Decided to give this deck a shot the other day…I was pretty stoked on the idea when I first thought of it, but testing showed its futility.
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Pokemon-19 |
Trainers-28 |
Energy-13 |
Yeah I know, I forgot to put SP Radar in the deck. I should have at least 1, if not 2 in the list. I suppose a Roseanne’s Research could go for one, but I am not sure what to take out for the other.
Anyways the strategy of the deck is to use Gallade 4 LV.X’s “Blade Storm” Pokemon Power and Crobat G’s “Flash Bite” Pokemon Power in order to get damage onto your opponent’s Pokemon, then attack with Gallade 4, it’s LV.X, and Honchkrow G in order to either get easy prizes or knock out big threats in one hit.
Here are the flaws I found with the deck:
- Gallade 4 LV.X isn’t that good. 100 HP and a 3 energy attack do not fly that well.
- “Blade Storm” is too easily played around (Power Sprays, Nidoqueen, not filling your bench, etc…).
- “Aimed Cut” does not do great damage considering the energy requirement and prerequisites (i.e. there must already be at least 40 damage on the defending Pokemon to get a knock out).
- It is hard to manage your Poke Turns because you will want to use them on both Gallade 4 LV.X and Crobat G early and often to get damage counters in play.
- You will find bench space to be an issue at times considering you need to be careful playing Poke Turns and dropping Crobat G’s to get the extra needed damage for knock outs (you will find yourself with 2 Crobat G’s taking up bench space).
- Gallade 4 is just not quick enough and is reliant on the LV.X to have any impact.
However, one positive that came from using the deck is that I realized how good a turn 1 or 2 Honchkrow G + Crobat G is to take out Baltoys. I will explain more in a moment, but I just think it can be just crippling to your opponent’s set up if you take out their Baltoy before they even have a chance to get Claydol out. Most decks cannot function for long without Claydol in play.
Here is a brief recap of the games I played versus Jeremy who was using Beedrill:
Game 1: I went first and started with Honchkrow G with Crobat G and Call Energy in hand. I was able to get a turn 2 Claydol and was also able to pick off Jeremy’s Baltoy that turn, which left him with no options and I just slowly set up and won the game quite easily.
Game 2: I went second and again I picked off his Baltoy early, resulting smooth sailing for the rest of the game again.
Game 3: I went first and started with Unown G. We both had less than desirable starts. I know I used Unown G to attack turn 2 for a prize and we both spent time stalling, but eventually Jeremy got set up and there was just no way I could take out his Beedrills.
Game 4: I went second and this game was more of the same. I hung around for a while, but my last two prizes were Azelf LA and Gallade 4 LV.X RR. Even if they weren’t prized I am confident Jeremy would have still won easily.
Gallade 4 can’t deal with a Pokemon that has no damage on it. Beedrill can easily recycle themselves, so they were clean of damage a majority of the time. Jeremy was able to OHKO my all Pokemon while I needed at least 2 hits to knock any of his Pokemon out. Considering Beedrill can also retreat for free and the deck runs Super Scoop Up, my efforts to draw prizes were fruitless.
Like I said, I did find Honchkrow and Crobat to be GNARLY together. The problem wasn’t those two Pokemon, it was just that Gallade is weak. So I am going give this deck another go with Luxray GL LV.X RR replacing Gallade 4. Luxray will give the deck a second option for taking out Baltoys and Claydols. I hope that the deck will be extremely quick, draw easy prizes, and simply prevent my opponents from ever setting up. I will try that deck out later on and post about it.
What do you guys think? Have any of you tried out Gallade and actually had success with it? Am I playing the deck wrong? Let me know! :)
