Ignatious
New Member
White Out
Hello Pokegym! With all of the new Black and White hype in our up coming HGSS-on, I thought it'd be a good idea to shed some light on the subject. I'll start off by discussing one of the most heavily hyped decks; White Out.
But first, allow me to introduce myself. I am Austin Reed, a competitive Master in Columbus Ohio. I've placed 4th and 6th at worlds, along with placing in the top eight at Regionals every year I've played in masters. I'm not trying to boast at all, I'd like this article to be seen as at least somewhat credible.
This article is for teaching new players the ins and outs of how some new decks will be played here soon, as well as providing a template for many advanced players to plant some discussion. I'll first explain what the deck is designed to do, then provide a decklist that meets the deck's intended design.
For those that couldn't guess, White Out is a deck that uses the White legendary Pokemon from Black and White as the main attacker- Which basically means that Reshiram is the pokemon that will be attacking more so than anything else with its Blue Flame attack. The goal is to do 120 damage every turn, starting on turn three.
The design I mentioned earlier involves using Reshiram's BLue Flare attack extremely often, with using Outrage only on occasion. The attack obviously states that in order to perform the attack, you must discard two fire energies attached to Reshiram. Considering that only one energy card can be attached per turn, how is it possible to use this attack on an every turn basis?
Inferno Fandango solves this problem, by allowing you to attach as many fire energies to your pokemon as humanly possible. The only restraint is the amount of energy you have in your hand (or your deck thoughout the course of a game).
The deck's purpose is to start off attacking on the third turn of the game, using Blue Flare. Note, that because every turn allows an energy to be attached, you can start off attacking without Emboar in play. Afterwards, however, you'll drastically need that Emboar (it should already be set up though), along with two more energies to attach to consecutively use Blue Flare. On the following turn and turns to come, all you need is two fire energies to attack for 120 damage, effectively netting you a new prize card evey turn. That is the premise of 'White'.
A decklist that accomplishes the above strategy is below: (Bare with me as the list will seem crazy to all experienced players)
Deck List
4 Tepig
2 Pignite
4 Emboar
4 Reshiram
4 Cleffa
18 Pokemon
1 Alph Lithograph
4 Dual Ball
4 Energy Retrieval
2 PokeGear
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Rare Candy
2 Switch
21 Items
1 Flower Shop Lady
4 Professor Juniper
4 Proffesor Oak's New Theory
9 Supporters
12 Fire Energy
Allow me to explain myself by giving a slight analysis of the format overall. Other than speedy decks such as Do the Wave and LostGar, which attack on the second turn, most slower decks will start dishing out damage on turn three. Because of the few turns where decks will inevitably lack damaging attacks, having a Pokemon with an attack that helps you draw cards in some way is absolutely necessary. In this case, I use Cleffa.
Before you have enough energy on your Reshiram to attack for 120, damage options aren't easily availiable. So instead of passing because you couldn't attack yet, Cleffa provides an option to refresh a potentialy bad hand. In a game of strategy, having options is key for pulling out a victory. Also, Cleffa puts itself to sleep, and because of its PokeBody, you could be invincible on your opponent's following turn. The downside is the possiblity of Cleffa remaining asleep when your turn begins. If this possiblity will ruin your attack options, it may be best to simply pass your turn.
Now we move on to the 'engine' of the deck. The engine reffers to a set of items, supporters, and/or pokemon that all work together to draw the cards you need, when you need them.
Most players enjoy starting off the game playing a Pokemon Collector to grab three basic pokemon, and evolve them on their following turn. I, on the other hand, opted to leave this card out of the deck. The deck draws the cards it needs by playing all of your item cards from your opening hand.
Because you run 4 Reshiram, 4 Cleffa, 4 Tepig, 4 Dual Ball, and 4 Pokemon Communication, it is extemely easy to run into Reshiram and Tepig on your first turn, even without Pokemon Collector! Tepig is necessary because it evolves into Pignite, which then evolves into Emboar- An extremely importaint part of this deck.
After you've played your item cards, basic Pokemon, and attached your energy for your turn, you naturally will have very few cards in your hand. Remember, in a game of strategy, having options is key for pulling out a victory. This can be accomplished by playing either Proffesor Oak's New Theory or Proffesor Juniper, as they automatically give you a total of six or seven cards, depending on which one you played. Without these cards in your hand, you just have to cross your fingers and hope that you draw into what need from the top of your deck, which is extremely unlikely. So for good measure, I've also included PokeGears.
With a new, fresh hand, it's easy to play another energy onto Reshiram and play Pignite on your Tepig on the following turn. In fact, it's possible to play Rare Candy on your Tepig that you played last turn to skip your Pignite and evolve into Emboar. In this case, you can attach two fire energies to your Reshiram, retreat your active (if it's not already Reshiram) and attack for 120 damage on the second turn.
Unfortunately the world of Pokemon is not a perfect world. If you have Pignite, Emboar, or a sleeping Cleffa active when you could otherwise be attacking, you'll normally have to wait an additional turn to attack. In Pokemon, every turn counts, so if you predict this could happen, you should save a Switch item card to play, and make absolutely sure that Reshiram is attacking right when you want him to.
After your first few turns of the game, you and your opponent will be dealing damage to each other like crazy. With this deck, you need to make sure that you have a Reshiram with three energy cards (At least two of them fire) attached to him, in the active position to do what this deck is designed to do- 120 damage.
This is where Proffesor Oak's New Theory and Proffesor Juniper really shine. It's very easy to draw Reshiram, with all of the hand shuffling and trainers you should naturally have two in play at all times anyways. The energy may become a problem, because as you discard two of them every turn, you will eventually run out. However, but by drawing a single Energy Retrieval card later in the game, you can grab two of the energy you've already discarded to reuse them. It's like two energies in one card. Furthermore, when Reshirams are KOed, Flower Shop Lady can grab back more of those energies and refuel your attacking options at the same time.
I have yet to explain Alph Lithograph in the article, as it is not a part of the main strategy, however, it certainly does help the flow of the game. When you know what prized cards are where, you have the option to draw one of any of those six cards when you knock out a defending Pokemon. You then can choose which card will help you out the most, and take that as a prize card, instead of the normal method of drawing prized cards at random. It's also a life saver in crazy off cases where you have 4 Emboar prized, or 4 Energy Retrieval are prized, etc.
This deck does what it is designed to do nearly every time. However, for more experienced players, the deck is extremely flawed, and needs to be adapted to adequitely manage these flaws. I'll explain with an estimated match up record of other obvious combos for the up coming HGSS-on format:
Match Ups
White Out vs. LostGar
20 - 80
This match up is really tough, as they can use Spiritomb, and Seeker right away to start their win condition early. Because they need less cards to set up, and can effectively reach their win condition fast. White Out needs to be on its toes, returning KOs just as fast. The problem with this build in particular, is that it cannot possibly deal the 130 damage that is necessary to KO a Gengar with one attack. A little bit of consistensy can be sacrificed to improve methods of KOing a Gengar.
White Out vs. DonChamp
50 - 50
Another deck that attacks very fast. Donphan itself doesn't hurt too much, as he normally (without Plus Power) can't even 2HKO a Reshiram, and gets KOed in two attacks. The main problem here is the Machamp. After Donphan did its part, Machamp can attack for 150 damage, and survive well with 140 HP (after at least one Earthquake). After a few KOs where you lose the prize exchange, they may begin to run out of fuel, considering they need three energy cards on a stage two to keep attackers coming. That's where you have hope of victory, but some consistancy can be dropped to make this match up a lot more winable.
White Out vs. Black Out
40-60
The deck can actually attack on the first turn, some of the time, which can win them the game right there, but afterwards they will usually be up and running before you are, so Cleffa being asleep really helps you here, but regardless, the first prize will be their's. They will leave up a Zekrom, which you can only deal 120 damage to. They will respond with an Outrage for the first prize. After that, they can keep coming with Plus Powers and Zekroms, each netting OHKOs. The deck is actually more consistent than people give it credit for, by the way. Unless they whiff on a KO, they will win the prize exchange.
White Out vs. Magnezone
40 - 60
Another match up where you fail to achieve OHKOs. They will disrupt you with Judge and either OHKO or 2HKO depending on their hand, but either way this spells trouble for you. The judges don't hurt so much as other decks, because the consistency is so high with 4 Juniper, 4 PONT, and even PokeGears, but still, they can OHKO you, you cannot OHKO them. You have to hope they don't draw the energy they need (they have a built in draw engine..) or that they run out of energy, as each Reshiram takes a total of three energies to be removed.
White Out vs. Do The Wave
70 - 30
The tides turn in this match up, as their Judges won't bother you as much due to such a loaded deck, beyond that, They'll attack fast, and depending on your start and if Cleffa is asleep or not, they'll usually grab the first prize. Afterwards, you're nailing OHKOs, and half of them are going to be with Outrage, after they hit you with Do the Wave. They must tech something very nice to win this matchup.
Techs
These match ups are horrible. But the list I gave above is extremely flawed in that it does not grab prizes like it needs to. There are alternative options to tweak the deck to be able to more effectively do this. The three most obvious combinations are Plus Power with Junk Arms, Rayquaza and Deoxys Legend, and Emboar.
Plus Powers are very useful for defeating LostGar and Zekrom, as you are only 10 damage away from getting OHKOs. With both Junk Arms and Plus Powers incorperated into the deck, drawing them when you need them SHOULD be a sinch (I haven't tested it though). Also with Junk Arm, the possibility of adding 20 damage in one turn to KO Magnezone and Machamp becomes Viable. Not likey, but Viable.
Rayquaza and Deoxys Legend attacks for 150 damage per attack. That's crazy as it is, but it also takes TWO prizes per KO, beating this card in a prize trade off is almost impossible, especially consering its enormous HP. The problem with it, is that it is not reliable at all. With Luxury Ball and Bebe's Search gone, all we have to realistically search out the pieces is Communication and .. Pokeball. This card will only be seeing play later on in the game, and by the time you get it into play, it may be too late, if you even get it out at all.
Emboar is an extremely easy option, it's not difficult to get him into play, but he's not good for repeated use, as you discard 4 energy to get that one KO. This is a lot more plausible if you run other energy such as Rescue Energy or Double Colorless Energy. Even with those options, it doesn't stop them from eventually KOing you, leaving you back to square one. If you run two of this Emboar, you ultimately risk not getting the Infernal Fandango Emboar when you need it early on, or risk losing one or two of them to the discard pile with Juniper.
Shuckle/Ninetails?
So now you have a decent focal point at the very least to start an effective White Out discussion, but before you say anything, allow me to defend two specific point that WILL be brought up.
No Shuckle.
No Ninetales
The reason for this is quite simple, in fact, simplicity is the answer. It's easy (very much so) to get the first Emboar in play. You don't need Ninetales or Shuckle to pull this off. Afterwards, all you need is a basic Pokemon to attack (Reshiram) and energy cards! Why would you use Ninetales, sacrificing deck space and overall speed to get rid of those precious energies? Do you really think it's difficult to draw the cards this deck needs to get going? Maybe in a list that heavily relies on RDL, but otherwise I disagree.
Shuckle is for similar reasons, why attach four energy to him and use Unown or Shaymin to move them? You don't need all of that draw. You're overcomplicating a simple deck that is simply good. One Juniper does just as much good, and that saves you rescources, bench space, and most importantly, deck space. I don't agree with the inclusion of this card either.
The goal with the deck is to play all cards possible, then refresh your hand with Juniper or PONT. Really, all you are looking for at this point in the game are energy cards, while drawing other cards can help prepare for later turns. It also helps early game set up a a lot, with little to no drawbacks. Juniper may discard a few cards, but with really thick pokemon lines, and Energy Retrieval, there is not many cards in the deck that you'll regret throwing out, especially if you include Junk Arm.
But to each their own, right? I'd like to hear other people's opinion and get things going for our next format!
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