So now that we’ve covered the top 10
promising picks of BW: Dark Explorers,
what is next?
The near misses that almost made
the list; we’ve got Battle Roads to
worry about, so it is best to get the
most promising new cards covered now
instead of spreading them out.
With that we come to our first
candidate:
Accelgor.
Stats
Accelgor
is a Stage 1 Grass-Type Pokémon.
Being a Stage 1 isn’t terrible,
but right now Modified is really focused
on Basic Pokémon.
Grass-Type Pokémon have some good
cards, but most are as good at
supporting other Pokémon Types as they
are Grass-Type Pokémon.
There is only one significant
source of Weakness to hit at the moment,
and that is
Terrakion (BW: Noble Victories
73/101, 99/101), but in some metagames
that will be enough.
On the bright side,
Grass-Resistance appears non-existent in
Modified, at least according to a quick
Pokepedia.net check; the Metal-Type
Pokémon that used to always Resist
Grass-Types now Resist Psychic-Types.
So overall, this is an okay Stage
and an okay Type; could be better but
could also be worse.
90 HP is small, and vulnerable to OHKOs,
but there is a silver-lining; 90 HP
makes
Accelgor a legal search target for
Level Ball, and as we’ll find out in
Usage, this may be quite important to
the card indeed.
Fire Weakness isn’t great, but
neither is it especially bad.
No Resistance is the worst
Resistance but no Retreat Cost is the
best Retreat Cost!
However as we’ll find out, those
bottom stats aren’t likely to matter a
whole lot to
Accelgor.
Effects
Accelgor
has two attacks, and normally that’s a
kiss of death for a small Stage 1.
The first attack, Hammer In, does
20 for (G) making it better than
nothing, but pretty underpowered for a
Stage 1 Pokémon with no Ability and low
HP.
Fortunately the second attack
literally makes this card, and an entire
deck (or two): Deck and Cover.
That is a most excellent name, I
must say: I do so enjoy a good pun.
I also enjoy creative effects
that actually can work!
For (CC) Deck and Cover hits for
a solid 50 points of damage and
automatically inflicts both Poison and
Paralysis on the Defending Pokémon.
That on its own would be a good
return for the investment, but would
cause some issues; there is more to the
effects of the attack, however.
When you use Deck and Cover, you
must then shuffle away
Accelgor and all card’s attached to
it back into your deck.
Without that secondary effect, I can’t
say if Deck and Cover would be better or
worse without that second effect, though
I can firmly say that the name wouldn’t
make sense then.
Yeah.
Right now, Deck and Cover allows
Accelgor to hit and run; the
Weakness, Resistance, and Retreat Cost
become meaningless, the first attack is
only needed in worst-case-scenarios, and
the HP only matters since it is small
enough
Level Ball can snag it.
Without proper support it could
still strike and flee, (if your opponent
has no answer for Paralysis) setting-up
most Pokémon for a 2HKO even factoring
in protective effects.
With the right set-up, it allows
an interesting “soft-lock”, only broken
if you can’t keep replenishing
Accelgor and its Energy, or when you
finally KO the target Pokémon.
Usage
First things first, since this is a
Stage 1 Pokémon we need to look at what
it evolves from and that would be
Shelmet.
There are two possibilities:
BW: Noble Victories 11/101 and
BW: Dark Explorers 10/108.
Both are Basic Grass-Type Pokémon
with 60 HP with Fire Weakness, no
Resistance, and a massive Retreat Cost
of three!
BW: Noble Victories 11/101
has two attacks and both are bad. The
first attack let’s you search for a
Pokémon that Evolves from
Shelmet but only works if you have
Karrablast in play… plus we already
established part of the strength of
Accelgor comes from it being able to
“hide” in the deck.
The second attack does 10 for (G)
so boring
and overpriced!
BW: Dark Explorers 10/108
win isn’t thrilling doing 20 with just a
50% chance of Paralysis for (GG) as its
only attack, but the other versions
attacks are so unlikely to help it
survive that going a turn without attack
(or needing Energy acceleration) just to
try for Paralysis seems better.
You’ll note that we also have
another
Accelgor.
The fact that I forgot it existed
tells you how poorly it does.
Its attacks aren’t bad: (C) does
20 with a 50% chance of discarding an
Energy from the Defending Pokémon and
for (G) it does 60 but can’t use that
attack again the next turn.
The problem is that its stats are
identical to today’s version, so you
basically attack once and get KOed, and
you’d lack an answer for anything “big”.
It’d have been a good Basic
Pokémon, but not a Stage 1.
At least it wasn’t totally
vanilla.
Before launching into the decks that can
be built around this, it would be an
interesting method for dealing with
Terrakion.
You need a
PlusPower for Poison to KO
Terrakion between turns, and since
PlusPower received an errata so that
it no longer attaches to the Pokémon in
question that wouldn’t get recycled.
Still it does its job and gets
out of the way, so a 1-1 could be used
over and over again.
If your opponent doesn’t have an
answer for Paralysis, anything you have
can finish the
Terrakion next turn.
Eviolite also messes up the OHKO,
but not a 2HKO.
Not a brilliant use, but perhaps
I am missing some small piece of a
combo.
Evolving from
Shelmet is probably the worst part.
I should also mention that I know of the
decks, but
I haven’t personally seen or run them;
this is mostly Theorymon based on
accounts passed along to me or
discussion with others.
I do hope to test one this
weekend, but it was a last minute plan
and not surprisingly it fell through.
The actual deck for
Accelgor comes in two flavors that
function similarly but use quite
different Pokémon.
The option I got almost right
away was backing
Accelgor with
Celebi (HS: Triumphant
92/102) “Prime”,
Sunflora (HeartGold/SoulSilver
31/123) and
Vileplume (HS: Undaunted
24/90).
You’ll also need
Skyarrow
Bridge
so that
Celebi has a free Retreat Cost.
Your opponent can’t use Trainers
to break the soft lock (making it almost
a hard lock), only being able to
retaliate when you KO the Defending
Pokémon.
When
Accelgor jets to the deck,
Celebi pops up front.
Sunflora uses its Sunshine Grace
Poké-Power to snag a Grass-Type from the
deck while
Celebi uses its Forest Breath
Poké-Power before you retreat it (again
for free thanks to
Skyarrow Bridge) to bring up a newly
assembled
Accelgor.
Of course
Vileplume is needed so that its
Allergy Flower Poké-Body prevents the
usual Items from disrupting it all.
You can of course also use
Double Colorless Energy, possibly
even dropping
Celebi Prime and
Skyarrow
Bridge.
Relying on a Stadium can be
scary, but fortunately it seems to be
the most commonly played Stadium at the
moment; if your opponent is running
something else, that may even bode well
for you considering the established,
potent decks that tend to run
Skyarrow Bridge or nothing.
Relying on
Double Colorless Energy means
counting on good draws or that you’ll be
able to safely build up some in hand
with
Twins or finally finding a good use
for
Interviewer’s Questions.
Given the existence of
N
and
Judge (and the popularity of the
former), relying purely on
Double Colorless Energy worries me…
plus if you aren’t at least even in
Prizes (and thus unable to use
Twins) eventually, you’re in trouble
as well.
With either version, you may also
want to run something just to soak a hit
those turns the lock is broken by KOing
whatever your opponent had out; I’d say
Tornadus EX just because it work
well with
Skyarrow Bridge and
Double Colorless Energy and
seriously, it makes a great distraction
to give you time to set-up if you do
open with the three aforementioned
cards.
The next build is one I only say a
minimal description of in a list top cut
decks from
Japan.
This build combines
Accelgor with
Gothitelle: every time you deck and
cover, you bring up
Gothitelle, providing a
one-sided Item lock.
It also used a card we don’t have
access to, so I don’t know if the
remaining cards we do have access to are
enough:
Darkrai EX (BW: Dark Explorers
63/108, 107/108) and
Musharna (not specified, so I am
guessing BW: Next Destinies
59/99) is used for the draw.
Stacking wouldn’t make sense
since
Accelgor going to the deck would
block that, unless there is some part of
the combo I am missing focused on
getting that second card right away
(besides multiple
Musharna, of course).
With what we do have (and with or
without
Musharna), I am guessing it works by
having
Accelgor do its thing, bringing up
Gothitelle in between so that you
can still spam Items but the opponent
can’t, thus allowing you to use
Level Ball and/or
Ultra Ball to keep the stream of
Accelgor coming.
Dark Patch coupled with either
Shaymin (HS: Unleashed 8/95)
or
Energy Switch allows you to
accelerate basic
Darkness Energy onto anything,
fueling Deck and Cover.
Darkrai EX is needed for the
intermediary step (the legal target of
Dark Patch) and to give a
Darkness Energy sporting
Gothitelle a free Retreat Cost.
While relying on the
Dark Patch combo would be scary,
remember you are doing this alongside
running
Double Colorless Energy.
Provided you include the Energy to use
See Off, either build can use
Mew (HS: Triumphant 97/102)
“Prime” in place of
Accelgor in
either version.
You’ll almost certainly lose the
one
Mew Prime doing this, and this makes
Sunflora superfluous since you
shouldn’t need to build up
Accelgor and
Vileplume can be built just with
normal means.
Mew Prime can be easily fetched in
either deck, though it is easier in the
Gothitelle version.
That would also allow you to let
it “go down swinging” and then use
Revive on it, should you wish.
You’ll probably lose one to using
“See Off”, unless you go an alternate
route and use
Absol (HS: Triumphant 91/102)
“Prime” and its Vicious Claw attack,
though that is tricky to pull of first
turn.
You’d need an
Absol Prime on the Bench, then to
use
Dark Patch at least once to get the
Energy it needs on it, and then
something up front you can retreat
(preferably for free) so that
Absol Prime can finally attack.
Probably easier just to lose a
Mew and have to run some
Prism Energy.
Accelgor
might actually make for a fun Unlimited
deck; you can back it up with (arguably)
more effective locks and obviously try
to get it off first turn.
You won’t need
Celebi Prime since you can just run
four
Double Colorless Energy, four
Double Rainbow Energy, and four
Boost Energy to easily fuel Deck and
Cover, so no worries running
Broken Time-Space to Evolve first
turn.
Some options would preserve your
own Trainer usage, making setting up
again quite easily, though with the kind
of Trainer locks (and Evolution
acceleration) available,
Sunflora could be used again (if
you’re running more Grass-Type Pokémon).
You also would have some
excellent options for what to stall with
between turns, and again if you aren’t
locking down your own Trainers
Focus Band will make sure anything
has a 50% chance to survive while it
blocks for you… while your own Poison
will bypass opposing copies of
Focus Band (should they get around
your Trainer denial).
Not as good as Sabledonk, but
pretty brutal even in “soft” lock form.
There are other options to use
for the lock deck builds, however.
In Limited play, this can be a risky
card.
If you’re stuck with just it, you
can’t Deck and Cover without losing,
you’ll have to power it up over two
turns, and you’ll mostly be using your
basic draw for the turn to get it back.
As long as sending it away isn’t
death, it is a nasty piece of work.
You’ll rarely need to worry about
being OHKOed, so you can use Hammer In
until you need to Deck and Cover to
avoid being KOed, and that sets up
nicely for anything and everything else.
With the lower average HP scores,
even if you have something that can’t
attack for damage, the Poison might
finish the Defending Pokémon off before
Paralysis vanishes.
If you don’t mind not having
access to the attacks of
Shelmet or the ability to use Hammer
In, you can run it completely off-type
as well.
So despite the risk of being
unable to Deck and Cover, I think this
is a great pick.
Ratings
Unlimited:
3.75/5
Modified:
3/5
Limited:
4.5/5
Summary
Accelgor
looks to be a fun deck to play, though
perhaps a bit irritating to face.
I think it gives the opponent
just enough ability to fight back to
still be “fair”, though.
As for performance, as long as
your opponent doesn’t get an
insurmountable lead before you set-up,
it should be tricky to play against as
you never know when someone will have a
good enough set-up to just break the
lock and use a more conventional
strategy (re: bust out a Pokémon EX).
Dropping a Pokémon EX against it
is a bad idea, of course.
Lastly, you should note the
Modified score is a composite; it
technically could work in many decks as
a very specialized card and not really
be worth it, but it is essential of
course to its own deck, and I believe
that deck should be fairly good.
Good enough to win the occasional
tournament, at least.
