prodigal_fanboy
New Member
Basic techs are very nice options which can really help smooth out the flow and increase the performance of a deck in terms of both tempo and consistency, which makes the choice and knowledge of available basics a great boon to aspiring deckbuilders. Of course, not all basics that make great techs are "known" in the public sense, as people keep interesting finds secret, and I have no intent of "unearthing" secrets, merely reporting known techs. One final word before I begin to list the tech basics in this format:
R.I.P. MD Chatot, I loved you little guy.
Draw – Effects that change what's in your hand, I include shuffle draw as it's fairly dominant in this format.
Manaphy: Shuffle and draw five for C. An alternative to Cleffa for those fearing Tyrogue donks.
Cleffa: Shuffle and draw six at no cost, baby rules apply. Vulnerable to donks with 30 HP, although the baby body offers some protection.
Relicanth (Ace-): potential lead for odd water decks, W: draw 3, LZ 1 card from your hand. CA that can be translated to big damage via Rain Dance effects.
Tutors – Search your deck for something. Varying levels of utility among them, I count all tutors in this list.
Pidgey (Ace-): For C, you can tutor for any Pokemon and put it into your hand, although Pidgey must be shuffled back into your deck.
Skarmory (Ace-): acceleration for steel that can grab special metal energies.
Unown (Ace-): CIP Poke-power tutors a basic or special dark.
Stantler (Skaterkid): colorless that has CFF-2, an interesting option although now Collector can be used on the play.
Specific Counters – Basics ran to shore up weak matchups, typically through hitting for weakness.
Zekrom: To my knowledge, the same as Reshiram except it hits Yanmega and Kingdra for weakness, making it beneficial in donphan-heavy S1s.
Basculin: mentioned as a counter to Donphan. WCC for 80 with a 25% chance of self-KO (barring defender and eviolite).
Celebi Prime (Ace-): Grass acceleration and an expensive stall against S1/S2 decks, although it can potentially be up and running before their T2 if you start it on the play.
Tornadus: Soft counters Donphan with decent HP and resistance and no required energy splash.
Reshiram: Good as a main attacker, also viable as a tech in Donphan to synergize with EQ damage (dat outrage) and prevent Kingdra Prime from running through you.
Bouffalant (Ace-): Can deal a 90 for CC revenge on a basic. I believe this saw play to answer RDL efficiently.
Utility – Good for multiple reasons, or difficult to classify.
Pachirisu: energy accel for Lightning, decent with Magnezone and Zekrom, although it does eat a bench space.
Jirachi: only legal energy accel for Psychic, it can also interfere with S2s that have been rare candied.
Shaymin: moves energy from Pokemon to Pokemon. Viable in conjunction typically with Pachi/Jirachi, although these two uses are by no means exclusive.
Bellsprout: simple, colorless, drag-and-drop. A metagame call as to whether it merits inclusion, as it does have large tempo costs for its effect.
Rotom (Ace-): an alternative to redundancy in the event of prizing critical cards.
Tyrogue: Cheap and easy donks.
Elekid: bandied as an option in Reshiram decks for dropping 20 in situations where 120 is insufficient and you might not have access to PP or multiples thereof to secure the OHKO.
Mime Jr. (Ace-): top card of your opponent's deck into LZ.
Marginal – These basics are an option, but they're obscure for a reason. Very limited use, difficulty abusing the advantages presented, or weak effect outside of specific situations.
Ditto (MegaVelocibot): With its Dittobolic Poke-Body, it reduces your opponent's Benched Pokemon maximum to 4 while in play (and makes your opponent discard a 5th if it is already in play). At 40 HP, it is easy for Yanmega (Prime) to knock out in one turn, as well as provides a bad starting Pokemon, and takes up one space of your own Bench, but it does become a nuisance to opposing decks that rely on having a full Bench. (Do the Wave, etc.)
Lunatone (MegaVelocibot): While limited in purpose, Lunatone can spread damage to both player's Benched Pokemon. This almost seems useful for decks that run Machamp (Prime). The only problems are that it takes two turns of Energy with it and it gives your opponent a Prize, unless you can reduce the recoil damage (Defender). If you can do this, and keep Lunatone from being Knocked Out, you can Fighting Tag Energy off of it.
Absol (Prime) (MegaVelocibot): Usable for spreading damage (2 damage counters) to Pokemon Benched from hand (not ones like Pichu), but needs Darkness Energy (and Pokemon to sacrifice to the Lost Zone) to attack.
Magby (MegaVelocibot): Burn can turn off Poke-Powers, though it tends to be a bit less useful with the dominance of many cards that don't use Poke-Powers while active.
Celebi (Ace-): Future sight on a basic.
Teddiursa (Ace-): Trainer lock on heads.Mr Mime (Ace-): Viable for decks that interact with the opponent's hand (Gengar Prime, Poltergeist variants?) at the expense of revealing yours. Has a place in lock decks although made redundant with the Weavile/Slowking combo.
Minun (Ace-): CFF-2 for C, just like Stantler.
Aipom (Ace-): Tail Code can manipulate energy, for C. Gambit.
Tropius (Ace-): G, flip two coins, for each heads grab a grass Pokemon. Possibilities as a beefy lead for quick Vileplume locking, as I imagine vileplume is the only card that currently really needs such capacities.
Smeargle (Ace-): Formerly highly viable, now sees limited play with the absence of Unown Q and potential downsides (Juniper away a strong hand).
Solrock/Lunatone (Ace-): Stops the removal, but not movement, of damage counters.
I'm a little busy so updates are whenever I think to log in. Feel free to bump with updates and suggestions of your own. Good descriptions and original suggestions are appreciated.
THIS POST HAS RECEIVED GURU POINTS! ( click here to discover why ) - GuRu SQuaD
R.I.P. MD Chatot, I loved you little guy.
Draw – Effects that change what's in your hand, I include shuffle draw as it's fairly dominant in this format.
Manaphy: Shuffle and draw five for C. An alternative to Cleffa for those fearing Tyrogue donks.
Cleffa: Shuffle and draw six at no cost, baby rules apply. Vulnerable to donks with 30 HP, although the baby body offers some protection.
Relicanth (Ace-): potential lead for odd water decks, W: draw 3, LZ 1 card from your hand. CA that can be translated to big damage via Rain Dance effects.
Tutors – Search your deck for something. Varying levels of utility among them, I count all tutors in this list.
Pidgey (Ace-): For C, you can tutor for any Pokemon and put it into your hand, although Pidgey must be shuffled back into your deck.
Skarmory (Ace-): acceleration for steel that can grab special metal energies.
Unown (Ace-): CIP Poke-power tutors a basic or special dark.
Stantler (Skaterkid): colorless that has CFF-2, an interesting option although now Collector can be used on the play.
Specific Counters – Basics ran to shore up weak matchups, typically through hitting for weakness.
Zekrom: To my knowledge, the same as Reshiram except it hits Yanmega and Kingdra for weakness, making it beneficial in donphan-heavy S1s.
Basculin: mentioned as a counter to Donphan. WCC for 80 with a 25% chance of self-KO (barring defender and eviolite).
Celebi Prime (Ace-): Grass acceleration and an expensive stall against S1/S2 decks, although it can potentially be up and running before their T2 if you start it on the play.
Tornadus: Soft counters Donphan with decent HP and resistance and no required energy splash.
Reshiram: Good as a main attacker, also viable as a tech in Donphan to synergize with EQ damage (dat outrage) and prevent Kingdra Prime from running through you.
Bouffalant (Ace-): Can deal a 90 for CC revenge on a basic. I believe this saw play to answer RDL efficiently.
Utility – Good for multiple reasons, or difficult to classify.
Pachirisu: energy accel for Lightning, decent with Magnezone and Zekrom, although it does eat a bench space.
Jirachi: only legal energy accel for Psychic, it can also interfere with S2s that have been rare candied.
Shaymin: moves energy from Pokemon to Pokemon. Viable in conjunction typically with Pachi/Jirachi, although these two uses are by no means exclusive.
Bellsprout: simple, colorless, drag-and-drop. A metagame call as to whether it merits inclusion, as it does have large tempo costs for its effect.
Rotom (Ace-): an alternative to redundancy in the event of prizing critical cards.
Tyrogue: Cheap and easy donks.
Elekid: bandied as an option in Reshiram decks for dropping 20 in situations where 120 is insufficient and you might not have access to PP or multiples thereof to secure the OHKO.
Mime Jr. (Ace-): top card of your opponent's deck into LZ.
Marginal – These basics are an option, but they're obscure for a reason. Very limited use, difficulty abusing the advantages presented, or weak effect outside of specific situations.
Ditto (MegaVelocibot): With its Dittobolic Poke-Body, it reduces your opponent's Benched Pokemon maximum to 4 while in play (and makes your opponent discard a 5th if it is already in play). At 40 HP, it is easy for Yanmega (Prime) to knock out in one turn, as well as provides a bad starting Pokemon, and takes up one space of your own Bench, but it does become a nuisance to opposing decks that rely on having a full Bench. (Do the Wave, etc.)
Lunatone (MegaVelocibot): While limited in purpose, Lunatone can spread damage to both player's Benched Pokemon. This almost seems useful for decks that run Machamp (Prime). The only problems are that it takes two turns of Energy with it and it gives your opponent a Prize, unless you can reduce the recoil damage (Defender). If you can do this, and keep Lunatone from being Knocked Out, you can Fighting Tag Energy off of it.
Absol (Prime) (MegaVelocibot): Usable for spreading damage (2 damage counters) to Pokemon Benched from hand (not ones like Pichu), but needs Darkness Energy (and Pokemon to sacrifice to the Lost Zone) to attack.
Magby (MegaVelocibot): Burn can turn off Poke-Powers, though it tends to be a bit less useful with the dominance of many cards that don't use Poke-Powers while active.
Celebi (Ace-): Future sight on a basic.
Teddiursa (Ace-): Trainer lock on heads.Mr Mime (Ace-): Viable for decks that interact with the opponent's hand (Gengar Prime, Poltergeist variants?) at the expense of revealing yours. Has a place in lock decks although made redundant with the Weavile/Slowking combo.
Minun (Ace-): CFF-2 for C, just like Stantler.
Aipom (Ace-): Tail Code can manipulate energy, for C. Gambit.
Tropius (Ace-): G, flip two coins, for each heads grab a grass Pokemon. Possibilities as a beefy lead for quick Vileplume locking, as I imagine vileplume is the only card that currently really needs such capacities.
Smeargle (Ace-): Formerly highly viable, now sees limited play with the absence of Unown Q and potential downsides (Juniper away a strong hand).
Solrock/Lunatone (Ace-): Stops the removal, but not movement, of damage counters.
I'm a little busy so updates are whenever I think to log in. Feel free to bump with updates and suggestions of your own. Good descriptions and original suggestions are appreciated.
THIS POST HAS RECEIVED GURU POINTS! ( click here to discover why ) - GuRu SQuaD
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