Elephant in the Room (Donphan)

[thood]

Hey guys! So with the release of Primal Clash, everyone's been scrambling around updating deck or out pioneering new archetypes. While you're all doing this though, I'd just like to remind everyone of the presence of Donphan. He's definitely still here. Many have claimed that he might be falling off with the release of all these water types and the immense popularity of Yveltal, but I'm here to tell you this is not the case. If anything, Donphan has "evolved" since the release of Primal Clash. Cards like Repeat Ball, Silent Lab, Team Mates, and Acro Bike have breathed fresh life back into Donphan. Donphan decks have always had a huge variety to work with, but especially now since the release of Primal Clash. The care Team Mates has done a tremendous favor to Donphan decks because it works with Robo Subs, allowing Donphan to occasionally bypass Item Lock through Team Mates search engine. This is a huge boon, considering Seismitoad was a huge problem for Donphan decks. In my opinion, this deck is definitely Tier 1 and everyone should be well aware that Donphan is anything but "dead."

 

[Gengar master]

Silent Lab hurts Donphan because most of the walls in Donphan are basic and have abilities like Sigilyph and Wobbuffet.

 

[Elbow]

Silent Lab hurts Donphan because most of the walls in Donphan are basic and have abilities like Sigilyph and Wobbuffet.

But i don't think silent lab will be as useful when donphan uses wreck or places down one of its own stadiums...

 

[thood]

Silent Lab hurts Donphan because most of the walls in Donphan are basic and have abilities like Sigilyph and Wobbuffet.

Silent Lab is actually good for Donphan + Subs + Outrage Dragons. That's the only variant I've seen use it.

 

[Vom]

The number of things that can OHKO Donphan keep growing, and it just so happens that they're all (well, most) competitive, so I think Donphan is over.

 

[thood]

The number of things that can OHKO Donphan keep growing, and it just so happens that they're all (well, most) competitive, so I think Donphan is over.

Well, KOing a Donphan is actually quite tricky, considering it's never actually active during the opponents turn, so your opponent is forced to burn resources to pull Donphan active. Not to mention, as long as Donphan is battling EXs, it's almost always at the advantage in the prize trades.

 

[Vom]

That is exactly the thing. People are starting to play stage decks, which makes Donphan not-so-good anymore. As for never being active, you can always KO the wall they send, although Sub is still somewhat problematic. Even then, you can always Lysandre around it.

 

[thood]

Ok, so I've been doing some serious testing with Donphan, and I've found that he is extremely versatile now. I'm currently using a Donphan/Flygon (BC) deck to great effect (7-2). It struggles against decks that run Rough Seas because of the fact that they heal off all of Flygon's damage, making it essentially a dead card. I find Flygon extremely useful for two reasons :

1 - It provides extra damage that sets up OHKO's for Donphan. Spinning Turn with a Strong Energy and Muscle Band attached hits for 80. Flygon provides 20 damage going back into your turn. This lets you switch back into Donphan and hit for 180. I know that 180 is still achieveable with just Donphan, but you must expend more resources on a single Donphan to reach such high damages, which leads me to....

2 - Flygon actually helps Donphan by conserving resources. Now, you aren't forced to lay down 2 strong energy on a single Donphan just to net the 2HKO, which is risky, because after 2 Donphans like this die, you're out of Strong Energy for the game. Flygon helps with damage spread, and weakens up bench Pokemon so that eventually, Donphan will be OHKOing almost any of your opponents Pokemon with only a Muscle Band attached.