Donphan 2.0

[Lennyx]

Hey guys, here I am again with a new decklist. This is the list that has been winning me a lot of game on PTCGO. It's got beautiful synergy and I felt the need to post it for all you guys out there maybe considering running Donphan but are having trouble getting the thing to work out properly. So, here we go.

2 Hawlucha (For Ex's and easy retreats).
4 Phanpy
4 Donphan
1 Zekrom (For Outage and Anti-Yveltal)
1 Sigilyph (Safeguard is beautiful against VirGen)
1 Wobbuffet (Ability Negation is a beautiful thing).
1 Kyurem (Outrager again....nice).

1 Computer Search (Ace Spec for anything you need in deck)
1 Escape Rope
4 Robo Substitute (This card is just annoying)
2 Ultra Ball (Korrina is nice for pulling out Fighting Pokemon).
2 VS Seeker
1 Colress (I'm thinking 2, but what the hey).
3 Korrina
2 Lysandre (BROKEN!!!!)
1 Enhanced Hammer
4 N
$ Juniper
3 Fighting Stadium
2 Float Stone
3 Muscle Band
1 Silver Bangle

3 Double Colorless Energy
5 Fighting Energy
4 Strong Energy

 

[ven?]

I don't see why you would want to run 2 hawlucha if it gives your opponent the easy prize, same with wobbuffet, due to the popularity of a mewtwo tech in at least 50% of decks it just seems like an easy switch DCE, muscle band prize (and most of these decks play 4 of each and 1 max potion making that 100 hit almost pointless if it cannot hide behind something), which is why I'm not sold on them when you could instead spend more time with donphans for consistency, more space for dragons and walls that help the early stall and 130 hp makes taking them out harder so it's easy to hide behind and outrage (If you think its a good play fair enough, but big basic matchups which play for 1 energy tech plays in almost every deck outplay these sort of small techs making it easier to grab more prizes against donphan to even the playing field, w/o these techs walls makes it harder for them to grab prizes early on). However this Trainer list is fairly choppy, some things are pretty good some things are terrible, 2 ultra ball? 4 is a must and here is why, yes korrina is decent because it grabs fighting pokemon, but if they turn 2 lysandre or catcher up the 1 phanpy you korrina'd for and grabbed a muscle band or robo instead of the ultra ball for the second phanpy it puts you behind even further, if you run 4 your guaranteed a better chance of having the setup, milling is a strategy that wins in pokemon don't feel bad to discard a card through ultra ball if it could help you draw into a late game muscle band or fighting stadium which would be harder to attain because you still have a lot of cards in your deck which are not one of the latter and could compromise consistency).

This is what I would do with your list

4 N
4 juniper
2 korrina
2 Skyla
2 colress
4 ultra ball
3 float stone
1 switch (switch is almost better then escape rope, because if you play against a smart player they will always have a second copy on there bench for continuous play or escape rope strategies)
3 silver bangle (if donphan is your matchup, 3 kyurem and 2 lysandre win the matchup overall, but the majority of top decks are EX based or play weak hp stage pokemon, bangle and strong energy combat both, teching 1 tool means it's shelf life is 1 turn most times)
4 robo
1 tool retriever (even if you run 3 float and 3 muscle, this is still pretty good at times when your forced to play the float on the donphan get it back, etc)
3 fighting stadium
2 vs seeker
2 lysandre
1 profs letter
Optional-jamming net (It reduces dmg done to shields to sort of control the amount of dmg dragons and it gives you a sort of wider range of control for outrage)

Sorry if I seem pushy, I test against donphan frequently, imo it is a not bad deck but there is better out there. Not a bad list and I hope to see what else you play in the future.