The new Sun & Moon—Forbidden Light expansion is full of powerful cards and astonishing art. Perhaps no cards stand out in battle quite like Ultra Necrozma-GX and a cadre of cards that support it. Ultra Necrozma-GX’s devastating Photon Geyser attack, Malamar’s Psychic Recharge Ability, and the Mysterious Treasure Item card combine to make a strategy that’s both powerful and reliable.

The luminous Ultra Necrozma-GX’s powerful attacks will naturally earn it much of the spotlight as you take Prize cards with this deck, but pay special attention to its co-star. Malamar is very reminiscent of the Eelektrik from Black & White—Noble Victories that was a huge part of the Standard format for many years. If the past success of the EleFish Pokémon is any indication, Malamar will be a great start to many strategies.

Deck Strategy

• Ultra Necrozma-GX / Malamar

Ultra Necrozma-GX / Malamar

Pokémon

• 3

  Ultra Necrozma-GX

  95/131

  sm6 95
• 4

  Malamar

  51/131

  sm6 51
• 4

  Inkay

  50/131

  sm6 50
• 2

  Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX

  63/138

  sm5 63
• 2

  Tapu Lele-GX

  60/145

  sm2 60
• 1

  Oranguru

  113/149

  sm1 113
• 1

  Mew

  29/124

  xy10 29

Energy Cards

• 7

  Psychic Energy

  nrg1 30
• 3

  Metal Energy

  nrg1 33
• 1

  Beast Energy ◇

  sm6 117

Trainer Cards

• 4

  Cynthia

  sm5 119
• 4

  Professor Sycamore

  xy9 107
• 3

  Guzma

  sm3 115
• 2

  N

  xy10 105
• 1

  Lillie

  sm5 125
• 4

  Float Stone

  xy8 137
• 4

  Mysterious Treasure

  sm6 113
• 2

  Choice Band

  sm2 121
• 2

  Field Blower

  sm2 125
• 2

  Professor's Letter

  xy8 146
• 2

  Ultra Ball

  sm1 135
• 1

  Beast Ring

  sm6 102
• 1

  Rescue Stretcher

  sm2 130

More Info Copy Deck List ****** Pokémon Trading Card Game Deck List ****** Pokémon - 17 3 Ultra Necrozma-GX FLI 95 4 Malamar FLI 51 4 Inkay FLI 50 2 Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX UPR 63 2 Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60 1 Oranguru SUM 113 1 Mew FCO 29 Trainer Cards - 32 4 Cynthia UPR 119 4 Professor Sycamore BKP 107 3 Guzma BUS 115 2 N FCO 105 1 Lillie UPR 125 4 Float Stone BKT 137 4 Mysterious Treasure FLI 113 2 Choice Band GRI 121 2 Field Blower GRI 125 2 Professor's Letter BKT 146 2 Ultra Ball SUM 135 1 Beast Ring FLI 102 1 Rescue Stretcher GRI 130 Energy - 11 7 Psychic Energy Energy 5 3 Metal Energy Energy 8 1 Beast Energy ◇ FLI 117 Total Cards - 60 ****** Deck list generated on Pokemon.com ******

The main objective of this deck is to fire off as many Photon Geysers as you can with the mighty Ultra Necrozma-GX. This attack does 20 damage to start, then discards all basic Psychic Energy from Ultra Necrozma-GX and do 80 more damage for each one. Photon Geyser’s devastating damage makes its hefty cost worthwhile—it’ll do 180 damage with just two Psychic Energy attached, and a Choice Band (against an opposing Pokémon-GX or Pokémon-EX) or Beast Energy Prism Star adds 30 more. If that’s not enough, you’ll Knock Out almost anything with three basic Psychic Energy attached, no additional help required.

Discarding all that Psychic Energy would normally make it hard to keep attacking, but this deck has a solution: Malamar’s Psychic Recharge. This incredible Ability allows you to attach a Psychic Energy card from your discard pile to 1 of your Benched Pokémon once per turn. You can retrieve more Energy per turn if you have multiple Malamar in play; with even a couple on your Bench, you can quickly replace the Energy discarded by Photon Geyser.

Necrozma’s invasion continues with Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX. This form of Necrozma plays a more supportive role in the deck by keeping Ultra Necrozma-GX from getting stuck as the Active Pokémon without enough Energy to attack. You can switch your Benched Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX with your Active Pokémon once per turn by using its Invasion Ability, allowing you to reenergize Ultra Necrozma-GX with Malamar. You can then freely retreat Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX by attaching a Float Stone to it and attack with Ultra Necrozma-GX once more.

Keep repeating the process of attacking with Ultra Necrozma-GX, using Invasion to switch in Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX, powering up Ultra Necrozma-GX with Malamar’s Psychic Recharge while it’s on the Bench, retreating Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX for Ultra Necrozma-GX, and attacking with Photon Geyser each turn. Few decks will be able to stand up to such a powerful assault for long!

Gameplay Tips

Our deck list doesn’t include Brigette to find Pokémon, so your opening strategy will be a little different from that of most other decks in the Standard format. You should look to get some Inkay ready to evolve into Malamar, a Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX with a Float Stone attached, and an Ultra Necrozma-GX with a Metal Energy or Beast Energy attached. Instead of finding these cards with Brigette, you'll need to make do with what you draw and use a combination of Supporter and Item cards to find the rest.

The best of these Item cards is the new Mysterious Treasure, which makes the task of setting up your board much easier. Mysterious Treasure allows you to discard any card from your hand to search out a Psychic-type or Dragon-type Pokémon and add it to your hand. You can fetch all your key Pokémon this way, and it’s a great way to get Psychic Energy into the discard pile to use Malamar’s Psychic Recharge, too.

Even though this deck only runs a modest amount of Psychic Energy, it’s vital to discard Psychic Energy early in the game to get Malamar online. Don’t feel bad about discarding Psychic Energy—it’s a little counterintuitive, but with this deck, discarding Energy is the fastest way to get it into play. The aforementioned Mysterious Treasure, as well as Professor Sycamore and Ultra Ball, are all great ways to prime your discard pile.

Tapu Lele-GX and Oranguru aren’t core to this deck’s strategy, but they both provide a degree of protection. Tapu Lele-GX’s Wonder Tag Ability can find a key Supporter card when you need it, helping you acquire that winning Guzma or getting you get out of a weak hand with Professor Sycamore, Cynthia, or N. Oranguru isn’t likely to be a key contributor early in the game, but its Instruct Ability can limit the effect of an N when you have only one or two Prize cards remaining.

Ultra Necrozma-GX’s Sky-Scorching Light-GX won’t always have as many uses as hyphens, but you should keep an eye out for opportunities to use it. It does 60 damage to each of your opponent’s Pokémon, but you can use this attack only if the total of both players’ remaining Prize cards is 6 or less. This restriction means you’ll almost never be able to use it while your opponent has lots of lower-HP basic Pokémon on their Bench early in the game, but it can finish off weakened Pokémon and punish your foe if they try to recover by playing a late-game Ralts, Remoraid, or Zorua.

Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX can be a great secondary attacker, especially against Pokémon with a Weakness to Psychic. Don’t be afraid to power it up instead of Ultra Necrozma-GX against decks using Fighting types like Buzzwole-GX. You may even want to use its Moon’s Eclipse-GX to try to turn around a losing game, granting it protection from all effects of attacks for a turn while doing heavy damage. Even Tapu Lele’s Energy Drive and Oranguru’s Psychic can be deceptively effective alongside Malamar’s Psychic Recharge.

The powerful combination of Ultra Necrozma-GX and Malamar is sure to be a popular one, so it’s a great time to get familiar with these brand-new cards. Malamar’s Psychic Recharge provides great flexibility if you’d like to adjust this deck to suit your tastes, allowing you to include almost any Pokémon that can attack using Psychic or Colorless Energy. Trainer cards like Brigette, Max Elixir, Parallel City, and Super Rod provide even more options for a customized version of this deck.

Good luck in your next Pokémon TCG match, Trainers! And don’t forget to check back to Pokemon.co.uk/Strategy for more Pokémon TCG and video game strategy.