So I played a pretty crazy deck today. I didn't do so well, but it was a TON of fun because none of my opponents had any idea how to play against it. For the first time since the rotation, I actually felt like I outplayed people. Never underestimate the power of well-placed passive damage.
I'm not going to post a list or strategy yet, because I'm going back in with it tomorrow and I don't want people netdecking it while it's still relevant. However, it's basically Yanmega/Druddigon/Terrakion/Spiritomb/Cobalion/Kyurem/Bouffalant/Shaymin/Lost Remover.
Round 1 vs Reshiram/Typhlosion
This is not the matchup I wanted first round. Not because it's bad, but because it's unpredictable. If they don't run Switch, it becomes hugely favorable. If they do and they hit it early, it becomes hugely favorable. The best way to play the matchup is to assume they run it, then swap strategies if things start to go downhill. I start out strong, going first and Catcher KOing his only Cyndaquil with Yanmega. However, he hits a Collector two turns later for triple Cyndaquil. He also has an active Reshiram.
I've been spreading out my energy between Druddigon and Terrakion. I drop Kyurem, Shaymin three energy to it, and pop an Eviolite on it. I Catcher one Cyndaquil to Glaciate KO it. Of course, he hits double Typhlosion the next turn, making the Glaciate almost pointless. He Outrages me for 30, setting up the Blue Flare KO next turn. I opt to just Glaciate again to soften his field. This puts his active Reshiram at 80HP left, but he has an Eviolite and four energy on it (how it ended up with 80 is beyond me.) He Blue Flares me, which puts me in an awkward position since I don't have weakness on him anymore. I Catcher a Typhlosion and Clutch it.
He doesn't drop a Switch, so at this point I know he doesn't run it. His Typhlosion is at 120 now (two Glaciates), so he opts to double Afterburner to it and knock it out. Then he Blue Flares my Druddigon for the KO, but the passive damage from Druddigon puts his Reshiram in OHKO range of Sonicboom. The Druddigon had a Rescue, so I pick it back up, drop a DCE on it, and Sonicboom the Reshiram for the KO. This puts me at one prize to his four. He sets up another Reshiram and Blue Flares my Yanmega. I have another one benched, though. I draw, Catcher a benched Typhlosion, and Clutch it, leaving him with 20. I'm pretty sure I win at this point. If he drops the Switch and KOs my Druddigon, I can Linear Attack the benched Typhlosion. If he somehow kills the Yanmega, I can just Catcher the Typhlosion again and kill it with Druddigon. He sees this and scoops.
1-0
My friends' reaction when they saw this win was priceless. "Oh my god, it actually worked." "Oh, CRAP!" etc. Honestly, I was really proud of myself after this game. I really felt like I played flawlessly and set so many traps he had to fall into some of them. I hope I didn't come off as too cocky while discussing it afterward.
Round 2 vs Zekrom/Pachirisu/Shaymin/Tornadus
I get a really sub-par start and end up with a lone basic until T3, which is really scary. I forget what my basic was, but he kills it the turn after I draw a Cobalion and bench it. So, I have Cobalion active with no energy and Druddigon benched with no energy. At this point, I set a trap. My plan is to put a DCE on Druddigon since it appears to be a non-threat, bait him into Bolt Striking the Cobalion, put the Druddigon up, drop Terrakion and Shaymin, move the DCE to Terrakion, attach Fighting, and play Switch to revenge kill his Zekrom and remove all of his energy from play. He falls right into this trap.
Although I'm not sure if he has a Catcher. He was so surprised when I dropped the Terrakion lol.
But I'm still down a prize, and eventually he gets more energy on the board and KOs my Terrakion with Zekrom to tie the prizes at three each. He walks right into my Revenge. I start building another Terrakion on the bench. How the next few turns play out are kind of fuzzy, but I remember we end he ends up at one prize to my two. He has a Zekrom active with three energy and a Tornadus benched with a DCE. I Junk Arm for Lost Remover and axe the DCE, which ultimately wins me the game. Then I KO the Zekrom with Sonicboom. I have a Terrakion with three energy on the bench, so if he doesn't win on his turn, I'll win the next turn. He Catchers my Yanma, and Junipers into a 10-card deck, needing a Switch, two energy, and a Pachirisu. I didn't bother doing the math, but I assume it's about a 50-50 chance since he told me he had four energy left. He misses by one energy.
2-0
Round 3 vs The Truth
So I go first, but he Playgrounds on his first turn for double Solosis and double Oddish. He T1 Sage discards a Reuniclus, so if he prized the other one, I win. On turn two, I get Yanmega out and Linear Attack a Solosis. The hope is that he won't be able to get Rare Candy + Vileplume and a Duosion while still having a Twins the next turn. He gets the Twins for Rare Candy Vileplume and has a Duosion in his hand. So I'm in deep crap. He uses Tropical Beach and puts himself at seven, forcing me to Judge what was a probably Twins-less hand. I Linear Attack Duosion, so if he whiffs Reuniclus the next turn, I'll win. He whiffs it, but I miss the hand match and he gets Reuniclus the next turn. Ugh. He hits a Gloom off an N, meaning the only cheap prize I have left to take is on Pichu. I have four prizes to his six, and he's fully setup.
I somehow manage to bait him into using Glaciate three times, putting my Kyurem at 90 damage. He also randomly decides to swap KO something on his bench, putting me at three prizes to his six. He's not thinking about Druddigon at all, even though I already have it in play. After letting him do this three times, I KO it with Cobalion so he doesn't kill all my Yanmegas. He return KOs with a Cobalion of his own. I throw Druddigon up, forcing him to give me another prize. If he opts to hit it for 80 with Cobalion instead of knocking it out with his benched Reshiram, I'll win. Unfortunately, he sees this and Outrages me with Reshiram. I KO the Reshiram with Yanmega, putting me at one prize to his two. Unfortunately, I don't have a way to take the last prize. I guess I should have left Bellsprout in. Everybody watching was disappointed I lost since I somehow managed to take three prizes after he setup. That usually doesn't happen with the Stage 1-based decks. If he hadn't drawn Gloom off of N, I would have won.
2-1
Round 4 vs Eelektrik/Magnezone/Zekrom/Thundurus
He has trouble setting up. I snipe stuff with Yanmega, and Sonicboom his active Thundurus for 70 before he finally Disaster Volts to KO it. I revenge kill with Bouffalant, leaving him with no energy, Tynamo, or Magnemite on the board. I proceed to Shaymin energy to Terrakion, retreat Bouffalant, and Land Crush to finish the game. He just got a bad start, unfortunately.
3-1
Round 5 vs Durant
This and Truth are my worst matchups. Of course I have to play both of them in the same day. Ugh. I also open Druddigon, which basically means I lose since he can just keep Catchering it. I play out, using Spiritomb to soften his field and then Yanmega to clean up. He decks me when I have two or three prizes left and Druddigon stuck active. I prized a Judge, which didn't help much. The one thing that gave me a chance was that he got an equally bad start and took until T3 to get all his Durants out.
3-2
Round 6 vs Zekrom/Pachirisu/Shaymin/Tornadus
I get paired up, so if I win this one, chances are great I'll cut. I'm playing against a friend of mine who knows my entire list, though. I also get a terrible start.
This makes him get a little cocky, and he gives me an opening. At about turn three, I have a Rainbowed Terrakion on the bench. He uses his second Shaymin (I know he doesn't have SSU) to move all the energy to a Zekrom and Catcher KO my Terrakion. If I draw a Bouffalant/way to get it and a DCE off an Oak's, I'll basically win since it removes all his energy from play. I whiff both, and I whiff the Yanmega too. I Catcher a Shaymin and he attaches to it and retreats to take another prize with Zekrom. I finally KO it with Yanmega. Somehow, I bait him into using Hurricane on my Druddigon, letting me Revenge it for the KO later.
Through some series of miracles and mad skills, I end up being at three prizes to his one. He has two Tornadus out, one with a DCE and the other with a Lightning. I Lost Remover the DCE. I should have Catchered the one with the Lightning. If I had, I probably would have won. I do it a turn late and he ends up topdecking the last energy he needs for the win. If he didn't draw it in the next three turns, I would have made a god comeback win. If I had Catchered a turn earlier, I might have won as well. I just didn't run as hot as he did. Oh well. Last time he gets to see my list, lol.
3-3
I decided to name my deck Clutch Lock since the basic idea is to trap them in a position where they can't do anything.
Thanks for reading!
I'm not going to post a list or strategy yet, because I'm going back in with it tomorrow and I don't want people netdecking it while it's still relevant. However, it's basically Yanmega/Druddigon/Terrakion/Spiritomb/Cobalion/Kyurem/Bouffalant/Shaymin/Lost Remover.
Round 1 vs Reshiram/Typhlosion
This is not the matchup I wanted first round. Not because it's bad, but because it's unpredictable. If they don't run Switch, it becomes hugely favorable. If they do and they hit it early, it becomes hugely favorable. The best way to play the matchup is to assume they run it, then swap strategies if things start to go downhill. I start out strong, going first and Catcher KOing his only Cyndaquil with Yanmega. However, he hits a Collector two turns later for triple Cyndaquil. He also has an active Reshiram.
I've been spreading out my energy between Druddigon and Terrakion. I drop Kyurem, Shaymin three energy to it, and pop an Eviolite on it. I Catcher one Cyndaquil to Glaciate KO it. Of course, he hits double Typhlosion the next turn, making the Glaciate almost pointless. He Outrages me for 30, setting up the Blue Flare KO next turn. I opt to just Glaciate again to soften his field. This puts his active Reshiram at 80HP left, but he has an Eviolite and four energy on it (how it ended up with 80 is beyond me.) He Blue Flares me, which puts me in an awkward position since I don't have weakness on him anymore. I Catcher a Typhlosion and Clutch it.
He doesn't drop a Switch, so at this point I know he doesn't run it. His Typhlosion is at 120 now (two Glaciates), so he opts to double Afterburner to it and knock it out. Then he Blue Flares my Druddigon for the KO, but the passive damage from Druddigon puts his Reshiram in OHKO range of Sonicboom. The Druddigon had a Rescue, so I pick it back up, drop a DCE on it, and Sonicboom the Reshiram for the KO. This puts me at one prize to his four. He sets up another Reshiram and Blue Flares my Yanmega. I have another one benched, though. I draw, Catcher a benched Typhlosion, and Clutch it, leaving him with 20. I'm pretty sure I win at this point. If he drops the Switch and KOs my Druddigon, I can Linear Attack the benched Typhlosion. If he somehow kills the Yanmega, I can just Catcher the Typhlosion again and kill it with Druddigon. He sees this and scoops.
1-0
My friends' reaction when they saw this win was priceless. "Oh my god, it actually worked." "Oh, CRAP!" etc. Honestly, I was really proud of myself after this game. I really felt like I played flawlessly and set so many traps he had to fall into some of them. I hope I didn't come off as too cocky while discussing it afterward.
Round 2 vs Zekrom/Pachirisu/Shaymin/Tornadus
I get a really sub-par start and end up with a lone basic until T3, which is really scary. I forget what my basic was, but he kills it the turn after I draw a Cobalion and bench it. So, I have Cobalion active with no energy and Druddigon benched with no energy. At this point, I set a trap. My plan is to put a DCE on Druddigon since it appears to be a non-threat, bait him into Bolt Striking the Cobalion, put the Druddigon up, drop Terrakion and Shaymin, move the DCE to Terrakion, attach Fighting, and play Switch to revenge kill his Zekrom and remove all of his energy from play. He falls right into this trap.
Although I'm not sure if he has a Catcher. He was so surprised when I dropped the Terrakion lol.But I'm still down a prize, and eventually he gets more energy on the board and KOs my Terrakion with Zekrom to tie the prizes at three each. He walks right into my Revenge. I start building another Terrakion on the bench. How the next few turns play out are kind of fuzzy, but I remember we end he ends up at one prize to my two. He has a Zekrom active with three energy and a Tornadus benched with a DCE. I Junk Arm for Lost Remover and axe the DCE, which ultimately wins me the game. Then I KO the Zekrom with Sonicboom. I have a Terrakion with three energy on the bench, so if he doesn't win on his turn, I'll win the next turn. He Catchers my Yanma, and Junipers into a 10-card deck, needing a Switch, two energy, and a Pachirisu. I didn't bother doing the math, but I assume it's about a 50-50 chance since he told me he had four energy left. He misses by one energy.
2-0
Round 3 vs The Truth
So I go first, but he Playgrounds on his first turn for double Solosis and double Oddish. He T1 Sage discards a Reuniclus, so if he prized the other one, I win. On turn two, I get Yanmega out and Linear Attack a Solosis. The hope is that he won't be able to get Rare Candy + Vileplume and a Duosion while still having a Twins the next turn. He gets the Twins for Rare Candy Vileplume and has a Duosion in his hand. So I'm in deep crap. He uses Tropical Beach and puts himself at seven, forcing me to Judge what was a probably Twins-less hand. I Linear Attack Duosion, so if he whiffs Reuniclus the next turn, I'll win. He whiffs it, but I miss the hand match and he gets Reuniclus the next turn. Ugh. He hits a Gloom off an N, meaning the only cheap prize I have left to take is on Pichu. I have four prizes to his six, and he's fully setup.
I somehow manage to bait him into using Glaciate three times, putting my Kyurem at 90 damage. He also randomly decides to swap KO something on his bench, putting me at three prizes to his six. He's not thinking about Druddigon at all, even though I already have it in play. After letting him do this three times, I KO it with Cobalion so he doesn't kill all my Yanmegas. He return KOs with a Cobalion of his own. I throw Druddigon up, forcing him to give me another prize. If he opts to hit it for 80 with Cobalion instead of knocking it out with his benched Reshiram, I'll win. Unfortunately, he sees this and Outrages me with Reshiram. I KO the Reshiram with Yanmega, putting me at one prize to his two. Unfortunately, I don't have a way to take the last prize. I guess I should have left Bellsprout in. Everybody watching was disappointed I lost since I somehow managed to take three prizes after he setup. That usually doesn't happen with the Stage 1-based decks. If he hadn't drawn Gloom off of N, I would have won.
2-1
Round 4 vs Eelektrik/Magnezone/Zekrom/Thundurus
He has trouble setting up. I snipe stuff with Yanmega, and Sonicboom his active Thundurus for 70 before he finally Disaster Volts to KO it. I revenge kill with Bouffalant, leaving him with no energy, Tynamo, or Magnemite on the board. I proceed to Shaymin energy to Terrakion, retreat Bouffalant, and Land Crush to finish the game. He just got a bad start, unfortunately.
3-1
Round 5 vs Durant
This and Truth are my worst matchups. Of course I have to play both of them in the same day. Ugh. I also open Druddigon, which basically means I lose since he can just keep Catchering it. I play out, using Spiritomb to soften his field and then Yanmega to clean up. He decks me when I have two or three prizes left and Druddigon stuck active. I prized a Judge, which didn't help much. The one thing that gave me a chance was that he got an equally bad start and took until T3 to get all his Durants out.
3-2
Round 6 vs Zekrom/Pachirisu/Shaymin/Tornadus
I get paired up, so if I win this one, chances are great I'll cut. I'm playing against a friend of mine who knows my entire list, though. I also get a terrible start.
This makes him get a little cocky, and he gives me an opening. At about turn three, I have a Rainbowed Terrakion on the bench. He uses his second Shaymin (I know he doesn't have SSU) to move all the energy to a Zekrom and Catcher KO my Terrakion. If I draw a Bouffalant/way to get it and a DCE off an Oak's, I'll basically win since it removes all his energy from play. I whiff both, and I whiff the Yanmega too. I Catcher a Shaymin and he attaches to it and retreats to take another prize with Zekrom. I finally KO it with Yanmega. Somehow, I bait him into using Hurricane on my Druddigon, letting me Revenge it for the KO later.
Through some series of miracles and mad skills, I end up being at three prizes to his one. He has two Tornadus out, one with a DCE and the other with a Lightning. I Lost Remover the DCE. I should have Catchered the one with the Lightning. If I had, I probably would have won. I do it a turn late and he ends up topdecking the last energy he needs for the win. If he didn't draw it in the next three turns, I would have made a god comeback win. If I had Catchered a turn earlier, I might have won as well. I just didn't run as hot as he did. Oh well. Last time he gets to see my list, lol.
3-3
I decided to name my deck Clutch Lock since the basic idea is to trap them in a position where they can't do anything.
Thanks for reading!
