Magnezone/Eelektrik - the BDIF? Not really.

Good ol' times

Hey all The Deck Out followers!


Today I’m reviewing what I think is the last metagame deck I have yet analyzed – Magnezone/Eelektrik. In my opinion Magnezone/Eelektrik was the biggest surpriser of the City Championships even though there is a clear synergy. To be the most winning deck of the City Championships season through the whole Cities is a sign that the deck can’t be a completely horrible one.

Magnezone/Eelektrik’s success is still a small mystery to me. It’s a decent deck with ok match-ups but it still has too many problems to be a top deck in my opinion. Every time I play with it I bump into the same problems and never seem to get it right. I’ve wondered what I’ve done wrong and checked the lists of players worldwide. I’ve also looked the videos of games of top-cutting Magnezone/Eelektriks from The Top Cut and they always lose due those same problems I’ve personally always dumped it.

I’ll try to be as objective as possible in this review but my opinion of this deck might show in this entry so I hope anyone doesn’t get offended by this. Last time when I was very negative towards a metagame deck was in my BR analysis, where I said stage1s weren’t playable. I even got comments like “I didn’t like this article because you don’t think my deck has a future”. Well, as we all know stage1s are already dead as I predicted and there is one more reason why I don’t want anyone to get offended by my opinion: I don’t say that the deck isn’t as good as it seems because it’s fun to hate on a deck but to help you to improve and understand that the deck might have many weaknesses even if it has won the most Cities. 

Enough of the chit-chat and let’s look at the skeleton list of the deck.

Pokémon:

3x Tynamo (40 HP)

3x Eelektrik

3x Magnemite

1x Magneton

3x Magnezone Prime

2x Cleffa

=12

Trainer:

2x Pokegear 3.0

4x Pokémon Collector

4x Rare Candy

4x Pokémon Communication

4x Sage’s Training

2x N

2x Professor Juniper

4x Junk Arm

3x Catcher

=29

Energy:

14x Lighting Energy

=14

=55

Strategy:

Even though I’m not a fan of this deck, it’s almost exactly the same deck, which I loved back in the 2006-2007 season – MetaNite. The combo and synergy is all the same but they are just fitted in to this format’s power creep. The strategy is to set-up 1 Magnezone and 2 Eelektriks as soon as possible. After that you use optional attackers like Thundurus and Zekrom (which aren’t included to the skeleton list) to get the early prizes. After getting the early prizes with lower hitting Pokémon, you can start lost Zoning your energy with Magnezone and start OHKOing your opponent big Pokémon.

The deck’s set-up is very fragile to the prizes and the draws you get from Sage’s and Magnetic Draw but I will get back to that later on in this article. Set-up is so difficult because you have to set-up two different stage1 and stage2 Pokémons. In a fast format like this, slow starts aren’t usually forgiven. If everything happens to go as planned, the well-built Magnezone/Eelektrik has a perfect combination of early game and late game attackers, which makes it so good. This deck can also abuse the N perfectly as probably the only real metagame deck at the moment, which can lead to many late game victories. N is probably the number one reason a slow deck like this without a trainer lock can stand a chance in a format like this.



Card Explanations:

Since this deck’s skeleton is pretty simple, there aren’t too many card to analyze on the Pokémon side but the full deck’s versatility comes from both Pokémon and Trainer card teches. Let’s take a look first at the cards of the skeleton list.

Eelektrik

Eelektrik is naturally the deck’s energy accelerator. It’s a stage1 Pokémon so it’s very get to play with the help of the deck’s 4 Pokémon Communication and Magnetic Draw. Probably the most played line of Eelektrik is 3-3. 3-3 line is an optimal line as long as nothing is prized. However, as soon as 1 Tynamo is prized, the set-up may go all wrong. That’s why I like running 4-3 Eelektrik as you’ll see from the final list. Eelektrik also has the retreat cost of 2, which is probably the main weakness of Eelektrik. If dragged to the active spot, you must always use Switch to retreat with it. The skeleton doesn’t run Switch but the final list will.

There are two possibilities of Tynamos in this deck. I encourage you to run the 40 HP one. Paralyze is sometimes very nice and 30 HP is just a suicide in the current meta. If you get a slow start, your opponent may destroy you set-up with only one Glaciate and if you happen to open with the 30HP Tynamo, there’s a great chance you’ll get donked by something. Also, against Chandelure, they need to put 40 instead of 30 on your Eelektriks if they want to finish them with Jirachi. Remember, the 10 damage can make all the difference in the game.



Magnezone

Magnezone is the draw engine and the finisher of this deck. It has great synergy with other cards in the deck because it can just sit on the bench in the early game and you can attack with it anytime you feel like it. Magnezone is the reason this deck is so good, Magnezone can OHKO things that most things in this format can’t: Chandelure, Vanilluxe, Donphan, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Cobalion etc. I don’t need to go on – Magnezone’s Lost Burn is so good. However, Lost Burn also has the downside of Lost Zoning the energy. You’ll run out of energy if you just try KOing everything with Magnezone so you must be very careful how to use Magnezone as an attacker.

The main strength of Magnezone is its power. It helps set-upping all the things this deck need and it also helps keeping the things consistent once in play. However, this deck is very reliant on Magnezone’s Power and that’s why the deck dies just right with Magnezone. It’s very important to play a Magnezone line that can be got into play very early and is prepared for a KO on the first Magnezone. The skeleton list runs 3-1-3 Magnezone, which is a good option with 4 Candies but I’ll also introduce a different kind of Magnezone lines.

Cleffa

Stage2 deck, Cleffa is a must. But that isn’t enough said. Cleffa is also a very important free retreater of this deck. This deck needs a free retreater because Eelektrik can energy accelerate only benched Pokémons. Sometimes you need to bring the Cleffa to the active position and then attach the energy to your attackers. Thanks to Cleffas free retreat you save an energy attachment. It’s a small difference but in the end it makes all the difference.


Pokémon Collector – Pokegear 3.0. – Pokémon Communication – Rare Candy

These cards are something that should be played in every deck that plays stage2 decks. I won’t get too in-depth with these cards because I think that’s hardly necessary. Pokémon Collector and Pokegear 3.0 are cards that should be played in any deck that doesn’t have a trainer lock. Trainer lock decks run only 4 Collectors. Pokegears guarantee you the T1 Collectors this deck needs so bad. If this deck isn’t able to get the T1 Collector, it’s usually in huge problems against the best decks in this format. 4-2 Collector-Pokegear line is something I have noticed to be the best and that’s why I run them that way.

Pokémon Communication is the most important card along with Collector in this deck. The deck has so many different Pokémons and evolution lines that Pokémon Communications go never in vain. Rare Candies’ purpose should be self-explanatory – get those Magnezones in the play ASAP.

Sage’s Training – Professor Juniper

Eelektrik accelerates energy from the discard pile so it’s only natural to use discarding draw cards in this deck. Sage’s and Juniper’s synergy is something so good with Rare Candy and Junk Arm that you don’t want to miss them. The final list of this deck also has a good amount of tech cards that can be easily discarded with these cards so you can have an access to them at any point of the game.

N

I hyped N before its release and it really did have an impact on the format. This deck is one of the decks that can abuse the full-potential of N. Magnezone/Eelektrik is slow, stage2 set-upping deck that usually has problems with the fastest decks in the format. The great thing about N in this deck is that it can never be disrupted by N as long as it has a Magnezone in play. Magnetic Draw and N is the perfect disrupt combo.

Pokémon Catcher

Pokémon Catcher’s mission is usually a selx-explanatory – take the last prizes or destroy the set-up of your opponent. In this deck Catcher has a different kind of mission. It’s used to take the easy prizes (and disrupt the set-up at the same time) with Thundurus or Zekrom. Thundurus is the Pokémon that is usually used with Catcher because 80 can still OHKO most of the Basics and stage1 version of Pokémons and 120 with Zekrom still can’t OHKO the biggest Pokémons. Catcher is pretty much to conserve energy for the late game where you can go all-in with Magnezone’s Lost Burn.

Junk Arm

It’s been a while because of the Trainer lock decks, I’ve been reviewing. http://www.thedeckout.com/2011/12/great-junk-arm.html

Energy

You can run 12-15 Lighting energy in this deck but I settled for 14 in this list because it usually guarantees you a T1 energy attachment and a good flow of energy throughout the game. The deck can sometimes have problems with the energy flow in the mid or in the late game so you must adjust your energy in a way you keep on getting throughout the game. You can also add 1-2 Rescue Energy to the deck if you feel like it but I’ll get more in-depth about Rescues later on.


The different ways to build Magnezone/Eelektrik

Magnezone/Eelektrik is one of those decks, where you can switch the teches just the way you want, so I’ll analyze a few different kind of tech-builds of the deck so you can see how much the deck can really vary and which teches can you really play in this deck.

Pokémon:

4x Tynamo (40 and 30 HP)
3x Eelektrik
3x Magnemite
1x Magneton
4x Magnezone Prime
2x Thundurus
1x Cleffa
=18


Trainer:

4x Pokémon Collector
4x Rare Candy
4x Pokémon Communication
4x Sage’s Training
2x N
2x Professor Juniper
2x Junk Arm
4x Catcher
1x Switch
1x Super Rod
=28

Energy:

14x Lighting Energy
=14


As you can see, this deck plays 4-3 Eelektrik in case of prizing or early KOs on Tynamos. You could play three 40HP Tynamos and one 30 HP Tynamo with this build if you feel like it. I also play 3-1-4 line, which I find very good because you need the Magnezone T2. This way you can also afford discarding 1 Magnezone with Juniper or Sage’s and no harm is done. The 4^th Magnezones increases the chance of getting Magnezone in T2 so much that I encourage you to try it out if you haven’t.

Here we also have the earlier mentioned Thundurus. Thundurus is the early attacker and starter of this deck. You want to charge in T1 with it and hit 80 with it by T2. Combined with 4 Catchers, you should be able to take the first prize T2 and disrupt your opponent’s set-up. The reason why the deck runs Thundurus is that with this few energy you aren’t able to finish all of your opponent’s Pokémons before you run out of resources.

This can be considered as pretty speedy version of Magnezone/Eelektrik, which concentrates on early game aggression and set-upping Magnezone as early as possible. However, there are also different ways to play this deck.


Pokémon:

3x Tynamo (40 HP)
3x Eelektrik
3x Magnemite
1x Magneton
3x Magnezone Prime
2x Zekrom
1x Cleffa
=16


Trainer:

1x Pokegear 3.0.
4x Pokémon Collector
4x Rare Candy
4x Pokémon Communication
4x Sage’s Training
2x N
2x Professor Juniper
3x Junk Arm
2x Pokémon Catcher
2x Switch
1x Super Rod
1x PlusPower
=30

Energy:

14x Lighting Energy
=14


As you can see there are once again small differences in Pokémon lines. The standard 3-3 Eelektrik line is back and so is 3-1-3 Magnezone line. Also, the Thunduruses are changed to Zekroms. Zekrom isn’t as fast attacker as Thundurus but it can deal greater amounts of damage when ready. The list also has PlusPower to support Zekrom for hitting for the magical 130 damage, which is very important in certain match-ups.

Since so many Pokémons was taken away from the last list, the deck has more space for trainers. Junk Arms are more important for this deck than Catchers and that’s why the list has 3 Junk Arms and 2 Catchers. I also added 1 Pokegear to add some consistency and 1 Switch because this deck needs them so often. If you look at the list, there are so few 1 retreat Pokémons that you really need Switch whenever your opponent uses a Catcher.

These two decks have only had small changes compared to before so next, let’s take a look at a very different build.

Pokémon:

3x Tynamo (40 HP)
3x Eelektrik
4x Magnemite
2x Magneton
3x Magnezone Prime
1x Thundurus
1x Cleffa
1x Tyrogue
=18


Trainer:

1x Pokegear 3.0.
4x Pokémon Collector
4x Rare Candy
4x Pokémon Communication
3x Sage’s Training
4x Engineer’s Adjustment
2x N
1x Pokémon Catcher
2x Switch
1x Super Rod
=26

Energy:

16x Lighting Energy
=16


As you can see, there is radical differences in almost every section. First, I added Tyrogue in the deck for the easy baby KO and also changed the Magnezone line. This deck is probably the best in trainer lock heavy metagame because they run a lot of Babies and thus you can take very easy prizes with Tyrogue in the early game. Also, you should be able to get the Magnezone easier up with 2 Magnetons if you’re trainer locked.

The trainers section also looks very supporter heavy as you can see. There is no Junk Arms and I changed Junipers to Engineers because they don’t discard anything else but energy. With this list you can’t afford discarding any important trainers like Super Rod or Switch with Sage’s/Juniper so Sage’s number decreased for 3 as well.

The deck runs 16 energy for two reasons:

1) It uses Engineer as the main draw supporter.
2) The deck’s firepower is almost fully reliant on Magnezone Prime so you must have enough energy for Lost Burn during the whole game.


Teches

What would this deck be without any teches? Nothing really. Here is a quick rundown of the most interesting teches this deck can use and still be successful.

Eelektross

Eelektross is good if you run out of Switches and they decide to bring up the benched Eelektrik to the active Position. Eelektross can he highly effective against things like Chandelure because it prevents the retreating of Chandelure and because of that, you can slow their spreading down. It’s a huge surprise every time you lay down a Eelektross and it can also save you from ugly Jirachi kills. Something that should really be considered.

Eviolite

If you run Zekrom-heavy list of Magnezone/Eelektrik, Eviolite is a great addition for the deck. Eviolite is great with Zekrom’s Bolt Strike and sometimes it can even work as a momentary shield for Tynamos from things like Glaciate.

Rainbow Energy + Terrakion

As you may have guessed, this combo is great in mirrors. Using Terrakion is very energy efficient way to get rid of your opponent’s Magnezone Prime and they also have to burn a lot of energy when OHKOing Terrakion. They can’t just ignore it because if they ignore, Terrakion will run through their deck.

Twins

If you seem always to be behind prizes, you can use Twins for adding some early game consistency. However, in today’s metagame Twins isn’t as good as it was before because the metagame is full of decks that use Twins as well and decks that just go behind in prizes by purpose (Electrode Prime decks). If you want to use Twins for set-upping you must be sure of your own metagame.




Problems

At last we’re at my favorite part of this entry. What are the problems I see in this deck? Well, here they are with explanations.

1) Prizes

This is one of the biggest problems for me when it comes to this deck. If you run 3-3 Eelektrik line (like most lists do) and have 1 Tynamo prized, you aren’t yet in the problems. However, if you happen to lose your Tynamo T1/T2 due Catcher or something else and one of your Tynamos is prized, you’re suddenly in huge problems. Even if you’re able to set-up your only Eelektrik, it’s very easily killed by so many Pokémons that after that you’re without any Eelektriks the whole game. This deck can’t really afford it and loses the game straight to that.

2) Spread

The deck has a huge bench all the time because it needs so many things for its set-up. That’s why things like Kyurem are deadly against it. If Kyurem is able to get a T2 Glaciate and start the game, only a god set-up will save the deck. If you aren’t able to evolve most of your Pokémon and OHKO Kyurem away, they just take 3-4 prizes by T3 and you’re done for the game. This can be blamed on the first turn rule IMO but in the Kyurem/Cobalion/Electrode vs. Magnezone/Eelektrik match-up the starter of the game decides too much when it comes to the match’s outcome.


3) Speed / Consistency

Sometimes you just don’t have the T2 Magnezone and 2 Eelektriks – hand. And when you don’t fast decks can run through your set-up even if you have nothing too important prized. Thankfully this deck has N and can abuse it very well but it really is no use if your opponent has killed all of your Tynamos / Magnemites before you use N. This deck wants a Collector to its opening hand and that is why you should maximize the chances of T1 Collector with things like Pokegear. If you start with 1 Basic Pokémon and use Sages for set-upping for the first 2 turns, you know that you’re in huge problems.

This deck is as consistent as any deck in format – as long as it has Magnezone in play. However, before the Magnezone is in play, the deck is very fragile.

4) Durant

Durant has finally gotten the hype it deserved from the very beginning IMO. The metagame is almost perfect for Durant because it has so many set-upping slow decks and decks that burn through their set-up with e.g. Electrode Prime in order to set-up. Magnezone/Eelektrik needs so many things for a proper set-up that a good Durant list shouldn’t have that much problems with winning the match-up. However, it isn’t a real autoloss of autolosses because Durant is very fragile and fickle deck.


Conclusion

I wasn’t nearly as negative as I thought I would be! Props for me for that. Anyways, after some testing, I’ve seen the pros and cons of this deck and I am still pretty sure that I wouldn’t be running this deck if I wanted to win a tournament badly. However, since I’m bored of Chandelure I might even consider playing this deck in one of my remaining 3 Cities.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this because this was pretty much the last metagame article I will do from HGSS-NVI format. The next deck analysis will probably be a HGSS-Next Destinies format because I’ve gotten so many requests about Mewtwo EX decks.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment on the article, lists or anything that you can come up with. I’m always ready to answer your questions, thanks a lot!