Glints of darkness Part 1!

The first article of this new series will focus on one of originally noticed cards that bases itself on dealing damage, and casing chaos before retreating back into your deck. So as you may have guessed this card is a grass type from 'Dark Explorers' called Accelgor.

Accelgor – Grass – HP90
Stage 1- Evolves from Shelmet

[G] Haymaker: 20 damage.
[C][C] Strike and Fade: 50 damage. The opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Poisoned and Paralyzed. Return this Pokemon and all cards attached to it to your deck. Shuffle your deck afterward.

Weakness: Fire (x2)


Resistance: none


Retreat: 0

It has 90hp, nowhere near enough to stay around for very long but being able to deal 50 damage and poison and paralyse the defending pokemon before going back into your deck for 1 DCE. So by also having free retreat if you ever need to retreat then that shouldn't be a problem. However, how is a card that can't OHKO anything going to be good with all the high hp pokemon wandering around? Well I hope by reading on this will become much more clear. 

badass boss in a tantrum... not good.

The first problem is how to deal with the lack of speed of this card. Sure it can be set up by turn two, but take a popular deck at the moment like Celibi/Mewtwo that can OHKO any Shelmets you have active turn one, you are going to have to bench multiple Shelmets just to hit for a measly 50 damage. So how do you counter this problem? Well to me there is one way, which is to bench as many Shelmets and try to pick it up from turn two. But this way is never going to win you matches. Another way would be to have a high hp basic like an EX, but who would be suitable? Perhaps one with a low retreat cost to retreat so that the following turn you could attack with Accelgor. One option could be Mewtwo EX. With a 2 retreat cost you could easily retreat for 1 (with skyarrow Bridge) allowing further damage to be done. Mewtwo would also work very well as a starter as it could deal with your opponents Mewtwos. So far it seems that things might be a bit better for Accelgor. 

The second problem is that it does only 50 damage (70 by your turn presuming that your opponent doesn't retreat using switch), so far this won't even OHKO pokemon with a weakness to it like Terakion. So any deck planning to use this as the main attacker will need a back up option, or a way to deal more damage like using plus power. And there is also a problem if a pokemon retreated sing switch ruining any chance of winning with some sort of ease. One option is to use Gothitelle (EP) as it can hit for high amounts of damage and locks the opponent using something like catcher or switch. Killing two birds with one stone. But is it effective enough to be competitive? If we were to take a look at a deck list it would resemble something like this:

Pokemon……………...	Trainers……………………………...……...	Energy….
4-3 Accelgor (DEX)	2 Professor Juniper	4 DCE
2 Mewtwo EX (ND)	3 Ultra Ball	6 Psychic
3-1-2 Gothitelle (EP)	3 Pokemon Collector
	3 Switch/Skyarrow Bridge
	4 Professor Oak's New Theory
	2 Rare Candy
	3 Pokemon Catcher
	4 Junk Arm
	3 N
17 pokemon	27 trainers	10 energy

This list adds up 52 cards giving you 8 free spaces, and for me I would aim to make this list a bit more consistent. This list will help you to reach your ideal list, hopefully to have eventual success. Possible additions would be a 3rd Mewtwo to get a better start, 2 more psychic energy, 2 Jirachi to get more energy and a Shaymin to transfer the energy. I would also increase the Juniper count to get a better start. But what about the actual list? Heres a rundown of some of the list:

4-3 Accelgor. Accelgor is the main attacker so a high count would be recommend to achieve the highest rate of success. with a 4-3 line there are less problems that a straight 3-3 line would get. The possible problem of having a Shelmet out active and it getting knocked out would leave one Accelgor useless. If a 4-4 line was used the exact same problem would occur. Altogether these numbers should work in a normal situation. 

X Balling anything!

2 Mewtwo EX. The starter of the deck works on the principle of preventing you from being down on prizes. It has the capabilities to knock out the opponents Mewtwo EX without losing the match. 170hp should keep your Mewtwo from the OHKO range especially in this deck situation. This card can also work as a late game attacker and does combat the current format as we know it, but anything could happen with the arrival of 'Dark Explorers'. 

3-1-2 Gothitelle. I have already highlighted why this card works with Accelgor, but the numbers I have yet to explain. As in most decks containing stage twos 3-1-2 is the norm unless the pokemon is a main attacker but as it isn't in this deck a 3-1-2 will be satisfactory. Gothitelle works  as a great secondary attacker that works with Accelgor to deliver the 2HkO. There is one alternative to Gothitelle that is Vileplume but that can become a problem for you as well. You would also need a back up attacker to deal the knockout, one option is Gengar prime so you can try and win by using lost world but it is a lot less consistent. And what do decks need? Consistency and Power. Something that I can be sure of won't happen with a Gengar/Vileplume method.
Most of the trainer lines are pure staples as well as the energy lines; especially the 4 DCE, mainly because 2 of the attackers need that to attack. Back to the trainer lines and one thing you might have noticed is the 4 Ultra ball, this is a new card we are almost destined to get, and its a card that can't be described at anything more than a staple.

Ultra Ball

This is possibly one of the best 'ball cards in the current and previous formats. But what does this card do?

"Ultra Ball – Trainer’s Goods

This card can’t be used unless you discard 2 cards from your hand.

Choose 1 Pokemon card from your deck, show it to your opponent, and put it in your hand. Shuffle your deck afterward.

You can use any number of Goods cards during your turn."

Basically you discard any two cards from your hand and you can search your deck for any pokemon. This is very useful for two reasons. One is that you have to discard two cards, a useful quality with cards like eeletrik running around who thrive on having cards in the discard. This quality works in so many decks. Another quality of discarding is that one card that is staple in all decks minus 'the truth' and variations that use vileplume, is Junk Arm. So why wouldn't a card with such a similar quality be so useful. The second very useful quality is that the card searches for any pokemon so can be sure to get anything you might need. So at any point during a match you can be sure to get almost exactly what you want. I say almost as the pokemon you are after might be in your prizes, but most times you will get what you want. This card will work in nearly all decks and might help certain decks up the food chain.

So to conclude this article on Accelgor, I would just like to way thanks for reading this article and I hope this article has enlightened you on a possible deck that I can see becoming atleast tier two upon the release of 'Dark Explorers'. Next article... You'll just have to wait and see!