In guerilla warfare, it’s typical for a soldier to attack with the element of surprise. In hand to hand combat, it’s common for a fighter to crush the opposition by focusing on a body part such as an arm, leg, or even a rib to disable them.
Now I know some of you asking what this may have to do with the Pokemon TCG, and others may already know where I’m going with this. While Pokemon is just a game and playing is fun, sometimes its brutal, cold, calculating war – especially when it comes to tournaments.
When two fighters go head-to-head, only one can come out as the victor. This is the way things are.
So how do we turn a losing streak into something we can benefit from? How do we turn around a potential loss and make it a definite win? By sitting down with other players, talking about the state of the game, and just getting the opinion of all involved in the room, table, or even forum can be a wealth of knowledge and a source power.
But what do we do with this new knowledge? With sheer pluck, grace, and a will to overcome the opposition.
So with that, I present to you this new deck list and hopefully it’ll be fun!
The List
| Pokemon – 23
4 Smeargle UD/CL |
Trainers – 17
4 Pokedex 3.0 |
Energy – 18
4 Double Colorless |
The Cards
This list might be pretty close to the BlastGatr lists floating around, but given the fact that we are losing Spiritomb, and Sableye, I feel that the Entei & Suicune LEGEND provides a little better coverage with its retreat cost of one and an energy cost of three.
Compare it to Blastoise UL, with a retreat of three and an energy cost of four. Yes you lose the ability to target the oppositions active Pokemon, but with 160 HP, that should net you one or two knockouts before its knocked out. Another plus – it’s not a Stage Two, so evolution chains are a non-issue.
Now the breakdown!
Smeargle UD/CL
As Sableye is getting filtered out as the Black and White era beginning, one cant help but realise that Smeargle UD/CL will be, arguably, the best starter in the game. Maximizing on the supporter usage, and getting to look at the opposition’s hand gives your clear insight into what they may be planning, allowing you time to clean up and do it fast. But be aware, this is also a double-edged sword – a sword that may come back to hurt you.
The LEGENDS
With Entei & Suicune LEGEND UL and a few good energy cards, its first attack becomes the talk of the town. Torrent Blade is the most powerful attack on this card and is also the most costly – It deals 100 damage to a benched opposing Pokemon for two Water and a Colorless, and returns two energy cards to your hand – not two energy.
This could be potentially bad if you are not careful, and may want to use the other attack, Bursting Inferno. Dealing 80 damage, and burning the opponent’s Pokemon is pretty good all for a Fire and a Double Colorless.
Feraligatr Prime
This nifty rainmaker is the key to your Legend’s survival by putting on the energy you took off of it last turn using the Poke-Power, Rain Dance. This card also becomes a back up attacker with a powerful attack in Hydro Crunch, hitting for 60 + each additional damage counter on the defending Pokemon.
I recommend 2 full lines here simply because Rare Candy no longer has the power it once had.
Bronzong
This little guy gets a bad rap, what with it searching out legend parts off of an attack, but lets take into consideration that it’s not that bad of a card to run.
For one energy it searches, as I stated above, for Legend Halves with the attack Legend Ceremony, and for 2 energy you can deal 30 Damage to the defending Pokemon and move one of those energy cards you used to attack with on to a benched Pokemon.
This means taking that last Double Colorless that was on your Bronzong, and sticking it on your benched Legend, or even a Smeargle for a bit of luck hitting if you’re in a pinch.
Professor Juniper
This card is floating around in the new Black and White starter decks. It has become a new personal favorite as it can free your hand up against a peering Smeargle UD or a Mr. Mime CL, and let you draw 7. Don’t use this until you’re absolutely positive that there is noting in our hand you need. This is another card that requires respect – misuse it and you’re up the creek without a paddle!
Bouffalant
As Entei & Suicune Legend’s (arguably) best move, Torrent Blade, the move we’re focusing on, can only hit the bench, chances are that it will give your opponent plenty of time to hit it a few turns for an eventual knock out. Follow up the knock out with Bouffalant and you may have yourself an easy prize, doing 90 damage to the defending active Pokemon.
Tips, Tricks, and Techs
With these three cards we have almost replaced Garchomp LV.X, although we never really will. So how do we take care of retreat costs now that the Unown Q will no longer be joining us? With Dodrio UD, of course!
Its Poke-Body Retreat Aid, all retreat costs are lowered by 2. This means that almost anything in the deck can be retreated for free. A single line should work for most, but I personally wont recommend any more than a double.
Gengar Prime might be something to think about here as it can potentially buy you time and disrupt your opponent at the same time. a single line will work fine as we don’t want to overdo it on the Pokemon end of things as it coud leave you vulnerable to opposing Gengar.
When playing against a Lost World deck, try to remember that the goal is to slow them down, while setting up a strong defensive line with your Feraligatr and Entei & Suicune LEGEND, as the longer the game progresses the less of a chance you have to play your Legend before it is Lost.
Using Professor Oak’s New Theory can’t be stressed enough in any deck to turn that clumped cluster of sewage sitting in your hand into a gold-mine of resources.
With this build it is possible to put in ANY legend you may want to play and with a bit more re-working you can drop the Feraligatr if it wont work for you and maybe use an Emboar BW to start tossing around Fire energy to the same extent – but what ever you do, human nature isn’t always about war, destruction and annihilation. It’s also about kickin’ back, having a laugh, and stopping to smell the roses.
