Expanded Deck Tech: Galar Starters Decks - Rillaboom, Cinderace & Inteleon

In this article, I'll explore some deck suggestions using the Galar starters, with themes geared towards the Expanded format. I'll also bring interesting ideas for these new strategies.

Rillaboom VMax

Decklist

Goal

This list has Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX UNM 1, and it's not for nothing, because its first attack, Super Growth, evolves your Grass Pokémon all at once, taking a basic Pokémon to its final form. The focus will be on evolving Grookey SSH 11 into Rillaboom SSH 14, so we can add energies to your Pokémon faster with this deck. And, the best of all, Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX UNM 1's attack has no energy cost!

For emergencies, this deck counts with Turffield Stadium RCL 170, so you can search for these Grass Pokémon faster and speed up your game plan, and there is also a copy of Rare Candy PGO 69, in case you end up needing it.

With this energy setup done, you'll be able to easily set up your attackers:

1) If your strategy is to deal "sniper" damage, ideally you'll use Rillaboom VMAX FST 23 because, besides the 180 base damage, you also have 40 damage to deal to two targets on your opponent's bench.

2) If your strategy is to deal solid damage (really, just deal damage), you just need one copy of Rillaboom VMAX RCL 18. Its second attack, Max Beating, deals 130 damage, and, if you discard 3 Grass energies from this Pokémon, you get an additional 50 damage per energy discarded. Like so, you'll get an additional 150 damage, and can reach 280 total damage! Of course, as we'll be discarding these energies, this deck has two copies of Energy Recycler GRI 123 to retrieve them.

I decided to include Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60 as a support Pokémon, because, besides its ability to look for a Supporter card in your deck, if you play this Pokémon from your hand to your bench, your damage, when attacking, will be based on the energies you and your opponent have in play. Considering you have Rillaboom SSH 14, it is extremely simple to attach energies to this Pokémon.

Because this deck doesn't count on VStar Pokémon to use this mechanic, the most logical option was adding Forest Seal Stone SIT 156 to filter and look for cards in this deck, as well as the ACE SPEC card, Computer Search BCR 137.

In this deck's defensive section, we have two support cards:

1) Aromatic Grass Energy VIV 162, to prevent "bad status".

2) Weakness Policy PRC 142, which can be tutored by the Supporter card, Guzma & Hala CEC 193 to guarantee immunity against double damage dealt by Fire Pokémon, which will be your counters.

Cinderace VMax

Decklist

Goal

This deck has two goals:

1) Take enough damage (not going over 320) to attack with Cinderace VMAX SHF 19 and always "give back" the damage you take in.

2) Be a "tanker" deck (that is, tank as much damage as you can within the limits of Cinderace VMAX SHF 19's HP) to then use Max Potion GRI 128a and Cheryl BST 123 and heal your Cindarece VMax.

That being said, the Fire archetype has excellent support cards to set up energies, such as the iconic Welder UNB 189a, which adds two basic Fire energies from your hand to your Pokémon and draws 3 cards, or also Blacksmith FLF 88, which adds two basic Fire energies from the discard pile to the Fire Pokémon you choose. This also applies to stadiums, both Magma Basin BRS 144, which gives recursion to your Pokémon by recovering basic Fire energies from the discard pile (complementing with Blacksmith FLF 88) and also Giant Hearth UNM 197, which filters two basic Fire energies in your deck (which matches Welder UNB 189a).

Cinderace VMAX SHF 19's first attack, "Counter", deals 30 damage plus the last total damage you took from your opponent. If you were dealt 310 damage by your opponent, you'll be able to counter-attack with 340 damage all at once, defeating, with a single strike, practically all Pokémon in Expanded.

Besides the roles of the Supporters listed above, we also have Volcanion UNB 25 as a recursive Pokémon. With it in play, if you're second to play on turn 1, you'll activate the first attack's second effect, Flare Starter: you'll look for up to 3 Fire energies in your deck and attach them to your Pokémon in any way you want to. This will help you set up energies on your Pokémon, such as Charizard & Braixen-GX CEC 22.

Charizard & Braixen-GX CEC 22's main attack deals 180 damage, but its context in this deck is because of its search effect. It allows you to get any three cards you want in your deck and place them in your hand, besides its GX attack, which has two effects:

1) With one Fire energy, you can attach up to 5 basic Fire energies from the discard pile to your Pokémon in any way you want to,

2) If you use an additional energy for the GX attack cost (for instance, (F) (C), considering this whole deck only uses basic Fire energies), besides activating the previous effect, it will make your opponent's active Pokémon Confused and Burned.

- Confusion means, your opponent, when attacking, will always have to toss a coin to check if the attack went through. If it's tails, they get hit with 30 damage.

- Burned, once per turn, will deal 20 damage to that Pokémon, and when it's their turn to play, they'll toss a coin. If it's tails, they remain with this status.

This deck also counts with three recursive Pokémon:

1) Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60, due to its ability and attack, which can be sourced by using Welder UNB 189a to speed up its energy setup and increase the damage effect, which is calculated based on the number of energies in play.

2) Ninetales TEU 16 is a sort of "Boss's Orders", which means you won't have to add this card to this deck;

3) And, finally, we have Volcanion-EX PR-XY XY173 and its ability, which discards a Fire energy from your hand to increase your Pokémon's damage by 30. Additionally, because its type is hybrid, it is a great counter to the Fire type if you're facing it; it can deal 260 damage without using its ability aggressively, or 320 damage if you use its ability, and apply weakness debuffs in these situations.

Again, considering we have complementary cards to filter this deck, such as, for instance, Rillaboom, this deck has no VStar Pokémon to use this mechanic. So, using Forest Seal Stone SIT 156 was ideal for this list, just like the ACE SPEC card, Computer Search BCR 137.

Inteleon VMax

Decklist

Goal

This deck's main goal is to deal "spread" and "sniper" damage at the same time, but it also flirts with healing and a "tanker" deck strategy, considering it uses Cheryl BST 123, Max Potion GRI 128a and Rough Seas PRC 137.

To achieve this, we have the main attacker, Inteleon, in its basic V form and its Gigantamax form, VMax:

1) We have Inteleon V FST 78's second attack, which deals 120 damage and 40 damage to one of your opponent's benched Pokémon. It is focused more on "sniper" damage.

2) Inteleon VMAX FST 79's ability is focused on "spread" damage, that is, damage counters. This ability's cost is discarding a basic Water energy from your hand, and this will allow you to choose two opponent Pokémon as targets.

This list works with chip damage, which is a bit slower, but, when we add up the total amount of damage, your opponent will be trapped, and won't know what to do. It will be difficult for them to decide between healing their active Pokémon or their benched Pokémon.

Of course, if they have Pokémon that prevent "sniper" damage, such as Mew UNB 76 or Manaphy BRS 41, your game won't be as simple. In this case, you'll be left with "spread" effects with damage "counters".

To reinforce these damage outputs, we have Calamitous Snowy Mountain sv2 174, which places 2 damage counters on Pokémon in play that aren't basic and Water type (applies to both players).

As a second attacker, I added Blastoise & Piplup-GX CEC 38 due to its regular attack effect, which, besides dealing 150 damage, can move Water energies from your hand to your Pokémon (up to 3 energies at once) and heal 50 damage for each energy moved this way. Besides its GX attack, which has two great effects:

1) For (W)(W)(C), it deals 100 damage and also Paralyzes the opponent.

2) If you pay three additional energies besides the attack cost, apart from the previous effect (100 damage and Paralyzing your opponent's active Pokémon), this attack is boosted with an extra 150 damage, totaling 250 points of damage!

To make it easier to set up energies on your Pokémon, this deck's main recursive Pokémon will be Baxcalibur sv2 60 (due to its high HP). The strategy of placing it in play is the same as the one used by Blastoise BCR 31 in its time with the Archie's Ace in the Hole PRC 124 Supporter card. If you only have this card in hand (that means nothing else in hand, just this card), you can bring any Water Pokémon from your discard pile to your bench and also draw 5 cards. With this, you'll optimize your deck without filling it with cards to work with your Pokémon's evolution lines and Rare Candies.

Our support Pokémon also have utility as attackers:

1) Radiant Greninja ASR 46, besides its ability, which discards an energy from your hand and draws you 2 cards, has an attack that is a way of dealing "sniper" damage to your opponent, dealing 90 damage to two opponent Pokémon and discarding these energies that you spent to attack.

2) Volcanion ◇ FLI 31's attack deals 100 damage to the active Pokémon and 20 damage to Pokémon on your opponent's bench, besides its ability, which, when you discard a basic Water energy from your hand, makes you pull a Pokémon from your opponent's bench into the active position.

3) Finally, we have Lumineon V PR-SW SWSH250, which, apart from its ability which looks for Supporter cards in your deck when you play it from your hand to the bench, also has a great attack that deals 120 damage. Afterward, they'll also return to your deck, not occupying any space on your bench.

Not to mention that, as a V-type Pokémon, it can use Earthen Seal Stone SIT 154, and its VStar attack, which lowers the health of all your opponent's Pokémon to 100 HP. This will help you spread damage counters.

You can tell we have lost many Water energies to play these combos, right? For this reason, we added Superior Energy Retrieval PLF 103, essential to return and recycle energies from the discard pile and use them in this cycle.

These are the deck ideas with the Galar starters which, considering we'll have more card variety from some sets after Sword/Shield and previous cards, get more possibilities to explore in Expanded.

See you next time!