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William Hung on Pokemon
Hello all! It's
time to share my third installment of this
series, as we are approaching closer and
closer to Pokemon TCG State Championships.
This time around, besides introducing yet
another one of my deck creations, I will
also discuss the top contenders, and
hopefully my deck can fare well against
them.
Note: My deck rankings are based on my own
objective playtesting. I do a "gauntlet"
style of playtesting, where I test against
all the other major contenders, but
definitely use it only as a
guide.
#1: Blastoise ex/Steelix ex/Lugia ex/Pidgeot:
 That
would be Jermy101's deck. I am being very
objective - I am not saying this because it
is a deck built by the most recent Pokemon
TCG World Champion. I am saying this
because I can't find a deck that can
consistently beat this deck. I will refer
this deck as BSL, for rest
of this article. BSL has a lot of
versatility, but the key card is definitely
Pidgeot. Thus, even decks such as Medicham
ex/Espeon ex will have a good chance of
winning if they can lock out Pidgeot's Quick
Search (Poke-Power) early on. Nevertheless,
this is a card game, and if you can't lock
out Pidgeot's Quick Search early on, it
could be too late - because they would have
Blastoise ex + Lugia ex or Steelix ex set
up.
Also, Steelix ex will be important for
finishing off other quality decks and record
a W (Win). So if your deck has means to
One-Hit KO Steelix ex middle or late game,
it could be costly for the BSL player as
well.
In short, if your main attackers can be
One-Hit KO'd (Lugia ex - Weak to Psychic,
Steelix ex - Weak to Fighting/Fire), you're
in for a tough match.
#2: Rock Lock: There are many variations,
but Dark Tyranitar with Spinning Tail will
get extremely involved, and that's good for
you. You can deal with BSL, Medicham ex/Espeon
ex, ZRE, Ludicolo/Magcargo, and just about
anything. Against powerhouse ex decks, hold
on to your Scramble until you actually need
it, and for non-ex decks, just keep abusing
Spinning Tail, and eventually you can do ATM
[Rock] to put some serious hurt into your
opponent.
#3: Medicham ex/Espeon ex: This is probably
one of the best lock decks, and other
powerhouse contenders like Metanite or Dark
Dragonite will be scraming for help.
Running Magcargo is also a disaster, because
if you KO anything and have a prize lead,
POW! Hand Extension will leave your Magcargo
stranded, and everything else is going to be
vulnerable to Pure Power.
#4: Metanite: This deck is really
self-sufficient, and if you can use your
Poke-Powers from Metagross d, Dragonite d,
and Magcargo, you can overrun your opponent
in a hurry. However, there are plenty of
difficult circumstances - like what if they
get out Steelix ex (BSL) and One-Hit KO your
Magcargo? I mean your options are quite
limited, because Steelix ex has Resistance
to Lightning. No fun. What if your
opponent plays Medicham ex and you can't use
any of your key Poke-Powers? Ouch!
#5: ZRE: This is still one of the best
decks around. You can argue against my
point of view, because it cna get
inconsistent starts, takes a beating from
Desert Ruins, etc., but when it's all said
and done, Electrode ex blows up, fully
charges Rayquaza ex DX, POW! Hand Extension
on precious Energies and important Pokemon,
Rocket's Admin. If you can beat that, good
luck to you. The only reason this is #5
instead of #1 is you could start with hands
such as lone Zapdos ex (horrible!), and
that's almost impossible to come back from
against other high-quality decks.
With that, I also want to mention that Holon
Phantom will come out in May, and so I can't
be too quick about building a deck for US
Nationals or World Championships. However,
I will share another deck with great
potential: Machamp from
Legend Maker.
Pokemon (20):
4x Jirachi DX
2x Slugma DX (Collect)
2x Magcargo DX (Smooth Over)
3x Machop (Legend Maker)
2x Machoke (Hidden Legends)
3x Machamp (Legend Maker)
2x Voltorb (Fire Red and Leaf Green)
2x Electrode ex
Trainers (25):
4x Desert Ruins
2x Steven's Advice
3x Rare Candy
3x Celio's Network
2x Holon Transceiver
2x Holon Mentor
2x Holon Scientist
3x POW! Hand Extension
1x Pokemon Retreiver
3x Rocket's Admin
Energies (15):
7x Fighting
4x React
4x Rainbow
This is a very "tight" deck, meaning every
card counts. I chose to use the "Holon"
trainer engine, because it allows me to get
out key Basics (Slugma, Voltorb, Machop),
while using Jirachi DX both as an initial
wall and set-up Pokemon. I also like the
flow of the deck - because you can use for
your first Machamp built up from your Bench
to retaliate once your Jirachi DX is KO'd.
Then later in the game, once your first
Machamp LM is KO'd, you can "Blow Up" your
Electrode ex, and have one or both of your
other Machamp LM loaded and continue the
onslaught. Since you should be behind in
prizes, POW! Hand Extension and Rocket's
Admin will be quite handy.
I think this is another deck where you can
control your own destiny. Even though it
isn't the most consistent deck (like
starting with Slugma), I like the concept of
the deck, and I hope you like it too.
Please reply with comments or suggestions
via my e-mail
wilhung53@aim.com.
My next and final installment of this series
of articles will be sometime next week just
before the actual State Championships, so
stay tuned.
Take Care,
William Hung
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