The Pokémon Company recently released a new Pokémon TCG expansion called Journey Together. Read on below to learn more:
Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex, and Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex join forces with a slew of different Pokémon, including the newly released Lillie’s Clefairy ex.
By Natalie Millar, Contributing Writer
The latest Standard rotation has gone into effect, and Scarlet & Violet—Journey Together has officially released on Pokémon Trading Card Game Live. The new format is already developing in online community tournaments: one of the top decks that has come from online tournaments and the 5000-player Champions League in Fukuoka is the Tera Toolbox deck, which was played to top cut placements at the latter event by well-known players Tord Reklev and Reiji Nishiguchi. I’ve really liked the deck when I’ve played the new format so far. Let’s get right into it!
Tera Toolbox
Pokémon (22)
- 2Teal Mask Ogerpon ex 25/167
- 2Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex 64/167
- 1Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex 112/167
- 4Noctowl 115/175
- 3Hoothoot 114/175
- 1Hoothoot 77/131
- 2Fan Rotom 118/175
- 1Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex 141/167
- 1Ditto 132/165
- 1Fezandipiti ex 38/64
- 1Latias ex 76/191
- 1Lillie’s Clefairy ex 56/159
- 1Mew ex 151/165
- 1Pikachu ex 57/191
Energy Cards (11)
- 5Basic Grass Energy
- 2Basic Psychic Energy
- 1Basic Fire Energy
- 1Basic Lightning Energy
- 1Basic Metal Energy
- 1Basic Water Energy
Trainer Cards (27)
- 3Crispin
- 2Boss’s Orders (Ghetsis)
- 1Iono
- 1Judge
- 1Professor’s Research (Professor Sada)
- 1Professor Turo’s Scenario
- 3Area Zero Underdepths
- 4Nest Ball
- 4Ultra Ball
- 2Earthen Vessel
- 2Energy Switch
- 2Night Stretcher
- 1Sparkling Crystal
At its core, this deck is a toolbox of specialized attackers. Because this deck has so many attacking options, you can take Prize cards in a variety of different ways and have solid plans from both ahead and behind. With so many attackers requiring different Energy types, you’ll often need to play Crispin as your Supporter card. This is especially crucial for two of your key attackers, Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex and Pikachu ex, who force you to remove their Energy from play after you use their main attacks. The main goal of this deck is to take two Prize cards each turn, and you can do this by either hitting two Pokémon with Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex’s Torrential Pump or by taking a one-hit KO with your other attackers.
The rest of the deck is held together with the Fan Rotom and Noctowl engine introduced in Scarlet & Violet—Stellar Crown. Jewel Seeker allows you to play the game with very few resources in hand, as you can chain attackers by using Noctowl’s Ability repeatedly. For additional draw support, you also have Mew ex and Fezandipiti ex, which can both help you draw enough cards to use your ideal attacker each turn. When using the Noctowl engine, you’ll typically want to go first: with Fan Rotom, you are able to set up well going first and reliably attack on your second turn. Additionally, this deck includes one copy of Ditto. You can use the Transformative Start Ability to find a Tera Pokémon from your deck, allowing you to grab Hoothoot, Noctowl, and a Tera Pokémon from a single Fan Rotom!
Because this deck typically wants to go wide and has a ton of Pokémon that are solid on the Bench, you include Area Zero Underdepths as the Stadium. Fulfilling the Tera requirement is very easy, and this deck makes great use of the extra Bench space. If your Area Zero gets bumped, you can often discard your Noctowl or your Fan Rotom, as they don’t have many uses later in the game. Keep in mind that you can opt to discard your liabilities if you’re losing the Prize trade. Additionally, if you have only one Tera Pokémon in play, you can use Professor Turo’s Scenario to pick it up and discard some of your other Benched Pokémon, since you would no longer fulfill the Tera Pokémon requirement.
Notably, this deck list plays one copy of the Hoothoot from Scarlet & Violet—Prismatic Evolutions due to its 80 HP. Fan Rotom’s Assault Landing is very useful for many decks as the first attack, and being able to leave a Pokémon Active that doesn’t get Knocked Out by Assault Landing is important. While this Hoothoot does have a Retreat Cost of 2, this is fine with Latias ex in the deck list, as Skyliner removes the Retreat Cost. Your ACE SPEC card is Sparkling Crystal, which is the best ACE SPEC to attack aggressively. Many of the Tera Pokémon’s attacks cost three Energy, and Sparkling Crystal along with a Crispin powers up your Pokémon enough to use their relevant attacks. Additionally, since the deck plays six different types of Energy, Sparkling Crystal is very helpful for getting the correct Energy types, especially since you run the risk of Prizing one of them.
This deck does have two copies of Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, which isn’t really an attacker but is instead used more for its Teal Dance Ability. Since it’s unrealistic for you to play Crispin every turn, this deck also uses Teal Dance and Energy Switch to get extra Energy in play. This functions similarly to how Teal Mask Ogerpon ex was used in the Regidrago VSTAR deck, but you don’t have to commit more to it thanks to Crispin.
Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex is one of the strongest attackers in the post-rotation format, specifically because there isn’t an easy way for the Evolution decks to protect their Benched Pokémon without Manaphy. With Crispin, it is relatively easy to use Torrential Pump on turn two and KO two of your opponent’s Pokémon. This is especially strong since you can use it going first and put a ton of pressure on your opponent’s setup. Keep in mind that many of the setup decks could Unfair Stamp you the turn after you use Torrential Pump, so I would prioritize having Mew ex down or multiple Hoothoot. The Sob attack is also very solid, as you can trap various Pokémon in the Active Spot. If your opponent starts with something such as Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex that can’t easily attack, you can buy time by preventing them from retreating.
Pikachu ex is one of your stronger attackers; however, keep in mind that you can’t use it three times per game. You can have the resources to use it twice, but you’d have to use Night Stretcher and Sparkling Crystal to do that. One of Pikachu ex’s required Energy types being Grass Energy is also very relevant, as you play five copies of Grass Energy to allow you to use Teal Dance. Pikachu ex is by far your best attacker in the linear matchups, such as Raging Bolt ex or Archaludon ex, as they often can’t break through the Resolute Heart Ability. Topaz Bolt is also strong at taking one-hit KOs, but you typically use other attackers in the Stage 2 matchups. Pikachu ex is also strong in the mirror match because your opponent won’t have many ways to break through Resolute Heart.
Most of this deck’s strategy is centered around older cards that could have been successful pre-rotation, but the deck’s biggest weakness is that it lacked a way to reliably Knock Out Dragapult ex without the newly released Lillie’s Clefairy ex. Lillie’s Clefairy ex’s Fairy Zone Ability makes all of your opponent’s Dragon-type Pokémon weak to Psychic, with its Full Moon Rondo attack doing 20 plus 20 more damage for each Benched Pokémon. Thanks to Area Zero Underdepths increasing the size of your Bench, you can fill your Bench and easily use Lillie’s Clefairy ex to Knock Out an opposing Dragapult ex. Keep in mind that Fairy Zone allows you to use other Psychic-type Pokémon to hit for Weakness, but this doesn’t come up often as Lillie’s Clefairy ex is the easiest attacker to use.
Since Lillie’s Clefairy ex isn’t a Tera Pokémon, you do have to play two Psychic Energy to avoid Prizing one of them—unlike your Tera Pokémon ex, it doesn’t benefit from Sparkling Crystal. Playing two Psychic Energy also allows you to chain Lillie’s Clefairy ex more easily, since you can Night Stretcher Lillie’s Clefairy ex and then use Crispin for the second Psychic Energy and any other Energy to immediately power it up.
Lillie’s Clefairy ex is also useful in the Raging Bolt matchup, which is mainly about trading two-Prize attackers. Pikachu ex is useful if you are losing the Prize trade, but since it’s harder to power up than Lillie’s Clefairy ex, it’s difficult to chain attacks with Pikachu ex if your opponent can disrupt your hand. With the wide Benches, Full Moon Rondo can also do a surprising amount of damage, so be sure to keep it in mind against the Terapagos ex / Bouffalant deck. They will often have a very wide Bench, and you can routinely hit them for 300 damage if they are taking big Knock Outs with Unified Beatdown.
Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex looks a bit out of place in this deck since your usual plan is to have a wide Bench, but it’s mainly here for its Demolish attack as opposed to its Ability. “Wall decks” (decks that focus on having a Pokémon that nullifies damage from attacks in the Active Spot) had many strong performances at the Fukuoka Champions League, primarily using Milotic ex and Farigiraf ex to slowly chip away at boards while being undamageable thanks to their Abilities.
Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex’s Demolish attack goes through all effects on your opponent’s Active Pokémon, and while it doesn’t hit for Weakness, you can still eventually KO all walling attackers. Since all the wall Pokémon have Abilities, Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex’s Cornerstone Stance Ability will usually prevent it from taking damage in return. It’s tempting to cut Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex from this deck if wall decks lose popularity, but with the way the deck is currently configured, you would struggle against an opposing Tera Box deck that also plays Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex.
The last attacker in this deck is Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex, which you’ll likely use to close out the game. Since you often use a ton of resources on each attack and have a finite number of Noctowl’s Jewel Seeker per game, having the option to use a solid attack at the end of the game for low resources is key. Be careful about attacking with Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex early, though, because you only have Professor Turo’s Scenario to move it out of the Active Spot.
The rest of the deck is relatively self-explanatory; you have four Nest Ball and four Ultra Ball to find Pokémon, plus the three Crispin I spoke about earlier. You do play two Boss’s Orders in this deck due to how strong the card is, especially when you’re ahead and can push an advantage. This deck does rely heavily on Noctowl’s Jewel Seeker, so you only have one Professor’s Research, one Iono, and one Judge as draw Supporters—a low number compared to most decks.
Judge is more of an aggressive Supporter card for this deck, and since you’re already attacking their setup with Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex’s Torrential Pump, forcing your opponent to four cards is often effective enough to prevent them from getting back into the game.
I did choose to include two copies of Earthen Vessel in this deck list, but I think that you can go to one copy if you need to make space for another option. I mainly chose to play the second Earthen Vessel to help you with your Energy attachments throughout the game and to allow you to use Teal Dance every turn. I do think that a third Energy Switch is another consideration for this deck, depending on how much you struggle to power up your attackers.
Choosing the best Pokémon attacker each turn will usually depend on weighing the easiest way to take two Prize cards is and what would do the most damage to your opponent’s board.
You can consider using Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex to damage two Pokémon to set up for a four-Prize turn later in the game, but I would be careful about taking Knock Outs when you don’t have to, as you activate an opposing Fezandipiti ex. You can usually justify punching a Pokémon ex and taking a Knock Out on a Hoothoot in the mirror match, as this allows you to use Torrential Pump again to take three Prize cards and still win the Prize trade. However, keep in mind that your opponent could play Professor Turo’s Scenario to heal the Pokémon you attacked.
When you continue to play games of Tera Box, it is unlikely that two games will be the same. The deck presents you with so many different attacking options and ways to approach different matchups. I would recommend learning all the use cases for each attacker and planning out the game so that you can take two Prize cards on each of your attacking turns. Good luck when you play this deck—there are a ton of attacking options throughout the game!
Natalie Millar
Natalie has been playing Pokémon casually since late 2013 but started attending more competitive tournaments in late 2017. She won the first Regional Championships after the pandemic in her home city of Brisbane, Australia, and has been attending most major tournaments since. Outside of Pokémon, she studied psychology, but it doesn’t help with reading opponents as much as you would think. You can find her at most major tournaments and can follow her on X at @nataliem9999.
Source: Pokemon.com and The Pokémon Company International
Source: Pokemon
