One Hit KO

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with an article about decks that can come from the Noble Victories set.  I also have my extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro here with me.  Sorry for this article coming out late.  Again the server crashed on me when the article was almost finished.  So that pushed the article back a day or so.  But let’s move on, What’s on your mind tonight Pedro?

Well I got no news to report or anything like that.  I can remind our readers that if they leave right now they can avoid reading another article on this site, there is still time. 

Pedro, I’m trying to draw people to the site.  I don’t want to drive them away, no matter how beneficial it will be to them.  Sure we aren’t as good as a normal website with a sponsor, paid writers, and servers that don’t crash every half an hour; but I still do my best to put out sub par articles with lots of spelling errors.

Well if you wanna torture these good people, I guess you can continue on.  Let’s look at possible decks from the cards from Noble Victories. 

Deck Ideas for Noble Victories. 

After a long Battle Road season and an upcoming regionals in the same tired format, I am excited for a set that might bring us some new deck choices.  I will separate deck ideas into 3 categories: Top Tier Decks, Rogue Decks, and Fun Decks.

Top Tier Decks

Cobalion

Right now I can only see one good deck coming from NV, and that is Cobalion.  Now the Cobalion decks will not be a good deck for Cities, but it will be a good deck from here on out.  That is because Mewtwo EX will be a great card, and Coballion is a great counter to it.  So give it a little time and Cobalion will be a part of a top tier deck.

Card Description– Cobalion is a 120 HP basic metal Pokemon with a weakness to fire and a resistance to psychic.  Its first attack, “Energy Press”, costs MC and does 20 damage plus 20 more for every energy attached to the defending Pokemon.  The second attack is kind of like Beartic’s attack.  “Iron Breaker,” costs MMC and does 80 damage while not letting the defending Pokemon attack next turn.

The Goal of the Deck– There will be two main goals of this deck.  The first goal of the deck would be counter Mewtwo EX decks.  Mewtwo has not been released yet, but we know it will have an attack that does basically the same thing as “Energy Press.”  Well, Cobalion can do that too plus he has resistance against Mewtwo.  So he should be good against Mewtwo.

The second goal of the deck will be to do attack with “Iron Breaker” as fast as possible and then hope your opponent cannot get a knockout against Cobalion.  If you have an Eviolite and Special Metal energies on Cobalion it will be hard to get an OHKO on him.  To load energies on Cobalion quickly the best way might be Electrode Prime.  His “Energy Mite” Poke-Power will let you attach energy from your deck to Cobalion.

Using an Electrode build, you would want to get a Pokemon Collector on the first turn and make sure you have 2 Voltorbs on the field on the first turn.  Then on the second turn you can evolve to Electrode Prime, do “Energy Mite” and you should be ready to “Iron Breaker” a lot for the rest of the game.

How to Make the Deck– I would run a 3-2 line of Electrode and 4 Cobalions.  I would also run about 2 Cleffas so I could get a hand refresh on the first turn.  I would run about 10-11 Hand Refresh cards like Professor Juniper. I’m not sure about how much energy you would want, maybe around 15 including 4 Special Metals and a couple Rescue Energies.

Rogue Decks

Victini

Now Victini is not really a main attacker in this deck, but it will be a very important part.

Card Description– Victini’s “Victory Star” Ability lets you re-flip after your attack is over if you flipped coins for your attack. The stats on Victini are very poor, so he will be an easy prize with Pokemon Catcher.  So make sure you have a plan to get him from the discard pile.

The Goal of the Deck– Well the goal of the deck will depend on what main attacker you choose.  Some of the main attackers that have been talked about are Sharpedo, Audino EP, and Lilligant EP.  But no matter which of these Pokemon you choose, there will be a basic goal of your deck.  You are going to want to attack very quickly, probably turn 2.  You will want to get a Pokemon Collector on turn 1 and get 2 basic forms of your main attacker, and a Victini.  If you already have a Victini in play you can play the other one down, but if you don’t you might wanna hold it until turn 2 and hope it doesn’t get Judged away.  On your second turn you can evolve your main attacker, put down Victini, and then attack.  Make sure you have recovery cards like Super Rod and Revive so you can get back Victini when it gets knocked out.

How to Make the Deck– I would probably run 2 or 3 Victinis and 1 Revive and 1 Super Rod.  I would probably run 4-4 of your main attacker.  Then depending on what deck you are running, you can fill out your list with trainers and energy.

Durant

Card Description– Durant is a basic metal Pokemon that is weak to fire and resistant to Psychic.  Its main attack is called “Devour” and it lets you mill 1 card for every Durant in play.  The key here is to understand that Durant is feeble and you will want 4 out at all times.

The Goal of the Deck– The goal is just what I said, to mill while having 4 Durants in play at once.  You hopefully will mill enough cards from your opponents deck that they will eventually not have a card to draw at the beginning of their turn.  You will want to make sure that you have a lot of recovery cards in your deck so you can always have 4 Durants in play.  It is always nice to have cards like Special Metal energies and Eviolite to see if Durant can withstand an attack. If Durant can withstand 2 attacks, then you should be able to mill their entire deck.

How to Make the Deck– Of course I would play 4 Durants.  I would also play about 3 Revives and 4 Junk Arms.  As for other Pokemon, I would play 1 Mime Jr. and one Rotom to try to find a prized Durant.  Of course it would be nice to have 4 Pokemon Collectors and a couple Dual Balls so you can have 4 Durants out on the first turn.  I would also run 4 N’s.  Since you are never taking prizes you will always draw 6 cards, and your opponent will draw less most of the time.  This deck is a little bit cheaper because you probably will only run 1 Pokemon Catcher if you run one at all. 

Vanilluxe

Card Description– Vanilluxe is  a stage 2 Water Pokemon with 130 HP, a 2 retreat cost, and a weakness to metal.  Its second attack, “Frost Breath” does 60 damage for WW, which is good, but its not the reason we are here.  The first attack, “Double Freeze” lets you flip 2 coins.  If you get 1 heads you do 40 damage and paralyze the defending Pokemon.  If you get 2 heads you do 80 damage and paralyze.

The Goal of the Deck– Obviously the goal of this deck will be to get a turn 2 or 3 Vanlliuxe and paralyze the defending Pokemon while slowly chipping away at the HP.  It can be more consistent with the addition of Victini.

How to Make the Deck– I would probably run a 4-2-4 line of Vanilluxe.  I would probably run 2-3 Victinis and at least 1 Super Rod.  I would also run about 2 Cleffas for early game hand refresh.  You might want to run Twins to come back from a slow start.  You probably would not need a lot of energy for this deck, probably 8-9 water energies and 2-3 Rescue Energies.  The trainer lines will be pretty standard.  10-12 hand refresh, 4 Pokemon Catcher, 4 Junk Arm, and 4 Pokemon Communication.

Accelgor

I was struggling on whether this should be a rogue deck or a fun deck, but I thought I would put it here cause I don’t really care where it goes.

Card Description– Accelgor is known as being a bad Donphan Prime.  Well, Donphan Prime is a good card in this format, will there be any room for a bad Donphan?  Its stats are not that good.  It has 90 HP, a weakness to fire, but it does have free retreat.  For one grass energy, “Slashing Strike” does 60 damage, but can’t be used next turn.  The other attack is called, “Acid Spray”, and it does 20 with a flip to remove and energy attached to the defending Pokemon.

The Goal of the Deck– I could see Accelgor being used in 2 possible ways.  The first way is to use him as a Donphan replacement in a stage 1 deck.  There are a lot of Donphan counters out now, so Accelgor will have a space to slip in to.  It can do the 60 damage and then retreat for something else next turn.  It is a very fast way to get an easy 60 damage.  The drawback is nobody is weak to grass.  The second build with Accelgor that I can think of is basically in a Mewlock deck, but without Mew.  You would have a Vileplume line to disrupt, Sunflora to get all your Pokemon out, and Yanmega Prime as a secondary attacker.

How to Make the Deck- Well the build that of Accelgor that you choose will vary the structure of the deck greatly.  For the Stage 1 Build, just take your Donphan out and replace the fighting energies with Grass Energies.  You could also just add 4 Rainbow Energies to a deck  without fighting energies.  After that replacement you should be fine.  For the 2nd build you will need a 3-1-2 Vileplume line, 2-2 or 3-3 Sunflora, and 3-3 Yanmega Prime.  Your supporter lines will probably max out on both Judge and PONT, with a good showing of Sage’s Training. You will not need a lot of energies, probably about 7 Grass will be enough.

Fun Decks

Archeops

Archeops will be a fun deck for people that want to use the new fossil mechanics.

Card Description-  Archeops is not only really cool because of the fossil, but because of it’s Ability.  “Ancient Power” will not let anyone evolve Pokemon from their hand.  They can still be evolved through ways like Leavannay EP, but most people will no tech a 1-1-1 line of that in.  Archeops does have an attack, for FFC “Rock Slide” does 60 damage to the defending Pokemon and snipes 2 Pokemon for 10.  The stats of Archeops aren’t that great, it is a stage 2 Fighting Pokemon that has 130 HP, and a grass weakness.

The Goal of the Deck– The goal of this deck would be to get Archeops out as fast as possible so you can stop your opponent from evolving.  While you are disrupting your opponent’s setup, you can evolve with basic Pokemon.  You might want to run some basics like Terrakion EP, since he can use the same fighting energy as Archeops.  If you can get Archeops out fast and attack with other basic Pokemon, you should be able to beat any deck that evolves.  The problem is most damage is being done by basic Pokemon, but that is why this is a fun deck.

How to Make the Deck– I would probably run 4 Plume Fossils, 4 Archens, and 4 Archeops.  You could use Research Record to get Archens on the bottom of your deck, and then you can play Archen to your bench with Plume Fossil.  I would probably run 4-6 of some basic attackers.  Depending on the attackers that you choose, I would run about 12-14 energies.  Then you can fill out your list with trainers.  The trainer list should be fairly normal, just with 4 Plume Fossils and some Research Records.  Make sure you leave yourself enough room for at least 10 hand refresh and draw supporters.

Chandelure

Card Description– Chandelure is a stage 2 psychic Pokemon with 130 HP, a weakness to Dark, and a 2 retreat cost.  Its attack, “Eerie Glow” does 50 damage and burns and confuses for PPC.  It has the “Cursed Shadow” Ability that drops 3 damage counters on your opponent’s Pokemon if Chandelure is active.  The main problem with Chandlure is that it takes 3 energies to attack, but that does not mean that it can’t still be a cool fun deck.

The Goal of the Deck– The goal of the deck will be to get an active Chandelure and just fool with damage counters.  I would run a  4-2-4 Chandelure line with 3 Rare Candies.  To make use of the 3 damage counter drops a turn, I would run a 2-2 line of Darkrai/Cressalia Legend.  DCL will be able to move damage counters around and knock out a bunch of Pokemon.  Through spreading and confusing and burning the defending, you should be able to cause a lot of confusion.

Was the pun intended there?

Nope.

How to Make the Deck– As mentioned, 4-2-4 Chandelure and 2-2 DCL.  I can’t think of any good spreading Pokemon that work with Psychic energies, but if you can work a spreader on sniper in here, that might work.  Perhaps Yanmega Prime would work because of the sniping ability.  I would also add a couple Cleffas, and probably play Tropical Beach.  Your energy line should probably be around 13 psychic energies.  Your trainer lines should be fairly standard.  Just make sure to run a couple Switches if you play Yanmega Prime,.

Well that’s all we got here. Let’s end the article Pedro.

Already, why so early?

Well since the server crashed again, I had to hurry this article out and I need to go home to get my deck ready for tomorrow.

So no lame jokes or anything like that?

Nope.

Please?

No.

Well you are screwing with your own format.  I must protest. 

I will note your objection in the logs.

Category: Card Discussion, Uncategorized | Tags: Archeops, Chandelure, Cobalion, Durant, Vanilluxe, Victini