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Sableye SF has been a very popular topic this week so I’ve decided to make an episode analysing the card pre and post-rule change along with what we can do about stopping this potentially hard to beat card. Watch for analysis, strategy and ways to counter this possibly over-hyped deck.
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This is the second part of a 2-part series. You can find part one here.
“Donking for Dummies Part 1: Radu’s Obnoxious Uxie Deck”
Time Management
I mentioned in the previous article that you will take extremely long turns. I said you will do it without stalling or slow play. I will explain how one goes about achieving this in this section. If I were to play a “fun” game against this deck the Uxie Donk players turn would probably be about 10-12 minutes, if I were to play against it in a tournament the average players turn would be somewhere between the 15-18 minute range. This is not ideal, not because you want to win on time, but because you are likely not taking all the time to think and plan that’s would be best. People just play this deck too fast. You have right to shuffle for more than two seconds, you have right to take a little bit of time to think between plays. What you will be doing may seem unreasonable given that you are denying your opponent a turn. It, however, is not. Honestly, you will be taking less time in between plays than a Luxchomp player would, your searches will be faster. You will check the discard pile three or four times during a game. That’s in 30 minutes of playing time. Most decks check the discard that many times in just 15 minutes of play. But your opponent will not like this regardless of any logic that is used. But keeping your opponent happy isn’t your job. Now, let’s look at some of the factors which lead to people not using enough of their time and losing game they should have won on time.
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This is guide to playing the universally hated Uxie Donk deck. The deck goes by some other names as well. The more common ones are Uxie Quadro, Solitaire, Donk Deck etc. I affectionately refer to is as Obnoxious, due to the fact that pretty much everything about the deck is incredibly obnoxious. If you don’t know why this deck is obnoxious then you simply have never heard of it before. The deck aims to FTK/OTK (First Turn Kill/One Turn Kill) the opponent even if they start four basics. This is my favorite deck to play this format. That being said, I have never used it in a premier event due to my fear of Vilegar. Uxie Donk is also the deck I find to be, by far, the most intriguing this format.
As a card player, OTK and FTK decks always interested me. They are somewhat common in Yugioh, but in modified Pokemon this is a true first. The engines that decks like this use are always incredibly intricate and fast. There are many people who have asserted that this deck and decks like it take no skill to play, or that it is only played by skill-less players. Those people are dead wrong. This deck does take a good amount of skill to play right, with the intention of winning tournaments. People simply don’t understand how much I cringe when I let people use this deck and they misplay horribly with it. It’s not a hard deck to learn, but if you fail to adhere to the simple academic rules which I will lay out here, you will not win as much as you should. To be fair, if an average player playing this deck has a 60% win rate, a very skilled player will only have 70 or 75% win rate, but when you are talking about winning in a larger field and going X-0 or X-1, those 10 or 15% make a huge difference.
This article will be broken into two parts. First, I will explain the strategy behind playing the deck and what it aims to do. Then, I will explain how one would go about playing this deck in a tournament, including a very large section on time management. A lot of what I say may seem obvious. I have learned over the several years I’ve been playing that nothing is too obvious for your average player to ignore, so I’m saying pretty much everything. Before all that, I will introduce myself for those that do not know who I am.
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For this article, I’m going to focus on the play of the “vanilla” version of TOSSED. It was built to be a Shuppet replacement, so I play it a lot like I would play Shuppet. You may want to read about how the deck came to be before you continue this article. If so, head over to the “TOSSED: A Rogue Ahead” article at www.SixPrizes.com. Before we get into the play of the deck, I’ll give you a list of what the deck might look like.
| Pokemon 3 Uxie – LA 43 1 Uxie Lv. X – LA 146 2 Crobat G – PL 47 1 Shuppet – PL 92 1 Dunsparce – HS 41 1 Toxicroak G (Promo) – DP 41 2 Garchomp C – SV 60 2 Garchomp C Lv. X – DP 46 1 Ambipom G – RR 56 1 Unown Q – MD 49 |
Trainers 4 Poke Turn 4 Pokedex 4 Poke Drawer+ 4 Plus Power 2 Expert Belt 1 Luxury Ball 2 Dual Ball 3 Energy Gain 2 SP Radar 2 Power Spray 1 Premier Ball 1 Energy Exchanger |
Supporters 4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy 2 Pokemon Collector 1 Bebe’s Search 1 Aaron’s Collection |
Energy 2 Psychic 4 DCE 1 Cyclone |
Throughout this budding season, the format has undergone a massive fluctuation in speed. Some decks have sped up while some have slowed down. Claydol (or lack thereof) is mostly to blame.
With Stage 2 decks getting the shaft by relying on trainers such as Rare Candy, Pokemon Communication, Luxury Ball, etc, Stage 1 and Basic pokemon are picking up rapidly. The format is starting to clutter with sablechomps, luxchomps, dialgachomps, Legends, and a few fiery stage 1’s such as scizor and donphan. These SP decks have picked up massive popularity lately simply because they work! Why not run a deck that does everything you want without having to evolve your pokemon? The real question is “What can I do to topple these giants?” Here’s your answer:
Take Out
Get your pick-up lines ready ’cause you’re about to take SP’s on a date they won’t forget (and you won’t return their calls later). Machamp (Stormfront) is once again a deck to be reckoned with, and yes, I’m talking about “straight” Machamp. The ability to win a game on the first turn is still a strong possibility as well as “super-effective” to gaining the points or Victory Medals you’re after. Many may call it a cheap win, but if you can design your deck to win on the first turn 9/10 games, then your skill is still there, but more in your deck building rather than playing (Yes, there is a difference!). In this article I want to share with you how you can take Machamp and turn him into an SP-smashing, turn 1 donking, late-game killer of a deck. After the list, I will give a brief strategy on how the deck works, followed by a tournament report.
The List:
4-3-3/1 Machamp
4 unown r
3-1 uxie
1 unown q4 judge
3 collector
2 bebe
1 palmer
4 rare candy
4 poke drawer+
4 pokedex
2 warp point
3 communication
2 dual ball
1 lux ball
3 BTS2 dce
5 fighting
The deck purely focuses on setting up Machamp turn 1 for Take Out, but also boasts 4 judges to disrupt your opponent and keep them from setting up their field as fast. Your goal as the operator of the deck is to take 2-4 prizes before your opponent is set up. Typically, you can get them to sacrifice a few prizes to machamp while they do. With the new 30 minute time limit, it’s much more important to hold onto a prize lead this season, so any chance you can jump out with a 3 prize lead, you’re *likely* going to win. Machamp will tend to “fizzle-out” late game if you’re playing against a Stage 1 or Stage 2 deck, so Machamp Lv. X, Warp Points, and DCE come in handy later in the game when you’re ready to Level Up for extra damage, Rage, or warp point a couple of prizes to finish off your opponent.
Oklahoma City Battle Roads – Sep 18th, 2010
Round 1: Gengar/Vileplume
He flips over lone uxie to my machop with him going first. He attatched and psychic restored. I play my hand out and end up with the rare candy/machamp/fighting energy for the donk.
1-0
Round 2: Sablelock
He starts with sableye and impersonates a Cyrus Conspiracy to start setting up. I collector for my Q, Machop, and an Uxie and pull the T1 Machamp again for the donk.
2-0
Round 3: Machamp
I’m playing Taylor who agreed to play Machamp with me today (almost the same exact list save for 2-3 preference cards). We’re both undefeated and we know it comes down to whoever goes second. He goes 2nd and gets the T1 champ as I managed to still set up my Machamp but he leveled up and hit the 3 heads to OHKO my machamp.
2-1
Round 4: Sablelock
He opens sableye to my lone machop, attaches SP Dark and overconfidents my machop for 20. I guess he didn’t think I had the ability to evolve or grab another poke, but either way I lux ball/rare candy into machamp, judge, and attach fighting energy for the Take Out. After 2 more turns of Take Out he scoops.
3-1
I tied for 2nd place in win% opp. win% and opp.opp. win %, but TOM gave the other player the spot in top 2, so I watched Taylor take the Victory Medal with our deck. All in all, it was a great tournament with the deck going a combined 8-1 with it’s only loss being to itself.
Some call it the Secret Florida Deck. Others call it Sablelock (Sablock), Sabledonk, Sableye Honchkrow, or Sableye Garchomp. Does it win by donking? Does it win by locking your opponent? Does it win by starving them of resources? Does it win by controlling their hand? Let’s just say that it wins by making the opponent lose!
I’ve not seen the deck around here, but I can say that it is causing a bit of a stir on the interwebs. There are a bunch of people discussing this deck in various places. Let’s go through the list. No, not the decklist, yet. Here’s the list of who’s talking about the deck:
1) People begging for info about the deck that took 2 of the top 4 spots in Florida and was seen topping at other states.
2) People like Curry/Silvestro that obviously played the deck, but don’t want its secrets made public.
3) People that have played against the deck and either got donked or annoyed to death.
4) Trolls
Now we can add “5) Team Omar” to that list. I’m not going to pretend that I know the deck. I just want to fan the flames a bit, and see if we can get something going. This is going to be a deck workshop, so I’ll post a quick and dirty version of the deck. Hopefully I’ll get some good ideas from people, and we can fix the deck up.
From what I gather, the deck focuses on 2 things. The first one is the donk. Sableye with Special Dark Energy can do 50 on the first turn (under the proper conditions). If you go second, it can Expert Belt, Crobat, etc for even more nastiness. Garchomp C with Double Colorless Energy can do 30 on turn 1. If you go second, an Energy Gain or Expert Belt can move you into the 50 damage category. With all the Magikarp, Baltoy, Hoppip, Unown Q, etc. floating around these days, there’s a fair chance that you can get a turn 1 KO and maybe even a donk.
The second thing the deck seems to do well is limit the opponent’s ability to do anything useful. This is accomplished by devastating their hand and messing up their draws. Giratina’s Let Loose ability makes both players shuffle their hands into the deck and draw 4. To the Giratina player, this is like a mini Uxie Set Up. To the opponent, this is like a slap in the face (when played on turn 1). You play your hand out, drop Giratina, get 4 new cards and hopefully the opponent had more than 4 so that it hurts them. Then, if it’s turn 1, and you can’t donk, you can use Sableye to Impersonate Cyrus’s Initiative causing the opponent to lose between 0 and 2 cards (depending on coin flips). Then the opponent starts the game with 2 to 4 cards in hand. If you’re really nasty, you could drop a Chatot G between the Giratina and Impersonate to stop the opponent from drawing anything useful.
It seems that, in some ways, the deck plays like SP Toolbox. To be honest, that may be because I have a faulty idea of how the deck is built. At any rate, I think that the deck would play pretty fast and very frustrating (for the opponent). Here’s the list I came up with. Let me know what’s wrong with it or the writeup, so that I can improve them.
Version 5
Pokemon: 19
4 Sableye
3 Crobat G
2 Honchkrow G
2 Garchomp G
2 Garchomp G Lv. X
2 Uxie
2 Giratina (PL – Let Loose)
1 Ambipom G
1 Chatot MDTrainers: 20
4 Poke Turn
4 Power Spray
3 Energy Gain
4 Super Scoop Up
2 Expert Belt
2 SP Radar
1 Luxury BallSupporters: 11
3 Team Galactic’s Wager
2 Cyrus’s Initiative
3 Pokemon Collector
2 Cyrus’s Conspiracy
1 Aaron’s CollectionEnergy: 10
4 Special Dark
4 Double Colorless
2 Dark
Option: Remove 1 Crobat G to include Moonlight Stadium or Uxie Lv. X. If you use Uxie Lv. X, I recommend making room for at least one Bebe’s Search by removing a Cyrus’s Conspiracy or maybe a Pokemon Collector. Also, SP Radar can be replaced by Pokemon Communication, because there are so many basics in the deck.
Last month, I posted talking about my Shuppet Donk Deck. The lists posted there didn’t take any of the HeartGold SoulSilver cards into account. To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot that HGSS brings to the deck. There is only one real big thing that HGSS allows this deck to do, but it’s enough to keep the deck alive and not fade out.
Oh, speaking of fade out, there’s a Pokemon in HGSS that has an attack named “fade out.” Isn’t that what Shuppet’s main attack is? Let’s take a closer look.
Dunsparce (from the GS set) is a 50HP basic Pokemon that can do 20 damage and return itself (and all attached cards) to your hand. Shuppet’s main attack does 30, so why would we want to sacrifice 10 damage in a donk deck? I can think of a few reasons: weakness, resistance, and attack cost.
When I say weakness and resistance, I’m not talking about Dunsparce’s (or Shuppet’s). If you play the deck well, they will never be attacked. I’m talking about the defending Pokemon’s weakness and resistance. In the past, if you played Shuppet against a Psy resistant foe, you might be in trouble. You didn’t have any other options. Now, you have Dunsparce. Also, in the past, the only weakness you could exploit was Psy, but now you can switch it up and get an easier KO on that Flygon, Garchomp C Lv. X, or whatever.
Another big thing about Dunsparce is that he gives you another colorless attack. I say “another,” because you already had Uxie. Uxie wasn’t the main attacker in Shuppet Donk, but he was there if you needed him. If you needed to clear some bench space or wanted to do another Set Up, you could always Psychic Restore placing Uxie at the bottom of the deck. Maybe you could even Dusk Ball him back the next turn. His attack was colorless, but, because it wasn’t an attack you wanted to rely on, you probably wouldn’t run any energy besides Psy in the deck. Now, that’s all changed.
What do you do when you are up against Spiritomb AR with a standard Shuppet build? Well, you hope and pray that you can KO that Tomb ASAP. Dunsparce has another answer, and it’s called Cyclone Energy. Dunsparce can use the Cyclone Energy to blow back the defender and still attack that turn (which Shuppet couldn’t do). Cyclone Energy is quite nice here. If you want to use its effect, just drop Dunsparce, retreat your active (to bring up Dunsparce), then drop Cyclone. If you don’t want to swap out the defender, drop Dunsparce, drop Cyclone, then retreat your active (to bring up Dunsparce).
If you still don’t believe me, take a look at the SixPrizes article titled “A New Friend for Shuppet!” It’s not a long article, but there really isn’t a whole lot to say, and there are some good comments there.
So, maybe I’ve sold you on the idea of Dunsparce, and you’re all ready to build your Dunsparce Donk Deck. Well, now I’m going to show you my current build that runs only 1 Dunsparce and 1 Shuppet. I keep reading deck discussions about different ways to build this sort of deck. Whenever I see a title about a Shuppet deck, I try to at least browse the decklist. They rarely impress. The deck is about raw speed, and people keep mucking it up with extra Shuppets, Banettes, weird tech Pokemon, etc. I’m not saying that mine is better than theirs, but I think it is.
If you want to understand how this deck works, I suggest some background reading. Check out SLOW DECK’s “UR Double Donked.Dec – The original.” It really is quite a deck. I even ran a similar build in a City Championship before moving to Shuppet. The straight Uxie build is ultra potent, but the Shuppet build adds consistency. Just take a look at that Uxie deck, though. Ain’t it lean and sexy? That’s how I think the Shuppet version should look. It’s still lean and sexy, but it’s a bit more grown up and can deal with a bit more adversity.
I know. You want the list.
Pokemon: 17
1 Shuppet PL
1 Banette PL
2 Crobat G
4 Uxie LA
4 Unown R
1 Mr. Mime MT
2 Unown Q
1 Dunsparce GS
1 Unown GTrainers: 37
4 Poke Turn
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Poke Blower+
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Pokedex
4 Plus Power
4 Quick Ball
2 Dusk Ball
1 Luxury Ball
2 Night Maintenance
2 Expert Belt
1 Pokemon Rescue
1 Pokemon CommunicationSupporters: 3
3 Roseanne’s ResearchEnergy: 3
2 Psychic Energy
1 Cyclone Energy
I brought my/Ava’s Shuppet Donk deck to test with Team Omar last night. I know that some people just hate the idea of Spiritomb AR in a Shuppet deck, but I wanted to see if it could help against SP. I think I played 4 matches, and 3 of them were against different SP decks. If I recall correctly, I only won 1 game. Even that one was questionable, because (for testing purposes) we replayed an early risk I took that would have resulted in a loss for me.
The funny thing is that I found all my matchups to be fairly positive. I feel like Shuppet should get completely owned by SP, but with the right Spiritomb start, I can stall the opponent enough to get a few early KOs. If one of them happens to be a Dialga G, it might just win me the game. As it was, I only did well against the fighting-heavy SP mainly due to weakness. I did pretty well against Abdi’s SP deck, too, until he realized exactly how my deck worked. Then Dialga shut me down. I had a really close and odd match with Omar (who reminded me multiple times that he didn’t run Dialga G). I think I may have won it, too, if it wasn’t for a misplay Scooping Up the wrong pokemon. It helped a lot that he started with Azelf active, so he could never Time Walk.
Here’s my decklist. I really like playing the deck, but I just think it’s no fun to play against. That makes it almost worthless for league play. It’s a neat tourney deck, because many people aren’t prepared for it and are in awe when it starts rolling. It can win against anyone with the ability to double-donk on the first trainer turn, but it completely falls apart when facing Dialga’s deafen.
The inclusion of Spiritomb is a nifty trick, but I feel like I have to run 4 Roseanne’s (and Unown Q) to support the single Spiritomb. If you start with Spiritomb active, you have to Roseanne’s for an Unown Q (and probably Shuppet/Uxie) to start things rolling. You can’t afford to run a single Unown Q, because it might get prized (and it’s also useful for Mr. Mime). Ultimately this means that the single Spiritomb adds about 6 cards to trainer lock the opponent. When it works, it’s effective. When you start with Unown Q active (or even on the bench to prevent the donk), it can really hurt. I don’t know. The base deck is designed for blazing offense, and Spiritomb (and Mr. Mime to an extend) is quite a defensive move. I have yet to decide if the deck should be pure offense or if it should attempt these defensive measures.
Spiritomb Shuppet
1 Shuppet
2 Crobat G
4 Uxie
4 Unown R
1 Mr. Mime MT
2 Unown Q
1 Unown G
1 Spiritomb AR
4 Poke Turn
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Poke Blower+
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Pokedex
4 Plus Power
4 Quick Ball
3 Dusk Ball
1 Luxury Ball
2 Night Maintenance
2 Expert Belt
1 Pokemon Rescue
4 Roseanne's Research
3 Psy Energy
PokemanDan 
TheRadu 
Ed 
Austino