Blacephalon/Naganadel (TCG)

Blacephalon
Blacephalon-GX and Naganadel Types used Major cards Blacephalon-GX, Naganadel and Beast Ring Era 2018-2019

Blacephalon/Naganadel was a Pokémon Trading Card Game deck archetype played in the 2018-2019 season. The deck's strategy revolved around accelerating Energy in the board to quickly deal knockouts with the deck's attackers. Blacephalon/Naganadel players ranked 2nd place in the Masters Division at the 2019 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Championships. Semifinalist Shintaro Ito's version was printed as a promotional World Championships deck, Mind Blown.

Strategy

Blacephalon/Naganadel focused on playing Blacephalon-GX's Mind Blown Attack to put Energy cards from the player's Pokémon into the Lost Zone and deal 50 damage times the number of cards sent this way, which in the right conditons could knock out any Pokémon in one hit. The attack required around 3 to 6 energies to knock out most popular Pokémon in the format in one turn, but the deck played multiple Naganadel due to its Ability to recover Energy cards from the discard pile, as well Beast Ring and later Welder as supporting Trainer cards to better setup more Energy cards in the board.

Naganadel itself could act as a secondary attacker that awarded only one prize card when knocked out, dealing more damage if the player had exactly 3 prize cards remaining. The deck later added Heatran-GX and Naganadel-GX as other backup attackers. Since cards in the Lost Zone could not be retrieved, the deck had a fair amount of Energy cards to make up for it.

Key cards

Beast Ring

• Blacephalon-GX - For two Energy, Mind Blown let the player put cards from their Pokémon in play (incuding Blacephalon-GX) to the Lost Zone and deal 50 damage times the number of cards sent this way. While Mind Blown could often not be able to knock out a Pokémon in the first turn, its other attacks that required only one Energy and would be usually played first; Bursting Burn burnt and confused the defending Pokémon while Burst-GX, only able to be used once per game, discarded a player's prize card and attached it to one of their Pokémon if it was a Energy card.
• Naganadel - Its Ability allowed to, once per turn, attach a Basic Energy card from the discard pile to itself, easing the continuous use of Blacephalon-GX's attack. Turning Point also dealt 80 damage plus 80 if the player had exactly 3 prize cards remaining and, as a Pokémon with 130HP, could survive certain attacks from popular decks, though its basic stage as Poipole could be easily knocked out.
• Naganadel-GX - As the deck already played Poipole, it was easy to include this Pokémon into the deck. Its Ability allowed to, once per turn, discard an Ultra Beast card from the player's hand to draw 3 cards. For 4 Energy, Venom Shoot dealt 170 damage to any of the opponent's Pokémon; enough to knock out, for example, benched Tapu Lele-GX. The attack required a Energy, covered by the deck already playing Beast Energy ♢ and most including an extra basic Energy even if unusable by Blacephalon-GX.
• Heatran-GX - When becoming the Active Pokémon during the player's turn, Burning Road allowed to move any number of Energy from the player's other Pokémon to it. Acted as a secondary attacker with sightly more HP than Blacephalon-GX and could, once per game, attack the defending Pokémon with Hot Burn-GX for 50 times the amount of Energy attached to itself.
• Welder - Attached up to 2 Energy cards from the players' hand to a Pokémon in play and then drew 3 cards. Could power up all attackers from the deck.
• Mysterious Treasure - Could search the deck for the Naganadel line and other Pokémon by discarding another card, commonly a Energy to be used by Naganadel's Ability later.
• Cherish Ball - Searched the deck for a Pokémon-GX.
• Heat Factory ♢ - Stadium that allowed to discard a Energy card from the player's hand once during their turn to draw cards. The lists would also use Ultra Space and Giant Hearth along this card.

Typical decklist

Zach Lesage's decklist at the 2019 Coinsville Regionals, USA

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
4×	Blacephalon
3×	Poipole
4×	Naganadel
1×	Ditto ♢
1×	Alolan Grimer
1×	Alolan Muk
2×	Marshadow
1×	Tapu Lele
4×	Beast Ring	I
2×	Energy Switch	I
3×	Mysterious Treasure	I
4×	Ultra Ball	I
1×	Heat Factory ♢	St
2×	Ultra Space	St
4×	Cynthia	Su
2×	Erika's Hospitality	Su
3×	Guzma	Su
2×	Lillie	Su
16×	Fire Energy	E	—
1×	Beast Energy ♢	E	—

Shintaro Ito's decklist at 2019 World Championships

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
4×	Blacephalon
3×	Poipole
1×	Poipole
3×	Naganadel
2×	Naganadel
2×	Heatran
1×	Dedenne
1×	Mew
3×	Beast Ring	I
3×	Cherish Ball	I
4×	Custom Catcher	I
4×	Mysterious Treasure	I
1×	Reset Stamp	I
1×	Heat Factory ♢	St
2×	Ultra Space	St
4×	Cynthia	Su
1×	Hapu	Su
1×	Lillie	Su
4×	Welder	Su
14×	Fire Energy	E	—
1×	Fire Energy	E	—
1×	Beast Energy ♢	E	—

Possible tech cards

Alolan Muk

The following cards are often used in Blacephalon/Naganadel in place of certain cards included in the above lists.

• Reshiram & Charizard-GX - Secondary attacker with more health than Blacephalon-GX, though it awarded one more prize card to the opponent when knocked out.
• Blacephalon - Secondary single-prize attacker for lists that also used Energy.
• Alolan Muk - Played before Heatran-GX was released to shut down Abilities from Basic Pokémon; lists with this card would play Ditto ♢ to make it easier to be put into play.

This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.