Metanite (TCG)

Metanite was a Pokémon Trading Card Game that utilized the to take advantage of the obvious synergy between 's Crush and Burn attack and 's Delta Charge . The deck saw play almost immediately after the release of Metagross δ, Dragonite δ, and in the expansion. When it received additional support in the form of and others in the expansion, many competitive players declared it the ultimate deck to beat. It was one of three dominant archetypes to be broken down in the July 2007 issue of Beckett Pokémon Unofficial Collector, the other two being and a simplistic variant of . The deck remained extremely popular until later that year, rendering it unviable.
==Strategy==
 is the ideal starting Pokémon for the deck, giving the player additional drawing ability early in the game. Set up involves bringing cards such as , , and onto the Bench and evolving them into their final forms as soon as possible. The burns through the deck quickly, giving the player all the hand support they need after Holon's Castform is Knocked Out. Once the player has evolved Beldum δ to and one or more Dratini δ into , the idea is to make Metagross δ the Active Pokémon and begin discarding Energy cards while using Dragonite δ's Delta Charge Poké-Power to bring them back and continuously deal huge damage with Crush and Burn. If Metagross δ is Knocked Out, a Dragonite δ can be used to finish the job.
==Key Cards==
* – Metagross δ was the deck's main attacker. Its Crush and Burn attack, combined with 's Delta Charge could consistently deal massive damage to opposing Pokémon. Metagross δ's Delta Control Poké-Power greatly benefited the deck's consistency as well. It allowed a player to choose one of the top four cards of their deck and add them to their hand. The other three cards were returned to the deck.
* – Dragonite δ's Delta Charge Poké-Power had perfect synergy with Metagross δ. When Energies were discarded via Crush and Burn, Delta Charge could simply return them to the field on the player's next turn, allowing for a consistently high damage output.
* – Holon's Castform was the deck's ideal starting Pokémon. For , its Delta Draw attack allowed the player to draw one card for each δ Pokémon they had in play. With , the chances of being able to Delta Draw several cards early in the game were high. Holon's Castform often allowed Metanite to build up a massive hand by the third or fourth turn, or forced the opponent to expend resources to knock it out early. It was all the more versatile since it could be attached as a later in the game, making techs such as Latios playable.
* – Arguably the most important in the deck, Holon Transceiver ensured that the Metanite player had access to whatever would be most valuable at any given time. Most importantly, Holon Transceiver increased the chances of a player getting Holon Mentor turn one, and being able to Delta Draw for multiple cards. A more in-depth description of the card's uses can be found in the Holon Engine article.
* – Rare Candy has been a critical card in Stage 2-centric decks throughout the game's history. By allowing the player to skip an evolution, they could evolve directly from Dratini δ to Dragonite δ and Beldum δ to Metagross δ, thus greatly increasing the deck's speed and consistency.
==Typical deck list==
==Restriction==
After the , the expansion was restricted from Play! Pokémon by the , and Metagross δ, Dragonite δ, and most of the Holon Engine went with it, rendering the deck completely unusable. It was a deck that ruled the game for a long time, and banning it helped begin a whole new format.
Category:Deck archetypes