5 Decks I'm Trying Day One of Space-Time Smackdown

Now that we have the full set spoiled for Space-Time Smackdown, it’s time for the fun part: brewing! These are the decks I want to be giving a spin as soon as I get the cards for them. For the record, some will be tweaks on existing archetypes, so don’t expect everything to be a world-shattering meta breaker.

Bear in mind these are completely untested theorycrafts that are intended to try as many of the cards I'm excited for as possible. I'm attempting to make these as strong as possible, but there are known strong cards I'm excluding partially for testing purposes. Feel free to experiment with whatever you think will work!

Let’s get the most boring thing out of the way now: Pikachu EX is still going to be very strong. The package of Pachirisu EX and 2 Giant Capes is the main thing that’s being added to the build; the second copy of Zapdos EX frequently felt like the worst card in the list, so adding some redundancy to our basic plan of getting on board and swinging for 2 Lightning Energy is likely a solid upgrade. Giant Cape not only enables our Pachirisu, but also brings our big basics out of range of some pretty dangerous breakpoints; as an example, we now live a swing from Mythical Island Tauros or an active Revenge Marshadow.

The other addition is Cyrus; Zebstrika builds are already seeing more play than Surge builds thanks to the prevalence of Gyarados EX, so we might as well add the best card in the set to get even more utility from our bench sniping. Even in normal play, Cyrus will make sure we can KO-confirm when our opponent pivots away from Pachirisu EX or Pikachu EX.

Other cards to consider: Rotom, Dawn, Rocky Helmet

Lucario is here to solve Fighting Toolbox's midgame damage issues. Now that we know Riolu is a real attacker in a pinch, I’m ready for the simple plan of throwing as many +damage effects onto the board as possible. Everything in the deck attacks for 1 or 2 energy, so I’m taking the risky approach of removing switch utility in exchange for damage and KO confirms.

Aerodactyl EX is what I settled on for the best primary attacker; we don’t have a lot of other great Fighting basics after Marshadow and Hitmonlee, and Aero EX has more HP than either Primeape, making it an ideal Rocky Helmet recipient. The split I’m the least sure of is Cyrus/Giovanni/Sabrina, so at the moment I’m erring on the side of Cyrus as the 2-of for the simple reason of “this card is busted.”

Other cards to consider: Dawn, Leaf/X-speed, other 1-energy attackers

Dark now has a strong attacking plan that doesn’t rely on the slow Weezing/Koga engine. As mentioned in my previous review, I was already set to give Weavile EX a shot with Honchkrow. Darkrai EX is a massive upgrade to that plan, as it’s not only a Basic instead of a stage 1, but you don’t even need to attack with it in order to enable Weavile EX’s bonus damage! It also gives us a backup attacker for later, since Weavile EX only needs one energy to attack. Dawn is the final piece of the puzzle, enabling lines going first where you can attach your first energy to Darkrai EX to hit the opposing active, and then move the energy to Weavile EX for an immediate 90 damage total on our first attacking turn.

Even though Farfetch’d gives us a backup plan going second, I’m interested in Rotom as an efficient attacker into Giant Capes and Rocky Helmets. Cyrus is fairly easy to justify as a 2-of, since we’ll be stacking a lot of passive damage and forcing pivots from our opponents. Giovanni as a 2-of will help us hit damage breakpoints in the event we can’t find Darkrai EX; most notably, 2 Weavile EX attacks into a Mewtwo EX.

Other cards to consider: Rocky Helmet, Spiritomb, Giant Cape, Farfetch'd

Manaphy terrifies me, which means I should probably play it. This deck isn’t terribly subtle or complex: cheat energy into play and hit with big basics ahead of schedule. As such, our deckbuilding here is as simple and direct as possible; no 1x toolbox cards here! Mythical Island Vaporeon is the most natural partner for Manaphy, as it allows us to reallocate energy onto Articuno EX to attack with Blizzard on turn 2 assuming we got to boost two Pokemon on our bench with Manaphy on turn one. It also directly synergizes with Palkia EX, allowing us to move energy from Articuno EX to nuke our opponent’s EX in one shot.

The worst card in the list is the second copy of Manaphy, but it is good enough to play on turn one that I’m willing to accept it as a horrible topdeck later in the game. Among the decks shown off here, this is the only deck where Cyrus can replace Sabrina, as he gets enabled by Articuno EX. Leaf is our retreat aid of choice, as both Articuno EX and Palkia EX require 2 energy to retreat. Misty is not replaced by Manaphy; sometimes, we’ll just win turn one by getting good flips onto a Palkia EX or Articuno EX, and having redundancy for our ramp gameplan is only a good thing.

Other cards to consider: Starmie EX, Dawn, Giovanni (in Starmie EX builds)

This is the most speculative list of the ones I want to try, and it’s mostly fueled by my desire to play a Psychic archetype that’s not “Mewtwo EX, but worse.” Mismagius EX is a fascinating aggressive stage 1, consistently hitting for 70 and disrupting our opponent with Confusion. This gives it at least a fighting chance against literally anything put in front of it since it reduces their attacks to a coin flip to succeed, and it puts our opponent in the position of either being forced to retreat/evolve to cleanse the confusion, or accept the 50% chance of doing nothing.

Since we’re trying to primarily attack with a consistent stage 1 evolution, we’re somewhat priced into filling the rest of our deck with efficient basics. Mythical Slab gives us more attempts to hit our primary attacker, and Farfetch’d is still the best one-energy attacker in a vacuum. Rocky Helmet + Giovanni gives us any hope of pushing through meaningful damage. Make no mistake: we will get dominated in the endgame, but if that was our concern, we’d probably be playing Mewtwo EX!

Other cards to consider: Other one-energy attackers