Viability of Articuno?

[The Last Raven]

Articuno EX from plasma storm has a 4 energy attack with the effect of automatic paralysis if a plasma energy is attached. Paralysis fully locks you opponents pokemon, preventing them from attacking or retreating. Do you guys think this is a viable strategy? It doesn't hit very heavy, and could be countered by virizion EX and switch, but I think that if you played it right it could be a very disruptive card, forcing your opponent to keep using switch or using Virizion to attach. And crushing hammer could force your opponent to drop their grass energy. Thoughts?

 

[Conzipe]

Unfortunately crushing hammer is out of the format. You would preferably like to combo Articuno with Garbodor, both to stop Virizion but also Keldeo + Float Stone which could also ruin the fun for Articuno. However I don't know how you would fit it all together and Switch will of course be a big problem. However many decks doesn't even play Switch nowadays so it could come as a nasty surprise to those decks.

I think you could work it into a neat rogue deck, but I don't see it doing better than that.

 

[Ivy_Profen]

Yeah articuno / garbodor is actually a pretty decent combo. The only thing is the 4 energy cost is kind of steep, even with colress machine. It would take at least 2 turns to charge it. Not to mention you would need a few tool scrappers to take out the silver mirrors.

 

[Gusto83]

Articuno / Garbodor looks legit. But,Wouldn't Articuno-EX / Dusknoir be Better? Articunos "Blizzard" Does 60 damage to the active and 10 damage to each of your opponent's Benched Pokémon. Frost Prison works well with its lock;So now,all you have to do is move damage from the active onto the bench. Kinda like how Accelgor / Mew-EX / dusknoir works.

 

[Ivy_Profen]

Yeah but the debate is would being able to prevent rush in and other ability or try and trap a pokemon in the active. While locking in in the active can win games. It does have weakness to Keldeo and Virizion. Those 2 are in the top decks right now. But Garbodor does leave you open to attacks after you knock things out. There are drawbacks for either deck. It really comes down to play style.

Either way there are probably better decks with for spread damage. Kyogre does 100 damage for 2 energy, Kingdra does 90 damage for 1 energy, Kyurem does 60 damage for 2 energy, and thats just water types. It takes 3 energy for 110 from Articuno and 4 energy 1 of them being plasma for frost prison.

I think you should also consider the fact that while garbodor usually has a float stone on it so catchering it just to stall isn't an option. Dusknoir is always energyless and doesnt usually have a float stone on it. So if not played with Keldeo EX it seems like it could just be a huge catcher bait.

 

[Ryan Sinclair]

The point of playing Dusknoir in Articuno is so you can have their active in a constant paralysis lock, like Gusto said. You will never use Blizzard, and every time you deal 80 damage (or more if you play Deoxys or Lasers) you move it onto the bench to pick off prizes while your opponent is trapped. It's the next best thing to GothGor at the moment.

 

[masanian]

The point of playing Dusknoir in Articuno is so you can have their active in a constant paralysis lock, like Gusto said. You will never use Blizzard, and every time you deal 80 damage (or more if you play Deoxys or Lasers) you move it onto the bench to pick off prizes while your opponent is trapped. It's the next best thing to GothGor at the moment.

I use Articuno / Dusknoir and its a fun deck. No real need to run Deoxys, its just a catcher target to help shut of you're lock. Plus the extra 10 damage is not necessary.

 

[Elbow]

You could run blastoise in the deck to help with the energy acceleration.

 

[Ivy_Profen]

I don't know if you want to have 2 two-step pokemon in this deck. It might just be better to rely on colress machine.

But you could have 3-1-3 blastoise, 2-2 Dusknor, 2/3 articuno.

 

[TuxedoBlack]

IMHO, Articuno Dusknoir is quite competitive and you can do some slick shenanigans with it ranging from using Virizion EX for energy attachment acceleration (as well as status condition prevention for your own Poké) to utilizing Blizzard/Frost Prison combinations to run opponent's out of resources. Very cool deck.

 

[grantm1999]

Articuno is an interesting card, but is like Tier 3 at best with Garbodor. And this is only because
anything + Garbodor hurts meta decks. With Dusknoir, it is an infinitely worse version of Gothitelle Accelgor.
4 Energies for 80 damage is outrageous, and every competitive deck can easily get out of this lock.
DarkGarb shuts off Dusknoir and should almost always run about 2 Switch.
VirGen has Virizion's Ability.
Plasma runs high Switch or Keldeo/Float Stone counts.
and Blastoise runs multiple Keldeos.

 

[TuxedoBlack]

Articuno is an interesting card, but is like Tier 3 at best with Garbodor. And this is only because
anything + Garbodor hurts meta decks. With Dusknoir, it is an infinitely worse version of Gothitelle Accelgor.
4 Energies for 80 damage is outrageous, and every competitive deck can easily get out of this lock.
DarkGarb shuts off Dusknoir and should almost always run about 2 Switch.
VirGen has Virizion's Ability.
Plasma runs high Switch or Keldeo/Float Stone counts.
and Blastoise runs multiple Keldeos.

The key is NOT so much paralyzing the defending Poké which many good decks can easily counter, but it's more about getting lots of damage onto your opponent's Poké either through Blizzard and/or Frost Prison in order to KO opponent's Poké via Dusknoir's Sinister Hand.

 

[smeargleman]

I disagree. If you want to use Dusknoir for spreading damage, you're better off with something like Landorus EX or Kyurem, since they do a lot of damage for a lot less energy.

 

[Camoclone]

Articuno is an interesting card, but is like Tier 3 at best with Garbodor. And this is only because
anything + Garbodor hurts meta decks. With Dusknoir, it is an infinitely worse version of Gothitelle Accelgor.
4 Energies for 80 damage is outrageous, and every competitive deck can easily get out of this lock.
DarkGarb shuts off Dusknoir and should almost always run about 2 Switch.
VirGen has Virizion's Ability.
Plasma runs high Switch or Keldeo/Float Stone counts.
and Blastoise runs multiple Keldeos.

The key is NOT so much paralyzing the defending Poké which many good decks can easily counter, but it's more about getting lots of damage onto your opponent's Poké either through Blizzard and/or Frost Prison in order to KO opponent's Poké via Dusknoir's Sinister Hand.

Oh? So for 3 energy I can deal 110 damage max? Not to mention having to attach 3 energy? No thank you! How is this any better than Blastoise?

 

[TuxedoBlack]

The key is NOT so much paralyzing the defending Poké which many good decks can easily counter, but it's more about getting lots of damage onto your opponent's Poké either through Blizzard and/or Frost Prison in order to KO opponent's Poké via Dusknoir's Sinister Hand.

Oh? So for 3 energy I can deal 110 damage max? Not to mention having to attach 3 energy? No thank you! How is this any better than Blastoise?

Just to clarify - what exact alternative are you suggesting running with Articuno (to stay on topic) Blastoise? Or are you suggesting that a Blastoise deck (without Articuno) is a better alternative? If it is the latter, then you have a good point - a Blastoise deck, with Keldeo EX and Black Kyurem EX - is a stronger deck, IMHO.

---

I disagree. If you want to use Dusknoir for spreading damage, you're better off with something like Landorus EX or Kyurem, since they do a lot of damage for a lot less energy.

I've run both Landorus EX decks and Kyurem (PF) decks successfully and know their abilities quite well. But, the point of this thread is focused on Articuno EX; so my comments were based upon that Poké.

 

[Camoclone]

Oh? So for 3 energy I can deal 110 damage max? Not to mention having to attach 3 energy? No thank you! How is this any better than Blastoise?

Just to clarify - what exact alternative are you suggesting running with Articuno (to stay on topic) Blastoise? Or are you suggesting that a Blastoise deck (without Articuno) is a better alternative? If it is the latter, then you have a good point - a Blastoise deck, with Keldeo EX and Black Kyurem EX - is a stronger deck, IMHO.

---

I disagree. If you want to use Dusknoir for spreading damage, you're better off with something like Landorus EX or Kyurem, since they do a lot of damage for a lot less energy.

I've run both Landorus EX decks and Kyurem (PF) decks successfully and know their abilities quite well. But, the point of this thread is focused on Articuno EX; so my comments were based upon that Poké.

---

How is dealing 110 damage any stronger than dealing 200 with BKEX? I'm suggesting regular Blastoise just outclasses anything with Articuno.

 

[Ivy_Profen]

I've tried blastoise/articuno with a couple of keldeos for switching sake. Basically no matter how much i try to push the articuno, keldeo always just seems to be the best and only option. I feel like if you were to put blastoise in a deck with articuno for any reason, you would just be better off with keldeo instead.

Either way i feel like garbodor would be the best bet to be with articuno with some other attackers. Sure articuno might take a couple more hits than it should, but garbodor prevent rush in, red signal, verdant wind, and bright look. In the next rule change, these abilities will be more of a problem than the occasional switch/escape rope. Which dusknoir will still need to worry about, along with the abilities.

 

[Serperior]

After reading this thread, you guys have got me excited. I love the talk on rogue ideas.

I prefer the idea of Articuno / Garbodor more so than Articuno / Dusknoir. Whenever you deal with Stage-2 Pokémon, things get clunky, awkward, and inconsistent. You have to account for Rare Candy and a Stage-1 Pokémon as well, which can take up three or four extra slots in the deck. When we're dealing with Garbodor, boom. 3-3, 4-3, 1-4, (jk), doesn't matter. You won't have to play three Rare Candy and the one Stage-1 as a just-in-case card. So that's my reasoning there.

Secondly, Garbodor does more for Articuno than Dusknoir. If we're already swagging out with a Paralysis lock, there's no need to rush things with moving damage around and everything. What are the three threats to Status Conditions? Keldeo, Virizion, Ninetales, and Switch. With Garbodor, we've only got one threat here, and that's Switch. Unless they can pull the one or two they might have slipped in their deck, we're gonna be ok. But what about Tool Scrapper? You may ask. We're gonna be playing Tools for days. Now that Catcher isn't going to be much of a thing, I've got Silver Mirror, Rescue Scarf, and/or Eviolite on my mind, Frost Spear will be one thing that can touch your Benched Garbodor, and Silver Mirror will save Garby from it. Night Spear will be an issue, but it'll take four long turns to get a KO on even one Garbodor. Shouts out to Rescue Scarf. Eviolite will be for Articuno so that it can take three hits before going down.

I'd like to see this happen. I'm completely speculating on this idea - I've never tested it. It'd be cool to see something like this work.