Expanded Deck Tech: Kanto Trio - 12 New Decklists with Set 151

In this article, I'll bring deck suggestions for the Expanded format with the Kanto starters. As Venusaur ex, Charizard ex and Blastoise ex are extremely popular, let's explore their releases in the special set, Pokémon Card 151. We'll give you 4 decklists for each one of them, totaling 12 lists.

Decks with Venusaur ex

This deck's plan is to use special conditions, as much as you can, during Bulbasaur's evolution line, Ivysaur DEX 2 in this case, and then evolve it to Venusaur ex sv3pt5 3. This will be possible because of Shining Celebi PR-SM SM79's ability, which makes it possible for your evolved Pokémon to use attacks from their previous forms, such as Ivysaur DEX 2's first attack, Sleep Powder, which makes your opponent Asleep. If that goes well, keeping your opponent in this condition, you'll still pressure with Venusaur ex sv3pt5 3 attacks with Confusion and Poisoned + the attack's base damage.

If you feel stuck because of the lack of searchers in the deck, we also have Poké-Ball items, such as Net Ball LOT 187. We also count with Shining Celebi PR-SM SM79's ability: if your Venusaur ex sv3pt5 3 evolved through Ivysaur PGO 2, we can use its first attack, Summoning Aroma, to search for two other Grass-type Pokémon in your deck.

And to provide us extra help as recursive Pokémon, we have:

1) Virizion-EX PLB 9 with its ability Verdant Wind, which makes your Pokémon that have Grass energies attached immune against special energies.

2) Venusaur SLG 3 with its ability Jungle Totem, which doubles your amount of basic Grass energies.

3) Radiant Venusaur PGO 4 with its ability Sunny Bloom, which is a type of "draw power" in your deck after you attack, being able to draw until you have 4 cards in your hand.

4) Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60a as a specific Supporter searcher.

5) Dedenne-GX UNB 57 as a sort of built-in "Professor's Research" to optimize drawing cards from your deck, discarding your hand to filter better and avoid using a Supporter in your turn.

This list leans on the concept of multiple energies being virtually attached with Venusaur SLG 3 on board. Even though this deck only has 10 Grass energies, its maximum potential, with the Jungle Totem ability, becomes 20 energies! With this, we have the most dynamic energizer in the deck, Rillaboom SHF 13, with its ability, Voltage Beat.

The issue is that it is a heavy deck as it has three types of stage 2 Pokémon: Venusaur ex sv3pt5 3, Venusaur SLG 3 and Rillaboom SHF 13.

So, how do we solve this and speed up these Pokémon as much as possible?

The answer is Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX UNM 1 with its first attack, Super Growth, which, for no energy cost, can get an evolution line in full and even evolve it to its final form. You'll opt to prioritize Rillaboom SHF 13; and, on that same turn, before attacking, you'll place on the bench at least two Bulbasaur DEX 1 so that one becomes Venusaur ex sv3pt5 3, and the other becomes Venusaur SLG 3.

That being done, it will be just a matter of time until you use Rare Candy PGO 69 to skip these evolutions from their base forms straight away to stage 2 and start attacking.

Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX UNM 1 itself can also become a good attacker, dealing 150 damage and healing itself, and you can even use its GX attack. This attack deals 200 damage and also forces your opponent to *shuffle all energies attached to all their Pokémon back into the deck, sabotaging them!

As recursive Pokémon, I kept Radiant Venusaur PGO 4 for card draw; Shining Celebi PR-SM SM79 for an "emergency" in case you don't draw Rare Candy PGO 69, need to evolve a Pokémon directly and want to use an attack from its previous evolution; Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60a to search a Supporter and Dedenne-GX UNB 57 as a "draw power" and discard power as well.

Besides that, this deck is built on a solid healing base, because we have:

1) The stadium Life Forest ◇ LOT 180, which heals 60 damage and removes all special conditions from one of your Grass Pokémon. With Venusaur ex sv3pt5 3's ability, you'll heal, guaranteed, 120 points of damage.

2) Mallow & Lana CEC 198: its second effect, besides retreating the active Pokémon to the bench, heals it by 120 points, which means, if you consider the first option in a single combo, you'll be able to heal 240 points of damage in one go!

In the deck example above, Rowlet & Alolan Exeggutor-GX UNM 1's priority with its first attack, Super Growth, is meant to speed up Venusaur ex sv3pt5 3. For energies, the highlight is using Forretress ex sv2 5 as an "energy bomb" with its ability, Exploding Energy. The downside is that, even though it pulls 5 basic Grass energies to Pokémon in this archetype, it sacrifices itself, giving your opponent two Prize Cards.

But, considering this bad side effect with your Prize Cards, you'll be able to use the card Counter Catcher CIN 91, which only works if you're losing the game when it comes to the Prize Cards race.

This deck's focus is to make your opponent Confused and Poisoned to "lock down" some of their highest-value Pokémon, be them ultra rares as a Tag Team GX, VMax that have a retreat cost your opponent can't pay for, or energies without being able to attack, so that you can then easily draw Prize Cards. To maintain these special conditions, you'll use the stadium Sea of Nothingness CIN 99. With this stadium, even if your opponent evolves their Pokémon, these special conditions won't come off.

We have healing strategies with:

1) The stadium Life Forest ◇ LOT 180, which heals 60 damage and removes all special conditions from one of your Grass Pokémon. With Venusaur ex sv3pt5 3's ability, you'll heal, guaranteed, 120 points of damage.

2) Mallow & Lana CEC 198: its second effect, besides retreating the active Pokémon to the bench, heals it by 120 points, which means, if you consider the first option in a single combo, you'll be able to heal 240 points of damage in one go!

3) Saguaro sv2 187, which heals two of your Pokémon by 50 points of damage, and it is very useful with Venusaur ex sv3pt5 3's ability.

This deck is the slowest out of all the ones listed above, but it makes up for due to the innovative addition of using Magnezone PLS 46 with its ability that allows you to use two Supporter cards in the same turn. But this list is risky, considering it uses only a 1-1 line.

As the goal is using Magnezone PLS 46, you'll then be able to focus on a Supporter that helps you with some type of healing, such as Mallow & Lana CEC 198 or Saguaro sv2 187; and your second Supporter will be useful to sabotage your opponent. We have Iono sv2 185 as the best option for this role. In case the game is moving towards your opponent having 3 Prize Cards or less left to win the match, use Roxanne ASR 150 - and, of course, if you don't have any cards in hand, you can still use Radiant Venusaur PGO 4's ability to draw new cards.

Decks with Charizard ex

In this Charizard ex sv3pt5 6 list, the main goal is to use the attacks from its previous evolutions to deal more damage to the opponent. In this case, we have Charmander TEU 11 with its second attack, Reprisal (C)(C), which deals 20x per each damage counter. To do that, you'll use Shining Celebi PR-SM SM79 with its ability Time Recall, which requires that this Pokémon use the same number of energies to use this attack. Of course, as it's only two energies, it is easy to meet this requirement with Blacksmith FLF 88 getting Fire energies from the discard pile.

With that, considering Charizard ex sv3pt5 6's health total, 330 HP, and calculating each damage counter it can hold, at the most 32 counters (320 points of health lost), you can do this combo and deal up to 640 damage for just two energies!

As in this deck the plan is to discard as much Fire energies as you can to use Blacksmith FLF 88 when you lose these energies, we have Ninetales TEU 16 with the ability Nine Temptations: by discarding two basic Fire energies from your hand, you'll pull a Pokémon on the opponent's bench into the active position. It is a built-in "Boss's Orders", it saves you from using a Boss's Orders RCL 154 that turn, and like so opens up space for you to use another Supporter!

Of course, as Charizard ex sv3pt5 6 is a heavy Pokémon - it costs 4 pure Fire energies, its recursive version, Charizard PGO 10, enters the scene, with Burn Brightly, which doubles Fire energies.

We also have another aggressive attacker in the deck, Radiant Charizard CRZ 20, which can be useful at any point in the game, as there are several ways of finding the 5 energies that it asks for:

1) Using Magma Basin BRS 144.

2) Using Blacksmith FLF 88 to charge energies.

3) Using Charizard PGO 10 to compensate for doubling energies.

This version's plan is to use Charizard ex sv3pt5 6's second attack with ease, using Emboar BLW 20's charging process. With its ability, Inferno Fandango, you can move basic Fire energies from your hand to your Pokémon in any way you want.

With that, you can apply the attack Explosive Vortex - and if this Pokémon is about to be knocked out, you'll use Max Potion GRI 128 to heal all damage dealt to your Charizard ex sv3pt5 6, even if this item's effect forces it to lose its energies. Considering that, we have Fire Crystal UNB 173 and Superior Energy Retrieval sv2 189, which recover these energies from the discard pile and place them back into your hand. Like so, you can repeat this energy setup "loop" with Emboar BLW 20's ability, always hitting, easily, 330 damage.

If you need to recover these energies, the focus will be on using the attacks from previous evolutions, with the same strategy using Shining Celebi PR-SM SM79 with its ability, Time Recall. We also have as options Charmander TEU 11 with its attack, Reprisal, and Charmeleon BCR 19 with its attack, Raging Claws.

We have here the Shining Celebi PR-SM SM79 strategy with its Time Recall ability still, with Charmander TEU 11 and its attack Reprisal and Charmeleon BCR 19 and its attack Raging Claws as options.

Only to boost the energy setup for your Fire Pokémon, we count with Volcanion PR-SM SM179 with its attack, Flare Starter. If you're second to play, it can place up to 3 basic Fire energies directly in the game. To boost your Charizard ex sv3pt5 6 energy setup, we have the presence of Charizard PGO 10, which is still strong.

The new addition here is referring to Charizard ex sv3pt5 6 not having weaknesses if it is dealt damage by Water Pokémon, with Chandelure RCL 33. Its ability states that, if any Pokémon in your game has energies attached, weaknesses are no longer applied! However, this line is risky because it is a 1-1.

This deck's plan uses the mechanic of looking for any resources in the deck with Pidgeot ex sv3 164.

We still have the strategy of using Shining Celebi PR-SM SM79 and its Time Recall ability, with the options of Charmander TEU 11 and its Reprisal attack, and Charmeleon BCR 19 and its Raging Claws attack, so that Charizard ex sv3pt5 6 can use other attack options.

We also have the presence of Arven sv3 186 in the deck, making it easier to filter your deck and look for Ultra Ball BRS 150, Quick Ball FST 237, and even Rare Candy PGO 69; besides getting Weakness Policy BUS 126, a tool that removes Charizard ex sv3pt5 6's weakness without depending on Weakness Guard Energy UNM 213, as it was in the previous deck.

Decks with Blastoise ex

This deck's plan is straightforward: it moves energies to attack fast with Blastoise ex sv3pt5 9 using its attack, Twin Cannons. Like so, it will discard two basic Water energies from your hand, and, for each energy discarded, we'll have 140 damage, totaling up to 280 damage.

With that, we have the energy booster in the Squirtle BCR 29 evolution line: Blastoise PLB 16 from the Black/White era (which doesn't depend on Baxcalibur PR-SV 19).

The good thing about Squirtle BCR 29 is that its ability protects it from sniper damage dealt by your opponent when it is on the bench, which leaves Manaphy BRS 41 free to protect Radiant Greninja ASR 46 and Volcanion ◇ FLI 31.

Besides this, out of these recursive Pokémon, we have:

1) Radiant Greninja ASR 46 has Concealed Cards, which discards an energy from your hand and draws cards, besides being a sniper attacker against two of your opponent's Pokémon.

2) Volcanion ◇ FLI 31 has Jet Geyser, which forces you to discard a Water energy from your hand to pull a benched opponent Pokémon into the active position and, therefore, it is a built-in "Boss's Orders".

These energy discards won't go to waste, considering we have Superior Energy Retrieval sv2 189 and Energy Retrieval BLW 92 to recover these energies, and we can use it synergizing with Blastoise PLB 16's ability.

This deck has many "staples" from this archetype, like Dive Ball PRC 125 to look for Water Pokémon, Capacious Bucket RCL 156 to look for Water energies in the deck and make it easier for Blastoise ex sv3pt5 9 to deal damage, Irida ASR 147 to look for Water Pokémon and any item you want; and the stadium Rough Seas PRC 137 to heal your Water Pokémon by 30 damage, making Blastoise ex sv3pt5 9 more durable.

We also have a few other recursive Pokémon as well:

1) Lumineon V PR-SW SWSH250, which, besides having its ability Luminous Sign, can be an attacker with Aqua Return being energized by Blastoise PLB 16, finishing off a particular Pokémon and returning to the deck without being targeted by the opponent.

2) We have free retreats with Manaphy-EX BKP 32's ability. If any of your Pokémon have a Water energy attached, they can benefit from this. And if that fails, we have retreat moves that only serve to the Water type, such as Switch Raft DRM 62, which heals 30 damage, matching the stadium Rough Seas PRC 137.

This deck option is similar to the first version, but with a few differences: it focuses on "spread" damage as a way to deal "sniper" damage, that is, with brute force attacks with no damage counters, besides a certain lockdown for your opponent's basic attackers.

But first, let's discuss "spread/sniper" attackers, which match Radiant Greninja ASR 46.

1) Kyurem NVI 34 focuses on its second attack, which deals 30 damage to all your opponent's Pokémon; and, besides that, it is a "single prize" Pokémon.

2) Kyurem-EX AOR 25's first attack deals 30 damage to all your opponent's Pokémon; however, its second attack, which counts with a heavy cost of 4 energies, deals 130 damage, with the additional cost of discarding one of the energies attached to it. If you do that, on the next turn, your opponent won't be able to attack.

The energy setup is practical if you use Blastoise PLB 16's ability.

Now, let's move on to the Pokémon that will lock down your opponent (Remember that this is a suggestion placed on the Maybe Board.) It is possible to use Eiscue ex sv3 42, which deals 160 damage, also discarding one of their energies. On the next turn, the opponent will also not be able to attack.

This deck's list is kept consistent with the plan of using Blastoise ex sv3pt5 9 with Blastoise PLB 16, but it leans heavily on defense against enemy Pokémon that are EX, ex or GX, as a sort of "protector with a stall strategy". Keldeo-GX UNM 47 comes in with its ability Pure Heart, which, besides protecting these Pokémon from damage, also protects them against effects. It is a perfect shield for this deck - not to mention its GX attack, which can help in certain situations in the game.

As another possibility, if the opponent's game is heavily damaged by numerous counters, we have Crabominable V FST 76 with its first attack with a "mill" strategy, which burns your opponent's top card; and its second attack (which is what interests us) deals 90 damage + 60 if the opponent has any damage counters.

In this list, the deck goes back to the origins of the first deck listed here, however the change made to this one is focused on the consistency of recursive Pokémon with draw and energy effects.

1) We count with Octillery BKT 33 and its ability, Abyssal Hand, to draw cards until you have 5 in hand. The advantage of using Octillery BKT 33 is that, besides being a Pokémon in the same archetype as this deck's whole central structure, it can easily be searched with Dive Ball PRC 125.

2) And we also have Starmie EVO 31 and its ability Space Beacon, which allows you to, once per turn, get two basic energies from the discard pile and place them in your hand. This line is risky as it is just a 1-1, but we can recover them with Ordinary Rod SSH 171 if they are knocked out. It is vital to make it possible for Blastoise ex sv3pt5 9 to use its attacks and discard the Water energies in hand to deal 280 damage!

You're welcome to comment down below! See you next time!