The Hawk’s Nest: Let’s Have Some Fun

memegenerator.net“I know what you’re thinking. ‘Did he roll one heads or two?’ Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a Sharpedo + Victini, the most powerful combo in the world, and would blow your hand clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”
– airhawk06, or someone… haha

So, I just got done with my finals (promise that’s the last time I bring that up). As a study break for the last two weeks I would play around with my absolute favorite deck: Dirty Harry.

To those of you who don’t know, that opening quote is from Dirty Hairy and thus the name of the deck.

(Mad props to this Facebook page for the picture.)

Now, the core of the deck it obviously Sharpedo TM and Victory Star Victini. These two cards make up the core of the most disruptive deck (potentially) in the format. For those of you who don’t know this here is what the two cards do:

Sharpedo: This is a 90 HP Stage 1 Darkness Pokémon. Its second attack is actually not that bad. For DCC you get to 50 plus the total number of damage on Sharpedo. This attack can do up to 130 damage if you have 80 damage on you (plus up to 40 more if you have Special D Energies attached). Furthermore, you would be surprised how often this happens. However, the other attack is the one to talk about.

pokemon-paradijs.comIts first attack, for one D Energy, does 20 damage. That is not much damage, but the effect can be deadly. The text commands you to flip two coins. If both are head, your opponent discards his entire hand. That’s CRAZY. However, the probability of this happening is somewhere around 25%. So, we pair it with the next card.

Victini: This little 60 HP Fire type is terrible in every way, until you look at its Victory Star Ability. It says that you get to re-flip all flips from your attack. So, with this and Sharpedo, you have roughly a 44% chance of discarding you opponent’s hand. That is a probability we can live with.

So, there is the core of this extremely fun deck. However, that only takes up about 8 slots (3-3 Sharpedo, 2 Victini). What do we do with the rest of the deck? Well, let’s talk about that.

The first thing we need to look into is how we want to run the deck. There are a few options. We can go top deck control style. We can go continuous hand disruption. Or we can just focus on pushing in as many strong attackers as possible into the deck to take over on turn three till the end. My favorite is the top deck control style. So, we will talk about that one last.

Hand Disruption

First let’s talk about the continuous hand disruption version of the deck.

So, the idea here is to discard the hand early (turn 2-4) and then keep that hand down. Also, we have the core of the deck, so we need to look at other possibilities to fill the deck in. In this version of the deck, Houndoom become the preferred partner to the core combo. A sample list would look something like this.

Pokémon – 19 3 Carvanha TM 3 Sharpedo TM 2 Victini NVI 14 4 Houndour UD/CL 3 Houndoom Prime 5/CL 1 Houndoom Prime 1 Cleffa HS/CL

Trainers – 31 4 Pokémon Collector 4 Team Rocket’s Trickery 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory   4 Pokémon Communication 3 Junk Arm 3 Pokémon Catcher 3 Pokégear 3.0 2 Lost Remover 2 Crushing Hammer 1 Energy Search 1 Super Rod

Energy – 10 6 D 4 Special D

pokemon-paradijs.comHere the alternative attacker is Houndoom. For DD, you get to swing for 50 damage. However, the key here is that you force your opponent to discard a card. With Special D Energy, this could be swinging for 70, essentially 2HKOing everything in the format.

The sequence to this deck is to drop an Energy on Carvanha or Houndour turn one. Evolve to Sharpedo turn two and use Stripe Bare. Continue to use Strip Bare (by streaming Sharpdo if it gets KOd) until you hit double heads. Then on the next turn you drop the second energy on Houndoom and use Dark Roar to discard the card you opponent drew the last turn. Then you just keep that hand down.

Furthermore, we have a very solid disruption suit in the Trainer list. We have Pokémon Catcher, Lost Remover, and Crushing Hammer to stall your opponent out and make it even more difficult for them to attack your fragile Pokémon.

And alternative attacker for this formula is Ambipom. With Ambipom you get to do 20 for CC and force your opponent to shuffle two cards back into their deck from their hand.

This might seem like a great idea, but it is really an all or nothing approach to the disruption game. If you fail to get the Strip bare, you just lose. Also, you opponent could top deck a draw Supporter and take right back off on you. So, let’s move to the second idea.

Early Disruption/Strong Attackers

Here, we are aiming for the early Strip Bare, but if we don’t hit it we still have the option to swing for a lot of damage. I will not give a list for this because the trainer lines are very similar to any other stage one deck. You can go find a set out there somewhere. There will be Collectors, Communications, Catchers, PlusPowers, Junk Arms, etc.

The only real decision here to make is what attackers to put into the deck. We would commit roughly 12 spots to attackers and the lines that go with them. Here are the most common solutions for attackers.

Zoroark BLW: This boy is in the same type as Sharpedo. It can abuse DCE. It can abuse SP Darkness. It can hit back with your opponent’s attack very easily.

Cinccino BLW: This is a very versatile attacker that abused DCE. It allows the deck to swing for 100 with a full bench. It is fragile though. So, it has ups and downs.

Donphan Prime: This card is a nice idea right now with all the Lightning Types running around. It can swing for 60 easy and take a lot of 1HKOs.

Terrakion NVI: This can retaliate when your opponent takes out you Sharpedo after the Strip Bare. Then you can wing back for 90 for FC. Then on the next turn you can swing for 90 for FFC. Just as Donhpan, this is out of the type for Sharpedo and really becomes the focus of the deck.

Audino EPO: This 90 HP Basic Pokémon allows you to flip a coin for every energy attached to Audino and do 40 times the number of heads. So, with two DCE, on turn two you could be swinging for 160 damage with ridiculous flips.

Ursaring Prime: This might be my favorite choice for the all out attacking style deck. The main reason is that its basic is very useful. Teddiursa CL, for C, let’s you flip a coin, and if its heads, your opponent is Trainer locked during their turn. This would normally be only a 50% chance. Yet, with Victini, you have closer to a 75%ish chance to lock your opponent.

pokemon-paradijs.comThen Urasring Prime is a 110 HP Stage 1 that abuses DCE. For CCC it does 30 and you discard the top card of your opponent’s deck. For CCCC it does 60. However, its Body says that if you have any damage on Ursaring, its attack does 60 more damage. So it becomes 90 and 120 damage for the two attacks. That is respectable and can be achieved through Rainbow Energy.

This version of the deck has a little bit more sustainability than the first iteration. If you use the normal disruption Trainer suit (Catcher, Lost Remover, Crushing Hammer, Junk Arm) you can still put pressure on your opponent’s deck. It might be the best way to run the deck, but it is not my favorite way.

Top Lock

Now, obviously, none of this is purely original. However, the most comprehensive article we had on Sharpedo/Victini was mainly a tournament report. So, I figured I’d write a bit more about it. Of the literature out there, this version of the deck is the one of the most talked about. However, it is also one of the more dismissed versions. Here is a decklist.

Pokémon – 18 3 Carvanha TM 2 Sharpedo TM 2 Slowpoke UD 2 Slowking HS/CL 2 Victini NVI 14 4 Minccino EPO 3 Cinccino BLW

Trainers – 304 Pokémon Collector 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory 4 Professor Juniper4 Junk Arm3 Pokémon Communication 3 Pokémon Catcher 2 Pokégear 3.0 2 Switch 1 Super Rod 1 Energy Exchanger 1 Lost Remove 1 Crushing Hammer

Energy – 12 4 Special D 4 D 4 Double Colorless

Now, obviously the deck still needed a strong attacker. Well that is where Cinccino comes in. The ability two swing for 100 at the cost of CC is just too convenient to pass up. However, the main difference here is the 2-2 Slowking line.

pokemon-paradijs.comLet’s take a look at Slowking CL. It is a Stage 1 with 80 HP. It has a bad attack and a CC Retreat Cost. So, why in the world would we play this? Because of its Poké-Power. Second Sight lets you look at the top three cards of either deck and rearrange them however you like. This Power itself can win you games. Period. If you opponent has a dead hand around turn two or three you can completely lock them out of the game, even without hitting a Stripe Bare. That is just too good to pass up.

If you do hit the early Strip Bare, you can just completely lock the game down with Second Sight. Furthermore, Second Sight allows you to rearrange your top deck to help with consistency. This always a solid option.

Here, reading your opponent is a key skill to learn with this deck. You need to be able to make educated guesses about the strength of their hand. If their hand is very poor you want to go ahead and take Slowking early and lock the game down. Normally, this is evidenced by lots of draw, pass turns. Or them missing Energy drops.

It doesn’t matter how well a field is set up (except for Magnezone decks :P), if they don’t have Energy, they cannot win. So, controlling that top deck and putting their Energy out of reach is a great thing. Otherwise you want to go for the Strip Bare early.

To make up for the CC Retreat Cost on Slowking we needed a couple Switches, so they get included. Also, we still retain a mini-disruption suit with the single Lost Remover and Crushing Hammer. This can allow you to rid the field of their energy drops.

Also, knowing how and when to use Catcher is very important here. If you can force them to waste Energy drops (every deck except Eelektrik NVI or Typhlosion Prime decks) do it. Also, punish your opponent for putting things out with high Retreat Cost and high attacking costs, such as Terrakion, the Dragons, etc.

pokegym.netAnother key factor with this deck is knowing how to use Rage (Sharpedo’s second attack wisely). I have 1HKO’d many a Kyurem NVI and Cobalion NVI because my opponent’s only choice was to attack with Iron Breaker into a Sharpedo or pass. Then I get to return the hit for 140-150 damage after some Swtich/Retreat shenanigans.

Another important skill to have with this deck is in-game flexibility. Most decks today have their main plan. Thus, it is very easy for a player to focus on that one plan. Well, here the obvious plan is to hit early Strip Bares and then nick them for damage over time. However, Cinccino really opens this deck. This can also be played as a very aggressive deck.

Knowing when to go for the aggression and when to go for the Strip Bare is very important. If you have the ability to put pressure (ie. Early KOs) on set up deck’s basics and stage ones, take it. Go ahead and KO that lone Magnemite, Tynamo, or Cyndaquil. It’s OK to neutralize a threat early, then go for strip bare in the mid game when they are trying to recover from the early pressure.

Overall, this is a competitive deck, but not one that you should expect to win a lot of tournaments with. I do feel that it can top cut a decent percentage of the time if you are really good with it. There are plenty of match ups right now that this deck can hang with. So, I hope you enjoyed reading my write-up about this fun deck because I am having a blast playing it.

Remember the only question you have to answer is: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?