Meganium's Matrix.
This is meant to be a place to discuss the
strengths and weaknesses of the "power" decks that we need to watch out for
walking into Origins and Gencon, along with the other major tourneys coming
up.
Please feel free to send your decks in to get fixed. I will be
fixing all types of decks, but I prefer to fix Modified and Team decks for
tourney play.
I am not too strict about format, please send your decks in
with the number of Pokemon, Trainers and Energy. Please let me know which
set your pokes are from. It is hard to decide how to help a Kingdra deck
if you do not specify whether you are using a NR Kingdra or Aquapolis
Kingdra.
I will be fixing the deck, and commenting as to how the deck
will fare against some of the more popular and powerful decks out there right
now.
At this point, every Modified deck will be judged against
Entei/Cargo, Kabutops/Scizor, Eggs/Megs, Noctowl/CrobatSR, the three decks I
consider the most powerful in the present envio. Note, I do not currently
play these decks, but playa against them every week. As testing continues,
we will discuss the pros and cons of other decks, such as Espeon and
others!
To lead off, I will be discussing the playability of one of my
favorite decks, Crobat Control. This is a deck that takes advantage of
board control, and has used Muk and Smeargle (promo) as tech against this
envio.
Crobat Control -
Pokemon (21) - A lot, but it works for this
deck
4 Zubat (NR)
3 Golbat (NR)
3 Crobat (NR)
2 Grimer (LC)
2 Muk
(LC)
3 Murkrow
2 Tyrogue
1 Pichu
1 Promo Smeargle
Trainers
4
Elm
4 Double Gust
3 Trader
3 Copycat
2 Pokemon Fan Club
2 Grass
Cube
4 Focus Band
2 Gold Berry
2 Switch
1 Town Vols
Energy
11
Grass
4 Dark
The object of this deck is to keep everything controlled
on the board, force your opponent to use double gust to get out of Mean looks,
and come in early to Poison with Zubat and Golbat, and come in late to finish
with Crobat. Smeargle is for Steelix.
At one point, I had 2 Promo
Mew instead of the Muk, but found they were Pichu bait.
I use the Grass
Cube for an under-energized Crobat.
Now to rate the deck:
In the
current modified format, this deck does not hit hard enough to be
effective. My favorite deck, but it looks like it is going to be retired
or revamped. Warp energy hurts this deck severely.
Against several
decks:
Entei/Cargo - This deck gets slammed by Entei/Cargo. It has
a chance if it can mean look an unenergized Entei, or early game Slugma, but the
firepower of Entei-Cargo has a tendency to ruin this deck. Can gain wins
if it sets up quickly. No defense against big damage. Even painting
Magcargo fighting will not help. It just hits too hard. Pichu helps,
but not nearly enough.
Kabutops/Scizor - This deck is the current
powerhouse of the envio, made stronger by buried fossil. The fact that
Crobat is Grass helps against Kabutops, but an experienced player will focus on
Scizor, and go after the crobats in this way. Well placed double gusts and
mean looks will give you a chance, but this is a tough battle.
Eggs/Megs
- if you can get to a Meganium early you have a chance, but once this deck is
setup, there is not much that can stop both its bench hitting power or its
enormous damage potential. Muk helps, but, this is an uphill battle for
the relatively light hitting control deck
Crobat/Noctowl - This deck's
ability to rip trainers out of your hand and pokemon out of your hand can be
terrorized by the well placed muk. Pichu also helps, as does the free
retreat and mean look pattern. This is a good straight up battle that I
have fought several times. Crobat v. Crobat is a good battle, but it is
uphill at best.
All in all, Crobat is a deck that can work in this
envio, and has a chance against some of the big decks, but its inability to deal
massive damage makes it more of a second tier deck than a first tier deck.
It is not hurt by the Espeon decks, due to its Murkrow protection, but is hurt
by heavy hitting decks.
Send all deck submissions, or other comments to
be commented on
to:
Pojomeganium45@aol.com
Thanks!
Meganium45