PlasmaKlang

I also prefer Cheren than Juniper right now but I can't imagine not using Colress so many benchsitter decks.
 
Shaxe said:
I also prefer Cheren than Juniper right now but I can't imagine not using Colress so many benchsitter decks.

You dont play Juniper? Wow. I cannot imagine playing this deck without at least three.
 
Any deck without Juniper is not a deck, and more or less a gimmick. I used to run four but dropped to three and got the fourth Heavy Ball. It has saved me games and boosted my set-up like no other.
 
Going to be very interesting when Cradily comes out - obviously setting up plasma Klang will be easy, but then if everyone else is playing Cradily decks too (instead of EX builds) they will destroy it with superior attackers.
 
Serperior said:
Any deck without Juniper is not a deck, and more or less a gimmick. I used to run four but dropped to three and got the fourth Heavy Ball. It has saved me games and boosted my set-up like no other.

Plasmaklang isn't the type of deck where you can discard/use as many cards as you can then draw a new hand with Juniper and then keep tossing cards like Darkrai. More often than not, you will be using Juniper with a few cards in hand and end up discarding precious cards because your hand is not ideal or you feel like you must use a supporter that turn. I have regretted so many times discarding even low priority cards such as Tool Scrapper or Super Rod, and even energy simply because how tight the decklist is.

There's simply no easy way to get cards back from the discard pile (I use Pull Out Durant but its not a reliable way to do so). While it might help you get out off a bad hand, the cards discarded are most likely gonna bite you back in the ass anyways. Since every card in the deck is relevant, I rather replace Juniper with Cheren instead. That way, while I have less drawing power, the cards are more effective as you add them to your existing hand. I'm not denying that Juniper is hands down the supporter when its the last card in your hand (but how often is that the case?) and naturally, Cheren is the lowest priority to use among the other supporters.
 
You're right; Cheren doesn't draw you as many cards. And that's exactly why you simply cannot cut Juniper from any deck. I could use my Regionals run with 4 Juniper an an example, but the simple fact is that it doesn't matter if you're conserving resources; you're still going to lose if you can't draw enough cards, and Cheren doesn't get the job done. This deck hates discarding resources more than anything else but there's simply no other good option. That combined with the fact that hands tend to be pretty low in general in the current format makes Juniper still the best supporter in every deck, including this one.
 
Shaxe said:
I'm not denying that Juniper is hands down the supporter when its the last card in your hand (but how often is that the case?)

Surprisingly often. I have personally never considered going under 4 Juniper in even a stage 2 deck and I'd strongly recommend against going down to 3 (unless you have tested a ton and decided that you really don't need it), let alone below that. I agree that a deck without Juniper is not competitive, especially because without it you're generally either using too few draw supporters overall or lackluster ones.
 
The supporter count I currently use is:
3 Juniper
3 N
3 Skyla
2 Cheren/Colress
With 2 Tropical Beach I rarely have problems.
 
I don't own Tropical Beach, so I don't bother testing them.

3x Juniper
4x Skyla
3x N
2x Bianca
2x Colress

I dig the 4 Skyla so much. Run 4x Heavy Ball and Dowsing as my Ace Spec, and life is pretty good on my end. Wish I had space for a Super Rod but more often than not I don't really need it.
 
I find 4 Skyla and 4 Heavy Ball to be a bit much, especially since I rather play Juniper or N half the time anyway. I only play 3 Heavy Ball and 2 Ultra Ball in my list, and don't have problems with search.
I think Dowsing Machine should be the Ace Spec of choice in his deck, it's just too good to get a free resource back when you need it.
 
It does seem like a lot, but again, I don't play Beach. So this is a huge consistency boost for me.
 
Kyuremall said:
Going to be very interesting when Cradily comes out - obviously setting up plasma Klang will be easy, but then if everyone else is playing Cradily decks too (instead of EX builds) they will destroy it with superior attackers.

Cradily is slower than the Rare Candy approach. It takes 2 turns minimum To get Cradily out, and you require either luck, or to start with Lileep, Ultra Ball & Root Fossil for it to work. Plus then you're mixing Energy types which is an awful idea :p
 
What if you can only get one Tropical Beach? Is it still worth it to play just one?
 
Mora said:
What if you can only get one Tropical Beach? Is it still worth it to play just one?

Honestly, if I somehow had access to 4 Beach, I might only play 1 in this deck. I really don't think Beach is necessary in this deck. I haven't tested with it (because I'm never going to get Tropical Beach for as long as I live) but I've usually wanted to attack with Cobalion EX the first turn, and Klinklang has so many cards that clog up your hand that Tropical Beach might not even get you that many cards. Klinklang doesn't need that fast start that Blastoise needs because it usually just needs to set up a Plasma Klinklang within turn 3 or 4 and you usually end up winning (depending on the match up, that won't help against Ray/Eels :p).
 
Sorry, I just saw that comment MTC. But Beach isn't a must in this deck. I run a single HTL in this deck and I can take advantage of my opponent's Virbank. I had to drop it from two because I didn't need it in every match-up, but it's very nice to have when you need that extra umph in your attack. It takes out Kyurem when you use Cobalion's Energy Press and they have two Energy attached, and it just racks up damage if they're stuck. If you don't need it, well. You run a copy. One. So it's not a let-down, and you'll almost always find a use for it anyways, whether that's to stall or whatever.

I just beat a Plasma deck and I can't believe I won. Down five Prizes, and I somehow came back. Ended up attaching three Blends to Keldeo...for game? Kept the lock with PlasmaKlang and then moved the Blends to continuously hit for 110 while Max Potioning. Wow. This deck rocks. Why it's Tier 2 is beyond me. Underrated, but I guess I like it that way.
 
So I am getting back into Pokemon TCG (haven't played since Fossil), and have some questions. I recently bought 50 packs for the online TCG and got lots of the parts of this deck.

Is there a definite decklist for this deck or is it different for everyone? I'm a bit used to MTG where there is one definite decklist for top decks, then you modify from there. Or is in Pokemon it just you use the general theme and custom tailor it to yourself? I see so many different versions in this thread, I don't know which one to go for 0_O.

Sorry for the stupid question, just a lot of learning going on here and want to make one of these decks (love that Cobalion EX).
 
In Pokemon, there are often several "staples" which are cards, usually trainers, which have such good effects that every or almost every deck runs several, and often 4. Examples of these are Pokemon Catcher, Professor Juniper, and N. A list that is under 60 cards and includes all staples necessary in the deck as well as any cards necessary for the deck's main strategy is often called a "skeleton". Almost every deck of an archetype that does well in a major tournament will probably include most if not all of this skeleton. The final card spots go to either techs, cards which help certain matchups but aren't necessary for the main strategy of the deck to function, or cards which help boost consistency such as higher numbers of important cards or card draw. Note that the exact contents of the skeleton of a deck are often up for debate, as some may consider certain cards crucial for the deck to function while others may say that those cards are good but not always necessary.

I don't play this deck myself so I doubt I could give you a very good skeleton for it, but I'm sure someone else could.
 
ESVDiamond said:
So I am getting back into Pokemon TCG (haven't played since Fossil), and have some questions. I recently bought 50 packs for the online TCG and got lots of the parts of this deck.

Is there a definite decklist for this deck or is it different for everyone? I'm a bit used to MTG where there is one definite decklist for top decks, then you modify from there. Or is in Pokemon it just you use the general theme and custom tailor it to yourself? I see so many different versions in this thread, I don't know which one to go for 0_O.

Sorry for the stupid question, just a lot of learning going on here and want to make one of these decks (love that Cobalion EX).

Adding on to what Dark Void said, I can provide you a good list to start out with (I tried to go for a skeleton list, but I just wound up adding cards until it became a full deck :p) You can tinker with the list to fit your preferences.

4-0-2/2 Klinklang BW/PS
3 Cobalion EX
2 Cobalion NV (most people prefer 1 to save on deck space, but I've seen some lists that run 2 because they counter Kyurem PF so well)
1 Keldeo EX (has synergy with Blend Energy WFLM (if you choose to use it) and can be used to negate the effects of Hypnotoxic Laser)
------------------------------------------ 14 Pokemon
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Dowsing Machine (or Computer Search, but it's all up to preference)
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokemon Catcher
3 Float Stone (when attached to Keldeo, everything essentially has free Retreat because you can just use Rush In and Retreat it for free)
3 Max Potion
3 Ultra Ball
2 Heavy Ball
1 Super Rod
4 N
4 Professor Juniper
2 Colress
3 Cheren (some People choose Bianca or Bicycle over Cheren, but I prefer it because I don't find myself having an empty or low-sized hand very often)
3 Skyla
--------------------------- 37 T/S/S/
-------------------------------------------------
9 Metal Energy

or

5 Metal Energy
4 Blend Energy WFLM
---------------------------------- 9 Energy
-----------------------------------------------

Some people a Hynotoxic or 2 in their list to use their opponent's Virbank City Gym. Also, if you have or can get any Tropical Beach, use them in here. (a good number is 2 or 3)
 
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