Welcome to the latest addition in my How to School the Competition series. About a week or two ago, I promised to write an article on the deck that I personally use. In case if you haven’t guessed, that deck is MagneChamp, a combination of Machamp and Magnezone.
When I say that I am sharing my personal deck, I’m sure that some of you are curious as to why I would do such a thing, you may be thinking “If you have a great deck, why do you want to share it with the entire world? Won’t that hurt your chances of being successful with the deck yourself?”
In theory, you would be right. However, what one theorizes isn’t always correct and I believe this to be an example of a theory being proven false. You see, throughout my 10 years of playing the game, I have read a lot of articles about the Pokemon TCG. In doing so, I’ve discovered a few things.
First and foremost, most people don’t take rogue decks invented by someone else seriously unless it does well at a tournament (ex. Like Gyarados) or someone stumbles onto a deck that, just by hearing it you know it will work. The final thing that can give a rogue deck popularity is if a name player (IE Chris F, Jason K, etc) uses the deck. Since none of these are the case (yet), I’m not worried about sharing my deck to the world. Now, let’s get to the deck!
A Discovery
When I came up with this deck, I didn’t just say “Hmm, I think Magnezone Prime and Machamp SF” would work well together and suddenly stumble upon an amazing deck. Oh, no, it took a lot more work than that. If you remember my Deck Building Guide or my other articles, you’ll know that I like a deck that gives me lots of options to outplay my opponent as well as being consistent.
I had first tried Crobat Prime and Machamp SF. The basis of this idea was that Machamp can give me a near auto-win against LuxChomp and DialgaChomp as well as a good chance against Sablelock. In addition, Machamp drastically increases my odds against Regigigas, which has been gaining a lot of popularity since Triumphant.
Crobat Prime gives me a good match up against VileGar as the Poison gets around “Fainting Spell”, can snipe a benched Spiritomb for a 2HKO and the 130 HP gives me a good chance of avoiding a “Poltergeist” OHKO. Also, the deck had roughly a 50/50 match up against Machamp because Crobat Prime does 60 to either one with Weakness and resists Fighting.
However, Gyarados was a big problem. Unless if I could donk them or get a quick Machamp and prevent it from setting up, I would loose because I cannot even 2HKO it without “Rage”. Since Gyarados is bound to be a popular deck, I eventually scrapped the idea.
I knew I liked the Machamp line, so I had tried using Magnezone SF, Gengar SF and many others, but it seemed like they just didn’t provide the all-around good match ups that I want. Basically, I figured that, with my ability to outplay my opponent by so much, as long as I have a 50/50 match up against the top decks, I would be able to perform at a very high level.
Then I stumbled across Magnezone Prime. I compiled a deck of Magnezone Prime along with Machamp and really liked the potential the deck showed. So, without further ado, here is my deck, MagneChamp.
Disclaimer: If MagneChamp is already a discovered deck, forgive me as I did not know, but the process I came across the deck is still relevent as it shows what things a good player does to invent an “unknown” deck.
As I said above, the idea of this combination was to provide me with a consistent deck that would still provide me with options. In addition, even though both Machamp and Magnezone are known cards that people know how to play against, since they’re being used in combination, it does give me a slight rogue deck advantage.
Here’s the list:
| Pokemon: 24
3 Machop SF |
T/S/S: 21
4 Bebe’s Search |
Energy: 15 |
The Cards
3 Machop SF
I chose to run a 3-2-3 line of Machamp as it provide me with a way to consistently get multiple Machamps into play when I needed them. When I compared Machop from Stormfront to its Triumphant counterpart, the attacks were pretty much irrelevant. Instead, I chose the SF Machop partly because of its better +10 Weakness, but mainly for its cheaper retreat cost.
2 Machoke TM
Simple decision, I need two Machoke, this one has an extra 10 HP, making it slightly harder for Garchomp C LV.X to snipe. When you’re comparing a Basic/Stage 1 Pokemon that is in the deck solely for evolving, many times it’s better to base your decisions on HP, Retreat Cost and the like instead of including a card just because it has a situational attack that you’ll use 1 in 30 games.
3 Machamp SF
When I play Machamp, I feel like I’m cheating. LuxChomp and DialgaChomp struggle to consistently 2HKO it, while for a single Energy can OHKO any one of their Pokemon. Having such a huge advantage over some of the most popular decks in the format easily warrants its inclusion. I also believe that Machamp will see even more play if Regigigas rises in popularity and Palkia Lock 2.0 becomes a reality.
3 Magnemite SF #66
I believe there’s four Magnemite in the format. I chose this one because of its Poke-Item, “Magnet”, which reduces its retreat cost by C for each Magnemite on your bench. This allows you to easily get it out of the active position, which is probably better than a much attack. In addition, it has a +10 Fire Weakness, which shouldn’t hurt it much. If you don’t have access to this Magnemite, I recommend the one from Triumphant with its “Magnetic Switch” attack.
2 Magneton SF #42
As I was reading each Magneton in the format (that’s three cards, to be exact), I realized something. They all suck. None of them have any good attacks, Poke-Powers or even abnormally high HP to help you out. I ended up choosing this Magneton as it had a +20 Fire Weakness. The only Fire Pokemon that would see play, Blaziken FB LV.X and Charizard, will probably already be able to OHKO it, so I figured it was better than a +20 Fighting Weakness.
3 Magnezone Prime TM
The cornerstone of the deck, Magnezone Prime is in the deck as it helps with many of its match ups, but I will go further into that in a bit. However, I will say that this card is vital to this deck. Without it, you wouldn’t the deck wouldn’t be nearly as fast, consistent or effective. In addition, Magnezone’s attack, “Lost Burn”, allows you to OHKO High-HP evolved Pokemon that give Machamp trouble such as Steelix, Tyranitar, Scizor, etc.
2 Uxie LA
Should be obvious, in the deck to increase consistency and save bad hands.
1 Uxie LV.X LA
A card that is great for adding extra consistency late game as well as a last resort attacker. I’m sure that the deck would be okay consistency wise, but that isn’t why I added it into the deck. Uxie LV.X is in the deck to help with its Machamp match up. Since we both run Machamp SF, they sort of cancel each other out. However, my partner is Magnezone Prime, which has a Weakness to Fighting, not to mention Machamp Prime, so I feel this card is necessary.
1 Crobat G PL
Simple, this card helps to set up OHKOs. Despite my having no way to reuse it, it still an all around great card.
1 Ditto LA
Despite it being such a useful card since the 2009 season, many players still undervalue this card. Ditto is especially useful in this deck as it plays Rainbow Energy as well as Lightning and Fighting Energy. Ditto has a variety of uses, but its most prominent one is being a Gengar counter.
1 Froslass GL
Jason Chen kinda stole my thunder on showing this tech to the world, (see his Cities Report for a more info on this card) but he is right. Froslass GL is a great card against VileGar as well as Steelix, Magnezone and any other deck that uses high retreat cost bench-sitters. It is a Blaziken FB that works on Colorless Energy.
1 Smeargle UD
I’ll keep it short as I say the same thing about this card every Deck Analysis I write. It’s a great, undervalued card that is great in combination with Unown Q and Warp Energy as it allows you to use an additional supporter each time one of your Pokemon is KOed or when you use Warp Energy on a different Pokemon. Smeargle is a great starter Pokemon as well.
1 Unown Q MD
Great card, reduces the retreat cost of your Pokemon. It’s able to give Smeargle, Froslass, Uxie LV.X and many other Pokemon free retreat cost.
4 Bebe’s Search
Playing four of this card is a must, being able to search your deck for any card of your choosing is amazing. In addition, its only downside (shuffling a card from your hand into your deck) isn’t a downside at all, because it will help against Trainer Lock and allow “Magnetic Draw” to net you an extra card.
3 Broken Time-Space
I only included three of this card for a few reasons. They are:
- I play four Rare Candy, which makes maxing out BTS slightly less necessary
- I don’t play Seeker or SSU, so getting those Pokemon back into play isn’t an issue
- If I’m able to Rare Candy a Magnezone Prime into play, I will have access to its amazing draw power to draw into a BTS
- A lot of decks, such as VileGar, Machamp, Magnezone, etc., already play 3-4 BTS, so maxing it out is slightly less necessary as there’s a good chance that, in those match ups, my opponent will put one in play
- Finally, they are a stadium, which means I can only have one in play at a time. In this format, the only Stadiums commonly played are BTS, Pokemon Contest Hall and Sunyshore City Gym. However, the last two see very little play, so by playing a smaller count, it decreases my chances of having a dead draw late game.
1 Expert Belt
This is just a generally a good card across the board, helping me to get OHKOs on Pokemon that Magnezone is normall 10-20 damage short. I realize that playing one could make it difficult to get it when I need it. However, I do play Crobat G, which serves the same purpose. In addition, there aren’t that many cards that I would need Expert Belt to OHKO that is a non-Basic Pokemon (If they were a Basic Pokemon, Machamp can OHKO them).
3 Judge
This card is so pro in a deck that runs Magnezone Prime as it helps with so many match ups. I once built a Charizard deck that did okay, but then I added in four Judges. Suddenly, I increased my SP and Gyarados match ups by 10-15% (I’m not saying Gyarados was an easy match up, but this card definitely helped). It serves as big disruption for your opponent as well as nice hand refresh for you as “Magnetic Draw” will allow you to get back a six card hand once again.
1 Luxury Ball
Good consistency card, being able to fetch any Pokemon not named Uxie LV.X is an amazing effect.
1 Palmer’s Contribution
This is one of the best recovery card in the format since we lost Night Maintenance. Despite its downside of being a supporter (which is an upside in the VileGar match up), it is still a great recovery card that lets you get back a full Stage 2 line in addition to basic Energies or whatever else you need at the time. I know that most people consider this card to be better than Flower Show Lady, but in some cases it is not. However, for this deck, since I play such a low basic Energy count, it suits the deck better.
2 Pokemon Communication
Much like Luxury Ball, but requires you to shuffle a Pokemon from your hand back into your deck (which isn’t as big of a price to pay as it reduces your hand size by one, allowing Magnezone to net you an extra card). However, the advantage of this card is it can search for Level Up Pokemon, which is why some people argue that it’s better than its Luxury Ball counterpart.
4 Rare Candy
An amazing card that adds a new found speed to Stage 2 decks. Rare Candy is especially necessary in this deck as it plays two separate Stage 2 lines. In addition, Rare Candy makes your Pokemon much less vulnerable to your Basics/Stage 1′s being sniped by the likes of Garchomp C LV.X and Luxray GL LV.X
2 Pokemon Collector
Well, I’m sure that you guys are thinking that I’m crazy, playing only two Pokemon Collector and I would be right along side you. However, that’s why I play….
4 Call Energy
You may be thinking that just playing four Pokemon Collector would be a simpler, more effective way to find Basic Pokemon and, most of the time, you’d be right. However, I think that playing Call Energy is a smart move for a few reasons. First of all, Magnezone requires a sizable amount of Energy and Call Energy helps with that. Secondly, it helps with Gyarados and Sablelock matches a bit.
You see, Gyarados and Sablelock would never play less than three Sableye, with most playing four. However, many people have been reducing their Sableye count to 1-2 and use Smeargle to fill in those slots. Their reasoning is that, you can either use your own Pokemon Collector or “Portrait” your opponents to get Sableye, Unown Q and something else, which is a good idea… as long as your opponent plays a high Collector count.
However, by playing such a low number, I just made it harder for them to get their desired start.
In addition, versus Sablelock, I can use Call Energy more than once to get the Pokemon that I need to set up effectively instead of having to use Pokemon Collector from my hand. Sure, they can Cyrus’s Initiative/Judge it away before I can use it, but they can do that to any card.
4 Rainbow/2 Fighting/2 Lighting Energy
I chose to run 4 Rainbow Energy along with two of each needed specific Energy element as that ratio seems to provide me with enough Energy to consistently power up my Pokemon. In addition, the basic Energies help against the Scizor match ups. Also, the Rainbow Energy to use Ditto as a Gengar Counter.
3 Warp Energy
These are for the LuxChomp match up as well as for getting Magnezone Prime out of the active position after it attacks. In addition, I can use it on Smeargle to pull it out from being active twice instead of once. Finally, if I don’t want to use its effect, I can just attach it to any Pokemon and send it to the Lost Zone with “Lost Burn”.
Final Notes on the Deck
I play a high Energy count to ensure that I can power up Magnezone Prime consistently. In addition, I play a wide assortment of common and not-so-common techs to ensure that I have a good chance against the entire field, which is what I’m aiming for.
Changes/Notable Exclusions
-1 Ditto – While this is a good Gengar counter, it can be a bit tricky to use as I only have four Energy in the deck that can help it mimic Gengar effectively. I will do more testing to be sure.
+1 Azelf – Despite my including a number of one-of Pokemon (six), none of them are really going to kill my chances of winning if I don’t have access to it. I prefer to use my space for more important things, but I may reconsider. However, I’ve done over many matches and it wasn’t a common problem.
+1 Spiritomb – I was thinking that this card could be beneficial because, mid game, it can be used to slow them down for a turn and force through one or two needed evolutions.
+1 Unown Q – This card is so good because it allows me to get Ditto, Froslass GL, Smeargle, etc., out of the active slot when I need to. The thing that’s stopping me is that I worry if I’ll have an abundance of these type of cards between Warp Energy and Unown Q.
Match Ups
If you’ve read my other School the Competition articles, you’ll remember that I took a deck, such as LuxChomp, and provided an in-depth analysis on its match ups, how to play them and some techs that could work well. This part of the article is for when you have come up with a workable list that you would like to test against your suspected competition. Here is where I will tell you special tips and tricks to many decks you are likely to face.
VS LuxChomp
Well, this match up shouldn’t be very difficult as you play a pretty heavy Machamp line. However, just because you play Machamp, doesn’t mean you can afford to be careless, you need to treat this match up as any other match up. For the first few months after LuxChomp became a deck, I didn’t play it as I didn’t think I’d like the feel.
However, I eventually picked it up and really liked it (going 21/1 in online games against really good players didn’t make me hate the deck either), and I played the deck on and off for over a year now, so I have a lot of experience with the deck.
I told you that story so I could tell you this one. Many times I beat Machamp players using LuxChomp. Why? They got careless. I can remember one time, it happened about two months ago, I was playing a guy online. I can’t remember his name, but I could tell he was a good player as I looked at his list afterwords and it was one of the best lists I had ever seen. However, I beat him by two Prizes. Know why? It wasn’t because of a bad start of bad top decks, it was because he got careless.
I’m assuming he thought something like “Machamp > LuxChomp”, so he didn’t think ahead further than the turn he was on, which cost him the game. It is vital that you look at this game just like you would any other one, watch your resources, stay cool and plan ahead.
First of all, perhaps your biggest liability in this match is Magnezone Prime, so you want to be careful playing it. Why is it such a liability? Because of its massive three retreat cost. It isn’t uncommon for your opponent to drag up a big bench sitter with “Bright Look” and then “Dragon Rush” around it for a few turns. Even though this is one of the big reasons I include three Warp Energy, you will still want to be careful in putting this card into play.
Secondly, be careful about putting a lone Machop/Machoke in play as your opponent can snipe it rather easily, so it should be done only as a last resort. However, I say a “lone Machop/Machoke” because, if you put in play two Machop/Machoke, there is a 99.9999% chance they won’t be able to KO them both. Again, if you are forced to end your turn with anything but a Machamp in play, it isn’t ideal, but that is part of being a good player: learning what to do in situations that aren’t ideal.
VS Sablelock/Chenlock
Sablelock/Chenlock’s goal in this match up will be to stop you from getting a Machamp in play. It may seem impossible, but is more than possible due to their massive disruption. A key in this match up will be Machamp, as getting it in play will allow you to OHKO all of their non-Machamp counters(I’ll go over those later).
One common route that your opponent will do is to use Cyrus’s Initiative to shuffle away your Rare Candy and/or Broken Time-Space. This will force you to put a Machamp in play using standard evolution speed (which will take an additional two turns). This situation is exactly what your opponent is waiting for. As soon as you put that Machop or Machoke in play, they will attempt to “Dragon Rush” it, making your efforts wasted. Playing down one of those two Pokemon should only be done with extreme caution as a last resort.
Now, this next suggestion will either be a life savor or a train wreck, depending on what your opponent is playing. If they’re playing Sablelock, getting in play a Magnezone Prime as fast as possible is a brilliant and strongly recommended move. “Magnetic Draw” will make Cyrus’s Initiative and Judge much less effective as you will be able to get new cards to replace any cards you lost. In fact, if your opponent plays Judge, you will actually put them at more of a disadvantage than you!
However, there is one downside to this. If your opponent is playing Chenlock, they will be able to use Blaziken FB to constantly drag Magnezone to the active slot. In addition, you will be burned, meaning that you can’t even use “Magnetic Draw” to draw into a Warp Energy as you cannot use Poke-Powers when you’re affected by a Special Condition. This rule also applies if you’re playing Sablelock with a Froslass GL tech, but it is slightly better for you as there is a 50% chance that you will wake up, thus you have a better chance of drawing into a Warp Energy. However, neither is ideal for you.
While I’m on the topic of Magnezone, one other advantage that “Magnetic Draw” gives you is the ability to make Chatot G much less effective. If they rearrange the top four cards of your deck, but you are able to use Magnetic Draw to get 2-3 of those cards. Traditionally, you’d be forced to draw into the card that is most likely to be the least useful to you. However, if you are able to get more than one card, it allows you to crawl to cards more and more useful. Again, not situational, but still a great tactic to use against Sablelock.
One thing that can be used to your advantage is Smeargle from Undaunted. Smeargle is quickly taking over as the preferred started in many Chen/Sablelock decks. What used to be a 4/1 Sableye/Smeargle cut is not becoming more like 2/3 Sableye/Smeargle. This is good and also one of the main reasons why we play such a low Collector count. By doing so, we really increase the chances that your opponent will have to wait an extra turn to get out Sableye, which is valuable time for getting your cards set up.
Secondly, just like your opponent’s Smeargle helps you, your Smeargle does as well. If you are put in a situation where you haven’t set up yet, promote Smeargle and take a meander at your opponent’s hand. While you’re there, copy a supporter card, which will hopefully be the boost you need to retake control of the match and claim victory.
Now, you may be thinking, since Blaziken FB LV.X makes Magnezone near useless, Sablelock is an easier match up, right? Not necessarily. Why? Honchkrow SV. Even though Chenlock CAN play Honchkrow, it isn’t as common as Sablelock using it.
If you’re against Sablelock and you’re as confident as you can be that they aren’t playing Froslass GL/Blaziken FB, it may be a good idea to use Magnezone Prime to OHKO it, then Warp it back to your bench. If that isn’t possible, you’ll be forced to use Machamp to KO it, which could be difficult.
Using your anit-SP trump card, Judge can be both good and bad here. You will need to be very careful about shuffling away a usable hand for a bad one, so it should be used with great care. A great time to use it is when your opponent has a very large hand or to break a Cyrus’s Conspiracy chain at a cruitial point in the game.
In my book, if your opponent isn’t playing too many counters to you, you’re not that bad off. However, if you’re against Chenlock with Honchkrow SV, you may be in a bit more trouble. Even so, it is still a very even match that, if you play your cards right, you can win.
VS DialgaChomp (With and Without ToxiTank)
This match is probably going to be easier than LuxChomp for a few reasons, mainly because, instead of playing Luxray GL, which can do 60 for L (with Energy Gain, of coarse) and can drag up benched Pokemon to either KO (IE Uxie) or to use Garchomp C LV.X to snipe around (such as Magnezone Prime).
Instead, they play Dialga G, which requires 2-4 Energy (depending on DCE and Energy Gains) to do 50-80 (varies on which attach they use and if you have damage on it) and no useful Poke-Power/Body. In addition, unless if they run the ToxiTank variant, they are much less likely to run Lucario GL as Luxray GL isn’t there to hit Gyarados for weakness.
In this match up, instead of Magnezone Prime being a “Bright Look” liability, it’s actually an advantage as it can OHKO all your opponent’s Pokemon for 2-3 Energy removal, resists Metal and helps speed up your set up.
If your opponent plays a ToxiTank line complete with Lucario GL, Toxicroak G, Skuntank G and various stadiums, it will be a lot more difficult. This is because, along with Lucario GL, both Toxicroak G and Uxie LV.X have the potential to OHKO you (Uxie will need a Crobat G/Poison for a OHKO).
There isn’t a whole lot to say about this match up as it should be one of your easiest to win. If you get a Magnezone in play and use its accelerated draw power to get in play a constant stream of Machamp to win the game.
One final note, remember your Judges! This card’s best asset is to tear apart your opponent’s 8-12 card hand for a small one. In addition, it is great for breaking Cyrus’s Conspiracy chains, which will be a great move in this or any SP match up.
VS Gyarados
When you’re playing against Gyarados, you will need to use a bit more skill to win. First and foremost, the key to this match is definitely Magnezone Prime. If you send two Energy attached to your Pokemon to your Lost Zone, you will be able to OHKO a Gyarados. However, since you can only attach one Energy to your Pokemon per turn, getting a constant stream of multiple Energy will be a problem.
I recommend, if possible, to get a turn 1-2 Machamp in play. Often times, I will find myself able to get as much as three “Take Out” off before my opponent can get a Gyarados set up. As soon as they get a Gyarados up and running, your best bet is to use Warp Energy to bring Machamp to your bench, promote Magnezone Prime and then KO Gyarados.
If you haven’t realized it yet, speed will be key to winning this match. You will need to collect a few prizes before Gyarados enters the field and then KO a couple of Gyarados for the match. If they’re able to get a Gyarados fully set up before you collect any prize cards, you will have a difficult time getting pas their recover.
One key for fighting Gyarados is Judge (Judge is an amazing card in almost every match up). When I look at Judge’s usefulness in this match up, I typically think of two points in the game where using Judge is a no-brainer. The first is when your opponent “Impersonate’s” for a Pokemon Collector and then fetches something like 1 Regice and 2 Magicarp. If you shuffle away that hand, there is a very good chance that you will delay your opponent by at least one, perhaps even two or three turns.
The other time to use Judge is when you’re about to KO a Gyarados and your opponent has a large hand. When you’re opponent has a hand of 7+ cards, it’s usually a safe bet that your opponent will be able to recover Gyarados or has a card such as Copycat or PONT, which can give them another sizable hand in hopes of getting a recovery card.
If you play Judge, you just gave yourself pretty good odds that they cannot recover both Magicarp and Gyarados in one turn. This example is especially good mid-late game, when your opponent has used a number of their Collectors, Bebe’s Searches, Seekers and any other card that could allow them to use an Uxie for additional cards.
In addition, our teched in Froslass GL can be of some use here. If your opponent puts in play Regice, use “Sleep Inducer” to drag up Regice. Sure, in Gyarados, they’ll be playing SSU and Warp Energy, but there still is a chance that they won’t be able to. Again, it’s less than ideal, but is still an option that a good player will consider as a last resort.
Finally, like Sablelock, many Gyarados lists are also switching over to a higher Smeargle count along with a smaller Sableye line, which is great for this list. As we play a low Pokemon Collector count and just a low supporter count in general (only 10), there’s a good chance that this will delay your opponent at least one turn, perhaps two (usually by then your opponent gets something to use).
VS VileGar
While this isn’t a near auto-loss match up for us (like Machamp is for LuxChomp), it still is a bit tricky. First things first, I’ll go over our strange 2/4 Collector/Call Energy ratio and how it affects this match up.
For the most part, it helps us out. Since Call Energy is an Energy card, it won’t hurt us in the game by being a “Poltergeist” liability. Second of all, this deck sometimes (depending on starts) has some trouble getting set up under Trainer lock, so if necessary, Call Energy could be used a second time to get our Basic Pokemon ready to go.
While some players suggest that playing Judge in VileGar is a good idea. The theory is that, between the Trainer lock, Gengar attacking and having your hand reduced to such a low number that you can never set up and win. However, I, like most higher level players, are completely against the idea as playing Judge will reduce the Trainer count in your opponent’s hand to a very low number that prevents “Poltergiest” from doing big damage.
In addition, since you cannot see their hand before, you could end up shuffling away a terrible hand for a very good one.
Based on this logic, playing Judge in our deck is a good idea as the same downfalls for them are an advantage for us (gets rid of useless Trainers and gives us the chance to get the cards we need). In addition to that, since we are the ones using Judge, we have the potential to disrupt their hand quite a bit, especially if played before they’re set up fully.
In addition to those benefits, “Magnetic Draw” can allow you to get a new, six card hand again. Overall, I think you can see that playing Judge is a good move against both VileGar and many other matches.
This is where Ditto comes in. If you have Ditto in play, attach a Rainbow Energy to it and you can copy Gengar’s “Shadow Room” attack, which will let you 2HKO Gengar and get around “Fainting Spell”. While it is sometimes a bit tricky to do this as I only play four Energy that will allow Ditto to effectively counter Gengar, it becomes easier with Judge/”Magnetic Draw” refreshing your hand.
As you may have realized, almost all of our techs can come into play in this match up, which is a big reason why VileGar isn’t as big of a threat as it could be. For example, Smeargle will work great here as you can use “Portrait” to copy a Supporter and further your set up or disrupt your opponent (if you copy a Looker’s Investigation.
This match up is one where Froslass GL really pulls its weight. If you use “Sleep Inducer” to drag up Vileplume, your opponent could be put in quite a bind. Typically, in VileGar, there is two ways for them to get Vileplume out of the active position. They have to either use Warp Energy or manually retreat it (with or without Unown Q).
However, along with “Sleep Inducer” comes the special condition, Asleep (I know, shocker), which means that there’s a 50% chance your opponent’s sole option of getting Vileplume out of the active slot will rely on the number of Warp Energies they play. This is great as it will really challenge how many Warp Energy they play, which is a good thing as a lot of players are only playing two.
Another great asset in your arsenal of Pokemon will be Crobat G. The idea is to use Magnezone Prime, do 100 damage to Gengar, the KO it with Crobat G’s “Flash Bite”.
Finally, like the Gyarados match up, a great tactic to use here as well is to get a turn one or two Machamp and get a few quick KOs, which will greatly help as each prize card you get will be one less Gengar you need to knock out.
VS Machamp
Well, this is an interesting match up, to say the least. Each of you play Machamp SF, so in a way, they cancel each other out, at least as far as comparing the decks are concerned. Basically, the match up is Magnezone Prime vs Machamp Prime, which is interesting as they both have the potential to OHKO each other.
Like almost all of your matches, it’s a good idea to try to get a turn one or two Machamp up and running. However, unless if you are playing VileGar or Gyarados, it will not drastically impact the game, but give you enough of an advantage to win. Of coarse, since you are playing against Machamp, they will try to do the same thing while they get Machamp Prime going.
So, that is why I find this match up so interesting because, even though you’re different decks, you’re both trying to do the same thing: Machamp SF for early prizes while you get your nuke in play. They have the advantage of Machamp Prime’s Poke-Power, “Fighting Tag” to get Energy on Machamp Prime quicker. However, you also have the advantage of Magnezone Prime’s Poke-Power, “Magnetic Draw”, which will let you draw into the Energy and other cards that you need.
Overall, I’d say that your opponent a slight advantage in this Machamp vs Magnezone war because you only need three Energy to OHKO Machamp Prime whereas they need four. However, they can use Double Colorless Energy.
Their main advantage over you is due to “Lost Burn’s” side affect, you are forced to send Energy to your Lost Zone. However, once they are powered up, they can keep attacking. In the very start of the battle, you have a slight edge, but as it progresses into the middle and end of this battle, they gain the edge. This battle between Machamp and Magnezone is a lot like the Garchomp war in SP.
Finally, it is important to remember the by far most commonly played Machamp counter, Uxie and Uxie LV.X. While the basic isn’t very useful against Machamp Prime, it is great against its counterpart, Machamp SF, for a quick 50 damage. Uxie LV.X is a valued card in this match up as it will allow you to do 90-120 damage depending on which Machamp you target. However, be careful as it will be very easy for them to revenge KO you.
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I would go into more and more match ups, but that wouldn’t serve much of a point. Even though this guide is a great resource that I strongly recommend any player who plans to play Machamp, Magnezone or MagneChamp reads through, the only way you can get a complete grasp on every single match up is to actually play test them. This is guide to help you understand those match ups, get you in the right direction and give you final tips for them.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the latest How to School the Competition article. As long as people enjoy and learn something from my articles, I’ll keep cranking them out. Until next time,
-Dakota Streck
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions that you’d like to tell me personally, send me an email! I’m at dstreck96@yahoo.com
