Hey guys! Peter Bae here writing another article! Sorry about the hiatus between this article and my last article. I’ve been running out of ideas on what to write about, and have a bunch of unfinished articles that I just can’t seem to complete. Not to mention the fact that I missed a bunch of Cities because of holidays and that the only cities I went to I ended up going 2-3 with Gyarados.
I want to make this a weekly article topic or just my own kind of article (like what Dakota Streck and Kenny Wisdom do). As you can see in the title, it will be called “Taking Another Look at ________”. You guys can send an e-mail to peterbae6p@hotmail.ca about any cards or decks you’d like to see articles written about… so here we go!
Machamp
Like I always do, let’s talk about the history of Machamp. For the past season, Machamp was known to be a great card as it easily countered every SP decks out in the format. However, it was seeing little play as it had a mediocre match up against non-SP Decks. Therefore, Machamp was disregarded and was only used as a tech against SP.
However, when Triumphant was released, it gained a tremendous amount of support in the form of Machamp Prime. With another great attacker that shares the same basic and stage 1 form, the deck gained a tremendous amount of power and is now able to stand against all decks.
Machamp has been talked about enough that I will not be doing a card-to-card analysis in this article, but rather a deck analysis as a whole and why some cards were chosen or included. For Part 2, I will do a card-to-card analysis, match ups, and other lovely in-depth analysis on one of the 3 decks (decided via voting by you readers/commenters).
There have been few Machamp articles and decklists out ever since the release, but, today, there will be not only 1 decklist, but multiples, and analysis for each one of them. Let’s start off with the skeleton list:
Skeleton List
| Pokémon – 174 Machop SF 3 Machoke TM 2 Machamp SF 2 Machamp Prime 2~3 Uxie LA 1 Azelf LA 1 Regice LA 1 Unown Q MD |
T/S/S – 13~243 Pokémon Collector 3 Bebe’s Search 2 Professor Oak’s New Theory 1 Palmer’s Contribution 0~4 Pokémon Communication 0~3 Expert Belt 0~3 Rare Candy 1 Luxury Ball 3~4 Broken Time-Space |
Energy – 9~126~8 F 3~4 Double Colorless |
Total Cards: 39~53
Of course, this is the basic of the basics of the skeleton list. You might ask why does the total card difference 14 cards? Well, that’s because Machamp can see varied play as a speedy donk deck, a consistent mid-game powerhouse, or a slow control-based deck!
So let’s first talk about the oldest of the old Machamp, the DonkChamp:
DonkChamp
| Pokémon – 174 Machop SF 2 Machoke TM 3 Machamp SF* 1 Machamp LV.X SF 3 Uxie LA 1 Uxie LV.X LA 1 Azelf LA 1 Unown Q MD 1 Regice LA * 3 SF or 2 SF/1 Prime |
T/S/S – 323 Bebe’s Search 3 Pokémon Collector 3 Professor Oak’s New Theory 1 Palmer’s Contribution 4 Poké Drawer + 4 Pokémon Communication 3 Warp Point 1 VS Seeker 3 Rare Candy 1 Luxury Ball 3 Junk Arm 3 Super Scoop Up 3 Broken Time-Space |
Energy – 86 F 2 Double Colorless |
pokebeach.comThis deck has been around ever since the introduction of SP. It absolutely wrecks all sorts of SP decks. The ability to get a T1/T2 Machamp out almost every turn was a a big threat to SP and they did not have many answers to your Machamp swarming.
However, this deck never had any major success during the SP dominant formats due to it having many problems with Stage 1/2 decks. It just didn’t have the fire power to take on beefy, staged Pokémon. There was “Hurricane Punch”, which would do 30 times the number of heads you roll on 4 coins, but there has been many horror stories of whiffing on all 4 coins.
The only reliable way of really dealing out damage consistently was via Machamp LV.X. However, this was truly a double edged sword. The LV.X’s Poké-Body, “No Guard”, lets you deal out 60 more damage at the cost of you receiving 60 more damage also.
So the +40 weakness to Psychic didn’t really mean much as you will almost be guaranteed to get revenge KO’d after playing your LV.X.
The slow Machamp, the LockChamp (I call it that at least):
LockChamp
| Pokémon – 254 Spiritomb AR 4 Machop SF 4 Machoke TM 4 Machamp* 2 Oddish UD 2 Gloom UD 2 Vileplume UD 2 Uxie LA 1 Uxie LV.X LA 1 Azelf LA 1 Unown Q MD * 3 Prime/1 SF or 2 Prime/2 SF |
T/S/S – 253 Bebe’s Search 4 Pokémon Collector 3 Copycat 3 Professor Oak’s New Theory 2 Judge 3 Seeker 1 Palmer’s Contribution 4 Broken Time-Space |
Energy – 107 F 3 Double Colorless |
pokebeach.comAs you can see, LockChamp is just VileGar without the ‘Gar but rather the ‘Champ. Other than that, the only difference you see in the deck is the F Energy and the Judge. In VileGar, Judge is a big No-No as it will get rid of the opponent’s big hand of trainers that they need to dish out a high damage with “Poltergeist”.
However, with LockChamp, you have the option of playing Judge because you do not depend on your opponent’s cards in hand. Also, this Judge is what brings LockChamp to be a better form of a lock deck than VileGar.
While the damage output is significantly lower, you are still easily dishing out 100+ damage mid/late game with the Prime, while getting cheap KOs with Machamp SF’s “Take-Out” early game.
Not to mention the fact that, if you know your Vileplume is going to die next turn, you can use Judge to get rid of your opponent’s huge hand so that they don’t gain a significant advantage of killing your Vileplume to get out of the lock.
Even if you fail to get the T1/T2 Vileplume set up, or even a Spiritomb start, you can still go for a fast Machamp SF set up with your supporters to get some early KO lead. Also, unlike VileGar, it offers a method of healing your Machamps consistently with the help of Machamp Prime’s Poké-Power “Fighting Tag” and Seeker.
The midgame Machamp, Machamp/Mesprit:
Machamp/Mesprit
| Pokémon – 194 Machop SF 3 Machoke TM 2 Machamp SF 2 Machamp Prime 2 Uxie LA 1 Uxie LV.X LA 2 Mesprit LA 1 Azelf LA 1 Unown Q MD 1 Regice LA |
T/S/S – 303 Bebe’s Search 3 Pokémon Collector 3 Seeker 2 Professor Oak’s New Theory 1 Palmer’s Contribution 4 Pokémon Communication 3 Rare Candy 4 Super Scoop Up 1 Luxury Ball 1 VS Seeker 2 Expert Belt 3 Broken Time-Space |
Energy – 118 F 3 Double Colorless |
pokebeach.comThis is by far my favorite Machamp list I’ve played. Well, I’ve only played the LockChamp and this deck, but yes this is what I chose over LockChamp for several reasons. First, the deck does not depend on a starter, meaning that you have a better chance of attacking T1 with Machamp SF.
Secondly, this deck also offers the mid/late game attack power that LockChamp does with Machamp Prime while keeping the same healing power. Lastly, this deck also offers early/mid/late game Poké-Power lock with Mesprit, which can be detrimental to all decks. Of course, there are disadvantages like all decks.
If you cannot manage to get rid of an active Spiritomb with Regice T1/T2, you’re already behind. The deck also has a higher chance of getting donked because of the lack of starters and bad active Pokémon, such as the high count of Pixies and Machop (which has +10 Psychic weakness, or x2 if you use the Triumphant Machop).
Conclusion
Of course, there are an infinite amount of Machamp decks seeing play right now, such as the GeChamp (Gengar/Machamp), Donphan/Machamp, and others that I’ve seen floating around the web. However, I believe that these are the big 3 Machamp decks and I wanted to do an article on the ones that I believe are worth talking about.
However, GeChamp has been seeing quite a bit of play and, if you guys want me to do an article on it, comment about it. Like I stated at the introduction, or what seems to be an intro, leave a comment on which in-depth analysis I should do first. (Of course, your choices are LockChamp, DonkChamp, Machamp/Mesprit, and GeChamp since I just told you to.) Thanks for reading!
P.S. I’m really sorry that I cannot get my channel started! I’ve been really busy, and I was away to Buffalo due to sudden vacation, so I missed all cities. Then New Years came around so I couldn’t get a match recorded at league, and I am missing this weekend’s league due to personal reasons. Just wait a bit longer!
I just have to say: The reason why VileGar doesn’t run Judge is not because it can shuffle away Trainers. In fact, just because I’ve Poltergeisted a nine-card hand for only thirty damage so many times, I’d run Judge for the sheer disruption. As it goes, your deck relies on two separate stage 2’s hitting the field, and without Claydol (or Shadow Command or anything similar), Judge ends up hurting you more than it hurts your opponent. >.>
For the same reason I run a handful of trainers in VileGar, I think you should definitely run trainers in LockChamp. Namely, Rare Candy and Pokemon Communication.
Speaking of VileGar, adding a little bit on how to counter VileGar might’ve been a good idea. VileGar is the biggest reason nowadays people don’t run Machamp, especially Machamp Donk. Trainerlock hurts, but Poltergeist plus a psychic weakness hurts more.
And lastly, I’d like to see an article about Machamp Lock. My friend ran into a trainerlocking Machamp at Cities and I’ve honestly never heard of anyone trying that before. Seeing a little more info on it would be nice. =)
I mentioned how Judge was a bad idea for VileGar because of the trainer issue XD. Thanks for your suggestion, ill be tallying it up until Sunday night than start writing my article monday depending on which deck wins. I didnt get in to too much detail for the decks like Techs and such because this was just an overview of the deck so we can easily get started on Part 2 :).
P.S. I’ll end up doing it up to part 4, talking about all 3 types of deck I mentioned and maybe GenChamp but I hate that deck so maybe not
I like how in LockChamp (as well as any deck with Machamp Prime) you don’t really need Warp Energy or Unown Q as long as you have a Fighting Energy to put on the Active. Although I think I would still have Q in my list!
Lock Champ does have the Unown Q in the list XD. Altho it really isn’t necessary, free retreat is awlays nice
This is a great article. I’ve never thought of LockChamp, of MespriChamp, those are great ideas. Also, why not mention the undeniable synergy Machamp now has with Donphan? Or mention Unown R in the DonkChamp Deck? Anyway, thanks for the Machamp article!
This is going to be a 2~4 parter article where I’ll be doing in depth analysis of each deck in different parts. I just wanted to give you a basic Deck example, than go from there in to indepth analysis. Talking about Techs, Match-Ups, how to play, why the cards were chosen etc. I never liked Donphan/Machamp. Donphan can increase Machamp’s damage by like 50, but machamp will hit for 120 easily anyways and that is enough to OHKO anyhting in the format so it’s not really a big deal. Putting a 2-2, 3-3, or 4-4 line of Donphan and putting 3-2-3, or 4-2-4 machamp is just too slow for me to handle. I’d rather do a thick machamp like 4-3-4, and start attacking with SF for easier prizes while disrupting with Pixies etc.
Alright, that’s understandable. But Donphan really helps your Charizard matchup, lemme tell you lol. I like pretty much any Machamp Varient, but the last thing I want to see around are more lock decks. I’d say analyze the DonkChamp
Great article
thank you :D
One place I definitely disagree with you on is using Machoke from SF. I run Machoke TM simply because it has 10 more HP requiring my opponent to drop a Crobat if they want to KO it with Dragon Rush. I know the weakness on the TM Machoke is a lot worse, but anything that would kill Machoke thanks to weakness would also kill the SF Machoke.
Anyway, excellent article. I currently run a Donphan-Machamp deck that does well when I don’t have setup issues. The biggest problem ends up being Gyarados which is so prevalent in the meta right now. That said, thanks to Fighting Tag+ Seeker I played a pretty good Gyarados player in my area down to the last prize.
uh… the editor did that XD I should have told him i was using TM XD since I do use TM
Oh thank goodness. :)
I’ll edit it for you, are just the Machokes TM? And Machops still SF?
and good article btw :x
ys Machops SF and Machoke is TM
I think another potential combo for machamp is with Umbreon UD. It works well against vilegar and sp if built properly. Biggest problem for machamp these days I think is Gyarados though.
No,… Machamp has a pretty even match up with Gyarados. Sure Gyarados has -20 resistance, but even iwth that Machamp Prime hits just as much as Gdos does and has a higher HP. Machamp also has a better healing capability because of the built in switch system.
Yeah… But Gyarados has room for Mesprit.. And fighting tag hates power lock. It’s not as bad as it was, but its still a hard match
Well ya.. I guessi ts been easier with me since I do run Machamp MEsprit. When I play against Gdos, it jsut ends up being who drops the first mesprit XD
i played dos at all my cities, went 2-0 vs. Machamp, and all of them were close games, so I don’t know where to rate it, probably at 60-40 dos.
if all of the mwere close game, shouldnt it be 50/50
someone played MightyChamp and got 5th place at a cities I went to.
Your best bet is to wait and run it with Pokemon catcher:)