prodigal_fanboy
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Mindless Self-Indulgence: Luxray/Garchomp
Luxray GL completely altered the format from the second it hit the scene. It played a prominent role in decks that were winning Spring Battle Roads and was a key player in both decks that made Top 2 of U.S. National's in Masters Division. It was also found in the list that ultimately won the 2009 World Championship in the Master's Division.
Author: Zak K.
Date: January 18, 2010
Format: DP-AR
Division: Masters
With the release of Supreme Victors, there came much general crying as it was seen to be a sub-par set in the wake of Legends Awakened, Stormfront, Platinum, and Rising Rivals. However, a few noteworthy cards came from the set. The two cards relevant to this article are Garchomp C and Garchomp C Lv. X. Saving strategy-based descriptions for later, these two fellas did not fear of anything, and pretty soon Luxray/Blaziken/Garchomp and Luxray/Garchomp builds were having mild success across Fall 2009 Battle Roads everywhere. Come 2009-2010 City Championships, builds trended towards dropping the Blaziken line, and quickly became one of the dominant decks in terms of Cities wins in the Master's Division.
Now to address a few questions the reader might have, namely:
- Why is this deck named after a band that is mediocre if you're a generous critic?
- From where do I derive my authority to pontificate about this deck?
- Where is the list going to be posted?
As for my authority, I have an 85% match-play win percentage with this deck. I'm six times more likely to win than lose against whomever TOM throws against me. Having exhausted my abilities to use statistics to skew reality, I went 5-0 in Swiss, made Top 8, then made and lost in Top 4 with this deck at a CC two weeks ago. On one hand, that is really not a good performance at all from the perspective of wanting the author to have demonstrated mastery. On the other, … at least it's something other than testing with grandparents or taking it to League. So why am I writing this article? Well, to be blatantly honest, Coach canceled practice and classes are canceled for Martin Luther King Day today, and there's only so much Solitaire one can stomach before becoming determined to produce something of value.
Where's the list? Here:
Pocket Monsters - 17
2 Luxray GL RR
2 Luxray GL Lv. X RR
2 Garchomp C SV
1 Garchomp C Lv. X SV
2 Uxie LA
1 Uxie Lv. X LA
2 Crobat G PL
1 Chatot MD
1 Unown G GE
1 Azelf LA
1 Lucario GL RR
1 Toxicroak G Promo
Supporters - 12
4 Cyrus' Conspiracy
3 Roseanne's Research
2 Bebe's Search
1 Aaron's Collection
1 Cynthia's Feelings
1 Looker's Investigation
Team Galactic's Inventions - 13
4 Team Galactic's Invention G-101 Energy Gain
4 Team Galactic's Invention G-105 Poke Turn
3 Team Galactic's Invention G-103 Power Spray
2 Team Galactic's Invention G-109 SP Radar
Trainers - 7
3 Energy Pickup
2 Premier Ball
1 Luxury Ball
1 Night Maintenance
Energy - 11
5 Lightning Energy
4 Call Energy MD
2 Psychic Energy
General Discussion of the List
This will therefore be the most difficult part of the article, from my perspective as an author. Things that seem self-evident must be communicated with lucidity to ensure that you, the general populace, can pick this up and run with it. Thus press onward I.
Luxray GL – the sorority girl of the deck. To be used most of the time, something you always want to have around as a backup, and valued not intrinsically but for what it can bring about. Luxray GL is most important for the fact that it can be leveled up into Luxray GL Lv. X. However, it does not bring nothing to the table. Bite comes in handy on occasion, for either when you don't need the 60 damage from Flash Impact for the KO, and can thus avoid damaging yourself. Also for when you get a lone Call Energy but have nothing you want to call for, going second, to start getting damage on board. Trash Bolt is also a handy attack for when you need the extra damage. With Lucario GL in play, and a Crobat drop, you hit Gyarados for a whopping 150 total damage, which is enough to knock out a Gyarados even if it has an Expert Belt attached.
[gal=45505]Luxray GL Lv. X[/gal]
Luxray GL Lv. X – wins games. 60 for 1 with an Energy Gain, the ability to choose whatever target you'd like to attack when you level him up, and free retreat. This selective-targeting capability is what makes him so good, and a focal point of the deck's strategy of resource denial. You can use his Pokemon Power, Bright Look, to bring up a benched Claydol to be knocked out, preventing your opponent from using Claydol's Cosmic Power to set up. You can Bright Look up benched basics with an energy attached before you opponent gets a chance to evolve, setting them back an attachment and a potential attacker. You can Bright Look up that Azelf or Uxie sitting on the bench for a cheap final prize late in the game. Importantly, you can also Bright Look just about anything if your opponent has started with a Spiritomb to stop the effect of Spiritomb's Keystone Seal Poke-body.
Bright Look - The power, in and of itself, is the center-point of the deck's Luxray-based strategems. How you use the power is entirely situational, however, there are several common decisions. Against the majority of the stage-two based decks, your best bet, upon using Bright Look, is to pull up their Baltoy or Claydol from the bench and one-shot it. Claydol does an insanely good job of boosting a deck's consistency; many decks begin to falter or downright lose when they cannot access Claydol's consistent draw. Not only do you have Power Spray to prevent the use of things like Cosmic Power and Set Up early game, you can use Bright Look to deny decks their draw power, which can effectively seal the game. There are a few notable exceptions to the 'pull up Baltoy or Claydol' concept: immediate threats.
Garchomp C – much in the same boat as Luxray GL, he's not terribly necessary in his own accord, and consequentially kept around merely to be leveled up. None of his attacks are used with enough frequency to deserve mention.
[gal=48290]Garchomp C Lv. X[/gal]
Garchomp C Lv. X – so good for so many reasons. Free retreat. The Pokemon Power Healing Breath lets you heal off nearly knocked-out SP Pokemon (Luxray GL Lv. X), heal off damage accrued from Flash Impact, etc. Also, the attack, Dragon Rush, is incredibly So good. For two energy and an Energy Gain, you can hit anything for 80. Solid, solid, solid. With Lucario GL in play, this gets the one-hit knockout (OHKO) on Flygon. Without Lucario GL, this OHKOs Flygon Lv. X. Against other SP decks, this KOs most non-leveled up SP Pokemon. It also hits the aforementioned Claydol, from Great Encounters. It is for this reason that Garchomp C Lv. X is so good. I'd like to stop and take a minute here to discuss why I only ran one. The most basic reason is that I only owned one copy and didn't feel like rushing to trade for one. However, you can make the argument that the deck only needs one. This is true, and if you are hard-pressed for space it's an acceptable decision. However, since I had room for 3 Energy Pick-ups, I should have had room for the second Garchomp C Lv. X, which would have been beneficial against the number of Flygon decks I played against at my CC.
Uxie – Set Up is a very fast and very accessible power, in terms of the immediacy of draw. Furthermore, through careful play, such as emptying one’s hand as much as possible prior to laying down Uxie, and baiting opposing Power Sprays with other powers on the field, it can yield large benefits. Independent of whether you are shooting for a Luxray-based game or a Dialga-based game, you should more or less follow these basic steps: play your starting hand down as much as strategically beneficial. Either grab a Roseanne's with Cyrus to get Uxie next turn, Roseanne's for the Uxie, or play Uxie once your hand is small enough to where you should be drawing 4+ cards off of Set Up. From there, Cyrus' Conspiracy chains should keep your hand full of whatever cards you might need for the rest of the game. Side note: don't gamble everything on a single Uxie. Either have the means to get another, Roseanne's for both your Uxie if you don't need to grab something else and think they have the spray, or whatnot. Just don't play stupid merely to slim down your hand, and don't assume it won't get P. Sprayed, unless your opponent isn't running SP Pokemon.
Uxie Lv. X – the Trade-Off power is nice when you have access to it, although it isn't really urgent. Zen Blade is the main reason this card is included. With or without Flash Bite tricks from your Crobat Gs, you can use her with Lucario GL's Boundary Aura to score one hit knockouts on Nidoqueen RR, Machamp SF, Gardevoir SW, Gallade SW, and Toxicroak G promo as the most common targets. Note: to use consecutive Zen Blades, if necessary, merely retreat, bringing a Pokemon-SP active, and then use a Poketurn on that Pokemon-SP, and bring your Uxie X back active. This removes the condition placed by using Zen Blade last turn on your Uxie Lv. X.
Crobat G – is here for two simple reasons. He has free retreat, meaning you don't fall behind on attachments if you start with him. His power is also very useful, as it can mean the difference between taking one or two or three turns getting the knockout on something. The reason two are ran is to avoid absolute reliance on Poketurn for repeat usage, and the donk factor. I'm aware that it's frowned upon in the general community (or at least, frowned upon when it happens to them), but there is no reason to play out a match and risk losing when you could have the win turn one with prizes and ratings on the line. If you elect to run Call Energy, Crobat/Call is a fairly solid start, especially if you go first. If you ever get knocked out, unless you have a strategy that requires a retreat your next turn, promote your Crobat G - that way you get the benefit of seeing your draw, and playing supporters, etc., before choosing whom to send up.
Chatot – has free retreat, just like Crobat G, so you don't fall behind on attachments if you start with him and draw into or search for something else. Mimic also lets you flush rubbish hands if you must, which can literally save you games. Also, Chatter can trap an active Spiritomb AR indefinitely if your opponent does not run Dark Energies to use to attack with Spiritomb. If you are POSITIVE they do not run any Dark Energy, you can, in a pinch, use Chatter until time is called, and which point you may retreat and take a prize for the game. A “cheap” move in general, however, considering the number of decks that abuse Spiritomb to be cheap themselves, don't beat yourself up over using it. I must stress however, the majority of decks which run Spiritomb will beat you if permitted to set up. Therefore, if you let them set up while you Chatter lock them, and it turns out they do run Dark Energy, it can cost you the match. Consider yourself warned.
Unown G – included more out of force of habit than anything. Most important usage is to attach it to Uxie Lv. X when you are going to KO Machamps, so they can't respond with another Machamp using Take Out. Can also be attached to Crobat G to stall while mustering a means to KO a Machamp, or any Pokemon that you send up that might get Sand Tomb locked by your opponent's Flygon.
Azelf – because having important stuffed prized is an awful experience. You want to find it, place it where you know you'll draw it, and get it ASAP. Also, if what you need is a Pokemon, you can grab it. Side note: don't be a bad player and blindly lay down Azelf to check your prizes. The first deck check of your game, slowly look through your deck, but in a timely manner to avoid stalling. While doing so, look to see if you notice anything important being prized. If so, THEN go for Azelf, but not before. Another tip, if you think you'll forget where you put what precisely later in the game, arrange the prizes alphabetically. I've found that it's much easier to find what you're looking for, to take, when you've done so - one whiff on a prize can cost dearly.
Lucario GL – here solely for his body, which can turn two-hit knockouts into one-hit knockouts. If you packed a single basic metal energy, he could troll Regigigas, Tyranitar, and other hit-energy attachment fighting-weak Pokemon, which are few and far between.
[gal=46040]Toxicroak G[/gal]
Toxicroak G – very handy against other SP Pokemon. He gets revenge knockouts against Luxray GL Lv. X and Blaziken FB Lv. X, and can wallop Regigigas. Not bad as a counter-attacker in a pinch, but not terribly good to rely on for anything unless you know you'll get the one-hit knockout.
Cyrus' Conspiracy – the backbone of this deck, versatile, gets what you need. With some thought put into predicting the game state next turn – i.e., what gets knocked out, what attacks you plan on using, what you need to set up, you can know what Supporter you need to grab. With the release of SP Radar, Cyrus can act as a limited version of Roseanne’s: simply grab a support of choice, an energy of choice, and an SP Radar, and use the SP Radar to grab whatever SP Pokemon you need. Here’s a short explanation of ‘chaining’ Cyrus’ Conspiracies. Assuming you have a Cyrus’ Conspiracy in hand, and it is not more tactically urgent to Roseanne’s Research that turn, you play it. Grab an energy, whatever Team Galactic’s Invention you need, and another Cyrus. Next turn, play that Cyrus’ Conspiracy, so on and so forth.
Roseanne's Research – I elected to only run 3 Roseanne's Research. This is a controversial decision to some, however one that I feel has borne out as a smart choice in testing. With Call Energy, Cyrus', SP Radar, and assorted draw power, you generally will not need to Roseanne's four times in one game. Some games, despite being protracted, will only require you to Roseanne's once, if at all, late-game for energies that have been shuffled back into your deck with Night Maintenance.
Bebe's Search – from the perspective of speed, Bebe's search is inferior to SP Radar for the vast majority of the deck. Very few cards in the deck that are crucial to the strategy can be grabbed by Bebe's that cannot be accessed by SP Radar. This appears to make a strong argument for the inclusion of only one copy of Bebe's Search in the backbone of the list. However, two Bebe's Search is a better option with the prevalence of Spiritomb AR in your metagame. It's Pokebody, Keystone Seal, prevents either player from playing trainers, which will slow you down considerably. Therefore, it is imperative to either knock it out or get it out of your opponent's active position as quickly as possible. The most efficient means of doing so is by leveling up a Luxray into Luxray GL Lv. X and using Bright Look to drag something off of their bench, play out all your trainers, and get the knockout. Therefore, the higher Bebe's count means you have an effective four chances of having access to Luxray GL Lv. X at the start of the game. This increases if you allow yourself to grab a Bebe's with a Cyrus' Conspiracy, meaning you still have Luxray GL Lv. X in play by turn two, if you went second. If you really fear Spiritomb, you could increase the count even more, however, the increased Bebe's count will slow the deck down somewhat, so don't go overboard.
Aaron's Collection – fundamentally good, it lets you recycle, say, a Lv. X and it's non-Lv. X form straight back to your hand to be used again. Also lets you recycle energy, should you be running low late-game after losing a few attackers and using Dragon Rush once or twice. Running two of these, in lieu of the 1/1 Aaron's Collection/Night Maintenance split is a mistake you commonly see made on the deck help and strategy forum of the 'Gym. It neglects to take into account crucial matchups where you need to recycle Uxie/Uxie Lv. X/Unown G, notably against decks packing multiple Nidoqueens, GG, and Machamp.
[gal=35683]Cynthia's Feelings[/gal]
Cynthia's Feelings – stands as a very useful one-of for the late-game power of this deck. You will find over the course of play that the deck has an overwhelming early game, and it tends to coast on this prize and resource advantage's momentum to the win. Sometimes, however, your opponent begins to make a comeback. After your Cyrus' Conspiracies have been exhausted, you are running out of means of grabbing what you need. Enter the lone Cynthia's Feelings. When your opponent has just knocked out one of your Pokemon during their last turn, you may shuffle your hand in and draw a whopping eight cards. I found this card positively indispensable when I used it, and would highly advise you, if skeptical, at least give it a try.
Looker's Investigation – permits you to take a look at your opponent's hand, and choose either yourself or your opponent to shuffle their hand back into their deck. I tossed one of these into my deck in case I came up against Shuppet Donk (in Masters?!?!? :nonono
or Gyarados, which is a Pokedad favorite. It does allow for some outside-of-the-box plays, with outside-of-the-box frequencies, such as flushing an opponent's good hand as you get rolling, or making them shuffle in a Cynthia's Feelings before you KO their Claydol so they can't use it next turn.Poke Turn – Poketurn, you will find, is as invaluable as the rest of the Team Galactic’s Inventions. You can use it in conjunction with Crobat G’s Flash Bite Poke-Power to put extra damage on your opponent’s Pokemon. In reference to the ‘dump hand and then play Uxie’ quasi-strategy, you can attach Energy Gains cluttering up your hand to SP-Pokemon you wouldn’t traditionally attach to, such as Crobat G, as they are Pokemon that traditionally get PokeTurned for repeat uses of their power. In effect, you are ‘storing’ the Energy Gain temporarily on that Pokemon. However, when doing so, be alert for Pachirisu, from GE, whose Smash Short attack will punish you for choosing to do so. There is also the thoroughly explained Luxray GL Lv. X Bright Look “chaining” that can be pulled with this card. The last beneficial aspect is how the card reduces the number of bad starts the deck has. Garchomp C and Luxray GL are the deck’s ideal starts, with Crobat G almost as much so, as he has free retreat, so you can search for an attacker, and retreat to them. The importance of starting with a Pokemon you would use to attack is the simple concept of resource management. You can only attach one energy per turn to any one of your Pokemon – if you have to spend that crucial first energy attaching to retreat, then you’ve set yourself back one attachment. Furthermore, considering that Luxray/Garchomp’s greatest attribute is its speed, by setting yourself back a turn of energy attachments you virtually hand your opponent a free turn to set up, which is detrimental to your odds in the long run. Now, let’s get back to the subject matter.
Energy Gain – is a trainer which reduces the attack costs of all of your SP-Pokemon by one colorless energy. Another card that greatly accentuates the speed of your SP-Pokemon, both in terms of initial set-up and then when it comes time to make a late-game comeback. I’ve seen many lists cut one of these, running only three copies of the card, however I think that a risky play if consistency is your highest goal. The more copies you run, the more likely you are to have one in your starting hand, or draw into it. The more Team Galactic’s Inventions you have readily available at the start of your game, the less you are required to search for, and the less you are required to search for, the faster you can set up. This and Poketurn are the two Galactic’s Inventions you simply cannot do without in your starting turns, therefore each merit four copies.
[gal=42349]Team Galactic's Invention G-103 Power Spray[/gal]
Power Spray – Ah, a ‘skill card.’ In a format dominated by the use of Powers, comes a card to stop any single-use power in its tracks. The dilemma is, what powers are absolutely most crucial to your opponent, and thus imperative that you stop? It’s no longer as simple as mindlessly power-spraying Claydol’s Cosmic Power and Uxie’s Set Up, and you’re good. To effectively use this card, one must think, anticipating an opponent’s plans, trying to figure out what cards they hold in their hand, and much much more. Claydol and Uxie, are, of course, very common powers to stop, especially if your opponent has also elected to play as many cards from their hand as possible prior to using Uxie. Other key powers to stop include Gardevoir SW’s Telepass, especially if you have played a Cyrus’ Conspiracy previously. With a Cyrus’ Conspiracy in your discard pile, the other player could Telepass it, and then search their deck for an energy and whatever supporter they needed that turn, which can greatly complicate measures. Crobat G’s Flash Bite is another power that, depending upon the situation, is greatly needed to be stopped. Lastly, in rival SP matches, Bronzong G’s Galactic Switch, especially if they have a highly damaged active SP Pokemon, is another power that should be stopped – that way, if they do Poketurn their active and deny you the prize, at least they can’t relocate its energy prior to doing so. Some Luxray builds run no Power Spray, in favor of a maxed out SP Radar line and other valuable trainers, like extra instances of Premier Ball, or Warp Point.
SP Radar – A stellar card, as it can fetch any SP-Pokemon (this includes Lv. X’s!), and does not even use your supporter for the turn. The printing of this card has greatly enhanced the consistency of all SP-based decks, especially seeing as how it can be grabbed with a Cyrus' Conspiracy!! Very valuable, and would be 3 or 4-of were it not for the large presence of Spiritomb AR in the meta.
[gal=35702]Energy Pickup[/gal]
Energy Pickup – when I was writing this list up, I recognized that a huge aspect of the strategy would be the management of resources, more particularly, the energy that this deck has on the field, both concretely in terms of number attached, and relatively in terms of how many fully powered attackers are present in comparison with the opponent. It's a risky card, but in the end I decided that fortune favors the bold, and 4chan favors the lulz, and went with it. Side note, I do not have a 4chan account – I stumbled across EncyclopediaDramatica while looking for Uncyclopedia on Google one dreary winter day, and while alternatively laughing, not caring, and being disgusted by the articles therein, I learned some things. Honestly, though, I was just going for the parallel syntactical and phonetic structure.
Premier Ball – this card can search your deck for the Luxray, Dialga, or Uxie Lv. X that you need, as well as fetching them out of the discard. Running no Bebe’s Searches, if I were going to up the count of any given card in the deck, it’d be this one: if you can promptly level up and retreat, even being forced to start with an Uxie is a workable setup to begin from. Add in the capability to recycle knocked-out Level X’s, which comes in handy in crucial matchups like Machamp (continuous stream of Unown G’d Uxie Lv. X’s with Zen Blade and Lucario GL in play is very effective here). If you find yourself not needing another card, cut it for another Premier Ball.
Luxury Ball – trainer-speed fetching of ANY given Pokemon you desire. Very fast, very useful, virtually no drawbacks since you only run one copy. However, with your Roseanne’s Research count, no Stage 1 or Stage 2 Pokemon in your deck, and the emphasis placed on SP Pokemon or Lv. X’s, this could also be cut for another SP Radar or Premier Ball. If you opt to run Claydol as a tech in lieu of, say, Energy Pickup, keep this card. Otherwise, feel free to sub out as appropriate.
Night Maintenance – late game can avoid decking, also recycles KO'ed Pokemon if you need to use a supporter for the turn and can't therefore use Aaron's. You'll find that if you continuously use Trash Bolt, you'll be wanting this card more and more. Considering the wealth of Pokemon in the current format with 70 or 80 HP, you should be using Crobat G and Trash Bolt enough to warrant the inclusion of this card. One could argue for the dropping of the singleton Aaron's Collection for another instance of this card: I've considered it, but the fact of the matter is, you can nab Aaron's with Cyrus' Conspiracy, and Aaron's is great for even more late-game Bright Look abuse, or for setting up the surprise late-game Trash Bolt. The argument can be made that in lieu of the 1 Aaron's / 1 Night Maintenance, one could run 1 Palmer's / 1 VS Seeker. Each has its pros and cons. Palmer's / Seeker is more beneficial in a Flygon-heavy meta where tons of of energy and Garchomps are burnt through getting Dragon Rush KOs. However, with Aaron's/NM, you have two recursion cards in your list. With Palmer's/VS Seeker, you have two means of recursion at your access only if you use Palmer's before VS Seeker. Not to mention, you can use NM and then play Cynthia's Feelings after a KO which is pretty solid, I must add.
General Discussion of the Energy – Four Call energy is more or less a must here, as it gets you out of bad starts and permits the turn two Bright Look. Call Energy → turn two Bright Look is one of the reasons this deck can be just fine going first, provided your opponent doesn't have an explosive hand, which is a nifty feature. Five lightning, two psychic is more a choice to keep my opponent guessing if they see one in the discard and I've got, say, Toxipromo on the bench, you could revert to six lightning and one psychic if you so choose.
Possible Techs
As with any list that has room for flexibility, there are always potential changes that may be advocated dependent upon the metagame and playstyle of the person using the list. Thus, without further ado, here are some more noteworthy techs for the deck.
1 Claydol GE + 1 Baltoy GE - given that the list already runs four Call Energy, two Bebe's Search, and a Luxury Ball, including this source of constant draw power in your deck is merely a matter of finding two slots to dedicate to the evolution line. While Claydol is not as necessary in the current iteration of Luxchomp (there isn't much that you can't hit off of a Cyrus'), it's nice to have, and with the inclusion of Expert Belt (and Double Colorless Energy from HGSS), it's nice to have the means to fish for them in a pinch.
1-1 Dialga G Lv. X - Dialga G is a very solid addition to any list. Dialga G's attack, Deafen, blocks the opponent from playing trainers and stadiums during their turn, which can cripple a vast majority of the decks that are competitive in this format. In addition, upon leveling up, Dialga G Lv. X's Poke-body, Time Crystal, shuts off all Pokebodies, excluding those on Pokemon-SP. The most notable bodies in play that this can shut off are Nidoqueen RR's Maternal Comfort, Mewtwo Lv. X's Psybarrier, and Spiritomb AR's Keystone Seal, along with Flygon Lv. X's Wind Erosion (albeit, expect the Flygon Lv. X to hit you with its Extreme Attack for 150 damage the next turn!). You also gain the ability to use the attack "Remove Lost," which deals 80 damage for four energy (or three with an energy gain), but has the potential to not discard the opponent's energy, but send them to the Lost Zone, which could come in handy against select decks, notably Gardevoir/Gallade.
1 Expert Belt – with Energy Pickups in the list, and your not unoften Call Energy starts, getting two attachments on a Luxray GL Lv. X is not terribly difficult to have occur (it opens up Trash Bolt plays, traditionally). With the benefit of Expert Belt, you can get the one-hit knockout on benched Claydols and similar support Pokemon without the need for use of Poketurns, which strengthens your late-game options dramatically. Furthermore, it lets you tear through Gyarados builds with less difficulty (assuming Lucario GL in play), strengthening a matchup that can tilt either way depending on relative strengths of starts.
1 Roserade GL – theoretically a strong option to buy time to set up when you're stuck with a bad start. It never made a splash in my regional metagame, however I know it has seen inclusion in winning lists around the country. I personally prefer to have Chatot over this card, however as my understanding of the finesse of its use broadens, I will elaborate on its potential further.
1 Ambipom G – a good monkey wrench to throw into your opponent's plans. Thanks to the recent Tail Code and Unown G ruling, any energy you select to shift to a target with Unown G attached will be shunted off by Unown G's Poke-power Guard, and is thus discarded. Therefore, if your opponent Guards any of his Pokemon when you are up against a Dialga G-based deck, you can discard one (or potentially two or more if they can't threaten the immediate counter-knockout) Special Metal energies, making it much harder for them to reach their desired end-state (a fully tanked Dialga). If they haven't used an Unown G, shifting the Special Metal Energies to a non-SP Pokemon is just as effective – they are trapped, barring that Pokemon getting knocked out and a heads flip with Conductive Quarry. Likewise, for one energy and the attachment of an Energy Gain, he will knock out any Garchomp C Lv. X that just used Dragon Rush in one hit (assuming no Snowpoint Temple in play). Therefore, if you are expecting a large SP presence, it'd be nice to fit him in.
The 4th Power Spray – Pardon my John Madden moment: the prevention of crucial powers early-game is imperative in denying your opponent a setup. However, at times, to grab the Power Spray with your Cyrus' Conspiracy prevents you from grabbing something else you need for setup. Therefore, by upping your count back to four, you maximize your odds of naturally drawing into the Power Spray early-game without having to waste crucial tutoring capabilities on it.
1 Flint's Willpower – a tech for quick surprise Dragon Rushes. I am personally not a fan of Flint's Willpower. In comparison with Energy Pickups, it takes your supporter slot for the turn, and takes an energy from the hand, rather than the discard (and is also limited to Pokemon-SP!). All this for the guarantee rather than possibility. Frankly, neither of the two should be in the deck if one is playing a conservative and efficient list. If you wanted Flint's for back-to-back Dragon Rushes, I suggest you try adding in...
The 2nd Garchomp C Lv. X – back to back Dragon Rushes are nice, and you can catch your opponent off-guard. However, for the DP-AR incarnations of this deck, the second Garchomp C Lv. X can feel extraneous, and it is more often than not dead weight in an opening hand. All of this changes, of course, with the advent of HGSS.
1 Bronzong G – starting with him against Spiritomb means you're gonna get rolled like a bad strip of sod. Any deck that runs Spiritomb that can capitalize on the asymmetry of its body and first attack will use those three turns to get running behind the lock and rip you a new one. Of course, you might be able to come back, but I wouldn't count on it. That's why I opted not to run this, however, with the sheer number of basic Pokemon you are running, the odds of a lone Bronzong G start are slim enough to where his power would well be worth it.
Matchups
MSI vs. Flygon/X, where X ≡ not Machamp SF.
This matchup is inherently favorable to the Luxray/Garchomp player, due to the nature of the decks involved (for the most part. If the Flygon player runs Spiritomb, then their best play is to grab two Baltoys, so no matter which one you kill, they threaten to Darkness Grace into Claydol on the other and get moving. If they fail to do this and simultaneously lay down a Trapinch/Secondary Attacker's Basic and attach an energy, you've already got momentum. Flygon threatens to roll through you if it gets set up. Even with uppers, however, it requires two attachments to get a hit off. As long as you don't keep permit it to hit the magic 110 off of power swing, they require an expert belt or other shenanigans to OHKO you for two energy (Upper and whatever). You should come out with a significant enough prize and momentum lead to where you can trade fully powered attackers and still pull it off.
MSI vs. Flygon/Machamp
This matchup will never be fun. However, general consensus (and results from Cities perfomances) hold that it is eminently playable. You pack OHKO potential against Machamps with Uxie Lv. X, Lucario GL in play, and a Crobat drop. We've already discussed how to roll through Flygon. Flygon sans draw support will tend to crumble as you win the exchange in both tempo and prize-for-prize. Flygon and Machamp can pose a threat in that they both require different means of being dealt with. As long as they do not lucksack into the T1/T2 Machamp (as Machamp players are wont to do), you can focus on killing their draw support, whence it will devolve into general anti-Flygon strategy. As long as you aren't playing on the defensive, you're golden.
MSI vs. Cursegar/Tomb
This matchup is relatively even, with variations amongst list determining the narrow tilting of percentage points. As stated before, and undoubtedly you will find, Spiritomb AR slows down this deck considerably. The first concern that arises is their (nigh inevitable) Spiritomb start. The trainer lock (and use of Darkness Grace) creates parity by robbing MSI of speed. As explained before, Bright Look out of the trainer lock and then perform all necessary trainer maneuvers. To borrow a visual metaphor, this matchup should, in the abstract, resemble playing tetris (cue CollegeHumor's Tetris God video). Each of their turns, pieces come down, forming rows. If the screen fills up with rows, you lose. Therefore, you have two objectives. Slow the pace at which bricks come down (LONG PIECE!), and then clear them row by row. I know this sounds like a very noobish "Well if I get set up and you get set up I'll just use my super dooper Blastoise to win the game" kind of thing, but that's essentially what it comes down to. Level Down + Moon Skip with an Expert Belt KOs any of your pokemon, so just like Flygon, you really can't handle their setup once it forms. The fundamental trade-off in matchup is that Flygon does not bounce behind sundry meat shields after attacking, however Flygon can utilize Uppers. If you can keep them off of their Claydol quickly enough, you can isolate their setup and gradually bring it down. Otherwise, do the raisin bran and give them a scoop.
MSI v. Dialga/Garchomp
Credit for this goes to TheGeneral. While Luxchomp can capitalize off of Dialga's greater number of potential weak starts, Deafen Lock hurts. If they get Dialga up and tanked, there isn't much to be done in terms of damage output to eliminate it. To any beginning player reading this article, you should be noticing a repeating trend. Luxchomp has the upper hand in denying your opponent set-up, but if your opponent gets set up, tends to lose its edge and has to coast on prize momentum.
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