Donphan/Machamp

Donphan/Machamp
Deck Founded: 2011 (HGSS-On)
Other Names: DonChamp
Top Performances: Top 64 US Nats 2011

 


 

Skeleton List

Pokemon	T/S/S	Energy
3-1-3 Machamp Prime 3-3 Donphan Prime 1 Cleffa	4 Pokemon Collector 4 Pokemon Communication 4 Rare Candy 4 Pokemon Catcher 8 Draw Supporters 3 Junk Arm 2 Switch	10 Fighting 3 Double Colourless

Spaces Remaining: 4
Strategy:
This deck was originally formulated a little while before the HGSS-On format was announced and had a pretty good matchup against the ever popular SP at the time, but it was stuck when faced with Vilegar and that hindered its play quite a bit. Fast forward to the present and we’ve now got a deck that can hit for huge amounts of damage throughout all stages of the game. Donphan is your Stage 1, early game attacker since it can do 60 as soon as turn 2, putting offensive pressure on the opponent. The important thing about ‘Earthquake’ in this deck is usually its biggest weakness, the bench damage. The 10 to each of your other Pokemon is just collateral damage when playing Donphan with anything else, but Machamp can take full advantage of this via ‘Champ Buster’ getting plus 10 attack power for each damaged Pokemon on your bench. This means that you have a solid early attacker with a rigid Poke Body and a huge mid-late game attacker that can really roll through pretty much anything. It also has a handy advantage against Magnezone, on of the format’s biggest threats.

Techs:
The main problem with this deck is its draw power. It doesn’t really have any in-built support such as Magnezone, so most of your extra space is going to be filled with ways to get the deck moving quickly. However, there are some really nice techs that can go in here which can catch your opponent off guard.

Bouffalant BW: This guy is one of this deck’s best techs. Bouffalant’s ‘Revenge’ gives you a really nice 90 damage the turn after you suffer a KO for just a Double Colourless (which you already run). This can give you KOs on pretty much anything that has been previously damaged in the game and is an answer to RDL if you ever need one. Even if you don’t get the revenge KO, 90 damage is nothing to take lightly since you have a Basic Pokemon sitting there with a very nice 100HP which your opponent needs to do something about next turn. If they go for sniping around it, then you have the ammo to do a further 90 with Revenge for each additional Pokemon they KO. I would almost consider this a staple in this deck since it just covers so much ground in getting some high damage onto the board in a single turn.

 

PlusPower: A card that can add to your Donphan’s attack power early on and can bring those 70HP Basics into OHKO range. The most important aspect of this card is that it brings Magnezone Prime and Zekrom into OHKO range of Earthquake which can really tip that matchup in your favour. Even though the matchup sounds good already, they can hit you hard and easily get the OHKO on Donphan even with ‘Exoskeleton’ taken into account so you should take every opportunity to make that matchup just a little bit more favourable for you and it can come in useful when just need that extra 10 damage to tip a Pokemon into a KO.

 

Zoroark BW: Zoroark is a very strong card at the moment and should be considered for any deck that already runs Double Colourless Energy. Being able to copy big hitters such as Reshiram, Zoroark, Magnezone and RDL means that you can stay in the game while setting up other responses. With them more than capable of hitting that 140 damage in one go to topple your early attacker, you’re going to need a faster response when Machamp just isn’t ready yet. If you include PlusPower as stated above, you can really take some great KOs with this guy making sure that you stay offensive and don’t miss out on any prize in the prize exchange.

 

Lots of Draw: As I said above, this deck is slow so make sure you have a lot of draw support in this deck. Usually the choice is between the Professors, but with this deck I would go with running a combination of both. Running both Juniper and PONT means that you can keep your hand recycling or get rid of cards you don’t need to get the ones you do and keep up with those fast opponents. Yanmega is growing ever popular and will outspeed this deck no problem, so make sure you have a really consistent draw engine to keep going on the offensive and get your attackers rolling.

 

Ruins of Alph: Always considered a bad card, but it can have some use in this deck. As mentioned above, Yanmega can really give this deck issues with its speed and more importantly, its -20 resistance to Fighting. This means that you are 3HKOing Yanmega without the aid of PlusPowers which is appalling. Playing this stadium card makes this threat easier to deal with and moves Yanmega back up to a 2HKO with Donphan. This also means that Machamp can OHKO it with less damaged Pokemon on the bench or with less/no aid of PlusPower. It can be tight to fit in with all the draw support you need, but will be an almost definite inclusion since Yanmega is going to be at the top tables.

 

Rescue Energy: As with any other deck this could be included in, this is here for the option of bringing back your heavy attackers to the hand when they eventually get KO’d. It’s going to be tough to take down a Machamp, but when you bounce it back to your hand and then have the chance to set it back up again, your opponent could be in for a tough time. It can be tough to slot this into your list while keeping it consistent since you’re going to need those Fighting and Double Colourless for Machamp’s attack, but it can be useful to save those Donphan’s since they can be put back into play much easier than a fully powered Machamp to start hitting hard again.

 

Your Comments:
These pages can only expand with your help. Comment below what you think should be changed or added and we can keep this library growing!