One Hit KO

Hey OneHitKO, it’s me, coolestman22, trying to get another article out for the site because I have some free time and an idea. I figured I may as well write about my predictions for the format created by the new set, and we’ll see how many of them end up being legit.

I had to sit down and think for a bit about these before I actually wrote anything, but there might be a couple that slipped my mind. If I remember anything, I’ll edit it into the article.

Prediction 1: Darkrai/Hydreigon is BDIF

Of the decks we had in BW-DRX, Hydreigon is probably the one that benefits the most from new cards. Skyla is great for searching out Rare Candies or Ultra Balls that get you the Hydreigon right away, and Computer Search benefits Hydreigon more than anything else because you can Junk Hunt for it and create a chain of Computer Search.

It also has easy access to Sableye DEX (Which most decks don’t because they don’t run Darkness Energy), probably the best starter in the game right now, which can turn bad hands into T2 set-ups and bait N’s that get you a brand new, better hand. It allows you to reuse your Catchers and Max Potions late game, and it can get back Dark Patches for extra energy acceleration.

It’s also good for taking out your opponent’s energy acceleration. You have Darkrai, which can take out 3 Eels with 2 Catchers over the course of 3 turns and leave your opponent with nothing to power up attackers with, or you can use Dragonblast on your opponent’s Hydreigons or Blastoises. Decks generally need an engine in play to function right, and if you take those out it can often be the difference between winning and losing.

I also like how you can’t really Catcher-stall against it when it sets up a Hydreigon because you can Dark Trance the energy to your active and free retreat with Dark Cloak. Against Eel decks, most decks can Catcher up Eels, and if the Eel player doesn’t have a Switch (Or Double Colorless Energy) they can’t attack that turn. With Hydreigon, that isn’t the case, and that’s another reason I think it’s the BDIF.

Hydreigon also has Blends to play techs like Shaymin EX, Virizion EPO, Cresselia EX, and some other cards that either do something or counter something. In my opinion Cresselia is the best Mewtwo counter there is right now if you can manage to set it up, and Hydreigon can providing it has the right energy on the field (Which it does most of the time). Cresselia isn’t vulnerable to another Cresselia and is less vulnerable to a Mewtwo as well because it loses its Psychic Weakness when it attacks.

Perhaps the thing I like best about Hydreigon decks, however, is that the deck is both offensive and defensive. Most decks usually either focus on doing a bunch of damage or tanking, but the thing I like about Hydreigon decks is that it can do either, or both. You can be aggressive with Darkrai and deny your opponent prizes because of Max Potion. You also have a heavy hitter in Hydreigon that, combined with the 30 damage to the bench from Night Spear, can knock out Keldeos and other 170 HP EX’s in one hit.

Prediction 2: Landorus decks will be Top Tier

Let me say this: Landorus is a great card if you find a deck that works with it. The problem is that because Ether was cut, Landorus won’t see as much play because Ether could fuel other attackers faster.

I can see three Landorus decks working: Landorus/Garchomp, Landorus/Empoleon, and Landorus/Terrakion EX/Terrakion NVI (With or without Garbodor). These three decks will be at a huge advantage just because they get donks and apply early game pressure so easily. The best of the three in my opinion is Landorus/Empoleon simply because in the late game it has the best damage output of the three, however if Hydreigon and Eel decks are Tier 1 the Fighting-based variant may end up being preferred.

The reason Landorus is such a great card is that not only does it apply early-game pressure to your opponent, get you a potential donk, and hit two Pokemon at once, the cost is extremely easy to pay. One Fighting Energy is a lot easier to have in hand on Turn One than a Double Colorless Energy that Mewtwo EX or Tornadus EX would require, and the attack is a lot better on Turn One as well under non-donk circumstances.

Land’s Judgement is also a good attack to draw that last prize (Or two prizes), and combined with the 30 from Hammerhead has the potential to KO any non-Eviolited, non-Cresselia EX in at most two hits.

The discarding of the energy isn’t as big a deal as people say because if you just attach one more Fighting you’re attacking again, but it’s still not great. It also hinders your ability to retreat, but you should be running a decent Switch count anyway.

Prediction 3: Dusknoir will be a good tech in anything with Ditto and Rare Candy, and other 1-1 or 1-0-1 techs will be popular as well.

I’ve been doing some testing with Dusknoir, and I’d rank it as one of the three most powerful Pokemon to have in play

(Reuniclus and Serperior would be on that list, too), plus it’s likely to stick around for a couple turns if not for the rest of the game.

Moving your opponent’s damage around is just so powerful in any format. In an older format with un-nerfed Rare Candy and Broken Time-Space Dusknoir would be amazing. Even now, Ditto is amazing for 1-0-1 techs. I will expect to see some tournament winning decks play Ditto and surprise techs like Dusknoir (Ninetales and Reuniclus are some other ideas), and then they become more and more popular as Cities goes on. (I really wish Ditto had been out sooner, 1-0-1 Kingdra Prime anyone?)

Just the other day I was playing a game at league where I was up 2 prizes to 5, and my opponent managed to get a Dusknoir in play and won by moving my damage around and drawing a bunch of prizes in one turn. If you’re playing Ditto and Rare Candy, Dusknoir will be something to consider, just because it’s surprise factor is worth the two spaces.

Prediction 4: Ho-oh’s popularity will slightly decrease, but will still be just as good.

I’ve been hearing a lot of “Ho-oh EX is weak to water, so Keldeo will destroy it” lately.
However, that isn’t the only thing to consider. Kyogre EX was written off because of the Lightning Weakness, and it was in the deck that won Nationals. Darkrai EX is amazing even with all the Terrakion running around.

Ho-oh also has an amazing ability to tech for any matchup because it runs all types of energy and accelerates. Ho-oh is a very versatile deck, and one bad matchup won’t really set it back too much. All I would expect is that people will play more Virizion EPO or NVI and Shaymin EX to make the matchup a bit better.

Blastoise probably isn’t even the BDIF! There’s a possibility that it is, but people don’t need to be scared of one bad matchup out of three Tier One decks, especially when the others are fairly decent. Chandelure was a Tier One deck even though it had a terrible matchup against Durant. I don’t see why Ho-oh is any different.

The other thing is that I’m not hearing that much about how Landorus is unplayable because of Blastoise. All I’m hearing on the forums is “Landorus donks Dark Deino. Switching to Dragon Deino” or “Better not play Eels or I’ll get my Tynamos donked”. Especially when Shiny Rayquaza already donks Tynamos and donks Dragon Deinos and isn’t an EX x2 weak to a Tier One deck! Ho-oh is also a donk threat, so why is it that Landorus is all the hype when they have the exact same weakness?

What I mean by the popularity will slightly decrease is that people will still be afraid to play it because it has a bad matchup to a legitimate deck. John Roberts saw past that and played Kyogre, and he won Nationals with it. People need to see that a weakness to a major type doesn’t make a card unplayable, it is merely a setback to it.

Alright guys, that’s gonna wrap up this article. I know it’s been fairly short, but I ran out of predictions. I’ll try to get

another article out soon, but last minute Cities testing is probably gonna get in the way. Maybe I’ll write an article about the different techs that go with Ditto.

As always, feel free to leave a comment, and I’ll try to respond to it. I’m open to discussion, and if there’s something about the upcoming format that you want to hear my opinion on, feel free to ask and I’ll tell you!

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