Get ready to learn about a deck that is all the rage right now. Florida Regional has ended and there were plenty of strong decks there. So this week we are going to take a look at one of those strong decks that made a huge splash there.
This deck went wild at Florida Regionals. It retaliated against the competition and showed some real rage in each attack. There was a real lake of rage happening when this deck took the table as power began to swarm. Each turn brought out another heavy hitter who was ready to take down any opponent that came its way. Every attack could have been a heavy blow as this deck fire off hits. All it took was a single evolution and Double Colorless Energy to bring out an attack of full rage. Which deck are we talking about that is making an epic splash? It is a deck that starts with a small Pokemon with little to it but evolves into a huge powerhouse! The deck we are going to be spotlighting today is Gyarados.
Are you ready to dive into a brand new deck? Then lets take a look at the Epic Gyarados deck!
Decklist
Pokemon- 11
Shaymin EX x2
Meowstic EX
Magikarp X4
Gyarados x4Trainers- 45
Professor Syacmore x3
N x2
Teammates x2
Lysandre
Hex Maniac
Pokemon Ranger
VS Seeker x4
Ultra Ball x4
Buddy-Buddy Rescue x4
Puzzle of Time x4
Acro Bike x3
Dive Ball x3
Trainers’ Mail x3
Escape Rope
Special Charge
Town Map
Bursting Balloon x2
Float Stone
Team Magma’s Secret Base x4Energy- 4
Double Colorless Energy x4
Deck Breakdown
The main purpose of this deck is to constantly attack using Gyarados from Ancient Origins. This card has an attack call Full Retaliation that cost a single DCE. This attack has a base damage of 30 damage but does 30 more damage for each damage counter on your benched.
So how do you set up damage on your Magikarp? This deck does it by simply playing down Team Magma’s Secret Base which puts two damage counters on each of your non-Team Magma Pokemon. That means each Magikarp you put down while Team Magma’s Secret Base is out will get two damage counters upon entry. If you have three Magikarp with two damage counters each on your bench then your Gyarados’s Full Retaliation will be doing 210 damage. That is an impressive amount of damage from a big fish.
This deck can place the opponent in an awkward situation as you are not sure which Pokemon to knock out. You can try to knock out the Gyarados but your opponent has a bench filled with Magikarp ready to evolve into a powerhouse Gyarados. They just need to use Buddy-Buddy Rescue to retrieve the fallen Magikarp and have the new Gyarados attack. You could knock out one of the back Magikarp but your opponent still has a powerful Gyarados to attack. There is no real good way to take out these fishes unless you carefully plan your knockouts.
This deck is all about getting the right numbers and more. That is why we will be talking to Addison Powell who piloted this deck to place Top 16 at Florida Regionals. He is going to give us a behind-the-scenes look at the deck and how it plays.
Pokemon Crossroads: What made you think of the idea of using Gyarados and Magikarp?
Addison Powell: Our friend John was trying to play it in Standard last year, but Night March was a bad match up. So like Mega Mewtwo EX, this deck had to wait until Night March rotated. When he first sent us the initial list, we all kind of shrugged it off and laughed about it. Then he got Andrew to test it and he was all for it. Andrew then made me play a game with it and it sucked. I hated it for every draw-pass turn. I think my hand was like 4 VS Seeker and 2 DCE and a Magikarp to start. And until he knock out my Magikarp I just drew Buddy Buddy Rescue and more DCE. I was mad that I had fallen for the meme but he got me to try it again. It worked how it was supposed to, and when it works how it should the deck is stupid good.
PXR: When you and your friends were building the deck, what were some things you had to think about when it came to card choices? Why did you play certain cards in the deck?
AP: Some cards our initial lists had a second Meowstic EX, an Archie’s Ace in the Hole, higher counts of Float Stone and no Bursting Balloon. We tested against Mega Scizor EX and even with the Meowstic EX, with Shield Energy, we still couldn’t OHKO the Mega Scizor EX. So because of there is no tool removal, Bursting Balloon is a stupid good tool. It made the Scizor match up turn from 30-70 to 80-20. (Bursting) Balloons also help in the mirror and the Rainbow Road match up because of Gyarados’s Theta Double. If you could attach both (Bursting Ballon) at the same time, they (the Rainbow Road player) would have to pass and miss a knock out, or attack and get knocked out. Everything else seems kind of standard for a deck. The second Teammates was because prizing one when there is only one hurts really bad. We ended up taking Archie’s out because this is not an Archie’s format anymore.
PXR: Talks about this deck has happen before and some have tried building it. Though none of those people included Meowstic EX. Why you and your friends did included this card in the deck?
AP: I went over this above, but I’ll repeat myself because Meowstic EX was the MVP of the weekend. You could write an article about how good this card is in this deck. People can think a little bit on why Meowstic EX is so good in the deck but it just gets better the more you play test with it. Against Giritana EX, if you take a damage counter off of a Gyarados, you will have 120 HP, which is out of range of an OHKO. So you can attack twice with the one DCE you have on the board. Which is really big when you can not attach energy from hand. There are so many more ways it can help but I don’t want this whole QA to be about Meowstic EX.
PXR: What were some big decks that you were planning to face at Florida Regionals? Was Volcanion one of those decks?
AP: Volcanion, Mega Mewtwo, Darkrai-Giritina-Garb, Xerneas BREAK-Giritina, Mega Scizor.
PXR: What is the best part about playing this deck?
AP: it’s the most fun deck I have found playing in Standard.
PXR: Anything that hits the bench can be bad news for this deck as it simply knock outs your Magikarp. Based on this, Rainbow Road would be a tough match up for you thanks to Galvantula’s Double Thread attack. What do you do when you are facing that deck?
AP: You can use Meowstic EX to kill them before they evolve if they benched the Joltik under Magma’s Base. And if they bench two, you can Lysander the other one and (Shaymin EX) Sky Return it.
PXR: Another tough match up has to be Giratina EX variants and Item Lock decks. The Giratina EX variants will try to lock you out of stadium and DCE while Item Lock will prevent you from running through you deck. What do you do against those decks?
AP: The list does play one Pokémon Ranger, and if you don’t get hit with an Enhanced Hammere, you can easily win because they take 2 energy attachments to attack. I beat one Giritina player Day One, and Day Two I narrowly lost to a Darkrai-Giritina player.
PXR: Every great deck has to have its flaws. What are some of the Gyarados’s deck weaknesses?
AP: This deck doesn’t do good if you prize Magikarp. And almost your whole deck is items, so Vileplume is practically an auto loss.
PXR: What was one of your favorite matches from Florida Regionals?
AP: Round 9 was really fun. It was against Volcanion and we were so tired we really didn’t care, but I needed the win so I couldn’t ID with him.
PXR: Based on your performance at Florida Regionals, what changes would you make to the deck and why?
AP: I would take out a Gyarados to put in an Enhanced Hammer. You don’t need 4, and energy denial against Giratina is pretty good.
PXR: Now, if I was going to go to a tournament with this deck, I will need to use the Shiny Magikarp card in order for this deck to work. Right? Why is this Magikarp the superior of all Marikarp cards in the current format?
AP: They are super easy to find in your deck if they are the only bling you play. Plus it’s gold. Why wouldn’t you? I guess it could work with other ones, it just wouldn’t be the same.
PXR: Do you think this deck could become a top tier deck in the upcoming meta?
AP: I think it is solid tier 2. Most of its counters are tier 1 so while they are so good I don’t think it can do as well as it did at this tourney.
Thank you Addison for the insight on this deck and how it plays. The deck sounds like a it is tough to play against and amazing to play. Best of luck to your future battles this season!
Do we have another powerful deck that is ready to make a bigger splash in the future? Only time can tell but now you too can try out this deck! You heard from the master who took this deck to Top 16. This deck can make the field into a lake of rage as you use your mighty Gyarados to take knockouts. So go ahead and give this deck a try as you double the trouble for your opponent!
