Cyrus
Iron Chef - Master Emeritus
ChaosJim VS Guille89
ChaosJim: 14 - 3 = 11 (8 deck list/ 3 creativity/ 3 card use)
Guille89: 0
ChaosJim WINS
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Time For Pain VS DarkWalker
Time for Pain: 14 (7/3/4)
Darkwalker: (6/4/3)
WINNER: Time For Pain
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Vanderbilt_Grad VS Blazing Monkey
Vanderbilt_Grad: 12 (7/2/3)
Blazing_Monkey: 13 (7/3/3)
Winner: Blazing_Monkey
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Brady1 VS Toxictaipan
Brady1: 13 (6/4/3)
Toxictaipan: 11 (5/3/3)
WINNER: Brady1
ChaosJim
4 Mareep (SW)
1 Flaafy (SW)
1 Dark Flaafy (TRR)
2 Ampharos (POP)
2 Dark Ampharos (TRR)
2 Baltoy
1 Claydol
1 Uxie (LA)
3 Bronzor (MD)
3 Bronzong (MD)
1 Azelf (LA)
21
2 TS 1 (Evoluter)
2 TS 2 (Devoluter)
4 Roseanne's Research
3 Bebe's Search
4 Rare Candy
2 Cynthia's Feelings
4 Pokeradar
1 Moonlight Stadium
1 Warp Point
2 Night Maintenance
24
3 Darkness Energy (special)
4 Call Energy
4 Psychic Energy
3 Electric Energy
14
The deck is pretty straightforward. A solid Ampharos/Dark Ampharos line up for versatility. 6 Pokemon to add to consistency, along with a good trainer engine. The tricks to the deck are subtle, using devoluter and evoluter while causing damage with Bronzong, using Lock Up to force awkwardness onto your opponent at critical moments. Often you'll find yourself glad a key evolution is prized, so Roseanne's for Azelf can give you an incredible set up. Attacking with the Pre-evolutions of Ampharos is not something you usually want to be doing. If you can get away with maybe using an Evoluter early on, thats kind of cool, but for the most part you want to keep your sheep safe.
Bronzong helps you keep damaging while not losing energy tempo. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. Worst case scenario, you are dealing 30 to a Claydol across one turn, more likely you're dealing 30 simply for promoting him as your active. Cynthia's is cool because you're setting up big guys. When something gets KO'ed, being able to Night Maintenance, then Cynthia's, then maybe even Cosmic Power can really put a damper on your opponent's attempt to shift the game's tempo in their favor. The Darkness Energy helps to make Dark Amphy a big hitter. Call Energy helps for the big setup this deck is going for, not to mention its usefulness in discarding less energy for the Ampharoses' attacks. Cruising in for 90 ditching one energy is one shotting a lot of Pokemon, but you've already spread onto them, making matters much worse for your opponent. Moonlight Stadium gives you a lot of free damage with Bronzongs and Cursed Alloy.
Devoluter. This card isn't as strong as ATM Rock in a lot of ways, but at the same time, its wild to be able to reuse it. Whether you're trying to buy yourself time, or just deal them 20 for evolving (again), this really helps fill the holes in the deck. It gives you such incredible magic numbers. Playing a supporter deals 10 to their basic for example. Rare Candy to evolve, they go to 30. Even if they don't play a second supporter, they are two devoluters away from a KO. While not totally impressive, consider the problems this presents for a stage 1. Consider the problems this presents for Claydol. Supporter, Evolve, Cursed Alloy, Pain Amp, Cursed Alloy and they are at 60, meaning a second supporter and cursed alloy yield a KO, or even a Devoluter, or a Cursed Alloy and a Pain Amplifier. This is all without requiring you to have any energy in play.
There is next to no Poke-Body hate in the format right now, making this deck arguably stronger than ever. Hitting weakness on Kingdra and AMU is pretty sweet, even if AMU doesn't really have weakness most of the time. Since everyone but AMU is evolving, Dark Ampharos is ready to go nuts. I decided against multi, because despite helping Claydol it really doesn't do enough for the deck otherwise. The low numbers of relevant colored energy are no problem between Roseanne and never needing more than one colored energy to attack. The deck would love to have Scramble Energy, but its the price we pay for not needing to run Windstorm anymore.
This deck is so much fun. Your options evolve as your opponent tries to make their situation better. Typically they're going to need some form of a Poke-Power drawer in order to get on their feet, and you'll be punishing them. They'll be evolving, and you'll be punishing them. They'll play supporters, and the pain only gets amplified.
Guille89
No entry received
ChaosJim: 14 - 3 = 11 (8 deck list/ 3 creativity/ 3 card use)
Guille89: 0
ChaosJim WINS
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Time For Pain VS DarkWalker
Time For Pain
Pokemon: 22
3 Mareep (SW)
2 Dark Flaafy
3 Dark Ampharos
4 Yanma
4 Yanmega
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol
2 Omastar
Trainers: 24
4 Bebe's Search
2 Helix Fossil
3 TM TS-2
4 Professor Oaks Visit
4 Roseanne's Research
3 Poke Radar
4 Rare Candy
Energy: 14
10 Lightning
4 Call
Strat: spread w/ yanmega and amphy when they evolve. Use TM Ts-2 to devolve them, then they take more damage to evolve again. Amphy can hit hard and Omastar is there as a finisher.
Dark Ampharos was a difficult card for me to deal with since I didn't even play Pokemon back when it was tournament legal. Having the new Ampharos helped a bit, but I'm not terribly fond of that card either, so not too much. Here's my list and I'll explain my choices a bit afterwards.
Pokemon (24)
3 Mareep
1 Dark Flaffy
1 Flaffy
2 Dark Ampharos
1 Ampharos
4 Murkorw (SW #95)
3 Honchkrow
1 Honchkrow Lvl X
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol
1 Helix Fossil
1 Omastar
1 Unown G
1 Absol
Trainers (21)
3 Bebe's Search
3 Roseanne's Research
3 Rare Candy
2 TM-TS2 (Devoluter)
1 Time Space Distortion
1 Night Maintenance
3 Team Galactic's Wager
1 Cynthia's Feelings
1 Snowpoint Temple
1 Moonlight Stadium
2 Super Scoop Up
Energy (15)
4 Special Dark
4 Call
1 Basic Dark
5 Lightning
1 Water
I decided to go with Honchkrow as a partner for Ampharos for a couple of reasons. The sniping of not only the Murkrow but Honchkrow Lvl X let me target Claydol quickly. The discarding effects of both Honchkrow and Absol can then be put to use. With Ampharos on the bench my opponent will have to decide between using something (be it energy, trainer, or evolution card) or risk losing it. Wager is the best disruption card in the format so it was an easy choice. Claydol is the best draw in the game, but it also makes playing Wager a can't lose situation, which makes it even better in this. With both Claydol and Wager already in the deck, a 1-0-1 Omastar line was added in to allow me to devolve and Wager my opponent's bench which is crippling to most decks. Unown G helps with conditions and vs. TS-TM2.
The trainers are built to help set the deck up, but I also included a couple TM-TS2 myslef to help snipe prime targets. SuperScoop Up is mostly for Omastar, but it can also save a prize. The TSD is amazing with Honchkow Lvl X's attack that gets a card from your discard so I added that as well.
Time for Pain: 14 (7/3/4)
Darkwalker: (6/4/3)
WINNER: Time For Pain
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Vanderbilt_Grad VS Blazing Monkey
Vanderbilt_Grad
Overall Dark Ampharos is not what it once was, largely due to the lack of a complementary Pokemon card with Sandstorm and the absence of ATM Rock. Neither Omastar or or TS-2 really make up for ATM Rock though any Dark Ampharos deck must include one or both to really make use of his body. In the absence of Sandstorm one must either focus on another form of spread or Dark Ampharos’ very nice attacks. After testing several variations of spread with things like SW Ampharos, Bronzong, Yanmega, Spirtomb, and the like against the three top BR decks (Kingdra, Torterra, and AMU) I wasn’t really 100% happy with the results. Then I tried combos with snipers like Azelf, Starmie, and such. Still only so-so, though I was convinced that, with more time, I could have ended up with some nice results here. On the other hand DA’s attacks were doing good things in nearly every game I played so I decided to make that my focus and include various techs to help get over some of the major matchup humps. Being able to do 30/40/50 for CC depending on how many special darks you had or 70/80/90 for 3 was just great.
POKEMON: 20
4 : Dark Ampharos, TRR-2
2 : Dark Flaaffy, TRR-33
4 : Mareep, SW-94
2 : Claydol, GE-15
2 : Baltoy, GE-60
1 : Dusknoir, DP-2
1 : Duskull, DP-80
1 : Mr. Mime, MT-30
1 : Mewtwo LV.X, LA-144
1 : Mewtwo, MD-9
1 : Unown G, GE-57
TRAINERS: 25
2 : Night Maintenance, MT-113
4 : Rare Candy, GE-102
3 : Warp Point, MD-88
3 : Professor Oak's Visit, SW-122
3 : Roseanne's Research, SW-125
4 : Bebe's Search, MT-109
2 : Technical Machine TS-1, LA-136
2 : Technical Machine TS-2, LA-137
2 : Moonlight Stadium, GE-100
ENERGY: 15
3 : Call Energy
3 : Darkness Energy
3 : Psychic Energy
6 : Lightning Energy
The basic strategy is to get Dark Ampharos out ASAP along with Claydol for consistency and start attacking. Techs vary by matchup though Dusknior is useful for just about anything.
Dusknoir is huge in both the AMU and Torterra matches. Both decks are hurt by limiting bench space and a surprise Hard Feelings can change the course of a game. Playing matches with lists that either had Noir or not I really started to notice the difference when he was out. Omastar gave me some nice surprise KOs but Noir was just better in more games. Having to choose one or the other for this list I opted for Noir. He can also be an amazing late game attacker and I seriously considered shrinking the Amphy line a bit and going 2-1-2 Noir.
Mime is there for all three decks as well. Since Ampharos needs more than one energy attachment there will be times when you need to stall. Since all three major decks usually only attach two energy it can mess with them. Mime is a good starter with Call Energy and the TS-1 as well. He can also be a surprise “attacker” with a TS-2.
Mewtwo is there for two matchups, AMU and Groudonk, the latter of which would otherwise be an autoloss. Mewtwo isn’t a full answer to either deck but when combined with Dusknoir & Mime he gives them problems and gives Dark Amrpharos time & ablity to set up. Given Dark Ampharos’ body only affects evolved Pokemon Mewtwo is a nice tech in a format that has more basic attackers than ever. The list also runs enough energy so that Mewtwo can pump out his big Giga Burn attack and that can KO quite a few things in format.
Unown G prevents conditions (some in Torterra & more in others), snipe by Azelf, and TS2 takedowns of your bench. How it gets used will vary by game. Against AMU I like it on Dusknoir or Claydol. For Torterra it might on the active.
The Technical machines add both stability and speed to the deck. If I could fit three each I would. Both machines have been just huge at various times. One of my favorite turns during a test match I used Dusknoir to Hard Feelings the opponent’s Claydol and then had Mime with TS-2 devolve the active Torterra which had been candied. Just huge.
Another major combo for this deck is Moonlight Stadium + Warp Point. Everything except for Claydol and Mareep have free retreat with Moonlight. This allows you to abuse Warp Point a bit more than you otherwise would. Warp also combo’s well with Dusknoir.
Overall this list worked better for me than many others I tried though there are tons of variations that all had advantages and disadvantages. DA is a unique card in that it lacks the defining combo that it once did but is still good. I also maintain that you are a bad fellow for having us do this card literally a week before we get a new Tyranitar that would have been a FANTASTIC combo with it. It's almost like taunting.
Blazing_Monkey
Pokemon (23)
4-2-4 Dark/Ampharos (3TR, 1SW)
2-1-2 Omastar (MD)
2-2 Bronzong (MD)
2-2 Claydol (GE)
Trainers (23)
4 Energy Pickup
4 Rare Candy
4 Be Be's Search
3 Roseanne's Research
2 POV
2 Warp Point
2 Night Maintenance
2 Cynthia's Feelings
Energies (14)
2 Psycihc
4 Call Energy
8 Lightning ENergy
Strategy: My idea is to either Devolve thembefore the Dark Ampharos Body spread,
or after all the crazy spreading I've done, the reason why I used 4 Call and 2
Psychic because I can abuse Dark Ampharos's attack which states to only discard
Lightning Energy, Energy pickup is just a nice touch to it. Bronzong is the
most obvious card tu use to help spread, I wish I could get some Spiritombs in,
but there's just no space for that.
Vanderbilt_Grad: 12 (7/2/3)
Blazing_Monkey: 13 (7/3/3)
Winner: Blazing_Monkey
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Brady1 VS Toxictaipan
Brady1
[Ingredients: Dark Ampharos and Dark Flaaffy
Pokémon (20):
2 Mareep
1 Dark Flaaffy
2 Dark Ampharos
1 Ampharos
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol
2 Kabuto
3 Kabutops
2 Omanyte
3 Omastar
Energy (15):
10 Fighting
4 Multi
1 Water
Trainers (25):
4 Dome fossil
2 Helix fossil
4 Roseanne’s research
3 Bebe’s
1 Night Maintenance
2Fossil Excavator
4 Wager
3 Candy
2 Cynthia’s Plan
The main focus of the deck is Dark Ampharos. Both of its attacks are very poor and should never be used. However, his body is very interesting, and is the bases of this deck. It states that whenever one of your opponent’s Pokémon evolves, put 2 damage counters on it. Obviously, when focusing on a body such as that, a spread deck comes to mind. While thinking about this, Omastar came to mind, in reference to rock-lock. It’s power takes all evolutions on the opponent’s bench and puts them back into their hand. Obviously, this is very effective when you factor in dark Ampharos’ body. With Omastar, his dead brother Kabutops comes to mind. Now, what’s better then punishing the opponent for evolving their Pokémon? Preventing them. Kabutops prevents the opponent from playing rare candy and all other trainers when it is active. This forces the opponent to evolve their Pokémon manually and receive the full force of Ampharos’ body. His attack also combos with Ampharos’ body, as it allows for more spreading to occur. The other Ampharos also continues the spreading theme, hitting the opponent’s Pokémon for 10 damage every time they play supporter.
The ideal start is a dome fossil. Using its body, it is possible to get a both it and Omanyte out fast. Omanyte is important because his power keeps getting dome fossils back in play. The rest of the Pokémon are support. The energy is pretty simple, with the multis to take full advantage of both Ampharos’ attacks. The trainers are all to get the Pokémon set-up. RR, Bebe’s, and fossil excavator are all important to searching out your Pokémon and keeping the swarm going. Wager is a card worth noting, as it works well with all of the decks points. Using it with Kabutops, your opponent can get a hand full of dead cards. With Ampharos, the opponent can wind up in a situation where they can’t do anything without getting Koed. With Omastar, the opponent can go from a swarm of pokemon to having none in an amazing 1-2 punch.
Sorry for the relatively simple and short write-up. I’m very poke-tired out and I just wrote a 3800 word essay/article on torterra. :/ Damn beach, with their challenges and whatnot. lol
Toxictaipan
Pokemon:15
4 Mareep (SW)
3 Dark Flaaffy (RR)
4 Dark Ampharos (RR)
1 Omanyte (MD)
3 Omastar (MD)
---------------------
Trainers/Ect:28
3 Helix Fossil
3 Warp Point
2 Fossil Excavator
4 Bebe's Search
4 Rare Candy
3 TM-Devolutor
3 Roseanne's Reseach
2 Professor Oak's Visit
3 Super Scoop Up
---------------------------------
Energy:17
11 Lightning
2 Water
4 Special Dark
--------------------------------
Write-Up: The goal of this deck is to set up a couple Ampharos fast and get that 70 Damage out. Then use TM-Devolutor or Omastar (Depending in certain situations where attacking my require a coin flip or other not-in-your-favor-effects) or both! Speed with 70 damage+Double-Devolve=KO. And with Ampharos' Poke-Body, this just seems amazing, because if they want to evolve they have to take damage. And the more damage they take, the more they hurt themselves. And with SSU and TM-Devo, they might be doing that quite a lot if they want a stronger attack with their Stage 1 or 2 Pokemon.
The cards:
Fossil Excavator, Roseanne's, Bebe's: These cards are for searching out your Pokemans!
Rare Candy: Makes this deck work.
Warp Point: Helps spread damage so that when you use Omastar you can KO two Pokemon in a single turn. Helps with retreate costs.
Professor Oak's Visit: Drawing me cards.
SSU: Use Omastar to his fullest!!
TM-Devolutor: Along with Omastar, you'll be KO-ing Pokemon so fast I don't even have to explain.
Water Energy: TecHed in for Omanyte.
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Brady1: 13 (6/4/3)
Toxictaipan: 11 (5/3/3)
WINNER: Brady1
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