Alright ya’ll, well here’s my first article for 6P Underground. I actually wrote something close to an 8 page article on Umbreon and how I went about making the list, but then I realized something: it doesn’t beat SP. So, I (re)learned a lesson when it comes to making decks and I can now share it with you guys!
Lesson 1:
When making a deck, you need to take two things into account right off the bat:
1. The goal of your deck: Pick your strategy and build your deck around it. Include cards that compliment your strategy over not only cards that hurt it, but cards that just add nothing at all. Every single card in a deck counts, so make use of your space.
2. The Metagame: This is what I didn’t do when building Umbreon.dec. All I did was focus on Umbreon and its capabilities and totally forgot about the metagame surrounding it and what I had to beat. It was a great idea in a fantasy world, but Pokémon is no fantasy!
So now that we all have learned an invaluable lesson, I’ll get on with my article…
Umbreon/Machamp
Undaunted didn’t bring the Pokémon world much when it comes to competitive decks. Sifting through the cards, you might pull out a handful of possibly-playable cards- and Umbreon should certainly be one of them. At first glance, it doesn’t look like much: 90 HP Stage 1 (standard, maybe a little less than normal nowadays), average bottom stats, and an extremely mediocre second attack (flipping coins ugh). Moonlight Fang, though, provides Umbreon with one of the most interesting attacks printed in awhile.
For 1 D Energy, you’re doing 30 damage and then Umbreon can’t be hit by ANY of your opponent’s Pokémon that have Powers or Bodies. Not just their active, ANY of their guys. That means Warp Point is virtually the only way they can attack Umbreon if they have Powers/Bodies. Some decks will literally just fold to this attack (Donphan comes to mind).
Of course, most decks have ways around this attack. First, only 30 damage a turn? That’s not a lot and a lot of decks could just attack with guys they wouldn’t normally with that don’t have Powers or Bodies. So, we’ll have to work on ways to counter their counters, won’t we?
As I mentioned earlier, the metagame sent my original list for a loop. So what did I do? Added the best SP counter: Machamp. At first I tried a thin line of 2-2-2 and it didn’t work that effectively. Then I tried a bit bigger in 3-3-3. Better, but still not there. So I went all out and ended up with a 4-3-4 line, adding Rare Candies…and we finally have a solid SP matchup.
In reverse of how I was writing the first attempt at the article, I’ll start with the metagame, then the list, then analysis and strategy.
Decks to beat this format:
1. Gengar/ Vileplume: The number one deck to come out of Undaunted, Gengar/Vileplume is based off the idea of trainer-locking and hitting for a lot with Poltergeist. Fortunately, we already beat them pretty good. Gengar SF can’t hit Umbreon after using Moonlight Fang, plus Umbreon resists _plus_ Gengar has weakness to Umbreon. Oh and don’t forget about Espeon Prime to get around Fainting Spell. As long as you play it semi-decently, this should be one of your easiest matchups.
2. Luxray GL/Garchomp C aka Luxchomp: The number one deck last year is still one of the top tier decks this format, and is certainly one of Umbreon’s hardest matchups. Though Umbreon can protect itself from the horrors of getting hit, Garchomp and Luxray focus on hitting around the main attacker anyway, forgoing Umbreon’s awesome effect. The basics can also hit Umbreon for as much/more damage than Umbreon can hit. Obviously Machamp will be your savior in this matchup.
3. Dialga G/Garchomp C: Again, Dialgachomp, is a force still to be reckoned with this format. Dialga provides one of the ugliest counters to Umbreon: a guy that can do decent damage and doesn’t have a Power/Body?! Uh-oh. Machamp again will provide us with the victory here.
4. Sableye: After getting past the lock, this matchup should be a breeze. Even with straight Umbreon this was a pretty good game, so the addition of Machamp can only help. 1 Machamp should take 2 Prizes minimum, sometimes netting up to 4 at once.
5. Donphan: Easy win hopefully, as 9 times out of 10 they don’t run anything to attack besides Donphan, so we should be good!
Obviously there are other good decks out there, but these are probably going to be the most popular ones at Battle Roads and anything else is not really viable. Gyarados, Kingdra, etc are all subpar and lose to most of the decks mentioned above.
Here is the decklist:
|
Pokémon – 23 4 Machop SF |
Trainers – 25 4 Bebe’s Search 2 Copycat 1 Palmer’s Contribution
4 Pokémon Communication
|
Energy – 12 |
Something I didn’t mention before: besides Machamp complimenting Umbreon’s bad matchups, Umbreon compliments Machamp’s bad matchups just as well. Machamp obviously steamrolls SP decks now with no Unown G, but it has absolutely no shot vs Gengar. Not anymore with Umbreon in the picture!
Moving on, let’s take a closer look at the list. Breaking the list down, we’ll look at the Pokémon first:
Pokémon (23)
4 Machop SF
3 Machoke SF
4 Machamp SF
3 Eevee MD 62
2 Umbreon Prime
1 Espeon Prime
1 Espeon MD/Umbreon MD
2 Uxie LA
1 Azelf LA
1 Smeargle UD
1 Unown Q MD
pokemon-paradijs.com4-3-4 Machamp line, as I mentioned earlier, is the integral part to beating SP decks. Anything less and they can actually play around Machamp and Take Out pretty well, with Uxie X and simply 2HKOing it with random guys. But almost no SP deck can beat 4 Machamps. You may ask, why no Machamp LV.X? Well, there’s a couple reasons:
1. With 4 regular Machamp, you increase your odds of getting an early one out by a lot, which is useful vs any deck to take a quick cheap prize or two.
2. What does Machamp LV.X actually help against these days? I guess it can be useful in random spots and vs random decks, but you should be able to take on most decks anyway with the potent combination of Machamp and Umbreon anyway. If you want to try it, be my guest; it could be more useful than I make it out to be.
Next, the Eevee line. First, why this Eevee? The only other potential candidate would be the RR Eevee which fetches evolutions. Clearly both of these cards have their benefits. Signs of Evolution gives Eevee and other Eevees the opportunity to evolve ASAP, while Call for Family can potentially grab all your Eevees from the deck immediately. We also have to take into account their HPs, especially in a format with Sableye in it: 60 HP is significantly better than 50 HP. Their second attack holds little to no bearing in this decision, though Bounce is slightly better. Taking all these points into account, I decided to go with 3 Eevee MD. I think with 60 HP and the immediate benefit of getting your Eevees, it is superior to its RR counterpart. Some might decide to run 2/1 MD/RR, but I feel 4 MD is great for consistency purposes.
2 Umbreon Prime is the perfect amount for this deck, using Umbreon as a tool rather than the main attacker. Not much else to explain here.
Espeon Prime: why? Though it may be one of the least critical cards in the deck, I find it has two big purposes:
1. If Umbreon is locking and tanking for awhile, it might take some small hits from the Basics/Stage 1s that CAN hit it, and Espeon can probably get 2 Solar Suggestions in before being KO’d, healing 80 damage off your Umbreon(s) and can set you up for the win a lot of times.
2. Solar Suggestion also can be used to KO Gengars without activating Fainting Spell.
Psybeam can also come in handy in a dire situation.
And the last of the Eeveelution cards:
Both of these guys provide support for their counterparts, and picking which one to run is definitely a task. Umbreon provides no weakness and free retreat while Espeon gives an extra boost of HP. Personally, in this deck I feel that Umbreon is better because of the double effect and how much retreating could potentially go on in a game, especially vs Gengar if you’re using 2 Umbreons or 1 Umbreon and 1 Espeon Prime. The +20 HP is nice, but usually anything that will KO Umbreon will KO it even with that +20 HP. If you really wanted to, you could drop the Espeon Prime and run both, but I feel the Espeon Prime has more versatility than both these cards.
Moving onto the support cards, I think this lineup is pretty standard. 2 Uxie for Set Up is solid nowadays and 1 Azelf is obvious. Smeargle/Unown Q is extremely good right now in my opinion and heavily underrated still. Pablo covered why Smeargle is good in his Kingdra/Machamp article, but I have some other points I want to make about Smeargle as well:
1. First, as Pablo said, you get to use your opponent’s Supporters to set up. This is pretty obvious.
2. Also, as Pablo said, you get to see your opponent’s hand, which can be pretty big in predicting what they are going to do in the coming turns(s).
3. If Portrait doesn’t pan out and they don’t have a (good) Supporter to use, guess what? That means they are probably in a pretty bad situation themselves! It is not always the case, but I’d say most of the time, a failed Portrait is almost as good as a successful one.
4. Using Smeargle every time one of your Pokémon is KO’d. Most people don’t realize this. With Smeargle/Unown Q on your bench, you’re getting a free supporter (or at least a look at their hand) at least 5 times a game! That is pretty game-breaking in my opinion and extremely underrated.
I’m hoping someone (maybe even myself) will do a full-out analysis on Smeargle soon, as it is almost definitely the best card to come out of Undaunted, and it should be seeing a lot of play.
So we’ve covered the Pokémon, now moving onto the trivial Energy section. Refresh my memory again of what it looked like?…
Energy (12)
4 Special D Energy
4 Rainbow Energy
4 F Energy
pokemon-paradijs.comThis should be pretty self-explanatory to most of you. We’re running 2 attackers that run off mono-energy 1 cost attacks, so 4 Rainbow is a must. 4 Special Dark to boost Umbreon’s measly 30 damage, and 4 Fighting to round it out with some basic energy and because Machamp is the more prominent attacker.
Less trivial I suppose is the lack of other Energy in here:
1. No Call? Originally I had Call in here, but found it to be a dead card 9/10 times, even in the early game. A lot of times you’re gunning for the T1/T2 Machamp, so Call isn’t used. Unlike other decks that have Colorless requirements in their attacks, this deck focuses on one energy attacks that Call has no business in.
2. Basic Dark? 1 Basic Dark in here might be nice just for the fact that you could Portrait a Cyrus’s Conspiracy, but when you think about it, really the only decks that run Cyrus’s Conspiracy are SP decks, where you’re probably going to be wanting F Energy for Machamp anyway.
3. Double Colorless? Again, I considered it for Machamp’s Rage attack, but Take Out and (ugh) Hurricane Punch will be the attacks used most often and DCE will probably only be used in extreme circumstances.
Last, but certainly not least, we’ll move onto the Trainers…
Trainers (25)
4 Bebe’s Search
4 Pokémon Collector
4 Pokémon Communication
4 Broken Time Space
3 Rare Candy
2 Expert Belt
2 Copycat
1 Luxury Ball
1 Palmer’s Contribution
pokemon-paradijs.comWell, nothing too crazy here to be honest. The main focus of the Trainers, obviously, is to get out fast, consistent, and stay in the game. 4 Bebe/4 Collector/4 Communication ensures that we will be setting up a lot, and staying attacking a lot. Communication is the essential part to an early Machamp as well as keeping the pressure on as the game progresses.
4 Broken Time Space/3 Rare Candy because BTS is more important in this deck: with 3 Machoke it’s almost easier to go that route and also because of running a stage 1 line with it, BTS becomes the more well-rounded card. BTS also sticks throughout the whole game (unless countered, of course) while Candy is a one-time thing. Running 3 Machoke also gives you a much better Dialga matchup, getting around Deafen easier.
2 Expert Belt is mostly for Umbreon and doing more damage, but can certainly be used on Machamp. Whether it’s for the HP boosting or the extra damage, Expert Belt can come out of nowhere and really screw with your opponent. One situation that has come up a bunch of times is this (not just this deck, but others as well): My opponent is using Luxchomp and has used all their Poké-Turns and Crobats, but they have Garchomp C Lx. X/Energy Gain/DCE ready to Dragon Rush my last benched Pokémon, say Azelf or Smeargle, but all I do is Expert Belt it and they can’t KO it, giving me an extra turn, and often, the win. So, Expert Belt has a myriad of uses and with creativity can become a player’s savior card.
2 Copycat helps bolster consistency and, as Fulop and others have talked about on the forums, is probably better than PONT and a lot of the other supporter-draw cards right now.
1 Luxury Ball is obvious, and Palmer’s Contribution should be self-explanatory as well. I’ve actually lost a game to SP before because he was able to kill 2 Machops and 2 Machamps, so if I had a Palmer’s to get back the 2 Machops earlier, I would have been able to get all 4 Machamps out, and there’s no way an SP deck can beat 4 Machamps.
Overall, the list isn’t that tight, so you can certainly add/subtract things and format it to more of your own playing style. Like every deck, the list should be constantly changing to adjust to the metagame and new cards coming out.
Matchup analysis should probably be pretty straightforward: vs SP decks, you get out Machamps and take a prize every turn. If you find you have a problem setting up multiple Machamps, try adding some more consistency maybe in the form of Sableye or just more supporter draw; but I don’t think it’s much of an issue and you should be steamrolling SPs with this. Toxicroak G Psychic could pose a problem, but with 4 Broken Time-Space you should be winning the stadium war anyway, putting you at an advantage. Umbreon attacking Toxicroak after a KO on Machamp forces them to attack with someone else and waste a Poké Turn, which is definitely in your favor.
Their response will likely be a Garchomp snipe to something on your bench, where hopefully you don’t leave any Machop/Machokes laying to get wasted. With BTS, there’s no real reason to let that happen, so once the Garchomp comes up, simply retreat Umbreon the next turn into a fresh Machamp. You have more resources in getting a Machamp and keeping BTS in play then them getting out Toxicroak and keeping Skuntank/their Gym in play.
I went over briefly the rest of the matchups above, including Gengar/Vileplume which is probably one of the harder matchups to play, but should be pretty easy as well. Moonlight Fang to infinity and beyond and you’ll have a good game. Espeon Prime to take some easy prizes, etc etc.
The harder matchups for the deck would obviously be stuff like Kingdra/Machamp, Gyarados, and other Stage 1/Stage 2 attackers that do not have Powers or Bodies. Luckily, these decks are not popular. However, if they are prominent in your area, I suggest not playing Machamp/Umbreon. We can get lucky and win the matchups by donking with Machamp or getting a bunch of heads on Hurricane Punch, but realistically, this deck doesn’t have the options decks like SP have to have an out vs every single deck.
Versus any other Machamp variant, try to just trade Machamps with them and if they level up to Machamp LV.X, sick Umbreon on them to buy some time if you need to. If the Kingdra deck you’re playing against is primarily Kingdra Prime, you’re in luck with Umbreon as well.
Good luck with the deck- it is definitely a metagame play. Ask me questions and I’ll be happy to answer!
-Mikey “Magnechu” Fouchet
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