Who to pair with M Ampharos

asdjklghty

asdjklghty

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Member
So I'm trying to build a deck around our beloved electric kangaroo and I'm doing some testing on PTCGO before I go out and buy more cards to finish the line I got from my booster box.

I'm trying to pair with Vileplume and it seems to work well sometimes because the paralysis combined with Item lock really hurts my opponent.

I'm not sure if I can give a decklist here but I'm on my first draft.

Problems and observations with Vileplume and the deck in general:

  • Slow to set up against decks like M Ray but paralysis hurts with no Switch or Escape Rope.
  • Often having to discard useful resources like Energy and Energy recycler early on
  • Dunno who to wall with. Trying Zekrom for Expanded.
  • Item lock doesnt hurt once I've gotten an M Ampharos up and going
  • List is very tight
  • Item lock is usually set up for my 2 or 3rd turn.
 
I think that your idea of using Vileplume can be very powerful, but I hate item locking so I don't want to go there if I can avoid it :p

I've been trying to pair him with M Manectric, using the electric dog as main attacker, and leaving M Ampharos and Lugia as secondary attackers.

I don't have a full list yet because I'm still tinkering with it, especially the part of items and supporters, but my idea is to have a 3-2 line of Manectric, 2-2 of Ampharos and 2 Lugia EX, and here is the why:

  • M Manectric:What can I say about this line that no one knows yet? Basic and Mega are very versatile and powerful, allowing you a very good energy acceleration to prepare either Ampharos or Lugia
  • M Ampharos: Paralysis is a huge deal right now that Keldeo is out in the new format, most decks use only 2-3 switching cards and normally they discard them or use them before I got Ampharos up and running. Plus, basic Ampharos is really good to deal with safeguards like Beautifly or Aegislash, even Giratina if you need to.
  • Lugia: It is simply one of the best cards right now because of it's versatility. You can take advantage of the Megaman acceleration to pump it up and then sweep the board in the late game. Plus it's second attack is far more amazing that I've thought now that I see it in the practice: in turn 2 you can hit for 170 (with muscle band) and remove any stadium from your opponent in the process.
About items and supporters - besides the staples like rough seas, vs seekers, sycamore, etc. - is where I've had more difficulty deciding what goes in and what goes out.
 
Ratpool said:
I think that your idea of using Vileplume can be very powerful, but I hate item locking so I don't want to go there if I can avoid it :p

I've been trying to pair him with M Manectric, using the electric dog as main attacker, and leaving M Ampharos and Lugia as secondary attackers.

I don't have a full list yet because I'm still tinkering with it, especially the part of items and supporters, but my idea is to have a 3-2 line of Manectric, 2-2 of Ampharos and 2 Lugia EX, and here is the why:

  • M Manectric:What can I say about this line that no one knows yet? Basic and Mega are very versatile and powerful, allowing you a very good energy acceleration to prepare either Ampharos or Lugia
  • M Ampharos: Paralysis is a huge deal right now that Keldeo is out in the new format, most decks use only 2-3 switching cards and normally they discard them or use them before I got Ampharos up and running. Plus, basic Ampharos is really good to deal with safeguards like Beautifly or Aegislash, even Giratina if you need to.
  • Lugia: It is simply one of the best cards right now because of it's versatility. You can take advantage of the Megaman acceleration to pump it up and then sweep the board in the late game. Plus it's second attack is far more amazing that I've thought now that I see it in the practice: in turn 2 you can hit for 170 (with muscle band) and remove any stadium from your opponent in the process.
About items and supporters - besides the staples like rough seas, vs seekers, sycamore, etc. - is where I've had more difficulty deciding what goes in and what goes out.
Click to expand...
Item lock with the paralysis is quite powerful. The problem with Mega Manectric is... 2 megas in a deck? 1 is already enough and 2 will be so clunky. Imagine wiffing a Spirit Link and if you could attack, that might have made the outcome of the match different. And, Float Stone is getting reprinted so I need to stop the retreat.

And like I said, preventing Switch is good. I currently don't have any Lugia and they're all out of stock online where I can get them.
 
It doesn't matter if they have float stone, with paralysis you can't retreat unless you use a switch, escape rope or an ability.

I totally agree that item lock, especially by preventing switch, is a really good combo. It is more a personal thing that I don't like to use item lock in my decks, therefore I'm trying another path, but if the most succesfull build for Ampharos is having item lock then I would change my strategy in the future :D

Using those 2 megas is not as clunky as you may think, because the main attacker is Manectric, second Lugia, and then Ampharos, so I run 2-1 Spirit links (2 for Manectric and just one for Ampharos). In my deck, Ampharos is more a late game option or a backup in case you are against really big and difficult things to KO like Primal Groudon or Dragon M Rayquaza.
 
Why not use Ariados? That way you can hit 180+ more easily and run Hex Maniac after playing Ariados since poison would already be in effect. Plus instead of trying to wall with another Pokémon, just run Rough Seas, it can help prevent M. Ampharos getting knocked out as easily because of recoil.

If you're using Vileplume then of course running GPF is needed in my opinion. Another great idea is running Battle Compressor + Mega Turbo to quick power Ampharos up quickly.

Personally as far as M. Manectric, I'd only run Manectric EX to quickly slap an energy off it in case they're able to switch out a weak attacker for a quick KO and that'd free up some room to run more support and items. Magnezone-EX may work, but that's a lot of energy to build up and could prove to be way to clunky to run.

I feel like there could be few options in standard you could run. As for expanded, there's just so much flexibility to play with now because of how far it goes back.

Edit: Totally forgot you could run Absol too, simply just play it to transfer the damage that M.Ampharos took and hit your opponent's active for an extra 30 damage if you choose not use Rough Seas.
 
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I think Vileplume/Ampharos may have some potential. It would most likely be a bit slower because your main combo is a Mega and a stage 2, plus you'd need to put off evolving into Vileplume if you're using the Battle Compressor/Mega Turbo engine to power Ampharos up. However, once you're all set up, you are OHKOing a lot of things and forcing anything you don't OHKO into an almost-inescapable Paralysis lock that they can only get out of with AZ or Pokemon Centre Lady.

In theory, I think the deck's pretty strong. You can combine it with Hoopa/Shaymin to set up even when you're Item-Locked, and running 2 AZ in your deck would allow you to grab Vileplume to play items whenever you need. However, it would rely a lot on your Mega Turbos and DCEs, and streaming attackers could be a problem.
 
Ms Hugo said:
I think Vileplume/Ampharos may have some potential. It would most likely be a bit slower because your main combo is a Mega and a stage 2, plus you'd need to put off evolving into Vileplume if you're using the Battle Compressor/Mega Turbo engine to power Ampharos up. However, once you're all set up, you are OHKOing a lot of things and forcing anything you don't OHKO into an almost-inescapable Paralysis lock that they can only get out of with AZ or Pokemon Centre Lady.

In theory, I think the deck's pretty strong. You can combine it with Hoopa/Shaymin to set up even when you're Item-Locked, and running 2 AZ in your deck would allow you to grab Vileplume to play items whenever you need. However, it would rely a lot on your Mega Turbos and DCEs, and streaming attackers could be a problem.
Click to expand...
Now once you're set up though, you can slowly power up another Mega since no Switch or your opponent even gets a turn to play Float Stone.
 
I actually run my M Ampharos deck with Volcrona from Ancient Orgins, Hoops, and 2 lugia. The Volcrona allows you to pull one basic from your deck and attach two basic energy so if your Volcrona is knocked out the next turn or if you retreat you are one mega turbo or double colorless away from attacking. As long as I have the spirit link in hand I use the hoops to grab the mega and go from there. The Volcrona is really just for the first Ampharos so once you have one set up its really easy to go from there
 
New magna zone looks pretty great. Turn one charge. Unfortunately probably won't work with item lock. But still, setting up more reliably will make Ampharos viable and possibly threatening.
 
Someone at my local is having success with just M Ampharos EX/Raichu. It's simple but effective. Use rough seas to keep stuff in play longer, use mega turbos, DCE and stuff to get set up.
 
Magnezone, if vileplume combos with amphy amphy losses speed and becomes less likely to setup as fast and in a format where 3 cards counter this deck in 1 turn is just not worth it (hex maniac low energy high dmg out put attackers, hawlucha, strong, hex 3 cards) half of what is a good strategy is the player.

As for now Volcrona is a solid idea.
 
As much as the following comment may seem trite, I'd suggest you pair your Amphy up with another Poke that can also utilize Rough Seas. This Stadium has been clutch to me several times when I run my Water-Lightning deck. This Stadium has proven to be very effective in providing some great real-time, game options.

Consider some of the following possible L or W teammates to pair with Amphy:
  • Articuno (ROS 17) (consider using Scramble Switch for X-format games)
  • Manectric EX
  • Regice (AOR) (consider using Scramble Switch for X-format games)
  • Seismitoad EX
Other noteworthy Poke, I'd suggest considering:
  • Gengar EX - solid 1-energy attacker that can also poison the Defending Pokemon and spin back to your bench
  • Lugia EX - a great, versatile attacker
What is the metagame in your area? That may also influence your choice too.

I hope you find these comments helpful.
 
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I've been playing Amphy with Keldeo and Eels online in Expanded and it's worked amazingly for me.

If you're talking Standard, I have to wonder how useful Archie's Swampert might be until Magnezone comes out? ( Trust me I'm definitely building Magnezamp as soon as Breakthrough hits shelves). If you can get a Swampert out ASAP, you can use Diving Search to pull a lightning energy to the top of the deck that Ampharos can attach with Thunder Rod on your first turn if you go second. If you can Diving Search on turn 1, and manually attach a DCE and lightning energy to Amphy on those first 2 turns, he's all charged up and just needs to be evolved to be Exavolting on turn 2 . The times I managed to get the attach with my first Thunder Rod have almost always had me dealing damage on my second turn.

The only problem is, I've never used Archie myself so I don't know how good he'll be without Jirachi and Exeggcute around anymore.
 
I am kind of looking forward to building ampzone with a couple of absol to move that extra damage someplace else. 170 and 120 is just way too much damage. Maybe pair it with zapdos as well to hit for 120 and 40 to a bench.
 
Finding the room to play magnezone in while using diving draw atm is super beneficial for testing, so playing the bc/acro engine is just a waste of time. Also don't forget aboot raikou for breakthrough guys.
 
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