Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

No Hand For You!!! - Updated with first game!

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I have no idea. I don't see myself playtesting that matchup though.

For Ambipom replacements, I have come up with 3 pokemon:
  • SW Weavile - Free retreat, so it works with Absol's second attack. Can abuse dark energy, and can discard cards from the opponent's hand and do 40 damage. Might not be able to abuse Cessation Crystal that much.
  • MT Honchkrow/lv.X - Has the most choices of attacks/effects. Can attack with Murkrows with no energy on them. Might not be able to abuse Crystal Beach/Cessation Crystal as much. Honchkrow lv.X has free retreat. Can abuse dark energy too.
  • SW Raticate - Free retreat, so it works with Absol's second attack. Cannot abuse dark energy too, but can do 40 for 1 dark energy. Can abuse Crystal Beach, Cessation Crystal, and pretty much any other kind of disruption.
I feel I will probably keep tweaking the Ambipom idea, but if I run into anything that just makes me feel it isn't worth going on, I will test one of the ideas above.
 
Just thinking about the matchup, it will probably go one of two ways. Either Ape gets its turn 2 start and sweeps the deck, or it goes turn 3 and runs out of cards b/c of Cessation Crystal, Crystal Beach, and discarding. Of course, the wild cards in here are Delcatty ex and BlazeX. One of those two hit the field, and it'll be a long day for the A-Team.
 
Since Infernape/Delcatty takes longer to setup than Blissey, I'd say that the Absol deck would have more time to discard cards from the Infernape/Delcatty's hand. ER2 would be useless, but Crystal Beach combined with Cessation Crystal might be too much for just 3-4 Windstorms. Infernape being able to OHKO anything for a DRE helps a lot though.
 
erm, Prime, i think u should have a match with SOLO blissey because the deck's faster.

and, im curious about the furret/blissey deck list. Mind posting it?
 
I don't really feel like posting a decklist for it. It's a pretty simple idea. The furret is 3-3, but I feel 2-2 would work too. I still use holon FF and fire energy since both can still use it. Nothing special about the deck really.

I know Solo Blissey would be faster, but I didn't have Solo Blissey built at the moment. I even said in the beginning of my post that I knew Blissey/Furret wasn't as good as the other Blissey variants and that my version was still very experimental. But it was good for a test run of another experimental deck.

That's another reason why I am not testing all kinds of matchups. This is still just an idea. Maybe after I play it in more games and tweak it till I feel it's the best version will I start playtesting it against other decks. But right now, any decent deck will do. I also have a Kricketune, and a Lucario/Flygon SW I can test against.
 
You could run a Gardevoir (SW) line to take advantage of all those cards you discard from your opponent (Team Galactic's Mars every turn for free sounds nice), but it doesn't mix with Cessation Crystal. . Tech in something silly like Gallade for specific matchups and it might solve your offensive problems.
 
I want to say go with Honchkrow. Not only does it cover your fighting Weakness, but Murkrow offers consistent discard from their hand, as opposed to Ambipom where the player has a choice if they have at least 2 cards. Honchkrow is also better because after you power up the initial one, until it is KOed you can basically throw Murkrow after Murkrow at the opponent since they attack for free. If you can get out the Lv X version (should you use it), that's even more options for your Murkrow to attack with as well.

-2 Wager
+2 Mars
-2 Cessation Crystal
+2 Strength Charm
-1 Crystal Beach
+1 Holon Circle (to stall, an idea I guess)
maybe -2 Warp Point and +2 something useful (like more draw)
-1 Copycat
+1 Prof. Oak's Visit (maybe)
Click to expand...
I also like these changes, as it would fit with Honchkrow (you'd have to ditch the other 2 Cessation Crystals though for Buffer Piece or something and drop BF as well though).

Either way, with Ambipom or Honchkrow, I think this can do well.
 
The draw in these hand control decks can be a real problem. With 4 Wager, you'll have that as your only draw/shuffle when they have a small hand. Mars only gets two cards. Steven's leaves you open to a big copycat (they WILL topdeck them :X), which is pretty much game over. Hopefully, Copycat will be useless. Oak's Visit might be good, or just playing your stevens VERY carefully.

The biggest thing is topdecks. When you Absol their hand, you discard some good cards and some junk. If you wager, that's just a thinner deck from which they can draw the CC. It's too bad we don't have Dark Slowking :(

Umbreon* is sooo bad! You'll start with it a lot (luck is cruel) and then it doesn't do much except sit around on the bench. Even in a regular game, it's still just one card. Sometimes it will save you, but most of the time you'll get junk.

Honchkrow has the same problem with topdecks. Absol is SUCH a MONSTER when you start with the thing, but so far both Ambipom and Honchkrow have problems if they draw into a set-up. If they get an average hand, they'll still get stuff out most of the time. Absol is still going to weaken their set-up, so I think a support pokemnon that can take prizes more easily would be better.

EDIT: I would definitely keep Cess/BF unless you want Delcatty say "roflcopter" to your discarding.
 
Although I am not entirely confident that the deck needs a "cleaner" I do somewhat agree. I noticed in the game I played that when push came to shove and the opponent (eventually) got something setup, it was hard to really KO that threat.

I remember posting an Blissey/Absol a while back, and I will definitely go back over that. Blissey is a very cheap attacker, but has a horrible retreat. But I think it might be wise to look into better supporters. Ambipom didn't do much the entire game. Absol did most of the blunt disruption, and I could see Ambipom being replaced by a better attacker. The attacker would have to be able to use dark energy for it's attacks, and I'd rather not run multi or DRE in the deck (DRE because of beach) to have to pay for the other energy attacks.

I like Honchkrow, but IMHO, it needs DRE too much, and it is shut down by Cessation/Battle Frontier, etc. For a disruption deck to be shut down wouldn't make any sense.

On the issue of Delcatty. I feel that card will see less and less use. Fighting is still a very strong type, and a lot of people are too focused on the newer cards to actually go back and play Delcatty. Delcatty only really works for certain decks (Blissey, Infernape, Feraligatr) and out of those 3, I feel I would only face Blissey on a consistent basis. And to top it off, I feel Blissey/Delcatty would only be one of the variants I would face. But I can understand where you are coming from.

Maybe a combination of Cessation Crystal, Battle Frontier, and Crystal Beach. Battle Frontier is the better counter to D/M/C poke-powers too since it isn't stuck to the active.
 
Hi Prime,

Like the Honchkrow idea the most since Murkrow also offers some discard and deals a decent amount same time. He can take over once Absol did the initial work.

Cessation still works on Absol and once he dies Cessation will be gone which still enables a crows to swarm and keep their hand size lower while damage is dealt same time. With Honchkrow L.X one can even retrieve the Murkrow or Mars from the discard to hinder the other side a little more.

Since the deck would stick to an Absol start one can take a little more time to fuel Honchkrow on the bench. It is no more than one more turn and it enables the deck to maintain beach for more disruption.

I am with you on the cleaner. Neither Absol nor Honchkrow needs a cleaner. The deck benefits from a disabler much more. Someone who is able to use Darkness energies and either switches the opponent around on the battlefield or deals a nice status condition which is harder to overcome would be nice. That is the reason the Honchkrow deck of mine uses Darkrai L.X. The attack is real nice since it costs the opponent one turn even in case Cessation shut down the Poke-Bodies. This suffices for Honchkrows to make a comeback in control with a slight assistance of ER2.
 
The only reason I might not run Honchkrow would be against other decks that run Cessation Crystal. Since the deck wouldn't be running Windstorms, I'd have to KO it with something before I could even use Murkrows to deal good damage.
 
Yeah, I know you can attack with Honchkrow, but a lot of times, you can't risk the opponent KO'ing it. Because if they KO it, you're in a bit of trouble.

Krow lv.X has free retreat. Krow lv.X might not see play very soon in the game, until you can get it active and level up.

2 Warp Point aren't searchable and thus aren't a truly good answer to cessation crystal. Windstorm isn't really, but with 4 of it in the deck, it would help. But with 4 Windstorm in the deck, it deters from the whole disruption idea.

I'm not trying to put down the idea. I've faced it and seen it do well (non-cess, non-beach, etc), but I want to look at the card from every angle.

Game 2 - Against Kricketune

The Kricketune didn't mulligan...0_0 but the Absol deck did...twice. Weird start. Kricketune was about to go crazy T2 until Absol discarded the Celio on T1. Kricketune wasn'e able to do much on T2. Absol then discarded the next Celio. Kricketune was doing absolutely nothing. 2 Kricketots down, and the Kricketune deck topdecks a fast ball. Bye, bye Absol. By that time the Ambipom was able to score an easy 80 damage with it's second attack for the KO. The game was over fast after that. Kricketune KO'ing a few Absols, and Ambipom KO'ing them back. Mars did great with Ambipom. Truly great combo there. Kricketune could have steamrolled if it didn't get so disrupted early game. Kricketune just doesn't come back with a small hand.
 
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Just a ponder about the Honchkrow Idea.

Say you have a Benched Honchkrow that is powered up, and you decide to send up a Murkrow, then evo it to Honchkrow. Play Castaway and get Memory Berry and whatever else. If you attach the Memory Berry to the Active (now evolved Honchkrow) with no energy attached, can Honchkrow copy Murkrow's attack which can copy the Powered Honchkrow on the bench since Honchkrow's Body allows Murkrow to use Honchkrow's attack but not need the energy??

Just a thought!

~Fish~
 
Hi MrMeches,

That does not work. The card is still Honchkrow and the attacker would need to be labeled Murkrow to use the attacks for free. it also would not solve the Cessation Crystal issue at all.

Hi Prime,

That is indeed the case. One needs three to four Windstorms to deal with Cessation Crystal. However Crystal Beach could be maintained since one wants to focus on Absol anyway in the beginning and just switch over to Murkrow and Honchkrow to dish out a little damage once their hand size is already low. Just ensure to maintain no more than four Pokémon on the battlefield in total to combat Steven's Advice a little and resort to a considerable amount of standard trainer cards to be able to play the hand on demand to counteract Copycats.
 
Yeah, I've found Steven's not drawing that much for either player in my 2 games. The average was 3. The low was either 2 and the high was 4. Never was either player able to draw like 5-6 cards off of Steven's. But it's better than other draw since it COULD draw you 5-6 cards in the right situation.
 
Empoleon LV X+Wager+Nidoqueen/Dual Ball Etc.(what ever gets you the Umbreon Star) (But thats a different Deck)
-4 BF + 4 Crystal Beach, Nice deck I would consider Umbreon* just for so disruptive even though it would be hard without dual ball.
 
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About the only thing I don't like about Absol is that you have to get lucky in order to discard key cards like Celio's from the opponent's hand. In your average starting hand of 4-6 cards usually (depending on how many Pokemon the opponent benches before the start and how many times you mulligan), the odds of hitting a key card like Celio's isn't the best imo unless your opponent benches quite a few Pokemon. Like your Kricketune test there, if you hadn't taken out those Celio's there, Kricketune would have steam-rolled right over you T2. But, luck is the nature of the game, lol. Either way, this does seem like a pretty solid, annoying deck.
 
Remember that Absol gets two chances to discard if the first card is a trainer. Kricketune runs 30+ trainers. Most beginning hands are half trainers. Discard one, and you discard another.

And Kricketune doesn't always start with Celio. I've played Kricketune long enough to know that even it can not setup every now and then. Throw in Absol discarding an already weak hand, and it would be even harder to get setup.

Absol did get really lucky in that, I will admit that. When I discarded the second Celio, I almost flipped the table, it was that funny!
 
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