Tatsugiri and Dondozo, an iconic duo within the most recent pokemon generations. I assume, cause I have no f@ing idea who they are really. Yet I feel for them, not because of their heartwarming symbiotic relationship, but because they’re extremely underplayed. The edgy wannabe within me wants to change that, and showcase how these 2 basic pokemon can serve a purpose in this harsh metagame ruled by big scary legendaries.

Tatsugiri’s Retreat Directive ability allows you to retreat Dondozo for free. This allows you to make use of smug whale’s high HP stat to tank hits and pivot effortlessly when needed. The ideal setup for this defensive core is of one Tatsugiri and two Dondozos on the board, so that you can tank hits and retreat into the other one at the appropriate moment, to buy you to time to set up a powerful 4th pokemon who can come in and single handedly sweep the opponent’s team.

Blastoise EX fits this role perfectly. 180 HP allows him to survive the vast majority of high end attacks in the meta, factoring in a Red boost. And his Hydro Bazooka attack caps out at 160 damage, allowing you to one hit KO meta relevant EX Basics equipped with a giant cape. Basically, once Blastoise is fully enabled, he is pretty much unstoppable.

Today’s deck goes all on in Blastoise, utilizing the Dondozo Tatsugiri defensive core to buy us time to not only find our pieces, but to build up 5 energy onto our all powerful cannon. The perk from running these 2 pokemon as our line of defense is we spare ourselves from the need to run trainer cards such as X Speed or Leaf, this results in us having more deck space for trainer cards that can help accelerate our energy generation, combat bricks to find our evolution pieces and heal our Blastoise from our enemies retaliation.

We even run Red to ensure Blastoise can one hit KO the bulkiest threats in the meta, such as Gyarados EX, and the likes of Palkia, Mewtwo and Giratina who’ve equipped a giant cape. I’m sorry, Blue.

Blastoise may be a slow win condition, but through clever pivoting, Tatsurigi and Dondozo will surprise you with their ability to tank our opponents early onslaught so that Blastoise can blow them back.