Aggro in the Base-Fossil Format

Decks in Base-Fossil: Aggro

Since the metagame's very inception, the word Haymaker has haunted the Base-Fossil format. To this day, Big Basics with energy-efficient attacks are still referred to as haymakers within the vernacular of the old school formats. Even if stall does take up the bulk of the market share nowadays, spearheaded by that dreaded hedonist Lickitung, aggro decks still aren't going anywhere.

The Icons

Base Hitmonchan may not be the leading actor in most aggro decks in the modern day, but he remains the face of the theme. Haymaker decks wouldn't have been named after a punch in the first place if it weren't for this guy.

Hitmonchan sets the standard for what most of the aggro cards look like. 70 HP, a solid single energy attack, and a stronger second attack to threaten the opponent with. That 70 HP is especially noteworthy. Just barely enough to survive a fully powered Hydro Pump or Do the Wave. Sadly he's kept down by all the birds and ghosts of the world, but he'll still always be a man of the people.

You know him, you love him, you can't stop listening to his cry from the anime. It's your boy, the good ol' Buzz.

Thunderpunch is one of the most efficient turn 2 attacks in the game and is also the most consistent of the powerful turn 2 attacks. Psyburn, Hydro Pump, and Do the Wave all need varying degrees of setup, but Thunderpunch? It just works right out of the box.

Even without using Thunderpunch, you can just sit there soaking up hits and stalling with Thundershock. If it weren't for that nasty retreat cost, this could've been one of the top 5 'mons of the format.

Were you expecting Scyther? While the iconic trio of the historic format was always Hitmonchan/Electabuzz/Scyther, they've been spending less and less time together in recent years.

This is thanks to Dodrio. Being able to reduce the retreat costs of all your attackers is a godsend, especially since Hitmonchan desperately wants a way to switch out when faced with a resistance.

Some decks even run Machop instead of Hitmonchan, just for the added mobility, although this might seem like a questionable decision.

Over the Top: The Trainers

It seems like every deck type in this format has a handful of Trainers that define the playstyle, and aggro decks are no exception.

The most influential of these Trainers is Gust of Wind. The goal is always to try to switch in a low HP 'mon (or something that can't retreat) in order to pick up a free prize card.

Offensive decks need to collect prizes in order to start snowballing, and Gust of Wind is one of the fastest ways to get there.

Pluspower is the second most important card for any aggressive player. A simple 10 damage boost may seem inconsequential, but you'd be surprised how often you're just 10 damage off of taking a key KO. Pluspower is the card that gets you across that threshold.

It's also important to note that you can dig through your deck with the insane draw power of the format whenever you want to get more Pluspowers. This is risky though, so you should only waste that many resources if you really need that KO.

While every deck benefits from Professor Oak to some extent, aggro decks are all about playing fast and loose. These decks tend to have very few Evolution Cards to worry about and are always digging for the key card that will get them to a KO, so it's not uncommon for aggro decks to max out on Professor Oak and Bill.

When you use Computer Search or Item Finder, this is the card you'll be selecting 90% of the time, just to speed up the game.

The Fairies

Wigglytuff might be the single most powerful aggro card there is. With the full power of the Base-Fossil engine, getting a fully charged Wigglytuff ready by turn 2 is almost inevitable.

And 60 damage every single turn in a format where the highest HP is 120? Yeah, that adds up.

BUT Wigglytuff also comes into play with a big bold sign on its back that says, "Use Energy Removal now!" Don't ever attach your DCE to Wigglytuff before a Basic Energy, lest you incur the wrath of Removal prematurely.

While I personally wouldn't consider Clefable to be on the same level as these other cards, it shows up to the party sometimes anyway.

In theory, it's one of the most powerful cards in the format, able to copy any attack for a single energy. But in reality, your opponent will rarely be playing the big scary Evolution Cards that Metronome really wants to copy.

Still, it can go toe to toe with most of the Big Basics for a single Colorless energy and that absolutely counts for something.

Buzzap!

Decks featuring Base Electrode are an entity onto themselves. This card can power up any attack in the game as early as turn 2 by sacrificing itself, and that can lead to some explosive turns, pun intended.

Unfortunately, it can also lead to a lot of non-games. Either you win right away or you lose right away. If your opponent interrupts your plays in any way, you're screwed. There are two main partners that Electrode likes to travel with, although you're free to experiment with everything from Gyarados to Machamp if you really want to.

Arcanine is the most popular choice, at least right now. The premise sounds simple enough. Get Arcanine and Electrode in play. Sacrifice Electrode for the greater good. Use Lass to keep your opponent off of Energy Removal cards. And then obliterate their face repeatedly with Take Down.

The sad truth is that at some point one of your opponents will top-deck a Super Energy Removal and delete you from the tournament. Electrode decks can beat anything in a lucky 1v1, but they lack the consistency that top players want to see.

Before Arcanine was ever the big dog on campus, players made do with Base Zapdos. It does have some compelling advantages. It's a Basic. It uses lightning energy, allowing for a little more consistency.

But while that's all well and good, it also can't hit as hard as Arcanine can. If your goal is just to do 60 damage on turn 2, then Wigglytuff is never far away and doesn't require blood sacrifices and recoil damage, so there isn't a lot of incentive to use this build of the deck other than novelty.

Rain Dance

Blastoise is a deck disguised as a single card. The entire Water type only exists to complement this one card. Rain Dance, the power to spam Water Energy as many times per turn as you want, is so unbelievably powerful that every Water type is judged based purely on how well it pairs with Blastoise.

The most aggro version of the deck would probably be the turbo build that eschews Wartortle in favor of Pokémon Breeder, but you can play a slower more mid-range style build if you want. Just remember that you're giving up one of the scariest things about Blastoise if you take it slow, since this card is all about taking over the game in one earth-shattering turn.

Articuno is the obligatory "best partner for Blastoise" that was bound to exist. Gyarados and Dewgong were also used in eons past, but the fact that Articuno has no weakness in a deck that's mainly held back by Lightning-types is a pretty big deal.

And unlike Gyarados, you don't have to go through a pathetic little Magikarp to get to Articuno. Granted, Blizzard is a little awkward to use, but they were careful not to print too many Water-types that can do 50+ damage, so you'll have to settle for Blizzard.

Lapras, at a glance, may seem extraneous. It doesn't hit as hard as Articuno and shares a weakness with Blastoise, so why is it here? Well, there are a few reasons that it's important.

First, it can attack even if you don't have 3+ Water Energy in hand. Sometimes bad luck happens. Second, it can actually hit Mr. Mime through Invisible Wall. It's important to have an answer for that little bastard. And finally, the more Basics you have in your deck the less likely you are to start with just a single 40 HP Squirtle in the active spot.

The Weirdos

While there's no shortage of big Basics we could talk about, let's take a moment to appreciate the ingenuity of the donk deck. The goal of this deck is simply to play a critical mass of 'mons with different types that hit for high damage. That's it.

The objective is to knock out all of your opponent's team members before they ever get a chance to set up properly. Now I won't lie to you; this is not a truly viable deck. But it is undeniably aggressive. Staryu, in particular, exists just to hunt down Magmar and Charmeleon. It exists for no other reason.

My personal favorite member of these offbeat donk decks is Magnemite. It doesn't look like it should ever see play with those stats, especially with Hitmonchan running around.

But it can safely dispatch a Lapras with a single use of Selfdestruct or put a hefty dent in just about anything when it needs to. So despite looking like just some random pack filler, which it absolutely is, this unassuming card actually does matter in the ever-unusual Base-Fossil format.

And to round out our tiny collection of random commons that see play, here's an objectively terrible Ponyta card. 40 HP. None of its attacks cost a single energy. The best case scenario is spending a DCE just to do something Hitmonchan can do for a single energy.

So what does it do? Scyther. It does Scyther. Sure, you might catch out someone with a Bulbasaur trapped in the active, but really this Ponyta is mostly here to kill the occasional Scyther. Base-Fossil donk decks are weird and funny and stupid, but they are unironically my favorite thing to come out of this format.

Closing Thoughts

Now obviously we didn't cover every relevant card. I decided not to describe Promo Mewtwo and Fossil Magmar again since I only just went over them, for example. I didn't point out that Charizard, despite being a maligned card for many years, is legitimately seeing some niche usage in the modern metagame. I didn't tell you that Machoke is a surprisingly viable counter to Chansey and Lickitung.

But generally speaking, the core concept behind aggro decks isn't exactly complicated. Hit hard and hit fast. Ideally you'll knock out all of your opponent's 'mons faster than they can replace them, but as long as you're knocking them out faster than you're running out of cards, you'll be fine.