Lugia/Terrakion

Not the most reliable deck, but it is the scariest one if everything goes right. There's about 10 different ways to build, and then 50 different ways to play it. I played this at my Nationals since I knew I wasn't going to do well without having access to Darkrai, Tornadus, and Mewtwo, so I wanted something fun that could sort of compete.

2-2 Lugia LEGEND
2 Smeargle GS/CL
2 Shaymin UL
3 Terrakion
= 11 Pokemon

4 Professor Juniper
3 N

4 Junk Arm
3 Random Receiver
3 Switch
3 Super Rod
2 Ultra Ball
2 EXP Share
2 Dual Ball
2 Pokemon Catcher
2 Legend Box
2 Super Scoop Up

1 Skyarrow Bridge
= 33 Trainers

4 Rainbow
3 Water
3 Lightning
3 Fire
3 Fighting
= 16 Energy

It seems strange to add a fourth (!) Energy type to Lugia, but Terrakion adds to the anti-metagame aspect of the deck and covers Lugia's Lightning weakness. Eelektrik decks, for example, tend to use EXes like Mewtwo-EX and Tornadus-EX to beat it, so that's when you bring out Lugia to Elemental Blast for 2 prizes. If they KO Lugia with Zekrom or Thundurus, you have an easy Retaliate prize waiting for you. Darkrai decks are generally all EX attackers, with Darkrai being weak to Terrakion.

The key to mastering the deck is Energy manipulation. It has so many ways to get and keep Energy in play.
1) Lugia's Ocean Grow gets you all the Energy off your top five, and discards the rest. This is the way to get your turn 2 Land Crush in. If you can do this, you are on your way to winning.
2) EXP Share lets you conserve basic Energy in play. I've found it's more useful to put on Terrakion than on Lugia, since its attacking requirements are lower and it's harder to KO in one hit.
3) Shaymin lets you move energy around freely, multiple times through Super Scoop Up and sometimes Super Rod if they've KO'd it (happens rarely). It lets you move Fighting Energies you got through Lugia's power to Terrakions, take Energies from damaged Pokemon to fresh ones, rearrange attachments that were just to get Energy drops in play without actually having a use for them yet (say, early attach to Smeargle), etc. It's the most versatile card in the game, and it wins games all the time.
4) Last but not least, Legend Box has the most potential to get you an instant Elemental Blast. Unfortunately, it's so inconsistent for most of the game, which is why I only run 2. It's meant to be used lategame, when your deck is really thin (~10 cards) but you know there's Lugia pieces and Energy in there (best accomplished through Super Rod).

Unfortunately I took a loss to Vanilluxe/Vileplume right away, which is a good example of a bad matchup since it doesn't let me take 2 prizes at once, and also limits Super Rod and Junk Arm. I took another to an Eelektrik deck (that one could've been winnable), and one to Accelgor/Vileplume/Sunflora, which is basically an autoloss for the same reasons Vanilluxe is, as well as Terrakion's Grass weakness. The people I beat were, for the most part, not all that great. I actually ended up donking the lone Groudon of a friend of mine which was just awful. At the end, I was 4-3.

Lugia is a hilarious deck that's guaranteed to sharpen you as a player, as almost every game teaches you something new. I had a lot of fun testing and running it, and I know several inhabitants of #TCG did as well (rax, CaptKirby, and Huy may all run it at US Nats).

If you do not have access to the cards for it, I'd pass up on it due to the incoming rotation. If you do, and you don't want to or can't play a tier 1 deck, I'd say go for it!
 

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