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Hydreigon (Found here) from our most recent set, Noble Victories, looks really great when you first see it and often provokes possible ideas pouring into people's heads. Hopefully this will help you come up with a fun or good deck to use with them before you go off trading them away.--------------------------------------------------What does it do?-------------------------------------------------------
First of all, it has a pretty good HP of 150 which is pretty good for a Stage 2. That means it is 2HKOd by Reshiram and Zekrom, takes 3 Energies to kill with Magnezone, and (even with it's weakness) is 2HKOd by Donphan. That means Hydreigon, in return, will most likely be able to launch 2 attacks if he attacked first (unless your name is Magnezone). It has a scary retreat of 3 which can be bad if he's catchered and not set up. However, it also has a resistance to Psychic. Resistance isn't found on many great cards for some reason and even though psychic is not a big time right now, it will be once Mewtwo EX (Found here) comes out. Hydreigon's attack requires 4 energy which is a lot for any pokemon. However, with resistance to Mewtwo, that means Mewtwo will require 4 energies of it's own to 1HKO your Hydreigon. However, it should be noted that Reshram and Zekrom EX can both 1HKO Hydreigons with ease and, if the decks become big (which I believe they will), means those will be very rough match-ups.
Anyway, let's go more in-depth and analyze this card better. First off, it's attack requires 4 energy as I previously stated and those energy must all be dark type. Well, that sounds near impossible seeing as there is no and will not be any dark energy acceleration other than Dark Patch in a later set. Well there is a way to get it rolling easier than you think, but more on that in a bit. Berserker Blade does 60 damage to the Defending Pokemon as well as hits 2 of your opponent's benched pokemon for 40 damage each. In total, your dishing out 140 damage. That's not half bad considering the cost.
Now, Hydreigon also has an ability called Dark Aura which is exactly the same as the base set charizard's power. It turns all energy on Hydreigon into Darkness Energy which immediately opens up ways to fuel Hydreigon's, seemingly impossible to pull off attack, surprisingly fast. Now we can look at a number of things that can help out Hydreigon to help it take off.
-------------------------------------------------Fueling the Hydra--------------------------------------------------------
I'd like to now point out that Dark Patch from Dark Rush is pretty much used in all these methods only because it's the only non-pokemon that is somewhat splashable in pretty much all the decks Hydreigon is used in. So to save space and time, I will only put what Dark Patch does in the first method. It's a simple effect to remember anyway.[animate]251[/animate]
Dark Patch - Trainer
Choose 1 Basic Darkness Energy card from your discard pile and attach it to one of your Benched Darkness-type Pokemon.
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Skyarrow Bridge – Trainer’s Stadium
Each player’s Basic Pokemon has its retreat cost lowered by 1 Energy.
You can only play 1 Stadium next to your Active Pokemon during your turn. If a Stadium with a different name comes into play, discard this card.
It's actually pretty simple to understand, but is somewhat tough to pull off consecutively. Your ideal start would be with an active Celebi Prime and Dieno(s) on the bench. You would attach your turn energy for the turn on to Dieno and then use Forest Breath to attach a grass energy onto it. Next turn, there would be a number of ways to finish powering it up. Obviously, you would want to Rare Candy the Deino to a Hydregion, and drop Skyarrow bridge. From here, you could Forest Breath and Dark Patch (with Juniper/Junk Arm/Sage's/UltraBall) and still attach an energy onto another Deino. You could just use your turn energy and Forest Breath/Dark Patch. Or you could simply slap a Double Colorless Energy onto it. You wouldn't even need Skyarrow Bridge if you Dark Patched and Forest Breathed onto Hydreigon.
Pros:
Can start fueling T1
Celebi is a basic
Cons:
Skyarrow Bridge and Dark Patch are not searchable.
Your Deino with energy is suspectible to Catcher
To Do: Eelektrik, Emboar, Tornadus, Darkrai EX, Darkness Claw, How it will do against EX's, Closing about Hydreigon's hidden potential and how it can only improve with future sets. Come up with title, fix errors, improve, etc.