Cyrus
Iron Chef - Master Emeritus
~~~Magnechu~~~
“//NAME: Blaziken ex UGH
// Trainers
3 Warp Point
4 Crystal Beach
2 Copycat
3 Prof. Elm's Training Method
1 Holon Researcher
1 Holon Scientist
2 Holon Adventurer
3 Holon Mentor
4 Holon Transceiver
3 Rare Candy
// Energy
4 Rainbow Energy
2 Fire Energy
9 Fighting Energy
// Pokemon
4 Natu DX
4 Xatu d
4 Torchic CG2
3 Combusken S3
4 Blaziken ex CG
Okay, so me and Gordon get the WORST out of the 4 exs but here we GO...
Blaziken ex's attack is horrible, so I tried to stay away from that. FC Drag Off for 30 is actually pretty good, so why not have Drag Off do more damage? Xatu d adds 10 more to each Stage 2 ex, so Drag Off can do maximum of 70 damage! On average, Drag Off will probably do about 50 damage, which coincedentally OHKOs the majority of the basics in this format. A 150 HP Pokemon Dragging Off for a solid amount of damage for 2 Energy is very good, and Blaziken is easy enough to swarm with a lot of draw, a solid Holon engine, 3 Stage 1s and 3 Rare Candy.
The Energy is simple, Fighting is the main energy, Fire is there just in case you need to hit for big damage against a Stage 2 deck, where you can deal the magic number 120 with Xatu.
A big Holon engine is solid for lots of draw and setting up. Copycat is for extra draw and Elm's is for getting Blaziken and Xatu easier. Crystal Beach helps vs a lot of decks, even delta decks that don't use DRE/Scramble have Castform, which removes a weapon from their arsenal. 3 Warp Point is because you can Warp Point and Drag Off without any worry, as well as starting with Natu is a pain, so it adds more outs to get a Torchic active quickly to begin Dragging Off early.
Honestly, the deck is very straight forward and didn't need that much explanation. Well good luck to everyone, especially Ross and Gordon. The Truth Is Out There aaaand remember: You Play To Win The Game!
~Mikey/Magnechu”
Deck (7/10): A straightforward deck with a straightforward list. I like the overall consistency here. My issue is with no protection for Xatu: Latis mess with it, Cessation messes with it, and locking stadiums messes with it (i. e. Houndoom UF). You have no way to deal with any of those huge issues, and since you rely so heavily on Blaze…
Creativity (3/5): I like it. While Xatu d is a bland choice to go with Blaze, it works, and huge drag offs sure are sexy.
Card Use (2/5): You do a fantastic job on Drag Off, but don’t try to charge up ever for the second, let alone find a way to solve the damage issue.
OVERALL: 12/20
~~~SlimeyGrimey~~~
“Once I found a scan of Blaziken ex online, I found out it was worse than I originally thought. =/ So I stared at the scan for around 10 minutes or so trying to decide how to work with it. It doesn’t have very outstanding or unique abilities, so it took me a while to figure out what I should do with it. Blaziken ex has no body or power to work with, so I just have the two attacks to work with. The first attack, which is Drag off and lets you pick one of your opponent’s pokemon, either active or benched, do 30 damage to it and make it the new active for a cost of FC. After some deliberation I decided this attack was too weak to work with, as there are pokemon with more powerful and/or cost-effective ways to get a similar effect, and opted instead to go with Blaziken ex’s second attack, Burn Away. For RFCC, Burn Away does 100 damage to the defending pokemon, but if the defending pokemon is knocked out, all the overkill damage goes back onto Blaziken. Without the aid of either Buffer Piece or Sitrus Berry to deal with this damage, we are instead left trying to keep Blaziken from doing too much extra damage in order to keep your opponent from picking up easy prizes.
Since I am focusing on Blaziken ex’s second attack, which costs RFCC, I decided I would need a card to attach extra energy to Blaziken, both to speed the deck up and to allow for a smoother transition when the active Blaziken is knocked out. There are many options when it comes to finding an energy supplier. Flygon d doesn’t work because Blaziken ex isn’t Blaziken ex d, but there is still Metagross DX, Dragonite d, Tyranitar d, probably a few more I’m forgetting, and finally Altaria ex d, which I chose for two reasons. One of those reasons, and the most important one, is that Altaria is a stage one. This speeds up the deck, increases consistency, decreases the number of deck slots used, and decreases your reliance on Rare Candy. The other reason is that Altaria allows you to attach ANY type of basic energy, so if your opponent happens to be playing Crystal Beach, you aren’t overly reliant on your Holon’s pokemon to provide energy for you, and can instead fall back onto your basic energy, of which both fire and fighting can be played, so you can still attack.
A final important part of the deckbuilding process is to decide upon a starter, as the ideal starting basic you choose has a great impact on the way you put a deck together. I actually usually choose my tech lines before I choose my starter, as they can also have an impact on which one is best, and this deck was no exception to that, however it’s easier to explain the utility cards after the list so I can go into more specific detail on how they are used. The starting basic is also in general a lot more important than these other lines in how a deck is going to function. In today’s game, with little hand disruption Holon’s Castform is starter of choice. Unfortunately, there is no Torchic d to use with Castform, and Altaria isn’t going to be a particularily large line, nor would I want to plop down several swablu in order to get a large delta draw. For a deck like this, that more or less leaves us with two choices – Mawile CG and Jirachi DX. Mawile gives us precision in our search to get the cards we most often want early on – supporter cards as well as other trainer cards such as Rare Candy or stadiums/windstorm, but costs one energy card. Jirachi on the other hand has no energy requirement, and you can take pokemon and energy as well as trainers, but the restriction is you have to choose the card you want to take from the top 5 cards of your deck. Since we are going to have an abundance of basic energy in this deck to use with Altaria ex d, the energy attachment to a Mawile is not a problem, and therefore Mawile is the starter.
Onto the list:
Pokemon: 26
3 Blaziken ex CG
1 Blaziken EM
2 Combusken S3
3 Torchic CG2
2 Altaria ex d
2 Swablu d
1 Nidoqueen d
1 Nidorina d
1 Nidoran F d
1 Blissey ex
1 Chansey UF
4 Mawile CG
2 Holon’s Castform
1 Holon’s Magneton
1 Holon’s Magnemite
Trainers: 23
4 Holon Transceiver
3 Holon Mentor
1 Holon Adventurer
1 Holon Scientist
1 Holon Researcher
1 Holon Farmer
3 Rare Candy
3 Professor Elm’s Training Method
1 Copycat
2 Power Tree
2 Windstorm
1 Giant Stump
Energy: 11
7 Fighting
4 Fire
The general strategy with this deck is just to set up Blaziken ex’s and just clean out your opponent with the power attack, using Drag Off’s where necessary to minimize the damage Blaziken inflicts on itself. Since most attackers have either between 90 and 120 HP, as ex’s aren’t particularily common as main attackers right now, Blaziken ex can either ohko them with very little self-damage, or do 100 and then drag off for the ko resulting in no self-damage.
Blaziken EM (as well as Nidoqueen d) is not a main attacker, but more of a pinch-hitter, where attacking with an ex could lose you the game or just to take advantage of weakness. Nidoqueen d’s main function is simply to provide you with some consistency and recovery power by searching out key pokemon throughout the game. Blissey ex of course can heal damaged Blazikens. You won’t be able to do 100 the turn you heal with Blissey, so it’s best to use Blissey the turn you need to Drag off something for a ko, or at least if you can Drag off something to keep your opponent at bay while you rebuild. Blissey is also capable of knocking out Salamence d, if you come up against a deck using that. It can be easily powered by using Energy Absorption if need be, as Salamence d is forced to 2hko Blissey. Holon’s Castform and Magneton are great at providing energy for Blaziken ex’s attack, and have the added benefit of bringing energy back to your hand for Altaria to reuse. They also allow you to attack with Altaria ex if the need should ever arise. Holon’s Magnemite can’t be attached with Altaria’s power, but it sure comes in handy early game if you don’t have a basic energy in hand to attach to Mawile, as it is easily pulled out of the deck with Holon Mentor. The Holon’s Pokemon/energy are also great in that they act as Nidoqueen searchable energy cards.
Holon Transceiver is an obvious choice, giving you flexibility in your draw engine by allowing you to pick from any of 5 different Holon trainers included in this deck. Holon Mentor is just for set up, and Adventurer, Copycat, and Scientist just give you some drawing options. Holon Researcher is included in the deck for the sole purpose of fetching the Nidoqueen line, though it could also be used to grab an Altaria ex d in a pinch. Holon Farmer allows you to get energy and Pokemon back into the deck for reuse. Rare Candy and Elm’s Training Method are simply there to help you set up your evolutions. Power Tree is a useful card in that it allows a nearly never-ending supply of energy for Altaria to attach with its power, since this deck runs no special energy. Windstorm is good for getting rid of Cessation Crystals, but can also be used to get rid of pesky stadiums such as Crystal Beach , Cursed Stone, or even your own Giant Stump. Giant Stump is included to allow for the recycling of Blissey ex with Holon Farmer, as well as just another option to hinder your opponents, as many decks run large benches. Giant Stump could also be used to remove damaged pokemon from play when Blissey ex is prized.
The energy are fairly obvious. They are all basic so as to be attachable with Altaria’s power, and can be recycled with Power Tree. A larger number of Fighting are played as that is the necessary energy for Blaziken ex’s Drag Off attack, whereas both are required to use Burn Away. Since you may find yourself using Drag Off early on, before you’ve had a chance to draw many energy, it will be easier to use if the majority of the energy you are drawing can provide for that attack. Later on you will likely have been able to acquire a Fire energy if not by drawing into it, then by searching out a Holon’s Pokemon with your Nidoqueen d.
That concludes my entry. Good luck to all competitors.”
Deck (8/10): You do a great job of balancing out things in the list. I think to compensate for the fourth Blaziken, you could have had a fourth Torchic to match. Other than that, I like all of yours lines. You make full use of your trainer engine, and make the vital play of PETM in this deck. Everything compliments everything in this list, and it gives off the impression of a typically consistent deck. Goob job.
Creativity (3/5): At first this list looked like a boring Altaria ex+”Insert Stage two ex here” list, but then I saw the Blissey, and was overall pleased with how the creativity went. Like the other decks I’ve graded, it just didn’t go insanely above and beyond, but that’s cool.
Card Use (4/5): You found a practical away to use Drag Off, but didn’t truly “abuse” it. I feel like that hurts you some, but the great job with the second attack warrants a four.
OVERALL: 15/20
“//NAME: Blaziken ex UGH
// Trainers
3 Warp Point
4 Crystal Beach
2 Copycat
3 Prof. Elm's Training Method
1 Holon Researcher
1 Holon Scientist
2 Holon Adventurer
3 Holon Mentor
4 Holon Transceiver
3 Rare Candy
// Energy
4 Rainbow Energy
2 Fire Energy
9 Fighting Energy
// Pokemon
4 Natu DX
4 Xatu d
4 Torchic CG2
3 Combusken S3
4 Blaziken ex CG
Okay, so me and Gordon get the WORST out of the 4 exs but here we GO...
Blaziken ex's attack is horrible, so I tried to stay away from that. FC Drag Off for 30 is actually pretty good, so why not have Drag Off do more damage? Xatu d adds 10 more to each Stage 2 ex, so Drag Off can do maximum of 70 damage! On average, Drag Off will probably do about 50 damage, which coincedentally OHKOs the majority of the basics in this format. A 150 HP Pokemon Dragging Off for a solid amount of damage for 2 Energy is very good, and Blaziken is easy enough to swarm with a lot of draw, a solid Holon engine, 3 Stage 1s and 3 Rare Candy.
The Energy is simple, Fighting is the main energy, Fire is there just in case you need to hit for big damage against a Stage 2 deck, where you can deal the magic number 120 with Xatu.
A big Holon engine is solid for lots of draw and setting up. Copycat is for extra draw and Elm's is for getting Blaziken and Xatu easier. Crystal Beach helps vs a lot of decks, even delta decks that don't use DRE/Scramble have Castform, which removes a weapon from their arsenal. 3 Warp Point is because you can Warp Point and Drag Off without any worry, as well as starting with Natu is a pain, so it adds more outs to get a Torchic active quickly to begin Dragging Off early.
Honestly, the deck is very straight forward and didn't need that much explanation. Well good luck to everyone, especially Ross and Gordon. The Truth Is Out There aaaand remember: You Play To Win The Game!
~Mikey/Magnechu”
Deck (7/10): A straightforward deck with a straightforward list. I like the overall consistency here. My issue is with no protection for Xatu: Latis mess with it, Cessation messes with it, and locking stadiums messes with it (i. e. Houndoom UF). You have no way to deal with any of those huge issues, and since you rely so heavily on Blaze…
Creativity (3/5): I like it. While Xatu d is a bland choice to go with Blaze, it works, and huge drag offs sure are sexy.
Card Use (2/5): You do a fantastic job on Drag Off, but don’t try to charge up ever for the second, let alone find a way to solve the damage issue.
OVERALL: 12/20
~~~SlimeyGrimey~~~
“Once I found a scan of Blaziken ex online, I found out it was worse than I originally thought. =/ So I stared at the scan for around 10 minutes or so trying to decide how to work with it. It doesn’t have very outstanding or unique abilities, so it took me a while to figure out what I should do with it. Blaziken ex has no body or power to work with, so I just have the two attacks to work with. The first attack, which is Drag off and lets you pick one of your opponent’s pokemon, either active or benched, do 30 damage to it and make it the new active for a cost of FC. After some deliberation I decided this attack was too weak to work with, as there are pokemon with more powerful and/or cost-effective ways to get a similar effect, and opted instead to go with Blaziken ex’s second attack, Burn Away. For RFCC, Burn Away does 100 damage to the defending pokemon, but if the defending pokemon is knocked out, all the overkill damage goes back onto Blaziken. Without the aid of either Buffer Piece or Sitrus Berry to deal with this damage, we are instead left trying to keep Blaziken from doing too much extra damage in order to keep your opponent from picking up easy prizes.
Since I am focusing on Blaziken ex’s second attack, which costs RFCC, I decided I would need a card to attach extra energy to Blaziken, both to speed the deck up and to allow for a smoother transition when the active Blaziken is knocked out. There are many options when it comes to finding an energy supplier. Flygon d doesn’t work because Blaziken ex isn’t Blaziken ex d, but there is still Metagross DX, Dragonite d, Tyranitar d, probably a few more I’m forgetting, and finally Altaria ex d, which I chose for two reasons. One of those reasons, and the most important one, is that Altaria is a stage one. This speeds up the deck, increases consistency, decreases the number of deck slots used, and decreases your reliance on Rare Candy. The other reason is that Altaria allows you to attach ANY type of basic energy, so if your opponent happens to be playing Crystal Beach, you aren’t overly reliant on your Holon’s pokemon to provide energy for you, and can instead fall back onto your basic energy, of which both fire and fighting can be played, so you can still attack.
A final important part of the deckbuilding process is to decide upon a starter, as the ideal starting basic you choose has a great impact on the way you put a deck together. I actually usually choose my tech lines before I choose my starter, as they can also have an impact on which one is best, and this deck was no exception to that, however it’s easier to explain the utility cards after the list so I can go into more specific detail on how they are used. The starting basic is also in general a lot more important than these other lines in how a deck is going to function. In today’s game, with little hand disruption Holon’s Castform is starter of choice. Unfortunately, there is no Torchic d to use with Castform, and Altaria isn’t going to be a particularily large line, nor would I want to plop down several swablu in order to get a large delta draw. For a deck like this, that more or less leaves us with two choices – Mawile CG and Jirachi DX. Mawile gives us precision in our search to get the cards we most often want early on – supporter cards as well as other trainer cards such as Rare Candy or stadiums/windstorm, but costs one energy card. Jirachi on the other hand has no energy requirement, and you can take pokemon and energy as well as trainers, but the restriction is you have to choose the card you want to take from the top 5 cards of your deck. Since we are going to have an abundance of basic energy in this deck to use with Altaria ex d, the energy attachment to a Mawile is not a problem, and therefore Mawile is the starter.
Onto the list:
Pokemon: 26
3 Blaziken ex CG
1 Blaziken EM
2 Combusken S3
3 Torchic CG2
2 Altaria ex d
2 Swablu d
1 Nidoqueen d
1 Nidorina d
1 Nidoran F d
1 Blissey ex
1 Chansey UF
4 Mawile CG
2 Holon’s Castform
1 Holon’s Magneton
1 Holon’s Magnemite
Trainers: 23
4 Holon Transceiver
3 Holon Mentor
1 Holon Adventurer
1 Holon Scientist
1 Holon Researcher
1 Holon Farmer
3 Rare Candy
3 Professor Elm’s Training Method
1 Copycat
2 Power Tree
2 Windstorm
1 Giant Stump
Energy: 11
7 Fighting
4 Fire
The general strategy with this deck is just to set up Blaziken ex’s and just clean out your opponent with the power attack, using Drag Off’s where necessary to minimize the damage Blaziken inflicts on itself. Since most attackers have either between 90 and 120 HP, as ex’s aren’t particularily common as main attackers right now, Blaziken ex can either ohko them with very little self-damage, or do 100 and then drag off for the ko resulting in no self-damage.
Blaziken EM (as well as Nidoqueen d) is not a main attacker, but more of a pinch-hitter, where attacking with an ex could lose you the game or just to take advantage of weakness. Nidoqueen d’s main function is simply to provide you with some consistency and recovery power by searching out key pokemon throughout the game. Blissey ex of course can heal damaged Blazikens. You won’t be able to do 100 the turn you heal with Blissey, so it’s best to use Blissey the turn you need to Drag off something for a ko, or at least if you can Drag off something to keep your opponent at bay while you rebuild. Blissey is also capable of knocking out Salamence d, if you come up against a deck using that. It can be easily powered by using Energy Absorption if need be, as Salamence d is forced to 2hko Blissey. Holon’s Castform and Magneton are great at providing energy for Blaziken ex’s attack, and have the added benefit of bringing energy back to your hand for Altaria to reuse. They also allow you to attack with Altaria ex if the need should ever arise. Holon’s Magnemite can’t be attached with Altaria’s power, but it sure comes in handy early game if you don’t have a basic energy in hand to attach to Mawile, as it is easily pulled out of the deck with Holon Mentor. The Holon’s Pokemon/energy are also great in that they act as Nidoqueen searchable energy cards.
Holon Transceiver is an obvious choice, giving you flexibility in your draw engine by allowing you to pick from any of 5 different Holon trainers included in this deck. Holon Mentor is just for set up, and Adventurer, Copycat, and Scientist just give you some drawing options. Holon Researcher is included in the deck for the sole purpose of fetching the Nidoqueen line, though it could also be used to grab an Altaria ex d in a pinch. Holon Farmer allows you to get energy and Pokemon back into the deck for reuse. Rare Candy and Elm’s Training Method are simply there to help you set up your evolutions. Power Tree is a useful card in that it allows a nearly never-ending supply of energy for Altaria to attach with its power, since this deck runs no special energy. Windstorm is good for getting rid of Cessation Crystals, but can also be used to get rid of pesky stadiums such as Crystal Beach , Cursed Stone, or even your own Giant Stump. Giant Stump is included to allow for the recycling of Blissey ex with Holon Farmer, as well as just another option to hinder your opponents, as many decks run large benches. Giant Stump could also be used to remove damaged pokemon from play when Blissey ex is prized.
The energy are fairly obvious. They are all basic so as to be attachable with Altaria’s power, and can be recycled with Power Tree. A larger number of Fighting are played as that is the necessary energy for Blaziken ex’s Drag Off attack, whereas both are required to use Burn Away. Since you may find yourself using Drag Off early on, before you’ve had a chance to draw many energy, it will be easier to use if the majority of the energy you are drawing can provide for that attack. Later on you will likely have been able to acquire a Fire energy if not by drawing into it, then by searching out a Holon’s Pokemon with your Nidoqueen d.
That concludes my entry. Good luck to all competitors.”
Deck (8/10): You do a great job of balancing out things in the list. I think to compensate for the fourth Blaziken, you could have had a fourth Torchic to match. Other than that, I like all of yours lines. You make full use of your trainer engine, and make the vital play of PETM in this deck. Everything compliments everything in this list, and it gives off the impression of a typically consistent deck. Goob job.
Creativity (3/5): At first this list looked like a boring Altaria ex+”Insert Stage two ex here” list, but then I saw the Blissey, and was overall pleased with how the creativity went. Like the other decks I’ve graded, it just didn’t go insanely above and beyond, but that’s cool.
Card Use (4/5): You found a practical away to use Drag Off, but didn’t truly “abuse” it. I feel like that hurts you some, but the great job with the second attack warrants a four.
OVERALL: 15/20
