I’ve been playing around with this off-meta "beyblade" build focused on hyper-speed deck thinning and low-cost mobility. It's been a lot of fun and has relatively low build requirements so I wanted to share.
Deck List
| Category | Name | Count | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pokémon | Hitmontop (Piercing Spin) | 2 | Lead "beyblade"; bench chipping. |
| Pokémon | Ralts (Teleport) | 2 | Evolution base. |
| Pokémon | Gallade EX | 2 | Finishing "beyblade" with Energized Blade. |
| Supporter | Professor's Research | 2 | Manual draw. |
| Supporter | Cyrus | 1 | Bench to Active manipulation. |
| Supporter | Copycat | 1 | Emergency reload or counter draw. |
| Item | Poké Ball | 2 | Deck thinning. |
| Item | Rare Candy | 2 | Skip Kirlia. |
| Tool | Rocky Helmet | 2 | Passive chip damage. |
| Tool | Giant Cape | 2 | Survivability. |
| Stadium | Hiking Trail | 2 | End of turn hand reload. |
How a Match Plays Out
With a decent opening hand, this deck regularly reaches a full deck out by turn 5. The strategy is to dump more than half the deck in the first couple turns by chaining together draws and playing every card possible. This keeps the hand empty so Hiking Trail can consistently trigger its reload at the end of every turn.
Hitmontop and Gallade EX function as the "beyblades" in this setup. While the opponent is still attaching energy, Hitmontop enters early to spread chip damage across their bench. Whether these Pokémon fight until the end or swap out early for an important killing blow depends entirely on the matchup. Once the board is prepped, Cyrus drags those weakened targets into the Active spot.
This build is also a great counter for decks featuring Oricorio. Since Hitmontop is a non-EX attacker hitting for Fighting weakness, it can deal 40 damage per turn to clear those Safeguard walls. Gallade EX then hits the field via Rare Candy and uses Energized Blade to neutralize targets before they reach full power, inflicting significant damage on tanky threats and disrupting the flow of the opponent's setup.
The deck is cheap to operate and highly mobile, allowing for constant pivoting and preventing the bricking common in a lot of decks. Regarding trainers, a second Cyrus can be stronger in certain situations but is a brick liability if it stalls the Hiking Trail reload.
This deck primarily struggles against Suicune EX based decks, which match our speed and punish a full bench. Having said that, it's been extremely fun plowing through all the PVE matches I was behind on, and I'm looking forward to playing some random PVP matches to see how viable it might be when comp gets going again.
Is it perfect? Probably not. Is it fun? Hell yes!
Good to know. I'll mess around with it as I have time and see how it feels. Maybe the combo of random matches and RNG draws will keep it from being too annoying without too many changes.