Sorry about last time when I said Blaine's
Ninetales I meant Blaine's
Arcanine.
Well on to the point of this article. I am
writing this to explain
"The Ways of the Haymaker" and some of the Haymakers that are winning
tourneys right now.
Obviously,there are a lot of people who just see a Haymaker
that wins
and go and try to win with it. But when you are playing with a Potpourri(I
think I spelled it right) Haymaker you had better know how to use it and
know exactly whats in your deck. If you know whats in your deck you'll have
a better chance of winning. For example if you know exactly whats in your
deck you'll be better when using your recorces. For example you need your
fourth Gust of Wind to win when you just drew your second to last
card.Then
in hopes of it being another Gust of Wind its just an energycard.You realize
that maybe only put 3 in and you just lost since they're going to take thier
last prize on thier next turn. Dang,I had Computer Search in my hand ,too
you think to yourself it could be my last prize card too.
Well, you think it over and just suppose you you only had 3 Gust of
Winds.
Next turn you find out that your last card was a GUST OF WIND. If
you had
remembered you had 4, you would have been smart and played Computer Search
and won.
So I suggest when you play very stratigic and advansted Haymakers
you
know your deck or atleast the most Important cards in it.
Another aspect of Haymakers is they use Cheap 70 HP Basic
Pokemon with
cheap energy cost and good amount of damage for those costs. These Pokemon
combine with disruptive trainers like E.R. and G.O.W. to drive your opponent
nuts.
Probably the most efficiant thing about haymakers is they
need little
energy due to the low costs. This is very efficiant since it leaves a lot of
space for more trainers and maybe a couple more Pokes.
So basicly Haymaker is a fast,efficiant way to win. The
biggest downfall
to a Haymaker is it is weak to Highly evolved pokemon and Trainer disrupting
decks. But, don't worry to much about the Highly evolved decks because most
of time energy removal will make easy work of them.
Now lets take a look at the Haymaker Pokes.(Hitmonchan,Promo
Mewtwo,Fossil Magmar,Electabuzz,Scyther,Lapras-I know what your thinking but
I've seen Haymakers with him,Mr. Mime- Usually only Potpourri,Farfetch'd-
almost comepletely dissapearing from tourneys but seen once in a while, and
lastly is the mini Hay Pokes=Machop,and Charmander.
1. Promo Mewtwo- what an awesome card with so many different
uses.Lets
take a look at some of them.
A. About 99% immune to E.R.s and S.E.R.s. This helps
against Energy
Denial, and people who rely to much on Energy Removal.
B. Gets Rid of the Hitmos and a lot of other Hay
Pokemon. Hes also good
against Ditto, too(except its vice versa also).
C. Has Many Combinations with other Hay pokemon and
other evolved
pokemon and trainers. Heres a couple
- Combined with Venusaur you can get millions of
grass at a time.
Mewtwo+Professor Oak+Venusaur:EnergyTrans= Plenty of hard hitting powered up
pokemon such as Exeggutor or Colorless Pokemon.
- Use "Energy Absorbtion" until Mewtwo
is almost dead then Switch and
Mr.Fuji him to make a Killer stall or a lifesaver.
2.Electabuzz- what a hunk,he(or it or she)has probably the most
cost
efficiant attack in the Pokemon TCG. 1Elecric and 1 Colorless for an auto
30(unless resistant,and already cost effective) and 10 to himself or just
40(whoa,now thats cost efficiant).
A.He is a big meany to Raindance and mostly all the
birds. Applying
weakness he makes huge damage.
B.He has such low energy costs he recovers very quickly
from E.R. and
S.E.R.s.
c. Whats not to like about him.He should be in almost
any Haymaker.
3.Hitmonchan-He is a menace to most stalling pokemon like Chansey
and
Kangaskhan.1 Fighting for 20 and 2 Fighting and 1 Colorless for 40 thats
pretty good,but hes been abandoned for Fossil Mars,because of the high
amount of fighting resistance.Also the awful 2 retreat.
A. Cheap attacks.
B. Nice against walls.(thats about it now days)
(hes more efficiant with pluspowers)
4.Scyther-a good all around pokemon to have in any deck,because of
Colorless attack,resistance,and zero retreat.
A. Hes there for the Colorless Attack and Resistance to
fighting
mainly.
B. Nice pokemon to start with since he has zero
retreat.
C. I've also found if you have grass to Swordsdance he
is a little more
effective.
5.Fossil Magmar- Finally there is a solution to Scyther,and
he has a
good first attack that can stall and his second attack is good against high
retreat pokemon because it just wastes them away.
A.The only real status affecting Fire pokemon( the only
fire poisoner)
B.Good against evolving,fire weakness,basic grass since
all will get
knocked out with one hit of Smog( with the exception of Odish and
Exeggcute).
C.He can get Scythers off your back.
6.Ditto - don't need A.s,B.s or C.s Haymaker explains this guy. He
can
use D.C.E. against Hitmos or Buzzes.
7.Lapras- only used in Haymakers for destroying Fossil Magmars it
seems.
8.Mini Hay Pokes(charmander and machop)-
Machop
Charmanders
1 Fighting-20
1 Colorless-10
cost effective
1 Fire, 1 Colorless-30
replaces hitmochans
with discard of 1 fire
if you don't have em
He can take out Scythers in a
second with a plus power but
pack some E.Retrieval
TRAINERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Trainers are what hold a Haymaker together(Mostly all
other succesful
decks, too).A Haymaker can't work unless it has the right trainers for the
pokemon it has and something that helps the number of energy cards depending
on how many you have.
The trainers that most any Haymaker may have are listed
below:
Super Energy Removal (S.E.R.)
Professor Oak
Energy Removal (E.R.)
Bill
Gust of Wind
Pluspower
Other trainers that might be included, are the ones that
usually need
strategy or certain reasons to use are:
Lass
Gambler
Mr. Fuji
Pokemon Flute(Maybe...)
Other Trainer Cards that are in a Haymaker or thay aren't are:
Computer Search(Well, if Promo Mewtwo is there, THIS CARD
SHOULD BE THERE)
Item
Finder( Believe it or not I think I've seen more Haymakers
without this than with it)
E.
Retrieval(Mmmmmm...I didn't know which category to put it
under)
Here is how a Haymaker uses
trainers.
You have a plan to build up a big Poke on the
bench to destroy
them=Solution- Energy Removal and Gust of Wind
You hope to stall one last turn with that Poke
who's going to have 10
hp left after your opponent attacks=Solution- Usually Haymakers will either
plus power and end your plan or energy removal the pokemon you're going to
power up with that extra turn.
Your going to stall them out, and win.Well I've seen a
lot of haymakers
counter this=Solution- Some people watch the pokemon that are put on the
table so they'll know if thay should stall or attack. I've seen and heard of
people holding trainers in thier hand till the end of the game so they can
use a Lass and put like 10-15 Trainers back into their deck.But I guess most
people like Mr. Fuji and Gambler better for anti-stall cards.
HAYMAKERS WEAKNESS CIRCLE
I've noticed that alot of haymaker pokemon are either
weak to each
other or have some way of taking advantage. I'll give some examples below
Hitmonchan to Electabuzz(Hitmonchans weakness)
Scyther to Hitmonchan(Scythers Resistance)
Magmar to Scyther(Scythers weakness)
Promo Mewtwo to Promo Mewtwo(Each others Weakness)
Ditto to Almost any Hay Poke( Use Double Colorless)
Lets Move on to our final category: THE WORTHY DECKS
1. That original Haymaker with Buzz,Scyther,and Hitmonchan. This deck is
pretty much explained at the top.
2. Potpourri- Comes in a couple ways. Hitmonachans and Ponyta or Just
Fossil Magmar. Theres also the version with Ditto.
This is pretty much a basic potpour right here.
3 Hitmonchan(or Fossil Mar)
3 Electabuzz
3 Scyther
3 Mr. Mime ( Probably always should be in Potpourri no matter what)
1 Kangaskhan
1 Ponyta ( If you have Magmars I'd put in Ditto)
Poke-14
Energy-23
7 Fight(or Fire for Magmar)
6 Electric
6 Psychic
4 D.C.E.
Trainer-23
3 Bill
3 Oak
3 E.R.
2 S.E.R.
3 Gust of Wind
3 Pluspower
2 Item Finder
2 Scoop Up
1 ComputerSearch
1 Energy Retrieval
The goal of a potpourri is to find weakness as much as possibble to make the
deck twice as quick and effective. Every Pokemon has to be aided in this
deck or this deck could die to fast. So, not only are you giving yourself
alot applying all the weakness, your also giving yourself a lot of weakness.
So If you had an Electabuzz getting beaten up youd want a Scyther to assist
it. Or if your getting beat by a Promo Mewtwo or any hard hitting guy youd
most likely want Mr. Mime's assistance.(when I said Electabuzz being beaten
up I meant by a Fast fighting pokemon)
3. InSaNiTy- This deck is based around the speed at which you can kill your
opponents pokemon.The deck is required to always have a Professor Oak in
your hand to have a fresh start.Since your going to be using a lot of
Professor Oaks a lot of the time you want something to help prevent decking,
so this deck has plenty of Lasses for disruption and Anti-stall(Don't say
anything about the Lasses they're good considering the deck uses over 30
Trainers).The is restricted to two types of Pokemon. The one I saw Had
Electabuzzes, and Hitmonchan. You might say only 2 different pokemon, are
you crazy. Well, I tell ya this deck is faster than Normal Haymaker it
surpasses almost all other Haymakers. So the pokemon don't matter as long as
they can damage fast.
That was all the important decks, now here is some of my decks.
Here is my MagnumFlare deck
4 Fossil Magmar
4 Charmander
3 Hitmonchan
Pokemon-11
14 Fire
10 Fighting
Energy-24
4 Bill
3 Professor Oak
4 E.R.
3 S.E.R.
3 Gust of Wind
3 Pluspower
2 Scoop Up
1 Item Finder
Trainer-25
This deck may look puny but its nothing but trouble when everything
goes
your way. The goal of this deck is to Poison and Smokescreen them with
magmar in the early game, with the help of E. R.. I like to poison every
pokemon I see then use Charmander and Hitmonchan to finish off while they
rot with poison. Have you ever noticed what a menace Fossil Magmar really
is. You can poison them and then smokesreen them. This makes it especially
hard for them to knock you out,since they'll only have a 50% chance of
attacking while poison is draining they're life.
MINI HAYMAKING ASSAULT
3 Machop
2 Machoke
4 Charmander
3 Farfetch'd
2 Rhyhorn
2 Digglet
Pokemon-16
12 Fighting
11 Fire
3 D.C.E.
Energy-26
4 E.R.
4 Bill
2 Professor Oak
2 E.Retrieval
3 Gust of Wind
3 Defender
This deck is not a tourney winner, its a casual playing fun
deck. It
uses absolutely no rare cards, and uses fast pokemon like haymaker pokemon.
Machoke is in here because with defenders he is an officiant pokemon with
speed. Rhyhorn and Digglet are nice weapons against Electabuzz and are fun
to play with.
Oh, and last time when I compared Blaines Ninetails to a base
Charisard.
I meant to say Blaine's Arcanine rather than Blaine's Ninetales(Woops)
Zachstoise
Email me at zacharybrockway@hotmail.com
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