Psychic Toolbox deck

Non-ex engines have lost in visibility during the A2 arc, with Darkrai ex then Giratina ex being a lot to handle for the historically competitive Fighting Toolbox. The toolbox kind of decks further fell short to the gain in speed that stage 2 decks got with Rare Candy, something that these mostly all non-ex Basic decks couldn't keep up with. Celestial Guardians has brought some tools for a new kind of toolbox that can finally compete with the metagame.

Its main appeal is in Tapu Lele. Tapu Lele's Energy Arrow is an anywhere-hit attack that scales off how much energy is on the target, enabling 2-3 hit KOs on energy-hungry benched attackers: Giratina ex becomes an easy prey, especially in decks not running Energy, but starter damages against Pokémon like Darkrai ex and Arceus ex to make them more vulnerable to a knock out is equally as good.

Skarmory and other efficient one-point attackers can get around our Energy disruption fairly easily, as they only need one to deal damage. Spiteful Dance Oricorio, a "discount" Marshadow, can prove a useful surprise option, as we can play it from hand, cheaply retreat into it, and revenge-KO opposing Skarmory if and when our Banette goes down - especially with the use of Guzma to remove Giant Cape.

Gengar Psychic Toolbox

In a surprising twist, the best Pokémon to use with the Psychic Toolbox could be Gengar from Triumphant Light, a completely overlooked Pokémon that gain in interest after the release of Rare Candy. Gengar doesn't seem anything special at first glance, but its Hypnoblast attack, when accounting for the 50% chance to keep the opponent's Active Pokémon asleep after it's used, is one of the best attack on turn 4 in terms of damage output.

Banette Psychic Toolbox

With all of the justifiable excitement over Rare Candy and the powerful ex Pokémon coming to the game with the Celestial Guardians expansion, the Banette snuck in under the radar. -type decks previously have focused on raw power, such as with Mewtwo ex paired with Gardevoir, or utilizing Giratina ex and its energy cheating. Banette's power is more subtle but no less dangerous; its Night Bind attack, while only doing 30 damage, prevents any energy from being attached to the opposing Active from the Energy Zone - this effect persists even if the Active is knocked out, preventing the newly promoted enemy Pokémon from receiving energy if it wasn't yet ready to attack. Combined with Team Rocket Grunt, the opponent can be caught in a situation where the Active slot is taken up indefinitely by a glorified brick, able to be converted to points as necessary. Tapu Lele in combination with Banette is deadly, as the opponent will charge up their benched Pokémon for being unable to do it on their Active Pokémon, which gives all the more power to Energy Arrow.

30-80 damage at a time from Banette and Tapu Lele is all well and good, but eventually we need to KO our opponent's high-health finishers. What better attacker than Mewtwo ex and its Psydrive? Banette and Tapu Lele function as stall pieces, allowing us to safely build a Mewtwo ex on the bench while denying the opponent solid attacks - it's not uncommon to be able to build 5 energy on a Mewtwo ex and enable back-to-back Psydrives.

Mimikyu Psychic Toolbox

The Disguise Pokémon is one scary Ghost. Its Shadow Hit attack deals a respectable 60 damage for 2 Energy, but damages randomly one of your Pokémon in the process, even itself! But thanks to Acerola, 40 of the damage dealt on Mimikyu can be moved to the opponent's Active Pokémon, for a potential 100 damage turn while only exposing a one-point Basic Pokémon. Your opponent has to knock it out in a single hit to avoid a potential Acerola, and cannot remain entirely passive as Mimikyu can stack damage on itself to make this play possible.

Weaknesses

• Without access to a strong ex finisher, damage is realistically capped at 80 a turn (if Tapu Lele is attacking), and the other attackers are rather weak as well.
• In the case of the Banette variant, full bind requires Team Rocket Grunt to flip at least one heads in addition to going first in order to attack with Banette as soon as possible.
• Leaf and X Speed can enable swift retreats to an opposing benched attacker that can dispose of our Banette, Solgaleo ex can simply force its way in with Rising Road, and energy mobility tools such as Dawn or Lunala ex can ignore the bind entirely as the energy being moved is not coming from the Energy Zone.