Magnezone
Deck name: Magnezone
Author: Morten Gundesen
Editing: Roland Allen
Date: 4. March 2010
Current Format: MD-CL
Introduction
Your first glance at the Magnezones might make you think “these would go well with Scizor Prime” but why shouldn´t these cards stand alone? Magnezone Prime has an unrestricted damage output, fine draw power and a lot of Hit Points. I wanted to build something with Magnezone and thought about keeping it like a secret deck but decided to use it at Euro Challenge. I went 8-0 in brackets and lost in top 32. I didn´t play too well in the first battle and a Garchomp C Lv. X turn 2 got me the second game.
This is the list I used for Euro Challenge. I found that rescue energy should be changed for fighting energies or a fighting and warp energy. Adding a Palmer’s Contribution would be nice too.
POKEMON: 23
4 Magnemite, SF-66
3 Magneton, SF-43
1 Magneton, SF-42
3 Magnezone (Prime), TM-96
1 Magnezone, SF-6
4 Spiritomb, AR-32
2 Regirock, LA-38
1 Skuntank G, PL-94
1 Azelf, LA-19
1 Unown Q, MD-49
1 Entei & Raikou LEGEND (1/2), UL-90
1 Entei & Raikou LEGEND (2/2), UL-90
TRAINERS: 19
2 Pokemon Communication
1 Luxury Ball
4 Engineer's Adjustments
2 Bebe's Search
2 Judge
4 Pokemon Collector
2 Broken Time-Space
2 Sunyshore City Gym
ENERGY: 18
2 Rescue Energy, TM-90
2 Warp Energy, SF-95
7 Fighting Energy
7 Lightning Energy
Main strategy
Setup is basically the same against any deck in the format. You always want a Magnezone Prime up as fast as possible and some more Magnemite/Magneton for late game. You want to attach 2 energies to Magnezone prime and put a Regirock on the bench that can keep the deck and energy acceleration going. When you’re ready about turn 3 just get a KO every turn and finish with Entei Raikou Legend if your opponent’s field has a lot of poke-powers.
Pokemon
Magnemite
Sadly this guy got 50 HP which make Pokemon like Sableye able to donk it with a special dark but it has a good Poke-Item. “Magnet” makes Magnemite’s retreat cost 0 if there another Magnemite in play. This can be rather useful if you start with Magnemite and a collector. Its attack is not worth using. Fire weakness is fine and -20 resistance to psychic is good. This thing can take poltergeist if you have only 2 trainers/supporters/stadiums in your hand and can survive a Zen Blade from Uxie Lv X if there isn’t a Crobat G drop. It will also resist Psychic Restore.
Magneton
There are 2 good Magneton to use and I have used 3 of the “bad” one. The good one can do 20 and 20 to two benched if you have a stadium in play with its Magnetic Resonance attack. For a Stage 1, it’s a really nice attack and it also has good a weakness and resistance. Why use the other Magneton then? It has Thunder Wave for 20 and possible paralysis and is the best counter for Umbreon UD in the deck. That’s the most important reason for running 3 lightning ones but a 2-2 split would be fine too.
Magnezone Prime
Magnezone Prime is the main attacker and draw power of the deck. 140 HP is like wow! This thing can take a hit and many decks won´t be able to throw enough crobat drops to take it down. It has a Poke-Power similar to Claydol except that you have to find a way to get rid of your cards. Its attack can give 50-100-150 depending on what you need with the big cost that they end in lost zone. The lost zone part is really annoying but this deck handles the problem rather easily.
Fighting weakness is not a nice weakness and is likely to get abused by Toxicroak G Promo. This weakness can be removed by Sunyshore City Gym and Luxchomp won´t have a counter stadium so this is a nice way to remove weakness and prevent your Magnezone Prime from getting OHKO’d. Steel resistance is better than no resistance and can be used against Steelix Prime decks (through Steelix is a deck that depends on healing and Magnezone can just wait for the needed amount of energy so it’s a good match-up anyway). The retreat cost is bad but you mostly want this guy to stay in. Warp Energy can be used to get this guy back.
Magnezone
This card is really cool and allows you to charge a new Magnezone faster. It also helps with more damage. There is nothing more that should be used from this Magnezone. If your opponent has a deck with trainer engine like uxie donk this cards attack can be used to get Spiritomb into the active position out like in the old Cursegar deck.
Spiritomb
This amazing card is good for setup and slows your opponent down until you are ready to start attacking. That will be around turn 3 which is one turn slower than most decks in our metagame but Spiritomb can often give you one turn so you won´t get more than 1 price behind.
Regirock
Regirock is a really important part of this deck. It gives the energy needed to give a big enough damage output. What is needed for this to work then? You need a fighting energy in your discard pile because the ruling for Regice and Registel that the power can be used with no effect won’t go for Regirock. Because of this you need a fighting energy each turn to discard with this power and another card like a supporter or a lightning energy that the Magnezone can pick up. This constant discarding also makes you able to keep drawing cards with Magnezone prime.
Like the other Regis, Regirock has 3 retreat cost and is vulnerable to getting Bright Look’d. Here the warp energies are good to get it back. With the power you can get the energy needed for attacking and it should sometimes be considered. Luxray is 2x weak and can be KO by Regirock if you don´t have Sunyshore City Gym in play. 40 damage on Garchomp C Lv X can be fine too because it gets its HP low enough so that Entei Raikou Legend can KO it with thunder fall.
Skuntank G
Skuntank G is a very good card against Gengar/Vileplume decks because you can do 100 damage for 2 energies and let the poison do the rest. By doing so, you also get through fainting spell and rescue energy. To do this you need a stadium in play and with 4 stadium there´s a good chance you´ll have just that. Just be sure to have a Magnezone on the bench next turn or a Warp Energy in hand so you don´t prevent your own draw power with poison.
Azelf
This is always a good card when you have single copies of Pokemon in your deck like Magnezone SF or Entei Raikou Legend. It is also a good way to find prized energy because energy can be that important.
Unown Q
Can be used to reduce retreat cost by one and is good to use on Spiritomb unless you want the retreat cost to get a fighting energy in the discard to use with Regirock. It is also good to use on Regirock so you don´t need warp energy to get it back for an acceptable cost.
Entei Raikou Legend
Entei Raikou Legend is a very good card with many pro and cons. It KO’s pixies, Mr. Mime CL, Crobat G and many other cards. ERL also forces your opponent to do a lot of plays that would otherwise be counter-productive. Luxchomp decks are often forced to Flash Bite Regirock in order to get it in KO range from Thunder Fall but this results in an extra prize card from your own Thunder Fall unless your opponent as a Poke Turn. Bronzong G’s that have just used Galactic Switch also need a Poke Turn or a Healing Breath to get it out of Thunder Fall range. Other decks need to seeker their pixies and won´t be able to use more supporters that turn. Uxie will often be stuck in their hand.
This card can often decrease the number of total energy needed in a game. Magnezone needs 2-3 energies to take a prize and this can at times take 3-4 prices with 2 energies. This card would be really broken if this deck were good in sudden death. You shouldn´t force a sudden death unless necessary but just the fact you have this card can often force your opponent to do stuff that makes you win with Magnezone prime alone.
Trainers
Luxury ball
This is just a very good card and there´s no reason to not run at least 1 of this card.
Pokemon communication
Good search card for Pokemon and is often able to make magnezone prime’s draw power more effective by shuffling away useless Pokemon.
4 Engineer's Adjustments
You really need to get discarded 1 fighting energy to get the deck running and this is a good way to do so. 4 cards are always good. Normal deck won´t have the amount of energy needed to use this card but this have 18 and really want to discard some energy. Just remember not to take the rest of the deck by using this card.
Bebe's Search
This is a good card in setup. With Spiritomb, Magnemite and a Bebe's Search you´ll have a Magnezone Prime on turn 2 and all the draw power you need. It is also good late game to get more cards on Magnetic Draw.
Judge
Disruption is always good and with Magnezone it can´t backfire at you. It is really good to refresh your hand if you got a hand with too many supporters and no energy. Cards like Copycat or PONT are worse than judge in this deck.
Pokemon Collector
With this card you decrease your chances of a bad hand because 1 Collector is often enough to get set up (except if maybe you start with Regirock). Because of this, 4 are run. They are so good in the first few turns and can be discarded with Regirock later.
Broken Time-Space
This is the most used stadium in the metagame and there’s a good chance that you can use Skuntank G rest of the game if you get this in play before your opponent. This card can really speed up this deck and make you able to play a whole line of Magnezone as a surprise. Garchomp also gets a harder time shooting Magnemite and Magneton because they can often evolve the same turn.
Sunyshore City Gym
Luxchomp doesn´t play stadium cards and you really want to get rid of that x2 fighting weakness so Toxicroak G Promo can´t kill you in one hit. With 2 different stadiums you are able to change if you need something else or maybe need to get some more cards on magnetic draw. This stadium can be played through opponent had a broken time space in play and when playing Vilegar you really want your own stadium on the stage.
Energies
The amount of energies you run should be decided by extensive testing and there should be at least 7 fighting energies 6 lightning energies 2 warp and a total of 17-18. They will end in lost zone so they can´t be recycled which means you need that many energy in total.
Techs
Palmer’s Contribution
This should be a staple but I have a hard time finding space for it. Without Entei Raikou LEGEND it is really needed.
Stark Mountain
With this stadium ERL can come more like a surprise because the fighting energy from Regirock can then be moved to ERL. Put it on bench, use Stark Mountain, Warp Energy and then use Magnezone’s Super Connectivity.
Expert Belt
This card can at times save some use of energies, but you need to get it first and Magnezone won´t take more than 2 hits through you use this card. I have heard from another one trying the deck that it really helps against luxchomp.
Call Energy
Often a good card and if you think that the 7 fighting 6 lightning 2 warp energy distribution is fine then use call for the rest.
Seeker
This card can pick up damaged Pokemon or reuse coming-into-play powers. It can also save Skuntank G or Regirock from Gengar’s shadow room, but will often take away a price from Entei Raikou LEGEND.
Uxie
Can in theory save you from a bad start but will in this deck give nothing and just fill the bench. It is also a prize for your opponent if thunder fall is used. I know people think I’m crazy then this isn’t on the list but it just works better without it and is removed after some testing with it.
Techs without Entei Raikou
Pachirisu
This card can put 2 energies down fast but is an easy target for pokemon like gengar. It is also a one use Pokemon so you need seeker to get it up again or just be fine with one use.
Crobat G
A really good card to give the last 10 damage to Luxchomp decks and free retreat cost is always nice. I really like the idea of this card in the deck but it should only be used without Entei Raikou.
Match-ups
Gyarados
In this matchup the weakness is with you and you only need 2 energies to KO a Gyarados every turn. Gyarados on the other hand, has no easy way to take out Magnezone in one hit and the only way they can is if they do 3 Crobat G’s and an Expert Belt, which will cost 2 prices from the Gyarados when it is KO’d and some for Crobat too (from Thunder Fall). This is just a very good matchup and the only annoying thing is a well placed Mespirit or two.
Vilegar
This is a good matchup for Magnezone. You really want your skuntank G in this matchup because it stops Fainting Spell and Rescue Energy and when BTS isn´t in play gengar can have a hard time recovering. With only 3 trainers in this deck and Regirock to discard T/S/S, Poltergeist’s attack power is reduced a lot and they have to use Shadow Room on Pokemon like Regirock or Skuntank G. You won´t like losing those targets but the Gengar deck will usually go down after 2-3 Gengars have been KO’d turn after turn with no use of rescue. The best strategy from Gengar is to level up and gain more HP but Magnezone isn´t a slow deck so this tactic will cost a price or two.
Luxchomp
This is a really hard matchup but so far I have some fine statistics with it. Luxchomp will most likely Bright Look Regirock out and then you need a warp energy. This isn´t a big problem but combined with a power spray used on Magnezone SF’s Super Connectivity you´ll sometimes get a turn without an attack. Another thing you need to be careful about is Toxicroak G Promo. Because of this, you don´t really want to attack unless you have Sunyshore City Gym or maybe have judged them to reduce the chances of being KO’d back. Judge can really help slowing the opponent down and make sure you can use important powers.
Luxray and Garchomp need 3 energies to be KO’s but that isn´t a big problem in the game. They can´t keep sending out Lv X’s when you can KO one Pokemon each turn. There´s a good chance that you´ll get prices from Pokemon like Ambipom G, Uxie or something else with 100 hp or less on turns they cannot attack with Luxray GL Lv X and Garchomp C Lv X.
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In all the batlles at euro cup i didn´t use the rescue energy exepct extra attack damage.
