Lock decks are powerful, annoying, and extremely fun to play with and against. They require using different strategies from the norm, and creative use of Supporters. One of the most common lock decks in the last format was Cursegar, which switched a Gengar out with a Spiritomb (AR). This deck is similar, but it does higher damage, is still fast without Claydol, and has some great Poké-bodies to support it. Let’s take a look at Magnelock.
On a personal note: I ran this deck, but I only had a few of the cards, so I printed off proxies and used them in some friendly matches at my league. My best friend joked about all of the proxies, so I dubbed the deck “Dr. Proxy”, and it retains that name for me today.
Decklist:
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Pokémon: 3-2-3 (SF 67/100) (SF 43/100) (SF 6/100) Magnezone LV.X (LA) 3 Uxie (LA) 3 Spiritomb (AR) 1 Azelf (LA) 2 Unown Q (MD) |
Trainers/Suppoerter/Stadiums: 2 Super Scoop Up 1 Luxury Ball 2 Pokémon Communication 3 Pokémon Reversal 2 Expert Belt 3 Rare Candy 4 Judge 2 Bebe’s Search 2 Interviewer’s Questions 3 Pokémon Collector 2 Palmer’s Contribution 1 Prof. Oaks New Theory 2 Broken Time-Space |
Energy: 6 L 2 M 4 Double Colorless |
Strategy:
The idea is to start with Spiritomb and use “Darkness Grace” to level up your Magnemite to Magneton on the first turn and allowing you to keep your opponent in trainer lock. The Uxies are there for draw power, and Azelf for getting needed Pokémon out of the prizes. The ultimate goal is to attach Unown Q to your Spiritomb, and to bring out your Magnezone with a DCE, Lightning energy, and an Expert Belt doing 80 every turn with “Gyro Ball”, and keeping the opponent in trainer lock by switching Magnezone with Spiritomb.
Some of the more tricky parts to the strategy are the Magnezone and the Magnezone LV.X. Magnezone LV.X has an attack called “Cyber Shock” which requires that you discard a Lightning and Metal energy for 80 damage (100 damage with an Expert Belt) and the defending Pokémon is now paralyzed. This is a great attack, and the paralysis is an amazing bonus.
Now you might be thinking, “Why would I use that attack when I have to get rid of one half of the Metal energies in the deck?” Well the answer lies in Magnezone’s Poké-power “Super Connectivity”. It allows you to get a Metal or Lightning energy from the discard and attach it to your active Pokémon while putting a damage counter on that Pokémon.
pokemon-paradijs.comThis means if you have a DCE and a Lightning energy, all you have to do is attach a Metal, and discard the Lightning and Metal for 80-100 plus paralysis. The only downside is that you cannot trainer lock them for one turn. During the next turn, attach a Lightning energy from your hand, and Super Connectivity the Metal back for another 80-100, or just get a Lightning energy for more Gyro Ball.
The Magnezone LV.X also has a Poké-power called “Electric Trans” which allows you to move Lightning and Metal energies as often as you like during your turn. This can be very useful for getting out of precarious situations. It also can prevent Supper Connectivity from being power sprayed by keeping Spiritomb active. You attach the energy to the Spiritomb, it takes one damage, then move it to your Magnezone LV.X. Afterward, free retreat the Spiritomb with the Unown Q. It is a very nice Poké-power indeed.
Energy Trans can also move energies to Uxies that you wish to remove from the field. Move energy from an excess Magnezone, use “Psychic Restore”, and bring out Spirtomb to maintain the lock. It is useful against Machamp for a final kill and to recycle the Uxie.
Say that you have been using Gyro Ball for 80 a turn and have kept them in trainer lock. There are several good things about this:
pokemon-paradijs.com1. They have a poor set up well because of the lack of trainers.
2. Their Pokémon are getting hammered.
3. You have been disrupting their hand with a heavy Judge line.
4. They are probably setting up their most powerful Pokémon on the bench.
This is where the Pokémon Reversals come in handy. You have a 50-50 chance of drawing out their important Pokémon and either doing solid 60-80 damage or 80-100 damage with paralysis.
This deck runs extremely well against SP decks due to the trainer lock. They are unable to Power Spray, attach Energy Gains, Pokéturn, or use SP Radar. Its major weaknesses are BlazeChomp, Machamp, and Donphan; however, if you play it smart, you can have the Magnezone LV.X out for when they run Fighting decks, and just run the regular Magnezone for when they use a fire deck. That way, you can avoid the weaknesses that your Magnezones have.
Overall this deck is very powerful and has massive disruption. The Poké-powers that Magnezone possesses are spectacular, and the attacks are top notch as well.
I find that a Magnarone X + Vileplume makes a better lock.
That’s probably one of the most impressive Lists I’ve seen in a while.
I’m not so keen on the Super Scoop Ups or the Pokemon Reversals and I’d probably pop in an Uxie Lv.X.
But I like the list a lot :P
I like SSU’s and have yet to try Pokemon Reversal. But I’m sure I could like the PR’s. :P But I’m sure I could replace some of the extra trainers for my new Luxray Lv. X. >:3. Furthermore, I think running 1 or 2 Spiritomb, and bencing a new Vileplume could work better ’cause then your Spiritombs won’t get knocked out. But I haven’t playtested the deck so I don’t know how fast it runs, and how tight the list is. =]
I’d love to try out my own variation of this.
I think the trainer list could be tightened up. I’ll work it out later as I’ll definitely play test this.
I think throwing in a Vileplume is going to make it a bit more awkward, and remember it restricts your own trainers so no Super Scoops and Reversals!
Question for 3lectricpancake: …Btw, I love your username. XD
Cursegar seems to be very similar to this deck. Personally, I run Cursegar as my competitive deck. It’s a lot of fun to run, locks nicely, evolves nicely, is fast, and best of all: Spreads. The feeling of being able to say “Compound Pain. I wipe out your field.” is better than any other feeling I’ve ever gotten from playing any pokemon deck. ….Besides my Gardevoir deck in unlimited back when MT came out…. Using EX Sandstorm’s Gardevoir EX with Magnezone DP for free retreat and using psystorm, searching supporters with chingeling and drawing with Chimecho…. Much fun.
But anyways.
Comparison between Cursegar and Magnelock. I’ve run Magnezone decks before, though not in the lock style. From what I can notice, Magnelock has a lot more direct hard hitting, and of course, locking than Cursegar has. Cursegar, however, has a lot more spread. Personally, I love spread. I love being able to move around all the damage counters on my opponent’s side of the field to my liking with three cursegars out and one of them being Lv. X to compound pain on everything, then move ’em around again to KO stuff.
My question for you is: What are the comparitive ups and downs between Magnelock’s lock/power vs Cursegar’s spread and maleability? Which one do you think is better, and why, what are the matchup differences, and which one do you think would fare better in the upcoming format, and why?
I look forward to your response. :) Btw, wonderful article! Great, great read, very solid seeming list. =]
I ran a Magnezone deck most of last season, and I might have some suggestions for you.
The other Magnezone from SF with the power Magnetic Search really helps speed up your set up.
4 Magnemites for better consistency.
At least 1 Pokemon Rescue to get Tombs or the Lv.X. back (I prefer this over Palmer’s).
And lastly, a great trick for this deck is a 1-1 Blissy Prime (I didn’t use DCE, so this won’t work as good with your list, but late game when you have enough energy on the field it is still good); if you have a BTS out or a rare candy, you play Chancey, move all energy to it, evolve to Blissy Prime to fully heal all of your Pokemon while only losing you DCE; it’s a great surprise late game.
in my opinion it’s the best lock deck i’ve seen in a while.
great article, spirtomb is just a great addition to all decks.
This deck sounds intimidating:P Great article. In my opinion, gliscor-spirtomb is the best lock deck I’ve ever seen.
Unless your opponent switches their pokemon with a crobat after being attacked with regular magnezone’s attack… they can then free retreat (and there’s lots of stuff with free retreat) to basically cancel out the effect.
Hmmm… That’s true. I saw a comment yesterday I think about how Vileplume is being overhyped. I think this might be true…
I applaud your use of Reversals and Super Scoop Ups. Those cards are game changing moreso than very, very competitive players seem to realize.
Maybe, but that stops you from using Pokemon Reversals, and Super Scoop Ups. Often, this can screw you over a lot.
Ok. So my best friend (the guy who caused the whole Dr. Proxy thing) runs Blazechomp w/ a Lux. Its a reallly fast deck and it pushes the deck to it’s limit. It runs well against SP’s because of the lock, and the 80 or 100 damage plus paralysis.
Now I agree w/ what Pikey wrote in his comparison, so I wont rewrite what he wrote, but in direct answer to your question: The spread deal is often your personal preference, but this deck ends up having spread if you play it that way. You CAN have the 3 active Magnezone’s if you so wish, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Usually I have 2 out at once, w/a Magnemite, rare candy, and another mag w/ me. That leaves room for Uxies, Azelf, and Spiritombs.
Now what you were saying about spread seems to take up room for Uxie drops, which is helpfull in speeding up this deck. I have donked with this deck before, because of the Uxies, so I never underestimate them. :)
I have no answer to your first question, because Pikey beat me to it, but if you desire spread, a bit of tweaking will do wonders to change it how you would like it.
Thanks y’all!!
3lectricpancake
That’s what the reversals are run for. To counter that, and to take out key Pokemon early on. Its not perfect, but no deck is, and it runs very smoothly. And the Crobat can be taken out by a Magneton w/ the weakness, and the Trainer lock is still in play even if they switch out. Unless its a Lux, but then you’re going to have problems no matter what deck you run.
I’ve never run it, so Id have to see if I liked it more :D
I have used them for a while, and they are very versatile. Pick up a magnezone x, bring out the old one, drop the magnemite, rare candy, lv.x the active mag, and move the energies… fully healed and no fuss. On the other hand, you can re-Uxie and get rid of Azelf if you need to.
Its honestly never posed a problem with me. Often times, you use them to get out more Spiritombs and unown q’s from the discard after palmers, especially if you have done your turn’s supporter. They have caused me more joy than pain is all I’m trying to say. But I agree, to many can cause a problem.
Ive already done some testing with the Blissey prime, and I liked it for a while, but it ended up being a hinderence early on, and I nixed it. Im sure its a great option for some though :D
Yah I thought that 4 was overkill… until i realized that I was running out of cards, and my opponent’s hand was full of anywhere from 6-12 cards because of the lack of trainers. I always know a Spiritomb or two will get killed in a game, so i need to limit what they can do w/ all those built up trainers. It ends up being a blessing, having four. And the interviewers are DEFIANTLY SUPER IMPORTANT!!! I have tried running this with out them, and I shriveled up on the inside each time. You need to have a better chance to get a metal energy for an important 100 damage, and a rare DCE in a pinch. It just seems to have saved me so many times i couldn’t dream of not having it.
And yes a Pokemon Rescue would be a nice idea, I like the sound of that :D
maybe you could try a vs seeker? that way you can re use the judge if necesary, or search for another thing, after all its a mid-late game card.
And i still dont like interviewer, i have seen them played in many decks, and they rarely work. I would prefer energy exchanger, at least its more dependable.
I know right? No matter how much room other people seem to have, I ALWAYS have trouble adding that one little useful card that’s not vital, but would be nice. I’m new to the site, what do you run that’s got so little space, if you don’t mind my asking. Feel free to PM me or just say, “Quite fool! It’s Mr.T’s secret!”
I don’t really like Pokemon Communication in this list. I think they will become dead cards when you’re running under 20 Pokemon and also trying to lock with Spiritomb.
Very nice. Well the areceus sounds interesting, but i’m sure you can fit a SSU there right? :P
Plus:
-the Spiritomb is basic
-can be searched w/ a collector
-I don’t run Grass energy
-saves my rare candies
-takes up less room
-free retreat w/ a q, as compared to 2 for the Vileplume
-cant evolve my pokemon,
-absolutely no trainers
-hard to replace once it gets killed
I mean you can add in Crobats, add some Electrode techs for damage to each of the bench, and then you can add a lux tech to move stuff. I took spread to mean multiple Poke-powers at first, and now I see my mistake. If you want spread, it’s harder to come by, but Id rather be able to take out your key pokemon, then lock them for a slow recovery, than have a bit of damage over a large field. In a nut shell, This deck is an anti-trainer sniper rife, while cursegar is an anti-trainer shotgun. It’s just your personal preference.
I feel that a Snowpoint would help out SP decks too much to be an advantage, plus it takes up just that much more space. Seeing as the saturation of SP is this format’s doom, I’d personally skip the Snowpoint.
I’ve used the Luxray Tech Sky…. im so sorry to say that it didn’t work well. The turn that you use bringing it out to pull up a key Pokemon is a turn you can’t retreat for the tomb or mag, unless your tomb gets KOed. Then you could, but just with what I have seen, w/o the SP trainers aiding you, its a drain on the energies and the deck space. And Vileplume does nothing for this deck. See above for why.
Well, not bad for a rogue deck, interesting idea. I think the 4 judge are a bit overkill, i mean, most decks only use 2, and thats all they need to create a mess.
I particularly dont like flippy things like SSU and reversal, but thats just me couse i suck at coin flipping.
Also, i would take out the two interwiers and 1 collector, for 1 more tomb, 1 BTS and 1 Sunnyshore, that should take care of machamp and donphan matchups.
Maybe take out 2 palmers and add the new flower shop lady and a rescue? its just an idea, i dunno if it woks xD
Still, nice article, its not everyday that a rogue deck presents a solid list.
IT IS overhyped. I mean, i cant imagine a deck with no trainers, and what if your plume gets locked active? You should waste 2 turns on energies or a DCE in retreating him, couse theres no switch or Warp, also no SSU.
I think pleople will play him in next BR, realise it sucks, and drop it.
Well, Interviewers might not be dependable, but when 1/5 of your deck is energy, and you are getting 8 cards, you have a very good chance of getting lots of them. Especially when you consider after prizes and your hand is drawn, you have only 47 cards in your deck. I like those chances, and I prefer that, so I run it that way. It’s just up to your preferences. And yah, I agree about the vs. seeker. I’ll look into that
Maybe, but once you have a single Magnezone out, and have Unown Q on the Spiritomb, you switch your Spiritomb for Magnezone first thing then start using your Trainers.Then you attack with Magnezone and switch around to your Spiritomb.
I’m starting to see more and more what you mean…. I think opportunities to boost your Spiritomb’s HP and heal it would be a lot better than Vileplume… and to include them mostly in strike ‘n’ run style decks. Do you think running Snowpoint Temple would be worthwhile in a deck of this style?
I agree with you there. That used to be a way you could tell the great players from the very best. They managed to make a consistent list that still found room for Energy Removals and Reversals.
I’m not a fan of Super Scoops I prefer to run 4 Poke-Healer+ and i never find room for reversals and stuff :/
There’s an upside and downside to both.
Comparing the 2:
Gengar:
“Energy Heavy” using PPC for Shadow Skip means you MUST have 3 energy cards attached.
Ability to hit the bench
Can move damage counters around
Can Level Down the opponent.
Weak to all Dark decks
Magnezone:
Less “Energy Heavy” (can use DCE), can mean setting up faster.
Requires a second energy type for the level X
Being Metal can reduce the damage taken
Cannot hit the Bench
Can avoid weakness by levelling up or not levelling up
Has HUGE Energy manipulation abilities which really give it the edge.
Retrieving Energy from the discard (INCLUDING SPECIAL METALS) and being able to move it around means you can get away with only ever using 3 energy cards
Can paralyse the opponent every turn while you have the energy. (although you lose the trainer lock)
Personally I’d go for playing Magenzone simply for the energy manipulation it allows.
You can drop down a Magnezone (BTS) and have it fully charged the same turn or the turn after allowing for faster “Revenge Kills” rather than Gengy having a slower setup of 3 turns to add necessary energy.
I wonder what the Pancake will write o_0
I think the best way to play SP decks with Magnezone is to just use the trainer lock and not paralysis because you lose your lock for the turn and they can just poketurn that pokemon, its not like they used them yet!
I think the best way to play SP decks with Magnezone is to just use the trainer lock and not paralysis because you lose your lock for the turn and they can just poketurn that pokemon, its not like they used them yet!
definitely NOT all decks. Many decks yes, but not all. Try putting a Spiritomb in an SP deck? You’ll only kill yourself. The same goes for Gyarados deck. If your opponent brings up your spiritomb active and you’re running 0 energy and little stuff to move your spiritomb, they can lock you into place and snipe you to death and you can’t do anything about it.
Also, any other deck that run a low evolution count such as donphan, it wouldn’t do so good in it. Furthermore, any deck based on basic pokemon, it’d only hinder more than anything.
I know, right? (About wondering what the pancake will write)
Personally, I only have experience with Gengar, and the spread and compound pain is a big one for me… I have played vs SP before though, and have found it rather difficult because they’re so fast… Oh. Remind me to talk to you about Arceus tonight over msn. I need a specification. :P But I’m starting to wonder about Magnezone’s paralysis lock… I really don’t know what I’d prefer to play. Right now, I like the idea of Gengar because evolving up with Spiritomb helps a lot to slow down your opponent, and Gastly’s first attack to stop your opponent from playing trainers is also very good to start off… I’d have to try the magnelock deck.
Ok. I’m still testing Arceus at the moment so I can give you my current list with some suggestions and problems :D
I don’t have experience with either :D That was just my guesstimation of what the pro’s/con’s from an overview
That is very true. Their versatility is amazing. I just wish i could find the space :(
This deck would be better, if the name wasn’t god-awful. Seriously, who comes up with these names? Haymaker was a fun name. Lady Gaga was AT LEAST original, until it regressed into a Luxchomp.
I sold my Luxray Lvl.X after that name came back.
How can you tweak Magnezone to give spread? Or am I reading it wrong :/
Things I currently run are:
T’Tar (SF)
Kingdra Prime (list is a couple of articles ago)
Arceus
and an SP deck which an article about will appear shortly :D
Hes right, i play SP and used to have snowpoint, but dropped it couse it hinders garchomps sniping in the mirrors. But against a stage 2 deck, +20 hp is incredible useful, SO many pokemon hit or can hit for 80 or 110 with belt (gyarados, donphan, gengar, kingdra, another chomp, etc), that having those extra 20 hp to avoid the OHKO is simply great.
I would prefer SSU, nidoqueen, or something like that to keep tomb healed, rater than giving SP more hp.
And that comes from an SP player.
Arceus is suprisingly extremely tight.
It’s… almost impossible to get the deck to work fluidly. The balance between drawing, searching, energy, and replenishment is very delicate =P
I have it working, but it’s not perfect yet.
this isnt rogue its just new. that’s to you, rhin, i’m not able to post replies so i do this
i meant hasnt been played in a while.
Something that might help this is a Magnezone prime for draw.
Great Magnezone from Lost link? (Great is what theyre called in japan)
You cant use Great magnezone because it hasnt been relesed in the U.S. and Japan has to play same format as us at worlds.
u mad? =]
…Well durr. o3o They meant once it’s released. =]
Update your browser. :P
Haha! Interesting way of putting it. :P Thanks a bunch for all the different perceptions! =]
Hmm. You’re right, eh? Thanks for the insight. =]
Haha! Nice. Thanks for the input! =]
It might be a horrible name to you, but what would you call it? It doesn’t even have to have a name if you don’t want it to. I didn’t write it to make a great impression on people for my creative naming skills, just to share what deck I use and how it works. And in answer to your first statement, No, it would not run any faster or better if you changed the name. Sorry it ruined the article for you, but I worked hard on that, and honestly, it kinda stings to have someone bash what I did just because I called it Magnelock. And I don’t even call it that, I call it Dr. Proxy. If you comment on another person’s work, make it constructive criticism. It will make them happy, and they might just get something out of it.
you sold your Luxray X because you didn’t like the name that people called the deck it was in? wow.
It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why their problem in the first place.
Haha! I can reply but I have to close my browser and open it again to post more than once XD
and I can’t edit my posts either. Once I’ve logged in it just sorta… locks out my keyboard lol.
Join my “Frustration Club” :D
Tell you what, I’ll rename it for you!
You’ve got:
MagneTomb
SpiritZone
MagneZone
TombZone
Personally I like TombZone!
Hopefully that will make Mr. Thrush happy :D
What browser are you using?
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Something that might help this is a Magnezone prime for draw.
Clearly, you should be running ERL in this. Vileplume is also great in this deck once you paralyze with Magnezone X.
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