One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs and his sidekick Pedro here with a strategy article of sorts.

Before we get into the article I would like to thank my buddy Mark for writing the last article on the website, the one about Lilligant.  I hope this begins a long friendship with Mark and ONEHITKO.com.  Oh, before we get off the subject, I got a story for you, Pedro, you’ll like this one.

I doubt it, but go ahead.

Well when Mark and I were talking about the article, he hinted that we might not want to publish the article.  As if we had some kind of quality control or something.

Yeah that is funny.  You gotta have quality before you have quality control.

Haha, Like we have an Editor or something.  We just drive around down-town Detroit and ask the homeless to write articles for us in exchange for the promise of chicken.  But there’s never any chicken.  We publish whatever they give us, and hope it makes sense. 

Of course we do.  And nope, there’s never any chicken.  But, if you wanna check out Mark’s article, click here.  And thanks again Mark, we’re happy to have you around.

When talking about decks this year, the big word to use is variant.  With few exceptions (Reshiphlosion, mainly), most decks have a lot of room to be used to cater to your own play-style and your local metagame.  No two Stage 1 Rush, Gothitelle, or Mew deck is the same because there is a lot of room to work with.  Adding different cards makes the deck your own, and can give you an advantage in a Battle Road.  Picking the right tech is every important.  While it is impossible to talk about every tech that is out there right now, Pedro and I will do our best to talk about the most important techs out there.

Actually you will do that, and probably fail.  While I will stand back and make fun of you.

Isn’t that what I said?  Anyway, let’s go and talk about techs.

Starting Pokemon (Cleffa, Pichu, Manaphy, etc …)

The first techs we will look at are Pokemon that are usually looked upon as starters.  A lot of decks run Cleffa as a starter, but if you have another starter or usually don’t need a starter, you could think of Cleffa as a tech in your deck for  a better start or for hand refreshing to improve consistency.

Used For– I kind of already wrote about what it’s used for.

Yeah, good job ya jerk.  

Thanks, Pedro.  Anyway, you could use a starter like Cleffa as a tech to improve consistency or for a “just in case” card.  If your deck is behaving normally and you draw into a Juniper, you might think that everything is fine.  But if you get a really weird draw on your Juniper, you might need a starter like Cleffa to come in mid-game to help you recover from that weird draw you just got.  Cleffa, Pichu, and Manaphy are good early game and mid game to improve consistency.  If your deck does not already use a starter like this, you might want to consider teching in one just in case.

Used In– Decks like Mew that already have a different starter, or your deck that usually doesn’t use a starter.

Why it may be a good choice– It could be a good choice to run 1 of a starter just so you do not get screwed on the off chance that you get a weird draw.  Also, it is always good to have at least 1 Pokemon with free retreat.  It is also not a big investment, taking only 1 card slot in your 60 card deck is not a bad trade off for consistency.

Why there may be better choices-  I usually play Battle Roads in a “balls to the walls” manner.  I like to play risky decks and then go to a lot of tournaments and hope I get really lucky at one and win it all.  Having more consistency is really important in a 9 round tournament like Nationals, but it may not be that important for a 4-5 round tournament like Battle Roads.

Tropical Beach

After Worlds everyone was talking about the promo card that was given away.  Tropical Beach is a stadium card that lets you draw until you have 7 cards in your hand, and then your turn is over.  The down side is your opponent can use it too.

Used For– Again, we have another consistency or setup card.  Tropical Beach is a card that is mostly used to  help you improve consistency.  Since there is not a lot of draw power in the format, draw power, even if it is from a stadium, is valued.  There are times when you run out of options mid game, and would gladly sacrifice an attacker for some draw power.

Used In– Could fit in all decks, but has mostly been talked about in Ross Dot Deck and Gothitelle.

Why it may be a good choice– A Bianca like card that nets you one extra card  and is always in play is always nice.  It improves consistency a lot.

Why there may be better choices– Tropical Beach is very expensive.  If you are lucky you can get one for 50 bucks, but that still is out of the price range for a lot of players.  Another strike against this card is that your opponent can also use it.  Meaning that you could play a card that will help your opponent more than it will help you, which is never good.  The final downside about Tropical Beach is that it is not searchable.  This means that if you really want to use Tropical Beach and it is not in play, then you are out of luck.  You will have to draw into it to use it.

Basculin Emerging Powers #24

Wait do you hear something Pedro

Ahhh I get it.  Are you talking about the sound of my heart beat running away, beating like a drum and its coming your way, can’t your hear that boom badoom boom badoom, bass, he is that super Bass(culin)

Quick thinking Pedro.

Used For– Basculin is a Donphan destroyer.  He has the “Flail” attack which lets you do 10 times the number of damage counters on Basculin.  If you have a Vileplume on the bench it will be very hard for your opponent to get Donphan out of the active spot, and if you have Basculin active that has taken an “Earthquake” last turn, you will be able to OHKO Donphan. There is no way for the Donphan player to get out of this situation, if they would attack Basculin they know they would get knocked out last turn.  But if they do not attack the game would end, and if they have not taken more prize cards than you, they will lose.

Used In– Mewlock

Why it may be a good choice– Very good Donphan counter in a deck with Vileplume.

Why there may be better choices-  There are a lot of other ways to deal with Donphan Prime that do not involve Basculin.  Like just using the Yanmega to snipe around Donphan, and then use Ambipom or Smoochum to move the energy off of Donphan.  And if the Donphan player is winning, that super bass will be of no help because the opponent will just pass until either the game is over or your break your Basculin lock. 

Mew Prime

Used For– Mew Prime is a very versatile tech.  It can help in a lot of different matchups.  It can be used to counter Gothitelle, or to counter other Mew decks.  If you “See Off” your main attacker to the Lost Zone, you can then Mew next turn to attack Gothitelle for weakness.  You could also use Mew to use the Mew player’s Muk, and then use “Sludge Drag” to bring up their Vileplume so you can knock it out next turn.

Used In– Almost any deck.

Why it may be a good choice-  If you have a lot of item locking decks in your metagame, I think you should give Mew and Rainbow energies a very good look.

Why there may be better choices-  If item lock is not prevalent in your area, Mew is probably not needed.  You also don’t need it if you already have an answer to the trainer lock decks.

Solrock and Lunatone

Used For– Solrock and Lunatone are tech cards that are used to counter Gothitelle and Ross Dot Deck decks.  Both Gothitelle and Ross Dot Deck decks like to pile up damage counters and then heal them with cards like Blissey Prime and Max Potion.  Solrock has a Poke-Body that does not allow healing, so Solrock can be used to cunter these decks.  If these decks are allowed to pile up damage and then heal, you will never be able to pile up enough damage.  If Solrock and Luntone are in play, the damage counters will pile up fast.

Used In– A meta game that is heavy with item lock.

Why it may be a good choice– It only takes up 2 deck spaces and really gives you an advantage against Gothitelle.

Why there may be better choices-  A lot of decks take up most of their bench spaces already, so using 2 more spaces is not feasable in some decks.

Ditto Triumphant 

Used For-  As mentioned earlier, bench spaces are at a premium in this format.  A lot of decks use bench sitters like Vileplume and Reuniclus, and can clog up their bench really fast.  If you play Ditto down your opponent will have to discard one of their Pokemon, if they have 5 on the bench.  They will also not be able to play another one down until Ditto is taken out of play.  This can be a very disruptive card, especially when people tend to put a lot of extra basics on the bench to make up for the Pokemon Catcher threat.

Used In– Can be used in any deck.

Why it may be a good choice– It is a  very versatile tech that can be very disruptive against a lot of decks.

Why there may be better choices-  You never know when Ditto will be needed, so it is hard to recommend using it.  Also, the meager 40 HP is sniping bait for Yanmega Prime.

Tornadus  

Used For– It is a Donphan Counter.  It has an attack that can utilize DCE, and can knock out Donphan Prime in two hits.  It also can only get 3HKOed by Donphan and his “Earthquake” attack.  It is a card that has revolutionized the Zekrom deck and can be used in any deck with a bad Donphan matchup.

Used In– Zekrom and basically any other deck that uses DCE.

Why it may be a good choice-  It is a great Donphan counter that is easy to fit in to a lot of decks.  Not  a lot of cards can be you quite as good of a shot against Donphan Prime, but Tornadus can pull it off fairly easily.

Why there may be better choices– You may have another anti-Donphan tech in mind, but overall Tornadus is the best.

Smoochum/Aipom.

I can track the use of Aipom back to Worlds 2011.  Jason K. used it in a Mew lock deck to move the energy off the active onto the bench.  A very handsome guy named Joshua Pikka-

Ahh, I don’t think he’s that handsome.  I think he’s a fat guy who sits all day writing articles on a poor quality Pokemon website that nobody reads.

well I prefer handsome.  Anyway, I can only track the use of Smoochum to my use in a mew lock deck in early September of 2011.  I used it as a substiute for Aipom.  Aipom is not a bad play, but Smoochum does what he does for free and retreats for free, although it is a lot tougher to donk Aipom. 

Used For– Stalling, moving energy off of the active to a benched player.  A lot of the Stage 1 Rush decks out there only play about 6 fighting energies.  Imagine that you have 1 of those fighting energies prizes, 1 in the discard pile, 1 on  the active, and 3 left in a 40 card deck.  If the energy in play was moved onto the active, it could be pretty hard to get that energy back onto a Pokemon such as Donphan. 

Used In– Mewlock, but anything with Vileplume. 

Why it may be a good choice-  If you cannot match each player’s hand size for Yanmega Prime, Donphan Prime will be a difficult change for a Mew deck. But, if you can move the energy off of Donphan, that player may not be able to attack next turn.  This card could change the shape of a lot of different matchups.   

Where there may be better choices- It is kind of hard to know if your opponent has another energy in his/her hand.  To change the odds you can tech in Mr. Mime Cl, but that would take another valueable bench space.  You might think that it could be better to just run that super bass, Basculin. 

boom  badoom, boom, boom, badoom.

Indeed.  Well, Pedro we are finally done with this article. 

You mean you are done speculating about cards that probably w on’t be played at all.

Yeah, that’s pretty much it. 

Okay, then can I end the article?

I guess so, how are you going to end the article tonight.

How we always do it, just like the Teletubbies do.  Bye bye Tinky Winky, bye bye Dipsy, bye bye Lala, bye bye Po.  The sun is setting in sky, Teletubbies say good bye. 

Wow, that was great Pedro, even though I don’t think that is how we usually end the articles, you had everything except that creepy baby in the sun.

I know, that baby was pretty creepy. You know I like these articles, we don’t pretend to know anything, we just sit here and talk about the Teletubbies.  

Exactly, cause I know I don’t know anything.  And you aren’t even human, you of course are a extra dimensional being without a body, so you can’t even play Pokemon.

True, but it is time to end the article,  Teletubbie Bye Bye.

Category: Card Discussion | Tags: Basculin, Cleffa, Ditto Triumphant, Mew Prime, Pokemon Fall Battle Roads 2011, Tropical Beach