From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
ADP was a Pokémon Trading Card Game deck archetype played in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons. The deck's strategy revolved around Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX allowing the player's Pokémon to deal additional damage and take additional Prize cards for the rest of the game, heavily shaping the metagame it was playable to not favor decks that were not able to compete with this deck; only few decks such as Lucario/Melmetal were able to effectively counter the strategy. Through the seasons, ADP players have been featured in several top spots such as Top 4 in most Players Cup events. The deck's popularity also influenced the creation of the Zacian V League Battle Deck.
Strategy
ADP focused on playing Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX's fully powered Altered Creation-GX Attack in the first turns, which would make the player's Pokémon (even those played later) to deal 30 additional damage in attacks and take one additional Prize card whenever they Knocked Out the opponent's Pokémon, reducing the minimum number of Pokémon needed to be Knocked Out to win the game to 3 (usually 2 since many decks played Pokémon that awarded more Prize cards when Knocked Out). The player would then follow with attacks that, allied with the damage boost, could knock out most Pokémon in the metagame in a single turn. The high Hit Points of Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX very often prevented it from being Knocked Out while building up the necessary energy to use its GX attack, as well have an upper hand on the Prize card race.
First versions of this deck played Keldeo-GX as the secondary attacker, being replaced by Zacian V on its debut due to the higher damage output, its Ability allowing to draw cards and accelerating energy whenever it was not possible to use Altered Creation-GX and the playability of Metal Saucer into Zacian V for easier followup attacks. A rule change beginning with the Sword & Shield series where the player who went first could no longer play a Supporter card on their first turn also made Zacian V valuable by allowing the player to draw more cards than usual in the first turn. Before the rotation of Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX from the Standard format, another variant featuring attackers such as Galarian Moltres V took the spotlight as well.
Other useful cards in the deck were Mawile-GX to put the opponent's Pokémon from their hand into play, making it easier to score knockouts, and Chaotic Swell to counter other Stadium cards.
Key cards
- Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX - Altered Creation-GX could be only used once per game, but allowed for all of the player's Pokémon to deal 30 additional damage with attacks and take an additional Prize card when knocking out the opponent's Pokémon until the game ended. It could also use with Ultimate Ray if needed for 150 damage, accelerating energy to other Pokémon and able to knock out Pokémon such as Dedenne-GX in one attack after the boosted damage. Its high HP allied with the end of support for the
type (which it was weak to) later allowed it to be a sturdy Pokémon, able to use its GX attack most of the time.
- Keldeo-GX - Keldeo-GX's attack was not so powerful, but the attacker was justified by its Ability preventing all effects of attacks, including damage, by Pokémon-GX. It could use its GX attack if needed, but this would prevent the deck's main attack from being played. With the introduction of Pokémon V and release of Zacian V, it was no longer the secondary attacker of the deck.
- Zacian V - The Intrepid Sword Ability allowed the player to draw 3 cards and attack any
Energy cards drawn this way to Zacian, ending the turn when using the Ability. Brave Blade also dealt 230 damage, enough to knock out most non-TAG TEAM Pokémon-GX and Pokémon V in the metagame, with its drawback of being unable to attack in the next turn made less relevant by the inclusion of switching cards in the deck.
- Mawile-GX - When put into play from the player's hand during their turn, Captivating Wink allowed the player to look at the opponent's hand and put any number of Basic Pokémon from there into the opponent's Bench, allowing for more targets to be potentially Knocked Out and removing the effectiveness of other Pokémon that activated Abilities when played from the hand. Being a Pokémon, it could also act as a backup attacker.
- Metal Saucer - Attached a Energy from the discard pile to a Benched Pokémon. This synergized with playing cards that could discard resources from the hand such as Quick Ball as well reattaching Energy cards after a Pokémon was Knocked Out.
- Cherish Ball - Searched the deck for any Pokémon-GX.
- Chaotic Swell - Counter to other Stadium cards.
- Galarian Moltres V - Variants of this deck introduced in Chilling Reign favored (or even only used) other secondary attackers over Zacian V to deal better against
and Eternatus VMAX decks; its Ability allowed to attach a 
Energy from the discard pile to itself once per turn and replace the need of Metal Saucer, even though the deck had less aggressive first turns and relied on other types of Energy.
Typical decklist
Renzo Zambrano's decklist at Players Cup II
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João Zambrano's decklist at Players Cup IV
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Possible tech cards
The following cards are often used in ADP in place of certain cards included in the above lists.
- Zamazenta V - Its Ability prevented damage against Pokémon VMAX.
- Aegislash V - Counter to Decidueye decks.
- Tapu Fini - Counter to Blacephalon decks.
- Tag Call - Allowed to search the deck for Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX. Because of its versability, it would also encourage decks to play TAG TEAM Supporter cards.
- Crushing Hammer - Played for the chance to discard Energy cards from the opponent's Pokémon.
- Energy Switch - Allowed to use Altered Creation-GX creation in the first turn after a Metal Saucer attachment and move Energy cards in the lategame.
- Metal Frying Pan - Reduced damage dealt to Pokémon by 30 and removed their Weakness. Big Charm was another tech that could benefit all Pokémon instead by increasing their Hit Points by 30.
- Shrine of Punishment - While it was available in the Standard format, this Stadium card put one damage counter on each Pokémon-GX in play per turn, making it easier to knock out certain Pokémon with the deck's attackers.
