One deck that’s coming out in Surging Sparks that really caught my eye is the Ceruledge ex deck. This deck’s all about power – using vast energy reserves to dish out a ton of damage and take otherwise impossible knockouts.

Ceruledge ex also pairs well with the upcoming ACE SPEC called Brilliant Blender. I’m always excited to see a deck that fits so well with an off-the-wall ACE SPEC so that’s exciting as well.

Ceruledge ex Deck List

Ceruledge ex – card breakdown

Ceruledge ex is actually a pretty broken card. He’s this deck’s main and only attacker because…well…he’s all you need! The goal here is to get as many energy as possible into your discard to power up his Abyssal Flames attack. You aren’t even going to be bothering with Raging Amethyst, so don’t worry about that attack.

Otherwise, Ceruledge ex is a very easy attacker to get off. It’s only a Stage 1 Pokemon, meaning evolving it is easy to do. Meanwhile, if you have all 15 energy in your discard, you can hit for a whopping 330. That might sound like a tall order but thanks to this powerful ACE SPEC it’s actually relatively straightforward to achieve.

Brilliant Blender massively ramps up Ceruledge’s attack

While you have plenty of options to get energy cards into your hand and then discard them, Brilliant Blender massively speeds up the process, letting you send five fire energy from your deck to your discard. That equates to 150 added damage to your Abyssal Flames attack, meaning that playing this card alone gets your Ceruledge up to 180 damage.

Turn one – Earthen Vessel, Squawk and Seize and Carmine

Thanks to the cards included in this deck, you have the opportunity to unlock a powerful opening turn combo. Ideally – given this is an evolve deck – you’re going to go first. Then you’ll take these steps to set yourself up for success:

Load up your bench with two Charcadet, Squawkabilly and Radiant Greninja if you can.
Earthen Vessel for a full hand of energy. Attach one of those energies to Characadet.
Squawk and Seize into Carmine (if not in hand). If in hand, Carmine first then Squawk and Seize.

This deck list only runs two copies of Earthen Vessel but I would strongly urge you to run four. You need to get as many energies into your discard as possible – that’s the way you are going to maximize your damage output. Running Earthen Vessel makes it much easier to achieve this early in the game so you can start taking KOs as early as possible.

Situational cards

How successful this deck is going to be for you is how well you are going to be able to set it up. Luckily, you have plenty of cards to help you get set up, including Nest Ball, Buddy-Buddy Poffin, Ultra Ball and Fan Rotom.

Otherwise, your success is going to largely depend on how many energies you manage to get into your deck early on so you can start OHKOing anything on the field.

To help with a few outlying situations, this deck has a few situational cards to help out.

Jamming Tower

This deck really needs to OHKO three two prize Pokemon in a row in order to win. That means cards that boost HP are going to be disastourous for this card. For that reason, this deck astutely runs Jamming Tower to block effects from Hero’s Cape or Bravery Charm.

Alternatively if you want to even the playing field just a little, the new Gravity Mountain Stadium might be an interesting tech to try out in this deck. Which you choose just depends on what kind of decks you are expecting to play against!

Spiritomb

Spiritomb is a handy tech, blocking your opponent from easily accessing supporters via Lumineon V or other draw effects that could help them pull ahead early on.

The Pokemon Catcher play

Weirdly enough, Pokemon Catcher might be one of the most hated cards in the game today. Although it takes a successful coin flip to get off, if you land it, you could pull ahead in the prize race at an astounding rate.

Ceruledge ex is a deck that can’t really afford to get behind. However, you might not always have the exact energy you need to take a KO against the Pokemon you are facing. To that end, why not switch out a more advantageous matchup?

That’s why Pokemon Catcher is here – simply to ensure you always get that two-prize Ko.

Supporting cards that help

While these cards aren’t as core to this deck’s strategy, they can certainly help you pull ahead against the competition. Let’s look over each one in more detail.

Pal Pad

You’re going to be discarding a lot of cards in your aim to get as many energy into your discard as possible. There might be some collateral damage along the way in the form of Supporters you don’t really want in your discard. Pal Pad lets you bring them back. It’s not critical to have this card but including it could be helpful to find that Boss’s Orders to finish a game that’s just out of reach, or to restock your hand with a Professor’s Research.

Night Stretcher

Whether you need to bring back a Pokemon or an energy you discarded, Night Stretcher is your multipurpose tool making it easy to access the many cards you’ll be discarding throughout the game.

Jet Energy

Jet Energy may sound like a weird choice for this deck but including it actually makes sense. You can discard it via Brilliant Blender if you need. Meanwhile, you can use it to get out of sticky situations as a switch card. The benefit here is that it counts as added damage for Abyssal Flames, making it more useful in this deck than just running a basic Switch.

Additional cards to consider including

I’ve mentioned a few cards that could be interesting in this deck like Gravity Mountain and two additional Earthen Vessels.

Otherwise, I think a Fezandipiti would do well in this deck. It’s pretty much a staple at this point in most decks, and running it will help you draw a three additional cards after your Pokemon is knocked out.

Ceruledge ex looks like a fun deck to play. It’s consistent, and powerful, and not a deck a lot of people are going to see coming, making it pretty ideal if you are looking to take your opponent by surprise at your next tournament or even just climbing the ranked ladder on Pokemon TCG Live!

Ceruledge ex Deck List and Guide