Expanded Deck Tech: Dracozolt VMax - Damage Counter

Today we bring a control deck with a proposal to counterattack the opponent for any damage suffered and reciprocate counters, precisely to catch those players who are “hungry” for victory and want to hit everything as if there were no tomorrow, but who fall into this trap.

We're talking about Dracozolt VMax, which is our main means of getting this combo. Our list has 2/3 of Trainer cards, from Supporters and Tools that help Dracozolt, having a "control" proposal; its main function is to take damage and heal completely like a "tanker" and still have counterattacks to the opponent.

Decklist

Dracozolt V & Dracozolt VMax: first attacks to disrupt the opponent

We are only interested in the first attack, to hinder the opponent and prevent them from energizing cards from their hand directly to the opponent's Active Pokémon. One of the few cards that circumvent this is the Welder that takes the basic fire energies from the hand to attach to one of your Pokémon, as it is done through a Trainer and not necessarily from the turn.

Here comes the best part, where the focus of the deck revolves around the first attack. You will slowly crumble the opponent with Spark Trap), guaranteeing that they will give up, if they can't deal massive damage that does more than 330 damage to take down Dracozolt, such as Fighting or cards like a Charizard VSTAR CRZ 19, Charizard VMAX PR-SW SWSH261 or Charizard LOR TG03 with very high damage using damage boosters like Choice Belt BRS 135, for example.

Good hand to start the game

The ideal is to be second to play, as in addition to starting attacking with Primeval Beak for a basic energy with Dracozolt V EVS 58, you are guaranteed to use Green's Exploration UNB 175, which can only be used if there are no Pokémon with abilities in play.

Given this, you anticipate your moves, looking for two Trainer cards (be it Item, Tool, Supporter and even Stadium) and build your game - in this case, looking for the Heavy Ball NXD 88 right away to look for the Dracozolt VMAX EVS 59 to evolve next turn and even consider taking Rock Guard PLF 108 as a Tool, since if the opponent tries to hit you, they take 5 damage counters, already facilitating the marking process for when it evolves, add the 12 counters of the damage side effect of its VMax evolution, and continue the combo.

Considering that we have another Green's Exploration UNB 175, you can think about sabotaging the opponent's hand by looking for a Marnie SSH 169 for the next turn and then Kabu DAA 163 to draw 8 cards, depending on the course of the game and how the opponent will respond. This is where the question "Stall" comes in, of always responding to the opponent with a "counterattack", which we can also use Field Blower GRI 125 to take away the opponent's stadium and tool.

Trainer Cards

Recursive deck search and card draw

- Guzma & Hala CEC 193: For stadiums, you can look for the Silent Lab PRC 140 to stop basic recursive Pokémon like Lumineon V, Dedenne-GX, Tapu Lele-GX, Crovat V, Eldegoss V, *Jirachi-EX; for special energy, you look for Speed Lightning Energy RCL 173 to draw 2 more cards; and if you are looking for a tool, the Rock Guard PLF 108 or the Bursting Balloon BKP 97 are interesting.

- Professor's Research (Professor Sada) sv1 189 serves as “draw power”: discard your hand and draw 7 cards.

Use it when your hand is really bad, because this deck doesn't have resource recycling, so think wisely.

- Kabu DAA 163 is used to shuffle your deck and draw 4 cards. However, if you only have one Pokémon in the entire game, instead of drawing 4 cards, you draw 8.

The ideal is to only have one Pokémon in play to hold the match and last as long as possible.

- Green's Exploration UNB 175 can only be used if your Pokémon have no abilities. From there, search for up to two Trainer cards (whatever they are), reveal them, and put them into your hand.

It is the engine of the deck to accelerate and anticipate the opponent's plays and always guarantee resources to assist you and look for cards to respond against the opponent for the same turn and look for Supporters for the next turn.

Supporters to recycle resources

The card serves to recycle any cards you want from the discard if you hit the two coins that the card asks to be made at the cost of activation.

If you hit the coins, it is an excellent option for recovery, such as Max Potion BKP 103 and even VS Seeker PHF 109, not to mention the deck's tools.

Healing Supporter

"Why didn't you choose Cheryl ?"

Cheryl BST 123 when healing the evolved Pokémon, discards all energy attached to the Pokémon, which we don't want, as there is no energy recycling in the deck.

In the case of our Acerola BUS 112, just have any damage counter on the Pokémon that can heal it. That is, returning it to your hand and all the cards attached to it, whether energy or tools - and of course you won't do that with just a Dracozolt VMax in play to lose due to no Benched Pokémon, we'll only use that card if we have another Dracozolt VMax in the bench.

Supporters to sabotage the opponent's hand

Supporters to knock out Pokémon

Items like Tools

- Rock Guard PLF 108 is an ACE SPEC (can only have one in the deck, for any card with that category), which serves as a "shield" against damage counters for each time the opponent deals damage against your Pokémon, suffering 5 counters.

- Bursting Balloon BKP 97 is the combo tool for the Spark Trap damage. During a turn, if the opponent attacks the Dracozolt that has this tool attached, they take 6 damage counters.

- Float Stone BKT 137 is a Tool-type that gives free retreat to the Pokémon it's attached to.

- Weakness Policy PRC 142 is a Tool-type that grants immunity to the weakness of the Pokémon it is attached to.

So, your Dracozolt will not take double damage from the weakness of the fighter archetype.

Items that favor your game's set-up

- Max Potion BKP 103 is a healing item that manages to recover the Pokémon's full HP, but at the cost of discarding all energy attached to it.

And since the Trap Spark attack only costs one energy, the damage is not so great, since it has 7 energies in the deck, and it's always good to use it at the last moment, when you're about to be knocked out.

- VS Seeker PHF 109 serves as a Supporter recycler, picking up key cards for whatever you need.

- Rescue Stretcher GRI 130 serves as a Pokémon recycler with two options:

1) Take a Pokémon from the discard pile and put it into your hand.

2) Catch up to three Pokémon from the discard pile and recycle them to the deck.

This card is one of the most important in the deck to recover Dracozolt, so be cautious not to lose it by using a Professor's Research if it's in your hand.

Stadiums

- Silent Lab PRC 140 fits both players. Each one of the basic Pokémon in play no longer uses Abilities.

This is good for disrupting decks like Lost Box with use of *Comfey, or control decks that rely heavily on Snorlax LOR 143 and Snorlax PGO 55; decks that use card draws like Snorlax VIV 131; or with archetype V immunity like Miltank ASR 126. And most important of all: preventing the use of recursive Pokémon like Jirachi-EX PLB 60, Dedenne-GX UNB 57, Eldegoss V RCL 19, Crobat V DAA 104 and Lumineon V BRS 40.

- Path to the Peak CRE 148 works for both players. It locks all the abilities of Pokémon that have ”Rule Box”, that is, it not only hinders recursive ones like Jirachi-EX PLB 60, Dedenne-GX UNB 57, Eldegoss V RCL 19, Crobat V DAA 104 and Lumineon V BRS 40, but also the recursive Prism Star and Radiant. That's not to mention attacking Pokémon that have abilities that benefit them in some way.

Special Energies

Speed Lightning Energy is only for the electric archetype. If the Pokémon of that type has this energy attached to it, draw 2 cards.

Triple Acceleration Energy serves as a "boost" of three colorless energies and can only be equipped to evolved Pokémon and lasts only one turn, at the end of which, you discard it.

It is useful for Dracozolt VMAX EVS 59's Max Impact, in specific cases where it can destroy a Pokémon with less than 200 HP.

Improvement suggestions with new releases

Iono

To replace Marnie SSH 169, you can place the card Iono, which will come in the next expansion, Scarlet & Violet: Paldea Evolved.

This card is a fusion of the effects of ”N” and ”Marnie”, where both players shuffle their hands on the bottom of the deck and draw cards based on the number of prize cards the players have left.

Advantages

- Water archetype decks.

- Decks that cannot deal more than 330 damage at once or that have Pokémon that can guarantee this attack and have a high HP balance to be able to withstand the setbacks of Trap Spark.

Disadvantages

- Fighter archetype decks.

- Decks that have the Big Parasol DAA 157 tool to stop the effects of Trap Spark.

- Deck that uses Lugia-GX LOT 159's GX attack.

- Deck that has Mewtwo & Mew-GX UNM 71 that copies the attack of Glaceon-EX FCO 20 to not suffer damage from evolved Pokémon and still equipped with Big Parasol DAA 157.

- Deck of Regidrago VStar that starts the GX attack of Dialga-GX UPR 100 being able to hit twice in the same turn using Choice Belt BRS 135, or copy attacks from M Charizard-EX FLF 69 or M Rayquaza-EX ROS 61 that deals a lot of damage.

- Decks that use the same tactic of hitting and sustaining damage and healing, like Togekiss VMAX VIV 141 and Corviknight VMAX BST 110 using Cheryl BST 123.

- “Instant Kill” decks like Yveltal SHF 46 or Giratina VSTAR CRZ GG69.

- Deck that has Gengar & Mimikyu-GX TEU 53 that can use its handful of Trainers to deal as much damage as possible, being able to deal us more than 330.

- Decks with brute strength like Reshiram & Charizard-GX PR-SM SM201, Charizard VSTAR PR-SW SWSH262, Charizard VMAX PR-SW SWSH261 with damage appliers like Choice Belt BRS 135 or Incineroar UNB 29.

It's an easy-to-understand list, able to deal damage through counterattacks with a single energy, thwarting the opponent.

And as a control deck, it is also somewhat of a "Stall" to be able to respond according to your needs to disarm the opponent, but the main focus, as said, is to put damage counters on the opponent, take damage and use healing effects to exhaust the opponent.

And now it's up to you: what do you think of the deck?