Delphox is not Tropical Beach

As the release of the xy set gets closer, more and more articles have begun to pop up speculating on the implementation of various cards. One of the most common conclusions I have seen made is that Delphox will displace Tropical Beach, both in Ray/Boar decks, and in various stage 2 decks across the format.

There is a big thing all of these articles and forum posts seem to be missing though: a stage 2 evolution is not the same thing as a stadium.

That may sound simplistic or twee, but I swear I am saying it with every last  trace of sincerity. Furthermore, I would argue it is not any more simplistic than the following:

Beach allows me to draw until I have seven cards, Delphox allows me to draw until I have 6, therefore Delphox is a suitable sub for beach.

Let's take a step back and look at the function of each card.

Tropical beach allows a player to end any turn by drawing until he or she has 7 cards in hand.

Delphox will be available turn two at the earliest, and allows the player to draw until he or she has 6 cards in hand once during the player's turn.

Tropical Beach will displace opposing stadiums.

Delphox has an attack that is functionally equivalent to a fire Keldeo EX BCR.

Tropical Beach can be played directly onto the field, recovered by dowsing machine, and retrieved by computer search or Skyla.

To enter play, Delphox requires Fennekin to be in play for a turn, and then some combination of rare candy, delphox, and Braixen. Delphox cannot be recovered from the discard pile through any quick sequence of cards, due in large part to how many cards you may need to get it into play in the first place. Level ball, ultra ball, Skyla... Unless you play Cradily (as a lover of esoteric cards and anti-meta decks, it should tell you something that *I* think Cradily is unplayable in the current format. I will test once again as soon as I get a few evolutionary sodas on ptcgo though... But you probably assumed that).

Tropical Beach costs $200

Delphox will likely top out around $2.50

Some combination of the last and the first set of reasons explain where this idea comes from. The middle set dumps a bucket of cold water on the idea for me though. Delphox is more analogous to Electrode PLF than Tropical Beach, and even then, Electrode is a level ball retrievable stage one. Sure, you will have extra rare candies in ray/boar, but that makes one more card you need in hand to play Delphox.

Delphox has an intriguing ability, but in my opinion, using it as a sub for beach is a flawed and likely terrible idea. Using it as a sub for Electrode is more reasonable, but it seems like it would hurt consistency just as much (if not more) than it would help.

Fliptini Chill

While the Pokemon Trading Card Game is definitely a game that requires skill, luck and random chance play significant rolls roles as well. As a holdout Klinklang player, I am all too familiar with this.

What if I open with a perfect hand for a turn two Klinklang and a Cobalion with two energy, but my opponent goes first and plays N? What if I get a hand with one Klink and 6 supporters? What if I am forced to open with Jirachi?

Obviously, there are controls that can be put in place here, but none quite as obvious as Victory Star Victini, re-printed in Legendary Treasures.

Victory Star gives you a second chance! Don't want to discard energy? Take damage from your own attack? Well if that condition is determined by a coin flip on the attack, this is the card for you!

There are several attacks that could benefit from this, but two immediately jumped out to me:

Gothitelle

Vanilluxe

How did I decide between these two? I simply pondered how many coins I would like to flip! Gothitelle will be 2-4 flips every turn once powered up. This is a healthy number of coin flips, but not quite up to the standard I was looking for. Vanilluxe on the other hand? Try 2 to.... Infinity???

Enough chit chat, let's check out the list.

Pokemon	Trainers	Energy
3 - Victini (LTR)	4 - Professor Juniper	7 - Fire
4 - Vanillite (PLF)	3 - N	3 - Water
2 - Vanillish (DXP)	2 - Skyla	4 - Double Colorless
4 - Vanilluxe (PLF)	2 - Colress	-
2 - Voltorb (BCR)	4 - Rare Candy	-
2 - Electrode (PLF)	3 - Ultra Ball	-
1 - Mr. Mime (PLF)	2 - Level Ball	-
1 - White Kyurem (BCR)	2 - Tool Scrapper	-
-	1 - Switch	-
-	1 - Super Rod	-
-	1 - Random Receiver	-
-	1 - Skyarrow Bridge	-
-	1 - Computer Search	-

The strategy here is pretty straight forward: lead with Victini, or possibly Vanillite, build Vanilluxe with 3+ energy as fast as possible, then drop ChillMAX and don't look back. Attaching somewhere every turn is a must. Victini's stored power attack actually comes in handy here as you can lead him, attach to him, and unless your opponent runs hot, hits for weakness, or runs a laser bank, usually dump those energy to an ice cream cone on the bench, and retreat for free via sky arrow bridge.

Why the DXP Vanillish? Because you get to flip more coins, duh!

Electrode helps consistency early and protects against late Ns.

Mr Mime and White Kyurem are the other techs. All the pokemon in this list are pretty fragile, so preventing bench damage is quite valuable. White Kyurem BCR is generally terrible, but having an attacker that can get through silver mirror is nice. That White Kyurem has flippy attacks is just icing on the cake!

Supporter line is fairly typical, as are the items. There are a few different Ace Spec cards that could work in this deck, but Computer Search was the most consistently useful.

How has this deck performed? In 47 games of Expert Modifed play on PTCGO, it has won 25 of them. As is typical of the PTCGO, about 50% of those games have been against random terrible things (I remember a lot of Blaziken builds?), 30% against popular archetypes with terrible tech ideas (Virizion/Genesect... Dusknoir!!!), and the remaining 20% against competent top tier archetypes. Which is to say that I have piloted this deck to multiple wins against straight Darkrai, one against Darkrai/Garbodor, and a couple against Ray/Boar+beach. This deck has its weaknesses, and is obviously very flippy (should have added catchers...), but it also has the potential to deal 240 damage on the second turn. So while it is extremely silly, if you take it lightly you will be smoked by an anthropomorphic ice cream cone.

I am too embarrassed to play it in real life, but if you have opened a decent amount of plasma freeze and legendary treasures, you probably have what you need to build this deck.

Have fun!

PS - When I started this blog, this deck was the namesake. I have since re-named the deck "Cones of Unova-shire". I suppose this is what happens when you have 2 month gaps between posts?