Claydol

Prognosis Negative!

We at Team Omar have just heard some disturbing news from TPCI.  It seems like one of our most beloved Pokemon, Claydol has taken a turn for the worse.  He was rushed from his Malibu estate to the Pokemon center late last night.

In an official statement released earlier today, Nurse Joy stated that Claydol is suffering from “severe exhaustion.”

It seems that trainers have been asking him to use “Cosmic Power” so many times over the last three years that they have worn the Clay Doll Pokemon out. Many trainers are gathering at the Lost Tower to pray for Claydol’s quick recovery.

As we all know, Claydol was formed thousands of years ago when clay statues were exposed to cosmic rays.  Although he has been around for a long time, Claydol’s popularity shot up in February of 2008 after perfecting his Cosmic Power technique. Since then, he has had little rest. Witnesses claim to have seen him use Spinning Attack, but even then, it was usually proceeded by Cosmic Power.

Claydol, now resting in an undisclosed Pokemon Center, still vows to make the upcoming trip to Hawaii in two weeks to be available for the 2010 Pokemon TCG World Championships.  Baltoy, a close friend of Claydol’s, has confided that, if Claydol survives the tournament, he will promptly retire and leave the Pokemon TCG forever. “It’s his one last chance to go out on his own terms,” explained his Clay Doll counterpart.
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The Problem With Porygon

I’ve been playing Porygon a bit. The deck is definitely fun to play, because it does a lot of things that aren’t really possible in most decks. Setting up can be slow if you don’t get the right pieces early, but with Call Energy, TS-1 Evoluter, Roseanne’s, Bebe’s, etc. you can usually get a good double supporter (thanks to Download) plus Claydol turn on turn 2 or 3.

There are two main problem areas that I’ve found: getting energy and losing TMs. They both stem from a single problem, though, and that is letting your active Porygon take damage.

The deck can run on very little energy, and you could easily win a game with only 2 with the right draw and matchup. The problem is that your active Porygon-Z will, at some point, take damage. When that happens, you will want to retreat, Switch, Warp Point, etc. You would usually have another Porygon-Z waiting on the bench, and it’s easy to Install TMs onto the waiting Porygon. What is not easy, however, is getting energy onto the waiting Porygon.

The same issue applies to TMs. Sure, you can move them around, but what happens when your active gets KO’d? You can’t move all those TMs once you’ve attacked. You’re bound to lose some at some point, and when you do, they aren’t easy to retrieve from the discard pile.

For example, let’s assume that your opponent can attack for 60 each turn. I’ve recently played against Shuppet Donk, so we’ll use that as an example. Your goal is to get a bunch of TMs and attack for KO damage each turn. Let’s assume that you do that. So, you gear up, drop your 2nd energy, and KO the opponent’s Pokemon. On their turn, they hit your Z for 60. Now what? Sure, you can drop an energy on a benched Porygon. Then what? If you attack and take another prize, they’ll just KO your Z on their turn. You’ll lose your precious TMs you’ve built up. If, instead, you decide to Warp Point, then you can’t attack without another energy.

I’ve thought about it a bit, and I’ve looked at some other posts about Porygon. Here are some ideas.

PokeHealer+: With Porygon-Z LvX, you can Decode 2 Healers to the top of your deck. With all the drawing capabilities the deck has, you should easily be able to draw them and pull 8 counters off a Porygon.

Super Scoop Up: This can work in a similar way as the healers. You have a good chance of flipping a heads if you try for 2 of them, but you still have the energy issue.

A free retreater (or Unown Q + Mr. Mime/Spiritomb/etc.): Given the example scenario laid out, this would allow you to Warp Point up the free retreater giving you an extra turn to get your attack ready. It’s not quick, but it could also be strategic depending on the retreater you put up. Mime or Spiritomb could be good stallers against certain decks.

I’d have to say that I like the Poke Healer + idea. It takes the most deck space (you’d probably need 4), but it is most likely to be quick and very effective. It can also be done with Poke Blower + for some Gust of Wind action, but that would take another 4 slots. If you get the Healer/Blower early, you can always Cosmic Power it to the bottom of the deck. The most effective use would be allowing Porygon-Z to take some damage, and then surprise LvX and Decoding the double Healer.

I was thinking about something like this…
Porygon-Z Level X
Pokemon: 21
x4 Porygon GE
x4 Porygon2 GE
x3 Porygon-Z (Promo)
x1 Porygon-Z Lv. X MT
x2 Baltoy GE
x2 Claydol GE
x2 Unown G GE
x1 Uxie LA
x1 Mr. Mime MT
x1 Relicanth PL

Supporters: 10
x4 Bebe's
x2 Rosie's
x2 Volkner's Philosophy
x1 Palmer's Contribution
x1 Marley's Request

Trainers: 18
x4 Technical Machine TS-1
x4 Technical Machine TS-2
x3 VS Seeker
x1 Luxury Ball
x4 Poke Healer+
x4 Poke Blower+

Stadium: 2
x2 BTS

Energy: 7
x4 Call Energy
x2 Fighting Energy
x1 Upper Energy

Ava’s Research (Supporter)

Well, we went to the Rapid City Pokemon League on Saturday. It was the morning after a pretty good snow storm (and Christmas), so they didn’t get a good turnout. They said that they’d usually get around 20 players, but they got 3 (besides Ava, my two brother-in-laws, and myself). I was hoping to earn some Claydols, but they didn’t have any. I ended up with a new Uxie and a Snorlax. The guys there were cool, and they taught me how to play 2-vs-2. I accidentally won our first 2-on-2 match when I double-donked each of their only Pokemon for the win. The second game was much longer.

Ava wouldn’t play at league. She did play around and one of the guys played her Next Quest TFG with her, so that was cool. After league, though, I was getting convinced that Ava would not play in the City Champ on the 10th. I asked her if she still wanted to, and she said she did. I told her that she’d have to practice with me every day, and she agreed.

Sunday evening, I got her to play against me. I used VERY suboptimal green deck (Beautifly) against her, and she whooped me. I believe that she double-donked me on her first trainer turn, and she finally won after getting 6 prizes. I was very pleased with how she played. I helped a bit, but she remembered how to play most of the cards. She even used a double Poke Drawer+ the right way and got 2 Crobat Gs for a midturn prize.

This morning, they went skiing, but I asked her to play me before they went. I played my somewhat junky (but sometimes effective) SP deck against her. I don’t think she got any midturn prizes on this one, but I ran out of energy and didn’t put up a real fight. At one time, though, I did Cyclone up one of her Uxies and then put it to sleep for a couple turns. I helped her out a lot on this play, but she went drawing with Uxies/Bucks/etc. and finally (on her third Super Scoop Up) returned Uxie to her hand and KO’d Whiscash. That was pretty much the end of the game, because after 3 KOs, I ran out of Pokemon.

Before leaving to go ski, Ava asked if we could have a mini-tournament. I think we are going to get Ava, Tonya, myself, and one of Tonya’s brothers to play a 4-player bracket. If Ava wins, she’ll get a good prize, but she’ll have to do it without help this time.