Barrier Swap (TCG)
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Barrier Swap is a Pokémon Trading Card Game deck archetype that is centered around the cards Erika's Dratini and Alakazam. It focuses on getting Chansey and Alakazam on the bench, while making Erika's Dratini the active Pokémon.
Cards
- Alakazam's Pokémon Power, "Damage Swap," allows a player to move a damage counter on one of their Pokémon to another.
- Erika's Dratini's Pokémon Power, "Strange Barrier," ensures that it only takes 10 damage for each time it is attacked.
- Chansey is typically never used as an active Pokémon, but rather sits on the player's bench, having all of Erika's Dratini's damage counters Damage Swapped to it.
- Erika's Oddish ideally starts off the game to poison the opponent's Pokémon, so they will slowly take damage throughout the game.
- All the commonly used trainers of that format are in this deck to help it burn through cards faster and root out the Pokémon it needs, such as Bill and Professor Oak.
- Although this is fairly uncommon, one version of the deck uses the Dark Vileplume evolution line to shut down all the opponent's trainers and extra drawing.
Strategy
An ideal starting Active Pokémon is Erika's Dratini, with an Abra and a Chansey on the bench. The player would then probably want to evolve their Abra into Alakazam as soon as possible, possibly using Pokémon Breeder. Then, a player would probably want to Damage Swap any damage Erika's Dratini takes onto Chansey, letting Erika's Dratini's "Tail Strike" move, do 10 or 30 damage per turn, depending on the result of the coin flip. After Chansey takes considerable damage, it should be returned to the player's hand using Scoop Up, and then placed back onto the bench to take more damage.
Restiction
Barrier Swap was banned from tournament play some time ago, do to the key cards, such as Alakazam and Erika's Dratini being too old for Pokémon Organized Play use. The sets they were in were removed in a Rotation, so the cards were no longer allowed. While Alakazam and Chansey were later reprinted in the Legendary Collection set, the deck could not function without Erika's Dratini, and was never revived.
If it Was Legal Today
If the Barrier Swap deck had never been banned, the main deck build, particularly the Trainer Cards, would greatly differ from the form described here. Cards like Bill would be exchanged for cards like TV Reporter and Pokémon Breeder would be swapped out for Rare Candy. Supporter cards would speed up the deck and make drawing and burning through cards easy and efficient. It could very well be the common standard for a well-built strategic deck of today's Pokémon TCG.