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Deck Discussion

Deck Spotlight: Flyperior (Flygon and Rhyperior Lock and Mill)

Pikkdogs 25 Comments

Rhyperior-DPHello to all members of Team Omar.  My name is Pikkdogs, or Josh, and I am pleased to present you with my first post.  I first started following Team Omar a few months ago when Omar referenced one of my articles from SixPrizes.com.  From then on I have enjoyed reading some of the things included on this site.  Now, I am proud to present my first article.

This article will be about the deck that I just took to the Michigan State Championships.  I call it the Flyperior Lock and Mill deck.  Usually Flygon is paired with either Machamp or Donphan Prime, my deck forsakes all those fighting Pokemon for another one, Rhyperior DP.  The decks strategy is to use Flygon Lv.x RR and Rhyperior to lock in a weak opponent and then mill them, or discard cards from their deck.

The Basics

There are certain steps that allow the user to do this.  The first step is to establish a Flygon Lv.x, with a Trapnich Sw underneath it, and a Memory Berry attached to it.  With Memory Berry, Flygon can now use the attacks “Inviting Trap” and “Sand Tomb.” First the user would use “Inviting Trap” to select a weak Pokemon such as Claydol GE or Mr. Mime MT.  Preferably the Pokemon you choose with this attack will have a high retreat cost and in ineffective attack.     Then after you have the Pokemon you want in your opponent’s active position the user then uses the attack “Sand Tomb.”  This attack does ten damage and does not allow the defending Pokemon to retreat next turn.

Once you have your trap set up, then the milling starts.  With Flygon Lv.x’s Poke Body “Wind Erosion” you may discard the top card in your opponent’s deck between turns.  Then, on the bench, the user can set up a Rhyperior DP.  It’s Poke Power “Earth Fissure” lets the user discard the top three cards of the opponents deck.  Then the user would make sure they have a Broken Time Space in play, and then use the card Super Scoop Up to pick up Rhyperior, and then lay the Pokemon back down and use “Earth Fissure” again.  Then the user repeats this strategy until the opponent decks out.

My Decklist

This is the decklist that I used for states.  It is not a perfect decklist, but it worked well for me.  If anyone has any comments on it, I would love to hear them.

Flygon Lv. X - RRPokemon

2-1 Palkia Lv.X – Used to bring up a benched Pokemon with his Poke Power “Restructure.”  I use Platinum Palkia, but any Palkia can be used.

3-3 Claydol GE –  A 3-3 Claydol line makes it easy to set up fast, it also helps feed Flygon’s “Power Swing” attack.

4 Trapinch SW –  Believe it or not Trapinch has the attacks that the user will use most often.  He is the back bone of this deck

2 Vibrava RR – A Blah Pokemon just used to evolve to Flygon can use the SW version if you want.

3 Flygon RR – He gives you the HP you need to make Trapinch’s attack works.  His Poke Body rainbow float also lets you use Palkia Lv.x many times.  His attack “Power Swing” can also be devastating.

1 Flygon Lv. X – Used because of “Wind Erosion.”

1-1-1 Rhyperior DP – Essential for the “Earth Fissure” Poke Power.

2 Unown G GE

1 Azelf LA

1 Relincanth SV –  If your opponent starts getting smart and uses Unown g to negate Trapinch’s attacks, then use Relincanth to vanquish your opponent.

Trainers

2 Rare Candy

4 Bebes Search – Even though Claydol’s come easy to this deck, you still need lots of searching power for the Rhyperior Line.

3 Roseanne’s Research

1 Team Galactics Wager – Just a fun card.

3 Memory Berry – Three are essential

4 Super Scoop Up – Four are essential

1 Poke Radar – A staple of any deck I make.

2 Warp Point – Useful for getting a  benched Palkia Lv.x

2 Broken Time Space

1 Luxury Ball

1 Night Maintenance

Energy

5 Fighting Energy

2 Water Energy – Just to give Palkia free retreat, he could also be used to attack if need be.

2 Double Colorless Energy – This is what you use if the trap situation is not working.  This energy helps Flygon use the moves “Extreme Attack” and “Power Swing.”

Possible Techs

Rhyperior Sv-It is possible to extend the Rhyperior line and involve Rhyperior SV to finish off a Pokemon that you sand tombed, in order to mill more cards.  The attack ‘Deep Scrap” is pricey, but if you are able to power it up and combo it with sand tomb, you will hopefully mill some important cards.

Dugtrio Pt- This would cause you to change your strategy up a little.  But Dugtrio’s Poke Body “Sink Hole” puts 2 damage counters on a Pokemon each time your opponent retreats them.  If a user constantly attacked with inviting trap, you would force the opponent to either leave the Pokemon in the active position or put 2 damage counters on it.

Wobbufet promo- The new Wobbufet promo has a Poke Body named “Tenacious Bind.”  This body   would increase the retreat cost of your opponent’s Pokemon by 2.   If for some reason the Flygon that your were trapping with has been knocked out, you can bring up Wobbufet and the defending Pokemon will still not be able to retreat because of the Poke Body.  Allowing the user to buy time and set up  another Flygon.

Pokemon Communication- This trainer is nice because it is like a Bebe’s search, it would help the user bring a Rhyperior out a turn or two earlier.

Flygon SW- Pokemon like dunsparce and Garchomp C can be an issue for this deck because of weakness.  So if you run a Flygon SW (which is a fighting type) you will be able to set up a trap without running into a weakness problem.  You can then put the level x on it when you are ready.

Match Ups

I have not tested this deck out against every deck out there, but I know a little bit about the match ups.

Gengar

Gengar is actually a pretty easy matchup for this deck.  The Poke Body “Fainting Spell” won’t affect you because you will not be knocking out many Gengars.  Just grab their Claydol and trap it.  Eventually they probably will find a Gengar Lv.x.  If they do, you must use “Extreme Attack” to get rid of it before “Level Down” affects the game too much.

SP Decks

I want to test more against SP’s, but it seems like most SP decks give this deck a run for its money.  If the opposing player is running Mesprit or Claydol, just lock down that Pokemon.  If not then wait till they use their Poke Turns up and then try to lock a Lucario GL, or Bronzong G. If that doesn’t work then hopefully use “Extreme Attack” to knock out Garchomp C. Lv.x and other Lv.x’s.

Rogue Decks

Rogue decks like Scizor/Cherrim, Arceus and others can pose a problem.  They usually don’t run a Claydol, so the strategy is different.  If possible find something to lock, for example I locked a Water Arceus in the recent States tournament.  If locking doesn’t work then start using “Power Swing” and hopefully you can out power them.

Gyarados

I haven’t actually tested against Gyarados yet, but I will soon.  I would imagine that Gyarados can be quite a problem here.  But none the less, just bring up Regice and lock him up.  And Hopefully they will roll tails enough times on their Super Scoop Up attempts.

Uxie/Shuppet/other Donk Deck

Donk Decks are a problem for this deck.  Trapinch and Baltoy only have 50 HP, so if you don’t have a Palkia start, this could be a short game.  But if the user is able to withstand the first couple turns and get a couple “Cosmic Power”s off, you should be in good shape.   The opponent will use a lot of trainers to go through their deck very fast, this is in your advantage.  Once they use a lot of cards, milling their deck is much easier.  Make sure you have an active Flygon when they first attack with Uxie or Shuppet.  They will probably retreat to Mr. Mime.  Then you just need to lock Mr. Mime in his place.  Then your opponent will flip for Super Scoop Up, if they aren’t able to hit a couple of heads, you will be able to mill most of their deck away.

Closing Thoughts

This is a nice fun deck.  It will never be a super popular deck, but it can win (my top 8 at States proves that). Unfortunately it is a pretty expensive deck, so I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone.  I thought of this deck when I heard a player ask if this game had any concept of mill.  I said it didn’t but that didn’t mean that you can’t introduce it.  I always liked Rhyperior DP and wanted a partner for him, and that partner was Flygon with Trapinch SW.  Even though I came up with this deck idea by myself, I didn’t do it first.  I learned that this combo was used before, but not to much success, and of course the Flygon trap strategy had been around for a long time I ever made this deck.  If anyone has any suggestions to make the deck better, please let me know.

And thanks to Ed and Omar for letting me post on their site.

Peace.

Deck Discussion

Porygon-Z and DCE

Ed 22 Comments

JWittz had this competition where he wanted people to “Construct the best 60 Card Deck using 4 double colorless energy!” Check it out at Prof it Competition! Best Double Colorless deck!. If you want to see the results, check out Profit: DCE Contest Winners.

I had previously posted about my experiences with Porygon-Z in the article, “The Problem With Porygon.” I thought the deck would adapt well to the new DCE-rich format, so I sent in a decklist to JWittz’s competition. I didn’t win any prizes. I think the Porygon idea is a bit more mainstream than what he was looking for, but I do think the deck is a good fit for DCE. I’m sure Omar would like to discuss how it may be a bad fit for the metagame, but that’s what the comment section is for.

I figured that the writeup that I did for JWittz would go to waste if it only made it to the judges, so I decided to copy it here. Maybe someone else can benefit from it, too. I feel like I should say that I did go 3-2 with Porygon in a City Championship, but it was (of course) a non-HGSS version. If you are interested in how I would (fairly quickly) mod it to be a HGSS Porygon-Z Lv. X deck, read on.

I think that Porygon-Z Lv. X will do quite well with the Double Colorless. First of all, each evolution of Porygon can use DCE for its highest cost attack. The main one being Porygon-Z’s Overload attack which does 40 + 20 for each TM attached. To exploit this attack, the deck runs 8 TMs. 4 of them help evolve the many Porygons or Baltoys. The other 4 mainly are just for extra Overload damage, but once in a while they can be useful to devolve an opponent’s Pokemon down to KO range.

The deck is full of synergy like the aforementioned TMs. Another good example is Porygon2’s Download Poke Power that helps play extra supporters quickly. It obviously helps you play extra Roseanne’s and Bebe’s, but when using a supporter like Volkner’s Philosophy, it combo’s quite nicely with Porygon-Z Lv. X’s Decode power. Decode lets you search your deck for any 2 cards, shuffle, and then place them on top of the deck. Volkner’s Philosophy or Claydol can then get those 2 cards into your hand. Do you want more synergy? Most decks won’t play Poke Healer+ or Blower+ because they’re not that good unless you can get 2 in your hand at once. Well, the Decode plus Claydol/Volkner combo I just mentioned can guarantee that you get 2 Healer/Blower+.

Porygon-Z’s Install power lets you move your TM’s around so that you don’t have to pile them all on a single Porygon. Double Healer+ helps insure that you don’t lose a loaded Porygon at the wrong time.

But, this is supposed to be about Double Colorless Energy, right? I already mentioned that Porygon itself benefits from DCE. With Broken Time Space, it can fairly easily attack for 100+ damage on the first turn if you can download enough supporters to get a couple Claydols and an attack-ready Porygon-Z all set up. But, what is one thing that you are SURE to go up against when DCE comes out? That’s right DCE itself.

Porygon-Z Lv. X eats opponent’s DCE, Call Energy, etc. for breakfast. It’s Mode Crash Poke-Power makes the opponent discard all the special energy they have in play when Porygon-Z gets leveled up.

Here’s the list. Try it against any deck. It can hold its own.

Double Colorless Energy
Yeah, it's from Base Set, and if you can get 4 First Editions in play, you automatically win.
Pokemon: 21
x4 Porygon GE
x4 Porygon2 GE
x3 Porygon-Z (Promo)
x1 Porygon-Z Lv. X MT
x2 Baltoy GE
x2 Claydol GE
x2 Unown G GE
x1 Uxie LA
x1 Mr. Mime MT

Supporters: 10
x4 Bebe’s Search
x2 Roseanne’s Research
x2 Volkner’s Philosophy
x1 Palmer’s Contribution
x1 Marley’s Request

Trainers: 18
x4 Technical Machine TS-1
x4 Technical Machine TS-2
x3 VS Seeker
x1 Luxury Ball
x4 Poke Healer+
x4 Poke Blower+

Stadium: 2
x2 Broken Time Space

Energy: 8
x4 Call Energy
x4 Double Colorless Energy

Deck Discussion

HGSS Shuppet Donk Deck – Dunsparce GS

Ed 39 Comments

Last month, I posted talking about my Shuppet Donk Deck. The lists posted there didn’t take any of the HeartGold SoulSilver cards into account. To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot that HGSS brings to the deck. There is only one real big thing that HGSS allows this deck to do, but it’s enough to keep the deck alive and not fade out.

Oh, speaking of fade out, there’s a Pokemon in HGSS that has an attack named “fade out.” Isn’t that what Shuppet’s main attack is? Let’s take a closer look.

Dunsparce (from the GS set) is a 50HP basic Pokemon that can do 20 damage and return itself (and all attached cards) to your hand. Shuppet’s main attack does 30, so why would we want to sacrifice 10 damage in a donk deck? I can think of a few reasons: weakness, resistance, and attack cost.

When I say weakness and resistance, I’m not talking about Dunsparce’s (or Shuppet’s). If you play the deck well, they will never be attacked. I’m talking about the defending Pokemon’s weakness and resistance. In the past, if you played Shuppet against a Psy resistant foe, you might be in trouble. You didn’t have any other options. Now, you have Dunsparce. Also, in the past, the only weakness you could exploit was Psy, but now you can switch it up and get an easier KO on that Flygon, Garchomp C Lv. X, or whatever.

Another big thing about Dunsparce is that he gives you another colorless attack. I say “another,” because you already had Uxie. Uxie wasn’t the main attacker in Shuppet Donk, but he was there if you needed him. If you needed to clear some bench space or wanted to do another Set Up, you could always Psychic Restore placing Uxie at the bottom of the deck. Maybe you could even Dusk Ball him back the next turn. His attack was colorless, but, because it wasn’t an attack you wanted to rely on, you probably wouldn’t run any energy besides Psy in the deck. Now, that’s all changed.

What do you do when you are up against Spiritomb AR with a standard Shuppet build? Well, you hope and pray that you can KO that Tomb ASAP. Dunsparce has another answer, and it’s called Cyclone Energy. Dunsparce can use the Cyclone Energy to blow back the defender and still attack that turn (which Shuppet couldn’t do). Cyclone Energy is quite nice here. If you want to use its effect, just drop Dunsparce, retreat your active (to bring up Dunsparce), then drop Cyclone. If you don’t want to swap out the defender, drop Dunsparce, drop Cyclone, then retreat your active (to bring up Dunsparce).

If you still don’t believe me, take a look at the SixPrizes article titled “A New Friend for Shuppet!” It’s not a long article, but there really isn’t a whole lot to say, and there are some good comments there.

So, maybe I’ve sold you on the idea of Dunsparce, and you’re all ready to build your Dunsparce Donk Deck. Well, now I’m going to show you my current build that runs only 1 Dunsparce and 1 Shuppet. I keep reading deck discussions about different ways to build this sort of deck. Whenever I see a title about a Shuppet deck, I try to at least browse the decklist. They rarely impress. The deck is about raw speed, and people keep mucking it up with extra Shuppets, Banettes, weird tech Pokemon, etc. I’m not saying that mine is better than theirs, but I think it is.

If you want to understand how this deck works, I suggest some background reading. Check out SLOW DECK’s “UR Double Donked.Dec – The original.” It really is quite a deck. I even ran a similar build in a City Championship before moving to Shuppet. The straight Uxie build is ultra potent, but the Shuppet build adds consistency. Just take a look at that Uxie deck, though. Ain’t it lean and sexy? That’s how I think the Shuppet version should look. It’s still lean and sexy, but it’s a bit more grown up and can deal with a bit more adversity.

I know. You want the list.
Dunsparce GS

Pokemon: 17
1 Shuppet PL
1 Banette PL
2 Crobat G
4 Uxie LA
4 Unown R
1 Mr. Mime MT
2 Unown Q
1 Dunsparce GS
1 Unown G

Trainers: 37
4 Poke Turn
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Poke Blower+
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Pokedex
4 Plus Power
4 Quick Ball
2 Dusk Ball
1 Luxury Ball
2 Night Maintenance
2 Expert Belt
1 Pokemon Rescue
1 Pokemon Communication

Supporters: 3
3 Roseanne’s Research

Energy: 3
2 Psychic Energy
1 Cyclone Energy

Deck Discussion

Palkia G Infernape 4 Lock

Ed No Comments

I tested out a Palkia Infernape deck last night, matching up against 4 very different opponents and decks. My idea was that Infernape 4 Lv. X could replace Luxray GL Lv. X as a way to bring up the opponent’s benched Pokemon for setup disruption while the well-known combo of Mesprit and Palkia G Lv. X would lock the opponent’s Poke Powers. Here’s the list. It’s pretty much Omar’s Palkia Power Lock deck with Infernape swapped in.
Mesprit LA

Pokemon: 22
1 Azelf LA
1 Azelf MD
3 Palkia G
1 Palkia G Lv. X
2 Infernape 4
1 Infernape 4 Lv. X
4 Mesprit
3 Uxie
1 Uxie Lv. X
1 Bronzong G
1 unownG
1 Toxicroak G
1 Lucario G
1 Crobat G

Trainers/supporters: 26
4 Cyrus
4 Rosie's
4 E-Gain
4 P-turn
3 P-Spray
2 NM
2 SP Radar
1 Bebe's
1 Aarons Collection
1 Luxury Ball

Energy: 12
3 Call
5 Water
1 Warp
1 Psychic
2 Electric

I think power lock style decks will be good against the metagame while it’s in flux due to HGSS hitting the scene. For me, though, I think it’s not my style. I need something a bit harder hitting and quick. I like the disruption that Mesprit, Power Spray, and Infernape 4 Lv. X can cause, but it really requires a good knowledge of the metagame and a patience to wait for the right strike. I want prizes, and I want them now. I play this deck too aggressively for my own good, and that’s why I’m going to scrap the idea and move on to something else. I feel that players they’re comfortable with, and (at least for now) control isn’t my game. I’m thinking LuxApe might be my game, so expect to hear about that sometime in the future.

Deck Discussion

Shuppet Donk (Aka T1 Shuppet) Decklist

Ed 2 Comments

I don’t have a great article to go with this. I wanted to post these decklists mainly for archival reasons, but if you are someone that’s stumbled upon these, please feel free to leave any questions in the comment section. I’d be happy to elaborate on how the decks play.

First off, I want to present what I feel like is the basic T1 Shuppet Donk decklist. This doesn’t have any specific tech in it. That would be left up to the player to tweak. All this deck does is aim for a T1 double-donk. When it misses that mark, it will almost always get a single OHKO on its first trainer turn. Your first trainer turn will be maddening for your opponent as you cycle through the majority of your deck looking for Expert Belt, 4 Plus Powers, Shuppet, and an energy. On the way there, you will, no doubt, be dropping Crobat G for damage, Poke Turning him for more damage, Poke Blowering for damage, and Super Scooping for damage (or for Uxie’s Set Up Poke Power).

The draw engine is powerful enough to deck yourself on the first turn, but with Shuppet you don’t need to do that. When you have enough trainers piled on Shuppet to KO the opponent, you don’t need to keep drawing cards (unless you want to see if you can finish off a benched Pokemon with a Blower/Crobat). The main card drawer here is Uxie, but there is plenty more. Unown R really does work wonders here, as his Retire Poke Power allows you to sac him to draw a card. All the Pokemon search can grab an Unown R, and Pokemon Rescue and Night Maintenance can recycle them. In this deck, Quick Ball really shines. Most of the time, it will get you an Unown R or an Uxie. Either way, it’s a win. Sometimes you’ll come up with an Unown Q or Unown G when you don’t need them, but at least they don’t take up bench space (since you can attach them to another Pokemon). Dusk Ball is good for when you have to attack with Uxie (as you will need if Shuppet gets prized). Otherwise, you can just burn it to see what’s on bottom, hope for an Unown R or Uxie, and then Set Up.

The majority of the cards in this deck combo well with Uxie. They can be burned for some effect, and then you can Set Up for more cards. I often draw 6 or 7 cards when I Set Up. The only problems here are extra Energy, extra Supporters, and a full (or near full) bench. Early Plus Powers and Expert Belts can be stashed on a Crobat G (because you’ll Poke Turn him later) or Uxie (if you have one down already). Of course, you want them on Shuppet, but sometimes you don’t draw into Shuppet right away. Remember, you can always attack with Uxie, get him back into the deck, and grab him with a Dusk Ball. The only drawback here is that you will end up putting his Expert Belt and Plus Powers back into the deck. I do run 2 Expert Belts, and an Uxie attack (if it will KO) with one Ex Belt is a good way to get one out of your hand when you have two.

Okay, I didn’t intend to add so much text, so here are the decks. This is the vanilla skeleton. In this version, some or all Roseanne’s Research can be replaced by Buck’s Training, Cyrus’s Conspiracy, or Pokemon Rescue. Dusk Ball can be interchanged with Great Ball (but I don’t like that Great Ball won’t activate Set Up or Flash Bite). You can run less energy if you want, but I add 3 just in case I need them against a late Mr. Mime. An early Mime can be dealt with via Crobat/Blower. If you want other ideas on how the deck can be modified, check out this article documenting my Spiritomb Shuppet decklist.
Uxie
16 Pokemon:
1 Shuppet
2 Crobat G
4 Uxie
4 Unown R
1 Mr. Mime
2 Unown Q
1 Unown G
1 Spiritomb

37 Trainers:
4 Poke Turn
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Poke Blower+
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Pokedex
4 Plus Power
4 Quick Ball
3 Dusk Ball
1 Luxury Ball
2 Night Maintenance
2 Expert Belt
1 Pokemon Rescue

4 Supporters:
4 Roseanne's Research

3 Energy:
3 Psy Energy

Now, here’s the version that I built for my 6-year-old daughter to play in her first City Championships. It actually plays quite well, but it has some deficiencies. The notable lack of Mr. Mime and Unown Q should be obvious. That, in itself, hurts the consistency of the deck. The 4 energy and 3 Energy Search also clog up the hand. The only good thing there is that you can always fail the Energy Search if you already have an energy. 2 Shuppet (vs. the single one above) help insure that you don’t have to go Shuppetless due to prizing. Buck’s Training gives you extra damage and two cards without presenting any difficult choices (like Cyrus or Roseanne could). Crobat G always goes up as the post Fade Out free retreater in this version, but his x2 weakness can really hurt against some decks. As you can see, this version is intended to play like the previous build, while limiting choices and confusing situations (like attaching Unown Q or Unown G). It was a big success as far as teaching my daughter how to play the deck. Ultimately, though, she went 0-4 in her first tournament. I don’t really feel like going into why here, because I assume that, if you’re reading this far, you’d be more interested in the above decklist rather than the one below, anyway. Here’s the list, though.
Crobat G
14 Pokemon:
2 Shuppet
4 Crobat G
4 Uxie
4 Unown R

38 Trainers:
4 Poke Turn
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Poke Blower+
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Pokedex
4 Plus Power
4 Quick Ball
2 Great Ball
1 Luxury Ball
2 Night Maintenance
2 Expert Belt
3 Energy Search

4 Supporters:
4 Buck's Training

4 Energy:
4 Psy

I should add that I did play this build at a Pokemon League and ended up whooping up fairly handily with it. I can’t recommend playing these decks at league, though. They’re not very fun for your opponent.

Deck Discussion

HGSS: Decks To Prepare For

Omar 4 Comments

Im thinkin that this next set will change how people play the game completely. There are a lot of new weapons starting up, pokemon prime, better trainer cards, and my favorite, double colorless energy.

Because of this, i think some decks will re-emerge, and some will start to emerge. Lets begin with decks that will start next season:

Fire deck: Typhlosian HGSS, Charizard AR, Ninetales HGSS
This deck is one i think will see a lot of play. Being able to play 2 energies a turn, draw 3 cards a turn, and do more for each fire pokemon out is a big deal. The charizard, being your main attacker, will tank anything you have, since it will have 160 life with an expert belt, and do roughly 80-100 damage for 1 energy with that belt. Yep, 80-100 with one. Or, 130-150 for 3. Take you pick. Dialga, get owned. This deck should see play, seems very consistent since there is a beter draw engine then claydols, and it benefits charizard to. Some key things this deck will prolly tech is a 1-0-1 exploud line to get rid of the consistent weakness of water everywhere. As for other techs, i dont think this deck will need anything but consistency cards(Rosies, uxie, collecter, bebes) and rebound cards, like cynthias. Nothing to special. Boom.

Deck 2: Feraligatr
People will try to get this card to be useful, with as many energy drps as need be per turn, no question it will be used. Its even better with a grass weakness, because luxray snipe wont be an issue on this guy. Mabye the retreat will be, but there isnt a limit to the neergy drops and it should be able to get one shot unless SP decks start to run a grass SP counter. Not worth it imo. Some combos could be with blastoise, kingdra, or mabye even just straight feraligatr with crobat G and something else. idk. it will be used in some way, shape, or form.

Those are the 2 decks i think will see the most play, the other pokemon prime arent as consistent or appealing in my opinoin as these 2 are. As for decks that will re-emerge or become more popular

Deck 1: GG
Garde gallade isnt run very much right now due to the slow pace it plays at. Well, not only needing 2 energy drops on all attackers, welcome back my man. The speed and consistency will raise, and expert belt can be now teched since it shouldnt take as long to set up as it has been in the past. PLOX ftw.

deck 2: Garchomp
Someone will use this to destroy people. With the garchomp used from i wanna say SV, its second attack, doing 120-20 for each energy on the opposition, will see lots of play. I also think that with its lvl. X to compliment it, this card will become golden. Doing 80 usually for 2, 140 health, and a nasty pokebody against anyone, this card should see some use.

Deck 3: Flygon varients
Everyone saw this coming, flygon, the already consistent and well paced deck just got faster. Nuf said.

deck 4: Garchomp C
Heres something i would have never seen, garchomp snipes for 1 energy and an e-gain. huh, 80 target damage for 1 energy, it already comes out of nowhere, and now it can just drop on you without a bronzong switch. Sweet mother. The double colorless will help dialga garchomp conserve the e-gains and speed up the chomp. No if its used in luxchomp or ladygaga, you can keep your energy with luxray, or bronzong it to another pokemon to further prepare them and just snipe with garchomp with 1 energy. im not gonna like that.

deck 5: Porygon Z
Now that all the yummy special energies will be out, porygon will ravage your use of them, discarding them so they arent accessible at all, since most specials cant be recycled at all, and swing from anywhere in the 40-200 range as need be. Lets see, take out energy drops, only needs 1 mabye 2 to attack. yum.

Now, those are some of the main things i see emerging next set. others may be tested or used, idk, but these are the ones i see to be the most used and consistent. Now, the next portion is specifically for us SP based lovers out there (Me, ed) since abdi dreads playing it, idk why. What decks will we start to see become more consistent or played more. lemme give you a hint.

PALKIA!
the power lock will probably see more play. With all the new powers and speed everyone will have, this deck will slow them down, and take them out before they can even do anything about it. No powers, making all the new powers that will be used all over the place gone. decks might get something set up fast with cards in hand, but Sp decks take the opposition advantage and create a counter to cripple them even more. And with power locks. Yum.

LUXRAY
It doesnt matter the varient. The more cards come out that need prep time, the more this card will be sought after. target sniping or bringing someone up to slow your opponent down, delicious. this card also helps vs most water matchups, but might have a tough time vs Feraligatr(grass weakness).

Dialga~.~
jk. with the fire focus coming back into decks, whether it be blaziken FB or the new one coming out, dialga is slowly getting teched against and slowly declining in play. The tank form of this cant even tough blaziken FB, and even with the carizard body off, he still crushed dialga. end of story.

So, with the sp deck choices hardly declining, what deck is cheap yet destructive. with newer trainers coming out that speed everyone, and a target supporter snipe from the top 7 cards, Sp will become more conisistent as if they alreay arent. The decks i would suggest to play would be Palkia lock or lady gaga. period. nothing else to say on that

Deck Discussion Practice

Shuppet Vs. SP

Ed 4 Comments

I brought my/Ava’s Shuppet Donk deck to test with Team Omar last night. I know that some people just hate the idea of Spiritomb AR in a Shuppet deck, but I wanted to see if it could help against SP. I think I played 4 matches, and 3 of them were against different SP decks. If I recall correctly, I only won 1 game. Even that one was questionable, because (for testing purposes) we replayed an early risk I took that would have resulted in a loss for me.

The funny thing is that I found all my matchups to be fairly positive. I feel like Shuppet should get completely owned by SP, but with the right Spiritomb start, I can stall the opponent enough to get a few early KOs. If one of them happens to be a Dialga G, it might just win me the game. As it was, I only did well against the fighting-heavy SP mainly due to weakness. I did pretty well against Abdi’s SP deck, too, until he realized exactly how my deck worked. Then Dialga shut me down. I had a really close and odd match with Omar (who reminded me multiple times that he didn’t run Dialga G). I think I may have won it, too, if it wasn’t for a misplay Scooping Up the wrong pokemon. It helped a lot that he started with Azelf active, so he could never Time Walk.

Here’s my decklist. I really like playing the deck, but I just think it’s no fun to play against. That makes it almost worthless for league play. It’s a neat tourney deck, because many people aren’t prepared for it and are in awe when it starts rolling. It can win against anyone with the ability to double-donk on the first trainer turn, but it completely falls apart when facing Dialga’s deafen.

The inclusion of Spiritomb is a nifty trick, but I feel like I have to run 4 Roseanne’s (and Unown Q) to support the single Spiritomb. If you start with Spiritomb active, you have to Roseanne’s for an Unown Q (and probably Shuppet/Uxie) to start things rolling. You can’t afford to run a single Unown Q, because it might get prized (and it’s also useful for Mr. Mime). Ultimately this means that the single Spiritomb adds about 6 cards to trainer lock the opponent. When it works, it’s effective. When you start with Unown Q active (or even on the bench to prevent the donk), it can really hurt. I don’t know. The base deck is designed for blazing offense, and Spiritomb (and Mr. Mime to an extend) is quite a defensive move. I have yet to decide if the deck should be pure offense or if it should attempt these defensive measures.
Shuppet PL
Spiritomb Shuppet
1 Shuppet
2 Crobat G
4 Uxie
4 Unown R
1 Mr. Mime MT
2 Unown Q
1 Unown G
1 Spiritomb AR

4 Poke Turn
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Poke Blower+
4 Poke Drawer+
4 Pokedex
4 Plus Power
4 Quick Ball
3 Dusk Ball
1 Luxury Ball
2 Night Maintenance
2 Expert Belt
1 Pokemon Rescue

4 Roseanne's Research

3 Psy Energy

Deck Discussion Practice

The Problem With Porygon

Ed 8 Comments

I’ve been playing Porygon a bit. The deck is definitely fun to play, because it does a lot of things that aren’t really possible in most decks. Setting up can be slow if you don’t get the right pieces early, but with Call Energy, TS-1 Evoluter, Roseanne’s, Bebe’s, etc. you can usually get a good double supporter (thanks to Download) plus Claydol turn on turn 2 or 3.

There are two main problem areas that I’ve found: getting energy and losing TMs. They both stem from a single problem, though, and that is letting your active Porygon take damage.

The deck can run on very little energy, and you could easily win a game with only 2 with the right draw and matchup. The problem is that your active Porygon-Z will, at some point, take damage. When that happens, you will want to retreat, Switch, Warp Point, etc. You would usually have another Porygon-Z waiting on the bench, and it’s easy to Install TMs onto the waiting Porygon. What is not easy, however, is getting energy onto the waiting Porygon.

The same issue applies to TMs. Sure, you can move them around, but what happens when your active gets KO’d? You can’t move all those TMs once you’ve attacked. You’re bound to lose some at some point, and when you do, they aren’t easy to retrieve from the discard pile.

For example, let’s assume that your opponent can attack for 60 each turn. I’ve recently played against Shuppet Donk, so we’ll use that as an example. Your goal is to get a bunch of TMs and attack for KO damage each turn. Let’s assume that you do that. So, you gear up, drop your 2nd energy, and KO the opponent’s Pokemon. On their turn, they hit your Z for 60. Now what? Sure, you can drop an energy on a benched Porygon. Then what? If you attack and take another prize, they’ll just KO your Z on their turn. You’ll lose your precious TMs you’ve built up. If, instead, you decide to Warp Point, then you can’t attack without another energy.

I’ve thought about it a bit, and I’ve looked at some other posts about Porygon. Here are some ideas.

PokeHealer+: With Porygon-Z LvX, you can Decode 2 Healers to the top of your deck. With all the drawing capabilities the deck has, you should easily be able to draw them and pull 8 counters off a Porygon.

Super Scoop Up: This can work in a similar way as the healers. You have a good chance of flipping a heads if you try for 2 of them, but you still have the energy issue.

A free retreater (or Unown Q + Mr. Mime/Spiritomb/etc.): Given the example scenario laid out, this would allow you to Warp Point up the free retreater giving you an extra turn to get your attack ready. It’s not quick, but it could also be strategic depending on the retreater you put up. Mime or Spiritomb could be good stallers against certain decks.

I’d have to say that I like the Poke Healer + idea. It takes the most deck space (you’d probably need 4), but it is most likely to be quick and very effective. It can also be done with Poke Blower + for some Gust of Wind action, but that would take another 4 slots. If you get the Healer/Blower early, you can always Cosmic Power it to the bottom of the deck. The most effective use would be allowing Porygon-Z to take some damage, and then surprise LvX and Decoding the double Healer.

I was thinking about something like this…
Porygon-Z Level X
Pokemon: 21
x4 Porygon GE
x4 Porygon2 GE
x3 Porygon-Z (Promo)
x1 Porygon-Z Lv. X MT
x2 Baltoy GE
x2 Claydol GE
x2 Unown G GE
x1 Uxie LA
x1 Mr. Mime MT
x1 Relicanth PL

Supporters: 10
x4 Bebe's
x2 Rosie's
x2 Volkner's Philosophy
x1 Palmer's Contribution
x1 Marley's Request

Trainers: 18
x4 Technical Machine TS-1
x4 Technical Machine TS-2
x3 VS Seeker
x1 Luxury Ball
x4 Poke Healer+
x4 Poke Blower+

Stadium: 2
x2 BTS

Energy: 7
x4 Call Energy
x2 Fighting Energy
x1 Upper Energy

Deck Discussion

Spiritomb Porygon

Ed 8 Comments

porygon2-geI’d like to use the new Spiritomb AoA to annoy opponents for fun and profit, but I really don’t want to play that Glistomb lock. It just seems mean. Omar recently supplied me with a Porygon deck, and I was wondering how Spiritomb might work with Porygon.

Porygon2 GE allows you to “play” an extra supporter each turn. While running such a deck, you’d use lots of supporters available to abuse this power. Of course, Spiritomb can rain on your own parade, because you’d also run trainers (like lots of TMs and VS Seekers). What I’m curious about, though, is if Spiritomb can stall the opponent enough so that, when you are ready to attack, the opponent isn’t sufficiently prepared.

Spiritomb ARTo do this, you’d want to start with Spiritomb. This stops the opponent from playing trainers. It also stops you, but you can stick to supporters until you’re ready to retreat the Tomb. Having Tomb active really isn’t bad either, because his free Darkness Grace attack helps you evolve your benched Porygons. Ultimately, you’d want to play an early Roseanne’s to get a benched Porygon (and Baltoy, Unown Q/G, Energy, a second Porygon, Uxie, etc.) and then Darkness Grace in a Porygon2/Claydol. When you’re ready to rock, get yourself an Unown Q (or an energy) to allow you to easily retreat the Tomb, play all your trainers/TMs, and attack for big damage.

I’m also curious if Staraptor FB LvX would help this strategy by potentially getting extra supporters. The big drawback here is that it’d have to be active to level up. Porygon-Z’s free Learning attack can level it up on the bench, but once you have an active Porygon-Z, I think you’d want to be using the Overload attack instead. It is worth mentioning that Staraptor has a free retreat, so it’s not horrible if you can Warp Point him up, LvX him, and retreat him (or something like that).

All this being said, though, I’m still not convinced that this Porygon/Spiritomb combo can be really any better than Porygon without Tomb. I mean, you can always stall for a turn or two with Mr. Mime, but that doesn’t hinder the opponent from setting up. The question here is whether or not Spiritomb would sufficiently hinder your opponent while allowing you to set up, and (if it does) whether it makes the deck better, worse, or just different.

Deck Discussion Deck Workshop

Palkia G Lock and Lady Gaga

Omar 18 Comments

Well, these are my 2 posts on this. decklist ideas. Go ahead and put in some input on things i could change.

Palkia Lock

Pokemon: 22

Palkia G2 Azelf (1 LA 1 MD)

3 Palkia G
1 Palkia G Lv. X
2 Luxray G
1 Luxray G Lv. X
4 Mesprit
3 Uxie
1 Uxie Lv. X
1 Bronzong G
1 unownG
1 Toxicroak G
1 Lucario G
1 Crobat G

Trainers/supporters: 26
4 Cyrus
4 Rosie’s
4 E-Gain
4 P-turn
3 P-Spray
2 NM
2 SP Radar
1 Bebe’s
1 Aarons Collection
1 Luxury Ball

Energy: 12
3 Call
5 Water
1 Warp
1 Psychic
2 Electric

And now for the Lady Gaga Decklist

Garchomp C Level XPokemon: 19
3 Luxray G
1 Luxray G lv. X
2 Garchomp C
1 Garchomp C Lv. X
2 Bronzong G
1 Dialga G
1 Dialga G Lv. X
2 Uxie
1 Uxie Lv. X
1 Toxicroak G
1 Lucario G
1 Crobat G
1 UnownG
1 Azelf

Trainers/Supporters: 28
4 Cyrus
4 Roseanne’s
4 E-gain
4 P-Turn
4 P-Spray
3 SP-Dar
2 NM
1 Aarons Collection
1 Bebe’s
1 Luxury Ball

Energy: 13
4 Call
4 electric
2 psychic
2 warp
1 Metal

Ive played both decks and there are a couple things i would like to put in both. I wanna get another Aarons and i want to get a premeir ball in both of them, but i dont know what i should take out for them.
Thoughts on the lists and thoughts on how to get those in?

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