One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a Pikk Three article for you.  If you are not a frequent reader of this site I will explain this article series for you.  I will review three cards for you, one card is a commonly used card, another card is one that I think is under-used, and the third is a card that is from a new or yet un-released set.  Does anyone need to go the bathroom?  If not, we can start the show.

Card #1-The Staple-Typhlosion Prime

Description– Typhlosion is a stage 2 140 HP Fire Pokemon with a weakness to water and a 2 retreat cost.  Its Poke-Power afterburner lets you attach an energy card from the discard pile, and a damage counter to any of your Pokemon.  Its attack, called “Flare Destroy” does a lackluster 70 damage for FFC, but it has the awesome effect of requiring a discard from each of the active Pokemon.  The best part is that you get to choose which energy goes in both circumstances, that means you can discard the DCE on pesky Pokemon like Zoroark and Boufallant.

Analysis– Typhlosion saw a heck of a lot of play at U.S. Nationals this year with his buddy Reshiram.  Before that it was just a card that was used in rogue Ursaring Prime decks.

This card has a lot of synergy with the best draw Pokemon in the format, Ninetails HGSS, and one of the best basic attackers ever, in Reshiram BW.  Those buddies make Typhlosion pretty powerful.

Reshiphlosion did have a lot of success at both nationals and worlds, but some people doubt that it can succede with Pokemon Catcher.  In my testing I have found that Pokemon Catcher does not really hurt this deck, so I think this deck will still be powerful in the next season.

One knock on this card is that it is not the best attacker. 70 damage for 3 energies is not that great.  But, it is great to be able to disrput with the energy discard while attacking.  It can be game changing to discard an important DCE.  I know this firsthand, as I was crushing everything at Nats until Typhlosion discarded my DCE.

Final Rating–8.5/10– Ya gotta love this card as a freind for Ninetails and Reshiram.  Because of this card, the deck can keep on re-using energy making the deck very hard to beat late game.

Card #2-The Underdog-Ruins of Alph

Description– Ruins of Alph is a stadium card, you know a stadium card, its like a trainer but it always stays in play.  We have seen so little decent stadium cards lately that I am afraid for the most part that stadiums are dead.  This little card does still have a use.  The effect of Ruins of Alph lets you ignore resistance on every Pokemon in play.

Analysis– Being able to stop resistance could be good, or it could be bad, you just need to use it in the right situation.  So what is the right situation?  I think this card is best used with Donphan Prime.  If Donphan Prime were to attack Yanmega Prime with “Earthquake”, it would only do 40 damage, and would setup Yanmega for a 3HKO.  But if Ruins of Alph is in play, “Earthquake” does 60 damage to Yanmega, setting it up for a more manageable 2HKO.

Sure there are drawbacks, if your opponent is playing Primetime they can bait you into playing this card, and then attack Donphan Prime with Magnezone Prime.  This move would allow the Magnezone player to do an extra 20 damage to Donphan and probably save an energy from going into the Lost Zone.

But I think for the most part, Ruins of Alph works very well with Donphan Prime.   I played 1 Ruins of Alph in my Donphan/Samurott deck at Nationals and the card saved me in about 2-3 of my games.

The uses for this card basically stop there.  Sure other cards do have resistance that it would be nice to take away, but the main use of Ruins of Alph would be for a Donphan deck against Yanmega.

Final Rating- 8/10-In this format the ability to run over Yanmega’s like Omar’s car (see out nationals reports for the story) is very impressive.  Yanmega is probably the most popular Pokemon out there, so if you can win that matchup you should have an easy time at winning the game.

Card #3- The Young Gun-Durant

Description– The next thing up for review is Durant

No, not that Durant, this Durant.

It is a basic Metal Pokemon, it has 70 HP, a weakness to fire, a resistance to psychic, and a 1 retreat cost.  This Pokemon will probably be featured in the Noble Victories expansion.  Its first attack is what everyone is talking about, it is called “Devour” and it lets you mill (or discard from the top of your opponent’s deck) an amount of cards equal to the amount of Durants that you have in play for 1 metal energy.  His second attack, “Vicegrip”, is not very good, it only does 30 for CC.

Analysis– One of my favorite aspects of this game is milling.  I love discarding cards from my opponent’s deck.  It just makes me feel good.  So I always like when a quick and easy milling card comes into the format.  But will it be any good?

Well first lets take a look at what it does.  It lets you mill a card for each Durant you have in play for just 1 metal energy.  Now, that doesn’t sound too hard to get out.  Just run 4 Collectors and 3  Dual Balls, and you should be able to get 4 Durants in play on turn 1 no problem (as long as they aren’t prized).  And the metal energy could be a special one, which takes you away from the OHKO range of Yanmega Prime.

That all sounds well and good, but things get worse from there.  Milling 4 cards a turn is not really that much.  If you mill 4 cards a turn for 7 turns (the time it will probably take your opponent to knock 6 Durant’s out) you will have only milled 28 cards.  If your opponent started with 7 cards, 6 prizes, drew 6 cards, that will leave him with 13 cards.  Now I know some of those 13 cards will get drawn with draw/hand refresh supporters, and others will get searched out, but I think leaving 13 cards in the pile is just too much.  Its hard to say exactly because with cards like Judge you will be putting cards you drew from your deck and as prizes back into your deck, and that to the effect of cards like Flowre Shop Lady and it is so hard to say exactly how many you need to mill. But, I think if you mill 28 cards with Durant (and I am being generous with 28) you still will be a little shrot, so lets look at other cards that can partner up with Durant.

First you got Kyorge/Groudon Legend.  It has an attack that lets you mill 5 cards.  This could be a good finisher for this deck.  There is also a Magmortar that allows you to mill based on the number of fire energies attached to him.  You could add an Emboar tech, and try to finish off with Magmortar.  But, because of energy requirments I do not like any of these cards.  I think that Durant does not have the partner he needs yet to be good.

Perhaps I will play this deck if the format changes so it is easier to trap things in the active spot, but until then I think this card juts has too much going against it.

Final Rating–6/10- The format is not ready for Durant yet.

Well, thats all I got for ya guys today.  Please feel free to tell us what you think about this card in the comment box.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Category: Card Discussion | Tags: Durant, Ruins of Alph, Typhlosion Prime