As you all know Heart Gold and Soul Silver has just come out in time for states, and most of you have already started to test for these big tournaments. If not, well you better have an idea. Ever since I saw the Japanese scan for this card, I knew I wanted to play it. That card is Donphan Prime. Dishing out 60 for one Fighting Energy and doing 10 to all of your bench, means a cheap 60 with a drawback, right? But that’s not all I see. What I see is donking, very quickly.
In addition to that attack, you have a Poke-Body, “Exoskeleton”, that reduces damage. With Expert Belt equipped, you have yourself a tank. You could also play a few healing techs, but we’ll get into that a little later. Donphan’s other attack, three Fighting for ninety damage, may not seems all too good, but when your up against a Mr Mime MT walling you, you’re going to need your three Energy fast. That way with an Expert Belt you’re pulling off one-hundred-ten damage. Just like that.
Anyway, here’s a list of Pokemon techs that may be used in one of your own builds:
Used for its “Maternal Comfort” Poke-Body to heal off ten damage in between turns. That way you can pretty much nullify all of your “Earthquake” damage. It’s also a decent attacker, doing 40 for one Psychic Energy or 60 with an Expert Belt. Or if your playing a few Double Colorless Energy (for whatever reason) you could potentially “Ruthless Tail” for quite a bit of damage. But really? The only thing I see this card doing is a bench sitter just healing off your Earthquake damage. Plus you also have to waste a Rare Candy or two, when you probably don’t want to play Rare Candy! There are plenty of other options, like the next card…
This card is a lot better than Nidoqueen, for a few reasons…
- It’s a Stage One
- Lightning type (which backs up Donphan’s weakness to Water)
- Snipe Powers
- Free Retreat
- Resistance to Dialga G is good
- Protects bench besides Manectric from EarthQuake
- With Bench Shield you completely protect your bench
I think that about sums up Manectric. Next up is Machamp Stormfront:
Also known as the SP Killer, it one shots your opponent’s non-Unown G’d SP Pokemon. With one-hundred-thirty (150 with Expert Belt) health, it can withstand quite a few hits. Combined with Donphan you could skip the awkward turn you have to Hurricane Punch. It’s a Stage Two so you kind of have to play Rare Candy with this tech, but it also means that you could potentially get the donk. Using Machamp is a variation of Donphan by the way, which I have posted a list of later in the article. There isn’t really much more to say about this card.
It won Worlds in an SP toolbox deck. It’s been proven by Stephen Silvestro that you could literally tech a 1-1 line of it in almost any deck. This deck is no different. You could “Bright Look” up any Pokemon, free retreat or Poke Turn Luxray, then bring up a Donphan and wreck the new Pokemon. For example, Bright Look a Claydol, retreat or Turn Luxray, promote an Expert Belted Donphan Prime, do 80 for the one hit knock out. You could also use Pokemon Reversal, which is the next card on the list.
Pokemon Reversal
Pokemon Reversal is a flippy Luxray. It can bring up anything for you to kill; look above for explanation on how. In decks where you don’t exactly have the space where you can fit in 2-2 Luxray, 2 Crobat G, and 4 TGI Poke Turn, this card is very good. Being able to drag up anything is almost too good. Run this in fours.
Now onto the deck lists:
PhanRay
|
Pokemon-20 3 Phanpy HS 3 Donphan Prime HS 2 Luxray GL RR 2 Luxray GL LV.X RR 2 Baltoy GE 2 Claydol GE 1 Uxie LA 2 Crobat G PL 2 Unown G GE 1 Relicanth SV |
Trainers-32 4 TGI Poke Turn 4 Super Scoop Up 2 Broken Time-Space 2 Expert Belt 2 TGI Energy Gain 4 Pokemon Reversal 2 Warp Point 3 Pokemon Communication 1 Luxury Ball 1 Premier Ball 4 Roseann’s Research 3 Bebe’s Search |
Energy-8 5 Fighting Energy 3 Lightning Energy |
Champ Donphan
|
Pokemon-22 3 Machop SF 2 Machoke SF 3 Machamp SF 3 Phanpy HS 3 Donphan Prime HS 2 Baltoy GE 2 Claydol GE 1 Uxie LA 1 Azelf LA 1 Relincanth SV 1 Unown G GE |
Trainers-26 4 Bebe’s Search 4 Roseanne’s Research 3 Broken Time-Space 1 Luxury Ball 2 Expert Belt 4 Pokemon Reversal 2 Night Maintenance 2 Pokemon Communication 4 Rare Candy |
Energy-12 8 Fighting Energy 4 Call Energy |
Donphan Manectric
|
Pokemon-19 4 Phanpy HS 4 Donphan Prime HS 2 Electrike PL 2 Manectric PL 2 Baltoy GE 2 Claydol GE 2 Uxie LA 1 Azelf LA |
Trainers-33 4 Bebe’s Search 4 Roseanne’s Research 2 Cynthia’s Feelings 3 Broken Time-Space (testing) 3 Expert Belt 2 Luxury Ball 4 Pokemon Reversal 3 Pokemon Communication 2 Night Maintenance 1 Bench Shield 1 Department Store Girl 4 Super Scoop Up |
Energy-8 6 Fighting Energy 2 Lighting Energy |
Straight ‘Phan
|
Pokemon-19 4 Phanpy HS 4 Donphan Prime HS 2 Baltoy GE 2 Claydol GE 2 Uxie LA 1 Uxie LV.X LA 2 Crobat G PL 2 Unown G GE |
Trainers-36 4 Super Scoop Up 2 Luxury Ball 4 Pokemon Communication 4 TGI Poke Turn 3 Broken Time-Space 3 Expert Belt 4 Bebe’s Search 4 Roseanne’s Research 4 Pokemon Reversal 1 Night Maintenance 1 Cynthia’s Feelings 2 Rare Candy |
Energy-8 8 Fighting Energy |
