Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

This Rogue Pilot Got His Top Cut Wings Today. Kenosha, WI. (now with list)

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FMaholic

New Member
My girlfriend and I always play rogue, we think it's more fun to make crazy or at the very least slightly unorthodox decks. The one I was running today was Donphan/Serperior/Virizion.

Here's the report, but first, the list.

Pokemon 16
3-3 Donphan Prime
3-2-2 Ability Serperior
2 Virizion NV
1 Cleffa

ISS 30
4 PONT
3 Juniper
3 Collector
3 Catcher
3 Junk Arm
3 Poke Comm.
3 Rocky Helmet
2 Pluspower
2 Switch
1 Energy Retrieval
1 Copycat
1 Eviolite
1 Rare Candy

Energy 14
5 Fighting
4 Rainbow
3 Grass
2 Rescue




Round 1 vs. Steve with Chandelure/Dodrio/Porygon Z

I've played Steve in the past, he always has some crazy deck, or at least a crazy variant in a meta deck as was the case today with the Porygon in Chandy. Gotta respect a fellow rogue player.

Steve couldn't get set up and I rolled him with Donphan

1-0


Round 2 vs. Joel with Magnezone/Eel

Joel is a pokedad who i always see at events, though i've never played him before (i don't think). This one was quick, i got out Donhpan fast and he scooped after just a few prizes were taken.

2-0

Round 3 Eric with Reshiboar

I was flabbergasted to see a Reshiboar, and at the time he was 2-0. I don't doubt his build, but he was just not drawing energy and it was a really quick & easy game.

3-0


Round 4 Andrew with Magnezone Eel

It was a good game, he has an awesome build and is a very skilled player, he went on to knock me off in the top 8.

3-1

Round 5 Amanda with Raichu Prime/Eel

She got off quick, I was impressed with Raichu never really seeing him in competition, but again it just wasn't any match for the healing of the serps, or the weakness to Donphan. Again, props to a fellow rogue player.

4-1

Round 6 Adam with some strange Magnezone/Kyurem

At this point he was the lone 5-0, it was a strange deck that had been successful thus far. Unfortunately for him with two Serperior to counter Kyurem's spread, and Donphan to kill the 'Zones it was a good matchup for me.

5-1


I got into the top 8 as the 4th seed, and of course play the #5 seed, Andrew who had previously beat me.


Game 1: It was a good game, again, this is an amazing Zone build and he is good. He wins 0 prizes to my 3.

Game 2: Horribly drawing for me, he drew 3 prizes i drew one/none prizes, and then he donked my lone Donphan. Impressive player.




Props
My first ever top cut
I get to play this deck again tomorrow, in Madison.
Donphan with Rocky Helmet destroying Magnezones (besides Andrews)


Slops
None, it was an overall great event and i'm ecstatic to have finally made a top cut to put in my sig! (i'll get around to it eventually.)
 
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Congrats man.

Though, I don't think it fair to call anything with Donphan rogue, especially with Serperior. That's much in the same vain as Donphan/Nidoqueen of HGSS days. Even with Virizion and Terrakion, while a bit different, the concept isn't much different than Donphan and Dragons. I'm not knocking you, just saying, playing Donphan with different techs isn't really rogue....unless of course, its The Truth at worlds, but that is a whole different story...
 
Thank you.

Fair enough, though the goal of Donphan/Dragons with Earthquake is to charge up the dragons, with this, it's of course to negate all earthquake damage as well provide further healing.

In that vain i don't think the two decks are very similar at all, other than both featuring Donphan.
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Nice job on top 8ing with an odd deck. Andrew and I have been perfecting our Magnezone list since the begining of cities, so its got most bases covered in all matchups. So no shame at all at losing to it with donphan. Good work :thumb:
 
Ch0ncey is Pr0 said:
Nice job on top 8ing with an odd deck. Andrew and I have been perfecting our Magnezone list since the begining of cities, so its got most bases covered in all matchups. So no shame at all at losing to it with donphan. Good work :thumb:
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Thanks yeah, it was a good deck. I did get another shot at him and did beat him Sunday in Madison to make us both 4-2, but that wan't even much consolation as he still made top cut and i did not Ha.
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Politoed666 said:
Whoever said this isn't a rogue is ridiculous. Nobody plays Donphan/Serperior, and NOBODY plays Porygon. Well done.
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Not gonna lie, I lol'ed.

There are three ways to play Donphan:

1. Straight speed Donphan
2. Donphan w/Outrage
3. Donphan w/Healing

As for option 3, we've seen three ideas pop up the day Donphan came out:

1. Donphan/Nidoqueen
2. Donphan/Manetric
3. Donphan/Serperior

Just because it isn't played, doesn't necessarily mean its rogue...I doubt ANYONE considers Reshiboar or Magneboar rogue, but no one is playing them. I also doubt GG was considered rogue when it won second in worlds in 2010, but no one was playing it.

The only thing that makes this deck remotely rogue is Virizion, which, at first, I was kinda like, "props, man." But, then I compared it to Donphan and Dragons, which it obviously isn't. THEN, it hit me like a ton of bricks....its obviously a Kyurem counter...good call on the counter, I totally missed than concept. But, again, not rogue. Since when is an archetype with a weakness tech rogue? Even when a 3-1 Garchomp with Dragonite wasn't the norm, no one thought it rogue. Even before Honchkrow became a big tech in Sablelock, no one considered it rogue when they first started popping up. And, when Donphan started teching in Reshiram to counter Kingdra, no one considered it rogue.

Having Donphan benched with Serperior in play and Virizion active means each Pokemon (except Serperior) take no damage from Kyurem spread while Virizion 2 shots Kyurem and lets Virizion avoid bad outrage recoil. Good call on OP's part, but again, I'm not gonna say rogue. I played D&D for cities that ran 2 Cobalion and Shaymin. Not rogue, but definitely not standard. The first day of the Marathon, I didn't run Cobalion, go 5-1 in swiss (after going 5-0), only to hit the 7th seed playing Kyurem and I didn't have a counter. Needless to say, 2 things happened. First, I got trounced, quickly. Second, I went home and put in 2 Cobalion. Anyone that plans to play Donphan competitively in this format had better figure out a Kyurem counter and fast.

So no, playing Donphan with a counter to your worst matchup is not rogue...sorry.

Again, not knocking the OP, its a great idea and I really am glad he did good with it. I'm actually interested in testing it out myself....minus Serperior.

Oh, and, for the record, no one played Porygon....well, except for the guy that got beat round 1.
 
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I laughed because after going 5-0 in swiss (and 6-0 at the last cities) the one deck that just completely wrecks me is serperior :p I did have to pass the first 5 turns of the game, but still lol
 
I played Donphan / Serperior at Nationals ("DonPierior"), I really like it. I finished so - so, but I thought it was perfect for the metagame of Nats. (Kingdra/Yanmega) I actually originally made it for my novice daughter, like it enough, I built a 2nd list for me. It is a very competitive deck, but didn't get the match ups I was hoping for early.

I look at the list, it looked a bit trainer heavy I was 4-4 Donphan 3-3-3 Serperior, not bothering with rare candy or grass energy(Fighting and Rainbow). , but Verizon and all the good trainers make it hard to keep them out. For my late cities appearence, I was playing around with rebuilt the don-perior to a verizon/yanmega/serperior, but that wasn't right for the electric metagame. I haven't rebuilt the list with Rocky Helmet, been meaning too, but it seems like fitting all this in hurts consistency and stamina. Good Job.

BTW. I have put a 1-0-1 Serperior line in my Typhlosion list, it is nice add.
 
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