Eelektrik

What Should You Play For Regionals – A Metagame Analysis Article

Hey OneHitKO people, it’s been more than a month since this site had an article, so I figure I should get something out before Regionals. I’m sorry for not getting something out sooner, it completely slipped my mind. This article is mostly about what decks you should consider based on playstyle and what types of decks you have the most experience

Don’t be the one saying if only.

playing.

First of all, I want to start by saying that these are pretty much just things to try out, they are by no means official guidelines for you. I’m just throwing ideas out for you if you’re completely unsure of what to play, like I am.

I also want to do a little Cities recap and mention what I think the Tier system looks like right now. These are just my opinions, so you shouldn’t base any big decisions off these, I just wanted to give a bit of a guideline for you so that you have a guideline for your own opinions.

The BDIF

Blastoise/Keldeo. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory, actually, Blastoise is a deck that has both a good early game and a good late-game. Blastoise has the ability to go off on Turn Two and then keep going strong until you take your six prizes. Although for the past three Regionals the deck that I believed was the BDIF hasn’t won any (that being Gothitelle, CMT, and Hydreigon), I don’t think this will be the case for Blastoise as it has a lot more going for it than these decks and there should be a lot more people playing it as it isn’t as debatable as the last and it also isn’t as easily countered. The only big problem with the deck is that it’s hand reliant, so in the late game N is a threat to you, but people are playing Tropical Beach to semi-solve this problem. I feel like Blastoise is going to be the deck dominating Regionals.

Tier One

Landorus/Mewtwo/Tornadus. I am a bit skeptical on this deck as it doesn’t have much of a late-game, but everyone knows how good early-game pressure can be and the threat of donking is nice as well. It’s a solid play if it’s what you’re playstyle likes.

Darkrai/Hydreigon. It’s slow, but it makes up for that by fully healing Darkrais at no cost via Max Potion. I like the deck a lot because it’s got a nice feeling to it, because Darkrai is an amazing attacker and it’s even better when it can power up a supporting attacker this easily. The problem is that it has a bad matchup against anything with Landorus and the Deino you play is basically a statement of who you would rather get donked by.

RayEels. I really like this deck in this metagame because of all the focus around EX’s, however I hate how much you get donked when you play it. It takes advantage of the heavy EX reliance of the format. The Landorus matchup is good when you survive the donk, and it’s definitely a solid play for Regionals (Especially as it basically wins if it sets up and stays set up) if you’re willing to take a loss or two to a donk during the event.

Ho-oh. This is basically a version of Landorus/Mewtwo with a lategame instead of a whole lot of earlygame, and it also has easier access to Sigilyph. It’s also a lot of fun to play because of the colorfulness of the deck. It also has a better Blastoise matchup than people seem to think, because you play Sigilyph and you don’t especially rely on Ho-oh, you only need it in a couple situations. It also uses Terrakion better than any deck in the format right now because it can accelerate Fighting Energy. The problem with the deck is that because of the colorfulness, you don’t always have the exact Energy you need, but most Ho-oh variants I’ve seen only need two types (Fighting and Psychic) and those types are easily accessed via Rebirth.

Tier Two

Darkrai Variants including Darkrai/Fighting, Darkrai/Aspertia, and Darkrai/Mewtwo. Darkrai is still a strong play for Regionals regardless of how the meta develops, and I love using it as Energy acceleration for other attackers as well (Via Dark Patch/Energy Switch). The problem with Darkrai is that it doesn’t do too well against Landorus, but if you play the right supporting attackers this shouldn’t matter too much. They also aren’t great against Keldeo, but the matchup is winnable so long as you don’t play too many Landorus.

Klinklang – I really like Klinklang, but I haven’t tested it. I know that it is an interesting option and I really like the idea of a deck that hits for weakness everywhere, and I like how it has a nice little box of attackers that you can shift between at your disposal that do different things. I also really like the use of Max Potion with the deck because this format has a lot of cards that focus on 2HKOing, which is amazing for Klinklang. Of course, the less-than-ideal matchup against Hammertime and RayEels isn’t the best, so if you’re willing to take a couple autolosses Klinklang is a good play, and without these autolosses I have no doubt Klinklang would be a Tier One deck.

Hammertime – Hammertime probably has the most interesting concept of any deck in the format, and I really like the idea of Hammer spamming to lock the opponent out of Energy. Hammer Control single-handedly wins games, and being able to just sweep with Darkrai without the threat of being attacked back is amazing. This deck pretty much wins to a deck that doesn’t have energy acceleration, but it unfortunately has a bad matchup against Blastoise, probably the deck that will see the most play at Autumn Regionals. Still, Hammer Control is a really cool idea and Esa Juntunen is a genius to have come up with it.

Aspertia Eels – This is probably one of the most underrated decks right now. Bouffalant is one of the best attackers in the game right now in my opinion, and when you give it an Eviolite, an Aspertia, and a reliable engine like Eelektrik, it’s amazing against any EX in the game. Tornadus EX and Mewtwo EX are also great right now because of their sheer usefulness in the early game, and Aspertia is just amazing, and having access to Raikou is also great. The thing I like about Aspertia Eels the most, however, is that even though it uses an Eel engine, taking out the Eels won’t actually do much for you because you can manually power up all of your attackers in two turns, it just helps you in the early game. However, I’m not too convinced that there will be enough people who are playing this for it to succeed. I feel like if enough people played it it could easily be Tier One, but not enough people are convinced yet.

Matchups

A big part of every metagame is matchups. You can’t play something if it doesn’t beat the popular decks, even if it is amazing against everything else (I learned this the hard way), so knowing matchups are a big part of deciding on a deck.

While I’ll be talking about matchups for the entire article, I wanted to have a section devoted to it just to give you a basic guideline of what beats the decks that you need to be able to beat.

The decks you should be looking to beat right now are Blastoise, Landorus/Mewtwo/Tornadus, and Darkrai variants. If you can beat those, that’s huge, if not, you might want to play a tech.

I really want to put a chart here, but we don’t have tables, so I’ll just write what I can here:

The decks I feel have the best matchups against those are Ho-oh, Blastoise with Pokemon Center, and anything with Bouffalant/Aspertia/Eviolite. As I’ve said before, Bouffalant is amazing because it 2HKOes every EX we have and gets 2HKOed back by a good amount of them if you have the Aspertia/Eviolite. This is a favorable prize exchange for you because Bouffalant isn’t an EX. However, it’s too situational to be that good.

So yeah, if you’re playing Bouffalant or Keldeo you should be alright. I’m sorry I can’t say more, I really wanted to do a table, but that isn’t supported on this program.

So What Exactly Should I Play?

Well, that depends on the kind of deck you want to play. As I’ve said before, playstyle is key in choosing your deck. This serves as a guide to decks for what you want to play.

If you want to play a defensive deck, your best bet is probably Klinklang. I like Hydreigon, but it falls too much to Landorus and it just doesn’t have the same feel to it. Hydreigon isn’t a terrible call, and if you’d rather play Hydreigon go ahead, but I honestly am a bigger advocate of Klinklang now not only because of the not-autoloss to Landorus but also because of the toolboxy feeling to the deck, but if Hammertime is more prominent in your area I would say go with Hydreigon.

If you want to play a fast, aggressive deck that focuses on denying setup and attacking early, my recommendation to you is Ho-oh. Ho-oh is great because it applies early-game pressure and also has a late-game, unlike Landorus/Tornadus/Mewtwo which is all early-game and no late-game. It’s also great for Mewtwo wars, not only because Mewtwo is one of your main attackers, or that you play PlusPower, or you can take an early-game lead and then start one that will end up in your favor, but because you can actually pull off a Psydrive against a Mewtwo with no Energy attached. Ho-oh also has access to Terrakion, Sigilyph, and Bouffalant for the whole 7-prize thing, and you can tech pretty much anything into your list.

If you want to play a deck that aims for an early attack but then keeps going until the game is over, your best bet is probably Blastoise. With all due respect to Darkrai, the T1 Night Spear just isn’t common enough to justify playing Darkrai over Blastoise. Unless you’re really worried about N or you’ve been testing Darkrai longer, I would definitely rather play Blastoise. The T2 Secret Sword is just about as common as the T2 Night Spear, and Blastoise is a lot better in the late game seeing as you have the option of powering up a Keldeo to OHKO everything. Not to mention that a lot of people are teching Terrakion, which is amazing against Darkrai and insanely mediocre against Keldeo.

If you want to play a deck that focuses on limiting your opponent’s options, play Hammertime. With all due respect to Garbodor, Garbodor is just too inconsistent to work right in this metagame. Hammer Control is amazing, and unless you play against Blastoise all day long you should have alright matchups. Theoretically you could play Hammertime with Garbodor, but that’s probably too inconsistent unless you build it exactly right. And plus, limiting attacks is much better than limiting Abilities.

If you want to play a deck that focuses on killing whatever your opponent throws at you, you actually have a really interesting decision to make. Your two options are either RayEels or a Blastoise variant that focuses on loading up a Keldeo to kill everything instead of speed. Honestly this decision is based on how much you want to get donked. If you are fine with being donked once or twice, RayEels is much better when set up than Blastoise, even a variant that focuses on dishing out large amounts with Keldeo. However, if you want to play it safe, a Blastoise variant like that is almost as good, just a bit more hand-reliant.

If you have no idea what such Blastoise variant would look like, all I can say is that it plays 1-2 Cilan, 4 Energy Retrieval, and 15 Energy (I’ve even seen a version that plays 1-1 Musharna NXD) instead of techs like Super Scoop Up, Mini-Keldeo, or Eviolite. Honestly I was skeptical when I heard about this, but it works. I have no idea how it works or if it actually works or if the people I saw playing it were just lucksacking, so try it for yourself.

Overall I would say that the best possible play for Regionals in any age division is probably Blastoise/Keldeo with 1 Pokemon Center. Without Pokemon Center the matchup against Darkrai/Hydreigon is iffy, but with it it becomes 65/35 in your favor because they can no longer OHKO you with Hydreigon after hitting you with Night Spear bench damage. If you can access 3 Keldeo and 1 Beach, Blastoise is a great play because it is arguably the best Energy acceleration in the format and it is fast but can still maintain itself later on.

Here is a sample Blastoise list for those of you who have nothing to go off:

4-1-3 Blastoise
3 Keldeo EX
-11

4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Rare Candy
3 Ultra Ball
3 Energy Retrieval
1 Level/Heavy Ball
1 Super Rod
1 Computer Search
-17

4 Professor Juniper
4 Bianca
3 Skyla
2 N
-13

1 Tropical Beach
-1

13 Water Energy
-13

Total – 55

This list gives a bit of room for techs, which include Mewtwo EX, Keldeo BCR 47, Super Scoop Up, Pokemon Center, and I’ve even experimented with Kyogre EX for a bit. You could also opt for more consistency, as a T2 Blastoise is always important and great when you can get it.

To play the hard-hitting variant, add a Cilan, Energy Retrieval, and 2 Water Energy and you should have yourself a variant that focuses on killing things in one hit.

Another good play is Ho-oh because it has no real autolosses and a favorable Blastoise matchup if you know how to play it. Speed is huge in this format because you can take out your opponent’s strategy completely if you have a good enough early-game, and Ho-oh is a great deck to play to get that speed.

Again, if you’ve never played Ho-oh, I can give you an example list to get you started, because Ho-oh is one of those decks that everyone should get to play.

3 Ho-oh EX
3 Mewtwo EX
2 Tornadus EX
2 Terrakion NVI
1 Sigilyph DRX
-11

4 Ultra Ball
4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Energy Switch
3 PlusPower
3 Random Reciever
3 Switch
1 Computer Search
-22

4 Professor Juniper
4 N
2 Bianca
-10

1 Skyarrow Bridge
-1

4 Double Colorless
3 Fighting
2 Psychic
1 Lightning
1 Water
1 Fire (Got that Elemental Blast)
-12

Total – 56

Some possible techs include Landorus EX, Bouffalant DRX, Shaymin EX, and Registeel EX.

I think I’ve already explained this, but the reason I like Ho-oh in this metagame so much is because it has a good early game and a good late game. It’s amazing how many things this deck can do, and I like how playing a Water-weak EX hasn’t held it back. I don’t think this deck would be as popular if it weren’t for Pooka, but I’m glad that he has popularized this deck for us because I believe that it truly has the potential to be the BDIF. I bet it would be like Aspertia Eels if it weren’t for him: Good, but underrated.

I guess with Ho-oh you sometimes have to deal with poor flips, but this was never a problem for Pooka. You shouldn’t rely too much on Rebirth, and by the time you might need to you should have 2-3 Ho-oh already in the discard pile. It’s still a risk, but it’s probably a risk worth taking as Ho-oh is just amazing when it runs right, and it almost always runs right.

And finally, I’d like to touch on the deck I feel is the most underrated of any deck right now: Aspertia Eels. As you could probably guess from the deck’s name, it revolves around using Eelektrik to power up Colorless attackers, which you give an HP boost with Aspertia City Gym.

Here is a basic skeleton list to get you started, although to be honest I have no idea what a list should look like:

4-3 Eelektrik NVI

White Eel.

3 Bouffalant DRX
2 Tornadus EX
1 Mewtwo EX
1 Raikou EX
1 Emolga DRX
-15

4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Ultra Ball
3 Switch
3 Eviolite
3 Random Reciever
1 Super Rod
1 Computer Search
-19

4 Juniper
4 N
3 Bianca
-11

2 Aspertia City Gym
-2

7 Lightning Energy
4 Double Colorless
-11

Total – 58

As you can see, the list is a bit tight, but there’s a little wiggle room for techs. These include Zekrom BW, Regigigas EX, or my personal favorite, Zapdos NXD.

Let me advocate for Zapdos a bit: Let’s say you get a Random Spark on Turn Two. That 50 can set a Keldeo EX up for an OHKO from Bouffalant, or it can knock out a Tynamo your opponent has, or you can hit a Deino for 50 to then have Raikou come in and knock it out later. It’s completely untested, but I feel like Zapdos should get a bit of credit because it’s an interesting option for the deck.

So there you have it: The (In my opinion) most underrated deck in the format. I can see why people wouldn’t want to play it, but that’s a great deck and it’s definitely a great option if you want to play something good that people probably haven’t tested against. I love Bouffalant in this format, especially with Aspertia and Eviolite, and I want to see him used more often because he is amazing. I could even see an Aspertia Blastoise deck working (Although to be honest Eels are a much better engine). Tornadus EX is also amazing for early game pressure against decks like Blastoise, Hydreigon, and Klinklang that need to set Stage Twos up to win.

So that’s it! If you have any questions about the article or the decklists or comments about the metagame then feel free to let me know, we have a wonderful comment section below. I respond to everything, so go ahead and post. Good luck at Regionals if you’re going, and if I helped you choose a deck with this article that’s great, because this article was mostly for people who are unsure of what to play. I should have a Regionals report up if I do alright either here or on the SixPrizes forums, so check for that, and I should have something about Plasma out after Regionals. I bid you farewell until I decide to write again!

Why You No Run Rayquaza?

Hello it’s me, Prof. SGT Pokedad MD again.  Like I mentioned in my very first article, I’m not the best writer, but thought that this might be an interesting topic to discuss.  Also in my first article, I made it VERY clear that I am not a very good deck builder or player so bear with me on this.  In this article, I’d like to share with you a deck that I am running right now that I really like.  I will share my deck list, why I chose the cards I did, and then share my thoughts on why I am not running a particular card that quite a few people say I should.

I started the year playing the Darkrai-Hydreigon deck list from Japan.  I liked that deck, but it didn’t quite suite my play-style.  I played Zekrom-Eelektrik last year.  My son played the Darkrai deck and loved it, so I traded him the vast majority of my Darkrai deck and decided to move back to Eelektrik.  Starting with the Zekrom-Eelectrik pieces, I looked at the available cards and read through the forums.  It appeared that many were looking to play Rayquaza EX, Rayquaza and a litany of other Pokemon. I researched the other available Pokemon and came up with the list Read More

Regionals Preview

Hey OHKO people, it’s me, coolestman22 again. I wanted to get something out before Regionals, so I thought I’d do something like the Battle Roads preview I did back in May or something like that. I think what I’ll do is review the dominant decks from Autumn Battle Roads and then give you guys lists or something like that, so, without further ado, let’s get started.

Before I review any decks, I’ll post some results of Battle Roads. The results of the Battle Roads that The Top Cut has followed are the following (To save time I’m only doing the decks I’m covering):

Eels: 25 wins, 21 2nd, 45 3rd-4th.

Hydreigon: 24 wins, 26 2nd, 34 3rd-4th.

Ho-oh: 7 wins, 6 2nd, 4 3rd-4th.

Hydreigon

In my opinion, Hydreigon has proven itself to be the BDIF of this format. Why I never got the deck to work is beyond me, Darkrai must just not like me. Even though the numbers show Eels as the top deck, Eels also has two different variants, and Hydreigon has only one.

The basic strategy of the deck is to use Darkrai EX to attack and use Hydreigon DRX 97 to move energy from one Darkrai to another, or to do 140 with Hydreigon’s attack. With Dark Trance, not only can you free retreat everything for no cost, you can also abuse max Potion and attack with anything without having to attach an energy. You can use Dark Patch to get energy flowing around, and you can use techs so long as they comply with Blend Energy GRPD, such as Siglyph or Shaymin EX.

In short, the deck functions a lot like the Klinklang BW deck that won U.S. Nationals. I always liked that deck, and I was happy when I heard it had won. I’m glad Hydreigon has proven to be good even though I didn’t get it to work.

Here is a skeleton list for Hydreigon decks:

Pokemon – 12
2 Hydreigon DRX 97
1 Zwelious (Either NVI or DRX 96)
3 Deino NVI
3 Darkrai EX
3 Sableye DEXT/S/S – 32
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
3 Bianca/Cheren
3 Random Receiver
4 Max Potion
3 Dark Patch
3 Rare Candy
3 Pokemon Catcher
3 Ultra Ball
2 Eviolite
1 Super Rod
1 Tool ScrapperEnergy – 11
7 Darkness Energy
4 Blend Energy GRPDTotal Cards – 57
Open Space – 3

Techs

Shaymin EX

To be honest, I’m not a big fan of Shaymin EX. My reasoning behind this is that for every game Shaymin is a big help and you wouldn’t have won without it, you’ll start with it. You’ll probably start with it a bit less, which means that yes, it would win you games to have the Shaymin.

However, it might win you more games to not have the Shaymin and to play another tech or Supporter or Dark Patch instead. If you opt to play a Supporter over the Shaymin and you just happen to have that Supporter and no other Supporter, then having that Supporter might be the difference between winning and losing.

However, I did say that I haven’t tested the deck, and I know people who do play it and say they like Shaymin a lot. If you want to play the deck I would suggest trying Shaymin out and seeing if it’s worth the deck spot and occasional lone Shaymin start.

Siglyph DRX

Of all the techs I’m going to mention, Siglyph is probably the one I like the most. It’s the only tech I play in the build I have online that I use to test against (Which honestly isn’t that good). Without Siglyph, a Mewtwo with a lot of energy will run you over, and you need a response to that. the only time I beat a Hydreigon deck with an Eels build all BR’s long was the time I played against a build without Siglyph, that I knew beforehand had no Siglyph.

However, earlier in the tournament that player played against a Hydreigon build that used two Siglyph, and won. It may be that he got lucky, or, more likely, the two consistency spots he had that his opponent had devoted to Siglyph, which was a relatively useless card in the matchup to my knowledge, might have been the difference between a win and a loss.

I think it definitely is worth playing Siglyph in a Hydreigon build if you don’t have a different response to Mewtwo, but if your area has more Hydreigon than Eels it might be wise not to play it, and instead play a Mewtwo counter that helps in the Hydreigon matchup more, such as, I don’t know. You’ll have to think this up yourself.

Giratina EX

Giratina EX is an interesting tech option in a Hydreigon deck. The place where I bvelieve it would help the most is against a Terrakion deck or any deck involving Terrakion, but honestly I don’t know what it’s for. All I know is that there are people who play Giratina EX in their Hydreigon build.

Reshiram EX

Reshiram is another one of those techs that doesn’t make sense to me. I know it would be helpful in the Hydreigon mirror match, and honestly that’s all I know. What you could do is, out of nowhere, drop your Reshiram, Dark Trance to it, move it up because all of your Pokemon have free retreat with the combination of Dark Trance and Dark Cloak, Catcher your opponent’s Hydreigon, and take a prize. However, if you don’t manage to get an Eviolite on your Reshiram and flip tails for the self damage, you could get one-shot right back and lose 2 prizes, 2 Blend, and 2 Dark if your opponent was able to either get another Hydreigon out or use a Giratina or Shaymin EX to get a knockout. Honestly though I don’t think it’s too likely you’ll be OHKOed unless you whiff on the Catcher and attack anyway.

Hydreigon NVI

The last tech I want to review is the Hydreigon from Noble Victories. While it isn’t too likely you’ll set it up, it is a good card and when you do set it up its attack is pretty good, but it’s also fairly situational.

I remember reading somewhere about the combination between Night Spear and Dragon Blast (Or whatever Hydreigon’s attack is called). Basically what you can do is if your opponent drops an EX with 160 or 170 HP, you can Night Spear and put the bonus damage on that. Then, you can Catcher that EX up and hit it for 140 and the knockout, and essentially draw two prizes with one attack (Especially if you drew a prize with the 90 from Night Spear). Well, with the NVI Hydreigon you can essentially use the same combination on any non-Eviolited EX. You can also snipe something else, either that has low HP, 130 and you want it to be within Night Spear range, or another EX to Dragonblast later.

If you can get an early Hydreigon NVI, that also helps big, because you can snipe two Swablu or Tynamo or other low HP basics of support Pokemon. If you don’t draw a prize with it off the basic, it puts pressure on them to evolve it next turn or have it knocked out. This might force them to play a Juniper over an N, discarding some key resources and thinning out the deck. If they don’t hit it, they will have wasted the resources and they won’t be able to get their support Pokemon out.

To learn more about Hydreigon decks, as i don’t know all about Hydreigon, here is a link to a very well-written article about Hydreigon.

Eelektrik

Eel decks are decks that I am much more comfortable with. I played Eels for all four of my Battle Roads and I escaped with 25 Championship Points, so I can definitely provide more insight on Eels than any other deck.

Right now, there are three different ways to play an Eel deck: Zekeels with Mewtwo, which is the box version, Rayquaza/Eels, and TerraEels. I have played all three variations and the one I like the best right now is the Terrakion version. Here is a basic list you can use, and then you can build on to it which variation you like the best:

This is what a Shiny Eel would look like.
Pokemon – 13
4 Eelektrik NVI
4 Tynamo Split (NVI 38, NVI 39, DEX 45)
2 Zekrom BW
1 Raikou EX
2 Emolga DRXT/S/S – 31
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
3 Cheren/Bianca
3 Random Receiver
4 Ultra Ball
3 Switch
3 Pokemon Catcher
2 Tools (Eviolite, Rocky Helmet, etc.)
2 Tool Scrapper
2 Level Ball
1 Super RodEnergy – 12
8 Lightning Energy
4 Tech Energy (Depending on your variant)Total – 56
Open Space – 4

To make it a straight Zekeels variant, you would add 2 Mewtwo EX and then either more consistency cards or a few techs, and make the tech Energy Double Colorless. To make it RayEels you would add two Rayquaza EX and 2 Shiny Rayquaza. For the Terrakion variant, you would add 2 Terrakion, a single Mewtwo, and something else.

Techs

Thundurus EPO

Thundurus was considered necessary in an Eel deck during the HS-NXD format, but I played without it to success. In this format it is a good idea, though, because of the format’s dependence on basics that turn into Stage Ones and Stage Twos. if you get a T1 Charge off and hit both of your manual energy attachments you can, on Turn Two, Catcher-KO a Deino, Tynamo, Swablu, Shelmet, Gible, Piplup, or whatever. It allows you to take an early lead, as well, which could help you out a lot in the prize race later on. It also discards energy for Dynamotor later on.

The problem with Thundurus is that it doesn’t have quite high enough of a damage output to be good in the late game. Unless your opponent is playing Quad Tornadus Thundurus just doesn’t get the OHKOes you need to win games later on. So to play Thundurus effectively, I have found you need to run enough to consistently start with it. You also need to use Call For Family on Turn One a lot, meaning that a T1 Charge can be, well, a bad idea sometimes.

Zapdos NXD

Zapdos is another one of those early-game cards, but there are a few things that separate Zapdos from Thundurus.

The first is that Zapdos requires a Double Colorless Energy to attack on Turn Two without support from Eels, whereas Thundurus doesn’t. This means that your energy attachments aren’t going to be as easy as they are on Thundurus.

The second is that Zapdos doesn’t require a Pokemon Catcher to attack what you want to attack (Unless you want to hit for Weakness or get around Resistance). In a format without Junk Arm this is a big deal, because you only get to use 4 a game. Not using them in the early game will not only mean that you have them later, but you also have a larger number of them later, meaning you are more likely to draw the Catcher to get the Shaymin EX or Eelektrik active to KO it and win the game. Conserving resources is important in this format, especially in a deck like this without access to Sableye DEX.

The third is that Thundurus puts your energy in the discard pile, while Zapdos doesn’t. While this does seem like a positive at first (And it mostly is), keep in mind that also means you’ll need to hit your manual energy attachment next turn and use it on Thundurus. This is mostly good, though, as discarding energy in this format is extremely hard without Junk Arm.

The fourth is that Thundurus has a higher damage output than Zapdos does. The 30 more means that Thundurus OHKOes the Deinos, Gibles, Shelmets, Archens, etc. that Zapdos doesn’t without some sort of damage support such as PlusPower.

Tornadus EX

Tornadus EX is mainly used in Eel decks as a counter to Fighting. if your meta has a lot of Terrakion EX decks or Terrakion decks, Tornadus EX is a good option. Otherwise, it’s bad in the mirror and you should steer clear.

Zekrom EX

Zekrom EX is another tech I don’t like. I was big on it last format, but this one it just isn’t as useful. The only Stage Two deck you’re likely to have troubles with is Hydreigon, and they will usually Catcher-kill your Eels and make it so that you can’t use Zekrom EX effectively, and Rocky Helmet (I played this last season in Eels) will just get Tool Scrapped, making it no longer very good against Mewtwo for these sort of situations.. If your meta is full of Garchomp, though, it’s a decent idea.

Energy Switch

Energy Switch isn’t a card I’ve experimented with yet, but it could be good in some situations. It’s good for getting the energy attached to your Emolga somewhere more useful. You can also pull some good plays with Mewtwo with it, and move the third energy from Zekrom BW after retreating it.

To learn more about Eel decks with a more in-depth article, I found a pretty good Eel deck article here. This article definitely isn’t as good as the Hydreigon one, but it provides you with wwhat you need to know. I do think 4-4 Eels is necessary in BW-on, however, and that’s the one part of the article I disagree with. (Do note that the article was written before Dragons Exalted came out, however).

Ho-oh EX

Ho-oh EX is a really cool deck. It has built-in energy acceleration, can hit for 180 with some effort, and is fast with the right list.

I haven’t been able to get the deck to work properly, but I am able to provide some sort of list:

Phoenix? More like Scottsdale.
Pokemon – 10-11
3 Ho-oh EX
3 Sableye DEX
4-5 Tech AttackersT/S/S – 32
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
3 Bianca
3 Random Receiver
4 Ultra Ball
4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Energy Switch
3 Switch
2 Tool Scrapper
1 Super RodEnergy – 17
4 Double Colorless Energy
3 Darkness Energy
10 other Basic Energy (At least one of each)Total – 59-60
Free Space – 0-1

Techs

Mewtwo EX

Mewtwo EX is probably the best tech to put in here. It can get a T1 donk, and it helps a lot against Mewtwo coming in and OHKOing Ho-oh. Mewtwo is Mewtwo, and it’s pretty necessary in a deck like this.

Tornadus EX

Tornadus EX is a tech that a lot of people like, but I don’t see a reason for. Ho-oh already has a Fighting Resistance, and it just gets zapped by Eel decks for 2 prizes. It is good with Stadiums for a T1 60, but unless you choose to run SAB you don’t run any Stadiums.

Darkrai EX

Since you’re already running all those darks for Sableye, why not give all your Pokemon free retreat? It seems logical enough. If you have space for a Darkrai, I’d suggest playing one.

Sigilyph DRX

Sigilyph would serve two purposes in the deck: countering EX’s, and countering Sigilyph. If you play a Sigilyph you can stall for a bit, especially against Eel variants that are a bit teched out. They would be forced to use Eelektrik’s attack, which is a 2HKO on Sigilyph, and in the process possibly lose an Eel.

Terrakion NVI                                                                                                                

Ah, Fighting, the meta’s weakness, and Terrakion does the best job of capitalizing on that of anything in the modified format. With a Tool Scrapper it can OHKO any Fighting-weak EX with an Eviolite attached, and it does so for only two energy assuming your opponent got an OHKO the following turn. If they don’t KO it back, you can attach another Fighting and OHKO another EX (With the help of a Tool Scrapper or Catcher in most scenarios). If that happens, which is pretty likely, you will have taken four prizes while only giving up one. Terrakion is just that good.

There are so many techs I could talk about, but since I need to get this article published before Regionals, I’m just going to link you to another article that talks about them. There weren’t many Ho-oh articles to choose from, but I feel the Skittles part of this 6P article did a good job:

I would love to cover some more decks, but I started this article way too late and I need to get it published now, so I’m going to hold off on them. Those are the three main decks of the format and if I wanted to win a tournament I would play one of those three, so I feel like that’s enough.

Anyway, as always, leave a comment below if you have a comment, I’m open to any feedback, discussion, or whatever else. And, of course, good luck at Regionals!

EelZone: The Thunderrated Nats Deck

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

Zekrom/Eelektrik (ZekEels): Calvin’s MN State Championship 2012

Trust me, the banana thing works.

Greetings OHKO!

I guess I’m going to start with a brief introduction. My name is Calvin Chang and I started playing Pokémon competitively halfway through the 2011-2012 season. I actually started playing Pokémon casually when I first investigated it for a high school composition class (yeah! long story). It was fun, the people were nice and I thoroughly enjoyed the game. Then I graduated from high school, moved onto the college campus at the University of Minnesota and took a hiatus from Pokémon since I had no car and no way to continue going to league. When January rolled around, some of the guys at Pokémon asked me if I wanted to compete at Midwest Regionals in the Dells. I figured it would be fun, grabbed a Magnerock deck from some friends and started playing competitively, all the way through Nationals. I wasn’t good but at least I went positive at all the events I played in and eventually finished 10th best player in Minnesota based off ELO points. Since then, I’ve been getting more and more into the competitive environment though still doing mediocre as always.

A week before Minnesota states, I went down to La Crosse with the other guys from league. I had no idea what I was going to play, as mid-terms just finished up and I didn’t have a chance to thoroughly test my options so Joey, Lukas, Michael, Curtis and I stayed up until about 1 in the morning so that I could figure out a deck to play. I didn’t. Read More

OneHitKO.com Challenge: Grand Finale

Special Delivery

Early this week, TAndrewT contacted me and asked me for my address. He had a package to send me. Well, things didn’t go well for TAndrewT and the postal service, and we thought that the package might not arrive before this week’s finaly City Championship tournament. Instead of sending the cards to me via snail mail (does anyone use that term, anymore?), TAndrewT sent me a list of cards on Friday. He swore that he’d hand-deliver them to me the next day, and since he was judging, I figured I could bank on him being there.

Click on the pic to the left if you want to see what he donated. I think he really wanted to see how the deck and I would do if things were taken to the next level. For the final Cities here, I think he wanted the challenge deck to be a real contender. Thanks to you donators, here’s the list I was able to run today.
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OneHitKO.com Challenge: Tourney #1 Report

It’s the moment, I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for. The OneHitKO.com deck has finally made it’s public debut. This Sunday, we had a tourney at Outpost 2000 and Beyond. Masters had 5 rounds of Swiss, and here’s the story of how Eelektrik and Riachu got along.

Before the tourney got going, I needed to take care of 1 major issue. I still needed 4 Pokeball. I was able to get the donation I needed, so it was all systems go.

Round 1: vs Paige with Reshiram/Vulpix
I think I only ever saw Reshiram and Vulpix in this match, as she never got a supporter. She started out by burning my Pikachu with Vulpix’s Singe attack, which was annoying. Once I got Raichu, evolving healed the burn, and I started rolling. Unfortunately for her, I was able to easily KO Vulpix and she brought up a 2-energy Reshiram. I had to attack it, but I knew she’d get the return KO. I popped the Rocky Helmet down and attacked for 120. This meant that she could retreat and lose all her energy, pass (and then I would probably just KO Reshiram), or attack (which would KO her Reshiram). During this turn, I think she Communicationed for another Reshiram (just to keep herself in the game). She attacked giving us both a KO and promoting her Reshiram. I brought up Pikachu, and did a Tail Slap for 10 (even though I had Raichu in my hand). This meant that she couldn’t easily return KO with Outrage, and I could do 120 next turn. That’s what happened leaving her with a lone fire Victini, and I started the day…
1-0
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