Mad Party Making a Comeback!

Alola Trainers! Welcome back to the PoTown Blog! The new Brilliant Stars set is just around the corner and it's time to check out another deck that will be a contender in the metagame: Mad Party!

Mad Party had its time in the spotlight during last season, as it had access to Triple Acceleration Energy and could trade well against Tag Team Pokemon as it could sometimes OHKO them. Since rotation took place in August though, and both of those cards got rotated out, Mad Party has been stuck in the fringe zone where it's an obvious combo with potential but just not good enough to compete. The lack of access to more than 4 usable Energy outside of Twin Energy, along with the bench threatening Pokemon such as Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, Jolteon VMAX, and Dragapult VMAX, made this Pokemon deck disappear completely from the Pokemon TCG Online ladder.

Double Turbo Energy: Being able to use 6 different attackers is crucial for a single prize based deck such as this one, and with Double Turbo Energy complimenting the Twin Energy we already have, Mad Party will now be able to power up more than four attackers more easily, instead of having to rely on gimmicks such as Flaaffy or Galarian Moltres V or *gasp* Turbo Patch in order to power up further.

The -20 damage drawback is a small price to pay in exchange for the Double Colorless power up as we will usually be 2HKOing the big Pokemon anyway.

Lumineon V: Lumineon brings back a great Ability with Luminous Sign allowing us to search our deck for a Supporter and put it into our hands. This means any Quick Ball or Ultra Ball now potentially becomes draw power in Professor’s Research or gust with Boss’s Order. This boosts inconsistency and targeted search are on par with the Inteleon engine and its Shady Dealings Ability.

Choice Belt: Even though Mad Party can deal a lot of damage, it is still really hard for OHKO VMAX’s and this can be crucial towards the end of the game. However Choice Belt provides a +30 damage boost against Pokemon V, and if VSTAR Pokemon will be the norm moving forward, hitting the 250 - 300 range becomes way easier thanks to Choice Belt.

Collapsed Stadium: This deck usually wants to play Crobat V and the aforementioned Lumineon V for support, but they can be a liability towards the end of the game if your opponent takes them down. Collapsed Stadium helps limit your opponent’s bench but also helps by getting rid of these two prize Pokemon, making the prize exchange unfavorable for your opponent by forcing them to deal with your single prize Mad Party attackers.

Ultra Ball: This card is not only a very welcome addition to Quick Ball and Level Ball for direct search, rather than random hits with Great Ball or luck-based coin flips with Poke Ball. Ultra Ball also offers a discarding effect that Mad Party thrives on, allowing you to get them into the discard pile to power up your attacks.

Manaphy: Finally, we have the Bench Barrier Ability back! Manaphy is a key card to the deck which will prevent you from being run over by Jolteon VMAX and Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX. It doesn’t block the damage counter placement from Dragapult VMAX’s Max Phantom attack, but that Pokemon is nowhere to be seen nowadays anyways. Protecting your support Pokemon and secondary attackers on the bench is crucial to this deck's future success.

I fully expect Mad Party to be amongst the popular online Pokemon decks on Pokemon TCG Online and the upcoming Pokemon TCG Live, as it's both budget-friendly and extremely powerful. Whether you’re using Pokemon TCG Online codes to trade for the necessary cards of the deck or exchanging Credits and Pokemon TCG Live codes to build it, should genuinely be quite effortless and accessible.

Here’s the list that I intend to start with and work on once the cards are available to play with:

The powerful VSTAR Pokemon seem to signify the end of the VMAX era, which should pave the way for single prize decks such as this one to make a comeback into the meta which should, in turn, lead to longer and more exciting and skill-based games than the ones we currently have in the Standard format.

Mad Party is just one of the multiple single prize decks that are poised to make a comeback thanks to the support of Brilliant Stars, and there is a certain level of nostalgia for it as it is easily compared to the Night March deck that was popular during the BW and XY eras. Arceus VSTAR and other VSTAR’s will pave the way for more styles of play as well, and this will in turn hopefully lead to an increase in diversity and viability of strategies in the metagame.

Thanks so much for reading my newest article for PoTown Store and best of luck in your pulls and games! We are about to enter a very interesting era in the TCG and I’m hopeful the future will be bright and will lead to exciting times with live events returning and the Pokemon TCG Live Beta about to begin in Canada.