Heatran doesn’t get the respect it deserves. 110 HP on a Basic that’s threatening 80 damage for 2 energy is just phenomenal, on top of that, with Arceus on the board ya boi goes turbo, retreating for free. I’m a big fan of the Infernape combination, as you end up with an end game board which pivots around effortlessly, trying to find the right time to strike hard.

Darkrai’s extremely popular, and this pisses Heatran off. The moment nightmare aura touches him, Heatran’s Ragin’ Mad Strike will hit for 80 damage. Darkrai also has 140 HP, which is exactly the amount of damage MONKE’s flare blitz unleashes. So I figured all in all, this meta ain’t all that bad for Infernape.

Today’s deck combines free retreats with powerful 2 energy based attacks enhanced by a diverse lineup of trainer cards. Rocky Helmet and Red allow us to put most meta relevant EX Basics at Flare Blitz range, even if they have a giant cape. Dawn is there to enable back to back monke attacks, making use of our lineups free retreats to save up energy for just that.

We don’t need to enable Heatran’s free retreat cost immediately, which is why we only run one copy of regular Arceus. To avoid giving our opponent’s 2 points upon its demise, and reduce our chances of having to lead off with him, though that does happen from time to time.

Infernape is pure fun, this deck can definitely be tricky to pilot correctly, as knowing where to place energy each turn is easier said than done, but if you do things right, Monke wins.