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- ↓ 3.50
- ꩜ 13.13
- ↑ 79.00
{C}{C}{C} → Body Slam : 30
Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed.
{G}{G}{C}{C} → Leaf Storm : 60
Remove 2 damage counters from each of your {G} Pokémon.
illus. Masahiko Ishii · LV.45
External: Pokemon.com ↗, Bulba ↗ · #ad / Affiliate Links: TCGplayer ↗, cardmarket ↗, Amazon ↗, eBay ↗
Small Pokémon occasionally gather on its unmoving back to begin building their nests.
Warnock 2022
Debut of “Leaf Storm” in the (English-language) TCG. Looks like it petered out after Gen 5 and Gen 6.
Charmaster
2008 was the first format a Torterra deck would be viable in, and the trend would continue through 2010. In the 2008 season, the Torterra line was paired with Great Encounters Sceptile to halve the Energy cards your world turtles needed to attack. Unfortunately the deck fell off due to an unfavorable Gardevoir matchup, but it’s gained popularity in the retro 2008 scene due to being the only deck with a favorable matchup into Empoleon/Bronzong (Which became popular in 2008 due to being the only deck with a favorable matchup into Gardevoir). Modern lists also remove the Super Scoop Up and added a couple of Windstorm, which flipped the previously unfavorable Blissey matchup on its head.
2008 Torterra/Sceptile played two copies of this Torterra, one copy of Great Encounters Torterra, and one copy of the Lv.X. This Torterra could increase the longevity of your board while 2HKOing a variety of Pokémon (Including Gardevoir) (PlusPower and Strength Charm help you 2HKO more Pokémon, like Gallade). Plus you could retreat or Warp Point into your second copy of this Torterra to heal the previous one, potentially repeating the stunt to continuously deny prizes.
Here is Jay Hornung’s list. He also has gameplay footage of him piloting the deck.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N7t2tcxMa68&t=43s
Charmaster
Okay, maybe scratch Torterra first being viable in 2008. Teafew, a gifted player and rogue deck player in the retro Pokémon TCG community, top 4’d an online 2007 Worlds format tournament with a Torterra Control deck. https://play.limitlesstcg.com/tournament/687336a978c544eaa1dc9b9b/player/teafew/decklist
I knew locking was involved when I saw the, but I wasn’t quite certain I understood the entire game plan, so I interviewed teafew, who gave this explanation:
“You open Unown and then swap between them and use Hidden Power to either evolve https://pkmncards.com/card/turtwig-diamond-pearl-dp-103/ or gust up basics from their hand. Before Unown dies you Castaway for Celio and Fluffy Berry and then when Unown dies you promote Torterra and Celio for the lvl x and then Fluffy Berry it and now you have an infinite Pow Hand Extension. And then you have Sceptile to stop things like flycatty or banette or absolutions or whatever weird things play Vaporeon ex,* and you can either stick up Dusclops to lock warp energy/Double Rainbow Energy or Briney loop with Alakazam Star or permanently lock something in the active with Snorlax or spam Magnemite into high energy cost attackers like Empoleon. Admin doesn’t exist in 07 so opponents will always deck out first because you can recycle Oak’s Research (I later added Stantler** to this deck to deal with Holon Farmer looping).”
I love seeing players discover untapped strategies from past eras of the game, and it happens frequently in the community that has formed around TCGONE, the free, fan-made simulator this tournament was hosted on. If that sounds interesting to anyone, here’s a tutorial that will show you how it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0yb5zbz330&pp=0gcJCfYJAYcqIYzv
See the relevant 2007 Worlds archetypes and their respective nicknames here. https://ptcgarchive.com/2007-decks/
*2 Teafew cut a Crystal Beach to make room for it. “Using push away to discard a stadium was basically like playing another copy of the stadium anyways so it wasnt like anything was missing.”