One Hit KO

[youtube width=”494″ height=”400″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFoYbDEUcF8[/youtube]

Hey everyone, sorry it has been a while. Both Kyle and I have graduated from high-school and college respectfully and have taken some time off from writing and creating videos. With Nationals gone by and Worlds coming within the next few weeks, we thought it would be a good idea to revisit some of the deck concepts we had been working on and that have proven to be consistent. In the past we have looked at both Donphan/Yanmega and Reshiram/Typhlosion, both of which had great showings at the US National Championship. Today we will once again take a look and see what makes these decks great in the metagame.

We will begin with Donphan/Yanmega. It is no surprise to anyone how well this did at Nationals and should be no surprise when it does equally well at Worlds. Attacking for high damage with low energy on turn two is a combination that is hard to beat. With the addition of Zoroark, damage output of the deck is potentially quite a bit higher and the theme of stage one efficiency remains. We have already discussed the attributes of the Donphan/Yanmega combination in the past so we will instead focus on the addition of Zoroark.

The deck in our prior testing seemed to have trouble against heavy attackers late game. While it could put instant pressure on your opponent and take several early prizes sometimes Earthquake and Sonicboom were not enough. Zoroark single-handedly rectifies this problem; against heavy hitters like Reshiram, Zekrom, and Magnezone prime it can copy their attacks and provide the OHKOs needed in the late game for a victory. The use of DCE means Foul Play is as quick to set up as the rest of the deck so there is no real downside to playing Zoroark.

The other deck you have seen before from us that made a huge impact on Nationals was Reshiram with Typhlosion. Many players felt that Emboar was the way to go with Reshiram noting that the damage taken from Afterburner could cost that match in a mirror, but it became quite obvious nearly all decks would be running significant lines of Pokemon Reversal and Junk Arm making Emboar a very easy target. Emboar has a very high retreat cost of four and a very inefficient attack. Typhlosion, with a much lower retreat cost of two and a much more efficient and disruptive attack could hold its own and even win matches if needed.

With the use of Typhlosion the deck does not have to worry about running cards such as Fisherman and can use other supporters for the turn like Engineer’s Adjustments and Sage’s Training to further setup or draw important cards such as Plus Power, Pokemon Reversal, or just to get energy flowing in and out of the discard pile.

Both of these decks should prove to be good plays for worlds, they are not overly weak to any one deck and should be able to hold their own against anything in the meta. One thing to note is that post Worlds these decks will continue to be good plays, the attributes that make them good today will remain and only get better with the addition of Pokemon Catcher when it is released. Junk Arm will be used to get other trainers instead of to try and reuse failed Reversals, so there are only positive things to come for these two archetypes.

For all those going to Worlds we wish you the best of luck, and for those who are not attending take a note of these two decks because you will be seeing them at the top tables next season for sure. If you are interested in some of our older playtesting videos with these two decks, be sure to check us out on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/misnos

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