Well, where to begin. I guess I’ll introduce myself. My name is Andy. Around here, I go by airhawk06. At the ‘Gym I go by ajhawk. Let me continue by acknowledging one of my biggest flaws: sticking my foot in my mouth. I do this more than I should on the boards. Nothing too bad, but mostly just getting overly defensive. I apologize to any of you that I have done this too. I am working on it.
Now, as for my Pokémon career, I am a relatively unknown player. When the game debuted in 1998, I instantly loved it. The only problem was that I lived in the middle of nowhere and my parents were not completely into driving me around for tournaments. So, I was mostly relegated to playing with my friend and at the card shop 20-ish minutes away. The shop was not an official league, so no official tournaments for us. Then Yu-Gi-Oh came out and I got into that. Then came spots. I love sports and played as many as I could.
Fast-forward to my college years and I found myself at MIZZOU. There I met the local Pokemon league owner. He found out that I used to play and asked me to help, and I did. My first competitive event was Missouri States 2011 with a Charizard AR deck that only had 3 Rare Candy and 0 Broken Time-Space because I didn’t have any. I went 3-3 drop. Then at Regionals I played MagneRock and went 4-4 and misplayed in a huge way Round 8 to miss cut.
Then at Nationals 2011 I went 9-0 Swiss. I thought that, maybe, just maybe I had broken through. I really felt that I played a near flawless tournament to that point. Then, I completely gave away the first game in Top 128 and got Turn-2-Magnezone-Donked in game two, and the ride came crashing down.
Looking back on that day, I got too comfortable. I got too confident. I made a really stupid misplay. So, with renewed humility I went back home and continued to grow as a player.
This season I have played 1 BR (which I won), 1 round at Regionals in a day that went comically bad, and 1 City (7th place, the tourny started at 1 PM and I found out at 12:30 PM I could go). For the time being, I am working on practicing and testing. I am hopeful I will get to go to two States, and I am planning on hitting up some Battle Roads before Nats.
So, that is my playing history. It does not even compare with the other UG writers we are blessed to read. (Alert: a little bragging here.) However, I have been voted into the Top 5 of the Writer of the Month poll every month since last July (that might need some fact checking… if I’ve missed the Top 5, it has only been by a place or two). In that time, I have two 1st places, two 2nds, and one 3rd (out of seven months).
Unfortunately, Josh could not make his regular slot. I’m sure you all would rather listen him. Alas, you have me. (Hope your life settles down a little Josh, we miss reading your work. Also, good luck with everything, you have a lot going on.) Adam apparently trusts me to bring forward a quality article. Let’s find out if that trust is warranted. Be warned, this is a little bit scatter brained.
Rising Cards
The first and foremost, I want to talk about cards that are poised to have a great States run. Some of these cards you might be expecting, others you might not. Let’s just hope I am on top of it.
Stadiums: I do not think that there is going to be a fully fledged Stadium war like in years past, but I do think it is an interesting sub-set of cards to watch out for.
Celebi Prime/Mewtwo EX/Torandus EPO (CMT) is getting a lot of hype right now. Furthermore, there is one card (of several) that makes the deck work: Skyarrow Bridge. Without the retreat aid, CMT gets really clunky, really fast. Celebi, Tornadus, and even the occasional Smeargle UD loses their free retreat when you ditch the Bridge.
That means, if CMT shows up in droves, you may see other decks (that have a one or two “flex” spot) run a counter-Stadium just to spite CMT.
(As an aside, I’m not completely sold on CMT. More on that to come.)
Lost Remover: I’m sure most of you have heard this over and over. Lost Remover is very, VERY good in the upcoming meta. Just take a look at a lot of the lists floating around. Most of them run either 3-4 Double Colorless Energy or Prism Energy or Rescue Energy or Special Metal Energy. Shoot, some decks run combinations of those.
In that type of environment, the ability to take an energy card from the field and remove it completely from play is epic. There is a great debate about what is the most disruptive card in the format. N and Pokemon Catcher are often considered to be the most disruptive. I would submit to you, in this format Lost Remover is not far behind, especially when you can combo it with Junk Arm.
Basic Energy: This is the yang to Lost Remover’s yin. Because Special Energies are poised to see a rise in play, Lost Remover is poised to see a rise in play. Because Lost Remover will see a rise in play, decks that can function solely on Basic Energy inherently gain an advantage compared to the field.
If you can operate without Special Energies, all of those Lost Removers floating around become dead draws and/or Junk Arm fodder to your opponent. This means that decks that utilize basic acceleration gain compared to the field (read: Magnezone/Eels, TyRam, Emboar, etc.).
N: We all know what N does. However, I do not think most players recognize how powerful it is right now. Players who experienced Rocket’s Admin. will attest.
EXs will make the game faster. You will be trading prizes faster. This really makes the comeback cards that much more powerful. N is the poster child for this.
Pick Up Cards: I believe Dakota talked about these. There is virtually nothing (aside from type advantage matchups) that can reliably OHKO the EXs. So, if you can successfully pick up a damaged EX, will have denied your opponent two prizes. If you can take one or two prizes before Picking up an EX, you are in great shape. Look out for Seeker and Super Scoop Up.
Mass Recovery Cards: Two cards in particular will like find a place in most decks, or at least I think they should. These two cards are Super Rod and Flower Shop Lady. Durant NVI is bound to see a rise in play. So, these two cards become key in buying yourself one or two more turns.
A Couple of Rogues
Now, I want to talk about a couple rogue decks. I know that not everyone has/wants to play meta-decks. Well, here are two decks that most people could pull together. You can simply skip down a little bit if you want to get back to high tier, meta decks.
Status Eeveelutions
Mr. Kettler brought us Miasma Mew, but I am going to talk about the deck’s normal form. Let’s take a look at a list:
|
Pokemon – 17 4 Foongus NXD |
Trainers – 33 3 Professor Juniper 2 Seeker
3 Pokegear 3.0 |
Energy – 10 6 Grass 4 Rescue |
The very first thing I want to say for this deck is that it sets up unbelievably consistently. Why is that? Let’s look:
Pokemon
Eevee: The Basic to the main attacker in the deck has a “Call for Family” attack. So, if you go first, you will not have to worry too much about losing on your opponent’s first turn. You will get another Basic in play.
Foongus: The Basic of the status inflicter has a “Find a Friend” attack. If you flip heads, you get to search your deck for any Pokémon, reveal it, and put it into your hand. It is not quite as good as Call for Family, but it is still a nice little consistency booster.
Amoonguss: This is the evolution of Foongus. When Amoonguss hits the field you can use its Pokémon Ability, “Sporprise.” Sporprise inflicts both Poison and Confusion to the defending Pokémon.
Leafeon: This 90 HP Stage 1 is the main attacker in the deck. For C, “Miasma Wind” does 50 damage times the number of status effects the defending Pokémon is inflicted with. This means that most of the time you should be swinging for 100 + 10 for Poison each turn. That is plenty enough to 2HKO any Pokémon in the game.
It should also be mentioned that Leafeon’s second attack is useful in some situations. It reduces the game to luck, but for G you deal 30 damage and put the defending Pokémon to Sleep. We all know how annoying Baby flips are, and this can put you into a similar situation.
Espeon Prime: This is the other Eeveeloution in the deck. It is a 100 HP Psychic Pokémon. The main reason for this card is simply a Mewtwo EX counter. Its Poke-Body, “Evolution Memories,” allows Espeon to use the attacks of other Eeveeloutions in play. This means Espeon can use Miasma Wind and hit Mewtwo EX for 200 due to weakness.
Cleffa: Just your standard crutch draw Pokémon.
Trainers
Pokemon Collector/Level Ball/Pokémon Communication: Unfortunately, Espeon has 100 HP. Everything else in the deck is at 90 HP or less. This makes Level Ball the premier individual search card for the deck.
Seeker/Super Scoop Up: These two cards are the hinge of the deck. They allow you to pick up Amoonguss from the bench and reuse him. For as consistently as this deck sets up early, it can bog down in the mid-game. Right now, I have a 4/2 split. I think I would like a 4/3 split, but I need to cut a card in another place.
Originally, I had a 3/3 split. I found I was hitting too many tails on Super Scoop Up and I always had difficult situations to use Seeker. Many times I desperately needed to pick up Amoonguss and use a different Supporter in the same turn. I upped the SSU count and it has worked a little better.
Energy
Rescue Energy: Since Miasma Wind runs on one colorless energy, Rescue Energy is a great fit. It allows you to recycle attackers effortlessly.
Overall, I feel this is a solid deck. It will bet many other rogue concepts people show up with at States. Unfortunately, it tends to come up just short against the meta decks.
Clock Lock
Many people know this as Sharpedo Lock; however, the deck has grown beyond that.
|
Pokemon – 19 3 Slowpoke UD |
Trainers – 28 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory
4 Pokémon Communication 3 Junk Arm |
Energy – 10 4 Rainbow |
Open Slots – 3
This list give you three slots to play with. I will not devote a ton of space to this gimmicky deck. However, now there are two opportunities to lock your opponent out of the game.
First, is the traditional turn two Strip Bare. We all know how the 44.4%-ish odds of hitting the double heads.
Second, you can lock an opponent out of a game once he has taken 5 prizes. It is worth playing this deck just to pull this off once. There is not a single better troll opportunity out there.
The simple idea is that you focus on giving up 5 prizes. However, you need to keep a Slowking ready. On your turn, you try to Lost Remover an energy or two. You get Shaymin EX into play with 2 energy. Then you play N. Then you use Second Sight to arrange your opponent’s top deck. Then you proceed to steamroll with Shaymin EX swinging for 180 till kingdom come.
Admittedly, it does not work a ton, but I did want to toss it in for free.
The Not Top 5
Now, I am going to talk about decks that just miss out of the Top 5, but can go far with a good list. Let me be clear, I think these are all decks that can work and can see results. I just do not think they are decks that deserve to be in the Top 5.
