My Celebi That Sparkles

Pokemon

4x Celebi (XY promo 93): This was the starting point of the entire deck idea. As soon as I saw scans of this promo, I was determined to get the full play-set and build a deck as annoying as possible. Yes, the damage output is minuscule, but compounding the spread damage with its Ancient Trait and ability, it ended up pairing amazingly with the other selections of this deck, as well as decently with other choices I had made prior to this final build that I took to a local City Championships event.

So what are these attributes that made the card? First, the Ancient Trait, Theta Stop, says "Prevent all effects of your opponent's Pokemon's Abilities done to this Pokemon." I did ask a head judge about some specific rulings. After all, the obvious ability-blocking includes Golbat/Crobat drops and Malamar-EX's sleep-inducing ability. However, due to the wording of Pyroar's Intimidating Mane, which applies to itself defensively, Celebi cannot place damage counters on it. Theta Stop does, however, block things like Wobbuffet and Garbodor, since their abilities apply to other Pokemon instead of themselves. This carries us to our next point.

The Ability, Leap Through Time, is an ultimate slap in the face. Every time, Celebi gets Knocked out, it's a 50-50 shot that it's worth a prize card, and the same 50-50 shot that it ends up discarded. Thanks to Theta Stop, Wobbuffet can't stop this flip from happening. And due to the wording, it doesn't matter how Celebi gets knocked out, be it by poison, confusion, burn, or effect of attack. Usually things like this are worded "when knocked out by damage from an attack" or something similar, but Celebi's is simply "When Knocked Out." This ability potentially forces an opponent into a game that takes more than six KO's to win, which can really wear a deck thin, especially when pressure from your spread damage, trainers and support Pokemon are making it that much more difficult.

The attack is cheap and simple. One single grass energy, place a damage counter on each opposing Pokemon. I had originally planned to center my knockouts on this attack, but in testing it proved quickly inefficient, and most games ended with an opponent decking out before I picked up more than two prize cards. It did however put pressure on the game, making sure players thought twice about low-Hit Point cannon fodder.

3x Bunnelby (XY Primal Clash 121): This one has been around for a while, so it's nothing too surprising. When I realized how quickly I could force opponents to dig through their deck, Bunnelby was the next logical step. With Omega Barrage letting it attack twice, shrinking a deck became a joint effort between me and whoever is across the table. At the same time, if I felt the need for more hammers, VS Seekers or Trainers' Mail, I could put them back into my deck. Normally, I don't try to make my draws less consistent like this, but with the disruptive nature this deck took on it became necessary at times. The best time for Bunnelby, however, was at that last moment of the game when the opponent was down to the last few cards in their deck. 

2x Jirachi (XY promo 67): Another promo with astounding capability. With the abundance of special energy thrown all over the current game, getting that extra turn of invulnerability is tricky to work against. Sure, you can Escape Rope or Lysandre away from dealing with Jirachi. Sure, a M Mewtwo EX card and Tyrantrum EX tear through it. Those take resources to set up, though. And after a game full of trainers like what you'll see below, those resources are hard to manage against a deck like this. The only major drawback to this card is that you pretty much only get one turn of invulnerability with it before an opponent stops dropping their special energy. Heck, one player even dumped his own Double Colorless energy with Ultra Ball after seeing this jolly little wish maker on my bench.

1x Dedenne (XY Furious Fists 34): Do I really need a reason? Dedenne is just adorable. With the ability to either pull Pokemon from my deck or wreck Lugia and Yveltal on weakness to apply more pressure in the game, it's a nice way to wrap up the Pokemon line.

Energy

6x Grass Energy: Every attack this deck uses takes a single energy, and only Celebi needs a certain type. So why bother with anything else? I originally used five energy, but had occasional trouble drawing into them. A sixth energy, while still keeping enough recycling on hand to ensure it's there when needed, helped tremendously on being able to attack, especially when the unthinkable happens and four of these precious resources get prized.

Supporter

1x Ace Trainer: Originally I thought this deck would just slowly diminish health until it picked up multiple prizes back to back, but testing made me realize that this deck, like straight-bunnelby or Wailord, has its real strength in the deck-out-game. While it's possible to pick up prizes, the process to do so takes so long that I inevitably fall behind in the prize trade, so Ace Trainer gives me an easy shuffle-draw for six cards.

1x Brigette: The entire deck runs on Basic Pokemon, and that one single Brigette helps bring them out in swarms. Whatever a situation calls for, this card has it covered. A one-of sounds like it should be inconsistent, but somehow I managed to have it when I needed it while not cluttering the deck full of unnecessary search.

1x Judge: A well-timed Judge could either cripple a strong hand, especially against opponents who don't have a good poker-face. Alternatively, it could cause an opponent to draw more cards from a small hand, helping you run their deck just a little bit faster.

1x Lysandre: This should not even need explanation. Pulling up a Pokemon that can't attack or retreat is critical, especially in a deck that tries to play the long game like this.

3x Professor Birch's Observations: Discarding resources is something I wanted to avoid as much as possible, so I opted for more Birch than Sycamore in this deck, and with all the extra search-power the rest of the trainers offer this deck I thought I could manage pretty well with less draw-support than normal decks. Sure enough, I managed pretty well even with such limited draw.

2x Professor Sycamore: Again, a simple standard of any deck. Although I disagree with much of popular opinion that this card is an automatic four-of in every deck. My personal approach is to take every deck by its own design, and decide whether that deck really needs four of anything. That's why I ran three Bunnelby, and it's why I ran two Sycamore. Discarding hands with this isn't always preferable, more often opting for the shuffle-draw of Ace Trainer, Judge and Birch. That said, it's critical to know when you have a hand full of cards that are no good for a certain match up, like Enhanced Hammers against a Sceptile deck.

4x Team Flare Grunt: Yes, I was just writing about how sometimes, four-of cards aren't as necessary as people say they are. However, four Team Flare Grunts really make this deck brutal. Not only does it mean most opponents are flipping coins for a good portion of their knock-outs, it also means that there are entire turns in a row when they can't even attack, making Bunnelby runs a safer play. At the same time, most players run on a sort of minimalist-energy run to make room for all of a deck's other needs, and those that need special energy to operate in the first place are even worse off. The Dragon, Seismitoad, Night March and Vespaquen decks come to mind. Without special energy, most of these players are left unable to keep getting KO's, and when they had to flip coins for the few they did get in the first place it's not something people want to push against.

2x Teammates: Normally a one-of in non-EX decks for me, I just asked myself how many Pokemon my opponent was knocking out on average per game. A full blown EX deck loses a game after three KO's, giving Teammates two opportunities for use. Not too helpful. Non-EX decks like Night March, Wobbuffet/Bats or Noivern deck gets five possible chances to use it. Not bad, but still needs to be planned for. This deck, however, relies on getting knocked out over 6 times, since a no-prize Celebi flip still counts as a Knock Out, as does Robo Substitute.

1x Xerosic: Just to top off the disruption, a single Xerosic. Getting rid of a special energy, even when item-locked via Vileplume, Trevenant or Seismitoad, can be just as crippling as everything else this deck does.

Item

1x Battle Compressor: A one-of is pretty standard in most of my decks these days. Whether it's an early-game Supporter search for VS Seeker or a late-game cleanup to remove unecessary cards from the deck, it's almost universally helpful.

4x Crushing Hammer: Naturally, knocking off energy is the bread-and-butter of this type of deck. The less your opponent can do to win, the better.Even with the coin flip, I still think it's worth it.

1x Energy Retrieval: Sometimes you will get KO'd and lose energy. Sometimes an opponent techs a Flare Grunt or two. Sometimes two, or four, energy are prized. It's at these moments you need to recover the ones you lose.

2x Enhanced Hammer: We've talked enough about how necessary energy disruption is, but I could not see the purpose of using more Enhanced Hammer cards. With as many other ways there are to deal with special energy in this deck, I sometimes found myself using other means even when I was holding one in hand. None of that downplays its usefulness, however. It is still one of the most valuable counters to decks like Giratina, or the fighting decks and their strong energy.

2x Escape Rope: Sometimes you don't want to discard a Robo Sub, and more often than not you don't want your opponent to keep their active Pokemon where it is. So yes, I decided on Escape Rope over Switch this time.

3x Level Ball: A full line up of 60-70 HP Pokemon makes this the perfect search card, especially to pull back a Celebi that just got shuffled back in with its Leap Through Time ability.

3x Robo Substitute: More things to get knocked out, more things that don't give up prize cards, and another way to drag out the game just a little longer to run down that deck.

1x Startling Megaphone: It doesn't take long for a player to feel safe setting tools into place, especially with the return of Float Stone and even more tools coming January to flip this game on its head. A single Megaphone can send an opponent's plans back a few turns, which for disruptive decks is one of the most important factors to consider. Heck, even in normal decks I still subscribe to the School of Startling Megaphone. Everybody plays tool cards, making this a devastating blow to anybody.

1x Super Rod: I opted for the flexibility of the newly reprinted Super Rod over the abundant recovery of Sacred Ash or Energy Recycler. And when you really need some deck-recovery, you can get it back with a Bunnelby.

3x Trainers' Mail: Another staple, of which I'm almost always using three. Digging a few cards down to get that trainer card is critical, and most decks use around 35 total, giving roughly 32 searchable cards under Trainers' Mail. This deck, however, boasts a hefty 44 trainers. Yeah, you're going to hit something useful about 99% of the time.

3x VS Seeker: If you're running a Pokemon deck and you're not using this card, you're probably not winning tournaments.

Stadium

2x Faded Town: In the first run of this deck, Ariados was used to set up poison damage, along with the spread and this card I thought I'd stand a chance against heavy HP Mega Evolutions. However, the KO's proved to be a nearly futile effort, so Ariados came out for more of the Bunnelby and Jirachi presence. If anything in this deck were to change for another performance, this would be one of the first things to change, but not into more copies of the other stadium. I'd much prefer to have two different stadiums for this kind of deck, since each one fits different situations.

2x Parallel City: This stadium turned out far more useful. More often than not, it will cripple an opponent's bench, since Celebi's attack does not get reduced by the other side of the stadium. Some decks, on the other hand, required a different approach. Limiting my own bench wasn't such a bad thing. If I had a backup Celebi and one other Pokemon, I could hold Level Balls or other basics until I had more space without difficulty.

Starting Concept and Deck Progression

This whole deck started with the Celebi. As soon as it was revealed, I wanted it. Pairing it with Ariados, I tried building it with the energy disruption to keep opponents disabled while I slowly picked off their Pokemon, but it soon became apparent that the process was far too slow to handle EX Pokemon. So instead I abandoned the active-KO process. Naturally, I still do push damage forward to secure any small KO's I can manage, but the deck-destruction game was much more effective. It was with these choices that Ace Trainer and two Teammates made their way into the deck. As for the stadium, I had not considered before the City Champs event what alternate to use instead of the faded town, but with writing this I found that Mountain Ring or Team Aqua's Secret Base might be infinitely more useful. Mountain Ring prevents damage dealt to benched Pokemon, but Celebi's attack is ruled as "effect of attack," not "damage from an attack." And the Secret Base would make it that much more difficult to retreat out of an unfavorable Lysandre or Escape Rope.

All in all, the deck has its weaknesses like any other. Opponents who use an abundance of basic energy and don't spread their bench too thin on the energy will do well against it. However, players who lose their cool, who drop Sycamore, Battle Compressor and Acro Bike onto the table without a second thought, they will run their own resources dry before getting even half of their prize cards most of the time. Those were the main differences between wins and losses for me. Those who beat me had skillful use of Hex Maniac and Silent Lab, and one of them even went so far as to attach energy to a single Active Pokemon every single turn, staying ahead of Flare Grunts and Hammers as he made the knock outs.

So what do you all think? Leave a comment, let me know if you like this insanity or if you think I'm a horrible human being for running such an atrocity. I took a 4-3 record at Cities and got to play some fun games with many good players, using this deck.