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Donphan Prime (HeartGold/SoulSilver)
Ahh, Donphan. That most terrifying of early game
beasts, Donphan Prime has had a presence in the metagame
since it has been printed and almost always spells doom
for the opposing player when you see it emerge on Turn
2.
Let's reiterate the stats that define 'brilliant' for
non-evolving Stage 1 Poke'mon. Donphan is a Fighting
type with 120 HP, Water weakness, Lightning resistance,
a retreat cost of 4, a Poke-body and two attacks.
The HP is great (although it os overshadowed by the
Dragon Twins) and only gets better when the defensive
Poke-body and awesome resistance (Magnezone Prime needs
to burn 4 energy to take an OHKO and Zekrom barely
tickles). The retreat cost is the tradeoff and if you
have to pay it manually then you are in deep trouble.
Fortunately, Machamp Prime has a Poke-power that will
pull Donphan back on to the bench for a single [f]
energy, and the trusty old Switch will also get you out
of the Active slot anytime you need it.
Donphan is one of the very few cards that really
takes advantage of being a Stage 1. I'm about to go
through the abilities and attacks but you probably
already know that Donphan Prime doesn't need much in the
way of setup or support until the late game, so it needs
very few cards to play (a Basic, an Evolution and a
Basic energy to be exact). Because of this low cost in
resources, Donphan is one of the hardest Poke'mon to
disrupt with cards like Weavile UD and Judge as well as
being hard to KO.
The Poke-body, Exoskeleton, reduces incoming damage
as I said above. After applying weakness and resistance,
any damage is reduced by 20 so Water Poke'mon have to
hit 70 damage to OHKO, while Lightning Poke'mon need to
deal 160 damage for the same. Any other type needs to
hit 140 damage, so if you can play Donphan early then
you should survive several hits while your opponent
tries to set up a main attacker, by which time you
should be up by about 2 prizes.
Donphan Prime's sturdiness combined with its speed as
a Stage 1 make it fearsome in the early game but the
attacks (or at least the first attack) are the reason it
is famous.
The much-feared Earthquake is the first attack and
costs a mere [f] to deal 60 damage, with the drawback of
dealing 10 damage to each of your own benched Poke'mon.
As I said before, the speed with which you can get
Donphan into play coupled with the difficulty in
knocking Donphan out makes it incredible in the early
game and Earthquake gives it the damage output necessary
to turn that into a chain of KOs, especially if you are
hitting for weakness (Fighting weakness is one of the
most common in the game).
Zekrom BW, Magnezone Prime, Bouffalant BW, Weavile
UD, Cinccino BW, Entei & Raikou Legend, Ursaring Prime,
Zoroark BW, Houndoom UD and Tyranitar Prime all have
Fighting weakness so you will have plenty of favourable
matchups. Even if you can't get an OHKO, Donphan is
usually only a Pluspower away from finishing the job.
Even without weakness, with a Turn 2 setup (which is
pretty easy to achieve) you can usually 2HKO anything
your opponent has Active.
However, the flip side of the coin is that Fighting
resistance is the most common form of resistance
available and can appear on any type of card (as
Fighting resistance is usually added to show that the
printed card is a Flying dual type in the video games).
Having your damage dropped to 40 a turn makes Donphan a
lot less effective, but you win some and you lose some.
I've barely mentioned the recoil damage, but that
usually isn't a problem as it combines extremely well
with Machamp Prime's Champion Buster, which deals extra
damage based on the number of damage Poke'mon on your
bench. Still, you do have to be carefull that you don't
lower the health of your other Poke'mon too far,
especially your other evolving Basics. The Phanpy from
Call of Legends can be buffed to avoid the incoming
damage while the Vespiquen and Combee from Undaunted can
also make use of the recoil while protecting any other
Grass Poke'mon in play if you tech Donphan Prime into a
multitype deck (which is worth considering due to the
low amount of energy and deck space required). On the
flip side, you should avoid low HP basics in your
Donphan deck, especially since Mandibuzz BW takes
advantage of Donphan's minor flaws and will turn the
recoil into easy prizes.
Although Eartquake (along with the stats) is what
makes Donphan a monster, Heavy Impact is also worth
using. While the cost of [f][f][f] means you have to
manually attach 3 energy (the main reason it isn't used
very often) the lack of other drawbacks does make it a
fair trade at 90 damage. This gives you enough power to
2HKO any Poke'mon in the game, even through resistance.
If you can't switch to another Poke'mon with a heavier
attack (Machamp Prime or another energy hungry beatstick)
then Heavy Impact is a decent fall back for when you
have to hit heavier targets (especially of the Water
variety).
At the end of the day, Donphan Prime is the most
powerful early game attacker in the format and one of
the best tank/attackers ever printed. The speed, the
durability and the ability to hit Basics with all the
fury of a meteor storm make Donphan rightfully feared.
While you have to pair Donphan with another attacker who
can OHKO the really big targets there are plenty of
dance partners and the possibility for rogue builds is
enormous. I've seen Donphan paired with everything from
Armourott to Tyranitar Prime and with the power of
Zekrom and Magnezone Prime to contend with, I expect to
see plenty of Donphan Prime in the future.
Modified: 5 (I had this card at #1 on my list of Top
10 Poke'mon Cards of 2010 because it made Fighting
weakness a terrible thing to have. I keep repeating
myself but the speed of Donphan is what all tanks wish
they had, and the fact you need so few cards to make it
happen also makes Donphan pretty hard to stop with
disruption. The brutality that is Eartquake just brings
the whole package together and the removal of several
bad matchups in the rotation, most notably Crobat G,
makes Donphan far more powerful than it was before. Fear
it, you have been warned!)
Limited: 5 (it's a Stage 1 with built in damage
reduction and a single energy attack that will 2HKO
almost anything you face, so you will definitely take
it. Just watch out for taking out your own bench
prematurely and Special Conditions, as well as the
mirror match. I doubt anyone is running a HGSsS Limited
tournament anytime soon though)
Combos with: the strength of Donphan is that it can
combo with any other cheap attacker, but it works best
alongside Machamp Prime. Other potential dance partners
include Vespiquen UD, Yanmega Prime, Cinccino BW,
Kingdra Prime, Zoroark BW and Bouffalant BW are all
possibilities.
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