Ancient Box Deck List and Strategy Guide
Temporal Forces is here and it’s clear that a new best deck has come with it – Ancient Box! It looks like a compelling strategy and also means that Lost Zone Box isn’t the only single prize deck to worry about right now in the Pokemon TCG standard meta. In this deck list and strategy guide, we will be looking at a top performing deck that did well at the Champions League in Japan piloted by Naoto Takahashi.
Ancient Box Deck List
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Pokémon (13)
4 Roaring Moon SV5K 51
4 Koraidon SV5K 52
3 Flutter Mane SV5K 33
1 Great Tusk SV5K 42
1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
Trainer (36)
4 Professor Sada's Vitality PAR 170
4 Explorer's Guidance SV5K 67
4 Earthen Vessel PAR 163
4 Nest Ball PAF 84
4 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186
3 Counter Catcher PAR 160
2 Trekking Shoes CRZ 145
1 Super Rod PAL 188
1 Superior Energy Retrieval PAL 189
1 Lost Vacuum CRZ 135
1 Awakening Drum SV5K 62
4 Ancient Booster Energy Capsule PAR 159
1 Defiance Band SVI 169
2 Artazon PAF 76
Energy (11)
7 Darkness Energy 7
3 Fighting Energy 6
1 Jet Energy PAL 190
Card Type
Ancient Box Deck Strategy Guide
Perhaps the best thing about this deck is its simplicity. Unlike the other reigning single prize champion (Lost Box) which relies on complicated combos, the Lost Zone, and moving damage counters around, you really couldn’t get more straightforward than this deck.
Flutter Mane slows down your opponent
To start, this deck runs three copies of a powerful new card called Flutter Mane. The reason that Flutter Mane is so strong is that it blocks your opponent’s active Pokemon’s ability. This is a very relevant ability right now, especially with Path to the Peak rotating out of the standard format. The one way ability shut off can be very powerful, and Flutter Mane is also a relatively strong attacker, dishing out 90 damage in addition to placing strategic damage counters on the bench. You can really use this card to not only shut down your opponent early on but to add incremental damage to the board that can come in handy later down the road.
Koraidon is your main attacker
Flutter Mane may be a handy Pokemon to slow down your opponent, however the strongest Pokemon at your disposal is the formidable Koraidon single prize Pokemon. This Pokemon dishes out 30 damage per Ancient Pokemon. And, given your full bench should easily get full of Pokemon, meaning this single prize Pokemon is hitting for 180 for just two energies.
Roaring Moon makes for a strong secondary attacker
While Koraidon is the main attacker you are going to use early and often, it’s not the only thing going for you in this deck. Roaring Moon is a powerful card that you can use late game. It dishes out extra damage for each and every Ancient card in your discard, meaning you get extra firepower for cards like Sada’s Vitality. That might not sound like a lot given the base damage is only 70, but you actually have a pretty insane damage potential. Given the sheer number of ancient cards in your deck, if you managed to get all of them into your discard, you could be doing a max damage of 350 dmage! That’s pretty insane from a single-prize Pokemon!
Sada’s Vitality makes up the bulk of your draw engine
So far, Sada’s Vitality hasn’t really seen as much play as a powerful card like this should. The ability to accelerate energy while simultaneously drawing cards is not something to be underestimated. Use it in this deck to quickly get either Darkness or Fighting energy onto your main attackers. You can also power up your Flutter Mane with Sada given its colorless energy cost.
In fact, Sada’s Vitality is so core to this deck’s functionality that this deck list runs four copies of Poke Gear, increasing your chances of getting a Sada’s when you need it most.
Awakening Drum is this deck’s secret sauce
Last but not least, this deck runs the powerful new Awakening Drum ACE SPEC card. This card lets you draw one extra card for each Ancient Pokemon you have in play, meaning that you can use this card in tandem with your other draw cards to keep your hand refreshed. The best part is it doesn’t take up your supporter for the turn because it is an item, giving you access to a pretty strong edge over the competition.
The Ancient Box deck is a powerful new archetype to come out of Temporal Forces, and will undoubtedly have a huge impact on the meta as we know it today!
