Thank you so much for taking the time to be so in depth, Wes! And, it's really awsome that you've played with reshiphlosion yourself.
The reason I run Juniper over Oak is primarily a matter of digging for Junk Arms and PlusPowers. I've personally found that the ability to go super turbo-boost-the-reshirams-with-pluspowers is a huge trick move for this deck mid-late game. it takes out RDLs, machamps, even tyranitars/samurott, but MOST importantly; Donphans and Magnezones, in one major hit, and generally puts the opponent in a sticky situation. It really, in my opinion, is what the deck needs in order to keep up with the huge hits other decks are capable of.
Now, i ABSOLUTELY agree with concentrating on consistancy, and i can DEFINATELY see dropping an elm and a cleffa, after more testing.
I DO have a question about the fixes though. (and i'll definately be testing out your great suggestions regardless):
you did say "concentrate on your consistancy", yet the things that you've changed seem, just to me personally, to DETRACT from consistancy. How are the rare candies more consistant than having an actual card to evolve into, especially with cleffas that want to eek away the rest of a hand, or a juniper that wants to discard? I know the junk arms help with this in the case of the junipers, but i've found cleffa eek's to be HUGELY important for this deck early game.
Now, that said, i absolutely agree with the Revive philosophy, and i'm about to test out the rare candy premise presently.
My pleasure. I'm glad you found it informative.
In my matches, yes, I do agree with that Cleffas really help the early game setup. The reason I recommended to take out 2 of the 4 Cleffas, though, is that one of the biggest mistakes you can make in a deck is OVER-emphisizing your starts. This causes your deck to be over-cluttered and thus limits its late-game potential. It's also worth noting that there are 10 cards in the deck that can either lead to a Cleffa or IS a Cleffa: 4 Pokemon Collector, 4 Pokemon Communications, and 2 Cleffa. That's 1/6'th of your deck right there, and all you need is just ONE of those cards to get the Cleffa out on turn one to start Eeek-ing. That's all you need. Those two deck slots that you saved by taking out 2 Cleffa can be better used for more the important late-game cards which the deck cannot survive long-term without, such as Revives and Energy Retrievals. That said, I have followed this philosophy with ALL of my HGSS-on decks, using only 2 Cleffas and no more. This has NEVER dampened their consistency. It only improves it, allowing it to consistently be a mid-late contender thank to no dead-draw Cleffas during that time, on top of the already very consistent early game. The change I recommended is based on my experience/success with such a structure.
Concerning Rare Candies, I completely understand where you're coming from. About 2 years ago, I had the same outlook towards Rare Candy. In fact, I disliked Stage 2s in general because of it. However, after trying it out for myself, I saw just how critcal the speed it provided was. In theory, you may think waiting one turn later is no big deal. However, the fact of the matter is that it IS a big deal. With fast decks like ZPS and Donphan/Yanmega, a deck like Reshiphlosion will be faced with early-game pressure. Each turn means a potential prize for the opponent in these scenarios, and that means you'll have a harder time in catching back up with each passing turn. The sooner you can get out key Stage 2s, the easier your comeback will be. This also means that you can use RC to get into Typhlosion instantly so you can Juniper afterwards rather than throw away that stage 2 that you otherwise wouldn't be able to place down, thus meaning a new hand of better possibilities that doesn't have to stress with missing that key Typhlosion. The bottom line? RC provides critical speed that any deck with a stage 2 pokemon needs. On a side note, RC can be Junk Arm'd, too, which I've found quite helpful in setting up my second Typhlosion, and that means that I can be prepared to execute my Reshi-chain all the more sooner against the likes of speedy Zekroms/stage 1s. Quilava, however, can't be Junk Arm'd, much less be recovered so easily.
Extra: A note-worthy tactic I tend to use when I do find myself facing early pressure is using Twins to search out RC and Typhlosion Prime (if I already have Ninetales up and running, of course). Also, there WILL be times where opting for the basic-stage1-stage2 approach will be far better. This is why that single lone Quilava is included. However, such cases will be few.
Extra #2: I actually run 3 RCs in my deck, but I will probably opt to take out 1 of them and an Elm's to allow room for a complete 4-PlusPower line-up. Feel free to up the count to 3 RCs if you find 2 to be too few for you. (Random irrelevent note: I used the entire two/to/too family there. lol)
