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Many decks in thePokemon TCGfocus on utilizing powerful two-Prize Pokemon, such as Chien-Pao ex and Dragapult ex. While these Pokemon are useful because of their high HPs and ability to do large amounts of damage, they are not the only options available.
The Festival Lead deck is an entirely single-Prize deck designed to swiftly navigate powerful ex and V Pokemon. It focuses on the Festival Lead Ability, supported by Boom Boom Grove and the Festival Grounds Stadium. Discover how to build the Festival Lead deck and best play it, as well as common counters that may pose difficult matchups.
The Festival Lead deckrelies on a specific synergy between several different cards. This deck list is designed to help accommodate that synergy while also providing various options for gusting, pivoting, and drawing.
Grookey (x3)
Iono (x3)
Kieran (x1)
Cyllene (x1)
Switch (x1)
Energy Cards
Basic Grass Energy (x6)
Although there are many cards in the Festival Lead deck,three in particular make up the framework of this archetype. This includes Thwackey, Dipplin, and Festival Grounds.
Where other cards may be substituted to help tailor your approach, these three cards are essential for the Festival Lead deck to be what it is.
Thwackey
Thwackey is the maindraw enginein the Festival Lead deck. So long as you have a Pokemon with the Festival Lead Ability in your Active Spot, Thawckeyallows you tosearch your deck for any cardand place it into your hand.
Omnisearch is a rare ability. It is seen in the likes of Pokemon such as Pidgeot ex, which can search for any card once per turn, and Arceus VSTAR, whose Ability allows it to search for any two cards once per game.
As a result,being able to utilize Thwackey each turn is vital. It is also easily accomplished since Dipplin is the main attacker in this deck.
Dipplin
There are three Pokemon released in the Twilight Masquerade expansion that share the Festival Lead Ability that synergizes with Thwackey’s Boom Boom Grove Ability. This unique Ability allows Pokemon that have it touse an attack twice.
This deck utilizesDipplinbecauseit can deallarge amounts of damagecompared to the other Pokemon sharing this Ability.
Goldeen only does ten damage, with the effect of flipping a coin to discard Energy from the Active Pokemon. Swirlix only places two damage counters on one of your opponent’s Pokemon.
Festival Lead Dipplin does20 damage for each of your Benched Pokemon. This allows it to deal up to 100 damage with a full Bench. For Pokemon with a Weakness for Grass, like Charizard ex and Roaring Moon ex, this is doubled.
As a result, even without activating Festival Lead,Dipplin can deal 100 damage each turnas a single-Prize Stage One Pokemon. Early in the game, especially by your second turn when you are able to evolve into Dipplin, this is often able to secure an Early Knock Out.
In many cases at the beginning of the game, your opponent will need to promote another low HP Pokemon into the Active Spot. This allows you another opportunity tosecure another Knock Out, giving you ahigh potential for taking two Prize Cardson your second turn.
Festival Grounds
Festival Grounds is essentialfor this deck to work. In order for Dipplin to use Festival Lead,Festival Grounds must be in play.
Aside from being a key component in Dipplin using its Ability, Festival Grounds is an overallneutral Stadiumto keep in play. Because this deck doesn’t focus on any type of Special Conditions,playingFestival Grounds is not counterintuitiveto your goal.
Festival Grounds can actually be a helpful counter for some decks that do focus on Special Conditions. This includes those such as theKlawf Hisuian Electrode deck.
Rabsca
Although Rabsca is not as essential as Thwackey, Dipplin, and Festival Grounds, it is still a helpful addition to the Festival Lead deck. Because the Pokemon used in this deck all sport rather low HPs,it is important to protect them whenever possible. This is especially true for those on the Bench.
Rabsca protects your Benched Pokemonfrom attacks as well as the effects of those attacks. Typically, decks play Manaphy, who protects against damage on the Bench, and Jirachi, who protects against the effects of Basic Pokemon’s attacks.
However, Rabscaprotects against all attacks and effectsin a single Pokemon, saving you Bench space. Although it is a Stage One Pokemon, you won’t need to dedicate two spots on the Bench to it. This allows you to have more Pokemon in play at once.
The Festival Lead deck is a fairlybeginner-friendly deck, focused on a simple, straightforward strategy.The main goal of the deck is toattack with Dipplin, utilizing the Festival Lead whenever possible to deal large amounts of damage each turn.
Because many of the Pokemon in this deck are Stage One Pokemon, it is oftenbest to go first.This will allow you to safely evolve into Dipplin by your second turn. On your first turn, you’ll want to make sure that you havetwo Applins established in play, in case one is Knocked Out on your opponent’s turn.
In the ideal game, you’ll be able to secure a Knock Out on your second turn. This involves a variety of deck searches and drawing, however, asyou’ll need several evolved Pokemonin play.
Dipplin is the main attackerin the Festival Lead deck, with other Pokemon acting as supports to help keep Dipplin able to attack.
As mentioned previously above,Festival Grounds is essentialto the functionality of the Festival Lead deck. If you do not have Festival Grounds in play, you will not be able to use Dipplin’s Ability. Although you can maneuver around this and find other solutions, it does make your game plan more difficult.
As a result, cards that caneasily remove Festival Groundsfrom play, orprevent Stadiums from being playedat all, pose the largest threats for the Festival Lead deck.
One example of this is Noivern ex. Although this Pokemon doesn’t have the ability to discard a Stadium from play, it can prevent them from ever entering play. This is because this Pokemon’s attack, Dominating Echo, prevents you from playing any Special Energies or Stadiums in the next turn.
This attack also does 140 damage. This will Knock Out every Pokemon played in the Festival Lead deck.
There are also many Pokemon who have attacks that can discard a Stadium in play. This is applied as an effect, but Rabsca does not block it, since the effect isn’t applied to your Bench. Some examples ofPokemon with attacks that can discard Stadiumsinclude:
