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Walrein/Milotic was a Pokémon Trading Card Game deck archetype created by 2006 U.S. National Champion Martin Moreno after the release of EX Hidden Legends during the later part of the 2004 season. Though Moreno is credited with developing the deck, its best showings were in the hands of Kyle Sucevich, who piloted it to 2nd place at the 2004 U.S. National Championships and Top Sixteen at the 2004 World Championships. The strategy of the deck centered around using Walrein's Sheer Cold attack in combination with Milotic's Healing Shower Poké-POWER to stall the opponent while gradually dealing damage.
Strategy
In a format largely dominated by Pokémon-ex such as Blaziken and Gardevoir, forcing the opponent to knock out six individual Pokémon slowed down the pace of the game considerably. Walrein's Sheer Cold, the main attack in the deck, did 50 damage for 
, which was not particularly strong. However, its strength lie in its effect: giving the Defending Pokémon only a 50% chance of successfully attacking the following turn. Milotic's inclusion in the deck, though it could serve as a secondary attacker in a pinch, was based on its Healing Shower Poké-POWER. Healing Shower gave the user the option to remove all damage counters from both players' Pokémon when Milotic came into play. Between the lack of Pokémon-ex in the deck, Sheer Cold, and Healing Shower, it was difficult for an opponent to take six prizes. Though Walrein/Milotic was incapable of dealing heavy damage, the gradual accumulation of 50 damage per turn was much more substantial in the context of this slowed-down game state. As Water-type Pokémon, Walrein and Milotic were able to deal double damage against the aforementioned Blaziken ex, an extremely popular Fire-type attacker at the time. The inclusion of Crystal Shard also gave them the ability to hit Rayquaza ex, another oft-played Pokémon, for weakness.
The one significant aggressive aspect to the deck involved using Walrein's Crush Draw Poké-POWER in combination with Oracle for energy acceleration. While most decks of the era relied on Oracle in some capacity, the synergy between Crush Draw and Oracle is obvious. A player could use Oracle to place a Water Energy on top of the deck, and immediately attach it with Crush Draw. With two Walrein in play, the player could use this combination to attach two additional Energy per turn.
Key cards
- Walrein - Walrein was the deck's main attacker. Its Sheer Cold, while dealing only 50 damage, forced the opponent to flip a coin in order to successfully attack with the Defending Pokémon the following turn. This, in combination with its high (for the time) 120 HP, uncommon
weakness, and Milotic's Healing Shower, gave Walrein significant staying power.
- Milotic - Milotic's Healing Shower Poké-POWER allowed the player to heal all damage on the field when putting Milotic into play, which fit into the deck's strategy of slowing down the pace of gameplay.
- Dunsparce - Dunsparce was the deck's ideal starting Pokémon. With its Strike and Run attack, Dunsparce could instantly give the player a strong setup; most decks of the time relied on Dunsparce early in the game.
- Oracle - In addition to being a generally valuable consistency card (particularly partnered with Fast Ball), Oracle provided strong energy acceleration combined with Walrein's Crush Draw Poké-POWER.
- Rare Candy - Rare Candy accelerated the deck's ability to get Walrein into play.
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. The list shown assumes an Expedition through EX Hidden Legends format. Potential later additions may be listed in the Possible tech cards section. This particular list was used by Kyle Sucevich to finish in the top sixteen at the 2004 World Championships.
Possible tech cards
The following cards were occasionally used in Walrein/Milotic in place of certain cards included in the above list.
See also
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