Ludicolo/Masquerain deck

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Modified, HL-on.

20 Pokémon
2 Lotad (Rain Splash)
2 Lotad (Surprise)
2 Lombre (Blot)
1 Lombre (Ambush)
2 Ludicolo (Water Punch)
3 Surskit (Agility)
2 Masquerain (Whirlwind)
2 Venonat (Psycho Waves)
1 Venomoth (Sleep Poison)
2 Goldeen (Supersonic)
1 Seaking (Triple Breach)

13 Trainers
1 Energy Switch
1 Scott
1 Curse Powder
1 Mr Stone's Project
1 Bill's Maintenance
2 Celio's Network
1 Holon Lass
1 Holon Scientist
1 Wally's Training
1 Holon Farmer
2 Life Herb

27 Energy
16 Water Energy
10 Grass Energy
1 Holon Energy GL

 

[Archaic]

I'm not really familiar with all those cards, so I'd have to check, but off the top of my head...

HOLY SHIT! Too many energies, too many Pokémon lines (And bad splits for the lines too. No one does 4-2-1 or similar anymore.), and far far far too few trainers.

 

[Mew Jadester]

I have to agree with Archaic - Farr too much energies and too much pokemon.

Redo it completely

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Completely redo it? What, nothing good about the whole thing?

Too many pokémon? I thought I had too *few*.

And what do you mean no one does 4-2-1? I don't have 4-2-1, I have 4-3-2 and 3-2-1.

 

[Archaic]

Honestly...pretty much. You'd get hammered by anything in the current metagame.

Yes, too many. As in, too many evolution lines. Generally, you want no more than 3 evolution lines, and somewhere between 16 and 22 Pokémon. You'd be best served by cutting out one of those lines, and adding cards to the other evolution lines. Assuming that the cards have any synergy that is.

I mean that people tend to do things like 4-3-4, 3-2-3, 3-3 or 2-2. And if those numbers look weird to you...it's because you're not used to the heavy level of draw in most tournament level decks now, or the frequent use of Rare Candies to allow evolution from basic to stage 2.

Let me give you an example of a tournament level deck, that uses Ludicolo (though it's the *other* Ludicolo I note). Might interest you.

LudiCargo

Deck List

Pokemon- 21
4x Plusle (DX)
3x Lotad (DX)
2x Lombre (DX)
3x Ludicolo (DX, Swing Dance)
2x Slugma (DX, Collect)
2x Magcargo (DX, Smooth Over)
2x Rhyhorn (EM)
2x Rhydon (HL)
1x Jirachi (HL)

Trainers- 24
4x Celio's Network (FRLG)
3x Steven's Advice (HL)
2x Copycat (TRR)
4x Desert Ruins (HL)
3x Rare Candy (EM)
3x Pokemon Reversal (FRLG)
2x Swoop! Teleporter (TRR)
1x Crystal Shard (DX)
2x Ancient Technical Machine [Rock] (HL)

Energy- 15
7x Water
3x Fighting
3x Double Rainbow (EM)
2x Scramble (DX)

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

How does anyone play with only 15 energies? They'll wind up never getting anything!

Actually, that was part of why I picked this Ludi, because of my energy-intensive style.

 

[Archaic]

Everyone plays like that in tournaments now Blackjack, and trust me, we get plenty of energies. It's all in the draw engine. LudiCargo, for instance, allows you to basically search for 1 card per turn from your deck (combination of Ludicolo and Magcargo's power), before even playing draw trainer cards.

Do you have the Apprentice program Blackjack? I'll give you a game, and show you how these kinds of decks work. You can use LudiCargo, and I'll use my own deck, Mercury. After you've had a bit of experience playing these kinds of decks, you won't want to go back.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

But I see how those decks play in tournaments. I don't want to have a deck that's exactly like everyone else's. That's why I never played any Torchics even though I love them so much, because everyone and their cousin was playing Blazikens.

 

[Archaic]

Yes, but have you played one yourself?

There's nothing wrong with playing a Rogue deck, but you should at least make a Rogue deck with a real strategy behind it, borrowing some of the ideas of the other decks in the metagame. Fair enough not using the same Pokémon, but you can't ignore things like the draw engine, reduced numbers of energies and Pokémon, and more filled out evolution lines.

 

[Water Pokémon Master]

Let her play with half of her deck being energies. Maybe she'll learn the hard way when she goes to a tourny. Remember this whole discussion last time when I was wrong for bringing in the heliocentric theory of the earth to BMG? *double slap attacks*

And not playing something for the sake of not playing something is stupid, BG. Play what you want, no matter what others play. Use other deck ideas when someone comes up with something brilliant. It's dumb not to play to win - you'll never get anywhere.

What I suggest is that you play Scizor ex. Or, if you want to stick with Ludicolo, play Ludicargo, as Archaic showed above.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

But I like *this* Ludicolo, and I like Masquerain. +30 damage for two energy? You can't lose!

 

[Archaic]

Unfortunatly Blackjack, you can and you would. Repeatedly.

I wouldn't recommend Scizor ex though. It's, IMO, somewhat overrated, and the metagame has already adapted several ways to defeat it rather easily.

 

[Water Pokémon Master]

Scizor ex IS the best deck in the format, and it certainly is not overrated. I could whoop you easily with it, Archaic.

 

[Archaic]

Best deck my ass. It's just made Battle Frontier popular again, and gives us people who were trying to use Delta Species based decks a pain in the neck.