Round IV: Superwooper VS Metagross

[Cyrus]

~~~Superwooper~~~

Name: SuperWooper
Date: November 13, 2005
Round: Top 8
Opponent: Metagross
Secret Ingredient: All HL-On legal cards with “Castform” in their name.

Deck name: Your local on the 8’s (The Weather Channel Reference)

Pokemon: 21
2 Castform (DS #34)
2 Rain Castform (DS #26)
2 Rain Castform (HL #23)
2 Snow-cloud Castform (DS #29)
1 Snow-cloud Castform (HL #25)
2 Sunny Castform (DS #31)
3 Spheal (HL #74)
2 Sealeo (HL #47)
3 Walrein (HL #15)
1 Slugma (UF #73)
1 Magcargo (DX #20)

Energies: 16
7 Water
4 Holon WP
2 Holon FF
2 Fire
1 Psychic

Trainers: 23
4 Celio’s Network
4 Copycat
4 Holon Mentor
2 Steven’s Advice
3 Rare Candy
2 Desert Ruins
2 Magnetic Storm
1 Pokemon Retriever
1 Mr. Briney’s Compassion

Castforms all have diffrerent names (Castform, Rain Castform, Snow-cloud Castform, and Sunny Castform), so you can potentially use 16 Castform in your deck. I had to limit it a bit, though, for the Walrein/Magcargo combination. The Castforms are the main attackers in the deck, and also the main starters. The starting Castform are these:

Castform DS
(C) Draw a card. If Castform has any Holon Energy cards attached to it, draw 2 more cards.

Sunny Castform DS
(CC) Search your deck for a Holon Energy card and attach it to one of your Pokemon. Shuffle your deck afterward.

Rain Castform HL
(W) Shuffle your hand into your deck. Draw up to 5 cards.

Your ideal starter is any Castform, since their power lets them switch back and forth. But you’ll want either Castform DS (if you have a Holon energy in your opening hand and your hand is relatively good) or Rain Castform HL (if you have a water energy in your opening hand and it looks less than promising) to start. Sunny Castform DS should probably be switched to on Turn 2, but sometimes you’ll want to stick with one of the previous two. There is a fourth option for “starting”, if you could call it that:

Snow-cloud Castform HL
(W) Flip a coin. If heads the Defending Pokemon is now Paralyzed. If tails, the Defending Pokemon is now Asleep.

If Spheal is not your starter (and it is a decent one) you can switch to this guy and get the excellent 75% stall tactic. The goal of opening setup is to get your active Castform either powering your benched Castforms with Holon Energy using Sunny Castform, or, if most of your Holon Energy are in your hand, to get to a point where you can comfortably stall with Snow-cloud Castform HL. In any case, the main goal is to get Holon Energies attached to your benched Castform, and get 2-3 Walreins and 1 Magcargo on the bench as well.

Well, now you’re ready to attack, right? So Castform DS, Sunny Castform DS, and Rain Castform HL are no longer your Castform of choice. Instead the main focus of your deck switches to these Castform:

Rain Castform DS
(CCC) 30 - Does 30 damage plus 10 more damage for each Holon energy attached to Rain Castform.

Snow-cloud Castform DS
(WC) 20 - If Snow-cloud Castform has any Holon Energy cards attached to it, this attack does 10 damage to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon. (Don’t apply W&R for benched.)

And, if necessary:

Snow-cloud Castform HL (functions as a staller and heavy hitter)
(WWCC) 50 - If Magnetic Storm is in play, this attack does 50 damage plus 20 more damage.

Since I used 6 Holon energy, Rain Castform DS has the potential to do 90 damage, which doesn’t quite reach the benchmark 100. However, with just 1 Snow-Cloud Castform HL attack, doing 10 to the bench, 90 is all that’s needed. Snow-cloud Castform HL can hit for a big 70 without ANY Holon Energy, so he’s a good idea to power up with Walrein HL while you’re manually attaching your remaining Holon energy to your Castforms.

Why did I choose Walrein to back up the Castforms? The basic principle is this: Since Castform shuffle the deck when they use their Pokemon Power, and Walrein’s Pokemon Power deals specifically with the card on top of the deck, you can have multiple Walrein and play and they can still function even without Magcargo’s help, since after 1 failed Crush Draw, you can shuffle the deck with Castform’s power and try again with another Walrein. While this may seem like a flimsy reason to only use the 1-1 Cargo line I have chosen, Walrein is not the key part of the deck, and thus a 1-1 Cargo line, in my eyes, is justified. Walrein is actually probably more of an attacker than an energy provider, although in many cases, especially with Snow-cloud Castform HL’s big second attack, Walrein’s Crush Draw is very helpful.


Not much left to cover. For the energy, Holon energy are obviously important. I used WP because of Walrein and the Snow-cloud Castforms, and FF (shouldn’t it be RF?) because of Magcargo (in the rare case where it attacks). Water energy provides immunity effects besides damage, and Fire stops weakness. I teched in a psychic energy to go along with the WP, since free retreat can be a game-saver.

The trainer line is fairly self-explanitory. Briney’s Compassion is useful for Walrein when it’s taking big damage in desperate times, also good to scoop up Castform w/ Holon on the bench when they’re being hit with something like spinning tail; better to get it back to your hand an start over than to lose it forever; special energy can’t come back. The odd Magnetic Storm choice is for Snow-cloud Castform HL’s attack that gets 20 more damage when it’s in play, which reaches a crucial 70 damage (a lot of Stage 1s have this amount of HP), and Retriever is to shuffle 3 Castforms back into the deck (putting 1 back into the hand is useless since they can switch back and forth between each other).

I anxiously await the results of my match with Metagross. Best of luck to him with this difficult challenge (he’s gonna need it! =D).

~SuperWooper

~~~Metagross~~~

Pokémon 18:
1 Rain Castform HL
3 Rain Castform DS
3 Snow-Cloud Castform DS
1 Snow-Cloud Castform HL
3 Sunny Castform DS
1 Castform DS
2 Lugia ex
4 Holon’s Electrode

Trainer 26:
4 Battle Frontier
3 Marys Request
3 Pokémon Retriever
3 Copycat
3 Pokémon Reversal
2 Bill’s Maintence
2 Rockets Admin
2 Mr. Stone
3 Dual Ball
1 Celio’s Network

Energy 16:
4 Holon Energy SYN WF
4 Holon Energy SYN RR
2 Holon Energy SYN GL
3 Water Energy
3 Fire Energy

Ideally, you wouldnt start with Lugia. You can then transform into Rain Castform HL if you ave water energy in your hand or into Castform DS if you have Holon Energy in your hand.
Next turn attach another energy (preferably Holon) and transform into Sunny Castform DS and search for another Holon Energy. On your third tun transform into Rain Castform DS and do 50-60 damage. This should give you enough time to get Lugia ex out and start powering it up. Use reversal to pick your target. You can use lone Celio to search for Holon Electrode if you want. You can get Holon Electrode back into your hand with Retriever. Maintenence is there if you need to shuffle Castform to your deck. Stone to get discarded basic energies back or into your hand from your deck. Energies are obviuos because you need a lot Holon energies for Castform.

 

[Cyrus]

Superwooper:

Deck (7/10): Solid list! However, my main beefs are on a few things. First, I think you have way too many castforms (a rarity, since that's the challenge), and a 1/1 too small Magcargo. Your count of 6 holon energy is great! Now either up basic energy by one, or add an energy recycle system/farmer to get those back. Last of all, I think that for the speed and consistency of your deck, you should have gone with Great Ball over mentor. Good job.

Creatviity (4/5): Very, very neat twist. I know that I've seen this before somewhere...but that's not why I counted off. I just think that this great idea could have been taken to the next level.

Card Use (5/5): Excellent, just excellent. Your Castforms are not only your draw engine and heavy hitters, but also your disruptors.

OVERALL: 16/20

Metagross:

Deck (7/10): A very good list. On your castforms, I think that you could have done a better balance, because your rain and normal castforms are virtually your consistency crutch, not unlike pidgeot or magcargo in many decks. Your Draw line could have been better, and the 1 celio seems like a random addition that will rarely help. I think that you have just a few too many Holon Energy.

Creativity (3/5): Cool, inventive idea. However, it seems short of really going into Castform's unique aspects; just hit and run.

Card Use (3/5): Also, you have legitimate abuse of Castforms going on. Again, imbalance in choices, plus really abusing castform for what it is, gets you marked. Good job, though!

OVERALL: 13/20

I choose SUPERWOOPER!

 

[Daddiursa]

Superwooper:

Deck 7/10:
Very solid... for a Castform deck. A few things here and there, like since you don't have any benefit from discarding you could use Lanettes insted of Mentor, you have three types of Castforms, so most of the time you'll get what you need and save a card. I would have liked either 4 Ruins or 3/4 Magnetic Storms, , but these are minor details. The deck makes good use of Holon Energies combined with a variety of Castforms and what looks like a solid, although Supporter-dominated trainer engine. (Maybe Dual Balls instead of some Mentors/Lanettes)? Nevertheless your list is convincing!

Creativity 3/5:
Not so much creative as "fine-tuned", I'd say.

Card Use 4/5:
Very well, almost maximal use of Castforms in all it's shapes.

Overall: 14/20

---------------

Metagross:

Deck 6/10
I like the choice of Castforms and, and your trainers are for the most part solid. However I'm a little unsure about that Lugia ex there. Even though it can be fueled with a Water or a Fire, plus a Holon Electrode, there no real big chance of doing 200 more than once in each Lugias lifespan... And only Sunny Castform DS offers a little help in fuelling it with energy (a Holon which can be returned to Hand when attaching Holons Electrode to Lugia ex).

Creativity 3/5
Castforms are solid, Lugia ex is uncertain IMO, so since 2,5 isn't a valid score I give you 3/5.

Card Use 4/5
There is no doubt that this deck relies a lot on Castforms, and I like the Pokemon Reversals, those make it easier to survive with the relative low HP Castforms. If you'd made room for Energy Removal 2 also, I'd really like this idea, since you have to disrupt a lot in order to keep the Castforms alive.

Overall: 13/20

I choose: Superwooper