Festival Grounds is a deck archetype that got some hype before Twilight Masquerade. However, I haven’t seen it getting a ton of notice lately. Could that change with Hydrapple ex?

I’ve done some preliminary testing with Hydrapple ex paired with Festival Grounds and it’s shown some very promising results. Not only is it fun, it has a suprrising range of versatility.

In this guide, we’ll be taking a look at my custom deck build for the Festival Grounds deck updated to Stellar Crown and including the behemoth that is Hydrapple ex.

Pokémon: 19
2 Hydrapple ex SV7 12
4 Dipplin TWM 18
4 Teal Mask Ogerpon ex TWM 25
4 Applin TWM 17
2 Grookey TWM 14
2 Thwackey TWM 15
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38
Trainer: 28
3 Festival Grounds TWM 149
1 Great Big Tree SV7 101
4 Gardenia's Vigor ASR 143
1 Lana's Aid TWM 155
2 Energy Retrieval CRZ 127
4 Ultra Ball SVI 196
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
1 Boss's Orders PAL 172
1 Counter Catcher PAR 160
4 Bug Catching Set TWM 143
2 Iono PAF 80
1 Vitality Band SVI 197
Energy: 13
13 Grass Energy SVE 1

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Festival Grounds Deck Overview

Hydrapple ex and the existing Festival Grounds deck have innate synergy thanks to the fact that Dipplin with the Festival Lead ability evolves into Hydrapple ex. Indeed, I see the release of Hydrapple ex as the final missing piece to this deck strategy. Now, suddenly you have a much stronger end game in the form of Hypdrapple ex.

Dipplin is your main attacker

Personally, I really dislike fumbling around with Rare Candies when I don’t have to. What makes this deck fun to me personally is that I don’t have to deal with the typical Arven into Rare Candy sequence that is the staple of other popular decks like Charizard ex.

Instead, you simply work on evolving into your Stage 1 attacker – Dipplin. This makes the deck pretty consistent, not to mention that Dipplin can do some pretty crazy things in the right situations. For example, you can use it to take multiple, one turn knockouts against low HP Pokemon. Meanwhile you can equip it with Vitality Band to take OHKOs against many popular Pokemon V and ex.

For scenarios where you really need to evolve a Hydrapple ex, you have Grand Tree. That will get you set up to start accelerating energies via its Recharge ability. Additionally, Grand Tree can be used to evolve any of your other Pokemon, so you can use it to evolve (for example) a Thwackey if you need to pull a particular card out of your deck. Speaking of Thwackey.

Thwackey is your card search engine

I really like playing Thwackey in this deck. His Bang Bang Drum ability is insane, and because it doesn’t have a rule box, you can’t shut it off via cards like Iron Thorns ex. As long as you have a Pokemon with the Festival Lead ability in the active spot, Thwackey’s ‘Bang Bang Drum’ ability lets you search for any card you want each turn.

What makes this ability extra good is that it’s not limited to one use per turn. This means that if you have multiple Thwackey’s in play and the conditions are meant, you can search for multiple cards in a turn.

Of course, there will come a time towards the end of the game when you won’t be able to use this ability. Eventually you will be looking to take KOs with Hydrapple ex or even Ogerpon ex. At that stage, you won’t be using Grooky. However, using it early game adds a ton of consistency.

Dipplin is your Festival Lead

Dipplin is the Pokemon you will need in play in order to use Thwackey’s phenomenal card search ability. Apart from posesing “Festival Lead,” Dipplin also has a fairly strong attack. Assuming your bench is filled to the brim, you will be swinging for 100 damage each time you attack. While that may not sound like a lot, “Festival Lead” also enables Dipplin to attack twice in a turn as long as you have Festival Grounds in play, even if it KOs the opposing Pokemon. Suddenly, Dipplin isn’t such a lightweight.

Festival Grounds itself is the Stadium card that makes Dipplin’s powerful ability work. Apart from that, it actually doesn’t do a whole lot.

Rabsca keeps your little Pokemon safe

Apart from that core strategy, this deck’s pretty straightforward to play. Because you have an insane card search engine built in with Thwackey, you don’t need a whole bunch of support Pokemon clogging things up. However, you will need to keep your relatively weak Pokemon safe while they are hanging out on the bench. This is where Rabsca comes into play.

Rabsca has Spherical Shield which protects your bench, keeping them safe from the likes of Dragapult ex or even stray shots from Radiant Greninja. Noteably, this also forces your opponent into a situation where they have to deal with an unfavorable prize trade. Typically the best way to deal with a single prize deck like this one is to take out two Pokemon in a turn and speed up the game. Rabsca, however, makes that pretty hard to pull off, leaving your Dipplin free to attack time after time.

How to use Hydrapple ex in this deck build

I like to use Dipplin early in the game to soften up my opponent, taking key knockouts or weakening big HP Pokemon so they are easier to KO later. But Hydrapple ex should still come out at some point. Once you’ve had the chance to get enough energies into play, Hydrapple ex is going to be your big finisher. To make things even better, relatively few Pokemon are actually capable of KOing Hydrapple ex in one shot, making it a very powerful force in the game.

Unlock unparalleled energy acceleration with these cards

Hydrapple ex benefits from every energy in play, so of course you are going to want to accelerate as many energies as you can onto your Pokemon. Luckily, you have an incredible amount of energy acceleration making this possible. Let’s start with the best first.

Teal Mask Ogerpon ex

Teal Mask is a Pokemon that almost needs no introduction given its dominance in the meta. But in this deck you might find its most natural fit to date. You can get Ogerpon very easily via your plethora of search cards and the phenomenal Bug Catching Set. Once in play, Ogerpon ex acts as your main draw engine plus energy accelerant.

It also has the favorable Tera typing which gets a big bolster in Stellar Crown. You can use it late game to take multiple prize KOs when combined with Briar.

Gardenia’s Vigor

When it comes to energy acceleration, however, I prefer not to put all of my eggs in one basket. This is why I run four Gardenia’s Vigors in my deck. This way you get to draw additional cards while also adding two additional energies to your Pokemon.

Hydrapple ex and Ripening Charge

Lastly, Hydrapple ex has its own powerful energy acceleration built in in the form of Ripening Charge. Not only does this enable you to play an extra energy, you get to heal your Pokemon when you use it as well.

In total when you combine all of these powerful energy acceleration cards, you can play an insane number of energies in a single turn. If you happen to lose any of your enegies, well use Energy Retrieval or Lana to get them back.

I absolutely love this deck and have since I built my Hydrapple ex during prerelease. While it’s still early days, I could see this build doing quite well competitively!

Festival Grounds Deck List and Guide