Ok, lets see here. We
have alot of good rogue decks, and Entei Cargo and SFM rounding out the tier one
decks posted. We have yet to see a single Gatr Sect deck get posted, but I am
debating between posting my list of that and my list of Venusaur. Ill go with
Venusaur. My email address is Jvcbt@Aol.com. Thanks for reading this MAMMOTH
review of the deck.
3 Bulbasaur ( EX-50 HP )
3 Ivysaur ( EX )
3 Venusaur ( LC )
2 Pichu
2 Cleffa
1 Suicune ( AQ )
1 Suicune ( Neo 3 Non Holo )
1 Moltres ( AQ )
2 Staryu
2 Starmie
1 Elekid
9 Grass
4 Rainbow Energy
1 Darkness Energy
4 Elm
4 Copycat
3 Pokemon Trader
1 Town Volunteer
1 Strength Charm
2 Gold Berry
3 Focus Band
3 Pokemon Center
4 Double Gust
Alright, now we will do a basic strategy review on this deck.
Ok, we look at Venusaur. 100 HP, 2 retreat cost, and 4 Grass to deal 60 damage.
Thats a pretty healthy threat to any deck out there. The Pokemon Power, Energy
Trans, lets you move Grass energy around between your pokemon. This is used to
your advantage in multiple ways, the first being Pokemon Center. You simply
Energy Trans all of your energy to a Pokemon of your choice that has no damage,
and than use Pokemon Center. All damage you have is wiped clean. Than use Energy
Trans again, and reattach all the energy as before, thus using Pokemon Center at
the cost of no energy. It is an amazinly brutal combo, and when used with a
pokemon that deals 60 damage and has 100 HP, it gets ugly fast. The other
advantage is during set up.
Alot of decks need to get a powerful evolution out as quick as possible, and
thus are restricted to attaching energy to the understages of it during early
game. With Venusaur, this is unneeded. You can Eeeeeeek with Cleffa as often as
you need, and build up Pichus, or whatever Pokemon you want until Venusaur hits
the board. You than can condense all of your energy onto him, not wasting any
turns powering him, while still giving you alot of versitility in the early
stages of the game. While Venusaur is slower than alot of the popular 3 energy
requirement attackers ( Scizor, Magcargo, Feraligatr, Crobat, etc ), it has a
much less strict build up period, and it allows you to function much more
smoothly.
This also gives you another advantage, mid game. Lets say you get your Venusaur
OHKOed. Normally you are stuck either building up a second one, which is
extremely hard to do with its four energy requirements, or you can give up on it
and try and use your support pokemon. Now, this is beautiful as you can use
Pichus, or Cleffas, or any other pokemon you want, as you evolve to another
Venusaur, and thus achieve both goals at the same time. This is a strong
advantage, much stronger than youd think. It also means that if they Double Gust
your Ivysaur or Bulbsaur, you do not lose a valuable energy drop at the same
time. Hiding energy under a Cleffa or a Pichu means even if they do D Gust it,
they need a flip to get rid of it. 2 if you attached a Focus Band to it.
Energy Trans has even more advantages to it, and one is that it helps your
Double Gusting. When you Double Gust something, they can bring up whatever you
want, and you can either attack with it, or retreat it from your " Pool " or
energy you have in play. It lets you get 2 Venusaur in play without having to
worry about it getting Gusted and becoming helpless. The whole concept of
playing with your energy as my aforementioned " Pool " instead of on individual
Pokemon becomes key in find small short cuts and little tricks during the game.
Its odd at first, but once you get it down its amazingly helpful.
Now the key to this decks strategy is that while yes, Venusaur on his own is a
large threat to almost any deck, there are many decks that do have an advantage
over him. Fire and Steel, for instance. Yet, the wording on his PP and Rainbow
Energy allows him to Trans Rainbows around, thus letting you splash certain
basics of other types to deal with different threats you would normally have an
issue dealing with. Suicune, which reads the following, is used to fight Fire,
mainly in the form of Magcargo and Neo 1 Typhlosion.
Suicune 70 HP
One Retreat
Weakness- Electric
Resistance- None
PP- Pure Body- When you attach a Water Energy from your hand to Suicune, you
must discard another energy from him.
Water Colorless Colorless- 30 damage. Flip a coin. If heads, deal 50 damage. If
tails, deal 30 and put the defending pokemon to sleep.
That attack requires a lone Rainbow NRG, and all you do is attach it to a random
Baby Pokemon, and use Energy Trans to switch it to Suicune. Than attack. You
either OHKO any of their Fire pokemon, or deal it 60 and they flip to wake up.
If they get Tails, you get another attack off.
Toss on a Focus Band, and this card becomes quite the threat to a Fire deck.
More so because you simply spread out energy amongst your pokemon, one on each,
to reduce Double Gust weakness, and play the card down from your hand, Energy
Trans, and the card is powered in one turn with them having no idea that it was
coming or without them having any chance to prepare for it.
Now we have Moltres, which is normally viewed as a HORRIBLE card, as it does the
following.
80 HP
2 Retreat Cost
Weakness- Water
Resistance- Fighting
Pokemon Power- Fire Immunity- You can't attach fire energy cards from your hand
to Moltres.
Colorless- Collect Fire- If there are any Fire energy cards in your discard
pile, flip a coin. If heads, attach one of them to Moltres. 10 damage.
Fire Fire Colorless Colorless- Burning Tail- flip a coin, if tails, discard a
fire energy from Moltres. 60 damage.
Now, this does WONDERS again steel pokemon ( Namely Scizor, as he is most
popular by FAR ) and other random Grass cards. 120 damage is hard to beat, but
the card takes 4 energy, two of which must be Rainbows, to power. Thankfully,
this is easier to pull off as Grass decks, as well as some Steel, are slower to
get powered, and if you concentrate on getting this build, you can often times
single handedly win the game with this card.
Now, we get to the major archetypes that i feel will be present at Gen Con. I
will post the deck, a quick blurb on what it does, and a sample list of them, as
it will help me in explaining some of my strategies used to beat them. I will
start by which I feel the best is, Feraligatr Parasect.
3 Totodile ( Fury Swipes )
3 Croconaw ( Sweep Away )
2 Feraligatr ( Riptide )
1 Feraligatr ( Rending Jaws )
1 Cleffa
2 Suicune ( Neo 3 Non Holo )
1 Elekid
2 Paras
2 Parasect
18 Water
1 Metal NRG
4 Elm
4 Juggler
3 Copycat
3 Pokemon Trader
4 Double Gust
3 Gold Berry
1 Town Volunteers
2 Focus Band
Ok, basically, as everyone knows, this deck uses extreme draw power to get as
much water energy discarded as possible, and than Riptides for HUGE damage,
while Parasect keeps all of the water energy in the discard every turn. It OHKOs
almost anything in the game, and when faced with a Grass deck, will often turn
to the Rending Jaws gatr as back up. Metal Energy TecHs against some of its
problems, including Pichu.
Ok, now onto how to fight it. First off, its simple, as your Venusaur can easily
OHKO a Feraligatr. 120 damage is just brutal and that really hurts the deck.
Unfortunately, due to the high number of decks able to OHKO things now, Gatr is
now running Bands. This complicates things. Luckily you should be fine. First
off, you run a healthy 3 Focus Band yourself, which is AMAZING in this match up,
as if you get Heads, you simply E Trans the energy away, and Pokemon Center and
than KO Gatr.
Now, you also can use Ivysaur turn 3 to OHKO a Croconaw if you go first. This is
also very helpful, but not very logical if they have a Suicune active. This is
very likely as well. This is when you have three options. You can either use
Elekid to break the barrier while you use your own Suicune to hide behind, as
thats what they will be doing against you if you decide to turn it into a
standoff.
You can also bring a Pichu active, and start Zzzapping, as it hurts alot of
their pokemon in the process. Less effective, as it usually results in Venusaur
getting Gusted and OHKOed.
You can attach a Focus Band to Venusaur, bring him up, OHKO the Suicune, and
than hope to get heads on Focus Band. Option one is the best, as you can outlast
their Suicune by simply retreating and Centering it the second you get hit by
one successful Playful Punch.
Anyways, now that the Suicune issue is reviewed, we look onto another way to
stop Gatr Sect. Pichu. Banded Pichus hurt, as it can take out Parasect, and hurt
their Elekids and Suicunes WHILE damaging Gatr. Late game Pichus can win games.
Plus they stall as you try and build up a Venusaur. Its a very brutal card
against Gatr.
So yes, between Venusaur and Ivysaurs natural type advantage, and Pichu and
Focus Band, Gatr Sect is at a heavy disadvantage against you, even when its
performing at its peak.
Now we see another top deck in the game, Entei Magcargo. While personally I do
not like the deck all that much, here is my current list, and we can use it as
reference.
4 Slugma ( Combustion )
3 Magcargo
1 Cleffa
1 Suicune ( Non Holo Neo 3 )
1 Entei ( Non holo Neo 3 )
3 Entei ( Holo Neo 3 )
20 Fire
1 Metal
1 Cyclone
4 Elm
3 Copycat
4 Bill
4 Oracle
4 D Gust
2 Focus Band
1 Gold Berry
1 Healing Fields
2 Town Volunteers
Ok, this is the hardest match up and the one requiring the most TecH against it.
The deck is incredibly quick and is hitting for infinite damage turn 2 with
Magcargo. You NEED to be hiding behind your Suicune in this match up, or hope
that their start isnt as quick as it should be. The deck simply gets a Slugma on
the bench, and uses Howl from holo Entei, and attaches 0-5 fire energy to Slugma,
and Magcargo is ready to OHKO things next turn. The decks recovery speed is also
amazing. If Magcargo gets everything it needs, this is a brutal match up.
Luckily, it almost NEVER gets the PERFECT game, and I mean right start, good
howls, good flips, and perfect draw power and trainers. Its harder than youd
think.
Anyways, this deck has Focus Bands mainly to combat this monster. Pichus also
work wonders here, and a Focus Banded Pichu or two can really slow an Entei
Magcargo deck down. Starmie is capable of really hurting them as well, dealing
60 damage, as well as using Water gun with Rainbow NRG. If you get 2-3 on it, it
can really take over the game.
The main weapon in this match up is the Suicunes though. If you can get one out,
he becomes deadly. You either OHKO them, or deal 60 and put them to sleep. It is
hard to fight off. Use Zzzap by Pichy to get 20 on everything, while staying
under Gold Berry range, and than use either Starmies 30 damage, turned 60 by
weakness, or Suicune even if it gets a bad flip, to OHKO everything.
If you can get to midgame and still be in the game, you should have what it
takes to pull out the win in this match up. Last weekend I played in a
tournement and went 2-1 against magcargo with this deck. It stands a chance.
The third supposed " Tier One " deck is Scizor Furret Muk. I do not care for the
deck myself, but it does well. Here is a list I use.
3 Scyther ( Promo )
2 Scizor
3 Cleffa
2 Sentret
2 Furret
2 Grimer
2 Muk
2 Suicune
2 Mantine
4 Metal
4 Rainbow
2 Water
1 Recycle
2 Warp
1 Darkness
4 Elm
3 Copycat
3 Bill
3 Oracle
4 Trader
2 Fan Club
3 Gold Berry
4 Double Gust
Ok, basically, this deck relies on getting a 4 Metal energy Scizor out as
quickly as possible through the use of Oracle Bill and Furrets Pokemon Power. It
can usually outspeed any other Scizor decks, and against anything but Fire, a
four metal Scizor is hard to deal with. To combat Fire, mantine is thrown in
with some Water energy which can be searched for via Furret. The deck uses high
amounts of tech since it can easily search for it. Muk is added to counter alot
of Pokemon Powers, mainly against Feraligatr, to stop Downpour and Parasects
power. It also stops Suicune standoffs at your will, and slows Typhlosion down.
The deck is very brutal, but once you take out Scizor once, the game is yours.
This deck CAN be hard to beat, as Muk really hurts you. The second you see a
Grimer, you ignore the " Energy Pool " Theory and power Venusaur manually. You
need to take out muk NOW. Once Muk is dealt with, you can deal with Scizor
easily. That is why Darkness Energy and Strength Charm are in this deck. Add
either to Venusaur and you can OHKO a Scizor. Pichu can also get 20 on Muk, and
than a standard 60 OHKOs it. Take out Muk, and you win. Its that simple. Here is
how you deal with Scizor.
Both Starmie and Moltes are used to combat the beast, and while Moltres is a
direct answer, dealing enough damage to OHKO Scizor even with 4 Metal NRG, it is
not always available, so you may need to rely on Starmie. First off, you can
deal with a 4 Metal Scizor with easy, adding either a Dark or a Str Charm to
finish them off with Core Blast. If they attach less Metals, you can either use
both, or go for two hits to KO. The best option though, involves using Venusaur
first. Here is the scenario.
You have Venusaur. They have Scizor. They need to get four heads to OHKO
Venusaur. Meaning if they have 1, 2, or 3 metals/rainbows attached, they cannot
OHKO you. You deal either 60, 50, 40 or 30 damage this way. If you deal 60, and
they attack Gold Berry, they go to 20. They can deal you 50 MAX next turn if
they attach a Metal and get heads. You than either Dark or Str Charm it and KO
it. Make sure to Gold Berry or Center yourself as well.
Now we look at it if they have if they have one metal attached, you deal 50.
Gold Berry to 10. They attach a second one. They can deal you 70 max. You
Center. You hit for 40, taking them to 50. Lets say ANOTHER Gold Berry. They
deal 70 max. Gold Berry or Center. You may want a band here too just in case as
it gets iffy. Hit again, for 40. They can use the last Gold Berry if they have
it. After that you keep hitting them and they soon drop. If they attach BEYOND 2
metals, read on as I have the guide for what to do there.
Let say they have 3 Metal. You deal them 30 damage. This is where it gets easy.
They either leave the 30 on them. You retreat for Starmie and deal 60 for the
KO. They can also attach a Rainbow to trigger Gold Berry. This leaves them with
zero. Retreat for Starmie and deal 80 for the OHKO. Thank you, come again.
Lets say they have 4 Metal. You deal 20. Retreat for Starmie next turn and OHKO.
Even easier. Scizor just drops to this deck no matter what.
Ok, those are the Tier One decks. Another strong deck is Crobat Noctowl.This
deck is incredibly easy to beat, as Pichu hurts it badly. If you get going, you
should be fine, as Crobat cannot deal with Venusaurs overwhelming power. Most
other decks as well have the same issue, where they cannot compete in raw
strength to Venusaur who has both Focus Bands and Gold Berrys and Pokemon
Center. Its overwhelming endurance and damage once it gets set up wins games.
The other aspect that makes this deck so suprisingly strong is that the TecH
basics can be swapped around. You can add in other great Pokemon like the AQ
Zapdos to deal with Rending Jaws Gatr, or Kingdra ( AQ ). Just because the list
is focused on certain decks to counter doesn't mean it cannot be adapted for
whatever Metagame is around you locally.