Stupid Deck Idea

Stupid Deck Idea: Stoutland

coolestman22 October 31, 2012 10 Comments

Hey OHKO people, I decided it was time to get a new article out, and since I haven’t tested quite that much of Boundaries Crossed, I thought the category Pikkdogs oftenly used, “Stupid Deck Idea” would suit this better than “Deck Analysis”. Stoutland is probably going to be Tier 2-3, but I felt that a deck review for a deck that I am liking would be a good thing to do.

I have only played a couple games with Stoutland, so the deck might not be perfect, but I’m just going to post a deck I have been testing so you guys can get an overview of the deck and an option for something to play at a Cities if you opt

to.

Stoutland revolves around locking your opponent’s Supporters via Stoutland’s Ability, Watchdog, which, well, shuts off Supporters so long as Stoutland is active. On top of that, it attacks your opponent with “Wild Tackle” (Not sure about the English name of this attack, so for my proxies I just put in cool sounding names, such as “The All-Mighty Stoutland Attack”), which does 90 and has a possibility of hitting Stoutland for 20.

The problem with this strategy is that Pokemon Catcher can manipulate what you have active, and if something other than Stoutland is your lock is down. To counter this, I have found that if you set 3 Stoutland up by Turn Four and don’t bench anything else, your opponent can’t get out of this situation. If you can get an active Stoutland up early, they will need to burn a Catcher as well to play a Supporter, and without a Supporter they might not have a Catcher to use. This also helps when you’re forced to put down extra Lilipup because your opponent is attacking you and you are about to run out of Stoutland.

The first thing I have to say is that Stoutland basically scoops once your opponent sets up. Since the main idea of playing a Supporter is to get the things you need in your hand, if you already have everything you need on the field you don’t rely on Supporters as much. They’re a nice benefit, but you don’t absolutely have to play a Supporter most of the time when you’re fully set up. Stoutland’s attack also isn’t quite enough to keep up with most of the decks in the new format.

Here is a basic skeleton list I have to provide for Stoutland decks:

4 Lilipup BW 80
2 Herdier BW 82
3-4 Stoutland BoC
-9-10

4 Professor Juniper
4 N
3-4 Skyla
0-1 Hugh
-11-13

3-4 Rare Candy
3-4 Pokemon Catcher
3-4 Level Ball
2-3 Heavy Ball
3 Switch
3 Rescue Scarf
3 Hammer Mix (Can be mini-Hammertimed with Lilipup’s attack)
2 Super Rod
1 Computer Search
-23-27

0-1 Asperita City Gym
-0-1

6-7 Basic Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
-10-11

Total – 53-62

Lillipup

This is the best Lillipup in my own opinion. Being able to do half of a Junk Hunt gives you some access to some good plays where you Heavy Ball for one Stoutland and then get it back with Pickup, and then Heavy Ball again and Rare Candy to two Stoutland. It’s definitely not as good as Junk Hunt, but it gets a bunch of points for being part of the Stoutland family, and it allows you to use extra Hammers and Catchers. I feel like there’s a bit of an argument to be made for the Collect one, but in the end getting an Item back is definitely better than just drawing a card.

Herdier

This Herdier is the best Herdier because it can use Collect for a DCE to draw 3. It’s not a great attack and you wouldn’t want to play it in any deck where you can’t evolve it, but for a deck where Herdier is your Stage One to your Stage Two main attacker, this is the best Herdier available.

I could explain Stoutland, but that would just be explaining the deck’s strategy once again, which I already did above.

4 Juniper, 4 N

I feel like this is the best draw Supporter split a deck can have in this metagame. Because you have Skyla, you can use Skyla to search for the Supporter, and this deck runs mainly off of a Skyla engine. I feel like 8 Supporters is enough if you’re playing the 4 Skyla and 1 Computer Search, because that’s 13 outs, and 14 if you also play the Hugh.

Skyla

Skyla is the card that makes Stage Twos a lot better in this format. You can use it to search for the piece of your Stage Two/Rare Candy by getting an Ultra Ball (Or in this deck, a Heavy Ball), or the Rare Candy itself. I know a lot of people aren’t convinced that Skyla is a 4-of in everything yet, but I feel like it is in decks like this which rely on getting multiple Stage Twos out.

Hugh

Hugh is a tech that I play in my list just because your opponent’s hand is likely to be so built up from lack of Supporters, not just because they have cards they can’t play but because they have cards like Catcher that they’re holding on to, and cards like Switch that they don’t need to use, and cards like Rare Candy that they can’t use but need to hold onto for when they draw something specific . It could force your opponent to discard that Catcher they so desperately need to break the lock once you need to bench a Lilipup (Although if they do discard a Catcher they probably have another, N away), and at the same time it provides you with a nifty draw Supporter.

Rare Candy

I don’t feel a need to do that much explaining for Rare Candy in this deck. It is needed to get a Stage Two out on Turn Two, and it allows you to have extra Stage Ones in a sense. It is a staple in any deck that runs a Stage Two (Except maybe Vileplume decks in MD-on), and this deck is no exception.

Pokemon Catcher

Same with Rare Candy, I don’t feel like there’s much explaining to do as to why I run Catcher. This isn’t a Trainerlock deck and Catcher is an amazing card.

In this deck you can also use Catcher to take out the few Eelektriks that your opponent managed to set up, meaning that the little setup that your opponent needs to win is gone.

Level Ball/Heavy Ball over Ultra Ball

In this deck I think I would prefer Level Ball and Heavy Ball over Ultra Ball simply because you don’t have to discard cards with them and you can Skyla for the one you need. Heavy Ball gets Stoutlands out and Level Ball gets Herdiers and Lillipups out. The only downside is that it takes up more space, but with Ultra Ball you’ll end up discarding cards that you might want later.

Switch

Stoutland has a 3 retreat cost, and people might Catcher other Stoutlands without energy in order to stall for a bit. Having a couple Switch means you can Skyla for one if this scenario ever pops up.

Rescue Scarf

Right now I like this card in any deck that attacks with a Stage Two just because it helps you evolve the Basics/Stage Ones of it you already have down. In this deck it isn’t as important since you shouldn’t have Lillipups sitting too much, but normally when a Stoutland is KO’d you might want to put down another Lillipup. Rescue Scarf gives you that Lillipup even if your opponent does N, and it also gets you a Stoutland back.

Hammers

The third picture in a row that starts with S.

In decks like Stoutland which revolve around your opponent not setting up before you get a lock established, Hammers are great for buying you that extra turn before your opponent Night Spears you to death.

Super Rod

Sometimes your Rescue Scarves will get Tool Scrapped, which can force you to get a new Lillipup or Stoutland on the field. Super Rod not only increases your odds of doing so, but it allows you to later in the game as well.

Computer Search

Stoutland is one of those decks where you could use any consistency boost you can get, and Computer Search is great for that. It also allows you to Skyla for your Double Colorless.

Asperita City Gym

Yes, this is the Gym that gives all Colorless Pokemon 20 more HP. This is great for avoiding several magic numbers, such as Dragonblast or Night Spear + Wild Tackle damage + Bench Night Spear damage, and forces Keldeo to have one more energy (Which sounds easy, but under Supporter lock it’s harder than it sounds, especially if they haven’t set up a Blastoise). It also gives you a counter to other Stadiums if your opponent plays any (RayEels and Flygon decks both do).

Double Colorless Energy

Your main attacker’s attack requires CCC, which is perfect for Double Colorless Energy. There’s no reason not to play it.

Normally this would be the part where I would talk about techs, but with this deck I feel like you need to steer clear of techs (At least Pokemon techs). Why? Because with Stoutland, you need to have all Stoutland on the field at the same time to maintain a guaranteed Supporter lock. If you were to play a Pokemon down of any sort, even if you’re not planning on attacking with it, it’s still something that your opponent can Catcher up and break the Supporter lock with.

The Trainer techs, such as Hugh and Asperita are ones I’ve already talked about. If you have another idea, feel free to comment and let me know.

Normally this would be the part I talk about matchups (Hate to do this again), but I honestly haven’t tested them much. I have tested enough to know that if any deck sets up against you, it pretty much just wins. If you can establish a lock first, however, you win unless your opponent can break the lock or set up under the lock. If I test matchups I’ll edit this, but for now I can say something like this:

Hydreigon: Unfavorable. Because they have Junk Hunt, they can get the Candy-Hydreigon pieces they need to set up,

even under Supporter lock. If you can hit clutch N’s early game and attack early on, the matchup is in your favor. Otherwise, you kind of just bash them with your wimpy attack and hope for the best.

Eels: Slightly Favorable. Because they rely on Professor Juniper to discard energy, if you can get an early Stoutland out and your opponent doesn’t hit a Catcher, you can sometimes lock them out of Dynamotors. Then, once you start attacking you can Catcher-KO the Eels until they all disappear.

Blastoise: Even/Slightly Unfavorable. Because they rely on the hand for energy attachments, being locked out of Supporters means no Cilan, and no Juniper or N to draw into Energy. However, if they do manage to load up a Keldeo with enough energy to OHKO Stoutlands, you aren’t in a good position. If you run an Asperita, you might want to spend extra effort trying to get it.

Alright, that’s it for my Stupid Deck Idea. If any of you guys has questions or comments, Disqus has a nifty feature below that I encourage you guys to use. Thanks for visiting OneHitKO and bothering to read the articles, and I’ll try to put something new out soon.

Stupid Deck Idea

Pikkdogs Stupid Deck Idea: Spread 2012 (Registeel EX and Kyurem).

Pikkdogs August 4, 2012 7 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs with a Stupid Deck Idea.

Hey Pikkdogs, Do you know what is the difference between your Stupid Deck Ideas and a regular Deck Analysis?

What?

Honesty.

Good one. Anyway, we are here to look at a more radical deck in the new format, one that has to do with spread. You have already met my Extra-Dimensional sidekick Pedro, so Pedro why don’t ya give us a news article and send us to the article with some comedic momentum.

Well I can try. Today in the news is Captain Morgan. Morgan was a 17th century pirate who the famous rum brand is named for. Foxnews.com is reporting that archaeologists recently found cannons and wood that they think were from Captain Morgan’s lost fleet. Henry Morgan was of course a pirate who terrorized the area around what is now the country of Panama, historians say that his ships ran aground near the shores of Panama, and that the find of his lost fleet could be very historically significant to the area. Do you like the pirates Pikkdogs?

Well, on one hand I like them because I can say the word “booty” a lot and not get in trouble. But, on the other hand it is kind of strange to think that children idolize pirates in movies and story books when they are people that destroy things and kill people.

Kind of like the Kardashians. Some people idolize them and want to be like them, but they are really just a vicious group of girls that love to terrorize American culture.

Yes, it is kind of a weird paradox. Maybe it is because people dream of bucking the trend and going against the rules.

And they love large butts.

Could be it is all about the booty. Let’s start the article.

The Evolution of this Deck

I had the idea for this spreading deck when I was looking through the cards that were to come out in the Dragons Exalted set. I have had my eyes on Registeel EX for a while. I thought it would make a good tanking card, but after the format changed I realized that tanking is taking a back seat for a while. But, I did notice that the “Triple Laser” attack does work well with decks that like to spread damage around. I thought that he could work well with Kyurem, they both like to spread damage around and can hit the defending Pokemon if needed.

When I first put this deck together it failed miserably against Mewtwo EX. I know that not every deck needs to be good about everything, but Mewtwo will be common enough that you need a deck that can at least hold its own against him. It also wasn’t great against most EXs, once they got Eviolited the game was about over. It would take me 18 turns to spread enough damage to knock one out, there was no doubt that the deck didn’t work.

But, I did a little more digging and found some cards that could help save the deck. The first card was Siglyph DRX. This Pokemon has an Ability that makes it un-hittable by EXs, and it can hit Mewtwo EX for weakness. This is probably the most versatile Mewtwo EX counter we have. In testing it has not worked perfectly, sometimes your opponent can Pokemon Catcher around this wall, but it does help your Mewtwo match-up a lot. The second card that I found was Tool Scrapper. This is an Item card that lets you discard two of your opponent’s tool cards that they have in play. This is a great card in this deck because it stops the Eviolite card that screws this deck up so much. If you are able to spread 30 damage twice with Eviolites in play, you will only do 20 damage, which is really not anything. But, if you spread 30 twice without Eviolites, you will have 60 damage on those EX Pokemon. This leaves them with 120 HP left, which leaves them in KO range of Kyurem EX. Cards like Siglyph and Tool Scrapper may not make this a Tier 1 deck, but they at least save it from being unplayable.

Basics

I already talked about the deck a little bit, but now I will describe it in some more detail. The goal of this deck is to spread damage around early game and get KOs on multiple Pokemon at once. You will eventually kill off enough low HP basics that you will only need to directly attack the active a couple times in order to get a win.

The attackers in this deck are Registeel EX, Kyurem, Kyurem EX, Siglyph, and Kyogre EX. Registeel is your first attacker. You just need to attach a DCE and another energy and you can attack for 30 and snipe twice for 30. Kyurem is kind of like Registeel, but it is not quite as fast. Hopefully you will be able to attach an Exp. Share to Kyurem and get him going when Registeel EX gets knocked out. Kyurem can then spread for 30 all around, by this time you should have taken around 3 prizes. Kyogre EX does similar things, except it can snipe twice for 50. Kyurem EX can come in at the end and finish things off with his 120 damage attack. Kyurem EX can also disrupt with his attack that discards an energy. And of course Siglyph is here to act as a wall against EXs and to hit Mewtwo EX for weakness.

Decklist

This is only a version of an early decklist that I have. It is far from perfect and not something that I would take to a tournament yet, but if this deck works maybe you can make it work. Hopefully you guys will like the deck and try to test it and protect it.

Pokemon-9

2-Registeel EX
3- Kyurem
1-Kyurem EX
2- Siglyph
1- Kyogre EX

Trainers-37

4- Professor Juniper
3-N
3-Bianca
1-Cheren
2-Random Receiver
4-Pokemon Catcher
1-Super Rod
3-Tool Scrapper
2-Eviolite
3-Exp. Share
3-Switch
3-Ultra Ball
2-Heavy Ball
3-Potion-Nice card to turn a 2HKO into a 3HKO, but can be substituted out for other cards is needed.

Energy-14

Water-6
Prism-4
DCE-4

This is a fairly balanced and bland version of the deck. If you want to put another Pokemon into the deck, or something like Enhanced Hammer, you can take out the Potions and one supporter. There are about 5 spots you can work with and do what you want to without sacrificing any of the stuff that the deck has going on now, so that is a good thing with a deck that is in its early stages.

Match-Ups

It is very hard to give match-ups against a format that doesn’t really exist yet, but I can tell you a little about the match-ups I tested and what I can assume about the deck.

Reshiboar– This should be a decent match-up for you. Hopefully your spreading will do enough damage on Emboars and Pignites that you limit the number of Emboars that are out. Then you can Pokemon Catcher up Emboar to try to snipe around him. You will want to be careful against Reshiram, if you spread damage on him you will make It easy for him to “Outrage” for an easy two prizes against Registeel EX. Kyurem EX will be your friend if you need to knock out Reshiram. If you can hide Registeel EX and use Siglyph to counter Mewtwo EX you might be able to squeak out a win.

Zekrom and Eelektrik– This is another match-up that is fairly even. You need to use Siglyph here to go against Mewtwo EX, if you can’t take the Eviolites away and stop Mewtwo you will lose. Tool Scrapper and Siglyph need to be the MVPs of this game, if they aren’t you just might lose. The Eelektriks should be easy targets for your spreading. If you can stick to a plan against this deck you should be okay.

Hydreigon– Another game where you need to spread early to knock out evolutions. If you can limit them to one Hyrdreigon you should be able to win. Make sure to spread early to get around their Siglyphs, and have a Kyurem EX around to knock them out. If you can use Potion to turn Darkrai’s 2HKOs into 3HKOs you might be able to win. It should be a close match, but if you get your list down to how you like it, you might be able to win this more often than not.

Fighting– This match-up is hard to predict. Fighting decks have fairly high HP, so spreading could take a while. But, they also don’t do a lot of damage without you getting KOs. You should be able to use Potion to make it very hard for your opponent to get anything more than a 3HKO on any of your EXs. This match-up should go to the end, but hopefully the fact that you can take multiple prizes late game should give you a prize lead.

Troll– This match-up is kind of like the last one. It is a very hard one to predict. The game will be fairly slow as long as you use your Potions well. You can just hope that you can get rid of the Eviolites so that you can pick up some KOs on your spreading attacks late game.

Conclusion- Is it any good?

I don’t really know. It is still a decent deck, but if it is tournament worthy I do not know. This will be up to you if you can make the deck better than it is now. It will also depend on how the format works out too. I hope that this works out so we can bring the spread back. But, you know that they always say that the “spread is dead”, who knows if it will be resurrected.

Now that we got that done, Pedro, why don’t you end the article with some Olympic news?

Okay, the Olympics are about halfway done. The Americans had a very productive first week garnering the women’s individual and team gymnastic golds, a bunch of swimming medals, and in the hallowed grounds of Wimbeldon Serena Women’s grabbed the Women’s singles gold. What was your favorite part of the first week of the Olympics Pikkdogs?

All of the “Money Shots” in Water Polo.

Yes, quite a funny term. Got another dirty and hopefully humorous moment?

I like to watch the “Snatches” in Weightlifting.

Do you have one more?

Nope, but my favorite volleyball player is Destiny Hooker, that seems to be quite a funny name.

That is quite a strange name, you would have think that her parents would have thought before naming her that.

You would think. Good night anybody.

Deck Discussion National Championships Stupid Deck Idea

EelZone: The Thunderrated Nats Deck

coolestman22 June 18, 2012 2 Comments

Magnezone — I think I’ve lost my spot in Tier One.

Hey, it’s me, coolestman22 again. I’m trying to get a couple deck analysis articles in before Nats, so those of you who are going can see more options than just Darkrai/Tornadus and Zekeels.

As you guessed from the title, the deck I’m going to be reviewing is EelZone, a deck that I feel is extremely underrated.

EelZone’s history is that it was the BDIF during Cities. It had the most wins of any deck, and had good matchups against everything not Donphan.

EelZone was hyped to be good against EX’s. If you Lost Burned 4 energy you drew 2 prizes, so if you did that three times, you would win only using Magnezone instead of having to attack with other Pokemon.

The problem is that Magnezone is a Stage Two, and it’s hard to set up. Mewtwo Read More

Stupid Deck Idea

Pikkdogs Stupid Deck Idea: Aerpoleon (Empoleon DE + Aerodactyl)

Pikkdogs May 11, 2012 6 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a stupid deck idea for you. A stupid deck idea is like a regular deck analysis, but for some reason we do not have a lot of confidence in the deck. It could be more of a fun deck, or it could be a good deck that we just didn’t test out enough. A comment on one of my recent articles inspired me to check this deck out. It is kind of a swarm deck that features Empoleon as the main attacker and Aerodactyl in a Plus Power like role. We will get to that later, but now we must say “hi” to Pedro. Hey Pedro.

Hey Pikkdogs.

Would you care to start us off with a news story?

Sure. Journalist Dylan Byers at “The Poltico” blog is reporting that the POTUS, President Barrack Obama, has told us a lie. He did some researching and found out that in his 1995 Autobiography, Obama fabricated a story about a girl friend, when in truth no such girl friend exists.

He lied about having a girl friend? And that’s a scandal? I made up about 75 girl friends, I hope I don’t come under fire for this.

Maybe there should be more of an investigation going on in this matter. I don’t think you should be able to lie to the world of Pokemon players. You always talk about your collection of “Pokemon Groupies”. Describe one of them.

Hmmmmmmmmm…………well…………..of course I can name you one of my Pokemon Groupies, I have a bunch of them whom I have a lot of casual sex with.

Then, what is the name of one of them?

Okay, one of them is Annie, a reporter from Baltimore. She recently got engaged to her fiance, Walter.

You just described Meg Ryan’s character in the movie “Sleepless in Seattle.”

Oh, I sometimes get them confused. Okay, give me another chance. Another one of my groupies is Janet. She is originally from Indiana and now lives in California with her two roommates. She’s great, she has short brown hair and works in a flowershop.

You just described Joyce Dewitt’s character in Three’s Company. I’m beginning to think that you don’t have any groupies.

Well, if the President doesn’t have to stop making up girlfriends, then neither shall I.

Seems fair, start the article.

The Purpose of Aeropoleon

The goal of this deck is to build of a steady stream of Empoleons while having Aerodactyls on the bench. Empoleon has a Jumpluff like attack that does 10 damage for every Pokemon in play for one energy. It also has a built in draw engine that lets you draw two cards if you discard one. Aerodactyl has the Ability that lets you deal an extra 10 damage for every Aerodactyl in play. It is basically a free Plus Power on every attack. The decks goal is simple, just keep on doing damage with Empoleon while Aerodactyl bumps up the amount of damage dealt.

This deck is kind of weird because it includes a Fossil Pokemon ( or a Restored Pokemon if you want to be politically correct, which I don’t). There are two ways to get a fossil Pokemon out. One of those is to play its corresponding card (in this case Old Amber) and hope it is one of the 7 last cards in your deck. The other way is to play the Twist Mountain stadium card and hope you get heads on the coin flip to search out a fossil Pokemon and put it onto your bench. These two ways are not great and they are far from efficient ways of getting these cards out, but they are not too unreasonable.

To help consistency in this deck I added Smeargle CL. Smeargle lets you use a supporter card that is in your opponent’s hand if Smeargle is active. There are drawbacks to this of course, you never know when you will hit a supporter or which one it will be, and it is hard to get Smeargle back to the bench because of his retreat cost. There are a lot of drawbacks here, but I don’t think this deck would work very well if it didn’t have something like Smeargle in it.

Setup

On the first turn you will want to get Smeargle active. This will help you get 4 Piplups on the bench. You need to set yourself up for at least 1 Empoleon on turn 2, so your first turn is very important. On your second turn you need to use Rare Candy to get an Empoleon, hopefully you will also be setting up a backup Empoleon. Don’t forget that Empoleon has that built in draw engine, so you should be able to find almost any card you want. Once you get an Empoleon out, you can start thinking about the fossils. The easiest way is to get a Twist Mountain out and start flipping coins. It can get frustrating if Aerodactyls always get stuck in your hand, but try to use Pokemon Communication to put them back in there. Hopefully you will also be finding the fossil cards and hitting heads on the Twist Mountain flips. Once you get a bunch of Aerodactyls out you should be able to do a lot of damage.

The List

Below is the list of the deck that I tested. I will tell you guys that I don’t like this deck how it is, and I would not run it like this. I would probably take out Aerodactyl and try to find another partner for Empoleon. If I wanted to fix this deck, I would probably take out the Old Ambers and see if that would give me a little more speed.

Pokemon-16

4-Piplup
2- Prinplup
4-Empoleon
2-Smeargle
4-Aerodactyl

Trainers-37

Sage’s Training-3
Oak’s New Theory-3
Juniper-4
Pokemon Collector-4
Pokemon Catcher-3
Junk Arm-4
Dual Ball-1
Pokemon Communication-3
3-Rare Candy
2-Switch
1-Super Rod
3-Twist Mountain
3-Old Amber

Energy-7

7-Water

Testing Reaction

I didn’t get to do a lot of testing with this deck, but I did do enough testing to form an opinion about it. After testing, I just don’t like the deck. I don’t mean to doom Empoleon, he could still work, but I think he needs a secondary attacker with him in the same deck. Right now, all your opponent has to do is kill 3 Empoleons and 1 Piplup and the game is over. The deck also needs something to cover the lightning weakness, it doesn’t really have a chance on its own against Zekrom. So, we need a fighting type Pokemon to attack.

I also am not sold with Aerodactyl in this deck. Right now you need at least 7 cards in this deck for Aerodactyl , more if you use Old Amber, that just takes up way too much space and hurts consistency. Especially since the fossil PokÃ©mon are never consistent even with those 10 cards.

There is a possibility that this deck could work with Terrakion NV, This will cover the lightning weakness, and will give you another attacker to use when an Empoleon goes down. You do lose the extra damage that Aerodactyl brings, but you also gain the one million card slots that you need to give up in order to play a fossil PokÃ©mon. This idea seems like it could possibly work more than the original idea.

I will give you a little thoughts about things that were good with this deck when I tested it. One of the good things about this deck is the draw engine that Empoelon gives us. It almost always gives you enough cards to find what you are looking for, and that is a huge advantage. Another good thing is Smeargle, it usually gives you the extra supporter you need to either setup or recover from a knockout. The bad things are mostly about Aerodactyl. Aerodactyl always gets stuck in your hand, and there’s nothing good about having a fossil Pokemon in your hand. Plus, it always sucks when you flip tails or find no fossil Pokemon in the bottom 7 cards of your deck. So, having fossil Pokemon really hurts consistency. And what’s worse is that he always gets stuck active and you can’t really do anything when that happens. There is one more bad thing about this deck, and that is the slow setup of Empoleon. If you don’t get a good setup and the right cards on turn 2, you are kinda screwed. You need a lot to get this deck right.

Conclusion

So what is the future of this deck? I think that if you rework the deck, it could possibly work. I do not like fossils in this deck, so you need something else. I don’t wanna say that Empoleon will never work, but I think that you need a couple things in this format to change in order for the deck to be tier 1 or 2.

Hey Pedro, its time to end the article.

Alright. One of the biggest stories in the news is this mother of a 5 year-old girl who is accused of putting her in a tanning bed. Have you seen this lady Pikkdogs? The people at TMZ said that she looks like Admiral Akbar.

Oh yeah. Well, then It is easy to see why she is saying that all of the attention she is getting is a “trap”.

Do you think she looks like Admiral Akbar?

A little bit. Though I do think that she looks more like Cuba Gooding Jr, or maybe Isiah Washington.

One thing I think we can all agree on is that she is just one hamburger shy of going David Hasselhoff crazy.

Yes, but the bad thing is that we are all done and we have nothing more to talk about.

Well we could talk a little more, did you see the new Avengers movie? That was pretty cool.

Yeah, but I am just mad that they cut Ant Man out of the Avengers. Ant Man is so much cooler than Thor.

Ant Man is only good at a picnic. Thor is much better, there is even a whole day named after him, Thursday.

I guess you got a good point there. There is no Ant Man day, at least not yet. But, Ant Man is really cool and versatile. He can shrink down to microscopic size, or he can grow to be as tall as a giant like Khloe Kardashian.

Maybe they can fit the good Dr. Pym into the next movie.

One can only hope. Good night everybody.

Stupid Deck Idea

Pikkdogs Stupid Deck Idea: Regigigas/Cofagrigus NV #46/Vanilluxe ND

Pikkdogs April 9, 2012 14 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a Stupid Deck Idea for you. Stupid Deck Ideas are a series of articles where we talk about decks that are more towards the fun side of the game, more than the competitive. We also might call it a Stupid Deck Idea because we haven’t tested it a lot, which is the case with this deck. Before we tell you all about the deck, why doesn’t Pedro come in and give us a little news story to get us going? Hey Pedro.

Hey Pikkdogs. Today we have some news from the world of technology. Google has released information on a new product that will allow people to do things like check their email and surf the web without having to use a hand held device. “Project Glass” is a program that involves the use of smart phone goggles. They are an eye piece that you would wear like glasses that is connected to your smartphone, and you use them to view a webpage without the use of a handheld device. One would make the “click” on a link or scroll down a page by making head movements. Do you want to wear Smart Phone glasses Pikkdogs?

Not really, they look like the game that was being passed around on the Enterprise during The Next Generation Episode “The Game”. And I don’t have any special allegiance to the Ktarians.

You don’t think that Project Glass is just a mind control technique by the Ktarians to give away military secrets?

Well, maybe not the Ktarians, that would be crazy. Maybe the Russians.

Cause, we all know the Russians run Google.

They may not run Google, but what if the game started with the Google Guys, and know they are passing it on to everybody, and pretty soon everyone is passing around military secrets. Without Lt. Commander Data to save us, we might be overrun by the Russians.

Or maybe it is not a mind control device and it is just a way to view your email.

Possibly. A little bit of trivia about that episode, Ashley Judd plays Wesley Crusher’s girl friend.

And why is that significant?

Because, I now get a chance to show a sexy picture of Ashley Judd.

Before we start talking about the Judds, why don’t just get on with it and talk about the article?

Okay, I guess.

The Idea

I always wanted to do something with Regigigas EX since he was released. The artwork on the Full Art is just so darn pretty that I couldn’t help myself. It is just a crazy cool looking piece of art. My idea to combine him with Cofagrigus and Vanilluxe came from a deck idea that I saw on www.sixprizes.com. I think someone had combined those two with a Zekrom deck or something.

The glue that holds this deck together is Vanilluxe ND. He is here for his “Slipper Soles” Ability. This lets you switch you active Pokemon with one from the bench, and then allows your opponent to switch his/her active Pokemon with one from his/her bench. This is handy for when people try to bring up a bench sitting Pokemon to stall, you can just use this power to get the Pokemon you want to use back in the active spot. You can also use it to attack a Pokemon that your opponent does not want you to. It is a cool Ability that can be used in a lot of situations, and it is really useful in this deck which is kind of made for it.

So, Vanilluxe is probably the most important Pokemon here, yet he is not your main attacker. You can get into a debate on who the main attacker is in this deck, but that’s not a debate that I want to have with myself, so I will just skip it and talk about Regigigas EX. He is your first attacker in this deck, or, he will at least be the first Pokemon you want to have active. He can do 60 or 80 damage for CCC, or 50 damage for CCCC plus 10 damage for each damage counter you have on him. With a whopping 180 HP, there is no doubt that Regigias is a tank in this deck. You want to use him for some early attacking, but you mostly will want to use him to absorb hits from the opponent. When you have run out of avaliable HP on Regigas, you just use “Slippery Soles” to bring us Cofagrigus #46.

Cofagrigus is hard to spell, but I will give it my best. This is a very interesting card. He has 90 HP, a dark weakness, and a three retreat cost. His second attack is called, “Perplex” and it does 30 damage and gives Confusion for PCC. The first attack is called “Damagriiigus”, which is not a real word. The attack is impossible to say, and for PC, it lets you switch damage counters from one of your benched Pokemon to the defending Pokemon. This means that you can have Regigigas EX take a lot of hits, and Cofagrigus can throw it all right back at your opponent while healing the Gigas.

The Good and the Bad

Now that we know what this deck is all about, let us discuss the good and bad parts of it. The good part is that you seem to have a fool proof strategy. No Pokemon can OHKO Regigigas EX when he has an Eviolite on him (okay, so there are some, but it is fairly hard to do so), and it should be easy to switch out Gigas and bring Cofagrigus to switch the damage counters around. Another good thing is that the deck seems to cover a big weakness with Vanilluxe. You should not have to worry about having to pay retreat costs when “Slippery Slope” is avaliable. And there is no real way to counter “Slipper Soles” without knocking out Vanilluxe. Another good thing about this deck is that it is different and it is fun to play. No other deck out there right now is similar to this deck. Troll feels a lot like CMT and Six Corners, but this deck is very different from all of those decks.

The bad things about this deck are numerous. One thing is that things do not always happen as we see them. In out heads we see Gigas switching off to Cofagrigus effortlessly, but in real life it could be hard to do this when Cofagrigus only have 90 HP. It can easily be knocked out before it does its job, and without Energy acceleration, it could be hard to get energies at the right moment. This brings us to another problem, energy. While both attackers can attack with only 2 cards, energy drops are very important to this deck. Energy must be where it needs to be at the right time, and this can be very hard to deal with when your opponent is trying to disrupt you. Another problem with this deck is that it relies on at least two evolutions. You need to get a stage 2 out, and 1 stage 1. Historically, that is not a huge problem. But, in this format it can be very hard to get evolutions out when Pokemon like Mewtwo EX are out there attacking for large amount of damage very quickly. Getting the right number of evolutions out is going to be a problem when the format is so fast and basic friendly.

How to Setup

Setup with this deck is very important. Since some CMT decks can control the game from turn 1, you must get things going quickly. Hopefully, you will get a turn 1 Pokemon Collector, and are able to get 2 Yamasks and 2 Vanillites out, as well as your active Gigas. You are then going to want to quickly try to burn through your deck to find evolution cards and Rare Candies. Perhaps you could run a list that has Smeargle and Skyarrow Bridge in it, that would make it easier for you to get a fast setup.

The most important thing for you to do in the first couple turns, besides attaching energy, is to get a Vanilluxe going. If you get that out, things should get much easier. You can begin attacking, and hopefully a Cofagrigus or two will come soon enough.

The List

As I mentioned before, I did not test this deck out, it is just a rough idea in my head. So of course this decklist isn’t very good right now. But maybe someone will like it as a fun deck and make it. I made the trainer lines kind of weird in this deck to see if Smeargle will help you out. If it doesn’t work, take Smeragle and the Skyarrow Bridges out, and make it more Supporter driven. I don’t have room for Eviolite in this list, but I think I need this card in the deck. So maybe it can be worked in somehow.

Pokemon-20

3-Regigas EX
4-Yamask
4-Cofagrigus NV #46
3-Vanillite
1-Vanillish
2-Vanilluxe ND
3-Smeargle

Trainers-28

1-Super Rod
3-Skyarrow Bridge
3-Rare Candy
3-Junk Arm
3-Pokemon Catcher
4-Pokemon Collector
3-Twins
4-Professor Juniper
3-Professor Oak’s New Theory
2-Poke Gear 3.0

Energy-12

Double Colorless Energy-4
Psychic Energy-8

Match-Ups

Since this is just a fun deck I will not go in-depth with match-ups, since this deck probably won’t be doing that well. But, I will be talking a little about what this deck is good and not good against. This deck is good against decks that aren’t that fast, don’t have fighting Pokemon, and don’t do a whole lot of damage.

This deck is good against decks like Reshiphlosion and Zekrom. None of those decks normally run fighting Pokemon, so you are good there. The decks are also not super fast. Although you should worry about an EX doing 150 damage a turn, these decks normally will only be doing 2-3HKOs. You should be able to absorb a couple hits, and then bring up Cofagrigus to heal and knock out at the same time. These decks shouldn’t give you a huge amount of disruption, this will let you run your deck according to plan. Durant should be a good match-up too. As long as you keep energy on Regigas EX, you shouldn’t have much of a problem. You just need to pray that they don’t get a lot of heads on Crushing Hammer flips.

This deck is bad against decks like Troll, 4 Terrakion, and CMT. Troll and 4 Terrakions can hit this deck for weakness, so you don’t want to get into a match with these guys. CMT is just too fast and probably won’t let you setup all of your evolutions.

Conclusion

So, now you should know a little about this deck. It probably is more of a fun deck that lets you use your pretty Regigigas EX cards, than something you want to take to Regionals or Spring Battle Roads. But, who knows maybe you will give it a try and like it, stranger things have happened.

Okay, I’m all done. Hey Pedro, what do you have for us to end the article with?

Well as we all know, today is a big day. It is Croatian Independence day!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhh Pedro, I don’t think we care that much about Crotian Independence.

Why Not? On this day in 1941, Italy and Germany, of the Axis Powers, helped create the country of Croatia out of Yugoslavia. It was originally just a puppet state for the Axis, but as the Allies Invaded deeper into Europe, a democratic government was soon elected.

Yeah, still not a big fan.

What’s wrong with the Croats. In the world of sports today, a lot of people are Croation or have Croatian ancestry. People like Milwaukee Bucks Center Andrew Bogut, Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichek, tall tennis pro Ivo Karlovic, ESPN’s Mike Golic, Former member of Michael Jordan’s Bulls teams Tony Kucoc, and former Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjonovich.

Yeah don’t like anybody there. If I want a tall tennis pro, than I got my buddy John Isner. I hate Belichek, and I think Golic is too much of a company man for me to like him. So I’m not feeling the Croats today.

Well then you can just go to hell, cause I love the Croats! Good night everybody, and long live Croatia!

Stupid Deck Idea

Stupid Deck Idea: How Bout a “Round” of Applause? Seismitoad + Wigglytuff Deck

Pikkdogs February 18, 2012 18 Comments

Jiggilly Pufff. Jiggilly………….Puff………Jiggillly Puff..Jiggilllleeeeeeeeee.

Oh sorry, A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a Stupid Deck Idea. The Stupid Deck Idea is a type of article that we do when we have an idea for a deck that either isn’t that great, or that we haven’t tested enough.

The deck in question today is Seismitoad and Wigglytuff. It may seem like a weird deck to make, but it actually is a pretty simple idea. So let’s take a closer look at this deck and see if it is any good.

The Basics

Before we go into how the deck works, let’s look at the decks three main attackers; Wigglytuff, Seismitoad, and Palpitoad.

Wigglytuff is a 90 HP Pokemon with a fighting weakness and a 2 retreat cost. The first attack, “Round”, does 20 damage times the number of your Pokemon in play that have an attack that is named “Round.” The second attack, “Hypnoblast”, does 60 damage and lets you flip a coin, if heads you put the defending Pokemon to sleep. Of course, we don’t really care about “Hypnoblast,” I don’t see anyone really using this attack. “Round” could be a good attack in the right deck. The HP is fairly terrible, and the weakness is not good. So this is not a great card, but it does have what we are looking for in this deck, the “Round” attack.

Our next, and main attacker is Seismitoad. Seismitoad is a 140 HP Water Pokemon with a grass weakness and a 3 retreat cost. He has two attacks. The “Round” attack does 30 damage for each of your Pokemon with the Round attack, and it costs CC. It also has the “Hyper Voice” attack that does 70 damage for WWC. Seismitoad is the best attacker you have, you would like to have him active at all times. The 140 HP is good, despite the fact that there are people hitting for 150 damage right now. The weakness is good, and the retreat can be worked around. Seismitoad can hit for a maximum damage of the magic number of 180. This means it is possible for you to OHKO even the biggest EX in the format. Sure, it will not be easy to get this to happen, but it is certainly not too much to ask for to think that you could do it a couple times during the day at a tournament.

Your final “Round” guy is Paliptoad. He is the stage 1 of Seismitoad, and he also has the “Round” attack. He is an 80 HP Water Pokemon with a grass weakness and a 2 retreat cost. As I mentioned, he does have the “Round” attack. It is too bad that this “Round” attack costs CCC and only does 20 damage for each “Round” attacker. So you do not want to be attacking with him, since he takes an extra energy for an attack, and does not do as much damage as Seismitoad. But he is good as a bench sitter, and he can evolve into Seismitoad. You want this guy as a bench sitter, but hopefully you don’t have to attack with him.

So, the idea of this deck is fairly obvious. You will want to get as many “Round” attackers out as possible, and hopefully you get a Seismitoad active. This will allow you to hit up to 180 damage for just 1 energy card! This deck is a little heavier on Pokemon than normal, but it makes up for it by being lighter on energy. This deck is kind of like your basic swarm type deck. If you have been in the game for a while, you will remember a similar deck that featured Beedrill from Great Encounters. It is a simple deck, you just need to keep on getting Pokemon out on the field. It may not be the best deck ever, but it is something different than what everybody else is playing right now. It does help to break the Mewtwo monotony.

Setup with this deck is fairly easy. It might take a little while to get a Seismitoad out, so you might either want to use a starter or try to get a Wigglytuff out. Jigglypuff is a decent start because he can slow your opponent by putting the active to sleep, however, it might be better to put a starter like Cleffa in the deck to get setup faster. You are going to want to use a lot of draw/hand refresh Supporters to get all these evolutions out. It is very hard to get 6 evolutions out at one time, so make sure to add a lot of consistency cards in this deck. The deck will not be very techy, it will have to rely on consistency. One tech that could work well in this deck is Mewtwo EX. It would counter Mewtwo EX very well, but it may not be realistic to expect a 75 buck card to be in a fun deck.

List

Just a note to you guys, I didn’t actually build this deck yet, it is just a deck list for you to look at and understand what the deck is all about. You can make and test the deck, if you do, let me know how you like it. So here is the list, just one more disclaimer, I am not saying this is a good list, it is just a “Stupid Deck Idea.”

Pokemon-21

4-Jigglypuff ND
4-Wigglytuff ND
4-Tympole
3-Papitode
4-Seismitoad
1-Cleffa
1-Mewtwo EX

Trainers-29

4-Pokemon Collector
4-Pokemon Communication
4-Professor Oak’s New Theory
4-Professor Juniper
3-Sage’s Training
1-Cheren
4-Pokemon Catcher
3-Junk Arm
2-Level Ball

Energy-10

Double Colorless Energy-4
Water Energy-2
Rescue Energy-4-Go heavier on the Water and less on the Rescue if you are afraid of Lost Remover.

Note About Matchups

I think this is more of a fun deck, so instead of looking at every matchup, we will look at matchups on a general basis. Analyzing matchups for this deck is kind of easy, because it is a simple strategy. All you do no matter who you are playing against is set up a swarm of “Round” attackers. It doesn’t matter if you are playing a Ross Deck or a Durant, just setup a bunch of “Round” attackers, and go from there.

Your matchup against the Black and White Unova Dragons should be fairly difficult. You will need 5 “Round” attackers to get an OHKO with Seismitoad, and if you don’t get an OHKO you are in deep trouble. This trouble is lessened against Reshiram BLW because of the weakness. You could also lessen the trouble against the others by squeezing in some Plus Powers into the deck. That would mean you would only need 4 “Round” attackers, that is fairly manageable.

Mewtwo EX is not a favorable matchup for you. They will probably be faster and be able to control how many “Round” attackers are on the field. If you tech in a Mewtwo EX of your own, you will nearly make the matchup even, but it will still be a tough matchup either way.

Other decks like 6 Corners, CaKe, and Magnezone should be fairly even. 6 Corners is the only deck that has a type advantage on you, but they have it on everybody, so that’s nothing new. CaKE should be a tough matchup, make sure to include some Switches so you will be able to get out of Cobalion locks. The Magnezone player should have a slight advantage here with the awesome damage output of Zekrom and Magnezone. But, who knows, if you get a lot of “Round” attackers out first you could turn the tables around.

Durant should be an interesting matc-hup. They will be successful in taking away your DCEs, so hopefully your deck has enough Water energies to make up for it. If you get setup fairly fast, you should be able to easily OHKO Durants, but if not, they will probably mill all of your important “Round” attackers.

Conclusion and Prediction for this Deck

So is this a great deck that you will see at States? Probably not, it seems like more of a fun deck. Though, who am I to say what a deck can be. We will just have to see, but I do not think that this will be a great deck. It will be a good fun deck, and a decent rogue deck, but nothing that should see time at the top tables. It is cool to use an old school mechanic like Swarming, you can make believe you are 2009 Nats Champion Stephen S. with his Beedrill deck. It is a cool game mechanic, and it is something the format has been missing for a while. Maybe this deck won’t win it all, but if you wanna give your buddy a cool deck for states that will help him learn the game, this may not be a bad deck to try. Sure it won’t be as good as Durant, but it is just as cheap, and will probably teach beginners how to play the game better than Durant.

Well, that’s all I got for ya today. As always I leave you with the phrase-

So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.

Stupid Deck Idea

Stupid Deck Idea: Amoongus and Leafeon

Pikkdogs February 8, 2012 4 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with a Stupid Deck Idea. I must admit that I haven’t tested many new cards right now, but one rogue idea has inspired me. That is the idea of pairing Amoongus and Leafeon. I know its not a good deck, but it is a fun deck. So we are going to be talking about that soon.

First, I just want to make an announcement. I feel that my articles are becoming a little stale and that I should change things up, so I think that I am going to give Pedro a break. Maybe Pedro will come back after a while. Maybe I will find a different format and change things up, but right now I shall go it alone. Chances are that Pedro will just take a week or so off, but we will see.

Amoongus and Leafeon

The Basics

There was rogue deck going on in the Battle Roads season that featured Roserade and Leafeon. The decks aim was to do damage for one energy with Leafeon while Roserade sits on the bench. If you attach an energy to Roserade you can give a special condition to the defending Pokemon. Amoongus is pretty much like Roserade except for a couple things. 1. It can only gives special conditions upon evolution. 2. You don’t need to attach energies to Amoongus. And 3. Amoongus always casts 2 special conditions.

Let’s take a closer look at these cards. Amoongus has the “Sporprise” ability, it confuses and poisons the defending Pokemon upon evolution. Leafeon has the “Miasma Wind” attack, which does 50 damage for each special condition on the defending Pokemon. If you are able to do a Sporprise on each turn, you can then do 100 damage for 1 energy and inflict 2 special conditions. Since Poison and Confusion do not heal themselves between turns, they will still be there next turn if you do not get the OHKO. There are some Pokemon that can help these two Pokemon be a good deck.

One of these Pokemon is Sunflora. His Poke-Power, “Sunshine Grace” will let you take a Grass Pokemon from your deck and put it into your hand. This is really handy with all the grass Pokemon that we got in the format. The second Pokemon that will help Amoongus and Leafeon is Vileplume. Vileplume will take away items from both players, this is nice because it will stop your opponent from healing special conditions by using a card like Switch. The third Pokemon that I will talk about is Espeon Prime. Espeon has the “Evolution Memories” Poke-Body. This Poke-Body will let Espeon use any attack of an Eeveelution that you have in play. So if your opponent has Mewtwo EX active with 2 special conditions, you have Espeon Prime active with Leafeon on the bench, you can use “Miasma Wind” for 200 damage and the OHKO.

These Pokemon all come together to form a cool deck: Leafeon and Amoongus pack a punch, Sunflora helps you set up, Vileplume provides a lock, and Espoen is a good tech. It may not be a great deck, but it could be a fun rogue. Let’s look at it a little closer to see how good the deck can be.

Decklist

Just another note before I share the list. I did not test this list, this is just a thing I came up with quickly. You can use it to test, but by sharing it I am not saying that it is any good.

Pokemon-26

4- Foonfus
3-Amoongus
4-Eevee
3-Leafeon
1-Espeon Prime
3-Oddish
1-Gloom
2-Vileplume
2-Sunkern
2-Sunflora
1-Magby

Trainers-25

4-Pokemon Collector
2-Level Ball
3-Rare Candy
4-Professor Oak’s New Theory
4-Seeker
3-Twins
3-Juniper
1-Flowershop Lady
2-Pokemon Communication or Elms.

Energy-8

4-Rescue Energy
4-Double Colorless Energy

Shortcomings

Since this is more of a fun deck, let’s take a look at why it is not a great deck. One thing is bench space avaliable. You are going to want to have about 2-3 spaces avaliable for Amoongus, because you are going to need to evolve him 4-6 times a game at least. You are going to want at least 1 space for a backup attacker, Leafeon of course. You also need at least 1 space for Sunflora, and probably around 2 for Vileplume. That means, that at best you will be short at least 1 bench space. So benching is a problem here, Seeker is your best friend here, but its not going to be a cure-all. Another shortcoming is the damage output. 100 damage and special conditions actually is pretty good in this format, but it will be hard to keep that up for 6 times in one game. The final shortcoming that I will talk about is the HP. Leafeon only has 90 HP, Espeon Prime can bump that up to 100, but that is nothing in a format where people are doing 150 damage. You are going to have to rely on Confusion to stop a lot of their attacks, or you are going to need to be great in recovery.

Future Help

Could this deck get a big help from somebody with ties to Luxray Gl Lv.X? In a word, yes. There was just a new Ninetales that was unveiled in Japan. That Ninetales had an attack very similar to Leafeon’s, and it has Luxray Gl Lv. X’s “Bright Look” ability. So will the release of this card make the deck better? Well it will have many effects on this deck. It will replace Leafeon and Espeon, this could mean that you can get rid of Sunflora, since you don’t run as many grass Pokemon. This will help with the bench space problem. Plus, it gives the deck a Pokemon Catcher effect while under a trainer lock. This is really nice and will make the deck better. Will it make it playable? Probably not, but it could help.

Is the Deck Playable?

So does this thing have any kind of chance of working? I don’t know cause I haven’t tried it, but I would say it is much more closer to a fun deck than a real deck. The odds are that I would never take this to a tournament, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still a cool rogue deck. It might be better than I think it is, that is up for the people who actually go and play this to decide.

A Little About Matchups

This deck probably isn’t good enough to list all the matchups out, but let’s look at matchups as a whole. The Black and White Dragons would be a fairly bad matchup, you would need them to get a couple bad Confusion flips for it to work. The EXs of course would be a tough matchup, but there are a lot of good reasons why special conditions would help screw with the EXs. Of course it would be a tough matchup, but it is not a terrible matchup. You should have a pretty good matchup against Chandelure. You should be faster than them, and you might be able to control the game with a couple early prizes.

Conclusion

So, its not a great deck, just a fun rogue deck. Make it if you have some time it should be pretty fun!

Stupid Deck Idea

Pikkdogs Has Some More Tips for Beginners, and a Stupid Deck Idea: Chandelure Decklist!

Pikkdogs January 22, 2012 7 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with my extra dimensionary sidekick, Pedro. I decided that since we are not going to get information about the new set until next week, why don’t I do another article for beginners?

Because you stink.

Well, I do, but at least I know a little about the game.

A little is right.

Just so you know Pedro, I do admit that I had a terrible Cities season, but I came to a decision that it is because I am cursed.

Go on.

So, instead of wasting time play testing, I instead am going to do the scientific thing and try to break the curse. I already know a couple ways to break a curse, but if any of our readers know something, I would appreciate it.

So what are you doing with all the curse breaking stuff?

I will compile a list of things, and then do all of them before states. It probably won’t work, but it should make for a pretty cool article.

Well, that would be a first. Read More

Stupid Deck Idea

Pikkdogs Stupid Deck Idea: Hydreigon

Pikkdogs November 7, 2011 11 Comments

A big Hello to all you OHKOers out here, this is Pikkdogs here with a Stupid Deck Idea. I am also bringing with me my extra-dimensionary sidekick, Pedro. A Stupid Deck Idea is an article that spotlights a deck that either is more of a fun deck, or a deck that was not tested very much. This deck will be one that has not been tested. In this article I will just be giving out a list for a Hydreigon deck, I have not tested them yet so I will leave those for you.

How lazy of you.

Well that is what I am, Lazy. Do we have any news for the good folks Pedro?

Yes, lots of news. Our first bit of news is that Yanmega Prime will soon be coming out in a promo box with 2 packs, and evolution line, and one theme deck. It is called the “Prime Challenge” box. The price has not been announced yet, but I would assume it would be about 25 bucks. The box will also be coming out with Machamp, Umbreon, and Espeon Primes. What do you think of that Pikkdogs?

Well, I do not like the decision. It is great for beginners, but it is a big slap in the face for us who have been collecting the card. We had value in our cards, and we might have spent a lot of money in getting cards like Yanmega Prime. It is overall not a good thing for the good players who already had the card. I like what Adam from www.sixprizes.com said about this piece of news. He said that if they want to give out good cards as promos, they should do it when the card first comes out. This would keep the price even and keep the young players and the older plays just as happy. Any other news Pedro?

Well, the Prague Challenge Cup was held this weekend.

Where?

I’m assuming Prague.

Gotcha. And what happened there.

All three winners were French, and all three winners played Zekrom. The second most successful deck was Primetime. That leaves those two decks poised to do very well at regionals.

Thanks, Pedro. Well I don’t want to sound like a doubter about this format, but man I can’t wait till Regionals is over and we can use Noble Victories cards. Enough complaining, let’s just go on to the article.

Deck Strategy

Hydreigon is a really fun card. It has 150 HP, a resistance to psychic, and has an ability that let’s you count all energy on Hydreigon as dark. It’s attack costs DDDD, and does 60 damage to the active and then 40 to two benched Pokemon.

The strategy of a Hydreigon deck would be to get Hydreigon up as fast as possible using something to load energies on Hyrdeigon. It doesn’t matter what kind of energies since his Ability turns them all dark. Then you would be ready to hit for 60 damage and then snipe twice for 40. Depending on the deck you are facing, it could be a very challenging deck to play against.

There are five major forms of energy acceleration in the format. The first is Pachirisu Cl. It let’s you attach two lightning energies to Pachirisu as you play him to your bench. Those energies could then be moved around by something like Shaymin Ul. The second form of energy acceleration is Floatzel. Floatzel let’s you attach one water energy to him per turn. You would then need something like Shaymin to move them over to Hydreigon. The third energy acceleration Pokemon also uses water energies, it is Feraligatr Prime. His ability let’s you attach as many water energies to water Pokemon as you wish, you would again need something like Shaymin to move them over. The fourth Pokemon is similar to Feraligatr, but can be attached directly to Hyrdreigon, I am talking about Emboar Bw. The last Pokemon is Electrode Prime. He has an ability which let’s you look at the top 7 cards of your deck and attach them to any Pokemon. The drawback being Electrode is then knocked out.

So what is the best way of the five. Pachirisu is nice, but only works once and requires Shaymin. Floatzel is also good, but requires a lot of stage 1 Pokemon. Feraligatr Prime is nice, but Emboar can do the same thing without needing Shaymin. Emboar is great, but it is stage 2 and a Pokemon Catcher liability. Electrode is useful, but it gives up prizes and you will need to run a very focused build with a lot of energies. I think the best two Pokemon to use would be Pachirisu and Emboar. But, Pachirisu may be the best.

So now we got two energy accelerators, let’s look at the positives and negatives of this deck.

Positives

Deck is Really Fun Unique. No other card can really do what Hydreigon can do. It is a really unqiue deck that nobody has seen before. It is also a really cool Pokemon. A dragon with three heads is pretty cool, cooler than a dragon with two heads I think.
Great Gothitelle Matchup. No Gothitelle is not the deck to beat right now, but it is a popular build. So it is a good thing that this deck can handle most Gothitelle decks. It will be very hard to keep all of their Pokemon alive when you are taking advantage of them spreading damage around.
Solid Idea with Only One Weakness. Hydreigon is a simple deck that is not that complicated. It is based on one idea that should be fairly easy to operate. The only drawback is that it has a fighting weakness, and almost all Pokemon has a weakness.

Negatives

Well, Donphan. Donphan Prime can make quick work of Hyrdreigon, so that will always be a bad matchup.
Energy Acceleration. No matter how good an energy accelrator is, it still will be a liability. They make the deck clunkier than it should be. Especially with Pokemon Catcher in the format.
The 4 Energy Attack. Even though you can use DCE and energy accelerators, 4 energies is still tough to get out. It iwill slow the deck down.

The List

This is just a list that I drew up without testing it, so it will not be a great list. You will have to make it yourself and test it. It could be close to being a decent deck or it could be a crappy deck that never works, I am not sure. Here is a rough list that I made up for testing purposes.

Pokemon-18

4-Deino
2-Zweillous
4-Hydreigon
2-Pachirisu
2-Shaymin
2-Cleffa
2-Tornadus-Gives you a better Donphan Matchup and more donking ability.

Trainers-32

4-Junk Arm
2-Energy Search
4- Pokemon Catcher
2-Switch
4-Professor Oaks New Theory
3-Professor Juniper
2-Sage’s Training
2-Cheren
1-Super Scoop Up
3-Rare Candy
1-Super Rod
4-Pokemon Communication

Energy-14

Double Colorless Energy-4
Lightning Energy-10

Well that’s a rough list to get you started. I know it is not the best deck out there, it is probably more of a fun deck than something I would take to Cities. But, this should be a really fun deck to play, so I’m sure the deck should get a little bit of play from the rogue players. It will not be a great deck, but it will be pretty cool.

Final Words, and Words About Matchups.

Matchups for this deck are fairly easy to think about. Fast decks like Stage 1 Rush will be hard to beat if they setup very quickly. But, if you can setup at the same time, this will be quite an interesting matchup depending on what version of the deck they run. Reshiram and Zekrom will be quite a tough matchup because of their “Outrage” attacks. Plus Power will probably almost even the matchups. Gothitelle matchups will be fairly easy, and Donphan decks will be fairly hard.

So this is not the best deck, but than again it is a “Stupid Deck Idea.” But this deck will be really fun to play. It is a unique deck, so it should keep you interested for a while. So what do you got for us now Pedro? I’m all done.

Well we already talked about the Pokemon news. We can tell the boys and girls that regionals are this weekend and that they should remember to leave their Noble Victories cards at home, they are not legal for this tournament. So what are you playing for regionals Pikkdogs?

Well, I don’t know. Should probably find that out soon. I keep thinking of ideas with NV card, than realize that I can’t play them. I think this condition is driving me crazy, I’ve even been thinking of making a deck with Accelgor.

Well, that will all go away when you win Regionals………………..Hahahahahahahaha. Just kidding, you’re probably going to lose really bad.

Thank’s for the confidence Pedro. Good night everybody!

Stupid Deck Idea

Stupid Deck Idea: Audino Donk

Pikkdogs October 24, 2011 5 Comments

A big hello to all your OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs and my extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro here with a Stupid Deck Idea. If you aren’t familiar with the stupid deck idea concept, it was Ed’s idea to have an article that reviews a deck that isn’t the best.

Couldn’t we say that about all of your deck lists?

Well I guess so, let’s rephrase that. A stupid deck idea is an article that highlights a deck that I don’t believe is as good as other decks. It could be a deck that I haven’t had a chance to test, or it could be a deck that is more of a fun league deck. This deck is more towards the fun league deck category, but it might be a little more if you can get a really polished deck.

Before we get into the deck, let’s check in with Pedro. How are things going Pedro?

Well, I’m doing good. How bout you Pikkdogs?

Not so well, I came down with a cold or something like that. So I have an excuse for writing a terrible article today, I’m not feeling too well.

What are your excuses for writing terrible articles the other times?

I don’t get paid.

Works for me, let’s look at this horrible Audino deck.

I gotta give credit to a friend of Team Warp Point who took an Audino deck to a Battle Roads. This is not his list, I basically came up with this list myself, but his deck did inspire me to test the deck out. So thanks Casey for the idea.

The Strategy

This deck is fairly simple. Audino’s “Powerful Slap” attack lets you flip a coin for each energy attached to Audino, and you can do 40 damage for each heads. Since you can’t rely on flipping heads every time, you gotta give yourself a good chance of getting 3-4 heads each time. The way you give yourself a better chance of hitting heads is to load a lot of energy on Audino. The goal is to get 10 energies on Audino, this way you should be able to hit at least 4 heads each time, this will knock out almost any Pokemon.

The best way to get that many energies on Audino is to use Electrode Prime. His Poke-Power, “Energy Mite”, lets you reveal the top 7 cards of your deck, and attach any energy you find there to any of your Pokemon. The drawback is that you have to discard all cards revealed that were not energies, and Electrode gets knocked out. Since this is more of a donk deck, you don’t mind giving up a couple prizes, and you don’t mind wasting some extra supporters. So the drawbacks to using Electrode are not huge.

So if you bring these Pokemon together you have an okay deck. On the first turn you want to do a Pokemon Collector so you have at least 2 Audino and 2 Voltorbs. On your second turn you want to have at least 1 energy attached to Audino (ideally you should have at least 2 cards attached), and you want to have at least 1 Electrode Prime in your hand. You then can use “Energy Mite” for as many energies as possible. This should give you about 6-9 energies on Audino, depending on how lucky you are and how many Double Colorless Energies are on Audino. Hopefully you will get lucky on your coin flips and be able to knock out the active.

There are a couple cards that I use to make the deck more effective. Research Records is an item card that lets you look at the top 4 cards of your deck and then rearrange them in any order on the top or bottom of your deck. The strategy is to use 1-2 of these before you use “Energy Mite”. So you can keep the energies at the top of your deck and put anything else on the bottom. Another card that works well is Poke Gear. It lets you look at the top 7 cards of your deck and choose any supporter there to go in to your hand, the other cards get shuffled back in the deck. This is good because you need to have the right supporters at the right time. If you run 4 each of Twins, Pokemon Collector, Professor Juniper, and Poke Gear you should be able to get the right supporter when you need it.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Because this is a stupid deck idea, you should be prepared for me to say that this will not win any regionals in November. It is a very cool and fun deck, but it just isn’t consistent enough. But that does not mean that I wouldn’t recommend people to play it. I would say that if you do not have confidence in playing the top tier decks, running Audino donk wouldn’t be the worst move ever. Audino donk would also be a good choice for beginners who don’t have access to the more expensive cards. You should be able to get Electrode Primes for about 4 bucks each on Ebay, and Audinos should only be about a buck each. So to look at the positives and neagtives of the deck, let’s look at the Good the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good.

It can beat any deck– All you need is a bad start for your opponent and you should be able to get the victory pretty easily.
Easy to play– It is a pretty straight forward deck that anybody can play. You don’t need to have a high Pokemon IQ to play this deck, it is something that most players should be able to play very easily.
Cheap to make– As mentioned, the Pokemon in this deck should only cost you around 20 bucks. The rest of your deck shouldn’t cost you that much money, if fact it will cost you a lot less for trainers than most decks. If you have a couple of friends who play the game, you can probably borrow the needed cards off of them since they aren’t used too much.
It is fun– If you are getting tired of playing other decks in this format, Audino Donk will be a refreshing change. It does not play like other decks, so it should keep you excited about your deck.
Can do a lot of damage fast– This deck can win a longer game, but it is mostly here to get a donk. The Zekrom deck is the only deck that is faster than Audino, but Audino can do a lot more damage than Zekrom.

The Bad

Very luck based– Since you are relying on coin flips to attack, the entire deck is luck based. You could have 3 energies on Audino and knock out a Tornadus, or you could have 10 energies and get no knock outs. It all depends upon how well you flip.
You need to start first– If you don’t start first you will have a very hard time at winning. Your opponent will be given an extra chance to get more Pokemon on the field and avoid the donk. Starting first with this deck is mandatory.
Not Consistent– This deck does have a shot to win regionals, but that shot is very miniscule. You basically will have to get very lucky 12 times in a row. While you could get lucky, it is not very likely.

The Ugly

Pedro.

Hey, I don’t appreciate that jab.

Nobody asked you. Anyway, the minuses of this deck do out weigh the positives, unless you can’t play some of the other better decks. So now that we talked about the deck, let’s look at the list.

The List

As always, I advise you that I do not usually provide great decklists. I only provide the lists so you guys can test it out and make the deck for yourself. I only made this deck last night, so it is not a great list, but it should be able to do give you a place to start.

Pokemon-12

4- Audino EP
4-Voltorb TM
4- Electrode Prime

Trainers-27

4- Twins
4- Professor Juniper- You can use PONT if you want.
4- Pokemon Collector
3- Research Records
4-Poke Gear
4-Pokemon Communication
2- Junk Arm
1- Energy Restore

Energy-21

4-Double Colorless Energy
4- Rescue Energy- if you don’t have this card it isn’t a big deal. But it is a good play if you have it.
13-Basic Energies- any energies will do.

Well that is all I have to say about this deck. How do you wanna end this article Pedro?

Well let’s talk about what we know best, world politics. What did you think about the Libyan people killing Ghadafi?

I normally don’t like executions, but as Napoleon has shown us, if you don’t kill dictators they will just come back.

That Napoleon was a pretty crazy guy. He was a pretty short guy, if he played Pokemon he would probably have to play at the Juniors table. Did you know that his brother’s grandson helped found the FBI?

I did not. That was not a very funny ending Pedro, but at least it was informative.

Well, we are rarely funny, so I will settle for informative. Good night all you Earthlings!

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