2007 World Championships Deck Overview: Jeremy Scharff-Kim

By Michael Martin

Want to learn how to compete with the best? Then a 2007 Pokémon TCG World Championships deck is perfect for you. There are four powerful decks to choose from, and they are all available now! This overview reveals the secrets of Jeremy Scharff-Kim, 2007 Senior Division World Champion.

Jeremy Scharff-Kim has been playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game for about four years, and he has made some great friends along the way. In fact, some of his friends helped him to create the deck he used to win the 2007 Senior Division World Championships. To honor his friends, he combined their nicknames to create the original deck name "Rambolt."

Jeremy's deck is centered around Banette ex (EX Legend Maker, 85/92). This card dominated the season early on, then faded from popularity as players constructed decks to counter it. But as the season continued and other decks rose and fell from dominance, Banette ex began to fly under the radar and became an effective choice once again.

Why is Banette ex so good? Before we answer that question, let's look at its Basic form, Shuppet (EX Crystal Guardians, 40/100). Shuppet's Ascension attack allows you to search your deck for Banette ex and to evolve Shuppet immediately. As a result, Banette ex can almost always be ready to attack on the second turn.

For 2 Energy, Banette ex's Shadow Chant attack does 30 damage plus up to 60 more damage, depending on how many Supporter cards are in the discard pile. The ability to inflict up to 90 damage for a mere 2 Energy is amazing. There may be some more powerful attacks out there, but very few combine such high damage with such low cost.

Many of Jeremy's Trainer and Supporter cards are geared toward helping Banette ex's Shadow Chant attack reach its full potential. TV Reporter (EX Dragon Frontiers, 82/101), along with all of the Holon Supporter cards, requires that a card be discarded in order to play it. By choosing another Supporter card for that discard, you can get Banette ex's attack fully powered by the third or fourth turn of the game. 

The rest of Jeremy's deck is designed to keep the competition reeling. Solrock (EX Legend Maker, 25/92) and Lunatone (EX Deoxys, 36/107) are able to shut down the Poké-Powers of most Colorless-type Pokémon. For example, Delcatty (EX Power Keepers, 8/108) is used in many popular decks to draw extra cards each turn. By shutting down this drawing power, Jeremy's deck is able to severely slow down the competition.

Jeremy's Rambolt deck also uses the Crystal Beach Stadium card (EX Crystal Guardians, 75/100) to gain an upper hand. Many decks use Special Energy cards that provide multiple Energy for speed and flexibility. The Crystal Beach card makes them provide only 1 Colorless Energy each, rendering them effectively useless. The Pokémon Reversal (EX Unseen Forces, 88/115) and Cyclone Energy (EX Power Keepers, 90/108) Trainer cards are used to disrupt the opponent's strategy by dragging key Pokémon into play before they are fully powered up or evolved and then knocking them out.

Jeremy's bag of tricks also contains a wide selection of Pokémon Tools. Buffer Piece (EX Dragon Frontiers, 72/101) provides protection, Strength Charm (EX Dragon Frontiers, 81/101) lets him do extra damage at a key moment, and Crystal Shard (EX Crystal Guardians, 76/100) allows him to take advantage of certain Pokémon's weaknesses to Colorless-type Pokémon. As a final trick, Jeremy's deck includes one other version of Banette (EX Crystal Guardians, 1/100). This Banette is invulnerable to Pokémon-ex, thanks to its Safeguard Poké-Body.

With this combination of fast damage and disruptive tricks, Jeremy was able to achieve victory when it mattered most. See if this deck helps you to pick up a few tricks for your own deck!