Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Is Gyarados a Suicide Play for States?

It's absolutely not a suicide play. Just build it a little different. Get creative. There are ways of getting around lostgar.
 
Disagree. You basically have no favorable matchups at all, and lostgar hitting 1 karp still hurts, regardless of what anyone else says. Trainerlock will also be huge.
 
I don't care how you build it. Karps in the Lost Zone limit your options for damage output. I know there are new strategies for getting the Karps in the discard so they are not so exposed. Honchcrow SV makes for a nice partner with Gengar as well. And Devolver is a standard play.
 
LoTad's right, i was messing around w/ G-dos a while ago and there is a way to get around lostgar while still saying the same v. everything else. Also you could play 4 smeargle and get the karps in the discard t1 w/ Portrait.(granted a little luck involved but...)
 
Alex2k said:
Disagree. You basically have no favorable matchups at all, and lostgar hitting 1 karp still hurts, regardless of what anyone else says. Trainerlock will also be huge.
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I never had problems against trainerlock with G-dos. And Luxchomp is generally favorable for a fast and consistant Gyarados; I would say that alone makes it a very solid play.

It wouldn't be very likely to hit top tables, but I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see one or two up there. Suicide is not the word; the word would probably be "suboptimal".
 
Play Smeargle's over sableyes. Also focus on less damage manipulation and more on bening able to get the T-1 Gyrados swinging for 60-90.
 
I don't think a pre-cities gdos would have much success, but a newer version could do very well. I've been playing LC for most of the season, but kind of a strange, teched out gdos is my leading choice for states as of this moment. I think that everyone is just going to discount the deck (after very little thought), increasing the surprise factor.
 
I think it honestly depends on how much Lostgar you expect; for example, if your metagame is anticipated to be heavy lostgar, it might not be a bad idea to pass on gyarados. But if you're expecting only a couple, you can shore up gyarados some to combat it.
 
I don't think Gyarados is as strong as it was during Cities, but I wouldn't count it out just yet. I suspect that because of all the Lostgar hate, people might be too intimidated to play it, so I'm not really sure if that's a big issue for it.
 
Not outright suicidal, but probably slightly emo.

It CAN be built to counter Lostgar, and Devoluters don't worry me either.

Although Gyarados is a very good deck, I don't think it was absolutely the best deck to play before CL got released, and I don't think that has changed either.
 
baby mario said:
Not outright suicidal, but probably slightly emo.
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lolol'd

on topic:
A belted Gyarados needs to be hit twice for the Devoluter to send Magikarp to the Lost Zone, amirite? I've never played Gyarados, only against it, but that seems kind of cool; especially if you have ways of healing it (Poke Healer +, SSU, Seeker, etc...). Consistent,powerful decks are typically not suicidal.
 
If the Gdos have the ability to hit Gengar for 130 damage (90 from Tail Revenge, 20 from belt, 10 from bat and 10 from Poison, while maintaining an unbreakable power lock and discarding any excessive Pokemon, Lostgar is strongly beatable.
If you are worrying about TM Devoluter, just heal it up with Seeker/Warp combo.
 
Jason said:
If the Gdos have the ability to hit Gengar for 130 damage (90 from Tail Revenge, 20 from belt, 10 from bat and 10 from Poison, while maintaining an unbreakable power lock and discarding any excessive Pokemon, Lostgar is strongly beatable.
If you are worrying about TM Devoluter, just heal it up with Seeker/Warp combo.
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So, wait. You're saying that for Gdos to win, they have to have a 10-25 turn powerlock, while still batting, poisoning, and swinging for 110?

That seems strongly ridiculous to me
 
I would call Gyarados a suicide play. Before LostGar, Gyarados had one issue: Luxray GL Lv.X, which was half the BDIF. After CoL, Gyarados has two issues: LostGar and Luxray GL Lv.X. People say that one Lost Zone'd Karp doesn't hurt you that much... I beg to differ. Yes, you still needed two shots to KO a Gengar Prime with all three Karp in the discard, but you people are discounting an important factor: while hitting for 90, it is not difficult to OHKO a Gengar Prime through Expert Belt and Crobat G drops. After all, the deck does run four TGI Poké Turn and four Junk Arm.

If you're going to play Gyarados, I would advise you to tech in one Mew Prime. That's the one card I can see giving LostGar problems, as Lost Zoning a Gyarados can potentially allow you to hit 120 for free with Mew Prime, while recycling it with Pokémon Rescue.
 
Hardly suicide. Lol at this thread. I've tested gengar extensively, and unless they run palkia you should be good (even with it you still have a chance). Keep in mind gengar hasn't been perfected, and I know allot of people are forgoing the devoluter in order to make room for other techs. Assuming they have both, then even then you still have a chance.

Keep in mind if you hit a fast gyarados they aren't going to be able to compete with it for at least one turn, meaning you you can probably grab at least two prizes, if not three with the first gyardos (remember it takes them two attacks to kill your gdos, even with the TM, and you're probably going to KO a starter before that).

A belt and two bat drops is probably not asking too much from gdos, so the odds of one shotting a gengar isn't all that unlikely. Keep in mind too, if you run the dialga g lv. x tech then their they also need to level you down, and that's assuming you didn't drop a mesprit.

I'm not saying it's an autowin, but gdos can definitely pull it off, and since most good players have already put cyrus in their build to deal with the primes that are in vilegar, they don't have to worry about lost karps from collector. Worse comes to worse, gdos can play dark energy, and a good dark type tech if they REALLY had to, but in all honesty I think that would hurt you more than help, even against lostgar.

EDIT - Politoad is right, mew would be an excellent tech, great idea.
 
Alex2k said:
So, wait. You're saying that for Gdos to win, they have to have a 10-25 turn powerlock, while still batting, poisoning, and swinging for 110?

That seems strongly ridiculous to me
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10-25?

Gyarados only needs 6 prizes bro. And after 3 of them, Gengar is in serious trouble.
 
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