But why can’t I go to the Professor Cup? It’s not fair!

Note: I wrote this article a while ago, but was delayed posting it for several reasons, including wanting to post my Nationals report while it was still fresh. The day before I submitted this I discovered that Chris Fulop had written an article that appears to be on the exact same topic. I have not read this (for fear of influencing my own article) but given the quality of his previous articles have no doubt that it is fantastic.

I still wanted to submit this as I have spent a lot of time writing it and believe it to be quite good (as well as giving non-Underground readers an article on the Professor Cup) so please judge on its own merits and not based on a comparison between this and the other article. Also, it was a genuine coincidence!

pojo.comI REALLY wanted to compete in the Professor Cup this year. The big stumbling block being that I have no Professor Points (I could probably bag some judging spots at my local stores, but I would rather play). My girlfriend has enough to complete, but apparently they’re not transferable!

So, why was I so keen? Because it’s an odd format and a new challenge and new challenges are always good. I am very excited for the new HGSS-on format and am currently working a number of decks (but not Zekrom, Emboar, Cinccino or Donphan as enough other people are working on them)

The Professor Cup format is a very odd one though. It IS HGSS on, BUT you are limited to using only one type of Pokémon (so only Fire Pokémon or only Water etc) and you get to pick your starter before drawing your opening hand of 6 cards! Oh yes, now THAT sounds like a fun new challenge.

Now I meant to write this article a while ago but work and such got in the way. For that reason the European Professor Cup has come and gone (without me!) which has the downside that this article will only be useful for American readers; however, I will be referring to results from the European Professor Cup, so that might be nice and useful.

This is a fairly epic article so if you don’t wanna read it all then I give a nice summary at the bottom of the article. Also, I know it’s over 5,000 words but even if you don’t want to sit and read it all in one go you can read it bit by bit or just use for reference. Just a thought.

One final note before I finally start the article: I am hoping that as well as the Professor Cup, this will also give some insight into and ideas for the HGSS on format. Fingers crossed. So, let’s start with the obvious one:

Fire

Starter: Vulpix

Main Attacker(s): Reshiram / Emboar (non-Ability)

Notable Support Pokémon:

• Ninetales (Draw Engine)
• Emboar (Energy Acceleration)
• Typhlosion Prime (Energy Acceleration)

Trainers you’ll need: Judge – Fisherman – Engineer’s Adjustments – Interviewer’s Questions

By far the most played at and the eventual winner of the European Professor Cup was Fire. This should not be a surprise to anyone. The reason to have Vulpix as your starter is to get a T2 Ninetales and get the head start with a fantastic draw engine. Vulpix is the only good Stage 1 draw engine in HGSS on and that is why Fire is so good.

As far as attackers so, this one is easy. Really, the decision is Reshiram. He has 130 HP, a decent first attack (only 2 energy and excellent if your opponent can’t 1HKO you) and an amazing second attack. The only downside to “Blue Flare” is that you have to discard two energy to use it. This however is not a problem because of the awesome energy acceleration Fire has as well as cards like Energy Retrieval and Fisherman.

You have two choices for energy acceleration. First you have Emboar who can put as many R Energy down each turn as you like. His hefty Retreat Cost and so-so attack are pretty negligible because of the lack of decent draggers in this format but the need to have energy in your hand is a real pain. For this reason, run a couple Interviewer’s Questions and Energy Retrieval (or Fisherman). This way after 2 Blue Flares you can use a Fisherman to get it all back and put it down right away.

pokebeach.comThe other alternative is Typhlosion. He gets energy out of the discard (which should be there after using Ninetales) meaning that you can always take advantage of it. The only downside is that you have to put a damage counter on Reshiram, which crucially brings him into 1HKO territory for opposing Reshirams or Zekroms. Personally I’d go for Emboar, but the options are there.

One side note here is that the non-ability Emboar has a VERY good attack that does 150 (1HKOing Reshiram and Zekrom where Reshiram cannot) so if you run Emboar you can put one of these in easily as an alternate attacker. He is a stage 2 though, hence why he is an inferior attacking option to Reshiram, despite having more HP and a better attack.

You also have to discard all the R Energy attached to him to use the attack so it might be worthwhile sticking a couple of DCE in there if you intend to use him as a viable attacker (rather than just getting the last or a particularly important KO with him).

Finally there are some trainers you should consider when playing Fire. As soon as you get Ninetales up and running you’ll be discarding R Energy to draw cards, so you might as well chuck a couple Engineer’s Adjustments in there to start doing it T1.

You won’t be needing PONT or other hand refreshers due to the Ninetales Draw but you should put a Judge or 2 in just in case you get close to decking out (it also works nicely for disruption). Finally, if you’re using Emboar you really need Interviewer’s Questions to get that energy out of your deck (and, as mentioned before, Fisherman to retrieve it from your discard ready to put down again).

As a quick side not, even though it used R Energy to attack you can’t be using Rayquaza / Deoxys legend here as it is Colourless / Psychic. Sorry. Still, it’s gonna be a beast in HGSS on!

Water

Starter: Relicanth

Main Attackers: Samurott / Kingdra / Wailord / Blastoise

Notable Support Pokémon:

• Feraligatr Prime (Energy Acceleration)
• Floatzel (Energy Acceleration)

Trainers you’ll need: Interviewer’s Questions – Fisherman – Research Record – Rare Candy

Water is a very good option here if for no other reason than the huge amount of Fire decks you’ll see as well as Donphan (which are all weak to Water!). It does however have quite a few nice options of its own.

The starter really has to be Relicanth. He has a lovely attack that basically says you lost-zone any card in your hand and then draw 3 cards. Now I know that lost-zoning a card can be bad but pretty much all the good Water cards are stage 2s, so we need to get a lot of cards and get rolling early and that’s where Relicanth comes in.

This is also why I recommend Research Record. You use that to make sure you have good cards on top and not so good cards go to the bottom of your deck. This also explains the need for Rare Candy.

You could also use Mantine as a starter as he allows you to search for any Water Pokémon. This is pretty useful but only getting one Pokémon isn’t really good enough to use your attack. Personally, I would much prefer to have the 3 extra cards.

pokebeach.comNow in terms of attackers you have several options. Wailord is a beast, but considerably worse when he drops in HP. Kingdra had an excellent Poké-Power (basically a once a turn “Flash Bite” that you can use every turn) and a decent attack doing 60 for just one W Energy. However, 60 won’t get you far and that drops to 40 against Fire Pokémon (well 20 but they have x2 weakness).

You also have Blastoise who can hit anyone for 100 (can anyone say cheap bench prizes?) and Samurott (with the Ability) who can tank (his ability is like Donphan’s Poké-Body in that it reduces damage done by 20) and hit for BIG damage if you can get enough energy on him (70 + 10 for each W Energy).

The problem is that you need lots of energy to attack, luckily we have energy acceleration. Now we have Feraligatr whose Poké-Power mimics Emboar’s Ability (ok, you can only put energy onto Water Pokémon but you’ll only be running Water Pokémon) but again you’ll be needing Interviewer’s Questions and Fisherman to make the most of it.

A second option would be Floatzel. He has a power allowing you to attach a W Energy to him every turn (in addition to your regular attachment). This combos brilliantly with Blastoise (who has a power allowing you to move W Energy from benched Pokémon to Blastoise) but if you’re running with another attacker you’ll want to go for Feraligatr instead.

One last point about Water is that you can cover your weakness. By using Feraligatr you have a viable attacker (who can 2HKO any Pokémon in the format) who is NOT weak to Lightning. And that is a very, very good thing. You will also be hitting all Fire decks AND Donphan (who will be popular) for weakness. This is awesome!

If you’re running Feraligatr, be sure to use PlusPowers as this will give you 140 against Pokémon weak to Water, enough to kill Reshirams and Donphans.

Lightning

Starter: Zekrom

Main attackers: Zekrom / Magnezone Prime / Raichu Prime / Lanturn Prime

Notable support Pokémon:

• Magnezone Prime (Draw Engine)
• Pachirisu (Energy Acceleration)

Trainers you’ll need: Energy Switch – Interviewer’s Questions – Rare Candy

Lightning is going to appeal to people just so that they can use Zekrom. So, should you use it? Well, in theory there are some very good attacking options.

Firstly we have Zekrom who can start attacking T2 with “Outrage” or possible even “Bolt Strike” (see below) and has a hefty 130HP. You also have Magnezone Prime’s “Lost Burn” which (assuming you have enough energy on the table) can 1HKO anything on the field.

Other noteworthy attackers include Raichu Prime and Lanturn Prime. Raichu Prime can do 100 which is nice for a Stage 1 but you have to discard all 3 energy, meaning it’s hard to use it every turn. Pachirisu is nice here as you can drop 2 energy with Pachirisu, use Raichu’s Poké-Power to move them onto him and then drop a third from your hand, meaning you’ll be hitting for 120 every turn.

In theory this is awesome, but you’ll need 3 L Energy in hand every turn. This is possible with Energy Retrieval and Fisherman but it’s likely to let you down a bit. Still, it’s easier than trying to use Zekrom as, without Shaymin, the only way to move energy onto him is using 2 Energy Switch (although once you have him up and running he doesn’t discard energy…. he just dies really quickly!).

pokebeach.comYou also have Lanturn Prime who (for 3 energy) does 70 damage with 10 more for every energy you have in play. So, if you have lots of energy in play when he can be very, very good.

So, both Magnezone Prime and Lanturn Prime need lot of energy on your side of the board and Zekrom needs lots of energy attached; this is where Pachirisu comes in. He has a very handy Poké-Power which allows you to attach 2 Electric energy to him (from your hand) when you put him on the bench.

This means you’ll need Interviewer’s Questions to have energy in your hand and (if you want Zekrom to have speed) you’ll need to add in Energy Switch. I know it’s not a terribly popular card but without Lucian’s Assignment (rotated) or Shaymin (he’s a Grass Pokémon and not eligible in a Lightning deck in this tournament) it’s the only way to power him up quicker.

I think probably the best way to run Lightning-type is to use Magnezone as a draw engine and have either Raichu, Zekrom or Lanturn to start the game. At the end you should be able to clear up with Magnezone’s “Lost Burn”. You’ll need Energy Retrieval and plenty of Pachirisu and Seeker to fully abuse it mind you.

There is a MASSIVE problem if you want to play Lightning though: Donphan. This dude will be popular and he will almost certainly be hitting any of your Pokémon for 120 T2. If the Donphan play is clever he will also be playing PlusPowers. This makes Electric decks verging on unplayable.

You may get lucky because the amount of Fire players will bring Water decks but, as discussed above, they should be playing Feraligatr so you can’t even take full advantage that way. You also have the ability to 1HKO Donphan using Lanturn (by using his Poké-Power to make him water and hit for weakness) but you’ll then be 1HKO back so it’s far from an awesome counter.

Metal

Starter: Skarmory

Main attacker: Umm…. wait…. it’s coming to me…. nope…. sorry….

Notable Support Pokémon:

• Klinklang (Energy Manipulation)

Trainers you’ll need: LOTS of hand refresh – Seeker – Switch

I have some advice regarding playing a Metal deck at the Professor Cup. Don’t. Your main attackers will be weak to Fire and Fire will be rampant! (It was played by 14 of the 34 people at the European Professor Cup). Not only that but it will be slow.

Scizor is a good Pokémon who can shut down many decks with his “Red Armour” Poké-Body but good players will just not attach Rescue Energy or Double Colourless. Of course, this is irrelevant as there is no Steel-typed Scyther, making Scizor ineligible. Steelix is a beast but is also ineligible as Onix is a Fighting type.

Now if you do choose Steel then Skarmory is a good starter (allowing you to start loading Special Metals T1) and then you’ll need a LOT of hand refresh to continually make sure you have the cards you need. I mention Klinklang above and his Ability (allowing you to move around your M Energy as you like) can be useful for building up a reserve attackers while your first one is dying but he’s a Stage 2 and really not that good.

You will also need to use Switch and Seeker to heal to deny your opponent prizes (unless they run Fire, then you won’t get a chance to switch before you die).

The weakness issue really kills Metal. It is weak to Fire (which will be huge) and basically nothing is weak to Metal. Well, Mamoswine, but he’s soooo good that nobody has managed to harness his true power yet. Also, there are no good attackers as the two main ones evolve from non-Metal Pokémon. Ok, fine, Aggron. He’s not good but I suppose it would be rude not to name a Metal attacker. You can use Aggron. But he’s rubbish.

Darkness

pokebeach.comStarter: Sneasel

Main attackers: Mandibuzz / Houndoom (both)

Notable Support Pokémon:

• Weavile (Disruption)
• Houndoom Prime (Disruption)

Trainers you’ll need: Judge – Team Rocket’s Trickery

This could be a bit of a dark horse (get it?). Sorry, I only said that as a joke, Dark isn’t really very viable. Personally I think Tyranitar Prime and both Umbreons would be very useful and make a good deck. Here we run into the same problem as Metal, they evolve from non-Dark Pokémon and are therefore ineligible.

It’s not all bad though; the non-Prime Houndoom has good attacks (for cheap) and Houndoom Prime’s Poké-Power allows you to flip a coin and burn the active Pokémon if you hit heads, which will be especially good as there are several high-retreat attackers that will see play (Donphan, Reshiram etc). Mandibuzz is also good as he has the ability to snipe for cheap prizes and has an attack this is especially good against Stage 2 Pokémon, though less of these will see play for obvious reasons.

You also have Weavile whose Poké-Power allows you to choose any card from the opponent’s hand and discard it, potentially killing their set-up.

Zoroark can be pretty good, allowing you to search for any card from your deck for just a D Energy and allowing you to copy one of the opposing Pokémon’s attacks for a DCE, but he can easily be played around and is only really good as a teach against Pokémon like Reshiram and Yanmega Prime. Awesome as a tech but not good enough to carry the deck.

The problem really is that there aren’t any really good attacking options. You can have some pretty good disruption with Weavile and Houndoom and it might be worth throwing in some Judge and Team Rocker’s Trickery to add to the disruption, but without an awesome main attacker it’s not looking good. You even have Special D Energy to add damage to your attacks but with what I’ve already said, it’s pretty irrelevant.

Weakness wise, it’s not a good thing being weak to Fighting (as discussed above) but at least you can cover this with Mandibuzz who resists Fighting. You won’t be able to take too much advantage of typing though as the only notable Pokémon weak to Dark (Gengar and Mismagius) are unlikely to see play. Never mind.

Psychic

pokebeach.comStarter: Drowzee / Mime Jr.

Main Attackers: Crobat Prime / Gengar Prime / Mismagius

Notable Support Pokémon:

• Hypno (Disruption)
• Mr. Mime (Disruption)
• Spiritomb (Disruption)

Trainers you’ll need: Rare Candy – Lost World / Seeker / Twins (If playing Lostgar)

Psychic is an odd choice. On the one hand you can look at the support and it looks awesome! Hypno’s Poké-Power can send their active to sleep (from the bench) if you hit heads, Slowking allows you to rearrange the top 3 cards of either player’s deck (so send them to sleep and starve them of good cards) while Mr. Mime allows you to look at their hand if you want (at the cost of showing them yours) and Slowking Prime even acts as extra draw (though it’s risky because your opponents picks which of the top 2 cards of your deck you get).

Of course, both these Slowking would be good, if there was a Psychic Slowpoke. There isn’t. Ah, well that makes things a little more annoying!

We do start seeing a familiar problem though in that there are no outstanding attackers. Crobat Prime is my personal favorite, being able to snipe for 30 for just a P Energy or “Severe Poison” (opponent takes 40 damage (!) between turns). You can also use Mismagius but with no way to trainer lock you’ll be taking a gamble. You can include Mr. Mime to reduce the gamble, but it still leaves you a little stuffed if they have a hand empty of trainers.

pokebeach.comThe other option is, of course, Lostgar. You can run Gengar Prime with Mime. Jr. and Lost World to try and get their Pokémon into the Lost Zone with “Hurl into Darkness”. You can also use Seeker to force them to pick up Pokémon, Mr. Mime to check whether they have any in hand or Spiritomb’s “Spooky Whirlpool” Poké-Power to refresh their hand in the hope of putting some Pokémon in it.

I have to say this is viable, though if they get a Reshiram OR Emboar going it’ll be getting 2HKOs (or 1HKOs if they can hit PlusPowers) and you’ll probably be unable to KO it at all. Mismagius could help to KO them but they’re likely to see it coming and just burn all their trainers. Possibly too slow but could surprise people. Also, if you’re playing this, play Twins as you can properly abuse it as you’re not taking prizes.

In terms of starters, I see two good choices. Drowzee is a very good one, being able to drag a Pokémon off the bench the bench and send it to sleep, good for early disruption and buying time to set up. You can also use Mime Jr. who Lost-Zones the top card of your opponents deck and then falls asleep (and, being a baby, is invulnerable while asleep). You stand a good chance of losing a Pokémon with Mime Jr. but you also should buy some time to set up and stand a good chance of Lost-Zoning a Pokémon or two while you do.

Type is largely irrelevant here. The only things weak to Psychic are generally Psychic (though you may get lucky and get to take down a Vileplume) and Dark in unlikely to be popular, so your Gengars and Mismagius should be safe.

Grass

pokebeach.comStarter: Tropius or Sunkern

Main Attackers: Jumpluff / Yanmega

Notable Support Pokémon:

• Sunflora (Set-up and Recovery)
• Serperior (Healing)
• Roserade (Disruption)
• Celebi Prime (Energy Acceleration)
• Meganium Prime (Energy Manipulation)
• Vileplume (Trainer-Locking Goodness!)

Trainers you’ll need: Copycat / Judge / Defender / PlusPower

Grass, I think, could be a serious contender. The Grass Pokémon we can choose from have terrific support, low-cost attacks and a fairly quick set up, but have the same old Grass problem of being too fragile.

In terms of starters you have two choices; Sunkern can be used to give you easier access to a T2 Sunflora (essential in quick set-up and recovery) but Sunkern is awfully fragile and himself is pretty useless T1. Tropius is pretty good right from the off. For a single G Energy you get to flip two coins; for each heads you get to search for a Grass Pokémon. This will average at one Grass Pokémon searched per turn and is pretty good. Personally, I would go for Sunkern as the T2 Sunflora will help for the entire game.

As for your main attacker, I see two good choices and I think they should run together. These being Yanmega Prime and Jumpluff. Now there are other options; Torterra can be a good tank and Roserade can hit big if you can get energy on the field for instance, but I think the choice has to be Yanmega and Jumpluff.

Jumpluff does 10 damages multiplied by the number of Pokémon on the field, all for one G Energy. It also has a very useful attack in “Leaf Guard” which, although low on damage, prevents some damage the next turn, so is very good if you only need 30 damage (or less) for the knockout.

pokebeach.comYanmega on the other hand does not have such nicely priced attacks, but his Poké-Body allows you to attack for free if you have the same number of cards in your hand as your opponent. So, run 4 Copycat and 4 Judge then! You can then snipe for 40 damage (bye bye baby Pokémon) or hit the active for 70.

The good thing about Grass is that they have fantastic support. Sunflora is absolutely invaluable as its Poké-Power allows you to search for any Grass Pokémon and put it in your hand. This aids set-up and recovery no end. You also have Serperior whose ability allows you to heal 10 from all your Pokémon between turns.

Some less useful Pokémon would include Roserade (attaching a Rainbow energy causes confusion AND poison in the defending Pokémon) and have Celebi who allows you to attach an extra energy if he’s active but without free retreat and with low cost attackers, it’s not going to help much (unless you can find a Switch). Finally there’s Meganium who lets you manipulate your energy around the field, although this becomes useless when you’ll often have 2 or less Energy on the field.

The low cost attacks do have the massive advantage that you can run a lower energy count and a higher Trainer count. I would suggest using this space for the most consistency cards possible and also adding PlusPowers and Defenders, taking care of the massive downside of low HP and sometimes low attack power.

The biggest problem here is not weakness (Zekrom kills Yanmega and Reshiram kills Jumpluff regardless of weakness) but low HP. Jumpluff is a Stage 2 with 90HP and Yanmega is a Stage 1 with 110. This is not good. You need to get going early and concentrate on recovery, sniping with Yanmega and hitting early Pokémon for cheap prizes and using Jumpluff to take down bigger beasts and close out the game.

So, probably not the best play (especially without a draw engine) but still a decent bet.

Colourless

pokebeach.comStarter: Cleffa or Smeargle

Main Attackers: Cinccino / Pidgeot

Notable Support Pokémon:

• Noctowl (Draw)
• Ditto (Disruption)

Trainers you’ll need: Judge – Copycat – PlusPower – Defender

Now, the big advantage with going Colorless is the starters. You have a choice between two excellent starters who can help you set up faster than the opposition and we all know that speed is key.

They both have up and down sides though. Cleffa has a free attack that allows you to shuffle your hand into deck and draw 6 cards (I.e. a free Professor Oak’s New Theory). It then falls asleep and, as it’s a baby Pokémon, can’t be damaged while asleep. It only has 30HP though so if it wakes up before your opponent’s turn you lose a prize.

Smeargle has a rubbish attack, but his Poké-power “Portrait” allows you to copy a supporter from your opponent’s hand. This is mandatory though so if you hit a lone judge or Professor Juniper then you’re in trouble. It might even be worth starting with Smeargle, using Portrait then attaching energy to retreat and using Cleffa. This would give you your supporter, plus an extra supporter PLUS a PONT, all on T1. There’s very few other places you’ll be getting that!

You can also get yourself a Noctowl on the bench as it’s a Stage 1 and allows you to draw an extra card a turn. This is good (not for a proper HGSS on deck, but certainly for a Colourless only deck). It also has an attack which, as long as you have the same number of cards in hand as your opponent, can be pretty good (hence the Judge and Copycat). So, all in all, it seems that setting up and recovery is very do-able. So, who do you attack with?

pokebeach.comThere’s 2 choices here and one is better than the other. The obvious choice is Cinccino. He is a stage 1 who, for a Double Colourless Energy, can hit for 100 (providing you have a full bench). He is unfortunately quite weak with only 90 HP and a Fighting weakness, which is bad as you should expect to see some Donphan around.

This is where Pidgeot comes in. He has a much better 120 HP and a Fighting resistance. I have spoken with Grass and Water about covering weakness and Pidgeot allows you to do that here. He is a stage 2 but getting a quick Cinccino (as well as having Cleffa and Smeargle early game) should give you time to get him out.

Now, the thing that makes Pidgeot very interesting is his attack “Headwind” It only does 20 damage but it makes the defending Pokémon’s attacks cost CC more next turn. With several high retreat Pokémon running around and no Unown Q this makes it far more likely that the defending Pokémon will be unable to switch out.

Facing a Donphan will mean that (unless he can find a Switch) it will take FFF to “Earthquake” and a frankly ridiculous FFFFF to “Heavy Impact” (although you won’t actually be doing any damage as the 20 you would do is covered by his body). It will also make Zekrom’s “Bolt Strike” cost LLCCC and Reshiram’s “Blue Flare” cost FFCCC, although the energy acceleration they have might negate that problem. The extra bonus with this is that is only costs a DCE.

The last thing to note about this is that you should ABUSE Special Energy. Recover Energy and DCE can be used without the threat of Scizor (see above). Now people may run Lost Remover, but few will so off you go!

Fighting

pokebeach.comStarter: Phanpy (maybe Tyrogue)

Main Attackers: Donphan Prime / Machamp Prime

Notable Support Pokémon:

• None

Trainers you’ll need: Interviewer’s Questions – Rare Candy – Switch – Seeker – PlusPower – A lot of hand refresh

Fighting is one of the simplest decks to play at the Professor Cup and there really is only way to play it: Start with Phanpy, get a Donphan rolling as soon as possible and then use Machamp to finish out the game.

You’ll need PlusPowers to get those kills as soon as possible and you’ll need Switch and Seeker for healing when you can’t use Machamp Prime’s “Fighting Tag” to switch out. You should also run some Energy Switch to allow you to not have to manually re-attach all energy when you Seeker a Pokémon to heal it. I would suggest Interviewer’s Questions as well so you always have energy as you NEED to be attaching every turn.

Other than that you just need to make as consistent a list as you can. Here’s what you MUST be able to do when running Fighting:

1. Start with Phanpy
2. Get a Donphan using “Earthquake” T1
3. Get a Donphan using “Heavy Impact” T3
4. Have a Machamp with DCE ready to Fighting Tag by T4 (or T3 if possible)
5. Have a second Machamp ready for when first one gets hurt

pokebeach.comNow, having no real draw engine will hurt so you need a VERY consistent list and LOTS of hand refresh. If you can’t keep up then you WILL lose but if you can then you’ll probably win. This will be a very hard-hitting deck and (as none of your Pokémon should die, or at least should die with energy attached) then your recovery should be very good.

Tyrogue can be used a starter, doing 30 for no energy and then being invulnerable for as long as he stays asleep but I recommend against this. Donchamp needs to be played as fast as possible and if you start with Tyrogue and he doesn’t wake up by T2 then you don’t get a T2 Donphan (unless you draw a Switch and that’s difficult without a proper draw engine).

He can give you a free 30 damage on T1, but it’s not worth the risk of whiffing on the T2 Donphan. Give him a miss.

In terms of weakness, Psychic will not be played much and if Water is played then just focus on Machamp to get around Donphan’s Water weakness. Sorted.

One Sentence(ish) Rundowns

Fire:

Awesome draw engine, superb energy acceleration and hard-hitting. An excellent choice and sure to be the most popular so get ready for some mirror matches.

Water:

Superb energy acceleration and choice of good attackers (including sniping). You can hit the most popular decks for weakness but without a draw engine you may be outsped.

Lightning:

pokebeach.comA superb draw engine (if you can get that Stage 2 out) and some hard hitters, but energy acceleration isn’t what it could be and the weakness will kill you.

Metal:

No good attackers and a weakness to the most popular deck. NO!

Darkness:

Excellent disruption and Stage 1s speed you up, but with no Tyranitar you’ll be struggling to take down the big boys. Zoroark can be fun but unreliable.

Psychic:

Excellent disruption and some chance to get creative, but unlikely to succeed without a big hitter.

Grass:

Amazing support and a choice of attackers. Lack of a draw engine could hurt speed but Sunflora plus low-cost attacks makes this viable. Low HP will hurt.

Colorless:

Excellent set-up and recovery as well as abuse of Special Energies are let down by fragility and slightly low attack power.

Fighting:

Very hard-hitting and tank-able, but you need a very consistent list to make the most of it.

What should you play?

Fire or Water.

pokebeach.com

These are the only choices I would recommend. Things can be done with Colorless and Fighting but really nothing can match Fire for their draw engine, big hitting and recovery. For this reason I see Water as a good alternative if you’re not in the mood for hundreds of mirror matches, but you’ll have to keep your list tight to make sure you can keep up.

What would I play?

I’d play Water, because I hate mirror matches and that precludes Fire. I’d use Relicanth to start, Kingdra as a cheap, fast hitter and then Feraligatr for Electric or Fire decks. I might even tech in a Blastoise for some sniping action. I also fancy running a disruption Psychic deck, but I doubt it would be very good.

So, there you have it. I hope it was useful and interesting and hopefully it’ll be useful even if you’re not completing in the professor cup as it says a lot about the new format.

Next year I would LOVE to compete in the Professor Cup, but I’ll probably play in too many tournaments to judge enough to get the points to participate. Never mind.