Witchcraft

[Dark Umbreon]

WITCHCRAFT

POKEMON (18):

3 Rocket's Sneasel Ex (beatdown)
4 Dark Hypno (beatdown)
4 Drowzee (evolution)
4 Dunsparce (draw)
3 Absol (disable)

TRAINER (24):

3 Swoop! Teleporter (enable)
3 Rocket's Hideout (enable)
3 Rocket's Pokéball (draw)
4 Steven's Advice (draw)
3 Warp Point (disable)
4 Tv Reporter (draw)
4 Copycat (draw)

ENERGY (18):

4 Dark Metal Energy
4 Darkness Energy
4 Rocket's Energy
6 Psychic Energy

MAIN IDEA:

The main idea is to swarm the other side with Dark Hypno and Rocket's Sneasel Ex. Use Dunsparce to fill the bench and convert him into Drowzee turn two for a blitz Dark Hypno. Send out Rocket's Sneasel Ex to benefit from the Darkness bench for some one hit knock outs their bench is too small to recover from Rocket's Sneasel Ex continious beatdown.

[SuperWooper]

Originally Posted by Dark Umbreon

With the increase in hand size and tech used in various decks hand denial seems to hurt various decks at the same time. It thus seemed like a nice idea to combine the hand denial abilities with some classic beatdown and fuel tactics in current darkness decks. The common weakness could be an issue but outside Magma the weakness starts to decrease more and more. At the moment Ancient Tomb is used to cover this weakness but the stadium choice is not entire set thus far. Candidates other than Ancient Tomb would be Rocket's Hideout or Desert Ruins.

Problems right off the bat with this deck, begging for me to address them.

You're right in saying more tech is used nowadays, but you're wrong about hand size increasing. Hand sizes were at their peak in the days where Blaziken was even more dominant than it was now: the State and Gym Championships and Challenges, respectively. The reason more hands are smaller and more tech is used is because of Pidgeot.

Pidgeot allows decks to find what they need when they need it, fueling your need for cards as they come up, and so productivity, especially by the time Mightyena becomes a serious threat (with enough darkness energy), is increased to the point where hand sizes are smaller because the opponent has used Pidgeot to the fullest extent and has obtained all the resources they need, and been able to use them at a quicker rate, thus depleting their hand of cards.

More tech is being used, I'll grant you that. But tech means only 1 or, in rare cases, 2 of a certain card, so Pidgeot will search for it the turn it is needed, no later, no earlier, because it has that kind of awesome power. Thus, you won't be discarding the tech cards from the hand of the opponent, because there is only one copy, and it's not likely that it will be on hand when you think it's time to strike.

Mightyena itself is not a card that will find itself being used in tournament-level play. It doesn't do enough damage without darkness energy, and when it is KO'd the darkness energy go with it. Because of the invention of Pidgeot, the effect of its second attack is reduced to that of a binder-fodder-worthy level of play, and so this deck, in short, will not make the cut in the modified format.

Usually, Dark Umbreon, your decks are to focused on an Unlimited style of play. You have to move on past this and get with the program, because over here giants like Blaziken and Dark Dragonite rule, with 2-3 major evolution lines. This isn't unlimited anymore. This is Modified, and your style of deckbuilding doesn't exactly fit the modified format.

None of the decks I've seen you post, like Herbal Scent, Purple Rain, and Witchcraft, this one, can measure up to decks like Magma. Magma has so much efficiency, because of its narrowly focused trainer engine, that it can afford to sacrafice big big damage for manipulation and quick beatdown. However, your decks can't match the manipulation of energy that Magma's Claydol can do, or the destructive power of Magma's Groudon. Even though Magma pales in comparison to Blaziken damage-wise, it can sometimes win the game because it has just enough speed and power, in addition to manipulation of energy, to hold out.

I don't think Mightyena and Dark Electrode are quite as powerful a combination as Magma's Groudon and Magma's Claydol, but that is only me.

~Wooper

[Dark Umbreon]

Hi superwooper,

Thanks for the review. Know about current decks rather well. Even made one of the first Dark Dragonite decks which benefits a ton from Dark Electrode. Dark Electrode even works well in some other decks such as Dark Ampharos decks. He can be compared to Magma's Camerupt in essence. Mightyena is not assumed to deal out lots of damage but to cut down the hand on the other side. He is in essence a disabler and while he does not need to discard the tech hand sizes are usual above five nowadays and most decks need their cards to comply to their theme in a reliable manner.

[SuperWooper]

How does discarding 1-2 cards from my hand hurt me at all? I get a free prize from it by OHKOing your Mightyena, and you wasted your last turn.

[Dark Umbreon]

Hi SuperWooper,

After some test runs Mightyena did not turn out to be the main issue. He worked rather well to hold the other side down but the deck had issues to handle a swarm when he came out after the second turn since none of the evolution lines dealt a considerable amount to hold their own once Rocket's Sneasel Ex was defeated. Thus me decided to convert back to the current list which runs Dark Hypno in addition to Rocket's Sneasel Ex. Need to test a little more to see whether Mightyena works better than Absol with regard to speed mantainance.

[JasonthePanda]

Awesome deck, it is cool, I'll try something like it when Hariyama ex comes out.

[Dark Umbreon]

Hi JasonthePanda,

Thanks for the review. The deckhas worked reasonable well thus far in case one excludes matches where the active has been paralysed over five turns with Dunsparce until the other side was set up to steamroll me.

Hi Venusaur,

Thanks for the review. What would you take out for it?