Hello boys and girls and welcome to another fun filled edition of everyones favorite (not really) blog.........POKEBALLING.
First I must say that i am sorry this article took so long to get on top of, I myself blame Kingdom Hearts 3D. Speaking of Kingdom Hearts 3D, if any of my dear readers happen to be a fan of the series I highly suggest picking this up, assuming you possess a 3DS.
Now back to the good stuff, as we draw ever so closer to the North American release of Dragons Exalted. Now I have a massive amount of decks that I wanna talk about before we shift into the new format September 1st, and this brand new set happens to play a big role in the first one.
For those of us who were playing this game during the Diamond/Pearl/Platinum era (D/P/PT), we are quite familiar with the destructive rampage that Garchomp had on that particular format. Starting with the second set in the block, Mysterious Treasures, Garchomp has been leaving a blaze of destruction in its path for a long time. Majestic Dawn brought one of the most creative forms of this card to the tcg in Garchomp Lv.X, who with its Rebirth Pokemon Power made opponents cringe at the site of massive stage 2 Pokemon brought out for free as basics. The Arrival of the SP theme of Pokemon really gave the monstrous Landshark the chance to strut its stuff when it was reinvented as Garchomp C and Garchomp C Lv.X, leaving its mark on the worlds stage in Luxchomp.
Now Dragons Exalted brings this dominating figure back into our tcg, and they even give him a new partner to destroy those who oppose his mighty rage. Garchomp/Altaria is a deck that has been ripping up Japan even placing multiple variants in the top spots of Japans Battle Carnival. The deck is so straight forward its kind of amazing that it works so well.
The Pokemon skeleton for this deck kind of looks like this
4 Gible
3 Gabite
4 Garchomp
3 Swablu
3 Altaria
3 Emolga
Garchomp – Dragon – HP140
Stage 2- Evolves from Gabite
[F] Sonic Cutter: 60 damage. Discard a Special Energy attached to the Defending Pokemon.
[W][F] Dragon Blade: 100 damage. Discard the top 2 cards from your deck.
Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Gabite – Dragon – HP80
Stage 1 – Evolves from Gible
Ability: Dragon Call
Choose 1 Dragon-type Pokemon card from your deck, show it to your opponent, and put it in your hand. Shuffle your deck afterwards. You can use this Ability 1 time during your turn.
[W][F] Dragon Slice: 20 damage.
Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Altaria – Dragon – HP70
Stage 1 – Evolves from Swablu
Ability: Battle Song
As long as this Pokemon is in play, your Dragon-type Pokemon’s attacks do an additional 20 damage to any Active Pokemon.
[W][M][C] Glide: 40 damage.
Weakness: Dragon (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Emolga – Lightning – HP70
Basic Pokemon
[C] Call for Family: Search your deck for two Basic Pokemon and put them onto your Bench. Shuffle your deck afterwards.
[L] Static Shock: 20 damage.
Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 0
Now right off the bat I will be blunt the Gible and Swablu you use don't really matter, the set has two different versions of each one you can try out. At first glance this deck might look very meh to you, and i agree completely. However, when you set and look at the synergy this deck has and you see that the abilities all work together nicely. Gabites Dragon Call makes it so easy to get everything in this deck, Gabite searching for either Garchomp or Altaria allows for fast set up of this devastating deck. Altaria is the true power card in the deck even though you wont be attacking with it. Having multiple Altaria in play means that your Garchomps attacks keep getting stronger and stronger. Now lets look at Garchomp itself, it weighs in at 140 HP, with a one retreat cost and two attacks. Mach Cut does 60 for 1 Fighting Energy and discards a Special Energy card attached to your opponents active Pokemon. Doing 60 damage for one energy might not seem like a big deal but when you calculate Altarias extra 20 damage then you start to hit some big numbers. Dragonblade does a nice 100 for a water and a fighting energy with a two card discard from the top of your deck. This is a minor cost since with two Altaria that 100 turns into 140 making it easy to two shot Mewtwo and other massive EX Pokemon while they cant one shot you back. Emolga brings this deck together with its Call for Family allowing you to fill up your bench faster and its free retreat means you wont be wasting a switch or waiting for it to be knocked out to go on your offensive flurry.
I wont post a trainer skeleton for this deck, since for the most part all trainers for every deck are the same. I will however make note of some key cards that you should be running and some nice little tech ideas that might tickle your fancy. First up on the list is Level Ball, and this card is a must have in at least 3 hand down. Everything in this deck except Garchomp himself is searchable with Level Ball, so with all due respect if you don't run this card don't ever expect to win the mirror match, or most other matches. Pokemon Communication is the choice secondary searcher in this deck. Now some of you might be like but Ultra Ball is so good, and you would be right in most cases. Ultra Ball in this deck however is a bad idea, for the main reason as you don't really wanna needlessly pitch cards to the discard pile. Big Cloak would be a fun little tech for this deck as it would make your Garchomps HP rival that of EX Pokemon making him even harder to knock out. Rescue Scarf would also be something to perhaps look into, more so for your Gabites and Altarias as they will be wearing huge catcher targets on their backs.
This decks weakness to Dragon gives you a huge advantage against every deck other then Hydreigon/Darkrai. However, cards like Raikou EX can really mess you up bad since he can hit both your set up Pokemon without wasting a Pokemon Catcher. Even with these drawbacks and the obvious Catcher targeting on Gabite and Altaria, I strongly believe that this deck can be the best deck in the format.
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