Hey everyone! Five new Promo cards are up for grabs in the Venusaur Drop Event. Collecting them all can be a bit of a grind, so make sure to start early and use your Event Stamina. You can check out my guide on the best Fire decks to complete the event.
| Difficulty | Rate |
|---|---|
| Beginner | 51% |
| Intermediate | 64% |
| Advanced | 80% |
| Expert | 100% |
The 5 Promo cards: promo-22-jigglypuff, promo-21-onix, promo-20-haunter, promo-19-greninja, and promo-18-venusaur. Most of these Promo cards are identical to their normal version except for promo-22-jigglypuff and promo-20-haunter.
| Card | Chance |
|---|---|
| promo-18-venusaur | 12.66% |
| promo-19-greninja | 15.82% |
| promo-20-haunter | 23.84% |
| promo-21-onix | 23.84% |
| promo-22-jigglypuff | 23.84% |
Once you have the Promo cards, the next step is to show them off in battle. To do that, we need to build decks that they work best in, so I've picked a deck for each card to share here!
Promo Jigglypuff
Unlike the old a1-193-jigglypuff, Promo promo-22-jigglypuff only needs 1 Energy to attack with Sing, dealing 30 damage to the opponent's Active Pokemon and putting Asleep on it. We want to later evolve promo-22-jigglypuff to a1-195-wigglytuffex. We're gaining more health on our Pokemon, making it more difficult for opponents to knock it out, and can now attack with Sleepy Song to deal 80 damage and keep putting the opponent's Active Pokemon to sleep.
The Asleep condition is strong in this deck because it can prevent opponents from attacking and retreating their Pokemon. This slows down their aggression and buys you more time to push more attacks, slowly getting those knockouts. On top of that, we're running the a1-177-weezing line, activating Gas Leak on the opponent's Active Pokemon and slowly chipping away at their health points.
If we return a1-177-weezing to our hand with a1-222-koga, we prevent opponents from scoring an easy match point and can move a1-195-wigglytuffex to start activating Asleep.
Promo Onix
This deck is using a1-140-dugtrio and promo-21-onix for the early turns as you build up your a1-149-golem win condition. All Pokemon in this deck are non ex, so opponents will have to knock out 3 Pokemon to get the win.
a1-140-dugtrio only needs 1 Fighting Energy to activate Dig attack, dealing 40 damage and flipping a coin. If it's heads, you'll prevent the opponent from dealing damage to a1-140-dugtrio, helping you stall out the game.
As for promo-21-onix, he's a tanky Basic Pokemon that deals 70 damage with Land Crush. However, Land Crush costs 3 Fighting Energy to activate, so it can be a slow process for a Basic Pokemon. This is where a1-224-brock carries the deck, allowing us to attach a Fighting Energy to either promo-21-onix or a1-149-golem and accelerating our strategy.
a1-149-golem is the late-game carry, 160 health Pokemon with Double-Edge attack, dealing 150 damage to the opponent's Active Pokemon. This attack should knock out most of the Pokemon in your way, but its drawback is that a1-149-golem will deal 50 damage to itself, which could put you in a vulnerable spot on the opponent's upcoming turn.
Promo Haunter
a1-123-gengarex is a Stage 2 Pokemon with a unique ability, Shadowy Spellbind, that prevents opponents from playing any Supporter cards. This is a strong ability, but seeing that a1-123-gengarex is a Stage 2 Pokemon, it can be a bit slow until we have it online. Spooky Shot deals 100 damage, which is enough to knock out Basic Pokemon and you'll need to attack to knock out higher health threats.
a1-120-gastly and promo-20-haunter are needed for the early game so you can get a1-123-gengarex in play as early as possible. This promo-20-haunter only needs 1 Energy to activate Surprising Attack, flipping a coin, if it's heads, promo-20-haunter will deal 50 damage.
We need to stall early in the game until a1-123-gengarex joins in, so we have a1-203-kangaskhan and a1-127-jynx to play immediately. a1-203-kangaskhan is an early heavy hitter, flipping a coin and dealing 30 damage for each heads you get. Dizzy Punch only needs 1 Colorless Energy to activate, so you're sticking with Psychic Energy and don't have to overcommit resources.
As for a1-127-jynx, you'll need two Energy to activate its attack, so it is a bit more demanding, but it deals extra damage depending on the number of Energy attached to your opponent's Pokemon. So a1-127-jynx can be used as a game-winning line if the opponent has a Pokemon that needs a lot of Energy to activate its attack.
Promo Greninja
promo-19-greninja is one of the strongest Water-type Pokemon and is an inclusion in multiple decks. The two popular decks promo-19-greninja thrives in are a1-76-starmieex and a1-84-articunoex.
promo-19-greninja is a Stage 2 Pokemon, so he does require a couple of steps to set up. We want to have a1-87-froakie on the Bench as early as possible, evolve it into a1-88-frogadier, and then promo-19-greninja can join in. The neat thing about promo-19-greninja is that he's doing work even when on the Bench with Water Shuriken, dealing 20 damage to one of the opponent's Pokemon. So nothing on the opponent's side is safe from the extra 20 damage you can deal once every turn. This lets you snipe damaged Pokemon on the Bench, trying to hide from your attackers. promo-19-greninja can also step into the Active spot and attack with Mist Slash to deal 60 damage.
As for a1-84-articunoex, the Blizzard attack deals 80 damage, which isn't particularly frightening, but combined with the extra 10 damage you deal to all of the opponent's Benched Pokemon, you're not threatening to knock out multiple Characters in one attack.
a1-84-articunoex's Blizzard attack needs 3 Energy to Activate, so it's extremely slow for a Basic Pokemon that joins the Active spot early in the game. This is where a1-220-misty carries this deck. You're going to need a bit of luck here, but getting at least 1 Water Energy on a1-84-articunoex can change up the game drastically in your favor.
The a1-76-starmieex version plays faster, using a1-76-starmieex as an early attacker to put pressure on the opponent and have promo-19-greninja in the back for the extra damage. a1-76-starmieex's 0 cost retreat makes it easier to retreat it to the safety of the bench and have another one of your Pokemon take its place, making it harder for opponents to get a knockout.
Promo Venusaur
Lastly, the promo-18-venusaur a1-23-exeggutorex! promo-18-venusaur is a Stage 2 Pokemon that demands a lot of Energy to start finding value, so we need to have early Pokemon to stall out the game until promo-18-venusaur is ready to take over.
This list is running a1-23-exeggutorex, but you can also go for a1-30-lilligant as well. a1-23-exeggutorex only needs 1 Grass Energy to activate Tropical Swing, a powerful attack that deals 40 damage and flips a coin. If you get heads, then Tropical Swing deals an extra 40 damage. 80 damage in the early stages of the game can be game-winning, helping you knock out high-health Pokemon.
We need to have a1-1-bulbasaur on the Bench as early as possible to evolve it into a1-2-ivysaur. Since a1-2-ivysaur needs 3 Energy to attack, it can be awkward and slow to make use of Razor Leaf, so we'd rather keep him on the Bench until promo-18-venusaur joins in.
From there, promo-18-venusaur carries the game with his tanky body. promo-18-venusaur has 180 health and attacks for 80 damage with Mega Drain. 80 damage isn't much, but at the same time, promo-18-venusaur is healing 30 damage from himself whenever you activate Mega Drain, making it difficult for opponents to get the knock-out on promo-18-venusaur and buying you more turns to attack with him.
Since we're playing a Grass-type deck, we have to include a1-219-erika in the list. a1-219-erika heals one of our Grass-type Pokemon for 50 damage, an amazing Supporter card to back up promo-18-venusaur's Mega Drain, ensuring opponents don't knock it out too easily. a1-219-erika isn't tied to just promo-18-venusaur, but can also be used to keep a1-23-exeggutorex out of range from getting knocked out by an attack, forcing opponents to commit more attacks to remove it.
Closing Words
My favorite Promo card out of the five is promo-19-greninja with its Water Shuriken ability. I've seen so many different decks add the promo-19-greninja line into their lists as an alternate win condition. It's the best card to grab if you want to build unique decks. Although promo-18-venusaur doesn't see much play in tournaments, the Promo art is worth adding to your collection and the Grass deck can still hold its own in casual play.
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