Discussion Hustle Belt Possibilities

Perfect_Shot

Armored Core>Elden Ring
Member
Hustle Belt is neat, it boosts the damage of the equipped Pokemon by 60 if it's HP is 30 or less and has damage on it, but the cards that can actually make immediate use of it are practically non-existent or horrible. The only card I can think of that would be 'worth' making a deck around this would be Natu from Roaring Skies. It has Delta Plus to increase the amount of prizes taken after a KO by one, and has Psywave to do damage depending on the amount of Energy on the opposing Active, but it misses OHKO numbers on pretty much anything that it would want to hit for weakness.

HB was obviously going to be a very niche, meme-y card but there must be a few other options for it that aren't awful or flippy.
 

mattfofatt01

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Heracross..not sure exactly what set it is from, but it's the one where if it is to be knocked out you flip a coin and if heads you leave it with 10 HP remaining. If it remains alive hustle belt activates and now you're doing some bigger damage. I've played this with lurantis gx/sunny day to boost damage prior to hustle belt's release and I may try it again. It's not meta but gimmicky and the potential of having an opponent flip everytime they want to take a prize is hilarious.
 

RyanTekBox

Aspiring Trainer
Member
In standard hustle belt could be paired with a baby buzz because with 130 hp a Zoroark GX wont be able to ohko without the help of prof. Kukui. So, with beast energy and hustle belt a baby buzz can hit 120 damage before applying weakness.
 

RyanTekBox

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Actually joltik has 30 hp to begin with.
In order to get the hustle band boost a pokemon must fit both criteria. 1) The pokemon must have 30 or less remaining hp. 2) The pokemon must have damage counters on it. So, for a Joltik to get the boost of hustle band you would have to use a rainbow energy or something such as Banette GX's ability to get damage onto the Joltik.
 

Perfect_Shot

Armored Core>Elden Ring
Member
Goomy was kind of a badass sounding option as the new one has a solid ability but I was more for looking into things that actually hit something for weakness.

Options are pretty slim...
 

Perfect_Shot

Armored Core>Elden Ring
Member
Any specific Weakness you're thinking about?

That really depends on what sees play. Psychic weakness will be useful in Standard only if Buzzwole and Malamar continue to see play post rotation, although it would be great in Expanded where Natu can easily take that role. Fighting would be useful against Zoroark which will definately be around in both formats and also helps if any of the new Lightning type cards get used.

Everything else depends on what else becomes commonly played, and also the deck needs to have some general use attackers to have any consistency as well as to soften up the GX cards.

Edit: Shedinja ROS would be pretty decent in Expanded along with a couple of the Fairy Rise Ninjask, hits solid numbers after a Rainbow Energy attachment & Hustle Belt, enough for Natu to come in on a 180 HP GX and take it out for 3 prizes, though the deck probably needs to max out on Belts to work. This still doesn't fix that HB isn't anywhere near useful in Standard.
 
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SchwarzFlux

Aspiring Trainer
Member
In a group from my country I've been seeing people post a Magikarp list that makes solid use of Hustle Belt.

You can check it out here:
 

MiniMads

The misunderstood Hero of Disasters
Member
Crabominable from Burning Shadows I see as an option because Zoroark leaves you with 20 HP, you hit 80+60 with Hustle belt+20 with Diancie Prism+Regirock EX (prior to rotation) = KO's a Tapu Lele GX 'BOOM' 2 Prizes!
 

DragonFang101

Funky China Man
Member
Crabominable from Burning Shadows I see as an option because Zoroark leaves you with 20 HP, you hit 80+60 with Hustle belt+20 with Diancie Prism+Regirock EX (prior to rotation) = KO's a Tapu Lele GX 'BOOM' 2 Prizes!
True but that's a very specific scenario. We're trying to decide if it's good overall in the new rotation.
 

Perfect_Shot

Armored Core>Elden Ring
Member
So, did some research on what can actually use this well, came up with a few choices. For pretty much every one of these you need weakness + Kukui + HB to hit OHKO numbers. Not an easy feat for a bunch of weak attackers to consistently pull off, but at least they only give up one prize. If Natu ROS is going to be the ace of the deck, then running Latios SHL or Mewtwo EVO would help to weaken targets for it as they benefit hugely from Dimension Valley as well, if one plans to run pure Psychic.

Out of the low HP attackers, there are a few that deal 20 damage for one: Tynamo LTR, Foongus NVI, Staryu BKT, Alolan Rattata SUM (technically needs Energy to pull this off as it doesn't have 30 HP). Didn't list all of them, just what I figured would be relevant.

There is only one Fighting Pokemon in the entirety of Expanded that meets the criteria, being Diglett FCO, which only does 10 (in other words, use Buzzwole GX if you want Fighting since you use Rainbow Energy anyways).

Cutiefly SUM only does 10 for one, but it has a flip effect to prevent damage on the next turn. With Kukui it hits OHKO numbers on Rayquaza GX, may be useful.

Natu ROS is the obvious choice for Psychic, and since the pool of attackers isn't good enough in Standard to warrant using Hustle Belt I didn't look for any others.

I didn't look at the video above, but Magikarp BUS might warrant usage in the deck when paired with the Gyarados from the same set and Ditto Prism Star. Gyarados hits like a truck, either scoring OHKOs or softening a target for Natu. Could get clunky though.
 
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