ADP Zacian is Amazing!

What’s poppin’ PTCGO Store readers? I’m excited to share this article with you because I am going crazy over Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX (Cosmic Eclipse) / Zacian V (Sword and Shield) lately! I recently took this deck to the Tryhard Monday PTCGO event on the Play Limitless website, and I won the whole thing! I’ve been putting in some serious testing with this deck for weeks now, and I can share all of my important findings with you! The best part, you can pick up a lot of the pieces for this deck here on the site without even having to trade for them! As a special bonus, you can use code zlesage5 to save 5% on your next order of PTCGO codes. Here are the products I recommend picking up to jump start this deck:

After acquiring some of those, you can quickly assemble this deck to jump into playing this deck almost immediately. Let’s look into the deck!

Here is the ADP Zacian deck that I used to win the Tryhard Pokémon TCG Online event, and it is one of my top choices in our Battle Stylesmetagame. This list is heavily inspired by my teammate Gabriel Smart (@GabrielSmartTCG), so a huge shoutout goes to him for working so hard on this deck.

1 Crobat V SHF 44

2 Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX CEC 221

1 Eldegoss V CPA 5

3 Dedenne-GX UNB 195

1 Aegislash V VIV 126

1 Mawile-GX UNM 141

4 Zacian V PR-SW 18

4 Escape Rope BST 125

4 Cherish Ball UNM 191

4 Metal Saucer SSH 170

1 Rusted Sword SHF 62

2 Energy Spinner UNB 170

2 Chaotic Swell CEC 187

4 Quick Ball SSH 179　

2 Air Balloon SSH 156　

4 Boss’s Orders SHF 58

4 Professor’s Research SHF 60

1 Great Catcher CEC 192

4 Energy Switch SSH 162

3 Water Energy SWSHEnergy 3

8 Metal Energy SWSHEnergy 8

The strategy of this Pokémon online deck is relatively simple, but it’s extremely effective. Your goal is to start by attaching either a Metal Energy or Water Energy to your ADP as soon as possible. You usually want to attach a Metal Energy first because Crushing Hammer (Sword and Shield) is popular, and if they get Heads, you can always use Metal Saucer to use it again. After you’re able to build up a Water and Metal on ADP, you can use Altered Creation GX for the full effect. What’s the full effect? Doing an additional 30 damage when you attack with any of your Pokémon, and you draw an additional Prize Card for each Knock Out. If you’re able to get off Ultimate Ray, you usually win the game because you can get your Zacian powered up, which can almost OHKO all Pokémon. Whenever you are able to damage your opponent’s Pokémon, you want to try to Knock Out Pokémon that are worth two Prize Cards because Altered Creation makes them worth three Prize Cards. This allows you to win the game in as little as two attacks after using Altered Creation GX, and that’s where the true power of the deck lies. Here is a normal series of attacks:

Attach Metal Energy to ADP

Use Intrepid Sword on Zacian

Attach Water Energy to ADP

Use Altered Creation GX

Attach any Energy to ADP (if possible)

Use Ultimate Ray (is possible)

Use Boss’s Orders (if necessary) to attack into a two Prize Card Pokémon

Draw three Prizes

*If ADP was Knocked Out, use Metal Saucer to prepare Zacian V / Mawile-GX to attack.

Attack with ADP / Zacian V / Mawile-GX and use Boss’s Orders (if necessary) to attack into a two Prize Card Pokémon.

That simple plan is where the deck earns its “Boss, Boss, Game” slogan and truly transforms into one of the best decks in the format. Let’s look at some of the key cards in the deck.

These are some of the most influential cards in this deck and where they can become incredibly useful.

Mawile-GX - Some peeps have been wondering how to play this card correctly, and I’m here to answer that. While it can be used as a bonus attacker if your opponent has a large Bench size, we are more or less using this card for its Ability. Try to find opportunities where your opponent hasn’t touched their hand (going first before they play any cards after they play a Marnie, or when they draw Prize Cards). If you see them using Quick Ball (Sword and Shield) to discard Pokémon, it likely isn��t the best time to Captivating Wink.

Eldegoss V - While the obvious use for Eldegoss V (Champions Path) is for Happy Match, you can also use Float Up against popular decks, like Mad Party (Darkness Ablaze), to get Knock-Outs. You can recycle Boss’s Orders (Shining Fates) or other Supporters if needed too.

Aegislash V - This card might not seem to have a purpose, but it allows you to go through popular wall Pokémon like Decidueye (Darkness Ablaze) or Altaria (Champions Path). It can also be strong against Mad Party, so keep that in mind.

Energy Switch - If you miss an Energy on your ADP or your opponent gets off a Crushing Hammer, you can use Metal Saucer to power up a Metal Pokémon and use Energy Switch to power up ADP. You can also switch it up mid-game and take Energy off ADP to attack with Zacian out of nowhere. It’s truly a universal card in this deck.

Chaotic Swell - With Power Plant (Unbroken Bonds) and Giant Hearth (Unified Minds) seeing a bunch of plays, Chaotic Swell (Cosmic Eclipse) is the general go-to answer. It isn’t the most exciting Stadium, but it stops the ones that help your opponent out!

And that’s all I have to write on the deck for now, and I hope to revisit it again in the future. ADP Zacian has been one of the best Pokémon Online decks since the release of Cosmic Eclipse, and it looks to be on a hot streak ever since then. If you’re looking to pick up cards for this deck or anything else in the game, use promo code zlesage5 here at PTCGO Store to save 5% on your next order of PTCGO codes. I’m going to continuously work on discovering the newest archetypes in this set and let you know which ones have a chance in our metagame.