Discussion Card Battle Ep.6: Archie's Pets -- Which Stage 2?

The Poke Tactics

The Poke Tactics

Just a Pokemon fan.
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Hello guys! I'm so #hype today because of the BREAK Through news. I saw some videos just for today about these openings, and one of it is an Empoleon. We are talking about the Water-Type Pokemon that can possibly be partnered with Archie's Ace in the Hole--these are Blastoise BCR (Expanded), Swampert PRC, and Empoleon BRT. How do they differ?

Blastoise
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Swampert
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Empoleon
Empoleon – Water – HP140

Ability: Dignified Fighter
As long as this Pokemon is in play, your Basic Pokémon's attacks do 20 more damage to your opponent's Active Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance).

[W][C] Hydro Splash: 70 damage.

Weakness: Grass (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2

So,which is your best card among these three? So share your opinions about this.
 
By the way,it is my sixth CARD BATTLE thread.
The ability name that I forgot to mention are Deluge for Blastoise, Diving Search for Swampert, and Dignified Fighter for Empoleon.
 
If we're going for Expanded, Blastoise will be the desired favorite by a vastly large margin. Between constant Lasers and Seismitoad, Keldeo-EX becomes a very favorable attacker that just so happens to give good support, and Blastoise is necessary for powering its only attack.

If we're talking about Standard, though, my vote would have to go towards Swampert. With Acro Bikes and Trainer's Mail present, Diving Draw gives you an unprecedented amount of control over your own deck, On top of that, its attack is like a more powerful version of Secret Sword, except it needs fewer Energy to OHKO most EXs. He's probably one of the few Pokemon that can justify running Flashfire Milotic in XY-on.

Empoleon...isn't really doing it for me. Machamps have been doing the power boost thing as well before, but that tends to take too long and gives too little of a reward. Since it works for all Basics, it could probably go well with Yveltal-EX, but if you're using it to power up smaller basics, I only really see Empoleon as a wider security net for catching 2HKOes. You could use its BREAK Evolution along with it, but if you're not using it for its bulk, the Zoroark from the same set is more malleable and easier to use in other decks.

Zoroark

Zoroark – Darkness – HP100
Stage 1 – Evolves from Zorua

Ability: Impersonate
Once during your turn (before your attack), if this Pokemon is on your Bench, you may switch this Pokemon with your Active Pokemon.

[C][C] Mind Jack 10+ This attack does 10 damage plus 30 more damage for each Pokemon on your opponent’s Bench.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)
Resistance: Psychic (-20)
Retreat: 2
 
Of the cards you listed, Blastoise is definitely the one that's seen the most competitive success both this year in Expanded and in previous Standard formats with Keldeo EX and Black Kyurem EX. Deluge is probably the best form of energy acceleration we've ever gotten.

Swampert was tried and while the deck "works" it never really caught on. Card search is great, but needing another card to access it that turn is a little more complicated than consistency typically allows.

The one that you didn't mention was the other Empoleon with Diving Draw which saw play via Archie's in Flareon and Night March last year. It's a versatile card which can attack for big damage for one energy. It also has an incredibly useful Ability that you can either abuse with Exeggcute or use to discard Pokemon/Marchers to power up other attackers while drawing more cards.
 
Asclepius24 said:
Of the cards you listed, Blastoise is definitely the one that's seen the most competitive success both this year in Expanded and in previous Standard formats with Keldeo EX and Black Kyurem EX. Deluge is probably the best form of energy acceleration we've ever gotten.

Swampert was tried and while the deck "works" it never really caught on. Card search is great, but needing another card to access it that turn is a little more complicated than consistency typically allows.

The one that you didn't mention was the other Empoleon with Diving Draw which saw play via Archie's in Flareon and Night March last year. It's a versatile card which can attack for big damage for one energy. It also has an incredibly useful Ability that you can either abuse with Exeggcute or use to discard Pokemon/Marchers to power up other attackers while drawing more cards.
Click to expand...

And I can see why Swampert would never catch on. It's had to exist in a time where pretty much every major tournament is BCR-on at minimum, where LaserBank, Archeops, and the Batty Toad run rampant. If the main format of choice were XY-on Standard, it might gather some wandering eyes, but otherwise, like you and most everyone have and will say, better to just stay with Blastoise.
 
Blastoise is the true and tested card for Archie decks (I know it won nationals). You just need one out and you have unlimited energy acceleration. Even better now that we have Shaymin EX to speed through our decks.

That being said, I think Empoleon is going to be very very good. It's just that Blastoise is better for Archie decks.
 
What about our good friend greninja from xy? Gives that last little oomph for a ko on a major threat. I use a croninjatank deck. cranking between 100 to 250, depending on my field and my hand.
 
Doomdesirer said:
What about our good friend greninja from xy? Gives that last little oomph for a ko on a major threat. I use a croninjatank deck. cranking between 100 to 250, depending on my field and my hand.
Click to expand...
Sorry,Ms. Jirachi. I didn't mentioned Greninja on my post. It is that good for the Team Aqua Leader?

It's my turn to share my opinion.
I like Swampert because if I ran the Milotic-Swampert related decks. This is the best. I always use the Diving Search ability to reserve a Water Energy for my next draw and power-up the #TOTD. I like Blastoise also even I don't play it actually.
 
Seems too early to even consider Empoleon (XY: BREAKThrough 38/162); when this thread was new had we even seen the English release? Even if we did, trust me when I say analyzing card strengths and weaknesses is hard work and predicting them is even more difficult (just read my CotDs to see how hard I find it XD). Yes, on a later thread (that I responded to earlier "just because") I commented on an unreleased card, but I had one of two options and as it was a Stadium (Parallel City) it was a bit easier to analyze and predict.

So in Blastoise seems to be the winner; the raw power provided by Energy acceleration trumps what are two otherwise great cards. I say two because I am also thinking that Empoleon (BW: Dark Explorers 29/108; BW: Plasma Freeze 117/116) should have been the third candidate for this comparison. While I don't recall it being a top contender right now, its had one or two times in ascendance, including as a choice for Archie's Ace in the Hole. Both that Empoleon and Swampert aid in general set-up (one by providing extra draw, the other by top decking the card of your choice) and have solid attacks (with Empoleon actually having a rather fierce one in the era of Sky Field). Swampert also has its "α Growth" Ancient Trait to help it power up to attack, and indeed I'd be much less impressed with its offensive capacity without it.

Swampert is probably the most balanced but that also means its the weakest.

Empoleon (the older one not officially allowed) lost its gig to Shaymin-EX, otherwise it is a little too good at what it does, and yet we still had things far more powerful in the format. Eep. O_O

Blastoise would have been the second choice until the modern draw/search engine made Empoleon less impressive, which allowed mass Energy acceleration to remind us of how it makes for decks around rapid, reliable and repeated OHKOs.
 
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