Turning a Precon Into a Top Performer

Hello Trainers!

So, I hear you’re interested in building your first competitive standard Pokémon deck! Well, you’ve come to the right place! I’m Tommy from Owl Central Games and I’ll be walking you through how you can pick-up a preconstructed deck and turn it into a top tournament contender! Miraidon ex, also endearingly referred to as “Mid”raidon, is currently one of the best decks in the standard format, with 1 Regional win, 1 International Championship win, and plenty of Top Cut appearances. Luckily, the barrier to entry is very low if you want to get your hands on a Miraidon ex deck since The Pokémon Company released a Miraidon ex League Battle Deck not too long ago! The league battle deck comes with the barebones to get started with playing the Miraidon archetype. The decklist is as follows:

This precon is LOADED with great supplies for someone trying to play a simple, yet powerful deck. It comes equipped with cards like the quad count of Boss’s Orders, which can be played from deck to deck, and the one of Forest Seal Stone, which has one of the most powerful effects in the game. That being said, this deck can get even more powerful. Let’s take this precon to the next level! I’ll be using Juho Kallama’s International winning list to direct the upgrades.

Making Upgrades

Two Miraidon is great, but what’s better than 2? Three, unironically. The third Miraidon increases the consistency of finding it in your initial hand and 1st draw. The opening setup of this deck on the first and second turns are crucial to its success, so that third Miraidon ex is essential. This lets you go down to 1 Nest Ball instead of 3, as Miraidon can act as a pseudo Nest Ball or Battle VIP Pass, getting basic electric Pokémon out into play. This will free up space in the deck for other good and consistency cards.

The next upgrade is to remove the Regieleki V/VMAX line. As cool as it is to do an additional 30 dmg with your basic lightning Pokémon, it’s objectively not as consistent as the Dynamotor build of Miraidon. You’ll want to find 2 Flaaffy with the Dynamotor ability, which can be found from Evolving Skies. Any Mareep should work but most players play the one from Evolving Skies due to its 1 retreat cost, though any Mareep with 1 retreat cost should do. A 2-2 line of Mareep and Dynamotor Flaaffy will add a new level of consistency to the deck, allowing you to recycle energy that has been sent to the discard pile to power up something like the next upgrade: Iron Hands ex and Mew ex.

Iron Hands ex is a new, powerful ex that released in Paradox Rift. It has the attack “Amp You Very Much” that, for the hefty cost of 1 lightning and 3 colorless, can do 120 dmg and take an additional prize card if you get a knockout with that attack. This card can put you in the lead or swing the match in your favor. Mew ex has the ability “Restart” which can add a bit of consistency when you get hit with an Iono in the late game and need to draw back up to 3 cards. We can now see the synergy the Flaaffy provides, as Flaaffy can not only accelerate to electric types like Iron Hands ex, but any of your benched Pokémon, making powering up Mew ex as simple as 2 dynamotors and an attachment for turn. Mew ex’s “Genome Hacking” can copy attacks of your opponent’s active Pokémon, swinging various matchups back in your favor.

Next, we’ll be replacing the Bibarel line. Removing the Bibarel line might seem odd at first but it’ll give you space to add powerful support Pokémon like Squawkabilly ex, Raikou V and Zapdos from the Pokémon GO expansion. Removing one of the Zeraora for a Raichu V gives you an answer to the tankier Pokémon you may encounter in your battles!

That should be all the adjustments you’ll need to make to the Pokémon. Now, you can adjust the trainers a little bit to add that extra layer of consistency and even disruption. The default League Battle deck doesn’t come with any hand disruption to slow your opponent down so let’s fix that. There are 4 Arven in the deck. Remove 3 of them for 3 Iono, instead. Iono will help you out of a bricked hand and even disrupt your opponent in the late game.

The 4 count of Research can stay now that the Bibarel line is removed. That along with Iono, Raikou V and Mew ex will be your only source of drawing cards so 4 copies of Professor’s Research will be crucial to the deck’s consistency. Four Boss’s Orders seems to be a bit too much so you can remove one of those for a Lost Vacuum. Lost Vacuum is a card that came out in Lost Origin and acts as a great disruption card that can remove a pesky stadium that’s slowing you down or an item making your opponent’s Pokémon a nuisance to KO.

The Switches are great if you don’t have any switching options at your ready but at Owl Central Games, you might be able to find Switch Cart, a powerful card in this deck. It allows you to switch your active basic Pokémon with one of your benched Pokémon and if you do, heal 30 dmg from the Pokémon you moved to your bench. Because all of your main attackers are basic Pokémon, you get the functionality of a regular switch on top of a little bit of healing, which can be very disruptive against something like a Lost Zone Toolbox deck.

Removing the 2 Regieleki from Astral Radiance will give us the necessary space to add something like 2 escape rope as well, giving you outs to switching your Pokémon that aren’t basics, like Flaaffy. Additionally, being able to force your opponent’s active out without the use of a supporter is a very strong effect that’ll even win you games.

The next upgrades involve removing leafy camo poncho and the 2 vitality bands, as the Zapdos will give all of your basic lightning Pokémon +10 dmg aside from itself, and leafy camo poncho isn’t useful in a deck with no VStars or VMAXs. Those will become Super Rod and 2 Bravery Charms. Bravery Charm adds 50hp to your basic Pokémon, making them tankier and puts them out of range of tide turning KOs whereas the Super Rod provides some recovery for Pokémon you might have lost early in the game due to a slow start or energy you may have discarded from professor’s research, Squawkabilly ex’s ability or ultra ball.

Lastly, we’ll want to replace the beach courts that were included in the deck. Lowered retreat is great but disrupting your opponent is generally better so we’ll change those Beach Courts to 2 Path to the Peaks.

Finally, we’ll need to adjust the energy after adding more consistency trainers. We’ll need to take out 2 basic lightning energy and throw in 1 double turbo energy to make powering up the Iron Hands ex a little easier.

For more visual people, the upgrades will be as follows:

In total, there are 26 cards that can be changed to get you to the International Championship winning deck, with most of the cards being bulk cards you can find at your local LGS like Owl Central Games!

Final Version

This upgraded version is much more powerful than the base deck that comes from the League Battle Deck, not only increasing your deck’s potential, but leaving room for you to grow as a player. This deck has a high skill ceiling with a low skill floor, meaning beginners can pick it up quickly while leaving room to grow as a player and it leaves a lot of room for skill expression. A new player can take this deck to a local event and have a fun time while a highly competitive player can take it to a Regional or International Championship and make top cut with it.

I’ll leave you with the final, upgraded deck list, but that’s all from me! Enjoy your newly upgraded deck and be sure to visit Owl Central Games for any cards or accessories you might need. Also, feel free to come hang out on Thursdays with myself and the rest of the Pokémon community!