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| Drawing Engines
As a beginner player there’s always a moment where you look through the deck of your opponent and realize something: the guy who just whupped you solidly ran little energy, and a very large amount of trainers. You’ll blink for a second, and wonder how he got an energy out every turn. The answer is control. A good player can pluck from their deck whatever card they need, or will be so well-prepared that they already have it in their hand, ready for use. Nabbing what cards you need, when you need them comes down to one thing – drawing power. A deck needs a certain number of cards, usually Cleffa and some Trainers, that are devoted to rifling through the deck. This creates speed, speed creates advantage, and an advantage creates a win. There are several groups of cards that are renowned as working quite
well together towards this end in particular quantities. As a beginner,
you may want to try mimicking one of these drawing engines for inclusion
in one, or all, of your decks. Without further ado, here they are,
with notes.
Standard:
This is the average drawing engine for most players who consider themselves
to be quite practiced. In reality it’s a bit narrow minded and can
be hurt early game very, very easily with a Lass-Eeeeeeek combo since it’s
relying on usually just two Cleffa and eight topdeck cards (the four Oak
and the four Computer Search). It relies on Lass for antidecking,
never using elm and only rarely using NGR. It can hurt itself quite
badly by having to oak away cards that then become irretrievable, though
this is mitigated in the cases of trainers somewhat due to the four Item
Finder. It’s probably a good idea to use a single NGR in the deck,
yet most players who use this set up refuse to do so calling Elm and NGR
“too defensive to be worthy of play.” I personally have heard that
one a lot, and it’s a bit of a disputable statement. However, that
said, this IS the most commonly used drawing engine for a reason - it's
simple, and it works. It's not a bad choice for someone just getting
into the game and will provide focus and speed to any deck.
Minty:
The preferred drawing engine of a lot of really well known STS-winning
players, this deck thrives on the Lass-Eeeeeeek first turn combo, usually
running four Lass. Again, this thing usually uses no NGR, but it
hits hard and fast in the first turn, crippling drawing ability.
Since most decks run three Cleffa and low energy counts, the chance of
having a Cleffa and a useable energy in hand to recover from a first turn
Lass can be pretty low, and even if you can Eeeeeeek, you’re still rolling
for it unless you topdeck a Gust or Double Gust. It’s brutal, and
this deck is the best to use the combo in since it runs four Cleffa for
cycling and drawing. The deck will either get a set up going with
evolutions (in the case of, say, a sneaselkingkrow deck), protecting itself
with the active Cleffa and cycling for what it needs, or it will cycle
until it gets an attacker set up (in the case of a haymaker, metal Chansey,
or similar singular-attacker deck). If the strategy gets torn apart,
big deal. Push the Cleffa again and start anew. Though this
works well in almost all decks, it is of note that singular-attacker decks
tend to do better with it than a deck that requires a more complex set
up. It can’t screw itself quite as badly as the Standard drawing
engine since it runs more Cleffa, but note that the Cleffa dependency can
often create a lack of pressure on the opponent if the first turn Lass
can’t be achieved.
Hand Building:
Ahhh, hand building. The point of hand building is to, duh, build an enormous hand. The deck will also generally run two Impostor Oak’s Revenge to disrupt the opponent’s benefit from Erika, and can also use NGR depending on the deck. When the drawing engine works properly the average turn goes like this: “Bill…Bill… Erika… Bill… Bill’s Telly…Heads…Bill’s Telly…Heads…Erika….Erika….Erika….Bill’s Telly…Heads…IOR.” Whereupon your opponent concedes to the superiority of your thirty card hand. ;D Lass can give this trouble in the late game, and IOR flat out destroys
it, but IOR isn’t really played in Unlimited since the death of Trapper
anyways. This engine’s worst enemy is bad luck. A little bit
can ruin a drawing run, leaving you with no option but to Eeeeeeek, robbing
yourself of your ability to draw through the deck. I’ve seen it work
(Nova plays this in a Clefable deck that’s pretty brutal, actually), but
it takes practice. It’ll be interesting to see how Expedition affects
this engine with the addition of new drawing-based trainers.
Uber:
It’s alot of drawing. “Uber-drawing” if you will, hence the name. The engine is based on a simple concept – load the deck with topdeck cards and you’ll have a more reliable deck. Like Minty it is highly reliable – it’s not often that you’ll be stuck with a sub-par hand. Unlike Minty though, Uber utilizes a high count of topdeck cards (Oak, Elm, and PC Search) instead of relying on Cleffa. The advantage? You can attack more and play a bit more of an aggressive game on the battlefield. This can force your opponent onto the defensive, giving you an advantage. The disadvantage is that with 3 Cleffa you’re a bit more vulnerable to Lass (you might not want to run it yourself, actually). Still, with typically eleven topdeck cards instead of the usual eight seen in Minty or Standard, you DO have a higher chance of recovery in the early game. The relatively low Item Finder count is mitigated by a simply superior level of control. The engine is awesome in decks that require the deployment of multiple evolutions quickly, and the ability to keep up a more constant rate of attack is more decimating than it sounds. My personal favorite, especially in SneaselKingKrow. So there you have it. The four most-seen and currently best drawing engines in the Unlimited version of the game. Think through the decision, and then try one, or more of them out. They all work well in different ways, and all are suited to different situations. Thanks for reading! -Gloom Note – the names for the drawing engines were created by me, on the fly. This accounts for their suckiness. For instance, “Minty” probably isn’t the best name. However, to keep this article accessible to new players, I had to call them something recognizable and distinct. And what flavor is more recognizable and distinct than the delicious, unique taste of mint? Huh? Huh!? That’s RIGHT! NOTHING! NOOOTHING! :D *regains his composure* The term “topdeck card” was also just coined for this article, as well as seeing some personal use in my own playtesting sessions. Again, for those who only skimmed the article and didn’t see where I identify what these cards are, a topdeck card is defined as follows: Topdeck card: n: a single card which allows for the immediate retrieval of a new hand of seven cards from the deck, without ending one’s turn or relying on content in the discard pile. So, by this definition, Cleffa and Item Finder are not
topdeck cards. Basically, the defining quality was speed and ease
of use in the early game. Hence, the only cards which I would qualify
as being “topdeck cards” at the current time are Professor Oak, Professor
Elm, and Computer Search (since it lets you get one of the aforementioned
two cards).
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