Double Volcanion (TCG)

Double Volcanion was a Pokémon Trading Card Game mainly played in the 2017-2018 season.
The deck's strategy revolved around the 's to discard Energy cards to increase damage done to the opponent's Active Pokémon, along with an efficient way to retrieve discarded Energy cards and to attach them to Benched Pokémon. Thanks to its fast set up and to its high damage cap (the player could easily hit the opponent's Pokémon for over 250 damages in one turn), Double Volcanion was heavyly played in tournaments, although it suffered for the presence of and decks. Double Volcanion's best results were two 10th places at the 2016 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Championships and 2017 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Championships, but it went wery well in other events: it was in top 16 in almost every tournaments of the season 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, reaching more than once the 1st place, e.g. in the Hartford Regional Championship, CT, USA, September 2017.
==Strategy==
Double Volcanion offered a never seen before synergy between the EX and non-EX version of the same Pokémon. The deck compesated low damage attacks thanks to 's Ability , while attaching Energy cards to Benched Pokémon thanks to 's first attack. Attacking with non-EX Pokémon and Knocking Out opponent's Pokémon EX, allowed the player to win the Prize TradePrize trade, noun. An event that begins once both players’ boards are established to the point where they can use relevant attacks in succession until one player wins the game. It is no longer considered a Prize trade if one player misses a relevant attack, either because they whiffed a necessary card or because the opponent disrupted them..
Double Volcanion's engine is pretty simple: the player mainly focused on discarding Energy cards, not necessary with 's Ability , and attacking with Volcanion. At the cost of one Energy card, the player was allowed to attach 2 Energy cards from discard pile to two Benched Pokémon. This, along with , ensured that the Double Volcanion player usually had, at least, one or another with three Energy attached to, even at their second turn. allowed the player's Pokémon to resist against opponent's attacks easily. allowed the player's Pokémon to retreat Active Pokémon and to attack with those, full of Energy, remained in the Bench. itself could Knock Out opponent's Pokémon: with four Benched and four Abilities activated, its first attack did 140 damage, from a base of 20, and attached 2 Energy cards to the Benched .
Lots of variants used : its GX attack sped up the set up even further, allowing the players for attaching to their Pokémon up to 5 Energy cards from their discard pile. Due to the high amount of Energy cards used in Double Volcanion and due to the presence of cards like Professor Sycamore and Ultra Ball, it was easy, even on the first turn, to discard that number of Energy cards, then to attack with the 's GX attack and so had a Bench of Volcanion(EX or non-EX) ready to attack.
One of the worst threats to this deck was : under Ability lock down, Double Volcanion struggled to set up and to do decent damage.
It had some serious trouble with as well:Greninja's first attack locked down Abilities and both and have Weakness.
There were several other cards that were major components of Double Volcanion deck. allowed for easy enercgy recycle, did it too. allowed for discarding tools attached to opponent's Garbodor, denying the effect of Garbotoxin. or rose the chance to bench or . 
A good set up was considered achieved when the Double Volcanion player had at least two on the field, a , as Active Pokémon, ready to attack and at least two Energy cards in the discard pile. Having in the hand , spare Energy cards and , helped too.
==Key cards==
* - Volcanion-EX's Steam Up Ability allowed, once per turn, the player's Basic Pokémon to do 30 more at the cost of discarding a Energy card. This was commonly used both to discard Energy cards for fueling 's first attack and to power up the damage output. Its attack did 130 damage, cost 3 Energy cards and placed on the Pokémon the effect that it couldn't attack the next turn.
* - Volcanion's attack Power Heater did 20 damage and allowes the player to attach 2 Energy cards from their discard pile to two of their Benched Pokémon. Steam Artillery hit for 100 damages. 
* - Turtonator-GX's first attack allowed the player to both hit for 20 damage and place on Turtonator-GX an effect: if this Pokémon was damaged by an attack, the player put 8 damage counters on the Attacking Pokémon. It was used to counter , which was a big threat for deck focused on Basic Pokémon only, in season 2017-2018. Its second attack hit for 160 damage, discarding 2 Energy. Its GX attack allowed the player, for one Energy only, to attach five Energy cards from their discard pile to their Pokémon.
* - This item allowed the player to look at the top 6 cards of their deck and to attach a basic Energy card they find there to a Basic Pokémon on their Bench.
* - It allowed the player to free retreat their Pokémon. It was a key cards because this deck contained Pokémon with high retreat costs and the player often wanted to switch the Active for a Benched, but ready to attack, Volcanion EX. Also, it allowed an easy way to bypass the 's attack's effect
* - It allowed the player to discard Pokémon tool cards or s in play. It was a life saver against .
* - Brooklet Hill was used to search Basic Pokémon and put them on the Bench. It allowed the player to benching and, if used, or . 
* - It retrieved 2 Energy cards from the discard pile easily allowing multiple Steam Up in one turn.
==Typical decklist==
===Igor Costa's decklist at the 2017 - Regional Championship Hartford, CT, USA===
==Possible tech cards==
The following cards are often used in Double Volcanion in place of certain cards included in the above lists.
* - Starmie's Ability Space Beacon retrieved 2 discarded Energy cards, similar to the Item cards.
* - Octillery's Abyssal Hand Ability allowed the player to draw cards.
* - Its first attack 'Burning Roar' was used as altenative way to attach Energy cards to Pokémon. Its second attack Combat Blaze hit for a number of damage which depends on the number of opponent's Benched Pokémon. For only two Energy, along with the 's Ability, Combat Blaze easily hit for 180 damage or more.
* - It allowed the player to counter both and the negative effect of 's attack 'Volcanic Heat'.
* - It allowed the player to attach 2 Energy cards from their discard pile to 1 of Pokémon. Staple in 2016-2018 Expanded format variants.
* - It allowed the player to attach up to 4 Energy cards from their deck, at the cost of ending their turn.
* - Often used as a draw engine.
==Notes==
Category:Deck archetypes