Pokémon TCG: Standard Deck Tech - Luxray ex with Black Bolt & White Flare!

Greetings, Pokémon community!

The new Pokémon TCG special set, Black Bolt & White Flare, brought us new ways to upgrade a few old decks and forgotten Pokémon from the Scarlet & Violet block. Today, we'll discuss Luxray ex TWM 68, which is an excellent Pokémon that "disrupts" the opponent's hand and deals a lot of damage as well.

However, it had a problem. Its second attack forces you to discard all energies attached to it, but there was no way to reattach these lost energies. Eelektrik BLK 31 solved this conundrum for us. We'll see how in detail later on.

That being said, let's see how the rest of the deck works!

Structure

Luxray ex: The Main Attacker

With its attack, Piercing Gaze, you'll force your opponent to reveal their hand to you and then discard a card of your choosing. But what you should really focus on is its second attack, Volt Strike. It deals a lot of damage (250), but it also forces you to discard all Electric energies attached to it.

To solve this issue, this list plays Eelektrik BLK 31, which is the main recursive engine in this strategy.

Eelektrik: The Main Energy Engine

The idea behind it is simple: its ability, Dynamotor, lets you recycle a basic Electric energy from the discard pile and attach it to one of your Benched Pokémon. This ability stacks according to how many Eelektrik are in play. So, if you have 2 Eelektrik BLK 31 on your bench, you'll be able to recycle two energies!

You can use this ability in many ways.

For instance, Revavroom's Rumbling Engine ability lets you discard an energy from your hand to draw up to 6 cards. You can use it to discard one Basic Lightning Energy sv1 257 and then use Eelektrik's ability to recycle this energy and attach it to one of your Benched Pokémon.

Recursive Pokémon

To Sabotage the Opponent

Budew PRE 4's attack prevents your opponent from using Items on the following turn.

Support Pokémon

► Shaymin DRI 10's ability, Flower Curtain, protects your bench, particularly from enemy "sniper" damage. However, it only protects Pokémon without a Rule Box, like Shinx and Luxio and Eelektrik BLK 31, the heart of this deck.

► Squawkabilly ex PR-SV 160's ability is quite useful on turn 1. It lets you discard your entire hand to draw 6 new cards, as long as it is on your bench. Furthermore, its attack lets you recycle 2 basic energies from your discard pile and attach them to one of your Benched Pokémon.

Trainers

Supporter to Filter Items and Tools from the Deck

Supporter to "Pull" Enemy Pokémon

Supporter to Sabotage Your Opponent's Hand

Supporters to Discard Cards in the Opponent's Hand

Xerosic's Machinations SFA 64 discards cards from their hand until they only have 3 cards left.

Eri TEF 146 lets you look at your opponent's hand and discard 2 Trainers you find there.

Items to Look For Pokémon

Item to Evolve Pokémon Faster

This card lets you evolve Shinx into Luxray directly, skipping Luxio.

Item to Get Basic Energies

Item to "Pull" Enemy Pokémon

Items to Recycle Cards

Tools

You can attach Handheld Fan TWM 150 to Luxray ex TWM 68 to sabotage your opponent. With this card, whenever Luxray takes damage, you'll be able to move one of the energies attached to their active Pokémon to one of their Benched Pokémon.

Air Balloon BLK 79 lets you retreat Eelektrik BLK 31 for free.

Technical Machine: Evolution sv4 178 lets you evolve Pokémon faster.

Stadium

This Stadium lets you look for 1 basic "baby" Pokémon (without a Rule Box) in your deck and add it to your hand. It is essential as extra support alongside Buddy-Buddy Poffin PRE 101.

ACE SPEC

This card lets you evolve Shinx and other Pokémon in this deck, like Tynamo BLK 30 (into Eelektrik BLK 31) and Varoom SFA 43 (into Revavroom sv4pt5 65), faster.

Pros

This deck is great against Feraligatr, "DragaZard", and Charizard ex sv3 125 (which relies on specific resources that you can just discard).

Cons

It struggles against Cynthia's Garchomp ex DRI 104 because they're great against Electric decks overall.

Gholdengo ex sv4 139 is also a problem because they can attach energies faster with Earthen Vessel PRE 106 and recycle them with Superior Energy Retrieval sv2 189.

Finally, the last issue is Raging Bolt ex TEF 123, which often sets up "explosive" turns by attaching several energies to Paradox Raikou, their basic attacker.

This deck is definitely worth a try. Eelektrik BLK 31 solved Luxray ex TWM 68's main issue, that is, that its second attack, Volt Strike, forces us to discard all energies attached to it.

If you enjoy "disruptive" decks, it's also quite interesting. However, it is a bit "clunky" because you might take a while to evolve Shinx and this could cost you the game. Luxray combines efficient attacks with discarding any card in your opponent's hand, as well as support like Eri TEF 146 and Xerosic's Machinations SFA 64.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!