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Don. Phan

Which is better?

  • Total voters
    21
  • Poll closed .
CarlosDuranJr

CarlosDuranJr

Carlitosbob
Member
donphan.png


with the rise in Electric decks, and the upcoming Darkness creep, AND Mewtwo's making heavy energy attackers suffer, I think it's time to look at Donphan again. if even it's likely going to be rotated out.

pros = easy search thanks to heavy ball and the Phanpy can be searched out with Level ball or dual ball. low energy, high HP, uncommon weakness, common resistance. can abuse max potion.

cons = Tornadous, heavy retreat, basics have low HP in this format.

the list:

4-4 Donphan Prime. (I use the CoL Phanpy because it has a pokebody that lets it not take EQ damage)

Pokemon: 8

3 random receiver
1 Dual Ball
3 Level Ball
4 Heavy Ball
2 Lost Remover
2 Catcher
4 Junk Arm
4 PONT
2 N
2 Bianca
2 Crushing Hammer
1 Max Potion
3 Switch
1 Super Rod
1 Energy Retrieval
1 Ruins of Alph (for Tornadus)
3 Plus Power
1 seeker

TSS: 40

11 Fighting
1 Rescue

Energy: 12

there is enough fighting that you can setup a few heavy Impacts if need be. heavy PP to one shot Zekroms with EX. 2 Lost Remover since once you play a second, they'll know you can junk arm for more, or you might run a heavy lost remover count. making them only attach basic energy, making Crushing hammer even better. since Eaerthquake only takes one energy, they can't successfully Catcher a non energy donphan, since you can just attach an energy and attack. Switch is just in case they SP conditions you while not trainer locked.

the heavy Trainer Count makes Mianca almost as good (in some cases Better) than Juniper.
 
I'd tech in a mewtwo or two as a counter to mewtwo decks. Maybe try
-1 level ball (I think 4 dual ball is more consistent)
+1 dual ball
and this is just my preference of playing:
-3 bianca (just don't think it's great)
+1 N (good hand refresher and disrupter)
+1 juniper (good hand refreshment)
+1 switch (may be needed)
 
If I use Mewtwo, I'll have to run dce. Which then I might as well run tornadus. Which defeats the purpose of the deck to run as terrakion does, but relying less on revenge ko's.
 
Don't disregard Bianca as a bad card. In decks that can very easily play many cards from its hand, it's a very good card.

You need a better answer to Tornadus (both regular and EX). A single copy of Alph won't cut it.
 
I know.. I might drop tyrogue and 1 pluspower. but that makes zekrom the only real counter to tornado. And I don't want to use dce... Hmmmm maybe if I add in a shaymin too
 
Futachimaru said:
Don't disregard Bianca as a bad card. In decks that can very easily play many cards from its hand, it's a very good card.

You need a better answer to Tornadus (both regular and EX). A single copy of Alph won't cut it.
Click to expand...

If at any instance you can get your hand down to zero, ditching your non-existant hand and drawing seven would be better than drawing six. I guess if there were cards still in your hand that you coudn't afford to ditch, then Bianca would be better, but I usually find no matter the situation, Juniper'ing is completely worth it.

P.S. nice pic!
 
All I can say is to test it. Bianca is a good card. It can save valuable resources while giving you at least a three card draw.
 
I usually get a 4 card draw off of Bianca. When I didn't, it's cuz I am saving my junk arms or catchers in hand for use later, or I have nothing but energy in my hand.

Juniper is great. But Bianca is better than Cheren and engineer's adjustments. So it's a good alternative if you don't own a 4th catcher
 
updated the list. I find that Catcher KO's are less common with Tornadus EX, so I feel okay with cutting it to 2 since I still have 4 junk arms. I dropped junipers in favor of random receivers. since shuffle draw is usually better in this deck
 
I like this deck a lot. Have you perhaps considered EXP Share? A few weird additions though I found like Crushing Hammer and Energy Retrieval. Why not just put in a second Super Rod for consistency?
 
Rescue energy + super rod = 6 Donphan. Energy retrieval is cuz I like to dump energy for a junk arm. Since I can junk arm away dual ball later for energy retrieval later as well. It's just a one if since crushing hammer is big in soCal. I've tried exp share, but it makes me take energy out to fit it (since it makes sense, energy conservation = less energy in the deck to begin with) but then I get energy droughts. :(

It's a great card, and any suggestions in what to remove in order to fit it would be great
 
Don't run Dual Ball. Level Ball is by far the better option because it does the exact same thing for you except you can't get screwed over by double tails. You wouldn't believe how much that happened to me with Durant at cities. >_<
 
Looks like a pretty effective deck! I find Seeker a little questionable, though. I know you're using it to heal a Donphan that gets injured, right? But that also devolves it, which will be a problem if your opponent Catcher's it and KO's it. Seeker also consumes your supporter for the turn, which you might spend better with another hand refresh. Max Potion essentially serves the same purpose, doesn't devolve Donphan, and lets you use a different Supporter, so I'm thinking another Max Potion might be better. On the other side's defense, though, Seeker could give you a faster victory if you remove the last benched Pokemon with it and KO the active. That is such an exciting prospect I feel tingly in my stomach thinking about it!

Hah, sorry I rambled like that, I might suggest Aerodactyl, but that would require changing the Stadium to Twist Mountain, and even then, you still need a coin flip...
 
seeker is only used to get the last KO when I would otherwise need 2 KO's to win. it is rarely used for healing. but when it is... ohh man, the looks they give me when I switch/seeker on them... I've also used it on rare occasion to get my third energy on my active since I didn't have any in hand. it has many uses, but also has a huge downside (healing their bench, leaving my Phanpy open for a KO, drawing it off of a random receiver) that's why it's just a one of card.
 
Out of curiosity and providing you were going ahead with just straight Donphan, how do you feel this deck handles Mewtwo? Using DCE doesn't provide much synergy with the rest of the deck and so if I could get away with not running it, I would much prefer to do that. Thoughts?
 
You will get completely blown-over by Tornadus EX (most zeel and dark decks run 1 or 2). I would run a Zekrom.
 
You just catcher around it and use lost remover on their dce. it's not going to be easy, but it should still be an even prize exchange. And zekrom needs dce. Not really Amy room for that without hurting consistency. Same with m2. The Tornado is a bigger threat than the science experiment. Unfortunately, it's not easy to tech against
 
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