Donphan/Walls (TCG)

Donphan/Walls
Donphan and Hawlucha Types used Major cards Donphan, Hawlucha, Korrina, Strong Energy and Robo Substitute Era 2014-2015

Donphan/Walls was a Pokémon Trading Card Game deck archetype mainly played during the 2014-2015 season of the card game. The deck's strategy revolved around its ability to deal damage and switch out the player's active Pokémon as an effect of that attack, with a similar style to Mew/Accelgor without having to shuffle the attacker into the deck. Much improved during the XY series, Donphan/Walls players took 8th place in the Masters division, 2nd and 3rd place in the Senior Division and 5th place in the Junior Division at the 2015 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Championships.

Strategy

Donphan/Walls focused on using Donphan's Spinning Turn Attack, which dealt 40 damage and switched the attacker into a Benched Pokémon, which could be a Pokémon with a defensive or supporting Ability to limit how the opponent would play their deck, or another Donphan that could endure the following attack. As an evolution Pokémon that was not so strong compared to popular attackers, this archetype only took steam with the release of the Furious Fists expansion, which brought many supporting cards for Pokémon and allowed Donphan to deal more damage per turn, and was later improved with Robo Substitute as a supporting Pokémon.

Key cards

Korrina

• Donphan - Donphan's Spinning Turn attack damaged the defending Pokémon for 40 damage and switched Donphan to a benched Pokémon. Its Wreck attack could be also used at an expensive setup for up to 140 damage.
• Hawlucha - A secondary attacker that, with the right setup, could deal 120 damage with a single energy against Pokémon-EX
• Robo Substitute - While in play, Robo Substitute was an expendable Pokémon that gave the opponent no Prize cards when knocked out. It became the usual Pokémon Donphan would switch to.
• Focus Sash - Ensured Donphan and Hawlucha, which had low Hit Points, would survive an extra turn if the opponent could not discard Tool cards.
• Muscle Band - Boosted the attacker's damage by 20 when the damage increase was more useful than attaching Focus Sash.
• Fighting Stadium - This Stadium card further increased the attacks of Pokémon by 20 against opposing Pokémon-EX.
• Strong Energy - Each Strong Energy increased the attacks of Pokémon by 20.
• Korrina - Korrina searched the deck for a Pokémon and any Item card, being crucial for deck consistency.

Typical decklist

Simon Narode's decklist at the 2015 World Championship

Robo Substitute

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
4×	Phanpy
4×	Donphan
4×	Hawlucha
1×	Mr. Mime
1×	Bunnelby
1×	Computer Search	I
1×	Repeat Ball	I
1×	Revive	I
4×	Robo Substitute	I
1×	Ultra Ball	I
4×	VS Seeker	I
2×	Focus Sash	I
2×	Muscle Band	I
1×	Silver Bangle	I
3×	Fighting Stadium	St
1×	Silent Lab	St
1×	Colress	Su
4×	Korrina	Su
2×	Lysandre	Su
4×	N	Su
4×	Professor Sycamore	Su
4×	Fighting Energy	E	—
4×	Strong Energy	E
2×	Double Colorless Energy	E

Possible tech cards

Wobbuffet

The following cards are often used in Donphan/Walls.

• Wobbuffet - While in the active spot, its Bide Barricade Ability stopped non- Pokémon's Abilites from working and stalled many other competitive decks.
• Mr. Mime - Prevented damage to benched Pokémon, ensuring Focus Sash kept damaged Pokémon in play.
• Trevenant - Trevenant prevented the opponent from using Item cards while it was an active Pokémon. As an evolution Pokémon with low HP, the opponent would usually only be stalled during that turn, requiring multple Trevenant in this variant.
• Pyroar - Its Ability made Pyroar immune to damage from Basic Pokémon, which made it a good candidate for damage prevention. Similar options before the release of Robo Substitute were Sigilyph, Latias-EX and Aegislash-EX.
• Double Colorless Energy - Allowed a faster setup to use Donphan's Wreck attack at appropriate moments.

This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.