While this deck may mention Zacian ex, realistically Zacian ex is something of a situational attacker in this deck. You can use it to gain a pretty hefty advantage over your opponent however, as Zacian is hitting for 120 damage with the right buffs in place, while doing an additional 30 damage to the bench.
While 30 damage to the bench may not sound like a ton, combine this with the right amount of damage movement from Munkidori and you’d be surprised how far that can go.
You might notice that this deck doesn’t actually run any steel energy. You won’t be using Zacian’s bigger attack – instead it’s just here as a pinch hitter to take multiple knockouts in a turn.
The second attacker worth highlighting is Hop’s Cramorant. You might remember the iconic Cramorant of the Sword and Shield era of Pokemon TCG history. That Cramorant spat innocently throught the format to achieve great renown across the span of several years. While it’s dropped out of the format as of late and will rotate out, Cramorant fills a similar void. Its Whimsical Spit affords a strategic advantage under the right circumstances, and can easily be buffed to hit over 200 damage thanks to how many damage modifiers are available to this deck.
Additionally, this attack can be used without the need for any energy attached as long as you have it equipped with Hop’s Choice Band.
Of course, this deck also fields the Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex, but I won’t go into that card in too much detail as it is something of a staple in the Pokemon TCG, capable of swinging for an insane amount of damage late game with virtually no energy requirement
While we’ve gone over the damage buffing effects this deck benefits from, you can’t really get how this deck works without also understanding Munkidori. Since it came out in Twilight Masquerade, Munkidori has been used in many and often quite distinct decks ranging from Gardevoir ex to Gouging Fire ex. It’s a card that is especially useful in decks with Pokemon that damage themselves through abilities or – in the case of Hop’s Snorlax – through attacks.
You’ll be using Adrena-Brain primarily in combination with Snorlax’s Dynamic Press. Snorlax does 80 damage to itself, you move thirty of that damage to another Pokemon. Now, suddenly your Zacian ex is hitting for 60 damage effectively in a turn, making it much easier to clear out low level HP Pokemon before they evolve.
Because all of your Pokemon attack with only colorless energy, you might as well run darkness energy as your main energy type since you’ll need it to power up Munkidori’s ability. Needing to attach an energy in this way shouldn’t hurt you much as oftentimes you’ll be attacking for no energy cost at all thanks to Hop’s Choice Band.
Realistically, Hop’s Zacian ex should fair well against most of the decks in the meta. It hits hard enough while enabling a favorable prize trade via single prize attackers to contend with basic Pokemon ex attackers, while also doing enough spread damage to shut down Stage 2 decks.
It won’t fair overly well against decks like Gardevoir ex who can move the damage you place on Pokemon back onto you via their own Munkidori. Meanwhile, it should do alright against stage 2 decks like Dragapult ex without having any super low HP Pokemon to pick off while trading favorably into those attackers.
