Luxray GL LV.X with Golem 4 – Testing Results

When Jeremy and I tested the other day, I wanted to try out one of my numerous deck ideas. It is a fairly obvious combination of Pokemon, but I had yet to hear anything about the deck so I thought I would give it a whirl. This is the list I used for 2 out of 3 games:

Jeremy used a deck focused on Luxray GL LV.X with some tech basic Pokemon and stadiums. The first game we played I used only a 1/1 line of Claydol, but immediately I realized I would need to play a 2/2 line. There are a few reasons why I chose to beef up the line:

• After I had burned my 4 Cyrus early into the game, I had no draw power and became reliant on topdecks, so I knew that there was no way I could solely depend on that card to maintain consistency
  
  
• Using a 2/2 line of Pokemon just makes it much easier to get into play (better chance of drawing into it, less likely to be prized)

• Luxray GL LV.X is a popular Pokemon card and can easily gust out your Baltoy or Claydol into the active position to knock it out, so having a 2/2 line gives you a chance to get a 2nd one out

Overall the deck ran fairly smoothly once I put 2/2 Claydol in. I won 1 out of 3 games we played (1 out of 2 when I played 2/2 Claydol). As of now, the main changes I would make to the above list would be to take Honchkrow out for something else, maybe another Pokemon (Crobat G possibly) or another Bebe’s Search. I had zero chance of utilizing it in games we played.

One problem with the strategy I noticed was that I too reliant on Luxray GL LV.X. I needed to have it out doing “Flash Impact” every turn so I could put 30 damage onto Golem 4 to try and make its attacks stronger. Otherwise Golem would be doing almost no damage.

Another problem was that I could really only afford to put 60 damage on Golem. If I put Golem at 90, I risked Jeremy playing a Crobat G and Poke Turn in the same turn to put 2 damage counters on Golem and knock it out for an extremely easy prize. I would try to hold Power Spray in my hand to prevent this from happening, but I also wanted to use Power Spray to slow him down early in the game, so I was in a bit of a conundrum. Luxray LV.X could also lure a damaged Golem active with “Bright Look” for a pushover prize.

One other issue was that Golem took too many energies to attack. Three energies was a lot, and it would only be doing 80 damage with “Rage” if I had 60 damage on it. That iss not going to cut it. There are Pokemon out there that can dish out more efficient damage.

However, there was one positive with the deck. TG’s Invention Technical Machine G was superb. If I could get 90 damage onto Golem, I could drop TM G onto it and hit any one of Jeremy’s Pokemon in play for 90 damage. It was also really effective because he was using Luxray GL LV.X, which hits one of his benched Pokemon for 30 damage when he uses “Flash Impact”. That meant that even if I just had 60 on Golem, I could most likely knock out one of his benched Pokemon that had 30 damage on it. In short, Luxray makes the card stronger. I just think TM G is an awesome card and that every SP deck should run at least 1 as tech.

Of course my Golem would be knocked out without delay the following turn, but this still showed me the strength of TG’s Invention Technical Machine G. By the way, that was another problem with the deck. As soon as I used Golem to attack, it was knocked out the following turn. That was really bad because it took a lot of resources (3 energy) to attack, and it is not good to have your Pokemon knocked that quickly.

Overall I would say the deck is not great. I may try to see how it does versus some other matchups, but I just think the whole strategy of the deck is flawed. Be sure to see Jeremy’s analysis of the matchup here if you have not already. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please comment and join the discussion!