Without any doubt whatsoever, the most dominant deck of the current Pokémon TCG metagame—and by a wide margin at that—is the Charizard ex deck. With tournament victory upon tournament victory to its name, that deck has become one of the most unstoppable forces in the history of the Pokémon TCG.

However, if the Espathra ex/Xatu deck—a somewhat niche pick most recently used in tournament play by Brazilian player Victor Freitas who finished 20th at the São Paulo Regionals—starts to catch on, the dominance of the Charizard ex deck might actually be challenged. Why? Simply because this deck counters Charizard ex decks like no other before it. Thus, as Charizard ex decks’ strangehold over the meta continues, this deck is likely to see more use accordingly.

The Xatu card from the Terastal Starter Set Mewtwo ex [SVEM] is the deck’s main draw engine. Clairvoyant Sense, its Ability, allows the player to draw two cards after attaching a Psychic Energy card to any Pokémon on the bench. While setting up Xatu, the player can attack with the Banette ex card from Violet ex [SV1V] or the Espathra ex card from Shiny Treasure ex [SV4a] to put early-game pressure on the opponent via chip damage.

Espathra ex is a bona fide two-way threat. Defensively, its Ability of Dazzling Gaze increases the Energy card requirement of each of the opponent’s Pokémon’s attacks, stymying their offensive tactics and slowing the game’s tempo. Its substantial HP of 260, meanwhile, gives it much survivability.

Offensively, Psy Ball hits for 30 damage per Energy card attached to both Espathra ex and the opposing Pokémon—an impressive output to be sure, but that’s not the main reason why this card is such a force. Having Terastallized into the Bug-type, Espathra ex hits Charizard ex for double damage. Combined with the additional Energy card which the opponent may have already attached due to Dazzling Gaze’s effect, Espathra ex is one of the very few Pokémon that can even one-shot Charizard ex under the right circumstances.

The total cost of all the cards in an Espathra ex/Xatu deck is 4,660 JPY (~US$30).

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