My Celebi That Sparkles

Pokemon

4x Celebi (XY promo 93): This was the starting point of the entire deck idea. As soon as I saw scans of this promo, I was determined to get the full play-set and build a deck as annoying as possible. Yes, the damage output is minuscule, but compounding the spread damage with its Ancient Trait and ability, it ended up pairing amazingly with the other selections of this deck, as well as decently with other choices I had made prior to this final build that I took to a local City Championships event.

So what are these attributes that made the card? First, the Ancient Trait, Theta Stop, says "Prevent all effects of your opponent's Pokemon's Abilities done to this Pokemon." I did ask a head judge about some specific rulings. After all, the obvious ability-blocking includes Golbat/Crobat drops and Malamar-EX's sleep-inducing ability. However, due to the wording of Pyroar's Intimidating Mane, which applies to itself defensively, Celebi cannot place damage counters on it. Theta Stop does, however, block things like Wobbuffet and Garbodor, since their abilities apply to other Pokemon instead of themselves. This carries us to our next point.

The Ability, Leap Through Time, is an ultimate slap in the face. Every time, Celebi gets Knocked out, it's a 50-50 shot that it's worth a prize card, and the same 50-50 shot that it ends up discarded. Thanks to Theta Stop, Wobbuffet can't stop this flip from happening. And due to the wording, it doesn't matter how Celebi gets knocked out, be it by poison, confusion, burn, or effect of attack. Usually things like this are worded "when knocked out by damage from an attack" or something similar, but Celebi's is simply "When Knocked Out." This ability potentially forces an opponent into a game that takes more than six KO's to win, which can really wear a deck thin, especially when pressure from your spread damage, trainers and support Pokemon are making it that much more difficult.

The attack is cheap and simple. One single grass energy, place a damage counter on each opposing Pokemon. I had originally planned to center my knockouts on this attack, but in testing it proved quickly inefficient, and most games ended with an opponent decking out before I picked up more than two prize cards. It did however put pressure on the game, making sure players thought twice about low-Hit Point cannon fodder.

3x Bunnelby (XY Primal Clash 121): This one has been around for a while, so it's nothing too surprising. When I realized how quickly I could force opponents to dig through their deck, Bunnelby was the next logical step. With Omega Barrage letting it attack twice, shrinking a deck became a joint effort between me and whoever is across the table. At the same time, if I felt the need for more hammers, VS Seekers or Trainers' Mail, I could put them back into my deck. Normally, I don't try to make my draws less consistent like this, but with the disruptive nature this deck took on it became necessary at times. The best time for Bunnelby, however, was at that last moment of the game when the opponent was down to the last few cards in their deck. 

2x Jirachi (XY promo 67): Another promo with astounding capability. With the abundance of special energy thrown all over the current game, getting that extra turn of invulnerability is tricky to work against. Sure, you can Escape Rope or Lysandre away from dealing with Jirachi. Sure, a M Mewtwo EX card and Tyrantrum EX tear through it. Those take resources to set up, though. And after a game full of trainers like what you'll see below, those resources are hard to manage against a deck like this. The only major drawback to this card is that you pretty much only get one turn of invulnerability with it before an opponent stops dropping their special energy. Heck, one player even dumped his own Double Colorless energy with Ultra Ball after seeing this jolly little wish maker on my bench.

1x Dedenne (XY Furious Fists 34): Do I really need a reason? Dedenne is just adorable. With the ability to either pull Pokemon from my deck or wreck Lugia and Yveltal on weakness to apply more pressure in the game, it's a nice way to wrap up the Pokemon line.

Energy

6x Grass Energy: Every attack this deck uses takes a single energy, and only Celebi needs a certain type. So why bother with anything else? I originally used five energy, but had occasional trouble drawing into them. A sixth energy, while still keeping enough recycling on hand to ensure it's there when needed, helped tremendously on being able to attack, especially when the unthinkable happens and four of these precious resources get prized.

Supporter

1x Ace Trainer: Originally I thought this deck would just slowly diminish health until it picked up multiple prizes back to back, but testing made me realize that this deck, like straight-bunnelby or Wailord, has its real strength in the deck-out-game. While it's possible to pick up prizes, the process to do so takes so long that I inevitably fall behind in the prize trade, so Ace Trainer gives me an easy shuffle-draw for six cards.

1x Brigette: The entire deck runs on Basic Pokemon, and that one single Brigette helps bring them out in swarms. Whatever a situation calls for, this card has it covered. A one-of sounds like it should be inconsistent, but somehow I managed to have it when I needed it while not cluttering the deck full of unnecessary search.

1x Judge: A well-timed Judge could either cripple a strong hand, especially against opponents who don't have a good poker-face. Alternatively, it could cause an opponent to draw more cards from a small hand, helping you run their deck just a little bit faster.

1x Lysandre: This should not even need explanation. Pulling up a Pokemon that can't attack or retreat is critical, especially in a deck that tries to play the long game like this.

3x Professor Birch's Observations: Discarding resources is something I wanted to avoid as much as possible, so I opted for more Birch than Sycamore in this deck, and with all the extra search-power the rest of the trainers offer this deck I thought I could manage pretty well with less draw-support than normal decks. Sure enough, I managed pretty well even with such limited draw.

2x Professor Sycamore: Again, a simple standard of any deck. Although I disagree with much of popular opinion that this card is an automatic four-of in every deck. My personal approach is to take every deck by its own design, and decide whether that deck really needs four of anything. That's why I ran three Bunnelby, and it's why I ran two Sycamore. Discarding hands with this isn't always preferable, more often opting for the shuffle-draw of Ace Trainer, Judge and Birch. That said, it's critical to know when you have a hand full of cards that are no good for a certain match up, like Enhanced Hammers against a Sceptile deck.

4x Team Flare Grunt: Yes, I was just writing about how sometimes, four-of cards aren't as necessary as people say they are. However, four Team Flare Grunts really make this deck brutal. Not only does it mean most opponents are flipping coins for a good portion of their knock-outs, it also means that there are entire turns in a row when they can't even attack, making Bunnelby runs a safer play. At the same time, most players run on a sort of minimalist-energy run to make room for all of a deck's other needs, and those that need special energy to operate in the first place are even worse off. The Dragon, Seismitoad, Night March and Vespaquen decks come to mind. Without special energy, most of these players are left unable to keep getting KO's, and when they had to flip coins for the few they did get in the first place it's not something people want to push against.

2x Teammates: Normally a one-of in non-EX decks for me, I just asked myself how many Pokemon my opponent was knocking out on average per game. A full blown EX deck loses a game after three KO's, giving Teammates two opportunities for use. Not too helpful. Non-EX decks like Night March, Wobbuffet/Bats or Noivern deck gets five possible chances to use it. Not bad, but still needs to be planned for. This deck, however, relies on getting knocked out over 6 times, since a no-prize Celebi flip still counts as a Knock Out, as does Robo Substitute.

1x Xerosic: Just to top off the disruption, a single Xerosic. Getting rid of a special energy, even when item-locked via Vileplume, Trevenant or Seismitoad, can be just as crippling as everything else this deck does.

Item

1x Battle Compressor: A one-of is pretty standard in most of my decks these days. Whether it's an early-game Supporter search for VS Seeker or a late-game cleanup to remove unecessary cards from the deck, it's almost universally helpful.

4x Crushing Hammer: Naturally, knocking off energy is the bread-and-butter of this type of deck. The less your opponent can do to win, the better.Even with the coin flip, I still think it's worth it.

1x Energy Retrieval: Sometimes you will get KO'd and lose energy. Sometimes an opponent techs a Flare Grunt or two. Sometimes two, or four, energy are prized. It's at these moments you need to recover the ones you lose.

2x Enhanced Hammer: We've talked enough about how necessary energy disruption is, but I could not see the purpose of using more Enhanced Hammer cards. With as many other ways there are to deal with special energy in this deck, I sometimes found myself using other means even when I was holding one in hand. None of that downplays its usefulness, however. It is still one of the most valuable counters to decks like Giratina, or the fighting decks and their strong energy.

2x Escape Rope: Sometimes you don't want to discard a Robo Sub, and more often than not you don't want your opponent to keep their active Pokemon where it is. So yes, I decided on Escape Rope over Switch this time.

3x Level Ball: A full line up of 60-70 HP Pokemon makes this the perfect search card, especially to pull back a Celebi that just got shuffled back in with its Leap Through Time ability.

3x Robo Substitute: More things to get knocked out, more things that don't give up prize cards, and another way to drag out the game just a little longer to run down that deck.

1x Startling Megaphone: It doesn't take long for a player to feel safe setting tools into place, especially with the return of Float Stone and even more tools coming January to flip this game on its head. A single Megaphone can send an opponent's plans back a few turns, which for disruptive decks is one of the most important factors to consider. Heck, even in normal decks I still subscribe to the School of Startling Megaphone. Everybody plays tool cards, making this a devastating blow to anybody.

1x Super Rod: I opted for the flexibility of the newly reprinted Super Rod over the abundant recovery of Sacred Ash or Energy Recycler. And when you really need some deck-recovery, you can get it back with a Bunnelby.

3x Trainers' Mail: Another staple, of which I'm almost always using three. Digging a few cards down to get that trainer card is critical, and most decks use around 35 total, giving roughly 32 searchable cards under Trainers' Mail. This deck, however, boasts a hefty 44 trainers. Yeah, you're going to hit something useful about 99% of the time.

3x VS Seeker: If you're running a Pokemon deck and you're not using this card, you're probably not winning tournaments.

Stadium

2x Faded Town: In the first run of this deck, Ariados was used to set up poison damage, along with the spread and this card I thought I'd stand a chance against heavy HP Mega Evolutions. However, the KO's proved to be a nearly futile effort, so Ariados came out for more of the Bunnelby and Jirachi presence. If anything in this deck were to change for another performance, this would be one of the first things to change, but not into more copies of the other stadium. I'd much prefer to have two different stadiums for this kind of deck, since each one fits different situations.

2x Parallel City: This stadium turned out far more useful. More often than not, it will cripple an opponent's bench, since Celebi's attack does not get reduced by the other side of the stadium. Some decks, on the other hand, required a different approach. Limiting my own bench wasn't such a bad thing. If I had a backup Celebi and one other Pokemon, I could hold Level Balls or other basics until I had more space without difficulty.

Starting Concept and Deck Progression

This whole deck started with the Celebi. As soon as it was revealed, I wanted it. Pairing it with Ariados, I tried building it with the energy disruption to keep opponents disabled while I slowly picked off their Pokemon, but it soon became apparent that the process was far too slow to handle EX Pokemon. So instead I abandoned the active-KO process. Naturally, I still do push damage forward to secure any small KO's I can manage, but the deck-destruction game was much more effective. It was with these choices that Ace Trainer and two Teammates made their way into the deck. As for the stadium, I had not considered before the City Champs event what alternate to use instead of the faded town, but with writing this I found that Mountain Ring or Team Aqua's Secret Base might be infinitely more useful. Mountain Ring prevents damage dealt to benched Pokemon, but Celebi's attack is ruled as "effect of attack," not "damage from an attack." And the Secret Base would make it that much more difficult to retreat out of an unfavorable Lysandre or Escape Rope.

All in all, the deck has its weaknesses like any other. Opponents who use an abundance of basic energy and don't spread their bench too thin on the energy will do well against it. However, players who lose their cool, who drop Sycamore, Battle Compressor and Acro Bike onto the table without a second thought, they will run their own resources dry before getting even half of their prize cards most of the time. Those were the main differences between wins and losses for me. Those who beat me had skillful use of Hex Maniac and Silent Lab, and one of them even went so far as to attach energy to a single Active Pokemon every single turn, staying ahead of Flare Grunts and Hammers as he made the knock outs.

So what do you all think? Leave a comment, let me know if you like this insanity or if you think I'm a horrible human being for running such an atrocity. I took a 4-3 record at Cities and got to play some fun games with many good players, using this deck.

Uncommon Tournament: A Pelliper/Swanna Second Place Tale

The Format

Common and Uncommon cards only

Decks must contain only one type of Pokemon! No mix-type decks, even if they come from the same evolution line.

Additionaly banned

Hypnotoxic Laser

Trubbish (Plasma Storm 65/125, with Tool Drop)

Joltik/Pumpkaboo/Lampent (Phantom Forces, Night March deck)

Golbat (Phantom Forces 32/119, Sneaky Bite ability)

This tournament was held to honor a dear friend of the Pokemon Community who passed away recently, and to help raise funds for her memorial and funeral services. Testimony from her dear friends tell of her constant willingness to jump in and help anyone she could. I personally did not know her very well, as I've only recently come back into the competitive community. I do however know that this person exemplifies what it means to be a member of our community: To be as family. When we're having trouble with a team or a deck, we help each other out. We travel together and make friends all across our cities, states, nations, even across the world. Pokemon is to us what people often look for in life: a sense of community. So to honor our friend, to honor our hobby, and to honor each other, let us never forget this important truth to what our community is about. Remember to love your fellow fan, be it a veteran or a newcomer, the same way that our friend did for all of us.

The Deck

Pokémon

4 Wingull (Roaring Skies 18/108)
4 Pelipper (Roaring Skies 19/108): Simple method, great results. For a meager two energy, deal a base of 30 damage and heal an amount equal to your damage output, after accounting for muscle band and weakness. Weakness to lightning proved inconsequential, as the electric type menace was quickly scared off by the threat of fighting types, supported by the ever present Korrina and Strong Energy. Peliper also boasts a resistance to the expected prominence of fighting types, making the water bird a clear choice to stall an opponent. The second attack saw no use, costing four energy for 70 damage and sleep, but amassing the energy cost was simply counter productive, as well as near impossible with so many Enhanced Hammer and Team Flare Grunt floating around. All in all, Swallow kept Hit Points moving in my favor, and even without getting to use Water Pulse, opponents had a hard time taking out this beast.


4 Ducklett (Boundaries Crossed 42/149)
4 Swanna (Boundaries Crossed 43/149): Now here was a beast, and by far the scariest offense I built into this deck! Aerial Ace was largely ignored, thought it did provide the opportunity of landing a turn-1 Double Colorless+Wally combo for early damage. The real gem is Defog. Three energy lands 60 damage, with an additional 40 if I choose to discard an in-play Stadium card. The best feature was actually having the option to discard the stadium, meaning any opponent who played their own stadium ran the risk of taking heavy hits just for giving me the fuel. Naturally, I played my own Stadium card in case they didn't provide me with the torpedo. Considering the format, however, it was fairly seldom that I actually needed the extra damage! Stunfisk fell to weakness from Defog's base damage, and Bunnelby just hit that 60 Hit Point mark. It came in handy for finishing up games against Bouffalant, one of which I needed the added bonus of Muscle Band to topple over.

Energy

6 Water
4 Double Colorless: To be honest, I was initially worried about my energy count. I almost went with eight water energy, but I just wanted to try squeezing a couple more trainers in. I did however manage to slip in two Energy Retrieval cards, which in essence takes the six basic energy I was using and turn them into ten, and in the end, I found my energy count to serve my needs perfectly.

Supporter

1 Lysandre: I'll explain this one for the people who may be new. Lysandre allows a player to effortlessly pull up an opponent's Pokemon. Whether it's one they should have difficulty switching out of, preventing their attack, or whether it's one you desperately need to knock out before causing havoc on your own lineup, it depends on what you need at the given moment. I chose to use only one since I didn't see too much need for it, considering Swanna is capable of One-Hit-Knock-Outs against most possible opponents. That, and a number of VS Seeker cards let you use it over and over as needed.


3 Professor Sycamore: Discard your hand and draw seven new cards! This card is part of the reason I decided to run full four-four lines of both Pokemon in this deck. At six prize cards, per game, I could afford to lose one or two of either Pokemon's evolution line with Sycamore to get the hand I needed to finish a productive turn.


3 Shauna: I picked Shauna over Birch and N for two reasons: Consistency over the whole game, and avoiding the likelihood of giving opponents a fresh hand they might need. I cannot even count the number of times an opponent played N and ended up giving me a better hand than they gave themselves. Granted, top-caliber players swear up and down by N, but in a format that is completely devoid of item lock effects, fresh hands can really make a next turn count.


2 Team Flare Grunt: Admittedly, when this card first came out, I said to myself "This looks horrible. One supporter per turn, just to discard one energy, and only from the active?" But since the shenanigans at Nationals with Wailord, these grunts have worked their way out of the realm of good fashion sense and into my heart.


3 Wally: I could have just as well gone with Evosoda instead, but the chance at evolving the same turn a Pokemon was played proved too enticing. Were I to use this deck again, however, I will likely trade for Evosoda, since item lock is not an issue. That's right! No rares means no Treavenant, no Seismitoad-EX and come next set, no Vileplume. I thought the supporter version would work just fine this time around though, considering Dive Ball and Evosoda provided me little to no functional difference in pulling an evolution card.

Item

3 Dive Ball: With so little space remaining, it became difficult to find room for sets of four copies of cards by this point. However, some cards just cannot run in sets of less than four. Dive Ball is one of those. The ability to search for any Pokemon in your deck without the penalty of discarding cards from your hand is vital, especially when every card in your deck serves a purpose in nearly every pairing you could face. Of course, Dive Ball only searches Water type Pokemon, but if you've read this far you already know the only Pokemon I have in my deck!


2 Energy Retrieval: I knew going in that energy disruption would be a major issue. Sure, I could have just run more basic energy, but as I've mentioned before, each of these cards effectively creates two energy cards! Plus, the shock on a person's face when they see someone playing a second Retrieval is simply priceless.


4 Enhanced Hammer: I'm going to level with you for a moment. The inclusion of four of these was an accident. If I were paying closer attention to the deck I was building, I'd have likely cut one of these cards out for a fourth Rough Seas. However, the expected plays that this card prepares for did show up! Fighting decks' Strong Energy and most decks' Double Colorless were prime targets for this pinnacle of disruptive potential.


3 Muscle Band: Even in such a low Hit Point version of the game, sometimes you need a little extra damage. Especially when your attack heals based on your damage output! This one tool card made Pelipper a beast to take down. The potential to heal 50 HP per turn almost meant an opponent would have to take it down in a single attack, or watch their work become undone as their own health gets chipped away. For the opponent's sake, though, I sure hope they don't have weakness to Water type cards.


2 Switch: Swapping places with something on the bench? Much better than paying a two-energy retreat cost, especially when you only have ten total energy cards in the deck, and you've probably already lost half of them to Enhanced Hammer and Team Flare Grunt.


3 Trainers' Mail: Sure, it may not seem like much, only peeking at four cards off the top of your deck. But do some quick math. 16 Pokemon, ten energy. That means this deck packs 34 trainer cards. Subtract the three copies of Trainers' Mail, since it cannot grab its own copy from the selection, and you still have over 50% of a deck that Trainers Mail can get you at any given time. Most decks carry this kind of Pokemon/Energy count, if not even fewer, making Trainers' Mail something that should go in nearly every deck.


2 VS Seeker: Somehow, I only cut in two of these cards. I usually run three or four, but the space just wasn't there. At the same time, I almost felt as though the supporter counts were enough on their own, and considering how the day actually unfolded for me I'd say it was a pretty good choice. Surprisingly, I found myself using it to grab Team Flare Grunt more than any other supporter from my discard pile.

Stadium

3 Rough Seas: Really, the only stadium that benefits this pure water deck. I even found myself using its healing effect less than I thought I would, typically dropping it just to knock a Magnetic Storm or Scorched Earth out of play, or to give Swanna her much coveted 100-damage Defog attack.

Slendy's New Life

Much has happened to the infamous Slender Man since the incident in the forest. Due to the misunderstanding between the clients, whose medical records show have both been taking mind-altering drugs prior to the event. You see, the truth is that dear old Slendy was a real estate agent, and had actually lost his license after his ordeal in the forest, since there were no other witnesses present to vouch for him after the forest, along with the cabin he looked to buy and convert into a time-share, all burned to the ground.

 After losing his job, Slendy was distraught. He caught a train back to his old hometown, hoping to land a decent office job at the company run by his old college roommate. Fortunately, a position was available, and he managed to get his life started once more without too much difficulty. A simple accountant, he no longer deals with awkward customers who would have originally found him intimidating. As a matter of fact, since taking the little accounting job, Slendy has managed to improve productivity among his office-mates.

Even though he had found a job and a comfortable neighborhood to live in, dear old Slendy was still unsure about his social life on the island. It had some fine dining and a beautiful apartment building, but many of the people he grew up with had moved away to bigger, better places. Unfortunately, Slendy just didn't fit into the big cities too well, so it seemed he would have to make a new start in his old hometown.

Fortunately, it didn't take long to make new friends. New people had been moving to the island, hoping to settle down, trying to escape the big-city life. These friends came from all walks of life. Competitive gaming, wandering the desert, caring for stray animals, hacking... anything that earned them the comfortable island life they sought. Every now and then, Slendy gets the chance to simply relax with his new found companions.

Pokemon TCG: Let me see you WOBBU!

A local store tournament, on a Saturday, gave me a rare opportunity to actually play, since I finally put together a deck I started feeling comfortable with! Now, for the precursor... This took place about a week before the official implementation of the Lysandre Trump Card ban, so knowing that it would affect the format, I built the deck to account for it. However, as I break down the list, I will also highlight the changes I am making for the post ban. Another important note, this deck is built entirely XY-forward in card sets, since I don't intend to play any major events, so I'm keeping my meager collection set for post-Worlds. Granted, there's no official word that I know of about what is actually facing rotation, but all probability pretty much says pre-XY sets.

The Deck:

• 16 Pokemon

• 4x Wobbuffet (Phantom Forces 36): The star of the show, and the main attack force! After dropping damage counters all willy-nilly, Wobbuffet hits hard with Psychic Assault. Essentially doubling damage and adding an extra ten, it can be fairly easy to set up massive KOs, especially when you only need one energy with Dimension Valley. To top it off is that amazing ability, Bide Barricade. Shutting down all non-Psychic Type abilities. Aqua and Magma decks would lose a lot of steam without their abilities, as well as the commonplace Dragon Decks that saw a rise in Roaring Skies. Hydreigon's Dragon Road and Reshiram's Turbo Blaze become dead weight, and the Shaymin draw power is completely nullified, just by having this bad boy active. Aegislash EX would normally block an attack made by a Wobbuffet holding Mystery Energy, but that too is cancelled out. Keldeo loses Rush In and Aromatisse loses Fairy Transfer. Even if your Wobbuffet somehow gets a slow start, it can still serve to cripple the opponent's momentum through the entire game.

• 4x Zubat (Phantom Forces 31): I know what your first thought is. Why this Zubat? As I mentioned before, I built this deck to be XY-Forward, meaning I could not use the free-retreat Zubat. Even so, this Zubat provides something the other one does not: Skill Dive. Even for only 10 damage, being able to drop a damage counter when you have no other options, for no energy with a Dimension Valley. Yes, there are times your Valley will not be available, but the attack still only costs one energy. There was even one instance in the tournament when I did need to stage a retreat, and the Mystery Energy provided that need just fine, even setting up a later Crobat to attack when the valley wasn't available.
• 4x Golbat (Phantom Forces 32): Naturally, Golbat with Sneaky Bite is vital. Dropping the damage counters is key to this deck's success. At the same time, we cannot really ignore the attack. Again, like the Zubat chosen, being able to attack for zero to one energy is a great use of a turn you would otherwise have to waste, and damaging every one of the opponent's Pokemon in play helps later attacks land the damage they need. While there are things that stop Swoop Across from being effective, like Mr. Mime or Rough Seas, there really aren't many of those techs floating around these days, and the people who are using Water decks are pretty few and far between, likely due to an overarching fear of Leafeon's prominence in the top-tier Turbo Flareon deck.
• 3x Crobat (Phantom Forces 33): First, I should note that I originally ran four of these winged menaces, but often found opponents knocking out one Zubat or Golbat before managing to evolve all the way up, and in this tournament, three Crobat did the job just fine! The extra damage counters, of course, are key, and the sniping attack for just a Dimension Valley is a great way to take out benched menaces, like Jirachi and Shaymin. Especially if you managed to scare an opponent out of playing them, as Wobbuffet often does, causing them to drop them into the discard with an Ultra Ball or Professor Sycamore. All you need then is one little Target Whistle at the right time, and BAM! Free prize cards for minimum effort.

• 1x Miltank (Flashfire 83): Currently a one-card tech in this deck, I am considering adding a second, as easy as it is to get a Crobat into play. A single energy to land 80 damage is a great way to set up more knock-outs with Wobbufett, especially in an EX-heavy metagame where there are times a 20-30 damage drop at a time is hard to stack up for one-turn knock-out attacks. I often found myself having to set up my Wobbu-attacks over the course of two turns, and an extra Miltank's Powerful Friends should make that more feasible.

• 20 Items
• 1x Battle Compressor: I had originally used two of these, just to have a modern way to search for Supporter cards to later use with VS Seeker, or to empty useless cards in a matchup out of the deck. However, with the Lysandre Trump Card ban looming over our heads, I tried cutting out one of them, and actually found that for this deck's purposes that it is enough.
• 2x Ultra Ball: I almost never manage to fit more than two of these bad boys in a deck, and any deck that runs evolutions almost always needs it, especially when Evosoda is not an option. With Evosoda failing to trigger Golbat and Crobat's abilities, Ultra Ball, or perhaps in the future, the promo card Trevor.
• 4x Trainers' Mail: With Roaring Skies came one of the most amazing card engines. With nearly every deck being so trainer-heavy, including all the blend of Item, Supporter and Stadium cards, Trainer's Mail is a no brainer. Quickly thinning the deck out, without crippling it to the degree that only Trump Card can fix, it is one of those few things that is just universally useful. Every deck needs a Stadium card, and this card can fish them out. Many decks are now using Mega Evolution, and the Spirit Links can be difficult to grab at times. Having trouble getting your next Shauna or Professor Sycamore? No longer. Even decks still playing the current legal format benefit, having an extra method to grabbing Hypnotoxic Lasers or their coveted Ace Spec cards without having to actually discard other valuable resources.
• 4x Acro Bike: With the looming loss of Lysandre's Trump Card, these speed-driven cards may find themselves reduced, if not outright removed from the deck. Some testing will be needed to see how vital they are. But as long as the Trump Card was allowed to reign in the format, having to discard a card for this choice was never too drastic of a loss. Many times, I actually dug into another Acro Bike, or a Trainer's Mail, which ended up fishing out just the card I needed afterward. In a Trump-legal environment, four of each of these were vastly useful.
• 3x VS Seeker: I consider three of these cards a bare minimum. Supporters are priceless in the meta, and being able to grab any one that you've already used is an excellent benefit. Combined with Battle Compressor, you can even search for three supporters you might need, or might not necessarily want to draw into manually. For example, Teammates and Lysandre's Trump Card. I'd rather drop them in the discard pile and use them via VS Seeker when the situation actually warrants, especially when N can ruin a perfectly good hand.
• 2x Muscle Band: Every deck needs some kind of tool card, and were it not for this deck's commitment to XY-forward building I may have even used Silver Bangle. At present, I only have two of these, and since I play on as tight a budget as possible I currently won't be buying any extras. However, adding at least one more would probably be ideal, since I cannot count the number of times I simply needed an extra 10 to 20 damage to land a crucial knock out. It's helpful against EX and non-EX opponents alike, and even made for some excellent early game shenanigans. In one match in particular, going second landed me the perfect hand with a Wobbufett lead: Psychic Energy, Muscle Band and Dimension Valley, landing a grand 60 damage against an opposing Wobbuffet.
• 1x Target Whistle: Do I really need to explain this? Ok, fine. Take a basic Pokemon from your opponent's Discard pile and put it on their bench. Can you drop two Crobat and use one of them to attack the bench for a total of 90 damage? Get an easy knock-out on that Jirachi they threw away, since they couldn't use its ability with your Wobbuffet locking all non-Psychic type abilities. Going against that one gutsy Night March player? Pull a Joltik out of the discard just to drop a bat and get that free prize. This rendition of the deck only sported one, but chances are highly likely that I'll be adding a second.
• 1x Startling Megaphone: Blast away opponent's tool cards! Does this really need explanation? Muscle Bands, Spirit Links before Mega Evolutions, Garbodour problems, Life Dew, etc. 
• 2x Enhanced Hammer: With so many decks relying heavily on special energy, and with the only recovery option for those energy falling by the wayside, these are crucial in crippling many decks. Anything with Double Dragon and Double Colorless is slowed down to a slug-pace. 
• 4 Stadiums
• 4x Dimension Valley: Not only does no other stadium actually benefit this deck, this one supplements the energy cost of everything this deck can do. Well, except for Miltank. Below, you'll see that this deck is only using 8 energy, which might actually be too much for what this deck does. Thinking about it in the exact moment of writing this, I'm actually considering to replace one basic energy with an Energy Retrieval, just for this exact purpose.
• 12 Supporters
• 3x Professor Birch's Observations: With the XY-forward building, there's a huge toss-up between this and Shauna for shuffle-draws, as opposed to N. At its worst, it gets one less card than Shauna, and at its best it matches Sycamore, without discarding valuable cards that we will soon be unable to retrieve.
• 3x Professor Sycamore: Since this tournament allowed Lysandre's Trump Card, I decided to bump up to three, from the original two count of Professor Sycamore. After the ban, I'm likely to switch all three out for Shauna, just to have a constant hand-refresher available without discarding my whole hand.
• 2x Pokemon Fan Club: Nine, probably ten soon, basic Pokemon fill this deck, so pulling them out quickly can be critical, especially when one of them is a tech on the side for special circumstances. Naturally, these tend to be useless late-game, and are often discarded later with Ultra Ball or Battle Compressor, but is indispensable for the early game and hard to cut out the deck entirely.
• 1x Teammates: Since every single knockout the opponent will land only awards one prize, Teammates has five chances to be used, gaining any two cards you deem suitable for the given situation. Of course, this assumes the lack of the Delta Plus trait, but you get what I mean. As mentioned before, this card was most often dropped into the discard for later use via VS Seeker, and was likely never used more than once per game. But when that use comes around, you know it's critical!
• 2x Lysandre: When the point of the deck is to place damage where you please and finish off with a double-damage attack, this card is just indispensable... then again, every single deck likes to pick its own target, so this is another one of those cards that really needs no explanation.
• 1x Lysandre's Trump Card: Since the tournament allowed it, as it predates the ban on this card, including it was crucial to this deck's speed in competition. It allowed me to drop any cards I didn't need in that exact moment and get them back later on when they were useful, allowing multiple uses of my mere two Muscle Bands and two Enhanced Hammer. And really, that's one of the reasons this card is being banned to begin with! The reckless disregard for resources is indeed a way to play the game, but apparently it's not the competitive atmosphere that the developers had intended to make, especially considering some of these upcoming cards that might be even worse if allowed the speed and recklessness of a Trump Card fueled game.

• 8 Energy
• 2x Mystery Energy: Free retreat for a Psychic type? Yes. The spread used to be four of these and four basic, but I found myself never having the energy on hand for Miltank, and not often needing the free retreat to begin with. With the threat of Enhanced Hammer looming on nearly every deck as well, limiting the Special Energy as much as possible just made more sense. Another little perk to the deck as a whole, however, is that pesky Aegislash. You know, the EX that is unaffected by attack damage from anything carrying Special Energy? Well, not against Wobbuffet. Indeed, the cards just seemed to work well together to that very end.
• 6x Basic Psychic Energy: Because every deck needs Basic Energy. As I mentioned earlier, I may actually be dropping one of these for an Energy Recovery, as it essentially creates two more energy cards at the cost of one slot in the deck.

All in all, the tournament performance was decent with this deck. Seismitoed gave it some problems, and a turbo-Colorless-Rayquaza build steamrolled me that day, but the ability-lock will still slow them down when they try their Shaymin and Aromatisse shenanigans, if a player lucky and skilled enough to outpace or outmaneuver those decks gets their hands on this deck, they could do well! I did perform plenty well against any dragon decks I came up against, and the Wobbuffet I mentioned earlier, combined with Gengar EX, didn't give me too much trouble, primarily due to the fact that any EX must give up two prize cards at a time while something quick and simple like this still only gives up one.

So what do you think? What might you change? I've mentioned a couple of shifts I'm likely to make post-Trump-Card-ban, and will likely continue running this deck. It's quick, simple, and amazingly fun!

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, the store tournament I competed in consisted of five rounds, of which I scored three wins and two losses, those being against a couple of Florida's top players. After placing eighth, I was paired with one of the gentlemen who delivered me one loss in the Swiss pairings, only to be swiftly defeated again, since he already knew what deck I was playing and how to handle it. I mean, he's one of Florida's best for a reason, you know. For placing in the top eight, I was awarded six booster packs, in which I managed to earn back the five dollar entry fee in bulk cards, as well as the golden Energy Switch, which unless I'm mistaken is currently valued at about twelve dollars. All in all, a net gain financially, and an all around fun time had!

Pokemon Global Link: Little Cup Team Breakdown

As a precursor to this whole thing, let me state clearly that I take certain issues with certain aspects of Smogon. Yes, I appreciate what they offer the overall Pokemon community. Things like the Damage Calculator and Showdown are excellent resources for practice and testing for players. However, I play on a strict "official game and/or tournament rules" system, and as such I disregard any and all bans enacted by Smogon's tier system, as well as item bans, sleep clause, and the like. That's my choice of how to play the game, and for those who wish to use Smogon tiers and rules, that's their choice. However, the (hopefully) few and overly vocal players who ruin that aspect of the game for me are the ones who treat Smogon's rules as an absolute holy text of how the game should be played, well I just can't take their company for long. I understand that Smogon, as a community, does not imply that it's rules are absolute, but for whatever reason there are members and fans who treat it like it is. If you are one of those kinds of Smogonites, you'll get nothing out of this. Thank you.

Pre-game Analysis

There was one huge flaw to my preparation for this event: I did not check Smogon's Little Cup ban list. Had I done so, some things on this team might have been a little different, since the things on that list seemed to be top-tier contenders. I mean, Smogon bans things for a reason, and regardless of how valid those reasons are or not (in case it is things that players should learn to work around rather than banning outright), they still created some amazing matches that I loved to play in.

A quick stat-sorted search showed Scyther to be the absolute highest Base stat total (500) available to the format, so that choice was a no-brainer. Add in the amazing Technician ability and plenty of moves, including priority moves to choose from, and we have a contestant for Little Cup runner. My following choices included the absolute fastest Pokemon available to the format, Sneasel, and an attempt to fill in other roles like a bulky hitter, a staller, a priority wrecking ball, and an out-of-left-field tech to throw the game on its head. So let's see how we did!

The Team

• Scyther @ Life Orb
• Ability: Technician
• EV: 36 HP / 196 A / 36 D / 236 S
• IV: 31-31-31-xx-31-31
• Jolly Nature
• Aerial Ace
• Bug Bite
• Pursuit
• Feint
• + Highest base-stat total in the format
  + Array of priority moves for different situations
  + Steals berries
• - Outpaced by Jolly Sneasel, Choice Scarf and Unburden users
  - 4x Rock weakness
  - Somewhat predictable
• Base Stat Total: 500. Base speed, 105. Aerial Ace and Bug Bite are given as STAB movs that also receive the Technician boost. The only advantage over any other Pokemon is the raw speed, increased by the Jolly nature. It still falls short of Sneasel's speed by a 1 point maximum, but hey it can't be perfect! Pursuit over Knock Off to try to predict switch ins (of which I landed none), and Feint over Vacuum Wave or Quick Attack for the additional priority stage (+2), to land a blow against any Ice Shards and Gale Wing boosted moves. It performed about as I'd expect, though Knock Off may have been a better choice than Pursuit. While Vacuum Wave does hit 4x weakness on Sneasel, I found that at full health, the Sneasel can actually survive it, even without the Sash sometimes. The only other thing I could think of that might have been better is maybe Metal Claw, as a countermeasure to the prevalent Swirlix problem I continued to run into at the higher ranking matches.

• Sneasel @ Focus Sash
• Ability: Inner Focus
• EV: 236 A / 236 S
• IV: 31-31-31-xx-31-31
• Jolly Nature
• Knock Off
• Ice Punch
• Brick Break
• Fake Out
• + Fastest Pokemon, barring Scarf/Unburden users
  + Sash allows critical revenge-kills
  + Somehow survived Scyther's Vacuum Waves
• - Somewhat frail
  - Predictable
• What Little Cup team would be complete without the fastest Pokemon available to it? One made by Smogon bans. And for clear reason. At it's speed, even Scyther (also banned from that rule set but not from official play) is slower, thus the Jolly nature and full speed investment. Fake Out was great for quick revenge kills or to ensure Focus Sash's won't work. Brick Break dealt well with opposing Sneasel. Some opponents used Low Kick, and I considered it before the tournament, but I figured most things I WOULD use it on were low-weight anyways. Knock Off proved to be killer to enemy strategies, but also to myself from time to time. Apparently, getting rid of enemy items with Knock Off triggers Unburden... oh Swirlix you are the most horrifying thing imaginable. And of course, Ice Punch. OHKO's Scyther almost every time, if not every time absolutely. The only thing I could have done better is somehow including Ice Shard, but that being "better" might be up for debate, as sometimes you just need the raw damage of Ice Punch. The Focus Sash proved most useful in surviving moves from other Sneasel, or from heavy hitters, long enough to land a 2HKO, and even persuade  a couple opponents to surrender without finishing the matches. I still managed to get the videos of those matches though!

• Misdreavus @ Choice Scarf
• Ability: Levitate
• EV: 196 D / 156 sa / 76 sd / 76 S
• IV: 31-xx-31-31-31-31
• Modest Nature
• Shadow Ball
• Power Gem
• Dazzling Gleam
• Thunderbolt
• + OHKO Scyther
  + spread and Scarf outspeeds Jolly Sneasel and Scyther
  + Survives first hit nearly every time
• - Move locks
• I was about to use Gastly. Great speed, base 100 Special Attack, super diverse move pool, what's not to love? Its bulk. So a friend who doesn't even play competitively reminds me that Misdreavus exists. Lacks poison type, meaning no weakness to Psychic, good. Almost the same special attacking move pool, good. Slightly higher speed base stat and MUCH more HP/Def/SpecD? Amazing. It survives Scyther's Aerial Ace, as well as many other moves that would wreck most things. The interesting thing I found is that Scyther (speed stat 22) and Sneasel (speed stat 23) could be outrun by this monster. A speed stat of 16, achieved with a modest nature and just a few speed EV's, gave a Choice Scarf adjusted speed of 24. Sneasel gets no Fake Out against the ghost and takes big damage from Dazzling Gleam (or KO as a revenge kill), and Scyther gets OHKO'd by Power Gem, which Gastly doesn't even learn.

• Fletchling @ no item
• Ability: Gale Wings
• EV: 156 HP / 196 A / 92 D / 52 sd
• IV: 31-31-31-xx-31-31
• Adamant Nature
• Acrobatics
• Overheat
• U-turn
• Tailwind
• + Priority Acrobatics
  + Catches Honedge and Ferroseed off guard with fire
• - Fake Out + Ice Shard Sneasel kills it
• Frail, and kind of a one trick pony... but I probably wouldn't change much about it. It really does its job well when it's used! OHKO's most Scyther, maybe the bulkier ones could survive. Gale Wings gets Acrobatics to wreck the field. Overheat might not get much use, but the chance to burn is always nice, and it did OHKO a Pineco for me once. The other moves are just there since nothing else seemed to fit. Since it was single flat battles, Quick Guard didn't seem nearly as special, and with Gale Wings being the primary use of this little guy, the speed EV's just weren't necessary. Still dies like hell to Sneasel, unfortunately.

• Lickitung @ Rocky Helmet
• Ability: Own Tempo
• EV: 116 HP / 156 A / 156 D / 76 sd
• IV: 31-31-31-xx-31-31
• Brave Nature
• Return
• Rock Slide
• Earthquake
• Aqua Tail
• + Diverse move pool
  + Physical and Special potential
• - slow
• Easily became one of my MVP's when I really got into the swing of things. Survived every hit thrown at it, save for STAB fighting moves from the likes of Scraggy and it's kin. Return is the given STAB of its own, though I think I may have forgotten to make sure its friendship was jacked before the tournament. Rock Slide handles Scyther, Earthquake is simply solid power, and Aqua Tail handles the Onix problem I thought I'd see a lot more of than I actually did. The one thing that would have made this better, though? Gyro Ball. A neglected speed IV, combined with Swirlix's Unburden, would have made Licky into a Gyro-spinning-wrecking ball. I just didn't see Swirlix coming. Curse my lack of research and forethought!

• Grimer @ Leftovers
• Ability: Stench
• EV: 196 HP / 196 D / 116 sd
• IV: 31-31-31-31-31-xx
• Impish Nature
• Shadow Sneak
• Minimize
• Toxic
• Protect
• + Surprisingly bulky
  + Playing the timer out can win games
• - Didn't account for Scyther's Aerial Ace
  - Luck based (Shadow Sneak + Stench Flinch & evasion)
• My least used team member, the toxic-staller. I went with Stench because of the chance to flinch an opponent on Shadow Sneak, that I never landed. The ONE game it won for me on the stall was by running the timer down, though I was already on the winning track anyways. However, when planning this Minimize user, I had briefly forgotten two things: Scyther's Aerial Ace, and Sneasel's Knock Off. Since most teams had at least a Scyther OR a Sneasel, Grimer was really just a liability that never got used. Either swapping Grimer's use to be a stalling wall that attacked, or trading it out for my own demonic cotton ball, would have won me a lot more games.

Post-game Analysis

30 wins, 15 losses
3 losses day 1, Rating 1600ish
4 losses day 2, Rating 1700ish
8 losses day 3, sad face.
As you can see, I started out really well. Learning the ropes of my team's mechanics and predicting pretty well... up until day 3. This was when I started seeing a LOT of Swirlix. I saw a couple before hand, and even beat one or two, but by day 3 I was playing against people in the upper 1600's and 1700's, meaning I was against people who knew how to win with them. As I stated above, a Gyro Ball on Lickitung, Metal Claw on Scyther, and more offense on Grimer (or replacing it with my own Swirlix) would have won me more matches on the last day. In retrospect, I see this being the clear case. My team felt pretty solid, especially being my first experience in Little Cup, ever. But, as I mentioned earlier, I went in without first seeing what Smogon decided to ban from their Little Cup. After all, their bans have reasons, and no matter how bogus I think the reasons are, or what they do to an inherently competitive game, they are a good resource to look at before sizing up what certain official events may have as a standard.

In the end, I had a great time and would like to see more events, or maybe even rebreed my Little Cup team to engeneer them as Lv5 Pokemon that I can use with friends. Since the event auto-scaled Pokemon down to Lv5, I went ahead and got any level up moves I needed, instead of breeding the moves down from a pair of parents. All in all, I'd love to hear thoughts from you all on the Little cup in general.