Are you ready to bring despair to your opponent?
Things are steaming up in the metagame as everybody thought that a certain bird rested at the top of the roost. Though that didn’t last long as a one card proved that it can take the top spot as queen. It has a cold heart that doesn’t care who it has to sacrifice in order to take a victory. The more this card destroys, the stronger it becomes. It is a strong card that doesn’t take no from anybody. Especially with how quickly it can set up to unleash a fury of attacks. This card can quickly become the meaning of cold and merciless in a matter of turns. This week we are going to feature M Gardevoir EX from Steam Siege!
M Gardevoir EX is a card from Steam Siege that has two types: Fairy and Psychic. This card has 210 HP and evolves from Gardevoir EX. If you wish to attack with M Gardevoir EX then it will be with Despair Ray. This attack does 110 damage for a Fairy and another energy card. This attack also does 10 more damage for each Pokemon that is discarded from your bench. It has a weakness to Metal Pokemon, resistance to Darkness and has a two energy retreat cost.
The Pros
M Gardevoir EX was release back in August 2016 and did see some play. That is mostly due to some of the positives the card had such as a low energy cost and strong base damage.
The low energy cost allows M Gardevoir EX to attack right away as soon as it Mega Evolves. All you have to do is attach an energy during your first turn along with a Spirit Link on to Gardevoir EX. Then during your second turn you attach another energy and Mega Evolve Gardevoir EX into M Gardevoir to start your onslaught.
Even better, you can quickly set up another M Gardevoir EX to attack by attaching a Fairy Energy and use a Mega Turbo in one turn. So if one M Gardevoir EX falls then another one can get ready to attack quickly. You just need to make sure you have one on the bench to Mega Evolve when it is your turn.
Despair Ray may only cost two energy but it can hit pretty hard. It does 110 base damage which is enough to two hit KO many things in the format. Nobody would like to get hit for 110 damage on your second turn. If you want to hit a little harder then you can discard some things on your bench to hit certain numbers like 130 HP to knock out Greninja and Talonflame. Maybe you want to use Lysandre to knock out Shaymin EX? Then 110 is just enough damage to knock out a Shaymin EX for your last two prizes.
You can also use Despair Ray to get rid of some unwanted liabilities in the form of Hoopa EX and Shaymin EX. These cards are constantly targets for Lysandre to either take an easy knock out as the case for Shaymin EX or stall the game with Hoopa EX. So some players will want to use their first Despair Ray to simply get rid of these liabilities that could cost them the game towards the end.
The duel typing can also work in M Gardevoir EX’s advantage because it can hit two types for super effective damage. The Fairy typing helps give advantage over Dragon decks that may pop up. Meanwhile, the Psychic typing will allow M Gardevoir EX hit Psychic typing for double damage. That is bad news for M Mewtwo EX who has a weakness to Psychic type Pokemon. It is because M Gardevoir EX that M Mewtwo EX has had some trouble staying on top. It takes a lot of energy for M Mewtwo EX to knock out M Gardevoir EX who can do the same thing for simply two energy.
The Cons
M Gardevoir EX doesn’t have too many cons when it comes to the card itself. The card does have a weakness to Metal Pokemon which will be bad if that type ever has a strong deck. M Scizor EX will wipe this card off the field in seconds. It is also fast enough to simply take knock out after knockout on M Gardevoir EX to trade blows. That is if M Gardevoir EX can even knock out M Scizor EX. Magearna EX firing a fully charged Soul Blaster will do the trick too.
Ability Lock can also put a damper on M Gardevoir EX’s parade. M Gardevoir EX relies on abilities such as Shaymin EX and Hoopa EX to set up. It also needs abilities to maintain the constant flow of resources and recover lost Pokemon. Later on in this article we will mention a valuable tech that helps M Gardevoir EX. The problem is that this tech becomes useless if your opponent sets up an ability lock via Garbodor or a few well times Hex Maniac.
How to Use It
If you are familiar with the play style of M Rayquaza EX then you should feel right at home with M Gardevoir EX. You want to set up quickly by using your first Ultra Ball to search out for one of your Hoopa EX. After that you want to grab a few Shaymin EX and Gardevoir EX to flood the bench and just keep grabbing cards. Do this until you get your side of the board set up and can ensure that you will get your M Gardevoir EX during your following turn. Once you have evolved into M Gardevoir EX then all you need to do is use Despair Ray to discard all those Hoopa EX and Shaymin EX who can be used as late game liabilities.
You want to get the first attack with M Gardevoir EX. Despair Ray hits for 110 HP which is the perfect number to two hit KO anything in this format. This card is a quick attacker that wants to keep on hitting after it starts attacking. The hits keep coming once you attack with M Gardevoir EX.
Even better, this card is easy to set up which is good when your attacking M Gardevoir EX goes down. All you need is an Ultra Ball to search out another M Gardevoir EX and evolve the one on your bench. After that you can attach an energy from your hand and use Mega Turbo to attach the second energy to continue your barrage.
Now lets talk about a tech that helps bring M Gardevoir EX into the spotlight: Dragonite EX from Evolutions.
Dragonite EX has an ability call Pull Up which allows you to take two Basic Pokemon from your discard and put it into your hand. This will allow you to grab cards like Hoopa EX and Shaymin EX to refresh your bench and hand. Most of the time you will throw away your entire bench when you use Despair Ray to either do extra damage or get rid of card that you do not want to be Lysandre targets. Though you want to keep Dragonite EX and Karen or Brock’s Grit to pull off an interesting combination.
You will need to use Dragonite EX to Pull Up Hoopa EX another Basic Pokemon. Once you have done that then you can use Karen or Brock’s Grit to put your Pokemon back into your deck. Play down your Hoopa EX to grab some needed EX Pokemon like Shaymin EX, M Gardevoir EX and Gardevoir EX. Your hand will be refreshed with a new hand and your bench has plenty of things to discard with Despair Ray. The idea of this combination is to refresh your hand and set up another M Gardevoir EX.
The addition of Dragonite EX in M Gardevoir EX really help the deck grab new resources and be consistent in the late game. The deck struggled to keep a constant flow towards the end of match due to running through resources so quickly. Dragonite EX was the key to help this deck keep going after a few Despair Ray.
Another useful tech in this deck was Rattata from Evolutions. This card has an ability call Mischievous Fang which allows you to discard a Tool from your opponent’s active Pokemon. This will allow you to get rid of Spirit Links on your opponent’s un-Mega Evolved Pokemon, Fighting Fury Belt on Pokemon who are hanging on for survival and Float Stone on heavy Pokemon that won’t appreciate being stuck in the active.
As mention before, M Gardevoir EX doesn’t have too many weaknesses outside of it’s Metal weakness. You do not want to face anything Metal as it will simply fall to the cold hard steel.
You will struggle against Ability Lock such as Garbodor and Hex Maniac. M Gardevoir EX needs Dragonite EX, Hoopa EX and Shaymin EX to constantly refuel to set up and hit big numbers. If this card can’t set up then it will be unable to continue the fight when one goes down. You can try to knock out the Garbodor if that is the source of the Ability Lock. The problem is that you are not taking a knockout on the main attacker which could set you up to seeing a M Gardevoir EX being knock out.
M Gardevoir EX can be a cruel mistress as it starts attacking your opponent’s Pokemon. It has an array of accessories to help keep this Pokemon in the battle. If you use the card correctly then you will surely bring despair to your opponent as you clear your bench to ensure victory.
