SP

Playing TOSSED (the Shuppet / Garchomp C Deck)

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

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Dialga Garchomp Deck Workshop

Here’s a deck that I think will fare quite well when the HGSS set comes out. Omar has run a similar “Lady Gaga” Deck, but I can’t condone such behavior (because of the name). Let’s just focus on the Dialga Garchomp Deck for now. We will start with the following deck that Omar has built and tested, which he posted about before.

Pokemon: 19
3 Luxray GL
1 Luxray GL Lv. X
2 Garchomp C
1 Garchomp C Lv. X
2 Bronzong G
1 Dialga G
1 Dialga G Lv. X
2 Uxie
1 Uxie Lv. X
1 Toxicroak G (Promo)
1 Lucario G
1 Crobat G
1 Unown G
1 Azelf

Trainers/Supporters: 29
4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy
4 Roseanne’s Research
4 Energy Gain
4 Poke Turn
4 Power Spray
3 SP Radar
2 Night Maintenance
1 Aaron’s Collection
1 Bebe’s Search
1 Luxury Ball
1 Expert Belt

Energy: 13
4 Call Energy
4 Electric
2 Psychic
2 Warp Energy
1 Metal

The thing is that this is a fairly known deck by now. There isn’t a whole lot to say about it. Luxray can Bright Look up an opposing Pokemon and pretty much own it in one shot with either Trash Bolt or Flash Impact. Garchomp C Lv. X heals your SPs while adding an 80 damage Dragon Rush snipe attack. Dialga is a bit more situational and defensive shutting down trainers with its Deafen attack while also shutting down Poke-Bodies with its own Time Crystal Poke-Body. This all adds up to another potent SP deck. Have you noticed a theme yet? Take Luxray GL Lv. X. Mix it with some other SP Pokemon. Win.

If you want to keep winning, though, you’ll have to adapt for the changing environment. Heart Gold / Soul Silver is coming out, and it’s bringing some new cards into the format. How can we build a winning HGSS Dialga Garchomp Deck? Well, the easy answer is to take out 4 cards, add in 4 Double-Colorless Energy (or DCE), and then just roll. Are there any other new cards that we ought to consider? Is the metagame going to change enough to warrant a shift in this deck?

Many people believe that the more Dialga-heavy (and I think therefore more controlling) version will be a better choice come DCE time. Dialga and Garchomp both get a nice boost from the Double-Colorless Energy. Dialga G’s Second Strike and the Lv. X’s Remove Lost both have a double colorless component. Remove Lost can even remove your opponent’s DCE. Garchomp C only requires colorless energy, so DCE gives him quite a nice boost. Even Luxray GL’s Bite and Trash Bolt attacks have a double colorless requirement. In most of these cases, the DCE doesn’t really combo with Energy Gain, so it works as more of a replacement for EGain. Garchomp C (and Lv. X), however, can now do an attack that would seem to cost 3 energy by dropping EGain and DCE, so Dragon Rush can do 80 to a benched Pokemon in one quick move. It doesn’t even have to discard 2 energy cards to do it (if you only have a single attached).

Let’s discuss it a bit and see if we can come up with a nice new Dialga Garchomp Decklist for HGSS. Here’s the workshopped version.

Pokemon: 20

2 Garchomp C
2 Garchomp C Lv. X
1 Bronzong G
3 Dialga G
1 Dialga G Lv. X
2 Uxie
1 Uxie Lv. X
1 Toxicroak G (Promo)
1 Lucario G
1 Crobat G
1 Skuntank G
1 Unown G
1 Azelf

Trainers/Supporters: 27

4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy
4 Roseanne’s Research
4 Energy Gain
4 Poke Turn
4 Power Spray
3 SP Radar
1 Night Maintenance
1 Aaron’s Collection
1 Bebe’s Search
1 Luxury Ball

Stadiums: 2

2 Snowpoint Temple

Energy: 11

2 DCE
1 Psychic
3 Metal
3 Special Metal
1 Warp Energy

Palkia G Infernape 4 Lock

I tested out a Palkia Infernape deck last night, matching up against 4 very different opponents and decks. My idea was that Infernape 4 Lv. X could replace Luxray GL Lv. X as a way to bring up the opponent’s benched Pokemon for setup disruption while the well-known combo of Mesprit and Palkia G Lv. X would lock the opponent’s Poke Powers. Here’s the list. It’s pretty much Omar’s Palkia Power Lock deck with Infernape swapped in.
Mesprit LA

Pokemon: 22
1 Azelf LA
1 Azelf MD
3 Palkia G
1 Palkia G Lv. X
2 Infernape 4
1 Infernape 4 Lv. X
4 Mesprit
3 Uxie
1 Uxie Lv. X
1 Bronzong G
1 unownG
1 Toxicroak G
1 Lucario G
1 Crobat G

Trainers/supporters: 26
4 Cyrus
4 Rosie's
4 E-Gain
4 P-turn
3 P-Spray
2 NM
2 SP Radar
1 Bebe's
1 Aarons Collection
1 Luxury Ball

Energy: 12
3 Call
5 Water
1 Warp
1 Psychic
2 Electric

I think power lock style decks will be good against the metagame while it’s in flux due to HGSS hitting the scene. For me, though, I think it’s not my style. I need something a bit harder hitting and quick. I like the disruption that Mesprit, Power Spray, and Infernape 4 Lv. X can cause, but it really requires a good knowledge of the metagame and a patience to wait for the right strike. I want prizes, and I want them now. I play this deck too aggressively for my own good, and that’s why I’m going to scrap the idea and move on to something else. I feel that players they’re comfortable with, and (at least for now) control isn’t my game. I’m thinking LuxApe might be my game, so expect to hear about that sometime in the future.

Shuppet Vs. SP

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.
Shuppet PL
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

Palkia G Lock and Lady Gaga

Well, these are my 2 posts on this. decklist ideas. Go ahead and put in some input on things i could change.

Palkia Lock

Pokemon: 22

Palkia G2 Azelf (1 LA 1 MD)

3 Palkia G
1 Palkia G Lv. X
2 Luxray G
1 Luxray G Lv. X
4 Mesprit
3 Uxie
1 Uxie Lv. X
1 Bronzong G
1 unownG
1 Toxicroak G
1 Lucario G
1 Crobat G

Trainers/supporters: 26
4 Cyrus
4 Rosie’s
4 E-Gain
4 P-turn
3 P-Spray
2 NM
2 SP Radar
1 Bebe’s
1 Aarons Collection
1 Luxury Ball

Energy: 12
3 Call
5 Water
1 Warp
1 Psychic
2 Electric

And now for the Lady Gaga Decklist

Garchomp C Level XPokemon: 19
3 Luxray G
1 Luxray G lv. X
2 Garchomp C
1 Garchomp C Lv. X
2 Bronzong G
1 Dialga G
1 Dialga G Lv. X
2 Uxie
1 Uxie Lv. X
1 Toxicroak G
1 Lucario G
1 Crobat G
1 UnownG
1 Azelf

Trainers/Supporters: 28
4 Cyrus
4 Roseanne’s
4 E-gain
4 P-Turn
4 P-Spray
3 SP-Dar
2 NM
1 Aarons Collection
1 Bebe’s
1 Luxury Ball

Energy: 13
4 Call
4 electric
2 psychic
2 warp
1 Metal

Ive played both decks and there are a couple things i would like to put in both. I wanna get another Aarons and i want to get a premeir ball in both of them, but i dont know what i should take out for them.
Thoughts on the lists and thoughts on how to get those in?

Next Deck to Run

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 :)

help!!!!