I've recently graduated from High School, and despite my best efforts, that means that I have a ridiculous amount of free time. I've been taking on pretty much everything that I could think of to help stave off boredom; work, dates, volunteering, working out, and sports. However, I still find myself with hours upon hours of useless time to spend however I please. So I decided to come back and take a look at the forums again, for old times sake...and I noticed that we actually got HGSS-On for Nats. That's pretty cool, glad the higher-ups made that decision. Well with a new format that means that it's a grabbag of awesome for Nationals, anything goes. With that in mind it does seem that people are gravitating to the same old handful of decks like they did before.
People claim that this is a great new world filled with endless options, but if you ask me I'm pretty sure I could name 90% of all of the decks that are going to show up at Nationals on one hand. Magneboar, Reshiboar, ZPS, DonChamp, and Cinccino/Trash. Sure some people may attempt something new and interesting with Serperior or Samurott, but they'll eventually realize that pretty much the entire format counters them, and they'll just join everybody else. You all understand right? It's the player's fault that we get stuck with things like LuxChomp or G&G for you older players. (Doesn't that scare you that talking about G&G makes you an older player nowadays?) As soon as somebody creates a deck that wins people have started to just use that deck instead of finding ways to tech around that deck...
And that leads me to yet another one of my biggest issues with this new format, and the format for the last year or so too; techs. Y'see back in my day we had Double Rainbow Energy and Scramble Energy, so if we wanted to tech in something completely absurd, we did. We could put pretty much whatever cards we wanted in our decks, and that made for an entertaining and fun experience. To this day the favorite deck I've ever played was a Gardevoir/Kingler/Quagsire/Nidoqueen Delta deck. If that sounds completely insane and inconsistent, then you'd be right, but I also Top Cut with that. Nowadays if you want to tech something, it better use Double Colorless Energy or rhyme with Fonfan. It makes the game stale. Sure it slows it down and makes it manageable for newer players, but it also cripples creativity, to the point where somebody could think that just a plain old Serperior deck is both creative and original...
Now onto the matter that this is actually a decklist. The other day I was looking around the forums, and I saw a thread that asked for help countering a Machamp Reuniclus deck. The responses were either incoherent, advising that the player use a card that hasn't been released yet, or saying that "Two Stage 2's is too slow and inconsistent and you should win by being faster." The author of the thread wasn't bad either, by my estimation anyways. He read over the responses and explained that the deck had a way to counteract any of the insane "techs" that were advised to him.
But that did get me thinking, I hadn't seen any Machamp Reuniclus decks floating around, so I tested it out, and I liked it. It actually beat the most common decks, and with a little bit of tweaking, and a handful of my deckmaking insanity, I ended up with a fun, interesting, new, creative, and more importantly effective list.
Pokemon
4 Machamp Prime
3 Machoke
4 Machop
2 Reuniclus
1 Duosion
2 Solosis
1 Donphan Prime
1 Phanpy
1 Weavile
1 Sneasel
1 Bouffalant
1 Reshiram
1 Zekrom
1 Smeargle
(24)
Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
11 Fighting Energy
(15)
Trainers
1 Flower Shop Girl
2 Seeker
2 Switch
2 Professor Elm's Training Method
3 Pokemon Communication
3 Professor Oak's New Theory
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokemon Collector
(21)
Strategy
In the grander scheme of things this deck is relatively simple. You have a Machamp active, and a Reuniclus on the bench. You use the Reuniclus to move around the damage counters, damaging your bench, and keeping your active Champ healthy. You then use Machamp's attack to hit your opponent for big damage. It's simple, but effective.
So Why These 'Techs'
Donphan
Donphan was a last second choice for me during testing. I was preparing to test against Lostgar, as well as a handful of decks that were teching Psychic pokemon such as RDL, Drifblim, Mismagius, and even Espeon. Donphan is a natural partner with Machamp, and with it's hefty HP and early game mayhem, it was a decent choice to have laying around in the deck. While testing against Lostgar, I also found that Donphan is the only way to get damage on my side of the field, which is what puts Gengar withing one hit knock out range for Machamp.
Weavile
One thing that I will miss about SP was the sheer amount of Pokemon that it offered with free retreat. After getting KO'd I always like to have the freedom to take my time and look over my options after I draw my card. Without any Pokemon with free retreat, players can get tossed into situations in which they are unable to make the move that is best for them. Weavile also disrupts my oppoents, and it is easy to get an early game Weavile, which can slow down my opponent, allowing me to set up properly. Weavile can also have damage piled onto him by Reuniclus, and then be Seekered, allowing for the re-use of it's power and the removal of damage.
Bouffalant
In a deck that uses DCE, it would be wrong to not include a Revenge Killer such as Bouffalant, which can add a surprise KO and shift the game into your favor. With Weavile's free retreat it also becomes that much easier to surprise your opponent with a Bouffalant after a KO.
Reshiram/Zekrom
An idea that I found from the thread that gave me my inspiration, Reshiram and Zekrom can be used as attackers, after having damage piled onto them by Reuniclus. With DCE these Pokemon make for unexpected attackers, as well as counters to Pokemon who are weak to Fire or Electric type attackers. Their high HP and energy freedom make them great additions to the deck.
Smeargle
Honestly sometimes you just need to have a Smeargle. You never know exactly why you will need it until that situation shows itself, but you know that packing one of these things is just a safer option. Live with it.
People claim that this is a great new world filled with endless options, but if you ask me I'm pretty sure I could name 90% of all of the decks that are going to show up at Nationals on one hand. Magneboar, Reshiboar, ZPS, DonChamp, and Cinccino/Trash. Sure some people may attempt something new and interesting with Serperior or Samurott, but they'll eventually realize that pretty much the entire format counters them, and they'll just join everybody else. You all understand right? It's the player's fault that we get stuck with things like LuxChomp or G&G for you older players. (Doesn't that scare you that talking about G&G makes you an older player nowadays?) As soon as somebody creates a deck that wins people have started to just use that deck instead of finding ways to tech around that deck...
And that leads me to yet another one of my biggest issues with this new format, and the format for the last year or so too; techs. Y'see back in my day we had Double Rainbow Energy and Scramble Energy, so if we wanted to tech in something completely absurd, we did. We could put pretty much whatever cards we wanted in our decks, and that made for an entertaining and fun experience. To this day the favorite deck I've ever played was a Gardevoir/Kingler/Quagsire/Nidoqueen Delta deck. If that sounds completely insane and inconsistent, then you'd be right, but I also Top Cut with that. Nowadays if you want to tech something, it better use Double Colorless Energy or rhyme with Fonfan. It makes the game stale. Sure it slows it down and makes it manageable for newer players, but it also cripples creativity, to the point where somebody could think that just a plain old Serperior deck is both creative and original...
Now onto the matter that this is actually a decklist. The other day I was looking around the forums, and I saw a thread that asked for help countering a Machamp Reuniclus deck. The responses were either incoherent, advising that the player use a card that hasn't been released yet, or saying that "Two Stage 2's is too slow and inconsistent and you should win by being faster." The author of the thread wasn't bad either, by my estimation anyways. He read over the responses and explained that the deck had a way to counteract any of the insane "techs" that were advised to him.
But that did get me thinking, I hadn't seen any Machamp Reuniclus decks floating around, so I tested it out, and I liked it. It actually beat the most common decks, and with a little bit of tweaking, and a handful of my deckmaking insanity, I ended up with a fun, interesting, new, creative, and more importantly effective list.
Pokemon
4 Machamp Prime
3 Machoke
4 Machop
2 Reuniclus
1 Duosion
2 Solosis
1 Donphan Prime
1 Phanpy
1 Weavile
1 Sneasel
1 Bouffalant
1 Reshiram
1 Zekrom
1 Smeargle
(24)
Energy
4 Double Colorless Energy
11 Fighting Energy
(15)
Trainers
1 Flower Shop Girl
2 Seeker
2 Switch
2 Professor Elm's Training Method
3 Pokemon Communication
3 Professor Oak's New Theory
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokemon Collector
(21)
Strategy
In the grander scheme of things this deck is relatively simple. You have a Machamp active, and a Reuniclus on the bench. You use the Reuniclus to move around the damage counters, damaging your bench, and keeping your active Champ healthy. You then use Machamp's attack to hit your opponent for big damage. It's simple, but effective.
So Why These 'Techs'
Donphan
Donphan was a last second choice for me during testing. I was preparing to test against Lostgar, as well as a handful of decks that were teching Psychic pokemon such as RDL, Drifblim, Mismagius, and even Espeon. Donphan is a natural partner with Machamp, and with it's hefty HP and early game mayhem, it was a decent choice to have laying around in the deck. While testing against Lostgar, I also found that Donphan is the only way to get damage on my side of the field, which is what puts Gengar withing one hit knock out range for Machamp.
Weavile
One thing that I will miss about SP was the sheer amount of Pokemon that it offered with free retreat. After getting KO'd I always like to have the freedom to take my time and look over my options after I draw my card. Without any Pokemon with free retreat, players can get tossed into situations in which they are unable to make the move that is best for them. Weavile also disrupts my oppoents, and it is easy to get an early game Weavile, which can slow down my opponent, allowing me to set up properly. Weavile can also have damage piled onto him by Reuniclus, and then be Seekered, allowing for the re-use of it's power and the removal of damage.
Bouffalant
In a deck that uses DCE, it would be wrong to not include a Revenge Killer such as Bouffalant, which can add a surprise KO and shift the game into your favor. With Weavile's free retreat it also becomes that much easier to surprise your opponent with a Bouffalant after a KO.
Reshiram/Zekrom
An idea that I found from the thread that gave me my inspiration, Reshiram and Zekrom can be used as attackers, after having damage piled onto them by Reuniclus. With DCE these Pokemon make for unexpected attackers, as well as counters to Pokemon who are weak to Fire or Electric type attackers. Their high HP and energy freedom make them great additions to the deck.
Smeargle
Honestly sometimes you just need to have a Smeargle. You never know exactly why you will need it until that situation shows itself, but you know that packing one of these things is just a safer option. Live with it.