Magcargo isn't a new deck - just plop your Slugma down, find your Magcargo, then go ham.

It's just that, the "find your Magcargo" step can be rather tricky. If you can't find it, it's pretty much game over for your lone Slugma in the active spot.

The good news is, this deck has been getting buffed. In fact, the latest expansion has made it quite consistent with regards to this critical step.

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The deck list is as follows:

• 2x Slugma
• 2x Spurt Fire Magcargo
• 2x Red Card
• 1x Pokeball
• 1x Pokemon Communication
• 1x Big Malasada
• 2x Maintenance
• 2x Heavy Helmet
• 2x Professor's Research
• 1x Iono
• 1x Pokemon Center Lady
• 2x Copycat
• 1x Hiking Trail

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I've got to admit, I overlooked Maintenance when this set was released. It's easy to see its pairing with Hiking Trail, but just this combo doesn't seem strong enough to include it in a space-limited deck.

Turns out, this combo is just one part of the story. The other combo is with Copycat, reducing your handsize to draw more cards.

Put Copycat, Maintenance and Hiking Trail into any deck with the slots for them, and you would have a very consistent specific-card-searching engine.

This isn't my idea by the way; I found out about in the first few minutes of this Youtube video: upgraded meta decks by PocketMads. (Tacking this combo to Magacargo is mine though.)

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Outside of the core pokemons, draw engines and the Maintenance combo, feel free to swap the cards around as you see fit.

Big Malasada and PCL are used to deal with sleep-scams. Red Card and Iono for disruption, Pokemon Communication to help find Magcargo, and lastly Heavy Helmet to extend Magcargo's life.

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Unfortunately, even with the improved draw consistency, it's hard for Magcargo to be on par with other mons due to powercreep.

Its 120 HP isn't enough to survive getting one-shot by heavy attackers who tend to do at least 130-140 points of damage.

Its selling point of a 150-total-damage-for-2-energies attack doesn't seem very strong when you consider the fact that Hydreigon does 130 damage for 1 energy. It doesn't help that the new Ex pokemons - especially the Megas - are so tanky.

So even if you manage to get Magcargo out by your second turn, a win is far from guaranteed. However, when the stars align... - that feeling is what draws me back to games after games in Pocket.