1. spiritomb. the deck uses quite a few non-supporter trainers!
2. machamp. still the bane of gigas, and still as prevalent. HGSS improves this deck as well (reversals and pokemon traders)
3. gengar- a previous bane who has grown stronger and will only get better
4. donphan from HGSS is another super-counter to gigas
5. power lock- its still prevalent, and gets stronger with HGSS
6. lack of OHKO- gigas isnt OHKOing a gyarados, and cant really afford to heal off and sacrifice a prize every turn while the power/discard lock doesn't really affect gyarados
gigas is dead. let it rest in peace.
1.) A lot of Gigas lists play Regice already for a very early discard to get ready for a T2 Sacrifice
2.) Agreed. Simply its worst match-up, IMO.
3.) Eh, I think Gigas had a healthy format to play in Cities last year. Gengar was played lots. It's a different format though, so I'm not sure. Relicanth is certainly an issue. For the sake of discussion, mind telling me, in your opinion, what the rough points for this match-up would be? Outside of Relicanth and maybe Fainting Spell, which can possibly be avoided.
4.) Isn't out yet. I'm talking about Gigas for like Cities. Gigas was pretty much only good for Cities last year, remember? It sorta died around States.
5.) Let's talk pre-HG:SS, again. Mesprit and Power Spray are probably the two biggest Power stoppers out there right now. G&G isn't played as much, though still out there (This is what I'm assuming you mean by post-HG:SS), so I won't adress it. Mesprit was out when Gigas was played at Cities last year, yet it still did good. Not as abusable, but it was still played.
Anyways, Gigas plays Mesprit itself and is probably the best example of a deck abusing Psychic Bind before Palkia G Lv. X came out, it could repeatedly use its Power even with limited bench space. So it can still come down to who drops Mesprit first. Power Spray can be countered by Spiritomb, as I brought out. The most crucial time you need a Power is when you need to Sacrifice, so Switch out to Spiritomb and use a couple Powers... then Sac it.
6.) One reason I wanted to introduce Expert Belt to the deck. Hitting for 120 is still tough in this format, not many decks can do that (Some. Not all). Only a few decks are capable of enduring 120, without any additional aid (Expert Belt, Snowpoint Temple, etc):
Kingdra
Gyarados
Machamp
Gengar
Machamp is already a bad match-up, so I don't really care about him. Gengar, as mentioned, I'm still unsure about. I'm going to do some play-testing tomorrow.
I'm debating to add more damage assistance to the deck, because it really does have room to play with. But anyways, I really wish Gigaton Punch didn't come down to a flip, you could set up some great KO's that way... probably KO'ing 2 things in 3 turns. But all of those decks, save Gyarados, have a hard time functioning with Powers, so I'm hoping for an early Psychic Bind there.
On the other hand, look at what Gigas CAN OHKO:
Palkia
Luxray
Infernape
Blaziken
Beedrill
Flygon (Great match-up, IMO)
I can't officially put this to rest until I play it with a couple new toys from the new set lol I'm really liking the idea of Spiritomb and Expert Belt.
