Diaz vs Diaz – Battle of the Brothers

Hey, its Frank Diaz here with another Underground article. It’s been about a year since my last article, and I apologize for the long gap. My last article was on Drapion/Vileplume. Although it was a pretty crazy concept, I know of at least one State Championship win resulting from a player using that article. This time, though, I’ll be going a little more mainstream in terms of decks.

This is primarily a video article. I worked with my brother, Michael Diaz, former US National Champ in Seniors, to produce this video. We played on PlayTCG.me, a nice, free, browser-based platform for playing online. The reasons to use this over the official online game are twofold. First, PlayTCG provides much easier access to all of the cards. Second, PlayTCG allows players to directly challenge each other, which is critical for getting high quality test games.

Here are the lists for the first matchup, Reshiphlosion vs MewPlume:

Frank Diaz – ReshiPhlosion

Pokémon – 15 4 Reshiram BLW 4 Cyndaquil HS 2 Quilava HS 4 Typhlosion Prime 1 Cleffa HS

Trainers – 33 4 Pokémon Collector 4 Rare Candy 4 Junk Arm 4 Pokémon Communication 2 Pokémon Catcher 3 PlusPower 3 Professor Juniper 2 Professor Oak’s New Theory 4 Sage’s Training 1 Switch 1 Revive 1 Energy Retrieval

Energy – 12 11 R 1 Rescue

Mike Diaz – MewPlume

Pokémon – 24 3 Oddish UD 1 Gloom UD 2 Vileplume UD 4 Mew Prime 1 Jirachi UL 4 Yanma TM 4 Yanmega Prime 2 Muk UD 1 Smoochum HS 1 Jumpluff HS 1 Aipom UL

Trainers – 26 4 Copycat 3 Pokémon Communication 3 Rare Candy 4 Pokémon Collector 4 Sage’s Training 4 Judge 4 Twins

Energy – 10 5 P 1 Double Colorless 4 Rainbow

Brief analysis of the matchup:

MewPlume would like to get Plume out ASAP and See Off a Muk with Mew Prime. Then, every time a Typhlosion comes out, drag it up. In this way, it can deal with Typhlosions one at a time, and ReshiPhlosion can never get ahead.

ReshiPhlosion would like to get out two Typhlosions at the same time. If it can do this, it can get around Sludge Drag while still getting energies in play. A third Quilava would do wonders for this deck in this matchup.

What actually happened (spoiler alert): In this game ReshiPhlosion, gets a great start to a subpar MewPlume start. The Mew does what it can to make a comeback. Given one or two more turns, it seems likely that a devastating Jirachi attack would win it for Mew.

Here are the videos:

Frank Diaz point of view:

COMING THIS WEEKEND – This half of the video isn’t ready yet, but we’ll notify you when it’s up.

Mike Diaz point of view (commentary by both Mike and Frank):

Zekrom vs Gothitelle

Here are the lists for the second matchup, Zekrom vs Gothitelle:

Frank Diaz – Zekrom

Pokémon – 12 4 Zekrom BLW 3 Tornadus EPO 2 Pachirisu CL 2 Shaymin UL 1 Unown UD

Trainers – 32 4 Pokémon Collector 3 Dual Ball 4 Cheren 3 Professor Juniper 3 Professor Oak’s New Theory 3 Junk Arm 2 Super Scoop Up 3 Pokémon Catcher 2 PlusPower 2 Defender 1 Switch 1 Energy Search 1 Seeker

Energy – 16 10 L 4 Double Colorless 2 D

Mike Diaz – Gothitelle

Pokémon – 20 4 Gothita EPO 43 2 Gothorita EPO 46 4 Gothitelle EPO 47 3 Solosis BLW 1 Duosion BLW 2 Reuniclus BLW 2 Zekrom BLW 1 Cleffa HS 1 Pichu HS

Trainers – 29 4 Pokémon Collector 4 Cheren 3 Professor Oak’s New Theory 3 Professor Juniper 1 Seeker 1 Max Potion 4 Junk Arm 4 Pokémon Communication 1 Pokémon Catcher 4 Rare Candy

Energy – 11 8 P 3 Double Colorless

Brief analysis of the matchup:

Gothitelle basically just needs to get a comfortable set up in this matchup and should have a good time. Without techs, Zekrom won’t be able to 1HKO Goth, and Reuniclus with heal should grab a win. You’ll notice that there aren’t any Twins in this list, which is a departure from the standard. This was my idea, and I don’t encourage other players using it.

I wanted to try out a list which was a little more aggressive with draw power, upping PONT, Juniper, and Cheren. I also had Ross’ deck in mind. In that matchup, Twins is fairly useless. That said, I think the video shows the major downside of this dubious play.

For Zekrom, if you don’t have a tech, this is a scary matchup. You basically get set up asap, then swing away. A couple Catchers early can also help. Constant pressure with the hope of overwhelming the healing power of Gothitelle – that’s the plan.

What actually happened (spoiler alert): Zekrom gets a strong start and continues to put pressure on Goth. Eventually Gothitelle can’t find anywhere to keep all of its damage.

Here are the videos:

Frank Diaz point of view:

Mike Diaz point of view:

COMING THIS WEEKEND – This half of the video isn’t ready yet, but we’ll notify you when it’s up.

Creating this article was such a learning experience, as I don’t know too much about recording videos and doing voiceovers. J-Wittz is usually the man for that here. There definitely flaws with the video/audio (Skype pop-ups on the corner of my screen in the Zek/Goth game make me want to scream), but for a first video, I think they turned out well.

In the future, I’m sure I’ll be able to get you a better quality video. That said, I think the content here has a ton of value. Being able to watch full games is a great aspect of this internet age of Pokémon.

Hope you enjoyed this article. As always, leave me some feedback, comments, and questions on the forums.

-Frank Diaz

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