Prop 15/3 Electric Slide

Prop 15/3 decklist that wishes to utilize a handful of heavy damage dealing Pokemon to achieve victory. Wigglytuff, Chansey, Rocket's Zapdos, and sometimes even Dodrio can all deal massive damage to opposing pokemon in the mid to end stages of the game. Electabuzz, Brock's Mankey, and Brock's Zubat function as supporting Pokemon alongside Dodrio's sweet retreat reduction. This deck is pretty well positioned in the Meta, while also being one of the more fun decks to pilot, check it out!

The name

Prop 15/3 decklist that wishes to utilize a handful of heavy damage dealing Pokemon to achieve victory. Wigglytuff, Chansey, Rocket's Zapdos, and sometimes even Dodrio can all deal massive damage to opposing pokemon in the mid to end stages of the game. Electabuzz, Brock's Mankey, and Brock's Zubat function as supporting Pokemon alongside Dodrio's sweet retreat reduction. This deck is pretty well positioned in the Meta, while also being one of the more fun decks to pilot, check it out!

The name I came up with for the deck is 'Electric Slide' and I believe it to be quite fitting, as you will find out in this primer and through playing!

𝗨𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗣𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗻

Dodrio's Retreat Aid puts in a ton of work for this list, and as such it should always be among the first Pokemon you should try to set up on your bench. It is quite literally the "Slide" in the title. With Wigglytuff, Electabuzz and Rocket's Zapdos all retreating for 2, you do not want to be in a situation where gust or an impossible matchup will cause you to have to pay the full retreat cost or sacrifice the Pokemon to conserve Energy. Getting 2 of them out is even better, but even a single Dodrio makes sure 80% of your Pokemon can retreat as desired, even Rocket's Zapdos effectively retreats for free thanks to Plasma! Doduo/Dodrio also function as great shields when you just need to buy time, as Dodrio's Rage attack becomes more viable the more damage it has taken. There's a really cool way to abuse Dodrio's Rage in this deck, which will bring us to our next utility card: Brock's Zubat.

Brock's Zubat really gets to shine in this list, as it always retreats for free, has a crazy draw engine through Alert when combined with a tank (Chansey or Doduo/Dodrio), and can provide you with free damage later thanks to Dodrio's Rage! Because of these things it is able to draw you out of tough spots or put you ahead on cards at the cost of a single Energy with minimal setup. In a format restricted to 15 trainers, 3 Oaks total, and where Chaos Gym makes you not want to play any of those things- Brock's Zubat really puts in work to get the cards you need in half the time. It's sort of like a Kangaskhan that doesn't just draw cards till it dies or is stranded in active unable to retreat. At 30hp however, Brock's Zubat will sometimes be a victim of bench damage and Gust- but usually you've already won that trade on sheer card draw power anyway. Getting the Doduo and Brock's Zubat "slide" going early in the game can yield a huge lead on resources, just make sure that your opponent's early damage pressure isn't going to outpace you! Once you have Dodrio in hand, evolve your Doduo and use Chansey as your Alert tank if you wish to keep drawing cards.

Similar to how Brock's Zubat can function to get ahead or break out of a stall, Electabuzz serves a similar function in buying this deck time to set up thanks to Thundershock! For 1 energy Thundershock softens up 70hp Pokemon for a Wigglytuff KO, while also slowing down the pressure your opponent can put on your HP by 50% due to Paralysis. Backed up by a fairly tanky 70hp, Electabuzz can stall the game just a bit to allow you to build up your bench before you attempt to sweep your opponent. For a second energy, Electabuzz can deal a healthy 30-40 damage as well, making it a pretty fearsome damage dealer when needed!

The last utility Pokemon in this list is Brock's Mankey, which primarily functions as a tool for punishing your opponent for playing Pokemon with hefty retreat costs or that they simply don't want in the active position. Aerodactyl and Muk come to mind as the two biggest threats to this deck that Mankey can really help you overcome, since Muk shuts off the retreat aid and disables your "slide" and Aerodactyl stops your important evolutions. Slap an energy on Mankey (who also retreats for free) and Taunt out a Pokemon to harass. If they play or discard cards to retreat those mons, that's good! Do it again until you achieve the desired result or Mankey is KO'd. Think of Brock's Mankey as a different kind of pressure to put on your opponent's gameplan, and another way to stall the game when needed.

The Beef

The core of this deck is obvioiusly Wigglytuff and the other massive damage dealers in Rocket's Zapdos and in some situations, Chansey. At the end of the day, your primary goal is to get these Pokemon online and ready to sweep prize cards. Note that both Chansey and Rocket's Zapdos deal damage to themselves, so this trade should always be on your mind and you should never put all of your eggs in just one basket. Wigglytuff are arguably the best Pokemon in the format and this deck's use of them is not out of the ordinary, they are your primary damage dealers. You should always be looking to get Wigglytuff and a full bench online, as it will be the tool with which you close out most of your games. Both Jigglypuff and Wigglytuff will often be the targets of Super Energy Removal and Gust, so don't put all of your eggs into one basket until you are sure you can sweep the game or have a backup Pokemon ready to deal big damage as well. Once you are on Wigglytuff, you often will not need to get off- so putting a couple extra energy on it is often a solid play in case of SER or needing to retreat.

The Spice

There's a bit of spice in this deck, even more than you've already read through and the first of the ****y cards is Defender. Defender's best use is during an attempted sweep to either protect your Wigglytuff from crack-back damage, OR (my favorite use) to keep Rocket's Zapdos and Chansey at healthier HP levels when unleashing their massive attacks that deal self damage. Rocket's Zapdos will normally do 30-40 damage to itself (30 if 1 Energy attached is not electric, 40 if all 4 are electric) resulting in dealing only 10-20 self damage. Cool huh? Well it doesn't stop there! Defender persists until your next turn, so it also reduces incoming damage by 20 during your opponent's turn- all but ensuring you get to take out another Pokemon in the 2 for 1 trade! With Rocket's Zapdos you can sometimes even Electroburn 3 times with a single Defender! The most I've ever done was 4 Electroburns, with help from an item finder, securing 4 prize cards with one Zapdos while I charged up a second attacker with energy from hand!

Chansey's primary function is just to tank hits or Scrunch-stall when needed before retreating out for free (with Dodrio), but it also comes in handy as a finisher or Pokemon capable of OHKOing an opposing Wigglytuff- both of which are significant roles.

The last bit of spice is nothing new to your average Retro Pokemon gamer: Super Energy Removal goes together with Rocket's Zapdos like Peanutbutter and Jelly. Thanks to Rocket's Zapdos's Plasma move, SER has almost no downside and is an easy synergistic slot into this list.

Conclusion

This list is extremely fun to play and equally consistent. Once you understand the meta a bit and get some reps in, you will find Electric Slide to perform very well and be quite versatile. I look forward to more Top 8 finishes in online and in-person Retro tournaments with this list, maybe someday even putting in the sweat to take home the gold!

Thanks for checking out this primer!

Special thanks to Jason Klaczynski, Pokemon 1999 Discord, and The Mana Vault MKE for keeping these Retro formats alive and expanding here in 2024! Cheers!