Turbo Boost!

I had an interesting conversation with Dark Master Trainer Mike last week.  We were sitting, each doing some of our own respective deck fixes, and we started talking about an idea I’d seen bandied about as of late – namely, Boost Energy and Light Dragonite.  I think I first saw this mentioned as a hypothetical suggestion from Procrastination Alley on the forums.  Soo, I talked it over with DMTM and though there’s no official ruling yet, we referenced Miracle Energy’s ruling, and he came to the following tentative, totally not-yet-official conclusions:

a)  Boost Energy, when played on an active Light Dragonite, or when played on another Pokemon while Light Dragonite’s Power is in effect, stays attached to the Pokemon onto which it was played instead of being discarded at the end of the turn.

b)  This is broken, and conjures to mind thoughts of a Dragonite dining with his friends at a posh restaurant.  A waiter approaches him, and asks in a French accent, “Excuse me sir, may I offer you another TCE?”  The Dragonite politely accepts the Triple Colorless Energy, scrubs it all over his tummy like a loofah, and then proceeds to deal forty damage to the waiter and eat his battered body.

So, on second turn you could breeder to Light Dragonite, attach a Boost Energy, and push it active.  Now, barring a Double Gust, you can keep using Light Wave (40 damage, plus all effects of attacks other than damage that effect Light Dragonite no longer happen) over and over off the single Boost Energy.  An ideal start would look like this:

Turn one.  Cleffa active, bench a dratini.  Recycle Energy to Cleffa, Eeeeeeek if necessary.

Turn two.  Breeder Dratini to Dragonite.  Attach Boost Energy.  Attack the active Pokemon for forty with Light Wave.  

Sounds pretty doable.

From turn three onward, all you’d be looking to do would be to build more Dragonites on the bench and then have one Boost Energy in hand at all times so you could Double Gust, or be Double Gusted, with relative impunity.  What would the deck look like?  Well, I’m not fabulous at Modified, but I’d guess something a bit like this:

Turbo Boost v1.0

Pokemon: 14
4 Dratini
0 Light Dragonair (Without ‘King in the environment, I’m basically starting to reject the notion that a token Stage One is necessary)
3 Dragonite (maybe four?)
4 Cleffa
3 Tyrogue

Energy: 8
4 Boost Energy
4 Recycle Energy

Trainers: 38
4 Elm
4 Copycat
4 Pokemon Trader
3 Pokemon Breeder
3 Gold Berry
2 Focus Band
3 Switch
3 Energy Shift
4 Double Gust
2 Town Volunteers
4 Energy Charge  
2 Broken Ground Gym

There.  Broken Ground Gym ( a suggestion from Nova) hoses their ability to play Double Gust without Switch at an effective level, and also defaults out Pokemon Tower.  Town Volunteers fills in for Time Capsule since the deck doesn’t run any Basic Energy, and Energy Charge handles recycling the low Energy count.  Energy Shift can move around Recycles off of your own Double Gusts, or create a chance for a surprise consolidation of a few Recycles onto a single Dragonite in a pinch.  All the other staples perform their usual function.

So, there it is.  Light Wave destroys Dark Gengar and Donphan/Noc/Krow, taking away their abilities to port, and in the case of Dark Gengar, destroying the whole Double Sleep agenda.  Magcargo is still a tricky match up, but Dragonite’s high HP helps.  Tyrogue is nerfed nicely by Dragonite’s Resistance to fighting.  Crobat eats it nicely, no longer able to Confuse or stall with pressure due to its single energy attack and having a one turn disadvantage in achieving a full build.  Kingdra will have to be tested against, but it loses its ability to remove Energy.  I don’t see any Rogues that could give it much trouble either.

So, will this be seen in tournament play?  I'd like to think so.  Speed wins games, and the only thing that can outspeed this is Magcargo (and even then, all 3 Fire have to be dropped from Cargo to down the 100 hp Dragonite – if you can push another one and Boost it, you’re in more than good shape).  The resiliency of Kingdra might also cause problems, but only testing will tell in that respect.  I honestly think that this deck, when played correctly, could outlast Kingdra.  Everything else is pretty much road kill, though Expedition Vileplume, or Aquapolis Victreebel, could cause major havoc since their deadly effects are Power-based, not attacks, and can remove the Boost Energy.

If anyone tries out the deck, drop me a line at jdgloom@sugarshock.net.  Purity has already been thinking of a few really good Unlimited approaches to the Boost/Dragonite combo.  It looks good there too.  It’ll be interesting to see how the idea pans out in different directions.

Thanks for reading!

-Gloom