Hatter™
Active Member
Ok, so I have watched the other threads for this deck and I have seen it ridiculed and called a "donkfest" and it can never win or beat the major decks. I am here to tell you that those statements are FALSE. This deck can win a game, not just based on "luck", but on the skill too. You have to place your energy correctly, know how many of each energy you have left in your deck, and know which cards you need to Night Maintenance back in. You have to be able to know exactly what energy are prized by the first or second time you search through your deck, as it can affect what is put back into your deck later in the game. Also, the fact is that this deck can outspeed over 65% of the current format right now and can stack up to the GG's and Magmortar's of the Pokemon world. So without further ado I give you Skittles..
The "Basic" Skittles List
Pokemon: 20
4 Pachirisu GE
3 Togepi GE
2 Togetic GE
3 Togekiss GE
2 Baltoy GE
2 Claydol GE
3 Ho-oh SW
1 Duskull DP
1 Dusknoir DP
Trainers: 21
3 Rare Candy
2 Master Ball
3 Bebe's Search
1 Scott
3 Crystal Beach
2 Team Galactic's Wager
2 Night Maintenance
2 Roseanne's Research
3 PlusPower
Energy: 19
(You can do any combination that you wish)
3 Fire
2 Water
3 Psychic
2 Lightning
3 Fighting
2 Basic Dark
2 Basic Metal
2 Grass
The "Advanced" Skittles list-Urban Skittles
Pokemon-19
3x Togepi
1x Togetic
3x Togekiss
3x Ho-Oh
3x Sentret
2x Furret
1x Baltoy
1x Claydol
2 tech slots... 1-1 Crawdaunt EX/1-1 Lanturn PK/1-0-1 Dusknoir/etc.
Trainers-21
3x Celio's Network
3x Rare Candy
2x Roseanne's Research
2x Crystal Beach
2x Windstorm OR 1x Windstorm 1x Cessation Crystal (There were times I really would've liked the tech cess)
2x Castaway
2x Strength Charm
2x Warp Point
1x Copycat
1x Prof. Rowan
1x Night Maintenance
Energy-20
3x Fighting
3x Psychic
3x (tech energy type- water in my case)
2x other 5 basic energy types
1x Boost/Scramble (depends on tech)
Strategy: There are several ways this deck can play out. Your first and
foremost strategy is to find an opening hand combo that yields a Togekiss
and Ho-Oh with 4 or more energy by turn 2 or 3, or possibly even turn 1
going second. There are no decks in the format that can easily handle
this amount of damage this early in the game, so if you manage to get this
start you usually win the game. Past turn 4 or 5, if you don’t have or no
longer have a Ho-Oh with several energy, you will usually try to get
another Ho-Oh or Togekiss attacking relatively soon, making sure you are
recycling energy and KO’d Togekiss lines with Night Maintenance to give
you inevitability. An important thing to know about this deck is that it
takes a great amount of skill to win if you aren’t lucky enough to get a
donk start or if your opponent can survive the donk, but it is no way
impossible to win if the game gets past the opening plays.
Card choices/explanations
Pokemon. Most of the Pokemon line-up is solid from list to list, with
only techs being different.
Ho-Oh (SW) This is the primary attacker during early game. For 4
energy, Rainbow Wing does 20 damage times the number of basic energy types
attached to Ho-Oh. The big reason this deck ticks is that Ho-Oh is basic,
making it the best choice for an energy sponge from Togekiss’ power
because it can be fetched from Roseanne’s Research or Pachirisu’s Call for
Friends attack. Ho-Oh also has a Poke-Power called Phoenix Turn, which
lets you flip a coin if Ho-Oh gets KO’d. If you flip heads, Ho-Oh is not
KO’d and you get to remove all damage counters and keep all energy
attached to Ho-Oh. This power is an amazing help in a pinch, but is by no
means something you should rely on. You only need 3 Ho-Oh because while
it is the main attacker, you usually should only go through 2 of them in a
long game, and while Ho-Oh starts aren’t bad, there are better starts to
be had.
Togekiss (all GE) This is what makes the deck tick. Togekiss has a
Poke-Power called Serene Grace, which says when you evolve one of your
Pokemon to Togekiss from your hand, you may look at the top 10 cards of
your deck, take any basic energy you find there, and attach them to your
Pokemon in any way you like. The main hope here is that you can Rare
Candy into a Togekiss within the first 3 turns of the game and attach 4+
energy to Ho-Oh to coast on Rainbow Wing for the game. If that doesn’t
happen, however, have hope! The game is not over yet! If you only get 2
energy—or multiple energy of the same type—from Serene Grace, the mostcommon play is to attach them to your Togekiss then attach an energy for
turn to use Togekiss’ attack Air Scroll. For 3 colorless energy, you are
guaranteed 40 damage, then you flip a coin. If heads you add 30 damage,
if tails you remove 3 damage counters from Togekiss. This attack does win
games with either heads or tails flips.
Pachirisu (GE) This is the preferred starter in the regular Skittles
(Pachi/Claydol) version. First turn CFF nets you a great bench of Baltoy,
Togepi and Ho-Oh, which gets your main attacker and half of your energy
acceleration and draw/search set up on turn 1. A less important function
of Pachirisu is to use Smash Short to get rid of Cessation Crystal, which
is a nightmare against the deck because it shuts down all the powers that
make the deck good (Serene Grace, Phoenix Turn, and Cosmic Power), but
thankfully Cessation Crystal is not played in large quantities.
Claydol (both GE) This is your main source of draw in the
Pachi/Claydol version of the deck. Having a lot of draw helps you “find
the rainbow,” so to speak. There are so many situations where Claydol
will help you find exactly what you need. In a pinch, it also becomes an
attacker because there are coincidentally Fighting energy in the deck, but
the situations in which it would attack are very rare. The advantage in
this version of the deck is that you can potentially find cards the turn
you need them and get rid of dead cards in your hand, but the disadvantage
is that it’s a power that can be shut down and starve you of cards.
Furret (SW) This makes a completely different strategy to the deck that
has several pros and cons, and this version ended up winning SoCal
Regionals. Sentret start gives you a Pokedex to dig 2 cards deep, which
is quite good. Furret on turn 2 however practically guarantees that you
will be able to find the 2-card Togepi, Rare Candy, Togekiss, and/or Ho-oh
combination you need to “taste the rainbow.” Furret is also a better
attacker in emergencies because it allows you to conserve your energy
instead of having to retreat to bench it. The disadvantage in this build
is that you find cards with an attack instead of a power, which leaves you
vulnerable to a well-timed Wager, but they can only have so many of those.
The advantage however is that it’s a free attack that will find you cards
under a Psychic Lock, allowing the deck to set up where the Claydol
version wouldn’t be able to.
Trainers. There are several ways to run the trainers of this deck, but
there are staples that every deck unarguably must have.
Staples:
Rare Candy This is the backbone of the deck. It’s pretty obvious why
it’s here.
Night Maintenance Another staple in this deck. Recycling energy for
more Serene Graces is key in long games, as well as getting Togekiss
pieces back in so you can search them out again. 2 of them is best
because it’s a dead draw early game.
Crystal Beach This is your saving grace against Battle Frontier. If a
Battle Frontier makes its way onto the table early game, you have to
scramble to find this (or Windstorm in some lists) to get rid of it ASAP.
Slowing down GG and Mag decks helps somewhat, but a game without it is
still winnable.
Roseanne’s Research Another obvious choice. While Pachirisu gets your
bench set up, if you don’t start with it, Roseanne’s helps you get set up
anyways, and also gets basics without using an attack. This also gets
energy in a pinch if you need to add damage to Rainbow Wing, set up Air
Scroll, or retreat. Usually you won’t want to run more than 3…2 seems to
be the best number.
Celio’s Network/Bebe’s Search These are the best supporters in the
format, and work great in this deck obviously. Claydol versions should
run more Bebe’s because it reduces your hand size to draw more with Cosmic
Power. The number of these is not concrete; 4 is an acceptable number, 3
works, and 5 is great as well.
After these are in you can add draw and disruption to tailor the deck to
your liking. Here are some good choices:
TV Reporter/Professor Oak’s Visit These are great for when you don’t have
your draw/search engine set up yet. They allow you to throw away excess
cards you don’t need (Crystal Beach, Pachirisu, and energy mainly) and dig
3 cards deep.
Professor Rowan This is a great option for draw as well. If you have a
Togekiss or Candy in hand, you can keep it and try to find the other piece
by digging 4 cards deep. Like other shuffle draw choices, this lets you
get excess energy from your hand back into your deck where Togekiss can
get them.
Copycat: Another great shuffle draw choice. If you do run this, usually
only 1 is best.
Pluspower If you aren’t running any tech Pokemon, this is a great option
because most people don’t expect it. It allows you to hit the higher odd
HP benchmarks with Ho-Oh without “wasting” energy. Normally you need 7energy to OHKO anything with 130 HP, but with Pluspower you only need 6.
Windstorm If you’re paranoid about Battle Frontier, these act as Crystal
Beach number 4 and/or 5. It also gets rid of Cessation Crystal if
necessary, but that normally won’t be a problem.
Cessation Crystal This is a good singleton choice after you’re set up, and
is much more feasible in the Furret version because it’s less reliable on
Poke-Powers. An important thing to remember is that you should not attach
this to Ho-Oh because unlike Psychic Lock it will shut off Phoenix Turn,
which you always want to be able to use.
Important play notes:
-Do anything you can to win before going to the late game. It will get a
lot harder to win if it gets past the first few turns.
-If you sense that the game will take a while, be really conscious of your
energy attachments both from Serene Grace and from your hand. You should
always play the game as if Phoenix Turn will flip tails, so only go for
Ho-OHKOs if you know they can’t respond with a KO back.
-Don’t forget that Togekiss can attack! He wins games! Air Scroll has
the possibility to 2 hitting anything in the format or completely throw off
damage math with healing.
-Night Maintenance, as said above, should really only be used to recycle
either energy or pieces of your Togekiss line. Ho-Ohs are usually just
early game attackers. The only reason you would ever need to get one back
is if the 2 others are prized and you are playing against a deck with
colorless resistance.
GG Varients-55-45
Since Psylock won't OHKO Ho-oh, you should have enough time to get the KOs through on their Gardevoirs. Whenever they can't respond with a psychic lock, it gives you the opportunity to kiss and set up another Ho-Oh while your current one is beating down on the opponent. Crystal Beach really helps in this matchup. Gallade needs to flip 3 prizes to kill 1 bird, so that isn't efficient for them either. The biggest thing you have to watch out for is Bring Down, but if you're overly worried you can tech an Unown G or Holon WP in. Just remember, if they're not locking you, hit em where it hurts! Dusknoir shouldn't really be a huge problem, especially if you play Crawdaunt or Dusknoir yourself to give them a taste of your own medicine. Feraligatr and Swampert are a little more scary, but Crystal Beach helps there as well.
Magmortar Varients-50-50
Burns from Torchic and Mag Lv.X are the scariest part of this matchup. A fast setup combo'd with good Crystal Beach usage is key here. Typhlo variants are definitely the easier matchup, but it's still not a walk in the park. Crawdaunt EX is a great surprise card here, splashing back a candied Blaze/Typhlo and Boosting/Kissing to KO and active Mag. Even if they burn you, flipping even 1 heads with Phoenix turn is a detriment to their setup. Utilizing Castaway to get a necessary energy and a str charm for the KO is important here, too. It's a hard fought matchup, but definitely winnable.
Banette Varients- 50-50
The worst about this matchup is 2 words... Damage Counters... Why?? Because you don't get to flip for Ho-oh if you are knocked out by damage counters... Also, watch out for the Cessations... but don't forget that Pachirisu can help out with that problem. If you get a decent start you can destroy them before they can set up all that they need for the win.
Arithmetic- 52-48
This matchup is 50-50... You can OHKO any card that they bring at you. However, the deck relies on moving damage counters and a smart player will know how to get rid of your Ho-Oh's before they know what hit him. If you can get a Ho-Oh by turn 2-3 you should be good though,since it does take Arithmetic a few turns to gets its set up out there and running. Dusknoir will prove immensily helpful in this matchup so you can keep their bench at 3 or less pokemon.
The "Basic" Skittles List
Pokemon: 20
4 Pachirisu GE
3 Togepi GE
2 Togetic GE
3 Togekiss GE
2 Baltoy GE
2 Claydol GE
3 Ho-oh SW
1 Duskull DP
1 Dusknoir DP
Trainers: 21
3 Rare Candy
2 Master Ball
3 Bebe's Search
1 Scott
3 Crystal Beach
2 Team Galactic's Wager
2 Night Maintenance
2 Roseanne's Research
3 PlusPower
Energy: 19
(You can do any combination that you wish)
3 Fire
2 Water
3 Psychic
2 Lightning
3 Fighting
2 Basic Dark
2 Basic Metal
2 Grass
The "Advanced" Skittles list-Urban Skittles
Pokemon-19
3x Togepi
1x Togetic
3x Togekiss
3x Ho-Oh
3x Sentret
2x Furret
1x Baltoy
1x Claydol
2 tech slots... 1-1 Crawdaunt EX/1-1 Lanturn PK/1-0-1 Dusknoir/etc.
Trainers-21
3x Celio's Network
3x Rare Candy
2x Roseanne's Research
2x Crystal Beach
2x Windstorm OR 1x Windstorm 1x Cessation Crystal (There were times I really would've liked the tech cess)
2x Castaway
2x Strength Charm
2x Warp Point
1x Copycat
1x Prof. Rowan
1x Night Maintenance
Energy-20
3x Fighting
3x Psychic
3x (tech energy type- water in my case)
2x other 5 basic energy types
1x Boost/Scramble (depends on tech)
Strategy: There are several ways this deck can play out. Your first and
foremost strategy is to find an opening hand combo that yields a Togekiss
and Ho-Oh with 4 or more energy by turn 2 or 3, or possibly even turn 1
going second. There are no decks in the format that can easily handle
this amount of damage this early in the game, so if you manage to get this
start you usually win the game. Past turn 4 or 5, if you don’t have or no
longer have a Ho-Oh with several energy, you will usually try to get
another Ho-Oh or Togekiss attacking relatively soon, making sure you are
recycling energy and KO’d Togekiss lines with Night Maintenance to give
you inevitability. An important thing to know about this deck is that it
takes a great amount of skill to win if you aren’t lucky enough to get a
donk start or if your opponent can survive the donk, but it is no way
impossible to win if the game gets past the opening plays.
Card choices/explanations
Pokemon. Most of the Pokemon line-up is solid from list to list, with
only techs being different.
Ho-Oh (SW) This is the primary attacker during early game. For 4
energy, Rainbow Wing does 20 damage times the number of basic energy types
attached to Ho-Oh. The big reason this deck ticks is that Ho-Oh is basic,
making it the best choice for an energy sponge from Togekiss’ power
because it can be fetched from Roseanne’s Research or Pachirisu’s Call for
Friends attack. Ho-Oh also has a Poke-Power called Phoenix Turn, which
lets you flip a coin if Ho-Oh gets KO’d. If you flip heads, Ho-Oh is not
KO’d and you get to remove all damage counters and keep all energy
attached to Ho-Oh. This power is an amazing help in a pinch, but is by no
means something you should rely on. You only need 3 Ho-Oh because while
it is the main attacker, you usually should only go through 2 of them in a
long game, and while Ho-Oh starts aren’t bad, there are better starts to
be had.
Togekiss (all GE) This is what makes the deck tick. Togekiss has a
Poke-Power called Serene Grace, which says when you evolve one of your
Pokemon to Togekiss from your hand, you may look at the top 10 cards of
your deck, take any basic energy you find there, and attach them to your
Pokemon in any way you like. The main hope here is that you can Rare
Candy into a Togekiss within the first 3 turns of the game and attach 4+
energy to Ho-Oh to coast on Rainbow Wing for the game. If that doesn’t
happen, however, have hope! The game is not over yet! If you only get 2
energy—or multiple energy of the same type—from Serene Grace, the mostcommon play is to attach them to your Togekiss then attach an energy for
turn to use Togekiss’ attack Air Scroll. For 3 colorless energy, you are
guaranteed 40 damage, then you flip a coin. If heads you add 30 damage,
if tails you remove 3 damage counters from Togekiss. This attack does win
games with either heads or tails flips.
Pachirisu (GE) This is the preferred starter in the regular Skittles
(Pachi/Claydol) version. First turn CFF nets you a great bench of Baltoy,
Togepi and Ho-Oh, which gets your main attacker and half of your energy
acceleration and draw/search set up on turn 1. A less important function
of Pachirisu is to use Smash Short to get rid of Cessation Crystal, which
is a nightmare against the deck because it shuts down all the powers that
make the deck good (Serene Grace, Phoenix Turn, and Cosmic Power), but
thankfully Cessation Crystal is not played in large quantities.
Claydol (both GE) This is your main source of draw in the
Pachi/Claydol version of the deck. Having a lot of draw helps you “find
the rainbow,” so to speak. There are so many situations where Claydol
will help you find exactly what you need. In a pinch, it also becomes an
attacker because there are coincidentally Fighting energy in the deck, but
the situations in which it would attack are very rare. The advantage in
this version of the deck is that you can potentially find cards the turn
you need them and get rid of dead cards in your hand, but the disadvantage
is that it’s a power that can be shut down and starve you of cards.
Furret (SW) This makes a completely different strategy to the deck that
has several pros and cons, and this version ended up winning SoCal
Regionals. Sentret start gives you a Pokedex to dig 2 cards deep, which
is quite good. Furret on turn 2 however practically guarantees that you
will be able to find the 2-card Togepi, Rare Candy, Togekiss, and/or Ho-oh
combination you need to “taste the rainbow.” Furret is also a better
attacker in emergencies because it allows you to conserve your energy
instead of having to retreat to bench it. The disadvantage in this build
is that you find cards with an attack instead of a power, which leaves you
vulnerable to a well-timed Wager, but they can only have so many of those.
The advantage however is that it’s a free attack that will find you cards
under a Psychic Lock, allowing the deck to set up where the Claydol
version wouldn’t be able to.
Trainers. There are several ways to run the trainers of this deck, but
there are staples that every deck unarguably must have.
Staples:
Rare Candy This is the backbone of the deck. It’s pretty obvious why
it’s here.
Night Maintenance Another staple in this deck. Recycling energy for
more Serene Graces is key in long games, as well as getting Togekiss
pieces back in so you can search them out again. 2 of them is best
because it’s a dead draw early game.
Crystal Beach This is your saving grace against Battle Frontier. If a
Battle Frontier makes its way onto the table early game, you have to
scramble to find this (or Windstorm in some lists) to get rid of it ASAP.
Slowing down GG and Mag decks helps somewhat, but a game without it is
still winnable.
Roseanne’s Research Another obvious choice. While Pachirisu gets your
bench set up, if you don’t start with it, Roseanne’s helps you get set up
anyways, and also gets basics without using an attack. This also gets
energy in a pinch if you need to add damage to Rainbow Wing, set up Air
Scroll, or retreat. Usually you won’t want to run more than 3…2 seems to
be the best number.
Celio’s Network/Bebe’s Search These are the best supporters in the
format, and work great in this deck obviously. Claydol versions should
run more Bebe’s because it reduces your hand size to draw more with Cosmic
Power. The number of these is not concrete; 4 is an acceptable number, 3
works, and 5 is great as well.
After these are in you can add draw and disruption to tailor the deck to
your liking. Here are some good choices:
TV Reporter/Professor Oak’s Visit These are great for when you don’t have
your draw/search engine set up yet. They allow you to throw away excess
cards you don’t need (Crystal Beach, Pachirisu, and energy mainly) and dig
3 cards deep.
Professor Rowan This is a great option for draw as well. If you have a
Togekiss or Candy in hand, you can keep it and try to find the other piece
by digging 4 cards deep. Like other shuffle draw choices, this lets you
get excess energy from your hand back into your deck where Togekiss can
get them.
Copycat: Another great shuffle draw choice. If you do run this, usually
only 1 is best.
Pluspower If you aren’t running any tech Pokemon, this is a great option
because most people don’t expect it. It allows you to hit the higher odd
HP benchmarks with Ho-Oh without “wasting” energy. Normally you need 7energy to OHKO anything with 130 HP, but with Pluspower you only need 6.
Windstorm If you’re paranoid about Battle Frontier, these act as Crystal
Beach number 4 and/or 5. It also gets rid of Cessation Crystal if
necessary, but that normally won’t be a problem.
Cessation Crystal This is a good singleton choice after you’re set up, and
is much more feasible in the Furret version because it’s less reliable on
Poke-Powers. An important thing to remember is that you should not attach
this to Ho-Oh because unlike Psychic Lock it will shut off Phoenix Turn,
which you always want to be able to use.
Important play notes:
-Do anything you can to win before going to the late game. It will get a
lot harder to win if it gets past the first few turns.
-If you sense that the game will take a while, be really conscious of your
energy attachments both from Serene Grace and from your hand. You should
always play the game as if Phoenix Turn will flip tails, so only go for
Ho-OHKOs if you know they can’t respond with a KO back.
-Don’t forget that Togekiss can attack! He wins games! Air Scroll has
the possibility to 2 hitting anything in the format or completely throw off
damage math with healing.
-Night Maintenance, as said above, should really only be used to recycle
either energy or pieces of your Togekiss line. Ho-Ohs are usually just
early game attackers. The only reason you would ever need to get one back
is if the 2 others are prized and you are playing against a deck with
colorless resistance.
GG Varients-55-45
Since Psylock won't OHKO Ho-oh, you should have enough time to get the KOs through on their Gardevoirs. Whenever they can't respond with a psychic lock, it gives you the opportunity to kiss and set up another Ho-Oh while your current one is beating down on the opponent. Crystal Beach really helps in this matchup. Gallade needs to flip 3 prizes to kill 1 bird, so that isn't efficient for them either. The biggest thing you have to watch out for is Bring Down, but if you're overly worried you can tech an Unown G or Holon WP in. Just remember, if they're not locking you, hit em where it hurts! Dusknoir shouldn't really be a huge problem, especially if you play Crawdaunt or Dusknoir yourself to give them a taste of your own medicine. Feraligatr and Swampert are a little more scary, but Crystal Beach helps there as well.
Magmortar Varients-50-50
Burns from Torchic and Mag Lv.X are the scariest part of this matchup. A fast setup combo'd with good Crystal Beach usage is key here. Typhlo variants are definitely the easier matchup, but it's still not a walk in the park. Crawdaunt EX is a great surprise card here, splashing back a candied Blaze/Typhlo and Boosting/Kissing to KO and active Mag. Even if they burn you, flipping even 1 heads with Phoenix turn is a detriment to their setup. Utilizing Castaway to get a necessary energy and a str charm for the KO is important here, too. It's a hard fought matchup, but definitely winnable.
Banette Varients- 50-50
The worst about this matchup is 2 words... Damage Counters... Why?? Because you don't get to flip for Ho-oh if you are knocked out by damage counters... Also, watch out for the Cessations... but don't forget that Pachirisu can help out with that problem. If you get a decent start you can destroy them before they can set up all that they need for the win.
Arithmetic- 52-48
This matchup is 50-50... You can OHKO any card that they bring at you. However, the deck relies on moving damage counters and a smart player will know how to get rid of your Ho-Oh's before they know what hit him. If you can get a Ho-Oh by turn 2-3 you should be good though,since it does take Arithmetic a few turns to gets its set up out there and running. Dusknoir will prove immensily helpful in this matchup so you can keep their bench at 3 or less pokemon.
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