Muscovy Level X
New Member
That was then...
This is now...
Gardelade of 2008-2009
Gardelade has now dropped with the loss of DRE and Scramble energy. Most players have most their enthusiasm about playing a deck that is no longer broken, when the whole metagame has been working out ways to beat it since Secret Wonders.
Here's today's a decent Gardelade (or G&G or PLOX, no one's on the name kick anymore) list.
1 Gardevoir Lv.X
3 Gardevoir
3 Gallade
3 Kirlia
4 Ralts
2 Claydol
2 Baltoy
1 Dusknoir
1 Duskull SW
7 Psychic
5 Fighting
3 Call Energy
2 Moonlight Stadium
3 Roseanne's Research
4 Bebe's Search
4 Rare Candy
2 Night Maintenance
3 POV
3 TGW
2 Buble Coat
2 Warp Point
Not too difrent in the basics of the deck. The good energy are gone, Call is here to stay, and Pheobe's Stadium is gone, letting Dark types have free switch too.
Muscovy Lv.X said:G&G (more Gallade then Gardevoir)
So first of all, why it's broken...
G&G may now be overshadowed by the other version, PLOX (more Gardevoir, less Gallade), but it's still good nonetheless. Why, though? Why did this deck sweep Cities? Well, first off, there's huge synergy between Gardevoir and Gallade. Early game, Gallade gets quick KOs with his near-limitless attack, Psychic Cut. Then, late game, when Gallade gets weaker, we send up Gardevoir Lv.X to Bring Down they're weaker Pokemon, taking the last few Prizes. Gardevoir also has a Power called Telepass, which is very powerful. You copy a Supporter in your opponent's discard pile. Copy a Ceilio's Network, get yourself a Gallade, Candy Ralts to Gallade, now you have a Gallade ready. You can get out a Gardevoir Lv.X as well, which you can use later. Other then that, you can use it to get a limitless supply of Team Galactic's Wager, Professor Oak's Visit, Team Galactic's Mars, etc. This is why it's broken.
<img src="http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=31987" width="400"><img src="http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=31855" width="400">
<img src="http://pokegym.net/gallery/displayimage.php?imageid=31854" width="400">
Here's a sample list:
2 Gardevoir Lv.X
2 Gradevoir SW
3 Gallade SW
3 Kirlia SW
4 Ralts SW/DF
2 Claydol GE
2 Baltoy GE
1 Dusknoir DP
1 Duskull SW
4 Celios
3 POV
3 Quick Ball
4 Rare Candy
2 Night Maintenance
2 Warp Point
3 Roseane
3 TGW
1 Phoebes Stadium
6 Psychic
3 Fightning
4 DRE
2 Scramble
Claydol is the main engine for G&G, though some people will use Absol, Furret (I don't know why, it's better in more complicated decks), Pachi, Call energy, ect.
Next, some potential counters...
Altaria (Great Encounters): Personally, I like Altaria very much. -60 from Gallade, or even -80 from Gallade with Buffer Piece. Cotton Cloud; -30, Drake's Stadium; -10, Resistance; -20, and Buffer Piece; -20.Arceus999 said:I use it with Darkrai and Weavile, and so far it's undefeated against G&G. All those G&G players, WATCH OUT FOR ME!
Gardevoir (Secret Wonders): Give G&G a taste of it's own medicine! Perhaps not with Gallade (because then you'd be running G&G or PLOX), but Gardevoir can work with other things! G&G has mono Weakness to Gardevoir, so it's doing 90 + stopping Powers!
Mismagius (Diamond and Pearl): 3 Energy on a Gallade/Gardevoir = 120 damage from Mismagius, more still if you have a Lake Boundary in play! However, it only has 90 HP, so a Gallade will KO you...
Flygon δ ex: This is so great against the deck for one reason; its a delta Pokemon. Flygon δ ex is the strongest psychic Pokemon without the usual Psychic weakness. You can KO anything but Gallade (it has 20 left, but you've always got the Body and effect... :wink: ).
Flygon ex: Here's another card that can take lots of damage. It would take a full-on Psychic Cut to KO, and that's without even using the body! You can reduce attacks by 70 (40 from Body, 10 from Drake's Stadium, 20 from Buffer Piece). And an extra 30 off from Gallade! There's just no way they can pull a fast KO. Reducing damage by up to 70, 100 against Gallade, will really help...
Grumpig (ex Crystal Guardians): This is one of the best counters, simply because of its versatility. With a total of 10 or more Pokemon in play (excluding Grumpig), you can KO anything your opponent sends up. With a total of just 7 Pokemon in play, you can KO the Gardy, freeing yourself from Psychic Lock.
But why is it versatile? Simple. Thick at reduces :fire: and :water: attacks by 30, giving you defence against major contenders like Magmortar, Infernape, and the ever-popular Empoleon combos.
Now, the one card that can flip over your opponent's Prizes...
Mawile (Great Encounters): Not the best choice... but it can flip over G&G's Prizes, so Gallade does less damage... unfortunatly, you're not likely to flip over more the 3 Prizes, with G&G being so fast... and G&G uses Gardevoir as an attacker too. Use it if you like, but I wouldn't recommend it. It'd only really work if you used Pachirisu to get it out, because there's no way you'd want 4 in. Still, it's a good tech that can prevent a sudden KO from Gallade. Once you've prevented that, the deck isn't broken, it's only pretty good.
Matchups:
Plox: 40-60
The speed of Plox and the focus of Gardevoir gives Plox an edge over traditional G&G. It's built to start fast, so G&G will take some early KOs.
Magmortar: 70-30
Magmortar decks run on
Infernacatty: 75-25
Do pretty much the same thing as Magmortar, except you don't have to worry about your bench. Once the Poke-Powers are shut down, it can't do much.
Blissey: 70-30
Just beware of Holon FF energy. As long as they don't cancel Blissey's weakness, Gallade will sweep through. Try not to let them build up on the bench.
Banette: 20-80
Gallade is your best bet. Get one up right away and start attacking, and try messing around with Warp Points.
Banette pretty much owns G&G, because of weakness and speed. It makes it much harder with Cessation Crystal and Crystal Beach, so be prepared to use them up in early game. The best defence you can have is an Absol (SW or EX) as a tech.
Skittles: 60-40
Gallade is pretty useless here. Gardevoir's Psychic Lock will stop Serene Grace, and slow it down quite a bit.
Empolostar: 60-40
Gardevoir is key here. You should rely on Psychic Locking, because in a deck like this, getting hit with Primal Swirl HURTS. De-evolution (especialy things you've candied) can be a nightmare. Unfortunatly, the reliance on Psychic Lock means it's risky to KO an Empoleon with Gallade. But there's no sense in drawing un-flipped prizes...
The focus on Gallade does hurt, but it's a good idea to make use of Gardevoir Lv.X and Bring Down benched stuff (assuming they use Empoleon MD). If you're luck, you can rid yourself of a Potential Omastar.
Empolozong: 50-50
This new deck has an edge over Gardelade: it can totals shut down and mess around with Poke-powers. Bronzong's Cursed Alloy can be a pain when your have Gardy/Claydol in play, and additional damage spread from Bronzong's attack and Empoleon does nothing to help. Plus, a deck with only 1 power on 1 card can aford to run Cess, so more trouble there. Focus on Gallade, since you'll need either prize flipping, or Sonic Blade+Psychic Cut.
PLOX (like Gardilade, but with more Gardy, and all about speed)
1 Gardevoir Lv.X
3 Gradevoir SW
2 Gallade SW
3 Kirlia SW
4 Ralts SW/DF
2 Claydol GE
2 Baltoy GE
1 Dusknoir DP
1 Duskull SW
4 Celio
4 POV
2 Quick Ball
4 Rare Candy
2 Night Maintenance
2 Warp Point
3 Roseane
3 TGW
1 Phoebes Stadium
7 Psychic
3 Fightning
4 DRE
2 Scramble
Why it's broken...
PLOX, the new age G&G. PLOX focuses more on Gardevoir then Gallade. The main focus of the deck is to keep playing down Team Galactic's Wager, forcing them down to 3 or 6 cards, then you Psychic Lock, stopping their Claydol from recovering. As most deck's nowadays play less draw, replacing it with Claydol, it can work. Gallade is really just backup, or to OHKO bigger opponent's that Gardevoir doesn't want to handle. It's a fast deck, but well placed attacks can KO benched ralts, preventing a surprise Gallade.
Possible counters...
Exactly the same as the one's from G&G, except that Altaria has a different strategy...
Altaria (Great Encounters): Reduce 40 damage from Psychic Lock, or reduce all of it with Buffer Piece... Bring Down is the only problem here. Luckily a benched Baltoy, Kirlia and Ralts can prevent it, or a weakened Claydol.
And any Gardy deck is hurt by bench hitting (More so PLOX, because there's more Gardy Lv.X), because you can eliminate the risk of Bring Down.
Another counter...
MORE DRAW!: PLOX likes you to have little draw, only about 4 draw cards in the entire deck. By running 6-8 draw cards, you can get back those cards. No Claydol hurts, but at least, you can't be locked in with just 3 cards in your hand as easily. Card like Felicity's Drawing and POV (that's Oak's Visit, for those who didn't know) are your friend here. Run them, since they are good anyways.
G&G: 60-40
Plox beats G&G, just because of speed and more focus on Gardevoir.
Magmortar: 65-35
The
Infernacatty: 75-25
Do pretty much the same thing as Magmortar, exept you don't have to worry about your bench. Once the Poke-Powers are shut down, it can't do much.
Blissey: 65-35
Just beware of Holon FF energy. As long as they don't cancel Blissey's weakness, Gallade will sweep through. Try not to let them build up on the bench.
Banette: 15-85
You don't have that much hope, because of weakness and speed. It makes it much harder with Cessation Crystal and Crystal Beach, so be prepared to use up your DRE in early game. The best defence you can have is an Absol (SW or EX) as a tech.
Skittles: 65-35
Gallade is pretty useless here. Gardevoir's Psychic Lock will stop Serene Grace, and slow it down quite a bit.
Empolostar: 65-35
Gardevoir is key here. You should rely on Psychic Locking, because in a deck like this, getting hit with Primal Swirl HURTS. De-evolution (especialy things you've candied) can be a nightmare. Unfortunatly, the reliance on Psychic Lock means it's risky to KO an Empoleon with Gallade. But there's no sence in drawing un-flipped prizes...
Empolozong: 45-55
This new deck has an edge over Gardelade: it can totals shut down and mess around with Poke-powers. Bronzong's Cursed Alloy can be a pain when your have Gardy/Claydol in play, and additional damage spread from Bronzong's attack and Empoleon does nothing to help. Plus, a deck with only 1 power on 1 card can aford to run Cess, so more trouble there. Focus on Gallade, since you'll need either prize flipping, or Sonic Blade+Psychic Cut.
So how do they stack up?
So what really sets these very similar decks apart, other than Gardevoir/Gallade concentration?
Other Pokemon: G&G: Claydol, Absol, Pachirisu, Furret, and ocasional Absol ex. Plox: Absol, Claydol or nothing.
Already that shows some of the strategy differences. Plox is built for more speed, and to mess around with the opponent, with TGM and Absol. G&G is much more built on "slow and steady". It can easily set up either a Gallade or Gardevoir, for support or offence. And there are more late game oportunities, with Bring Down and damage manipulation (Absol ex).
The main difference is that Plox is about speed and slowing your opponent, and G&G is about strength and consistency.
So why are these decks dominating? Well, versatility, along with Psychic Lock and the ocasional heavy hit from Gallade drive the deck. Most damage is done from Psychic Locking, for 60 and a power block, which is enough to dominant on its own! Gardy is almost a Tech, since it Telepasses, and does the ocasional Psy Lock, and Gallade does 60+. There is nothing more damaging than the following: Ralts, candy to Gallade, Scramble, flip prizes and KO.
But will it survive next format? Yes. The only major cards going are DRE and Scramble, which are not essential. The unstoppable quality of it means that a T3 Gardy or Gallade is just as good as a T2 one. It will go from "Insanely uber broken deck." to "A pretty good deck.". Sure, it loses other stuff to, but nothing important. Celio can always be replaced with Bebe.
Next format, nothing will insanely dominate. (We hope)...
By Me, Arceus999, charmander rox, meditite rox.
Special thanks to Arceus999!:biggrin:
This is now...
Gardelade of 2008-2009
Gardelade has now dropped with the loss of DRE and Scramble energy. Most players have most their enthusiasm about playing a deck that is no longer broken, when the whole metagame has been working out ways to beat it since Secret Wonders.
Here's today's a decent Gardelade (or G&G or PLOX, no one's on the name kick anymore) list.
1 Gardevoir Lv.X
3 Gardevoir
3 Gallade
3 Kirlia
4 Ralts
2 Claydol
2 Baltoy
1 Dusknoir
1 Duskull SW
7 Psychic
5 Fighting
3 Call Energy
2 Moonlight Stadium
3 Roseanne's Research
4 Bebe's Search
4 Rare Candy
2 Night Maintenance
3 POV
3 TGW
2 Buble Coat
2 Warp Point
Not too difrent in the basics of the deck. The good energy are gone, Call is here to stay, and Pheobe's Stadium is gone, letting Dark types have free switch too.
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