As promised, we are back with more Pokemon Trading Card Game content! Today, we take a look at a Vikavolt & Shedinja deck by 
Christian F.
“Hello again everyone! Today I am here to talk a bit about one of my all time favorite decks, Vikavolt/Shedinja.
This deck is a bit odd, as it was only legal for play in the Ultra Prism to Darkness Ablaze format. This effectively means that this deck was only legal for POG 2020 (Pokemon Online Global), aka, Worlds 2020.
The deck is all about messing up your opponents set up with Vikavolt-V’s “Paralyzing Bolt” attack, that prohibits your opponent from playing Item Cards during their next turn (This effect is often referred to as “Item lock”). Combine this with cards like Crushing Hammer, that discards your opponent’s energy, and Marnie, that can reset your opponents hand, your opponent won’t exactly be having a good time as you spam all these effects to stop your opponent from playing the game altogether.
Most of what I have said so far is pretty standard Vikavolt stuff, however what makes this deck special is the 2-2 line of Nincida and Shedinja. For those who don’t know, Shedinja’s Ability “Vessel of Life” lets you attach Shedinja as a tool card to one of your Pokemon. The tool’s effect is that when you are knocked out, your opponent takes one less prize card. This basically means your opponent has to get 4 knockouts throughout the game, instead of 3. This is often referred to as forcing a “7 prize game”. In short, Shedinja effectively gives you an extra turn to win the game. This is often enough to completely change a match up, and is the core reason the ever hated “ADPZ” deck is so good. No matter how you do it, changing the way prize cards are taken is one of the most powerful effects in the game, and it works wonders with Vikavolt-V’s Item lock effect.
My story with this deck is kinda funny looking back, as I built it during a time where I wasn’t really playing that much and didn’t really care about the game. I remember wanting to play in POG just for the fun of it and decided that I might as well bring my meme deck, as it was the only thing I had been playing, when I was even playing at all that is.
To everyone’s surprise, I ended up dominating with the deck going 7-1 in Day 1 of the event. I had no idea what the meta was going into the event, but the more rounds I played, the more I started to understand that this deck was a lot more than just a meme. You see, the core problem with Vikavolt-V in this format was that it often couldn’t keep up with decks like Eternatus-VMAX and Centiscorh-VMAX (VMAX are evolutions of Pokemon-V cards), as their big one-shot attacks didn’t really care all that much about Item lock and therefore, would simply overpower you.
However with the added Shedinja, you can easily outlast a VMAX Pokemon, as they now have to spend more turns to win the game. Turns out that just one extra turn and a bit of disruption (Crushing Hammers, Marnie, and Item lock) can turn the whole game upside down. As you are often the faster deck, you can simply out speed them, and set up situations where they are forced to play more defensive. While I didn’t do as well in Day 2 of the event, 6-3 is still a respectable score. I think if I had tested the deck a bit more going into that event I might have been able to make a deeper run, but oh well.
I have said it before, and I will say it again, if we ever get a chance to play this format again, I highly recommend giving the deck a try, as it is not only powerful, but also extremely fun.”
#KeepHowling
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