Houndoom/Claydol

[KaMewie]

Author: KaMewie
Format: HP-MD
Date: 3rd June 2008
Deck: Houndoom/Claydol

Pokemon: 12
4 Houndour
4 Houndoom
2 Baltoy
2 Claydol

Trainers: 33
3 Master
3 Dusk
4 Great
2 Birch
2 Celio
2 Cessation Crystal
3 Pluspower
3 Nav
3 Dex
3 Night Maintenance
3 Quick Ball
1 Warp Point
1 Switch

Energy: 15
4 Fire
2 Darkness Special
2 Darkness
4 Multi
3 Double Rainbow

Deck Strategy: The only reason on why this deck is worth playing is because of it's undeniable speed. The strategy is pretty straight forward - getting Houndooms out as soon as possible and start knocking damage.

Match ups are coming soon.

 

[Azure Kite]

I like Houndoom. I have seen it played with Blissey before. But I don't know how well this deck will do. There are too many special energies, and WAY to many trainers. I don't think there should ever be more trainers than there are Pokemon and energy combined. You just need to cut down the trainers, add some more basic energy, and maybe find a helpful tech or something. I don't care that its fast, I just don't think that Houndoom by itself makes a good deck, but thats just my opinion.

 

[KaMewie]

What's wrong with having lots of special energies? Don't T2 decks revolve around trainers? Houndoom and Blissey would work, but not too well as you would want to abuse the multi/DRE on Houndoom, which doesn't allow Blissey to fetch it back.

 

[Alazor]

Ion Blast... Energy Shift.... who's that pokemon?
I mean weakness to water is pretty nice isn't it?

 

[The Breeder]

Water weakness is pretty horrible with the Eeveelutions and Empostar decks coming up. Other than that I find the deck pretty interesting because it is so fast. Sadly the Eeveelution deck can match your speed, and probably the same goes with the Empostar deck that uses a lot of Scramble. To compensate for that I would ditch DR energy and toss in a few Crystal Beach.

 

[Alazor]

"Water weakness is pretty horrible with the Eeveelutions and Empostar decks coming up. Other than that I find the deck pretty interesting because it is so fast. Sadly the Eeveelution deck can match your speed, and probably the same goes with the Empostar deck that uses a lot of Scramble. To compensate for that I would ditch DR energy and toss in a few Crystal Beach."

Forget about Crystal Beach, play Battle Frontier instead with Electrode (Secret Wonders). Electrode can hit hard and power up Houndoom while you Ion blast Electrode with DRE. Sure you have Cessation Crystal, Crystal Beach,and Pidgeot d to face, but there's Battle Frontier, Warp Points and Windstorms and Pachirisu you can put in here. Empostar uses a lot of Scramble, but you can damage them and warp point them-- but not KO them--placing damage on their pokemon. Once they're damaged, Empoleon has a chance to snipe his own bench, you don't have to OHKO Empoleon either. Play 4 DRE.

 

[The Breeder]

"Water weakness is pretty horrible with the Eeveelutions and Empostar decks coming up. Other than that I find the deck pretty interesting because it is so fast. Sadly the Eeveelution deck can match your speed, and probably the same goes with the Empostar deck that uses a lot of Scramble. To compensate for that I would ditch DR energy and toss in a few Crystal Beach."

Forget about Crystal Beach, play Battle Frontier instead with Electrode (Secret Wonders). Electrode can hit hard and power up Houndoom while you Ion blast Electrode with DRE. Sure you have Cessation Crystal, Crystal Beach,and Pidgeot d to face, but there's Battle Frontier, Warp Points and Windstorms and Pachirisu you can put in here. Empostar uses a lot of Scramble, but you can damage them and warp point them-- but not KO them--placing damage on their pokemon. Once they're damaged, Empoleon has a chance to snipe his own bench, you don't have to OHKO Empoleon either. Play 4 DRE.

I don't see the point of Battle Frontier and Cess Crystal in the same deck? Cess. Cryst do the same job as Battle Frontier, just much more general and better. Cess. Crystal can only be Windstormed, while stadiums can get windstormed and removed by another stadium card. Also some people starts to use Tauros. Ok he uses Claydol, but he could still pick the oppertunities to use Cess. Crystal. Plus his set-up is rather easy too, so Claydol isn't that crucial all the game.

The reason for Crystal beach is to stop Scramble decks and GG.

 

[KaMewie]

Hmm, crystal beach can be a nice input indeed. The thing is, I find the DRE's in this deck very useful. Doing a quick 60 + burn, it's very helpful. I haven't playtested against empoleon yet, but this deck is not the Electrode variation. Throughout my testing with this deck, it has never been out sped by a Stage 2 deck, excluding donks.