The Best Of: HGSS Undaunted

Written by | August 17, 2010 | 34 comments | 3,502 views | Rating: +1

With Undaunted pre-releases coming to a close this week, I thought I’d take a look at what I think are some of the best cards in the set, as I did for Unleashed. Please keep in mind that all of these thoughts are based on an MD-on format, as that’s the only format these cards are going to be legal in.

Top 5 Pokemon of HGSS: Undaunted

5.) Kyogre/Groudon LEGEND

I know a lot of people hate the Legend theme, and I don’t necessarily disagree, but this is probably the best legend we’ve gotten outside of ERL. Certainly all of it’s attacks are ridiculously expensive and partially luck based, but that’s what we’ve got Legend Box for! I don’t think this is going to become an amazing archetype, but some friends have built a fun deck with it already and it seems pretty neat.

4.) Scizor Prime

This is a card that I’m pretty in love with, but I’m enough of a realist not to get too excited about it. 100 HP is low for a M type, but it gets a boost from special M energies, Expert Belt, etc. It also shuts down Garchomp to an extent, who I believe will still be a huge player in the 2010-2011 format. It’s not proven or tested, but I think it could turn out to be something great.

3.) Unown D

This is a SUPER underrated card. I could easily see a few Dark decks (Maybe Sablelock even) fitting this in just for the ability to grab Special Darks at will. It’s not going to be format breaking, but I don’t see this card getting any hype and that disappoints me.

2.) Vileplume

I’m sure there’ll be a lot of people who disagree with this placing, but I think it’s justified. Not that I think Vileplume is a bad card, I just think it’s a bit overhyped. I’ve yet to see a list that can:

Play Vileplume
Play little/no trainers
Succeed

Although I totally admit I just may not be as in the know as some people. Either way, I’ll believe it when I see it.

1.) Drifblim

As with Unown D, I feel this card isn’t getting the love it deserves. Drifblim have almost always been very interesting if not completely playable cards, but I think this one breaks the streak. It KOs Mewtwo for PC (which can easily be done in one turn with Galactic Switch), and for only an additional C it’ll get ride of pesky tanks like Dialga G, Tyranitar, Steelix, Regigigas, etc. I’m a proponent of always having a Mewtwo counter and I think Drifblim could be a fine one.

Honorable Mentions: Smeargle, Leafeon

Top 5 Trainers of HGSS: Undaunted

5.) Defender

Let me be the first to say that I don’t think this is all that great of a card at all. In a format based around OHKOs this probably isn’t going to be very solid. However, there’s not many trainers in this set so hey I do what I can.

4.) Flower Shop Lady

Again, when we have Palmer’s I see this card having pretty much exactly 0 impact, but I guess if you don’t have access to a Palmer’s its okay. I debated between this and Burned Tower for a while, so don’t kill me please.

3.) Sage’s Training

This is an interesting card. It was hyped hard by a few people, deemed terrible by a few others, and ignored completely by the large majority. After looking over the format and studying the card, I have to say that it probably won’t get played in most decks, but will be played, and will succeed in decks that focus on donking or rushing. Decks like Shuppet will love this card, and certain Machamp builds will as well. Definitely not universal, but it has it’s uses.

2.) Legend Box

It’s the first bit of Legend support we’re seeing and with the better Legends coming out in a matter of months I expect it to see a decent amount of play. I had a discussion with David Cohen (2nd Worlds 09 Seniors) about this card in which he said that it would be one of the first cards he’d cut in Legend lists, and I’m not sure how much I agree with that. Again, not universal at all but where it works it works.

1.) Energy Exchanger

Ooh boy am I high on this card. Almost all of the big decks right now run some kind of special energy, and because I don’t see the format changing all that much from now to September, I think this will be a super useful card. It’ll probably end up being the 61st card in a lot of lists, and maybe I’m just overhyping it a bit, but I know I’m going to try and fit this into my LuxChomp, and any Steel/Dark decks that require specials as well.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with this set. We got a handful of good cards, and out of that handful only a small number will be used universally. This sets limited is also some of the worst we’ve gotten in a while, although I’m not sure how many care about that. In the end, I predict 1-2 cards will become near staples and almost everything else will be left by the wayside.

Lemme know what you think!

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  • Tubbs

    Loved this, I also think Drifblim is really underrated and one of my friends (Pikey) is thinking of building a KGL deck, he’ll probably post it soon, keep it up.

  • Slowdog

    Interesting thoughts on drifblim, and yeah they are always pretty interesting cards.

    I had only noticed the bottom attack which isn’t THAt interesting since machamp SP does the same (for one additional C) but has the benefits of being SP instead.

  • Sledd

    I think that Drifblim is underrated as it can be a good Mewtwo/tank counter, but it won’t be game changing. I think it’s good in a Luxchomp, though cause it already runs DCE. Also, if Boost Energy was in the format, I think that Drifblim would be 10 times better.

  • SkyAoiSora

    I see what you mean. But I think leaving Drifblim as a bench sitter, with one energy (or a DCE if you can give it to it in time), and then bringing it up after leveling up and poke turning a Luxray X to get rid of one thing on your opponent’s side of the field that’s just really in the way could help a lot. Another interesting thing you could try is Drifblim (4-4) from the new set, along with the Ditto that’s coming out in the new set (reduces your opponent’s bench space by 1 with a poke body), and maybe some Judge or something for disruption. Fill your bench with Ditto’s to stop your opponent from filling their bench, right? Then bring up a drifblim, shuffle them both in the deck, voila.

    Or…. If you’re running unlimited….

    4 Ditto, 4-4 Drifblim, 4 Narrow Gym from sooooo long ago. that does so that you can only have 4 pokemon on your bench… Combining this with 4 of the Dittos stops your opponent from having a bench completely, while you have your 4 benched ditto’s, and you have a drifblim up front. You shuffle your opponent’s only pokemon for an auto win while they can’t use tech pokemon. Maybe put in some Pichu HGSS (Playground) in there, with some SSU to grab ‘em afterwards. This guarantees a T-1 field with 4 Ditto and 1 Drifloon. Later, SSU your Pichu, add your Narrow gym, attack with Drifblim and you just won. :D

  • El_jonaman

    No love for weavile??

  • Umbreon47

    Thats true with machamp GL but drifblim does what machamp can do and doubles as a mewtwo counter. Besides, machamp has times 2 weakness to mewtwo.

  • Anonymous

    bahhh no Weavile

  • Joe

    the ditto doesn’t work like that.

    “Your opponent can only play up to 4 Pokemon onto his or her Bench. If your opponent has 5 Pokemon on his or her Bench, your opponent discards 1 of his or her Benched Pokemon and all cards attached to it.”

    no matter how many you have on your bench, it only reduces their bench to 4, not -1 for each ditto. that would be cool if it worked the other way tho

  • SkyAoiSora

    Woops. I only read it once a while back and I guess I remembered it wrong… XD Thank you for the clarification, Joe. =]

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/pgmcsskater pgmcsskater

    come on weavile?! and what about some lolz with sneasel. Too bad claydols not in format anymore, because Houndoom would be great 80 for 1 energy :)

  • http://www.adamcapriola.com/ Adam Capriola

    Weavile should be on here, but nonetheless nice writeup Kenny, I think you hit everything else.

  • PKMNPrime

    I think Ruins of Alph should be on there before Defender…
    I don’t think any deck that plans on getting into a top cut will have any use of Defender (maybe that’s just my opinion), but there is no possible way of searching it and it’s very inconsistent.

    After reading this list over though, I’ve been enlightened about how terrible this set is. I agree that Vileplume is a little overhyped and that Drifblim is underhyped, but I don’t see much use for either Energy Exchanger or Unown D in the format. Unown D is a wasted bench space and has far too little HP to be let alone sitting there, so unless your SableLock list runs SSU, I’d rather not play it. In addition, Energy Exchanger isn’t exactly needed since you can’t search it and there are other ways of attaching SP. Metal/SP. Dark, or just top decking them with Uxie support/PONT.

    For the most part though, I thought you analyzed the new set pretty well. I guess I just disagree with a few of the choices, but then again, I ask myself… What do we replace those with? :

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/ZETUB3TM3ZC4KJULZ4PYPEJR7I Tony

    Nice article! I wish the set had a little more game changing cards in it, but it’s not really that great. I think the next series with Mew and Gengar Prime will add a welcome twist to the game.

    I like the idea of Drifloom as your Mewtwo counter as long as you are playing a Garchomp SP deck. It doesn’t really fit other decks with its high energy cost.

    As far as Vileplumb, I have been toying with a few different types deck builds, and it is hard to find the right combo that gets the lock on fast and also sets up an attacker quickly and that doesn’t need a lot of trainers. I think I found a really great build this week that combines Vileplume with Jumpluff and Sunflora. It is super fast, especially with the Jumpuff speed, and it keeps swarming with the Sunflora addition. I’ll post it sometime soon.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kennywisdom Kenny Wisdom

    I don’t think Weavile will have much of an impact, but I guess I could agree that it should’ve been on the list before Unown D maybe?

    And I’m glad most agree that Drifblim is underrated. :)

    Thanks for reading everyone!

  • Darriangoode

    energy exchanger is uber good u can even grab a DCE (Double colorless energy) with it

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  • Skl

    The problem with Unown D is that it is stuck on your bench and that you have a chance to start with a lone Unown D

    It could be good if you go 2nd and collector a Sableye/Unown D but idk, we’ll see

  • Pikey

    Nice writeup!

    There are a lot of differing opinions on this set. I for one, fall into the “disappointed in the set” category.

  • brian

    Unown D is terrible. It’s a crobat g that doesn’t always result in a KO for sableye. Blim isn’t the #1 card in Undaunted by a mile, but yes, it is definately a great mewtwo counter. Smeargle, if anything, is top 3 easily. Ray/Deoxys is also an amazing card and will definately win a few brs. Besides Combee, definately a solid list. For trainers, Team Rocket’s Trickery is a solid card for weavile/disruption decks in general.

  • Anonymous

    shud i buy a box of this and if not what set

  • Lamar

    I think you’d be better off with a box of Legends Awakened, Stormfront, Platinum, Rising Rivals, or HGSS.

  • Anonymous

    No TRT? I mean, its not GREAT, but better than defender and just as good as sage. But, Energy Exchanger is boss fo sho.

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  • Shamrockkid29

    the kyogre & groudon legend can do damage if it has the right techs in place example Delcatty from platinum, with delcatty this legend can do 200 damage every time.

    downfall with the scizor prime, blaziken SP, scizor is 2x weak against fire

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