Hello again everybody! I’m finally up to date with reading the newest articles and have almost done all my university work, so I thought I’d better write something.
I’m now part of the uhh… “Staff” thing, I think they’ve called it. (Don’t ask me how that’s happened as I’m yet to understand myself.) As I’m sure most of you know already, most things I write follow rogue ideas and looking at some cards that people don’t often play, hopefully inspiring you to test out some new combinations. I know my writing style tends to be very informal and quite chatty, and I know that some of you are not very keen on this, but hopefully it will grow on you. :D
At the moment, I’ve been playing around with Magnezone, a card that I’ve wanted to build a deck with for months but simply been too lazy. Many of the popular decks simply have no synergy together *points at LuxChomp*, and I like things that actually work specifically together. Yes, things like Vileplume and Gengar do have synergy together, but hardly any of the other popular decks do. Besides, I’m a huge fan of playing things that people don’t expect. So on to the decklist:
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Pokémon – 19 4 Magnemite SF 3 Magneton SF 1 Magnezone SF #5 2 Magnezone SF #6 1 Magnezone LV.X LA 3 Spiritomb AR 2 Unown Q MD 1 Chansey HGSS 1 Blissey Prime HGSS 1 Rotom UD |
T/S/S – 29 2 Broken Time-Space 2 Conductive Quarry 3 Pokémon Collector 2 Interviewer’s Questions 4 Engineers Adjustments 2 Palmers Contribution 2 Pokégear 3.0 1 Luxury Ball 4 Pokémon Communication 3 VS Seeker 4 Super Scoop Up |
Energy – 12 4 Special M 2 Basic Metal 6 Lightening |
This decklist may seem a little strange to many. No Uxie for “Set Up” draw power and no Rare Candy with the main attacker being Stage 2. Well, hopefully I’ll be able to explain some of the eccentricities to you and get you out of that habit of throwing the same cards into every deck.
So, to start this off, I’m going to give you a layout of how the deck sets up and plays, and the strategic plays for it. Then hopefully have a look at other possible things that you could add in, and reasons why I chose what cards I did to play. If you’re very lucky then I’ll remember to write all the sections of the article this time!
The Pokémon
pokemon-paradijs.comSetting up is the most important part of this deck. Granted it is not the fastest deck by a long way in the current format, but it is still pretty impressive. Usually you can achieve two Magnezone built up and ready by turn 3 at the latest. So anyway, I promise I will eventually get on to doing the actual analysis rather than just rambling soon. You’ve got to admit it is a pretty impressive skill though.
Spiritomb
Yaaaay look! It’s the card I hate more than any other in the entire game. I hate it so much I specifically had to go buy 3 to build this deck. However, this card is perfect for this deck. As a starting Pokémon it slows your opponent down by preventing them from playing Trainers, which hopefully will have them stuck for a while. The downside of this is that you will have your trainers stuck in your hand as well. It is at this point you’ll realise you also love hate the card.
Spiritomb does actually have an upside! Yes, I’m glad it does too because, from the explanation so far it, is pretty awful. Really, isn’t it? I’m sure most of you know this already but, for the few that don’t, I will be explaining each card in detail just so that everyone is up to speed. I hate reading an article and having no idea what the author is writing about. So, sorry if some of this is trivial to you. Soon I shall stop deviating from the topic. I’m going to have to start a new paragraph now…
Spiritomb’s Upside: For 0 energy, Spiritomb can use “Darkness Grace” to search your deck for a card that evolves from one of your Pokémon in play and put it onto that Pokémon. Awesome! The downside upside of this is that Spiritomb takes 10 damage. I’d prefer it to do 30 damage, personally, just to get the wretched thing out of my way.
Unown Q
Not much to be said about this guy really. Attach it to a Pokémon to reduce the Retreat Cost by 1. Or alternatively, I’ve recently been using it as a starter to donk the opponent’s Pokémon that’s weak to Psychic. It’s perfect for killing off an evil Oddish or Uxie in a couple of turns doing 20 damage plus weakness for just 1 Colourless energy.
pokemon-paradijs.comMagnezone #5
This Magnezone has a very useful Poké-Power. “Magnetic Search” will allow you to search your deck for any Metal or Lightning Pokémon and put it into your hand, like a super cool Bebe’s Search every turn but better in every possible way. It has a fairly healthy HP of 120, so hopefully it won’t get sniped. And, if you really need to snipe something for that last Prize card, for LC you can “Speed Shot” for 30 damage to any of your opponent’s Pokémon.
Magnezone #6
This Magnezone is what the deck is based around. His Poké-Power, “Super Conductivity”, will allow you to attach a Metal or L Energy to your active Pokémon from the discard pile at a cost of 10 damage. Thus meaning once you have energy on the field you’ll always have a supply as you can grab it from the discard pile.
The attack is what this card is all about though. For LCC, “Gyro Ball”, will wallop your opponent for a pretty unimpressive 60 damage. However it allows you to switch your active Pokémon if you wish. In doing so, I suggest you throw in that troublesome Spiritomb to annoy the bejeebers out of the opponent. If you decide to switch, it forces your opponent to switch too! If they haven’t got a great start then most likely they will have to send something in from the bench, which will force them to waste resources retreating it again. All the while Trainers are locked, increasing the pressure on them.
Magnezone LV.X
The LV.X ideally wants to be placed onto Magnezone #6, turning it from a Lightning Pokémon to a Metal one. With a nice HP boost to 140, being Metal type lets the LV.X work like a lovely, little tank. Its attack, “Cyber Shock”, hits a slightly better 80 damage at the cost of ML, but you must discard both energies. An upside to this is that the defending Pokémon is 100% Paralysed. That’s right, no annoying coin flipping! This makes it perfect for taking out your opponent’s big hitters. Just as they get it loaded up to attack, you just constantly paralyse it every turn with the help of “Super Conductivity”, returning your Energy until the bugger dies.
It also has a nice Poké-Power, “Electric Trans”, which allows you to move your Lightning and M Energy between your Pokémon as you like. We’ll be seeing more of this later.
Rotom
Hehehe. ROTOM! This wee beastie will let you get things out of your prizes that you may need with his Poké-Power, “Mischevious Trick”. It swaps the top card of your deck with one of your prizes. This also has the benefit of an attack that fits nicely into this deck. For L you can “Plasma Arrow”, which snipes any of your opponent’s Pokémon for 20 damage for each Energy they have attached. This is perfect for sniping that heavy-hitting Pokémon on the bench loaded up with energy.
Blissey Prime
This is what sets this deck apart from the rest. Blissey Prime’s Poké-Power, “Blissful Nurse”, allows you to remove all damage from your Pokémon when you use it to evolve your Chansey. Woohoo! However, if the Pokémon you remove damage from have Energy attached to them, the Energy must be discarded. Magnezone also gets around this problem by using “Electric Trans” to move the energy to an undamaged Pokémon, allowing you to heal all your Pokémon and still retain your energy.
The Trainers
Broken Time-Space
Lets you evolve your Magnezone super fast. Always a helpful hand.
Conductive Quarry
Using this deck you’ll find you dump a lot of Energy in the discard pile. Although you can use “Super Connectivity”, it’s still helpful to be able to return it to your hand in certain situations.
Pokémon Collector
This little, fat dude on a chair collects 3 Basic Pokémon at a time. ‘Nuff said.
Interviewer’s Questions
Some crazy woman with a microphone hunting around for some Energy. In a deck running only 12 Energy that it relies on for all of its draw power, it’s a card you need to have.
Engineer’s Adjustments
This One Man Army with his Spanner is your primary draw engine. Discard an Energy to draw 4 cards. YUM!
Palmer’s Contribution
In the unusual occasion that Magnezone LV.X dies, Mr. Palmer the Merry Little Farmer is your port of call. He’ll shove the entire evolution line back into the deck ready to be sought out again with Magnetic Search.
Pokégear 3.0
With Engineer’s Adjustments being your only draw power, you want to make sure you can get that Engineer’s when you need it. It allows you to look at the top 7 cards of your deck and put a Supporter you find there into your hand.
Super Scoop Up
You play down a Blissey, take all your damage off, and Super Scoop it so it’s ready to use again later. Gotta love that Super Scoop feeling.
The Strategy
Well, that’s what the stuff in the deck does, so let’s look how you can play it. After playtesting it a lot, I’ve found there tends to be 3 playing phases while playing against an opponent.
PHASE ONE – Setting up
Totally unpredictable, I know. Setting up. Try and grab a Spiritomb and a couple of Magnemite using Collector or something similar. Spiritomb’s primary use is to get the “Magnetic Search” Magnezone into play as soon as possible while locking your opponent’s Trainers, hopefully slowing them down. If you get the “Magnetic Search” Magnezone out first, you can use his Poké-Power in the following turns to set up all of your Pokémon. As nearly all of the deck is Lightning and Metal types then it can grab almost anything with his Poké-Power. With a combination of “Magnetic Search” and “Darkness Grace”, you can get the next Magnezone set up the very next turn (“Gyro Ball”).
This usually means you can get one of each Magnezone in play by turn 2 or 3. As no Uxie are used, your main draw power comes from Spanner Man. However, you need at least 1 Energy in your hand to use him. For this reason, I had to include a couple of Interviewer’s Questions; as only 12 Energy are used in the deck, it can sometimes be a pain to get that Energy into your hand. Usually, once you get a chain of Engineer’s running, it’s pretty easy to draw into anything you need.
This also helps by dumping your Energy into the discard pile, allowing you to use “Super Connectivity” to attach it to your active Pokémon. If you use “Magnetic Search” to grab the LV.X, you can easily attach an energy from your hand and “Super Connectivity” one from the discard pile to start taking early prizes with “Cyber Shock” (80 damage + paralysis), especially if you want to start off playing aggressively and think you can grab an early win from your opponent.
If, however, your opponent seems to be getting set up quite well, you probably want to continue using “Magnetic Search” and “Darkness Grace” to get your second “Gyro Ball” Magnezone into play. With the ability to use “Super Connectivity” twice during your turn, it gives you significantly more options and a big energy advantage over your opponent. This set up is most suited if your opponent also has a fast set up and you’re planning ahead for a longer, more drawn out battle.
During this time, you shouldn’t be worried about going down in prizes due to losing Spiritomb. This deck can easily lose 4 or even 5 Prizes before attacking and still pull back a win with ease. You should expect to lose them and be able to keep one on your bench ready to send up. Remember, if you don’t have a collector to grab one, you can always “Magnetic Search” for any Pokémon, then shove it back in and grab a Spiritomb (or anything else for that matter) using Pokémon Communication.
pokemon-paradijs.comPHASE TWO – Starting to dish some damage
The basic plan is to play conservatively. If your opponent is still struggling to set up, you can use Gyro Ball to hit for 60 and switch back out to Spiritomb (this should have an Unown Q attached by this point to allow free retreating). If you switch, it also forces them to switch, possibly putting them in an awkward position trying to retreat things while continuing to set up under Trainer lock. This phase is about dealing damage while preventing their set up. Your aim isn’t always to take prizes here; it’s just to make sure that you always have control of the board.
However, this phase doesn’t always happen. If for some reason you set up really slowly, or your opponent has already got some nasty things in play, you may switch to phase 3 without even visiting here.
PHASE THREE – Blowing them into the next hemisphere
If you’re forced into this phase early, you can find yourself struggling for energy and having to constantly damage yourself with “Super Connectivity”. However if you start this while you have a lot of energy in play, then you’ll most likely be on to a winning game.
The plan here is to dish out as much damage as possible while taking as little damage yourself; as you’ve probably lost several Prize cards already, this is where you want to catch up. This can be done in 2 ways:
If you’re trying to conserve energy, you can “Gyro Ball” and leave/switch Magnezone LV.X active, crammed full with Special M Energy to allow it to tank several hits.
Your other option is something you’re more likely to use when you get into trouble. When your opponent has his main attacker fully loaded with Energy sent out, you’ll want to “Cyber Shock” it. This doesn’t cause a huge amount of damage (80), but it will ALWAYS cause paralysis. The downside is you have to discard 1 L and 1 M energy. This paralysis will render the attacker completely useless, giving you complete immunity to its damage every turn you “Cyber Shock” it until it dies. The opponent can get out of this, however, with the use of Warp Point/Energy, Switch, etc.; however, these are things your opponent will only have a limited supply of.
Finally, at this point, while we’re on the topic of minimising the damage you take, we come to Blissey Prime. The plan with Blissey is simple: use “Electric Trans” to move all your Energy onto an undamaged Pokémon, then drop Blissey and use “Blissful Nurse” to remove all damage from your Pokémon. Then you can move your Energy back and use Super Scoop Up to pick up Blissey to use it again.
Obviously though, you want to get the most out of this card. To use it most effectively, you want almost all of your Pokémon to be almost dead. You can do this by using “Gyro Ball” to constantly keep switching what Pokémon is active so you can control what is damaged. However, you have to calculate exactly the most damage you can expect from the opponent and you always have to consider the unexpected.
I’ve been caught out a couple of times when calculating that if my opponent had a godly hand and Rare Candy’d everything in sight, as well as attached the Energy he needed AND used an Exper Belt, I’d still live with 10 HP left. So went for it. I wasn’t, however, expecting him to be able to do all of that AND also have a PlusPower. Needless to say, I died. But it just goes to show, you must always be ready for the unexpected. You want to get all your Pokémon (remember to keep one fully healed) close to death, then you can use Blissey to take everything off and then Super Scoop Up. This way you’re removing the most damage you possibly can and increasing the number of times you can use your Blissey to heal.
You’re using what?!? Are you crazy?
I think that covers the majority of the major cards, but many people have stressed that the cards in the deck are a little… unorthadox, to say the least. However, it is proven to work. :D
No Uxie
This seems to be top of the list of “You don’t play that? Are you stupid?” Nobody seems to understand why I don’t use the little beast to draw cards. I had 2 of these and the LV.X in my original list and thought it would work well. It’s easy to get Uxie active with “Gyro Ball” to level up and can use Unown Q to retreat it afterward. However, I simply didn’t use it.
When using Engineer’s Spanner, I simply had way too many cards in my hand to ever use Uxie. I rarely had a hand size of less than 15, rendering Uxie totally useless. So I ripped the stupid little pixie out of the deck and replaced it with things that could help me with my Spanner’s engine.
pokemon-paradijs.com2 Unown Q
A lot of people have commented on this and I’m not really sure why. Everyone says I only need 1. Well… I’ve tested it and I say I need 2. You need one attached to your Spiritomb to allow it to have free retreat. When my Spiritomb dies I don’t want to have to use Palmer’s Contribution just to get an Unown Q back to put on my new Spiritomb. Playing 2 makes it a lot easier to get out and means you waste less turns searching for one. Also, if you start with it active it can be a great way to get a 2 turn donk on Uxie/Azelf!
No Rare Candy
This is another thing people think is crazy. So what’s the real reason I don’t run Rare Candy? Well… perhaps I just forgot to put them in? However, in my accident I discovered something amazing. I didn’t miss them. “Yes, but you can go straight from a Basic to Stage 2 instantly!” This comment is very true. But in setting up, I can use “Magnetic Search” to get a Magneton and then “Darkness Grace” for Magnezone. Ta-Da! I just got my Stage 2 into play in 1 turn. Also in setting up, with Spiritomb active, you can’t use Candy anyway. During the later phases of the game you’re still going to be able to “Magnetic Search” for any Metal/Lightning Pokémon, so it’s really not missed. Therefore, I’ve used the space for other, more useful Trainers and given the Candy a rest.
PokéGear 3.0
“I’ve never even seen that card! What does it do?!?” Uxie is a searchable draw engine, which is its strong point. I’d rather not rely on just topdecking an Engineer’s, so being able to pick out a Supporter from the top 7 cards is a great help. You can also pick out any other useful Supporter you might need at that moment in time. What this allows you to do is cut down the number of each specific Supporter you play as you can simply find it out.
How many times have you been in a situation where you’re saying “I hope I topdeck X, as then I can grab the win”. Well, if you’ve got some of these sitting in your hand, or you topdeck it, then you’re no longer relying on Supporter X being the top card. It only has to be in the top 7 cards, meaning your chance of winning just increased by 7 times! Now THAT sounds amazing, doesn’t it? A little exaggerated, I admit, but, nevertheless, this card has won me many games.
VS Seeker 
This is my underrated card of the month! It allows you to grab a Supporter from the discard pile. Sounds pretty poop. Well, if I’m using 3 VS Seeker in my deck, I can now use my magical Spanner engine up to 7 times! As long as you’ve used the Supporter before then you can use it again with VS Seeker. This also combos exceptionally well with Palmer, the Fat Jolly Farmer. In the occasion that Magnezone LV.X does die, or you have to sacrifice it or something, you can get the entire evolution line back into your deck, then use “Magnetic Search” to find out the LV.X to put on your new Magnezone (hopefully you had both “Gyro Ball” Magnezone in play). The following turns you can “Magnetic Search” to get the rest of the evolution line back in play. Of course, if you happen to lose it multiple times (generally if your opponent is REALLY annoying), you can VS Seeker to keep getting Palmer Farmer and shuffle that Magnezone back in. What VS Seeker gives you is HUGE versatility, versatility that all decks should make use if. It’s a staple card in most of my decks.
No Expert Belts
Everybody loves Expert Belt. They throw them in everything. Well, I’ve got news for you, I think Expert Belt suck! I’ve never liked them ever since they were released. However, if we’re looking at this competitively, Magnezone’s damage isn’t great and could do with beefing up. So, if you want to hit huge numbers, stop reading this and go and build Jumpluff. This deck is strong because of the effects of its attacks, not the damage it deals. Also, you’ll nearly always be fighting from behind. You’ll most likely be 3 Prizes down before you even begin to attack. Giving the opponent an extra Prize card due to Expert Belt is the last thing you’re going to want to do.
More Stadiums than I know where to throw my stick
Broken Time-Space lets you evolve loads. Conductive Quarry lets you grab energy from the discard to use with Spanner, or to simply attach without taking 10 damage. Good. So why play 4 in total? Well, I’m sure all of you have been in the infamous “Stadium War” where each of you play different stadiums on consecutive turns until one of you runs out of Stadiums to play.
Well, I’ve got more news for you. If you get into a Stadium War with me, then I’m going to win! I want the Stadium to always benefit me, not the horrible little man sitting opposite. Therefore, if I play the most, it’s more likely that mine is going to be in play. Also, BTS will help your opponent as much as you. Only use BTS when you need to, and then use Quarry to get it out of the way. Hardly anyone plays Metal/Lightning decks, so it won’t benefit many people.
No Bebe’s
“NO BEBE? You don’t play Bebe? EVERY DECK EVER must play at least 324432 Bebe’s to get the Pokémon you need!” I shall simply point at “Magnetic Search” and Pokémon Communication. Why should I use my Supporter of the turn to lose a card from my hand to grab a Pokémon when I can just grab the Pokémon without doing any of that other rubbish? I fail to see why people think playing no Bebe’s is crazy. I dislike Bebe’s. I’d rather play Mum’s Kindness. And, yes, it’s about time they fixed that typo too. Her name is “MUM” not “MOM”! I could go on forever :D
So, I know Magnezone has seen a lot of light recently. But this is my version of Magnezone, which I think is a fair bit different from most. Have a read, get some new ideas, and start using Pokégear 3.0 and VS Seeker! These are my Top Cards of the Month to try out!
Ah, i mean no offense here but . . . you dont include any cards from the newer sets, and magnezone was never a great deck before since SP, so why whould it be now? I could understand if you tried something with the prime zone, but i really dont understand this concept.
Also, i think the list needs A LOT of work, only 2 BTS and no candy? Even with spirtitomb, thats just not going to cut it. Two unown Q is rarely a good idea, since they have the habbit of starting alone, lol.
2 palmers seems like a lot, specially since you run 3 Vs seeker, and there is no bebe search, oak, copycat or uxie, and while i agree that engineer goes well with magnezone, drawing 4 cards for an energy, which you yourself have admitted to run few, inst that the reason you play interviewer? So how can you get an energy to discard it and at the same turn play engineer´s?
Not to mention engineers may be a good draw engine, but you cant get enough energies attached faster without 2 lightining magnezones, and even then, you are dealing 20 damage per turn to yourself.
I like good rogues, and new ideas as much as anyone, but bebe search is a staple card for a reason. Magnetic search IS sprayable, and you dont even run azelf, you what would happen should that magnezone be prized? you scoop? or if its brought active and killed, by say, blaziken? Remember it also has metal weakness, and blaziken is quite popular lately as a dialga counter.
Since trainer lock is popular, and you are using it yourself, a split 2-2 line communication-bebe wouldnt hurt, just to be on the safe side.
You play 14 trainers, but also play spiritomb, do you know how much that will clogg your starting hands?
Im sorry, but this list just seems like its trying TOO hard to be original, and forgetting that overplayed cards are a staple, becouse they are insanely good.
This doesnt even get a 5/10.
I am with you on the azelf. I’d take out a palmers for it in this deck.
I have to admit that nothing from Triumphant has been included because I’ve been working on this for the past 6 weeks or so in between uni work. Therefore I can understand that it’s not totally “up-to-date”.
As for it being a competitive deck, then it’s not supposed to be a competitive deck. I very rarely run what are considered to be “top-tier” decks and play things a little more unpredictable that I find fun to play.
The list has been tried and tested against other decks and itself over a period of around 2 months. Obviously one list cannot work for everyone as everyone has their own style of play. However the list is the result of a couple of months of testing against the top tier decks and suits my style of play.
I understand that there are issues; yes the Interviewers/Engineers combination is not ideal, and neither is the high number of trainers in your starting hand if Spiritomb is your lone Pokemon. However the deck is consistent and is surprisingly fast if you actually test it out.
Perhaps I should have done as the others have and written a skeleton list with a list of possible “deck fillers”.
Can I point out though that Azelf is not in there as I chose Rotom to find things out of the prizes; which I chose due to it’s ability to attack.
I can see your issue with the Magnetic Search Magnezone and Blaziken, the weakness of the other Magnezones can be managed by choosing whether to Lv. up or not. In all honesty I have not tested against a deck with a Blaziken in. It has mainly been tested against DialgaChomp, VileGar and Luxchomp. So yes, maybe my testing could do with some more varience.
With Magnetic Search and Spiritomb I found that I simply was never using Rare Candies or BTS much. Therefore I cut the number of BTS down and removed the candies again (I had to use a couple of candy during battle roads due to a proxied Unown Q and VS Seeker and I still didn’t use them).
A 2-2 split of Bebe’s/Communication may work better, maybe I’ll try it in the future.
The idea of the article was to get you looking at some of the underplayed cards (VS Seeker, Poke Comms, PokeGear 3.0) some light, and to get some people out of the habbit of using the same staples. Not all of them are needed if you test with some unusual concepts. Give it a try, you may be surprised.
Well, since TR had not been for sale, now many things makes sense, yes.
Still, i would like to point out that you can make a better use of the same combo, just by adding candies or more BTS.
Something like this, for example:
T1: Collector for 2 magnemites, and spiritomb, or unoqn Q, if tomb is already in play. Attach energy to magnemite (2), and darkness magnemite (1) into magneton.
T2: bebe for magnetic search magnezone, and evolve. Magnetic search for magnezone gyroball, retreat tomb, rare candy evolve magnemite (1) into magnezone gyro ball, attach again (lightining, or DCE) and you are ready to attack, on T2. Isnt that faster than having to darkness grace two times?
And i think its not a far fetched scenario at all, since except for candy (which you should run 4) all other cards are searchable/easy to get.
My point is, even if darkness grace is a good attack, its still an attack. Meaning you waste your turn, and let your opponent attack the things you just evolved.
I prefer to use a supporter, or a pokepower in order to evolve, that way you can still attack that turn, or evolve with tomb if needed.
I perfectly understand you intention of wanting people to use cards not so well known, or rogue decks, but as i said before, certain cards are a must have, because they are too good to let them pass.
And i disagree magnezone is not a competitive deck, maybe it wasnt one before, but now, who knows? Take it to cities for example, win a few tourneys with it and make it famous, and lets see if it becomes top tier or not then.
Well under normal cicumstances the Rare Candy and Bebe would have been there.
I see where you’re coming from. It might be worth testing with Rare Candy again but taking out something else. It wasn’t so much as I intentionally left the staple cards out as such, just while testing I found some of the staples just dead cards that sat in my hand and never used. For example Uxie was something I really wanted to leave in, but in the first 8 games I tested I only used Setup once simply because Engineer was making my hand so large. Therefore it just seemed like wasted space.
I see your idea and it is of course viable, maybe I have moved a little more towards consistency than speed. It would take a whole lot more testing of both combinations to see which options work best. Unfortunately after spending so much time making this deck work I fear I may be moving on from it with the release of the new set. However it’s definitely something I’ll come back to in the future and test out.
So spent a long time testing different combinations of trainers/supporters until I found a combination that worked and was consistent and gave me constant positive results. That was what I ended up with. A little unorthadox when you look at it on paper. But if you play it, it meshes together nicely.
It depends what it’s playing against. It’s certainly not a top tier deck, however it holds it’s own against DialgaChomp, It generally goes about 50-50 against that. It just depends who runs out of Poke-Turns / Super Scoop up’s first. I’ve only tested it against Luxchomp four times and it won three of those, I think more down to luck than anything. If Vilegar gets a Gengar setup in the first couple of turns then it generally loses. Other than that it will usually pull out a victory, constantly paralysing them and with a bit of luck on fainting spell flips. It’s played against a lot of rogues as well with mixed success. It took me to second in Autumn BRs (not my deck of choice but it’s all I had the cards for to play on the day as I left my card sets at another persons house).
A lot of people seem to like Magnezone, so lets hope it see’s some play in the future :)
Just as a sidenote, “synergy” isn’t the same as “combo”. Luxchomp certainly has synergy. A lot.
EDIT: Thumbs up for Rotom UD.
Points up to wyoungb’s definitions
-To your introductory paragraph-
First off, how can you possibly say that Luxchomp has no synergy? You’re clearly not an SP player.
-Luxray damages your own pokemon (place it on SP pokemon) in exchange for doing 60 damage to any pokemon you bring up to the active position for one energy and an egain. This can be done second turn.
-Use Garchomp to Snipe pokemon for 80 dmg (also the same hp as most popular basic sp pokemon)
-When you play Garchomp, fully heal all your sp pokemon (remember luxray damaging your sp’s?)
-Cyrus’ Conspiracy searches for a basic energy (for your luxray), a supporter (cyrus’ conspiracy again for a “Cyrus Chain”, and a TGI (Poke Turn, SP Radar, E-Gain, Power Spray).
-All the TGI are REALLY powerful.
-Crobat lets you place one dmg counter, or more if you utilize poke-turns, to do calculated damage output for donks or specific KO’s.
-Poke turn can also be used to bring back your Garchomp or Luxray to re-use their powers.
What all this means, is that all these cards WORK TOGETHER in order to KO anything on your opponent’s field as fast as possible, while healing themselves, too.
This is the very main skeleton of how LuxChomp works. You can add a whole bunch of SP’s as well, in order to counter everything in the metagame (such as my personal SP deck does.)
Synergy does not mean “combo”. It means “work together”. LuxChomp is the definition of synergy. That’s what it’s known for. (That and counters.)
I have no idea how you can say Luxchomp has no synergy.
-To your Unown Q paragraph-
You can’t “donk” an uxie with an Unown Q, at least not with this decklist. You’d need an E-Belt to do 70. Donk means calculated damage output in order to OHKO something, preferably T-1, so that that something being OHKOed can’t do anything or be used. If you’re just killing something in two turns, it’s not donking. Furthermore, if you’re trying to “two-turn donk”, as you seem to be doing, Uxie will kill your Unown Q in one hit, thus rendering it -almost- useless (besides for damaging the Uxie, of course.)
-To your Magnezone #6 paragraph-
No true attack is meant in this paragraph of mine, but I feel the need to point out one minor detail: In forcing your opponent to switch out, they can plan around your attack to always have something useful to switch out. If anything, if your opponent plays well, they can use your attack to their great advantage.
-To your Interviewer’s Question Line-
Like my last paragraph, no attack is intended with this. However, personally, I don’t think this card is that great in a deck with only 12 energy. But this is just my opinion. My reasoninig for this is that you have a 60 card deck with 12 energy. The odds of you having each separate energy being prized are 12/60*6*10%, which is 12% per energy card, * 6 means you have a 72% chance of having any energy prized. This reduces your chances of getting energy, but, statistically (this means there’s room for deviation), you will always have the same proportion of energy in your deck. (where numEnergyCards and numCardsInDeck are used as variables), which is 12/60, which means that 20% of your deck will be energy at all times (again, statistically.) Which gives you a 1/5 chance of topdecking an energy, on average. Using Interviewer’s question will therefore typically give you 1.3 energy cards per use. (This means that, statistically, you will have 1 energy most of the time, and one third of the time, you may have 2 energy. These are your most common cases.) However, you can’t choose which energy cards you want… Suppose you want a lightning energy, Therefore, you will usually have about 25% chance of actually getting what you want with this card. 25% chance means that for every 4 times you use it, statistically, you should only get what you REALLY need once.
Therefore, I think that a better card could be used here than Interviewer’s question. Maybe Cyrus’ Conspiracy? This would of course depend on your taste, and what you usually use with this deck. If you usually use a lot of supporters, then this may not be the best choice because it’d use 4 turns (if you’re cyrus chaining) to get 4 (only basic) energy cards. However, a plus side for cyrus is that if you use it to get a basic energy and another cyrus, these don’t have to be used for four turns in a row. You can switch it up a bit and go and get other stuff with other supporters if you need to.
Another card that could be used might be Energy Search? Though it might not be that great, you can choose whether you want a lightning or a metal. It also thins out your deck, increasing your odds of topdecking what you want. (Not by much, but it does.) The one major downpoint however, is if you manage to Spiritomb-Lock yourself. But that’s why you run your two Unown Q, right?
Aaron’s collection could also be considered here, but it depends on how much you can recycle from your discard. Aaron’s collection lets you get two in any combination of basic energy cards and SP Pokemon. You could use this to go get two discarded basic energy cards. But like I said, it depends on how you play, and how much you can usually recycle energy.
These are just ideas to put into people’s heads as alternatives to Interviewer’s question. If this deck ran more energy, it might be a better play. And again, this is simply an overview of alternative cards to use, and not necessarily what I think is automatically “better” than your selection.
Now to stop ripping at your article. :P Please know that I never meant anything bad, I simply meant to give constructive criticism. I must say however, I really like your use of VS Seeker, and PokeGear, especially in combination with Engineer’s. I really like the synergy of this deck, and definitely think I understand how to use it properly. It’s got a slow start, and low damage output, but the longer you stay in game against it, the harder it is to take it down. So you use this to your advantage to slowly take the rest of the prizes of the game, or wipe your opponent’s field. …Whichever comes first.
Overall, I think this is a really cool deck. It was a good read for sure. All I have to say is watch out for next format when we’ll be playing Trainer’s cards first turn…. Donk decks will wreck. :P And with 11 basics in your deck, This means that most of the time, you’ll only have one or two basics on the field. Furthermore, besides Rotom and Chansey, none of your basics really have any decent HP. This means that next format, you’re goined to get Donk’d a lot. ;)
Anywho. That’s my reply for you. =] Please take it with a grain of salt, and understand that I only meant all of this criticism in order to help you better your deck. Furthermore, I have not personally playtested this deck, and I am only human, so I may have made some mistakes in here.
Nice article!
Chris
Luxchomp does have no obvious synergy
I understand where you say that they work well together, which is true, but he’s saying that theres nothing about the cards that say “hey lets play that card with the other card”.
Cards like Delcatty Pt and Blastoise Pt, have synergy. You can easily see putting those things together.
I know they work well together, but according to his definition of synergy, they don’t have it.
i dont agree. Luxchomp DOES have synergy, the fact that its not in plain sight doesnt mean it doesnt exist.
Just think about how you attack with luxray to take a prize, and next turn you will tipically bronzong his energy, retreat for free/poketurn, attach to garchomp and then snipe for another prize, just to repeat the process next turn with luxray.
Coupled with all the sp engine, this deck can get 6 prixes in 6 to 8 turns straight.
If thats not synergy, then i dont know what is.
just because one can snipe and the other can “bright look” pokemon does not make synergy. the only synergy in luxchomp is the fact they are SP. in which case every SP pokemon has synergy with eachother because they require the same cards and engine. cards that were made specifically to pair with others are not because of synergy….
Rare candy does not have “synergy” with all stage 2’s although it is used in most. Same goes to BTS.
Now if taking cheap prizes produces synergy than machamp and luxray have synergy as well as sableye and machamp. but no one refers to these as having synergy. lots of things take cheap prizes its just convenient that two of them are SPs. they have nothing in common other than that.
Another way to look at “synergy” is that they directly affect the effectiveness of the other. i.e. gengar and vileplume. Vileplume blocks trainers and genger can poltergeist for each trainer/supporter/stadium in your opponents hand… they were printed like 7 sets apart yet work great together. thats synergy. however sniping a pokemon with garchomp, then retreating/poke turning into a lux x and bright look something and takin another prize have nothing to do with eachother. garchomp took a prize as did luxray but neither did anything to help the other, that couldnt be done by another pokemon (retreating/poke turning)
So, do we all just get to give any word any definition we want now?
ahhh, yes thats what we all do. We all assign different meanings to words.
If we were playing a game at a tournament and I was looking at your discard pile, and after i did that my arm hit your deck and parts of the deck went on the floor.
If that happened you could say, “Hey you just threw half of my deck on the floor.” Even though I did not throw anything, and I did not knock exactly 50% of your deck on the floor.
Words have different definitions, and not everyone defines words the same at every second.
just because people have different definitions doesnt make it right. synergy whether people like it or not means something. just cause i say “two pokemon are in fact pokemon and therefore have synergy”, doesnt make that statement any more true than “you threw half my deck on the floor” when in fact it probably wasnt exactly half nor was it thrown. your example is extreme and makes much more sense than arguing synergy has no definition. luxray and garchomp are SP pokemon who both happen to take cheap prizes. they have no synergy together any more than all SP pokemon do. which is none unless every card can have synergy with each other which everyone can agree uopn is ridiculous to say. luxchomp is great but lacks synergy which doesnt matter but its still true
Dictionary definition of Synergy:
•the working together of two things (muscles or drugs for example) to produce an effect greater than the sum of their individual effects
Dictionary definition of Combo:
•A combination. Which is a multi amount of cards (two or more) used together to achieve a certain purpose
LuxChomp is a good combination but the cards do not have synergy. Now stop arguing guys lol.
haha thank you and i agree completely.
Sure it does. Language is a popular thing, people define definitions not the dictionary. Think about it, 15 years ago we didn’t have the word “bling-bling”, is it not a word? of course it is. Its a word that was made up and accepted by people.
Lanugage is a popular thing, its defined by people without them knowing it. People define words in different ways everyday without knowing it. Thats just how language works.
Hi Chris! Long time no speak :D
I’m not going to get into the definitions, I think there is enough of an argument going on with that already XD
Thanks for your input though, it was really good. Cyrus is definitely something I will try, I hadn’t thought of that. Thumbs up for maths too I hate writing out maths so avoid it :/
I would like your post but the button appears to be broken :( tty soon :D
wyoungb has the definition on synergy fixed to the wall and stapled in place. I think he’s hit the nail on the head of defining synergy and combo’s.
Interesting, entertaining and a bit edgy. Nice article. What’s next, Master of the Rogue?
Master of the Rogue NEAT…
Kingdra ~ Post Rotation :D
HAHA lolz! great article xD
it’s a decent deck but you screwed it up big time.
Thankyou for your well thought out and constructed comment! :D
I agree with martin, if you run no rare candy, you may want to bump up your BTS to four. And your communication are going to get trainer locked. So I would switch to bebe’s. I used to play cursegar, and I found that a expert belted gengar AR switching and doing 80 a turn, could easily win me a game. Mainly because they just couldn’t get a hit off him, Unless they run SP to snipe/bring up your magnezone those two prizes aren’t going to matter because thay won’t be able to hit him.
I guess I am one who takes issue with your style of writing. It is not that I do not like an informal or chatty style, but given the length of your article, the article often comes across as wandering and unfocused. I often found myself using all of my will power to just keep reading. (I would not have kept reading if I didn’t run a fun Magnezone deck of my own.)
That said, I, kind of like Martin above, wondered whether you wrote the article before Triumphant was released or whether you simply did not like the cards from Triumphant. Because you have a section as to obvious card omissions, I would have thought you would have included why Magnezone Prime was not used. It has the benefit of card draw and increased HP (similar to the LvX HP). One downside would be that you would have to take out a GyroZone but the draw engine seems too good to pass up. Also, you state that you are always playing from behind so Twins is a no brainer in this deck (and possibly Black Belt given your disdain for Expert Belt). Also, what about Seeker? I like the way you use Electric Trans prior to Blissful Nurse but an option would be to go with Seeker instead of Blissey. I am not saying it will make your deck more competitive because of the potential benefit to your opponent but it warrants discussion/testing (Seeker could also be used to reuse Blissey).
I am at a loss with regard to not running Rare Candy. You really need to get the Zones up as fast as possible. If you use Rare Candy, you can be evolving more than one (or two) Pokemon at a time. By not running Rare Candy, you lose the advantage of Magnetic Search and Darkness Grace gives you; that is, the way you have constructed your deck Magnetic Search and Darkness Grace only substitute for the loss of Rare Candy. If you run Rare Candies, you could be evolving multiple Zones so much faster. This is especially important because, unlike many Stage 2 decks where you are merely evolving another Pokemon so that you can have another active up following a KO, each of your Zones has a power that is helpful to the deck. You could have 2 MetalZones on the bench for searching out metal Pokes and GyroZone on your bench for Super Connectivity (though I suggest 1 MetalZone, 1 GyroZone and a Prime on your bench for draw).
Lone Q start …“if you start with it active it can be a great way to get a 2 turn donk on Uxie/Azelf!”…what about doubling the chances of having a Turn 1 donk on yourself. Frankly, I do not have a problem putting a Lightning or Metal energy on a Spiritomb and discarding it to retreat, because then I have some energies in the discard for SuperConnectivity.
“I rarely had a hand size of less than 15” This also may be a reason for not running Zone Prime. However, I think this is more of a reason for running hand refreshers (PONT, Copycat, Judge, Looker’s, whatever fits your style/metagame)….pure Poltergeist fodder. If your metagame is the same as everyone else’s, Gengar/Vileplume has to be an issue (though it was being played less and less in BRs). Plus you have to have Bebe’s when there is a trainer lock. You yourself are likely to have consecutive Spiritombs active so you have to use Bebe’s.
I actually like Rotom but you cannot use it as a substitute for Azelf in this decklist. The problem with Rotom is that you don’t know what prize card you are picking up and you don’t know what topdeck you are putting in the prizes. You could end up worse off by using Rotom. Using an Alph Lithograph Four might help but you still don’t know the topdeck you would be replacing the picked up Prize with (and no I don’t suggest using Slowpoke HGSS in this deck to alleviate that problem). Also, you already have sniping capability (though likely lesser) with the MetalZone. Rotom might be worthwhile after Azelf is rotated out but right now you have to use Azelf—you have constructed your deck to revolve around the lone LvX.
You might also think about adding DCE and Energy Exchanger. I use DCE to power up GyroBall and Crush Bolt faster.
Magnezone is a fun deck but power locks are a problem (not just power spray but I have been seeing more Mesprit/Seeker being used) and the new 30+3 format can be problematic. I appreciate the fact that you are suggesting cards that are not always or often used but I also understand why you are getting the reaction of “You’re using what?!? Are you crazy?”
Hehe, yeah fair enough. To be honest I wasn’t happy with the article myself when it was finished by I was pushed for time. I shall try to keep more on topic in future.
Yeah I started the article approx 6 weeks ago before even the triumphant scans were available to view, and I agree with you Seeker/BB/Twins would be great additions. I’d use the Seeker to pick up Blissey rather than a damaged Magnezone though; that way you can remove more damage.
As I said, I forgot Rare Candy by accident but I simply didn’t miss them. What it allowed me to do was have 3 or 4 extra slots for other cards. What I was hoping to achieve was to get people to think outside the box. Rather than sticking with the same staples in each deck; try something a little different. You may discover the “new staple”. Stranger things have happened ^^.
I see what you mean with the Unown Q starter pokemon donking! I just remember achieving it on a couple of people and being incredibly impressed with it as a starting Pokemon. It was most likely a chance in a million though.
Yes VileGar is an issue in our area. It’s not widely played though. I generally keep switching out to spiritombs (using Gyro Ball) letting them kill those while I try to reduce my T/S/S in my hand. Hand refreshment may be a better option, but you must admit that getting your hand to 20+ cards is pretty fun :D
I just wanted an excuse to test out Rotom, I’ve only used it to attack once but I do use it’s power regularly. I also did consider using DCE’s but decided against it in light of losing them with Blissful Nurse and also they aren’t Super Connectivity-able.
Thanks for the feedback though :D It’s good to hear some fresh ideas from people.
First of all- 10/10 for article title! Very funny.
I actually have another Magnezone article coming out really soon. I am a super-Magnezone fan, and I’m glad you are experimenting with it.
I’m actually going to agree with your decision not to run Rare Candies. However, you really need to run 4 spiritomb and probably max out your collectors or add Bebe’s to ensure you get a Spirtomb in place turn 2 or turn 2. Absolutely Critical to get your search Magnezone setup ASAP.
With that said, I really don’t agree with a lot of in the deck list and think it is missing some HUGE opportunities by not including Uxie/Magnezone Prime/Seeker/Azelf/Judge. These cards are absolutely critical to ensuring consistent draw/setup. I’ve also found Magnezone Prime to be critical in reaching that 110+ damage range to KO SP decks, and it will also be very important when facing Gyarados. Judge is also just amazing as you disrupt your opponent but get to beef up your own hand with Magnezone Prime’s Draw Up to 6 Power.
Hey, still a really entertaining article, and I absolutely LOVE Magnezone getting some of the limelight!
Hi Tony :D Glad you liked it.
Thumbs Up for ditching rare candy.
It will be interesting to see what your list/ideas are. I’m just glad I managed to make it fairly consistent and have a fast setup as I thought it was going to be terrible until I actually tested it. Removing Uxie actually increased the setup time as odd as it sounds. I found it was just a dead draw. However if you’re using hand refresh instead of a crazy amount of drawing then obviously it’s going to be a good play.
I look forward to your article! :D
hey, i made a deck roughly similar to this one, except i made it magnezone/trainerlock had 2 uxies for drawpower and professor oaks visit. essentially it worked like this: vileplume trainer locking. magnezone could hit for either 80 and paralyze and they couldnt do anything because they were trainerlocked. or u could gyroball and use the electrode SF as your active (free retreat, also 10 damage to all their pokemon if u attack him. and next turn do it all over again, i found it was best to never leave your magnezone out there if there was a chance he could be hurt. but with magnezones energy ability and conductive quarry it was very easy to abuse energy and also to retreat your vileplume if it got luring flamed. it worked very nicely as a deck and made top cut the week i played it.
hey, i made a deck roughly similar to this one, except i made it magnezone/trainerlock had 2 uxies for drawpower and professor oaks visit. essentially it worked like this: vileplume trainer locking. magnezone could hit for either 80 and paralyze and they couldnt do anything because they were trainerlocked. or u could gyroball and use the electrode SF as your active (free retreat, also 10 damage to all their pokemon if u attack him. and next turn do it all over again, i found it was best to never leave your magnezone out there if there was a chance he could be hurt. but with magnezones energy ability and conductive quarry it was very easy to abuse energy and also to retreat your vileplume if it got luring flamed. it worked very nicely as a deck and made top cut the week i played it.
Cool. Nice idea with Electrode. Glad you done well with it. Did you use Blissey as well or not?
You should test Twins. Your always behind in prizes so why wouldn’t you have this in your deck? Searching for any two cards is just amazing.
Yup I agree it would be a perfect addition. However the card wasn’t released when I wrote this. We didn’t even have the card scans at the time :/
Nice title
1: Awesome article name. 2: VS Seeker is much underrated. Glad you are using it effectively. 3. You’re down in prizes, then you start tanking, and then…Magnezone get’s OHKO’d. No healing for you. Sure it’s a beast, but there’s plenty of fire running around.
Glad you liked it :)
If you don’t Lv. Up to then Magnezone stays weak to fighting, and not fire. And so you can escape the weakness issue.
Also in the area I play there are no pure fire decks, or many running a random Blaziken FB. If it does get knocked out the it is pretty easy to get back up and running either the same turn or a turn after with Palmer and Magnetic Search.
this is a great deck idea. my one thought is: what if your 1 magnetic search magnezone gets prized? where’s your searchability now?
Either use Rotom to get it out, or live without it. Go straight for getting a Gyro Ball and start killing things to draw it. It would depend on the opponents field and your start of course but that seems the most logical plan.
is magnezone prime in triumphant?
Yes.
I like some of the ideas, but I think you’re flat out wrong about a lot of stuff. I’ve been playing a Magnelock deck for the last couple of months, both with the metal SF Magnezone and without it, with the new Prime, etc. Other than Rotom / Blissey Prime, the rest of the stuff just doesn’t seem to fit like you think it does. The other commenters seem to have pointed that out, so I won’t go into detail.