Howdy! Chien-Pao Baxcalibur is a competitive Pokemon TCG in the current Shrouded Fable meta, and many players have gone far in tournaments with this archetype. The list changes over time depending on the players and the meta, but the core cards and game plan remain the same.
Decklist
Pokémon: 17
2 Frigibax PAL 57
1 Frigibax PAF 17
2 Baxcalibur PAL 60
2 Bidoof CRZ 111
2 Bibarel BRS 121
2 Chien-Pao ex PAL 61
1 Origin Forme Palkia V ASR 39
1 Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR ASR 40
1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
1 Iron Hands ex PAR 70
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38
1 Iron Bundle PAR 56
Trainer: 34
4 Irida ASR 147
1 Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking TEF 145
1 Iono PAL 185
1 Cyllene ASR 138
4 Superior Energy Retrieval PAL 189
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
4 Nest Ball SVI 181
4 Ultra Ball SVI 196
3 Rare Candy SVI 191
2 Super Rod PAL 188
1 Night Stretcher SFA 61
1 Earthen Vessel PAR 163
1 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146
1 Prime Catcher TEF 157
2 PokéStop PGO 68
Energy: 9
8 Water Energy SVE 3
1 Lightning Energy SVE 4How to Play
This deck relies on Chien-Pao as its main damage dealer, presenting a threat early into the game. We’re trying to attach Water Energy on Chien-Pao and discarding a number of attached Energy depending on the damage we want to deal. The list runs cards to bring back the discarded Energy and to continue using them for more attacks. Baxcalibur is how we speed up the attachment process, capable of attaching as many Water Energy as we want from our hand.
Radiant Greninja is a basic Pokemon that remains on your bench and draws you cards, helping you find the resources you need. Radiant Greninja needs to discard an Energy card to activate Concealed Cards ability, but with our tools to get back cards from the discard, this shouldn’t be a worry to activate.
We rely on Earthen Vessel to draw 2 Basic Energy and start our game plan. If we’re missing a Lightning Energy, this is a reliable way to find it.
The main carry in this deck, Chien-Pao is an early threat that can easily pick off the opponent’s low-health Pokemon and can stack up the damage when facing higher-health threats. While in the Active spot, Chien-Pao can activate Shivery Chill and draw 2 Basic Water Energy.
Hail Blade needs two Basic Water Energy to activate, but you can discard any number of those Energies to deal the damage needed to Knock Out a Pokemon. For every discard of Basic Energy, you can do 60 more damage on your attack. So depending on the opposing Pokemon’s health, you’ll decide how many Energy cards you need to discard.
Baxcalibur is usually chilling on the Bench, providing a method for us to attach as many Basic Water Energy cards from hand to 1 of our Pokemon with his Super Cold ability. So this helps us set up our Chien-Pao attacks.
We could use him as an attacker with his Buster Tail dealing 130 damage, but this is only a last resort if we need an attacker to win the game.
To get Baxcalibur in play we need to have one of our Frigibax Basic Pokemon and Rare Candy to evolve them to Baxcalibur.
Origin Forme Palkia Vstar’s Star Portal synergizes with what our deck is trying to do, attaching 3 Water Energy cards from the discard pile to our Water Pokemon in any way. This is another method to attach Energy cards on Chien-Pao without solely depending on Baxcalibur.
Since we’re discarding Basic Water Energy, we’ll be using Super Rod and Superior Energy Retrieval to get them back. Superior Energy Retrieval is the better card here, putting up to 4 Basic Energy from our discard in our hand. As for Super Rod, we’ll be shuffling them into the deck and using Chien-Pao’s Shivery Chill to draw them.
Iron Hands is an alternative win condition with Arm Press dealing 160 damage, but Amp You Very Much is the late-game win condition, letting us take 1 more Prize Card if we Knock Out a Pokemon with it.
Other Cards to Include
Rotom V’s Instant Charge ability doesn’t require us to discard anything to draw 3 cards, but we will have to end our turn if we activate it. So we’ll mainly use it early in the game or on turns where we don’t plan on attacking.