Looking for insight on my Machamp deck

C

Comeback_Kid

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Hello all, I'm a relatively new player here, but I guess that goes without saying in the Training Facility. I'm here to ask about an idea I have about a relatively simple Machamp deck, but before I get to that I feel I should mention some things first. I play with about eight people, and we all just got back into the game not too long ago. We play unlimited, and that's the deck I wish to build as opposed to "meta" (which I think is competitive play?), so that really opens up a lot of options for cards used. Also, we do not yet play with resistances at the moment, so those should be an issue. I should also mention that I hate having two, Stage-2 lines in my decks, so I'd prefer that Machamp be the only Stage-2 line, with the rest being either Stage-1's or basics. It just makes things easier to get out. The last thing is that I am on a budget. It's not super tight compared to how potentially cheap this deck is, but I'd rather not spend over $40.

Here's the deck I was thinking so far:

Pokemon (17)
4-3-4 Machamp (Machop DP, Machoke TR, 3 Machamp SF, 1 Prime)
3-3 Golurk

Trainers/Supporters. These are a huge question mark for me. I don't really know what I should be using, but I had working with these specific cards in mind. As you can see, I don't know how many of each card I should have in my deck, either:
Professor Elm's New Training Method (get out Machamp)
Dual Ball (get out Machop or Golett)
Quick Ball (Something I see potential in)
Energy Removal (to stall opponent a little)
Cheren (for simple drawing power)
Roseanne's Research (Energy or Pokemon drawing power)
Moomoo Milk (to prevent losing Machamp, or at least have him get me one more prize card)
Feel free to add, remove, and make different suggestions. This is just a rough draft.

Energy (15)
15 Fighting

My main strategy would be getting Golurk set up as soon as possible, and have him doing damage while I set up Machamp. Later, I could set up Machamp Prime and switch out a Pokemon with damage to deal massive damage and get a prize card. A relatively simple strategy I guess: slug away at my opponent until I get six prizes.

A final question: Is there a better partner for Machamp in this deck? I chose the Golurk combo because he is inexpensive, can tank, and can do decent damage while discarding the opponent's top card of his/her deck. I was thinking of Stantler for "Call for Family," but then Stantler might just become a free prize card after a while.
 
Let me see if I can help.

Comeback_Kid said:
Hello all, I'm a relatively new player here, but I guess that goes without saying in the Training Facility. I'm here to ask about an idea I have about a relatively simple Machamp deck, but before I get to that I feel I should mention some things first. I play with about eight people, and we all just got back into the game not too long ago. We play unlimited, and that's the deck I wish to build as opposed to "meta" (which I think is competitive play?), so that really opens up a lot of options for cards used So you play Unlimited, huh?. Also, we do not yet play with resistances at the moment, so those should be an issue Playing with Pokemon that don't have resistances is extremely difficult, so I suggest that you open up your mind to Resistance. I should also mention that I hate having two, Stage-2 lines in my decks, so I'd prefer that Machamp be the only Stage-2 line, with the rest being either Stage-1's or basics Okay, so you'd like something like Machamp Prime + Donphan Prime?. It just makes things easier to get out. The last thing is that I am on a budget. It's not super tight compared to how potentially cheap this deck is, but I'd rather not spend over $40 Okay, so Donchamp doesn't work.
Click to expand...

Here's my idea. If you really want to use Machamp, I suggest that you use Landorus NV as an alternative to Donphan or Golurk. Golurk is okay, but it has a hard time getting set up with Pokemon Catcher in this format. I would try Landorus due to its rather easy time setting up, and it works like Donphan Prime, except it is less expensive (although it is the inferior choice).

I feel that newer players should really try to open up to evolution, because Pokemon shouldn't be about playing down extremely powerful Basics with tons of HP, but instead, using the process of evolution. If you wanted to try Machamp/Landorus, try this:

4 - 2 - 4 Machamp Prime
4 Landorus NV

That's where you would start, but then you have a bunch of other cards you would have to add.

Unfortunately, 40 dollars is a really small budget, so there isn't much room to add cards without going over your budget. The cards you'd need to make this deck work that would be a bit costly would include:

Pokemon Collector
Junk Arm
Pokemon Catcher
Rare Candy
Pokemon Communication (kind of)
Eviolite

These cards are costly right now, and would already go over your budget. I have a few more ideas for cheap but effective decks, so please shoot me a PM (Private Message) if you are interested, because I would be glad to help.
 
I could switch out the Machamp SF's with Machamp Prime if I could get Landorus doing damage to my bench. I'm also willing to extend my budget to $60, as I decided $40 is a little impractical. I'm definitely considering playing with resistance and weaknesses, but I do play against a Psychic/Electric deck mainly so it might add to my troubles. We'll see. What do you think about just getting a $10 world championship deck to get all of the more expensive cards like Rare Candy and Pokemon Collector for essentially much cheaper? I have thick sleeves on my cards so you wouldn't be able to see the different graphic on the back of the card during play. It could be a way out of my expensive situation.
 
Championship decks are fine for playing with friends but those cards are not legal in modified play. Then again, neither are cards from before HGSS, so if its only with friends its fine. Also, Excadrill (EP I think, the one with Dig and Earthquake) also has an attack that pairs well with Machamp Prime and its probably cheaper than Landorus right now since Landorus just came out.
 
What if I went like this:
4-3-4 Machamp Prime
3-3 Donphan Prime
3 Cleffa

T/S/S
Rare Candy
Pokemon Communication
Pokemon Collector
PONT
Plus Power
Gust of Wind
Junk Arm
Quick Ball

Double Colorless Energy
Fighting Energy

I left the trainers and energies without a number because I was unsure about how many of them I should put in. The reason I am throwing my budget out the window is because I plan on picking up extra work shifts over the break, and will be purchasing cards for this deck in increments to cut the immediate cost down. I also have a Zekrom, Pachirisu, Kyurem, and a few other expensive cards I could trade away for the necessary cards in this deck. Trainers are still something I have no idea about. I'm also not sure if 3-3 Donphan is going to cut it. Suggestions are very greatly appreciated.
 
Ah Donchamp, been a long time since I've seen you...you haven't been missed.

Okay my hatred of x2 to fighting pokemon and therefore fighting pokemon in general, this deck, like Reshiboar, is a great theorymon deck but a little weak in practice. One of the biggest problems is that, other than Cleffa, your basics retreat for two. This is a huge problem because you have no other real starter in your deck to help you set up, which can make setting up Machamp borderline impossible without the help of a Twins engine. I'd add those in.

One problem you're going to run into right away is Tornadus with Eviolite. Donphan can't do anything against it, 20 per Earthquake. You can run Ruins of Alpha to push your damage up to 40, but you're still looking at a 3 shot against Tornadus against his two shot against you, Donphan is a dying card other than possibly Donphans and Dragons, and Donchamp has been long dead before it. If Machamp was a deck originally chosen for some sort of budget, I wouldn't bother pursuing it. You'll be investing a lot into a "meh" deck. If Machamp is a favorite pokemon, feel free to give it a try, but I'm not convinced that Donchamp is the answer anymore. NV did too much against Donphan, and Pokemon Catcher does little to help Machamp.
 
If you don't want to play competivly at all, then I recamend simply chooseing a main card that you like, along with others that help it. If you are planing to migrate over to compettive then foucos on cards that are HGSS on. The list of thoes sets being:
Noble Victories
Emerging Powers
Black & White
Call of Legends
HS - Triumphant
HS - Undaunted
HS - Unleashed
HeartGold & SoulSilver


If you are thinking about migrateing to compettive you might want to use Zekrom, as you already have him and we helps with the above metioned Tornadus issue.
BTW gust of wind is the same as modern pokemon catcher.
 
Magnevire said:
Ah Donchamp, been a long time since I've seen you...you haven't been missed.

Okay my hatred of x2 to fighting pokemon and therefore fighting pokemon in general, this deck, like Reshiboar, is a great theorymon deck but a little weak in practice. One of the biggest problems is that, other than Cleffa, your basics retreat for two. This is a huge problem because you have no other real starter in your deck to help you set up, which can make setting up Machamp borderline impossible without the help of a Twins engine. I'd add those in.

One problem you're going to run into right away is Tornadus with Eviolite. Donphan can't do anything against it, 20 per Earthquake. You can run Ruins of Alpha to push your damage up to 40, but you're still looking at a 3 shot against Tornadus against his two shot against you, Donphan is a dying card other than possibly Donphans and Dragons, and Donchamp has been long dead before it. If Machamp was a deck originally chosen for some sort of budget, I wouldn't bother pursuing it. You'll be investing a lot into a "meh" deck. If Machamp is a favorite pokemon, feel free to give it a try, but I'm not convinced that Donchamp is the answer anymore. NV did too much against Donphan, and Pokemon Catcher does little to help Machamp.
Click to expand...

Actually, fighting pokemon might regain popularity due to the rising play of zekrom/magnezone/eelektrik/thundurus varients. Tornadus would give it trouble though.
 
Fighting pokemon might see a resurgence because of that, weakness is nothing to scoff at, but there is no denying that NV was most unkind to Donphan, and Donchamp has been dated for quite some time. Most Electric decks will probably have to at least tech Tornadus in such a situation. I'm testing one in Magneel at this moment.
 
You will need Bebe's Search and Expert Belt if you are going for unlimited play and 1 or 2 Luxury ball have got to be in there too and the 4 candies are a must for a machamp deck. Remove the golurk 3-3 evo chain and replace with the conkeldurr chain going for a 2-1-2 line. Maybe add in a couple of catchers/gust of winds for the quick and easy knockouts and also it will do a lot of good if you have 3 or 4 collector in there to get out 3 basic pokemon in a flash. You could go for donphan but that sort of deck doesn't run to good with machamp because of the fact that the rare candy that are used to get the machamp out fast are taking up valuable deck space for a good donphan deck to run. Pokemon rescue and night maintenance can be great options to choose for this sort of deck but your best possible shot would be to go for a few supporters like prof oak's new theory and definitely a solid 4 pokemon communication which are vital in a deck that uses triple chain evos with rare candy - communication can win you games my friend.
 
sallarrieye said:
You will need Bebe's Search and Expert Belt if you are going for unlimited play and 1 or 2 Luxury ball have got to be in there too and the 4 candies are a must for a machamp deck. Remove the golurk 3-3 evo chain and replace with the conkeldurr chain going for a 2-1-2 line. Maybe add in a couple of catchers/gust of winds for the quick and easy knockouts and also it will do a lot of good if you have 3 or 4 collector in there to get out 3 basic pokemon in a flash. You could go for donphan but that sort of deck doesn't run to good with machamp because of the fact that the rare candy that are used to get the machamp out fast are taking up valuable deck space for a good donphan deck to run. Pokemon rescue and night maintenance can be great options to choose for this sort of deck but your best possible shot would be to go for a few supporters like prof oak's new theory and definitely a solid 4 pokemon communication which are vital in a deck that uses triple chain evos with rare candy - communication can win you games my friend.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions! So you think Conkeldurr would be a good fit in this deck, then? I was seriously thinking about adding him in there instead of Golurk to begin with. The Noble Victories version has a nice attribute with 140 HP, and +20 per every fighting energy attached to him, which would put him at 220 by the time he was able to use his attack. Have you used him before?
 
I haven't actually made a deck but did have a good idea for one after the hgss cards cannot be used anymore in the year ahead. The most recent deck I did build was Reuniclus (Net Force), Beheeyem and Cofagrigus (Damagriigus) that works very well. I also made a deck that runs off of double colorless energy with the dragons from BW and NV and Hydreigon from NV. I had to take apart my Druddigon/Dragons DCE deck to build the dark one but the dark one is much better as it can attack the bench with some powerful attacks!
 
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