Kyureplume

So here's a basic skeleton of something I'm going to try if and when Kyurem hits us.

4 Kyurem
2-2-2 Feraligatr
3-2-2 Vileplume
1 Cleffa

3 Pokemon Collector
3 Proffesor Elm's Training Method
2 Professor Oak
3 Fisherman
2 Twins

3 Rare Candy
2 Pokemon Communication

12 Water Energy
4 Rescue Energy

So basically, the general strategy is to hopefully start with either Cleffa or Kyurem, then get 3 in any combination of Oddish and Totodile. Going first definitely helps, since you can attempt to get the advantage and evolve Oddish into vileplume and Totodile into Feraligatr Prime as fast as possible. Once the support system has been established, swing away with Kyurem.

The deck's low trainer reliance and constant wave of attacks is meant to knock out all of the opponent's pokemon simultaneously while shutting down their trainer support structures. Having 2 Vileplume and 2 Feraligatr on the bench can be a death sentence if you have enough Kyurem ready to fight.

Kyurem is, for all intensive purposes, a beast. He has the same outrage attack as his yin-yang buddies, and a more destructive glaciate attack that does 30 to all of your opponent's pokemon. It doesn't seem like much, but his outstanding 130 HP allows him to tank like a boss, and the damage from those attacks starts to stack very quickly. Since Steel-types took a huge knock in the format, his weakness is redundant, although facing a steel deck with Scizor's anti-special energy ability can spell doom, although it's not likely. Rescue energies keep a solid battalion of these guys coming. He will also make anyone who was previously afraid of Donphan giggle maniacally. He's Donphan's weakness, and stacks up on top of the damage Donphan does to its own bench. LOL! It also beasts against Reshirams.

Vileplume is IMO the best thing ever for Kyurem. It prevents your opponent from using any useful trainers to advance in the game. Pokemon Communications, Rare Candy, Pluspower, Energy Retrieval, Revive, Switch, Pokemon Catcher, and most awesomely Junk Arm. No junk arm means Yanmega will have a very hard time trying to copy your hand without using a supporter. It takes 3 hits with Yanmega's linear attack to KO, but if you have 2 set up, that's 6 attacks that your opponent has to perform, while totally ignoring Kyurem, who will by that point have dealt 150 damage to every pokemon on Yanmega's side, granted it is at full power.

Feraligatr is just as important, since he is the support basis of the deck. With him, Kyurem can continue its rampage undisturbed granted you have the necessary energy. His 140 HP will take 4 hits to take down with Yanmega, and like I said before with Vileplume, Kyurem's attacks start to stack up by then. Feraligatr can also be a hilarious last resort attacker since every pokemon your opponent has will probably have taken considerable damage beforehand, and therefore will be torn to shreds by Hydro Crunch.

In its simplicity, the deck is very efficient and does what it needs to. If you're fast enough, you shut down your opponent's trainer cards, and hit them hard with a constant stream of team-hitting justice. Cards like Black Belt can help you throw your opponent off-guard with a surprise revenge attack. Cards like Kingdra can pick off the stragglers, but since the stragglers are what keeps better cards from rolling in, I don't recommend it.

Lemme know what you guys think!

In theory it's good, but Vileplume is a Stage 2 and takes a while to set up, and relying on Feraligatr will be problematic since it's also a Stage 2. You will probably get blitzed by Stage 1 Rush decks that include Donphan, Zoroark, Yanmega, and sometimes Cincinno, as well as by Outrage.dec (Zekrom and Reshiram, and some variants may also include Kyurem). Elm's Training Method and Judge will probably be this deck's undoing, especially Judge, which is heavily used with Yanmega dominant now. Oddish is also an easy target for Yanmega.

Yeah, I'm aware that the deck will suffer big hits in the metagame. And I'm aware that Oddish is a huge target, which is why I run more of him just in case. I've play tested it with proxies, and cards like engineer's adjustments really help root the candies out of the deck faster, and a prize drop from a snipe is all the more reason the deck is fantastic with Twins. Much like Gengar prime, since the method of winning isn't conventional single prize grabs, you can really start to abuse Twins fairly frequently if you run a full playset.

With the way that I play the deck, an early prize difference is entirely intentional, and I personally playtest with 2 Cleffas and a Tyrogue to boost my chance of Eeeeking, stalling, abusing the free retreat as well as offer up bait to trick my opponent into attacking the wrong pokemon, and paying for it heavily. With the way Kyurem divides the damage among opponents, you can easily be down 3-4 prizes and win because unless your opponent runs a healing card like Serperior, in which case you're boned unless you can start powerhousing, they won't have solid recovery from the continuous 30. The thing I like about Kyurem is that he can just ignore that he's being damaged and keep stacking on the damage, or he can just as easily counterattack and nab a quick prize.

Until I've really gotten a chance to playtest it against a variety of decks and figure out what cards work best, all I can do is wait for Kyurem's release. If my theory holds true, and it works, I might have a serious competitive deck for me. If Scizor prime and/or Serperior become more popular or it just doesn't play as well as I thought, it can always be a fun deck. Win/Win for me. :3

I'm also a bit skittish to see what happens when Kyurem is knocked out :3
'Cause it most likely means no trainers for you too.
I actually have no idea what I'm talking about. Haven't played in ages and forgot about Rescue Energy.

XD Why does the deck title not mention Feraligatr?

Tanaki said:

Kyurem is, for all intensive purposes, a beast.

Click to expand...

For all intents and purposes* lol

Meh, I guess I just thought Kyureplume sounded cooler than Kyuraligatr, and was more expressive of the strategy of the deck.

And the whole point of my designing the deck was in response to Pokemon Catcher. I had an instant brainstorm of the most obnoxious card to counter it, which just so happens to be Vileplume. The pokemon that can't be brought out by its effect, because it negates it. But Vileplume on its own isn't a great strategy, especially with Gengar gone and so many excellent trainers in the format, so as soon as I saw Kyurem, for me, it was a match made in heaven. Massive damage spread, no scoop ups, and no seekering without the risk of having one pokemon alienated for a power hit.

And thanks for the grammar correction. I learned something today. I don't often see the phrase written out, so I've always just gone by what I hear.

2 each of your stage 2s also crowds out your bench immensely and leaves room for only two Kyurem at a time. Just realized this now after re-reading.

Vileplume is just not fast enough to be a game-breaker, even with Kyurem on the front-lines.

donavannj said:

2 each of your stage 2s also crowds out your bench immensely and leaves room for only two Kyurem at a time. Just realized this now after re-reading.

Vileplume is just not fast enough to be a game-breaker, even with Kyurem on the front-lines.

Click to expand...

Reshiphlosion tends to do the same thing. You have to have at least 2 Typhlosion benched to get a good flow, and normally try to go for both Ninetales, so having just the 2 attackers is normal, at least to me. Also adapting for the game by observing your opponent helps out quite a bit. I would only really try to set up both Vileplumes and Feraligatrs if there was an immediate and imminent threat to one of them.

If Yanmega isn't in the picture, it's more likely that I would still do the same, but running even a single copy of Seeker or your opponent using Seeker can easily clear up this issue promptly. It's really only a precautionary measure to insure that you don't just lay down 1 copy of a card and your opponent brings it to active with a Pokemon catcher and your game goes down the pooper.

I think for best setup consistency and speed for Vileplume you'll want 4 Oddish, 4 Vileplume, 4 Candy, and 4 Professor Elm's Training Method. You may not want to even bother with Pokemon Communication in this deck.

Just my opinion, though.

All criticisms appreciated. Although I just put down the skeleton as a basic setup for the deck. It has 8 open spaces, which can easily be the draw support that it's missing. I currently only have 2 Vileplume since a lot of people are grabbing them up for what I can only assume is a similar reason to mine.

Again, I haven't gotten in any time for playtesting it, so I'm just working with ideas here. As for energies, after playing fire engines and hurting because I don't draw into an energy, I would rather play it safe. In reality, the proxy deck I've built only runs 2 rescues, and honestly 11 water energies and 3 rescues would probably get the job done.

I understand the playtesting problem full well, as I don't have a league nearby (nearest one is an hour away by car!) to test so I have to go off of limited Redshark testing and Theorymon through the rumor mills and excerpts from my fellow more experienced mediocre players writing articles at places like SixPrizes, PokeGym, and Onehitko.

I rescind my recommendation of not having any Communication due to the possibility of being without an Oddish, but I'd certainly still test for consistency without it in there. Maybe run some DCEs for quick retaliation Outrages against non-OHKO oriented decks like Yanmega variants.

I playtest with a few DCE's, and they're not bad. Really, I'll probably playtest a bit, and when Kyurem actually comes out I'll put the deck together and get to work. A lot of people are pumped for Pokemon Catcher, but I'm more hyped over Kyurem.

I wanted to do a water deck for a while, but with K/G legend being the best offense, and hopping into a format where Yanmega is becoming good and therefore low/no energy attacks are popular, and with constant judges which would make pulling both pieces impossible, along with the prevalence of fire decks which makes Kingdra a terrible attacker, I was deterred quite a bit. Kyurem got me all excited.