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Kingdra

N

Nakazora

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Pokemon
  • 4 Horsea
  • 2 Seadra
  • 4 Kindra
  • 3 Kangeskhan
Trainers
  • 4 Professor Juniper
  • 4 Pokemon Catcher
  • 4 Max Potion
  • 4 Ultra Ball
  • 3 Rare Candy
  • 3 Skyla
  • 2 Cilan
  • 2 Silver Mirror
  • 2 Super Rod
  • 1 Master Ball ACE (possibly replaced with Dowsing Machine or Computer Search when funds and stock allow)
Energy
  • 18 Water
Strategy
The strategy is simple. Get Kingdra out, get energies in the discard, and kill. But, there are alternative strategies. Namely, save energies for EX's, snipe with Tri-Bullet and catcher pokemon with no energies and high retreat costs to benchsnipe more, and throw out Kangeskhan to tank and Comet Punch for some alternative damage as I discard energies for Dragon Vortex. Simple, but highly effective.

Now, anyone who has seen an attempt at a Plasma Freeze Kingdra deck may not give this full credit at first, as, from what I've seen, most run it with Empoleon, for good reason. I have tested this deck against many decks at my local league and am currently undefeated there. I actually want to be defeated too, so I know what to improve.

What I want to know is if anyone has any suggestions for it. Trainers or pokemon that can help with the discarding, other than Empoleon, since I know about him. Energies, I want to keep high to keep my cycle rate high as well. I want an average damage of 180, not maximum.
 
How do you discard energy? Also you have a ton of energy. Idk how you make this deck work. lol.

What decks do you end up battling at your league?

I run a Kingdra deck that also has Electrode to draw more cards, preferably energy or stuff to discard energy. It runs into a lot of problems when mr mime is around. Being able to only hit for 30 is really sad. Its almost a waste to use 4 energy in the discard to knock out mr mime. But it has to be done. I also have 2 keldeo ex to stack energy on to if i have extra energy drops. Rush in retreat is an easy way to get 2 energy into the discard.
 
Discarding energy, I have several methods. Juniper for one, Ultra Ball, Max Potion, and retreating. Doesn't seem like much on paper, but I've gotten EX KO's third turn without weakness, which takes 9 energies in my discard pile. I like having a lot so I draw them easy for Ultra ball discards, and the occasional Juniper.

As for decks I face at my league, there is a good variety. I won't deny, my town is small, and there aren't any 'champs' here, but I've faced a few good plasma decks, a few good dragon decks, a Ray-eels (Rayquaza EX and Electric Motor Eelectrik), as well as some off decks, such as a fossil deck using the anti-evolution Archeops (not sure what set or power name offhand, will look later), and some anti-plasma, and a colorless Ho'oh EX deck (that made me want to build one SO BADLY!!!) My friend has built a Crobat-Scolipede poison deck, that anywhere BUT at the league we have a 50/50 win rate on each other. So I'd hope the variety says something, if nothing else. Again, I do WANT to see it lose to know personally how to improve, but... So far, not a single loss.
 
Have you faced anything TDK? Or anything with thundurus for that matter? It can donk you pretty easily. Also against mr mime, kingdra becomes moot unless you catcher for it and waste a turn.

Either way i guess i can test this deck out on the PTCGO and see what i think. On paper it looks kind of unbalanced. But meh i'll let you know.

I still question the decks you are up against, but i will test it on ptcgo before i say much more.

Edit: (i would like to apologize that this will not be a pleasant read, the battles were quite unpleasant for me) Day 1 testing/
Yup played a really bad deck just now and got destroyed.
From what i could tell it was a deoxys ex and dialga ex deck. Which requires so much energy to do anything it really shouldn't work on its own.

I could not get kingdra up, through the onslaught of a slowly charging dialga ex... lol. I had a mirror but with tool scrapper it didnt matter. I was both milled to 0 cards and knocked out to my last pokemon to their last prize. I drowned in water and with no supporters i couldnt draw into the stuff i needed. He also had a rock guard on his dialga, so attacking it was also painful, with or without max potions. Khangaskhan, i'll admit helps a bit in attacking. It doesnt really need to call for family. But its attack is flippy and i ended up doing 20 damage a few times when i needed like at least 40.

I fought the same person twice. First game went okay, but he had a terrible hand. I hit for 140 turn 3 with kingdra which is quite impressive, knocking out a deoxys i was working on for those 3 turns. Protected by silver mirror the tiny horsea survived. but after tool scrapper came out it was a nightmare.

This deck needs more draw support. I ended up junipering away like 5 energy, only to end up drawing 5 more with no supporter and being able to do nothing with that hand, attacking with khangaskhan for a few turns that it should have been kingdra. I had to wait 3 or 4 more turns before my opponent used N to shuffle my hand, and once again i drew into 3 energy but no way to get kingdra up again.

All in all, yes this deck is capable to hit hard early on if everything goes according to plan. But there should be numerous times when you draw into nothing but energy, with 18 energy cards. Those times your opponent should be able to capitalize on your weakness. Go after the threatening kingdra if you happen to have any and just wipe it out. After that you can do nothing but watch as you draw into more water or rare candy and no kingdra or ultra balls. I sat around for like 5 full turns doing nothing but watch the pokemon go down. because it was either khangaskhan that required 2 energy to attack or horsea that only does up to 20 damage.

With this i can only assume the opponents you play have poorly built decks, have terrible luck, or are just not very good at this card game. The decks you face may also lack switches or some way of retreating consistently. Because catcher stalling doesn't really help to much imo. A lot of the time people can skyla for a switch or float stone. Or have some form of free retreat like Darkrai or keldeo.

Suggestions to make this deck more viable for competitive play would probably reduce the water energy to at most 14. This deck needs more draw support to get set up consistently. Add a keldeo ex for more efficient retreat discard than khangaskhan, since it has the rush in ability. Its also another viable attacker that doesn't require flipping. You need a tool scrapper for rock guard or life dew. It also helps get rid of float stones.

My kingdra deck uses electrode's magnetic draw to help with my drawing, if you dont want more supporters. But then you need to use less energy so it doesn't clog up your hand. Making magnetic draw useless.

Either way i made a deck similar to this when i first started. Blastoise keldeo with around 20 water energy. But it relied on milotic to get everything i needed, so i didnt need searches. It just doesnt work against N and it had some trouble setting up consistently. It also did really well with near undefeated status. but only because the player base was so bad. When battle roads came around, i realized how terrible the deck was when played against the right players. I still got 4th with it. But the 1 player i lost to, beat me terribly and showed my decks weakness.

Edit again: Day 2 testing
I keep playing this deck and every time my hand is always so terrifying. My last battle was against a darkrai/Sableye/absol deck. I was able to squeeze a win out with this deck purely out of luck. My opponent kept using hypnotoxics with virbank out, but i kept waking up every turn. Each turn all i really did was retreat to a different kingdra, drop an energy on to it and then attack his his absols and sableyes. I tried focusing down darkrai, but he junk hunted for max potion so i just spread the damage else where on another absol instead until he wasted it. After about 7 turns of shenanigans on my side i got 8 energy into the discard and pinged darkrai with a tribullet the previous turn. Luckily i was sitting on a catcher because i had no reason to catcher and no supporters to reshuffle it in. Then after knocking the darkrai out i just kept using tri-bullet for knockouts on his non exs.

All in all he should have won, but with a lot of bad plays on his side i was able to win. The whole battle he was just sitting on darkrai with 2 energy on it and kept throwing sableyes at me to just poison me. Each time going to sleep, but each time waking up. The worst mistake of all was that he had a mr mime in play but chose to sacrifice it to protect a sableye. I only was able to draw into 1 juniper and 2 cilians that entire battle, which is terribly slow. Any player with any good sense in the game with the proper deck should just overwhelm this deck because of it being so slow.
 
-3 Kangeskhan
-1 Max Potion
-2 Cilan
-1 Master Ball ACE (possibly replaced with Dowsing Machine or Computer Search when funds and stock allow)
-4 Water
=11

+4 N (more consistency I can imagine you not drawing into a supporter)
+2 Shaymin/Emolga (call for family)
+2 Frozen City (its helps)
+1 Dowsing Machine (best for this deck I think)
+1 Rare Candy (you want to max this out just to get turn 2 kingdra consistently)
+2 Escape Rope(for when you dont flip heads on sleep or you just want to disrupt)

Alternatively you could add in Keldeo EX instead of Escape rope buuuut I think that 2 energy if still a bit to attach for 1 retreat.
All these suggestions are cheap so don't worry about that.
 
Nice to see someone else using this Poké!

I started testing a variety of Kingdra combinations at the end of last seasons. Now, I find the 2 main variations I particularly like is one similar to yours: Kingdra with Kangaskhan and Kingdra with Kyurem (PF). These both have advantages and disadvantages and alot depends upon one's playing style - no doubt.

In reviewing your deck, I suggest the following comments/thoughts for your consideration:

  • Kangaskhan is the designated starter for this deck; so, having 4 would maximize your chances of starting with it.
  • You have only 4 card draw Supporters which, IMHO, is woefully insufficient. I'd suggest adding some Ns and at least 2 Colress since you will (and/or your opponents will) tend to have full benches.
  • Given the sheer number of W energy in your deck, the odds (after improving your card draw support) of drawing into a W energy is quite high; so, the Cilans are not really that effective and playing this card distracts from playing another Supporter when you need other resources.
  • Most players I know run multiple Tool Scrapper; so, I believe the Silver Mirror slots can better serve you by replacing them with Bangles.
  • Lastly, I also believe 18 is too many. Consider that when you do attack with Dragon Vortex, it will be a follow-up to perhaps several Tri-Bullett attacks. The discarded energy will be recycled back into your deck and you then "start" over... so, the "time" it will take you to KO multiple "big" basic Poké can easily consume valuable game time.
Given the above comments, consider:
-2 Cilan
-2 Silver Mirror
-6 Water

+2 Colress
+4 N
+1 Kangaskhan
+3 Silver Bangle

A closing thought: it is not difficult for an experienced player running a good deck to easily 1HKO your Kingdra; so, your Max Potions could be easily rendered ineffective. Consider replacing 2 of those perhaps with Ht Lasers.

I hope you find these comments helpful.
 
Alright, I will try to take this in order. Thank you all for your opinions.

1. While it is true the amount of waters in the deck is high, I've never actually had the problem of NEVER getting anything else. Then again, the online dislikes shuffling as much as I do IRL, so that may account some. (I am a shuffle maniac. I shuffle just to shuffle, then shuffle more.) In fact, I have had games where I have gotten NONE! It should not happen, but it can.
2. The decks I was facing WERE well constructed, and very solid in fact. Not Meta decks, for sure, but I don't like Meta's in general (in any game, not just Pokemon), and like to see variety. And Thunderus EX never came up, though I have said to my friends many times that it would hurt me.
3. I am not taking out Kangaskhan. Not happening. Call for family, tanking, and the occasional comet punch help. He is there as a wall while I am getting things ready. In that way, losing a Kangeskhan is a good thing. Emolga would melt to fast, and Shaymin is a grass type, and I hate putting in something just for one purpose. It is somewhat... wasteful. Why do that when I can do call for family already? As for Cilan... I have considered, but again, I have had games where it comes in handy. It is mostly set up for Juniper actually. Or ultraball. Cilan in hand, grab three energies, one is attached, two discarded, there is a quick 40 more damage on Dragon Vortex. Sticking with that list of changes for now, I'll continue. Dowsing Machine, I have already stated is a possible change, but I lack the funds to do so. Just went through a big move, so funds are miniscule, and food is more important. Rare Candy... never had a problem with that actually. 3 is enough. I used to have 4, but it was too much honestly. Same for Skyla to bring them out. Escape Rope is decent in other decks, but I like retreat costs here, since its another energy to put in the discard. And lastly frozen city... noted. That's all I really have to say on that. I like the idea.
4. The silver mirrors are simply a way to annoy plasma decks, which are popular. Negate all effects of attack from them, and they have to use a tool scrapper. Whereas I have no plasma's, or EX's, so there is no tool to counter me. As for Bangles... meh, I'm of the odd opinion that if I am not doing enough damage, that is my own fault. Iris and Silver Bangle seem... bleh to me. Personal opinion, no one has to agree. In fact, not many do : P
5. I like HT laser. I really do. My friend has built decks where it is my bane. However, I work around poison and sleep by constant switching. As for using it... I may, but my friend took them all for his decks, so it will have to wait. lol

Anyway, thank you again everyone for the advice. Whether I use it or not, I posted the deck solely for the reason of seeing what others would say, and see how THEY would twist it. I like seeing other peoples thoughts more than anything : D So, thank you for your time!
 
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