Sableye donk-how to combat it

[CoMiT]

Running spiritomb with high basic count makes little sense since it reduces your chances of starting tomb, instead run four calls and four collector's since they don't reduce your chances of starting tomb. Assuming you always start tomb (I wish):
Senario 1:You start tomb turn one and they go first without sableye they need to draw sableye, retreat active, have crobat G in hand and have special dark/unown dark in hand if they are to donk you (assuming they run no collectors). If they don't donk you then off you go.
Senario 2: They don't start sableye you start tomb and go first you play call for another tomb and something else (or collectors for some stuff) sabledonk has a tough time from here.
Scenario 3: They start sableye and you tomb almost the same as scenario 1 but slightly easier to donk you.
Conclusion: If you start with even a single tomb and they start mediocre you have a decent chance of taking it past turn 1.

 

[Rambo1000]

Run ~15 basics. This should fix most of the problem.

It takes a gimmicky deck to run 15 basics though, so, you better hope it works

destiny had like 15 DIFFERENT basics lol...

as for beating sabledonk.... play 4 sableye in gyrados, play 4 tomb and 2 sableye in gengar/vileplume, or just play SP since those are the only viable deck options now. stupid format is stupid.

 

[Scipio]

Running spiritomb with high basic count makes little sense since it reduces your chances of starting tomb, instead run four calls and four collector's since they don't reduce your chances of starting tomb. Assuming you always start tomb (I wish):
Senario 1:You start tomb turn one and they go first without sableye they need to draw sableye, retreat active, have crobat G in hand and have special dark/unown dark in hand if they are to donk you (assuming they run no collectors). If they don't donk you then off you go.
Senario 2: They don't start sableye you start tomb and go first you play call for another tomb and something else (or collectors for some stuff) sabledonk has a tough time from here.
Scenario 3: They start sableye and you tomb almost the same as scenario 1 but slightly easier to donk you.
Conclusion: If you start with even a single tomb and they start mediocre you have a decent chance of taking it past turn 1.

And then sadly theres...

Scenario 4: They start Sableye and you don't start Tomb. GG.
Scenario 5: They don't start Sableye and you don't start Tomb. It'll depend on how they draw now, if they get that Sableye on the field quickly, you're still hosed.

Oh, I did notice you put "Assuming you start Tomb", but sadly, thats only the case in about 50% of the games.

 

[CoMiT]

Fair point Scipio but I was trying to enforce the point of cramming an unnecessary amount of basic pokemon into a deck revolving around spiritomb starts but yes scenario 4 and 5 are a bit grim, you could say they are the newer trio of Star Wars, they just ruined the Saga. But yeah, I still feel that its not that bad a match up. Veterans should never rely on luck if they can consistently win a game through skill, the newcomers will thrive on sabledonk and it is this that is most annoying.

 

[PhadedPhione]

I, for one, welcome our new Championeye overlords.

Better start playtesting the coin flips right now, or not play until after worlds.

 

[Spidy]

i beat myfriends magnezone deck with sabledonk after it got a double spiritomb start

so even tomb start isnt guaranteed to win
now i did hit an extremly lucky hand with sableye, sp dark, and the crobat

but evewn zafter 2 turns of set up i was still able to donk him

although one important note is he didnt have a collector in his hand, if he did, i probably wouldnt have been able to donk


basically even though spiritomb stops it, sabledonk can still do it with enough luck

>.>
i wish TPCI would do something to make this deck less vible

 

[CoMiT]

i wish TPCI would do something to make this deck less vible

SSSHHH!!!! Spidy don't say, that I'm practising my right thumb triple smack down anti-gravity coin-flip technique, if I sit in my room for another 3 hours flipping coins I could win Nats...oh yeah I forgot they use die.
I hope that like all other hyped decks we have seen overcast the format that this 'pathetic fallacy' of a deck does not strike Thunder, and rain terror, upon our 'fun' and 'skillfull' TCG of greater proportion than that of a Kyogre's even with Drizzle in effect.

 

[iLifeless]

Play Reshiram/Zekrom decks with Sableye as starter.
Reshiram and Zekrom do both have 130 HP while being basic and with sableye in it makes the matchup even better.

 

[Hippowdon SaveSand]

Sableye decks are all very well, but how often are they going to open with the perfect hand of initiatives, bats, sp darks and so forth? Seems a bit much to worry about.

 

[baby mario]

The actual Sabledonk deck doesn't need to start with any of those things. It works like Quad Uxie, runs through the entire deck T1 and donks with damage counters/Seeker/and Overconfident.

Other decks running Sableye don't need any of those things to donk either. If you start with a lone Pokemon they can Collector for Bats, Unown D (if needed) and use PokeTurns etc to get the opponent's Pokemon down to 50 HP.

It doesn't need a god hand.

It needs an ok hand and a T1 Sableye.

 

[LegendaryLugia]

You're acting like you get a paycheck for this.

Instead of banning Sableye, we should ban seriousness.

I was trying to be sarcastic.

 

[Rambo]

Honestly, the Reshiram and Zekrom having 130HP as basics looks like a great way to combat it. But also requires you to have decks of that type.

 

[Dr. Mason]

I was trying to be sarcastic.

Sarcasm does not carry well on the internet, where there is no tone to infer it.

Rambo--Rayquaza LA and some energy moving stuff would be a nice combo.

 

[Spidy]

Play Reshiram/Zekrom decks with Sableye as starter.
Reshiram and Zekrom do both have 130 HP while being basic and with sableye in it makes the matchup even better.

sableye will of course help

but its unlikely that you will start with 2 reshirams or 2 zekroms

 

[aikira21]

Sableye in this new up coming format is the most broken card in the history of the game. That includes Slowking from Neo Discovery with its bad wording. There is no way that this deck will no take out great players all because some person decides to be cheap. There is no originality to it what so ever. It is burn my deck away and shake my opponents hand so I can go and do it again.

I miss the old days of Sneasel where you had to at least work for it to get the 100+ damage. Now days you can do it alone with just crobat g, pokeblowers and poketurns. Where is the fun in that? There isn't any and till we get a real rotation we have to deal with it. Or as a lot of players are doing. Just leaving the game till Sableye and SP rotate away so that more creative playing can once again take place in the game. Myself included in that.

 

[conical]

Here's a bad idea, but I'll throw it out there:
4 Spiritomb.
A bunch of Legends.
Basically, you're guaranteed to start Spiritomb, plus you have a backup attacker with somewhat decent attacks. There's quite a few issues with this, one of which being that you'd pretty much autolose to anything that's not Sableye, but it's a thought.

 

[ElectivireFan15]

Here's a bad idea, but I'll throw it out there:
4 Spiritomb.
A bunch of Legends.
Basically, you're guaranteed to start Spiritomb, plus you have a backup attacker with somewhat decent attacks. There's quite a few issues with this, one of which being that you'd pretty much autolose to anything that's not Sableye, but it's a thought.

Ok, if the Sableye player has Regice, the tomb problem is solved. Also, you cant play legends out T1. You have to wait until your second turn to do anything with them, and with a bunch of legends, you'll have a harder time starting out with just 1 set in your hand.

Also, there's no real guarantee that you'll start Spiritomb.

 

[Spidy]

Ok, if the Sableye player has Regice, the tomb problem is solved. Also, you cant play legends out T1. You have to wait until your second turn to do anything with them, and with a bunch of legends, you'll have a harder time starting out with just 1 set in your hand.

Also, there's no real guarantee that you'll start Spiritomb.

i think what he meant is tomb is his only basic

meaning regice cant fix that problem

 

[eriknance]

Here's a bad idea, but I'll throw it out there:
4 Spiritomb.
A bunch of Legends.
Basically, you're guaranteed to start Spiritomb, plus you have a backup attacker with somewhat decent attacks. There's quite a few issues with this, one of which being that you'd pretty much autolose to anything that's not Sableye, but it's a thought.

You also might very well mulligan them into what they need to donk your Spiritomb, but nice try anyway.

 

[LoTad]

4 Spiritomb.
A bunch of Legends.
Basically, you're guaranteed to start Spiritomb, plus you have a backup attacker with somewhat decent attacks. There's quite a few issues with this, one of which being that you'd pretty much autolose to anything that's not Sableye, but it's a thought.

Plus, all they really need with a sableye start is a collector. They'll search out crobat and unown dark. It's very unlikely that you'll be able to start out with 2 of your 4 tombs when you need to.