Team Omar

I’ve been meaning to post about this for a while now. The Sablock (aka Sablelock, Sableye Lock, SPionage, Sabledonk, etc.) deck was gaining in popularity, and now that it won US Nationals, it’s becoming the deck to play (or at least know how to play against). Lots of people want a good list for this deck, and rightfully so.

Way back when the deck was first starting to come to the forefront (right after it made some impressive showings in certain State Championships), we covered it. At that time, TeamOmar.com ran a Sablelock Deck Workshop in which we discussed how the deck worked and, with reader help, built a workable list for it.

At the time, some considered it a secret deck, but now it’s a known top-tier headache (for its opponents, of course). It is so well known now that even POP (aka PP) has even posted a decklist for it. So, let’s take a look at it.

Sablelock Deck List courtesy of http://www.pokemon.com/us/news/op_nationals10_analysis-2010-07-28/:

Pokemon: 19
4 Sableye (Diamond & Pearl—Stormfront, 48/100)
2 Uxie (Diamond & Pearl—Legends Awakened, 43/146)
1 Uxie LV.X (Legends Awakened, 146/146)
2 Garchomp Champion (Platinum—Supreme Victors, 60/147)
2 Garchomp Champion LV.X (Supreme Victors, 145/147)
1 Unown Q (Diamond & Pearl—Majestic Dawn, 49/100)
1 Azelf (Legends Awakened, 19/146)
1 Murkrow (Diamond & Pearl—Secret Wonders, 95/132)
1 Honchkrow (Supreme Victors, 29/147)
1 Honchkrow [G] (Platinum, 77/127)
1 Toxicroak [G] (Platinum, 40/127)
2 Crobat [G] (Platinum, 47/127)

Continue reading "Sablock Deck List (aka Sablelock Decklist)"

Hey, it’s Pikkdogs again, and I’m back this time with a Donphan deck article and a mini tournament report. Recently Omar, Ed, and I were throwing around deck ideas.  Ed and Omar began talking about Adam’s SixPrizes article discussing Mr. Mime and Dunsparce tech.  The idea was to use a Donkphan (or speed Donphan Prime) list and add Mr. Mime MT and Dunsprace GS to it.  These tech cards would both allow the player to stall and to improve Donphan’s otherwise bad matchups against decks like Gyarados, Kingdra, and Jumpluff.

Ed, Omar, and I came up with some good ideas of what should be in the deck. Then I went home and used the input to build my own version of the deck.  Here’s what I came up with:

Continue reading "Donkphan Deck : Donphan + Mr. Mime Decklist and Report"

“Austino’s Gyarados” No, it’s not a new gym leader’s Pokemon, but maybe it should be. After all, Austino rode Gyarados to 3 top cuts in States/Regionals ultimately grabbing second place in the CO regionals earning him a 2 round bye at nationals and a $1000 scholarship. All it got me was 5th (after Swiss) in MN states and 17th in the WI regionals.

Let’s take a look at the deck that helped Austino and I get all those match wins, but first I should provide a little background on why I am posting about Austino’s deck in the first place. Leading up to states, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to play. For a while, I had been thinking SP, but whenever I played it, it just didn’t feel right to me. I’m not saying that I didn’t have fun playing it or that I couldn’t play it well. It’s just not my style, I think. I could have worked it out, but I wanted something that felt more natural to me. I researched a lot, and I came to the conclusion that Gyarados would be a good fit for me. I started building the deck, but I got stuck on what techs to run in it. Lots of people were running Luxray. I tried that. Omar built a version with Blissey, but I wasn’t sold on it. I was really worried about the SP matchup and a bit worried about things like Mime and Spiritomb. I tried tossing in things like Combee, Promocroak, Relicanth, etc. I still wasn’t getting the feel that I was searching for.

Continue reading "Austino’s Gyarados Decklist"

Hello to all members of Team Omar.  My name is Pikkdogs, or Josh, and I am pleased to present you with my first post.  I first started following Team Omar a few months ago when Omar referenced one of my articles from SixPrizes.com.  From then on I have enjoyed reading some of the things included on this site.  Now, I am proud to present my first article.

This article will be about the deck that I just took to the Michigan State Championships.  I call it the Flyperior Lock and Mill deck.  Usually Flygon is paired with either Machamp or Donphan Prime, my deck forsakes all those fighting Pokemon for another one, Rhyperior DP.  The decks strategy is to use Flygon Lv.x RR and Rhyperior to lock in a weak opponent and then mill them, or discard cards from their deck.

The Basics

There are certain steps that allow the user to do this.  The first step is to establish a Flygon Lv.x, with a Trapnich Sw underneath it, and a Memory Berry attached to it.  With Memory Berry, Flygon can now use the attacks “Inviting Trap” and “Sand Tomb.” First the user would use “Inviting Trap” to select a…

JWittz had this competition where he wanted people to “Construct the best 60 Card Deck using 4 double colorless energy!” Check it out at Prof it Competition! Best Double Colorless deck!. If you want to see the results, check out Profit: DCE Contest Winners.

I had previously posted about my experiences with Porygon-Z in the article, “The Problem With Porygon.” I thought the deck would adapt well to the new DCE-rich format, so I sent in a decklist to JWittz’s competition. I didn’t win any prizes. I think the Porygon idea is a bit more mainstream than what he was looking for, but I do think the deck is a good fit for DCE. I’m sure Omar would like to discuss how it may be a bad fit for the metagame, but that’s what the comment section is for.

I figured that the writeup that I did for JWittz would go to waste if it only made it to the judges, so I decided to copy it here. Maybe someone else can benefit from it, too. I feel like I should say that I did go 3-2 with Porygon in a City Championship, but…

Last month, I posted talking about my Shuppet Donk Deck. The lists posted there didn’t take any of the HeartGold SoulSilver cards into account. To be honest, there isn’t a whole lot that HGSS brings to the deck. There is only one real big thing that HGSS allows this deck to do, but it’s enough to keep the deck alive and not fade out.

Oh, speaking of fade out, there’s a Pokemon in HGSS that has an attack named “fade out.” Isn’t that what Shuppet’s main attack is? Let’s take a closer look.

Dunsparce (from the GS set) is a 50HP basic Pokemon that can do 20 damage and return itself (and all attached cards) to your hand. Shuppet’s main attack does 30, so why would we want to sacrifice 10 damage in a donk deck? I can think of a few reasons: weakness, resistance, and attack cost.

When I say weakness and resistance, I’m not talking about Dunsparce’s (or Shuppet’s). If you play the deck well, they will never be attacked. I’m talking about the defending Pokemon’s weakness and resistance. In the past, if you played Shuppet against a Psy resistant foe, you might be in trouble.…

I tested out a Palkia Infernape deck last night, matching up against 4 very different opponents and decks. My idea was that Infernape 4 Lv. X could replace Luxray GL Lv. X as a way to bring up the opponent’s benched Pokemon for setup disruption while the well-known combo of Mesprit and Palkia G Lv. X would lock the opponent’s Poke Powers. Here’s the list. It’s pretty much Omar’s Palkia Power Lock deck with Infernape swapped in.


Pokemon: 22
1 Azelf LA
1 Azelf MD
3 Palkia G
1 Palkia G Lv. X
2 Infernape 4
1 Infernape 4 Lv. X
4 Mesprit
3 Uxie
1 Uxie Lv. X
1 Bronzong G
1 unownG
1 Toxicroak G
1 Lucario G
1 Crobat G

Trainers/supporters: 26
4 Cyrus
4 Rosie’s
4 E-Gain
4 P-turn
3 P-Spray
2 NM
2 SP Radar
1 Bebe’s
1 Aarons Collection
1 Luxury Ball

Energy: 12
3 Call
5 Water
1 Warp
1 Psychic
2 Electric

…

I don’t have a great article to go with this. I wanted to post these decklists mainly for archival reasons, but if you are someone that’s stumbled upon these, please feel free to leave any questions in the comment section. I’d be happy to elaborate on how the decks play.

First off, I want to present what I feel like is the basic T1 Shuppet Donk decklist. This doesn’t have any specific tech in it. That would be left up to the player to tweak. All this deck does is aim for a T1 double-donk. When it misses that mark, it will almost always get a single OHKO on its first trainer turn. Your first trainer turn will be maddening for your opponent as you cycle through the majority of your deck looking for Expert Belt, 4 Plus Powers, Shuppet, and an energy. On the way there, you will, no doubt, be dropping Crobat G for damage, Poke Turning him for more damage, Poke Blowering for damage, and Super Scooping for damage (or for Uxie’s Set Up Poke Power).

The draw engine is powerful enough to deck yourself on the first turn, but with Shuppet you don’t need to do…

Im thinkin that this next set will change how people play the game completely. There are a lot of new weapons starting up, pokemon prime, better trainer cards, and my favorite, double colorless energy.

Because of this, i think some decks will re-emerge, and some will start to emerge. Lets begin with decks that will start next season:

Fire deck: Typhlosian HGSS, Charizard AR, Ninetales HGSS
This deck is one i think will see a lot of play. Being able to play 2 energies a turn, draw 3 cards a turn, and do more for each fire pokemon out is a big deal. The charizard, being your main attacker, will tank anything you have, since it will have 160 life with an expert belt, and do roughly 80-100 damage for 1 energy with that belt. Yep, 80-100 with one. Or, 130-150 for 3. Take you pick. Dialga, get owned. This deck should see play, seems very consistent since there is a beter draw engine then claydols, and it benefits charizard to. Some key things this deck will prolly tech is a 1-0-1 exploud line to get rid of the consistent…

I brought my/Ava’s Shuppet Donk deck to test with Team Omar last night. I know that some people just hate the idea of Spiritomb AR in a Shuppet deck, but I wanted to see if it could help against SP. I think I played 4 matches, and 3 of them were against different SP decks. If I recall correctly, I only won 1 game. Even that one was questionable, because (for testing purposes) we replayed an early risk I took that would have resulted in a loss for me.

The funny thing is that I found all my matchups to be fairly positive. I feel like Shuppet should get completely owned by SP, but with the right Spiritomb start, I can stall the opponent enough to get a few early KOs. If one of them happens to be a Dialga G, it might just win me the game. As it was, I only did well against the fighting-heavy SP mainly due to weakness. I did pretty well against Abdi’s SP deck, too, until he realized exactly how my deck worked. Then Dialga shut me down. I had a really close and odd match with Omar (who reminded me…