Gyarados Concept

[Ðrakkus]

POKEMON: 23
[4]Magikarp SF
[4]Gyarados SF
[4]Sableye SF - To use his first turn ability
[2]Regice LA
[1]Unown G
[1]Azelf LA
[2]Crobat G
[2]Baltoy GE
[2]Claydol GE
[1]Uxie LA

TRAINERS: 31
[4]Felicity's Drawing - To help discard Magikarp
[4]Roseanne's Research
[1]Bebe's Search
[2]Luxury Ball - Greater chance to draw one
[2]Great Ball
[2]Warp Point
[2]Expert Belt
[4]Poké Turn
[4]Super Scoop Up
[3]Broken Time Space
[3]Pokémon Rescue

ENERGY: 6
[4]Call Energy - (Special Energy)
[2]Warp Energy - (Special Energy)

My Concept so far. Any thoughts/Concerns?
______________________________________

Additional Considerations:

+ Palkia & Palkia Lv. X
+ 1-4 Cyclone energies
+ Warp Point/Switch
+ Uxie/Claydol
+ Bebe's Search
+ Luxury Ball
+ Broken Time Space
+ Pokemon Rescue
+ Time-Space Distortion
+ Great ball
+ Expert belt

[Boznick]

-1 sableye
+1 uxie

[knight1015]

Originally Posted by Boznick

-1 sableye
+1 uxie

Yeah, that actually sounds good. What do you think about Palkia and Palkia LV. X?

[Ðrakkus]

I'm Probably going to go with the Palkia lvl X because of:

POKEPOWER: Restructure

Once during your turn (before your attack), you may have your opponent switch 1 of your Active Pokémon with 1 of your Benched Pokémon. Then, you switch 1 of the Defending Pokémon with 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon. This attack can't be used if Palkia is affected by a Special Condition.

all about control right? seems like a worthy counter to a mime wall

[knight1015]

Originally Posted by Ðrakkus

I'm Probably going to go with the Palkia lvl X because of:

POKEPOWER: Restructure

Once during your turn (before your attack), you may have your opponent switch 1 of your Active Pokémon with 1 of your Benched Pokémon. Then, you switch 1 of the Defending Pokémon with 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon. This attack can't be used if Palkia is affected by a Special Condition.

all about control right? seems like a worthy counter to a mime wall

Yeah, in conjunction with a few Unown Q for free retreat cost, or a switch, or something, that could be pretty beast. Just watch out they don't switch out Palkia when you have nothing to retreat with. An energy-lite deck like this could be in trouble if you got switched to a Pokémon that you couldn't retreat.

[Ðrakkus]

true. gotta watch out for a scenario like that

[knight1015]

Ðrakkus and I just tested this build:

POKEMON: 25
[4]Magikarp SF
[4]Gyarados SF
[3]Sableye SF
[2]Regice LA
[1]Unown G
[1]Azelf LA
[2]Crobat G
[2]Baltoy GE
[2]Claydol GE
[2]Uxie LA
[1]Palkia GE
[1]Palkia LV.X

TRAINERS: 29
[4]Felicity's Drawing
[4]Roseanne's Research
[1]Bebe's Search
[1]Luxury Ball
[2]Great Ball
[2]Warp Point
[2]Expert Belt
[4]Poké Turn
[4]Super Scoop Up
[2]Broken Time Space
[3]Pokémon Rescue

ENERGY: 6
[4]Call Energy - (Special Energy)
[2]Warp Energy - (Special Energy)

After a few tests against my Scizor/Cherrim deck, I think we should try to incorporate 4 Poké Healer +. Because they cure status effects, we can afford to loose the Unown G. Additionaly, we could ditch 1 more Sableye, and maybe 1 Poké Turn and 1 Super Scoop Up. Thoughts?

[pikkdogs]

If you are going to run sableyes you should run 4 of them, cause they are only good on the first turn.

Otherwise, just go with your previous build without the palkia. Palkia is only really good in a flygon deck.

I also would not lose the unown G, if anything add another one. You need them to protect against a gengar or flygon deck.

[Alazor]

This is my on the fly Gyarados deck:

Pokemon: 19

2 Gyarados (1 SF/1 MT)
4 Magikarp (SF)
4 Sableye (SF)
1 Unown ? (LA)--- to discard Magikarps
1 Giratina (PT) --- let loose, just for Shuppet
1-1 Mantine (MT)
1 Chatot (Majestic Dawn)

Trainers: 26

1 Luxury Ball (Stormfront)
2 Dusk Ball (Mysterious Treasures)
2 Pokemon Rescue (Platinum)
3 Super Scoop Up (Diamond and Pearl)
2 Pokedex 910 (Diamond and Pearl)
2 Night Maintenance
1 Looker's Investigation (Platinum)-- just for Shuppet
2 Cynthia's Feeling's (Legends Awakened)
2 Felicity's Drawing (Great Encounters)
4 Bebe's Search (Mysterious Treasures)
3 Roseanne's Research (Secret Wonders)
2 Buck's Training (Legends Awakened)

Energy: 15

5 Psychic
10 Water
1 Upper
2 Cyclone

Maybe this might give some new ideas....

[Ðrakkus]

I have opted to run 4 Poke-healers in my deck in place of 2 Sableyes and 2 warp points.

So far This deck has been Reliable, Consitent and sucsessful!

[Zangoosed]

Theres a big problem you're going to have if you were to run this deck at a City Champs or a larger tournament. The problem is Dialga G deafen lock and Spiritomb AR. With those cards largely populating the current metagame, how do you expect to play a Pokemon Rescue to get your Magikarp back?? I've played against a similar Gyarados deck many times with my Dialga G and have found once you get through 1 Gyarados its basically a cakewalk for the rest of the game as I'll just Deafen lock you. So . . . the answer to this problem is coming in the form of a card called . . . (drumroll please)

Combee from Stormfront. It has a pokemon item (Honey) attached to it that says when you play Combee onto your bench search your discard pile for a basic pokemon and put it onto your bench. 1 Combee is absolutely necessary in Gyarados decks now to combat all the trainer denial. Combee's Honey is uncounterable. Its not a power or body or anything. So, it can't be Powersprayed or anything. Any top player would tell you that if you don't play Combee don't plan on winning an entire tournament.

Also, your deck is very very vulnerable to Luxray GL X. I'd consider techs such as Toxicroak G Promo and Mankey SV to counter Luxray, or otherwise Luxray combined with Lucario GL is going to run all over this deck.

1 Regice LA is enough, 2 is overkill, personally I wouldnt run it at all and would go with Registeel. Lose the Great Balls they are worthless against Spiritomb and they are just plain bad for this deck anyway, the pokemon goes directly to your bench not to your hand. And I'd definitely increase your Bebes Search count to 2-3 because of Spiritomb as well.

Otherwise, Gyarados is a great deck and I'd say an excellent choice for any tournament right now. Good luck with the deck!

[pokemonmaster333]

You could take away 3 of the sableyes.Just after each game,just put sableye on top of your deck.Wa-La!

[Alazor]

It would an interesting card to play in Speedrill if Speedrill is alive any more.

[Ðrakkus]

@ Zangoosed
Thats great advice. as it turns out i have that Combee! DO you think only one is enough? also, i noticed it's attached item says When you put Combee from my hand to the bench i can use it. So would a strategy go like this: Use any Draw power at some point to gather Combee in my hand, then when the time is right (if a gyarados gets knocked out) use it to recover the karp and evolve right back into Gyarados? Makes sense to me.

Some other Considerations for my Deck:
Lookers investigation (Look at opponents hand, chose you or your opponent, that player shuffles their hand into the deck and draws up to 5 cards)

This supporter caught my eye. I dunno what i could switch out for it but it may be something to consider.

Other points:

Sableye- So far it's been a bit useless. The chances are too slim of drawing it on the first turn, however if you do you have the ability ot use a supporter on the first turn. Worth keeping?

Regice - Been a big part of my deck, helpful in discaring the karps quickly and forcing a switch-out on my opponents side. However, has a flaw. If the opponents active is evolved i can't switch him out (Devastating vs. Scizor) I bet instead of having 2 of these i could switch for the Combee.

Plus Powers: Worth getting? The expert belt with some added plus powers could be enough to take out someones main tank in one hit.

Azelf - A somewhat useful card. If i can get him into my hand i can see my prizes and switch one card out from my hand. This could be really helpful if my prizes held something i needed.

Palkia/Palkia Lv. X- Some times it comes out, others it dones't, It's kinda good for keeping The opponents main attacker on the bench. It's flaw is that my opponent gets to switch me out as well. has elemnts of redundancy, because of Crobat’s free retreat cost. HOWEVER, There is another Palkia Lv. X which I mau be able to get my hands on, I was wondering whether or not to try for it. The main reason I would want it is for this:

(Poke Power)
Lost Cyclone
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may use this power. Any player who has 4 or more Benched Pokémon chooses 3 of his or her Benched Pokémon. Put the other Benched Pokémon and all cards attached to them in the Lost Zone. This power can't be used it Palkia is affected by a Special Condition.

Someone got this guy in a pack last Sunday (LUCKY!) so i was wondering whether or not to try for it.

[Zangoosed]

Sableyes are absolutely necessary for Gyarados. You need atleast 3-4 in the deck.

Again I think you'll have a hard time with Regice. His power won't work alot of the times you need it to work. In my opinion, Registeel is much better at discarding the cards cause it ALWAYS works.

Azelf is necessary. If 1 of your Magikarps are prized then have fun doing only 60 damage for the entire game.

I don't think you need Pluspowers. Between the SSU's and Poketurns with Crobat G, thats all the extra damage you'll need.

And I'm not a fan of using Palkia X GE or the Palkia G Lv. X in this deck at all. Forget those techs and focus more on Toxicroak G or Mankey SV.

[Ðrakkus]

What use are the Sableyes? If you don't get em first tunr they're useless -_-
I can get rid of Palkia but Toxicroak and/or mankey don't seem helpful

[Zangoosed]

But odds are you will get them in your first turn. And when you do it GUARANTEES a good start and a decent set up. Why wouldn't you want to play them???

[p8ntchucker7]

Toxicroak G promo and Mankey SV are very good for this deck because people with always try one-shotting your Gyrados with Luxray GL X. Promocroak will one-shot Luxray right back. It's basically a counter to a counter.

[Ðrakkus]

Alright, so Sableyes can stay.

The Toxicroak is this one right?

Poke Power: Leap Away
Once during your turn (before your attack), if Toxicroak G is your Active Pokémon, you may flip a coin. If heads, return Toxicroak and all cards attached to it to your hand. This Power can't be used if Toxicroak is affected by a Special Condition.

Poison Revenge
ポイズンリベンジ 20+
If any of your Pokémon were Knocked Out by damage from an opponent's attack during his or her last turn, this attack does 20 damage plus 40 more damage and the Defending Pokémon is now Poisoned.

And the Mankey i can't seem to find, what can it do?

[BJJ763]

The Mankey also one shots Luxray.

[Ðrakkus]

So i found on Bulbapedia the Mankey from Supreme Victors. (the pic showed a Japanese one only...)
It does
Extra Punch
ジョルトパンチ 10+
If the Defending Pokémon is a Pokémon LV.X, this attack does 10 damage plus 50 more damage. Which is what i'am assuming is what would help with Luxray GL lv. X

But,
The Luxray GL lv. X has 110 health so i don't see how it could one shot him.
I may be missing something here, so if you could link a card description for the right one that would be cool

[Alazor]

(10+50)*2=120, so it one shots it.

[Ðrakkus]

Wow i didn't realize before, sorry this took so long XD
didn't see Luxrays x2 fighting weakness
so that is a great tech! I think i could afford to get some Mankeys in my Gyarados deck for sure.

Oh pretty cool fact, i beat the one of the world championship decks (the one with Luxray GL lv. X in it) using this gyarados deck

The Combee, Totally saved me that game, great sugestion Zangoosed.

i've implemented a lookers investigation as well.