What the Flip? A Tournament Report with an Unlikely Hero

narutoforums.comHello there! I’m back again today with my second article about my Battle Road adventures. To you, this will probably just seem like another old Battle Roads report. I don’t blame you if you have already scrolled down to take a look at my list, criticize it, and move on. What makes this article different however, is that it includes two decks that you might not have seen at your Battle Roads.

Garbodor/Terrakion

If you remember my last article, I ranted and raved about how good my Quad Terrakion/Garbodor deck was going to be. I mean how could it be beat? You shut off everybody’s Abilities while streaming 90 damage each and every turn. In total, I went to five Battle Roads and came out with a combined record of 18-9. Not too bad if I do say so myself.

The first part of this article will reflect my 5-0 first place finish at Spokane Battle Roads on September 8th.

If you need a reminder, here is the list I used. I only changed one thing in it from my last article; I took out one Tool Scrapper and added a Rocky Helmet

Pokémon – 10 3 Trubbish DRX 3 Garbodor DRX 4 Terrakion NVI

Trainers – 38 4 Professor Juniper 4 N 4 Cheren   4 Exp. Share 4 Rescue Scarf 1 Rocky Helmet   4 Pokémon Catcher 4 Switch 3 Heavy Ball 2 Tool Scrapper 2 Ultra Ball 2 Super Rod

Energy – 12 12 F

Over the summer, I live in Seattle. However, during the school year I live in Spokane, so it was nice to get to see some friends again before school started back up. A buddy of mine is a pilot, so he flew a friend and I over to hang out in the second biggest city in Washington. We threw together a Throh/Tornadus EX deck for my friend, and went to battling!

Round 1 vs. Ho-Oh EX

pokemon-paradijs.comHis build included Registeel-EX and Mewtwo EX. I was able to set up the turn two Garbodor and attach a Tool. This shut off his ability to Rebirth. I ran through him with a fair amount of ease. The one turn he drew into Tool Scrapper, he missed his flip on Rebirth. Somehow he managed to take 3 Prizes, but that was no match for my constant 90 per turn to KO three EXs.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Darkrai/Hydreigon

Usually this matchup is pretty easy for me. However, after my first N, I drew into two Junipers and four Catchers. At that point I had the Garbodor set up. It then became a stall match, with me not wanting to get rid of all my Catchers, and him basically drawing dead. After I topdecked an N, the game picked up.

After I took my first 2 Prizes, he played down an Ultra Ball. That really only means one thing: Shaymin EX. After searching his deck, he started to shake his head. It was prized. That allowed me to scrap out a win 6 Prizes to four.

2-0

Round 3 vs. Garbodor/Cobalion

And they’re off! We both started lone Trubbish. Great. I knew this was going to be a long, long game, and I was right. I can see how his deck worked. His strategy was more of a locking strategy, rather than trying to get all 6 Prizes quickly. It was a great idea for a deck, but it didn’t match the strength of my bulls. He leaped out to an early lead in the prize exchange. I managed to Knock Out an EX to bring it back even.

His big misplay of the game however, was attacking my Terrakion with a Rocky Helmet, to KO both Pokémon. That was what saved me in the end, powering me to a close 6-5 win.

3-0

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Round 4 vs. Darkrai/Hydreigon

If anyone playing Darkrai/Hydreigon needed a reason to put a Shaymin EX into your deck, here it is. This fellow from Washington State University did not play a Shaymin EX, and boy did it cost him. I got the worst start of my tournament so far, but because he did not have any grass types to slow down my bulls, my comeback was swift. I KO’d three Darkrais in the last four turns of the game to win 6-4.

4-0

Round 5 vs. Darkrai/Hydreigon

Boy did I get lucky with my matchups. This game was actually my easiest game of the day. He never drew into Tool Scrapper, nor did he ever get a Shaymin EX on the board. There isn’t much to say with a straight 6 to 0 win. We were the first game done.

5-0

Garbodor ended up winning that day, as well as getting second place! The Garbodor/Cobalion deck I played in round three managed to take second place, followed by a Darkrai/Hydreigon deck in third, and a FluffyChomp deck taking fourth. My buddy playing Throh/Tornadus EX went 2-4, for those of you who were wondering.

Flippy

Now on to the real reason why I am writing this article: The Flippy Deck. Before I delve into this wonder of a deck, I am going to tell you the story of why I played this deck.

The day following my first place finish in Spokane, I attended another tournament the next day in The Lilac City. My buddy who played Throh the day before was angry at me for giving him a bad deck (hey, what can I say, all my Catchers were in use). I gave him a deck I had been fooling around with for a while called The Flippy Deck.

The day went very well for the both of us. I ended up going 4-1 and he pulled of a 3-2 day with no Catchers and a bad deck. My group of friends was stunned. There is no way a deck like Flippy could have done that well. I figured he just got a little bit lucky and put the deck back into storage.

The next weekend rolled around, and back in Seattle, there were two more tournaments. On Saturday, I pulled off a dismal 3-3 performance, getting slapped around in all of my losses. My wins were against decks that weren’t meta. So I felt really bad about my Garbodor build that had done so well the weekend before. I went home, ready to build an Empoleon deck when I thought back to The Flippy Deck.

I figured that I had nothing to lose really. I had already got my win that I wanted with a competitive deck, why not have some fun? I re-built Flippy, only this time with three Catchers. The results blew my mind. On Sunday I went 4-2 taking 7th place out of 52, with a field that included players the likes of David Cohen.

Before I get any further in explaining the deck or my weekend, I present to you, The Flippy Deck.

Pokémon – 20 4 Tynamo NVI 38 3 Eelektrik NVI 3 Darumaka NXD 3 Darmanitan NXD 3 Victini NVI 14 2 Audino EPO 2 Mewtwo-EX NXD

Trainers – 28 4 Professor Juniper 4 N 3 Bianca   3 Pokémon Catcher 3 Switch 3 Ultra Ball 3 Level Ball 2 Tool Scrapper 1 Super Rod   2 Skyarrow Bridge

Energy – 12 9 L 3 Double Colorless

Strategy

What the flip right? How can this deck be any good? You are probably saying to yourself right now, “Alex you are crazy! There are way too many problems with this!” And you would be right. So this weekend might have been pure luck, or this deck is actually the real deal. Either way, I did manage to pull off a 7th place finish and six Championship Points.

Let’s take a look at all the problems this deck has:

1. Too much to set up. Having a main attacker stacked with energy, a backup attacker ready to rock, and two Bench-sitters is a tall order.
2. Fragile Pokémon. Fliptini is 60 HP. Eels are 90 HP. Audino is 90 HP. Darumaka is 80 HP. That just doesn’t sound very good…
3. Too many Pokémon. 20?! That is just insane for this kind of format. Yes yes, FluffyChomp runs a lot too, but that deck also runs less energy.
4. Space. When you see a decklist with only 3 Catchers, you know space is tight. This can wreck havoc on consistency.
5. Low damage output. If you do not have a lot of energy stacked up, it is hard to get the damage needed from your flips. Oh yeah, that reminds me…
6. YOU HAVE TO FLIP EVERY SINGLE TURN!! What deck runs off flips? None. It’s too risky and inconsistent. Unless Mewtwo is attacking, you’re probably flipping.

So those are all big problems, yet this deck still went 4-2 in a competitive environment. Let’s dive into the deck, and try to figure out why this deck combats all of these problems.

Obviously, the goal of this deck is to stack as much energy as possible and tear through opposing Pokémon. Players generally fear stacking a lot of energy on a Pokémon because of that pesky Mewtwo EX card. Even if you aren’t weak to Psychic, with a lone DCE, Mewtwo can tear through decks that require a lot of energy to attack.

So why then, why oh why is the deck any good? I will whittle it down to 2 reasons: it is fast, and it tricks your opponent.

pokemon-paradijs.comVery few decks in this current format really do a lot of damage on the first turn. Unless you get really lucky with a Ho-Oh and some Ultra Balls, you are probably going to be saying “Sand Attack” or “Junk Hunt” your first turn. Most of the time with this deck, you will be doing 40-80 damage first turn, and upwards 100+ your second turn.

With this kind of damage output early, you can get those crucial KOs you need as soon as you need them. Preventing the set up of your opponent’s Eelektrik or Hydreigon can put you in the driver seat and never let up on the gas. This also gives you the chance to DONK. Double heads on a Audino can deal 80 damage turn one. This will DONK the following: Tynamo, Deino, Gible, Swablu, Sableye and Trubbish, to name a few.

The other reason this deck is any good is the confusion aspect of it. Let me pose a situation. You draw a card for your turn. It is a Pokémon Catcher. You look up at my bench and you see two Eels, a Fliptini, a Darmanitan, and an Audino. What do you Catcher up? Sure, there is a lot of other things that would help make your decision, but run with this.

You could Catcher up an eel, and shut down my Dynamotor, and lowering the odds of a 1HKO from Darmanitan. You could Catcher up my Fliptini and have me rely on my first time flips. You could Catcher up either of my attackers to hurt my chances of hitting you for a lot of flips. All of those sound like a great idea. So what do you pick?

The answer is almost always situational, but it’s rarely ever the correct option. There is so much Flippy can do to come back from a Catcher kill. Taking away your opponent’s Catchers is big — so big, that it makes you think about playing this deck.

Here are the card explanations to help further the understanding of this deck.

Pokémon

Audino

The best starter for you. A simple DCE grants the chance of an 80 damage first turn, and perhaps the DONK. Late game this cards is pretty bad. He gets 1-shot pretty easily, and doesn’t put out as much damage as Darmanitan. I have never used his second attack, which heals 50 damage from a benched Pokémon, but in a pinch, you also have the ability to do so.

Darmanitan

Your big bopper. Four heads from his second attack Knocks Out anything in the game, except an Eviolited Darkrai EX. You can set one of these bad boys up while your Audino wrecks havoc on their starting Pokémon. He is a bit clunky with a full three Retreat Cost, so he might get Catcher stalled a couple of times. I also play the Next Destinies Darumaka for the extra 10 HP. That is the sole reason.

Mewtwo EX

Remember how I said that stacking energies was bad because Mewtwo EX exists? Well the best way to counter a Mewtwo is with a Mewtwo. It also goes well with the theme of stacking energies and attacking big.

Tynamo

The reason to play 4 of the Thunder Wave Tynamos is because of Thunder Wave. I have won games off of six Thunder Waves in a row against a Darkrai, while I set up a big attacker to do a ton of damage. This is the only deck that I would think twice about evolving a Tynamo right away.

Victini

Of course this guy is in the deck. The ability to reflip is almost always necessary, especially when going for the DONK. But there is a hidden reason why he is even better than advertised. Besides Tynamo, he is the only Pokémon with a retreat of one. This means, after your active Pokémon gets KO’d, you can promote Victini, Dynamotor a couple times, retreat and flip some more. The cool thing is that you almost always have a Victini in play, so Dynamotor for days! That is why I play three rather than the expected two.

Trainers

Professor Juniper/N/Bianca

I would like to have 12 Supporters in this deck, but 11 has worked out for me thus far. Bianca is the play over Cheren because of the frequency you are playing down cards. There are a surprising number of times where I end my turn with two or less cards.

Pokémon Catcher

As my friend experienced in Spokane, this deck needs Catcher. In fact, every deck needs Catcher. If you think a deck doesn’t need Catcher at all, try playing a metagame deck without Catcher and tell me how it goes. Smiley face.

Switch

Just like in any deck that runs Eelektrik, you will be hearing the words, “Catcher Eel” a whole ton. Switch makes it so that you do not have to burn a DCE to get back to Flipping. Switch also helps in aid the process of stacking L Energies from Dynamotor.

Ultra Ball/Level Ball

The search for this deck was hard to get down at first. I originally thought Pokémon Communication would work well, considering the high amount of Pokémon in my list. This didn’t work. I then considered Heavy Ball because of Darumaka and Darmanitan. This didn’t work. I then considered Poké Ball because I needed more flips in my deck. This really didn’t work. Ultra Ball works well with Bianca, and Level Ball works well with over half of my Pokémon.

Super Rod/Tool Scrapper

These two guys should be in every list. Tool Scrapper aids in the ever persistent battle against Eviolite and Garbodor. Super Rod retrieves those Eels that will get Catcher killed more times than you can spit.

Skyarrow Bridge

See Vicitini.

Energy

pokemon-paradijs.comI picked only three DCE rather than maxing it out. The reason behind this was the fact of late game Dynamotors. I want as much Lightning energy stacked as possible, and it would be a shame if I were ever limited. Double Colorless is in here however, for the DONK change and for the extra power. It works wonders.

Tech Options

Tornadus EX

With the idea of a DONK and the inclusion of Skyarrow Bridge, I have considered putting Tornadus EX in this deck. The reason I have not is because it deters from the goal of the deck. I want to stack energies, not try to DONK. With that being said, it would be a nice inclusion into the deck, just try not to stray away from the main idea and turn this deck into Zekeels.

Zapdos NXD

Fliptini would let you reflip Thundering Hurricane, and having that 50 damage snipe is always nice to have. This works well with the DCE and L Energies included in the deck.

Stunfisk NVI

Even though I have not tested this deck a whole heap, I think the biggest problem for it is Darkrai decks. This Stunfisk has two attacks that require flips, perfect for the theme. With Stunfisk’s second attack, you have the chance to Paralyze, while dealing 100 damage to a Darkrai. Even better that he is Level Ball searchable.

Vicitini NVI 43

If you wanted to go big, you could throw in the V-Blast Victini for the fun of it. This would require P Energies, which would grant Darmanitan the use of Syncrodraw in case you ever got backed into a corner.

And that is The Flippy Deck! I would love to give you a matchups section, but I really only play this deck for fun, and haven’t done a whole heap load of testing. That is the reason I could chalk up my success at Battle Roads to luck.

Quick Report

I don’t want to bore you with another tournament report, so here is the quick version of how Sunday went down:

Round 1 vs. Rayeels: Won this 6-5. If I had gone first I had the Mewtwo DONK on his Tynamo.

Round 2 vs. Aggron/Durant: DONK. Started Tynamo. Played Ultra Ball for Fliptini. Played Skyarrow Bridge. Junipered into an Audino and a Double Colorless energy. Hit double heads to KO his Aron.

Round 3 vs. Darkrai/Hydreigon: Got spanked 6-0. This young man went on to win the tournament.

Round 4 vs. Rayeels: Very well fought battle. Score ended up being 6-4 in the end.

Round 5 vs. Mewtwo/Terrakion: Won 6-3. Despite the score, I had him on the ropes most of the game.

Round 6 vs. Rayeels: Lost 6-2. Never got anything going and he had a fast start. Very funny guy and a fun game!

Thank you for reading this article! Last time I never commented on my own article because I didn’t have Discus set up. This time I will do better with responding to your questions and comments! Thanks again!

-Alex