Alolan Vulpix Chien-Pao

This deck looks to take advantage of the very quick energy acceleration Chien-Pao ex is capable of, while maintaining the ability to stonewall many attackers in the current meta with Alolan Vulpix VStar, who prevents damage done by pokemon with abilities. This deck has so far only been tested and used on the ladder in PTCGL, with a pretty good W/L record overall, and was inspired from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_xO3hduD-U&t=229s

Through experimentation, I've found that the Bibarel

This deck looks to take advantage of the very quick energy acceleration Chien-Pao ex is capable of, while maintaining the ability to stonewall many attackers in the current meta with Alolan Vulpix VStar, who prevents damage done by pokemon with abilities. This deck has so far only been tested and used on the ladder in PTCGL, with a pretty good W/L record overall, and was inspired from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_xO3hduD-U&t=229s

Through experimentation, I've found that the Bibarel draw engine was simply too slow in most games to provide meaningful value, so I replaced it with some extra energy, another switch, and an increase in the Alolan Vulpix line from 1-1 to 2-2. There were enough games in which I would prize a part of that line, making it unusable. The extra energy were added to take some of the stress away from always having one of the superior energy retrieval and giving the deck a bit more wiggle room when it comes to having the energy for Chien-Pao's attack. The switch came from starting with a bad starter too often and simply not having the outs to get the game plan going. 

Aside from being a way to wall so many decks in the format, Alolan Vulpix Vstar is a solid attacker in this deck in general, as it has a high enough hp to avoid getting ohkoed by many of the threats that prey on Chien-Pao, and doesn't require you to discard any energy for its attacks. Many decks based around Chien-Pao use Palkia Vstar as an additional attacker, but I don't like it quite as much, since Palkia in general can be easier to play around simply by not filling your bench, and often times, both Palkia and Vulpix will need to make 2 attacks to take a KO, so having that extra defense in Vulpix's attack is worth it to me. 

The game plan otherwise follows like any Chien-Pao list: get a bunch of energy into play with Baxcalibur, then attack. You'll usually want to start with Chien-Pao as an attacker to get use of its ability as many times as possible. If your first one gets KOed, you can switch into a second one or an Alolan Vulpix as your next attacker depending on whether or not the opponent's attacker has abilities, or if you need to stall to get more energy on board to do big damage with Chien-Pao. Radiant Greninja is a great way to win the mirror by KOing Frigibax before it can evolve, and in any matchup that leaves the opponent with squishy basic pokemon.