Hiroki Yano's B-L-S Deck Strategy

By Michael Martin

Hiroki Yano won the Ten & Under World Championship title this year playing a deck centered around Blastoise ex (EX FireRed & LeafGreen, 104/112). This card was released late in 2004, but for a whole year it was not successfully used in major tournaments. Its Poké-Power, Energy Rain, can only power up Water-based attacks on your Pokémon, and it has a major drawback that requires you to put a damage counter on the Pokémon you attach that Water Energy to for each Energy you attach. It was a good card, but not quite good enough…yet! Then a new kind of card came out toward the end of 2005: Holon’s Magneton (EX Delta Species, 22/113) and Holon’s Electrode (EX Delta Species, 21/113). These Pokémon can be put into play as Double Rainbow Energy cards instead of as Pokémon. Of course, they also have a drawback: you have to return an Energy card that is already attached to the target Pokémon to your hand. Yet combine either of these with Blastoise ex's Poké-Power Energy Rain, and you can power up any Pokémon's attack in one turn, no matter what its attack cost is! So, what Pokémon’s attacks are worth investing this much effort in?

Lugia ex (EX Unseen Forces, 105/115), Steelix ex (EX Unseen Forces, 109/115), and Latias (EX Deoxys, 105/107) all have very powerful attacks that are normally hard to power up, as they each require lots of Energy and lots of Energy discards. But putting Energy Rain together with Holon’s Pokémon allows them to be powered up turn after turn, blowing away the opponent’s Pokémon in one shot, whether they are Active Pokémon or hiding on the Bench, in the case of Steelix ex’s Mudslide attack.

Since its release, Pidgeot (EX FireRed & LeafGreen, 10/112) has been central to many decks, including this one. It allows you to search for any one card in your deck, letting you get just what you need when you need it. So, how do you get all these different Pokémon into play when there are so few copies of each of them in your deck? That’s what Plusle (EX Deoxys, 44/107), Celio’s Network (EX FireRed & LeafGreen, 88/112), and Pokémon Retriever (EX Team Rocket Returns, 84/109) are for—either for bringing cards out of your deck or for getting them back from the discard pile.

Another card that plays a very important function in Hiroki Yano’s B-L-S deck is the Stadium card Power Tree (EX Legend Maker, 76/92). First, it serves to replace any Stadium cards that your opponent might play. B-L-S depends heavily on Poké-Powers and Pokémon-ex, and there are many Stadium cards that either shut them down or make you take damage for having them. The primary function of Power Tree, however, is to get back your Water Energy cards that are being discarded so quickly by your Pokémon’s attacks. Since the only other "Energy cards" in the deck (the Holon’s Pokémon) count as Pokémon in your discard pile, their presence there doesn’t stop you from using Power Tree’s effect. Meanwhile, most of your opponents will be using Special Energy cards, which means that they cannot use your Power Tree Stadium card to help them. Anytime you can do something that helps you but doesn’t help your opponent, that’s a good thing. During the 2006 tournament season leading up to the Worlds Championships, various versions of B-L-S were among the most popular (and successful!) decks played, even though it’s an expensive deck to make, using no less than seven Pokémon-ex and Pokémon cards! But its performance at the 2006 World Championships shows why it works. So, get your copy of this World Championships deck and try it out now for a fraction of the cost. What a bargain!