When Undaunted first hit the shelves here in Australia I was quite disappointed by the lack of any “stand out” cards in the set. Sure Vileplume and Weavile are quite good and maybe format defining; however the rest of the set in my opinion was rather lackluster. I then stumbled upon Combee UD (I must have been living under a Geodude).
Royal Rush is a rouge deck based around Combee UD’s attack “Enraged Assault”. For one colourless energy, it does a measly 20 damage but if you have a Vespiqueen on your bench that has any damage counters on it, it does an additional 60 damage. Quite a good output for one energy. So here are my thoughts on what could make this deck work in the current metagame and an analysis of the cards.
The Strategy
The strategy for this deck would be get out Vespiquen as quick as possible, and swarm Combee’s to attack your opponent. It sounds simple in theory, but there are many techs that can potentially increase the odds of pulling this off.
Shaymin LV.X (landform) gives all of your grass types an additional 40 HP using its Poke-Body “Thankfulness” which can be extremely handy in this deck. Unown P is a tech card that allows you place the damage counters on your benched Vespiqueen to power up Combee’s Enraged Assault.
I have toyed with running Sunflora HS in this deck as a quick way of getting out Combees, especially after recovering some from the discard pile with supporters such as Palmers Contribution and it worked quite well.
The Cards
Combee UD, as noted above will provide the damage output for this deck. It is a basic Pokemon with a Hoppip low 30 HP; a weakness to fire and a retreat cost of 1. Besides its attack it is quite horrible and opens you up for some destructive first turn donks.
Vespiquen UD, unlike its pre evolution has a very respectable 100 HP, the same weakness to fire and a terrible 3 retreat cost. Its attack, Mach Wind, for 1 grass and a double colourless does a low 60 damage but does come with the bonus of nullifying the retreat cost for a turn.
Vespiquen also sports a pretty cool Poke-Body in “Defense Sign” that basically nullifies all attacks that try to snipe your benched grass Pokemon.
Shaymin, as I am sure most of you are aware, is an excellent but sometimes clunky tech in grass decks. The basic form I prefer to use is the Unleashed one because of its Poke-Power “Celebration Wind” that allows the user to move around Grass energies when played from your hand.
From a little bit of testing, I am more inclined to go with 2 Shaymin UL and 1 of each of the LV.X forms. This might seem odd, but Shaymin LV.X (Sky forme) has a Poke-Body “Revenge Seed” that allows Shaymin to do an additional 60 damage if one of your grass Pokemon was knocked out in your last turn.
This is very handy with such low HP attackers. Shaymin Sky forme also comes equipped with a free retreat cost and a resistance to fighting (and by extension, Donphan Prime + Machamp) which always makes your day.
Sunflora UL, the permanently happy sunflower will bring a grin to your face every time you can search your deck for a grass Pokemon using its power “Sunshine Grace”. That is basically the extent of Sunflora’s usefulness as it sports a horrible attack, 80 HP for a stage 1 and a woeful retreat cost.
T/S/S
Memory Berry is here solely for Vespiquens to take to the fray and start hammering your opponent using Combee’s attack.
PONT or Professor Oak’s New Theory as its known in Kanto, is this decks primary means of draw. This is because all of the other draw engines either suck (Noctowl, I’m looking at you mate) or are type specific (Ninetales where art thou in my hour of need…) or are geriatrics (Claydol…sniff). I also live in fear of the hype train, that seems to be tooting Viletomb variants as the flavour of the month.
Judge; what can I say, the look on an SP players face is almost priceless (for everything else there’s mastercard right?).
Super Scoop Up‘s are a personal thing; I seem to be a very lucky coin flipper and they usually come through for me.
Expert Belts: eh, I’m undecided to be honest. They can be more trouble than they are worth both being trainer locked and in a low HP deck, but a 160 HP Vespiqueen that hits like a truck is nothing to sneeze at either. (Doesn’t everyone love ideal, perfect scenarios?)
The List
|
Pokemon – 21
4 Combee UD |
T/S/S – 23
2 Palmer’s Contribution |
Energy – 10 |
You will notice that there is only 55 cards, the remainder I believe should be up to personal preference; run the risk with some more trainers or perhaps beef up your Pokemon lines. Personally, I run 3 BTS and 2 Rare candies for consistancy.
I’m fairly new to competitive Pokemon, but I do try, so here is the list as best as I can see it. It’s probably never going to be Tier 1, but that makes it even more fun to beat Tier 1 decks with.
Potential for Disaster
As with any deck there are weaknesses, and I wont shy away from any of them. First off is the already noted low HP of unthankful Combees which can be potential disaster for being donked in a Sableye/Donphan environment.
Next is the aforementioned trainer choking that Viletume provides. (everyone will just start playing Chatot MD…right???) While trainer locking doesn’t affect this deck as much as say an SP deck, mostly due to Sunflora, it does hurt its ability to use Memory Berries and SSU‘s.
It should be noted however, that Gengar does suffer a little bit against Vespiqueen as it cannot snipe the bench full of Poke-Power (Unown P says hi) users and can be KO’d with the help of poison from Enraged Assault.
Many people will be quick to point out Jumpluff as the contender for speedy grass deck, but in my most humble of opinions I believe this stage 1 deck, with a higher HP evolution to be almost on the level.
Of course well timed Power Sprays / Dialga G LV.X can really hurt this deck by shutting off powers and bodies respectively, and I expect Dialga to make a massive comeback in an evolving metagame.
A final note: Charizard completely annihilates this deck and if I ever see any in my area I will start using a Metapod tech that would help compensate for this.
I’m afraid I don’t want to invite disaster by posting rather unhelpful “match ups” as I believe anyone can plainly see what scenarios could be bad for this deck, however if I have overlooked something feel free to comment (constructive, if possible haha) as I am definitely not the best player and this is surely not the new BDIF.
I will end on saying that Royal Rush will Rampage Relentlessly into the Reaches of your Recreation.
