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Team Plasma's Poisonous Plot!

S

Shinigami

Pokemon Loremaster
Member
Pokemon
  • 1 Mr. Mime PLF 47
  • 3 Giratina PLS 62
  • 2 Trubbish PLS 65
  • 2 Gardobor DRX 54
  • 4 Zubat PLF 51
  • 1 Golbat PLF 54
  • 4 Crobat PLS 55
Trainers
  • 1 Gold Potion BCR 140
  • 1 Tool Scrapper DRX 116
  • 2 Silver Bangle PLB 88
  • 2 Pokemon Catcher EMP 95
  • 2 Ultra Ball DEX 102
  • 3 Hypnotoxic Laser PLS 123
  • 3 Float Stone PLB 99
  • 4 Rare Candy POP8 10
  • 2 Skyla BCR 134
  • 3 Cheren BCR 148
  • 2 Virbank City Gym PLS 126
Energy
  • 4 Plasma Energy PLF 127
  • 4 Double Colorless Energy NXD 92
  • 10 Psychic Energy
Strategy

Field Crobat ASAP, through evolution or Candy, and use Ultra-Toxic Fang/Laser/Virbank in combo with Crobat's free retreat and Giratina's Hex attack for quick 180-point KOs. Backup Crobat vs. Keldeo, Darkrai, and Virizion with Gardobor.

Any suggestions or advice welcomed!
 
Bump #1. I'm really looking for some suggestions here, because I feel the deck has potential, it just needs tuning.
 
I actually like the idea of Crobat+Virbank City Gym for 60 damage from poison between turns. This list seems kind of clunky, though, and looks like it would get slowed down by lots of different lines and high-energy, fairly lightweight attackers.

My first suggestion would be to drop the Metagross line. Getting everything working with any Stage 2 line is tough right now (especially without Tropical Beach) and adding a second is kind of a logistical nightmare.

The problem with Giratina is that it takes lots of energy and isn't always useful. In fact, if the Defending Pokemon is poisoned, it probably has been since Crobat attacked it last turn. That means it's taken at least 120 damage (40 from the attack itself plus 40 from poison between turns), and if Virbank City Gym is in play, 160. Any Pokemon with 160 damage on it doesn't need a 3-energy attacker to knock it out.

I would also focus more on just Crobat. Beef it up to a 4-3-4 line and take out the Snorlax and a couple (or all of the) Giratina. Giratina seems like a bit of an energy suck for the damage it's doing; you really want to focus on Crobat here. For extra Basics, Deoxys EX seems like the way to go to add more damage and provide a bit of a secondary attacker, but if you're on a budget that might not be possible (at least until the Deoxys EX tins come out). If you do go with Deoxys, I would run 4 instead of the 2-2 Garbodor line in the list below and replace the Silver Bangles with a Silver Mirror and 2 consistency cards.

Mew EX would be a possibility as an easier-to-set-up attacker. I also really like the idea of Garbodor DEX here (without Mr. Mime, of course) since you'll be running tools anyways to deal with Crobat's low HP. Of course, Crobat's Ability is actually pretty nice to have, but shutting off Abilities isn't so bad. You can always choose to not set Garbodor up if it would hurt you. I can understand why you'd veer away from Garbodor, and there are certainly other options, but it's not too bad if you're staring down a Plasma deck and don't want your Crobats to keep being one-shotted. I would not run just a Crobat line, though. It adds room, certainly, but running only 4 Basics is a bad idea in terms of allowing your opponent to get set up faster and see large chunks of your deck in the process. 6 is iffy.

You kind of need Super Rod, what with a Stage 2 130HP main attacker. I've added in two to compensate for that as well as the slightly low energy count below.

Silver Mirror helps a LOT against Plasma decks and Silver Bangle helps against EXs. You do 40 with Crobat, add 60 between turns (Crobat makes poison do 40, then Virbank adds 20 more), then 60 before it comes around to your turn again, and that's 160 damage. With Bangle, that's upped to 190, which means if you can get an EX stuck active (which is a big if), it's better than a OHKO. If not, you still can do 130 damage before it rolls around to their turn.

You need Ultra Ball. If the entire Crobat line were Team Plasma, that would be so nice, but unfortunately, that's only Crobat.

With all these Pokemon and such, it's hard to find room for Supporters. There are 10 in the list below, but a lot of lines are thin. 4 Catcher is ideal, 3/3 Bangle/Mirror would be much better, another Rare Candy would help, etc. I've forgone Hypnotoxic Laser; it doesn't help with consistency and if this deck works, it has to work because of Crobat, not HTL, which isn't sustainable.

This list is something I just made, so obviously it isn't close to perfect. But it's more where I would go with this deck. You're on a budget and some of these cards are somewhat expensive (and who likes buying individual cards anyways?), but I'd recommend at least simplifying your list, beefing up the Trainer line, and focusing more directly on Crobat and Virbank City Gym.

Pokemon (15)

4-3-4 Crobat
2-2 Garbodor

Trainers (33)

4 Professor Juniper
4 N
2 Colress

3 Colress Machine
3 Pokemon Catcher
3 Silver Bangle
2 Silver Mirror
3 Rare Candy
3 Ultra Ball
2 Super Rod
1 Computer Search

3 Virbank City Gym

Energy (12)

4 Plasma Energy
4 DCE
4 Psychic Energy
 
I really like your build, thank you for sharing it. I feel like it's a little light on the Pokemon, though.

I'm also not totally sold on dropping Giratina and Hypnotoxic just yet. Hex hits for 130 with Hypnotoxic/Virbank, enough to OHKO most Stage 2's and a few of the smaller >100HP Pokemon. He'll very rarely have more than three energy on him at any point, except maybe to retreat. And if I'm playing a deck like Blastoise or possibly Flareon, where they can have a small hand size at inopportune moments, I can use Shadow Claw to snipe crucial cards. I wasn't sure at first myself, but between Crobat, Hypnotoxic, and Giratina right now, the deck is pretty cruel. It's just the support I'm really having trouble with. But your deck looks pretty solid, so I will give it a try and see how I like it.
 
Bump. No one has any ideas? Or does the term "budget" automatically denote "scrub" on this forum?
 
Updated first post. New build, same strategy. I am aware that Laserbank is out of fashion. It's for a local tournament.
 
Only issue is Garbotoxin turns off Night Sight.

*snip*

Keep in mind, posting your own decklist in someone else's deck thread is a no-no, even if it is nigh the same as the OP. Just create a separate thread. ~Kecleon
 
EricDent said:
Only issue is Garbotoxin turns off Night Sight.
Click to expand...

The deck has changed to the point where Night Sight is secondary to Ultra-Toxic Fang, so Garbotoxin doesn't really affect it that much anymore.

It's getting more powerful, I will say that. Fully loaded, barring any Virizion EX shenanigans, a Crobat can hit for 130 on an EX in one turn. Giratina hits for the same amount, again barring any Virizion nastiness. I'm just trying to find a place to slide in Catchers if I can get a hold of any before my tournament.
 
Took the deck to League tonight, traded for a few things I needed (VIRBANKS!), and tested it out. One game was against a younger kid, so it's not being tallied for results, but I still went 3-0 against Eels, a Kingdra build, and Blastoise. Original post edited for changes.

Pros:
- Surprise factor. With Laserbank falling out of fashion, people didn't expect it. It's rather fast now that I've updated some of the cards and modified the TSS base, and hits for lots of damage.
- Damage factor. Crobat regularly deals 100 in one turn. The few EXs I did run into fell victim to Crobat/Silver Bangle/Virbank- when Crobat deals damage equal to it's own HP in one turn, you know people will get frustrated.
- Reliability. I regularly had two or three Crobat on the board, with one fully loaded and a psychic energy on another at the very least. Double and triple Night Sight is very nice, and Garbotoxin does very little to slow the deck down. If anything, I found myself using Night Sight to accelerate INTO Garbotoxin most games.

Cons:
- Retreating. Crobat has free retreat, which is nice, but both Giratina and Garbodor have three in their cost, which is really hefty. Float Stones help, but lacking something like Warp Energy in this format makes this deck suffer when Pokemon get trapped in the active slot. However, because the deck is slow to give up prizes, and because of how quickly the deck can set up, I found that playing sacrificially helped my game a bit.
- Space. Yes, space is a "con" in this deck. I would love to find room for another Catcher, or Ultra Ball, and I'm sure Gold Potion could be something else, but it's really hard to find the space in this deck to make it truly effective.
 
Crobats night sight is a pretty helpful ability. Though you are just sort of drawing blind cards. You could add in a Lunatone or 2. This pokemons ability allows you to look at the top 2 cards of your deck and re arrange them so you can night sight more efficiently, or set up next turns draw.

If the pokedex gets reprinted, i would also suggest Pokedex Ether combo, as it really helps out with Crobat. If you have 1 of the combo you can skyla for the other. Pokedex + Night Sight can also help you get what you need out of the top 5. If there is an ether and energy in there, things are looking good.

As much as people say giratina isn't helpful. i say otherwise. Aside from 100 damage with hypnotoxic, or 90 discard a card. The fact that its not weak to psychic pokemon is a huge thing when fighting another psychic deck. Using mewtwo as an example. For 3 energy and a hypnotoxic, giratina does 200 damage to mewtwo. While with 2 energy on mewtwo and 3 energy on giratina. Mewtwo only does 100 damage. Even if you have no lasers, you can have 4 energy for 180 damage for giratina and only 120 for mewtwo. Mewtwo/Giratina match ups are pretty dangerous for mewtwo. I feel like most good players wouldnt risk playing mewtwo if they see giratina.
 
Ivy_Profen said:
Crobats night sight is a pretty helpful ability. Though you are just sort of drawing blind cards. You could add in a Lunatone or 2. This pokemons ability allows you to look at the top 2 cards of your deck and re arrange them so you can night sight more efficiently, or set up next turns draw.
Click to expand...

Lunatone requires splashing Fighting, and serves no purpose other than peeking. At that point, I'd rather run Forewarn Musharna and just put a card in my hand each turn. Which is redundant due to all the Crobat.

If the pokedex gets reprinted, i would also suggest Pokedex Ether combo, as it really helps out with Crobat. If you have 1 of the combo you can skyla for the other. Pokedex + Night Sight can also help you get what you need out of the top 5. If there is an ether and energy in there, things are looking good.
Click to expand...

Again, Pokedex is redundant. I have tried Pokedex/Ether, and it just takes up space that I'd rather use for Tools or more important Trainers like Catcher or Ultra Ball.

As much as people say giratina isn't helpful. i say otherwise. Aside from 100 damage with hypnotoxic, or 90 discard a card. The fact that its not weak to psychic pokemon is a huge thing when fighting another psychic deck. Using mewtwo as an example. For 3 energy and a hypnotoxic, giratina does 200 damage to mewtwo. While with 2 energy on mewtwo and 3 energy on giratina. Mewtwo only does 100 damage. Even if you have no lasers, you can have 4 energy for 180 damage for giratina and only 120 for mewtwo. Mewtwo/Giratina match ups are pretty dangerous for mewtwo. I feel like most good players wouldnt risk playing mewtwo if they see giratina.
Click to expand...

Good points regarding Mewtwo vs. Giratina, but I'm seeing less and less Mewtwo as time goes on. TDK and Darkrai are the big decks in the format right now, and though I don't have much practice against either of them, they're definitely bigger threats than Mewtwo is. I'm working to make the deck viable against those two builds specifically, and Giratina is a big weakness in the Darkrai matchup.

In other news, I did remove one Giratina for a Mr. Mime. OP edited for changes.
 
You dont really have to splash in fighting for lunatone. I would never use it to attack, like mr mime. But if you did use fighting you could also add in terrakion and landorus as dark counters. Landorus puts a lot of pressure on dark decks and with Terrakion around. The dark decks have to be very cautious about who they attack. If you also play silver bangle, terrakion can OHKO darkrai with or without an eviolite. Either way fighting types would be a pretty good investment in this deck for a few reasons. Darkrai is probably one of your worst match ups, and fighting would really help it. Also each of your psychics only use 1 psychic energy, making it pretty easy to splash in another energy type.

You have to be weary of what you put in your deck in terms of abilities though. I once went the route of Garbodor with Mr Mime and Sigilyph in this deck. But i almost never wanted to play Garbodor, with all the abilities that were helping me as well. Especially against the likes of a Darkrai deck. I always had to think. If it was more important to stop dark cloak/trance at the cost of also get rid of bench barrier and sigilyphs safeguard. Both abilities on your side will drastically help against the that match up. But at the same time the abilities on the opponent side will allow max potion shenanigans along with free retreat and keldeo rushin. But i guess Garbodor does make the Virizion match up possible.

Also is there a reason you still have plasma energy in your deck? I want to assume that is an oversight, since you dont have colress machine or anything that takes advantage of plasma energy.
 
I still run Plasma because I'm treating Gold Potion as a floating slot. It can become Colress Machine, Chatot, Switch, etc. depending on the meta, and also because there's no other good technical energy in the format that my deck can take advantage of. If Warp or Cyclone Energy ever get reprinted, I'd put those in in a heartbeat.
 
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