Shaymin is amazing here.
My initial impression on Tapu Koko was: disappointment. With 130 HP, Tapu Koko has 2 attacks, Plasma Hurricane deals 20 damage while also ramping one energy onto itself. This allows you to follow up his 3 energy attack, Mach Bolt which will deal 90 damage. As long as Tapu Koko is your lead, he represents a clear upgrade over Genetic Apex Pikachu. Despite being an improvement, Tapu Koko shares most of Pikachu 's problems. As the card pool expanded, 90 damage can now often fall short at 2 hit KOing larger EX threats backed up by healing. The biggest issue is the HP stat though, 130 for an EX pokemon isn’t what it used to be. Like Pikachu, Tapu Koko falls prey to very relevant high end attacks in the meta.
You want to be leading off with Tapu Koko, but doing so you have to accept he will be going down, sometimes rather quickly. This is why the go to combination we’ve seen is with Shining Revelry’s Pikachu EX and Electrical Cord. With Electrical Cord equipped, once Tapu Koko goes down you transfer its energy onto 2 targets, thus enabling Pikachu’s thunderbolt with ease. The reason why this combination has struggled in the meta is due to its over reliance on pivoting. The problem isn’t just leading off with a Pikachu EX, it’s also being able to retreat him after he attacks, since he loses all energy. That pesky retreat cost of one our cards have slows us down too much to be able to navigate around our opponents offense while setting up our own. And that’s where Shaymin comes in. Shout out to Timidfencer for this exceptional cook.
Today’s deck combines powerful electric attackers who can pivot around effortlessly thanks to Shaymin. In a build that runs a total of 8 basics. 8 basic pokemon in a pokemon pocket deck seems crazy, but for this particular strategy… oh boy is it worth it. Our ideal lead is Tapu Koko, we plasma hurricane onto consecutive Mach Bolts as we equip him with an Electrical Cord. If our opponent applies pressure with a powerful EX pokemon, we wall it with Oricorio. Our objective is to buy time to build up Pikachu EX in the back as a direct counter to their strongest attacker. Shaymin is absolutely vital here, as we can correct our bad openers to bring in Tapu Koko to the front, and also pivot our lineup for free to sponge hits as we prepare our counter attack without losing momentum. Finding Tapu Koko, Pikachu and Shaymin is essential to unlock our decks' true potential. Which is why oftentimes you want to hold onto your poke ball, to enhance your chances of drawing more basics before you thin the deck out of them.
This decks starts off slow, but when your lineup is online, the magic begins. Score a point early with Tapu Koko and then finish them off with Pikachu’s thunderbolt.
