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November 2010

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MRDIF: Gyarados

Bittyboy72 18 Comments

What is MRDIF?

I am sure you all have heard of the new popular acronym (at least new to me) BDIF, witch stands for Best Deck In Format. Well I decided instead of writing an article about the Best Deck in Format I would write an article about the Most  Ridiculous Deck in Format, or MRDIF. For this article I chose to write about Gyarados as the MRDIF because I feel it really is!

How Do You Play Gyarados?

I realize that a lot of people already know how to play Gyarados but for those of you who don’t I’ll go over it briefly for you. Basically the goal of Gyarados is to discard Magikarp using cards like Regice and Junk Arm. You may ask “why would I want to get rid of your basics?” Well that’s because Gyarados’s “Tail Revenge” attack does 30 damage times the number of Magikarp in your discard pile for no energy. There are some cases where you do need to use cards like Pokemon Rescue to recover a Magikarp because Gyarados got KOed but you mostly rely on Rescue Energy now to recover Gyarados.

Ways to Play Gyarados!

In all of my experimenting with Gyarados I have found a couple of effect ways to play Gyarados and it is actually quiet versatile now. I have found that the best ways to play it are with Warp Energy and Seeker, just plain Gyarados with Sableye (similar to the original), playing it with heavy Warp Point and Cyclone Energy lines, and also with Giratina and Mesprit.

Warp Energy With Seeker:

I have tested Warp Energy and Seeker the most and I love it! Even though I love it so much it lacks something! I played it at a local City’s and I didn’t do so well (mostly because I played 3 Vilegars) but I still love the deck. Just in case you don’t know how Warp-Seeker Works I’ll explain it a bit it’s pretty self explanatory. The idea is to tank with Gyarados and then heal it instead of recovering Gyarados like usual. You heal by attaching a Warp Energy to Gyarados to force it to the bench then you bring up something with free retreat. After you get a damaged Gyarados to the bench you use Seeker and pick Gyarados back up and lay it back down if you have Broken-Time Space (witch you should) and then retreat your active and continue to attack with Gyarados. This version usually runs less Rescue Energy because of the healing factor but a couple Rescue Energy isn’t a bad idea.

Original:Sableye - SF

I have found a lot of people just run Gyarados like it was originally. By “run it originally” I mean like how the original Gyarados ran where you used Sableye to do a bit of discarding. As you probably know there is no more Felicity’s Drawing so in place of it they use Volker’s Philosophy to discard one then draw cards till there 6 in their hand. Although I don’t really like this method and think that the other ways are more effective, this is still a good way to play the deck. Besides most of the Gyarados lists I looked at played 2 Volker’s Philosophy anyway. This version usually plays a couple Warp Points and has plenty more room for techs if you would rather have a more teched out list.

Heavy Warp Point and Cyclone Energy Lines:

Another version I like a lot is Gyarados with heavy lines of Warp Point and Cyclone Energy. This is a very effective deck and a great way to play Gyarados. The idea of this is that Gyarados is to take a prize a turn. If there is  a tank in your way you Warp Point of Cyclone for something you can easily kill to take a prize. Most of the time this deck runs extremely heavy Crobat G lines and Poke Turns to ensure a KO (or possibly a KOs turn 1) or even a quick DONK. This version of Gyarados tends to do very well and you should definitely watch out for it.

Mesprit and Giratina:

Last but not least we have Gyarados with Mesprit (LA) and Giratina(PL). I really have no idea how to recommend lines for this because a guy at one of our City’s won with this deck and I have no idea what his lines are. If I had to guess I would say 1 Giratina and 2 Mesprits. Please remember that is just my guess but I haven’t got to do any testing with it but I plan to. Sorry about not being able to explain this version but at least you get an idea! Another more common version of Gyarados is Gyarados with just Mesprit (as in no Giratina) and I believe these list tend to do pretty well in tournaments and I believe there was one of these Gyarados at worlds last year.

Deck Staples:

Gyarados has a lot of staples as well. In case you don’t know what a staple is, it is a card that is essential to a deck. Here is a list of some staples:

-4 Magicarp (SF)

-3 Gyarados (SF)

-2-4 Sableye (SF I say 2 depending if you run another starter or not)

-1 Unown Q (MD)

-1 Regice (LA)

-2 Uxie (LA)

-1 Azelf (LA)

– 3 Pokemon Collector (HS)

-1 Bebe’s Search (RR)

-2 Pokemon Rescue (PL)

-2 Rescue Energy (Triumphant)

-3 Broken-Time Space (PL)

-1 Combee (SF)

*NOTE: Please remember that this is a list of what every Gyarados list should run, however the number of each card you play may change depending on what version of Gyarados you choose to play.

Possible Techs:

As I said before Gyarados is a very versatile deck now and can be played many different ways. I went over each version and a couple of the techs above so I may repeat a few below more in deaf.

Seeker:

Seeker is a great tech for Gyarados weather you run Warp Energy or not (although I would highly recommend you do) because it improves your matchup against decks that trainer lock because you can reuse cards like Uxie. Seeker is also a great card now because Gyarados has a huge DONK potential and Seeker could help ensure your DONK by making them pick up their last bench and being stuck with a lone active. Seeker is definitely a tech you should consider!

Dialga G LV.X:                                                                                                                                

Dialga G LV.X is a card that I don’t tech in a lot but everybody tells me it’s great in Gyarados so I thought I should still say something about it. Basically the idea of Dialga is to break yourself out of sticky situations like a Vilegar match where you are trainer locked because Dialgs’s”Time Crystal” Poke-body blocks Spiritomb’s “Keystone Seal” Poke-body as well as Vileplume’s “Allergy Flower” Poke-body, witch both prevent you from playing trainer cards. Please note that Dialga doesn’t really work well without Warp Energy in the deck as well. You could get away with playing Warp Point in this case though because you are blocking their Poke-body that prevents you from playing trainers. Overall Dialga is a decent tech I just thinks it’s more of a personal thing.

Mesprit:

Mesprit is a very good card to play in Gyarados because of it’s “Psychic Bind” Poke-Power witch prevents your opponent from using any Poke-powers during their next turn. I did talk about Mesprit above because it is a good card but I would be extremely worried about if you have the bench room to actually play Mesprit on the bench. If you run Mesprit I would definitely run Seeker to help keep your bench from clogging. This is a really great tech for Gyarados though, and in many other decks as well!

Warp Energy:

Warp energy is an extremely good card in Gyarados. This can be used in a lot of situations such as a quick retreat or getting rid of a Regice you starting with. It is also great for if Regice or a high retreat Pokemon gets drug active. Like I said a couple times now if you play Seeker you should probably run 2 or 3 Warp Energy and if you run Warp Energy you should run Seeker as well!

Smeargle:

This is a tech that a lot of people find odd in Gyarados. There are 3 main uses for Smeargle in Gyarados mainly because he is a great starter. Another reason Smeargle is good is it gives you some recover late game. You bring Smeargle active and use 2 Supporters a turn to hopefully recover Gyarados. The last reason Smeargle is good is because if you play Warp Energy you can attach a Warp Energy to Gyarados and bring Smeargle active the play Seeker heal and possible use another Supporter or if your opponent uses Seeker in there deck you could use Smeargles “Portrait” Poke-power to use their Seeker. Also if you choose to run Smeargle you should consider playing a second Unown Q.

There are a lot more techs I could go on about but these are the main techs you should consider. On this short list I tried to name ones that would fit into all of the different versions but things like Mesprit won’t fit into every version of Gyarados. Don’t be afraid to try out your own tech ideas either, or tech ideas I haven’t listed.

Conclusion:

Gyarados is definitely the Most Ridiculous Deck in Format (MRDIF) by a long shot! I believe Gyarados is mainly so ridiculous because it can be played in so many different ways, shapes, and forms and is definitely a competitive deck. I have also found that Gyarados has very few bad matchups, even Luxchomp is a decent matchup depending on what version of Gyarados you run. Well I hope everyone enjoyed ready my long article about Gyarados and I would love to read any comments and answer any questions you have so be sure to leave a comment bellow!

-Bitty-

Deck Discussion

“Steeling” the Show with Steelix Prime

Pikkdogs 17 Comments

Hi Everyone, this is Pikkdogs here.  I hope your preparations for Cities are going well.  I hope today you might learn something about possibly a deck to play, or a deck that you might play against.  City tournaments start in just a few days, so get ready for your final preparations.

Another housekeeping issue is that we at Team Omar wish you guys a Happy Thanksgiving.  I love Thanksgiving, it has a lot of turkey, stuffing, gravy, and pie; so what could be wrong with that?  So I hope you guys are able to go home and meet with your family to have a great Thanksgiving.

A final housekeeping issue is that next month will mark our first anniversary.  Ed and I are tossing ideas around to celebrate this mark.  We are trying to think of a good contest idea, but are having a little trouble.  If anyone has an idea of how to best celebrate our first year of operation, please leave the idea in the comment box.                                    

Okay, now onto the article.   At the end of the battle road season I wrote an article that reported my tournament results.  I played two decks for the BR season, Trainerlock and Steelix.  I posted my Trainerlock decklist, and wrote that I would post my Steelix decklist soon.  Well, I forgot to do that.  So now that Cities are coming up, now seems to be the perfect time to write the article.  It should help people prepare to face the deck, and it should help people who are still looking for a deck to play.
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Deck Discussion

Regigigas: Power Lock Power House

Andrew R. 23 Comments

Hello everyone.  I’m Andrew Ramey and this is my first article here on Team Omar, I hope you guys enjoy this.

Regigas PromoWhen i first started glancing over the new set of triumphant, I noticed right off the bat that some old decks were going to get their hype back and possibly be top tier decks. I had read in a few articles on other sites which mentioned that Regigigas had placed 12th in Worlds ’10.  I was actually pretty surprised to hear this. I further then researched to find more information on this. I  never found a deck list from the original creator, but i did find a very good promo card that he had used. It is Regigigas (DP40). The first attack for (CCC) is Drag Off, does 30, and reads, “Before doing damage, you may choose 1 of your opponents benched Pokemon and switch it with the defending Pokemon.” WOW.  A few things ran through my mind quick. OHKO Garchomp C if Gigas is belted, and the other thought. DISRUPTION. It is not a bright look by any means at all, but bring in a Pokemon with a high retreat cost is a great thing. It gives you more time to set up the Gigas X. When I put 2 and 2 together (Triumphant and Gigas DP40) I knew i was building Gigas right away.

The 2 main cards out of the set that i think gives this an incredible boost are: Twins (89/102) and Black belt (85/102). These two cards are really great cards in Gigas, and I will explain. It is obvious that i would run the Lvl X form of Gigas (SF 100/100). The Lv. X has a Poke Power that more less makes Regigigas. It is called “Sacrifice”. Once during your turn you get to choose one of your own Pokemon, it is now knocked out (YOUR OPPONENT TAKES A PRIZE). You might think well dang that stinks, I am down a prize. Well come to find out that’s not so bad, in certain situations.
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Deck Discussion

The Triumphant Return Of Scizor/Cherrim

Ed 10 Comments

Scizor SFI’d almost want to call this a stupid deck idea, but it really doesn’t fit the definition we’ve worked with in the past.  This is a proven deck (albeit not top-tier) that had been fairly crippled by the recent rotation.

We’ve covered Scizor/Cherrim decks in the past, but I figured we could revisit this now that Triumphant has given it some new home in the way of Junk Arm.

In the past, the main idea of the deck was to use Scizor’s Pound Down attack for massive damage.  Whenever possible, you would want to finish off the defender with Scizor’s Accelerate attack.

Pound Down is a brutal attack that does 70 damage whenever your field is without Poke Powers.  This means that you can’t afford to run Pokemon like Uxie or Crobat G that might otherwise make their way into a deck such as this.

Accerlerate is Scizor’s other attack.  It only does 30 damage, but if it KO’s the defending Pokemon, Scizor can’t be affected by attacks on the opponent’s next turn.

Those two attacks are really the basis of the deck.  Sure, Scizor has a PokeBody that can prevent damage (if he already has 6 counters on him), but it rarely comes into play.  Let’s take a look at the list, and then we’ll get into the finer points of how it works nowadays. Read More

Deck Discussion

The New Machamp- Does it work?

Pikkdogs 10 Comments

A big Hello to all members of Omar-Nation.  This is Pikkdogs here.  I noticed the website has had a lack of content (Ed must be pulling a Rip Van Winkle or something), so to pick up the slack I will talk to you guys about Machamp Prime and what changes in the format will come about.                                                                     

As you know, Machamp Prime came out in the new Triumphant set.  It is a decent card, it lets you do 60 damage for FCC and 100+ damage for FFCC, and it has a decent Poke-Power that lets you move energy cards to it.  But, Machamp SF is still in the format and has a large history in the format.  Machamp SF is known as an excellent card, because it allows you to knock out any basic Pokemon, for just 1 energy.

Together these cards can make a good deck.  But, how should we go on about building a deck.  Most Machamp decks play like a speed deck, trying to get a Machamp SF out as fast as possible.  If you can get Machamp SF up on turn 1, and start taking prize cards right away, you will take  a large lead that is hard to give bacl.  To get a fast Machamp, most lists use a lot of trainers.  Other people have teched their lists out to give the deck an advantage against specific decks. To analyze them, I’ll take a look at specific techs.

1.  Donphan Prime.  People have talked about Donphan Prime as a great combo with Machamp Prime.  This is because Donphan can damage your own bench, and Machamp Prime takes advantage of a bench with damage encounters, with it’s second attack.

The problem with Donphan is that it takes deck space without really doing much.  There really isn’t much difference between 130 and 100 damage on a consistent basis, so the damaged bench doesn’t help you that much.  And Machamp SF is already a great early attacker, so you don’t really need Donphan to attack.  The only advantage he gives you is the fact that he doesn’t need rare candy to evolve, and is not weak to Psychic.

Recommendation: Don’t Tech, Machamp SF is better then Donphan Prime early game, so why put in Donphan?      

2.     Dusknoir Sf (Shadow Command). Dusknoir gives you two big advantages, one is that it gives you a draw engine, another is that Dusknoir can hit other Machamp decks for weakness. Props to Scott Faust for showing me this tech, he didn’t really show it to me, but I think it was his idea.  Most decks already run 4 rare candies, so adding in a 1-0-1 tech of Dusknoir isn’t going to slow the deck down that much.  Also, having a draw engine is very valuable to any deck.

The downside of Dusknoir is that you would also have to run 2 psychic energies, and it can be hard to find those energies when you really need them.

Reccomendation: Tech, if you want to.  I don’t think it can be that consistent, but its not a bad play.

Gengar Sf:  This is the old GengChamp deck.  It can also hit another Machamp for weakness, and has a lot of extra goodies, like Fainting Spell and Shadow Room.  It also can attack for just 1 energy, this makes it more flexible then Dusknoir.

The downside of this tech is that it isn’t 2009 anymore.  The format has changed since GengChamp ruled the format a year or so ago.  The synergy that they once had, is now lost.

Reccomendation: Don’t tech.

There are more techs out there, the limits are endless.  Those were just three of the more popular techs.

Now that we got that out of the way, lets take a look at a list that I drew up.  Its more of a straight-machamp type deck that relies on speed

Pokemon-20

  • 4-Machop
  • 3-Machoke
  • 2-Machamp Sf
  • 2-Machamp Prime
  • 3-Unown R
  • 1-Unown Q
  • 1-Azelf
  • 3-Uxie La

Trainers-29

  • 4-Rare Candy
  • 2-Broken Time Space
  • 4-Poke-Drawer +
  • 4-Pokedex
  • 3- Judge
  • 2-Pokemon Communication
  • 3-Pokemon Collector
  • 3-Bebe’s Search
  • 2-Warp Point
  • 1-Pokemon Rescue
  • 1- Palmers Contribution

Energy: 11

  • Fighting-7
  • DCE-3
  • Warp-1

This deck is pretty basic and vanilla.  It has unown Rs and trainers to get Machamps fast, and it has Judge’s to disrupt the opponent.  Props to Austino for the basic build of this deck, he listed his straight Machamp deck, and I tweaked it to make it work with Machamp Prime.

So does it work?  Well yes and no.  The deck does work, it gets a Machamp fast and lets you switch to Machamp Prime when needed.  The problem is that it faces some bad matchups with some of the best decks out there.  It does well against SP decks, but fails against other decks.  The Gyaraodos matchup is iffy, Gyarados just has too much HP and can deal too much damage for Machamp.  Machamp just can’t deal consistent enough damage against Gyarados.  The Gengar VileTomb matchup is fairly problematic because your deck relies on trainers.

So it has a lot of disadvantages, but it is still a good deck.  It can stop SP decks and most other decks.  If Trainerlock isn’t huge in your metagame, this deck could be a good play for the upcoming City Championships.

So what are your favorite Machamp builds?  Let us know in the comment box.

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