Tuesday, June 9, 2015

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!

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