Setting Up Your Ace in the Hole

The combination of Blastoise and Archie's Ace in the Hole creates the potential for some incredibly explosive plays.

Start the match off by using cards like Ultra Ball, Battle Compressor, Computer Search, and Exeggcute to get Blastoise into your discard pile, get Archie's Ace in the Hole into your hand, and get rid of all the other cards you're holding. If everything goes perfectly, you can then use Archie's Ace in the Hole to play the Stage 2 Blastoise directly onto your Bench—even on the first turn of the game.

Once Blastoise is in play, use its Deluge Ability to power up Magikarp & Wailord-GX as quickly as possible. The Ability lets you attach as much Water Energy from your hand as you want every turn, and many of the deck's Trainer cards will help you do just that. You can even use Battle Compressor to discard your Water Energy so you can fish it up with Fisherman or Superior Energy Retrieval, while Shaymin-EX and the deck's torrential pace make it easier to draw more Energy quickly.

Turning the Tides toward Offense

Magikarp & Wailord-GX's Towering Splash-GX attack is particularly devastating early in the game, when your opponent is most likely to have Basic Pokémon with lower HP on their Bench. Not only can this attack net you a bunch of Prize cards, but if you strike quickly enough, it can prevent your opponent from ever really building their board. After being softened up by Towering Splash-GX, even higher-HP Pokémon-GX are likely to be within range of a Knock Out from Super Splash's 180 damage.

This deck gets to play around with several other fun cards to press its advantage. Volcanion Prism Star's Jet Geyser Ability is a great way to help get your opponent's Pokémon in the right place—on the Bench to catch the wave from Towering Splash-GX, or as an Active Pokémon to be finished off by Super Splash—and in this deck, having to discard a Water Energy to activate that Ability can be a good thing. Kingdra-GX can dish out some solid damage if things have gone very wrong, Trainers' Mail and Order Pad help make sure you can get needed cards quickly, and Giratina provides a cheeky way to add a little extra damage when Towering Splash-GX isn't quite enough.

Magikarp & Wailord-GX in Standard

This deck uses plenty of cards that aren't available in the Standard format, but the star TAG TEAM can still create quite a splash even without Blastoise around as support. In its place, enlist the helpful Naganadel and Quagsire when you have only Sun & Moon Series cards available. You'll want to discard Water Energy even more aggressively with this version of the deck so you can recover it with Naganadel's Charging Up Ability or the Aqua Patch Item card, then use Quagsire's Wash Out Ability to move the Energy to your Magikarp & Wailord-GX.

Have a whale of a time with Magikarp & Wailord-GX, and check back at Pokemon.com/Strategy soon for more Sun & Moon—Team Up decks and other Pokémon TCG and video game tips.