First off, I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to read my debut article from last week. I’m sure this much is obvious by now, but I am very passionate about Pokemon and writing alike, so it means a lot to me that people would stop what they are doing to read what I have to say. Hopefully in time, as more articles are posted, more and more people will discover this website and what we have to offer to the community. Of course, you can help with that too; if you read our articles and dig what you see, don’t hesitate to tell your friends about us! Word of mouth really does go a long way, and every single person who shares us helps us out a tremendous amount.
(In case you didn’t catch my last article, you can view it via the link directly below.)
While I am pretty confident with my predictions in last week’s article, only time will tell what archetypes truly prove themselves to be the cream of the crop. Trying to qualify for Worlds having not played in over two years is going to be a major challenge for me, and if I want to succeed, I have to make sure to make the right meta calls from the very first event. When determining what deck is an optimal play in the early days of a format, there are always a few factors I like to consider, the first of which being that since there are little-to-no results for us to analyze and learn from, everyone who turns in their deck registration sheet at that very first event is going off of theory, raw testing results and not much else.
Because of this, we can deduce that the decks that will perform the best throughout the early stages of a season are generally going to be more proactive than reactive, meaning they are more concerned with ‘asking a question’ than ‘providing an answer’; without an adequate amount of tournament results to go by, the reactive decks simply don’t know what questions they need to answer (or how to best address them, for that matter). Proactive decks, however, don’t need to know all the right answers, because, well, they are the question! This logic also applies to techs somewhat; there is nothing wrong with adding a card or two to counter what you predict you will be facing, but a fully teched-out deck is generally going to be less favored in a beginning-of-the-format tournament when compared to a consistent, streamlined one.
Take TDK for example- what is probably the biggest ‘question deck’ of this new format. The question TDK asks its opponent is this: ‘How are you going to deal with a consistent flurry of Kyurem backed by Team Plasma support?’. As we all know good and well, this is not an easy question to answer effectively, which is what makes TDK the consensus strongest strategy right now. See, TDK isn’t worried about attacking specific strategies it may or may not face; regardless of what you’re playing, TDK just wants to Blizzard Burn for obscene amounts of damage as early as possible until all six prizes are taken. This is what it means to be a proactive strategy. Read More
I don’t believe I’ve ever met any of you, so allow me a brief moment to introduce myself. My name is Tyler Lindsey (for those of you who didn’t catch that already). I’m a 21 year old lifelong gamer, hailing from the humid plains of southeast Alabama. Currently, I am making a return to the Pokemon TCG community after playing Magic: the Gathering competitively for two years. Magic was both fun and rewarding, but it was also very time consuming, and the nostalgia vibes given off by my favorite childhood game always keep me coming back! My primary goal for this season is to successfully reach the 400CP required to compete in Worlds 2014 in Washington DC, while writing resourceful and insightful strategy articles along the way. Hopefully I can deliver in both aspects!
Of course, if one wants to have a truly successful season, they must hit the ground running from day one, and I intend to do just that. The weeks after Worlds, where old season transfers into new, is definitely one of the best times to get reacquainted with the game; there is ample time to playtest, and everyone is starting with a clean slate as far as deck building goes. Fortunately, I have used this moment’s reprieve in competitive play to my advantage, and as a result, I feel I have a very good grip on what the format will shape up to in the months to come. In this article, I will delve into the five ‘main’ strategies I feel are the most noteworthy going into this new terrain, so allow me to share some of my findings with you.
(Bear in mind these archetypes are in no particular order.)
1.) TDK (and other similar flavors of Plasma)
So let’s get right to it and start with the obvious: TDK is still public enemy number one. It lost little to nothing from rotation (if you could even call it a rotation), and even gained a new toy from Plasma Blast in the form of Silver Bangle. Kyurem (PLF) continues to be one of the most efficient attackers in the format, and is still backed by all of the powerful support cards Team Plasma boasts. While Lugia-centered Plasma builds also stand to become a powerful force in the metagame, make no mistake- Kyurem is the undisputed king that all decks must answer to if they wish to excel post-rotation. Read More
Hey OneHitKO people, it’s me, coolestman22 again, here with another article to try to help keep the site going. I said in my last article that I would try to write about the techs Ditto brings to the table, and I decided to do just that.
Anyway, Esa wrote a neat article about how good Ditto is on his blog (Which I recommend reading if you haven’t), but
Techs.
he didn’t go over the usefulness of the techs you could set up via Ditto. He mentioned a few, and he did a bit of reviewing them, but he didn’t go that much in detail.
So without further ado, I guess I should start the article. Please do note that these are not ranked, they’re just there in the order they came to my head in.
Dusknoir BoC
Dusknoir is probably going to be the most popular Ditto tech. The Ability is just so powerful that if you manage to get a Dusknoir out, it will probably lead to a few prizes by itself. You could also use it to take out your opponent’s all-important Stage Two Energy accelerator, or use the damage from the EX they retreated to kill their active EX with energy.
However, without Ditto, the second a Duskull hits the field, it is very likely to be Catcher-killed, even without Junk Arm in format. That is why you need Ditto to play a Dusknoir tech. If you can get a Dusknoir out, it is a very powerful thing to have on the field.
Zoroark BW
Zoroark is an interesting tech (I wonder how many times I’m gonna say that this article), but it’s not one I’m big on this format. Last Cities I played a 1-1 in my Audino Box deck (That was my crazy stupid rogue that I would have played if I had gone to one more Cities) to hit Chandelure, Magnezone, Cobalion, and other things for “I win”. It was extremely good, but I had to cut it because of space concerns.
I don’t think I like Zoroark all too much now, however, because nowadays it just doesn’t have anything to hit for either weakness, OHKOes, or an effect. The main meta things now are Rayquaza, Landorus, Darkrai, and Keldeo, and Zoroark just isn’t good against any of those.
Maybe in another format, Zoroark will be really good, but I doubt that will happen any time soon. It does have a secret rare in NXD, so if the rotation is NXD-on maybe Ditto will allow for it to be good.
Ninetales DRX
Ninetales serves as a 5th Catcher. If your opponent sees four Catcher in your discard pile, they will probably play differently until you Junk Hunt them back (if you do). However, if you play a Ninetales you’ll be able to use a Catcher
The Other 5th Catcher
that they likely won’t see coming, and therefore it will probably be much more devastating.
Also, who wouldn’t want an extra Catcher? If you have space for a 1-1 Ninetales tech and you don’t play Rare Candy, Ninetales might just be the best possible tech you can play with Ditto. I really like the surprise factor it has, and having a 5th Catcher can win games.
The reason that Ninetales wasn’t played in BW-DRX is, of course, there was no surprise factor, and the Vulpix is likely to be Catcher-KOed. With Ditto, you get the surprise factor as well as a higher HP basic to sit there instead of a Vulpix (Which matters in the case of Mewtwo or Darkrai), and if they put enough damage on the Ditto you can Transform it into something else.
Serperior BW
Serperior is an interesting tech indeed, and it’s one I have experimented with in my Hydreigon deck with success. It brings me back to the days where 1-0-1 Nidoqueen RR techs were a thing because of the old Rare Candy rules. Serperior is just a stackable version of that, and in Darkrai mirrors it can be devastating (It’s practically an Eviolite that can’t be Tool Scrapped and reduces more damage the longer it goes unattacked). I have found that with Serperior you can switch Darkrais around via Dark Trance, and then slowly heal all of them when they get damaged.
It’s also really good against the Night Spear damage that Darkrai does to the bench. Suddenly, that 30 becomes 10 before your opponent can do anything. So with Serperior in play that 90-30 becomes a 70-10, and if you retreat to a fresh Darkrai it will become a 50-0 or 50-20 depending on whether they Night Spear the same Pokemon.
Against other decks it isn’t too shabby either if you’re using Darkrai. If you Eviolite your Darkrai the Keldeo is only doing 90 (Assuming 3 waters) or 110 (Assuming four waters), and then you make that 70 or 90. If you retreat to a fresh Darkrai that turns into 50 and 70.
I’m not going to keep talking about Serperior, but I have found it’s great in any Darkrai deck, especially Darkrai/Hydreigon. With Ditto, you can disguise your Serperior tech as something more prominent and then go Transform-Rare Candy-Serperior.
Krookodile DEX
This tech probably isn’t as legitimate as the others, but I feel like giving it a shout-out. What it does is that it has an attack called Bombast that does 40 damage for each prize card you’ve taken. What this does is that if you’ve already taken five prizes, it will OHKO anything barring Wailord with Giant Cape and Regigigas EX/Tornadus EX with Asperita City Gym and either Eviolite or Giant Cape.
This pretty much cancels the need for a game-winning Catcher because you have a card that can OHKO everything meta regardless. However, the attack costs four energy (Two Darks included) and in any Darkrai deck you’re likely to have extra Night Spear damage somewhere that can be moved around with the most likely better Dusknoir tech. So unless you’re playing some weird Zoroark variant, Dusknoir is likely the better call if you have the Darks to make playing Krookodile somewhat reasonable.
However, it does have a cool shiny version from Dragons Exalted, so for league play if you want to use your shiny Krookodile you can.
Bronzong NXD
This would be the anti-Max Potion tech that the format needs so much. It has existed, but it’s always been Catcher bait. However, with Ditto a 1-1 Bronzong NXD tech could turn your Hydreigon match in the right direction seeing as they need to attack with Hydreigon to OHKO unless they have a Dark Claw, and if you can hit the Hydreigon somehow first they will have to either retreat and not OHKO Bronzong and instead try to Night Spear it to death, and even then you can either power up a Raikou or other sniper or Catcher it out. If they only have one Hydreigon in play this could win you the game.
Leavanny NVI
Leavanny is probably not the best tech you can play, but it certainly has its ups.
Imagine you’re playing Hydreigon/Darkrai and your opponent is playing Terrakion EX/Terrakion with at least 2 Tool Scrapper. You’re not going to be able to keep your Eviolites when you need them, so what do you do? Get your Leavanny out. Leavanny will single-handedly win you the matchup against any deck with Terrakion if you manage to get it out, and it also makes benching Cresselia/Mewtwo/etc. a less risky decision. However, it isn’t something I’d recommend unless your meta is full of Terrakion.
Reuniclus BW
Reuniclus is an interesting tech, and I can see a couple of uses for it. Imagine you’re playing Blastoise/Keldeo, and you need to heal your Keldeos. Reuniclus can give you a turn or two of invincibility before it gets Catcher-killed, and you can put the damage pretty much anywhere you want, meaning that the damage you have in play can be spread out to 10 or 20 everywhere and likely not making any difference. Since Reuniclus is going to get Catcher-killed anyway, you won’t get your field flooded.
Another play is that if your opponent uses all four Catcher, you can Transform-Rare Candy-Reuniclus and gain invincibility until they either use a Ninetales, Junk Hunt, or your field floods.
You should probably put 80 damage on Reuniclus itself unless you’re playing against Darkrai, Chandelure, or Flygon, because the Reuniclus is going to get knocked out, so you may as well heal 80 (Even if your opponent has used all of their Catcher, it’s still the safe play).
Reuniclus is certainly an interesting tech, but it will likely take a back seat to Dusknoir and Ninetales, and other preferred Ditto techs. It’s something to experiment with in any deck that plays the Ditto and Rare Candy already, and it may end up being the tech you like the most.
Empoleon DEX
Empoleon is basically a draw engine if you get it out. If you run Waters or Blends for Attack Command it’s useful too, but Empoleon is mostly just a way to discard useless cards and get out of N lock.
However, this is a lot more useful than that paragraph makes it out to be. N lock can be the difference between a clutch win and a devastating loss. Hand-reliant decks that play Ditto and Rare Candy such as Blastoise and GothGor should definitely consider Empoleon as a tech to not only provide a draw engine to get out of N lock but to also to use Attack Command in clutch spots.
Salamence DV
Salamence was probably the only hyped Pokemon from Dragon Vault unless you count Rayquaza, but it probably isn’t going to live up to the hype. However, it does make for an interesting 1-0-1 tech for its Ability. While you don’t have Hooligan’s or other things to reduce it more, forcing your opponent to discard until they have four is really good, especially if you force them to draw cards somehow. However, there are much better techs to use, and Salamence is probably best used as a fun thing for league.
Milotic DRX
Milotic is an interesting tech because it’s not for the late game, but instead more of an early game set-up assister. Having a triple Computer Search can be great for slow decks and it’s something I would consider in any slow deck.
However, starting with a 30 HP Feebas isn’t something I would look forward to.
Shiftry NXD
Giant Fan.
Oh, god. This would be hilarious if someone pulled this off. However, Shiftry’s flippyness makes it unviable for anything other than league play.
But it would be hilarious if someone pulled off a Giant Fan. I think I’ll play a 1-0-1 line at league just for the lolz (However, I don’t think I’ll ever top my Carnivine DEX tech in Hydreigon)
Toxicroak BoC
Toxicroak is like a Psychic-type Terrakion, except it uses any energy. This is great against Mewtwo if you manage to surprise your opponent with it, because it will OHKO any non-Eviolited Mewtwo and with a PlusPower or Tool Scrapper you can get around that.
Toxicroak is an interesting tech in any deck that has a hard time against Mewtwo, and the surprise factor works really well with it. I think I’m gonna test Toxicroak a bit in some decks, and you certainly should too.
Chandelure NVI
Chandelure is another interesting tech that would see zero play without Ditto. I felt it was worth a mention, but as I described it I thought of more and more uses for it and now I think I’m gonna try it out.
Remember back in the day when Kingdra Prime was considered a tech? Well, this is like a triple Kingdra Prime when you can somehow get it active, whether it’s via knockout, or whatever. A Chandelure tech combined with Night Spear can get the OHKO on more things and it can also get knockouts on the bench, and it’s also useful for knocking out EX’s with either Dragon Blast alone or extra Night Spear damage, and it can serve as the single or triple PlusPower you need for the knockout when your active gets killed. And because Hydreigon can give anything free retreat, it’s no big deal to get it out of the way.
It’s also useful in Blastoise because whenever you need extra damage you can either retreat or use a Switch if you play it, and go to Chandelure, get extra damage on the board, and Step In. I could see someone playing either Hydreigon or Blastoise variants with a 1-0-1 or 2-0-2 Chandelure line just because of the lack of need to worry about retreating Chandelure.
Vanilluxe NXD
Vanilluxe is probably going to be another rarely-played one, but I can see people liking a Warp Point a turn. Not only is Vanilluxe a free Switch whenever you need it, meaning that it’s not only whatever you want active when you want it and an out of special conditions, but it also puts pressure on the opponent. For instance, let’s say you’re playing against Darkrai/Hydreigon and they just whiffed the Max Potion and only have two Darkrais out. They are forced to either promote the damaged Darkrai, give you a free hit at their Hydreigon (Remember that they whiffed the Max Potion last turn, which means they only have one hand to get it if any unless they Skyla for it),or give you a free prize on a Sableye or something else with low HP, and you can always Catcher something else up if you don’t like what they gave you.
Drifblim DRX
Drifblim is an interesting tech that I would consider in any metagame with a bunch of Special Energy, because it can hit really hard once some hit the discard pile. It is a good tech in either Hammertime or Garchomp decks because they both run cards that discard Special Energy. When you get 3 Special Energy in the discard pile suddenly Drifblim is swinging for 150, and with Enhanced Hammer and Mach Cut you can usually discard your opponent’s specials. Now with Ditto it’s more of a surprise tech and you can get away with a 1-1 line if you can hide it.
Well, that wraps up this article. You guys know I like when you leave comments, so any discussion is welcome. I’ll try to get another article out sometime this week. So ta-ta for now, and I’ll try to get something out soon.
Hey OneHitKO, it’s me, coolestman22 again. After a fairly good Regionals run (I posted a report on the SixPrizes forums, if you want to check that out), I felt like I needed to write another article. Since I wanted to test the Boundaries Crossed metagame before I write an article about any of those decks, I may as well do an article similar to my first ever OneHitKO article, but for Boundaries Crossed.
One thing I want to say before I start this article is that I am very, very disappointed in TPCi for cutting Bike, Ether, and
Why, TPCi?
Escape Rope from Boundaries Crossed. Virbank isn’t so important to me, as the only decks that would play it would be Tier 3 stuff like Scolipede/Celebi EX and Amoongus NXD decks. Escape Rope I wasn’t expecting to see too much play either, mostly because a lot of decks liked to Catcher-stall and it would force you to play your Escape Rope before your Catcher for plays to KO a bench-sitter. There would be some decks that played it, but most of the time it would take a back seat to Catcher. I was only testing it in one deck, and that deck was one I wanted to run more than 4 Switch in.
Bicycle I am disappointed with, but I can live without Bicycle for 3 months. It would have been nice to play Skyla and draw in the same turn, but I feel that Bike isn’t the worst of our wounds.
Ether is the card that I am furious with TPCi for cutting. Ether was going to be great for our format. It would open up a lot of possibilities for Quad decks, and it is amazing for a lot of decks. I was testing a Quad Kyurem NVI deck that relied on EtherDex and Exp. Share, and it was incredibly fun to play. In my first 5 games, I got a T2 Glaciate in 4 of them. I almost never got a T1, so a donk was unlikely (although not out of the possibility). Ether would allow Quad Terrakion to be good once again and keep Darkrai and Eels in check. Ether would allow for a bunch of fun Tier 2 options, such as Quad Keldeo, and it makes Landorus EX a lot more viable. Ether makes the meta way better instead of a stale Blastoise/Hydreigon/Eelektrik meta we’re probably going to have.
Don’t get me wrong, Boundaries Crossed is still a great set. We have a lot of cool Tier 2-3 attackers coming out, such as Charizard and Flygon, as well as a couple good new archetypes, such as Blastoise, Stoutland, and Vileplume. I am happy with PCL for potentially giving us such a great metagame, and I am unhappy with TPCi for taking away 50% of it.
So with that, let’s get this set review underway.
Vileplume
I really like the idea of a Vileplume Box deck. What it does is it forces your opponent to get OHKOes starting really quickly and not drop an EX, or else it will go down in one hit.
The issue I’m seeing with this deck is the reliance on Special Energy. If your opponent has metal, water, or lightning weakness your best attacker uses a DCE. After four KO’s you will have run out of energy. The answer to this would be Recycle, but that is a flippy card that makes the deck significantly more clunky.
Here are the attackers that a Vileplume box deck would probably run:
Grass – Maractus BW 12
Fire – Larvesta NVI 20
Water – Lapras NXD 25 (Plus you get a Call for Family attack for a WLFM or Prism with this)
Lightning – Emolga EPO
Psychic – Mewtwo EX/Mew EX
Fighting – Landorus EX
Dark – There really isn’t a good dark attacker for Vileplume box. Hopefully you won’t play against Chandelure NVI decks or Cofagrigus DEX tool chuck decks (And if you do you can always go aggro Durant NVI deckout)
Metal – Durant NVI (Yes, you do get to use Vice Grip for something other than donks. Take that, Kyurem EX).
Dragon – SR Rayquaza
And I don’t believe there is a single card in BW-DRX with Colorless weakness. The only legit card last format that did was RDL, but before that we would need something to take care of Garchomp C Lv. X. Ah, the good old days where Ambipom G was good.
Most of these are only hitting for 160 max, meaning we need something to boost the damage output a bit, such as PlusPower or Aerodactyl DEX. If I end up liking VileBox, I’ll write an article about it.
I think Vileplume is going to be a Tier 2 deck that people will test against, but it won’t necessarily do too well at Cities. If it wins a Winter Regionals in Masters, tell me and I’ll eat my hat.
Celebi EX
I’m honestly not too big a fan of a bench-sitting EX with 110 HP. Even with an Eviolite attached, Hydreigon and Keldeo EX still easily OHKO it. Without an Eviolite, you can add Zekrom BW and Darkrai EX with a Dark Claw attached to that list.
The Ability is really nice, however. It’s the first card that lets us use our prevo’s attacks since Platinum (Memory Berry). It is necessary for Scolipede to ever work competitively, however. I don’t think Scolipede will ever be a good deck, but if it is then you can say I told you so.
Charizard
I really like Charizard, although I don’t see it ever being good enough, especially with a Water weakness. Although I
It’s CCHHAARRIIZZAARRDD!!
don’t like it as a partner with Celebi or Emboar (shudder), I do feel that its first attack deserves a mention.
With Split Bomb you can hit two EX’s, Tynamos, or other things. If you hit EX’s, you are two Flamethrowers away from taking four prizes. After that, if you can keep Charizard alive long enough, you can take a couple more prizes via Flamethrower or Split Bomb. The deck is extremely fragile and I don’t think it would work at all, but I feel like taking prizes that fast deserves a mention. Charizard will probably never enter a Tier One deck, however.
Blastoise
Blastoise is in my opinion the best evolved Pokemon in Boundaries Crossed. Getting Rain Dance back into the game is huge in my opinion, especially because it has a legitimate partner, unlike all of the previous Rain Dancers we’ve had (That includes you, Emboar), with the exception of possibly the Base Set one. I feel that Blastoise will have the largest impact on the format of any of the Pokemon, and possibly any of the cards in Boundaries Crossed.
With Cilan and Energy Retrieval in the format, and a respectable partner in Keldeo, it is probably going to be the first Tier One Rain Dance since Base Set.
Keldeo EX
I honestly don’t think I can write anything here that I wouldn’t have said in the Blastoise section except for how amazing I believe Step In is. Step In makes it so that it is nearly impossible to Catcher stall against a Blastoise deck. Even if you have a different main attacker, Keldeo is just amazing and it should be played in any Blastoise variant.
Step In also allows you to run Musharna NXD as extra draw support. One of the main problems for Rain Dance is that if you don’t have any energy in hand, you don’t have acceleration. If you get N’d late in the game down to 1 or 2 cards, Musharna can give you the extra draw support that can change the outcome of the game.
Step In also increases the viability of a Klinklang BW deck. If they try to Catcher-stall, you can Step In, move a Prism to Keldeo, and free retreat via Dark Cloak. Keldeo is also a decent attacker in Klinklang because Water and Metal are together on the same Blend.
Psyduck
No, I’m not kidding. Psyduck seriously trolls Rayquaza/Eels decks. For one water energy, it discards a fire energy attached to the defending Pokemon. This means that if they were attacking with Rayquaza EX and they just discarded all their Lightnings and they only had one fire attached, they have a couple turns to replace it or else they are stuck not attacking every other turn.
If you could pull off an Extinguish, that means that they would likely have a benched Ray that still had a fire energy, and that could come in and OHKO Psyduck. Whoop-de-doo. They would have two turns to get a fire back or else they would be forced to attack with something else.
Against Rayquaza Dragon Vault, it gets better. If they used Shred last turn, they have 3 energy attached, one of which was a fire. If you could discard their fire, they would be forced to either get a new fire or retreat, burning both their energy and forcing them to waste Dynamotors later just to get them back instead of using them to power up something more worthwhile.
I don’t think Psyduck will be a serious option, but it is an interesting card and if you could pull of enough Extinguishes you could seriously limit your opponent’s attacking options.
Jellicent
The last water-type I want to cover is one that hasn’t been getting much hype, but I feel like it might have some sort of impact on competitive play in the future. Jellicent is a Stage One that increases the retreat cost of all of your opponent’s Pokemon by one.
Some people may remember Ariados MT and how this is pretty much exactly this, and Ariados did see some play in Flygon Lv. X mill decks. The problem with Jellicent in this format is that we have Darkrai EX and Keldeo EX that pretty much just nullify Jellicent. I do believe that if mill becomes good once again, Jellicent might see some play in mill decks (Durant/Jellicent?), but right now the metagame is just not in Jellicent’s favor.
There is a Bellossom from this set that does 10 damage plus 20 more for each energy in the defending Pokemon’s retreat cost, so if your meta is shifted towards Blastoise decks instead of Hydreigon ones Bellicent might be a decent call for a Cities or two. Bellossom can OHKO a Keldeo if there are two Jellicents in play, and always OHKOes Blastoise. The problem is that against Darkrai decks, anything with a Dark Energy attached automatically has 0 retreat, meaning Bellossom only does 10 damage.
Electivire
Electivire has an attack for LCC that does 30 to each of your opponent’s benched Pokemon. This probably isn’t going to ever be competitive, but this combined with Eelektrik NVI for an engine could make a decent Tier 3 spread deck. Spread is nice to have, and in a format with big EX’s you are six spreads away from an OHKO on them. I think I might test this for a bit.
Dusknoir
Dusknoir has an Ability that is basically Darkrai and Cresselia LEGEND’s Moon Invite attack, just in the form of an Ability. This is amazing if you can ever get it out because if your opponent has an engine of some sort that you want to make disappear, you can KO it and then attack later on. It also works pretty good against Hydreigon decks because if they retreat to another Darkrai instead of Max Potioning, you can move all the damage to the new Darkrai (Or enough for an OHKO) and then take two prizes and three energy off your opponent’s side of the field.
With the Trainers in Boundaries Crossed, I could see 1-0-1 or 1-1-1 techs becoming a thing again, although I don’t expect every deck to play them. Although I would much rather play a Serperior BW, that might just be because I like defensive decks.
People are also suggesting playing Dusknoir alongside stuff with spreading-like attacks such as Groudon EX, Kyurem NVI, or Flygon (Which I will cover later). The only one of these I see potential in is the Flygon one because it doesn’t rely on a nonexistent EtherDex engine.
Swoobat
Swoobat is a card from Boundaries Crossed with an interesting attack that mills one for each Psychic Energy it has attached. People are talking about pairing this with Gardevoir NXD, but honestly I’m not seeing it. I would much rather play Durant if I were to play a mill deck because it can attack from T1 and has a much more powerful mill.
Cresselia EX
Cresselia EX is probably my favorite of all the EX’s from Boundaries Crossed. It OHKOes Mewtwo, tanks, and has no weakness when you attack with it. If you could get it going early enough it could be devastating, especially with an Eviolite.
Just think about this: Darkrai does 90. With an Eviolite, that’s immediately reduced down to 70. Then, with the Ability that goes down to 50. Factor in one Potion and all of a sudden Night Spear only did 20 damage to you.
Start playing a thick line of Serperior BW, and you got yourself one big tank. Even if your opponent attacked with a heavier hitter, like say Hydreigon, that does 140. Eviolite and it’s down to 120. After a single Royal Heal and Sparkling Particles (Yes, that is the name of the Ability), it’s 80. Add 1 Potion, you’re back down to 50. Set up 2 Serperior, that’s 30. Another Potion, it’s all gone.
CressTank is going to be pretty good, but I feel like it’s missing something big. Oh yeah, Ether.
Munna
Munna is a basic Pokemon with an Ability that flips a coin. If heads, your opponent’s active is asleep, but if it’s tails your active is asleep.
Right now I don’t think a card that has a 25% chance of working for you, a 25% chance of doing nothing, and a 50% chance of making it so that you need a Switch to attack this turn isn’t very good. However, there may be a use for it later on.
Scolipede
Scolipede is a Stage Two from this set that has an Ability, Poison Point, which Poisons the defending Pokemon when Scolipede is attacked.
Whirlipede EPO has an attack for one energy that does 10, and then 60 more if the defending Pokemon is Poisoned. Meaning that hits for 70, and 20 more from Poison damage, if Scolipede was attacked last turn. That’s 90 damage for one energy. If Virbank City Gym were in the set, that’s 130 right there, so maybe they had a good reason to cut it. (Of course you would need to have Celebi EX out for this to work right).
Landorus EX
Landorus EX is really good in the early game. It donks Tynamos and Dark Deinos, and hits for 30 on a benched
The DCIF.
Pokemon. If you do this twice early on, you’ve got yourself 120 damage on the board, which is amazing if you set up a Dusknoir later on, or you can hit EX’s and take 2 easy prizes via something later. You also can OHKO a Hydreigon or Blastoise with the second attack if you end up using it.
If they hadn’t cut Ether, Landorus would be a lot more prominent because Quad Fighting would be a lot better. Right now, though, Landorus might not be as good in everything. Anything running Fighting, Prism, or the appropriate Blend should at least consider Landorus, though, as it gets a bunch of donks and opens the door for big plays later on.
Skarmory
No, once again I’m not kidding. Skarmory OHKOes Kyurem NVI for 3 of any energy, meaning that if you’re playing Eels or Hydreigon and are having trouble with Kyurem techs in Blastoise decks, you’ve found your guy. Kyurem shouldn’t be that prominent, though, but PCL needed a way to keep it in check.
Flygon
Flygon is one of my favorite cards from the new set. The Ability I like, and the fact that it needs no energy I like. I feel that if TPCi had given it 20 more HP it would be able to compete more in this format. As it is,.though, it’s a Stage Two that spreads and can abuse Max Potion and Tropical Beach.
I have been testing Flygon/Dusknoir for about a week now, and it doesn’t have the best matchups, but it gets set up faster than you would expect. Your opponent is forced to be careful playing benched Pokemon, and you can take out crucial support Pokemon. You can almost always get a Switch if they Catcher-stall.
The problem? You can only run 4 Rare Candy, which is huge. To get a T2 Flygon and T2 Dusknoir, you’ve already used 2 of your Rare Candy, meaning that you only have two more to set up a backup Dusknoir and extra Flygons. This usually leads to running out of Rare Candy and not being able to set up any more Flygon.
I am still trying to work with Flygon, however. I don’t feel like I should give up quite yet, because if it ends up working I have myself a deck with a built-in draw engine that can abuse Max Potion that most people won’t test against. I hope I can get it to work, but right now I’m pretty doubtful about it.
Black Kyurem EX
I’m not big on the idea of this. Even with your 300 HP, you’re still down your Ace Spec and a Tool Scrapper away from being a normal EX again. If Gothitelle/Reuniclus were to suddenly become viable again, I might consider this with my Ace Spec being devoted to this just for the sake of being able to Max Potion 290 off, but otherwise it just looks pretty and is screwed over by a staple Trainer.
White Kyurem EX
Pretty much the same as above, except that there is a little bit of hope in being able to do 200. Still not convinced, though. Steer clear, people.
Raticate
I remember back when this card was revealed, everyone was hyping it to death. It was going to be paired with Rocky Helmet, Amoonguss, all that stuff. The hype has significantly died down as people realize that a Stage One with 60 HP just might not cut it.
The best part is that it has synergy with Shedinja DRX, another Stage One with 60 HP. Honestly I’d rather use Raticate with Eels and Rocky Helmet, and then with Poison Hypnotic Beam once it comes out. Raticate will be Tier 3, but until PHB is out I don’t see Raticate being that good.
Ditto
Ditto is a pretty good card, in my opinion. It increases your odds of starting with what you want, and the ruling is that if you wait a turn and then Transform you can go directly to the Stage One (I’m not sure about this with Rare Candy and Stage Twos, or going Ditto-wait a turn-Basic-Stage One-Stage Two), so you could use Ditto with Milotic DRX to skip the 30 HP Feebas phase.
However, I’m not sure that many decks will have the space for Ditto. It’s a great card and all, but most of the time I’d rather have that fourth Catcher or Skyla.
I’m assuming the ruling is that you can’t Transform into a Restored Pokemon, but if you can, please tell me so that I can troll you with Archeops.
Exploud
Exploud is a Stage Two that just happens to evolve from my favorite Pokemon. It also has the Round attack, which is pretty good. Its Round does 50 per Round, so that means that you’re OHKOing an EX with a couple Wigglytuffs. I doubt that Round will get much better because of this, however.
The attack I’m more interested in is actually the first attack, Roar of Destruction, which discards all the Items in your opponent’s hand. This could be really good if you manage to set this up as it completely wrecks Sableye and screws over anyone hoping to get a Rare Candy to a Stage Two next turn. You can argue that Sableye will just get them back, but then Exploud will wreck them again. Sure, they could Catcher-stall you, but the Catcher gets wrecked first. I am actually really interested in this attack, and I want to have some fun trolling my league with it. Especially since it evolves from my favorite Pokemon.
Stoutland
I remember looking through the Freeze Bolt and Cold Flare scans, and I saw a Stoutland. I thought to myself “Maybe we’ll finally get a good one”.
I looked at it, said “That’s pretty interesting, but Catcher screws it over”.
Then about two weeks later I was at league, and then I just randomly realized how good that Ability actually is. It completely shuts off your opponent’s draw power. Sure, they can Catcher, but getting a Catcher involves drawing Catcher. Drawing cards becomes significantly harder without a Supporter. You could just sit there bashing with Stoutland all day, and your opponent would dead draw all game.
Well, now that Bike and Escape Rope aren’t in the set, two cards that pose threats to Stoutland are just gone. Meaning that Stoutland might actually be good.
Stoutland also has something really rare in this format: Options for prevos. The ones I’ve determined as the best are Lillipup BW 80, which PUTS AN ITEM CARD FROM YOUR DISCARD PILE INTO YOUR HAND, and Herdier BW 82, which draws 3 for a DCE. These two are just, well, amazing. They make a Stoutland deck a lot less stupid of an idea, in my opinion. Skyla and Computer Search help a good deal, too.
I haven’t started testing Stoutland yet, but I have a feeling I’m gonna like it a great deal.
Audino
As we wrap up the Pokemon in the set, we get to one I’m not particularly fond of, which is Audino. Audino has an Ability where you discard it from your hand and heal 10 damage and a Special Condition from your Active Pokemon. The only use for this I’m seeing right away is as another way to heal in CressTank. If the meta gets too full of paralysis, Espeon DEX is a much better answer. If there is ever a format where Espeon is rotated and paralysis is legit, Audino may be our answer, but until then I think I’m going with Espeon.
Town Map
Town Map is an interesting card that lets you flip your prizes over. Honestly I think this won’t see too much play, but in Dusknoir and Chandelure decks where you can take prizes mid-turn it’s huge. Take a prize to get the Max Potion or Juniper or whatever for a fact, I’ll take that.
Hugh
Hugh is a Supporter that makes both players either draw or discard cards from their hand until they have five left. I’m honestly not too big on this card, and if it gets big enough I’ll start anticipating it and minimizing my hand size. It will see a bit of play early on and then take a back seat to cards like Bianca and Skyla.
Skyla
Skyla is one of my favorite cards from Boundaries Crossed. Searching for the game winning Catcher, that Rare Candy or Ultra Ball to get your Stage Two engine out, or grabbing a game-changing N for next turn is just so good. (Sure, they could N, but you could bet they wouldn’t be drawing many cards if the N you would play is game changing). People who aren’t playing it as a 4-of should consider starting.
Asperita City Gym
I’m not really big on this card right now, seeing as there aren’t any dominant Colorless Pokemon in the format right now. It will make a fun Tier 3 deck with Regigigas EX and will be a 1-2 of in Stoutland. Other than that, it will just be something that sits in your binder.
Computer Search
Computer Search is my preferred Ace Spec. Discarding cards is big in 2 of the 3 Tier One decks, and it can lead to some big plays in the third. Getting cards is always nice, especially when you’re trying to set up your Stage Two engine. This will be the Ace Spec most decks play, so expect to see a bunch of this.
Gold Potion
I really like Gold Potion. I really do.
I just think that Computer Search is just so much better in anything not involving all basics or discarding cards.
This card basically says “You didn’t attack last turn”.
The problem is that Computer Search helps consistency, which is the #1 thing in most decks.
If you play Roserade DRX 15, I would have to say Gold Potion is the way to go.
Well that’s about it for this article, thanks for visiting OneHitKO and taking the time to read this article, and feel free to leave a comment. As always, I’m open for some discussion, because I know everyone has their opinion. I think Cities are going to have a great format for the third year in a row (At least), and I am really looking forward to it. I’ll try to get some deck analysis articles out soon so that you can read about how awesome the decks for this format are. Good luck at Cities, and thanks for reading!
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with an article about some of the cards I like. I was going to do a stupid deck idea, but I decided to do an article about cards that I like because I’m feeling a little egotistical today. But before we get to cards that I like, I think my extra-dimensional sidekick Pedro has a news article for us.
Hey Pikkdogs, yep. Today we have news of a literal witch-hunt conducted by the folks at eBay. In the past, Ebay has allowed witches and other supernatural related beings to sell things like spells and potions on Ebay. According to Fox News.com, there are currently 41,000 spells avaliable on eBay for purchase. But, starting in September it will be illegal to buy or sell spells, potions, psychic readings, curses, hexes, prayers, and healing sesssions. One such person who sells spells on eBay has said that this is unfair discrimination against her and those like her. They say that since Holy Water is still okay to sell eBay is conducting a “Witch Hunt”. You don’t believe this witch non-sense do you Pikkdogs?
I don’t know. I like to think of myself as an enlightened man who does not believe in such foolishness, yet I don’t want to wake up with elephant tusks tomorrow, so I will not comment on stuff like this.
Come on, all this Psychic and witch stuff is foolishness, just another way for people to screw other people out of their hard earned money.
I think it’s best not to publically scold these type of people Pedro.
What can they do?
Well according to my recent Ebay search, they could turn you into a slave or a zombie.
I guess that would be pretty bad, but I don’t care Witchs are phonies.
Alright, before you get yourself into any more trouble, let’s start the article.
Card #1-Aggron DRX
What is it– Aggron is a stage 2 Metal Pokemon with 140 HP, a fire weakness, a psychic resistance, and a 4 retreat cost. It has the “Toppling Wind” Ability that lets you discard three cards from the top of your opponent’s deck when Aggron is evolved. Its attack is called “Giga Horn.” It costs MMC and does 90 damage and forces you to flip two coins. If both are tails the attack doesn’t do any damage.
Why I like it– There are many things about this card that are frustrating. The attack is bad, the retreat is bad, and the fact that it is a clunky stage 2 is bad. But, even though there are so many reasons to hate this card, I still love it. This is because it reminds me of Rhyperior DP. During Michigan States 2010 I was able to get top 8 with a deck that included Rhyperior. The deck relied on Flygon Lv. X to trap something in your opponent’s active spot, and then use Rhyperior to mill their deck away. Back then I only had Super Scoop Up to use, now we have both SSU and Devolution Spray. So there are plenty of ways to re-use the “Toppling Wind” Ability. I just love the idea of milling from the bench. Sure you can use cards like Durant to mill from the active spot, but I like having the option to vary your attackers. I was really happy when Aggron was released because I thought it may give me a chance to re-live some of my glory days, but is it playable?
Can it be played?– A lot of things have changed since Diamond and Pearl came out. The SP format has come and gone, Junk Arm has been celebrated and then reviled, who knows if a Rhyperior like card could still work. It hardly worked back in the day, it is doubtful if it could still work now. Stage 2 decks are slated to be fairly playable in this upcoming season, so a bench sitting stage 2 Pokemon that doesn’t need to be setup right away seems possible. So it is possible, but the question is “is there a partner for it to work with?” When I played Rhyperior I played it with Flygon Lv. X and a Memory Berry. I would lock a bench sitter like Claydol in the active spot and then mill away. This strategy could no longer work. There is really no bench sitter like Claydol that is in every deck. And even if you could find a bench sitter, there is not a great way to lock it in place and still have the option to attack. The options we have currently seem to be cards that can paralyze, like Lilligant EP. However, without Vileplume in the format Switch can ruin your plan. You could use the combo of Gothitelle and Accelgor, but that is a lot to setup. I think that possibly it could work in a rogue with Gothitelle and Accelgor, but it will be hard to get it to work consistently. I want the deck to work, but it may not right now.
Card #2 Regigigas EX
What is it– A 180 HP basic EX Pokemon with 4 retreat cost and a fighting weakness. It has two attacks. The first attack is called “Giga Power” and does 60 damage for CCC, if you choose you can do an additional 20 damage to each active Pokemon. The second attack is called “Raging Hammer: and does 50 damage for CCCC along with an additional 10 damage for each damage counter on Regigigas EX.
Why I like it– There are two reasons I like this card. The first reason is that Regigigas is a large Pokemon. He is depicted as one of the tallest Pokemon there is, and for someone who grew up watching and idolizing Andre the Giant, that is pretty cool. The second reason is that the card art on the Full Art version of the card is really cool. It depicts him being very large and having lots of shiny colors coming off of him and from behind. I think it is just one of the coolest card arts ever, and I would love to use it, but is it playable?
Can it be played?– I know that some people did play it in a version of CMT, but it never really became standard. Other than that, I don’t think anyone ever played the card. It is hard to recommend using a card that has a rage-like attach with an EX. The appeal of a rage-like attack is that you can take a hit and then return the favor for not much energy. But Gigas has two big problems with this. One reason is that the attack costs 4 energy, it may be hard to pile that much energy on him. The other is that if you can only take 2 hits from your opponent, you will be basically exchanging one prize for two, since an EX gives your opponent two prize cards and they give you one. So it just doesn’t seem reasonable to play this card, especially when there are some good fighting Pokemon in the format. It makes me sad to think that this card will only be good to make your binder prettier, but that is it.
Card #3 Druddigon
What is it– Druddigon is a 100 HP basic Pokemon with a 2 retreat cost. It has the “Rough Skin” Ability that lets you put 2 damage counters on the attacking Pokemon when Druddigon gets attacked. It has one attack called “Clutch.” This does 60 damage for CCC and prevents your opponent from retreating next turn.
Why I like it– I am not sure why I like this card. I do like the fact that it has a built in tool card, even if Rocky Helmet is my least favorite card in the format. It is kind of cool that you can attach an Eviolite to Druddigon and have the best of both Rocky Helmet and Eviolite. It does have a disappointing attack and no fighting resistance, so that does hurt the playability. I guess I like the card because I still remember running into Druddigon in the video game. It was a very scary Pokemon to go up against in just a regular wild Pokemon encounter in the grass just outside of a town. It looked very scary, and it looked like a Pokemon that could be one of the toughest in the game. Druddigon is just a badass scary looking Pokemon.
Can it be played?– I already touched on the fact that its attack really sucks. Just 60 damage doesn’t do much. Perhaps if the format changes and you can find a reason to prevent retreating, but right now this card looks pretty bad. The Ability will always be a good thing to have, but it isn’t a good enough reason to play this card with a bad attack like that. It looks that unless preventing retreating becomes big, Druddigon will just become a scary card in your binder.
Card #4 Tool Scrapper
What is it– Tool Scrapper is a simple item card that lets you discard two tool cards attached to your opponent’s Pokemon.
Why I like it– I love this card because Tool Cards are becoming very big in this format. Eviolite is a very important card with all of these Big Basic Pokemon that are out there right now. In my opinion, Eviolite is one of the, if not the best card in the format. It is a card that makes the BBP very hard to knock out, and if you can’t KO the EXs in 2 hits, you will probably lose. That was until now, now you can use Tool Scrapper to get rid of Eviolite and easily 2HKO EXs. You can also use it to get rid of the tool card on Garbador so you can begin to use Abilities again, if Garbador becomes as playable as some people expect it to be. Getting rid of tool cards is a great thing to do, and that is why I like the card. It is a great card that can counter most of the decks in the format and do a lot of versatile things, what is not to love about that? It also is cool to remove tool cards when your opponent doesn’t thing you can, it lets you be a little bit evil.
Can it be played?- This is a new card that did not have a lot of hype, but I still think it will get a lot of play. Most people do not hype item cards, so that accounts to the lack of hype. I think that because it does so much against so many decks out there, you can not afford to not play this card. This card will become a staple in almost every deck. It is not only one of my favorite cards, but it will soon be one of the most successful cards in the next season.
Conclusion
Well, that’s all I have to say about that, I think I have rambled on enough. Be sure to comment on if you like these cards too, and feel free to share your own favorite cards. Pedro, do you care to end things with a “This Day in History” segment.
Sure, Today in 1928 The Kellogg-Briand pact was signed. This was an agreement between 15 nations (including Germany, The United States, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Poland, and Canada) to outlaw war. The pact stated that these 15 countries would never again resort to war to settle disputes between nations, instead they would settle them by diplomatic means. The pact was quickly looked upon as a failure, as within 7 years of being signed both Italy and Germany broke it. But, today it is looked upon as a symbol of hope that maybe these countries can try again to res……..
Pedro, are you there.
…..tore, peace. Yes, I am here. I guess I most have had problems with my inter-dimensional porthole there. No matter, its fine now. How do you like the Kellogg-Briand pact?
Oh love the Kellogg-Briand pact. Too bad it didn’t work, just like those toys that Kellogg always puts in his cereal.
I don’t think that is the same Kellogg.
Oh, okay. But I do know Aristide Briand, he was a French pacifist who tried to undo some of the things that happened at the conference that ended World War I in Versailles. He also won a Nobel Peace prize.
That doesn’t mean much. Barrack Obama won a Nobel Peace prize, and all he did was get elected president of the U.S. Yasser Arafat won a Nobel Peace Prize and he was a terrorist. Henry Kissinger also won a Nobel Peace Prize, he did do some good things for peace, but he was also partly responsible for getting the U.S. into Vietnam. All of this while true peace makers like Ghandi and Pope John Paul II got shut out. I officially poo poo the Nobel Peace Prize.
You can’t Poo Poo the peace prize.
Why not?
There’s too many “P’s” in that sentence. And you’ve already messed with witches today, you should be worried about them rather than the Nobel Committee.
Oh, well I guess ……………take…………….chicken…….he…………..back.
Pedro, I think something is happening with your inter-dimensional porthole again.
……..
Pedro?
Well, I guess Pedro is gone. Hopefully we will get him back for the next article. Good night everybody!
Hello to all One Hit KO people who may be reading this article. It’s me, coolestman22, with another article, a rather short one in fact, this time it’s going to be the start of a new series I’m going to do called Is It Playable?, kind of like how Pikkdogs has his Pikks Three articles. What I’m going to do is review an upcoming card and talk about whether I think it will be playable or not.
I’m going to review First Ticket (or Fast Ticket, as Bulbapedia translates it), which is a card that’s sparked discussion on Pokemon TCG forums everywhere, some are big believers in the card, and some don’t think it’s going to be very good.
To start, First Ticket is a card that may or may not be in Dragons Exalted. Because it was in the mini-set, Dragon Selection, it will probably be in our next set but we don’t know for sure. What it does is you can play it when you start the game if it’s in your opening hand, and if you do, you go first. If your Read More
Hey, it’s me, coolestman22, with another article, this time it’s about a card that I feel is underrated. As you may have guessed from the title, it is Rocky Helmet. I played 2 copies of the card in my Zekkels list at Regionals because it was such an awesome tech. It came in really handy for me, I can say that. What I am going to do is rant about why Rocky Helmet is awesome in Zekeels, ReshiPhlosion, or any deck that doesn’t rely on EXP. Share or Dark Claw, really, except for Magnezone decks that already OHKO everything.
But first, if you don’t know what Rocky Helmet does, you should probably look at the pretty picture of Rocky Helmet on your right.
Now that you know what it does, I shall begin ranting:
1-120 damage, 130 HP
Rocky Helmet is awesome for the Zekeels matchup, because if they have a Zekrom BW with Eviolite, and they Bolt Strike, that puts them at 20, and you can hit them for 100, needing a PlusPower to complete the KO.
But with Rocky Helmet, that damage is already given to you, so you can use your Junk Arms on Catchers, Level Balls, Super Rods, Pokegears, or whatever you may need at the time.
It is also awesome for the Terrakion/Troll matchup. With Rocky Helmet, their Terrakions go down without needing a PlusPower, so you can keep up with the prize race easier. It also means Mewtwo only needs 3-4 energy to KO the Terrakion.
It helped me against ReshiPhlosion, too. When they were to Eviolite their Reshirams, I could simply negate that with Rocky Helmet, allowing me to OHKO the Reshirams.
2-OHKO Mewtwos (or Raikous, I guess) with Strong Volt
Everyone knows that you can’t play 2 PlusPower every turn, but you can theoretically by using Rocky Helmet. Rocky Helmet is cool because if you just Strong Volted, and your opponent has an active Mewtwo, and your Zekrom EX has a Rocky Helmet attached, your opponent has 4 choices:
1: Attack the Zekrom EX and pay the death penalty, giving up two prize cards
2: Don’t attack the Zekrom EX, and be Glinting Clawed for KO next turn
3: Burn resources trying to find a Catcher, and maybe get it, and maybe not, and if not leaving you with the two previous choices.
4: Retreat your active Mewtwo for another attacker.
This is a pretty tough decision. Any smart opponent would try to go for Option 3, but not all opponents are smart, first of all, if you’re not playing at the top tables, and Option 3 may or may not bail you out.
Also, keep in mind that your opponent may or may not have the resources in hand to get the Catcher. So option 3 might not always be an option. That leaves you with a “would you rather” type question
Option 4 isn’t perfect, either. A Mewtwo would have a two retreat cost (or 1 with Skyarrow Bridge), and they won’t necessarily have a Switch, or Junk Arm for Switch (even though if they had the Junk Arm they’d probably also have the Catcher in the discard pile) or if they do have the Junk Arm for Switch they might only have one other card in hand, or two, one of them being the crucial draw supporter that they don’t want to discard, or no hand at all (although you’ve probably won if that’s the case). If they do have the Switch, they might not have an attacker set up on the bench (you only get 4 DCE, and you might not have the Switch into Celebi or whatever) then they don’t have option 4.
A more risky opponent might have the Switch, but also has a Shuffle+Draw or Discard+Draw supporter, and would rather try for option 3 then use option 4. This risky opponent might not get the Catcher/Junk Arm, and be forced to attack right into the Zekrom EX, or be killed by Glinting Claw the following turn.
What I’ve noticed is that most of the time, I get two prizes out of this scenario. Not always will the opponent have the Catcher or another attacker, leaving the opponent with either A or B. I’ve noticed that most opponents choose A, which means you have an opportunity to get another free prize after that. Devoting two spaces of your deck to drawing three prizes in the course of an attack phase, and then another turn is a great option to have.
3-Win Mewtwo Wars
Let’s start this section with some math. 4×4=16, therefore 40×4=160. Mewtwo has 170 HP, meaning that Rocky Helmet can either be your PlusPower, or negate Eviolite, resetting it back to needing a PlusPower.
Mewtwo attacking a Mewtwo with Rocky Helmet can be even more suicidal, as you won’t need the third energy or PlusPower, as your extra damage has already been provided. Therefore, all you need to do to draw two prizes is to get a Mewtwo with either 2 energy or a Double Colorless. Then, the opponent might be forced to put 3 energy on their return Mewtwo, meaning that you only need 2 energy to draw two more prize cards. It can turn the Mewtwo prize race in your favor, equaling a PlusPower in the situation.
If the Mewtwo has an Eviolite attached, Mewtwo can just as easily play a PlusPower to get that extra damage if there is a Rocky Helmet attached. When your opponent’s Mewtwo war winner is negated, you gain an advantage in the Mewtwo war. It also greatly helps you to have a Rocky Helmet on your Mewtwo if they decide to attack with something else, such as Tornadus or Thundurus, the extra 20 damage means that the Tornadus’ moved energy or Thundurus’s discarded one is negated, so Mewtwo needs 3 energy or 2 and a PlusPower to kill the Tornadus or Thundurus.
4-Players Try To Go Around Rocky Helmet, and it Puts Pressure On Them.
I’ve noticed that when players play against Rocky Helmet, they try to avoid attacking the Pokemon with the Rocky Helmet and instead they Catcher around it (exceptions being stuff that is OHKOed, such as Zekrom BW and Mewtwo) so that means you can last longer. It also helps because if you have something like a Donphan Prime active with a Rocky Helmet attached, your opponent knows that to take it down, it will require a couple of attacks, or maybe even three. So the opponent would be more inclined to take cheap prizes instead of attacking straight into the Rocky Helmet. This means that Donphan will continue to use Earthquake, or maybe even build up a Heavy Impact, for a while.
Even in non-tank decks, this is extremely useful because Eviolite may increase the number of hits you can take, but Rocky Helmet decreases the number of hits you will take.
5-Rocky Helmet is Permanent, and Doesn’t Require an Attack.
Rocky Helmet lasts longer than PlusPower. With PlusPower, you play it, and it is discarded. It only is effective for the turn it is played. However, Rocky Helmet is permanent, so you can keep being bashed and still get 20 damage out of it every time. This isn’t something you get with PlusPower, and it’s something nice to have.
Also, if you play PlusPower and don’t attack that turn, it’s useless. But if you attach a Rocky Helmet, it’s useful still because you can bash something back for 20, even without attacking. That means that if you’re 2-shot, your opponent takes 40 damage, also, so you’re practically getting 4 PlusPower out of it.
6-Unlike PlusPower, it Doesn’t Increase Recoil.
This isn’t too much of a reason that Rocky Helmet is a cool card, but nevertheless it helps. When you play a PlusPower and you Bolt Strike, you do 50 recoil damage. However, Rocky Helmet is damage counters, so if Zekrom had a Rocky Helmet attached, it doesn’t take 20 extra recoil from it, and since it’s only the opponent’s active, you don’t hit yourself for 20. This is another reason why Rocky Helmet is kind of cool and is a good play, as PlusPower is the difference between having 80 HP left and 90 HP left, so Thundurus, Tornadus, and Cobalion wouldn’t KO it afterwards.
This may not be too big a reason, but it’s something that you should consider, and I believe that it may be enough to make you at least try out Rocky Helmet (which I suggest you do).
Conclusion
These are the reasons that I play 2 Rocky Helmet in my Zekeels build, and probably will for a while. Rocky Helmet is a nice overall card that is worth two spaces of your deck, and if you play it you can lower your PlusPower count if your deck is tight on space. It is an extremely underrated card that I believe is worth the time to test out, even if you don’t end up liking it. Rocky Helmet also puts a lot of pressure on your opponent, and might make them burn up resources trying to get the Catcher.
It’s an all-around cool card that I think should be put into every deck excluding Exp. Share decks, Dark decks with Dark Claw (as that pretty much is a Rocky Helmet), and Magnezone decks or OHKO decks (like Rayquaza-EX in the future) that don’t need it.
It can be used as Junk Arm for Super Rod against Durant, also, so it’s not completely useless there. You could also theoretically attach it to (unlikely) prevent Rotom snipes.
Thanks for reading, now I’m done. Please leave a comment below and leave your thoughts about Rocky Helmet, as it’s something I feel is very underrated.
I guess I’ll do the Pikkdogs intro by saying “A big hello to all you OHKOers out there”. It’s me, coolestman22, with a review of the cards that might be in Dark Explorers that are receiving some sort of hype, or I just personally feel that are cool cards. Not all of these will be in meta decks, but not all cool cards from other sets are either. I’ll explain these cards so everyone knows what they do, but most of these cards you should know about by now. If you have any questions, please tell me in the comment section, I’m open to any feedback.
Kyogre-EX
Kyogre-EX is a water-type basic from Hail Blizzard that never got released in Next Destinies, but it wasn’t that good anyway so it wasn’t too big a deal. It will get a shot at play now, so let’s see what it does.
Kyogre-EX is a water-type with 170 HP, which is good but mediocre for an EX, an awful x2 weakness to lightning, no resistance, and a hefty but Heavy Ball searchable four retreat cost, and of course the EX rule. For WC it does 30 and you have the option of switching it with one of your benched Pokemon. This is OK, but it’s not something you should be basing a deck around.
The other attack is Dual Splash, which for WWC does 50 to 2 of your opponent’s benched Pokemon. This doesn’t sound good at first, but when you think about it it’s actually a decent attack, because you can kill 2 Tynamos with it early game, if it’s set up early enough. This means to set up 2 Eelektriks you either have to go first and evolve them all or bench four Tynamo and have 2 killed, then get your 2 Eelektriks out.
The question is “is it worth it to set up a T2 Kyogre with whatever just to have it killed by a Zekrom later? Read More
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.
A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here. We are now proud to bring you my quarterly review of the new set that is coming into the format. Before each set I usually write an article that highlights 10 cards that I think will make the most impact on this format and the future ones. Noble Victories is no different, here is the article.
Noble Victories was quite a mysterious set. We thought it might be a lot of the cards from the Red Collection that was released in Japan, but we weren’t sure. Now we can be be sure, it is mostly made up of Red Collection cards and some cards from Theme decks. The mystery of this set has obscured a lot of the hype that usually surronds these sets. The only card that was getting some hype was Victini. Now we know exactly what is in the set, we can give it a fuller review.
Before I talk about the set, let’s get one thing straight, these cards will not be legal for fall Regionals. So even though a lot of people have the Victini card now, you still can’t play it until Cities.
To me, this set is fairly disappointing. Emerging Powers was not a great set, but it did have some good main attackers like Gothitelle and Beartic. This set however does not have any main attackers that are slam dunks like Gothitelle was. There is definitely some value in this set, but it is not one of the better sets in the format. N is a great card, and there are a lot of cards here that will see some rogue play. But it is nothing like Pokemon Catcher. So let’s officially get into the list to see what I am talking about.
#10- Hydreigon
The first card on our list is one of those Pokemon that is more used for rogue decks than solid Tier 1 or 2 decks. It is Hydreigon.
Hydreigon is a stage 2 Dark Pokemon with 150 HP, a 3 retreat cost, and a fighting weakness. Its ability, “Dark Aura”, counts every energy attached to Hydreigon as dark. That means if you put 2 DCE’s on this Pokemon, it will be able to use its attack which costs DDDD. Speaking of the attack, “Berserker Blade”, does 60 damage to the active and 40 damage to two benched Pokemon.
That is a total of 140 damage! 140 damage for 2 DCE’s is nothing to sneeze at. Plus, since the energies don’t have to be dark, you can use the Shaymin/Pachirisu move with lightning energies or Emboar with fire energies. There are a lot of ways to skin the cat in this one. This makes Hydreigon very versatile.
Since you are attacking three Pokemon, you can get up to three knock outs a turn. It is really good against decks like Gothitelle that try to spread damage out. You might never knock out Gothitelle, but it will be easy to get 6 knockouts in a different way. It also works well against Stage 1 Rush decks, because they have fairly low HP and rely on a lot of different Pokemon on the bench.
Hydreigon is fairly poor against Donphan based decks. Donphan can hit Hydreigon for weakness and can negate a lot of the damage done to each Donphan.
I don’t think Hydreigon is a great deck right now, but it is actually not that bad. You should be able to come up with a list using some kind of energy acceleration (Emboar, Pachi/Shaymin) and then include techs that are good against problem decks like Donphan Prime. I would be interested to see if people could make a good deck with Hydreigon. It could be similar to a Zekrom deck with Pachirisu, Shaymin, and Tornadus; but it would be a little slower since Zekrom is a basic Pokemon. But it would be fun.
I don’t think this card will be too impactful. It will see a couple rogue decks, but nothing that will catch on in a big way. Should be a fun deck to play though.
#9- Durant
Durant is another rogue Pokemon in this list. It has received a fair amnount of hype since its release. I love the concept of milling, so I really want this Pokemon to work out and be very impactful on the format.
Durant is a 70 HP basic metal Pokemon with a 1 retreat cost, a fire weakness, and a resistance to psychic. His “Vice Grip” attack does 30 for CC, which means it is a candidate for donking a baby Pokemon like Cleffa. Though I don’t know if a deck with Durant would ever run DCE. The attack that everyone is talking about is “Devour” and it costs 1 metal energy. The effect of the attack is that you can mill (or discard from your opponent’s deck) 1 card for every Durant in play. So that means if you start with 1 Durant and use a Pokemon Collector for 3 more, you will be milling 4 cards a turn (with the help of cards like Revive).
The question is, “Is Durant good enough to mill the entire deck by istelf in 6-8 turns. Durant will be easy to knock out so you gotta expect that your opponent will not need more than 6-8 turns to knock out 6 Pokemon. The answer to that question is not easy to asnwer. It depends on how the deck is made, and how your opponent plays. But, I think that it will not be too risky to say that Durant needs some help in milling.
So the next question is, “is there enough help in the format to help Durant mill a lot of cards?” The answer to that question probably will be a “no.” Kyorge/Groudon Legend can mill cards, but it takes at least 3 energy cards, so it is not easy to do. There are not any more Pokemon that can mill a substantial amount of cards.
So I think that Durant will see a little play in Cities, but then die out after that. The final question is, “Will Durant ever get some help.” On that question the answer is, “who knows?” Durant just needs one more good milling Pokemon to come into the format to help him. I do not see the card in the horizon, but that does not mean that it will never come. I really hope that Pokemon will once again have a concept of Mill, because it is a very fun game mechanic.
#8- Terrakion
Terrakion is a very cool card. The full art version of the card can be described only in one word, badass. Terrakion looks like he is about to pounce and give somebody a really bad day. But is the card as impactful as the artwork?
It has 130 Hp, a massive 4 retreat cost, and a great weakness to grass. It has two attacks. The first attack does 30 for FC, but it could do 90 if you had lost a Pokemon to damage from an attack last turn. The second attack, Land Crush, costs FFC and does 90 damage.
At first site he looks very much like Bouffallant from Black and White. He can do 90 damage for two energies if you lost a Pokemon last turn. Revenge kills are always great, and Terrakion can take advantage of them. Fighting is also a great type to have right now, this Pokemon will make quick work of Zekrom and Magnezone.
But it is not all sunshine and roses for Terrakion. After you get done peeing your pants from that scary artwork, you realize that DCE does not work with this Pokemon. That means you will have to load 2 energies on him for the first attack, and 3 energies for the second attack. And if your opponent can Pokemon Catcher up Terrakion to stall, you could be in a tight spot because nobody can easily retreat for CCCC.
Terrakion is a very good card, but you need to use it wisely. I could see it ending up in a rogue Stage 1 Rush deck, but you will need to play it just right. Starting with the card could mean the end of the game, and having it active with no energy in your hand could cost you.
I do not see it getting a lot of play right away, but it is so good that I think it eventually will get some play. 130 HP from a basic is really great and the attacks aren’t that bad.
#7- Rocky Helmet
Rocky Helmet is the first trainer on the list, and is a nice idea for a trainer, though I doubt it will ever see consistent play.
Rocky Helmet is a Tool card, we haven’t seen one of those in a while. You can attach it to a Pokemon and if it is active and damaged by an attack, you can put 2 damage counters on the attacking Pokemon.
This card does show a lot of early promise. The format is all about OHKO’s, so if you can use the first turn that your opponent attacks as a way to set it up for a knock out next turn, that sounds like something good to me. It also is re-useable because of Junk Arm.
The problem is that there is not a lot of free spaces in decks these days. I would love to be able to just waste space on something that can damage an attacking Pokemon, but a lot of decks don’t have that luxury.
It is a card that can fit into any non-Vileplume deck and make an impact, and will see decent play at Cities. But, I am not sold that this card will be great in the long run. Look for it to have a little play in the beginning, and maybe some rogue play here and there, but eventually fall off into obscurity.
#6- Chandelure
This is the last of the Pokemon that will be featured because of their cool rogue aspects. Chandelure is a stage 2 Pokemon with 130 HP, a weakness to dark, and a 2 retreat cost. Its ability, “Cursed Shadow”, lets you put three damage counters on the field in any way that you like. Its attack, “Eerie Glow” does 50 damage and burns and confuses the defending Pokemon for PPC.
On paper Chandelure looks like the perfect Gothitelle counter. It can hit for weakness without being hit for weakness itself. It can OHKO a Gothitelle (30+(50 x 2)=130), and can place damage counters making it harder for Reuniclus to keep all the Pokemon alive.
The problem is that it takes a long time to put three energies on a Pokemon. Although I love the Ability, I don’t see people being able to put three energies on this Pokemon in a consistent manner. If you can find some way to put energies on Chandelure faster, I would love it, but right now it is below par.
Perhaps you can find room for it in some kind of Ross Deck type thing with Dodrio. Dodrio could give Chandelure free retreat, Chandelure can drop 3 damage counters then retreat, and you could bring something like Yanmega Prime up to attack. You would also need Vileplume on your bench. It is a nice idea, but it seems very complicated.
I do not see it having an impact on the format right away. It is a great card that probably will eventually see some play, I just don’t see it right now.
#5- Kyurem
In a moment where Reshiram and Zekrom are running rough shot over the format, their lesser known brother is ready to make his debut. Yes Reshiram and Zekrom are not a duo, but part of a Trio. And we are about to see if there is room at the top for another dragon.
Kyurem shares similar stats to the other Dragons, 130 HP, a 2 retreat cost, and no resistance. But this one is weak to metal, by far the best weakness of the three. Of course it has the “Outrage” attack. Its second attack let’s you spread 30 damage for WWC.
I know that Spread has been dead for years now and Reuniclus laughs at spreading 30, but that does not mean Kyurem is useless. Some people are trying to build decks that feature Kyurem, but I am not sure if they will ever ben anything more than a fun rogue deck.
I think the best use for Kyurem is in Donphan and Dragons. Now this deck has another Dragon that can be used to hit for weakness. Kyurem is just what the deck needs to get the clear advantage over Reshiram decks. Now with a decent Zekrom matchup and a good Reshiram matchup, Donphan and Dragons has taken itself from tier 3 to tier 2.
Kyurem will see instant play in the Donphan and Dragons deck, and will make the deck a lot better. It will be a very impactful card right out of the gate. But, I do not see this card being that great in the long term as a deck of its own. The spread is dead, and I don’t see it getting any better. It does not live up to the reputation of Zekrom and Reshiram.
#4 Victini
Victini has been hyped as the savior of rogue decks. We haven’t really seen many rogue decks pop up lately. We had Ross Deck at worlds and I did write an article about an Audino deck, but mostly things have gone as planned. We need someone to save us from the monotiny that has resulted from such a small format, and that savior might be Victini.
Victini has the “Victory Star” Ability, which lets you re-flip if you flipped any coins for your attack. It will not let you re-flip for things like Dual Ball, but it will still have an impact letting you re-flip on attacks. The rest of Victini is not that great, he has 70 HP and a 1 retreat cost, meaning that he will be a prize from Pokemon Catcher. But, he might be useful enough to warrant giving your opponent the extra prize.
Victini can be used with a lot of good Pokemon, to make them a lot better. Audino EP and Sharpedo are just two of the more popular choices. Victini could also bring back parlysis as a relevant special condition (since most parlaysis attacks require a flip), so there are many good uses of Victini.
Now will Victini be in a top tier deck, probably not. But will it be the savior that rogue decks need to make them relevant again? I think so. Look for it to see considerable play at Cities.
#3 Eviolite
This is the era of BBP (Big Basic Pokemon). We knew that when Reshiram and Zekrom were released, and we knew that when Tornadus did well at Battle Roads. But we now know that BBP are a lot better. Eviolite is like Donphan’s “Exoskeleton” Poke-Body for basic Pokemon. It reduces every attack by 20, but it can only be attached to basic Pokemon.
Well Eviolite sure does not have a shortage of good Pokemon to be attached to. Zekrom, Reshiram, and Torandus are three of the most played Pokemon right now. This makes Eviolite a lot more playable because it can be easily tossed in to any deck. And if the Pokemon it is attached to gets knocked out, it can be returned with Junk Arm.
Reducing an attack by 20 is really useful. Right now the goal of most decks is to get an OHKO on the defending Pokemon, and Eviolite makes it a lot harder to do that. It is already very hard to get knock outs on Reshiram, Zekrom, and Tornadus; now it just got a lot harder. It should give decks like Reshiphlosion and Zekrom a bigger advantage than they already have.
I think Eviolite could make BBP a lot better, and will make Reshiram and Zekrom the best decks until the next set comes out. When the next set comes out, Evoiolite will probably be used with the BBP that are also Pokemon EX. Eviolite is set to be a great card through its time in the format.
#2 N
N is one of the most interesting card in the set. It let’s both players shuffle their hands into their decks and draw as many cards as they have prize cards. It was previously released as Rockets Admin.
This card kind of reminds me of Judge. Both cards let you shuffle the hands of both players. Judge gives you a consistent 4 cards, and let’s you even hand size while providing disruption. Judge is also good for early disruption. N on the other hand does not always even up hand size. N does not always give disruption, because you could give your opponent 6 cards. N also is not extremely helpful at the beginning of the game for disruption.
But this does not mean that N is not a good card. N is perhaps best used in a deck that is not very good, the Lost World deck. No deck with Lost World in it is very good right now, but they almost never take prizes. So N will always give them 6 prizes, but it will give their opponents less than 6.
N will be useful in other decks. I do not see it as a card that you want to run 4 of, but I think a lot of decks will run about 2 of them. They are very versatile cards because they can provide disruption at some times and can provide hand refreshment at others.
Although I don’t think this card is a slam dunk like Professor Juniper, I think it has some good strategic uses. I also think it will be used a lot throughout the life of this card.
#1 Super Rod
I know this is a pretty anti-climatic #1, but I think it will be the most impactful card in the set. The card let’s you shuffle 3 in any combination of Pokemon and basic energy cards from your discard pile into your deck.
This card is impactful because it will see a lot of play from day one. I can see most decks playing one of these cards. Since most decks right now are not very focused (look at Stage 1 Rush, a lot of decks now are tool boxes), it is very helpful to re-use cards that you do not run a lot of copies of. This card was last in the format about a year ago as Night Maintenance. NM was used a lot in decks, and that was when we had better recover cards.
I could see this card being used in Donphan and Dragons, Stage 1 Rush, Zekrom, and about almost any other deck that is currently being used. It is a very versatile card that can be used in every deck.
Even though the card is not very exciting, it will be used in almost every deck and will be very helpful to the player.
Conclusion
Well, the more I look at this set, the more I like it. I still know that it has no big Pokemon that will change the format. But it does give the format a lot more depth and gives us rogue players a lot more tools to work with.
The set itself will not be as impactful as EP and BW, but it is still a good set that should be fun to work with. I hope you guys have fun trying to make rogue decks with Victini and Pokemon like Hyrdeigion, Drudiggon, and Chandelure. It is a fun set, but not the most impactful on the format.
Please feel free to leave your thoughts about the set and your top ten list in the comment section.
Tyler Lindsey 
coolestman22 
Pikkdogs 
Introduction
