but it's a Stage 2, it slows down consistency. Anyone got suggestions on how to handle Empo or Leafe? They bug me >.<
I don't think there is going to be any easy answer to either of those decks. Against Empoleon, I would try to get 2 Gliscor out to alternate Burning Poison so that Empoleon is, after two turns, both burned and poisoned. The spread damage that it will likely do to your Gliscors will be negated as well when you choose to return Gliscor to your hand each time. The lv. X would come into the picture after Empoleon was bogged down with status afflictions to begin the hit-and-run and likely nab a KO (or, depending on burn flips, set them up to be KOed at the end of their turn, which is so evil), and Burning Poison would likely still be an attack you'd use for the next Dual Splashing Empoleon, opting to prevent it from taking Gliscor KOs while hitting it with status effects like the last one. Dawn Stadium will partially foil this, though unlike Leafeon lv. X, extra energy being played don't help the deck and in fact they actually cut into the regular drops that would be being made to benched back-up which is of course going to be important in the absence of Scramble. I'm sure not all Empoleon builds are going to use Dawn anyway (very few have in the past), at least not in high numbers, so it might not even be an issue. Counterstadiums are always there if it is one.
Since Leafeon decks can abuse that stadium more, most variants probably will run it, so Burning Poison is a less effective strategy (as would be using Shoot Poison). Mime is also pretty useless. However, if they don't have Espeon in play, you can rely on Venomoth to do the poisoning, allowing you to get a Pester plus Buck's/PlusPower for the KO (10 from poison + 80 from Pester + 10 from either trainer + 10 more from poison). If you are able to counter their Dawns and eventually they run out (I doubt many builds would include more than 2, possibly 3, and they'd have to be drawn into), you'd at least be able to make status effects stick easier and they would help with KOs, plus they wouldn't be able to heal damage anymore either making 2HKOs as easy as against anything else really.
Anyway I did try out this totally different line-up with Gliscor like I said and it was pretty lackluster, although one card I included in that build intended mainly as anti-Metagross tech (ah, teching against the tech) actually seems to work. It sounds so random, but I'm talking about Glameow from GE. Captivate costs C and is a Gust of Wind without the flip. Basically if Metagross came into play in the Kingdra deck I was testing against, I would Roseanne's for Glameow and Captivate it out. There's no way they could see that coming. With a 3 retreat, the only option is to either sit there (building up to a retreat is useless when it can just be Captivated again) or Warp, and if they opt for the latter, they're doing 2 things: first, they are essentially wasting a Warp Point, thus making Shoot Poison more effective when you use it against Kingdra, and second, they are sending your Glameow back to the bench so that unless they are able to successfully Magnetic Reversal it back out for Kingdra to KO after the Warp, it can come into the active spot again next turn and Captivate all over. If Glameow gets KOed, you can just Night Maintenance it back and then search it out again via Bebe's or Roseanne's and continuously punish them for ever bringing Metagross into play.
Essentially it is a way to make the opponent use up Warp Points as well as rethink what they want to try to Magnetic Reversal, likely taking the heat off Gliscor/Claydol for a while and of course if they don't have any Warp Points in hand, you just swoop in and try to take it out in two turns with Gliscor lv. X so you don't have to worry about it anymore. If you know your opponent has already used all their Warp Points and you have Metagross stuck for a while, you can even take time to snipe stuff with Azelf lv. X if you're running it while forcing them to at least try to build it up to retreat.
Glameow is good for bringing out Claydols too. ALSO, for such a neglected card it sure does have some impressive artwork-- or at least I think so anyway. Seriously I love it.
