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Sticks: SouthBay Metagame
(An IPGeek21.com exclusive!!!)
Hey everyone. It's Josh here from 3rd Planet/Darkstar/Crazy Cat/8Ball/Toys R Us.
This is my first time writing an article, I think, so bear with me. I chose to do
what's hot and what's not and why for the monthly $10 tourneys that are held alternately
at Darkstar and 3rd Planet. First, let's take a look
at pretty much what is played.
Sic Powers (No Psyduck)
Occult Powers (Psyduck)
Slowking
Steelix
Wiggly-Sneasel (w/ Chaos Gym)
Clefable (not too common)
Metal Arcanine (not too common)
Trapper (not too common)
That is pretty much what is played between an average of about 18 people each tournament.
That's about 7 decks. On average, more will be playing Dark
Vile and Slowking than the others. So lets just say this is the layout out of 18 people.
3 Sic Powers
1 Occult Powers
3 Slowking
2-3 Steelix
3 Wiggly/Sneasel
2 Clefable
1 Metal Arcanine
3 "Other" decks that I cannot think of, or are just what they are, an "other"
deck that does not need to be mentioned.
Hm... so it's obvious that Trainer Denial is the most popular. Well, everyone plays
some sort of Trainer Denial but not everyone bases their Pokemon around Trainer Denial,
unlike Slowking and Dark Vile.
Since these are so popular and these are winning, why doesn’t anyone do anything
about it? Why doesn’t someone metagame them? It seems like they could be fairly easy
to metagame, doesn’t it? Muk+Massive ER and quick attackers? I think
it could work. Muk would work vs both Dark Vile and Slowking, the ER/SER
would work vs Sneasel/Steelix/Wiggly/Metal Arcanine,
Sprout Tower could handle
Clefable, etc.
What else could meta-game these 3rd-4th turn total trainer lockout? What about Trapper? What happened? Have you noticed
that a good built Trapper
could probably wreck these things? I mean, they ARE based on 1st turn, early game,
trainer/card denial but if they don't get their denial out by the 3rd turn (for most,
that's the average), then you can beat them by then. The only thing is, Cleffa is pretty much in every deck.
=/ That's pretty much it =/ One puny little 30 HP POS that evolves into Clefairy ruins the Trapper.
Nothing else? That's about it. Not much to metagame vs these ultra mean decks. Or
is there?
Has anyone noticed the impact that Sneasel has done on the game? It is now in about 85% of all decks. Think about that. Sneasel is pretty much the the decider of the game. Whoever gets Sneasel first or whoever gets 2 Sneasel out. What if you could do something
about it? To shut down their deck, all you have to do is shut down Sneasel. I know! Mr. Mime!
No. Erika's Dratini! Maybe,
but no. Energy Denial? Yeees. The only bad thing is, most decks with Sneasel won't let you ER them, since they are smarter than that. They have something protecting
it like Eco Gym, Dark Vile or Slowking. So the solution is, something to stop their Powers AND Gyms. What
can do this... hm... what can do this. Well, nothing. The best bet is to just play
some random cards like Muk
and Narrow Gym (sigh).
But does it deserve only a sigh? It could work, couldn't it?
What's the ultimate card to screw over decks (if trainer denial wasn't around)? Energy Removal and Super
Energy Removal. So, if you can pull a Muk out there, and not get locked in by Murkrow, then you could pretty badly hurt those pokes. Steelix,
Wiggly, Sneasel, Chansey, all weak to ER/SER
and popular. If you could get around the powers and
bust ‘em with a SER you
could take them game. I think you'll know what I'm playing come next $10 tourney.
Thanks for listening to my mixed up pile of words, sorry, it's just late.
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