Hey, you're right on time. Say, do ya like music? I was
looking for my
high school yearbook in my attic and I stumbled upon a dusty old wooden box.
I'd never seen it before so I picked it up and blew the dust off. In gold
embossed letters were my Grandfather's initals.
Upon opening the box, my eyes lay upon one of the finest fiddles
I've
ever seen, not that I've seen a huge amount of fiddles. But it was still
nice. I took it out, fumbled around for the bow and took the rod to the
strings. I'll admit it wasn't pleasant, but I've been practicing for a few
weeks and I think I'm getting better.
Here let me play for you. SCREEEEEEEEEKKAWEEEEEEEK!
No that's not Louie Louie. Let me try a different song.
SCCCRRRAAWWWWKKKKKK!!
Hmmm. And that wasn't Jumpin Jack Flash. I see this is going to
take more
work. Well luckily I've got several other instruments to fall back upon. Do
you like the tuba?
WHAM!
Not a music lover I see. Well, there was no need to strike
me. A simple
NO would have sufficed. I doubt I can play the tuba with a fat lip right
now, so let's just go fix that deck.
>
>Hi Dr. Crash...
>
>I had this little deck I put together out of a Rival's TuffStuff deck which
>kept sending my decks back to the drawing board and reading the Deck
>Garages. Until I finally came up with a deck the gave him a run for his
>money. Then the Rocket set came and gave my deck more speed and power than
>ever before. With the right adjustments, I sent HIM to the drawing board.
>But a guy with a few of those pesky rocket oddishes gave me a hard time.
>After a weekend in my own Garage, I came up with a variance of my
>Wigglytrain deck. I was wondering if you could examine it and give me a few
>pointers on how to counter grass pokemon or their status effects.
>
>Here's the Patient Doc...
>
>The Wigglytrain
>
>Pokemon (17)
>
>Farfetch'd (3)
>Jigglypuff (4)
>Wigglytuff (3)
>Dratini (2 Rocket, 1 Base, 3 in Total)
>Dragonair (2 Rocket, 1 base, 3 in Total)
>Dragonite (1 Fossil, 1 Rocket)
>Ditto (1)
>Mew (1)
>
>Trainers (21)
>
>Prof. Oak (2)
>GoW (2)
>Comp. Search (2)
>Scoop Up (2)
>Mr. Fuji (1)
>Nightly Garbage Run (2)
>Switch (2)
>Bills (1)["I know
I'm gonna get it for this"]
>Energy Retr. (3)
>Item Finder (1)
>Energy Removals(3)
>
>Energy (21)
>
>DCE's (4)
>Potion Energy (1) [looking for more of these]
>Psychic Energy (11)
>Elec Energy (6)
>Fire Energy (1)
>Water Energy (1)
>
>Total: 60 Cards
>
>The object of the deck is Duke it out with my Farfetch'ds and Dragonairs
>until I can get either my Wigglys out and ram the opponent with a do the
>wave or send in the Cleaners(Ditto or Mew) Dragonites are for speed up and
>last resort muscle. In the place of the 'Nites and Ditto I can place 2
>Clefary's and a Clefable or add a Mew and two Aerodactlys. Then the deck
>would work like an Evolution trap. If he wants to evolve, he'll let loose
>the Tuffs. The only way he can counter is with a fossil Muk on the bench
>and
>a few Lasses to Lasso my hand. Fighting weakness is countered in three
>ways:
>Ditto, Mew and the Flyers (Farfetch'd and Dragonite). I'll gladly take on
>your suggestions, Doc. I value your advise and find your office very
>fascinating.
>
>Waiting for your answer,
>Anthony (The Railer)
>
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> OK. I'll be honest. The reason I chose to fix this deck is simply
because
>of the name. Anything with the word TRAIN in it kicks major butt.
>Wigglytrain is a great name for a deck. And as such, we've gotta make this
>a kick butt deck. Let's get cracking.
The best goal for any deck using Wigglytuff is to keep things
simple, by
which I mean no evolutions. In order for Do The Wave to be effective, you
need a full bench. But a full bench carries risks like anything can
potentially be Gust of Winded into play. So this means that, traditionally,
Power Basics are used to minimize that risk.
What you have is a deck that operates uses Wigglytuff as a
stall, not a
finisher. I'm certain that this is not a good idea. I've never seen a deck
which used Wigglytuff in any other batting position than cleanup fare well
in a tourney of friendly play.
Still, I don't want to give you the standard TuffStuff
recipe, because
this IS Wigglytrain and we must set it apart from the rest. So I'm gonna
find something to make this work, yet be different.
Since Evolution just slows any Wiggly deck right down,
I'm taking out
that whole Dratini family. The only point of light in it is Dark Dragonair,
but his power is useless without Evolutions. This will give us 5 slots to
use.
In studying this deck and my solution, I realized a
need to replenish
one's hand in the mid-game. Kangaskhan is the best at this and also makes a
nice blocker. Fetch is great at getting back recycled cards faster and Comet
Punch can be deadly with amlittle luck. Be aware of how many cards you have
versus your opponent's deck though. It is very easy to deck yourself with a
TuffStuff deck and not know it until too late. Two Kangaskhans is a nice
amount.
In this deck style, it's important to have a strong
opening with a big
powerhouse. Farfetch'd is nice, but the 50HP is very unattractive. Also,
since Electabuzz continues to be a favorite, Farfetch'd gets the boot.
Scyther is too dang wonderful to leave out. I'm
sure by now you've
heard all the laudatory rhetoric about Scyther and his free retreat and
defense and great attack and HP, so I'll skip it all. But I'd add 3 to this
deck.
Since you've mentioned that Grass is a particular
badnasty, then you
need some Fossil Magmar action. The nice status effects with good opening
damage makes Magmar worth including. Maybe, oh...3.
Mew? I'm not so sure. Aerodactyl isn't that big a
problem right now.
The low HP is uncertain. There's other ways to deal with big bad guys. Big
monsters tend to need lots of Energy to function. Energy Removal is a better
option.
Ok, my lip may be swollen, but I can still play
other instruments. I
borrowed a little something you may enjoy from Dr. Finkelbaum nextdoor. He
does Barmitzvahs on the side, so he let me take his accordion for the day.
Let me just haul the strap...why are you looking at me like that? Sit down.
No, don't come any closOWWW!!
Fine, we'll skip the musical interlude. I don't
think Dr. Finkelbaum
will be thrilled to see that you demolished the bellows in the process
though. You should probably expect a bill or a visit from two large men
named Herschel.
Well the Trainers is where we'll depart from the norm a
bit.
All your choices on your own were just fine, but to embellish
strategy,
I'm gonna adjust some ratios.
The Oaks are fine, but you are right. I am gonna
nail you on the Bill
issue. Four! How many times must we say this! 4! It's just such a good card
that there is absolutely no reason to not have four.
Add two Challenges. This is now the staple of any
Wigllytuff deck. If
your opponent accepts, it's a full bench. If he refuses, it's a Bill.
Win/Win.
Put in 3 Computer Searches. As people continue to
hone their decks, it
is becoming more evident that finding exaclty what you need in the first few
turns is very important to gaining the upper hand. 3 Searches is the perfect
way to do that. And you'll want to use the Searches for the following:
Super Energy Removal. It will cripple may
Pokemon, especially Grass.
The loss of one of your own Energy is trivial since you choose which is
tossed. It's a very good card.
To get those SER's back, 3 Item Finders
will turn them into eight
opportunities to deplete your opponent's supply. Plus Finder is good for
many other cards like Gust of Wind or Fuji.
Add one more Nightly Garbage Run. The need
to reprocess your Energy
is important in this deck. It also increases the deck's longevity by adding
extra turns to draw. You can also get back important Kangaskhans or
Wigglytuffs if need be.
I'd use Mr. Fuji if I could in here. It is
slightly more optimal than
Scoop Up in that getting more use out of Energy is where you'll need to
focus. Scoop Up is quick, but wasteful. TuffStuff is a very calculated
effort.
For the last set of Trainers, I'm going to
quote Scott Gerhardt, the
Pojo's webmaster and Champion player. He told me recently "Wizards made a
typo on Gust of Wind. The D was an error." Think about it. Gust is the best
dual operative card in the game. It's an offensive sweep to get that last
prize or an easy KO. It's a defensive fallback if you're in a tight spot and
need to buy time. Either way, it's gold. Space is tight, so I'm limiting to
3, but if you should make more space yourself, the fourth is surely worth
it.
Lastly, for the Energy, the only type
you truly need is Fire. The
rest of the guys can get by on Colorless. But now that status effects are
stepping to the forefront in Cleaner and DarkMuk decks, 4 FullHeal Energies
would make an excellent addition to this and fit right in.
The usual 4 Double Colorless Energies
should also go in.
11 Fire Energy will do the trick and
is more than enough to support
Magmar.
So here's the rundown before I
explain how you should approach this
deck now.
4 Jigglypuffs
3 Wigglytuffs
3 Scythers
3 Fossil Magmars
2 Kangaskhans
2 Professor Oaks
4 Bills
3 Computer Searches
4 Super Energy Removals
2 Challenge!'s
3 Item Finders
3 Nightly Garbage Runs
3 Gusts of Wind
2 Mr. Fuji's
4 Double Colorless Energy
4 Full Heal Energy
11 Fire Energy
The approach- Your fisrt priority is setting up a
good bench. This
should include at least 4 non-Jigglypuff Pokemon, optimally. Scyther is your
best opener, but Fossil Magmar ain't too shabby either. Use Bills, Oaks and
Challenge!'s to accomplish this. Keep the high powered attack going steady
and don't be afraid to let one of your guys go down after dealing a crushing
blow. Pound for pound, you're most likely dealing more hurt than he is.
Once you've got this part in effect, work on
removing your opponent's
Energy. If you don't have any SER's, Computer Search for one. If you use one
and have an Item Finder in hand, go for it. Keeping up a steady run of
Energy removal will quickly frustrate an opponent. Eventually you'll get
them to a point where they have little to no Energy available. Keep the heat
on.
Your third objective is to manage your own
Energy. At 19, you're not
doing horrible, but that's a light amount versus behemoths like Raindance
and DamageSwap. If you don't need anything else desperately, like another
Wigglytuff, you should be using Garbage Run to put those Full Heal Energies
and D.C.E.'s back into your deck. That barrage of SER's can strip your own
side too. You'll still have the advantage, so don't sweat it a lot, but keep
an eye out. Mr. Fuji should also be used in this way if you can arrange it.
Fuji works best on Scyther, but will work on Wigglytuff after retreat as
well.
That's it in a nutshell. It's got a
bit more strategy than other
Wiggly decks, what with the emphasis upon Energy removal as a strong
secondary attack. The obvious missing element is Lass and/or Rocket Sneak
Attack. Both are fine additions to this deck structure, many players EXPECT
to see a Lass come flying in the first three turns of this kind of deck.
This alone could help you since they may jump the gun and squander their
Trainers before the non-existent Lass comes their way. This depends upon the
player though. Some may not. If you keep running into trouble versus
Raindance or DarkMuk, a Lass, or even better, that Rocket Sneak Attack, as
you've got some important Trainers in here, would be the best thing to add.
And there is Wigglytrain. I took a
lot of time and went into
detailed explanation with this one, since I love the name and the archtype.
The additon of Magmar should keep your friend's Grass Pokemon at bay, as
should the Energy removal. I hope this has been helpful to you. You may pay
my secretary in earmuffs as you depart.
Say, there is still one instrument
I've yet to play today. Allow me
to reach behind my desk and pull it up...
Hey where are you going?? I
thought everyone loved bagpipes!
Sheesh critics...
Good Luck!!
Dr. Crash Landon
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