Expanded Deck Tech: Absol - Doom News

Hello everybody. I'm Rodrigo, bringing news about the Pokémon TCG and its vast media. And speaking of some Expanded format decks, I bring you Absol from Sun/Moon: Guardians Rising with Hydreigon from Sword/Shield: Darkness Ablaze. It is a way to complement and synergize with the transition of dark energies that are dynamized and accelerate the infamous Doom News.

So, let's analyze his deck and understand how it works.

DeckList

Absol: The Most Important Striker

The essential fun part of the deck is precisely the second attack, and before there weren't many Pokémon of the dark type that could do a "Rain Dance", as we had Blastoise in Black/White. But with the Hydreigon DAA 110 in Sword/Shield: Darkness Ablaze, its ability does the same as that of Blastoise, but with dark energies, so every time it causes the attack's effect “Doom News", you'll always have the synergy of connecting your hand's energies to Absol and always come back with that effect.

The first attack is also interesting, as it can perform a "lesser control" role in the opponent's deck, in case they have Oranguru SSH 148 to change the top card of the deck to the hand, which can sabotage and delay their plans.

Alolan Persian-GX: the second striker

Despite having weak damage and a low HP for ultra-rare Vs, Alolan Persian has two important issues that can help with our game plan:

1) Its ability grants damage protection against Pokémon that use special energies. And plenty of decks lately use special energies, with two highlights from the current meta: Lugia VSTAR SIT 139 which needs Archeops SIT 147 to power up the deck's special energies, such as Powerful Colorless Energy DAA 176 ; and the infamous Mew VMAX FST 114 with the use of Fusion Strike Energy FST 244. Just for that fact, it already helps a lot against them.

In addition to the fact that, with the enhancement of the dragon type with Regidrago VSTAR SIT 136 with the use of Double Dragon Energy ROS 97, it already manages to be a nuisance for the deck, not to mention the infamous Duraludon VMAX EVS 123 that uses a lot of this energy in the Expanded format, and of course, Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX CEC 156.

2) Its dark type is good against Mew VMAX FST 114.

Drapion-V: Mew-VMax's "counter"

It, as the biggest attack in the game, only serves to hit double damage on Mew VMAX FST 114, due to its weakness to the dark type, being then 380 damage, which is more than enough.

Good hands to start the game

Here in this hypothetical case, we have a generous hand, already with Zweilous and a Battle VIP Pass to start the game well to accelerate the evolution of Deino.

Obviously, you'll put Absol as an active attacker, and then you'll play first, hoping that you're the first to start, already using the Battle VIP Pass, and putting at least one Deino and another Absol, so that this way it is possible to evolve this Deino to Zweilous, and then use the first attack of Absol to accelerate your draw organization from the top of the deck or sabotage the opponent's.

In this other simulation, we have two options:

1) If you want to speed up the game as quickly as possible, forget the Alolan Meowth attack bonus of hitting 60 damage if you are second to play in the first round of the game, so you can already use the Battle VIP Pass and assemble the Deino set-up, since it has a Zweilous in hand and an Evolution Incense to look for Hydreigon in the next turns, and soon after, having the choice of being able to filter the deck playing the Professor's Research or the Judge to sabotage the opponent's hand.

2) If you want to be second in turn to play and hit aggressively right away, then take advantage of the Alolan Meowth attack that for zero energy cost, does 60 damage, and it even has the benefit of having the choice to use Professor's Research right away to filter the deck by buying more cards and accelerating the process, even if you lose Zweilous and Judge from your hand. You can cycle Zweilous with Ordinary Rod cards or Rescue Stretcher and Judge with VS Seeker to use it in the future when your deck is low on cards.

Here we have an extremely aggressive hand of game progress: you're obviously going to put Absol as an Active Pokémon, and you're going to bench a Deino. The second Deino will go to the Pokémon Communication filter to look for a Crobat-V and store it in the hand. In this, you will use the Battle VIP Pass to place a second Deino or a second Absol and the other Pokémon can even be Darkrai-EX to guarantee mobility, and then you will be able to play Crobat-V to use his ability to draw cards and hope that a Rare Candy and Hydreigon come along with this draw.

And if it doesn't work, you have the Trainers' Mail, which can filter the 4 cards from there at the top of the deck and see if there is any kind of Supporter like Professor's Research or Judge.

Recursive Pokémon

- Crobat V DAA 104 comes in with its ability Dark Asset, which means that, if played it from your hand to the bench, you draw until you have six cards in your hand.

- Darkrai-EX DEX 63 is here for its ability Dark Cloak, which makes all Dark Archetype Pokémon gain free retreat if they have Dark Energy attached to them.

- Hydreigon DAA 110 comes in here with Dark Squall, which means that during your turn, you can pull and move dark energy from your hand to one of your Pokémon in any way you want.

It's basically a "Rain Dance" for dark energies.

Trainer Cards

- Professor's Research (Professor Oak) CEL 23 serves to be the “Draw Power” of the game: you discard your hand and draw seven cards.

- Judge FST 235 is for you and your opponent to shuffle your hands and draw four cards, respectively.

- Rosa CEC 204 is used to search for resources. It can only be played if one of your Pokémon was Knocked Out the previous turn. In this, you search for a Pokémon, a Trainer card and a basic energy, reveal them and put them in your hand.

- Brock's Grit TEU 135 serves as a Pokémon and energy recycling. You choose a combination of up to six cards of Pokémon and basic Energy from the discard pile and return them to the deck.

- Lady LOR 159 serves to search your deck for four basic energies of your choice and put them in your hand.

It is precisely this card that must be played with Hydreigon DAA 110 to make the combo of using its ability and move these energies to your Pokémon and for Absol GRI 81 to use Doom News.

- Nanu TEU 150 serves as a replacement for a Dark Basic Pokémon from the discard pile, and it will be the one that replaces one that is in play. The special conditions, damage, energies, tools that were present on the old Pokémon will belong to the new one it replaced.

- Battle VIP Pass FST 225 can only be played on your first turn in the match. You can search your deck for two basic Pokémon and put them on your Bench.

- Ordinary Rod SSH 171 is a recycling item card that has two options, where you can choose one or both:

1) You may cycle up to two Pokémon from the discard pile and put them into the deck.

2) You may recycle up to two basic energies from the discard pile and put them into your deck.

- Rescue Stretcher GRI 130 is a recycling item card that has two options, where you can choose only one of them:

1) You may take a Pokémon from the discard pile and put it into your hand.

2) You may cycle up to three Pokémon from the discard pile and put them into your deck.

- Rare Candy PGO 69 is used to advance the evolution of a basic Pokémon right to stage 2. It can only be played in the turn after the one that put your basic Pokémon into play.

- Evolution Incense SSH 163 makes you search your deck for an evolved Pokémon and put it in your hand.

- Pokémon Communication TEU 152 is used to exchange a Pokémon in your hand for another in the deck and replace it, revealing it to the opponent and putting this new Pokémon in your hand.

- Trainers' Mail ROS 92 is an item that makes you search the top four cards of the deck for any Trainer-type card, choose one of them, reveal it to your opponent and put it in your hand, and then shuffle your deck.

- VS Seeker ROS 110 is an item that makes you cycle a Supporter card from the discard pile and put it in your hand.

- Dangerous Drill TEU 138 is an item that, by Tributing a discard of a Dark Pokémon from your hand, you can discard a Tool card, Special Energy or Stadium of your opponent.

Stadium

- The Stadium Black Market ◇ TEU 134 serves as a guarantee to avoid losses from drawing prize cards from the opponent for each Knockout it performs: if its Dark Pokemon has any Dark Energy attached to it and the opponent knocks them out, they draw one less prize card.

In summary, if they defeat a "Single Prize" Pokémon, they don't draw any prize cards, and if they defeat an EX, GX or V from your deck (Darkrai-EX, Alolan Persian-GX and Drapion-V , respectively), instead of two prize cards, they only draw one.

Advantages

As a deck that in essence, the function is to use Absol to do the main attacks and catch the opponent's higher rarity Pokémon with Doom News, such as the Pokémon Tag Team-GX and VMax, to be able to draw three prize cards at once, it's good because it only asks for two energies in the requirement, being something quick to assemble, but returning the energies to the hand slows down the process of constancy, thus needing Hydreigon to use this dynamic fluid power.

And as said before, it has pros against present special energy Pokémon like Lugia-VStar, Mew-VMax, Dragon-type Pokémon like Duraludon-VMax, Regidrago-VStar, and Arceus & Dialga & Palkia Tag Team-GX that use the special energies Double Dragon Energy ROS 97 - and of course there may be other decks that abuse special energies like Blissey-V and Slaking-V that Alolan Persian-GX can prevent damage.

And even with physical Pokémon, like Rapid Strike - Urshifu-VMax that uses special energies, it also can't beat Alolan Persian-GX, even though it has the archetype of Dark-type weakness.

Disadvantages

- The deck can get stuck while trying to evolve Deino, Zweilous and Hydreigon. So, it will be the biggest headache to assemble and definitely, the opponent will focus on Deino as a potential target to be destroyed as soon as possible, so you need to preserve at least two Deino at any cost.

- Control and spread decks like Mewtwo-VUnion.

- Decks that take Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX CEC 156 using its GX attack first and drawing prizes quickly, especially if it has attackers that don't depend on special energies to make their next attacks.

- “Single Prize” decks like Alolan Raticate PGO 42 and Raticate BREAK BKP 89.

- Decks with “Deck Out” strategy like Centiskorch.

- Decks that use Lost Zone combos like the use of the card Lost City LOR 161.

- Control decks in general, whether blocking items like Vileplume AOR 3 or blocking basic Pokémon attacks like Vileplume BUS 6 or blocking hand resources like Trevenant & Dusknoir -GX PR-SM SM217 and Honchkrow-GX UNB 109.

- Decks that use stadiums or Pokémon that always offer constant free retreats.

It's a deck that, with the arrival of many Pokémon with high HP and with the greater flow of special energy use recently, it works well to respond to trending cards like Lugia-VStar and Mew-VMax, guaranteeing the Alolan Persian-GX shine. But Absol still has a lot of importance, and it's a card well forgotten by players that deserve this rescue to highlight. It is practically versatile and easy to assemble, unlike the Yveltal Amazing Rare, which needs a huge process with special energies (usually depending on Archeops of Sword/Shield: Silver Tempest for the energy of these) which is the example latest ''Instant K.O.'' effect.

Did you like this deck? Would you make your list different? What do you think you would change to improve it? And if you've played with him, what was your experience? Your comments are welcome.

Until next time for a future article.