Dumbo

Hello all, this is my first article and I welcome any and all criticism (constructive please). Now onto the article.

The deck that I will explaining to you is yes, another Flygon variant. The deck am I talking about, well, I like to call this variant Dumbo. This deck is a lot like the infamous FlyChamp except it utilizes the somewhat quicker Donphan Prime instead of Machamp. The reason that Donphan is so much quicker than Machamp is the fact that is a Stage 1, so you don’t have to search out that Rare Candy or Broken Time Space and you just evolve on turn 2. Well I think that’s enough chatter…let’s meet our key Pokemon.

Wow, Flygon an amazing card and a big part of the meta. This beast of Pokemon has found it’s way into a huge amount of decks that have been winning BattleRoad’s and CityChampionship’s and you can be sure it isn’t going anywhere soon. Let’s take a look at the stats. First of all Flygon has average amount of HP for a stage 2, 120. It’s + 30 weakness to Colorless isn’t the best with Garchomp C running around all over the place but we can deal. Next it’s resistance of -20 to Lightning is amazing with Luxray GL a big part of a lot of meta decks, and it’s 0 retreat cost is great.

Its Poke-Body “Rainbow Float” gives each of your Pokemon free retreat if there is a basic energy of the same type on Flygon; this can be extremely helpful in this particular variant since Donphan has such a high retreat cost. “Sand Wall” is a great attack against SP decks that utilize the Toxi-Tank engine since they need to have a Stadium in play. “Power Swing” is the main attack used doing 60+10 for each evolved Pokemon on your bench for Colorless Colorless Colorless maxing out at 110.

Flygon Lv.X is a great card and 1 should be run at least. The changes Flygon goes through when it Levels Up are that it’s Hp goes up by 20 which helps tremendously. The Weakness becomes x2 to Colorless now and the Resistance and Retreat Cost stay the same. It also gains 1 more sweet attack and an awesome Poke-Body. Let’s talk about the Body “Wind Erosion” lets you discard the top card of your opponents deck in between turns this means you discard 2 cards per turn. That attack is just amazing it lets you do 150 Damage to any 1 Lv.X your opponent has in play for Colorless Colorless Colorless.

You have two options for the Vibrava and Trapinch that you play,for Vibrava the RR one is far superior to the SW one. It has an amazing late game attack to use after you knock out a few of your opponents Pokemon, it lets you do 20x the number of energy cards in their discard and you put them back their deck. The Trapinch that like to use is from SW It’s first attack let’s YOU switch the defending Pokemon with 1 of your oppenent’s bench Pokemon. It’s second attack does 10 damage and keeps the defending Pokemon from retreating.

Donphan the 2nd half of the deck and an important one. This Tank has 120 HP which is amazing for a stage 1. It’s x2Water weakness isn’t that great with Gyardos and the soon to be released Feraligatr Prime. It has the same Resistance as Flygon, and it’s Colorless Colorless Colorless Colorless Retreat Cost is utterly horrid but Flygon’s Body takes care of that. Donphan has a Poke-Body and 2 attacks the Body is great, it makes so that all damage done to it is reduced by 20 this makes it a great wall Pokemon. The first attack is “Earthquake” this will be used the most during a game, for Fighting it does 60 and 10 your bench. It’s 2nd attack does 90 for Fighting Fighting Fighting it can be used occasionally but I wouldn’t waste the energy attachments.

The best Phanphy to use is the HGSS one and is pretty good because if your Donphan is heavily damaged you can just attach a Memory Berry and use flail for massive damage.

Techs

There are a number of techs that could be used to help this deck but I can only list a few
Staple Techs
Claydol
Uxie
Unown G

The above are some techs that should be used no matter what in most decks.

Nidoqueen is possibly the best tech in this deck because it heals the recoil damage from earthquake and it just heals in general.

Exploud SV
Exploud is another tech to consider it gets rid of all the weaknesses on your Pokemon. This helps because both your attackers have bad weaknesses. The bad thing about this guy is that there is no such thing a basic colorless energy so he can never have free retreat.

Spiritomb AR
This annoying ghost can be a tricky guy, he stops you and your opponent from playing any trainers while he is active and he also helps you set-up using his attack you can search your deck for a Pokemon that evolves from 1 of your Pokemon and evolve it, that can really help you out.

Palkia Lv.X
Palkia can really help you because it gives you control of what your opponent has active, but it also lets your opponent switch your Pokemon too. The reason it gives you complete control is Because Flygon gives you free retreat.

Dialga G Lv.X
Dialga can be really fun because locks all Poke-Body’s, but he can be a hard tech to pull off since he locks your Body’s too. This means you have to use TGI Poke Turn to bring him back to your hand during your turn, and he is a Lv.X making him that much harder to get out.

Mewtwo Lv.X
Mewtwo will act as your counter to all basic Pokemon especially SP’s and Shuppet. He can also act as a great staller if you also have Palkia LV.X out, as you can restructure a basic out and stall while you recover from a knock out.

Dusknoir DP
Dusknoir is really good against decks that need lots of Pokemon in play (ie. Beedrill, Jumpluff, Charizard). This ghoulish ghost lets you shuffle one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon back into their deck if they have at least 4 Poke’s on their bench.

The List
This the list I use for fun and is by no means competitive.

I cannot post many match ups as I haven’t tested against many Meta-game decks with this deck but I will post some that have tested against.

DialgaChomp – Very Unfavorable
This a match that Spiritomb would really help since SP’s use so many trainers. Dialga stopping your body’s is really bad and they have Garchomp which OHKO’s you with Lucario GL in play. The best strategy would be to lock something like Claydol up front or go heavy attacking with Donphan.

Gengar (with LV.X) – Unfavorable
Gengar LV.X is a huge threat to the deck out strategy that Flygon uses and he has resistance making power swing max at 90 DMG. The best thing to do is get out Donphan quickly and get some damage out, then use Flygon to lock their Claydol. If they break out of the lock then just risk the KO from fainting spell and attack as much as possible.

Gengar (without LV.X) – Highly Favorable
This is one of the easiest match ups for you, as long as you can get out your Nidoqueen, Unown G your Claydol, and keep your hand low on trainers you should be good to just lock their Claydol or Azelf for a few turns until they deck out.

Well that was my article I hope you liked it, and hope you try out this Dumbo deck.