Table of Contents
The Blastoise drop event brings new Promo cards for players to earn! Five Promo cards are up for grabs! promo-27, promo-28, promo-30, promo-31, and promo-29.
We have 4 levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced, and expert. This time around, we're facing a Water-type deck, and Lightning is our go-to deck to complete the missions since it's favored against Water. However, Advanced and Expert modes don't require us to play a Lightning-type deck, so we have more flexibility with our choice of deck.
As you go from Beginner to Expert, the tasks become harder, but your AI opponent will have a better deck, making it more difficult to beat them. I'll share the deck I've been using for this event and the tweaks I made for each level to fulfill certain tasks. This event will run from December 31, 2024 till January 14, 2025, so you have plenty of time to finish it.
Beginner
Squirtle Deck (Mythical Island)
Battle Task
| Mission | Reward |
|---|---|
| Knock Out your opponent's Active Pokémon 1 times with an attack from a Lightning-type Pokémon |  3 |
| Put 3 Basic Pokémon into play | 3 |
The Blastoise Beginner event has 2 missions which we can easily fulfill in one game! We have to play 3 Basic Pokemon in one game and knock out one of your opponent's Active Pokemon with a Lightning-type Pokemon.
a1-96-pikachuex decks are perfect for this job since they rely on multiple Basic Pokemon to fill up the Bench quickly and boost the damage of a1-96-pikachuex's Circle Circuit to 90. The Beginner AI's deck has low-health Pokemon only, so a1-96-pikachuex is more than enough to one-shot them and get you the win quickly.
a1-100-electrode and a1a-29-galvantula are great attackers for this event, capable of dealing 90 damage to one-shot the AI's Water-type Pokemon thanks to the +20 damage we get.
If you want to play a a1-95-raichu, this is usually the go-to list for players, but can be tweaked with a1-97-magnemite and a1-98-magneton.
I like a1a-27-electabuzz in the a1-95-raichu list because of his Thunder Spear attack, which deals 40 damage to any Pokemon of your choosing. Since the +20 damage from our lightning attacks only applies to Active Pokemon, a1a-27-electabuzz's Thunder Spear will deal 60 damage to the Active Pokemon only, and 40 damage to their Benched ones.
This is more f2p friendly for players that don't have the EX Lightning Pokemon and it should be more than enough for the event. a1-100-electrode, a1-101-electabuzz, and a1a-29-galvantula can knock out all of the opponent's Pokemon with 1 attack. We rely on coin flips with a1-101-electabuzz, especially if the Pokemon we're attacking has 70 or more.
a1-102-jolteon is another option to add to the list with an Eevee to evolve.
Intermediate
Blastoise & Cramorant Deck (Mythical Island)
Battle Task
| Mission | Reward |
|---|---|
| Knock Out your opponent's Active Pokémon 2 times with an attack from a Lightning-type Pokémon | 3 |
| Put 1 Stage 1 Pokémon into play | 3 |
| Win this battle by turn 14 | 3 |
The intermediate mode has the normal a1-55-blastoise as its win condition. 150 health means we'll need two attacks to knock it out, but it'll only get us 1 Match Point. We have 3 missions to complete, and one of them requires us to play 1 Stage 1 Pokemon, luckily all the decks I listed previously have a Stage 1 Pokemon.
a1-100-electrode and a1a-29-galvantula are enough as Stage 1 Pokemon to make sure we can get all missions in one game, both capable of knocking out all of the opponent's Pokemon with 1 attack except for a1-55-blastoise, you'll need two attacks.
The no EX version has multiple Stage 1 Pokemon, so it should work fine here.
Advanced
Blastoise ex Deck (Mythical Island)
Battle Task
| Mission | Reward |
|---|---|
| Win 5 or more battles |  4 |
| Win this battle using a deck where all the Pokémon cards are of ♦, ♦♦, and/or ♦♦♦ rarity | 4 |
| Win this battle by turn 14 | 4 |
| Win this battle without your opponent getting any points | 4 |
The Advanced event has 4 missions, the first requires you to win 5 or more battles. This means we have 5 games to fulfill all the other missions. For the second mission, you can't have any ex Pokemon the rarity of the Pokemon has to be ♦, ♦♦, and/or ♦♦♦ rarity. The third mission requires you to win a battle by turn 14, while for the fourth mission, you have to win a battle without your opponent getting any points. None of the missions require you to play a Lightning-type deck, so you can pick up another deck for the event. However, I'll focus on the Lightning-type decks for this article since they're favored in this Event.
Your opponent's deck now has a1-56-blastoiseex in it, capable of knocking out your Basic Pokemon with one attack. Luckily, they don't have a1-220-misty, so we don't have to worry much about them getting 2 Extra Water Energy to boost Hydro Bazooka's damage from 100 to 160.
So first we'll try fulfilling the no Ex mission, and at the same time, we can go for 14 turn win and prevent the opponent from getting a knockout.
The No Ex deck we were using in previous modes should work fine here. If we manage to win, we're fulfilling the "you can't have any ex Pokemon the rarity of the Pokemon has to be ♦, ♦♦, and/or ♦♦♦ rarity".
We could go for the 14-turn win with this deck, but we might struggle to prevent the opponent from getting a Match Point. a1-56-blastoiseex's Hydro Bazooka can one-shot our non-ex Pokemon, so we want to play something with more health.
This might be the best build if you're trying to prevent the opponent from getting a Match Point. a1a-29-galvantula and a1-96-pikachuex can play aggressively in the early game and get you knockouts, in the hopes you can win the game before they get a1-56-blastoiseex online.
However, if a1-56-blastoiseex is in play a1a-29-galvantula should not be in the Active spot, instead, we have a1-96-pikachuex or a1-104-zapdosex capable of tanking one hit and you can go for a a1-225-sabrina to one-shot a low health Pokemon if you already have 2 Match Points.
a1-99-voltorb and a1-100-electrode are also great instead of a1a-29-galvantula.
Expert
Blastoise ex & Vapreon Deck (Mythical Island)
Battle Task
| Mission | Reward |
|---|---|
| Win this battle using a Deck where all the Pokémon cards are of ♦, ♦♦, and/or ♦♦♦ rarity | 5 |
| Win this battle by turn 12 | 5 |
| Win this battle without your opponent getting any points | 5 |
| Win 10 or more battles | 5 |
| Win 20 or more battles | 5 |
Our strategy in the Expert mode is similar to the Advanced mode, but you'll have to sneak a faster win with only 12 rounds. You still have the same other missions to do, but it can be grindy since you have to win 20 battles. Luckily, this is the mission we'll be spamming since we're guaranteed a Promo Pack for each win.
Your opponent's deck isn't a joke anymore, they have 2 copies of a1-56-blastoiseex and a1-84-articunoex as their win conditions. a1a-19-vaporeon in the back as a support Pokemon to move Water Energy to their attacker and on top of that, 1 copy of a1-220-misty, which can single-handedly get them wins. On the bright side, your AI opponent has only 1 copy of a1-220-misty, so if they fail the coin flip with it, we're safe from getting aggroed down.
For the non-Ex mission "all the Pokémon cards are of ♦, ♦♦, and/or ♦♦♦ rarity", we'll rely on the no ex list we've been using, with 2 a1-225-sabrinas to try and force a a1-54-wartortle to the Active spot.
It'll be extremely difficult to win a game without your opponent getting any match points with this deck. All of your Pokemon can get one shot by a1-56-blastoiseex. a1-84-articunoex is another threat that could get the opponent a knockout.
If we want to prevent the opponent from getting a Match Point, the plan is to get 2 Match Points early in the game before a1-56-blastoiseex starts doing their heavy attacks. Then a1-96-pikachuex or a1-104-zapdosex can tank one hit before we go for the a1-225-sabrina to try and knock out a lower health Pokemon with one attack.
a1-225-sabrina is also great early in the game to force a a1-53-squirtle or a1-54-wartortle to the Active spot if they only have it on the Bench, allowing us to knock it out before they evolve into a1-56-blastoiseex.
Closing Words
The AI deck gets better as you advance through mode difficulty, so expert mode will be the toughest to beat. Fortunately, we don't burn Stamina Points on defeats, so we're not getting punished for a loss. This allows us to learn our opponent's deck and even tweak the list to better be equipped to beat it. Also. eventually, your AI opponent will get an unlucky game, which you can take advantage of to get the mission done.
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