Riptide (TCG)

Riptide

Types used

Major cards	Feraligatr

Riptide is a Pokémon Trading Card Game deck archetype based around the Riptide attack of Feraligatr.

History

The idea for Riptide spawned soon after the Neo Genesis set was released. A player apparently realized that, combined with cards that could place energies in the discard pile at will, Feraligatr's Riptide attack could prove deadly.

Strategy

The point of the deck is to charge up Feraligatr and discard as many energies as possible quickly. Then, the deck can attack with Riptide for massive damage. While no energies are discarded from Feraligatr, the downside is that all the energies in the discard pile are shuffled back into the deck. However, the rest of the deck is packed with combos to cycle energies into the discard pile at an alarming rate. Trash Exchange switches the discard pile with the deck. This is amazingly useful to swap out ALL the energies in the deck, dealing enough damage with Riptide to knock out any Pokémon in the game (at the time). Many other ways exist, such as Professor Oak, or Misty's Wrath. The Baby Pokémon in the deck are techs against other popular archetypes at the time that this deck was legal.

Cards

Key Cards

Feraligatr is the main attacker for the deck, using Riptide to hit for 10 damage per turn, plus 10 more damage for each Water Energy in the discard pile.
Trash Exchange switches the player's deck with their discard pile, giving Feraligatr plenty of energy to boost Riptide's damage.

Other Pokémon

Totodile is mediocre by itself, and wouldn't be used except to evolve into Feraligatr.
Croconaw can deal pretty good damage for a stage one, but its main purpose is still to evolve into Feraligatr.
Elekid helps mount some form of offense when the player is focusing on more important things, like powering up Feraligatr.
Pichu hits any Pokémon with a Pokémon Power for 20 damage, annihilating most decks that compted with Riptide, such as Barrier Swap, as many decks at the time relied on Pokémon Powers to succeed.
Cleffa provides hand refreshment and increases the player's chances of drawing whatever card they need to get out Feraligatr.

Other Trainers

Professor Elm is an alternatitive to Cleffa if the player doesn't wish to waste their attack on card advantage.
Misty's Wrath lets the player pick the best two cards in the top seven of their deck and add them to their hand. In Riptide, the discard may actually benefit the player more than the drawing, by increasing Feraligatr's damage.
Gust of Wind can ruin the opponent's strategy by swapping out their ideal active Pokémon with a useless one with a high retreat cost.
Focus Band can give any Pokémon the extra turn it needs to score that crucial knockout or retreat.
Time Capsule can save a player from decking out in a pinch, which seems to be the biggest problem with this deck.
Pokémon Trader trades any Pokémon in the player's hand with any one from their deck, which can really speed up the deck.
Pokémon Breeder lets the player skip an evolution, like Totodile to Feraligatr, while normally Croconaw would be in the middle.

Energy Cards

Water Energy is crucial for obvious reasons.

Typical Decklist

The deck list appearing below is not official; it is meant to represent an average build of the archetype, not specifically constructed for any regional metagame. Being that this is merely an archetype, a player may wish to change any part of this deck when building his or her own version.

Quantity	Card Name	Type	Rarity
4x	Totodile
2x	Croconaw
4x	Feraligatr		H
1x	Elekid
2x	Pichu		H
3x	Cleffa
4x	Trash Exchange	T
2x	Professor Elm	T
4x	Misty's Wrath	T
4x	Gust of Wind	T
3x	Focus Band	T
3x	Pokémon Breeder	T
4x	Gust of Wind	T
1x	Time Capsule	T
4x	Pokémon Trader	T
15x	Water Energy	E	--

Restriction

The Neo Genesis set has been banned for play in Modified Format, so this deck is currently unplayable for any official tournament. All of the other sets represented in the deck have been removed as well, so any variation on the deck will most likely be unsuccessful.