So, I made a thread about situational game brain teasers and while I was looking at Puzzle #1 and trying to apply Pokemon to it, I thought of an idea. Much like how tire rubber was made by Mr. Goodyear, later to be the founder of Goodyear Tire Co. - Completely by accident. This deck is designed to knock your opponent down on their set up and keep them there.
Now, the strategy would be to use V-Blast Victini's "V-Blast" attack T1 -with FlipTini to let you reflip- and with any luck, get the donk. But, that isn't always an option, and has a 50/50 of not working. Most people say this deck is bad because your opponent can continuously set up attackers and consistantly KO your Victinis, while you have to flip for a KO. This is quite true. But, what if they couldn't set up any more attackers? Perhaps if they were under trainer lock? The entire focus of this deck is to swarm those Victinis, hopefully donk, and if you don't donk get the T2 trainer lock. That is all it is designed to do. If they can't do anything, it doesn't matter how frail your attacker is, especially when you have low-maintenance, swarmable attackers like Victini that can OHKO everything in the format (yes, even that magical 130 HP).
Here's a list:
(*Important Note: Any and all Items are ment to be used before you get Vileplume out, and most of them are 1st turn Items and "burnable".)
(*Important Note #2: This is just a general list, feel free to tweak it to your own style.)
(*Important Note #3: Read all the notes marked "*Important Note"!!!)
Pokemon: 11
3 V-Blast Victinis
1 Fliptini
3 Oddish
1 Gloom
2 Vileplume
1 Jirachi
I/S/S: 36
4 PONT
4 Collector
4 Dual Ball
4 Sage's Training
4 Professor Juniper
3 Switch
3 Rare Candy
2 Pluspower
2 Twins
2 Professor Elm's Training Method
2 Pokegear 3.0
2 Seeker
Energy: 13
4 Rescue Energy
11 {P} Energy
Cards Analysis:
This is obviously your main attacker. Two flips, and you get 120 for {P}. Yeah, that's what's up.
FlipTini lets you reflip the bad V-Blast flips, but keep the good ones. It's vital to your strategy, and while it may be Catcher bait, Catcher cannot be played under trainer lock.
It becomes Gloom/Vileplume. Nuf' said.
It becomes Vileplume. Again, 'nuf said.
It evolves from Gloom/Oddish, 'nuf sai- Just kidding. Vileplume's single purpose in life is to lock Trainers (Items). It should never should be active, and doesn't attack. Luckily, it ISN'T Catcher bait!
Jirachi is an interesting tech. It's usually a 4-card tech, since you have to put in {P} Energies. In this case, however, it is a 1-card tech. Just drop it, use its power to power itself up, and you can devolve anything they managed to Rare Candy before you got the trainer lock up, or something that has damage on it that will be KO'd in one of its previous stages.
I/S/S (Items/Stadiums/Supporters, or for some of you, In School Suspension!
)
This is currently the best form of hand refresh. This lets you shuffle your hand into your deck and draw six new cards after you've used up everything you need from your original hand. It also lets you cycle through your deck in the early game without discarding vital cards you'll need later.
Collector is ideal for your first turn. Your ideal setup will be V-Blast Victini active, 2 Oddish on the bench, 1 Fliptini on the Bench, and a back-up V-Blast Victini. The most important thing is the V-Blast active and the Fliptini benched. Then you need the two Oddishes and finally the backup V-Blast. With 4 Collector and 4 Dual Ball - the next card that will be analyzed- you should be able to get 2/3 of that. You also have to factor that you will be starting with 1-2 of them automatically.
Dual Ball really reinforces Pokemon Collector. If you don't start with Collector, you will usually get a Dual Ball. If you don't, then you can always use one of your many hand-refresh supporters to score a Collector, Dual Ball, and/or another basic.
This card is one of your main ways to get cards you need without losing things you have in your hand, i.e.: you have a Vileplume and need Rare Candy, etc. You can also discard useless cards from your deck, like a Rare Candy after you've already got your Vileplume out, a Dual Ball/Collector late game, etc.
If you have to waste your energy retreating T1, you can't get the T1 V-Blast off. So, these three Switch are for Switching back if something gets Catchered before you set up the trainer lock or if you don't start with a V-Blast Victini.
Rare Candy gives you the trainer lock ASAP. You need 3 so that it's more likely to get one and a Vileplume at the same time, and so that it's more likely that you will hit one with a Sage's Training.
Pluspower is mainly for the dragons. If your opponent starts a Zekrom, Reshiram, or Kyurem you cannot donk them. And, if you desperately need it mid-game, you can Seeker up Vileplume to play a PlusPower. Although, make sure you already have another Oddish down as well as a Rare Candy and Vileplume in your hand (or a Gloom that you evolved last turn).
If your opponent KO's one of your Pokemon before you KO one of theirs, you can use Twins to get out a Vileplume and a Rare Candy, or one of the two and something else if you're already holding the other in your hand.
This is used to search out evolve Pokemon, Gloom or Vileplume. There needed to be at least one direct-search card for them.
Seeker is a vital card here, because you can use it for an emergency-brake for the trainer lock, like if you needed to play a Pluspower to win the game. It's also used to manage your bench, i.e. your opponent didn't kill either Oddish and you need the spot for something else, your opponent has put some snipe damage on Fliptini, your opponent has two basics in play at the beginning and you can get the donk, etc.
This is just to up your odds of getting a Collector at the beginning of the game. And if you don't find a Collector, you'll probably get something else.
Energy:
Obviously, you need to power things up to attack.
Since you can't use Revive, your only way to recover things is with Rescue Energy.
Things you might add:
Kingdra would work in here to help you match that magic 130 HP. If you see a lot of Reshiram/Zekrom/Kyurem in your area, you may consider a 1-1-1 line.
Another fantastic tech. It helps with Donphan, the dragons, and Reshiphlosion especially (since they may try attacking with Typhlosion to get KOs). The advantages it has over Kingdra is that it can get your opponent to 140 before your turn -leaving you to be able to use the power again next turn-, it may force your opponent into a retreat, which can be especially harmful under trainer lock, can be combo'd with Rainbow Energy to confuse and poison if you decide to throw one in, and it's a Stage 1 instead of a Stage 2. Its cons are that you have to use your energy attachment, invest a Seeker to eventually get your {P} energies back, and will be useless at times, where Kingdra you can still drop a damage counter on their bench.
Well, everybody, enjoy your Martinis!
To the people editing this article, please notify me of any and all changes to this article, no matter how miniscule!!!