Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Galladephobia

R

revdjweb

New Member
i really marvel that this card has driven almost all fighting weak pokemon out of the game (except for darkrai and furret and maybe absol). it is even more amazing to me when you realize that most GG decks only run TWO gallades anymore. two cards out of sixty, from one deck in the format. even lucario didn't have this much impact and it was the centerpiece of several decks.

it seems to me that the pendulum must swing back the other way soon. i think if Majestic Dawn decks weaken GG at all (that is, if we do see a rise in Empoleon MD/Garchomp lvl X decks) then there will inevitably be a rise in electric or normal type counter decks (i would love to play electivire again, sigh).
of course there are new fighting types coming in, notably kabutops, which might prolong the situation.

but two gallades can't hold the line like roman sentries overlooking the rhine forever, can they?
 
Electric decks tend to rely heavily on powers, something Gallade as a deck combats (it doing extra damage due to weakness is only putting salt on the wounds)
 
Mawile is to frail to even flip a few prizes. And then they just grab the ones you flipped so they can still increase Gallade's damage output.
 
I was just thinking that there wasn't quite as much need to fear the fighting weakness quite as much anymore. It's still not a good thing but it's not an idea killer anymore IMHO.

As noted above though the real reason you don't see as many isn't Gallade ... it's Garde. Shutting off powers for turns at a time just kills things like Vire.
 
Gallade isn't a problem to anything except decks that like to only have one pokemon out at a time (like Blissey used to play).

Lightning's low HP is the problem.
Electivire's unreliable attack power is the problem.
High power dependency is the problem.

Last format, lightning pokemon had spamable deck control (Metagross d), spamable Energy acceleration (Dragonite d), and reliable massive attack power (Metagross d). Right now, all Lightning has is energy accleration (Raichu) which eats up your turn, massive attack power (Electivire DP), and that's about it. Luxray DP5 does a LOT of damage if your opponent has LV.X pokemon out at all, which is going to be more and more often, but we still don't have spamable Energy Accel like Dragonite d, and we still don't have any other acceleration available to lightning pokemon.

How sad. :/
 
Well, it's a prominent deck. And 2 is still plenty to get smacked around with. LBS never played a whole lot of Lugia, but that didn't stop it from wrecking Scizor.

Of course, that's a basic, so it's kind of a different story. But the point is, if they want a Gallade in play, it shouldn't be too hard to get one.
 
i think more and more people have gotten over playing gallade, it will still see play but with such amazing new cards coming out there will be more variety to put into the hands of the skilled players
 
TODDakaESTEBAN said:
i think more and more people have gotten over playing gallade, it will still see play but with such amazing new cards coming out there will be more variety to put into the hands of the skilled players
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've decdied to take apart my G&G deck to play Garchomp.
 
Last edited:
I am currently working on a deck that uses Electivire as the main attacker, and I would like to think that it could possibly stand a chance agains Gallade and Gardevoir.
hopefully.
 
Tentacruel13 said:
Blastoise d, always helpful.
Click to expand...

No, it's not. Gallade can still OHKO your pokemon regardless of weakness. Blastoise doesn't solve the biggest problem, which is Gardevoir's psychic lock. How can you do anything, when you need several powers a turn to be able to attack every time you want to do so?
 
Not playing a Pokémon that has F weakness because of fear of Gallade is kind of irrational IMHO. Gallade OHKOs anything it wants anyway, what real difference does the +30 weakness mean? By the end of the day, a high HP Pokémon with fighting weakness has as good chance as anyone to stand up to Gallade.
 
It's just that Gallade could be more efficient about things with Fighting weakness. Say Vire DP for example. Gallade is doing 70 or 80 base damage so he only has to flip a prize or two for the KO. With Lake Boundary or vs Vire lv. X they don't even have to flip. Gallade can KO a lot of Vires before running out of prizes to flip. On the other hand a similar non-weak 100 HP pokemon is going to force Gallade to flip 2-3 prizes to OHKO. They can only do that 2 or 3 times at most in a game an may only get it once. That made a big difference when G&G seemed to focus more on Gallade OHKOing stuff to win. It's just with the change in focus to Garde as more of a main attacker and Gallade as the tech that Fighting weakness might not hurt quite as much.
 
... Flipping two prizes for a KO still nets you three free KOs with Gallade.

How many electivires do you run in a deck? Maybe at most 2 SW, 1 DP, and 1 LV.X? Maybe even worse: 2 SW and 2 LV.X?
Gallade's going to own you pretty hard, regardless of fighting weakness. Why do you think even with Unown G, even with Holon FF, that Blissey loses to Gallade? Because of the emphasis on one pokemon being out, and that one pokemon being knockout-able several times over by Gallade even without weakness. Because Gardevoir is more efficient at setting up backup hitters.

60 Base +2 prizeflips =100 damage without weakness. That's always a KO on any Electivire except for LV.X, where weakness seals the deal. 60 base + powerlock prevents Electivire from ever attacking a second time (because it discards its energies when attacking). Electivire's got more problems then just weakness. :/

If you want playable lightning, I'd say to hold off until we get Luxray (dp5), and even that is questionable. :/
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top