Hello! This is my second article here, hope its better than the first one. :) Today I’m going to talk about some of the uses of Sablelock cards, becouse tons of people are playing Sablelock with very cool lists but with no thinking! I see many guys losing because they go straight with the lock or donk strategy, and Sablelock has a lot more outs.
I will explain some new moves, and some weirder and cooler ones. This article contains deck analysis and secondary strategies.
Cards
pokemon-paradijs.comSableye: Sableye has a very good donking ability. I’ve heard of people KOing 110 HP Pokémons with Overconfident! If you attach an Expert Belt, you will have 80 HP, so with a Special D Energy attached, you can 1HKO all Pokémon with 70 HP or less.
You can also use multiple Crobat G Flash Bites to take a 100+ HP Pokémon to the 70 HP you need (you have 2-3 Crobat G, 4 Poké Turn, and 50% plays 4 SSU). There is not much lateral thinking here, so continue. Impersonate can make your day.
Garchomp C: This card is not only a sniper, you also have high chances of donking. DCE + Expert Belt; DCE + Energy Gain; DCE + Crobat Gs/Poké Turns; etc. Next card.
Honchcrow G: It is a very good starter, sniper and donker. As a starter it rocks… I’m always happy to start with him because you can search for some SP Radars to get your Garchomp or maybe Energy Gain + SP Radar (Crobat G) if you want to start snipping. Special D Energy can also be really useful for early donks.
pokemon-paradijs.comGiratina “Let Loose”: There have been multiple times I’ve tried to attack with “Earth Power,” but it really doesn’t work. If you attach an Expert Belt you can be doing some nice damage, but 3 turns for that is just useless. I actually don’t play Giratina anymore becouse some bad experience with a Memory Berried Flygon hitting me for 0 and no retreating (Giratina has -20 Colorless Resistance).
I’ve also had some bad starts with it. This card doesnt have a second strategy, so if you want to keep it in your Sablelock, just BE SMART… don’t play it against SPs decks for example, or against Flygon Variants. ;(
Chatot G: One (or more) per deck. It is a really good card both in Power and in his “Search and Escape” attack. Imagine you play Giratina and then you draw into two Cyrus’s Initiative, Chatot G, and Poké Turn (of course having a Sableye active). This situation makes me feel in love.
Mewtwo Lv. 42: I love Lv. 42 Mewtwo. I know it only has 80 HP, but his attacks are very cool. If someone is going to KO your Mewtwo when you put it in your bench, it really doesnt matter if it has 80 or 90 HP.
His first attack, “Hypnoblast,” does 10 damage and sleep for a colorless. A LOT of games I’ve attached an Expert Belt and started Hypnoblasting for 30 and sleep. It is really annoying if you can Initiative/Chatot G while doing this. His second attack, “Psychic,” is usually going to hit for 50-70, so its better to keep Hypnoblasting.
Also, Mewtwo Lv. 42 has +20 Psychic Weakness and the other one x2.
pokemon-paradijs.comAzelf: Everybody keeps asking me why I play Azelf if I don’t play Honchcrow SV. Is it for the Mewtwo? Actually, no. I know his Power is amazing, but I usually use it because of his attack. Yes, his attack. :)
It does 20 damage and your opponent can’t retreat. You can wait until your opponent has a bad card in the Active Spot. Then just use Garchomp’s snipe, retreat to Azelf, and lock your opponent’s Pokémon while attaching energies to Garchomp for the next attack. You can also lock your opponent waiting to get a Pokémon Collector or at the beggining of the game while you are setting up.
Crobat G: Why do you think I play 3 P Energies? Because of Mewtwo? Well… yeah, but also because of Azelf and Crobat G!
Crobat can double poison with just a psychic and an Energy Gain! You can own decks like Donphan and Charizard with this! Also having free retreat is awesome (like in a situation where you Psychic Restore with Uxie).
Toxicroak G/Ambipon G: I actually dont play both because I use Mewtwo. But 1 Promocroak is a must. I can’t talk a lot about these cards because I only use them against Luxray and Garchomp.
Uxie LV.X: I’ve only used it in once of all the testing I’ve done with Sablelock. I’ll leave this card up to you.
Decklists
Sablelock Mewtwo
|
Pokémon: 19
4 Sableye SF |
S/S/T: 27
3 Cyrus’s Conspiracy |
Energy: 13
4 Double Colorless |
Classic Sablelock
|
Pokémon: 20
4 Sableye SF |
S/S/T: 29
3 Cyrus’s Conspiracy |
Energy: 11
4 Double Colorless |
Hope you enjoyed this article, bye!
First! Great article in my opinion. Did a very good job of explaining each card and very well written! Keep it up!
meh personally i like 2-2 blaze instead of certain cards that are not needed just nice to have. more or less i like jason chen’s t32 nats deck. but none the less good stuff tho it has more stuff than what you mentioned :P
Very good article, and Sablelock is definitely a Tier 1 deck build, and we should see lots of variations on it like the ones you have above.
I would consider a few tweeks to the deck if you see a lot of VileTomb trainer locks. Perhaps taking out some of the trainers for more suppporters, but you should still do really well with this. Also, a chatot lock is much stronger than Azelf against Spiritomb, so you may want to consider that as well if needed.
Great article though! Hope to read more soon.
Nice layout for the article but I disagree with most of it.
Most of all I disagree with the lack of Giratina, only 3 Cyrus Conspiracy and using Expert Belt.
But that’s just me.
I also found 3 SP Radar much more consistant
If anyone has VileTomb or anything with Vileplume in his meta, play PONT and more VS Seeker.
3 Cyrus was indeed weird, i have never seen a sablelock like that, but the expert belt is really needed for sableye donks against higher hp pokemon, or SP basics.
Also, giratina is just a waste of bench space, very easy to lock in the active position and sprayable, judge is better in every possible way, while it still lets you use the initiative with sableye.
The radar is a matter of personal preference, 2 or 3 depending on your tastes, both are good.
If you’re going to play Giratina “Let Loose”, why not play the LV. X? It adds to the disruption by forcing your opponent to discard a card from his/her hand to attack.
What I don’t understand is how you’re not even much more popular than you’re now. You’re just so bright. You know so very much about this matter, got me to look at it from so many various aspects. Its like people arent interested unless it has anything to do with Madonna! Your stuffs fantastic. Continue the good work!
Alright, please think before writing anymore articles. First you attacked with “Earth Power” and now you are telling someone to play more trainers in a Vileplume deck.
Of course, if people do listen to you, I will be happy. I will have easier pairings at tournaments.
You forgot to mention Honchkrow SV
Yeah, i really didnt realize that, instead of playing 1-1 play 2 Pont i guess
you cant play expert belt, poke turns first turn
i play 2 pont no vs seeker though
Searching for this for quite a while now – i reckon luck is far more progressive compared to search engines…
I prefer chenlock.
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