Hey SixPrizes, it’s thevilegarkid back again, this time with a rogue deck analysis! I haven’t done one of these in a while, so I’m excited to get right to it!
The Deck – DuskCelgor
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Pokémon – 21 4 Mew-EX |
Trainers – 32 4 N 4 Cheren 4 Skyla
1 Town Map
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Energy – 7 1 D – Basic |
pokemon-paradijs.comNow, I know that most of you – especially those who didn’t see Crawdaunt’s list in his UG article a while ago – are thinking something along the lines of “What in the world?” I must first give credit where credit is due before attempting to explain this monster of a rogue.
I had briefly considered this deck before, but then wrote it off. Crawdaunt’s section about this deck in his article re-sparked my interest, so I thought: “What the heck, why not?” and decided to give it a go, even though the original creator of the deck didn’t seem too fond of the deck’s chances in this format.
Please note that I did not netdeck this list. I came up with my own unique list, but it does have some influence from Crawdaunt’s.
This deck is extremely complex and difficult to run, but the payoff is great. Not only is it nearly invincible and incredibly annoying when it’s set up – which is very manageable despite the original appearance – but the deck itself is (in my opinion anyway) incredibly fun.
Setting up completely is very hard, but this is the general idea of how to do it.
How it Works
pokemon-paradijs.comAccelgor must be on the bench to let Mew use “Deck and Cover” over and over, but you need to stream the Mews. Gothitelle is necessary to prevent the opponent from Catchering the Accelgor and KOing it (which would absolutely ruin the strategy) during the times they actually can attack – or use Switch to get out of Paralyzation.
But then, Gothitelle is stuck Active with its clunky two retreat, so Darkrai EX is needed to give Gothitelle free retreat, therefore granting you continuous Deck and Covers.
So, once you can accomplish that, you can take down anything! The only exception to this is if your opponent has two Keldeo-EX in play, but I will go over that later. So what are all these other Pokémon for then?
Well, once you KO something (unless it has HP divisible by 70) something else will just come in and KO Gothitelle, crippling the deck immensely. So, Dusknoir BCR is needed to prevent this tragedy; the same tragedy I was trying to deal with when testing the BLW–DRX version of Accelgor.
With Dusknoir, you can have all of your opponent’s Pokémon get KO’d from Poison going into your turn, OR just spread the damage around and wait to take all the Prizes in one turn in late-game.
You will almost always want to go with the second way to counter one of the deck’s biggest weaknesses: N. If you just spread the Deck and Cover damage around and wait until you have enough damage on your opponent’s field to take all of your Prizes, then N will not hurt you enough to completely break the lock.
The only reason that you would ever want to have your opponent’s Pokémon get KO’d by Poison – thus making you more susceptible to N – is if your opponent can somehow break the lock, primarily by utilizing Vanilluxe NXD, Keldeo-EX, or Ditto BCR.
Then you might want to risk the N onslaught a bit later, as you will probably be far enough ahead on Prizes to recover.
Card-For-Card Breakdown
Pre-Evolution Choices
Gothita EPO 43: This Gothita is chosen because of its 60 HP being tied for the highest of the Gothitas, and Hypnotic Gaze can potentially be very helpful during the first few turns.
Gothorita DRX: You will almost never ever attack with Gothorita, but, if you do, being able to inflict Sleep can be very handy to stall a little. Also, the extra 10 damage can make things with 80 or 150 HP lockable for Accelgor.
Munna BLW: Once again, on the off chance you need to have this thing active with an Energy, sleep stall can be very helpful. Also, the 70 HP is great for avoiding Blow Through KOs or Landorus shenanigans.
Shelmet NVI: The stats on the two Shelmets in this format are identical, and they’re both terrible. However, the NVI one has an attack called Mysterious Evolution. Mysterious Evolution says that if either player has a Karrablast in play, you can search out Accelgor and evolve instantly.
I will admit that there is a very small chance of you staring down a Karrablast and needing for some reason an Energy on Shelmet in the early game. You could want the DEX one, as it does 20 and a flip for Paralysis for GG.
However, if you are wasting both Blends on a Shelmet for attacking as a last resort, then you are going to lose most likely anyway. Also, Shelmet NVI can do 10 damage for G, or 20 against Grass-Weak Pokémon.
Duskull BCR: Well, there’s only one in the format, but at least it can afflict confusion for P.
The Key Pieces
Gothitelle EPO 47
Gothitelle is an integral part of the deck. Its Ability, Magic Room, Item locks your opponent when Gothitelle is Active. With the attackers being returned to the deck every time they attack, you can just send up Gothitelle and completely cripple your opponent, leaving them out of options to get out of the lock (barring Keldeo-EX, but I’ll cover that in the matchups section).
It also has an attack that for CCC, which deals 30 damage with an extra 20 per P Energy attached. This is how you deal with the otherwise terrible, terrible Sigilyph DRX matchup. Well, it’s still a really bad matchup, but if you play smart, you can beat it. I’ll cover this more in-depth in the matchups section.
Mew-EX
This little guy is a pitiful EX with only 120 HP. However, it has an Ability (Versatile) that allows it to copy any attack on the field, provided you have the necessary Energy to use the attack you want to. This is supposed to be used in tandem with…
Accelgor DEX
This is Mew’s primary Versatile target. With Deck and Cover costing CC and dealing 50 damage with auto Poison and Paralysis, it is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, it also returns the attacker to the deck. This is why I am running 4 Mew-EX and 4 DCE; I need to constantly have them turn after turn to keep up the lock.
Also, the reason I’m not simply running 4-4 Accelgor DEX is because it is a little harder to stream Stage 1s, and there’s just not enough room to do that. This deck is crazy cramped.
Darkrai EX
Darkrai EX has one purpose and one purpose only, to grant Gothitelle (or anything else that unfortunately gets Catchered on T1/T2) free retreat. Since Gothitelle is getting sent active after every attack, it needs a way to get past that awful Retreat Cost.
If in a pinch, Darkrai can attack as well. Night Spear does 90 damage and a 30 snipe (which I’m sure all of you know), but it costs DDC and that would be a lot of Energy for the amount run in this deck. Attacking with Darkrai is not advised.
Another interesting option to fulfill the role of Darkrai would be Vanilluxe NXD. Teching in a 1-0-1 line could be interesting, and it would allow you to take out the Blend and D Energies, giving you three more slots in this very tight deck.
However, with Darkrai being a Basic, Darkrai is probably the better option, especially because this deck is already hard enough to maintain.
Ditto BCR
Dittos have always been interesting cards, and this one is certainly no exception. Upon first glance, some people thought it was worthless, and some thought it was amazing. All it has is an Ability called Transform, which allows you to put a Basic on Ditto and treat it as that Basic. This also allows the Basic to evolve instantly if Ditto has been in play for at least one turn.
This is useful for a variety of things:
ebay.com1. Evolving instantly and taking your opponents by surprise. Say you get out a Ditto T1. Then, on the next turn, you can just place a Basic on it, use Rare Candy (if it is a Basic that can be Candied), and get the Stage 2 out from nowhere. This is most effective on the turn you are establishing the lock.
2. You can attach to it when you cannot get out the Pokémon you would want to be attaching to. In this deck, Energy is very precious. So, you literally need to be attaching an Energy every turn. When you cannot get out the desired Pokémon to attach an Energy to, you can just attach to Ditto and eventually Transform into the Pokémon you want the Energy on.
3. Protecting Accelgor. Accelgor is the absolute most precious and important component of this deck. All the others (besides Mew-EX), the deck can go without. Well, of course, the deck is so much weaker that way, but Accelgor really is the key ingredient.
Since only one copy of both Shelmet and Accelgor are included in this deck, you usually don’t want to get Shelmet out on T1/T2; you are just begging Tornadus EX, Landorus-EX, Mewtwo EX etc. to come KO it and ruin the deck’s strategy.
What you do is get out Ditto T1, and when Gothitelle is set up, Transform to Shelmet and evolve to Accelgor.
Musharna NXD
As I’ve been repeatedly saying, this deck is very complex. It is hard to get all of this set up consistently with all the 1-ofs. Musharna here is a godsend, as I’ve seen from my testing.
While it may not seem much, the Forewarn Ability allows you to look at the top two cards and take one of them to your hand. The other goes back to the top of your deck. This added level of consistency is great for the deck.
Not only does it help glue the deck together, but it also assists in the daunting task of chaining Deck and Covers every turn until you win.
Another added bonus, you usually won’t want the card you choose to put back with Forewarn, and won’t be looking forward to topdecking it. Deck and Cover’s “negative effect” thankfully lets you shuffle the deck, so you decrease the chances of drawing the unneeded card.
I only play one of these because of obvious space issues, and, with the necessary Pokémon needed in play to keep the strategy present, there is only bench space enough for one Musharna.
You need one Mew looping every turn, one Gothitelle, one Darkrai, one Accelgor, one Dusknoir keeping everything in balance, and then there’s one more slot best used for Musharna. I like Musharna over Empoleon because, of course, it is a Stage 1 over Empoleon’s troublesome Stage 2.
Also, Empoleon requires a discard. While this could be manageable for a little while, it will kill you in the long term.
Emolga DRX
For those who don’t know, Emolga has a very good opening attack and was hyped as one of the better cards coming into the BLW-on format. Call for Family lets you get two Basics from your deck and put them onto your bench for only one C Energy!
To top that, it has free Retreat, and 70 HP to put it out of range from Blow Through and an X Ball with an Energy on it. Obviously, with such an odd deck that requires so much of a set up, Emolga can be very helpful.
Between Mew-EX, Ditto, and Emolga itself, you actually have a fair chance of getting off a Call for Family on T1.
Unfortunately, there are two major problems with having Emolga. The first is the bench space. I’ve already mentioned that with all the key Pokémon in play, you’re taking up 5 spaces of the allowed 6. So, if you are using Emolga, that would take up the sixth slot.
Now, that would mean you would not have access to Musharna. This is certainly not very good, as Musharna is also very important to the deck’s success. Of course, your opponent could just KO Emolga and solve the problem for you after you utilize Emolga, but your opponent isn’t always that likely to take that KO.
The second problem is somewhat minor, but can make a difference. I stated earlier that Energy is precious few in this deck, and the slowness of the deck creates the need to attach every turn. Using Call for Family is a double-edged sword because it makes you spend an Energy attachment.
I am considering dropping Emolga for something like Level Ball that helps my setup. It’s hard to tell whether the positives outweigh the negatives here.
Trainers
Supporters
I can say with almost certainty that no other deck will be running quite this Supporter line, except perhaps Empoleon DEX variants. There are so many pieces to this intricate deck that you absolutely cannot risk playing Professor Juniper. Skyla, Cheren, and N are simple and really effective in this deck.
With such a toolbox-like deck with many Trainer 1-ofs, Skyla is great. Since it is impossible to run Juniper or Bianca (your hand is going to be large a lot of the time) I need to max out all the Supporters that are playable in this deck.
Search Engine
Well, you need a pretty great search engine, because the idea is to get out lots for Pokémon to get set up and keep getting Mews every turn. 4 Pokémon Communication is very helpful in this deck due to the amount of Pokémon in this deck, and you will often have something you don’t want at the moment. Also, Pokémon Communication can search out any Pokémon.
I only play one Ultra Ball because I need more than four cards that can search any Pokémon, but I really can’t be discarding stuff as much as something like Darkrai can. Level Ball is great for setting up, as there are lots of Pokémon with under 100 HP.
Giant Cape
Giant Cape has two main purposes. Protecting Accelgor DEX from certain snipe combos (triple Hammerhead, Volt Bolt etc.) and protecting Gothitelle EPO 47 from Dragonblasts. In a perfect world, your opponent will never be able to attack against this deck, but this is not a perfect world, so certain precautions must be taken.
Giant Cape can also be used to help against Landorus-EX by attaching it to 60 HP Basics. Another bonus is that you usually won’t have to worry about Tool Scrapper because of Item lock.
Town Map
This card is one of the most necessary Trainers in the deck by far. Town Map lets you flip all of your Prize cards face up. With all of the important 1-ofs in this deck, sometimes they are going to be Prized.
Town Map will let you choose what Prize you take so you will only have to deal with whatever hinderance is caused by “card x” being Prized until you take your first Prize.
If something from the Accelgor line is Prized then you can just use Mew-EX to copy Madkineisis, Night Spear, or an opponent’s X Ball. Then, you can return the Mew with all of the unnecessary Energy back to the deck with Deck and Cover later.
1 Pokémon Catcher and 1 Tool Scrapper
pokemon-paradijs.comWith this deck being completely and totally Ability-reliant (Magic Room, Dark Cloak, Versatile, Forewarn, Sinister Hand), Garbodor DRX will really ruin you. The Tool Scrapper is to be used once you have Gothitelle up to remove Garbodor’s Tool and then Magic Room will prevent them from being able to reattach tools.
The one Pokémon Catcher is mainly for Eel or Darkrai variants that tech Keldeo-EX. Keldeo would screw you over with the Rush In + Dark Cloak combo if you would let them keep using it. So, you need Catcher to bring up Keldeo and paralock it, as they wouldn’t be able to Rush In from the active.
Catcher can also be used on Pokémon that would just be KO’d by Deck and Cover. Since the idea is to keep an infinite lock, you want Dusknoir putting damage all over the place, not just taking prizes by attacking. That would also leave you vulnerable to something of your opponent’s attacking Gothitelle.
Tropical Beach
If you’re not setting up with Emolga, then Tropical Beach is a great compliment to such a slow deck. It also can be used to recover from N’s (though usually you’ll have 5-6 Prizes left until you win) or when you miss a Deck and Cover turn to help recover. Overall a great card.
Energy
4 Double Colorless should be obvious to chain Deck and Cover turn after turn. As for Dark, I could just use 3 Blends, but I’d like something to Super Rod, which has been helpful. I’ve found three to be a great number for Dark.
Matchups
Keldeo-EX/Blastoise BCR
trollandtoad.comKeldeo/Blastoise is one of the most difficult matchups that DuskCelgor (new names appreciated) can face. Since Keldeo-EX is the only popular card that can break the Paralysis lock (with double Rush In), it is crucial that the opponent has two Keldeo-EXs on the field for as little time as possible.
Getting a T2 Gothitelle is first priority to lock Computer Search and Ultra Ball. Also, locking Rare Candy is really great as most Keldeo builds only run 0-1 Wartortle. So, just by having Gothitelle Active you are denying them Blastoise.
If they do get two Keldeos on the field, then you need to target one with Dusknoir as soon as possible. Since Keldeo is a slower deck, it shouldn’t be too hard to get set up, so you should win when there is no more than one Keldeo-EX on the field.
Landorus-EX/Mewtwo EX and Darkrai EX/Landorus-EX
I understand that these two decks are very different, but I’m listing them together because the matchups should play out relatively similarly and you take the same approach. The only difference between these two decks from DuskCelgor’s perspective is that one of them has more of a focus on utilizing Mewtwo, which can really hurt in the early game.
If they starting KOing Gothitas and Munna early on with Mewtwo, then you could be in trouble. One thing you can do is revenge KO their Mewtwo with Mew if they have 3 or more Energy to hopefully slow them down enough to set up.
If you go second and they get a T1 Hammerhead, this matchup could also be problematic. Of course, that is slightly unlikely, and can be countered by simply attaching Giant Cape to a 60 HP Basic that they’re trying to target. When you get set up, you win, no matter what. That is the beauty of this deck.
Darkrai EX/Hydreigon DRX 97
pokemon-paradijs.comThis is probably the easiest matchup. Darkrai/Hydreigon is a slow deck, and once you get the lock up you will win almost effortlessly. There’s just nothing that they can do, except drop a surprise Keldeo-EX and Rush In to get out of the lock, then retreat back and attack. Well, this is not in the least a problem.
While they can get out of the lock one time with this nifty little play, Gothitelle will be able to survive almost any attack from Darkrai/Hydreigon with a Giant Cape. Then, you can just Catcher up the Keldeo-EX and start locking again.
You could say that I might not have the Catcher when I need it, but with Musharna, Computer Search, and 4 Skyla, I will likely have it at the right time. If it’s Prized, then I could just use Town Map and Dusknoir to get it.
But, going back a few sentences, if they do KO Gothitelle with a Psychic attacker, then you would still just Catcher and Para-stall Keldeo until you can get another Gothitelle up. There’s nothing they can do about that because if they’re running Keldeo-EX, they’re almost certainly not running Switch.
In short, Darkrai/Hydreigon is an auto-win matchup.
Klinklang BLW/Attackers
I promise I am not just being lazy here, but combine what I said about Keldeo/Blastoise and Darkrai/Hydreigon. That is basically the Klinklang matchup.
Quad Sigilyph
pokemon-paradijs.comThis may not be one of the most popular decks, but I wanted to cover it because it is one of the weirdest matchups that DuskCelgor (Gothigor?) can face.
If you go first, then you can get a T2 Gothitelle attacking and 1HKOing Sigilyphs. If you go second, you should prioritize getting two Gothitelles up. Start charging up the benched one and after they 2HKO the first Gothitelle then you can bring in the second and start 1HKOing Sigilyphs.
However, they are then more than likely to just revenge with another Sigilyph, putting you at a significant disadvantage. It is sort of a matter of who goes first. Your Mews and their Mewtwos handle each other.
One other significant thing about this matchup is that if you get Gothitelle (1 or 2) up soon enough and lock their Revives and Level Balls then you could quite feasibly bench them out!
Overall, I would call this a favorable matchup. While it could be considered even because whomever goes first has a huge advantage, Item lock is too important to disregard. If you know that your chances of facing Sigilyph in any given tournament are somewhat high, then a Meloetta BCR tech could help with that.
Tornadus EX Variants
It all depends if they get a T1 Tornadus Blow Through for 60 to start blowing through all of your Basics too fast. If you do get set up (like nearly every other matchup), then you should win with no problem.
Conclusion
Well, I think I can finally wrap this article up! Thanks for reading, and I hope this encouraged you to at least try this deck out, as I think is pretty good. I know you’re all super disappointed that this article wasn’t as long as mine usually are, but comments, constructive criticism, and deck advice are appreciated.
I am considering taking this deck to Regionals as I really like how if it gets set up then it wins, but I’m nearly sure I’m going with another deck.
Anyway, I wish you all luck at Regionals and Happy New Year!
~thevilegarkid
Really cool and interesting deck! Wouldn’t mind using it for Regionals or something.
thanks! Cool to hear that someone’s considering playing this for something as big as Regionals after only reading this article!
Too bad I can’t go, since I’m a senior, and my parents don’t want to drive 2 hours away. Btw, what would you drop for Mr.Mime in the future sets? I’d consider taking out 1 Darkrai, or Ditto. What would you take out?
There would be not enough bench space for this deck to get set up and work AND have Mr.Mime.
This should be a great league deck I’ll have to try it out!!
Though I think any tournament deck with a bouffalant/terrakion line (I run 3/2
in my Ho-Oh deck for easy EX kills like shaymin and Mew) should eat
this build unless you get the perfect T2 setup but even then they can
still pull it out just playing energies.
See, the thing is, it’s not supposed to be a league deck. This is actually a decent deck that can compete competitively, not just a fun idea.
As for Terrakion. ? Why does that eat this for breakfast? T1-0, T2-30. T3-90 and by T3 I’ll nearly always have a Gothitelle and nearly always get the lock going by T3 or T4. As for Bouffalant, T1-0, T2-120 IF they get the DCE and IF they get the Catcher which isn’t a problem if I have Gothitelle up by then. Even if they do get what they need (going first, DCE and other Energy, and Catcher), then they’re KOing my Mew, but I have 4 and going behind in prizes doesn’t bother this deck AT ALL because the idea is to maintain a perfect lock.
That’s just a few to many “IF’s” for me in a quick Basic EX format. I’m not saying it’s bad it’s just going to require way to much skill+luck for someone like me to pull off consistantly in the larger tournament venues.
I’m going to be honest, at the first glance at your list, my eyes burned with the many one of’s. And then I thought about, and started liking it. A lot! Of course, I would tweak a few things, and I built my own version of it, and am ready to try it out at League! I absolutely LOVE the Ditto inclusion, and I think I wouldn’t have thought of it, as I easily mistreated Ditto. I think this deck benefits insanely, what with all the stage 2’s in here. Great article!
Thanks!
No problem! I might play it at a Cities this weekend. Also, your deck ideas have improved from your other articles. The Tyrogue Donk article was just plain painful reading the comments. Also, are you in Masters or Seniors? I honestly can’t tell either :P
Seniors. Also would you mind sharing what you changed in the deck? Always looking for new ideas that I haven’t thought of!
Yeah no problem! I kind of took a lot out haha. First, I found the Musharna line really quite hard to get out, so I took them out a long with the dusknoir line for a 2-2 Empoleon line. I also dropped the Mew line to 2 and increased the Accelgor line by adding one each. I dropped the Darkai count to 1, along with dropping 1 Ditto. I teched in a 1-1 Line of Leavanny (I know, hard to get out what with other 2 stage 2’s) to prevent Mewtwo from rumbling across Gothitelle and Mew. Also dropped the Mewtwo line to 1 because from a few hours of testing on PTCGO, I didn’t use it all that much, but it did help immensely when I needed it. That’s pretty much it, I think I took out some trainers but I can’t remember.
interesting. One thing that confused me was when you said that you dropped the Mewtwo line to one. I didn’t use any Mewtwo to drop :P
Whoops, wrong list lol I was looking at a different list at the same time, and that list used 3 Mewtwo’s in a deck.
So many one-of’s…that actually work! You’re articles are getting better every time!
Don’t tell me this is the “fun” deck you used at my house?
XD thanks and yes it was the same deck but…
a) That was a long time ago
b) It was a fun deck at that time
c) We only got to play for like 5/10 minutes b4 leaving
d) You N’ed me into 4 Skyla
Oh yea that Skyla thing was funny.
That’s definitely an interesting concept, but the autoloss to anything with a non-prized Keldeo isn’t the best.
It definitely is underrated, however.
It actually doesn’t even close to autoloss anything with a non-prized Keldeo. That was a silly statement to make as I clearly said in the article how to deal with decks that tech Keldeo and decks that play multiple Keldeo. While ones with multiple Keldeo are difficult, you can beat them. I’d say from my testing that the Keldeo/Blastoise matchup is about 50-50 or 60-40 (calling it positive might be a stretch though). A) they usually won’t know how to play against this deck B) They probably will not get Blastoise out for a while if at all C) As soon as you’ve racked up 170 damage you can Dusknoir it all to a Keldeo and KO it and then lock the other one.
Sorry, kinda skimmed through the article, was in a bit of a hurry.
Sure you can kill a Keldeo, but them having it gives them a turn to KO your Goth.
I’m not really sure about your option A). Say you did get a Gothitelle set up, they have no other choice but to KO it, which would be the best option anyway. After the item lock is down, they can proceed to knockout Accelgor by catchering it and completely destroying the lock. Most Blastoise decks get turn two or turn three Blastoise with a decent start. If they go first, they have one to two turns to get set up and put three or four energies on a Keldeo. If that happens, I would say that this deck can’t do anything to stop it. When I played this deck online before, it needed nearly every part of the puzzle to function, but if you take Gothitelle, Accelgor, or Dusknoir out, it usually functions worse or just ceases to function at all. Since you run so many Pokemon, I don’t think you can have two of the same Pokemon on your bench, meaning once Gothitelle is down, they have items for at least one turn and I believe that one turn is enough to take down this deck. I would not at all call the matchup 50-50, especially seeing as you only run 1 Catcher, they could send up 3 Squirtles as they wait to get their Keldeo set up to sweep the board. Sorry for the long comment, and nice deck, too.
So Landorus EX is bad then?
Doesn’t Landorus play other attackers? I haven’t seen anyone posting about Quad Landorus on the forums.
I had thought of trying something like this before, but in the deck building process I quickly scrapped it thinking I didn’t have enough room for everything to be consistent. I’m surprised such a inconsistent looking deck actually stands a chance. I’ll definitely be trying this some time!
cool
You should use Munna BCR.
Why? I already inflict crippling status and I’d rather not lock my Gothitelle active. I really hope that was a joke.
It’s probably something to use if you miss your Deck and Cover.
so without trop beach, will this be a viable deck?
yes, but weaker
I meant it like if you miss the Deck and Cover, so you could prevent kills from Mewtwo EXs. If you miss, you could use Long-Distance Hypnosis, to possibly put the active to sleep, locking it or forcing your opponent to burn Switch.
By the time I’m set up to loop deck and covers (and potentially miss a turn), that munna will have long been a musharna.
Play 1-2 Devolution Spray, I just tested it and it worked well. Drop a candy and/or a communication.
Definitely not worth it for a chance at LDH and if you get tails then you just murder yourself.
Admittedly… I see a deck that can’t attack at all with either a Shelmet or Accelgor prized. Your only choice would be to hit a Mewtwo with a Mew + DCE… but that won’t work if they were using say… Darkrai or Landorus or really anything not named Mewtwo.
Well yes, that’s one of the major problems, but certainly not without a solution. I may or may not have mentioned this in the article, but you can use Town Map and put enough Energy on a Mew to use Night spear. Then you retreat Gothitelle when you’re ready to attack, and if they retreat then you Catcher and KO it to take the prize(s) you need. You may lose some Energy that way, but at least you’ll get the lock up (aka win). Besides, you were the original creator of the deck XD
1-1 of your main attacker is a good idea… yeah. Like Crawdaunt said, Shelmet or Accelgor prized, GG. I like the idea, but it won’t work until TPCI lets you play 70+ card decks.
Mew is my main attacker. And yes, that’s one of the major problems, but certainly not without a solution. I may or may not have mentioned this in the article, but you can use Town Map and put enough Energy on a Mew to use Night spear/opponent’s X Ball. Then you retreat Gothitelle when you’re ready to attack, and if they retreat then you Catcher and KO it to take the prize(s) you need. You may lose some Energy that way, but at least you’ll get the lock up (aka win).
Ultimately, I think this deck is simply too fragile to be anything like competitive. It dies terribly against Mewtwo and losing Darkrai, Accelgor, Dusknoir, or Musharna (or having components of the evolution lines prized) puts a massive dent in your strategy, especially when you only run a single Super Rod. Interesting idea, though.
I’ll admit that I won’t play this for Regionals because it truly isn’t good enough imo, but no deck is perfect, and it worked surprisingly well when I played it. Sure, Mewtwo can be a slight problem in the early game, but can be taken care of by Mew copying X Ball or just getting set up and having Deck and Cover do 100 + Poison. You will not want to set up the frail evolutions until Goth is up, and then you cannot lose the key Pokemon because they can’t be Catchered.
Sure, I get that. But you’re running 2-1-2 of your essential locking Pokemon, and while Emolga is key in getting set up, it takes some time. The simple fact is you have 1-1 Accelgor, 1-1 Dusknoir, a single Emolga, 2-1-2 Goth… too often pieces of the puzzle will get prized. Then what?
It’s hugely inconsistent. It’s a League deck. It’s not bad, and in fact I imagine it’s very fun to play, but arguing it’s competitive is a stretch.
It seems like a lot of people are reading the decklist and then going straight to the comments :
3x Gothita EPO
1x Gothorita DRX
3x Gothitelle EPO
3x Shelmet NVI
2x Accelgor DEX
2x Duskull BCR
2x Dusknoir BCR
2x Mew EX
2x Darkrai EX
4x Professor Juniper
4x N
4x Skyla
4x Pokemon Catcher
4x Level Ball
4x Rare Candy
3x Pokemon Communication
2x Switch
1x Super Rod
1x Computer Search
2x Tropical Beach
4x Double Colorless Energy
2x Blend Energy (Grass, Psychic, Fire, Darkness)
2x Darkness Energy
That’s just my opinion of how to run the deck. Nice Article!
I would love to see that decklist’s testing results. And thanks.
Hey, this is Emboar kid lol! Told you I’d check out your article!
Seriously, people, give this deck a whirl. It WRECKS!
You’ve got a fan dude :)
Thanks! It is definitely the BDIF when set up, but the problem I think people are having is how hard it is to actually get it set up. It really isn’t too hard, but can have some trouble going second against speed decks, not having access to Accelgor when you need it and things of the like.
Who would’ve thought that simply releasing Float Stone would be enough to catapult this deck idea to multiple Nationals wins!?