Deoxys as a draw engine?

[u/CosmoticTravels]

Got a couple single boosters today (slightly above MSRP but oh well) and found a couple Deoxys in my openings, Psyspeed looks like an incredible draw engine move and I wonder if it'll be sliding into decks as soon as it's made legal.

EDIT: Thank you all so much for the advice. This is very helpful to know as I keep climbing the mountain of learning how to play TCG

[u/jowelost]

Draw engines that aren’t an ability don’t tend to be super viable, especially when the attack only does 30 dmg for a max of 5 cards in hand. Lillie’s and Dunsparce engine heavily outclass it imo

[u/Gilfaethy]

It's not really a functional draw engine because it requires you to give up your attack. The fact that it's a "draw up to 5" also means that as a turn 1 going 2nd it's probably just worse than Cleffa.

This card probably isn't playable.

[u/La_Ferrassie]

As an engine? Most likely never. You can't guarantee you open it every game, and go second every game.

Draw engines are a mix of trainers/pokemon abilities. For example Raging Bolt: the draw engine is Teal Mask Ogrepon. Bolt as an attack where you can discard and draw 6, but that's for late game digging, early game dead drawing, etc.

Deoxys has free retreat, hits for 30 + draw until 5. It's a perfect counter for Unfair Stamp + Budew lock. Still wouldn't be worth the space over more consistency cards, since you would need to either hit the Deoxys + energy from the stamp, or have it ready to go. Except that we have Dudunsparce as a much stronger alternative, and I would rather draw into something that would not "lose" me a turn trying to recover.

[u/rikertchu]

As others have mentioned, in the Pokemon TCG, using an attack for anything other than damage or limiting your opponent’s damage (e.g. retreat locking or confusion) is extremely costly and should come with commensurate upside to match. Celebi is seeing some play as a setup attacker because it finds both specific Pokemon as well as a Forest of Vitality stadium that is hard to search for, and importantly, the combination of Pokemon and Forest means it can be played immediately the next turn. Deoxys being just card draw is unfortunately way below the bar of playable for a support Pokemon

[u/Edmanbosch → u/rikertchu]

Cleffa has shown that an attack that does nothing else besides drawing cards is perfectly playable; assuming the attack costs 0 energy that is.

[u/rikertchu → u/Edmanbosch]

Yeah, the commensurate upside is:

• Free attack
• Free retreat
• Basic
• Draw up to 7

Deoxys does not have the commensurate upside to match.

[u/lmhTimberwolves]

I could see it finding its way into Mega Gardevoir or Clefairy Ogerpon as a 1 of, but it's not going to be a draw engine on its own. Just a way to burn your whole land, KO a budew, and draw cards.

[u/971365]

It would only be nice in the 1st turn of the game. But then you'd have to open with it in the active. Cleffa for example is playable because even if you don't open it, you can attach retreat and use its free attack

[u/Yankas]

Using attacks as a draw engine is almost always a last resort. Before rotation we had which didn't need an Energy to attack and drew up to 7 cards. Way better than the Deoxys, but it still saw very limited competitive play, and if you were using it at any point after Turn 2, you were in a really bad spot.

Meta is really fast, if you whiff an attack, your chances of winning the games go down drastically

[u/Japaliicious]

I'll actually against the flow of the comments.

This meta is really important to have an attacker when going 2nd, it's just that Budew and Celebi are way over the top. Cleffa saw some play last rotation while being a draw card, Solrock, Tatsugiri still here. Smoochum is now seeing some play.

Deoxys suffer from sniping only Budew and Smoochum, and needs to be played in a turbo psychic box to be properly effective. It could see some play at some point, but right now it's just too situational. Why not just play Smoochum or Budew themselves, you know?