Ho-oh V Deck /w Diancie and Klinklang by Robin Schulz

Of course, the biggest concern is exactly how to attach all these different Energy to Ho-Oh V. Part of the answer is by using its own Ability, Reviving Flame. For the cost of ending the turn, Ho-Oh V can move itself from the discard pile to your Bench, along with any 4 basic Energy! The second part of the answer will be Klinklang, another new Pokémon from the Sword & Shield—Silver Tempest expansion. Most cards in the deck revolve around getting Ho-Oh V and Energy

Of course, the biggest concern is exactly how to attach all these different Energy to Ho-Oh V. Part of the answer is by using its own Ability, Reviving Flame. For the cost of ending the turn, Ho-Oh V can move itself from the discard pile to your Bench, along with any 4 basic Energy! The second part of the answer will be Klinklang, another new Pokémon from the Sword & Shield—Silver Tempest expansion. Most cards in the deck revolve around getting Ho-Oh V and Energy into the discard pile as quickly as possible. Two key cards are Radiant Greninja and Scoop Up Net: Radiant Greninja allows us to discard an Energy to draw two new cards, while Scoop Up Net can reset Radiant Greninja so we can use the Concealed Cards Ability again. This combination is amazing, and I don’t think the deck would work without it. Playing two of every available Energy type makes it easy to find enough of them to discard. This deck requires us to include four copies each of Quick Ball, Ultra Ball, and Professor’s Research to help us get Ho-Oh V into the discard pile. PokéStop is another great card for us, filling the discard pile while helping find those important Item cards. I also like Allister as an additional Supporter. Drawing three cards might not be impressive, but having the precise choice on what to discard is very helpful. To top out the Supporter lineup, we have two copies of Serena. Serena can act as another way to discard and draw cards, or to pull up opposing Pokémon V from the Bench.

Again, Reviving Flame has a major drawback: it ends the turn. This means the opponent could target our Ho-Oh V before we even get a chance to attack with it. That’s why Diancie is an important part of the deck! If we revive Ho-Oh V while having a Diancie in the Active Spot, the Princess’s Curtain Ability will protect it from cards like Boss’s Orders or Serena. This way, we can control when we bring Ho-Oh V into the battle.

We want to open with Diancie as consistently as possible, which is why I’ve included four of them in the deck list. Conversely, we do not want to open with a Ho-Oh V—it should be put into play only with its own Ability, which is why the deck list only has three of them. By using our discard engine in combination with Diancie, we reliably set up Ho-Oh V with four different Energy. Against some decks that’s good enough, but as calculated earlier, we need a few more Energy to Knock Out Pokémon VSTAR. Manually finding and attaching the missing types would be unreliable, so I’ve decided to add Klinklang to the strategy. We can use the early turns in which we hide behind Diancie to also build up the Klinklang line on the Bench. When it’s time to attack, its Triple Gears Ability can search the deck for exactly the types of Energy that we are missing, making it so Ho-Oh V will Knock Out any Pokémon we want! Thanks to Scoop Up Net, we can even pick up Klinklang and reuse it. If we happen to discard too many pieces of the Evolution line, or if we don’t have enough Energy left in the deck, the one Ordinary Rod can fix the issue. It’s worth noting that Klinklang has a usable attack that allows us to Knock Out otherwise annoying Pokémon like Miltank from Sword & Shield—Astral Radiance.

The deck may have a lot of moving parts, but our overall strategy is not complicated. First, discard enough cards to utilize Reviving Flame while protecting the Bench with Diancie. Then use Klinklang to find additional Energy types and score big Knock Outs! We should be able to set up two Ho-Oh V that hit for close to maximum damage every game. When attaching a Cape of Toughness, Ho-Oh V has an impressive 280 HP, which is enough to withstand most attacks and run over the opponent!

The deck does have its weaknesses, but I guarantee you will have a fun time if you try it out! There’s just something about KO’ing a Pokémon VMAX while having eight different types of Energy attached to your Active Pokémon.