Only running one Kyurem in Donphan is good enough for the deck (Outrage-wise) This leaves the, IMO, much needed room for maxed Robos and more consistency/non Outrage Poke techs.
Donphan Variants
- Thread starter Camoclone
- Start date
What are you supposed to do against Seismitoad? I played a game against it yesterday, and the only reason I won I think was because he retreated into Yveltal to one shot an Outrager. After that I Benched two Substitutes, played a few tools, Colress for eight, and got rolling. Used Wreck three times to KO three of his EX's. Had I been Item locked for the whole game, I would have lost probably. It was a pretty abysmal game before that. I started Hawlucha and went first, and his turn one, he got Seismitoad out and did Quaking Punch with Laserbank with a tails on my sleep check so Hawlucha was KO'd going back into his turn. That's really the only problem I had with this deck. That and the mirror (but all mirror matches are dumb in my opinion).
Outragers help the matchup a lot. If you don't stay asleep, then you can hit back with some damage output between 50-130 damage with a DCE and Bangle (if you get it on beforehand). Then you finish the seismatoad off with a Donphan hit. Now if you do stay alseep, still hope to have an outrager active. If they hit consistently 30 damage every turn, eventually they will knock you out and give Donphan a turn.
Mora said:
Use Hawlucha aggressively, I play 2 in my list for this reason. Hawlucha doesn't need a tool to get a 2HKO against Seismitoad - Strong Energy + Fighting stadium are enough. Seismitoad needs Muscle Band + LaserBank in order to respond with an OHKO, which isn't 100% easy given your heavy count of stadiums.
In addition, Seismitoad is put into a position where it can't respond to everything. If they attack and KO the Hawluchas, it means they've left your Phanpy + Donphans alone, and vice versa. No matter what happens, there will hopefully always be some kind of attacker on your side of the field to respond.
In my games against Toad, I've only lost once. It was against Toad/Pyroar, and the only reason the guy won was because the guy:
A) Played this Pyroar as a tech
B) Hit Blacksmith 2 turns in a row, and a Lysandre was thus able to catcher 5 turns in a row
C) Started with his ONE Seismitoad in his deck AND a DCE AND a Muscle Band in his opening hand
In extremely rare circumstances like the one above, you didn't lose because of Donphan's poor matchup, you lost because of your opponent's ridiculous start. In all other games I've played against Toad, whether it's as a tech or as an entire deck, I've not had too many problems.
Feel free to message me if you have any more questions, it's hard to explain without writing an essay since a lot of the decisions are very situational
but I'm happy to talk it over via PM or something
From XY5: Primal Clash:
Maxie’s Hidden Trick - Trainer
Supporter
You can only play this card if it's the only card in your hand.
Put a [F] Pokemon from your discard pile onto your Bench, then draw 5 cards.
You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).
Even as a 1-2 of in Donphan, this guy can set up streams of donphans without evolving him (assuming the translation is correct).
Discuss!
Maxie’s Hidden Trick - Trainer
Supporter
You can only play this card if it's the only card in your hand.
Put a [F] Pokemon from your discard pile onto your Bench, then draw 5 cards.
You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn (before your attack).
Even as a 1-2 of in Donphan, this guy can set up streams of donphans without evolving him (assuming the translation is correct).
Discuss!
I'm thinking this:
2x Wailord EX
1(maybe 2)x Dive Ball
2x Weakness Policy
1(maybe 2)x Xerosic
Weakness Policy exists to reduce damage from VirGen decks (only for a limited time, for obvious reasons) and Wailord is your wall which allows you to get set up. Xerosic is included in the deck so you can discard the Weakness Policy and attach Float Stone, once your Donphan are ready and waiting. You can also use Korrina to search out a Dive Ball with which to get a Wailord.
I'm sure there could be better use of space though. Thoughts?
2x Wailord EX
1(maybe 2)x Dive Ball
2x Weakness Policy
1(maybe 2)x Xerosic
Weakness Policy exists to reduce damage from VirGen decks (only for a limited time, for obvious reasons) and Wailord is your wall which allows you to get set up. Xerosic is included in the deck so you can discard the Weakness Policy and attach Float Stone, once your Donphan are ready and waiting. You can also use Korrina to search out a Dive Ball with which to get a Wailord.
I'm sure there could be better use of space though. Thoughts?
Elbow said:
This card is going to see a lot of play if this is correct. Arceus help us.
Even though the Maxie and Archie supporter can put evolved pokemon up, it has to be the last card in your hand, and you have to actually get the pokemon in the discard pile, which isn't too hard, but still I don't think it will see too much play
TheLegendaryRaikou said:
Ultra Ball, Computer Search, and Battle Compressor could throw Pokemon into the discard - the first two also help with the hand issue.
DarkMatterGaming said:
Donphan decks don't play battle compressor, nor should they.
The Maxie's supporter card is completely counter-productive to Donphan's goal. Donphan wants to set up multiple Donphans, hiding them behind Substitutes/walls. Putting Donphans straight into the discard pile while burning through a lot of resources via Ultra Ball/Computer Search/Battle Compressor is completely the opposite of what you want to do. You'd much rather play something like Korrina, and save your other supporters and/or energy for when you need them, as opposed to recklessly tossing them.
One Approved said:
In the event that you're running low on Donphans or hand, it's a good card to have. It's a situation-by-situation card, but it's not a terrible card to have at least one of.
If you're really that scared you're going to run out of attackers (which you shouldn't, because between 4 donphan, 1/2 Hawlucha, and at least 2 outragers, you should be fine.) then Lysandre's Trump Card would be a superior option because you would get all of your donphans back as opposed to just one, and you would get your subs back with it. (Although I wouldn't recommend either lol).
Getting one card in your hand in a deck that isn't designed to do so is actually extremely difficult. Supporters and Energy are the main problems--because outside of stuff like Ultra Ball, you have no way to get rid of them if you've already played a supporter/attached an energy. Having Maxie in a hand where you can use it is extremely situational and unlikely and certainly not worth the space.
Remember, don't tunnel vision on a card that seems useful simply because it's design makes it work in a specific deck. It has to actually provide something useful and non-situational to deserve a spot.
Remember, don't tunnel vision on a card that seems useful simply because it's design makes it work in a specific deck. It has to actually provide something useful and non-situational to deserve a spot.
I'm just trying to find a use of it; the more I think about it, though, yeah... it's not the greatest card for this deck.
I think Sacred Ash is great in Donphan to recover the walls and Donphan Evo line back.
I have played and placed with donphan in three cities now and the outragers were more trouble than they were worth. Also I've been trying to think of a way around baby yveltals and I was thinking about play testing a Magnezone Ex in there which can hit Yveltal and Yveltal EX for a minimum of 80 damage because of weakness. Has anybody else tested thins out and if so what have you guys found.
Gengar master said:
I've tried Sacred Ashand Lysandre's TC in this deck a lot, but my final list has neither. Really, if you're at the point that you have all Donphans in the discard, you're probably going to lose either way. The best use would be to get back the most useful walls like you said, but I'd rather save the space for Enhanced Hammer or Head Ringer.
Maybe not sacred ash but Lysandre Trump card can put back all the strong energy that was discarded by Enhanced Hammer, Crushing hammer, etc. is really helpful and I think that card is a strong one-of in Donphan decks.
Gengar master said:
Yeah, as well as getting back resources, it temporarily resets balloons and Night March. Seems quite interesting.