That's a good point, and I've faced Donkchamp with an earlier incarnation of Zone to realize that Donphan is almost certainly the worst matchup in the game. Donphan is one of the lowest maintenance cards in the game, and as you said, it has the tools to counter RDL without much issue, but I wonder how well these tools can be set up without benched draw power. Claydol and Uxie were OU for a reason, and that was because of the simple fact that T/S/S alone couldn't necessarily keep pace. In a format where Uxie is joining Claydol in the passe club, it could be argued that the speed Donphan enjoys in this format might become more of a compensating factor and less of a sizable advantage. Donphan also lacks multiple energy drops, so it might actually be worth burning four energy from Lost Burn to force Donchamp into starting over with it's energy drop, and if Magnezone commits to the knockout instead of RDL, Bouffalant won't even score the revenge kill, resulting in the loss of another prize card before Donhphan finishes off with Earthquake, or Donphan swings for a 120 Equake. Then there's the fact that Reversal (or Catcher certainly if it comes out) can work both ways. After reading you're argument, I'll have to concur that RDL isn't a foolproof counter to Donphan, at least with Bouffalant as a factor, but I wouldn't call it a borderline auto loss either. The person playing Zone simply needs to use RDL and the deck's energy strategically.
Ghost Bear said:
I don't know exactly what the reason is, but rdl just doesn't work as well in reshiboar as reshiboar without it.
That's easy. Reshiboar's best selling point is it's speed. Any legend card is going to get in the way of that. Also, after you factor in Ninetails, you're basically looking at three lines to set up, while taking out 2-4 slots used to speed up Boar and Ninetales.
Ghost Bear said:
I think reshiboar would be good against magneboar though....magneboar takes too many energies to KO reshiram and they usually put all of the energies in their deck into the lost zone or discarded before taking all 6 prizes, leaving them dead in the water.
but back on topic, rdl in magneboar would definitely be a bad choice IMO....because of what I explained of it's flaw in a deck that has only 1 stage 2 having to set up, it will do even worse in a deck that has 2 stage 2's.
In theory you're absolutely right, two stage 2s can be really slow compared to Reshiboar, but I've noticed that when playtesting even a 1-1 line, the built in draw power and communications are usually enough to get it late game for the last two prizes (though against Donphan that's almost completely useless and you would need the 2-2 line), which in turn removes the issue of running out of energy for the last two prizes. I have faced Reshiboar without RDL and when doing so, what you say about the energy is 100% true. Getting the last energies on time borders on impossible. In my opinion what matters is that you don't necessarily need to get RDL out early against Reshiboar.
