Discussion Emerald Break Shedinja, is it Playable?

Draaka

Draaka

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Ok, so I was showing my fiancée the roaring skies/emerald break set previews and she came up with a great way of using what I thought was a useless card. The Shedinja that does 50x the number of damage counters on it, basically it has super outrage. But with 30hp it's kinda crappy, except maybe you could run it with:

Floette (flower veil, your grass pokemon get +20hp)
Training Centre (All your stage 1 and 2 pokemon get +30hp)
Mr. Mime (bench baricade)

Suddenly with two Floette (I assume each one stacks?) and a training centre your Shedinja is up to 100hp. Now if you can get even 4 damage counters on it somehow (I am at a loss as how you could reliably and effectively put damage on your own pokemon atm but i'm sure a few ways exist) then you are hitting for 200 damage. 5 counters and you can OHKO anything in the game without a hard charm.

Obviously this tactic is quite fragile,it's vulnerable to lysandre sniping off floette and your training centre being replaced. But it could easily trade 1 for 1 with any EX deck which makes the prize trade good, it's philosophy in that respect is similar to Donphan. I'm not really sure how viable this would be in the meta but for a fun deck or tier 3 then I think it could work. What do you guys think? Is it too much to ask for to run your main attacker off a 30hp stage 1? Can you think of anything useful to go with it?
 
The only problem I have with the deck is Wobbuffet/Garb decks. All they need is to send up a Wob and slap down a dimension valley and then whooops you are back at 30HP instead of 100HP.
Now most decks nowadays don't run either, but the next format I think will see a revival of the 2 ability-stopping 'mons. Shaymin EX is extremely powerful, and I would even say it will be a staple in all decks even with it not being released for a month. Being able to stop that ability is really powerful. I remember when I thought I was going to draw a nice Uxie 'set up' for 4-6 or a Claydol 'cosmic power' for 5 only to hear "POWER SPRAY!" That card was annoying then, and having it as a constant threat in play is why the deck won't succeed past a Tier 3 deck unfortunately.
The only viable way I can see the deck being played is with Mew EX...but then it is an easily killable EX that gives 2 prizes and leaves a snipable 30 HP stage 1 on the bench...yikes.
 
Personally I think it is, unless an increase in Garb and Wobuffet is seen. Both can be countered anyway, especially considering Shedninja generally would die pretty quickly anyway even with damage boosters. Nightmarch uses 30HP Pokemon, and that wins states and nationals. Just the HP doesn't kill the playability factor. And knocking away stadiums and all HP boosters is pretty tough, meaning you should survive turns with damage.

In terms of reliable damage getting, there is many techs for that. Rainbow Energy and Frozen City both can place counters.
 
It is viable in the way that Night March is, as Night March has very similar problems (only 12 of them, low hp, etc.) which are alleviated by Mew-EX in order to provide heavy amounts of quick damage, however this deck is much less hurt by Seismitoad (Shedinja with a Band and 2 damage counters OHKOs, while Mew-EX ohko's after 4 damage counters (i.e. 1 Banded quaking punch) and it isn't hurt nearly as much by LTC+QP (which is an autoloss for Nightmarch not playing heavy lines of Jynx and Hard Charm).
 
With a combination of Mew EX, Frozen City and Rainbow Energy it could work. The only issue is the trade value of Mew EX. If Mew kills off a EX, odds are that the next thing to come out is another thing to kill Mew, so you don't gain anything. Getting Mew's, Shedinja, the Rainbow Energy and Frozen City is not a easy task to get done in 2-3 turns. The Floette and Training Center can get shut off, which is a huge weakness to that strategy... But against any other deck that doesn't cut off abilities, it could work. Maybe let a few sets come out to see if it gets a tad bit more support? I'd wait and see if a card that helps raise HP comes out. So as of now, Shedinja isn't very playable IMO.
 
bbninjas said:
unless an increase in Garb and Wobuffet is seen.
Click to expand...
When Shaymin EX becomes as big as its being hyped, then there will be a major shift.

bbninjas said:
Both can be countered anyway
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I can kinda see this, but not entirely. While a Toad Lock wouldn't be the end of you as you just OHKO it with Shedinja damage from a Frozen City, it still would be bad if you ran the deck as Mew heavy. I'd think that decks in the future will either have to run more megaphones or more xerosics.


bbninjas said:
Nightmarch uses 30HP Pokemon, and that wins states and nationals. Just the HP doesn't kill the playability factor.
Click to expand...
Night march doesn't run stage 1 pokemon though. I get your point, but you can just slap down a joltik and do massive damage with a DCE, whereas you'll need to get up multiple stage 1's to guarantee you don't get set back a turn from a lysandre or a bench attacker. Its like eggs but worst. You need the low HP pokemon to set up for the higher HP attacker later, but risking multiple prizes in the process. Eggs can just revive itself and night march BENEFITS when one of its main attackers (outside of mew EX) is killed wheras nincada cannot benefit once it struggles.
And its not the HP thats the unplayable factor, its the fact that its a Stage 1 with a HP lower then that of its preveloution.
 
Honestly I think there is no sure way to see if the deck is going to do well until it's actually released. You've provided many good reasons why it won't work... but in my experience, Stage 1 decks aren't hugely disadvantaged if you play it right and have a good build. But I'll guess we'll have to see, as you're probably right that /in theory/ the deck shouldn't be able to get into Tier 1 or 2 (that's the playability levels I think you're considering).
 
I could see this deck playing Team Magmas stadium from Double Crisis. It'll have 10 damage the second you put it into the field.
 
I think that it would be viable in extended with Damage Swap Reuniclus and Giant Cape.
 
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