Dragonite ex δ

Decklist from LittleRiver.

For a slightly different build I came up with (featuring Slowking), click here.

Overview

This deck attacks with Dragonite ex δ, a beefy Stage 2 ex with 150 HP and no Weakness. Its main attack is Deafen, which costs 2 Colorless Energy and prevents the opponent from playing non-Supporter Trainer cards. Trainer locks are very nasty, as cards like Dark Vileplume and Gothitelle in other formats have proven, so as long as you can Deafen every turn, your opponent will be hard-pressed to break out of it.

Ideal Gameplan

Lead with Holon's Castform or Lunatone to set up, and get a Dragonite ex δ with two Energy attached as fast as you can. Bring it in and start Deafening. Try to maintain Deafen every turn, as the Trainer lock effect is very powerful. To this end, build more Dragonite ex δs on your Bench to replace the Active one if it gets KOed.

If your opponent tries to beat Dragonite ex δ with Special Conditions, attach Warp Energy to it, bring out a Benched Latios ex δ, then retreat for free back to Dragonite. This also gets one more Energy on Dragonite for a potential Dragon Roar. Generally though, you will want to avoid using Dragon Roar unless it wins you the game outright, as keeping your opponent Trainer-locked is more valuable.

Unique Points

This deck uses Xatu δ to reach 50 (or even 60) damage on Dragonite ex δ's Deafen. This allows you to 1HKO most non-evolving Basics, putting more pressure on your opponent as their sacrificial Basics will only buy them 1 turn instead of 2.

This deck has a few non-bos to be aware of:

• Latias δ's Dual Aura will turn off Xatu δ's Extra Feather if you also have Latios ex δ out.

• Crystal Beach will make Holon's Castform provide only 1 Colorless Energy.

Tweaks

Xatu (Psyloop): Hits Latios ex δ and Celebi ex for Weakness, 1HKOs them if the opponent has a Trainer card in play. Also is another free retreater for Warp Energy shenanigans.

Sceptile (Green Essence), Sceptile ex δ: This line replaces the Xatu/Lati/Lunasol slots. Green Essence Sceptile does Latios ex δ's job of beating Special Conditions, and Sceptile ex δ's Extra Liquid hard counters Electrode ex and Blastoise ex. You can read more about this build here.

Strengths

Deafen. Seriously, this is hard to beat once it gets started. It prevents your opponent from setting up with cards like Holon Transceiver and Rare Candy, and it also protects your board. Your opponent can't play Pow/Pokémon Reversal to flush out a support Pokémon or developing Dratini, and they can't play Windstorm or Stadiums of their own to get rid of yours.

Weaknesses

This deck's ideal starters take up a fairly low percentage of all its Basics. You want either Holon's Castform to start drawing cards or Lunatone to spam Holon Transceivers, so that's 3 ideal starters, out of a total of 14 possible Basics. Unlike other decks that use Jirachi, it's not as simple as Mentoring for Holon's Magnemite + Castform and retreating your starter to Castform, as Castform requires Energy to use its setup attack, and you've already used up the Energy attachment for that turn retreating. Swoop! Teleporter mitigates this a bit, as does Latias δ/Latios ex δ being able to retreat for free if you start with them.

This deck is very soft to Basics with immunity from ex's: Latios ex δ, Celebi ex, and the lesser-seen Wobbuffet. (Evolved Safeguard Pokémon can be beaten with Latias δ's Dual Aura.) You can spam your own Latios ex δ's Ice Barrier against opposing Latios/Celebi, but you don't really have a way to make progress, whereas they may be able to build something on their Bench that can KO your Latios.

This deck is weak to DPS check decks. Deafen only does 40 damage, and if your opponent can reduce most or all of that, they'll have lots of time to find a way around it even if they can't use Holon Transceiver.