I just finished watching the Season Finale of Grey’s Anatomy. (SPOILER ALERT!) A disgruntled guy walks into the hospital, pulls out a gun, headshots one of the surgeons, and for the rest of the two hour episode, meets every character in Seattle Grace, shooting half of them and looking completely insane. The concept was not that creative, the plot was simple, and the storyline had many holes in it, but what made the episode very powerful was that you would not expect that to happen in this show. In fact, the episode that introduced the shooter earlier in the season ended with the two doctors that were talking to him promptly leaving to talk about relationship issues.
I think that playing a rogue deck is the same way – even if it doesn’t look pretty, if you have built it carefully and tested, it may be very strong. Last time I covered how to begin thinking about what to do for your own Rogue deck – how to develop your understanding of the metagame and the cards into a general deck concept. That part usually requires some creativity, some thinking, and some offbeat knowledge. After you have your idea, however, things are different.
In this last article, if nothing else I hope that you take away that being able to run a successful rogue deck means putting in more time for testing, more time for deck building, and a lot more work overall. Your finished product may not be the prettiest combo, it may just be a two-hour shooting rampage. But if you know it works (through the last few steps) and play it well, it could pay off for you.
Step 4: Build a deck
Now, you have a bunch of more well-developed possible deck ideas. My advice is, pick the one that gets you most excited and try to build a deck around it. The process is similar to what you have already done. Ostensibly, the card counters some need you have identified. You now build a deck that attempts to do what you envisioned. At first, the deck will obviously suck. Sometimes you know why, other times, you have to playtest a bit to understand.
At this point, you should test against the decks you expected to counter; 2-4 of the most played decks in the format. You can always think about adjustments or Techs to add to counter the other decks later. After testing, apply the first few steps again. Identify WHY the deck sucks (if you don’t think it sucks, you haven’t tested enough). Brainstorm ways to fix it. Maybe discover a crazy combo – you already have one piece! As an example, if your deck is too slow, maybe some Energy acceleration would help. If it does really well versus the top two decks but has a bad autoloss, then perhaps it just needs a good secondary attacker.
For Worlds 04, we came up with Medicham/Lanturn/Banette that we hoped could outspeed the popular setup decks in the format. We mostly tested against Blaziken (which was my favorite deck at the time, so I usually played it); the various types of the main attackers were added to counter other popular decks, e.g., water decks. At first, I won with Blaziken most of the time, and thus I played it at Nationals (and got 2nd, all three games were donks, I think it was the right call). However, eventually I lost to it often and Pablo convinced me to switch to Medicham/Lanturn/Banette before Worlds.
Step 5: Extensive testing vs. Metagame
After doing Step 3 multiple times, you have a couple of decks that you think can beat what you want to beat. It’s time to test versus other decks you expect to play. Test the deck against every popular deck you can think of, and some decks that are even past their prime (you can see a lot of random stuff at tournaments). Try to get a good mix of control decks, Haymaker-style decks, and as many other different styles you can think of. Continue identifying problems in each matchup, and come up with ways to fix your deck or add Tech cards to make it better (repeating the first four steps!).
Identify the auto-losses and make a plan or add Tech cards so that you have at least a shot at winning. The point is, play with your deck as much as possible, like you would at a tournament, and try to fix it up as best you can after seeing the weaknesses in its play.
At this point, many people often come up with a lot of random ideas, making their deck a 35-Pokemon mess. I think you should focus really on what your deck is trying to accomplish. For example, if you are trying to outspeed people, evaluate if you actually can reach your maximum damage by T1 or T2 or whatever your goal was. If you do, and it still doesn’t work, maybe the concept just isn’t right. Move on, try to be objective, and don’t get too attached.
Step 6: Pick a deck
Usually it is pretty easy to see what the best idea you have come up with is after testing so much. I don’t usually have problems picking a deck – not very many decks have better than 50% matchups against every other deck in my testing! I think usually you can just feel out the right deck for you – whatever makes you most confident.
Now that you have picked a deck, things become easier from an innovation point of view. But your work is not done – you must always continue to test, become more familiar with the deck and its matchups, and learn some tricks for different situations. One example is Basics. I see people choose many interesting Basic Pokemon for their main attacker or support – some with snipe, some with draw power, etc. But when they need a crucial snipe for a particular matchup, or draw power versus some control decks, they only think about getting a Crobat + PokeTurn or a Claydol out. Why not just try one Psychic Balance, for example? People often put themselves in bad position to get destroyed by my Mesprit (“Psychic Bind”), for example, which can unload a sudden 90 damage with a belt. Maybe your Basics or Support Pokemon hold the answer to important matchups!
Step 7: More testing/Evaluation
You thought we were done, but I don’t think I have emphasized enough the importance of testing. Through testing you can figure out how to improve your deck, understand its matchups and their percentages, and learn the skills needed to use something new. Archetypes have hundreds of people testing them and making improvements, so they are very sleek. It’s on you to make sure your deck has the same amount of testing as this. It’s also important of course to get feedback from other people.
I try to keep my ideas limited to a small set of people so it’s still a surprise when I run it, but I think players these days are so arrogant that they won’t really prepare against your deck even it if is leaked. So posting it on SixPrizes could net you some great feedback; just don’t take criticisms too harshly, they are inevitable.
Then, make the final evaluation. Is your deck the counter to the entire format, as planned? Does it flat out suck two days before the tournament, forcing you to pick up four Gyarados Theme Decks from Wal-Mart because you don’t have enough cash for Luxray GL LV.X? That’s why it’s important to get an early start, and test thoroughly!
Step 8: Take it to a tournament
After you have tested your deck, winning a tournament is just like testing for a few more games. If everything goes right, you have put yourself in a good chance to win. Sometimes, players pull out spectacular combos at events that make you go, “I never could have thought about that!” Well, the truth is that oftentimes these moves are rehearsed beforehand in key matchups, and all you have to do is remember what you did to win in testing. Another key to playing a Rogue deck is that you can tilt your opponent more easily. They often get distracted reading the card or thinking about the maximum damage your card can do, so if you play at a good pace they may not be able to think as strategically or get flustered.
Remember, the key to winning is that you have prepared for their deck but they may not even know how yours works, or what you can run. It’s like the Grey’s Anatomy episode I was telling you about – you just sit there, shocked, easily agitated, because so many of the cast regulars get shot up like it’s going out of style.
I’m sure you are all curious about how rogue decks I have been involved in have fared. At Gym Challenges 05, I played Cradily/Zapdos ex, beating Alex Brosseau (BigChuck01) and Kyle Sucevich (Pooka, in Sudden Death) before being outplayed in an intense game (and through my testing, about a 50/50 matchup) against Matt Moss’s Rocklock. I thought I definitely made the right call on the deck, and though I didn’t win my trip to Worlds, I was in a good position. At Worlds 05, Adam, Pablo, and Jeremy all played Nidoqueen, with really great success.
However, bad things sometimes happen. At Worlds 04, Adam, Pablo, Jeremy, and I all played Medicham/Lanturn/Banette. As expected, we cruised through the American players using Blazikens and Suicune exs. However, the X-factor was the massive amount of Japanese players using Magma, a deck we had dismissed. All Magma stuff was under 100 HP, snipe-able by Blaze ex, and there was no Water-type Magma Pokemon to counter.
However, all of our main attackers were weak to Magma – Lanturn, our main attacker, was weak to Magma’s Groudon, the Japanese main attacker. After T2 donking a Suicune ex to land in the Top 16, there was nothing I could do against Magma, and lost in 3 games to a glorified Theme Deck.
Extra: What NOT to do
As I said before, the key is to keep an open mind and not let other people’s opinions bother you. And while I said researching is good, there is a point of too much researching. For example, backtrack five years. Adam, Pablo, Jeremy, and I were fresh off getting destroyed at Worlds 04 by the Japanese Magma deck. We knew we made the right play for the American metagame. But we decided, wouldn’t it be so much fun to spy on people. So we set up a whole section on our message board devoted to spying, and a whole subforum on spying on the Japanese.
We learned the names of every Pokemon and Trainer Card after it had been translated from Japanese to English in Babelfish; we entered other people’s message boards and tried to steer them away from discovering what we knew; and I even got a lifetime ban from PokeGym for spamming to cover up some ideas I thought would be important (I have since been unbanned due to pity!). We also established Japanese contacts and I played a few games versus them with Lackey CCG, a now-defunct Pokemon TCG simulator in the vein of Redshark (but with pictures!).
What did we get after wasting countless hours reading Babelfish garbage and befriending some strange Japanese people? We found out that the Japanese used Jirachi DX instead of Dunsparce. That’s about it. Though research is important, don’t waste your time by going overboard (though it was a lot of fun)! Instead, waste your time testing it yourself!
Conclusion
In my opinion, Pokemon is not really a game of that much playing skill. If you play G-dos.dec, for example, sure you have to know what 3 things to Collector for in the beginning, and what order to use Supporters, but the rest of the skill is in hitting Super Scoop Up flips and shouting “Tail Revenge!!” in the most annoying way possible. Sure, there are some people that make fewer mistakes, have a better knowledge of the game, and these people often end up on top, but it is certainly not a tactically complex game. What could give you a really big advantage, however, is surprising people with a new deck/Tech card/secondary attacker.
If my starting Pokemon was a Mudkip GE, how many people would actually know that Swampert SV has a “Drag Off” type attack and they should avoid benching huge retreat guys, and stock up Warp Points or Super Scoop Up in hand? Maybe you do, but I don’t, and I’m willing it bet that 25% of the people you face barely know that Swampert even evolves from Mudkip. I’m not saying Swampert is good, but I hope you get the idea.
The above system is just a series of steps to help you through building your own deck. If you follow it, no matter how unimaginative you are, you WILL come out with something. But don’t think about it like a series of homeworks you have to follow. These are just suggestions – follow the steps, break a few, do them again and out of order – but just let your imagination go!
Even if you don’t come up with the next Nidoqueen or Grey’s Anatomy killing spree, you may end up finding a neat Tech, understanding a crucial play for an existing deck, and sharpening your playing! While rogue decks don’t always win or go as planned, I think that building them is rewarding and could give you a huge advantage in tournament play. Follow the steps, come up with ideas, and if you are brave enough, post them on SixPrizes!
