Phazon Elite
New Member
Deck Name: Blissey/Drapion
Author: Marvin Quaschnick
Date: 01/14/11
Current Format: MD-TR
Bogus Amusement Level: 7
Forward
I hate coins. I also hate dice. In fact, I hate any form of randomization, because I suck at believing in the heart of the coin. At one point in my life, my affinity for making poor rolls was so bad, rolling low numbers became known as "pulling a Marvin." So naturally, my new awesome deck idea (which I am going to ram down your throats like granny's disgusting fruitcake), involves flipping multiple coins a turn, often praying to the Pokegod of Pokeland in the process.
Many of you probably remember my old FGD article from over a year ago. I stumbled upon the synergy of Flygon/Gardevoir by smashing two overcosted Stage Twos into the same deck, making local kids frustrated in the process ("THIS DECK SHOULDNT BE GOOD!!!! HOW IS THIS DECK SO GOOD????"). This time, I stumbled upon this deck's synergy in my endless quest to make something of Drapion, it still accomplishes the end result of making local kids mad ("OH MY GOD IM TRIPLE POISONED AND HAVE A SMALL HAND AND CANT USE POWERS AND I HAVE TO READ EVERY SINGLE CARD HE PLAYS BECAUSE IVE NEVER SEEN THEM USED BEFORE!!!").
I'm not going to pretend the deck is something it isn't. If you try this deck in the way I designed it, you will flip many coins. In fact, you might want to invest in a few extra coins and/or dice in case your wild flipping goes out of control and randomizers start flying around like gnats on drugs. The core principal of the deck (Blissey + Judge) is extremely sound and vicious and not extremely reliant on luck, but the supporting cast certainly is.
Without further excuses, here she is:
Pokemon: 19
4 Chansey PL
3 Blissey PL
3 Skorupi SF
2 Drapion SF
2 Drapion X
2 Mesprit LA
1 Giratina PL
1 Dialga G
1 Dialga G X
NRG: 11
4 Call Energy
4 Warp Energy
3 Basic Dark Energy
Stuff: 30
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Night Teleporter
3 Junk Arm
2 Expert Belt
1 Pokemon Communication
3 VS Seeker
1 Luxury Ball
2 Judge
3 Bebe's Search
3 Twins
3 Seeker
1 Palmer's Contribution
Card Explanations
Ever wonder why someone uses certain cards? I sure do. In fact, I wonder why I use certain cards. I better type this before I forget.
Blissey PL
This card, which does 20-for-1, is seriously your main attacker. This damaged is increased by E-belt, giving you a 140-HP, self-healing tank that restocks your hand and does . . . 40 Damage. However, with Drapion X's Tri-Poison Power, you have a 50-75% shot at doing 70-100 damage for one Energy. Hilariously, with Tri-Poison and Belt, Blissey can OHKO Garchomp X.
Chansey PL
This widdle guy evolves into Blissey, your main attacker. I use the PL one because it sucks the least and can OHKO a Garchomp C X with a Belt.
Drapion X
Used for his Power only. I hate coin flips with a passion, and this is the only time I have ever based a deck around one, but it's such a useful power. Sniping Tail is rarely used, and if you ever find yourself in the position to use it, it usually means you're already winning. It'll drive the final nails in the coffin. Tri Poison gets around Fainting Spell, Rescue Energy, Cynthia's Feelings, and other cards that rely on stuff being KO'd by damage.
Drapion
Scorpion Grapple is the main attack on this card. The guaranteed retreat lock, combined with Tri-Poison and possible paralysis, will often leave your opponent's Pokemon helpless and killed at the end of their turn. Combined with Let Loose/Judge and Psychic Bind, getting that trapped Pokemon out of there is very difficult to do. Cross Poison is pretty crappy. Derail is useful against Steelix and DGX.
Skorupi
I use this one because it can prevent your opponent's Spiritomb or Sableye from retreating, giving you valuable time to set up your slow deck.
Mesprit LA
You're already locking their active up with paralysis and triple poison, why not shut down Powers, too? With everything in the deck locking your opponent down, they could still use Powers to get out of a sticky situation. This card eliminates that out, truly locking them down with only a five card hand of luck to save them.
Giratina PL
Used so I have a non-Supporter way of using a Judge-like effect. It has numerous uses, like being able to turn a Twins or anything that searches out Pokemon into a Judge. It's not really something you have to worry about having trapped active, as all you have to do is attach Warp Energy to Giratina then follow up with Seeker, or just use Super Scoop Up.
1-1 Dialga G
Shuts down Vileplume, and - to a lesser extent - Steelix, Donphan Prime and Champ X. This is my current tech of choice to help against Vilegar, but many others (which I will get to later) can be used if desired.
On an aside, Gengar X can easily use Level Down to return you to a trainer lock. As such, it's a good idea to have some Psychic Binds available before leveling up.
Basic Dark
I use this over Special Dark because it can be recovered with Palmer's Contribution, increasing the deck's longetivity. Energy often needs to be discarded to use a key Nurse Call or Junk Arm, and it's nice to be able to recover at least a few or those back later in the game.
Call Energy
An obvious inclusion to a deck with colorless attack costs. Having this at my disposal allows me to opt out of having Pokemon Collector in the deck, thus freeing up my Supporter for the turn.
Warp Energy
Every attacker in the deck has a double or more retreat cost, so this is pretty necessary. plus, this aids greatly in getting Drapion x and Dialga x out and gives near immunity to luring flame and special conditions. also combos with seeker to great effect.
Judge
The supporter version of Giratina's Let Loose Power. Judge + Return is the founding concept of the deck, as Return will leave you with six cards to your opponent's four! I opt for 2 Judge most of the time, as 1 is never reliable enough - even with Let Loose in the deck,
Edit: On a side note, you could try running Lookers Investigation instead of Judge. I've tried both to decent success, but I just like Judge better because of how well it combos with Return: Normally, Lookers is better since it doesn't force you to go down to four cards like Judge does, but Return nullifies this drawback.
Bebe's Search
. . . Um, duh. All you new players, this card is just as good as you might think it is. Which is to say, it's great.
Twins
This can be a very slow deck, so this is a natural inclusion. Too often you find yourself in a losing position and needing multiple unsearchable cards in order to regain control. This Supporter allows you to do that. Drawing it too early in the game or when winning isn't a bad thing in Blissey Drapion, as you can use it as discard fodder for Nurse Call and Junk Arm.
Seeker
This card takes the deck from fun to competent. This one card guarantees you get more mileage out of Let Loose and Psychic Bind, and allows you to abuse the Warp Energy -> Seeker combo to heal your tanktastic Blissey. With this, SSU, VS Seeker, Junk Arm, Judge and Giratina, you can easily take your opponent down to four cards and Power Lock all in the same turn.
Palmer's Contribution/Flower Shop Lady
Well, Energy and Pokemon have to be recovered somehow, don't they? Personally, I prefer Palmer's for the fact that I can get four or five Pokemon if I need to and I rarely have more than two Basic Energy in the discard, but to each their own
Super Scoop Up
A non-supporter way of returning Pokemon to your hand. Even with the awesomeness of Seeker, Super Scoop Up is still kind of required in this deck, mostly because you will often need to pick up multiple Pokemon in one turn or pick one up and still use a Bebe or something.
Vs Seeker
Mostly used to recover Judge and Seeker to continue the hand control and power lock. I run so many because of how many supporters need to be used multiple times in one game, especially Seeker. Plus, running so many of these allows me to chop up some of my Supporters (3 Bebe's instead of 4, etc.)
Junk Arm
Lets me get more longevity out of my trainers. Nothing like getting to use multiple Luxury Balls in one game! Also, by grabbing VS Seeker, Junk Arm can even pull supporters out for you. It is also a great hand-thinning device, effectively increasing the number of cards Return will net you by two or three
Expert Belt
Needed because of Blissey's terrible base damage. The double prize thing rarely comes into play because of all the healing in this deck, and you can usually lead right into an awesome Twins when it does. Also turns Drapion into quite the beast, but I only play it on him if the extra 20 really makes a difference (for example, if I got a heads on Tri Poison against a 90 HP Pokemon, attaching a Belt to Drapion and using Scorpion Grapple will cause that Pokemon to be stuck active and die after my opponent's turn).
Night Teleporter
(Image included because I doubt anyone has talked about this card since the Supreme Victors Prereleases)
On tails, you dump a card from your hand, allowing you do draw +1 with Return. On heads, you get any card in your deck PLUS a fresh hand of 6 if you use Return. This terrible card actually fits in extremely well here, and its terrible reputation makes for an even more humiliating defeat for your opponent.
I realize that this card is entirely out of left field, and it's not absolutely integral to B/D's strategy. If you're not comfortable running it, by all means, put in whatever else you'd like.
Pokemon Communication
Like Bebe's Search, another obvious card. I only run one because I have so much else that searches out cards in general. Many times, like when I need that Warp Energy or Expert Belt, I hate having stuff that only searches out Pokemon. I ran a higher count before, but I took it down after my results and for my preference. Plus, I only have 19 Pokemon and opted not to run Pokemon Collector, so the card's usefulness in my build is limited. I would take it out (running only 1 is kinda random and stupid to some degree), but it is nice to have at least one non-supporter way to guarantee a Drapion LV X.
Luxury Ball
An automatic one-of in almost every deck. Really doesn't need much of an explanation.
Obvious Strategy Statement
Use the combination of Blissey and Judge/Giratina to wreck your opponent's hand while leaving yours mostly intact. Everything else in the deck falls into place to help support this main strategy: Mesprit adds Power Lock to the equation, Drapion both adds damage to Blissey and counters those pesky Colorless-resistant starters, and the Trainers and Supporters strike a good balance between disruption and setup.
Edit: As stated, this is a slow deck. The basic early game strategy is to get a Blissey out so you can start using Judge -> Return while also getting Drapion out. As odd as this sounds, you don't really need to aim for a fast setup: I normally get Drapion X out around turn 5 and still have board control. Really, the only time you SHOULD Drapion rush is when your opponent has a Sableye or near-healthy Spiritomb active, or some other starter. Ideally, that starter will die from Tri Poison after your opponent's turn, thus turning the tide of the entire game in your favor.
Tech Deck
This isn't so much a tech section as it is a statement. As a whole, the deck performs well against everything I've played. It (in my experience) stomps SP, generally outperforms Gyrados, and contends with or exceeds just about everything else . . . except Vilegar. As such, rather than include techs here, I spouted off in the Vilegar section about some cards that could help out in that unfavorable match.
Testing Results
Yes, testing results. I'll give ya a paragraph of general information with other nuggets as appropriate. Also, as is my tradition, I will not give stupid, arbitrary percentages, but rather a general statement of odds against certain meta decks. These statements assume a rough 50% average heads, and can be greatly modified by both player skill and percentage of heads. So don't come all up in here claiming I misled you because you flipped ten tails against Luxchomp and lost. With enough luck, anything can beat anything else - even a hard counter.
As for the matchups themselves, I only included the most popular decks. I'm unable to be a competitive player (working most weekends), and I have a life, so I have better things to do than run Blissey vs Machamp or Blissey vs Steelix sims for the purposes of writing an article. Deal with it. If a matchup is not included, it's because I've never played against the deck or just don't know enough about how it functions. I don't conjure up false information just to make my article meatier.
Luxchomp (Favorable)
To be honest, I have yet to lose to Luxchomp (or any SP for that matter) with this deck. Usually, you will want to start by using Psychic Bind and Judge in the same turn, forcing them to use Cyrus if they draw it. If they do, continue using Psychic Bind (using SSU/Seeker to outlast their Power Sprays). Once they have used three of them (or have stopped the chain for whatever reason), it's usually a good idea to hit them with a Judge/Let Loose to give them a crap hand. Blissey w/Belt OHKOs Garchomp C and the X (with Tri Poison). You 2HKO Luxray and the X with one heads on Tri Poison.
Uxie X and Toxicroak G can OHKO (with help from Crobat G or Lucario GL) everything in your deck. You counter this by being smart about your Drapion usage. If the defending Pokemon dies from Tri Poison, Poison Revenge will only hit Blissey for 50, not 90 + Poison. With that threat out of the way, Blissey proves almost impossible to kill for your opponents. In addition, keeping Blissey at the heart of your attack and only bringing Drapion up when a Poison Lock opportunity comes up minimizes the damage Uxie can do to you. Bright Look -> Flash Bite -> Zen Blade is still a threat, but well timed hand disruption usually does the trick.
Gyrados (Balanced)
Dos is easy if you Judge/Let Loose after every Impersonated Collector. It gets difficult if they are able to actually get two carps in the discard, as they outdamage you by a large amount. if this happens, Tri Poison and constant Hand Disruption become CRITICAL: Tri Poison doesn't activate Rescue Energy, and the Hand Disruption will minimize their chances of drawing into a SSU. It's usually key to Judge/Let Loose + Psychic Bind the turn before you think they would try to SSU Gyrados.
The entire matchup depends heavily on Tri Poison, so try to get both Drapion X's out asap. You'll most likely be behind on prizes, so Twins the hell out of that deck!
Vilegar (Slightly Unfavorable)
As dumb as this sounds, you have to hope for good flips and Judges. Judge early and try to time KOs with Scorpion Grapple + Tri Poison. I say "slightly unfavorable" because so much of the deck is rendered unusable: not being able to utilize VS Seeker/Junk Arm to get turn after turn of locking really hurts. Getting Dialga out is difficult without trainers, so it is often better used as a distraction (for example, benching it if you predict that your active will be KO'd next turn, which would allow you to Level Up -> Warp NRG upon your active's death).
Tips
a. Nurse Call discards those useless trainers you have.
b. Tri Poison is your friend. It gets around Fainting Spell and causes a major headache for your opponent. Often, they'll need to have both SF Gengars out, and you run the disruption to make that difficult to obtain.
c. Mesprit is extremely important. If your Drapion X gets hit with Level Down, you'll lose so much momentum if you can't get it back out
Other Helpful Techs
If Dialga just isn't cutting it for you, try these kids out.
1. Umbreon UD: Obvious mention. Aside from Fainting Spell, which you can hopefully get around, Umbreon walls Vilegar.
2. Bronzong MD: A wee unorthodox. As long as you control your in-hand T/S/S count and use Nurse Call to tank him, you can easily spread a lot of damage. He's also nice to bring up after your active dies, spreading ten to some of your opponent's field. Plus, you can attach Warp Energy and reuse that trick later.
3. Shedinja SV: It's Pokebody has the same effect as Umbreon's Moonlight Fang. Unfortunately, the attack only targets Pokemon that already have damage counters on them, so you'd have to also add Bronzong MD, Crobat G, Ninjask SV, or something else like that can either do Bench Damage or get out of the active spot to make any use of Shedinja.
Dialgachomp (Balanced)
I would say this is a favorable matchup, but I must admit that I haven't played many games against it. Drapion is your main attacker against Dialga. He poisons and discards all Special Energies, which is a near-OHKO on a Belted Dialga G X. With Proper timing of Psychic Bind, you can counter the Warp NRG -> Healing Breath combo. Repeated uses of Judge -> Return allows you to outpace Metal NRG stacking, but it can be difficult to get the damage to stick if they are Deafening you so you can't play E-Belt. Of course, if they are resorting to using deafen, you can Nurse Call and turn the game into a tank war where you gain an immediate advantage by getting Drapion X out.
Sablelock (Favorable)
Typically, B/D buttstomps all over Sablock. Let's look at why:
1. The deck has great counter attack in that it can OHKO/2HKO Garchomp X, trap Toxicroak G active after using a Judge (via Tri Poison or Psychic Bind), and the absurd usage of Twins.
2. Blissey is a built-in counter to hand disruption. No, Return won't really do any damage to Sableye, but since you're drawing a full hand every turn, the game becomes a setup stalemate that you generally win.
3. Drapion is just too good at reverse-locking Sableye.
4. Honchkrow and Garchomp are poor attackers against Blissey/Drapion. Toxicroak G is the only great commonly used attacker, and you make it difficult to obtain with all the shenanigans you induce. A few wierdos run Donphan, but Tri Poison just kills it hard.
In short, B/D frees Sableye's early lock, outplays Sableye's attackers, then induces a potent lock of it's own.
On a side note, it's generally better to induce the lock mid game. Early game, Sablelock will be Impersonating its way out of anything you do, and trying to do any kind of lock is a waste of time. You have a superior late-game as it is, so let Sablelock "go off" then lock them up and throw away the key.
Predicted FAQs
Now that almost all of the article is out of the way, I'm sure many of you have a few of the same questions. I'm gonna go ahead and answer them now, just to save posts and make the article more "complete" if you will.
Q: Why don't you run Collector again? I don't get it.
A: Well, for two reasons.
First, I rarely need it. Yes, it looks like I do (with all of the basics that coming-into-play powers), but my testing has shown otherwise. All too often, I had a Collector in hand when I really needed a Twins. Given the deck's slow pace, I'm usually behind in prizes early out, so Twins actually functions much like a better version of Pokemon Collector
Second, Smeargle. All I need is to open with Collector in hand and let my opponent pull out three to six basics turn one. With Twins kind of substituting as Pokemon Collector, I greatly negate Smeargle's early-game usefulness.
Q. Why don't you use Azelf?
A. Again, two reasons.
First, bench space is already an issue. I usually have some combination of one or two Drapions, one or two Mesprits, a Giratina and a second Blissey all benched. There's no space left for anything else.
Second, I run thick lines: a 4-3 and a 3-2-2. Bad prizes is not as big an issue as it could be. In fact, I run a 3-2-2 Drapion line instead of a 3-3-1 just so I don't NEED Azelf.
Q. Uxie?
A. First, no bench space. Second, Blissey's attack does almost the same thing as Set Up, so running both would be redundant. Third, I don't run Collector, so getting Uxie AND everything else I need would prove difficult.
Q. Dude, Chatot G would be boss! Why you no use?
A. Bench Space, primarily. Plus, you'd have to add Poketurns and junk, and he doesn't really help against the deck's main adversary. If you want, go ahead and add Chatot G, Collectors and some Poketurns and see how that works out for you.
Closing Statements
I hope you enjoyed taking a look at this fun and surprisingly effective deck. Blissey/Drapion can be kind of hard to legitimately accept given the rather large luck factor and number of unpopular cards employed, but if you have an open mind and can look past those apparent "flaws," I think you'll enjoy your games with this deck. Who knows, maybe you'll even see the potency and potential that I acknowledge.
I have a very weird playstyle and deckbuilding logic, both of which work exceptionally for me. The above build suits me perfectly, and the deck generally plays out in the chess-like manner which I find suitable. Maybe this deck won't work for you, maybe you'll need to modify it, or maybe you'll start thrashing with it as early as tomorrow. Regardless, please keep this in mind when leaving comments. Out of respect and appreciation for the Pokemon community that I've been a part of for around eight years, I took an idea that I can't make use of and gave everyone else a chance to try it out for themselves. I took time out of my busy life just to give some helpful insight. I would greatly appreciate a similar-minded response from you all. I'm not saying you have to agree with my input, but if you're going to disagree, please just be respectful so you and I (and everyone else) can have a legitimate conversation to enjoy. That, above anything else, is what will help the community the most.
Thank you for your time.
-Marvin
Author: Marvin Quaschnick
Date: 01/14/11
Current Format: MD-TR
Bogus Amusement Level: 7
Forward
I hate coins. I also hate dice. In fact, I hate any form of randomization, because I suck at believing in the heart of the coin. At one point in my life, my affinity for making poor rolls was so bad, rolling low numbers became known as "pulling a Marvin." So naturally, my new awesome deck idea (which I am going to ram down your throats like granny's disgusting fruitcake), involves flipping multiple coins a turn, often praying to the Pokegod of Pokeland in the process.
Many of you probably remember my old FGD article from over a year ago. I stumbled upon the synergy of Flygon/Gardevoir by smashing two overcosted Stage Twos into the same deck, making local kids frustrated in the process ("THIS DECK SHOULDNT BE GOOD!!!! HOW IS THIS DECK SO GOOD????"). This time, I stumbled upon this deck's synergy in my endless quest to make something of Drapion, it still accomplishes the end result of making local kids mad ("OH MY GOD IM TRIPLE POISONED AND HAVE A SMALL HAND AND CANT USE POWERS AND I HAVE TO READ EVERY SINGLE CARD HE PLAYS BECAUSE IVE NEVER SEEN THEM USED BEFORE!!!").
I'm not going to pretend the deck is something it isn't. If you try this deck in the way I designed it, you will flip many coins. In fact, you might want to invest in a few extra coins and/or dice in case your wild flipping goes out of control and randomizers start flying around like gnats on drugs. The core principal of the deck (Blissey + Judge) is extremely sound and vicious and not extremely reliant on luck, but the supporting cast certainly is.
Without further excuses, here she is:
Pokemon: 19
4 Chansey PL
3 Blissey PL
3 Skorupi SF
2 Drapion SF
2 Drapion X
2 Mesprit LA
1 Giratina PL
1 Dialga G
1 Dialga G X
NRG: 11
4 Call Energy
4 Warp Energy
3 Basic Dark Energy
Stuff: 30
4 Super Scoop Up
4 Night Teleporter
3 Junk Arm
2 Expert Belt
1 Pokemon Communication
3 VS Seeker
1 Luxury Ball
2 Judge
3 Bebe's Search
3 Twins
3 Seeker
1 Palmer's Contribution
Card Explanations
Ever wonder why someone uses certain cards? I sure do. In fact, I wonder why I use certain cards. I better type this before I forget.
Blissey PL
This card, which does 20-for-1, is seriously your main attacker. This damaged is increased by E-belt, giving you a 140-HP, self-healing tank that restocks your hand and does . . . 40 Damage. However, with Drapion X's Tri-Poison Power, you have a 50-75% shot at doing 70-100 damage for one Energy. Hilariously, with Tri-Poison and Belt, Blissey can OHKO Garchomp X.
Chansey PL
This widdle guy evolves into Blissey, your main attacker. I use the PL one because it sucks the least and can OHKO a Garchomp C X with a Belt.
Drapion X
Used for his Power only. I hate coin flips with a passion, and this is the only time I have ever based a deck around one, but it's such a useful power. Sniping Tail is rarely used, and if you ever find yourself in the position to use it, it usually means you're already winning. It'll drive the final nails in the coffin. Tri Poison gets around Fainting Spell, Rescue Energy, Cynthia's Feelings, and other cards that rely on stuff being KO'd by damage.
Drapion
Scorpion Grapple is the main attack on this card. The guaranteed retreat lock, combined with Tri-Poison and possible paralysis, will often leave your opponent's Pokemon helpless and killed at the end of their turn. Combined with Let Loose/Judge and Psychic Bind, getting that trapped Pokemon out of there is very difficult to do. Cross Poison is pretty crappy. Derail is useful against Steelix and DGX.
Skorupi
I use this one because it can prevent your opponent's Spiritomb or Sableye from retreating, giving you valuable time to set up your slow deck.
Mesprit LA
You're already locking their active up with paralysis and triple poison, why not shut down Powers, too? With everything in the deck locking your opponent down, they could still use Powers to get out of a sticky situation. This card eliminates that out, truly locking them down with only a five card hand of luck to save them.
Giratina PL
Used so I have a non-Supporter way of using a Judge-like effect. It has numerous uses, like being able to turn a Twins or anything that searches out Pokemon into a Judge. It's not really something you have to worry about having trapped active, as all you have to do is attach Warp Energy to Giratina then follow up with Seeker, or just use Super Scoop Up.
1-1 Dialga G
Shuts down Vileplume, and - to a lesser extent - Steelix, Donphan Prime and Champ X. This is my current tech of choice to help against Vilegar, but many others (which I will get to later) can be used if desired.
On an aside, Gengar X can easily use Level Down to return you to a trainer lock. As such, it's a good idea to have some Psychic Binds available before leveling up.
Basic Dark
I use this over Special Dark because it can be recovered with Palmer's Contribution, increasing the deck's longetivity. Energy often needs to be discarded to use a key Nurse Call or Junk Arm, and it's nice to be able to recover at least a few or those back later in the game.
Call Energy
An obvious inclusion to a deck with colorless attack costs. Having this at my disposal allows me to opt out of having Pokemon Collector in the deck, thus freeing up my Supporter for the turn.
Warp Energy
Every attacker in the deck has a double or more retreat cost, so this is pretty necessary. plus, this aids greatly in getting Drapion x and Dialga x out and gives near immunity to luring flame and special conditions. also combos with seeker to great effect.
Judge
The supporter version of Giratina's Let Loose Power. Judge + Return is the founding concept of the deck, as Return will leave you with six cards to your opponent's four! I opt for 2 Judge most of the time, as 1 is never reliable enough - even with Let Loose in the deck,
Edit: On a side note, you could try running Lookers Investigation instead of Judge. I've tried both to decent success, but I just like Judge better because of how well it combos with Return: Normally, Lookers is better since it doesn't force you to go down to four cards like Judge does, but Return nullifies this drawback.
Bebe's Search
. . . Um, duh. All you new players, this card is just as good as you might think it is. Which is to say, it's great.
Twins
This can be a very slow deck, so this is a natural inclusion. Too often you find yourself in a losing position and needing multiple unsearchable cards in order to regain control. This Supporter allows you to do that. Drawing it too early in the game or when winning isn't a bad thing in Blissey Drapion, as you can use it as discard fodder for Nurse Call and Junk Arm.
Seeker
This card takes the deck from fun to competent. This one card guarantees you get more mileage out of Let Loose and Psychic Bind, and allows you to abuse the Warp Energy -> Seeker combo to heal your tanktastic Blissey. With this, SSU, VS Seeker, Junk Arm, Judge and Giratina, you can easily take your opponent down to four cards and Power Lock all in the same turn.
Palmer's Contribution/Flower Shop Lady
Well, Energy and Pokemon have to be recovered somehow, don't they? Personally, I prefer Palmer's for the fact that I can get four or five Pokemon if I need to and I rarely have more than two Basic Energy in the discard, but to each their own
Super Scoop Up
A non-supporter way of returning Pokemon to your hand. Even with the awesomeness of Seeker, Super Scoop Up is still kind of required in this deck, mostly because you will often need to pick up multiple Pokemon in one turn or pick one up and still use a Bebe or something.
Vs Seeker
Mostly used to recover Judge and Seeker to continue the hand control and power lock. I run so many because of how many supporters need to be used multiple times in one game, especially Seeker. Plus, running so many of these allows me to chop up some of my Supporters (3 Bebe's instead of 4, etc.)
Junk Arm
Lets me get more longevity out of my trainers. Nothing like getting to use multiple Luxury Balls in one game! Also, by grabbing VS Seeker, Junk Arm can even pull supporters out for you. It is also a great hand-thinning device, effectively increasing the number of cards Return will net you by two or three
Expert Belt
Needed because of Blissey's terrible base damage. The double prize thing rarely comes into play because of all the healing in this deck, and you can usually lead right into an awesome Twins when it does. Also turns Drapion into quite the beast, but I only play it on him if the extra 20 really makes a difference (for example, if I got a heads on Tri Poison against a 90 HP Pokemon, attaching a Belt to Drapion and using Scorpion Grapple will cause that Pokemon to be stuck active and die after my opponent's turn).
Night Teleporter
(Image included because I doubt anyone has talked about this card since the Supreme Victors Prereleases)
On tails, you dump a card from your hand, allowing you do draw +1 with Return. On heads, you get any card in your deck PLUS a fresh hand of 6 if you use Return. This terrible card actually fits in extremely well here, and its terrible reputation makes for an even more humiliating defeat for your opponent.
I realize that this card is entirely out of left field, and it's not absolutely integral to B/D's strategy. If you're not comfortable running it, by all means, put in whatever else you'd like.
Pokemon Communication
Like Bebe's Search, another obvious card. I only run one because I have so much else that searches out cards in general. Many times, like when I need that Warp Energy or Expert Belt, I hate having stuff that only searches out Pokemon. I ran a higher count before, but I took it down after my results and for my preference. Plus, I only have 19 Pokemon and opted not to run Pokemon Collector, so the card's usefulness in my build is limited. I would take it out (running only 1 is kinda random and stupid to some degree), but it is nice to have at least one non-supporter way to guarantee a Drapion LV X.
Luxury Ball
An automatic one-of in almost every deck. Really doesn't need much of an explanation.
Obvious Strategy Statement
Use the combination of Blissey and Judge/Giratina to wreck your opponent's hand while leaving yours mostly intact. Everything else in the deck falls into place to help support this main strategy: Mesprit adds Power Lock to the equation, Drapion both adds damage to Blissey and counters those pesky Colorless-resistant starters, and the Trainers and Supporters strike a good balance between disruption and setup.
Edit: As stated, this is a slow deck. The basic early game strategy is to get a Blissey out so you can start using Judge -> Return while also getting Drapion out. As odd as this sounds, you don't really need to aim for a fast setup: I normally get Drapion X out around turn 5 and still have board control. Really, the only time you SHOULD Drapion rush is when your opponent has a Sableye or near-healthy Spiritomb active, or some other starter. Ideally, that starter will die from Tri Poison after your opponent's turn, thus turning the tide of the entire game in your favor.
Tech Deck
This isn't so much a tech section as it is a statement. As a whole, the deck performs well against everything I've played. It (in my experience) stomps SP, generally outperforms Gyrados, and contends with or exceeds just about everything else . . . except Vilegar. As such, rather than include techs here, I spouted off in the Vilegar section about some cards that could help out in that unfavorable match.
Testing Results
Yes, testing results. I'll give ya a paragraph of general information with other nuggets as appropriate. Also, as is my tradition, I will not give stupid, arbitrary percentages, but rather a general statement of odds against certain meta decks. These statements assume a rough 50% average heads, and can be greatly modified by both player skill and percentage of heads. So don't come all up in here claiming I misled you because you flipped ten tails against Luxchomp and lost. With enough luck, anything can beat anything else - even a hard counter.
As for the matchups themselves, I only included the most popular decks. I'm unable to be a competitive player (working most weekends), and I have a life, so I have better things to do than run Blissey vs Machamp or Blissey vs Steelix sims for the purposes of writing an article. Deal with it. If a matchup is not included, it's because I've never played against the deck or just don't know enough about how it functions. I don't conjure up false information just to make my article meatier.
Luxchomp (Favorable)
To be honest, I have yet to lose to Luxchomp (or any SP for that matter) with this deck. Usually, you will want to start by using Psychic Bind and Judge in the same turn, forcing them to use Cyrus if they draw it. If they do, continue using Psychic Bind (using SSU/Seeker to outlast their Power Sprays). Once they have used three of them (or have stopped the chain for whatever reason), it's usually a good idea to hit them with a Judge/Let Loose to give them a crap hand. Blissey w/Belt OHKOs Garchomp C and the X (with Tri Poison). You 2HKO Luxray and the X with one heads on Tri Poison.
Uxie X and Toxicroak G can OHKO (with help from Crobat G or Lucario GL) everything in your deck. You counter this by being smart about your Drapion usage. If the defending Pokemon dies from Tri Poison, Poison Revenge will only hit Blissey for 50, not 90 + Poison. With that threat out of the way, Blissey proves almost impossible to kill for your opponents. In addition, keeping Blissey at the heart of your attack and only bringing Drapion up when a Poison Lock opportunity comes up minimizes the damage Uxie can do to you. Bright Look -> Flash Bite -> Zen Blade is still a threat, but well timed hand disruption usually does the trick.
Gyrados (Balanced)
Dos is easy if you Judge/Let Loose after every Impersonated Collector. It gets difficult if they are able to actually get two carps in the discard, as they outdamage you by a large amount. if this happens, Tri Poison and constant Hand Disruption become CRITICAL: Tri Poison doesn't activate Rescue Energy, and the Hand Disruption will minimize their chances of drawing into a SSU. It's usually key to Judge/Let Loose + Psychic Bind the turn before you think they would try to SSU Gyrados.
The entire matchup depends heavily on Tri Poison, so try to get both Drapion X's out asap. You'll most likely be behind on prizes, so Twins the hell out of that deck!
Vilegar (Slightly Unfavorable)
As dumb as this sounds, you have to hope for good flips and Judges. Judge early and try to time KOs with Scorpion Grapple + Tri Poison. I say "slightly unfavorable" because so much of the deck is rendered unusable: not being able to utilize VS Seeker/Junk Arm to get turn after turn of locking really hurts. Getting Dialga out is difficult without trainers, so it is often better used as a distraction (for example, benching it if you predict that your active will be KO'd next turn, which would allow you to Level Up -> Warp NRG upon your active's death).
Tips
a. Nurse Call discards those useless trainers you have.
b. Tri Poison is your friend. It gets around Fainting Spell and causes a major headache for your opponent. Often, they'll need to have both SF Gengars out, and you run the disruption to make that difficult to obtain.
c. Mesprit is extremely important. If your Drapion X gets hit with Level Down, you'll lose so much momentum if you can't get it back out
Other Helpful Techs
If Dialga just isn't cutting it for you, try these kids out.
1. Umbreon UD: Obvious mention. Aside from Fainting Spell, which you can hopefully get around, Umbreon walls Vilegar.
2. Bronzong MD: A wee unorthodox. As long as you control your in-hand T/S/S count and use Nurse Call to tank him, you can easily spread a lot of damage. He's also nice to bring up after your active dies, spreading ten to some of your opponent's field. Plus, you can attach Warp Energy and reuse that trick later.
3. Shedinja SV: It's Pokebody has the same effect as Umbreon's Moonlight Fang. Unfortunately, the attack only targets Pokemon that already have damage counters on them, so you'd have to also add Bronzong MD, Crobat G, Ninjask SV, or something else like that can either do Bench Damage or get out of the active spot to make any use of Shedinja.
Dialgachomp (Balanced)
I would say this is a favorable matchup, but I must admit that I haven't played many games against it. Drapion is your main attacker against Dialga. He poisons and discards all Special Energies, which is a near-OHKO on a Belted Dialga G X. With Proper timing of Psychic Bind, you can counter the Warp NRG -> Healing Breath combo. Repeated uses of Judge -> Return allows you to outpace Metal NRG stacking, but it can be difficult to get the damage to stick if they are Deafening you so you can't play E-Belt. Of course, if they are resorting to using deafen, you can Nurse Call and turn the game into a tank war where you gain an immediate advantage by getting Drapion X out.
Sablelock (Favorable)
Typically, B/D buttstomps all over Sablock. Let's look at why:
1. The deck has great counter attack in that it can OHKO/2HKO Garchomp X, trap Toxicroak G active after using a Judge (via Tri Poison or Psychic Bind), and the absurd usage of Twins.
2. Blissey is a built-in counter to hand disruption. No, Return won't really do any damage to Sableye, but since you're drawing a full hand every turn, the game becomes a setup stalemate that you generally win.
3. Drapion is just too good at reverse-locking Sableye.
4. Honchkrow and Garchomp are poor attackers against Blissey/Drapion. Toxicroak G is the only great commonly used attacker, and you make it difficult to obtain with all the shenanigans you induce. A few wierdos run Donphan, but Tri Poison just kills it hard.
In short, B/D frees Sableye's early lock, outplays Sableye's attackers, then induces a potent lock of it's own.
On a side note, it's generally better to induce the lock mid game. Early game, Sablelock will be Impersonating its way out of anything you do, and trying to do any kind of lock is a waste of time. You have a superior late-game as it is, so let Sablelock "go off" then lock them up and throw away the key.
Predicted FAQs
Now that almost all of the article is out of the way, I'm sure many of you have a few of the same questions. I'm gonna go ahead and answer them now, just to save posts and make the article more "complete" if you will.
Q: Why don't you run Collector again? I don't get it.
A: Well, for two reasons.
First, I rarely need it. Yes, it looks like I do (with all of the basics that coming-into-play powers), but my testing has shown otherwise. All too often, I had a Collector in hand when I really needed a Twins. Given the deck's slow pace, I'm usually behind in prizes early out, so Twins actually functions much like a better version of Pokemon Collector
Second, Smeargle. All I need is to open with Collector in hand and let my opponent pull out three to six basics turn one. With Twins kind of substituting as Pokemon Collector, I greatly negate Smeargle's early-game usefulness.
Q. Why don't you use Azelf?
A. Again, two reasons.
First, bench space is already an issue. I usually have some combination of one or two Drapions, one or two Mesprits, a Giratina and a second Blissey all benched. There's no space left for anything else.
Second, I run thick lines: a 4-3 and a 3-2-2. Bad prizes is not as big an issue as it could be. In fact, I run a 3-2-2 Drapion line instead of a 3-3-1 just so I don't NEED Azelf.
Q. Uxie?
A. First, no bench space. Second, Blissey's attack does almost the same thing as Set Up, so running both would be redundant. Third, I don't run Collector, so getting Uxie AND everything else I need would prove difficult.
Q. Dude, Chatot G would be boss! Why you no use?
A. Bench Space, primarily. Plus, you'd have to add Poketurns and junk, and he doesn't really help against the deck's main adversary. If you want, go ahead and add Chatot G, Collectors and some Poketurns and see how that works out for you.
Closing Statements
I hope you enjoyed taking a look at this fun and surprisingly effective deck. Blissey/Drapion can be kind of hard to legitimately accept given the rather large luck factor and number of unpopular cards employed, but if you have an open mind and can look past those apparent "flaws," I think you'll enjoy your games with this deck. Who knows, maybe you'll even see the potency and potential that I acknowledge.
I have a very weird playstyle and deckbuilding logic, both of which work exceptionally for me. The above build suits me perfectly, and the deck generally plays out in the chess-like manner which I find suitable. Maybe this deck won't work for you, maybe you'll need to modify it, or maybe you'll start thrashing with it as early as tomorrow. Regardless, please keep this in mind when leaving comments. Out of respect and appreciation for the Pokemon community that I've been a part of for around eight years, I took an idea that I can't make use of and gave everyone else a chance to try it out for themselves. I took time out of my busy life just to give some helpful insight. I would greatly appreciate a similar-minded response from you all. I'm not saying you have to agree with my input, but if you're going to disagree, please just be respectful so you and I (and everyone else) can have a legitimate conversation to enjoy. That, above anything else, is what will help the community the most.
Thank you for your time.
-Marvin
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