Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

**In Progress** Valuable HGSS-On Basics

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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.

:confused: 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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Pokemon you might add:

HS:

Pichu- its a good card if you need to swarm basics or if you dont own any collectors.
Smoochum- Tail Code can be very annoying for your opponent. It also has the baby poke-body which can be useful
Delibird- only useful in decks which plays many water energies and Feraligatr Prime or Floatzel UL because you can draw a lot of cards easily
igglybuff- useful against decks which run a low energy count and pokemon with high retreat. it can also stall because of its body
drowzee- disruption attack for a psychic energy. better than Bellsprout and Carnivine in terms of its attack because the pokemon you choose is also asleep, but you need a psychic energy
Mantine- a celio´s network for water pokemon.
Jynx- copycat as an attack. Can replace cleffa if your meta has many tyrogues.

UL:

Minun- CFF attack. however there is also stantler with CFF, which has a better second attack and better stats
Aipom- basically a smoochum with better stats, but it has a weakness, retreat costs and needs an energy to attack
Tropius- basically a Mantine for :grass: pokemon, but its flippy. however you can get 2 grass pokemon if you are lucky

UD:

Smeargle- in many decks it was a staple. however it isnt a staple anymore because there is no unown q in format and you have to discard your hand if your opponents has a prof. juniper only
Rotom- can be useful in decks which uses cards like slowking, research records etc because you know your prizes. Besides it can be useful against bench sitters who have many energies (e.g. shuckle)
Skarmory- it can be useful in metal decks because it can search for special metal energies
sableye- basically a recycle in decks. however you need a darkness energy
unown- it can search for darkness energy (basic and special). better than skarmory because it has a poke-power
slowpoke- it can search for basic pokemon.
slugma- useful in decks which plays fire energies, shaymin and Research Record/slowking

TR:
Celebi- a pokedex for your deck or opponent. can be useful after a judge
Solrock/lunatone- great against a heal meta
spiritomb- can be useful if you want to deckout your opponent or if he/she has a +7 cards in his hand
carnivine- basically a bellsprout with more hp, but 2 retreat costs
ditto- useful against a jumpluff/cincinno meta. however i doubt there is any cincinno/jumpluff meta
magby- burn for free.useful against cards like magnezone prime and kingdra prime because they cant use their powers
unown- a full heal as poke power- good against a mew/vileplume/muk meta
nidoran female- basically a slowpoke for every pokemon. but you cant put basic pokemon onto your bench+ you get only one pokemon
pidgey- search for any pokemon, but you must shuffle it back into your deck. can be useful in decks like gothitelle
celebi prime- can stall against stage 1 and stage 2 decks. however only useful decks which plays grass energies and rainbow/psychic energy

COL exclusives:
Mr Mime- good in decks which need to see the opponents hand. can be useful in lock decks as well
Zangnoose- can support lost world decks.
mime jr- only useful in lost world decks
relicanth- draw 3 cards, but you have to send 1 card into the lost zone. can be useful to dicard cards which are useless against deck xyz (e.g. you discard your trainer cards while you are playing against vileplume or active gothitelle)
teddiursa- trainer lock T1 possible but you have to be lucky

HS Promos:

Wobbufet- increases the retreat cost of the defending pokemon if wobbuffet is active. wobbuffet+ catcher can buy you some time if you choose a bench sitter with high retreat cost.
Shuckle- additional draw engine for decks who plays cards which move energies easily
Lapras- a VS seeker for water decks

BW:
Bouffalant 91- revenge ko. good against mew prime decks because mew prime decks dont run high hp pokemon
Pikachu- can be useful in fighting decks to cover the water weakness. but you have to play dces and ranbows/lightning energies

Worth to be mentioned-
Farfetch´d HS, Plusle UL- both can draw 2 cards, but there better pokemon which let you draw cards (relicanth, cleffa, jynx e.g.) or have more useful effects like CFF
Ludvisc TR- do 60 damage to pokemon with water weakness. that means it can OHKO Cyndaquil and phanpy COL. Also it ohko any baby pokemon
Heracross HS- draw card for grass decks. however it needs 2 energies + you can "only" draw up to 6 cards (delibird can draw more)
 
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Imhotep said:
If you're including Cleffa you don't really have the right idea of what tech means. Cleffa isn't tech.

Actually reviewing the list that is true of most things you included. Basically only Basculin and Lunasol are tech there, possibly some of the legendaries.
Click to expand...

I'm not using the right word, you're right. A better term would be something that means "valuable 1-of basics".

Utility cards doesn't seem right, nor does starter really. Find me a better word.

Although really we use "tech" even to describe things that aren't surprise or secretive, but merely counter-measures, so it's not like we're staying true to it either if you want to be a purist.
 
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Ditto: 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: 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): 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: 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.
 
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Absol Prime- Pokebody- When your opponent plays a pokemon onto his bench from his hand, put 20 damage on that pokemon.
 
Mew Prime: See off allows you to use cards like Muk UD, Drifblim UD and Jumpluff HS from a basic pokemon. While often labeled as a main player, a single card copy can help against Gothitelle, or decks your main attacker faces a non-Psychic resistance. Used best in conjunction with a Switch attacker to preserve Mew for its poor HP, such as Swanna BW or Ferrothorn EP.
 
Politoed666 said:
Aipom should be in utility. It's hardly "marginal." It's a deadly card.
Click to expand...

In what regards? The only convincing argument I can make for it off the top of my head is that it's relatively strong against Gothitelle. I'm out of touch with this format, however, so if you can convince me otherwise I'm more than open to hearing your case.
 
prodigal_fanboy said:
In what regards? The only convincing argument I can make for it off the top of my head is that it's relatively strong against Gothitelle. I'm out of touch with this format, however, so if you can convince me otherwise I'm more than open to hearing your case.
Click to expand...

Ness is the one who really brought the card out as a viable tech.

Tail Code just really screws with a lot of decks, especially because people are dropping Seeker in their lists. If you unconditionally need more than one energy to attack, it's a difficult strategy to counter.
 
prodigal_fanboy said:
I'm not using the right word, you're right. A better term would be something that means "valuable 1-of basics".

Utility cards doesn't seem right, nor does starter really. Find me a better word.

Although really we use "tech" even to describe things that aren't surprise or secretive, but merely counter-measures, so it's not like we're staying true to it either if you want to be a purist.
Click to expand...

Actually old post is old, but doesn't "tech" derive from the word technique?
 
Politoed666 said:
Ness is the one who really brought the card out as a viable tech.

Tail Code just really screws with a lot of decks, especially because people are dropping Seeker in their lists. If you unconditionally need more than one energy to attack, it's a difficult strategy to counter.
Click to expand...

S1s can attack cheaply and thus circumvent it.
Reshiram variants have alternate charge methods.
ZPLS has Shaymin, and I'd assume they still run Seeker/SSU although I could be wrong.
Gothitelle is the only one of the top four decks that I see really suffering from tail code.
Mew variants as well if you mess with their Rainbows. I don't know how much these crop up at top tables to be worth it.

Mewtral said:
Actually old post is old, but doesn't "tech" derive from the word technique?
Click to expand...

In the TCG sense, I presume we got tech from older TCGs, that pre-date PTCG altogether. In Magic, it came from "technology." It was a secret add-in that swung a match-up in your favor or had a similar performance-boosting function.

With the advent of the internet era of TCGs and decklists, it's probably since devolved just to mean main-decked countermeasures.
 
This is probably marginal, but I was wondering whether Girafarig (HGSS) would work well in Feraligatr Prime and Emboar decks. The main problem I see with this card is Judge countering this attack.

I like Sneasel (Undaunted) because it has free retreat and can attack for up to 140 damage with 2 Special Dark.

Farfetch'd (HGSS) can draw 2 cards and has resistance to Donphan Prime, you can also switch him out.
 
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