I really don't play too much any more and really don't know what's out there but what do you do against Scizor Prime and Umbreon from UD(?).
And why did you go with Poke Healer instead of Moo Moo Milk?
His list is pretty much an autoloss to Umbreon due to the Onix he runs. Scizor is difficult, but winnable, though not favorable.
Cool article. My friend plays this deck and I play a vilegar and I can attest to the skuntank's nastiness. My only problem with this is the matchups. If these were true steelix would be the top deck, which we all know it isn't.
Which part of the matchups do you disagree with? Admittedly, his Vilegar matchup is pretty far off with that many trainers. With that line, I would imagine it being 50/50 at best. I don't agree with the rest of his matchups as I feel they favor Steelix way more than he credits them for. Again, it maybe that he isn't running an Onix that can attack, but, the matchup seems about 90/10 against both Luxchomp and Gyarados. Steelix has 2 basic pokes that can OHKO both Luxray and Garchomp and Steelix easily heals off damage when you are doing around 20-60 damage a turn after it is reduced. As for Gyarados, it may even be worse for Gyarados (with my build, at least). I've never even had a "bad start to his God Start" loss to Gdos. I'm probably like 30-0 against it, HEAVILY favors Steelix. And for his Machamp...not sure about that, lol. He has it at 50/50 but I would venture to say, depending on your build (using his as an example), I would say it heavily favors Steelix...VERY heavily. Honestly, I don't even test against Machamp for a few reason: I sacrifice a few Pokes, steam roll with Steelix in one Scenario, the other is really only applicable to builds like mine running Jirachi: Struggle to set up while it uses "Take Out" to not trigger my Power, eventually get set up while I drop Judge after Judge and Steam roll from there.
The only horrible matchup is straight fire. Sablelock is 50/50 against anything: if it locks early, it wins. If not, it probably doesn't. Though, I have many ways to get out of a lock in my build. A 1-1 Infernape line is just about an autoloss, as is a 2/2 Blaziken line. A single blaziken is pretty easy to get around, especially with Black Belt. The only other matchup that is unfavorable would be Dialgachomp for its "Remove Lost" ability. But, if Dialga hits tails a few times, its all down hill for Dialga. A lot of play testing makes Dialga very winnable, almost breaking even in the matchups I would say.
So, if it has such great matchups, why isn't it played more. I don't know. Honestly. I'm dumbfounded. I know there are a handful of people on the Gym that have done a lot of testing with Steelix and we are all amazed by how well it fairs in the CURRENT meta (to include Lostgar). The downside to Steelix is, playing around a single, crappy fire tech, while achievable, is VERY difficult and takes a lot of practice. On the other hand, sniping everything with Luxchomp is VERY easy, even if you aren't good with it. Even if you are bad with Luxchomp, you can win most matches that aren't mirror, and split the mirror due to nothing else other than luck of the draw. If the "bad" luxchomp player draws into the ability to gain an early adavantage in the "Garchomp War," it can easily be won. Steelix almost always comes down to time and you always play from behind, making it somewhat difficult to know when to make the right decisions, and one bad decision WILL cost you the game. Playing from behind AND going to time make for a bad combo for Steelix.
Now, I'm not saying (like so many people love to do with the deck the play) that Steelix is the hardest deck to play. But, I am saying, there are many other decks that are easier to play and have reasonable matchups across the board (luxchomp) or awesome "built in" counters (Dialgachomp).
