Hello all, once again. Try to keep
the noise down. My
Hypno's got a splitting migraine.
He's been getting them for a week
now. I'm pretty sure it's
because of his impacted molar. For the past month, Hypno has
been complaining about a soreness in his upper jaw. I took him to
Dr. Finkelbaum's next door and let hm examine Hypno.
Well Finkelbaum spotted the impacted
molar and began to
prepare the drills and novacaine. Hypno took one look at the needle
and bolted for the door. Not even I could stop him. It's pretty hard to
slow down a frenzied Hypno fleeing for his life.
Since that fateful afternoon, I
haven't been able to get Hypno
to leave the office. He's stricken with fear and pain. The constant
whirr of Finkelbaum's drill through the walls serves as a constant
reminder of the horror that Hypno will eventually have to face. He's
just been huddled in his chair all afternoon, grabbing his temples
and chewing on cotton. It's pretty sad.
Trish, my temporary secretary, tried
to get Hypno to take
some aspirin to dull the pain, but her corduroy pants made this
kind of zipping sound which wasn't terribly unlike a drill and Hypno
freaked. He shot a blast of mental energy at her and fried the few
thoughts she ever had running around in her cranium. She's been
telling the ceiling how much she likes pancakes ever since.
So here I am, running the office myself.
Trying to keep a
distraught Hypno from going postal on the entire dentistry
community and assuring Trish that the ceiling likes pancakes too,
but just can't tell her out loud.
My regular secretary would have just kicked Hypno
in the butt
a few times and dragged him by his ears to Dr. Finkelbaum's,
brandishing a letter opener as a reminder of what Hypno would
receive if he tried to flee again. I miss her.
Oh, well these are my problems, not yours,
for now. Just be
quiet when you pronounce your "Z"'s and you'll be okay. Let me
see your deck while we're heading into my inner office.
_______________________________________________________
Hello Dr. Crash and Hypno. Here is my Dark Muk Deck. It needs some
serious help. Without further adieu, I give you DarkMuk Turbo!
Pokemon: 21
4 Doduo
3 Dodrio
4 Diglett
3 Dark Dugtrio
4 Grimer
3 Dark Muk
Trainers: 21
4 Bill
3 Gambler
4 Gust Of Wind
2 Super Energy Removal
2 Lass
4 The Rocket's Training Gym
2 Goop Gas Attack
2 PlusPower
Energy: 18
16 Grass Energy
2 Double Colorless Energy
The strategy of this deck is to prevent the defending Pokémon
from
retreating while beating him up. If your opponent does the same to you,
use Dodrio.
I am not sure if I should substitute Lass for RSA, so please
tell
me. Also, I do not know if I should make Grimer Fossil or TR or use the
Base Set Diglett or TR Diglett.
_____________________________________________________
DarkMuk! How fun!! Clefairy Doll loves these decks. I've never
played her, but I've heard she's quite deadly with a Dark Muk, so it
only proves that the deck is decent.
Yours is okay, but I can definitely see some potential problems. I
will address these problems now.
Dark Muk is the main Pokemon in the deck. You need to
strategize your additional Pokemon around what DarkMuk can do,
which is keep the opponent's Pokemon from getting away and
poisoning them at the same time.
The rest of the deck should be support for Dark Muk.
To begin, you'll need 4 Grimers. I prefer the Team
Rocket
variety simply because it can actually deal some considerable
damage and Paralyze at the same time if you're lucky with a coin.
Still there are some who stick with the Fossil version simply
because of its higher HP total. For my purposes here though, I'll
reccommend the Team Rocket one.
3 Dark Muks will be sufficient. It may be the thrust of
the deck,
but I've found 3 to be just fine for doing what you need to.
I'm going to pull the Digletts and Dark Dugtrios right
away.
Those guys are just too frail to even stand a chance, even as
benchwarmers. One Gust of Wind can easily land a Dugtrio in front
of an enemy Scyther, which will spell instant disaster for Dark
Dugtrio's paltry 50 HP constitution. There's much better things to
add.
Here's a twist to put in. I'm going to toss some
Psychic
secondary into the mix. Sabrina's Gastly is splashable, requiring
only one Psychic Energy to function. What makes it good is that it
deals nice damage for a Gastly, 20, and forces the opposing
Pokemon to stick around for another turn, whether it wants to or
not. Spook is an excellent backup move for a DarkMuk deck. Use
it to beat down a Pokemon before bringing Dark Muk in to seal the
deal. The other reason it fits nicely into this deck is because it
counters Dark Muk's weakness to Psychic. Most Psychic
Pokemon are weak to their own kind, but not ghosts. Gastly will
look at Mewtwo or Jynx and laugh while dealing double damage.
For the rest of your fighting force, I'd say Scyther is
your best
option. Stay away from the Team Rocket Scyther in this deck. It's
still a great card, but you really need some flexibility in terms of
retreat costs. Doduo and Dodrio are all right, but their presence will
just overload this deck. Scyther's the best option.
Your Trainers are headed in the right
direction, but I think the
compass needs to be adjusted a bit more.
You've got Bills, which are of
course good. But you dont have
any Professor Oaks. Gambler is just no substitute for Oak; well it
is, but not a good substitute. Half the time with Gambler you just
wind up with a handful of one card. Whoopee.
Second to card drawing, controlling
the board will be your
biggest goal. Making sure that deadly Pokemon don't get the
chance to contend with Muk is top priority. Gust of Wind is the
best card around for dealing with potential threats. I'm glad to see
you've got 4.
Next, Energy Removal really helps Muk
do his job. Since this
deck tends to rely upon more Energy Removal than usual, I'm
going to say put in 3 regular Energy Removals and 3 Super energy
Removals. This way you can act early without losing your own
Energy and can double whammie the opponent later on once you
can spare an Energy or two.
Dark Muk decks tend to shuffle about a lot
of Energy. For this
reason, Nightly Garbage Runs are important. You can elongate
your deck's life by 12 cards and get back Energy when you need it
late in the game. Alternately, recycling a Grimer and a Muk is good
too.
I am really pleased to see you've
included Team Rocket's
Training Gym into your decklist. This card was pretty much made
for Dark Muk decks. However, I see it as more of a backup card,
rather than a huge strategy. You don't want to plop it down too
early and screw yourself by increasing your own retreat costs. So
a pair of these Stadium cards should be plenty. You can't have
more than one in play anyhow. If anything they're insurance against
other Stadium cards.
Rocket Sneak Attacks are also
critical for this deck. It is
really important to be able to preempt an opponent's Gust of Wind
or Energy Removal, more in this deck than any other I've found.
RSA is much better than Lass in this situation, because you get to
hold on to your Trainers, while dumping one of his back into the
deck. The real bonus is getting to see his whole hand and being
able to figure out his or her likely plans for the next 2 turns.
Lastly, Item Finders will get back
needed cards like Energy
Removal or Gust of Wind when you need them most.
Energywise, this deck's got quite a set.
You're gonna need a
bunch of Grass and a handful of Psychic for the Sabrina's Gastlys.
Additionally, some Double Colorless Energies are required to get
Scyther up to potential in no time.
Allow me to show you my revision, as
I see it.
4 TR Grimers
3 Dark Muks
3 Scythers
3 Sabrina's Gastlys
4 Bills
3 Professor Oaks
2 Computer Searches
4 Gusts of Winds
3 Energy Removals
3 Super Energy Removals
3 Nightly Garbage Runs
3 Rocket Sneak Attacks
2 Team Rocket's Training Gyms
2 Item Finders
4 Double Colorless Energy
6 Psychic Energy
8 Grass Energy
And Voila! (That's French for "Get down with your
funky self!")
This deck is a bit lighter on creatures than the original version,
running at a tight 13 POkemon. However, the real focus has shifted
to the Trainers. With the Trainer support I've presented, this deck
will be albe to function quite well with just 13 creatures. The
cohesion between all the Pokemon is quite nice and you'll see how
well they compliment each other. The real key to playing a
DarkMuk deck is knowing when not to use your Energy removal
Trainers. Sometimes you can get by without depleting the Energy
on a particular Pokemon simply because it won't be able to get
away anyhow or the poison will kill it too soon to really matter. The
Gusts of Wind are the other clutch card, because you can easily
prey upon small Pokemon, but that's actually not your best bet,
since it's so easy to control some of the larger Pokemon like
Blastoise or Hitmonchan. Take out as many of the big guns as you
can and then look at the little guys. The only little guy you'll want
to kill in a hurry is Jigglypuff because he becomes Wiggly, and
that's just deadly.
I shall accept the payment myself.
I'm not trusting pancake
girl there to take anything I might need to live. She's likely to run it
through the shredder to make ornamental confetti or something.
Oh, and here comes Hypno. Carrying my
unabridged
dictionary for some reason, I see. How's your headache?
Well, that was an evil eye. Not
talking to me for dragging you
next door yet, are we? I see. Well, just don't mess around too
much with my dictionary. I need it to stump Todd every now and
again and make him shut up.
Hyp, Hypno? Hypnooooo?
Well yeah, I guess you can open a window. It's
nice out. You
must be feeling better.
Ok, maybe not. That's a heck of an evil eye
you've got there.
Umm, is that yarn in your other hand there? You're not
considering...
That's my dictionary! Get away from
the window with my
books! No don't drop it!! GIMME -- ....that.
So this is how you've solved
the problem huh Hypno?
Hypnowwww....
Well, tying a string to your
tooth and dropping a heavy book
out a window with the connected yarn is hardly modern dentistry,
you know. You're lucky you didn't damage yourself more seriously.
Did you get the tooth for your troubles at least?
Hyp...owwwwww....
Good. Now go take some
aspirin and shut up about your
jaw already. I've gotta go get my book. Let's see...where did it land?
Ha! It fell right on
Finkelbaum as he was returning from
lunch! That's just like Hypno, 2 for the price of 1 if he can get it.
Trish- Oooh, why yes. I DO like buckwheat
pancakes as well.
How'd you know?
I should go get my dictionary back
from Finkelbaum. I know
someone else who needs it dropped on their head...sigh.
Good Luck!!
Dr. Crash Landon