Kingdra archetype (TCG): Difference between revisions

Kingdra
File:017055 P KINGUDORA.jpg Kingdra and Kingdra Prime Types used Major cards Kingdra, Kingdra Prime, and Claydol Era 2008-2010

Although the Kingdra archetype has gone through numerous variations since Kingdra was released in the Legends Awakened expansion, decks based around it have been a staple in the metagame since 2008. The deck has won a number of major tournaments. Although it fell out of favor with players in late 2009, the deck underwent a revival with the release of Kingdra Prime in Unleashed and won approximately twenty 2010 Spring Battle Roads in the United States. Kingdra has a far more straightforward strategy than most decks in that it is based solely on taking six prizes quickly by attacking with low-energy, moderately damaging attacks. This strategy lends itself to a strong, fast drawing engine such as Claydol and suffers from few bad matchups. The deck is expected to drop considerably in popularity after the 2010 rotation, due to Claydol's unplayability in future Pokémon Organized Play events.

Strategy

Unlike many decks that have a designated "ideal start," the Kingdra archetype focuses simply attacking right away rather than setting up behind a starter Pokémon. For this reason, although starting with Horsea is preferred, the deck does not suffer from bad starts due to its use of Unown Q, with the possible exception of Uxie.

Regardless of what Pokémon the player starts with, it is important to get as many Kingdra Prime or Kingdra and Claydol on the field as possible early in the game. This way, the deck has a better chance of simply overrunning the opponent before they have a chance to setup well. Kingdra's setup can be achieved by utilizing strong drawing and searching Supporter cards such as Professor Oak's New Theory and Bebe's Search, respectively, along with fast trainers such as Pokémon Communication and Poké Drawer +. Once one Claydol hits the field, the deck's setup is much easier as it has the ability to draw a number of cards each turn, so many players choose to expend resources early to get Claydol out before Kingdra or Kingdra Prime. Rare Candy and especially Broken Time-Space are essential to the deck's setup since they allow the evolution process to be sped up, resulting in more Kingdra and more Claydol on the field faster.

After the player has multiple Kingdra or Kingdra Prime on the field as well as Claydol, there is little to do but continuously attack and make sure the player has the resources in hand to recover fallen Kingdra, such as Palmer's Contribution. The Kingdra archetype benefits from its ability to damage the opponent's bench, both through Kingdra's Dragon Pump attack and Kingdra Prime's Spray Splash Poké-Power. Although the damage is not much initially (20 damage for Dragon Pump and 10 for Spray Splash), it can add up quickly and result in extra, unexpected knockouts.

Key Cards

Claydol

• Kingdra Prime - Kingdra Prime is the deck's core. It can attack for 60 damage for only with Dragon Steam, except when the opponent has a Fire-type Pokémon in play. Spray Splash, Kingdra's Poké-Power, allows the Kingdra player to place 10 damage on one of the opponent's Pokémon once per turn. Spray Splash is stackable, meaning that the Kingdra player can use it multiple times per turn if he or she has multiple Kingdra Prime on the field.
• Kingdra - The Kingdra from Legends Awakened is a stronger attacker than Kingdra Prime, but lacks the important Spray Splash power. As a result, the archetype runs only one. Although it is generally a useful attacker, it shines against Fire-type Pokémon. Where Kingdra Prime's Dragon Steam does only 20 damage if the opponent has a Fire-type in play, this Kingdra does 60 damage and 20 to the opponent's bench with Dragon Pump, all for and a two-card discard from the player's hand. Kingdra's second attack, Aqua Stream can also be a threat late in the game. Aqua Stream does 10 damage for each energy card in the player's discard pile for . Then, those energy cards are shuffled back into the player's deck. Since this list runs 8 energy, Aqua Stream maxes out at 80 damage without an Expert Belt.
• Claydol - Claydol is the deck's drawing engine. Since Kingdra's Dragon Pump requires a discard from the hand, it is vitally important to keep the hand stocked with cards. Additionally, Claydol provides a way to get as many Kingdra Prime out early in the game as possible, simply by giving the Kingdra player access to more cards.
• Ditto - Although it cannot really be considered an essential part of the deck's core strategy, Ditto provides an inexpensive and often unforeseen way to retaliate from knocked out Kingdra in the LuxPluff and Mother Gengar matchups, as well as the mirror match. Multi Energy allows Ditto to utilize any opposing Pokémon's attack, provided it costs only one energy.
• Broken Time-Space - Since the deck is based around evolutions, both for its main attackers and support line (Kingdra Prime/Kingdra and Claydol, respectively), Broken Time-Space is critical to getting these Pokémon up and running quickly by allowing the player to bypass the typical one-turn waiting period on evolving.

Typical decklist

The deck list appearing below is not official; it is meant to represent an average build of the archetype, not specifically constructed for any regional metagame. Being that this is merely an archetype, a player may wish to change any part of this deck when building his or her own version.

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
3×	Kingdra Prime
1×	Kingdra
3×	Seadra
4×	Horsea
3×	Claydol
3×	Baltoy
1×	Uxie
1×	Ditto
1×	Unown Q
4×	Bebe's Search	Su
3×	Pokémon Collector	Su
1×	Roseanne's Research	Su
2×	Professor Oak's New Theory	Su
1×	Palmer's Contribution	Su
3×	Pokémon Communication	T
3×	Rare Candy	T
2×	Expert Belt	T
1×	Luxury Ball	T
4×	Poké Drawer +	T
3×	Broken Time-Space	St
4×	Multi Energy	E
8×	Water Energy	E	—

Possible Tech Cards

Manectric

• Regice - With its Regi Move Poké-Power, Regice can be potentially devastating to decks based around Basic Pokémon, especially in a format dominated by Pokémon SP. It also causes significant disruption to decks with a designated Basic starter Pokémon, such as Sableye in Sablelock and Spiritomb in a variety of decks.
• Manectric - Manectric prevents the opponent from sniping Claydol, the deck's main drawing support, on the bench with attacks like Garchomp C LV.X's Dragon Rush. Considering the popularity of cards like Garchomp C LV.X and Honchkrow G during Kingdra's era, Manectric is a popular tech. Additionally, with the use of Multi Energy in the deck, Manectric can provide a secondary attacker against Poké-Power heavy decks.
• Machamp - Machamp is used in some Kingdra variants for its Take Out attack, which automatically knocks out the opponent's active Basic Pokémon for only . This is possible through Multi Energy and can be deadly against decks based around Pokémon SP.