One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a deck article for you.  This is my first deck analysis for the Black and White on format, so this should be different.  This article will be about Reshiboar, yes Reshiboar.  This deck was first played in the HGSS-on format at Nationals 2011.  It kind of won Worlds that year (if you wanna argue about whether that deck was a Reshiboar or a Magneboar, you should probably get a life), but then it kind of fizzled out in a format with Pokemon Catcher.  But now it could be back, to check for sure , let us look at the deck more in-depth.  I will also give a little of my insight about the new format at the end. Before we get into the article, let us say hi to Pedro.  Hey Pedro do you have a news article for us?

Hey Pikkdogs.  Today’s news article is about the Olympics.  Do you have the Olympic favor Pikkdogs?

Oh I got the Olympic favor.  All the symptoms are there; inactivity, loss of productivity at work, and the belief that archery can be interesting.

Yeah that sounds like it.  As everybody knows the Olympic games started this past Friday with the opening ceremonies, that were kind of weird.  Did you think they were weird Pikkdogs?

Nope, I think that nurses dancing, kids jumping on beds, and Mr. Bean leading an orchestra sounds pretty normal to me.

Okay, I guess.  Now the Olympics are in  full swing with all the weird sports that we kind of know and love. 

The sports might be weird but I love the Olympics.  It is the one time that the world comes together and bonds over their love of sports.  If every day could be like the Olympics there would be no war and famine, we would all live together in harmony and peace.

That sounds nice. 

Plus, it is cool that I can watch rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized diving, and the triple jump and not be called gay.

No, I wouldn’t call you gay for that.  Maybe for that pink shirt you always wear, and for your incessant singing of “Call Me Maybe”. 

Fair enough, let’s just start the article.

Reshiboar- the Basics

Reshiboar is a very simple deck that has been around for a year.  Emboar BW has an Ability called “Inferno Fandango” that lets you attach as many fire energies as you want.  Reshiram BW has the “Blue Flare” attacks that costs RRC, and does 120 damage with a discard of two.  So as long as Emboar is out you can keep feeding energies on Reshiram and keep doing 120 damage.  Reshiram is also not an EX, so you don’t need to worry about giving up two prizes.  The deck works very simply, just keep feeding energies to Reshiram, and you should be good.

Here are some good and bad things about the deck.  The deck is good because it is simple and easy to use.  Almost anybody can play this deck and tech it out how they want it.  Reshiram hits hard enough to 2HKO any EX in the format, Eviolited or not.  It will also take out just about any Stage 1, and most Stage 2’s in one hit.  It is also simple enough to be set up fairly easily.   One bad thing about this deck is that Emboar has a large retreat cost.  If your opponent keeps on Catchering up your Emboar, this might be enough to stifle your strategy.  Another bad thing is that this deck needs a stage 2 Pokemon, that means it is a little less consistent and has only a little room in the skeleton list.

The setup of this deck is very simple.  In my decklist I run Emolga DRE as a starter.  He would be the one that you would want to start with.  If you don’t run Emolga, you can hope that you start with at least 1 Tepig, or with a card that can search him out.  Hopefully by turn 2 or 3 you can get your first Emboar, and then find Reshiram to start your attacking.  Things are fairly uncomplicated from there.

The Decklist

Here is the current decklist that I am using.  Of course it is still early in my testing and this decklist is not perfect.  When I first make a deck I usually make it very simple and bland, so you can tech it out and improve it from the list that I post here.

Pokemon-14

• 3- Tepig- I can’t tell you how badly I want to go to 4.
• 1-Pignite
• 2-Emboar- It would be nice to find room for a 3^rd.
• 4-Reshiram
• 1-Entei EX- A great card lategame when you are running out of energy.  More of a secondary attacker than something you want to rely on.
• 2-Emolga DRE- if you can fit in one more, that would great.  If you can find a list that works without it, that’s great too.
• 1-Mewtwo EX- A good tech that can be used against just about anybody.  You will never know when you will need this card.  You can run 1 more copy if you want.

Trainers-33

• 3-Energy Retrieval
• 4-Pokemon Catcher
• 3-Switch
• 1-Super Rod
• 2-Communication
• 3-Ultra Ball
• 2-Heavy Ball
• 3-Rare Candy
• 2-Random Reciever
• 4-Professor Juniper
• 3-N
• 3-Bianca

Energy-13

• Fire-13

Tech Options

There are a lot of techs to consider in this deck.

• Badboar– This is the other Emboar from Black and White.  It does not really help this deck out too much, but it can do 150 damage.  So if you need something that can do 150 damage, this is a good option.  You might need to run the 4^th Tepig if you do choose this option.
• Reshiram EX– This card is pretty much like Badboar, it can do 150 damage for a bunch of energies.  But, it does have sometimes damage itself which can lead your opponent to an easy two prizes.  Badboar might better for a big attacker, if you want one, but it is a judgement call.
• Rayquaza EX– Rayquaza seems to fit fairly easily into this deck.  You will need to put electric energies into your deck, but it wouldn’t be a huge hassle.  You just need to ascertain that he will help your deck in your local metagame, if that happens then you should change the deck around to accommodate this guy.
• Bouffalant– He can do 120 damage for CCC to an EX, so why not play this guy.  I don’t know if you need this card, but it doesn’t hurt.

Match-Ups

I don’t want to do a full on Match-Ups section, but I can talk a little about what this deck is good against.

This deck is generally a good all around deck and doesn’t have much that it is terrible or great against.  Most Pokemon in this deck are of course weak to water.  So if you go up against Empoleon or something like Kyurem EX, you can be screwed.  Also, if your opponent can max out their Pokemon Catcher potential (maybe something like Sableye), you also can lose easily.

On the good side, this deck is actually a pretty good match-up against a lot of the decks that are supposed to be good.  Mewtwo EX will be in all decks out there, and since Reshiram discards two energies after it attacks, Mewtwo will have a tough time OHKOing Reshiram.  The fighting Pokemon like Terrakion can’t really OHKO Reshiram, so you should have a good match-up there,  Tornadus is not really much of a threat either.  Zekrom decks can use a Plus Power to get an OHKO on you, but you can do the same.  So that match-up should be fairly even.

My Thoughts About Black and White-On

Okay, now that we are done with Reshiboar for a while, let us talk a little about the new format.  I am not saying that I have tested everything, but I think I have learned a little.  The format so far seems fairly even.  There doesn’t seem to be one card or one deck that can beat up everything.  Mewtwo EX is still the BDIF.  Even though Mewtwo EX doesn’t really have a deck anymore, it fits well into most decks out there, and can do a lot of things against almost all decks out there.  Mewtwo EX is a very versatile card that will be in every deck.

Stage 2’s are once again playable, but the format does still benefit the BBP (Big Basic Pokemon).  Without Celebi Prime, Mewtwo can no longer tear through every evolution line before it starts.  But there are still cards like Eviolite that favor these BBP.  The EX Pokemon are now in full force and they have more HP and hit harder than Stage 2’s.  But, the Quad decks no longer work as well without Junk Arm, so you are going to have to kind of adjust the current BBP decks.  To recap, Stage 2’s are still at a disadvantage, but at least they are a little more playable.

To speak about Supporters, they still will be used in the same way.  You can no longer use PONT, but decks can be changed so Bianca works as well.  I like to use a high count of Ultra Ball in my decks so that Bianca will be even more effective after I discard stuff with Ultra Ball.  Cheren can also come in to supplement things, but it’s not a crazy good card.  N will be a very popular card in the next format.  I know that some people hate this card, me included, but be prepared to shuffle your deck a lot.  Even someone like me who hates N, will be forced to play three copies of this card.  This means that if you have basic Pokemon in your opening hand that you want to play soon, you will want to play it down before the game starts because an N will normally come down on the first turn of the game.  The basic supporter line that I use is 4-Juniper, 3-N, 3-Bianca, and 2 Random Receiver.  This gives us 12 supporters and it seems to work fairly well.  If you don’t use discarding cards like Ultra Ball, you can use Cheren instead of Bianca.

Searching cards have also changed in the new format.  As I said before I tend to favor Ultra Ball because it works well with Bianca.  Heavy Ball and Level Ball work good in decks that have Pokemon that can be searched out by those cards.  I also still like Pokemon Communication.  If you are running a deck that has between 15-20 Pokemon, you should play Communication.  You should be able to almost always have a Pokemon in your hand, so you can play this card to get the Pokemon you want.  We do not have Dual Ball or Collector any more, but these cards along with Emolga seem to do the job well enough.

Here are a couple other random tidbits.  I do not like running two Super Rod’s.

Is this a comment about your feelings on gay marriage?

No.  Anyway- I feel that most decks can still run just one Super Rod.  Call me old fashioned, but one rod seems to work for me.  If you run two you are sure to always have one in your hand early game, and they seem to taunt you, they seem to say that you should have ran more consistency cards instead of this darn discard pile card.  Another tidbit is that I still can’t see anybody playing the Cilan card.  There seems to be room enough for a bunch of energies in today’s decks, so you shouldn’t need Cilan.  I also still like the Eel decks in this format, they work just as well as they always did.  The same goes for the Tornadi in the format.  I’m not sure if I like the fighting Pokemon, but I am not sure.

If anybody has anything to add, please do so in the comment section.

Conclusion

From my testing with the new format, I think that Reshiboar should be a good deck right away.  It may not be Tier 1, but it should be around Tier 2.  If you can get a good consistent list that has a lot of Switches in it, you should have a chance to do well at a tournament.  I think we can safely say that Reshiboar is back!

I am ready to leave, why don’t you wrap things up Pedro?

Okay, since we had an Olympics news article at the start, why don’t we do an Olympics themed “This Day in History’?  On this day in 1976 Bruce Jenner won the Decatholon for the U.S.  This win was monumental for the Americans as Jenner became a national hero.  His life has unfortunately been in a downward spiral ever since, as he is now relegated to the job of Kardashian babysitter and poster child of what can happen when you get your Botox at the 99 cent store.

It is really sad what happened to the guy, he was once a role model for every young boy, and now he is a cautionary tale for every man out there.

Let this be a lesson to every man out there, just say no the Kardashians and the world will become a much brighter place, until that happy day comes in which there are no more Kardashians to prey on single men. 

Well, said Goodnight everybody.

 

Category: Deck Discussion | Tags: Emboar Bw, Reshiboar, Reshiram BW