Jumpluff HGSS

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Kyurem NV, Jumpluff HGSS, and Pokemon Center

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a Pikk Three article for you.  I don’t expect to hear anything about the next set until Thursday or Friday, so while we wait for all the card scans and the official list, let’s do a Pikk Three article.  This time it will be an old school Pikk Three, with one card that is used a lot, one card that I feel is under-rated, and one card is from a new or yet to be released set.  But first, I must introduce my extra-dimensionary sidekick, Pedro.  Hey Pedro?

Yo.

I was thinking-

That’s a first.

Will you let me talk for one moment.  Geez, extra-dimensionary sidekicks ya can’t live with em, ya can’t destroy their interdimensionary portholes.  As I was saying, I was thinking that since you have been with me on my articles for so long, there are probably new readers who don’t know much about you. 

Could be.

So, why don’t you re-introduce yourself so that new readers will know who you are, and it won’t be so weird. 

I think the ship has sailed on the weird thing, but I’ll go along with it.  I am a half human/ half alien humanoid from a different dimension.  I sometimes write articles with Pikkdogs to help him out.  Things are a lot funnier when I’m around, and I can be here to knock him down once he starts to get proud or boastful. 

True.  But, what it all comes down to is that you are my sidekick.  You assist me as I write articles.  You are the Ed McMahon to my Johnny Carson.

Or, the Lamar Odom to your Khloe Kardashian.

I guess, but I thnk it’s more like the Robin to my Batman.

I see it more as the Ava Braun to your Hitler. 

Hey! How come in my examples I am Batman and Johnny Carson, and in yours I am a Kardashian and Hitler?

Hey, I just go with what I know man.  I don’t  look that good either.  I get to be an old guy that is known for giving away money, a little above average basketball player who is married to the big Kardashian , and  a young guy who always wears spandex.  Come to think of it, I could get used to the Spandex.

I’m sure you could,but, I don’t wanna hear it. Let’s just do the article. 

The Staple-Kyurem

Description– Kyurem is the long lost brother to the Unova Dragons, Reshiram and Zekrom.  His card is just about the same as the other dragons.  He has 130 HP, he has a 2 retreat cost, and he has the “Outrage” attack.  Unlike the other dragons, Kyurem is a Water Pokemon, is weak to metal, and has the “Glaciate” attack.  “Glaciate” spreads 30 damage for WWC. 

Analysis– Reshiram and Zekrom have had so much success so far that is always great to have a little more of the Unova dragons.  If a little is good, more is better. 

This card has seen a lot of play despite the fact that it has only been in the format for the City Championship season.  It saw play in three different decks.  It first saw play in a Donphan and Dragons deck.  This deck already used the other 2 dragons to soak up damage counters and reflect them onto the opponent, so Kyurem was a logical fit here.  It gave the user a lot better matchup against fire decks, such as Reshiphlosion.  It could really maximize the potential of “Outrage” without needing to rely on the fickle “Glaciate” attack.  Next, the card saw play in the CaKE deck.  This deck used Electrode Prime to bring together Kyurem and Cobalion NV.  The deck was versatile and maximized the potential of both Kyurem and Cobalion.  The problem was that it wasn’t as consistent as some other decks, and didn’t have the best matchups ever.  It survives today as a good deck, just not the best one.  The third deck it saw play in was the Six Corners deck.  This is a very strange deck that uses the Unova Dragons and Virizion NV as the basics for a deck that is able to take advantage of weakness on nearly every deck that it plays against.  In this deck, Kyurem again served as more of an “Outrage” attacker, and only used “Glaciate” when absolutley neccessary.  I do not see much of a future for Six Corners because the format is becoming smaller and less diverse. 

The stats of this card are very similar to the other dragons.  Of course, 130 HP and the “Outrage” attack are a deadly combo.  This card is weak to metal, which is good, but not as good as it was without Cobalion NV in the format.  With just the “Outrage” attack, Kyurem was destined to see some play.  But the key to it seeing long lasting play is “Glaciate”.  I never liked this attack.  Sure if you can get this attack off 4 times you probably have just won the game, but it rarely is that simple.  Some decks have healing or damage counter moving abilities that would mess with this strategy.  Other decks would take away Kyurem before it could attack more than once or twice.  Because the attack takes three energies, it will be hard to get more than 1 or 2 powered up in one game.  You could use Pokemon like Feraligatr Prime for energy acceleration, but that just leads to more problems than it solves.  I never really liked this card for more than the “Outrage” effect. 

The bad things about Kyurem are as follows.  Firstly, Cobalion can hit it for weakness, this is not a huge problem, unless Cobalion becomes a widely played  anti-Mewtwo EX tech.  The last negative about Kyurem is the “Glaciate” attack.  I just don’t think it is on the same level as “Blue Flare” and “Bolt Strike”.  The spread has been dead for a long time, and this card does nothing to bring it back. 

Final Rating7.75/10– Although “Glaciate” is a dissapointment, “Outrage” is still perhaps the best attack in the game,  It can always fill a roll for hitting fire Pokemon for weakness, even though it is not the main attacker that Reshiram and Zekrom are. 

The Underdog-Jumpluff HGSS

Description– It’s hard to believe that Jumpluff has never been in a Pikk Three.  It has been in the format forever and seems to be the elder statesman of the card pool.  It is a stage 2 Grass Pokemon with 90 HP, a weakness to fire, and a free retreat cost.  It has two attacks that both cost one grass energy.  The  second one, “Leaf Guard”, does 30 damage and reduces damage done to him next turn by 30.  The first attack, “Mass Attack”, does 10 damage for every Pokemon in play. 

Analysis– Jumpluff has been in the game a long time and has an impressive resume.  When it first came out,it had its own deck.  The Jumpluff deck was one of the best decks around, it ran lots of Claydol GE and Uxie LA.  It had draw power that is light years ahead of anything that we currently have in the format.  It was a fast deck, and needed to be,, since it needed to replace a Jumpluff each turn.  Because it only had 90 HP, the Jumpluff player knew that he/she might be in a prize race.  So, the goal was to always have a Jumpluff on the bench waiting for next turn, because both players could take 6 prizes in around 7-8 turns.  It was a really good deck, but it left the format once Claydol GE was rotated out.  The next deck for Jumpluff was in a rogue Vileplume deck after Unleashed came out.  It didn’t do that well, and was only a weird rogue play.  Then, during this season the card saw play in a Mew Prime deck.  It gave the deck the attacking power that it was missing.  It was a good deck for a while, but never won anything of note.  It left the format as quickly as it came.  So, Jumpluff stands here today waiting to possibly recapture its former glory.  The question is, can it be done in a Mewtwo EX dominated format?

Before we answer that question, let’s look at the stats.  Of course, 90 HP is terrible for a stage 2.  The fire weakness is not good with Reshiram around.  All Reshiram needs to do is have 3 damge counters on it, and it can OHKO Jumpluff for a DCE.  However, Jumpluff makes up for being fraile by the fact that he attacks very quickly.  Jumpluff will be ready with just 1 energy, and can do up to 120 damage!  He may be fragile, but he can sure attack quickly and hard when needed. 

I really think that Jumpluff needs some more hype in the upcoming format.  Although he has been around for a long time and his playability has been low for over a year, he might have a second wind when Mewtwo EX comes out.  I don’t think that Jumpluff will ever see itself in a deck like it did in a Claydol format, but I do think it can still win with Mew Prime.  If you put Jumpluff in the Lost Zone, Mew Prime can use “Mass Attack” and hit Mewtwo EX for weakness.  That means that there only needs to be a total of 9 Pokemon in play to OHKO Mewtwo EX, or less if you factor in Plus Powers.  Since you only need to knock out Mewtwo EX 2 or 3 times to win, Mew Prime and Jumpluff seem like a great Tag Team to get rid of Mewtwo EX. 

This combo is not perfect, you do need a first turn “See Off” to get Jumpluff in the Lost Zone in time. Mew Prime is also very fragile, and is vulnerable to any attack that Mewtwo can throw at it.   What is also unknown, is what this combo will do when it goes against non-Mewtwo EX decks.  Will it be able to “See Off” something else?  Will it need something like Donphan Prime to keep it in the game?  There are still loads of questions to be answered. 

haha, loads

Final Rating8/10– It has yet to be proven if this combo can work on Mewtwo EX, or the format as a whole.  But, it does show a lot of promise.  Remember, you don’t need to match Mewtwo EX blow for blow, you just need to get 2 or 3 good attacks off on him.  Right now nothing is sure about the coming format, but if it is Mewtwo EX dominate, Mew and Jumpluff could become fast friends. 

The Young Gun- Pokemon Center

Description– Pokemon Center is a stadium card that will probably be released in the set after Next Destinies, though it still could come out in ND.  Don’t get this card mixed up with the Base Set trainer card of the same name, that card did something like Blissey Prime’s Poke-Power.  This card is different, it is a stadium card.  The effect of the card is that once during your turn you can choose one of your benched Pokemon and remove 2 damage counters from it. 

Analysis– The format is low on healing right now, especially quick and consistent healing.  It is also very low on Stadium cards, so it is possible that this card is just what the format needs. 

Healing 20 from your Pokemon is always a good thing, and you get to do it each turn for only the use of 1 Stadium card.  It is very good for Pokemon like Donphan, because Donphan Prime damages its own bench.  It also would be good for Ross Decks, because they have the problem of damage counters that pile up.  Even if you don’t have a deck made  for healing you almost always will want to get rid of damage counters when possible.

One thing about this card that makes it possibly not as playable, is the fact that you cannot heal your active Pokemon.  If you want to do so, you would need to use a card like Switch, use the effect of the stadium card, and then retreat for the attacker.  It is a complicated process that probably won’t consistently work. 

Another bad thing about this deck is that both sides can play it.  This means that your opponent could get just as much help from it as you will.  It is possible that this card may help you more than your opponent, but it always have the potential of doing the opposite. 

I do like this card and I think it will have its use.  It may never be a staple, but I think I could see a couple decks using this card.  I love when new mechanics are added to the game, like healing and milling, so I am happy to see this card see some play.  It also is nice to see a stadium card out there, after no stadium card has made a real impact since Broken Time Space.   

Final Rating7.25/10– Not a great card that everyone will use, but it will see play and it will be a really fun card. 

Well, that’s all I got for today, why don’t you close out the article Pedro?

Okay, today we have a news topic to discuss before we leave.  In the world of entertainment, the American Bus Association, one of my favorite orgainizations, has asked Priceline.com to pull a commercial that shows spokeman William Shatner dying in an exploding bus.  I say that it will take more than a bus explosion to kill Captain Kirk.  Is he your favorite Star Trek captain Pikkdogs?

Nope.

So you’re a Picard guy then?

Well I do love Picard, and Archer and Kirk are great, but I gotta go with Captain Pike as my favorite. 

Pike?  He was in like one episode. 

Well, two actually.  But, he was still a cool captain.  Known for being very brave. 

Sure he was, but so were the other three.  You are crazy to like Pike, nobody likes Pike. 

Didn’t we know that already? 

I guess so.   What is your favorite Star Trek series. 

I of course have to go with The Next Generation, but I do like the others.  I didn’t get to see much of Deep Space Nine, but let me tell ya, Voyegar is pretty under-rated.

Voyager.  That’s not a good series.  The only thing it had going for it was Jerri Ryan in a one piece outift.

So, what’s your point?  Jerri Ryan in a tight suit is more than enough to sustain a series. 

I guess.  Good night everybody. 

Mew Lock Deck Update and Testing Results

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with his sidekick Pedro, here to give you an update on my Mew Prime deck.

The first post-catcher decklist I gave you was a Mew Prime deck.  It relied on Vileplume to lock trainers, Pidgeot to stall, and Jumpluff to attack (through Mew Prime of course).  Pedro, tell the nice people how to view the previous article.

If you were lucky enough to miss the last article about Mew Prime, and you for soe reason want to change your luck, you can view it here.

Thank You Pedro.  Since the last article my mind has changed about Mew Prime a couple times.  When I first tested it I thought it was one of the best decks in the post catcher era.  Than I did more testing, built other decks, and played matches against other people.  The final straw with my Mew deck was when Ed’s deck took apart my Mew deck.

If Ed beats you that bad, it indeed is a bad sign.

I agree Pedro.  So after that match I decided to try to find a different deck.  I tried a couple decks but nothing seemed to fit with me.  I know that for Battle Roads I needed something with Vileplume, I thought Pokemon Catcher made Pokemon to complicated.  After failing with a Beartic deck my mind kept on going back to the Mew deck.  I had watched on thetopcut.net’s youtube channel that Jason K. had made a similar deck.  His deck featured Sunflora HGSS and Aipom  as tech cards.

At first I had no confidence in a bad tech for a bad Jumpluff deck and a random common like Aipom.  I just didn’t see how that would work in a deck like Mew.  It was partly my ego, and partly my previous experience with Sunflora.  But eventually I was desperate enough to try the deck out.  Even I was shocked at the results.

Who would have guessed, Jason.K knows more about Pokemon then you.  You won a pre-release and he only won at a little tournament called worlds.

I know weird right? 

Anyway, I studied the videos on thetopcut.net’s youtube site and was able to come up with a rough decklist of what Jason was running.  I made some adjustments for my own playstyle, tweaked a few things, and changed a couple tires.  What I came up with was a deck that was very disruptive and very fast.  It does struggle in certain situations, but I think this version of the deck was one of the best versions that I have tested.  I hope to keep testing the deck and maybe take it to a Battle Roads.

I won’t talk about how this deck works too much because I talked about it in the last article.

Thanks for sparing us.

Your welcome Pedro.  But I must talk about how Sunflora changes the deck.  Sunflora makes the deck a lot faster by letting you search out Vileplume and Yanmega parts from your deck.  It is very important to get a turn 2 Sunflora.  The odds of getting a turn 2 Vileplume goes up by a lot if you get a turn 2 Sunflora. 

Never tell me the odds.

Okay Han Solo. At first I thought that running Sunflora would slow the deck down a little, but I have always been able to get the Sunflora out fast, and the Sunflora always gets Vileplume out faster.  And getting the Vileplume out faster is what will give you success at Battle Roads.

Here is a version of my list that I am working with.  I am probably planning on playing this deck for Battle Roads, but the list is not yet tournament worthy.  It is still just my testing deck so there are some tweaks to be made before a tournament.  It is a decent list to start, but I admit that it is far from perfect.

Pokemon-26

  • 4-Mew Prime
  • 3-Yanma
  • 3-Yanmega Prime
  • 2-Muk Ud
  • 1-Jumpluff HGSS
  • 1-Cleffa HGSS
  • 1-Smoochum HGSS-The idea here is to use Smoochum to deny energies to active Pokemon.  It works against low energy Donphan decks and cards that use more than 1 energy to attack.  It works a lot better than I thought it would.
  • 3-Oddish
  • 1-Gloom
  • 2-Vileplume
  • 1-Jirachi-The idea here is to spread damage with Yanmega and use Jirachi to de-evolve Pokemon for an easy knock-out.
  • 2-Sunkern
  • 2-Sunflora-This card speeds up the deck a lot.  Jumpluff - HGSS

Trainers-22

  • 4-Pokemon Collector
  • 4-Judge
  • 4-Juniper
  • 3-Rare Candy
  • 3-Pokemon Communication
  • 1-Flower Shop Lady
  • 2-Professor Elm’s Training Method
  • 1-Copy Cat

Energy-12

  • Psychic-6
  • Grass-2
  • Rainbow-4

One change from Jason K.’s deck to my version is the substitution of Aipom for Smoochum.

What a coincidence, I used to dance under the name Smoochums.

Really, I used to dance under the name “Spray Splash”. Anyway, back to Smoochum.  As I mentioned he is used to stall the game by moving energy around on your opponent’s side of the field.  I chose to use Smoochum instead of Aipom because they do a similar thing, but Smoochum attacks and retreats for free.  The bad things about Smoochum is that he only has a donkable 30 HP, and has the ability to stay asleep while on your turn.  Using either Aipom or Smoochum would be a good play, which card you play is more of a personal preference.

Testing Results

I didn’t get a lot of testing done with this deck before I went to the Pokebarn to test the deck against Michigan’s finest, but my initial testing was very good.  I thought it was worthwhile to head to the Poekbarn to test against the Team Warp Point guys to see if my version of the Mew Deck is Battle Roads worthy.  I will not be giving names out or explaining rogue decks because I respect the privacy of the players at the barn.  I don’t wanna give anything away because I know we have a lot of readers who live and play in Michigan. 

Since when do we have “A lot of readers” anywhere?

Okay, so maybe be have 1 or 2 people who live and play in Michigan, I still don’t wanna spoil any secrets for BRs.  If this report needs clarification please tell me so in the comment box and I will see what I can do.

Game 1– This game was against a Reshiphlosion player, and it was actually just a fun game played before the tournament started. The game started very well for me.  I started first, and a turn 2 Sunflora led to a turn 2 Vileplume.  Once I setup a Vileplume, all I needed to do was keep on “Sludge Draging” a benched Reshiram, and then snipe around it with Yanmega.  This game was pretty much over from the beginning.  1-0.

Game 2– I don’t remember the first game of the actual tournament very well. I think it was against a Stage 1 Rush deck.  Again I was able to get a turn 2 or 3 Vileplume and bring up a heavy retreater like Donphan.  I then was able to snipe around it, and eventually knock it out for the game. 2-0

Game 3–  This was a really cool game for me.  Again a turn 2 Sunflora led to a turn 2 Vileplume.  The minute I evolved my opponent decided to throw in the towel.

Which is of course the most useful object in the universe

Right you are.  That brought me to   3-0.  This just shows how terrifying an item lock can be.

Game 4–  This was no doubt the match of the night.  It was against a stage 1 Rush deck.  He got an early Donphan, and I got a turn 3 Vileplume.  I ran into an energy drought early, so I used Smoochum to move the energy to the bench a couple times.  Then I sniped around with Yanmega Prime for 6 turns until he was able to kill 2 of them.  I then got a 3rd Yanmega out before time was called.  By that time we were tied on prizes with 2 left for each of us.  I was able to take a prize on turn 1, and he scooped when he was unable to return the favor on turn 2. 4-0

Game 5– I don’t wanna talk too much about this game to protect some secrets.  I will say that I got a terrible start, and he got a great one.  He was able to knock out 3 Oddishes with 2 Pokemon Catchers and a Junk Arm.  I was unable to do too much since my Jumpluff was prized, so the game was pretty lopsided. 4-1.  After the game we decided to play a fun game, as time was called we each had taken 2 or 3 prizes.  I really hope I can play this guy at a Battle Road.  

Game 6-This game was for Top Cut. I honestly can’t remember what deck this was against, but I think it was against a Stage 1 Rush.  I was unable to get a decent setup, I think I had a turn 3 or 4 Vileplume.  He was able to put 2 energies on Donphan, so I was unable to Smoochum the energies off him.

You were unable to Smoochum him?  Is that the kind of thing that usually goes on at the barn?

Oh yeah we are all a bunch of big Smoochum guys. Anyway,  It can be hard to beat a stage 1 Rush if they get a lot of energies quickly and don’t put up anything to trap.  So I ended up at 4-2 including the practice match.  Even though this was an informal tournament, it was still a good testing session. I learned that the deck is pretty good and faster than I thought it would be.  I also learned that some matchups can be very hard to win, a lot of luck goes into winning.

Just a little bit about matchups.  It seems that against Reshiphlosion and Stage 1 Rush decks I should have a slight advantage.  Although the match can turn the other way fairly quickly.  I haven’t played this deck against a Beartic or Gothitelle deck, but I assume that they would be fairly favorable matchups.  However, anything that can attack fast and is hard to trap, will be tough for this deck to play against.

Here are a few tips for playing against this deck.  It can be fruitful to put in 1 Mew Prime and some Rainbow Energies.  Then you can use the other player’s Muk to “Sludge Drag” up the Vileplume, in hopes of either stalling or knocking it out.  This should be a pretty easy solution against this deck if the deck is played a lot in your meta game (though I don’t anticipate it to be).  It is also very helpful to not put down anything that can be trapped.  As long as each Pokemon can attack for 60 fairly easily, you should be okay.

Well that’s all we got for today.  I hope you enjoyed the article, feel free to leave your comments and questions in the comment box.  So uhhhhhh we’re all done here, Pedro, how do we usually end articles here.

We usually say goodnight to all of our regular writers like they do in the Waltons.

No, I don’t think we do.

No, we do.

Well alright.  Good Night Ed.  Good Night Joel.  Good Night Misnos.  Good Night PokemanDan.  Good Night Renaecollects. Good Night Andrew.  Good Night people who haven’t written in a long time.  Good Night Writers that came for Guest Writers week who I hope will come back to write again. 

Goodnight John Boy

Good one Pedro, I’m sure a lot of Pokemon players love the Waltons.  Thats the way to hit the big 18-24 demographic.  Bring up something popular with the kids, like the Waltons. 

Goodnight Pedro