Sorry for the long hiatus, guys. Between disillusionment with the "profibility" element of /blog, and an onslaught of homework assignments, I've been unable to update this at all, let alone regularly.
However, I've come to the conclusion that HeyTrainer is – and always will be – most appropriate as a pro bono service, meant for the common good of trainers everywhere. I'm very proud of this site, and hope to use it to bring the best free content in the competitive TCG world.
/end emotional rant of justice.
Anywayas, this is the week prior to states, so we aim to give you some very, very strong material to work with. Today, we'll be featuring Alex Fields's (Butlerforhire's) expert Luxchomp analysis on the lostgar matchup.
One last thing: if you like /blog, then be sure to "Like" us on Facebook (see bottom of post).
Luxchomp Versus Lostgar
By Alex F.
"
Counters to Lostgar
Although it is far from necessary to do so, the easiest way to beat Lostgar is to tech a dark attacker into your list that is capable of OHKOing Gengar Prime. Here are the best and most popular options to consider for those who want to take this route:
– Weavile G: Team Attack deals 140 damage to Gengar if you have a full bench of nothing but SP Pokemon (10 base + 10 more for each of your 6 SPs=70×2=140). It also does 120 if you have an Uxie or Azelf on the bench in place of the desired 5th SP, meaning you are only a Flash Bite away from the OHKO in that scenario.
Free retreat and Call for Family make Weavile a great starter if you have the opportunity to open with it, or a good bail-out card if your opening is subpar and you can Collector/Radar for it to get your bench developed. The drawback to Weavile is its reliance on an SP-filled bench, which can be bad mainly because you can’t have two Pixies in play at the same time and still do enough damage for an OHKO. This is especially going to matter if you have a bad start and need to use Set Up twice, or if something important is prized, especially if that card is Weavile itself. An easy solution to this problem of a Pixie-heavy bench is to simply return Pixies to your hand when your opponent uses Seeker and let them be Lost Zoned, freeing up your bench so that it can be refilled entirely with SPs. Once you have that full SP bench, you just need to replace whatever your opponent is able to Seeker+Hurl every turn that it happens and continue issuing OHKOs.
One advantage that Weavile G has over its dark tech competition is that it only requires 1 card to be added to the deck (assuming that the required dark energy is simply substituted in place of a preexisting energy).
-Absol G lv. X: Dark Slugger does 120 for cheap and allows you to discard a Pokemon in your hand that you were unable to get rid of during your turn, denying your opponent a Hurl into Darkness target. All you need to get the OHKO is a Flash Bite. With 100 HP, your opponent is going to have to spend 3 turns trying to KO you (which you can of course negate with Healing Breath or Poketurn). Darkness Send is usually not going to be anything but an incidental perk, but of course there is always the chance that it will remove something important such as a part of the Gengar line or a Seeker/VS Seeker/Lost World (removing the latter could win you the game immediately if your opponent is only running 2 and the other is prized).
There are a few drawbacks to Absol G. One is that you must always have a Pokemon on hand to discard. This can be problematic because you don’t want to use a Pokemon Collector to stock up on discard fodder; if you do, you will be giving your opponent free Hurl targets, negating the benefit of being able to discard with your attack and also giving your opponent help in beating the very clock you put them on with your OHKO ability. Another drawback is that Absol G lv. X can get stuck in your hand and Hurled away (ie. if you open with it, especially going first; draw it from the prizes; draw into it after a Spooky Whirlpool), canceling your plans entirely.
Side note: If you run Absol G, be aware of how good Doom News is against tank decks like Steelix Prime. If the opponent can’t get the Pokemon you hit with it out of the active spot on his next turn, it will automatically be KOed. Against a Pokemon like Steelix Prime that has a huge 4 retreat, the only option your opponent will often have to prevent the automatic KO is to use a Switch/Warp Point/Warp energy.
-Honchkrow SV: Riot will do 160 with a full bench of Basics behind it before you even factor in your opponent’s own benched Basics. Unlike in Weavile’s case, you can drop Uxie and Azelf freely without diminishing your damage output—on the contrary, you raise it– which is a definite plus. You also need no damage modifiers whatsoever to get the KO, another big plus. Honchkrow’s biggest weakness is that it is a stage 1, meaning you will usually have to Cyrus for a Bebe’s in order to get it out. Being incompatible with Energy Gain and requiring 3 energy to attack are also inconveniences, although your ability to OHKO Gengars once you do get the card into play and energized should make the extra effort worthwhile. DCE compatibility makes up for Riot’s cost a bit; you also have Bronzong G for acceleration.
Like Absol G lv. X, Honchkrow stands the chance of being Hurled away before you can get it into play. It is also harder to get back into your hand than Absol G lv. X is if you are forced to send it back to the deck with an SP Radar/Bebe’s and it cannot be healed via Poketurn/Healing Breath. Your opponent will still need 3 turns to KO it though with most lists, during which time you should be able to achieve 3 OHKOs.
Side note: Honchkrow is the most well-rounded choice of dark tech against the metagame because in addition to KOing Gengars, it functions as a solid Mewtwo counter, can deal big damage to Machamp without taking much in return, and is capable of either OHKOing or putting massive damage on anything else you are having a hard time KOing (such as Dialga G lv. X or Regigigas lv. X). Darkness Restore can also disrupt Gyarados if you ever catch the opponent with bench space, or simply allow you to get more cheap KOs with Bright Look/Dragon Rush against any deck by reviving low-HP Pokemon that you already KOed. Even Murkrow SV can be useful in certain matchups with Switcheroo, allowing you to make unexpected plays like moving an Expert Belt from an active attacker to something weak on the bench like Azelf that can then be Dragon Rushed for two prizes, or discarding an Energy Gain from an SP by moving it to a Pixie.
Advanced Strategy: Countering the Counters
If your opponent runs Exploud or Azelf lv. X to remove Gengar’s weakness, you have several options. If he/she is running Azelf, you only have to Dragon Rush+Flash Bite it to remove it from play and reinstate weakness. If you’re dealing with Exploud, you can Bright Look it and either set it up for a 2HKO or simply take the time to Dragon Rush around it, forcing your opponent to drop an Unown Q and then waste an energy to retreat it every time you bring it back up with Bright Look. If your opponent already played a Q on something else, you should Dragon Rush that first after bringing Exploud up so that your opponent can’t Seeker that Pokemon and have access to the Q again for use on Exploud. This will force your opponent to devote 2 energy to get Exploud to the bench, and Gengar can’t afford the energy or the turn losses, especially if you repeatedly harass with Bright Look.
If you aren’t running a dark tech, you won’t be OHKOing Gengar and, due to Seeker, you often won’t even be 2HKOing it. Considering this, you should focus on KOing every easy target your opponent has in play first—Pixies, Spiritomb, Mr.Mime, Palkia G, Gastly, Haunter, etc.. It is better to expend resources such as DCEs on sure prizes than on attempted 2HKOs that get blocked.
Once you’ve gotten all the easy prizes available, you can start trying to 2HKO Gengars. A positive consequence of leaving Gengar alone for a while is that—assuming you’ve managed your hand smartly and kept it free of Pokemon—you will frequently force your opponent to use Seekers in order to get anything Lost Zoned while Gengar is undamaged. This means that when you do turn your attention to Gengar, your opponent’s supply of Seekers will not be at full stock and you will have to worry about Gengar being healed less.
Since Hurl into Darkness depends on you having Pokemon in your hand to Lost Zone, you obviously need to keep Pokemon out of your hand whenever possible, even if this means using an SP Radar or Bebe’s Search to put something back into the deck and then failing the search or getting a Basic out that you can immediately bench. Don’t let an important level X linger in your hand at any point because you run the risk of permanently losing it. If you run Junk Arm, use that to get rid of Pokemon when necessary. You can also use Azelf to scout out your prizes so that you don’t blindly pick up Pokemon after each KO and unnecessarily set your opponent up for a lucrative Hurl into Darkness.
If you are able to keep your hand free of Pokemon, you force your opponent to continually use Seeker or get lucky with Spiritomb in order to successfully Hurl into Darkness. (Cursed Drop is a non-issue on anything but Pixies due to Poketurn and Healing Breath; you can also Psychic Restore Uxies out of play if they do get targeted.) You can’t control whether or not your opponent is drawing into Seeker (or VS Seeker, Twins, Pokedrawer+ to search out Seeker, Junk Arm to reuse VS Seeker to get Seeker, etc..), but there is always the chance that your opponent will stall out and not have access to it for a turn or more, during which time you can successfully 2HKO a Gengar and lose nothing to the Lost Zone. You also have the ability to stop Spooky Whirlpool with Power Spray and preserve your Pokemon-free hand.
If your opponent does have consistent access to Seeker, however, and/or you are not able to keep your hand free of Pokemon, you stand a fair chance of losing 6 Pokemon to the Lost Zone before you can deal with a swarm of 130 HP, colorless-resistant Gengars.
If your opponent is running a tech Machamp line, you can be caught off guard and lose a main attacker or two (and if your opponent does run it, he/she will be especially eager to use it to respond to Weavile G/Absol G lv. X). Fortunately, Machamp isn’t as devastating here as it usually is since a.) your opponent will likely only be running one of it and b.) your opponent will have no other attack power once Machamp is gone. In fact, getting Machamp into play and using Take Out for 1-2 turns may even hurt your opponent in the long run, since he/she will have “wasted” time doing something that did not aid in the fulfillment of his/her win condition.
If you run Dialga G and your opponent has not yet played his/her Lost World down after Lost Zoning 6 Pokemon, you can keep it out of play with Deafen and force your opponent to try to KO you with Cursed Drop (or tech Machamp) while you wait for time to be called. This scenario is not likely though since Gengar players will generally assume that Luxchomp runs no stadiums and freely play down Lost World if they draw into it. You could also lose your Dialga G to a teched Machamp and be unable to sustain the Deafen lock.
Miscellaneous additional tips:
– Don't put the recoil damage from Flash Impact on anything that would be in range of a KO from Cursed Drop.
– Bench useless, expendable Pokemon like Lucario GL as Seeker+Hurl sacrifices. "
Thanks for the very powerful analysis, Alex! Here's what we have on tab for the rest of the week…
TUESDAY: Deck List Dump (Tangrowth)
WEDNESDAY: TBD
THURSDAY: Deck I for sure will not use at States
FRIDAY: Tournament Pitfalls, and How to Avoid Them
In addition to this, I plan to post my Oklahoma State Championship report either next week, or the week after. I'll have to see with SixPrizes if it's feasible (I plan to post an underground-exclusive version); however, I think it should be workable.
As for Texas States, unless SixPrizes wants to give me a third article slot for the month (highly unlikely), then I plan to post a FULL-BLOWN report for this event.
/Blog is back. And this time, it's more glorious than ever.