Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In case you had any doubts in your mind, yes, I did make some decks for the Pitch Black expansion, even though they came out about a month prior and the 30th Celebration set is coming out soon…here is on making use of Volttaic Lightning Energy, a much-needed boost for the Lightning type currently by increasing its attack power—even with strong support via it and Canari though, Lightning lags behind as perhaps the weakest type in this format. Nevertheless, I wanted to make a Lightning deck other people were not using, so here is what mine looks like.
POKÉMON (20)
4x Shinx (Perfect Order)
2x Luxio (Perfect Order)
4x Luxray ex (Twilight Masquerade)
4x Tynamo (Black Bolt)
3x Eelektrik (Black Bolt)
2x Miraidon (Pitch Black OR ME Black Star Promo)
1x Shaymin (Destined Rivals)
TRAINERS (29)
2x Boss’s Orders
2x Canari
2x Judge
4x Lillie’s Determination
2x Night Stretcher
1z Nighttime Mine
3x Poké Pad
2x Powerglass
3x Rare Candy
2x Special Red Card
1x Team Rocket’s Watchtower
2x Ultra Ball
1x Unfair Stamp
2x Xerosic’s Machinations
ENERGY (11)
8x Basic Lightning Energy
3x Voltaic Lightning Energy
Luxray ex’s Piercing Gaze attack is a lot like Mega Absol ex’s Claw of Darkness attack, dealing damage and picking a specific card from your opponent’s hand to discard. That effect, whn paired with damage to progress your win-state, is very strong because if you can get started soon enough, this effect can prevent your opponent from getting started at all. Claw of Darkness is stronger and has seen actual tournament play, but personally, I find Luxray ex more fun because it’s less commonly seen, by a long shot.
At 120 damage, it isn’t knocking out much though. On the other hand, Voltaic Lightning Energy brings the damage up to 140, which is enough to knock out some 1-Prize cards, such as Ho-Oh, Team Rocket’s Spidops, Dudunsparce, and Alakazam. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to draw Voltaic Lightning Energy before any of my Basic Lightning Energy, which I cannot fish out from th discard pile and reattach with Eelektrik’s “Dynamotor.”
Luxray ex’s second attack, Volt Strike, does 250 damage (270 with Voltaic, 290 with two of them) but requires you to discard all Energy attacked to it. This can be retrieved with Powerglass; it can also be used to power up another Luxray ex on the Bench with “Dynamotor.” This attack is best used if you have to get rid of the opponent’s Active Pokémon immediately and you don’t have a turn to lose, or if Luxray ex is imminently getting Knocked Out the following turn.
To aid with hand disruption, this deck uses Xerosic’s Machinations (your opponent discards cards from their hand until they have 3 cards left), Special Red Card (your opponent shuffles their hand back int their deck and draws 3 cards, but it works only if they have 3 or fewer Prize cards left), and Unfair Stamp (both players shuffle their hands back in their decks; you draw 5 and they draw 2, but it works only immediately after they’ve Knocked Out at least one Pokémon of yours on their last turn). Judge can also reset their hand to 4 and refresh your hand too. With the right timing, you can run the opponent out of options and slow them down enough for you to overtake them.
The mechanic of picking a card from their hand to discard is a famously difficult one to use; this is because you must understand your opponent’s deck enough to know what is the most important card they have in their hand. Picking the wrong one will not slow them down at all, and certain decks, like Ceruledge ex or Hide ’n’ Sneak, can even benefit from it. As a result, despite its relatively straightforward nature, this deck is one of the hardest decks I’ve ever built to use. It also loses its effectiveness greatly if the opponent can fully set up first, as Piercing Gaze can’t do much to a completed board state.
My first opponent was using Ethan’s Typhlosion, a deck that’s harder to beat than it looks, as it can deal high damage for 1 Fire Energy. Despite it being based on a fragile 1-Prize Stage 2 Pokémon, it is currently the top Fire-type deck in this format due the strategy being self-contained and the Ethan’s Adventure Supporter card fueling everything you need to get Ethan’s Typhlosion out and powering up the Pokémon’s Buddy Blast attack. Because I never got to make good use of Piercing Gaze in my first match, I have a second match here: my second opponent was using what appears to be an experimental deck based on Team Rocket’s Moltres ex, whose Evil Incineration attack discards the opponent’s Active Pokémon. This is different than a Knockout though, in that no Prize cards are taken. It wasn’t winning the Prize race, butI was running out of resources quick!
(Pokémon TCG Pocket will also happen to have its own Team Rocket’s Moltres ex card coming out in a few days from now. Its function is completely different, with different artwork even.)
In case you had any doubts in your mind, yes, I did make some decks for the Pitch Black expansion, even though they came out about a month prior and the 30th Celebration set is coming out soon…here is on making use of Volttaic Lightning Energy, a much-needed boost for the Lightning type currently by increasing its attack power—even with strong support via it and Canari though, Lightning lags behind as perhaps the weakest type in this format. Nevertheless, I wanted to make a Lightning deck other people were not using, so here is what mine looks like.
POKÉMON (20)
4x Shinx (Perfect Order)
2x Luxio (Perfect Order)
4x Luxray ex (Twilight Masquerade)
4x Tynamo (Black Bolt)
3x Eelektrik (Black Bolt)
2x Miraidon (Pitch Black OR ME Black Star Promo)
1x Shaymin (Destined Rivals)
TRAINERS (29)
2x Boss’s Orders
2x Canari
2x Judge
4x Lillie’s Determination
2x Night Stretcher
1z Nighttime Mine
3x Poké Pad
2x Powerglass
3x Rare Candy
2x Special Red Card
1x Team Rocket’s Watchtower
2x Ultra Ball
1x Unfair Stamp
2x Xerosic’s Machinations
ENERGY (11)
8x Basic Lightning Energy
3x Voltaic Lightning Energy
Luxray ex’s Piercing Gaze attack is a lot like Mega Absol ex’s Claw of Darkness attack, dealing damage and picking a specific card from your opponent’s hand to discard. That effect, whn paired with damage to progress your win-state, is very strong because if you can get started soon enough, this effect can prevent your opponent from getting started at all. Claw of Darkness is stronger and has seen actual tournament play, but personally, I find Luxray ex more fun because it’s less commonly seen, by a long shot.
At 120 damage, it isn’t knocking out much though. On the other hand, Voltaic Lightning Energy brings the damage up to 140, which is enough to knock out some 1-Prize cards, such as Ho-Oh, Team Rocket’s Spidops, Dudunsparce, and Alakazam. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to draw Voltaic Lightning Energy before any of my Basic Lightning Energy, which I cannot fish out from th discard pile and reattach with Eelektrik’s “Dynamotor.”
Luxray ex’s second attack, Volt Strike, does 250 damage (270 with Voltaic, 290 with two of them) but requires you to discard all Energy attacked to it. This can be retrieved with Powerglass; it can also be used to power up another Luxray ex on the Bench with “Dynamotor.” This attack is best used if you have to get rid of the opponent’s Active Pokémon immediately and you don’t have a turn to lose, or if Luxray ex is imminently getting Knocked Out the following turn.
To aid with hand disruption, this deck uses Xerosic’s Machinations (your opponent discards cards from their hand until they have 3 cards left), Special Red Card (your opponent shuffles their hand back int their deck and draws 3 cards, but it works only if they have 3 or fewer Prize cards left), and Unfair Stamp (both players shuffle their hands back in their decks; you draw 5 and they draw 2, but it works only immediately after they’ve Knocked Out at least one Pokémon of yours on their last turn). Judge can also reset their hand to 4 and refresh your hand too. With the right timing, you can run the opponent out of options and slow them down enough for you to overtake them.
The mechanic of picking a card from their hand to discard is a famously difficult one to use; this is because you must understand your opponent’s deck enough to know what is the most important card they have in their hand. Picking the wrong one will not slow them down at all, and certain decks, like Ceruledge ex or Hide ’n’ Sneak, can even benefit from it. As a result, despite its relatively straightforward nature, this deck is one of the hardest decks I’ve ever built to use. It also loses its effectiveness greatly if the opponent can fully set up first, as Piercing Gaze can’t do much to a completed board state.
My first opponent was using Ethan’s Typhlosion, a deck that’s harder to beat than it looks, as it can deal high damage for 1 Fire Energy. Despite it being based on a fragile 1-Prize Stage 2 Pokémon, it is currently the top Fire-type deck in this format due the strategy being self-contained and the Ethan’s Adventure Supporter card fueling everything you need to get Ethan’s Typhlosion out and powering up the Pokémon’s Buddy Blast attack. Because I never got to make good use of Piercing Gaze in my first match, I have a second match here: my second opponent was using what appears to be an experimental deck based on Team Rocket’s Moltres ex, whose Evil Incineration attack discards the opponent’s Active Pokémon. This is different than a Knockout though, in that no Prize cards are taken. It wasn’t winning the Prize race, butI was running out of resources quick!
(Pokémon TCG Pocket will also happen to have its own Team Rocket’s Moltres ex card coming out in a few days from now. Its function is completely different, with different artwork even.)
