Leavanny in Goth = Another Stage 2 in Goth = Very very slow and fragile deck.
Those advocating it seem to plan on dropping a Stage 2 line from established
Gothitelle decks. Still I agree it might be too risky. Even without the need for more room I wonder if
Reuniclus is worth playing in post
Next Destinies Gothitelle builds: many of the Pokemon EX threaten to OHKO
Gothitelle with enough time.
Mewtwo EX is just the one that requires the least set-up.
IMO, for Goth to win againist Mewtwo EX, Goth must attach energies very quickly, because Mewtwo is much more quick in terms of energy cost for its attack and it's a basic. Only Electrode can help with this, i think, and it is unreliable. If Mewtwo EX comes to counter your Mewtwo, then the lock is broken, and whole deck idea isn't working.
Gothitelle actually has other options besides
Electrode (well, one other option) but I don't think you shouldn't write
Electrode off too quickly. You never mention the new
Gardevoir anywhere in your post. With the two working together,
Gothitelle is quite likely to power-up fast. A
Gothitelle with
no Energy at all at the beginning of the turn just needs you to manually attach one
Psychic Energy to
Gothitelle and then for
Electrode to hit
one basic
Psychic Energy with its Energymite Poke-Power. Thanks to
Gardevoir's Psychic Mirage Ability,
Gothitelle will have an effective
sychic:
sychic:
sychic:
sychic: attached.
If you only have part of the combo, the rest can pick up some of the slack: if you have one Energy already attached to
Gothitelle from a previous turn, then your manual attachment (as long as at least one of the two Energy cards attached was a basic
Psychic Energy card) and Psychic Mirage get it to the minimum three Energy it needs to attack. If you can for some reason attach no manual Energy, you just need to hit two off the Energymite, and if you lack
Gardevoir in play again you just need to hit an extra Energy or two on the Energymite. It is possible for all of these to fail you, but unlikely.
Unless
Gothitelle is poorly translated and the combo in question doesn't work, then
Gothitelle with two actual basic
Psychic Energy attached (thus counting as
sychic:
sychic:
sychic:
sychic: due to Psychic Mirage) OHKO's a
Mewtwo EX even if it has
Eviolite: base damage of 30 points plus 80 points of damage (20 per
sychic: Energy) is 110 points of damage, and doubled (thanks to
Mewtwo EX being
sychic: Weak) comes to 220 points of damage.
Against a dedicated
Mewtwo EX deck, yes the situation is grim:
Mewtwo EX probably took a Prize already
and you gave up a Prize for
Electrode. Then again, if your
Electrode hits a lot of Energy with Energymite and your deck is well made, you may have another Pokemon or two already powered-up. Quite frankly any deck that is at least mostly Psychic Weak is going to struggle against
Mewtwo EX focused decks. Still if you can take them down fast, the two or three
Gothitelle and
Electrode you lose will nicely set-up for your own
Mewtwo EX to finish the job. Breaking the "Item lock" doesn't matter if it is the turn you win on, and odds are isn't too bad if it is the turn
before you win.
Against decks that just run
Mewtwo EX because it is a good, generic attacker, like I said it is all about luck. If the
Gothitelle player has a poor set-up and his/her opponent opens with
Mewtwo EX, it is probably a fast loss for the
Gothitelle player, but this is true of many decks in general. On the other hand if player opposite the
Gothitelle player isn't careful, their TecH
Mewtwo EX or pair of
Mewtwo EX go down fast and suddenly they can't use Items and are down in Prizes, with an opponent's
Mewtwo EX waiting for the chance when it can push for the win.
I know I have gone on at length, but that was a single possible Energy acceleration idea. If you don't mind flips, there is
Jirachi with Stardust Song and Time Hollow. Time Hollow isn't all that useful once you've got the Item lock going, but you never know when a mass Devolution can win you the game. Again if you're partnering this card with
Gardevoir, you just need a single
Psychic Energy in the discard pile and a single
Psychic Energy in your hand, and either
Shaymin or
Energy Switch. Okay, and at least one heads. Maybe not the most reliable, but if your deck already runs
Junk Arm, fitting in a single
Jirachi and a single
Energy Switch might not be a bad idea alongside another Energy acceleration trick.
Lastly, while it won't be for what, another two sets, in Japan it looks like
EXP. Share was reprinted. That may be all
Gothitelle needs if it is paired up with
Gardevoir, and again a TecH copy or two may be all that is needed. Even if all these Energy acceleration tricks sound bad,
Gardevoir itself shouldn't sound bad at all; if you can save your manual Energy attachment to
Gothita turn 1 from going to waste, the second manual Energy attachment still gets
Gothitelle (that you Evolve
Gothita into via
Rare Candy) ready to hit hard second turn.
Another thing that has already being said, are EXs that do 130+ damage, because Goth can't attach Eviolite to itself and it relies on enduring 120- damage attacks to keep the lock.
That is how the deck worked in the past, yes. That doesn't mean the deck has to rely on this feature exclusively, or indeed at all. If you have a follow up
Gothitelle ready before your opponent's
next turn (since even if they KO your current
Gothitelle, you've got a turn to set-up a replacement before said opponent can use Items) the lock remains. If
Gothitelle can become a fast, hard attacker even if it gets taken out after a turn or two, you can keep the pressure on to win. Also, there is always
Defender unless your opponent also has an Item Lock going.
Maybe some great existing Gothitelle players, if they exist, can come up with a counter, but I don't see Goth as a competitive deck anymore with Mewtwo in over half of decks.
You see it as a Basic that can easily OHKO a
Gothitelle, and it is, but I also see it as a basic that can be easily OHKOed by a
Gothitelle for two Prizes.
I am not really expecting the deck to thrive, but I also won't write it off completely. At the very least it might luck into being so stupid it works. You know, when everyone forgets to plan for a deck that "no one in his/her right mind would run" and then... someone runs it. It is less likely since
Mewtwo EX can be an effective counter against it, but if people don't play that right, it backfires. If they aren't prepared for Trainer denial and don't play their
Mewtwo EX right, a skilled player with a revised
Gardevoir/
Gothitelle deck could go all the way to first place.
