Running the Gauntlet.

S

Sanokumo

Aspiring Trainer
Member
SO this is my sons first season as a Senior and he wants to be competitive this year. I am a longtime CCG player of many games MTG, L5R, WOW, ect. But have recently given up trying to be competitive in any of them and since I go with my son to all of the Pokémon tournaments and enjoy the game I will probably find myself actually trying to be competitive myself as opposed to just being a Pokedad.
One thing other playgroups I’ve been in for other games have done before big tournaments is something called testing the gauntlet. It is just a fancy way of play testing but it works well. Its basically just building one or more of all the strong archetype decks in a format then playing your deck against all the different decks then switching and playing all the different decks against another person’s deck. Rinse and repeat. The benefits of this method are 1) It really helps to understand the environment of a tournament if you have played against everything (except Rogue obviously) out there and especially when you have actually played all the strategies yourself. 2) You avoid meta-ing your playgroup, by less games of my deck VS. my friends deck you don’t get the desire to beat them by beating their specific deck. 3) It helps you make a final deck choice for your style and the available choices.
Nothing new and innovative really but fun and interesting.
Anyway I was putting together a list of decks I wanted to build for our gauntlet and was hoping for some suggestions maybe of decks I might have missed or can ignore.

1) Eels Raikou (my son and I are leaning this way for our personal decks right now)
2)Zekeels – the more traditional build, still strong
3)RayEels – this feels like eel overkill but many people are saying it’s a whole different deck
4)Darkrai/Hydrudgion – Many peoples pick for BDIF
5)Darkrai and friends – Hammertime I believe its called (I need a good list of this)
6) Garchomp/Altera
7) Mewtwo/Terrakion
8) Terrakion EX/Terrakion –
9) Garbodor/Terrakion – I know there are other good variations but this one seems the most straightforward.
10) Empolion/Terrakion
11) Mewtwo/Gardevore/Siglyph –Kind of my own rogue to test Siglyph
12) Ninetales/Amongus
13)Accelgor/MewEX/Gothitell
14) Entei/Blissy
15) Ho-oh/Tornadous

A couple of Things I have been noticing as I put these decks together:
Terrakion will be EVERYWHERE form eelboxes to Darkraiboxes, partnering up with Mewtwo, TerrakionEX, Empolion and Gardebor. Because of this I think Toradous EX might just be worth his weight in gold this BR season and Shaymin might be a good tech as well.
Also Max Potion will be used by a ton of attackers, Bronzong might be an interesting rogue Tech.
Lastly, this is quite a diverse BR season there are Fire, Grass, psychic, Lightening, Fighting, water, Dark and Dragon type main attackers.

So if anyone has any deck suggestions for my list I would appreciate it.
 
It sounds like you are nothing new to the Pokemon Trading Card Game, so you are probably familiar with how much this card game cost. That said, I do not know how much money you have but it will be very expensive to build all of these decks. I understand that you are going to take apart your previous deck before building the next, thus recycling the staples of these decks, but you will still need to get your hands on all of the pokemon one way or another. The PokemonEX that make up a decent amount of these decks are very exspencive, normally $10 and up for each EX. And you will probably be playing 3-4 of these in each deck that has it as the main attacker.
For example, to create your Darkrai/Hydriegon deck, the main attacker and main supporter both cost about $15 each, and you will need 3 of each, running you up to $90 on 6 cards alone. I am not trying to shut your idea of running the gauntlet, but just informing you incase you didnt know. I feel that you probably do know since you have been involved in pokemon with your son, which by the way thats great you do this with your son I'm sure he appreciates it a lot now and in the future.

It sounds like a fantastic idea, just not something I would ever be able to do due to the cost.
 
Maybe you missed the fact that he's testing... He'll just proxy the cards he doesn't have. @_@
 
JayKam said:
id recommend playtcg.com if you wanna play test
Click to expand...

That's not what he's asking

@OP, I think you got pretty much every deck that is expected next format.
 
JayKam said:
btw, what deck are you running?
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Did you even read and understand the first post? :/

@OP: Gardevoir/Gothitelle/Reuniclus/Mewtwo-EX has been getting a little hype. Empoleon has more combinations than just Terrakion (Stunfisk, Accelgor, Roserade, Mew-EX, etc.) And Garchomp has had some success alongside Stunfisk and Rayquaza rather than with Altaria in Japan's tournaments in this format. Make sure you're testing Registeel-EX in all the decks that it would work in as well, as that's sure to be popular. Past that, I think you've got everything. Of course, the format won't really be defined until Battle Roads have been going on for a few weeks.
 
The idea of a gauntlet is to play all the decks against all the decks. You are not supposed to stick to one deck the entire time.

One thing other playgroups I’ve been in for other games have done before big tournaments is something called testing the gauntlet. It is just a fancy way of play testing but it works well. Its basically just building one or more of all the strong archetype decks in a format then playing your deck against all the different decks then switching and playing all the different decks against another person’s deck. Rinse and repeat. The benefits of this method are 1) It really helps to understand the environment of a tournament if you have played against everything (except Rogue obviously) out there and especially when you have actually played all the strategies yourself.
Click to expand...
 
yeah Proxies are good, I buy about 4 boxes of each set so I have enough to build any of the decks but I use allot of proxies to build them all at once. Not that it still wouldn't be expensive, but as I said Ive been playing TCG's/CCG's for many years Im almost embarrassed by how many old sleeves I own. And instead of wasting the ink at home I print copies at a Kinko's and the bill was like 20$ this trip (I needed like 40 Catchers, 20 max potions and a ton of Terrakion).

Yeah unfortunately our local league is on hiatus so for now it mostly just my son and I. Right now both my son and I like EelTigre (Raikou/toradousEX/Eels) best we run a very streemligned version for consistency. But we have allot of testing ahead.

Thanks Celebi for the info, any chance you could point me to info about Empolion? Also the Japanese deck you mentioned?
 
thought a gauntlet was putting your deck against a whole bunch of decks...btw what is entei/blissey?
 
That's why I asked you if you'd read the OP since he specifically specified the type of gauntlet he was running there. Entei/Blissey is basically the Quad Entei of the new format. It uses Blissey to try to replace the lost healing with the rotation of Junk Arm and Moo Moo Milk.
 
JayKam said:
thought a gauntlet was putting your deck against a whole bunch of decks...btw what is entei/blissey?
Click to expand...
Yeah it is but we are doing it to find the best decks and to help our knowledge of the meta not just to test one in particular deck.

And Entei/Blissy is an updated version of Quad Entai, with Blissy for healing and Siglyph. Im cant seem to find my notes on where I saw it discussed, It wasn't my Idea but I liked it.
 
Another deck to consider is Registeel variants or maybe just Klingklang. It works like Hydreigon/Darkrai but uses Prisms and WLFM to have a variety of attackers such as:
EXs:
Kyogre, Groudon, Darkrai (You have this for free retreat), Shaymin, Registeel, Terrakion, Mewtwo, Kyurem and Possible Giratina.

Regular:
Terrakion
Cobalion
Sigilyph
and a lot more (mostly high HP basics that won't get OHKOd)

This uses the same Max Potion strategy as D/H, but its diverse attackers allows it to hit for weakness or get a resistance advantage. Eviolite is obviously paired with these to ensure the pokemon lives long.
Klingklang Pros:
Diverse attacker pool
Heavy Ball searches nearly every pokemon in this deck
Max Potion shenanigans

Klingklang cons:
VERY bad Hammertime matchup
Relies A LOT on special energy
No acceleration
Rainbow is getting rotated
 
alexmf2 said:
Hydreigon outclasses Klinklang completely.
Click to expand...

Thank you for that very exciting bit of knowledge.

Yes, Hydreigon does outclass Klingklang, but I was just giving another idea.
Its not your choice to say somebody doesn't want or like a deck.
 
I never said you couldn't play it, but just because you like a deck it doesn't mean it's better than another deck. Hydreigon is practically the same deck except different types and all around better. If you like Klinklang, you should like Hydreigon just as much.
 
Klinklang no doubt a lot weaker post-Rotation but I think it deserves a (small) spot in testing. One (possibly only) advantage the deck has over Hydreigon is that it isn't susceptible to Garchomp hitting for weakness on it. It can also run a little wider range of attackers.

dmaster out.
 
The biggest thing Klinklang has going for it is abusing Terrakion a little easier. The biggest thing it lost is Rainbow for easier retreat.
 
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