One of the greatest decks in the history of Pokémon TCG tournament play was the Zoroark GX deck. Throughout the duration of its tournament legality, the deck won tournament after tournament, including the 2018 Pokémon TCG World Championships in the hands of German player Robin Schulz, and cemented itself as far and away the Best Deck in Format (BDIF).

With the recent release of Battle Partners [SV9], the N’s Zoroark ex deck has established itself as a spiritual successor of sorts to that iconic deck. While its results thus far haven’t exactly set the metagame alight, there’s speculation that an opportunity for this deck to emerge as a bona fide powerhouse does exist.

Strategy

This deck’s strategy is built around the N’s Zoroark ex card from Battle Partners [SV9]. Trade, its Ability that’s been brought back after previously having been on the Zoroark GX card from Shining Legends [SM3+] which was the centerpiece of the Zoroark GX deck, allows the player to first discard a card before drawing two more from the deck and thus serves as a consistent draw engine. For attacking purposes, N’s Zoroark ex also has the Night Joker attack. For two Dark Energy cards, N’s Zoroark ex will use the attack of any of the N’s Pokémon that the player has on the Bench.

The deck’s two main supporting Pokémon are two other cards from Battle Partners [SV9]: N’s Darmanitan and N’s Reshiram. Both cards have a main attack and a situational attack for N’s Zoroark ex to use. N’s Darmanitan’s primary attack is Flamebody Cannon which inflicts 90 damage on an opposing Benched Pokémon as well as the opposing Active Pokémon before the player discards all attached Energy cards.

If the opponent has many Basic Energy cards in the discard pile, Back Draft can be used. Similarly, N’s Reshiram has the Virtuous Flame attack for general damage-dealing as well as Powerful Rage if N’s Zoroark ex has sustained much damage.

N’s Darmanitan can also be used as an attacker with the assistance of the Reversal Energy card from Raging Surf [SV3a]. If the player has more Prize cards remaining than the opponent does, Reversal Energy can be attached to N’s Darmanitan to enable it to use Flamebody Cannon itself.

Price

The cumulative cost of every card in the N’s Zoroark ex deck is 11,180 JPY (~US$78).

In other TCG-related news, check out the Ting-Lu ex card from Clay Burst [SV2D]. Alternatively, you can also head over to the SNKRDUNK App via the banner below and find the top trending and latest single cards and boxes.

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