Hellooooo readers of OneHitKO, I am back once again with a new article full of great content for your reading pleasure! This time around I would like to touch a little bit on what you can do to get ready for Fall Regionals, and then we will take a look at one of the New Upcoming decks for the Regional format.
The best way to prepare for a large event like Regionals is to playtest, playtest, and playtest some more. I cannot stress how important it is to play game after game with a deck to know all of its strengths, weaknesses, and options. I often found last season I did not do enough play testing for an event, so I would usually just fall back on Darkrai which I had piloted to top 32 at the World Championships in 2012. Also, you need to find the perfect deck list not only for the tournament, but for you. And nothing can help you out more with this than play testing to see what works and what doesn’t. Deck choice can also make a huge impact at a large event like Regionals. Predicting the metagame for your Regionals is a huge deal if you want to do well. In a format that often comes down to coin flips and drawing well, getting as many good match ups as you can against the top decks is probably one of the most important things you can do.
Once you know what decks your opponents will mostly be playing, and what deck you want to play, you can start testing different techs and builds accordingly. If you expect a lot of Garbodor, play more tool scrapper. If you expect a lot of Plasma, run enhanced hammer and Drifblim. Simple things like this can tilt matchups in your favor to make games a little less luck based.
Not only is being prepared for playing important, but travel plans, hotel plans, budgeting, and getting enough sleep is a huge part of doing well at these events. And honestly, going to these events is all about having a good time, so try to make it as enjoyable as possible for yourself.
But enough about that, there is honestly nothing better at getting you ready for a tournament than playing as many games as you can and using the deck you are most comfortable with. With that in mind, I would like to give you guys another deck option to use for the upcoming Fall Regionals that was made popular by Henry Prior. Here is my list for the deck, Genesect/Drifblim/Virizion.
4-2/1 Drifblim (2 Shadow Steal, 1 Derail)
3 Genesect Ex
2 Virizion Ex
1 Lugia Ex
13
4 Juniper
4 N
4 Skyla
1 Colress
2 Tropical beach
4 Catcher
3 Ultra ball
3 Colress machine
4 Float stone
2 Enhanced hammer
1 G-booster
1 Tool scrapper
1 Super rod
1 Shadow triad
34
4 Plasma
9 Grass
13
I haven’t done as much testing with this deck as I would have liked, but the list is very solid. I tried to mimic Henry Prior’s list as much as possible, while still making some changes I felt necessary. One Shadow Triad seems to be enough so that it doesn’t get in the way, but you still have a way to get G-booster back. Being able to do 200 damage consecutively against decks like Darkrai is huge, and with the increase in Tool Scrapper in the format you are required to have a way to get it back. Tropical beach gives you something to do on turn 1, and 4 Skyla will allow you to go fetch one. 4 Skyla also gives you a reliable way to get G-booster when you need it.
The matchups for this deck are quite even across the board, except for Plasma which this deck absolutely destroys. This deck was almost designed to beat Plasma, especially with a heavier Drifblim line. If you aren’t expecting much Plasma at your Regional, I recommend cutting the line down to 3-3 or even 2-2, or possibly even taking it out altogether.
Your other matchups that you would be concerned with are Blastoise and Darkrai. Blastoise is about even, to slightly in your favor. You do run 10 useless cards for the matchup, but you also have type advantage against over half of their deck and speed on your side. Darkrai on the other hand is probably slightly unfavorable. Garbador shutting of Virizion, Genesect, and Lugia’s abilities really hurts and allows them to utilize Hypnotoxic Laser.
This deck is definitely a contender for winning Regionals, and you should be prepared for it. One thing you can do to give yourself a good matchup with this deck is to run one or two copies of Victini Ex. This card can single handedly win you the game against this deck.
Once again thanks for reading my article this week, and make sure to comment below and give us feedback! Until Next time!
Hello OneHitKO! This article is a little later than intended, but I did get around to it and did not forget! Some very big changes are in the works and have been announced by Pokemon International recently, and we certainly need to talk about them as they affect us come November 8th.
First off, the player going first can no longer attack on their first turn. This absolutely takes away all advantages big basic decks had in the past over evolution decks by going first. If the big basic player goes first and cannot put pressure on the field, this is huge for anything on your field that needs to evolve. Also, now when a player playing an evolution deck goes first, they get a turn to get their basics out that need a turn to evolve and also abuse Tropical Beach.
Now I know that this could cause some problems as not many people have access to Tropical Beach, mainly because the card is easily reaching prices over $150 right now and will continue to rise in price. However, most players who take this game seriously will find the resources to gain access to these cards, whether it is borrowing them, trading for them, or even buying them.
Overall I think this is a step in the right direction for the game, along with the changes to Pokemon Catcher which now make the card’s effect a coin flip. This will now make players think twice about automatically throwing four of these into a deck. It will also give bench sitters a chance to be good again. And now that Eels are gone, I think this is also great for the game.
Also, there is a new supporter coming out called Professor Sycamore, which basically has the same text as Juniper. The only significance here is that you cannot play both of these in a deck because they have the same card effect. In fact, you can’t even play a split of the two cards such as 2-2 of each or 3-1. Although irrelevant to most, this would be a good thing to know for new players joining the game when X and Y are released.
But now for the main reason I wanted to write this article, a new deck has just been made public by a Japanese player/writer named Ito Shintaro. Ito was the winner of one of the Spring Battle Carnival tournaments that took place last spring. These tournaments are basically World Championship qualifiers for Japan. The most interesting thing about this tournament was the deck he played. This deck has had some discussion in the past, but recently he posted his deck list for the deck online for everyone to see.
7 Pokemon:
4 Suicune PLB
3 Terrakion NVI
39 TSS:
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
4 Skyla
2 Bianca
2 Tropical Beach
4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Switch
4 Silver Mirror
4 Evolite
2 Ultra Ball
2 Energy Search
1 Super rod
1 Tool Scrapper
1 Dowsing Machine
14 Energies:
5 Water Energy
5 Fighting Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
It is hard to say for sure, but this deck could have a huge impact on our Fall Regional metagame now that it is posted with a few weeks left for play testing and refining. I personally will be considering this deck heading into Indiana Regionals come October 26th. The deck honestly has quite a few interesting matchups that when picked right, could dominate a large tournament like this.
Thanks again to everyone who keeps reading these articles, please leave some feedback for us in the comments so we know what you the readers want us to write about next week. I hope to have my next article out on time next week, by Tuesday. Until Next time!
Unfortunately, it seems that no one has interest in this site anymore. Hopefully we will gain some traffic due to the shout-out on The Deck Out, but I doubt it will be that much. I think the down spiral for OHKO started with Pikkdogs leaving. Please, if you can write, contact Ed and see if you can become a writer and hopefully breathe new life into this site. Also, if you still regularly check OHKO, please comment so I know about how big our following is. I will try to write as much as I can, but I will not write if no one reads it. I would really love for this site to reach its former glory. However, this requires for YOUto do some active participation.
So I’m sure most of you have heard of this by now, but for the few of you who haven’t, Jason Klaczynski, the only two-time Pokemon TCG Worlds Champion, is hosting a unsanctioned tournament next month. The hope is for it to spiral into a full-blown TCG circuit that will run alongside the official Premier tournaments. NOTE: The following information is off of the event’s webpage (http://ko2013.eventbrite.com/), and none of it has been altered in any manner.
The official logo for the 2013 Klaczynski Open (KO).
The official custom die given to all entrants of the KO.
14 & Under Event (open only to players ages 14 and under)
All entrants will receive a customized die bearing the name of the event!
Format
2013-’14 Modified (Black & White – Plasma Blast*)
*This format is preliminary and may change.
Tournament Schedule
Day 1 (Saturday)
Both events will host five or six rounds of Best 2-of-3 swiss, featuring a 75 minute + 3 turn time limit, as well as a Lunch break. Side Events will be available throughout the day.
Doors Open: 8:00 A.M.
Deck Lists Due: 9:00 A.M.
Round 1 Begins: 9:30 A.M.
If you submit a deck list online (see below for information), simply arrive by 9 AM.
Day 2 (Sunday)
Play resumes: 9:30 A.M.
14 & Under will begin Top 8, single elimination (Best 2-of-3, 90+3). Main Event players will play one to two more rounds of swiss before a lunch break and then begin a single elimination top cut (Best 2-of-3, 90+3 for Top 8/Top 4, Best-of-5, untimed for finals).
2nd Place: 18 Plasma Blast Booster Packs, The Top Cut playmat
3rd Place: 12 Plasma Blast Booster Packs
4th Place: 10 Plasma Blast Booster Packs
5th-8th Place: 8 Plasma Blast Booster Packs
Accommodations
The Tinley Park Convention Center is conveniently connected to the Holiday Inn, which is offering a discounted group rate for rooms to our group:
Friday Night: $169 +tax
Saturday Night: $149 +tax
Sunday Night: $149 +tax
Enter group code POK on their web-site to receive this discount.
Note: Only rooms with 1 King bed receive the promotional rate. Rooms with two beds are only available for Saturday & Sunday night, and are slightly more expensive.
Players that lose a game in a Best 2-of-3 match always have the option to play first in the next game of the match. (In sanctioned events, Sudden Death games replace this choice with a coin flip, allowing a player to potentially play first in all three games.)
All language Tropical Beach cards are permitted in decks.
If you’ve never played a sanctioned or premier event, or need a refresher, here’s a list of our rules.
Conduct
Because this is a family event, players are also expected to act accordingly and avoid foul and abusive language. While trading of cards is fine, selling cards or merchandise at the venue is prohibited except for the on-site vendor. Anyone who violates these rules may be asked to leave.
Cheating
Players caught cheating intentionally (at the discretion of the Head Judge) will be disqualified without prize and removed from the event. Additionally, players caught cheating may be banned from future events. Our experienced and knowledgeable staff of judges will be on the look out for players attempting to cheat. Do not risk embarrassing yourself — you will be removed from the venue.
Is the promotional rate of $149/night available on Friday night?
Because of limited rooms, the promotional rate offered by the Holiday Inn is only available for Saturday & Sunday night. The rate on Friday (and other nights) will be the standard $169/night.
Are ties possible in matches?
All matches will play down to a winner and loser. Ties may be used in future events in swiss rounds.
Is there food on site?
Food will be available at the event. Additionally, there are several nearby restaurants, some walking distance from the Convention Center.
Depending on availability, players may enter the Main Event by paying $45 at the door. Attendance is limited, so purchase your ticket online to ensure your seat at the event.
14 & Under Event players may also enter by paying $35 at the door, but attendance is limited. Purchase your ticket online to ensure your seat at the event.
Are tickets refundable?
Tickets are non-refundable and must be used by the participant listed on the ticket.
Will The Top Cut be at the event?
The Top Cut, including Kyle “Pooka” Sucevich will be at the event, streaming featured matches throughout the duration of the tournament.
Can a player age 14 or under play in the Main Event?
Yes. Younger players wishing to challenge themselves and compete for larger prizes are welcome to play in the Main Event.
Will online pairings be available?
Yes. Round pairings will be posted online in addition to at the event.
Can a player suspended from another organized play program articipate in this event?
In the interest of creating a fun, fair and enjoyable tournament atmosphere for all, players currently suspended from any other organized play program should contact the tournament organizer for approval before purchasing their ticket.
Facebook Group
Questions about the event? Wondering who’s going? Join the Klaczynski Open Facebook group!
Small changes may occur to the structure or rules of this event. Check here or our Facebook group to stay updated!
Hey OneHitKO people, it’s me again. I’m sorry for the delay in between articles, but my free time lately hasn’t been all too plentiful due to testing for the tournaments I’m writing about now. I had the privilege to attend two States this year, and I feel like writing about them, so I’m writing about them.
First things first, I had started testing a bunch of decks. I was fairly comfortable with my PlasmaKlang build until I learned that so many people would be teching against it. I also liked my Darkrai/Lasers build, but not enough to warrant playing it. I had built a Blastoise variant to test against, and although the list wasn’t very good it worked quite nicely in testing. After some tweaking I decided to play Blastoise for Week One. This was the list I used:
3 Keldeo EX
This deck is Blasphemy.
4-0-3 Blastoise BCR
1 Black Kyurem EX PLS
1 Moltres NXD
-12
4 Rare Candy
4 Energy Retrieval
4 Pokemon Catcher
3 Ultra Ball
1 Level Ball
1 Heavy Ball
1 Computer Search
4 Professor Juniper
4 Skyla
2 N
1 Colress
1 Bianca
2 Tropical Beach
-32
13 Water Energy
2 Lightning Energy
1 Fire Energy
-16
I felt like Blastoise with a tech against Plasmaklang was the best possible play for Week One, seeing as the meta was almost completely undeveloped barring a few Cities in Europe and some testing at league. I felt like my list was great because it was consistent enough and had the option to use Black Kyurem EX when I needed to.
So the first States I got to go to was Arizona, where I was one of only three NorCal Seniors there. I met up with the other two early on, found some Beach to borrow, and got registered. I got a nice little States die that said Arizona on it, which was pretty cool, and after about a 2 1/2 hour registration period and some hassle with the printer not working it finally
Unfortunately, I was not the King Of Arizona.
started up.
Round One vs. ??? (I don’t know the Arizona people well enough to recall most names) w/Flippy Stuff
I start Keldeo with a terrible hand, my only Supporter being a Bianca and a bunch of energy. I Bianca for two and draw Computer Search and Squirtle, bench the Squirtle and Computer Search for a Beach, and by Turn Three I’m Secret Swording for 110, and steamrolling everything he has.
1-0
Round 2 vs. Mr. Curtis “Kecleon” Swick
That name is legit what it said on the pairing sheet. Anyway, I saw beforehand that he was playing Lugia/Eels with Thundurus EPO, and I’m wondering what my matchup is like. I form a gameplan of trying to steamroll with Black Kyurem EX, but when I start double Squirtle with no Supporters I basically just pray I topdeck something, which I don’t. He gets a T2 Disaster Volt and does so again and I’m benched out on Turn Three.
1-1
Round 3 vs. ??? w/RayEels
All I remember about this game is steamrolling, and his build not being very good.
2-1
Round 4 vs. Logan Goad w/Garchomp/Altaria/LaserBank
I’m forced to play a NorCal player here, and that kind of sucks, but I figure that the matchup is pretty good for me.
Problem is I start Black Kyurem EX, and then I’m forced to discard two Catcher on Turn One with a Professor Juniper. He gets an early two-prize lead and I am unable to win a prize trade with him due to a lack of energy, and we both two-shot each other until I eventually lose.
2-2
At this point I know I need to win out to make cut, and even if I do it’s kinda iffy. I haven’t heard of most of the people there barring a few good Arizona players and a few good SoCal players, so I just have to hope I don’t run into them.
Round 5 vs. ??? w/Hydreigon
Remember what I said in a previous article about Hydreigon having a great Blastoise matchup? That changed when Black Kyurem EX came out, so as soon as I figure out what he’s playing I’m confident in the matchup. I start Moltres to his Registeel and immediately expect him to start looking for Klinks, so when he Ultra Balls for a Deino I’m kind of confused. I start setting up but I’m forced to discard two Blastoise and he starts Night Spearing the third, and I don’t have a way to recover them afterward. But I remember Black Kyurem EX sweeps before he gets the Catcher, and I win.
3-2
Round 6 vs. ??? w/PlasmaKlang
I don’t have a great start and he has a great one, but on T3 I draw into all the resources I need to sweep with Moltres, and I do so.
4-2
I do some quick math and it turns out that there are 9 4-2’s, 3 of which will make Top 8. After a suspenseful wait, standings are posted, and I’m 11th. Top Cut ended up being the following:
Patrick M w/Garbodor
Conner G w/Plasmaklang w/Etherdex
Blastoise
Hydreigon
Asim w/Landorus/Tornadus/Mewtwo/Something or other
Collin C w/Victini/Garbodor/Attackers
Curtis S w/Lugia/Thundurus/Eels
Sebo w/Plasmaklang
Finals was Patrick vs. Curtis, and Curtis won.
Next up is California States, and I make a couple changes to my list, notably a Tool Scrapper, 4th Blastoise, and second C0lress and Bianca for a Water, Skyla, Heavy Ball, and Level Ball. I end up regretting each one but the Tool Scrapper, but nevermind that.
I show up at the Queen Mary, find two Beaches I can borrow, and get registered, and the tournament eventually starts.
Round One vs. ??? w/Blastoise
I had heard previously that Blastoise mirror is incredibly luck based, so I feel like I have a slight advantage because I have a more consistent list (I saw him playing Super Scoop Ups and a couple other techs). I go second (Which I’m actually happy about because he doesn’t get to use my Beach, but nevermind that), and start attacking before he does. We swing for 110 for a while and I eventually have a three energy drop to OHKO his Keldeo, and it’s downhill for him from there.
1-0
Round 2 vs. ??? w/Darkrai/Lasers
I get T2 Black Ballista. I win T4.
2-0
Round 3 vs. Ivan w/Garbodor
Sue me. I’m bored.
This game was the single most hilarious game I’ve played since a Next Destinies Prerelease where I did 160 damage to my opponent’s Mewtwo EX with Hippopotas NXD’s “Sand Jet” attack before he could retreat his active Growlithe and start sweeping with Mewtwo. However, this wasn’t because I came up with an amazing and hilarious ploy to take out an EX before it could do some damage, rather because I misplayed so much and my opponent dead drew so much.
On Turn Two I have a benched Blastoise and an active Black Kyurem EX with a Lightning Energy attached and 60 damage, and his only Pokemon in play is a Mewtwo EX with a Double Colorless Energy attached. I Juniper and draw two Water, which I stupidly decide to attach to Black Kyurem and Slash for 60. He then attaches a Fighting Energy and KO’s my Black Kyurem, and I have no way to get it back.
Fast forward to later in the game, where he’s still dead drawing and I’m still misplaying. I have an active Blastoise with six Energy attached and he has a Terrakion NVI with enough energy to Land Crush, and no benched Pokemon. I decide to Beach instead of attacking and hoping he didn’t draw a benched Pokemon, and he topdecks a Giant Cape which puts me one energy away from winning with Blastoise. If I had attacked his Terrakion instead of Beaching I win that game next turn.
The game ends with me being the energy I had cut from my list short of KOing his Terrakion for my last prize, and I’m forced to try to Catcher his Mewtwo and hit for 110. He has the energy to retreat and KO my active Keldeo for his last two prizes.
2-1
Game Four vs. Troy Olbernote w/Darkrai/Lugia/Lasers
I get another T2 Black Ballista and sweep.
3-1
Game Five vs. ??? w/PlasmaKlang
Neither of us get very good starts, and I try to build up my Moltres on the bench without Blastoise. Little do I know my Fire Energy is prized. He runs out of Catcher and Switch rather quickly, however, and after I Catcher Plasmaklang to try to buy time he benches a Keldeo, Rushes In, and hits for 50. I then promote Black Kyurem EX and Black Ballista him in an attempt to draw the fire. He’s like “That does nothing”. I then explain to him that Keldeo is not a metal type, and therefore is not protected by Plasma Steel, and he facepalms. He gets back into the game rather quickly, however, and eventually takes all his prizes before I can draw my fire.
3-2
Again I’m in the position where I need to win out to make cut, but this time I have better resistance and there won’t be as many bubbles, so I’m more comfortable in this position.
Round 6 vs. Austin Bowen w/WhiteEels
This game starts out with him using Bouffalant and me trying to draw into a Lightning Energy while using Keldeo. Eventually I Computer Search for one and start sweeping with BKEX.
4-2
Round 5 vs. Will Hildebrant w/Ho-oh
I actually debate scooping this game to put Ho-oh into cut, but I decide that I need the points too much. He starts Ho-oh, and I have an amazing starting hand. I get another early Black Ballista and win with BKEX 6-0.
5-2
At this point I’m 99% sure I’m in cut, and I check the Standings to find out that I’m in as the 11 seed… playing against Garbodor.
Top 16 vs. Patrick Martinez w/Garbodor
Game One: After a terrible start I realize I can’t win and scoop to conserve time.
Game Two: See Game One, except I didn’t scoop.
5-3, 13th overall.
Honestly I’m pretty happy about my list, even if there were a few things I would have liked differently. I’m glad to be getting 20 points, putting me at 285. If I do alright at Salt Lake City Regionals I might actually get my invite this year.
Well, thanks for reading. Be sure to leave a comment, and I’ll respond to it as soon as I get the time. Farewell!
Hey OneHitKO, it’s been awhile since I did a deck analysis article, so I decided to write up an article about a deck that I feel is amazing in this format, which is Landorus/Lugia. This article is mostly just me overhyping the deck, but I have tested it and it is amazing. The article may just lead you to believe it is more amazing than it actually is.
Before you start wondering if this is just another big basic deck, well, it pretty much is. However, it has a much different
Who knew Basics could get so complicated?
strategy than many big basics do. With this deck, instead of just attacking with whatever you draw into, your goal is to use Landorus EX’s Hammerhead the first few turns to put 60 damage on two of your opponent’s EX’s. Then, use Lugia to kill both of them for three prizes a piece, and win when you kill both of them.
Now, there’s plenty of things that can go wrong with this plan. Eviolite, Aspertia City Gym, and your opponent not dropping an EX in the first place can mess with your strategy. However, winning by Turn Four is not always necessary, even if it is possible. Your gameplan should just to be to achieve this strategy as fast as you can, and hopefully you can knock out two EX’s before they knock out three.
The thing about other speed decks is that when the setup deck catches up to them, they tend to be forced to rely on how far ahead they were in that current gamestate. However, now there’s a speed deck that can win before the setup deck does set up. Instead of focusing on taking out the engine or the pre-evolutions of the engine of the setup deck, you can instead focus on just winning the standard way before your opponent can take advantage of being fully set up. In some matchups you will want to try to deny your opponent setting up, but in most cases you fare well enough to just take enough of an early lead to the point where your opponent can’t use their main attackers they need to use to knock out your attackers in one hit because Lugia would just come in and take three prizes off them.
The deck is nowhere near as broken as it is in theory, but it’s still amazing, and there’s a great chance that I’m going to be playing it for a States.
A basic skeleton for the deck looks like this:
Pokemon
4 Landorus EX
2 Lugia EX
-6
Items
4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Bicycle
4 Colress Machine
3 PlusPower
3 Switch/Escape Rope mix (I prefer 2 Switch, 1 Escape Rope, because early game Escape Rope is really helpful for hitting for weakness with Landorus as well as getting the Lugia you started with out of the way)
2 Ultra Ball
2 Eviolite
2 Hypnotoxic Laser
1 Tool Scrapper
1 Ace Spec (Anything but the Tools are good in here).
-26
9 Different Supporters (Ideally 3-4 N, 3-4 Juniper, 1-2 Bianca, 0-1 Skyla, 0-1 Colress) If you play Scramble Switch or Gold Potion you should play one more Supporter)
-9
2 Counter Stadiums (Virbank, Frigate, Aspertia, Battle City, and Skyarrow Bridge are all good)
-2
6 Fighting
4 Double
4 Plasma
-14
Total – 57
This gives you a little bit of wiggle room, and you could easily make more if you felt it was necessary. Ideally I would put one more Supporter out in as well as an additional Tool Scrapper and Switch, but you could do whatever with your build.
The four Landorus is to make your odds of starting with it as high as you can. If you get a T1 Hammerhead it will help
Why does Landorus look like he’s pouting about something?
you out so much, and starting with it makes it so much easier to do so. Landorus is going to be your attacker for the earlier part of the game, and generally you will use it more than you use Lugia (Because the idea with Lugia is to attack with it twice, Landorus is more there to set up for Lugia), and you don’t necessarily know how long that will take), so having four is more necessary.
In testing I started out with three Lugia, but I’ve found that over the course of the game you almost never attack with more than one. The second is there in case one is prized, because you generally only take one prize with Landorus. Any more is bad for the deck because it detracts from your chances of starting with Landorus and becomes a dead draw once you have one Lugia in play.
Catcher is pretty self-explanatory, it’s a staple in everything. In here, it has slightly different functions, however. Either you can use it to hit around Resistance or hit for Weakness with Landorus, or chase the benched EX’s with damage on them that set up for a Lugia kill. 4 is necessary in this deck because frequently you find yourself needing three to four over the course of the six or seven turns the game should last if you’re playing a favorable matchup. This is one of those decks that is made so much better by Catcher instead of just being able to use it.
Bicycle is good in any deck that aims to attack on Turn One. It’s also amazing because late game you often find yourself needing a specific resource or two, and Bicycle helps you chase it down by giving you more than one draw card to use during your turn. I play four because it’s just so good in this deck.
In theory you could get away with three Colress Machine, but I like four for consistency purposes. Ideally you want to have your Lugia powered up by Turn Three or Four, which usually means you need to hit at least one Colress Machine to do so. Playing four maximizes your odds of doing so. According to the rules team from PokeGym, you can play a Colress Machine even if four Plasma Energy are in visible areas of play (i.e. Field, Discard, Town Mapped Prizes), so there’s no harm in them being dead draws late game.
I like PlusPower in the deck just because a lot of the time Landorus won’t do quite enough damage (Some instances an Eviolite or Aspertia City Gym might appear, and there are times a Hypnotoxic Laser is used to put 10 + 30 on a newly played EX), so PlusPower is just there to make sure Lugia can get kills. It’s a valuable resource to have and it should be considered as a four-of if you can find the space without cutting consistency.
Switch is there for three scenarios. First, if you start with Lugia you need to be able to get a T1 Hammerhead without using 2 Colress Machine and discarding two Plasma Energy. Switch is mainly there for T1 scenarios where you need to get a Landorus active.
It’s also useful when you’re done with the Landorus phase and need to start attacking with Lugia. It helps a lot if you can get the Switch instead of having to manually attach a Double Colorless to Landorus and manually retreat him (Although if you are forced to do this it isn’t terrible, you just have to manually attach a Fighting to him if you want to Hammerhead again). This also applies to when you’re attacking with Lugia and then need to attack with Landorus again for whatever reason.
Finally, it’s your best defense against Catcher stalling. Frequently your opponent will be forced to Catcher-stall you to
This card looks so pretty,
buy time to set up whatever they need to set up, so having the clutch Switch when you need it is huge. For this reason I would advocate running at least four Switching cards.
I want to talk about the usefulness of Escape Rope in this deck for a bit as well. Escape Rope is great on Turn One to force your opponent to start with their less desirable starter as well as hit for Weakness or get around Resistance without having to use a Catcher. I honestly like a 3/2 Switch/Escape Rope split the best so you have a decent chance of drawing an Escape Rope when you need it while still prioritizing Switch, but some variants may have space concerns that don’t allow that split.
I only play two Ultra Ball because that’s all that I’ve found necessary in testing. I’ve considered going up to four, but I’ve also considered going down to zero. Ultra Ball is mainly there to thin out your hand for Bike and Bianca, but it’s also good for grabbing a Landorus on Turn One and getting a Lugia to Colress Machine to as soon as possible. It’s one of those cards that you don’t need every game, but you’re glad you have it when you do, and two is the perfect number for one of those cards.
Eviolite is there simply to make Lugia harder to kill. If you lose your Lugia and all of the Plasma Energy it’s usually going to be really hard to get a new Lugia swinging. Eviolite is there to keep it alive for the extra turn you need to win. Two is a good number for it because it allows you to get one when you need one or before while still not filling the deck up too much with dead draws late game.
Hypnotoxic Laser is mostly there for the early game Landorus phase when you’re trying to get damage on EX’s. Hypnotoxic can allow you to get 10 or 20 more which sometimes puts it in Lugia kill range. I was a bit skeptical on it at first but it has proven itself to be amazing in testing.
In my personal build I actually play two Tool Scrapper, as Eviolite really messes this deck up. However, in most scenarios with this deck one Scrapper is enough. You basically need to ensure that you can Tool Scrap Eviolites when it’s absolutely necessary or before, and playing two helps this a lot. I would advise playing two, but if you can only fit one that’s fine. two is also helpful because Garbodor has been on the rise since the end of Regionals.
The Ace spec slot is mostly personal preference. Dowsing Machine can get you a 5th Catcher or 4th PlusPower and provides another out to a Supporter. Scramble Switch is good for powering Lugia up quicker. Gold Potion helps keep Lugia alive for an extra turn, and Computer Search helps with the early game. I would advise testing all four and choosing the one that suits your playstyle or personal preferences the best.
Supporters are necessary in any deck as they provide you with a mediocre but acceptable draw engine. 9 is a good number in a deck with 4 Bikes and an Ace Spec that nets you a Supporter, but if you opt for Scramble Switch or Gold Potion you’d be better off playing a tenth.
Professor Juniper is the best draw Supporter in here because it nets you the most cards, and in a deck like this you want to be going through your deck pretty quickly to get everything you need when you need it. I would advise playing four Juniper, but if you want to play more conservatively three works fine.
N is also really good in here, better than in most decks, because you’re taking prizes in clusters and not in ones and twos. What I like about this deck is you can be going for the game winning Catcher, N, and still have a reasonable chance of drawing it, because often you find yourself with three prizes left and the Catcher away from winning because of how amazing Lugia is. It’s the best shuffle-draw Supporter you can have in this deck and it’s ideal when you don’t want to have to Juniper away a hand of vital Catcher, Switch, PlusPower, Tool Scrapper, Plasma Energy, or whatever resource you find yourself running out of.
The last Supporter slot is probably best suited for Skyla. Skyla is another out to a game winning Catcher, and in a deck with Bicycle you can Skyla and still draw cards. Bianca works fine, but I like Skyla better just because of the consistency of it.
Stadium Wars are becoming a thing again, and having a kickgym for Vitrbank and Tropical Beach can come in quite
Play your own Stadiums to keep Cleveland Browns Stadium out of play.
nicely. My favorite counter Stadium in this deck is Plasma Frigate because it denies Raikou and Zekrom the knockout on your Lugia as well as protecting Landorus from Keldeo on some occasions. Aspertia City Gym is also nice because it keeps Lugia alive longer, so my personal split on that is 1/1, but you could find yourself playing more or different Stadiums if you found that was what was best in your testing.
6 Fighting Energy is the minimum one can play because you really want to get a Turn One Hammerhead, especially if you go second. I have upped my count to seven just because of how crucial the Turn One Hammerhead is in here. A high count is also nice when you feel that Land’s Judgement is your best play.
Four Plasma Energy is necessary just for consistency purposes. There’s the possibility that you will be forced to Plasma Gale a third time for whatever reason, and there’s also a good chance you will be discarding one with Professor Juniper, Ultra Ball, or your Ace Spec, so having four just helps when you’re in these situations.
Double Colorless is there to power up Lugia quicker. Four Double Colorless is not as necessary, but I still feel it’s important for having the Double Colorless when you need it (Which is usually Turn Two and Three). It’s also good for retreating Landorus manually when you don’t have a Switch or Escape Rope. You could go down to three if you felt it necessary to fit something else in, but most of the time it’s better to stick to consistency and play the fourth Double Colorless.
Matchups
So how does this deck play out against the field? Well, I’ve tested a couple matchups, and this is what I’ve learned:
Vs. PlasmaKlang – Bad.
If they’re playing the variant with Klinklang BLW and Darkrai and Keldeo, you at least have a chance at this matchup. Wait until they drop both Darkrai and Keldeo and then start Hammerheading.
If they’re just playing PlasmaKlang and Cobalion, your best bet is to wait until they only have two prizes left, counter their Tropical Beach, Catcher and Hypnotoxic Laser their Plasmaklang, and N them to two. If they draw a Switch or a Supporter before Klinklang dies, you’re screwed, but it’s better than no chance at all. There’s also the possibility of an early game Lugia killing Klinks if you’re lucky.
Vs. Blastoise – 50/50
Believe it or not, this matchup would be highly favorable if it weren’t for Black Kyurem EX PLS. However, in my testing Black Kyurem can often one-shot your Lugia and take all the Plasma Energy with it unless it has both an Eviolite attached and an Aspertia in play. Your best bet is to just play aggressively and try to win as fast as you can. Don’t worry about Landorus’ weakness until a Keldeo starts attacking, and then if you’re forced to you can Plasma Frigate + Plasma Energy. And don’t try to deny them Blastoise unless they only have one Squirtle and no Ditto in play, because it will be inevitable. If you can, try to Eviolite your Lugia and get Aspertia into play before you get into Lugia phase, because you never know when Black Kyurem will come down and bash you for 200 damage.
Vs. Darkrai/Lasers – Favorable.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t tested this that much. However, both of your EX’s having 180 HP and not 170 as well as their reliance on EX’s to attack means this matchup is in your favor. Landorus can hit for weakness if you need it to, and if they start with two Darkrai in play you almost always pull off a win. Just stick to your normal gameplan and you should be fine.
Vs. Darkrai/Hammers – Unfavorable.
Because you lack a form of energy acceleration that can be used more than three times per game reliably plus your reliance on Special Energy, Hammerspamming could give you some trouble. Your best bet is to do the Landorus phase like normal except without powering Lugia up, and then power Lugia up all at once with Colress Machine. Ideally they will only hit one Hammer and you can Plasma Gale another Darkrai for the win, but this strategy is iffy. I don’t think Hammertime will be all too popular, so having a bad matchup to it isn’t a terrible thing.
Vs. RayEels – Favorable
This matchup is probably the only good matchup in which you don’t take your normal gameplan. Instead, what you should do is try to Catcher out Tynamos and Hammerhead them, setting Rayquaza EX up for a Lugia kill while you do so. After you’ve killed two Tynamo and set an EX up for a knockout with Lugia, you can use Lugia to kill that EX. From there, you just need to take one more prize, so you can do that however you see fit.
If they set up a Rayquaza and enough Eels and they’re able to use Dragon Burst a couple times, you’re in trouble. However, you should be able to Catcher-KO their Eels before this happens too much. Your gameplan should be to deny Eels until you can win in about two turns.
Another way to approach the matchup is just to spam Lugia early game and kill Eels, but this is generally only a good strategy if you feel that it can be done easier than the Landorus strategy. If you have the option, go with the Landorus plan.
Vs. Snorlax/Lugia/Plasma Stuff – Even
I haven’t tested this matchup (I honestly don’t even know if the deck is any good), but from what I know about the deck the matchup seems like it would be 50/50. You run Switch, meaning retreating under Snorlax isn’t terribly hard. And Lugia with a PlusPower one-shots Snorlax for two prizes, as well as Landorus with a Hypnotoxic Laser or PlusPower two-shots Snorlax. Overall you should try to approach the matchup as familiarly as you can, but if you’re forced to kill a Snorlax with Landorus that’s fine. Get an Eviolite on your Lugia so Snorlax can’t OHKO it, and, if necessary, Aspertia City Gym as well (Although this would make it harder to take knockouts on your opponent’s Lugia if you chose to do so).
You’re going to need to take a bit longer to win this game, but unless a Snorlax starts wreaking havoc on your field and you are unable to power something up to stop it, you should have a good shot at winning first.
Vs. Garbodor – Favorable
In the little bit of testing I’ve done against Garbodor it’s been favorable for me, but that might just be because I played two Tool Scrapper. Usually Garbodor variants play EX’s to attack, so I usually take advantage of that and Tool Scrapper Garbodor when I’m about to take a prize. I haven’t done quite enough testing to say more than this, sorry.
So what do you guys think about Landorus/Lugia? Do you guys think that it is the ultimate speed deck that Pokemon has never had in a Modified format before, or do you think it is overrated? Discussion is encouraged, so make sure to leave a comment and leave your opinion on Landorus/Lugia.
Hey OneHitKO people, I decided to write another article. Since it was a month between the last two, I decided to actually sit down and write something.
First of all, I’ll give you guys a recap of how my Regionals went. I played Ho-oh with 3 Mewtwo, 2 Tornadus, 2
I guess I’m not Pooka.
Terrakion, and 2 Sigilyph. I won my Round One match pretty easily against Hydreigon, played an amazing game against Blastoise round two and narrowly won, and beat VileBox round 3 (The deck was legit somehow, but the reason I beat it was because it didn’t have energy acceleration and I was able to KO their attackers because I had previously attacked them with Tornadus EX).
From there I then proceeded to lose the remaining four games (Two of them I would’ve won if I had hit a Rebirth flip) to Blastoise, Darkrai/Mewtwo/Bouffalant, Blastoise, and Darkrai/Landorus, and whiff prizes all together. I don’t feel like I misplayed at all in the first three games, my deck just failed me. In the game against Darkrai/Landorus I was tired and upset and decided that it was a good idea to discard two Catcher with Computer Search, then needed a Catcher to win late game and missed it.
So I’m sitting at 265 CP’s right now. My current goal is T8 States, T8 Regionals, and win a Battle Road (Which I believe puts me right at 400), but I doubt I’m going to be able to do that just because of a lack of self-confidence.
Most everything in the set is either good or not good, which is why I chose not to do a set review. However, there are a few debatable things, namely Victini EX. I thought I’d do something to explain my opinion on the matter and possibly give you guys another perspective to look at.
Well, first of all, when you first look at the card you wonder why it would be good in the first place. An EX with 110 HP that doesn’t do much damage shouldn’t be seen as amazing by any means, even when you do attach a Victory Piece. Even with the rise in Metal types, Intensifying Burn will only be good until the Klinklang PLS hits the field, and unless you attach a Victory Piece that will usually be around the time you’re able to attack with it (Or maybe the turn after).
However, Turbo Energize isn’t a half bad attack. Being able to power up another legitimate attacker for next turn is always a good thing, and Victini EX based decks could be able to go off around Turn Two.
Is It Playable?
So, do I think Victini is any good? Well, I definitely think it will be a half-decent archetype. However, I doubt it will ever be Tier One. Keldeo decks destroy any Fire attackers, which is what is easiest to use with Victini, and Keldeo is going to be good for a long time. Even with Plasma Frigate out now, you would have to run Plasma Energy for that, and having all your good attackers be weak to Water can’t cut it in this format. Keldeo will be a threat until either it’s rotated or a grass deck becomes amazing, and I doubt that any decent grass deck will pop up soon.
Also, Victini is two free prizes at pretty much any point in the game. In a format with Catcher, Victini is pretty much just a sitting duck for the entire game. Going down two prizes is never good, and it puts you in a lot of situations where you’re hoping your opponent won’t draw a Catcher. There’s a reason people prefer not to start with Shaymin EX, and having an EX with 110 HP that’s designed for early game uses will always have that issue until Catcher is rotated (And even then, if we go DRX-on Ninetales could pose a threat to it).
There are some problems with having energy acceleration based on attacks, as well. You have an early game boost, but then what? It’s hard to power up another attacker afterwards. Even if you do play the EtherDex engine, you still have a tough time powering something else up unless you’re attacking with Entei EX for a decent chunk of the rest of the game. With decks with energy acceleration that works much better in the early game sometimes you just fizzle out late game (ZPST was a great example of this), and unless you want to do a damageless attack with a 110 HP EX late game you’re going to be stuck manually powering your attackers up.
I don’t actually know if Victini was good in Japan, but even if it was, they have a different tournament structure than us. They need to play early game decks to have a shot at doing well. We, however, can afford to play slow decks because we don’t have to win 3 games against different opponents in a small time period while also waiting in a line for a certain period of time. We can afford to play decks like The Truth and Klinklang because we don’t need to play fast decks in our metagame.
Victini’s got 99 problems.
Another big issue I see with Victini is that you need to play Fire Energy. There are four ways to deal with this: You can run a mix of Fire Energy and the Energy you want to run, which makes the deck clunky. Or you can run Fire attackers, which are x2 weak to Keldeo and usually aren’t very good. Or you can run Prism, which are discarded with Enhanced
Hammer and Cobalion EX, and aren’t searchable with Victini’s attack. Or you could use Colorless attackers, such as Mewtwo EX and Tornadus EX. However, with stuff like that you’d be better off without Victini and instead with EtherDex, Ho-oh, or no acceleration at all.
So that’s my short rant about Victini. Let me know what you guys think about Victini down in the comments, and I’ll try to have a deck analysis article out soon (If you guys have any requests, go ahead and post them in the comments). I should have something out next week or in a couple weeks at the most. Thanks for reading, and so long!
Hey OneHitKO people, it’s been more than a month since this site had an article, so I figure I should get something out before Regionals. I’m sorry for not getting something out sooner, it completely slipped my mind. This article is mostly about what decks you should consider based on playstyle and what types of decks you have the most experience
Don’t be the one saying if only.
playing.
First of all, I want to start by saying that these are pretty much just things to try out, they are by no means official guidelines for you. I’m just throwing ideas out for you if you’re completely unsure of what to play, like I am.
I also want to do a little Cities recap and mention what I think the Tier system looks like right now. These are just my opinions, so you shouldn’t base any big decisions off these, I just wanted to give a bit of a guideline for you so that you have a guideline for your own opinions.
The BDIF
Blastoise/Keldeo. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory, actually, Blastoise is a deck that has both a good early game and a good late-game. Blastoise has the ability to go off on Turn Two and then keep going strong until you take your six prizes. Although for the past three Regionals the deck that I believed was the BDIF hasn’t won any (that being Gothitelle, CMT, and Hydreigon), I don’t think this will be the case for Blastoise as it has a lot more going for it than these decks and there should be a lot more people playing it as it isn’t as debatable as the last and it also isn’t as easily countered. The only big problem with the deck is that it’s hand reliant, so in the late game N is a threat to you, but people are playing Tropical Beach to semi-solve this problem. I feel like Blastoise is going to be the deck dominating Regionals.
Tier One
Landorus/Mewtwo/Tornadus. I am a bit skeptical on this deck as it doesn’t have much of a late-game, but everyone knows how good early-game pressure can be and the threat of donking is nice as well. It’s a solid play if it’s what you’re playstyle likes.
Darkrai/Hydreigon. It’s slow, but it makes up for that by fully healing Darkrais at no cost via Max Potion. I like the deck a lot because it’s got a nice feeling to it, because Darkrai is an amazing attacker and it’s even better when it can power up a supporting attacker this easily. The problem is that it has a bad matchup against anything with Landorus and the Deino you play is basically a statement of who you would rather get donked by.
RayEels. I really like this deck in this metagame because of all the focus around EX’s, however I hate how much you get donked when you play it. It takes advantage of the heavy EX reliance of the format. The Landorus matchup is good when you survive the donk, and it’s definitely a solid play for Regionals (Especially as it basically wins if it sets up and stays set up) if you’re willing to take a loss or two to a donk during the event.
Ho-oh. This is basically a version of Landorus/Mewtwo with a lategame instead of a whole lot of earlygame, and it also has easier access to Sigilyph. It’s also a lot of fun to play because of the colorfulness of the deck. It also has a better Blastoise matchup than people seem to think, because you play Sigilyph and you don’t especially rely on Ho-oh, you only need it in a couple situations. It also uses Terrakion better than any deck in the format right now because it can accelerate Fighting Energy. The problem with the deck is that because of the colorfulness, you don’t always have the exact Energy you need, but most Ho-oh variants I’ve seen only need two types (Fighting and Psychic) and those types are easily accessed via Rebirth.
Tier Two
Darkrai Variants including Darkrai/Fighting, Darkrai/Aspertia, and Darkrai/Mewtwo. Darkrai is still a strong play for Regionals regardless of how the meta develops, and I love using it as Energy acceleration for other attackers as well (Via Dark Patch/Energy Switch). The problem with Darkrai is that it doesn’t do too well against Landorus, but if you play the right supporting attackers this shouldn’t matter too much. They also aren’t great against Keldeo, but the matchup is winnable so long as you don’t play too many Landorus.
Klinklang – I really like Klinklang, but I haven’t tested it. I know that it is an interesting option and I really like the idea of a deck that hits for weakness everywhere, and I like how it has a nice little box of attackers that you can shift between at your disposal that do different things. I also really like the use of Max Potion with the deck because this format has a lot of cards that focus on 2HKOing, which is amazing for Klinklang. Of course, the less-than-ideal matchup against Hammertime and RayEels isn’t the best, so if you’re willing to take a couple autolosses Klinklang is a good play, and without these autolosses I have no doubt Klinklang would be a Tier One deck.
Hammertime – Hammertime probably has the most interesting concept of any deck in the format, and I really like the idea of Hammer spamming to lock the opponent out of Energy. Hammer Control single-handedly wins games, and being able to just sweep with Darkrai without the threat of being attacked back is amazing. This deck pretty much wins to a deck that doesn’t have energy acceleration, but it unfortunately has a bad matchup against Blastoise, probably the deck that will see the most play at Autumn Regionals. Still, Hammer Control is a really cool idea and Esa Juntunen is a genius to have come up with it.
Aspertia Eels – This is probably one of the most underrated decks right now. Bouffalant is one of the best attackers in the game right now in my opinion, and when you give it an Eviolite, an Aspertia, and a reliable engine like Eelektrik, it’s amazing against any EX in the game. Tornadus EX and Mewtwo EX are also great right now because of their sheer usefulness in the early game, and Aspertia is just amazing, and having access to Raikou is also great. The thing I like about Aspertia Eels the most, however, is that even though it uses an Eel engine, taking out the Eels won’t actually do much for you because you can manually power up all of your attackers in two turns, it just helps you in the early game. However, I’m not too convinced that there will be enough people who are playing this for it to succeed. I feel like if enough people played it it could easily be Tier One, but not enough people are convinced yet.
Matchups
A big part of every metagame is matchups. You can’t play something if it doesn’t beat the popular decks, even if it is amazing against everything else (I learned this the hard way), so knowing matchups are a big part of deciding on a deck.
While I’ll be talking about matchups for the entire article, I wanted to have a section devoted to it just to give you a basic guideline of what beats the decks that you need to be able to beat.
The decks you should be looking to beat right now are Blastoise, Landorus/Mewtwo/Tornadus, and Darkrai variants. If you can beat those, that’s huge, if not, you might want to play a tech.
I really want to put a chart here, but we don’t have tables, so I’ll just write what I can here:
The decks I feel have the best matchups against those are Ho-oh, Blastoise with Pokemon Center, and anything with Bouffalant/Aspertia/Eviolite. As I’ve said before, Bouffalant is amazing because it 2HKOes every EX we have and gets 2HKOed back by a good amount of them if you have the Aspertia/Eviolite. This is a favorable prize exchange for you because Bouffalant isn’t an EX. However, it’s too situational to be that good.
So yeah, if you’re playing Bouffalant or Keldeo you should be alright. I’m sorry I can’t say more, I really wanted to do a table, but that isn’t supported on this program.
So What Exactly Should I Play?
Well, that depends on the kind of deck you want to play. As I’ve said before, playstyle is key in choosing your deck. This serves as a guide to decks for what you want to play.
If you want to play a defensive deck, your best bet is probably Klinklang. I like Hydreigon, but it falls too much to Landorus and it just doesn’t have the same feel to it. Hydreigon isn’t a terrible call, and if you’d rather play Hydreigon go ahead, but I honestly am a bigger advocate of Klinklang now not only because of the not-autoloss to Landorus but also because of the toolboxy feeling to the deck, but if Hammertime is more prominent in your area I would say go with Hydreigon.
If you want to play a fast, aggressive deck that focuses on denying setup and attacking early, my recommendation to you is Ho-oh. Ho-oh is great because it applies early-game pressure and also has a late-game, unlike Landorus/Tornadus/Mewtwo which is all early-game and no late-game. It’s also great for Mewtwo wars, not only because Mewtwo is one of your main attackers, or that you play PlusPower, or you can take an early-game lead and then start one that will end up in your favor, but because you can actually pull off a Psydrive against a Mewtwo with no Energy attached. Ho-oh also has access to Terrakion, Sigilyph, and Bouffalant for the whole 7-prize thing, and you can tech pretty much anything into your list.
If you want to play a deck that aims for an early attack but then keeps going until the game is over, your best bet is probably Blastoise. With all due respect to Darkrai, the T1 Night Spear just isn’t common enough to justify playing Darkrai over Blastoise. Unless you’re really worried about N or you’ve been testing Darkrai longer, I would definitely rather play Blastoise. The T2 Secret Sword is just about as common as the T2 Night Spear, and Blastoise is a lot better in the late game seeing as you have the option of powering up a Keldeo to OHKO everything. Not to mention that a lot of people are teching Terrakion, which is amazing against Darkrai and insanely mediocre against Keldeo.
If you want to play a deck that focuses on limiting your opponent’s options, play Hammertime. With all due respect to Garbodor, Garbodor is just too inconsistent to work right in this metagame. Hammer Control is amazing, and unless you play against Blastoise all day long you should have alright matchups. Theoretically you could play Hammertime with Garbodor, but that’s probably too inconsistent unless you build it exactly right. And plus, limiting attacks is much better than limiting Abilities.
If you want to play a deck that focuses on killing whatever your opponent throws at you, you actually have a really interesting decision to make. Your two options are either RayEels or a Blastoise variant that focuses on loading up a Keldeo to kill everything instead of speed. Honestly this decision is based on how much you want to get donked. If you are fine with being donked once or twice, RayEels is much better when set up than Blastoise, even a variant that focuses on dishing out large amounts with Keldeo. However, if you want to play it safe, a Blastoise variant like that is almost as good, just a bit more hand-reliant.
If you have no idea what such Blastoise variant would look like, all I can say is that it plays 1-2 Cilan, 4 Energy Retrieval, and 15 Energy (I’ve even seen a version that plays 1-1 Musharna NXD) instead of techs like Super Scoop Up, Mini-Keldeo, or Eviolite. Honestly I was skeptical when I heard about this, but it works. I have no idea how it works or if it actually works or if the people I saw playing it were just lucksacking, so try it for yourself.
Overall I would say that the best possible play for Regionals in any age division is probably Blastoise/Keldeo with 1 Pokemon Center. Without Pokemon Center the matchup against Darkrai/Hydreigon is iffy, but with it it becomes 65/35 in your favor because they can no longer OHKO you with Hydreigon after hitting you with Night Spear bench damage. If you can access 3 Keldeo and 1 Beach, Blastoise is a great play because it is arguably the best Energy acceleration in the format and it is fast but can still maintain itself later on.
Here is a sample Blastoise list for those of you who have nothing to go off:
4-1-3 Blastoise
3 Keldeo EX
-11
4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Rare Candy
3 Ultra Ball
3 Energy Retrieval
1 Level/Heavy Ball
1 Super Rod
1 Computer Search
-17
4 Professor Juniper
4 Bianca
3 Skyla
2 N
-13
1 Tropical Beach
-1
13 Water Energy
-13
Total – 55
This list gives a bit of room for techs, which include Mewtwo EX, Keldeo BCR 47, Super Scoop Up, Pokemon Center, and I’ve even experimented with Kyogre EX for a bit. You could also opt for more consistency, as a T2 Blastoise is always important and great when you can get it.
To play the hard-hitting variant, add a Cilan, Energy Retrieval, and 2 Water Energy and you should have yourself a variant that focuses on killing things in one hit.
Another good play is Ho-oh because it has no real autolosses and a favorable Blastoise matchup if you know how to play it. Speed is huge in this format because you can take out your opponent’s strategy completely if you have a good enough early-game, and Ho-oh is a great deck to play to get that speed.
Again, if you’ve never played Ho-oh, I can give you an example list to get you started, because Ho-oh is one of those decks that everyone should get to play.
3 Ho-oh EX
3 Mewtwo EX
2 Tornadus EX
2 Terrakion NVI
1 Sigilyph DRX
-11
4 Ultra Ball
4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Energy Switch
3 PlusPower
3 Random Reciever
3 Switch
1 Computer Search
-22
4 Professor Juniper
4 N
2 Bianca
-10
1 Skyarrow Bridge
-1
4 Double Colorless
3 Fighting
2 Psychic
1 Lightning
1 Water
1 Fire (Got that Elemental Blast)
-12
Total – 56
Some possible techs include Landorus EX, Bouffalant DRX, Shaymin EX, and Registeel EX.
I think I’ve already explained this, but the reason I like Ho-oh in this metagame so much is because it has a good early game and a good late game. It’s amazing how many things this deck can do, and I like how playing a Water-weak EX hasn’t held it back. I don’t think this deck would be as popular if it weren’t for Pooka, but I’m glad that he has popularized this deck for us because I believe that it truly has the potential to be the BDIF. I bet it would be like Aspertia Eels if it weren’t for him: Good, but underrated.
I guess with Ho-oh you sometimes have to deal with poor flips, but this was never a problem for Pooka. You shouldn’t rely too much on Rebirth, and by the time you might need to you should have 2-3 Ho-oh already in the discard pile. It’s still a risk, but it’s probably a risk worth taking as Ho-oh is just amazing when it runs right, and it almost always runs right.
And finally, I’d like to touch on the deck I feel is the most underrated of any deck right now: Aspertia Eels. As you could probably guess from the deck’s name, it revolves around using Eelektrik to power up Colorless attackers, which you give an HP boost with Aspertia City Gym.
Here is a basic skeleton list to get you started, although to be honest I have no idea what a list should look like:
4-3 Eelektrik NVI
White Eel.
3 Bouffalant DRX
2 Tornadus EX
1 Mewtwo EX
1 Raikou EX
1 Emolga DRX
-15
4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Ultra Ball
3 Switch
3 Eviolite
3 Random Reciever
1 Super Rod
1 Computer Search
-19
4 Juniper
4 N
3 Bianca
-11
2 Aspertia City Gym
-2
7 Lightning Energy
4 Double Colorless
-11
Total – 58
As you can see, the list is a bit tight, but there’s a little wiggle room for techs. These include Zekrom BW, Regigigas EX, or my personal favorite, Zapdos NXD.
Let me advocate for Zapdos a bit: Let’s say you get a Random Spark on Turn Two. That 50 can set a Keldeo EX up for an OHKO from Bouffalant, or it can knock out a Tynamo your opponent has, or you can hit a Deino for 50 to then have Raikou come in and knock it out later. It’s completely untested, but I feel like Zapdos should get a bit of credit because it’s an interesting option for the deck.
So there you have it: The (In my opinion) most underrated deck in the format. I can see why people wouldn’t want to play it, but that’s a great deck and it’s definitely a great option if you want to play something good that people probably haven’t tested against. I love Bouffalant in this format, especially with Aspertia and Eviolite, and I want to see him used more often because he is amazing. I could even see an Aspertia Blastoise deck working (Although to be honest Eels are a much better engine). Tornadus EX is also amazing for early game pressure against decks like Blastoise, Hydreigon, and Klinklang that need to set Stage Twos up to win.
So that’s it! If you have any questions about the article or the decklists or comments about the metagame then feel free to let me know, we have a wonderful comment section below. I respond to everything, so go ahead and post. Good luck at Regionals if you’re going, and if I helped you choose a deck with this article that’s great, because this article was mostly for people who are unsure of what to play. I should have a Regionals report up if I do alright either here or on the SixPrizes forums, so check for that, and I should have something about Plasma out after Regionals. I bid you farewell until I decide to write again!
Hey OneHitKO people, it’s getting to be time where you guys need to see another article, so I thought I may as well do a tournament report like Pikkdogs used to do (Except these will be somewhat successful reports) even though I usually don’t write reports (Although the purpose of the reports are more to show you more about playing the deck), and then so you have something interesting to read about I’ll do a deck analysis of the deck I believe is the BDIF of this format, Hydreigon/Darkrai. Anyway, I feel like getting this started, so here are the reports:
Saturday, November 17th: Cameron Park, CA
I wake up early, make my decklist, and wait for the people who I promised a ride to to show up. Once they both get here, we start the two hour drive to Cameron Park.
When we get there we are greeted by cabd from the SixPrizes forums, and I play some fun games with the people I came with. It turns out that 15 Seniors show up, 1 short of a Top 4. I wait a bit for pairings and I am already paired against someone I’d rather not play early.
Round 1 vs. Emily w/Blastoise
I start Sableye to her Kyurem and she goes first. I have a dead hand, and when she plays a Juniper my hopes sink, but then she plays her Tropical Beach and I’m happy. I play a few cards and Beach, drawing into a Supporter and a Dieno. The next turn I opt to Confuse Ray as I still don’t have Items that would be worth Junk Hunting for, and I get a heads. A Confusion Tails and a Candy to Hydreigon later I Night Spear to KO her Kyurem. I then proceed to take out her Blastoise, and although she manages to get a new one out I still steamroll.
1-0
Round 2 vs. Griffin w/Hydreigon
I start Ditto to his Dark Deino, and I see relief in his eyes when I Transform into a Sableye. I bench a couple Deino and a Darkrai and Junk Hunt for stuff that would net me a Hydreigon next turn. He Ns me, but I still manage to get the Candy-Hydreigon. When he manages to get his Hydreigon out I Dragonblast it. He makes a crucial misplay late game by Max Potioning his Darkrai before retreating, meaning that he no longer can KO my Hydreigon because he has a Darkrai stuck active, and I manage to win from there.
2-0
At this point everyone I had come with was 2-0, while five of the other good Seniors had taken a loss already (including Griffin and Emily). The only other 2-0 at this point is playing a Tornadus Donk deck and we all feel confident. We joke about how height is an advantage in Pokemon (The shortest of us is 5’10), and eat lunch. Lunch then proceeds to end and I get my Round 3 pairing.
Round 3 vs. Blake w/Hydreigon
Blake is the other guy I came with, and I’m 3-1 against him at Premier Events, so I know that at least I’m not facing a donk deck. However, I’m not confident here because I know that he’d been playing Hydreigon a lot longer than me, but I had also been playing it long enough that the Hydreigon mirror is usually determined by who set 2 Hydreigon up and who didn’t. Knowing that, I kind of felt afraid because I had been having some consistency issues recently, but I had cut my 1-0-1 Serperior tech recently as well, hoping that it would help.
However, I start Deino to his Sableye and he gets a T2 Night Spear to kill my only Dieno in play. I make a game out of it for a bit, but when time is called I have no way to take prizes without giving some up.
2-1.
At this point I know I need extremely good resistance to cut, but I feel like I should try to get points out of this at least.
Round 4 vs. Conner w/Mewtwo/Rayquaza/Eels
I start Sableye to his Rayquaza EX and he Celestial Roars, and I’m surprised when he flips over a Double Colorless Energy. I read the text on Celestial Roar and I laugh a bit when it says that you have to attach the energy, meaning the Rayquaza would have a useless energy attached until it was knocked out. He gets a couple Eels set up, but I Catcher-kill them and he has none left. He can’t power anything up, and I kill a Ray with Dragonblast and a Mewtwo with Cresselia for game.
3-1.
I think it’s the middle of that game when I hear chatter from the next game over about the Fliptini someone teched into their Hydreigon deck for Deino paralysis. Griffin says “Victini is strange. Like a three-legged donkey”. Honestly I don’t know what that has to do with the article, but I thought it was a funny thing for someone to say.
Blake lost against the other guy I came with, Paulo, but I find out that my tough games in the first two rounds paid off as both were 3-1. My tiebreakers consist of 3 3-1s and a 2-2, and Blake’s consist of a 4-0, 3-1, and 2 2-2s, meaning we’re both at 11-5, but because he doesn’t have the 4-0 in his Opponent’s Opponents I sneak into cut. This would have been so much simpler if another Senior had shown up.
Top 2 vs. Paulo w/Klinklang
Game One: We both start with dead hands, but my Sableye start plus Skyla topdeck nets me a Computer Search that I Junk Hunted for about 5 times to get a slow but certain setup. He is finally forced to Juniper 2 Rare Candy and 2 Klinklang away and he draws crap off of it. From there I put Eviolites on board and steamroll.
Game Two: He is unable to evolve his Klinks early game and I kill 3 in two turns. Afterwards I kill his EX’s with Night Spear, and when he Max Potions his active Darkrai when I have two prizes left I Catcher-Dragonblast the other for game.
So I end the day with a win, and while the only good thing I pull is a Ditto, I still get a cool-looking trophy and 50 points (or so I think). Turns out I made a mistake on my POP ID meaning that I don’t get the points from it. Oh well.
In the end, the results looked like this:
1st: Theo S w/Hydreigon
2nd: Paulo A w/Klinklang
3rd: Blake U w/Hydreigon
4th: Emily C w/Blastoise
Friday, November 23rd: Modesto, CA
After my win in Cameron Park I decide I like Hydreigon enough to play it again. I make no changes to my list except that I cut a Catcher for a Golden Catcher I had traded for at league two days before. I meet up with Benjamin, the Junior who I’m giving the ride to today, and we start the hour-and-a-half drive to Modesto.
I meet up with some of the guys from the Sacramento area including Griffin, Connor, and Zachary, and we see that once again only 15 Seniors had shown up. We complain about that until pairings are posted, and I’m paired against Griffin for the second Cities in a row.
Round 1 vs. Griffin w/Hydreigon
This game is fairly uneventful. I get a T2 Night Spear and his Deinos don’t survive very long. When he drops his Mewtwo I have Catcher-Cresselia for my final two prizes.
1-0.
Round 2 vs. Will w/Blastoise
This was one of the most nerve-wrecking games I’d ever played. I get a quick start but he manages to load up a Keldeo with enough energy to one-shot an Eviolited Darkrai. Thankfully I Juniper into the Blend I need to score a KO on the Keldeo as it had been hit with the 30 Night Spear damage, and after that I N him to one to lock his energy and Junk Hunt for the Catcher I need to win. He whiffs both the N and the Energies he needs and I Catcher out his Mewtwo and use Cresselia. It’s safe to say that if I don’t draw that Blend he takes the win.
2-0
Round 3 vs. I don’t remember w/Hydreigon
I get my second T2 Night Spear of the day and kill all his Deinos, and he scoops.
3-0
Round 4 vs. Zachary w/Darkrai/Landorus/Terrakion
I remember actually having an early lead (possibly thanks to another T2 Night Spear maybe), but when he uses Terrakion to take four prizes he’s down to one left to my three. However, I take a prize somewhere (I think on a Sableye), and then time is called. He attacks with Landorus during his turn, and his field consists of the following: A damaged Darkrai with two energy attached, a Keldeo with a Darkness, and an active Landorus with a Fighting. I N him to one and Junk Hunt for the Catcher he needs for the win, and he whiffs the Energy or Energy Switch.
I actually feel bad for him because he whiffs cut on resistance, but I guess it’s what you have to do to guarantee safety. Yay!
Top 2 vs. Will w/Blastoise
I’m surprised to see my Round 2 opponent, but I guess his deck worked against other decks. Anyway, we talk a bit, and then things start.
Game One: I get a quick Hydreigon and I start hitting Keldeos for 90 and 30, after hitting a clutch Tool Scrapper to get rid of both his Eviolites, and his early game pressure doesn’t work as well as 3 EX kills in four turns.
Game Two: This game goes pretty much the same as Game One except that I kill his Blastoise. Sorry man, but that’s the way things work out sometimes.
Hydreigon Deck Analysis
Remember in my Regionals article where I said I had tried and tried to get Hydreigon to work, but I never had? Well, I have. It’s won me two Cities so far, and it’s probably going to be my play for the next few.
4 Pokemon Catcher
4 Max Potion
3 Dark Patch
3 Rare Candy
2 Ultra Ball
2 Random Receiver
2 Eviolite
2 Tool Scrapper
1 Heavy Ball
1 Computer Search
-24
4 N
4 Professor Juniper
2 Skyla
1 Bianca
-11
7 Darkness Energy
3 Blend GRPD
-10
Some of the odd things about this list is the fourth Catcher, fourth Max Potion, and fourth Sableyeas well as the Heavy Ball instead of a third Ultra Ball and the second Tool Scrapper.
The four-of Catcher and Max Potion are mostly so that you have four to use over the course of the game. Getting the game-winning Catcher in a crucial spot where you’ve used 3 already is clutch, and Catchers are great against Eel decks and they are also necessary against Blastoise decks so that you can KO the damaged EX with Hydreigon. Catchers are also your most valuable tool in the mirror (I’ll explain below).
The fourth Sableye is there because Sableye is my ideal starter, and I want to increase the chance of that happening. With the fourth Sableye you have it in your opening hand 40% of the time and if you include mulligans you start Sableye a good amount (I’m bad at math, so I’m not even going to try). I like having it there because starting Sableye is the key to a quick Hydreigon and it also allows you to get back the clutch Catchers and Max Potions you discard with Ultra Ball and Juniper early game assuming you have extra space for Junk Hunting.
The Heavy Ball is so that I can pretty much Skyla for a Hydreigon as well as thinning my deck a bit. I’d prefer to do this without Ultra Ball as most of the time I don’t want to discard anything (I’ll get to this later in the article).
The second Tool Scrapper is there for the mirror. It forces your opponent to retreat their active Darkrai for a new one, and if you’re the player with Hydreigons remaining at the end of the game this can be really clutch. Even if you don’t, you’re a Catcher away from two prizes without having to Dragonblast, an action that can be risky in the mirror.
Matchups
The Mirror – 50/50
When I first started playing Hydreigon (Right after Regionals), I asked my friend who had been playing the deck for three months now “How do you play the mirror?”.
His response was simple: “You win the Hydreigon war”.
After that, I had to ask “What’s the Hydreigon war?”.
His response was “It’s like the Mewtwo war, but a lot more fun”.
Anyway, back to what makes sense: This matchup will come down to one of two things: Either who gets the first Night Spear or who gets the most Hydreigon out. If you can get an early Night Spear plus a clutch Catcher on the Deino or Zweilous your opponent is waiting to evolve, or if both players have Hydreigons out then it results in yes, a Hydreigon war (Which is, if you ask, more fun than a mindless Mewtwo war).
The Hydreigon war is, unlike the Mewtwo war, commonly won by the player who starts it. Why is this? Because the player who starts the Hydreigon war will have the first kill on a Hydreigon, and if both players get the same number of Hydreigon out either before or during the Hydreigon war the player who starts it will commonly win.
Another clutch factor during the Hydreigon war is energy. For each Hydreigon that goes down you lose 4 energy (with the exception of the first Hydreigon that dies, that one will commonly have none), so you need to have some extra energy on the field at your disposal or have enough Dark Patches to get another Dragonblast off next turn.
One thing I would advise during the Hydreigon war is taking a turn without using a Hydreigon to attack. While this can be a risky play, getting a Night Spear off while you get extra energy into play or Junk Hunting for two Dark Patches to get more energy in play (This will usually net you 1-2 energy unless you get N’d). Unless your opponent has a Catcher you will probably be able to buy a turn (Although it is important not to put ANY energy on your remaining Hydreigon, not necessarily just then but any time you aren’t attacking with it). Doing this buys you a turn to get extra energy on the field. Of course, if you have enough energy to Dragonblast already this is not necessary.
Another thing to note about the mirror is that it is about 70% luck. There is no skill involved in getting a T2 Night Spear and there is little in getting multiple Hydreigons out. The little skill in this matchup is probably the Night Spear damage, knowing whether to Max Potion Hydreigon or Darkrai (Almost always Hydreigon unless you have multiple out) and knowing when to Junk Hunt (Which is fine mid-game in my opinion).
I haven’t played a Hydreigon mirror in a while where both players had Hydreigons out at the end of the game, and I haven’t played in a Hydreigon mirror ever where a player won without Hydreigons (Not that it isn’t possible). The one thing I don’t like about Hydreigon is the luck-based and common mirrors.
Some cards you should include if Hydreigon is popular in your area are:
Zweilous DRX 95
I usually end with the weird techs, but I don’t feel like it today. Zweilous is good in the mirror because it can OHKO an opposing Hydreigon with its second attack for only three Energy and it’s also possible to discard important Blend Energies with a Crunch flip. While it isn’t the best tech, if Hydreigon is common in your area you might consider dropping the Draw In or NVI Zweilous for this.
A Fourth Dark Patch
Dark Patches are really good in the Hydreigon mirror because A: You’ll be discarding energy with Hydreigon’s attack that is incredibly important in the mirror, and because if you’re the player that loses your Hydreigons you still have a separate engine, although you’re still definitely not in a good position.
Blastoise – 75/25 in your favor (If no healing) or 50/50 (If healing)
Keldeo ain’t got nuthin on me.
Unlike the mirror, playing against Blastoise is more about leading Darkrai and finishing Hydreigon than leading Hydreigon and finishing Darkrai. Your best bet is to put Night Spear damage on Keldeos, Tool Scrap Eviolites, and knock out their Blastoise. I believe that in the report I discussed how early game pressure is no match for knockouts on EX’s.
If they manage to load up a Keldeo with enough energy to OHKO anything on your field, do two things: First, knock that Keldeo out as soon as possible, and N them to a low hand. Unless they hit a draw Supporter or a Cilan they will likely energy drought until they topdeck something useful. And since their energy acceleration is from hand and not from field or discard like Hydreigon or Eelektrik, they will likely not have enough energy to attack for the rest of the game, and you can continue to KO three EX’s to win the game.
If they play Super Scoop Up or Max Potions, things could get interesting, however. If they can heal the damage done by Night Spear to any of their Pokemon, you can no longer take three EX kills in four turns. However, most lists I’ve seen that use healing only play 3 Super Scoop Ups or 3 Max Potions, so your goal in the early game should be to do what you can to make them use up the healing. Your win will only be delayed a couple turns barring them hitting heads or Energy Retrievals a lot more frequently than you’d like. If they take a few early prizes, Ning them could be great.
Some players will try to go early game Kyurem against you. Have none of it, Dragonblast that Kyurem right away. If there’s an Eviolite attached, Tool Scrapper is your friend. Max Potion the Darkrais that got hit and then Junk Hunt the Max Potions back. While this does use up a turn and give up a prize, unless you somehow go down four prizes before you start your “3 EX kills in four turns” strategy you usually win from that alone.
Unlike some people, I see no need to tech for this matchup unless your area has a whole lot of it. Seeing as how in 10 matches I played against it 3 times (1 of which was the same player), and how I’ve won all four games I played against it, I see no need to tech a card that, in fun games with my friend, makes him instantly scoop when I start it (about 1 in 10 games, imagine starting Shaymin Round One), and it’s only really been the difference in the game (meaning he won because of it) a couple times. I see no need to tech for a matchup that is 60/40 in your favor at the worst.
I will admit Shaymin has other uses, but I really just don’t like it. If your area is 75% or more Blastoise (The only time I’d tech for it), I’d play Virizion EPO instead. It goes through Eviolite and doesn’t require the opponent to take prizes before you. This is just my opinion, I know some people love Shaymin, but I honestly don’t like it.
RayEels – 60/40 in your favor
RayEels is the BDIF from Cities results so far (although I still say Hydreigon is), so a decent matchup is in order. RayEels is usually based on whether you hit clutch Catchers and whether you set 2 Hydreigon up. Their strategy will to be to use the Shiny Ray to kill Hydreigons and go through Eviolite on Darkrai. Your best bet is to try to hit the Ray with Night Spear damage early game and Catcher-KO their Eels to prevent them from using Rayquaza EX to run through you.
If they drop a Ray EX, use Hydreigon to knock it out. Even if they do kill your Hydreigon, you will have taken two prizes to their one off of that, and you will be able to take more prizes with Darkrai in a turn or two. If you have enough of a prize lead from killing the Eels you should be able to win at the end if they drop a Ray. If you use 3+ Catcher killing Eels you should try to get a Junk Hunt off to get them back, as you will need a game winning Catcher in a lot of games with this deck.
If RayEels is popular enough in your area you could tech Giratina and Giant Cape (Although I wouldn’t recommend it). Giratina OHKOes any Dragon-weak Pokemon and the Giant Cape will prevent mini-Ray from OHKOing it right back.
I honestly don’t know much else about this matchup as RayEels isn’t too popular in my area. There are probably other articles that describe this matchup in more detail, so check those out if you have extra time.
Landorus Decks – 50/50
Dragon Deino is mainly there for the Landorus matchup. It could also be useful in combination with the three legged donkey (If you don’t get that go back and read the article), but I don’t think I would play that. Landorus applies a lot of early game pressure to you, although two Night Spears and a Dragonblast result in two Landorus kills for you if you manage to get a Hydreigon out. One thing to watch for is them using Land’s Judgement, but if you get enough energy in play this shouldn’t matter, and if they can for sure next turn you can always use Cresselia (Sure, you might lose a Darkrai, but you won’t lose the Energy).
If they use Garchomp as a secondary attacker, be sure not to keep Blends on your active as Mach Cut will be bad for you and your ability to Dragonblast.
There aren’t any techs against Landorus that I can think of, but playing more Dark Patch can certainly help because they will probably get a Land’s Judgement off on your Darkrai once or twice a game (Although if it’s twice you’re in trouble), and you need to keep your energy in play.
A Couple Tips and Tricks
A couple things I’ve found while playing Hydreigon are that if you start with Sableye and another Pokemon, it’s often best not to start that Pokemon on your bench. If you go second and your opponent has a Catcher, you will be less likely to have a T1 Junk Hunt, and it’s definitely better to T1 Junk Hunt for sure than a possibility that the Darkrai or Deino you’re holding will be your active Pokemon. Even if they do N, you will be likely to get a Deino playing 2 Ultra Ball, 1 Computer Search, 2 Skyla, 3 Deino, and 11 outs to Supporters that aren’t previously listed.
Another thing is that you don’t want to discard too much energy for Dark Patch early game. Remember that you only have 3 Dark Patch (if you go off of my list), and some of those you’ll want to use to recover from discarding energy because you used Dragonblast. You want to rely more on manual energy drops and less on Dark Patch with Hydreigon because Dark Patch isn’t all that critical to your strategy.
Sometimes leaving Energy on your active so that you can then Max Potion and discard the Darkness so that you can Dark Patch it back is good so that you can play a Dark Patch and make yourself less vulnerable to a late-game N or so that you can draw an extra card with Bianca. This is a pretty rare scenario, but it can be a good play at times. If you don’t have a Dark Patch, however, definitely don’t do that because it’s better to have the energy in play for sure.
One more thing I want to say is that a mid-game Junk Hunt is not always a bad thing. Of course if you need to kill something that turn it’s not the best play, but giving up a turn and a prize for two Trainers you need late game isn’t always the worst possible play. In the late game I oftenly find myself looking for that last Catcher to win the game, so I see no reason not to turn your 1-2 outs to a Catcher into 2-4. In the mirror this is a bit less viable because it gives your opponent another turn to look for the Max Potion, but if you time it right there won’t be damage for your opponent to remove.
What do you guys think about Hydreigon for Cities? I like it right now because it has access to Sableye and you have to OHKO to take prizes most of the time. I also like the favorable Blastoise matchup and favorable Eels matchup. If you guys have questions or comments, feel free to comment below, and I’ll try to get an article out about a deck I played against recently that I found to be fairly interesting. Thanks for reading, and I bid you farewell.
Hey OneHitKO people, it’s me, coolestman22 again, here with another article to try to help keep the site going. I said in my last article that I would try to write about the techs Ditto brings to the table, and I decided to do just that.
Anyway, Esa wrote a neat article about how good Ditto is on his blog (Which I recommend reading if you haven’t), but
Techs.
he didn’t go over the usefulness of the techs you could set up via Ditto. He mentioned a few, and he did a bit of reviewing them, but he didn’t go that much in detail.
So without further ado, I guess I should start the article. Please do note that these are not ranked, they’re just there in the order they came to my head in.
Dusknoir BoC
Dusknoir is probably going to be the most popular Ditto tech. The Ability is just so powerful that if you manage to get a Dusknoir out, it will probably lead to a few prizes by itself. You could also use it to take out your opponent’s all-important Stage Two Energy accelerator, or use the damage from the EX they retreated to kill their active EX with energy.
However, without Ditto, the second a Duskull hits the field, it is very likely to be Catcher-killed, even without Junk Arm in format. That is why you need Ditto to play a Dusknoir tech. If you can get a Dusknoir out, it is a very powerful thing to have on the field.
Zoroark BW
Zoroark is an interesting tech (I wonder how many times I’m gonna say that this article), but it’s not one I’m big on this format. Last Cities I played a 1-1 in my Audino Box deck (That was my crazy stupid rogue that I would have played if I had gone to one more Cities) to hit Chandelure, Magnezone, Cobalion, and other things for “I win”. It was extremely good, but I had to cut it because of space concerns.
I don’t think I like Zoroark all too much now, however, because nowadays it just doesn’t have anything to hit for either weakness, OHKOes, or an effect. The main meta things now are Rayquaza, Landorus, Darkrai, and Keldeo, and Zoroark just isn’t good against any of those.
Maybe in another format, Zoroark will be really good, but I doubt that will happen any time soon. It does have a secret rare in NXD, so if the rotation is NXD-on maybe Ditto will allow for it to be good.
Ninetales DRX
Ninetales serves as a 5th Catcher. If your opponent sees four Catcher in your discard pile, they will probably play differently until you Junk Hunt them back (if you do). However, if you play a Ninetales you’ll be able to use a Catcher
The Other 5th Catcher
that they likely won’t see coming, and therefore it will probably be much more devastating.
Also, who wouldn’t want an extra Catcher? If you have space for a 1-1 Ninetales tech and you don’t play Rare Candy, Ninetales might just be the best possible tech you can play with Ditto. I really like the surprise factor it has, and having a 5th Catcher can win games.
The reason that Ninetales wasn’t played in BW-DRX is, of course, there was no surprise factor, and the Vulpix is likely to be Catcher-KOed. With Ditto, you get the surprise factor as well as a higher HP basic to sit there instead of a Vulpix (Which matters in the case of Mewtwo or Darkrai), and if they put enough damage on the Ditto you can Transform it into something else.
Serperior BW
Serperior is an interesting tech indeed, and it’s one I have experimented with in my Hydreigon deck with success. It brings me back to the days where 1-0-1 Nidoqueen RR techs were a thing because of the old Rare Candy rules. Serperior is just a stackable version of that, and in Darkrai mirrors it can be devastating (It’s practically an Eviolite that can’t be Tool Scrapped and reduces more damage the longer it goes unattacked). I have found that with Serperior you can switch Darkrais around via Dark Trance, and then slowly heal all of them when they get damaged.
It’s also really good against the Night Spear damage that Darkrai does to the bench. Suddenly, that 30 becomes 10 before your opponent can do anything. So with Serperior in play that 90-30 becomes a 70-10, and if you retreat to a fresh Darkrai it will become a 50-0 or 50-20 depending on whether they Night Spear the same Pokemon.
Against other decks it isn’t too shabby either if you’re using Darkrai. If you Eviolite your Darkrai the Keldeo is only doing 90 (Assuming 3 waters) or 110 (Assuming four waters), and then you make that 70 or 90. If you retreat to a fresh Darkrai that turns into 50 and 70.
I’m not going to keep talking about Serperior, but I have found it’s great in any Darkrai deck, especially Darkrai/Hydreigon. With Ditto, you can disguise your Serperior tech as something more prominent and then go Transform-Rare Candy-Serperior.
Krookodile DEX
This tech probably isn’t as legitimate as the others, but I feel like giving it a shout-out. What it does is that it has an attack called Bombast that does 40 damage for each prize card you’ve taken. What this does is that if you’ve already taken five prizes, it will OHKO anything barring Wailord with Giant Cape and Regigigas EX/Tornadus EX with Asperita City Gym and either Eviolite or Giant Cape.
This pretty much cancels the need for a game-winning Catcher because you have a card that can OHKO everything meta regardless. However, the attack costs four energy (Two Darks included) and in any Darkrai deck you’re likely to have extra Night Spear damage somewhere that can be moved around with the most likely better Dusknoir tech. So unless you’re playing some weird Zoroark variant, Dusknoir is likely the better call if you have the Darks to make playing Krookodile somewhat reasonable.
However, it does have a cool shiny version from Dragons Exalted, so for league play if you want to use your shiny Krookodile you can.
Bronzong NXD
This would be the anti-Max Potion tech that the format needs so much. It has existed, but it’s always been Catcher bait. However, with Ditto a 1-1 Bronzong NXD tech could turn your Hydreigon match in the right direction seeing as they need to attack with Hydreigon to OHKO unless they have a Dark Claw, and if you can hit the Hydreigon somehow first they will have to either retreat and not OHKO Bronzong and instead try to Night Spear it to death, and even then you can either power up a Raikou or other sniper or Catcher it out. If they only have one Hydreigon in play this could win you the game.
Leavanny NVI
Leavanny is probably not the best tech you can play, but it certainly has its ups.
Imagine you’re playing Hydreigon/Darkrai and your opponent is playing Terrakion EX/Terrakion with at least 2 Tool Scrapper. You’re not going to be able to keep your Eviolites when you need them, so what do you do? Get your Leavanny out. Leavanny will single-handedly win you the matchup against any deck with Terrakion if you manage to get it out, and it also makes benching Cresselia/Mewtwo/etc. a less risky decision. However, it isn’t something I’d recommend unless your meta is full of Terrakion.
Reuniclus BW
Reuniclus is an interesting tech, and I can see a couple of uses for it. Imagine you’re playing Blastoise/Keldeo, and you need to heal your Keldeos. Reuniclus can give you a turn or two of invincibility before it gets Catcher-killed, and you can put the damage pretty much anywhere you want, meaning that the damage you have in play can be spread out to 10 or 20 everywhere and likely not making any difference. Since Reuniclus is going to get Catcher-killed anyway, you won’t get your field flooded.
Another play is that if your opponent uses all four Catcher, you can Transform-Rare Candy-Reuniclus and gain invincibility until they either use a Ninetales, Junk Hunt, or your field floods.
You should probably put 80 damage on Reuniclus itself unless you’re playing against Darkrai, Chandelure, or Flygon, because the Reuniclus is going to get knocked out, so you may as well heal 80 (Even if your opponent has used all of their Catcher, it’s still the safe play).
Reuniclus is certainly an interesting tech, but it will likely take a back seat to Dusknoir and Ninetales, and other preferred Ditto techs. It’s something to experiment with in any deck that plays the Ditto and Rare Candy already, and it may end up being the tech you like the most.
Empoleon DEX
Empoleon is basically a draw engine if you get it out. If you run Waters or Blends for Attack Command it’s useful too, but Empoleon is mostly just a way to discard useless cards and get out of N lock.
However, this is a lot more useful than that paragraph makes it out to be. N lock can be the difference between a clutch win and a devastating loss. Hand-reliant decks that play Ditto and Rare Candy such as Blastoise and GothGor should definitely consider Empoleon as a tech to not only provide a draw engine to get out of N lock but to also to use Attack Command in clutch spots.
Salamence DV
Salamence was probably the only hyped Pokemon from Dragon Vault unless you count Rayquaza, but it probably isn’t going to live up to the hype. However, it does make for an interesting 1-0-1 tech for its Ability. While you don’t have Hooligan’s or other things to reduce it more, forcing your opponent to discard until they have four is really good, especially if you force them to draw cards somehow. However, there are much better techs to use, and Salamence is probably best used as a fun thing for league.
Milotic DRX
Milotic is an interesting tech because it’s not for the late game, but instead more of an early game set-up assister. Having a triple Computer Search can be great for slow decks and it’s something I would consider in any slow deck.
However, starting with a 30 HP Feebas isn’t something I would look forward to.
Shiftry NXD
Giant Fan.
Oh, god. This would be hilarious if someone pulled this off. However, Shiftry’s flippyness makes it unviable for anything other than league play.
But it would be hilarious if someone pulled off a Giant Fan. I think I’ll play a 1-0-1 line at league just for the lolz (However, I don’t think I’ll ever top my Carnivine DEX tech in Hydreigon)
Toxicroak BoC
Toxicroak is like a Psychic-type Terrakion, except it uses any energy. This is great against Mewtwo if you manage to surprise your opponent with it, because it will OHKO any non-Eviolited Mewtwo and with a PlusPower or Tool Scrapper you can get around that.
Toxicroak is an interesting tech in any deck that has a hard time against Mewtwo, and the surprise factor works really well with it. I think I’m gonna test Toxicroak a bit in some decks, and you certainly should too.
Chandelure NVI
Chandelure is another interesting tech that would see zero play without Ditto. I felt it was worth a mention, but as I described it I thought of more and more uses for it and now I think I’m gonna try it out.
Remember back in the day when Kingdra Prime was considered a tech? Well, this is like a triple Kingdra Prime when you can somehow get it active, whether it’s via knockout, or whatever. A Chandelure tech combined with Night Spear can get the OHKO on more things and it can also get knockouts on the bench, and it’s also useful for knocking out EX’s with either Dragon Blast alone or extra Night Spear damage, and it can serve as the single or triple PlusPower you need for the knockout when your active gets killed. And because Hydreigon can give anything free retreat, it’s no big deal to get it out of the way.
It’s also useful in Blastoise because whenever you need extra damage you can either retreat or use a Switch if you play it, and go to Chandelure, get extra damage on the board, and Step In. I could see someone playing either Hydreigon or Blastoise variants with a 1-0-1 or 2-0-2 Chandelure line just because of the lack of need to worry about retreating Chandelure.
Vanilluxe NXD
Vanilluxe is probably going to be another rarely-played one, but I can see people liking a Warp Point a turn. Not only is Vanilluxe a free Switch whenever you need it, meaning that it’s not only whatever you want active when you want it and an out of special conditions, but it also puts pressure on the opponent. For instance, let’s say you’re playing against Darkrai/Hydreigon and they just whiffed the Max Potion and only have two Darkrais out. They are forced to either promote the damaged Darkrai, give you a free hit at their Hydreigon (Remember that they whiffed the Max Potion last turn, which means they only have one hand to get it if any unless they Skyla for it),or give you a free prize on a Sableye or something else with low HP, and you can always Catcher something else up if you don’t like what they gave you.
Drifblim DRX
Drifblim is an interesting tech that I would consider in any metagame with a bunch of Special Energy, because it can hit really hard once some hit the discard pile. It is a good tech in either Hammertime or Garchomp decks because they both run cards that discard Special Energy. When you get 3 Special Energy in the discard pile suddenly Drifblim is swinging for 150, and with Enhanced Hammer and Mach Cut you can usually discard your opponent’s specials. Now with Ditto it’s more of a surprise tech and you can get away with a 1-1 line if you can hide it.
Well, that wraps up this article. You guys know I like when you leave comments, so any discussion is welcome. I’ll try to get another article out sometime this week. So ta-ta for now, and I’ll try to get something out soon.
Mike Lesky 
balasar 
coolestman22 
