Vampires (don’t) Suck! A Fresh Look at Gliscor

Introduction

With all the Twilight hype these days, it’s time we Pokémon players got in on the blood-sucking action. I’m not talking about looking like some of the Silent-Sam opponents you’ve played against who might actually be vampires. I’m talking about givin’ a little luv it up for our little bat-buddy Gliscor.

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Not sure why, but I’ve always had a special 2-fanged place in my heart for this guy. He’s definitely not cutest or cuddliest Pokémon, but he’s always been so dang interesting! In this article, we’ll look take a look at what makes this little fella tick and why he might do well with a VileTomb trainer lock deck (which, if you haven’t noticed by now, is way over-hyped- at least by me).

Batty Background

 

WARNING: For all you die-hard Pokémon players who live solely for deck strategy articles- CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Recent studies show that 9 out of 10 players like these experience extreme bouts of rage followed by uncontrollable urges to reply with snippy posts. Should you begin to experience these symptoms, skip this section IMMEDIATELY and consult your nearest anger management professional.

For everyone else- there is quite a bit about this Gli-guy that you probably don’t know, but that’s about to change. To find out about this bat-brained Pokémon, I consulted my son Nicholas who has practically memorized his 2007 Pokédex (he’s an avid Pokémon DS player as well). In addition, I did some Roseanne’s Researching using Bulbapedia and the ever-reliable Wikipedia. Here are a few tantalizing nuggets about our fanged fiend, I mean, friend:

His Japanese name is グライオン, which, loosely translated, means “Crouching Bat, Hidden Fang with Dashing Smile and Kung-Fu Grip.”

It can only evolve up at night while holding a razor fang, so make sure to plan your tournament schedules accordingly.

Its Entries Include:

It observes prey while hanging inverted from branches. When the chance presents itself, it swoops! (Note: Please don’t try this at home)

If it succeeds in catching even a faint breeze properly, it can circle the globe without flapping once (talk about aerodynamic!)

Its flight is soundless. It uses its lengthy tail to carry off its prey… Then its elongated fangs do the rest. (This actually sounds a little creepy to me- perhaps someone who understands Freud can tell us what the writer REALLY meant by this)

Now, at this point, you are probably asking yourself 3 important questions:

  1. Who the heck at Pokémon HQ has a job to actually come up with this crap?
  2. Why the heck did Tony actually spend time researching this rubbish?
  3. Why the heck didn’t I pay attention to that disclaimer???? If you are turning red and already hammering a response, count to 10 and call your anger management coach.

Sadly, I don’t have good answers to these questions. SO…let’s just skip down to our next section.

Breaking “Dawn” the Deck

Let’s now take a look at the core cards that make this deck work:

Gligar

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Gligar is the basic form of Gliscor. You actually have 2 good choices here, but I am leaning more toward the Undaunted version over the Legends Awakened one. Gligar UD has a healthy 70 HP vs 60 and also has an attack called “Stun Poison” which, for 2 energy, can deal out some nice damage with a coin flip paralyze effect. Not likely to use often, but this card came in very handy for me at a pre-release tournament at Six Feet Under in PA.

Gliscor Options

There are actually several options for Gliscor, but I’m going to focus on using 2 that I think have the most potential and synergy in the current format. First, this deck needs 2 Gliscor LA 5 which have a couple of great attacks. The first, “Burning Poison”, let’s you poison or burn your opponent and also the option to return Gliscor to your hand. Its second attack “Pester” can do up to 80 damage if your opponent is affected by a special condition.

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Undaunted revealed a new Gliscor that opened up even more fang-bang power options. Its “Ninja Fang” attack does 30 damage and paralyzes your opponent’s active Pokémon if it didn’t have damage counters on it. We’ll look more at this guy in the strategy section below.

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Finally, you gotta have Gliscor Level X . He has an incredible Poké-Power called “Shoot Poison” that lets you Paralyze and Poison your opponent when you level up. It also has a nice switch attack called “Night Slash” that does 60 damage for 2 energy.

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Other Pokémon

Of course, you will need your Spiritomb and Vileplume build to keep the trainer lock on which will be really important for the paralyzing effects described below. In addition, you will need Uxies for setup abilities.

Other Techs

Some other key techs are Azelf for Prize searching, Unown Q for retreating, and Uxie for setup. A few other options are Skuntank G, Regice, Ditto, and Shedinja.

“Eclipse” Your Opponent- Deck Strategy

Now, how exactly does this deck work, besides its sheer intimidation power when you level up to Gliscor X? The ideal start would be with Spiritomb and Call energy to set up Vileplume and Gliscors. Then, you have several choices how to play:

Shoot Poison Lock Strategy. The most common strategy for this deck is to keep a paralyze lock on your opponent. To do this, you have 2 Gliscor LA in play and the Level X in your hand. Each turn, you level up Gliscor LA, Shoot poison, and then use Gliscor’s “Burning Poison” to return Gliscor and the Lvl X to your hand. Next turn, drop Gligar and Gliscor right back down on your bench with BTS and Level Up the active Gliscor. Rinse and Repeat. The only way for your opponent to break the lock is to 1) die (always a great outcome), 2) warp energy, or 3) evolve/level up.

Hard-hitting Strategy. Another way to play this deck is to use Gliscor’s “Pester” attack to deal out 80 damage. If you have Skuntank G on the bench and your BTS in play, you can do up to 90 damage with this attack and the Poison effect.

Ninja Fang Strategy. Another interesting twist on this is to use Ninja Fang attack, especially early game. Once Vileplume is set up, this can really slow down your opponent and let you get enough early damage on to weaken your opponent. Might be a option with Regice against SP deck to Ninja Fang a different basic SP every turn.

Switch Strategy. Another was to play this deck is to use Gliscor X’s “Night Slash” attack to hit and switch with Shedinja.

Match ups/Threats

SP Builds. With the Trainer lock on, this deck can do very well, especially since Poké turns cannot be used to break the paralysis lock. However, a lot depends on what type of SP build your opponent is using. For Dialga/Garchomp, it will probably be better to hit hard and fast with Pester or Night Slash. For a LuxChomp match up, it might be better to keep the lock on for as long as possible.

Gengar Lock. This should be a fairly even match up as the trainer lock probably works more in favor of Gliscor than Gengar.

Some threats to this deck include Judge and Looker’s Investigation when Gliscor is returned to your hand; warp energy and evolving/leveling up to break the paralyze lock; and resetting the Gliscor lock if one gets KO’ed.

Possible Deck Build

Pokémon: 261 Nincada (LA 108)
1 Shedinja (SV 44)
1 Ditto (LA 27)
1 Skuntank G (PL 94)
2 Vileplume (UD 24)
2 Gloom (LA 96)
2 Oddish (LA 111)
2 Uxie (LA 43)
1 Uxie LV.X (LA 146)
4 Gligar (LA 94)
2 Gliscor (LA 5)
1 Gliscor (UD 4)
1 Gliscor LV.X (LA 141)
1 Azelf (LA 19)
4 Spiritomb (AA 32)
T/S/S: 203 Copycat (HGSS 90)
3 Judge (UL 78)
4 Pokémon Collector (HGSS 97)
4 Broken Time-Space (PL 104)
2 Palmer’s Contribution (SV 139)
4 Bebe’s Search (MT 109)
Energy: 143 Rainbow
2 Warp
4 Call
5 F

Conclusion

 

It’s a New Moon for Gliscor, so don’t think all Vampires Suck just because the movie does. There are lots great options with this deck which makes it a cool option to play. Thanks for reading!

Postscript- Playing Gliscor Deck with Style

My sons helped me come up with a few great ideas to play your Gliscor deck with some swagger:

  • Wear all black clothes, yellow contact lenses, and plastic vampire fangs, and color your skin white
  • Wear all Twilight apparel
  • Carry around a clear bottle of thick, red fluid labeled “blood” and drink periodically during match
  • When declaring “Ninja Fang” attack, let out a loud “Hi-ya!!!!” and throw a karate punch that lands 1 inch from your opponent’s face
  • Wear either a batman or vampire costume
  • Drive a hearse to the Pokémon tournament

Reader Interactions

36 replies

  1. Anonymous

    I frigging love this article. BRAVO!!! This is a fine example of a fun article to read and I am extremely happy with this. Please write more. As for the deck, its cool and all, but this article and the presentation really shines! Thank you for brightening my Sunday morning!

  2. mewuk85

    dont call it “GLISLOCK” call it “GLISTOMB” + You need Unown Q for a couple of those pokemon.

    • chrataxe  → mewuk85

      “Other Techs

      Some other key techs are Azelf for Prize searching, Unown Q for retreating, and Uxie for setup. A few other options are Skuntank G, Regice, Ditto, and Shedinja.”

      Am I the only person that read that paragraph?

  3. mewuk85

    This is by far, the best article on sixprizes. Thanks man keep it up!!!!

  4. Zachary Slater

    I agree for the most part, I don’t think this deck can win a tournament, but who knows, I guess we’ll see when Battle Roads start up. For the most part though, the presentation of the article and the organization really got me. One of the best articles written for 6P I’d say :) good job.

  5. Colin Peterik

    Great article, very funny.
    I love Gliscor as a card, and I’m always trying to think of new ways to make him viable… But, alas, he really just isn’t right now. I don’t see how Vileplume makes this deck any better than it was last format when we are still switching out to Tomb anyway? Perhaps you can explain that part better. Another frusterating reason why this is such a bad climate for Gliscor is the prominent use of Judge used in almost every single deck right now. A cool counter to this is just running more premier balls, but of course you need to axe Vileplume to do so.. In the end, I do like his evo line a lot and think the deck has potential, but in a disruption and Judge filled environment, it’s just too difficult to consistently pull the lock.

  6. Kyle Warden

    Loved the Postscripts!Great Article,these are articles I like to see be published rather than a bland deck list and strategy!

      • Perry Going  → Colin

        I build weavile lock. It does well against low HP decks like SP and jump, but I played donphan and I was able to keep the lock but he top decked into a donphan and I cant kill it in a OHKO. Its a fun deck though.

  7. Anonymous

    I’m a huge fan of Gliscor, last format I tried out the hit and run variant switching to Spiritomb / Mr. Mime but ended up sticking with Cursegar for the format.

    This format I’ve been using VileTomb / Gengar but I might try out Gliscor it’s very interesting and having so many different forms of Gliscor and also the Lv X give him so much versatility, the ones you’ve put in your analysis are probably the ones I’d use but I do also find the promo one quite interesting, will have to test them all.

    Great article.

    • Tony  → Anonymous

      Thanks! Yeah, the promo is also really interesting and has a Pokebody that could eliminate even another option of removing the paralysis effect. Honestly, it might even be a better play option than the new Gliscor, but I wanted to at least consider the Gliscor from Undaunted.

    • Tony  → Anonymous

      Thanks! Yeah, the promo is also really interesting and has a Pokebody that could eliminate even another option of removing the paralysis effect. Honestly, it might even be a better play option than the new Gliscor, but I wanted to at least consider the Gliscor from Undaunted.

  8. Joshua Hall

    great deck article! if you can entertain while still spitting out TCG tips, that’s the way to do it.

    I think gliscor is definitely viable, as it’s only gotten stronger since last year. If you don’t have the ability to get out of the lock…well…it gets very frustrating.

    • Tony  → Joshua

      thanks for the feedback! For some reason, I have a tendency towards decks that make my opponents give up from sheer boredom (Gliscor lock, Magnezone, etc.). It is really fun though to have your opponent passing every turn….

  9. Cam Graybill

    tony, awesome article! you said you went to the pre-release at 6 ft under, I go there for league! I hope to see ya some time!

    Cam

    • Tony  → Cam

      6 ft under is our home base, but unfortunately, we haven’t made it to league play very much over the summer. Hoping to get there this coming weekend though- we need the practice! Hope to see you there sometime

    • Tony  → Cam

      hey- my son nicholas just reminded me that he played against you over the summer at a lvl X tournament. He was playing Houndoom, and you played Mighteyena. We plan to be there this Saturday

  10. Perry Going

    This was one of the most interesting articles I have read on here lol. Nice deck Idea, but setting up the lock quickly when you have 16 basics and only 4 of them are spiritomb. The chances that you draw one in your first 7 cards are very unlikely. Also where are the unown qs in this deck? If youre gonna switch to say shedinja, you need to be able to retreat him again without wasnt retreat costs.

  11. Kyle Miesch

    I’ve been using a Gliscor-Lock like this one, but instead of Skuntank, Shedinja, etc. I used Flygon, and Flygon Lv. X. Flygon Lv. X makes a great partner for Gliscor, because as you are slowly killing the opponent, why not slowly deck them out as well? Not to mention, if you are playing a deck with Dialga G, you might be able to get Flygon Lv. X to kill it with Extreme Attack. I also run a few Trainer cards such as Rare Candy, and SSU and Luxury Ball that I can use at any point when the opponent breaks the Trainer Lock, or if I retreat Spiritomb early on in the game before I have Vileplume up.

    This deck build is a lot more flexible with the different combos and strategies you can pull with the techs you put in, but it’s not as consistent, I think. As for any other cards, I highly reccommend Looker’s Investigation, so as to disrupt them before they disrupt you.

    • Tony  → Kyle

      Now that’s a really interesting idea! It would mean a lot of changes to the deck build, but would be awesome once set up. Also, thanks for the Lookers tip!

  12. chrataxe

    I think the Judge/looker’s definitely a threat, but I love the deck all the same…and the article, nicely done!

    I would recommend dropping the judges from your deck and adding some Cyrus’s Initiative and Looker’s. Judges will just make you shuffle Gliscor back into your deck, thus breaking your own lock.

    • Tony  → chrataxe

      I like the idea of the Cyrus’s Initiative, especially when they use a Bebes Search to potentially grab something to break the lock like Dialga G Lv X

      I like both Lookers and Judge but still think Judge is a great disruptor and can be played after you empty Gliscor from your hand. Thanks for the feedback!

    • Tony  → chrataxe

      I like the idea of the Cyrus’s Initiative, especially when they use a Bebes Search to potentially grab something to break the lock like Dialga G Lv X

      I like both Lookers and Judge but still think Judge is a great disruptor and can be played after you empty Gliscor from your hand. Thanks for the feedback!

  13. tim h

    Great article, but this has too many pokemon. The nincada and shedinja could probably go – as well as the ditto. You may want to get rid of a spiritomb – because 3 would be enough if you’re going to be using vileplume later anyway.

    • Tony  → tim

      Great feedback. Yes, the deck list needs a little more help, but it’s at least a base skeleton of what one could look like. It really depends on how you want to play the deck. I threw in the ditto for the Gengar matchup as I expect to see a lot of that around battle roads, but it does take up extra room.

  14. Brittany

    Well, I thought the twilight references were interesting, but overall, I didn’t have any strong desire to keep reading ur articles.

    But, what do I know?

  15. Brittany

    Well, I thought the twilight references were interesting, but overall, I didn’t have any strong desire to keep reading ur articles.

    But, what do I know?

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