Cyrus
Iron Chef - Master Emeritus
Round II: Crimmy VS Jesschow
~~~Criminal~~~
~~~Jesschow12~~~
~~~Criminal~~~
PART ONE
Iron Chef Age of Kabuto – Round 2 – Dark Crobat RR
- Criminal
Deck Design
Dark Crobat was an interesting card to make a deck for, since its “combos” have already been played with and wouldn’t give me any originality points. So, given that I wanted a solid deck which would grant me solid originality points, I had to stay away from Weezing (an amazing card in combination with Dark Crobat, but its been done more times than crack.) Ariados also came to mind, but in reality, the deck would end up revolving more around Ariados than Dark Crobat, so that was also not an option. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I wanted to take advantage of Crobat’s first attack, Dark Drain, rather than his insane pokemon power. Dark Drain, while amazing, can also be controlled by your opponent if he manages his bench well enough, so Dark Crobat needed something to keep the opponent from being able to ko crobat at will while either massacring your opponents entire board or tickling your opponents active pokemon to death. This is where the Azumarill comes in, it works perfectly with dark crobat. Either, A) you paralyze the opponent turn after turn and dark drain your opponent to death, or B) you paralyze your opponent turn after turn and play the sniping game with crobat/golbat. The strategy was amazing, it worked perfectly and was actually looking like it might become a decent tier deck by the time I finished it. However, something was lacking, the deck just couldn’t deal enough straight damage to win consistently vs heavy HP pokemon decks. I rummaged through cards and found Crobat EX, a perfect addition to the deck! Why hadn’t I thought of it earlier?! The problem? It’s an EX Pokemon.
Now I have a decision to make, play heavy desert ruins, play Crobat EX, or play both. Crobat EX really is the nuts in this deck, it’s the perfect addition to qualify Dark Crobat / Azumarill as a tier deck. However, Desert Ruins pulls off a huge role in your matchups vs ZRE and ZapTurnDos. Both use Zapdos to attack, and since your entire deck is weak to lightning, you need something other than poison + paralysis to win these matchups. So my decision? I chose to play both, I know it’s a weird decision, but if you put enough thought into it, and actually play the deck, you’ll know that it’s the right one. Unfortunately, choosing to play both really gives me some tough decisions throughout the game. Of course, if they play heavy battle frontier than I’ll have to counter with my Desert Ruins, but if they play EX’s I don’t necessarily need Desert Ruins right away, if Crobat EX will be a bigger factor than Desert Ruins, and they don’t have a battle frontier in play, I’ll let crobat do his thing before laying down the ruins, if I think they have a counter gym or will get a countergym before I play my crobat ex, I’ll play the ruins and play accordingly. Desert Ruins and Crobat EX are the right choice, given the Metagame. It could change eventually, but as of right now I wouldn’t play the deck any other way.
PART TWO
Strategy
The strategy’s simple, you fall behind early setting up, because your Pokemon just don’t attack, and that’s ok. Then you get an Azumarill lock on. You do this by retreating Dark Crobat, activating Marill, evolving it to Azumarill, then playing Mr. Briney’s Compassion (or VS seeker fishing for Briney) and activating the Dark Crobat, then Dark Draining, or simply sniping away at whatever threat they have, while the active slowly dies of poison. Also, You completely control the lifespan of your opponents active pokemon, your pokemon are THAT versatile! You can deal 10 damage to it via dark drain, 20 if you have darkness energy attached, its taking 10 damage a turn through poison, and you can deal 30/40 to it through skill dive / darkness energy. It’s important to always have your opponent’s pokemon die at the end of his turn, and it’s easily achievable either way.
Yes, I know the draw engine looks weird, it contains no straight draw! Here’s why: Steven’s Advice relies on your opponent having a big bench and your Dark Drain attack relies on your opponent having a big bench; so basically, your opponent will not have a big bench! Even if Copycat only gets you 4-7 cards, it’ll probably still be a lot better than Steven’s Advice would be.
POW! Hand extension was originally in this deck, but it just didn’t do enough, you will always have control of the board, so there’s really no use in the card, it’s nice in theory, but it does little in game. Switch and Warp Point are also nice theoretical cards, but warp energy does its effect and more! The ancient tomb is there for extreme situations involving Crobat ex and for random lightning decks, it takes some clever use of it to minimize your opponents chances of countering it (usually involves an admin right after playing it)
The fact of the matter is that you WOULD want that 4th Great Ball, or that 7th draw card, but it really can’t be fit. If the deck sets up it should beat just about anything out. Setting up seems difficult but Azumarill helps stall early on, and once you have pidgeot rolling you’ll be good to go.
Thanks and Good Luck to my opponent.
The Deck
// Pokemon
3 Zubat RR
2 Dark Golbat RR
3 Dark Crobat RR
1 Crobat ex
2 Pidgey RG
1 Pidgeotto RG
2 Pidgeot RG
2 Marill RR
2 Azumarill RR
// Energy
6 Grass Energy
4 Warp Energy
2 Darkness Energy
2 Water Energy
// Trainer
4 Rare Candy
4 VS Seeker
3 Great Ball
3 Desert Ruins
1 Ancient Tomb
// Supporter
4 Celio's Network
4 Rocket's Admin.
3 Mr. Briney's Compassion
2 Copycat
~~~Jesschow12~~~
ok my theme was TRR dark crobat,heres my deck list
4 zubat TRR
2 dark goldbat
3 dark crobat
3 spinarak
3 ariados
2 plusle
2 jirach(HL)
4 rocket mission
4 tv reporter
2 stevens
1 copycat
3 curse powder
3 celio
1 mr stone project
3 rare candy
4 strength charm
2 rocket hideout
14 grass
strategy
the strategy is to damage your opp's pokemon asap,heres how.Using dark crobat's black beam,the pokemon is poisoned,then switch to ariados (UF) for reactive poison to do some quick damage.Strength charm are to boost the attack for ariados to do 1 turn kill for a pokemon.Curse powder is for combining the Poisoned to do massive damage for the attacker.Ariados spider trap not only can stall for a while,i can also switch back to dark crobat's skill dive and dark drain to hit the bench be4 the defending pokemon woke up...
