The Dark Explorers Compendium

Great write man that’s crazy on text format this article is 12 to 30 pages that’s awesome man people should really appreciate what you do for us as a ug writer and how long it actually takes…{college students disregard, you’re already aware}…

Your emphasis on the format is always intriguing to most of the members, your one of the world’s best players. People should really listen. There is always a lot of competitively useful info in your articles.

My interest is still on zeels, cmt, and terrakion build. Now the darkrai ex DONK or DEX seems to be a fantastic card that I can’t wait to get my hands on to start testing.
 
Wow, major thanks, man. The kind words are much appreciated. :)

As for the two large articles in one week's time...All I can say is that it's fantastic practice for when I'll have to write 30 page appellate briefs. ;)
 
Kettler said:
Wow, major thanks, man. The kind words are much appreciated. :)

As for the two large articles in one week's time...All I can say is that it's fantastic practice for when I'll have to write 30 page appellate briefs. ;)
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Only if you are litigating appeals. Not many lawyers actually do that in the grand scheme of things :P
 
I had an alternate idea for Deck and Cover. Instead of Vileplume, use Gothitelle.

In between turns, let Gothitelle become the active, and then use something like Dodrio's Retreat Aid to easily retreat Gothitelle. I was also thinking of a Kingdra line, but thought that perhaps just adding in Pluspowers would suffice. After all, that's all Kingdra is doing for you in the end (other than maybe making killing an EX 1 turn faster). But since you're locking anyways, Gothitelle should work just fine. You could use Celebi as a basic energy accel thanks to Dodrio.

That said, that is 4 separate pokemon I've just suggested. Gothitelle, Celebi, Dodrio and Accelgor. But if you can make it work, it's brilliant. I once built a truth deck with a disguisting 30 or so pokemon in it, that added a Serperior line to heal 110 damage per turn. Sunflora helped search and set the lock up. Once it was up though, there was practically nothing you could do. I'm picturing Accelgor lock to function much the same.

Using Gothitelle over Vileplume also gives the EXTREMELY appreciated added benefit of getting to use Trainers like Level Ball or even Energy Exchanger, helping to relieve the need for energy accel.
 
Crawdaunt said:
I had an alternate idea for Deck and Cover. Instead of Vileplume, use Gothitelle.

In between turns, let Gothitelle become the active, and then use something like Dodrio's Retreat Aid to easily retreat Gothitelle. I was also thinking of a Kingdra line, but thought that perhaps just adding in Pluspowers would suffice. After all, that's all Kingdra is doing for you in the end (other than maybe making killing an EX 1 turn faster). But since you're locking anyways, Gothitelle should work just fine. You could use Celebi as a basic energy accel thanks to Dodrio.

That said, that is 4 separate pokemon I've just suggested. Gothitelle, Celebi, Dodrio and Accelgor. But if you can make it work, it's brilliant. I once built a truth deck with a disguisting 30 or so pokemon in it, that added a Serperior line to heal 110 damage per turn. Sunflora helped search and set the lock up. Once it was up though, there was practically nothing you could do. I'm picturing Accelgor lock to function much the same.

Using Gothitelle over Vileplume also gives the EXTREMELY appreciated added benefit of getting to use Trainers like Level Ball or even Energy Exchanger, helping to relieve the need for energy accel.
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no no no no no

The whole point of kingdra is to kill pokemon during YOUR turn meaning they don't get to bring up something after getting knocked out that will get to swing for damage.

Gothitelle, maybe. But cutting kingdra is a huge no-no
 
Awesome writeup! One specific thing you mentioned that I'm wrestling with was Darkrai EX's Dark Cloak ability: "Dark Cloak is an instant boon to any appropriately-colored deck needing free retreat." Amen! For me, the color that needs this most is brown, but I just can't figure out how to combine Darkrai with QuadBulls or QuadGroudon or QuadWhatever. Am I wasting my time?
 
What Crawdaunt is thinking is instead of using a Kingdra to finish a poke you just use PP the turn before so that Poison knocks out the defending Pokmon out when your turn starts.
 
cabd said:
no no no no no

The whole point of kingdra is to kill pokemon during YOUR turn meaning they don't get to bring up something after getting knocked out that will get to swing for damage.

Gothitelle, maybe. But cutting kingdra is a huge no-no
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I understand that. I'm saying you can use Pluspower to manipulate damage instead of Kingdra, allowing you to dedicate less of your deck to Kingdra. Which is somewhat essential for my idea since you're using up some deck space for Dodrio. I might still tech a 1-0-1 Kingdra line but it's not going to be a focus nor something to rely on if you use Gothitelle for Item Lock (since you'll need to either run a very heavy switch line, or Dodrio to help out).
 
In my course of studies it was imperative that I took a legal writing course. The professor could not stress enough on affirmative writing. DEFEND THE DECISION…lol
 
Re litigating appeals: good chance I might be, but I am a fledgling 0L, so tough to say at this point. : P

Re the great Accelgor debate: I really like the idea of choosing Gothitelle over Vileplume. I also agree that in this version, Pluspower could serve as an acceptable alternative to Kingdra. However, the real strength of a Gothitelle variant is how easily you can play Pokemon Catcher, which could undoubtedly be critical in beating many of the top decks.
 
Kettler said:
Re the great Accelgor debate: I really like the idea of choosing Gothitelle over Vileplume. I also agree that in this version, Pluspower could serve as an acceptable alternative to Kingdra. However, the real strength of a Gothitelle variant is how easily you can play Pokemon Catcher, which could undoubtedly be critical in beating many of the top decks.
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Not to mention the strength of getting to use Level Ball to get those Accelgors back out automatically without needing something like Sunflora
 
tl; dr: Level Ball is nice, but Catcher's super cool.

Oh, I agree that using Level Ball to grab it back can be nice, but those run out over time. When it comes to Catcher, it's almost as if the deck enjoys a whole new dimension in playability and depth. I actually experimented with Catcher/Seeker in the article list, although I ultimately decided it wasn't good enough to address in that specific variant.
 
Your article fueled me to get Underground, and what an investment it was. :) You've already got my gears turning for a possible Groundon EX/Blissey tank!
 
Great article man! I have to say I don't think Heatmor will kill Durant either. Heatmor is kinda useless after he's been milled. I thinks he's only solid play in Slugma Donk XD and maybe the Truth. I really liked the shiny catcher part as well the reviews on some of the stage twos and more obscure cards in the set like Carnivine. As a player that does prefer non-holo cards for shuffling, I have to ask what your/the communities' thoughts are on reverse foil cards and full arts in regards to shuffling. I took Gothguard to Ohio's states and about half the deck was newly reverse foiled in the hopes of "intimidating" my opponents (I was a total noob who was getting advice for a friend who plays in Seniors) and I had disastrous hands. I currently play no reverse foils. Thoughts? Also I can't wait to get my hands on Groudon EX for my Troll deck. :) Sorry for the off semi off topic question/story there.
 
Nah, it's fine - off-topic can be good!

(At least when it isn't someone asking for Jay Hornung's Zeels states list in my thread. :X)

Anyways, reverse v. non-reverse: Although the article might not suggest it, I'm actually a major fan of keeping my deck as non-holo as I can. Of course if I'm borrowing cards I won't be picky, but generally my hierarchy is as follows:

Regular>Reverse>"cosmo" foil (Team Rocket-Ongoing)>"line" foil (Black and White-era)

Reverses are generally a bit easier to shuffle than the normal type of holo, since it's more or less the same type of paper stock as regular (only sparkly). With Cosmo and Line, you have completely different stock.

As for Full Arts v. non, I'm not sure if there's a really noticeable difference in the way that they shuffle. For me, regular holo Zekrom from BLW shuffles atrociously in comparison to Full Art Zekrom.
 
Kettler said:
tl; dr: Level Ball is nice, but Catcher's super cool.

Oh, I agree that using Level Ball to grab it back can be nice, but those run out over time. When it comes to Catcher, it's almost as if the deck enjoys a whole new dimension in playability and depth. I actually experimented with Catcher/Seeker in the article list, although I ultimately decided it wasn't good enough to address in that specific variant.
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Yeah, that was my thought process. If you were to use Vileplume, you might also have bench space for Sunflora though, which would help perform the loop admirably. But with Gothitelle nothing is safe, and it's easy enough to both mess with your opponent and set yourself up.

The biggest problem is the amount of theorymon going into "Deck and Cover" (love that name btw, did you come up with it?). All of this sounds good, but I have my doubts about the deck's ability to get set up without just getting stomped in the process. As you mentioned, it just takes 1 turn of whiffing to completely ruin everything. I see this deck running similarly to Chandelure NVI in how calculating your strategy will become. The other big thing is, every Accelgor you lose is one less in your deck for consistency. Gothitelle might help with that though, giving you access to Super Rod to return your lost Accelgors.

But yeah, I personally like the idea of Gothitelle > Vileplume in theory, but in practice it might be too slow. I dunno if using trainers is enough to make it consistent enough. All I know is that this deck is gonna run at least 1 Pichu and 1 Cleffa :P The big disadvantage to Gothitelle is not being able to hide behind babies when you need to re-set your lock. Vileplume definitely shines there.
 
It being too slow is not an issue, IMO: as long as you can get a consistent loop of KOs via poison after the opponents' turns, then you can come back from a 6-3 or even 6-2 deficit. Of course, with both of our lists that's easier said than done...Although it's at the very least a good start. : D

As for Gold Catcher, though, all I can say is...

[video=youtube;29_uSlEEPSk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29_uSlEEPSk&fmt=18[/video]
 
Btw, I've logged my first playtest with the QuadLion. John, that Max Potion idea was genius. So much so that I'm thinking of removing the SSUs for more of them. No seekers in my deck, because the need to refresh is just too important, I've found. There's also a lack of recovery, which a single super rod ought to fix.

That said though, the deck IS slow, to the point where having a catcher early game just so you don't fall in prizes behind becomes essential (Celebi and tynamo make good bait). The zekeels match has me targeting the eels almost all the time if a non-eviolited zekrom hasn't used bolt strike.

EXP Share is great, but somehow I feel that eviolite helps this out much more mid-late game. It's hard finding a balance.

Also, I'm toying with the idea of potion/blissey DEX, because forcing a 2HKO into a 3HKO is just amazing in turning the game into your favor.
 
Regarding your poor man's dark deck (no-Ex's), I'm concerned that there are so few cards there capable of searching for Zoroark (only the 2 Communication). And wouldn't Ultra Ball be potentially useful in the deck, to increase your odds of doing Beat Up on Turn 1, and hopefully getting a donk? At present, the Junk Arm and Juniper cards are the only ones that let you put energy quickly into the discard pile. Or do you feel the risks with Ultra Ball outweigh the rewards? And what about the total lack of Catcher?
 
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