One Hit KO

Hey everyone in Om……ahhhhhh…… lets start this over.  A big hello to all of you O.H.K.O.ers, welcome to my first article on the new www.onehitko.com.  As you might know, Ed has changed the name of the site from “www.teamomar.com” to “www.onehitko.com”, to better represent what the website has become.  Ed will probably make  the official announcement soon.  This website was originally made to communicate between a couple people, and had a name to reflect that.  Now, this website is a trusted source to Pokemon players all over the world, and should not be limited to just one team.  Anyway, lets go and talk about the new deck that I just made.

How I Thought of It

I thought of this deck about 2 weeks ago while I was jogging.  I was thinking of how I can stand out in a format filled with Sabledonk, and I decided that I needed to start with Spiritomb.  The only way to guarantee a Spiritomb start is to run only 4 Spiritombs, and no other basic Pokemon.  Since Spiritomb does not evolve and cannot do any damage, I needed to think of another way to attack.  I first thought about using fossil cards.  But, I relized that you can start with fossils, and that they would interfere with Spiritomb’s “Keystone Seal” Poke-Body.  I finally came with the idea of using Legend cards.  The rules do not allow you to start with a legend, so there is no chance of starting with it.  Most legends also have good attacks, so it would be easy to knock out Sableye, Crobat G, or Uxie.

Now that I thought of using Legend cards, I had to decide which ones to use.  I thought using about 3 legends would be good, it would leave me plenty of room for supporters while giving me a good chance at drawing into at least 1 half of a legend.  So, I went through each legend and judged if it would work.  Dialga/Palkia Legend, didn’t fit because its a weird card that just adds prizes or takes away Pokemon, that doesn’t really counter Sabledonk very well.  Darkrai/Cresselia Legend doesn’t really work either, it just moves around damage counters and weird things like that.  Rayquaza/Deoxys Legend doesn’t really fit either, it can do a lot of damage but its attacks are too expensive and requires discarding.  Kyorgre/Groudon Legend is a great card, but its attacks are just too expensive for this deck, time might be called before you can load up a KGL.  The same energy problems that effects KGL, is an issue with HO-OH Legend.  Lugia Legend’s attacks only cost 3 energies, but they require you to discard 3 energies.  So none of those legends worked out, but the Legendary Dogs were perfect. 

There are 3 of them, and most of them have attacks that only cost 2-3 energies.  The best thing is that since the cards are related to each other, they use the same kinds of energies.  Entei/Raikou Legend can do 90 damage for just two energies, or can do 80 damage to any Pokemon with Poke-Powers on the field.  This is especially great for Sabledonk, because Sableye is the only Pokemon that will survive a “Thunder Fall” attack.   ERL will be your biggest attacker in the deck.  Suicine and Entei Legend can do 80 damage and burn the defending Pokemon with the “Buring Inferno” attack, which will cost you  only 1 fire energy and 1 DCE.  Raikou Suicine is the legend that I use the least, but can still be a good attacker.  Its “Aurora Gain” attack does 50 for WCC, but it heals 50 damage.  Its “Thunderbolt Spear” attack is good incase you are playing a different deck with a high HP Pokemon.  It can do 150 damage for LLC, while doing 50 damage to itself.

So, that was a long introduction.  The question is does the deck actually work?  Can it stop a Sabledonk? The answer is a resounding “yes”!  I admit that I have not tested the deck 100 times, but in my initial testings the deck has crushed Sabledonk every time.  Here is the strategy behind it.

How To Play This Deck

You will always have a Spiritomb start.  It will most likely be a single Spiritomb.  Your opponent can instantly win by starting with a Sableye, Special Darkness Energy, and a Crobat G.  All they would need to do is to attach the Special Dark, and use Crobat G’s “Flash Bite” to make sure Sableye has more HP then Spiritomb.  Then, Sableye can use “Over Confident” for the knock out.  But, the problem is they will rarely get all of these three cards to start with.

They will probably start first and then pass.  What you need to do is to use Pokemon Collector to get the other 3 Spritombs.  Trust me, unless you can get 2 Legends out on one turn, you will need a lot of Spiritombs for when you break the trainer lock.  You will pass, then your opponent will either attack (if he has an energy) or pass.  Next, you will probably have half of a legend card in your hand, so use Bebe’s Search or a hand refresh card to try to get the other half.  Put down the legend and attach an energy.

By this time, you might have lost a Spiritomb, unless you took a long time Mulliganing it is probably better to put up a second Spiritomb.  You will draw and probably use a hand refresh card.  Then attach an energy and work on getting a second legend out (probably ERL).  When they knock out the second tomb, promote the now fully powered Legend, use Twins to setup your 2nd and 3rd legend, and the game should be over. 

There is no way that a Sableye can beat a legend card, so as long as you didn’t run out of time you are golden.  When you get the 2nd legend the other player will probably scoop.

So that is how the deck works, now is the part where I talk about the bad parts of the deck.  The most obvious one is that you will have to mulligan a lot of times.  Usually I only have to mulligan about 2-3 times, it normally does not have an effect on the game.  It mostly just gives them more trainers that they cannot use.  The second bad part of the deck is the fact that you may not be playing Sabledonk.  Sabledonk will be the most played deck at this years Battle Roads, but if you even play 1 deck that is not Sabledonk, you could be in for a world of hurt.  Even decks that are considered to be way below average will have a good chance of beating this deck.  This deck was made for the sole purpose of beating Sabledonk, and thats all it can do.  Perhaps the deck can be teched to deal with other decks, but that will be up for you to decide.  So, the decision to play this deck is based on the metagame of your Battle Roads.

The List

So now we know how I made the deck, what it is, how to play it, and how it can fail; lets look at my sample decklist.  This is just a basic version of the deck and can be teched to play other matchups.

Pokemon-16

• 4-Spiritomb Ar
• 2-2 Entei/Raikou Legend
• 2-2 Raikou/Suicine Legend
• 2-2- Suicine/Entei Legend

Trainers-29

• 4- Pokemon Collector- Use it early, ignore it later in the game.
• 4-Bebe’s Search- The most important supporter after Collector, you need this to get your first full Legend.
• 3-Cyrus’s Conspiracy- To get an energy card, and a supporter that you need.
• 4-Twins- You will probably be a prize or two behind before you can attack.  Twins makes it easy to get Legend pieces out.
• 2-Professor Juniper-Great card, but you don’t always want to discard Legend pieces.
• 3- Profesor Oak’s New Theory
• 2-Engineer’s Adjustment
• 2-Sunny Shore City Gym
• 1-Expert Belt
• 2-Sage’s Training
• 2-Fisherman

Energy-15

• Fire-6
• Lightning-7
• Water-1
• DCE-1

Playing Other Decks

This deck was made for one purpose, to beat Sabledonk.  I never imagined that I would be pitting it against other decks.  This was more of a concept deck then a real one.  I wanted to see if it was possible to beat Sabledonk, now I can say that it is.  But, there is no use in playing a deck if it can’t even play the deck that it is designed to beat.  If a player tries to play this deck, they may not even see Sabledonk if everyone isn’t playing Sabledonk.

So, because of this fact I tried to test this deck against other decks.  The only other deck that I knew was going to get play besides Sabledonk is Gyarados, so that is the only other deck I tested against.  After making some changes to the list, I found out that Gyarados is just too fast for this deck.  Gyarados gets 3 prizes before the other deck can attack.  Once a couple of Legends hit the field the play becomes balanced.  “Who let the dogs out” will probably get a couple knock outs right away with RSL.  But at the end Gyarados will win because each Legend that it knocks out nets them 2 prizes.

Even though the Gyarados testing didn’t go too well, I was happy with what happened.  Most of the games were fairly close and if Gyarados didn’t have weakness on two of the three legend cards,  the game would have been totally different.  I think that if other decks are popular, this deck might have a shot at beating them.

Conclusion

So there is the deck that I made up.  What do you guys think of it?  Do you think that a deck that can only beat 1 deck will be able to work?  Or do you even care about Spring Battle Roads this season?

Category: Deck Discussion | Tags: Entei/Raikou Legend, Raikou/Suicine Legend, Suicine/ Entei Legend