COLORLESS

Exploud

Another really fun deck to play that has been sweeping the Battle Roads scene recently, the Exploud deck really is that simple: Exploud. You play Exploud. You flip a bunch of coins. You win while causing random effects. You're opponents cry wondering how their perfectly teched, five LV. X having deck was ripped apart by a turn two, Colorless Pokemon with only two energy. It seriously is that cut and dry. Exploud on turn two can do huge spreading, and whatever second coin flip's result is, it's going to be disruptive. This deck is so basic, but can be so tough to play against. Exploud is (NOWAY!) the star/focus/sometimesonlyfrigginPokemonline of the Exploud deck, so their will be 4.

 

Blissey

Another very basic deck revolving solely around an evolved Colorless Pokemon, Blissey takes the same page as Exploud and dedicates itself solely to speed and power. Early game Felicity's provide starting feeder energy, and with Pluspowers, Buck's, and even Energy Pickup, the ability to KO unexpectedly is high. Alot of times, your opponent doesn't realize that they are currently in a OHKO or 2HKO position, because Blissey can increase it's damage so quickly. This is an older deck though, so many people alreeady know it's "tricks". Nevertheless, Blissey remains a relevant archetype not to be taken too lightly. You can't play Blissey without 4 Blissey......well, you're not supposed to anyway.

 

Blissey/Darkrai/Weavile

A pretty common and popular variant of Blissey, this deck uses Weavile to grow the Darkrai or Blissey early game, and then uses Blissey or a second Blissey to follow up with easy KOs. Darkrai, naturally, takes on the usual two to three turns to get a KO, so Blissey has alot of time to power up. Weavile can also do good damage with some discard when the Darkrai LV. X is in play. This deck is one that seems to work seamlessly through attackers, both on it's side and against it. The norm is.......STOOOP!!!! You see, while the deck already SOUNDS fantastic as is, I haven't even MENTIONED the real, true combo of this deck. You see. Weavile can turn more than itself into a Dark type, and when it turns your Blissey into a Dark, ALL those normal Darks, through Darkrai LV. X's ability, become a bunch of little Pluspowers who practically multiply the damage by two. NOW, the real lines. 3-4 Blissey, 2-3 Weavile, and 2/2 Darkrai.

 

Blissey/Magnezone

The least likely build of Blissey you'll run into, the deck has a solid strategy that takes Blissey in a different direction. With the Magnezone LV. X, you can move the energy that Blissey retrieves from the discard pile onto any of your Pokemon, enabling free retreat for all of your Pokemon, easily generated Cyber Shocks, and even BIGGER Blisseys than you've ever seen! You want the early Blissey here, and Magnezone's Poke-Power lets you go into it's LV. X practically whenever you want. The ability of this deck to do an easy 160 in two turns with Magnezone, or build a 6-7 energy Blissey, who can donate it's energy and easily step back when needed, is something that no other deck can do. BlisseyZone should be seeing more play as it catches on with more and more people. While there really isn't a standard for this deck right now, a 2-2/3-1 line for Magnezone, and 3-4 for Blissey is something you can hang your big metally egg shaped hat on.

 

Garchomp

A real staple of this format, I think Garchomp has, by now, proven it CAN hang with the big decks of this format. Heck, I think Garchomp IS one of the big decks of this format. Anyways, using Smeargle as a starter, Garchomp powers itself up with the right energy it needs to power it's Rainbow Scale, dealing a solid 110. After the first Garchomp goes down, a Garchomp LV. X puts it back up onto the bench as a Basic, complete with all of it's own energy....again, WHILE providing some spreader damage. Garchomp LV. X can also put random tech Big Pokemon, like Dragonite or Gallade, onto your Bench with your enegy. This deck might not have the speed of the other variants, but it more than makes up for it with it's versatility and pure power. It's a 2-2/3-1 for Garchomp, depending on how much you want to lean on the Garchomp LV. X. At least 1 tech big pokemon, also.

 

Garchomp/Togekiss

Oh Togechomp, you play and win so randomly. By know, you all have seen and probably understand the strategy of Garchomp/Togekiss, you play the Togekiss, rush energy onto the Garchomp, and begin to beat face. This deck, like I said early, plays randomly, but can win randomly. Togechomp is a deck that can make remarkable comebacks with Togekiss or Garchomp LV. X. It also is one deck that really takes advantage of Togekiss' Power AND attack. Togekiss can whisk away most basics with a PPower or a heads, and makes a great type of shielding Pokemon, letting your Garchomp get the first attack against an opponent's attacker. The deck plays fast, and with room for techs and Garchomp's ability, it can be very disrupting using an assortment of cards. The deck needs 3-1 for Garchomp, and at least 2 Togekiss.

 

Garchomp/Ho-oh/Togekiss

A deck that combines Skittles with Togechomp, this build usually gets 2-3 attacking Pokemon going every time a Togekiss hits the field. Ho-oh is also a prime target for Garchomp LV. X to Restore, and as you all know, can be really hard to take down permanently. This deck is pretty explosive, also, and can blow up early game to late game. It DOES have the consistency issue, but it makes up for it with being able to simply outdo other decks. Once again, 3-1 Garchomp, at least 2 Togekiss, and 2-3 Ho-oh.

 

Rayquaza/Rotom

Possibly THE MOST unexpected, most highly winning deck this season, Raytom (or maybe Rotoquaza?), is a deck that basically uses Rotom to place a bunch of Auto-kills into place. The Rotom powers up multi Rayquaza's early game, and can then use Reflect Energy to KO their starting, and force up an attacker. The Rayquaza's dismantle decks that rely on one big attacker, and then eat back up the energy, moving fire energy around with Stark Mountain. Rayquaza can start the game, after a Rotom, with up to 3 auto-KOs/prizes in Rayquazas. The deck is kind of hard to play though, as it's style is very unlike other decks. You're going to want 3-4 Rotom/Rayquaza, and probably 4 for each.

 

Rayquaza/Togekiss

This variant can also play Rotom, but relies on the Togekiss now for it's main source of energy acceleration. This deck is another type that can blow up energy, and with the Rayquazas, that's prizes, from out of seemingly nowhere. Togekiss and Rayquaza rip energy from the deck and discard, and energize lightyears faster than other decks with neither. Your first attacker is uaually Togekiss, with a fully-powered Rayquaza sitting on the bench to get revenge for it. The combination of the Rayquaza auto-KOs, and Togekiss' healing and moderate damage make this deck a strange blend of defense and offense. You'll see 3-4 of each of these.

 

Rayquaza/Magnezone

One of the most overpowering decks in this format, hell, EVER, Rayquaza/Magnezone is a deck that, once it gets it's Pokemon out, can destroy smaller less damaging decks like bugs on a windshield. Rayquaza can come up, pass it's Judgement, and then take a metal from Magnezone and retreat, just like that. The combos between Magnezone LV. X and Rayquaza are just that, comboSSSS. With multiple Rayquaza's and metal energies in hand, Magnezone LV. X can Cyber Shock for several turns in a row, and that ability can work backwards, with benched Rayquaza's feeding an active Rayquaza through Magnezone and Stark Mountain. This deck is prone to slower starts to set up all it's pieces, though. 3-1/2-1 Magnezone, and 3-4 Rayquaza.

 

Rayquaza/Luxray

An deck that adds even more explosiveness to Rayquaza, Luxray starts and Rayquaza definitely finsihes. A fast setup Luxray puts instant pressure on the opposition and energies into the discard pile for Rayquaza, and once again, it comes out for Revenge after Luxray kicks the bucket. Then, a Warp Point can put a new Luxray in with a starting Plasma to get back up and running. Also, when you see that the Luxray will get KO'd after it's next KO of one of your opponent's, you can retreat for Rayquaza, Judgment instead, let the Rayquaza get knocked, and then come up and Plasma, with a new Rayquaza there to put the energy back into play. Luxray complements Rayquaza's ferocious nature pretty well. Again, 3-4 Rayquaza, 3-4 Luxray.

 

Porygon-Z/Garchomp

I guess another, crawled-out-of-the-woodworks-what-the-heck-was-that deck can't hurt nobody. Porygon-Z was probably the LAST thing people expected to run into at a Battle Roads (that, or maybe Purugly). With Garchomp though, this guy is a beast. Both of them can do eye-opening amounts of damage for small energy costs, and with the search abilities of Porygon 2 and Porygon-Z LV. X, this deck can find the right energies, and Garchomp LV. X to fully power the deck. Both of these Pokemon rely on specific energy to do more damage, Porygon-Z to change it's type so that with Lake Boundary it can deal double, and Garchomp to use Rainbow Scale. These two are kind of made to work with each other. The regular is 3-1/2-1 for each.

 

Dragonite

Dragonite is a card that even I had doubts about, but it seems that it's flippiness still didn't stop it from smashing everything. Before I talk about the whole deck idea, I want to explain something about Dragonite that's, well......strange. Okay, when you look at a flip card, you can usually take the whole flip idea out of it by cutting i half the result of a heads with the result of a tails, and by that I mean this; looking at Raticate, you might say that it's first attack is worse or better than the second for any amount of reasons, but when you think of it like this: in two turns, the second attack with a Dark will do 80. BUT, with the norm being one heads and one tails in two turns, and the same likelihood for two heads or two tails, the regular you'll get out of the attack is 80 damage. So now you see that the first attack STILL does about 40. Applying this to other cards, you'll see that Porygon-Z with the Lake Boundary combo does about 120 damage in a turn, and Rayquaza will only grab an energy every other turn. Of course, sometimes you'll get damages or other effects that land in half, like Togekiss will do about 55 damage and 15 damage for three energy, or Palkia's Transback costing 1.5 energy and most likely shuffling the opponent's Active's energy back into the deck, in which case rounding up or down will give you a normal base for the attack. Anyways, I tell you all this to...to tell you this haha. Applying this idea to Dragonite's Draco Meteor lets you see that it does if it was a nonflip attack. If you round down, in which case Dragonite would do 20 to all of your opponent's Pokemon, the attack looks bad. You're just doubling up on a Sonic Wave, but for FOUR energy. If you round up the attack looks ALOT better. 30 to every one of their Pokemon is like Dual Splasing all of them, and adds up so fast. So, it's just strange, at least for me, to rate Draco Meteor.

Anyway, sorry about that, let's talk about the deck. Dragonite, though slowly, basically swarms the field, and begins to keep up a constant Draco Meteorfest as long as it can. This can result in a win, with turns where you might pick up 2-4 prizes after a successful attack. Most people don't expect this, so they don't really know how to play agsinst one, and they seem to get stuck between playing as little bench as they can, or loading up the bench in order to build up fast and take out the Dragonite.Either way, disruption ensues, and as long as you can keep a steady stream of Dragonites, the game can end quick. Of course, 4 Dragonite to play this.

 

Dragonite/Empoleon

I call this the big spreader deck. Dragonite Empoleon is one of those decks where it seems everything you face has high HP, and this is pretty much true. This deck uses Empoleon to build early damage on the bench, and then begins to do bombing runs with Dragonite. This combination can place obscene amounts of damage on the opponent's Pokemon, netting you several prizes usually when the Dragonite comes up. After that, either one can finish, and Empoleon can be used to get rid of bigger, powered up threats. Both of these Pokemon are big spreaders who, even Dragonite, can do great amounts of damage for small amounts of energy. You'll see the 3-4 line for each.

 

Dragonite/Darkrai

A strange combination indeed, Dragonite Darkrai is a deck.....that seems and remains very mysterious, even to me and my amazing and in all likelihood useless for real life ability to look up information on Pokemon decks. I can see where they would help each other, though. Darkrai, as I have said before, is a slow but very effective KOer, giving you time to build Dragonites on the bench. Also, Dragonite's attacks damaging potential attackers allows Darkrai usual 70 to become a KO recipe. This deck is one I'm hoping of seeing more of in the future, as it just might be the most obscure build on this whole list. I'd imagine 2-2/3-1 Darkrai, and 3-4 Dragonite.

 

Dragonite/Empoleon/Kyogre

A meeting of three giant sized, huge hitting Pokemon, this is a deck with multiple threats for the opponent to deal with. And, to your convenience or dismay, each of them are BIG spreaders. This deck has about same aim as Dragonite Empoleon, but with the Kyogre in the mix, you now have the option of quick powerups or some early prizes and bench spreading. Seriously, just two High Tides during the first few turns of the game can ultimately lead to a win. Another aspect of the deck is the sheer HP values of these Big Pokemon. Each one, including Kyogre, will be incredibly tough to OHKO for most decks. Smaller spreader decks will likely have a tough time with the behemoths in here. All in all, an impressive strategy with unlikely components, this deck is one that uses sheer power to deal KOs. It's about 3-4 for Dragonite/Empoleon, and 2-4 for Kyogre.

 

DARK

Darkrai/Weavile/Lopunny

This deck OUTRIGHT WINS the trophy for strangest deck featured in these series of articles. The Pokemon here that should give you the biggest WTH feeling is, of course, Lopunny. A VERY strange and interesting choice, Lopunny is a Pokemon with three abilites that actually support this deck. It's Healing Tail can help a retreated attacker while it attacks, letting it come back as active when the Lopunny is KO'd, or it can destroy a spreader like Froslass or Yanmega by simply removing their spreading. It's Collect attack is obviously a greatn free attack to begin a game with, letting you start every turn with four new cards and still letting you play you first energy on your first offensive Pokemon. Finally it's second attack is a cheap way to damage smaller evolved Pokemon or KO damaged Pokemon. Weavile is another less stranger choice that provides a bunch of great options, and both versions of Weavile are a good fit for this deck. They each provide a good start, one recruiting energy for a small cost and one searching out any card for only an energy, being able to get out your Darkrais and evolutions easy. Also, the first Weavile with Darkrai LV. X lets Lopunny do 80 for two energy, and the second one can be a late game bomb with a powered up Darkrai LV. X on the bench. Although these three Pokemon do appear chosen almost at random, they actually support each other in several manners and the deck seems to have a really utility belt feel. I'd say 2/2 for Darkrai, and you could see anywhere from 2-4 for Weavile and Lopunny.

 

Darkrai/Mightyena

Darkrai is one of those Pokemon that can be easily paired with a variety of things, and here, that thing is Mightyena. Mightyena is really a specialist Pokemon, or a Pokemon that does one thing, really does that one thing well. These Pokemon, like Minun or Plusle, tend to be played in singles or not played at all, but Mightyena is just so good at what it does, it earns spots in this decks and in most AMU. Mightyena, quite simply, destroys basics, almost always with constant Bite-Ons, and sometimes with a large Harass. Either way, all Basics, LV. X'd or not, are eaten by Mightyena except for in extreme circumstances (DANG YOU WARP POINT!!!). This let's Darkrai focus on Bigger evolved Pokemon. Mightyena can crush Mewtwo, AMU (VERY ironic) and a plethora of other decks (place a Mightyena on top of a Groudon and watch the poor Legendary beast disintegrate). Darkrai does.....well, we all know what Darkrai does (and people said it wouldn't be played *shakes head*). Together, they fall apart to Fighting, but they also form a strong team and can make life hard for Psychic decks, especially AMUs. We all know Darkrai needs 2/2 or 3/1, but Mightyena can be seen at 2-4, depending on how much focus is on Mightyena's second attack (if its' 4 be prepared to see Dusknoir and possibly a Minun or other benched gems to support Harass).