This is my first article on SixPrizes.com, so bear with me. You may not agree with everything I say, but I’m always open to any comments or suggestions. I hope you guys like it.
Since the release of Undaunted there have been a few cards that have had an impact on the current format. One card that caught my eye was Combee. Now at first glance it may not seem that great. 30 HP leaves it open to getting donked and its attack “Enraged Assault” only does 20 unless you have a Vespiquen on your bench with a damage counter on it. Once you do, it then does an additional 60 damage and it poisons. Some may feel this set up may take too long and just doesn’t work in the current metagame, but I think it has a chance. Let me explain why:
Sableye
The MVP of the deck, an opening with this little guy is your key to success. Not only does he have the potential to donk with his attack “Overconfident” if you have a Special D Energy, hitting for 50 on your very first turn, but his second attack lets you get the set up you need. “Impersonate” allows you to search your deck for any Supporter card, discard it and then use the effect of it as the attack. This allows you to get whatever you need and be able to use it right away.
This works wonders with Pokémon Collector to let you get 3 Basic Pokémon from your deck and put them in your hand. Depending on what you have already, 2 Combees and whatever else you may need at the time, are a perfect choice.
Combee
The deck’s main heavy hitter. It may look small, but it packs a punch. Its attack “Enraged Assault” only needs one C Energy to attack. This allows you to use pretty much whatever Energy you want such as; Call Energy, Warp Energy, Cyclone Energy and the upcoming Rescue Energy. With a Retreat Cost of one, he isn’t that bad. The only downside would be the low HP it has, but evolve this guy and put a Memory Berry Tool on him and you now have a high HP ‘bee’ast!
Vespiquen
Vespiquen is the deck’s main key to hitting hard. You need to have one of these on your bench with a damage counter on it for Combee’s attack to have a high damage output. It has a few more important things going for it though. Now since you will be running two different variants of Vespiquen I’ll talk about them both.
pokemon-paradijs.comThe Vesiquen from Stormfront is the one you would generally want to evolve from and attach a Memory Berry to. Its Poké-body “Green Dignity” gives all your attacks plus 10 for every Grass type you have out when you are behind in prizes. This may happen a lot since your Combees have such low HP and may get Knocked Out early game.
But say you have two grass type on your bench and you’re behind in taking prizes, Combee’s “Enraged Assault” now does 100 damage plus poison for a total of 110 damage. This allows you to revenge kill most of the popular cards played in the format such as Garchomp C LV.X and Luxray GL LV.X.
The Vesipquen from Undaunted is pretty dull and doesn’t have much going for it. But it’s Poké-Body “Defense Sign”, is what makes this card amazing. “Defense Sign” prevents any damage done to your benched Grass type Pokémon. That means all your Grass types will be protected from snipers. The attack “Mach Wind” for a Grass and Double Colorless Energy isn’t that great, but attach a Memory Berry on it and you’re good to go. Although most of the time you will want it on the bench so you don’t have to bother with it’s insane high Retreat Cost of 3.
Unown P
So you have the Vespiquen on your bench, your active Combee and you’re about to attack for huh? Only 20 damage? You then realize your Vespiquen on the bench doesn’t have damage counters on it. This is where Unown P comes in. His Poké-Power “Put” lets you place a single damage counter on one of your Pokémon. This now allows you to place one on Vespiquen on the bench and increases your damage output. Some people may like Rainbow Energy or using Galactic HQ to get damage instead, but I find Unown P to get the job done faster.
So your 30 HP Combee just got Knocked Out and you have a Pokémon Rescue, Switch, and an Energy card in your hand. This Trainer is great because it allows you to bring back quick Combees and put them back on your bench. If you have an energy and you have your damaged Vespiquen set up, you can now continue your assault of hitting for 80 plus poison right away.
Sure you may have a 30 HP Pokémon active again, but you’re hitting them for 90 total after effects so they will take a beating if you had already hit them on your last turn. Have these Rescues sitting in your hand and you can continue for hitting for a constant amount turn after turn. Another thing choice is Rescue Energy which will bring the Combee right back to you after it has been Knocked Out
This Pokémon Tool card allows you to attach it to one of your Pokémon and use the attacks from it’s Basic or Stage 1 Evolution card. This allows you to be able to use Combee’s “Enraged Assault” when you have Evolved into a Vespiquen.
I have seen other people build this deck with different ideas in mind. But this is the one that I like best. It’s fast and can hit hard. I think Shaymin LV.X Land Forme is just not worth the time or effort to try to get out. I have tested it and found it to just slow me down. Same thing goes for the “Sunny Day” Cherrim. But that’s just me.
You may also consider putting in two Snowpoint Temples to give your Combees +20 HP, this will make them a little bit harder to Knock Out but with so many SP decks going around, I wouldn’t recommend it. If we get the Trainer Card “Junk Arm” you will be able to discard useless cards from your hand and get back those Pokémon Rescues, but that’s just a thought.
I hope to see more people playing this deck. It’s very fun and requires some skill and thinking and that’s what I like. There are a few cards I plan on changing depending on what all we get next set, but this list works for now. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
The List:
|
Pokémon: 18
4 Sableye SF |
T/S/S: 32
4 Pokémon Rescue |
Energy: 10 |
i woundn’t put sableye and dark special, I think that is better for example cherrim, or another expert belt, or up to shaymin for 40 + HP. But is only an opinion.. the idea of the deck is beatfull, but we have to see if the deck run…
i disagree, i like the idea of sableye, but no sp darks. if you donk, all you need is an energy, a bts, and an unown p. i think that for this reason you should run some calls and maybe even psys, unown p’s attack is a little lower than decent, but you might need it.
i woudn’t put sableye and dark special, I think that cherrim or another expert belt or up to shaymin lvx are better for this deck, but is junst an opinion..
You should test the deck and tell us if it’s a good deck or not, but is an original and nice idea.
PD: I’m from argentina, and my English isn’t the best, sorry me
I like Sableye becuz there are a lot of Spiritomb and Vileplume players in my area so Sableye helps me set up, thats just my opinion. Anyone can run Combee anyway they want, this way just works the best comepared to most builds
I like Sableye becuz there are a lot of Spiritomb and Vileplume players in my area so Sableye helps me set up, thats just my opinion. Anyone can run Combee anyway they want, this way just works the best comepared to most builds
i would still run some rainbow. it helps put damage and also helps with a sableye donk
^^ only with 40 or less HP donks…
but witht he increase of gengar, it will ohko a gastly
It won’t OHKO Gastly. Rainbow puts you at 50 HP, making Overconfident effectively do 10 damage. (+10 for Weakness).
It won’t OHKO Gastly. Rainbow puts you at 50 HP, making Overconfident effectively do 10 damage. (+10 for Weakness).
oh yeah i forgot lol. thanks i feel like an idiot now lol
oh yeah i forgot lol. thanks i feel like an idiot now lol
but witht he increase of gengar, it will ohko a gastly
I love the idea of this deck and it seems like so much fun. I just don’t see how you can consistently get out a Combee evolved into Vespiquen with memory berry and a Damaged Vespiquen on the bench. Just seems like so much has to go right.
I hope it works for you though, I would like to see it in action one day.
not really, you only need 6 cards, it’s doable,
To do it turn one you would need 2 Combee, 2 Vespiquens, Rare Candy or BTS, Memory Berry, an Energy and Unown P. That’s a minimum of 8 cards. If you do not use berry and leave a Combee as your active, even if you drop 90, then it will get knocked out the following turn.
Yeah but with 4 Pokemon Rescues and 4 Rescue Energy you have a high chance of being able to bring it right back and hit for 90 again.
I think this deck idea will be toyed with a little and a more solid list will emerge after BR. Not to say this isn’t a good list, but I can’t help but picture Combee paired with Luxray GL. Flash Impact a Vespiqueen for damage, Bright Look something to kill with Combee for 1 energy. A lot like the original Fulop Jumpluff ran.
In all seriousness how is this deck any better than Ursaring Prime (which isn’t very good to begin with)? You have to set up so much stuff to make this work. I just don’t think this deck is even slightly competitive.
Wouldn’t play this competitively, but his build is slow. Vespiqueen/ Combee has the potential to do 80 on turn one, not including the poison. I built this for fun and ran it at different leagues for a couple of weeks against Typhlosion, Steelix, Uxie Donk, LuxChomp, and some very random decks and came out on top more times than not.
The idea of setting up with Sableye is totally wrong.
Oh don’t forget it can swing with any kind of energy, cyclone, call, etc. Cyclone energy is this deck, along wit warp points adds some incredible disruption and easy prizes. But again, I’m just saying it’s a fun deck. I wouldn’t take it to a tourney considering the format.
I like Sableye becuz it still give me the chance to donk as well as get everything I need to set up. I wouldnt want to take a chance of starting out with a 30 Combee active with no bench. A T1 Collector along with Communication and BTS is good, But anyway, this list is just what i’m running now, I already have several ideas with other cards but right now, this deck outspeed most. So that’s why I like it. :)
This deck is a lot better than Ursaring Prime because the main attacker operates on 1-2 energy instead of Ursaring’s 3-4 energies, which is much better even if you can use DCE.Also, unlike Ursaring, you don’t have a x2 weakness to Donphan. Instead, Vespiqueen has a weakness to fire, which for now at least, isn’t terrible.Plus, this deck being grass, can use Sunflora, which up there with Uxie Lv.X, Uxie and Ninetails is one of the best engines in the format.Overall, I think this deck is very good with a ton of potential. I could see this deck being something like Gyarados. When it was first release, it was pretty much rogue until it came in 8th at worlds. So, I think until someone does good with this deck, it may not receive too much hype or play. However, it deffinately has the potential to do so if you can focus this list and kind of make it like a really fast, stage 1 Beedrill deck.
Try testing out Rainbow, see which works better. Also, since ur running Sableye, try keeping in touch with Sablelock’s disruption, it may work good for this deck.
Change Uxie to just a a single Uxie and use a 2-2 Sunflora line. Get rid of the Pokeblower and perhaps put in Pokemon Reveral. Also, get rid of 1 WP, 4 is too many, esp if you take out Uxie lv.X.
Also, add in some SSU to save severly damaged Vespiqueen’s from a K.O. You already have 3 BTS, so it works.
This reminds me wormadam gyarados deck, wich also featured unown P, same strategy at all, but bee’s are clever dude!
First I want to say this article was nice to read. I can see that this version of Combee list does have some potential, but I like more about the Combee/Shaymin/Buck/PlusPower/Defender list that I’m currently testing out. I have noticed that Warp Energies works really well in this deck as long as you have some 0 Retreat Pokémon on your bench (ie Uxie or Shaymin with Unown Q waiting for level up). I wouldn’t suggest to play this deck on tournaments until Rescue Energy hits the format since this deck will be much better then.
Newertheless, Combee is smexiest card of the UD set.
PS: It doesn’t mean it’s the best card of the UD set.
Yeah, I’d agree with Sebastian Larramendy, Shaymin LV.X would be a great tech to the deck, along with another belt to make Combee have 90HP, so it can take more hits.
it can easily be OHKOed in this format. flash bite+dragon rush, flash bite+earthquake+belt, T2 scizor with belt, ect…
it can easily be OHKOed in this format. flash bite+dragon rush, flash bite+earthquake+belt, T2 scizor with belt, ect…
who says it has to be active? Vespiquen UD and he’s all protected.
not shaymin… a belted combee when shaymin is 0n the field.
You people seem to be forgetting that combee is a basic pokemon. B-A-S-I-C.
That means it has a recovery speed and swarming ability even higher than jumpluff, i have played against this deck, and unless you take out the damaged vespiqueen (impossible to do if its the UD vespiqueen, and pretty hard if shaymin is around) the combees will just keep coming and swarm you to death. This deck its really good, better than many people here give it credit for, its main problem being bench space. It needs to set up many things, and bench space is definitly a problem.
yeah i know… luxray, DGX/garchomp and gengar are its only threads to a benched vesp
Actually Quen’s body prevents attacks if your using UD. So Gengar would have a hard time. Except of course if you are running Plume which means, no berries, Rare Candy etc.
So it would only have a problem with Luxray and DGX/Chomp, but no one runs that anyway.
no it says damage not damage counters.
Ahh, ok. Sorry.
no it says damage not damage counters.
I love Combee since i saw it in Revived Legends. I tested a list with Sunflora, Shaymin, Snowpoint, 2 belts, and 4 calls. Trust me, even if it need a lot of pokemons, in most cases I got a full setup by t2 or t3 (becasue the list itself was centered on speed).
Though our decklists and general idea are different (because you center the deck around a memoried vespiqueen), I highly recommend a 1-1 sunflora line, it really speeds up the recovery speed (“speeds up the speed”, i know).
Btw, Hi to Sebastian, it’s nice to see a fellow countryman here. We are 3 now I think.
Hey, really cool idea, and great job on your first article! I liked combee when I saw it came out. 80-90 damage for 1 colorless??? Are you kidding me??!??
I really like your Unown P idea and didn’t remember what this card did. I agree with others who have noted that at least a 1-1 Sunflora would be great for this deck.
The other challenge with this deck is the trainer lock decks which will likely see a lot of play, at least in the short-term. If you see or expect to see a lot of trainer lock decks, then you may want to look at my Jumpluff article to see how you can build a good grass deck without trainers. You’d have to tweek to fit this deck, but it’s a good start.
Thanks for the great idea!
combee’s good, i think that a solid list would be a metagame deck, but the 30 hp is a problem. That’s like sending a Magikarp to attack. I would reccomend a Combee from SF or two to get the good ones back and evolve into vespiquen.
The whole point is to attach a memory merry to vespiquen the evolve from the undaunted to use enraged assault so if you use another combee that kills the strategy
In order for that to happen you have to get out two combees, two vespiqueens, unown p, a memory berry, and an energy.
If you want to do all of that in one turn you’ll need either two rare candies or a BTS as well. This deck is just way too slow. How is this any better than Ursaring (a deck that has seen no competitive play)?
I never said anything about the deck being slow or better than ursaring, I was just telling coolestman that combee UD is the center of the strategy so using a different one would be pointless.
Its a lot better than Ursaring, but i agree that is way to dificult to get all the things out.
yeah i saw it in competitive play.. didnt do well at all. even with the best build of this. your opponent just needs to get 6 prizes and if its gengar itll do that easily.
With an expert belt a Combee OHKO’s a Fainting Spell Gengar without the Poke-Power going into effect. Not saying it’s the smartest move but it does get rid of him.
yeah so gengar gets 2 prizes to your one? a better move is attack with combee without the belt then psychic restore for ko and bottom the ux
True, It just depends on how set up they are, also if you have a Shaymin X or Snowpoint out. It just depends really. Thanks for the thought.
Pokes (18):
4-4 quen (2 honey, 2 rage, 3 SF, 1 new)
4 R
2 Uxie
1 P
1-1 shaymin
1 Q
Energy (9):
5 Grass
4 Rainbow
Trainers (33):
4 pokeblower+
3 BTS
3 Memory Berry
4 SSU
2 Pluspower
4 Pokedrawers+
3 Comm
4 Collector
2 Bebe’s
1 Luxury Ball
2 Rescue
1 NM
My rough draft (which has since undergone changes but haven’t tested at all). On paper it should hit the t1-2 combee (barring whoever goes first) pretty close to every time.
Awesome deck and great article, i never heard about combee
Thanks! it’s a pretty good deck. It may not be BDIF anytime soon but it’s a fun league deck that has potential to beat up things lol
It’s a great idea, I’m glad you found the SF Vespiquen, it’s something i had overlooked.
This is gonna be something I’ll have to make in the future :D