Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Preliminary Grades and Voter Input (Division 3)

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Cyrus

Cyrus

Iron Chef - Master Emeritus
Directions on how to differentiate Voter Input over other comments:

-Read carefully through each deck.
-Title your post as "Voter Input."
-Tell me which deck right off the bat deserved the win.
-In a few sentences, tell me why that deck deserved the win, and the other deck didn't.. Remember, this is a 1 v. 1 format, meaning that you aren't choosing the best of four, but the best of two...twice.
-Use some grade at the bottom of your post to rationalize your decision - preferably the system I've been using this whole contest.


~~~Ky00ber the III VS Davidy321~~~

Ky00ber the III

Pokemon 23
3 x Ariados
3 x Spinarak
4 x Bronzor MD
3 x Bronzong SF
1 x Bronzong MD
1 x Uxie LA
2 x Chansey
2 x Blissey
2 x Baltoy
2 x Claydol

Trainer/Supporter/Stadium 22
3 x Super Scoop Up
3 x Team Galactic's Wager
3 x Pokeball
3 x Felicity's Drawing
2 x Roseanne's Research
3 x Warp Point
4 x Bebe's Search
1 x Night Maintenance

Energy 15
11 x Psychic Energy - Basic
4 x Call Energy - Special


Hm…I’m finally doing a stage 1, so that’s some variety. However, Bronzong is a card that is somewhat of a jack of all trades, master of none. You go for either its power or its attacks. Here, I try to use both of these to the fullest.
Furthermore, I have a lack of time to playtest so I have no idea how well the deck does besides its consistency(which I’ve fixed up by playing solitaire games on appr). Hopefully it would not be the fatal weakness in my deck. On to to the main strategy discussion!

Pokemon:
Well, I think Ariados would be the first thing that people would combo with Bronzong’s second attack, so don’t fix what’s not broken.
Set up your Bronzong and Claydol, which really go well together. Your opponent would most probably have a Claydol too, so your cards were never stray far from his. Use that to your advantage and get a solid 60+confusion for (P)(C).
If you start with Spinarak, all is not lost as you have Call/Roseannes. Retreat and send up your Bronzor. The energy discarded will come in useful later.
Then get a couple of Ariados and spread damage with Bronzong SF’s second attack and Bronzong MD’s pain amplifier.

Your opponent would most probably be led to think that this is an ordinary spread deck, however they would be very wrong. Because of the fact that retreat costs are fairly low in this format, even with Ariados we have a Blissey as a bigass Pokemon to stay in the field and clean up the weakened Pokemon. With Bronzong’s power you probably have no lack of energies in your hand, and once Blissey becomes active she powers herself up(Energy is discarded easily with Felicity’s/letting your Bronzongs be Koed/retreating)
Furthermore, if you get a Chansey start, no worries, you just start ploughing through them first with Blissey and using Bronzong SF and Felicity’s Drawing to put Energy’s in the discard. You can normally attach to your Bronzong while you have Blissey active.
Lastly, Uxie is your cure to a bad start and also helps in hand refreshment if for some reason your claydol gets sniped. It can also help you balance cards with your opponent.

Energy:
Lotsa psychics because Bronzong needs 3 and Blissey’s definitely gonna need more than 3! Call for Setup

Trainers:
3 Super scoop up is great for blissey and good for bronzong as both have good hitpoints making Super Scoop Up great prize denial. Wager is always good disruption and it has an additional role in this deck: Opponent hand control. If you want to use Bronzong SF’s first attack, you can wager first and burn through extra cards or draw using Claydol to even up with your opponent.

Pokeball- before the contest I had been playing around with the various {insert name here}balls and I’ve found Pokeball to be the best. Even with only a 50% chance, it has better odds of finding what you want than Duskball(too little cards searched through) and Quickball(no guarantee what you can find).

Only 2 Roseanne’s is sufficient because 4Call/2Roseannes has a very high likelihood that you start with either one. Late-game energy needs are met with Bronzong so you already are self-sufficient once you have your Pokemon up, which is why you have 4 Bebe’s Search.

Warp point is your card if you need to switch your Pokemon. If your use switch, then you lose an element of disruption which I like this deck to have. Its also needed for the relatively high retreat costs that bronzong and blissey have.

You may have realized there’s neither Pluspowers/Bucks and Devolutor(TM TS-2). This is because I find Blissey and the Bronzongs to complement each other well enough already. Fat ol’ Blissey uses her attacks to sweep while Bronzongs soften things up for her. This is something like if you’re playing Empozong; There’s not much need for those cards and you’re already pumping out sufficient damage to knock things out.


This would mark the end of my write-up. I hope I can make it, as the next round I would finally be free of my finals exams and have time to fully test my decks.
Click to expand...
Davidy321

2 Baltoy GE
2 Claydol GE
3 Spinirak MT
3 Ariados MT
3 Bronzor MD
1 Bronzong MD
2 Bronzong SF
2 Eevee Call For Family MD
2 Leafeon Leaf Guard MD
2 Leafeon Lv. X MD
1 Staryu LA
1 Starmie LA
1 Spiritomb LA
25

4 Roseanne's Research
4 Bebe's Search
2 Switch
2 Warp Point
2 Team Galatic's Wager
2 Cynthia's Feelings
4 Poke Radar
1 Night Maintenance
21

4 Call Energy
6 Psychic Energy
4 Grass Energy
14

Basically, the key idea is generally spread, using Bronzong's second attack, which against the right deck can do a significant amount of damage to multiple Pokemon. With the intention of having at least two Ariados out, this damage is increased. Starmie is a very good card, and works well in a spread deck. One energy for a fifty damage snipe is very very nice, and the only reason not more are played is because this list is very tight, and the main reason for that is having to fit a Leafeon line, and this is because I believe a three energy attack should not be powered up by one energy attachment per turn, especially when you will be powering up more than one throughout the course of one game. The Claydol line is a standard staple which boosts how consistant the deck is tremendously. The Spiritomb is a very nice tech which is generally a card that will add ten to all the opponent's Pokemon, and more importantly is searchable with Bebe or Roseanne etc. As explained earlier the Leafeon is to allow the energy attaching to Bronzong which has a great attack that costs three energy, as well as providing a great second line that is a main attacker. The one Bronzong from MD is to help with the spread theme of course. a 3/2-1 Bronzong works well, and a 4/3-1 line is simply not needed and would require the removal of two techs which I find all the be useful.

The trainer line is generally standard other than two switch/warp point which is a way to get out of tricky situations as Ariados increases your own retreat cost too.
As usual, this trainer line is meant to be as consistant as possible, offering a solid draw line and solid Pokemon search line too.

The energy line is nothing unusual, 4 call energy to be consistant, and the other two energy lines are self-explanatory.

David
Click to expand...


Lists:

-Ky00ber's list is good, bar some questionable counts (two Roseanne, as well as a bunch of unreliable "3"s, especially on flippy cards). Blissey also seems to clog things up - although I feel it's a nice attacker at times. 8/10/

-David's list is also good. I see a fundamental issue in his, though: not running something like Azelf, when he will clearly have a prize issue. 2-2-2 Leafeon = issues. 1-1 Starmie = issues! Beyond that, I think this is a balanced list with some good fundamentals of deckbuilding at work. 8/10.


Creativity:

-Ky00ber gets a 3/5. Ariados is a nice, appropriate approach, but Blissey isn't all that relevant. I see the argument for how it's useful, but it's a throw-in that doesn't further Zong.

-David, however, has some more relevant things at work, such as Leafeon and especially the 1-1 Starmie. Otherwise, they're on the same wavelength. 4/5


Card Use:

-Ky00ber moderately abuses both attacks, but doesn't go too far into card use. 3/5

-David heavily abuses the second attack, focusing the deck on it. However, the first attack feels largely neglected. 3/5.


Ky00ber: 14/20
David: 15/20

FINAL winner: Davidy321




~~~Vegeta SS4 VS SuperWooper~~~

Vegeta SS4

Pokemon: 22

4/3/1 Bronzong SF/MD
3/3 Ariados
2/2 Claydol
1 Rotom
1 Spiritomb
1/1 Palkia X

Energy: 12
4 Call
8 Psychic

Trainer: 26

4 Bebe's
4 Felicities
3 Roseanne's
3 Energy Pickup
4 Switch
3 SSU
2 Night Mant
2 Poke Radar
1 TMS-2

The Idea is very simple but in testing, very easy to pull off.
You start with Bronzor and and attach call. Pickup a Spinarak, and Baltoy after you played a Roseanne's that picked up a Spinarak and Spinarak. Next turn, evolve into Claydol, with the easy card acceleration, you can pick up 2 more evolves, bronzong and and ariados(just by cosmic power)
Felicities, discard energy after using Bronzong SF's power and discard energy, energy pickup, hopefully get heads, and bam, you have energy acceleration. Then spread damage, late game Spiritomb, and Palkia X is for a need bee situation, where your oppoent gets a great setup.
TMS-2 is for the Devoloving of pokemon, very brutal card.

Super Scoop up is for the obvious!

Feleicities+Energy Pickup=Energy Acceleration

Rotom is for the energy acceleration!

there you go, very simple deck, slight creativity, solid list...
I doubt I get further than this round, seing as I have had zero time to build this deck.
Click to expand...

SuperWooper

Pokemon: 18
4 Bronzor (MD #52)
3 Bronzong (SF #13)
1 Bronzong (MT #6)
3 Spinarak
3 Ariados
1 Uxie (LA #43)
1 Uxie Lv X
1 Azelf (LA #19)
1 Spiritomb

Trainers: 28
4 Bebe’s Search
3 Professor Oak’s Visit
3 Cynthia’s Feelings
3 Roseanne’s Research
3 Dusk Ball
3 Technical Machine TS-2
3 Energy Pickup
3 Warp Point
3 Night Maintenance

Energy: 14
8 Psychic
4 Call Energy
1 Grass
1 Metal (basic)

At first glance Bronzong was a dream come true as an ingredient. There were some big bad waters who were begging for it (Feraligatr, Kingdra). But then I realized that Feraligatr/Bronzong probably wouldn’t get me a very good originality score. I hunted through my binder and Ariados, whose body increases the retreat cost for every Pokemon in play (not just actives), jumped out at me. Bronzong’s second attack puts counters on each of your opponent’s Pokemon according to their retreat costs, so even one Ariados on the field can increase the damage that Bronzong does by 60. Intrigued by this concept, I decided to use Ariados in one of my Iron Chef decks for the second straight week.

My first three decks used Claydol to draw, but this time I opted to go with a kind of potpourri engine. Since I was already using Bronzor, I figured I’d throw in one Bronzong from Mysterious Treasures, whose power lets you draw one if you discard one. If the card you discard is an energy, though, you can draw two. If your lone Bronzong MT is prized, Azelf will search it out for you. One neat thing about using this other Bronzong is that it synergizes really well with the ingredient’s power, which lets you grab two basic energies from the deck if you simply shuffle in one card from your hand. You’ll never be short on energy with Roseanne’s Research and Bronzong SF’s Cycler power at your disposal, which means you’ll never be short on draw. (The reason for including only three Roseanne’s is because of Cycler.)

Bronzong MT is convenient since it branches from an evolution line I was already using, but it’s not powerful enough to sustain a deck like this. So I added an Uxie and an Uxie Lv X. It would have been two Uxie, but this deck doesn’t have the bench space. Three Warp Point means that you won’t have to burn an energy retreating Uxie Lv X out of there once you’ve leveled it up, and Warp Points are generally nice to have around in a spread deck. I included three Dusk Ball on top of Bebe’s Search because Pokemon Search was extremely important to me, here. To make this deck function, you need Pokemon (Bronzong, Ariados) and you need energy (to make Bronzong’s attack possible). TS-2 will help to kill beefy guys with small retreat costs later in the game, but early on what you need are those two essential components. Bronzong SF takes care of energy all by himself, so a big emphasis on Pokemon search makes this deck extremely consistent, even without Claydol.

Bronzong’s first attack does 60 and auto confusion for two, but only if you’ve got the same number of cards in your hand as your opponent. There are loads of ways to mess with your hand size in this deck. Cynthia’s Feelings can take you to either four or eight; Oak’s Visit will always bump your hand size by one; Bronzong can either bump your hand size by one or keep it the same, depending on what you discard. Dusk Balling for a basic is a quick way to get one card out of your hand. Deevoluter can be attached anywhere to dump a card if it’s needed. Since the Bronzong/Bronzong combo discards a lot of energy, I’ve included three Night Maintenance, and those are easy to get out of your hand whenever you need to narrow it down. And Energy Pickup is another card that’s extremely easy to dump when you’re looking for a quick sixty.

Energy Pickup was a tough choice for me. I almost didn’t want to play them, but I ended up going with it because Bronzong’s second attack, the focus of this deck, takes three energy, and to be competitive with a three energy attack I think that some form of acceleration is just necessary. TS-2 helps kill anything that’s out of reach, like I mentioned earlier. The lone Grass and basic Metal can help you attack with Ariados and Bronzong MT, respectively, and even though there’s only one of each, they can be Pickup’d if need be, plus they’re searchable with Cycler, so I figured they’d be superior to Multi here. Oh, and Spiritomb spreads.

Submitted: 11/03/08, 11:01 PM EST
Click to expand...

Lists:

From Vegeta's list, I'd really want Azelf the same way I'd want it in David's list. When you've made a dedication to getting 1-1 Palkia out...Follow it through if it's doable! I also see a serious problem with the energy: too low, and not diverse enough. Last of all, I see a couple trainer choices I'm not a big fan of: three roseanne and two pokeradar (when the list has only 22 pokemon, that "may" create problems).

8/10. I worry about how close it'd get to the 7 range, but there's enough solid stuff going here to keep it firmly an 8, I think.

Wooper's list is at least as consistent as Vegeta's, but still has a couple of the same problems: Dusk Ball is comparable to Radar, for instance. He also has the same thing going with the three Roseanne I'm not too fond of.

However, there's enough backup for Wooper's list to make it reliable, such as Uxie, Uxie Level X, and Azelf. He also has a very agreeable set of energy choices.

9/10.


Creativity:

While Vegeta indeed runs a nice 1-1 Palkia, these two cards are not enough to up his creativity rating the way two cards helped put David's entry over the top.

Same with Wooper. He has a pretty neat way of running his consistency engine (tech MT Bronzong), but that alone isn't enough to put him over the top here.

3/5 for both.

Card Use:

Wooper clearly abuses the SF's power more just by running the original MT Bronzong. This trickles down into making Energy Pickup a more reliable card.

The two of them moderately account for the first attack, by running flippy cards that burn down their hand size (and thus, match the size of the opponents hand).

Both Vegeta and Wooper make their builds Heavy Potential-oriented. It's in how they carry that idea that will determine the winner.

To make up for the expensive cost of the attack, Vegeta runs both Rotom and Energy Pickup. While I don't like the three count of Pickup as much as I would a "four," the Rotom is reliable! Wooper has essentially the same strategy, only no Rotom, and yes to easy energy discarding via MT Bronzong. His method is slightly less reliable...Which is a problem, given that he doesn't run something like MD Bronzong, what with its free attack.

Now, just how abusive are they of Heavy Potential?

I really like Vegeta's addition of Palkia. I think that just running one TS-2 was a better investment than what seems to me a slight overkill on Wooper's part (3 TS-2).

4/5 for Vegeta, 3/5 for Wooper.



As of right now, I have them both tied at 15/20 each. However, I am leaning towards Vegeta, primarily on how much stronger his card usage is.
 
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Vote input:

============

Battle of the APACers...ouch.

Kyoober - Neat consistency but seems a bit messy at times IMO.
Great card use and obvious combo.

7-3-3
Total: 13


DavidY - Amazing consistency, well creative even tho Leafeon is well overused to death and amazing card usage.
8-3-4
Total: 15
 
Vote Input:
On the Ky00ber/Davidy match, I think that David actually deserves a 5 for card you. In all honesty, I don't think theres a better partner for bronzong then leafeon. Leafeon abuses bronzong's power and powers up bronzong, but at the same time, lowers the hand count for bronzong's first attack, making it much more likely to hit that 60+confusion status (because with claydol everywhere, I don't think they'll ever have above 6 in most sitautions). Ilike the blissey in Ky00ber's list, but only if energy switch was added into the list. I think a couple of multi could've worked nicely in david's list, but otherwise it seems good for what it's looking to do.

On Vegeta/SW:
I don't see why palkia would be played in this deck list. It seems far more appropriate in a leafeon/uxie build then an aridios build, as they can gust up sticky and get it stuck there for several turns (multiple aridios=impossible to retreat=not good). Even with 4 switch (which seems way too high for a 1-1 palkia line), I don't like the feel of it. SW's list seems very consistant, but also slow at the same time, giving me weird feelings on it. Overall, I think this is about as close of a matchup you can get, with a slight edge to SW because of the amount of consistancy he has vs. the randoness palkia does to Vegeta's list.
 
Every single person combo'ed it with ariados. LOL.

I might have tried Feraligator and the power combo. Thats pretty mainstream though.

I dont like Leaf in the deck.... I think it teakes away for consistancy, and isnt worth the effort in game, or the space in the list. Sorry Davidy
 
voter input

i vote for davidy

Ky00ber- a 3 energy attack on bronzong isnt easy to power up. without some way to accelerate energy i dont think bronzong can work. blissey seems a little random. i would rather continue to pummel them with bronzong. if you super scoop up a bronzong, thats 3 energy down the drain. 7/10

Davidy321- i like the use of leafeon. starmie looks random. i hate pokeradar, though i also hate poke ball. 8/10

i vote for vegeta

energy acceleration is gud
 
I am telling you, this was not an easy deck to build.

I felt Palkia X was the play considering I didn't use it last round, and this round I felt it was amazing, you bring up one of their pokemon, most likely, they bring up your Palkia X, and then you dwitch. You would bring up something with a low retreat cost, and higher HP, so it sets there, doing nothing while you spread damage.

Something I think about the energy count. With the power of Bronzong, I don't need much in the energy department, in fact, I was always stuck having to shuffle energy back with Cosmic Power.

Something I think that went unoticed, was my energy acceleration. I built this, played around 20 games, and 14/20 times I was able to pull of Felicities+Energy Pickup.

I think this is a close one between SuperWooper and I...

Whoever wins, its been a fun contest!

Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:

dwitch=switch when tired:p

and the Felicities+Energy Pickup happened 14-20 t-2.
 
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Haha, it didn't go unnoticed with me! Like I say in the write-up, I found the energy accel to be quite reliable.
 
I really think that Vegeta has more consistency. Not to mention he utilized the card in question to the fullest.
 
Voter Input

Kyoober vs Davidy

Kyoober
I do like Blissey in this, but it needs at least 3 energy switch to make it function better with the other cards. To bad otherwise it would have given a 9 on decklist.
I have no problem with 2 roseanna/4 call, should be enough.
And why not 1 grass energy in case you need to attack with Ariados.

Davidy
Looks to me the Starmie is a bit overdone.

I agree with Davidy being the winner in this.


Vegeta vs SuperWooper

Both lists are nice, but Superwooper adressed also the attack costs of Ariados.
And Duskball goes very well with Uxie Lv X, I do like that choise.
Also the fact that Superwooper made a good functioning deck without Claydol makes my vote go to Superwooper. Creativity a 4 and not a 3.

--------------------
 
Voter Input

The match vs VegetaSS4 and SuperWooper is really close and it's very difficult to find out a winner.
By the way, after an analysis I think SuperWooper should get the victory over VegetaSS4 just because I think its Card Use is as good as Vegeta one.

I agree on the fact SW should get +1 for the deck itself for the reason you mentioned.
But I disagree on the fact Vegeta gets+1 in Card Use because of the reasons you said.
Basically, this judgment is made because of Rotom, lack of Bronzong MD and PalkiaLVX.
Well, I just think Vegeta list is not able to effort the Rotom/Palkia play for two reason.
The first one is the lack of Azelf, which to me it’s very important even in the Card Use idea. The second one is the 4 Switch/3 SSU as the only ways to abuse Palkia Pokè-Power. I can understand if it’s 4 Switch and 2-3 Warp Point, but in a deck which want to have a Switch to Level-up Palkia, have a Switch to send Rotom as energy acceleration, have a Switch to move Rotom to the Bench and not way of checking your prizes they are not enough to make it work. So it’s not a “very” good Card Use.
About the Bronzong MD, we have to say that the 3 TS-02 of SW cover totally that problem. I mean, while he doesn’t have energies in play he can use its three copies of TS-02 to devolve the opponent field, and this is a very good option in a deck like this, I would say even better than use Rotom to have more energies in play. Maybe he added the 3 copies of it for that reason and so they are not over-useful (LOL, does this word exist in English?).
SW has a valid way to exploit Bronzong Pokè-Power (thanks to Bronzong MD), a more efficient way to exploit the first attack (because with Uxie and Bronzong he can decide to draw “a card” each time instead of Claydol, who force you to draw until 6 immediately) and with Ariados and 2 Warp Point I can see the 2nd attack exploited as well.

So I’d say:

VegetaSS4
Deck:8
Creativity:3
Card Use:4
TOT:15/20

SuperWooper
Deck:9
Creativity:3
Card Use:4
TOT:16/20
 
Voter Input


Looks like I've lost. GG I wish I didn't send in my entry so soon. that was my only regret.

My vote goes to vegeta in this case. I feel his list is more consistent overall
 
Voters input

my vote goes to wooper. You seemed to have completely overlooked the fact that wooper takes advantage of BOTH attacks. the reason wooper runs so many cards like TS-2 and dusk ball are so that he can use the 1st attack fairly reliably. This, imo, makes up for the no rotom. also, while 1-1 palkia X tech is obviously good, that is another resource that you need to get out. that means that you probably need to burn a switch and/or pay for the retreat cost, which essentially are burning your resources even more. not only that, but the palkia seems virtually obsolete when you are focusing on Heavy potential, which spreads to everything. besides that, wooper's choice of warp point over palkia/switch essentially has the same effect as palkia + 4 switches with the only difference being that your opponent gets to pick their active, which, with Heavy Potential being the focus, shouldn't be an issue anyways.
 
Andeco-

Rotom is and will not be an energy accelerator as fast you say. Rotom come in, late game, energy start getting depleted, Energy Pickups all gone, and you have scoops with the odds of geting heads on one of them. Bench space isn't a problem at all.

So far, its 4-3 me...but wow, this is epic!

However this goes down, one of the closest matches I have seen in iron chef...not trying to be biased considering im in this matchup.

Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:

correction...4-4
zomg characters!
 
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I like Vegeta's list better, mostly because of the Claydol. SW's list has no Claydol, which makes it more inconsistent. You need to get a lot of poke's going, and you need to search through your deck a lot...
 
I don't think Vegeta's card usage is THAT much better. Wooper's list more effectively can get off the first attack and his power is being used much more. The Palkia compliments the strategy very well, though. I would consider them even in card use, possibly a slight slight slight edge to Vegeta, but overall I think Wooper is the winner.
 
I really dont see how he abuses the 1st attack more than I do. I can easily build up my hand, or build down my hand just the exact same as Wooper. That I do not understand, can someone enlighten me on this?

Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:

and my power is being used the same I would say, its why I have "12 ENERGY."
I have to use the power, it works great with Felicities. Use power, pickup 2 energy, attach one, felicities, discard one, given the certain situation, energu pickup or Rotom.
I dont think I understand this a bit more because he is running a couple other basic energies. I just didnt want to do that because I wanna focus on Bronzong...
 
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