Hello, all! With all the newfound hype for Ampharos Prime, I decided to go ahead and stick my head into the action.
For a while now, many of you have been eyeing the possibility of teching Ampharos Prime into perceived top tier threats in the upcoming metagame. It doesn't matter if it'll be in July or not, the fact is, it's coming. So far, though, it's pretty much a "rock, paper, scissors"-type format. You have the possibly number one threat, Donphan, being truncated by Blastoise and Feraligatr variants.
Then there's Blastoise being rolled over by Zekrom and Magnezone variants. AND THEN...Magnezone, Healix, and Scizor Prime getting melted by Reshiram and other mono-fire builds. The cycle continues on and on, until it eventually just goes full circle.
Ampharos Prime, is a stage 2 Pokemon, as we all know. With the upcoming rotation, most stage 2 decks will be quite a bit slower without the use of Broken-Time Space. Fear not! The entire format has gotten slower to compensate. Stage 2 decks are far from unplayable. In fact, many top tier decks will be stage 2. You have Blastoise/Feraligatr, Reshiram (requiring stage 2 Pokemon to set up), and even a few Magnezone variants. It may not seem like too much, but it's much more than last rotation.
Here's my list of "top threats" in order of importance. Keep in mind, this is just MY opinion.
Donphan Prime
Blastoise + Feraligatr
Zekrom + (Shaymin + Pachirisu)
Magnezone Prime
Reshiram + Emboar/Typhlosion
Scizor Prime
Steelix Prime
I left off Lost World + Gengar and Vileplume + Gengar for various reasons. I think that with the new format approaching, the interest in these will go down quite a bit. The evolution of the metagame will probably squeeze them out. It's not to say they won't see play anytime soon, but I don't think they'll be a top threat again just yet.
Now onto the building phase. Let start of with Ampharos Prime, the bread and butter of this deck!
4-4-4 Ampharos Prime
20 Electric Energy
Yep, a 4-4-4 line and 20 energy. So oldschool. To help some of the newer players out there, I'll outline the thought process and eventually decrease it to a more modern and standard build in just a few!
Me: "So, Ampharos Prime, what do you do?"
Ampharos: Ampharos, Ampharos, Ampharos!
Haha, yeah...so basically Ampharos Prime does a spectactular job of making your opponent think twice about the speed of their deck. Energy accelaration is key to many of the new threats such as
Blastoise and Reshiram and, of course, "Speed Zekrom". While Blastoise and Reshiram each take their damage from Ampharos Prime's Poke-Body respectively, Zekrom doesn't. Why? Pachirisu is the victim in this situation. Zekrom requires Pachirisu to power up it's awesome Wild Bolt ability with Pachirisu's own Poke-Power. So, for each Ampharos Prime you have set up on the bench, for each energy attached to Pachirisu, it'll take 10 damage. If it's used to its full effect, Pachrirsu will take 20 damage TIMES the number of Ampharos Prime you have played! That means dead Pachirisu (with three Ampharos Prime) and slow Zekrom. Surely, they don't HAVE to attach 2 energy, but if they don't, it really hurts the "Speed" portion of Zekrom. So for now, let's mark Zekrom off the threat list!
Now to add to our build!
4-3-4 Ampharos Prime
2-2 Dodrio uD
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Pokemon Collector
16 Electric Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
The build is starting to look a bit more standard, now. You'll effectively be able to get your Ampharos Primes set up on your bench in no time! As you can see, I added Dodrio from the Undaunted set. It has this awesome ability called "Give Ampharos Prime Free Retreat" or "Retreat Aid". With this, and Ampharos Primes massive HP, you'll be able to safely switch out if placed in harms way!
Pretty cool, huh? Also, you'll probably notice (for you newer players out there) that one of the Flaafy has run off! Well, this will help your overall speed and consistency in conjunction with Rare Candy. The Double Colorless Energy is great for Ampharos Primes attack, Lightning Crush. Your opponent managed to set something up? You'll notice your opponent may have suffered a few bumps and bruises along the way due some of that ol' Conductivity! If Ampharos was in the line of fire at the time of setup, chances are, it'll take some damage. Don't worry, though. Always be prepared to take some damage, but don't be afraid to dish it either! Lightning Crush has the ability to deal up to 80 damage or 40 damage and discard an opponents energy. That's enough to make any Pokemon cry.
Blastoise will flail in fear of this thing...so lets beat it!
Blastoise and Feraligatr have the unique ability to setup energy extremely fast and take out darn-near anything on the field with their synergy. Definitely one of the top threats to look out for playing any deck. Nothing is safe on your bench. Enter Ampharos Prime...again. First off, Blastoise can't KO an active Ampharos without help from Black Belts or Pluspower, but you can KO it back! Any Ampharos Prime on your bench will be able to survive the massive 100 damage it can dish out. In the meantime...Blastoise will begin setting up for another turn if you end up not KO'ing it on your turn (flip tails). In this case, the Blastoise will at most have 1 Water Energy attached. If they had a Double Colorless Energy, that would be the one to get rid of. Blastoise will, sadly, survive the Conductivity thanks to its Wash Out Poke-power. However, its fellow water Pokemon won't be so lucky. You may lose an Ampharos on your bench or even your active this turn, but the Blastoise is sure to go down as well. Depending on the coin-flips, though, you should almost always come out on top.
It's been a while since we looked at how our build was doing, lets add some stuff to help us with that dreaded Donphan matchup!
4-3-4 Ampharos Prime
2-2 Lanturn Prime
2-2 Dodrio UD
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Defender
16 Electric Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
So you just took a whopping 120 damage for one Fighting Energy from a Donphan Prime the turn before. That has to hurt. Luckily with Dodrio you can retreat and promote...Lanturn Prime! Easy revenge KO provided you have the energy to blast it to oblivion. Remember Donphan Prime's Poke-body, Exo-Skeleton. That thing will get annoying fast. But this is your toughest matchup so far, right? Let's do some surviving!
Lanturn Prime can KO Donphan Prime, we know that much. But what about the next turn? Can't Donphan just revenge-KO back? The answer is, yes, of course and for ONE ENERGY! UGH! Don't go down without a fight, though. This is a key matchup and you must perform to your fullest! First of all, you need to do 140 damage with Lanturn to KO Donphan Prime. Thankfully, getting there is easy. With one Double Colorless Energy and one Electric Energy attached to Lanturn, you're already there because of Donphans 2x weakness to water! Hooray! Lanturn Prime is done for next turn, though...or is it?
Enter Defender. (Insert serious music, too.) With Defender played the following turn, your Lanturn essentially has 130 HP enough to survive an unboosted, STAB'ed--wrong game--a 120 damage attack from Donphan Prime. You know that there's another Donphan Prime licking its lips for your next counter. What you may not know, though, is that your opponent could have a Pluspower or Black Belt lurking in their hand. That would spell doom for Lanturn...however it won't always be the case (and you may not always have a Defender), but it always worth the shot to force your opponent to burn some resources and make THEM fight to KO you. Then what if they don't have a Pluspower or Black Belt? There's Donphan Prime's second attack. Heavy Impact is 3 Fighting Energy for 90. That hurts quite a bit, but also makes your opponent burn 3 energy AND take some nice damage from Conductivity! Your magic number for Conductivity here is three! Why three? Because for each energy placed for Conductivity, that's 30 damage per energy, which will bring Donphan down to a paltry 30 HP for Heavy Impact--and it KO'ing range for our best friend! You're really annoying your Donphan Prime friend, now. Getting tails this time is actually something you don't want. Your Lanturn just met a sad fate at the hands of this Donphan Prime, and Ampharos won't have any of that. So bust out some magic and hope for heads. You'll only deal 40 damage thanks to Donphan, but it'll be a nice 40 damage and you put Donphan in a better place...the discard pile, duh!
This matchup is far from unwinnable. Granted, you'll be playing on the edge the entire time, but hey, at least you have a shot and a pretty good one!
Your next opponent is the beastly Reshiram + Emboar/Typhlosion. Now you may be thinking, "I just scraped a win off Donphan" or "...barely lost", "I can take this match easily with Lanturn Prime!"
Not so fast! While Emboar and Reshiram make it look easy...I mean, come on, you just blasted through Zekrom and Blastoise (with Feraligatr or Floatzel), and you know your deck has what it takes to endure the of the 'Phan. Well, the Emboar variant shouldn't be a problem, the problem is Typhlosion. Yes, Typhlosion. Reshiram doesn't take that 40 damage like Zekrom does when using Wild Bolt. Also, Typhlosion doesn't get energies onto Reshiram from the hand. It gets them from the discard pile which completely bypasses your awesome Conductivity! How do you lockdown your opponent now?
Let's spice up our build to prepare for this heated match! Haha...
4-3-4 Ampharos Prime
3-3 Lanturn Prime
2-2 Dodrio UD
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Defender
2 Junk Arm
1 Energy Retrieval
16 Electric Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
Basically, I beefed up our defenses. More Lanturn Prime's mean that will have a more stable matchup with Donphan as well as go all-out offensive on the afforementioned Reshiram variants. That extra Electric Energy we kept in there will help returning some used up Defenders to our hand to help cushion Donphan's attacks and survive Reshiram's ultimate attack for the sweet KO the next turn. Energy Retrieval will get us some of those energy we discarded if need be...and it need be. Typhlosion Prime Attack Mode ENTER!
You thought we were about to fear the Reshiram? Well, don't fear the Reshiram-per. Fear the Typhlosion! Not only does it have excellent support for Reshiram and "offensive" Emboar, but it can do some damage in its own right. This is also where your precious Double Color Energy will become your worst enemy.
Your Lanturn just came home from KO'ing that weakling, Reshiram. It's sitting high and mighty with that Double Colorless Energy and one Electric Energy waiting to its next opponent to arrive--then suddenly. A WILD TYPHLOSION APPEARS. At minimum it's going to probably have three damage counters on it leaving it in an easy KO range at 110 HP with Lanturn. TYPHLOSION USES FLARE DESTROY. The opponent will likely choose to remove your precious Double Colorless Energy! Your now stuck with Lanturn sitting at 40 HP and one Electric Energy. While your Lanturn may live to fight another day--haha! Not so fast...again! You just knocked out your opponents Reshiram, so you could be a prize ahead. Your opponent slaps down a Black Belt and has a good ol' fashioned fish fry. You're in trouble, now. Lanturn isn't the slowest thing to set up, though, but you could still eat another Flare Destroy with something else if not prepared. Switch in your Ampharos while you prepare your Lanturn set up. Your Ampharos is in some trouble, though, you need to get it out of there. No matter what your Ampharos does, the Typhlosion will survive and since it doesn't use Double Colorless Energy to attack, it can easily recover that Fire Energy with Afterburner if it was lost. So you have a hurt Ampharos, and a shameful Lanturn in your discard pile...all from one Typhlosion. You thought this was going to be easy, huh? Now, get in there and show the Typhlosion who's boss to put the score back in your favor.
The moral of the story is, if A WILD TYPHLOSION APPEARS, act accordingly. Save your Double Colorless Energy for Ampharos in this matchup. Lanturn will survive an un-Black Belted onslaught from Typhlosion without it. Save Defenders for Reshiram, and eat dirt for when a stray Emboar (non-ability) starts mowing you down. Also, if your opponent has a Lost Remover in their hand. It'll prevent them from hindering you even more. This matchup isn't as challenging as Donphan, but you still have to be very mindful.
So there you have it, your matchups against the future top decks. You may be asking, "But what about Magnezone, Scizor, or Steelix? WHAT'S GOING ON?" The answer is simple, you already played against them. Magnzeone is kinda like playing a hybrid of Zekrom (w/Pachirisu) and Feraligatr and Emboar. Emboar and Feraligatr will be your moles, Pachirisu will be to afraid to see its shadow, just worry about the Magnezone.
Scizor and Steelix, are pretty similar in essence. One, they both utilize Metal Energy. Two, they're both tanks and can hit like a truck! Remember what I said about playing the Double Colorless Energy properly and you'll do fine against Scizor. I guess we may as well update the deck to make them a breeze...
4-3-4 Ampharos Prime
3-3 Lanturn Prime
2-2 Dodrio UD
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Defender
2 Junk Arm
1 Energy Retrieval
3 Lost Remover
13 Electric Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
Ampharos Prime reverts to being your main attacker here. Just sponge up the attacks and eventually you'll come out on top. The addition of Lost Remover is the icing on the cake. It'll allow you to remove those pesky Special Metal Energy which will effectively prevent them from tanking and racking up prize cards. Skarmory will quickly be dispatched by from two Thundershocks from Flaafy or OHKO from a Ampharos with a heads!
Oh, and by the way, the deck now has 60 cards! Still, it's a rough skeleton list of what the deck should look like. You don't necessarily need 4 Ampharos Prime, in fact, I wouldn't really recommend it. As I said before, three is the magic number. The list is also lacking some hand refreshment and draw power, so let's spice it up a bit so we can safely get the cards we need and when we need them!
4-3-3/1 Ampharos Prime/Ampharos
3-3 Lanturn Prime
2-2 Dodrio UD
2 Pokemon Collector
2 Professor Oak's New Theory
4 Pokemon Communication
2 Dual Ball
3 Rare Candy
4 Defender
2 Junk Arm
3 Lost Remover
13 Electric Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
I've already explained many of the cards in the list, so I won't bother with those. I did however take out two Pokemon Collector's. I'm sure that caught some people's eyes. I find it's not necessary to run four in this deck. On the first turn, you will still have some way of fetching those Mareep with Pokemon Communication/Pokemon Collector and the newly added Dual Ball. If you get a bad start Pokemon Collector will not save you. However a combination of Professor Oak's New Theory and Dual Ball will be a blessing in disguise. You may not get the good flips on Dual Ball, but you'll still have a hand refresher to help you out. If you played Pokemon Collector, you'll get the basic Pokemon, but if you started with no energy (what I consider a pretty bad start), you still won't have it!
Remember to get some experience of your surrounding metagame. Some techs will work well for others, but not for you. There are a multitude of techs that can work in this deck. For instance, I put in a regular Ampharos from Heart Gold/Soul Silver base set to counter Umbreon. That thing will laugh at my face, otherwise.
In closing, I hope you enjoyed this little article I put together. It may not appeal to everyone, but it does prove that Ampharos Prime is spectacular and should be a force to be reckoned with in the coming future.
Thanks for reading!
For a while now, many of you have been eyeing the possibility of teching Ampharos Prime into perceived top tier threats in the upcoming metagame. It doesn't matter if it'll be in July or not, the fact is, it's coming. So far, though, it's pretty much a "rock, paper, scissors"-type format. You have the possibly number one threat, Donphan, being truncated by Blastoise and Feraligatr variants.
Then there's Blastoise being rolled over by Zekrom and Magnezone variants. AND THEN...Magnezone, Healix, and Scizor Prime getting melted by Reshiram and other mono-fire builds. The cycle continues on and on, until it eventually just goes full circle.
Ampharos Prime, is a stage 2 Pokemon, as we all know. With the upcoming rotation, most stage 2 decks will be quite a bit slower without the use of Broken-Time Space. Fear not! The entire format has gotten slower to compensate. Stage 2 decks are far from unplayable. In fact, many top tier decks will be stage 2. You have Blastoise/Feraligatr, Reshiram (requiring stage 2 Pokemon to set up), and even a few Magnezone variants. It may not seem like too much, but it's much more than last rotation.
Here's my list of "top threats" in order of importance. Keep in mind, this is just MY opinion.
Donphan Prime
Blastoise + Feraligatr
Zekrom + (Shaymin + Pachirisu)
Magnezone Prime
Reshiram + Emboar/Typhlosion
Scizor Prime
Steelix Prime
I left off Lost World + Gengar and Vileplume + Gengar for various reasons. I think that with the new format approaching, the interest in these will go down quite a bit. The evolution of the metagame will probably squeeze them out. It's not to say they won't see play anytime soon, but I don't think they'll be a top threat again just yet.
Now onto the building phase. Let start of with Ampharos Prime, the bread and butter of this deck!
4-4-4 Ampharos Prime
20 Electric Energy
Yep, a 4-4-4 line and 20 energy. So oldschool. To help some of the newer players out there, I'll outline the thought process and eventually decrease it to a more modern and standard build in just a few!
Me: "So, Ampharos Prime, what do you do?"
Ampharos: Ampharos, Ampharos, Ampharos!
Haha, yeah...so basically Ampharos Prime does a spectactular job of making your opponent think twice about the speed of their deck. Energy accelaration is key to many of the new threats such as
Blastoise and Reshiram and, of course, "Speed Zekrom". While Blastoise and Reshiram each take their damage from Ampharos Prime's Poke-Body respectively, Zekrom doesn't. Why? Pachirisu is the victim in this situation. Zekrom requires Pachirisu to power up it's awesome Wild Bolt ability with Pachirisu's own Poke-Power. So, for each Ampharos Prime you have set up on the bench, for each energy attached to Pachirisu, it'll take 10 damage. If it's used to its full effect, Pachrirsu will take 20 damage TIMES the number of Ampharos Prime you have played! That means dead Pachirisu (with three Ampharos Prime) and slow Zekrom. Surely, they don't HAVE to attach 2 energy, but if they don't, it really hurts the "Speed" portion of Zekrom. So for now, let's mark Zekrom off the threat list!
Now to add to our build!
4-3-4 Ampharos Prime
2-2 Dodrio uD
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Pokemon Collector
16 Electric Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
The build is starting to look a bit more standard, now. You'll effectively be able to get your Ampharos Primes set up on your bench in no time! As you can see, I added Dodrio from the Undaunted set. It has this awesome ability called "Give Ampharos Prime Free Retreat" or "Retreat Aid". With this, and Ampharos Primes massive HP, you'll be able to safely switch out if placed in harms way!
Pretty cool, huh? Also, you'll probably notice (for you newer players out there) that one of the Flaafy has run off! Well, this will help your overall speed and consistency in conjunction with Rare Candy. The Double Colorless Energy is great for Ampharos Primes attack, Lightning Crush. Your opponent managed to set something up? You'll notice your opponent may have suffered a few bumps and bruises along the way due some of that ol' Conductivity! If Ampharos was in the line of fire at the time of setup, chances are, it'll take some damage. Don't worry, though. Always be prepared to take some damage, but don't be afraid to dish it either! Lightning Crush has the ability to deal up to 80 damage or 40 damage and discard an opponents energy. That's enough to make any Pokemon cry.
Blastoise will flail in fear of this thing...so lets beat it!
Blastoise and Feraligatr have the unique ability to setup energy extremely fast and take out darn-near anything on the field with their synergy. Definitely one of the top threats to look out for playing any deck. Nothing is safe on your bench. Enter Ampharos Prime...again. First off, Blastoise can't KO an active Ampharos without help from Black Belts or Pluspower, but you can KO it back! Any Ampharos Prime on your bench will be able to survive the massive 100 damage it can dish out. In the meantime...Blastoise will begin setting up for another turn if you end up not KO'ing it on your turn (flip tails). In this case, the Blastoise will at most have 1 Water Energy attached. If they had a Double Colorless Energy, that would be the one to get rid of. Blastoise will, sadly, survive the Conductivity thanks to its Wash Out Poke-power. However, its fellow water Pokemon won't be so lucky. You may lose an Ampharos on your bench or even your active this turn, but the Blastoise is sure to go down as well. Depending on the coin-flips, though, you should almost always come out on top.
It's been a while since we looked at how our build was doing, lets add some stuff to help us with that dreaded Donphan matchup!
4-3-4 Ampharos Prime
2-2 Lanturn Prime
2-2 Dodrio UD
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Defender
16 Electric Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
So you just took a whopping 120 damage for one Fighting Energy from a Donphan Prime the turn before. That has to hurt. Luckily with Dodrio you can retreat and promote...Lanturn Prime! Easy revenge KO provided you have the energy to blast it to oblivion. Remember Donphan Prime's Poke-body, Exo-Skeleton. That thing will get annoying fast. But this is your toughest matchup so far, right? Let's do some surviving!
Lanturn Prime can KO Donphan Prime, we know that much. But what about the next turn? Can't Donphan just revenge-KO back? The answer is, yes, of course and for ONE ENERGY! UGH! Don't go down without a fight, though. This is a key matchup and you must perform to your fullest! First of all, you need to do 140 damage with Lanturn to KO Donphan Prime. Thankfully, getting there is easy. With one Double Colorless Energy and one Electric Energy attached to Lanturn, you're already there because of Donphans 2x weakness to water! Hooray! Lanturn Prime is done for next turn, though...or is it?
Enter Defender. (Insert serious music, too.) With Defender played the following turn, your Lanturn essentially has 130 HP enough to survive an unboosted, STAB'ed--wrong game--a 120 damage attack from Donphan Prime. You know that there's another Donphan Prime licking its lips for your next counter. What you may not know, though, is that your opponent could have a Pluspower or Black Belt lurking in their hand. That would spell doom for Lanturn...however it won't always be the case (and you may not always have a Defender), but it always worth the shot to force your opponent to burn some resources and make THEM fight to KO you. Then what if they don't have a Pluspower or Black Belt? There's Donphan Prime's second attack. Heavy Impact is 3 Fighting Energy for 90. That hurts quite a bit, but also makes your opponent burn 3 energy AND take some nice damage from Conductivity! Your magic number for Conductivity here is three! Why three? Because for each energy placed for Conductivity, that's 30 damage per energy, which will bring Donphan down to a paltry 30 HP for Heavy Impact--and it KO'ing range for our best friend! You're really annoying your Donphan Prime friend, now. Getting tails this time is actually something you don't want. Your Lanturn just met a sad fate at the hands of this Donphan Prime, and Ampharos won't have any of that. So bust out some magic and hope for heads. You'll only deal 40 damage thanks to Donphan, but it'll be a nice 40 damage and you put Donphan in a better place...the discard pile, duh!
This matchup is far from unwinnable. Granted, you'll be playing on the edge the entire time, but hey, at least you have a shot and a pretty good one!
Your next opponent is the beastly Reshiram + Emboar/Typhlosion. Now you may be thinking, "I just scraped a win off Donphan" or "...barely lost", "I can take this match easily with Lanturn Prime!"
Not so fast! While Emboar and Reshiram make it look easy...I mean, come on, you just blasted through Zekrom and Blastoise (with Feraligatr or Floatzel), and you know your deck has what it takes to endure the of the 'Phan. Well, the Emboar variant shouldn't be a problem, the problem is Typhlosion. Yes, Typhlosion. Reshiram doesn't take that 40 damage like Zekrom does when using Wild Bolt. Also, Typhlosion doesn't get energies onto Reshiram from the hand. It gets them from the discard pile which completely bypasses your awesome Conductivity! How do you lockdown your opponent now?
Let's spice up our build to prepare for this heated match! Haha...
4-3-4 Ampharos Prime
3-3 Lanturn Prime
2-2 Dodrio UD
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Defender
2 Junk Arm
1 Energy Retrieval
16 Electric Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
Basically, I beefed up our defenses. More Lanturn Prime's mean that will have a more stable matchup with Donphan as well as go all-out offensive on the afforementioned Reshiram variants. That extra Electric Energy we kept in there will help returning some used up Defenders to our hand to help cushion Donphan's attacks and survive Reshiram's ultimate attack for the sweet KO the next turn. Energy Retrieval will get us some of those energy we discarded if need be...and it need be. Typhlosion Prime Attack Mode ENTER!
You thought we were about to fear the Reshiram? Well, don't fear the Reshiram-per. Fear the Typhlosion! Not only does it have excellent support for Reshiram and "offensive" Emboar, but it can do some damage in its own right. This is also where your precious Double Color Energy will become your worst enemy.
Your Lanturn just came home from KO'ing that weakling, Reshiram. It's sitting high and mighty with that Double Colorless Energy and one Electric Energy waiting to its next opponent to arrive--then suddenly. A WILD TYPHLOSION APPEARS. At minimum it's going to probably have three damage counters on it leaving it in an easy KO range at 110 HP with Lanturn. TYPHLOSION USES FLARE DESTROY. The opponent will likely choose to remove your precious Double Colorless Energy! Your now stuck with Lanturn sitting at 40 HP and one Electric Energy. While your Lanturn may live to fight another day--haha! Not so fast...again! You just knocked out your opponents Reshiram, so you could be a prize ahead. Your opponent slaps down a Black Belt and has a good ol' fashioned fish fry. You're in trouble, now. Lanturn isn't the slowest thing to set up, though, but you could still eat another Flare Destroy with something else if not prepared. Switch in your Ampharos while you prepare your Lanturn set up. Your Ampharos is in some trouble, though, you need to get it out of there. No matter what your Ampharos does, the Typhlosion will survive and since it doesn't use Double Colorless Energy to attack, it can easily recover that Fire Energy with Afterburner if it was lost. So you have a hurt Ampharos, and a shameful Lanturn in your discard pile...all from one Typhlosion. You thought this was going to be easy, huh?
Now, get in there and show the Typhlosion who's boss to put the score back in your favor.The moral of the story is, if A WILD TYPHLOSION APPEARS, act accordingly. Save your Double Colorless Energy for Ampharos in this matchup. Lanturn will survive an un-Black Belted onslaught from Typhlosion without it. Save Defenders for Reshiram, and eat dirt for when a stray Emboar (non-ability) starts mowing you down. Also, if your opponent has a Lost Remover in their hand. It'll prevent them from hindering you even more. This matchup isn't as challenging as Donphan, but you still have to be very mindful.
So there you have it, your matchups against the future top decks. You may be asking, "But what about Magnezone, Scizor, or Steelix? WHAT'S GOING ON?" The answer is simple, you already played against them. Magnzeone is kinda like playing a hybrid of Zekrom (w/Pachirisu) and Feraligatr and Emboar. Emboar and Feraligatr will be your moles, Pachirisu will be to afraid to see its shadow, just worry about the Magnezone.
Scizor and Steelix, are pretty similar in essence. One, they both utilize Metal Energy. Two, they're both tanks and can hit like a truck! Remember what I said about playing the Double Colorless Energy properly and you'll do fine against Scizor. I guess we may as well update the deck to make them a breeze...
4-3-4 Ampharos Prime
3-3 Lanturn Prime
2-2 Dodrio UD
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokemon Communication
4 Pokemon Collector
4 Defender
2 Junk Arm
1 Energy Retrieval
3 Lost Remover
13 Electric Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
Ampharos Prime reverts to being your main attacker here. Just sponge up the attacks and eventually you'll come out on top. The addition of Lost Remover is the icing on the cake. It'll allow you to remove those pesky Special Metal Energy which will effectively prevent them from tanking and racking up prize cards. Skarmory will quickly be dispatched by from two Thundershocks from Flaafy or OHKO from a Ampharos with a heads!
Oh, and by the way, the deck now has 60 cards! Still, it's a rough skeleton list of what the deck should look like. You don't necessarily need 4 Ampharos Prime, in fact, I wouldn't really recommend it. As I said before, three is the magic number. The list is also lacking some hand refreshment and draw power, so let's spice it up a bit so we can safely get the cards we need and when we need them!
4-3-3/1 Ampharos Prime/Ampharos
3-3 Lanturn Prime
2-2 Dodrio UD
2 Pokemon Collector
2 Professor Oak's New Theory
4 Pokemon Communication
2 Dual Ball
3 Rare Candy
4 Defender
2 Junk Arm
3 Lost Remover
13 Electric Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
I've already explained many of the cards in the list, so I won't bother with those. I did however take out two Pokemon Collector's. I'm sure that caught some people's eyes. I find it's not necessary to run four in this deck. On the first turn, you will still have some way of fetching those Mareep with Pokemon Communication/Pokemon Collector and the newly added Dual Ball. If you get a bad start Pokemon Collector will not save you. However a combination of Professor Oak's New Theory and Dual Ball will be a blessing in disguise. You may not get the good flips on Dual Ball, but you'll still have a hand refresher to help you out. If you played Pokemon Collector, you'll get the basic Pokemon, but if you started with no energy (what I consider a pretty bad start
), you still won't have it!Remember to get some experience of your surrounding metagame. Some techs will work well for others, but not for you. There are a multitude of techs that can work in this deck. For instance, I put in a regular Ampharos from Heart Gold/Soul Silver base set to counter Umbreon. That thing will laugh at my face, otherwise.
In closing, I hope you enjoyed this little article I put together. It may not appeal to everyone, but it does prove that Ampharos Prime is spectacular and should be a force to be reckoned with in the coming future.
Thanks for reading!