The Effect of Umbreon on a HGSS-on format

thefleeee

thefleeee

Uber N00b
Member
Hey Guys,
Its me thefleeee. I have used the wonderful card known as Umbreon UD/CoL all 2010-2011 season and I was wondering earlier today. What impact would this card have on an HGSS-on Format.

Let me start off by saying that this analysis/ article thing might be slightly biased. :)

Umbreon UD

Umbreon UD is a stage one darkness type pokemon with 2 attacks. Its first attack moonlight fang for {D} does 30 damage and prevents all damage and effects of any attacks done to Umbreon from pokemon with poke-bodies and poke-powers. Its second attack for {D}{C} is Quickblow. This attack does 30 damage and you flip a coin. if heads you do 30 more damage and if tails nothing.

Im going to start by going over the different aspects of this card. Umbreon, being a stage one pokemon isnt very difficult to get out. Umbreon being a darkness type pokemon can utilize the Special {D} energy for an extra 10 damage. Umbreon has 90 HP which is average for a stage 1, and cannot be OHKO'ed by many things.

Moonlight Fang is Umbreon's first attack. This attack is only one energy which makes it easy to use. 30 for one isnt very good of an attack, but the added effect makes it better. In the HGSS-on format, many of the cards that will be metagame would be hardhitters, like Magnezone Prime, Steelix Prime, Scizor Prime, Donphan Prime, machamp prime, Kingdra Prime and RDL. Moonlight Fang allows Umbreon not to be attacked by pokemon with powers or bodies, which means that Umbreon can be a great stall against tanks such as Steelix and Scizor Prime. While you have Umbreon out, you could easily get your entire field set up.

Umbreon's second attack isnt a very good attack. 30 and possibly 60 for 2 energy is very costly where you could be building up a tank and such.

The only real attack Umbreon is used for is Moonlight Fang. With that being said, lets go over the pros and cons

PROS:
-Umbreon can stop hard hitters such as Donphan Prime
-Umbreon can stop tanks like Steelix prime
-Umbreon is stage one so its easy to get out
-Umbreon can utilize spec {D} energies
-Moonlight fang only requires one energy :)

CONS:
-Umbreon can be played around
-Pokemon Reversal would hurt this card
-Reshiram and Zekrom
-Pokemon Catcher when released can easily play around this card
-Crobat prime, need I say more

All in all, Umbreon UD will be a card that could make an appearence in many decks, making it almost meta. I hope you guys enjoyed this article I wrote for you guys and I hope you all enjoy your memorial day weekends :)
 
As a fellow Scizor player, I think Umbreon will be dead next format IMO. Reshi and Zekky plow it, while a smart Magneboar player will put energy on Emboar to take care of things like Umbreon. If this is about your Scizor deck, I would run straight Scizor or Steelzor. The only good matchup that Umbreon would be used in next format is Donphan, so I suppose it could be helpful.

Edit: By 2 Fire energy I think I meant to have >2 energy on Emboar to get rid of Umbreon.
 
IMO, Reshiram and Zekrom will be popular, but in my area people are running things like MagneGatr, Loads of Straight Steelix and Donphan so yeah
 
MagneGatr might be losing it's edge against MagneBoar which can also utilize Rayquaza/Deoxys LEGEND as a backup attacker cause Feraligatr Prime only targets Water Type Pokemon with Rain Dance while Emboar doesn't with Inferno Fandango. I'd be too afraid to play Steelix at this point unless you run a Water Pokemon tech like Gyarados HGSS, Shiny Gyarados, or Kingdra UL with Stream Pump to cover it's own Fire Weakness against Reshiram and Emboar variants. Donphan Prime is mainly played as a tech and is still a solid backup attacker with Machamp Prime despite that it's going to lose the speed it once had with Broken Time-Space.

As for Umbreon UD, yeah one Switch and a KO can easily kill it honestly. That's why I'm switching it out with Lanturn Prime despite not being a Dark Type cause Emboar is huge in the current metagame. I could try to stay consistent with Liepard or Houndoom but they are mediocre at best in Tyranitar Toolbox. Umbreon is easily played around it's not even funny, sure Moonlight Fang is good but it isn't as good as it was when Undaunted was released. The metagame has changed since then, so why waste playing Umbreon to give your Opponent 2 prizes when you count your Starter Pokemon (Cleffa, Stantler, Smeargle) getting KO'ed for Twins bait?

I'm also noticing that Zekrom is becoming more of a one trick pony, sure you can donk with it and have a solid setup early to mid game but it lacks the recovery it needs late game to stay alive compared to Reshiram/Emboar which recently came in 2nd place at my local BR's while Gyarados came in 1st. The reason why BlastiGatr and Blastoise/Floatzel isn't prominent in the current metagame is because of Zekrom but it's mostly the Lanturn Prime techs being played especially in ReshiBoar.
 
Umbreon is quite a metagame specific card. Unless your area is full of Donphan Prime and MagneBoar it's isn't worth teching into a deck, seeing as there aren't that many threatening pokemon with Powers/Bodies that would have a hard time playing around it.
 
It still sucks against MagneBoar cause like I said they can just use Switch to prepare for Moonlight Fang and attack with Emboar. And If that doesn't work they will get enough energies setup with Emboar's Inferno Fandango to Lost Burn for overkill with Magnezone Prime on your next fully charged Pokemon after they've KO'ed Umbreon. Pokemon Catcher just makes it even more nuts.

A deck like Blastoise/Floatzel can play around Umbreon easily cause they can still snipe your bench with Blastoise. The only way to make Umbreon effective for Moonlight Fang against Blastoise/Floatzel is by having an empty bench. Sure the judge will call time for you relentlessly stalling out until they play Donphan, Machamp, Sawk, whatever to KO it or decking yourself you're still delaying the inevitable.
 
I know that, that's why they play Switch to put Magnezone Prime from the Active to bring up Emboar from the bench fully charged after a Moonlight Fang to KO Umbreon. They aren't attacking with Magnezone because they are switching it out with Emboar for the attack.
 
Then leave Emboar as a sitting duck/pig after a KO? It's a bit slower than what you think of it to be.

Optimally you want the non-Ability Emboar to fight but it's hard to get three stage 2s out early. Not to mention Catcher is going to be released.. which can make things harder for Emboar
 
Emboar is only a sitting duck If they have anything that's {W} to KO it for a Revenge kill not even Mandibuzz's Punishment or Bouffalant's Revenge can take it down alone due to Emboar's massive 150 HP. Mandibuzz relies too much on damage spread to be effective for both it's attacks and Bouffalant needs a self KO to do an extra 90 damage.

You're not necessarily playing 3 Stage 2 Pokemon out at once, just 2 with MagniBoar and you can still draw cards with the Shuckle Promo from HGSS. Pokemon Catcher does kinda screw over Emboar due to it's high retreat cost however Switch makes up for that. Since Warp Point hasn't gotten reprinted for the upcoming HGSS-On format we are stuck with Switch for now. Why would you Warp Point anyway when Catcher becomes null with them getting back the Pokemon you wanted out as the Active anyway?
 
umbreon could be useful as a backup attacker but with the BW pokemon with the abilities, umbreon can't do anything. and against reshiram and zekrom, just pair umbreon up with zoroark.
 
^agreed.

umbreaon is slowly becoming useless with the new switch to abilities instead of just power and bodies. if decks just use abilities umbreon is useless.
 
It's not just the change to Poke-Powers/Bodies to Abilties, Switch and Warp Point cripple Umbreon as well too. Your best bet to protect Umbreon for the Moonlight Fang lock is by utilizing
Mr. Mime CoL's Poke-Power with Judge.
 
To be fair to Umbreon, there is no Warp Point in HG/SS-on...

With Powers being less important, there will most likely be a drop in Umbreon play. There are still quite a lot of things with Powers/Bodies and such, however. Donphan Prime, Machamp Prime, Gengar Prime, Kingdra Prime, Typhlosion Prime, Feraligatr Prime, Blastoise UL, etc. These will all be huge decks in the future too.

dmaster out.
 
I see your point however Umbreon is becoming more and more of a situational card nowadays. It's just so easy to play around it's not even funny, kinda like how some players are utilizing Tyrogue HGSS to counter Cleffa HGSS/CoL cause apparently they need an Anti-Starter I guess.

I just don't see the point of using Moonlight Fang with Umbreon anymore when they can play Switch to bring up a Pokemon from their bench with an Ability from B/W or a Pokemon that doesn't have any Powers/Bodies that can just counter it easily like a fully charged Machoke or Machop.
 
well, gengar prime wouldn't be there to hurt umbreon anyway. it would just be LZ'ing pokemon from your hand or sniping/spreading damage on your bench for mandibuzz to come out.
 
That's true but because of Umbreon's great typing, Gengar Prime goes down quicker than anything.

All I'm saying is that it is and can be a threat. Will it be bcif? No. Will it be a decent tech in decks with Dark Energy that has space. You betcha.

dmaster out.
 
Ghost Bear said:
well, gengar prime wouldn't be there to hurt umbreon anyway. it would just be LZ'ing pokemon from your hand or sniping/spreading damage on your bench for mandibuzz to come out.
Click to expand...

Would LostGar be able to put up a new Gengar every turn or two just to replace the one Umbreon kills? Logic also speaks that if you see a Gengar Prime, you would dispose pokemons from your hand by all means.
 
^ive tested lostgar...there is no hope of getting poke from your hand. just spiritomb drop or use a judge or seeker and instant poke and even if not have a mr mime on the bench and just look at there hand. no poke? just put a curse drop on the weakest of there poke. umbreon is of no threat on gengar. i usually had a back up gengar once my first one died
 
Hardly anybody plays LostGar anymore cause due to the rotation it's losing it's key engine that makes it consistent enough to win with Lost World and that's Palkia G Lv. X for Lost Cyclone with Warp Energy. Without those cards LostGar lost the edge it once had. Sure it still has Mew Prime but I've hardly seen or heard from anybody running LostGar lately for Battle Roads this year, prove me wrong otherwise.

LostGar also loses Omastar MD for Primal Swirl to send Evolutions to the Lost Zone. Because of Palkia G Lv. X you had the advantage of shrinking your opponent's bench to meet up to your win condition with Lost World to where If you play a Seeker you can send whatever they Seekered to the Lost Zone with Gengar Prime's Hurl into Darkness especially with the help of Trick Reveal from Mr. Mime CoL and/or Looker's Investigation.

With LostGar out of the picture for HGSS-On, there's hardly anything weak to Dark that Tyranitar variants can counter for type advantage except for Chandelure which is decent as an attacker itself. It's shaping up to be Reshiram variants, Emboar variants, Magnezone variants, Donphan/Machamp, Blastoise/Floatzel, Zekrom, Mandibuzz/Kingdra, Beartic/Vileplume, and maybe a few others. I just think it's weird how almost everyone is so focused on HGSS-On for BR's yet they ignore the threat of SableDonk in the current metagame for MD-On especially other decks that are still legal this season like Gyarados, LuxChomp, DialgaChomp, and such.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top