Vileplume

Stupid Deck Idea: Unfezant/Mew/Vileplume Lock

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs here with a Stupid Deck Idea for you.  I am also joined by my extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro. Say “Hi” Pedro.

Hi Pedro

Really, we did that joke?  We must be hitting the bottom of the barrel, that’s like a 1st grader joke.

Yep.

Anyway, Pedro why don’t you tell people about Ed’s Onehitko.com challenge.

Okay.  Well you guys have probably been reading the articles about Ed trying to come up with a deck made by you guys, the Onehitko.com community.  What happens is people send him some of their spare cards (usually more rogue cards) and we all come together to help him make a deck that he will play at the City Championships.  Well, Cities are very close for Minnesota people like Ed, so there is not much time to get your cards into Ed.  He does need your help to get a good deck that we can all have an input on and grow as a community.  So if you have some rogue cards like Switch, Professor Elm’s Training Method, or some random Pokemon; please pass them on to Ed so we can add them into our communal card pool.  If you want to read about how to get things going you can click here.  This really is a cool event and should be really fun, so please if you can, send a couple of your un-used cards in an  envelope and help us make a cool rogue deck!

Thanks Pedro, that sounded almost sincere.

It was, almost.  Why don’t you just go on and talk about this crappy deck we are all here to talk about?

Ok sounds good.  Cue the bolded titles please!

Strategy

A little background about this deck before we talk about it in depth.  I have bought a lot of Black and White packs in my lifetime, and like other people, I  hoped for lots of Reshirams and Zekroms.  But, it seemed like in every other pack I had pulled an Unfezant for a rare.  I got so mad that I kept on pulling this crap card that I almost started ripping them up.

Now fast forward to just after the release of Noble Victories.  I felt that the release of Victini might bring us a new era of rogue decks, so I went through my binder trying to find cards that would work with Victini.  What I found was that a surprising number of cards worked well with Victini, and could actually be semi-playable.  One of those cards was Unfezant BW.

Unfezant is a 120 HP stage 2 Pokemon with a 1 retreat cost, a lightning weakness, and a fighting weakness.  It has two attacks.  The second attack, called “Cutting Wind” does 70 damage for CCC.

That sounds a lot like “breaking wind”, which means to fart. 

So, what’s your point?

The point is that we get to say “Fart” a lot. 

Yes we do……………….Fart.

Anyway, the first attack is why Unfezant is here.  “Fly” does 50 damage and does not allow it to be attacked next turn by your opponent, if you flips heads on one coin flip.

So first things first.  The stats are not that great for a stage 2.  The weakness is bad, but the resistance is good.  The HP and Retreat cost are normal.  The 2nd attack stinks-

just like farting.

I think we get it Pedro.  The second attack isn’t good, but maybe the first one could be.  50 damage and no way of attacking him next turn could be great.  So let’s put him into a deck.  Of course we are going to want Victini in this deck. It would also be nice to have Vileplume in this deck, so that your opponent can not Pokemon  Catcher over your Unfezant wall.

There is a deck that Unfezant and Victini can slip right into easily.  That deck is Mew Lock.  This deck features Mew who uses Muk’s attacks to lock an unsuspecting Pokemon into the active spot.  It also has Yanmega Prime, Sunflora, and Vilplume in it.  Vileplume is to make sure your opponent cannot use the Switch card, Yanmega is a secondary attacker, and Sunflora gets the other two Pokemon out a lot faster.  To fit in Unfezant and Victini, you just need to remove the Muks and Yanmegas.

Now that we have a basic deck idea, let’s explain it more.

How To Setup

Your first turn you are going to want to use a Pokemon Collector to get 2 Sunfloras and a Mew out, and then “See Off” an Unfezant.  On the second turn you will evolve into Sunflora, and then start getting Vileplume setup.  While doing this you should also get Victini out.  Just attach one more energy, and you will be able to “Fly” for 50. Now, hopefully you should be able to keep “Flying” and keeping yourself untouchable while Vileplume sets up and basically ends any chance of them getting another knock out.  That’s the hope anyway, let’s see if it can really work.

Testing Results

Well the reason why this is a Stupid Deck Idea is because I didn’t really get this deck to work.  It has a solid premise to it, but it just didn’t work.  That’s not to say that it can never work.  With a different build it might stand a chance, but I just couldn’t get it going well enough to recommend it.  Here is what happened

The problems with this deck were two pronged.  The first set of problems had to do with bench space.  There just wasn’t enough bench space because of the need to put multiple Pokemon down thanks to the Pokemon Catcher threat.  By the time you get 2 Mews down and 2 Sunkerns there is no room for both Victini and Oddish.  This problem was compounded in my initial testings because I had Yanmega in the deck.  When I took him out the bench problems got better, but it was still a concern.

The second set of problems centered around energy.  When the deck runs perfectly you will attach one energy to Mew on the first turn, “See Off”, then on the next turn attach another energy.  But, things rarely go according to plan.  Usually the Mew would either get knocked out, the opponent would catcher up something with a retreat cost, or I would run into an energy drought.  Then, even if I could get two energies and a Unfezant in the Lost Zone, I would always flip 2 tails.  So things were not going my way.  The flips were probably just bad luck but the energy problems point to the lack of a draw engine in the deck.  If you don’t get lucky it could be hard to get attacking on turn 2, and if Mew Prime decks don’t “See Off” turn 1 they usually lose.  Possibly a build that was more focused on turn 1 would be more consistent.  Anyway, those are the problems with the deck, let’s show you my list so you can maybe improve on it.

List

Pokemon-19

  • 3-Sunkern
  • 2-Sunflora HGSS
  • 3-Oddish
  • 1-Gloom
  • 2-Vileplume
  • 2-Victini #14
  • 2-Unfezant
  • 4-Mew Prime

Trainers-27

  • 1-Super Rod
  • 4-Pokemon Communication
  • 3-Rare Candy
  • 1-Revive
  • 1-Dual Ball
  • 1-Professor Elm’s Training Method
  • 2-N
  • 4-Pokemon Collector
  • 4-Professor Juniper
  • 3-Proffesor Oak’s New Theory
  • 3-Sage’s Training

Energy-14

  • 10-Psychic
  • 4-Double Colorless Energy

Summary

So this deck was not very good for me.  It could possibly be changed around to be better, but for right now I would say its not very good.  It is a good fun deck with a Pokemon that many of us have used in Pokemon Black and White, so people might want to use a deck like this for fun.  So it may be a cool deck, but probably not competitive with the current list.

So, I’m all done with this deck article. What do you have for us Pedro.

Well, I have said news for you today.  One of your favorite comedians, Patrice O’Neal, has passed away.

Man that stinks, Patrice was a really funny guy.  How old was he Pedro?

41.

That’s not a good sign, fat funny people don’t seem to last for too long.  Patrice at 41 Chris Farley at 33, this doesn’t bode too well for me.

No, you’ll be okay,  I think it only applies to funny people. 

Well that’s good, have a good night guys and R.I.P. Patrice!

 

Deck Workshop: Bear Hug: Beartic, Ursaring, and Vileplume

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs and his sidekick Pedro here with a deck analysis for you.

Before we get to the article, Pedro, I have some news for you.

Some news.  Hmmmm…… is it good news, like…….are you quitting writing?

No I’m not quitting, but it is good news.   The man, Ed, and I call him the man not because he is especially masculine but because he is the authority figure of which he can rebel against, has told us that we can start using more adult humor.

So we are no longer bound  by the rules of the PG rating?

Exactly.

So we can say naughty things……… like dry hump?

Well yes i suppose so.

Dry hump, dry hump.

Well, Pedro.  Just because we can say dry hump, does not mean we should just say it.  It should make sense, you know so it’s comedy.

Comedy, when did we start that?

Well Pedro-

Urethra.

Hey you interrupted me with another dirty word that doesn’t even make sense.  In fact Urethra isn’t even a dirty word, its a part of the human anatomy.

Like coccyx? 

Coccyx is not a dirty word, it’s another word for your tail bone.  Though it is fun to say.  Well this conversation is going no where,  lets just go on to the article.

Uranus

Again, not a dirty word, just a planet, try again.  Wait, don’t try again, just let me talk about the article.

The deck we will be talking about today features Beartic.  While I have not used this deck very much, I thought I should talk about it because everybody is talking about Beartic, but nobody is talking about a list.

So you thought you would screw people up by talking about your stupid version of the deck?

Well I guess you could say it that way.  As I was trying to say, I will talk about the deck and then hopefully people will talk about their own Beartic decks in the comment box at the end of the article.  Hopefully at the end we can get to a Beartic list that is kind of playable.  But, before we get there, lets talk about Beartic and how my Bear Hug deck works.

The Bears

There are two bears in this deck, one of these is Beartic from Emerging Powers.  Let’s talk a little about the basic stats of Beartic.  It is a 130 HP stage 1 Water (Ice) Pokemon.  It has a 3 retreat cost and a weakness to metal.  It has two attacks.  The first attack, “Sheer Cold” is the one that everyone is talking about.  It lets you do 50 damage for WCC, and prevents the defending Pokemon from attacking next turn.  It’s second attack, “Icy Wind” costs WWCC and does 80 damage.

As you can tell, the second attack is nice, but nothing to exciting.  The first attack is what all the fuss is about.  The ability to hit for 50 damage and prevent the defending Pokemon from attacking next turn is great.  The problem is that it is not impossible to switch your active Pokemon with a benched one.  You can just retreat, or you can use a card like Switch. 

If you use Vileplume, you will be able to stop the use of Switch, meaning the only way they can escape from a “Sheer Cold” lock would be to get knocked out or to retreat.  Now there are some good free retreaters like the prime versions of Mew and Yanmega.  But, there are also Pokemon like Donphan Prime that have high retreat cost.  So Beartic will stop a lot of the Pokemon in the format but it will not stop all, so what can we do if we run into Yanmega?

I don’t care, but I have a feeling you are going to tell us.  Also, can I add just one more thing…. Dry Hump.

Just ignore him, he got a little excited when he learned that he can say dirty words.

I was going to say that a good pair for Beartic would be another Bear Pokemon, Ursraing Prime.  It can hit for 120 damage, and Teddiursa can provide an Item Lock until Vileplume gets setup.  Although there is an Item Lock in this evolution line, the main reason to use this Pokemon is because Ursaring Prime can do some damage.

Ursaring has very meager stats, compared to that of Beartic.  He only has 110 HP, and has a fighting weakness.  What is good about Ursaring, however, is that he has the “Berserk” Poke-Body.  It lets him do 60 more damage on each of his attacks if he has a damage counter on him.  His first attack, “Hammer Arm”, does a base damage of 30 damage for CCC, and lets you mill one card from your opponent’s deck.  It’s second attack, “Megaton Lariat,” does 60 damage for CCCC.

I also mentioned that Teddiursa wasn’t a terrible Pokemon.  He does only have 50 HP, but in this format that is not really that donkable.  The good thing about Teddiursa is that it has the “Fake Tears” attack.  This attack lets you flip a coin, and if heads  you can prevent your opponent from using items next turn and prevent 30 damage from any damage done to Teddirua next turn.

These Pokemon work together by each using Double Colorless Energy.  They also work well in regards to weaknesses.  Ursaring is weak to Donphan Prime, but Donphan Prime is weak to Beartic.  So even though these Pokemon may seem a little clunky, they do have some basic things in common.  If we ever do get this deck in working order, I am not sure that we will want to keep Ursaring, but it seems like a good idea to start with him.

How to Set it Up.

This deck is a little bit clunky right now, and does not have a typical setup, but the number 1 thing you should think about when setting up this deck is to lock trainers.  Make sure to have an active Teddiursa (and hope you flip heads) and at least 2 Oddishes on the bench with a way to get a Vileplume in a turn or two.  Next you can think about a main attacker.  You will probably want to start with Beartic.  This means getting  a water energy and a DCE on Beartic.  The hardest thing is consistently finding a DCE.  You might want to play Twins in your deck to setup faster after you lose a Teddiursa.

The List.

As mentioned before this list is very early in testing. 

Pokemon-20

  • 3-Beartic #30 EP
  • 3-Cubchoo #28 EP
  • 4-Teddiursa Cl
  • 3-Ursaring Prime
  • 1-Cleffa
  • 3-Oddish
  • 1-Gloom
  • 2-Vileplume

Trainers-26

  • 4-Juniper
  • 4-Pokemon Collector
  • 3-Elms
  • 4-Twins
  • 3-PONT
  • 1- Flower Shop Lady
  • 3-Pokemon Communication
  • 4-Rare Candy

Energy-14

  • 4-DCE
  • 4-Rainbow Energy- For getting damage counters on Ursraing
  • 6-Water

You know what Pikkdogs-

Do you have another comment about boobies or Uranaus?

Well now that you mentioned it, coccyx.  But, I was going to say that this deck is kinda sucky, it looks a little too slow.

I am afraid of that too.  How would you fix it?

How would I know, I’m a freaking extra dimensional being, how would I know how to fix a deck?   Why don’t you ask the people who read the site to give feedback on the deck, to see if we can get a decent Beartic list?

The Future of the Deck

As you can see, my list is not all that tested, or all that good.  Hopefully you guys can leave comments on this article, to try to improve the list.  There has been talk about Bearitc, but nothing in the way of a workable list.  Maybe we can change that.

Is Ursaring the right play here?  Or should something more orthodox to be used instead?  Is there just not enough DCE to spare?  Or can the two bears co-exsist?  So please leave your thoughts in the comment box so we can try to fix this list up and get a good Beartic list out there.

So Pedro, how do we normally end articles….. So Long and Thanks for all the fish!

Haha I remembered how we normally end articles here and I said it before you could think of something silly like the Teletubbies thing you did last time.

Ahhhhh stick it in your Coccyx.

Revisions to the Deck

As people have commented, I can change the decklist around.  It does seem clear that Reuniclus could be better than Ursaring in this deck.  It does leave the deck with less trainer deck and less heavy hitters.  But, it does make the deck more consistent.  Here are some changes.

Subtractions

-4 Teddirursa

-3 Ursaring Prime

-4 Rainbow Energy

Additions

+3 Solosis

+1 Duosion

+2 Reuniclus

+1 Chansey

+1 Blissey

+3 Water Energy

Green Light Gridlock! Lilligant/Vileplume/Yanmega

Hello All and welcome to my first Article! 

Biography

Allow me to briefly introduce myself, My name is Mark McDonald. I am a native of Detroit, Mi. I am a member of the Michigan based Team Warp Point, and friend of the well known Pikkdogs. I’m relatively new to the card game. Nationals 2010 was my first tournament ever. I hadn’t even seen a battle roads, and there i was in the largest tournament of pokemon history. I ended 6-3 with dialgachomp (that i learned how to play a week prior) missing top cut in 75th place of my flight. In 2011, nationals saw me  ending with a  5-4 record with zekrom. But that’s enough about me. Today’s topic is lilligant!

The Idea:

On the horizon of the 2012 tournament seasons start we all have been in search of the deck that will handle the various threats the current format pose. The obvious presence of Pokemon catcher is definitely not being overlooked and the hype of gothitelle is spreading like wildfire. The release of Emerging Powers brought some interesting cards into the format with the potential to stir up our competitive meta game and question deck choices for events. Lilligant is an interesting card to say the least.

In a format with such huge early game damage output and massive HP basics, Lilligant brings a high degree of potential disruption. First lets ‘go over Lilligant. With a not so impressive 90 hp for a stage 1 Lilligant is pretty frail, however, it makes up for it with  low energy attacks that can be devastating for the opponent. For 1 grass energy Bemusing Aroma does 20 damage to the defending pokemon with the chance to poison AND paralyze the defending Pokemon with a heads on a  coin flip. With a result of tails the defending pokemon becomes confused. Lilligant has a good retreat cost of only 1, a x2 fire weakness, and decent water resistance (for beartic). At first glance this seems decent and not really ground breaking due to the heavy play of free retreat pokemon such as mew and yanmega. But that’s where Vilplume comes into play. With a benched Vileplume in play you are able to not only eliminate trainers but ensure that the active pokemon cant be switched by any means other than paying retreat cost. When matched up with popular decks such as donphan, magnezone, zekrom, reshiram, beartic, gothitelle or anything with a 2 or more retreat cost, Lilligant can render them useless for several turns if not the entire game. Yanmega Prime also serves as a secondary attacker, given its ability to snipe around stuck active pokemon for easy ko’s or simply deal good damage in general for no energy.

Paralysis and Poison Or Confusion:

With only 20 damage output, Lilligant is far from 1 shotting a Pokemon but it’s the residual damage that makes it such a scary card. By paralyzing the opponent it ensures that during the following turn, that particular Pokemon cant attack or retreat. Since trainer lock is present, it means that there is absolutely nothing the opponent can do. Since the defending Pokemon is also poisoned the attack technically does 30 damage because of the 1 damage poison adds. with a guaranteed damage after the opponents turn that equals a total of 40 damage and without the opponent being able to respond. In the case that confusion occurs, it presents the chance that the opponent can inflict 30 damage to itself by attempting to attack which in a way increases the initial damage output to 50, the downside is in this case the defending Pokemon can retreat. Confusion isn’t really the ideal result. but is relatively disruptive due to the current structure of decks relying on benched supporting Pokemon that rarely, if ever, attack. Lilligants second attack, “Cut”, does 60 damage for 1 grass and a DCE, and isn’t really worth using but it has potential to finish off a  crippled Pokemon after the status effects have taken its toll. Overall the point is to get vileplume up as early as possible preventing the opponents accelerated setup and catchers while getting early K.O.’s with Yanmega Prime and stalling out Pokemon that need to set up to attack with Lilligant.

Other cards that make this deck a force to be reckoned with:

A few techs that i have been trying out include Smoochum from HGSS, for it’s the ability to additionally disrupt the opponent by moving energy from any Pokemon on they’re field to any other Pokemon. By doing this you can target their main attackers early while you set up and render valuable energy drops useless as you stall them in return. Another benefit of moving an energy to another [Pokemon is, if you plan to snipe that Pokemon with Yanmega or especially if the Pokemon can’t utilize the type of energy moved.

Sunflora from HGSS is another option for this deck, for it s ability to search out grass Pokemon with it’s Poke Power “Sunshine Grace”.  You can use the power to search things  such as Vileplume, Yanmega or Lilligant. With no Pokemon Communication in the deck, this method of search is great for helping you set up.

Spinarak is an amazing tech to completely lock the opponent from retreating a Pokemon that can’t attack, which buys you more time to set up. Since the deck is all grass, it will be easy to find the correct energy for Spinorak to attack with.

The last tech I will talk about is Bellsprout from Triumphant. Bellsprout has an extremely useful Pokemon Catcher like attack built into it that can provide disruption and set up the defending pokemon for Lilligant on your following turn. For 1 colorless energy Bellsprout’s ‘Inviting Scent” simply allows you to switch the defending Pokemon with a Pokemon of your choice on the opponent’s bench. This works great with Yanmega and Lilligant.

My list for you to reference:

Lilligant can be partnered with other Pokemon for different variants of this deck but i feel this version with Vileplume and Yanmega is the most consistent. Here’s the list I’ve been trying.

27 Pokemon 23 Trainers/Supporters 10 Energy
3-4 Yanma
3 Yanmega Prime
3 Petilil
3 Lilligant Emerging Powers
3 Oddish
2 Gloom
2 Vileplume
2 Sunkern
2 Sunflora
1 Cleffa
1 Smoochum
1 Bellsprout
1 Spinarak
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Twins
3 Copycat
3 PONT
2 Sages Training
2 Juniper
2 Judge
3 Rare Candy
7 grass
3 Rescue

In conclusion:

By no means am i trying to convince anyone this deck is the BDIF but i believe it could be a lot of fun to play. It has the potential to lock the opponent in multiple ways, It can hit hard or snipe the bench and lock trainers also. Again the biggest weakness is its frailty and sort of luck reliance on coin flips.

 Definitely consider trying it out, and please comment below and give any advice that you think would help this deck. I hope i did okay for my first article and I plan on getting better to provide my perspective on different ideas. Thanks for reading!

Mew/Muk/Jumpluff/Vileplume: The Mistakes I Made With My Nationals List

At this year’s nationals, I had my best nationals finish.  I made Top 64, but it was bittersweet.  While I had done fairly well, I still made the same mistakes in deck building and deck choice which had led to my poor results in previous years. I played a build of a deck which was largely untested and that I was fairly unfamiliar with. While the list I played was by no means bad, it did suffer from being teched improperly.  In addition, there were logical flaws with the trainer engine and how it synched with the rest of the deck.

This article has two main points.  First, it will provide some insight into the Mew/Muk Jumpluff/Vileplume archetype.  Second, it will showcase some of my thoughts about the deckbuiling process highlighting what I did wrong with this deck.  Right now. I’m going to share the list I played and explain my reasoning behind my choices. Also, let me state that this list is not just my own. Emmanuel Divens is also a co-creator of this build and a lot of the ideas behind this list can be attributed to him.

25 Pokemon 23 Trainers/Supporters 12 Energy
4 Mew
3-3 Yanmega
3-1-2 Vileplume
2 Bouffalant
2 Muk
2 Jumpluff
1 Spinarak
1 Tyrouge
1 Cleffa
4 Judge
4 Collector
4 Copyct
3 Twins
1 PETM
4 Communication
3 Rare Candy
4 PSY
2 Grass
4 Rainbow
2 DCE


Read More

Post-Pokemon Catcher impressions and a Mew Prime/Yanmega Decklist

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there, this is Pikkdogs here with another article for you guys.  For the top 40 players in North America and the players in Southern California all eyes are on World Championships.  All these people are thinking about is either countering the format or making a deck that will be consistent enough to grind into the main event.  But, for the rest of us, we have our eyes on Battle Roads and the new season.  And the new season means dealing with Pokemon Catcher.

Pokemon Catcher is a trainer card that lets you pick a Pokemon on your opponent’s bench and switch it with the active.  The last time this card was released, as a card named Gust of Wind, it was the best card in the format.  It ushered in an era of dominance for a very fast deck with all basic Pokemon.  The question was will Pokemon Catcher have the same format changing effect as Gust of Wind did?  To answer these questions I decided to test multiple decks in the PC (Post Catcher) format.  The testing yielded some surprising results.  To start this article off I will begin by running a “Mythbusters” type list about statements people made about Pokemon Catcher.

Mythbusters- Pokemon Catcher

1.  Myth-Kenny Wisdom in his Sixprizes article said that some decks will be unplayable because they get destroyed by Pokemon Catcher.  It would make sense that decks that rely on bench sitters would no longer be playable.

VerdictPlausible.  I have not tested a deck with a bench sitter like Reuniclus and Vileplume, but I would assume that it will be hard to setup 2 bench sitting stage 2s.  But, if you need a bench sitter, it would be best to have either Gothitelle active or Vileplume on the bench.

2.  Myth: On the SixPrizes forum, a user named Johnny Blaze wrote that all Stage 2 decks will be horrible because you can just catcher up the basic first.

VerdictBusted.  Stage 2 decks are still  very playable.  In fact one stage 2 Pokemon named Vileplume could become one of the most important cards in the format.  Since everyone will be playing trainer heavy decks, the ability to take away the trainers will be amazing.  Also, decks with 4 Pokemon Catcher don’t always get one when they need it, and they can’t always knock out a basic or stage 1 if they do find a Catcher.  I think what is worse off than Stage 2’s are bench sitting stage 1’s like Weavile.  If you don’t also have Vileplume in play, those quick stage 1’s become a problem because anytime the opponent draws a Catcher, they can then stall by bringing up a bench sitting stage 1.  But when it comes to stage 2’s, it will be harder to get them out, but I would say they are still very viable.

3. Myth: Pokegym User Mew723 wrote that Emboar will be unplayable in the next format.  If you think about it, catchering up a Tepig or Pignite would be hard to deal with.

VerdictBusted.  I have tested an Emboar deck, and while it is no longer quite as consistent as it once was. it is not unplayable.  The same principle works in the PC era as it did in the BC (before catcher) era.  You might have to alter the decklist a little, but for the most part you can still run a Reshiboar deck about as good as you could before.

4. Myth:  This myth will address some of the comments made on my Pokemon Catcher article.  The comments are: Cincinno will be big, Zekrom is good, babies won’t be as effective.

VerdictPlausible. Cincinno is now a much more effective Pokemon than he was before.  He can attack fast and is almost on par with Donphan and Yanmega in some respects.  Zekrom was always good, he might be a little better now thanks to Yanmega being that good.  Babies will not be as popular as they once were.  Its just really easy to Catcher them up when you need, or to Catcher around them when they are asleep.  But, a lot of decks will run at least 1 Cleffa to help as a hand refresher.

Pokemon Catcher does change the format, but you know what they say about change.  The more things change the more they stay the same.  While some decks will be gone because of Pokmeon Catcher, the format will still come down to Donphan, Yanmega, Reshiram, Zekrom and other Pokemon that are currently popular.  Decks that run benched Pokemon can still win, players just need to change their decklist a little to adjust.  From my testing, it looks like all of those who say that Pokemon Catcher will ruin the format will be wrong.  So thats all for the Mythbusters episode, lets go to the list I promised you.

Mew/Yanmega: The Other Prime Time. 

I gotta give the credit for this deck idea to Radu C. from Minnesota.  I heard Radu was running this crazy good deck during Nats.  It had Mew Prime, Yanmega Prime, Spinorak, Muk, and Jumpluff.  The deck was like a tool box, it could lock, snipe, stall, or do lots of damage; it was a really cool deck.  After I had my rest after Nationals, I came home and made my own version of the deck.  It was not a polished list that was even near where Radu’s actual deck was, it was just a rough version of the deck.  My deck did okay, but nothing special.

Then I updated the deck to deal with Pokemon Catcher.  I took out Muk, because Pokemon Catcher does what he does, and I added Pidgeot instead.  Pidgeot is great for stalling against Pokemon like Reshiram, Zekrom, and Donphan.  Its “Headwind” attack adds an extra CC to each attack cost on the defending Pokemon.  If you first were able to Catcher up the Typhlosion or Emboar, Reshiram will be stuck active for a long time.

Goal of the Deck

The goal of this deck is to attack with Jumpluff’s attack or Yanmega while setting up a Trainerlock.  What you want to do first is to get Mew Prime active with a Psychic energy attached, and have him put Jumpluff and Pidgeot in the Lost Zone.  While doing this, get Oddish on the bench and try to evolve him to Vileplume.  If they catcher up an Oddish, wait until you have stalled with “Headwind” and then try a second time to get Vileplume up.  If they are able to catcher up 2 Oddishes, don’t worry.  This deck works better with Vileplume but it does not need it.  Sometimes getting the opponent to look at Oddish when your setting up Yanmega and Mew will be worth the loss of Trainerlock.  You should also try to get Yanmega going.  Once Yanmega is evolved and you have 2 Pokemon in the Lost Zone,  you just need to judge what attack is best to use.

Good Things About the Deck: 

  • It is so versatile that it can work against almost any deck, so far it has been the deck that has worked the best in my testing.
  • It is disruptive.  The ability to lock trainers is HUGE since almost all decks will be trainer based.  Judges also work well in this deck.

Bad things about the deck:

  • If you don’t get an early Mew Prime you will be behind the Eight Ball all  game.
  • This deck does not feature Stantler, which means  it can be hard to setup Vileplume.  The deck is not as good without Vileplume, but it is possible to get it evolved later in the game after a Judge.

The List.

Okay here is the list.  This is still a very early list, so don’t beat me up on this list.  I don’t think its polished at all, I am only posting it so that you can copy it and start testing.

Pokemon-17

  • 2-Oddish
  • 1-Gloom
  • 2-Vileplume
  • 4-Mew Prime-Your starter and main attacker, can use Pidgeot or Jumpluffs attack.
  • 2-Pidgeot CL or TM
  • 2-Jumpluff HGSS- Has the attack that you will use the most.
  • 2-Yanma
  • 2-Yanmega Prime-Great for Sniping and a backup attacker incase you can’t get Pokemon in the Lost Zone.

    Mew as seen by Ava

Trainers-30

  • 2-Professor Juniper-The best Supporter in the format.
  • 3-Copy Cat-A supporter that works with Yanmega
  • 4-Judge- Disruption and working with Yanmega
  • 3-Professor Elms Training Method- If you trainerlock yourself, here is how you get Yanmega, or this is how you get a Vileplume setup.
  • 4-Collector
  • 1-Flower Shop Lady
  • 1-Seeker- Can Seeker up Vileplume, use trainers, then Rare Candy on a 2nd Oddish to get the lock setup again.
  • 3-Rare Candy
  • 3-Communication
  • 3-Pokemon Catcher
  • 1-Dual Ball
  • 2-Junk Arm

Energy-13

  • 4-Rainbow
  • 4-Psychic- needed for an early “See Off”
  • 3-DCE-For Pidgeot’s attack and works well if your run Bouffallant
  • 2-Grass

I admit this is a weird list, but its just something to test around and fix yourself.  It is weird to have so many trainers in a trainerlock deck, but this is the one trainerlock deck that is not really reliant on the trainerlock deck.  It doesn’t matter if your opponent either  uses his/her  resources to knock out an Oddish or 2 while you setup with Mew, or they get trainer locked; either way you have an advantage.  Whether you lock them up, or you lure them into a false sense of security, it does not matter.  This deck can work with or without trainerlock. 

Techs

Here are some possible cards to fit into your list.

  • A hand refresher: Something  like Cleffa or Manaphy, either one helps consistency.
  • Boufallant:  If you are thinking people will still play RDL, then you will need Boufallant.  Though, Pidgeot’s attack will pretty much stop RDL from attacking anytime soon.
  • 1-1 Yanmega:  I originally built this deck with 3-3 Yanmega and I felt it a little overkill.  If you like Yanmega and know how to use it well, 3-3 might be the better play.
  • 1 Oddish– If you want a better chance to evolve into Vileplume early, here is a better shot.
  • 1 Spinorak– The list originally had a Spinorak in it.  The idea is to trap a starter, with it’s “Spider Web” attack, until the end of the game when you can retreat for Yanmega and kill that starter.  I’m just not that good at that strategy.
  • 2-2 Cincinno:  This deck si great for Yanmega, but if just cannot afford Yanmega’s, Cincinno may be able to appropriately replace Yanmega.

So that’s all I gotta say about this deck.  Expect more PC decklists coming soon.  Feel free to tell us all what you think about this decklist by leaving your thoughts in the comment box.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Deck Analysis: Miss Plume- Mismagius Cl and Vileplume Ud

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

Strategy

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

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

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

The Setup

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

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

The Drawbacks

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

The Good

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

The List

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

Pokemon-24  

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

Trainers-23

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

Energy-13

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

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

Closing Remarks

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

So long and thanks for all the fish!