I had previously posted about my experiences with Porygon-Z in the article, “The Problem With Porygon.” I thought the deck would adapt well to the new DCE-rich format, so I sent in a decklist to JWittz’s competition. I didn’t win any prizes. I think the Porygon idea is a bit more mainstream than what he was looking for, but I do think the deck is a good fit for DCE. I’m sure Omar would like to discuss how it may be a bad fit for the metagame, but that’s what the comment section is for.
I figured that the writeup that I did for JWittz would go to waste if it only made it to the judges, so I decided to copy it here. Maybe someone else can benefit from it, too. I feel like I should say that I did go 3-2 with Porygon in a City Championship, but it was (of course) a non-HGSS version. If you are interested in how I would (fairly quickly) mod it to be a HGSS Porygon-Z Lv. X deck, read on.
I think that Porygon-Z Lv. X will do quite well with the Double Colorless. First of all, each evolution of Porygon can use DCE for its highest cost attack. The main one being Porygon-Z’s Overload attack which does 40 + 20 for each TM attached. To exploit this attack, the deck runs 8 TMs. 4 of them help evolve the many Porygons or Baltoys. The other 4 mainly are just for extra Overload damage, but once in a while they can be useful to devolve an opponent’s Pokemon down to KO range.
The deck is full of synergy like the aforementioned TMs. Another good example is Porygon2’s Download Poke Power that helps play extra supporters quickly. It obviously helps you play extra Roseanne’s and Bebe’s, but when using a supporter like Volkner’s Philosophy, it combo’s quite nicely with Porygon-Z Lv. X’s Decode power. Decode lets you search your deck for any 2 cards, shuffle, and then place them on top of the deck. Volkner’s Philosophy or Claydol can then get those 2 cards into your hand. Do you want more synergy? Most decks won’t play Poke Healer+ or Blower+ because they’re not that good unless you can get 2 in your hand at once. Well, the Decode plus Claydol/Volkner combo I just mentioned can guarantee that you get 2 Healer/Blower+.
Porygon-Z’s Install power lets you move your TM’s around so that you don’t have to pile them all on a single Porygon. Double Healer+ helps insure that you don’t lose a loaded Porygon at the wrong time.
But, this is supposed to be about Double Colorless Energy, right? I already mentioned that Porygon itself benefits from DCE. With Broken Time Space, it can fairly easily attack for 100+ damage on the first turn if you can download enough supporters to get a couple Claydols and an attack-ready Porygon-Z all set up. But, what is one thing that you are SURE to go up against when DCE comes out? That’s right DCE itself.
Porygon-Z Lv. X eats opponent’s DCE, Call Energy, etc. for breakfast. It’s Mode Crash Poke-Power makes the opponent discard all the special energy they have in play when Porygon-Z gets leveled up.
Here’s the list. Try it against any deck. It can hold its own.
Yeah, it's from Base Set, and if you can get 4 First Editions in play, you automatically win.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
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…
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
I’d like to use the new Spiritomb AoA to annoy opponents for fun and profit, but I really don’t want to play that Glistomb lock. It just seems mean. Omar recently supplied me with a Porygon deck, and I was wondering how Spiritomb might work with Porygon.
Porygon2 GE allows you to “play” an extra supporter each turn. While running such a deck, you’d use lots of supporters available to abuse this power. Of course, Spiritomb can rain on your own parade, because you’d also run trainers (like lots of TMs and VS Seekers). What I’m curious about, though, is if Spiritomb can stall the opponent enough so that, when you are ready to attack, the opponent isn’t sufficiently prepared.
To do this, you’d want to start with Spiritomb. This stops the opponent from playing trainers. It also stops you, but you can stick to supporters until you’re ready to retreat the Tomb. Having Tomb active really isn’t bad either, because his free Darkness Grace attack helps you evolve your benched Porygons. Ultimately, you’d want to play an early Roseanne’s to get a benched Porygon (and Baltoy, Unown Q/G, Energy, a second Porygon, Uxie, etc.) and then Darkness Grace in a Porygon2/Claydol. When you’re ready to rock, get yourself an Unown Q (or an energy) to allow you to easily retreat the Tomb, play all your trainers/TMs, and attack for big damage.
I’m also curious if Staraptor FB LvX would help this strategy by potentially getting extra supporters. The big drawback here is that it’d have to be active to level up. Porygon-Z’s free Learning attack can level it up on the bench, but once you have an active Porygon-Z, I think you’d want to be using the Overload attack instead. It is worth mentioning that Staraptor has a free retreat, so it’s not horrible if you can Warp Point him up, LvX him, and retreat him (or something like that).
All this being said, though, I’m still not convinced that this Porygon/Spiritomb combo can be really any better than Porygon without Tomb. I mean, you can always stall for a turn or two with Mr. Mime, but that doesn’t hinder the opponent from setting up. The question here is whether or not Spiritomb would sufficiently hinder your opponent while allowing you to set up, and (if it does) whether it makes the deck better, worse, or just different.
Well, now i go back into that mode where i have no clue on what i wanna play that will win, and at the same time, will be fun. Flychamp and Gengar are both out of the picture as of now, since they are both extremely boring :S. The more and more i think, the more and more i want to go SP, but unfortunately, i would need to spend like 100$ on 3 cards. lawl. Uxie lv. X, Luxray g lv. X, and Promocroak (toxicroak G Promo) inorder to do so.
With those cards, options start to fly out of nowhere, i could run Luxray infernape, i could do Blaziken Luxray, i could try palkia lock with of course luxray, and even beedrill with a luxray tech. So many options.
If i dont go SP, i dont know what other deck to play other then Gengar and flychamp. Porygon Z is for next season when i have the double colorless and i can abuse my opponents double colorless and calls and whatever they be using :)
Ed 
Omar