Gyarados SF / Palkia Lv.X GE – Deck Analysis

Wow, I love it. What an inventive idea.

I think this is much better than Infernape 4 would be. They’re basically the same speed, and although Infernape 4 has a better retreat, Palkia allows you to switch your own guy which can be a big help.

My only suggestion would be to maybe add a Level Max so you can get Palkia out faster, or in the case of you not being able to draw your Warps/Switches?

This is how I feel this deck should be played, or at least how I play it. Who cares if you lose a gyarados, he’ll come right back up next turn and you should be in the lead cause you can grab a prize every turn attacking support pokemon which can cripple their setup then you go for the attacker. Great post thanks for sharing Pablo

The list is missing 1 card though…

Interesting concept, should got to try it out sometimes. Thx Pabs.

Thanks guys and you are right I’m just missing one card from the list. I’d definately add a second claydol ge or a second uxie la. I’ll edit the list when I get back home since I’m posting from my iPhone.

I don’t think he needs a premier ball when running a 2-2 line with Sableye acceleration and Unown G to prevent a lot of sniping

I think this version is better IMO if it will run. Seeing as Cyclone and Infernape you have to hope your opponent’s bench is full of small techs and stuff like that. With this, if you can switch out Palkia Lv.X, you can have whatever you want

I really like this deck idea. I can see bench room being a potential problem (for trying to drop Crobats), but with Palkia giving you free KO’s it may not be an issue.

You need to play 4 BTS in this though, it’s just so necessary for the success of Gyarados. I would also play 1 Time-Space Distortion (or Night Maintenance) just to have another way to get Magikarp out of the discard.

Nice deck gyarados is one of the best decks in the format. All the gyarados decks i have played against ran 1 toxicroak g promo for help against luxray though.
Idk if you need it though with all the switching going on.

OK guys, I editted in the possible changes to the list in the main article. I think Adam probably knows best for that extra slot, since he has been playing Gyarados for a while.

Yea I definately agree Mankey is better tech for Gyarados. One Roseannes sets it up. Awesome. Even better with Sableye

I think that the Palkia lvX is kinda great way to play Gyarados. KOing opponents Claydol early game is prob what’s this strategy about to.

There’s a few cons on it, too. Getting the Palkia lvX in play fast enough can be tough, but you can easily sweep until your Gyarados KO’s and then bring the Palkia to active and level up it. When you get your Palkia lvX in play, your strategy can be countered via Power-lock or via Power Sprays. Luxray GL lvX can easily Gust it to the active and do easy KO. Adding Switches and Warp energies eats a lot of spaces from the deck too.

A few possible hints to people who’s going to try this deck. Is a Registeel or Regise that great actually? I tried to play one but changed it to Lunatone a soon after. One Retreat Cost and Discarding one card is more better IMO. SF Combee is amazing tech, because you can use it on power-lock and can search it from deck by using Roseanne, Bebe or Luxury. Claydol is great card only against Gengar in Gyarados decks. Your hand is usually about a 10 card large after like Turn 3+, so you hardly do anything with it, and need it much less with Palkia. Have thought about using Dodrio SV instead? Free Retreat Cost and always draws one card sound a lot better for this deck. Playing about 20 Basics sounds ok if youre not running any Call energies, so you wouldn’t be donk’d so easily. Maybe running an Unown Q in Gyarados/Palkia could work, so Retreating would be quite a lot easier for some Pokés. Theres a lot of great Basics that you can play in Gyarados.

Ya i forgot about mankey i would play that over toxicroak

I like the use of warp emery in this.. pretty good

Any sp [ mainly those with luxray] can break from the lock and find ways to win. They can spray your palkia or poke turn there active and then be able pull up a pixie with luxray and knock it out with a crobat.

That’s a really solid list, I’d either max out on Broken Time Space or add that Premier Ball for the last spot.

Premier ball could speed up the palkia line to create a quicker switch but in my opinion the broken time space is needed. It’s to much of a factor not to max out because one could be prizes and your opponenet has already discarded your other ones and just KO your gyarados. Maxing the b-t-s could also give you a higher draw rate early game in order to get that gyarados or claydol set up quick.

I faced this deck today, it’s awesome how quick it can snipe out your claydols, he almost did it, but certainly Team galactic wager can really disturb the switch-in strategy, also SSU make this deck one of the best options to play, since it’s cheap and easy to make a good perform with.
Nice article, Props Pablo!

Is Regice LA really needed when you have Palkia Lv. X? Seems kind of like extra space to me.

I think running Call energy could really help to filter donks and to get that Palkia lvx sooner.
Maybe -1 dark -1 or 2 other cards and use that extra slot to fit in 3 or 4 call energys.
For the 2 cards to remove I’m not really sure tbh. Are you positive the crobats/turns are that important in that version of the deck ?
Anyways nice article as usual :)

It was cool since i did 3rd,i faced Gyarados R4, get an 4-1 record then lost against gengar at t4, the top 4 decks at this venue were:

Gyarados
T-Tar
Gengar, nidoqueen w/ SP engine
Flytrap

WEll I’ve been tinkering with this deck as of late, and I’m using it in an online tournament organized by one of my friends, and I 2-0′d comfortably a very strong Gengar/Machamp deck. I decided to drop down to 1-1 Palkia Lv.X and used that extra slot for 3 Call Energy.

I too have been playing with this recently. I decided to give it a second chance and brought it to Battle Roads. Ended up winning the whole thing undefeated :)
(and also had the most epic match against Fabien’s Kingdra).
Here’s the list I used :

4 Sableye
4 Magikarp SF
4 Gyarados
1 Azelf
1 Registeel
2 Baltoy GE
2 Claydol
2 Palkia
2 Palkia lvx
=22

4 Felicity’s
4 Roseanne’s
4 Bebe’s
1 Luxury Ball
1 Team Galactic’s Wager
1 VS Seeker
4 Switch
4 BTS
4 Rescue
1 TSD
1 Night Maintenance
=29

4 Call
4 Warp
1 Dark basic
=9

As you can see, this list is very straightforward. My aim was consistancy, and I must say that it ran really smoothly (netting me quite often a t2 60).
I’m pretty sure this build is not optimal, but I prefer it to the one in the article. Some of my choices are kinda weird but it was mainly to test different things for a future, larger event. So to explain my thoughts :

- Call Energy : I think this is a must in any Gyarados deck. It just makes it so much more stable. Apparently, from what I’ve read, people rely a lot on their Sableye for setup, and even try to look for it if they don’t start with it. I personaly do this only on rare occasions, when my hand is just horrendous. With Calls and 4 Sableye, nearly any opening hand is good and you can get a t2 60 much more often. I guess it’s a different approach, but that quick setup is what we aimed for with Fabien during the testings because it was Gyarados’s weak point.
The other great thing about call energy is of course avoiding donks. I mean, when you go first with your lone Magikarp, it’s almost harder not to loose t1…
With call, you can get your regular setup, and the ko’d magikarp goes into the discard which actually sort of helps :P

- 2-2 Claydol : I wanted to run 4 Calls to get that Palkia easier (I run only 3 most of the times to save some space), so I thought I might aswell go for something really solid and play 2-2 Claydol (the regular play beeing 1-1 with uxie). Why? Simply because you can’t call a uxie (well you can but it’s pointless, and if your baltoy is prized, then your call energy is not really effective. Also, with 2 Claydol, the odds of having it in your opening hand, or drawing into it, are higher. With the early game ressources spend on finding all the Magikarps, it’s always nice to have one thing less to worry about.
The second reason for the 2-2 Claydol is that, with Gyarados decks rising, I expect people to start playing Team Galactic’s Wager and/or Lookers investigation again. 2-2 Claydol helps recovering from that I believe. It was more a test than a preference, but it turned out working really well. And thanks to him, I ALWAYS had a switching card or two to use for Palkia.
I would have run Uxie, but there wasn’t enough space.

- Registeel : I think he’s better than Regice in here because you already have the switching option with Palkia.

- No Crobat G/Pluspowers : I didn’t think as much about that to be honest. It’s simply that, with Palkia choosing who you want to hit every turn, theses +10s didn’t felt THAT necessary. It sure is a nice bonus, but it takes too much space IMO. (for a Palkia version of Gyarados that is)

- No Unown G : didn’t expect any Gengars, that simple :P
I do think at least one belongs in here, but I removed it to test some things out…

- 4/1 vs 3-2 Bebe’s/luxury: Unless I’m running Blissey, I can never decide between theses two. What do you guys think ?

- 4/3 Rescue/TSD and 4 BTS : Just for consistancy. It’s a bit overkill, but since the deck kinda looses it’s focus with Palkia, I didn’t want to have trouble running into theses. Most people say 4 BTS are a must, but personnaly I’ve always been just fine with 3. The 4rth one is too often a dead draw… And playing it was my only regret that day.

- VS Seeker/TGW : VS Seeker is just too awesome Gyarados. End of.
The TGW was a last minute change. I took out Cynthia for it. Cynthia is necessary IMO, but again, it was testing. I wanted to see how effective was Restructure on Claydol + Tail Revenge + TGW. And well, it does work pretty well :)(won me that game against Kingdra). I feel it’s one of the most underated card right now.

- High energy count: Well, I wasn’t happy with it at all at first considering Gyarados could be an energy-less deck, but it worked nicely. I had 8, tried to cut it down to 7 but felt both 4 warp and 4 calls were too important. And at the last minute I added the darkness energy in the decklist (along with -1 tsd +1 nm) (don’t even remember why). That I did not regret. With Crobat out of the deck, it was nice to have some additional energys for retreating. And it can save you some switching cards, for example, when a Gyarados dies, if your claydol as an energy on him (and if you don’t have steel in play) and if you have an other energy in hand, you can promote Palkia and use Restructure without having to use one of your switchs/warp energys.

I think that’s about it. Again, keep in mind that this is the testing process, not a finished decklist. But overall, it payed-off. I couldn’t have won without theses changes. I hope this will help other people who are working on the deck.
I, however, am going to stop working on it, because I feel that as fun as it is to play, it’s an inferior Gyarados build. Palkia doesn’t really help your bad matchups and you are just weaker to Luxray Gl…

Oh and sorry if I made some mistakes, my english is a bit rusty :P

I’m new to the pokemon tcg but what about gust of wind? doesnt it let you choose which pokemon you deal damage to without requiring the use of palkia x or switch/warp energy? also cyclone energy would be just as effective

Hmm…what will you do against Mr.Mime MT/SV? You must fold to that.
“But Palkia…”
“But-”
Well. The thing is that you can only Palkia 4-6 times safely. When that’s done, Mr.Mime kills you. How will you counter that?

You definately don’t fold. The only way for Mr Mime to even ‘attempt’ to make you fold is by it being the ONLY Pokemon in play. If it isn’t, surely with the 8 Switching cards you can grab 6 prizes. If your opponent benches something it will immediately get killed. It’ll be hard to believe you will be behind in prizes, and your opponent won’t have a Claydol out, so you can just wait around and deck your opponent, or time will give you the win.

How many decks have you seen can attack wtih Mr Mime? And even then have you read it’s attack? It’s basically useless and it surely wont be taking down more than 1 Gyarados before diying from it’s own attack.

What’s everyone’s opinion as to whether or not this is an overall better deck than standard Gyarados, like the one in the “Gyarados Revised for Battle Roads” article?

What’s everyone’s opinion as to whether or not this is an overall better deck than standard Gyarados, like the one in the “Gyarados Revised for Battle Roads” article?

I played Gyarados with 1-3 Palkia lvX today at CC’s and ended to get 5-1 on Swiss and losing on my first top-8 match. During the first game, I got Unown Q, 3 Warp energies, Dark energy, Switch, Turn, SSU and Roseanne on my first game. I started and lost to T1 Gengar. I managed to win 3 other Gengar matchups, one LuxBlaze and Salamence. I got one terrible top-cut starting hand and other star was Unown Q start that turned to be good game actually. Failed SSUs and critical Power Spray ruined my game. I didn’t see many of the decks I were suspect to see. Gengar is still doing strong in here.
IMO 1-3 Palkia lvX is much better than 2-2 line in this deck. You will start with Palkia much rarely. You can get the basic Palkia witch Roseanne/Azelf. Playing 3 lvXs you draw ‘em much quicker and you can Azelf it from your Prizes, too.
I were playing 4 Warp energies, 2 Switchs, 4 SSUs, 2 Turns and only one Bebe and no Balls (except one Luxury). Got ofter T3 Palkia lvX and had no problems on drawing a Switch or warp Energies.

good idea but more energy is needed!!!!!
7/10

good idea but more energy is needed!!!!!
7/10

@ nick, this deck is much better than standard gyarados in this current format, switching all those ‘pokemon walls’ that your opponent plays i.e. spiritomb, mr. mime etc. is key to victory.

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