Gatsu and me have prepared 2 articles for you about the Gardilade deck. The first article is by Gatsu, the second article is by me. I hope you will enjoy them!
Author = Andceo and Gatsu
Date = January 25, 2008
Format = HP-SW
Deck = Gardilade
UPDATE: WE HAVE A NEW LIST!!!! I'LL KEEP THE OLDER ONE, BUT I'LL SHOW YOU THE HP-GE GARDILADE LIST:
2 Ralts DF
2 Ralts SW
2 Kirlia SW
3 Gardevoir SW
2 Gallade SW
1 Gardevoir LVX
3 Sentret SW
3 Furett SW
3 Pachirisu GE
1 Baltoy GE
1 Claydol GE
1 Duskull DP
1 Dusknoir DP
4 Celio’s Network
1 Bebe’s Search
4 Rare Candy
2 Roseanne’s Search
1 Team Galactic Wager
2 Night Maintenance
2 Pluspower
1 Strenght Charm
2 Lake Boundary
4 Double Rainbow Energy
2 Scramble Energy
3 Cyclone Energy
2 Fighting Energy
5 Psychic Energy
FOR THE DISCUSSION, PLEASE FOLLOW THE TOPIC.
This is the list Gatsu and me used all our SPTs.
As you can see, both us developed the "Plox" idea, building our decks playing around Gardevoir SW "Psychic Lock" attack.
It means you will see 3 Gardevoir SW, only 2 Gallade SW and no Gardevoir PK.
The deck uses Lake Boundary over Phoebe's Stadium or other stadium to abuse of P weakness, and PlusPower and Strenght Charm are here to reach the 140 damages level, in order to KO both Gallade and Gardevoir LVX in one single hit.
Things about the list:
WHAT POKEMON DO YOU USE TO SETUP? We tried 4 Pachirisu and 2-2 Claydol, we tried 4-3 Furret and no Pachirisu. At the end, we came to the fact that all them are needed. The 4-3 Furret list has the problem of the small Bench, and we saw several players losing their SPTs against T2 decks or after a crappy hand. This is a thing we don't accept. After that, we tried the 4 Pachirisu and 2-2 Claydol engine. Even if you start in a good way most of the times, there are still several problems. If the opponent stops your Claydol (Wager + Plox or other ways) you have no way of play your game as you want. You cannot use your cards and you will have several problems without Claydol. With Furret's Keen Eye however, you can recover immediately after a Wager of after some problems in the setup taking 2 cards you want out of the deck. And in Plox mirror, this can make you win (the opponent is ahead on prizes, you send Furret to getting Scrambles and PlusPower and you can take the field control even if you are under in prizes). Furret is also a good hitter with the second attack, and with it you will have an alternative attacker if the opponent want you to attack with your Gardi-dudes (in the mirror, the first who attacks is the first who will lose one of his key Pokémon) or if you are, for example, against a Garchomp MT or a Gyarados MT. As Sentret/Furret are better than Claydol, but even the Fighting Pokèmon is good in several situation, we decided to go for 3-3 Sentret, 1-1 Claydol and also 3 Pachirisu, because WE DON'T WANT to start bad.
WHY 4 CELIO's AND 1 BEBE's? We simply don't want to start bad. And these cards are the only one who can make you start in the perfect way, getting out Furret, Claydol and Gardevoir.
ONLY 1x WAGER? ARE YOU CRAZY? No, we're not crazy. We use only 1x Wager because we don't focus all our games on Claydol (i think it is a clever thing in a Plox metagame) and we don't want to have multiple Wager in the discard pile our opponent is going to copy with his Gardevoir. We prefer to have other cards to setup, and we use our 1xWager midgame, under Plox, to destroy the opponent hand if he is preparing a trick.
WHY DUSKNOIR? Gardilade is a deck who is open to tech and 1-0-1 lines. We found out Dusknoir is the best of them for 2 reasons: 1) Force the opponent to play with only 4 Pokèmon 2) It's A GREAT HITTER MIDGAME.
About the 1), it's extremely good vs Fire Truk and Hurricane (even better if the opponent is not expecting it to be played), which base their game on a large Bench. And with all that Pachirisu around, is a perfect choice. The 2) thing is maybe even more important. This deck suffers a lot the midgame situation, when your Pokémon cannot do more than 60 damages (50 with DRE). This is when Dusknoir comes out. If you need to do your last 2 prizes and your opponent is 2 prizes from the victory, Dusknoir can come out and do 90 damages, which are a big amount. And DRE doesn't hurt you. Thanks to Cyclone, you can do a final hit of 100 damages to a Benched Pokèmon...and if you are 5-5, i don't know if your opponent has the strenght to have more than 1 Pokèmon with more than 100 HP to the death in play. I think this Pokémon is perfect for this deck. And well, to those who think Feraligatr MT or W tech are better because they help vs Magmortar, i can say Dusknoir can help vs Magmortar as well (the last Magmortar LVX of the opponent will have a hard time against Dusknoir).
WHY THAT ENERGIES? 4 DRE are a must, we use 2 Scramble because we think they are very good in many situation. With them, you can go under prizes vs both GG and Magmortar and then make a big revenge with all your Scrambled Pokémon. This is wonderful. It's difficult for them to contrast Scrambled Pokémon (who usually do 10 damage more because they are not using DREs). About the other, i think Cyclone is very good, especially very early game (you send away the opponent started) and very late game (to do the last prize on a random Benched Pokémon).
Hope you enjoyed it.
THIS IS THE OLDER ARTICLE:
City Championships saw Gallade-Gardevoir in almost every TOP!
It was by far a tier one in the format. One of the most succesful version was the one packed with disrupution from Absol and Team Galactic’s Mars.
Here’s a basic list of the deck with a short description of his strategy and key cards. A short analysis of match-ups follows.
LIST:
Pokémon (17)
4 Ralts SW
2 Kirlia SW
3 Gallade SW
2 Gardevoir SW
1 Gardevoir lvl X SW
4 Absol SW
1 Sableye CG
Trainers (9)
4 Rare Candy
2 Night Maintenance
2 Warp Point
1 Strenght Charm
Supporter (18)
4 Celio’s Network
4 Roseanne’s research
4 Team Galactic’s Mars
3 Team Galactic’s Wager
3 Oak’s Visit
Energy (16)
4 Double Rainbow
2 Scramble Energy
2 Basic Darkness Energy
2 Fighting Energy
6 Psychic Energy
MAIN POKEMON:
Gallade
Gallade is your main hitter. 130 HP and 2 retreat are standard but good.
His second attack (Psychic Cut) allows you to customize your damage adding 20 for each prize you chose to flip face-up.
This allows you to deal up to 180 damage with a single attack for just 3 energies! To have such a huge impact for such a few energies you should go back to Lugia EX.
Off course you should carefully chose how many prizes to flip not to run out of gas late game.
Psychic cut also helps to avoid those nasty situations where you find you have key cards or Basic Pokèmon prized. This helps a lot deck’s consistency.
His first attack (Sonic blade) is very good too, it leaves defending at 50 HP and sends it to the bench.
It’s very good when all of your prizes are flipped over since it allows you to KO with 2 hits, even with a double rainbow attached using Sonic Blade+Psychic Cut.
Gardevoir
Gardevoir is a great card! His HP are below average in this format but his amazing Poké-Power will help your setup and makes your deck run smoother also late game.
Telepass (this the name of the power) allows you to use any supporter in opponent’s discard pile.
If you think that almost any deck use Celio’s network and/or Roseanne’s research, you understand that you’ll have a guaranted help each turn early game.
Late game Telepass is great to recover after a lost Team Galactic’s wager.
Gardevoir’s attack, Psychic Lock, is great too, it do 60 and stops all of your opponent’s Pokè-Power on the following turn. If your opponent has a Team Galactic’s wager of his own in his discard pile, you can play it every turn, wait for him to lose it (with hand down to 3 cards) and use Psychic Lock to avoid his Gardevoir/Delcatty/Electabuzz/Claydol’s powers to refill their hand!
Gardevoir lvl X
This card is a true Silver Bullet for the deck. Not only has a Pokèpower “Teleportation” that allows it to switch with any Pokémon (Active or Benched), avoiding nasty problems with special conditions, it also has an attack (Bring down) that Kos the Pokemon with the less remaining HP.
The sinergy with Gallade’s Sonic Blade is amazing.
Also: Psychic Cut KOS Pokèmon early game, Bring Down cleans small threats late game, you can usually snipe unevolved basics and supporter Pokémon like Delcatty, Minum, Sableye…
This card boosts deck even more!!!
Its only downsides are few HP and double weakness to Psychic...
Absol
This is your preferred starter. His attack “Baleful Wind” lets you discard 1 card at random from opponent’s hand. If the card is a Trainer, supporter or stadium, you can discard a second one.
If you think how many of those cards are used in today’s decks you can figure how easy is to hit 2 cards per turn.
Even if you don’t discard 2 cards, you are still taking off important parts of opponent’s strategy. Think how bad is discarding one of the three Infernape from an “Inferncatty” deck!
Team Galactic’s Mars is a great card that helps even more to disrupt opponent’s hand size!
Absol is also a decent hitter since it can do 40 for a single energy with Raid on the turn you lay it down on the bench. To attack he need to be active and this is where Teleportations is useful!
Remember that he is resistant to Psychic (Gallade and Gardevoir’s weakness!!!).
Team Galactic's Wager
This card can easily change the balance in a game. Not only it stops any plan your opponent could make for the following turn (like chosing cards with Furret's Keen Eyes), but it can leave your opponent with just 3 cards in hand, add a Baleful wind from Absol and you could leave your opponent with 1 card and no supporter to draw more...
Usually this card is feared from both the players for his "double edge effect", about 50% of the time your opponent will win Wager and YOU are left with 3 cards.
This card defines format and can change a match...
Gardevoir's Pokepower has an amazing synergy with wager, since most of the time you can recover from a lost Wager with opponent's supporter.
If opponent tried to plays a Wager of his own, you can even use it every turn to mess his plan every turn!
Some days ago i used opponent's Wager and won, used a Team Galactic's Mars as Turn's Supporter then used Baleful Wind for 2 cards...
Opponent was left with 0 card in hand in a single turn!
A deck that is not scared by this card, and uses it as a weapon is even better in this format!
STRATEGY:
Remember that this deck’s aim is not to leave opponent with 0 cards in hand the whole game.
Early disruption should be enough to put your opponent in a situation where he can assemble just a single hitter (easily 1 hit koed by your Gallade) and is then left with a bunch of weak basics (easy fodder for Gardevoir’s telepass).
Gallade and Gardevoir offers you 4 different attacks (already described) that gives you great variety and an answer to any weak strategy an opponent could make after Team Galactic’s Mars And Absol ruined his setup!
Deck is very solid thanks to his strong supporter line, Gardevoir’s Power (2 supporter per turn is great to always have a large hand and to find answer), not so much fear of cards to being prized (thanks to Gallade’s attack).
18 Supporters may be a little too much, but i prefer to have many of them and to topdeck them often (especially since opponent's Absol tends to lower my hand seize).
Rare Candy are self explanatory and should never miss in a stage Two deck!
Attacks are cheap and Double Rainbow and Scramble energies provide even faster ways to power up your Pokemon!
Two Night maintenance are needed to use even more Gallades and Gardevoirs after some of them get KOed, Night maintenance is also good to shuffle back basics and evolutions discarded by opponent's Absol (the deck is really good and you should expect to find many mirror-match).
This and Magmortar variants are, by far, the best decks in format right now. Even decks made just to beat it (like Banette) have troubles going further than 45-55.
MATCHUPS:
Magmortar decks:
Magmortar is the great contender to this deck. His above average HP (110 and 130 on Lvl X) makes hard to one hit-Ko more than two with Psychic Cut. Late game, Magmortar’s Healing body makes hard to two hit KO with Sonic Blade+Psychic Cut. It is wise to two hit KO Magmortar early game and do not fall in the lure to flip over all of your prizes too soon.
Deck is sometime supported by Absol. More common is Delcatty (to draw cards) and Typhlosion (to refill of energies Magmortars), mind Typhlosion’s attack that can make short work of your Double Rainbow and Scramble. Remember not to bench Sableye since it makes you impossible to KO Benched Delcattys or Absols with Bring down!
50-50 against Typholsion-Magmortars
60-40 against Absol-Magmortar
Moving Truk
Deck has no problem recovering from Absol’s discard but have serious problems with 1hko on his early Blissey and 1hko on Electivire. 110 – 120 damage from Electivire are usually not enough to deal with Gallade and Gardevoir.
Also Psychic Lock gives this deck serious headaches…
70-30
Inferncatty
Delcatty offers recover from lost Wagers and Absol’s discard. Infernape’s damage is not high enough, but Lxl X and Delcatty EX usually can 1hko anything without problems. Psychic Lock, by the way, stalls the deck greatly avoiding Delcatty’s powers to refill their hand after a “flare up”. Remember not to bench Sableye since it makes you impossible to KO Benched Delcattys with Bring down!
60-40
Hurricane (Feraligator, Delcatty, Magneton)
Like Infernape, this deck has serious problems with repeated Psychic Lock after their reshulfed energies to 1hko you Gallade. This is even easier due to their slower setup! Again remember not to bench Sableye since it makes you impossible to KO Benched Delcattys with Bring down!
70-30
Straight Blissey
Sableye offers you all the time you need to setup. If they have WP+water they still need time to pass 30 from resistance. They also need FF not to be 1hit koed with 2 prizes flips!
Gallade then 1hko Blissey with 4 prizes (if it has FF attached) or 2 prizes (no FF).
Even after all prizes are flipped up, two hits are enough to kill Blissey.
75-25
Banette variants
This deck is built just to beat Gallade and Gardevoir. It packs disruption if the form of Crystal Beach, Cessation Crystal and Energy Removal 2. It contains many way to 1hkos stuff early game (Ghost head for Absol and Lake Boundary For Gallade).
You should hope to go first and start with Sableye or Absol. If you go second and have a basic darkness or Roseanne go for raid (even just for 20-30) to avoid Ghost Head 1hko (they are now forces to use second attack with a Strenght Charm).
Try to build Gardevoir lvl X and use free switching to abuse Raid for 40X2 if they laid down Lake Boundary to 1hko Gallade. Don’t be afraid to use Night Mantainance to recover Darkness and Absols. If your opponent has a good list this is a hard matchup.
45-55
Blissey versions are easier since Chansey starts offers you some breath early game.
55-45
Dark Wing Duck (Absol-Honchkrow)
If you setup Gardevoir their discarding strategy is basically over thanks to Telepass that gives you the chance to abuse their own discarded supporters. Sableye’s Excavate gives you better Topdecks.
Mind for Fighting Resistance and buffer pieces since it can mess your 2 hit koes strategies after you flipped all of your prizes… Remember to attack with Gardevoir lvl X to kill benched Umbreon Star and Murkrows.
65-35
Lucario Variants.
The worst scenario is an early KO on absol from lucario.
After that your Gallade can 1hit Ko 3 Lucarios withou any problems..
Warp point helps to get rid of Lucario lvl X with Stance and you can easily KO active Riolu with Gardevoir or Gallade.
65-35
Empoleon Variants
Empoleon lacks damage output to worry you. It is very slow to charge and you can easily 1ko it and 2 Hit KO even late game. Don’t miss opportunity to wager it down to 3 as often as you can!
65-35
VARIATIONS:
A lot of card could be included to fit the metagame:
If Banette worries you, you can rise Sableye’s number (even if it is useless in many other match ups) and can even think to put some Windstorm (dead card in all other matchups).
Strenght charm and Pluspower are great to improve mirror and Magmortar’s matchups.
Some people even put Lake Boundary to have a better match up in mirror (I had 6 mirror in 7 games at my last tournament).
I often used some Pokedex Handy 909is to rise early game consistency…
A third Gardevoir SW is often used to raise consistency and gives you a better chance in mirror.
Alberto “Gatsu” Moretto
Here’s my article about the Gardevoir/Gallade deck, which revealed to be the best in the HP-SW format and in the City Championship season.
There are several ways of running a Gardevoir/Gallade deck, but they are mostly played with Absol.
This is a version I suggest you to try.
LIST
25
3 Corsola SW
4 Sentret SW
3 Furret SW
2 Ralts d DF
2 Ralts DF (reprinted from SS)
2 Kirlia SW
1 Gardevoir PK
2 Gardevoir SW
1 Gardevoir LVX SW
2 Gallade SW
1 Absol
1 Magikarp MT (as tech)
1 Gyarados MT (as tech)
14
5 Psychic Energy
2 Holon Energy WP
1 Water Energy
2 Cyclone Energy
4 Double Rainbow Energy
21
3 Roseanne’s Search
3 Professor Oak’s Visit
3 Team Galactic Wager
4 Celio’s Network
1 Windstorm
4 Rare Candy
2 Night Mainteance
1 Switch
STRATEGY
This non-conventional version has the aim to abuse of Team Galactic Wager to low down the opponent hand when all your Pokèmon are on the field. The Corsola-Furret engine is to prevent the opponent use of Absol and Team Galactic Wager, which at the beginning of the game can discard all the cards you have in hand. With Furret which takes 2 cards a turn, it’s very difficult for the opponent to discard the right things, if you use “Keen Eye” in the correct way. With Furret taking all you want at the beginning of the game and Gallade revealing your prizes, you can add several cards to the deck as late-game “tech”.
CARD REVIEW
Corsola SW = Corsola is amazing because it can attack at the first turn of the game, without the use of Supporters or Trainers, and let you put your Basic Pokèmon immediately (1 turn before Roseanne’s). This deck has many different Basic Pokèmon, and Corsola T1 let you choose what you need after seeing what the opponent is playing. The best thing to do is to take at least 1 Ralts, 1 Sentret (to have Furret T2 if it’s needed) and 1 Absol, so you can choose the turn after if you want to discard something in the opponent hand or “Keen Eye” for good cards, most of the times Rare Candy/Gardevoir SW.
Sentret SW = It’s a good starter. His first attack has the effect of a “PokèDex Handy 909is”, because you look at the first 2 cards of the deck and you choose one of them. Very good!
Furret SW = Stage 1, 90 HP, attacks for free making you search 2 cards you need from the deck. What is better than him? Its first attack let you play on 1x cards, because you know you can take them out when you want. It makes the deck run perfectly (as you can search immediately for Rare Candy/Gardevoir SW or Windstorm if necessary). Its second attack becomes good in several situations: you can do 40 and charge a Pokèmon or keep attacking with it, forcing the opponent to send a energized Pokèmon to attack, with can be immediately KOed by Gallade if necessary.
Ralts DF (reprinted from SS) = They are the best. They can asleep the Defending Pokèmon in the first turn, and this can be broken, especially if you asleep the opponent Absol and you prevent its “Baleful Wind”. The second attack is very good in the mirror, because a single Ralts can do 60 to an energized Gallade or Gardevoir!
Ralts d DF = They are not that good, but you need 2 [R] Ralts for Corsola’s attack.
Kirlia SW = Two interesting attacks. The first one let you use a Supporter from your discard pile, which can be useful if you have it T2 and you want to draw some cards, especially a Gallade and a Double Rainbow Energy, for the turn after. The second one let you do some bench damage, which is very good combined with Gardevoir LVX “Bring Down”.
Gardevoir SW = This amazing cards needs no comments. His Pokè-Power, Telepass, can copy the effect of a Supporter card in the opponent discard pile, giving to the deck an extra-drawing or an extra-searching each turn. This becomes important when you play Team Galactic Wager, because if you lose, your 3-cards hand can increase the same turn! Other interesting to do are to copy an opponent Castaway to search our deck for an Energy, a Tool, and a Supporter we can use immediately, or to play faster our Rare Candy taking out the deck until 2 Pokèmon for turn. Gardevoir’s only attack, Psychic Lock, is extremely useful in many games. This can make you win the mirror (if you can Lock your opponent Gardevoir and he has no answer) and many other match-ups which would be difficult without it (like InfernCatty and Fire Truk).
Gardevoir PK = Most of the players prefer to use the 3rd Gardevoir SW instead of a Gardevoir PK, but I find it very good in this version. The attack is very strong, and you can use it to have another hitter if you are not facing a Psychic Deck (for example, it becomes powerful vs Magmortar). The power has 3 roles: it can give you an extra-energy, making Gallade attack even if he has no Energy thanks to Double Rainbow. It can be a Plus-Power, if you have no time to put 3 energies on a Gallade/Gardevoir, because instead of a Double Rainbow, you can out a normal Energy and a Psychic with the power. It can even KO one of your weak Pokèmon to prepare the field for a final “Bring Down”. Remember to play Night Mainteance for a [P] or Professor Oak’s Visit (also if it’s in the opponent discard pile) shuffling a [P] in the deck before the power, or with only 5 Psychic Energies, you can fail it!
Gardevoir LVX = Another great card: the power, Teletrasportation, can be used mostly in 2 different contest. First of all, you can wait for the first opponent KO, send Gardevoir, Level-up, then returning to the Bench with your Gardevoir LVX ready and send another Pokèmon. Secondly, it becomes good against Special Condition: if your Gallade is Paralyzed, or Asleep, the use the power, send Gardevoir LVX, and then you can choose between attacking with it or paying your retreat cost and re-send Gallade. The attack, Bring Down, is another Key attack of the deck. Remember you’ll draw your first prizes thanks to Gallade’s Psychic Cut. Midgame, it will become difficult to draw Prize cards because you cannot do more than 50-60 with your attacks. Then, a KO on a random opponent Benched Pokèmon can help you in that, as a combination between Gallade’s Sonic Blade and Gardevoir LVX’s Bring Down. And remember: Gallade and Gardevoir LVX have both 130 HP: it means that with them 2 on the field, you can Bring Down only the opponent’s Pokèmon. If you don’t need yout 70 hp Pokèmon (Mew* and Absol), Furret’s 90 HP let you Bring Down each Pokèmon which is 90hp to the KO!
Gallade SW = The main hitter of the deck. It’s Psychic Cut is the most famous attack in the TCG: it can let you reveal your prized to add +20 damage for each Prize you revealed. Very good to KO the main hitter of the opponent early game! Late game, Sonic Blade and Psychic Cut, combined with Cyclone, is all you need to draw your last prizes.
Absol = Why only 1x Absol? Usually, you don’t need it because you use Furret. By the way, it can happen to have Roseanne’s/Candy/Gardevoir SW immediately, and if your opponent doesn’t use cards vs your Power, you don’t need to use the beginning of the game to set yourself. This is why sometimes, if you don’t need Furret, you can send an Absol to ruin the opponent setting. Remember: doing it it’s not your aim, because you want to use Furret to set yourself. But well, sometimes it can happen to need it.
Gyarados MT = I reserve 2 places for tech in this deck, and these are 2 my favourites. Gyarados, combined with Gardevoir PK power, it’s very good vs several decks. It gives a straight help vs Magmortar, and can be helpful vs Gallade, thanks to the [F] Resistance. Basically, you attack them with 50, but they cannot attack you if they don’t want to die the turn after! Use it late in the game.
Holon Energy WP = WPs are good because they low to zero the retreat cost of your Pokèmon. They are perfect in combo with Gardevoir LVX’s Teletrasportation, to switch 2 times in a turn for free and heal the Active Pokèmon from effect of the attacks. And if you want to prevent all the effects (like Gallade’s Sonic Blade in mirror or Nidoking’s Poison Rub), you can use 1x Water Energy with it.
Water Energy = only one to take out with Roseanne’s Search, in order to have a hitter which cannot be affected by Special Condition.
Cyclone Energy = Very good in combo with Gallade Sonic Blade + Psychic Cut if the opponent has only 2 Pokèmon in field, very good early game to send the opponent Active Absol to the Bench.
Double Rainbow Energy = As all your Pokèmon attacks for 3 and many of their attacks are not affected by the Double Rainbow effect (think at Sonic Blade and Bring Down), 4 of them are a Must.
Roseanne’s Search = A must in each deck. Use it to take out Sentret if you didn’t take it out with Corsola or if you have it in hand. Use it midgame for the Water Energy.
Professor Oak’s Visit = Only 3 are needed because you have Telepass which make you draw.
Team Galactic Wager = At least 3 are a must, because if you fail them, you have still Gardevoir’s Telepass, if you win them, your opponent would have a hard life!
Celio’s Network = 4 are a must, in all the decks.
Windstorm = Play just 1: with 2x Cyclone and Gallade KO hit, you will get rid of them anyway. 1 can be important if you want to attack with Gyarados or if your opponent play 2 Cessation.
Rare Candy = 4 are a must.
Night Mainteance = Play 2 of them because you will need to retrieve your Ralts, your Gardevoir LVX and your basic Energies.
OTHER CARDS TO KEEP IN MIND
Mew*/Mew SW/Holon’s Castform = These cards let you attack using the opponent attacks in discard pile or in field. With Gardevoir PK, they will work perfectly!
Gardevoir Ex = You can send it, use the power to switch off some annoying Power-Body, then use Gardevoir LVX’s Teletrasportation and send it to the Bench. The [P] Weakness and the fact it’s a Ex hurts a lot.
Nidoking = it can help you in the mirror. Just tech a 1-0-1 line, and your opponent Gardevoir/Gallade will have a bad day!
Ampharos = The body can let you play with your Bring Down all the match. It can even attack, but pay attention to the [F] Weakness!
Scramble Energy = Just 1x to take out with Furret for a quick attack early game.
Darkness basic Energy / Fighting Energy = Just 1x to make Absol attack vs your opponent Banette + Lake Boundary or, in the second case, to make Gallade attack with Sonic Blade without using Double Rainbow Energy.
Warp Point/Switch = Just 1x to send Furret on the Bench without losing 1 turn of Energy.
Team Galactic Mars = it’s very good combined with TGW and Telepass, but hey, your opponent Gardevoir SW would be happy to use it several times after you use it once. IMHO, it’s better to keep it out and use the Team Galactic Mars our opponent played early game, using our Gardevoir SW.
MATCH-UPS
FIRE TRUK = 60-40 (with Gyarados, it becomes 70-30)
The match seems difficult, but you have several key cards to play against them.
Obviously, Gyarados is one of them, because with 1 [P] Energy taken from Gardevoir PK it can OHKO Magmar and to 80 damage to a Magmortar, forcing them to doing immediately 100 damages to you if they don’t want to die next turn. But you may want to play the game without it.
Usually, Fire Truk spends many turns to set-up. If they start with a Magmortar, use your Gallade to reveal 3 prizes if they don’t have nothing behind. You will draw the prize of it and 1-2 prizes of the Pokèmon they send to die. If they send Typhlosion to discard your DRE, Gardevoir PK can be an answer, because with power + Energy from hand it does 50 for 2 Energy (but only 1 turn of Energy from hand). It can be useful also vs a Magmortar with many energies on it. Psychic Lock can be evil midgame, if they have for a turn only few energies in the field (because maybe you did KO their main hitter with a lot of energies on it).
It happens that Psychic Lock ruins their plan for the game. Remember Bring Down can be the only way late in the game to draw some easy prizes, “bringing down” some Delcatty or basic Pokèmon on their Bench.
Against Magmortar LVX, you have only to be careful and find the quicker way of KOing it. If they send it immediately, use your Gallade to KO it. If it arrives midgame, try to use a Sonic Blade on it. The best thing to do is having at least 1 prize faced-down midgame to do 80 (Sonic blade) and 70 (Psychic Cut for 1 prize), so even if they use their body do heal of 2 damages, 60+70 would KO it anyway. Try to Bring down Magmortar LVX, if you can (obviously).
ABSOLADE 55-45
Very difficult to play. At the beginning, you will see Furret and Absol fighting to build-destroy your setting. Pay attention to use Furret in the correct way: don’t “Keen Eye” for Rare Candy-Gardevoir if you have only a few cards in hand. They can “Wager”, “Mars”, “Baleful Wind” them and send you in a bad position. You can search for 2 Kirlia and wait for the Gardevoir (even if they Wager you after the 2nd Keen Eye, you can draw a Celio’s or a Gardevoir SW and set it). Once the Gardevoir SW are both in the field, each player will wait until Gallade, Gardevoir and Gardevoir LVX are ready to attack. No one will send its Gallade to KO Furret/Absol if he fears a Gallade will OHKO it. In this situation, Furret’s second attack can be useful, because you force your opponent to attack with something (their Absol cannot do it). Drawing a prize with it, it’s not bad. Once the game goes ahead, Psychic Lock and Wager will be the strategy both players will use. This is why it’s important to don’t play Mars: if your opponent plays it and you don’t, you can low easily their hand to 2 cards and choose 1 card a turn, while they cannot do it for more than 4 times.
Basically, if you use Psychic Lock with the opponent at 2 cards and Gardevoir which cannot be KOed, you are ahead. But well, they will attack and reduce their disadvantage, trying to Psychick Lock you. Try to use your second hitters (Gyarados, Furret, Gardevoir PK) to have more chance than them to attack. If all goes well, they will finish their forces. The match is very difficult, by the way, because if they build their Bench soon and they discard some key cards at the beginning with Absol, you would have a hard time. Even if someone has something prizes can be hard (but well, Gallade will reveal them soon…). If you are skilled and luck enough with TGW and prizes, the match will be more at your side.
DARK WING DUCK 60-40
If you don’t have problem at the beginning, you can easily win. If they put you under pressure soon (with Mars + Honchrow T2 + maybe Umbreon*) or if their Absol + Mars + Wager will make difficult to abuse of Gardevoir SW, you can easily lose. Usually, Furret survives enough to let you set your Gallade and Gardevoir easily, but if their Honchcrow KO it soon and they ruin your “Keen Eye” with their cards, it will be hard to KO the crows, even because they are [F] resistance.
BLISSEY VARIANTS 70-30
If they don’t have Holon FF, their weakness will let your Gallade attack easily and KO all their Blissey in 1 hit early game and 2 hits late game. If they have many Holon FF, remember to use Gallade’s Sonic Blade, Gardevoir PK (if there are many energies on it), even Ralts DF sometimes. Gyarados can be broken as well. Anyway, if you see they have Holon FFs, use your Keen Eye to set ONLY the Gardevoir/Gallade line, maybe 2 Gallade and 1 Gardevoir. Let the Furret die, so you can Bring Down all their Blissey midgame.
STATUS DECK (Venusaur, Meganium MT, Roserade) 65-35
Gardevoir LVX Teletrasportation is the key move of the game. Remember here you have WPs, so it will be
easier to play. Send a WP-ed Gallade which will be untouchable for them. This is enough to win
INFERNCATTY 75-25
Psychic Lock is evil for them. Without powers, your Wager will ruin their set-up as they cannot use Delcatty to draw cards. They will start faster, but then you have all the time to recover. It’s not a problem.
MOVING TRUK 65-35
The same as InfernCatty. Here they have their Blissey which can hurt Gardevoir Psychic Lock, but their weakness will make your Gallade KO them easier.
BANETTE VARIANTS 20-80
While Absolade has Absol which can help vs Banette, we have a Furret which cannot attack because of Banette’s Resistance. We don’t have 4 Absol and several [D] energies, so we cannot get rid of Banette.
Their stadium and Cessation give us more problems. Play it the better you can, trying to Bring Down a Shuppet before it becomes Banette and to find ways of KOing a Banette when it OHKOs your main hitter. Gyarados cannot perform its best because of Cessation.
There are some match-up missing, like Hurricane, DuskQueen and Monarchy.
I hope to prepare them if the article will have success!
Thanks for the attention!!!
Andrea “Andceo” Ceolin
Author = Andceo and Gatsu
Date = January 25, 2008
Format = HP-SW
Deck = Gardilade
UPDATE: WE HAVE A NEW LIST!!!! I'LL KEEP THE OLDER ONE, BUT I'LL SHOW YOU THE HP-GE GARDILADE LIST:
2 Ralts DF
2 Ralts SW
2 Kirlia SW
3 Gardevoir SW
2 Gallade SW
1 Gardevoir LVX
3 Sentret SW
3 Furett SW
3 Pachirisu GE
1 Baltoy GE
1 Claydol GE
1 Duskull DP
1 Dusknoir DP
4 Celio’s Network
1 Bebe’s Search
4 Rare Candy
2 Roseanne’s Search
1 Team Galactic Wager
2 Night Maintenance
2 Pluspower
1 Strenght Charm
2 Lake Boundary
4 Double Rainbow Energy
2 Scramble Energy
3 Cyclone Energy
2 Fighting Energy
5 Psychic Energy
FOR THE DISCUSSION, PLEASE FOLLOW THE TOPIC.
This is the list Gatsu and me used all our SPTs.
As you can see, both us developed the "Plox" idea, building our decks playing around Gardevoir SW "Psychic Lock" attack.
It means you will see 3 Gardevoir SW, only 2 Gallade SW and no Gardevoir PK.
The deck uses Lake Boundary over Phoebe's Stadium or other stadium to abuse of P weakness, and PlusPower and Strenght Charm are here to reach the 140 damages level, in order to KO both Gallade and Gardevoir LVX in one single hit.
Things about the list:
WHAT POKEMON DO YOU USE TO SETUP? We tried 4 Pachirisu and 2-2 Claydol, we tried 4-3 Furret and no Pachirisu. At the end, we came to the fact that all them are needed. The 4-3 Furret list has the problem of the small Bench, and we saw several players losing their SPTs against T2 decks or after a crappy hand. This is a thing we don't accept. After that, we tried the 4 Pachirisu and 2-2 Claydol engine. Even if you start in a good way most of the times, there are still several problems. If the opponent stops your Claydol (Wager + Plox or other ways) you have no way of play your game as you want. You cannot use your cards and you will have several problems without Claydol. With Furret's Keen Eye however, you can recover immediately after a Wager of after some problems in the setup taking 2 cards you want out of the deck. And in Plox mirror, this can make you win (the opponent is ahead on prizes, you send Furret to getting Scrambles and PlusPower and you can take the field control even if you are under in prizes). Furret is also a good hitter with the second attack, and with it you will have an alternative attacker if the opponent want you to attack with your Gardi-dudes (in the mirror, the first who attacks is the first who will lose one of his key Pokémon) or if you are, for example, against a Garchomp MT or a Gyarados MT. As Sentret/Furret are better than Claydol, but even the Fighting Pokèmon is good in several situation, we decided to go for 3-3 Sentret, 1-1 Claydol and also 3 Pachirisu, because WE DON'T WANT to start bad.
WHY 4 CELIO's AND 1 BEBE's? We simply don't want to start bad. And these cards are the only one who can make you start in the perfect way, getting out Furret, Claydol and Gardevoir.
ONLY 1x WAGER? ARE YOU CRAZY? No, we're not crazy. We use only 1x Wager because we don't focus all our games on Claydol (i think it is a clever thing in a Plox metagame) and we don't want to have multiple Wager in the discard pile our opponent is going to copy with his Gardevoir. We prefer to have other cards to setup, and we use our 1xWager midgame, under Plox, to destroy the opponent hand if he is preparing a trick.
WHY DUSKNOIR? Gardilade is a deck who is open to tech and 1-0-1 lines. We found out Dusknoir is the best of them for 2 reasons: 1) Force the opponent to play with only 4 Pokèmon 2) It's A GREAT HITTER MIDGAME.
About the 1), it's extremely good vs Fire Truk and Hurricane (even better if the opponent is not expecting it to be played), which base their game on a large Bench. And with all that Pachirisu around, is a perfect choice. The 2) thing is maybe even more important. This deck suffers a lot the midgame situation, when your Pokémon cannot do more than 60 damages (50 with DRE). This is when Dusknoir comes out. If you need to do your last 2 prizes and your opponent is 2 prizes from the victory, Dusknoir can come out and do 90 damages, which are a big amount. And DRE doesn't hurt you. Thanks to Cyclone, you can do a final hit of 100 damages to a Benched Pokèmon...and if you are 5-5, i don't know if your opponent has the strenght to have more than 1 Pokèmon with more than 100 HP to the death in play. I think this Pokémon is perfect for this deck. And well, to those who think Feraligatr MT or W tech are better because they help vs Magmortar, i can say Dusknoir can help vs Magmortar as well (the last Magmortar LVX of the opponent will have a hard time against Dusknoir).
WHY THAT ENERGIES? 4 DRE are a must, we use 2 Scramble because we think they are very good in many situation. With them, you can go under prizes vs both GG and Magmortar and then make a big revenge with all your Scrambled Pokémon. This is wonderful. It's difficult for them to contrast Scrambled Pokémon (who usually do 10 damage more because they are not using DREs). About the other, i think Cyclone is very good, especially very early game (you send away the opponent started) and very late game (to do the last prize on a random Benched Pokémon).
Hope you enjoyed it.
THIS IS THE OLDER ARTICLE:
City Championships saw Gallade-Gardevoir in almost every TOP!
It was by far a tier one in the format. One of the most succesful version was the one packed with disrupution from Absol and Team Galactic’s Mars.
Here’s a basic list of the deck with a short description of his strategy and key cards. A short analysis of match-ups follows.
LIST:
Pokémon (17)
4 Ralts SW
2 Kirlia SW
3 Gallade SW
2 Gardevoir SW
1 Gardevoir lvl X SW
4 Absol SW
1 Sableye CG
Trainers (9)
4 Rare Candy
2 Night Maintenance
2 Warp Point
1 Strenght Charm
Supporter (18)
4 Celio’s Network
4 Roseanne’s research
4 Team Galactic’s Mars
3 Team Galactic’s Wager
3 Oak’s Visit
Energy (16)
4 Double Rainbow
2 Scramble Energy
2 Basic Darkness Energy
2 Fighting Energy
6 Psychic Energy
MAIN POKEMON:
Gallade
Gallade is your main hitter. 130 HP and 2 retreat are standard but good.
His second attack (Psychic Cut) allows you to customize your damage adding 20 for each prize you chose to flip face-up.
This allows you to deal up to 180 damage with a single attack for just 3 energies! To have such a huge impact for such a few energies you should go back to Lugia EX.
Off course you should carefully chose how many prizes to flip not to run out of gas late game.
Psychic cut also helps to avoid those nasty situations where you find you have key cards or Basic Pokèmon prized. This helps a lot deck’s consistency.
His first attack (Sonic blade) is very good too, it leaves defending at 50 HP and sends it to the bench.
It’s very good when all of your prizes are flipped over since it allows you to KO with 2 hits, even with a double rainbow attached using Sonic Blade+Psychic Cut.
Gardevoir
Gardevoir is a great card! His HP are below average in this format but his amazing Poké-Power will help your setup and makes your deck run smoother also late game.
Telepass (this the name of the power) allows you to use any supporter in opponent’s discard pile.
If you think that almost any deck use Celio’s network and/or Roseanne’s research, you understand that you’ll have a guaranted help each turn early game.
Late game Telepass is great to recover after a lost Team Galactic’s wager.
Gardevoir’s attack, Psychic Lock, is great too, it do 60 and stops all of your opponent’s Pokè-Power on the following turn. If your opponent has a Team Galactic’s wager of his own in his discard pile, you can play it every turn, wait for him to lose it (with hand down to 3 cards) and use Psychic Lock to avoid his Gardevoir/Delcatty/Electabuzz/Claydol’s powers to refill their hand!
Gardevoir lvl X
This card is a true Silver Bullet for the deck. Not only has a Pokèpower “Teleportation” that allows it to switch with any Pokémon (Active or Benched), avoiding nasty problems with special conditions, it also has an attack (Bring down) that Kos the Pokemon with the less remaining HP.
The sinergy with Gallade’s Sonic Blade is amazing.
Also: Psychic Cut KOS Pokèmon early game, Bring Down cleans small threats late game, you can usually snipe unevolved basics and supporter Pokémon like Delcatty, Minum, Sableye…
This card boosts deck even more!!!
Its only downsides are few HP and double weakness to Psychic...
Absol
This is your preferred starter. His attack “Baleful Wind” lets you discard 1 card at random from opponent’s hand. If the card is a Trainer, supporter or stadium, you can discard a second one.
If you think how many of those cards are used in today’s decks you can figure how easy is to hit 2 cards per turn.
Even if you don’t discard 2 cards, you are still taking off important parts of opponent’s strategy. Think how bad is discarding one of the three Infernape from an “Inferncatty” deck!
Team Galactic’s Mars is a great card that helps even more to disrupt opponent’s hand size!
Absol is also a decent hitter since it can do 40 for a single energy with Raid on the turn you lay it down on the bench. To attack he need to be active and this is where Teleportations is useful!
Remember that he is resistant to Psychic (Gallade and Gardevoir’s weakness!!!).
Team Galactic's Wager
This card can easily change the balance in a game. Not only it stops any plan your opponent could make for the following turn (like chosing cards with Furret's Keen Eyes), but it can leave your opponent with just 3 cards in hand, add a Baleful wind from Absol and you could leave your opponent with 1 card and no supporter to draw more...
Usually this card is feared from both the players for his "double edge effect", about 50% of the time your opponent will win Wager and YOU are left with 3 cards.
This card defines format and can change a match...
Gardevoir's Pokepower has an amazing synergy with wager, since most of the time you can recover from a lost Wager with opponent's supporter.
If opponent tried to plays a Wager of his own, you can even use it every turn to mess his plan every turn!
Some days ago i used opponent's Wager and won, used a Team Galactic's Mars as Turn's Supporter then used Baleful Wind for 2 cards...
Opponent was left with 0 card in hand in a single turn!
A deck that is not scared by this card, and uses it as a weapon is even better in this format!
STRATEGY:
Remember that this deck’s aim is not to leave opponent with 0 cards in hand the whole game.
Early disruption should be enough to put your opponent in a situation where he can assemble just a single hitter (easily 1 hit koed by your Gallade) and is then left with a bunch of weak basics (easy fodder for Gardevoir’s telepass).
Gallade and Gardevoir offers you 4 different attacks (already described) that gives you great variety and an answer to any weak strategy an opponent could make after Team Galactic’s Mars And Absol ruined his setup!
Deck is very solid thanks to his strong supporter line, Gardevoir’s Power (2 supporter per turn is great to always have a large hand and to find answer), not so much fear of cards to being prized (thanks to Gallade’s attack).
18 Supporters may be a little too much, but i prefer to have many of them and to topdeck them often (especially since opponent's Absol tends to lower my hand seize).
Rare Candy are self explanatory and should never miss in a stage Two deck!
Attacks are cheap and Double Rainbow and Scramble energies provide even faster ways to power up your Pokemon!
Two Night maintenance are needed to use even more Gallades and Gardevoirs after some of them get KOed, Night maintenance is also good to shuffle back basics and evolutions discarded by opponent's Absol (the deck is really good and you should expect to find many mirror-match).
This and Magmortar variants are, by far, the best decks in format right now. Even decks made just to beat it (like Banette) have troubles going further than 45-55.
MATCHUPS:
Magmortar decks:
Magmortar is the great contender to this deck. His above average HP (110 and 130 on Lvl X) makes hard to one hit-Ko more than two with Psychic Cut. Late game, Magmortar’s Healing body makes hard to two hit KO with Sonic Blade+Psychic Cut. It is wise to two hit KO Magmortar early game and do not fall in the lure to flip over all of your prizes too soon.
Deck is sometime supported by Absol. More common is Delcatty (to draw cards) and Typhlosion (to refill of energies Magmortars), mind Typhlosion’s attack that can make short work of your Double Rainbow and Scramble. Remember not to bench Sableye since it makes you impossible to KO Benched Delcattys or Absols with Bring down!
50-50 against Typholsion-Magmortars
60-40 against Absol-Magmortar
Moving Truk
Deck has no problem recovering from Absol’s discard but have serious problems with 1hko on his early Blissey and 1hko on Electivire. 110 – 120 damage from Electivire are usually not enough to deal with Gallade and Gardevoir.
Also Psychic Lock gives this deck serious headaches…
70-30
Inferncatty
Delcatty offers recover from lost Wagers and Absol’s discard. Infernape’s damage is not high enough, but Lxl X and Delcatty EX usually can 1hko anything without problems. Psychic Lock, by the way, stalls the deck greatly avoiding Delcatty’s powers to refill their hand after a “flare up”. Remember not to bench Sableye since it makes you impossible to KO Benched Delcattys with Bring down!
60-40
Hurricane (Feraligator, Delcatty, Magneton)
Like Infernape, this deck has serious problems with repeated Psychic Lock after their reshulfed energies to 1hko you Gallade. This is even easier due to their slower setup! Again remember not to bench Sableye since it makes you impossible to KO Benched Delcattys with Bring down!
70-30
Straight Blissey
Sableye offers you all the time you need to setup. If they have WP+water they still need time to pass 30 from resistance. They also need FF not to be 1hit koed with 2 prizes flips!
Gallade then 1hko Blissey with 4 prizes (if it has FF attached) or 2 prizes (no FF).
Even after all prizes are flipped up, two hits are enough to kill Blissey.
75-25
Banette variants
This deck is built just to beat Gallade and Gardevoir. It packs disruption if the form of Crystal Beach, Cessation Crystal and Energy Removal 2. It contains many way to 1hkos stuff early game (Ghost head for Absol and Lake Boundary For Gallade).
You should hope to go first and start with Sableye or Absol. If you go second and have a basic darkness or Roseanne go for raid (even just for 20-30) to avoid Ghost Head 1hko (they are now forces to use second attack with a Strenght Charm).
Try to build Gardevoir lvl X and use free switching to abuse Raid for 40X2 if they laid down Lake Boundary to 1hko Gallade. Don’t be afraid to use Night Mantainance to recover Darkness and Absols. If your opponent has a good list this is a hard matchup.
45-55
Blissey versions are easier since Chansey starts offers you some breath early game.
55-45
Dark Wing Duck (Absol-Honchkrow)
If you setup Gardevoir their discarding strategy is basically over thanks to Telepass that gives you the chance to abuse their own discarded supporters. Sableye’s Excavate gives you better Topdecks.
Mind for Fighting Resistance and buffer pieces since it can mess your 2 hit koes strategies after you flipped all of your prizes… Remember to attack with Gardevoir lvl X to kill benched Umbreon Star and Murkrows.
65-35
Lucario Variants.
The worst scenario is an early KO on absol from lucario.
After that your Gallade can 1hit Ko 3 Lucarios withou any problems..
Warp point helps to get rid of Lucario lvl X with Stance and you can easily KO active Riolu with Gardevoir or Gallade.
65-35
Empoleon Variants
Empoleon lacks damage output to worry you. It is very slow to charge and you can easily 1ko it and 2 Hit KO even late game. Don’t miss opportunity to wager it down to 3 as often as you can!
65-35
VARIATIONS:
A lot of card could be included to fit the metagame:
If Banette worries you, you can rise Sableye’s number (even if it is useless in many other match ups) and can even think to put some Windstorm (dead card in all other matchups).
Strenght charm and Pluspower are great to improve mirror and Magmortar’s matchups.
Some people even put Lake Boundary to have a better match up in mirror (I had 6 mirror in 7 games at my last tournament).
I often used some Pokedex Handy 909is to rise early game consistency…
A third Gardevoir SW is often used to raise consistency and gives you a better chance in mirror.
Alberto “Gatsu” Moretto
Here’s my article about the Gardevoir/Gallade deck, which revealed to be the best in the HP-SW format and in the City Championship season.
There are several ways of running a Gardevoir/Gallade deck, but they are mostly played with Absol.
This is a version I suggest you to try.
LIST
25
3 Corsola SW
4 Sentret SW
3 Furret SW
2 Ralts d DF
2 Ralts DF (reprinted from SS)
2 Kirlia SW
1 Gardevoir PK
2 Gardevoir SW
1 Gardevoir LVX SW
2 Gallade SW
1 Absol
1 Magikarp MT (as tech)
1 Gyarados MT (as tech)
14
5 Psychic Energy
2 Holon Energy WP
1 Water Energy
2 Cyclone Energy
4 Double Rainbow Energy
21
3 Roseanne’s Search
3 Professor Oak’s Visit
3 Team Galactic Wager
4 Celio’s Network
1 Windstorm
4 Rare Candy
2 Night Mainteance
1 Switch
STRATEGY
This non-conventional version has the aim to abuse of Team Galactic Wager to low down the opponent hand when all your Pokèmon are on the field. The Corsola-Furret engine is to prevent the opponent use of Absol and Team Galactic Wager, which at the beginning of the game can discard all the cards you have in hand. With Furret which takes 2 cards a turn, it’s very difficult for the opponent to discard the right things, if you use “Keen Eye” in the correct way. With Furret taking all you want at the beginning of the game and Gallade revealing your prizes, you can add several cards to the deck as late-game “tech”.
CARD REVIEW
Corsola SW = Corsola is amazing because it can attack at the first turn of the game, without the use of Supporters or Trainers, and let you put your Basic Pokèmon immediately (1 turn before Roseanne’s). This deck has many different Basic Pokèmon, and Corsola T1 let you choose what you need after seeing what the opponent is playing. The best thing to do is to take at least 1 Ralts, 1 Sentret (to have Furret T2 if it’s needed) and 1 Absol, so you can choose the turn after if you want to discard something in the opponent hand or “Keen Eye” for good cards, most of the times Rare Candy/Gardevoir SW.
Sentret SW = It’s a good starter. His first attack has the effect of a “PokèDex Handy 909is”, because you look at the first 2 cards of the deck and you choose one of them. Very good!
Furret SW = Stage 1, 90 HP, attacks for free making you search 2 cards you need from the deck. What is better than him? Its first attack let you play on 1x cards, because you know you can take them out when you want. It makes the deck run perfectly (as you can search immediately for Rare Candy/Gardevoir SW or Windstorm if necessary). Its second attack becomes good in several situations: you can do 40 and charge a Pokèmon or keep attacking with it, forcing the opponent to send a energized Pokèmon to attack, with can be immediately KOed by Gallade if necessary.
Ralts DF (reprinted from SS) = They are the best. They can asleep the Defending Pokèmon in the first turn, and this can be broken, especially if you asleep the opponent Absol and you prevent its “Baleful Wind”. The second attack is very good in the mirror, because a single Ralts can do 60 to an energized Gallade or Gardevoir!
Ralts d DF = They are not that good, but you need 2 [R] Ralts for Corsola’s attack.
Kirlia SW = Two interesting attacks. The first one let you use a Supporter from your discard pile, which can be useful if you have it T2 and you want to draw some cards, especially a Gallade and a Double Rainbow Energy, for the turn after. The second one let you do some bench damage, which is very good combined with Gardevoir LVX “Bring Down”.
Gardevoir SW = This amazing cards needs no comments. His Pokè-Power, Telepass, can copy the effect of a Supporter card in the opponent discard pile, giving to the deck an extra-drawing or an extra-searching each turn. This becomes important when you play Team Galactic Wager, because if you lose, your 3-cards hand can increase the same turn! Other interesting to do are to copy an opponent Castaway to search our deck for an Energy, a Tool, and a Supporter we can use immediately, or to play faster our Rare Candy taking out the deck until 2 Pokèmon for turn. Gardevoir’s only attack, Psychic Lock, is extremely useful in many games. This can make you win the mirror (if you can Lock your opponent Gardevoir and he has no answer) and many other match-ups which would be difficult without it (like InfernCatty and Fire Truk).
Gardevoir PK = Most of the players prefer to use the 3rd Gardevoir SW instead of a Gardevoir PK, but I find it very good in this version. The attack is very strong, and you can use it to have another hitter if you are not facing a Psychic Deck (for example, it becomes powerful vs Magmortar). The power has 3 roles: it can give you an extra-energy, making Gallade attack even if he has no Energy thanks to Double Rainbow. It can be a Plus-Power, if you have no time to put 3 energies on a Gallade/Gardevoir, because instead of a Double Rainbow, you can out a normal Energy and a Psychic with the power. It can even KO one of your weak Pokèmon to prepare the field for a final “Bring Down”. Remember to play Night Mainteance for a [P] or Professor Oak’s Visit (also if it’s in the opponent discard pile) shuffling a [P] in the deck before the power, or with only 5 Psychic Energies, you can fail it!
Gardevoir LVX = Another great card: the power, Teletrasportation, can be used mostly in 2 different contest. First of all, you can wait for the first opponent KO, send Gardevoir, Level-up, then returning to the Bench with your Gardevoir LVX ready and send another Pokèmon. Secondly, it becomes good against Special Condition: if your Gallade is Paralyzed, or Asleep, the use the power, send Gardevoir LVX, and then you can choose between attacking with it or paying your retreat cost and re-send Gallade. The attack, Bring Down, is another Key attack of the deck. Remember you’ll draw your first prizes thanks to Gallade’s Psychic Cut. Midgame, it will become difficult to draw Prize cards because you cannot do more than 50-60 with your attacks. Then, a KO on a random opponent Benched Pokèmon can help you in that, as a combination between Gallade’s Sonic Blade and Gardevoir LVX’s Bring Down. And remember: Gallade and Gardevoir LVX have both 130 HP: it means that with them 2 on the field, you can Bring Down only the opponent’s Pokèmon. If you don’t need yout 70 hp Pokèmon (Mew* and Absol), Furret’s 90 HP let you Bring Down each Pokèmon which is 90hp to the KO!
Gallade SW = The main hitter of the deck. It’s Psychic Cut is the most famous attack in the TCG: it can let you reveal your prized to add +20 damage for each Prize you revealed. Very good to KO the main hitter of the opponent early game! Late game, Sonic Blade and Psychic Cut, combined with Cyclone, is all you need to draw your last prizes.
Absol = Why only 1x Absol? Usually, you don’t need it because you use Furret. By the way, it can happen to have Roseanne’s/Candy/Gardevoir SW immediately, and if your opponent doesn’t use cards vs your Power, you don’t need to use the beginning of the game to set yourself. This is why sometimes, if you don’t need Furret, you can send an Absol to ruin the opponent setting. Remember: doing it it’s not your aim, because you want to use Furret to set yourself. But well, sometimes it can happen to need it.
Gyarados MT = I reserve 2 places for tech in this deck, and these are 2 my favourites. Gyarados, combined with Gardevoir PK power, it’s very good vs several decks. It gives a straight help vs Magmortar, and can be helpful vs Gallade, thanks to the [F] Resistance. Basically, you attack them with 50, but they cannot attack you if they don’t want to die the turn after! Use it late in the game.
Holon Energy WP = WPs are good because they low to zero the retreat cost of your Pokèmon. They are perfect in combo with Gardevoir LVX’s Teletrasportation, to switch 2 times in a turn for free and heal the Active Pokèmon from effect of the attacks. And if you want to prevent all the effects (like Gallade’s Sonic Blade in mirror or Nidoking’s Poison Rub), you can use 1x Water Energy with it.
Water Energy = only one to take out with Roseanne’s Search, in order to have a hitter which cannot be affected by Special Condition.
Cyclone Energy = Very good in combo with Gallade Sonic Blade + Psychic Cut if the opponent has only 2 Pokèmon in field, very good early game to send the opponent Active Absol to the Bench.
Double Rainbow Energy = As all your Pokèmon attacks for 3 and many of their attacks are not affected by the Double Rainbow effect (think at Sonic Blade and Bring Down), 4 of them are a Must.
Roseanne’s Search = A must in each deck. Use it to take out Sentret if you didn’t take it out with Corsola or if you have it in hand. Use it midgame for the Water Energy.
Professor Oak’s Visit = Only 3 are needed because you have Telepass which make you draw.
Team Galactic Wager = At least 3 are a must, because if you fail them, you have still Gardevoir’s Telepass, if you win them, your opponent would have a hard life!
Celio’s Network = 4 are a must, in all the decks.
Windstorm = Play just 1: with 2x Cyclone and Gallade KO hit, you will get rid of them anyway. 1 can be important if you want to attack with Gyarados or if your opponent play 2 Cessation.
Rare Candy = 4 are a must.
Night Mainteance = Play 2 of them because you will need to retrieve your Ralts, your Gardevoir LVX and your basic Energies.
OTHER CARDS TO KEEP IN MIND
Mew*/Mew SW/Holon’s Castform = These cards let you attack using the opponent attacks in discard pile or in field. With Gardevoir PK, they will work perfectly!
Gardevoir Ex = You can send it, use the power to switch off some annoying Power-Body, then use Gardevoir LVX’s Teletrasportation and send it to the Bench. The [P] Weakness and the fact it’s a Ex hurts a lot.
Nidoking = it can help you in the mirror. Just tech a 1-0-1 line, and your opponent Gardevoir/Gallade will have a bad day!
Ampharos = The body can let you play with your Bring Down all the match. It can even attack, but pay attention to the [F] Weakness!
Scramble Energy = Just 1x to take out with Furret for a quick attack early game.
Darkness basic Energy / Fighting Energy = Just 1x to make Absol attack vs your opponent Banette + Lake Boundary or, in the second case, to make Gallade attack with Sonic Blade without using Double Rainbow Energy.
Warp Point/Switch = Just 1x to send Furret on the Bench without losing 1 turn of Energy.
Team Galactic Mars = it’s very good combined with TGW and Telepass, but hey, your opponent Gardevoir SW would be happy to use it several times after you use it once. IMHO, it’s better to keep it out and use the Team Galactic Mars our opponent played early game, using our Gardevoir SW.
MATCH-UPS
FIRE TRUK = 60-40 (with Gyarados, it becomes 70-30)
The match seems difficult, but you have several key cards to play against them.
Obviously, Gyarados is one of them, because with 1 [P] Energy taken from Gardevoir PK it can OHKO Magmar and to 80 damage to a Magmortar, forcing them to doing immediately 100 damages to you if they don’t want to die next turn. But you may want to play the game without it.
Usually, Fire Truk spends many turns to set-up. If they start with a Magmortar, use your Gallade to reveal 3 prizes if they don’t have nothing behind. You will draw the prize of it and 1-2 prizes of the Pokèmon they send to die. If they send Typhlosion to discard your DRE, Gardevoir PK can be an answer, because with power + Energy from hand it does 50 for 2 Energy (but only 1 turn of Energy from hand). It can be useful also vs a Magmortar with many energies on it. Psychic Lock can be evil midgame, if they have for a turn only few energies in the field (because maybe you did KO their main hitter with a lot of energies on it).
It happens that Psychic Lock ruins their plan for the game. Remember Bring Down can be the only way late in the game to draw some easy prizes, “bringing down” some Delcatty or basic Pokèmon on their Bench.
Against Magmortar LVX, you have only to be careful and find the quicker way of KOing it. If they send it immediately, use your Gallade to KO it. If it arrives midgame, try to use a Sonic Blade on it. The best thing to do is having at least 1 prize faced-down midgame to do 80 (Sonic blade) and 70 (Psychic Cut for 1 prize), so even if they use their body do heal of 2 damages, 60+70 would KO it anyway. Try to Bring down Magmortar LVX, if you can (obviously).
ABSOLADE 55-45
Very difficult to play. At the beginning, you will see Furret and Absol fighting to build-destroy your setting. Pay attention to use Furret in the correct way: don’t “Keen Eye” for Rare Candy-Gardevoir if you have only a few cards in hand. They can “Wager”, “Mars”, “Baleful Wind” them and send you in a bad position. You can search for 2 Kirlia and wait for the Gardevoir (even if they Wager you after the 2nd Keen Eye, you can draw a Celio’s or a Gardevoir SW and set it). Once the Gardevoir SW are both in the field, each player will wait until Gallade, Gardevoir and Gardevoir LVX are ready to attack. No one will send its Gallade to KO Furret/Absol if he fears a Gallade will OHKO it. In this situation, Furret’s second attack can be useful, because you force your opponent to attack with something (their Absol cannot do it). Drawing a prize with it, it’s not bad. Once the game goes ahead, Psychic Lock and Wager will be the strategy both players will use. This is why it’s important to don’t play Mars: if your opponent plays it and you don’t, you can low easily their hand to 2 cards and choose 1 card a turn, while they cannot do it for more than 4 times.
Basically, if you use Psychic Lock with the opponent at 2 cards and Gardevoir which cannot be KOed, you are ahead. But well, they will attack and reduce their disadvantage, trying to Psychick Lock you. Try to use your second hitters (Gyarados, Furret, Gardevoir PK) to have more chance than them to attack. If all goes well, they will finish their forces. The match is very difficult, by the way, because if they build their Bench soon and they discard some key cards at the beginning with Absol, you would have a hard time. Even if someone has something prizes can be hard (but well, Gallade will reveal them soon…). If you are skilled and luck enough with TGW and prizes, the match will be more at your side.
DARK WING DUCK 60-40
If you don’t have problem at the beginning, you can easily win. If they put you under pressure soon (with Mars + Honchrow T2 + maybe Umbreon*) or if their Absol + Mars + Wager will make difficult to abuse of Gardevoir SW, you can easily lose. Usually, Furret survives enough to let you set your Gallade and Gardevoir easily, but if their Honchcrow KO it soon and they ruin your “Keen Eye” with their cards, it will be hard to KO the crows, even because they are [F] resistance.
BLISSEY VARIANTS 70-30
If they don’t have Holon FF, their weakness will let your Gallade attack easily and KO all their Blissey in 1 hit early game and 2 hits late game. If they have many Holon FF, remember to use Gallade’s Sonic Blade, Gardevoir PK (if there are many energies on it), even Ralts DF sometimes. Gyarados can be broken as well. Anyway, if you see they have Holon FFs, use your Keen Eye to set ONLY the Gardevoir/Gallade line, maybe 2 Gallade and 1 Gardevoir. Let the Furret die, so you can Bring Down all their Blissey midgame.
STATUS DECK (Venusaur, Meganium MT, Roserade) 65-35
Gardevoir LVX Teletrasportation is the key move of the game. Remember here you have WPs, so it will be
easier to play. Send a WP-ed Gallade which will be untouchable for them. This is enough to win
INFERNCATTY 75-25
Psychic Lock is evil for them. Without powers, your Wager will ruin their set-up as they cannot use Delcatty to draw cards. They will start faster, but then you have all the time to recover. It’s not a problem.
MOVING TRUK 65-35
The same as InfernCatty. Here they have their Blissey which can hurt Gardevoir Psychic Lock, but their weakness will make your Gallade KO them easier.
BANETTE VARIANTS 20-80
While Absolade has Absol which can help vs Banette, we have a Furret which cannot attack because of Banette’s Resistance. We don’t have 4 Absol and several [D] energies, so we cannot get rid of Banette.
Their stadium and Cessation give us more problems. Play it the better you can, trying to Bring Down a Shuppet before it becomes Banette and to find ways of KOing a Banette when it OHKOs your main hitter. Gyarados cannot perform its best because of Cessation.
There are some match-up missing, like Hurricane, DuskQueen and Monarchy.
I hope to prepare them if the article will have success!
Thanks for the attention!!!
Andrea “Andceo” Ceolin
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