Getting Gothitelle Right For Battle Roads

As you can see, there is absolutely no Gothitelle here despite the fact that we have ourselves a total of 16 different decks winning out of a total 23 tournaments. As a little note, I just want to say how amazing it is to have this kind of variety in the format right now. 16 different decks taking just the small tournaments?! This is definitely great news for the game and I am certainly excited, but discussion on that is not what I’m planning to focus on here.

There must be some kind of reason that Gothitelle just isn’t winning much at all, which I reckon can be narrowed down to three major contributing factors:

1. The lists just aren’t right yet
2. Time constraints
3. It is being under-represented

These factors are pretty much the main three that the player themselves can have a say in so it doesn’t include things like other players specifically teching against the matchup with crazy things like Black Belt and Darkrai/Cresselia Legend. To begin, we’re going to need some kind of skeleton to build onto to make our different variants along with how this deck works in the first place for those of you still a little bit unsure about it.

Let’s Talk Strategy

Gothitelle Skeleton

Pokemon – 14 4 Gothita EPO #43 1 Gothorita EPO #45 3 Gothitelle EPO #47 2 Solosis BLW 1 Duosion BLW 2 Reuniclus BLW 1 Cleffa HS/CL

Trainers – 21-25 4 Pokemon Collector 4 Pokemon Communication 4 Twins 4 Rare Candy 3-6 Draw Supporters 1 Junk Arm 1 Pokemon Catcher 1 Max Potion

Energy – 7 7 Psychic

Free Spaces: 15-18 (Dependant on Draw Supporters)

Now that is a lot of free spaces for a skeleton, but as I’ll go over in a bit, there are a lot of things you can do with these spaces and they can really fill up fast. Having just single copies of Junk Arm and Catcher etc will fill up fast when you take into account which style of Gothitelle you will want to be running so this is definitely as ‘bare bones’ as you are going to get it. In an attempt to cover all kinds of players reading this, let’s start by going through each card and explaining the details of each one.

Gothita #43 over #44: Now this is really getting down to the basics, but this is still one of the choices a player needs to make when building the deck. The one I have chosen has the same weakness, retreat and HP as the other one, but the difference is with the attacks. #43’s ‘Hypnotic Gaze’ is much more accessible on the first turn through a single energy drop and can occasionally cause some early annoyance if the opponent stays asleep and can’t retreat for the turn.

#44 does have a much more guaranteed damage output than #43, but the cost of Double Colourless really isn’t worth it or would take too long to consider using if you aren’t using Double Colourless at all.

Another thing to note about Gothita is that regardless of which one you are running, you are running more of the Basic than you are of the Stage 2. Some of you may be thinking that we are breaking a key rule of deck building by doing this, but the release of Pokemon Catcher really has made this style of deck building much more acceptable.

You’re going to need to bench your Pokemon two at a time if you want to have a guaranteed chance to evolve the next turn. A swift Catcher KO on one of your Basics will leave you with one less Stage 2 to use, so keep this style of build in mind if you are going for a slower deck in general.

Gothorita #45 over #46: The Stage 1 choice is generally much less important than the Basic since you’re either going to be skipping it with Rare Candy, or not wanting to put your Stage 1 in danger of a KO early on in the game just for an attack. As with the Basic form, both Gothoritas have identical HP and retreat cost, but I have chosen #45 because it has a slightly better second attack for actual use if it ever comes down to it.

#46 does have the option of discarding an energy from the opponent’s field, which could actually be very nice if the flip wasn’t involved and we don’t want have too many of those in here. ‘Psybeam’ from #45 does 20 for just a Psychic and Colourless, confusing the opponent, making it an actually okay attacker against big retreaters you may have dragged up with Pokemon Catcher and can make for some interesting early situations in the Reshiram and even Magnezone matchups while you are looking for your Gothitelle. It would be safe to go with either, but it’s just down to which attacks you prefer if the situation ever arises.

‘Magic Room’ Gothitelle: Obviously the first half of the heart of the deck. This Pokemon is a one of a kind in the way that it provides a one-way trainer lock if in the active position. Denying your opponent from playing their trainers means that they won’t have the chance to play Communication, Catcher, Rare Candy, Switch or anything else that can help them to set up, giving you the advantage and time you need to set up and start taking further control of the field.

‘Madkinesis’ is a pretty slow attack to get hitting for a decent amount of damage, needing 4 Psychic energy for a pretty low 110 in comparison to the cost. Don’t get me wrong, when you have the lock on, you can end up attaching 5 or even 6 energy to this guy and end up OHKOing anything in the way since you will have the time and resources available to keep Gothitelle alive and your opponent locked down.

This brings me onto the main strategy of the deck. Gothitelle’s biggest weakness is that it is very easily knocked out in 2 attacks from most main attackers in the format including Reshiram, Zekrom and Yanmega just to name a few, which gives you the issue of not being able to keep the lock on for as long as possible and not having the time to power up a really slow attack.

What this means is that you’re going to need something to help keep Gothitelle in the active spot for the entire game as soon as you get one up and running and make sure you have the time to lock your opponent until the end, while having the time to attack for larger amounts of damage.

Where this deck’s strategy originates from is Ross Cawthon’s second place Worlds deck which focused on keeping Zekrom alive, manipulating damage around the field to control your opponent’s prize taking ability, whilst attacking for large amounts of damage yourself. This leads nicely onto the next part of the puzzle..

Reuniclus BLW: This is the second part of the heart of the deck and gives you that strategy you need to keep Gothitelle alive for the longest amount of time possible. Its ability ‘Damage Swap’ allows you to move damage around your side of the board as much as you like during your turn, which means you can take damage off of your Gothitelle, put it somewhere else around the board and make your opponent start again in putting damage onto your active.

Keeping full control of your opponent’s Trainers and their damage output really puts them in a lock that is almost impossible to get out of. The locking of trainers also gives you a way around Reuniclus’ biggest enemy, Pokemon Catcher. Since Gothitelle is going to be up there blocking trainers, there is no chance that your weak, 90HP Reuniclus is going to get dragged up and KO’d, meaning it will be on the field for a long time to aid your strategy.

Cleffa HS/CL: This is going to be pretty self-explanatory since it’s going to be key to get you out of bad hands. The added bonus of it in this deck is that it is more than welcome to become a free prize so that you can let a Twins go and start to set up as soon as possible.

Twins: This card has the best form of searching your deck in the current format. Being able to search your deck for any 2 cards really does make it key for your strategy, especially when you can only use it when you are behind in prizes. You are running a lot of low HP Pokemon which are susceptible to getting KO’d early on either through Yanmega snipes or Catcher KOs so going behind in prizes in inevitable. Being able to search your deck for whichever two cards you like pretty much every turn after your opponent takes that initial prize makes sure that you can get set up fairly quickly in comparison.

Rare Candy: Since you are running 2 lines of Stage 2s, you’re going to need to max out this card with no questions asked. This is probably the card you are always going to get with your first Twins to make sure that you can get Gothitelle out as quickly as possible, therefore making the lock last from as soon as turn 2 or 3 depending on how fast your opponent gets taking prizes.

Chaining these is a good idea if you are playing them fairly early on. If you have the chance to get out Gothitelle without using both of your Twins picks, then get another Twins and chain it to get what you need for next turn. There is no rush to take prizes with this deck until you are fully set up and the lock is in full swing.

3-6 Draw Supporters: I would only really consider three different Supporters for the job, but some have more of an advantage in certain builds of the deck. As a universal Supporter I would choose Copycat since your opponent is going to be gaining cards they can’t play throughout the game, resulting in some fairly large hand sizes in the mid-late game.

However, this card is considerably weaker in the early game and can lead to a changeover to cards such as Professor Oak’s New Theory and even Professor Juniper. This style of shuffle draw will give you a more guaranteed outcome during the early game and potentially get you set up faster, but when searching in the later stages of the game, Copycat is going to be the better choice. The end choice is up to you, but I will try and explain as we go along why I chose whichever draw Supporter I’ve used in the list.

Junk Arm: This one is pretty much up to the player, but I thought I’d put one in here since it’s going to be needed for Max Potion, or even Rare Candy if you need it in the current situation. More counts of this will be in different variations of the deck and depends solely on how many different trainers you will possibly reuse over the course of the game.

Pokemon Catcher: There’s only one in here at the moment, but even with just the one, you can take a key KO early on while your opponent is attempting some kind of set up and can put them in an even worse position. It’s just exactly what it says on the tin.

1 Max Potion: This is the final piece of the crucial puzzle since it allows you to heal off the damage you’re moving around with Reuniclus. Moving the damage over to a high HP Pokemon such as a fresh Gothitelle or even Zekrom, which we’ll get to later, and then using this card will remove the damage from play, leaving you more room to move it around. Junk Arm will combo with this card perfectly and will be your most prominent target for it since a few uses per game will be needed if you aren’t running any of the options in the decklists to follow.

Just the 7 Psychic: This is probably the lowest you could go on the Psychic if you don’t decide to run Double Colourless. It won’t be a rare sight to have a Gothitelle active with 4, 5 or possibly 6 energy on it by the late game, so consider bumping this up to 9 or 10 if you’re just going with the Psychic energy.

I think that is pretty much about everything you’re going to need to know before you venture into making the different variants of Gothitelle, so let’s get to it.

#1 – The Lists Just Aren’t Right Yet

This is probably going to be the longest section of the article since I have done a lot of testing with this and there are a lot of ways you can go about running it. Some of these lists may only vary around 2-5 cards each, but those changes really do set them apart in the way that they run and getting the balance right in this deck is what players may be getting wrong.

Gothitelle 1.0 – Aggressive Build

Pokemon – 18 4 Gothita EPO #43 1 Gothorita EPO #45 3 Gothitelle EPO #47 3 Solosis BLW 1 Duosion BLW 2 Reuniclus BLW 2 Zekrom BLW 1 Cleffa HS/CL 1 Pichu HS

Trainers – 31 4 Pokemon Collector 4 Pokemon Communication 4 Twins 4 PokeGear 3.0 4 Rare Candy 4 Copycat 3 Junk Arm 2 Pokemon Catcher 2 Max Potion 1 Tropical Beach

Energy – 11 8 Psychic 3 Double Colourless

This is probably the first version I built and focuses heavily on finding your resources as quickly as possible, less amount of techs and more cards you can reuse through Junk Arm to just stay as consistent as possible.

Pichu HS: Also included in Ross’ Deck, this card allows you to fill your bench up with the weak Basics that you run on the first turn. I wouldn’t usually advise you to use ‘Playground’ on any turn past your first where the opponent hasn’t had their turn yet because you don’t want them using Rare Candy into their Stage 2 straight away since it will void your strategy completely. This serves as an extra starter and running another Baby other than Cleffa isn’t a bad thing since you are going to want them to be KO’d early on to allow you to start using Twins as soon as possible.

Zekrom BLW: I have seen builds without this card completely, but I really like the card in any version of the deck. This 130HP Basic acts as the sponge for your damage that you move around with Damage Swap. You can pile as much as 120 damage onto this in one go and then heal it all off with Max Potion quite a few times during the game, making it almost impossible for your opponent to take prizes.

This Pokemon doesn’t just sit on the bench though, with the running of Double Colourless, you can turn this guy into a very hard hitter to take a crucial prize which is worth breaking the lock for. Usually used to take the last prize in a close game, you can max out at 140 damage on your opponent’s active Pokemon which is more than likely going to take your last prize every single time, making the deck very aggressive in this instance.

If not used for attacking, then you have 2 great sponges to absorb up to 240 damage at a single time and keep your Gothitelle as far from a KO as possible. Just a note, when playing against Yanmega, make sure that your damage is never stored to more than 80 on a benched Zekrom since it will be open to a ‘Linear Attack’ KO otherwise. It is quite easily forgotten, but make sure you are checking before the end of your turn that everything is out of a KO range from any potential attacker on your opponent’s side of the field.

PokeGear 3.0: This is solely used for searching out your Twins when they just aren’t drawing by themselves. You would think that with 4 of them, you would draw them quite often, but that is certainly not the case. Having maximum search of Twins makes sure that you can grab at least one to start your chain when down in prizes and get that strategy going as quickly as possible.

This can also be used for extra draw Support and be reused via Junk Arm in the late game if things get a little more desperate. This card just makes the build a lot faster than other builds as soon as the first prize is taken against you.

Max Copycat: Having these maxed makes sure that you are drawing a lot of cards when reaching the mid-late game. PokeGear is there to search out your early game Twins so cards like PONT aren’t necessarily needed in this style of build. You are going to need the maximum chance of drawing your energy efficiently to get those KOs as soon as possible after set-up so Copycat is going to be your best bet to taking advantage of your opponent’s ever increasing hand size.

Junk Arm/Catcher/Max Potion: The numbers of these should give you the right amount of healing and dragging up of opponent’s Basics you need to stay on top of the game. If you’ve used Max Potion 3 times during the game, you should be set for the win, but more Junk Arms are there if ever needed. The amount of Junk Arms gives you enough reuse of these along with other trainers for other situations like Rare Candy and possibly even Communication.

Tropical Beach: If you want to run Gothitelle at all, I would suggest getting your hands on one of these by either borrowing from a friend or trading/buying if you possibly can. This deck gives you some pretty strange scenarios in comparison to other decks, for example, if you have a Gothitelle pretty much set up, the natural thing to do would be to attack, but sometimes just going for some extra draw with this is the best option. Being able to keep the lock on and just draw more cards to give you the maximum amount of set up possible is just too good to pass up.

However, if you really can’t get hold of one of these cards, your Supporter lines could be changed up a little bit more to give you a much stronger source of draw. Changing to Supporters such as PONT and Juniper without Tropical Beach can still do the same job, even changing to 2 Cleffa is always an option since the Baby KO isn’t feared in this deck. Bear these options in mind if you can’t get hold of these exclusive cards.

Energy: 8 Psychic is going to be enough to get you the damage output you need to take cheap prizes with Catcher, but also rack up more damage for the bigger Pokemon like Reshiram and Zekrom. The Double Colourless can help to power up Gothitelle’s attack faster, retreat easier or just for using ‘Outrage’ with Zekrom when you need to take that final prize on a big Pokemon. Either way, all of this energy can be put to full use, especially when you have the option of Zekrom becoming an attacker at any stage in the game.

Overall, this style of Gothitelle is much better in the timed environment. Untimed games with this deck can really string out into 40, 50 or even 60 minutes while still becoming the victor, which obviously isn’t going to be great in tournament play. Being able to search out your Twins with PokeGear assures that you can search your Stage 2 lines much more quickly than just drawing into to it normally or via Tropical Beach.

This style of playing the deck is definitely much easier to pick up and play since it follows a ‘set up quickly and KO everything’ kind of mentality, which some of the other variants differ greatly from. I would give this one a go if you are starting out with Gothitelle and then fix it more to your playstyle/metagame afterwards.

Gothitelle 2.0 – Trainer-Lock Friendly

Onto our next variant which sets out to challenge the original trainer locking kid on the block, Vileplume. This Pokemon has been around a format longer than Gothitelle and it does give Gothitelle a lot of issues if Vileplume hits the field first, since there will be no use of your ever crucial Max Potion to heal off the damage you need to get rid of.

Pokemon – 21 4 Gothita EPO #43 2 Gothorita EPO #45 4 Gothitelle EPO #47 2 Solosis BLW 1 Duosion BLW 2 Reuniclus BLW 2 Zekrom BLW 1 Cleffa HS/CL 1 Chansey HS 1 Blissey Prime HS 1 Jirachi UL/CL 1 Shaymin UL

Trainers – 28 4 Pokemon Collector 4 Pokemon Communication 4 Twins 4 Rare Candy 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory 2 Copycat 2 Seeker 1 Pokemon Catcher 1 Max Potion 1 Tropical Beach

Energy – 11 8 Psychic 3 Double Colourless

As you can see, we have dropped a lot of the trainers including Junk Arm since they are going to be less than helpful when facing Vileplume. The main ones such as Pokemon Communication and Rare Candy need to stay maxed out so that you can get the best possible start, getting as many things out as you can via those methods before the trainer lock hits.

2^nd Gothorita and 4^th Gothitelle: I’ve decided to put an extra one of each in there simply because you are going to need them to get more Gothitelle out when your Rare Candies are blocked. If you can get at least one out via Rare Candy with another one steadily evolving through normal means, you should be in for an easier game.

However, if the Rare Candy doesn’t come before Trainer lock does, you should get on okay with the 2nd Gothorita in there so that you can manually set at least 2 up during the game.

1-1 Blissey Prime: I have tested a lot against trainer lock variants including Vileplume and this is easily the best tech for it. You will end up storing a lot of damage on and around your bench which will build up way too quickly when you don’t have access to Max Potion and don’t have Junk Arm either.

This card can be dropped onto the field to get rid of a dangerous amount of damage in one go and can save you ever so much in this kind of matchup. Chansey and Blissey also have pretty high HP which can be useful for putting overflowing damage onto if you are getting really desperate, but what makes Blissey even better is the next card.

Seeker: This card acts as your Max Potion when faced with a Vileplume lock. You can bench your Zekroms, store damage on them and then pick them up with Seeker just to place them back down again. This card will save you a lot of damage management and will start to remove little bits when the time is right and Blissey isn’t ready yet.

Speaking of Blissey, this is the way to reuse it when already used. You can use ‘Blissful Nurse’, play Seeker and then bench the Chansey again to prepare it for healing a load more damage later on in the game. After using Blissey at least twice in a game, you should be in pretty good shape as your opponent is going to struggle to get more damage onto the field after healing off that much.

Jirachi UL/CL and Shaymin UL: A rather strange choice, but I actually like them in here since Vileplume does have a low Basic HP of 40 if it has been Rare Candied earlier on and they can work together as a form of recovering energy if you’ve suffered a KO. Since your deck runs off of mainly Psychic energy, you are going to end up having some in the discard pile at some stage either through KOs or retreating, which can be put back onto the field with ‘Stardust Song’.

Shaymin will allow you to move that energy onto a fresh and waiting Gothitelle if you aren’t planning to devolve some of your opponent’s Pokemon. This duo is especially handy in trainer lock since you can either devolve your opponent’s side of the field and potentially get rid of Vileplume, or you can continue to set up some constant attackers by moving energy around.

Running these two however will fill up your bench so make sure you have a Seeker handy to pick the Shaymin up to utilize your Blissey later on in the game. Something that is pretty gimmicky, but great if you can get used to playing that way.

4 PONT and 2 Copycat: This is a matchup where you need a much faster setup and PONT is the perfect way to refresh your hand in the early game to get you set up before the lock is apparent. Copycat is still in here for the late game to grab you some very nice hand sizes which can net you the Supporters you need to pull of your desired move and tip the game in your favour. This kind of split will give you more options early on, but considering something like Cheren is also an option since it can top up your hand after a Tropical Beach or a PONT draw the following turn.

1 Catcher and 1 Max Potion: I’ve decided to keep these in there since you won’t be under the lock from turn one and could get some use out of them before you are locked down. The Catcher will be useful in the early stages to make full use of Oddish and Gloom’s double Psychic weakness and attempt to remove them from the game before a Vileplume even hits the bench.

The Max Potion can get rid of the damage you may have already suffered just before the lock is put into place, so think about playing it at the right time to maximize the amount of healing you can do via Seeker and Blissey later on.

Energy: The energy line has stayed the same since we still have the Zekrom in there to soak up the damage and it can play quite a big part in this matchup. Zekrom’s attack can deal with the attackers that your opponent plays with Vileplume to try and put them under pressure early on. Things like Beartic and even opposing Dragons won’t survive long with a fully powered Outrage.

Sure, the Zekrom is without a doubt going to be KO’d the following turn, but that means your damage leaves the field and you still have some time to set up other high HP Pokemon like Gothitelle to soak up some damage later on. The Double Colourless gives you more prize taking options in the game.

Lack of Pichu: I’ve decided to leave Pichu out of this list since it is probably going to give more to your opponent than it is to yourself. Both decks rely on getting weak Basics out quickly and you aren’t going to have to worry too much about your own getting KO’d early on because they are both pretty slow decks. You just need to concentrate on getting your bench filled up without helping your opponent out since their list is going to be designed to be under trainer lock unlike any others.

Just as a note, this particular list is built with facing trainer lock every game in mind, so the matchups aren’t going to be the best when faced with other things. I just wanted to show how you can alter the deck to face up to trainer lock as opposed to the aggressive version up the top and we will try and put them together later to make an all-rounder which can perform well against most decks.

So overall, we have ourselves a pretty specific build and a matchup that needs to be tested extensively to learn how to play against it. Vileplume will cause you trouble if you haven’t set up anything in time, but your main concern should be the Reuniclus first and then follow up with either a Gothitelle or Zekrom to start taking quick prizes with Outrage.

Getting the Reuniclus out first will just guarantee that you can move the damage around or you are pretty much done for the game. You run a much thicker line of Gothitelle so it just makes sense to go for Reuniclus first and then follow up with your choice of attacker.

Some changes may have to be made depending on what kind of attackers your opponent has chosen to pair with Vileplume and some more trainers could be squeezed in if you are feeling brave.

So we’ve covered two pretty similar builds so far, so let’s have a look at something a lot more experimental before we move on to the ultimate mix of the two I have already mentioned.

Gothitelle 3.0 – Electrode?!

Yeah, we are getting really experimental here with a partner for Gothitelle that relies on a lot of luck rather than skill, but can pull of some outstanding results on occasion. This deck’s focus is to get Gothitelle and its attack running as soon as possible through a thick line of Gothitelle and Electrode Prime’s ‘Energymite’. Since Electrode knocks itself out, it’s also going to be useful to fire off a Twins early on without having to rely on your opponent to do it for you.

Pokemon – 18 4 Gothita EPO #43 2 Gothorita EPO #45 4 Gothitelle EPO #47 4 Voltorb TM 3 Electrode Prime TM 1 Cleffa HS/CL

Trainers – 29 4 Pokemon Collector 4 Pokemon Communication 4 Twins 4 Rare Candy 4 Great Ball 3 PokeGear 3.0 2 Professor Oak’s New Theory 2 Junk Arm 2 Pokemon Catcher

Energy – 13 13 Psychic

I’ll be honest and tell you that this is nowhere near tested extensively, but the general idea is pretty much there and should only need a bit of tweaking to get it as slick as possible. Your max Gothitelle line is there for max consistency as well as your pretty standard 4 copies of Collector, Communication, Twins and Rare Candy.

Now, Twins is a lot more effective in this deck since its use can be controlled a lot more nicely with Electrode’s Poke-Power, giving you the control of when you want to set the first one off. This will typically grab you the Rare Candy and Gothitelle you need to start wrecking the opponent as fast as possible.

This variant completely strays from keeping Gothitelle alive as long as possible, but sways slightly towards the more aggressive build we talked about earlier in the way that you want everything out fast. Turn 2 is typically your ideal set up with a Gothitelle in the active spot with 3

Psychic attached to start hitting what you like through Pokemon Catcher. Other Gothitelles can be built up on the bench and gradually powered through further Energymites to get prepared for when your active one hits the discard pile.

The two stand-out choices in here are the high counts of PokeGear 3.0 and Great Ball. The PokeGear is there for fishing out your Twins and making sure that you have it in your hand after you’ve knocked out your own Electrode. This pretty much mirrors the first build we talked about so refer to that if you need some further explanation, but this can be used multiple times per turn to hit what you want through multiple copies or even Junk Arm if needed.

Great Ball is the questionable one in here and is actually pretty fun. For those of you in the dark about it, this card is from Emerging Powers and simply allows you to look at the top 7 cards of your deck, choose a Pokemon you find there and place it into your hand. Now this is perfect for getting the Pokemon you need out the deck before you start milling with Electrode, or can be used to find the Electrode you need.

This version of the deck is all about speed and Great Ball makes it that much more likely for you to hit a quick Gothitelle and Electrode. On top of that, it can also be reused with Junk Arm, but if it just isn’t your thing, then feel free to take it out for the likes of more PONT or Juniper to give you the same feel, but will allow you to have a form of shuffle draw as well.

The energy sometimes feels a little low and could probably be upped to a lot more to give you more chance of attacking straight away and less chance of discarding what you don’t want to through Electrode, so keep that in mind when trying this out.

This deck is fast, fun and pretty good when it gets going and could be a great choice for Battle Roads if you’re feeling this style of play. The basic strategy is pretty much covered so let’s move onto our last variant of Gothitelle.

Gothitelle 4.0 – All-rounder

So here we are, at the final hurdle, the list that should hopefully put together both tailored lists above into a single, universal attempt at Gothitelle. Without further ado, here’s the best I’ve got so far..

Pokemon – 19 4 Gothita EPO #43 1 Gothorita EPO #45 3 Gothitelle EPO #47 2 Solosis BLW 1 Duosion BLW 2 Reuniclus BLW 2 Zekrom BLW 1 Cleffa HS/CL 1 Chansey HS 1 Blissey Prime HS 1 Jirachi UL/CL

Trainers – 30 4 Pokemon Collector 4 Pokemon Communication 4 Twins 4 Rare Candy 4 Professor Oak’s New Theory 2 Copycat 3 Junk Arm 2 Seeker 1 Pokemon Catcher 1 Max Potion 1 Tropical Beach

Energy – 11 8 Psychic 3 Double Colourless

I’ve tried to include the best of both worlds here so that we can keep up with the speedier variations of the format as well as handling the trainer lock variants fairly well too. Blissey is actually incredible in this deck along with the 2 Seeker to reuse it and/or pick up Zekroms along with all that damage too. Usually, I would use the Seekers to keep up with reusing Blissey as much as I can while using the Max Potions for healing off chunks of 120 damage from Zekrom earlier on.

I’m a massive fan of Junk Arm along with both Catcher and Max Potion so I opted to have an extra copy of that in there rather than making either of the cards up to 2. This just gives you more freedom to reuse what you like in the mid-late game and you will find that the choice of what to discard isn’t too hard as the game goes on longer.

Jirachi is a pretty much the only personal choice I have in here since I’m just a fan of the card and can be used creatively even without Shaymin to devolve Pokemon on your opponent’s side and leave them in some strange positions or KO them after some Catcher damage from earlier. Breaking the lock isn’t as devastating as you may think at first and there are small openings in games where it works, you just need to recognize when they are and take full advantage of them when you can.

As for the draw Supporters, these are also my personal choice, but I have seen people using Cheren instead of Copycat just to keep that early game as strong as possible which also a good alternative. Cheren is a great card and can be useful for topping up those hands after a Tropical Beach draw to give you more options for your next turn rather than shuffling in what you’ve got already. This is another one of those player preference decisions.

Most cards have been explained pretty thoroughly through this article, so I won’t go over them again and will leave you with this list to get your teeth into so that you can test against and with this pretty fun deck. The lock is so powerful if you manage to get it going early and is very challenging to play against. I hope you have some fun with one of the few lock decks in the format.

#2 – Time Constraints

Back to the small sections now and let’s be honest, this deck hasn’t been performing that well and I reckon that this is probably one of the biggest reasons why. During many games of testing this deck over the past 2 months or so, many games have even gone down to my opponent taking 5 prizes with me still at 6 to take, but I still manage to win the game when the lock is in full swing.

The deck is amazing when set up, but we aren’t going to be able to have games that are an hour long in Swiss rounds, so you need to keep on your toes and play fairly tightly to the constraints of time when piloting this deck.

The only real tips I can give you is play fairly quickly, don’t take too long with your decisions and make sure you keep an eye on the way your opponent is playing to make sure they aren’t slow-playing you out of the game in the long run. The latter can be dealt with if things are getting serious, but these are only Battle Roads so let’s not get too serious here even if there are Championship Points up for grabs.

There isn’t too much else to talk about on this point since there isn’t really a whole lot the player can do about it. Obviously the way you build the deck will affect its speed, but is this deck just too slow to settle in the 30+3 format right now? I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it has performed by the end of the Battle Roads portion of the new season.

#3 – The Deck is Under-Represented

This is something only the player base can fix by simply playing the deck, but I’m pretty sure it’s because building the deck is a challenge, playing the deck is pretty difficult when setting up and it’s a pretty new deck to the game at the moment. The time restrictions mentioned above are probably the main reason people aren’t taking it for a spin and want to play in favour of faster decks like Stage 1s and maybe players want others to do the testing for them and see how it fares at the moment to consider playing it in the future. Who knows?

I actually think that this is an incredibly fun deck to play that involves some pretty intricate decisions at points in the game against certain matchups, making it very rewarding in the end. If you haven’t tried Gothitelle out yet then go for it and if it isn’t the way you play, then at least you’ll have a better idea of playing against it ‘cause that is a challenge in itself.

To Conclude…

Gothitelle is yet another deck that fell onto the hype train and sped off with a ton of people on-board, but when it comes to competitive play, it isn’t really doing as well as some people think. I think I could safely call this one of the BDIFs in an untimed environment, but the time it takes to win the game really is hindering its success in the long run.

Again, if you haven’t tried it yet then give it a spin and see if you like it, but playing it is one step closer to realizing how to beat it when you do come across one over the few weeks or so.

Until next time, thanks for reading,

Dan

YouTube Channel — www.youtube.com/pokemandanlv45 –

Website — www.pokemandan.co.uk –