Madness Deck by James Thoo (grim_reiper@hotmail.com)
4 Aerodactyl
4 Erika's Dratini
4 Gloom
4 Dark Vileplume
4 Bill
3 Prof. Oak
3 Energy Removal
4 Computer Search
4 Pokemon Breeder
2 Super Energy Removal
4 Potion
3 Rocket Sneak Attack
4 Grass Energy
13 Double Colorless Energy
where does the madness begin?....
Firstly, this deck was concieved through my eagerness to tear apart the
haymakers that dominated the shop where I usually play. My inital response
to that was my (favourite deck) Sponge. Anyways, after dealing with the
haymakers, I found that I was perpetually being beat down by super fast
Raindance decks, this was my only problem.
As we all know, Raindance depends on Oaks, Breeders and various other cards
to get out their Blastoise fast and start pumping all their Articunos,
Blastoise, Lapras etc for sickening damage.
My imediate response to that is Mr. Mime, however this would leave me in
danger of Hitmonchans, F.Magmars, and such cards.
Enter the Gym Hero set.
Around the time that the Gym Heroes were released over here, I found myself
slowly taking apart my sponge to make way for Erika's Dratinis to basically
shut down haymaker (except wiggly).
Slowly I realised the weakness of starting with a lone dratini vs.
raindance. So obviously by now you're getting hella agrivated by evolutions
whomping on my dratinis. How to stop that? One word : Aerodactyl.
Anyway, I enjoyed mild success, but the old story of kids with active
scythers gusting in my Aerodactyl for potentially free kills. (brings back
memories of my promo mewtwo gusting in ditto's/chans =)
Another indirect problem was the utter pain that is Goop Gas Attack. This
can SERIOUSLY hinder my Dratini's and Mr Mimes. Thats when Dark Vileplume
hit me. This meant that I could have Aerodactyl allowing NO evolutions;
Erika's Dratini dominates, NO gust of winding in my aerodactyl for those
punk scythers, kiss the threat of goop gas goodbye, NO breeders or even
Blastoise, which is not blatantly obvious, eridacates the threat of
Raindance entirely, creating a potentially invincible deck. Whilst playing,
the table should look ideally like this :
Erika's Dratini
Dark Vileplume Aerodactyl Erika's Dratini
(1) Erika's Dratini will always be active, recieving 10 damage per turn, and
dealing out 10 / 30 damage.
(2) Dark Vileplume will be benched, meaning that they can gust of wind him
(or Aerodactyl) in ever, leaving them safe.
(3) Aerodactyl will be benched, allowing no evelutions; in one pokemon
power, taking out wigglytuff and raindance completely.
(4) More Erika's Dratini on the bench, ready to come in if the active one
gets ruked on.
Reasons behind the trainers, even when I'm using a potentially 'no trainer'
deck? Um basically, those Aerodactyl, and Dark Vileplume HAVE GOT TO BE out
fast. Aerodactyl could die in one slash from scyther, thats the reason
behind ER, SER and RSA, potions to heal my dratini's, oaks, bills and
searches to get those cards I need fast. And obivously, the breeders to
evolve quicker into Dk. Vileplume.
I've attended one relatively small scale tournament compared to what I'm
used to playing in, here are some of my games against the main archetypes
and their outcomes;
1) Me w/ Madness vs. Kid with Wiggly-maker
He starts with a scyther w/ grass energy active and a jigglypuff benched.
I drew Aerodactyl, Erika's Dratini, DCE, Comp Search, Oak, Pokemon Breeder,
grass energy. I bench Aerodactyl, put Erika's Dratini active, attach a DCE
to it and comp search for an ER (discarding breeder and grass energy) . I
removal his scyther and Oak, getting some other stuffs, but most importantly
Dk. Vileplume, Oddish and a breeder. I bench Oddish and tail strike w/
Dratini for 10 damage *rofl* (slops to the coin). He retreats and pounds me
for 10. I removal his DCE, comp search for a Dratini and evolve Oddish into
Dk. Vileplume. The game basically goes on with me tail striking away his
scythers, jigglypuffs and electabuzzs until he had no more bench.
2) Me w/ Madness vs. Punk w/ Raindance
This was my favourite match, this kid kept smack talking over how he was
gonna lay the smack on me because of how good his hand was. *rofl* I was
thinking i was in a bad position cos I was fighting raindance and I hadn't
drawn an Aerodactly or (strangely) a card that could get me one fast.
Anyways, this kid was showing his hand to everyone that passed, and pointing
to my Dratini and benched Oddish and laughing, was funny to see how his face
changed when i evolved into Dk. Vileplume. Pity for him he had no wartortle,
only breeder, in 2 turns my Dratini killed his Squirtle, peace out to
Raindance. *My friend later told me that his hand was breeder, blastoise, 4
water energy, oak. Sounds like a perfect hand =D
3) Me w/ Madness vs. Trapper
Hrmph, this was only the deck i was fearing, and from my starting hand, I
had every reason to be. He started with Scyther and grass energy, I with
Oddish active and another Oddish benched (!). BBL, this turned out to be a
massacre, i evolved into Dk. Vileplume before he could imp.oak and trap me,
and whomped on his scythers with my Dk. Vileplumes and potions =D
Ak, unfortunately in my play testing I diddn't get chance to fight with a
Sponge or Stall deck, but I doubt that any of them will pose a problem for
this deck.
Well, thats the end of my article, if you think this is a good idea for a
deck, PLEASE mail me, um I know that there are bound to be weakness's in
this deck, i know of some already, but I think it would be a smart thing on
my part to omit a 'ways to kill my deck' section heh.
Gee, it would be hella cool if this deck became an Archetype. =D
-thanks, James -- grim_reiper@hotmail.com
um..if you see hella peeps using this deck after Thursday 20th September,
you know where they got it from =D
ALSO, mad props to POJO.com for posting this.