One Hit KO

Hey all members of Omar-Nation, Pikkdogs here with a little bit of a strategy article.  This site hasn’t had a Luxchomp article posted here for quite sometime, and I am pretty proud of it.  But alas, we can’t ignore it forever, so here is an article about Luxchomp.                       

We all know that since it became popular, Luxchomp has been the winning-est deck in the format.  It is a great deck that is lightning quick and features a lot of elements of disruption.  Of course it features the Pokemon Luxray Gl and Garchomp C, which gives the deck a lot of advantages.  But to give it even more advantages, Luxchomp players have teched out their decks with a lot of different cards.  There are too many cards to include them all in every deck.  So to make things easier, this article will tell you a little more about the techs, and you can include the techs that fit your metagame the best.

The Staples– Before we talk about techs, lets first look at staples.  I consider that Luxchomp has 5 staple Pokemon cards.  1. Luxray Gl (usually a 2-1. 3-1. or 2-2 line), 2.Garchomp C (usually a 2-2 or 3-1 line), 3. Bronzong G (just 1), Lucario Gl, and 4. The pixies (usually a 2-1 Uxie line and 1 Azelf).

Your Mirror Techs– Since the mirror matchup is one of the most important Luxchomp matchups, it is important that Luxchomp decks tech against each other.  Garchomp C and Luxray Gl are  great Pokemon but they are susceptible to revenge knock-outs.                               

Ambipom G– Ambipom G is a diverse little card, it can do a lot of things, but is not very flashy.  It has 80 HP and is weak to fighting.  Its first attack, called “Tail Code” lets you move an energy from your opponent’s active to a bench for just 1 energy.  Even though this is a pretty pitiful attack, it is fairly good against speed decks, because they don’t run many energies.  But, the reason this card is here is because its second attack, called “Snap Attack.”  For CC it can do 60 damage if the defending Pokemon has no energy attached to it.  That means you can do 120 damage to a Garchomp C for just 1 DCE, and “Snap Attack” adds donking ability.

Dragonite FB– Dragonite FB is also a diverse card.  It has 100 HP, and is weak to colorless.  It has more HP then Ambipom, it can always knockout Garchomp C, and can attack better then Ambipom; but it takes more energy, requires a coin flip on one of its attack, and can be hit by Garchomp C for weakness.  Its first attack, called “Mach Blow,” does 80 damage to any SP, this will be the attack you use the most.  It requires an energy gain and 1 DCE to attack, so it does take resources, but can be up and running in one turn.  Its second attack, “Giant Tail”, can do 100 damage, but it requires a coin flip, and another energy.         

Toxicroak G Promo– I feel like a broken record, but this card is very diverse.  Any time your opponent knocks out a Pokemon, Toxicroak can be called up and do 60 damage plus poison.  So this gives you a bunch of options, plus it is a fighting type so it can OHKO Luxray Gl.  As mentioned, “Poison Revenge” can do 60 damage and poison the defending for PC.  The bad part of this card is that you will need to include a psychic energy to use this card. Toxicroak G comes complete with his own built in Super Scoop Up, in the form of a Poke-Power called “Leap Away.”  Why I don’t like cards who’s sole purpose is to go away, it does have its uses.

If you don’t have Toxicroak G promo, you could use Mankey SV as a tech against Luxray Gl.  It can do 60 damage for just 1 fighting energy, but it only has 60 HP.  The problem with this card is that unless you use Mankey to take the last prize, your opponent will be able to knock out Mankey, so its use doesn’t really make any sense.

The other techs-

Dialga G– Last years worlds winner had a lot of people looking at his deck for obvious reasons, and one of the things they noticed was that he ran Dialga G and Warp Energies.  Dialga G is not a staple tech now adays, if you want Dialga G you might as well run Dialgachomp, but there are reasons to run this card in a Luxchomp deck.  It is an excellent card to go against decks that run a lot Pokebodies; like Trainerlock varieties, Donphan Prime, and Mewtwo techs.  It is an excellent play for bigger tournaments that have lots of deck variety.  Though you will need to include some Warp Energies.  If you use Dialga G, you would only use the Pokebody, you would most likely not want to attack with it.

Blaziken FB– Like Dialga G, Blaziken FB is very versatile.  For one fire energy you can pick your opponent’s benched Pokemon, make him active and burn him.  Then next turn you can level up and hit that Pokemon for 120 with “Jet Shoot” and the “Burning Spirit” Poke-Body.  It can help you do a lot of things against a lot of different decks.  It can be used against Gyarados, to bring up Regice and stall or snipe around.  It is also a good tech against Vileplume, you can make him active, then attach another energy next turn and knock him out.

Drifblim Ud– Drifblim is a card that is not versatile, it is only good against tanking cards.  If you don’t run Blaziken FB you will automatically lose to decks like Steelix Prime.  So to counter big tanking decks, you can use Drifblim to get rid of the tanking card.  Drifblim’s second attack, “Take Away” that costs CCC and its effect shuffles in both active Pokemon into their respective decks.  The bad thing about this tech is that you need two spots for this card you need to evolve.  Most Luxchomp decks should be able to work well without Drifblim, but you can include it in your deck if your format is full of tanking decks.

Mewtwo Lv.X– Mewtwo will be a good tech if you are playing a deck that does not have any evolution lines.  Its Poke-Body “Psybarrier” prevents all attacks from Pokemon that aren’t evolved.  It’s one attack, “Giga Burn”, does 120 damage for PPC, but you must discard all energy attached.  This means that you will need to include at least 2 Psychic energies to be able to use this card.  Though 120 damage is a good number.  The problem about using Mewtwo Lv.X is that there are too many ways for your opponent to play around it.  Some Luxchomp decks play an evolved Pokemon like Mismagius SF to counter Mewtwo, while others play Dialga G Lv. X.  Or, Garchomp C LV. X can be used to knock out Mewtwo before it can be a Lv. X.  I would only suggest Mewtwo if you know that most of the other SP decks in the format do not run a counter.

So that is all for this article.  There are a few more techs like Mismagius, Skuntank Gl, Staraptor FB, and Smeargle UD.  But these cards are either pretty self explanatory or not used very much.

Fortunately, SP decks will soon lose a lot of their luster, because a lot of the key cards will be rotated out next season.  But, until then you can learn how to play this Luxchomp deck and be successful at your State and Regional Championships with it.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Ambipom G, Dragonite FB, luxchomp, luxchomp techs, Promocroak