Blog Alakaboodle - Awakening Of The Psychic King Set Review!

Well crap... I had said that Vespi will get big in Fates Collide(I think it was another article), but Glaceon just said"naw". Now my Pyroar might actually have some use.
 
If this hasn't been pointed out in the long string of comments, A very notable difference between Zygarde EX and Lucario is the Psychic type weakness. Zygarde-EX is weak to grass. Vespiquen isn't that popular at the moment in standard, and people prefer to go for a straight NM build instead
Thus, due to this absence, Zygarde would fetch slightly more favorable match-ups in the long run.
 
If this hasn't been pointed out in the long string of comments, A very notable difference between Zygarde EX and Lucario is the Psychic type weakness. Zygarde-EX is weak to grass. Vespiquen isn't that popular at the moment in standard, and people prefer to go for a straight NM build instead
Thus, due to this absence, Zygarde would fetch slightly more favorable match-ups in the long run.
But that's the thing, when Zygarde becomes popular, Vespiquen will rise in popularity.
 
But that's the thing, when Zygarde becomes popular, Vespiquen will rise in popularity.
Which in turn will make fighting run Lucario EX again. In my opinion fighting decks have the most diverse and Powerfully Aggressive cardpool with many one energy attackers, and SO much energy acceleration. The support list for fighting type decks is getting sooo long, there are a ton Archetypes within the fighting type that can do well, and a good player can easily change their deck to help with the changes in their meta. Zygarde EX is a powerhouse. Enough said. You attach a FFB and have a fighting stadium, your hitting for 70 on an ex with a 230HP pokemon for 1 energy or 90 with a strong. Why would Zygarde EX care about Toad lock when it can't be OHKO by it, and in turn 2HKO with only ONE energy. As for Trevenant, Zygarde don't care about that damage spread once you get two energies on it. I think you are completely undervaluing the versatility of Zygarde EX. The only problem Pokemon for Zygarde EX is Regice, but most Fighting decks run Non-EX's anyways.

Oh, and do you not see the possibility of an Eeveelutions / Lucario build, with target whistle? Because I do, the combo to hit for weakness on 70% of the meta is amazing, and the math for Lucario's attack is GREAT, especially with muscle band, and accounting for weakness. I think you undervalued Lucario as well.
 
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@saiyiuchan001 @Dark Espeon
About mega Kazoom, the deck has major problems with decks in format. For one, item lock screws over the entire deck you describe. Toad and Trevenant are major forces in the meta right now and will easily destroy this deck. And what happens under ability lock? Like Greninja, Garb, or Silent lab? Do you just lose? This is why you need bats as well as alazkazam. This brings me to my second point, of why not wobbuffet? It has many more advantages than alakazam.

Granted Alakazam decks have a terrible weakness and are based on abilities. Thus Hex Maniac Garbodor and Greninja can shut it down. However this also holds for Crobat. For that reason Crobat is a terrible partner for Alakazam. I would rather use him with Wobbuffet and Hoopa. The item lock argument applies to almost all decks. That is the reason Trevenant and Seismitoad work that well. My main pont is that you suggest the wrong partner for Alakazam since the Crobat variant is inferior to a Wobbuffet variant to uses Alakazam to spread damage.
 
It was in the Zygarde deck scans a couple days ago, but I guess they removed it, because it wasn't there. It was right above strong energy if you checked out the scans the first couple days of release.

Nope. Fighting Stadium was not reprinted in the Zygarde deck. It was Scorched Earth instead.

Oh, and do you not see the possibility of an Eeveelutions / Lucario build, with target whistle? Because I do, the combo to hit for weakness on 70% of the meta is amazing, and the math for Lucario's attack is GREAT, especially with muscle band, and accounting for weakness. I think you undervalued Lucario as well.

Are you talking about the regular eeveelutions from AOR or the recent EX cards? Cause if you're talking about the former, that doesn't work.

As for Zygarde vs Lucario (which btw, I don't see how Zygarde is bad when it and Lucario are almost the same card): Instead of choosing one of the two, why not run both? Since hey have different weaknesses, depending on the deck you're facing, you choose which one to use as the attacker...
 
Granted Alakazam decks have a terrible weakness and are based on abilities. Thus Hex Maniac Garbodor and Greninja can shut it down. However this also holds for Crobat. For that reason Crobat is a terrible partner for Alakazam. I would rather use him with Wobbuffet and Hoopa. The item lock argument applies to almost all decks. That is the reason Trevenant and Seismitoad work that well. My main pont is that you suggest the wrong partner for Alakazam since the Crobat variant is inferior to a Wobbuffet variant to uses Alakazam to spread damage.
But crobat can still spread damage under lock from its attack. If your opponent uses hex, you risk evolving without using the ability which would be a waste. And Wobb/Alakazam could work now that I think about it.
 
Nice article Elbow. I am only half way through it but this caught my eye re Barbaracle.
You can use this ability if you have a Stadium card in play.

Emphasis added on the you. I take this to mean that like Mamoswine, the card is dependent on whether you played the stadium or your opponent did. Which takes the hype level for this card down a whole lot for me. Delinquent / Paint Roller / Scizor etc. are not the only counters now, any set of their own stadiums will do.

For instance a night march deck plays their D Valley and knocks your stadium out. Now they are free to attach a DCE and they're off and running again. Am I reading this right?
 
Nope. Fighting Stadium was not reprinted in the Zygarde deck. It was Scorched Earth instead.



Are you talking about the regular eeveelutions from AOR or the recent EX cards? Cause if you're talking about the former, that doesn't work.

As for Zygarde vs Lucario (which btw, I don't see how Zygarde is bad when it and Lucario are almost the same card): Instead of choosing one of the two, why not run both? Since hey have different weaknesses, depending on the deck you're facing, you choose which one to use as the attacker...
I am talking about the ones from AOR, why wouldn't they work? I understand that your bench has to be smaller than theirs, but you will want to be hitting for weakness, and the amount of damage you'll be with lucario will be significant enough to to KO alot of the major players in the meta with only a difference of one on the bench and a muscle band.
 
Quick question. Twisted spoon reads: Prevent all effects of attacks, except damage, done to the Pokemon this card is attached to. Does that mean Pokemon that have this tool attached to it are immune to "placing damage counters" attacks? I am assuming that Crobat lines are an ability and don't count as "attacks". Thanks.
 
Quick question. Twisted spoon reads: Prevent all effects of attacks, except damage, done to the Pokemon this card is attached to. Does that mean Pokemon that have this tool attached to it are immune to "placing damage counters" attacks? I am assuming that Crobat lines are an ability and don't count as "attacks". Thanks.
I would assume that since the Damage is actually an effect of the attack it would prevent it, but I would post this question in the Ask a Professor Forumn for a more accurate and official answer! =P
 
Nice article Elbow. I am only half way through it but this caught my eye re Barbaracle.


Emphasis added on the you. I take this to mean that like Mamoswine, the card is dependent on whether you played the stadium or your opponent did. Which takes the hype level for this card down a whole lot for me. Delinquent / Paint Roller / Scizor etc. are not the only counters now, any set of their own stadiums will do.

For instance a night march deck plays their D Valley and knocks your stadium out. Now they are free to attach a DCE and they're off and running again. Am I reading this right?
The Japanese text sometimes isn't the same when translates. Regardless it is still good. If a person missed thier stadium drop they can't attack basically.
 
But that's the thing, when Zygarde becomes popular, Vespiquen will rise in popularity.

This is ultimately true, but I also must point out: Why is Vespiquen not popular? While "The right meta" is a very decisive factor, The other reason is because similar decks like Night march do the same thing a bit better and more efficiently.

I feel that decks that show of Vespiquen's potential true in it's own right (like vileplume/vespiquen) should emerge, but sadly, with a lack of creativity, If Zygarde takes a ride on the hype train, people are going to simply play their old Night March Deck with Vespiquen as a secondary attacker. That would take a deal of consistency away from the archetype's core, and possibly allow decks weakish to Night March to become unsurpressed.

I dunno :p
 
I am talking about the ones from AOR, why wouldn't they work? I understand that your bench has to be smaller than theirs, but you will want to be hitting for weakness, and the amount of damage you'll be with lucario will be significant enough to to KO alot of the major players in the meta with only a difference of one on the bench and a muscle band.

Oh, nevermind. I thought you were talking about Lucario-EX because we were comparing it with Zygarde-EX...

Yes, the eeveelutions with regular Lucario is a nice idea.
 
Figured I would throw this out there in case someone has not already (if someone has, then sorry for the repetition :p)...

But Regirock EX works extremely well with Medicham AT, providing even more scaling for an attacker that already loves damage scaling.
 
Quick question. Twisted spoon reads: Prevent all effects of attacks, except damage, done to the Pokemon this card is attached to. Does that mean Pokemon that have this tool attached to it are immune to "placing damage counters" attacks? I am assuming that Crobat lines are an ability and don't count as "attacks". Thanks.

I understand that Twisted Spoon will block attacks that "place damage counters" as this is considered an effect of an attack, not base damage. The current example is Suicune from BREAKPoint, which blocks Trevenant BREAK's Silent Fear.

Twisted Spoon would not block damage from Abilities such as Crobat's "Surprise Bite".
 
But crobat can still spread damage under lock from its attack. If your opponent uses hex, you risk evolving without using the ability which would be a waste. And Wobb/Alakazam could work now that I think about it.

That was the main point. Have Wobbuffet active to block Shaymin Ex and other draw abilities while Alakazam spreads damage from the bench by means of evoluation. At least this makes it harder for the opponent to use Hex Maniac because it costs their supporter. Crobat needs more deck space and does too little for the invested deck space from my point of view. Please keep in mind that I have not tested the deck thus far because my cards are still on their way. So this is based on theoretical considerations.
 
That was the main point. Have Wobbuffet active to block Shaymin Ex and other draw abilities while Alakazam spreads damage from the bench by means of evoluation. At least this makes it harder for the opponent to use Hex Maniac because it costs their supporter. Crobat needs more deck space and does too little for the invested deck space from my point of view. Please keep in mind that I have not tested the deck thus far because my cards are still on their way. So this is based on theoretical considerations.
I agree with this for the most part. You do mention the space issue with Crobat. This will be the same with Alakazam or even more as if it's your primary damage spreader you are running a 4-4-4, EX, Mega, Link lin, which is a bit more than usual crobat lists. It really won't be that different other than relying on the tool to evolve. Granted, you have a better attacker than crobat, but it's still an EX.
 
Which in turn will make fighting run Lucario EX again. In my opinion fighting decks have the most diverse and Powerfully Aggressive cardpool with many one energy attackers, and SO much energy acceleration. The support list for fighting type decks is getting sooo long, there are a ton Archetypes within the fighting type that can do well, and a good player can easily change their deck to help with the changes in their meta. Zygarde EX is a powerhouse. Enough said. You attach a FFB and have a fighting stadium, your hitting for 70 on an ex with a 230HP pokemon for 1 energy or 90 with a strong. Why would Zygarde EX care about Toad lock when it can't be OHKO by it, and in turn 2HKO with only ONE energy. As for Trevenant, Zygarde don't care about that damage spread once you get two energies on it. I think you are completely undervaluing the versatility of Zygarde EX. The only problem Pokemon for Zygarde EX is Regice, but most Fighting decks run Non-EX's anyways.

Oh, and do you not see the possibility of an Eeveelutions / Lucario build, with target whistle? Because I do, the combo to hit for weakness on 70% of the meta is amazing, and the math for Lucario's attack is GREAT, especially with muscle band, and accounting for weakness. I think you undervalued Lucario as well.
Actually, I haven't said anything yet, but Zygarde is actually the biggest thing I look forward to in the set. Since my B-day is 2 days before the tins come out, I'm blowing any money I get on tins and ask for a Box as my main gift. I really look forward to using it as my main deck. I was just saying that Bees destroy this. Everybody overlooks though, how using Lucario would worsen the prize trade even more than it already would be with Bees. we already have no problem making OHKO's and since Bees best friend is Lysandre, it would win the match up. I don't care what or who I talk about, as long as it's fair, and that's what I was doing. But, like I said, I just haven't said anything.
 
I agree with this for the most part. You do mention the space issue with Crobat. This will be the same with Alakazam or even more as if it's your primary damage spreader you are running a 4-4-4, EX, Mega, Link lin, which is a bit more than usual crobat lists. It really won't be that different other than relying on the tool to evolve. Granted, you have a better attacker than crobat, but it's still an EX.

I agree with you. We seem to have a case of miscommunication here since I am not a native speaker. In my original post I wanted to point out that Crobat takes more deck slots than Wobbuffet and does less for Alakazam than Wobbuffet.
 
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