Some of you may say “Not again” – but still, there may have been so many different ways to combine Flygon with in this format. Many of you may be aware that Flygon worked so well with the following techs (or secondary attackers) such as Machamp (SF), Nidoqueen (RR), Mewtwo LV.X (LA), Palkia LV.X (GE), Ariados (MT), Weavile (SW) and Dusknoir (DP) – as proven by numerous tournament wins and top cut finishings (including a 2nd and 3rd place finish at the 2009 World Championships).
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” Poke-Body. 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 (PL) 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” Poke-Power 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” Poke-Power, 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” Poke-Power, 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 Poke-Body. 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 Poke-Power 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” Poke-Body 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” Poke-Body, 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” Poke-Body.
4. Luxray GL LV.X (RR)’s “Bright Look” Poke-Body.
5. Chatot G (SV)’s “Disrupting Spy” Poke-Power.
6. Mime Jr. (SV)’s “Encore” attack.
7. Mr. Mime (MT)’s “Airy Wall” Poke-Body.
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
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Pokemon (21): 3x Trapinch (SW) 2x Vibrava (RR) 3x Flygon (RR) 1x Flygon LV.X (RR) 2x Baltoy (GE) 2x Claydol (GE) 1x Luxray GL (RR) 1x Luxray GL LV.X (RR) 1x Chatot G (SV) 1x Mime Jr. (SV) 1x Mr. Mime (MT) 1x Uxie (LA) 1x Azelf (LA) 1x Unown G (GE) |
Supporters (9): 4x Bebe’s Search 4x Roseanne’s Research 1x Cyrus’s Conspiracy Trainers (18): |
Energy (12): 4x Call 2x Lightning 2x Psychic 4x Fighting |
There are some matchups that consistency can’t win. For everything else, there’s techs.
















