The Lightning Strikes Again

Hello people,

I'm back with a new deck archetype:

Mega Manectric EX.

Wait, that's not new!!!

Well, until now, I was looking for possible partners to play MManectric EX with.

That was until I realized, how powerful the card itself is.

That's why the new deck, I came up with, is just straight MManectric - without partners.

THE POKEMON

First, ill give you a small review about the card itself:

M Manectric-EX - Lightning - HP210
Mega Evolution - Evolves from Manectric-EX

When 1 of your Pokemon becomes a Mega Evolution, your turn ends.

[L][C] Turbo Bolt: 110 damage. Choose 2 basic Energy from your discard pile and attach them to 1 of your Benched Pokemon.

When a Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Metal (-20)
Retreat: 0

This card is a BEAST!!!

It OHKOs Lugia, Yveltal, Pyroar and lots more, just to name the most important, AND in the same move accelerates 2 basic energies.

It has nice 210HP, which make it really hard to take it down in one hit.

The energy-cost for its attack is laughable, it has no retreat cost and has a spirit link, so your turn doesn't have to end, when you evolve it.

The basic should also not be underestimated:

Manectric-EX - Lightning - HP170
Basic Pokemon

[C] Rush Off: 20 damage. Choose 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokemon and do 20 damage to it. (Don't apply Weakness and Resistance.)

[L][C] Assault Laser: 60+ damage. If your opponent's Active Pokemon has any Pokemon Tools attached, this attack does 60 more damage.

When a Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Metal (-20)
Retreat: 1

The second attack is nice, to surprise your opponent with 120dmg, when you attach one of your Flare-Tools, to his Pokémon, or he just didn't take Manectric EX in account. I found myself many times, just attacking with this guy, instead of mega evolving.

THE STRATEGY

The main strategy is to wear down your opponent. You keep on attacking with MManectric EX to 2HKO, or sometimes even OHKO his Pokémon and make it as impossible for him, to take down your Megas.

You do this by healing the damage off with Max Potion. Yes, you have to discard the energys, attached to MManectric EX, but that's what MManectric EX's attack gives you:

Two more energies in play, every turn, you attack with it.

I'll give you an example:

Turn 1:

-get Manectric EX out

-get possibly a spirit link onto it

-attach an energy to Manectric EX

Turn 2:

-get second Manectric EX out

-attach an energy to first Manectric EX

-Mega evolve

-attack 

-> attach energy to benched Manectric EX

-if you can't mega evolve, attack with first Manectric EX

-take a hit

Turn 3:

-Mega evolve second Manectric EX

-retreat into second MManectric EX

-Max Potion the first MManectric EX

-attack

-> attach energy to benched MManectric EX

Repeat turn 3, until you win.

I know, this is kind of an ideal game-plan, but that's just to show you, what your goal is, which you want to achieve with this deck.

Of course, even Manectrics and their Megas can't do all the work alone, so, I'll give you some cards, you can add in this deck:

Suicune

This card should help you against the fighting match-up, and against any kind of deck, that doesn't run a counter against it. 

With a Muscle Band this card OHKOes Landorus EX, and 2HKOes most other EXs, that are no Megas.

Many decks started to play Megas as Pyroar-counters, but forget, that those still can't attack safeguard Pokémon.
Too bad, you can't use MManectrics attack to power up this Pokémon, so you will have to do it by hand.

Mewtwo EX

This is, of course a very well known card, that has seen play in all kinds of decks, since it was out.

In this deck, it is mainly there to hit some Pokémon for weakness, such as, other Mewtwo EXs, Deoxys EX, and mostly Lucario EX.

Sometimes, you want to attack with MManectric EX, but have no Pokémon to attach the energy to.

Here Mewtwo comes in handy, just attach all energys to it, and hit big, when you need it.

Of course don't forget, that a Mewtwo EX with 3 energy on it, is an easy target for an opponents Mewtwo EX + DCE.

THE TRAINER CARDS

As any other deck, this one, also needs Trainer cards to make the strategy work.

There are the usual ones, such as a standard line of supporters like N, Juniper, Skyla and Lysandre, or search items like Ultra Ball.

And there are some, that are specific to this deck, and are there, to provide some special game-plays. In this section I will just go over the second kind of Trainers, since I assume the others are common sense.

Manectric Spirit Link

This Tool, attached to Manectric EX allows you to evolve into MManectric EX without ending your turn, which gives you the advantage of being able to attack with MManectric EX on the second turn, if you have the necessary resources.

Tool Retriever

This card is there to:

...first, be able to reuse your Spirit Links. You would want to retrieve the Spirit Link on your first MManectric EX, to reattach it to your second Manectric EX right away.

...second, to be able to get rid of your Spirit Links, to attach anther Tool, without discarding the Spirit Link.

...and third, as a option to remove Flare-Tools on your Pokémon.

Tool Scrapper

I know this card is rotated for most of the world, but when you can play it, you should, since it has more versatility, than Startling Megaphone, and is no Supporter, like Xerosic.

You can use this to discard opponent's Tools, on either your own Pokémon, or on his, without having to discard the Flare-Tools, you attached to them, or using up your Supporter for the turn.

Jamming Net

Jamming Net (Team Flare's Hyper Gear) - Trainer

Item

Pokemon Tool F: Attach a Pokemon Tool F to 1 of your opponent's Pokemon-EX that doesn't already have a Pokemon Tool attached to it. If that Pokemon is Knocked Out, discard this card.

The Pokemon this card is attached to does 20 less damage to the Defending Pokemon.

If this card becomes detached, this card is discarded to the original player's discard pile.

You may play as many Item cards as you like during your turn (before your attack).

You want your MManectric Ex to stay alive as long as possible?

Then you want to have Jamming Net attached to your opponents Pokémon.

Not even does it reduce the damage-output by itself, it also keeps your opponent from attaching a Muscle Band, which leads to a potential -40dmg to your Pokémon.

VS Seeker

This card got a staple in most of the decks in play. It is incredibly good with supporters, that have special impacts on the field, such as Lysandre, which you don't longer have to search for, somehow, but now, can just grab from your discard pile.

Max Potion

As mentioned earlier, this card plays a basic role in the strategy of this deck. You heal all the damage on one of your Pokémon and discard all the energies attached to that one.

The moment you get 2 MManectric EX in play, this card can keep those alive for a long time.

Dowsing Machine

In this deck, I decided against Computer Search, even if it is good in early game, because you don't have any special energies, such as DCEs, that you may want to search for, or other required cards, that you can't search for in another way.

Furthermore, this card can work as another Max Potion, or any other Trainer card, that might be missing in late-game.

Hard Charm

I decided on a 3-2 line of Muscle Band / Hard Charm, to mess with the opponents math even more. Now, with Hard Charm on your Pokémon and Jamming Net on your opponent's, he might have to admit, that he suddenly can deal 60dmg less, than he expected.

Energy Switch

This card always comes in handy, when you have attackers, that just require 2 energies to attack. You can attach one energy from had, Energy Switch the other and have a new, fully powered up attacker going.

Battle Compressor

As always, this card is just good with VS Seeker.

But in this deck, also helps to get energies in the discard pile early to reuse them with MManectric EX's Turbo Volt.

So far about the cards, that we want to include.

I hope you got a good overview, how this deck works and what you can do with the specific cards. Now, for the list:

THE DECKLIST

Pokémon

3-3 MManectric EX
1 Suicune

1 Mewtwo EX 
8

Trainer

3 Manectric Spirit Link

1 Tool Retriever

2 Tool Scrapper

3 Jamming Net

3 VS Seeker

2 Lysandre

4 Professor Sycamore

3 N

4 Skyla

3 Max Potion

1 Dowsing Machine

3 Muscle Band

2 Hard Charm

1 Switch

3 Energy Switch

1 Battle Compressor

4 Ultra Ball

43

Energy

7 Lightning Energy

2 Water Energy
9

This is the list, that I am testing with, and I had some great success against many popular decks. It's fun to play, and once you tested against this, you will know the frustration, of just not being able to KO your opponents Pokémon.

I hope you enjoyed this article.

I'd be glad to see some feedback.

Greets from Japan,

Hannes  (hanfffff)