Deck Discussion

PokeClass Episode 29 – ZPS Deck Analysis w/Playthrough

PokemanDan June 14, 2011 5 Comments

[youtube width=”640″ height=”390″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-V3xisiiU9o[/youtube]

Hey all of you at OneHitKO! This is PokemanDan bringing you the next episode of PokeClass.

This week is the start of the HGSS-On deck analysis for all of you that have Nationals coming up soon!
ZPS is one of the most hyped deck of the new format since it can get a very powerful donk going on through the first turn. A very tough deck that has very strong early game presence, but maybe that’s the biggest weakness. Watch the video to find more in-depth analysis!

Now, I’ve included the playthrough video in this post to save you having to click elsewhere. It simply goes through the first turn of Zekrom, showing you how you can manage to do 120 damage on just the first turn, including 3 energy attachments! Watch below for more.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”390″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-nfsrX1zfo[/youtube]

Enjoy and comment below what you think about the deck.

See you next week,

Dan
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Deck Discussion

Deck Analysis: Healphan- Donphan and Blissey Prime

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis. The deck that I will spotlight is a Donphan variant. Donphan has been a deck that people have talked about, but few people have shown a good list. Donphan Prime is kind of like Lebron James. They’re both great early game, but tend to fizzle out in the 4th quarter. The challenge is to create a deck that will be able to last the entire game.

Most people play it with Machamp Prime. In hopes that they could have Donphan attack early, and then switch to the hard hitting Machamp later in the game. However, every time I have tried to make the change between a full powered Donphan and a Machamp with DCE, the opponent ends up knocking out the Donphan before the switch. Because of its vulnerability in the tag between Machamp and Donphan, I have given up on this combo. However, I have not given up on Donphan. I think it is still a good fast tanking deck that can take a hit and do damage.

When I first began building HGSS-on decks, I knew that I needed to take a look at Donphan. Its ability to withstand almost any hit is pretty crazy. I first paired Donphan with Noctowl HGSS and Zekrom. Noctowl made the deck a little faster later game, and Zekrom was there to absorb the damage counters from “Earth Quake” and then send it back at the opponent later in the game. The deck worked fairly well, but it did not blow me away. It was a good deck, but nothing I was thinking of bring to Nats. So I began to think of other combos.

Eventually I thought of paring Donphan with Blissey Prime. Blissey helps Donphan because after Donphan absorbs a big hit, Blissey can heal all the damage counters. The deck that I made is all about keeping Donphan alive for as long as possible.

How the Deck Works

The deck is pretty self explanatory, not a very complicated deck, but I will give you a basic explanation. Donphan Prime has the “Earthquake” attack that does 60 damage for only 1 fighting energy. With the help of a Plus Power, Donphan should be able to 2HKO must every Pokemon in the format. It also has weakness on popular Pokemon like Cincinno, Magnezone Prime, and Zekrom. It can OHKO all three of those Pokemon with the help of a Plus Power or two. Donphan also has the “Heavy Impact” attack that does 90 damage for three fighting energies. If you can get 3 energies on Donphan it will be helpful, but this deck rarely gets that much energy in play at one time.
Donphan also has the “Exoskeleton” Poke-Body that reduces all damage done to Donphan by 20. That means that if you want to OHKO Donphan you need to do 140 damage to him. This deck also uses Defender, which is like another “Exoskeleton” Poke-Body in trainer form. Because of all this, Donphan should be able to take a hit. To help Donphan take two hits, this deck adds in Blissey Prime. Blissey has the “Blissful Nurse” Poke-Power, which lets you remove all damage counters from all of your Pokemon that are damaged, you then must discard all energies attached to any Pokemon that was healed. This deck seeks to force your opponent to take 3 turns to knock out a Donphan. Do the math if you are 2HKOing the opponent, and they are 3HKOing you, the game will be in your favor. If you add that fact to the fact that you are probably setting up a turn before your opponent, the facts are pretty good for Donphan.

“Earthquake” also adds 10 damage to your benched Pokemon, but with Blissey Prime healing your bench, the chances are the damage counters will not stack up.

The List

I will give you a version of the deck that I am currently working with. Since I just created this deck the other day, the deck is far from polished. It is not a list you can netdeck and take to a tournament, but it is a deck you can copy and start testing it yourself. Once again, if there are some weird cards in the list, don’t complain about it, it is not a tournament ready list.

Pokemon-15

4-Phanpy-either HGSS or Cl, both have good things about them.
4-Donphan Prime
3-Chansey HGSS
3-Blissey Prime
1-Smeargle- A decent starter that can be used late game, unlike the babies, Smeargle can survive some Earthquakes.

Energies-9

Fighting-9

Trainers- 36

4-Professor Junipers- The major draw engine of the deck
4-Pokemon Collector- perhaps you could lose a copy of this card
1-Judge
2- Professor Oak’s New Theory
1- Flower Shop Lady- a very important card that lets you get a 5th Donphan
2- Professor Elms-pretty much standard in all of my decks
4-Pokemon Reversal- if you can get heads, you can provide some early game disruption or some cheap Knock Outs
4-Pokemon Communication
3-Junk Arm- Essential for re-using communications, Plus Powers, Defenders, or Energy Retrievals.
2-Defender- if you use this card at the right time, it can be very pivotal
3-Plus Power
2-Energy Retrieval- crucial for getting energies that you discarded with “Blissful Nurse” or Juniper.
2-Switch- used if you get a Chansey Start, want to use “Portrait”, or want to hide a damaged Donphan.
2-Dual Ball

Techs

Here are some possible techs that you can use in this deck

Zekrom– Its a good counter to a deck that has a water tech in it for the Donphan matchup.
Machamp– you could probably fit in a 1-1-1 or 2-2-2 line in without causing too much trouble.
Starting Pokemon– You could add in more Smeargles or another starter.

Matchups

I like to say that a deck is only as good as its matchups, so lets look at them.

Reshiboar– This matchup is about even or a little favorable for Donphan. Reshiram cannot really OHKO Donphan, and “Outrage” is not really a huge problem for Donphan. Donphan should be setup on turn 2, while Reshiram should take an extra turn to setup. That gives Donphan a little advantage. Another advantage is that Healphan has a healing element, where Reshiram does not. This matchup should go to Healphan most of the time.

Magneboar– This matchup favors Healphan. It will take 4 energies for Magnezone to OHKO Donphan, and Donphan will be able to at least 2HKO Magnezone. Because of the weakness and resistance, Donphan should be able to win most of the time.

Vileplume– I would give this matchup to the Vileplume deck. Healphan is so reliant on trainers that it will not be able to function without it. Healphan will be hardpressed to win this matchup unless it can use Pokemon Reversal to take out Oddishes and Glooms before they can setup a Vileplume.

Lost Zone Decks– I would say Healphan has a favorable matchup with Lost Zone decks. This deck does not run a lot of Pokemon, so it should be easier to work around “Hurl Into Darkness.” If the deck attacks with Mew Prime, this deck should only take 7 turns. If the deck actually attacks with Gengar Prime, it should be a longer game, but still favorable.

ZPS– I would also say that this matchup is slightly favorable for Donphan. I admit that this is not a matchup that I have tested, but I think I know what would happen. If the Donphan deck can survive the first 2-3 turns, I think the weakness of Zekrom will be too much for Healphan. The ZPS player might be able to keep the lead for most of the matchups, but by the time the judges yell “Time!!!”, Healphan should have the lead.

Feraligatr Prime Decks– Again, I have not tested this matchup, but it is not a hard one to predict. Because of Donpahn’s weakness, it will not be able to survive a hit. And this deck cannot exchange OHKOs for OHKOs, so the matchup against water will be an unfavorable one.

Concluding Remarks

I would say that the matchups for Healphan is pretty good. You will be in a close game with most of the decks out there, with water and trainerlock decks being the only decks that are auto-loss matchups. I think that this deck is a good well rounded deck that has a good matchup versus most decks. It also has room for techs in it that you can tailor against your metagame.

So what do you guys think of this deck? What is your favorite Donphan variant? Please leave your thoughts in the comment box.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Battle Video Card Discussion Deck Discussion

Battle Video Series With Deck Analysis. Donphan/Machamp v.s. Reshiram/Typhlosion

Misnos June 7, 2011 10 Comments

[youtube width=”494″ height=”400″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQN-e_3DP8A[/youtube]

An Introduction:

Hey everyone, for the past month or so, my brother and I have been posting videos on YouTube so we can watch them as replays and share them with whoever may be interested. Over the past month we have learned a tremendous amount by reviewing our videos and watching for misplays or foregone opportunities that may have altered the course of a match. Some of our videos have gotten a little attention, and this surprised us both. But to make a not-so-long story even shorter, we now have the opportunity to compose written commentary in the form of articles here at OneHitKO.com. We are very grateful for this prospect as we sense that we, along with our viewers can benefit more from an in-depth look at each game, rather than just a recap in video form. Combining both mediums will allow us to gain ultimate insight and offer a more well rounded look into each match.

Misnos, as a moniker actually represents both of us (Kurt and Kyle) and while these articles may come from a first person point of view we are writing together, always interacting and debating amongst ourselves in order to supply the best product. A little about us first, I (Kurt) am an economics major and will be graduating within the next month, from there I will continue my education and attend law school, although where is not known yet. I have played PokÃ©mon from base set, but first started collecting. I successfully collected Base through Neo Genesis. When I finally got serious about playing the TCG it was August of 2001, in September the tragedy of 9/11 occurred and I was not allowed to participate in the tournament I was going to attend, and lost interest from there. I never let my cards go, and always retained an affinity for PokÃ©mon in general so it has been very easy for me to pick up where I left off so long ago, this time as a competitive player. I (Kyle) started playing PokÃ©mon when I was about 4 years old, I learned to read from the cards my brother was collecting, and on the Game Boy games. I have grown up around the TCG, video games, and T.V show, PokÃ©mon is part of my life. I am 17 years old and will be graduating high-school within the next few months. I plan to attend university and hope to become a M.D. I began playing PokÃ©mon competitively one month before states this year. At the time I had no current cards and after reading online I built a Jumpluff deck due to its low cost. With little time to prepare and even less experience I went 5-3 at Florida states coming in 23 out of 157. After states, despite my relative success I chose to completely abandon Jumpluff and created a Donphan/Yanmega deck for Regionals and failed horribly. I dropped after I realized I could not top cut with such strong competition and went back to the drawing board. With the announcement of the new format, we both have a clean slate and have high hopes for the coming season.
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Deck Discussion

Deck Analysis: Can You do the Fandango? Reshiram and Emboar (Reshiboar).

Pikkdogs May 24, 2011 10 Comments

Ok, this is just another Reshiboar deck, but I think the Reshiboar name is, well, a little Reshi-boring. The Queen Reference is much better.

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with another deck analysis. This deck is one of the most popular in the new format. In this article I will analyze the deck and share my list.

The Goal of the Deck?

Well the goal is obvious, you have a 130 HP Pokemon in Reshiram, and it can do 120 damage a turn, the goal of this deck is to get Reshiram out as fast as possible and keep him hitting for 120 for as long as possible. Reshiram does discard 2 fire energies a turn with his “Blue Flame “attack. To replace those fire energies this deck uses Emboar BW. Emboar has the “Inferno Fandango” Ability, which lets you attach as many fire energies as you want to whatever Pokemon you want. The strategy of this deck is simple. Get an Emboar quickly to load up Reshiram. Then keep using the fire energies to replace the ones that Reshiram that discarded.

If Reshiram has absorbed a hit, there is no need to attach more than 2 energies to him, because his “Outrage” attack does 20 damage plus the amount of damage that is on Reshiram. So if your opponent only does 90 damage to Reshiram, next turn Reshiram can do 110 damage for only 2 energies! It may not seem like that great of an attack, but from my testing the “Outrage” attack is probably the best thing about this deck. Most decks only run Reshiram as an attacker, there is really no need for a secondary attacker.

Some people like to play this deck with a draw engine. One of the more popular draw engines is Ninetails HGSS. Ninetails has the “Roast Reveal” Poke-Power which lets you discard a fire energy and draw 3 cards. This is a good draw engine because drawing 3 cards is always a good thing, and you are already running cards that let you get fire energies from the discard pile. The problem with Ninetails is that it is hard to get a stage 1 Pokemon out, and you need those fire energies to load up Reshiram. Another draw engine that is used in this deck is the Shuckle Promo. Whenever you attach an energy to Shuckle, you may draw a card thanks to his “Fermented Liquid” Poke-Body. Some people try to use Super Scoop Ups and Seekers to keep on drawing cards. Personally, I do not like to use any draw engine in this deck. I feel that Ninetails hurts consistency too much, and that the deck is too slow to have Shuckle. It seems like if you are lucky enough to draw a fire energy, you need to attach it to Reshiram.

How to Play It.

A lot of people like to start the game with a starting Pokemon like Cleffa HGSS, Stantler Ud, or Smeargle Cl. Since it will take a long time for you to get a Reshiram fully powered, it is nice to get a Pokemon that will help you setup. You can either use Stantler to get more Basic Pokemon, or get Smeargle or Cleffa to help refresh your hand. I prefer to use Cleffa because it is more consistent than Smeargle.

After using your starter for a couple turns, it is now time to start loading up Reshiram. It is also very important to get Emboar going. If you can get a quick Emboar, you have a really good chance of winning. The worst part of the Reshiboar deck is the fact that it could be inconsistent in getting Emboar out. If you are able to get Emboar out you will be in the catbird seat.

Why Its So Good.

Reshiram is not a fast deck, it has some struggles with consistency, and it is more high maintenance than Paris Hilton, but its still probably the best deck. This is because it is very hard to OHKO Reshiram. Imagine this scenario, Reshiram probably got a knock out the last turn, and if you cannot knock it out this turn, it will just use “Outrage” to knock out another Pokemon. This means that Reshiram basically takes 2 prizes for every prize the opponent take. The large HP and damage output makes sure that it will be one of the best decks in the next format.

The Future of “Can You do the Fandango”.

As I mentioned, this deck will be one of the best decks in the HGSS-on format. Unless you can OHKO Reshiram or lock it in some way, you will not be able to beat this deck. It is a deck that hits really hard and will be able to run over most other decks. It should be one of the better decks going into Nationals, if the rotation is announced on June 1st. In my testing, the only deck that has a real chance against it are water decks and Lost Zone decks. It seems pretty certain that you can count on this deck being great for a while.

How to Play Against It.

There are two ways to play against this deck: OHKO Reshiram or lock it in some way. We will first look at ways to knock out Reshiram in one hit.

The easiest way to knock out Reshiram is to do 70 damage to it with a water Pokemon. There are not a lot of good water Pokemon around these days. As far as attackers go, the only one that is being talked about is Blastoise UD. Blastoise can snipe for 100 damage for 4 energies, and you have to return 2 energies to your hand. This doesn’t really work against Reshiram too well. One Pokemon that nobody is talking about, but I like, is Alomomola BW. Its attack “Hydro Pump” does 40 damage for CCC, but it does 10 more damage for each water energy attached. So, if you attach 3 water energies to him (you can use Feraligatr Prime), you can do 70 damage (140 to Reshiram).

You can also use Pokemon that can attack for more than 130 to get a knock out. Mismagius CL can do 30 damage for each trainer your opponent has in his/her hand. That means that your opponent needs 7 trainers/supporters/stadiums for a knock out. Reshiram, Raichu Prime, Jumpluff, and Zoroark can do 120 damage each, so you will just need a Plus Power to get a knock out. Rayquaza/Deoxys Legend can do 150 damage for 4 energies, so that is a decent option. Lugia Legend can do 200 damage, but you need to discard 3 energies. There are a couple more like Magmortar, but those are the big ones.

You can also try to lock Reshiboar down in someway. One way that I have tried is to use Slowking Cl to try to control your opponent’s top decks. If you block your opponent’s ability to get energy, you will be able to slow down Reshiboar. If you can disrupt your opponent so they can’t get cards like Fisherman or Energy Retrieval, they will not be able to consistently attack. You could also try to find someway to make a card like Shuckle or Ninetails active. There is yet no real way to do this, but Im sure something will come up in later sets, like Pokemon Catcher. There is also a chance for early disruption before your oppoenent can get Emboar out. If you could make a post-rotation version of Sablelock, it will be very effective. The trouble is almost 100% of the Sablelock deck will soon rotate out.

Deck List

I will now give you guys a decklist for this list. i must warn you that this list is far from perfect, it is just a jumping off point for your testing. Again, if you think I have screwed up on this decklist, I agree, this is not my nationals decklist, it is just a rough list.

Pokemon-14

2- Emboar #20
2-Pignite #19 (I prefer #19, if you like the other one it wouldn’t be a bad play)
2-Tepig
4-Cleffa
4-Reshiram

Trainers-31

2-Energy Retrieval
2-Fisherman
2-Interviewers Questions
4-Juniper
3-Twins (To take advantage when Cleffa gets knocked out)
2-Elms
3-Pont
4-Pokemon Collector
2-Revive
4-Pokemon Communication
3-Plus Power

Energy-15

Fire-15

Final Impressions

I think that this deck could be a real powerhouse in the coming format, at least until Pokemon Catcher is released anyway. I think there is a good chance it will be the most popular deck at Nationals. Im not sure it will dominate as much as Luxchomp has, but you will need to know how to play against it.

So what do you guys think of this deck? Is it as good as I have hyped it up as? How would you play against it? Please leave your thoughts about this deck in the comment box.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Deck Discussion

Deck Analysis: Miss Plume- Mismagius Cl and Vileplume Ud

Pikkdogs May 20, 2011 7 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis. This is a deck I tried out last weekend and I have grown to kind of like it. It is a natural evolution of the Vilegar Trainerlock of the last format. Of course, this deck is for the HGSS-on format.

Strategy

The goal of this deck is to disrupt your opponent by locking trainers, and then using the trainers in their hand to hurt them with Mismagius’s “Poltergeist” Attack. Thanks to the rotation, Spiritomb Ar is no longer in the format, so trainerlocking the entire game is no longer possible. This makes it impossible for trainerlocking to disrupt an early setup. Even though Vileplume is not as disruptive as it could be, trainerlocking is still effective. It is hard for any deck to recover without using cards like Pokemon Communication and Rare Candy.

Your main attacker in this deck is Mismagius Cl. This card has the “Poltergeist” attack that Gengar SF had. In the past format Gengar was a better attacker because the Level X could counter Dialga G Lv. X. Now that Dialga G is gone there is no need for a counter to it. And since Regice and Regirock are gone, and Junk Arm is not playable under trainerlock; it is very hard to discard trainers from your hand. These facts make Mismagius a pretty good card.

I also run Noctowl HGSS in this deck. Since the Mismagius and Vileplume lines only add up to 14 Pokemon, you will have some room to have Pokemon that add consistency. I find that the best Pokemon to fit into this deck is Noctowl. He lets you draw 1 card during your turn with the “Night Sight” Poke-Power, the power does stack. Drawing 1 card is not an amazing power, but it does add a considerable amount of consistency. I feel that it is a good play for this deck.

The Setup

This deck uses Stantler as a starting Pokemon. Its “Call for Family” attack lets you grab 2 basics from your Pokemon and put it on your bench. It is the best starter for this deck. It lets you get Hoothoots, Misdreavuses, or Oddishes; and setup very quickly. Misdreavus is also a decent starting Pokemon. It’s “Dual Draw” attack forces each player to draw 3 cards, it lets you setup and puts more trainers in your opponents hand.

Your first goal in setting up is getting a Vileplume. Even if you have to sacrifice a couple Pokemon, getting a Vileplume is worth it. Next, it should be easy to get a Mismagius and load two energies on him. You might lose a couple Mismagiuses, but hopefully you will be able to catch them with a stale hand full of trainers, and you can easily bring up more Mismagiuses.

The Drawbacks

The biggest problem with this deck is that it is a little slow. Setting up a stage 2 along with a stage 1 takes a lot of time. If you are going against a deck that can setup by turn 2, you might find yourself too far down by the time you actually setup. Another drawback is the fact that you won’t be locking trainers until at least turn 3. This leaves them plenty of time to setup.

The Good

What I like about this deck is that it is something that most people aren’t planning to go against. Most people are worried about Zekrom or Reshiram, if they are thinking about anything else it is Donphan, Cincinno, or Gengar Prime. Nobody is thinking about trainerlock right now. If you run this deck you will be surprising a lot of people. This deck is easy to counter, but if nobody is expecting it, nobody can counter it. I think it could be a good deck for the next format. It may be a little slow, but I do know that it works well.

The List

Like most my lists I don’t have this list tweaked to perfection. This is just a rough basic list that I 4-5 times. I originally ran 4 Rare Candies in this list, but I never could seem to use the Candies, so I took them out.

Pokemon-24

2- Vileplume
2-Gloom
2-Oddish
4-Misdreavus
4-Mismagius
4-Stantler
1-Mr. Mime Cl- His “Trick Reveal” Poke-Power lets you see the hand of your opponent. With this guy you can see if you will get a knockout on “Poltergeist.”
1-Spritiomb Tm- Is used for refreshing your opponents hand, if he/she is able to get the trainers out.
2-Hoothoot
2-Noctowl

Trainers-23

4-Professor Elms Trainer Method- Lots of Evolutions in this deck, getting an early Vileplume is crucial, and this helps.
2- Twins- possibly the best supporter in this format, 2 is standard in any of my decks.
4- Pokemon Collector
4- Professor Oak’s New Theory- I prefer PONT to Juniper in this deck because of the fact that I run so many evolutions.
1- Flower Shop Lady
2- Copy Cat- your opponent will have a big hand, you might as well benefit from it.
2- Sages Training
4- Pokemon Communication

Energy-13

10- Psychic
2- Rescue
1-DCE- can be used to retreat Vileplume or to attack with Noctowl.

Its not the best list ever, but its enough for you to go on and test this deck for yourself. Its a pretty basic list that you can tweak yourself by changing cards like Sages Training and Noctowl for other cards that you want to play.

Closing Remarks

I think this deck may be a little slow, but I think it is a good solid idea. When Gothitelle comes to the format, Vileplume may fall out of favor, but for right now it is a decent play. I didn’t analyze any matchups in this article because I feel that this deck doesn’t differ in most matchups. I encourage you guys to give this deck a chance and see if you like it.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Deck Discussion

Lost World Deck HGSS-On- Mew Prime, Mime Jr. and Gengar Prime.

Pikkdogs May 18, 2011 8 Comments

As you can see I got really creative with the name of this deck.

Hello all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a deck idea for the HGSS-on format. I spent most of last weekend working on some HGSS-on decks. I tried a lot of good decks, one deck that was unexpectedly good was my lost world deck.

Before we talk about the deck, we have to mention that Battle Roads start this weekend! This is the time where you can go and prove that the Md-BW format is pretty terrible. Although most people are not excited about the format, it could be just the time for you to go and steal a Victory Medal. So go and have fun with your Pokemon friends, and hopefully you can pull down a medal.

How the Deck Works

Anyway, lets go back to the deck. Like all Lost World decks, this decks only purpose is to get 6 of your opponent’s Pokemon in the Lost Zone. Unlike the popular Lostgar deck, this deck has no way to grab 6 prizes if needed, but thats not really something you need to do.

The main way you will get Pokemon in the Lost Zone is by using Gengar Prime’s “Hurl Into Darkness” attack. But you will never have an active Gengar Prime, instead, you will throw Gengar Prime into your Lost Zone and then make Mew Prime use “Hurl”. Mew Prime can use any attack of any Pokemon in the Lost Zone thanks to his “Lost Link” Poke-Body”. You put Gengar in the Lost Zone either with Mew Prime or with Relincanth Cl. You will also put your opponent’s Pokemon in the Lost Zone with Mime Jr. Cl.

Mime Jr. is a very useful card in this deck. His attack “Sleepy Lost” sends the top card of your opponent’s deck into the Lost Zone. To make sure you will send a Pokemon to the Lost Zone with this attack, this deck uses Slowking Cl to arrange your opponent’s deck. His Poke-Power “Second Sight” lets you arrange the top 3 card of either of the decks. This power can be used to either help you setup, try to give your opponent a bad draw, or to setup “Sleepy Lost.” When I first made this deck, I thought I would only use Slowking to help with “Sleepy Lost.” But, I soon found out that if you can get Slowking setup before your opponent sets up, you can delay their setup for a long time.

How Do You Setup?

This deck has an abundant amount of good starting Pokemon. This deck runs 4 Mew Prime, 2 Relincanth Cl, and 2 Slowpoke (Rambunctious Party). Either would be decent to start with. Ideally you would want to start with Mew Prime or Relincanth and Gengar Prime in your hand, and you would be able to get Gengar Prime in the Lost Zone on the first turn. If not you should be able to setup with Slowpoke or draw cards with Relincanth.

After you have tried to get Gengar Prime in the Lost Zone, your next job is to setup a Slowking. Hopefully you started with a Pokemon Collector or some Dual Balls. After you use these cards you should have at least 1 Slowpoke, Mew Prime, and Mime Jr. Eventually try to get multiple copies of each card in your hand, and a Mr. Mime. Next, use a Pokemon Communication to snag a Slowking.

Once you got your Slowking, you need to decide which attacker is the best to use. First use Mr. Mime’s “Trick Reveal” to see if the opponent has any Pokemon in their hand. Next use “Second Sight” to see what is at the top of their deck. If you can take 2 Pokemon with Mew, than do it. But if you can only take 1 and you have Pokemon both at the top of the deck and in the hand, then you can choose which one you will want to put in the Lost Zone. Ideally you would want to put the most important one in the Lost Zone, but most of the time any Pokemon will do.

Now that you got your first Pokemon in there just keep on using “Second Sight” and “Sleepy Lost”, as well as Seeker with “Hurl Into Darkness”. You should know within the first few turns if you can win the game. If you can put 2 in the Lost Zone before they can take a prize, you should have an easy win. If they setup as fast as you did, your probably not going to win. This is why an early Slowking is important. If you can use Slowking to slow down the opponent for even a turn than you have a better chance at winning.

Matchups

Of course a deck is only as good as its matchups, so lets see if this format will be kind to this deck.

Reshiboar–70/30 Reshiboar is probably the best deck in the format, but it has a hard time attacking if you can limit the amount of energy it receives. Because Reshiram requires a discard, if you can use “Second Sight” to keep the Fishermen and energy out of their hands, you should be faster than them. Good players will probably try to attack with Emboar, to get around the discard, but a lot of people will not know to do that.
Stage 1 decks (Cincinno, Donphan Prime etc….)- 50/50– It all depends on if you setup first. This is a fast deck, so it is a 50/50 chance that you will setup first. If you can get that early Slowking, you should be good.
Zekrom- 40/60-I haven’t tested this matchup, but this should be a tough matchup for this deck. Since Zekrom is really fast it has a decent chance of out speeding the Lost World Deck.
Stage 2 Decks– 60/40– Even though this category is very broad, Stage 2 decks take at least 3 turns to setup. Hopefully, you should be lost zoning by turn 2. So if you see an Oshawott and a Totodile on the first turn, take a big sigh of relief.

The List

This is just my list of the deck. I only made it a couple days ago, so it is far from perfect. So feel free to experiment with it and make it better.

Pokemon-17

3- Mime Jr.
1- Mr. Mime cl
4- Mew Prime
2- Slowpoke(Rambunctious Party)
2- Slowking CL
2- Gengar Prime
2- Relincanth Cl
1- Spiritiomb Tm- For forcing my opponent to refresh his/her hand.

Trainers- 32

4- Seeker- A sure-fire way to get a Pokemon with “Hurl into Darkness”
4- Professor Juniper- the best hand refresh for a deck that doesn’t evolve a lot
4- Twins- You will never take a prize, so you will be able to use Twins a lot
4- Pokemon Collector- You have so many basics that you can’t afford not to run this card.
2- PONT
1- Flowershop Lady- This card has quietly become a staple in any deck.
3- Revive- an easy way to get Mime Jr. and Mew back without wasting your supporter for the turn. Helpful mid to late game.
3- Dual Ball- a way to get basics without using a supporter
4- Communication- you need this to get an early Slowking
3- Lost World- You can run 2, some might run 4.

Energy-11

Psychic-11-You might wanna add another energy or two, because you could burn some on Relincanth or Slowpoke. But, I only run 11 because Twins makes it easy to get energy when you need it.

Closing Remarks

Well there is the list. Its not the best list but it is a good place to start if you wanna test this deck. You could possibly take away some Dual Balls and a revive or two for another Slowking line or some Lost Removers.

When I tested this deck I realized that it can really work, but I still can’t help but think that this deck is just a turn too slow to work. It will depend on the Metagame, but I think this could be a good deck.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Deck Discussion

Deck Analysis: Who Let The Dogs Out?

Pikkdogs April 29, 2011 7 Comments

Hey everyone in Om……ahhhhhh…… lets start this over. A big hello to all of you O.H.K.O.ers, welcome to my first article on the new www.onehitko.com. As you might know, Ed has changed the name of the site from “www.teamomar.com” to “www.onehitko.com”, to better represent what the website has become. Ed will probably make the official announcement soon. This website was originally made to communicate between a couple people, and had a name to reflect that. Now, this website is a trusted source to Pokemon players all over the world, and should not be limited to just one team. Anyway, lets go and talk about the new deck that I just made.

How I Thought of It

I thought of this deck about 2 weeks ago while I was jogging. I was thinking of how I can stand out in a format filled with Sabledonk, and I decided that I needed to start with Spiritomb. The only way to guarantee a Spiritomb start is to run only 4 Spiritombs, and no other basic Pokemon. Since Spiritomb does not evolve and cannot do any damage, I needed to think of another way to attack. I first thought about using fossil cards. But, I relized that you can start with fossils, and that they would interfere with Spiritomb’s “Keystone Seal” Poke-Body. I finally came with the idea of using Legend cards. The rules do not allow you to start with a legend, so there is no chance of starting with it. Most legends also have good attacks, so it would be easy to knock out Sableye, Crobat G, or Uxie.

Now that I thought of using Legend cards, I had to decide which ones to use. I thought using about 3 legends would be good, it would leave me plenty of room for supporters while giving me a good chance at drawing into at least 1 half of a legend. So, I went through each legend and judged if it would work. Dialga/Palkia Legend, didn’t fit because its a weird card that just adds prizes or takes away Pokemon, that doesn’t really counter Sabledonk very well. Darkrai/Cresselia Legend doesn’t really work either, it just moves around damage counters and weird things like that. Rayquaza/Deoxys Legend doesn’t really fit either, it can do a lot of damage but its attacks are too expensive and requires discarding. Kyorgre/Groudon Legend is a great card, but its attacks are just too expensive for this deck, time might be called before you can load up a KGL. The same energy problems that effects KGL, is an issue with HO-OH Legend. Lugia Legend’s attacks only cost 3 energies, but they require you to discard 3 energies. So none of those legends worked out, but the Legendary Dogs were perfect.

There are 3 of them, and most of them have attacks that only cost 2-3 energies. The best thing is that since the cards are related to each other, they use the same kinds of energies. Entei/Raikou Legend can do 90 damage for just two energies, or can do 80 damage to any Pokemon with Poke-Powers on the field. This is especially great for Sabledonk, because Sableye is the only Pokemon that will survive a “Thunder Fall” attack. ERL will be your biggest attacker in the deck. Suicine and Entei Legend can do 80 damage and burn the defending Pokemon with the “Buring Inferno” attack, which will cost you only 1 fire energy and 1 DCE. Raikou Suicine is the legend that I use the least, but can still be a good attacker. Its “Aurora Gain” attack does 50 for WCC, but it heals 50 damage. Its “Thunderbolt Spear” attack is good incase you are playing a different deck with a high HP Pokemon. It can do 150 damage for LLC, while doing 50 damage to itself.

So, that was a long introduction. The question is does the deck actually work? Can it stop a Sabledonk? The answer is a resounding “yes”! I admit that I have not tested the deck 100 times, but in my initial testings the deck has crushed Sabledonk every time. Here is the strategy behind it.

How To Play This Deck

You will always have a Spiritomb start. It will most likely be a single Spiritomb. Your opponent can instantly win by starting with a Sableye, Special Darkness Energy, and a Crobat G. All they would need to do is to attach the Special Dark, and use Crobat G’s “Flash Bite” to make sure Sableye has more HP then Spiritomb. Then, Sableye can use “Over Confident” for the knock out. But, the problem is they will rarely get all of these three cards to start with.

They will probably start first and then pass. What you need to do is to use Pokemon Collector to get the other 3 Spritombs. Trust me, unless you can get 2 Legends out on one turn, you will need a lot of Spiritombs for when you break the trainer lock. You will pass, then your opponent will either attack (if he has an energy) or pass. Next, you will probably have half of a legend card in your hand, so use Bebe’s Search or a hand refresh card to try to get the other half. Put down the legend and attach an energy.

By this time, you might have lost a Spiritomb, unless you took a long time Mulliganing it is probably better to put up a second Spiritomb. You will draw and probably use a hand refresh card. Then attach an energy and work on getting a second legend out (probably ERL). When they knock out the second tomb, promote the now fully powered Legend, use Twins to setup your 2nd and 3rd legend, and the game should be over.

There is no way that a Sableye can beat a legend card, so as long as you didn’t run out of time you are golden. When you get the 2nd legend the other player will probably scoop.

So that is how the deck works, now is the part where I talk about the bad parts of the deck. The most obvious one is that you will have to mulligan a lot of times. Usually I only have to mulligan about 2-3 times, it normally does not have an effect on the game. It mostly just gives them more trainers that they cannot use. The second bad part of the deck is the fact that you may not be playing Sabledonk. Sabledonk will be the most played deck at this years Battle Roads, but if you even play 1 deck that is not Sabledonk, you could be in for a world of hurt. Even decks that are considered to be way below average will have a good chance of beating this deck. This deck was made for the sole purpose of beating Sabledonk, and thats all it can do. Perhaps the deck can be teched to deal with other decks, but that will be up for you to decide. So, the decision to play this deck is based on the metagame of your Battle Roads.

The List

So now we know how I made the deck, what it is, how to play it, and how it can fail; lets look at my sample decklist. This is just a basic version of the deck and can be teched to play other matchups.

Pokemon-16

4-Spiritomb Ar
2-2 Entei/Raikou Legend
2-2 Raikou/Suicine Legend
2-2- Suicine/Entei Legend

Trainers-29

4- Pokemon Collector- Use it early, ignore it later in the game.
4-Bebe’s Search- The most important supporter after Collector, you need this to get your first full Legend.
3-Cyrus’s Conspiracy- To get an energy card, and a supporter that you need.
4-Twins- You will probably be a prize or two behind before you can attack. Twins makes it easy to get Legend pieces out.
2-Professor Juniper-Great card, but you don’t always want to discard Legend pieces.
3- Profesor Oak’s New Theory
2-Engineer’s Adjustment
2-Sunny Shore City Gym
1-Expert Belt
2-Sage’s Training
2-Fisherman

Energy-15

Fire-6
Lightning-7
Water-1
DCE-1

Playing Other Decks

This deck was made for one purpose, to beat Sabledonk. I never imagined that I would be pitting it against other decks. This was more of a concept deck then a real one. I wanted to see if it was possible to beat Sabledonk, now I can say that it is. But, there is no use in playing a deck if it can’t even play the deck that it is designed to beat. If a player tries to play this deck, they may not even see Sabledonk if everyone isn’t playing Sabledonk.

So, because of this fact I tried to test this deck against other decks. The only other deck that I knew was going to get play besides Sabledonk is Gyarados, so that is the only other deck I tested against. After making some changes to the list, I found out that Gyarados is just too fast for this deck. Gyarados gets 3 prizes before the other deck can attack. Once a couple of Legends hit the field the play becomes balanced. “Who let the dogs out” will probably get a couple knock outs right away with RSL. But at the end Gyarados will win because each Legend that it knocks out nets them 2 prizes.

Even though the Gyarados testing didn’t go too well, I was happy with what happened. Most of the games were fairly close and if Gyarados didn’t have weakness on two of the three legend cards, the game would have been totally different. I think that if other decks are popular, this deck might have a shot at beating them.

Conclusion

So there is the deck that I made up. What do you guys think of it? Do you think that a deck that can only beat 1 deck will be able to work? Or do you even care about Spring Battle Roads this season?

Deck Discussion Deck Workshop

A new take on Gyarados

Joel April 20, 2011 7 Comments

Hey everyone enjoying TeamOmar.com, Joel here with a new take on a popular favorite: Gyarados. With the new Black & White rules coming into effect, there has been lots of discussion on how the game will change. In my opinion, fast decks will be faster, slow decks will still be slow, and Sableye is going to see a lot of play. I figured with the new rules, I would go back to testing an old classic: Gyarados. Gyarados has proved to be a strong deck that can hold it’s own against SP’s, and has seen a lot of play over the past year, top cutting at many Battle Roads, Cities, Regionals, Nationals and Worlds. With the new first turn trainer rule, Gyarados can be a force to be reckoned with. I put together a Gyarados list and tested the deck under Black and White rules and the deck has brought me good results. I’ll share my list and discuss how I play it.

Pokemon:
4 Magikarp (SF)
3 Gyarados (SF)
4 Sableye (SF)
1 Ditto (LA)
1 Crobat G (PT)
2 Uxie (LA)
2 Mesprit (LA)
1 Azelf (LA)
1 Combee (SF)
2 Regice (LA)
Trainer/Supporter/Stadiums
3 Broken Time Space
2 Pokemon Communication
3 Expert Belt
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Pokemon Collector
2 VS Seeker
2 Energy Exchanger
4 PokeTurn
3 Seeker
3 Junk Arm
Energy
3 Rescue Energy
3 Dark (special)
3 Warp Energy
Read More

Deck Discussion

Pikkdogs’ Uxie Donk Handbook

Pikkdogs April 13, 2011 4 Comments

Hey everyone in Omar-Nation. If you have read my States report, you would know that I have been playing with Uxie donk lately. This Regionals, one of my friend’s decided to play Uxie as well. So I wrote the following text to the friend as an Uxie Handbook to help him out. After I read it I decided it would make a pretty good article ( well not a good article, but one that is just as bad as most of the other crap that I write her), so I turned it into article form for everyone to read.

If you are unsure of what you wanna play this weekend, then you might wanna read this article to give you an advantage at Regionals. Or, if you want to play during Spring Battle Roads or Nationals, you will want to read this article. Because, the best deck will be Sableye donk, and Uxie donk and Sableye Donk are very similar. The only change will be basically 4 Sableyes instead of 4 Plus Powers, and Special Darks instead of Cyclone Energies. You might want to change a couple other things, but alas, this is not a Sabledonk article, but is an Uxie article.

If you want to be great at Uxie donk, here are things you should know.

First, read and re-read Radu’s articles about the deck. Read them now, and then read them after you have tested this deck a couple times, they are that good. Mostly pay attention to part 1, though the slow play described in part 2 might come in handy. I only used it once, and it didn’t really work, but it could.

http://www.onehitko.com/2011/01/14/donking-for-dummies-part-1-radus-obnoxious-uxie-deck/

http://www.onehitko.com/2011/01/18/donking-for-dummies-part-2-radu%C2%92s-guide-to-cultivating-hatred/

First Thing You Do

1. You get your hand, and then you pick your starting Pokemon. Mostly, you will want to start with Crobat G, if you start with Unown R, make sure you will be able to find Unown q quickly.

2. After you pick your starter, the first thing you do is look at your hand. The first thing you want to find is Uxie. If you don’t have one, then look for Luxury Ball, Dual Ball, or Quick Ball to get him.

3. If you have Poke Turns, try to find Crobat G and use the turns as you get them. You can use the scoop ups to use “Flash Bite” if you must, but if you want to cycle through your deck, you need to scoop up Uxie at least once, maybe twice.

4. After you have an Uxie, what you want to do is play out your remaining hand. Play your Unown r’s and drawing trainers so that you played everything you can with them.

5. Now you are basically setup so just keep going.

Words of Wisdom

Junk Arm-Only use Junk Arm if you absolutely need to, or you have extra cards like seeker, e belt, and cyclone energy, but you can use it with quick balls if you need to. You mostly want to use Junk Arm to get Poke Turns, but if you have a Junk Arm late game it can be prove to be very versatile.

Seeker-Be careful when you use Seeker. For the most part, when you place “Flash Bites”, you will want to put them on the active, so just in case you are forced to use seeker, your opponent can’t pick the damaged guy up. If your opponent has played Mesprit, NEVER USE SEEKER. They will just pick it up and do it again its not good. For the most part you will need to use Seeker to cycle through your deck.

Expert Belt-Never put an Expert Belt on a benched Pokemon that you can’t get rid of, unless you are sure they can’t snipe or get that guy active.

Playing a Long Game-If you get a prize lead, but they somehow setup, keep as many basics on the field as possible and do Radu’s timing technique until the time is called. If you have a prize lead, you don’t need to take all the prizes, just try to survive.

Matchups

You also need to know about different decks.

Trainerlock– you either catch them with a bad start, or you cycle through your deck enough to find a cyclone energy, or you lose.

Other Stage 2’s– Most stage 2’s you should be able to just run over their basics. If they start with a Mesprit lock, don’t ever use seeker. Wait out the lock, if necessary play your deck enough until you have 2-3 basics, preferably Unown R. If they start Spiritomb, try to cyclone it, if not try to wait it out.

SP- The toughest matchup. Not because you lose a lot, you should win about 70 percent of the time, but because its so hard to play against. First you want to analyze what game state it is. If they don’t start with Call Energy and start first, you should be at a game state one. If they either start 2^nd or start with 2 Pokemon and get Call, you are in for a game state two. You don’t need to stall, but you do need to cycle through the entire deck. Put all “Flash Bites” on the active, and you should be able to knock it out. The most important thing, other than cycle through your deck, is to knock out all energy (if no energy, then take out the Energy Gains) on the field. If they pile on the energy then they have more options, and if they play ERL and you don’t take out the energy you will lose. Once you “Flash Bite” a Pokemon to death, and have 4 plus powers and a belt on Uxie, you Psychic Restore and put the Plus Powers on the bottom first, then put the energy and the Expert Belt, and then Uxie. You should be able to “Setup” next turn for the cards, unless you have more than 1 card in your hand.

With SP you need to be wary of Powerspray. For the first couple turns when you use Uxie, always have a way to get another uxie. If your opponent doesn’t Powerspray you the first couple times, you know he doesn’t have a spray and if he pretends he does, he is just bluffing, don’t let him push you around! If it’s a gamestate two, you know he will try to Powerspray you at the end. What you need to do is have ways to re-use uxie, there are 4 ways to do so. 1) have a backup Uxie, 2)Pokemon Rescue Uxie, 3)Seeker, 4, scoop up. Make sure to prepare for at least 2 of these. The easiest way to do is to keep maybe one of these cards in your hand, and make sure you keep these cards in your prizes till the end (that’s where Alph Lithograph comes in handy. SP is tough so keep focused and be ready for anything. The most important part is to get a prize lead before they get 2 Lv.X’s, or can spray you to death. If they sprayed you at the end and you can’t get it back, Under no condition are you to put Uxie on the bottom of your deck unless you are positive you can get him back easy. Just having a lot of basics will make sure they can’t knock out everything and win even though you took more prizes.

Here is my list, its basically just Radu’s list, without 3 Victory Medals.

12Pokemon	46 Trainers	2 Energy
4 Uxie 3 Crobat G 4 Unown R 1 Unown Q	4 Poke Drawer+ 4 Pokedex Handy 1 Victory Medal 4 Super Scoop Up 4 Poketurn 4 Poke Blower+ 4 Plus Power 4 Dual Ball 4 Junk Arm 4 Quick Ball 2 Luxury Ball 2 Pokemon Rescue 2 Expert Belt 2 Seeker 1 Alph Lithograph FOUR	2 Cyclone

That’s all this for my Uxie handbook. If you use my list, you should be able to cycle through your deck 95% of the time. With reading this article and Radu’s articles, you should be able to do very well. If you are able to play a couple of games against a great SP player before a tournament, you should be prepared for almost everything.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Deck Discussion

Fun Deck Idea: Dusknoir

Joel March 29, 2011 7 Comments

Hello everyone in Omar-Nation, this is Joel here with a fun deck idea to try out. I was originally going to write an article on Charizard, but with my new hectic work schedule, and a crazy idea on a Dusknoir deck, I decided to write about Dusknoir instead. I also would have had this article up sooner but as I said, my work schedule is hectic, and I don’t have as much free time as I used to have, now on with the deck!

I have always liked Dusknoir LV.X, and the Dusknoir from Stormfront. Dusknoir can allow you to draw 2 cards, and put 2 damage counters on it, however you have 7 or more cards in your hand; you have to discard cards until you have 6. Putting damage counters and discarding cards may seem like a pretty bad drawback, but Damage Even makes up for it. For a Psychic and a Colorless, you count the number of Damage counters on Dusknoir, and put that many damage counters on any one of your opponent’s PokÃ©mon. And did I mention Dusknoir LV.X? With poke-power Ectoplasm, the level X card becomes a stadium that puts one damage counter on all of your opponent’s PokÃ©mon between turns! Pretty sweet, isn’t it?

I got the idea to make a Dusknoir deck after seeing my friend Matt from Florida run one in a battle road. I also needed a fun deck to take to league since not everyone there can hold their own against Luxchomp. So I threw together a list with some interesting techs, took my deck to league and did pretty well with it. I tested the deck against my league’s more competitive players. I had a good matchup against my friend Austin with his Machamp/Mightyena build, and my friend Will had a hard time against the deck, and he was running Gyarados. I’ll share my list below and give you an idea on how I play it.
Read More

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