One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis.  I was struggling on whether I should call this article a “Deck Analysis” or a “Stupid Deck Idea.”  The reason I wasn’t sure whether what to name it was because it is an all or nothing deck, it either works really well or falls flat on its face, but we can talk about that later.  The deck that I will be spotlighting is a Kyogre/Groudon Legend build.

What the Deck Does

As far as I know, KGL builds can trace their history to an article on Pokegym by Elekid 957. KGL was a hyped card when it was released, so I’m sure it did see some play before the article, but that was the first time a real playable list was released to the masses.  The problem with this decklist is that it is for the MD-CL format, meaning the list lost a lot of cards.  This loss could have broken the playability of the deck, extensive testing has yet to show if a KGL build can survive in the HGSS-on format.

I made a KGL deck because I love the Ruby and Sapphire generation.  To me, those games were the best Pokemon games, so the legendary Pokemon from that generation have always been special to me.  Another reason why I like the deck is that I like the milling strategy (discarding cards from your opponent’s deck).  The strategy of the deck is to use KGL’s “Mega Title Wave” attack to mill the opponent’s deck.  The attack discards the top 5 cards of the deck, and does 30 damage to each of your opponent’s Pokemon for each energy you discarded.  I originally hoped this deck could mill an entire deck, but I have never done this in my testing.

The problem is that this deck never stays in the game long enough to Mill an entire deck.  It either wipes out the opponent with the 2nd or 3rd “Mega Title Wave”, or gets steamrolled in the first 4-5 turns.  I want this deck to be able to Mill, but I don’t know if it ever can.

To power up KGL’s attack, this deck uses Feraligatr Prime.  His “Rain Dance” Poke-Power lets you attach as many water energies to any Water Pokemon.  “Rain Dance” will make sure you will be able to power up KGL quickly and help recover from a knockout.  “Rain Dance” is also used with the other 2 Pokemon in this deck, Alomomola and Relicanth.  Alomomola is your Donphan/Reshiram counter. It is really the only Pokemon that will ever attack the active Pokemon.   If you got an opponent who is attacking you with Donphan or Reshiram right away, you can just use Alomomola to OHKO them.His “Hydro Pump” attack can OHKO either of those Pokemon as long as all the energies on Alomomola are water.  Relicanth is the starter Pokemon in this deck.  His “Prehistoric Wisdom” attack lets you draw 3 cards for 1 energy.  If you are able to keep him active for 2-3 turns, you will have a really good hand.

Discussion and Matchups   

In my testing, this deck either gets destroyed right away, or will be able to run over the deck that it plays against.  Basically, if you get lucky and your opponent has a lot of energy on the top of the deck, or your opponent’s deck runs a lot energy, you should be able to run-amok.  If your opponent gets setup 2 turns faster than you, or has weakness of KGL, you might as well just scoop.

In my testing, this deck has a great Reshiboar matchup.  It takes away the Reshiboar player’s bench very quickly.  But this is due to the fact that my Reshiboar deck runs 15 energies.  I don’t know what the average energy count on a Reshiboar deck is, but I assume that it is much lower than 15.  I guess it depends on the variant of the deck that you play against.

This deck also has a good Donphan matchup. Even though Donphan decks run low energy, you should be able to get a couple knockouts with Alomomola.  This means that you will not need to get as many knockouts with “Mega Title Wave.”

But, this deck struggles against ZPS, Magneboar, and any water deck.  It just can’t make up for the weakness of KGL.  Perhaps someone will be able to make a variant of this deck that makes up for the weakness.

The List

Well, that’s enough talking about the deck, so lets look at a version of the list that I use.  For a disclaimer, this is just a version of a rough list that I have used in testing.  It is not a great list, not even close to being polished.  So if you think that this list isn’t very good, I agree with you.

Pokemon-18

• 3-Totodile
• 3-Croconaw
• 3-Feraligatr Prime
• 1-Alomomola Rare BW   
• 4- Relicanth Cl
• 2-2 Kyogre/Groudon Legend

Trainers-28

• 4-Professor Juniper
• 3-Engineer’s Adjustment- Nice draw engine when you have a deck with high energy.
• 3-Pokemon Collector- One of the best cards in the format, I usually play 4, but here we have less emphasis on Basic Pokemon.
• 2-Elms
• 2-Twins- You will be going down in prizes early, this card helps, you might wanna add an extra 1 or two.
• 3-Interviewer’s Question
• 2-Fisherman
• 1-Flower Shop Lady
• 4-Pokemon Communication
• 2-Junk Arm- You will be using Communication to find KGL and the Feraligatr line.
• 2-Energy Retrieval

Energy-14

Water-14- I haven’t worked on the right number of energy yet.  I probably should fit some Rescue Energies in.

Well there is the list, don’t beat me up too much on it, its just a rough version of the list.  You might wanna try Feraligatr HGSS in this deck, he can spread 20 damage for two energies, this could be  a good combo with KGL and Feraligatr Prime.

Im not sure if this can be a competitive deck or not, I guess it depends on how popular lightning decks are, and how much energy most decks run.  What do you guys think of it?  Can this deck be competitive?  Or is it just a league deck.  Right now I’m on the fence, sometimes it works really well, and others it stinks.  I have seen this deck come out of nowhere and take 5 prizes, and I have seen other games where it just got steamrolled.  Do you guys think this deck can ever mill a deck out?  Please leave your thoughts in the comment box.

Here is where I usually sign off with the “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” catchphrase. “So long and thanks for all the fish.”  But, lately I have been experimenting with other catchphrases.  Let me know what you think of my new ones.  So here is the one for this article:

“Once you go black, you go deaf.”

Then again, maybe I should stick to the fish one.

Category: Deck Discussion | Tags: Alomomola, Feraligatr Prime, Kyogre Groudon Legend, Relicanth