Riding the Elephant

[Black Mamba]

BLACK MAMBA: Yeah, I suppose it is counter-intuitive. But I'm looking at it this way: if opponent snipes my Donphan, I can use the Memory Berry (if the damage is better than the attack), and if opponent hits Gyarados, I can dish out mega-damage for one energy.

It's possible you could pair Donphan with Sharpedo. Then, if opponent hits Donphan, piles up for Memory Berry, or if opponent hits Sharpedo, Rough Skin. Then, free retreat, do it again. Not super-powerful, but super-annoying.

If you were facing a sniping deck, there really isn't too much any Donphan variant can do, other than time the rapid spins or hope your opponent sucks, since even Dugtrio and the like can be CC'd. I just figure that Donphan's attacks are more geared towards it keeping the damage off it, while retreating for something like Mime, and repeating. It might be an interesting play with Wormadam, and right now, that's the only way I see memory berry being useful in the deck. Even then, there are other cards that let you switch your opponents Pokemon, and Gatr d (another favorite card of mine) lets you choose, as well.

Sharpedo could be interesting, and would definitely help against stupid Dusknoir, which REALLY hurts on the Mime build. It ko's just about anything that's been hit with rapid spin, which is nice, as is its free retreat. That said, I'd like the card a lot more if it had at least 10 more hp... 80 is too shaky of a number to have in this format.

Maybe run fossils with the deck, so you can just discard them if they aren't KO'd? Eh, I don't know.

Perhaps if it was still the old rule where your opponent didn't get a prize for killing them, but these days, you might as well play with 4 Magikarps and no Gyarados.

 

[MrMeches]

Would that really work? I think someone might want to ask that in Ask the Masters.

I would be really surprised if it didn't. The old Lily Pad Mew Promo did the same thing towards Evolved Pokemon (Prevent Effects) and you target which pokemon you are switching out with and the Body on Sandy Cloak doesn't specifically state opponent's it just states effects from attacks.

I see you posted it so this will be interesting!

Found these with similar situations:

Q. Can Machamp with the "Immunity" Poké-BODY be brought up from the bench (or sent to the bench) with attacks like Dark Gengar's "Pull In" or Metagross-EX's "Metal Reversal"?
A. Machamp cannot be moved by Gust-like effects from attacks, even if the "main target" is another Pokémon. Switching a Pokémon up from the Bench with the Active Pokémon is considered "affecting" both the benched Pokémon and the Active Pokémon, and in this case it is prevented. (Aug 5, 2004 PUI Rules Team)

This just to show you can Target Wormadam:

Q. If I use Rocket's Zapdos EX's "Raging Thunder" attack which says to do 30 damage to one of your own Pokémon, can I direct that damage onto Ledian and use its "Powder Protection" to reduce that damage?
A. Powder Protection does not specify that the Pokémon must be the opponent's, so yes it can be used to block self-damage like this. (Dec 9, 2004 PUI Rules Team)

As I stated, the first shows Effect based attacks and when something istargeted on the bench, the attack occurs, just the effect is prevented. The second idea shows that you can target your own pokemon on the bench to negate parts of attacks. Couldn't find the old scholl Lilt Pad Mew, but ti had similar rulings, I know it was WOTC days, but they were still the rulings carried over.