[BCR-on] Politoed FRF / Celebi EX BCR

[SaiScott95]

[18] Pokemon:

• 
  4 Poliwag (Furious Fists)
  4 Poliwhirl (Furious Fists)
  2 Politoed (Furious Fists)
  3 Poliwrath (Furious Fists)
  3 Miltank (Flashfire)
  1 Keldeo EX (Boundaries Crossed)
  1 Celebi EX (Boundaries Crossed)

[32] Trainers:

• 
  Supporters
  4 Professor Sycamore
  4 N
  2 Lysandre
  1 Pokémon Fan Cub
  Items
  3 Rare Candy
  2 Evosoda
  3 Max Potion
  4 Ultra Ball
  1 Float Stone
  2 Hard Charm
  1 Startling Megaphone
  1 Computer Search
  1 Professor's letter
  Stadiums
  3 Training Center

[10] Energy:

• 
  6 Water Energy
  3 Double Colorless Energy
  1 Grass Energy

Strategy:
I've seen enough Politoed decks here to know that most people here should already be aware of the idea behind this deck; get attacks of for no energy cost using Politoed's ability. So let me skip the usual long explanation as they usually sound like an attempt to make a deck sound somewhat better than it actually is.

Instead, I would like to bring up a few card choices that not all decks like this have.

Poliwrath
I run 3, and I've seen others run one or two because, let's be honest, we're all here for Poliwhirl's attack and what's the point on bringing out Poliwrath just so it can die in 1-2 hits, right? Well, my friends, I also run Training Center to boost that HP. It can be quite a problem if one can't kill Poliwrath in 1-2 hits, seeing as how you only get one prize for killing it. We also have Hard Charm in this deck, but that'll be explained more below.

Keldeo EX
Status conditions exist, and I want to switch out for free, so I run Keldeo EX and a Float Stone for just that. Unfortunately it's attack isn't that good with only one water energy, and we obviously want to save our water energies in case we need to use Poliwrath's submission, for Miltank, or in case of emergency and we're forced to fight with Politoed.

Hard Charm
I know, I know, this is weird in this deck. Most people prefer Muscle Band, and I can see why. However, this deck has a huge weakness to Grass, and this just helps survive two hits from a Virizion EX. It also allows Miltank at full or 90HP to survive a Megalo Cannon from Genesect EX and get a little damage off. So I'll be testing Hard Charm for a while to see how well it helps me deal with this.

Grass Energy
Yes, I am literally running 1 Grass Energy for my Celebi. Why? Celebi can live a Megalo Cannon and get a little bit of damage off. We also don't attach energies very often, so we can afford to use up a turn putting energy on Celebi.

Double Colorless Energy
Another Energy that isn't often run in these decks. But if we can't get Politoed off or a Garbodor is stopping us, Double Colorless is a nice back up. Double Colorless benefits every Pokémon in this deck in certain situations, and if we don't need it for a certain match, it does give us discard fodder for Ultra Ball.

 

[Luxiel]

RE: [BCR-on] Time Travel Toed (Politoed / Celebi EX .dek)

Sacred Ash worked quite great in my testing (I was running a Energyless list, however).

I liked your thoughts on everything, I am going to try this list out and let you know how it went.

 

[SaiScott95]

RE: [BCR-on] Time Travel Toed (Politoed / Celebi EX .dek)

I was considering an energyless build at first, but I didn't like the risks that came with it. thought it'd be safer to just include the energy in case something goes wrong.

Thanks for testing it out, I appreciate it. Can't wait to hear results, as I haven't been able to test it myself yet. Then again, I wouldn't know what to look for in testing results anyway. This is my first time building a competitive deck, and I've only been into competitive pokemon for like 2-3 days, so im kinda new at this xD

 

[GhostMaster365]

RE: [BCR-on] Time Travel Toed.dek (Politoed / Celebi EX)

I would suggest some tech lines. Your two weaknesses are VirGen and Garbodor. So maybe a fire tech line, or a Spiritomb so they can't play GBooster. Also Hard Charm takes affect after weakness and resistance. So say Genesect Megalo Cannons your 170 hp Poliwrath, it dies instead of that 10 hp it would have had left if the hard charm took affect before applying weakness and resistance.

As for Garbodor, maybe increase the startling megaphones. Just target down the Garbodor. Most decks with it run a 2-2 or a 3-3 line.
I don't know where you'll make room for that and I'm sorry about that, but I'm just giving suggestions.

Also try to test out if you can use Celebi's ability to attack with Politoed for Poliwhirls attack. Most people are saying no, but King's Song allows the other's Poli's attack's to be free and Time Recall allows pokemon to use previous evolution's attacks. So if Politoed used Poliwhirl's attack, which can otherwise be used for free, then I would think you could use Politoed to use it's previous evolutions attacks for free.

 

[SaiScott95]

RE: [BCR-on] Time Travel Toed.dek (Politoed / Celebi EX)

Ah, guess I should mention that I decided last night to drop this deck. However, I have a friend who is still building this deck, so I'll continue using this to get tips for him.

Looking at Hard Charm, it does still allow Miltank to survive a Megalo Cannon at least. Though now I'll probably take it off this list and throw in a the other Startling Megaphone.

As for Celebi EX's ability, even though it's still technically Poliwhirl's attack, I think the mindset most are having is that since Politoed would be the one using the attack, it's treated as Politoed's attacks. Dunno if that's how it works though, but it does make sense kinda. Dunno, I'll try to find out.

What fire-type would you suggest? I'm sure my friend would prefer that over running Spiritomb.

 

[Luxiel]

RE: [BCR-on] Time Travel Toed.dek (Politoed / Celebi EX)

Clarifying the Politoed + Celebi EX thing:

If Politoed is evolved from Poliwhirl and tries to attack with Poliwhirl's attacks due to Celebi EX ability, what happens is Politoed Attacking with Poliwhirl's attacks. The one being verified for energy costs is POLITOED, even if the attack doesn't belong to him. Celebi gives Politoed access to Poliwhirls attacks, but it is Politoed attacking and Politoed's ability doesn't include itself, which means it can't attack unless it has the 3 [C] requirement fulfilled.

Which means when you attack with Politoed but using Poliwhirl's Finishing Blow, the game recognizes the attack as Politoed's Finishing Blow and thus Politoed ability doesn't count.

Poliwrath, however, can use Poliwhirl's Finishing Blow. The game will recognize the attack as Poliwrath's Finishing Blow and ask for the 3 [C] energies. If Politoed is benched, its ability is active and it affects Poliwrath, ignoring the 3 [C] his Finishing Blow requires.

Another way to look at it is understading that what Celebi EX do is just add the previous evolution attacks to the most evolved stage, much like G Booster and G Scope add attacks to Genesect EX. When Genesect EX uses G Booster, the game reads it as Genesect's G Booster and not as Tool Item's G Booster.

Hope it is clear. This has been discussed on some forums over the internet and this seems to be the correct way to deal with it, as per comparison with similar cases.