Pokemon Deck Review – Gamingfieldstudios - Donphan Yanmega Zoroark

4 - 3 Yanmega Prime TM

2-2 Donphan Prime HS
3 -3 Zoroark BLW
1 Cleffa HS/CL
1 Tyrogue HS/CL
1 Manaphy UL
1 Reshiram BLW
Pokemon - 21

4 Pokemon Collector
4 Judge
3 Professor Oak's New Theory
2 Professor Juniper
4 Pokemon Communication
3 Pokemon Reversal
4 Junk Arm
3 PlusPower
1 Switch

Trainers/Supporters - 27

8 Fighting
3 DCE

Energy – 11

Overall Strategy

I think people are getting pretty familiar with this deck.  Yanmega is the primary attacker since it snipes and hits hard for no energy as long as your hand size is identical to your opponent.  It’s weak to lightning which is easily taken care of by donphan prime which can start attacking for only one fighting energy.  The zoroark is a great all around tech since it can copy the defending pokemon attacks for only a DCE.  Reshiram is to decrease the base damage of kingdra’s dragon steam attack which is the most popular water pokemon in the format right now (a danger to donphan).  Manapy and cleffa are for setting up and tyrogue is for getting the donk.

Pokemon analysis

While yanma is a great starter too with free retreat and enough HP to avoid a donk, I still prefer a line of 4-4 or running rescue energy to reuse a yanmega.  I like to choose either cleffa or manaphy instead of going with both.  With so many tyrogue, I think manaphy is the safest choice.  I’m used to seeing higher lines of donphan (3-3) and lower lines of zoroark (2-2) for consistency.   If part of the donphan line is prized, it could really hurt your game if you’re only running a 2-2 line.   I would run the donphan with the pokebody rather than the ‘flail’ donphan so that if you have an energy attached, you don’t damage the benched donphan with earthquake, making it easier for it to be KO’d when it’s a donphan.

Energy Analysis

I like the 3 DCE since both reshiram and zoroark can utilize it, and would keep it at that number even if you decide to reduce the zoroark line to 2-2.  Your fighting energy line is pretty high for just running 2 donphan, but if you increase donphan to 3, it’s perfect.  11 energy might be a little low overall, so I would add in a couple of rescue or grass depending on your play style.  I personally like the back up of being able to rely on grass energy to snipe with yanmega.  You might also want to consider running special dark to increase the power of zoroark (max of 2).

Trainer/Supporter Analysis

I like the 4 pokemon collector, but in case you need to find room for another card, you should be able to reduce the number to 3 without problems.  Since yanmega relies on identical hand sizes, I would run both judge and copycat – a combination of 7 or 8.  To make room for 3 or 4 copycat, I would drop 1 juniper and the professor oaks new theory.  Since you run donphan, who has a really heavy retreat cost, I would increase your line of switches to 2.  It would also help your sleeping babies get out of the way.  The 3 pluspower is perfect, especially if you don’t decide to run special dark.  If you still need a little room in the deck, I would drop the communication down to 3 since you can easily reutilize them with junk arm.  The only other suggestions I have would be to add in one flower shop lady, just in case you need a little recovery late in the game.

Overall

This deck is extremely well built already and very similar to the video deck review I did of pgmcsskater’s donphan zoroark yanmega deck if you’d like to check that one out.  One of your biggest worries is going to be the mirror match, so If you going to worlds, make sure you get lots of practice against the mirror in!

Deck Review – zoruacards24 - Yanmega Zoroark Donphan

3-3 Donphan Prime (2 Phanpy with the body and 1 Flail)

3-3 Yanmega Prime
2-2 Zoroark (Zorua being Mc Donald)
2 Cleffa
1 Tyrogue
1 Reshiram

Total pokemon = 20

4 PlusPower
2 Junk Arm
1 Switch
3 Pokemon Comm.
2 Reversal
1 flower shop lady

1 Juniper
3 Judge
2 Collectors
4 CopyCat
1 Twins
2 PONT
2 Seeker
1 Elms

Trainer/Supporter total = 29

2 DCE
2 Darkness
7 Fighting

Energy = 11

Strategy

The main starter is cleffa to ‘eeeeek’, shuffle in and draw a new hand of 6.  Tyrogue allows you to potentially get the donk on your opponent’s cleffa.  Your first attacker is yanmega, who can attack without energy as long as your hand size is the same as your opponent, which you can easily do with judge and copycat.  Donphan and zoroark are secondary attackers.  Donphan is a heavy hitter that can easily take out most lightning pokemon, like magnezone and zekrom.  It’s weak to water, which could be a problem with kingdra being a popular pokemon in this format.  The one reshiram in the deck is to reduce the base damage of kingdra from 60 to 20, ensuring that donphan survives.  Since you run double colorless energy, you can potentially use it as an attacker as well.

Pokemon Analysis

I would include 3 phanphy with the pokebody.  With an energy attached, it won’t be affected by an earthquake from donphan, which could prevent snipe decks from taking it out in one hit.  I would also replace the zorua from mcdonalds with the set zorua.  That extra 10 HP will ensure that your opponent can’t get an easy snipe (example – one spray splash from kingdra and one linear attack from yanmega).  I would recommend reducing your line of cleffa down to one.  If you have a manaphy, I would also try swapping it out.  Manaphy will decrease the chances of you getting donked by your opponent.  However, if you’re struggling with the hand size of 5 instead of 6, I’d just return to the cleffa.

Energy analysis

Change your dark energy to special darkness.  That will allow you to one shot reshiram and zekrom, and you never know when a little extra damage will help out.   I would run 3 DCE if you can find the room for it.

Trainer/Supporter Analysis

Increase your number of collectors to 3 to ensure that you can draw into one early game.  Since you run 3 donphan, adding another switch in case they’re reversal’d up is necessary.  I would also increase your number of junk arm to 3, possibly 4, so that you can reuse as many trainers as possible.  Increase your reversal to 3 as well since a lot of games in this format seem to rely on being able to drag up your opponents benched pokemon. 

To make room for these increases, I would decrease your line of pluspower to 2.  With the special dark, you’ll be doing the extra damage that you’d typically want the pluspower for.  I would also drop the seeker.  While it can help you, it’s also going to help out your opponent.  The deck’s speed and ability to run to the bench should ensure that you don’t need them.  If you need to drop anything else, I would suggest the PONT.  It’s not necessary since you run the judge and copycat, and you can always increase your judge to 4.

Overall

This is an extremely strong deck!  Since you’re doing to worlds, I think it’s the best play, but there will be lots of other variations of this deck to look out for.  Be sure you get lots of practice in the mirror match. Speed and reversals are what will win the mirror match. Hope this helps and good luck at worlds!

Deck Review - potionhorderAU - Samurott Wigglytuff Swanna

2-1 Wigglytuff

2-2 Zoroark

1 Buffalant

2-2-3 Samurott (non ability)

2-1 Swanna

2 Alomomola

Pokemon total = 20

 

1 black belt

1 potion

3 collector

2 copycat

2 interviewer

2 PONT

2 switch

3 communication

2 elm

Trainers/Supporters total = 18

 

18 water

2 DCE

Energy total = 20

Pokemon Analysis

Samurott is the strongest pokemon in the deck.  It can hit for 90 as well as snipe the bench for 30, picking off babies or just spreading damage.  Zoroark is a great counter to just about anything and buffalant can deal a huge blow right after one your pokemon was knocked out.  The issues in this deck lie with wigglytuff, swanna and alomomola.  None of them are able to hit for a great amount of damage or do anything 'special' to help the deck.  Alomomola has some potential it is loaded up with all water energy.  It also had very high HP for a basic.  Since it has some potential, I would recommend keeping it, but dropping the wigglytuff and swanna.  SInce you have 3 samurott, you should add another oshawott to make it a 3-2-3 line (and utilize rare candy to get a third one going).  Your deck also needs a starter.  Since this is a water deck, manaphy would be perfect, but there are plenty of others like cleffa, smeargle, stantler, etc... (depending on what you have).

 

Trainer/Supporter Analysis

I would exchange the black belt for a twins.  Black belt can help you get the knockout, but twins can help you get set up for the rest of the game.  I would swap out your copycat for more PONT and add 1 juniper to increase your hand refreshers.  You run so many energy that even if you reduced the number, you would have no problem drawing into them, so I dont think the interviewers are necessary.  You could probably reduce your elm to 2 and your switch to 1.  I would include 1 rare candy, possibly 2, for the samurott and add 3 arm to be able to reuse those trainers.  A flower shop girl is essential for recovering energy and pokemon from the discard pile.  The potion aren't necessary either, so I would drop them and throw in a couple of pokemon reversal (pokemon catcher when it's released) and possibly a pluspower or two, just in case you need to deal a little extra damage.  Overall though, you have an excellent trainer/supporter line!

 

Energy Analysis

20 energy is way too much.  I would increase the DCE to 4 since you can use it on zoroark, buffalant, samurott and alomomola (although water would be preferred on alomomola since it increases its attack power).  I would drop the water energy down to 10, for a total count of 14.

 

Overall

This is an interesting water deck and while typically it would be weak to water, your zoroark and buffalant should be able to help you survive against lightning decks.  Your deck only has 58 cards in the deck, but that's okay since I made a lot of suggestions  on cards to add.  I dont think you'll have a problem filling those last two spots. 

Deck Review - MrBigFish1994 - Emboar Throh Simisear

1 reshiram

4-2-2 emboar

2-2-1 stoutland

1 drifloon (MD - illegal)

2-1 simisear

2 smeargle

2-1 gurdurr

1 throh

2 gligar

pokemon total - 26

 

3 sage

3 retrieval

2 switch

2 communication

1 energy search

1 revive

1 pokeball

1 interviewers

1 juniper

1 burned tower

1 energy restore (illegal)

1 rockets trickery

trainers/supporters total - 18

 

10 fire

4 fighting

2 DCE

energy total - 16

 

Pokemon Analysis

You run 2 smeargle as starters, which is excellent.  If you have a  tyrogue to throw in, that could help you get the donks, and also stall a bit if needed later in the game.  You have quite a few lines of pokemon, and not all of them work very well together.  The drifloon is from majestic dawn, a set that has been rotated, so it cant be played in tournaments.  You have 2 gligar, but no gliscor.  Gliscor could be a great addition to the deck since it can cause special conditions as well as do damage.  If you have any gliscor, I would recommend that you run a 2-2 line.  I don't think gurdurr is a very strong pokemon for a stage 1, but I do like throh.  It had more hp and better attacks than gurdurr, so I would recommend dropping the gurdurr line and increasing the throh line to 2 or 3.  

 

At first I didn't like stoutland, but its preveolutions could be great starters since they can draw cards with their first attacks.  And stoutland would likely be knocked out after it attacked once, so it wouldnt be a big deal that it couldnt attack the next turn (although you do use switch, just in case).  Since you only have 2 ability emboar, I would decrease the line down to 2-2-2 to save room.  I would increase your line of simisear up to 2-2.  While I'm not a fan of simisear, its the only sniper in this deck, so it should stay.  Ability emboar can also attach fire energy to the fighting pokemon since some of their attacks do need colorless energy, so while I thought it was an odd card to put in the deck, it could work.  Of course reshiram is a very strong card paired with emboar, and if have at least one more, that would help the deck.

 

Trainer/Supporter Analysis

Energy restore is from a set that's been rotated out, so it needs to be dropped in case you play in a tournament.  You need cards to search out basics, like dual ball and pokemon collector (a combination of at least 3).   Since  your attackers have high retreat costs, I like the 2 switch.  The 1 revive is great for throh and reshiram.  Since  you have interviewers, you don't need the energy search.  You do need a flower shop girl for pokemon recovery as well as a twins in case you're behind.  You can reduce your retrieval down to 2 if you put in flower shop.  I don't like pokeball since it relies on a coin flip.  Increasing the line of communication to 3 and possibly adding in 1 or 2 elm would ensure that you can get any pokemon you need without running the risk of a flip. 

 

Instead of sage and trickery, I would include cards that refresh your hand completely, like professor oaks new theory (3 or 4).  The burned tower could be great for getting your energy back, but you might want to run 2 just so you can ensure that you can play it.  This would also help out your opponent, so be careful. To speed up emboar's evolution, I would include 1, possibly 2 rare candy (just to ensure you draw into it). I would also include 2 to 3 junk arm to be able to reuse trainers, like communication, retrieval, revive, etc.  If you have room, adding 2 plus power and 2 reversal would also help out the deck..

 

Energy Anaylsis

You don't need the double colorless energy because ability emboar should be able to easily attach fire to anything that needs colorless to attack.  I would increase your fighting energy to 5, possibly 6 (depending on if you added the gliscor), since throh's second attack needs 2 fighting energy. 

 

Overall

I'd drop the gurdurr and drifloon, decrease the tepig, and incraese the lines of throh, gligar/gliscor, simisear and reshiram.  If you're finding that you may not have room for all of them, you can drop the stoutland since I dont think its a card that you'll be using too much.  After a few tweaks to your pokemon line, I think this could be a good deck.  Throh and reshiram are basic pokemon that can hit hard, so the only hard pokemon to get out would be the ablity emboar, but with rare candy, that should make it much easier.  Throh is great counter to yanmega since its attack isnt affected by resistance (use simisear to do 20 to benched yanmega/yanma, then when yanmega becomes active, you can knock it out with throw and a pluspower in one hit).

Deck Review - poke3mon81 - Emboar Magnezone Vileplume

2-1-2 emboar (1 ability, 1 non)

3-1-3 magnezone

2-1-2 vileplume

1-1 dodrio

1 cleffa

1 tyrogue

pokemon total = 21

4 rare candy

4 communication

4 professor oaks new theory

3 collector

3 junk arm

2 juniper

2 energy retrieval

1 flower shop

1 twins

trainer/supporter total = 24

10 fire

5 electric

energy total = 15

Deck Strategy

Like a typical magneboar, you build up your magnezones, attach massive amounts of fire with emboar, and lost burn as many energy as you need to knock out your opponent.  To avoid running out of energy, he runs the non ability emboar which can hit for 150, KOing just about anything. The twist in this deck is that he runs vileplume, which prevents his opponent from using a lot of useful trainers.

Pokemon Analysis

You only run one ability emboar and that means that you run the risk of it being prized.  I would increase your emboar line to 3-3-3, or exchange the non ability emboar for a reshiram.  Adding the reshiram would allow you to keep your pokemon line low.  While I like the dodrio, I dont think it's necessary.  Once you have the vileplume in play, your opponent wont be able to reversal or catcher anything up from the bench anyways.  You can always pay the retreat cost and recover the energy later.  I would add another gloom in case your only one is prized.  Hopefully you'll be able to use a rare candy on oddish, but you never know.  I would also increase your magnezone line to 3-3-3 (adding more magneton), just in case you aren't able to get one up before the trainer lock.  The earlier you get out vileplume, the harder time  your opponent is going to have. 

Trainer/Suppporter Analysis

I like the 4 candy, 4 communication and 3 junk arm.  This will ensure that  you're able to get your stage 2's out fast.  To help ensure that you draw into them, I would run sage's training.  While you'll have to discard 3 cards, there's a high likelyhood that you'll be able to get what you need, and if you have to toss something critical like a rare candy, you can always junk arm for it.  Later in the game, sage can also be great for tossing away trainers that you wouldnt be able to use under the trainer lock.  I would drop at least 1 juniper and all of the professor oaks new theory.  In addition to sage replacing them, I would include at least 2 judge.  This could be great to disrupt your opponent once you have a magnezone in play to be able to recover with it.  I would drop your 2 energy retrieval and use fisherman instead.  You'll be using the energy recovery cards later in the game, and by that point you should have vileplume up, which renders retrievals useless.

Energy Analysis

While I think your energy is good as it is, if you find you're having difficulties finding room to add supporters, you could easily drop 1, possibly 2 energy (1 of each), but if you drop the dodrio, that would give you more room anyways. 

Overall

I would really like to see this deck in action.  Magneboar is already an extremely powerful deck, and if you can run it with a trainer lock, it would be difficult to stop!

Deck Review - TheIceGambit - Ampharos Kingdra

3-2-3 Ampharos (not prime)
3-2-3 Kingdra (not prime)
3-3 Vaporeon
2 Rotom

1 Cleffa

Pokemon total - 25

2 Interviewer's Questions
3 Pokemon Communication
2 Pokemon Reversal
1 Switch
1 Energy Returner
1 Proffesor Oak's New Theory
1 Junk Arm
2 Flowershop Lady
2 Rare Candy
1 Revive

Trainer/Supporter total - 16

 

12 Water Energies

7 Electric Energies 

Energy total - 19

 

Deck Strategy

The main attackers are Ampharos and Kingdra who can both do 80.  Both attacks have downsides - ampharos could potentially do 20 to itself on a flip and kingdra has to return an energy card to his hand.  Vaporeon is a for sniping the bench (30 to any 2 pokemon), which could be great for taking out babies.  Rotom is another excellent sniper, doing damage to pokemon with energy attached (the more energy, the more it hits for).  Cleffa is a great starter, shuffling your hand in to draw 6 more with a 50% chance that it can't be touched next turn.

 

Pokemon Analysis

Your lines of kingdra and ampharos are strong, and I wouldn't recommend changing them.  Since vaporeon isn't going to be a main attacker, reducing that line to 2-2 could help.  I would suggest taking out the rotom and putting in a 2-2 line of zoroark instead.  That way you could counter the zekroms that could easily knock out your kingdra (but it's also useful in many other situations).  The single cleffa is perfect for trying to avoid donks, and adding in 1 tyrogue could also help you get the donks.

 

Trainer/Supporter

You don't need revive or energy returner since you run two flower shop.  If you wanted to bring down your flower shop to 1, I'd recommend an energy retrieval instead of returner so they'd go straight to your hand. Since you run 2 stage 2 lines, increasing your rare candy and junk arm lines to 3 each would speed up the deck.  I'd add in one twins in case you're behind and increase your hand shuffling supporters by adding 2 or 3 professor oaks new theory and 1 juniper. 

 

Energy Analysis

Adding 4 double colorless energy would speed the deck up since both ampharos and kingdra can benefit from it (and zoroark if you decide to run it). Since ampharos can search out lightning energy and attach anywhere, including kingdra, I'd decrease your line of water to about 5 (you have the 2 interviewers to help find them).  The lightning line is good at 7 for a total of 16 energy if you added in 4 DCE. 

 

Overall

This is a great deck that can help each others weaknesses.  Ampharos's weakness to fighting type will most likely be taken advantage of by donphan prime, which is weak to water.  Kingdra can knock out donphan in one hit.  Adding in a zoroark to counter the most popular lightning type, zekrom, that would take advantage of kingdra's weakness, would make this deck much stronger.

Deck Review - TheIceGambit - Vileplume Mismagius

1 cleffa

1 tyrogue

3-2 slowking

3-2 mismagius

3-2-3 metagross

3-2-3 vileplume

3 mr mime

pokemon total = 31

2 Junk Arm
1 Flowershop Lady
2 Interviewer's Questions
2 Rare Candy
3 Pokemon Communication
1 Switch
2 Professor Elm's Training Method
2 Pokemon Reversal
2 Professor Oak's New Theory
3Judge
1 Twins 

Trainers/Supporters total = 21

10 Psychic Enerfgy

 

Deck Strategy

This deck uses trainers only to get the vileplume out as fast as possible to place a trainer lock for the rest of the game.  Then it uses mismagius to attack, doing more damage for each trainer and supporter in your opponents hand.  My mime allows you to look at your opponents hand, slowking adds some disruption to hopefully force the opponent to draw into trainers (or any other card that wouldn't be helpful), cleffa is for setting up and tyrogue is for getting the donk (or possibly stalling).

 

Pokemon analysis

Your starter line is perfect - one pokemon to refresh your hand and another to donk.  Any more babies and you risk losing the game by getting donked yourself.  You should increase your mismagius line to 3-3 since it's your main attacker.  While having free retreat is great, I dont think metagross needs to be such a heavy line.  A 2-1-2 line should be sufficient.  You also have too many cards in your deck (2 over the 60 limit), so there will need to be a few cuts made anyways.  Your slowking line can be brought to 2-2, rather than 3-3 since you'll likely only have one set up anyways.  You don't need that many Mr Mime, I would say 2 to be safe.  You mentioned about possibly throwing in a muk, which I think is a great idea.  If they don't have many trainers and supporters in their hand, you can always use muk to drag up benched pokemon to stall.  With metagross giving it free retreat to be able to run back to mismagius as a main attacker, it would be a much stronger deck.  If you don't add muk, I would say that you could drop the metagross line completely, but muk gives it a reason to work.  I would recommend a 2-2 line of muk.

 

Trainer/Supporter Analysis

I would throw out the reversal, switch and junk arm.  You'll need the candy and communication to get the vileplume and metagross up as fast as possible, but after that they become dead cards. I would increase the rare candy to 3, possibly 4, and possibly increase the communication to 4 too.  I would throw out judge, because you want them to have large hands of trainers, and judge would only reduce the chances of them drawing into them.  I would include 2, possibly 3 juniper (2 would be safest).  Once you get vileplume out, juniper will be great for discarding the trainers in your own hand so they don't clutter up the deck if you shuffle back in.  Add 3, possibly 4, pokemon collector to ensure that you get a fast start by getting out those basics.  You'll want to bench 2 oddish at a time if possible with pokemon catcher coming out soon.  The interviewers is good since you don't run too many energy anyways.  But since the pokemon that you run don't need much energy to attack, (muk's 1st attack only needs 1 and mismagius needs 2), you may not need them all.  If you need room, they'd be another card that could be tossed.  If you have any room left, you can always increase your line of elm and oak.

 

Overall

I think this is a great deck!  Vileplume is one of my favorite cards and I think it will be pretty big once pokemon catcher comes out.  I hope that I can help you build it!