Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Iron Chef Top 32 Scores!!!

Status
Not open for further replies.
My deck is not perfect, and i agree there are significant problems with it. I think i completed a donk deck, and my lack of recovery and select speed cards were deliberate. I cut seeker for other things, since T1, what use does it really have (you will be collectoring or using juniper.) Recovery seems unnecessary. This may not be an awesome deck, but it can win T1.

With all that said, i think Vegeta should drop me. I play some chess, and i very much enjoy the ELO system; the better player wins. Darkwalker built my deck and tested it. He is more devoted and capable of winning than I am; I would rather concede here then lose later.

tl;dr Darkwalker should win.
 
Gowk, whoever wins is up to Vegeta. I'll abide by his decision as I hope you will also.

In building and playing the deck out I found it very difficult to get energy out on the board quickly. Audino rarely hit for more than 50 damage on turn 1. However, around turn 3 or 4, assuming it wasn't disrupted, Audino started KOing things consistently as long as it survived itself. That was another major hurdle, once Audino was KO'd with most/if not all of your energy on board recovery was very tough. Even with multiple Audino in play Reshiram and Zekrom were very difficult to OHKO early on. To make things worse if you failed to OHKO them they usually responded with Outrage and KO'd several pokemon in a row. With some tweaking this could be a really fun league deck. It could even surprise someone in a Cities, but it just doesn't have the speed or consistency to really threaten most of the metagame decks out there.

All that being said, it was a fun (if frustrating) deck to play.

Oh, and as for the Seeker; being able to reuse Shaymin to move the energy around more often would make the deck much more able to recover from losing the attacking Audino. It also helped recover when you started with Shaymin or had one prized.
 
First I would like to thank Vegeta for hosting the contest and congratulate Goldedda on his advancement to top 16. I don’t envy Vegeta for either the volume of work or the difficult decisions he must face. I am sure some contestants feel that they very unfairly judged. I for one now realize that I should have included some analysis of the cards that I tested and didn’t choose. I had suggested earlier that some form of online game play could be integrated with the contest. As the contest enters top 16 another recommendation is to permit the contestant, having read the judge’s analysis, an opportunity to defend their submission before declaring a victor. For my hand control submission I would have the following to say:

Houndoom and Trickery – I tested both and found them to be subpar. The reason is that the opponent gets to choose the discard. Letting them choose from the junk I’ve left in their hand is almost always useless.

Judge – Is the antithesis of hand control. It provides FOUR opportunities for the opponent to break the lock. Ambipom’s Astonish, on the other hand, gives them one chance. Abipom lets you, not them, blindly choose the 2 potentially useful cards and a single chance to top deck the card to release the lock. It resets their top deck and let’s you second sight your own deck that turn.

More on Ambipom – Apiom not Ambipom is the star once Slowking is in play. Keeping the lock in place once they manage to get an attacker in play and powered up is useless. Catcher/Tail Code is the play. There are three circumstances to use Astonish. First, turn 2 going first if the Slowking lock not in place. There is no difference between one random top deck and another and the opponent is likely hold key cards in hand they couldn’t play turn 1 (stage 1, stage 2, candy, second supporter having play collector). Second, after the lock proceeds for 4 to 5 turns you may not be able to deny them the shuffle draw, energy or the catcher they need to break the lock. So you trade one random top deck for a top deck you know is guaranteed to break the lock. Third, it is used as a desperate measure to reestablish the lock after they catcher and OHKO or 2HKO your Slowking.

Seeker vs. Super Scoop – Under most circumstances flipping heads on scoop is better than playing Seeker primarily because Weavile is building bench damage or because you’ve parked energy on Pokémon that don’t need it and it doesn’t use your supporter. However, it is flippy and cannot be planned for on or relied on. It also doesn’t provide for the benched win. If they have a small number of Pokémon out, something you can control, about a third of the games are won by be Catcher/Seeker/KO active.

I have to admit that Ambipom looked questionable because of the shuffle effect and that Houndoom, Judge, Trickery and Scoop all looked good on paper until I tested the deck.

In theory this deck seems quite amazing but it has a major flaw. That major flaw is Ampibom/Slowking. It can't work, at all. The purpose of the Slowking is to control what your opponent draws. By attacking with Ampibom, your just reshuffling their deck allowing for top decks.
Your score is as follows- 6/10 3/5 3/5=12
Click to expand...

I played this deck on playtcg.me 40+ games with a win rate of about 70% most loses going to ZPS. Based on those results and the fact that a similar deck placed 6th in Canadian Nats I have to disagree that it can't work.
 
Last edited:
Articjedi good match
i was happy i made top 32 and i thought i was going to lose but ty for the great feedback and glad to make top 16
 
waynegg
4 Mew
3-3 Yanmega
2-1-2 Serperior
2 Absol
2 Crobat
2 T-tar
2 Jirachi
1 Unown (Dark)

4 Junk Arm
4 Pokemon Collector
3 Copycat
3 Pokemon Communication
3 Twins
2 Judge
2 Max Potion
2 Pokemon Catcher
2 Rare Candy

3 Psychic
3 Rainbow Energy
3 Rescue Energy
2 Dark (special)

While competing this season I've faced a variety of decks. One in particular inspired this build which consisted of Kingdra Prime, Absol Prime, and Yanmega Prime. It was a very solid deck which made top cut, but while facing it I couldn't help but think it could be a bit better if it had more synergy. Mew in the place of Kingdra really seemed to fill that bill.

Optimally, starting with Absol is your best choice. Normally I would run a 4 of for a starter, but Absol becomes a bit of a liability past the early game. With the free retreat you get from Mew and Yanma Absol can just be searched on T1 if it isn't in your opening hand and promoted without losing your energy attachment for the turn. His PokeBody makes for great early spread of 20 to each basic your opponent benches without even having to attack. 70+ possible on T1 is also formidable. I know my challenge wasn't to donk, but hey, if you can bring it to the table (ala Unown DARK) while still covering my challenge why not?

Absol has perfect synergy with Mew, which should work out to be your key attacker, in that while Absol is spreading and donking, it is also throwing Pokemon into the Lost Zone so that even a single Mew doesn't have to be wasted to the task. This way your Mew comes up swinging. All you have to do is target your opponent's highest cost retreater with Catcher (and every deck, aside from MewBox, has one of these whether Basic, Stage1, or Stage2), poison it with a LZ'd Crobat, and then spread with the LZ'd Tyranitar. Serperior steps in to keep all that spread off you while your opponent takes it in the face.

Yanmega comes in to do exactly what Yanmega does- snipe the weakened bench Pokes and finish off the maimed attackers. Jirachi comes in on the stage2 decks by dropping for a few energy via its PokePower and then attach for the turn to devolve kill a some of your opposition.

Since all the meta deck shave the same general, high retreat energy hog that will fall to the Catcher/Poison loop and the strategy works essentially the same for them all, I'm only going to break down the mirror.

Early Absol in the mirror is clutch. Hitting already low HP Pokemon for 20 just for the privilege of being on the bench is devastating. Your opponent is forced immediately into recover mode from the very start. They literally have the choice of set up and put everything they bench into immediate peril, all while simultaneously losing the early prize advantage. Otherwise they can choose to forgo the set-up, praying for a Catcher to knock the Absol to the bench, and equally praying they don't lose the wager as their lone Pokemon is Knocked Out. Once you get the early lead you just don't relent on the T-Tar spread and your opponent isn't able to recover.
Click to expand...

How does the deck get of 70+ damage turn one? Unown dark only searches the energy, it doesn't attach it, and Absol's attack takes DC not D or C....
 
Shino Bug Master said:
^Agreed. hitting yourself for 40 doesnt seem like good deck strategy, but whatever =F

So when is the next round gonna be posted?
Click to expand...

And when you add the ten damage from rainbow (since there's only a few darkness energy in the deck) that means that your mew has ten HP. If you play a deck with kingdra, even as a tech, you scoop to them getting two prizes in one turn, most likely. The deck has no outs against an opposing yanmega swarm.
 
Yep oversight on the Unown (figure that's why I lost consistency points- oh and good thing my deck didn't revolve around the donk.). Serperior Keeps the damage cleaned from your bench. Could care less about doing 40 to myself as Mew is OHKO to anything in the meta anyhow. Whether my active MEw is 10HP from dying or 60 is irrelevant as it most likely wouldn't last my opponent's turn, if my opponent even gets to attack, anyhow.

Besides, my challenge (Spread Deck) didn't depend on having to crush the meta, just on accomplishing the challenge effectively and creatively:


Vegeta ss4 said:
3)The goal isnt to neccessarily "win" your games vs the metagame, just to achieve your deck challenge. The only exceptions are the following, 4 corners and Donk. Those decks should win the games, any questions about what 4 Corners is feel free to PM me.
Click to expand...


Vegeta let everyone know the tiebreaks, and I listened. I simply took a calculated risk and it paid off...
 
Last edited:
Cyrus said:
It's nothing personal in the least - I just saw you didn't submit for round three, lol.
Click to expand...
Yeah I know lol. I just figured I should address your post somehow since it involved me and I was already posting an apology for not dropping.
 
Gowk-I liked your list, it is a great deck.
Darkwalker-I am sorry but your list wasn't as good as Gowk's. His list imo did EXACTLY what the challenge asked.

But, I will say I do feel bad to lose DarkWalker, amazing deck list creator. I am cool with Gowk dropping and Darkwalker moving on. It has to be 100% mutual. I feel Gowk is the winner, but if the winner decided he is NOT the winner and decides to drop, I will respect that. Let me know guys...
Posted with Mobile style...
 
the only thing I would have to disagree with in the whole thing is where you said slowking/ambipom is a major flaw.

In theory this deck seems quite amazing but it has a major flaw. That major flaw is Ampibom/Slowking. It can't work, at all. The purpose of the Slowking is to control what your opponent draws. By attacking with Ampibom, your just reshuffling their deck allowing for top decks.

Well lets see first off top 16 canadian nantionals S/A/W deck. Slowking/Ambipom/Weavile. Second why in the world would anyone use the first attack to let them shuffle? its second attack outright discards two cards and does 60. I can see where maybe you would dock points on originality or maybe for the fact that the attack cant be used if there are not two or more cards to discard but calling it a major flaw is a bit over the line mate. Other than that loved this whole series and cant wait for another one. All of you Iron Chefs out there beware Masterswrd is putting on his apron!
 
masterswrd said:
the only thing I would have to disagree with in the whole thing is where you said slowking/ambipom is a major flaw.

In theory this deck seems quite amazing but it has a major flaw. That major flaw is Ampibom/Slowking. It can't work, at all. The purpose of the Slowking is to control what your opponent draws. By attacking with Ampibom, your just reshuffling their deck allowing for top decks.

Well lets see first off top 16 canadian nantionals S/A/W deck. Slowking/Ambipom/Weavile. Second why in the world would anyone use the first attack to let them shuffle? its second attack outright discards two cards and does 60. I can see where maybe you would dock points on originality or maybe for the fact that the attack cant be used if there are not two or more cards to discard but calling it a major flaw is a bit over the line mate. Other than that loved this whole series and cant wait for another one. All of you Iron Chefs out there beware Masterswrd is putting on his apron!
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it discards 2 cards from your own hand, how does that help you at all?
Posted with Mobile style...
 
Actually. You wreck their hand. THEN you slowking.

Why is this so hard for people to recognize?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top