Hello SixPrizes Nation! I am here to tell the “other” side of the story. One of the most hyped decks for the HGSS-on format is ReshiBoar. All the hype is well deserved in my opinion.
There are also several other decks out there getting some love (I am linking you to articles or forum posts on these). You should definitely read The Purple Pro’s article on upcoming nationals. His article does a great job running through some good ideas. MagneBoar is extremely high on many people’s list. LostGar variants are looking solid. Blastoise/Floatzel is a wild card. Speed Zekrom decks are looking good. Donphan decks are also looking to be top contenders.
What about the “other” partner to Reshiram, Typhlosion Prime? I’m here to give a list, go through it card by card, and explore a couple techs that the deck could run. So far there has not been an article on this deck even though there has been vigorous debate across many forums.
(Very Important Disclaimer: I am not claiming that this deck is better than ReshiBoar. I do think that it is close to being as powerful. I also think that this deck holds up well against other projected decks. I also acknowledge that this decklist is not perfect, and the list is heavily skewed towards my play style.)
Without further adieu, I present to you: ReshiPhlosion:
| Pokemon – 16
3 Cleffa HS/CL |
Trainers – 21
2 Defender |
Energy – 15
12 Fire |
Total cards: 52
This list leaves eight spots for techs. To see my actual list (as of this moment, I might change it a little) see here.
I want to state immediately that I play this deck as a Trainer Toolbox. With my actual list (found through the link above), I have pulled off some crazy things. For example, against MagneBoar I pulled of back-to-back turns with double PlusPower drops to OHKO two Magnezone Primes with Reshiram.
Let’s get down and dirty into each card for this deck.
Pokémon
Ninetales: This card is the draw engine for the deck. With “Roast Reveal” you may discard one Fire Energy from your hand in order to draw three new cards. In this deck, you can feel free to use Roast Reveal as liberally as you desire.
It only has 90 HP for a Stage 1 Pokémon, which is not great. It has a retreat cost of C. Also, not great but livable. Vulpix is the Basic Pokémon.
Typhlosion Prime: This is the energy accelerator in the deck (most people use Emboar 20 for this). With Typhlosion’s “Afterburner” Poke-Power you may take one Fire Energy from your discard pile and attach it to any of your Pokémon. The Pokémon you place the energy on takes 10 damage. This is how the deck retrieves those Fire Energy that were discarded with Ninetales.
It has 140 HP which is solid. It also has a retreat cost of CC, which is not bad for a Stage 2 Pokémon. In this deck, Typhlosion Prime is also the secondary attacker. For RRC you do 70 damage and discard one Energy. The damage output is not great, but you also get to discard one energy from the defending Pokémon.
This can be great. It can discard stuff like Rescue Energy or those teched in Lightning Energies for RDL or Magnezone Prime. Cyndaquil and Quilava are the Basic and Stage 1.
Reshiram: This is the main attacker in the deck. It is a basic Pokémon with 130 hp. It has a CC retreat cost. It also has two outstanding attacks. For CC, you do 20 + 10 damage for each damage counter on Reshiram with “Outrage”. Then for RRC, Reshiram deals 120 damage and discards two Fire Energy. Since it is a basic, Reshiram can be swarmed.
Cleffa: To be honest, I keep going back and forth with the starters in HGSS-on. Some days I think that Stantler/Minun is best. Some days I think that not using starter Pokémon is the best way to go. However, for now I am using Cleffa. Cleffa only has 30 hp. It also has zero retreat cost. Its attack allows you to shuffle your hand into your deck and draw six new cards, then Cleffa is asleep.
Its Poke-Body prevents Cleffa from taking damage while asleep. So, you have 50% invincibility. This card is good because I run no Professor Oak’s New Theory or Professor Juniper. It is also a good free retreater after your active is knocked out.
Trainers
Defender: I absolutely love this card right now, and most people are overlooking it. This is the equalizer in the mirror match or against Zekrom. Defender is attached to your Pokémon until the end of your opponent’s next turn. While attached all damage done to your Pokémon is reduced by 20 (it is Donphan’s Exoskeleton Poke-Body in Trainer form).
With this card, you can freely use Afterburner to retrieve energy. If Reshiram has 10 damage on it, put down a Defender. Then opposing Pokémon have to hit Reshiram for 140 damage to get the OHKO (this is going to require a double PlusPower drop from Reshiram or Zekrom).
Fisherman: Sometimes this deck needs a secondary way to get energy out of the discard. I have found that one or two Fisherman is more than enough to keep the train rolling.
PlusPower: This card, when played, increases the damage done by each of your attacks by 10 for the remainder of the turn. Now that it is no longer attached, you can play it, discard it, and get it back the same turn to play again with Junk Arm. This card allows you to OHKO Reshiram, Zekrom, Blastoise, Gengar Prime, etc. It is a very versatile card and a staple in all Reshiram decks.
Pokémon Collector: This card is the basic search card in the deck. It allows you to search your deck for up to three Basic Pokémon and put them in your hand. It is very powerful.
Pokémon Communicator: This is the second search card in the deck. It allows you to trade one Pokémon in your hand for any Pokémon in your deck. It is used to search out your evolution cards. It is also very powerful.
Potion: This card simply heals 30 damage off any of your Pokémon. Eventually, the damage from Typhlosion Prime is going to build up. This card is the simplest way to get it off. You could fully set up a Reshiram on the bench with this and then heal the 30 damage right back off.
Rare Candy: This card is required for any Stage 2 Pokémon. It allows you to evolve directly from the Basic to the Stage 2. It speeds things up by one turn, which is a lot in the HGSS-on format.
Revive: This cards allows you to run out more than four Reshiram. It takes a Basic Pokémon from your discard and puts it on your bench. If you can manage one knockout per Reshiram, you will be in good shape with essentially six to work with.
Junk Arm: This is the card that makes it all work. With Junk Arm, you discard two cards in your hand to get one Trainer-Item out of the discard pile. This can be used to ditch Fire Energy that Typhlosion Prime can bring back. It also allows you to reuse all of those Trainer-Items that are listed above.
I’ve produced double and triple PlusPower drops with this. You can get back those Defenders to reuse. Double defender anyone (essentially a 170 hp Reshiram)? Oh yeah.
Energy
Double Colorless Energy: The key to successfully playing ReshiPhlosion is utilizing Outrage. This card allows you to power up Outrage in one turn without Afterburner. I actually won two games recently by donking opening baby Pokémon with Reshiram, Double Colorless Energy, and PlusPower.
Fire Energy: This is the main energy to power up attacks. It also is the second part to the Ninetales’ draw engine. It can easily be recovered with Typhlosion Prime’s Poke-Power.
Filling Out the List
Well that is the card by card run down of the presented list. What should you use to fill in the remaining eight slots? Here are some options:
- Fill in several of the existing lines to make the deck more consistent. This is how I run the deck. If you look at the provided link, I run fuller Trainer lines and a thicker Typhlosion Prime line.
- Twins: Twins allows you to search your deck for any two cards and put them in your hand. The catch is that you must be down on Prizes (you have more Prizes left than your opponent). This is a great card if you are expecting to fall behind early. It can single handily allow you to get back into the game. It makes virtually any deck more flexible and forgiving. That is important to consider. It is much more difficult to play lists that are extremely tight than lists that are forgiving.
- 2-2 Zoroark BW: I honestly believe that this might be the best tech for this deck. It gives you a simply way to return the OHKO on several big hitters in the game. It can OHKO Machamp Prime, Magnezone Prime, RDL, Emboar #19, etc. It also can OHKO Reshiram and Zekrom with a single PlusPower. It is easy on the resources of the deck and gives the deck another option to take a prize.
- Bouffalant: This card can revenge kill Ryquaza & Deoxys Legend. Many people point to RDL as being one of the deciding factors in the ReshiBoar vs ReshiPhlosion match up. This gives you a strong counter.
- Professor Oak’s New Theory and/or Professor Juniper: Both of these cards allows you to trade a bad hand for a new one. With a heavy Junk Arm line, Professor Junipers is not extremely risky.
- Judge: This is a solid disruption card. I would give this card strong consideration. If you can get a Fire Energy in the four cards, you can get your hand back up to seven cards extremely quickly.
- 2-1-2 or 1-0-1 Serperior line: The Serperior with Royal Heal can also be used to take off the 10 damage from Afterburner. This is too clunky for me though. I would rather use the Potions. However, if Trainer-Item lock becomes a problem, I might give this another look.
- Zekrom: You could possibly tech in one or two Zekrom to help with the water match up. You can use Afterburner to place damage on Zekrom and then hit back.
- Lost Remover: If special energies are popular in your meta use Lost Remover. It fits in with the Trainer-Item Toolbox. Several people have floated the idea of using Rainbow Energy to power their tech cards. This would be a great counter to those techs.
I am sure that there are other techs that could be used in this deck, but those are the ones that I see as the best.
(Remember, this deck is geared towards my play style and is a Trainer-Item Toolbox other configurations of ReshiPhlosion allow for other techs)
Strategy
I will break this down into two sections: general strategy and then look at the strategy to be used against a few specific decks.
General Strategy:
In general the strategy is fairly simple.
In the early game you want to get Reshiram hitting for 120 as early and often as possible. The idea is to open Cleffa and either have Vulpix on the bench or a Pokemon Collector in hand.
On turn two you want to have a Reshiram (with preferably two energy attached), a Tegip, and a Vulpix. On turn three you want to have Typhlosion, Ninetales, and two Reshiram (on set up and one to start setting up).
Then you want to retreat Cleffa and start hitting hard. If you can achieve a powered up Reshiram earlier than that, start attacking then. Against most decks you can use Afterburner liberally to attach energy.
You should also be setting up one Typhlosion Prime to attack with during the transition between early and mid game.
In the mid-game you want to primarily use Reshiram to keep attacking, but now you will likely be focusing on using Outrage. The key is to take two prizes with one Reshiram at least once per game. This is usually accomplished through, in one turn, playing 1-2 PlusPowers and 1-2 Defender.
The PlusPowers will give you the KO for that turn, the Defenders will help you survive the next turn, and then Afterburner and Outrage for the second KO. If you can pull off that combo once, you will be in good shape. You also need to be keenly aware of the board.
If you see the opportunity to steal an energy from your opponent that will delay their attack for a turn, YOU CANNOT PASS IT UP. You also cannot pass up the opportunity to take a kill with Typhlosion if you can remove a Rescue Energy.
In the early game it is OK to be a little passive, but in the mid game you must be proactive. You really, really need to have a two prize advantage.
In the end game, you just have to fight for every Prize. Utilize you Junk Arms to get double and maybe even a triple PlusPower drop. If you have a tech (Zoroark, etc.), now is the best time to use it to counter the opponent’s big hitters. Hang on for dear life. Hope that time is called. Scrap and fight for every last Prize. The last two can be hard to take sometimes.
ReshiBoar: In the ReshiBoar match up, Defender is crucial. Since you are using Defender, Outrage is be used as much if not more than “Blue Flare”. Also, making the ReshiBoar expend more than normal resources early to keep up in the prize race can really mess with them. That Defender will force them to use a double PlusPower or triple PlusPower drop (if your Reshiram does not have any damage on it) to get the OHKO.
Also, do not be afraid to drop Judge often if you decide to use it as a tech. In my play testing ReshiPhlosion has held up nicely against ReshiBoar. It might not be a great match up, but it is a very close one. In this match up you also have to be proactive in attacking their RDL if they use it. Bouffalant can come in handy as can Zoroark with that.
Anything Trainer-Item Locking: Get your Typhlosion set up as quick as possible. Since Spiritomb AR is leaving there will not be turn one Trainer-Item locks. If you can get to Typhlosion by turn two or three you will be in good shape.
MagneBoar: This is a peculiar match up. Reshiram is definitely faster to get rolling, but it struggles to OHKO Pokémon in this game. To be honest, a lot of ReshiPhlosion’s success in this matchup is determined by the build of the MagneBoar deck. If they run a low count of Lightning Energy (4-5) this matchup is not that bad.
You can attack their Magnezone Prime in the mid game with Typhlosion Prime to steal those Lightning Energy away. Also, a single defender on Typhlosion is often key. That will force your opponent to sent four Energy to the Lost Zone instead of three and thus bleeding their deck out. Early Prizes are very important in this game.
(To be completely honest, I do see the appeal in MagneBoar. However, I personally am not completely sold on it. Someone needs to show me a tight enough list to be consistent. I am open to convincing though, because I would love to get to play Magnezone Prime some more.)
Blastoise/Feraligatr or Floatzel: The good news is that you can (with a single PlusPower) OHKO everything in their deck. The bad news is that they can already OHKO everything in your deck. This is not a great match up and Zoroark does not really help. Ideally, you can stay caught up in the prize race, but realistically that is not going to happen. There is no way around it, this is a tough game.
LostGar Variants: This is another tough matchup (it’s tough for ReshiBoar too). You must, I repeat, must take prizes on every turn starting on turn 2 or 3. That’s pretty much all.
Donphan: This is the least tested match up that I have played. It seems that at least once (maybe twice) you will need to pull off a double PlusPower drop to get a OHKO. The good thing is that Donphan struggles to KO basically anything in your deck except for Ninetales, but do not have Ninetales active. Most Donphan or DonChamp lists I have seen also run a lower amount of energy. So, one or two Flare Destroys from Typhlosion Prime could go a long way.
Zekrom: The speed Zekrom plan is not much different from what any other deck does against Zekrom. Survive the first few turns and take over from there. Utilize your Defenders to survive Zekrom’s attack and then return it with Outrage.
Well there you have it folks. That is the abridged guide to playing Trainer-Item Toolbox ReshiPhlosion. I hope that you liked the article. I understand that most people are in favor of ReshiBoar over ReshiPhlosion. I am not going to say that those people are wrong (they could in fact be right). However, ReshiPhlosion is also a very solid deck.
It is also a cheaper deck. The Trainer list is cheaper than ReshiBoar, Typhlosion Prime is cheaper than Emboar, and there is no need to get a RDL for this deck. It is easily $50+ cheaper.
It is a solid deck for newer players to run. It will be competitive. If played correctly it can win against many different decks.
