Zekrom EX Deck

Deck Analysis: TMZ: Thundurus, Mewtwo EX, and the Zekroms. Also called Zekrom and Eels Deck.

Pikkdogs March 4, 2012 15 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with a deck analysis for you. I am also joined by my extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro. How are you doing today Pedro?

Oh doing, well.

Do you have a bit of news for us to talk about?

Sure. We have a couple of bit of news from the entertainment world. First, we have just learned that Lady Gaga will appear in the new Men in Black movie. Do you like the Men in Black movies Pikkdogs?

They were pretty good, kinda funny. I would say that Lady Gaga is a pretty good hire for an Alien movie.

An Alien and Lady Gaga are two different things. One is a disgusting looking creature that has tentacles all over………….and the other is an Alien.

Good one, Pedro. Now what’s the other news.

Well, the other news is that ABC has announced who will be on the new season of Dancing with the Stars. The cast includes such people as actor Jaleel White, Packers receiver Donald Driver, the View host Sherri Sheppard, musical icon Gladys Knight, and Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins. Any of those personalities interest you Pikkdogs?

Well I hate DWTS, I never watched and never will, but I do love me some Katherine Jenkins. She was at once the best kept secret of hotness ever, I saw her on the BBC America, and I was smitten from the start. She can actually sing to, like operatic singing, not just those whore songs you hear on the radio, she’s a real singer. Who is your pick to win Pedro?

Well, assuming the “Urkel” ever becomes an official ballroom dance, I gotta go with Jaleel White.

Smart Pick. Let us do the samba on over to the article.

The Plan

I gotta thank Pokemon Personality Airhawk for the nudge to try this deck. He had a cool 6P article the other week, you can read it here. The idea is to meld the Cities deck Zekrom and Eelektrik, with Mewtwo EX and Zekrom EX. What results is a lot of heavy hitting Pokemon that can come out swinging fairly quickly. Zekrom EX is here as your big attacker that can knock out almost anybody except an EX with one hit. He is really good against Magnezone Prime. Mewtwo EX is here to be a quick versatile attacker that can do a lot of things. The main reason he is here is to counter the use of other Mewtwo EXs, since they are weak to each other. Zekrom BW is here as a good hard attacker that doesn’t give up 2 prizes when he goes. You can also run Tornadus here as another versatile attacker. He is not needed, but if you ever have a deck with DCE, you might as well run Tornadus, he is that good. The Eels are here of course to recycle energy. You have a couple options as starters. One is Thundurus, he can get energy out easily. Or you can use Cleffa to get a good hand on turn 2 if you were dealt something bad.

Your setup is very important for this deck. Even though this deck has Mewtwo EX, just like CMT, the setups are very different. CMT wants to get going turn 1 and own the board from here on out. Things on the Zekrom side are a little more chill. Zekrom needs to setup the Eels, so that is priority #1. Then they can worry about what they want to attack with. It would be nice if you started the game with your starter and setup within the first couple turns, but that doesn’t always happen. Most of the time you are going to start with a random large HP basic, and then just go from there. If you start with Zekrom, just go with Zekrom for a while. You can dare them to hit you, and then “Outrage” back, or you can wait to build up a “Bolt Strike”. If you have to start with one of the EXs, just try to make the most of it while you get Eelektrik going.

Once you get Eelektrik going you can start dumping some energies in the discard pile, and then attach them to your preferred attacker. From then it seems like the rest of the game will be simple, but then it gets even more complicated. This deck is nothing like a lot of the decks we have seen earlier this year, that are basically auto-pilot after you setup, this deck takes a lot of strategy after the setup. Things are just getting going once you get those Eels out. You have to constantly be making calculations about which attacker to use. It is hard to explain about how you make these decisions, but once you get into the deck you will see what I mean. It involves making decisions with Junk Arm and decisions with which attackers you should use.

The List

This is a list similar to the one I used for initial testing purposes. It is not the same as my deck, but similar. I would not suggest using this list for States, it needs a lot more polishing. This deck needs to be very tight to work. A deck like Six Corners can be good while having a loose list, but this deck needs to be very tight. What I mean by this is that you need to be very focused on what Pokemon lines, and what trainers you use. Although you can have some techs like Mewtwo EX, you cannot have a lot of techs in this deck. It needs to be very focused on getting your job done, or else you will lose a lot of close games. So I will stop pandering and give you a list.

Pokemon-14

3-Thundurus- a good starter and decent attacker if you need him to be
2-Zekrom- one of your main attackers.
2-Zekrom EX- probably the main attacker
1-Mewtwo EX- you can run 2, but I don’t see a reason
3-Tyanmo- you can run 4, probably the 40 HP one is better.
3-Eelektrik

Trainers-32

3-Pokemon Collector
2-Dual Ball
2-Pokemon Communication
4-Engineer’s Adjustments- to get energy in the discard pile
4-Professor Oak’s New Theory
4-Professor Juniper
3-Eviolite
4-Junk Arm
4-Pokemon Catcher
1-Super Rod

Energy-14

4-Double Colorless Energy
10-Lightning Energy

So that is something similar to what I have been playing. To get it to be a good list you have to get it more focused to your play-style and to how you want to win matches. This is going to take a lot of testing against decks you think you are going to play during States. But I think a deck like this could be good, you just gotta make it good.

Techs

Here are some techs that you could and maybe should play.

Terrakion -Some people like him in this deck to easily return KOs. He is also good against the mirror match and Magnezone Prime. But, the drawback is that you need to sacrifice consistency by running Prism Energies. It is only worth it if you know that there will be lots of Magnezone and Zekrom decks in your metagame.
Tornadus-You don’t need him in this deck, but anytime you run DCE you can run this guy. He is a cool attacker that can always work. I just don’t know if you need him here. Although, he does work well against fighting types.
Shaymin– I don’t like using this card so it isn’t in my list, but he does have a place here. You can use him to move energies from the bench to the active. It is a good card and is usually ran in this list.
Plus Power– This card should be in the list, I just ran out of room. If you can fit in 2 PPs, do it.
Switch– This also should be in the list, but again, there is just not a lot of room to spare.
Skyarrow Bridge-It helps you retreat so you can use “Dynamotor” on the Pokemon that you want to attack with this turn. If you can find room, than run it.
Zapdos– Zapdos is a lightning type but it is resistant to Fighting types. If you expect to see a lot of fighting types at States, I would probably run one of these guys.
Zebstrika ND- Zebstrika is a Durant counter. The idea here is to get an item lock on the Durant player until they run out of Durants. Since the Durant player needs trainers to get the Durants from the discard pile, they will eventually need to use trainers. The problem is that he takes up 2-4 card slots in a very tight list. But, it is still a good thing to run if you expect a lot of Durants.

I think if we discuss match-ups we will learn more about the deck.

Matchups

Although I don’t want to say who would win in each matchup because it is just so close, I will give you what I think will be important in each matchup.

Reshiphlosion– You probably aren’t fast enough to totally disrupt their setup like CMT can, but you should be able to limit them to 1 or maybe 2 Typhlosion Primes. You will want to catcher up the Typhlosion lines early. If they can’t get two Typholosion Prime lines up, they lose. If they do, they might be able to wreck your Eelektriks. If both of you lose your energy recovers, then you might have a slight advantage because of Zekrom not needing to discard energy, but it is overall going to be a very close game. You might have a slight advantage, but it won’t be easy unless you get a really good start. Pay attention to when you have an EX in play, if they knock that out, than they will be a lot closer to winning the game.

Mewtwo/Celebi– The CMT player will be a lot faster here. If they can take out the Eels right away, than they have a solid chance to control the entire game. If you are able to get 2 Eelektriks out, then you might have a slight advantage. You will then be a more versatile deck than the CMT player. Play with Zekrom and Zekrom Ex until the middle of the game, and then whip out the Mewtwo EX to catch them by surprise for an easy 2 prizes. But be careful of how many energies you attach on the bench to an EX, because Mewtwo EX can bring them active with Pokemon Catcher and get an easy 2 prizes on you. So this is a very tough match-up with a lot of variables to calculate. The matchup is around even, but it could go either way very easily.

Durant– This is the one match-up that I have not tested. Durant is very fast and will be able to out speed you, and will try to take away energies. If you can get things going with Zekrom quickly, you might be able to win. If you can get two Zekroms out and switch between them, you should be able to minimize the damage done by removing energies. I would stick with attacking with Zekrom BLW. You don’t need to discard energies, and you don’t mind losing a couple of these guys to the damage done by “Bolt Strike”, since they won’t try to win by taking prizes. It should be a fairly even match-up depending on the start that each of you get.

Six Corners– This is an interesting matchup. It can make use of your fighting weakness, but it is too inconsistent to do that every game. If they have a hard time finding Landorus and Terrakion, you might be able to get a good lead before they get going. If you play Zapdos, this is where he would come in handy. Try to rely on attackers like Zekrom BLW and Thundurus, while only using the EXs when you need to. Giving up the 2 prizes so easily could hurt you.

Magnezone– You will need to rely on Zekrom EX in this match-up. He is the one that can OHKO Magnezone Prime. However, Magnezone can get a 2 prize knock on Zekrom EX for 4 energies, so it will not be an easy fight. If you can get attacking faster than they can, you can possibly limit the number of Magnezones that they get out, if you can then you can win easily. If not, it will be a long tough match-up. Both decks will try to knock out the Eels, but you probably rely on them more than they do. It will be a fun even match-up.

Closing

As you can see from my match-ups section, this deck gets itself into a lot of cool matches. They are very long and very hard to win. This is why I said that you need a really focused list, without it you will be at the mercy of luck. I think this is a really nice deck that will be fun to play. No game will be very dull, it makes for some exciting matches. If I can perfect my list, I might even run something like this at States, it really is a cool deck. So if you have a deck like this, feel free to share your list in the comment section so we can talk about it.

Okay Pedro, we are done here. What do you have for us to close out the article?

Well today, we have some health news. According to Fox News, scientists who are studying a mummy that they think is 5,300 years old state that he had the earliest known case of Lyme’s disease.

Don’t believe it.

Why Not?

Well, because I believe that Lyme’s disease was a man made disease that was created by a former Nazi scientist on an island out-side of New York.

Well aren’t we the little conspiracy theorist. Anyway, back to the mummy. They also state that he was lactose intolerant and predisposed to heart disease.

Well he should probably take some blood pressure meds then, he should watch that.

Sure, except that he’s already been dead for a while.

Still, heart problems are nothing to fool with.

True. This mummy is named Otzi, do you think this is a good name for an iceman?

I could see it, though Oog is always a good choice.

I like Oog too. Good night everybody.

Deck Discussion

Deck Ideas from Next Destinies

Pikkdogs February 11, 2012 6 Comments

A big hello to all you OHKOers out there. This is Pikkdogs here with an article about decks from Next Destinies. There is no question that Next Destinies will be an impactful set. The set is chock full of cards that will make it into decks right away. This article will kind of overview some of these decks and explain what they are all about. Of course I can’t cover every deck, so this will be just the major changes.

New Deck(s)

Mewtwo

The card that has literally been the poster boy of Next Destinies is Mewtwo EX. He is also probably the focal point of the only great new deck that will come out of Next Destinies. There is no doubt that ND cards will be in a lot of decks, but the Mewtwo deck is the only one that is really new to the format.

Since you can only play 4 Mewtwo EX cards in one deck, that will leave you with at most 56 cards to work with. If you add in cards like Eviolite and DCE, that still gives you about 50 cards to work with. If you add in the staples and some more energy, you still have about 25 cards to play with. That leaves a lot of options. Cards that have been mentioned are energy accelerators and manipulators like Pachirisu, Emboar, and Gardevoir. But, the one deck idea that has been suggested the most has been Celebi Prime.

Celebi Prime has a Poke-Power, called “Forrest Breath”, that lets you attach an extra Grass Energy on the field when Celebi is active. Many people have suggested that this deck add cards like Skyarrow Bridge to it. This would give Celebi free retreat, and would give Mewtwo some energy acceleration while not giving up the ability to attack each turn.

Most of these deck variants also have a secondary attacker. Tornadus, Terrakion NV, and Cobalion NV are the most talked about secondary attackers. A secondary attacker is needed in this deck so that a good Mewtwo counter will not be able to take control of the game. For example, Mew Prime will be able to dominate Mewtwo EX very easily, but if you only use your secondary attacker, Mew Prime will not be so dominate.

This deck sets up fairly quickly and easily. You are going to want to start with Celebi Prime, though, a Mewtwo start isn’t the end of the world. If you do start with Celebi Prime, you are going to want to use Pokemon Collector or Pokemon Communication for Mewtwo EX. You are going to then want to use Celebi’s Poke-Power to attach energy to Mewtwo. You can attack on turn 1 possibly, if you want and have Skyarrow Bridge in play. From then on it will be a matter of getting energy on the field, and trying to keep it there. Here is a basic skeleton list, you can fill in the rest of the cards from there.

Pokemon- 12-16

3-4 Celebi Prime
3 Mewtwo Ex
2-4 Secondary Attackers (like Tornadus, Terrakion NV, or Cobalion NV)

Trainers-28-32

10- Draw or Hand Refresh Supporters
4-Pokemon Collector
3-4 Pokemon Catcher
3-4 Junk Arm
2-3 Switch
3-4 Skyarrow Bridge
3-Eviolite

Energy-15

4-DCE
8-11-Grass
0-3 Rescue Energy or Prism Energy

That will give you about 5 spaces to work with. So it’s a decent skeleton, just fill it in, mess around with it, change it up, and you might have a decent deck.

Current Decks that Will be Effected

Not only will there be new decks, but a lot of current decks will be radically changed by some new cards. Here are some of those decks.

Chandelure

What’s being added– There is no debate on Chandelure ND, it is not a great card, and does not deserve a deck of its own. However, since it is a Fire Pokemon, it will be of interest for Chandelure players to play 1 of the new Chandelure to get a type advantage on some decks. Chandelure has always been too slow to counter Durant, plus, Durant had the type advantage. So an easy to fit in fire Pokemon is really nice. What will be added to this deck is basically 1 Chandelure ND, to give it more versatility. I could also see this deck playing Cilans, since it now needs to run some different types of energies.

How it will change– This deck can work with only 3 of the psychic Chandelures, since you probably will only want to setup 2 or 3 all game. So, having to take out the 4^th Chandelure for this fire one, will not hurt your consistency. It will probably only give your deck better matchups. The Cilan will also help this deck, making it a little quicker. This deck always had a hard time finding energy at the right time, Cilan will help with that. These changes will make the deck better, I am not sure if it will take it to another level, or even keep it from falling, but these changes will help the deck.

Reshiphlosion

What’s being added– The deck that won’t die away just got another big help. Reshiram EX can now be played in your Reshiphlosion deck. Although it only adds 30 more damage to your maximum damage output, that could be helpful in certain situations. So, most decks will probably only add 1 or 2 copies of Reshiram EX, I do not see a lot of other new cards being added to this deck. Although, 1 copy of Mewtwo EX may be added as a tech.

How it will change– These changes will probably not affect the deck too much. The deck will continue to work the same as it always does, it will just have a bigger attacker when needed. I think the ND set does more to hurt Reshphloson than it does to help it. “Blue Flare”, maybe with a Plus Power or two, used to be enough to take down most playable Pokemon. Now, we have a bunch of very playable 180 HP and 170 HP Pokemon. This means that you are going to have to use “Blue Flare” more times than you normally do. This could put a lot of strain on your deck, and could hurt your consistency.

That being said, the deck still is a very consistent deck and can still do really well. Even though a lot of other decks around Reshiphlosion got more than it did, the deck will still be played.

Reshiboar

What’s being added– The bacon is back. Next Destinies brought us many things, one of those things is a return of your favorite fire-pig, Emboar. Since it has been so long since we have seen this card, let’s get a little history lesson. Reshiboar was the first Reshiram BLW deck that was played. It was set to be a very good deck at U.S. Nationals last year, but Reshiphlosion came out of absolutely nowhere and became the fire deck to play. Reshiboar kind of stayed afloat with the addition of Magnezone Prime into the deck. The deck now was a merger of Reshiboar and Magneboar. It saw a little play at Worlds last year, and continued to see a little play at Battle Roads and Cities. But, for the most part Reshiphlosion was the favorite fire deck.

So, let’s go back and get on topic here. What is being added to this deck is 1 or 2 copies of Reshiram EX. Like in Reshiphlosion, this will give it more pop, but it will not be that great. The major card that is added here is Cilan. Being able to get 3 energies into your hand will be amazing for this deck. This means that you can easily power-up your attackers on one turn. This is something that Typhlosion Prime cannot even do.

How it will change– The war for the best fire deck is back on. Reshiboar now has Magnezone Prime and it can say that it is faster and more consistent than Reshiphlosion. There will be some problems with getting energy from the discard pile, but this could be a reason why Reshiram EX could be better. Perhaps Victini will make an appearance in this deck to make sure that Reshiram EX does not end up damaging itself. It is hard to say what will happen at states, but from what I see, I think that Reshiboar could overthrow Reshiphlosion as the best fire deck. And, this is very important with Durant being so good.

Zekrom

What’s being added– At first, I was kind of cool on Zekrom EX, but now I am not sure. I was not happy about being forced to discard 2 energies, this forced you to run both heavy Pachirisu and Shaymin lines, as well as Eelektrik lines. Then, I noticed you could also discard the DCE. This means that as long as you don’t rely on this attack too much, you won’t have to get too much back from the discard pile.

Of course, Zekrom EX will be added to this deck. Probably somewhere around 2 copies of this card. Zekrom BLW and Torandus will still be in this deck, but Zekrom EX will be a bigger attacker. Another card that will be added is Cilan. Cilan works perfectly with Pachirisu, and will make it a lot easier to more quickly load up your attackers. Skyarrow Bridge will also be in this deck. It will make it harder for your opponent to stall by Pokemon Catchering a benched Pokemon. Since you only have basic Pokemon with fairly low retreat costs, this card is a no brainer for this deck.

How it will change– Zekrom was hands down the best deck during Battle Roads. But, it did run out of steam later in the Cities season. Something that will make this deck hit harder with more consistency was desperately needed, and now it is here. This deck should have what it takes to stand up to Mewtwo EX. I really like this deck because Zekrom EX gets rid of 2 energy after he attacks, this means that there are 2 less energies to power-up Mewtwo EX’s attack. Zekrom should be poised to make it to a lot of the top tables at states. It is hard to say how good the deck will be, but it should be really good.

Ross Deck (the Truth)

What’s being added– Time for another history lesson. The Ross Deck was coincidentally invented by a guy named Ross, what are the chances of that? Ross Cawthon brought it to Worlds and went fairly deep into the top cut with a deck based around Donphan Prime, Vileplume, and Reuniclus BLW. It was the talk of Nationals, and it caught on around the country for Battle Roads. It did fairly well there, and it even saw a little play during Cities. However, the novelty of the deck has worn off, and its play has dropped off.

Now the big EXs are here and they stand to reinvigorate Ross Deck. Ross Deck was good because it could take a hit and then redistribute it among the bench. Now not only do you have a couple 180 HP Pokemon to use to keep damage counters on, but you can use one of them to take a hit. It will now be almost impossible to beat Ross Deck once it sets up. It will still be a slow deck that is vulnerable to a bad start in an increasingly fast format, but the deck did get a lot better, and here is how.

The deck will get a lot of great 180 HP Pokemon, like Regigigas EX, Reshiram EX, Kyurem EX, and Zekrom EX. I think the best Pokemon to use in this deck is Kyurem and Regigigas. I think that instead of Donphan, Machamp, or Steelix; you can just use Kyurem. Kyurem can sit there, hit for 120, and take a hit, while Ross deck does what it does best. You also have Regigigas that can be used in the right situation for a knockout. I can see a person running 3 Kyurem EXs and 1 Regiggas. The stadium Pokemon Center is also a perfect fit for this deck. This will make it even easier to get rid of damage.

How it will change– Sure Kyurem is slower than Donphan, but it requires less deck space and can hit a lot harder. Unless you play a deck with Steelix Prime, Scizor Prime, or Conalion Nv you will probably never lose a Kyurem. It is very hard to get rid of a Kyurem EX without using weakness. The deck might get even a little slower, but it will also hit harder and become even more defensive. The weak point of this deck has always been the setup, and this set does nothing to help that, but it does maximize the deck in a lot other areas. I am not exactly sure if ND will make Ross Deck the best around, but it should make it appear on a couple of top tables around states time. Players of this deck will need to address the Durant problem, but if they can handle that it should be smooth sailing for this deck.

Well that is all I got, good luck to you for all your state testings.

So Long and Thanks for all the fish!

Zekrom EX Deck

Deck Analysis: TMZ: Thundurus, Mewtwo EX, and the Zekroms. Also called Zekrom and Eels Deck.

Deck Ideas from Next Destinies

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