This article will include:

1. A history of my involvement with the trading card game
2. A quick look at the main cards
3. Deck lists/Strategy

1. First, a quick history of my involvement with the game. I originally started playing the Pokémon Trading Card game when it was first released and Pokémon hysteria was at its peak. I played tournaments and leagues for about two years, then gave it all up during my early teens when image meant more than having a good time. Flash forward close to ten years and I’m just out of college. My buddies have recently started playing Pokemon and it’s peaked my interested. Long story short, they tossed some Energy, a T/S/S line, and the Salamence SW Evolution at me and I was hooked.

2. Now lets take a look at the main cards in the deck.

Taking a quick look at these cards you see that you have a high HP Colorless Pokémon, powerful attacks with a discard, a high retreat cost, the possibility to take multiple prize cards for one knock out, and a relatively cheap “Rage” attack using Memory Berry. This is a high risk/cost, high reward deck and can be made to payoff greatly.

3. I’ve been playing Salamence variants since I got back into Pokémon, but heavily over the past 4 months or so. I was highly anticipating the Lv.X’s release and had built a version to run without it, but also had one ready to go weeks before, simply needing to slide a Level X into a sleeve. The version I was running without the Lv.X took a lot of play testing to make competitive, but started to be competitive around the time Fall 09 Battle Roads began. I played it in a few leagues as well as some local Level X tournaments and never went worse than 3-2. I actually pulled off a win at the one local tournament, netting myself a few boosters and a DP Empoleon Lv.X for the binder.

The list I was running looked like this:

It was relatively consistent, but the T/S/S line was off and it was under tech’d . The strategy of this deck was to get a turn two Salamence hitting for 50 with two Energies or 50 for one Fire Energy, possibly 120 for 1 Fire Energy and 1 Water Energy, and discarding with the “Battle Rush” Poke-Body engaged. With 140 HP you could do this for some time, while charging up a second Salamence, either SF version if  “Battle Rush” was working or the SW version to snipe the Bench.

Once your Active Salamence had some damage on it you could attach a Memory Berry and “Rage” for 10+ damage for 2 Energy or for free with “Battle Rush” engaged. It was a relatively straightforward deck. PlusPowers could be used early to give you that extra damage to knock out 60 hp Basics, or anytime to get to the magic numbers of 130 or 140 damage, when facing high HP Pokemon. This deck worked very well against most other Stage 2 deck’s and gave you close to an even shot at Beedrill, Gyarados, and Gengar.

It struggled, though, against SP variants that hindered it’s set-up, but would run through others which focused on spread or simply could not slow down its set-up. I knew this deck was nowhere near perfected, but with the Lv.X arriving in less than a month, I shifted my attention to a deck list built around Salamence Lv.X and its “Double Fall” Poke-Power.

The original list I created again was relatively consistent, but being straight Salamence lacked any real tricks to help swing bad match-ups my way. With that in mind, I did my most recent tweaking and this is my current deck list. This  list, as you will see, is what I’ve come to see as a solid core for any Stormfront based Salamence Deck, and can be tech’d for your meta or playing style relatively easily. I have also built an Arceus Salamence deck based on Energy acceleration, however, I feel in the current format SF Salamence is the best play.

My list is as follows (my core cards highlighted in bold, the rest could potentially be switched for similar cards or a different strategy.:

I’ll start at the bottom and work my way up the list, with an explanation for each card. Starting with the Energy, I have tried between 12-16 energy and settled in the middle for most consistency. This leaves me with rarely missing an Energy drop, but also not having more than one or two Energy clogging up my hand. I run more Fire Energy than Water Energy because you need that Fire Energy first for “Combustion” and can usually wait, if you need to, for that Water Energy to show. I’m not a fan of running Call Energy in this deck, but it’s really a personal preference. I’ve tried it and it gives more consistent starts, but it also often leaves you missing the right combination of Energy, to use the moves you need to use, at the right times.

Moving on to the Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums line, you start off with the search staples Bebe’s Search and Roseanne’s Research. I run 3 and 3 because I usually get what I need when I need it and VS Seeker can provide a fourth of either, while freeing up a space in the deck. Next are 4 Rare Candy, which are a necessity in any Stage 2 deck, so that you can get Salamence out in a timely fashion.

The Memory Berry are there so that you can “Rage” with Salamence using Bagon SW. This can be epic with 140-160 HP to work with, and also can surprise some people after discarding Energies, since it only costs two Colorless Energy, or can be done for free with “Battle Rush” engaged. Finally the real core to using Salamence Lv.X is the Pokémon search/recycle trainer engine of Night Maintenance, Pokémon Rescue, Premier Ball, and Luxury Ball. These cards allow you to often use Salamence Lv.X on all three of your Salamence and knock out only three Pokémon for the win. That essentially is the real strategy of the deck, take a quick double prize and then continue to take two prizes for every one your opponent takes.

Finally, the core Pokémon line is Salamence Lv. X from Arceus, 2 Salamence SF, 1 Salamence SW, Shelgon (SW or SF), Bagon SW, 1 Tech Stage 2, 1 Tech Basic,  Claydol GE, and Azelf LA. The Salamence line is the meat of the deck. SF Salamence can hit big and quickly to the Active, and SW Salamence can take care of some big sniping. The Lv.X allows you to often take double prizes, to cut the Energy discard amount, and boosts HP to a healthy 160. However, watch out for that double colorless weakness.

Claydol is your draw/cycle engine, while Azelf helps retrieve important prized cards. Finally there is room in this deck for one 1-0-1 tech line. This can be used, however you see fit, to give you an advantage in your metagame. A few of note are: Nidoqueen from Rising Rivals can be used to heal in between turns, Nidoking from RR can stack damage on your opponent when they attack your Active, allowing you to one hit knock out just about anything with “Steam Twister”.  Exploud Supreme Victors can remove all of your Pokémon’s weakness, and finally Dusknoir from DP can be used to shrink your opponent’s Bench. If played at the right moment, it can cripple their set-up or shuffle away a back-up hitter.

The rest of the cards in this deck can potentially be changed around. Most of them are tech’d in as hand refresh cards, such as Chatot MD and potentially Looker’s Investigation, or serve a dedicated role like Looker’s Investigation’s role in checking your opponent’s hand if they are running SP, to try and make sure they do not have a “Power Spray” to stop “Double Take”. These cards are essentially flexible spots to shape the deck to your style.

This essentially has been the deck that has worked out very well for me. It’s consistent, powerful, and has some tricks up its sleeve. With the added advantages of the Level X. Salamence, it may be a powerhouse ready for the big stage. No matter what its eventual role in the metagame, it definitely is a deck worth playing around with and giving a shot.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed and maybe I swayed you to take a look at Salamence!

Samson Gausch

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The two best cards to be able to do this, in my opinion, are Mr. Mime MT and Shuckle SW. Mr. Mime requires that your opponent have at least 3 Energy cards attached in order to damage it. When it is evolved from Mime Jr. (or has an Unown G attached), it will also prevent effects of attacks. This can cause some major issues for a few of the more popular decks out there.

Gyarados in particular is hurt fairly badly by Mr. Mime. Gyarados will seldom play more than 7 or 8 Energy total, which makes it difficult to ever take out the Mimester. However, Gyarados will typically play cards that push your active Pokemon to the bench, namely Warp Point, Cyclone Energy, Infernape 4 LV.X, and Regice LA.

What I think is the best strategy to use here is to keep Mr. Mime on your bench, so that when your opponent tries to switch your active Pokemon to the bench to get an easy prize, you can just send up Mr. Mime and prevent them from doing so. They may be able to then use Regice to send Mr. Mime back, but then you could just send whatever Pokemon you had active back out, and if they tried to send it to the bench in the first place, they probably weren’t able to knock it out and won’t be able to now.

One deck in particular that can really benefit from Mr. Mime is Flygon / Machamp. Gyarados has the ability to beat the deck, but with Mr. Mime I honestly don’t see any way it can win the matchup. Basically any deck that has a questionable matchup against the water dragon, put 1 Mr. Mime in and you should be able to beat it.

Mr. Mime can also stifle the offensive attacks of Pokemon such as Kingdra, Machamp (if you evolved of have a G attached), Beedrill, SP Pokemon, and more. It really can give you an extra turn against a lot of decks. You might want to try using Unown Q with it, so that you do not have to discard an Energy every time you retreat it.

The other potential staller that you may be able to benefit from is Shuckle SW. Shuckle prevents all of attacks, including damage, done to it by Pokemon that have Special Energy cards attached to it. This is pretty good at the moment because some decks are playing a lot of Special Energies.

Gyarados again can be hurt pretty badly by Shuckle. Flygon decks do not play many Basic Energy either. You may have to put an Unown G on to prevent Machamp from knocking it out for 1 Fighting, but in order to attack with Flygon they are more than likely going to attach a Special Energy.

I am not saying that these two cards can totally turn bad matchups around, but I do think they can be used strategically to give you a slight edge. Maybe even in just mirror matches, they could be used effectively.

One final card I think deserves some mention is Mesprit LA. It is not a straight up stall Pokemon, but it can shut your opponent down for one turn. This again can be a huge swing, especially in a close game. The actions during one specific turn are often what can decide a game. If your opponent is extremely reliant on Pokemon Powers, time this card correctly and it could be the key to victory.

Thanks for reading! Do you guys think these stalling Pokemon will have any effect during City Championships, or are they non-factors? I will try to test all 3 out this weekend and see if they make any difference.

Leave Adam a comment or view the discussion

Hello guys! I’ve been busy this past couple of weeks and hence why the usual volume of content has been low. I definately want to make up for that, and I am eager to get cranking on typing out all the crazy ideas I have involving the next set, and hence why I want to request to our fellow readers who got some of the new cards from the prereleases to scan some for me so my articles can look more professional ;).

Here’s a list of cards we could use help with, and of coure you’ll be given credit once the article involving that card gets published!

• Charizard – AR 1
• Luxray – AR 5
• Salamence – AR 8
• Tangrowth – AR 10
• Expert Belt – AR 87
• Salamence Lv.X – AR 98
• All the Arceus cards, regular holo’s and the Lv. X

Please email the scans to both of the following adresses: adam@sixprizes.com & pablo@sixprizes.com

Leave Pablo a comment or view the discussion

It’s one thing to use a few Trainers that require flips; it’s quite another to build an entire deck around a flippy Pokemon. That’s what this article is all about – so some of you die hard consistency fans may want to stop reading now. For those intrigued by the idea however, here’s the combo and how it might work.

Octillery PL is the big hitter. His no Energy “Water Vein” attack has the player reveal the top five cards of his or her deck and flip once for each Energy found. Each heads is 50 damage. The cards are then returned to the deck and it’s reshuffled. Let’s look at the odds. If you can find an average of three Energy in the top five, then you’re likely to do at least 50 damage every turn, with an occasional 100 or 150. But unless you are going to run over 20 Energy in your deck (unlikely), then you need a way to stack the top of the deck with Energy.

That’s where Dialga Lv.72 PL comes into the picture. His coming into play Poke-Power “Reverse Time” lets you search your discard pile for a combination of up to 3 Pokemon or basic Energy and put them on the top of your deck. There’s your guaranteed three Energy, with a chance of an extra one or two in the fourth or fifth cards revealed.

That may sound alright for the mid to late game when you have Energy in the discard pile, but how about the early game? Ideally, you want a fast, hard hitting Pokemon that discards Energy but still does damage. Monferno PL makes a really good companion to fill this need. His “Fire Tail Slap” attack does 40 damage for 1 Fire Energy. You need to flip a coin and discard the Energy on a tails. That becomes a win-win situation. If you discard, it adds to your Energy in the discard pile. Then you just need to add one more Energy on Monferno for another 40 damage next turn. If you keep the Energy by flipping heads, just attack again next turn for another 40 damage. When it’s time to retreat due to Monferno running low on HP, discard an Energy, drop a Dialga on the Bench (to move the Energy to the top of your deck), bring up Octillery and hit em with “Water Vein”.

Another key to this deck will be Felicity’s Drawing. This Supporter allows you to discard up to 2 cards from your hand in order to draw 3 or 4 cards. As your main attacks use 0 or 1 Energy, you can afford to discard Energy without worrying about not having enough for attacks.

As the game develops, you will discarding Energy from Monferno’s Attacks, from retreats, and from Felicity’s, then pumping them back into your deck with Dialga. In the mid to late game, after you have drawn off a lot of the Supporters, Trainers, Stadiums and Pokemon from your deck, it will consist mainly of Energy. This will significantly increase the chances of revealing Energy in the top five cards – thus giving Octillery a much better chance of hitting for 100 to 150.

Any spare Energy you have in your hand can be used to power up a Dialga on the Bench. His one attack, “Time Traveling Space”, does 50 damage for 3 Energy and lets you draw cards until you have seven in your hand. While it’s not a lot of damage for 3 energy, the ability to refresh your hand with your attack is useful if your Claydol gets KOed.

Now that we’ve sized up the potential damage output of the deck. Let’s have a look at it’s ability to take some punishment. All three of the main players in this deck have relatively low hp: Monferno 80, Octillery 90 and Dialga 100. On top of that, Octillery’s Lightning Weakness makes him a OHKO target for Luxray’s “Trash Bolt”.

There are a few ways to try and mitigate this frailty. Adding in 2 Infernape PL will bump up Monferno’s hp to 110 and add another Energy discarding attack: “Rushing Flames”. Its another flippy attack, but has the potential for 80 damage for each attached Energy card you discard from your Pokemon. Running a Nidoqueen RR tech could help by removing one damage between turns. Retreating, Switching (for Octillery), SSU, Potion and Life Herb are other additions to avoid KOs. Of course, none of these are a solution to the OHKO Luxray problem – but then, Luxray is a thorn in the side of many decks. Possible solutions to this dilema could be the Pokemon Tool Bubble Coat, or running Exploud SV to remove weakness.

Here’s a possible list to use as a starting point for testing.

Pokemon-24 4 Remoraid PL 4 Octillery PL 4 Chimchar DP 4 Monferno PL 2 Infernape PL 4 Dialga PL 1 Baltoy GE 1 Claydol GE

T/S/S-20 4 Felicity’s Drawing 4 Bebe’s Search 2 Roseanne’s Research 4 Super Scoop Up 2 Switch 2 Warp Point 1 Luxury Ball 1 Broken Time-Space

Energy-16 3 Metal Energy 3 Water Energy 10 Fire Energy

This build doesn’t really incorporate any techs. It tries to keep the focus on hitting hard with “Water Vein” by using a high Energy count and 4 Felicity’s. Broken Time Space is to be able to set up an Octillery or Monferno in one turn. Switch/Warp Point/SSU are to save Pokemon that are close to being KOed. I think it’s better with more Bebe’s than Rosanne’s because there is less need for Energy or getting Basics and more need to get a specific Pokemon. Besides, Bebe’s makes you return a card to your deck, which is another good way of getting energy back into your deck.

One thing to remember. This decks tries to minimize the disadvantages of flips by increasing the odds of getting Energy – thus giving you more chances to flip. As the game progresses, the odds should get better and better as the Pokemon/T/S/S are drawn out of the deck and Energy is returned. If you are turning over 4-5 Energy near the end of the game, the odds of doing 100-150 damage a turn are not too bad. You might even get lucky and do 200 or 250!

What do you think? Is the potential reward worth the risk? Can this be built into a World class deck like Gyarados, or is it better left for the League and Battle Roads?

Leave davehueglin a comment or view the discussion

Just to clarify, the FIRST person that finds each prize and sends me a confirmation e-mail will win. Let me know if you have any questions. And make sure you don’t miss Pablo’s article right below this. :)

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There may be already another lock variant that have been discussed before – which focused Palkia Lv.X from Diamond & Pearl: Great Encounters.  However, this article strongly focus on a different lock variant which runs on a small Team Galactic’s Invention engine.  For anyone that may not know what a small Team Galactic’s Invention engine is – our current 2009 World Champion, Stephen Silvestro invented it and managed to work extremely well in his Beedrill variant enabled him to utilize his 1-1 Luxray GL Lv.X (RR) tech with 4 Poké Turns, 1 Energy Gain, 1 SP Radar and 2 Cyrus’s Conspiracy.

For starters, the main deck strategy is to create an unbreakable lock which involves your opponent’s Active Pokemon remains stuck without being able attack or to retreat, allowing you to try and deck your opponent out – with aid of disruptive tactics.

In case anyone may not be aware of a strategy to create the lock, it involves an Active Flygon Lv.X from Platinum Rising Rival to use Trapinch (from Diamond & Pearl: Secret Wonders)’s “Sand Tomb” attack (with aid of an attached Memory Berry Pokémon Tool) to ensure that a Defending Pokémon would not be able to retreat the next turn while Flygon Lv.X would slowly cripple away your opponent’s deck with “Wind Erosion” PokéBody.  The great examples of Pokemon that would not be able inflict damage to Flygon would be Claydol (GE), Azelf (LA & MT), Mesprit (LA), Bronzong G (PT) and Registeel (LA).

Speaking of the disruptive techs, the first one would be mentioned here in this article is Luxray GL Lv.X from Platinum: Rising Rivals.  Luxray GL Lv.X may be a really beautiful and powerful card, but hey – it’s amazing for three main reasons.

1. “Bright Look” PokéPower is like a Gust of Wind, which enable you to drag up your opponent’s benched Pokémon whom usually can’t attack to be stuck there while creating the lock.  This tactic proves to be useful in some cases that a Memory Berry and Trapinch (SW)’s “Inviting Trap” attack combo fail due to Unown G’s protection.

2. “Flash Impact” is one heck of a quick attack which allows you to deal 60 damage for one Lightning and one Colorless, or just one Lightning depending on if you have Energy Gain attached to it.  However, “Flash Impact” still nets a drawback – a 30 damage done to one of your Benched Pokémon, which in most cases is not bad at all since you would usually Poké Turn away a damaged Pokemon (either itself or Chatot G from Platinum: Supreme Victors).

3. Once you have leveled up the Luxray for it’s “Bright Look” PokéPower, it got zero retreat cost – which can easily retreat to the bench to start the lock assuming you do not have a Poké Turn in hand.

Secondly is Chatot G from Platinum: Supreme Victors. Why this epic talking parrot is doing in this deck?  It is really handy for two simple reasons.

1. Its “Disrupting Spy” PokéPower, which allows you to look at the top 4 cards of your opponent’s deck.  This is useful to chose which card to discard right away that may break the lock via Flygon Lv.X (RR)’s Wind Erosion PokéBody.  Example of cards that would poses a threat to the lock are: Warp Point, Super Scoop Up, Poké Turn, Switch, and Night Maintenance (Not really a threat but still really nice to hurt their setup big time).  The PokéPower can be easily used again with aid of Poké Turn.

2. If you end up having to start with Chatot G, it is nowhere a terrible starter as its “Search and Escape” attack would allows you to fetch key cards which help you set up, such as Luxury Ball and Rare Candy.  Upon attack completion, Chatot G automatically shuffled back into the deck.

Lastly, is the infamous Mr. Mime from Mysterious Treasures.  This Pokémon is amazing to turn a bad matchup into a favorable one thanks to its “Airy Wall” PokéBody which means Mr. Mime would not be damaged by your opponent’s Attacking Pokémon whom have 2 energy or less attached to it.  To make matters even worse, Mime Jr. from Platinum: Supreme Victors, has a really nice attack – “Encore” which could allows you to stall even better against some matchups by choosing attacks that would usually take forever to charge up (or would not help your opponent at all).  With Memory Berry in the deck for Mime Jr’s “Encore” attack as well as the “Airy Wall” PokéBody, Mr. Mime would be one heck of an annoying wall to dealt with.  Not just those amazing disruptive tactics, both Mime Jr. and Mr. Mime are Basic Pokémon which means a quick Roseanne Research grab to easily boost Flygon (RR)’s “Power Swing” attack – that does 10 more damage for each Evolved Pokémon on your Bench.

To put together a list of disruptive tactics found in this deck, they are:

1. Trapinch (SW)’s “Inviting Trap” and “Sand Tomb” attacks.
2. Vibrava (RR)’s “Energy Typhoon” attack.
3. Flygon Lv.X (RR)’s “Wind Erosion” PokéBody.
4. Luxray GL Lv.X (RR)’s “Bright Look” PokéBody.
5. Chatot G (SV)’s “Disrupting Spy” PokéPower.
6. Mime Jr. (SV)’s “Encore” attack.
7. Mr. Mime (MT)’s “Airy Wall” PokéBody.
8. Warp Point trainer card.

With great number of disruptive tactics in this deck, a strong guarantee that the lock would usually can’t be broken and could secure a win for you – as most of the time, it would be strongly depending on the matchups and the knowledge of your opponent’s deck.

The Decklist

There are some matchups that consistency can’t win.  For everything else, there’s techs.

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The best combo utilizing Garchomp C LV.X involves Luxray GL LV.X and Bronzong G PL. First, you want to make sure you have a Bronzong G, Luxray GL, and Garchomp C in play. The most likely scenario is that you will first Level Up to Luxray GL LV.X, use “Bright Look”, attach an Energy and TGI Energy Gain, and knock something out.

The following turn, if Luxray is not knocked out, you will first move the Energy off Luxray to Garchomp on the bench via Bronzong’s Pokemon Power, retreat for Garchomp (or TGI Poke Turn), Level Up to Garchomp C LV.X (which will heal Luxray and Bronzong in the process), attach an Energy for your turn, attach TGI Energy gain, and attack with “Dragon Rush” for another knock out.

The next turn, retreat for Luxray, rinse and repeat. You can draw prizes extremely quickly using this strategy. If your opponent is not able to OHKO you, you will be able to heal yourself every other turn, making it nearly impossible for you opponent to draw any prizes.

The best way to play Garchomp C LV.X is by using a 2/2 line if you can fit it in. That way you do not have to play TGI Poke Turn on it (if you were playing a 3/1 line) to use “Healing Breath” and attack again.

However, Garchomp can fit into any SP Pokemon deck, so even a 1/1 line can be effective. Its healing ability and sniping prowess make it a true force. There are so many Pokemon cards out there that only have 70 or 80 HP (Uxie, Azelf, Chatot, Claydol, basics, stage 1′s, a few SP Pokemon that aren’t Leveled Up, etc…), so you are almost guaranteed a prize every time you use “Dragon Rush”. I think that’s really good. If you haven’t tried Garchomp out yet, give it a shot!

What do you think of Garchomp C LV.X? Do you think it fits in some SP decks better than others? Or do you think it’s not worth using? Let me hear your thoughts.

Leave Adam a comment or view the discussion

The main draw to this Pokemon is “Speed Impact”. 120 damage for 3 Energy is pretty gnarly, even though though this damage can be limited. Its “Dragon Intimidation” Pokemon Body aids the attack, but it is not a huge factor into the success of the card in my opinion.

I feel the best way to use Garchomp is to attack your opponent’s Pokemon that have little to no Energy attached to them, so that you will always get a knock out. Your opponent’s active Pokemon will almost always have Energy attached, but their benched Pokemon are less apped to have that benefit.

One Garchomp variant I saw at Battle Roads utilized Luxray GL LV.X in order to pull up Energy-less benched Pokemon via “Bright Look” to get one hit knock outs. It was a pretty cool strategy. I think that this same effect could also be achieved by simply playing Warp Points, Cyclone Energy, and/or Infernape 4 LV.X RR. Palkia LV.X MD is another Pokemon that can pick on your opponent’s bench too.

The only problem with this strategy is that you will not be damaging your opponent’s active Pokemon, which will be free to attack for its maximum every turn if you take that strategy. Fortunately Garchomp has 130 HP, so it should be able to withstand two attacks from most Pokemon.

Garchomp uses colorless Energy, so using Upper Energy is a no brainer. This gives it some comeback ability if your opponent gets ahead in prizes (which they probably will early on). You can also use any other support Pokemon you want with it because of this fact; you can throw any type of Energy in the deck.

I would probably use Garchomp LV.X MD with it too. “Restore” is one of those attacks that allows for a lot of creativity. I can’t think of anything of the top of my head, but I am sure there are some cool combos you could pull of with it.

Finally, as for some techs to use with Garchomp, Nidoqueen RR could be good to keep Garchomp on the field longer. Dusknoir DP could be used to “Dark Palm” away any Pokemon your opponent is attaching Energy to. Metagross SV would make it easier to get knock outs, but it would also make you more vulnerable to being knocked out. Weavile SW is one last option, as it can give you an increase in damage output via Darkness Energies.

I actually think Nidoking RR could be a decent option as well. “Territoriality” will put 2 damage counters on the defending Pokemon when it attacks you, and “Dragon Intimidation” will send an energy to your opponent’s hand, so that is a 40 damage swing in your favor. That should be enough to get around the fact that it can be difficult to knock out your opponent’s active Pokemon in one shot. Nidoking also somewhat combos with “Guard Claw”. It does kinda stink that a lot of Pokemon have 130 HP right now though, which is 10 damage too much for Garchomp. I suppose that is more reason to play the Level X.

What do you think of Garchomp SV? Have you thought of any other cool ways to use the card? Let me know. :)

Leave Adam a comment or view the discussion

The strategy is extremely straightforward: get Technical Machines in play and attack with Overload for a lot of damage (up to 200 with 8 TMs attached). This strategy is heavily aided by Porygon-Z LV.X, who lets you search your deck for any two cards and put them on top via its “Decode” Pokemon Power. These two cards are then easily drawn that same turn with Claydol’s “Cosmic Power”. Essentially, you have have a double Computer Search at your disposal every turn.

Porygon 2 also helps with set up and speed via its “Download” Pokemon Power. This Power can also be easily used to take advantage of some Supporters that you may not normally play, just because of the 1 per turn restriction.

Examples of Supporters that would be good to take advantage of could include Marley’s Request, Cyrus’s Initiative, Lucian’s Assignment, Buck’s Training, Team Galactic’s Wager, etc… There is room for creativity here, so Porygon can be played a bunch of different ways, it just depends on your personal preference.

Here is a sample list based of the version I played against last week:

That list is admittedly very vanilla, but it will at least give you some structure to work with if you want to tech it out and make it your own.

I want to note that this is in all likelihood the ONLY time I would ever use Marley’s Request. It actually is decent here because you can make your opponent choose between TM TS-1 and TM TS-2, which are essentially the same card.

I would really like to test Porygon (along with like 20 other decks), but I have just been so busy lately. Once I do get a chance to fool with it, I will post an updated list and some matchup analysis.

What do you think about Porygon-Z? Do you have any suggestions for the list? How would you play it? Let’s get some discussion going. :)

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J-Wittz’s Tiny Tourney Report (still not the article yet). I played Regigigas. I thought it would be a surprise. He power locks with Mesprit LA but does bad against other power locks. He’s an old deck but I played him anyway. Game 1: I play my brother. No surprise. He mewtwo X’s and Toxicroak G’s (0-1). Game 2: Amphytric. Manetric and boths Amphys on t1. I cry. Everything on the bench has a power (0-2). Game 3: Straight Machamp. WHAT. The miracle here is that I WIN THIS RIDICULOUS MATCHUP through constant Uxie LV.Xs armed with unknown G’s (1-2). Game 4: Flyqueen (no champ)– I take 5 Prizes over a 6 turn power lock. On the 7th turn he draws into Flygon LV.X and extreme attacks. Boo (1-3). Game 5: Flychamp. He doesn’t draw into Flygon LV.X this time. I go ape with Regigigas (2-3). The End. My brother gets 3rd in masters and my cousin wins seniors.

Now normally, most people would lead to this kind of conclusion: “J-Wittz, just because a deck USED to be good doesn’t mean it all of a sudden could be. Also, Power Lock doesn’t work anymore except for with Palkia G LV.X”. But in this article I’ll discuss how both of these statements are wrong.

Attention everybody! The article is ALMOST starting now! For those of you who already know about GG’s legacy and have been playing for a while, feel free to skip forward to deck analysis. New players might get a bit of enjoyment for reading my next section for some good old Pokemon history. It’s the kind of learning you actually WANT to do!

Gardevoir Gallade: A Brief History

Everybody and their mother knew this deck in the 2007-2008 season. It dominated Nationals and Worlds through famous names like Jason K. aka “Ness” and Gino Lombardi. With scramble energy and double rainbow energy, Gardevoir’s “Psychic Lock” attack provided instant power lock + damage, and Gallade’s “Psychic Cut” were fueled so easily. Only a few other deck variants were seen this year by the time Nationals came around, and GG (as I will henceforth abbreviate) was clearly the “Best Deck In Format”.

In the next season, (2008-2009) GG was initially considered to be a dead deck. With Scramble, Boost, and Double Rainbow Energy gone, and the introduction of Kingrdra, the speedy one-energy attack “donk” (early game wins via quick attacks) decks became all the rage. However, moving more toward City Championships GG saw a revival. I compare this revival much to the time when Michael Jordan came back (once again) to play basketball for the Wizards. He wasn’t really that bad, but he had lost his luster, flair, and overall dominance he once had as the NBA’s best basketball player.

If the Wizards were Michael Jordan’s revival, Weavile SW was GG’s. With Weavile’s “Shadow Charge” attack, one could add two special dark energies and attack a psychic to a Gardevoir or Gallade in one turn, thus only slightly slowing down GG’s speed and mildly harming its consistency. With the special darks attached we now had the added bonus with Weavile’s “Shadow Charge” Poke Power: 10 extra damage for each special dark energy attached! The deck fared fairly well, won a couple of City Championships, and expanded even more when it had the added speed of “Broken Time-Space” from Platinum for the year’s Spring Battle Roads. However, cutting edge decks like Flygon and SP took hold for the rest of the year and GG was once again returned to binders of players everywhere.

So why am I still talking about this dinosaur of a deck? It’s because the deck is STILL GOOD! Here in Illinois, most Masters players are familiar with the infamous Jeremy Adams, who has played GG variants in at least 95% of his tournaments since the deck has existed. He is in my mind the best current GG player, and his statistics back him up quite a bit. He’s played the build down to the precision of science or possibly religion, and he continues to perfect it to this day. As of right now, he’s won BOTH of our Illinois Battle Roads with an impressive record of 10 wins, 1 loss. While Battle Roads have such a low ranking value and we’re so early into events right now, just for kicks you can check the US rankings and he is the 3rd highest ranked player.

Despite the fact that Battle Roads are more fun and less competitive events, Illinois is no pattycake of an area to play in. We host some of the best-known players Globally: Jason K. aka Ness (two time world Champ), Alex B. aka Chuck (99 time worlds qualifier), Rob Downs (05 worlds qualifier), Jimmy Ballard (2nd place worlds 06) — who just retired but is still a legend, and Kyle S. aka Pooka (National champion of last year) is just a state away and often here, so Jeremy’s wins here are nothing to scoff at! But now that you have possibly all the pretense in the world, I’m going to take a look at  the deck itself (a very close identical to his list–he keeps changing it by a card or two so this is the best I’ve got right now) and tell you all why I think it’s so good. Ready? On we go!

The Part You Came Here For: The Deck List / Analysis

Analysis:

Once again, for newer players, the strategy is this– get an early Weavile and use his “Shadow Charge” attack to put energy on a benched  Ralts/Kirilia. Then, evolve Ralts/Kirilia into a Gardevoir to stop your opponent’s Pokemon Powers or a Gallade if you need to do maximum damage to a high-threat or high-HP Pokemon. Rinse and Repeat.

The first thoughts of most players, including myself, with this deck are usually “this deck is grossly inconsistent”. Jeremy himself often says “yeah, if I don’t get a Weavile T1/T2 or a call energy I usually lose”. The deck has a concise search engine and a massive amount of Pokemon. It’s tech cards are all based on healing or moving energy, and it runs minimal metagame techs. Just looking, and sometimes even actually building and playing this list still leads the researcher bewildered at how someone could keep winning with this archaic deck.

There are two ways to play any kind of deck. High Consistency or High Risk/High Payoff. I have never met a more daredevil player than Jeremy concerning this list. The Poke Healers seem to be suicide– FOUR spots out of cards that could be making the deck more consistent??? Yet, he still plays them and often does uses them for the win. Only 4 psychic energy? Where’s the consistency?

A huge boost this deck receives in searchability is Gardevoir’s amazing power “Telepass”. This power lets you play a second supporter during your turn, and it can be anything your opponent has ever played in their discard pile. This not only adds a huge boost to your search engine by being able to reply your opponent’s Bebes, Cynthias, Roseannes, etc. every turn– but it can also frighten opponents into NOT playing a key supporter in fear of letting you use it. It’s one of the best powers in the game and really makes up for the low trainer/supporter count and low draw power.

GG is a deck similar to Flygon in that it is a stage 2 utility deck with plenty of options. The best of which usually remains an early Gardevoir assault. The “Psychic Bind” attack does 60-80 damage depending on if you have Weavile’s “Dark Engage” power in effect, but the effect is sinister. Some might think, “3 energy and only 80 damage is a high price for just a power lock” but it really isn’t. Decks like Flygon especially have a high reliance on Claydol draw and SP Pokemon like Luxray GL LV.X and Palkia G LV.X need powers to work their magic. With energy acceleration through Weavile and a power that adds speed to the deck, GG is actually moderately fast for a stage 2 deck.

The Nideoqueen/Healers tech creates a longer Psychic Lock on the opponent and longer durability. In desperation, Nidoqueen too can be shadow charged and attack with “Ruthless Tail” for 70-120 damage. A lot of readers will seem iffy about this strategy, as I am, but it’s the winning formula Jeremy seems to be riding on. Plus it’s common rumor that Poke Healers are Nation Champ Pooka’s true weakness (he ALWAYS loses to them =P ). A common play is to retreat/Warp Point a damaged Gardy/Gallade for a new one, and then using Lucian’s Assignment to move all the energy over to the new Pokemon. The damaged Pokemon heals on the bench through Nidoqueen’s “Maternal Comfort” and wastes the time your opponent spent doing the damage in the first place.

Gallade is a true tank with 130 HP and his “Psychic Cut” attack– which can do an absurd 200 damage with a “dark engage”, or the prizes can be split for two 140 damage attacks, three 120 damage attacks, or up to 6 100 damage attacks depending on how you distribute your prize-flipping. This makes an easy KO for large tanks like Flygon LV.X, and his fighting type OHKO’s Luxray GL LV.X without flipping a prize.

Jeremy switches on and off with running Gardevoir LV.X , but for a while has dropped the card. It’s a little inconsistent in a deck that already runs such a high amount  of inconsistencies. Gardevoir LV.X’s attack “bring down” is situational and avoidable with Unown G. So all you really get from her (I really want to refer to it as a “him”, it just sounds right :P ) is a Poke Power that acts as a free switch between Gardevoir and the bench, both ways, and 20 more hp. Plus, leveling up leaves you open to a OHKO by Flygon’s “Extreme Attack”.

Some people might argue the use of upper energy in GG because it’s similar to the big card “Scramble Energy” that made GG so powerful back in the day. However, with the need for call and special dark for acceleration, and then just regular psychics to attack, I just can’t see any space for it. Alternate decks will drop the Weavile and dark altogether for uppers, but I don’t recommend it.

So what is this deck good against/ bad against? The answer is a lot like the one you get from Flygon– “it has a competing matchup against a variety of decks and no clear auto-loss”. Its big enemy lies within Toxi-Tank. Remember when I said Jeremy has just one loss this year? That was to my brother’s crazy Mewtwo-Toxitank-Garchomp C-Luxray GL SP build. Toxitank is quick and takes a big advantage out of the the deck’s almost entirely psychic weakness. Plus, poison prevents you from using “Telepass”. The deck has no real autowin matchup, it just performs consistently and provides trouble for everyone– nobody likes their powers locked except Scizor/Cherrim, and that deck sees very very little play.

A lot of people think that this build has a lousy Flygon Lock matchup. Just one Unown G and a couple of Warp Points? That’s it? Yet I’ve seen it clear lots of Flygons just recently. It just relies on out-speeding Flygon with “Shadow Charge” and “Telepass” while slowing its setup down with “Psychic Lock”. When the level X does come into play, it will find ways to bring out Gallade for the OHKO. On the offensive, todays “popular” Flygon/Machamp deck doesn’t do enough raw damage to OHKO Gardevoir or Gallade most of the time. Often a set of Healers with Nidoqueen can wipe away a turn of damage.

And that (phew) is all I’ve got on the subject matter. I think I should add that Jeremy has the supernatural akin to that of Yu-Gi-Oh’s “heart of the cards” where he can mystically draw the one card he needs at any given time. That, my friends, is pure luck and it will certainly help any deck.

Never before have we seen a lack of card rotation in POP– and so for the first time, a deck has remained competitive for THREE SEASONS. What a run! I’m having a ball testing the deck out myself, and I hope you will too. Hope you had fun reading my “Novelette” of an article! Peace!

Here’s the usual question: What do you guys think? Can Gardevoir/Gallade/Weavile remain a competitive deck for a third season? Do you like Jeremy’s healing techs or would you prefer more consistency? Is the deck stable or does it rely on the power of luck?

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