Hi there. In this Pokemon TCG post I cover the Koraidon ex and Miraidon ex Battle Decks to be released in August 2024.
Both of these decks are Level 2. Level 1 battle decks are very basic and not very competitive but are the cheapest at around 12 CAD usually. Level 2 decks are slightly more competitive with a price around 20 to 22 CAD at local card stores. Level 3 decks are almost ready to be played competitively out of the box and are usually priced at 30 to 32 CAD.
Topics
- Miraidon ex Battle Deck
- Koraidon ex Battle Deck
- Buy Or No Buy?
Miraidon ex Battle Deck
This Miraidon ex Battle deck is focused on the Future archetype. The main attacker is Miraidon ex which is a 220 HP big Basic of the Dragon & Future type. Iron Valiant ex is another attacker that is a big Basic Pokemon of the Psychic type and Future type. There are other smaller attackers like Miraidon from Temporal Forces, Iron Hands, Iron Valiant and Iron Jugulis.
Decklist
Pokemon (14)
- 2 Miraidon ex
- 1 Iron Valiant ex
- 4 Miraidon
- 3 Iron Hands
- 2 Iron Valiant
- 2 Iron Jugulis
Trainer Cards (32)
- 4 Professor's Research (Turo)
- 4 Youngster
- 2 Boss's Orders (Ghetsis)
- 2 Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking
- 2 Professor Turo's Scenario
- 2 Rika
- 4 Switch
- 3 Techno Radar
- 2 Energy Retrieval
- 2 Nest Ball
- 1 Super Rod
- 4 Future Booster Energy Capsule
Energy (14)
- 8 Basic Lightning Energy
- 6 Basic Psychic Energy
On the box's decklist it states Iron Valiant. There are two single prize Iron Valiants. Is it this one?
or this one?
Either way these two Iron Valiant cards are not every good as the energy cost is too high to do big damage.
Main Gameplay Idea
If you can you want to start your first turn going second. When you go first in the first turn you cannot play a supporter or attack. This Future deck is reliant on the 110 HP Miraidon to attack in order to accelerate energy to your attackers such as Miraidon ex and Iron Valiant.
Iron Valiant ex combos well with Switch. When Iron Valiant ex moves from the Bench to the active spot you may place 2 damage counters on 1 of the opponent's Pokemon. Miraidon ex's first attack does 60 damage as its base damage but does 160 damage if the opponent's Active Pokemon already has damage counters on it.
Techno Radar is there to help setup multiple Future Pokemon to your hand and to Bench. Four copies of Future Booster Energy Capsule are good for extra attack plus free retreat cost. Two copies of Boss's Orders in this product is standard and popular in many competitive decks. This is good to target certain Pokemon.
The energy cards are either Lightning or Psychic as you have Lightning attackers, Psychic attackers and Miraidon attackers which require both types for their attacks (except Peak Acceleration attack)
Good Cards & What To Upgrade
Good Cards
- Four copies of Future Booster Energy Capsule is a must in a Future deck.
- Miraidon with Peak Acceleration attack is key to boosting energies to attackers. Four is too much, you can get away with two or three.
- Techno Radar is super helpful with searching for Future Pokemon. Find a fourth one if you can.
- One Super Rod is helpful in general.
- Four copies of Professor's Research is helpful in this product.
- Two copies of Boss's Orders is nice.
- Four copies of Switch is nice.
- Two Nest Balls are good.
What To Upgrade
- Four copies of Youngster is not good. You could replace them with something like 3 Ionos and 1 Arven.
- The 2 Rikas could be replaced by a fourth copy of Techno Radar and one Reboot Pod (ACE SPEC)
- The four Switch cards can be upgraded to 4 copies of Switch Cart (All Pokemon are Basic)
- Remove two Miraidons, all three Iron Hands, the two Iron Jugulis and the two Iron Valiant with something like Four Iron Crown ex, 1 Iron Hands ex, one Iron Bundle, one Mew ex, one Iron Leaves ex and one more Iron Valiant ex.
- Remove two Lightning Energy and get two Grass Energy.
These upgrades would make the deck less sucky. Would it be competitive? Kind of. You would have to make it into a Iron Crown + Iron Hands ex deck or a Future deck with attackers that counter a lot of popular Pokemon.
Koraidon ex Battle Deck
The level 2 Koraidon ex Battle Deck features the Ancient Dragon Koraidon. All of the Pokemon in this deck are Ancient which go well with Professor Sada's Vitality for drawing cards and energy acceleration. Four copies of Ancient Booster Capsule boost 60 HP to an Ancient Pokemon. The other Ancient Pokemon like Koraidon, Sandy Shocks ex and Sandy Shocks are backup attackers.
Decklist
Pokemon (14)
- 2 Koraidon ex
- 1 Sandy Shocks ex
- 4 Koraidon
- 3 Great Tusk
- 4 Sandy Shocks
Trainer Cards (32)
- 3 Professor's Research (Sada)
- 3 Youngster
- 3 Professor Sada's Vitality
- 2 Explorer's Guidance
- 2 Ryme
- 1 Boss's Orders (Ghetsis)
- 1 Cook
- 3 Switch
- 4 Nest Ball
- 2 Ultra Ball
- 1 Super Rod
- 4 Ancient Booster Energy Capsule
- 3 Earthen Vessel
Energy (14)
- 8 Basic Fighting Energy
- 6 Basic Fire Energy
Main Gameplay Idea
With this deck the ideal starting attacker would be Koraidon (the single prize non-ex). Koraidon's first attack gets stronger if there are more Ancient Pokemon in play. Professor Sada's Vitality is important to accelerate energy to Ancient Pokemon and for drawing cards. Koraidon ex is the main big attacker for knocking out the opponent's big attackers.
Good Cards & What To Upgrade
This decks does have a lot of playable cards like Professor's Research, Professor Sada's Vitality, Earthen Vessel, Nest Ball, Ultra Ball, Boss's Orders and Super Rod.
Earthen Vessel is a very useful card in this deck and in pretty much every deck. In my area this card is hard to find and the price has risen from 2 CAD to 5 CAD at one of the main Toronto card stores.
There are some cards in this decks that are either not good or don't fit in this deck. These are:
- Great Tusk
- Cook (Not helpful card)
- Youngster
- Ryme
Remove the one copy of Cook and add a fourth copy of Professor Sada's Vitality. Replace the 3 copies of Youngster with one copy of Awakening Drum and two copies of Explorer's Guidance. The two copies of Ryme to be replaced by two more copies of Ultra Ball.
With the attackers I am thinking minus 2 Great Tusk and add 2 Roaring Moon. Remove the 3 Sandy Shocks for 2 Roaring Moon and one Flutter Mane. Another approach would be rehaul the deck and copy this deck below. It is a single prize Ancient Box deck.
Buy Or No Buy?
Both of these decks are not awful but they are not great. For the future Miraidon ex deck it would be a no. The Ancient Koraidon ex is actually a good level 2 deck to start with. The Ancient deck has a lot of playable staple cards that can be used in other decks like Professor's Research, Professor Sada's Vitality, Earthen Vessel, Super Rod, Nest Ball and Ultra Ball.
One can argue that you could buy this Koraidon ex deck if you want to get Earthen Vessels only. In my area one copy of Earthen Vessel is 5 CAD so three copies would be worth 15 CAD. A level 2 deck usually has a retail price of 20 or 22 CAD. The three Earthen vessels plus the other cards in this deck are worth it.