Expanded Deck Tech: Moltres (Deck Out)

Thanks to some cards that came in Sword/Shield: Pokémon GO, there was possibility for the deckout strategy, because of the Charizard and Blastoise that were released. And yet, to complement the deck's defenses against “Boss's Orders”, in Sword/Shield: Astral Radiance, we had Diancie, which strengthened for a well-forgotten Pokémon of the format, Moltres from Sun/Moon: Team Up.

With that in mind, we will analyze the deck to understand how it is potentially dangerous and efficient for what it proposes.

Decklist

Moltres: the main striker

Here it is quite simple because the first attack of the card is what interests us in the deck, the second is irrelevant.

In recursive Pokémon, with Blastoise PGO 17 and Charizard PGO 10, I will explain in detail the synergy between the 3 cards and how they can make this combination of effects, but beforehand, I say that Blastoise with its ability, it serves to energize Moltres with 6 energies and thus charge it; and Charizard serves to double the amount of basic fire energy, that is, if Moltres has 10 fire energy attached to it, then it will have 20 energy thanks to Charizard.

Good hand to start the game

There are no mysteries here: Set Diancie ASR 68 as an Active Pokémon, put Moltres TEU 19 on the Bench and play the card Battle VIP Pass FST 225 to summon at least one Diancie ASR 68 and have one more guaranteed defense against the knockout of the first Diancie.

Then look for a Squirtle BCR 29, so play Radiant Greninja ASR 46 and use its ability by discarding the fire energy from your hand and hope that Irida ASR 147 comes can take Rare Candy PGO 69 and soon evolve into Blastoise PGO 17 which is in your hand.

Here, in this case, there isn't much to do: it's playing Diancie ASR 68 as an active Pokémon and equipping Lucky Egg SSH 167 with it and putting Moltres TEU 19 and energizing it, and let the turn pass.

This is one of the most serious scenarios, which is a matter of luck, but already starting Diancie ASR 68 with Lucky Egg SSH 167 is too useful.

Here, in this case, there's a chance: be the second to play in the match, putting Diancie ASR 68 as an Active Pokémon, Moltres TEU 19, energizing a Fire Energy on it and using the card Cynthia UPR 119 to shuffle your hand back into the deck and then draw 6 new cards and hope there's resource agility.

Recursive Pokémon

- Diancie ASR 68 comes in with its ability Princess's Curtain, where if it's in Active Position, it prevents any effect of Supporter cards your opponent plays against your Basic Pokémon in play.

That is, assuming that you are preparing Moltres as a charge of energy and the opponent comes in the trickery of wanting to pull the Pokémon to the active position with a Boss's Orders RCL 154 or a Guzma BUS 115, Diancie negates all of these effects.

This also serves to protect your set-up Pokémon like Squirtle BCR 29 and Charmander VIV 23, so they can evolve.

- Blastoise PGO 17 comes in with its ability Vitality Spring, where you attach up to 6 energy to your Pokémon, and if you do, your turn ends.

With that, the combo is to use the card Irida ASR 147 that makes it search for a Pokémon water and an Item card from the deck, precisely the Rare Candy PGO 69 to evolve directly, do the combo and power up Moltres soon.

- Charizard PGO 10 comes in with its ability Burn Brightly, which grants the effect that your basic fire energies (F) are doubled, that is, one basic energy is worth two.

With that, assuming you manage to place the 17 energies of the deck, they become 34 energies that virtually Moltres will have equipped, and with that, making your first attack, you will be discarding 34 cards from the top of the opponent's deck!

- Radiant Greninja ASR 46 has its ability Concealed Cards, which causes you to discard an Energy card from your hand to draw 2 cards from the top of your deck.

This accelerates the process of drawing resources, so you can play the right Supporters like Irida ASR 147 and/or Blastoise PGO 17, or get your hands on shuffle effect Supporters like Cynthia's Ambition BRS 138 and Cynthia UPR 119.

Trainer Cards

- Irida ASR 147 Searches your deck for a Water Pokémon and an Item card and puts them in your hand.

- Raihan EVS 152 mainly serves to speed up Moltres energy and pick up any other card to help in a future play.

- Cynthia's Ambition BRS 138 is used to draw cards until you have 5 in your hand. However, if your Active Pokémon was Knocked Out the previous turn, you draw 8 cards instead of 5.

- Cynthia UPR 119 is used to shuffle your hand and draw 6 cards.

- Rare Candy PGO 69 is an Item that speeds up the evolution of a Basic Pokémon to Stage 2. And you can only play this card if the Basic Pokémon was already in play before, and you have Stage 2 of that Pokémon in hand. Pokémon to fulfill the entire effect.

-Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146 serves to look at prize cards to look for a basic Pokémon. If you find one there, you can catch that Pokémon and put it in your hand and in place of that prize card, replace it with Hisuian Heavy Ball. If not, simply shuffle the order of prize cards and discard the Hisuian Heavy Ball.

- Ultra Ball BRS 150 serves to search any Pokémon in the deck, as long as it fulfills the tribute of discarding two cards from the hand.

-Battle VIP Pass FST 225 is an Item that can only be played on your first turn in the entire match. In this, you search for two basic Pokémon in the deck and bench them.

- Rescue Carrier EVS 154 recovers two Pokémon from the discard pile that have 90 HP or less into your hand.

In this, it is ideal to always bring the Diancie ASR 68 to hold the game and be your defensive line until your Moltres TEU 19 is ready.

- Energy Recycler BST 124 recovers 5 energies from the discard pile back to the deck.

- Ordinary Rod SSH 171 does resource recovery that you can choose between one or both of them, which are:

1) Cycling two Pokémon from the discard pile into your deck.

2) Recycling two basic energies from the discard pile to your deck.

- Lucky Egg SSH 167 if equipped to a Pokémon, and it is Knocked Out, you draw until you have 7 cards in your hand.

This needs to always be coupled with Diancie ASR 68 to synergize the deck with drawing cards.

Advantages

- It is a Mill strategy deck, used a lot by the Magic: The Gathering community, which is to destroy (finish, discard) the entire opponent's deck.

The term "Deck Out" is also accepted in the description, and it has no mysteries: it is simply ending the opponent's game by discarding the entire deck to end the game, so in theory, it is strong and aggressive, with few counters from it, which guarantees a chance of winning in 80% of cases.

Disadvantages

- Decks with Bibarel PGO 60 because its ability Reassuring Dam says that if it's benched, it prevents any form of “Deck Out”, either by effects and attacks from the opponent's Pokémon, cards Trainers of any kind who do something similar.

It was literally made and created to stop decks of this archetype.

- Deck that can have any Pokémon that locks Items, such as Vikavolt V DAA 60, locks Tools like Whimsicott VSTAR BRS 65 and Honchkrow-GX UNB 109 that hinders the use of Lucky Egg.

- The deck is a little slow, so its set-up can compromise you a little, and it depends on a quick knockout of Diancie to activate the Lucky Egg and thus create synergy in the deck. If the opponent understands this and doesn't keep attacking out of greed and tries to understand that the opponent's hand may be stuck and attack at the right time, the strategy is over.

It is a practical deck with the final objective of burning the opponent's deck, but its assembly requires certain care and precautions when the opponent uses a ”Boss's Orders” on a recursive evolved Pokémon (in the case of Charizard and Blastoise), and the Diancie cannot protect them.

Apart from this issue, Moltres as the main attacker and who will concentrate the energies is guaranteed security for being basic, which is just a great due to Diancie that guarantees this immunity.

And now it's up to you: what do you think of the deck? You are welcome to comment below on the site.