Espeon Prime

Running with Scizors, and Umbreons.

A big hello to all members of Omar-Nation.  This is Pikkdogs here with a deck idea for you.  It may not be the best deck ever, but it is actually a pretty good deck that deserves some credit.  

A couple weeks ago I wrote an article about walls in the Pokemon TCG, well this is a deck that uses two of those Pokemon.  The idea of this deck is to hit for a moderate amount, while not letting your opponent attack you.

The Main Attackers

Scizor Prime has the “Red Armor” Poke-Body which does not let any attack damage him from a Pokemon that has any Special Energy cards attached to it.  This means that if your opponent is playing Steelix Prime or Garchomp C Lv. X there is a good chance that those cards will need to adapt just to even scratch you.  Since Scizor Prime is a Steel type it can benefit from Special Metal Energies, making it somewhat of a tank.

Umbreon Ud has an attack called “Moonlight Fang” which does 30 damage and does not let any Pokemon with Poke-Powers or Poke-Bodies inflict any effects of an attack on to Umbreon.  Since Umbreon is a Dark type, this means he can take advantage of Special Darkness Energies, meaning his attacks do +10 damage for every Special Dark attached.  So if you put an Expert Belt on him and 2 Special Darks, Umbreon is doing “Moonlight Fang” for 70 damage!  That is not a whole lot, but if its also preventing damage its great.  It also can hit Gengar and Gengar Prime for weakness.  Umbreon also benefits from the fact that it evolves from Eevee.  You can use certain Eeveelutions to make sure that he has free retreat, no weakness,  and an extra +20 HP.

The Techs

This deck also has a few special techs in it, that give it better matchups.   

Espeon Md– As mentioned before, Umbreon’s HP can be increased by 20 with the help of Espeon MD.  Espeon can make sure Umbreon can survive 1 good hit, so you have time to Seeker him back up.  With Espeon and an expert belt, Umbreon has 130 HP!  Thats not bad.

Espeon Prime– This deck is great against decks that use Special Energies or those that use Pokemon with Poke-Power or Poke-Bodies, but what about Machamp SF?  To stand up against Machamp SF you can play an Espeon Prime and be able to “Moonlight Fang” for a 2HKO.  This is because Espeon Prime’s Poke-Body “Evolutionary Memories,” let Espeon use the attack of any Eeveelution as its own.  Its 140 HP (with Espeon MD and Expert Belt) is also very hard to knock out by Machamp.  If your opponent tries to switch to Machamp Prime, you can just use Umbreon to wall.  If you include a Lucario GL in your build you can possibly score a OHKO with “Quick Blow.”  If you don’t like Espeon Prime, instead you can use Uxie Lv. X, but you might need to include Double Colorless Energy.

Spiritomb–  This card serves many purposes.  First, if you play against Uxie donk you are basically auto-loss.  This card will give you a fighting chance against it.  Next, it helps you get a turn 2 Umbreon or Scizor even if you start first.  It also provides a little trainer lock to confuse and mess up your opponent.

The List

Pokemon- 23

  • 4- Eevee’s (either MD or RR)
  • 3-Umbreon Prime
  • 1-Espeon MD
  • 1-Espeon Prime
  • 4-Spiritomb Ar
  • 3-Scyther SF
  • 3-Scizor Prime
  • 1-Scizor Md
  • 2-Uxie
  • 1-Unown Q

Energies-12

  • Special Dark-4
  • Special Metal-4
  • Basic Metal-2
  • Basic Dark-2

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums- 25

  • 2- Conductive Quarry-Excellent for getting back Special Metals
  • 2-Energy Exchanger- This deck is a hybrid of two decks, so you need consistency in energy
  • 4- Pokemon Collector
  • 3-Bebe’s Search
  • 2-Pokemon Communication
  • 2-Warp Point
  • 2-Expert Belt
  • 2-Judge
  • 2-Seeker
  • 3-Professor Oaks New Theory
  • 1- Luxury Ball

So there is the list, it is a basic list that can be tweaked for your own tastes.  But this is a decent list that should keep you going even in times of trainerlock.

Matchups

The two sayings I use most are, “Where’d my pants go?” and “A deck is only as good as its matchups”, so lets look at the matchups. 

Luxchomp– Its always tough to play versatile deck. Luxchomp players seem to be able to adapt to anything.  You better get your thinking caps on because this will be a very cerebral battle.  To be able to win you need to get 3-4 Special Metal energy cards on Scizor Prime and then you can tank through the field.  But a good SP player will be able to get rid of Scizor before it gets that many energies.  This is a winnable matchup for you as long as you don’t get matched up against a great player.  40-60.

Machamp–  Machamp has recently re- gained more popularity, and you need to be ready for it.  You don’t run basic Pokemon who attack, so your okay there.  This forces them to either attack with “Hurricane Punch”, or attack with Machamp Prime.  Use Espeon Prime and Espeon to make it tough for them.  The toughest part of this matchup is getting an umbreon and espeon on the bench, and an Espeon Prime active.  Once you do this, just 2 knockouts should seal the game for you.  A very winnable matchup, 70-30.

Gyarados– Easy matchup to talk about.  Unless your opponent is stupid and puts a Special Energy on Gyarados then you are auto-loss. 10-90.

Trainerlock–  This is an interesting matchup.  You have their weakness, and it is very hard for them to attack you.  But, with Gengar Prime little actual attacking needs to be done. Your opponent will try to put things in the Lost Zone.  Use Special Darkness Energies to try to OHKO a Gengar Prime, if you can do it about 2-3 times you should be able to win. 90-10

Uxiedonk– If you get an early double spiritomb you win, if you get behind on prizes or donked early, you lose.  30-70

It isn’t a great deck, but is really fun.  As you can see it has some good matchups.  It can run through trainerlock and Machamp, but SP matchup is tough and Gyarados is Autoloss.  It might not be worthy of regionals, but it still is something you should build to test against.  One of the problems of this deck is that consistency suffers.  Since it is a mix of Scizor and Umbreon you sometimes want to setup Umbreon but only have stuff for Scizor.  People will always run Umbreon and Scizor because they are both popular Pokemon, so you better be ready for them.

Pikkdogs Pikks Three: Uxie Lv.X, Cherrim SF, and Espeon Prime

Hello all members of Omar-nation.  This is Pikkdogs here bringing you the often imitated but never duplicated “Pikk” Three article.  In this article, like every article, I will review three cards; one that is played often, one which I feel is underated, and one from a new or unreleased set.

I wish to say “Good Luck” to all those headed to Indy at the end of this week for the U.S. Pokemon National Championship. I hope you guys have a fun time and get to meet a lot of cool people.

For those of you, who like me are unable to go, I hope that we get some good testing done.  It is a good time for us to take apart all our decks and make new ones that fit the post rotation rules.  This year Teamomar.com will hook us all up and with twitter feeds live from the tournament, so we just have to check in at the .com and see how our twitter correspondents are doing and what kinda things they are seeing.  I don’t think the list of correspondents is finished yet but I know a Minnesota player here, Andy, will be updating us, and also my buddy Cheffords from Michigan will take the trip south and keep us informed.

Now enough with the chit-chat lets Pikk three.

The Staple: Uxie Lv.X

Description: Uxie X is a psychic Pokemon with 90 HP, a x2 psychic weakness, and a 1 retreat cost.  It has the Poke-Power named “Trade Off”.  This power lets you look at the top 2 cards of your deck and choose one to put in your hand, the other goes to the bottom of your deck.  It also has an attack named “Zen Blade.”  This attack does 60 damage for CC.

Analysis: The basic stats of this card don’t seem very impressive. It only has 90 HP, a retreat cost, and a x2 weakness.  But it actually is a really good card, and one of the better cards in the format. It is mostly used for its Poke Power, but “Zen Blade” can also be a useful attack.

It is used mainly in SP decks to give the deck a little more draw power.  “Trade Off” can be just what you need to get that card you need late in the game. “Zen Blade” can also help the SP decks have a better Machamp matchup, with the use of only one Double Colorless Energy.

But with Claydol GE leaving the format soon, Uxie will now become the best draw engine in the game.  So players may want to use Uxie Lv.X in all of their decks in which they use Uxie.

That being said, Uxie La is a great card by itself.  Its Poke-Power is a lot better than the Lv.X’s, it might be unnecessary to run the Lv.X if the regular Uxie will suffice.  It also is a Lv.X so to use Uxie X you will need to make it active and then retreat it.  This will require you to slow down your attack, use Unown Q, or use Bronzong G or Shaymin Ul’s Poke Power.

7.5-All in all its a good card, it can fit into almost any deck because almost every deck runs Uxie.  And “Trade Off” is a Poke-Power that could be useful.  But, “Trade Off” is inconsistent in getting you useful cards, and it is hard to retreat Uxie.  So I would only use it in SP or DCE decks.

The Underdog: Cherrim SF

Description– Cherrim SF is a grass Pokemon, has a low 80 HP, a 1 retreat cost, and a + 20 weakness to fire.  Its Poke-Body “Sunny Day” adds an extra 10 damage to any attack done by fire or grass Pokemon.  It has two attacks, the first attack is called “Salty Sweet Pollen.”  This attack does 20 damage for no energy.  The second attack is called “Solar Beam” it costs GCC. Remember each attack does 10 more because of its Poke-Body.  

Analysis– Cherrim is a common Pokemon in the Scizor/Cherrim deck, but I think it has more potential than that.

Its stats arent very great, but it doesn’t have a x2 weakness and it has a useful no energy attack.

As mentioned it is common in Scizor/Cherrim decks, but it can work in other decks.  My nephew runs it, with some success, in his Jumpluff deck.  Cherrim lets Jumpluff attack hard enough to knock out almost every Pokemon for just 1 energy (with an expert belt).  Some people are also starting to build Torterra Ul decks.  If you were to add Cherrim to a Torterra Ul deck the user would be able to use his “Giga Drain” attack to do 80 damage ( with an expert belt and two Cherrims) and remove 8 damage counters from him.  This could be a deadly combination if set up fast enough.

7/10– This card can fit into any Grass or Fire deck and make an immediate impact.  The ability to add damage is invaluable.  But it is not a great attacker and does not help speed your deck in any way.  It can be a good card in the right deck, but is not a game changing card.

The Young Gun: Espeon Prime UD

Description-Espeon Prime is expected to be included in the Undaunted Set.  Here are its stats: it is a psychic Pokemon wiht 100 HP, a psychic weakness and a 1 retreat cost.  Its Pokebody, “Memory Of Evolution,” lets Espeon use any attack of any Pokemon on your bench that evolves from Eevee.  Its has 1 attack of its own, named “Solar Ray.”  For PC you do 30 damage and remove 1 damage counter from each of your Pokemon.

Analysis– The Eeveelution decks never seem to be very good, but people always love to play them.  I feel that the new eevee’s coming out in the Undaunted Set will share the same fate.

This Espeon is pretty cool though, it has the option to use an attack of any Pokemon on your bench that evolves from Eevee.  So if you are playing an Eeveelution deck and are playing a deck that is weak to psychic you can play Espeon Prime and load him with at least one Rainbow Energy and use any attack that benefits you.  Its not a great attack but it will be a fun Pokemon to play in an Eevelution deck.

Its stats (besides the Poke-Body) are very bland and un-impressive.  So if you are using this deck you are using it for the Poke-Body.

5/10- Its not a great attacker or support Pokemon, but if you must play an Eevee deck, this card is a must play.  It is a versatile card that may be able to get you out of a tight spot.

Well thanks for stopping by for another installment of “Pikk” Three.  As always I look forward to reading your take on these cards, and if you have any suggestions for future articles please leave them in the comments box.