vanderbilt_grad
New Member
Pokemon (15)
4 Psyduck
4 Golduck
2 Natu
2 Xatu
1 Magicarp
1 Gyarados
1 Unown E
Energy (15)
6 Psychic
5 Water
4 Multi
Trainers (30)
4 Copycat
4 Professor Birch
4 Professor Rowan
3 Great Ball
2 Night Maintenance
3 Plus Power
3 PokeBall
2 SSU
3 Windstorm
Strat: This deck was first inspired by gOLDHatter and Duck X-ing that were posted a while back. I built my own list then, had some fun testing it, but eventually abandoned the idea as being a bit slow for my taste. I had trouble getting T2 Golduck / T3 Xatu and at the time that’s what I thought was needed so you could do 60 with Golduck then use Xatu to transfer confusion off Golduck. The deck also lacked a heavy hitter for times when the Golduck/Xatu combo wasn’t working. I eventually took the deck apart to build other things.
Later on I was thinking about all the Darkwing Duck posts, Absol hand disruption, and how Professor Birch had been one of the major answers over in Japan ... and I wondered if it would be possible to build an “engine” based on Birch, immediate use trainers, a few complementary cards. I also wanted to build it such that the trainers would be of limited use to decks that copy supporters with Pokemon such as Gardevoir. It struck me that such a deck based on trainers and low hand draw probably wouldn’t work with any sort of stage 2 attacker ... but that it just might with the right stage 1s. I already had a Blissey deck built so I considered other Stage 1 decks that might be interesting and decided to bring back Golduck/Xatu.
This is the result. It’s heavily luck based. I mean REALLY heavily luck based. If you can flip heads with any sort of regularity then it can be insane. If not then you shouldn’t even start to try it. In my testing I’ve had this setup flop more than once ... but it’s also produced some amazing wins and comebacks. The key is to not get attached to anything in your hand. Use what you can, refresh, and move on.
Some specific cards that bear mention:
Psyduck ... the ability to confuse T1 is not to be underestimated. Absol doesn’t like being confused.
PokeBall ... I had GreatBall in my first list but with the different lines in the deck it didn’t work. Further there are too few Pokemon in the deck for Dusk/Masterball to have good enough odds for my taste. So PokeBall. I figured why not in a luck based deck, and by golly it works.
Unown E ... the extra 10 HP comes in handy sometimes. Gallade has to filp over an extra prize to one-shot a Xatu or Gyarados with E attached for instance. I wanted an extra basic and something to replicate the function of some of the tools that were in my original build and E fit.
Gyarados ... it was either him or Blissey as a tank and it was the fighting resistance that sold me on ‘dos. With Gallade, Lucario level X and more in format Gyarados is a monster when used at the right moment. The trick is getting him out with this deck’s crazy trainer setup.
Pokedex ... was in version 1.0 of my test build but I took it out in favor of Rowan’s. It’s a useful card if you want to work it back in.
Plusle & Minun ... Haven’t tested these in this build yet but I’m going to. Theoretically they fit perfectly.
Matchup wise this crazy deck does really well against many Blissy and Gardevoir builds, Pokemon with high retreat that don’t deal well with confusion. It deals with Absol pretty well most of the time, as designed. Ironically it has real trouble with Magmortar with his fast attack, healing, and Holon FF. Veansaur ate it alive too in spite of my expectations. The frog was usually able to make a confused Golduck’s Asleep instead which really hurt the strat of moving confusion.
I didn’t really expect too much out of this when I built it, but it did well enough all things considered that I decided to post it. I haven’t seen any posts with a trainer setup like this, but thought that it might inspire others for better or for worse.
4 Psyduck
4 Golduck
2 Natu
2 Xatu
1 Magicarp
1 Gyarados
1 Unown E
Energy (15)
6 Psychic
5 Water
4 Multi
Trainers (30)
4 Copycat
4 Professor Birch
4 Professor Rowan
3 Great Ball
2 Night Maintenance
3 Plus Power
3 PokeBall
2 SSU
3 Windstorm
Strat: This deck was first inspired by gOLDHatter and Duck X-ing that were posted a while back. I built my own list then, had some fun testing it, but eventually abandoned the idea as being a bit slow for my taste. I had trouble getting T2 Golduck / T3 Xatu and at the time that’s what I thought was needed so you could do 60 with Golduck then use Xatu to transfer confusion off Golduck. The deck also lacked a heavy hitter for times when the Golduck/Xatu combo wasn’t working. I eventually took the deck apart to build other things.
Later on I was thinking about all the Darkwing Duck posts, Absol hand disruption, and how Professor Birch had been one of the major answers over in Japan ... and I wondered if it would be possible to build an “engine” based on Birch, immediate use trainers, a few complementary cards. I also wanted to build it such that the trainers would be of limited use to decks that copy supporters with Pokemon such as Gardevoir. It struck me that such a deck based on trainers and low hand draw probably wouldn’t work with any sort of stage 2 attacker ... but that it just might with the right stage 1s. I already had a Blissey deck built so I considered other Stage 1 decks that might be interesting and decided to bring back Golduck/Xatu.
This is the result. It’s heavily luck based. I mean REALLY heavily luck based. If you can flip heads with any sort of regularity then it can be insane. If not then you shouldn’t even start to try it. In my testing I’ve had this setup flop more than once ... but it’s also produced some amazing wins and comebacks. The key is to not get attached to anything in your hand. Use what you can, refresh, and move on.
Some specific cards that bear mention:
Psyduck ... the ability to confuse T1 is not to be underestimated. Absol doesn’t like being confused.
PokeBall ... I had GreatBall in my first list but with the different lines in the deck it didn’t work. Further there are too few Pokemon in the deck for Dusk/Masterball to have good enough odds for my taste. So PokeBall. I figured why not in a luck based deck, and by golly it works.
Unown E ... the extra 10 HP comes in handy sometimes. Gallade has to filp over an extra prize to one-shot a Xatu or Gyarados with E attached for instance. I wanted an extra basic and something to replicate the function of some of the tools that were in my original build and E fit.
Gyarados ... it was either him or Blissey as a tank and it was the fighting resistance that sold me on ‘dos. With Gallade, Lucario level X and more in format Gyarados is a monster when used at the right moment. The trick is getting him out with this deck’s crazy trainer setup.
Pokedex ... was in version 1.0 of my test build but I took it out in favor of Rowan’s. It’s a useful card if you want to work it back in.
Plusle & Minun ... Haven’t tested these in this build yet but I’m going to. Theoretically they fit perfectly.
Matchup wise this crazy deck does really well against many Blissy and Gardevoir builds, Pokemon with high retreat that don’t deal well with confusion. It deals with Absol pretty well most of the time, as designed. Ironically it has real trouble with Magmortar with his fast attack, healing, and Holon FF. Veansaur ate it alive too in spite of my expectations. The frog was usually able to make a confused Golduck’s Asleep instead which really hurt the strat of moving confusion.
I didn’t really expect too much out of this when I built it, but it did well enough all things considered that I decided to post it. I haven’t seen any posts with a trainer setup like this, but thought that it might inspire others for better or for worse.
