Palkia Lock
The time is States 2009, and along with the release of Platinum came SP Pokémon and the Cyrus Engine. One of the popular decks was Legos, which used Dialga G and Palkia G. It used Mesprit LA to lock your opponent’s powers. Then people used just Palkia G and the Pixies and the deck Palkia Lock was born. I’ll go more into detail of the strategy later. But now let’s do a card analysis of some of the key cards I use in “my” list.
Palkia G
How could you run the LV.X without the basic form of the card? 100HP for a legendary basic Pokémon; standard. Times two weakness to Lightning and 2 Retreat Cost; so all in all it’s not so decent of card so far. But the first attack twenty for two is a little costly, but you have the choice of switching it to the bench and bringing up a different Pokémon; with an Energy Gain its twenty for one and switch. Not the best attack but it works.
Then you have “Pearl Breath”, which lets you do fifty damage to the active Pokémon and 10 spread to the bench. (Weakness and Resistance don’t apply of course.) The attack takes 3 energies, like “Splashing Turn” it is costly for what its effects are; but a simple energy gain attachment will bring it down to 2 energies. Most Palkia G decks use “Pearl Breath for their main attack.
Now back to “Splashing Turn” this attack works great when you want a simple switch or to retreat to the safety of the bench. Simple strategy for your Machamp match-ups; play a Crobat G on your bench and “Guard” it with an Unown G, Then use “Splashing Turn” to switch and bring up your Unown G. They can’t knock-out your Crobat with “Take-Out”, and they have to get 4 heads with “Hurricane Punch”; while doing this simple strategy; use Mesprit LA to keep locking their powers.
The whole deck runs around Palkia G LV.X; so naturally you would play it.
Palkia G LV.X
“Lost Cyclone” is a very handy power if your and/or your opponent’s bench has 4 or more Pokémon on it. Each player gets to pick Pokémon until they have 3 bench, then the ones each player picked gets sent to the Lost Zone. With the Pixie Engine, this power helps keep your bench clean and open for more Pokémon to play.
What is the Pixie Engine? Its consists of Uxie LA, Mesprit LA, and Azelf LA; Uxie LA when you play it from your hand to your bench, you can use its power. It lets you draw cards from your deck until you have 7 cards in your hand. Mesprit LA when you play it from your hand to your bench, you can use its power. What it does is your opponent can’t use any Poke-Powers during their next turn. Azelf LA lets you get a Pokémon out of your prizes and then you have to put a card back from your hand to replace it.
The strategy of the engine is to play the pixies and then “Lost Cyclone” them away. The big strategy of Palkia Lock is to use Mesprits to lock your opponent’s powers as long as you can and then “Lost Cyclone” them away. Combined with Power Sprays, Yyu can take control of your opponent’s powers.
“Hydro Shot” is Palkia G LV.X’s first and only attack. You discard two energies attached to Palkia G LV.X and then you can choose any of your opponent’s Pokémon and the attack does eighty damage to the one you chose. So while you’re power locking your opponent, you can “Hydro Shot” their Claydol or another bench sitter for a cheap prize. Sure it’s 2 energies; but if you “Hydro Shot” their Claydol, they won’t have their draw engine anymore; which will slow them down; while you keep attacking and taking prizes. Palkia G LV.X is just common sense to play with the basic form; with 20 more HP and better attacks and powers. Why wouldn’t you?
So by now you should know the basic strategy. Power lock, “Lost Cyclone” away your benched pixies, “Pearl Breath”, “Hydro Shot” when needed, and win. (The last one should be the strategy of every deck: D) Now you can’t play a deck without techs. Every area has its own meta-game, which would mean different techs. There are some the you should play no matter whatever your metagame is. Do I really have to go over Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie for you? I didn’t think so.
Bronzong G
“Galactic Switch” is the only real reason you would play this card in your deck. Once during your turn, you may move an Energy card attached to one of your SPs to another of your Pokémon. Then, put 2 damage counters on Bronzong G.
So say you have an active Palkia G LV.X with one hundred damage, 3 Energies, and an Energy Gain on it and you have a bench Palkia with a Water Energy attached and you have a Poke Turn in your hand. You would use “Galactic Switch” to move an Water Energy to the bench Palkia G. Then, you would TGI Poke Turn up the Palkia G LV.X and bring up the Bench Palkia G LV.X, attach the Energy Gain and Water Energy and Level-Up. Now you got a fresh Palkia G LV.X.
It helps, but you don’t want it to sit on the bench. Only play it when you think you would use it.
Unown G
“Guard” is the only thing you would use this card for. Let’s face it in almost every metagame there is at least one Machamp, Gengar, Gliscor, or status condition deck out there. This is where this card comes in. Once during your turn if Unown G is on your bench, you may discard all cards attached to Unown G and attach Unown G to one of your Pokémon as a Pokémon Tool card. As long as Unown G is attached to a Pokémon, prevent all effects of attacks, excluding damage, done to that Pokémon.
Handy right; I think so. I only play one because my meta has few Gengar and Machamp in it and 0-1 status condition decks.
Crobat G
“Flash Bite” is Crobat G’s one and only power. Once during your turn, when you put Crobat G from your hand onto your bench, you may place one damage counter on one of your opponent’s Pokémon. It helps if you need that extra ten damage for the KO. 80 HP is nice for a basic Pokémon and free retreat makes it great.
When you’re playing Uxie and Mesprit, why not play this card. It reads: If you have Uxie and Mesprit in play, the attack cost of each of your opponent’s basic Pokémon’s attacks are * more. You can’t use more than one “Downer Material” Poke-Body each turn.
Nice, huh? With my metagame being filled with SPs and Shuppets, it’s a smart card to play.
Other Techs
What made Legos so good? Palkia helped, but with Dialga G L. X being able to shut off Poke-Bodies from non SP Pokémon. It helped that whole locking your opponent even better. Plus Dialga G LV.X’s “Deafen” allows you to lock your opponent from playing Trainers and Stadiums as well.
I don’t play this card, because my deck runs fine and I think it might hurt my speed. I’d also have to put in a few Metals and it would shut off Azelf MT’s Poke-Body.
Toxicroak G Promo
“Leap Away” is nice power for scooping up your Toxicroak when you don’t want to use it. Of course it’s a coin flip and you can only use it when it’s active. But it makes a nice getaway.
“Poison Revenge” works great if one of your Palkia were KO’ed last turn. The attack does 20 damage, and if any of your Pokémon were Knocked Out from damage from an opponent’s attack during their last turn; the attack does 40 more damage and the defending Pokémon is now poisoned. This card is needed for a metagame that plays a lot or even a few Luxray GL LV.X variants.
You have the weakness to them, which means all they have to do is 60 damage and you’re Knocked Out. But they also have weakness to fighting times two as well. So just bring up Toxicroak G and “Poison Revenge” for 120 damage and poison. This will knock them out even if they have an Expert Belt attached. (120 damage + 10 for poison = 130 damage)
“Healing Breath” is the main reason to use this card. Once during your turn, when you put Garchomp C LV X from your hand onto your active Garchomp C, you may remove all damage counters from each of your Pokémon SP. This power works well when you have a lot of damage on your Pokémon, or you want to heal a Palkia.
Banette is used mainly as an Mewtwo Counter. Just use its Power “Temper Tantrum” to discard Pokémon from your hand; then use “Loneliness” to do 60 damage, which with Mewtwo LV.X’s times two weakness to Psychic will knock them out.
Remember the strategy I told you about using a guarded Crobat G and Palkia G? Well replace Palkia G with Shuppets and you can “Fade Out” for sixty damage and it goes back to your hand.
Luxray GL LV.X
The basic form of Luxray GL LV.X, Luxray GL is nice 30 damage for two Energies (one with Energy Gain). 70 for two Energies is one of the best attacks in the deck (again, with Energy Gain). Luxray GL LV.X’s “Bright Look” Power is nice for bringing up what you want to knock out or just to mess up your opponent.
Say you want to kill a Claydol? Just “Bright Look” it up and play a Crobat G and “Trash Bolt” it for a cheap Knock-Out. I prefer to play Garchomp C LV.X over Luxray GL LV.X because I love to heal my Palkias and not waste a Poke Turn.
My Trainers and Energy really are self-explanatory.
Here is my list:
|
Pokémon 22 3 Palkia G PL 1 Palkia G LV.X PL 4 Mesprit LA 3 Uxie LA 2 Crobat G PL 1 Garchomp C SV 1 Garchomp C LV.X SV 1 Unown G GE 1 Bronzong G PL 1 Toxicroak G Promo 1 Azelf LA 1 Azelf MT 1 Shuppet PL 1 Banette PL |
Trainers 27 4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy 4 TGI Energy Gain 4 TGI Poke Turn 4 Roseanne’s Research 3 TGI Power Spray 1 Bebe’s Search 2 SP Radar 1 Night Maintenance 1 Aaron’s Collection 1 Luxury Ball 2 Switch |
Energy 11 5 Water Energy 3 Psychic Energy 3 Call Energy |
Basic list made for my metagame. I play Switch so I can switch out an active Palkia for a Garchomp C and Level Up.
Match-Ups
(Please don’t say these match-ups are way off. It’s based on my personal experiences. I’ll only post match-ups that I have played against more than a few times.)
GeChamp 40-60 (In their favor)
This match-up is a tough one. You have to stay focused and power lock them before they get set-up. Don’t forget to Guard either! Like I’ve said for Machamp strategy; guard a Crobat G; play a Shuppet down with a Psychic Energy attached. Bring it active, “Fade Out” for 60 damage and promote Crobat G. Repeat. If they play the Level X, they have to get two heads with “Hurricane Punch” or have 100 damage on them if they use “Rage”. If they bring out Gengar, just Guard your Palkia and use Crobats and stuff to knock it out.
Gyarados 30-70 (In their favor)
This match-up is hard because they are almost as fast as you are setting-up. What you have to do is just power lock from turn one and just try to knock out their Karps and junk.
I’ll add more match-ups once I test against them.
Thank you for reading my article. I hope you enjoyed it.
