It’s about a pretty new deck that should be seen at some Cities. As you may have realized because of the title, it’s the Gliscor-Spiritomb Lock. The main strategy of this deck is to paralyze your opponent’s active Pokémon with Gliscor Lv.X’s Poké-Power “Shoot Poison” and return it to your hand with the regular Gliscor’s “Burning Poison” attack to do it again and again. You may think you won’t do any actual damage by doing this, but the paralyzing special condition comes along with Poison and “Burning Poison” can Burn your opponent’s active Pokémon.

There are two things that definitely hurt this deck, first being TGI Power Spray or any Power-lock in general. Secondly, Unown G or basically anything that can avoid Special Conditions (Xatu SW, Recover Energy GE). There are some other cards which can be awful for Gliscor/Spiritomb players too; I’m talking about field manipulation cards which either switch out your opponent’s active Pokémon or yours. Cyclone Energy or Warp Energy are two really good examples, there’s nothing you can do against them (except if you tech in Empoleon SF, but it’d be rather slow), so beware of them.

The only thing that comes into my mind what could defeat this is Scizor MD. It hits for 80 damage against Pokémon with any Special Energies attached for just one Metal Energy. Besides that it does really well against one of this decks worst matchups: Plox! They play many Special Energy cards like Call or Upper Energy, plus Scizor has Psychic resistance which is pretty good against Gardevoir because of her already low damage output.

Other annoying cards for Gliscor are Warp Point and Switch, but that’s were this decks techs hit the floor. Spiritomb from the brand new set Platinum: Arceus prevents both players from playing normal Trainer cards, like Switch and Warp Point. Spiritomb’s “Darkness Grace” attack also can help you setup, but he’s mainly there for “Keystone Seal”.

Another nice tech for Gliscor decks are either Palkia Lv.X from Great Encounters or Luxray GL Lv.X from Rising Rivals. Both have the ability to pull in one of your opponent’s benched Pokémon. Also both have their own advantage; while Palkia Lv.X can’t be Power Sprayed, Luxray GL Lv.X can dish out a fair amount of damage for low cost. This is just personal preference, but I like Palkia Lv.X better because it can’t be Sprayed which is really good in case you need to pull in something weak for a prize or even your final prize.

This deck has some good matchups along with a few bad ones. For example against decks like Venusaur, which can’t even be effected by Special Conditions, you’ll fail badly. Also, with really fast decks like SP-Toolbox / Variants, Kingdra, or Gyarados you may have problems, but it depends all on your techs. If you have a Mr.Mime MT in your hand you can easily stall around against them since they don’t need much energy to attack. All in all this is a pretty decent deck and it should do well at some cities.

[Editor's Note: Just in case it is unclear, the combo is that you send Spiritomb out after returning Gliscor to you hand, which prevents your opponent from removing the Paralyze special condition with a card like Switch or Warp Point. You then retreat Spiritomb (for free if you have an Unown Q attached) and Level Up a second Gliscor that was on your Bench from last turn to repeat the process. Your opponent will never be able to attack unless they evolve or play a Cyclone or Warp Energy.]

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This article will include:

1. A history of my involvement with the trading card game
2. A quick look at the main cards
3. Deck lists/Strategy

1. First, a quick history of my involvement with the game. I originally started playing the Pokémon Trading Card game when it was first released and Pokémon hysteria was at its peak. I played tournaments and leagues for about two years, then gave it all up during my early teens when image meant more than having a good time. Flash forward close to ten years and I’m just out of college. My buddies have recently started playing Pokemon and it’s peaked my interested. Long story short, they tossed some Energy, a T/S/S line, and the Salamence SW Evolution at me and I was hooked.

2. Now lets take a look at the main cards in the deck.

Taking a quick look at these cards you see that you have a high HP Colorless Pokémon, powerful attacks with a discard, a high retreat cost, the possibility to take multiple prize cards for one knock out, and a relatively cheap “Rage” attack using Memory Berry. This is a high risk/cost, high reward deck and can be made to payoff greatly.

3. I’ve been playing Salamence variants since I got back into Pokémon, but heavily over the past 4 months or so. I was highly anticipating the Lv.X’s release and had built a version to run without it, but also had one ready to go weeks before, simply needing to slide a Level X into a sleeve. The version I was running without the Lv.X took a lot of play testing to make competitive, but started to be competitive around the time Fall 09 Battle Roads began. I played it in a few leagues as well as some local Level X tournaments and never went worse than 3-2. I actually pulled off a win at the one local tournament, netting myself a few boosters and a DP Empoleon Lv.X for the binder.

The list I was running looked like this:

It was relatively consistent, but the T/S/S line was off and it was under tech’d . The strategy of this deck was to get a turn two Salamence hitting for 50 with two Energies or 50 for one Fire Energy, possibly 120 for 1 Fire Energy and 1 Water Energy, and discarding with the “Battle Rush” Poke-Body engaged. With 140 HP you could do this for some time, while charging up a second Salamence, either SF version if  “Battle Rush” was working or the SW version to snipe the Bench.

Once your Active Salamence had some damage on it you could attach a Memory Berry and “Rage” for 10+ damage for 2 Energy or for free with “Battle Rush” engaged. It was a relatively straightforward deck. PlusPowers could be used early to give you that extra damage to knock out 60 hp Basics, or anytime to get to the magic numbers of 130 or 140 damage, when facing high HP Pokemon. This deck worked very well against most other Stage 2 deck’s and gave you close to an even shot at Beedrill, Gyarados, and Gengar.

It struggled, though, against SP variants that hindered it’s set-up, but would run through others which focused on spread or simply could not slow down its set-up. I knew this deck was nowhere near perfected, but with the Lv.X arriving in less than a month, I shifted my attention to a deck list built around Salamence Lv.X and its “Double Fall” Poke-Power.

The original list I created again was relatively consistent, but being straight Salamence lacked any real tricks to help swing bad match-ups my way. With that in mind, I did my most recent tweaking and this is my current deck list. This  list, as you will see, is what I’ve come to see as a solid core for any Stormfront based Salamence Deck, and can be tech’d for your meta or playing style relatively easily. I have also built an Arceus Salamence deck based on Energy acceleration, however, I feel in the current format SF Salamence is the best play.

My list is as follows (my core cards highlighted in bold, the rest could potentially be switched for similar cards or a different strategy.:

I’ll start at the bottom and work my way up the list, with an explanation for each card. Starting with the Energy, I have tried between 12-16 energy and settled in the middle for most consistency. This leaves me with rarely missing an Energy drop, but also not having more than one or two Energy clogging up my hand. I run more Fire Energy than Water Energy because you need that Fire Energy first for “Combustion” and can usually wait, if you need to, for that Water Energy to show. I’m not a fan of running Call Energy in this deck, but it’s really a personal preference. I’ve tried it and it gives more consistent starts, but it also often leaves you missing the right combination of Energy, to use the moves you need to use, at the right times.

Moving on to the Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums line, you start off with the search staples Bebe’s Search and Roseanne’s Research. I run 3 and 3 because I usually get what I need when I need it and VS Seeker can provide a fourth of either, while freeing up a space in the deck. Next are 4 Rare Candy, which are a necessity in any Stage 2 deck, so that you can get Salamence out in a timely fashion.

The Memory Berry are there so that you can “Rage” with Salamence using Bagon SW. This can be epic with 140-160 HP to work with, and also can surprise some people after discarding Energies, since it only costs two Colorless Energy, or can be done for free with “Battle Rush” engaged. Finally the real core to using Salamence Lv.X is the Pokémon search/recycle trainer engine of Night Maintenance, Pokémon Rescue, Premier Ball, and Luxury Ball. These cards allow you to often use Salamence Lv.X on all three of your Salamence and knock out only three Pokémon for the win. That essentially is the real strategy of the deck, take a quick double prize and then continue to take two prizes for every one your opponent takes.

Finally, the core Pokémon line is Salamence Lv. X from Arceus, 2 Salamence SF, 1 Salamence SW, Shelgon (SW or SF), Bagon SW, 1 Tech Stage 2, 1 Tech Basic,  Claydol GE, and Azelf LA. The Salamence line is the meat of the deck. SF Salamence can hit big and quickly to the Active, and SW Salamence can take care of some big sniping. The Lv.X allows you to often take double prizes, to cut the Energy discard amount, and boosts HP to a healthy 160. However, watch out for that double colorless weakness.

Claydol is your draw/cycle engine, while Azelf helps retrieve important prized cards. Finally there is room in this deck for one 1-0-1 tech line. This can be used, however you see fit, to give you an advantage in your metagame. A few of note are: Nidoqueen from Rising Rivals can be used to heal in between turns, Nidoking from RR can stack damage on your opponent when they attack your Active, allowing you to one hit knock out just about anything with “Steam Twister”.  Exploud Supreme Victors can remove all of your Pokémon’s weakness, and finally Dusknoir from DP can be used to shrink your opponent’s Bench. If played at the right moment, it can cripple their set-up or shuffle away a back-up hitter.

The rest of the cards in this deck can potentially be changed around. Most of them are tech’d in as hand refresh cards, such as Chatot MD and potentially Looker’s Investigation, or serve a dedicated role like Looker’s Investigation’s role in checking your opponent’s hand if they are running SP, to try and make sure they do not have a “Power Spray” to stop “Double Take”. These cards are essentially flexible spots to shape the deck to your style.

This essentially has been the deck that has worked out very well for me. It’s consistent, powerful, and has some tricks up its sleeve. With the added advantages of the Level X. Salamence, it may be a powerhouse ready for the big stage. No matter what its eventual role in the metagame, it definitely is a deck worth playing around with and giving a shot.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed and maybe I swayed you to take a look at Salamence!

Samson Gausch

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Hippowdon LV. X is one of those cards that, like Raichu LV. X, gain massive popularity before the set is released, and then loses it rapidly as the next tournament cycle comes to pass. Whether it’s bad timing, or just a bad card, hasn’t ever really been explored. If the timing were just off by a set or two, then maybe the card can be salvaged in time for City’s.

Let’s begin by looking at the LV. X itself.  130 HP on a Stage 1 LV. X is good by any means, so it is a great start.  We’ve got a Fighting type, so without an attack that bypasses Resistance, expect to do lower damage fairly often. On the good side, you do hit Luxray GL techs for double damage.  An attack, Double Shoot, that hits the bench is welcome, especially since most Stage 2 line Basics have low HP. It also makes it harder for a Pokemon to flee to the bench to heal, since you can hit 2 at the same time.

The weakness is probably a major factor in why Hippowdon didn’t take off as planned. Palkia G, coming off of it’s many State and Regional Championship top cuts, was on the loose, and we’ll find out more of why that was such a bad thing for Hippowdon later. Right now, we’ll just note that it hits for Hippowdon’s weakness. Resistance to Lightning isn’t very awesome, since Luxray GL will normally hit around you, anyway, and most other Lightning based rogues can run Sunnyshore Gym fairly easily, which lets them get around Resistance (and Weakness to boot). Hippowdon weighs 661.4 pounds (over a quarter of a ton), so I wouldn’t expect it to be a light retreater, and it isn’t. 4 is the highest I’ve ever seen on a card, which is shared with other behemoths like Snorlax and Steelix.

But here we have the main draw that moved people to look at Hippowdon LV. X originally.  Sand Reset, in case you couldn’t read the scan, says “Once during a game on your turn (before your attack), each player shuffles all cards in play (excluding Pokemon and Supporter cards) into his or her deck. You can’t use more than one Sand Reset Poke-Power per game.”

Key things to note are that, first of all, it is ONCE PER GAME. I can’t stress enough how important it is to save it for the right time, but saving it for too long can easily cost you the game.  Second, is the fact that to use this card correctly, you have to know what you’re getting rid of. Technically, the hand is not considered in play, so it’s off limits. Your Supporter also stays next to your Active, so you still only get one per turn. but aside from that and Pokemon, everything else gets sent back. All Energy, Pokemon Tools, Stadiums, PlusPowers, etc. are shuffled back into the deck. This is as close to restarting the game as one can get without downright cheating. Third, this is the one Power that above all others screams “Power Spray Me”, so Palkia Lock and other SP decks that make liberal use of Power Spray get a nice bonus. Being in a straight Power Lock (GG or anything running a couple Mesprits) can be a major pain, too.

I feel that there are a variety of ways that this Power can be used to completely alter the course of the game, not all of which are obvious. Obvious would be using the power, then using the attacks of the base Hippowdon (Details below) until you have recovered enough Energy to attack, which is normally faster than your opponent. A bit more subtle would be to use Mesprit LA’s Psychic Bind Poke-Power to prevent your opponent from using Powers to catch up.  Then you throw in something akin to Team Galactic’s Wager, and you’ve basically stopped your opponent in their tracks. Obvious would be to use it to get rid of Expert Belts and other tools that may be causing you problems. Again, a touch of subtlety reveals that Sand Reset is the only force in the current format powerful enough to remove Unown G from its current wielder. This lets a teched Gengar SF nab a KO on a Claydol or other Guarded Pokemon if your opponent thought it was safe to fill their bench. Here’s the problem, though. While all of these are good at first glance, you can only use Sand Reset once per game. So unless that KO will win you the game, or get you close enough to winning that you can assure yourself the game with that move, your opponent no longer has to worry about it.

The main thing about Hippowdon LV. X’s power is that most decks in the current (DP-AR) metagame are built toward speed, or you have Salamence (Which Resists you) and Flygon (Which oneshots you).  So, to summarize the power in a way that my local PTO once said “If it said THAT Hippowdon could only use it once per game, then it would be great”.

A LV. X card is only as good as the base you put it on, right? So it only makes sense to take a glance at the base Hippowdons that have come out.  All of them have only minor differences in stats. Hippowdon RR and DP have 110 HP, while MD has 100. Hippowdon MD and DP have 3 Retreat, while Hippwdon RR has 4.

Hippowdon RR is generally chosen to be the best. It alone of the Hippowdon cards to be in the modified format has an ability, one that puts a damage counter on all your opponent’s LV. X’s in play in between turns. Not especially good, but it could be worse. I guess it helps when you’re playing against a deck heavy with the LV. X’s, like AMU or Flygon. Save Sand is an attack that reminds me personally of Blissey MT, in that you can search your discard pile for an Energy before hand to attach. You don’t get to get any kind, though, only Fighting types. Still, it’s a decent form of Energy acceleration in itself, since you do damage for each of them that is attached to Hippowdon. It also sets up Hippowdon’s other attack, Groundquake, very nicely. Groundquake does a set 80 damage for 4 Energy, which is low by today’s standards, but it also does 10 to all unevolved Pokemon in play. This means all basic LV. X’s are taking 30 in between turns, and all basics in general take an extra damage counter.  It combos fairly well with Hippowdon LV. X’s Double Shoot, since you can normally follow it up with a KO to weaker basics on the bench fairly easily.

Hippowdon MD is a card that is just foreshadowed by the RR version.  It’s first attack works like Save Sand, only for free, but you don’t get to do extra damage for each Energy attached. It’s other attack does 50 damage straight, and then you can flip a coin for every Fighting Energy attached to Hippowdon and do 20 more for every heads. Technically, I guess this makes this Hippowdon the one with the highest average damage output, since the second attack only costs 3 Energy, but flips have never been popular in my book. Note, this Hippowdon doesn’t have a resistance like the others.

Hippowdon DP is a mockery, and probably shouldn’t even see the inside of a sleeve. You can look at the scan to see it is grossly underpowered in comparison to the others. I won’t go into detail over it here, for that reason.

I guess that pretty much wraps up this small analysis on Hippowdon.  I’m not denouncing the card by any means, but I think that more often than not, Hippowdon just simply doesn’t have the high damage output that other decks do, so it would probably be relegated to a lower table at a Premier event. But who knows? I also said that about Gyarados, then Fabien has to go and make me look stupid, so I could be wrong here, too.

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In order to counter Mewtwo LV.X, you need to get Banette out. This is problematic because 1. Banette is not so easy to search out and mainly because of 2. SP will not give you an opportunity to get Banette out. Here’s the scenario: You attack with “Fade Out”, return Shuppet to your hand, and send Mr. Mime out. Mewtwo LV.X comes out and uses “Energy Absorption” to get 2 Energies on it. You play Shuppet back down, attach the Psychic Energy, leave Mr. Mime out, and pass hoping to get Banette out next turn.

Here’s the issue: The SP player will retreat Mewtwo, send out Luxray GL and level it up, forcing you to bring Shuppet out via “Bright Look” and then knock it out. This is where the game swings. It is going to be somewhat difficult to knock out that Luxray, and if you don’t your opponent can just retreat for Mewtwo to stall.

When they try to stall, you will put Shuppet on the bench and attach an Energy. Your opponent will then be able to gust it up again in most cases for another easy prize. You also never have the opportunity to get a 2nd Shuppet on the bench with an Energy attached because you have to use your Energy attachment to put the Psychic back on the Shuppet which you return to your hand every turn.

Basically you never get the opportunity to even get Banette out. We were not playing Poke Blower +, but I suppose if you played it, then you would have the opportunity to knock out Mewtwo before it levels up and could probably win. Otherwise there is little you can do. Of course this is only against SP where Luxray GL LV.X can gust up your Shuppet; anything else with Mewtwo would not have such a detrimental effect.

Dialga G LV.X is a problem because it is resistant to Psychic -20, shuts of Mr. Mime’s PokeBody, and can do “Deafen”. “Deafen” is going to prevent you from attaching PlusPowers and Expert Belt, so Shuppet will only be doing 10 per turn to Dialga. I guess you could try to get Banette PL out and do maybe 40 a turn instead, but regardless the SP player can easily Poke Turn Dialga once it’s damaged and you are never going to get a prize from there on out.

So in all, Shuppet appears to be shut down pretty badly by those two cards if SP is playing them, and usually they will be playing one of the two. As for other matchups, I’m not really sure how Shuppet would fair. I have a feeling that it would not do too well against Flygon though.

We also tried a Kabutops / Omastar deck out…to be honest it was pretty terrible. Kabutops is bad because it only does a max of 70. Even though it only takes 1 Energy, Kabutops is not the easiest Pokemon to get in play. The effort it takes for a max of 70 just doesn’t cut it. Omastar is better though, it might be worth tinkering with. I would focus solely on Omastar and just getting tons of Fossils in the discard. I actually think that might be a legit deck, but forget about Kabutops.

If you can get 8 Fossils in the discard and have Expert Belt attached, you will be doing 130 for 2, which is going to OHKO a lot of Pokemon. Omastar will probably be 2HKO, so if you can just keep the Omastars going you might be able to overwhelm your opponent. We were thinking of maybe using Chatot G and Mr. Mime in the deck, so early game you could grab Fossils and Rare Candies then stall with Mr. Mime. Spiritomb would probably shut the entire deck down though.

I am really not sure what any of the deck lists were that we played with, Ian just threw the decks together and it was late at night so I wasn’t paying very close attention to the contents of the decks. Everyone bug him to post the deck lists, at least for Shuppet. :p

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But is it really worth all the attention it’s been getting? Will this card turn out like another Raichu LV.X, in that it will be hyped beyond measure, and turn out to be binder candy after all? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out today.

First things first, we are going to look at the base statistics of the Salamence LV.X. Now, I know it seems backward that way, to cover the power up before the base you put it on, but the Salamence are going to be analyzed individually in their own time.

So, we take a gander at Salamence LV.X’s base stats. 160 HP is a very good total, making it fairly tough to one shot unless there are specific techs involved. It’s Colorless (Dragon) typing is both a gift and a curse, as it allows Salamence LV.X to easily one shot Flygon LV.X RR and Garchomp C LV.X SV, but it allows them to retaliate with a one shot of their own due to its own Colorless weakness. I have always been a firm believer in the philosophy that “If it has wings and it flies, it should have free retreat”. Sadly, Salamence LV.X must pay a fairly hefty 2 Energy to retreat. A fighting resistance isn’t one that’s likely to see a lot of use, due to the declining popularity of Machamp, and a lot of Fighting type Pokemon having attacks that are unaffected by resistance, anyway, but it’s better than none.

As for the power, if you couldn’t read it in the scan, the exact wording is “Once per turn, when you put Salamence LV.X from your hand onto your Active Salamence, you may use this power. For each of your opponent’s Pokemon that is Knocked out by damage from Salamence’s attacks this turn, take 1 more Prize card.” First thing to note is the obvious, which is that it’s only usable for one turn, so it would be best to make it count. Second, is to see that is has to go from your hand, to your Active Salamence. This means little tricks like Level Max or Porygon Z promo’s Learning attack will not activate the power (Actually, this one wouldn’t matter. Even if the power did activate, you already attacked, so that ends your turn before Salamence gets a chance to attack.). Third, it does not say that the Pokemon being KO’d for two Prizes has to be Active, so keep in mind Salamence’s bench hitting potential. It’s attack is one of your generic high cost, high damage, discard an Energy attacks. Nothing to go into explicit detail over, but it’s very good in it’s own right.

Now, as we will start moving down the line of Salamence that can be used. Salamence is one of those Pokemon that seems to be favored by PUI, so there are a decent amount to choose from. They all have the same statistics all around, with 140 HP, +30 weakness to colorless, -20 resistance to Fighting, and the SW and SF Salamences have 3 Retreat, while the AR Salamence only has 2. The +30 weakness is actually a bigger boon than most would think, since there are all the Colorless techs running around for Flygon-countering purposes.

Going in order of sets, we have Salamence SW. It has no Power or Body, unlike the other two, but it has the best attack in my opinion. First it has Direct Hit, which does 50 damage. Always. Regardless of whether they are resistant to you (Gengar), weak against you (Flygon), holding a tool/Energy that messes with the damage done (Buffer Piece/Special Metal), or have some kind of Agility effect going on (Flygon again, along with Dusknoir SF #1 and a few others I’m sure I’m forgetting). In my books, that’s completely worth giving up the shot at Weakness. SW’s second attack, however is even more enticing. “Dragon Finish” lets you discard two basic Fire or Water Energy. If you discard two Fire, you can do 100 to the Active.

However, and this is the good stuff, if you discard two Water Energy, then you can do 100 to any of their Benched Pokemon. You know that Pokemon with the Expert Belt they were trying to hide on their bench to give Nidoqueen RR a chance to heal it? It won’t be healed, unfortunately, and you’ll take not one, not even 2, but 3 prizes. The thing that sets this one Salamence above the rest attack-wise is that even if you don’t target an Expert Belt wielding Pokemon, you can still take out key support Pokemon like Claydol GE. This is the guy that virtually guarantees you take 2 prizes for the attack, but it is the hardest to get out. See, Dragon Finish takes 2 Fire and 2 Water to use, so there is no Upper Energy shenanigans, and no Call Energy to be seen. You would have to rely heavily on some form of Energy acceleration to get this out evenly.

Salamence SF, however, comes with a Poke-Body. If there is a Pokemon on your opponent’s side of the field with at least 120 maximum HP, then you get to ignore the Colorless Energy requirements for it’s attacks. Considering all the Stage 2 Pokemon running around, with even Gengar, who normally falls short at 110, receiving a LV.X, it’s fairly easy to set it off. And even if your opponent is running some kind of SP toolbox where the highest HP is Luxray LV.X’s 110, you could tech your own Snowpoint Temple to boost it and get your own attacks quickly. The setback here, though, is that Salamence SF’s power attack, Steam Twister, requires two different types of Energy to be discarded. This makes it very hard to pull off successive hits, due to your draining yourself of all Energy every turn.

The newest gem in the Salamence fan’s collection would be the AR incarnation, with a power that provides literal Energy acceleration. Top Accelerator lets you look at the top card of your deck, and if it is a basic Energy, you can attach it to a Pokemon. Delcatty PL lets you replace the Energy on top of your deck from your discard pile, so you can be sure you always have an Energy on top. Running a build based on this would tend to have some consistency issues, though, since in my testing it seems like I get more bad starts than good ones.

But then, I’ve said that about some of my tournament winning deck lists, too, so even I don’t trust my own words there. Attack-wise, Salamence AR is the only one of the 3 Salamence that lets you attack two Pokemon at the same time, thus opening the possibility for 4 Prizes in a single attack. That attack takes 3 Energy, though, which is more than any of the others require to attack (SW needing 2 and SF needing 1 if the Body is activated and 2 if not). Dragon Claw isn’t worth it. Just forget it exists, and 999 out of 1000 games you’ll never realize it was even there.

So, in conclusion to this brief(-ish) article, Salamence is a card that’s got more going on under the surface than one would think just glancing at it. I, for one, wasn’t very impressed when I first saw the translations for it, but as I got to thinking about it, it grew on me somewhat. The way I see it, this card can either destroy your opponent very easily, or epically fail in the way that people will be talking about you behind your back for weeks. I guess only time and a lot of serious play testing will tell.

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So here’s the plan. Because it only takes 1 Fighting Energy, I can keep Mankey in my hand with a Fighting Energy, or get both on my turn with Roseanne’s Research. Once the Darkrai Lv.X is up in the Active position, I can drop Mankey on the Bench and put the Energy on him. Next, play a Switch or retreat for the OHKO. My deck already runs two Switchs and has mostly low cost retreaters. Even if Mankey gets taken out next turn, its a trade off I’m willing to make.

That got me thinking about what other Level Xs the little monkey could take down in one fell swoop. Here’s the list, starting with arguably the most popular Lv.X in the format right now:

Luxray GL Lv.X, Raichu Lv.X, both Electivire Lv.Xs, and Absol G Lv.X. Additionally, Snorlax Lv.X and Porygon Z Lv.X could be OHKOed with Mankey plus a Crobat drop or a Plus Power.

Now while Darkrai is my own local metagame problem, Luxray GL Lv.X is much more widely popular opponent. What do you think, is Mankey SV worth becoming a staple tech in many decks, or is there just too little room for the little guy?

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Raichu LV.X’s Power is called “Link Lightning” which allows you to use two attacks in one turn after Leveling Up Raichu and using Raichu LV.X’s attack “Voltage Shoot.” The attack “Voltage Shoot” will cause 80 damage to one of your opponent’s Pokémon in play, without applying weakness or resistance. That can knock out a Claydol, Uxie, Mespirit, Azelf or most tech Pokémon your opponent may have in play with just one hit but with the down fall of having to discard 2 Electric Energy Cards from your hand. Although that’s not too bad considering you can easily get those 2 Electric Energy Cards by using the Supporter Card “Roseanne’s Research” or by using Brozong’s SF Poke-Power “Cycler.”

The second attack you choose to use depends on what Raichu you have in play.  Personally my favorite Raichu to use is Raichu SF because it can use the attack “Burst Ball” that will cause a descent 100 damage to your opponent’s active Pokémon(or 120 damage if you attach the Pokémon tool “Expert Belt” which will be released in the Advent of Arceus set on November 4). The downfall to using “Burst Ball” however causes you to discard a total of 3 Energy Cards attached to your Pokémon. But you can easily avoid having to struggle with running low or out of Energy Cards by starting with Electivire FB LV.X as your lead in the beginning of the game.

By having Electivire FB LV.X as your lead you can prepare a few Raichu on your Bench by using Electivire FB LV.X’s Poke-Power “Energy Recycle”. The Power “Energy Recycle” allows you to search your deck for up to a combination of 3 basic energy cards and attach them to your Pokémon in any way you like. That can power up a Raichu/Raichu LV.X in only one turn! Then once you are done preparing your Raichu for battle you can either let Electivire FB LV.X get knocked out or have it return to your bench by using the Trainer Card(s) “Warp Point”/”Switch”.

So overall Raichu LV.X can be a sniper ready to kill on your opponent’s bench or a power house ready to take out your opponent’s active Pokémon.

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Well to start things off this is my first premiere event since Spring Battle Roads, so needless to say I was quite excited. I had been play testing quite a few decks, but really felt like Fly/Champ was the best play. So I went with my gut and that is what I ended up playing.

So my friends, brother, and I get up and start heading to Rolla, Mo for the first tournament for all of us this season. Along the way we encountered some torrential rains, and even some hail. So we were all anxious to arrive and play in the tourney.

We get there and find out that we only have 15 Masters and miss top 4 by only one person in Masters.  (Little did I know how the day would go).

So here is my floor report for my first tournament of the season:

Round 1 vs. Marcus Mayhew (Honchkrow G/Luxray GL)

This game could not have started any worse for me. This was definitely the best game of the day, and I enjoyed this game very much. He starts out by killing off some of my basics early and I am still trying to get set up. I try to Cosmic Power two turns in a row and he Power Sprays with my having a Flygon Lv.X active milling cards from his deck with only one Energy on it. I feel pretty bad, but he decides in mid game instead of killing one of my benched Machops that he would use Honcho’s Command, (He searched up two Power Sprays, and by now I really felt like the game is over). So I try to Cosmic Power, Power Spray number three, then I search up Uxie and try to Set up, Power Spray number four.

What ended up being a life saver for me, was that he used his Poke Turns early as well. So Next turn I Cosmic Power for six and start to get set up. In the end he is down to just one prize left to my three and I feel like it is a lost cause, and that my first tournament is going to end because of a stupid start, against a deck that thrives on bad starts. Then I realize that his deck seems very thin and I ask how many cards are left in his deck. There are 4 cards and he has a Skuntank G on the bench with no energy. So I attach Memory Berry and Inviting Trap his Skuntank. He then mills because of Flygon Lv.X, and is sitting, thinking about what to do. With no Poketurns left he attaches, passes, and mills. I then draw and pass for the game! GG! (Marcus could have gone the other way just as easily!)

(1-0)

Round 2 vs. Paul Sponsler (Luxray GL/Manectric)

This match-up is a very favorable one for my deck as well, but do to a poor start it is a rough game. Luckily his deck needs a lot of Sunny Shore Stadiums to really have a shot against Flygon due to it resisting both of his attackers. So Sand Wall was a very key attack for this game.

In the end it comes down to 2-1 prizes,(and it seems like Paul and I always have close games), but it comes down to a Hurricane Punch on his active Luxray GL Lv.X which has an Unown G attached. So I Cosmic Power for three and the last card is Machamp Lv.X. I level up and use Hurricane Punch, (keep in mind all I need is 1 heads for the knock out), Luckily I role at least the one heads and proceed to Strong Willed for game next turn. GG!

(2-0)

Round 3 vs. James Proctor (Abomasnow/Gallade 4/Giratinia)

Obviously Spread was the emphasis of this deck, and again I have a bad start with Baltoy, but luckily also have a Call Energy. So I use the Call Energy and get a Trapinch and a Machop. I am trying to get set up but have not had the chance to get anything going and he gets three prizes early thanks to Snow Play on turn four. At this point I really feel that this game is over, but I play it out just to see what happens. I then play a Night Maintenance and get back my two Machops and Nidoran. I Cosmic Power and start setting up again. Nearing the end of the game, I have started to really turn things around and the prize count was 3-2. I then take a prize with Nidoqueen and it is tied at 2-2. He does end up knocking out my Nidoqueen so I bring up Machamp.

I notice that he has Gallade 4 on the field and can only assume he has a Premiere Ball in his hand ( I know that he is probably going to Blade Storm and then Chop Up for game next turn on my Claydol). So out of Desperation, I Bebe’s Search and bring out my Mesprit tech and Psychic Bind. I then use Strong Willed to take out his active Bronzong G. So it is 1-1 Prizes yet again, (apparently this was a trend on the day, at least up to this point) and I know if he has any way of putting 1 damage counter on Claydol I lose ,and don’t have a shot at top two! He brings up Abomasnow and then proceeds to Snow Play. Claydol has 70 damage on it, and I have three energy attached to my active Machamp, so I use Roseanne’s Research for the last Fighting Energy in my deck and Rage for 160 and the game! GG! (Nail Biter #3)

(3-0)

Round 4 vs. Cory Sponsler (Kingdra/techs)

I actually have a good start and turn one Flygon attach and pass to him. He gets going and turn two Kingdra and I am worried about speed here against his deck at this point. I get set up and turn two Claydol to help with stocking up Flygon. He has already knocked out an Uxie, Machop, and to make matters worse he devolves my Flygon to go up 3-6 in prizes early! I then bring my Nidoran active and attach an Upper Energy to it in hopes that I can cosmic into the candy I need for the Nidoqueen in my hand. So I Cosmic Power for three, one whiff, two whiff, thre….Rare Candy!!! So I use Rare Candy and evolve into Nidoqueen and proceed to Ruthless Tail for knock out, after knock out for the win. GG and sorry about the ridiculous luck!

(4-0)

So After swiss I am 4-0 and proceed to play in top 2 against….Cory again, (this time it went a little faster!)

Top 2 vs. Cory Sponsler (Kingdra/Techs)

Game 1

I turn one Donk with Machamp.

Game 2

He turn 2 donks with Kingdra, (dang Baltoy start and drawing into nothing!).

Game 3

I turn one Machamp and run through his bad start! GG
I win my first Battle roads, and go undefeated to start the season! I feel like this could be a great year!

My list consists of the following:

Thanks for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed it :)

-Keelan

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I was stuck between either playing Flychamp or a Flylock variant but in the end I played Flychamp, it was a little inconsistent, but I was pleased with how it turned out.

I would like to tell you what placed before I get deeper into the report.

• Masters:
• 1^st Place- Flygon Lock (Palkia)
• 2^nd Place- Dialga G/Garchomp C
• 3^rd Place- Blaziken FB/ Luxray GL/ Garchomp C
• 4^th Place-Blaziken FB/Honchkrow G

• Seniors:
• 1^st Place-Honchkrow G/ Luxray GL
• 2^nd Place-Gardevoir/Gallade/ Weavile
• 3^rd Place-Flygon/ Machamp (me)
• 4^th Place-Empoleon/ Luxray GL

• Juniors:
• 1^st Place – Gengar/Nidoqueen
• 2^nd Place- Blastoise/ Delcatty

I will go ahead and give my list so you can see what I played.

Round 1 vs. Blaziken FB / Luxray GL / Garchomp C

I opened with Trapinch and he opened with a Luxray GL, luckily he went first and couldn’t do anything so I proceeded with my turn. My draw was a Machop and I had a Roseanne’s, rare candy, and Flygon in my hand and went ahead used Roseanne’s and grabbed a Uxie and a Fighting Energy.

I Rare Candied into a Flygon and dropped my Uxie for 5 and pulled a Rare Candy and a Luxury ball. I was able to search out my Machamp with my Luxury Ball, and Rare Candied into Machamp. I was a little ticked that I didn’t save my Fighting Energy because I could have ended the game right there. On my opponent’s next turn he was able to attach an Energy Gain along with a Lightning Energy to his Luxray, then he used a SP Radar to grab his Luxray GL Lv.X and easily “Bright looked “my Uxie to the active, he then was able to knock it out with the help of a Crobat G.

No worries though he only had two Pokemon out and I had a Machamp, I drew a Fighting Energy and attached it to Machamp and got a Knock Out on his Luxray GL. The rest of the game pretty much was Machamp knock out as his only Toxicroak G was prized, along with his Azelf, and Unown G.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Gyarados / Metagross SV

All I can really say about this game is it ended quickly; he opened with a Magikarp while I had a Trapinch. He went first and passed, I then used Bebe’s to grab a Vibrava attached a fighting energy and passed. He once again couldn’t do anything except play a Galactic HQ which was interesting but anyway. I evolved into Flygon and attached an energy and that was it.

2-0

Round 3 vs. Beedrill / Infernape 4

I had never played against a Beedrill deck with Infernape 4 but I figured it would be just like Raybees. He opened with a Weedle and I opened with Chatot. I went first and Azelf and was able to pull a Trapinch from my prize cards and attached an Energy, and passed.

My opponent was able to Roseanne’s two more Weedle on to his bench and Rare Candy one into a Beedrill (RR), he was able to use “Flutter Wings” and rare candy into a second Rising Rivals Beedrill he once again used “Flutter Wings “to grab a third Beedril (GE) he then played a Broken Time-Space Stadium and played Kakuna and Beedrill. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse he attached a Call Energy to his active Pokémon (I had never seen a Beedrill deck play Call Energy until now) and grabbed another Weedle and an Infernape 4.

I was able to set up a Claydol and a Machamp thanks to his Broken Time-Space and hit his active for forty. On his next turn he level  maxed an Infernape 4 Lv.X and used a Bebe’s to grab another Beedrill and was also able to set up a Cherrim(SF) and knocked out my Machamp with band attack. The rest of the game was just him hammering me with “Band Attack” and switching me out with Infernape 4 Lv.X while I struggled to even set up an attacker.

2-1

Round 4 vs. Rayquaza C / Electivire FB / Garchomp C

My opponent opened with a Rayquaza C and I had a Baltoy and Trapinch with an active Machop. He went first and attached a call energy and grabbed an Electivire FB and a Garchomp C. I immediately new that this deck was highly dependent on Lv.X’s so I set up a T1 Machamp and Flygon, I went ahead and got the take out Knock Out just to throw him off balance. He couldn’t contain my Machamp and set up his Rayquaza and by turn three he scooped.

3-1

Round 5 vs. Flygon / Machamp

Ahh, the mirror match just what everybody wants to play, correct.

He started with a Trapinch but he focused on bringing out his tech’s for the mirror and wound up only having an active Trapinch and benched Ditto at the end of turn one.  On my second turn I had set up a Machamp and got an early knock out which just through him even more off track. Basically he just continued to set up basics and I took five prizes with my Machamp and then he finally set up a Vibrava but it didn’t matter I just one shot it with a Flygon.

4-1

Top 4 vs. Gardevoir / Gallade / Weavile / Nidoqueen

Game 1:

He opens with Sneasel and I open with Baltoy and an active Trapinch. He goes first, attaches a Call Energy and grabs a Ralts and a Baltoy. I Rare Candy into a Flygon and grab a Claydol with a Luxury Ball. With Claydol I am then able to get a Machop. My opponent’s next turn he’s able to Rare Candy into a Gardevoir and attaches a Psychic Energy, then plays Weavile and powers his Gardevoir up with two Special Darkness Energies. The rest of the game was pretty straight forward, he Power Locked me until I knocked out his Gardevoir then he was able to take a couple of Prize Cards with a Gallade. Late game I locked his Claydol to the active, but he played a Warp Point and was able to pull the victory of with a Nidoqueen.

0-1

Game 2:

Game 2 was different, I found out in game 1 that he plays 4 Switch which made him immune to the Lock. I locked his Claydol in the active for three to four turns as he struggled to pull a switch, when he finally did he took two quick prizes with his Gallade. I only had one Memory Berry left and I counted twenty-one cards left in his deck. Approximately ten turns for decking to take place. I waited for a while and took three prize cards and then attached a memory berry and brought up his Claydol.

He couldn’t pull any switch during his next turn and I only had 2 prize cards to take so I knocked out his Claydol which also left him without draw power. He only had three cards left to draw so I locked a Nidoqueen with no energy attached to it in the active. His next turn I discarded his switch but he drew another one played it and got a knock out with Gardevoir on my Flygon.  Next turn I brought up Machamp Lv.X and took my last prize.

1-1

Game 3:

Game 3 was very similar to game 2. He quickly power locked me and I had a spurt were I took two prize cards. He would then send up his Gallade and try to get some fast knock outs. I used my Memory Berries different this game, when he played an Uxie or an Azelf I would pull it up and get knock out with Machamp.  Late game we were both stuck with one prize card to take. He had already used three of his Switches and I was hoping he wouldn’t draw into any. One turn he shrunk his hand size down to one card and forgot to use Claydol. Right after that I brought up his Claydol and dropped his deck size down to 6 cards. But right after that he pulled a switch, played and active Nidoqueen and knocked out my Flygon for the last prize.

1-2

Overall I think I did decent, a little misplay here and there but hey it happens to everybody. I will be going to another Battle Roads  in a couple of weeks and am going to test out a Flygon Lock variant, most likely the one with Palkia Lv.X and would love to do a report on that one as well.

Thanks to all of you.

Power Swing

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So here’s how things went. I arrived at the venue about an hour early, since I wanted to get some trading done for my deck that I’m planning for Cities, and I realized I forgot to choose a deck to run for the day. I figured, no biggie, it’s a BR. So I threw together a quick list, filled out a deck check form, and got registered when it started.  I originally didn’t like the deck, since it seemed like it got more bad starts than good, but I didn’t have time to be nit picky about it, so I just made some quick alterations and went with it.

The list was as follows:

Round 1: Vs. Luxray/Manectric

I power lock the first 2 turns, to make sure that my setup didn’t get ruined by a Bright Look. After that, I had my Gallade running, so I just one shot everything she threw at me, since they all had fighting weakness. I also only had to flip the one prize I was going to take to one shot Manectric, and none to KO Luxray, so I ended up winning fairly easily.

1-0

Round 2: Vs. Sableye/Mightyena/SP

Now, you look at the name of the main cards in the deck, and you think “Geez, what a god awful deck. Did he get a R1 bye or what?”. No, actually I helped this guy make this deck, and it’s specifically made to tear apart someone’s early game setup, since it can one shot most Stage 2 line’s basics with Sableye/Crobat drops, and can clean up later with Mightyena. This is literally a donk based deck that does not use Machamp, believe it or not.

So when we start, he’s got a Sableye so he goes first. He doesn’t have the Crobat and Special Darkness he needs to one shot my Ralts, so he Impersonates a Roseanne’s to get his Skuntank G and Poochyena. So from this, I know he’s planning on going fully aggro early on with the Mightyena, and using the Sableye to clean up, opposite of the norm, but still viable as long as they can’t heal in between turns (That was a reference to Nidoqueen Rising Rivals, if you didn’t know.)

I think, and I think, and I think, until I realize that Poison Structure is a power, and therefore I can shut if off with Psychic Bind/Lock and he won’t be able to attack every turn. I proceed to do that, and it gives me a fairly easy win.

2-0

Round 3: Vs. Gengar

If you’ve played Gardevoir in the last year, you know that Gengar is a horrible, horrible matchup. Everything on the field has a power, so it’s basically target practice for Shadow Room. Then I also had weakness to Psychic, which meant I was going to have to be extremely careful with Poltergeist, since I had to factor in weakness. Ouch.

As soon as I saw him open with Gastly, I was worried. So when I went second, I immediately Guard my Baltoy and the Ralts I was planning on evolving into the Gardevoir PL. I had to skip the T2 power lock for that, though, so he took advantage of the lull by using Uxie for 5, then burning a few cards to Cosmic for another 5.

Thankfully, I got yet another fast Gallade and quickly one shot his first Gengar while dropping Mesprits. And his second Gengar went down quickly after. No heads with Fainting Spell, so I’m thanking whatever deity may be listening to me that day, and I take out the rest of his setup with the Gardevoir SW.

3-0

Round 4: Vs. Flygon

I can’t really tell you much about this one, just that it was brutal. Early Mesprit drops ruined any chance of setting up using Cosmic Power  or Setup, so he never really got much. By turn 4, I had a Gardevoir SW keeping him under lock, so he just scoops.

4-0

Round 5: Vs. Blaziken/Blaziken FB

Remember in the second round when I could win by shutting off their powers, since they couldn’t get their status working the way they wanted them to? Same strategy. Except that he actually could attack with Clutch, which made me use my Warp Points a lot faster than I wanted to. I just got an early Gardevoir Lv.X and used it with Moonlight for my retreating purposes.

An interesting thing of note about this round is that all my Super Scoop Ups got a tails, therefore I had to use Gardevoir SW constantly for locking Powers.

5-0

Top 4: Vs. Flygon

He was very happy to get a rematch, after the beating he got in Swiss.

Round 1:

When we set up, I got an Unown G start going first. Yeah, I know it’s bad, too. I attached, and passed. He started with a Baltoy, and since he drew no basics to begin, I had an extra card in my hand from him not having any basics in his first hand so he used Baltoy’s Psychic Balance.  I thought it odd that he didn’t have any Supporters, but I shrugged it off as just unlucky.

I used Roseanne’s to get a Psychic and a Ralts, and then when I was about to attach the Psychic to the Ralts, I realized that I didn’t have any damage on Unown G. I know some of you probably immediately think of using Unown G to attack, but I don’t. So I used Hidden Power for 50 to end the first round.

Round 2:

I got a beautiful, beautiful setup, and I was able to Guard early so he couldn’t even Inviting Trap to stall. It wasn’t a good thing for him.

Top 2: Vs. Regigigas

I was as confused as you are when I saw that that had made it to T2, but he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Round 1:

He opens with Chatot G and Regigigas. He uses Chatot G’s attack to grab a Premier Ball while attaching to Regi, and passed. I got the worst start imaginable. All my Uppers were in hand, along with a bunch of Super Scoop Ups, and I started with an Unown G. I attached an Upper to Unown G, and passed. He goes for a Regice and Uxie with Roseanne’s, and uses Regice’s Regi Move to discard 2 Energy, and then drops Uxie for 3-4 after using that Premier Ball for Regigigas LV.X. He sacrifices the Uxie, and used Giga Blaster for the round.

Round 2:

This time I got a much better start, getting using Gallade’s Sonic Blade on turn 2 against his active Regigigas. He got the first Mesprit in, though, so I wasn’t able to keep him from using Sacrifice to heal and charge. It didn’t matter, though, since Gallade easily one shot everything on his field with minimal prize flipping.

Round 3:

I started with 2 Ralts, going first. I attached to the Ralts on my bench, and used Future Sight, putting a Rare Candy as my draw for the next turn.  He draws, attaches to Regigigas, uses Regice’s Power to discard 2 Energy from his hand, uses a Level Max to jump right into the LV.X, sacrificed the Regice, and used Gigaton Punch to KO my Active Ralts. I responded by using that Rare Candy I got with Future Sight, and getting a turn 2 Gallade with a Bebe’s. Then I attached an Upper Energy and used Psychic Cut for 360 damage.

So I got first place with a deck I didn’t think was any good, and I pulled a Absol G LV.X and a Shiny from my winner packs. I’ve also ended my day with a 7-1 Win-Loss record for Battle Roads.

Not a bad way to start the season.

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