For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past month or so (see image on the right), Plasma Freeze, the 9th set in the Black and White Series, will release on May 8th. Plasma Freeze has A LOT of amazing cards for players to use in their decks, and many new archetypes will be entering the format, the most hyped of which being Plasma Basics.
What Exactly IS Plasma Basics?
Plasma Basics is a deck born straight out of Plasma Freeze that focuses on 1HKOing your opponent’s Pokémon with your own high HP Basic Pokémon as early as Turn 1. That may not sound that impressive when other decks like Big Basics (Landorus-EX/Tornadus-EX DEX, Bouffalant DRX) already do this. So let me show you what a Plasma Basics decklist looks like, followed by explanation behind the card choices.
The Decklist
|
Pokémon – 10 3 Thundurus EX |
Trainers – 38 4 N
4 Pokémon Catcher 2 Float Stone
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Energy – 12 4 Plasma |
Card Choices
3 Thundurus EX
Thundurus EX is THE ideal starter for this deck mainly because of his first attack, Raiden Knuckle, does a decent 30 damage and allows you to attach ANY Energy from your discard to one of your Benched Team Plasma Pokémon. Being able to recover and attach Special Energy from the discard is an amazing thing, considering as there hasn’t been any real viable way to do so since Steelix Prime.
His second attack, Thunderous Noise, deals 90 damage for two Lightning Energy and 2 C Energy, and while costly, it can disrupt your opponent’s side of the field by discarding their Energy.
3 Deoxys-EX
Deoxys-EX is a Psychic type Pokémon-EX with an average 170 HP, an Ability, and a single attack. His Ability “Power Connect” increases the damage of your Team Plasma Pokémon’s attacks (excluding Deoxys-EX) by 10, which stacks with other Deoxys-EXs for potentially 40 extra damage (if you run and bench 4 Deoxys-EX). This would mean Thundurus EX’s Raiden Knuckle would do 70 damage for 1 Lightning Energy. That is a dramatic increase!
His attack isn’t that bad either – for 1 Psychic and 1 C Energy, Helix Force deals 30 damage, BUT if there is a Plasma Energy attached to Deoxys-EX, the attack does 30 + 30 for each Energy on the Defending Pokémon. This is crucial against matchups like Keldeo/Blastoise, as you can hit a powered Keldeo-EX for 120 damage, and it actually 1HKOs Mewtwo EX easier than Mewtwo EX itself!
4 Hypnotoxic Laser, 2 Virbank City Gym
Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank City Gym help add even more damage with Poison (with the nice benefit of Sleep) between turns, so that you get that much closer to KOing the Defending Pokémon.
2 Kyurem PLF
This Water type non-EX attacker serves as the main attacker to 1HKO your opponent’s Pokémon. Frost Spear is essentially Landorus-EX’s Hammerhead, at the cost of 1 Water and a C Energy, dealing 30 damage to the active and 30 to 1 of your opponent’s benched Pokémon. With 3 Deoxys-EX Benched, this increases to 60 to the Defending Pokémon before Weakness. This attack can be powered up as early as Turn 1 with Colress Machine.
For 2 Water and a C Energy, Blizzard Burn deals a heavy 120 damage at the drawback of not being able to attack next turn. With 3 Deoxys-EX powering your damage output, and a Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym combo, you can hit the “magic number” of 180, 1HKOing everything except Colorless EXs with Aspertia City Gym in play and Black Kyurem EX with the Crystal Wall ACE SPEC (and certain EXs with Giant Cape attached).
1 Lugia EX
While not seeing much play during States and Regionals, Lugia EX gets much better with the release of Plasma Freeze. His Ability Overflow allows you to take an extra Prize card when you Knock Out one of your opponent’s Pokémon with its attack, Plasma Gale.
For a costly 4 C Energy, Plasma Gale deals 120 damage, but requires you to discard a Plasma Energy to use the attack. Because Thundurus EX can retrieve ANY Energy from the discard, it becomes much easier to constantly use Plasma Gale, or you can choose to wait until late game to take those last 3 Prizes.
While Deoxys-EX’s Ability helps Lugia EX’s attack do 30-40 more damage, the Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym damage does not allow you to take that extra Prize from Lugia EX’s Ability. It is wiser to weaken the Defending Pokémon, and then attack with Lugia EX on your next turn to ensure you are able to take the extra Prize card.
2 Float Stone, 1 Keldeo-EX, 2 Switch, 1 Scramble Switch
With the ever present Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym combo and Pokémon Catcher, you will often find yourself needing to retreat and rework your strategy. Keldeo-EX and Float Stone work beautifully together as you can Rush In with Keldeo-EX, eliminating Status Conditions like Poison and Sleep (and Kyurem’s Blizzard Burn effect), and retreat back to your preferred Pokémon for free with Float Stone.
Keldeo-EX also happens to be a half decent attacker, when you already run Prism and Blend WLFM Energy. I wouldn’t rely on attacking with him unless you absolutely HAVE to.
I find Switch to be equally useful as there may be times when Keldeo-EX has been caught up and is Poisoned and Asleep, or if it is Prized. Some people may prefer Escape Rope, but I feel like I’d be helping my opponent switch out of a bad situation more than helping myself.
Scramble Switch is also the obvious ACE SPEC of choice, as you can power up Pokémon like Kyurem PLF and Lugia EX unexpectedly. I could go on and on about the kind of shenanigans you can pull with a Float Stone Keldeo-EX, and Scramble Switch in the same turn for a surprise Lugia EX. Needless to say, this combo can turn the tables in your favor before your opponent can say “Aw geez!”
1 Team Plasma Grunt
At first, I completely hated this card, but then I realized its synergy with Thundurus EX. You can discard a Plasma Energy and draw 4 cards, knowing you can get it back with Thundurus EX’s Raiden Knuckle. Sometimes, though, it’s just nice to have alternate draw options other than discarding or shuffling back your entire hand.
I believe a single copy is more than enough; you want to save your Supporter slots for the more important draw/search cards.
2 Ultra Ball, 2 Team Plasma Ball
Ultra Ball is an amazing Pokémon search Item, as it allows you to search for ANY Pokémon, provided you discard 2 cards from your hand. As Darkrai EX and Eelektrik variants have proved in the past, discarding cards can actually be a good thing! (See Thundurus EX.)
However, there may be times where you can not, or would rather not discard cards from your hand. That is where Team Plasma Ball comes in handy. Team Plasma Ball does exactly what you might guess it does: you may search your deck for a Team Plasma Pokémon, and put it into your hand. Seeing as how all of your Pokémon (besides Keldeo-EX) are Plasma Pokémon, there is no downside to running this card.
Matchups
I would like to make clear that the matchup ratios I give are only determined by personal testing, and may be inaccurate to future tournament results. As the set has not released yet, it should be implied that this information is to be taken with a grain of salt.
80-20 vs. Big Basics and Garbodor Variants
This is an incredibly easy matchup if you target their Landorus-EXs early and whale away with Kyurem PLF. Bouffalant DRX will probably be your biggest problem if it gets set up, but 1HKOing it should not be a problem.
Thundurus EX can take care of opposing Tornadus EXs and Deoxys-EX will annihilate Mewtwo EX should the Big Basics player choose to run them. Landorus-EX can create early game pressure, but most of the time you’ll be able to outspeed and outclass them.
As far as Garbodor variants, you might want to consider a Tool Scrapper tech, but if you use Pokémon Catcher, KOing the Garbodor works just as well as Tool Scrapping it. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
60-40 vs. Blastoise/Keldeo/Black Kyurem
Blastoise/Keldeo was already an amazing deck, and it only gets better with Superior Energy Retrieval, making it easier for Black Kyurem EX to consistently 1HKO all of your attackers. The key to this matchup is to utilize Deoxys-EX as an attacker against your opponent’s overloaded Keldeo-EXs. Because of the slower nature of Blastoise being a Stage 2, you are at a slight advantage to KO Squirtles before they become Blastoises.
70-30 vs. Enhanced Hammertime
Now I know I’m probably going to get some hate for this one, but what makes Hammertime work so well is being able to use Sableye to use Hammers over and over again. While this may work in some cases, your damage output is far greater than Sableye can handle, KOing them before they can Junk Hunt as much as they’d like to.
Darkrai EX as an attacker unfortunately has fallen over the course of time, and personally, it hurts to say that as I’ve been playing Darkrai EX ever since it came out. I fail to believe his damage output/Energy cost ratio is enough to deal with the metagame currently.
75-25 vs. PlasmaKlang
pokemon-paradijs.comI’ve probably tested this matchup the most, and honestly, it STILL surprises me how easy this matchup is. During most games that I’ve tested this, Klinklang PLS could not get in to play, and even when it did, Kyurem PLF picked up the slack.
While I still firmly believe that PlasmaKlang is a great deck, this matchup is difficult for the Klinklang player.
85-15 vs. Rayeels
“The Glass Cannon” of the format has been getting weaker and weaker as new sets have come out, and Plasma Freeze is no exception. Donking has never become more easy to pull off, and Eelektrik being the biggest Pokémon Catcher target of all time sets the deck up for failure. However, the deck remains to survive barely, and has the best 1HKO potential of any deck. Focus your attacks on Tynamos and Eelektriks, and you will almost never lose.
Pros
- No auto-loss matchups!
- The “Holy Trinity” of speed, consistency, and power.
- Puts Landorus-EX in its place (I personally dislike him).
Cons
- Very expensive (go donate plasma at your local biomat center)!
- Becomes an instant “Best Deck in Format” making it harder for non-Plasma Basic players to do well (the tins don’t come out until September).
- A lot of mirror matches in tournaments.
Conclusion
Plasma Basics is an amazing deck that many people will be playing at Battle Roads all the way up to Worlds. It has the power, speed, and consistency to keep up with the current metagame, as well as push past it. It may cost you an arm and a leg to play, but if you are willing to spend the money, I highly recommend playing this deck!
Did you take the inclusion of Absol in new Darkrai decks into account when considering the Hammertime match-up?
Yes, I just do not think Absol will have the impact that its hype is making it sound. I feel that darkrai decks are tight enough as is, and adding Absol would only benefit the Klinklang matchup. Knock out the sableye’s and it gets steamrolled…
Absol is pretty much good against anything. Don’t be surprised to hear stories of how people lost the game because they got their 170hp EX one shotted by it.
if that ever happens they are bad players tbh..
actually its not really that hard to KO an EX pokemon with absol. you just need your opponent to have a full bench, which aint that hard, a dark claw, and laserbank, and 30 damage already on the EX
You dont need the previous 30.
Mind jack (opp with full bench) = 120
dark claw = 20
Laserbank = 30
So that does 170 already. You need 10 extra damage to OHKO stuff with 180 HP (Like Landorus)
Exatcly your oppnents make the call!
Ofc its not easy to not bench stuff in certain decks but the better players know when to stop to not be that fucked over by absol :P
tho absol is a great card!
The problem is, your opponent is forced into not being able to put all the pokemon they want down. Thus you force them into a situation where they decide; do i want to bench and get hit for a lot of damage, or do I want to hold back these cards, like Deoxy ex, but do less damage myself. Also absol can just put a lot of damage on your opponent for a really low cost.
So you just admitted that your Darkrai testing was theorymon completely? It certainly sounds like it.
rich is right i think you should have also tried a darkai deck that focas’s on getting darkai powered up as fast as posible and attack on turn 2-3. Great article though you did alot of play testing and i thank you for it. i guess i knew plasma basics was good but i didn’t know it had the advantage against so many decks. so for me +1 for you.
I have tested against both speed and hammer variants, but only mentioned the hammers as it has the bigger hype to deal with Plasma Basics. Thank you for the +1, I hope this article inspires you to either build Plasma Basics, or try to beat it with something else. :)
Are you forgetting about Kyurem’s weakness to steel? Wouldn’t that stop Kyurem from “picking up the slack” so easily?
Maybe it could be easier to just drop a Kyurem and add a BenchTini…?
I mentioned Kyurem PLF’s weakness to Steel. Cobalion EX can’t OHKO it, and Kyurem can OHKO everything. Even if they use Righteous Edge to attempt to deplete my energy in play. Thundurus EX gets them right back. Honestly, I’m amazed at how easy the matchup is…
Cobalion NVI can KO Kyurem with Energy Press if the Kyurem has three energy attached. Even if KK decks shift to include those though, I have to agree that Klinks will die too quickly to allow for setup of the Klinklangs.
I don’t agree with your Darkrai or Blastoise analysis. You either haven’t tested them properly, or are testing against the wrong lists.
Blastoise is the closest matchup this deck has. Black Kyurem EX PLS is amazing and can ohko everything you have. The key is to eliminate
Blastoise before they become Blastoise, and to win the stadium war.
Darkrai fails without Sableye being able to recycle hammers. My testing is genuine, and the lists I build are ones that I would build specifically to deal with Plasma Basics. It’s just too good of a deck.
Have you used Absol in Darkrai? Hammerspamming wont work, but Mind Jack will do a lot and it can keep up that way.
Yes, I have. It feels like absol is kind of a one hit champ, as it will likely get KO’d the turn after. I just have to give the edge to Plasma Basics overall.
It is easier for Darkrai to stream absols than for PLasma streaming Kyurems. The only accel you have is colress machine, since using raiden knuckle will mean another mind jack for at least 120 is coming your way. Not to forget Darkrai runs Dark Patch, energy switch and they can even Night Spear to set up further KO’s. The point is, plamsa basics hcan go off like a rocket, but struggles to keep up in the late game energy wise.
I think your overestimating the donk factor that TDK has, and overlooking the amount of bad starts and consistentcy issues you’ll encounter. I don’t care how you put it, a Darkrai deck running 2 Enhanced Hammers and 4 Sableye is definitly going to be a headace. If Blastoise gets set up right away your almost always going to lose. Whereas you’ll occasionally lose to a Blastoise deck if you have a strong start.
Yeah I think the match-ups are too lopsided. Besides the lists of those decks will adapt to the new meta..
Plasma is not as good as you want it to be. Sometimes, living under a rock is better than living in a bubble.
The testing results don’t lie. My matchups aren’t unreasonable.
Sorry man… they are absolutely ridiculous.
I don’t like the fact that these are the results of my testing, but they are. I love this deck, but I hate the direction it’s heading if the results of my matchups in testing is actually correct. It’s not undefeatable by any means, but according to MY testing, it is definitely the best deck in the format.
But hey, if you find a way to beat it more than it beats you, let me know, I’d really be interested in finding out how… (not to be taken sarcastically, I really do mean it)
I can assure you that Plasma Basics does not beat RayEels 85% of the time.
You talk about donk factor and Eelektrik being a Catcher target as the reasons it’s destined to fail. That was a worse problem last format than this format, I guarantee you. Now the deck is even running Keldeo/Float Stone, or just straight up Float Stone on the Eels.
Like… Eels has survived through Tyrogue, CMT, T1 Darkrais, Stunfisk, Landorus, and Landorus on steroids (Lasers). how does a deck with highly specific energy requirements, which cannot OHKO a Tynamo without SOME sort of card combination, donk easier than all of these past threats?
Not to mention that Eels remained firmly in Tier 1 despite all these theorymonical problems.
What I would say is nuts to your testing. Not to be insulting, but there is very simple logic that points to your testing being highly skewed, if not fallacious. Saying “That’s what my testing says” is hiding behind a cop-out defence and shifts the burden of proof away from the person who should be responding to the logical objections laid before them.
If I play 5 games between Big Basics and Klinklang, and Klinklang wins all 5, does Klinklang have a 100% auto-win matchup against Big Basics? Of course not! Read between the lines of the games. How many points in the game could Big Basics have won had combo A or B pulled through? How many times could Klinklang have lost had it not gotten this or that off of N. etc… etc… The matchup is probably only 60/40.
Rarely does a matchup hit such staggering numbers as 75/25. Like… RayEels vs. Klinklang is the only matchup I see in the current format as being that one-sided.
pokemon plains most of these top teir decks deliberately look at keldeo blastiose they put that strategy for the blastiose+ keldeo combo on their website! to make it a top tier deck, just so they can knock it down with gensectEX. Why? to make money i’m not saying this is wrong of pokemon it’s just business. putting a number 1 deck right at the end of black and white so players will buy lots of the latest pack. but crawdaunt is right when he says a deck with a bad match up can still win if combo a or b pulled through. but it sounds like Kenneth really tested these decks extensively. i think it would have been good if he played from the other side of the match up. like play 50% of the blastiose match up with plasma basics and the other have of the games with blastiose so he could vouch for each deck. it sounds to me like you guys play with (an example deck) blastiose deck so when he says it loses these match ups you can’t believe it because you tested this same match up but from the blastiose side of it.i think we still will not know how the meta game will be affected until the set comes out. like i said in one of my other comments i think its a great article and i thank Kenneth for taking the time to play test all of this.
Crawdaunt: Well yeah, I can understand that if I only tested 5 games against a deck that would be skewed results, but in reality, I’d say roughly 100-200 games i’ve tested this deck over the past few months, against all different kind of decks with different builds with different players playing different decks of different builds.
Joshua Twilley: I have play tested from the opposite side, trying to beat Plasma Basics and my results remain the same. A deck with a bad matchup can win, and has won… I’m not saying the deck is invulnerable, but it generally wins more games than it loses. I want to thank you for understanding that I have been doing a lot of testing towards the concept of this deck.
I wish you guys (the people disagreeing with my matchup ratios) were right, believe me. But these are the results over several months of testing, and I would not release fallacious information in an article. You may disagree with these matchup numbers now, but here is where I believe they are and come time for tournaments, if I’m proved wrong, then I’m proved wrong. I honestly do not think that playing this deck will guarantee you a victory, a player can go 0-5 with this exact deck list. It all depends on the player’s skill and experience with other decks.in the meta game.
So are you saying your playtesting of this deck comes from playing against other players? Have you played yourself at all? When you are piloting both decks? Because if you haven’t looked at those results in specific, your playtesting often speaks more about you as a player than your deck.
To be fair, I actually like your list a lot. It’s pretty similar to mine, and obviously I like mine.
But I learned my lesson about matchup analysis way way back when I wrote Hooligans Kyurem & Zebstrika. History will repeat itself, but we can still learn from it.
Yes mostly against friends I go to tourneys with, some against myself, and its a random decision of “i want you to play plasma basics, I wanna beat it with X deck”
Perhaps maybe what you’re saying about the matchups could be true that it defines more about me as a player than the deck. I edited the article slightly up at the matchups section saying that the matchup ratios are based on my personal testing and should be taken with a grain of salt.
I’m glad we were able to settle this maturely as opposed to 99% of arguments on the internet. :P
If you truly believe these matchups are this lopsided, I will play you in best of 5’s with Blastoise and Darkrai on Playtcg. I would give Blastoise a slight edge as well as Darkrai in the matchup, but both are still very close matchups.
I play both sides simultaneously. I playtest against myself, or within my circle as we’re all competent players.
I’m not on any side. I’m just saying that the ratios are blown way out of proportion. It’s practically impossible to have a ratio of 85/15 in this game with two competent decks.
I’m going to have to completely agree with Crawdaunt here, results like that are absolutely too lop-sided, i mean come on, 80-20 vs. one of the decks TDK has trouble with if the list is decent? I have tested TDK extensively as well, and not to completely disrespect your ‘perfect deck’, but it is very over-hyped in my opinion, sure it’s a good deck, but there is just so many faults with it, and your ‘results’ are just frankly, completely wrong.
I had to like that comment seeing as I’ve had something similar thrown at me :P
I dont like your list. Run 4 juniper, 4 plasma ball, and change the ace spec to probably dowsing. To make room, i would remove switch.
skjerpings david! :)
What about Cobalion EX? He pretty much yells, “screw you” in Kyurem’s face.
Still can’t OHKO it, it’s second attack doesn’t apply weakness
It still applies as an auto enhanced hammer and can OHKO kyurem with laserbank.
This makes me want to play Plasma Basics but I just don’t have the money for it :(
I personally have tested the darkrai hammers vs plasma basics matchup, and your ratio is not right at all. All the darkrai player needs is just two enhanced hammers, healing cards like max potion and gold potion, and constant catcher + laser. Something that I also don’t think you are taking into account is how almost all your EX’s, if not all, have 170 hp. This is the PERFECT number for darkrai, if it has laserbank and dark claw. You do run 1 max potion, but with no shadow triad or dowsing machine, you will not be able to keep up with 140 damage being put up on you. I would go so far as to say that speed darkrai with absol, healing cards, and enhanced hammers has a favorable matchup against plasma basic. Also think about how all you ex’s have 2 retreat. (Keldeo ex plus float stone is easy to KO with darkrai.)
Thanks for explaining the Kyurem part to me. Never got the hype until now. :P
+1
I feel like i keep repeating myself,
but thunderus deoxys is nothing without lugia. Even though you did include the
one copy of it I saw zero, nothing, nada dce. Keldeo float stone may seem like
a nice back up to avoid catcher stalling, but when the tool scrappers come out
and all is set and done, you’re the one on the losing side with a non-team
plasma pokemon benched and down two to three prizes (all ex pokemon/kyurem)
without any quick response (lugia+dce+scramble switch). Not only the that but, while
thundurus may seem like it can power a lugia up in two turns, it actaully takes
two raiden knuckles to do so (since you don’t run dce). And i actaully thought
that the plasma grunt was a typo for shadow triad at first glance, but thats just another bad
decesion you made. Oh one more thing, that landorus matchup in big basics/garbodor is a
lot worse than you make it seem considering your “ideal starter”
takes double damage from it and you hit him back for 20 less with colbalion destroying kyurem on top of that
2-2 split line of utra to plasma ball which isn’t going to get you anywhere unless
you can afford to waste a supporter turn to search for it via skyla.
I actually did make a few changes in the deck list after writing this article, instead of Plasma Grunt, I did put in Shadow Triad, and made room for a DCE… the 2-2 ball split is a personal choice and seems to be working fine for me. I’m sure I’ll be making other changes before tournaments. The Landorus matchup isnt as bad as you say it is. Kyurem can be fully powered by turn 2 with the help of Colress Machine, thus OHKO’ing the Landorus. I appreciate your input, as all information helps me grow and mature as a Pokemon TCG player.
Constuctive critism is hard to take, but hey, whatever works for you. On that note you should defiantly test against garbodor landorus with colbalion ex tec, being that its porbably the closest thing that can counter TDK and it wouldn’t have hurt to do some more testing against other matchups before you wrote this article (see comments above not by me). Once again, whatever works for you.
Way to keep working! I wish you luck during your tournements!
I dont like your list. Run 4 juniper, 4 plasma ball, and change the ace spec to probably dowsing. To make room, i would remove switch. Also, skip Lugia.
What are you talking about! Everything in that comment is so wrong except for maybe 4 juniper.
What! No reason to run 2 ultra balls when only 2 cards can’t be gotten by plasma ball. I dont like lugia as it wastes your plasmas, and without it scramble is unecessary.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a better chance of setting up a Raiden-Knuckle attachment during your T1, or are you only relying on Juniper and a premature Dowsing? And I do believe that you meant 1 card since only Keldeo-EX is a non-Plasma Pokemon…
Lugia is there to clean up, so if knocking out an EX for 3 Prizes is a waste of a Plasma energy (which you can get back…), then maybe you’re right, the cost of winning the Prize race is too damn high. xD
Skip lugia and change scramble switch to dowsing? Yeah, you certainly know how to srcew up TDK.
after your lugia gets one shotted by a thunderus OR kyurem in the mirror, tell me how that 4 energy investment (cuz he don’t play dce) went.
Then i just one shot you thundurus back with doexys (laser bank+colres machine + prism). But seirously, you haven’t read my comments below on how his list needs dce?
Your matchups are absurd. I’d say 40-60 vs darkrai if they run 2 enhanced, 55-45 vs eels, 55-45 vs klinklang, 65-35 vs big basics and garbodor. The only one I’d agree with is the blastoise matchup, which is honestly your best matchup of the decks I’m projecting to be tier 1. Some of these could be off by %5 or maybe even 10% as lists improve / techs are added, but that’s what my testing has found. You realize that your testing isn’t any better than the testing of every single person in the comments, right? No offense but with the matchups you’ve listed it’s probably worse. In pokemon 80-20 is what I’d put for the the most unwinnable matchups, such as klinklang vs a rayeels that ran 2 victini nvi or something like that. Anything more favourable than that has to win literally every game (hammertime vs KK in hgss-dex). Darkrai isn’t favourable, it isn’t even tied. Darkrai hits about as hard as you when you factor snipe in, and while you can hit first, they spend the first 1-2 turns getting resources back. Enhanced hammer also slows them down, and if you run 2 you’ll use 2-4 per game. They aren’t there to hammerspam, that’s not how you win, you just use them to stop them from using blizzard burn on certain turns. Absol also hurts them, forcing them to KO a non ex while hitting incredibly hard vs plasma’s full bench. Eels is only slightly favourable due to donk, if plasma doesn’t donk it’s 50-50. It all depends on how fast eels sets up and how many energy plasma gets into play. Rayeels can win by either KOing Kyurem on t3 and you not having another 3 energies on one or by just ohkoing 3 ex’s before you take 6 prizes. Either works, and coupled with N’s it’s hard for plasma to hit cards to keep up at times. At the same time plasma can just outspeed / board. Klinklang is favourable if you keep their klinklangs out of play / stop their set up, but something like a 4 energy registeel or 2 energy cobalion nvi could deal with kyurem, and righteous edge can slow you down. Landorus variants will often lose to to no accel, but their attackers are on par with yours, so you won’t just sweep. They just enter the trade with less efficiency, but you won’t win 80% vs good players. Seriously, there’s a reason no one agrees with you.
oh my god what darkrai list are you freaking playing against Darkrai vs. TDK is the most 50/50 matchup i’ve ever played. You run a bunch of 170 HP EXs. Absol can sweep it by itself. Also, how can you OHKO a sableye when you don’t have energy? It’s not that simple. It seems like you’re just pulling theorymon results out of your butt for free underground so you can actually see what the format is actually like.
no no no no no. first off, garbodor variants deystroy you, not with lando of course, but cobalion garbo will wreck you. hammers plays eviolite so good luck with “taking out their sableyes” with only a thunderus to attack with. and if you bench all of those deyoxys then they will switch to agro absol. also in blastiose, why would they attack with keldeo? that is a no no with deoxys in the format. not to mention that its easier than ever to use black ballista. for your list, eithr find room for at least 2 dce or lugia is not worth it. hope this helps.
Biased
A good Dota list rips garbodor to shreds
blastoise is 50/50 cause if they get the black kyurem rolling t2 its no hope for anything
Darkrai is an even matchup but thundurs/deoxys will win if played rigth and not whiffing energies
And lugia is worth it even with just one dce its an awesome late game ender
hey man Great article and your welcome for that last thunderous today in the pre release hahahaha I cant wait to build this deck
Left out the Darkrai/Lasers Matchup.
I think the list you give is suboptimal. Team Plasma Grunt is an interesting inclusion, but the high Skyla count could be modified. I like that you included Keldeo EX, and I also find 3 Deoxys EX interesting.
Having tested myself as well, your matchups are horribly off-base. You either need to stop testing against your pet goldfish or stop misrepresenting your actual testing results.
Despite all the negative comments I believe this is an incredibly powerful deck. I will be building this as soon as possible. I’m expecting to see a lot of these decks when the new tins come out. They will have Thundurus EX, Deoxys EX, and Lugia EX. Also thanks for the awesome article Kenneth. Defiantly a +1 from me!
Dude, did you playtest against a five-year-old or something? No offense, and I know it’s been said, but your matchups are way skewed. First of all, did you include Cobalion EX in Garbodor and Big Basics? Because believe you me, he’s gonna be there, whether you like it or not. In MY testing, Garbodor has about 60-40 and Big Basics has about 50-50 with Plasma Basics. For Klinklang, t1 CObalion EX screws Kyurem every time. And Max Potion is still in the format. RayEels lists are going to start running Mr. Mime, preventing you from sniping Tynamos and Eels. For Darkrai, you need to worry about a lot more than just Hammerspamming. Darkrai also OHKOs Kyurem with LaserBank and a Dark Claw. As for Blastoise, if it’s a good list (and not one that only runs three Rare Candy like the guy at my League whose deck I borrowed the other day) that includes 4 Candy, 2+ Beach, and a 3-3 or 4-4 Blastoise (4-4 is better), it’s an incredibly fast deck. And Keldeo is now a secondary attacker in favor of Black Kyurem EX, who has both a better damage output for a lower energy cost than Keldeo.
Should I build this or team plasma. Need to know soon. I have most of the cards
This IS a Team Plasma deck. What do you mean?
In any case, never rely on a forum to tell you what deck to play. Build and test for yourself.
I know this is a team plasma deck. I mean the deck on the plasma freeze review thread