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MRDIF: Gyarados

Bittyboy72 November 29, 2010 18 Comments

What is MRDIF?

I am sure you all have heard of the new popular acronym (at least new to me) BDIF, witch stands for Best Deck In Format. Well I decided instead of writing an article about the Best Deck in Format I would write an article about the Most Ridiculous Deck in Format, or MRDIF. For this article I chose to write about Gyarados as the MRDIF because I feel it really is!

How Do You Play Gyarados?

I realize that a lot of people already know how to play Gyarados but for those of you who don’t I’ll go over it briefly for you. Basically the goal of Gyarados is to discard Magikarp using cards like Regice and Junk Arm. You may ask “why would I want to get rid of your basics?” Well that’s because Gyarados’s “Tail Revenge” attack does 30 damage times the number of Magikarp in your discard pile for no energy. There are some cases where you do need to use cards like Pokemon Rescue to recover a Magikarp because Gyarados got KOed but you mostly rely on Rescue Energy now to recover Gyarados.

Ways to Play Gyarados!

In all of my experimenting with Gyarados I have found a couple of effect ways to play Gyarados and it is actually quiet versatile now. I have found that the best ways to play it are with Warp Energy and Seeker, just plain Gyarados with Sableye (similar to the original), playing it with heavy Warp Point and Cyclone Energy lines, and also with Giratina and Mesprit.

Warp Energy With Seeker:

I have tested Warp Energy and Seeker the most and I love it! Even though I love it so much it lacks something! I played it at a local City’s and I didn’t do so well (mostly because I played 3 Vilegars) but I still love the deck. Just in case you don’t know how Warp-Seeker Works I’ll explain it a bit it’s pretty self explanatory. The idea is to tank with Gyarados and then heal it instead of recovering Gyarados like usual. You heal by attaching a Warp Energy to Gyarados to force it to the bench then you bring up something with free retreat. After you get a damaged Gyarados to the bench you use Seeker and pick Gyarados back up and lay it back down if you have Broken-Time Space (witch you should) and then retreat your active and continue to attack with Gyarados. This version usually runs less Rescue Energy because of the healing factor but a couple Rescue Energy isn’t a bad idea.

Original:

I have found a lot of people just run Gyarados like it was originally. By “run it originally” I mean like how the original Gyarados ran where you used Sableye to do a bit of discarding. As you probably know there is no more Felicity’s Drawing so in place of it they use Volker’s Philosophy to discard one then draw cards till there 6 in their hand. Although I don’t really like this method and think that the other ways are more effective, this is still a good way to play the deck. Besides most of the Gyarados lists I looked at played 2 Volker’s Philosophy anyway. This version usually plays a couple Warp Points and has plenty more room for techs if you would rather have a more teched out list.

Heavy Warp Point and Cyclone Energy Lines:

Another version I like a lot is Gyarados with heavy lines of Warp Point and Cyclone Energy. This is a very effective deck and a great way to play Gyarados. The idea of this is that Gyarados is to take a prize a turn. If there is a tank in your way you Warp Point of Cyclone for something you can easily kill to take a prize. Most of the time this deck runs extremely heavy Crobat G lines and Poke Turns to ensure a KO (or possibly a KOs turn 1) or even a quick DONK. This version of Gyarados tends to do very well and you should definitely watch out for it.

Mesprit and Giratina:

Last but not least we have Gyarados with Mesprit (LA) and Giratina(PL). I really have no idea how to recommend lines for this because a guy at one of our City’s won with this deck and I have no idea what his lines are. If I had to guess I would say 1 Giratina and 2 Mesprits. Please remember that is just my guess but I haven’t got to do any testing with it but I plan to. Sorry about not being able to explain this version but at least you get an idea! Another more common version of Gyarados is Gyarados with just Mesprit (as in no Giratina) and I believe these list tend to do pretty well in tournaments and I believe there was one of these Gyarados at worlds last year.

Deck Staples:

Gyarados has a lot of staples as well. In case you don’t know what a staple is, it is a card that is essential to a deck. Here is a list of some staples:

-4 Magicarp (SF)

-3 Gyarados (SF)

-2-4 Sableye (SF I say 2 depending if you run another starter or not)

-1 Unown Q (MD)

-1 Regice (LA)

-2 Uxie (LA)

-1 Azelf (LA)

– 3 Pokemon Collector (HS)

-1 Bebe’s Search (RR)

-2 Pokemon Rescue (PL)

-2 Rescue Energy (Triumphant)

-3 Broken-Time Space (PL)

-1 Combee (SF)

*NOTE: Please remember that this is a list of what every Gyarados list should run, however the number of each card you play may change depending on what version of Gyarados you choose to play.

Possible Techs:

As I said before Gyarados is a very versatile deck now and can be played many different ways. I went over each version and a couple of the techs above so I may repeat a few below more in deaf.

Seeker:

Seeker is a great tech for Gyarados weather you run Warp Energy or not (although I would highly recommend you do) because it improves your matchup against decks that trainer lock because you can reuse cards like Uxie. Seeker is also a great card now because Gyarados has a huge DONK potential and Seeker could help ensure your DONK by making them pick up their last bench and being stuck with a lone active. Seeker is definitely a tech you should consider!

Dialga G LV.X:

Dialga G LV.X is a card that I don’t tech in a lot but everybody tells me it’s great in Gyarados so I thought I should still say something about it. Basically the idea of Dialga is to break yourself out of sticky situations like a Vilegar match where you are trainer locked because Dialgs’s”Time Crystal” Poke-body blocks Spiritomb’s “Keystone Seal” Poke-body as well as Vileplume’s “Allergy Flower” Poke-body, witch both prevent you from playing trainer cards. Please note that Dialga doesn’t really work well without Warp Energy in the deck as well. You could get away with playing Warp Point in this case though because you are blocking their Poke-body that prevents you from playing trainers. Overall Dialga is a decent tech I just thinks it’s more of a personal thing.

Mesprit:

Mesprit is a very good card to play in Gyarados because of it’s “Psychic Bind” Poke-Power witch prevents your opponent from using any Poke-powers during their next turn. I did talk about Mesprit above because it is a good card but I would be extremely worried about if you have the bench room to actually play Mesprit on the bench. If you run Mesprit I would definitely run Seeker to help keep your bench from clogging. This is a really great tech for Gyarados though, and in many other decks as well!

Warp Energy:

Warp energy is an extremely good card in Gyarados. This can be used in a lot of situations such as a quick retreat or getting rid of a Regice you starting with. It is also great for if Regice or a high retreat Pokemon gets drug active. Like I said a couple times now if you play Seeker you should probably run 2 or 3 Warp Energy and if you run Warp Energy you should run Seeker as well!

Smeargle:

This is a tech that a lot of people find odd in Gyarados. There are 3 main uses for Smeargle in Gyarados mainly because he is a great starter. Another reason Smeargle is good is it gives you some recover late game. You bring Smeargle active and use 2 Supporters a turn to hopefully recover Gyarados. The last reason Smeargle is good is because if you play Warp Energy you can attach a Warp Energy to Gyarados and bring Smeargle active the play Seeker heal and possible use another Supporter or if your opponent uses Seeker in there deck you could use Smeargles “Portrait” Poke-power to use their Seeker. Also if you choose to run Smeargle you should consider playing a second Unown Q.

There are a lot more techs I could go on about but these are the main techs you should consider. On this short list I tried to name ones that would fit into all of the different versions but things like Mesprit won’t fit into every version of Gyarados. Don’t be afraid to try out your own tech ideas either, or tech ideas I haven’t listed.

Conclusion:

Gyarados is definitely the Most Ridiculous Deck in Format (MRDIF) by a long shot! I believe Gyarados is mainly so ridiculous because it can be played in so many different ways, shapes, and forms and is definitely a competitive deck. I have also found that Gyarados has very few bad matchups, even Luxchomp is a decent matchup depending on what version of Gyarados you run. Well I hope everyone enjoyed ready my long article about Gyarados and I would love to read any comments and answer any questions you have so be sure to leave a comment bellow!

-Bitty-

Deck Workshop

Deck Workshop: Garchomp SV Lock

Hello to all in Omar-Nation. This is Pikkdogs here with another Deck Workshop.

Like many of you out there I am working on post-rotation decks. I have had little success getting a successful draw engine for a stage 2 deck out of Uxie La, so I tried something different. This deck uses Ninetails HGSS for a draw engine, which I find to be more consistent then Uxie La in stage 2 decks.

Now that I had my draw engine set I just needed a main attacker. The most popular combo with Ninetails is Chariard Ar, but this has been done too much and is a little slow because of the fact that if you use Uxie La you then lose damage on each of Charizard’s attacks. So I looked at other Fire type Pokemon and Normal Pokemon. I saw a deck with Regigas and Mesprit that I liked, but I didn’t like the fact that Regigias’s best attack has a metal, fighting, and water requirement. Next, I looked at Garchomp SV.

Garchomp SV was never hyped that much after its release, but it was valued highly after it’s release. I have seen some decks that use this card, but none have been really consistent. It is a fairly good card because it does 120 damage for CCC, minus 20 damage for each energy attached to the defending Pokemon. It also has a good Poke Body, named “Dragon Intimidation” which returns an energy card attached to the defending Pokemon to your opponents hands. My list uses Spiritomb Ar and Judge to disrupt the opponent. It is especially effective against SP decks, which will be very popular after the rotation.

So without further discussion here is the list I have used.

Pokemon-21

4 Gible SV
3 Gabite SV
4 Garchomp SV
2 Vulpix HGss
2 Ninetails HGSS
4 Spiritomb Ar
1 Unown Q La

1 Uxie La

Energy-17

10-Fire
4- Double Colorless Energy
1- Warp Energy

2- Cyclone Energy

Trainers- 22

3- Judge
4- Collector
2- Broken Time Space
1- Expert Belt
1- Palmer’s Contribution
1- Pokemon Rescue
3- Bebes Search
1- Warp Point
2-Rare Candy
1- Luxury Ball
2- Fisherman

1-Interviewers Question

The basic strategy of this deck is to stall with Spirtomb and to slowly evolve Ninetails and Garchomp on the bench. Then when the time is right you can use the Judge card to shuffle all of your opponents trainers that he/she was holding back into his/her deck. Then you can retreat Spiritomb and start attacking with Garchomp.

I admit that is is not the most polished list, but I just put this up to give you guys an example of a Ninetails draw engine. 2 Fisherman’s, at least 1 Interviewer’s Question, and 1 Palmer’s Contribution are neccessary to manipulate the energy you discard with Ninetail’s Poke Body.

Instead of the normal 4-2-4 Line of a stage 2, and 4-3-4 line is better because of the fact that Spiritomb Ar helps you evolve without the use of Rare Candy. Warp Energy is essential for a deck with Spiritomb, because someone could stall the game by using an attack like Chatot Md’s “Chatter” that doesn’t let you retreat.

I also use 1 Warp Point and 2 Cyclone Energies to switch out the defending Pokemon when Garchomp SV is attacking, because some high energy attackers could cause him problems.

Well there it is, the strategy behind a deck that uses Ninetails for a draw engine. If you have any comments for any similar decks or any improvements to this deck I would love to hear them.

Deck Workshop

Deck Workshop: Egg-Meg = Blissey + Meganium Prime

Ed July 15, 2010 10 Comments

First of all, I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to rip anyone’s idea off. It should be obvious to anyone that reads SixPrizes regularly that this “Egg-Meg” idea was from the recent Egg-Meg: Optimism for new seasons article by doeigts.

The basis of the deck isn’t completely novel. I mean, the idea of pairing these two cards that came out in the same set should have been considered by many. The same powers have been around since base set. Base Set Venusaur’s “Energy Trans” Pokemon Power does the same thing as Meganium Prime’s “Leaf Trans,” and Blissey Prime’s “Blissful Nurse” Poke-POWER does the same thing as the Base Set Pokemon Center trainer card. You can see that the themes are nothing new. In fact, I played a deck that centered around Chansey, Alakazam, and Pokemon Center in a recent unlimited tournament. It has the same idea, except that it moves damage to an energyless Pokemon, while this Egg-Meg deck moves energy to an undamaged Pokemon. The Alakazam deck I played recently was based off a deck that my wife used to play back in Base Set. When I saw the HGSS cards, I thought about building her the Blissey/Meganium version, but I never did. That is, until I saw doeigts’ article. So, I took his list and built a version of it for her, my daughter, and I to all mess with.

Doeigts’ deck used an SP engine to do extra damage with Crobat G and bring up key targets with Luxray GL Lv. X. I don’t want the complexity SP adds, trying to stick with his intent, I swapped Cherrim SF in as a Crobat G replacement and Pokemon Reversal (which fairly quickly got changed out for Warp Point) as a Luxray replacement. Keep in mind that I want to keep this a bit more simple, so that non-experts can play it.

I built the deck, and gave it to my wife to play. I was excited, because I thought that she would like having a deck similar to the old Alakazam deck that she has fond memories of. Basically, she thought the deck sucked. I played it, and I had a better time with it, but I have a different perspective. When it doesn’t work for her, she’s frustrated and loses. When it doesn’t work for me, I try to figure out how I can play or build it differently.

It did win one good game for me against Pikkdogs. He was playing his experimental deck that runs a bunch of Spiritomb for early game evolving and trainer lock. I happened to get 2 energy out on my turn 1 (thanks to Cherubi SV) and then do 60 damage on my second turn. He couldn’t keep the Tombs in play. He did get the game turned around, but I was already ahead on the prize race. I was able to finish the job.

The choice to put in a 4-4 line of Cherrim is suspect, though it did win me the game against Pokkdogs. Options such as Sunflora have been suggested in place of it. Running Spiritomb myself would not be a bad option to stall and evolve early game. Metapod may be nice to help against fire, but I don’t even want to worry about bad matchups yet. I just want to make a deck that works fairly well in general. We’re probably talking about a league-caliber deck anyway, so worrying about specific matchups isn’t a high priority.

So, here’s my list. It could be a fun league deck as it stands, but I want to make it more consistent. I think I need more search (Collector?), and maybe Judge should be swapped for PONT or some such. Please give me your ideas, but keep in mind that this deck must be kept a bit on the simple side. I don’t want the whole SP thing to creep back in.

VERSION 1
Pokemon: 24
3 Chikorita
3 Bayleef
3 Meganium Prime
2 Chansey
2 Blissey Prime
2 Uxie
1 Chatot MD
4 Cherubi SV
4 Cherrim SF

Trainers: 14
1 Luxury Ball
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Super Scoop Up
1 Expert Belt
4 Warp Point

Supporters: 7
2 Pokemon Collector
2 Bebe’s Search
2 Judge
1 Palmer’s Contribution

Stadiums: 3
3 Broken Time-Space

Energy: 12
12 Grass

Deck Workshop

Deck Workshop: Will Gyarados Stil be Atrocious After Rotation?

Pikkdogs July 7, 2010 19 Comments

A big hello to all of you in Omar-Nation. This is Pikkdogs here with a deck workshop.

Before we get started I would like to talk a little about Twitter. I loved hearing you guys tweet during Nationals, and because of that I decided to get into Twitter more. I have started to tweet about my decks and have found a couple of other people who do the same. So if you are on twitter I would love to have you follow me and hopefully we can converse about the game. Also, if you know anyone in the game who tweets also about it, please let me know. My user name on there is “Pikkdogs.”

Like most of you, I am currently working on getting my decks post-rotation ready. Some of my decks are working well, and some aren’t. One that I am kind of on the fence about is Gyarados.

Just a small run through the strategy of the deck for all the new-comers. Gyarados decks try to discard three Magikarps by turn 2 and then promote a Gyarados SF to do 90 damage with its “Tail Revenge” attack. To get the karps in the discard pile, most people use Sableye SF’s “Impersonate” attack to set up, and then use Regice’s Poke-Power “Regi-Move” to discard the karps.

I have been talking to Ed about this deck and how it will be post-rotation. As some of you might know, Ed has been playing Gyarados for a while and is somewhat of an expert on it. When he tried to make it post rotation he noticed that he really missed the card called “Felicities Drawing.”

When I made my deck post-rotation I didn’t really notice this too much. My major problem was mid game draw power. I can usually set up in 2-3 turns, but I had trouble recovering from a knock out. My deck really misses Claydol and the draw power it provides.

So I will provide you guys with the list that I’m currently running and would appreciate any fixes to it, or any comments on post-rotation decks.

Pokemon-18
4 – Gyarados SF
4 – Magikarp SF
4 – Sableye SF
1 – Azelf LA
2 – Crobat G PT
2 – Uxie LA (The main draw Power of the deck)
1 – Regice LA
Energy-4
4 – Special Dark (For the Sableye Donk)
Trainers- 38
1 – Bench Shield (Just for those matchups versus snipers)
2 – Expert Belt
2 – Warp Point (mostly to get Regice out of the active spot)
3 – Poke Turn
3 – Pokemon Collector
4 – Super Scoop Up (To reuse Uxies and to heal Gyarados)
1 – Engineers Adjustment (To make some use out of the energies after the donk fails)
2 – Bebes Search
1 – Copy Cat
1 – Judge (One of the better cards in the format, man is this card great.)
1 – Cynthia’s Feelings
2 – Volkner’s Philosophy-2 (To discard a Magikarp)
1 – Pokeradar
1 – Luxury Ball
1 – Quick Ball
1 – Pokedex
3 – Pokemon Rescue
3 – Broken Time-Space
4 – Pokemon Reversal

Version 2 Changes

-1 Quick Ball

-1 Bench Shield

-1 Pokemon Reversal

+1 Uxie Lv.X La

+1 Copy Cat

+1 Pokemon Rescue

So there it is, nothing special. Just a post-rotation form of a basic Gyarados deck. My Gyarados deck is just supposed to be a prototype used only in testing, because I dont like the deck enough to bring it to a tournament. Of course other decks use Luxray Gl, and thats a good choice, and Adam from www.sixprizes.com swears that a build with Lunatone and Solrock is best. But this is just supposed to be a bland build.

Any hints to make it faster and better mid-game would be great. Thanks

Hopefully we’ll see ya on Twitter.

Deck Workshop

Deck Workshop: Arceus

Pikkdogs June 2, 2010 8 Comments

Hey Guys

Its me, Pikkdogs. I just stopped by for some deck help. Recently I have decided to try to make an Arceus deck, and see how good the deck could be.

I have never liked this deck. It is much too slow and doesn’t hit hard enough. But, because I’ve been wondering what the game might be like next year I thought Arceus might be a viable deck. I also made it because its just a fun deck to play.

In case you don’t know the strategy of this deck, I will do a quick run through. The purpose of the deck is to take advantage of your opponenet’s weakness. To do this the player uses the attack “ripple swell” which attaches 1 energy to each of your Arceus’s in play, as long as you have 6 different types of them. So obviously the player will try to fill their bench on turn 1 or 2 and then use “ripple swell.” Arceus is a somewhat complex deck that can be very difficult to master, and difficult to play against. It hasn’t seen much serious play, but it did take top 4 in Michigan’s states.
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Deck Workshop

Sablelock (Sablock), Sabledonk, Sableye Honchkrow, Sableye Garchomp, …

Ed April 8, 2010 74 Comments

Some call it the Secret Florida Deck. Others call it Sablelock (Sablock), Sabledonk, Sableye Honchkrow, or Sableye Garchomp. Does it win by donking? Does it win by locking your opponent? Does it win by starving them of resources? Does it win by controlling their hand? Let’s just say that it wins by making the opponent lose!

I’ve not seen the deck around here, but I can say that it is causing a bit of a stir on the interwebs. There are a bunch of people discussing this deck in various places. Let’s go through the list. No, not the decklist, yet. Here’s the list of who’s talking about the deck:

1) People begging for info about the deck that took 2 of the top 4 spots in Florida and was seen topping at other states.
2) People like Curry/Silvestro that obviously played the deck, but don’t want its secrets made public.
3) People that have played against the deck and either got donked or annoyed to death.
4) Trolls

Now we can add “5) Team Omar” to that list. I’m not going to pretend that I know the deck. I just want to fan the flames a bit, and see if we can get something going. This is going to be a deck workshop, so I’ll post a quick and dirty version of the deck. Hopefully I’ll get some good ideas from people, and we can fix the deck up.

From what I gather, the deck focuses on 2 things. The first one is the donk. Sableye with Special Dark Energy can do 50 on the first turn (under the proper conditions). If you go second, it can Expert Belt, Crobat, etc for even more nastiness. Garchomp C with Double Colorless Energy can do 30 on turn 1. If you go second, an Energy Gain or Expert Belt can move you into the 50 damage category. With all the Magikarp, Baltoy, Hoppip, Unown Q, etc. floating around these days, there’s a fair chance that you can get a turn 1 KO and maybe even a donk.

The second thing the deck seems to do well is limit the opponent’s ability to do anything useful. This is accomplished by devastating their hand and messing up their draws. Giratina’s Let Loose ability makes both players shuffle their hands into the deck and draw 4. To the Giratina player, this is like a mini Uxie Set Up. To the opponent, this is like a slap in the face (when played on turn 1). You play your hand out, drop Giratina, get 4 new cards and hopefully the opponent had more than 4 so that it hurts them. Then, if it’s turn 1, and you can’t donk, you can use Sableye to Impersonate Cyrus’s Initiative causing the opponent to lose between 0 and 2 cards (depending on coin flips). Then the opponent starts the game with 2 to 4 cards in hand. If you’re really nasty, you could drop a Chatot G between the Giratina and Impersonate to stop the opponent from drawing anything useful.

It seems that, in some ways, the deck plays like SP Toolbox. To be honest, that may be because I have a faulty idea of how the deck is built. At any rate, I think that the deck would play pretty fast and very frustrating (for the opponent). Here’s the list I came up with. Let me know what’s wrong with it or the writeup, so that I can improve them.

Version 5

Pokemon: 19
4 Sableye
3 Crobat G
2 Honchkrow G
2 Garchomp G
2 Garchomp G Lv. X
2 Uxie
2 Giratina (PL – Let Loose)
1 Ambipom G
1 Chatot MD

Trainers: 20
4 Poke Turn
4 Power Spray
3 Energy Gain
4 Super Scoop Up
2 Expert Belt
2 SP Radar
1 Luxury Ball

Supporters: 11
3 Team Galactic’s Wager
2 Cyrus’s Initiative
3 Pokemon Collector
2 Cyrus’s Conspiracy
1 Aaron’s Collection

Energy: 10
4 Special Dark
4 Double Colorless
2 Dark

Option: Remove 1 Crobat G to include Moonlight Stadium or Uxie Lv. X. If you use Uxie Lv. X, I recommend making room for at least one Bebe’s Search by removing a Cyrus’s Conspiracy or maybe a Pokemon Collector. Also, SP Radar can be replaced by Pokemon Communication, because there are so many basics in the deck.

Deck Workshop

Tyranitar Deck Workshop

Ed March 9, 2010 23 Comments

I don’t even know how to properly set this article up. You see, it’s not my deck, and I’m not the one that wants help with it. The problem is that I can’t seem to teach Abdi how to log into these internets. I’ve been waiting for almost a week for him to post this article asking for help with his Tyranitar deck. Last time I saw him play it, he was whining about how it wasn’t working well enough and fast enough, and he wanted suggestions. I figured “Who would be better to help him than you guys?,” so I told him to post his plea for help here. Well, since then, that Noctowl article has sat there waiting to be bumped from top spot, and I feel like we need something new for people to read. I guess that means that I have to post Abdi’s help request for him, and maybe if I disparage him enough in the process, he’ll finally log in to defend himself. It seems like a long-shot.

The problem, though, is that I don’t know Abdi’s current decklist. Omar might, though, so hopefully we’ll get a reply from him. For now, I’m going to leave this rather simple. I’ll post a decklist that I got from a thread on PokeGym by “Burglar Matt,” and start editing that. I’ll edit this info when I get something better. I want this to be a placeholder to start discussing the deck. What needs to be in? What are popular misconceptions? What are things you’ve tried, and how did they work/fail?

Pokemon: 20
4 Tyranitar (SF)
2 Pupitar (SF)
4 Larvitar (SF)
4 Sableye (SF)
1 Pachirisu (GE)
1 Unown G (GE)
2 Claydol (GE)
2 Baltoy (GE)

Trainers: 11
1 Luxury Ball
4 Rare Candy
4 Super Scoop Up
2 Expert Belt

Supporters: 11
4 Roseanne’s Research
3 Felicity’s Drawing
3 Bebe’s Search
1 Team Galactic’s Wager

Stadium: 3
2 Moonlight Stadium
1 Broken Time Space

Energy: 15
4 Special Dark
11 Dark

Deck Workshop

Blastoise Feraligatr Deck Workshop

Omar February 12, 2010 13 Comments

So, This is the other side of the spectrum, AKA donphan’s greatest weakness. Water. The point in this deck is to abuse feraligatr and use blastoise and smash people with aqua press, or hit 2 bench for 60, whichever gets the prize card. Nothice the last few words in the last sentance, prize card. Yeah, its a prize race type of deck. Get 6 first and win. People might say stuff like, well all decks are prize card races. My response to you is, no. There are decks built for prize cards, like gyrados, kindra,SP etc. and decks built to manuever and win usind strageties like flychamp, GG etc. This is one of those where you need to get 6 prizes as fast yet correct as possible. Im not sure how to speed it up. I have some ideas, but lets see what people have to say. Criticism please.

Pokemon:23
4 Blastoise PL
2 Wartortle
4 Squirtle
2 Feraligatr Prime HGSS
1 Croconaw
2 Totodile
2 Claydol
2 Baltoy
1 Flotazel G Lv. X
1 Flotazel G
1 Uxie
1 Unown G
Suppoerters/Trainers:24
3 BTS
3 Candy
3 Collector
3 Professor Elm’s
3 Pokemon Communication
2 Roseanne’s
2 Expert Belt
2 Warp Point
1 Fisherman
1 Night Maintenance
1 Luxury Ball
Energy:13
13 Water

Deck Workshop

Flygon Donphan Deck Workshop

Omar February 12, 2010 9 Comments

Alright, after my long absence, i am back and cookin. Even though i am not a phan of playing against the Donphan prime, I am a phan of using it. Here is my decklist for it. Criticism please.

Pokemon: 24
3 Trapinch SW
2 Vibrava RR
3 Flygon RR
1 Flygon X
3 Phanphy HGSS
3 Donphan Prime HGSS
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol
1 Nidoran RR
1 NidoQueen RR
1 Uxie
1 Azelf
1 Unown G
Supporters/Trainers: 23
4 Rare Candy
3 Roseanne’s
3 Poke Communicate
2 Collector
2 Bebe’s
2 Expert Belt
2 Memory Berry
2 Warp Point
1 Palmer’s
1 NM
1 Luxury Ball
Energy: 13
4 Call
2 DCE
6 Fighting
1 Psychic

For those who dont know how this is run, its pretty self explanitory. Like Flychamp, you truck the pokemon upfront early with donphan. The reason he is a better replacement is his stage 1 and 120 health, and his pokebody. He also does at lease 60, mabye 80 for 1 energy. So, all in all, it can take more damage then machamp, can dish out more consistent damage then machamp, and doesnt have a bad lv. X that is an eye for an eye effect pretty much. Then, flygon makes your retreat non-existent, and flygon does what flygon does, lock them and deck them, blow them up, kill lvl x’s, destroy stadiums, you know, flygon stuff. no big deal. I like to see someone take a consistent 60-130 damage starting either turn 1 if you go second or fer sher turn 2. Let alone dish out 160 or 150 damage for ohko’s. Weakness may be a factor with the new Feraligatr. I hope flygon can do its thang to get around it, and i havent tested against it yet so i guess we will see. But some ideas to smooth out the edges(if there are any ;) ) i would appreciate.

Deck Workshop

Juniors Pokemon Deck Workshop, Scizor Cherrim

Ed February 12, 2010 51 Comments

Ava has been playing Shuppet, and, while she knows the cards and how to play them rather well, I think she’s a bit timid about playing when it comes to battling an opponent she doesn’t know well. This is not good when playing a deck that will, ideally, take most of its play time in its first trainer turn. On top of this, it’s not a “fun” deck (especially to play against).

What I think she needs now is a deck that she play for fun that is able to compete with the good decks out there. Ava went 0-4 at her first tournament, so let’s work on building her a deck that can help her improve on that score. I still think she could do it with Shuppet, but let’s leave that on the back burner for now. Let’s give her a second option to train with (and hopefully more fun to play against).

My current thought is to build a deck based around Scizor from StormFront. SixPrizes has a good article on this strategy. Check out “Deck Spotlight: Scizor/Cherrim Beatdown!” I would build it a bit different both to account for HGSS cards and Ava’s playstyle. Here’s a quick decklist of something like I would consider.

Pokemon: 19 (12 basic)
2 Scyther (SF)
2 Scizor (SF)
4 Cherubi (DP)
4 Cherrim (SF)
1 Caterpie (GE)
1 Metapod (GS)
4 Unown R
1 Unown Q

Trainers: 25
4 Pokemon Communication
1 Luxury Ball
4 Pokedex Handy 910is
2 Expert Belt
3 Night Maintenance
3 Pokemon Reversal
4 Energy Search
4 Plus Power

Supporters: 10
4 Prof Oak’s New Theory
2 Professor Elm
4 Pokemon Collector

Energy: 6
6 Grass

The transition from Shuppet to this wouldn’t be so huge. There is a lot in there that Ava is already used to using. I do have some concerns, though.

Should she play the Expert Belt? I’m not sure that she understands the drawback, and how it effects HP. With Shuppet, she’s never had to concern herself with these issues, because, to that deck, it’s just like 2 PlusPowers.

Are the Unowns enough of a help here? They add to the count of basics without really changing the way the deck plays. The deck has a limited (compared to Uxie/Shuppet) draw engine, because I don’t want her to worry about BTS and Rare Candy and all that comes with those. The thought here is that she should be able to set up an attacking Scizor by turn 2. At some point, switching to Jumpluff would be an option. The deck is fairly single-minded.

Is Professor Oak’s New Theory worth anything at all? I put 4 in, and it’s the only real draw power the deck has. Buck’s Training is really for when you need 10 extra damage, but it’s draw-2 capability is always welcome. I’ve always liked the card Energy Search in decks like this. It just thins the deck so that, next time you draw cards, you have less of a chance of drawing energy (and you don’t need much at a time in this deck).

Before I put in the 1-1-1 Jumpluff line, I had some Pokemon Rescue in the deck. Now, it’s just 3 NM. What do you think about that? Should the deck run Pokemon Reversal, Warp Point, etc?

Ultimately, though, I don’t just want comments about how to make this deck perfect for Ava. Perhaps there’s another deck that’s better altogether. If so, I want to hear about that deck, and I’ll split this article into a Scizor/Jumpluff/Cherrim workshop and a workshop for Ava’s new deck.

MRDIF: Gyarados

Deck Workshop: Garchomp SV Lock

Deck Workshop: Egg-Meg = Blissey + Meganium Prime

Deck Workshop: Will Gyarados Stil be Atrocious After Rotation?

Deck Workshop: Arceus

Sablelock (Sablock), Sabledonk, Sableye Honchkrow, Sableye Garchomp, …

Tyranitar Deck Workshop

Blastoise Feraligatr Deck Workshop

Flygon Donphan Deck Workshop

Juniors Pokemon Deck Workshop, Scizor Cherrim

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