3 x Velaren, Stratus Knight --- [cost 6 Lightning]
2 x Steadfast Aviator --- [cost 3 Lightning]
2 x Ultimus Prime --- [cost 8 Lightning]
2 x Aquila Superior --- [cost 4 Lightning]
3 x Motor Coil --- [cost 5 Lightning]
2 x Skyhunter Elisia --- [cost 4 Lightning]
4 x Shinanigan --- [cost 3 Lightning]
2 x Swift Peregrine --- [cost 2 Lightning]
2 x Avant Garde --- [cost 2 Lightning]
2 x Ahrival --- [cost 4 Lightning]
2 x Legann Band --- [cost 2 Lightning]
Spells (2 Radiance, 2 Gravity, 2 Earth, 7 Lightning, 13 Total):
2 x Ion Storm --- [cost 7 Lightning]
2 x Streak Lightning --- [cost 6 Lightning]
1 x Jumpstart --- [cost 4 Lightning]
2 x Singular Directive --- [cost 3 Gravity]
2 x Action Bolt --- [cost 1 Lightning]
2 x Call To Arms --- [cost 3 Earth]
2 x Quickfire Sedative --- [cost 2 Radiance]
Runes (1 Lightning, 1 Total):
1 x Locutor Matrix --- [cost 2 Lightning]
Cost info:
1 : LL
2 : RR LL LL LL L
3 : GG EE LL LL LL
4 : LL LL LL L
5 : LL L
6 : LL LL L
7 : LL
8 : LL
Average cost = 3.825
Creatures / Spells / Runes: 26/13/1
2 Radiance, 0 Wind, 0 Ice, 0 Water, 2 Gravity, 2 Earth, 0 Fire, 34 Lightning
Blockers: 25.0% (10/40).
Damage 2: 12.5% (5/40).
Power Attackers: 5.0% (2/40).
Responcers: 12.5% (5/40).
Unblockables: 5.0% (2/40).
Flaaffy used Thunderbolt!
This deck, purpose-made for the Pokémon tournament, has proven far more useful than expected. Its primary strength is speed: being a single element deck with powerful creatures, it can strike hard, and fast, particularly through Velaren. The single element makes CR get fairly ridiculous very quickly, meaning Ultimus, Streak Lightning etc. become 2-drops, making late-game combos a breeze. Or, a lightning bolt, as the case may be.Creatures:
The main focus of the deck is Velaren, Ultimus, Motor Coil and Elisia. Velaren is a great early game striker and still functions as one of the most powerful blockers in the game the rest of the time. Combining Velaren and Singular Directive is usually a fantastic way of forcing the enemy field into destroying itself. Ultimus increases the tap capability of the deck a tremendous amount, allowing field wipes with Streak Lightning on really big fields without needing to have tons of tap cards, and making Ion Storm much more worthwhile. Elisia takes advantage of this, making it have fairly ridiculous power levels when facing a field that has been Primed into exhaustion. Motor Coil deflects being tapped (since it resolves after effects like Shinanigan and Quickfire Sedative) and also can act as an attacker if one expects that the opponent will play anything at all next turn, forcing the opponent to decide between placing any creature/spell on the field and attacking.
Spells:
The deck here is not afraid to bring low-cost spells from other elements in order to boost its own utility. The most expensive non-Lightning spell in the deck is a 3-cost, Call To Arms, making it synergize quite well with the rest of the deck. The primary focus of these spells is to aid in preserving the intended flow of the deck, that is to say, wiping the enemy field when it gets too heavy, and providing support through tap and Velaren. Ion Storm and Streak Lightning are the primary field clearers, and Jumpstart is there for increasing attack power in a number of ways - both as an Action Bolt "complement" and blocker aid.
Runes:
After some testing it's been determined that Locutor Matrix is mostly superfluous given the flow of the rest of the deck, and will probably be removed in future instances of this deck for another Jumpstart.
Flaaffy's main weakness is a lack of draw engine, which it intends to counter by way of Call to Arms, as well as simply not needing to last long enough for draw to become an issue. (Though I did attempt to wedge Energy Charge in during early deck design stages, it just didn't work). Its second weakness is Ice decks, both because the deck must treat tempo like precious gemstones, and because a lot of its cards are 2000 power or "power up"; the only big hitters that could survive Hundra Tonia, for example, are Velaren and Ultimus, and both of those would become extremely weak after the hit. Ice decks need to be wiped out especially quickly or suffer destruction. Water decks can prove to be a problem, given Stealth Matrix, but the deck has enough tap capability to prevent a Water player's field from becoming too much of a problem too quickly. However, the user must be very careful.
The deck has enough CR for bounce to not be that big of an issue, and usually even if your blockers get bounced there will usually be another way to "stun" your opponent with Lightningy goodness. However, Legann Band is there both as a discard counter and a 2-drop, which aids in deck flow overall.
Flaaffy shines especially against Gravity and Earth (ironically enough), being able to take out big hitters before they grow (Ahrival) or by taking advantage of Ultimus' tap (Elisia). Fire decks are about even, barring Togami the Hitman, who is a very problematic card in this context, since there is not a single non-Regency creature in this deck. Lightning decks are a mixed bag; blocker and tap decks suffer tremendously, however. Radiance will find it hard to block and stay alive through the constant electric barrage.
Multiple-element decks (especially those with 3 and up) can suffer quite a bit against Flaaffy, since they will usually not make it to ~10 tempo, and if they do, it is mainly because their grid at that point is at 0. It takes quite a lot to catch up with this deck, even though it is not a rushing deck per se.
Possible improvements:
I still think that adding Psychic Incite would be a fantastic way of guaranteeing no surprises from the opponent (like an Imperial Blue to shake up all your hard work), but so far it has been very difficult to replace anything in this deck beyond Locutor Matrix. Another consideration is adding a Sparkball besides Motor Coil to make playing Ultimus easier, but I have not found one that suits the flow of this deck (though Jet comes close, he simply adds too much to the average cost).
Overall, Flaaffy has great potential and seems like it can become quite the deck.