Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm TCG and welcome to another article here at CCG. Today we are going to take a look at a pretty straightforward deck that has emerged as one of the number one threats lately in this stage of the meta: Mini Blacephalon.

Baby Blacephalon (which was a popular way of referring to Blacephalon from Unbroken Bonds by the player community) is a card that debuted more than a year ago but never really saw much play. This one prize attacker was able to do massive amounts of damage by discarding fire energies from the hand. When it was first released, a pretty consistent version appeared with the recycling power of Wishful Baton but it was simply not its format. However, Blacephalon’s importance in the metagame grew stronger as the presence of the Tag Team Pokémon did. At the end of the day, one thing was to trade Blacephalon for a GX and other completely different was to do so with three-prize attackers. After the last rotation, the meta shifted towards decks like Mewtwo, PikachuZekrom and recently ADP. This meant that Blacephalon had at last had an environment to shine.

Currently, the deck is as powerful as it has ever been and not only because of the full tag team metagame but also because of the consistency cards that is has received. The ban of the turn 1 supporter made Blacephalon shift from the Pidgeotto-based engine (because Elm was not an option to do the set up anymore) so Blacephalon adapted a new approach. With a full Jirachi count, Oricorio GX and Lucky Egg, the deck patiently waits until it can gather all the resources and explode in one turn. The great part of this is that with the addition of Lucky Egg and Oricorio, it is really difficult to miss a KO because of all the draw power they provide.

In addition to that, another strong point of Blacephalon is that it is kind of budget friendly. I know. I know… Blacephalon is not the cheapest deck ever made but it is for sure one of the less expensive strategies once you compare it to the current meta decks. ADP Zacian, Mewtwo and Mill all revolve around very expensive cards like Zacian V and Dedenne GX but Baby Bacephalon does not depend on them as the rest of the decks.

And finally, one of the things I really like about Blacephalon is that its aggressiveness makes it a top contender against a wide variety of decks. Even something like the Obstagoon pairing has a solution: tech Kartenvoy (in combination with Phione) and these dark Pokemon won’t even stand a chance.

All in all, Blacephalon is without doubt one of the most powerful decks of the current meta and one you should be prepared for if you are heading for a tournament. Thanks for reading!