Hello. Once again this one is gonna be short and sweet.
I'm
sorry for the lack of a story, but I'm recuperating still from a severe
case of the stomach flu and don't have a ton of energy to spare. To
top it all off, there was a fierce lightning storm last night which
knocked out power to a transformer down the road. The office has
been powerless for about 14 hours, just having regained electricity
about 3 hours ago.
I apologize for not having anything humorous to
write about; no
anecdotes or grumblings about my secretary. The stomach flu
wipes you out good. But I promise I'll be back next week with all
sorts of wonderful tales and, if Scott Gerhardt and the illustrious
Pojosama approve, a BRAND NEW FEATURE in the Shrink-Tank.
Stay Tuned. Meanwhile, here's the fix:
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Hey Dr. Crash! Before I get to the decklist, I was wondering if you could
tell your secretary to cut her nails? They hurt. Oh, and I saw a
sign
mentioning a $1.00 admission fee in almost illegible handwriting. You
should have that looked at. Anyway, here is my decklist for my version off
an Anti-Haymaker.
Poltergeist
4x Fossil Gastly
3x Fossil Haunter
2x Gengar
4x MP Mewtwo
4x Scyther
4x Fossil Magmar
12x Psychic Energy
8x Fire Energy
4x Double Colorless Energy
4x Gust of Wind
4x Professor Oak
3x Energy Removal
4x Computer Search
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Okay, an Anti-Haymaker. Well in order to be effective, you must
be able to counteract all the elements which make Haymakers so
effective. Let's first examine these qualities.
Haymakers use Big Basic Pokemon. (BBP's) Pokemon which
do not need to evolve allow the player to worry about other things in
his game. The BBP's also posess quick, low cost attacks that deal
lots of damage and give good status effects. BBP's often have hefty
HP totals. Lastly, the retreat on them tends to be on the low side;
2 retreat is usually the most you'll see.
Haymakers only tend to run about 12-15 Pokemon total, freeing
up room for more Trainers to give you a tactical advantage.
The Trainers in a Haymaker are geared toard being very
fast
and effective in dominating the field early in the game. There's
plenty of card-drawing Trainers like Professor Oak, Bill and
Computer Search.
The other Trainers are there to control the field. Gust
of Wind,
Scoop Up, and PlusPower all provide speed and domination.
Cards like Item Finder and Nightly Garbage Run help
recycle
the important cards so the the Hay player can get back what he
needs almost immediately.
Finally, Haymakers employ disruptive cards like
Super Energy
Removal, Lass and Rocket Sneak Attack to stall the other player's
plans, giving them time to pound the snot out of their Pokemon.
The Energy in a Haymaker is usually at a bare minimum
since
none of the Pokemon require much to attack or retreat. Haymakers
can escape with about 18 Energy total and be just fine, because
the hand replenishing Trainers and Nightly Garbage Runs provide
all the Energy they'll ever need when they need it.
So how do you
combat this powerful combination? There IS
a way. And your deck is off to a decent start, but needs some
refining. I'll start with the Pokemon.
You'll need to select Pokemon
that bear Resistances to the
most likely Pokemon you'll find in a Haymaker. Also, they should
equally be able to prey upon their Weaknesses.
Fossil Gastly is a good
choice. It has a Resisitance to
Fighting, no weakness whatsoever, even to Psychic, ok HP for an
evolving Basic and no retreat cost. It's attacks aren't powerful, but
they can cause Status problems, which is nice. Gastly can also
help you get the right kind of Energy you need.
However if you want to keep up
with Haymaker's speed, you
can't worry about Evolutions. For this reason, Fossil Haunter and
Gengar are out. Otherwise, they'd be fine selections.
The recent Gym Challenge
expansion has given us a great
new uncommon, Erika's Dratini. This little guy has the power to
reduce all damage done by any Basic Pokemon to a mere 10
points. Since Haymakers only use BBP's this is a great defense.
Dratini is also Resistant to Psychic types, so those Promo
Mewtwos will be really hard pressed to hurt it. It also makes
PlusPowers a pointless effort when it's Active, an added bonus.
Fossil Magmar is a good
selection, which I see you have.
Besides high HP, it has some quick, fierce attacks that cause
either poisoning or a smokescreen effect. Magamr is also just the
thing to fight all those Scythers that show up in nearly every deck
out there.
Speaking of the frequency of
Scythers, this deck should be
no exception. It has no retreat cost, a Resistance to Fighting, nice
HP and a strong attack. That attackis important since you need to
have something in the deck to act as your heavy hitter.
Those 4 Pokemon
will be a good base to make an Anti-
Hay. But now we need Trainers.
If you want to match a Haymaker, you
need to keep up with
all the card-drawing potential. So the ful regimen of Oaks, Bills and
Computer Searches is called for.
Next, you must be able to reverse the field
when the
Haymaker player throws something at you. Answering his Gust of
Wind with one of yours is a good trick. Also since you only have
BBP's too, why not use Scoop Ups as well? If HE can do it, so can
you.
Disruption is a key element too. Ironically, the
best way to
beat a Haymaker is by playing the same game. Haymakers suffer
equivocally from cards like Lass and Rocket Sneak Attack. Playing
one at a key time may reduce that person's opportunity to draw
more cards, heal one of his Pokemon or remove your Energy. So a
set of Sneak Attacks is probably a very good idea.
Haymakers prosper through use of Energy Removal.
Well Gym
Challenge gave us a great way to eliminate that threat in one fell
swoop. Energy Prohibition Gym, or whatever it is now called in
English (I admit not having one yet.) prevents any player from using
Trainers that remove Energy from another Player. This card stays
in play until another Stadium card enters and makes about 4-6
cards in your opponent's deck effectively useless. You MUST have
this card to stand a chance.
Lastly, this deck will require some Energy.
Besides a set of
Double Colorless Energies, I think a set of Full Heal Energies is
also needed. Electabuzz carries some nasty effects like Paralysis.
It's also possible you'll run into Magmars in a haymaker, so the
Full Heals are even better for them too. Lastly, 6 Psychic and 6
Fire Energies will complete your Energy count. I'm keeping it
higher than the normal 18 for a deck like this since it's important to
be able to recover from an early Super Energy Removal.
Well, now it's time for the revised Anti-Haymaker
decklisting:
3 Fossil Gastly
4 Erika's Dratini
3 Scyther
3 Fossil Magmar
4 Bills
3 Professor Oaks
4 Computer Searches
3 Gusts of Wind
4 Energy
Prohibition Gyms
3 Scoop Ups
3 Nightly Garbage
Runs
3 Item finders
4 Double Colorless
Energy
4 Full Heal
Energies
6 Fire Energies
6 Psychic Energies
There you have it, a deck that can
stay toe to toe with most
Haymakers. It actually plays just like a Haymaker, but is geared to
be defensive against things like Hitmonchan, Movie Promo Mewtwo
and Scyther. Even Electabuzz shouldn't be too threatening.
Voila, the deck is finished. Please
pay my secretary as you
leave. I'm gonna take some more Tylenol and see how badly my
computer was messed up after the lightning struck.
Good Luck!!
Dr. Crash Landon