Hello 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 anyways.
His attack is what makes him truly shine though; it’s the standard hydro pump attack, 70 plus 10 more for each Water Energy, except it doesn’t require Water 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.
But, I do have to explain that. Samurott is a splashable Stage Two, and his attack gets a OHKO on Donphan Prime, whom with Pokemon Catcher‘s release is set to see a spike in play, and he can also OHKO Reshiram, another Pokemon that usually can’t be OHKO’d without using a high number of resources.
He also works as an effective “soft-counter” to Yanmega Prime, at best Yanmega 3HKO’s 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 Pokemon 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 OHKO 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 Pokemon, Donphan Prime.
SamuPhan was actually a somewhat hyped deck in some circles, including mine on Pokebeach, 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
- Beats Magnezone Prime and Zekrom
Samurott
- Beats Donphan Prime
- Beats Reshiram
- Can be a soft counter to Yanmega Prime
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:
| Pokemon – 223 Phanpy HS
3 Oshawott Promo BW08 1 Cleffa HS/CL |
Trainers – 274 Pokemon Collector
3 Junk Arm 4 Twins 1 Switch |
Energy – 114 Double Colorless
3 Fighting 4 Rainbow |
Yes, 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.
