Standard Deck Tech: Tyranitar ex Terastal

Hello to all. I am Rodrigo, bringing news about Pokémon TCG in general. With the release of the Scarlet/Violet: Obsidian Flames set, we have another Pokémon with the "Terastal" mechanic besides Charizard ex, which is Tyranitar ex, which also had its type changed.

Decklist

Tyranitar ex Terastal: The Deck's Star

- Attack Mountain Hurl (F): deals 120 damage and discards two cards from the top of your deck.

- Attack Lightning Rampage (F)(F): deals 150 damage plus 100 more if any of your benched Pokémon have any damage counters.

The goal is clear: have damage counters on your bench. For that, we have two options: Gengar LOR 66 and Lucario BRS 79, which I'll discuss later on.

As Tyranitar ex Terastal's type is Electric, it hits Lugia VSTAR SIT 211 and Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR CRZ GG67 (and, in the future, Blastoise ex sv2a 9 from 151 Kanto Sub Set) head on.

Pupitar: Damage Helper for Tyranitar

- Regarding Pupitar PGO 38, what interests us is Crashing Bullet which, for one colorless energy, deals 20 damage, and also deals 20 extra damage to all Pokémon on all players' benches (don't apply weakness or resistance).

Even if your opponent has Manaphy BRS 41 to defend their Pokémon, our goal is to deal damage to our Pokémon, so we can boost Tyranitar ex sv3 66's second attack.

- Regarding Pupitar sv3 106, what interests us is Blasting Tackle. Even if the energy cost is "heavy" and very specific (two Fighting energies), it deals 60 damage (which is heavy against an Electric Pokémon, as they have this damage doubled because of their weakness - like the Miraidon ex decks), and it also deals 20 damage to one of your benched Pokémon (don't apply weakness and resistance). It is useful to activate Tyranitar ex sv3 66's second attack effect.

Drapion V: The “Counter” to Fusion Strike, Single Strike and Rapid Strike Styles

Ability - Wild Style: this Pokémon's attack costs one (C) energy less for each Single Strike, Rapid Strike and Fusion Strike in your opponent's game.

Attack - Dynamic Tail (C)(C)(C)(C): this attack deals 190 damage and allows you to choose one of your Pokémon to receive 60 damage (doesn't apply weakness nor resistance to your benched Pokémon).

Your goal is to deal double damage to Mew VMAX LOR TG30, due to its weakness against the Dark type, totaling 380 damage.

Due to the Yokohama World Championship, in which Vance Kelley won with this deck, and because it can be set up quickly with only two energies to deal the Techno Blast damage (copied from Genesect V FST 185), this is a very difficult opponent.

As the flaw in Tyranitar ex sv3 66's deck is how slow it is to set it up, we needed to add one copy of Drapion V as an answer against Mew. As we only need one copy of Drapion V LOR 118 in the deck, Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146 is here just for this Pokémon, and only when Drapion V is in the Prize Cards pile, to grab it.

Even if there's still Lugia VSTAR SIT 139's deck using its VStar ability to summon Archeops PR-SW SWSH272, our Drapion V LOR 118 helps us deal with that, and Tyranitar ex sv3 66 can take down both Lugia and Archeops, due to the Electric type weakness.

Recursive Pokémon

Draw Pokémon

- Bidoof CRZ 111 has Carefree Countenance, which prevents it from taking damage while on the bench from attacks, which is very useful to gain time and evolve it to Bibarel.

- Bibarel BRS 121 has Industrious Incisors, which allows you, once per turn, to draw until you have five cards in hand.

With that, even if you have just a few cards in hand, in case you use Iono sv2 185, you'll always have consistency and "draw power" results in the game, to help you a bit with your deck's set-up, and, with Bibarel's ability, you'll never run out of cards in hand.

Pokémon which help Tyranitar's Attack

- Lucario BRS 79 has Roaring Resolve, which allows you to place two damage counters on this Pokémon and then after you look for two Fighting (F) energies in your deck and attach them to it.

That's when the strategy starts being fun: it places the damage to itself, to boost Tyranitar ex Terastal's second attack effect, and it also looks for two energies at the same time, which can be transferred to Tyranitar ex Terastal through the use of the copies of Energy Switch sv1 173.

In case you opt to use it as an attacker, no worries, as, with its attack, it deals 10 + 60 for each Fighting energy attached to it, which means, if you use 4 Fighting energies, it will reach 240 damage plus 10 base damage, totaling 240 damage. This destroys a good majority of the basic Pokémon V, and some basic ex Pokémon, not to mention it hits double if it hits a Pokémon with a weakness against the Electric type.

- Gengar LOR 66 has Netherworld Gate: if this Pokémon is in the discard pile, it can be placed on your game's bench, and with that, you'll place 3 damage counters on it.

Basically, it is useful only as a "boost" to enhance Tyranitar ex Terastal's second attack effect.

Trainer Cards

- Cynthia's Ambition BRS 138 is useful as a shuffle and additional draw: draw until you have five cards in hand. However, if one of your Pokémon was knocked out previously, you'll draw until you have 8 cards in hand.

- Raihan EVS 152 is only activated if one of your Pokémon was knocked out in the previous turn: you attach a basic energy from the discard pile to one of your Pokémon, look in your deck for any card and place it in your hand.

- Worker SIT 167 has two effects at once: discard a Stadium in play, and then draw 3 cards.

It is excellent to remove headache-inducing stadiums, such as Lost City LOR 161.

Boss's Orders (Ghetsis) sv2 172 is useful to pull a particular Pokémon from the opponent's bench to deal the damage to victory.

- Iono sv2 185 is extremely powerful, as it is the fusion of its predecessor's effects, N FCO 105 and Marnie SSH 169: you and your opponent shuffle your hands and put them at the bottom of the deck. After that, you'll draw cards from the top of your decks equal to the number of Prize Cards you have in play, in case, in each player's game.

Example: if your opponent has 2 Prize Cards and you have 4 Prize Cards, and you use this card's effect, you'll shuffle your hands into the bottom of the deck, and then your opponent will draw only 2 cards, and you will draw 4.

Items

- Energy Switch sv1 173 is useful to transfer one basic energy from a Pokémon to another.

The combo consists of using Lucario's ability, (Roaring Resolve), pulling these energies from the deck and moving them to Tyranitar ex Terastral.

- Ultra Ball sv1 196 is useful to look for any Pokémon, evolution or basic, common or ultra rare, as long as you fulfill the requirement of discarding two cards from your hand to play it.

- Super Rod sv2 188 comes in as another option to recycle, as it recycles 3 cards, them being basic energies and Pokémon, back into your deck.

- Capturing Aroma SIT 153 is useful as a Pokémon search: you toss a coin - if it's heads, look for an evolution Pokémon, show it to the opponent and place it in your hand; but if it's tails, get a basic Pokémon, show it and place it in your hand.

- Rare Candy PGO 69 is a vital card to speed up the game, as it is with it that you'll skip certain steps to evolve your Pokémon, and, in this list, notice that there isn't a straight line of Larvitar > Pupitar > Tyranitar; precisely to save up a few cards in the deck to evolve them as fast as possible.

- Pal Pad sv1 182 is an item to recycle two Supporter cards from the discard pile back into the deck.

Ideally, you'll recycle Worker SIT 167 or Boss's Orders (Ghetsis) sv2 172.

Special Energy

It has the same effect as Lucky Egg SSH 167 (which rotated), which, when equipped to a Pokémon, and it is knocked out, you'll draw until you have 7 cards in hand.

Advantages

- Water decks which are weak to the Water type, such as Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR CRZ GG67, Suicune V EVS 31 and, in the future, Blastoise ex sv2a 9 (in the 151 Kanto Sub Set special set, when that is released in the west).

- Colorless decks which are considered Flying types, such as Lugia VSTAR SIT 211 and Archeops PR-SW SWSH272.

- Electric archetype decks, such as Miraidon ex sv1 244, in case your attacker is Lucario.

Disadvantages

- It is a deck with a relatively slow set-up, and Pokémon which are explosive with their set-up, such as VStar, can easily ruin your plans.

- Chien-Pao ex sv2 61 decks.

- Lost Box decks, in particular Sableye, which is a problem.

- Any decks with any Urshifu VMax.

- Decks which have the stadiums Collapsed Stadium BRS 137 and Lost City LOR 161.

It is a very strong deck when built with everything it needs, but its biggest flaw is how slow is the "step by step", as you need to gradually evolve your Larvitar, which can make the game quite slow, and you also still need to setup your draw recursive Pokémon, such as Bibarel.

See you next time!