Time to write another CotD, as I finally have information again to give back to 6P. This is on Terrakion NVI, whom as you may know, won VA States Championship. There is a lot to be said about the big guy, but first let me clarify: this States victory is not the sole purpose I am writing this CotD.
In fact, I have been testing a TrodeBox for some time that focuses primarily on Terrakion, and thus have been planning to write a CotD on him for a while – the fact he is doing well/plowing through our current meta and taking this win (and maybe others?) only makes him more relevant (not to mention I have tested with mono Terrakion as well and enjoyed it – more on that below).
HP
Anywho, as a fellow 130 HP Basic, there are a few things to said. One issue I found myself in with TrodeBox – using Terrakion and Kyurem – was that, although I could blow an Electrode Prime to power them up in one turn, they only lasted that one turn. In our format, when a Mewtwo EX can 1HKO you so easily if you have three Energy on your Active, this simply was not working.
In mono Terrakion, however, you avoid this HP/Energy issue with the help of Exp. Share (which, honestly, I never thought I would find myself using until this deck came along). I will go into Terrakion’s attacks more below.
Beyond that, 130 HP on a Basic is still a nice touch, and obviously it is enough to pull you through games in which you are relying entirely on this Pokémon. With only giving up 1 Prize, you often will find yourself happy to see a Terrakion (or any non-Pokémon-EX) get KO’d to abuse Retaliate and Twins and keep you well on pace with the prize race.
ATTACKS
First, we have Retaliate. As mentioned before, with the help of Exp. Share, the two-Energy cost of this attack becomes essentially just your normal Energy attachment per turn, in a mono Terrakion deck running four Exp. Share.
In other decks, it is still a low-cost attack that can make or break a situation, due to it being a potential 180 damage for two Energy against a huge chunk of our meta right now (Eelektrik line, Zekrom, Magnezone Prime line, Thundurus EPO, Zebstrika NDE line, Zapdos, Zekrom-EX, Regigigas-EX, even Zoroark if anyone still plays him).
In essence, this attack is either a hard or soft counter to most everything, sort of like an insurance policy you take out on your Active Pokémon when you have a Terrakion on the Bench with one to three Energy or just an Exp. Share, as now your opponent cannot just blindly take prizes. Even with Catcher and Switch running rampant, it is hard to avoid this attack in any deck that runs two or more Terrakion.
Next is Land Crush. With the 90 damage, this beautiful attack will 2-shot any non-Eviolited Pokémon in the format right now (correct me if I am wrong here). The three-Energy cost is beautiful in that a Terrakion that Retaliated last turn now just requires the normal Energy attachment (assuming it survives – this format is crazy how fast and high damage it is becoming) to continue the 90-damage pace and ensure the damage, regardless of whether or not you lose another Pokémon.
The issue with Land Crush, however, is also the Energy cost as well. Requiring two Fighting energy makes using this attack much more difficult in decks that are splashing in a Terrakion with Rainbow Energy/Prism Energy (Electrode Prime being not so bad, but still a gamble).
Rainbow alone is sort of like suicide as it brings you down to the unmagical 120 HP easier-1HKO-range, and, unless you run F Energy, getting two Prism on this guy can be quite tricky. Hence the fluidity of mono Terrakion in running basic F Energy to streamline the attack.
There are only two big names out there currently that resist Fighting type, and those are Shaymin EX and Tornadus. I delve into them specifically in the Matchups section below.
WEAKNESS
As far as weaknesses go in our format, this is one of the very strongest. The only Grass Pokémon that really see play right now are Celebi Prime (who will not be attacking), Shaymin EX (causes trouble, but would probably be 1HKOing you anyway due to usually coming out late game, and thankfully has a workable HP), and Virizion NVI who simply stomps you unless you 1HKO it. Virizion is not seeing as much play, but I have seen it starting to be teched into CMT decks (it fits so easily in) to counter Terrakion decks. More on these specific matchups below.
RETREAT
The four retreat is a blessing in that it is Heavy Ball compatible, but beyond that, there is nothing enjoyable about it. Catcher is a nuisance to this guy (particularly in a non-mono Terrakion deck) and requires heavy lines of Switch. Sometimes, you cannot always get the Switches out, thus needing Twins to snag one, and you fall behind.
Manual retreat is pretty much ridiculous (although I have played a game where I manually retreated the same Terrakion twice…). This means combining Terrakion for the Retaliate aspect in a slow deck like Vileplume UD can be pretty sketchy – nothing is worse than having one stuck as your active and knowing that if you attach Energy to it, it will be KO’d.
Thus, you inadvertently allow your opponent to set up, even though you got out a Vileplume by T2 or T3 (not the same lone Energy argument as we saw in Donphan Prime for Truth decks ages ago).
A FEW TERRAKION MATCHUPS
MEWTWO EX
As I briefly mentioned earlier, due to the nature of Terrakion’s attacks, Mewtwo EX is not as scary here as he is to most other Pokémon. Because Retaliate only takes two Energy, you can have a Terrakion on the bench with either one or no Energy on him (as long as it has an Exp. Share), and still be able to do 90 the next turn if you lose a Pokémon. This means Terrakion is not easy Catcher fodder for Mewtwo while still being a threat – it will take five to seven Energies on Mewtwo to 1HKO you.
On top of that, your next turn you attach to your Terrakion with one Energy and you now 2HKO that same Mewtwo. Obviously things can go wrong here, and of course Eviolite exists, which is why I stress the importance of Lost Remover and Crushing Hammer in a mono Terrakion deck, to slow down that Mewtwo and make the 2HKO very probable.
TORNADUS EPO
Ah, yes. One of the few popular names in the format right now that resists poor Terrakion. The resistance is not that crucial except in the beginning of the game, due to the non-revenge Retaliate only doing 30, which translates to ten on this guy. This makes 2-shotting him more difficult (as can easily be done with Thundurus without losing a Pokémon), requiring either two Land Crushes or a sacrificed prize.
In addition, Tornadus is often paired with Celebi Prime and thus 2-shots you as well, often do 80 damage by turn one with the help of DCE. On top of that, with Skyarrow Bridge out, the Tornadus can simply fall back to another (or a Mewtwo EX/Virizion NVI) and put you in a million miles of trouble. Thus, we begin to see some the flaws in mono Terrakion that require teching to fix consistently.
SHAYMIN EX
Same argument as Tornadus as far as 2-shotting; Shaymin hits for weakness while resisting you. Ultimately the 2-Prize reward for a 110 HP makes Shaymin more appetizing than Tornadus or Virizion; however, this dude will one shot you (which can be set up in one turn with Celebi Prime) with either 1 Prize taken and a PlusPower, or 2 Prizes onward – meaning he can sometimes take two Terrakion off ya before you wipe ‘em out in a mono Terrakion deck (with the probable help of Catcher), evening out the prize field.
While this may not seem so bad, the tables turn pretty quickly if you have trouble reviving those Terrakion, or do not recover quite as fast as they do.
VIRIZION NVI
Same argument as Tornadus as far as 2-shotting with the abuse of retreat goes, Virizion hits for weakness. Again, this guy can be hitting you for 80 as early as turn one as well, and then it will only be 1HKO after that. While you will, of course, kill him off with a Retaliate, eventually, no matter what, they stay ahead in the prize race due to the non-EX factor.
This makes Virizion a formidable foe. Double PlusPower is your ally here for the 1HKO revenge Retaliate or Land Crush, and one pulled off with a hand disruption beforehand, like N or Judge, to avoid the quick recovery next turn can seal the deal for a little while, if indeed they only tech one or two to counter you.
TYPHLOSION PRIME
The only other card I have heard of giving mono Terrakion real trouble; while the above scenarios I have actually encountered in testing, due to TyRam being not that popular anymore, I have not encountered this myself. This issue is that Flare Destroy will consistently defeat your manual Energy attachment for the turn, leaving you always one Energy behind, even with Exp. Share, until at least one or two Terrakion are KO’d. All in all, I would not worry too much about this – the same argument is applied for Crushing Hammer after all.
As I mentioned in the forums, unless the Typhlosion is active and hitting by T2 or T3 with Flare Destroy, you should be able to see it coming and use Catcher/Crushing Hammer to disrupt the flow early enough before they are entirely set up with the big momma. I cannot speak entirely confidently on the matter, however, so I thought I would note him as a threat nonetheless.
MONO TERRAKION DECK CONCLUSION
In a totally stale Electric meta, this deck can really shine. Otherwise, it is too simple and limited to be able to handle a wide variety of matchups. In other words, as time goes on, either this deck will have to find suitable techs that fit without ruining consistency (it is a very flexible deck after all), or fade away.
The likes of Tornadus and Virizion with free retreat is hard to stomach when you only have Terrakion to help and you find yourself relying on Crushing Hammer/hand disruption to stand a chance in the prize race (and both being so easy to tech to counter your whole deck).
On a personal side note, mirror matchup against mono Terrakion is perhaps the most boring game of all time.
FUTURE OF TERRAKION
If indeed in the next set we see a rise in play of Dark type due to a built-in Trainer Energy acceleration of Dark Patch and auto free retreat of Darkrai EX, this is only good news for Terrakion.
We can also add Raikou-EX on the list of our 1HKOers, while Tornadus EX is just terrifying – I mean, let’s be honest – with a Skyarrow Bridge out, he is a Basic with 170 HP, free retreat, can do 60 for a lone DCE, and 100 for a DCE and a G Energy from Celebi Prime – in other words, 100 damage first turn instead of the 80 we are seeing now from CMT. My goodness.
Terrakion MASTERRACE
Nice article!
Terrakion doesn’t OHKO Zapdos. Zapdos resists fighting.
Zapdos has Fighting Resistance, not weakness. Terrakion doesn’t hit it for 180 against Zapdos. One error I found there.
Otherwise, good COTD, and TERRAKION FTW!
Woops, thanks for the catch.
I love Terrakion now, nice COTD :D Grass weakness+Fighting type is just amazing in this format!
“this beautiful attack will two-shot any non-Eviolited Pokemon in the format right now”
RSL or CDL with indigo plateau and ability leavenny in play
Ability Conkeldurr
or defender(s) on pokemon.
As if any of these (aside from defender) ever see play anymore =/
Hehe, I knew that statement was too broad to make.
Add Nidoking TM with 3 Queens and Wailord DB
Nice article!
Good article! I know it’s a Terrakion article so that might be why you didn’t mention it, but Landorus is a great addition to a Mono-Terrakion deck. It’s main use is to be a Durant counter, which is sorely needed. Good luck Retaliating against Durants that never kill you, and deny you energy whilst milling it. But Landorus comes in and says “Thanks for the energy in the discard!” and then proceeds to sweep like the dickens. He’s also great if you use Sages Training, as you can attack for 80 as early as turn 2, and he will also 1HKO a Zekrom EX with a pluspower, whilst 1HKO’ing the rest of the electric format.
And the final merit of Landorus NVI is that his 1 retreat cost means the CMT matchup gives you the free retreater between turns, so you can determine your plan AFTER you find out your top-deck and after you have supported etc… :)
Thanks for this comment. Very useful to know – indeed the Durant matchup was an autoloss the few times I encountered it. I had seen Landorus techs running about, but had not yet tried it at the time of writing this.
My 11-yr-old cousin is gonna retire his Reshiphlosion that he’s been playing for six months and try out Tetrakion. I can’t wait to see what it’s like – it looks pretty interesting to me.
I built the deck with 2 Mew, 3 Psychic for help against CMT and so far it’s working pretty well. There’s also video of Curran Hill (I think that’s his name) playing at States at thetopcut.net.
Thanks for the info. League is tomorrow, if he’s coming I’m gonna help him out with some of the T/S/S he doesn’t have.
One thing about verizion NVI. Use catchers to force it to the bench, and leaf wallop goes back down to 40 (80 after weakness) instead.
Good point. Still 2KO that can be built in one turn, however, due to Skyarrow. I often find myself with plenty of Catcher but no Catcher fodder against CMT since the only thing to pull up is a naked Mewtwo, but even that accomplishes very little due to the recover of the energy dropped for the lone retreat by Celebi.
I love the use of exp. share along with Terrakion. It’s a card that seems like it was overlooked for a long time, but it ended up pulling through as a staple in a states-winning deck. That’s such a cool story, and it says a lot about how surprising and fun Pokemon can be.
Really great article! Thanks for your insight!
Since the Durant matchup is excluded in this article, I will give an overview:
It literally all comes down to Crushing Hammer flips. Terrakion is actually a fairly good attacker vs Durant. Since the list is loaded with Basic energy, it isn’t difficult to manually attach fighting energy and start KOing Durants. Adding Super Rod or even Energy Returner puts it even more in your favor. It’s still very close, but I would put it at 60/40 Terrakion.
Landorus helps in this matchup as Crawdaunt pointed out. Not sure why I excluded Durant from the article – in my sleepy haze that I wrote this late at night a while back it must have slipped my mind.
First time on the site and I see a link to my favorite card… makes me happy… I run it in what my friends call “3 corners” with Virizion NVI and Cobalion NVI
Tornadus EX is really terrifying, but how often will it be played?
You mentioned Celebi Prime, so you think people will play it as a Tornadus EP- replacement in CMT (EXTC).
This Deck already has it´s weaknesses against Eels thanks to Tornadus`s Lightning weakness and now you want to give them easy 2 prizes by one-shoting a Tornadus EX with Raikou/Zekrom/Thundurus?
Do not forget, Tornadus discards Energy, which is a good deal more ineffective in CMT than to attach the Energy to a benched Mewtwo/Tornadus.
You could always play Tornadus EX in a Zekrom/Eel as a consequent answer to Terrakion, but in this case you might lose some consistency in the mirror match. Imagine you have to start with Tornadus. And IMO you should rather tech against mirror, because you´ll see alot more Eels than Terrakions, at least in most metagames.
However, if Terrakion becomes popular, the scenario looks different.
But apart from that, good COTD and thanks for doing it about Terrakion! :)
The thing about teching Terrakion into Zekeels is that for it to be effective you have to play at least 2 Terrakion, 2 Figfhting Energy, which is four spots of consistency gone for a tech you’ll use in half of your mirror matchups and start with more than you want to. I’ve tried it. If it’s 1 Terrakion, you never use it. If it’s 2, you start with it too much.
I think it’s funny how your (oddjob’s) Cotd’s always stay up for the longest time while most cotd’s just come and go quite quickly.
I beat Tetrakion with one Mewtwo.
Wrong. You have to play a minimum of 3 Mewtwo in Zekeels for it to be an effective strategy. Otherwise that 1 Mewtwo is (most likely) 2-shotting Terrakion, and Terrakion is 2-shotting it. Even if Mewtwo one-shots it, the prize exchange is even. Your best Tetrakion counter is Seeker.
No, I’m saying I actually did it, and for your information he didn’t get a chance to attack me because he didn’t play any exp. share down. I was also OHKOing him.
Oh, if there’s no EXP Share (which means bad list 9/10 times) then you can pull it off.
Not necessarily a bad list, probably just bad luck, there’s no reliable way to search for trainers so it all comes down to drawing.
most of the time it’s a bad list, and if you play 4 you should get one in the first three turns.
Very true, but luck is always a factor. I played one rather long game without seeing a single EXP. share, one was prized and the other 3 were in my last 10 cards. I even pile-shuffled mid-game, it just happens sometimes =/
I’m not saying this is true 100% of the time, I’m just saying most of the time.