The Big Red Bird After the Storm: Where to Next?

Hello everyone, Aaron Minjoot here once again with a 6P article for all. First off, thanks for all the feedback and support for my last article on my ventures at Malaysian City Championships. Although the “Like” count and comments on the article page can be considered just below average, locally here in Malaysia among the community it has managed to grab some attention as well as ‘rogue-status’ fame, which I am very much thankful for.

Right now, the leagues in Malaysia are working together to slowly nurture the game back to its glory days. I personally helped restart a league in Subang Jaya, a central location in the state of Selangor, and we’re into our third weekend so far with above average attendances, which we are definitely grateful for.

If anyone, and I really do mean ANYONE, who happen to be around town on Sundays at 2 in the afternoon, do contact me and drop by. Granted, things are rather new, but we’re confident of the support and it can only get better from here. Now, enough of my side story. Onward to the article.

Ho-Oh Post-Plasma Storm

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Personally, Ho-Oh is the deck I’ve spent the longest time with this season. I dropped Rayquaza/Eelektrik and Darkrai/Fighting around Battle Roads, and I haven’t looked back at Landorus/Mewtwo since my horrible outing at SEA Regionals, so I have played Ho-Oh all through the BLW–BCR format up until now.

When scans of Plasma Storm were released along with the pre-releases, I immediately got down to work with Ho-Oh and rebuilding it for the new format. I remained confident the deck could work with the new mechanics, but I was realistic about the chances it had to break into the upper tiers.

Skeleton Decklist

Pokémon – 2 2 Ho-Oh EX

Trainers – 29/30 4 Professor Juniper 4 N 5-6 Draw Supporters   4 Pokémon Catcher 4 Energy Switch 4 Ultra Ball

Energy – 13/14 4 Double Colorless 9-10 Others             Free space: 14-16

The list already looks tight on space, as do most decks this format. There are just too many options that every deck would want to fit in. What I have considered to be optional choices I have totally left out of the skeleton. This is to reinforce my belief that Ho-Oh is a metagame dependent deck.

The attackers and energy lineups you choose truly reflects on the type of metagame you are determined you will face. Two Ho-Oh EX is a standard preference, three is always possible but the risk of starting with it is beyond horrendous.

Juniper and N are standard inclusions for Supporters, as are Pokémon Catcher, Energy Switch (a definite must for utilizing Rebirth to its maximum potential) and Ultra Ball (to get Ho-Oh into the discard the easiest). The four Double Colorless are a recommended for any Big Basic decks which (can/will) use Colorless-costing attackers.

The big question on everyone’s minds are the additional spaces left over and what to do with them.

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As I have done with my Cities report, I will go over the card-by-card choices for this deck, as it remains one of the main decks in format that truly can morph from time to time and change with the playstyle and meta it is played in. I know some readers might feel this portion may be a bit redundant, so I’ll try my best to make all articles as concise yet detailed enough for newer players to understand and for more established players to get some new ideas from it.

Pokémon Choices

Mewtwo EX

Mewtwo EX is by far the best utility attacker in the game, no question about it. I expect the number of copies of Mewtwo that we will see in the current format to decrease substantially though, as Blastoise has the new Black Kyurem EX to play with which laughs at an X Ball for 60, while Darkrai variants will move toward utilizing Hypnotoxic Laser (HTL), Virbank City Gym and Dark Claw to hit monstrous levels of damage.

While saying that, Mewtwo is still the go-to attacker in terms of early game aggression and late game sweeping, which covers many bases: exactly what a deck like Ho-Oh needs. While I have read and heard opinions that Mewtwo has past its prime, it has surprised even me in testing where it just either wins the early exchanges or comes in late game to take a game-swinging KO. Energy Switch and DCE makes all of this possible so easily.

Bouffalant DRX

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Bouffalant DRX can be considered a staple for Ho-Oh decks in my opinion, or any deck that plays a full set of DCEs. After dropping the card for my Cities list, I have done much testing with it and thoroughly enjoy the raw power the card possess for just an average energy investment, even before damage modifiers (which I will get to a bit later on).

120 damage is nothing to scoff at, and the only downside to this card is the chance that you start with it, hence slowing your early aggression, or when you lose it before it can pull off at least one effective Gold Breaker, as it takes some time to get going.

Terrakion NVI

I truly want this Fighting powerhouse to work in the new format. Retaliate is such an energy efficient attack and single-handedly throws the Darkrai matchup into your favor. At least that was what it used to do. With the coming of the Hypnotoxic Laser (‘Pew Pew Pew’ or ‘Laser Gun of Doom’), Terrakion’s strength has diminished to the point of a doubtful inclusion.

Even at 130 HP, the ease in which a Darkai EX can avoid taking direct Knock Outs with HTL and the chance that they can pull off the direct 140 damage needed with Dark Claw just makes benching Terrakions a waste of resources. I still feel there is room for it in Ho-Oh, as Energy Switch makes the surprise Retaliate possible, but it no longer warrants the guaranteed spot, at least in my opinion.

At most it will be a 1-of, hoping to capitalize on Darkrai decks running lesser Eviolites and more Dark Claws to make the game-changing Retaliate.

Landorus-EX

This Fighting attacker, on the other hand, might get the nod to play a bigger role than before. Hammerhead is a great attack against the likes of Darkrai and setup decks.

As stated many times before, with a Laser and Virbank it KOs 60 HP Basics effortlessly, making Squirtle and Klink donkable and putting Sableye on a one turn clock; against a Darkrai EX, 60 damage along with 30 from Poison essentially gives you a free 2 Prizes unless it gets out of the Active Spot or healed: all this for a single energy investment.

The only qualm about Landorus’ inclusion is Keldeo-EX. As long as Blastoise remains BDIF, Landorus will always play second fiddle to the Water-types juggernaut.

Tornadus EX

The bane of all setup decks can finally shine brighter than ever. I admit that I have not played much with Tornadus EX this format nor the last with Ho-Oh, but with the advent of Stadium wars returning to the game, the card gains so much potential that used to be locked up only in decks which could afford running Stadiums in decent numbers.

Turn 1 Blow Through is even stronger than a Turn 1 Hammerhead as all it needs is a Stadium and DCE to reach such scary donking potential for 60 HP fellas. Even Sableye, Emolga, and to an extent any support Pokémon, Basic or not, within 90 HP are all immediately endangered the moment a Stadium and a DCE lands on the field with Tornadus EX.

Bulbapedia

The only roadblock for this genie to thrive in the metagame is the hype of Lugia EX. Why the comparison? Well, as long as Lugia’s popularity in the metagame grows, cards like Zekrom BLW, Raikou-EX and even Zekrom-EX all gain in terms of abusing the weakness of Lugia.

Coincidentally, both Lugia and Tornadus share the same Weakness, and therefore the danger remains of losing 2 Prizes so cheaply.

Here’s a side note one might wonder: why weren’t these Lightning attackers played even when Tornadus EX was around? My explanation for it is a rather psychological one.

The spotlight in which Lugia was put in enhanced its reputation among players, and coupled with its own accelerator (Colress Machine) and the new Plasma mechanic, created a large bullseye upon its head.

As we know, Eelektrik decks just won’t die, and if Landorus-EX didn’t kill it off, what else would? The Lightning-weak attackers like Tornadus EX and Lugia EX give even more reason for Eels to make a comeback with Lightning attackers instead of the popular Rayquaza EX versions. The hype has died down a little, but it might take some time and a round of results from major tournaments to finally put a damper on the Lugia EX bandwagon.

Don’t get me wrong, though. Lugia EX is a powerful card, but not as powerful as it is hyped to be (at least not yet).

Victini NVI 15

A tech attacker I considered using back at Battle Roads to comeback Registeel-EX in Rayquaza/Eels, Victini (or Benchtini, as it is more affectionately known) gained some hype when the new Plasma Klinklang had everyone’s attention as a tankish lock deck capable of stalling out EX-based decks and eventually win.

When timed right, a V-Create with this little guy can sweep PlasmaKlang off its feet. The only trouble is getting it out at the right moment, and even so it needs to survive the following turn as to ensure you have the response in the event the Klinklang player is able to mount the comeback.

In other matchups, it is quite a decent attacker, almost mirroring Terrakion’s Retaliate potential but with a different clause to fill.

While saying that, I wouldn’t advise playing Victini unless your meta is filled with PlasmaKlang. It is a horrible starter (yes, even worst than Terrakion), and with it needing R Energy could mess up your Energy lines, much like how Shaymin EX did for me at Cities.

Sigilyph DRX

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This card’s usefulness truly is defined by how well PlasmaKlang does in the tournaments to come. As more decks add non-EX attackers to get around Plasma Steel, Sigilyph dwindles in strength by a large margin.

It still is a great stall card to get around EX-heavy decks, and causes Blastoise decks issues especially when it is Eviolited (requiring a 5-Energy Blastoise to 1HKO, which in turn gets 1HKO’d with a Mewtwo and DCE). Cobalion-EX also poses a problem for Sigi, as it negates Safeguard with its second attack.

Other than PlasmaKlang, HTL and Virbank also puts a damper on Sigilyph, essentially making it last only ONE turn if the Poison can’t be removed.

To sum this up, while it might have been a staple for Ho-Oh decks before the ‘storm’, I think its days are numbered, for now at least.

Virizion NVI, Virizion EPO & Shaymin EX

Both Virizion and Shaymin EX were considered, at least in my opinion, a direct counter for Blastoise decks. I personally found that including Grass attackers specifically for that matchup to be inefficient, and with the new Black Kyurem EX not even weak to Grass, the likelihood of pulling off a 1HKO with one of these cards significantly decreases.

Shaymin EX is as big a liability as it ever was, and having to assign spaces for enough G Energy yields the same issue with R Energy (messing up the Energy line, which I will further elaborate in the Energy section).

Giratina PLS

I only got the idea for this card while writing this article, and have not had a chance to get it to work in the deck yet, but with HTL it could make a decent non-EX attacker regardless. It does require a shake up of your energy lines, though. If anyone has had significant testing with this, do share your experiences with everyone.

Trainers – Supporters

Bianca

The usual go-to inclusion for most decks in the pre-PLS format. The common play that has been talked about involves playing Ultra Ball to thin your hard and then using Bianca to draw on average 4 to 5 cards. However, what I find right now with Virbank and HTL in format, that these cards tend to clog your hand and makes it difficult to get a decent return for playing Bianca.

Cheren

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As I mentioned in my Cities report, I am a big fan of Cheren. The 3 extra cards might seem minuscule at first glance, but in building large hands to pull off 3 or 4-card combos it works way better than Bianca for raw draw power.

Nothing much to say here that hasn’t been said already, but I do like to add that having Cheren enables you to abuse a Tropical Beach which your opponent might have played down, or even one of your own: draw the 7 cards this turn, and Cheren the next to net you a whopping 11 card hand.

No other non-Pokémon draw card in format can let you do that, and that should be noted.

Colress

The latest addition to our somewhat small pool of Supporters, Colress is rather interesting for Big Basic decks. Rarely does it bench too many Pokémon, for fear it might get Catcher-stalled. Even using Rebirth can be considered a rare occasion and usually isn’t done other than pulling off the game-winning move. Yet Colress’ late game prowess can’t be ignored.

Anything from 6 cards to 8 is considerably strong especially for the mid to late-game of a match, especially when you might have run out of Junipers by then. Too high a count, however, and Colress might just appear to often in your opening hand and severely limit your draw.

Skyla

Although not technically a draw Supporter, Skyla is an interesting card. Letting you search out one Trainer card (most notably an Item or a Stadium) can be game breaking, allowing you to finish a few-card combo, while sacrificing draw for that one turn.

Even more so for a deck like Ho-Oh, where one Energy Switch can give Mewtwo EX the extra 20 damage it needs, or an Energy Search to get the one F Energy for Land’s Judgment. HTL, Virbank, PlusPower, and the list of situational yet powerful Items go on. Skyla along with Computer Search makes DCEs searchable, and that could win the game as early as the first turn.

I am not too confident about it taking up spaces that could instead go to straight draw, though. If there is a high number of 1-off Trainers, I could see Skyla being the play, as it will make straight draw less effective in getting out the cards you need at the right moment.

Trainers – Items & Stadiums

Switch, Escape Rope & Super Scoop Up

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This category refers to cards which deal in getting your current Active Pokémon out of the Active Spot and replacing it with another desired Pokémon. Switch is the evergreen inclusion in any deck which play Pokémon without free or low retreat.

Escape Rope (Warp Point with new art and name) is here as it acts as a Switch with a pseudo-Catcher effect, making your opponent switch out his or her active for a benched Pokémon of their choice.

While it might be a bit more disruptive in nature, there are times when you want to just attack the current target rather than using Escape Rope to let it ‘escape’.

Whenever Ho-Oh decks are mentioned, Super Scoop Up isn’t that far behind. The ability to completely pick up any Pokémon with everything attached to it can be crucial if timed perfectly, albeit on a coin flip, especially when you are unfortunate to start with Ho-Oh EX of all things.

I am not too much a fan of SSU, however, as the flippiness of it makes the card too much of a risk, but I definitely warrant its inclusion if you are the sort who would take up such chances for huge yields in-game.

Hypnotoxic Laser & Virbank City Gym

A triple PlusPower in just an Item and a Stadium, this combo has taken the format by storm. HTL’s effectiveness not only stems from being the final 10 or 30 damage for taking crucial KOs, but also increases the effective damage cap of decks which can use (or abuse) it. With the return of Stadium wars, running this combo requires a high enough number of Virbanks, while also running a decent amount of HTL to pull it off frequently.

For Ho-Oh decks, I have tried both with and without these two cards and I must state that while the power of HTL-Virbank is definitely strong in Ho-Oh, including them in your lists takes up room which were initially used for consistency and surprise techs like Max Potion and Tool Scrapper.

My final verdict on this combo lies in the personal preference of the player: if you like the early aggression and high damage output, then go with HTL-Virbank; if not, Ho-Oh still survives, albeit you will have to be careful with the techs you choose in the hope they bring the game-changing effects the space warrants.

Eviolite & Tool Scrapper

With the rampancy of HTL, many lists have shied away from both Eviolite as well as Tool Scrapper. The decreasing trend in the linear relationship between them in the early Plasma Storm-on decklists is a verdict which I am still unsure of.

If Tools like Eviolite get lesser play, so will Tool Scrapper, and that will bring back Garbodor decks as the preferred anti-meta counter deck.

But what I am more concerned about is the fact that Dark Claw makes Darkrai EX decks so much more monstrous, reaching a possible 140 damage Night Spear in addition to the snipe damage, easily setting up KOs on Mewtwo EX, Tornadus EX, and any 170 HP EX, while easily 1HKO-ing its arch-nemesis, Terrakion NVI.

This is why I am a big fan of both Eviolite (to prevent certain KOs) and Scrapper, but space might just be too much of an issue to have them included in sufficient numbers.

Notable Mentions

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Tropical Beach – Not a bad inclusion in this deck, as there will be times where you just can’t pull off a T1 attack and so would love to Skyla for a Beach to try for an even more stronger T2. But helping out Blastoise or Plasma Klinklang may just not be worth it.

Max Potion – I have mainly tried Max Potion in Ho-Oh, and I must say it really has the power to be the game changer, now that HTL is around to put KOs at between turns and not at the whim of an attack. The only issue? Space.

Aspertia City Gym – With Virbank in format I feel this card is only more inferior if you are concentrating on a Colorless build without HTL. Yet it is worthy to note that the Colorless attacker one would most definitely use would be Tornadus EX, which being a speedy attacker is more than happy to appreciate 30 extra damage from Poison between turns.

Energy Search – This card is mostly up to preference, but if you run Skyla it gains a lot more utility as it makes an Energy searchable at any time of the game.

Trainers – ACE SPEC

We have at our disposal four ACE SPECs (excluding the Kyurem and Victini-specific ones) which a Ho-Oh deck can use. I will note this early on that the most ideal ACE SPEC would frankly lie within your preference of the type of game you aim to bring against your opponent, and whether or not you run Skyla to quickly search out your ACE SPEC in the first place (the ability to bring a game-winning or game-breaking effect out with relative ease).

Computer Search – The main go-to ACE SPEC. Other than providing the standard utility of searching Supporters for dead hands, it gives Big Basic decks the ability to search out crucial cards such as DCE or HTL (or PlusPower in the past) to pile on early pressure, or helping setup decks get the Rare Candy or Stage 2 to bring their core strategy into play.

For Ho-Oh, it gives the option of both early aggression and a chance to get the big red guy into the discard.

Gold Potion – I would go out on a limb here and say Gold Potion is not as powerful as the other options we have. Yes, the effect can be game-breaking, but the probability in which that occur as compared to using the other ACE SPECs for more common winning moves is rather low. The 90 healed may not even be enough now that damage can get drastically crazy so early in a game.

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Dowsing Machine – The Junk Arm reincarnate has been getting some attention as it can act as the 5th-whatever it is you need to close up the game.

I would personally rank this on par with Computer Search in terms of strength, although it only comes in a little bit later in the game. The ability to recycle resources can be crucial especially when completing multiple-card combos. which this deck thrives on.

Scramble Switch – A Switch and Energy Switch on steroids, the effect of Scramble Switch gives Ho-Oh the pseudo-Shaymin UL it would have loved to have if that little guy was still around. The game gets turned upside down for the most part especially if you pull off a Switch into a loaded Ho-Oh EX, and the Scramble Switch to your preferred attacker to reel in Prizes or even seal the match.

Energy

For Ho-Oh there is a simple rule when deciding on your basic Energy spots: be as diverse as possible but also having sufficient numbers of specific Energies for your selected attackers that need particular requirements.

Sample Decklists

For the most part I have gone through all the cards which I find to be options that the Ho-Oh toolbox will employ for it to survive the Plasma Storm. I would like to share here, then, my own personal decklist which I have been refining since the release of our latest set.

Pokémon – 10 2 Ho-Oh EX 2 Mewtwo-EX NXD* 2 Landorus-EX 2 Tornadus EX* 1 Terrakion NVI 1 Bouffalant DRX

Trainers – 37 4 Professor Juniper 4 N 2 Cheren 2 Bianca 1 Colress   4 Pokémon Catcher 4 Energy Switch 4 Hypnotoxic Laser 3 Ultra Ball 3 Switch 2 Eviolite 1 Energy Search 1 Scramble Switch   2 Virbank City Gym

Energy – 13 4 Double Colorless 5 F 2 P 2 Others

At this point of time this is my default decklist for Ho-Oh. The second Tornadus EX may switch out with a third Mewtwo EX, depending on the situation (hence the asterisk). Two Psychic makes Psydrive possible, which may come in handy in some cases. However, this deck falters just like any other Big Basic decks when it is forced to go up against Plasma Klinklang.

Below is a sample list I have been using to face a metagame with many decks utilizing Plasma Steel:

Pokémon – 10 2 Ho-Oh EX 2 Mewtwo-EX NXD 2 Landorus-EX 1 Tornadus EX 1 Terrakion NVI 1 Bouffalant DRX 1 Victini NVI 15

Trainers – 37 4 Professor Juniper 4 N 2 Cheren* 2 Bianca* 1 Colress   4 Pokémon Catcher 4 Energy Switch 4 Hypnotoxic Laser 3 Ultra Ball 3 Switch 2 Eviolite 1 Energy Search 1 Scramble Switch   2 Virbank City Gym

Energy – 13 4 Double Colorless 5 F 2 P 2 R

Surprisingly there isn’t much difference with my default list. Alternatively you can switch around with the Bianca and Cheren counts, but I prefer Cheren for the straight draw in this build as it makes it easier to to pull out a surprise Victini tech.

Based on my testing it is so crucial to get Victini out as early as possible to V-create for the KO on the Pokémon with the most Energies attached on the Klinklang player’s side of the field. When facing Durant NVI versions of Klinklang, the matchup gets significantly tougher but not at all an auto-loss. Just be sure to get Victini out before it gets Devoured, and things should be safe.

Conclusion

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Whether or not Ho-Oh survives in this new setting remains to be seen, but as much as it might be written off, there is still so much more to tap into. Etherdex has been touted as inefficient, so to me at least the ‘universal’ energy accelerator title goes back to the big red bird of Johto lore.

It has been a great pleasure writing this article for you, and I do appreciate any feedback you would be able to provide in the comments section below or through personal messaging.

If you happen to be from Malaysia, or if you are interested nonetheless, do send in a request to join the group page of the league where my friends and I have been working to revive of late. You can find us on Facebook here.

Cheers and have a fantastic day.