You guys know how this works. Now let's get to discussing!
DISCLAIMER: I apologize if any of my write-ups/grades sound crass, rude, or offensive in any way whatsoever. I do not intend to be rude, but instead offer a very direct form of criticism on the entries.
~~~DIVISION FIVE FINALS~~~
---Yellowlob VS Pidgeotto Trainer---
Yellowlob
1x Ho-oh
1 Pokemon
2x Dark
2x Water
2x Fighting
2x Fire
2x Metal
2x Psychic
2x Grass
14 Energy
4x Roseanne’s Research
3x Professor Oaks Visit
3x Felicity’s Drawing
3x Cynthia’s Feelings
1x Fossil Excavator
14
4x Skull Fossil
4x Root Fossil
4x PokeBlower
4x PokeHealer
4x PokeDrawer
4x Energy Pickup
2x TSD
2x Energy Restore
2x Snow Point Temple
1x Moonlight Stadium
31
Pokemon Choice- With the format, the ability to live longer than one turn is invaluable, deeming it the best choice. Although it takes 4 to attack, that’s what fossil stalling is for.
Metagame- Assuming others will play spinda, ho-oh, lugia, stantler, raikou, or others, this deck has the ability to one shot everything when powered up (with the help of blower or skull fossil damage for ho oh and lugia). It has the most hp of a basic and has the wonderful power. Against the status conditions of stantler and others, that’s what poke healer is for, not necessarily to play as double.
Card Use-
Snow Point- Ho oh has the ability to knock out almost everyone with the normal 4 energy attachments, so one more attachment should not be too hard. It helps the “stall til ho oh is powered” strategy, giving fossils more health
Moonlight Stadium- counter stadium to knock out snow point when needed, picked because it would help the least amount to opponents since nothing really helps ho oh
Fossils – to give more time to power up ho oh, to buy time if ho oh is knocked out to TSD and reattach, to provide extra damage (skull) and to completely counter stantler (root), discard when you need
Fossil Excavator – to get certain fossil when needed in discard or in deck
Blower- to get anything trying to hide behind fossils or provide the extra damage to knockout an enemy ho oh without activating the power
TSD- to make full use of 6 prizes
Energy Pickup- some sort of energy acceleration with felicitys
Energy Restore +TSD used over Night Maintenance because of lack of search
6 energy types = enough to knockout everything in format even with snow point (no lightning for spinda matchup if they put more lightning because of raikou)
---Pidgeotto Trainer---
Pokemon 1
1 Raikou sw
Trainers 39
4 Claw Fossil
3 Root Fossil
1 Luxury Ball
2 Quick Ball
4 Great Ball
3 Cynthia’s Feelings
3 Prof. Oak’s Visit
4 Buck’s Training
4 Energy Link
3 Energy Switch
3 Night Maintenance
2 Time-Space Distortion
3 Warp Point
Energy 20
20 Lightning
IMO, the best choices (and metagame) from SW:
Ho-Oh, great power, but slow and flippy. You don’t want to choose needing 5050s to win.
Kecleon, I think a very interesting choice here. Root Fossil negates the self damage, but flip for damage period is annoying and 60 doesnt ohko stuff. If you play Pluspowers, they could get wasted on a Tails. =/
Suicune isn’t very great, just 60 and defense doesn’t apply after kos.
Entei is just another 60 and its bench damage is negated by Root Fossil.
The best choice is Raikou because it gives energy manipulation. Other Pokemon need to be built painstakingly up again one energy at a time once it is ko’d. There’s only 1 Raikou, but since Raikou can attach to a fossil which can be Energy Linked/Energy Switched, you have energy acceleration. Any good player knows how important energy manipulation is. Raikou is the only Pokemon that achieves energy acceleration which is a HUGE advantage and alone makes it the best pick for this format. There’s no significant Fighting Pokemon to worry about, and Raikou has a very useful poke-body as well.
The need for fossils is obvious. 7 is enough, and Warp let you switch out fossils without discarding them. Claw is great as Pluspowers are key, especially placing a damage counter vs Ho-Oh. If you leave Ho-Oh with 80 damage, Claw is a great stall. Root is key to beat Entei and other Raikou poke-bodies. You need it to hold your E-Link there.
The search should be obvious. Supporters should be too. With non supporter search, I’ve made all supporters draw cards. Pluspowers will be key so Buck is great. Oak and Cynthia are great too.
The Energy Link and Energy Switch are the manipulation along with Raikou’s attack that make it great. Load a fossil with energy and then move them back to Raikou. Energy Switch is great early too though, any deck here could use it. You see usually your t1 attachment is not wasted on a bad starter since you will use it to retreat anyways. Here however, if you go first you probably won’t have your actual Pokemon. You will have a fossil and an energy most likely though. And then in 2 turns when you have Raikou with 2 energy on the bench, you can just Energy Switch, discard fossil and attack. You didn’t miss that first drop! Since fossils don’t pay to retreat, you can do this trick.
Recovery (NM & TSD) is obvious. NM gets back energy too, and you have the plentiful search trainers.
Warp Point is a key card and plays to Raikou’s poke-body which only hits the bench. I’ve said before for Claw and Buck that Pluspowers will be key. I envision my 3 main opponents to be Ho-Ohs, Kecleons and other Raikous. I expect Raikou to do 60-70 damage on its own. (with NM late, your odds will increase). Against Ho-Oh, you’d like to get it to 80, Warp Point and ko getting past the poke-body. If you Buck and ko it, eh, it’s a ko. If you get it to 70, make it attack Claw and then Warp Point ko or all kinds of combinations. Kecleon’s defense is really annoying and Pluspowers are good vs it too. Again other Raikous will probably be left with 10-20 HP so the Bucks/Claws/Warps are great vs it. Raikous attack does an unknown amount of damage, so an ‘after the fact’ pluspower is great. If we get it within 10, we get a ko. If we miss bad and get a 50, then we’ll save our Warp. If our Buck got us the ko, great! If our Buck still left us 10 short, it’s not a waste, cuz we’ll warp or claw for ko. The Warps and their post attack ko ability with Raikou make all these cards work better, and help the unknown damage factor. Note: the first Raikou getting powered up can likely place 20-30 on their first attacker as both sides build so your extra damage tricks might not be needed til the 2nd ko which is nice.
Energy, it looks somewhat low, and I’d love to play 30 but it’s just not worth it. 20 is solid, it gives a solid average of getting 1 free attachment and sometimes will get 2. This is enough. As for adding energy to add to damage, it’s just not nearly as efficient as direct ways like Buck’s and Warp Point+poke-body. If I want a 70 instead of 60, I can play 1 Buck that turn or play 20 more Lightning in my deck. Just can’t afford it, you need enough draw, search, recovery, fossils and energy manipulation. 20 is fine, and NM get more back in the deck.
In summary, Raikou is the best pokemon available because of its energy manipulation which I have taken advantage of with Fossils+Energy Link/Energy Switch. I have used Warp Points to make use of its poke-body which is especially useful vs Ho-Oh, a likely opponent. I’ve made logical decisions on all my other trainer selections as explained above, with plenty of search and draw for this non-Claydol deck.
Lists:
Yellowlob has a somewhat troubling total of four Pokemon fetchers: four Roseanne. This spells trouble for getting Ho-Oh out, especially since you can’t ever whiff an attachment. The recovery is also fairly low, considering your reliance on Ho-oh, and you could have made a few better room investments. 7/10
PT’s list suffers a little from, surprisingly, low energy-itis. I think he’ll rarely hit off Raikou’s maximum damage potential. However, that’s really a minor concern that distracts from an overall excellent list. 9/10.
Creativity:
3/5 for both. I’ll elaborate later.
Usage:
3/5 for Yellowlob. I’ll elaborate later.
PT had many options, and his was a wise one: the fossil killer. Yes, if your opponent runs anything other than Root Fossil, then every four attaches means a free prize. Good deal? Good deal. At first I was quite skeptical of the Raikou idea, but then I thought that it really was a very successful attempt at adapting to a format that either A) relies on fossils for recovery, or B) one big hitter that can’t sustain little shots of damage. 4/5.
Preliminary winner: PT.
Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:
~~~DIVISION SIX FINALS~~~
---Andceo VS Kenshin's Garde---
---Andceo---
Pokèmon: 1
1x Mantine MT
Energie:15
11x Water Energy
3x Heal Energy
1x Call Energy
Trainer/Supporter/Stadium: 44
4x Armor Fossil
4x Skull Fossil
3x Claw Fossil
4x Roseanne’s Search
3x Great Ball
4x Professor Rowan
4x Professor Oak’s Visit
2x Buck’s Training
4x Energy Switch
3x Dawn Stadium
4x Potion
3x Night Maintenance
2x TSD
I have to say this was the hardest match in the whole contest.
I spent a lot of time in thinking at the list and the strategy and I changed my ideas several times…so it will not matter If I win or lose because the challenge was very hard.
There were some different usable cards, as Mesprit, Mantine, Mr.Mime and Sudowoodo.
At the end I played Mantine because I think it’s the best. High of HPs and 50 damages for just 2 energy. You cannot ask for more.
A number of Fossils between 10 and 12 is needed as support, in this deck more than in others because they have a perfect combo with Mantine attack. Move it to the Bench discarding an energy, promote a Fossil, discard it and you’ll do 50 damages each turn. You cannot lose because you have no Bench and you need at least 2 Benched Fossils to prevent Warp Point. Considering you’ll probably lose 1 Fossil each turn, 11 seems to be a very good number to me.
Skull and Armor are the best, because your opponent will have all his strategies messed up by the randomness of their Pokè-Body. Armor is the best one because fortunately it’ll not be KO’d and it can be discarded the turn after saving a prize.
About the list, I wanted 8 ways to find out Mantine. I feel 8 is a good number so I went for 4 Roseanne’s, 3 Great Ball and 1 Call Energy. I don’t play 4 Great Ball because I don't want to play with 14 energy. At first I had some cards more, but then with Energy Switch I felt I could reduce them to 8 without too many problems, because Energy Switch can make you earn an extra turn early game (W to a Fossil, pass, Great Ball, Mantine, Energy Switch, W and 50.
About my drawing cards, I think POV and Rowan are the best in this limited format. I added 2 Buck’s as random PlusPower to reach the 10 drawing cards quota. They should be enough to have a decent setting.
3 Night Mainteance and 2 Time Space Distortion because I’m supposed to need them early game. TSD should be better, but I think an unlucky day has to be prevented, so I considered my different 7 ways of getting out the basic and I added 3 Night Mainteance, in order to let me recover W Energies if needed.
Energy Switch seems to be a very good card to hit all the game with Mantine. Basically, an Energy Switch is needed after each KO and maybe early game if Mantine doesn’t come. I really think I need 4 of them because they will give me an extra turn late game and possibly early game. In this way I can attach a W Energy to a Fossil instead of energy dropping when there are situation in which the Energy is not needed (after a Fossil KO, after a Warp Point or early game if Mantine isn’t in the Bench).
Now it’s time for what I hope it is my “original” contribution to the deck.
I think that in a format like this healing cards are evil. Most of the Pokèmon have 80 HP and they hit for a max of 50 damages. A PlusPower will not make you play an extra turn (50+50 it’s the same of 50+60), but it can only be used to make your chance of KO a Armor Fossil 25% higher (from 50% to 75%). A double PP will not have a better effect (70 will not be enough to KO Mantine or Sudowoodo, even if it has W weakness so with Mantine it’s not a problem). So I don’t like it and I prefer to keep 2x Buck’s Training “just in case”. Claw and Skull all around? Yes, but I think they are too much random to be considered in this strategy.
On the other side, combining Potion + Dawn Stadium + Health Energy is awesome.
When you play a Potion, Mantine will heal of 20 damages and maybe 30 if you have an Energy+Dawn Stadium. As Mantine needs many Energies to move to the Bench and then become Active after you discard the Fossil, you are supposed to give it an Energy each turn, so Dawn Stadium can perform its best.
Also, with Claw Fossil (more used than Root i think) and Skull Fossil as Defending Pokémon it’s very good to heal some random damage counters to prevent a KO (Let’s say I have 2 damages and they hit me for 50, I can heal and KO Claw/Skull more relaxed).
When you play Heal Energy + Potion with Dawn Stadium in play, it means you basically get rid of an attack because you heal of 40 a 50-attack, and your opponent will have a hard time if he wants to KO your Mantine the turn after.
Dawn Stadium can also counter a SnowPoint Temple (with Mantine doing 50 each turn we want to KO a Fossil each turn). We can abuse SnowTemple (which I expect to be played by many people) in our turn (to take 50 damage on a fossil), discard the fossil and counter it in order to KO the opponent, gaining a turn in the whole process.
I hope you enjoyed my deck and this little article! Thank you for the reading!
---Kenshin's Garde---
Pokemon: 1
1 Chansey MT
Trainers: 41
4 Claw Fossil
4 Skull Fossil
4 Great Ball
2 Quick Ball
1 Luxury Ball
4 Leftovers
4 Potion
2 Snowpoint Temple
4 Professor Oak’s Visit
4 Team Galactic Mars
3 Cynthia’s Feeling
3 Night Maintenance
2 Time Space Distortion
Energy: 18
4 Health
4 Recover
4 Cyclone
6 Psychic
In a format with only one Pokemon per deck, consistency is of the utmost importance. The addition of 4 Great Ball, 2 Quick Ball, and a Luxury Ball give me nine reliable ways of getting my Chansey out. With almost 1/6th of my deck focused on getting Chansey out, I then focused on ways to grab those cards.
Draw cards in general have been overlooked this season for the much more powerful and reusable effect of Claydol GE. However, Kettler has oh so graciously made that option impossible. For that reason, I have included 4 Professor Oak’s Visit, 4 Team Galactic Mars, and 3 Cynthia’s Feelings. Oak’s and Mars provide some good straight draw (Mars even can throw a card in the opponent’s hand on the bottom of the deck; a very useful ability to have when one has no way to constantly recover their hand. This can help take away your opponent’s options, and can possibly leave them crippled should you KO them and take their Pokemon recovery card i.e. Night Maintenance or Time Space Distortion). Cynthia’s provides me some backup support when my Chansey is finally taken down. With over 1/6th of my deck devoted to draw cards, I should have a fairly easy time finding the cards I need to power and heal my beefy little egg thingy.
Like I said, what makes Chansey one of the better choices out of the MT pokemon is that ridiculous HP. 100 HP is a lot in general . . . many Stage 1 Pokemon hardly hit 80! So why not make that huge wall of an egg even beefer? I would like to introduce one of the many elements that will make Chansey stay on the field for a VERY long time: healing. In addition to the obvious 4 potion, 4 leftovers will help to keep Chansey from taking small damage (10 to 20 will almost always be removed). If need be, combining Leftovers with Chansey’s first attack, Scrunch, will give you a 50% chance each turn to get a damage counter off of Chansey. This strategy will greatly reduce your reliance on Potions for healing while you are building up for the big swing.
The big swing, Double Edge, is another reason why I decided on Chansey. Despite the high cost of the attack, 80 damage will basically KO any opposing Pokemon other than another Chansey. While I do take a bunch of recoil damage (60 damage?!?!?!?!??!?!), Leftovers helps to relieve Chansey a little. If I hadn’t taken any damage before then, I would have 50 HP remaining . . . and that’s without Snowpoint Temple in play.
Snowpoint Temple is definitely a staple card in this format. Thank goodness it applies to the whole field! Because of that fact, I can get away with playing two copies of the card. My opponent can either up their HP and help me become a tankier tank, or they can let themselves be KO’d by the egg.
When Chansey is KO’d, unless I get it out again, I’m going to be left sitting with fossils. UNACCEPTABLE!!! Three night maintenance and 2 time space distortion will help to keep my CHansey in play. Night maintenance also gives me the benefit of shuffling some much needed energy into my deck . . . a very useful feature indeed. And since all my search cards grab the pokemon straight from the deck, I don’t even need to worry about having to draw into the chansey. Time space, while lacking the ability to shuffle energy back in, still gives me a very reliable 87.5% of getting Chansey back (and then I can save those search cards for later!)
Because there are so few Pokemon I can have in my deck (ONE . . .), fossils become mandatory. In my opinion, the obvious choices hear are Skull and claw fossils. Stacking up damage for chansey is always nice, especially when the opponent will likely have 90 hp pokemon after a snopint enters play. Skull fossil even gives me the chance to OHKO the attacking pokemon should it ever KO it. Definitely a plus there.
Energy is vital for chansey to work its magic. With 4 health and recovery energy, I will rarely need to worry about small damage or status effects. 4 cyclone helps me KO some of my opponent’s fossils on their bench, or possibly warp up the pokemon they’re trying to hide behind one of their fossils. 6 psychic gives the psychological threat of a Mr. Mime, which may cause the opponent to play more energy than is really necessary on their pokemon, as well as provide me an out when playing against a rogue Azelf deck.
Lists:
8/10 for both.
Creativity:
Hmmmm, andceo and Kenshin’s Garde have very comparable creativity here. They both run good, solid picks for the MT format, but at the same time, these picks are not surprising at all. 3/5 for both.
Challenge Use:
Andceo’s option, and the cards supporting it, function in this format very well. There is “some” room for improvement, as discussed in the list section, but it’s good. 4/5.
I have a fundamental concern with running Chansey here. Although it can be quite vicious if things go well, your setup will collapse versus any big basic, or even a Sandshrew. Putting all of your eggs in one basket (or pouch
) can be a pretty rough endeavor, and I really don’t see it functioning too well here. 3/5.
Preliminary winner: andceo
Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:
~~~DIVISION SEVEN FINALS~~~
---Rainbowgym VS Dreamchaser AJ---
Rainbowgym
1 Carnivine
4 Claw Fossil
3 Skull Fossil
8
2 Roseanna’s Research
3 Cynthia’s Feelings
4 Prof. Rowan
3 Marley’s Request
12
2 Night Maintenance
1 TSD
2 Great Ball
2 Quick Ball
2 Potion
2 Leftovers
2 Energy Switch
4 Pokedrawer +
4 Pokeblower +
3 Pokedex Handy
2 Dawn Stadium
4 Warp Point
30
8 grass nrg
2 Call nrg
10
A Basic with fossils, because Palkia (transback) is in my format and I don’t want to take the risk my only basic being shuffled back.
However when using fossils it is possible your only basic will be prized, therefore I used fossils who might fetch me a prize.
They also work very well with the first attack of Carnivine.(Swallow Up)
Claw fossil, dealing a damage counter after taking damage, will bring most of the basics in DP in range of dealing with the 60 damage from Swallow Up.
Skull fossil , needs a lot of luck, but can do the same up to KO a pokemon.
They will also buy me time to get 2 energy under Carnivine.
70 HP of Carnivine is above average of most basics in DP, out of 56 there are 11 with 70HP or more. I expect Fossils will be used (50 HP or less) Carnivine should be able to get me some easy prizes.
Also the 2nd attack of Carnivine is nasty, discarding energy and Paralize (oke needs a flip) can bring a pokemon in range of the first attack.
Roseanna – getting the grass nrg or after a fossil start Carnivine
Cynthia – new hand of 4 and after a KO even 8 card, that’s good and some of my fossils will be KO’d without doubt.
Prof Rowan – With all those normal trainers it’s easy to empty your hand (minus 1) and get 4 new cards.
Marley’s – Starting with Marley is not preferred, but after a few turns it’s the best card for this kind of deck.
On purpose I took as (non supporter) trainers 2 of a different name with about the same effect.
Need your basic from deck – Quick ball/ Great ball
Need healing – Potion/Leftovers or even Dawn
Need draw – Pokedrawer/Handy or even Cynthia/Rowan for the next turn.
Need a fossil back- Claw/Skull
IMO Marley is better than Excavator, which can only get you a fossil.
Marley has so much options late game when using so many normal trainers, I couldn’t resist to use it.
4 Warp point to get easy KO’s with Swallow Up on my opponents fossils, or get rid of nasty special condition, Dawn also works for that.
Pokeblower+ to play solo to get a damage counter on a pokemon trying to bring it’s HP down and in reach of a 60 damage dealing Swallow up.
Energy Switch – needed in case your basic gets KO’d and it most likely will take you a turn to get it out again. You can attach a grass to a fossil and next turn switch nrg, attach nrg and Carnivine is ready to go again.
8 Grass seems enough, having the option to shuffle them back with NM
At the most you will bring out your basic 3 times (4 times if you start with it) while loosing some prizes on KO’d fossils.
2 Call – Fossil start, call and get your only Basic or after your Basic is KO’d an option to get it back when you have a NM available.
Enjoy
Lia
DreamChaser AJ
1 Palkia DP
10 Water Energy
4 Pokedex
4 Energy Search
4 Pokedrawer +
4 Speed Stadium
4 Victory Medal
2 Amulet Coin
4 Felicity's Drawing
4 Team Galactic's Wager
3 Dawn Stadium
1 Moonlight Stadium
4 PlusPower
4 Energy Pickup
4 Pokehealer +
3 Professor Rowan
I choose not to play fossils because I don't want any zero win situations (Palkia prized). I chose this many energy because I want to have an energy in my opening hand if I go first and be more likely to discard them with Felicity's. I also don't want to risk having less than 3 energies in my deck (6 energy prized) 4 in deck is still survivable. Palkia has 90 HP. Electric weakness isn't a problem. First attack does 10 and gets a stadium. I can play speed stadium during my turn and then replace it with another stadium with my attack. This thins my deck and prevents my opponent from using my speed stadium. I play dawn stadium to heal conditions and damage from my Palkia, since I need to keep it alive. This is also why I play 4 pokehealer+. If my opponent is grass or water, I can get a moonlight stadium instead to nullify any useful stadium effects (retreat your wobbuffet for a fossil, that's fine).
Energy search to deck thin and get energy. Pokedex to thin. Amulet coin for draw (2, more than that is dead deck space) Victory medal and Pokedrawer + to thin and deck search. Ideally, I want to get 2 energies in the discard with Felicity's and energy pickup onto Palkia to get Transback powered up as soon as possible. 40 is okay, but a chance to put their pokemon back into their deck? If they don't play fossils, you win. This gets past Dialga's metals and water resistance on grass. Plus powers are to ensure a knockout with my attacks with Palkia. Rowan works great with Pokedrawer+ or pokehealer+ and helps draw, Wager is to hurt awesome starts your opponent may have gotten.
Comments:
Lists:
At this point in the competition, it goes without saying…So I’ll say it one last time: nearly every list I receive is good. Now that I have that out of the way, I can spare my words a little, and instead focus on why these competitors aren’t receiving perfect scores.
Rainbowgym has a “decent” amount of replenishment, in the form of 2 NM + 1 TSD (excluding Marley’s). I think the Warp Point count works really well, as do the Marley’s Requests, which can be pretty critical in this format. Mildly low basic searching abilities, however, and perhaps too much shuffle draw in a list geared towards deck thinning. Somewhat low energy count, and the Call count is a little different, but it works. 8/10.
AJ’s list is very, very good at what it does, and is sure to get much of the deck thinned out after a while. I observe one major flaw: the lack of recovery. By this, I do _not_ mean a lack of fossils, but instead a lack of ways to get back energy. Since your list runs only ten Water and nothing else, I worry that you may miss an attachment drop here or there. I also worry that this list might be a “little” clunky in the early game. 8/10.
Creativity:
Rainbowgym’s initial choice is quite creative. However, in a format (DP Pokemon) where there are realistically only a couple viable picks, Carnivine stands out more than it would in its other legal format, the POP Pack format.
Despite that, Rainbowgym does all of the things necessary to make her Carnivine build clever and solid. 3/5.
For AJ, very interesting engine, but unsurprising choice for the deck’s center. 3/5.
Card Use:
4/5 for Rainbowgym. A decent amount of healing, heavy Warp Points to score quick prizes…Overall a lethal build. Could have been better at recovering whenever a Carnivine dies, though.
AJ makes Palkia work well, but I’m worried he is taking an all-or-nothing approach with this. Again, while it there is no specific requirement – or even encouragement – of fossils being worth the risk of your lone basic being prized, a low damage output beast might not be the best thing to work solo, especially versus the hypothetical “mirror.” 3/5.
Preliminary pick: Rainbowgym.
Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:
~~~DIVISION EIGHT FINALS~~~
---PokemansForGeeks VS Pooka---
PokemansForGeeks
Alright guys,
Let me start by first saying how difficult this challenge was... I never realized there were no good basic pokemon in POP 6-8 until now ;/
But anyway, here's the deck:
Pokemon: 1
Latias POP 7
Trainers: 43
x4 Felicity's
x4 Buck's
x4 Energy Pickup
x4 Poke Healer+
x4 Potion
x4 Pluspower
x3 Roseanne's
x2 Quick Ball
x2 Great Ball
x2 Night Maintenance
x2 Super Scoop Up
x2 Leftovers
x2 Armor Fossil
x2 Snowpoint Temple
x2 Cynthia's Feelings
Energy: 16
x8 Fire
x8 Water
I had a really tough time deciding which basic to use in this deck, but after many nights without sleep (noooot) I decided to base the deck around Latias. I chose it for a couple of reasons - relatively high HP, relatively cheap attack for the damage output, and it first attack. Originally, I was going to use Stantlet because of his auto-confusion, but decided that 20 damage was wayyy too low even despite the auto confusion. The reason I didn't use Latios was because 4 energy is a lot in a format where I doubt I will need to do over 80. Latios' first attack has a possibility of setting it up quicker, but I'd rather not take that chance with only 1 pokemon in my deck. So, onto the deck...
Pokemon: Latias - chosen for the reasons stated above. I believe that his first attack that heals damage and status conds. is great for this format. His second attack is relatively cheap for the damage and can most likely OHKO most pokemon in this format.
Trainers: Felicity's - used for quick draw and for discarding energy for Energy Pickup
Buck's - more draw, plus extra damage in this format is great
Energy Pickup - one of the main strategie sof the deck , use this to power up a Latias as soon as T1 for 80 damage, if not T1 I can use it throughout the game for quicker attacks
PokeHealer and Potion - Healing in this format is as necessary as breathing, if my opponent plays Stantler or anything that can;t OHKO Latias, I can just heal the damage while powering up for the KO
Pluspower - For Heatran and Latios, also helps with first attack for easier OHKO's
Roseanne's, Quick Ball, Great Ball - - All of these are auto-search cards for Latias if I start with a fossil by chance, the Roseanne's also helps with getting specific energy to attack
Night Maint - For recycling Latias if I get ko'd
Super Scoop Up - Last restor for saving a Latias, or even a fossil.
Leftovers - I debated using this card but decided to put in 2 as another form of healing
Armor Fossil - I spent the most time deciding how many fossils I was going to use or if I was going to use them at all, I really didn't want to get lone fossil starts, but I realized that I needed it for super scoop ups and stalling to build up Latias if necessary, I decided to use only 2 because it would limit lone fossil starts but also give me the chance to use it in necesary situations, plus with Snowpoint Temple this thing has 70 hp and can heal itself, nice....
Snowpoint Temple - I guessed my opponent would also use this in his deck so I only put 2 in.
Cynthia's - Recycle my hand if necessary, plsu if Latias is ko'd I can get 8, possibly a night maintenance and search the deck for Latias
Energy: I was going to use 7/7 but decided against it because of the discarding effect. I believe that 16 is necessary to fully utilize the efficiency of the deck.
There you have it guys, thanks for looking and good luck Pooka.
Pooka
Format: POP 6, 7, 8
After looking through the available sets (if you can call them that), it became clear to me that there were very few legitimate options for this challenge. With just a few looks at the options, it seemed like all of the Pokemon suffered from "discard syndrome" - that is, you have to discard a bunch of Energy to use their attacks. Not only does this make it hard to score back-to-back KOs, but also it's a hassle to KO even a Fossil (and Fossils are mandatory in every deck for this format). So, between Latios, Latias, and Heatran... which one did I choose?
// Pokemon
1 Carnivine L32 DP
// Trainers
4 Skull Fossil
4 Claw Fossil
4 Cynthia's Feelings
4 Professor Oak's Visit
4 Roseanne's Research
4 Great Ball
4 Poké Blower +
4 Time-Space Distortion
3 Dawn Stadium
3 Potion
3 Energy Switch
2 Professor Rowan
2 Night Maintenance
2 Warp Point
// Energy
12 Grass Energy
...Carnivine.
As mentioned earlier, Fossils are going to be a huge part of this format. You can hide behind them to build up a Pokemon, and you're going to lose if you don't have one in play when your single Pokemon dies. In order to be successful, I felt I needed an attack that could at least KO a Fossil every turn. Well, Swallow Up will OHKO any Fossil for two Energy (barring lucky flips from an Armor Fossil) without discarding any Energy. Excellent.
Swallow Up is an interesting attack. In order for it to be effective, clearly I must have more HP than my opponent. So, this means healing cards are necessary. We're going old school for this one - Potion! Potion is a simple solution to healing off damage. However, if a Snowpoint Temple is in play and Carnivine has more HP, Swallow Up normally will NOT be a KO. This is a problem! With a Snowpoint in play (which everything in this format benefits from since everything is a Basic), even a Skull Fossil will survive the wrath of Carnivine. Therefore, Dawn Stadium is a nice fit to both counter Snowpoint and also heal off damage.
Poke Blower might seem odd, but it makes sense! Unknown to many, playing a single Blower also has an effect - an effect that is very relevant for Carnivine. If you flip Heads, you can put a damage counter on one of your opponent's Pokemon. For Carnivine, 10 HP could be the difference between a Swallow Up KO and doing only 30 damage. In addition, the double-Blower effect is great for getting an early hit on a Pokemon hiding behind a Fossil. Carnivine and Poke Blower seem like a perfect fit!
Claw and Skull Fossils are also crucial to this deck's success. As I realized, they serve as placeholders that ensure you don't get benched once your single Pokemon dies. Furthermore, Jagged Stone (Claw) and Skull Stone (Skull) have great synergy with Carnivine. If your opponent attacks either of these, they take damage, possibly putting them into Swallow Up range! It's important to conserve these Fossils as much as possible because you need them throughout the game. Therefore, Warp Point is here so you can move them to the bench and not have to discard every time. In addition, Warp Point can be devastating if your opponent has only their single Pokemon on the bench.
It's also important to note that Carnivine has a very good second attack, Wring Out. With the heavy Energy costs of most of the Pokemon in this format, discarding an Energy and Paralyzing the opponent with Wring Out can be devastating. Plus, it sets up for a Swallow Up KO! Not bad for a backup attack.
With only one attacker in the deck, you need ways to get it back ASAP once it dies. Thus, four TSD and two NM are here to ensure that Carnivine hits the field immediately after it gets KO'd. Since Carnivine probably will outspeed the opponent, there will be times where you have extra Energy drops. Well, just slap an Energy on a Fossil after your Carnivine is already powered up. Once Carnivine dies, get it back from the discard (via TSD or NM), play it down, Energy Switch the Energy from the Fossil to Carnivine, discard the Fossil, attach to Carnivine, and boom: you have another one ready to go!
Overall, I would say Carnivine's mortal enemy of this format is Heatran. With a monstrous 100 HP, it will be quite a task to take it down. However, with Carnivine's speed advantage and Heatran's discard requirement, I think it's very likely that Carnivine still has the upper hand. With Potion and Dawn Stadium, Heatran's Body Slam becomes a 3HKO, meaning it has to use Fire Spin to KO you if it wants to win. Once a Heatran finally goes down, it will take around four turns to get another one going. Before and after the first Heatran, I think Carnivine has such an advantage that it can get the job done.
I've always thought Carnivine had potential, and now it gets the spotlight it deserves!
Lists:
Pokemans’s list is solid, but I think it suffers from two impairments: one being the low count on recovery cards (Night Maintenances); the other being an undedicated count on fossils. Pokemans has two Armor Fossil, meaning that while he’s reducing the risk of the Latias being prized, he still leaves that possibility wide open, and in doing so gives himself a feeble wall to back up his main attacker. 8/10.
Pooka’s list is solid as well. He also suffers a bit from “weird count-itis,” such as snubbing the fourth Energy Switch, but it does this in a much less obvious, much less damaging fashion. 9/10.
Creativity:
Pokemans doesn’t seem to push the creativity limits too far on this one, opting to go for a simple, effective Latias rush. 2/5.
Pooka’s list does quite a few creative things. In addition to making a more uncommon choice in this format, he makes many relevant picks in the trainer line – specifically, the Poke-Blower+’s. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of creativity here, however, is that he made Carnivine work in a competitive way…And not only that, but in a format with lots of great basics to choose from. 4/5.
Card Use:
Pokemans made a good sweeper pick for a format where speed and big damage is critical. 3/5.
Pooka’s list found a faster sweeper, so while he may not have made a complete dedication to making it absolutely reliable, he did a fine job as is. 4/5.
Preliminary pick: Pooka.
