Albuquerque Battle Road Report + Thoughts on Garbodor for Nationals

Wassup! Today I will be giving a report on the Battle Road tournament I recently attended as well as an analysis of Garbodor for Nationals.

This is the list I played for the tournament.

Pokémon – 11

2 Trubbish PLS 65
2 Garbodor DRX
2 Cobalion-EX
2 Landorus-EX
2 Mewtwo-EX NXD
1 Tornadus-EX DEX

Trainers – 37

4 Professor Juniper
3 N
3 Skyla
2 Colress

 

4 Float Stone
2 Eviolite

 

4 Pokémon Catcher
4 Hypnotoxic Laser
3 Ultra Ball
2 Switch
1 Heavy Ball
1 Max Potion
1 Super Rod
1 Computer Search

 

2 Virbank City Gym

Energy – 12

4 Double Colorless
4 Prism
2 Blend WLFM
2 F

Card Explanations

Trubbish PLS 65

A strong utility attacker as well as a 7th prize.pokemon-paradijs.com
A strong utility attacker as well as a 7th Prize.

This Trubbish may not be as versatile as Trubbish NVI, but it does have 10 more HP which lowers its likelihood of being donked. Its two Energy Retreat Cost is negated by the presence of Float Stone, and Tool Drop is a highly useful attack because it transforms Trubbish from a sitting duck into a decent attacker that only gives up 1 Prize.

2 Cobalion-EX

Cobalion is your go to attacker for Plasma Basics and is also very good against the main attackers of Big Basics decks such as Tornadus EX and Mewtwo EX, both of which rely heavily on Double Colorless Energy.

2 Landorus-EX

Landorus is very good against Darkrai and Eels and is a solid attacker in general.

2 Mewtwo EX

I went with 2 Mewtwo because one is simply not enough. A single copy would either end up being prized or I would need a second one for Mewtwo wars.

1 Tornadus-EX DEX

Tornadus gives me another option to donk with Blow Through. He also provides this deck with a soft Landorus counter and a powerful attack that does not require a specific type of Energy.

4 Float Stone

The fourth Float Stone was an addition to the deck I made the night before the tournament. It is necessary because it acts as an extra Switch and is another Tool for Garbodor.

2 Eviolite

eviolite-noble-victories-nvi-91-no-watermarkpokemon-paradijs.com
Defense! (clap clap clap) Defense!

Eviolite is great in this deck because it activates Garbotoxin and can give your attackers some defense, stretching out 2HKOs into 3HKOs.

1 Heavy Ball

Heavy Ball is great in this deck because it gives me the flexibility to search for Garbodor and Landorus without having to discard any cards.

Computer Search

I played Computer Search over Dowsing Machine for two reasons. The first is so that I can search for Special Energy if I needed to. The second reason is that I can use it to search for draw Supporters, which helps this deck get going early on.

4 Prism Energy

Prism Energy is very good in this deck because it fulfills the Energy requirements of both Landorus and Cobalion. It also gives me the ability to use Psydrive with Mewtwo and Tool Drop with Trubbish.

2 Blend WLFM, 2 Fighting

I was originally running a 2/2 split of Metal and F Energy. I went with the Blend Energy to maximize my chances of getting a T1 Landorus going while still keeping the M Energy for Cobalion-EX. I kept the F Energy so I could keep a Landorus-EX going against the likes of Darkrai if Enhanced Hammer came into play.

Albuquerque Battle Road – Saturday June 8th

I got there early and traded around for the last Float Stone I needed for my deck and did some other trading as well. I also frantically filled out the decklist for one of the new players participating at the tournament. Finally the tournament began. We had 1 Junior, 6 Seniors, and a whopping 17 Masters. Masters had five rounds of Swiss.

Round 1 vs. Jonathan Price with Regigigas-EX/Serperior DRX/Tornadus-EX DEX

serperior-dragons-exalted-drx-125pokemon-paradijs.com
“There’s a snake in my boots!”

Thankfully, I opened off with a Landorus-EX to his Regigigas-EX. I dropped a Prism Energy and started whacking away with Hammerhead. He then dropped a Rock Guard on the Regigas and eventually got a Serperior set up with a Tornadus EX on the bench. I also had a Garbodor set up on the bench at that point. I simply pounded away at his bench with Hammerhead for the win.

1-0

Round 2 vs. Nikolaus Schaad with Tornadus-EX DEX/Mewtwo EX

I saw my second round pairings and my hopes sank significantly. Niko is currently around 50 Points away from Worlds and one of the best players in the state. Anyway, I start the game off by mulliganing twice and then opening a Trubbish to his Mewtwo. Thankfully, I go first. I get a Cobalion-EX set up on T1 and start laying into his Mewtwo.

We trade Prizes until we get to two apiece. I have a Cobalion-EX with a Blend WFLM attached active and an Eviolite attached and a Mewtwo benched with a DCE attached with a Computer Search and a Colress in hand. He has a Mewtwo active with a P Energy attached. I Computer Search for a DCE and Colress for a four but cannot get the Float Stone I need to win the game!

He then Junipers, attaches a P Energy to his Mewtwo, and Catchers my Mewtwo for the win.

1-1

Round 3 vs. Jesse with Big Basics

I opened Trubbish again to his Landorus. I was able to take 2 Prizes but could not accumulate any significant amount of Hypnotoxic Laser damage because he had a Keldeo with a Float Stone attached for most of the game. He managed to get heads on both of the Super Scoop Ups he played, removing around 100-140 damage with each of them. He was also able to Max Potion away 150 damage off of a Mewtwo. In short, I lost.

1-2

After the third round, we broke for lunch and came back. Some people were not in their seats at 2:30 PM, so they would be handed an auto-loss if the game went to time and was not decided after the third turn. If both were late, it would be a double-loss.

Round 4 vs. Courtney Gonzales with RayEels

eelektrik-noble-victories-nvi-40pokemon-paradijs.com
Still an easy kill for Landorus.

I opened Landorus to her two Tynamos and started Hammerheading away. I got down to 1 Prize and then she made her comeback. She tied it up at 1-1 and then I Knocked Out an Eelektrik with a Hammerhead + Hypnotoxic Laser for the win.

2-2

Round 5 vs. Sarah with Mamoswine PLS/Swanna BCR/Fliptini

In case you don’t know how this deck works, Mamoswine’s Continuous Headbutt attack allows you to flip a coin until you get tails. It then does 90 damage for each heads. Victini allows you to start over if you fail to get a heads.

Anyway, I opened off with a Mewtwo to her Ducklett. I attached a DCE, played a Hypnotoxic Laser, and X Balled for 50 with poison. She was unable to get another Basic in play and passed, with her Ducklett getting Knocked Out by poison damage.

3-2

I took 9th place, which somewhat disappointed me as I knew I could’ve done better and also because this was the last tournament I would be attending this season. However, I was able to win a sweet Pokémon backpack in the raffle.

Why Garbodor Can Succeed at Nationals

Garbodor is, in my opinion, a strong deck choice for Nationals. There are multiple reasons why Garbodor can succeed at Nationals.

1. It auto-wins against non-Tool Scrapper RayEels, Gothitelle/Accelgor, and Blastoise builds.

Garbodor blows through these decks if they don’t have Tool Scrapper. Even if they do, they’re still highly winnable matchups.

2. Cobalion-EX greatly improves the matchup against Big Basics and Plasma Basics.

Both Big Basics and Plasma Basics usually run heavy counts of Special Energy, making them ripe for disruption from Cobalion-EX. Steel Bullet also allows you to 1HKO Sigilyph DRX and Bouffalant DEX, two of the most popular non-EX attackers in Big Basics.

3. Landorus allows you to run through Darkrai.

If you are able to open off with a Landorus and a F Energy, solid Catcher play and a few Hypnotoxic Lasers will result in 3-4 quick Prizes by sniping and trading off who you’re attacking. It is also important to go after Absols, which are dangerous attackers against Garbodor because of the tendency that the deck has to play with a larger bench. While two Landorus-EX are not enough to beat Darkrai all by themselves, they will give you the ability to grab a lead early on in the game.

Conclusion

garbodor-plasma-freeze-119pokegym.net
Trash or treasure?

Garbodor is, in my opinion, is the best Tier 2 deck right now. Depending on the build, it can essentially be a Big Basics deck that shuts off Abilities, thus greatly improving its matchup against Blastoise and RayEels.

It even disrupts Darkrai and Plasma Basics, the former relying on Keldeo-EX’s Rush In Ability to remove the effects of Hypnotoxic Laser. Plasma Basics relies greatly on Deoxys-EX’s Power Connect to increase its damage output and Lugia EX to take extra Prizes. Neither of these decks appreciates having those benefits taken away from them.

Well, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

Cheers,
Tyler Vencill

Reader Interactions

32 replies

  1. Agent K

    How did you avoid the rock guard damage using landorus? (Round 1)

    • Empoleon1107  → Agent

      I catchered up a Serperior and Hammerheaded away on it while sniping the Tornadus. I was at the point where I didn’t need to kill the Regigas.

  2. Mark Hanson

    Garbodor is not such a strong play that it auto-wins against non-Scrapper Gothitelle nor against Blastoise. Goth can just get Item lock before you get Ability lock. And if you get the lock up first, they can still Catcher Garbodor and KO with Deck and Cover, and are set to sweep from there. Blastoise, is just a good deck and can deal with a 2-2 Garbodor line pretty readily. Not to say they’re good matchups for Goth/Blastoise, but auto-win is a bit much.

    • Empoleon1107  → Mark

      Yeah I’ve gone back up to a 3-3 line. Also, good point about Gothitelle. Probably should have mentioned that. Maybe not auto-win, but certainly 70/30 or 65/35

  3. Oliver Barnett

    I’m sorry but this article wanted me to hurt myself. It was that awful… (No offence to the writer himself of course)

    • Piplup_isPimp  → Oliver

      In what way? The title stated it was a tournament report which was given and the author’s opinion which was also given. The only bad thing I could find in it was the Gothitelle matchup against garbodor (because it is not 70/30 or 65/35 at least in garbodr’s favor).

    • Gerardo Del Toro  → Oliver

      Good sir, I don’t know why you got such a dramatic impulse over a simple article. By the way, saying no offense* (corrected for you) doesn’t mean you get away with slightly bashing the author’s article.

      Please, provide some constructive criticism and maybe some insight of what you would have done differently. We are all entitled to our opinion, but it would be more helpful for the author if you actually gave him some actual feedback.

  4. poet larsen

    I think the one issue is that you are overestimating the power of garbador against the top teir decks. With you only running 2 Landorus, Darkrai can still easily take you down. And plasma can, if they run basic energies which they should, can still take out cobalion. Mewtwo also seems like a strange card to include considering deoxy wins against mootwo almost every time.

    • Empoleon1107  → poet

      I dropped the Mewtwo count down to one and I didn’t like it because it was either prized or I needed another one in most cases. I found that two was good enough but I may drop it down to one.

      • poet larsen  → Empoleon1107

        But I don’t understand why you would have it in, in the first place. It doesn’t do that well against Darkrai and Deoxy will be a lot better at taking out mootwo than mootwo taking out deoxy, and I can’t really think of any time where mootwo would be better than cobalion or landorus

        • Blue  → poet

          Mewtwo is a well rounded attacking option in all matchups, maybe it’s bad in the TDK matchup but that’s why there is Cobalion and Landorus. They do the most attacking and Mewtwo if well timed, can OHKO Deoxys.

        • poet larsen  → Blue

          But there is no other situation where Mootwo would actually be helpful. Wouldn’t help in Gothi/accel since mew EX just hits mootwo for weakness, it doesn’t help that much against Darkrai, it rarely helps in the TDK matchup, Blastoise can just use Black Kyurem to KO Mootwo. It can help in some situations, but more times than not it doesnt help.

        • Blue  → poet

          On PTCGO, I have played a lot of matchups againts TDK and their Deoxys couldn’t KO my Mewtwo most of the time. Then I would just attach another Energy because it already had a DCE on it and KO their Deoxys for Weakness instead.

        • poet larsen  → Blue

          Not really considering most Blastoise are having a greater amount of Black Kyurem’s in their deck. Once you drop down a mootwo, they will just try to get Black Kyurem out and KO you.

        • Blue  → poet

          Okay true, but if Garbodor is set up they have no way of attaching a butt load of Energy.

        • poet larsen  → Blue

          The issue is, though, that most good Blastoise lists will run a tool scraper for Garbador. It is probably the best teir 2, as the article suggested, so it is worth teching in a tool scraper in order to have a good matchup against garbador. (Also if you read the top 10 techs for nats, one of them is tool scraper).

        • Stephen Botha  → Blue

          I also played Garbodor and the fact that I didn’t use Mewtwo (or Tornadus to a lesser extent) left me very vulnerable to the point of an autoloss if they got a t2 Blastoise and 3 or 4 energies on a Keldeo.

        • Dragonite3500  → Blue

          Mewtwo isn’t actually that bad in the TDK matcup. Mewtwo+DCE+laser OHKO’s a fully loaded kyurem and getting a Deoxys to counter mewtwo is a lot harder than you seem to think since the TDK has likely already used a couple of colress machines at that point and they rarely have had the resources to get the Deoxys ready before you drop the Mewtwo. Most decks don’t run Mewtwo anymore so yours is likely going to be a surprise and can catch your opponent off guard.

        • poet larsen  → Gerardo

          Oh its a joke that I remember someone made in an article here on Sixprizes. I liked the name mootwo, so it stuck. ^_^

        • Empoleon1107  → poet

          It was more of a metagame choice for me. I knew coming in that nobody was going to be playing Plasma Basics, so I went with the two Mewtwo.

  5. Kai Colston

    I played Garbador at UK nats; I got Top 8 with it. However, our builds are very different, mine focussed more on the Landorus/Cobalion with Nvi Cobalion as attackers.

    • Stephen Botha  → Kai

      Same here, except I didn’t use Cobalion NVI. My deck stuggled against Blastoise though. Landorus just dies to Keldeo and Cobalion isn’t the best of attackers in that matchup. They also always seemed to either KO Garbodor to get back online again or just KO Landorus with a powered up Keldeo anyway.

      • Kai Colston  → Stephen

        Blastoise with tool scrapper, going second is a very difficult matchup. But, not unwinnable; as 2 garbadors are still a pain to deal with, and a single Cobalion NVI opens up an energy press play off a Scramble switch, and even iron breaker which hurts keldeo that cannot rush in.

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