Samurott (Black & White BLW 32) – Card of the Day

pokebeach.comHello 6P.com community and welcome to another CoTD by myself.

Today I will be covering Samurott BLW #32. Now, last time I went over the un-evolved form of the card as well, and that was only because the card was notable in its own right, but since it was well received I will do a brief description of what I feel is best for Samurott.

The best Oshawott, in my opinion, is the BW Promo that can cause Sleep. Especially since I consider this card to be a tech, the other ones don’t do anything for me, plus it still has the same amount of Hit Points and that key one Retreat Cost.

The best Dewott for me is Dewott #29. It has the same retreat as #30, their attacks do the same damage, but it comes with 10 more Hit Points. If you are using it in a Samu Gatr deck, #30 might be better for you.

Now, I will discuss the big dude himself, Samurott.

Samurott is a Stage Two, and is a tank. He comes in with a whopping 140 Hit Points, and an Ability that basically acts as an every-turn Defender. This makes him pretty durable, except against Lightning, that’s his weakness. He has no resistance, and a somewhat low retreat of two, a lot of times he’ll be used with DCE so it’s not too big of a problem, but to be fair if you are using him you probably wouldn’t retreat him anyway.

His attack is what makes him truly shine though; it’s the standard hydro pump attack, 70 plus 10 more for each W Energy, except it doesn’t require W Energy to attack. This makes him a great “splashable” tech, as Water is a type that currently in our format isn’t used as much due to Lightning popularity, but he can be a tech and give some major tier decks an issue.

pokebeach.comBut, I do have to explain that. Samurott is a splashable Stage Two, and his attack gets a 1HKO on Donphan Prime, whom with Pokémon Catcher’s release is set to see a spike in play, and he can also 1HKO Reshiram, another Pokémon that usually can’t be 1HKO’d without using a high number of resources.

He also works as an effective “soft-counter” to Yanmega Prime, at best Yanmega 3HKOs it, which just really isn’t going to cut it, especially if a player gets multiple Samurotts on board. Despite all of these pluses Samurott hasn’t seen much play, mainly due to the hype of Zekrom and Magnezone Prime.

Zekrom is thought to get even more popular soon, with the release of Pokémon Catcher and with Eviolite presumably coming out just in time for Cities. Magnezone Prime is a card thought to get less popular, due to its three Retreat Cost, but I’ll be honest it will still be around, and I know I will at least try to make MegaJudge work, again.

Thundurus also can 1HKO Samurott, and is seen as another good starter in ZPS builds. So, with all this Lightning around you would think it would have no hope, but it does, and its partner is one particular Pokémon, Donphan Prime.

SamuPhan was actually a somewhat hyped deck in some circles, including mine on Pokébeach, but no one really played it, the deck did however get top cut at USA Nationals, I don’t know how far it went, but the fact that it got there despite the relative lack of play shows that it has some potential. Basically the deck operates like this:

Donphan

Samurott

So, the theory is that they both counter their fair share of the metagame, and most people would walk in unprepared to face these types of the deck leading to its success. But, to say that Samurott is limited to being with Donphan would be incorrect.

I personally find it to be useful in TyRam and Reshiboar, it is an amazing mirror match tech, and in other Stage Two decks that have some problems, such as MegaJudge. Therefore, I think it would be wise for BR’s, particularly with Donphan’s rise in popularity and the second regional, to see if you can use this card, and test it out.

As always though, I do have this odd, fun list utilizing Samurott’s tank-ability and Donphan:

Pokémon – 223 Phanpy HS

3 Donphan Prime

3 Oshawott Promo BW08

1 Dewott BLW #29

3 Samurott BLW #32

3 Solosis BLW

1 Duosion BLW

2 Reuniclus BLW

1 Zekrom BLW

1 Reshiram BLW

1 Cleffa HS/CL

Trainers – 274 Pokémon Collector

4 Pokémon Catcher

4 Rare Candy

4 Pokémon Communication

3 Junk Arm

4 Twins

3 Sage’s Training

1 Switch

Energy – 114 Double Colorless

3 F

4 Rainbow

pokebeach.comYes, I will admit I got this idea from Ross’s deck at Worlds, the concept is somewhat similar but utilizes Samurott, and is a bit more aggressive, the concept is in general the same, take damage, then spread it around and attack. I will also admit this list is far from a finished product, and needs a fair amount of testing to work, but if you just want to play a deck that is fun to play, and will make people scratch their heads, then this is the deck you should you should play.

In closing, I want to thank all the people who voted for me, again. I know I said this last month, but it really is great knowing that the people who read what you write enjoy. I don’t get many views, and I lately I’ve been writing about “off the wall” topics, but I am glad to know that people enjoy reading them.

I really don’t know how much I’ll be able to write in the coming months due to school, but thank you for your support. I hope I’m still able to get a good article or two in, but I’m not sure.

On that note, I’ll close this CoTD and wish all of you luck in the upcoming BRs and Regionals (so cool to say that) season.

Reader Interactions

14 replies

  1. Anonymous

    Nice, but I feel the list could maybe use a little more draw. With how much Twins you’ve got, though, I’m not sure how necessary that really is.

  2. Mac Crowley

    good analysis, not a big fan of the list but its not terrible and you other wise covered all the viable uses for the card, +1s 

  3. tim h

    +2 likes. Must have had your pets sign up an account.

    okay read. it’s a pretty good article

    • wisconsinsquad  → tim

      Please stop mocking me like that. I’m not going to repeat my mistake. I never even had pets sign up anyways…

  4. beyblade1410

    Good article samurott is good but is mostly hype and it cant outspeed the good decks
    .

    • draconash  → beyblade1410

      Um, last I checked, Samurott was barely hyped at all. And how can Samurott not outspeed the good decks? From what I’ve found, T2 fully loaded Samurott isn’t very hard to do with 4 Candy and 4 DCE. It isn’t every game or anything, but it’s frequent enough that it can keep up with “the good decks”.

  5. Mekkah

    I’m afraid Reuniclus can’t work without Trainer lock. I like Samurott though, and I like Donphan/Samurott a little better than just Donphan (both with Dragon techs) because it gets that extra bit of type coverage. 

  6. draconash

    Reuniclus w/o Vileplume aside, good article. I enjoy your cotd’s, and I think you did a pretty good job of covering the uses of this highly underrated card. +1

  7. Karol Nowak

    Great analysis on Samurott! It was very detailed and well-informed, and it almost sounds like you are reviving Samurott’s potential.  After all, it does counter to popular metagame cards right now: Reshiram and Donphan.

    I also want to add something to this.  In case you are wondering how far the deck actually went in U.S. Nationals, 2 Samphan decks made top cut: one in seniors, the other in masters.  Nikki F made top 128 with it, but he ended up losing to a MegaJudge during so.  In the senior division, my friend Tommy M managed to go 7-2 in Swiss with it, making top 64.  He managed to win within Top 64 and proceeded to Top 32, where he ended up losing.  Just thought I could help you point out how well the deck did at U.S. Nationals.

  8. Carl Scheu

    The Reuniclus was in the list to show it off as a viable tanker, and I was going to try to fit in Plume, but I couldn’t, I did say it was more of a “for fun” deck, and i felt it showed off all the positives of Samurott-
    1). High HP, letting it take hits and use dragons effectively
    2). Counter a fair amount of the metagame
    3). Have a good comeback ability.

    also jahikoi, I know it was a joke(not really directed towards me) but i just got home to see how this was doing :p

  9. Anonymous

    Why not use healing Trainers? I played a SamurPhan deck that had Potions and such in it and it worked out quite well.

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