ZPST is a Pokémon Trading Card Gamedeck archetype The deck's name is an acronym, with each letter representing one of the four main Pokémon used in it. These Pokémon are Zekrom, Pachirisu, Shaymin, and Tornadus. An earlier version of the deck, conceived before the release of Tornadus in Emerging Powers, was, not surprisingly, named ZPS. This version won the 2011 Canadian National Championships, bringing the archetype greater consideration as a viable tournament choice.
The main idea of the deck is to have Zekrom as the Active Pokémon, with Pachirisu, Shaymin, and three Lightning Energy in the player's hand. Pachirisu's Self-Generation attaches two Lightning Energy to itself when the player plays it onto the Bench, and Shaymin's Celebration Wind allows the Energy to be moved to Zekrom. Then, the player could simply attach an Energy to Zekrom normally, and this would give it the necessary amount to use its powerful Bolt Strike attack. Tornadus generally replaces Zekrom against Fighting-type Pokémon or in certain other situations.
Cards
Pokémon
Zekrom is the main attacker of this deck. With just , it can deal 120 damage using Bolt Strike. Unfortunately, it deals 40 damage to itself. Once it acquires enough damage counters, it can use its Outrage attack instead, which increases in power with each damage counter on itself.
Pachirisu's Poké-Power, Self-Generation, allows the player to instantly place two Lightning Energies on Pachirisu when it is moved from the player's hand to the Bench. Along with Shaymin, it helps Zekrom have enough Energy to quickly use its Bolt Strike attack.
Shaymin's Poké-Power, Celebration Wind, allows the player to move Pachirisu's Energy to Zekrom when Shaymin is moved from the player's hand to the Bench. Along with Pachirisu, it helps Zekrom have enough Energy to quickly use its Bolt Strike attack.
Tornadus is the secondary attacker of this deck. It has a resistance to the Fighting type and can deal 80 damage for by using Hurricane.
Magby is mainly used to counter Gothitelle. By using Play with Fire, it burns the Defending Pokémon for no Energy and puts itself to sleep. Magby's Sweet Sleeping Face then protects Magby from any damage while it is Asleep. Like many Baby Pokémon, it has a free retreat cost.
Trainers and Supporters
Professor Juniper is a Supporter card discards the player's current hand and draws 7 cards.
Sage's Training is a Supporter card that allows the player to choose 2 cards from the first 5 cards in their deck.
Professor Oak's New Theory is a Supporter card that causes the player to shuffle their current hand into their deck and draw 6 cards.
Pokémon Collector is a Supporter card that lets the player search for any 3 Basic Pokémon in their deck and show them to the opponent. Because all of the Pokémon in ZPST are Basic Pokémon, this can help with generating the requisite Pokémon for this deck archetype to work.
Pokégear 3.0 is a Trainer card that allows the player to choose a Supporter card from the top 7 cards of their deck.
Eviolite is a Pokémon Tool card that reduces any damage taken from attacks by 20 if attached to a Basic Pokémon.
Rocky Helmet is a Pokémon Tool card. If the Active Pokémon has a Rocky Helmet attached to itself, it damages the opponent whenever it deals damage to the Active Pokémon by using an attack.
Xtransceiver is an Item card that allows the player to search for any Supporter card in their deck, after flipping a coin and getting heads.
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.
The following cards are often used in ZPST in place of certain cards included in the above list.
Zoroark - Zoroark is often used because of Foul Play, which is helpful when dealing with powerful Pokémon such as Reshiram and Magnezone Prime.
Dual Ball - Dual Ball can replace Pokémon Collector, as both cards let the player search for Basic Pokémon. While Dual Ball has an inferior effect, Pokémon Collector is a Supporter card, and using Dual Ball instead would allow the player to use different Supporter card in the same turn.
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