I guess I should start with an introduction, as this is my first article for SixPrizes. My name is Shaun and I’m a longtime gamer. My roommate who won the Columbus MS battle roads spelled out in his article why we moved to Pokémon. To recap, we worked for Score Entertainment and had the privilege of helping playtest and design cards for several games. Once we didn’t have a game to play, we decided that Pokémon would be the best game to jump into.
The community has been very friendly, and the wealth of information has been great. After 2 weeks of playing, I managed to go 4-3 in my first Regional despite managing to “win” the coin flips and go first all 7 games. After testing for a bit, I’ve been working on a deck that has been doing very well for me.
The deck came about from my distaste for SP. I’ve always had a problem playing decks that were considered the best in the environment. Machamp’s “Take Out” attack seemed like a great start as it can one shot any SP Pokémon in most SP decks assuming no Unown G. I read other Machamp lists and wasn’t a fan of either strait Machamp or FlyChamp. While Machamp is great against SP, the deck had trouble when it wasn’t winning turn one.
After trying various ideas and seeing Fresko run his Donphan deck, I realized that Donphan actually had really good synergy with Machamp. A stage one attacker that can do 60 for one, and is hard to kill gave me a great secondary option to take games down to the end instead of relying on a first turn win. The deck now has a high probability of winning turn 1, out speeding any SP variant, and hitting hard late game in case I can’t win in the first few turns. For starters, I’ll go ahead and give you the list.
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4x Machop SF 2x Machoke SF 3x Machamp SF 1x Machamp LV.X 1x Azelf LA 1x Uxie LA 3x Phanpy HGSS 3x Donphan HGSS 2x Baltoy GE 2x Claydol GE |
3x Broken Time Space 3x Super Scoop Up 4x Pokémon Communication 1x Premier Ball 1x Luxury Ball 3x Roseanne’s Research 3x Looker’s Investigation 3x Rare Candy 4x Warp Point 2x Expert Belt 1x Night Maintenance |
8x Fighting Energy 2x Double Colorless Energy |
The Machamp line seems pretty standard. 4-2-3-1 lets me get to Machamp with Rare Candy or Broken Time Space up. The LV.X is the card that is going to swing the outcome of games. For starters, with 130 HP, Machamp will vary rarely get taken down in one turn. The general strategy with Machamp has been to send him up with 1 Fighting Energy and take out any basic that they have out. Assuming he takes damage without a KO on the next turn, attach a DCE and level him up. Machamp can then swing for 80 (100 if belted) with Strong Willed and then has a 50 percent chance of surviving any attacks thrown at him the following turn. If Machamp survives, for an additional energy, he can KO any Pokémon in the game with Rage.
Donphan is the backup attacker in the deck, and can take his fair share of hits. 60 damage for a single energy provides him with the ability to turn 1 most single basic starts in the game. This can also be boosted to 80 with belt when needed. Donphan is great at taking hits while Machamp or another Donphan is setup on the bench. His only real problem is that his retreat cost causes you to use a Warp Point or a Scoop Up to get him out of active. With Scoop up though, it is easy to let Donphan take a hit or two, and with a heads promote a new active, then get your Donphan back on the bench fully healed with BTS.
Uxie and Azelf are pretty standard as draw power and a way to get Claydols/Machmap LV.X/Donphan/etc out of Prize cards in a tight spot.
Premier Ball allows me up to a third use of Machamp LV.X by grabbing him out of the discard pile.
Looker’s Investigation has been my favorite tech call in the deck. The card pretty much assures wins against
Shuppet, and allows you to slow down Gyarados decks that Impersonate for a Pokémon Collector first turn. In a tight spot, it also allows you to grab a new hand.
Pokémon Communication is a great tutor. You may notice that there are 4, and that the deck doesn’t run any Bebe’s Search. This can be tweaked to your liking, but I’ve found more often than not, I prefer to play another supporter during the turn. Roseanne’s Research guarantees I have the Pokémon in hand for Communication and still allows me another energy or Pokémon.
Other tech calls that can be added include Relicanth, Manectric, and Nidoqueen. Nidoqueen heals of the damage to the bench caused by Donphan, Manectric prevents the bench damage, and Relicanth allows you to snipe for one energy.
You may want to tweak the trainer/supporter numbers to help the deck in your metagame. I’d love to hear any comments on the deck, and I hope you enjoyed reading.
