As you all know Heart Gold and Soul Silver has just come out in time for states, and most of you have already started to test for these big tournaments. If not, well you better have an idea. Ever since I saw the Japanese scan for this card, I knew I wanted to play it. That card is Donphan Prime. Dishing out 60 for one Fighting Energy and doing 10 to all of your bench, means a cheap 60 with a drawback, right? But that’s not all I see. What I see is donking, very quickly.
In addition to that attack, you have a Poké-Body, “Exoskeleton”, that reduces damage. With Expert Belt equipped, you have yourself a tank. You could also play a few healing techs, but we’ll get into that a little later. Donphan’s other attack, three Fighting for ninety damage, may not seems all too good, but when your up against a Mr Mime MT walling you, you’re going to need your three Energy fast. That way with an Expert Belt you’re pulling off one-hundred-ten damage. Just like that.
Anyway, here’s a list of Pokémon techs that may be used in one of your own builds:
Used for its “Maternal Comfort” Poké-Body to heal off ten damage in between turns. That way you can pretty much nullify all of your “Earthquake” damage. It’s also a decent attacker, doing 40 for one Psychic Energy or 60 with an Expert Belt. Or if your playing a few Double Colorless Energy (for whatever reason) you could potentially “Ruthless Tail” for quite a bit of damage. But really? The only thing I see this card doing is a Bench-sitter just healing off your Earthquake damage. Plus you also have to waste a Rare Candy or two, when you probably don’t want to play Rare Candy! There are plenty of other options, like the next card…
This card is a lot better than Nidoqueen, for a few reasons…
- It’s a Stage One
- Lightning type (which backs up Donphan’s weakness to Water)
- Snipe Powers
- Free Retreat
- Resistance to Dialga G is good
- Protects bench besides Manectric from EarthQuake
- With Bench Shield you completely protect your bench
I think that about sums up Manectric. Next up is Machamp Stormfront:
Also known as the SP Killer, it one shots your opponent’s non-Unown G’d Pokémon SP. With one-hundred-thirty (150 with Expert Belt) health, it can withstand quite a few hits. Combined with Donphan you could skip the awkward turn you have to Hurricane Punch. It’s a Stage Two so you kind of have to play Rare Candy with this tech, but it also means that you could potentially get the donk. Using Machamp is a variation of Donphan by the way, which I have posted a list of later in the article. There isn’t really much more to say about this card.
It won Worlds in an SP toolbox deck. It’s been proven by Stephen Silvestro that you could literally tech a 1-1 line of it in almost any deck. This deck is no different. You could “Bright Look” up any Pokémon, free retreat or Poké Turn Luxray, then bring up a Donphan and wreck the new Pokémon. For example, Bright Look a Claydol, retreat or Turn Luxray, promote an Expert Belted Donphan Prime, do 80 for the 1HKO. You could also use Pokémon Reversal, which is the next card on the list.
Pokémon Reversal is a flippy Luxray. It can bring up anything for you to kill; look above for explanation on how. In decks where you don’t exactly have the space where you can fit in 2-2 Luxray, 2 Crobat G, and 4 TGI Poké Turn, this card is very good. Being able to drag up anything is almost too good. Run this in fours.
Now onto the decklists:
PhanRay
|
Pokémon-20 3 Phanpy HS 3 Donphan Prime 2 Luxray GL RR 2 Luxray GL LV.X RR 2 Baltoy GE 2 Claydol GE 1 Uxie LA 2 Crobat G PL 2 Unown G GE 1 Relicanth SV |
Trainers-32 4 TGI Poké Turn 4 Super Scoop Up 2 Broken Time-Space 2 Expert Belt 2 TGI Energy Gain 4 Pokémon Reversal 2 Warp Point 3 Pokémon Communication 1 Luxury Ball 1 Premier Ball 4 Roseann’s Research 3 Bebe’s Search |
Energy-8 5 F 3 L |
Champ Donphan
|
Pokémon-22 3 Machop SF 2 Machoke SF 3 Machamp SF 3 Phanpy HS 3 Donphan Prime 2 Baltoy GE 2 Claydol GE 1 Uxie LA 1 Azelf LA 1 Relincanth SV 1 Unown G GE |
Trainers-26 4 Bebe’s Search 4 Roseanne’s Research 3 Broken Time-Space 1 Luxury Ball 2 Expert Belt 4 Pokémon Reversal 2 Night Maintenance 2 Pokémon Communication 4 Rare Candy |
Energy-12 8 F 4 Call |
Donphan Manectric
|
Pokémon-19 4 Phanpy HS 4 Donphan Prime 2 Electrike PL 2 Manectric PL 2 Baltoy GE 2 Claydol GE 2 Uxie LA 1 Azelf LA |
Trainers-33 4 Bebe’s Search 4 Roseanne’s Research 2 Cynthia’s Feelings 3 Broken Time-Space (testing) 3 Expert Belt 2 Luxury Ball 4 Pokémon Reversal 3 Pokémon Communication 2 Night Maintenance 1 Bench Shield 1 Department Store Girl 4 Super Scoop Up |
Energy-8 6 F 2 Lighting Energy |
Straight ‘Phan
|
Pokémon-19 4 Phanpy HS 4 Donphan Prime 2 Baltoy GE 2 Claydol GE 2 Uxie LA 1 Uxie LV.X LA 2 Crobat G PL 2 Unown G GE |
Trainers-36 4 Super Scoop Up 2 Luxury Ball 4 Pokémon Communication 4 TGI Poké Turn 3 Broken Time-Space 3 Expert Belt 4 Bebe’s Search 4 Roseanne’s Research 4 Pokémon Reversal 1 Night Maintenance 1 Cynthia’s Feelings 2 Rare Candy |
Energy-8 8 F |
I'm not sure how good this card is really going to be. My friend played me with his the other day and it seems really slow. The 60 damage isn't that much and getting three energy on for the 90 damage is a lot. I did like the trick of using memory berry to use phanphy's flail attack though. I think this deck will have a lot of trouble against Jumpluff swarms that can get a fully loaded attacker out much faster and have resistance to fighting.
In Donphan/Luxray GL deck you can also pick up Donphan when attackin on Luxray GL lvXs Flash Impact. By choosing Donphan you only hit 10 damage to it cause of the Exoskeleton Body. IMO this is worth of mention.
Donphan deck will surely have to struggle against anything that can hit hard and resists Fighting (Gyarados, Jumpluff, Charizard, etc). This is why i would like to see tech Devoluter(s) in Donphan deck. Most of 'em will get KO'd by the devolution it you have attacked once with Belted Donphan. Also it's nice that Donphan has the Body to shield itself when KO'ing Devo TM'd Donphan is even harder. You could easily use single Devoluter multiple times if you manage to get at least a heads or two from your SSUs.
I think this card is overated. It doesnt matter if the first attack only requires 1 energy, it only does 60 damage. And that means most defending pokemon will need 3 hits to knock it out. And its not that big of a tnak where it can take 3 hits.
Maybe it might help flygon x, but only after rotation.
Thanks for the article Nugget!
Not sure which variant I like best…maybe the Luxray version. Wish that I'd actually tested Donphan so I'd have something constructive to say. I have tested Gyarados, and it's really good, so I think this is risky to play unless it has a really good matchup against SP, which I'm not sure it does.
Hadn't thought about using Devo TM in a while, nice idea.
I'm pretty meh on donphan
Machamp/Donphan is in my opinion the best build, i have actually played with it and it runs really well sometimes. As far as it being a major contendor, probebly not. Donphan/Flygon was kind of pointless, why retreat donphan in the first place? And I like reversal over luxray much more with this deck. Lets just say i'm not impressed enough to switch my current deck for it anytime soon.
I like running this deck with Great Bliss and Manectric. Manectric keeps most sniping at bay. It's actually pretty fast in set-up. You are at least heavy hitting by turn 2 like most SP decks. I tried running it with Flygon but it was not very consistent.
Slow???!??!!!?? A stage one with 120 hp and a body that reduces all attack damage to itself by 20 while dealing 60 for 1 slow? It needs no rare candy and at the LATEST your swinging on turn two, with a stage one that has a 120 hp and a body that reduces all attack damage to itself by 20 while dealing 60 for 1. Need I repeat it again?!??
It a Gyarados comes out onto the field it's an autoloss.
In my 3 weeks of playing Donphan in various builds (really just because I like the pokemon) I can say this:
I have NOT lost to any variant of PLOX deck.
I have NOT lost to Luxray GL/ Chomp with DCE, or BlazeRay. I have also played against these with Dialga techs and still won.
I have won MOST matches against Feraligatr/ Lumineon and Feraligatr variants, being that Donphan out-speeds the deck, and with proper techs can hold on till' victory.
However………………………
Gyarados is an autoloss. ROFL, but everything is totally vulnerable to something. Gyarados with Blissey Prime tech is ridiculous, if you haven't tested it or played against it, I advise you do so.
Hopefully this weekend I will get some good matches versus t3h super hyped 'pluff. Also versus Flygon-Lock with DCE and other upgrades, in which I believe Donphan can hold his on.
Oh, and I run mine with 'queen currently, but I want to try the Manetric/ Blissey Prime variant out.
Lastly, I hardly ever gotten a Donphan later than turn 2 BTW.
IMO, between the “rock-paper-scissors” (Gyarados/Kingdra<Donphan/Jumpluff<LuxrayGL+SP's<Gyarados/Kingdra<Donphan<LuxrayGL+SP's) of popular possibilites that will be at States, this deck I believe has the least success rate between these 3.
If I were to play it, it would have to be done TURBO Donphan style, similar to the old TURBO Machamp that was so set on going second and getting a guaranteed Machamp out T2 and DONK.
I can see him making rise for the next set when the LEGEND Legendary Dogs go rampant and the metagame WILL be Lanturn Prime because he OHKO's all the dogs by becoming either water or electric type, Donphan will be the “after-counter” to Lanturn countering the dogs.
…
I know I kinda looked into the crystal ball for that one, but W A T C H!!!
=O
60 for 1 isn't really that impressive, especially while doing 10 to your bench. I don't think donphan will see much play after the first weekend of states.
I feel like you haven't played many good decks yet, if you are still so confident with this deck. I've seen it lose to Straight champ, flychamp, gengar, and jumpluff. My friend playing it at league the other night didn't win a single game. its just not very competitive.
I feel like you haven't played many good decks yet, if you are still so confident with this deck. I've seen it lose to Straight champ, flychamp, gengar, and jumpluff. My friend playing it at league the other night didn't win a single game. its just not very competitive.
my thoughts exactly. right now, its just “meh”.
my thoughts exactly. right now, its just “meh”.
I don't believe straight Champ would be an issue. Gengar could be rough, but it depends. FlyChamp only if they are playing Restructure Palkia for gust capabilities. Jumpluff is supposed to be rough, but that hasn't earned a spot in the “competitive” world just yet. Nor has Donphan. I will find out this weekend about the 'Pluff, but common sense would tell you the matchup wouldn't be easy.
I will agree to disagree about the competitiveness of the deck.
But Kingra is I suppose?
I haven't seen many kingdra decks recently either.
Kingdra does 20 to your opponent's bench though which can add up. I know Alex Brosseau who is a really good player has been playing Kingdra every single tournament the last year, so it can't be too bad.
A really good card to have in this deck would be a Quagsire GL for the poke body. (submerge)
But the bench damage is spread…it doesn't get placed all on one
benched Pokemon. There is really no point to Quagsire. You could just
not put a Pokemon down and that would be just as effective.
Hmm I'm a bit conservative towards seeing Donphan making it into the top-cut in tournaments. It's amazing early on, but what happens if your opponent survives the onslaught and start getting out powerful Stage 2's. Also demanding only fighting energies for its attacks, disable the use of special energies. Maybe they aren't that big of the problem.
The biggest problem is if it get too common in the environment. Then people will start teching in the good old dragon DNA Gyarados. I would really like to see Donphan play around it? Hitting it with either attacks, makes Donphan a OHKO victim the next turn. That Gyarados is also extremely easy to tech in, since it demands only a colorless to flail.
I think best build with Donphan is the Manectric one, with a couple changes:
-2 Lightning Energy
-1 Luxury Ball
-1 Broken Time-Space
+1 Blissey'
+1 Chansey PT
+1 Memory Berry
+1 Devoluter
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No, you've pretty much nailed it. It's made to swing for 60-80 (with expert belt) and even 90-110 with Heavy Impact if it gets to that point.
no claydols there just on the bench to be destroyed throw in Blissey prime its much better
no claydols there just on the bench to be destroyed throw in Blissey prime its much better
i really like the all donphan deck but coould you give me one for after the cycle??? just semd it to my email dylanschmidt3@yahoo.com
you play league on monday at adventures in comics and games?
you play league on monday at adventures in comics and games?
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