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One of the most attractive features in every gen ofPokemonis their starters. Those three Pokemon have the weight of being the banner that represents their whole generation, so, of course, they’ll get a lot of love from games and media in general. This is exactly the case with Skeledirge.
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Skeledirge received a powerful ex card, which is all about damage; Skeledirge’s objective is to end the match in the fewest turns possible. It’s a great deck with a lot of strengths, but it’s a bit inconsistent. Let’s take a look at it!
Skeledirge ex PAL (x4)
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Fire Energy (x9)
Skeledirge Ex Key Cards
Here are all of the most important cards of this deck:
Skeledirge Ex
The protagonist of this deck is none other thanSkeledirge ex.This cardhas 340 HP, which makes it one of the tankiest cards of the meta.
That’s not all, as it has two attacks. The first one isVitality Song, whichdeals 50 damageandheals 30 damage from all of your active Pokemon, both the benched and itself.
And then, Skeledirge hasBurning Voice, whichdeals 270 damage,which is more than enough to take any ex card down andenough to 2-hit KO any VMAX or VSTARof the meta. However, this attackdeals 10 less damageper each damage counter Skeledirge has attached to it.
Rare Candy
Rare Candyhas landed on the meta, and it’s here to stay, asit makes things easierfor Stage 2-based decks to get built in a matter of seconds.
Rare Candy will help youevolve Fuecoco to Skeledirgewithout having to evolve it into Crocalor. This is great because, in a very favorable situation, you canset a Skeledirge up in your first turn.
Oricorio
Oricorio and Skeledirge are an ideal match. This is because of Oricorio’s ability,Ardent Dancing.With it, once every turn, Oricorio canheal 20 damage from your Active Pokemon, but only if it has previously evolved.
This means it can heal Skeledirge on every turn.Oricorio is a must to keep Skeledirge fully healed and ready to attack.
Entei V
Sometimes, you’ll have a bad time trying to build Skeledirge because you need to find a Rare Candy. So, if you happen to haveEntei Vin your hand or in the bench, you have areliable attacker to useinstead.
Entei V has an attack namedBurning Rondo, whichdeals 20 damage plus 20 more per Pokemon in the benchof both you and your opponent. This card isideal to use against one Prize Card decks,like Lost Box, and it offers you a great way to attack from the start if you pull it out.
Also, it can help you draw a card on each turn if you have it on your Active Spot, thanks to its ability,Fleet-Footed.
Radiant Greninja And Bibarel
Even though it feels weird, these two Water-typesare heavily necessary in this deck, as it lacks drawing resources in case you don’t want to rely on Supporter cards.
First, you haveRadiant Greninja. It’s a classic in the meta because of its ability,Concealed Cards. With it, you have todiscard an Energy card, but if you do, you candraw two cards from your deck.
And then, you haveBibarel, which has theIndustrious Incisorsabilitythat lets youdraw cards until you have five in your hand.
These two are pretty useful cards that can help you set yourself up andhave some consistency while playing.Sadly, they aren’t Fire-types, so they don’t have much of a synergy with Skeledirge, but that’s not a critical problem.
Lumineon V
Lumineon Vis here for the same reason as Radiant Greninja and Bibarel; it’ll help you draw cards from your deck.
Lumineon has an ability namedLuminous Sign. With it, when you play Lumineonfrom your hand to the bench, you can take a look at your deck anddraw a Supporter Cardfrom it. Pretty useful to draw Arven, Professor Research, or Iono, depending on the situation.
As you can see, this deck doesn’t have any Water-type Energy. This means that Radiant Greninja, Lumineon V, and Bibarel arelimited to working as the engine to draw cards. They won’t attack.
Magma Basin
Magma Basinis a great Stadium card that willlet you attach a Fire Energy card from the Discard Pileto one of your benched Pokemon, but if you do, the selected Pokemonwill receive 20 damage.
The damage is not a problem, as you’ll haveOricoriothere, and you cansend Energy cards to the Discard Pile via Radiant Greninja, so this card is very useful and has a lot of sense in this deck.
Forest Seal Stone
TheForest Seal Stoneis a great card you can attach to either Lumineon V or Entei V, and it’ll use its VSTAR Power,Star Alchemy, todraw any card you want from your deck.
Choice Belt
TheChoice Beltis a great card to give that remaining bit of damage potential; every offensive card needs to be top-tier. It works like this; if you attach it to a Pokemon,it’ll deal 30 more damage, but only to Pokemon V.
It works like a charm totake anyVSTAR or VMAX down.
Iono
Ionois a great card to block the strategy from your opponent while, at the same time, having some boost by drawing cards from your deck.
With Iono, each player will have tosend their cards to the bottom of the deck.Then, each player has todraw a card from their deckfor each card remaining in the Prize Cards.
Imagine your opponent only has one card left in the Prize Card and has a big hand of cards, and then you use this one; it’ll turn the tables of the game!
Arven
Arvenhelps you a lot with the consistency of the deck; it’ll basically be the one who willdraw the Rare Candy needed to evolve Fuecoco.
With Arven, you cansearch for an Item card and a Pokemon Tool from your deckand put them in your hand.
Cheryl
In cases of emergency, use Cheryl.It’ll heal all the damage from all of your Evolution Pokemon-also known as Skeledirge- but if you do, you’ll have to discard all the Energy cards attached to it.
Again,only use her in case of emergencies, like if you are about to attack with Skeledirge, but it got severely hurt the previous turn or something like that.
Skeledirge Ex Strategy
On these kinds of decks,it’s ideal to start first; you want to set Skeledirge up as soon as possible.
This deck doesn’t require a complicated setup; you might want to have Fuecoco and Skeledirge in your hand, Oricorio, Radiant Greninja, or Bibarel in the bench, and some Rare Candy.
A couple of Fire-type Energy cards will also be useful. Sadly, there’s no way to attach more than one per turn if you don’t haveMagma Basin, but for that, you need tohave Fire Energy cards in the Discard Pile.
So, if you want to have Fire Energy cards in the Discard Pile, you’ll have to useRadiant Greninja’s Concealed Cards.After that, you are now free to use Magma Basin.
You’ll most likely use Magma Basin plus Radiant Greninja in case you need to set a second Skeledirge up.
It’s important to have this part of the strategy ready to go in case you useCheryl, as it’ll force you to discard Fire Energy cards to heal Skeledirge when it’s hurt.
Remember to useArvento get the Rare Candycards necessary, useIonoin case you are losing, andProfessor’s Researchin case you need to change the cards in your hand.
Cards likeEscape Rope and Boss' Ordersare useful in case you want tofocus on taking a certain Pokemon down. Switchis a card you’ll use in case you want to change your Active Pokemon without spending Energy cards. It’s more of an early-game card.
Skeledirge Ex Common Threats
Skeledirge Ex has two main problems;it can sometimes get stuckbecause of the lack of suitable cards to set up and get more resources, and itis weak to Water-type Decks.
It’s hard to solve the first problem as the cards selected are the best ones for Skeledirge ex; it is more of a problem with the Fire-type, asit lacks a good consistency cardthat other types like the Water-type with Irida have.
The second problem is more related to Skeledirge being weak against Water-types than Skeledirge not being able to hit Water-types.
In fact, Skeledirge can hit Water-types strongly; it can take Chien-Pao ex or Quaquaval ex with a single hit, but if it gets hit by a Water-type move,Skeledirge will faint.So,if you manage to set up and hit first, you may win.
