“Wild Freeze” - Articuno/Inteleon in Standard!

Good day, mate! With Silver Tempest now having some development within the format, we’re encountering some very interesting archetypes. Amongst all the regional championships that have been occurring lately, the results of Perth regionals are amongst the most interesting. Today, we’re going to dive into an Articuno/Inteleon deck that swept the Aussies and took 1st place!

I booted up my Pokemon TCG Live app, and loaded up some PTCGL codes. I was very excited, and it honestly didn’t take that many PTCGL codes to make the deck. If you’re looking to buy some codes, we sell them here on PTCGO Store, and I highly urge you to check out our competitive pricing and swift delivery! Let’s talk about the newest way to play Articuno!

The main strategy of this deck is to be as reactive as possible to our opponent’s strategy. The most important thing to remember with this deck is to use the Pokémon that is the most threatening and recycle it over and over with Nessa. If your opponent is playing Lugia, paralyze them over and over with Articuno. If they are playing an ability-heavy deck, consider attacking with Alolan Vulpix VSTAR. If their deck is all basics, like Regigigas, consider using Eiscue. Lastly, if the opponent is playing their own Inteleon toolbox deck, you can use Radiant Greninja to snipe their Sobbles off of the board. This deck can really do whatever you need it to, and is very consistent due to the inclusion of the Inteleon engine. Let’s hop over to the deck list and see what makes this deck tick!

4 Sobble CRE 41

3 Drizzile SSH 56

2 Inteleon SSH 58

1 Inteleon CRE 43

2 Snom SHF 29

2 Frosmoth SHF 30

2 Articuno SIT 36

1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46

1 Alolan Vulpix V SIT 33

1 Alolan Vulpix VSTAR SIT 34

1 Eiscue EVS 47

1 Manaphy BRS 41

1 Drapion V LOR 118

4 Irida ASR 147

3 Boss's Orders BRS 132

2 Nessa VIV 157

1 Raihan EVS 152

1 Marnie CPA 56　

4 Level Ball BST 129　

3 Scoop Up Net RCL 165　

2 Quick Ball FST 237

2 Evolution Incense SSH 163　

2 Capacious Bucket RCL 156

1 Battle VIP Pass FST 225

1 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146

1 Rare Candy PGO 69

2 Emergency Jelly SIT 155

1 Air Balloon SSH 156　

1 Training Court RCL 169　

6 Water Energy 3　

1 Wash Water Energy VIV 165

2 Articuno - This card is extremely impactful against Lugia VSTAR and any other deck that lacks switching cards. Articuno allows us to hit for low numbers but at the exchange of paralyzingly our opponent’s active Pokémon. We also take 50 damage, but we can mitigate that with Emergency Jelly and Scoop Up Net. Articuno trades very efficiently with VSTAR Pokémon as well as VMAXs, as long as they don’t have a way to break the paralysis. Articuno only gives up one Prize Card and we can always recover it with a Nessa.

1-1 Alolan Vulpix VSTAR - This Pokemon is an excellent wall that can block off any decks that have lots of abilities. This Pokémon tends to be a very big detriment when combined with Wash Energy, because that prevents all effects of attacks. That means that Pokémon like Sableye, Amazing Rare Yveltal, and others can’t touch this Pokémon! Alolan Vulpix makes a great addition to many decks, but especially in this one. The VSTAR attack is also nice in a pinch. This 1-1 line can solo Lost Box very easily as well as other archetypes.

1 Eiscue - This Pokémon can easily handle Regigigas decks because it blocks off Basic Pokémon from damaging it. Combined with a Wash Energy, this Pokémon is basically invincible against the likes of Basic Pokémon. An easy 1-of inclusion since our deck plays Water Energy already, and Blockade is a very strong attack.

2-2 Frosmoth - When in doubt, power it out! Frosmoth is one of the standard format’s best energy accelerators that we know of. It can attach infinite amounts of Water Energy as long as it’s in play - low and behold, we have a ton of important Pokémon to power up. Amongst them are Alolan Vulpix VSTAR, Radiant Greninja, Articuno, and Eiscue! We can basically get an attacker ready to go whenever we like to fit in any situation. Plus, have you seen Snom? This Pokémon is too cute to not play!

4 Sobble – Usually I like to start with writing about the final Evolution, but in this Pokemon line we’re going to start at the Basic. Sobble’s first attack is extremely efficient at setting up your side of the field consistently. Being able to search out all of the other Sobble in your deck, it prepares you to later evolve them into Drizzile and Inteleon which can help you to setup further attackers/board states and just progress the game in your favour in general. Sobble is searchable via Level Ball which is a huge part of why we play so many copies. If you go 2nd, this Pokémon makes an amazing starter!

3 Drizzile – It isn’t often that we play a Stage 2 without a focus on Rare Candy, however in this case we really want to evolve our Pokémon up manually because we get access to Drizzile’s amazing ability. Being able to search for any one Trainer card in your deck offers up a lot of skill, which allows for us so many options in order to outpace the opponent. Drizzile can search for Level Ball or Evolution Incense, which can grab other Drizziles and continuously create a chain until all Drizzile are evolved. Drizzile can then evolve into Inteleon (either the SSH or CRE one); one of which gains access to TWO Trainer cards with it’s ability; the other that can snipe damage onto the field (which synergies very well with our deck’s strategy. This whole line of Pokémon just aims at setting up your board, and it all is without the use of a Rule Box Pokémon. Drizzile also allows us to play techy 1-of Trainers because of how much search ability we have over our deck. I love this engine, and I hope it gets used more as people flesh more ideas out in the Evolving Skies format.

2 Inteleon SSH - This Inteleon is just another consistency card that puts the icing on the cake. Searching out any two Trainer cards allows for very cool combinations (I.e. Emergency Jelly + a Quick Ball to search out Articuno). The attack on the Inteleon isn’t bad, however it can reasonably clean up Pokémon and also do some spread damage. Inteleon can be powered up in one turn via the use of Melony. This card is also a consistency out if you don’t have any Sobble in play - you can use Evolution Incense to search for this Inteleon instead.

1 Inteleon CRE - This Inteleon is very key in this deck as it’s one of the components that allows you to score a KO on a Pokémon during your turn. The main strength of running one of these Inteleon is that it allows you to use its ability in order to soften up future threats and also simultaneously finish off Pokémon that wouldn’t normally be KO’ed. For example, a Lugia VSTAR has 280HP. If you use Quick Shooting three times, and attack with Articuno three times, Lugia will be at 10HP. This means you can keep Lugia paralyzed during your opponent’s turn, and KO it during your turn (which would proceedingly allow you to paralyze a new Pokémon. This ability is randomly good against low HP Pokémon as well, such as opposing Sobble.

1 Drapion V - Your all-in-one package to KO a Mew VMAX or Mewtwo V-Union in one hit! This Pokémon is a great inclusion to improve some otherwise poor matchups.

4 Irida - This is the best Supporter in our deck and we want to start with it every game. We can get Battle VIP Pass with it, a Sobble to use Keep Calling, or a Level Ball to get Drizzile online. This card is fantastic and makes the deck click together.

1 Battle VIP Pass - A perfect card to grab turn one off Irida. It’s very searchable, and doesn’t clutter our deck like most decks that need to play four copies.

3 Scoop Up Net - Very useful switching cards that can help you pivot between Inteleon, while also providing you the utility to reuse abilities like Shady Dealings. Scoop Up Net is a staple in any deck that plays Inteleon!

2 Emergency Jelly - The Jelly is one of my favourite cards that are played in this deck! We essentially play this card like a way to elongate the number of turns we can use Articuno’s Wild Freeze attack by healing off the damage that it does to itself. Without Emergency Jelly, we would eventually KO ourselves, however with the aid of this Jelly we can paralyze for additional turns on end.

2 Capacious Bucket - This Item is very key in order for us to setup because it lets us search out multiple copies of Water Energy. This means we can toss one of the two energy into the discard pile with Greninja’s Concealed Cards ability, and attach the other one as our energy for the turn. Capacious Bucket can also be searched out by Drizzile similar to how people play Energy Search in their Inteleon engines. For all these reasons, Capacious Bucket is better than playing two more Water Energy.

This deck, updated with cards from Silver Tempest packs a punch and can really bully Pokémon V by taking them out with paralysis. You can even take out hefty Pokémon VMAX with the help of a few Quick Shootings! If you like tactile decks that are very methodical, then I highly urge you to try out this deck. This deck requires a decent bit of new stuff from the newest expansion, so you should check out our shop for your PTCGL code needs. I’d suggest nabbing some Pokemon TCG codes and building this deck online because this deck seems like it will stick around for a while. Until next time, have fun!

If you’re looking for PTCGL codes for the Pokemon TCG Live game, feel free to pick some up in our shop. We offer Pokemon TCG Live codes at a very competitive price and ensure instant delivery of your PTCGL codes directly to your email. Thank you for reading this article today on the PTCGO Store! Have a great day.