-EX. It is also a highly useful sniping attack that can be used to set up 1HKOs for Lugia EX later on in the game.
Its second attack, Blizzard Burn, does 120 damage and prevents Kyurem from attacking the next turn for the cost of WWC. This is where the card’s usefulness in Team Plasma decks comes from; its ability to 1HKO Landorus-EX, which would otherwise give the deck fits because it hits Thundurus for Weakness.
It is also an attack worthy of consideration in Blastoise decks because of its usefulness against PlasmaKlang.
Absol
Ah, the usual Absol that belongs to the bad guys’ team. Absol has a hefty 100 HP for a non-EX Basic and a Fighting Weakness that could limit its playability. Its first attack, Mind Jack, is its most useful. It does 20 damage and an additional 20 damage for each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon for the cost of DC. Absol’s second attack, Fearsome Shadow, does 60 damage and gives you a look at your opponent’s hand for DCC.
Right off the bat Absol looks pretty good in Darkrai/Lasers and is a solid counter to PlasmaKlang as well as a strong attacker in general.
Ghetsis
Ghetsis is definitely the most hyped Trainer of the set. It is a Supporter that allows you to look at your opponent’s hand and shuffle all Item cards there back into your opponent’s deck. You then draw cards equal to the amount of cars that were shuffled back.
While this is great, it is more important to get a hand refresh than to look at your opponent’s hand, possibly do a little disruption, and draw 0-2 cards. Ghetsis is good as a late game play and in Watchlock, but nothing else. I would suggest running two at the most.
Team Plasma Ball
Team Plasma Ball allows you to search your deck for any Team Plasma Pokémon and put it into your hand. While the lack of a cost for search is nice, Team Plasma decks will most likely use more Ultra Ball than Team Plasma Ball because Ultra Ball allows you to discard Plasma Energy and Double Colorless Energy which you can then use Raiden Knuckle to accelerate onto your bench.
Superior Energy Retrieval
This is definitely one of the best cards of the upcoming set and for good reason. It allows you discard two cards from your hand and then return four Energy cards from your discard pile back into your hand. This card is destined to make an impact in Blastoise decks as well as other decks that discard Energy with no way of getting it back already built in.
Float Stone
Float Stone is going to become one of, if not the most useful Pokémon Tool cards in the format. It gives free retreat to the Pokémon it is attached to. This will be useful in fixing some major problems that decks have had during the past few expansions: Catcher-stall.
This card will be useful in retreating heavy Bench-sitters such as Klinklang PLS, Klinklang BLW, Eelektrik NVI, Terrakion NVI, and Garbodor DRX. This card will be of especially high value to Garbodor because it gives it free retreat but it also provides the Pokémon Tool necessary to activate Garbotoxin and establish the Ability lock.
Shadow Triad
Shadow Triad may become a strong card in the upcoming format. It allows you to return one Team Plasma card from your discard pile to your hand. This has the potential to be good in many decks, including decks that run heavy amounts of Hypnotoxic Laser and Plasma Energy. It also serves as Pokémon recovery and can retreive Knocked Out Deoxys-EXs from the discard pile and keep your Pokémon’s attack power running high.
Life Dew
pokebeach.comLife Dew is an interesting card to say the least. It is a Pokémon Tool card that lowers the amount of Prize cards your opponent takes from Knocking Out the Pokémon it is attached to by one.
The question that you have to ask for every ACE SPEC card that comes out from now until Pokémon stops making them is, is this a more useful card than the ACE SPEC I have in my deck already? I think the answer for Life Dew is no.
Rock Guard
This is your Rocky Helmet on steroids. Dealing 60 damage to your attacker is pretty sweet if you have it attached to your Active Pokémon. But would you really run this over Computer Search or Dowsing Machine as your ACE SPEC? A rather underwhelming ACE SPEC if you ask me.
New Decks: The New Kids on the Block
Team Plasma
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Pokémon – 12 3 Thundurus EX |
Trainers – 34 4 Professor Juniper
4 Hypnotoxic Laser
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Energy – 14 4 Plasma |
pokechampion.tumblr.comThe goal of this deck is to take Prizes with Lugia EX. Thundurus EX is your opener because of its low cost attack that provides Energy acceleration. The goal of your early attacks is to do enough damage to set up future knockouts with Lugia EX.
Hypnotoxic Laser is extremely useful as a damage adder and to set up donks on 60 HP Basics that your opponent may be forced to start with.
Kyurem PLF is a highly useful counter to Landorus-EX as well as an excellent opening Pokémon for the deck because of its high damage output early on. Tornadus EX is also an excellent starter and can be set up with a Colress Machine for a hand refresh early on in the game.
Ultra Ball should be utilized early on in the game to get Energy in the discard pile for acceleration through Raiden Knuckle.
Watchlock
The goal of this deck is to completely deny your opponent’s hand and prevent them from topdecking anything useful. The next step is to take Prizes by using Poison damage and low-cost attacks from Amoonguss and Watchog. If you get in trouble, Shaymin EX is your back-up plan for a late-game sweep with Revenge Blast.
|
Pokémon – 14 2 Patrat BCR 3 Mew-EX |
Trainers – 36 3 Skyla 3 N
3 Switch
|
Energy – 10 10 G |
2-2 Amoonguss PLS
pokemon-paradijs.comAmoonguss’ main purpose is to deny your opponent’s hand by using its first attack, Astonish. For one C Energy you flip a coin. If the flip is heads, you get to shuffle any three cards in your opponent’s hand back into their deck.
Amoonguss’ second attack, Miracle Powder, is highly useful for doing damage if your opponent has no hand. It does an automatic 30 damage and if you flip heads you can deal any Special Condition to the defending Pokémon for GC.
2-2 Watchog EPO
Watchog is the second part of the denial chain that this deck utilizes. Its first attack, Watcheck, allows you to look at the top five cards of your opponents’ deck and rearrange them in any order for one C Energy. This is important to the decks’ success because after wiping out your opponents’ hand with Amoonguss, Watchog allows you to prevent your opponent from getting any useful resources.
Its second attack, Quick Tail Smash, costs two C Energy and does 20 damage. It allows you to flip a coin before you attack. If the flip is heads, the attack does an additional 60 damage. If it’s tails the attack does nothing. With Victini NVI 14 in the deck, the attack has a decent chance of getting the heads it needs.
3 Mew-EX
Mew is very important to the success of this deck. It prevents players from constantly having to switch back and forth between Watchog and Amoonguss.
This is another card that highly increases the consistency of this deck. Watchlock is a very flippy deck and Victini makes Astonish, Miracle Powder, and Quick Tail Smash much more consistent.
1 Shaymin EX
pokemon-paradijs.comShaymin is your late game sweeper and also a Keldeo/Blastoise counter. Because this deck relies heavily on Hypnotoxic Laser and Miracle Powder to take Prizes, Keldeo-EX in general can throw a highly disruptive pony wrench into the mechanics of this deck because of Rush In, which allows it to remove Special Conditions.
Shaymin is also useful for Energy acceleration if you have to open with it.
Shadow Triad is one of the most important cards in the deck because it allows you to get your Hypnotoxic Lasers back, which is vital to the success of the deck.
In games against Team Plasma, this card is a game-saver early by getting rid of Lugia EX’s Energy and preventing it from getting a Plasma Gale off on a Mew-EX, which will cost you 3 Prizes and put you behind. It allows you to get rid of Prism Energy, Plasma Energy, and Double Colorless Energy, all of which will become very prominent in the post-Plasma Freeze format.
Energy Switch is highly useful for setting up a quick Shaymin EX in the late game and also for keeping Energy out of the discard pile if Mew is about to be Knocked Out.
Dowsing Machine is the most useful ACE SPEC in this deck because it allows you to recover crucial Trainers such as Ghetsis, Hypnotoxic Laser, and Enhanced Hammer.
Old Decks: Updating Tier 1 with Plasma Freeze
Darkrai/Lasers
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Pokémon – 10 |
Trainers – 38 4 N
4 Pokémon Catcher
|
Energy – 12 12 D |
pokebeach.comThis is your Klinklang counter and is an overall great non-EX attacker in Darkrai. Its first attack does 20 damage plus an additional 20 for each of your opponent’s benched Pokémon which is extremely helpful against Klinklang decks because they tend to bench a lot of Pokémon.
It is a better PlasmaKlang counter than Victini NVI 15 because it has access to Dark Patch and Dark Claw, does not require a full bench just to attack, and has higher HP.
Shadow Triad is extremely useful in Darkrai because it allows you to recycle Hypnotoxic Laser and also get Absol back out of the discard pile.
This is a 1-of that is designed to slow down the likes of Big Basics and Team Plasma by discarding their Double Colorless Energy, Prism Energy, and Plasma Energy.
RayEels
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Pokémon – 14 4 Tynamo NVI 38 3 Rayquaza EX |
Trainers – 31 4 Professor Juniper
4 Pokémon Catcher
|
Energy – 14 |
RayEels does not gain very much from Plasma Freeze except for Float Stone. Float Stone is useful because it gives Eelektrik free retreat to prevent Catcher-stall and to also give Keldeo-EX free retreat when Rush In is utilizied to remove Special Conditions.
Big Basics
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Pokémon – 9 3 Tornadus-EX DEX |
Trainers – 37 4 Professor Juniper
4 Pokémon Catcher
|
Energy – 14 6 F |
Big Basics is meant to generate a lot of offense really quickly by using Pokémon such as Landorus-EX and Tornadus-EX DEX, who both have low-cost attacks that do a lot of damage quickly. Hypnotoxic Laser is also important in the early offensive strategy for Big Basics.
Shadow Triad is incredibly helpful late-game by retrieving Hypnotoxic Laser for the extra 30 damage. Victini is your Klinklang counter while Mewtwo is useful in Knocking Out Deoxys-EX, who will become very prominent in the format.
Keldeo/Blastoise
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Pokémon – 14 4 Squirtle BCR 2 Keldeo-EX |
Trainers – 32 4 Professor Juniper
4 Pokémon Catcher
|
Energy – 14 |
Cyrogonal is a new card that I believe has fantastic potential in Blastoise. Its 80 HP makes it searchable by Level Ball and its first attack, Call Sign, allows you to search your deck for a Water Pokémon and put it into your hand. This will be able to boost the consistency of Blastoise by giving it the power to search for Blastoise without wasting a Heavy Ball that could have been used for getting a Black Kyurem into play.
Its second attack, Cyrofreeze, is also useful for stalling because it prevents the Defending Pokémon from attacking.
PlasmaKlang
|
Pokémon – 17 4 Klink DEX |
Trainers – 31 4 Professor Juniper
4 Pokémon Catcher
|
Energy – 12 12 M |
PlasmaKlang will get even better with the release of Plasma Freeze because of the new, powerful EXs that are being released and the increase of Special Energy in the format that is on the horizon. Cobalion-EX will dominate the early game against Team Plasma by using Righteous Edge to discard all of their Blend WLFM and Prism Energy, shutting down any chances of getting any Raiden Knuckle energy acceleration going.
PlasmaKlang is going to be one of the top decks in the format going forward because of its tanking through Max Potion, protection from Plasma Klinklang, and Cobalion-EX’s ability to discard Special Energy for a cheap cost.
Conclusion
pokemon-paradijs.comThe format at this juncture of the season has an amazing diversity of decks. There are the five top decks in the format that I mentioned above, the two newcomers to the format, who are Watchlock and Team Plasma, as well as other decks including ZekEels, Darkrai/Hydreigon, Garbodor, Empoleon, Lugia/Big Basics, Emboar, and Quad Sigilyph.
The top decks after Plasma Freeze is released appear to be PlasmaKlang, Big Basics, Keldeo/Blastoise, and Team Plasma. Just below it are the likes of RayEels, Darkrai/Lasers, and Garbodor, which will become even better after Plasma Freeze with the release of Float Stone and the onset of Deoxys-EX and the prominence that Lugia EX will gain in the upcoming format.
Thanks for reading,
Tyler Vencill
As much as I love Plasma Klinklang I don’t really see it surviving this new, faster format. Trust me, I would love if it was still a viable deck, but with the introduction of the new plasma Kyurem there is no way that you can just out-last the plasma Big Basic deck.
What if Kyurem opens against a Cobalion EX? Cobalion EX seems like it’s made to counter this.
You run Colbalion ex in float stone garbodor with 2-3 blends. Its a list i have been testing with specifically against thundurus/deoxys.
Coablion EX is a soft counter and will not get the one-shot on Kyurem. It only does 60 and its second attack does 100 b/c of the fact that it does not apply weakness. I will agree that discarding the special energy off of the Kyurem is a big help, but when they are fully set up (with non-special energy) there is not much that the Cobalion EX or even Cobalion can do. If you were able to stream Cobalion at the rate that they stream Kyurem that would be something different. Plasma Klinklang will need to undergo a big overhaul if it wants to survive in this ultra-fast format.
Thats coming from plasma klang. I’m talking about setting up a garbodor wtih float stone and sending a Colbalion ex to kill the opponents specail energy with lasers included to increase damage output. Even though in theory it sounds like the TDKL player may have the upper hand with thundurus, the Colbalion ex will eventually discard all specail energy in play via catcher and have a fully powered landorus ex finish the job without worry for a surpirse kyurem. As for when non-special energy come into play, its all landorus mewtwo with the garbodor serving as backup.
And the post that started this is about PlasmaKlang. John Orgel was replying to a post about PlasmaKlang. No one was talking about your garbodor deck.
It seems like Plasmaklang is missing something, namely Switch and/or Float Stone. I would personally like an easier way to get a Cobalion EX attacking turn 1, and Float Stone would allow your Klinklang be immune from catcher stall. Sure, you can just move your energy around once you get the old Kilnklang set up, but do you really want to attack with Klinklang if it gets catcher’d up?
I’m also not sure on how effective the Watchog deck will be. It doesn’t seem like it really does enough, but I guess we’ll see.
I personally use plasmakang as my main attacker XD Besides,it OHKOs sableye and kyurem PLF, so yeah.
By Klinklang getting catcher’d, I really meant the old Klinklang. Why would you want to risk missing gear grind, even if it’s only 25% chance, when you could just put a float stone on it and attack with Cobalion instead? I guess the Klinklangs aren’t TERRIBLE attackers, but I still would like to attack with whatever I want to attack with, instead of what my opponent wants me to attack with. Not having any easy retreat/switching options in a deck with such high retreat costs seems rather silly, in my opinion.
Adam, you allow too many people to write who don’t know what they’re talking about :(
(I’ll admit that I was one of those people when I started out)
Ok, Tyler, I’ll admit, you had me for the set analysis part. That was well done and I thought you got it
right-on with the new cards. Tornadus EX PLF I am unsure about as a whole, it is intriguing to me. However,
all of the lists were terrible. There’s so many things wrong with them it’s not even funny. Having heavily tested all of
them except RayEels, I can confidently say that they are flat out bad and will not work well in a tournament. Sorry.
I’ll pick them apart if anyone wants me too, but it would take a while. The main thing is the supporter lines though.
You need 13 draw Supporters/Skyla in almost every deck, while some of your lists have 10, which makes the decks very inconsistent. Also, mindlessly slapping 2 Shadow Triad into almost every deck seems like a terrible idea to me, but I can’t pick on that specific decision much because I haven’t tested Shadow Triad enough. Hope I’m not being to mean with this, trying to make it constructive.
completely agree with everything you said, and also, below, piplup mentioned running 2 ultra ball and 1 plasma ball [is a terrible idea] in TDK.
this article is largely useless and misguiding to many players who may not know otherwise.
still, I like the effort, its always hard when you are starting fresh. +1 for the plasma review section.
Sadly, the decklists from his other articles run very low counts of Supporters as well and I don’t think we will be changing his mind on that…
At least with Empoleon it’s almost acceptable.
Your “new kids on the block” list is a joke. Running 2 ultra ball and only 1 plasma ball is one way to ensure you never start kyurem. And forget about retreating your catcher-stalled lugia or deoxys with float stone, one of the best tools in the format, not to mention running tornadus ex plf who is a free prize in your mirror. You’d think you could come up with something better considering all the card explanations you gave in the artilce. Don’t even get me started on your other lists.Though it does pose one question; how many games have you tested with your deck lists and which decks did you test with?
These deck lists are really bad.
Decklists weren’t so good, but +1 for the great plasma freeze review and for effort :D
I’m new to the competitive scene for Pokemon, then again, I haven’t played since the Team Rocket set so…But anyway, I don’t really get why Keldeo EX is in practically every deck that doesn’t have Water energies. The only thing I can think of is as a counter to Landorus and the such. If someone could explain this to me I would appreciate it.
Keldeo’s “Rush In” + Float Stone acts as a reusable Switch, basically. Helps get out of Status Conditions (like from Hypnotoxic Laser).
WOW that Klingklang list is HORRIBLE!
People are being way too harsh. I would build all of the decks differently, but I don’t think any of the lists except PlasmaKlang and Watchlock (just because the deck itself isn’t very good) are bad to the point that you can’t do well in a tournament with them.
I don’t like the Cryoganol in Blastoise. As just a one of with no switch or float stone, you will pretty much never be able to attack with it early, outside of the one game in a tournament that you happen to start with it.
You guys are too harsh. Ok so the deck lists aren’t 100% but if you’re copying lists exactly then you’ve got to ask where your own skills are as a deck builder.
No matter what list anyone puts up there will always be arguments over each others exact builds.
This does however give basic deck ideas for the new set for you to play around with and get inspiration from.
Good job I say :P